bert425

it's still almost a year away, but now we're discussing Florida.. . we've got the itch to try out Busch Gardens Tampa (w/ Disney, of course). we shall see. Magic Mountain vs BGT is what it's going to come down to.

my blind baby girl, Roxxi:

That's amazing to hear another view, as we were there two full days, and even went back a 3rd day to pick up some re-rides and see the last show we wanted to see. there's plenty to do at BGW for us, so it's surprising to see someone disappointed. Gryffon didn't blow you away?

I had no idea Lagoon had so much fun stuff! gotta add this park to my Wish List. . . are there any other parks it's close to that I can mix this in on a trip plan? GREAT trip report, and sorry about your injury, Robb. . get well soon!

we go to see Faith No More on Sunday night. . .expecting a fantastic show.

it's a shame you had such a quick trip, as you did miss some of the GREAT flats in the park. so when you go back, be sure to hit: Hustler: being inside a giant poolball is different than being inside a tea-cup. there's a reason a "save Hustler" campaign popped up when it was in danger due to Batman. Frisbee: on the boardwalk -- it offers a great cycle, and swing is pretty high. Skyscreamer: yes, it's NOT the tallest one in the Six Flags Chain,but being right up against the canyon wall?. . what an experience. the Train: going UNDER Superman is just amazing. Bugs Bunny Rapids: Lots of the ride is "hidden" in the air above you, and you didn't notice. And it's themed to Bugs Bunny and the Singing Sword.

Port-a-johns. . for the true NASCAR race experience.

Now that's a good idea. if you read my trip report.. . yeah, I agree too!

it's a 4 hour drive (yeah, I know. . yech). . but with a day an a 1/2 free? I'd absolutely make the drive to Kennywood. especially with a Theme Park Newbie?. . the Old Kennywood section selection of classic rides cannot be beat. (and they have a Kangaroo, Turtle, Bayern Curve, Noah's arc, and a few other classic rides you can't get anywhere else (in addition to three classic woodies, JACKRABBIT! that your friend would love. . as well as a Hyper coaster in Phantom's revenge). well worth the drive in my opinion to spend 1/2 a day there.

a Larsen Loop is a PERFECT fit for the Boardwalk area, and Fiesta Texas has desperately needed more rides in that area for years now! really, once you get past Pandemonium, the only option was the kiddie tea-cups for years, with SS Overboard SBNO, and the trabant sitting rotting for at least 4 years before they blocked it off. a "boardwalk" needs games, and carnival rides. . how about putting a zipper or a Himalaya in there as well?

maybe in China, but in the States, Outlaw Run beat it by about 2 years: [youtu_be] [/youtu_be] I dunno if I'd count Hades 360 tho, since the inversion is supported by metal. . .

because it's new (and it's basically a Mouse, which always seem to have slow loading). . I'd go for Laff Track FIRST, before lines get long.

Depending what time you arrive, if it's late, you can use your Sat Admission ticket to get in 2 1/2 hour before closing on Friday using the Preview Plan. (it's not super early -- the park is open until 11pm on 8/14 & 8/15, so you can't get in until 8:30 -- but it's FREE instead of Sunset admission ($30)). just a suggestion. (and if you're staying on property at Hershey Lodge for Fri/Sat, you get in 3 1/2 hours before close on Friday, AND you get free transportation to the park, so no parking fees). But chocolate world is OUTSIDE the front gates, so you could do chocolate world to kill some time, then get in free on Friday at 8:30 or 7:30 if staying on property (that's what I would do). . .

for us, our longest thus far was Pennsylvania. . from Pittsburgh, driving to Philly, with stops along the way for: Kennywood, HersheyPark, Knoebel's, and Dorney. we don't like to do a lot of driving, and tend to stay central on most trips, and then just go out for day trips from the hotel.

Thanks so much! glad you enjoyed reading it. . I love typing it up for my friends, and nice to hear folks here at TPR like my writing style. Our "family" vacation -- the one we take together -- tends to be in May or June of each year (tho last year we went to the Caribbean on a cruise in November. . I did an FB trip report for that one, but never posted it here, since it was Cruise specific). But once we plan our trip for next year, I'll have an idea what we're gonna be doing. I have a feeling it will be West Coast, with Disneyland, Universal, and Magic Mountain..but we shall see. (Cedar Point is still on my wish-list too). here's the TR I did last year for our trip thru Pennsylvania, hitting Kennywood, Knoebel's, HersheyPark, and Dorney, as well as all the culture in Philly. . if you missed it: http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=68306 best, bert

eBay has some. .but they are considered "rare"

We walked by the WWII memorial on our first evening in DC (the same night we went up to the top of the Washington Monument). we passed it again on the Monuments by Moonlight tour, but no, we didn't spend a great deal of time there. . too much to see and do neat story on FDR Memorial. Luckily we were there on a Sunday night (as part of our tour), so not too crowded, but we still had to crop folks out of the pictures.

Day 8: our last full day of Vacation After a restful night (I’m guessing we slept so well because we were simply exhausted) we were up and moving about by 10am. We double-checked to make sure we hadn’t left anything in the room, and headed downstairs to check out. Once again, since I had pre-paid for everything (other than 3 days parking at the hotel) via Expedia.. I was checked out in under 1 minute, and the car had already been retrieved from the garage and was parked waiting for us. I had been expecting to have a little bit of time in the lobby to read over my directions – we were going to go to the Udvar-Hazy Air and Space (off Mall) museum, and I hadn’t been able to look at my directions because I had left the bundle of paperwork in the car (which we hadn’t touched for 3 days). I forgot to mention that the prior evening as we were rushing out of the Mall Air and Space Museum, I tried to go to the information desk to get directions for the off site. It was at 7pm, and I caught the people just as they were leaving the desk. She was actually pretty rude to me and told me that they didn’t have any driving directions handy, and that she had already turned off the printer, so she would NOT print me out one. So I asked her why the information desk was closing early, if the museum was open until 7:30 with summer hours. And she sniffed at me that “they are all volunteers, and had stayed an hour later than they should have”. .and then she and her co-information desk clerk walked off. Yeah. . bitchy. So anyways, I had expected to have time to review my directions, since I was worried they would be as bad as the ones we had tried to use to GET to the hotel. But the car was already there, blocking the driveway, so we quickly tossed our suitcases in, and pulled out. Luckily, a quick glance told me we were simply going around the block of the hotel, to go straight out the front, across the Teddy Roosevelt bridge into Alexandria, and then onto the Highway towards Dulles airport. I had actually managed to plan the trip where we never had to drive on a tollway, and that was the case here, but he Highway is odd, in that for certain hours, all lanes are restricted to HOV lanes (meaning you need 2 or more people in your car). This didn’t affect us, as we were heading out that way past 10am, but I could see it really sucking if you HAD to get to work at a certain time, but couldn’t drive on the highway until the HOV lane hours were over! It also helped that we were headed *out* of DC, so while there was a bit of traffic coming into the city, it was on the other side against us. The same proved true on the way back later, as we were driving towards DC while the city was emptying out of Monday workers. Anyways, it was a pretty uneventful drive of about 40 minutes -- except for a mini-fight about why hadn’t I looked up where to return the car (because I hadn’t expected for the car to be ready immediately? I thought I’d have time to look on the computer). I was really glad we had flown into Reagan, as it was right across the river from DC, but soon enough we saw planes coming in for landings, and we were turning into the Udvar-Hazy Center near Dulles airport. The Smithsonian Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center Museum is the companion museum to the Air and Space on the National Mall, but this one has the stuff that’s simply too big to display there: such as the Space Shuttle Discovery, a Lockheed Blackbird, a Concorde, and the Enola Gay (the plane that dropped the Atomic bomb in WWII). In addition, there are tons of display cabinets all around the vehicles, crammed with paraphernalia, flight suits, cool stuff (such as toys and models in the Space section.. including an R2D2 painted Mailbox, and one of the mother ship models from “Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind”). I only saw it once, so I forgot that one of the Transformers films dealt with an ancient Transformer “hiding” in this museum as the Blackbird. . so there was a large display with movie props and toys based on that film as well. They also have an observation tower, and an IMAX theater, as well as a huge McDonalds. They charge parking here, but otherwise, as a Smithsonian, it’s a free museum. We pulled in and I noticed it was really very empty. As an off-site museum, I had expected that it would be no where near as crowded as the ones on the mall, but I was pleasantly surprised how empty the lot was. And as I’m thinking this, the Universe said “HAHAHA” and several schoolbusses pulled in I hustled Nick to get into the museum, as our first stop was going to be the Observation Tower (as the Museum guides had recommended), and I wanted to get up there before all the busloads of kids. Turned out to be the correct call. . the elevators take you to the top of the tower (Guards control how many are allowed at once), where you can watch planes coming in for landings at Dulles, and they pipe in the cock-pit conversations between the pilots and the tower at the Airport. Very, very interesting. Once you have looked out the 360 views, you go down a level for a whole exhibit on how the Tower controls air traffic, and how the whole system works. . . we were in this part of the tower when the kids started pouring in, so we quickly got in line to exit and went back down to the main museum where I asked at information the best way to tackle this huge museum (with no real Exhibits. . basically just two giant hangers loaded with stuff). This place is so big, that even after the busloads of kids got in, the museum still seemed to be pretty empty! (except for when we stopped for lunch in the McDonalds. ..*then* you really noticed the kids, LOL). So we chatted with the Info guy, and he suggested just going on the catwalks past the Motion rides (which we weren’t gonna do), over the “Pre-1920 Aviation section, and down the center of the main hanger (passing right in front of the B29 Superfortress Enola Gay, the Northrop Black Widow, the Boeing 307 Stratoliner “flying cloud”, the Lockheed Blackbird, and the Vietnam era hellicoptors on the right, and looking over the Boeing 367, the Air France Concorde, and the Lockheed Super Constellation on the left – not to mention all the hang gliders, balloon baskets, and smaller planes suspended high from the ceiling). This pathway brought us all the way back to the Restoration Hanger, where there were several vehicles in different levels of restoration, and some video screens showing how they fix up the vehicles for display. We then walked along the back of the hanger to the connected “Space Hanger” (where the Space Shuttle Discovery is on display along with all kinds of missiles and rockets, as well as astronaut mobile quarantine facility trailers (that they used basically like “decompression” to get used to life once back from space). Once in the Space hanger, we went down to “floor level” and just started in the back of the Hanger and worked our way forward. This was the most interesting section to us, and we spent a good 45 minutes just in this one hanger, watching video of the shuttle taking off, and looking at the racks and racks of memorabilia on display (and posing for some up-charge museum pictures of us photoshopped into space-suits. .that of COURSE we bought!). We headed to the left of the main hanger, getting closer looks at the exhibits hanging in the areas: General Aviation, Sport Aviation, German WWII Aviation, Ultralights, Vertical Flight (early helicoptors, and gyrocopters), Commercial Aviation, Business Aviation, and Aerobatic Aviation. This took about an hour, although we weren’t reading most of the detailed info, it’s just such a big area, that it takes that long to walk the big rectangle on this side of the Museum. We were getting hungry, so stopped and paid way too much at the McDonald’s – it was among the most expensive ones I’ve ever seen, but I guess captive audience. . the lines were huge. But at least the food was what you’d expect from McDonald’s. . so edible. (better than the food we had at Kings Dominion). . and actually, it was slightly cheaper too, if I’m not mistaken. It was getting to be just about time to check in for our flight the next day (on Southwest, you check in 24 hours in advance), but I had rushed Nick from the car to beat the school busses in, I had forgotten the flight info I needed for the check in. So out to the car we went (in the heat!). . . and retrieved the flight info. Nick had been nervous, but I assured him how easy it was to check in and I could do it on his smart phone. We killed some time in the Museum (where we got some T-shirts and a super hard puzzle), and then went to find a spot with good WiFi, waited a few minutes, and I checked us in in seconds. With that out of the way? We were ready to finish the other side of the museum. We were really starting to feel it by this time (all the walking), so we breezed thru World War II Aviation (non-German), Interwar Aviation, Cold War Aviation, Korea and Vietnam, and Modern Military Aviation, thanked the volunteers at the info desk, and headed out to the car around 3pm. So we had spent a total of ~4 ½ hours in this museum. Ehausted, we headed back the way we came, (early enough that traffic was light regardless), and about 40 minutes later I spotted the exit we needed to take for our hotel. Our hotel was on 27th street, and while we were looking, Nick kept reminding me. . as soon as we check in, we’ve GOT to find out where we need to go to return the car in the morning! We passed 23rd street, and saw an Exxon. .and said, oh good, we can refill the tank there!, but didn’t spot the hotel yet. But we had to be close. As I’m looking to the left at the Hotels (Hyatt, Radison, ect. . so I knew we were very close) . Nick shouted “hey!!”. . and I look to my right on 25th street. . . .and wouldn’t you know it? Dollar Rent a Car. yep, the place we had to go to return the car, the place we were so worried we wouldn’t be able to find. . .was *literally* across the street from the final hotel. We could not believe it. . .LOL. So we went up half a block more, and I saw our hotel on the left, and we turned in, and I went in to check in. I told the guy about the funny situation with the rental car place and said that if I had known, or realized, the return was right across the street, I would have had us return the car now, and we could have taken the airport shuttle from the hotel in the morning! He laughed, and asked if I wanted to do that? We had negotiated a price and an arrangement with Dollar that if we returned the car by 11am, we would save almost $100 from the very good price that we were getting anyways, so I figured why mess with that negotiation, and we’d just return the car tomorrow. So the front desk clerk then tells me that the cost to park in their garage overnight is $27. I think I flat out said to him, “you’ve got to be shitting me”. If they were going to charge us to park overnight – in a hotel we were already paying $270 for 1 night for (by far the highest price we had paid. .and almost DOUBLE what we had paid per night in DC near the National Mall)..then he either needed to give me a deal, or we’d go an return the car now and just deal with the consequences of early return. He asked me what I thought I should pay, and I told him reasonably, $14 (about ½ of the standard rate), and he nodded and shook my hand, and said “ok”.. and then comped me the parking. Nick and I discussed it, and our guess is that because I had not asked for free, but instead offered what I considered to be fair, based on us staying there?. . that’s why he offered it free. Regardless, we took the pass, and the room keys, and pulled the car into the underground parking garage. This hotel is odd, in that you take an elevator from the garage into the main lobby, but then have to move to the elevator next door to go up to the rooms. Usually, the “parking” elevator wouldn’t be in the lobby right next to the room ones.. but because they were, when we got out in the lobby, I asked the front desk about the hours for the hot tub (since I really wanted to soak for a bit) and any suggestions for dinner in the area. We got to the room, and as I may have mentioned, it was by far the worst room of the trip, and it stung extra because it was the most expensive one. It was a corner room, but the view was of a construction site, and a bank building. . the A/C was super weak, so the room never really did cool down to a comfortable sleeping level, and the mattresses on the beds were worn out and a bit saggy in the center (this last room had two twins instead of a king, so we had to sleep separate). I wasn’t in the mood to fight with the desk over a better room, so instead we changed to swimsuits and headed down to the indoor pool/hot tub. I knew it was trouble when we walked into the pool area, and the raised section where the hot tub should have been – was tiled over, and had loungers sitting there. There was a college age lifeguard on duty (who looked a bit annoyed when we came in, because he couldn’t sit and read his book) .. but based on his presence and the long list of rules posted at the pool? This hotel gets a lot of kids, and has had some incidents with horseplay resulting in injury. As the lifeguard WATCHED us like a hawk. I mean, he watched us swim. And the water was not warm (we were on the shady side of the building in the afternoon, so although he said the pool was 78, it was cold). So this didn’t help my back at all, and Nick only swam for 5 minutes or so before getting out. (I lasted about 20, but for me it was out of spite, because as long as I was in the pool, the lifeguard had to move around looking busy, folding towels, and wiping down chairs, and testing balances in the pool). We threw in the towel after that and decided that we’d go out to eat something, since we had to put gas in the car anyways. We went to the street (close-by) where the Desk Clerk recommended, and although there are a lot of restaurants there, they were all Fru-fru ethnic places (imagine Whole Foods as a restaurant row), with no parking! The Clerk had thought we were going to walk over to the restaurants. So we just filled up the car with gas at the Exxon, and went back to the Hotel, and ate dinner in the Bistro area that all the Marriott Couryards on this trip had. We chatted with the bartender ladies, and had a drink with dinner. .then headed back up to the room to relax, pack, and get ready to head out in the morning. Day 9: Nothing really to report here. . we got up by 10, checked out and returned the car across the street by 10:40, and were at the airport for our 2pm flight by 11:15. There is NOTHING to do at the airport, so we paid way too much for a tiny coke (8oz for $3.99, really??), and a sandwich. .and simply watched a bird trapped in the terminal fly around for a couple of hours. the flight left on time, and was completely full, but at least the person between us was a skinny teenager. On the flight from Houston to Austin, it was a bigger guy, but that’s only a 30 minute flight, so no biggie. We got home to a hot house (the A/C had been off), but we turned on everything, hopped in the shower, and then crashed hard. And other than picking Roxxi up from the Vet/Boarding the next day (over $500 for medical boarding), that was our vacation together this year. Hope you enjoyed reading! Me outside the museum with a big ball. . nope, not sure why we took this either. . .LOL The Observation Tower at the Smithsonian Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center Museum View from the Observation Tower towards Dulles Airport. It was cool you could hear the pilots communicating with the tower there. View from the Observation Tower towards the entrance (parking lot still pretty empty) Super-fortress Enola Gay (from the main catwalk) Super-fortress Enola Gay (from the main catwalk) from the main catwalk, looking at part of the Boeing 737, and the Air France Concorde behind it. cockpit of Super-fortress Enola Gay Restoration area (they were working on some WWII artifacts) Restoration area (they were working on some WWII artifacts) Space Shuttle Discovery, from the catwalk. Nick and Space Shuttle Discovery. me and Space Shuttle Discovery. Lockheed Blackbird (my favorite plane. the X-men had one!) Nick and Lockheed Blackbird Lockheed Blackbird. WWII plane WWII plane from catwalk. I *think* this was the Stratoliner "flying cloud" cool little plane that unsnaps in the center, then you can drive off to do things at your destination. overview of the main hangar overview of the main hangar looking the other way. the Ascent Sculpture at the entrance to the museum. "The sculpture commemorates the human journey of flight, echoing the sweeping grandeur of the museum's collection." Us in space suits! us with Discovery

I think that depends on each persons interest level, though. Remember, you're an American. Not sure a British person would have as much interest in American history as someone who is born and raised here. I can tell you that we just recently did a quick Washington D.C. trip and did a *LOT* in a couple of days. You might not hit everything, but you'll most certainly get a very good whirlwind tour of US History in that time. Very true, and a good point. although the Zoo, and the Smithsonians (museums, even with the focus on American for some, the Air & Space, and Natural Science don't really) transcend borders. but you are correct, it will all come down to the person's interest level. For BGW, for example, we were determined to see the shows, so we needed 2 full days (actually 3, if you count us going back to catch Celtic Fyre, and reride a few things on the last day)

we just did similar, and I'd recommend 3 days in Washington. .there is simply SO much to see with the Monuments, the Government buildings, and the Smithsonians. . I would have liked another day for just the Zoo. so here's what I'd do: -- Two days at Busch gardens (plenty of time to do shows and rides) --ONE day at kings dominion (plenty of time to ride everything multiple times. . we did 1 time for each and only spent about 6 hours total there). -- THREE days in Washington DC (there's a lot to do. .you'll want at least 3 days) -- ONE day at Hersheypark (you can do two, but if you use the evening admission the day before you go for your full day, then you can knock out most of the "big" coasters, and avoid those lines for your full day. -- use the day you saved at Hersheypark to drive the 2 1/2 hours to Knoebel's. . very much worth the trip (and parking and admission are free). -- Two days at six flags great adventure (can't comment here. . haven't done this park) Here's a link to my current trip report (covering BGW, Kings Dominion, and DC) http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=70573 and here's the TR I did last year (covering Kennywood, Hersheypark, Knoebel's, and Dorney): http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=68306

Peter Pan is my favorite ride at Disney. I'll wait however long the line is (in addition to my fast pass).

Me in the hotel lobby posting to TPR while on our trip. . I couldn't help myself!

heh. . happy to see you took the Tower Shot that I missed (we were running to Volcano, and had to pee. so didn't stop and never went back)! But Volcano was basically a walk on for us. Funny to see the similar pics that we took tho and that is some AWESOME theming on the Crypt. When we were there about 3 weeks ago, the ride was in pieces. Not that we ride top spins anyways, but the fire effects are great. and yes, Avalanche is a great toboggan coaster.

back issues run in my family, so yeah, that's why I don't like some rides that other love, as they cause me pain. what's funny is that I KNOW Dinosaur! uses the same ride system, but I have no issues there.

Interesting! And nope, didn't notice. LOL I see the wiki entry mentions the ride was really rough and has been toned down?.. maybe I'll give it a shot the next time we're in California. . as when we rode it last (many years ago). . it HURT.