downunder

From the list, the one's that stood out for me: - 17 Windseekers announced: this is so uninspiring, if Knott's doesn't know where to stick theirs, maybe they can go stick it up their ***. Also this will make it 4 years with CP not getting a new coaster, America's Roller coast, well they won't be the coast with the most next year. - Expedition Ge Force being down majority of the Summer: this one affected me personally, the only reason I went to Europe last year and it's down though I accept that's always a possibility with travel. Goliath at Walibi at least made up for it somewhat. - Harry Potter Theme Park / Dragon Challenge Retheme: What gives, this whole thing only introduced one new ride to IOA, and it's a glorified motion simulator? I think there should have been more new rides. Duelling Dragons, I wasn't too fussed with the changes, it was running sensationally when I went. - Major Halloween events plateauing: I was very disappointed with Orlando's HHN (my first time), having done Hollywood HHN in 2009 and 2010 as a comparison point, HHN Orlando seemed tame and relatively lifeless & a far inferior experience in every way. - Overhyped Thirteen: If Alton didn't have Nemesis I wouldn't have endured the hellish train/bus commute from London to get there. 13 inspired indifference and after riding it, I'd give it a 13 out of 100 for thrills. And I couldn't see where they spent the money, that hydraulic trick track must have cost a fortune because the rest of the coaster looked a $1.98, like an extended roller skater. Though i do find Alton's overhyping amusing for it's absurdity.

Maybe if they're stuck with a replacement theme for all those Wiggles Worlds, maybe those zany fellas from Six Fags could step in. Will gay porn be Six Flags Inc salvation, only time will tell?

Roller Coaster cuts always struck me as one of Six Flags stranger business decisions, rather than just plain illogical. It's like this company has gangrene and they have to keep cutting pieces off, until there's nothing left. I think they should relocate all their best rides to Sydney and start a new park and then close all their other parks. Our gay friends can confirm this, (I saw it discussed on chat) but there is apparently "Six Fags" gay porno series, perhaps there is a copyright/trademark infringement lawsuit which sould get them some money, or even a licensing deal.

So are we talking: shut a park, sell/relocate the rides, and sell the land? As opposed to selling the park itself to another operator? I'd like it if they shut SFNE and relocated Bizarro to SFMM, that's more convenient for me travel-wise and California gets about as much airtime as Milli Vanilli. What kind of formula would they apply? Return on Investment from park versus debt servicing cost, for instance? We hear parks are making a profit but I guess expressed as a percentage of the estimated value of the park it might not cut it against ongoing interest on loans.

Plus parking is free for the on-site hotels, they charge you at the gate when you go in but the hotel re-imburses you, so that's another $10 or so in savings. I'm not sure if it is the same deal with Breakers Express. I've found with Hotel Breakers, if you get in and book early, you can grab one of their cheapest rooms. Also check for discount vouchers at the CP website and in the Getaway Guide. Also, the CP hotels sell CP tickets at significant discounts.

This sounds like a really positive development for I305, hopefully I'll be able to get down there next year and check it out. Does anyone have a feel for what impact I305 had on attandance at KD this year?

I love fastpass systems, especially the one's that give you unlimited rides. As a foreigner who has to travel great distances to go to just about any decent park in the world, I have a very limited window to visit a park. Q-bots or whatever make it a hell of a lot easier, both in planning terms and getting the most out of park visiting days on vacation. For example, I'm really turned off going to Cedar Point again because they don't have q-bots and there's a really tough trade-off for that park (and others), either go when it's dead but closes at 6pm (no night rides) or when the lines are a lot bigger but the closing time is later. I heartily endorse fastpasses at Knott's and hopefully other Cedar Fair parks will follow.

Love the photos, thanks for posting them. I'm surprised CP isn't under lot of snow. It's sad, Mean Steak always looks so awesome but sucks so much. Rocky Mountain you have a new patient, please! Big Dick looked a little sweaty, is it the heat from Q funding?

Wow nice spot, I wouldn't have recognised a grown-up Emmanuel, or did he grow up? I was so hung over that day I would have missed Mick Jagger. Most random: this girl sat next to me, front row of raptor, and didn't say hi. She just went "are you one of those coaster freaks?" I said no, and she just kept following me around the park. Turns out she was from Austria on a foriegn exchange program and had been spending the summer interning for Hillary Clinton (she didn't have anything good to say about Hillary and was glad to have parted ways with her). She was all on her lonesome because all the Democrats she came with wouldn't even leave Hotel Breakers, they were all in the pool.

For comedy value, I liked sword fight in The Princess Bride. There was a movie version of the baby cart series called Shogun Assassin, the sword fighting in that is brutal, limbs flying everywhere, blood spurting.

I had a random dream about the poll just before this topic got posted where I saw the results, Texas Giant was the number one steel coaster - pretty bizarre. I did a quick google search and I didn't find much.

I've been wondering about this too, I think this is a fantastic poll. I'd heartily encourage Mitch to continue with this poll, as long as he's happy to do it.

It's going to be called Islands of Misadventure. In particular, I'm looking forward to Mitch Hawker land which will have 2 woodies (Voyage and El Toro clones) and 2 steel coasters (Expedition Ge Force and SFNE Bizarro clones. You are not allowed to leave Mitch Hawker land until you have cast a ballot after actually riding the coasters. BTW, what's happening with Mitch's poll this year? But seriously, this park would be the first thing on my agenda if I was heading to Orlando. In the past, I've travelled to Orlando with non coaster enthusiasts and they have been disappointed with the lack of thrills at Disney, so there might be a niche there. But at this stage I'm still extremely sceptical but good luck to them if it happens.

I finally caught The Exorcism of Emily Rose, that really chills, it's a very disturbing film even though it doesn't have gallons of gore. Jennifer Carpenter is brilliant in it, and I'm not just saying that because she's John Carpenter's (I'm not worthy, I'm not worthy!) daughter.

^I agree with on Very Bad Things, though that is probably a typical weekend for Charlie Sheen. I've heard of August Underground, I hear their videos are quite popular with Australian Customs. They love to take packages from the US with their videos and not give them back.

Yep that's the one, at least it was a cut above regular torture porn, which is a genre I don't really like - other than this I think I've only seen the first SAW and Hostel. One that really disturbed when I was little was the Tobe Hooper adaptation of Salems Lot, after I saw the first vampire I had my eyes covered the whole movie, they were the most bada$$ vampires ever. Twihards would wet their pants.

Farewell Leslie, you made police brutality so funny and I couldn't imagine anyone better at deadpanning lines like: "Like a midget at a urinal, I was going to have to stay on my toes." "Like a blind man at an orgy, I was going to have to feel my way through." "...blowing away a fleeing suspect with my 44 magnum used to mean everything to me, I enjoyed it, well who wouldn't?" "I want a world where Frank junior and all the Frank juniors can sit under a shady tree, breathe the air, swim in the ocean, and go into a 7-11 without an interpreter." "Lt. Frank Drebin: I'm single! I love being single! I haven't had this much sex since I was a Boy Scout leader! [Music stops playing. Everyone stops talking and stares at him] Lt. Frank Drebin: [to everybody] I mean at the time I was dating a lot." "Looks like the cows have come home to roost." "It's true what they say: Cops and women don't mix. It's like eating a spoonful of Drano; sure, it'll clean you out, but it'll leave you hollow inside." Or the great one: "Rumack: Can you fly this plane, and land it? Ted Striker: Surely you can't be serious. Rumack: I am serious... and don't call me Shirley." RIP Shirley!

I watched Pan's Labyrinth last night, there is some quite nasty stuff in that, a great film though. I also finally caught No Country For Old Men, Javier Bardim was brilliant, every time he was onscreen I felt uncomfortable, he slam dunked it for the Oscar - I reckon he gave Hannibal Lecter a run for his money is the scary stakes. I read an interview with the guy who made Serbian Film in Empire and he was going like that what it's like in Serbia. I checked out parts of the film on Youtube (the whole film was there except for the middle part which youtube removed), it was so shocking I couldn't believe I was actually seeing what I was seeing, not nice at all. Audition, it really stretched the boundaries of what you'd let a girl get away with because she's hot. I found the results of one of her other "dates" even more disturbing than what she did to that guy at the end.

^I can think of one in Holland that people say was good previously, but now it just robs from the rider and gives to the chiropractor.

You made the better choice! I was a little bushed from our adventures with torches at Hotel Breakers the night before and then the epic sit in the next day at Maverick in the rain, so I missed the hire car to GL the next morning. But at least I didn't miss the bus the morning after that.

Sigh, I keep coming back hopefully to find out something new about GL and all I get is more talk about small penises than the National Rifle Association forum. I am kidding around, so save your flames. In 2007, I had the opportunity to go to GL but I decided to sleep in instead. I've still ridden many of their coasters albeit at different locations. I was curious about what's happening at GL and I found this rather compelling advert on their site: Why be hot and doing chores when you could be at the GL pool being eye candy for all the GL fanboys?

Gwazi Lion was terrible when I rode it in October. Tiger was closed on the Tuesday (10/5) and Friday (10/8) when I visited. If these re-builds catch on, there's going to be some mighty riled wood coaster purists, they'll be choking on their roast beef and gravy. I agree Mean Streak is a basket case that could use this kind of work, they could call it Gemini - The Revenge. Some of the others just need some wood coaster work like GCI does, but I imagine in most cases (if any are being considered in reality), will come down to financial dynamics. They should do this to The Voyage just because the howls of the fanboys will be so loud I'll be able to hear them all the way down here in Sydney, so basically just for my amusement.

The first coaster I think of is Son Of Beast, I'm only speculating, but maybe that's why they haven't razed this pain train already in lieu of seeing how the Giant goes. Someone mentioned The Beast, that was awful when I rode it in 2007 (much worse than SOB the same day), some of my most painful moments on a coaster, ever, but I think that one probably needs a bit of wood coaster TLC. I'm also pretty optomistic about the Texas Giant make over but we'll have to wait and see.

I've only been to Alton and Thorpe Park - Alton gets my vote though I thought Thorpe Park had 3 or 4 coasters that were better than anything at Alton except Nemesis. I liked the castle and the forest, it was a nice atmosphere at Alton. Though the commute by public transport, especially the bus from Stoke On Trent, is hellish. The bus was hotter than hell, and it stopped so abruptly at one stage, this poor dwarf (an Alton employee) face planted in the aisle, it was like something out of jacka$$. Blackpool and Oakwood are parks I haven't been to that are of particular interest. Knowing what's at Blackpool, I'd probably still give my vote to Alton by a nose.

^I totally agree, tear it down. And then send it to Australia like England used to send their convicts (disclaimer: I'm first generation Australian).