pianojohn

Thanks Robb for all the updates! Still on the ship off the coast of Belize today, so it's great to get all this news on my laptop when I get back to my cabin!!

Great pictures! I live in Orlando, and this will be the one year I won't make it to Food and Wine. Oh well, Mickey's Very Merry is right around the corner!

I was able to go today (Saturday) and pretty much see everything including the Be Our Guest restaurant. The entire area is beautiful, and I thoroughly enjoyed my 2 rides on The Little Mermaid. (Wait...that didn't sound right!) My only gripe (if you wanna call it that) is with LeFou's brew. Yes, I know it is served in Carsland. And I know it is Disney's attempt at Butterbeer. I just didn't care for the taste of it. Basically frozen apple juice. And the "foam" topping I had on mine had no flavor at all. I saw them serve the topping from a canister ie. whipped cream, but it didn't even taste like that. Probably too late to tweak the recipe, and people will buy it regardless. Cannot wait to see this place at night!

Cheetah Hunt! (Mainly because there was NO ONE in the park on Wed and Thurs, and I got to ride it 4X with about a 5 minute wait!!)

Millenium Force at CP for three reasons: It was a Friday during Halloweekends and NO lines! Rode it twice without even leaving the station Cedar Point is the park I grew up with and worked at for 5 years! Awesome day at the park

Awesome view!!

Thanks for the post! I was going to post the link to Kickstarter, but you beat me to it. Already Robb has donated to fund my recording. And with as little as $20, you can get a digital copy of the cast recording. Thanks for your support!!

I'd have to say Balder and T-Express.

Just got back from USF/IOA. Early fall is the BEST time to go! Light crowds and cooler weather! On to the pics! The wait times at IOA New HUGE crane on site at Harry Potter Part 2 The Gringots Bank building (I think!) Across the lagoon you can see the crane and building on site. And vertical construction has begun at Transformers

"...reached speeds of over 60 kilometers per hour." 60km = 37mi

I've been on 13 including the one at Wonderland in Sydney. Can't say one was better than the others. They all sort of blur together. The Demon from Wonderland Sydney in 2000 The Demon from Wonderland Sydney in 2000

Ugh. I don't know what's worse: the asinine comments or the horrible grammar and spelling? Can you just ban this newbie for fun? Thanks!

Had a great time at ECB! Getting an upper respiratory infection? Not much fun (and so I bailed on the late night ERT's) Thanks Robb and Elissa for all the hard work! I had a blast!

Carowinds on Thursday August 2nd, then BGW and KD for East Coast Bash on the weekend! So psyched!!

I rode this in 2000, its opening year, and the same year Millenium Force debuted. At the time, KI was still owned by Paramount, and they were trying to say that their SOB was much better than MF. I waited an hour in line since the reality of running more than one train on a brand new coaster was a new concept to them. After surviving it, I thought..."meh." Nothing great, way too much shuffling during the helixes, and the loop was a one-trick pony without the trick! I rode it again on July 3, 2006, just 6 days prior to the accident. It was even worse. Rough, bumpy, and basically a big waste of time and lumber. I, along with almost everyone else, will not miss this SOB one bit!

Awesome photos! Maybe we need a Retro Photo TR section for anything from 1980 or earlier! Thanks again for posting.

Enjoy the view!

One of my favorite views: The Beast!

Demon Drop at CP Jurassic Park at USF Ultra Twister at Ikoma Skyland, Japan Avalanche at Timber Falls Comet at Cascade Park

I just got back from almost the same trip! Here is my advice: Knoebels for sure. Great park with great rides and atmosphere. We got the after 5pm ticket for $23. I included the wooden coaster but not Haunted Mansion or Black Diamond. That will set you back an extra $4 for both rides. Hersheypark is about an hour from Knoebels. We bought discount tickets at Giant Food Store which are located all over the state. We got to the park right when it opened and headed to the left hitting Fahrenheit, Storm Runner, Wild Mouse, Wildcat, Lightning Racers (both sides) and Roller Soaker all in about one hour! We then headed to the other side to get Trail Blazer. Great Bear, SooperDooperLooper, Comet, and Sky Rush all are near each other. I would suggest watching the Sky Rush line since it fluctuates greatly. At one point it was 1 1/2 hours, and 20 minutes later it was down to 20 minutes. Best of luck!

Just got back from my day (4 + hours) at Hersheypark. Thanks to the great advice, I was able to hit all of the coasters I needed to and not spend too much time in line. We arrived at 9:30am to find a decent crowd waiting outside the gates. At about 9:55 we were let inside, and I made my way to the Farenheit area. Got on the 1st train right at 10am. OK coaster, nothing great in my book. Headed over to Storm Runner. Fun coaster with some nice surprises. Then got the Wildcat and Lightning Racer credits while squeezing in Wild Mouse and Roller Soaker. 7 coasters and it wasn't even 11am! Made our way to the other side of the park. Got the Trailblazer credit and then headed to tackle Great Bear, SooperDooperLooper, Comet, and SkyRush. Great Bear was about 45 minutes so we skipped it and headed to SDL. It was only running one train so we skipped that (for now). SkyRush had a 1hour15 minute wait, so we opted to do Comet. While in line for Comet, SkyRush broke down. We exited Comet just as SkyRush came back up, and the line was only 20 minutes! OK, here are my thoughts: The station: seriously?? Who designed a station where you exit and enter from the same side in the same place? I know Millenium Force does that, but they have an unloading and a loading area. It was a clusterf*ck everytime the train came back with people trying to get their items out of the bins and holding up the loading process. They could remedy this with two fixes: one costly and one practical. First, make the station flush loading. You enter from the left side and exit on the right. This would require a re-design of half of the building. Second, do not allow ANY loose articles on the ride. This takes up valuable loading time as well. Now the ride: it was fun, but after bottoming out on the first drop and having the lap bar stapled to my thighs, I just couldn't enjoy it anymore. I just kept thinking "When will this end so I can exit and get the feeling back in my legs?" Seriously! There has to be a way to have the bars lock in the station and not re-lock tighter during the ride. Fun day, hot weather, and a thrill packed 6 hour drive back to Cleveland!

Busch Gardens (FL) Sea World Aquatica Universal Studios FL Islands of Adventure Disney's Hollywood Studios Disney's Animal Kingdom Epcot Magic Kingdom Upcoming: Cedar Point Knoebels Grove Hersheypark Carowinds Busch Gardens VA King's Dominion

Off to Ohio tomorrow to see the family and ride some coasters! Wed June 20th Cedar Point Thurs June 21st Knoebels Friday June 22nd Hersheypark Monday June 25th Cedar Point (again!)

LOVED Rome when I was there last April! But I did the culture, and you guys are doing all the credits! Enjoy...and keep those pics coming! Love living vicariously through you!

Thanks for the great advice! The only new coasters for me are the three Intamins, Lightning Racer, and Roller Soaker (maybe the Wild Mouse too). Looking forward to it!