shepp

A couple of random thoughts I had: If you are going to Pier 39, print out the coupon at http://www.pier39.com/funpack.html Two hours free parking at the Pier garage, and plenty of other discounts, too. Be sure to allow plenty of time for actually getting into SFMW, especially if you want to be there at opening. All parking is a fairly sizable tram ride from the gates, and the metal detector shakedown can get very backed up. Also, be forewarned that the park often doesn't start allowing folks to ride Medusa till 15-20 minutes or so after the park opens, by which time a sizable queue for the front row can build up. Oh, and you might want to time things so the kids can feed the giraffes....

Not to sound snobbish, but Pier 39 is...well, awful. The very definition of "tourist trap," which has much to do with the real city of San Francisco as DLP is representative of the rest of Orange County. (The sea lions are fun, though.) Visit it if you must for the kids, and to pick up those indispensible souvenir refrigerator magnets. If you're into ships at all, the Hyde Street Pier, a National Historic Site, is just down the waterfront, and though you have to pay to board the historic ships (which is actually worthwhile) you can enter the pier for free. It's cool for kids AND adults. As was said, go for the Exploratorium instead, and maybe a trip to Golden Gate Park. I actually enjoy most of the shows at SFMW, not just the dolphins, but the killer whale and tiger things. And now there's the fedd-a-dolphin addtion, which may have a substantial wait, dunno.

Second the motion. Unlike many (OK, most) coaster boards, TPR is refreshingly free of illiterate pre-adolescent yawp and middle-aged flame wars. Kudos.

Now: probably a tie between The Shield and The Wire. All time favorite: Homicide: Life on the Street.

Wow! The KaliCoaster! I can hardly wait...

On Memorial Day, heading out for 10 days on the East Coast, hitting SFA, SFGAdv, BGW and PKD. Mulchpuppy, last week I caught two NIN shows. Awesome.

OK, word is that SFGAdv has hiked their Q-Bot prices by something like 50% this season (though I have not, in fact, checked this out directly with the park). A family of four will supposedly shell out $75 a day's standard Q-Bot, and a single gold will cost about 100 bucks, with the archetypal family of four being taken for a tidy $200 (more than I'm paying to fly roundtrip from San Francisco to the East Coast nonstop on a major airline, btw). This, of course, has nothing to do with corporate greed, but is a reflection of...um, whatever. So will this price hike influence you (especially gold) Q-Bot devotees out there, y'think? Is there any limit to the worth of butting up?

^ I've said before that there seems to be a difference between the ride ops, who seem more interested in their cellphones than dispatch times, and the employes who deal with the animal attractions. The walrus keepers, staff at the butterfly house, tiger trainers, and the women who run the bird show have, when I've shown any interest whatever, all been what I'd describe as "friendly and helpful." However, I guess it depends on what you put out...

Okay, I guess it's time. How about "Coasters, Sex, and Rock & Roll"? (requested after two nights of Nine Inch Nails concerts)

Hell, even Wonder Bread is better than the PGA Grizzly.

Steel: S:ROS (SFDL) Goliath (SFMM) X Wood - not much in my experience to choose from: Roar (SFMW) But since I'll be at SFGadv and SFA in June, I expect that list may change...

See, what gets me isn't that money buys privilege. Of course it does. It's that the Q-bot provides an good example of "social cost." Since we're playing analogy, how's this? Everybody has the right to buy monster SUVs. And it's well-established that SUVs are high-profit items for car companies. There are lots of reasons to buy an SUV: it makes you feel butch and sporty, it lets you lord it over smaller cars on the freeway, you use it on your twice-a-year ski trips, whatever. Okay, so I choose to ride a motorcycle, and I'm at a gas station next to someone filling up their Hummer, which eats gas at maybe 5 or 6 times the rate as my bike. Now, assuming that supply and demand largely determines the price of gasoline, when I fill up my Yamaha, I'm subsidizing the other guy's choice to prance around in a repurposed tank. (On the other hand, if I would forego private transportation, the folks who take the bus wouldn't be underwriting my less-efficient energy consumption.) Now, the Hummer driver may object that his gas-guzzling piece of ostentatious crap is pushing up my purchase price just an infinitesimal amount...and besides, he likes driving a Hummer. He tells me that if I wanted to work double hours and save up to buy a Humvee, I could drive one too, and he is, ultimately, correct. Likewise, one may argue that being forced to wait one more train's worth while the Q-bot gold folks are served is minor. And maybe that's true, too. I certainly would be more likely to drive a Q-bot than a Humvee. But in both cases, someone is paying, in money or time, so that someone else rides what he wants to, while a corporation reaps the profits.

I've followed this disacussion with interest. As I said when I started it, I'd already been discussing using Q-bot, and am certainly not saying I wouldn't use it. ( I've used free express passes everyhere they're offered, without a pang of guilt. But, with the exception of HHN, never been anywhere where spending money on a pass seemed a wise option...till now, when I'm planning a SFGadv visit.) I don't think anyone disputes that any sort of express pass offers a benefit for the user. And yeah, spending $15 or 20 dollars a person is within everyone's reach. And sure, money talks. Slip a maitre d' enough money, and he'll get you into a "full" restaurant. Give Arnold enough contributions, and he'll go after the nurses for ya. If, for instance, a park instituted "high priced Tuesday," charging four times the normal gate but strictly limiting attendance so quesues would be minimal, that would seem a lot less dog-eat-dog to me. But after all this, I still view any sort of purchasable Fast Lane as a park profiting through selling you inicreased enjoyment by reducing someone else's. And (though I'm sure Six Flags would disagree) I'm still not sure I see that big a distinction between Q-bot gold and going up to a ride op and saying "I'll slip you 20 bucks if my friend and I can jump the queue" -- except that in the latter case, the money would go to a struggling high school student instead of a faltering corporation.

Um, a member of PETA? While SFMW is certainly not a great park - it could use more decent coasters, and the ride ops tend to be lackadaisical - I find it to be a perfectly nice place. Fairly well-maintained, clean, and friendly. And they've done a good job of integrating the beasties they got from SFWOA, even redoing a whole section of the park. Still, perhaps you object to animals in captivity, in which case I can see why you might think of arson as a moral imperative...

Sorry, but when it comes to reality, there's precisely as much verifiable evidence that Jesus rose from the dead as that Spiderman can shoot webs from his wrists...And Aunt May was sooo much cooler than the BVM.

Robb, I'm not claiming some moral high ground here. Hell, I'll likely get an ExpressPass at HHN next time around. The reason I said it was an imperfect analogy is because queue waiting is a zero-sum game, while renting a car isn't. If someone rents a Bentley, nobody's going to go let some air out of your Metro's tires. Someone opting to spend more money doesn't cut into the worth of what you've purchased, in this case time in a car. But when someone pays to have his parkgoing experience improved, that means someone else - actually a bunch of someone elses - will have a worse time: everyone delayed so Mr. Premium can ride first will wait longer, and potentially ride fewer rides. That's not the sort of thing that happens when someone pays for a first-class airline upgrade; a flight attendant doesn't go into coach and take a little bit of booze out of everyone's glass so the new first-class passenger will have enough to drink. Which is not to say I didn't happily pay a bit more to stay on property at Cedar Point so I could get a jump on the crowds.

Well, sorta. Sorta not. Let's use the airline analogy. First class passengers and elite frequent fliers get to board planes first. I used to be a Continental gold flier, and yes, I enjoyed being able to walk down an uncrowded aisle while there was still plenty of luggage space. But now that I'm back in coach, I have to wait extra minutes to board, not an hour or two. And the flight attendants don't say "Any coach passengers who want to board before the rest, slip us a ten and there you go." And when you're picking up your Metro and there's a line at Alamo, the folks who're renting luxury cars don't get to jump ahead of you to the counter. And no one at the Motel 6 says, "Those of you waiting at the back of the check-in line can come up to the fromt by paying us an extra few bucks." One might reasonbly argue that when you pay extra for gold Q-Bot, you get more of what you paid for, i.e., rides. I do get that. But one thing I like about parks is their democratic nature. Fabio gets hit by a bird, same as everyone else. Sure, you save up for things that really matter to you, and that's great. But a millionaire from Palm Beach (who's already getting into HHN for cheap 'cause he lives in Florida) isn't going to feel that charge for Express Passes the way a working-class single mother from Georgia who's scrimped to take her two kids as a special treat will. Seventy-five bucks buys a lot of cornflakes. So let Mom cool her heels in the queue. If there's anything the past few years have taught us, it's "The rich play by different rules."

Well, I'm convinced, basically. But see my other thread, "Queue-jumping for dollars"...

Drat. I'm planning on being there the Friday before.

First off I'd like to state that that was a very good post and I'd also like to mention I respect your opinion. But actually, I've been to SFGAdv and If I recall, most of the Fastlane entrances meet up at a point close to the station the regular queue goes through. For example, for Superman: Ride of Steel at SFNE. The entrance to the station before boarding the train has a set of stairs. On the left is the stairs of the regular line, and on the right is the Q-Bot line. They both meet right before entering the station. I know that some rides let the riders go through the exit, we have one ride at SFNE that does that and thats Thunderbolt, But. they have like one car reserved just for Q-Botters. Yeah, well, once again... As I understand it, standard Q-Bot gets you to the join-up point in a true "virtual queuing" way - it's as if you were standing in line all that time, except you weren't. Anyone who got to the ride before you originally did gets to ride before you, anyone who got there later rides after you, right? When I was in India, it was common practice for tourists to hire boys to queue up for them at train reservation windows. Same principle, really. Q-Bot gold, though enables you to ride before people who got there earlier. That seems considerably more unfair. (Not that I wouldn't ever do it...) It's the SFGAdv "VIP Tour" nonsense that really stinks. For twice the basic admission, you buy walk-on privileges to, I assume, any and all rides. (The site says tours last "about 4 hours," but that's with the "guide" who, I assume, says things like "Over there is where you can buy funnel cakes." I have no idea if the "self-guided" option lasts 4 hours or all day.) That means big-spenders wanting multiple re-rides can conceivably stall a line of both Q-Botters and civilians indefinitely. That makes it a four-tier caste system. Perhaps the program has some fairness factors built in; I have no idea. But the idea that SF would take a train out of use to the GP and reserve it strictly for those who pay a premium seems to make thing less fair, not more. I used Cedar Point's system, which seemed pretty fair because it was free and very limited. Only 4 reservations a day, and only one of each ride. However, the effect was that of Q-Bot gold or WDW FastPass: People who planned ahead postponed everyone else's rides. I've been at SFMW (where the limited-number-of-rides FastLane option is really a rip-off) where they were hyping FastLane while running only one train on a jammed-up Roar. Made me wonder if that was a win-win for them. They saved money on operations while encouraging riders to spend up. Neat.

I've been discussing HHN Express Passes with Elissa while I've been researching Q-Bots, and that brings up an issue. We live in a society where money talks, and those without it just have to bite the bullet. And there's increasingly a "fastpass for money" system that is, essentially, institutionalized bribery. You pay the boss, and the ride ops look the other way while you ignore the rules everyone else has to follow. The whole caste system in which people with money to burn get to, basically, jump the queue is just a little nasty. (And, no, I'm not criticizing anyone here for actually doing so...) The free express systems, like at CP, WDW, and Uni, reward early arrival and planning ahead. And offering early openings to people who stay on property, or ERT to season passholders seem like reasonable "incentives." But IMO, there's a difference between standard Q-Bot, where you pay in order not to be inconvenienced, and gold Q-Bot, in which you pay more and get to inconvenience someone else. And SFGAdv not only offers Q-Bots but a "self-guided tour," where someone can spend an extra hundred bucks and enter through exit ramps, thereby making some poor schnook who's been broiling in the sun for three hours wait for another train. (And for another 50 per person, you actually get a guide who, I guess, holds your backpack while you're riding...) We're now seeing carpool lanes, originally meant to encourage energy conservation, being opened to anyone able and willing to pay a fee, so at rush hour some solitary oilhog in a Lincoln Navigator gets to whiz past a working stiff in his old gas-miser compact. How's about the airports charge an extra twenty-five bucks to skip the pre-boarding inspection line and just head straight for the metal detectors? Yeah, yeah, I know...anyone looking to Six Flags for examples of social justice is up for severe disappointment...

I'm ashamed to admit that I never went to a waterpark until a few years ago. Two Waterworlds are included in the price of a standard SFMW pass, so I've been going to Waterworld Concord at least a few times per summer. The only other waterpark I've been to is Cedar Point's, so I don't have much to compare it to. I go weekdays, and Waterworld can be crowded, but not to the point of irritation. I always have a decent time, and their tallest speed slides are almost always walk-ons. I do hate how they charge for tube rental, resulting in the lazy river being nothing more than a wet pedestrian thoroughfare. The CP park gets extra points for the views of Magnum and the adults-only area.

With all due respect, SharkTums, if you're...um, thrifty, like me, it is possible to do all the HHN houses without shelling out still more for Express Passes. Last year the longest I waited was maybe a half hour, maybe a bit more, and a couple of the houses, Disorentorium and Ghost Town, were essentially walk-ons (or walk-throughs, or whatever). I skipped B&T because of the distances involved (and because I found the previous year's offensive in a non-amusing way). But I did the Hulk, two ROTMs, a Shrek, the parade, and all the houses, and lived to tell the tale. It's a matter of getting there way early so you're first through the gate (or doing Stay and Scream), studying the map in advance so you know where you're going, knowing what houses open when, doing single-rider lines where available, and keeping briskly on the move so you stay one jump ahead of the crowd. And especially going non-Friday-and-Saturday early in the month. I've done three HHNs without Express Passes, and the only house I missed was the Jurassic Park dealie (because of its schedule). However, my way does require tolerance for queuing with seriously drunk people for extended periods of time...

I dunno. Is there a "best" song? A "best" food? A "best" movie? (Well, Citizen Kane...) Most responses actually list at least a couple of rides, which seems right, especially as there's an apples-and-oranges aspect to this. Most generally amazing ride: Spiderman Biggest rush: TTD Coolest coaster ride: MF Favorite overall coaster experience (theming, queue, visuals, ride): Hulk Weirdest-ass coaster: X Closest to Platonic ideal of "coaster": S:ROS DL (haven't been to SFNE) Best flat: Anything that doesn't make me feel like throwing up

Guess I'm in the minority, but I preferred the IOA-only HHN to either Studios-only or last year's combo dealie. While it was cool to be able to ride both Hulk and ROTM, things were sooo strung out, requiring a major trek from Bill and Ted to the furthest houses at the Studios. It was really tough to backtrack, so I ended up blowing off both the POE show and B&T (which is never my favorite part of HHN, anyway). While at the IOA-only HHN each of the islands had its own unique immersive theming, with noticeable transitions from one island to the next, at last year's there was a lot of unthemed dead space (pun intended), especially at the Studios end of things. And despite the cornfield, hiking between the parks was mostly boring. It was great to have the parade back, though...excellent floats.