shivtim

I also encourage out-of-towners to venture in to the city to eat at some point... tons of great options; Atlanta really is an emerging foodie city. I'd be happy to give recommendations, just PM me. Less than 24 hours to ERT, and less than 36 hours to EBT (exclusive beer time)!

^ I know what it is but I'll give someone else a chance to answer since I got the last one right.

Next:

I found it - the defunct Jet Coaster at Rinku Park in Osaka. Very difficult.

Somewhere in Japan?

Oklahoma v Florida State is the game to watch next weekend... maybe those of us at Deep South Bash can find a place to watch it.

Most looking forward to Notre Dame vs. Michigan. First ever night game in the Big House. Got my tix; flying up to Detroit tonight!

Yikes! That is some serious flooding. I hope Hersheypark can recover quickly. Reminds me of SFoG flooding from 2 years ago: Photosource

No offense intended! I like rooting for the underdog, and wish WKU had beaten Kentucky! What I meant is it's a bit shocking that Kentucky only put up two touchdowns against a team that only has four wins in it's 3 year history as a FBS team. WKU didn't even win one game in 2009! Just shows that Kentucky is going to have a very rough time in SEC play this year. Like I said, the SEC is still very strong overall, as usual. I think the SEC might eat itself though, with all of the teams getting an in-conference loss. Doesn't mean they won't play for the championship - heck, LSU won the national championship with two losses. With that tough of a schedule, they deserved it. And look for a very strong Big Ten this season. You've got Wisconsin and Nebraska in the top 10 and both looked great last weekend. I think Michigan State is poised for another great season if they can avoid their typical breakdown. Northwestern had a great road win (even without their starting quarterback), and Penn State is also ranked and looking good. Who knows about Ohio State and Michigan - anything could happen this season.

While I do think SEC is the best conference, they actually looked kind of weak this past weekend. Yes, LSU and Alabama should be amazing this year. But Kentucky struggled against the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers (who?), Auburn needed a comeback and a last-minute on-side kick recovery to beat Utah State, BYU beat Ole Miss in Oxford, Georgia had a lop-sided loss to BSU, and E.Carolina put up 37 points on S.Carolina. As for Notre Dame, they had the 15th best offense in the country in terms of yardage gained. Kind of crazy, right? If they can just stop the turnovers, they will be formidable and could still have a great season.

Yikes: www.smh.com.au/nsw/family-sees-mother-strangled-by-hijab-in-freak-gokarting-accident-20100408-rvci.html Based on the above story, it could be a safety issue. Although at parks in the middle-east, women routinely ride large rides while wearing hijab. And I've even seen someone wearing hijab on Kingda Ka! I agree with the above post that in order for it to devolve into what happened, there were mistakes made by the patrons, the police, and the park.

How bizarre! Looks fun. And from that video it seems it will have a multi-launch "rocking" start, kind of like an Impulse coaster.

The park is making some kind of 2012 announcement on the morning of September 1st. From their facebook: "check back here early tomorrow morning for some entertaining news on what's coming to Six Flags Over Georgia in 2012!"

A+, keep the pics coming!

Just so everyone knows, Midbender is an awful coaster, so you should all ride other rides during ERT. I'll take one for the team and marathon on Mindbender in the back seat. You're welcome.

I hope the old trains on the SLC weren't even worse than these! It's the roughest SLC I've been on. At least there really isn't any headbanging thanks to the thin flexible straps, but instead you get full-body banging as the train jackhammers through the curves. It's a shame, because it looks pretty impressive looming over the end of the pier and swerving over the waterslides. Looks like we did almost the same trip! I just didn't have the time to head up to the parks further north (like Casino Pier). But someone could definitely do them all in one long and expensive day - it would be around 25 credits! It was a Saturday. Most of the parks don't open until around noon. We hit Clementon at 11:30AM, and were done at Morey's by 7:30. I would have loved to have more time at the piers at night. It's probably a cool atmosphere with all of the people and lights, and they are open until midnight or later.

My non-enthusiast boyfriend was heading to DC for work and flying in to BWI, so I decided to join him over the weekend for a credit wh*re trip to beautiful southern New Jersey! I'd never been to any of the parks, and jumped at the chance to pick up 17 new credits. I was at 380, so if everything was open I'd come close to 400! We were supposed to leave ATL at about 7:30, but huge storms up and down the east coast caused major delays. We didn't end up getting a rental car at BWI until well after midnight. We drove about an hour and a half to our hotel just over the Jersey border, and finally got some sleep. First stop, Clementon Park! We drove about 45 minutes to get there. It's a small park, with only one credit. I liked Hell Cat, but there's a set of mega-brakes on the first drop that really suck a huge amount of speed out of the ride. It's Mean Streak style "grab and hold" first drop trims. It was still a decent ride, and fairly smooth, but didn't have much airtime. I vastly prefer the Wisconsin Dells Hell Cat, which is an airtime machine. Another 1/2 hour drive, and we pulled up to Storybook Land. This is a beautiful kiddie park. Twenty acres of lush woods with lots of exhibits and rides. And of course Bubbles: the coaster. What could be more fun than a grown man riding a bright pink kiddie coaster with a giant bubble machine? The things we do for credits... A short drive into Atlantic City, where we hit some traffic but managed to make it to the Trump Taj Mahal to pick up the credits at Steel Pier. Atlantic City seemed a bit run down, but was still very crowded. Lots of traffic and tons of people out and about. Steel Pier was just a quick credit stop - it's not very heavy on charm. Next stop, Ocean City for Gillian's Wonderland Pier and Playland's Castaway Cove! This was a pretty nice area with lots of vacation homes, well maintained streets, families on bikes, and a popular boardwalk and beach. A total of six credits between the two parks. Both were nice and jam-packed with rides. Another drive south, another credit. Gillian's Funland is a tiny kiddie park on a parking lot. But there's a Wacky Worm! And on to the final stop: the three piers of Morey's! This is where I hit the first lines of the day. It was pretty crowded. Still only about a 15 minute wait for the Flitzer and Doo Wopper, and not much of a wait on anything else. The Great Nor'easter was absolutely brutal! I thought the new style of trains might make it more enjoyable, but it was one of the roughest coasters I've ever been on. The corkscrews throw you around like a rag doll. Great White was better than I expected. It's a fun woodie, not too rough, and with a unique pre-lift drop down below the pier. After an exhausting day of coasters, we drove to Dover where we spent the night, before checking out historic downtown Dover and then Annapolis on Sunday. Southern New Jersey is an easy place to pick up lots of credits, but bring lots of cash! We must have paid over $30 in tolls, and some of the piers are cash-only for tickets purchases. Ha, Carney's Point. Got this place cheap on Priceline. Our rental car was very orange. Made it to Clementon Park! Small trains. twisty bits. Clementon Park. Clementon. Storybook Land entrance. Lots of shade. Embarrassing credit. Creepy little elf dude watches Bubbles. Wheeeeee The kids were loving it. Great theme for a tilt-a-whirl! Humpty. Park map. Happy birthday, Storybook Land! Mother Goose. Taj Mahal casino. Steel Pier. Steel Pier entrance. Kiddie Coaster credit! The operator asked, "you know this is the kid's coaster, right?" Coastin' on the beach. RCDB calls this coaster "Little Leaper." Steel Pier's website and posted ticket list call it "Kiddie Coaster." But the actual sign is "Mini Mouse." Reverchon credit... got some intense spinning on this one! Skeleton Domo approves! Lunch time! "World famous" subs. So delicious... Italian meat coma... Om nom nom Abandoned synagogue as we drove out of Atlantic City. Gillian's Wonderland Pier Big ferris wheels seemed to be a theme of the Jersey Shore. This miniature knight is also glad we're here. Runaway Train was surprisingly fun. The trains are a bit bulky, but it's smooth and has a good first drop. Another embarrassing credit... choo choo... New, from Legoland! OH NOES! Miner Mike is closed! This is obviously a "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" promotional tie-in. This section of Gillian's is elevated above some bumper cars and other rides. Not too busy yet... maybe because it was hot. Gillian's also had this large covered area with lots of kiddie rides and a nice ocean breeze. Gillian's entrance from the boardwalk. The beach looked great and was pretty busy... but no time for that, there are credits waiting! This guy is taking his Hovearound to the Grand Canyon. Playland's Castaway Cove, home of three more credits! Python I had a solo ride. It's OK... a bit of head bashing but not bad. Smoother than the one in Oregon. Flitzer. These are fun little rides. Smooth and with a couple of nice directional changes. Don't mind him, he's just Flitzin' around. Hmm, what's that all odd white blob? Oh well, it must just be a cloud or something. Wait a minute! All of the ladies are covered up! This mural is anti-woman! Lots of rides here. Kiddie coaster time again! One thing that's great about these seaside parks is that they won't turn adults away from the kiddie coasters. They want your money! They call sprinkles "jimmies." I hear the same thing in Midtown Atlanta all the time. Gillian's Funland sign. Not very attractive entrance. Surprisingly, the first and only wacky worm of the trip! Not very crowded at all. Official Indiana Jones theming. I wondered why our parking meter was a FAIL... maybe because it's not yet October 31th? Made it to Morey's! So much domo on the Jersey shore! Another Flitzer. This one has an anime space surfer theme. Obviously. Doo Wopper New trains on the Great Nor'Easter. Ouch! Vekoma twists of pain! ow ow ow Splashy mcsplasherson ride was very popular. Yep, we're at Morey's! This was actually a very fun dark ride. 'rang I see you, Great White! This Ghost Ship looked very cool. Oh yeah, and there's a credit on the left. Just monkey-ing around at Wildwood. The sun was starting to set. It started getting quite crowded as the temperature cooled off. Next credit is an Arrow racer. But I couldn't find the Intamin jr. version. tee-hee "Ninja" domo says "put things unnecessarily in quotes!" Nice view back towards the other pier. Last credit! My 396th coaster! Getting darker... Night time on the beach.

For those of you coming in from out of town who are planning on visiting the World of Coke, Aquarium, Braves game, etc, you can save some money if you buy a combo ticket: The Atlanta City Pass: $69 (Georgia Aquarium, World of Coca Cola, Inside CNN Studio Tour, High Museum of Art OR Fernbank Museum of Natural History, Zoo Atlanta OR Atlanta History Center). Braves Triple-play ticket: $50 (Braves game, and two of the following: Georgia Aquarium, World of Coke, or Stone Mountain). Pemberton Place pass: $40 (World of Coke and Georgia Aquarium). If you're looking to visit other parks in the area, Dixieland is about a 30 minute drive south, Wild Adventures is a 4 hour drive south, Carowinds is a 4 hour drive northeast, and Lake Winnie is a 2 hour drive north. In september, all of the parks are open only weekends. Alabama Adventure will be closed by that time of year.

B&M will NEVER build over 310 feet.

Maybe Storm Runner and Fahrenheit at Hersheypark? They of course aren't nearly as similar as Behemoth/Leviathan, but they are both red/orange looping intamin coasters, with nearly identical restraints and trains, both with a vertical (or beyond vertical) ascent and descent, 2600ft/2700ft long, and built just 4 years apart. That's the closest example I can think of.

Awesome! Thanks for the pics. Those two pictures of the skyscrapers in Shanghai are fantastic. Although, the Jin Mao tower isn't the second tallest in China; there are taller ones in Nanjing and Guangzhou (and Hong Kong and Teipei if you count those).

Yep, that's exactly what it is. The Superstition Mountain dark ride had an outdoor section where it picked up a bit of speed and took a turn. The sign was to warn people!

Thanks for the trip report! Looks like a fun waterpark. Do you think the 25Euro entry is pretty expensive? I remember even the big parks in Cairo, like Dreampark, only cost around US $10 to get in.

Hmm, I've had a differen't story about that. I've read that SFGAm was originally going to get a Mr. Freeze clone, but they couldnt get permission to built it in that spot, so, Mr. Freeze was sent to SFSTL, and Raging Bull wich was planned for SFSTL, was brought to GAm instead. SFSTL even started making RB merch.. That's interesting, because at Texas Giant Bash the president of SFoT said Mr.Freeze was specifically designed for SFStL's island. That's why it's shaped like a "paperclip" instead of the original linear plan. Maybe the linear design was for SFGAm?

The former owners of Michigan's Adventure (the Jourden family) had planned on building a 210ft hypercoaster in the early 2000s, and even had a height ordinance exemption for the ride, but the Cedar Fair buy-out stopped it. It was referenced in an m-live article in 2001, but the article is no longer live on the internet.