805Andrew

I love water parks! They can give you certain thrills that coasters can't such as the feeling of uncertainty due to the lack of restraints. It takes courage to go down certain tall, steep waterslides. You can't simply strap on a restraint, and let someone else take control - you have to send yourself down. Also water slides at water parks can be more unpredictable with each ride differing from the previous one.

This was such a fun day and there was so much to do at this park. I sacrificed one credit (Blackbeard's Lost Treasure Train) for an extra ride on Nitro which really exceeded my expectations. I also missed out on the Sky Ride which I will not next time I visit SFGAdv this August.

M83 "Do It, Try It"

To be honest, this sounds boring to me and would sound boring to the vast majority of people. I doubt WDW would have a fifth gate for many, many years and not before CA gets a third gate (if that ever happens) or before WDS Paris or HK Disneyland gets improved or expanded and Shanghai Disneyland is well established. If WDW ever got a fifth park I would want it to be a version of Disney Sea or a Disney Villains park of some type.

I'm hoping to try out this VR this Thursday.

This sounds like the same type of flight simulator theatre that's at Fuji Q called Fuji Airways which was actually a pretty good, legit take on Soarin'.

It's got to be capacity and quantity of attractions. I went to both USJ and Tokyo Disney last Summer, and while both parks were crowded, USJ felt a lot more crowded than Tokyo Disneyland or DisneySea, plus they had longer waits on the majority of their attractions (with a few exceptions). Tokyo Disney is more of a resort with parks, shopping, and hotels and more people are in and out throughout the day, while USJ is one park (though it does have shopping and hotels) with much shorter hours so more people are there open to close. Tokyo Disneyland also has much more attractions in its park to absorb people, though most of USJ's attractions are E ticket ones.

Since I am going to use it only once at Six Flags New England, is it worth it the extra 60 $? For the parking in the other Six Flags parks I'm visiting I already have another plan! Probably not. Use that $60 towards a Flash Pass instead if you have too.

Wow, crazy wait times for Jurassic Park The Flying Dinosaur! It looks really cool though. I would either buy an Express Pass that included the Flying Dinosaur or make a mad dash for the ride right at park opening if I was going to Japan this year, but I'm not . Harry Potter will still be insanely crowded, but Forbidden Journey will only have the second longest line in the park now. And noticing the wait time pictures, even some of the lesser rides had long waits. 75 minute wait for Elmo's Go Go Skateboard?? I don't even remember seeing that ride at USJ last year. I'll eventually have to get back to USJ to check out the Jurassic Park area plus whatever else they add next. Oh, and no sympathy from me for the closing of Back to the Future since I missed it last summer.

I figured you enjoyed yourself with all those great pictures you took and a story to tell.

Dorney Park was an interesting park. I don't think I've ever seen a park so dead on a Saturday (the water park had a decent amount of people though), but the dark clouds in the sky in the morning may have helped scare some people away. Steel Force was my #100 (I will most likely hit my #200 at Kentucky Kingdom this Summer), I actually liked Hydra and its jojo roll right out of the gate, the classic log flume was fun, I enjoyed the forceful drop of Demon Drop, and I really enjoyed the last couple of hours at the Wildwater Kingdom water park so it was a good day (or ⅔ of a day) for me. Thunderhawk was really rough for me and was my least favorite classic coaster (pre 1960s) I've ridden, and Dominator was probably the most boring drop ride I've ever ridden (I didn't even realize it had two types of drops on the tower). I missed out on a few of the things you did, such as the two scenic trains (I don't think I even noticed them), the Whip (I just rode the one at Knoebels and didn't realize this one had historical significance), and Screamin' Swing (it wasn't open when I went by it in the morning and I didn't think it was going to open due to the lack of crowds). I kind of rushed the park after 11 AM trying to get all the credits and some of the flats done before lunch so I could enjoy Wildwater Kingdom after lunch. Wildwater Kingdom was a lot of fun (espcially the new capsule drop Python Plummet slides) and that's where Fast Lane really came in handy, skipping all the lines for the slides that had a Fast Lane option. There were so many water slides at Dorney Park that I couldn't try them all in the short time we had, so I just tried the ones that had Fast Lane (which helped a lot) and the ones w/o Fast Lane that had a short standby wait. I had to miss out on some cool looking slides that didn't have Fast Lane such as Patriot's Plunge due to the standby lines being too long. Wildwater Kingdom is good enough to be its own separate gate water park. I feel the reason its included with Dorney Park is to get more into the Dorney side of the park, not the other way around. People who go to Dorney (especially coaster enthusiasts) and don't go to the water park are probably going to think Dorney is bland and boring (which the ride side kind of is) and be done with it quickly. People who go to the Wildwater Kingdom side and enjoy water park attractions will most likely have a good time at Dorney though. I can't imagine how dead Dorney Park is when Wildwater Kingdom is closed (outside of Haunt).

Nothing More "Mr. MTV"

The ride looks great from your video. I can't wait to try this out in pass holder preview, but I'm going to wait a week for Spring Break to be over for a lot of people and go during the week.

Totally reminds me of 2004!

I was going to say the windows of the ferris wheel should have been tinted...but...damn.

It's Spring Break plus opening week. Every major park that is open this week and next week is going to be busy.

That glow in the dark ERT was the best ERT I've ever done.

I'm sure it will awaken. It's a great thread.

This is exciting news. This will actually make the Revolution "new". I'll be curious to ride the New Revolution both with and without the goggles.

I was expecting medium crowds like past Bring a Friend Days I've gone too which were very manageable, not a madhouse. Since when does a theme park anywhere reach max capacity in February??? Especially on a non-holiday weekend. I had no idea a cheer competition was going on as well.

I was going to go to SFMM yesterday. Driving from SLO via Ventura, I noticed the right two lanes of the 5 were jammed all the way to the Magic Mountain Pkwy exit right after the Old Road exit (if I would have noticed this ahead of the Old Road exit I would have taken this exit). I never have seen the 5 jammed at MM Pkwy coming from the North before, just coming from LA. I decided to bypass the MM Pkwy exit and take the Valencia Blvd exit. Driving by the MM Pkwy exit I could see how jammed MM Pkwy was getting into the park. I have never seen it that crowded before, even in the Summertime. I should have given up then. I got off the Valencia Blvd exit. While getting off the fwy was easy enough, once I got on the Old Rd the left two lanes were completely jammed. It was just before 10:30 at this time. I sat patiently in the far left lane with my parents, who I was taking to the park for their first time in over ten years. I was going to use a free bring a friend offer and a 50% off a ticket offer on my Gold Pass. I brought a friend last May for Bring a Friend Day when they had the early morning Twisted Colossus passholder ERT. While there were decent crowds that day, it wasn't crazy crowded like this at all. I never thought it would be more crowded on a Bring a Friend Day in February then a Bring a Friend Day in May right after Twisted Colossus opened. It took us over an hour to get from Valencia Blvd to MM Pkwy on the Old Rd and just before the left turn into the park my dad and I decided we didn't want to go to the park with these crowds. It was going to be crazy as hell, and my parents would've gotten a horrible experience of the park. We decided to make a u-turn at MM Pkwy and go do something in LA instead. Leaving Valencia the 5 was smooth southbound but you could see a traffic jam for miles northbound because of people trying to get off at MM Pkwy. Traffic to and in LA was a breeze for the most part, especially compared to the mess by SFMM. I heard the park reached capacity with just over 30,000 visitors later on with 3 hour waits on the most popular rides, so I think we made the right decision.

I think originally they were shooting for a 1973 opening. After Walt's death they decided to focus more on opening WDW, although Walt Disney was a multitasker and wanted to open both. They still wanted to build Mineral King, but the fight became harder after Walt's death and they ultimely gave up when Mineral King Basin was annexed into Sequoia National Park in 1978. They are some cool innovations in the ski industry in recent years such as Whistler Blackcomb buiding a peak to peak gondola and Park City building a gondola connecting Park City Mountain Resort to The Canyons, and Squaw Valley is planning a gondola to connect it to Alpine Meadows, although we never know what Disney would have done to shake up the ski industry. My guess is the industry would have modernized a lot sooner then it did. It would have been interesting to see how this turned out. I wonder what they would have done to make it a year round park with the colder winter temperatures (I'm not sure if it snows there in the winter). Its a shame it's strip malls and housing developments now. At least Mineral King Basin is still natural. Although a Mine Cart Coaster would have been cool, I'm very happy with how Indiana Jones Adventure turned out at Disneyland. I haven't seen an attraction as elaborate or as good as Indy added to Disneyland Park since then.

Disney's Mineral King Ski Resort Long story short, after Walt Disney died this project died with increasing opposition from Sierra Club and other groups and people. If it would have been built it would have been closest ski resort to where I live (tied with the China Peak Ski Area) being only a few hours away. It would have been interesting to see a Disney take of a ski resort and how they would have revolutionized the ski industry.

Just listened to this episode. It was a great listen and very interesting. I'll have to listen to the other two episodes you're on when I get a chance.

I just bought an Annual Pass at Costco today. I haven't been to USH in over ten years so I can't wait to see how the park has changed.