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Captain Jack

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Everything posted by Captain Jack

  1. Great trips down memory lane so far! Seeing old shots of the Junkyard at Universal Studios and Nautili in the lagoon made my day. On page 3, one of your captions says "Skull Mountain train" or something to that effect. By the looks of it, I'm going to say it's actually the Robin train from Chiller.
  2. Seeing that Top Scan (Space Roller) brings back bittersweet memories for me. It was my favorite ride at Adventureland, Long Island (yup, the park the movie is based on) from when it replaced the Huss Looping Star (Ranger) until it was sold to Germany after the horrible incident which sent a park guest soaring over the perimeter fence onto a parked car in the lot. I feel like that whole story never even got any closure...did Mondial ever say exactly what caused the problem, because I believe our local newspaper here on Long Island never mentioned if a concrete cause was ever found. (When the ride returned to the ground, the restraint was still closed despite the body being gone...) It was an intense and unpredictable ride.
  3. I had that same reaction. I initially thought it was possibly her male sibling telling us what her issues were, not that it was her herself? I can't even describe it! I really do feel awful for the woman, she clearly exhibits a strange mental illness that just so happens to entertain us ride enthusiasts who kid around about coaster porn so much. To see her making out with the ride and getting axle grease all over her face from it...terrible, strange, and sadly humorous all at once.
  4. My God. I honestly thought this was a late April Fool's joke. "Freestyle Music Park" cannot seriously be the best name thrown around for ideas. Rock and Roll Park. Music Park. Musicland. Rock Park. Just simple, basic ideas for names and instead they come up with this. I can't wait to see a t-shirt from this place...
  5. That building did house a dark ride, and I wouldn't be surprised if all the show elements still remain. It was called Houdini's Great Escape and was a Vekoma Madhouse that has been closed since a blackout in the park showed a serious design flaw that I believe wouldn't allow the exit doors open. Apparently the guests pounded on the nonfunctioning doors until they damaged some of their mechanisms. It was a cool little dark ride, and actually well-themed with an above average story line. It's a shame it's been "dark" literally for like...three season now.
  6. Elmo had played the role of extra for a really long time before becoming big here in the US. Big Bird was the "in" character when I was a kid in the early 90's, and from what I've read, was just as big in the 80's. Only in the mid-90's did Elmo gain what is probably most popular Sesame Street Muppet status in the US. Damn that Tickle Me Elmo...
  7. Taking my 6 year old sister on Sooperdooperlooper at Hersheypark and watching her reaction during the loop. Reaction after the ride: "Can we do it again!?!?" I taught her well.
  8. I just don't understand the point in building another Disney Parks resort in China when Hong Kong Disneyland has struggled in its attendance and has the public demanding more attractions. Wouldn't it make more sense to beef up Hong Kong Disneyland and give it some unique, one-of-a-kind attractions that no other Disney Park has to offer to make it a must-see destination? I realize that Shanghai has a huge population and is really the center of commerce for China, but is it really in Disney's best interest to get involved in building a sixth resort in a time of economic struggle such as this?
  9. www.flyinphilsphotos.com/amuse/nj/sfga/2009-01-04/album0 Picture 23.
  10. If it were still open, River Country USA. So many great memories of that place.
  11. Awesome PTR's thus far my man. I did a PTR on BGE a few weeks ago, it really is one of the nicest theme parks out there. How amazing was Emerald Beat?
  12. I hate waking up in the morning to craptacular news such as this. I recently just did a PhotoTR on a vacation I did right after AB rejected InBev's first attempt at buying them out, and we were amazed by the beauty and maintenance of BGE. All the workers were very well-trained and super friendly, and pre-shows to many attractions included a special message from a member of the Busch family either about the environment, a thank you for choosing to spend your day at their park, or in honor of our American troops and heroes. It disgusts me that the last American owned brewer might be lost. This is no longer about losing AB to a foreign company, this is about losing a great part of American history, quality, and employment to a company that has a history of destroying what AB stands for. If we lose AB, what's next? Disney? Edit: Game over, from the AB website:
  13. Someone earlier in this thread asked for pictures of The Great Wolf Lodge, and while I did not take any of the hotel, my parents did. Here are some of their pictures: The little sister in front of the animatronic show in the lobby. My sister, my brother, and I in front of TGWL. Outdoor pool, giving you a pretty nice glimpse of how many of the indoor water park's attractions exit the building in enclosed tubing and then re-enter through another side of the building. I must admit, the enclosed Tornado, here called Howlin' Tornado, was sick! The darker, thicker yellow tube is the Tornado. The wider green tube is the family raft. The thin yellow and thin blue tubes are single/double tube slides. In the indoor park, the Tornado and the family raft exit in splash pools right next to each other. The yellow and blow tube rides also exit right alongside each other. Kiddie playground and barbeque tent. Dad and sister mini-golfing it for an extra fee. Little sister mini-golfing. We stayed in a suite, and this is the TV and gas fireplace combo that comes with it. Me and the bro in "the loft." Up here was another bed, dresser, TV, and half-bathroom. (No shower) A really nice overview shot taken by my Dad (he's the man) of the indoor waterpark. Now this was pretty cool, kids could buy for I believe $17.99 their own custom wand that had a sensor in it that enabled them to find codes, tell stories, and trigger animatronics and lights throughout the entire hotel. If you go on the quests and defeat them all, you earn "Questmaster!" status and get to stay in a cooler, Questmaster themed guest room on your next visit. This knight's eyes glowed when you pointed your wand at him. (God that sounds dirty) Now here's a few Busch photos taken by the parental unit: The prettiest horses IMO, and this guy was so gentle and calm. WHAT DO WE DO WITH WITCHES? BURN THEM! What floats in water? CHURCHES! Anyways, to the stocks with the little sister who wouldn't stop asking ARE WE THERE YET on the 7 hour drive down from NY to VA. (only kidding, she's ridiculously well-behaved and a sweetheart) Now here's a little shout-out to my awesome little sister, who took on her first looping coaster at age six at Hersheypark (Sooperdooperlooper) and then challenged Nessie's interlocking loops at age 7. She wanted to go on Griffon and Alpengeist, and I told her you have another 6 inches to grow before you can do those! Such a cool kid with zero fear. In the first loop on her first ride, she kept her eyes closed. Right before the second loop on the second lifthill, she says to me, "CHRIS! GUESS WHAT? I'M GONNA KEEP MY EYES OPEN THE NEXT TIME WE GO IN A LOOP!" So, we're going down the hill into the loop, we're going upsidedown, her eyes wide open, and she says, "WE'RE UPSIDE DOWN NOW!" Once we got off, she couldn't stop singing the Loop-de-Loop and Pull song from Spongebob when he needs to tie his shoes. What a little beast.
  14. Negative NegaDuck. The concierge at The Great Wolf however did offer an incredible deal for a SEVEN DAY ticket to Busch Gardens Europe. For $79.99 a person, you get to visit BGE any seven days you want. If you so desire to "park hop" from Water Country USA to Busch Gardens day by day, it's only an additional $10, raising the price to $89.99. Either way, that's a steal considering the fast that one day admission I believe was over $50. I'm still working on getting those hotel pictures from my parents, they'll be posted ASAP! EDIT: There's a McDonald's right down the road from the park, and their large fountain soda cups (the plastic ones) offered I believe 15% off or $15 off of general admission. Pretty sweet if you ask me.
  15. Griffon, my parents took a couple shots of The Great Wolf Lodge using their camera. I'll try to upload their images later tonight. Jcoaster said: I think it's fair game to compare it to anything. While comparing it to two woodies might not be my best bet, I've yet to ride Millennium Force or Superman Ride of Steel and can't comment on good steel ejector air. When Car and Driver does a comparison of cars, they compare the best one to whatever they're comparing. I don't see why this should be any different. And as far as to what someone posted earlier, we tried back seat, front seat, and middle seats at different points in the day over the course of three days, each time a full train, and each time the ride coasted over each hill not fast enough to produce ejector air and not slow enough to produce floater air. It felt like driving over a hill in a car when you're in a rush but then there's someone in front of you and you can't cruise past them and get that "sensation." Odd comparison, I know, but I hope it makes sense.
  16. Jcoaster said: I felt Apollo lacked any airtime, ejector or floater...that's my main gripe with it. Nitro has some great floater airtime throughout the entire ride, especially on the three camelbacks on the way back to the station. For me, ejector air is defined by rides like Boulder Dash and El Toro.
  17. coastergirl26 said: I gave Apollo's Chariot several chances over the span of three days in the park. The trims weren't on too terribly, as you could hear them just kissing the trains...not making the sucking sound B&M hyper trains usually make as a train passes over them. I tried sitting everywhere on this thing, and still wasn't overly impressed by it. I just feel that Nitro puts it to shame. My only wish is that the time and consideration into Nitro's placement in Movie Town at SFGADV had been as well thought up and conceived as Apollo's Chariot's placement and mythological backstory in Festa Italia.
  18. I agree with you Gnome, there's a lot of attractions that Busch takes from mediocre to memorable by adding a simple element that Six Flags or Cedar Fair doesn't bother spending the extra buck on. Like you said with Pompeii, the fire effects and ride effects once inside the show building take it from a mediocre splash boat ride like Tidal Force at Hersheypark and instead turn it into a really memorable experience. The effect with the flames climbing across the ceiling really sticks out in my mind. It's little things like that that separate Busch Gardens from your average amusement park; it truly is a THEME park.
  19. I feel like the money spent on building The Dark Knight coaster could have been much better spent re-theming the original Batman the Ride's at both SFGADV and SFGA. These two parks play host to the two oldest Batman the Ride's in existence, and both of them look ridiculous in yellow and midnight blue compared to the original all black paint scheme. When SFGADV repainted their Batman in 2004, they returned the Batman '89 Batmobile to the circle but cleaned up the rest of the ride's theming to a bare minimal nothing. The $7.5 million spent on constructing the ride could've been spent on totally refurbing the trains, getting a shell (non-operating) Tumbler to replace the older Batmobile, getting a legit replica costume of the new Batsuit for the station, and redoing the rest of the rides theming to match the new Chris Nolan movies instead of the older Tim Burton ones. A new paint job, like black with gold supports and unpainted rails would look so much better than the current look...and probably would've been a better draw and have had a better public response. A 16 year old coaster (15 years old in the case of GADV) could've used a new shot of life like this to really bring the lines back to it...as the Batman inverts never seem to disappoint anyone.
  20. ZERO G! What up lifthill? Check out that Zero car! Look at that crazy mess of SUPER CLEAN white track. LOVE IT. You're going almost 70mph at this point. Probably the most beautiful to watch element on all B&M inverts that have them, the Zero G Roll! This flatspin/corkscrew gets very little love, probably because it's mad hard to photograph, but it really sneaks up on the riders and catches them off guard. IMMELMANN. (<-finally remembered that extra N) Holding *CHAIN* Apollo's Chariot at dusk
  21. Welcome to Busch Gardens Europe! Join us as we celebrate the Fourth of July throughout the park! A great ride with great theming! Ominous clouds definitely help The Griffon at sunset. Alpengeist at sunset. B&M's are beautiful, riders here trying to kick the sky in the first part of the Cobra Roll. Interlocking... ...goodness. FESTHAUS! Old school Arrow suspended still kicking butt. I like to terrorize German villages in my spare time. BIG BAD WOLF. Anybody else miss the eyes on the front of the first car? I be one of Griffon's Immelman's. I pull ZERO forces, but I still manage to be fun. The Curse of Low Audio and Water Effects. (But still a lot of fun!) At this point in the inverted vertical loop, the train starts to slow down, and I go "WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" I hated these block breaks (MCBR), but they helped me get a nice picture. Insert "Learn to Fly" by the Foo Fighters
  22. Where to begin? This family vacation to Williamsburg, VA was absolutely incredible. We stayed in the very clean, fun, and accommodating Great Wolf Lodge conveniently located about 10-15 minutes from BGE. The hotel's indoor water park serves as a great early morning way to start your day before heading out to some of the area's other offerings. Our hotel room, which was considered a suite, had an indoor fireplace, a great view of the outdoor pool, and really cool loft above the main two beds that housed a third bed. For the little ones, the hotel offered an interesting wand sorcerer game that could be played throughout the entire hotel, setting off pre-triggered effects all over, even including dining areas. When you stay at The Great Wolf, you get a wrist band that acts almost as your Key to the World if you were playing things WDW style. You can charge things to your wrist band, and it also serves as your hotel key. Overall, we really enjoyed our stay at The Great Wolf, and its true convenience comes in it's great location to everything in Williamsburg and its great amusement offers to every guest. Now, onto Busch Gardens. I hadn't been to Busch Gardens since I was 8 years old, and at the time, was only willing to ride The Big Bad Wolf and the old Wild Maus as far as coasters go. Since that time, I have had zero fear of whatever coaster is out there and have greatly added up my coaster count and theme park/amusement park visits around the country. Let me first say, BGE is absolutely beautiful. The landscaping throughout the park is so lush and well-taken care of. The best part of BGE is the continuous theming throughout the park, as each European country bleeds so well into each other yet each retains its unique identity. The cast members were for the most part all very friendly, and all the shows were above par. Oddly enough, the park's best and worst shows are in the same country, or as Disney fans would call it, "land." Ireland plays host to "The Secrets of Castle O'Sullivan," and it was easily the worst production BGE had. I felt particularly bad for the actor in the lead role, as he really tried his best to make the show enjoyable for the audience. I can't blame him, the script absolutely SUCKED. Now, the best show in BGE? Emerald Beat! This incredible, fast-paced, and high energy performance showcases about a dozen Irish step dancers, a handful of musicians, and two very talented singers. Usually I avoid shows at theme parks and make it my soul dedication to ride coasters, but I had to make time in my schedule to catch this show as often as possible, and saw it FIVE times. The cast changes morning and night, rotating which cast performs each day, and on top of that, a different male dancer will play the role of "Lord of the Step" at each performance, so it's never the same. This show truly helped a fairly "flat" feeling Ireland come alive, as it lacks a major coaster. Let me say this, the Busch company maintains this park so well. My whole family commented throughout the entire trip about how clean the park was, possibly even rivaling or surpassing Disney levels of clean. No gum anywhere. No marker graffiti in the bathrooms. Everything seemed to have just been given a fresh coat of paint, and the railings in really old stations (BBW and LNM) were spotless and not chipped at all. This was legit park maintenance, and we loved every bit of it. For me, seeing coasters in non-faded paint was incredible. I don't know how often BGE repaint its rides, but everything excluding Griffon (whose blues already seem to be slightly faded from the sun) had radiant and noticeably strong and fresh paint jobs. Best example of this is anyone who owns a white car. White is such a hard color to keep clean. Alpengeist was SPOTLESS and a fresh snowfall white. BGE, you rock. My one gripe with BGE is that its coasters are so incredibly overrated. Please don't take these coaster reviews the wrong way, they are just opinions. Apollo's Chariot: I constantly hear how great Apollo's Chariot is, and I was so disappointed by it. I gave it several chances, morning and night, front, back, and middle seats. It's lame! My brother and I both felt that Nitro at SFGADV, also a B&M Hyper Coaster, completely owns it. Alpengeist: I thought Alpengeist, BGE's B&M invert, was the parks best offering besides the Arrow classics like Big Bad Wolf and Loch Ness Monster. The only downside of Alpengeist is that since it is so tall and fast for an invert it tends to rattle much more than any B&M invert I've been on. On the upside, the cobra roll is awesome and the use of terrain that this ride goes through is so unbelievable. Griffon: It's a cool ride. My first dive coaster, and after my first ride I was like...this is nice. It didn't blow me away. Was the 90 degree drop cool? Of course. Were the trains pretty sick? Yeah. But that's really it. If you've been on Kingda Ka or Storm Runner and have been on Medusa or Hydra, you've ridden Griffon. Seeing the floorless technology used on a super wide train was great. Being held over the edge of a 90 degree 205 foot drop was great too, but the ride feels like it's missing something. Its Immelman's pack ZERO forces. It's drops don't really give you that crazy stomach in your throat feeling. I feel like had the ride had a zero-g roll (if this is even possible for a dive coaster train to maneuver safely) before the splash down it could've really made the ride that much better. Maybe I'm asking for too much, and you know what, I'll admit I am. The main thing here is this, BGE has a new fan favorite and the general public is gobbling it up. It's a great smooth ride, but it's nothing that would rank in my top ten. If you do go to BGE anytime soon, ride Griffon AT NIGHT. It provides a far more intense feeling ride even though the ride lacks any true intense forces. Furthermore, I don't know if this has ever been mentioned before online, but what holds you over the edge of the track isn't even a break, it's an incredibly slow moving chain, which can be seen easily from the front row or from anyone watching the train from the side, you'll see it never fully come to a complete stop but instead just moving reallllly slowly. Also, the floorless aspect of the ride truly does grant everyone a "front row" type of view on this ride, partially because the stadium seating the trains have and also because of the fair greater gap between cars than on regular B&M floorless trains. Big Bad Wolf: It's a Schwarzkopf/Arrow classic. It has been beautifully maintained and IMO offers the best suspended coaster ride out there. Its use of the terrain is impeccable. Loch Ness Monster: Happy 30th Birthday Nessie! For a 30-year old Arrow it's not terribly rough and both of its loops (interlocking goodness!) offer a fairly forceful ride. I wonder what that first loop would be like if those trims were off...because those loops really do give you a nice forceful ride. Like Big Bad Wolf, it's a coaster classic. Now, while I was slightly disappointed with Griffon and Apollo's Chariot, the beauty and photogenic factor of the park's coasters makes up for that greatly. Nitro's odd color scheme (blue, magenta, and yellow...) and zero theme consideration make it not the nicest thing to photograph. Apollo's Chariot, on the other hand, has a beautiful royal purple, crimson, and yellow-gold scheme that makes it stunning to behold from the parking lot, Festa Italia, or the boat ride. For a five coaster collection, BGE scores heavily. None of its coaster offerings are weak, and the public can't seem to get enough of any of them. Furthermore, the crews on all the rides BUT Alpengeist crank trains out like it's their business. I don't what was up with the crew, they seemed to know nothing about the ride they were operating and wound up stacking THREE TRAINS nearly every day I went. They didn't even know Big Boy seats were in Row 5, and instead had to embarrass the poor guy next to me by having three attendants jump on his restraint so he could buckle his belt. They could've asked him if he'd rather wait for the next train and jump in row 5 instead of embarrassing the guy in front of his son. (The ops meant no harm, I just wish they had used their brains a bit.) BGE, in my eyes, you rank below Disneyland park but on level with the Magic KingdomT. You easily take out EPCOT in its current state since you offer country education and theme elements while combining it with state of the art coasters, great park maintenance and atmosphere, great cast members, great shows, and an overall awesomeness. (I know I'm going to take heat for what I just said, but remember, it's just an opinion!) It's nice seeing a non-Disney park prove to the world that with the right amount of care an amusement park can be THEMED and maintained just as well as a Disney offering. We also spent a day at Water Country USA, easily one of the best water parks I've ever been to. Hubba Hubba Highway and Rampage were great, and the parks new Rock and Roll Island slides actually punch a pretty nice rush. In-Park Coaster Rank: 1. Loch Ness Monster -rarely a line and it's still running great for a classic 2. Alpengeist -a solid B&M invert with a unique layout and forceful cobra roll 3. Big Bad Wolf -Another BGE classic, one of the best if not the best suspended coaster built 4. Griffon -I know I'm being harsh on Griffon, but it just didn't WOW me the way I wish it had. Floorless diving is cool nonetheless. 5. Apollo's Chariot -I don't get it. 6. Drachen Fire -RIP you empty station! What this park really needs is a coaster in Ireland. Ireland is a land with so much potential to kick ass, but all it has is Emerald Beat (WOOOO!) and next to it a really crappy show. Corkscrew Hill is eh. You sit on a hydraulic floor (think simulator pod) and watch a screen, it's good, not great. My other feeling is that BGE desperately needs a woody of kick-arse proportions, think El Toro meets Balder or something along the lines of Thunderhead. There's no good wood or wood at all at BGE, and a great woody would really complete the coaster collection at BGE and would give it a nice mix of Arrows, B&M's, and an Intamin or GCI woody. (Sorry CCI or whatever you call yourselves these days, your woodies usually rock but they can be maintenance NIGHTMARES!) Theme the coaster to some form of Irish Celtic folklore and you've got yourself a real winner. (Think Braveheart and yes, I know he's Scottish...but think of an Irish legend with that type of artistry, theming, and backstory) If you're going to see any shows at BGE, see these: 1. Emerald Beat (see it once in the morning and once at night on the same day or twice in the morning on two different days, both casts are INCREDIBLE!) The show's soundtrack will possess your mind for days. It's in Ireland. 2. Kinetix (amazing acrobats and pretty solid singing/music) It's in France near Griffon. 3. American Jukebox (1950's-1970's popular music, solid show with great singing...whatever cast performs that day will also be the cast of the Kinetix music cast) It's in New France near the train station. 4. The Festhaus German dinner show...great food AND a great show! Enjoy the pictures*, and if you have any questions about the park(s) or hotels please ask! *They will be in the next post
  23. I just flipped through the entire thread, and have to say that I am truly amazed at the amount of coaster pictures, documentaries, video clips, magazine/newspaper articles, IAAPA booklets, and more that you've saved up over the years. Thank you so much for sharing all of this with us! It's nice to see pictures of coasters that no longer exist, especially the classic woodies. How many SBNO, soon-to-be-destroyed coasters did you get a chance to visit?
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