Xmeister

I'm so excited for another great attraction in San Diego. With Legoland, the San Diego Zoo, The Wild Animal Park (aka Safari Park), Sea World, and now this, I think our collection of parks is world class. Despite the lack of many great coasters. But what we do have strength in is our animal attractions. However I must say this, I can't imagine that Sea World hasn't looked at the Wild Animal Park as a possible future addition to their family of parks. The way the WAP is being run right now is pretty awful. With the monorail being replaced by an upcharge tram ride that isn't nearly as good, and how it seems like the park has narrowed it's focus to up charge attractions, I'd be excited as hell to have the park become a Busch Gardens. Do I think it's a possibility? Sure. Do I think it's likely? I honestly cannot say because I never expected Soak City to become Aquatica. I think a couple of issues would need to be resolved first. First, I would have to think that the Zoological Society of San Diego would want control of the field enclosures that the park is famous for. Not for the benefits of the visitors, but for the animals due to the fact that the Society has been able to contribute to the saving of several different endangered species thanks to the enormous field enclosures. Maybe Sea World could run actual the park while the Zoological Society could take care of the animals? Also I think many a resident would complain about the increased traffic on San Pasqaul Road and that San Diegans would be up in arms if the park changed too much. However I think that a huge amount of the park that we've grown to love is gone. One of the huge savannahs is almost completely unaccessible to visitors now, many of the exhibits have shrunk over the years, and certain portions of the park are completely abandoned (Tembo Stadium, certain food and drink stands, that beautiful bridge by the incline up from the lower part of the park to name a few.) So I have to say that I would have SeaWorld take over in a heart beat over what the park has become now. Sure, some of the upcharge attractions are cool. But it's very sad that a large portion of the attractions are now an upcharge. Whereas before the vast majority of the park was accessible with the purchase of admission AND it included an amazing monorail tour that is over twice as long as the current tour that is now an upcharge. Now I love many aspects of the park, I just think that some changes over the years have been unfortunate. In the end however I think either SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment partnering with the Zoological Society at the WAP, or a complete buyout of the park wouldn't be a bad thing. I would prefer the former as opposed to the latter however due to the fact that year after year, the contributions of the Zoological Society of San Diego to our world can never be overstated when it comes to their work with animals. But this is just complete speculation and my opinions so do take everything I've said with a grain of salt. I'll end this post by saying again how excited I am about Aquatica!

Balder, and then this.........Maybe this is the time when I finally decide to go on a TPR trip! (I've been wanting to for years, but school....... )

It's a pity they can't do this to SOB. Or maybe the word's largest bonfire? I'm kidding myself, there's no way to really do that safely or in a controlled manner. I think it could spread too easily to the surrounding trees or a nearby structure.

One thing I love about the ride is it's colors. I really like that it's white instead of something that would stick out more. I think it'll make it less imposing over Revolution than Tatsu is. Of course Tatsu is quite a bit closer so I guess that helps.

I'm actually really excited about the ride. You definitely can't say it's not unique and it looks like at least some of it follows the terrain. One thing that I'm slightly disappointed about is that it looks like that beautiful lagoon is gone. I could've sworn that there was talk of them bringing the lagoon back.

^It'd be cool to get a tunnel underneath Beach Blvd, and a turnaround near Soak City and Independance Hall. I know the chances of that are absolutely zero, but I can dream can't I?

Thanks so much for the great report. I probably want to experience Schlitterbahn more that almost any U.S. amusement park I haven't been to yet. (I hope that made sense.) I've driven by it a couple of times on my way to see family, but just haven't had the time to go to the park. Your photos make me want to go that much more. So thank you.

Where's the Aquatrax?

^ I guess that's almost understandable from the GP's perspective, considering that both are wooden coasters and White Cyclone has a white and brown color scheme whilst Yankee Cannonball has white, yellow and brown. And to the vast majority of the GP I've talked to, it seems they think all wooden coasters are the same. To a coaster enthusiast though, a comment like that is just finger nails on a chalkboard.

On TPR's Skyrush video. They always seem to think whatever coaster their watching on video is similar to a coaster they've been on. Despite the total lack of similarities in the video in front of them.

I think with the new track style that they've been using for the past few years, I'd give them another chance. That being said, I've been on some awful Vekomas in my time. But just imagine, a hypercoaster with the same, smooth track style as Expedition Everest. I think it would work.

I just had someone explain that California Screamin' went over 100 MPH........ I think the worst thing that I've ever encountered was at my park orientation when I started working at Epcot, the facilitator called Spaceship Earth "the big silver ball." But I don't think that counts as a GP comment.

As sad as this is, I really hope it doesn't scare people from cruising. It really is my favorite kind of vacation and disasters like these are very few in number. In fact if you look it at it this is the first time a "modern" cruise ship has ever sank. Any others that have sank in the past couple of decades were old ships (most often converted ferries) that were run by second rate cruise lines. This I think is the first sinking of a ship owned by what we could call a "major" cruise line. The last cruise ship disaster was I believe the Sea Diamond in 2007 after she ran aground in Greece. If this was going to happen to any cruise line, I'm not too terribly surprised it happened to one owned by Carnival Corp.

Poor kid. Hope he and all of the other riders are ok. Flying shredded metal is so dangerous. What if it ended up piercing someone's skin or a vital organ? This is not ok. Another thing that disturbed me was how the kid's seat bounced forward suddenly towards the end of the video. What's that about?

For me, despite the probably hundreds of rides I've had on the BP Giant Dipper as I am a local, I much prefer the Giant Dipper at SCBB BTW, ever since I first went on the Santa Cruz coaster, I've wondered what the exact layout of the tunnel is. Does anybody know what goes on in there or know of any diagrams of the tunnel itself???? Thanks

Crap.....I'm being sent to get tested for Swine Flu tomorrow morning. They took my name and student ID number and I'm not allowed back on campus until my results come back negative. I think it'll be ok though because over 150 students at my college were sent for the test after displaying symptoms. So far no one has tested positive. I like my chances.

Regarding the queue for Mickey's Funwheel...... I've heard it wasn't done because the wrap-around queue design that was planned interfered with some WOC effects. I bet that Disney will fix it. But I'm glad they decided to wait until they had a design that wouldn't interfere with this epic looking possibly better than Fantasmic show. I'm not worried about it yet, because honestly none of us have ALL the details of this huge renovation.

I just got my first TPR Bag O' Crap and I am so happy with it. I got brochures from places like Happy Valley and Chimelong Paradise and Hong Kong Disneyland. I also recieved the "America's Rockin Theme Parks" DVD. Thank you sooo much Robb and Elissa. You guys really go above and beyond in how you run this site.

I love how some of the promotional artwork for the Cyclone feature drawings of the Coney Island Cyclone track layout. They're also making the Riverside Cyclone seem as though it's only a slight modification in design compared to the actual Cyclones patterned after the famed New York coaster. Was it originally supposed to be more similar? I wish I could've had the chance to ride the original Riverside Cyclone before they shortened the drop. Great stuff Shane!

It looks like it has a couple of decent sized drops for a ride of this kind. I have yet to see one that offers a good drop.

It's such a shame to see how run down this place has become. I much prefer the Adventuredome when it had FOUR attractions and a ton of atmosphere as opposed to it now when it seems like they have tried to fit a strip mall-carnival into the dome. Does anyone remember how you used to get into the park when it first opened? This is before the promenade was built and I think you entered it through an escalator that began in an admissions area built directly below the park. But I was wondering what was in this area as I was four years old at the time. Thanks for the TR.

Because I'm 18 and Royal Carribean's policy is that you must be 21 or over to book a cruise on their ships, does this mean I'm ineligible to come? I've been excited for Oasis of The Seas for years. Back to the days when it was called "Project Genesis". The RCCL website shos just how amazing this ship will be.

Wow, this is great. I'm glad to get some real advice. I agree that my vibrato is very thick. It's probably because I'm trained in Opera and in Classical. I also have alot of experience in musical theatre. It's only been recently that I have started really studying pop. To Mechanic: Which words do you think I struggle on? I don't think I'm straining on the high notes, I'm just showing that I can belt cause that song's upper notes are toward the middle of my range. It is good to know that it sounds like that however so I can fix it. Keep it coming guys and thanks again for the opinions, they are really helping me. I wish I could tell you guys what show I'm a contestant on, but I don't want to be disqualified. Especially after making it as far as I have.

What songs would you guys like to hear me sing? I'm going to post a video of me singing "The Long and Winding Road" on Tuesday. But besides that what do you think would be good for my voice?

Thanks soo much guys! I actually have tried out for American Idol three times thus far. I've been rejected every time by the producers because they'd rather let someone who is bad see the judges to piss Simon off as opposed to letting me audition for the judges. I'm going to post another song by the end of the day to see what you guys think of it.