shepp

Can't think of an ending lamer than creeping up Ninja's final let's go-back-to-the-station lift-hill. (Well, yeah, getting off El Toro and realizing my wallet had been lifted while I was waiting in the queue, but that's pretty much a one-time thing.)

Thanks. I figured a low-crowd situation would be the case, but it's heartening to read nonetheless. Now if only it's warm enough for the IOA water rides...

One detail about your birthday pass: you will not - because of a zip-code-confidentiality thingy - be able to simply use a credit card to buy your for-pay tickets at the same time (or, as I recall, even at the same ticket window) as you redeem your b'day voucher. Ticket lines can be brutal, so get there long before opening, and if there are more than two of you, have someone wait at the gate while you get your freebie and one of your party buys tickets for everyone else. Or pay cash. You can also buy tickets the night before, but your birthday ticket must be issued day of. Also, as has been said many times, learn about Fastpass's ins and outs, and use the system well. If you have fifteen bucks to spend, RideMax is great for giving you a day-specific plan to ride the particular attractions you're interested in.

I'll be visiting Universal Orlando with a two-day hopper on Thursday and Friday in early December. I'm expecting crowds to be pretty light and am fine with single-rider queues, so figure an Express Pass will be unnecessary. So...now that HRRR is open, how does that affect traffic patterns at the Studios? I'm planning to hit HRRR first thing, first day, since I want to be sure to get a ride in. My other priorities are ROTM, Simpsons, and MIB (all of which I've already been on) and, of course, they're inconveniently ranged all around the perimeter of the park. What do you vets think is the most efficient way to hit all three after HRRR? Or, since HRRR is so close to the gate, would it be just stupid to then hustle over to IOA to hit Hulk and Spidey before the mid-morning crowds set in?

Evil Anjelica Huston in 3-D! YES!!

Since this thread has been resurrected...I'll revise my earlier entry and agree that Tatsu's pretzel is the single most intense B&M element I've experienced...and unlike the S:UF I've ridden (SFGAdv), the rest of the ride - partly due to the siting - is a whole lot of fun, too. I just love that first drop off the side of the hill.

Tomorrow's the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, which mark the beginning of the modern LGBT movement. Happy Gay Liberation, all!

Yep, I never go to a park without my little bag of candied ginger. Works like a charm, and tastes great, too.

Shattered my hip (thanks, motorcycle) and now have a total hip replacement. When I got out of surgery (true story) I asked the surgeon two questions: "Can I still ride a motorcycle?" and "Can I still ride coasters?" And I'm still on both. The hip replacement is fun at airports and park metal detectors, though.

This article on the museum just came out in today's SF Chronicle... http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/06/26/BA3V18E2EV.DTL

Steel: Expedition GeForce Wood: The Voyage

^^ Funny, SFDK is my home park, and this season I've noticed a definite improvement in the workforce. Still not the best I've seen, but definitely more friendly than it had been, with more hustle and efficiency in the dispatches. Maybe I hit it on good days, or you hit it on a bad day.

Just curious - why? The Presidio was originally an Army post, of course, and was turned over to the National Park Service with the proviso it become financially self-supporting. It's one of the most historic and scenic parts of San Francisco (and also located in a largely residential zone, with limited traffic access). Many of us residents would rather it not become just another tourist attraction, whether or not a big chunk of Disney money now lives 50 miles away. There's currently a huge controversy over siting an important art museum there, and though many of us like various aspects of Disney, I'm not sure a private museum glorifying him belongs on National Parks land, any more than a Sam Walton museum belongs at Yosemite. (Or a Harvey Milk Museum should be plunked into the middle of Cumberland Island Seashore, for that matter.) Disney's questionable relationship to public lands is not just limited to the Mineral King development, but also includes controversies about WDW's land-use policies, and Disney's shot-down attempt to stick a theme park next to Manassas Battlefield. Until Pixar, I doubt that "Disney" and "San Francisco" were ever mentioned in the same sentence. And I never, ever heard any San Franciscan wish for a memorial to Disney to be sited here. But, like I say, it's clearly a matter of "money talks." And at least it'll be just down the road from the theme-parkish tourist trap of Pier 39. Sigh.

Well, yeah, whatever. I'm not really anti-Disney - hell, I just spent my b'day at Disneyland - but it does seem ironic that a number of the political and social movements San Francisco has historically been known for - from leftism and union activity to long hair and facial hair on men - are things ol' Uncle Walt was opposed to. I really, really can't figure out why someone with essentially no ties to the Bay Area should have a museum here. Pixar, sure. But WED was a SoCal sort through and through. And don't get me started on the misuses of the Presidio. Why on earth should a celebration of Disney be put on National Recreation Area grounds, exactly? Heck, wasn't he behind the aborted despoilation of the Mineral King area of Sequoia National Park? Ah well...when money talks, irony flies out the window, just like Peter Pan.

I'm not an SFMM expert, but...I'd say arrive a full hour early to be one of the first at the gate - by the 1/2 hour mark, crowds have really started to build. Know the route to X2 and sprint there as soon as you get in the gate - be prepared for the uphills. I'd suggest you take the famous shortcut and go to Tatsu, which is a slow loader, and then head for TS:TR right after that. By doing that last week, though it admittedly was on a weekday before all schools were out, I was able to knock off all three within the first hour. If Deja Vu is running, you might do that directly before or after Terminator; I'm not sure it makes a lot of difference. (In fact, one morning I was there TS:TR was something like an hour late in opening.) Since Riddler is next on the clockwise circuit and is a pretty slow loader, that would probably be next for you. Because Goliath is off in the opposite side of the park from the Big Three, lines tend to build more slowly there. Remember that SFMM is a large park with a big hill in the middle, and minimize backtracking. I know there's lots of people saying "buy FlashPass," but when I was there - again, admittedly, earlier in June - I spent 2 1/2 days in the park, rode TS:TR 10 times, X2 three times, Tatsu 4 or 5, and the longest wait I ever had was one hourlong afternoon queue for X2. First thing in the morning, TS:TR and Tatsu were virtual walk-ons. YMMV, of course, as may the value you place on 70 bucks.

They could add a giant defibrillator in the middle of the Helix of Death...

Wow. Just wow. Did 10 rides on Terminator during 2 1/2 days at SFMM last week. My first ride in the late afternoon was a lot of fun - a terrific woody, though not quite as awesome as El Toro. But after dark, T:S really, really kicks serious ass. Everything - the speed, the pacing, and especially the effects: fire, tunnel lights, mist, even the fly-through - is a quantum leap better after dark. My first nighttime ride left me yelling "Best...ride...ever!" OK, sure, I haven't ridden close to everything, so I can't really justify that praise. But I will say my 3 just-before-closing walk-ons, 1 in the front row, 2 in the back, were as close to pure pleasure as a ride can get. Just pure, infinitely re-rideable fun. I liked the controversial theming, too. Sure, the storyline was kinda meh, but it did set the ride up nicely, certainly justifying the wood. Still, it mostly, like the onboard sound, acted as an adrenaline booster. (Though it was nice that, just after opening and before closing, the ops let us skip most or all of the preshow rooms.) It'll be interesting, especially in light of the differences between the daylight and nighttime experience, to see how it'll rank in the polls. Regardless, it's made my top 10 for sure.

^ Is that like an, um, riddle?

You mean before they came up with that really attractive parking-lot effect beneath it?

^ Well, you apparently haven't been to India and seen the "tanks" that everyone bathes in. Or, for that matter, people brushing their teeth with water from the corpse-strewn Ganges at Varanasi. The wave pool is like Evian by comparison.

Gone. It was dinosaur themed to match a dino simulator attraction, but when they changed the film a couple of years back (to a superhero thing, as I recall), the plastic dinosaurs remained. Now it's just a nothing on the top of a hill.

Wow. Hmmm... Well, I happen to not like small boys in tights. And that phrase doesn't show up when I hit edit and look at what I originally wrote. However, it seems every time I submit the name of the Olympus-branded card, which is an X followed by a D, that phrase ends up on the boards. (Maybe because it sounds like X'ed? Can anyone else reproduce that, or is someone somewhere messing with me in particular?) Mods?

I have an Olympus 1030SW, which is not only waterproof to 10 m (so you can safely snorkel or do a shallow scuba dive with it), but shockproof to a drop of 2m, and can withstand pressure of 100 kg, should you wish to sit on it. In short, it's built like a little tank. I'm very happy with it so far. Downsides - not great in low light, some images just a tad soft, uses an olympus style card (but you can also use micro SD), and it doesn't have mechanical image stabilization, though the next generation does. Otherwise, really cool. There's been another waterproof camera thread lately. I'll repeat that I have indeed used it under 6 feet of water, but I'll spare Erik that shot of my hairy underwater legs.

S:ROS at SFNE 13 times Kingda Ka 10

To get into the park. I personally don't object if someone ahead of me at the gates is joined by a friend or two who've been buying tickets or using the restroom (but not thirty of his schoolmates), though maybe that's because I do it myself. Things tend to be more fluid outside the gates - at SFMM, for instance, people already in queues will gather round to watch the opening "ceremonies," then return to the gates. And many parks hold people at a second spot inside the gates, anyway. But, though not everyone at the gates is headed the same place, joining a friend nearer the gate effectively means you'll get to ride X2 sooner, same as actual line-jumping. I'm kinda wondering about Disneyland, actually. Once my partner and I are at the rope at the end of Main Street, would it be cool for me to go to City Hall for my birthday button (and maybe Lily Belle tickets) and then return to where I started? Ah well, maybe I think too much. And anyway, it'll be my birthday.