BuffaloCoastin

::phew:: I'm back from the voyage over the border. I'll have some sort of TR up tomorrow, although there wasn't much to photograph, so don't expect any exciting pics. I'll just say I was pleased in some ways, but disappointed in quite a few others (damn you, PCW!) Details tomorrow...

:o Consider me excited. I'm leaving in about 8 hours. Expect a TR (possibly with photos) in the coming days. Any last tips will be appreciated if anyone happens to be on this late, I'll check tomorrow morning before I head out. Thanks again guys.

I think resluts are being counted/published sometime in mid-July?

Yes...16 at last. 8) Thanks for the wishes Hattuchili.

The best pic so far in this whole TR - The onride from the top of Goliath. It had me drooling, and wondering what we're missing out on across the pond.

^ I think you'll only need the sex and the donkeys, and you've got it won.

Makes me want to go back to Ohio. GL looks pretty nice, and it would be a good combo w/ CP. If only I could cross silly ol' Lake Erie. Also, best pics of the whole thing were the mocks of Paul Ruben. I actually did "lol".

After much deliberation, I have cast my vote for this year's contest. I did infact watch all 40 videos (in the last 3 days), I narrowed it down to my top 10, based on such factors as editing, footage, sound, quality, personality, and originality, and then went from there. Without further ado, my rankings for the 2005 video contest: 10. "BEST MOVIE EVER!" - Morgan Obrien 9. "Bumps and Bruises" - Nick Collins 8. "Adventureland" - Joseph Wanek 7. "Wisconsin Dells" - Andrew Hartman 6. "Terra Mitica" - Paul Ruiz de Miguel 5. "Shut up & Smile" - Steve Lee & Karen Lawson 4. "Tripsdrill 2004" - Jonathan Hymes 3. "Floruba" - Kevin Gillan 2. "Weekend Airtime 2004" - Frederic M & Nicolas C 1. "Coaster Season 2004" - Nick Collins Oh yes, and please, don't let these influence your vote if you haven't yet. I encourage you to watch all the videos before you even touch the ballot. Good luck to all the contestants!

I have a very complex grading system to judge all 40 videos equally, I've already "graded" 20, so I'll discuss my results when I'm done with the other 1/2. Very nice batch this year!

Haha, that's great to know. My MS paint skills strike again it seems.

This advice is really helpful/encouraging guys. Based on what a few of you have said, I've compiled a tentative new "plan" for next Friday's trip. If you see any discrepancies, please don't hesitate to inform me: The numbers are the approximate "required" stops. Some notes: If at all necessary, the rides I am willing to sacrifice (in no order) are: - MCMB - SkyRider - Top Gun - Wild Beast

Thanks Canadamos, I must have gotten it right this time around. I will be satisfied if we can get Drop Zone, IJST and TRTR with fairly short lines, because I missed out on DZ and TRTR (We got screwed both times - TR broke down after we had waited a 1/2 hour and were about to board, and we had to leave just as we approached the line for DZ). Any of you other wacky Canadians have any tips, they are much appreciated by myself and I assume by Rugged One as well.

I'm sure hoping so. The title, by the way, was just to get the attention of our friendly neighbors to the north. I figure you (as well as anyone else familiar with PCW) would be able to assist me. In 2 weeks (June 24), my class will be going on a trip to Canada's Wonderland. We did this last year, and I tried to do my homework beforehand, but the lines we experienced (on a thurday afternoon, no less) were outrageous and somewhat unexpected. I only got to ride 4 coasters and a few flats out of the whole bunch, partly due to poor planning. I had figured on looping the park in a clockwise fashion, (the entrance representing six o'clock) and starting with Top Gun and circling. This didn't work when everyone else in the whole freaking park had the same idea. Assuming we're going to meet equal lines this year (friday afternoon in late June), does anyone have any special suggestions. This will be different because I know the park and layout from firsthand experience, but I am obvioulsly far from mastery of it. My idea was to do the reverse of last year's plan, in order to hit as much as humanly possible. Here's what the route would look like (excuse the map, it is last year's version): Things to keep in mind: We'll probably be leaving as close to 8 as possible, and if we don't get lost like last year it'll be a 3-hour drive. So we'll have from 11-7:30ish of park-time. I rode MCMB, SkyRider, Wild Beast, and TG last time, so they are skippable this year if need be. Is that a somewhat good idea, or am I just crazy? If not, I need major help, because I won't get many opportunites to get up there again soon. And I only have 2 weeks! Help is appreciated! Thanks in advance.

It depends what you definition of "too intense" is. When they built S:ROS at SFDL I was afraid to ride it, and I missed out for a couple years. When I finally realized there was nothing unsafe about it, I jumped on and haven't looked back. I don't think there should be anything to worry about, because unlike me way back when, you're already into coasters. Just do it, and consider how many enthusiasts would kill to be in the position of "having to ride Kingda Ka" (me being one of them).

Bernhard Wimmer's video wins it from this batch, in my opinion. It was a good blend of all the elements necessary for a good vid, as all his video seem to. Honorable mention go to "FUN!!!" and "Knott's Khristmas". The former lived up to it's name, it was a very entertaining video. The latter I probably would have given a thumbs up without knowing his age, so Kudos to you, Connor. A lot of good vids in the contest so far. Who will win? NO ONE KNOWS!

::drool:: Very nicely done. I especially enjoyed the POV, including the guy screaming for mercy before the vertical drop. It's really too bad i'm not gonna get the chance to ride this baby for a while . Anyway, I'm not gonna bother repeating other comments, I'll just say it was a great video, in my opinion.

Yes, how could one go about obtaining this video after it has expired? I'm really interested to check it out...

^ I'm glad you got a good impression of my home park. You would think that a park that's only open 1/2 the year would be prepared to operate in any weather, btu apparently not. They usually do suck about the trains, it's no surprise to see only 1 on each Predator and S:ROS. I was going to jump to the defense of my park, but then I realized you're about right about everything...Now I'm just depressed. :?

I've had a couple less than stellar trips, but my most disappointing would have to be last year's class trip to Paramount Canada's Wonderland. I had been planning the trip for more than a month, and I was pumped I was gonna get tons of credits (13 coasters I had never ridden! ). Unfortunately, for some reason I couldn't fathom, that park was packed on a Thursday in mid-June. Long lines galore. Our plan was to just do the circle of the park. This didn't work because: 1) We waited an hour for Top Gun, which is no different from SFDL's Mind Eraser, and feared waiting that long for every ride. 2) Dedicating the entire day to coasters was not a viable option. 3) 80% of my friends are real sissies when it comes to coasters, so I had to keep going along with different groups of people that were willing to ride something. 4) Tomb Raider broke down when we were in the station, after waiting 1/2 hour 5) We had to leave at like 7 So, when all was said and done, I had done 4 coasters and didn't even complete all the flats, which are what PCW is good at. At the end of the day, I couldn't help coming home feeling more than a bit disappointed. :?

Haha, those "Fun, WOW" Commercials were on as late as last year. They apparently support recycling.

At this time it was raining. Not a drizzle, but no thunder or lightning either, so it was perfect for dissipating the line. With the somewhat slicker track and shorter lines, we had no choice but to take the very back seat 8). Holy hell, what a difference. We had to have hit 60 MPH, I can't even describe how different it felt from the front, totally the opposite experience. I guess that would be the point, though. After this we went to the stage to see the show, but as it turned out the rain earler in the day had dampened the stage :shock: and delayed the show. Taking advantage of the situation, I stopped at Martin's Finger Lickin' Chicken for some grub. I returned to discover that my sister's dances were cancelled all together, so that worked out nicely. My dad wanted to go home, but we wouldn't before we were finished stuffing our faces and goofing around. Speaking of goofing around, this pic I took just for you, Robb: Mean anything? How about this? After the stocks, we headed home after a satisfying yet somewhat disappointing kickoff to Adam's Coaster Season 2005.

I don't know how many of you have ever been to MFI (I know Robb and Elissa have), but for those of you asking "What the hell is this place?", it's a small, family-oriented park on Grand Island, NY (right near Niagara Falls) with one coaster, the CCI hybrid Silver Comet, with another coaster, Zamperla Spinning Mouse Crazy Mouse supposedly opening in July. My family was going to MFI for a dance thing that my sister was involved in, which was supposed to be only 45 minutes long, so it was a good opportunity to kick off my coaster season. We got to the park around noon, and I wanted to head straight for Silver Comet, as always. We got to the queue and there were very few people, as always. We jumped in line for the front seat, and waited for 4 trains before we got on. The ride seemed exceptionally smooth, but a little slow, which gave me the opportunity to take some POV pics: First Drop Pretty Good small airtime hill immediately after the first drop Still getting air after a couple turns Following the SC, I figured I'd get some construction pics of Crazy Mouse for you guys, and for myself as I could find none on the internet anywhere. I would soon find out why no construction pics existed. The progress they made was...well...non existant. That sign was the only sign of a coming roller coaster, so apparently they plan on getting this thing up in about 35 days, because this is what it looked like this afternoon: What a downer. After that disappointent, we figured we'd take on the only other half-way thrilling ride Martin had to offer, Daredevil. Before you get any ideas, it was not half as daring or, uh, devilish as it sounds. The tower is probably 100 feet tall, and the doesn't even go to the top The Not-So-Daring Daredevil We got off, checked out the stage where my sister was going to dance later and looked up to see quite an ominous site: There was no way of escaping my parents wanting to ride the Ferris Wheel and the ancient-looking Antique Cars (Sorry, no action pics), and afterwards we split up so my parents could go take my sister to get ready. Me and my brother were left to amuse ourselves for an hour. I decided to whoop him in mini-golf, which I did, and then more Silver Comet. To be continued...

Well, so far, SFMW is my favorite out of this batch, but I also did enjoy the Spain one, I was waiting for a POV on Dragon Kahn for most the entire video, so I was pretty happy when it came up. Well done, folks, well done indeed.

Well I'm not getting to PKI anytime soon, but I will be going to PCW at the end of June, and you can bet your buttons I'll be just about spriting to get to Italian Job and avoid massive crowds (which I'll be expecting after last year, anyway)

Hey crazy4coasters, i thought i might be the only basketball collector here, I guess not... I have tons of cards (mostly garbage). By tons I mean thousands, but don't get too excited, I'll say about 10% of them are worth much of anything. My collection is centered around Michael Jordan, of who I have a lot of memrobilia, a couple hundred cards, etc etc (but no autograph ) but in my adventures I've acquired quite a few other valuable items (I have about 8 of the same Kobe rookie card, valued at like 10 bucks a pop). Not bad, if I do say so myself.