shepp

Well, aside from the fact that Shapiro didn't talk about major retheming, just adding fireworks and (yawn) stunt shows, the fact is that IOA is at the absolute top of the heap - not even USF is anywhere near as well-themed. Not even BGW, whose IOA-ish ride, DarKastle, is a definite second-rater compared to Spidey. Not even - dare I say it - much of WDW. Not be be mindlessly negative, but, aside from bits-and-pieces retheming like the new area arond Kingda Ka, it's hard - impossible? - to imagine that 6F is going to invest the time and money in shutting down large areas of its parks to engage in IOA-style retheming.

Hmm... Sir Ian McKellen poured me champagne. (Long story, great guy.) Once roomed with Jackson Browne. Met Talking Heads, the Kinks, Elvis Costello. Penn and Teller. Held the door for Danny Glover. In my stage door days, got autographs from Sammy Davis, Jr., Barbra Streisand, Angela Lansbury, on and on... Met Anjelica Huston, Margaret Cho, Andy Warhol. The guy who played Xander on Buffy. Actually kinda know/knew John Lasseter of Pixar. Met Nick Park (Wallace & Gromit). Everybody in San Francisco has seen Robin Williams at least once - I passed him going into the men's room, but my partner saw him naked in the lockerroom of his gym. I'm sure there's more...

Well, I wonder. Clearly, Shapiro is trying to Disneyfy 6F, but nobody out-Disneys Disney, or even comes close. Parades, for instance...Whatever 6F come up with, I'm betting it won't be another MSEP, or even close. One can only hope the parades are less abysmal than 6F's lousy stunt shows. And while costumed characters are an integral part of The Disney Experience, does Shapiro think that some guy in a Batman suit is really going to attract more families, especially for repeat visits? I mean, is anyone more likely to go to IOA because there's somebody dressed up as Spiderman running around? The English have a phrase for it: "Mutton dressed as veal."

^ Um, I understand what you're getting at, I think, but I'm curious: At what point did you think "I prefer the way men think, so I guess I'll be sexually attracted to guys?" And - no offense - but aren't your generalizations just a tad overbroad? Or do you really think that Einstein's mind worked at a "simpler" level than Jessica Simpson's? And - I'm paraphrasing here - are you basically saying "I prefer the company of straight guys because they're emotionally armored?" Just curious...

^I'm pleased to see that you're qualified to speak for"most straight people," so let me assure you: Most gay people think that was an idiotic post...

Two major variables are school groups and the weather, neither of which you can do anything about. I was there midweek in an early June, and two days were plenty to do it all, multiple times. (Except X, which didn't open til our third morning there.) But the first day was very overcast and there were few groups, the second sunny and packed with end-of-shool-year field trip hordes and the queues a LOT longer. I don't think the school groups should be that big a factor in mid-May, though.

Actually, the Mythbusters show on the Discovery Channel investigated non-drug nausea remedies. Those pressure-point wristbands didn't work. Crystallized ginger did.

Actually, my biggest fear took place before a coaster, when I was threatened with physical harm by a few thugs in the queue shed for Ghostrider, with nary a security guard to be seen.

It wasn't just chiropractor-bait. It also had reliability problems with the tire-driven lift hill... It looks like a really fun ride. It just doesn't feel like it.

From what I understand, riding on an empty stomach = more stomach acid = greater chance of problems. I try to have something bland and not overfilling (a banana, for instance) shortly before entering a park. And I munch on crystallized ginger through the day - it really works against nausea.

My fear is that the riders represent the future of American literacy.

The only requirement for your "friend" is that he or she go through the gate the same time you do. And maybe you'd be able to process, get the book, and go back out to bring your friend in. (6F having apparently dropped the rumored "no ins and outs" idea.) Only thing is that you'd have to come back through the return gate, not a regular entrance gate, right? And could "friend" enter there too? Dunno. Also, on a passholders-only day a couple of years back, the pass-processing line was a couple of hours long at one point, especially in the afternoon, when some employees were still in school. And it was pissing down rain. SFMW has improved things since then, but said friend still might have a longish wait outside the gate. I seem to remember that one year if you showed up with a processed pass, you could exchange the coupon book voucher outside the gate, maybe at Guest Services, but I'm not 100% sure on that.

I'd love to go, but transportation that day is a problem. I know it's a long shot, but anyone driving from/through San Francisco with room for one more?

I've only been to WaterWorld in Concord and Soak City at CP, and thouroughly enjoyed them both (despite my advancing years). Favorite rides: speed slides, taller the better, and the funnel-y Tornado. Best park feature: Soak City's adults-only area. Worst park feature: WaterWorld's hefty rental charge for tubes, which ensures that the lazy river will always be jammed up with walkers.

And, interestingly, it's hovered around 20% since this thread was new and Oscar Wilde was in short pants. (Not his own, of course...)

Well, put me down for hypers - I prefer to feel like I'm flying, not getting beaten up. And I, for one, really love floater air - it's why I'm a big fan of drop towers, too. To each, of course, his/her own. There is a certain level of boasting around enjoying rough rides - "I'm more masochistic than you are" - that I find a bit odd, but...

Absolutely. It's a negative-g lover's delight, with those two big floating drops and a nice, juicy pop of air in the middle. At BGT last month, I rode 4 times in front and 3 times in the back, only to see, when I got home, some post somewhere saying "The middle row is by far the best." Sigh.

I agree with you...though judging from previous threads on the topic, many people don't. Even worse are the more-than-two-tier systems, like SFGAdv's VIP Tour and Q-Bot/QBot Gold options - a 4-tier system, where the shlubs who can't or won't pay $210-260 for a day at the park stand there cooling their heels while the "VIPs" take the seats that would have otherwise been theirs. Oh, well, at least Tony Soprano won't have to wait in line to ride El Toro...

Well, in fact, park owners don't like queues, since they're occupying people who might otherwise be using that time buying T-shirts and high-profit-margin nosh. Still, it's odd that teenagers and young adults, whom I always heard were the Most Prized Consumer Demographic, should turn out to be dogfood. I'm wondering if this strategy - should it work - signals the beginning of the end of the present Golden Age of Coasters. Why would 6F buy another Kingda Ka when they could otherwise spend much less money on a whole bunch of kiddie flats and a bunch of character costumes?

Having downloaded and printed the preview pass, ridden all the way downtown, and stood in line, only to be turned away from the over-papered screening with maybe 200 other people, I'm perfectly willing to give the thing a bad review sight unseen.

Actually, I just reread the original post. As it's "your favorite" and not "the best," that makes things substantially different. Apologies. Tie, then: Alpie & Montu over the others I've been on - Raptor, Dragons, Top Gun, and B:TR. But I'm sure Nemesis is the best.

Sigh. No offense, and hate to be a spoilsport, since I'm all in favor of initiative, but this is yet another of those TPR polls that are utterly meaningless. As in "I've only ridden Upsidedown Buttshaker, so I'll vote for that." Are Alpie or Montu (which I've ridden) better than Nemesis (which I haven't)? I have no bloody idea.

^ Yes...but... I've preferred SFMW to PGA for MW's blend of animal attractions and rides. Neither place is a great coaster park - you basically have Top Gun vs. Medusa - though SFMW has good wood, and PGA a drop tower and superior flats. But right now, my partner and I can buy PGA passes for $67.50, including free parking for the season, or get SFMW passes for $75 and face a very stiff $15 parking fee per visit (except for weekdays before opening, when passholder parking will probably remain free). I was reamed on another thread for criticizing SF's new management for unexpectedly raising SP prices from "$55 through February" to $75. (They also, I believe, raised gate prices, especially for online purchases.) I did manage to get the previous SP price, and I probably would have paid $75, since I usually spend a couple of days at Waterworld (which I prefer to in-park waterparks like PGA's) and am planning a trip to SFMM in June. (And last year, I used my pass at SFGAdv and SFA - a huge bargain.) But if not for that, I might well have bought a Paramount pass instead, because it would have been a better investment. (e.g., 5 visits to PGA for the two of us: $135. Five to SFMW w. parking: $225.) And I'm wondering if SFMW isn't simply writing off coaster lovers and focusing on families with small children, turning MW into pretty much what it was pre-Six Flags - a non-ride animal park. Leaving Zonga SBNO and not bringing in any of the spare SFAW rides floating around sure suggests that. I'm just curious: does cost figure into most families' park-going decisions, or, even when retail cost of a day at MW has reached Disneyesque levels, do people just shrug their shoulders and pay? Which is to say: At what point does a local park like SFMW price itself too high and start to see diminishing returns? Enjoy your haggis...

Um...what I was "bitching" about was not the actual price of a SP. $55 bucks always seemed really cheap for what I got with a SFMW pass. (Particularly if you were going to use it at 10 parks. But then, if you have the financial werewithal to go visit 10 SF parks in a year, another 20 bucks is most likely not going to be noticed, one way or the other.) But when new management took over, they simply overrode a previous offer without warning, when they easily could have honored the previous offer for the remaining month and then taken it from there. And I do wonder whether $20 x the number of passes they'll sell in February will make such a big difference in SF's bottom line. And yeah, sorry, but when you can park in a nice protected garage at Universal Orlando for 9 bucks, 15 dollars to park my motorcycle in a big, open, unguarded asphalt lot seems pretty high. As I stated before, when I phoned SFMW, both the people I spoke to about this saw my point and were accomodating and friendly. Odd that the two posters above could get so snitty, when I was just trying to be helpful. The reason SF is in financial trouble has to do with company mismanagement, not because they were charging an industry-standard 10 bucks to park in their lots. Sure, I wish new management only well. I'd hate to see SFMW go under (though it's been, I hear, one of the chain's better-performing parks, anyway.) I hope that the park does well enough to add a new coaster next year, since - as I posted elsewhere - the most recent major ride they have running, V2, will be six years old. But, not being an SF shareholder, I have limited interest in the corporation maximizing profits. Since, apparently, the two above posters feel otherwise, perhaps they should rethink their use of season and parking passes and just pay retail instead...

Since at least the end of last year, the SFMW website was advertising season passes on sale through the end of February for $54.99. Since stuff can happen, I held off buying mine quite so early. After the management shift, I checked back and the offer was still the same. But when I went online to buy passes this past weekend, the price had been raised to $74.99, a chunky 35% price hike without warning, a month early. (And also, it seems, one of the higher SP prices in the chain, considerably higher than MM's, though much cheaper than SFGAdv's...though MW's does include admission to two waterparks.) This seemed utterly unfair - the "new" SF should have and should have honored the previous offer, IMO, and then raised prices in March. So I phoned the park and the very nice manger of ticket sales arranged for me to phone order two passes at the previous price. Just thought anyone else in my situation would like to know. The guy also confirmed that SF is raising parking fees by 50%, to an utterly absurd $15. Because they can.