netdvn

Here's the last of the DR pictures. More to come.... I added captions to some of the pictures above. If you care to read them, feel free. Thanks for reading again! Even the parking lot in the back looks great. Some parks should take note about this (SFMM).There's a huge ampetheater around the corner where concerts are held. I love photogenic places like this. There are so many cool little back alleyways to explore. Just too bad the village itself isn't that big. Some actors came out and did dances/posed for photo ops. You could climb to the top of the church and get an even better view of the village. Inside the church. A random attempt at being artsy Close-ups of the local wildlife I keep thinking this is a donkey. Mule? Horse? Back at the port. We're going to Aruba next. Thanks for stopping by!

Submitted two shots... Good luck to everyone participating. I see some really good ones out there. Original Messed with

Alpengeist is still a solid ride even with the MCBR cranked up high. Unfortunately, I've never experienced the coaster without the MCBR turned on, but the zero G roll and corkscrew are a lot of fun. Even with Apollo running incredibly well for the past few weeks and having been spoiled a bit by Montu in May, Alpengeist is still one of my favorites.

Apollo's been running amazing lately. I rode it during the fireworks and had some of the best rides on it last Tuesday. Airtime was plentiful (more than I've ever gotten) so maybe I got to ride with the trims turned down or something.

I'm completely shocked the fanboys haven't torn this ride's reputation to shreds. I don't remember any other ride in recent history having as frequent, multi-day closures. Not to say the name should or shouldn't be used, but Verbolten closing for a whole day should not "be expected" Actually BGWFans does have a habit of going into complaint mode when the ride shuts down. That being said. Surprisingly enough, the coaster has had some pretty solid uptime since it first opened despie its rather moody behavior as of recently. I'm pretty satisfied that BGW went with Zierer on this project, giving us a great coaster filled with theming, nice forces, and some unique elements. A coaster like this probably has thousands of moving parts, which means that there is a high chance of breakdowns. Intamin or not. That probably doesn't include all the special effects throughout the ride. Edit... When did that word filter appear? Its actually kinda funny.

You must be trolling... If anything BGW needs more animal exhibits to make it a more well-rounded park. Flat-wise the park isn't impressive (BGT and SWO are even worse on the flats). Animal-wise, the park desperately needs more exhibits. Three large exhibits and a small eagle perch underneath Griffon isn't really gonna cut it.

Dominican Republic stop... The Dominican Republic pretty much looks like most of the other Caribbean islands I've been to. Beautiful, warm, many parts of the island dressed up for tourists while other places not so much. I noticed there were some really nice looking villas overlooking huge golf courses throughout the island. The cool thing about this port was that we actually got to do a nice excursion. The cruise provided a tour for $45, but we decided to just scrap the tour and do a self-guided tour instead, saving us about $30. Not too bad really. Altos de Chavon was apparently built in the 70s as a recreation of a traditional Mediterranean village. There's museums, gift shops, restaurants, and live entertainment. It's pretty cool to explore the little alleyways and shops scattered throughout the village. The architecture is impressive and you get quite a view of the surrounding area overlooking a river valley and a jungle. Like the other ports of call, I went into stereotypical tourist mode and took a billion pictures. I've tried to narrow it down to the best ones. Landing in the Dominican Republic. You can see the huge *I think* cigar factory spewing out smoke. There was a baseball diamond near the port. The houses in the back are the fancy villas. The port didn't have much. Just a duty free shop and a bus stop. Cool-looking water craft Looking into La Romana Cool house on the water More factory shots. The cruise had tours going here, but we decided to do something else. They had these in Key West when I went The Klassy Kruise Bananas I think these are mangoes Altos de Chavon is beautiful Checking out the sights There are so many good photo ops in here The art gallery wasn't very big, but had some nice pottery inside One of the restaurants This is an actual church that still holds Mass every Sunday Look at this great view! You can see the golf courses and stuff in the distance. I'm pretty sure sunsets are amazing. Thanks for reading! The journey continues later

^ Strange... The car looks a lot higher in that picture than it does in the video. Since this is a testing phase, could the park be testing the drop at different heights to see how the brakes at the bottom work? I know BGW did that with Mach Tower last year. Screenshot from the video, the gap between the top of the tower and the catch car/seats looks a lot bigger here than it does in the picture above.

The Busch parks will allow Go Pro cameras if you have written consent from a higher up. I believe Go Pro cameras are the only type of camera allowed on their coasters. I'd recommend contacting the park directly (probably through phone if email doesn't work out) as policies could differ from park to park.

Nobody has a history of knowing yet. Carsland has only been open for a couple days now. Only time will tell how the expansions work out for DCA and they seem to be doing a good job if DCA's attendance is currently on the rise. So what? Is DCA's Midway Mania less popular because it doesn't have Fastpass? Does that make Matterhorn and Pirates unpopular too because they don't utilize FPs? Did that make Matterhorn and Pirates bad investments because Disney didn't put Fastpasses on them when the system was introduced? Wow so you have an Economics degree on top of your Engineering degree too? I'm impressed. Reading that LA Times article, it seems that Disney's got a lot in store for DCA's future to bring the rest of the park to the standard set by the current updates. All these new additions should definitely increase attendance for the park in the coming years.

- You should start theming your rides/attractions. Most of them just sit there in lots. It doesn't look as good. - Your paths are too blocky. Most parks don't really follow a grid-like pattern with their pathways. Yours shouldn't either. - Building styles are alright, but could use work. Look at actual buildings for inspiration. - Add some diversity to your landscaping. Flowers, fountains, and statues placed in the right position really add atmosphere to your parks. - Change the elevations too. Colorado isn't the flattest place in the world. Add hills to reflect the state's landscaping. - Please slow down and work on one park at a time. Too many projects will bog you down and rushing updates is never a good thing. Take it slow and use real parks as inspiration.

Well, I am an engineer, and I've been working on a $4 billion dollar project for years, what are your credentials, Mr Knowitall? And I never said Carsland won't be a success. How can it now be? It's he only Disney part of DCA. It is just in my opinion that RSR isn't what I expected to cost $250 million. I think it is just a really fancy D ticket. Funny thing is, JJ said the same thing, and wasn't chastised, Wes obviously has something against me. And the other $800 million went to redecorating the park, and adding a C and D ticket, and I just don't think 95% of the people buying a normal ticket gives two shits about the improvements to the entry plaza and Pier, which cost quite a bit of cash. The point is, a ton of the money went to redoing big areas of the park, not adding to the park. Well, before the expansion, 95% of those people wouldn't have set foot through the gate. World of Color, Mermaid, and Midway Mania seem to have drawn a lot of people to the park. JJ didn't really "chastise" the ride. At most he said some parts need some tweaking to be improved. I don't really see how RSR is a D ticket ride either. The ride seems to have great effects and a solid finale that looks like it could be great with a group of friends. Definitely on par with other E ticket rides out there. Thes expansions and upgrades have done wonders for a park that opened as a failure. I'm looking forward to DCAs future projects to come.

This new Android tablet's actually pretty cool. Just needs to be a bit faster and have a better response.

As long as you brace yourself for the second launch, the kick won't be as bad. I've ridden over 20 times and haven't had any problems with the second launch. Yes the back of my head does leave the headrest every time, but it doesn't go far enough to cause me any pain during the launch.

The adventure continues... I'm really annoyed that my finger got in the way of otherwise (IMO) good shots. Apparently a space capsule landed not too far from the island. There was a nice little exhibit to display cool facts and tidbits about the landing. One of many attempts to be all artsy fartsy. Less artsy shot of the rocket. Since a lot of people enjoy pictures of flowers, I decided to take a few. This side of the port was really quiet and tranquil. I really liked it here. Plus you got some amazing views. The beaches around this area were pretty rocky, but unlike Key West's rocky beaches (probably one of my least favorite beaches for that reason), these rocks were smoothed down and covered with sand so you could step on them. NO Mr. Sand Whale! The ship is not dinner. Going back to the port. The usual shops were here. Nothing too special to write home about. A view of the Flowrider machine. My brother. He didn't really swim that much on our beach days. Looks like a container ship being un-crated (if that's even a word). Family shot Noted One last photo op before we leave. Goodbye Grand Turk! It was definitely a lot of fun! Hopefully we'll get to see more of you on our next cruise. Almost sunset. We were eating dinner when the sun was actually setting so I couldn't get a good shot. We were headed to our next stop, the Dominican Republic. Thanks for reading

Technically everyone is considered General Public. There's nothing wrong with that.

^ The ride originally operated with lap bars only, so yes the OTSRs can be removed without causing any trouble. Granted having lap bars and OTSRs at the same time seems really redundant. The park should get rid of one of them IMO.

Throwing in some maps here too. I'll admit the flash on some of the shinier maps does seem awful. EDIT: I took new, slightly better pics of some of the maps. Busch Gardens Williamsburg 2012 regular season map Waterworld CA 2011 Busch Gardens Tampa 2005 Dollywood 2007 Dollywood 2012 Busch Gardens Tampa 2012

Not much happened on the first/second day of the cruise. There were two nice stage shows that were different from the one they had on the Fantasy. Other than that, not much happened outside of a bit of sleeping, chilling on the pool deck, and the occasional game that involved winning a plastic trophy/medal. There was an ice carving on the pool deck. I most definitely saw this at least twice now. Hopefully the people on the other ships know how to carve other things. These guys were all over the ship, singing cover songs. I thought they were pretty good. They also played during the stage shows. The towel animals were pretty cool. Here's the lobster one we got on the first night. These guys were hanging out by the pool deck. So we landed in Grand Turk, which was a really nice port. We unfortunately didn't venture too far outside the port, but I have no problems with that because the port itself was beautiful. Maybe next time when we land here, we'll travel a bit further out. Dad, brother, mom walk off the ship. Biggest Duty Free shop I've seen. This thing was huge. Apparently Grand Turk is well known for cacti. They had these growing all over the port. Signature shot 1 Signature shot 2 I ventured outside the port a bit to find a few beach rental shacks/small bars. Some of these places give out free wifi too! Noted! Signature shot 3 Dad teaches Mom to swim. Wastin' away again. So my finger snuck its way into some of these shots. I'm kinda mad they turned out this way. I'll probably crop it out when I have the chance. I've been a bit lazy to do it though. No ugly brown LA haze. Just clear blue skies. This place had an upcharge Flowrider too. I didn't do it though. Thanks for reading!

Illuminights has been pretty successful in Williamsburg. I'm glad to see Tampa getting their own version of it. Williamsburg's event stays open until 10 every night though. Not sure why BGT's operating hours are different.

As far as I know, yellow train fell off a broken bridge and plunged into the water. Rescue efforts have been hampered by the spirit of the wolf who keeps eating anyone that comes close.

So we made it to our destination, Port Everglades, at around 10 in the morning, getting a little lost along the way and stopping at McDonalds for breakfast. Tons of Dole crates everywhere, waiting to be unpacked. No we're (unfortunately) not going here. Oasis is taunting me. We're not going here either. The Klassy Kruze? Yes, we're going here. There weren't any signs in the terminal pointing to where the parking garage was (a nice security guard directed us there). Plenty of other people were driving around in circles trying to find the garage throughout the day. A huge crowd gathered around the gates waiting for them to open (some of them arriving as early as 8 AM). That took about half an hour. We were also luckily among one of the first to get our bags checked. After that, we were guided to a waiting area where everyone was held for about 4 hours. Having done Karnival twice before (sailing out of Charleston both times), this didn't happen there. Not sure if this is a common occurrance, a Carnival occurrance, or just a Port Everglades thing. I'm already planning a nice RCCL cruise for next year. Still people arriving/waiting to get on. Looking toward Miami This is the atrium. I kinda preferred the Fantasy's a bit more because it felt more open, but I guess this one will do for now. So our sinking ship drill took at least 45 minutes to complete. We literally just stood there like this for a good chunk of that time. If the ship was sinking, we'd be screwed. Now I see why Costa's sinking was such a disaster. The better ships sailed out before we could. If only we could be on that ship. There was a sailing away party after that. Everyone danced the electric slide. The pool deck had a nice jumbotron that played movies, concerts, news, and tropical music. I actually think this is pretty cool. You can chill on a lounge chair and watch a movie. The ship also gave out popcorn for the late movies. I surprisingly didn't see many of those smokestack drinks onboard though. One last look at Port Everglades before we leave. The Celebrity ship sailed out before us too. Looking toward Miami. I'd love to spend a bit more time in Ft. Lauderdale. It seems like a really nice city. Maybe next time. Goodbye! One last look at Miami and Florida before we leave. Perfect shot to end the day. Sunset at sea. Showing the pool deck This pool was actually bigger than the one on the Fantasy. The mini golf section also looked a bit better-made, but was on the highest point of the ship that you could walk on so it was always incredibly windy. Not to mention that it was tucked away from the main decks so it was a bit hard to find. The main atrium from the pool deck. Most of those floors are for passenger cabins. The main atrium from the inside. Third floor was shops, second was photos, and first was the bar/mini stage. The ship itself was laid out similar to the Fantasy, so it was easy to get around. Problem was, nothing was connected so you really had to do a lot of walking to get around the ship. Also there aren't very many outdoor walkways like the Fantasy so you had to go to the pool deck or have a stateroom with a balcony. That said, the theming was cheesy in some places, not as much in others. Since I haven't gone on other cruise lines, I can't really compare Karnival to anything else. This was on the night of the huge moon. At sea, it looked really cool. Thanks for reading

Assuming he left the designing to another firm (like many companies do), he didn't design a single one. He just manufactured them.

He built two! I thought Revolution was a Heartlinelooper too. Maybe that's a Loopingracer.

So in April, my parents planned a last minute trip to someplace exotic. It was quite a drive that we took. The drive itself began Friday afternoon and we didn't really get to our destination until the next morning. The first South of the Border billboards appear. At one time these things covered this part of the highway. Since then, many of them have been taken down for different reasons. Its kind of a shame too since this road is pretty desolate. These signs are pretty much the only form of entertainment. This used to be the "Chili Today - Hot Tamale" billboard. According to Pedro's Facebook group, that sign is being rehabbed. Nice to see some more colorful billboards dotting the highway. Sun was setting when I took these. Apparently the wild mouse was gone when I drove past it (it was in pieces last year). I wonder who bought it? As tacky as this place is, it's definitely worth checking out at least once. We've actually stopped here three times (although two of those three were gas stops). Strangely enough, two of those three times, this place was dead. The other time, this place was packed with tourists. Crowds must be hit-miss around these parts. I did score a brochure from this place, but it looked like it hadn't been updated since the 80s. I hear some of the old motel rooms there didn't receive renovations so they look just like the picture in the brochure. Getting closer to the border. This place started in the 40s-50s as a little beer depot/gas station and has expanded ever since. We're about less than a mile from the border at this point. You could see the Sombrero Tower from here. Unfortunately I missed South of the Border. We were going too fast to get a decent, non-blurry picture. Going deeper into South Carolina, we hit a massive hail storm which caused 95 to back up - since we were in the middle of nowhere with no place to stop, we decided to press on to Florida anyway. The hailstorm luckily passed up after a half hour, but turned into a massive downpour. Once that was pretty much finished my dad decided to break up the trip a bit by stopping at a few rest areas. it was a pretty long night regardless. Thanks for reading