dougr

Coaster at Playland at the PNE. Built by Walter Leroy in 1958 on Carl Phare's last design.

Dumb question: How do the two Bay area parks stack up to each other? We went to SF(MW)DK a couple of years ago. I thought it was a pretty decent park-Kong was our first suspended coaster and Medusa was a lot of fun. Even the woodie felt pretty good. How does (P)GA compare?

I would like to complain about the people complaining about the people complaining about the people complaining about people complaining. I would also like to complain about myself, what a complainer! Now what were we talking about again? A $26 million dollar coaster that's going to be the highest and fastest in Canada?

My daughter always drags me on that thing, it always scares the crap out of me, but I enjoy having ridden it afterwards.

You obviously didn't see the deadly spiders at Canada's Wonderland! Here's Shelob

Ummm...almost as tall as Goliath, but I don't have to go to Magic Mountain and since it's a B&M maybe I won't grey out like Jeremy Piven on Entourage....

Fireball?

Hmmm...never saw THAT before...

SFMM: Superman-I don't like drop rides, and this seems to be a glorified drop ride to me. Psyclone- Broke down while we were waiting in line. Deja Vu-Down for repairs-They said it could open in a couple of hours, but they had that look on their faces that I've seen on salespeople's faces.... X-I think it was probably broken down, but I had just rode Tatsu, so I was in no mind to search it out to either find out it wasn't running or wait 2 hours... Ninja-missed it. We went on 10 coasters on a 100 degree day-we kinda had to miss something... Canada's Wonderland: Stayed away from most of the kiddie coasters, as my child is now big enough to be denied on height max kiddie rides: Scooby's Ghoster Coaster Silver Streak and we missed Thunder Run. Later I found out it's pretty cool...

Here's a positive thought on the trims. It lets B & M design a fast coaster in a part of the world with extreme weather without having the thing tear itself apart. I mean, look at X and how many times that thing valleys, and that's in California! With the proper programming, the computers on Behemoth can reach a good compromise between a forceful ride and good maintenance. Of course, seeing the settings that CW has on its other rides like 1X around on Jet Scream and what looks like 90 degrees up on the Giant Frisbee, it may not be set too tough. 100_7438.mov Here's Jet Scream, same ride at Expo '86 went around 2-4 times.

Looks an awful lot like Tatsu to me! The Station: The Track:

Here's what I got from our visit during the August long weekend: Here's picture number 2. I don't think they're quite as massive as some of the Tatsu footers... Took these while in the line for Italian Job-here's picture 1

I think the theory is they have the additional days so cheap to keep you out of their competitor's parks. Disney is ALWAYS working on getting you to spend more time and therefore money at their properties. I find, for example if you try hard enough, you can take care of Disneyland and DCA in two days, but the three-day park hopper is the best deal. I don't look at a place like Disneyland as a once-in-a-lifetime experience. The place changes a little over the years and it's nice to go back once in a while, but if I'm in the area, I ALWAYS go to Knott's and sometimes Universal and sometimes San Diego. This park pricing is one reason I don't go to Florida. It always looks so expensive compared to what I can do in SoCal, and what is it-more Disney? I like to take a little break from the Mouse once in a while... which is why IOA still intrigues me....

How about paying employees a decent wage, maybe even unionizing? If you're going to charge near Disney prices, why not pay Disney wages? I know no one gets rich on Disney wages, but I believe at least people can live off them.

Drove an hour across town to get to the Coquitlam Kwik-E-Mart. Wife wasn't impressed at the drive, but she knew I had to go. Got some squishees and a talking bottle opener. Loitering with Marge Mmmm....Squishees The store The sign

Here's the Kwik-E-Mart locations: Burbank, CA Chicago, IL Dallas, TX Denver, CO Lake Buena Vista, FL/Orlando, FL Las Vegas, NV/Henderson, NV Los Angeles, CA New York City, NY San Francisco, CA/Mountain View, CA Seattle, WA Vancouver, BC/Coquitlam, BC Washington, DC/Bladensburg, MD Seven Eleven has a page on its website: http://www.7-eleven.com/kem.asp

1.Bring back People Mover-track it from Tomorrowland to Hollywood Backlot/TOT...have it move people. 2. Redesign the Monorail track through DCA, have a station around Paradise Pier. 3. Treat both parks as one-build a WIIIIDE pedestrian overpass over the plaza between DCA and Disneyland. They can keep both gates if they want. 4. Move Toontown to around Backlot somewhere, make it a part of backlot. 5. Design a Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy ride using that gantry theme. 6. Sell turkey legs EVERYWHERE.

Can anyone explain the engineering differences between the Intamin towers and the S&S towers?

My pessimistic side makes me wonder "Perhaps they should be just memories?" I say that because I have yet to hear anyone go "Wow! It was so awesome to be back in the subs!!!" And it kind of makes me wonder if people in the back of their mind are going "oh....yeah.....hmmm.....I guess now I remember why I never really went on these things before and why they closed to begin with...." It's interesting how something can be perceived to be "so cool" mainly because it's been missing for so long. Makes me wonder if Episode 1 would be considered cool if all of a sudden it disappeared for 10 years and people were told by Lucas how cool it was to have it back...... --Robb I think that's basically what happened with Episode 1-they forgot what crappy dialog Lucas writes.... I remember the old Subs-although it is nice to see that space in the park filled in again, it's true that after the first couple of minutes, the old ride was kind of boring. Now if they turned Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy into a ride, that would be SOMETHING. Here's a relatively unobstructed view of Mickey's loop from this spring... Disney did the Hitchhiker's movie....

I heard a rumor on screamscape that they plan to restore it. Disney should drop the "two gates" idea, expand PeopleMover to Hollywood Backlot, put a Monorail stop around Paradise Pier, and build a footbridge over the entrance plaza linking the two parks if they keep DCA/Disneyland separated.

If it weren't for Tatsu, Silver Bullet would be my favorite coaster ever. I love the first drop...especially from the first row.

Congratulations! Good to hear baby doing well. Wow 2 days 33 pages.

If there's one thing USH is missing, it's an IOA type park. Sweet!

On our California driving vacation, we stayed at the Motel 6 nearest SFMW. My daughter and I walked to the park to check it out, and I noticed there's a transit bus that stops right in front of the park. We decided pack to pack a lunch in our car and spend $15 on parking the next day. Also-have you considered Paramount's Great America? We had Six Flags passes and were going to SCBB anyway, so I decided to pass it by-but if you're going to be in the Bay area anyway...

Knott's. If you liked Stealth, you'll probably love Xcellerator. Montezooma's Revenge and Silver Bullet and Ghostrider are fun too. You guys will probably enjoy the mine train if you're in the right mood. Disneyland has some fun rides-Pirates, Haunted Mansion, Space Mountain, Indiana Jones, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (which probably won't kill any more people). If you have the time and don't mind spending some time in San Diego, the Southern California Citypass gets you three days Disney park hopper, one day Universal, one day SeaWorld San Diego and one day either San Diego Zoo or Wild Animal Park for $199....$179 if you go to Costco. Knott's is $39.95 to start and if you try hard enough, you should get a discount-check here: http://www.knotts.com/hot/index.asp