GwaziBSRider1

At all of the major parks, the most a ride op will ask you about your glasses is to show them that they're secured. Hell, most of the time they don't say anything at all. Here in the US, the concept of a glasses strap is well-known, and most parks understand that your glasses are no longer a loose article when they're strapped. If you start doing a lot of International travel for coasters, you're going to run into incidents where you'll have to remove them, regardless of the strap.

Damn, the top of that helix looks amazing!!

That's a neat looking ride! I look forward to seeing it in action!

What an awesome idea! To give you a little advice. 1. Shirt, since signs can fly away and bend with the wind. I'd tuck it, too. 2. I believe the camera is along the helix leading into the MCBR, but I'm not sure. 3. I'd say the front row of any car. 4. I think Diamondback is a great ride for this! Beast would probably be a good alternative, since its camera is in the first tunnel. Good luck, and I hope she says yes!

I've been using various glasses straps for years now, and I've never lost my glasses on any ride. I wouldn't worry at all about them because it doesn't sound like your glasses are light-weight or flimsy. In my experience, the lighter weight the glasses, the more likely they are to fall off. If you're concerned about having to take them off, I'd bring a case that you (or whom your riding with) can easily identify if placed in the bin or can fit inside of a closed pocket.

PART 2: Fun City at Marina Mall, Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque Center, and ALL THREE Sparky's FECs in Abu Dhabi And on we go! This is the conclusion of the first full day of our trip. All-in-all, we visited three Emirates (Dubai, Sharjah, and Abu Dhabi), two major cultural sites, five indoor FECs at five separate malls, and added seven credits to our list! That's one hell of a day, especially with it being the day after a fifteen hour flight! After our tour of the Emirates Palace, we made the short drive over to Marina Mall, home of Fun City and Shark Coaster. After how wonderful Adventureland had been a few hours ago, I was really disappointed by Fun City. It wasn't a very nice FEC, and Shark Coaster was pretty terrible. However, the mall itself was the nicest one of the day. After a few spins on the coaster and a quick lunch, we checked into our hotel and went to the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque Center (SZGMC) for a 5:00 tour. Initially, I wasn't sure if I'd enjoy touring a mosque, but this place is SPECTACULAR. The free tour is a bit long and winded, but you really do learn a lot about SZGMC, mosques, and Islam. As much as I'd love to spit out all of the details about SZGMC, that would spoil the whole tour for all of you! You truly haven't been to Abu Dhabi until you've been here! Then it was back to coasters for a "Sparky's marathon." We visited the Mushrif Mall, Khalidiyah Mall, and Mazyad Mall locations. First, Mushrif; I believe this was the largest of all of the Sparky's that we visited, and was a half-decent FEC. Khalidiyah's Sparky's was the nicest of the three in Abu Dhabi. It's also home to one of the coasters that TPR broke (the creatively named Roller Coaster), which was an okay ride. Mazyad's Sparky's was one of the worst FECs I've visited to date. It's small, run-down, and the coaster is simply terrible. On to the pictures! I hope you all enjoy! Some of the following pictures were taken by my trip companion, Keith Kelly. All of these pictures are marked (KK). Welcome to Marina Mall! First thing we noticed was a Mercedes dealership. I guess you can truly buy EVERYTHING in UAE malls! (KK) But our main goal here is Shark Coaster! (KK) I rode it again to use up the credits on our Fun City card. (KK) This coaster isn't worth going out of the way to ride, honestly. It is unique, though. (KK) I regretted my second ride... (KK) I did enjoy the look of this fountain in the mall. Onto the SZGMC! It's a BEAUTIFUL mosque! Trying to be artsy. Sometimes, the courtyard is filled with people praying. I can't imagine how many people it takes to fill this place! The attention to detail here is incredible! They truly went all-out when they designed and built it! I love this picture of the Wing. (KK) The gardens around the mosque are well taken care of. These towers are very cool! They light up the mosque differently depending on the phase of the Moon! You can see the individual marble tiles on the courtyard floor. All of these were laid by hand! The entry area is simply gorgeous. I'm already in awe of the craftsmanship, and we're not even to the main prayer room yet! These flowers were designed by a British artist. I can't remember what his name is, though. Their custom clock lists all of the prayer times and ranges for the five daily prayers. The prayer room blew me away with its beauty! This indent on the wall points to Kaaba in Mecca, the holiest Islamic site. All Muslims pray in the direction of the site. If you stay in a hotel in this part of the world, look at the ceiling! You'll see an arrow that points to it! Again, the detail is simply incredible. It's so big that there's stairs for the cleaners to access it. More detail. These columns serve a double purpose: elegantly supporting the structure and concealing the A/C unit! Look closely, you can see the fan! This is part of the world's largest single piece of carpet. It weighs 32 tons and is a hand-woven Persian rug. Personally, I think the pattern is ugly, but it's quite a feat! This was the world's largest chandelier when it was purchased. Facing toward one of the secondary prayer rooms. When we finished our tour, we got to see the mosque partially lit up. (KK) Goodbye, SZGMC! I'll come see you again when I'm back in Abu Dhabi! Time for more coasters! We were greeted by this aquarium upon entering Mushrif Mall. Crazy Twister isn't quite as crazy as you might hope. It's not a terrible ride, though. Some of the cars spun a LOT. Overview of Crazy Twister. (KK) Fast foward to Khalidiyah Mall! Here is the coaster that TPR broke! (KK) Its name is VERY creative. (KK) It's a decent coaster. The laterals are surprisingly high! (KK) Now to the crappy Sparky's in Mazyad outside of Abu Dhabi. This ride is simply described by one word: crap. Seriously, you can and should skip this one! Thanks for reading Part 2! Stay tuned for Part 3....YAS WATERWORLD!

Mine is now a picture of me credit whoring on the unnamed Wacky Worm at Al Montazah in the UAE.

Mystery Mine is my favorite ride at Dollywood. I agree that the section between the first drop and second lift isn't that great. It's not bad by any means, but it could be better (and with less headbanging). What makes the ride for me is the finale. Just that section beats out every other coaster in the park in my opinion.

Thanks for the clarification! All we had was our tourist map to go by.

Woody Woodpecker's Nuthouse Coaster - Universal Orlando

Vekoma

It insures that there will be witnesses in the event of an accident. This is the same bull$h!t that SFOT uses. Just because there are two people in the last row, doesn't automatically mean they're good witnesses. It's an absolutely ridiculous policy, but at least Lagoon (from what I see on this forum) actually TELLS people that this rule exists, unlike SFOT.

It looks great inside! Clone or not, this is going to be one damn fun coaster!

Got my nano coaster in the mail yesterday! It's going to be a great addition to my office...when I actually have time to assemble it!

This. Millennium has been my #1 steel for years now for the same reason. Hell, it's my mom's favorite coaster, too. We'll go to Cedar Point, she'll ride it a few times, and she's ready to go home!

I'll agree that they have some of the worst guests, but I've always thought of SFOG as one of the nicer Six Flags parks, too.

< you're it >

That's great to hear I don't know if its already been talked about but why was that rule even in place. Being there in the summer with my mom who that week wasn't feeling up to riding anything I was forced into riding by myself and had to deal with silly rule multiple times and the only explanation I got was it was for safety purposes. When I visited in December 2013, I was told the rule was to have at least two witnesses in case of another accident. Honestly, it's a bull$h!t rule, and I very much hope it's gone.

Easily Funtown Pier on the Jersey Shore. Hurricane Sandy did us a favor destroying that one!

Last week, I saw my first Selfie Sticks in the wild. There were several people in Dubai and Abu Dhabi that were using them. I spotted them at all of the typical tourist areas like Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, Dubai Mall, and Burj Khalifa. Fortunately, I didn't see anybody using them inside of the parks.

MINI-UPDATE: Dubai Parks and Resorts & Abu Dhabi I found a few pictures that I didn't post in my first update, so cue the first mini-update! On the drive from Sharjah to Abu Dhabi, we had the pleasure of driving past the construction site of Dubai Parks and Resorts! I only got two pictures of the construction/advertisement wall for the resort, but not the actual construction. There wasn't much to see in terms of construction, but I was able to spot the shell of a four or five-story building that was being worked on. In case you didn't know, there will be three parks here: Legoland Dubai, Motiongate Dubai, and Bollywood Park. From what I understand, all three of these parks are going to be FANTASTIC when they open at the end of 2016!! Apologies for the quality of some of the photos, all but two were taken with my phone instead of my camera. The vast desert that is rural UAE. I think this is just south of Dubai looking toward the Persian Gulf. Everything is awesome when Legoland is here! Fun fact about this construction wall: it's 3 km long! That's over 2.75 miles! And yes, the advertisements stretch the entire length! Don't forget about Motiongate and DreamWorks! Sorry, but my picture of the Bollywood logo didn't come out. Now, to Abu Dhabi! This is ADSAC HQ. We never figured out what ADSAC is, but their building is definitely an attention-getter! No wonder they put an advertisement for the nearby Yas Mall! I believe this is the Sheikh Zayed Bridge (You hear that name A LOT in this country, which I'll explain in the next update). It's a pretty funky looking bridge, though. Some of the Abu Dhabi skyline. More of the Abu Dhabi skyline. Even more of the Abu Dhabi skyline. These are both hotels under construction. The three on the left comprise Eithad Towers (I can't remember which luxury chain owned it, though), and the tan one on the right is an independent hotel. I love how it's inspired by traditional Middle Eastern architecture. Our hotel for the day: Hilton Capital Grand. I'll close this update with this twilight view of the Abu Dhabi expo center and it's weird leaning tower. Thanks for reading! Part 2 should be posted next week!

That's exactly what I thought when I was there.

^ That's spot on with our opinion from what we saw there.

I rode the one in Abu Dhabi last week. It's a very bizarre ride, to say the least. It's a shame that it has the OTSRs; some of those "drifts" are fairly painful! That being said, it's one of those rides that just screams "TPR, come ride me!"

Nice pictures! Glad to see they painted Batman! It looks much better than it did when I was there two years ago. I've really got to get back to Mexico one of these days!