bert425

the pier that they built "Pleasure Pier" on, has withstood many, many strong hurricanes (used to house a hotel). I'm sure the rides would get damaged by heavy storm surge, but the pier absolutely would survive and they would be able to rebuild.

what's funny, is I JUST watched these two on your youtube channel the other night. weird timing! (yeah, the looked awful, so no great losses).

they still have it. but both of their buffets have been overshadowed (at least in this foodies eyes). the Carnival World Buffet at Rio was once our favorite, but a couple of years ago we discovered the much better buffet at the "M" still on Las Vegas Blvd, but off strip (about 2 miles up from Mandalay Bay). then this past trip we discovered Wicked Fork (I think that is what it's called) at Cosmopolitan. We ate there a couple of times, and tho we did go to Rio for gaming, we did not eat at the buffet. as to the Seafood, which still has a great reputation, the Golden Nugget has a much better Seafood buffet on the weekends (Friday/Saturday). makes sense, after all, Golden Nugget *is* owned by Landry's (of the Seafood restaurant chains) these days. absolutely spectacular buffet, and worth the trip down to Freemont Street just for this buffet.

Went today for FrightFest, and the park was the most packed I've seen it in a long, long time. They were running all 3 towers on Scream. 1st time I've seen that in at least a couple of years. HUGE waits on every ride, with the exception of Goliath (which we rode twice back to back with almost no wait whatsoever). I guess it's odd placement just off the entrance plaza threw some folks off, and they simply missed that it's to the left. I mean, the wait on Poltergeist and Superman were hour+ easily. and leaving at 8pm?. . took us over 40 minutes to get out of the parking lot! (I don't know if there was an accident at that 4-way stop or what. . but sheesh, traffic did not move for 10 minutes at a time!) went to two shows, both of which were completely full. . but we stood in the back anyways, since someone we were with was in a wheelchair, so that worked out just fine. We were disappointed at the lack of decoration, the FrightFest stuff was really, really weak with the big exception being the "troll bridge" going from the main plaza into Spassberg, that was really well done. but almost no decoration in Fiesta Bay, the Western area, or Spassberg. Rockville had the same zombie theme as last year. Waterpark entrance also had the same "spider" theming as last year. no update on rattler, tho they have now walled off where Wagon Wheel was (and blocked the queue building). they *do* have a few Iron Rattler signs up, and they put up a small pavilion showing pics, and the animated display of the "new" coaster. I did ask the employee that was manning the pavilion if he knew if the station fly-by was going to be kept, or if it would just go into the station after the tunnel? Of course, he had no idea, but at least he admitted that much.

me in the "Pony Express" test seat at KBF a few years ago.

we went to dinner with friends visiting Austin from Dallas last night, and Six Flags came up. they are VERY excited about the announcement of the Texas Skyscreamer. I questioned if it wouldn't get shut down often, due to how often they seem to have to close the tower, and the Chute Out due to high winds (and how often they used to have to close the planes, back before that spot became the Superman towers). their response? "oh.. . . yeah, I'll bet it will be shut down a lot." but I guess the take away was that the general public (our friends are in their 40's) are excited about the new ride announcement

so "not Mr. Right" but "Mr Right Now?"

wow. .that 1st pic is AMAZING. really is one of the best and wish I were able to join y'all (someday, someway). not been around long enough to know what the "bag o crap" is, but sounds like fun. . LOL

here's the link to the story on CNN.Com http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/19/us/california-ride-stuck/index.html?iref=allsearch

how many Jewish Grandmothers does it take to screw in a lightbulb? zero. "if you vant me to sid in the darrk, I'll sid in the darrk"

Q: What do you call 100 lesbians with assault rifles? A: Militia Etheridge

my Sister is a Lesbian too. yeah. . tell me how it's not gentic?

man this brought back memories (and I was so much thinner then). here are a few pics I just dug up (these are from 2002 & 2003): oh yes, not Ga-Hay at all! LOL and here we are (my Ex and I about to go see the Country Bear Jamboree w/ the bears!).

did em with my Ex, who had JUST come out (he had been married got divorced just before we met. I was the first guy he had ever been with). so he was COMING OUT!!!!! and he wanted to do the Disney Gay-Days. so ALL he wanted to do was go to the parties at Pleasure Island, since he had never been to a "gay" party. after long days in the parks (tho the highlight will always be seeing the Country Bears with a big group of bears (and one poor straight family from Denmark who had the misfortune to be wearing red that day!. . but we all got along great)), the LAST thing I wanted to do was go to parties. I said to him, "it's going to be old guys with flabby pierced nipples dancing with no shirts!". . . and he forced me to go anyways. and guess what? it was old guys, with flabby, pierced nipples, dancing with no shirts. (the younger guys were more interested in the light-up Tinkerbell spinners, and drinking than dancing). oy. . . this post brought back some Memories!

This is Roxxi (named after our favorite live music club in Houston when we were growing up). She's a Doberman & German Shepard mix. . and she LOVES to get dressed up for Halloween (seriously, she likes how headgear feels on her ears ):

I missed this thread, since I discovered this side of the forums just recently. here's my Partner and myself from our trip to Hawaii last year. on "Road to Hana" in Maui: and here we are about 1/2 way up Mauna Kea on the Big Island: (why yes, we ARE above the clouds )

Unless you're in Singapore, that clearly looks like MRS. Pineapple who's happy, not Mr.

just my opinion, but Fiesta for a couple of years now purposely runs only 1-2 trains, to force folks to buy the "Flash Pass" they might be great to have, but, yeah, we're not going to pay that much to upgrade every time we visit just because they purposefully slow down the lines to get folks to buy them. seriously, once we waited over an hour for Pandemonium -- and that was because they only had THREE cars on the tracks, and this was on a slow day. (and we only waited because the kiddo with us really, really wanted to ride it).

really don't want to pull this off track, but sorry, do feel the need to follow up (again, sorry). I have lived in Texas since I was 7 years old. grew up in Houston, came to Austin for College and never left (been here over 25 years now). I'm really well traveled across the State as well, including Brownsville, Dallas/Ft.Worth (Metroplex), and San Antonio. out of all the *major* cities in Texas, Austin is the liberal oasis, and truly the only one I can say is "progressive" by far it's the only one where I, as a Homosexual male, have never feared for my safety at any place in the city. that can NOT be said of Dallas (if you aren't in the Oak Lawn "gay" area). . and yes, I have been harassed while in Deep Ellum). it can NOT be said of Houston (if you aren't in the Montrose "gay" area . . and yes, I will always remember Paul Broussard -- gaybashed to death by a group of kids who drove to the Montrose area to "beat up a gay"). San Antonio? yeah, there are a couple of areas around the city where there are pockets of gay bars/restaurants -- but it's a Military town, and I have more than enough experiences of being harassed while in the Alamo area (while walking to the Bonham Exchange), or on the Riverwalk with my partner. sorry, but I stand by my opinion of the "great" state of Texas as being chock-full of hatemongers. I've experienced it, I've seen it, and I've lived it. but as you may note from my account, I live in a suburb of Austin, and Austin is very different from most of the cities in Texas -- mainly because it has "college-town" mentality, and yes, that translates to more open-mindedness. ok. . rant over, and apologies. just wanted to get it off my chest now back to coasters!

really, tho, is it any worse than this: or even the "classic":

Iron Scream sounds better although some quick google fu reveals that there IS already an existing "Iron Judge" logo:

OMG why? full of right-wing hatemongers (well, cept for Austin ), and more importantly, it's SO FREAKING HOT! seriously, our Theme Park trips always are fairly short ones, since the heat just wipes you out!

it does look quite short, and I wish it did SOMETHING where the Helix once was. . but still, looks phenomenal, and can't wait to ride. my Partner just took a look at the first drop over my shoulder and said "no way". . .LOL, but hey, if I can get him on Superman, I can get him on this.

I do hope you slipped her a very nice tip tho, even if she insisted it wasn't necessary?

yah, but I was quoting as I read thru a long thread (wasn't planning on responding to so many )