Sue

I'm sad to see GASM go since it was one of the first looping coasters that I've ridden. The ride experience itself never bothered me and I would ride it on almost every visit to the park. If Chang is replacing it, the same can't be said about that. Aside from the Parachutes, I'll now have no need to even visit the Boardwalk section of the park since I hate SUF and Chang. So, while I think this is a horrible decision, kudos to the park for giving 2 weeks notice and a sendoff celebration for GASM!

Count me as a Raven fan as well. I do enjoy the others as well, but Raven is the only one of them in my Top 10. Great TR, Scott!

Wow, Colossus had nearly full trains when you were riding? What time were you there during ERT? When we were there, there were maybe 4 people on each train max. Still an awesome time, but it would've been much more fun with full trains.

I think it would be a good idea to have name tags with real names and screen names on them. That way people could be sure of who's who and put more faces to screen names. I don't post all that often so even though I recognized some people, I would've felt a bit awkward going up to people saying I'm Sue and them wondering who the heck I am.

Wow, guess we lucked out going to Déjà Vu first! I don’t like it quite as much as I used to but I’m still glad we got the 1 ride on it. It just has the worst train design/loading ever. If you’re in the outside row on the far side of the station, it’s impossible to get through unless you sneak through the row in front or behind before those people sit down.

I'd like to thank everyone at TPR, Ride World, SFMM, and Knott's for an amazing event. We had a challenging time with our flights in both directions, but WCB made it all worthwhile. Some highlights: --Getting to meet some new friends and put faces with the names on TPR --The Q&A sessions with management from both parks was entertaining and informative. Both parks have great management teams that really care about their parks and the guests. I especially liked the fact that we could write down our questions instead of asking them over the mic since I don't usually like doing that. It was also a great way to relax mid-day and take a break of being in the parks during the peak periods of the day. --The optional dinner at the Mooseburger Lodge had great food. I tend to be a picky eater and always say that I would like to see italian food. The meatballs, ziti, and breadsticks made me very happy. The meatballs were especially tasty! --Colossus racing made the entire trip for me. One of the questions I put in for the Q&A was asking if Colossus ever raced and I got my answer. It was so cool seeing and experiencing Colossus racing. I'd love to see that become a yearly tradition. --They only tours we got experience were both tours at Knott's and they were excellent. The Calico Mine tour was very short, but hopefully it can be expanded upon in the future. Unfortunately, we didn't get to do any tours at SFMM and it really looks like we missed out after seeing the pictures. It was just a case of bad timing with the SFMM tour and excursion. Our tour was at park opening and we wanted to get on some rides before crowds hit and we wanted to check into our hotel mid-day which would've been impossible with our excursion time. It's great that these parks offer such tours though. Most parks that used to offer then have since stopped (i.e. Coaster Celebration at SFGAd) and even if they do, they're usually limited to maybe 10 raffle winners. I do agree with what others mentioned that it would be nice to see the Terminator pre-show be optional at all times during ERT. That way people who want to see it can see it and those that don't can skip it. Once again, thanks to all that were involved in putting together an awesome WCB event! Don't know if we can make it a yearly tradition, but I'm certainly going to try!

Not sure if it was the same person or not, but the female ride op who was running Goliath at the end of ERT was also awesome! Then again, all of the SFMM employees that we encountered were awesome. The only negative I have to say is that we went to Deja Vu first for night ERT and up until 10:20 or so, people without wristbands or lanyards kept coming up to the station and riding. We mentioned it to the ops when we got on the ride and they made an announcement then, but it should've been monitored well before that.

Busch Gardens Tampa just posted on their Facebook page that membership for Club TPR “appears to be free”. Don’t worry, I set them straight.

Awesome! Just signed up Rich and I. Check will be in the mail tomorrow!

Is there any idea of how long the tour(s) will last? Since they're during the morning ERT, I was wondering if you have to choose between ERT and the tour(s), or if there will be time for both.

We'll be at Coaster Mania at Cedar Point this year. It'll be interesting to see if attendance is affected at all by it conflicting with Holiwood Nights this year.

Marlon, our friends, Bob and Cheri from MA (you might know them?), are staying at the Santa Clarita Motel. Cheri said that it had very good reviews on Trip Advisor. As for us, we're actually staying at the Hilton Garden Inn right by the park because we were able to get a free night there using our points.

You're doing an awesome job putting this together, Robb (& Elissa). You can never please everyone. I'm amazed that you have over 50 parks on board willing. to offer Club TPR members perks. How many perks does ACE offer? Maybe 10? I'm not putting down ACE because I am and will continue to be a member, but I'm just using that for comparison sake. As I mentioned previously, I initially had no intention of joining, but you've completely won me over. THANK YOU!!!

Is Sky Tower open fairly regularly these days? I'm looking forward to hopefully going up there for the first time during WCB.

While I generally prefer PTC trains to GCI trains, I think GCI trains could only help in this case. After our rides on Gwazi Lion in December, I all but put that coaster on my "don't need to ride ever again" list.

These updates are awesome, Soren! Keep them coming! That's great that you're enjoying your job so much and that you get to visit all of these neat locations.

Cool! Thanks for the additional responses!

I haven't seen Undercover Boss yet, but I'll have to check it out. I don't eat White Castle that often, but they're good every once in a while. I don't think the microwave ones even come close to the taste of the ones you get at the restaurants.

Let hope they're able to get Xcelerator open a couple days earlier than predicted so that we can ride at WCB. It wouldn't be so bad if it was down for a while after the event, but to have it open a couple days later would be a disappointment. It does sound like they're doing they're best to get it ready so here's to hoping everything goes smoothly.

If you want some good photo ops of Montu, I'd highly recommend their Roller Coaster Insider tour which costs $25. We loved it so much that we'll be doing it again the next time we're there if it's still being offered.

What a shame to see that happen to such a wonderful park! Hope they rebuild it back to what it was since they had one of the nicest Main Street areas out there.

Thanks so much for the detailed responses. It's very helpful!

To be honest, I was thinking I wasn't going to join since I already belong to a couple of other coaster clubs. However, after reading just the partial list of benefits, I'm now seriously considering it. It's really sounding like an awesome deal. Thanks for your hard work in putting this together, Robb and Elissa!

We just bought a laptop in addition to our desktop so we’d like to set up a wireless network. We’re not the best with behind-the-scenes computer stuff so I was hoping some of you more knowledgeable on the subject could help answer a few questions. --Is it easy to set up a wireless network? --Our laptop lists wireless connectivity as 802.11 b/g. Does that mean that we have to get a B or G router? Does that mean an N router wouldn’t work? --Any recommendations on specific brands of routers? --Do we need a certain router to be able to do wireless printing? --Do we need to buy a new printer that says it does wireless printing or would any printer work for wireless printing? --Do you have any recommendations as far as anti-virus and/or spyware programs? Are any of the free versions any good? I want to make sure our new laptop is well protected! Thanks for any help you could give!

Glad the lady banged on the window and you got out safely, Robb! That had to be a scary experience!