Mechanic

^ Yeah.. That'd help..

That's pretty much the history of the world in a nutshell. I wouldn't count on it changing any time soon.

Enchanted Forest is a very unique park in a very nice setting. We visited the park once in the mid 90s. It was a fun time for us then and it looks like it's gotten even better since. Thanks for posting the TR.

I believe your grandmother's comment about how nice it is to just walk through the gardens at Gilroy Gardens is right on the mark. We've taken my mother, mother-in-law, and my uncle, all who are in or near their 70s, on different trips to the park with our family. Each of them have commented on how they could spend hours just leisurely enjoying the beautiful landscaping that surrounds you just about everywhere in the park. I would encourage anyone considering a visit to not let the lack of "major" rides influence your decision. And, for what it's worth, their swinging ship ride, "Banana Split", is in my opinion, better than the ones at the other nearby parks. (I hadn't noticed any mention of that ride in your TR, so I figured I'd just throw that in) As for you somehow coming to the conclusion that Grizzly is in any way superior to Giant Dipper... I'm sorry, but you're simply wrong. It's ok though. We all make mistakes. Accept it and move on. Flight Deck "probably one of the worst B&M inverts"? That's certainly a matter of opinion. Learn to listen to Grandpa. He has better opinions than you. (Please note that those remarks are being made tongue-in-cheek. Don't take it personally. I just couldn't resist.) All in all though, I give you props for taking the time to provide a well-detailed TR, even if we don't necessarily share the same opinion on a few of the rides.

Thank you for taking the time to share your expertise Norman. I'm curious as to how much aesthetics play in a roll in the design of coaster supports. Is it more of the traditional rule, "Form follows function", or are designs made to accomodate a certain "look" that a park may be going for? One coaster that comes to mind for me is Viper at SFMM. The supports on the turnaround after the vertical loop have always struck me as being designed to convey a sense of massive structure. Is that by chance, or is it a design consideration?

Nice photos and TR. There was some serious hardore XXX coaster porn in there!

Thank you for the quick response. That does clear things up for me. I bought my version 1.55 in March of 2005. According to the NEWS section of the no limits site, 1.6 was released in September of 2006, so it was well over 6 months after my initial purchase. I'll contact them directly and see if it's still possible to upgrade for a discount from the full price. Thanks again.

I'll preface this by telling you that I am by no means any great gaming enthusiast, so if my question seems dumb, please forgive me. Thanks in advance. On to the reason for my post.. I bought no limits when it was version 1.55. I recently (today) checked into updating it, and found there is a version 1.71, but it requires version 1.6 to be installed before it can be updated to 1.71. My question is: Was the upgrade from 1.55 to 1.6 free, or something you had to pay for? I never looked into updating it before and never received any news of the 1.6 version. I can't find the update to from 1.55 to 1.6 on the no limits site, so I'm left a bit confused about what to do. Any help would be appreciated. P.S. I did try searching first, but I didn't find the information I was looking for. Judging by my results, I'm not much of a search function enthusiast either, but it's not for lack of trying.

I agree that planning your day around the show schedule is the way to go, particularly since you're visiting as a family. One tip about seeing the shows is to arrive a little early to be sure that you can get a seat in the shade. Some of the show stadium seating areas have shade structures, or trees to provide shade, and some don't. The shady spots tend to fill up quickly on warm summer days. Some shows are better than others, but all are reasonably well done and entertaining. The elephant show is one of my favorites and provides some great opportunities for guests to interact with the animals. Have a great time!

Thank you KrautWithAltitude for the answer several pages back to the question I had about the helmet wearing rider. Taking on-ride video with a helmet cam makes more sense than what I was coming up with for an excuse as to why he was wearing a helmet.

I've enjoyed all the updates immensely and I've got to say that I'm almost insanely jealous of how much fun it looks like you all had. Also.. Just wondering, but what's the deal with the helmet in this picture? It just struck me as odd to see someone riding a coaster with a helmet on. I've got to admit that I haven't read every TR of the European trip, (although I've looked at a lot of the pictures) so if it was addressed somewhere else, please excuse the question.

Believe it or not, the lighting effects are a little more subdued in person than they come across in the pictures. It's more Space Mountain-ish than cheesy limo-ish. (If that makes sense)

^ Ask and ye shall receive: Click here to contact Disneyland via email

The Great Race. Ahh.. The poor Eiffel Tower! C'est la vie.

It's very refreshing to see scantily clad hot babes back in the Big Mike Road show. The fans (at least this one) are pleased! Oh yeah.. The rest of the photos and TR were great too. It really looked like you were all having a great time.

Call Disney Dining at (714) 781-DINE, or (714) 781-3463. They should have schedule information and can let you know about special seating for Fantasmic. My wife and I had the reserved seating for Fantasmic last holiday season. It's not really a "dining" experience so much as it is just great seats to see the show above the crowd at the riverfront. You do get coffee and/or soda and a box of very nice cookies however. Unfortunately, our Fantasmic showing was rained out. We did get to keep the box of cookies (1 box for each of us) and we were given a full refund at City Hall. I don't know if it's actually "worth" what they charge (I believe it was $55 per person if I remember correctly) but if you want to see Fantasmic without dealing with the crushing crowds, it's an option that's available to you.

"Definitely" is defiantly, definately, definantly, or however else anyone chooses to screw it up, the most often misspelled word I see on these forums.

I'd count it, but what do I know?

I'm sorry, but I don't. Whatever they did, it is working though.

I guess my main point was that I've noticed marked improvement in employee morale and performance at another SF park (SFDK) that, at least in my eyes, had suffered in those areas in the past. I was simply suggesting that some communication between the HR and management staffs of the 2 parks may result in some ideas that could help SFMM as well. By whatever means they can achieve it, I hope that SFMM can continue to improve all aspects of the park. There are many positive changes going on and they're not lost on me by any means. It would just be nice to see employee performance in general keep up with the rest of the improvements.

I hope all the injured parties make a speedy recovery. That ride looks similar to a ride that was fairly recently (a season or 2 ago) removed from SFDK. The ride was called "Jambo". I was sad to see it go because I really enjoyed the ride, but maybe it was for the best.

Is the available labor pool so shallow that the - bottom of the barrel - workers can't be replaced? For what it's worth, employee morale and performance have, in my experience, improved considerably over the past couple years at SFDK. (And I have written the park to express that I have definitely noticed the strides they've made) Is there something being done differently at SFDK? I believe there has to be a solution to the employee morale situation at SFMM. Maybe they can find it by looking to other parks in the chain that have made progress in that area.

Not only is the grammar AFU, they also don't know how to spell "Aladdin". I hadn't caught that in Chuck's previous TR.

Thanks for posting. While people naturally won't agree with the order of the rankings, most of the comments were on target. I enjoyed the read. Robb's quote was pretty insightful too. Grizzly is indeed so bad that you just have to ride it to be able to say that you have experienced the ultimate in suck. Although it's certainly deserving, I actually had no idea that it was rated the worst wooden coaster.

I always enjoy the varying degrees of subtlety and innuendo in your captions. The pictures are, as usual, very nice and convey a sense of the experience.