BrownStreak

I have been aggressively been researching Grad School programs recently (now that I have more time to do so- see my signature). I was chatting with someone yesterday about how my present school (Cleveland State University) seems so alive in the early part of Fall Semester and the late part of Spring Semester, but seems completely dead throughout most of the winter. So I decided to see if any of the Florida schools had the appropriate program. Why am I telling all of this on a theme park board? I found that USF (University of South Florida) does have programs would could be easily adapted to my very rare goals so I spent some time researching the school, the city, and the surrounding area today. I was shocked to find that the campus shares part of its southern border with Busch Gardens Tampa! What a perfect school for a theme park enthusiast. I am wondering; however if it is really as close as it seems. I mean can you hear the screams from the park? Can you see any of the rides running from campus? Now, I'm not saying that any of this information would impact my decision on whether or not to pick this school- I am just curious. That said, I am leary about Portland State Univ. (OR) as there are not any major theme parks anywhere near the city and I am looking at another 4 - 5 years for my Masters and Ph.D.- so I want to live somewhere I would enjoy living. I'll minor in B&M Coasters!

Killer Whales are technically in the Dolphin family, not the Whale family. In the past 10 or pages I have read I didn't see this mentioned anywhere, but like 10 - 15 years ago another Sea World trainer was killed by an Orca (Killer Whale) and it turned out later that the trainer was somehow abusing the animals (sexually or physically, I don't remember which). There was a big uproar then about the shows being ended and what not and it eventually died down and things continued...obviously since no one has mentioned it in this thread. I love that quote so much! At their core base parks like Sea World and zoos are necessary because of this statement; however they have to make themselves entertaining to get the people in the gates to learn.

I still don't understand all of the hype when, less than three months out, they still have not made a formal announcement as to what the major attraction will actually be! Is that because they're afraid its going to be a dud?

In all seriousness, would this membership look good on a resume? My advisor keeps telling me I should have more "non-scholastic" "Activities & Memberships" on my resume.

OMG! Shane! You've got footage of the Darien Lake Viper running three trains! The first summer I worked at Darien Lake was the first summer the park started making the major rides co-ed and so I was the first male Viper B!tch (as the female ride ops on Viper were called- even by the crew members themselves). Somewhere in a box at my parents' house I have my training manual for Viper and in the History Section it talks about how the coaster opened with three trains "but as this proved to be too hard for ride hosts to handle" it was reduced to two. I always thought that this was funny because CP Corkscrew is much shorter and runs three trains (granted they always back up- which defeats the purpose of having more trains).

Wow! Titan looks like someone's first attempt at building a coaster on No-Limits. What's with that long straight-away? Was it a tunnel when it was at Boblo?

Does anyone remember the DL commercial with the jingle "If you've got rides and slides and surprises- It must be Darien Lake//If you hear more laughter than you ever heard- It must be Darien Lake," I think it would have been mid-to-late 80's (not long after Fantasy Island's infamous Fun! Wow! campaign). Ray "Who finds its interesting that his computer knows that Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan are spelled right but thinks that Darien is spelled wrong" Izard

^Page 5 is working on this "Topic;" however, I still cannot go into the other "Topic" that Robb sent me as a test.

But you are Blanche, you are!

How do you ensure that the Park Perks will work? I mean if I arrive early to Kings Island for example, what happens if I walk up to Guest Services and say "I'm here to walk back to the Beast...here's my card," and they say..."The rides open at 10:30, have a nice day" because being a smaller club that Rep didn't know the protocol for Club TPR?

WOW! Thanks for the revisiting on MY childhood! I totally remember that second commercial...heck, I'm even old enough to remember the olden days before Predator got rough! I visited Darien Lake almost every summer between 1982 (age 8) and 1991 (age 17). I remember that my family had experienced Hydro Force when it was still at Geuaga Lake and we were thrilled when they brought it to Darien. I also remember a trip we took with school when several of the kids spent the entire day at "the beach." Its funny how in those old maps you can fully see the current layout of the park, which even back then seemed a bit odd (Its basically a giant "H" and you have to walk up the one leg of the H before you get to anything. I remember that whether you took I-90 out or US 5 or 33 you ended up on 77 north of the park and you would pass through Corfu (where 77 & 33 intersected) and I swear that entire town's economy is based on giving speeding tickets to people headed to Fun Country. Many of the residents which still live within 5 - 10 minutes of the park still call it Fun Country- including my cousin's Aunt & Uncle who live on a hill nearby (from their living room window you can see the Giant Wheel and one of Viper's Loops). Anyways...you would come down out of Corfu and the first thing you would see were Bison grazing in an open field on your left which is how you knew you were getting close to the park's entrance. Especially for its time, Viper's queue was unique (and still is)- it follows a winding trail around the inside of the coaster's layout. There were no switchbacks- just a meandering path bringing you to the station. Of course this uniqueness made re-rides difficult as you then had to walk all the way around the coaster to get back in line again. If I remember correctly there is now a mini golf course under park of Viper, but for a long time I was just grass and bushes and the queue path. Even in '93 and '95 (the two different summers I worked out there) Viper was still able to pull in enough people to fill its queue. In around 1985 my family went out to the park two hours before the park opened because we were going to be in that year's commercial. They were going to just film us riding the rides from a distance and we got park admission, lunch, and unlimited rides as our pay. Unfortunately it was cloudy all day and they told us they were not going use any of the footage. I just remember riding Viper for almost an hour without getting off!

I got that too- I reported it to Robb who said he performed a whole scan and check and found nothing. The way River Country was laid out, I wonder why they couldn't just dam off the section containing the park and then use filtered water. Even after Typhoon Lagoon opened I still preferred River Country. I loved that raft ride where you'd constantly end up in jams on the way down to where it was almost a lazy river with drops. As to Discovery Island- I miss that too. It was nice to still be "at Disney" but have a small, intimate experience in a relaxed setting. I used to pilot the boats that served the island. In fact my last day working at Disney I was "yelling" at my co-worker because she was doing something she wasn't supposed to be doing which was going to make the passengers aboard late for the "last entry of the day" cutoff time...on accident, I let a "bad word" come out of my mouth- which is why it ended up being my last day I was only 20...

Are they going back to Spetro after this is done or is that parade going somewhere else?

Is Spectro Magic being retired? Or sent to another park? I always liked that parade.

^Well yeah, they quickly reached out and snatched up their (geographically) closest competition as soon as those places started adding major rides. I'm surprised they didn't purchase Waldameer after their new woody went in...or even Darien Lake which isn't much farther away than MI-Adventure. DL would make sense so CF could claim ownership to the two worst Dinn coasters on the planet! Discovering how close MI-Adv is to Douglas and Saugatuk makes me want to visit there even more now!

Six Flags doesn't seem to fair well with lease agreements. Isn't this sort of what happened with their water park in Sacramento? Then there's SFNO and Wyandot Lake- the only one is a happy ending.

I recently read something (albeit not on a very reliable site...wikipedia) that going into the 2000's much of upper management at Gaylord left the company and that in 2004 new management was questioning why the park was closed. Apparently there was nothing documented as to the exact reason and no feasibility studies had been done. Did they sell that land to the mall developer or do they pay rent? It seems that the new thing in the retail world is these new faux-urban villages with condos and shops mixed together and made to look like a village. Most malls I know of are not doing very well. It seems odd to replace something that is fairly unique within a five-hour radius with something that will be old news as soon as a newer development opens elsewhere in the area. That's like replacing a Zoo with a Walmart.

When I worked there there was a remote lot that you often had to park at for the Studios and ride a van to wardrobe- I want to say that it was where the Fantasmic Stadium is now.

Okay, let me start off by mentioning that I know that many of the things which fascinate me are boring to many, but hey that's why I am so good in my field (Urban Planning). Out of all of the theme parks I have worked in, one of the most interesting ones as far as "behind-the-scenes" is included was SF Great America. I thought it was a neat design to disguise the employee access road which leads into the center of the park with a covered bridge. This allows for many backstage operations to occur right in the middle of the park and the guests have no idea its there. I worked there at the tail end of the Warner days when the different rides had different costumes and the backstage spine made it so you were only ever seen in the correct themed area- like the tunnels at the MK, only the SFGrAm backstage didn't stink like the MK tunnels often did. For those who don't know what I'm talking about- there is an employee-access roadway lined with backstage ops, buildings, break rooms, etc. which runs down the center of the park. One one end it ends near the Train Station and you can exit into Home Town Square or the New Orleans Section. It then travels up the park and in between Camp Cartoon Network and the Iron Wolf it exits the park under a covered bridge. As mentioned, I have also been in the "tunnels" (which are actually at the real ground level) under MK. Their charm wore off though as they were very bland and many sections of them smelled VERY bad. It was also a pain that at the end of your (often) long day you had to wait at the Utilidor Exit to catch a packed shuttle bus out to the CM Lot which was 1-2 miles behind the park. The Disney Studios backstage was small and compact. When they built Sunset Blvd (ToT) they had to build a new CM Parking Lot. If you were lucky you could park at the small lot right by wardrobe, but often you had to park in the other lot and wait for a shuttle. I suppose after RnR was built everyone probably had to use the remote lot. Unlike MK and EPCOT, Wardrobe at the Studios was tiny and you couldn't change clothes at your locker because that area was co-ed. Yesterday I was looking at an aerial shot of AK and I could not figure out where the CM Parking was or any of its CM Buildings. Does anyone know where they are? Anyone have other info about interesting backstage layouts at various parks?

Intamin AG of Germany? Same guy (claiming to represent a thrill seekers) website says he doesn't know if any other bobsled coasters exist...other than that, Great Video!

That is what the Disney Studios did back in 1994 with ToT- Sunset Boulevard was opened a few months ahead of the actual ToT to give the shops and stores time to get going before the big attraction opened.

Alright, can I ask a question? Yes I realize I just did, but anyways: What is rent like in the Pigeon Forge area? Would this be a good place to move for the summer for an older college student to find a summer job? (I am 36 y/o with a small dog)

^^SEX: The Ride! That almost sounds like an idea for the next Photoshop contest

Wow! That is the shortest train I have seen at any park anywhere! One car!

I often wonder if any of the stuff I saved when working for WDW in the mid-90's is worth anything today. I have a few nametags (basic oval and the first series which included your hometown at the bottom- the last ones before the circle popped out of the top). I also have the full-color Eyes & Ears announcing ToT (Studios) and its Previews. I know I have more than that- but its in a box at my parents house 200 miles away.