KBrylczyk

^ I've never been to Shark Reef or Secret Garden, so I have no clue about Ticketmaster for them, but I do know that the shows I've bought on MGM properties, to the best of my memory, have been through their own ticketing system. Go figure, haha.

None! I'm sober unless I'm on a TPR trip, haha.

^ Both of those rides are lap bar only. That's the only way to truly eliminate headbanging. That is, unless it's Thunderhawk at Dorney, where you'll just end up ramming your head into the person next to you. Still love that ride, though! Like I mentioned, I had two good jolts throughout the entire ride, which was MUCH better than the pummeling I received years ago. They didn't have the Premier OTSRs that are pictured above. They were the same TOGO design (like fangs) but much smaller and less restrictive. That's probably what saved me the most. Since the OTSRs were a lower profile they ended up being in line with my neck instead of almost entirely by my jaw and ears. Even then, though, my neck was fine at the end of the ride!

^ Eiffel Tower, though, screws you with Ticketmaster fees even if you buy on site. Two weeks ago we tried for the locals 2-for-1 admission with daytime pricing. They told me it'd be $17.95. The extra $7 gets tacked on and isn't advertised at all. I laughed, said no thank you, and walked out. Stratosphere and Adventuredome, thankfully, don't go through Ticketmaster. I really appreciate that!

I doubt anyone will believe me. First off, please watch the following: [youtu_be] [/youtu_be] Everyone got that? Alright, I'm not sure when exactly Robb filmed that, but I wholeheartedly agree with it. Manhattan Express was a horrible torture device brought upon this earth by Satan himself to punish those who came to Las Vegas. I rode it once when I first visited 9 years ago, then one more 7 years ago when I visited again. I got a bloody lip the second time. The first time I wasn't bleeding but I had a serious headache. It was so bad I told myself I would never ride it again. Then I moved out here. This past February, to be precise. I actually worked at New York New York for a month and a half in their (now defunct) Broadway Theatre as an emergency fill-in backstage manager. That whole time I walked by it, feeling sorry for the people spending $14 a pop to get their skulls beaten to a pulp by the Mike Tyson of rollercoasters. I even had unlimited free rides since I worked there and passed it up. Fast forward 9 months. It's November 26th, I'm bored, and my roommate has never ridden Manhattan Express. This simply can not continue. If I had to get the baptism of fire, so should she. I believe in women's equality, dammit! I had found out not too long ago that locals get 2-for-1 admission, so suddenly the $14 price tag didn't seem nearly as painful. Once the sun went down, we headed on over to the strip for some coaster riding! I sure wasn't looking forward to it, but I knew that the only way to get her on was to go with her. As we paid for tickets and walked to the loading area a part of my soul died. I saw the wretched TOGO track. I heard the yells of what I could only assume was eternal sorrow. I also felt the low-50 degree chill in the air. Surely I was damned. This would be my last night upon this Earth. Quoth the Raven, "TOGOnomore!" I feel it was a final warning... We loaded the train in the front row, for if I were to cease to be, I wanted to see it coming head on. For as I ride on the steel in the shadow of Death, I shall fear no Japanese. The brakes release and we depart while hearing a maniacal, "Enjoy your ride!" I observe my surroundings and notice that the train is different than I remember. Yes, this was no longer a TOGO contraption. This was a Premier train. The same people who fixed rough rides by installing lap bars have...still kept the shoulder harnesses. Crap. Upon embarking the lift hill, I manage a smile. I point out the fake NY skyline and how beautiful it is. I see the brilliant Luxor light reaching miles into the sky. I shed a single tear, for I am all too aware that I am short for this incredible world. It has been a good run, but this is where it ends. Farewell, my friends. I go on to a better place! As we crest the first drop I have a moment of clarity. All of the hate, all of the wars, all of the petty crap we all deal with on a daily basis...it's all for naught. I lived my life as best as I knew how; smiling often, making people laugh, enjoying every last bit no matter how grand or how low it was! Come and get me, Reaper! You will get no remorse from this one! WAHOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!! We level out and quickly rise into the second hill. Up and curving left, we drop again! No sign of pain so far, perhaps I was able to stave off The Dark One with my come and get me spirit! As we rise into the next hill and bank sharply left, I realize my mistake. I taunted Him, and my jaw has taken a glancing blow! We dive down and rise again into a vertical loop! There is not a hint of shakiness or pain as we continue through and enter the famed Twist And Dive. We flip over, hang, the drop again into the abyss! I see His soulless white eyes blink at me as we pass by, rising into the mid course brake run! So far I have eluded the traps set by Him! I am nearly there! We bank slowly to the left and round a curve only to drop down into a bunny hop. We crest the hill slowly without incident then quickly rise again and bank sharply to the right! Still no sign of danger! I laugh as I realize I may make it through this unscathed! He has heard my fit of joy, though, as I see His pure white eyes flash at me again with fury! He tries to eject me from the train as we pass over another hill! The airtime makes me laugh even harder! He hears my continued defiance and lashes out! As we bank to the right to enter a helix, another glancing blow to my jaw lands and forfeits my laughter, but only for a moment! Coming out of the helix The Desolate One attempts one last, desperate blow! He misses and sends me into another jolt of airtime! We rise again and hit the final brakes! It was over! I had survived! As we descended into the depths of the building, I could hear the cries of The Beast fade behind me, doubtless distraught with letting me escape. Not today, Beelzebub! Not today! Alright, in all seriousness, it surprised the hell out of me. Believe it or not, Manhattan Express, thanks to the Premier trains and wheel assemblies, has become a legitimately fun ride. Sure, it is still expensive, but it no longer leaves you lying half dead in a gutter. I consider that a win! Also, thanks for reading! I sometimes get creative writing fits and this was one of them. I hope you enjoyed it!

^ Probably missed by someone editing. Canyon Baster was $8 not too long ago. Looks like the Vegas price hikes continue...

I live two miles from Venetian. I'm well aware, but Tix 4 Tonight has been pretty horrible for deals lately. I just got twilight tickets online which were even cheaper than the locals discount, haha.

This was my first ever trip to a wax museum. I've never seen the point in spending $20 to look at a bunch of what are essentially mannequins. The announcement of a Marvel 4D attraction, though, gave me enough of an excuse to give it a go. To be honest, I still have no idea what the big deal is. It's a bunch of fake people that tend to look creepy all over the place. Imagine a Ripley's Believe It Or Not but remove all of the cool stuff and replace it with a bunch of extremely cheesy themed rooms with creepy fake people staring at you. We worked our way through the museum fairly quickly. The Marvel attraction is the grand finale. As you'll see in the photos I attached, it all seems pretty low-key as you walk in. There's a sign on the wall and four figures, three of which are wax. There's Thor, the Iron Man suit, Captain America, and Tony Stark. According to an employee a wax Hulk will be showing up sometime next month. Aside from the four figures there's really not much going on. There's a camera hanging from the ceiling that wasn't in use when we were there and two flat screen TVs that may or may not play a preshow video while you're waiting. We got lucky and caught the preshow video the second time we entered the room, which I was allowed to take video of: [youtu_be] [/youtu_be] The theatre holds approximately 50 people. It is a typical 4D theatre with seats and a single, front screen, not 360 degrees like the website hints at. I'm assuming they're referring to the fact that the 4D effects surround you. Good ol' buzzwords for advertising. I was hoping for something like Turtle Trek, myself, so it was a bit of a letdown. Another lie in the advertising is that the film doesn't involved the Avengers saving Las Vegas. 99% of the film takes place inside of a Stark Industries lab around an Arc Reactor. When some walls get destroyed a city can be seen in the background but it isn't anything specific. Still, though, the film was good fun. The runtime is just about 10 minutes and involves the Avengers (including Spider-Man!) fighting with Doctor Doom, Doom Bots, Loki, and a Frost Giant. The 4D effects were standard. There's a few water splashes, two or three scent effects, a thing whipping your legs, a back poker, etc. The best effects, though, were the lasers and strobes when the Doom Bots attacked. Word of advice: SIT IN THE BACK! The first time through we sat in the third row and could really only see the screen. Any lighting and laser effects in the theatre were lost on us. Our second time through we sat in the last row and really got the full experience. The lasers from the Doom Bots, force fields, Iron Man's repulsor cannons, it was all very well choreographed and really made the experience that much better. Here's a quick plot rundown. Spoiler alert, BTW. The preshow talks about how Stark Industries are the leader in green energy, etc. The film opens with Tony giving a press conference for the new Arc Reactor. Peter Parker is in attendance for the Bugle. The conference is quickly interrupted by Doctor Doom and his Doom Bots who want to use the Arc Reactor for whatever evil things he's up to. Spider-Man pops in, shares some one-liners with Tony, Tony suits up, they fight Doctor Doom and the Doom Bots. Enter Captain America, Thor, and Hulk. More fighting ensues. Enter Loki. Enter Frost Giant. More fighting. Exit Frost Giant. Still more fighting. Doctor Doom wants the Arc Reactor to power his weaponized satellite. Iron Man flies to take care of it, Thor joins. Loki disappears at some point. Thor supercharges Iron Man, Doctor Doom gets frozen in a bubble, Avengers win. Hooray! Hulk Smash. The film was a lot of fun, the 4D wasn't extremely cheesy, so I consider it a big plus for the strip. Hopefully they'll get some more figures in the preshow lobby because right now it is pretty empty. Hope you enjoy the photos and the video! Fiber Optic Escalator! Embrace the cheese! The Rock, back in his smaller days. He's at least twice that size now. Spider-Man! He's all alone, far away from the Marvel lobby. Because Bond. Yeah, Knievel, I'm on your bike. Do something. OMG EVEL KNIEVEL'S BIKE OMGOMGOMG!!!!! Theatre tech giggle here. Elvis is singing into an SM81. Commonly used as an overhead drum mic, not a vocal mic. Hooray entrance sign! OMG IRON MAN MARK VI! Yup. Definitely Mark VI. Hiya, Cappy! Duckface. Owned by America. Great detail on the costume / shield. Tony being Tony. Thor! Sitting in the back of the theatre, gives an idea of the size.

Has there been any movement on this? Now that two other Polercoasters have been announced I figure if anything was going to happen there would be a rumble or two.

Disneyland Paris still has it. The robot speaks French the entire time, though. Best part of the ride is when Red Leader comes on the video screen and speaks english, though. Guess they didn't want to spend the money to dub it over. "...omlette du fromage, je'taime..." "Star Tours! What are you doing here?!" "VOULEZ-VOUS COUCHER AVEC MOI?!?!?!?!"

Dinosaur, Version 1. By the same token, Indiana Jones, Version 1. Indy is my favorite ride in Disneyland anyway on the current programming. I can only imagine how much wilder that thing was when it first opened!

You could get a pretty wicked eurofighter in there...

^ Because of the tilt itself or because you don't trust Vekoma's brake technology?

I will have you know that the lift hills on Euro-MIR and Eurosat are the greatest lift hill experiences on the face of the earth! For proof (some colorful language) - [youtu_be] [/youtu_be]

^ A bunch of ridiculously twisty insanity.

I wish all parks had Heide's speed. They got this thing built and operational in record time, it seems!

"Miami" and "World Class City" do not belong in the same sentence. That said, this project looks interesting. Good location for tourists since it is right next to Bayside Shopping Center, the cruise terminals, and the Heat Arena.

USH will never build an outdoor rollercoaster. They are first and foremost a movie studio with insane sound restrictions. Imagine filming a movie when you have a trainload of screaming people flying by every minute. It's not going to happen.

^ No matter what it is, we can always make balls jokes.

^ Are those golf balls in the last picture?

SLUSH GUSHER! YES!!!! My butthole clenched rather tightly on that thing. I swear I had a good 3 seconds of off-the-slide airtime!

^ Page 6 of the update -

Soooooo, Dynamic Attractions was advertising a trackless KUKA. My word, that sounds awesome. Imagine riding Winnie The Pooh or Mystic Manor with the KUKA range of motion! Holy fiddlesticks!

Anyone else notice the MaxFlight simulator in the background during the Garner Holt interview? They still make those things?!

I've never done a trapdoor, so I can't weigh in on them. For the most part I find waterslides to be fun, never scary or intense (except for Twin Peaks at Caneva). The most uncomfortable I've been was Summit Plummet at Blizzard Beach, though. It's high, sure, but I didn't find it scary. What sucked about it was the beating my back took at the end of the drop. You're going way too fast for a body slide on that thing and it slaps you around like you owe it money. I rode it once and will most likely never ride it again. It gave me bruises. Edit - I would rather ride Goudurix repeatedly before going on Summit Plummet again.