metrock

A few thoughts: Sunway Lagoon - Not as exciting as they made it out to be as far as the water attractions go. But visually, it was a beautiful place to visit. Wild Wadi- The only "Disney quality" water park I have been to. Simply an amazing water park. By far, some of the best customer service I have had anywhere (even Disneyland). I grabbed a bite to eat at one of those walk up window places and as I was eating, someone came by to see if everything was ok. And then as I was leaving, they rushed over to throw out my trash! Wild Rivers- So glad to see this water park on the list. Now, I might be a little biased because I grew up with it ... but it is still one of my favorite water parks. Much better than the over rated Raging Waters. It is so sad that this will be the last season. However, with the housing market and economy going south, I wonder if The Irvine Co will extend the lease once again (it was supposed to close last season). To me it just makes no sense to build anything there. Even businesses.

^ Holly crap! I thought you had fallen of the face of the earth. Good to see your still around!

^ Allen? As in Allen E California and Rollercoasterz.com?

First of, I must ask: Where has time gone? I haven't been on TPR very much lately. Going to college seems to have taken up a lot of my leisure time. Anyways, I needed a little help and figured that this forum was a good place to ask. I have been working on a speech about the "History of Roller Coasters" and am having a little trouble with it. After searching the internet and the library, basic facts about the evolution of the coaster are there. But what I haven't been able to find (with the exception of a couple books) is credible knowledge that I can quote. Most of the information is from various roller coaster sites written by Joe Schmoe. Not that the information isn't correct, it just isn't something that would be very good to quote in a speech. Kind of like how professors don't like you to use Wikipedia for the same reason. The other thing I am looking for is "stupid facts." You know, for example to put an emphasis on how many roller coasters there are in the world I could say something like:" if you took all the roller coaster tracks in the world and put them end to end you could travel to the moon". Not exactly something THAT complicated because I'm sure no one has counted up all the track lengths. Then again ... you never know who has a ton of time on their hands. Ha- ha. So I guess if you are able to help in the slightest bit, I would appreciate it very much. Heh ... and I thought doing a speech on roller coasters was going to be easy.

^ Well the point in getting an iPod touch is that: for the same price you get twice the storage and are not locked into an AT&T contract for 2 years. By the way, AT&T=Worst provider ever. I would sell my soul before returning to AT&T.

Well, hopefully the lines are not too bad. I am still trying to figure out what day to visit the park. I fly in on Tuesday morning (Aug 7th) and was thinking about going on Wednesday. But I wont have a rental car until Friday, so I am not sure how I would get to the park. As far as I can see, there isn't any public transportation that goes by the park. There are routs that are close, but I may not want to be on a bus all day anyways. If Saturdays are not that bad, then I might try for Sunday when it should be even lighter. As long as I can cover the entire park and get a few rides on each of the "big" rides, then I'll be happy.

Nice to see the use of stamped and colored concrete for the midway. Perhaps something Knotts should take note of?

This really piss me off. Most of my childhood summer memories are of Wild Rivers. I loved that place. Haven't been there in ages and I guess now is a better time than never (literally) to visit (one last time). If this news is true ... what a disappointment. Wild Rivers is one of the better water parks I have been to. I love the unique slides that the hilly terrain allows. I just don't see why Irvine would want to build more homes in that area. Do we really need more homes? Irvine has already exceeded the number of homes that the original city plan allowed for. There is so much open land in the city that they can build homes on. Why do they need to tear down attractions that give the community something to do? Plus, isn't the housing market in a slump right now anyways? Furthermore, who would want to live next to the Verizon Wirless Amphitheater? Hell, I live in Mission Viejo and I can even sometimes hear the concerts. Can't imagine what it would be like living next door to that. I mean, come on ...This is just freaking crazy beyond all belief. AND there is NOTHING (affordable) to do in South OC, or OC in general. What, we got Boomers? Yeah ... thats fun ... Lets close down entertainment/amusement facilities and build more homes. And then since there is nothing to do in OC, people will have to pack onto the freeways and sit through traffic on the drive up to LA or down to SD where there are things to do. We can also kiss the last traces of Lion Country goodbye. Ok, lets analyze this statement. Meet the needs of the community? Well wouldn't the community be the people that are already living in the city or area? If so, then why would people already situated in a home give a rats a** about new homes? One would think they would be more concerned about things to do in the community they currently live in. When was the last time people protested because there were not enough homes in the area? Please... This is how the quote should have looked:

Yup, same here. Man, those were the days. It is hard to believe that was over 7 years ago! All those rumors about Goliath before it opened. Darn ... good times. Seems like that was only yesterday. When I opened this thread I expected to see more people answering "Gooses Realm of Insantity/SFMM Y2K." I guess most of those people are gone. And as you pointed out, most people answering here were barley out of diapers when we were on those forums.

Well, it gets even worse when it comes to "Redneck Rollercoasters." I recently came across this crazy video on myspace and thought that I would do a further search on youtube. It is amazing what you get when you search for "redneck rollercoaster" on youtube. This ride looks like a lot of fun: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCVAhqVqjpE It even made the news: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqWgopJ4gg8 And a how to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDrMyROzobU There are all sort of ways rednecks can have fun... This dude gets some serious airtime att the end of the video

^^ Well this is of course assuming that these kids can even read. Would the rules be in spanish as well?

As long as Wild Rivers in Irvine stays around, I will be happy. I know there has been talk of it closing down ... lets hope not.

Gooses Realm of Intensity > Westcoaster > Theme Park Review ---------(1999)--------------------(2000)----------------(2001)------------>

Well right now I would expect them to be painting more than one coaster a year. There is a lot of catching up to do in that department. I just hope that once all the rides are repainted, they stay looking fresh. Thanks to stupid envirmental laws, and the ban of lead in paints, the crap they use today hardly holds up.

Well if it is only one coaster per year, that leaves ~15 years (depending if you count the kiddie coasters) inbetween paint jobs for coasters at Magic Mountain. I beive that Goliath (2000) has been looking horrible for some time now. Not to say that Shapiro isn't headed in the right dirrection. One coaster per year is more than we had in the past.

Makes the eyesore a little more photogenic? I know it is all personal preference, but I never had a problem with the current color scheme. New bright colors might look good for the 1st couple years, but in time they will fade and look worse than the current condiition does. Take Batman: The Ride for example. Even with faded paint, it still looks (somewhat) ok. Goliath, and X are a few examples of how bad the new colors on Superman will look in a few years time.

What I love about the birds eye view on live.com is that you can sometimes get a look at the same area durring different time periods, depending on what image loads. For instance, there is an image of Knotts Berry Farm with Silver bullet and there is also a picture taken when Windjammer was still in place.

Can I get an AMEN!?!?

^ Hmm...yeah I don't think that the ride is ADA compliant. I could be wrong though. Another question to ponder is if the stairs can handle the weight of an ACE'r treading up and down. Will the train have enough torque to get rolling? Six Flags better look into that issue.

Yeah, especially with a metro station being only a short drive (in an electric "fat person" scooter) from the all you can eat "Justice League Feast."

You know, I dunno ... the recent B&M inverts havn't been anything spcial.

Eh, coming from someone who will be visiting Valleyfair this summer, and was looking forward to Renegade ... the ride looked very "blah" in that video. I sure hope the ride is as good as Robb (and others) is saying it is. The video just didn't do anything for me.

Man, I wish I could fill up for only $3.00/gal

You got to be kidding me, right? I saw picture of those new misting billboard things that are popping up all over Magic Mountain ... if anything, they take away from the theme of the various "lands" within the park.

You know, I have already been to Dubai twice, however, I would actually be up for the TPR trip. I mean, I already did everything else there is to do in Dubai... ...that is, become heavily inebriated. Plus, they have Hammerhead from Knotts! And camels. Gotta love camels. Oh and the best bar in the world! Ah, TGI Thursdays (yeah, thursdays). I had 3 woman at my side as soon as I entered the place and one played with my pee pee for a half hour while I sat at the bar (free of charge). Anyonyone who is afraid of terriorists in Dubai is crazy in the 1st place. And even if there is the remote chance of being killed....dude....just go to TGIT and you will be happy.