azza29

Yep. Bad press is better than a lawsuit. They did the right thing. And "Six Flags Denies Veteran Ride" is still better bad press than "Veteran Killed on Six Flags Ride".

Checked out Need For Speed instead of watching the Grand Prix today. Some great action scenes in there, and I hear it was all practical effects (no CGI), which is pretty impressive. The story is... um, not important. Very fun film.

Great report! You were right to skip that traveling log flume - I rode it during last year's Melbourne Show and was drenched!

Picked my magic band colour today. All the cool kids have a red one, right?

And just planning your trip overall and how to navigate the parks. You can do a lot of what those sites did for you on MDX now. Sure, it's not a step-by-step, minute-by-minute "plan", but I do seriously question the people that need those anyway. That's just a form of "GP" that scares me, to be honest! I wonder how many people actually use the step-by-step plans in real life, surely it can't be that many? I've toyed around with "touring plan" generators in the past out of curiosity, but it seems exhausting to try and stick to a pre-planned schedule. I'm yet to encounter a park where "arrive early and ride high-demand attractions first" is a bad strategy. At any rate, I'm definitely a fan of selecting Fastpasses ahead of time. I know this system isn't at Disneyland yet, but it just seemed so counter-intuitive to wait in a 20-minute queue for a Radiator Springs Racers Fastpass during my last visit.

^I think there's still some value in crowd calendar-type sites as a general indicator of roughly how busy it might be at a park on any given day (especially for first-time visitors), and I've found that Touring Plans/EasyWDW offer some decent and thorough content outside of the crowd predictions. But MDX has definitely stolen their thunder with regard to wait times - why get this from a third party when you can get it first-hand?

One point that the article doesn't really discuss is that the site is tracking posted wait times - and these might not always be as low as the actual wait. And it stands to reason that park operations might be deliberately bumping up the posted standby wait times while they monitor the impact of FP+ on the regular queues.

One FP+ question I haven't been able to find an answer to so far. I understand it's possible to pre-book three FP+ times at one park, and once those are used up, use the kiosks or app to book additional rides one at a time. Does this have to be in the same park as the original three FPs? For example, can I use three pre-booked FPs in the morning at Epcot, then select another FP+ for Hollywood Studios on my phone? Or does it have to all be in the same park?

Coney Island is OK but a 2-3 hour experience at best. That said, they have an Air Race which is one of the best flat rides ever and worth going out of your way for. While it's not necessarily the "best" way to see the parks, it is possible to do SFNE, Lake Compounce and Quassy all in one day. I did a trip last year where I had originally planned to do those parks in two days, but the first day was washed out so we crammed them all into one. Bought a Flash Pass for SFNE and got in plenty of rides on Bizarro, and every other credit at least once.

What, no Lone Ranger float? The parade looks seriously great, I'm not a huge Brave fan but that bagpipes float is pretty cool. The Peter Pan segment is great too, but the real highlight has to be Maleficent - just stunning! I'm not seeing a lift hill, which means it would have to be powered... so no, I wouldn't count it. But others might...

What is with people reciting ride/pre-show dialogue line for line? I get it, you've been on this a thousand times and know the spiel back to front. How about shutting up and letting others enjoy the show?

I would've liked to see him in a few more episodes, his comments were always entertaining at least, and he seemed to be pulling his weight around camp. The Brains team is kind of frustrating to watch. Surely J'Tia will be next to go, she has been useless at challenges so far (and for a nuclear scientist I was surprised to see her struggle so much with a puzzle). And she threw their rice in the fire, which isn't going to win anyone popularity points.

^Yes, like Surfrider at WnW Gold Coast, or RC Racer at Disneyland Hong Kong (although I'm yet to try that one).

^I count half-pipes as they are basically a non-inverted impulse coaster. But Disk'Os are powered along the whole track, so even if they have word 'coaster' in the name I don't count them.

Some of those food offerings look great - and topiary Miss Piggy is definitely a win! This is the first year I've really paid attention, Flower & Garden is basically Food & Wine but with more plants, right?

I started playing this one last night, completely agree. Feels like an episode of South Park that just happens to be a game. They've absolutely nailed the look, and they've jammed in a lot of references from the show, but without making them the focus of the game. Picking 'Jew' class was a no-brainer, and simply running around the town exploring is a lot of fun. Parts of the game have been censored in Australia and to the studio's credit they've actually made it funnier in the process. There are a few parts which have been replaced with a title card describing the scene while the audio plays. For whatever reason reading the description and imagining what's been removed is even more hilarious, so I don't feel like I've missed any content.

Anyone able to shed some light on why "Favourite Intamin Zacspin" and "Green Lantern: First Flight - Six Flags Magic Mountain" are both listed?

I am a little bit up to date, picked up an iPhone 5S through a work deal as it was going to cost me just as much as keeping the old one (and I was able to sell the old one secondhand). And I did pick up an iPad Air, but that was a trade up from the first generation model. Normally I'm pretty utilitarian with electronics. My computer is almost 4 years old, with a an even older monitor. I'm still using the first DSLR camera I bought, and don't own any gaming consoles.

Layout is pretty similar, with a steeper first drop and slightly taller. I think the four-across train is the biggest differentiator. The "outside" seats give an excellent ride, much more intense than just sitting in the middle above the track. Because the train takes the inversions relatively slowly, the lack of shoulder restraints gives that great "oh crap I'm going to fall out" sensation (like the crawl at the top of a Maurer Söhne Skyloop). So really I guess I'd like to vote for the trains. Is there a best coaster train poll?

You have an opinion about whether certain types of coasters should be "grouped" in the Mitch Hawker poll.

I'm pretty sure this is probably because the ballot was in the works before the coaster opened, and I'm sure if enough people feel strongly about breaking that one out on it's own, they can send a message to Mitch and he would consider it. Green Lantern at Movie World is one of my favourite "weird" coasters, so I'd prefer to vote for it specifically rather than the generic El Loco group. That said, they are all pretty similar rides, and are unlikely to be in the top 20, so the grouping does make sense.

Good to see Jet Rescue/Mick Doohan/Juvelen split out from the generic 'motocoaster' category this year, the Intamin models definitely deserve their own rankings.

Completely agree with this. As someone planning a trip to both sets of parks later in the year, tickets make up less than 10% of my overall budget after airfares, hotels, car rental, food and so on. The increase was no surprise, will have no impact on my plans, and I imagine this would be the same for most visitors, especially those from overseas. Just looking at those aerial photos - Diagon Alley looks amazing! Can't wait to check it out.

Thunder Canyon at Cedar Point got me pretty good. My fault for not bothering to check the course for waterfalls first! At least all the water rides at that park are close together, so once you get drenched on one the others aren't too bad.

Once was enough for me. Got the credit, that's all that counts!