ytterbiumanalyst

I love a giant Ferris wheel. At 175 feet, this is about the same size as Colossus at Six Flags St. Louis, which is actually my favourite ride at that park. Sure, Ferris wheels aren't thrilling, but they are very fun, and the giant ones have such a great view from the top. I've been to DC twice, most recently in 2006, and it is a beautiful city. In my opinion, it is America's greatest city, and on its own merits, not just for being our seat of government. It sounds like this has a very good chance of being built, and if it does in fact go up, then next time I'm in DC, I'll be on it.

Prowler's twists are pretty awesome.

Goliath keeps looking better all the time. I had wondered why they were waiting so long to start the lift hill, when the lift hill was the first part they built of Outlaw Run. I for one love the look, and I agree with others that this isn't a traditional wooden coaster and doesn't need to conform to the look of traditional wooden coasters. I'm at a point in my life now where I am looking for new experiences, things I've never done before, and not just taller/faster/bigger rides. Goliath is looking to be fantastic, and absolutely a new experience. We already have our hotel booked for July, and I am very much looking forward to this.

I'm going to guess Bangalore, and that you're going to Wonderla next. I can't read any of the writing in the clues. But you're going by airplane, so it must be a fair distance from Mumbai. You've also said that you want to make India a TPR trip, so you probably are staying in India. So after Adlabs Imagica, Wonderla Bangalore is a logical spot to check out for future tours. So there's my rationale. More of a guess than a deduction, really, but some thought went into it at least.

I hate to be the one to disagree with everyone here, but Six Flags is clearly the best at theming by far.

I've actually been on quite a few defunct coasters, but there are really only two I would say I truly miss, Zambezi Zinger and Ozark Wildcat.

No, it's no longer Iron Wolf's station, because Iron Wolf is now in Maryland. That is now Goliath's station, because that's where you'll get on Goliath. And that's what actually matters.

Well, then, I stand corrected. Glad to have met all of you as well; this was the first thing I've done with this group, and you all turned out to be as nice and as nutty as I expected. It was a great experience.

^ Dragon Age: Origins is one of the most underrated games of the last generation. It totally was overshadowed by Mass Effect. I just started last weekend my fourth playthrough, and every time it feels fresh. Each time I've played I've chosen a radically different character, and I find myself making different choices in the game because of who that character is. I feel the emphasis placed on your character's origin story really gives you a strong connection to that character in a way I've seen few RPGs do. Plus, it's not really all that long either, so you can play from start to finish. The story is around 10 hours, and if you hunt down every last item and complete every side quest, it's maybe 30. When I was a kid, I would have complained about it being so short, but these days of always being in a crunch for time (stupid adult stuff!), I value a game that keeps the story moving.

I figured I'd be the last one to post my trip report, since it took me the longest to get back home! I was the only person there not from Chicago; I was kind of surprised by that fact, and everyone else was surprised I was there at all. Chicago greeted me with a temperature of 4 degrees and a wind chill of -13. Two pairs of my warmest gloves, two hats, two sweaters and a coat, and two pairs of socks, and I was still freezing. I didn't relish the idea of driving in Chicago snow, so I took the train instead. This is in Sedalia, Missouri, the closest station to me. Apparently, I'm the only person crazy enough to go to Chicago in January. I got a souvenir! This is the brand new Amtrak timetable book. The station is over a hundred years old, originally built for the Missouri Pacific Railroad. It's been newly renovated, though. This shot captures both the old and new. And here she is. The one and only train to Chicago from the Ozarks. I got up early to get to the park on Metra. Everything that could go wrong did, and it took me about four hours to get to the park from downtown. Fortunately, I had left at 4 in the morning, so I still got there on time. Well, I got near to where I needed to be, and Cameron came and rescued me. Thanks Cameron! Here is my first look at GOLIATH! I'm really impressed that these RMC guys are working in this cold. I am totally freezing my butt off right now. World's smallest Disko coaster. Wheee! There's Vertical Velocity in the background. I like this shot. This thing feels so tall when you're right next to it. One of the PR people remarked that she didn't think anyone had any shots from exactly this angle yet. You can really see a lot of the coaster from here. That tunnel is really deep, much deeper than it looks in photos. We didn't get too close. This guy was digging away the whole time we were there, not sure exactly what he was doing though. Footers. Pretty. I had a great time. I spent the rest of the day walking around Chicago. I didn't get a whole lot of pictures of the city, though; I didn't want to look too much like a tourist. I got to see Second City in Old Town that evening. What a great show! Chicago really has a lot going on, far too much to see in one day. The next morning it was time to go home. Bye Chicago! I'll be back this summer, and I'm bringing the whole family this time!

RIght now here's how it stands: Definite: Silver Dollar City Miner Mike's, Osage Beach, MO In the Planning Stages: Six Flags St. Louis Six Flags Great America Likely: Santa's Village/Azoosment Park Kiddie Park, Bartlesville, OK Bell's Amusement Park Route 66 Carousel Park Iffy But Would Be Nice: Frontier City

Six Flags: Batman Cedar Fair: Prowler Herschend: Outlaw Run Other than those three, all the other parks I've been to are independent. And it's not exactly a fair list, since the only chain in which I've been to multiple parks is Six Flags. But such it is.

I'd argue there are a few more noteworthy things to do in Branson... -There are more go-kart tracks than Orlando, Pigeon Forge, or the Wisconsin Dells -Branson's Wild World is an awesome indoor animal attraction, that gets you up close with Bull Sharks, Alligators, Wolves, and a ton of other animals. This was a total surprise for us, and we would definitely do it again next visit. -The town is really centered around their music and variety shows, in fact, I'd argue they are more of a draw then the park. Yep. There are go karts and country music shows all right. Now this Branson's Wild World sounds interesting. I didn't even know that existed. It's back behind the Walmart apparently. I avoid 76 if in any way possible (and if you know the back roads it is in several ways possible), so it's not a huge surprise I haven't seen it. Thanks for the tip!

There are a couple of things in Branson I feel are worthwhile. One is the Branson Landing. It's a car-free commercial district that is basically an outdoor mall along the riverfront. The other is the Branson Scenic Railway. They've restored an old Burlington Zephyr trainset and power it with a 1930s F3 diesel locomotive. It runs about 30 miles in either direction of Branson; you only go one way there and back again, and the direction you go is determined by which way the freight traffic is running on that day. It's single track only through the mountains. Absolutely beautiful scenery.

And remember in 2010, they got Little Dipper, which in my opinion is a very important acquisition, to save a great coaster that otherwise would have been scrapped. Little Dipper may not be as big or impressive as Goliath, but for a segment of their audience, it's their favourite coaster--and that's worth holding on to. I'm actually equally excited for getting to ride LIttle Dipper and Whizzer with my daughter for the first time. I like new experiences, and Goliath and X-Flight will be new experiences for me, but nothing beats being with a kid on a new experience for them.

Wow, you actually finished it already? You must not have kids. Yes, I'm totally loving Bioshock right now, and the new world is just as interesting to me as Rapture was, albeit in a different way. Of course, don't spoil anything for me, as I'm still slowly making my way through it when kids are asleep, but I'm getting the feeling that this Comstock guy is a bit more of an idealogue than Ryan. Ryan was willing to sacrifice ideals to save his own power, but Comstock seems to be consumed with this idea that he is absolutely right and those who oppose him are utterly evil. It seems to be that resistance to the opinions of others that will be the undoing of this place. Well, we shall see....

I am genuinely disappointed by this news. I never went to Astroworld, but a Schwarzkopf shuttle loop is a treasure. Sometime in the next few years we plan to go back to Houston--I haven't been to south Texas since 2004 and I would like to go back--and this New Caney park seems like it'll be a really great place. They've got a winning concept and enough backers, they'll make it for sure. Houston's dying to get a theme park, and that's why so many people are scrambling to build one. So I second those who are hoping for a launch coaster, but I have this nagging feeling that their idea of "faster, bigger, and similar" will be a Boomerang. And though I could see how someone might think that, they are on opposite ends of the spectrum. I've already seen one Schwarzkopf coaster (Zambezi Zinger) replaced by a Boomerang, and I wouldn't wish that on anyone else.

You know, we had a zookeeper killed by an elephant at our local zoo here in Springfield, Missouri, this past fall. When dealing with animals, anything can happen. Our zoo has a really great elephant breeding program, and elephants born here are sent to many zoos around the country. It's something that we who are "Friends of the Zoo" take pride in. So it's always sad to see that someone who loved animals so much is killed by one of the animals he cared for for most of his life. But that sort of thing happens from time to time, even with veterans. Our zookeeper had worked with elephants for 40 years. He knew what he was doing. Tragedies by nature cause us to stop and think about what we could have done differently. But abuse is not the only reason an animal can become violent. I've seen how our elephants are cared for, and they are by no means abused. But any animal can become scared or feel threatened, and lose control of their actions. Sometimes life just sucks, and no one's to blame. That can be hard to deal with for some people who want to feel that we've conquered nature and that we can make ourselves perfectly safe. But the world's a dangerous place, and always will be. The worst thing we can do after a tragedy is assign blame to an innocent party--not only is it unfair to them, it also causes us to stop searching for real answers. May we never stop wanting to learn about our world and all its inhabitants. Anyone who devotes their life to learning something new that humanity as a whole does not currently understand is a hero to me.

I'm actually almost as excited about this one as I was for Outlaw Run, tempered only a bit by the fact that Chicago is 500 miles from me and not 30. Still, the world needs more RMC coasters, and I love that all of them have been built in the Midwest. I've been wanting to get back to Chicago since X-Flight was built, but the last couple of years plans have fallen through. Now with X-Flight and Goliath both, we're going to have to make this happen.

Worlds of Fun's next coaster needs to be a launched. They're the only major park in the state that doesn't have one, and that is really a major shortcoming. They already have a sit-down looper in Boomerang. Yes, I know it's not the same. But in most people's minds, there is a huge difference between Boomerang and Patriot, but no difference between Boomerang and Ninja. Roller coasters are for the masses--the sheer cost of building one demands that--and so the target audience must also be the masses. And the masses will be impressed by a good launched coaster in a way they won't be by "another" sit-down looper.

We've seen the film. To me, it felt a lot like An Inconvenient Truth or Sicko or any of those so-called documentaries. Not one shred of peer-reviewed research, just a bunch of emotional stories involving animals. And as most of the Internet would attest, humans love personifications of animals. The fact is, we don't actually understand this planet at all. We don't get how animals act, we don't understand our impact on the world's natural environments. Heck, we don't even know what the ocean floor looks like. As those who know me will attest, my mantra had been for some time now, that people are not generally good or generally evil. People are generally stupid. So to say that we know how an animal feels about a given situation is nothing more than hubris. I've seen elephants in our local circus here that are just doing what they've been told, and some that are absolutely getting a kick out of performing. You can see it on their faces. Animals have personalities, and every animal is different. You can't paint them all with the same brush, and anyone who actually works with animals will tell you this. So no, not all the whales want to be free. Some probably do, and others actually like being in captivity better. The point is that they're not all the same, any more than humans are the same. I'd expect probably about 2/3rds of the people on this forum to disagree with my political opinions, and that's just okay. We all feel differently about things--and that difference of opinion actually helps us thrive as a species. Why should we expect animals to be any different? We humans love to think ourselves above the rest of the animals. What pride we have. So that was what I took away from the film, that they were trying to present what all orcas want, and that is frankly absurd. All orcas don't want the same things, any more than all humans want the same things. We will eventually get to Orlando, when the kids are at the right age. We're looking at probably 2017 at this point. And when we go, we fully plan on making Sea World and Busch Gardens Tampa part of the trip. I feel these are just the coolest zoos on Earth--and why would you pass up something this awesome? One of the great things about us bloody stupid, wonderful humans, is that we actually try to care for the other species on this planet. Sure, sometimes we don't live up to what we ourselves are trying to do. But I don't see any other species on Earth trying to care for other animals, so maybe our faltering steps are as good as it gets. The people at Sea World are trying to learn about the world we live in, and to me, that's the very greatest thing any of us could ever do.

Agreed completely. Batman was awesome when it first opened, easily the best coaster in the state. I remember being awed by the themeing in the queue area the first time I rode it. We either went opening year, 1995, or maybe it was 1996. They were advertising heavily down here though, and offering half price admission to entice us hill folk to make the three hour voyage to the other side of the state. Batman is still my favourite coaster at SFStL, and it's been a pity the way current management has let a lot of things go. It seems they may finally be taking an interest in making the park a nice place to visit again. Now all they need is a decent children's area. Theirs hardly compares to SDC's Grand Expo and Half Dollar Holler and WoF's Planet Snoopy and Dinosaurs Alive. If we're going to spend $200 going to a theme park, it's got to have something for everyone, including my 2 year old.

I can reply to this one since I work at SDC yes they are bringing a whole new parade to the park this year tho I dont know every thing yet about it till March 1 but I can confirm that Rudolph and Bumble will be part Of Christmas this year. I got a SDC newsletter in the mail this week and it did confirm a new light parade with Rudolph and friends! Other news include: -Final year of the Harvest Festival stunt show -Star Spangled Summer festival replaces KidsFest with shows including a trampoline stunt show and a magician -Midnight Madness added to calendar -Return of Country Music Weekend around Labor Day Yeah, I got the same flyer. Pretty sure they sent that out to all the 2013 season pass holders. In all honesty, the Star Spangled Summer sounds a whole lot like the Kids Fest. The new stunt show and magic show sure sound like more of the same. I expect we'll see new decorations and otherwise little difference. The Rudolph parade, though, I do find interesting. Everyone in the park seems to congregate at the square for the tree lighting, and a parade is a good way of spreading the festivities out to all areas of the park. The square is on top of a hill, so it's kind of an ordeal to get up there, especially with a stroller. We typically don't return to the square until we're ready to go home.

Well, considering that at this time last year there were exactly zero wooden coasters that go upside down, I'd say that's the real selling point for everybody.

First of 2014 will undoubtedly be Outlaw Run, sometime very close to opening 3/14. Best. Coaster. Ever.