milst1

I love the trips, the news, the people, the Alveys, the tons of info, the mutually-shared interest and passion, but especially, I love the BRAND. When Robb sends me the logo I will make the patch, which EVERYONE will love!!!

Oooh, coaster patches...hmmmm Some notes: The Black Diamond shirt glows in the dark! And the view on the Lakeside shirt is...the back!

Over the years I've collected a billion t-shirts from parks and coasters all over. I've got stacks of them. It drives Cheryl crazy. Now I share them with you! Here's from the first few days... Black Diamond at Knoebel's Cyclone at Lakeside Furius Baco at PortAventura Looking forward to adding more in days to come!

How much competition do they have? In Western Norway, just Kongeparken. I wonder if it's a new ownership group or someone who's already in the industry there.

Dear Everyone, Thanks so much for your advice. We have been to all three parks before, including more than once at Knott's and SFMM. We've been to Castle once. We're very accustomed to getting one or two credits and then moving on, which is what we plan to do: Coast Rider and Timberline Twister (for Cheryl) at Knott's, Full Throttle and Lex Luthor's Drop of Doom at SFMM, and the spinner at Riverside that may be down (Thanks, Laura, we'll call first). This is a mileage/credit mop-up run. We're starting early and our only limitations are the traffic and our flight at 21:30. If things get cut too close, we bail and hightail it to LAX. Which reminds me, I'd better get ready for our flight to California! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

We're trying to hit Knott's, Castle, and SFMM in one day, so we may simply need Flash Pass and Fast Lane convenience. Thanks very much for responding.

Sorry if this has already been asked. Does Full Throttle have Flash Pass? Thanks. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. See you in L.A.

Difficult season for Compagnie des Alpes' amusement parks Article below: You can link to it at http://bit.ly/1bllSfe Update : 13:23 Published by François Mayné the 10 November 2013, Corporate. The Compagnie des Alpes leisure parks recorded disappointing financial results during fiscal year 2012/2013 which ended on September 30. The French operator reported that sales of the activity was down 4.7% to stand at €282 million versus €296 million during the previous year. Excluding scope effects due to the opening of the Grevin wax museum in Montreal (Canada), to the sale of Bioscope (France) and to the temporary closing the Dolfinarium for renovation during part of the year (The Netherlands), the sales decreased more precisely by 3.4%. The decline in sales seen after the first nine months of the fiscal – a period marked by unusually adverse weather conditions – was not offset in the fourth quarter, despite the good performance of the parks during the summer season. As a result, the group's total attendance was down 7.5% on the full year. However, the average spending per visitor has shown again an encouraging increase: +2.8%. An analysis of the Leisure park business reveals vastly different variations in sales. "Our regional leisure parks fared better than others by combining product differentiation with expert sales and marketing," stated the company. That was the case for example for Bellewaerde Park (+3.7% in sales) which introduced the new indoor family rollercoaster 'Huracan', for La Mer de Sable (+15%) which celebrated its 50th anniversary or for Walibi Belgium which enjoyed sales growth of 14% in August after the opening of the redesigned shuttle loop coaster 'Psyké Underground'. In this context, Compagnie des Alpes says it is determined to pursue its strategic goals, with priority given to achieving profitable growth in Leisure parks. In the short term, the operator aims to step up investments to improve the image of the parks it considers priority. Product marketing and yield management will be boosted as needed, in line with current consumer trends. The ultimate goal is to have “highly satisfied” customers. Moreover the group seeks to reposition its leisure parks and restructure its portfolio in the medium term. Compagnie des Alpes also has expressed its continued desire to identify new international growth opportunities. Its target for rapid development of Grévin is on schedule, as is the continued growth in project management and operation of leisure parks located outside France like Sindibad in Morocco. The management activity of ski areas, which is the Compagnie des Alpes’ main business, performed a satisfactory season with a turnover up 3.7% that offset the decrease in activity of the parks. The group announced a total consolidated sales of €678 million for the full year 2012/2013, a stable result compared to the previous year (+0.05%). Full-year results will be published on December 19. “In a context of increasingly selective consumer spending, Compagnie des Alpes has proven its ability to think ahead, make necessary changes, and break new ground,” said Dominique Marcel, the Group's CEO. “We aim to move faster, with more wide-reaching actions that will transform our Leisure parks division and ensure that it generates profitable growth over the medium term. CDA is very pleased with this year’s season for Ski areas. We intend to continue our unwavering pursuit of growth in this business, by making our products more appealing and by working harder to promote our destinations.”

^^^ I still want to like Mean Streak. Back in the day (about 1996), my then-gf and I did a weekend trip from Pittsburgh to Cedar Point. On the way, we visited SeaWorld Ohio. I'm not certain whether or not I'd actually ever been to a SeaWorld before, but I thought it was amazing. My gf had done her B.A. in Landscape Architecture, so she was pointing out a lot of the detail at Sea World and I was duly impressed. It was one of the most beautiful spots I'd ever seen. Meanwhile, we could hear and see Geauga Lake across the lake. I had heard about the Raging Wolf Bobs, but for some reason, we never got into the car and over to the other park. I wasn't really a coaster counter back then, so it didn't seem important. We also couldn't figure out how to pronounce Geauga, so we kept making Goo-Goo Lake jokes all day. Then we continued on to Sandusky. I did become more of an enthusiast during that time period, but then I checked out for a decade or so, and missed the whole Six Flags World of Adventure debacle. I think Cedar Fair closed GL right around the time I joined TPR. I never got back there, so I missed everything that hasn't been moved. Which reminds me...that same gf also showed me on a visit how well landscaped Paramount's Kings Island was. Is it just me, or have the parks lowered the bar on landscaping since Paramount and Anheuser-Busch left the industry?

Thanks for the responses, Philrad71 and Chuck! I made two phone calls, the first to Cedar Point's admissions office. They said that if I walked in with home-printed Platinum Pass paperwork that had been purchased on the the Knott's website, they would have no problem issuing a PP. Actually, I called investor relations, hoping to get someone at the corporate office to answer these questions, but they transferred me to CP. Investor Relations is the only phone number available at the corporate website for some reason. The second call was to Knott's. It took a long time for my call to get picked up, but when it did, the person I spoke to assured me that the 2014 PP would be processed before we could go into the park. Thanks again.

I hope that I've got the right thread. Maybe Knott's would be more appropriate. But here goes. I need some information to help make a decision. We're thinking about buying a Cedar Fair Platinum Pass for 2014. According to the CF sites, the $180 price offer ends today. We're visiting Knott's next month and the 2014 Platinum Pass allows one visit in 2013. I think it pays to get it if we also visit Canada's Wonderland, California's Great America, and Kings Island next year to get the credits we're missing at those parks, but it would help me if I knew what the admission fees were at those parks. Does anyone know the approximate online ticket price for those three parks this past season? If you know the parking price too, that would be a bonus. I've been assuming $40 and $15 for my calculations. If the prices are higher in reality, then the the Pass makes sense. However, we have another concern. If we buy the 2014 Platinum Pass online, will we be able to get it processed at Knott's during our visit in November? If not, we would have to get it processed at one of the other parks, and I'm afraid that it might be a hassle getting a pass purchased on Knott's website processed at another park. Knott's had problems even allowing us entry with our Dorney Platinum passes some years ago. Have they improved their national pass processing issues? Six Flags had no problem letting us process Great Adventure passes at SFOTx once. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

I've only bought a few regular DVD box sets. The vast majority of my movie viewing is via Netflix, both DVD and streaming. Also use cable DVR a lot. I do purchase some movies/TV on iTunes for iPad viewing, but I would rather watch on the big screen. Attaching iPad to big screen has been giving me troubles (video player keeps crashing), so I don't bother any more. iPad movies are for watching on the plane. I download directly to iPad, and size isn't ever a problem. Should we get a Blu-Ray player? Are they that much better?

^^^ Vacan! TPR people in Chile! I like Europcar. Next time, Europcar! We have to go back for Boomerang!

Well, I'm jealous of your crazy raccoon avatar.

Wow, didn't know about Diamonds are Forever! I think I was in Brazil in '75 or '76. Cool. Yeah, I did notice a sign in front that forbade bringing in food or drink. You could probably sneak it in if you were really determined. I guess what gets me is that they could make so much more money by improving the service and the quality. Would it be bad form to share this report with the F&B manager there? I don't want to insult anyone. And thanks for the love, everyone! GO TPR!

Did not ride a single one of the Tagadas. Cheryl thought it would only be fun with TPR.

Very cool video.

Awesome, another reason to hit up Northern California. I need Superman at SFDK, Gold Striker at CGA, that Pixieland credit, and now this. If only Gilroy Gardens would get something too!

Cheryl and I spent our honeymoon in Chile and we've always wanted to go back. It's safe, there is a decent infrastructure (you can drink the water), and the people are very nice. It's even somewhat sedate, as Latin America goes. Since we had that long Columbus Day weekend off, we decided to do the Chile credit run. Things are starting to turn colder here, but in Chile, Spring has sprung! This is the longest report I've ever done. Thanks to Robb for the multiple photo uploading tool, which definitely made this go faster. Adelante! Fly to Chile. Get car at Hertz. See license plate? Chile. Go to giant Las Condes mall with FEC inside. I kept looking up while driving and thinking "what a weird looking cloud" and then being like "that's a snow-capped mountain!" Cool, the mall parking garage has lights to show you the empty spots. We saw this in Mexico too. Welcome to Aventura Center, a small chain of FECs. This one has a credit. Montaña Rusa! Credit. They also had kiddy flats. And games and coin-op type rides. And a Tagada? Cool! This park and others we saw are big into the birthday party business. There's bowling too. And a bowling bar? And then the hostess told me I couldn't take pictures. I don't understand why some places give tourists a hard time. No thanks, you don't have to get your "jefe" to explain it to me. It happens all over. This reminded me of the time that an ice cream stand on the Jersey Shore Boardwalk yelled at me for taking pictures. Don't attract tourists if you don't want tourists taking pictures! This Aventura Center is at the Las Condes Mall. I think we saw a movie at the mall afterwards...oh yeah, Kick Ass 2. Not as good as the first. We then drove back to our hotel, parked, checked in, and had a nice dinner nearby. The next morning we headed to Fantasilandia, but the parking situation was really difficult (it adjoins a major city park and doesn't have a huge parking lot of its own). In retrospect, we should have taken public transit for this park, but since our other two parks were in outlying areas, we decided to hit them first. The first was Mampato Lo Barnechea. Here's what you see when you come in. It's a small outdoor amusement park. Here's the credit, Happy Mountain, a Brazilian Wacky Worm, according to rcdb. Nice red train instead of the usual green. There was also a variety of kiddie flats. And another Tagada? Wow. As I said, the birthday business is big here. They had a slew of these huts for birthday parties. Yay, a dark ride! Gotta love the Latina vampire bat women. Unfortunately, the young female operator couldn't get the ride going. She got a supervisor over there, who flipped a switch that started the sound effects and seemed to get it started, but he didn't test it and left. She couldn't get a car to go. He came back and declared it down. Oh well. This was a view of the mountains from the ferris wheel. Nice slide. Birthday party section. Actual birthday party about to happen. A sea lion show? I wish we had stuck around. Steeplechase. Cheryl as a blowfish. Cheryl milking the cow! Have we gone in a circle? No, we've gone from northeast Santiago down to Southeast Santiago for Mampato Las Vizcachas. It's on more land and has a few more rides, but we were surprised that it was more expensive. The first Mampato was $8; this Mampato was $9. It's about 500 Chilean pesos to the US dollar. Credit! This is Montaña Dragon, Since rcdb didn't have any pictures, I sent a whole slew of them. It's the birthday huts! Pirate ship. Parrot show. Dolphin ride. For Larry. My 6 month birthday! They have a powered there too. Water game? Actually, we started to notice that the climate is incredibly dry. We saw this at both of the Mampatos, a little giant-tricycle track for kids. Kiddie Ferris Wheel. Slide. Drop tower. Spinning Flat. Sorry about the boring repetition; I'm just documenting. And another Tagada!!!!!????!!!! So we then drove back to the center of the city, but we found parking well away from Fantasilandia and walked in. Yay, we made it! The map makes it look open and empty but it's actually fairly compact and busy. Right now the park is open weekends and holidays. This was a Sunday. It was a decent crowd. Patricio Mekis was a mayor of Santiago who championed large public infrastructure projects, including Fantasilandia. He died at 50 in 1979 when the balcony collapsed at his summer home. As you can see, busy midway. There's not much in the way of park theming. Here's the "Kids Zone". And this was the one credit that we couldn't get on this trip. Cheryl asked about it but it sounded like it wouldn't open this month. These signs were in the queues with the number for security. Clowns suddenly appeared. More of them! WTF? And these signs warned against smoking, jumping the barriers, or holding someone's place in the line. There they go. They were having dance parties all day. Mississippi River Steamboat and bumper boats. Ah, food and beverage. This was our big negative at Fantasilandia. Ride operations were slow, but not ridiculously slow. F&B, on the other hand, was ridiculous. By fast, they were referring to geological time. Long lines at every outlet. And the lines didn't move. It was brutal. This popular stand in a games section completely blocked the path for this area. This looked better, but it wasn't. Inside, you had to first pay the cashier (one queue), and then stand on another queue to give the paid order to the kitchen. I think my line was serving one guest every 10 minutes or so. And there were several queues of this type. I've never seen so many employees fill so few orders. Half of the assistants and order helpers outside of the kitchen should have been inside the kitchen cooking. I'm not sure when lunchtime is in Chile, but it was late for us and we were starving. I remember seeing a much smaller crew at Silverwood serve just as many people much more quickly just last month; it was fresh in my mind because I mentioned that crew in the survey I received afterwards. They were overwhelmed too, but they busted their asses to speed it up. This just dragged on interminably, with the line never moving. But Cheryl and I were definitely the most bummed out about it. Everyone else seemed to see this as "normal". And the actual food quality was not good. I think Cheryl said "They shouldn't allow this to be called 'pizza'". And I said, "It tastes like crap, but I've got enough Heinz ketchup on it to mask it." The mini cheese empanadas were essentially cheese-less. Okay, no more complaining about the food. It's a South American theme park, not a Food Network featured restaurant. I shouldn't have read Chuck's Food & Wine Festival reports before writing this. Raptor was one credit, an SLC running two trains. Very popular. The other credit was this spinning mouse. Good ops: They filled our car with a mom and her kid. They had a top spin. And a pirates boat ride! Very basic boats. You can see the Disko out the pirates window. Classic. The best scene was a copy of the guy getting dunked by the pirates at Disney, right? But the funny thing was that he had no body below his chest. LOL. Tell us where the treasure is! Right after we saw your body in two! Little outdoor section of pirates. This was Monga. I had to drag Cheryl to this attraction. There was a gorilla statue outside, and I guessed, correctly, that this was a version of an attraction I saw at Playcenter in Brazil when I was there as a kid. There was a show every couple of hours or so, so we had to wait on a long queue to get in. Once inside, you see a beautiful woman on stage in a cage, and they tell a story that she's been cursed. You watch as she turns into a gorilla before your eyes! But then the gorilla escapes into the theater! At Playcenter, everyone ran out screaming, if memory serves. Here, they got her back in the cage and she reverts back to her former self. Crazy stuff. Good looking dark ride from the outside, although the fake vines are deteriorating. Cars repurposed from some shooting dark ride somewhere, but no guns anymore. As it got later in the day (and chillier), some ghouls came out to promote the park's upcoming Halloween events. The ghoul is the one on the right. Look, he got coffee after only waiting 10 minutes! There was a frisbee thing. There was also one of those flats like a cheap version of the spinning Kennywood Arrows ride? I think I saw the same ride at Seabreeze. Sorry I don't know the names. Wow, Fantasilandia's newest attraction, a Zamperla Air Race! I know this one. Another Tagada!!!!!!????!!!!!????? Thanks for visiting Fantasilandia with us! Finally, we hit this park on a mountain with a few attractions. The alpine toboggan was fun. It's just called "Rodelbahn". Then we went to "Vertigo Park", which had zip lines and climbing, but the first thing we saw was this ridiculous home made sky coaster. This guy's feet popped out of the harness right away. Did not look fun. Nor did the zip line adventure course. Sketchy. These young paintball players seemed satisfied, however. We still took a pass. Bonus park! We went to one last big mall near the airport on the way out of town to kill a few hours. They had a Happyland. No coaster... ...but they had a Tagada! Sorta. Hope you enjoyed our report! Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeere's Monga!

^^^ +1

The food in Baton Rouge is much more exciting than the amusement park. We had two really good hits, and one miss. First day lunch was at Mason's Grill, which we enjoyed, but I would advise people to avoid the busiest periods, like Sunday brunch. We were lucky to find seats, but we had to wait over an hour for a table. Dinner was even better, at The Chimes. The atmosphere is similar to some other brewpub/sports bar kinds of places, but it was pleasant enough. The food was great and the beer selection extensive. Heading to the airport the next day, we took a swing and missed. I wanted to find some gumbo and we ended up at Boutin's Cajun Restaurant at Howell Place. Apparently this is their second location, and it's only saving grace was it's proximity to the airport, if that's what you care about. The service was slow, although they were apologetic about it. Other than that, I have to say mediocre food at surprisingly high prices in a depressing atmosphere. I suppose I would be willing to try the original location, which seems to have a much better ambience and live music. Hopefully the food is better there too.

What a great report! Can't wait to visit Cars Land next month.

Yes, I believe Jakizle referred to it as a "light package".

Chuck, thank you for teaching me a new word!!!

That's the one! Boy, that seems like a million years ago. I lived in DInkytown and St. Louis Park between 1988 and 1991. Unfortunately is was a million years ago, when did I get old? Since you were here for four years and lived in Dinkytown my guess is you are a University of Minnesota graduate? And if you ever come back you can still go to Kahn's. They have added two more restaurants in the suburbs since you went to the one in Roseville. Still locally owned and not a chain so the food is still good. Were you here during the 1991 Halloween blizzard? Yes, I was a graduate student at the U in the Department of Economics. I arrived in August 1988 right after finishing college and left the Minneapple in May 1991, so I missed that blizzard. I don't remember a lot about food in the Twin Cities. I remember some great Sunday breakfast place in downtown St. Paul. And I remember a restaurant with a wood-burning stove that I loved. I have a coaster from there in a photo album so I'll have to dig it out. I also remember Max & Erma's, Grandma's, hotdish, and peppermint bon-bon ice cream. Fortunately I was able to salvage my academic career at the University of Pittsburgh, where I also discovered Kennywood. I never visited Valleyfair while living in MN, just Canterbury Downs in Shakopee.