dj snow
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Posts posted by dj snow
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It almost looks like the "HOLLYWOOD" sign letters are part of the theme design of this coaster if you look at the concept art. Anyone else see it?
Also, I certainly hope they don't forget a certain Herbie Hancock tune when they decide on the sound system's playlist.
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Or even better:
http://www.connectingindustry.com/downloads/pwteaerasupp.pdf
Jump to page 20 for the top 20 North American parks list. Enjoy!
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The entrance and exits of the loops on Shockwave are opposite of those on GASM so that the turn into the MCBR is less of a headbanger or something.
Dork.
Sushi extravaganza, by the way.
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Hey Brent, thanks for sharing the photos! Though no credit for me on discovering Freefall's mysterious speaker? C'mon!
It was good meeting you on Sunday. What a long-but-fun day it was.
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Also in Jasper is the Shnitzelbank. If you like german food, make a stop there. Awesome.
Yes, Schnitzelbank is good stuff.
Don't forget to order up a Hacker-Pschorr on draft if you stop.
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1. It's toward the end of summer vacation for most schools, so my guess is that it may be busy with fairly long lines.
2. Express Pass may be worth the money, but there's another option to consider (see below).
3. I've never bought daytime Express Passes, but the Halloween Horror Nights Express Passes were once only to Dueling Dragons, as I recall. So it's one or the other, not both.
As for the other option: How many people would be in your party? How much will you be spending on lodging per night? And would you possibly be visiting the Universal parks for two days instead of just one?
The reason those questions are relevant is that if you have a room at one of the on-site hotels, your room key acts as an unlimited Express Pass for the duration of your stay.
Example: Book a room for the night of the 5th. Current rate for 4 adults at Royal Pacific is $294 a night. You can check in first thing in the morning, even if the room's not ready, and receive your four room keys. Go to the park, ride all you want, using Express entrances all day long as many times as you like.
Stay in the room that night.
Check out of the hotel, then go back to the parks. Your room keys are good as unlimited Express Passes on this day as well! Enjoy your short wait times for a second day.
Right now Express Passes aren't listed as available for August 5 (which may mean they don't expect crowds to be that big after all; I don't know), but the dates around then are going for $45.99 per person for a one-park Express. If you have 4 people, multiply that by 4, then by 2 days, and the Express Passes would cost more by themselves than the room would!
So in this type of scenario (with multiple people in one room and visiting for two days), booking an on-site hotel room is actually cheaper and better than going for a cheap hotel room off property and getting Express Passes separately. It's almost like you're getting the hotel room for free.
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I'm going to take a different perspective here.
It's important to consider the cost of your admission when making decisions that will consume a lot of time in the name of saving money. If your entry is on a comp or a season pass it's not so much of an issue, but if you paid cash for your admission, let's look at this example:
Say it costs $50 for your ticket to the park, and you arrive at 10 a.m., planning to leave at 6. This works out to $6.25 per hour of "park time."
Now if lunch inside the park costs you $12, and if lunch outside the park at a fast food outlet is $6, it's worthwhile to also consider the time involved in walking to the front gate, reaching your car, driving to the off-site restaurant, eating, driving back, finding a parking spot, and walking back through the front gate and finally to your next ride.
If that whole process takes an hour, then your $6 lunch effectively costs you $12.25 because you just threw away $6.25 worth of "park time" that you already paid for.
Yes, I made up the situation above for illustrative purposes. Clearly every situation is going to be different because of varying ticket prices, time spent in the park, etc.
And obviously by going off-site to eat, in the example above you do still have $6 more in your pocket at the end of the day. So if that makes the difference in making your visit affordable, it's the way to go. But I think it's worthwhile to consider what you're getting back in terms of time in the park, more rides and more convenience when you buy a meal inside the park. Often staying and eating inside the park can be seen as the better deal when put in this light.
So you can probably guess what I do when it's time to eat.
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This really gets to me.
My first visit to this park was probably six or seven years ago as I was passing through the area. I walked in and the park was virtually empty, save for myself and a group of nursing home residents in wheelchairs, apparently on an outing to give them some time outside of the home.
In my mind I drew a comparison between these guests and the park itself, both apparently biding their time until the inevitable day comes.
Contrary to that day's experience, however, the park held on and seemed to have bounced back by my next few visits. People filled the midways, there were lines for the rides—it seemed that the park had turned a corner.
It was sad to hear that things were in decline again, and then now this news.
Conneaut has been on the ropes many times before, and has impossibly come back each time. This fire could be the last in a string of bad luck stories, or it could become a rallying point for the community to save this park rather than watch it die.
The realist in me anticipates the former, but the idealist in me longs for the latter.
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And yes, I'm contemplating abandoning my family for the weekend and flying out there.
If you're flying in, and intend to visit only SFMM, consider flying into Burbank instead of LAX. Much closer, and the rental car situation is much easier.
Oh, and there's a really good BBQ place by the airport too.
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I enjoy the cover, and the way it conveys that "YES, WE DO HAVE HOT DOGS."
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Some of you may have enjoyed (or, if not enjoyed, at least looked at) my previous trip report detailing a visit I made to Arizona's Sunrise Park Resort.
Well, I've since been back there once this season (better snow this time), but this trip report isn't about Sunrise! No sir!
You see, yesterday I instead ventured up to Flagstaff to visit Arizona's other major ski area: Arizona Snowbowl!
They just got 40 inches of new snow up there, so of course I had to go check it out.
O JOY, indeed! Thanks for reading.
Let's finish things off with a Pyramid Snow Cap Ale.
All right, time to head back down. This was a nice long run.
A pleasant elevation!
Finally at the top, wind was really blowing up here!
Nice view!
Going up...
On my way up. This ride was cold and windy, and it seemed to take forever.
Things are looking good on the ride up.
Happily, the Agassiz lift opened! So it was time to jump into the mob of people for my ride to the top.
Pretty nice view looking down the Sunset lift.
So this is where everyone is! (When you only have one main lift operating, it's to be expected.) Wait time wasn't bad.
Time to strap in for my first run, in order to get down to the lift that WAS operating.
No matter, I'll buy a lift ticket from this luxurious lodge, and hope the wind dies down.
I've arrived, and it doesn't seem too busy! Oh, but that's because the main lift on this side is closed due to wind.
On I-17, what's that I see? Oh right, that's called a mountain. AKA "My Destination."
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I would suggest heading to Six Flags Great Adventure if you haven't been. Close to both Philadelphia and Newark airports, it has a great collection of coasters. Splurge for the Gold QBot and ride as much as you want.
You'll be rather close to both NYC and Philadelphia if you want to see some cultural things, as well as other "side trip" park options such as Coney Island (2008 may be the last year to see it as it is), Clementon and (a bit further away) Dorney Park.
Depending on how much more driving you want to do, you could go even further out to places like Six Flags America, Six Flags New England, Knoebels, Wildwood, etc.
I think that'll be a good bet if you want to find a high concentration of parks and coasters as well as other things to do.
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Is it possible to do two disney parks on one day?
It depends on your approach to the parks. If you just want to get rides on the coasters and get out, then I'd say "yes" if those two parks are Animal Kingdom and Studios. Magic Kingdom and especially Epcot I'd say "no" to. (Epcot has no coasters and is limited on thrill rides, but to see that park and to really understand it demands a day. Magic Kingdom tends to always be packed compared to the other parks, so it's a good idea to give it extra "insurance" time.)
Is it possible to do both universal parks in one day?Yes, especially if you're focusing on the major rides in each park and even more especially if you pay the upcharge for Express passes (or stay at an on-site hotel).
What's the best transportation between Tampa and Orlando (bus, taxi, train, plane)?If you won't be renting a car, there are bus options available. If you can get to SeaWorld, there's a bus (I believe it's free) that travels between that park and Busch Gardens in Tampa. There's also a bus that departs from several hotels and the Universal resort. In either case a reservation is recommended/required.
Can i get from the airports to the parks with public transportation?There are lots of bus operators that provide this service. If you have a reservation at a Disney hotel, you can use their Magical Express service, which is free. You get a free ride to your hotel on the bus, and the service also grabs your bags from the belt and transports them to your room, automatically. (Not sure how the bags part works if you're arriving on an international flight.) Again, a reservation is required.
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I like how one of the brochures begins with "there's no such thing as too much fun" and then, when you open it up, the first thing you see is "too much fun!"
Wait a minute, I thought they just told me that such a thing did not exist! Now I'm confused!
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The ProSlide testing facility is Mont Cascades. ProSlide owns the place.
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The actual "funnel" part(s) of these slides are substantially smaller than any previous-generation Tornado, which means that the structure to support them can be much less substantial. Note that there's only a ring around the funnel, rather than the full latticework structure completely engulfing all prior Tornado slides.
This means a far less costly installation, leaving more money in the budget to spend on more slide length... or more funnel sections! This concept has a lot of promise and I think we'll start seeing a bunch of them.
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Here is their website:
Not a big fan of the name. Hopefully (if this even gets off the ground) they can come up with something better, or license the Hard Rock name.
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Hooray for cheese!
I'm a big fan of double- and triple-creme bries. D'Affinois is good, as is Les Coutances (hard to find, though). The smellier, the better! (Well, up to a point.)
On a trip to northern California, I stopped by the Marin French Cheese Company and picked up a variety of bries. It's about 10 miles outside of Petaluma, as I recall. They make the cheese there, offer tours, and of course sell it (at reasonable prices too). Marin Chevre Blue is highly recommended.
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Hershey always closes off rows especially on Lightning Racer. It's just laziness so they have less rows to check and also to prevent people from reriding.
I disagree with the "laziness" statement.
Here's what I think is going on:
When they close off rows, it's typically when there wouldn't be enough riders to fill a train anyway. They close off the least-popular (middle) rows so that all (or most) of the seats in service are filled.
If they allowed people to just scatter about the train, they would end up spending much more time re-fastening loose seatbelts in all the empty seats. Closing off rows minimizes the need for that and allows dispatches to go faster.
They generally are fairly quick to open up the rows once they notice the line start to back up.
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Just got back from seeing Muse with only around 3,500 other people. Great show.
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Lately in Pennsylvania they post signs saying "use both lanes until merge point."
I'm usually one to plan ahead and get over well in advance, but I also see the advantages of Pennsylvania's approach, especially at those merge points where there are chronic backups. Might as well use both lanes to "store" the backup in half the linear distance.
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I will miss driving past it and not stopping to visit.
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They wouldn't let us ride one person per seat on the Falling Star, which is one of the most rickety flats I've ever been on. They do run it in insane mode, but they rob you of the awesome lateral forces by forcing you to ride with a partner.
I'll leave the other points for others to comment on (as many already have), but out of fairness to the park here, it is a Chance Rides rule that no single riders are allowed on a Falling Star. Operators that allow otherwise are not following manufacturer instructions, and I doubt that the state of New Jersey would approve such operation.
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You should be able to park in the lot at the Cyclones ballpark. The last time I went, that's where we parked and it is significantly less expensive than the Aquarium lot.
So if street parking doesn't work out, give that a try.
The Six Flags Magic Mountain (SFMM) Discussion Thread
in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
Posted
I'd be happy to take people's money right up to closing time, so long as the hours were posted. And if they complained, I'd happily hand out a comp to them too... Better to take their money today and hand out a comp, than to only hope that they come back with their money tomorrow.