Noxegon

The letter 'C' doesn't exist in the Icelandic alphabet (seriously!)

Noooooooo That's easily my number one coaster... Erm, what? I'm not sure such a thing exists!

Eh, $99? Are they insane?

Er, I'm sure I took a flight from Johannesburg to Perth that was only ten hours or so... It's a lovely park, FWIW, and this will only make it better.

Drat. Three weeks after my trip there. Oh well.

To be fair, that stupid Scooby Doo ride is probably the best coaster in Australia. It's really cool IMHO, and as you know I don't tend to be particularly exuberant with my praise...

I was going to say, a lot of smaller coasters can be far more violent and less comfortable than the 300ft rides. Magnum is a fine example. Millennium Force (and Steel Dragon 2K) are great rides, if a little on the dull side; they have amazing speed and they don't do much with it.

You could extend the same argument to parks that require every group to include a child - there are a handful like that in the UK, including Gullivers Warrington and Twinlakes Park...

Uh, what? There's only one other wood coaster in China, and it's a very intense full size ride.

Isn't "best of China" a contradiction in terms? Seriously though, there's going to be another Happy Varrey by then, is there not? It might well be time for a third trip out there. There's also stuff like Dalian et al that's apparently well worth it...

Generally speaking yes, they're completely independent. Each sprinkler has its own heat-release valve. This is particularly important in a large building, as a fire could be isolated to one small area, and as such you could do far more damage by spraying water around the whole building rather than just in the room where the fire is.

The way sprinklers typically work is completely mechanical - they contain a valve which, when heated, bursts open releasing the flow of water through a system which is already pressurized. No power is generally needed beyond a pump to drive the system, and even that is not a prerequisite if your water pressure is high enough to begin with.

Is that legal in a public building in the USA? It certainly wouldn't be here...

Be careful... I missed four credits on my first visit, just prior to Easter.

Hmm, you live in California, so doesn't that particular comment apply pretty much equally to all the trips offered for 2011?

Perhaps not, but there are some real gems. Scooby Doo at Warner Bros has to be the worlds best Wild Mouse, and Superman next to it isn't half bad either. The wooden wild mouse at Aussie World is awesome. Its not a coaster, but the ridiculously big Giant Drop at Dreamworld is almost a rite of passage...

I've actually seen the park in person - from about three hundred feet - it's in the flight path out of Abu Dhabi International, which happens to be where my flights to Australia connected. Looks pretty impressive; I hope they manage to get it open by October, as I expect to be back there... fingers crossed.

Both the Schwarzkopf and Big Apple coasters were removed last year.

Much of what you're saying seems reasonable; I've no particular views there one way or another. However, some brief thoughts - "Special access or additional perks on a TPR Trip"; I thought one of the nice things about TPR was, to paraphrase George Orwell, that "all animals are equal". Introducing a "some animals are more equal than others" has the potential to harm the nice dynamic you have on the trips at the moment. Also, I can't say I've got any real interest in $15 of TPR store credit. That's not a perk for me TBH; I have a few of your videos at home and never watch them, and I'm phasing out my nerdy t-shirt collection. I'd much rather pay less for membership (presumably you're eating profit margin on this one, so $10 less perhaps) and NOT have store credit. Unless that same credit could be used against trips perhaps? Just my, er, international $50.

Oh absolutely. What I was trying to say was that - for me - those rides don't rank anywhere near my favourite wood coasters. If there was a combined wood and steel poll I don't think I'd put any steel coaster in the top ten. Hopefully that's a bit clearer!

For me, the plug-and-play rides don't feel like what I expect from a wood coaster. I don't deny their construction material, but they don't make it into my top ten for that reason. There's no doubt in my mind that T-Express, Balder, and El Toro are great rides (no comment on Colossos, especially in the last year or so) but if I'd bothered to fill out a poll they'd all sit somewhere in the mid twenties. Not in the one hundreds mind...

I'm not a local, but I remember the same pocket police thing in Australian parks in general. Removing tissues from zipped pockets does seem more than a little anal...

Right now it looks like it might be the Wild Mouse at Luna Park Sydney on December 31st

(Orphan Rocker) Standing, yes - under construction, no - I had a look at this while I was in Australia, and it's rusted beyond belief in certain areas, with the "car" (if you can call it that, it didn't have a seat) looking in a particularly bad way. I reckon it's a safe bet that this ride will NEVER open now. Shame

I'm not Robb, but I don't believe Elissa would allow a trip to Japan that *didn't* spend at least a few days at Tokyo Disney