Mechanic

Not that I'm snarky or anything, but I had wondered about a few of those questions as well. Thanks for taking the time to answer them.

This dog has some serious, uh.. talent? And one hell of a bladder!

Anyone that hasn't visited SFMM in a couple seasons will be very pleasantly surprised by the turnaround this park is making. While last season's WCB was our best visit ever to the park, a regular operating day visit in late June was also very enjoyable. Much more so than in our previous visits over the past many summers. Neal Thurman said it best when he opened the gates at WCB '08 with the line, "We're back, and we're better than ever!" The park really is back to being a worthy destination. I look forward to it becoming even better in the coming years.

Oh, don't get me wrong. Relatively simple rides certainly have their place in the park and I agree that people do enjoy them. Take Dumbo, in the park across the Esplanade, as an example. It's also nothing more than you'd find at a carnival, except for it's tie-in to a lovable classic with it's elaborate (for a ride of its type) theming. The line to ride that thing in the middle of a summer day is simply flabbergasting. Of course, capacity plays a large part in that, but still, it has its charm. I could see some of that same kind of "magic" working pretty well on the wave swinger in DCA with the retheme, but I don't see a similar effect for the current Mulholland Madness getting a light makeover. The relatively common Wild Mouse coaster would need quite a bit more than I'm seeing in the concept art to make it much more endearing than it is now. I agree with your assessment that it's "a fun little coaster and I've always taken a ride or two on it each visit." That's exactly how I'd feel about the same coaster at the county fair. Don't we usually expect a little more than that from Disney? I understand that not every project that's a part of the makeover can be a multi million dollar undertaking, but the mild Goofy theme added to what is, and will continue to be, "just another mouse coaster" kind of falls into the category of "why bother?" for me. It looks like it would still be nothing all that special. The Golden Zephyr is fine just the way it is for me. It's actually a good fit for the area. They don't have it pretending to be anything it's not. It's just a classic style of attraction that was enjoyed at classic seaside parks. It was a nice choice from the beginning. No sense in fixing what's not broken.

The stuff I'm reading about the World of Color show has me very excited to see it in person. Disney, of course, knows that it will draw comparisons to Fantasmic, so I believe they really will go all-out to make it a memorable production. Effects that continue on into the seating areas should definitely draws some "oohs and aahs". Or maybe scare small children and cause undue heart stress in the elderly? (Just kidding) Seriously, I'm looking forward to this show a lot. Stuff like this, when done well, is a huge part of what separates Disney from their competitors. It has been said that the effort to be put forth in the Carsland area is on a scale not seen this side of the Tokyo parks. I don't have firsthand Tokyo experience on which to draw, but if it ends up looking like anything I've seen in numerous TRs of the Tokyo parks, then I'm all for it. We still probably won't have lots of hot Asian chick guests dressed up like Alice walking around the park, but hey... We gotta take what we can get! The new entrance theme looks to be very immersive in the concept art and should add a great deal of atmosphere to start your visit. As is no secret, a sense of "place" has been lacking from most of DCA since it opened. (The Grizzly peak and Pacific wharf areas being notable exceptions, imho.) Did anyone that didn't bother to look into it to some degree ever really "get" the whole Condor Flats area? I mean, I know what it's supposed to be, and it still doesn't work for me. Maybe the aviation buffs bust a load in their pants when they walk through there, but the average guest? I'm thinking probably not so much. Paradise Pier was simply too cheesy and cheap looking to capture the romance of the classic pier parks. Although they may have actually been cheesy and cheap in many cases, the spirit of carefree fun they seemed to be going for was never really realized by visitors. The improvements visible behind the construction walls are a very welcome addition. As for the re-theming of the Sun wheel to Mickey's fun wheel, it seems like a lateral move to me, but whatever... At least it's got fresh paint and that's a plus. The Silly symphony swings concept art looks ok I guess, and at least it's a change to a Disney theme instead of the rather generic orange, or tangerine, or peach, or whatever it is that it's supposed to be now. (Yeah, yeah... It's in "Orange" county, and the place used to be an "orange" grove and all that... Whatever... The theme didn't work, or they wouldn't be changing it, right?) The Mulholland Madness change to Goofy's flight school seems like it has limited potential. Then again, exactly how much potential exists with a wild mouse, the likes of which you could ride at your county fair? Unless they put it inside a box and add some really cool effects then I don't see this change really being much of a change. Again, it's another tie-in to a Disney theme, so if we have to give them points for trying, then I'll give them a zero, because that's better than a negative 1. You'd certainly think that Disney would have known better to begin with and saved a great deal of this expense by doing it right the first time. Making it right after the fact, even with the pains associated with the construction, is far better than simply leaving the park in its current state and just milking a cash cow that's going dry. By the time this current renovation is completed I think DCA will be transformed from the "overflow" park that it's been into its own must-see park.

^ What are you talking about?

Well, good luck to Buffalo on their most recent acquisition. He'll sell tickets. Beyond that, we'll just have to wait and see. Given that Buffalo isn't at the top of too many lists to even make the playoffs, let alone a deep run into said playoffs, we may be able to expect the T.O. meltdown even sooner with the Bills.

^ Thank you for checking on the pics. I'm somehwat surprised at your impression of a ride with wheel suspension, but I guess that it could simply be the execution of the idea was less than ideal. Or, it's just a bad idea and that's why there aren't more examples. It just seems to me that in this day and age of such advanced suspension technologies in things like automobiles and motorcycles that at least some of that technology would find its way to making coasters smoother.

Thank you for the information on the Mack e-motion coaster. This is something along the lines of what I was thinking of, but it seems they utilized the suspension feature to provide noticeable rocking and swaying of the cars as something of a novelty. I was actually thinking more about a suspension system to simply make a ride smoother. I wonder why the idea hasn't been pursued to any greater degree. As for any effect on rolling friction, I believe that would depend on the type of suspension involved. More than rolling friction, I think the inertial force of the train would be the more pressing concern. Springs store energy, and then release it, but you never get as much energy back as you put in, so there is some loss there. Any normal friction in the moving parts of the suspension would use up some energy. Damping uses up a considerable amount of energy, so shock absorbers, or any other method used to dampen spring oscillation, would result in losses as well. However, as long as the energy losses associated with a suspension system on a train were accounted for in the design of a coaster, then I don't see any reason it couldn't be done.

^^ That post made my brain hurt. I put a band-aid on my forehead and it feels better now.

The first lesson taught in man school is that the answer to that question is always, NO. Seriously though, no, you don't look fat.

Ah! The number 23. Clearly you must be in Chicago for a press event unveiling plans for a new Michael Jordan themed coaster.

Has there been any attempt at providing suspension on roller coaster trains? I realize there are various ways that wheel assemblies and axles are hinged to the chassis of a train to accommodate the necessary articulation and "steering" a track may require, but have there been any trains that incorporate a method of insulating the chassis from the shock experienced by the wheels running on the track?

Do I have to keep the angry Jew, or can I just take the million dollars?

I don't know if this has been posted before, or not, but it seems a good fit for this site.

So much for T.O. in Big D. I found the news of his release surprising, but it's probably the right thing to do. The Cowboys are out of excuses now. With Pacman, Tank Johnson, the safety Roy Williams, and now T.O., all off the roster, they've pretty much cleaned house of all the players that were said to have been divisive or detrimental to the team. Hopefully this will be the start of something good.

^ Don't tell that to Big Mike.

That's some very interesting graffiti on the Bowling game at Fantazy Land.

I'm not entirely convinced that intelligent life exists on this planet, let alone any others.

I could totally tell it was OLD because it was spelled OLDE. That's a sure sign of OLDENESS authenticity. This TR has me cracking up for more different reasons than I can even count at the moment. I would ask you to please keep posting more photos and captions, but I've got to catch my breath from laughing so hard. ... ... Ok, I'm breathing normally again. Please post more photos and captions.

Perhaps some of the revenues generated by selling a highly profitable "line cutting" system can be used to hire personnel to ensure that the old-school line cutting system (which is people simply cutting in line without the aid of any fancy pager type device) is sufficiently discouraged, so as to not further effect those guests properly waiting in the standby lines. On an unrelated note, that may be the longest sentence I've ever written. Probably not, though.

* Tries to resist an overwhelming urge to poke the blob with a stick... *

You make being homeless sound surprisingly appealing. And since I didn't mention it in my first post, thanks for the pictures. I'd like to visit that part of the country someday, even if it does look kinda spooky in a Blair Witch Project sort of way.

It's good to hear that SFDK's Roar got some work. You don't really hear this coaster mentioned too often, but I really enjoy it. CGA's Grizzly could be fixed very easily. All it would take is some gasoline and a match.

You've got to be careful with those "Deer in the headlights" looking chicks.