rollin_n_coastin

The Warm Up Part 2 - Getting up to Height and Speed! Although I don't drink Coors Light, at least it's been helpful here. It's not too high. Ok, the grate floor on the gondola was a bit terrifying. Almost halfway up! Made it! Now, which way to take back down? Yes, trying to ignore that this is both a Coors Light and Pepsi Park If you say so I would pay for this to be Zorbing in the summer! Zorbing? Mountain bike trails. It seems to have a lot more character without snow Zorbing? Coors Light time? At least to get us back down A look at the resort village from the Niagara Escarpment. Being back down means ride 2 of 2! This time, no braking! Noted. Here we go again! A definite "weeee!" Heading into some of the crazy curves. High ropes course! The mid helix of craziness. A look back down the lift. There is some crazy speed on the straightaway before the final helix. and finish!

I think a few days passing is long enough for all my internal organs, speech and mental state to return back to normal after what was the most intense day of coaster riding ever for such a phenomenal cause! A huge thank you to Kara with GKTW and Dineen at Canada's Wonderland for organizing such a great event on a beautiful Sunday! A huge thanks as well to the amazing staff at Vortex and Colin and his staff at Behemoth. The entire day was very well done. The upgraded lunch to the Market Place was very much appreciated all by riders judging from our love of Pizza Pizza and all the other awesome stuff! The day sure proved a definite challenge that I think we were all able to meet without too many issues, other than a protein spill or two (but not from Team TPR)! Stomachs of steel we have! Congratulations to the entire Team TPR team at Canada's Wonderland: Nick (odene497), Josh (PCW_Nut), Paul (Carnage), Matt (Mightypotato) and John (Archnemasis). Together, Team TPR raised over $3,100! It was awesome meeting all the other riders from other teams or there on their own to support such a great cause. We were 26 strong and as a park, raised over $7,740 for GKTW, up from $3,700 in 2011! Over the Coasting for Kids weekend, our team slowly trickled in until we were all together on Sunday morning. Nick came in from New York so we found the perfect warm up coaster. Josh joined in on Saturday night to get our hunger worked up. John, Matt and Paul met up with us on Sunday morning, ready to go. Below are some pics of a mellow warm up, appetite adjustment and some more pics from the event this past Sunday. The Warm Up Part 1 - Controlling the Speed First meal at Nando's before the warm up! Tomorrow would be a drive up to... Wasaga beach, but the weather wasn't the greatest so onward to... Blue Mountain Resort up in Collingwood to play mini golf? Nope, but this works. Test seat! It doesn't look like it covers a lot of land. But it covers more than enough. I can't imagine the price being any higher! Cars coming home The line up wasn't too bad given that rain was in the forecast all day. Anxious This moves at a good clip. Carted... awaaaaay we go! Just amazing scenery. This gives a seriously out of control feeling, especially around each helix. Bridge! Brakes please!

Now with two B&Ms at my home park that are quite spectacular I thought it would be cool to look at this again. My opinion is still based only as a park guest. As a park guest, what attracts me and always has attracted me to a park? What makes me fly to another country or drive long hours to get there? I'm taking reliability out of the equation simply because I assume that a park knows what it's getting when it buys a ride and can create an appropriate annual operations budget for it before buying the ride through normal research and planning. I assume that a park's goal is to get people through the gates first and foremost. Also I don't go by anecdotal evidence. Here are some examples that I think no one should judge rides by--My last visits to both Busch parks saw Griffon and Apollo's Chariot down for half a day while maintenace tried to solve the issues. Two seperate visits to Tampa saw Kumba down for a day or two and this last visit, Montu down for the morning because of unknown issues and no word on when it would reopen. Behemoth's opening was delayed during the charity auction and oh, how about that Shambhala? So again, not factoring in reliability since I'm not buying a car or kitchen appliance, I'm not a park and stuff happens to all rides. I won't consider smoothness since I've been on B&Ms that are far from that reputable smoothness that people give them credit for. What held true before I even cared or knew what an Intamin or B&M was a few years ago is still the case. Without even realizing it, I still drive many hours or fly to other countries to go to a park because of its Intamin attraction(s). I can't say I've ever done that for a B&M attraction. Even with both amazing Busch parks I realized that I went to those because of I305 and Disney as the priority during those visits. I still love a few B&M rides without a doubt, don't get me wrong. Kumba, Montu, Talon, Griffon and Behemoth will always be favorites. Having Leviathan in your back yard is something that no one should take for granted. But overall, Intamin is still my favourite. When I ride them, especially after some incredible Ride of Steel rides two weeks ago, they still remind me why I enjoy and love the feeling of riding roller coasters the most. Sky Rush is getting me antsy to drive long hours this summer even. This is a personal thing to be sure and I think is what enjoying roller coasters is all about.

Everyone, congratulations! Thanks for all the support from everyone here and of course to the amazing results that all riders were able to reach! I'll post pictures eventually but to cement my spot, I made a deal with an awesome VP and girl guide mom at work by agreeing to buy a few boxes of cookies to shrink her inventory at work in exchange for a donation. So uhm..girl guide cookies anyone?

Thank you so much Robb and TPR!

Ok, now I'm $65.00 away from first! Josh has now made it up to 3rd, great news! Any help at all would be awesome!

So I was just bounced out of first place at CW by $40.00! It'll take that and just a little bit more to put both Team TPR and a TPR member in first at CW, which pretty much is all of Canada If anyone is able to help out, even small donations in any amount, that would be awesome!

Goals, goals, it's all about goals I'm $30.00 away from mine! So close! Congratulations Team TPR on amazing results! Remember that official counts are done tomorrow at noon EDT! Post here if you still need your $75.00 minimum or are close to a prize or first place! Let's see if we can get you there before the cut off tomorrow at noon! Mike needs some help--he's $25.00 away! http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/mikeholtey/Valleyfair Our pages will still take donations after noon tomorrow but it won't count toward the $75.00 minimum for participation or any prizes after that point.

^^Should be an awesome day! Should be interesting for sure! Repost Those of us Coasting for Kids this Sunday just cracked the $2,000 mark! I'm personally at 84% of my $1,000 goal! If anyone has a little bit extra for myself or any of Team TPR at Canada's Wonderland's riders, I know we'd all very much appreciate the support! Official donations close Friday at noon! Canada's Wonderland - Team TPR Page - $2,086 Jason (rollin_n_coastin) - http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/jasonatcw/CanadasWonderland Paul (Carnage) - https://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/paulfowler/CanadasWonderland Nick (odene497) - http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/nick-cramer-1/CanadasWonderland Joshua (PCW_Nut) - https://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/joshuamclachlan/CanadasWonderland Matt (mightypotato) - https://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/mattbryane/CanadasWonderland3 John (Archnemasis) - http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/johnleclair/CanadasWonderland Thanks everyone!

^Exactly! So, as we move beyond what could have been, I think B&M more than made up for missing out on our invert scene. Oh and guess what? Those of us Coasting for Kids this Sunday will get to ride the very first B&M coaster at the park for up to five hours! We just cracked the $2,000 mark and I'm personally at 84% of my $1,000 goal! If anyone has a little bit extra for myself or any of Team TPR at Canada's Wonderland's riders, I know we'd all very much appreciate the support! Official donations close Friday at noon! Canada's Wonderland - Team TPR Page - $2,086 Jason (rollin_n_coastin) - http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/jasonatcw/CanadasWonderland Paul (Carnage) - https://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/paulfowler/CanadasWonderland Nick (odene497) - http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/nick-cramer-1/CanadasWonderland Joshua (PCW_Nut) - https://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/joshuamclachlan/CanadasWonderland Matt (mightypotato) - https://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/mattbryane/CanadasWonderland3 John (Archnemasis) - http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/johnleclair/CanadasWonderland Thanks everyone!

Of course B&M would work with you. Who said they spend a lot of time above and beyond a normal proposal process before signing an LOI or final contract? A few months seems perfectly normal. A lot of conceptual work goes into selling a project before an LOI is signed. Detailed stuff comes after. It just didn't work out this time. So yes, as Norm said, the park was extremely close to having a contract signed and ready to go (usually up to a year or two before things really get rolling) but it just didn't happen. As for who foots the the bill for the work of employees done for those few months (if that), B&M does as part of the normal cost of doing business. If companies didn't pay for conceptual and other work to build their businesses (development departments), me and lots of other people would be out of jobs....

Laura, thanks so much for sharing this! That mall looks happening (^^^almost Enfield-esque). The ride deserves better, as does the history of the park overall.

Well, obviously if they just got a memo from B&M saying they would not build them a ride, they could not have been "SO CLOSE" to signing a deal.. They had the plans ready to go. All they had to do was sign the paperwork. Norm said he personally received a call from Walter Bolliger stating that their plans had to be scrapped due to the CP clause. At this point, Dick Kinzel was called and asked if an exception could be made. He refused. So the plan of a B&M was tossed out and a Vekoma SLC was put in its place. On top of that, we were only within 2 miles of the cut-off point. I would say it's SO CLOSE... I'm not saying that you're wrong or anything, you should just not believe everything you are told. B&M would not work with you for months to develop a custom made layout for you're specific space and requirements, and all of a sudden just sign such a deal as they did with Cedar Point. That would be very bad publicity for the company, and just a dickish move, taking time and money away from Wonderland. I do believe that the park was looking into getting a B&M invert, just not that they were as close and long gotten as they claim. Definitely not wrong. Radius restrictions are standard in a lot of contracts with specific vendors and stand for x number of years. Cedar Point may have been willing to negotiate a fee for compensation at first and it could have fallen through near the end of the process. Cedar Point would have paid B&M more to maintain the competitive advantage within a defined market area by maybe spending more than usual on one or more coasters. The last recourse would have been for Paramount/Wonderland to buy Cedar Point. Happens often in hotels and sports as an example. Unless you're on the negotiating team or have to access to the final contracts, no one ever hears about this stuff.

Updated Team TPR tally is $27,711, with 959 supporters! Congratulations! Kings Dominion - Team TPR Page - $6,240 with 83 supporters - 1st place team Knott's Berry Farm - Team TPR Page - $5,204 with 169 supporters - 1st place team Kings Island - Team TPR Page - $2,857 with 99 supporters - 1st place team Dorney Park - Team TPR Page - $2,885 with 134 supporters - 1st place team Canada's Wonderland - Team TPR Page - $2,086 with 100 supporters - 1st place team Cedar Point - Team TPR Page - $2,335 with 102 supporters - 3rd place team California's Great America - Team TPR Page - $1,822 with 83 supporters - 1st place team Michigan's Adventure - Team TPR Page - $1,196 with 51 supporters - 2nd place team Valleyfair! - Team TPR Page - $1,144 with 49 supporters - 1st place team Carowinds - Team TPR Page - $1,177 with 44 supporters - 1st place team Worlds of Fun - Team TPR Page - $765 with 45 supporters - 1st place team

Weird, I was told different. I was told to hand any checks/cash to Dinnen from PR and they would then be mailing all offline donations to GKTW. I just double checked because of the different answers I got and that is correct, we bring everything to the park

^Even with Cedar Fair's last spending spree on reliable Morgans, that didn't automatically mean that we saw a Morgan coaster at Cedar Point. Even with all the so called trouble, they still got Shoot the Rapids. The best business plan is that which attracts people to the park while keeping costs within budget. The Point could simply budget more operating costs for the manufacturer of choice if it works.

I can't remember if the crazy drop on Cyclops is the first or only main drop or not, regardless if it's in the middle of the ride. For sure that would be my favorite drop. If it isn't the main drop, then I'd go with El Toro back row.

It becomes a confirmed donation when you hand in the cash or check at the event. Ah ok, so when the resort gets the checks. For us up here, I was instructed to mail the checks (no cash) directly to GKTW as First Giving does not handle off-line donations. I guess this is only for international sites.

Guys, this is awesome! Glad you're having a great time and hope the weather gets better! The cabin looks amazing compared to other campgrounds. Hopefully you can get on Mammoth--really looking forward to hearing how that is compared to Wildebeest. Cheers, Jason

^Kind of related but when you add an off-line donation, it says pending confirmation? My donor and I can't figure out how you confirm an off-line donation?

We have a winner at $140.00! I've sent a Private Message with next steps. Thanks to everyone who checked out this auction and especially to those who put in a bid! Very much appreciated! If any bidders would still like to support my Vortex/ Behemoth marathon for GKTW, any donation at any amount would of course be very much appreciated. Good luck to all the Coasting for Kids teams! Best, Jason

^Agreed! We will definitely do our best but I think maintaining our top team status as best as we can will also be a great thing and a good goal for the other parks. This last week should be awesome! Keep the momentum going!

Hey all, Only 0.5 days left for the hotel room auction in Toronto that'll cover you over Leviathan Bash weekend! Don't be shy, put in a bid! We are at $130.00 for two nights so far! Click on the link below for more details! Ends Friday, June 1 at Noon Eastern Time! Up for auction, benefiting Coasting for Kids, is a two night stay for two in Uptown Toronto at the Novotel Toronto – North York Centrally located in a prime spot between Canada's Wonderland and Downtown Toronto! Click here to find out more! If this auction isn't of interest and you would still like to support a great cause through Coasting for Kids, any support would be greatly appreciated! Just click on my "Coasting for Kids" banner below to donate or learn more!

Hey all, Only 0.5 days left for the hotel room auction in Toronto that'll cover you over Leviathan Bash weekend! Don't be shy, put in a bid! We are at $130.00 for two nights so far! Click on the link below for more details! Ends Friday, June 1 at Noon Eastern Time! Up for auction, benefiting Coasting for Kids, is a two night stay for two in Uptown Toronto at the Novotel Toronto – North York Centrally located in a prime spot between Canada's Wonderland and Downtown Toronto! Click here to find out more! If this auction isn't of interest and you would still like to support a great cause through Coasting for Kids, any support would be greatly appreciated! Just click on my "Coasting for Kids" banner below to donate or learn more!

That is correct, I'm an Eastern Daylight Time kinda guy ^Thanks Larry! I knew a bid from you was brewing!