ilrider

The iPad makes our MacBook big and clunky in comparison. I love the iPad for basic web surfing and checking e-mail. I can lie on the couch and surf, read books, etc. I use it far more than the laptop or desktop now.

There's a typical sheet cake under the loops, the track portions not on the hills are edible (Rice Crispy treats covered with frosting), as is the queue platform, and the hills are styrofoam covered with frosting, so I guess they could be licked. Oh, the trains are edible too. The people in the queue: edible, but only if you like dog treats. She wasn't going for realistic physics, of course, just aesthetics.

That was our goal! You should see how many of these dolls our daughters have! I had warned my wife you guys would find a way to criticize! J/K

My wife made this cake this week for our 11-year-old's birthday. Birthday girl is a card carrying Club TPR member. There are obvious benefits to marrying the Home Ec award winner of her high school! She and I were pondering what unique elements we could add last night, but we didn't want to overdo it.

I hope others here can see that some people local to the park, like us, desire a new adult coaster. I got totally jumped on recently for making the same claim that I hated to see Chang go and want a new adult coaster. That was when the rumor was only a single new waterslide, not a complete watermark expansion, so I just said I wanted a coaster over a slide. It looks like the other Six Flags are all getting a thrill ride of some kind, and I just don't care for waterparks that much, other than they lessen the crowd in the dry side of the park. Business is business.

^Dramamine or similar will help you immensely. Causes some drowsiness, but you'll enjoy your day even more and not lose your lunch!

I have to take a full dose of Dramamine every four hours or my day is ruined by motion sickness. Flat rides affect me badly, so I typically avoid spinning ones altogether. I'm fine on coasters once the Dramamine takes effect. This hit in adulthood.

This expansion, I'm cool with, because even if I never hit HH, it means more capacity and shorter lines in the rest of the park!

Call me spoiled, I guess, but you would probably get tired of it after awhile. I live ten minutes away and spent almost every day of my teen years there, so maybe I got burned out. I'm not saying KI has a better collection of rides, just that the recent additions to GAm have been underwhelming. I know it's a good coaster collection, but the only ones that really excite me anymore are Raging Bull, Viper, and Batman: TR, and they have all been there for a long time. I read about all these newer top coasters around the country and wish we had just one. I'm not the only local with the same thoughts. We only went there this summer because we had four free tickets. We never go to the water park because it takes two days to do both, so a slide doesn't excite me after thinking Chang was here. The year Griffon opened (and the year following) I visited BGW on a regular basis because it was my home park and the perfect place to get my coaster fix (since I don't get to visit parks very often). However, I made the mistake of visiting the park very regularly, so I got bored of riding the same coasters/water rides and seeing the same shows every single day. Since then I never really visited the park (saving up for next year's tower). I don't really miss the park that much even though I love BGW. I'd HIGHLY recommend just not visiting the park for a long term period (maybe a year or two) and come back to the park. You will enjoy it more than you do now regardless of a new ride or not. Just be glad your homepark is actually getting something new. Good advice. I didn't get a chance to mention that our trip there this summer was actually the best one I have had in years, because it was almost a ghost town on a weekday in the middle of July, with HH full. We have not seen such short lines there in many years. I was not looking forward to the day, because last year the we had to wait 45 minutes for the Hometown Fun Machine it was so crowded, but we were pleasantly surprised this year and got in rides on all the coasters except V2, which was down and then had a long line. My 8 and 10 year old daughters are awesome because they will ride any coasters and always love them. My wife and I have to take turns staying with our 2 year old son, so sometimes we each sacrifice at least a coaster each, or ride them twice. My problem is that I suffer from severe motion sickness, to the point I have to be on Dramamine all day to go on rides, so I stay off any flat rides that spin too much these days, so coasters are about the only rides I can tolerate. Our trips to new parks in the last couple summers has been great. I have not been to any other parks but this one in almost 20 years, believe it or not (hence the burnout), so my horizons have been expanded a bit. I would take your advice and avoid GAm for awhile, which I did for several years in my 20s, but my kids get these free reading program tickets every summer, so we're obligated to go. Mid-July will be our target from now on for shorter lines and more rides, at least.

^It is definitely worth riding, but it wasn't as intense as I thought it would be. Loved the first drop (airtime all the way down in the back), the trains, the smooth ride, and the sustained floater air, but based on the POV videos I thought it would be more thrilling, with more ejector air. It is still a very good new coaster, though, and I enjoyed my two rides on it. It's a nice addition to KI.

I never said top 10. Someone put those words in my mouth, if you look back. I just said a top coaster. That's what GAm used to put in. Now, the parking is a ripoff, we have people who can afford the Flash Pass cutting in front of us like we're some third class visitors, and the last really good coaster to go in was Raging Bull, 12 years ago (subjective, but my opinion). If that makes me less of an enthusiast, so be it, but we much more enjoyed our trips to Michigan's Adventure (yep, you read that right), Indiana Beach, and Kings Island in the last two summers, for the very reason that they were better for my family, with cheaper parking, cheaper admission, better kids' rides, and shorter lines, but still some great thrill rides. My kids all liked KI better than GAm this summer. The family element is my top criteria! That's why I seek the most bang for my buck, and it's elsewhere these days, even with the travel. My kids like big coasters too, BTW. I feel fortunate to have grown up so close to a major park, but I just don't enjoy it as much anymore. I have good memories there, so don't think I hate it. I like riding some of the same rides with my kids my parents did with me. But, everyone has a different opinion, and why do I have to love a new waterslide or worship the park or I get jumped on? Yikes! I stand behind my feelings, and I'm not going to fight with everyone all day. Enjoy the new rumored waterslide, and I'll wait for something more exciting.

If I knew we were getting a top new coaster, then I would wait. But Chang would have been enough to satisfy me for a bit, and my biggest point was Chang>water slide. Look, everyone can try to tell me I have no right to complain, but these are my feelings, and I know every square inch of that park like the back of my hand, so I think I have a valid perspective, and I just really don't care if I go there or not each year. Nobody's going to change my opinion. Heck, the article in the local paper featuring TPR's day here a couple weeks back admitted most enthusiasts see our coasters as just so-so.

Call me spoiled, I guess, but you would probably get tired of it after awhile. I live ten minutes away and spent almost every day of my teen years there, so maybe I got burned out. I'm not saying KI has a better collection of rides, just that the recent additions to GAm have been underwhelming. I know it's a good coaster collection, but the only ones that really excite me anymore are Raging Bull, Viper, and Batman: TR, and they have all been there for a long time. I read about all these newer top coasters around the country and wish we had just one. I'm not the only local with the same thoughts. We only went there this summer because we had four free tickets. We never go to the water park because it takes two days to do both, so a slide doesn't excite me after thinking Chang was here.

SF GAm Kings Island Indiana Beach Wish I could afford more, but we have to pay for six at each park!

I'm bored with my home park, GAm, frankly, so to have Chang dangled in front of us in the media then snatched away was disappointing. We just went to King's Island a couple weeks back for the first time. That park has recently gotten Firehawk, the awesome Diamondback, and now Windseeker for 2011. Guess I can't expect much from a SF company trying to emerge from bankruptcy, especially when the park is already popular, but a waterslide? This is why there is little drawing me to GAm anymore.

My family and I hit IB for the first time this summer also. Cornball was a great coaster. The mine train coaster was down, and I let my wife take the girls on Steel Hawg while I watched my son, so Cornball was my favorite. My only annoyance with the park was the wristband scanning on every ride. Walgreens Wednesday 2 for 1 deal makes it a good deal.

I thought a 16-year-old girl died on a skycoaster in Wisconsin a couple years back when her harness disengaged. Maybe it was a different ride.

Night ride on The Beast Aug. 14. Great way to end my ride season.

Unless I'm wrong, I thought this ride does have the feature where the nets rises with the gondola, but the operator stopped 40 feet short of the correct height, another blunder I just can't get my mind around, because if this is all he did all day, he should know the correct height. If this ride doesn't have that feature, the same tragedy would have befallen the girl if it had, so that feature wouldn't have saved her. A failsafe sure seems easy to create on this ride, though, as has been mentioned.

They had already been warned to not touch the scene, as the article states, so the owner is going to be in hot water, more than he already is.

I apologize if posting two different comments in a row constitutes double posting, but I thought everyone would want to read this article from CBS News. Police caught workers making repairs to the ride at 2 a.m., 2 weeks after the girl fell, in a closed crime scene! Follow the link: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/08/20/earlyshow/main6789775.shtml

My 23 month old son just rode The Great Pumpkin Coaster at King's Island last week and loved it. The Whizzer at SF GAm was my first at age 4.

You're right. I read an article stating riders were hitting the fence, which is what caused the ensuing chaos.

It doesn't matter in what happened, but in a criminal case, the difference between claiming he literally blacked out versus just not doing his job is big for the defense, because the former is a defense case while the latter is clear admittance of negligence. I think the guy is just admitting to a lapse in judgment. He has been charged with a crime, so I think we should be able to discuss this aspect of the story here, so in that respect, yes, the difference between blacked out and blanked out does very much matter. That statement could come back to haunt him in court.

He said he "blanked out," not "blacked out," which to me means he is saying he doesn't know what he was thinking when he violated procedure. It could be interpreted in different ways,