Double0Kevin

Looks awesome! Love the look and REALLY like the voices onboard. Based on videos I've seen, the old voices were so cheesy and kinda killed the thrill of the old one. These new ones fit the experience much better. The ride seems like it fits in better with Future World now by actually looking futuristic, rather than just looking modern. Super bummed I never got to get on this during my trip to Orlando. Looks like I missed it by a day. I guess that's reason to go back to Epcot!

Adding in the 3 Florida coasters I've added to resume this week. 1. Montu 2. Raptor 3. Flight Deck 4. Dragon Challenge: Chinese Fireball 5. Batman: The Ride 6. Alpengeist 7. Dragon Challenge: Hungarian Horntail 8. Silver Bullet

Demon at CGA (It had just became PGA at the time). I remember it well, as tears were streaking from my eyes, we hit the first loop and it literally "clicked" and I realized I loved these things and wanted ride more and more.

^ I'm going to answer your question with a little abbreviated TR. Crowds have been OK. Went to Universal on Friday, my friend and I just did Single Rider on the 5 rides I rode, so the waits weren't bad. But overall most attractions were about 30 minute waits (except Harry Potter was 90 or so). The water rides were walk on due to it be fairly chilly around here. I planned to do only Animal Kingdom on Saturday but was able to get all the attractions done except one side of Primeval Whirl and the shows. Mid-day I headed over to DHS and did everything there. Only rides with lines really were Rock n' Roller Coaster (10 min wait via single rider though) and ToT which I did Fastpass for. Also saw Lights, Motors, Action! (which was awesome) and Fantasmic! which was odd. It wasn't bad, just weird after being so used to Disneyland's. I LOVED the stadium set-up though, it's so much easier to deal with than the pathways around Rivers of America. I walked in 20 mins before the show, got a decent seat in what ended up being a full show and was happy. At Disneyland I would have had to camp 6 hours for the first showing. Lastly, I did BGT today which was DEAD. The only ride all day was Cheetah Hunt which hovered around 15-20 minutes. Everything else was walk on and even then all the rides (except Scorpion) were running at least 2 trains, with SheiKra and Cheetah Hunt running 4. That's something you would never see at Six Flags with the crowd level they had. It was awesome and allowed me to do multiple rides on just about everything as well as see all the animal attractions. Loved the park but WTF were they on when they designed it? I got lost like 20 times. Even the iPhone app was giving me directions on old pathways that have been blocked off. I'll post a complete Photo TR when the trip is over and I'm back home. Still 6 days to go with MK coming up tomorrow.

Flew over the Hurricane today on my way up to Orlando from Fort Lauderdale. It was sad to know that's the closest I'll ever get to riding it.

Visually it looks kind of cool. It looks like something Schwarzkopf would have made, only it would have been regarded as a masterpiece if it was (because face it, Anton knew how to build a damn good coaster). You take that back! I would give my left foot to have gotten a chance to ride one of those things!

It was either Top Gun or Vortex (back when it was Green and Black and not crappy) at CGA... not sure which one I rode first that day.

I have a hard time trying to argue against Orlando area. I haven't been there yet but Universal, Disney, SeaWorld, Busch, Fun Spot, Legoland and the various other small spots around there are hard to argue against. I also like where I am in San Francisco Bay Area. I have SFDK and CGA in the immediate area, Gilroy and SCBB withing 1.5 hours and then SoCal is a 4-6 hour drive away. This is ideal because it means I'm close to enjoy the SoCal parks but far enough to not have anything to do with the area otherwise.

I would have to go with Son of Beast closely followed by Vortex (KI) and Mind Eraser (SFA). All of them were just awful.

I haven't been on a ton of Airtime machines sadly. My Top 5 are below. 1. Voyage - Rode it when it was new in 2006 and if had some great airtime. 2. Magnum - Got a trimless ride and the airtime was just INSANE 3. Maverick - Those couple of Airtime hills are great 4. Apollo's Chariot - Speaks for itself 5. Superman: Ultimate Flight (SFDK) - Purely for the fact that none of us expected that it would have the airtime it has. Honorable Mention: GhostRider - This is referring to back in the day when it wasn't trimmed to S#!t in the middle.

^I think he more meant CF just selling in general. I could see them getting rid of Palm Springs but I would never think SeaWorld would buy it. It would be amazing if there was a BG park in the San Diego area. Talk about a strong hold on the local market and an advancement for San Diego as a theme park destination. Now do I think it will happen? No, at least not any time soon, but one can dream.

Anyone else feel like we just watched an execution of some violent criminal? Finally, it's victims will have peace.

I've been mostly ignoring any news about this ride specifically to avoid hearing about news like this. This was always one of those rides I really wanted to ride and I'm extremely bummed I won't get the opportunity. Sad day.

This whole shipping container craze is interesting. Personally I still want to have a container house like the one in Tron: Legacy. But I agree with Wes on this one, teen pregnancy is about to sky rocket.

Hello fellow TPRers, as this trip is rapidly approaching, thought I'd throw it out there again to see if anyone would like to meet up at the parks this weekend/next week. Send me a PM if there are any takers. This is the current schedule: Friday 11/23 - Universal Orlando Saturday 11/24 - Animal Kingdom Sunday 11/25 - Busch Gardens Tampa Monday 11/26 - Magic Kingdom Tuesday 11/27 - Hollywood Studios Wednesday 11/28 - Universal Orlando Thursday 11/29 - Universal Orlando Friday 11/30 - Epcot Saturday 12/1 - SeaWorld (Half Day for the credits) I know there are a lot of TPR members in Orlando so it would be cool to get to meet some of you guys while I check out the area for the first time. When I get back there will be, of course, a good deal of Photo TR updates.

I've only been on 5 of these (adding Montu and Dragons in a few days) but this is how my ranking would go. 1. Raptor 2. Flight Deck (CGA) 3. Batman (Been on SFMM and SFGAm with the latter being better) 4. Alpengeist 5. Silver Bullet I have always liked Raptor the most, even with the rough ending with that turn into the brakes. Flight Deck is short but awesome. Alpengeist was cool, but the Block Breaks just killed the ending that it made it pretty disappointing in the end. I have a feeling from what I've heard that this will all change soon when I get on Montu and the Dragons (Which I think should be separate in the poll since they are such different layouts).

I always thought that park was the odd man out in the CF portfolio. It will be interesting to see how it works out being separated from SeaWorld. I'm sure it won't cause much issues with the local crowds, but not likely to attract many tourists (though SD is so big population wise, I doubt that matters). All in all I think it's an awesome move on SeaWorld's part.

It would be cool if they had the train station was set up with RFID or Contactless Smart Card turnstiles like some public transportation train systems are, and people that want to ride the train just tag the sensor and get on assuming they have the park hopper ticket. It would help with operators having to check every ticket as it comes through to the ride (seems like they would have to staff both parks with essentially second admission gates).

I've yet to ride a bad B&M... I would say all of them are good (even Vortex at CGA), just some not as thrilling or memorable as others.

Funniest... joke... EVAR! Magic Mountain is just as bad, if not worse than any other SF park on letting rides deteriorate. I would say the only SF parks where I've ever felt like the rides were generally well maintained and ran comfortable are SFDK and SFGAm (granted I haven't been to quite a few of them). Honestly SFMM's got some great rides that run like complete crap (Riddler, Scream, Colossus, Green Lantern) compared to how they once were(or in GL's case, could have been). When I visited SFA last year for the first time, it wasn't terrible but Batwing did go down for most the day (luckily I got it in early) and other rides came and went. Roar was awful, just horribly maintained where as Wild One was awesome. Just based on what I know about that park and their record, I imagine their maintenance budget is pretty low and their rides become nightmares because they can only go so long with getting the bare minimum.

Well, since Disney owns ABC, there isn't a whole lot of trying to get ABC to pick it up, so much as them saying "This is your new show."

I love that they are setting up the franchise with some mystery to Peter's back story where the Raimi one was so straight forward. Overall this one was much better than the Raimi movies. Excited to see where they go with it in #2 with Electro.

Tak Attack was removed this year for TMNT Shell Shock, a Gerstlauer Sky Fly. I think he was talking about the Falling Star, not Tak Attack. I wish SFDK would add some more flats. They have a pretty decent selection, but the last adult flat they added (I don't count SkyScreamer) was Tazmanian Devil in 1999. I think they could benefit from some big flats like a Screamin' Swing or something out in front of the park to pull some of the crowd that mobs the coasters.

^Isn't monorail construction ridiculously expensive now, for whatever reason? I agree that a monorail would be awesome as it fits in with the Disney history, but this is an Anaheim transportation system, not a Disney one. I don't see it ever happening.

^ I think you are thinking of Tak Attack (formerly Mighty Axe) which is a Zamperla Rotoshake. Jambo was a Zamperla Joker. Unless MOA had a Chance Falling Star which was a similar ride to Jambo.