Jim

My wife and I are taking a trip to Vegas at the begining of November. This will be our first time. For once we are more interested in all of the other attractions instead of coasters especially since most of the reviews I have read have been fairly negative on them. We only have 3 days because we have to get home to kids. Because of limited time we will only get to ride the 4 main coasters once. Does anyone have an opinion on which seats are the best on each coaster so we can make the most out of each one? Thanks in advance.

My Family and I decided to visit LaRonde last Tuesday 8/15 while we were vacationing in the White Mountains in New Hampshire and Old Orchard Beach in Maine. (all 1rst time visits) I don't know if we hit a bad day or what but out of the 78 amusement parks we have been to this was easily the worst run park we have seen. Our shortest wait was 35 min. It took us from 2:00 until 10:30 to ride 7 coasters with the exception of lunch and a ride on the sky tower. Fast pass was sold out but even if it wasn't you could only use it towards 4 coasters in which 1 was closed. I also wanted to ride the ejecter seat (never have done one) but that was sold out. The lines were not that long but the employees could have cared less about moving people through. On the boomerang they would wait until everyone was out of the exit then count off enough people to ride the next train and move them in the waiting area and then open the gates to load. On Goliath they waited until eveyone exited then would let the fast pass people in and once they put all of their belongings in the cubby and got seated in the train they would open the gates and let the rest of us in. Once they finished their conversations with each other they would give a thumbs up. My wife almost panicked in the Dragon line because it had to of been over 100 spiders in the roof of the line and we were moving so slowly because it was only 1 employee working the ride. LaRonde also had the most line jumpers I had ever seen at 1 park but once again the employees could have cared less. Snyder's philosophy must did not make it up to Canada. Goliath was going to be my 300 coaster but I left with 299. I was kind of glad because I really want to forget that day. It is so sad because LaRonde's location is awesome in between the river and by the city. LeMonstre was better than expected but I wasn't expecting much and Goliath was good but easily the most boring of the B&M hypers. I did like the steep lift. I would never go to this park again unless I heard they made some major changes. I did end up getting #300 on Excalibur. It was nothing special but a decent and unique woodie. Funtown was a nice surprise because I had read recently of someone calling the park ghetto but I thought it was a nice little park with no lines and a good place to take my 2 kids. Santa's Village in N.H. was also alot better than expected. Their brochures don't do the park justice.

I'm a coastermaster currently at 272. I will break 300 this summer with trips to Funtown, Palace Playland, Six Gun City, Santa's Village, Storyland, La Ronde, Quassy, Holiday World, Beech Bend, SFKK, SFOG, Lake Winnie, Visionland, my homepark PKD and wishful thinking of Ghost Town in the Sky and Americana.

Is there any way to find out if any of the coasters sold at the auction? I'm sure I would have seen something on the boards if it was. I was really hoping a small park like Lakemont would have bought one of the Schwarzkopfs. They were rumored to do something big back in 2002 but I never heard anymore. Unfortunately I think the rest of Astroworld's coasters were scrapped.

I will be visiting SFKK for the first time this summer on my way to Holiday World and Beech Bend. I was not going to count Greezed Lightnin' as another credit since I had already rode it as Viper at SFOG. I see on Screamscape that they are replacing the loop with the one from Tidal Wave (PGA) in which I have never rode. Maybe I think too much but would you consider this another credit now?

I think I like BGW better but it is hard to judge when I have been there over 50 times and have grown bored of the place because of their inability to build new rides. In comparison I have only been to BGT once and enjoyed it very much. Kumba is my favorite looping coaster at any park. It is still hard to beat BGW's natural setting. Both parks are great and are a nice change to other chain parks.

King Cobra at PKD. I wish it was still there instead of Anaconda

PKD - 15 min. BGW - 50 min.

Hey. My name is Jim. I live about 15 min. from PKD. I have been to 54 parks and have ridden 238 coasters. My wife, son and I are flying to LAX and meeting my sister on April 16-22. This will be our first time to California. We are trying to avoid long lines. We are going to Pacific Park and Adventure City on Saturday, DCA on Sunday, DL on Monday, KBF on Tuesday, Scandia and see L.A. on Wednesday and Legoland on Thursday. Does this look like a good schedule or should I adjust some days to miss the crowds? We are not going to SFMM because my wife is pregnant and my son is only 2 and my sister is leaving on Wed. I would love to ride X but I'm not going to wait in the long lines by myself. Since I am with a 2 year old I may only be able to ride each coaster once. What is the best seat on Excellerator, Ghost Rider, Silver Bullet, Scandia Screamer, and California Screamin? I may try to squeeze in Belmont Park when we go to Legoland. Is it worth it? Does anyone know where I can get any discount coupons from? We would love to go see Jay Leno or Price is Right but can't with my son. Any other good tourist places to go to in L.A.? Thanks in advance.