jray21

My grandpa ran the Big Dipper for a bit (where my coaster genes come from), and my dad grew up going to that park! I wasn't born in time to experience it, but the cliff house was a cool experience (old time video games that overlooked Playland). I'll ask my dad about the rides!

Guess they won't be needing my truck anytime soon.

One of the biggest barriers in terms of food quality is really the guests who visit the park. Sea World, Disney, and Universal have much better food options because the guests have, and are willing to spend, a lot more money. SFMM has a huge amount of teenagers and locals that don't have/spend as much money so Six Flags can't afford to bring in some really high quality food. However, they definitely could get a little higher quality product. They may not get as good of food as Disney/Universal, but they could easily increase the quality of hamburgers, pizza, fries, etc. Like I mentioned before, they could easily do some 'cheaper' fun foods like elephant ears, walking tacos, and skillets, and that would be good enough for me.

Food is definitely at least 50% of the experience for me, especially at Disneyland! Every item from the Bengal BBQ, sliced carmel apples, churros, shrimp louie salad, to their corndogs are some of the best foods around! I never did like the Johnny Rockets, but hopefully whatever replaces them will be better.

^^ The pool was behind the Coloseum. 99% of TPR didn't see it because they would have had to pass the bars to see it . ^ That is very good to hear! Now if I could only find a job that gives me at least a month of vacation per year...

To me it doesn't matter how nice/ugly the cars are when the whole ride is a hideous aqua and pink.

RIP Tokyo Muscle Park

^ & ^^ Congratulations to both of you! My roommate worked in Full Service Food & Beverage at Mama Melrose's. He really enjoyed it. He said it was exactly like working in a normal restaurant, but almost alway busy, and the guests were more demanding. But he did like it a lot more than the restaurants at home that he worked at.

I will be glad if they get rid of the name brand food places and bring in some cool park food like walking tacos, and elephant ears!

I'm back! Sorry about the delay, I've had a really tough few days. This is part two of the Europa Park update. Part One can be found HERE, and the Euro Mir/Europa video is above! This update contains some of the best parts of the park! The warped Pirates ride, messed up Haunted house, the christmas from hell ride, the Murder Clown ride, the best bumper car foosball ride, a not wisconsin clean pool party, and a lot of Derek!!!!! I have to take a few minutes here to thank our personal tour guide for most of the trip, DEREK!!!!! We had never been to these parks, so Derek put up with us and baby sat us the whole trip. He was an awesome guide, and I owe him a ton of beer!!! Thanks a ton Derek! Anyway, enough rambling and on to the photos! Hello and welcome to part 2! This slide looks so cool! Like a baby City Museum slide. But it was sooooo hot that it was a burn danger. Derek is going to get him some Italian girls! This was their 'Autopia.' It was much better themed, but had no line! At Disneyland this always has a massive line, and I have no idea why. For the first time ever being out of house, Drew was amazed by all the sights! This was one the best Disney Pirates copies of the trip! Anatomically correct Batavian! Oh no, ginger pirates! Olivia Munn had a cameo in the ride. I have no clue what he was doing to that rope. Abu Ghraib scene. Much more elaborate than Disney's, but still a lot of similarities. Both versions have a man 'sleeping' with pigs But in Europe it's ok to buy a child instead of the red head! Drunk guy on the bridge, check. They still have the men chasing the women, unlike the 'changed for the wusses' American versions. A TPR after-party. It's another monkey with a key, not a dog! They even had the Blue Tiki ElecTRONica Bayou restaurant! The Christmas from hell ride starts off with a rapping bear. Then the villagers grab sticks and beat Little Red Riding Hood. Then you are greeted by the scariest, most evil looking Papa Noel that ever existed. I would have been freaked out as a kid thinking about that monster coming into our house at night! No wonder Rudolph covered his nose and hid. Who would want to be around Satan Claus! Andrew wants to go back to his special room. I can't understand why this bench is empty. It looks so inviting! Matterhorn Blitz had another cool lift hill ride, but it was too dark for any inside pictures. Still a unique and fun ride. Why just put your feet in the water when you can swim in it! Next up was Epcot's Italy. Now it's time for the warped Haunted Mansion, GeisterSchlossenhefferpheifervolkswagon.... Definitely a lot more scarier than Haunted Mansion. (There is a ton of blood splatters on the floor in this picture) This guy should give you a warning. Much better hallway pictures! Mmmm, chewy. This was a really creepy hologram that no one would get near. This was by far the best stretching room hanging of the trip! He fell soooo close that people ducked, and then he would twitch at the end of the rope. Awesome! The old man and the possessed dog. The 'ballroom' scene. Here they have an awesome electrocution! A warped and creepy Dr. Frankenstein. Their skeleton drinks a radioactive bottle. Looks like Guy Fawkes lost his head. These singing busts don't look familiar at all. Next up is Ciao Bambino. Small World, but with a less annoying song. This ride is also known as the pedophiles dream. It takes you to the heart of a little girls room. The rest of the ride was too illegal to post. This was the Doll ride of hell. It was supposed to be cute, but comes off really creepy. These possessed dolls looked like something from a nightmare. Amy and Derek are about to enjoy the Clown Murder train ride! Erik is unsure about this ride, but Fredo was warped enough to enjoy it. We're up next! They may look harmless, but all clowns are evil murderers. The way this frog moved looked like he was flipping you off. Come join us little kids. We promise we won't hurt you. Yay, they survived! The racist band played some tunes for us. Once again they seem to be yelling at us with their signs to get out. Boots Fart? This has got to be a good ride. It was a boat ride past some more murdering Clowns! That is not cute, it's just pure evil. Disney lied. He is not a real boy. Kids ride my butt! I've never heard of a kids book about "Fuchs and Rape!" Next up was the really cool Fussball Soccer Bumper Cars. All the cars were shoes..... ...and they had a ball to kick around! Derek goes in for the score. No need for attendants, ropes, gates, or crossing guards. Unlike Americans, Europeans have learned that if you get in the way, you will be run over and it's your own fault. Derek was also the model for these Mannequins. (This is by far my favorite picture of the trip!) Yay for Blue Fire! Could be faster, but still a really fun ride. Epcot's Norway? They don't even have restraints on the raft rides! That way, when they flip over you can get right out without drowning! Just taking the shortcut that everyone else used. This is where all the TPR update magic happened for the day. They were not happy I took this picture and I was beaten for ten minutes. After a very long and hot day, it's back to the hotel for some more TPR fun! This was our incredibly-awesome-I-don't-know-how-Elissa-does-it hotel! This was the kiddie pool area with some white dolphins, and a super white grandma. A nice pretty picture of Renee..... ...but Derek's is much much better! An awesome view of the Coliseum. Gertrude!? The humble little hotel pool You could swim right through here into the Coliseum. It's the Harem chamber! No naked butts here. Only stupid faces with the underwater camera! Kid Tums will probably beat Amy in learning how to hold your breath underwater. She looks like she's going to die. The chlorine got to Derek just a bit. No inappropriate jokes here, it's my wife! My clown murder victim pose. Derek looking very fancy. We ended the day in the secret cave bar with Piers! These are professionals. Drew was getting a bit tipsy after a few sips, and Alfredo was standing by to take advantage Yes, very nice. You may enter.

^^^Yes, they are trying to beat DCA to the punch by putting in their park first !

So sad. Looks like I'll be having a Leslie Nielson movie marathon this week.

Renegade!

A pony.

Glad Boise and LSU lost this week!

I did all my black friday deals online. I'm still following Amazon's. Pretty good deals still.

Hope it works out! Another reason to head back to the Land of Dutch!

It's looking really good! Can't wait to get back out there and ride it.

TPR, of course! Intamin coasters Virtual Queues Japanese amusement park food!!!!!!

I think you nailed it right there.

Absolutely!!! Themed desserts and burgers! More food is always better than almost anything else! As for the theming, it kinda has a Port Discovery - Disney Sea look to me, but of course nothing can be that nice.

Good luck! Have a great run!

I went to PI once during the college program. That was enough for me. I was never into the club/dance scene so for me, I'm glad it's becoming a larger Downtown Disney. Especially since it means more restaurants to eat a ton of food at!

Euro Mir Video Below!!! ^ Sorry about that. Like us Asians, all you Mexicans look the same The Gem Mine was really cool. They had a ton of things to see, and it was really neat that they had all those rides in there as well. That secret room was really cool. I took video in there, but it was way to dark I would have loved to have gone through all that stuff as well. That's what was really cool about that park. Even though you couldn't go on the big rides, there was still and enormous amount of cool stuff to do. Here is the Europa Video! Ok, so it's not good enough to deserve an exclamation point, but it does have the Euro Mir soundtrack! And yes, I do realize that the video has too many dark parts, and gets pretty shakey, but it was taken by a non-professional with a compact camera, and no Duct Tape. The first part is the entire Euro Mir experience, with the awesome music dubbed in. The second part is Euros Sat, with it's music as well. Euro Sat was extremely rough, and I don't think the shaking in the video is really that far off of what we experienced. The third part is dedicated to Alfredo (not Fernando the El Salvadorian) and Christine. The final clip is a useless short clip of the Ciao Bambino ride! The part 2 pictures will be posted tomorrow. Enjoy! Thanks for following along and thanks especially for all of the comments!

Sorry. I was just reading through a bunch of threads and was responding to Robb's list, not actually answering the question for myself. (I was trying to follow some 'green' advice for November if you understand what I mean)