philthephorce

I'm aiming for the East Coast trip! How fast do spots usually go? I probably won't be able to deposit anything until the end of the week.

Knoebel's Haunted Mansion gets my vote. It got a variety of reactions from me during the ride...everything from jumping and leaning waaay over on my ride partner to laughing out loud at the African tribesman (who, btw doesn't sound very, eh hem, African lol) who "jumps" at you at the end of the ride. Very, very wierd stuff goes on in there...

I hope you guys had a great day at Kennywood. I would've gone there to see some of yunz in person and introduce myself, but I committed to doing an extra shift at work before I knew exactly when TPR was coming to town... bummer! Oh well, there's always next time...whenever that is!

Hi Robb and All, Just as I was going to drop a few (positive) comments about the Midwest Tour it gets locked because of the whiners... DOH! I understand. I figured the next best thing is to drop a line here expressing my appreciation for the updates and mini photo tr's. I guess to properly qualify this post for this thread, my question is... Will there be another attempt at a calender in the future?

Three years ago my family and I went to Geauga Lake. We arrived during a light rainstorm and bought ponchos... Sometime later in the day, it had stopped raining and we decided to ride RWB. Since we don't go to Geauga Lake every year (or really ever for that matter) I convinced my sis to ride in the front seat with me. We were dispatched and immediately my mind went into "record" mode- I was trying to give my full attention to the layout and the forces and anything else that adds to the experience, but I was distracted the moment we went zooming down the first hill. I noticed my sister laughing a little more than usual, but at first I tried to ignore it, then I decided that RWB really isn't a mind blowing coaster and decided to see what the heck was so funny. My sister and I were still wearing the ponchos from earlier and, you guessed it, the wind during the ride caught the ponchos and inflated them, making us look like rejects from the mascot orgies on Conan O'Brien. Looking at my smallish sister "hiding" in that poncho brought me to tears for the rest of the ride. The mother and daughter sitting directly behind us didn't help keep the situation unfunny either. The daughter, in her best 80's after school special voice whined to her mother, "Mommeeee! I can't see aaannnyyythiiiinng!" Everyone that I kinda got a glimpse of while exiting the ride got off as though nothing special happened, as if they just saw a mediocre movie. Even the operators were in their "quit yellin', I'm gellin'" mood. But I left the ride doubled over out of breath and in pain from laughing so hard at imagining what we must've looked like on that ride... I still chuckle about it when I think about it...

I'm 32, and I think my first coaster was Rollo Coaster at Idlewild Park. Either that one or Kiddie Dipper @ pre-Raging Rapids Kennywood.

It seems that GCII isn't so much into roller coasters as they are into making beautiful wooden sculptures that you can ride. (That's a compliment.) Troy lookes awesome! I can only pray, pray, pray that Kennywood will give them a bit of business...

That ride looks AWESOME! It seems to have a good balance of twists and pops of air. I'm praying that KW gets a GCII for it's expansion...

I like Evil Dead 2. The first one didn't seem to know which direction to go...comedy (intentional or not?) or straight on horror? pharce? spoof? i dunno. AoD was good, but I'll still give it to ED 2 because it corrected the tone of ED 1 and set the tone for AoD.

Yeah, an R is a bit much... I forgot about the most f-ed up and disturbing movie I've ever seen: Eraserhead.

The Shining, The Excorsist, Friday the 13th 1, Texas Chainsaw Massacre (70's version), Cannibal Holocaust (actually can't watch it in one sitting), Halloween, Alien.

Nice pics. Griffon looks awesome, as does the rest of the park. I have to find a way to get to BGE for the first time.

Congratulations!!! She's very adorable! ...And that's the most conservative, normal expression I've ever seen on Robb's face. lol

I'm going to WDW the second week of April. Your pics are helping to make my dealing with the recent crappy winter weather much easier. On second thought, just about any warm(ish) and sunny looking pics will do just about now.

1. Hulk- Took me by surprise the first time...and a few more times after that. 2. ROTM- Actually more surprising than Hulk's, but it didn't stand out as much because of the general sensory overload going on by that part of the ride. 3. TTD- C'mon, you gotta love the sound of a drag racer!

I googled it, and in trying to find a link to what I read about a 2008 opening, I found something else saying an October 2007 opening, so make what you want of it. The bottom line is yes, they seem to be getting a tower.

Walt Disney Studios Park, in Paris I believe. I don't think it's tower is open yet (I just found a trace of info from trusty ol' Google!) I'd like to know what Mr. Alvey thinks of the Towers he's been on, being the jaded globetrotter that he is!

I'm trying to find a review of some sort of the WDSP version. Any suggestions? And is this version generally regarded as the best one? I've been on the Disney/ MGM version and I've seen that one referred to as the "good" tower, so I'm interested in knowing the differences in them all.

Hi, My name is, uhmmm...Phil. I live in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America, North America, Western Hemisphere...Earth. I'm not sure how many coasters I've been on, to be absolutely honest. I never really cared. I'm not much of a credit whore I guess. :? Aside from the real thing, I like simulated sex OOPS coasters too, like those found on No Limits. I'm a No Limits user, and a proud non-owner of a cell phone!

Corkscrew @ Geauga Lake in '86.

Spiderman. I can't get enough of that ride. And I seem to notice more of the little things that I missed on previous rides when I re-ride.

Isn't Montu's Batwing BEFORE the MCBR??? Anyways, I like the good ol' Schwartzkopf loop...especially on the shuttles. I love the way they blast through the loop on the forward trip.

I grayed out on Montu back in '96.

Magnum XL 200 has left me a bit disturbed...for life. When I first rode it in 1989, I hadn't been on many large coasters up to that point. Kennywood is my home park so the largest coaster I had been on was the Laser Loop (a Schwartzkopf flywheel shuttle loop.) My experience on Gemini the year before was a bit terrifying going up the lift hill, but Maggie took me to an all new level of fear. This was the first (and only) time in my life that I was absolutely convinced that I would fall out and die on a coaster. I was there on my school's picnic trip to CP and I was riding Maggie for the first time with a rather chubby kid named, hhmmm, let's call him Berkeley. When it was our turn to board the train, I was too nervous to go first, so I let Berkeley in and I followed. As soon as I sat in my seat (I forget which train/ car it was) I thought I would pee myself. I thought to myself that the sides of the car were too low. I wanted to sit way, way down in the seat, I wanted to sit in a bucket. Somehow I managed to downplay my fear (or so I thought) but that would all change soon. Out of the station we go, and we begin to take our minute-long trek up the lift. Do you know how your mind tends to exaggerate things when you're scared shizzle-less? Well, I could've sworn we were already 200 feet up after the first 5 seconds. I kept looking over (as opposed to down and back) at Gemini in disbelief--that was the only thing that kept me sane enough to realize that we weren't that high up yet, but clammy with the anticipation of what it will look like when we get closer to the top. I tried all kinds of ways to brace myself between Berkeley and the side of the car. I just knew Berkely would call me names and laugh at me for being such a chicken, but he hardly paid me any attention: he was scared stiff! When we got to the top, I could've sworn we were soo close to being in outer space. I had never been in an airplane at the time, so I had nothing to compare this to. Also, I was impressed with my strong, young bladder! I managed to, eh-hem, stay dry even when plummetting for what felt like forever down the first drop. The rest of the ride was alot less scary, but alot of fun. To this day, every time I ride Maggie I think of my first ride in 1989, and how bad it scared me. I still get just a tad nervous when I ride, even though I've been on much larger rides. As a matter of fact, I don't really get nervous on roller coasters anymore...except Maggie. :shock: [/i]

The only rough coaster experience I've had that's worth complaining about is my last ride (trust me, ride is hardly the qualitative word for what went on...) on Mean Streak. For some inexplicable reason, I LEANED BACK (a huge No-no) in the valley after the first dip. To make a long story short, I got off with a headache, and mild nausea. For several weeks after, I still got frequent headaches...but I'm all better now.