Sir Clinksalot

I'm fine with all of those postseason awards. Trout is great, had a tremendous season and yes, MAY have had a better "all around" season than Cabrera. But as a baseball traditionalist I feel that Cabrera was the "most valuable player" who contributed to his team and allowed them to get into the playoffs and eventually get their ass kicked in the World Series. The Angels, with the season that Trout had, should have dominated that division but they didn't. His contributions, while great didn't propel his team. Trout is going to be a hell of a lot of fun to watch for the next decade or so though.

^ I'm doing the Color Run out here in February. Looking forward to it.

When I think about "Gimmick" coasters, I don't really think Knott's coasters apply. All coasters have a Gimmick. When I think of true "GimmicK" coasters, I think of the constant 1-upsmanship and building the "First and Tallest and Fastest Looping Inverted Spinning Launched Funicular". I don't think you can call a 30+ Year Old Ride a Gimmick, a boomerang that you can find all over the place a gimmick, an inverted B&M a Gimmick. The only ones that may apply would be Xcelerator (at the time it was, now, not so sure) and probably Pony Express.

Don't think I posted my interests: I don't really collect "theme park" stuff other than magnets or shirts (XL), and typically don't like to have magnets or shirts from a park I haven't been to. But obviously if you'd like to go that route, I'm ok with it. Anything running related is good. I love to read, so B&N/Kindle/Google Play store is probably something I would use. I'm honestly fine with anything, the more creative the better.

Actually, with the new stadium for the Texans there, I think the park would have actually improved, much like what we will hopefully be seeing out of CGA with the new 49ers stadium. They had a couple of really fun rides, one highly unique coaster and from what I could tell, some room for expansion if they wanted to. Granted, I only went there once and only for a few hours during their last operating season.

I'm combining wood and steel because, honestly, I haven't really ridden that much good Wood. (that's what she said) 1) Intimidator 305 2) El Toro 3) Phoenix 4) SkyRush 5) Storm Runner 6) Xcelerator 7) Apollos Chariot 8) Dueling Dragons (Ice) 9) Incredible Hulk 10) Goliath (SFOG) Sucks that only one of my top 10 is in the state I live in.

With it being SFMM, I wouldn't assume Full Throttle opening up by early June. Both Green Lantern and LL:DOD didn't open until July. Hopefully this will be more like Terminator/Apocalypse which did open before Memorial Weekend. As far when to go, if it's open, weekdays in EARLY June should be good times to go. IF it happens to open any earlier than that, weekdays in May are the absolute PERFECT times to go to the park. The park basically stays open daily from Spring Break (late April) until Labor Day. You will sometimes get some schools on those random May weekdays, but more than likely you will find a pretty empty park. But I wouldn't count on Full Throttle being open by then.

I warned you all a few pages back about Key Club day.

^ Ghostrider topper track and new trains for Jaguar > than the B&M Hyper they are likely to get if they ever get a hyper.

The benefit of 3 trains is that if a train is in rehab you don't have 1-train operations like what happens on Apocalypse and pretty much every other ride at the park. Having 3 trains doesn't mean you run 3 trains, it means you wouldn't ever have to run 1 for an extended period, well in theory if we weren't talking about SFMM.

^^ 45 seconds is torture enough.

^ Yep, nothing says "Full Throttle" like Train.

I think in the case of Knott's, right now, nobody has ANY idea of what could possibly be next. Within the last few years they've TOTALLY changed their focus and I'd even go as far to say that if Silver Bullet was not at the park already, there is no way the current Knott's management would build that coaster. I think it's safe to say there will be more improvements to the park, the Fiesta Village area is in dire need of a makeover, more improvements to Ghost Town. But as far as new rides, etc ... way too early to tell what the park could be planning.

"First Rule in Government (Disney) Spending ... why build one when you can build two at twice the price".

Has anybody ridden GR since it reopened after it's recent work?

I'm in again!!! So fun last year.

Kind of cool, picture of Tom Hanks filming "Saving Mr. Banks" at Disneyland.

I'm a HUGE fan of the Sketchers Go-Run shoes both for running and for just wearing normally. The outlet near us always has the Buy One Get One 50% off so I'm able to get 2 pairs for about $90. I'll admit, they don't seem to last quite as long as other running shoes (200 miles vs 400 miles) but for 1/2 the price I guess I don't expect them to. They are so incredibly light and have really helped my Plantar Fasciitis due to the "mid-foot" strike.

^ Totally true. When I lived in Santa Clarita that was the time I went to SFMM the least. When I lived in the valley we'd take the bus up to the park at least once a week during the summer. Great points everybody. SFMM is in a unique position compared to other "Amusement/Thrill/Coaster" parks. As was said by others, there is variety in SoCal and when SFMM tried to go more for the family market it just didn't work. If this was the late 80's/early 90's totally different scenario but over the last decade and a half SFMM has gone too far into the "Thrill Park" to convince the SoCal market they are anything but "coasters". When people think of "Family" park, SFMM is the last park in SoCal people think of. Sure, it's nice for those of us who enjoy parks and have been to well-rounded parks to say they should build this or build that, but as others have said, that's not going to get people through the gate. We may be underwhelmed with Full Throttle but the GP is going to eat it up and like it or not, SFMM isn't catering to us.

For me, it's mainly a fun goofy thing, to say a milestone coaster was a kiddie coaster or something. I do have my limits and I'm willing to skip a Kiddie Coaster rather than steal some random stranger kid to ride with. Now if I know the kid, that's a totally different scenario.

I didn't find Anaconda to be THAT bad, not great, but certainly not the worst Arrow I've ridden. It's a pretty big plot of land there though. would be interesting to see what they do with it.

Very sad, but I totally agree with you about the parent having some kind of responsibility for this. Same thing would apply if you put your child on the rail of a cruise ship and they fell over.

^^ Probably the same people who go on a Disney Cruise and don't feel they need to do any research prior regarding meals, dress codes, etc. I'm not about to feel sorry for people who do no sort of pre-planning or research prior to their vacations.

I've NEVER had any issues getting a reservation at WDW (granted I've never done the Cinderella thing, etc). But we basically plan our "park days" around our dining reservation. For example, if we want to eat at Le Cellier then we are going to do EPCOT that day. If we are going to eat at 50's Prime Time or Sci Fi then we do DHS that day. As long as you do some planning prior to your trip you shouldn't have ANY issues getting into your chosen restaurant. I've made CA Grill, Narcoossee's and other fine dining reservations a week or so in advance of our trips with no issues whatsoever. There certainly are exceptions that you have to make sure you book the day they come available but for the most part you can get a reservation pretty easily in my experience. In fact, one year for Gay Days (one of the busier weekends) we ate at 'Ohana, Alfredo and Rose and Crown with no issues.

And people who are Disneyland Fanboys don't get that this is a HUGE reason why I prefer WDW to DL. The dining experience is as much a part of the overall experience to me as a ride on Mission: Space or Expedition Everest is (Probably no surprise coming from me). Some of our most fond memories of our WDW trips have nothing to do with attractions at all, but with the awesome dining experiences and the people we had those experiences with. Even something as simple as Crystal Palace Pooh's meal was great. Not to mention all the meals at Ohana, Biergarten, CA Grill, Alfredo, Teppan Edo, Rose and Crown, Sci Fi, 50's Prime Time, etc. When we get back to WDW the things we are looking forward to most are new restaurants or ones we haven't tried yet (Yak and Yeti, Boma, New FL stuff) etc. It just doesn't compare. AT ALL!!