shepp

God, I'm glad I'm heading south to SFMM early next month. This thing is either gonna be a revolutionary woodie or a milestone in the annals of hype...and I'm betting on the former. Gorgeous train. And after all, if steel coasters can have Old West themes...

God, I felt nauseated just watching the vids. Puke flying everywhere at 100 kph? Hmmm...

Went once a couple of years back, making a special trip. Planned on a possible two days - fortunately, since S:ROS was closed the whole first day. Honestly, if I hadn't already been to a bunch of other similar SF parks with similar rides, I might have relaxed and had a better time, but I spent the whole day in anguish and frustration. (Sob.) Second day, I went back, rode Superman 13 times, and left very, very happy. Not, IMO, worth a big trip, except for that one ride, which - to sound utterly unoriginal - is, alongside El Toro, my favorite of all the coasters I've been on...including the two other S:ROSes or Bizarros or whatever.

Yeah...despite the added height, it sure doesn't look as intense as KBF's Perilous Plunge.

^^ I can think of situations in which an extra 4 inches would make a perceptible difference. In this one, no.

And re-name it "Bizarro."

At least, not when they've returned to consciousness.

Agreed, though I figured I was pretty much the only person who felt that. B:TRs certainly don't strike me as "worst inverteds," like Vekoma SLCs, but when it comes to B&M inverts, give me Montu or Alpie every time. B:TRs are what I imagine riding spin cycle in a washing machine would be like. Now, Diamondback...dang, that looks like pure B&M swoopy, floaty goodness. Got me already planning a trip to Ohio.

^ I'm sure the selection process is beyond reproach, but I've always found it a leetle odd that the Golden Ticket edition of Amusement Today is chockablock with self-congratulatory full-page ads placed by the honorees. Kinda reeks of possible conflict of interest... Anyway, I wish the reasons behind the choices were as transparent as with Hawker's poll or even this thread. With all due deference to Knoebel's, a funky, fun place with a couple of top wood coasters and a pretty carousel, is it really "better" than Disneyland or IOA? (Or SFGAdv, for that matter.) Sentiment is fine, but pierogies can go only so far. Is Knoebel's Haunted Mansion, cheesy fun as it is, really "better" than DLR's Pirates of the Caribbean? By what criteria? Do we even know what proportion of the "panel of experts" has actually been, in the previous year, to all the parks they're voting on? (Edit: well, yeah, according to Amusement Today, over a third of the panel visit fewer than 10 parks a year, and three-quarters 20 or fewer, which provides a fairly underwhelming grounds for comparison.) Just asking.

I'll be at Disneyland on my birthday, 6/11, which is a Grad Night date. The official hours have just been posted - 9 to 9 - and there's no early entry, despite it being Thursday. I remember reading somewhere that on Grad Night days, the park may in fact open earlier in the morning than the officially posted time. Anyone have any clue? Robb?

I'm coming to this thread really late, but since SFDK is my home park, I figured I'd chime in with some advice for anyone else going to Vallejo. Yes, bear left to the Roar side of the park first thing, but if you're into spinning mice (mouses?), ride Tony Hawk's Big Spin first. It's the park's big family coaster, and builds long lines fairly fast. SFDK is notorious for not opening rides first thing when the park opens, but if Roar is running, go there next. V2, for some reason, never gets the lines - even if there's a 40-minute wait for Roar (and there can be), V2 might be a walk-on. Otherwise, do V2 a couple of times, then queue up for Roar. After you've knocked off those three, head all the way over to Medusa. They've started new crowd management practices, stacking guests outside the boarding platform, so crowds may be more manageable than they appear. And, for some reason, the front row usually doesn't have that much longer a wait. And if you're into the animal stuff at all, try to catch the walrus training session; it's my favorite animal attraction in the park. The tiger show's worth seeing, too, and, of course, the orca.

High Speed Thrill Coaster, R.I.P.

Um, whichever.

Just curious, since I thought the whole KK area was surprisingly well done, certainly better than any theming I can recall from CP: 100 times? Aside from DAK, Adventureland, and maybe IOA's Port of Entry, where?

Really? Far better because of theming? I can understand the objection to the OTSRs, though they were actually pretty comfy and, because of the particular forces (lotsa Gs, little air) on the ride, they seemed less onerous than they often do. But the theming on TTD - aside from the Christmas tree - is a buncha flags and a long nose on the lead car, no? Yes, the bleachers are pretty cool, but KK is the center of a whole jungle-themed area, and the boarding station in particular is much nicer, IMO, than TTD's big concrete nothing. Or did you mean that TTD's relative lack of theming made it better?

Scariest moment I've had a park was when I tried to stop a biker chick from queue-jumping in the GhostRider shed. Was physically threatened by her "escorts," had to watch my back the rest of the day... These days I'm a lot more circumspect.

Which is why Nitro is in a virtual dead heat in the coaster poll with MF and Maverick? I stayed on property at CP (pre-Maverick), and yes, the perks were cool. But I really don't get the stuff about CP's much-vaunted "atmosphere." It's a nice park, sure, but - except for the lakeside location - not, IMO, All That. MF is awesome, yeah, but I thought Raptor was a headbanger and Magnum overrated. Nitro, meanwhile, happens to be my partner's fave steel, and El Toro is just effing wonderful. KK may be a bit rougher than TTD, but is otherwise the same deal, just taller and faster with a meaningless hill. And my memory may be faulty, but I don't remember SFGAdv's operations being markedly inferior to CP's. The ops at KK, for instance, were excellent, while the queue for Raptor was pretty much torture. I guess if it were a matter of going only to one or the other, then staying on property at CP might win out. But I - unlike many folks here - plan my coaster trips to include lotsa other stuff (like an upcoming b'day trek to DLR and SFMM that will also include Yosemite and Sequoia/King's Canyon). So the fact that Jackson, NJ, though in the kinda middle of nowhere, is within spitting distance of Philly and NYC is a real plus, unless you happen to have a thing for Cleveland. And if you're into more of a trip, SFGAdv is kinda midway between SFNE (a one-coaster park, but what a coaster) and BGW. And yes, DC in the summer is an oven, but it is chockablock with historic sights worth seeing as well as an amazing bunch of great, free museums. CP, in the other hand, is near the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and pretty much nothing else until you get to Niagara Falls. Plus, at SFGAdv, you get to drive around and have your car attacked by ostriches. So yeah, I really want to ride Maverick, but for me - Great Adventure.

Not to drag this out further - okay, to drag this out further - as Jew said, DLR is a premium product that also includes in the price of admission: a spotlessly clean park, relentlessly cheerful cast members, hustling ride ops, best-in-the-world theming, great fireworks, Fantasmic, and the availability of really good food. And if we're going to play "what if..." games, I could buy a 6-day DLR park-hopper that includes an early entry morning AND FastPasses for around $32 a day. Whatever. While waiting for an hour-or-two-later FastPass slot at Space Mountain, on a good day you can squeeze in POTC, HM, Star Tours, and maybe the Matterhorn...not bad. On a one-day park-hopper dealie in early June a couple of years ago, with some planning and a bit of hustle, I managed to ride every single E-ticket at both Disneyland and DCA once or twice, plus do a bunch of other stuff. (Though, granted, it was only a medium-crowd day.) Meanwhile, Six Flags says your Q-Bot will decrease wait times by up to 75% - a nice wiggly clause which no one will be able to prove or disprove, anyway. It's really not the concept of paying a bit more for premium access that I find objectionable. It the exorbitant cost. For the 120 bucks it'd cost for two gold passes and two X add-ons, my partner and I can spend a whole additional day at SFMM (we have SPs and parking pass), paying for a cheap motel near SFMM, buying breakfast at Denny's, buffet dinner at Sweet Tomatoes, with money left over for funnel cakes. (And that 120's what we paid per day for a luxury cruise to Alaska that included the cabin, transportation, entertainement, and immense of amounts of good food.) Sure, I appreciate my cheap SP, and if SF's nickel-and-diming underwrites that, fine. But I wonder, given the state of the economy, just how many people are going to want to drop a hundred-plus bucks on a day riding coasters. So...to meander back to the original topic...anyone going to DLR can profit from understanding and using FastPasses. And they're included in the price of admission.

Thanks. Yes, I think cheating is wrong, too. Honestly - and maybe it's a generational thing - many, maybe most, of the truly enduring long-term male-male relationships I know of are more or less open. Coincidentally, today I went to SFDK with my partner and a continuing sex-buddy (or FWB or whatever) of his, who's also in an open relationship. All three of us had a really good time.

Y'know, I know you're really young, and I don't want to sound patronizing, and I may be misinterpreting your words, but... The ONLY reason you have the freedoms you do is because a lot of people "cared about their rights" and fought passionately for them. You and Franc are, of course, allowed to be as assimilationist as you like. But please read some LGBT history, and understand that fighting for human rights - both yours and others - is at least as important as riding coasters. And...I happen to be in what I regard as an immensely successful open relationship, which means we have, for decades, had sex, both casual and in continuing buddy relationships, with others. I do not regard this as, as Franc says, not "having very good morals." Being cruel is immoral, being hurtfully dishonest is immoral, letting other people suffer when you could prevent it is immoral, starting wars of aggression is immoral, destroying the earth is immoral, queue-jumping is immoral. Having sex with multiple partners is - to my way of thinking - not. I don't care what the Pope says. I don't care what your high school teacher says. I always thought one of the very cool things about being queer was that we got to experiment with new modes of relating to one another. And that can range from a lesbian couple and gay couple sharing parenting, to going to sex parties. Or - should you willingly choose it, and not feel pressured into it by insecurity or jealousy - having a sweet, monogamous same-sex marriage. I don't put people down for their sexual choices unless they're unsafe, self-destructive, or hurtful. Sorry, but there it is. Lastly, I'd suggest that dissing people as "stuck up (or) stupid" indicates a possible stucked-up-ness on your part, too. Or, Franc, that there might be something incongruous about putting down a love of fashion as superficial (which it is, but no moreso, really, than keeping a coaster count) while at the same time requiring that your potential partner be "good looking." I hope both you guys find what you're looking for. Maybe you should move from Wichita to San Francisco, where there's a huge range of gay guys, from tattooed skaters to buttoned-down academics, to choose from. Peace.

Since my birthday's in early June, that's a good time for coaster trips, anyway. Celebrated my '07 birthday by getting my pocket picked on the boarding platform of El Toro (and got a belated present when, the next day, security gave me back my wallet missing only a smallish amount of cash). This year, I'll be doing the birthday freebie at DLR - happily on a weekday.

Not to mention that homosexual sex is punishable by death...though lately it's only resulted in men being thrown in jail for five or ten years, or forcibly being subjected to hormone treatments.

Yep, sweet. Utterly predictable but sweet.

Too bad Disney did away with theirs. It was a great way to get to ride Mission:Space for free. Whoops, shouldn'ta said that...

My god, that's gorgeous!