dougr

Ah, Japanese carnies!

#@$%@$%! Spring break starts Saturday here, and you guys are 3 days drive away! %^@%#$%! Yes, there must be pictures...

Found another link to it here

Waterparks are cool if: 1 The weather is HOT 2 The crowds are not insane Unfortunately, it's rare that you get 1 and 2 together.

(From Wikipedia) The San Diego Freeway's congestion problems are legendary, leading to the joke that the Interstate was named 405 because traffic moves at "four or five" miles an hour. Indeed, average speeds as low as five miles per hour are routinely recorded during morning and afternoon commutes, and its interchanges with the Ventura Freeway (milepost 63) and with the Santa Monica Freeway (milepost 53) each consistently rank among the five most congested freeway interchanges in the United States. And of course, the 101 Watch out, Trinity! The 91 The 5 The 405

So I'm guessing you like the woodie at the PNE? If you're in the right seat, the third drop will make you stand up!

The scary thing is, thats being considered. The fact that monorails are essentially hovering above the track, never touching it, reduces friction by miles and means you can reach fast speeds. I don't know how inversions would work... I suppose if its at a decents speed it would make no difference. However, some cameras screw up around them. Mine can't even handle CA' Screamins launch (LIMs?) its make a strange 'bzzhhzzhHAbhhha' sound... Hay, the transit train here uses LIMs-we're all used to the wrrrr-wrrrrrrr-wrrrrrroh now. Back on topic, I like the fishhook design the Stratosphere proposed, except ROCKET LAUNCHED DOWN from the short side. 160 mph?

I know, seeing that would freak me out too... Yikes!

Hmmm... perhaps some coaster enthusiasts should get together and buy a park or something. If only there was some way for them to communicate...

Any other coasters to compare painwise-like the old corkscrew from Knott's now at Silverwood? Ouch!

I have an original EXPO '86 "passport" with various stamped "countries" and attractions (including Scream Machine, of course). My parents have Black & White photos of me as a kid and one picture of the skull waterfall that used to be at Disneyland. Here's a website that has some pictures: http://www.yesterland.com/skullrock.html

Almost every motel 6 has a laundromat, I'm sure most good hotels will have one somewhere. We usually bring about 3 days worth of clothes, and wash them about every 4 days!

Oh man, my hands are so HUGE and my feet are so tiny

Monty Python has it covered: I can't find any pictures, though. The best I can do is this still from "Upper Class Twit of the Year" This is pretty close to my mental picture of what happens on a Cheney "hunt"

Coaster at the PNE. Not the newest or the flashiest or even the tallest or longest, but a surprisingly intense ride for the entire two minutes! Also my wife's favorite!

Well, in fact, park owners don't like queues, since they're occupying people who might otherwise be using that time buying T-shirts and high-profit-margin nosh. Still, it's odd that teenagers and young adults, whom I always heard were the Most Prized Consumer Demographic, should turn out to be dogfood. I'm wondering if this strategy - should it work - signals the beginning of the end of the present Golden Age of Coasters. Why would 6F buy another Kingda Ka when they could otherwise spend much less money on a whole bunch of kiddie flats and a bunch of character costumes? This is where fastpasses are good for the park up to a point-a relatively short time, say an hour or so, gives you slightly bored patrons that have to hang out near the ride-perfect customers of snacks and other small items. Unfortunately, I think charging extra for fastpasses tends to create a two-tier system and also reduces park capacity because the park gets revenue from the passes without the expense of adding rides. A decent solution would be having some good high capacity flats or smaller coasters (Pinfari 42 comes to mind) near the que line of headliner attactions. Putting Indy close to Jungle Cruise and Pirates comes to mind, as well as how close Splash Mountain is to Haunted Mansion and Pirates. An excellent small coaster that takes up about 2 flats

Looks like about 800 metres for that tower, about 2600 feet... http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6781

Dog fart coaster sponsored by Libby's beans and the makers of Prandase

Just run too many cars on it, so they bump into each other once in a while and call it Magic Mountain's Space Screamin'

I think that is Shapiro's thinking- If you have a ride either: 1 Fix it up, get it running or 2 Tear it out and get something else in that either entertains or generates revenue. I totally understand his point of view. If Flashback turns out to be unsustainable, then they can tear it out and put something else there. I understand it's on a large FLAT concrete pad...

Fox can bite my shiny metal ass! REMEMBER ME! Bender dances

The subs always seemed like a cool idea when you're a kid and looking at them from the outside-but once you get on, the ride was a total bore! The Tiki room was totally awesome state-of-the-art when it opened, it's still pretty cool in a kitschy kind of way.

I think perhaps the actor playing Johnny has that most deadly of diseases "contract renegotianitis". The symptoms usually are: 1 The actor's agent asks for a raise. 2 The show's producers do something to the character that could go either way. 3 If they come to some sort of agreement, the character miracously (sp) recovers. 4 If the show's producers think it's too much money, the character "dies" 5 If there is an extreme reaction from fans and/or the ratings tank, see 3

I just took a look at the SF Enchanted Village site. They are raising their annual price to $84.99 AND they don't open until May 27! Playland, which is 2 hours further north opens Mid-April. Silverwood in IDAHO opens May 6! Wussies! What are we supposed to do for Spring Break? Does Six Flags think we live in the frozen tundra? Some years, the hottest day of the year has been the last Sunday in May....you could open a couple of weeks earlier!