jeronimon

I wear prescription glasses, and do so on all the rides, being able to see makes it more fun. Usually I will wear a strap (get one at a decent outdoor store, or better yet in a themepark, or better yet in Cedar Point that's where I bought my favorite strap. The surroundings might have helped. ) But for less aggravating rides I don't wear the strap, unless the attendant orders it. I would advise never to argue with them, just put on the strap, ride and have fun. While a lot of glasses will stay on your face riding fats rides, if you don't have "facehugging" glasses I have one advise: don't look back! Then the wind "gets in behind" them and they fly pretty good.

Better late than never: Thanks for a wonderfull day at the Efteling, it was nice to be able to ride Joris en de Draak in an ERT. More rides equals more fun and a better founded opinion on both coasters. I still can't decide though if I like Vuur or Water better. I'll have to go back and ride them some more. Pour me.

Going up the lifthill in Vuur/Fire/red cars you have a decent look at the dragon. But when you are riding the coasters your attention will probably be elsewhere, the splash is reported to be noticeable though. Especially in the back of Vuur. (When I rode it the effect was not working yet.) Lots of people have ridden both sides now. About the difference: I rode Joris en de Draak last tuesday, on that day Vuur was noticably smoother than Water. Water had a rougher feel about it mor "woody" if you will. But they have been testing and training mainly with water so once Vuur has done more laps the difference might be less. Also on tuesday the waterside won consistently. reports coming in now state that the race is more unpredictable. After sunday more people from TPR will have done the ride so you will get more opinions then.

Not helping totopez here, but they also tested a single riders line on Indiana Jones for a time. They stopped testing, but I do not know if they will maybe reopen this.

My insights: fast passes seem to be covered quite nicely by GroteSlurf. (I just don't get which attraction he means by Nemo but guess it is Crush, which as Manakin says has no fastpass. Be at the gate of the studios when it opens and the waiting will not be to long for Crush (Spinning mouse)) If you don't stay on site, get there in time. If you can: aim for weekdays, the weekend is alwys more crowded. Lenghtwise the numbers are: Indiana Jones 1m40 (So maken sure your daughter wears her thick soles, high heels or cardboard in her shoes. In my experience a normal children's shoe could add about 2,5 centimeters. Be inventive.) Space Mountain 1m32 (no problems there I imagine) Big Thunder Mountain 1m02 so that will be a hit or miss with your son. But maybe he should pass on this one anyway. My son was 5 when he first rode it and although he liked the coaster, the covered lifthill is noisy (=makes a hell of a racket you could go deaf.). He did not like it at all, the racket that is not the coaster, because we rode the coaster four times that day. For reference: it was his 36th coaster at that time.

I do agree (Since I have not ridden Montu, Talon was an easy call for me. ) 1. Talon (smoothest inverted I ever did, wooooosh) 2. Alpengeist (Stretched out large loveliness) 3. Volcano (I thought i was just fun being catapulted out of the volcano, pity there are so many rolls in the same direction) 4. Black Mamba (Small footprint, nice G's, riding through the groundworks, although the Zero G roll use to be more zero G in the beginning.) 5. Raptor (When Monster was announced it made one european smile very broadly. Export the good stuff I say.) 6. Nemesis (very nicely themed, nice elements, my first B&M, misses a great first drop IMHO) 7. Batman The Ride (Pack those G's in there, very nice nighttime ride) 8. Nemesis Inferno (Nemesis smaller brother.)

Really? I would think that a small or big monopod/tripod would be standard equipment for a small or big camera/lens. Are there really places you are not allowed tot use a tripod/monopod? @CoasterMM As I am a little older (and like books) I would suggest going to the library. (Of course if you are younger, this will probably be a last resort after internet.) I myself have checked out different books on the subject. The first was very thin and gave some usefull pointers, but prepared me not at all for the second wich was way over my head. But now I am working my way steadily through 388 pages of how to make better photographs with a DSLR. If you cannot find what you are looking for? Ask a librarian, they like to help you (mostly) and will do so (probably) very well (hopefully). But using your new toy takes skill and skill comes from practice and study. So like Hanno said: "read, try and study your camera". It will make you a better photographer. My personal tip to you would be to read (yes, reading again ) some stuff about composition. That will really make you a better photographer. Even if you use your camera on automatic for the rest of your life.

As some people have said, it is only a number. Especially if you are not from the States. Metric: You are asking if 91.44m is scarier than 60.96m (looks silly does it not? ) Imagine me asking you if 328 feet would be scarier then 246 feet. (looks silly does it not? ) So if you enjoyed the other high coasters then you will certainly enjoy these. Granted, there is the being launched part and the fact that Kingda Ka and Top Thrill Dragster have a layout that is supposed to accent the height even more.

That would be meeting Werner Stengel in the waiting line for Matterhorn Blitz in Europapark. A very kind and quiet man with whom we spoke for about 45 minutes. Alas, the waiting line was not longer.

As one of your international members I would say that that is not absolutely necessary. The members will know what it means it should just be very clear to checking park attendants. If you make it look as much as possible like a credit card expiration date you will be OK because all the banks use "valid thru 01/12" or dates much like that.

OK, there is no easy way to say this, so here goes: Your mom loves you very much. Don't shoot the messenger.

So it pays to have character, if a coaster is very good or just mean to you, you remember it and vote for it. Bland coasters will fall to the last spot. "The opposite of love isn't hate it's indifference." On the subject of bias in the poll: First of I personally think it's the best poll out there. But in my opinion there is one bias that comes from travelling about and infrequent coastervisiting. For example: I visited the states in 2006 for the first and only time (Don't be sorry for me I will be back in 2010 and there is plenty of stuff over here.). In that year I visited and found it to be very (un)enjoyable. My opinion of this coaster will only slightly be changed over the years because I have only ridden it on one occasion. deterioration or "fixes"made after that will not affect my voting. Also some coaster you visited only once far away tend to get mythified/glorified. The longer it's been since you rode them the better they get. Reriding those suckers is always a dissapointment but will give your next vote more depth/credability.

When I rode it not the whole ride was bad but the "dip" after the first drop was horrible. I can see your point for some of the rest of the ride. And I understand they tried to fix that part, but I haven't been there after the fix. Was it indeed better after that? By the way: feel free to remember it fondly. I think that every demolished coaster should have at least one devoted fan.

The first coaster that sprang to mind was Villain (Geauga Lake), the only coaster that seriously hurt me. But since good sense prevailed, and we saw the end of it in 2007 I'll go for my second choice: X:\ No Way Out (Thorpe Park). I see two possibilities: > open up pyramid > tear out X:\ No Way Out > replace with other coaster (Even an apple-ride would be better in the dark.) > close pyramid two: demolish everything that's there and use cleared space for something useful.

If you're looking for interwovenablity (Don't look it up, it will be in dictionaries from 2011 and onwards) Black Mamba (Phanstasialand, Brühl, Germany) will certainly be pleasing to you as well.

I just went outside and checked. And guess what? It's NOT!

I would like to disagree with you on this one. I think there are enough examples of meeting organised by for example FKF, Themepark.nl, EP-fanclub, etc. Also some european parks have decided some years ago to not deal with all these clubs separately but to organise one fanday per year. So I would think most european fans at least have a good idea of what a park sponsored event would look like. ECC have some discounts for some parks, and they organise trips. Yes you have a valid argument here, but initially I, and some others , thougt the focus would be mainly on the states. Robb has explained that he is also looking at parks in europe and other parts of the world. So thing seem to be looking up for us. Still if you see the premium/spongebath/membership as a "discount"card instead of a way to fund TPR the overseas members get less bang for their buck. More events and discounts will be available to stateside members than overseas members, and the price is higher. While this is perfectly understandable, I would think it is also understandable if the overseas members are less enthusiastic than the people who would get more for less money. This being said I still think the whole idea is a sound, an good, one even if I myself would probably not participate. But that decision will be taken after the final plan will be revealed. Robb has indicated more than once that the whole thing is still very much "under construction" and is being revised influenced by feedback constantly.

I think most "international" members are very curious in what part of the world treats will be offered. Christmass has come and gone but the waiting in anticipation for "presents" is still not done.

As a very "fresh" participant of the forum (more of a lurker before), and a citizen of Europe, my thoughts: 1. What are your initial thoughts? For many people who are not living in the states this will probably not be a good thing. For us the price is more expensive. And we, on the whole, don't join in as much trips as people living in the states. Store credit is not attractive to me personally as I don't buy a lot of stuff. 2. Can you think of anything else we could be offering? No, the package you are offering is quite good. But I would be interested in the discounts you would manage to get "overseas" (for you that is, not me.) My fear is that the focus of discounts, understandably, would be on the states. 3. Is this something that interests you? No, because of the aforementioned reasons. 4. Why would you NOT be interested in this? See above 5. Any additional feedback you can give us based on the information you see here. You are creating a class of "second rate" members. I don't have a problem with that and it could very well be a good step for you. But I think that the threshold for new members to join will be bigger. You will create an "incrowd" that will be less accessible to "outsiders". If you create a forum especially for premium members and give them special perks on TPR trips (ERT, etc) that other trip participants can not join in, you will further alienate new members who will not immediately join your premium membership. Maybe I am overreacting, because the price is so low that so many members will join, it will not be very exclusive. But for many people not living in the states I think premium membership will not be attractive enough. As we will not be premium members a lot of things will be less accessible to us, and so we will not be enticed to "dive in further" and join in more. This might lead to less participation. As said before this still might be a good step for TPR as your focus is probably not on non-Usa residents who don't join in a lot of activities. But for me personally, as I am mostly an avid reader of the forum, only the creation of a premium-forum would have an impact on me. As I am not aware of what would be discussed in that forum I cannot say how that would affect my being "here".