Hilltopper39

On the Dive machines what unlocks the restraints in the station? I've never noticed any other connection to the train in the station other than that powered buss bar connector. I was under the impression just from observation that the power from the bus bar unlocks the traditional ratcheting restraints while in the station and they are otherwise always locked, similar to how a traditional train is always locked until a bar in the station is raised and the spring mechanism in the ratchet is released. So there may not actually be an actual onboard power supply that is constantly powered throughout the course of the ride but there is a device onboard that unlocks only when power is supplied to it while in the station.

Great pictures, I only had one trip to SFGAM back in 2006 and had a great time there. Even though they didnt have any "great" coaster (in my opinion, I' wasn't a huge fan of Raging Bull) they did have a nice collection of really "good" coasters. I especially liked V2, Viper, and Whizzer and Batman is always a classic. That water park looks amazing, especially considering it's only a couple of years old.

No Coco Cay is on the itinerary, we sail from Canaveral to Nassau, have full day in Nassau, a day at Coco Cay then back to Canaveral. I watched and subscribed to you youtube page Morgan, great stuff there, really helped out a lot! Do you remember at Coco Cay if you could snorkel for free if you had your own gear with you? And did you try to Jade upcharge Asian restaurant t on the ship?

If I'm not mistaken the B&M flyers, and floorless Dive coasters have a similar bus bar system that provides power to the trains in the station to operate the ride restraints instead of the typical spring loaded ratcheted style restraints. I could be wrong about that but I think on the flyers the supplied power operates the restraints as well as the locking mechinism for the trains after they have been raised into position. In the lower left corner of this picture of the flyer trains on Tatsu you can see the "bus bar" type connector mounted on the train And in this picture of Sheikra's station you can see what the "bus bar" type connector attaches to in the station to supply power to the trains (he vertical rectangular pieces with the gray attachment on top of it). I got both of those pictures from RCDB.

Great report Adam, I used to love the Summer Nights event at SeaWorld, even on a packed Saturday Manta and Kraken were usually no more than a station wait. Nice to see that they updated the Sea Lions tonight Show to include the new Shamu One Ocean show parody,. Sea Lions Tonight was a lot of fun, much better than the usual Clyde and Semore show.

The Rush of Fear pass for 10 nights admission over the first 3 weeks is a great ticket option, that I'm definitely going to purchase. I wonder how much the Rush of Fear with Express will be. I wish i knew what date TPR might possible be maybe planning an event at BGT in October so I could plan out my Horror Night/HalloScreams Combo weekend (maybe with Food and Wine and legoland mixed in).

Yes, can't wait. The theme looks really cool, kinda looks and sounds like a bloody haunted Boardwalk Empire which is awesome!

I had this conversation with someone a few weeks ago and in my opinion there has been a LOT of innovation in the Theme Park industry lately but all of the innovation isn't in amusement parks but instead in water parks. How many bowl slides do you remember 10 or 15 years ago? Or giant funnel slides, or half pipes? I think master blaster opened at Schlitterbahn has opened in 1998 and ever since then there has been nothing but new and innovative ideas coming to water parks where as every water park before 1998 was kind of stating to look alike with the traditional body slides and tube slides. We now have hydromagnetic rocket slides, looping slides, themed lazy rivers, projections inside of enclosed tube slides, multiple funnel and multiple bowl slides, water conveyor belt systems, mat slides, racing mat slides, indoor water parks, that new magic quest interactive water attraction thing, gigantic play structures like at Shane's water park in Utah, that crazy fast lazy river at Aquatica, clear water coasters on cruise ships, and probably some more stuff I haven't mentioned or haven't seen or don't even know about yet! And all of those new ride types have come about in the last 10-15 years. In my opinion I think that water parks still have a lot of potential that no one has tapped into yet, but I got a feeling pretty soon were gonna see some major changes. How awesome would a theme park style river rapids ride be in a water park? Or a log flume, or a water coaster, or an interactive water shooting dark ride? It would be awesome and needs to happen soon (I'm talking about you Aquatica)!

^While exiting Montu Saturday I heard a classic GP comment from a "Nu uh, no I aint gettin on dat, dat da ride rite there dat went up like dis and got stuck up in dat loop no way, dat shi*t aint safe"

That was awesome. The Soarin pre-show with him in it at Epcot is by far my favorite celebrity pre-show video (sorry Gary Sinese).

Is there another resteraunt like this somewhere in Europe? I remember seeing this concept on a food show but also remember that restaurant not being at Europa park. But either way it looks amazing.

Yeah, while I truly think that every major attraction should try to have a single rider line sometime it just isn't feasible from the way the station is designed. At Cedar Point I don't know if they could add a singles like to Maverick or Millennium Force after the fact if it wasn't initially deigned into the station and que layout. Some guests will complain about anything they can find to complain about but bottom line is that a single riders line helps to operate the attraction at it's maximum capacity all the time. When people start to jump in the singles line you close it down temporarily until it empties out, if parties of 10 enter the singles line that's fine as long as they know they have to ride as a single, when people complain about not being able to sit together you tell them they have to exit the singles line and wait in the regular que. It works at Disney because it is properly executed, and it will work anywhere if it is properly executed.

More often than not, if there are empty seats on a train, the operators will announce on the PA that there is an empty seat(s) for anyone that wants to ride right now. If no one comes forward, they just send it out. I will say that single rider lines, while they do work most of the time, can be troublesome.....make that VERY troublesome. As Carowinds found out last year with Intimidator, you have to staff at least one extra person to control the station entrance (which CP has almost completely stopped doing at all coasters). You also have the problem of people who don't understand the concept of the single rider line jumping in and thinking the wait will be "shorter" because there aren't as many people. When the single rider line opens, that virtually eliminates all odd numbers from the regular line (unless there are groups of 3, 5, etc.). So it has the possibility of making you wait a REALLY long time, which creates lots of complaints for the park. And then finally, you'll have entire families get in the single rider line and then raise all holy hell when they can't sit together, which generates even more complaints. Yes, single rider lines can help capacity and shorten the line up some of the time, but for a lot of parks, it's way more trouble than it's worth. I mean, Carowinds only ended up using the single rider line on weekends last year for that very reason. While I agree that they can be very troublesome at times from an operations standpoint, I completely disagree that they are more trouble than they are worth. Ultimately a single rider line is worth the extra effort. The single rider line we had at Everest had the same problems you mentioned but it's pretty easy to explain to the people that you can't choose your seat or ride together from the single rider line.The greeter is really the one responsible for clearing up the confusion about not being to choose your seat or ride together, and the greeter also has the ability to close the single rider line when it gets too long. Also as a grouper the single rider line can really bail you out of trouble if you start to get behind or get some guests that are moving slowly. Have 6 empty seats on a train that is about to load as a result of guest being slow or dumb? just throw in 6 singles and start loading the next train. You really don't have to have an extra person manning the station, the grouper (if the ride is using a grouper) should be able to handle the regular line and the singles line without too much trouble. I think all new new attractions and major attractions should try to use a single rider line if at all possible. Diamondback at kings Island had a single rider line both of its first 2 season (don't know if they still do but they did on my last visit) and I never saw them have a problem with it.

I'm sailing on the Royal Caribbean Monarch of the Seas on Friday for a quick little 3 day weekend cruise to Nassau and back. Anyone ever sailed on this ship? Any tips on really enjoying a Royal Caribbean cruise? I know it's one of the oldest ships in the fleet but it has decent reviews online. This will be my second cruise and first with Royal Caribbean and it should be a lot of fun. I'll try to stay sober enough to take a few pictures to post here (quite unlike my wedding party cruise in January).

Quick Report from my day at BGT this past Saturday. For a Saturday in June it was a pretty decent day. There was a little rain throughout the day that kept the temperatures a little more tolerable than normal. It was very crowded but the longest wait I had was probably 35 minutes for Sheikra (Cheetah Hunt had a posted 75-90 minute wait all day but I caught it after some down time and only waited about 20 minutes). My thoughts on Cheetah hunt: I read a lot of reviews of the ride and knew not to expect a top 10 coaster or anything but honestly it was still a little disappointing. It was a fun ride, very smooth, decent speed, but really tame and to me a little boring. I do think it's a great addition to the park and addresses a huge need for a solid family coaster (take note SeaWorld) but personally I found it to be a little boring. I only got one ride in the back seat so hopefully a few more rides and Ill change my opinion. The Cirque Dreams Jungle Fantasy show was just okay. Had a few good acts in it but the show as a whole really didn't seem to flow that well. Worth watching if there is nothing else to do, but not worth seeing again. One of the best attractions at Busch Gardens is the "Meet the Keepers" exhibits they do throughout the day at different animal exhibits. We saw them feeding the elephants, lions, and cheetahs and all were very cool. One of the biggest surprises of the day was Kinetix, the night time show during Summer Nights. I really didn't know what the show was about and had no expectations but it turned out to a lot of fun. Really cool acrobatic acts mixed in with live music live dancers and a great stage set up. I would definitely see this show again if I'm back at the park again this summer and highly recommended it to anyone. Rode Gwazi Lion at the end of the night, front seat, sad and pathetic style by myself (my wife was done for the day). While the Millennium flyers do help a little, the ride to me still felt like one of the rougher GCI's out there. I still like the ride, but don't expect it to be Thunderhead or Rumbler smooth. It's tolerable and a lot of fun but does has that rough out of control feel that most GCI's don't have. Maybe it's just me but it seems like every GCI coaster built after Gwazi has been really good but Gwazi and all the GCI's before it (Roar's and Wildcat) haven't aged very well. I don't know if they just really figured out their designs after Gwazi or if they started using some new construction techniques or something but the new rides are amazing and the older ones are not as good as they maybe once were. I still love Gwazi, and the trains are an improvement, but it is a little rougher than I expected it to be. Operating 12 months a year in Florida weather probably doesn't help that much either. Sheikra is still a bat shit crazy ride. Great air on the drops, great visuals, great ride. Montu is still really good, not my favorite invert but awesome. Anyone remember when they used to have Alligators under the track between the station and lift? Or was that just my imagination at one point. Kumba is still King of the park in my opinion. One of the best coaster B&M has ever made and one of the best steel coasters anywhere. I love old school forceful B&M's WITH the roar, and the layout is perfect. One of my top 10. Awesome park, can't wait till Halloscreams.

With all due respect I completely disagree with you here. I think that if they slightly modify the layout but re-profiled a few drops, add some airtime hills, add a few over bank turns and do almost exactly what they did to the Old Giant this thing would be a top 10 coaster again. It could use a new ending with some crazy ejector air and twisty's and tunnels and what not but the opening 2/3's of that ride, when it was in good shape, was really solid. If they did invest in a drastic redesign/re-profile what if they turned the first drop into a giant double down into a huge direction changing over bank entering the existing double helix. I think if done properly this thing has a ton of potential.

Pretty sure that is the Team Disney building but it does look like a cruise ship! Great report Adam, I have always been fascinated by aerial pictures of Amusement parks. Also you should have titled this trip report Soarin over Soarin.

Your not cool unless you pee your pants

Wow, I just got my Club TPR renewal packet yesterday with a Europa Park map in it an I was thinking to myself ya know a GCI Woodie at this place would really round out this place's all ready great coaster lineup. One day later they announce this. Europa is now number 1 on my "European Parks I really want to visit list".

305, no comparison

Anyone heading to Hurlfest this weekend? If so watch out for the wacko nut cases in neon green t-shirts....

Sex and Awesomness

I'm glad to see this place expanding. I visited Discovery Cove a couple years ago and had an amazing experience but the whole time I was there it felt a little like something was missing, or if another attraction were there the place would feel more like a full days experience. I mean after 3 hours in the reef and an hour in the lazy river hour in aviary and a 30 minute dolphin interaction it's barley past noon and you've already experienced the entire park. I wish they had maybe a couple of water slides, or a ropes course/zip line attraction of some type but maybe the addition of the second reef will give the place a more complete feel. Does anyone know what they are planning to do with the old existing reef? I think it's pretty much common knowledge that the reason for building the new Grad Reef was that the existing one was leaking salt water into the under ground aquifer below the park for years resulting in a lot of fines from various government and environmental regulators. At one point I had heard they were planning on converting it into a fresh water reef exhibit but have not heard anything else about that since the addition of the new grand Reef.

This event looks amazing and I can't wait to attend! (will purchase tickets later this week after I get feedback from my friends). Two quick questions, will the catered Italian meal be on site at the park, or somewhere else? Also will there be any kind of discount or pre reservations for Flash passes for the event (or will it be like Texas Giant Bash and just arrange that on your own)? Thanks, really looking forward to this event!

http://themeparkreview.com/forum/files/img_3850__800x600_.jpg I always wondered why Sea World Orlando never had bigger gators like these, or like the ones at Busch Gardens. The exhibit Sea World Orlando has is pretty nice but the gators are all so tiny. Oh wait now I get it Sea World Orlando's gator exhibit must be themed after the real Florida Gators, small and weak . Suck it Florida