downunder

I'm going to Knott's Scary Farm this week, what coasters are open during the haunt? I've been on all the Knott's coasters plenty of times, Pony Express is the only one I haven't ridden.

I did HHN last night, the front of line pass was well worth it and I even managed to get a few half decent photos. I think going on the Ghost Hotel at Liseberg a few times really trained me well to pick where the scares were in the mazes even though that was my first ever Halloween event. The mazes were great, though I didn't think Chucky was as good as the other 3 mazes. I really liked being able to walk through the all those sets in the backlot on Terror Tram. The scare zones were fun but they didn't attack me much but I'm hard to sneak up on. Bill and Ted was a lot of fun and surprisingly irreverent. Rocky Horror was well done though I'm not that into the movie (haven't seen it), warning - Rocky goes for 45 minutes.

I like that Sunday much better, I've pretty much made other plans now. I'm still ticked off about the the upcharge ontop of the gold q-bot, what is it at the moment, $10 a ride for X2 or Terminator Salvation. Although I doubt you's need it for Terminator Salvation on a quiet day.

^I heard from someone who was there that the crowd was light but X2 still had a terrible line and was dispatching very long intervals. I was planning on going Sunday 11th when I'm in LA but I think I might give SFMM a miss.

18/20 and I can't believe the two I got wrong involved choosing between coasters I have been on, Steel Phantom and Raven were the correct answers - but I was honest, no look ups while doing the quiz.

^I've purchased front of line passes for friday and saturday night, is that Gate A? We think alike, there is no way I'm coming all the way from Australia without doing as much as possible to guarantee I can get everything I want done. I know there is no flash photography or videos allowed, so I will have to experiment with low light settings so I can get some OK photos. Any tips?

Great report, I'm going this Friday, can't wait - looks terrifying. I'll probably be a nervous wreck by the end of it - I found the haunted house at Liseberg very unnerving so this is sure to blow me away.

I'm in the same boat as you, I'm getting into LA on Friday and I have never done a Halloween event ever. Based on my research, the conclusion I came to is that Universal has the quality and Knotts has the quantity, but they both look like fun. I have enough time so I am doing both but if I had to choose between the two, my personal choice would be Universal. Hopefully more informed members will be able to enlighten us further.

^^Cool, I'll look forward to that. I'll be in LA next Friday and at HHN so I want to know what I'm getting myself into. This will be my first Halloween thing ever.

The Gronalund guys were awesome. I told them to get a Balder style coaster (but I would tell any park that, hell I'd tell Legoland or Sesame Place that), and I think they might consider that if they had the space. I'm still amazed they reconstructed the first drop on their schwarzkopf to make it steeper and longer, so it was more exciting.

Zombieland is on the must see list, hopefully it will make it to Australia this decade. I really like good zombie movies, actually some of the bad ones are fun too. Interesting trivia: another zombie film, Land of the Dead, had a scene where zombies emerge out of a river - that was filmed in the wave pool at Canada's Wonderland.

I was certainly expecting a full on teen comedy at an Amusement Park, but I liked it after I adjusted my expectations. It was nice to see something a original and a bit more real life. It was the kind of film where straight after seeing it I was a little disappointed (no POV's for crying out loud) but on reflection I started to appreciate it. BTW Bill Hader rocks!

Interesting report Bryan Adams. I see you have finally hit puberty Adam, congratulations! Oh and stay from those pigs, you want to stay nice and ceromonially clean for when you perform TPDave's circumcision as mandated on the 2008 East Coast trip. I so want to be in LA and/or Orlando for HHN, if I could ditch work, I'd be on the first plane over.

I'm absolutely amazed as well they got GASM going, or any of those other ones under water, poor mindbender - I love that coaster. I was right by that lake near GASM in July and I never would have imagined.

My thoughts exactly! I'm surprised Great Escape didn't install it for themselves. Maybe the Great Escape didn't want the SLC. There's that Intamin Stand Up in that field at Darien Lake, I'm sure the new owners would be happy to send it to Six Flags and La Ronde, duelling Intamin stand ups, wake me when it's over. If Six Flags is going to start rotating coasters again, send El Toro and SFNE Bizarro to SFMM, that's way closer for me. C'mon do it Six Flags, why start making sense now.

Nice report, but what is a wild wadi? Dubai sounds like a good stopover, may have to contemplate that for future trips.

Damn, I voted wrong, I was all so excited about seeing an Intimidator305 trip I didn't think. I'd probably be better off doing North East, and do my own add-on down to King's Dominion while on the east coast. A new B & M hyper is not enough to lure me as far south as Carowinds.

Rosscoe, there are tour companies that pick up from the hotels like VIP tours, and should work out cheaper than hiring a car. I looked at the public transport situation myself, and it's quite difficult and time consuming to get to SFMM. The tour companies usually pick up to take you back around 6pm but SFMM is only open until 7 or 8pm in Feb. With the gold q-bots at SFMM, it is has a $10 per ride per person upcharge for X2, so if you get there early enough go straight for X2 and try and get some rides in before the line builds up. Also bear in mind that SFMM will only be open weekends in February (I found Sunday was the better day crowd wise) and check with Knotts that none of the major rides will be down for scheduled maintenance. Knotts should be dead if you go on a weekday, 2-3 hours, it might even be worth ducking out to Knotts while doing a long day at one of the Disney parks to save an extra trip down to Anaheim. I think California Adventure should be able to offer enough stuff that is different from the Tokyo parks but I'm not so sure about Disneyland.

How about the first Intamin Megalite in the US please Knotts, if you build I will definitely come back to the park.

I forgot about that, I could have done a side trip to Geauga Lake when I was at Cedar Point in 2007 and I slept in and missed my ride there.

I missed Dragen at Tusenfryd because I forgot it was there. I missed the indoor coaster at La Ronde because I didn't know it was there, and the map I had was in French so I had no idea. I don't think I've ever deliberately not ridden a coaster at any park I've visited except the kiddies where you need to borrow a kid - though I did get the Taxi Jams at Kings Island and Carowinds (luckily there was someone in the TPR group short enough to ride with).

^Second season of Tara is definitely on (I believe it stops dcody going on more TPR tours), I'm not sure if they have started shooting yet - you can look that one up.

I think this could a genre leading film, it sounds quite tasty, I'll be seeing it for sure. Albeit we don't get it until sometime in October I think. United States Of Tara series one is debuting this Wednesday in Australia (finally) so I'll have to check that out too. Juno and Candy Girl were really well written pieces, dcody is batting a 1000 with me at the moment, so I'm looking forward to Tara and Jennifer.

I've done the same, I did the LA parks using the standard tour operators to get to the parks. I flew to Cleveland & went to and stayed at Cedar Point. Then I went to New York and did Great Adventure which is easy to access by public transport from Manhattan, and I also went up to Springfield from New York to get to Six Flags New England, as well as down to Harrisburg to go to Hersheypark. Once you work out what parks you are going to, I'd recommend looking at whether getting a Six Flags or Cedar Fair season pass is worth it. If you need any tips about details, send me a PM.

Unfortunately, it doesn't look like it, from what I hear all the major coaster players were asked how they could stop the thing falling apart and it sounds like the only real option to protect the structure was to neuter it with brakes. I'll only qualify that with that's what I heard. Hey at least there is T-Express and Atlantis Adventure. I went through this with Ian when he went to Asia this Feb - the temps might be a bit cold in Feb for some of the major coasters to operate in Seoul, you may need to consider that when you're planning.