gisco

I don't think you need any proof that your a coaster fanatic to get into Solace. They didn't ask me for any last year and I don't know of anyone who did get asked. Since the flyer for the event is posted on a public web site and there is no mention of having to be a member of a group, I can't see how or why they would require it. Besides, paying $46 for a ticket is proof enough your a coaster fanatic. They do mention you have to be an ACE member to get a discount on special merchandise in the park but not into the park. Besides, worst case is find someone in line who is a member and ask to be their guest.

Happy Birthday TPR Forums! This is an awsome site you have put together R & E. Did you ever imagine that there would be over 8,000 users sign up in just 1 year?

I think that SFMM will make an attempt to open Flashback so they can say they have 17 coasters. They can say it anyway but counting a SBNO coaster is pretty lame. Then after the novelty of having the most coasters wares off, they will close it again.

Here is the sign as of last September

I rode Delphis last September and it was a Saturday night. The multi-story mall it is located in was dead. I remember only a couple of stores open on the ground floor and I think they were both restaurants. Non of the other rides were operating. I don't see how it can last much longer before it is SBNO.

[quote name="PhishyBrewer Anyway... that's a hell of a lot of driving. So folks really don't know how HUGE Calfornia is until they get here. When my step-mom visited us in Sacramento years ago' date=' she said she wanted to goto the San Diego zoo. She changed her mind after I told her it was 8 hours away. Enjoy![/quote] I had a salesman call me at 10:30 in the morning and tell me he would take me to lunch. He didn't show up until 2:00 P.M. He was in San Francisco and thought Fresno was only about an hour South. He said it looked close on the Map! People just don't realize how big the state is. It is a 5 hour drive just to get out of the state from here. Everybody likes to bash Fresno. Why? It is not a bad place. For the people who live here and complain there is nothing to do, they would complain no matter where they lived.

SFMW is the one park I didn't check when it would open this year. I have done it one day. It's about 3-1/2 hours to get there. You could make a weekend out of it by going to both SFMW and SCBB and even spend a little time in San Francisco. Bob

Thanks, that looks like the animal we saw.

Wow, what do you do that will bring you to here to Fresno for 5 weeks? Spring break here in the Fresno area is the week before Easter which is April 10th to the 14th. If you are a coaster whore there are 2 little kiddie coasters here. One is at Blackbeards Family Fun Center and the other at Rotary Playland by the Zoo. I don't think there is any size restrictions but at Blackbeards at least you have to ride 2 to a car. So if you need someone to go with let me know. March 11th is Solace at KBF. I went last year and plan on going again this year. It is a good time to get ERT at Knotts. In the middle of the day a lot of people go to Adventure City that has a couple of coasters. Since it is closing later this year it is a last chance to ride those two. Usually on the 12th, Rideworld does something at MM. Get in early and get ERT on 3 coasters. They talked about ERT on Tatsu if it's finished by then. You will also probably be able to find Robb & Elissa hanging around these parks and other TPR members that weekend. Not much is going to be open North of Fresno until April 1st. The exception is SCBB which is open on the weekends. In Southern California everything is open I think, at least on the weekends. Besides the ones you have been to, there is Universal, Seaworld, Legoland and other small parks all open. To give you a rough idea the time it takes to drive there from Fresno. SCBB is about 2-1/2 hours, MM is about 3-1/2 hours, DLR is 4-1/2 hours and Seaworld is 5-1/2 hours. Hope that helps Bob

I'm not sure if I remember this correctly but at Disneyland in 2004 around Christmas they thought the park might reach capacity. They warned us that if it did, they wouldn't let anybody into the park, even if you had been in earlier in the day, until the crowds eased. Not quite the same as no re-entry but it's how Disney handles the capacity problem

Another option to get to Magic Mountain is a tour company. For $89 they will provide transportation and admission to the park. If you already have tickets they will do it for $45. They usually pick up at the hotels around the resorts like Knott's or Disney. http://www.la-tours.com/sixflags.htm

I would plan your trip in May. Schools get out in June and the parks will be crowded. The last full weekend in May is Memorial Day so Monday will be a Holiday. That is the unofficial start of the summer season and parks can be crowded from there on out. CP opens 2nd week of May and I think all parks in Southern California are either year round or open all week by May. That is my 2 cents worth

part 2 of picture post Cemetary outside of hotel and end of update Culture pictures, The imperial Palace Cool monorail you ride to get to Chiba Zoo Taking picture of people taking picture of gorilla Last new coaster of the trip, it's a Vekoma! Chiba Zoo, Got to go on this Steel Dragon Anyone know what kind of animal this is? Came out of the bushes while waiting for the train Hello Kitty Coaster, It's powered, No credit! and its queue full of Japanese with cloaking devices Loop Screw Coaster at Seibuen Yuenchi isn't pirate spelled with an e on the end? Shuttle loop that I lost some change out of my pocket on A view of the nice water in the lazy river from cyclone return to Toshimaen and Cyclone The mouse from the wheel Cosmo world and their big wheel and the helix of death Surf Coaster Blue Fall at Sea Paradise

September 15th. The last official day of the tour. Because we stayed in the hotel at Fugi-Q highlands and we got into the park a ½ hour early. What we found out later was that nothing opened until the general public was let into the park. The extra ½ hour allowed us to be first in line at one of the coasters. Fuji-Q has to big coasters, Dodonpa and Fujiyama, and 4 smaller ones. We chose to ride Fujiyama first and were on the first train out. It turned out to be one of the highlights of the trip. Was it because it was a great ride? Nope, the coaster got stuck on the lift hill. We had almost made it to the top when a motor blew a fuse. We had to be evacuated from the cars. I was just passed the 60m sign which is about 208 feet up when it stopped. They tried to restart the motor several times but it just kept throwing the breaker. I think the train was to heavy with all the Acers. We were up there for about 40 minutes. BY the time we got down, the line for Dodonpa was 1-1/2 hours. Fortunately they gave us a front of line pass to Dodonpa and a front of line pass to Fujiyama should it start running again later that day. Since Fujiyama didn’t run that day, we were able to use it for a second ride on Dodonpa. Dodonpa I thought was cool. It’s a launched coaster that has some pretty good acceleration you do a few turns then go over a top hat that really throws you out of your seat. The lamest coaster there is Zola 7. It is part shooting dark ride, part coaster. Neither which are any good. I found the restraints painful. Because of the lack of time in the park, we were only able to ride the coasters once. I understand there is a walk thru that is really good but it takes 45min so we had to pass. The 2nd park of the day was Sea Paradise in Yokohama. The Surf Coaster was a non-looping Togo and it wasn’t too bad. It had the helix of death, went around 2-1/2 times. Blue Fall is a drop tower over 300 ft tall. I hate heights and this one really bothered me. You are way up there. One side of the tower is a straight drop and the other side has a false drop. You fall about 10 feet, stop, and then fall the rest of the way. It is different but since I knew it was coming was no big deal. The last park of the day and to end the official tour was Cosmo World. Home to one hell of a big wheel. When we were up in it, I was wondering how they would evacuate you if it broke down. It is something like 368 feet tall. We had enough time to ride the 2 coasters there, a mouse and a coaster that looks like it dives into the water. Maybe that is why it is called Diving Coaster Vanish. After taking some pics from the wheel it was back to the hotel we started in 2 weeks earlier to end this long day and the tour. September 16th. While most everyone else was leaving, a group of us stayed a few extra days to catch a few more coasters. First stop today was Toshimaen. This was the park we got rained out of the first day. After navigating the subway we arrived early and had some coffee at star bucks. When the park did open there was hardly anyone there. That seems to be common at most of the parks this time of year. We rode Cyclone first. It is an Ok coaster that meanders around the park. The best part was probably the view. We then rode Corkscrew, ouch, we didn’t ride it again. The last coaster to get was the Shuttle Loop but it didn’t open with the park. It open like 12:30 and we had been in the park since 9:00. Since we had done most of the stuff the first time we were in the park there wasn’t much left to do. We rode a few flat rides and the powered coaster was good. It went around its little course 3 times at a pretty fast clip. We still had a lot of time to kill so we ended up reriding cyclone for a total of 10 times. When the Shuttle Loop finally opened, we rode it a few times. That is the first looping coaster where I lost change out of my pocket. We headed out of the park, grabbed lunch at McDonalds and got on a train to Seibuen Yuenchi. We had to make a transfer and when we were trying to figure out which way to go a Japanese guy came up and asked if we needed help and pointed us in the right direction. That is one of the really cool things about Japan. In the train and subway stations if you looked puzzled, someone will always come over to see if you need help. We got to the park and rode the Loop Screw Coaster. Ouch. There wasn’t a whole lot to do there except a few in the group counts powered coasters so we had to go find the Hello Kitty Coaster. The park was empty and I think we were the only ones in the kiddie section on a Friday afternoon. After the few got their powered credit it was back to the hotel. September 17th. The last full day in Japan we went to Chiba Zoo. Had to make a transfer from the train to a suspended monorail to get to the park. We were standing outside the gate trying to decide which ticket to purchase when a gal came out of the ticket booth and gave us a guide in English. Love those Japanese and how helpful they all are. The Zoo was the nicest one we saw in Japan and they had one little Vekoma roller skater. Didn’t take long to get the credit, see a few animals and we headed back into Tokyo. We stopped at La Qua and rode Thunder Dolphin a few more times then it was back to the hotel. September 18th My last day in Tokyo and I had a half day before I had to head to the airport. Today was a no coaster day. I did the touristy thing and headed to the Imperial Palace to take pictures. It was a Great trip and I had one of the best experiences in my life. Although the coasters were nothing spectacular I would go back in a minute. The culture, the people and the food are just fantastic. I can’t say enough good things about Japan. I look forward to going back one of our "crub" buses and watch out for the sea monster You can swim, just don't be synchronized funny signs empty train stuck taunting us the rest of the day Getting stuck on Fujiyama and evacuated from 200 feet up was probably better then the ride would have been Our turn to evacuate coming at last. Took a pic of our hotel and Mt Fuji while waiting for our turn to be evacuated Can you spot the president of ACE in this picture? They are coming to evacuate us If you look between the people you can see how close to the top we were We are a long ways up. Self portrait after getting stuck on the lift hill of Fujiyama Fujiyama The next big ride for Fuji-Q and this is what they would save you with if you got stuck Elissa friendly ride coming over the top hat Dodonpa Mt. Fuji

September 13th Nagashima Spaland Today we got to look in awe at “Wheel Chucker 2000” also known as Steel Dragon 2000. What a waste just sitting there. Pretty impressive to look at sitting all alone at the edge of the parking lot. Hopefully they will get it running again before 2007. Just so everybody knows, no one was killed when it chucked a wheel into the waterpark. There are 8 running coasters at the park, 9 credits if you count both sides of the Double Mouse. I don’t have to worry if it’s 2 credits because only one side was running. Ultra Twister is kind of interesting looking. It is just like the one that used to be at SFAW except this one has a vertical lift. Both coasters have another thing in common, they hurt! The OSR just dig into my shoulders, my head gets banged around. I’m too worried about getting hurt to enjoy the ride. TOGO stands for Try Once, Get Off. I can’t believe they put in a few more of these around Japan. The other TOGO in the park, Jet Coaster was not smooth either but I think it was a better ride then Ultra Twister. They have the standard Cork Screw by Arrow. I think all parks have these. White Cyclone is there woodie. I rode in the front on my first ride and thought it was great. The people right behind me thought the ride was one of the roughest ones they have been on. I tried it later on towards the back. It was a little rougher then the front but still not bad in my opinion. I kind of ranked this around3rd or 4th for woodies on this trip. I rode a giant Frisbee for the first time. I have seen smaller ones but none this big. That to me was the best ride of the day. I loved that ride. My number 2 ride of the day was the Bobkarts. They are cars that run in a metal trough and you can control the speed. Nothing special about these but I have never ridden anything like it before. Funny how in a park with so many coasters, my 2 favorite rides were not coasters. As far as coasters go, the Schwarzkopf Shuttle Loop was my favorite for this park. That night we stayed in a business hotel. Only one to a room and the rooms were small. From my bed I could look out and watch the hookers try to pick guys up. September 14th Today we started off by going to Higashiyama Zoo. There were only 2 coasters, 3 if you count powered. The coaster had no legroom. I had to turn my legs a little sideways to fit in the car. The kiddie powered coaster had plenty of legroom. Go figure. The real interesting and unique coaster was called Slope Shooter. The manufacturer is unknown. The cars are like log flume vehicles with wheels. There is no track but you run down a cement trough. When you first get in the car, a ride op pulls you out of the station and pushes you over to the lift hill chain. At the top of the hill, you zig zag back down. There are no brakes so when you come into the station a ride op grabs the car to slow you down. Very different, just look at the pics. Not a lot of privacy in these Japanese parks Another pic of the brakeman. Anyone know who the guy in the yellow shirt is? Justin, founder of the ECC. He doesn't like his picture to be taken guy sliding across platform, stopping the car. This guy must go thru the shoes doing this weeeeeee!!!! guy pushing car to lift hill Most unique coaster on the trip. slope Shooter kiddie coaster, no credit, it's powered Higashiyama Zoo Tiny roomI spent one night in. This is where I watched the hookers out the window White Canyon queue filled with Japanese and their cloaking devices White canyon Enterance looks like it could open anytime. Maybe there is hope for next year Wheel Chucker from the other side favorite coaster at this park 2nd favorite ride, Bobkarts! Favorite ride at this park view from the wheel verticle lift Ultra Twister It's a corkscrew, enough said Ka-ching! credit on the kiddie coaster This is where I was told the wheel came off. Steel Dragon 2000 SBNO, what a pity

September 12th. We traveled to Parque Espana and I think it was one of the nicest parks on the tour. It is themed extremely well and is very clean. The park had what I thought were 2 very good coasters in Pyrenees and Gran Monserrat. It also had one of the only 2 coasters we missed on the entire trip. Although the park could use a few more coasters and rides in general, I really liked the park and would visit it again. The first stop of the day was at Pyrenees, a big B & M inverted coaster. This was my favorite coaster of the trip. We ended up riding it many times through out the day. There was never more then a 1 or 2 train wait. The only thing that slowed the dispatch down was that they wiped down the seats after every ride, even the seats that were not used. Gran Monserrat was up next. It is a mine train with 2 lifts. I also liked this ride a lot. The ride ops wouldn’t let you wait for the front or back seats. Since there weren’t many people riding later in the day, we would wait around the corner until they dispatched the train. We would then walk up and get our choice of seats. The only other coaster at this park was Bullfight Roller Coaster Matador. It’s an indoor coaster with a bullfight theme. It was closed for maintenance. The park had some other good rides. One was a pirate themed ride. Not Disney but pretty good. It’s partially outdoors. They have an icehouse which people said good. I didn’t go in because it was an up-charge. Another of the dark rides was like Peter Pan in Disneyland. They had a log flume where the ride ops wiped the water off the seats before the next riders got in and there was the not to be missed Escalator ride. See R & E Japan trip video if you don’t know what this is. We stayed at the hotel that is next to the park. It made it convenient when the park closed; we didn’t have far to go. We got kicked out of the hotel pool. Supposedly it was undergoing maintenance. Looked fine to us. We had a banquet that night in the hotel. The food was great; it would have brought a tear to any Acers eye. All in all it was a really fun day even if we only got 2 out of 3 credits. Hi-tech toilet. That is not a urnal on the left, it is a sink. oops! pool we got kicked out of Flying Island, good views from up there Enterance to Escalator ride Pirate ride Closed Bullfight coaster Gran Monerrat Pyrenees

Yes, the dark rides over there are differant. I forgot all about the one with headphones and there were a few with decapitations and the head goes flying off.

Teaser in Japanese

Yeah, we were in the wheel. We rode just about every wheel in all the parks we visited. Did it for the view and the photos.

First new coaster was Ghostrider at Solace. Last New Coaster was Batman: The Escape at SFAW late October Highlight of the year was touring Japan and getting stuck on Fujiyama and having to be evacuated from near the top of the lift hill. Missed getting this credit by about 15 feet! Bob "I have to go back and get this credit in 2007" Hoffman The car stuck on the lift hill. So close to getting the credit. Me at the 60m mark of the lift hill

September 11th Today was the 7th full day of the tour and we went to Disneyland on a budget or as they call it, Nara Dreamland. Somebody who went to Disneyland in California, took pictures and tried to recreate it in Japan designed this park. If you’re a Disney fan you need to go here just to see it in person. You better hurry though because I understand that the park will be closing in a year or two. There is a nice train station with train and you enter the park passing under the tracks. In the town square there is a town hall and fire station on the left. Looking down Main Street you see the castle. To the right of the castle is a mountain with the bobsleigh ride and complete with sky buckets that go thru the mountain just like Disneyland used to have. Further to the right is the monorail station with a car ride right behind it. If you go left at the castle you would end up on the jungle cruise. There are even tracks on main street for a trolley. Of course most of this stuff was not working when we were there and by the looks of it had not been working in some time. Our group out numbered the other guests by at least 10 to one. There are 5 credits in the park. The Kids Coaster by Pinfari was a credit. Screw Coaster by Arrow was a normal corkscrew, painful. The Japanese must love these coasters because it seems like everyone has a corkscrew. Fantasy Coaster by Meisho was a mine train type coaster and wasn’t to bad. I rode it a couple of times. Mostly to get a view of their water park which already closed for the year. Bobsleigh by Sensei was there knock off of the Matterhorn Bobsleds. The lift hill is inside the mountain which is all open and you can see the structure. When you get to the top you just circle the mountain a couple of times and back into the station. I think there was supposed to be a part where you hit the water a little at the end like the Matterhorn but there was no water. The side of the mountain comes real close to the car and I’m sure you would hit it if you stuck your arms out. By far the best wooden coaster on the trip and one of the best over all was Aska by Intamin Lots of airtime. I lost count the number of times I rode it. It was the first ride I rode in the park. I then rode all the other coasters and came back to Aska and rode it until we had to leave. It will be sad to see this park close and not have someone buy and relocate it. This coaster is so out of place with the rest of the park. I would recommend this park because of Aska and you have to see how they tried to copy Disneyland. We moved on to Hirakata Park later in the day. This is another park I would have liked to spend more time in. In was one of the nicest parks on the trip. Well themed and they had 5 credits! Their Crazy Mouse looked like a spinning mouse but the cars didn’t spin. To bad because that would have made the ride more fun. Peekaboo Town was the kiddie coaster. When we got in line I saw the same 2 guys in front of us that caused a problem at Expoland. We went and rode the mouse first and came back. I didn’t want to be embarrassed again. Fantastic Rowdy Coaster was more of a family coaster and Red Falcon was a large ho hum nonlooping coaster. Elf was a junior wooden Intamin coaster. I would rank it 3rd best wooden on the trip behind Regina at Tobu Zoo. Fun but it was short and very little airtime. Fun none the less. They had an icehouse, dark rides and this cool ride kind of like bumper cars. The cars were enclosed and you fired balls at the other cars for points. Fantastic Coaster Rowdy Crazy Mouse, what was crazy is why they didn't spin Red Falcon Elf Elf in the background Hirakata This ride is so good you will loose your underware! More Aska Aska Screw Coaster, I don't know if this is a statement or the name! bobsleigh car Matterhorn, sky buckets and monorail track Town Hall and fire station. Funny choice of colors. Looking down main street to the castle Looks familiar nice so far

Elissa is right. There are some interesting coasters but it is just the experiance. The group I was with was great. The Japanese people are fantastic. Most of the parks are real nice. True, a lot of the coasters are average but the trip was a whole lot of fun. I can't wait to go back.

I rode Batman a couple of months ago at SFAW befor they closed. It was an OK ride but I'm no fan of stand-up coasters. I think Riddler at SFMM was a better ride.

September 10th Today was the day we left Tokyo for Osaka via the bullet train. The train goes 120mph+ and the ride is incredibly smooth. You don’t realize how fast your going until another train passes you going the opposite direction. The 3-hour trip went by real fast. Spent most of the time looking out the window and watching the scenery go flying by. Once in Osaka we boarded busses again for a short ride to Expoland. The park was already open by the time we got there but was not to crowded. We just circled the park and rode the coasters. Not much of a wait on any of them. For the most part there was nothing special about the coasters except for 2 of them, Fujin-Raigin II and Daidarasaurus. These 2 were not special in a good way. Fujin-Raigin II is a TOGO standup nonlooper. I don’t like stand-up coasters to begin with and this one by far is the worst I have ever ridden. It was rough and it really bashed my head around. I just didn’t like this one at all and it ranks as one of the worst on the trip. Daidarasaurus used to be a twin-racing coaster. I’m sure at best when it was a racing coaster it was a below average ride. Some genius had the bright idea to join the tracks and make one long ride. This only made it twice as bad. You go up the lift hill and go thru the circuit, cross over before entering the station, go up the lift hill on the other side and repeat the circuit again. It takes a train about 8 minutes to complete the cycle. It is a coaster that you quickly get board with and just seems to go on and on. They have Wild Mouse which is a mouse and Space Salamander which is an Arrow corkscrew. Both these were better then the first 2. The Mini coaster was ok and the family coaster was a credit. The family coaster was actually a little embarrassing to ride. I was waiting in line. They had already loaded the train with mostly our group. There were 2 rather large guys in the cars and the poor female Japanese op could not get the lap bar to click down. She pushed and pushed but they were just too portly. The line started to get long with all these Japanese kids looking puzzled as to why these fat Americans would even want to ride this little coaster. Finally a guy from our group got out of line, walked over to the car and just forced it down. We all cheered. Credit whores we are! The best ride of the trip so far for me was Orochi. I’m a fan of inverted coasters and this is a standard B&M. After the coasters we did this dark walk thru thing. They gave you a globe that flashed a color and when you found the right location in the walk thru the globe flashed multi colors. That allowed you to open the exit and get out. You then got a paper written in Japanese with a score on it. We didn’t have a clue as to what we were doing. The icehouse was real cool and I mean cool, -30C. It was hot out and I was sweating, by the time I got thru the icehouse I was shivering. This was the best icehouse on the trip because it was free! A lot of the other ones you had to pay extra to go thru. We left the park around dinnertime and headed for the hotel we would be staying for the next couple of nights in Osaka. We were on our own when we got back to the hotel. A few of us headed out to Festival Gate to ride Delphis. It was a short subway trip there. This place has seen better times and I would be surprised if this coaster remained open much longer. Festival Gate is a 5 story mini mall that has the coaster and other attractions scattered over the different floors. We got there before 7:00 on a Saturday night. There were a couple of small stores open on the bottom level and Delphis was running. That was it. There was almost no one around. It was 1000 yen to ride and only a couple people wanted to ride a second time. We had an excellent Japanese dinner at a place near by and then wondered into a Pachinko Palace. Pachinko is a gambling game, something like a vertical pinball machine. You shoot these little silver balls into the machine and they bounce off these little pins and hopefully land in certain slots, which get you more, little silver balls. Since gambling for money is illegal in Japan, you trade these silver balls in for prizes. You can then take these prizes and turn them in for money outside the Pachinko Palace. One of the guys put in 1000 yen and started playing. We had no idea what we were doing but before long he had a lot more silver balls then he started with. He then redeemed the balls for what looked like watchbands. But the gal indicated we were to go out the front door turn left, turn left again and then left again. We went out the front door, turned left and then left again. We were now going down this dark alley. We came to a street and took the final left. The street was empty except for 2 of the ugliest hookers I have ever seen. We knew we missed something in her directions. When we turned around to retrace our steps a Japanese guy came walking by. He saw us holding these watchband thingies and he said something in Japanese and motioned us to follow him. We went back up the dark alley and turned down an even darker alley. Half way down there was a small window. He motioned for us to put the things thru the window. A person on the other side took the things and passed back about 4000 yen. The guy smiled and left. We went searching for the subway and back to our hotel. 8 out of 7 credits today. We picked up the bonus credit, Delphis that wasn’t on the itinerary. I leave you with one last look at boring coaster with angry guy in background Playing Pachinko The Pachinko Palace Dinner Delphis Orochi These guys never had a chance! yeap, -30C ouch Fujin-Raigin II is Japanese for this is going to hurt! huh???????? poor japanese ride op trying to get the lap bar down kiddie coaster The cross over that made this a really long boring coaster Daidarasaurus is Japanese for boring on ride pov Space Salamander Either the Japanese are cloaked or no one wants to ride this boring coaster I think every park has a wheel

I think you need to provide a little more information. Would you be coming to California just for Disneyland or would you be going to Knott's Berry Farm, Magic Mountain etc? Have you been to Walt Disney World? Are you a real Disney fan? If you are, California is where it started. If you just want to do a nice vacation, I would go with WDW. There is a ton of stuff to do in and around Orlando.