NegativeGLover

So during the 2013 season I've been fortunate enough to hit a full week of Disney, and 3 new parks, with several more visits to other parks to come. For the first section of this trip report I'm going to start with SFNE. My family were up in NY for the Irish Road Bowling North American Region Finals. This was a perfect time to head over to Massachusetts and Connecticut and hit SFNE, Lake Compounce, and Quassy. What's that? Irish road bowling? Well, since this is an amusement park forum I'll cover road bowling a little later, but basically you go out on a country lane and chuck a cannon ball down the road from point A to point B in as few throws as possible. If you want to know more now just search for irish road bowling, or West Virginia irish road bowling and you can find some good info, but for now, back to SFNE. We headed over to the park on Monday, August 5th. Being that it was my first time to the park, I was just hoping to get all the coasters in once. We have a (almost) 11 month old, so we were going to be doing the parent swap for the first time at a park. First, I have to say that I love that parks do this. They don't have to, but it's such a nice service, even if it does have its flaws. My only complaint with the park would be that It would be so nice if they would let you wait together, and then have one person walk across to the exit to wait for the other parent to ride. They let us do this on some coasters but on the others my wife waited while I road. Waiting at the exit is no big deal - except know what to do with your child for 30 minutes in one location. Eventually we got the timing down to where she would walk around and do stuff for 20-25 minutes, and then walk up the exit and hope that I was about to board. Lines for the bigger coasters were about 30 minutes or so - which allowed us to get the timing down pretty good by the end of the day. Complaint over - like I said, they don't even have to offer this, and they do, so for that I am very grateful! Now on to everything else! Most of the coasters were about what I expected them to be. As far as any differing opinions or thoughts on the coasters I will say I thought Bizarro was much much better in the front - a top 5 ride for me. Cyclone's first drop has the most "spine-compressing" moment I've ever experienced on a ride, but it was rather enjoyable after that. I'm also really glad I got to enjoy Buzzsaw. I used to adore Kennywood's Magic Carpet and I was insanely bummed when they took it out. I fear there won't be too many of these left in the future, so I am glad this one still stands. Overall I thought the park was really well maintained and run, and I was actually quite suprised by the amount of green (trees) there were around the place. I wish I would have had time to explore the water park, but it looked really busy, and with the amount of time it would have taken I fear we wouldn't have got all the coasters in, but there is always next time. I'll let most of the pictures do the talking for me, and with that being said - I sometimes overuse the whole black and white thing, as well as the fisheye lens, but I didn't feel like taking tons of time to switch lens and settings, etc. I especially love to take black and white pictures of wooden coasters - as you'll see as the TR progresses. Enjoy! Beautiful day for not being at work! I was quite suprised at how much I enjoyed the drop from the back seat. Better than anticipated. See, told you I like the black/white photo combo. Fisheye lens at work. Those towers are pretty immense. Pandemonium was fun. I would love to see more installations of these at other parks with more "out-and-back" style of layouts. Abstract coaster art. Probably one of my favorite photos of the whole trip. I plan on blowing it up and framing it. Not the coaster, although it wouldn't hurt to blow up the first drop, re-frame it, and re-track it though. Up up and... oh wait, they changed the name. I'll just say, Go Bizzaro go! No worries - my son will come to the rescue! Thanks for keeping this around SFNE. Seriously - these rides are a blast. Not a bad floorless, but I like some of the others better. I also slightly overuse the whole "let the track block the sun" thing a little too much. Great first drop from the back, but I really thought the front provided more airtime overall. Fisheye Bizarro love. The whole family approves of Bizarro! See, here I go again with the blocking the sun thing. Another shot I might frame. Beautiful beautiful airtime. A whole mess of hot hot track. A little Thunderbolt lovin too. A fun classic ride. Another shot I love. It's a pretty pretty thing. Thanks for a great day Six Flags!

Quick question for everyone. My wife and I are heading up to the Catskill mountains in August for the National Road Bowling Championships (if you want to know more you gotta youtube it, or just search for irish road bowling). We have 2 extra days in which we plan to head over to SFNE and Lake Compounce. I've never been to either park, and this will most likely be the only trip for a while in this area. We aren't doing the Flashpass unless it is insanely busy for some reason (We're going on a Monday), so we plan to just apply normal methods to get there early and crack off as many coasters as possible. My big question is this - with our 10 month old son in tow, we are going to be using the parent swap. With Parent swap can you choose your own seats? Mainly front/back. I've never had to use parent swap before, as the only park we've been to was Disney and had parents there to watch him when he couldn't ride. Also - are there designated stroller parking areas near the coasters? We'll have our own, but wasn't sure what the protocol for SFNE is. And lastly - does anyone know if the Dunkin Donuts has the discount coupons this year?

Next week my family (12 people total, with 2 kids - ages 2 years and 8 months) will be heading to Disney for the week. We've got all the plans laid out for the most part with dining, character meetings, etc., all ironed out - for the most part at least. I have always been the planner and park go-er with all the advice and what to do when type stuff. I haven't been to Disney in 14 years, and still have a pretty good idea on what to do when. This is the first time I'll be traveling with my son though (8 month old). So my wife and I find ourselves in slightly unfamiliar territory this trip. Does anyone have any advice for hitting Disney with a "not quite toddler" aged child? We've got the basics down of hitting the park early and then going back to Bonnet Creek for the mid-afternoon naps. Then back into the park for dinner. I guess I'm wondering if there is any advice about things I might not know about Disney and kids. I'm familiar with the parent swap, but there will be people to watch him when we are riding. Any other tips/tricks/awesome things to do with your child or thing that might just make the trip all that much better? The only other question would be - where do you guys feel is the best spot in Epcot to watch Illuminations? Also - I plan on being in the Magic Kingdom on Friday night/early Saturday morning roaming around somewhere. I'll be sporting my TPR "90 Degrees" shirt most likely, so if you see me give me a shout out. Thanks!

Those views are simply spanktacular!

The ride broker firm was as far as I could get. Didn't feel like doing any more research. Let's just pretend that she went up in a cloud of dust at the hand of a un-manned drone strike. Maybe someday we'll even get to see a POV video of her going down!

So I live about an hour south of Kennywood down in WV. I work with several people who live up within about a 15 mile radius of the Kennywood area. Apparently there is a rumor going around that Pitfall sold to a park somewhere in Iran or Iraq (I have heard both). The rumor so goes that upon installing it that the U.S. had their eye on it and didn't know what it was so... THEY BLEW IT TO BITS! Quite a humorous rumor, but apparently a lot of people are seriously believing it. I did look up some info but couldn't find if Pitfall actually sold or not. So my question is - did it sell? Get scrapped? Warehouse storage? Or did she meet her maker in the desert by way of a laser guided missle in a duststorm of glory? On another note - blowing rides up as way of demolition sounds fun. I'd buy a ticket!

I don't normally respond, but in this case, I think I can warrant a small response. Coming from an mechanical engineers perspective - sometimes simulations/design just don't tell the whole story. I designed and built a device a couple years back that took tons of trial and error. Not to get too much into the engineering behind it, but it was a beam design with a strain gauge attached to it to take force readings - pretty simple mechanical principles. Well, I ran hundreds of simulations with Solidworks (one of the best programs for such things) and used the results to refine my design. By the time it was machined it should have been basically a bulletproof design - WRONG. About 15 design iterations later I finally got it to work right. The theoretical computer program was about 7% of what was really happening when I built the thing. It was close, but not quite right. Upscale that and take all the complexities of a coaster into consideration and it truly is amazing they can get as close as they do in the engineering of something like this. What if their simulations/calculations were off 7%. If they predicted 70 mph then - wallah! She's running 75 mpg when built. That 5 mph is going to make a lot more difference in what goes on than what you think. I'm pretty certain that with the heights and speed we are seeing today and the forces that are being put on structures - they're doing a darn fine job. Computers and calculations can only tell you so much!

It seems I may have, but it just breaks off a small nano-particle of my heart each time I click "Get in Line" to no avail. Blast ye safe search programs!!!

Actually, I had been just trying to log in with e-mail and was having no luck - it was after I tried the Facebook method that it let me in line. Since then, though, is when I have had issues even with the Facebook thing. I've tried clearing my cache, etc, but once the box comes up that says "Connecting" it just stays there. The log in box never comes up, even if I go the Facebook route and just click the "Get in Line" link over and over and over. I e-mailed Real Art and they said it was just a traffic issue that was causing it. I've also left the "Connecting" screen up for 4-5 hours and it never went to the log in. Eh, no worries, I'll keep trying the Facebook method. There is also a slight chance I "could" be doing this at work, which means that it "could" be my government work computer. A lot of times if they monitor certain traffic items and don't like it they will block them - sometimes with limited success. So that is also a possibility. Anyone logging in during "off work hours - *wink wink*" on a government work computer?

Is anyone else not able to log in and not been able to for a few days? The first day or so I got logged in but never got my chance to play. Since then the "connecting" box just comes up and never goes to log in. I asked RealArt and they said it was just to the site being overwhelmed, and after seeing everyone getting to play on here, and knowing how much I played last year, it's killing me! Literally, I am dying a little more each second I don't get to play, especially knowing what type of awesome gifts are in there! So for the people getting to play - are most of you on the west coast? East coast? I'm wondering if the fact I am trying to log in on the east coast around 8am (work prime time) has something to do with it. My guess is since they are getting over 60,000 hits each day on the site it does. So east coast people - when have you had the most success logging in?

I hate to be the one to ask, but... Can we see a picture of said scrape?

My official guess would be fudge, or better yet, Fudgey's, as in, the same trip (or close) as Fudgey has reported in his Japan, Austrailia and Singapore Adventures. Clue Set #1 Superman Tower pic = Tower of Terror II in Austrailia reference Smarte Carte is out of Chicago, which is where the international flight left from it looks like Japan flag pic = Japanese parks Flue shot picture = Asian Bird flue reference Hello Kitty picture = Japan Reference Clue Set #2 Adaptor Picture = Needed in "everywhere you are going" Shoe picture = red, white, and blue, for Austrailia's flag Sign picture = Japanese characters as well as "ausgang" for "austrialia Clue set #3 Mountain Picture = same as Fudgey's page 4 pic when flying across Austrialia where he says "Snowy Mountains in Australia, what..... I don't understand..." Yellow handset on a pay phone = Stands for good internation call rates - I think this was a basic "international trip" clue Singapore air = Singapore I think Reef girl pic = Austrialia is where Reef started Clue Set#4 Party Bag = Yo Gabba Gabba reference to where it is available in all countries you are visiting Last picture = all flag colors from the three countries you are visiting So my final guess is LAX to Chicago then on the other countries - so my order of parks guess is: Fuji-Q Highland Universal Studios Japan Nagashima Spaland on page Tokyo Disneysea on page Gold Coast - Dream, Movie and Seaworld! Universal Studios Singapore

Thanks for the info. We're not locked in to July, it would just be optimal for traveling. August would work up until the 3rd week (wife is a teacher and school starts near then). A 5-7 day is what we would be looking at, and getting it for $500 a person at the last minute is about what I was hoping for. I think we would prefer Western vs. Eastern Carribean, but it honestly doesn't matter since it is our first one. We've also only been to tropical like locations in other areas, so anywhere through the entire Carribean would be new. And judging from what others (R&E) have said, Royal Carribean might be more up our alley (lates 20's somethings). I've switched from my Bud Light ways to a matured Sam Adams type of guy, so, there you have it. Upscaling from Carnival would be better for our enjoyment. I also expect that on a last minute deal that it would most likely be an older ship, and we also are not locked in to any port to leave from. Baltimore, MD would be awesome so we could drive it. But after that it would be New Orleans, LA, and then Tampa as choice ports. but I also know Miami is what it will most likely be (just hate flying in/out of there - I have stories people.. horrible horrible stories). Done talking, back to looking at ship pictures throughout the thread. Thanks again...

My wife and I were thinking about "cheap" vacations this summer to go along with all the weekend park trips. I've paid somewhat close attention to the prices in the last several months and I was getting to wondering, what is the best way to get "last minute" deals? We don't know exactly when we would like to go, probably July (the most expensive month seemingly). I know if you purchase way in advance you can get some good prices, but what is the best way to go about getting those last cabins they are trying to fill? I've been looking at the cruise line web sites, as well as discount finder sites, and the prices only seem to go up till the last minute. I assume I am either just not looking in the right place, or don't know what a good price is. Any info would rock my socks off... On another note, these new ships look amazing. We'll be first timer so I'm sure I will enjoy it, but I can't imagine how much fun being on a ship like Oasis would be. i'm just waiting till the day they put in a sled based "pipeline" coaster, kinda like the Bailey models. Either that or a star flyer like ride that would swing you over the side of the ship and hang out there for a while. It wouldn't have to turn fast really, I just think swinging over the water like that in open seas would be enough to freak a lot of people out.

Someone already said it kinda, but The Goonies. The next to last scene with the Pirate ship would make a perfect indoor waterpark attraction. You could have the ship be the water play structure, and slides coming from all the cave walls (like in the movie). Complete with a nice beach area and the other waterpark basics and BAM. I'm all for naming the drop slide "Sloth's Super Baby Ruth Chute" Or maybe a 4D movie (ala Spiderman) for the new Iron Man series? Personally, I think a nice slow ride would be great themed around "Copper Mountain" Yes, one of Jim Carrey's first and funniest films! If you've seen the movie, just imagine a ride like It's a Small World but themed to Copper Mountain. There could be scenes with Rompin' Ronnie Hawkins, and maybe a room themed to Alan Thicke in the ski tuning room. In fact, you could probably just make a dark ride where you show the whole movie (less than 60 min). If you haven't seen this movie - GO WATCH IT! It would be like being stuck in It's a Small World for 60 minutes, with all the speakers turned up to max volume. Better yet, The Iron Man 4D movie would be a better bet.

Ahhh, the Weston State Hospital, as we Weston people like to call it. First off, great pictures of this place. It really does pose well. I've never done the ghost tour, so thanks for sharing the report. I've taken several day tours, but never the ghost tour - Will probably wait for the next offseason. I'm usually in Weston every couple weeks as my, and my wife's, families still live there. Maybe if I'm there June 5th we could meet up - always nice to meet other TPR peeps. I don't have any ghost stories of this place, but I will share a few. My grandma's house is right beside this place, and on the other side? - my other grandma's house. And about everyone from Weston is related to someone from "back in the day" that has spent time here (we're talking early 1900's, when it was easy to put someone in). We've all known people who worked there (my wife's grandma) and whatnot as well, but here are the 2 things I remember most. The whole place is surrounded by a wrought iron fence. They would let the low security patients out during the day to walk around, well, they would walk the fence. It wasn't uncommon to see patients slowly walking around the fence perimeter in a hospital gown. Slightly creepy. Considering the fence was only 5 ft' high or so, it wouldn't have taken much to get out. They were usually of no danger, but it was still fun as a kid letting the mind run wild as to what would happen if a dangerous patient jumped the fence - it wasn't uncommon for low security patients to do. My favorite memory though took place on a few summer nights. We stayed with my grandma when my parents took a trip. Of course, it stormed - bad. As we sat on the front porch of my grandma's house looking over at the front of the building after the storm, you could see the eeriest thing. With all the power in town being out, the hospital was the ONLY place with lights - and they were generator run. This meant the old florescent bulbs put out more of a green light instead of white. So, you have this massive building being the ONLY place in town with lights, and the whole building glowed an eerie green color. It's really hard to imagine how crazy it looked. I only wish I could have a picture of it like that! Just the sight of the place like that would send chills up your spine. I loved it then, and still love the memory of it now. Thanks for sharing one of the few things are town is known for!

All those were taken with the camera's settings - no photoshop involved. You can pick about any shade of any color you want. Just point the camera and select it. It's usually pretty close, and if it isn't exact, it will still pick up on the color you want. It sometimes seems to be random on picking up other colors. I'm assuming, let's say, if you pick yellow, that red might also show, because it might be of the same color spectrum??? I don't really know, and should look it up, because it seems like it might be interesting. (I'm too lazy to look now). And thanks for all the compliments on the photos !

So first and foremost I must say that if you want a full blown review and pictures from Hall-O-Scream then Chuck's thread on here is a must. My wife and I headed from Morgantown, WV down to Busch Gardens this past Saturday (October 10th) to hit a park that I have not been to in 6 years. I must admit, most of the park is just as I remember, which is a good thing! I absolutely love Busch Gardens (both parks), and feel that next to Disney and Universal, are right up there to being as good as it gets. It is one of those parks that no matter how many times I have went to, or how many times I plan on going, just make me uber happy. Crowds were pretty light early on, allowing us to score lots of coaster rides before 4 or so. We actually had hit almost all the rides at least once, with multiple rides on Griffon and Apollo. As with most parks, around 6 when things got spooky, the crowds got spooky as well. Not Cedar Point on a Saturday spooky, but pretty close. The thing was - most of the ride lines stayed under 30 min (Griffon). The haunt lines weren't too bad early, but we did wait about an hour and 30 min for Bitten/Hunted. So that was the crowd situation. As far as Hall-O-Scream (the mazes and scare zones) is concerned, I feel that is a head or so above most of the Cedar Fair parks, but not quite as good as I expected (I think I had some pretty high expectations though). Don't get me wrong - it was awesome - but I think I just expected a little more in the haunts department. Most of my reviews of the haunts are almost exactly as Chuck describes in his thread, so go there for "my thoughts as well" (hey, it will save me some typing!). As far as some tidbits on the rides, they are as follows: Alpengeist: Ugh, I really want to love this coaster. It's good, but not great. It has always just felt a little forceless to me - like the elements are just too big. Seeing as how they are some of the largest inverted elements, that plays into my theory. Oh well, still worth a ride. Griffon: I liked this better than Sheikra. This could be because it was comfortable on Saturday and when I was in Tampa last summer it was like 98 and I was sweating "just a tad". I like to NOT sweat, so this could influence my decision, although both coasters are really similar when it comes down to it. Apollos Chariot: I think this is a top notch coaster. In fact, I have always like it better than Nitro, Millennium Force, Diamondback, and others. Especially the first drop in the back seat. Night time riding bliss!!! Curse of Darkastle: Good animations, good movement of the car, but I felt the "real world" effects were lacking. Great scenery, but I was hoping for some fog, fire, lights, blood, etc. being thrown at me. Still a good ride, but no where near Spiderman in my opinion. Loch Ness Monster: Great first drop in the back. Lacking other than that, but for a old Arrow, she still isn't too bad. And it does provide every coaster geek in the world tons of pictures - like me! (pictures to follow). So, like I said, pictures are to follow: and here they are! Now I know some other people have posted some pretty killer photos of Busch Gardens, so I felt the need to differentiate (no math jokes) myself a little. To do that, I went colorful-less crazy! My camera has one of the color accent options, so I basically went off on that. Below you will find lots of pictures of color accented photos, so if you don't like those - STOP READING AND GO LOOK AT OTHER PAGES! But if you want a slightly different and more colorful-less photos, then scroll on down my friends. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy! And so, now having 15 chins, we ended our color accented day here at Busch Gardens. Hope you enjoyed! All this spooky stuff is making the number of my chins multiply! Let's get out of this place! *Insert same lyrics as above but 2 times faster* You spin me right round baby right round like a record baby... If I take a color accented picture of Escape to Pompei, does the orange/red in the color magically turn to blood? Bloody ol England is getting all lit up to scare the little kiddies. Oh Alpengeist, why must you not give me a forceful ride? This angle of Griffon makes me happy. We found a bird! A red color accented bird! Hello, I like you. I want to cuddle with you. (Seriously, looking at this guy made me want to cuddle with him) Agh! A zombie stole my TPR 90 degrees shirt and is trying to kill me! Oh wait, that's just me... ZOMG - Monica turned into a zombie! It must be getting near the witching hour! *nom nom nom* says the Loch Ness Monster as it eats up the loops. Yes, you are welcome, I was happy to blow your mind. Like woah The first of 4 really common Loch Ness Monster shots. I'm about to blow you mind with color accenting goodness! If a train makes its way through a cobra roll, and there isn't anyone there to hear it, does it really exist? Self explanatory AGH! I know, no color accenting right? Yeah, but this picture makes me ponder things in life, so I included it. Red color accented drop of BBW - in case you couldn't figure that out. On a side note, this picture makes we weep a little. It also makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. It is such a strange world. I'm really sad that I missed some final rides on BBW... I love this shot as the track heads off into the wild green yonder, much like the coaster is going to head off to the scrap heap... that didn't make any sense... We concurred that the Frankenrock show pales in comparison to the EDGE OF MADNESS at Cedar Point. The music choices made us contorte our faces, worse than the torte cake did! Still partially frozen reall super tall torte cake! Next up was the Festaus, which had a few good things going for it, like...(see below photo) Looping the color accented loop Then we moved on over to the slightly larger, more rideable Alpengeist - which happened to be color accented on this day! Next we headed over to mini-Alpengeist Bronzed bronze *Insert naked statue joke as needed* My wife Monica posing in front of a lovely color accented Griffon Look at Griffon getting all Skloosh like First up - Griffon! A must at opening - multiple 5 min waits. Death is watching our color accented selves!

Great updates Chuck. Gets me all ready for my visit this weekend. Speaking of that, my wife and I are going this Sat. and we will most likely visit at least 2 times next year (sister just moved to Va. beach). I plan on getting the season pass, which will be good till this time next year. So this time of year is there ever a wait to do season pass processing? Also, I haven't been to any Busch park with bad weather, and the forecast for this Sat. looks pretty crappy. How liberal are they with the rain policy on the rides, and especially with the haunts/scare zones? Also, can anyone point me to a map or place on the net where I can find out what time most sections open (I know to hit Griffon first, and then head to DarkKastle)? I'll plan on hitting the haunts in order of Chuck's recommendations as they open. Do any open earlier than dusk? Now that I have asked all sorts of 12 year old pre-pubescent questions I'll also mention that I'll be sporting a 90 degrees shirt, so if you see me say hi (actually, I've asked enough dumb questions that I feel the need to ask - "how crowded is it gonna be!??!?", but I don't want to anger the "crowd" gods so I'll refrain - plus, you would be dumber for reading the question in itself)... One more question - does anyone know where I can find any information on the older gentleman who sang in the Festaus while playing the accordion? Was it the same gentleman for years? Or was there a new one fairly often? (He sang a mean chicken dance song)

I'm from Morgantown, but I've never heard of Crystal Rock Bottling... Can someone fill me in as to why Morgantown was mentioned? I can go check the liquor store for "whyte lightning" if I need to...

Not bothersome at all - even if constant - IF, it is real... Case in point - little girl (probably 8 or 9) on the Raven a couple weeks ago behind us screamed the whole way and it wasn't annoying at all, although I admit the lift hill "talk" made her somewhat adorable. It followed as such: As we left started up the lift she gave a small scream followed by an "Oh my gosh!"... then paused and looked at her dad and said in the most innocent voice "Daddy, are you going to tell mommy if I accidentally take the Lord's name in vain?"

Camera is a Canon D10. I'm pretty happy with it so far, with only a few minor complaints. My only complaints are some pretty extreme lens glare, and that the lens itself has a cover (which looks easily replaceable if scratched), but it gets smudged pretty easy (with suncreen in this case)... Everything else is pretty decent considering what it is. And taking it under the water had to be one of the most un-natural feelings I've had in a while - You get some weird looks when people see you taking your digital camera in a pool!

So last weekend (July 25-27th) my fiance and I decided to head to Louisville for what would be one of our only road trips of the season. With an upcoming marriage looming on the horizon, we decided it best to save some money this summer. As I grow older I also suffer from where-did-the-time-go syndrome - I blinked once and it was the end of July. Henceforth I knew this would be about the only trip this summer, so we headed of course headed to Holiday World - one of our faves, as well as Kings Island to hit Diamondback and doubled up on parks. My sister used to live in Cincinnati, so we had season passes to KI, and seeing as she just moved to Virginia Beach, we wouldn't really have a reason to visit KI again - so we mainly stopped for a few laps on Diamondback before we traded multiple visits to KI, for a much preferred (by me) Busch Gardens. So we hit basically 1.5 parks in a period of 3 days. Not too intense by most of the enthusiast standards, but is plenty enough for a road trip for me. Kentucky Kingdom will have to wait until next year... As for the pros/cons/everything else about these two parks: Holiday World was pretty packed for a Monday. We always spend some time in Splashin Safari when we go, and this trip was no exception. Within 30 minutes of opening the lines for the major slides became huge. They approached 1 hr 15 min by lunch time. Every time I've been here it has been packed (nice weather and all), but this time was the worst of the 5 trips. For the first time Holiday World didn't feel "special", it simply felt like a run of the mill park. Next time I'm going to have to hope for a rainy day or something. I would like to think a large capacity water attraction would help, but there were people spread over the entire water park. Good for Holiday World - bad for getting lots of slide time. And as usual, upon venturing back to ride the coasters, there were minimal lines (except Voyage right before close - wait time ~45 min). We still had a blast, but I just get selfish and want Splashin Safari to myself. Pilgrims Plunge was "solid" for being a "fun" ride. I think it was a great addition myself, and I got plenty wet. Has it been discussed on here or anywhere else if "rooster tail" fins would work on this ride, but instead of being angled at, lets say 45 degrees, coming around about 270 degrees? Thus potentially throwing the "rooster tails" forward and onto the riders? Would take some engineering, and being one myself, I would love to volunteer to help them with this problem! Diamondback: I was disappointed. Lots of air, and a solid B&M hyper, but it was somewhat rougher than expected. "Rough" isn't such an appropriate word, but you could watch the wheels shudder as they rolled along the track. It seems this fella decided to do the B&M shuffle in its first year. Still a good ride, but I was wanting more. My best friend lives in Louisville, so we used his pad as our trip headquarters. This also allowed up a quick trip to the Louisville Slugger Museum, as well as taking in some fine cuisine. I'll explain more of those in the pics, but do yourself a favor - if you like breakfast and are within an hour of Louisville, go to Lynn's Paradise Cafe (as seen on Throwdown, with Bobby Flay) and get the Bourbon Ball French Toast. Your body will thank you... That will be it as far as info, so here are the goods. A few Wimer "exclusive" shots are thrown in, so make sure to look for those. I've already called the patent office, so the claim to fame should be mine. But I did use a few TPR "exclusive" shots, so I guess that evens things out. But, I also realize by posting my "exclusive" shots, they have went from being Wimer "exclusives", to TPR "exclusives"... Eh, so much for being rich and famous for my photo abilities... Now playing: "I do as well Monica, let me have a try!" As you can see, the stupidity of people rubbed off, and my face is still stuck like this. And yes, I will end this trip report with this picture of my contorted face to hopefully remind you lovely TPR readers of this: Don't be stupid. The End. "Bryan, before we leave I want to solve a puzzle to feel smarter to take away the "dumbness" that rubbed off on me waiting for Firehawk" Flyin high. She broke down for a bit, so we waited as they cycled test runs. I bet in that 20 minutes at least 50 people showed their ignorance to using their eyes and proceded to bombard the attendant with idiotic questions. Hope in hummanity has been lost... 1...2...3... Awwwwww... Pathetic lift... Maybe someday you'll grow taller than that tree... Duskage envelops the Voyage's lift I wonder if the sea men ever washed their balls when they got dirty? Oh no, the Voyage lost a bolt - we're gonna die! Ghost train! Creepy Kid O' Death Lego predecessor? I really want this if Holiday World ever wants to give it away Old Abe's back and arm hair is getting out of control! Another exclusive! I think... Voyage lift hill from the Bahari River! Ugly mug The colors got all weird on us that afternoon Looks like fall out... out wait! It's Thanksgiving! It is fall! You know you wanna say it Third hill love A "Wimer" exclusive! This is Pilgrim's Plunge THROUGH SUNSCREEN! (I have a waterproof camera, which just so happened to get smudged with some free sunscreen) We went to Splashin Safari and some bird decided to pee on us while I was taking a picture Legend was running great. I bet you've never seen this picture before... Love "Yay!" "Here's to you Pepsi Oasis!" And then we blinked and saw this! KNEE BREAKER... This playground by the riverfront had 2 death machines at minimum. Unfortunately I didn't survive to get pics of them after my knees got broke. Monica got tired of my picture taking and decided to dig my grave. We finished the Slugger factory, and then decided to get all blurry at the Science Center Some men notch the bed post, ol Babe notched his bat Babe Ruth's bat from his 60 homerun season. He hit 21 dingers with this one, and then the roids took hold and he broke it. And for each homer his did this: I really want to try the middle bat out in my softball league. A SQUARE? CURVED? handle - yes please... For you baseball buffs I could swing it So Lynn's hosts an annual ugly lamp contest... Not only does this place have the best breakfast I have ever had, they had a Fraggle lamp! (or at least I think) Battle Hymn of the Republic started playing when they brought me this "half portion"... GLORIOUS! French fries on a chair. Potentially the best poster of all time. The next morning we ate at Lynn's Paradise Cafe! If her french toast could beat ol Bobby in a Throwdown it has to be good enough for me! Seriously - GO HERE! Fountain going up in to the riverfront. It can provide for some moistness if not carefully approached and passed The Riverfront at night Getting paid to swing - I bet her legs are buff! Sunshine all the way from WV to Louisville And we're off!

So here are a couple same shots from my Canon D10. I played around with a few settings and just snapped some pictures for the heck of it. This camera definitely does better outdoors than in, but seeing as this is where I plan on using it, that is good with me.... Hope your camera buying goes well! And since this is TPR, I wanted a donkey shot. Unfortunately the nearest donkey is like a mile away, so this shot from Dodgeball is as close as I could get... It doesn't compare to the hairy leg shot from the other thread about underwater cameras, but here is my "sup - your rock" sign. (Note: I was NOt in the tub when this was taken) Long exposure out the bedroom window Again with the color accent Out my bedroom window - this is with the "color accent" setting - kinda neat Macro shot of a President - you can really zoom in on the dings in the coin on the high res Picture from water level in the lake

I actually started that other thread about the underwater cameras. I had decided at one point to get a slightly older 1030 from Olympus, but then decided upon the Tough 6000 series after reading through Erik's trip reports and seeing the quality of the photos... After my usual indecisiveness, I purchased a Canon D10. The first time I took it out was to the lake. Within 2 minutes I had it underwater and was testing it out. I figured if it was going to not survive the water, I would kill it before I took it to parks this summer. It did survive, and I am quite impressed so far. There are a few quirks, such as its bulbous casing and lack of manual features, but most of the cameras in this segment have similar problems. Overall it is great in functionality for the pictures I will be taking. I'll try to upload some sample shots somewhat soon to let you see the picture quality I got... I was also stoked to see I could adjust the shutter speeds from 15-1/1500 sec allowing me to get some nice night shots with motion blur... Each of the waterproof cameras have their pros and cons... I recommend heading to the local Best Buy and trying them all out... Of course, I chose the only one I couldn't try out, but that is just my nature I guess...