calcajun

That is soooo funny! Anyone from N.O. knows that is not here. And we are her target audience! Dumb Bych

I think the fog shots are awesome!

Yeah, and for the record, the park itself is not ok. Everything was under salt water for over a month. Its all just sitting, waiting and deteriorating more eack day. The whole infrastructure is gone, network, comunication, electrical. Then there are every ride went under water. what was above water was damaged by wind and flying debris. Every single gondola on the Big Easy was damaged. I know it is small, but take a close look at my avatar.

Batman the ride probably fared best as it is so high up and all steel. The control room and spare parts went under but the rest of the ride is in good shape. Megazeph control room went under but the trains and stuff stayed high above the water. Since the structure and track are mixed steel and wood they did not fare as well as batman. If you are at the pullout of the first drop looking up at the straightaway the track is wavy. Other low sections of track were completely submerged for over a month. What i really look forward to if SFNO comes back is to ride a completely retracked Megazeph.

That happened to me also. I have Seagate external and i tried copying my captured files to it for back up and it says i don't have enough space to do so. WTF?!?! Well, yeah, there is enough space but it just won't happen. Sounds like they may be right about the file size specification on AVI's.

The park was under eight feet of flood water for over a month. Whatever was above the water got wind and flying debris damage. Every single thing in the park was damaged by water and wind. Nothing was spared.

Regardless of some reports recently made on a local tv station that the park will rebuild and re open as quickly as possible, this statement is not official from the park. The last official statement from Six Flags in the last few weeks is "It could go either way". Meaning the park may come back or the park may not come back.

Can we PLEASE just do away with Daylight Saving Time?!?!?!

I don't. What color is green?

Robb, FYI. If you record 16 x 9, it will play on 4.3. The picture just won't fill the screen from top to bottom. Same as when you see anything network broadcast in wide screen. Thing is, your editing software may not allow you to mix 4.3 and 16 x 9 together when editing footage together.

HAHaha ! This is so late!

Ok so, being the lazy bastard that I am, I don't write stuff like this but I will write a little here since I got some good news and some bad at Fiesta. Last time i was here i was evacuated from the storm and i visited the first or second weekend of october 05. seems during the off season Rattler got new track from station to lift, Second layer if helix is pretty much retracked but still bounces you around quite a bit but it didn't hurt me and the straightaway up to the helix got new wood. Then there are other spots that got new wood in small sections. Can't say if anything was done to the second drop or the third curved drop into the quary wall as i never sat in very front. Now the bad news. It got a little iffy to select your own seat towards the afternoon. On rattler and poltergeist, a third team member was on platform and doing a count of guest's into the chutes. In other words they were only letting 24 or whatever the train could hold onto the platform. AND NOT DOING IT WELL! So if you were in a good position you could get on platform and choose your row and seat but if you were like # 15 or later you generally got stuck in the middle. Maybe they will get better at doing the head count, but they sucked big time today. they were actually doing worse time by trying to find single riders while the second train ended up stacked. There was generally no stacking before they started doing the count. Or, maybe they will do away with it! First few hours you could walk on the coasters but by 1 or 2 it was getting very busy. Tomorow i think i will shoot some vid. I knew i forgot something back home. My tripod and my DV tapes! Looks like i need to go to wallmart and get a cheapo tripod.

There are specific things I listen for when interviewing new team members for ride operation. Safety is a big one. If I don't get 2 of 3 of these items out of you on your interview, I will pass you along to another department. I am purposely not saying what they are because if you have IT already, you will get the job. Instead of going in and repeating what is said here to get it. It has already been said that you don't need to have prior experience. You should however be mature and responsible about your position. The fact that you seem to want it right now is good. Once you get it you will find out if you really like it and want to stay with it. Now this on the other hand... Some of you may think I am making too much out of this but I am not. The person slouching over the panel is putting guests, and you as a team member at risk of injury or death. Period. Sure, rides are for the most part automatic but, THE OPERATOR HAS THE CONTROL and FINAL SAY that evrything is clear and safe to dispatch that ride. Operator along with attendants need to be alert to stop the ride if a situation should arise that warrants it. No if, ands, or buts. I actually decided I wanted to be an ride operator when I was 40 years old. I never did become one cause I went straight to a supervisor position then lead then I took over a different department. Sure I trained and certified on rides. I also love operating rides. Especially coaster because you are constantly on the move and it is fast paced. Even when I left rides I would hear about a coaster being left up for employee rides after the park closed. I would run over just to operate it for the team members! Yeah, I am a crazy old man.

The Zoo is in the area called Uptown/Garden District. Bout 15 to 20 minutes down magazine street from where you stayed.

Oh yeah, Thats the Swamp Monster!

Yes, there are lions, cougars and other smaller cats. There is a large reptile display with at least 50 diff snakes, sea lions, aviary and more. These are just a few photos. I took about 150 pics.

My brother was in town last week and wanted to see the New Orleans Zoo since he had not seen it since he was a child. When we were kids basically it was a bunch of concrete slabs with the black metal cages on top. I have always told people that we have a very nice zoo. While at the park I took a bunch of photos. Here are a few so that if you come over for a visit you might like to stop in the zoo and see it for yourself. There is evidence here and there that it has just been through a hurricane but Most out of towners might not notice it .

If getting married makes you do drugs and look like that, I'll stay single!

"The one that derailed in Edmonton." I had the photo of that train smashed up with the body on the ground on my drive for the longest. Poor Train

The situation varies depending on how few or when there are a lot of empty seats. Until you experience it you just don't know the headache this can cause It is very easy for us as a guest to say, "why can't I reride there is an empty seat". When it is a sparse seat here and there, it then can create a problem when others see and want to do the same. When lots of empty seats are available it is easy and actually fun to let peeps just get out then enter back into unused seats. I train my team members that it is at their discretion but I do stress to be as giving as possible. This also includes giving a few rerides to the last train of the night and to have fun with it. By the way, if I get extra points for this, I also train on how to check restraints quick with it touching a rider but not stapling. That’s just me. Others have different beliefs.

I only ride coasters and major thrill rides. For me personally it is better to eat before i enter the park. If i don't eat i tend to get a little sick. I do not ride spinning flats. Regardless of eating or not, they make me TOTALLY sick and ruin my whole day.

I have one simple fear on any coaster. Any catostrophic failure while I am riding it. Like on an inverted that travels over water. Train derails and hits the water. You survive the crash into the water but, securely held in place by your OTSR you drown while sinking to the bottom of the lake. Yes, this is the stuff that enters my mind!

Actually without going into lots of detail, my manager came to SFNO few weeks before the hurricane and is back at SFOG since SFNO is down now. As far as I know, only two lead supervisors actually worked SFOG after the storm as supervisors but they are back in New Orleans now with jobs and school ect. I am more familiar with those in ride operations and park service so if others from retail and food there I am not in the know. Of course I give no official statements but from what I see, (I am active SFNO employee) the park won't be back till 07. No way will it happen in 06. Oh Yeah! Can't wait till media day!

So there will be LOTS of peeps there? I won't be able to stay on the train and ride till I throw up? Actually I called my manager yesterday, who is technically my manager but works at SFOG. Asked if he would get me in media day. Of course he said yes, but did not know the date. I am planning on being there. Guess I should stick around for the weekend and ride the other coasters. Maybe get some new guest service training while I am there also!

Snowboard Cross was awesome!