Mechanic

^ Booting those that don't have the return pass issued by security would certainly discourage it.

That is a great policy. Those that actually need to use the restroom can, while we won't have to deal with line-cutters claiming they're rejoining their imaginary group. My wife and daughter are both diabetic and often need to use a restroom more frequently than the average person. No matter if they use the restroom before they get in a long line, they sometimes need to go again before the queue wait is over. Policies like this are what parks need to keep the atmosphere family friendly and I'm glad to hear they've implemented it. SFMM continues to impress me with what they're doing all over the park to improve the guest experience. Keep up the great work!

'Ya think? Good to hear the kid is ok though. I checked out some pictures of the ride on rcdb and that thing looks a little spindly to begin with.

I'm looking forward to riding X2 more than ever. I had never ridden old X because it was either down, or had a 3 hour line during any of my previous visits to SFMM. I really hope the FlashPass option is made available. Is there any sort of time frame in place for when they'll decide if they'll be offering FlashPass access to X2? I'll wait out the line if I have to, but FlashPass would be awesome.

We just got back from the night time ERT for SF season pass holders. We finished off the night with 6 rides on THBS, with the last 3 being consecutive. The ride experience that you get can vary quite a bit from one ride to next if you switch the positions that riders of varying weight sit in on different rides. We got much better spinning action when we had 2 light riders on one side and 2 heavier riders sitting across from them. The line in the queue dwindled to nada for our last 3 rides. The 4 in our group split up into 2 groups of 2, with my oldest son and myself (combined weight of a little over 400 lbs) riding on the opposite side of a kid that looked to me like he didn't weigh much more than about 80-90 lbs at the most. We employed Newton's 3rd law (for every action there's and equal and opposite reaction) to get some awesome spinning action going on those particular rides. It's more difficult to explain it than to do it, but you basically just get a feel for which way the spin is naturally being initiated, then slowly lean to the side against the spin, then quickly yank sideways on the restraint bar in the direction of the spin. When we happened to hit it just right, we got some major spinning going on. Even if you don't get the super spin action it's still fun. When you do get the spinning going, it really adds a lot to the ride. I'm not nearly as well traveled coaster-wise as many on this site and with that being the case, the only other spinning coaster to which I can compare THBS is Sierra Sidewinder at KBF. Personally, I prefer at least this particular version of THBS. About the only part of SS that I liked better than THBS was the near vertical horseshoe turn that's over the queue. I really liked how on THBS you get a nice little burst of speed down the first drop, then you seamlessly transition into the mouse section. The helices that follow are the highlight of the ride for me, and also where any added spinning inertia your car might be carrying could really be disorienting (which I consider to be fun) . The last section with a few little bunny hills, and a banked curve in between, kept the fun going all the way to the brake run. All in all, I think this coaster was a good addition for the park. It's reasonably well themed, family friendly, and a lot of fun.

Space Mountain at Disneyland gets my vote. Every time I've ridden it, the crew has always been hustling. Not once have I noticed a cast member that wasn't doing their best to keep things moving, and moving fast. That same thing can be said about pretty much any ride at Disneyland, but on Space Mountain it's just more noticeable. At least to me.

I welcome the majority of these changes, but I can't help wondering if there's anything at all coming to the Monterey bay section. The buildings there are very well themed to represent cannery row, but the tortilla and bread factories just don't exactly cut it as the only attractions for that area. What I would like to see added there would be a boat ride around the bay. It could be presented as a whale watching tour, complete with animatronic whales in the bay that swim alongside the tour boats. That, and/or the surf board themed flume ride that I've seen in some early DCA concept art, would at least add some reason to actually spend some time in the Monterey section. As it is now, I look at that area and say to myself, "Wow, great theming. Too bad there's not much to do here."

Props for managing to get a bikini shot despite those incredible odds. You 'da man Big Mike. Thanks for all the pictures. I really do enjoy them.

Thank you for the confirmation. I just didn't want anyone to get hosed after making a long trip. See you there.

Are we 100% sure that passes from other Six Flags parks will be accepted? This is straight from the six flags website: Coasters After Dark! EXCLUSIVE FOR SEASON PASS HOLDERS 7 to 10 p.m. - Six Flags Discovery Kingdom Season Pass Holders can ride roller coasters all night long during this exclusive event. It's a great way to get your roller coaster fix and be among your fellow enthusiasts! You can purchase your own Season Pass online! Link: www.sixflags.com/discoveryKingdom/events/TONYHAWKWEEKEND.aspx It doesn't affect me because I do have a SFDK pass, but I'd hate for anyone to travel any great distance and not be able to attend the ERT if they are only accepting SFDK passes.

By the way, I just realized that I referred to both Montezooma's revenge and Revolution as "inverted" coasters, whereas I meant to say, "coasters that have an inversion." Please don't send the coaster cops after me. I must have missed the question being asked at WCB. I imagine the grandfathered thing makes as much sense as we can hope for. Besides, Revolution is the way it is and I guess that's not going to change so there's no sense in worrying about it. I actually don't get beat up all that bad on it, but it does box me around a bit about the ears.

At the risk of straying further off topic, how does Montezooma's revenge get away with no OTSRs on an inverted coaster, yet Revolution can't? Back on topic, I'd like to see a custom Crazy Canoe type coaster at SFMM. If done as a terrain coaster, I think it could be great. It looks like it would be a pretty unique ride experience. Capacity would definitely be an issue with the one we've probably all seen in the S&S promo video, but that doesn't mean they couldn't build something a little bigger with more block sections and/or trains that can accomodate more riders. And on the subject of S:TE, while it may not be very intense, it does "look" intimidating. Although in reality it is family friendly from a height requirement and ride intensity standpoint, I'd be willing to bet that quite a few people avoid it just because of how it looks and sounds. Well.. That, and the line.

I've been enjoying the thread Big Mike. Keep up the good work! I'm also originally from Roseville. I still work there and I live fairly close. Sorry to say it, but neither the pizza, nor the coaster at John's Incredible are anything to write home about. The place is sort of like a Chuck E. Cheese, but without any animatronics. The kids have fun when we take them, but once in a while is plenty. I'm not really into the coaster count thing, so I've never even bothered to ride the coaster. It's VERY small and does about 5 or 6 circuits each time it runs. Nothing against those that are into upping their coaster count, but going out of your way to ride this particular coaster is whoring to the extreme. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.) I'm not trying to talk you out of riding it, but don't come expecting much of the ride or you'll be disappointed. On the up side, there is a fairly decent small water park less than a mile from John's Incredible Pizza. It's called Golfland Sunsplash. They actually have a pretty nice selection of slides for the size of the park. I don't know if you'd planned on checking it out anyway, but it would make going out of your way to stop in Roseville a little more worth it. (Bikini pictures and all that fun stuff) Oh yeah, one more thing... DON'T try the peanut butter pizza. I actually bit into a piece of it by accident. The pizza looks like a regular pepperoni pizza on the outside, but there's peanut butter under the cheese and toppings. They clearly identify the peanut butter pizza by putting peanuts in the shell on top of it, but my kids apparantly thought it would be funny to remove the peanuts and represent the peanut butter pizza as a slice of regular pepperoni pizza. I can appreciate the humor of a good practical joke as well as anyone, but I honestly almost hurled when I bit into that little gag-fest. I laughed it off, but it honestly wasn't all that funny to me at the time. Have fun and watch out for the peanut butter pizza.

Thanks for the link to the better quality video.

This link, to a story about the same incident, says it was a BABY camel. What a punk! It would have served him right if the camel had kicked the living crap out of him.

I have to wonder if that was the intention, but that's a fair assessment and one that I must admit I hadn't considered. That made perfect sense to me and I agree 100%. Valid point, but couldn't the same be said of Star Tours? Yet here it is, I don't even know how many years later (I rode Star Tours the season it opened, whenever that was), and it's still the same exact show, so I've got to wonder.. All in all, you make some good points though. I really want to like this attraction, and I'm excited that Disney is trying to fix up DCA. The video was just kind of a let down is all.

Número dos mi amigo.

Wow, that park looks to be incredibly well themed. I'd seen a thread or 2 before that had some pictures and information on the water coaster, but I hadn't really noticed how nice so much of the rest of the park looks. Thank you for the pictures. I look forward to the time that I can make some international park visits.

^ Perfect illustration! LMAO

Whoever shot the video apparently doesn't understand how 3D glasses work, because holding the glasses in front of the camera lense is not going to reproduce the effect they will have on your eyes. That is about all that's giving me hope that this attraction will be MUCH better in person than what's conveyed in the video. I had much higher expectations for it than what comes across in the video, but I'll reserve judgement until I've actually tried it in person. I am also lowering my expectations though, so as not to be disappointed. Time will tell.

Switchfoot video:

That's sad news. My condolences to friends and family. Relating to the balconies at the DL hotel: We had a room in the Bonita tower in 03' or 04'. It was at the very end of the hall on the end of the building nearest the dancing water fountain. Those end rooms actually had a reasonable size balcony that you could step out on. It had a small table and 2 chairs. It was actually pretty nice.

Thanks for the update.

Here's the link to the event information page: www.pgathrills.com/events/event_detail.cfm?event_id=36&ec_id=13

Is anyone planning on attending? I really like Switchfoot.