DerekRx

Tastes like Burning, if I recall correctly was kinda porter-like, with some caramel sweetness and coffee and chocolate, but the finish and after effects were all of spice and hot sauce. Not nearly as pleasant as the Chocolate Chili Porter I had earlier that day. The stuff was so dang spicy it just sat in my stomach and battled the Utopias high alcohol for dominance. After EBF was all done for our session, we made our way to the #2 place to have a beer in America, back to the Publick House! This time around we got there a bit earlier and managed to enjoy dinner, most of the food containing beer of some sort. and boo to the ice trough being nonoperational! and double boo to no root beer barrel candy!!! Long live King of Prussia's Rock Bottom and its brewer Brian! Time to use our mug club cards for some of the Improper Hopper IPA. Mine was regular, the other dudes got the cask version. Pretty good, but we were carbed out. Definitely wasn't as good as the SubZero, Hop Bomb, Prussia's Pride, or any of the other KOP IPAs. Some tempting stuff on tap, but doesn't seem as unique as King of Prussia's version of the chain We decided to call it a night, but lucky us, there was a Rock Bottom 1 block from our hotel! Coincidence? Heck no! Sadly, we were feeling a little beered out from the EBF, so we each only got 1 beer. I had the Southampton Imperial Baltic Porter, Heath the Sixpoint Bengali IPA, and Adam the Southern Tier Jah-va Stout. All very tasty and still extreme, and our food was darn good too!! Next time hopefully we'll be able to stay longer (or just not come during EBF only!) lots of beer paraphernalia scattered around the place on the walls and such The bar was pretty full when we got there, and the place doesn't even open until 4pm on weekends, meaning it's usually always crowded. But woohoo! This time they've got merch in the form of shirts!! and some local goods as well. Plenty of Belgian stuff on the board. From time to time they even have Westy's 12, for only $15 a bottle. Sadly, not this time around Returning to the Publick House thanks to the T. This time around they had a little more room as they purchased the place next door, knocked out the wall and made it into "The Monk's Cell"

Sweet stuff. As far as the Sea World's go, I think San Diego's is the most laid back, but it also really fits the lifestyle for the area. Nice to finally see the inside of the Arctic exhibit, as every time I've been there it's been in rehab. And hooray for free (crappy) beer! Can't wait to see your Florida TR!

Saturday it was a nice relaxing morning before heading to the Extreme Beer Fest's Session One. This day was more our style, with lots of breweries each bringing like 4 or 5 beers to the table, each of them "extreme". Having such normals as Ommegang, Allagash, Samuel Adams, Boulder, Flying Dog, Harpoon, Dogfish Head, and Magic Hat is one thing, but throw in Short's, Surly, Three Floyds, Lost Abbey/Port Brewing, Smuttynose/Portsmouth, Kuhnhenn, and more at the same place, each bringing some of their most awesome things, and you know it's gonna be a good time. With the fest over, it's time to hit the T and explore the city and so every BACT member at the fest managed to try the Dark Lord. Still excellent, but if Three Floyds continues to be high and mighty tards about it, my palette could change Luckily Kim was pretty far up in line, and knew what she was doing and this line here....Three Floyds of course. They had to be attention whores and wouldn't release the Dark Lord until the end of the fest, unlike EVERY other brewery The fest got pretty crowded with over 1000 people in the building Yup, time for Smuttynose/Portsmouth for some Oak Aged Kate the Great. Not as good as the regular, but still awesome. Enjoying some brews like Surly's Cask Furious IPA and Coffee Bender, and Oskar Blues' Ten FIDY with some of the other men of BACT Then over to He'brew for some Coney Island Freaktoberfest, a really red Oktoberfest Then back for more beer exclusives like Sam Adam's new Imperial Stout And after enjoying some, we even got stopped by the head brewer's personal assistant for some praises for representin' SoCal's awesomeness After plenty of good drinks, it was back over for our favorites, Lost Abbey's Angel's Share and Veritas 003. Thems were awesome! Ithaca was one of the sleeper hits of the weekend with their Kaffinator Dopplebock, 400 Pound Monkey oak aged IPA, Ten (double red) and Eiskaffee Cambridge broke out their Sunday Brunch offering, the Chili Willy (Big and Bloody version), a strong ale with chipotle and ancho peppers mixed with Bloody Mary mix, served with pickled veggies and all! Dark Horse was another Michigan place representing well with the Double Crooked Tree IPA. They brought their Imperial Stout too, but couldn't find it and look where they're located in Michigan! Doubt we'll ever get up there!! everything they offered was good, especially the Uber Goober Peanut Oatmeal Stout and Cuppa Joe Espresso Stout Shorts was also new to the fest, and was so exciting even Hurley showed up to try the stuff! Always popular, yet grumpy, is Kuhnhenn. This time they brought more hard hitters like Raspberry Eisbock, Tenacious Cassis, Fourth Dementia, and Bourbon Barrel Barleywine Our favorite of the fest (big shocker) was Lost Abbey, who decided to bring out Red Poppy, Veritas 003, Older Viscosity, AND a bourbon barrel Angel's Share Mark's first time at the Fest, and his first stop was Southern Tier??? At least they brought out their good stuff like Jah-va and Raspberry Porter, and he got one of their best offerings, Choklat Yeah, Darkness is well worth its top rating. Really hoppy for an Imperial Stout, almost like Storm King but thicker and with more coffee First stop, the newcomers Surly to try some of their Minnesota awesomeness, like Darkness! And then it was back to the Cyclorama for the finest beer fest there is, EBF With the Fest not starting until 1 I had plenty of time to watch tv A good night's sleep was easy in a Sleep Number bed #35 for me Morning outside my room on the 24th floor of the Radisson

The kickoff to Extreme Beer Fest is on Friday night where every beer served has spent some time hanging out in a barrel of some sort to age, properly called "Night of the Barrels". We've never done it before, but since we had the opportunity, we decided to see what all the fuss was about. Lots of the beers are super rare, and some are even made specifically for the night. Samuel Adams made a special version of their 26% Utopias aged on cacao nibs, and some really far away breweries came out. Dark Horse, Surly, Three Floyds, Full Sail, Firestone Walker, Dogfish Head, Kuhnhenn, Ithaca, He'brew, Lagunitas, and more were among the breweries represented. and I'll end today's update with a view of downtown Boston as seen from my hotel balcony But in all honesty, all those barrel aged beers really aren't our thing, after 3 or 4 different beers aged in bourbon, they all start to taste like bourbon. The firkin of 90 Minute IPA aged in Mesquite chips was probably the most unique thing of the night. We'll probably skip it next time. We were happy to finally be getting some of Surly's Oak Aged Bender and YES you could really taste the Tabasco...even hours later! One of the craziest beers brewed was Ithaca's Gorges Smoked Porter aged in a Tabasco Barrel. They called it "Tastes Like Burning (Ralph Wiggum's Revenge)" Tickets are limited to 500, so it wasn't too crowded inside, though with a smaller beer list than on Saturday it was just as long to get a beer Aged on cacao nibs, you could really taste the chocolate. But other than that, it was just alcohol, much like a port wine Our first priority (as well as mostly everyone else) was to get some Utopias, the highest ABV beer out there, and like $150 a bottle and all the other sessions of the Extreme Beer Fest Finally at the Cyclorama again, the location of Night of the Barrels

Just got back from a weekend up in Boston all revolving around the Extreme Beer Fest held by the folks at BeerAdvocate. Lots of incredible beers were had by all BACT members in attendance, and plenty of pictures were taken. It'll take some time to get everything up, but I'll do what I can per day. First up, Friday's journey up to Boston. Then Heath grew a few sizes, or just decided to get samples of the Dry Hopped Blunderbuss Barleywine and the Charles River Porter Sticking to the dark beers, Heath went with the LuvBuzz Espresso Stout and Kim went with the Cherry Stout, also both excellent I decided to grab the Chocolate Chili porter, with some nice chocolate sweetness and a big chipotle finish Lots of interesting brews here, but we've gotta take it easy for later on The place had a pretty cool vibe, and we hit it at just the right time that the place was pretty empty Next stop, lunch at Cambridge Brewing, real close to MIT The highlight was purchasing some bottles of Berkshire Brewing. I think Heath cleaned them out! Heath starts out his purchasing in the bomber section. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on things) they were out of lots of the things they had 2 months ago, so we didn't end up bringing home all that much, but at least it saved money for other things! First stop some 6 hours after leaving home, Julio's Liquors, in the suburbs of Boston and having a pretty darn good assortment of beers

Next in line for my Extreme Theme Week, my first brew out of Japan. Lots of orange peel, vanilla, nutmeg and coriander in this, and LOADS of foamy head. Hides the alcohol well though Kiuchi Brewery's Hitachino Nest Commemorative Ale 2008, a spiced wheat type Winter Warmer, coming in at 9%abv

Glad you liked the Insanity, Joe. Maybe next time I'll send you some Blasphemy and Prophesy (barrel aged QUAD and barrel aged Tripel). Course there's also the Heresy (barrel aged Imperial Stout). Those folks at Weyerbacher are pretty sick! While Heath is going for a BeerAdvocate's Top 100 theme in anticipation of this weekend's Extreme Beer Fest up in Boston, I've decided to keep my week's theme at the Extreme, meaning all beers at least 8%ABV or higher. Wow, another great Imperial Stout, masking its ABV nicely with lots of coffee and chocolate flavors. This one also packed in some smoke, leather, and dark fruit flavors. Maybe I should just stick with the Imp Stout theme for this week, it's working out so far! Tonight's offering, Jolly Roger Imperial Stout, from Otto's up in State College, PA, weighing in at 9% ABV Maybe I should have kept the SubZero glass hidden away, as today it caused stupid snow to come to our area, but not a snowplow in sight, even now, 8 hours later when there is lots more snow on the ground. Yummy! Lots of chocolate and coffee in this bad boy, along with a good hoppy finish, and super thick, just like a milkshake! One of the best RIS's I've ever had and it's from a can!!! First up, yesterday with Oskar Blue's latest awesomeness canned, Ten FIDY, weighing in at 10%, and also on the top 100

My girlfriend is great, and I think she likes coasters, Disney, and dark rides. I don't think she likes dressing up in animal costumes though, which makes her WAY the AWESOME!

This evening was another firkin night of Nugget Nectar at a fairly nearby establishment we frequent enough for them to know us by name. But first, I decided it was a perfect time to break out my newly arrived Deschutes goodness for the beer elite to enjoy, thanks to Justin. and we'll just end this by saying Cask Nugget Nectar is one of the finest hop bombs there shall ever be. Plenty of flavors of cut grass, pine, citrus, malt, etc all slapped together into one awesome rare brew. When is the next sighting of this?? This is what we call a firkin, my friends. It sits there at room temperature and just pours into your glass, with no extra carbonation or anything Finally, back at Union Jacks, where Heath hasn't been for almost 9 months to enjoy some Troegs Nugget Nectar, as cask as it gets Lemon and orange combined with banana, clove, and bready yeast, but this one pretty much left us feeling it was a wheat with lots of alcohol dumped on top As usual, when we have something truly awesome, we have to follow it up with some Southern Tier, this time the Heavy Weizen is our unfortunate selection Yup, deserving of it's status. Lots of oak in here, as well as coffee, licorice, chocolate, and some molasses. Smooth and creamy, and hiding its 11%ABV very well, tasty stuff indeed! and so, here it is, The Abyss, Deschutes version of an Imperial Stout aged in Oak Barrels for a good amount of time. #8 on the top beers of the world, #6 of Americans

I'm all over this cd when it comes out. May can't come soon enough.

This idea sounds really dumb, and also really time consuming. How many guests are seriously going to want to audition, then hang around for a good deal of time until the show starts. I can really only see the locals and passholders having the time to do this, as it just isn't something a family on vacation would have time for. It also doesn't sound really Disney-like to me, having someone say "sorry, you can't sing" then sending a little disillusioned 15 year old girl crying away back to her family. I don't see this lasting very long at all, even less than Millionaire. In the famous words of Elissa, "this is not a good idea."

There are few beers that mean enough to me to take a vacation day to enjoy, but today was one of those days! Justin, you rule! awww yeah, I know what I'm drinking on Saturday! and getting home, I find another goodie, all the way from Oregon After a brief stop at the Wine Source in Baltimore, I realized I can get a little carried away when I don't have to buy by the case like in PA While Amanda couldn't make it out, Mark will be bringing a baby home for her to take care of DuClaw's new smaller growlers sized up against my behemoth While Mark takes advantage of the email voucher freebies and uses the Jew-pon to get $5 off a shirt gotta be getting some to take home to the woman now on tap, Naked Fish, one of my favorite stouts out there, and so good even Mark showed up! in the end, who wins? We do! woohoo, go fish! yeah baby! which this year was all set to Strip Go Fish Then it was time for Naked Fish's release video and with only a handful of parks opened in March this year even though it's Easter, who won't be! quite right for St. Patty's day, an Irish ale then a preview of next month's release yeah baby, that's totally us!! bling bling all up in our grills, word!! hmmmm... some of it related to us, sorta Then it was time for some beer trivia and with Happy Hour pricing going on, Kim isn't too afraid to bring some co-workers for a tower of onion rings but first, a rare chance to enjoy some 31, left over from Halloween, and still quite good and spicy but our main reason for coming, Naked Fish's release, truly one of the nicest beers there is, chocolate and raspberry together in perfect awesomeness and I couldn't return to DuClaw again without the master of the place, Heath, enjoying a Blackjack Stout Arriving early enough, I enjoyed a Serum Double IPA, just released last month, and as citrus and pined out as ever But our main event takes us back to the Bond Street Wharf in Fells Point, MD, home of DuClaw and with lots of their own quality products and a special guest tap for local Troegs, this place should be around for quite some time and a more upscale atmosphere compared to their other location in Lancaster Pretty cool place considering it was an old chain steakhouse, complete with lots of flat screens in the bar area Started out at the new Lancaster Brewing Harrisburg branch which will eventually feature their own brewpub exclusive brews in the next year or so

This will be my last post in this thread until Justin finally gets that Deschutes TR up. Lots of tart cherry flavors mix well with coffee and chocolate, making a nice chocolate covered cherry with a sour, bitter finish One of the most perfect beers for February, Bell's Cherry Stout

As much as I don't like the Giants, being an Eagles fan and all, I'm glad to see an NFC team finally win, and stop us from having to hear about the Patriots and their perfect season any longer. So, I tip my hat to you, Giants team.

^Surprisingly, no! In my 9 years of going to BGA, I've still never stepped foot in the Edge of Africa portion of the park. Maybe next time now that I know turtles are there.

^^Today as in Saturday (which it is in the UK now) or today as in the next 24 hours? Your linguistics confuse me and are somewhat vague.

Yay! I'm so happy Lost is back on. Good episode, and it's nice that they keep you guessing still with the flash forwards. Looking forward to next Thursday at 9.

On our final day, we tried to cram as much in as possible. Originally this was Sunday's plan, but with Busch and credit whoring taking priority, it sure is a good thing there's Disney park hopping and lite crowds, as we managed to do everything we wanted in the short amount of time we had. ***SPOILER WARNING*** New Spaceship Earth finale pictures!! and so, we sadly had to leave, but we accomplished plenty of stuff on the trip, and an insane amount of things in just 6 hours! I definitely recommend visiting in the offseason, some things may be down for rehab, but the lines are usually minimal! We stuck with the standby though, and only waited about 15 minutes. Time for our final ride of the offseason, let's rock and roll! and our final stop, Rock 'n' Rollercoaster, now with a new fastpass entrance, more covered queue for standby, and a single rider line. Ah yes, the reason we're here, for some good tower rides. And yes, again....a walk-on. Oh why do we have to leave today!? Where are we? This hat needs a giant hand and wand stating "Hollywood Studios" on it! Time for our annual visit to Disney's Hollywood Studios, even if it is the first time we've called it that After some souvenir purchases, we stopped to see some animals before moving on to our next and final destination Even though the line was full, it only said 30 minutes. Still, we opted for single rider line, and still no bird on a stick Even though the park wasn't that crowded, it's still impossible to walk on those paths with doublewide strollers, fat chariots, etc. But we finally made it to our destination, Everest! Hello giant fake tree, you don't look fake at all, but I do believe you should have a giant limb sticking out with "Animal Kingdom" written over the top for about 8 years, just so people know where they are About 20 minutes later, here we are at Animal Kingdom, time for some Yeti After hitting all the top stuff at Epcot, it was time to move on to the next stop on our day of park-hopping madness. But first, a stop to watch the fountain show mmmm, Double Decker. Hows it going British friends! Ah Germany pavilion, so not the same since Soren left Maelstrom, another walk-on. Of course we rode it since it's like Valhalla's grandpa. (and yes, we ran like hell to get out before the movie started) On this trip Nicole also got to finally try her first churro. It won't be her last. A bit better than the old version, but now a very kiddie version of Mexico By now World Showcase is finally opened, so it's finally time to see the new Mexican boat ride thing Time for a quick stop at Club Cool to partake in some good international sodas, and Beverly another walk-on, another ride that it's good to see is back in use After returning to Soarin' and Nicole saying "well, that was cool, I don't need to do that again" we decided to hit Nemo and friends and The non-living Seas Crowds were so lite our team of 4 consisted of just the two of us. No hanky panky though, darn those restraints! But we did manage to push all the buttons, even for our nonexistent engineer and navigator "Come on, Wes, it's time to go for launch. Call me 1-888-GO4-GARY" Then it was off to Mission: Sinise for more waitless weightlessness. Afterwards, time for a walk-on at Test Track, how awesome is that! While the journey back to earth is lacking scenery, we did really enjoy the Horizons style vision of our future on the monitor, which we get to create. Yay! Another year, another soft opening of a ride credit for us! Though it's still in soft opening, I *think* it's pretty much complete Matt must not be the only one who is excited for a wandless SE Like Spaceship Earth! Our first stop was the Land to ride Soarin' as we missed it on Nicole's last trip. The standby was already like 40 minutes at opening, so we fastpassed it, using our wait time to go do better things Always a good friend, Reed was excited to see us on this trip, though briefly because of work. Hopefully soon enough we'll get to spend more time together, and see the wife too! This picture ought to give the Matts, Scotts, and patriots enough spankin' material for a few minutes Our day starts off right at 9am with Epcot, now wand-less and wonderful, just like I remember it from back in the last millennia

After a fun day at Busch Gardens Tamprica, we made a short stop just south of the park at Tampa Bay Brewing Company in Ybor City so we could get some good beer. Then it was back to WDW, with a bonus stop off at Old Town so Nicole could get 2 more credits. Hi Lou, Tom, Ed, and company, we miss you! Coming soon, we make Matt happy with some Epcotness No 300 foot Skycoaster for Nicole on this trip though, maybe next time she'll be brave enough Yay, cha-ching for Nicole. Watch out Erik, she's real close now! Nicole's first Windstorm/Hurricane model. I still love them, better than a Galaxi or a Zyklon then it was off to Old Town for some credit whoring at its dirtiest and Nicole even enjoyed their own root beer, in addition to some pretty good food mmmm, the IPA was much better than anything at the parks which there was plenty of. It wasn't free like the stuff at Busch, but it was worth the price. (Of course, the AB stuff is worth the price too...when it's free) and plenty of it, thanks to the sampler containing everything they offered Yay! Finally good beer on this trip

8/10, but I'm protesting that one question.

Sunday was going to be set aside for park hopping, but we decided to hit Busch instead that day, figuring the traffic could cause more issues with our return to the airport on Monday evening. Of the plans for the weekend, Busch Gardens was the part I was most dreading. At the same time I emailed Sea World to ask their rehab schedule for the winter, I asked Busch the same question. Where I got a detailed report from Sea World, Busch Gardens told me "we don't have that information at this time, please check our website closer to your visit". Well, even up to the day before our trip started, the website was still only giving information for Feb-March 2007. Either nothing would be in rehab, or they just don't update their website, so it would be a crap shoot. But we had passes, so it wouldn't cost us anything, and even if 1 or 2 coasters were down, they've got a great assortment. Well, turns out we had a pretty darn good day at Busch. Crowds were minimal, the weather turned really nice, and the coasters were running good. Getting to the park just after opening, we easily got into the park and made our way right to Gwazi...and found NOT ONLY were both sides opened, but the crews were doing their best to DUEL them!!! Granted, it didn't work because one lift seems to be a smidgen faster than the other, but they get an A for effort. and because this PTR is lacking necessary fire, here's a shot for Dave, Beech. Next on Most Extreme Elimination Challenge: Flamingos vs sea gulls It's pretty cool to see a coaster in the background of a safari Animals are doing stuff but I'd rather see Montu go into the batwing. I am a dork Hi Wes I also finally managed to catch the train, it always seems like I'd miss it by like 2 minutes The preshow for Strippin' Stripes will contain chimps with bananas. At least I hope that's a banana But the star of Jungala will be a new show called Strippin' Stripes, Eroticat at its finest! This will be used for stuff. Ain't I a great tour guide More construction, should be opened in April I think Taking the skyride, we saw some construction of Jungala The tortoises were too far away for me to wait for them to come say hi, but to show their love for Robb, they were eating. OMG, it's monkey cock! While in Egypt, we decided to check out King Tut's Tomb, something I've never done before. What the heck is going on here??? Nicole finds another top 10 ride in an Erick Johnson sandwich one pretty big sideloop on one of the world's best inverts and it was looking pretty good too after its paint job last year Montu was delivering great rides with the midcourse brake barely on Wow, Rick really changed since I saw him back in September at the Toronado. I'm scared, Rick! Sprint is the official donkey of this TPR PTR, but shall be replaced by some other cell phone provider soon enough! and then we saw gray donkeys called donkeys on our way to Egypt We saw black and white donkeys called Zebras on our Rally The rest of us just relaxed and hoped we didn't tip over We volunteered Erik to be navigator for our rally. He got yelled at a lot by our driver, who was pretty awesome. Go Navi-Gators! Soon we shall answer that age old question, "can elephants jump gorges?" No coaster track water raft portion for us today, probably not tomorrow either. Looks like Colin not only broke his car, but also the Vekoma portion of the ride. Oh wait, nevermind, Vekoma portion can do that on its own Off to Rhino Rally to see some aminals Kumba was still delivering intense rides, with some head smashing for good measure. Check out the new interchangeable TPR hoodie, for making 2 guests into 1 Also new on SheiKra, the keeping more water in the pool feature. The Georgians should be happy The themed area helps give SheiKra the edge over Griffon in my ranks, though it's a shame they didn't have the mist on in the tunnel anymore I think it also seems more forceful than Griffon. Don't know if it is or not, but it seemed that way It's big, it's fun, it's floorless, but I didn't really feel any difference from the old floored version With little crowd, it's time to ride SheiKra. Any ideas how much milk costs around these parts? The Brazilian tourists made me wish Soren had come with them to visit. I also was sad that I didn't have a flag After getting Nicole some Gwazi rides (running not nearly as bad as some wood coasters), we met up with the Johnsons, Erik and Eric. The universe didn't explode either! First stop, Gwazi, or Gwarzi or whatever. Not only were both sides opened, they were actually dueling!! Well, until 1 broke down for like 10 minutes. Arriving at the park, we find the only things currently in rehab are the flume and some other ride. Woohoo, that should mean all the coasters are opened!

After visiting SeaWorld and checking into the hotel, we made our way over to the Magic Kingdom for the Pirate and Princess Party. Knowing how empty the park is as far as ride waits go, I figured this would be the same thing, so we grabbed tickets a couple months back. The park didn't disappoint, the crowds were lite, and pretty much everything was opened. Plus they gave away some goodies and had special fireworks and such. We managed to ride every ride in the park with the exception of the stuff on a stick in less than 5 hours, and could have stayed for another 2 if we weren't so tired from the flight down and waking up at 4am and such. Well worth the price of admission. Next up, a visit to BGA with some local friends Not as good as Wishes, or the Halloween version, but still lightyears ahead of all other non-Disney firework shows and finally, we caught the fireworks show before heading out Yay for LIMs on relaxing rides But we couldn't skip out on doing something you just can't do at Disneyland, the People Mover! We passed on this, just because I'm still traumatized from my ride in 1986. Even darkride fan Nicole said "can we skip that?" Even Peter Pan only had a 5 minute wait, which just shows how empty it was that night! Everyone's favorite white 90s rapper even showed up for a viewing of Mickey's Philharmagic. Word to your motha. Blurry girlfriend!!!! Yay for teacups, time to spin ourselves silly Princesses in space. SM had the longest wait of the night, at about 20 minutes as Alpha track went down halfway through the night, so only Omega was running for the last couple of hours. No ride had Fastpass, as none needed it! Ah Space Mountain, one sweet ride, all that's missing is a soundtrack. I just make up my own as I ride. Someday I shall win a Grammy for my awesome music. All the neon looks really neat here at night. This picture would look even better without pseudo-Barry in it Off to Tomorrowland for some future fun Pirates was all decked out, and even as one of the most popular rides in the park at this time, the wait was never more than 15 minutes. At their Halloween event they give out candy. At the Pirates and Princesses event they give out gems and beads, as modeled here One of the best mine trains out there, and after picking up the new book about Disney's Mountains I have even more appreciation for how cool it is and all the detail they put into it We don't even mind riding in the death seat because we're at Disney World, not Disneyland Being at the Magic Kingdom makes us happy. No wait makes us really happy. Making our way over to Big Thunder (Splash was down for rehab) we find walk on conditions, as opposed to the 80 minute waits earlier in the day. Jungle Cruise also wouldn't be running, so we took a night ride on it while we could. The giraffes said they miss Wes Mansion wasn't on the event map, but it turns out it was opened, so we rode it twice. Loved the new scenes and the whole rehab We also did the really annoying version of the Tiki Room, I'm not sure why, but I'm good for a couple of years with this one Then we decided to do stuff that Nicole had never done before, or didn't remember, and that wouldn't be opened for the private event, like Swiss Family Treehouse. No Rosie here Our first major stop was Adventureland for the best food on Disney property, Dole Whips and I ended up with my very own princess, but we didn't get to stay in the castle While no longer in Ice Castle mode, it's still freaking sweet looking Oh wait, nevermind, it's still there. And still very visible to the naked eye, sorry Disneyland and Cinderella's Castle has been replaced by balloons?! Much has changed in the last 10 months. Town Hall is apparently now sponsored by Blocko Armed with my event wristband, goodie bag for booty, and map and times guide, it was off to see the park in what little daylight remained The park was still opened to the public until 7, but they let us in when we got there at 5pm. And Disney knows how to handle crowd control when it comes to special events and princesses as well. Over to the Magic Kingdom where there be pirates...

After departing Sea World, we decided to check into our hotel for the weekend, Disney's Port Orleans French Quarter. Of all the moderate resorts, this one is my favorite because of its smaller size and only 1 bus stop. Plus it's cool to take the boat to Downtown Disney. yummy! up next, Pirates and Princesses Party at Magic Kingdom...in a few hours mmm, hot dough and powered sugar goodness but the best part of the French Quarter, the Beignets! The pink clam may get you a little wet Other cool theming in the pool. I think playing the clarinet would be even cooler if you could shoot water out of it at people Even though it was only in the 60s outside, some people were still brave enough to go in the pool. We call them non-Floridians The pool is pretty sweet, with an awesome slide and you can take a boat to Downtown Disney from here. It may take a bit of time, but it's cool and relaxing, and you get to go past the Treehouse Villas. All the buildings look really nice, and it's not super huge to walk around like some of the other resorts The original Port Orleans is themed to, you guessed it, New Orleans, specifically the French Quarter

Being the offseason, and still having vacation days left from 2007, we decided to take a little adventure back down to Florida last weekend. Airfare was cheap, hotels were cheap, parks weren't crowded, we had passes for Busch/SeaWorld, and Nicole had never been to either of those parks. And we're always up for a visit to Walt Disney World. Getting up even before the sun, we were down in cloudy/sporadically raining Orlando shortly after 10am, and pulling into SeaWorld by 11. The offseason is always a risk when going to parks because there is a chance something could be down for rehab. But thanks to the staff at SeaWorld being on their game, we knew ahead of time that everything would be operational, with JtA coming back up from rehab that day. People often think of SeaWorld as just a bunch of aquariums now with a few rides, but the park is really nice, with good landscaping, lots of paths, and plenty to do. and we finally say goodbye to Sea World with a final walk by the turtles. Nicole pets some rays, but did not get stung because she's not Australian and finally, the '09 attraction location from above. and here's some Kraken goodness Here you see Journey to Atlantis with Aquatica in the background, set to soft open next month. Since it's complimentary with the Platinum Pass, let's take a ride on the Sky Tower Not quite yet, but there are flags on some of the trees We've stumbled upon the closed pathways in question. Is it possible to see some dirt piles? Looks like this is where the new coaster shall be going in 2009 Looking at the park map, we see an area blacked out Thus concludes our viewing of Believe. I am now a believer. Launch the person, Shamu! Shortly after this picture, almost everyone down in the splash zone ran up the stairs. Guess they didn't really think they'd get wet Why, it's time for the Sham Slam, of course! Oh no, what's going on now?! Pretty small compared to mama Shamu, but can still give any ACEr a good run for their money at the buffet Out for some fun is the newest member of the Shamu family, the baby whale born last year at this time. When at Sea World, may as well see the Shamu show Final credit at the park, and the longest wait thanks to someone losing their umbrella on the ride. Honestly people, how do you lose an umbrella on a kiddie coaster?! Coolest themed drop ride evah! Nicole don't want to work, she wants to bang on the drum all day. All while drinking some Widmer Hefeweizen AB takes really good care of the landscaping here, even in the winter. Old and stupid Though looking like sea weed, this is actually a Sea Dragon. He likes small boys in tights This dude looks a little stuck "hello Jahan, Happy birthday!" In the Penguin Encounter we find the Rehanek Target Penguins, a rare headless breed Ahhh, giant angry sock puppet is trying to eat my head! It's like Kumba and Montu had a baby and then sent it 70 miles away Next stop, Kraken, one of the best floorless coasters out there Nemo got really lost this time Nicole was wowed in Journey's giftshop with fish all over the place We got a little wet on this ride, and we didn't even sit in the front! It was nice to see lots of the effects working again First ride of the season, Journey to Atlantis, not to be confused with Journey to Atlanta, where you can see Joe cooking unusual things Oooh, construction wall, that ain't gonna fly in SeaWorld! First stop, to say hi to the sea turtles. Hey dudes! Here we be at our first park of the season, SeaWorld Orlando

I am with you Derek. It is an insane process when there are so many coasters in your count. I still haven't even done mine. The randomize was a feature that I talked about with Mitch for the last couple of years because so many people leave a lot of the coasters in Alphabetical order creating an extreme bias. Not so much a problem on the wood ballots, but it was a big problem last year with the steel ones. Always looking for ways to improve the process though and your comments have been noted. Next year, I would like to do drag-drop, where you can pull the coasters over one-by-one and place them in the proper order. Anyone have any comments or think this is a better way to go about it? Yeah, I figured that was the reason for the randomization. Maybe you could just have them all sorted alphabetically for the ranking step, as opposed by alphabetically by park (which is how I thought it was done in previous years). Or maybe add another step where you get to group them to your liking before sorting them more. Sorta like a grading system A-F or 5-1 or something.