Mechanic

B&M, thank you for being open minded enough to appreciate that someone else may have a different take on the situation you described. Many things come down to the issue of one's perspective.

I'll second the SCBB Giant Dipper pre-lift tunnel. It has a somewhat surprising little drop into pure black darkness followed by some nice little curves that lead you to the light at the end of the tunnel, which is the lift hill. There's also the smell of grease on the tracks that, to me at least, adds to the nostalgic feel of the ride. I also like the pre-lift on Disneyland's Big Thunder. It's like a mini version of Knott's Calico Mine ride. (Or a rip-off of it.)

You stated: "someone asked me how to get to Goliath. I turned around, then turned back to look at the woman, she still was puzzled. I turned back around and then gave her the same look." Now, given the fact that you knew were right in front of the Goliath entrance, I can see how you could find the question odd. However, I think a better way to handle the situation would have been to simply answer the question politely, rather than returning a puzzled look. The fact that woman gave you a puzzled look after you turned to look at the wall as your response to her query tells me that she still didn't realize the entrance was through the stone wall. I can imagine that once she did enter the queue she likely thought, "He could have have just told me it's right here instead of making me feel like an idiot." As someone who also walked right past the wall the first time I was looking for Goliath, I can tell you that it's not as obvious as you may think that the wall is actually the ride entrance. Do most people realize it right away? Probably, but that doesn't mean that everyone does. When they find an employee and ask a simple question, is a direct and polite response too much to ask?

^^ The huge stone "GOLIATH" wall is not easy to miss, I'll give you that. The fact that you walk - through - the center of the wall to enter the ride queue is perhaps not as evident as it may seem to someone entirely familiar with it. I'm guilty of having walked around the corner toward Colossus in search of the Goliath ride entrance. I then asked a park employee where the entrance was and they politely directed me to it. I don't consider myself to be particularly stupid and I can understand why someone may have asked you how to enter the queue despite the fact that they were very near it. Being completely familiar with the layout of a park, some of the questions that people ask may seem stupid when in fact they are perfectly reasonable if asked by someone that does not share your familiarity with the immediate surroundings. I would expect a park employee to offer the answer to the question that was asked, rather than make the paying customer feel awkward. If I had to guess, I'd imagine that your employer probably feels the same way.

I was a little shaky when I got off Xcelerator the first time. I got right back in line and rode it again though. And again, and again.

A few posts back you mentioned that the thread wasn't getting many comments. I'd just like to say that I've enjoyed your TRs here, and the more in-depth stories of your travels on your website. You're doing something that many of us will only dream of doing. I guess what I like most is that you're doing it in a very down-to-earth way and I appreciate that you're sharing it with all of us. The best of luck in all your travels. Stay safe and enjoy yourselves.

Absolutley fabulous.

It's kind of like the Holy Grail of Disneyland enthusiasts/geeks. Here's an unofficial website dedicated to to it: disneylandclub33.com

^ I laughed so hard I acidentally spit some soda on my monitor. Can you send over one of the workers to clean it up for me? Please?

Your dedication to the fans of the Big Mike road show is much appreciated. Keep the good times rolling. Oh yeah, I almost forgot... I'm insanely jealous of all of you that were on the Europe trip. A TPR trip looks like SO much fun. Someday I will make one a reality.

The description of some of the programs offered on the WISE website seem like nothing more than window dressing on a (near) slave labor operation. In particular, the farm and ranchstay program description sounds less than inviting: "Experience rural life in the wide open spaces of American Farms and Ranches. A perfect opportunity for the participant looking to broaden their perspective on the heritage of the US. From small hobby farms with a few horses and crops, organic farms and large ranches with hundreds or thousands of animals, the chance to participate in the daily activities of farm or ranch life will be a life long memory." That translates to me as: "Come shovel ranch animal crap all summer." I'm sure there are some well-intentioned hosts involved in programs like these, but the overall vibe I get from this WISE outfit isn't a good one.

That's difficult to believe when the age under your avatar is listed as 16. So you were 5 years old when you started going to Vegas? From Idaho? Something seems amiss.

This situation is well beyond unacceptable and possibly bordering on criminal. The idea that it's somehow reasonable for it to take 6 weeks for things to move through the proper channels is ludicrous. If it had a been a week, then I might buy it, but a month and a half? Give me a break! I'd be willing to bet that if not for the negative media attention, nothing would have changed for the duration of the workers' stay here. Trying to put a shiny face on it now by saying they're working to correct the situation is nothing but PR spin. The thing is though, you can't polish a turd.

I'd kind of like to know how a piece of debris the size of a grain of sand can stop the ride.

Is the noise due to a lack of lubrication? It sure sounds like it. I noticed Ghostrider making some pretty shrill squeaking through the turnaround near the station this past week. I've noticed it on previous trips as well, but not to the same degree. On the flip side, I had one of the better rides that I've ever had on it (right front seat, 2nd car on the silver train). So if the squeaking has anything to do with the ride quality, I'll gladly put up with the noise.

This ride just didn't do much for me at all. The trains look nice and the theming is "ok", but beyond that the ride itself is simply boring.

After having experienced the ride firsthand this past week I must say that it was a pleasant surprise. I don't think it's possible for on-ride videos or descriptions to do justice to the ride experience. It's just plain "fun". Had the line not been pushing upwards of 40 minutes, I'd have likely re-ridden multiple times.

Space Mountain at Disneyland.

What I find most amazing is that no one suffered life threatening injuries. That seems like a miracle given the description of the crash.

We left the movie theatre in DTD at about 6 PM Thursday evening after watching Wall E. I noticed monorail red carrying passengers so we headed on up to the monorail station. In between initially seeing monorail red and getting up to the platform, the old monorail wrapped in the YOAMD ads had arrived and loaded. We let it go ahead and leave, purposely waiting for monorail red to return. Since we were the second group in line, I asked the CM at the far end of the platform if it was possible to ride in the nose or tail sections. He informed me that the AC wasn't working in the nose section so no guests were being allowed in there. Whether that was true or not was a little suspect since the CM that exited the nose section when the train stopped didn't look particularly over-heated. (and it was a pretty warm and sunny afternoon/early evening) After the gates opened, we hopped into the front car and grabbed the rearward facing seats on the wall directly behind the driver. There was AC in at least that portion of the train, so the idea that was AC wasn't working in the nose section seemed even more like it was a contrived story. (I'm sure they had their reasons why they didn't want anyone in the nose, so I didn't question it any further) Despite the fact that the front car had AC, the windows were still open. The windows hinge at the top and open a few inches outward at the bottom. If there is any mechanism to open and close the windows, it's not accessible to the passengers. It actually looked to me like they're just locked in that "cracked open" position. In addition to the windows, there were roof vents that had the shape of small air scoops. The temperature inside was slightly below ambient, and reasonably comfortable, but nowhere near the kind of cooling effect that you get when, for example, you walk into the shops after have been outside in the heat. We only took the one ride from DTD to Tomorrowland, so I have no idea what the temperature was like in the middle of the train. As for the ride itself, it was smoother than my last monorail ride, but there's still a bit of bumpiness that's just the result of the condition of the beam itself. Other than being in a shiny new train that's a little smoother and has some cool interior lighting features, it wasn't much different than any other ride I've had on a monorail. Upon arriving at the Tomorrowland station we overshot by a few feet and had to back up. Other than that, the ride was uneventful. I'm sorry that I don't have pictures, but I wasn't carrying my camera at that time. Besides, the pictures in the link posted by Top Thrill Dragster are considerably better than what I'd have probably taken anyway.

Sorry for grave-digging an old post, but I usually try to make posts in already established threads, rather than start new ones. I have a question that's somewhat related to the discussion here, but first let me explain the purpose of the question: WCB '08 was the first coaster "event" that I'd ever attended. It required no coaster club membership, and that was at least part of the reason that I chose to attend. My family and I had a simply awesome time at the event and we can't thank the people of TPR, Rideworld, and SFMM enough for the great time we had. I've since considered attending more events like this in the future, but I've come to realize that some of these events will likely require membership in a coaster club. On the first page of this thread Robb provided a link to the ECC. I was curious as to why he would suggest a club located on another continent. It's not that I have anything against European coaster enthusiasts, but I just think I personally might rather join a club that's somewhat closer to my "base of operations". I'd like to join a club that has a family option available so that I can include the entire family, and possibly a few friends from time to time, in these coaster events. So, with that said, and considering that I'd not likely be a particularly active member of any club, what club would you suggest I join so that I might have access to "club only" events? Thanks for your time. P.S. I'm sure some that read this post will suggest, "Just take a TPR trip". That is something we will hopefully be able to work into future plans, but for now I wouldn't mind just attending a coaster event from time to time.

I looked up the word "annoying" in the dictionary. Her picture was there on the page.

I guess the only part I'm having trouble understanding is why you would ride it nine times if it sucks so much.

The new ads never struck me as racist at all. Stupid? Yes, but not racist.

This is a great improvement! A feature like this is basically what I was looking for when I first visited this site. I've found a wealth of information here by browsing the forums and searching for TRs on parks that interest me, but it did take a little more work than it seemed like it should have. Depsite my efforts, I'm still easily frustrated with the functionality (lack of) of the forum search feature. This makes it almost too easy now. Thank you very much!