Jew

^So then you wouldn't rank it at all if those were the only rides you took on the ride?

I'm going to see Dan tonight...everyone e-mail him today and I'll give you guys an update!

Looks like Dave will have a new place to stay in Vegas! http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2011/mar/07/nv-caesars-palace-tower/ In other Vegas News... Hard Rock Hotel Has New Owners Bellagio's Best Kept Secret (Fontana Bar) is closing to make way for Hyde Lounge Why You Shouldn't Gamble @ The Venetian/Palazzo

^I would suggest slowing down. AOL temporarily shut down his account a few years ago when Joe created an automated e-mail Dan form that sent too many e-mails, so he'll never get to read everyone's attempt to get him on facebook! But for those who haven't sent 1,000 e-mails to Dan...I suggest sending him an e-mail tonight. He's probably getting close to breaking!

You live in LA and Chipotle is "all you need" for Mexican food???

^^Elissa can probably answer this, but I know for shore excursions the ship will wait for you if you booked it through Royal Caribbean directly.

^The context of that statement was the fact the rest of the industry is playing catch-up to the iPad.

^Awesome! The presentation was awesome last year...Daniel (one of the Haunt designers) gave us a full walkthrough of Fallout Shelter and answered all our questions.

Something to keep in mind: parking lots are actually expensive for parks due to property taxes. Properly maintaining a parking lot (re-paving and re-striping) is also fairly expensive.

^I'm aware of that site. I still think the process is dumb, even if it isn't totally the trucks fault (In many cities, there are laws that dictate how long they can stay w/o getting ticketed). Which is why I will only go to the trucks that stop by my house (guitar center & Ralphs on ventura blvd. are regular stops for some trucks) and visit the festivals.

I'm glad these food truck festivals are becoming more common. I love the food trucks, but absolutely despise having to follow them on twitter just to find them (and then seeing a huge line at the spot they are going to be at).

The storm seemed to stay isolated around the Burbank/Universal/Studio City area. Good amount of sleet fell in that area!

A blackjack player that knows what he is doing can get the house advantage as low as 0.5%. The house will always be slightly ahead because of the variables you mentioned (and 6:5 blackjack payouts ). Slot payouts are slightly misleading, as their statistics are based on the life of the machine. Doesn't mean you can walk up to a machine and have a 95% chance of winning, but rather that the machine has payed out 95% over the course of its life in the casino. But that's probably why casino operators love slot machines... Side note/tip: baccarat only gives the house a 1-2% advantage when you bet on the banker, which is why they take commission on that bet. So if you want to play the table game equivalent of a slot machine, mini baccarat is the way to go.

^Gaming doesn't pay out nearly as much as you think. Even the best blackjack player still gives the house a very slight edge. And for every pro blackjack player at a table, there will be 5 casual gamblers sitting next to him buying the sucker bets and losing at a much higher rate. Plus, most blackjack in Vegas is down to 6:5 payouts, so that pro isn't even making as much money as he was a few years ago, but that's a rant for another day...

To pull my post from the Vegas thread...

That's not a rumor. He paid $30,000 for it on eBay. A news article said it was being relocated "to his ranch in the Santa Monica Mountains," so I think it is safe to say that letter belongs to Uncle Jesse.

My understanding is that they are pretty much giving the hotel the DCA treatment: the physical buildings of the towers will be the same, but everything inside will be renovated. Of course, the real problem with that is they are still stuck with the old infrastructure, which means smaller rooms/elevators/kitchen spaces/etc. that will still keep the place from being anywhere close to a WDW Deluxe resort.

The business model of Vegas will always be based upon three things: booze, gambling, and conventions/events. Restaurants, shows, and attractions are all there to supplement those three things. Manhattan Express and Stratosphere work because they get people on the property and don't prevent them from being away from booze or gambling for extended periods of time. As was already mentioned, Grand Adventures failed because it couldn't do this. Circus Circus (and to a much lesser extent Excalibur) is an anomaly in that it's cheap and fills the family niche of Vegas. For a park to be successful in Vegas, it would need to be away from the strip to cater to locals and also to avoid sitting on land that is too valuable to developers.

^That's the beauty of polls: they are entirely subjective. While I personally don't agree with ranking a ride based on their BEST ride on it if subsequent rides are nowhere near as good, I am going to assume that is the main reason why Beast does so well in other polls. I think SBNO coasters are there for the same reason "favorite steel coaster" is put in the rankings....to make the comparisons as accurate as possible. Just because a ride is SBNO, doesn't mean it wasn't someones favorite coaster.

Any iOS device will continue to be successful solely based on the apps and ease of use. And so far, like Cameron said...high end android tablets are more expensive than iPad's. I'm an android user myself, and was excited about the Xoom...until I saw the price.

Like? Everything at City Center is open. Aria, Crystals, Veer Towers, Mandarin Oriental, and Vdara are all open. All that isn't completed is the shuttered Harmon tower (which would be open if not for the engineering issues). The Adventuredome is successful, because, well...uhh...It's Circus Circus. Anyone who has ever stepped foot on that property or seen their room rates will understand that.

Any park in Vegas needs to be built away from the strip.

I'd love to hear about the technical improvements they made to have the ride running at 100+ MPH!

^^And therein lies the problem. Las Vegas real estate is always going to be too valuable for an amusement park to thrive. The second someone wants to buy that land for condo/hotel/casino development, the theme park will lose its lease and that will be the end of it...even if the land will probably end up sitting vacant when the developer ultimately goes broke.

Same idea as a rapids ride. Speed bumps in water flow=waves. Still pretty cool though!