ytterbiumanalyst

This is a great trip! Checks all the boxes. I'm always impressed by the restaurants that can actually exist in New York. They just say, "You know what literally everyone likes? Cookie dough" and sell it. No worries about whether there will be enough customers. With that many people around, there will be. Around where I live, if an awesome new restaurant opens, you go there immediately before it inevitably goes out of business because they didn't serve fried chicken and gravy. Love the Barcade photos--they've got some fantastic machines there! Glad you had a good time, and thanks for bringing us along with you!

It's okay to be wrong. We won't judge you for how terrible your opinion is.

Day 3 Continued: Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch After the snake wrangling, we were all done with the waterpark. We had done all we wanted to anyway, and we were preparing to leave even as the snake appeared. So we headed back to the resort for some more swimming and exploration. The first priority was dinner. We ordered pizza from the Pantry, and they were super professional. They called up to the room when it was ready, so we didn’t have to wait around for it at all. We just relaxed in the room waiting for the call. It was really good too, thin crust with plenty of herbs and spices. Price is surprising too—a large 16” went for about $14. That’s really about the same as Papa John’s or similar, and much better quality. For this being an upscale hotel, they’re not gouging people in any way at all. The grounds are just beautiful. This was our first opportunity to see it, since we arrived late Saturday night and spent all day Sunday at Dollywood. There are so many little gathering areas for families to sit around and talk. The pool is great, with a small lazy river, hot tub, and splash pad. It’s kind of a mini waterpark of sorts. It’s also very large, so even though there were a lot of guests, it didn’t feel crowded. Since we’ve had some questions about it, I’ll mention that there is a full hotel bar here. It’s right in front of Song & Hearth—you walk through the bar to get to the restaurant. They have several signature drinks, my favourite of which was the Front Porch Swing, a rum-based fruity pineapple drink. Prices are quite reasonable for a resort. There was a band in the lobby that night, and they played covers of various rock, pop, and country songs. Great entertainment for hanging out at the bar. On the lower level is an arcade, indoor pool, and an entertainment room for kids (colouring books, toys, and such). There’s really something for everyone, and this hotel would be a fantastic vacation all on its own, even during the times Dollywood isn’t open. After a full day, it was time to get some rest in preparation for our second day at Dollywood! Pizza in a hotel room! YEAH! The resort had a bunch of really cool stuff for kids, including this playground... ...this splash pad... ...and this story corner. This is the indoor pool. DreamMore bus You can see RiverRush from here! Theming! We're in the South, where a legally required standard of 2 rocking chairs per human is strictly enforced. Butterfly garden The exterior of Song & Hearth There are several fire pits. Beautiful view of the mountains from here. There was a live band in the lobby Dolly's records. All of them. And this really cool mural! Back to Dollywood tomorrow! Spa

I approve of both those songs. "Bohemian like You" is one of my all time favourites.

Yeah, people really do go to Cedar Point for the coasters. The flat rides are things to do between coasters or things for people in your party who don't like coasters to do while you're riding coasters. I honestly didn't ride very many while I was there, but Cedar Downs was one I made sure to ride. It's just so special; I haven't seen anything like it anywhere else, and I don't think there even are very many. Cedar Point has done a fantastic job of keeping up older rides even as they add new ones all the time.

10/10 for the two Harmonix games, 3/10 for the Activision ones. Jeffrey Tambor

U2. The greatest rock band of all time. (Going to see them on Friday! Super excited!)

Add Magnum to that list, and I agree completely. It was by far my favourite flat at the park, even above MaxAir and Skyhawk. I felt like I had to hold on at all times--just a crazy out of control feeling that most flats never achieve. the curator at the town hall museum told me they run it at 2/3rds speed. . because if they ran it at full speed, they would have to put seat belts on it! Holy crap!

Yes, that's absolutely true. That part of the slide runs parallel to the back fence, so the snake came through the fence and onto the slide, and slid down it a few feet until our heroes grabbed it with that long pole and Snake Bag.

Add Magnum to that list, and I agree completely. It was by far my favourite flat at the park, even above MaxAir and Skyhawk. I felt like I had to hold on at all times--just a crazy out of control feeling that most flats never achieve.

Have fun! Twisted Colossus is awesome, as are Tatsu, X2, and Lex Luthor. All new to you.

^ Yeah, I'm realizing I didn't talk a whole lot about RiverRush, but it's fantastic! The airtime is real. We rode it several times, more than any other slide there. Thanks! The bus goes to Splash Country first, then on to Dollywood, then back to the hotel. Each leg is about 5 minutes. The waterpark is separately ticketed, but you can get a 3 day/2 park pass that allows you to visit both parks on the same day if you wish.

^ Thanks! If you can believe it, they were oblivious. They just got out of the pool because everyone else did and wondered what the fuss was about. No one was ever in any real danger. Black rat snakes are harmless unless you're a rat. They just inspire a very primal kind of fear in humans, and indeed in almost all primates. No getting around genetics.

It's not half a million, as that would make it bigger than Kansas City, St. Louis, or Tulsa, which is obviously not the case. But let's get some hard data. Walmarton's population (2014): Bentonville - 41,613 Fayetteville - 80,621 Rogers - 61,464 Springdale - 76,565 Total 260,263 That's significant, and a fair bit bigger than Springfield's 165,378. It's also bigger than Little Rock's 197,706, for what that's worth. However, since the suburbanization of the 1950s, you also have to talk about metro areas, and Walmarton's metro, while fast growing, isn't built out as much. It totals 463,204, whereas Springfield's metro area is 541,991. Springfield is growing too, but at a much more mature, slower rate, so Walmarton will eventually overtake us, but not yet.

Good point. I often forget about Walmarton, but it's gotten to be as big as Springfield, and it's only a bit farther from Branson than Springfield is. Branson is an easy day trip from there.

Government is stranger than fiction.

Day 3: In Which Part of the Multiverse Does White Water Look like This? Asking for a Friend On Memorial Day, we went to Splash Country and discovered that the Herschends actually know how to make a waterpark. Like a really good one. A really, really good one. Like the best one I’ve been to that’s not in Santa Claus, Indiana. This is surprising to me because I grew up with White Water in Branson. So I was floored that Dollywood’s waterpark was big and had lots of slides that were really good and that I wanted to ride again and again. Let me reiterate that I am accustomed to White Water in Branson as a baseline for expectations on Herschend waterparks. To give you Easterners some idea of this feeling, imagine you have only ever been to a Jersey Shore boardwalk that isn’t Morey’s, and then you go to Knoebels. This was kind of the waterpark equivalent of that. We ran immediately to RiverRush, which I liked, but not quite as much as the two at Splashin’ Safari. My daughter had the exact opposite opinion—River Rush was her favourite of the three. She tends to dislike intensity, so it makes sense. We then went to Big Bear Plunge, the faster of the two raft rides. It’s big, it’s intense, it’s fun. Fire Tower Falls is one of those super steep body slides. I sort of enjoy these, I guess enough to always try them, but then I walk away thinking it was merely okay. They give me rugburn on my back, but I never can say no. I guess what I’m trying to say is my name is Andrew, and it has been 13 days since my last body slide. SwiftWater Run was a fun bowl slide. I loved that they allowed double tubes, for extra speed to get up high along the walls. Not as fast as Bakuli (I don’t mean to compare everything to Splashin’ Safari, but, you know…). Next up were the three mat slides. Yes, three. Slick Rock Racer is the standard three-hill mat racer with pretty good airtime. Mountain Twist does what it says on the tin. It’s as twisty as a tube slide, but with mats going down face first. Really awesome! The newest slide is Tail Spin Racer, and it basically takes the best of both of these. It is really tall and feels very fast. The older complexes still hold up well, too. Raging River Rapids is a fun raft slide. Wild River Falls is a four-slide tube complex, with two of them allowing double tubes. The entrance and exit is up on an upper level, and to get down and back into the rest of the park, you can walk, or—you can take the Butterfly! Two short slides that start near the exit to Wild River Falls and end down on the main level of the waterpark. Such an awesome solution to a unique situation. After all this, we decided to head on back to the Cascades so my youngest could play there while I and the two older kids rode RiverRush a couple more times. We did, and it was awesome again. When we were done, we went back to meet up, and we were apparently not the only ones who wanted to experience that pool. For just at that moment, a black rat snake came up out of the adjacent woods and down one of the slides! Let the screaming commence. Everyone ran as fast as possible, the water splashing in all directions through the heavy footsteps, fleeing Kaa as primates must needs always flee a serpentine nemesis. And lo, amid the cries of “SNAKE!” and “EVERYONE OUT OF THE POOL!” did two brave souls appear, uniformed in the traditional polo shirt and khakis of gunslingers of yore, and brandishing the weapons most feared by snakes—a really long pole and a snake bag labeled “Snake Bag.” As they strode toward the ferocious legless beast, we frightened onlookers were reassured by their obvious professionalism, as evidenced by the fact that they had a snake bag literally labeled “Snake Bag.” Clearly this was not our heroes’ first rodeo. Theirs was not to reason why. Theirs was but to catch that guy. And so with bated breath we took in the ranchers’ resolution to enrope our reptilian rascal. The hope rose as they closed in on the vivacious villain, and the despair and fear broke forth in gasps as the jet-coloured consumer of rodents broke forth from its trap. Late in the twelfth round, the snake obviously more wearied than the staff, it suffered the knockout punch and was forced into the ever-so-appropriate Snake Bag. Cheers erupted from the newly hatched fans of this impromptu spectator sport as our heroes carried their trophy, still alive and wriggling in its Snake Bag, toward the edge of the park. These are heroes, who do not engage in such cruelty to kill, even be their adversary of forked tongue, even be it devoid of aural implements. And lo, did their good deed fail to go unpunished, for the great basilisk lept forth from the Snake Bag to duel these gunslingers again! And lo, did the guests shrink back from the fray, but our heroes, made of sterner stuff, did immediately re-engage. A second time did they fight, and a second time were they victorious, as for a second time the snake was placed in its apropos Snake Bag and for a second time the populace did cheer. Hurrah! Hurrah for the snake-catchers! Hurrah for Dollywood! Nice entrance. I like the ambiance the buildings give off. It's different from the usual generic waterpark vibe. Bag check. Turnstiles. Nice locker/shower station. Shots! Shots! Shots! Shots! Shots! Oh. Not those shots. Very cool scenery here. We certainly did! Great theme park, great staff, great snakes. And the park got busier after this, and I feel weird taking pictures in waterparks, so here are some closeups of my family! Our heroine removing the snake! And our hero arrives to assist her! Get in your Snake Bag! We went to all the trouble of labeling it. Aw! It appeared to be caught! Sorry the photos are all from behind our heroine--it was just where we were when it happened. Gotcha!

That seems a good estimate. The 112 assumes that the lift begins on the ground, which it likely will not do. For comparison, Shivering Timbers is 122 feet, so a similar height is definitely enough speed to be exciting.

Oh sure, why not, I'll do your math homework for you. Assuming the distance at ground level is staying the same, and assuming those angles are taken at ground level, then it comes to 112 feet. Tan (25°) = 0.4663 Tan = o/a .4663 = 83/a a = 83/.4663 a = 179.15 Tan (32°) = 0.6249 Tan = o/a .6249 = o/179.15 o = 179.15 (.6249) o = 111.95

FFS, they felt the need to point out that no one was injured by goose poop.... It's not like there wasn't real news that day.

Wow, you got a great upgrade! I work in the travel industry, and this sort of thing happens all the time. In fact, my very first job at the company I work for currently was facilitating relocation arrangements like the one you experienced. Usually the overbooked hotel just pays the asking price from the receiving hotel, but sometimes the receiving hotel is willing to take less because it's a room that would have been empty anyway. One thing you probably don't know is that Missouri law only allows gambling on riverboats. That cool bit of theming you pointed out? Yeah, legally mandated. The casino literally could not operate if they didn't have it. Bizarre, but that's how it is. The riverboat doesn't have to go anywhere, and it can be attached to a permanent structure on the shore--and, get this, the riverboat can also be a permanent structure not designed to move ever--but it has to exist for the casino to operate legally. That's my state.

White Water tomorrow! This is the first year in a long time we've gotten the combo season passes, and I'm pretty excited about getting back to this park after several years.

Nobody messes with Adam We.

Never ridden either, but I'm more interested in riding Taron. La Cucaracha or a lagoon in Karachi?

Voyage gets better the closer you are to the front seat. I don't know why, but the very front seat is significantly better than any other row. Even the second row just isn't the same. It isn't like Mean Streak was, where you can only ride it in the front row, but there is a big difference. I love it, and I'll ride it pretty much anywhere in the front half, but I can totally see your point, as just individual differences can produce different effects. I even have to stop after a couple rides in a row to just sit down, get some water, and shake it off before going back for more. It's almost too much coaster. Shivering Timbers, on the other hand, stops well short of that. I loved it pretty much everywhere in the train. It's big and fast, but not as big or as fast as Voyage, and that made it much more pleasant for re-riding again and again. To that end, it's a better ride than Voyage is. It's certainly far more accessible. Each has its strengths, and Voyage has the kicker of being in a park you'd want to go to even if it didn't have Voyage. Without Shivering Timbers, MiA is nothing.