DerekRx

Great recap Carlos. It was great to finally meet you and have you sleep on our hotel floor. Hope everything back at college was unharmed by Wilma and that you aren't forced to sleep in other scary TPR members rooms. Next time I come down, I expect you to hook me up with some Epcot Internationals Be sure to head back to Epcot soon, Loverboy, Chubby Checker, and Three Dog Night are all playing there soon. They are as you say "Mucho Awesome"

It was an awesome trip and these pictures just show a hinting of the fun and craziness that we had. I would have taken more pictures, but with Robb and Erik taking shots like there was no tomorrow, I felt like saving my camera for another trip. After the lacking operations at Universal, I was a bit worried about the other parks, but thankfully Busch and Disney made up for it and it will go down as my favorite Halloween themed weekend ever! Now, back to checking for cheap airfare so I can get more Sam Adam's 10th Anniversary Festival Ale and all of its unfiltered goodness!

Best: Incredible Hulk. Nice long front seat queue, the rest of the rows dump you off right in the middle. Even without an op there directing you, its easy to get the row you want without too much cramming (of course, since it is Florida, people get confused and NEED to be told to pick a row) Worst: Batman: Dark Knight at SFNE. Each row can hold 4 riders, but each row queue can only hold 2 riders. WTF?!

Everything sounds good schedule-wise Elissa, except for the being places before 10am. We're supposed to be on vacation!

I'll have to agree with the Revolution restraint change as well as adding a few more twists, turns, helices, and bunny hills to Goliath (and Titan). I'd also remove the midcourse block on Collosus and change it back to the way it was. Then I'd also make it race. Out east I'd grease Rolling Thunder, give Hydra some forces, and take off the trim on Comet at Hersheypark. Alpengeist would also see the lift trim removed and not such a hard midcourse stop. Montu would also have the pre-Batwing trim removed as well as the midcourse stop. Gwazi would end up operating like every other wood coaster in the world (except for J2, which would also change) and get checked in an efficient and safe manner, allowing it to actually duel like it was built to do. Finally, just off the top of my head, Drachen Fire would be rebuilt, only redesigned by a different manufacturer so that it didn't tackle everything with such awful transistions. Bring back its cutback! That's really all I can think of right away. Give me the removal of Revolution's OTSRs though and I'd fly out there immediately!

I was at SFOG. Somehow that park is high on value?? Oh well, I'll live with it. It is one of the better Six Flags parks atmosphere and ride wise. Plus I always seemed to remember having a good time there, even when watching Deja Vu test for 2 hours. Floor goes down, floor goes up, floor goes down, train rolls back 10 feet. Train rolls forward, floor goes up, Vekoma engineer looks confused, Vekoma engineer blows smoke at control panel, floor goes down..... I think its about time I take another trip to SFOG, next year looks good.

Yeah, just feel lucky they told you they're getting anything at all. Usually they don't respond to emails, or they just tell you no final plans have been made for next year. At least they acknowledged they're getting some sort of attraction. You're just gonna have to wait like the rest of us....well, most of us ^Come on Robb, why can't you tell us about "Call of Duty: Pizza Hut Delivery Edition"?

Stupid Wilma, knowing my luck with Florida hurricanes, this one will totally hit Central Florida, ruining my return trip to BGT and either force us to leave early, or hang out for a few more days. At least it can only ruin my transportation schedule, and not my property.....except if I have to stay longer in FL, I'm out my sick day that I intended to use to ride Balder! As of now, here't to hoping we're safe. It looks like they want rain Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, but its only about 30% chance.....which in FL means "its still hot, get ready for your 2pm thunderstorm". Let Mexico deal with Wilma (and Wilmer Valderama, I can't stand that guy!)

^^Not sure exactly when you're planning on going to Walt Disney World in December, Melissa, but it looks like Typhoon Lagoon is going to be down for rehab from Christmas Day, December 25 thru the Spring of '06. Blizzard Beach will reopen during the Holiday break, being closed from October 23 thru December 24.

Off the top of my head: Knoebels- Cesari's Pizza, RibBQ Magic Kingdom- Dole Whip DCA- used to be the Peanut Butter and Jelly Pizza (BRING IT BACK!!) Disneyland- Skewers Dollywood- Skillet potatoes SDC-Apple Butter Apple Turnover, homemade ice cream, chicken and okra skillet IOA- Mythos Lobster and corn bisque BGW- Festhaus German Sampler Platter (mainly the potatoes) Europa Park- fresh coconut, gran marnier crepe Cedar Point- Elephant Ear Kennywood- Fried Oreos Idlewild- Patch fries with loads of BBQ spice Del Grossos- Potato Salad Canobie Lake- Fat Man on a dirty sofa KBF- Berry Punch, chicken SFMM- Marie Calendar's Pie (like 1 slice of each type, for a total of $3,582!)

I'd vote for none of the above, but if by some weird circumstance I was stranded at an amusement park that only had these three coasters to ride and I was forced to ride one.....I'd ride each of them for the credit, then probably try to find a way out of the park and go to the nearest bar or Carrabbas. However if it was too far to walk and I wanted to pass the time, I'd probably reride the Invertigo. At least those are smooth, have fairly quick loading, and I can look at other people while on the ride. Oh yeah, best of all....no throat bar!

Yeah, that price seems a little crazy for passholders But hey, its ACE and they gotta have the biggest and best buffet possible ALWAYS. At least the Florida region is trying to do events now, unlike in the past. Still, with easy access and cheap passes for these parks, how many ACERs don't have season passes to these places?

Nice TR. I haven't had Whattaburger since like 1999 in Texas. Gainesville built one right down the road from me, but I left the area by the time it actually opened. When I returned last year to visit, it was during a hurricane and every one and their brother was trying to get food there. Looks like you had a nice day at BGT and the drive home wasn't too bad (unlike the trip Elissa and I took years ago with death thunderstorm including hail, lighting, flooding, and a fire).

Cerberus, thanks for the info on how it is secured. It makes it seem a little safer than what RCDB did. I was thinking it was just a small steel block like those used to keep the trains from rolling off the transfer tracks on typical coasters. As far as Vekoma bashing goes, as long as they continue to bash us in the head with their rough coasters, we'll continue to bash them with word of mouth.

OK, so there aren't brakes holding it in place, but even still, this "true" failsafe as described on RCDB doesn't sound that comforting. How it works: After the train reaches the end of the horizontal tilt segment, a hook grabs the rear car of the train. This holds the train in place during the tilting. As a safety precaution, a large block of steel at the front of the tilt segment prevents the train from rolling off the end should the hook fail. After the tilt segment is vertical and inline with the vertical drop, the block is pulled away and the hook is released. Maybe actually seeing it in action or pictures would be a little better, but what sounds like a little steel block holding a giant train weighing tons doesn't really get my hopes up. It doesn't really matter to me though, I don't think I'll ever go to Taiwan, and if I ever do it'll be at least 15 years away and this coaster will probably be long gone.

I think our bad food experience there was really early in its history, but not too early. May have been late 2000. I can't even remember much about it, other than the food was very bland, service was slow, and they somehow screwed something up. Whatever the case, it didn't leave me with the feeling that I HAVE to get back to this place soon, unlike the food at Mythos or Emeril's Tchoup Chop.

Where exactly did I write that it crashes all the time and kills everyone in Taiwan, old chap? Apparently its lost in translating English to English much like "bandwidth thievery". I simply said I would actually be scared on the ride. Kinda like how if I ride any Intamin Rocket Coaster, I hope the cable doesn't fray and I end up with metal shards in my face. :o Just because it hasn't come off the track yet, doesn't mean it never will. I know many instances where boomerangs brakes failed, thus ending the ride saddled in the actual boomerang element on several different coasters. Its happened on their Invertigos too, as well as the Super Boomerangs. Whose to say the brakes won't fail on the Tilt coaster and that maybe the cable that acts as a second failsafe is actually not strong enough to hold it. Heck, maybe the park hasn't been keeping up on its maintenance either! Have you looked into the problems Vekoma has had over the past several years, such as the hairline fractures on the Deja Vu trains, the accident on one of them during its initial testing, how they weren't going to be build with catwalks because the engineers *KNEW* they'd never be able to saddle 120 feet off the ground, or how about the redesign to the SLC restraints because they left people in even worse pain than the current ones. You can praise Vekoma all you want, but until they have a safety record of 100%, I have every right to be a little shaky about wanting to get on one of their rides that actually can LEAVE the track if something happened. Not that any of the other manufacturers are safer, but they're smart enough not to even risk it if it ever did malfunction or break. As for why Disney likes Vekoma so much, thats a totally different story; mainly cost, Disney's input, and Vekoma's willingness to bend to Disney's every need.

Hooray! Now I have a desire to go back to Paradise Pier! Let me know when the news reports they're bringing back my peanut butter and jelly pizza and I'll be really happy.

This is the one coaster I'd actually be scared to ride (I'd ride it, but would settle all debts, get my will established, etc before getting the credit). Even with 2 "failsafes" this is Vekoma we're talking about. I still remember the talks of "oh Deja Vu doesn't need a catwalk in the boomerang, it won't ever valley there."

I believe the long hair comes directly from Robb's crack. As for the short hair, I had problems figuring it out at first, but upon closer examination (the zoom tool) combined with the knowledge of Elissa's eating habits, I can verify that it is indeed one of hers. Based on the curvature of the hair, the length, and the mucousal layer around the newest portion of it, I can determine that it is indeed one of her most prized nose hairs.

^Travelocity?

Nice Photos. Just in time to get me psyched up to head back down next week. Best picture wasn't the vertical loop though, I give that to the "REVENGE OF THE TURTLE", truly awesome!

Awesome, another credit! After seeing Sea World in Texas get one, I was wondering how long it would take Florida to follow suite. San Diego will probably never get one because scary council hippy woman thinks it will kill gnomes that inhabit the area. Hopefully the coaster will be done and opened before my trip to ride Everest next year, or I'll have to wait until the following year to ride it. So glad I got the Platinum Pass to Busch!

The tank has always been by Hulk. It used to be actually outside the ride in the area that is now the Universal Express machine between Hulk and Storm Force. Since that went in, they moved the tank with the pretzel knot cannon into the actual ride underneath the final flat spin turnaround. You were probably too busy trying to think of what you'd pose as for the picture.

b.) food and dessert at Mythos Stay and Scream means that if you're inside the park during the day, you can stay in the park and get an early start on some of the HHN mazes and stuff. I don't know what time you have to be in the park by, but I think its like 4 or 5pm. If you leave, you gotta wait until its reopened to everyone who didn't get the day's admission.