307

Maybe they're getting an Intamin drop tower... "Feet: something you may or may not have at the end of this ride." ...too soon?

Hi guys I figured I'd ask this here since we're in the CP thread I'm heading out to the Point for my yearly visit on Labour Day weekend and I have a couple of questions for the vets and those who've been recently or are "in the know": 1] I assume the crowds will be heavy - visiting Saturday September 4, holiday weekend - but for those who've experienced it in the past, am I going to show up to 4hr waits for everything, or should I hope to be pleasantly surprised? 2] Has there been anything not running much this year/experiencing a lot of downtime that I should probably not bank on riding while visiting? Any help is muchos appreciated. Thanks!

Nikki and I saw a girl with her boobs flopping out of her top on High Speed Thrill Coaster, of all things. It was pretty disconcerting since she was fat trailer trash, but it was funny nonetheless.

This one wins.

Screw you all, Adventure Express ending is my favourite of the bunch. It actually made me enjoy the ride. Still the best coaster at PKI! ...no, I haven't been on Diamondback. Does it give AE a run for it's money?

As always, awesome work!!! Throwing people to the T-Rex = I would totally do that to Nikki if I wasn't sure she would kill me. The JonBenet comment was fantastic. Well played, good sir.

I think that's a good question, but uh maybe that's because I have no clue on the answer and would be interested in knowing! Pretty sure it serves no purpose other than to be considered 'theming'. I think we probably laughed for the entire time we were checking out the manatee rescue. Those things are awesome. Yeah we were in serious need of some water but I think the Busch rapids ride may be a bit too much for us. The one at Animal Kingdom was awesome, though, especially the drop! When we went in 2005 it was running really well but the brake was slaughtering the back half, and the operations were terrible. The mid-course was still on this time and still hampered the back half but it was still out of control for the first bit! I do understand others, though - if I were coming to Wonderland having no prior experience, I'd think it was a mediocre collection of crap with a side order of terrible woodies and one good B&M! While we were at Disney, we actually stayed at a Country Inn that had free make-your-own-waffles... so you best believe we were rockin' them every morning. Lip piercings rule! Nikki is still angry that I took out the two I had on the sides of my mouth that complemented the one in the middle Our final installment should be up sometime this weekend. Thanks for the kind words everyone!

Love the report. Impeccable theming at this park, it almost feels as though, through pictures, I've been transported to a wonderful land of concrete, gravel and weird carney rides. Magical. Thank you for giving me this opportunity.

I thought MIA was pretty mediocre when we went - outside of Shivering Timbers, I didn't like any of the coasters, and the flat ride collection was bleh at best. Shivering Timbers was AWESOME, though!!! Crazy air! It was definitely the pre-cursor to Voyage in that it kicked the crap out of you a bit, it was really long, and had a boatload of hills. Is the park EVER crowded?

Edit: instead of posting here I will simply PM TPDave in regards to the issue. Now, to the actual park: Wild Beast is still running horribly this year, if not even worse than last year. I went on it a few weeks after the park opened and it was jarringly bad. Minebuster was actually smoother for the most part but when it hits the bottom of those hills, oh man, it's like having organs re-arranged. Ghoster Coaster was never the smoothest coaster in the world but even it has gone way downhill in terms of not kicking the crap out of the rider. That could just be me having gained a bunch of weight, though. Vortex is still running great even after 18 years... except there's one 'pot hole' in the track coming down after the big fan turn off the drop, where the train just seems to slam downwards for a second. The lack of padding on the backbone is where the pain lies with that pot hole. Always good to see a Wonderland report on here. I have a soft spot for my home park even though I pretty much agree entirely with the mentality that the park is just a huge collection of mediocre/bad rides... and Vortex and Behemoth.

Hershey has better coasters and atmosphere, but if you want to hit a waterpark then you've gotta go to Dorney.

Damn, you're fast. I like that. I used to feel this way about our home park, Canada's Wonderland, but all we ever hear about it is that it sucks - so it's grown tiresome haha. Thanks for all the comments We'll have Busch up in the next couple of days

Really good TR, Erik! Nikki and I visited SFKK just over three years ago, and we kinda thought the same thing as you. We did get luckier in that there were about 2,000 people in the entire park so everything was a walk-on. But it's a drab park with an odd layout, no sense of personality, no idea on theming, no identity - it's basically a state fair with a 'Six Flags' stuck onto the front of it. We thought the employees were generally disinterested and slow but didn't have any bad experiences with them. The coasters are a mediocre collection with the stand-out clearly being Chang - which I thought was miles ahead of Mantis in terms of comfort, forces, and re-rideability. Anyways, good pictures and good TR!!! Also hats off to Mark for his great details about some SFKK history on a previous page!

shesaidboom and 307 do Disney World, SeaWorld and Busch Gardens Africa - part two of six ANIMAL KINGDOM And we're back! Before we keep going I reckon it's time to write a bit about each park! The first day was at Hollywood Studios. Rock N' Roller coaster was a great way for us to kick off the trip! We were expecting something pretty bleh and easily forgettable and instead were treated to a solid coaster! The rest of the park was a really nice introduction to the Disney experience, with everything looking top notch. It also was an introduction to the insane Disney crowds that we were to face every day. No clue how heavy a day it was for peeps, but wow. It was hardcore for me, anyway. Serious mass of humanity! Serious invasion of personal space! The only other awesome ride at the park was Tower of Terror, which Nikki skipped out on. But holy crap it was wild! Jer is so glad he went on it! Second day, we went to Magic Kingdom, where we had slightly differing opinions. Jer didn't really like any of the attractions, and thought it was by far the weakest Disney park. Nikki ranked it above Hollywood Studios and enjoyed the attractions - or at least Thunder Mountain - more than Jer. Nikki points to nostalgia for that, as it was her first Disney park, back when she was six years old. Splash Mountain was the highlight of the park for both of us. And man, that Caroussel of Progress SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCKED. As an aside, Dole Whip also rules. On the third day we hit what was unanimously our favourite Disney Park, Animal Kingdom. Absolutely amazing scenery, great theming for practically everything, really nice integration of animal displays, just a generally fabulous park. It would be really cool if they handed out a list of animals carved into the Tree of Life for everyone to find. Expedition Everest was awesome, Jer really liked Dinosaur [and Nikki missed most of it as she was screaming for her life with her head buried in her hands], and the Bug's Life 3D show was really incredible thanks to the interaction of the show with the crowd. Very, very well done! But Primeval Whirl was sfgluinsafgopbn bad. We decided to split EPCOT and Animal Kingdom up as we have a boatload of shots from AK! So here's some picz. Oh yeah, they also had this. See you at EPCOT! The safari ride brings you face to face with many dangerous animals who are so hopped up on bennies and goofballs that they don't know what's what! Kind of lessens the impact when they can barely stand. Gorilla. Herpes. Giraffe. Deer. If only they had posted a "Beware" sign instead of trying to promote saving the earth, Jer would still have a head! What's with this "recycling" crap? That's not scary! Where are the "Beware of Killer Hippos" signs? That makes people poop themselves, not this recycling business. MONKEH. That hit the [G]spot! Phallic shaped frozen treats! With nuts! Score! It was freakin' hot out, so we stopped for some rapids action. While we didn't get soaked, it provided an acceptable amount of heat relief and was also a good ride! Riding Primeval Whirl = lame. Waiting 95 minutes to ride Primeval Whirl = drinking chunky milk! The time listed for the wait on this ride was 20 minutes. But when we asked the ride-op, he said it was "more like 30". 95 minutes later, we finally boarded. Exhibit A as to why those little red wait time cards they hand out don't work. Funny story: The family behind us in line got into a discussion about dinosaurs as we walked into this room. The dad started by saying that Disney had bought the naming rights to the Tyrannosaurus Rex, then went on to explain that the creators of Jurassic Park 3 were forced to 'invent' a 'better dinosaur' and kill the t-rex to show Disney that they didn't need a stupid t-rex. He also used this giant skeleton as an example of a t-rex, by explaining that this one was a 'special spiked-horn t-rex'. Which, of course, it's not - it's a carnotaurus. Sadly, his fully grown children [think 16 and 24 years] ate up this story with a spoon, even exclaiming "That makes perfect sense!" near the end. Do I even have to explain all the things wrong with this? By the way, here's a dinosaur butt. Warning! Warning! See, look how small and unassuming this little guy is! This should have been a warning as to the terror ratio of Dinosaur, but we thought "hey, this is a Disney Park, how bad could it be?" Nikki can't stop talking about how awesome this show was. And it was awesome. So, now you know. The animal carvings travel down into the roots of the tree, including through the entrance for a Bug's Life 3D show. I mean, holy crap! This tree is the centerpiece for the park's gorgeous theming. Nikki - "Do you think they have animals here?" Jer - "Nah, it's probably just a typo." We were greeted at Animal Kingdom by this sky writer. He forgot the second 's' in 'Jesus'. TURN TO JESU!

It most certainly does. I remember hearing something faint about the briar patch! Thanks for clearing it up!

Quite clearly the fans were booing Bettman. As soon as he stopped talking the fans pretty much shut up. It's a tradition: let's boo the terrible commish who has no clue what he's doing. I don't blame anyone for following that tradition. You should see it at the NHL Entry Draft!!! Congrats, Pittsburgh. Finally, a team I'm cheering for wins a sports championship! ...even though I was only cheering the Pens because the Wings are my least favourite pro sports team. Ever. But hey I will take it. I think lost in all this is the plight of Wings back-up goalie Ty Conklin, who was ALSO on the Pens last year. Since the lockout, he's: -- been to the Cup finals with Edmonton in 05/06, and lost to the 'Canes -- been to the Eastern Conference finals with Buffalo in 06/07, and lost to the Sens -- been to the Cup finals with Pittsburgh in 07/08, lost to Detroit -- been to the Cup finals with Detroit in 08/09, lost to Pittsburgh I mean, that has to be hard to swallow. Forget Hossa...!

What?! That's just wonky.

Burke is overrated. He's already left Vancouver struggling and with very, very few assets, and then took over an Anaheim team with over half the team [and most of it's core contributors] ready and set for him, and suddenly he's become some sort of god-like GM. It's awful. He's not successfully rebuilt a team, and his preferred style of player is very narrow-minded and is not built to last in this new NHL. He has done some good moves, but every GM has their good moves. His good moves were more plentiful than a bad GM's, but not more plentiful than his bad moves, and that is not the kind of guy we need on a team with very little in it's cupboard already. I do, of course, reserve the right to change my mind if Burke blows everyone out of the water

Damn! There's three more trips I want to go on! Hopefully I'll be able to partake in at least one of them. Now, to get to counting the pennies in my piggy bank...

Lovin' the 'roo, dude! This TR exceeded the expectations I had of it after I saw "took pictures with my iPhone"

If you feel like posting your starting Fantasy Roster and that of your opponent feel free. I'm sure everybody at TPR would like to cheer on your players during the games versus just hearing afterwards about how big a "winner" you are. In the Special Olympics everyone is a winner, also. Damn, he cut it close on that over/under for Miami/Jets... 37 points! Edit: Actually it was a 20-14 final... ouch! Hahahaaaaaaaaaa so much for the lock for week one

Another thing is that there are so many more <=100 foot coasters out there than there are 100+ foot coasters, so obviously more of the little ones are going to be awesome because there's a much larger sample size to choose from. Granted, even if you make changes to even out the sample sizes, the smaller coasters probably still get the nod over the larger ones, but generally larger wooden coasters are there for the excitement of being on something so massive that's made of wood, rather than for their exciting quick transitions and fast pace.

Stop being racist towards tall wooden coasters. Will we ever stop the hate Sweeping generalizations such as the one in the original post do nothing to help keep the coaster peace in these troubled times! Come on, everybody, try to love one another right now, etc etc.

My hard work mostly consisted of randomly posting in Dave's threads, asking for band names, and very little else. I swear, one of these weeks I was going to maybe consider doing some research [ie: PM'ing someone who won a Dave Death CD]... buuuut you know. It took a monumental amount of effort for me to even sign in and make this post. Hopefully a CD

Oh good call!!! That thing was nutso on my tailbone.