shepp

I don't know, I actually found some of BGW's famous themeing kinda clunky, like minor-league EPCOT but without the flair. And some of the entertainment was strictly Stereotypes on Parade. AC is a great B&M hyper, but I'd just ridden Nitro - which IMO is better - 8 or 9 times a few days before, so that took the edge off. I enjoyed DarKastle (see my avatar) but then, I only waited maybe 20 minutes for it...twice. And Alpengeist is one of my favorite inverts ever. Obnoxiously, though, for a park supposed to reflect international understanding, there was a lot of jingoism. I mean, signs in the men's room that said "Don't drink Miller, it's made in Canada." WTF is that??? And the bridge-based, military-music salute to the US Armed Forces, currently waging a war opposed by a number of the "Old Country" countries? A "Support Our Troops" video before the Irish step dancing? Please, give me a break... I bet EuroDisney doesn't have anti-Bush banners in Fantasyland... Haven't been to BGT since before Rhino Rally and Gwazi, but headed there in a couple of months. I remember thinking Montu was the one of the best coasters ever, but that was many coasters ago, so I'm wondering how it'll feel now.

Why I will not be skiing Dubai any time soon... http://www.sptimes.com/2005/11/27/Worldandnation/In_Arab_state__police.shtml Oh well, there's always Six Flags Over Auschwitz...

Margaret Cho Margaret Cho Margaret Cho. Of other comedians I've seen live: Lewis Black and Bill Maher.

Manhattan Express 3 days ago. Rough transitions, but great visuals and in general not as bad as all that. Wayyyy overpriced, though.

The parachute jump at SFGAdv. I'd never been on one before, so I put up with glacially slow loading (they were only running maybe a third of the chutes) for a total nonevent. The Ferris Wheel at CP. And I'm with others on S:UF, too. And this week I was in Vegas and had a freebie to go up the Stratosphere Tower. Just to get to the elevator one night, there was a wait of over 45 minutes in the security-check line. Next afternoon I wnet up to ride the rides and the elevator and all the rides were walk-ons.

Still trying to figure this one out. Is a "themed ride" the same as "a ride with a theme?" If it is, then Spidey. But if we're talking "a ride to which a theme has been added," then Dudley Do-right or Bluto's Barges - conventional rides that have been themed-up - would seem closer to the mark. And DD? Great theming in the queue which is almost entirely absent once you get to the ride itself. A ride like Alpengeist actually makes the theme matter on the otherwise-conventional-coaster itself...love the snowy trenches. And if simulators (which are essentially all themed) count, then I'd maybe go for Race for Atlantis at Caesar's Palace, Vegas...You get there through the astonishing theming of the Forum Shops, there's a wonderfully themed entrance, and the 3-D Imax simulator is excellent. Just did Star Trek:The Experience, which was a great immersive environment complete with live actors, but I found the Klingon simulator less compelliing than the Borg side, which was a sit-in-the-seat attraction, not really a "ride" at all. Does that count? If so, how about T2-3D? Sigh...I think too much...

And you left out the Stripside visuals, which are pretty fabulous. I'll be there tomorrow, an all-day comped pass in my hand...

The way I look at it, comps are like someone slitting your throat, then giving you a Band-Aid.

Jesus, thanks for using the "r" word. Listen, I'm sorry, but I think that a woman receiving 150 lashes for being alone in a room with a man is barbaric. You can play two wrongs make a right, but dude, that's torture. Unless you want to play Ultimate Postmodern Relativist, it's wrong, and if she were your sister, you'd see that. Yes, I also think the Bush administration is barbaric, but that doesn't mitigate the fact that under shari'a law - one of the UAE's dual legal systems - a woman who's been raped must find four MALE witnesses to the actual crime or else the accused can charge her with slander or she can be accused of adultery. The fact that America is awash with handgun violence doesn't make that any less appalling, now does it? And as far as comparative rape statistics: if I were a woman in such circumstances, would I even bother to bring charges if I'd been raped in front of, oh, just three men? You think the rape reporting stats in shari'a-governed countries might not be just a tad skewed? As far as you proving me wrong "on many counts"...oh, puh-leeze. You retorted that the UAE's president is elected by a Council, without bothering to mention that the Council is unelected and heriditary, a situation pretty much as democratic as feudal England. And you tell me that little can be done about floggings because prostitution is a "tourist-based industry?" Huh? I'm definitely missing something... Meanwhile, you call me ignorant while coming up with loony factoids like the US having the second worst child poverty in the world? Holy cow!!!!! Worse than all but one of India, China, Ecuador, Rwanda, Haiti, Brazil? Jeez, you don't get out much, do you? Oh wait...those UNICEF figures are not "global," as you state. They're a comparison of the 26 richest countries. Small matter, I guess, if you're proving me wrong. When you criticize the USA from the comfort of Disneytown, does that make you a Commmunist? Of course not. The fact that I hate the brutalities of of shari'a every bit as much as I despise Vicious White Guys like O'Reilly and Robertson hadly makes me a racist, or Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International racist organizations for publicizing the cases I've mentioned. Though the discussion has gotten unexpectedly heated, unlike you, I have not resorted to ad hominem attacks. I never would say, for instance, "How like a straight man to idealize a society in which women are still treated as second-class citizens with the government's approval...Probably a misogynist." (Hey, I'll just ask this straight out: two Saudi gay lovers being beheaded by their government for their "crime" - just a little quirk to be overlooked in a warm wash of It's A Small Worldism? Because after all, there are gay-bashers in the USA?) Dude, let's play a little thought game. Let's say you move your family - in a spirit of crosscultural understanding - to a country where shari'a holds sway. And let's say your wife, heaven forbid, is assaulted in full view of half a dozen women, but their testimony is insufficient to convict. Would you be "a bigot" for thinking the situation was just a tad screwed? OK, that's my last word on the matter: I would rather not take this any further. (Oh, and btw, back when I was posting on alt.rec.rollercoaster, I was regularly and deeply offended by Rastus' posts, and so am sort of appalled to be even remotely on the same side of this. Ah well.) Actually, I had been prepared to not to post any more, but I found myself being called a racist bigot. So I have just two more words:

I'm mostly scared that after standing in queue for an hour, the damn thing is going to break down just before I get to board.

Well, since you chose to respond, I'm curious enough to ask: You actually would define a society where there are no elections, no freedom of the press or guarantees of freedom of speech, where at least part of the justice system defines women as inferior to men, and there's widespread sexual slavery and most of the workforce is stripped of their rights as "liberating?" Wow, dude, bring back the Taliban! We know you're opposed to adultery, but how about the case of an Indian national who was convicted, without witnesses or confessions, merely of having spent time alone with a housemaid (not of adultery) and was sentenced to 90 lashes, a month in prison, and deportation? Is that different enough for you? (The woman, maybe not surprisingly, was whipped more - 150 lashes. I can see why your wife might be reluctant to move.) Yeah, I can see how some people in the UAE - essentially well-to-do Arab men and corporate guest workers - could find it liberating...especially if they felt like raping their foreign-born maids. Dubai seems like a prime example of a money-can-buy-you-anything, nouveau petro-rich society. If you're born (male) into one of the ruling families, what's not to like? But, um... And just for the record again, I am neither anti-Islamic nor a cultural imperialist. I understand that the U.S. idea of an ideal life might not be desirable to everyone on the globe. (And I doubt I would've started this rant if dubaidave hadn't characterized the UAE as "very free," as though it were Sweden with sand.) I've spent significant time visiting North Africa, the Middle East, and Northern India, for instance, and have been to, despite qualms, countries with pretty unsavory governments, always trying to maximize money to locals and minimize money to the dictatorships. I'm curious, Jose. Have you spent - as I have, having spent almost a month in Burma and several weeks in al-Assad's Syria - spent any time in countries with repressive regimes? (And no, I'm not placing the UAE in the same class as Burma, which is worse...) Did you find the dictatorship different-but-liberating? And did you give any thought to the lives of the people who lived there?

Used to be some airline (AmericaWest, defunct National?) allowed you a free stopover when you flew through Vegas on a transcon flight. Worked for me once, but those days are gone forever, I guess. Sigh.

I'm headed for Vegas next week on a great package deal (and anyone with an Amex card who wants to go might want to look at AmericaWest just now...rt from SFO and 4 nights on the strip, $165 total!) It's been a while since I rode the ME, and I sure don't remember it as being Psyclone-painful. It's part of a one-price-covers-all Power Pass deal I'm getting, so I'll give it another shot. And I remember loving Speed: the Ride, but that was before I rode XCelerator, TTD, and KK. I do have a one-day Speed pass I got free (long story) so I'll be headin' to the ol' Nascar Cafe, hoping those overzealous ops don't take me take off my strapped-on glasses again...

It's true that I oversimplified. I should have said "some courts" rather than "the courts." And while the UAE does not have a free press, reporters are not subject to the same level of persecution as in other Arab countries. On the other hand, it's my understanding that it's not just drunkenness that can get you jailed, it's possession without a permit. And yes, the President is elected, but it's by the Supreme Council - an unelected, dynastic body. (Though since Jose lives in Florida, he's probably used to dynastic politics and unelected rulers.) Dubai may be "accepting of other cultures," but if you're Israeli, they won't let you in, and if you try to convert Muslims to Christianity, they'll throw you out. I'll grant you that the USA is hardly an ideal society. And I'm far from blindly anti-Islamic. I've traveled in Morocco, Egypt, Turkey, Jordan, and Syria, and enjoyed them all. I will also say that I've felt safer from crime in the dictatorial countries I've visited, such as Burma and Syria, than I do in San Francisco. On the other hand, I suppose your safety depends on who you are. As Human Rights Watch says of the migrant workers who make up 90% of the UAE workforce, "Migrants, including large numbers of women employed as domestic servants, face intimidation and violence, including sexual assault, at the hands of employers, supervisors, sponsors and police and security forces. Children are especially vulnerable to labor and sexual exploitation and denial of basic rights." I do understand that some things are changing. (For example, it is now supposedly illegal to use six-year-old boys as camel jockeys.) But to call the UAE "a very free society" sure seems like stretching the point.

I'm planning to ride it for the first time on Monday, and this is not helping... No manual pullback, huh?

On the other hand, the UAE remains, essentially, a tribal dictatorship (there has never been an election there), where the courts are run under Shari'a Islamic law, sex slavery is widespread, and a woman has been sentenced to 150 lashes for becoming pregnant outside of marriage. It's against the law to criticize the government or the ruling families. And if you don't have that alcohol license, you're subject to being thrown in jail for having a drink. Don't get me wrong. I once flew Emirates Air and it was very nice, as was my stopover at the Dubai airport. But for the time being, if I have an urge to go to a theme park, I think I'll stick to Six Flags; they may not have the greatest ride ops, but at least they don't flog you for misbehaving.

SFMW...it's my home park, and I love the walruses...

Joining the herd... Best: Xcelerator, Goliath, X (but I rode it before it got rough) and I'm quite fond of Medusa and Top Gun, but neither would quite make "best" Worst: Psyclone, Grizzly, Kong, Zonga now that it's SBNO, and whatever waterslide is standing where Stealth had been

So you can judge the accuracy of the rest of the article. Still, the idea of standing in queues all day in 110 degree heat does have a certain appeal...

Waiting in line for KK and TTD made me very nervous - not because of the ride, but because of the possibility the damn thing would break down just before I boarded...

Depends. On what I think of as "view coasters" - inverts, floorless, standups, etc. - front. Also on Intamin rockets and first rides on hypers. Wood and airtime sitdowns (e.g., Nitro, S:ROS) rear.

Like many, closest I came to greying out was Goliath's helix. Compared to that, Nitro's was a piece of cake.

OMFG, I'm headed to Las Vegas in a couple of weeks, and I'm already gearing up my guts for my first ride on Insanity. So thanks for sharing. Just hope no high winds suddenly kick up: I'm not looking forward to an hours-long ride...

Well, it's certainly true that Riddler would be a better experience if the ops at SFMM could figure out how to load the thing efficiently...

I agree with the consensus on this one. I found RR excellent - the longer, swoopier elements seemed to give my body time to adjust to shifting forces. Mantis and Vortex were noticeably less fine, Shockwave at PKD a POS.