Billy Hill

Rammstein's Links 2 3 4 would be a good song for a German park. Just a thought.

There's a small water park fairly near my home. It's called Golfland Sunsplash in Roseville, CA. The company I work for has had the summer picnic dealio there the last few years. It's a fun park and has a decent selection of slides for its relatively small size. The Master Blaster "water coaster" (Just a slide that has jets to shoot you up one hill on the ride) is my favorite. The lines for the slides get pretty ridiculous at times though. It's great during our summer picnic because only the invited guests of the company are allowed in the park for the last 2 hours of the day. We get to ride everything, and some of the stuff several times. Water World Sacramento isn't too far from me either, but it's been a while since I've gone there. It was pretty ghetto-fied from what I remember of my last trip. (Little wanna-be gangstas without any parental supervision acting wanna-be tough and generally trying to mess up the good times for other kids) Our SFMW passes get us into that park, and the Water World in Concord, so maybe I'll make it to one or the other sometime during the summer. It isn't going to break my heart if I don't though. Can anyone here compare the Concord and Sacramento Water Worlds for me and suggest which one is the better park from a "family friendly" point of view? Thanks. I'm looking forward to checking out the expansion of Boomerang Bay at PGA fairly soon. I'm going to take the family to the park for a day this weekend, but BB isn't opening until May so we'll have to wait a bit for that. That's cool. There will be plenty of time to get wet this summer.

Just about anything that's part of a traveling carnival/amusement operation. I take my kids to a local park fairly regularly. They have a traveling amusement ride assortment a couple of times every year. After seeing the dirtbag meth-heads that they have assembling the rides, there's no way I'd let any of my family on those death traps. Billy "Call me prejudiced if you want, but that's the way it is" Hill

A quick Google search on that "Pacific Ocean Park" led me to this page: http://naid.sppsr.ucla.edu/venice/mapsdocs/poppier-map.htm There isn't any mention (that I noticed anyway) of any part of a roller coaster going underwater, but there were "Diving Bells" that went under the water. (reference #30 on the map contained in the previous link) For whatever it's worth, I at least enjoyed checking out (on the web at least) that now defunct park. It looks like it would have been pretty cool for its day.

Call me nostlagic, but my favorite ride of all rides is Pirates of the Caribbean at Disneyland. It's obviously not among the most modern or thrilling, but there's just that special "something" about it for me. I like plenty of other rides too, but whenever pressed for an absolute favorite, I find Pirates always coming to mind first.

And you were expecting...? LOL I probably wouldn't be in any great hurry to jump right back on a ride that had just scared the be-geezus out of me. I was at the observation deck on the Vegas Eiffel tower one night when the winds came up. While I'm certain that little deal pales in comparison to hanging out over the Stratosphere in high winds, it was still pretty spooky. That big metal structure swaying and creeking with the wind gusts was definitely disconcerting. The elevator ride up (before the wind started gusting) was super quick, but the ride back down was painfully slow. The elevator operator told us that they had to go slow whenever the winds got over a certain speed. All of that was certainly understandable, but it was still a worrisome ride.

Does the re-done Space Mountain count as a new coaster? If so, that's my pick.

Click my signature. It has many helpful tips.

I don't have that many credits, but I do have one that's maybe sorta' rare. I rode the "Scream Machine" at the '86 World's Fair in Vancouver BC. Since it was only running for a limited time at that venue, I consider it "rare". Billy "Hell, I don't know... It was worth a try" Hill

Thanks for the replies anyway. I've still got a few irons in the fire, so hopefully something may pan out. I've something of a minor "life goal" to someday dine in the coveted Club 33. It's not likely that I'll ever be able to afford membership, or survive the waiting list if I could afford it, so I'll keep my ear to the ground in the meantime, hoping that I may someday meet someone that could make reservations for me. Again, thanks for at least replying. Billy "It'll happen someday" Hill P.S. I've made a few semi-silly little goals like this throughout my life. Over time, I've managed to make most of them happen. Never give up on something you really want to do and you can make it happen.

Does anyone have a hookup? This would be for the last week of June, '05. It can't hurt to ask, right?

per rcdb: "Park closed to the public on 9/4/2000. Performance Rides International contracted to sell rides." Someone must have bought it, eh? I wonder if there's a way to find who did... On the subject of rare credits: I wonder if many mutli-bazillionaires have private coasters? I know I would if I were a bazillionaire. Billy "Wants to become a bazillonaire so he can buy up a bunch of old coasters and have them considered rare credits" Hill.

I'd rate PGA as "pretty decent", but not a whole lot more than that. Yeah, I take the family there a few times a year, but that's because it's fairly easy to get burned out on the other few Nor Cal parks. I agree that Grizzly needs to go in favor of something at least decent. If it's a classic, then it's a classic example of how NOT to build a roller coaster. Top gun is definitely cool. I'm on the side of those that don't want to see Demon removed. I rode that coaster when it originally opened as "Turn of the century" back in 1976, before it had any vertical loops. It was cool then and I think it's even cooler now. It's a little rough, but not too bad. About the only part that really bangs me around enough to be of any concern is the entry into the first spiral, and I can deal with it. My favorite Great America coaster was "Willard's Whizzer". I still have pretty vivid memories of riding that thing over and over as a kid. I really wish they hadn't removed it. I'm looking forward to checking out the water park expansion this summer. I'll do the slides a time or 2 just to say that I did, but I mostly like water parks for kicking back and just floating around. I think I'll enjoy the lazy river that they're adding. It's supposed to be really long. I should be able to do some serious relaxing there.

Wow, what a cool thing to do. Props to you Robb and Elissa. I can't make it, what with the distance thing like so many others have mentioned, but if I could, I would. I hope you all have a great time, and from watching your videos, I'm sure you will.

I don't expect every park to build a Pirates of the Caribbean, but c'mon... Is there just not enough interest in dark rides, or is it something else? I like the thrilling rides as much as the next person, but something I really notice in non-Disney parks is the woeful lack of dark rides. Am I missing something really obvious here about why they seem to be such a small percentage of the rides in most parks?

Thank you. I'll keep an eye out for cast members to whom I might suck up. Does anyone know of any cast members on the site here?

Before I give my mostly glowing review of this program, let me say that for the experienced Disneylander, it's probably a waste of money, but for a Joe Schmoe like myself that only makes it to DL once a year, it's worth every penny, and then some. My ridemax testimonial follows... Before our family trip in '03, which was the 1st time we vacationed at the DLR as a family, I read everything I could find about trip planning for DLR. Most helpful to me was a ton of good info on "working" the FastPass system, gleaned from a couple Disney specific message boards. Armed with my newfound knowledge, I impressed the family quite mightily with how well I managed to hook us up on FastPass linked rides. Where I sucked was in not being able to avoid horrific wait times for stuff like Peter Pan's flight, Toad's wild ride, etc. You're gonna' have to give me a break on those kinds of rides. Remember, I've got 3 young kids here. (Truth be known, I like those rides too though) Every once in a while we'd hit a ride with a nice short short line, but it was the exception rather than the rule. Fast forward to Ridemax day planning for the '04 trip. We were going to be at DLR for 5 days. There's no way that I was going to trust this program to plan every single day there, nor did I want to tie myself down to following some regimented schedule, so I planned 1 day for DL and 1 day for DCA. I figured if the program was a bust, then I'd just go back to my tried and somewhat true methods that had served me at least reasonably well (for a non DL regular) the previous year. To my delight and slight surprise, the ridemax schedules worked like a charm. If anything, the program worked better than they said it would. Those couple days of our last DLR vacation rocked the house in so far as the amazing (to me) number of rides we could pack into a day, while still having time to take major breaks. I thought I would have totally overwhelmed the program by selecting a crapload of rides to fit into one day, and several of those rides twice, but we were able to do everything on the list, and then some. The breaks were really the part that blew me away, and also the source of a valuable lesson. I'd read in several trip planning guides that you should make time in the middle of the day to go back to the hotel, nap, relax, take a swim, etc. I took that with a grain of salt figuring, "By the time this week is over I'm going to have burned up the better part of 3 grand and I'm damn well going to get my money's worth out of every second that I'm here." (Kind of like Chevy Chase in "Vacation" when he says: "We're all gonna have so much f*cking fun we'll need plastic surgery to remove our godamn smiles. You'll be whistling 'Zip-A-Dee Doo-Dah' out of your a**holes!") But I digress... Point here being that by following the ridemax schedule, and actually taking the mid day breaks (of like 2-3 hours), I figured out that we weren't missing a damn thing by getting the hell out of the parks for a while when the place is a zoo anyway. I'm going to use it again this year, but again only for 2 days of the trip, and that's for a very good reason: You do have to stay pretty damn close to the schedule it gives you for it to work well. That isn't really hard to do, but the problem with it is that it doesn't account for shows, parades, fireworks, etc. Well, it does account for them in that it sends you to rides where the lines dwindle when certain things are going on in the parks, but you're ass-out if you happened to want to see that show/parade, etc. That's why I'll leave the other days to mill about as we please, taking in whatever happens to strike our fancy. Side note: You can schedule your own "breaks" in the program to make time for a show(s) that you want to see, but it all but kills the ability of the program to get you a bunch of rides packed into a single day, effectively rendering the basic point moot. Just from basic experience, most people (with 1/2 a brain) can figure out that the lines at HM and POTC go to an almost walk on status while Fantasmic is showing. Along those same lines, there are many other more subtle and less noticeable factors that contribute positively or negatively to line wait times for certain rides at different times during a particular day. If you're an AP holder who lives in LA, then you're probably aware of a lot of these things. I'm not, so a little help goes a long way. I give this program the Billy Hill seal of approval. (Which is worth basically nothing) I paid for the program last year, and I'll gladly pay for it again this year. When I drop the kind of coin on a vacation that I do when I go to DLR, this is a drop in the bucket, and one of the most cost effective parts of the whole deal. Billy "I dig the ridemax program" Hill

Okay, here's the deal... The family and I are going to the DLR the last week of June. (That's just the way it works out after juggling schedules to fit this deal in to begin with. It's the last week of June, or not at all, so last week of June it is.) Anyhow, from what I can gather, Space Mountain isn't going to officially open until July 15th. That's 2 days before the actual 50th anniversary, and a little over 2 weeks AFTER we're going to be there. What I'm hoping is that maybe, just maybe, they'll have a soft opening sometime before July 15th, and ideally, during the time we'll be there. If you're still with me after all that, my question is: Has anyone heard about a possible soft opening for late June? If so, how does one avail themselves to the opportunity? Is it just a deal where if you're lucky enough to be in the area you get to ride, or can you do anything to stack the odds in your favor? I'd appreciate any input. Billy "Really wants to ride the new space mountain, but is coming 2 weeks too early" Hill.

Hi all, I had actually planned to take the family to Great America on Sunday, but a quick check of their operating calendar showed me that my plan was doomed since they weren't going to be open. (What’s up with that?) Oh well, SFMW is closer to home anyway, and open, (kind of an important part of any trip to a park, eh?) so that's where we went. Even though the forecast called for rain, we hoped that Zonga might be running. (No such luck) We weren't in any big hurry, so we showed up at about 11:30. One look at the parking lot told us that the crowds would be light. After seeing that Zonga was still sitting idle, we headed straight for Medusa. The wife and my 2 oldest kids took the ride while I waited with the youngest. They got off and the kids begged to go again (as usual). I had other plans though. I wanted to see some of the animal shows that we've never taken in for whatever reason. We had a few minutes to kill before the bird show so we "rode" the Stargate moving chair movie deal. That thing's ok and all, but a new film would be nice. I mean, honestly, how many times can I save the universe and still get all jazzed about it? The wife and kids don't seem to tire of it though, so whatever... On to the bird show! They have this pirate ship themed set where the trainers come out and do this little spiel about how they crashed the ship into skull rock and that a bunch of their bird cargo got scattered about. They then go about collecting the various birds, while telling us the pertinent facts about each one. They have a little deal at about the middle of the show where a couple of talking birds join in the skit. That was kinda' cool. Some of the other birds are released to fly over the audience before going to the trainers on the stage. The owl was particularly cool. The bald eagle is saved for the end of the show. The one they have has injuries to its wings that prevent it from flying. It's still a very impressive looking animal however. All in all, I found the show entertaining and informative. After the bird show, we had a little time to kill before the Wildlife theatre "Animals of the world" show. The weather predictions seemed like they may have been in error because the sun was shining and it was actually getting pretty warm. There was zero wait for the river raft ride so we gave it a go. We all got splashed a bit here and there, but none of us got really soaked. With the sun out, we'd easily dry off in just a little while. After leaving our raft for the next brave travelers, we made the short walk to the Wildlife theatre and got there just as the show started. Even though we were a little wet, it was warm enough that we took our seats in a shady spot. This show had sort of a "Survivor" theme to it. They had the survivor music playing and they picked 3 adults and 3 kids to be on 2 separate "tribes" that would answer questions about the animals. Of course, the whole deal was rigged so that the kids would win. I honestly don't remember each animal that they brought out, but they were all fairly interesting. The ones that did stick out to me were the fruit bat and the Cheetah. The bat was actually pretty cool. They had it move itself along a rope strung across the stage. I never knew that bats had little thumb-like deals on the "knuckle" (for lack of a better term) of their wings. It used them to get about. It was neat to watch. The Cheetah was most memorable because they had a pair of Easter Bunny ears on her head. The ears didn't seem to bother her at all and it looked just cute as hell. (As evidenced by all the "Awwws" from the crowd) After the animal show the kids were ready to ride some more. We took a few spins on "Jambo". I don't know what that kind of ride is called, but it's this deal that's just a flat platform that rises and falls in a circle. It's pretty tame. It just kind of gives you a little belly tickle when it starts going a little faster. I don't know why, but the kids can't seem to get enough of it. I find it mildly amusing and all, but one ride on it is enough for me. It just doesn't do anything all that exciting. We then walked just a short ways to "VooDoo". I don't know what the common name for these rides is either, but it's the same thing as a "Gravitron" in RCT. I guess these "spin and puke" rides must have their fans, but I'm not really one of them. The thing just doesn't do much for me. I actually believe that watching it is more intense than riding it. Since there was almost no line, I stayed on it for 3 go-rounds before I was just simply bored with it. The kids stayed on for another few cycles while I took a couple pictures of the flamingos and the river raft ride. We then: Watched the Shouka killer whale show. (Always entertaining) Rode the Tasmanian Devil. (Me once, the kids about a bazillion times) Rode Boomerang. (Ho-hum) Rode what I think must be the weakest swinging ship in existence. (Although it makes my wife nauseas because she can't stand swinging rides) Witnessed the weather forecasts come to fruition. It was about time to get something to eat so we headed over to try the buffet restaurant. All you can eat salad, mac and cheese, vegetarian chili, spaghetti, fried chicken and sodas: $53 for 2 adults and 3 kids. What a bargain! (Not) Oh well, I guess by theme park standards (or at least the standards of theme parks that I'm used to) it's not all that bad. The kids seemed to like it and that's good enough for me. We had hoped that maybe the rain would let up a bit while we ate, but that wasn't going to happen. It was raining harder and harder with no let up in sight. We checked out the Shark Experience and the Walrus deal (Been there, done that) and then decided to call it a day. My daughter was all bent that we didn't go ride Roar in the rain, but none of the rest of us wanted to get any wetter than we already were. If we'd paid a regular park admission, then I'd have left thinking we got kinda' burned by the weather, but since we've got season passes it was no biggy. We had a good time, even if it was a short day at the park. I'd have taken more pics if I'd been planning to post a trip report. As it is, I really only posted this because Robb encouraged people to post TRs in a recent email that I received. Here are the few pics that I did take. (I already know they're pretty lame and uninteresting. Like I said, I wasn't taking pics with the idea of posting a trip report) I’ll include a few other pics from some previous trips to try to make up for it. Sunday's pics: http://www.huzyurdady.com/hostedpics/SFMW/032705RaftRide01copy.JPG http://www.huzyurdady.com/hostedpics/SFMW/032705RaftRide02copy.JPG http://www.huzyurdady.com/hostedpics/SFMW/032705RaftRide03copy.JPG http://www.huzyurdady.com/hostedpics/SFMW/032705Jambocopy.JPG http://www.huzyurdady.com/hostedpics/SFMW/032705Flamingos01copy.JPG http://www.huzyurdady.com/hostedpics/SFMW/032705Flamingos02copy.JPG http://www.huzyurdady.com/hostedpics/SFMW/032705Alligatorscopy.JPG Some pics from March 12th (opening day): http://www.huzyurdady.com/hostedpics/SFMW/031205DolphinShow01copy.JPG http://www.huzyurdady.com/hostedpics/SFMW/031205DolphinShow02copy.JPG http://www.huzyurdady.com/hostedpics/SFMW/031205DolphinShow03copy.JPG http://www.huzyurdady.com/hostedpics/SFMW/031205DolphinShow04copy.JPG http://www.huzyurdady.com/hostedpics/SFMW/031205Jambocopy.JPG http://www.huzyurdady.com/hostedpics/SFMW/031205TasmanianDevil01copy.JPG http://www.huzyurdady.com/hostedpics/SFMW/031205TasmanianDevil02copy.JPG Some pics from last September: http://www.huzyurdady.com/hostedpics/SFMW/091804DolphinFountain01copy.JPG http://www.huzyurdady.com/hostedpics/SFMW/091804Kongcopy.JPG http://www.huzyurdady.com/hostedpics/SFMW/091804Medusa01copy.JPG http://www.huzyurdady.com/hostedpics/SFMW/091804Medusa02copy.JPG http://www.huzyurdady.com/hostedpics/SFMW/091804Medusa03copy.JPG http://www.huzyurdady.com/hostedpics/SFMW/091804SeaLion01copy.JPG http://www.huzyurdady.com/hostedpics/SFMW/091804SeaLion02copy.JPG http://www.huzyurdady.com/hostedpics/SFMW/091804SeaLion03copy.JPG http://www.huzyurdady.com/hostedpics/SFMW/091804Shouka01copy.JPG http://www.huzyurdady.com/hostedpics/SFMW/091804Tigers01copy.JPG http://www.huzyurdady.com/hostedpics/SFMW/091804WhiteTigercopy.JPG http://www.huzyurdady.com/hostedpics/SFMW/091804VerticalVelocitycopy.JPG http://www.huzyurdady.com/hostedpics/SFMW/091804Zongacopy.JPG

Thank you for all the replies. Price is always a concern to some extent, but I'm more interested in staying at a decent hotel in a decent area. If spending a few bucks more is what it takes, then so be it. I believe that checking the reviews will probably go quite a way toward helping me make better choices. Thanks again. Billy "I'm gonna' check the reviews before booking my room next time" Hill.

Is there some particular reason that this thing is never running?

How do you go about choosing a hotel for any particular trip? Also, do you know of any websites that where one might obtain information on promotions for hotels located near theme parks? General information would be fine, but if it helps, I'm specifically interested in hotels near PGA. My last choice was, shall we say, a bit off the mark. The description of the place we stayed at seemed fine from the hotel website, but real life didn't place the establishment in quite as nice a light. Then again, it's not like I'd expect them to say, "By the way, we're located in the ghetto." I hope that I can draw from your vast experience to make more informed choices. Thank you. P.S. Please forgive me if this has already been covered. I did do a search, but didn't find what I was looking for. P.P.S. We're interested only in hotels, and not hotel/park ticket packages, as we already have season passes.

Art Bell... Enough said. Billy "Thinks Art Bell, while mildly amusing, is on crack" Hill

Is it posssible that reality is an illusion brought about by an alcohol deficiency?

Hi all, I'm Billy? Well, not really, but I do get a kick out of the Billy Hill and the Hill Billies shows at Disneyland, so... Anyhow, my family and I live in northern California, near Sacramento. I originally stumbled across this site while searching for coaster videos. I've found a lot of very useful information here and I really appreciate the site. Thank you. Billy "I just feel compelled to put something in quotes here" Hill P.S. I'm a newbie to all the coaster jargon and have a somewhat limited experience when it comes to theme parks, but I do know how to have fun. I usually spell and punctuate pretty well too. (Without using a spell checker)