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Yes, I'm personally devastated, but also hopeful that the company will continue to operate through reorganization. I wish they had been more aggressive marketing their newer, more interesting flavors, like Planet 51, or had done more creative marketing like Wooden Warrior Watermelon Ice at Quassy. But it just sounds like they simply took on too much debt, which is risky by definition. It's not the greatest ice cream, but it's a park staple. Like Tilt-a-Whirls. Wooden Warrior Watermelon Ice Planet 51 at Valleyfair! Mint dippin' dots with chocolate covered pop rocks!

Reprinted without permission from the WSJ: Dippin' Dots Files for Bankruptcy By KATY STECH The future of ice cream is having trouble surviving today. Dippin' Dots Inc., the self-described "ice cream of the future," filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Thursday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Paducah, Ky., near its headquarters, after fighting off foreclosure efforts from Regions Bank for more than a year, according to court documents. At the time of the filing, the company owed about $11.1 million to the bank. Company executives immediately asked for court permission to spend some of the cash collateral that secures the Regions Bank loan—a move to enable it to continue operating throughout the case. The company "has no alternative borrowing source and to remain in business, the [company] must be permitted to use the cash proceeds described herein to pay general operating overhead and administrative expenses," its attorneys said in court documents. The manufacturer of specialty ice cream products—flash frozen into tiny beads—said its novelty products are sold mostly in venues like theme parks, concert halls, and stadiums, as well as at franchised locations. So far this year, the company's revenues—now at $27.7 million—have surpassed last year's revenue of about $26.7 million, according to court documents. In its bankruptcy petition, the company said its assets are worth $20.2 million while its debts have risen to $12 million. Most companies that file for Chapter 11 protection intend to reorganize their finances and continue operating. President Curt Jones wasn't immediately available to comment.

This is actually tough. Phoenix, El Toro, and T Express are amazing, but some GCI woodies like Kentucky Rumbler also pack some pop. I think I counted 12 pops on KR. Ravine Flyer II is great too. For single moments of airtime, I like the Kennywood Jackrabbit and I seem to remember a crazy pop on Skyliner at Lakemont. For steel, I really like the Intamin mega-lites (why in the world haven't they built one in USA yet???) Kawasemi and Piraten. They are air machines. Also really love Steel Eel at Sea World San Antonio (my fave of the Morgan hypers with a nod to Mamba) and Phantom's Revenge. And duh, almost forgot Nitro!

We had been to Knoebel's twice before but this trip with TPR was by far the best visit. Food, rides, games, backstage, bling - the whole day was incredible. I don't like a lot of flats, but I love the flats at Knoebel's, and the Haunted House, and the Sky Ride, and the carousel, and everything else. I don't think I've ever laughed so hard as that first night-ERT run...it was raining a little, bling glasses obscuring my vision, and then you're suddenly out of your seat, thanks to the biggest pop of airtime you've ever had in your life! It was simply amazing. Thanks to TPR and Knoebel's for an unforgettable experience!

Gilroy Gardens, Drievliet, Duinrell, Toverland (small?), Quassy, Lake Winnie, Pleasure Island, Camelo, and Parc du Bocasse all come to mind.

All of the advice above is good advice. I want to add that I've had great luck with meclizine, which is sold under the Dramamine Non-Drowsy formula and Bonine and Antivert brand names. Bonine is preferable to me because it's chewable if you don't have a drink handy. Take it before you ride to avoid symptoms. I also try to avoid the most extreme spinning-est flats, and Vekoma Boomerangs seem to always nauseate no matter what. I came close to giving up the hobby because of what you describe, but I've actually built up some tolerance to the dizziness after increasing my visits and riding more steadily over time. Early season is toughest, getting back into it! Good luck!

Once again Chuck, an awesomely awesome report. Great seeing you during the trip!

Great seeing TPR in NYC yesterday at Victorian Gardens & FAO Schwarz and on the 6 train! See you all again at Great Adventure and Road to Cedar Point!

good stuff Larry!

Steel: KK Wood: T Express

I also loved the signage at Indiana Beach! Nice report! Here's one that I took.

Sounds good Larry, bring it on!

Me too!

Jeez, we were at Gröna Lund on Saturday too! We actually looked for the Brit Crew but obviously not hard enough. Cool report!

Update = Classic. Thanks, Divv. But especially thanks BRYAN!!!!

I'm just flattered all to heck that people are still checking out this report/thread. Thanks for the kind words and thanks for visiting, everyone!

I looked at both again and they are similar in some respects, but not the same ride. On Air Race, seats are all forward looking in the direction of the main wheel's rotation and the secondary rotation is clockwise or counter-clockwise around the main wheel's orbit of transit. On Deep Sea Adventure, half of the seats look inward at the center of the main wheel or outward. The secondary rotation is then in the direction of the main wheel's rotation or in the opposite direction of the main wheel. By contract, Air Race's secondary rotation is "perpendicular" to the main wheel's plane. I'm not really a technical writer. Did that make any sense?

^^^No doubt public transit and shuttles would have been a cheaper way to go. We paid NT$12,500 for the rental car for 5 days, which worked out to about US$80 per day, not including fuel. Not cheap of course, but not exorbitant either. The only trick was figuring out the Taiwanese GPS, which was doable. The rental car firm gave me a GPS, but I bought one on my own to start mapping out in advance. I'm guessing that if and when we go back (to get the @#$%^ credits we missed), assuming that our financial circumstances have not changed for the worse, we'd do the car rental thing again. But it's a good point to make that Taiwan is still doable even if you're on a budget. The round trip flight to Hualien was only US$100 each and it was just about another US$100 for the "limo service" in Hualien, taking us to the park and then to tour Taroko Gorge, which should not be missed. The biggest chunks of expense are, as usual, airfare and hotel. Thanks for reading.

You're saying that Stunt Fall at Parque Warner Madrid was waaaay more enjoyable than the identical Deja Vu at Magic Mountain? I'm happy there were no boomerangs, giant, interveted or otherwise, in Taiwan.

It was down when I visited Madrid...one of those credits I don't really mind missing.

I understand the sentiment, but I've ridden a few Giant Boomerangs, and given that the Vekoma cobra roll always makes me want to barf, I found the Big Air to be far more enjoyable and fun. I guess time will tell whether the catch car system has been made any more reliable than in the past.

Crazy butterfly captors. Let's enslave butterflies for Florida's enjoyment! Nice report.

As reported in these very pages of Theme Park Review back in January 2010 and thereafter, Taiwan's newest theme park just came online in the past year. E-DA Theme Park is in Kaohsiung, which is a large port city in South Taiwan. Cheryl and I headed there for the last day of our Taiwan theme park adventure. Thanks again to everyone who followed our trip report. It was about a 2 hr 15 minute drive from the Janfusun Fancyworld hotel. It's a massive complex with a theme park, mall, and hotels. It was also our first not-great weather day, unfortunately, so we were anxious to get the credits before any rain. We arrived very close to opening. It took us a little while to find the actual theme park entrance. The complex is huge. We finally found the ticketing area. But then we had to get lost again finding the actual park entrance. We figure it out eventually and we make a bee-line for this baby. Big Air turned out to be one of the highlights of the trip. I was secretly worried because I'd seen a recent story in the press about guests getting stuck on the thing. But people were starting to line up and there was a crew there. It's impressive to look at. The towers are just under 200 feet, according to Vekoma's website. And we enjoyed the ride. A catch car lifts the train forward up the far tower, then drops you, you coast backwards up to the top of the other tower, then forwards back down, and the catch car captures the train mid-way up the hill and lifts it up to the top again while it's heading back up. I give Vekoma credit for challenging themselves because the catch car system looks like an engineer's nightmare. And after being on so many coasters, it's not often that I actually get scared on a ride, and I was. The car catches the train while the train is moving at speed! The Cyclops theming was cool too. The whole park has an ancient Greece theme, sort of. This was right before they opened. We got on the second train. Alas, I was too much of a meathead to take any action photos. Another theme park in Taiwan means another set of adorable looking characters. Notice the togas. The leader is the rhino, named Da-E. In the queues, they show cartoons of the characters, and many rides are incorporated into the cartoons. The cartoons are scatalogical, but cute. In the cartoons, the characters all lived inside that Trojan Horse. You can see the rest of the park from here, sort of. Straight ahead is a large indoor section on many floors. To the left was a flume, to the right a splash battle, and on top of the indoor section was another credit. Nice theming on the flume. Also a monorail but we didn't see it run. Here's a shot of the splash battle. Junior Roof Coaster is on the roof. It's a Fabbri Spinning Madness, which are unusual for the two-part lift hill. This one's spinning didn't lock and release like most spinning mouses, so we were not locked going up the lifts and the car turns on the lift, depending on the passenger weights. I took a lot of pics waiting for this ride because it's not a people eater and the park had become more crowded. For some reason they put the ferris wheel outside of the theme park area on the other side of the complex by the hotels. We never got over to that side. These two other flats, Samba Tower and a swinger were also on the roof. We had a decent lunch at Tokyo Prince, also on the rooftop level, but indoors. Indoor were a ton of kiddy flats. They have to be kiddy flats because the ceilings aren't really very high. Taiwan Formosa is a major attraction, being a Soarin'/Over California ripoff. Vekoma built it. They were uptight about me taking pictures, but I think the seats are at the end of arms that extend into open space closer to the screen. The arm can then rotate right and left as you "fly". I mostly remember how derivative it was of Disney's rides (including fireworks at the end) and also how poor the movie screen image quality was. Of course the host is Da-E, not Patrick Warburton. Here's Taroko Gorge again, I think. You get the idea. Did you know Disney actually scents the Soarin' rides? Dark Ride was the final credit for us. You'll never guess what model. Another Vekoma Junior!!! This lift hill is the only part of the track that's visible. We did not visit this walkthrough Haunted House, the line just looked insane and it wasn't moving. We had to return the car and catch a train. And it had started to rain, which closed the outdoor rides (even the flume!). I did stop to photograph this Fabbri skyscraper. Isn't this the same model as the Tibidabo accident? Just wondering. This appeared to be a driving range. We also scored some nice merch. Thanks E-DA Theme Park! Miraculously we made it here, to the Zuoying High Speed Rail terminal, once I figured out that the addresses of the terminal's car rental counter and the actual drop-off garage were not the same. The task of driving on city streets was not made any easier by the, literally, hundreds of scooters sharing the road with me. We caught one of these babies back to Taipei. It goes the length of the island in about 96 minutes at 186 miles per hour. First class was very civilized and not that much more expensive. Cheryl's flight back to NYC was in the morning so after I saw her off at the airport, I headed into the city to visit Taipei 101. In case you don't know, Taipei 101 was the tallest building in the world from 2004 until last year. It took the world's tallest title from the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) and lost the title to the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. Unfortunately the day was cloudy, but it's still an impressive experience. It also has the 2nd fastest elevators in the world, built by Toshiba, fully pressurized, costing $2.4million each. This is the massive tuned mass damper at the top. It counteracts vibrations and swaying. Taipei 101 is designed to withstand both earthquakes and hurricanes. Yes, there's a Subway in Taipei 101. The mall is humongous, and I spent nearly an hour just walking the food court! Well, that's it for the Taiwan trip report. I encourage everyone to check it out, it's a cool place. Thanks for following!

Two words: Awe some. Thanks for the great report!

Thanks for everyone's comments, and thanks johncenas for putting us on to page 7. Next (and probably final) update will hopefully come before or after the weekend. I know readership is lower on the weekends as everyone's going to the parks! Have fun!