ILoveRides

I know the OP said there was no opening date, but they also said employees were told... ... and that was back in June, so I was just wondering if anything had happened yet. There was never an announcement from Stratosphere, and based on what themeparkman25 said it sounds like construction hasn't begun, so it looks like this project is delayed at best.

Does anyone know what happened with this? Did it get delayed/cancelled, or is it actually being built now? I haven't heard anything new since the initial rumor.

But look at the video and think back to many big screen similators that you'll find in parks. She didn't just smoothly tilt the guy forward. They lurch or shake you forward. I think what they are *trying* to do is show that you're changing direction, but it's just such a poor way to portray this. It's ALWAYS bothered me in simulators because a "simulator" by it's nature is supposed to realistically "simulate" the action you see on screen (think back to actual flight simulators or other simulators used for real purposes, not for entertainment.) But then the "entertainment folk" get ahold of this technology and go "Hmm....it's not fun to fly the plane...but OMG, it's awesome to CRASH the plane!!!" And thus instead of smooth, fluid movements, you have shaking, jerking and jostling every 10 seconds. I remember when I worked for Disney talking to someone who worked on Star Tours when it first opened and they were telling me "We've had a lot of problems with the mechanics because they were designed to simulate flying the plane, not crashing one every 3 1/2 minutes." I guess what I'm saying is that I've never found this violent jerking movement to ever be "fun" in any simulator. I find it to be annoying. So when I saw the woman in that video also shake that chair violently in the same way that an actual simulator would be programmed it got me thinking "Do people REALLY think that is the motion you feel when you go down a drop." Or is it that they just don't know any other way to convey what they think they are feeling? Like "Hmmm....tilting the chair back and forth very smoothly to match the what is on the video is actually quite relaxing and not 'thrilling' at all....so....let me *SHAKE* the chair and *JERK* the the chair from side to side, and *LURCH* the chair forward! There we go! That's really giving the rider a thrill now!!!" That's more of what I see happening here. (and on simulators found in theme parks) I dunno, it was just a moment of trying to understand human behaviour when I saw that video clip. --Robb "Sorry for the rambling and random thoughts..." Alvey That's actually an interesting point. I think perhaps since weightlessness and strong g forces can't be replicated as easily with simulators, designers try to compensate with rough motions. Otherwise the simulators would just be boring to ride. I agree though that for the most part it just isn't very fun to be thrown around. I really like Soaring Over California where the motions are more subtle and more realistic. But then again, probably my all time favorite ride is Indy at Disneyland... which throws you around as much as any ride. I've never really thought about why this works so well on Indy though (at least in my opinion), and not as well (again, in my opinion) on rides like Star Tours.

Sounds exciting! Hillary and I are planning a literally identical trip, but probably not til next summer (we're hoping to line it up with bay area bash, assuming that becomes an annual event). So I can't wait to see your trip reports. Have fun! Oh, and as far as getting all the credits, I'm pretty sure Invertigo at California's Great America is closed after the little fiasco they had. But good luck with all the rest!

I missed that the first time... thanks for pointing it out!

Hahaha... great Termination day TR! Funny stuff. I get stronger by the day. Oh and I did the manly pose in Japan just for you guys! Haven't gotten around to posting those trip reports yet... but hopefully soon!

Nice pics Robb! You captured our first ride ever on Terminator! (We're in the front row of the "Awesome hair in the front row!" pic hehe). Btw, is there any chance I could get the high resolution version of that pic? That pic was also taken right before Brittney got her first bee sting . Right when the fire shot out on our first ride, she got stung by a bee! We initially thought it was a spark or a flying splinter of wood since we didn't see the bee itself, but Britt went to first aid since it hurt and we didn't know what it was, and they confirmed it was a bee sting. Anyways... back on topic... As everyone has said already... this event rocked! I had only gotten an hour of sleep the night before, and was basically a zombie by the end, but it still was amazing! Robb and Elissa's party was a great place to be beat the heat in the afternoon... and it was fun seeing some of the TPR dvds in the theater. We're always shy so we didn't really talk to many people, but the party was still fun and we really appreciated it. Thanks Robb and Elissa for giving us somewhere fun to go rather than melting in the sun during the middle of the day. Once the sun set, the weather became just perfect. We headed over to terminator at 9:45 and got in line a little early for night ERT. At first, it really looked like it was going to be a flop. We got in line at 9:45 and didn't get into the preshow rooms until 10:15. We had to watch the preshows, and eventually got on the coaster at 10:30 (they were running half empty trains while we were in the preshows). So, a 45 minute wait was somewhat disappointing, and at that point it appeared we'd only get about 2 rides total in before they closed... But boy did magic mountain turn it around after the first ride. Once the GP left, and they opened up the preshow rooms and let us walk right through, things flowed perfectly. (eventually, we found the secret staircase entrance too, so we could just walk right back around after riding). They decided to let ERT go an extra 30 minutes... which more than made up for the problems. We had a solid hour with 0 lines... it was a total blast. The ride operator was hilarious... and everyone had an amazing time. I got 11 rides in for night ERT, and Brittney got about 8 before she started feeling sick and sat the rest out (she gets motion sickness if she rides too many times in a row). All in all, it was a wonderful day, and an especially wonderful night. Terminator really comes to life at night. I love that the ride is kept completely dark, which makes the red lights in the tunnels and the fire stand out that much more. I've only ridden woodies in California, but without a doubt Terminator is my favorite. Congrats to Magic Mountain on a real winner of a ride. And thanks to Magic Mountain, Robb & Elissa, and anyone else involved on a real winner of an event. A few random pics from the day are below... Bonus Pic #3: The tram ride became the highlight of our night, and was a great end to a great day at Magic Mountain! When we got off, the tram operator thanked us for riding the party bus lol. Bonus Pic #2: See!? Everybody really was dancing around. It's bonus pic time!!!! Bonus Pic #1: On the tram ride back to our cars, they were playing "We Like To Party" by Vengaboys. Everybody started dancing around! The back half of the last train of the night. I'm pretty sure this is the last train of the night as it pulled back into the station. Everyone applauded after a great hour of ERT. My favorite picture! I'm pretty sure this was the last train of the night. Brittney took all these night time ERT pics while I continued to ride. Here's a train creeping up into darkness. I love that there's almost no lighting on the ride. And finally, nighttime ERT!!! It was pure amazingness! Bumper cars! Brittney's car was broken and went SUPER slow (they took it into the maintenance shed after she got off). Needless to say, she got bumped like nobody's business. We got back from the party just before sunset. Here's superman at sunset. Taken while driving to the party at Robb and Elissa's. Why did I include this picture, you ask? Well, why not? We took this pic over in Thomas Town. I love the conductor in the background! He was like 20 feet away, but still posed haha. Tweety showed up at lunch, so we got a pic! Vegetarian lunch (we didn't have much cuz we were planning on picking up some food later). The free unlimited fountain drinks were the greatest thing ever on such a hot day. We did have a Magic Day! Thanks! Brittney with the terminators during morning ERT. I had seen pictures of the theming beforehand, but I thought it was even cooler in person. I thought the theming was really great for Magic Mountain, and I hope they continue to do more of this in the future. (I would recommend turning down the volume in the last room though) On the way to Terminator we saw these Geese lined up to ride the go karts. And the funny thing was, from the front of the line they started walking out onto the go kart track to go ride. But we didn't wait to watch them ride, because we had morning ERT to attend. Before the park opened, this bee kept landing on the bag we had our sunscreen in. Apparently it was foreshadowing for what was to come!

Thanks for the tips and info everyone! Leaving in 2 days!!!!!!! I'm crazy excited!

It was nice meeting you guys yesterday! I like the pic of us walking away haha .

Me three!

I just checked the weather for tomorrow... 104 Degrees Am I seeing that right? I don't think I've ever been outside in that kind of heat. http://www.wunderground.com/US/CA/Valencia.html

Well... the store wasn't particularly manly either... so I suppose it's fitting

Sorry for all the super-delayed responses... Well, I didn't notice any tilt. However, I wasn't checking for that specifically when I was riding... so I don't really know. That feature sounds neat though... I wonder why they'd take that out. As someone else mentioned, the pricing is on their website. Currently it's $13.95 for adults and children, $9.95 for seniors. They were nice and gave us a little discount... but I don't think they normally do. Iduno if it was because they thought we were too old and wouldn't have fun, or because I was carrying a camera and they wanted a good review, or if they were just being nice... but regardless I would've been quite happy paying the full $13.95... because we really had a great time. The admission price covers pretty much all the rides. (I think the rock climbing wall was an extra $3 or something). Interesting... because the lady at the front did ask if I was with ACE. I assumed it had something to do with me having a big camera, and just replied that I wasn't with ACE, but was going to take pictures to post a trip report on TPR. I have no idea if they normally only allow ACE members though... it didn't seem that way to me at the time, but who knows. Hillary Duff? I always thought she looked more like Jessica Alba personally. Yep, WCB 09 was our first TPR event, despite my reading this site since probably 2005. I don't know what I was thinking though, I should've been going to TPR events all along... it was a ton of fun. That's cool you went to UCI! I'm going to UCI currently, and no one ever told me about the park either. That's why I was so surprised to see it on the California trip list. Someone should post fliers for them at UCI or something haha. (although I'm not sure how the average college kid who isn't obsessed with rides will feel about this park). We only rode in the front two cars... thanks for the heads up though. Maybe I'll brave the back next time if I feel up for a beating. I didn't know there were rumors about it closing, but I really hope it doesn't! It's a nice little park. Maybe I'll go back and support them some more when TPR visits. It always makes me sad to see a park close.

I was so sad to hear this news today. Captain EO was one of my favorite Disney attractions, and probably what I most associated Michael Jackson with. I grew up watching it at Disneyland, and have always missed it since they took it out. To me, the movie epitomized the "magic" in the Magic Kingdom. I'll never forget the awe I felt seeing Captain Eo as a kid - being transported to a futuristic world with a talking elephant, a flying fuzzball, and a hero in a glowing neon shirt. No one could have brought the quality of music or dance to the film that Michael did, and for that I'm really grateful. Captain Eo was a hero to me... and there was possibly nothing I loved more as a kid than spending 17 minutes watching that film with my dad at Disneyland. Michael may be gone, but I will never forget the happy memories he's given me.

A few days ago I was looking at what parks were on the upcoming TPR west coast trip, and was surprised to find one called "Adventure City" in Anaheim, CA that I had never heard of, despite living in So Cal my whole life. So... my girlfriend and I decided to go check it out. This is our trip report from that visit on 6/14/09. It should serve as a nice little preview for those coming on the west coast trip in about 2 months. I should start off by saying that I was going into this park with very low expectations. The website just didn't intrigue me too much (mainly because there weren't any big overall pictures of the park or rides), there were only a handful of pictures on TPR, and it wasn't in the nicest area (although, to be fair, the area isn't terrible either.. and I felt 100% safe in and around the park). However... from the moment we stepped in, we were very pleasantly surprised. We ended up having a great time, and I almost feel guilty for thinking it would be anything less than a great experience. The staff were ALL very friendly to us (the park really shined in this regard), the rides... while mostly small... were fun, and overall... for a small, hole-in-the wall type park... it was surprisingly nice and well kept. I would definitely recommend checking it out and spending a few hours here. We had a wonderful time, and thought it was well worth the entry price. On to the pics... Bonus pic #2: Down the street from the park was this store called "Man's Town". WTF? I had to stop and take a manly picture out front. The funny thing was that they had women's clothes too... strange. Bonus pic #1: Outside the park was this museum that looked like the white house. Bye bye adventure city! We had fun Well, that's it for Adventure City. Definitely check it out if you're in the area! Each of the cars was different too... we rode the fire truck. I should also add that I'm supremely jealous of anyone who can fit in the front part of the firetruck. Some of the theming in the tunnel. The cars went through a nicely themed tunnel. It was little touches like this that made this park really nice. See? This was so cool. They also had this car ride... and the really neat part was they let you dress up like firefighters to ride it! Crazy bus.. the only ride we didn't get a chance to get on... just because we only came 1.5 hours before closing. Overview shot taken from the ferris wheel Little ferris wheel type ride Wheeee I'm flying! I admit we were probably too big to be riding some of these rides... but we didn't care The staff were great too, and didn't give us any weird "aren't you too old for this?" stares. Next up was this balloon ride. My girlfriend wanted to go on it because she thought it was going to be a really slow spinning, calm ride (she didn't see it run beforehand). She was wrong.... it was actually pretty intense. Very pretty theming for the last section of the train ride. The whole train ride was very well themed for such a small park. Next we headed for the train. This display case with model trains was a nice extra touch in the station. I didn't get a good picture, but at one point near the end it feels like you're going to hit the track above you. The cars are nicely themed. Tree Top Racers Next we headed for their larger coaster, Tree Top Racers. On the way we passed the party tree... which was locked... so we just partied outside. One last pic of the freeway coaster. For lift hill enthusiasts It loops around under itself... the basic layout is a figure 8... with a few extra bumps and twists. It felt almost like it was built specifically to go through this tree. It used the terrain nicely. I liked that it wasn't just sitting on a concrete slab like most other kid's coasters I've been on. And they let you stay on for 3 laps! It was small, but still fun. First we headed for the freeway coaster... the smaller of their 2 coasters. There's a train that runs around the whole park. You cross over the tracks in the entrance plaza. My gf and I outside the entrance

First off, I wanted to give a huge thanks to Robb and Elissa for all the hard work they put into this site. I've read TPR for years, but it's only after beginning to plan my first coaster trip recently that I've begun to realize what a truly unique and comprehensive source of amusement park information this site is. So I wanted to extend a huge thanks. I probably couldn't have planned this trip without Theme Park Review, so I'm very grateful for the hard work you guys put into the site. Now, about my trip.. I'm going to Japan for two weeks at the beginning of July. It's my first time going to Japan (actually, my first time out of the U.S. even), so I will be exploring a bit and not going to amusement parks every day. However, a good part of the trip will be visiting amusement parks. I'll be staying with a friend in Tokyo, so I am planning on leaving from Tokyo each morning and returning to Tokyo each night, with the possible exception of the nights I go to Parque Espana and Spaland, since those parks seem to be farther away. I've read all the Japan trip reports I could find, and have narrowed where I'd like to go into 3 categories: parks I for sure would like to go to, parks I might go if I have extra time, and parks I'm not likely to go to. That list is below: FOR SURE: 1. Tokyo Disneyland 2. Tokyo Disneysea 3. Nagashima Spaland 4. Parque Espana 5. La Qua (tokyo dome) 6. Sea Paradise 7. Yokohama Cosmoworld 8. Tobu Zoo 9. Yomiuriland 10. Sega Joypolis / Muscle Park 11. Galaxy Express 999 - Aqua Stadium, Japan MAYBE: 1. Hirakata Park 2. Universal Studios Japan 3. Space World 4. Uminonakamichi Seaside Park 5. Lagunasia 6. Hamanako Pal Pal 7. Nasu Highland Park PROBABLY NOT: 1. Expoland 2. Fuji-Q (Looks good, but horrible reviews) I would love any general comments or tips anyone might have about my plan, but I also had a few specific questions: 1. Some parks seem like they might only take up 1/2 day, and are close enough that they could be possibly be combined into the same day. I was wondering, for the parks on my for sure list, do you think any are 1/2-day-type-parks that are close enough to combine with another 1/2-day-type park in the same day. It seems like Cosmoworld and Sea Paradise probably could be done in the same day. Is that a good assessment? Are there any others close enough to combine? 2. Space world and Fuji-Q both seem like excellent parks (at least, as far as the rides go). I decided against Fuji-q after reading all the bad reviews here, and decided against Space World just because it seems so far from Tokyo. For a first timer though, do you think it would be a mistake to miss these parks? I'm still a little undecided. Also, does anyone know how long the train ride from Tokyo to Space World would be? 3. Are there any parks that aren't on my for-sure list that you'd recommend seeing, or perhaps any parks on my for-sure list that you'd recommend against seeing. I made this list from what I gathered from all the trip reports, but it's sometimes a little hard to tell from the pictures what the experience is like, so if there's something you recommend seeing that isn't on my list, I'd love to know. 4. Not really theme park related, but are there any non-amusement-park sites in Japan you'd highly recommend seeing? Thanks in advance for any help! I'm so excited... leaving in about 2 weeks .

This sounds like it'll be worth driving out to Vegas for. I've always thought they needed something that would drop you off the tower, although I do wish it was the original coaster design instead. I'll take what I can get though. It should be an incredible experience... hopefully it really gets made.

My vote for SFMM is an intamin megalite like Kawasemi (which I haven't ridden yet, but it looks nice). I do think magic mountain should break the height record, but not until someone steals that record from six flags. No point in six flags stealing it from itself. By leaving magic mountain without the height record, six flags stands ready to steal it back if someone ever takes it. It could be awhile before a non-six-flags park steals the height record though, so in the meantime the second most important record I would like to see them break is the longest steel coaster record. Length goes a really long way in making a ride great in my opinion. I just hate waiting in line and then only getting a 45 second ride. However, more length = more cost. So I think something like Kawasemi is a nice middle ground. A beutiful, twisty, air-time-filled, decent length ride like that is probably something they could do, and would benefit them a lot.

Great trip report... although I must admit it makes me sad seeing a park so empty .

Yep, aside from the lunch and ert I'm pretty sure it's just like any normal day at the park.

I'm gonna have to disagree with Robb (uh oh... 14 posts in and I'm already disagreeing with the head honcho ). Anyhow... I think those pics are great, especially some of the ones on your site that you didn't post. Great work. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions and I encourage everyone to post them. It was not nessesary to single me out that you had a different opinion than mine. A simple "Thanks for posting those photos, I personally liked them" would have actually been sufficient. I said quite clearly "whatever floats your boat" meaning I completely understand that some people will be into those photos, but to me, I don't understand the point. Focus on YOUR opinions of the coaster, the photos, etc, not focus on MY opinion of them. --Robb Sorry, I was trying to be funny and failed haha. Point taken.

I'm gonna have to disagree with Robb (uh oh... 14 posts in and I'm already disagreeing with the head honcho ). Anyhow... I think those pics are great, especially some of the ones on your site that you didn't post. Great work.

*drool*

*anxiously awaits Robb's good news*

Woo hoo! Nice to see it testing finally. I can't wait another week... I'm too excited hehe. *stares at wood terminator piece from WCB to calm himself down*