azza29

This just about sums it up I reckon. 30 years without any attention, I suspect they just don't want to pay to remove it at this point.

Saw the movie today, and I enjoyed it overall but basically agree with this. It's definitely P.L. Travers' story, much more than "the making of Mary Poppins". Travers was such an unlikable character on film (and apparently even more so in real life) that I spent the whole time just wanting her to sign the rights over and then go away so they could get on with making the movie. But Emma Thompson certainly played the role well, and definitely had some good lines in there. I thought the production designers did a great job of making California look like rural Queensland and, a minor concern, but the accents were pretty believable across the board too. I also liked that Disneyland was used an incidental setting, without going over the top to turn the film into an ad for the park.

It's definitely a shame that best-named coaster in this country has always been SBNO.

^$349? Think I paid closer to $250, and that was only 6 months ago! I did get a discount for being a Club TPR member though.

^I've done the tour twice, and agree with everything that's been said above. It's definitely worth the expense, especially if you visit on a busy day when the unlimited front-of-line pass comes in really handy. The guided portion of the tour lasts about 7 hours, including the in-depth backlot tour, the shows, and all rides. Depending on park hours and the time your tour starts you'll have some time left over at the end. If the park is only open 9-5 you won't have much time left. But when I took the tour in mid-June last year opening hours were 9am-10pm and the tour started at 8:15, so we had plenty of time to re-ride (including Transformers 8 times with 5 min fast lane wait compared to 100 min standby wait!). Group size was about 12 people from memory. The backlot tour includes everything that "regular" guests see (i.e. King Kong, Jaws, and until recently, the terrible dancing cars) and you'll get to get out and walk around a bit (although where this is depends on whether other productions are using the lot on a particular day). I will add that the quality of the backlot tour definitely depends on your guide. I've had one guide who I'd rate a 9/10, and another who was closer to 2/10.

Good to see Frozen get a nod for Best Animated Feature at the Oscars, definitely deserves to win. But lack of a nomination for Monsters University is a big middle finger to Pixar, especially when the truly awful Croods got one.

That Wacky Worm is about a 20 minute walk from my house. I'm too ashamed to ride alone, so might have to wait for another TPR Australia trip to get the credit.

I remember having waitresses bring around drink orders during Rock of Ages - why don't more shows do this?!

^No. Flying Turns actually had a chance of opening.

Was supposed to be having major eye surgery tomorrow, they just called and it's been postponed for a month. I was all mentally prepared and ready to go - feeling extremely frustrated right now!

Hot and dry in Melbourne today. 42 celsius, which sounds much more impressive as 108 fahrenheit.

Admittedly I don't look at the front page often (usually just go straight to the "/forum" URL) but the first option seems better to me, because a lot of Robb's content these days is on the Twitter feed - either as tweets or links to photos/videos (I know a lot of it shows up later in a forum update, but it's usually on Twitter "first").

Luna Park Melbourne - 15 minutes Magic Mountain Merimbula - 6.5 hours Luna Park Sydney - 8.5 hours Although it's only 3 hours travel time to the Gold Coast parks if I fly up...

^I did something similar at Wine Country Trattoria - was about $30 for three-course lunch and priority seating for WoC. The meal was pretty good, and we got a spot right on the fence. Definitely worth it!

I'm finding this almost as exciting as Diagon Alley. Looks like a great take on the standard drop tower.

Part Sixteen: Six Flags Magic Mountain OK we are on the home stretch now folks. After spending a day flying back across the country (hooray for in-flight wifi!) it was time for the second California leg. We settled in to our moderately priced Glendale hotel room (one-third the price of Hollywood and 90% less chance of getting stabbed by a costumed character) and proceeded to see the sights. I'd visited Paramount studios back on my last trip and it was definitely the best of the "regular" (i.e. cheap) studio tours (although Warner Bros' deluxe tour is superb) so we headed there to get my brother his fix of movie history. The tour was basically the same as last time, although not much was filming since it was June and most TV shows were on hiatus. We got to see a few sets (Dr Phil, See Dad Run) but the highlight was definitely the backlot. It's amazing how many different areas they squeeze into such a small space - and even though it's been used for everything from car commercials to Seinfeld to Happy Endings, small changes are made all the time so the audience doesn't realise they're seeing the same thing multiple times over. As for Magic Mountain, I went in with fairly low expectations and based on our visit, the park is probably better than its reputation suggests. It's certainly not as bad as SFA and while operations on some rides (Riddler's Revenge, Scream) were terrible, others were churning through riders like no tomorrow (Batman, Goliath). After rushing to X2 first thing we did end up picking up a Flash Pass, without which there's no way we would have managed to ride everything in one day (and even with the pass some waits were pretty long). It's kind of weird to be "reviewing" the most talked-about park on TPR, but anyway here are my thoughts on what the Mountain had to offer: - Apocalypse: hard to believe it's only four years old but wasn't riding as rough as I'd expected. Probably the smoothest Six Flags GCI we rode on the trip, not that that's much of an endorsement. It had a station flyby AND fire, both of which make up for a slightly bouncy ride. SFMM locals might disagree, but I didn't think it was *that* rough at all! - Batman: no idea why since they are basically the same ride, but the one at Great Adventure seemed more intense to me. Still a decent B&M invert. - Colossus: line was 30 people deep and we still waited 20 minutes. Very big and long, surely they can do better than one train operation? - Gold Rusher: perfectly serviceable family mine train. Not the most thrilling of rides but no wait either so I'm not going to complain. - Goliath: pretty solid hyper with a surprising forceful helix. MCBR kills a lot of the momentum though. - Green Lantern: I actually liked this one. Unpredictable, very forceful in spots and completely different from any other rollercoaster I've been on. A winner in my book. - Ninja: better than Iron Dragon but not as good as Flight Deck. Literally got straight on with the Flash Pass so pretty happy with that. - Revolution: I can recognise a coaster's historical significance and still think it's terrible, right? New trains might help this one out. - Riddler's Revenge: Wednesday in early June. 2 hour posted wait. 1 hour with Flash Pass. 30 minutes in the mess of a station. But hilarious watching Southern Californians try to jump up into the seats rather than pulling them down to the correct height. And the best B&M standup I've been on. - Scream!: the example used when someone argues that SFMM just don't care, and I tend to agree. Dumped into the parking lot, single train operation. At least it was themed. Takis is a theme, right? - Superman: very similar to Tower of Terror at Dreamworld. Insofar as it is exactly the same. Another one-trick pony coaster that has a good enough trick that it doesn't need to do anything else. - Tatsu: probably my favourite ride in the whole park, really liked how it interacts with the terrain. - Viper: honestly don't remember much about this one, although the first loop is a pretty cool element. - X2: another ride that wasn't nearly as rough as I'd expected. The controlled spinning is a fantastic feature and I'm surprised it hasn't been used much elsewhere (now that Arrow have done the hard work and gone broke developing it, of course!). We got on the first ride of the day, and my brother didn't know anything about the "4D" feature and was genuinely surprised (and a little panicked) when his seat started doing somersaults. Hilarious. While, if forced to choose, I'd still pick a day at Cedar Point, Magic Mountain has a really good collection of coasters, no question. After visiting 20-odd parks and riding over 130 coasters in the trip, there were still new "types" of rollercoaster we hadn't encountered anywhere else. It would be great to see this park get their operations sorted because it could be a really awesome destination. Anyway, time for photos! I didn't get pictures of everything because even with the Flash Pass we were still kind of rushed, and frankly after photographing two dozen B&Ms in the space of a few weeks they all start to look the same. It's Always Sunny in California! Here we are at Paramount Studios. This is the "regular" front gate, not the famous gate. Dreams are made in these big beige boxes. Pretty much any part of the studio lot can be used as a location. The building on the right might be a school one day, or a nursing home the next. These cars are parked in Paramount's outdoor filming pool. If a movie needs to film in water, and the scene is too big for a sound stage, they fill the carpark with water and use this space. This is where Charlton Heston parted the Red Sea in The Ten Commandments. So this is the famous gate, from Sunset Boulevard. If you look you can see the 'H' from the Hollywood sign in the distance, next to Stage 4. Part of the backlot. The building on the right is designed to look like the first few floors of a skyscraper, the idea being that the rest would be added digitally. Which trash can would you prefer, Mr. Spielberg? The footpaths on the backlot have lots of big holes in them, so trees/lampposts etc can be added, depending on what the production requires. This is part of the New York backlot. If you watch Seinfeld you'll see a lot of this street. This is what it looks like "inside" the buildings in the previous photo. Hollow behind the attractive facade. Sort of a metaphor for the entertainment business, really. Stage 32 is the best stage. Chiefly because it's where Community, one of my favourite shows, is filmed! Each stage has a board outside listing the TV shows and notable films which have used it. It was kind of surreal seeing stages that had been used by Frasier, Seinfeld and Star Trek. Community have taken the initiative and added themselves to this one. I took this photo back in 2011, when I actually got to go and walk around the Community set (literally one of the most exciting things I've ever experienced). They dressed up the entrance to the sound stage as the outside of the Greendale campus, like I said earlier productions will use any part of the studio lot they need! OK enough movies, time for some rides! Today we are at Magic Mountain. Or Montaña Mágica, as the locals call it. It's a very "special" park that gets its own onsite Sheriff's Department. First stop of the day: X2, with bonus lens flare. More gratuitous lens flare. If JJ Abrams photographed rollercoasters it would look like this. In case it wasn't already obvious how far behind I am in this trip report, X2's lift chain was intact and the ride was actually running when we visited. I genuinely liked X2 - fire, somersaults, onboard audio, wing seating - all kind of gimmicky on their own but somehow it all goes together here. The speed of fear is 100 km/h, in case you're wondering. Tatsu was coaster #150 for me, and I was pretty impressed. The ride interacts with the terrain really well, which definitely adds to the experience. Revolution was only running one train. Damned if I was going to spend all day waiting to get both coasters in this shot. At Magic Mountain, even the plants have graffiti! Vic B, whoever you are, has attempted to immortalise himself (or perhaps herself?) in flora. I don't want to dismiss Viper as your standard Arrow looper, but it does seem to follow the standard "loop, loop, corkscrew, batwing" pattern, with a few extra inversions thrown in for good measure. That is one high loop though. I have nothing else to say about this ride, instead I'll mention the lady who literally threw herself in front of a relatively short queue of people at one of the park's ice cream stands because she wanted a bottle of water. Right now, dammit! While on her cell phone. Yep, we were in Southern California for sure! This tree is more thrilling than Revolution. And the other half of the Tatsu/Revolution double I didn't want to wait for. Magic Mountain does have a very nice entrance plaza, once you get past the sniffer dogs and body scanners. I think we ended up missing Full Throttle by about two weeks. I generally like Premier coasters, and while it would have been nice to get the credit we were flat out getting the rides that were already open. I was disappointed to miss the photo op with these guys though. The loop/top hat element is pretty cool. As much as I'm sure the locals would have liked something a little longer they still got a ride that is completely unique to their park, which is nothing to take for granted. It was still a full blown construction site on our visit, and I was genuinely surprised to see the ride open a few days later. Cactus = theming! I didn't stop much in the kids area, but it did seem quite well themed. Nice fountain. And it's actually working. Well done SFMM! We waited in line with a few people who definitely could have used one of these! This might be one of the best "entrances" to a queue ever. One for the support structure enthusiasts, I guess. At least there's a train on the track. Angry plant is angry. I'd be pissed off too if I had to live at Magic Mountain. Superman was only running one side. Fortunately with Flash Pass we only had a one-train wait. I'm not a big fan of rides that have a loose story based around "escaping" from some peril, only to end up back in the same place once the ride is over. It should really be called Superman: Escape From Krypton and Subsequent Return. The ride experience might be the same, but Superman is definitely more photogenic than its brother at Dreamworld. No giant grey tower here! The not-so-rare Lex Luthor/Goliath double. While Lex Luthor wasn't included on the Flash Pass, the single rider queue made for a very short wait. Unsurprisingly the experience was very similar to Dreamworld's imaginatively named Giant Drop. Taller is not necessarily better when it comes to drop towers. Waldameer's X-Scream was only a third of the height but packed a bigger punch. The sound my brain makes every time I see single-train operation on a B&M. What happens when genitals encounter airtime on a standup coaster. Bones: meet a poorly maintained GCI. The sound theme park management make after they figure out how profitable front-of-line passes are. Might be controversial but I liked this. Unpredictable and very different to any other ride I've been on. The forces are pretty intense, especially when the car isn't "balanced". I am now 3 for 3 on coasters called Green Lantern, and all of them are pretty solid, in their own way. Let's not mention the movie. Even if you don't care for the ride, there's no doubt it looks great. Colossus seemed like it needs some serious attention. An 'Iron' conversion might be worth coming back for. And so we come to the end of this update. One more to go - Universal Hollywood!

"You're giving me a complex"

The lift on Green Lantern is noisy but fairly quick, the ride itself is pretty quiet.

Have to love the way the train actually "bounces" at the bottom of each hill. Those cars might be padded to the max but the ride is still rough as hell!

I haven't been on a Boomerang for six months now, so I'm starting to think I like them again...

Really enjoying the new series of Sherlock. This show is going from strength to strength!

Kumbak trains on Lethal Weapon/Arkham Asylum. Made an SLC good!

Really enjoying this TR! Looking forward to the next installment.

When I took the insider tour at BGW last year, I vaguely recall the guide (who seemed, at least, to know what she was talking about) saying the lead car was there to make the ride smoother.

The metal detectors were there, alongside the bag check. Saw this at a few parks, the first time kind of surprised me because I'd only ever seen them used at airports back home. But then I guess we have different gun laws and there are other safety considerations in place. Just curious, what would you lead you to believe its underrated? It was just so far ahead of any other wooden coaster I've tried, to be honest. My #2 and #3 are Phoenix and The Beast, both superb rides, and El Toro completely blew them out of the water.