airtimejunkie

This video is hilarious as it reminds me of how painful my ride was several years ago. I remember cursing throughout the ride and swore that I would never ride it again. Thanks for the video! Kevin

Great pics!

As a bay area resident, I certainly appreciate Robb and SFDK opening up the event next week for others to enjoy. The deals are almost too good to pass up. Regarding the original post in this thread, the profile shows that the person is only 12 years old. Honestly, I'm not sure if the person was complaining or not, but he/she did apologize, and the apology was accepted. That's a great thing. My gut feeling is that the poster wanted to make sure that wasn't a typo since ERT times usually aren't 15 minutes in length. Who knows? Personally, I cannot imagine the time that it takes to pull off what Robb and Elissa do. I organized a roller coaster event in Idaho for three years and I remember how time consuming it was. And that is NOTHING, not even remotely close to the time that I'm sure they spend planning everything that they do. When they do open up parts of their tours to others, it is most likely a result of many more phone calls and e-mails, which means they spent more of their time trying to provide something cool to people who enjoy it. Most seasoned coaster enthusiasts who have experienced ERTS and been to coaster events realize just how valuable 15 minutes of coaster time really is, especially before a park opens. And those enthusiasts also know that things don't always go as planned and that 15 may turn into 5, or even nothing. But for the price? Can you really complain? Hell no. So, thanks to TPR for opening up parts of their trips when they can. It is certainly appreciated and a hell of a deal. Kevin "TPR lurker" Coley

My partner and I have been relaxing in our room all afternoon after a fun morning of riding roller coasters! We just had dinner and now we're heading back to the park for nighttime ERT! Thanks to Robb, Chris, and SFMM for making it such a great day for all of us! Kevin

I'm not totally sure but I think I remember some kind of sushi place in the vicinity of Goliath. I haven't been to Magic Mt. in a good while so I'm not up on what their food offerings are at the moment. You might want to bring those snacks with you just in case. Does Johnny Rockets serve salads? Kevin

Hi everyone! My partner and I are in the Best Western across the freeway from Magic Mountain and we're both excited about the event tomorrow! Unfortunately, we both have a bit of a cold so we'll be sure we're bundled up for both ERT sessions. Is anyone else staying at this hotel? The free wireless connection is working well! Let's keep our fingers crossed that the rain bypasses tonight and in the AM. Either way, it will be fun! Some of the best coaster rides I've had have been in the rain! As of this afternoon, the southbound exit to Magic Mountain on I-5 did have one lane open. I'm not sure about the northbound exit. Perhaps I'll update again in a little while if I find out any more info. Right now, the weather here is nice. I did manage to see the parking lot at Magic Mountain today and it looked PACKED!!! It did appear that the entire parking lot was full and there were PLENTY of cars heading into the park after 1:00 PM. It is a good thing that we have ERT coming. Perhaps many people visited the park today instead of taking a chance with the rain tomorrow. Until later, Kevin

Good luck on your diet but I am a bit concerned about the fact that you want to lose THAT much weight so quickly! About two months ago I started counting calories and have kept my limit to around 1800 calories per day or less. Since then I've lost around 16 lbs. I've gone from 254 to 238. At first the weight melted off but the weight loss gradually slowed to a crawl. Switching to non-caloric sodas (Hansen's Diet!!!!) and trying to keep aspartame out of my diet has seemed to help. I also actually look at the packaging of the things I eat to see what a real serving is. It is all about portion control. Anyhow, good luck to you and know that others are also trying to lose weight like yourself! There is power in numbers! Now, if I could just keep away from chocolate.... Kevin

Actually, the rate you quoted for this trip is not bad and actually a few dollars cheaper than what I found for the same cruise dates. Have fun! It looks like a fun ship to explore! Kevin

Thanks for all of the updates, Robb! That "plane on a stick" ride looks sick! Yikes! Kevin

I'll agree to that even though she looks a bit too much like Robb....ha! And to think she'll probably have more coaster credits at age 10 than I have now at age 40! Have a great life, Kidtums! Kevin

Congrats!!

I forgot to mention that if you're planning on going to see the Great Wall, and I hope you are, you might want to consider visiting the Mutianyu section of the wall. The closest section to Beijing, Badaling, isn't the best section and from the reports I've read, it is also the most crowded. The Mutianyu section is about 90 minutes outside of Beijing and features a very fun Alpine Sled that one can take down the mountain after visiting the wall! If you do go and ride it, ignore the employees yelling at you to slow down and just GO FOR IT! Also, there is an aerial tramway you can take up to the higher portion of the wall, walk down the wall to the ski lift, and from there you can take the slide down. Unfortunately, we took the ski lift up which meant that we had to basically walk UP the wall during our visit. Hire a taxi driver in Beijing to take you there. We hired one of the bigger, more comfortable taxis and it was great. Don't pay more than 500 REM for a 6-8 hour rental. The driver will simply wait for you during your visit so take your time. We arrived to the wall at about 10 am on a weekday and it was basically DESERTED! We did pass a few people from Russia and Japan, but that was it! It was in one word, AWESOME! I can't wait to go back to Beijing again someday...Robb??? Good luck and email me if you have any questions about Beijing, lodging, food, etc... Have fun! (I'm jealous!) Kevin

The Fizzly, er, I mean the Grizzly at PGA.

Hi! I was in Beijing in March of this year and none of the parks were open then. I had the same problem you're having right now, I don't speak Chinese. So, I took along some pictures of the roller coasters from various Chinese web sites and had the concierge at my hotel telephone some of the parks only to find out none were open. I'm thinking the parks "might" be open while you're there but it is pretty much considered the "off season" so you might be out of luck. I hope you get to visit some of the parks. I was bummed that I was not able to, but I wasn't about to pass up a roundtrip airfare of $587 so I went during the first week in March. Also, here is a web site that helped me greatly before my visit: www.thechinaguide.com At least learn how to count from 1-10 in Mandarin like I did. It helped me from getting ripped off too much while shopping in the markets. Oh, yeah, be sure to visit the night market and try some fried scorpions...yum! Good luck and please let us know what you find out! Kevin

Oh, how cute!