mforce79

Here's a ride operator sleeping during a shutdown. I know it's low quality but I thought it would at least be funny... Ride operator taking a nap during a shutdown (no joke).

The good ol' Coliseum... You know they actually re-upholstered some of the seats in different colors to make it look like they were filled on TV, when really they were empty. The part that really doesn't make sense is: When are there ever TV cameras in the freakin' Richmond Coliseum??? -Chris

I can't believe they removed the sign from Grizzly. I remember every time I walked down the exit ramp people were walking the other way thinking it was the entrance. Hey, at least we can buy beer wherever we want in Virginia. I about died when I was in Pennsylvania trying to find somewhere that sold beer after 8pm. That was ridiculous...

I seriously have a picture of Kings Dominion's "Volcano" before it opened from a Paramount ad. I believe it's a picture of 2 people on an Intamin drop ride rotated toward the ground and edited with some graphics of the ride track and the mountain. It almost looks like it was going to be a flying coaster. Probably the worst editing job for a coaster ever... But when you think about it, marketing is big business, and parks will cut corners wherever they can to save money. I don't belive the General Public notices it much.

I can think of several days at Six Flags America that were pretty bad... the worst probably has to be during Superman's opening season, they closed the queue line off 15 minutes before the park closed because there was a 10-15 minute wait in the station. Several angry guests (myself included) asked to talk with the manager, so when she arrived she told us all to get out of her face and take our complaints right on up to the front of the park because she wasn't going to listen to it.

I agree with Hershey too... they've grown very steadily the past few years with no dissapointments whatsoever. But Dollywood and IOA? Both are great parks, but how can IOA be an improved park when it's only been in existence for less than 8 years? Dollywood has added 2 coasters since 1971 and taken one out... maybe things like service and quality have improved, but for a park to improve as a whole (in my opinion) they have to re-invest in major attractions more frequently than those have. Of course you can't go wrong with Millennium Force as an improvement to any park!

I joined the US Army convoy down 64 for a beautiful day at Busch Gardens on Sunday afternoon. I've been to BG every year since the mid 90s, but I don't ever remember going this early in the season. One thing I didn't think about was the fact that the trees were still bare for the most part, providing some nice photo opportunities that you won't find a few weeks from now in such a heavily landscaped park. Normally I woudn't post the same old photos of the 4 coasters there, but I thought I got a few good ones today that would be worth checking out. As usual, no major changes to report. Just fresh paint everywhere. I did notice several changes to DarKastle during the ride, but nothing significant. It almost looks like they just spliced some of the scenes toward the end and put them together in a different order. It still doesn't make sense. I still can't get over the fact that they have a completely unfinished room in the middle of the ride. Oh well, I gave it a shot. I probably won't feel the need to ride it again until next year. Another thing I noticed (and I think this has been mentioned before) was the beer stands throughout the park midways. I know at one ponint there was a Virginia Law that said alcohol had to be consumed in a designated area near where it was sold. I'm not sure if that changed, but today there were people walking around with aluminum Budweiser bottles all throughout the park. I saw different people chugging down 2 or 3 beers at a time in just about every line I stood in. I'm not opposed to this or anything, I just thought it was different that the park was clearly allowing it whether it was supposed to be permitted or not. I know it wasn't like that before. Last but not least, I spotted lots and lots of orange markers on trees directly behind the Loch Ness Monster station. I appologize if this has been mentioned in another thread, I just haven't seen it. The markers spanned an area from the supports for Alpengeist's cobra roll all the way over to the Loch Ness Monster runout. Hopefully a good sign of things to come... or maybe they're just taking out trees, who knows. Markers! Taken from the exit side of Loch Ness station. Almost the coolest picture ever. I didn't get the train in a good position, but my batteries died right after this picture I figured out how to get my camera to blur the trains. I have several other picture of various coasters like this. Pretty cool A cool shot through the bare trees 3 train operation with a 3 train wait. Can't get much better than that! Go Army!

Man... pretty soon Grizzly is gonna look like it was put in the middle of the midway. At least they're adding a *new* attraction to the Old Virginia area. When's the last time that happened?? How were the crowds overall?

Thanks for the update man... Although there's still a lot of crap, it looks like they have most of the track assmbled on Italian Job... maybe they're heading in the right direction now. I was worried even just a couple months ago when the entire site was a pile of dirt after a relatively mild winter in RIC. That picture of FOF is the saddest thing ever .

I was there today, and was pleasantly surprised at how the line was continuously moving... opposed to standing still for 5 minutes then moving; the way it was set up last year. Overall I think this has dramatically reduced the wait times for this ride. Plus if the line does get long, it keeps more of the crowd in a shaded area instead of directly under the sun. It looks like I might be alone on this one, but I really think the pre-show sucked anyway, along with the whole story for this ride. I can't remember where, but I heard somewhere that Busch made changes to the ride effects during the off-season. I was hoping those changes would include *finishing* the ride, but unfortunately that's not the case. There's still a totally empty room right in the middle that you spin around in for about 15 seconds to distract you from the fact that the room is totally empty. There were some changes to the effects, but nothing dramatic and the story still doesn't make sense to me. Anyway, I am happy about the queue line change -Chris

I heard Knott's has been working on their website recently, but I'm not sure how long this map has been on there... sorry if this is old news, I thought it was too cool when I saw it. Make sure you zoom in and watch the cowboys run around the park shooting at each other http://www.knotts.com/map/knotts_web.swf

Patriot must be on the list in case Paul Ruben decides to declare it his "new #1 coaster" before it opens. Just like he does for every new ride. Paul Ruben is retarded

I voted for other I think you should save your money for a college education

Cedar Point October 29&30, 2005 I know there are millions of Cedar Point photos out there, but I had the opportunity to get some great shots on closing day last year. The sunset from Lighthouse Point was amazing on Saturday night, and the fall colors were very cool. I also managed to get some good shots the next day from some unique perspectives. -Chris From Lighthouse Point looking across the Bay to Sandusky The Force, and Mean Streak. I love the color of the sky in this one. Sunset from Lighthouse Point Walkway to the Pier Cabins and Mean Streak Lighhouse Point Cabins looking away from the Park Magnum's lift with some fall colors... if you look close enough you can see the second train coming out of the tunnel Power Tower I probably won't ever ride Mantis again, but it's a very photogenic ride. It took 2 days to get this shot, and I have a couple more like it from different angles, and with the trains in different places. It would have been nice to get a Mantis train in that picture, but that would probably be impossible.