ParkTrips

You would think one would know how to spell their favorite designer's name!

Your Cedar Point bias is starting to come out. Maybe CF should consider this "Try something different!" stuff. You do realize that the brake don't really affect the train, correct? Hm, 128 in 3.5 versus 120 in 4. Nice try though! IMHO Great Adventure is better than Cedar Point. See, once again, spinning numbers and words. We can all do it so why use it as a basis for your position? A quick search of operating coasters on rcdb shows a mere 7% eclipse 137' I actually believe its a bit to early to judge, but over time I'd have to say that Dragster has had more problems. Kingda Ka really only had one major problem, whereas Dragster has at least 2 or 3 this year alone. - Joe, who's not trying to be mean but feels some things need to be responded to

Alright here's the deal.. I'm headed to Texas next May with my mom and most likely my girlfriend (or some other friend who wants to mooch another trip off of me yet again) for about 2 weeks in the middle of the month. We were thinking about visiting the Schlitterbahns in Galveston and New Braunfels. I know I can't ask about the one in Galveston, but will the one in New Braunfels be open daily at that point? Also, they are pretty good moving crowds and such, correct? We were also looking at doing the parks in San Antonio as well, and though the schedule isn't up last year Fiesta was opened Friday through Sunday at that point. I would assume Friday or Sunday would be the best options... is either typically lighter than the other? How are crowds around that time of year? Same with Sea World, we would probably be stuck going on a Saturday regarless of what day we hit Fiesta, I just want to know if it's anything unbearable (juding by the time of year and the nature of the park, I would gues not but I just want to hear from someone else) Heading up to Arlington is a thought too, and since they are in their daily operations at that point I'd imagine we'd do a weekday trip. Again, crowds shouldn't be a factor, correct? Also, are there any little parks in the Dallas, San Antonio, Austin or even Houston areas that might be of interest? I'm already planning on going back to Kemah for an afternoon and then Astrowo.. oh wait, sorry. Anyhow thanks in advance for any tips and the like.

It's season two.

And is that really a big deal? Then you could easily say "Kingda Ka was the first continuous coaster to go over 450 ft". If anything, there's actually a larger gap between Kingda Ka and the coaster it topped (36 feet) than what Dragster overcame (20 feet taller than Superman and Tower of Terror), so it could be considered even more of an accomplishment if you want to spin the numbers. I agree, its actually one hell of a thrill. It's just not God's gift to man IMHO, and not a very strong roller coaster, which it is portrayed to be. I think that Ka gets kind of a bum rap, especially compared to Dragster. - Joe, who doesn't really think either are fantastic coasters, but would probably choose Kingda Ka because of the themeing and extra bump

Then why did attendance still fall for the chain in 2004? Interesting take on Mr Six I'm mixed on this. I think Mr Six and the Venga Boys provided a catchy ad, something to be remembered, but not the best of ads in the end. All good campaigns come to an end, and Mr. Six will just join the likes of Mikey and the Taco Bell chihuahua. Attendance has increased this year, but I don't think its due to Mr. Six, rather, improvements in the park experience (and of course GOOD weather ) - Joe, still a Snyder supporter

Do you really want a POV of it though? I mean there is so much jarring on that ride that you wouldn't be able to tell if it was the POV of Hurricane or the POV of a strawbery being placed in a blender for a daiquiri

Aqtau Park, Kazakhstan. Yay for Borat!

LMAO that tree house joke was awesome! a video of a funny joke

How can looking to drop a "mediocre performer" hurt the chain? I always wondered how a city like San Antonio supported two parks, but Fiesta seemed to be fairly consistent in performance to me. I mean, you can't expect groth to apear out of nowhere, there has to be some spark. If Snyder returns Six Flags to what it used to be - a group of large, well-off parks that is, as a whole, much more profitable than they SF of the past few years, then I'm all for it. Hell, maybe parks like Darien Lake and NewEngland could head back to those original operators edit: I'm pretty sure 'Clean, Safe, Fun' was already within the company

oh yea, LOL. Maybe I'll just turn around and sell it without playing, and wait for PS3

Horray!, I really do think this is for the better. LOL @ Robb having to be edited by Elissa. Do you still have to feed him and change his clothes? Interesting shiznit about Fiesta. Just as I was planning on driving over to the park when I visit my family in the Houston area...

My Xbox is supposed to come in this week. Since I'm not a huge gamer, I decided that I'll play it for a week or two and then sell it on eBay which will probably turn into a $200+ profit. Stupid Christmas shoppers

My knee got sliced open and it bleeded quite a bit while at Hoffman's, this after my girlfriend nailed me on the scooters. I loved it - it caused me pain for two days... What a ride!! - Joe, who really is quite demented about his Lusse's

Scwarzkopf portables are really good, Laser and Scorpion come to mind first. Deja Vus are also great rides in tight spaces, as are Schwarzkopf shuttle loops. Well, almost all Schwarzkopfs are great rides in small spaces. Damned Germans I like Gerstlauer spinning coaters too, and they don't take up much space.

Maybe it's just my imagination, but when I rode, while it looked like it barely made it halfway up the tower, from the ride, it seemed to go pretty far up the tower. Perhaps it was just an illusion, but that's what I got out of it. Still a boring ride that I didn't take a second ride on, even though it was a walk-on. - Joe, who was very disappointed by Superman. Stupid Travel Channel hype

Oh no that deer was shot for food. Yes, it's fun and all, but that particular deer yielded 36 pounds of meat. I have a pic on my phone of another deer being gutted but I still don't know how to upload the pics :-/ While up there we ate all sorts of stuff, not just the deer. Elk and Moose to name a couple, mostly in sausage form (I guess they like smoked meats or something) I was shocked that the flash didn't wake up the ride op :shock: I've heard tons of stuff about the Mormon beliefs - definately weird stuff. No wonder they were presecuted in the 1830s and 40s. The Mall of america wasn't just 'decent' in my opinion, I was suprised and impressed with the place. A great little park, especially considering its indoors. LOL Scott! I put the pic of the deer head after the pic of me so you would forget about me... didn't work

Yup it was in the Mariott Family (Residence Inn). I didn't even know that, nor did I notice one in the Fairfield we stayed at in Bismark. I didn't see the Bible though... but I guess you really do learn something every day! Sleeping Ride Op - worth tons of laughs, she loved her job.

I appologize: these photos are smaller than the ones I normally display because of how my image host resizes things. Since I left my memory card at home, I had to buy a new one and only bought a 256 meg card at the airport. With half the space of my normal card, I was forced to use a smaller image size which is why these ones are coming up smaller. My uncle lives in Bismark North Dakota, and since it's been 12 years since we went up to visit him (we usually make him come see us ) so my mom decided it was time to go visit for Thanksgiving. We left last Monday and flew to the Twin Cities, as the connecting flight from MSP to Bismark tacked on 400 extra dollars per person. On Tuesday, we woke up ready to go to Mall of America, home to Camp Snoopy. first I noticed this... Sweet, I've ran across dozens of Gideons Bibles but never a Book of Mormon. Yay Joe Smith, yay polygamy!! Anyways, we were ready for the mall. My mom loves to shop, I love to ride and my stepfather will do both... so off for a fun day. It was totally a coincidence but her'es where we parked: The mall was already preparing for the holiday season: First thing I rode was Timberland Twister. Solid ride, I sure to enjoy spinning coasters. After that warm up, I looked at the Treetop Tumber ride, a rare Zierer Hexentranz. I had never been on one, and it didn't look too fun - boy was I pleasantly suprised! The change of forces from lifting you out of your seat to pinning you to the seat was great, and the multi-directional spinning made it a fantastic flat ride, the suprise of my trip. After that I walked over and rode the shooter dark ride. Just a typical Sally shooting game, nothing too special but still kinda fun. From there I checked out the Sponge Bob interactive movie, which was placed within a building that used to house a western themed movie, so Sponge Bob didn't fit in too well. Lame movie to boot, so this was a let down. From there I hit the Ripsaw coaster, a Tivoli which meanders through the entire park. A pretty good ride though not too thrilling is offered a neat experience. I ended up with two rides. After that I decided to ride the L'il Shaver, which is undoubtedly the lamest coaster I've ever been on. Good thing I won't count it, or else I would feel dirty as Rich says. I strolled over and took a ride on the Treetop Swings, a fun swings ride that even had the backwards-facing seats for some really unique rides! Pretty fun and to me, it, along with the blow-up Snoopy, are the icons of the park. I kept walking and took a look at the Lego area, which I remembered from my first trip to the mall 12 years ago. Very cool to this day, though being a former Lego fanatic (65 lbs of Legos -- sold for $400 a few years ago) doesn't hurt From there I headed over and rode the log flume, which I boarded thinking "do I really want to get wet when its 25 degrees outside?". Well, I didn't get TOO wet, but I was blown away. The ride was awesome, with great effects, a super long ride (especially considering how cramped it is, it was impressive) and the perfect splash as far as I was concerned (you got wet, but not enough to make you miserable walking around inside the mall), it was another suprisingly good ride I took another ride on Timberland Twister... I went from there and rode the Falling star, which was a very good installation. I kept walking around at this point, and got hungry so we ate at Famous Dave's BBQ. I had heard some good stuff about that place, so I was kinda excited. I tried out the "Texas Beef Brisket" which was an embarrasment to the Great State of Texas. It wasn't good enough to carry the name Texas, which was a shame. For desert I picked up some fried Oreos at Camp Snoopy, which were fairly good. I went back and rode the Mighty Axe, another fairly rare flat. It could have been awesome if not for the slow portions which killed my neck, so overall, it was a let down. I ended up on the bumper cars next, which were decent in every aspect (hitting power, arena, duration etc) Kinda dated a bit still... Having ridden almost everything, I decided to check out the ferris wheel for some photos and great views. Here's my Employee of the Weak: I went back and rode Timberland a couple more times... And that was about it. I had a lot of fun at Camp Snoopy, which was better than I had remembered. Certainly not the kiddie park that I remembered it as, though it is still a great family park. Goodbye, MOA. On Wednesday we drove west to Bismark, which was only about 5 hours away but the longest, most boring 5 hours ever, especially the Dakota part. 200 miles between Bismark and Fargo and maybe 4 towns (oh, and 3 speed traps set up with the bridges). Mile after mile of field and small hills... very boring. But anyways, we made it to the state that doesn't believe in political correctnes (fine by me) and the state who's only claim to fame is two men and an injun who passed through 200 years ago. Thanksgiving was fun, here's me and momma in my uncle's basement: My step father went up a few days early to go hunting with my uncle, and he got a nice buck, seen here: Check out that tounge, how delightfully gross! On Friday we went up to my uncle's former wife's father's homestead, which is where they hunt. Here's a shot of his land, 800 acres along the Missouri river an hour north of Bismark. ... and that's what 99.5% of North Dakota looks like Anyways they let me shoot some clay pigeons, and I had never operated a shot gun. Well, it was fun. I even nailed my first target, and ended up shooting a rate around 75%, which is decent, I guess. Well that was all, on Saturday we trekked back to Minneapolis, watched Tech lost to the College of Drinking at Athens, and flew back to Atlanta this morining. I enjoyed myself, ate big and sadly remembered how there are no hot chicks in North Dakota, and hardly any in Minnesotta. Oh well, Happy Thanksgiving y'all

The exact opposite -->> Me I've been through the cycle... started out with a small local mobile company years ago (I can't remember the name) and since then have tried AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, Cingular and then back to Verizon because it has worked best for me BTW where is a link to the 'worst job ever' video, I want to see it again!

Well like it or not Dragon Kahn shared his opinion, and I have heard that Blue Flash is a scary and intense little sob. Kind of an interesting little booger. Thanks for the notification Robb, now I gotta get going on this. The wood one doesn't take long at all but with 3 x as many steel credits (and not too many clones) this one can get tiring.

Yay! Yay! Yay! Great news IMHO! Shut up Jay - Joe, who is more excited about this than to realize you don't have to steal a kid to ride L'il Shaver. too bad it doesn't count

Patch Jackets! Nope no TRP romance here, still runnin' with the same girl 2 years later. Robb's wet ass in Florida turned me on though! :shock: Kinda in the Herbert sort of way. Besides, I'm an ugly bum... and I love it! 8)

Ruptured appendix, major abscess action. Six nights.

I went to Dollywood this weekend with my mommy. Yep so here are the pics. Christmas decorations galore Best train ride around in my opinion. Now only if they could put Der Hochbeinige on Dollywood's tracks it would be perfect. Country Fair expansion sweetness! "Here's where we let apes draw out the path to Thunderhead..." "Let the Thundeeeerrrr Rolllll!!! Holla if you like piles of dirt ... or awesome GCIIs! "Screw you Julie." And I thought ACErs held events here because of Thunderhead Still too short... still too mediocre. Fiyre in the whole! "Yea, that stuff is nice, but can you tap a keg?" I'm such a credit whore that I... .. didn't ride Christian kids ride. Besides, I hear Catholic Priests - The Ride is much better I'm not sure if he was Oriental or Hispanic, but really, do either fit in at Dollywood? Yea, they can sing, too bad they're all ugly! The lights came on.. More lights... Are you tired of lights yet? I guess some ACErs were too lazy to walk to ERT (BTW Dollywood == the motorized scooter capital of the world!) Hey papi! Anyone see something that sticks out a bit? OK so there are the pics, here is the details, the Cliff's Notes version. 14 rides on Thunderhead, 2 on Tornado. Thunderhead still kicks, Tornado still gets a "meh". The Country Fair is excatly what I expected it to be: a lot of fairly tame rides that fit the Dollywood crowd well, and boosted the park's apeal and capacity a lot. I can't wait for Timber Tower. I didn't get a chance to ride the train or eat some sausages (two awesome parts of Dollywood) The "Thanksgiving Feast" was a bit of a letdown. The event was very successful, and we were lucky that the weater held out. Awesome day, awesome park, I'll be back up there in no time. Next Stop: Mall of America/Camp Snoopy on Tuesday. Peace.