arrowfanman

Wow! I cant believe how many comments I got for the Coney Island installment! LOL. Moving right along!... Day 2: Holiday World Hey everybody! Alright, so here we are at day two and our first park of the trip, Holiday World! I had heard a lot of good things about the park! Overall, I found it to be a nice park. Not a great park, but a nice park. Let us take a look. *slow cross-dissolve to Santa Claus* Here we go, that’s more like it! Now, I don’t mean to “knock” on Santa Claus, Indiana, but Holiday World is really in the middle of nowhere! It was almost scary, in that “maybe TPR is really taking us to the backwoods to slaughter us” kind of way! But as soon as they Voyage emerged from behind the landscape, 100 enthusiast cameras popped up and began snapping away! The Raven! Coming from California, I was looking forward to riding my first GOOD wooden coaster today! I was still convinced that they didn’t exist. Waiting to get in. LOL. I don’t know why I find this photo so funny, but I do! So sure enough after a bit of waiting, the park management personally greeted us and escorted us into the side entrance to the park. Our day had begun! We were first escorted through a wonderful photo walk-back around the Raven and the Legend. It was very neat of them! It was Robert Frost who wrote, “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one that went under The Raven, and that has made all the difference.” Once the walk-back was done, Holiday World offered to walk us to one of their three coasters for opening. A vote was held and resulted unanimously in favor for the Voyage. Though he personally voted for the Raven, Robb announces that we’re going to head over to the Voyage! Loser. That’s pretty much the biggest wooden coaster I have ever seen to that date! I was kind of scared, to be honest! As promised, we were the first ones in line and totally psyched! Sure, the Pepsi Python was a kickass ride, but this would be the first real coaster of the trip! And it was REAL something, that’s for sure! LOL. I walked off of the ride saying “that was great!” But I wouldn’t get back in line. The ride was one of the most intense experiences I’ve had on a roller coaster. It wasn’t a bad ride by any means, but there was something uncomfortable about it. Most of it insane, crazy, and fun, but parts weren’t terribly enjoyable (the reverse-banked hump comes to mind ). It’s hard to explain because I don’t want to sound like I’m just ragging on the Voyage. To sum it up, I like what TJ said when we hit the brakes—“Wooden coasters aren’t supposed to go that fast”. That being said, I liked the ride. I just needed to nurse myself back to health a bit before jumping back in line. Besides, there were a few other credits to get! …But not without a ride on the park’s new darkride! Gobbler Getaway was almost a cute attraction. It was clean and I totally see the family appeal. But I found it to be annoying for a few reasons: 1) I want to SHOOT turkeys, dammit, not “call” them! 2) Calling turkeys involved hearing an obnoxious “GOBBLE” every time you pulled the trigger. 3) “We” don’t get to EAT turkey for Thanksgiving, rather order pizza and eat WITH the turkeys. All that “calling” for nothing! So dumboingly anti-climactic! 4) Well… …no carry-on items on a darkride?! You have got to be kidding me!!! …that was my first taste of the strict “no loose articles” policy that I had heard so much about. It was sort of off putting. But please hold, I’ll get to that rant momentarily. For now, let’s continue cycling around to the ride’s various credits. The Legend, by far my least favorite of the park’s 3 woodies. Although the bell they rang when dispatching was cute….just not cute enough to save the ride. All that being said, it was a beautiful looking ride. *sigh* …ok, I think I can rant now. I always put my viewing glasses into my cargo pocket before riding a roller coaster. Well, I made the unfortunate mistake of removing my glasses once seated in the station of the Legend. As if he was waiting for me to do so, I was approached immediately by a ride operator and asked to leave my glasses in the station. I kindly explained they were going in my sealed cargo pocket, but was cut off—apparently glasses loosely fitted around my head are ok, but as soon as they escaped the vise-like grasps of my stubbornly unyielding ears, they were qualified as a potential projectile and I was unable to bring them on the ride. Now before I rant any further, do know that I didn’t put up a fight. I left my glasses on a shelf in the station, where they were just as I left them when I returned. But seriously. Look guys—I've operated several roller coasters. I know personally what it’s like to have a guest get injured by loose articles (as well as the paperwork that follows ), and by no means have a gripe with the policy itself. I was just very put off by the way that the ride operators seemed to enforce the policy throughout the park. Safety always comes first, I understand, but that doesn’t mean that simple courtesy needs to be sacrificed to ensure safe operation. Every ride I went to, I felt as though the ride operators were preying for articles they could deem as unsafe, as if they were competing for the most items caught. It was bad enough to where I felt uncomfortable every time I sat down on a roller coaster! You know when you’re being followed by a cop and even though you’re driving perfectly according to the textbook-law, you feel nervous? That’s how I felt around these ride operators! Perhaps I’m just overreacting. But it felt like the “fun” of riding a roller coaster was sort of sucked out of me by these Nazi ride operators. They were like dementors. Something tells me I just lost points with some of you for using a Harry Potter reference. Moving right along. Oh, and the Legend had to many laterals. LOL. Thought I’d throw that in there. TJ, pretending to like Pepsi in line for the Raven. Yes, he downed all of those. For those who don’t know (I certainly didn’t before my visit), Holiday World offers guests FREE UNLIMITED Pepsi drinks throughout the day. It’s actually a very neat concept! Would be neater if it wasn’t Pepsi, however! …”Nevermore”. LOL at two American Literature references in one PTR! My 11th grade Lit teacher would be so proud. The Raven would be my favorite ride at Holiday World and the best wooden coaster I had been on at that point! FINALLY, I had found myself a GREAT woodie! The search was over! The Raven was a fun, comfortable, well paced ride with much airtime and in a great setting! Unlike some rides, which traditionally begin with the “one trick” and then sort of meander back to the station for the rest of the ride, the Raven begins fun and only gets faster, better, and more insane as the ride concludes. Once we were blown away on the Raven, it was time for some grub. We had a group lunch provided in one of the park’s picnic areas. PEPPERIONI PIZZA…this meal is “Jahan Approved!” An unnecessary photo of the group trying to not look like they hate me for taking a photo of them! LOL. Chris looks like he crapped a pizza crust! The view of the Voyage from where we ate lunch. Sorry, must have had a shift-change on whoever is writing the captions! I also randomly found these track segments. With a group like this, I thought about black-lighting them but quickly decided against it! After lunch, Holiday World was nice enough to take us on another photo walk-back of the Voyage! Ironically enough, I don’t have any photos from this! LOL. That being said, it was very neat. I mean, I don’t recall the ride being fenced in or anything and we were just sort of walking around it! If that’s not “up close and personal”, I don’t know what is! Naturally, we had to conclude our walk-back with another ride on the Voyage. I admit, the ride was a bit more comfortable later in the day, once it had “warmed up”. Still wasn’t as good as the Raven performed in the morning, in my opinion. We then headed into the children-centric area to get a ride on the kiddy-credit, which was, well—a kiddy credit! Tex and I have a “moment” with the Holidog! We then hopped on the river rapids. What?! I don’t have that many photos from this part of the day! That is especially true as after that, we headed into Splashin’ Safari, the in-park water park. I didn’t bring my camera with me for that leg of the journey, which is rather unfortunate because I think the water park was probably one of my favorites, if not my favorite part of the park! I don’t know why, I just liked it! A pretty standard, off-the-shelf collection of water slides. That being said, many of them were massive! After the water park closed, we prepared for sunset. Our time left in the park was short. Some headed to the Voyage. Some headed to the Raven. No one really headed to the Legend. I was in the group who headed to the Raven. Night rides on the Raven = close to what I’m pretty sure sex is like (can anyone confirm this?!). Like, we seriously got back in line again, and again, and again. There are very few rides that will encourage me enough to get back IN A LINE for. I rode the Raven about 3 or 4 more times until, alas, park closing had arrived. All and all, as I said, Holiday World was a nice park. Now, I don’t mean to sound as though I’m “hating” on the park, but at the end of the day, walking away from the park, I didn’t feel as if it was all that great. My metaphor for the park was “painted plywood”— Figure A. Painted Plywood The park was clean. It looked fresh. The landscaping was beautiful. The staff was professional. The rides were enjoyable. The park had all the ingredients that a theme park should have. You can’t deny that. Regardless, it wasn’t that great of a park! I’ve always heard of big theme parks trying to manage themselves the way little theme parks do. This was exactly the opposite. It was a little theme park that tried to manage itself as a big theme park! It may be family owned and operated, but it felt very corporate and “watered down”, with little charm that was not forced. And no matter how much it tried to be a big theme park (the paint), you couldn’t get around the truth that Holiday World is just more of a roadside-attraction with three coasters and a few flats (the plywood). If you like water parks than you can easily spend a whole day there. If you do not, I wouldn’t plan a whole day around the park. It’s ok if you disagree with me, I wont mind. That’s simply what I walked away from the park feeling. Anyway, that would about do it for this installment! I hope you enjoyed reading! It’s fun for me to revisit these memories, so I hope you’ve enjoyed it! -Jahan p.s. LOL…just stumbled across this random photo of Ryan and I. Dorks.

I have about 75% of the PTR already typed up. Increase this to $100 bucks and you have a deal. Thanks for the comments guys! I'm glad none of you noticed that I'm late. -Jahan

Hey everybody! Ok, so the other day my parents asked for me the go searching through my photos from this past year to find a nice photo of me, for print. Well, I didn’t find a single “nice photo” of me! LOL. That being said, I did revisit all of my photos from the Midwest Trip and remembered how much fun I had on the trip! With everybody doing these “late PTRs” and with the Midwest DVD rapidly approaching, I thought it would be fitting for me to finally do my PTR! I’ve only had the photos uploaded for about 5 months now! I hope you all enjoy the photos as much as I do! Table of Contents Day One: Arrival and Coney Island (scroll down) Day Two: Holiday World Day Three: Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom Day Three: Beech Bend Day Four: Indiana Beach Day Five: Little A-Merrick-A and Mount Olympus Day Six: Mount Olympus, Riverview, and Timber Falls Day Seven: Six Flags Great America Days Eight and Nine: Cedar Point Day Ten: Kennywood Day Eleven: Kings Island (and Stricker's Grove) Day 1: Arrival Day and Coney Island! So let’s rewind several months to Wednesday, August 1, 2007. *dramatic rewind sequence* Time...the ever flowing river...come with us to a time before the Midwest Trip... There we go! At the beginning, on the floor of LAX awaiting our chariot! Oh—and NO Chris. BAD Chris. We DO NOT eat babies! Fast-forward a few hours and we arrived at the Indianapolis airport. Yes, I know, the trip started at CVG in Cincinnati. But after calculating it out, we discovered it would actually be cheaper for our large group of about 10 to fly to Indianapolis, rent two vans, and drop them off at CVG! After splitting the costs, we saved about $250 each! Our bad-ass vans, ready for dispatch. And LOL at Dane. I don’t know why, but LOL. I HATE red-eyes. But that symbolic first sunrise of the trip is always SO refreshing. We were all getting a bit hungry. As all being Californian-residents (except for the big-guy from Nevada), we simply HAD to indulge ourselves with WAFFLE HOUSE! The whole W.H. crew fell in love with us and our “coaster mission”. They even gave us hats! This work, titled “Chilling Outside of the WaffleHouse”, is pretty much the greatest photograph ever taken. After refueling, we finally made our way to CVG. It’s a beautiful airport—just ass expensive! “Just another day at the office”, preparing for the largest group TPR has ever hosted! The happy enthusiast-group has received TPR’s sympathetic vibrations and is beginning to materialize. They’re assembling for a swinging wake! As the group began to assemble, the first round of buses were ready to be dispatched to the Super Secret Bonus Park while we wait for the 3pm arrivals. Robb took the Vekoma bus, but Erik Johnson (Arrow Bus Captain) had not yet arrived so for some unknown reason, Ryan King and myself were charged with managing the Arrow Bus on this first trek! SCARY, I know!!! The journey basically consisted of Ryan picking up the bus-microphone and me taking it away from him, multiple times. I think I know where we’re going. I was right! I win! For those who didn’t already hear, the buses actually didn’t make the clearance under the Coney Island main entrance marquee! LOL. We almost had a collision! But sure enough with a bit of traffic-stopping, the crisis was averted. Onto the park! Time for the first credit of the trip—the Pepsi Python! The Pepsi Python was an insane little ride! We’re talking a ride that was far to fast, with drops far to steep, for the purpose of roller coaster that size. Essentially, it felt like you were going to be ejected to your death, which meant it was awesome! You can tell that Joe isn’t entirely sold on the idea of riding in the back with Robb! Jon’s all “Giggidy giggidy, wanna ride my Python?, giggidy!” After the one park-credit, it was time to check out the other little flats and things to do— I decided to be cool like big-Carl and ride away from the group! OMG! A working Rock O Plane! The last one we came across was at the first Ghetto Fair, and it didn’t work! Well, it WAS working when I took this picture. They then made us leave when someone vomited on the ride—and onto a certain cartoonist, as it would be. But we eventually returned for a ride. Homer and I reminisce about my days back at CoasterForce with grossly-scary faces on the Rock O Plane. HELL YES! One of these drop towers! They’re perfect for providing a very ‘special’ kind of airtime! Yup—Wagner is definitely digging that airtime! Coney Island was a cute little park, definitely enjoyable, and a great way to relax. But it was HOT—freakin hot! And being on that first wave of visitors meant spending nearly 5 hours in that heat! I was also exhausted from no sleep on the red eye and in desperate need of a shower! Regardless, I survived and managed to enjoy doing so! But it was time to head to the first hotel of the trip! TPR Takeover! Our first Hotel in Louisville was our “base” for the next few days. Wes was pretty much the perfect roommate on the trip—great guy, we saw eye to eye on a lot of things, our room always had a fridge for his meds, and the sex was unbelievable! That night also happened to be the night when Robb won the Buffalo Wild Wings Blazin’ Wings challenge! He literally did so well, that he realized half way through that he could slow down and simply enjoy the wings, because either way he was winning and the wings were free! Yay! He now has his photo on some random wall in Louisville! Well, there you have it. The very FIRST installment of my PTR from the Theme Park Review Midwest Tour! I hope you’ve enjoyed it so far! I know this wasn't much, but I WILL be updating regularly, so stay tuned for the first official park of the trip—Holiday World! -Jahan

Hey guys, Skytower will be down this weekend as the installation of the museum "Magic of the Mountain" picks up speed. Also, the Midway refurbishments look great! A potential update this weekend will show that. -Jahan

Great update Robb! For the record, I don't know if it's on account of the rain we've been having or not, but Scream was no longer playing music today. If only Rockin' Space Mountain died as quickly as Rockin' Scream did! -Jahan

CONGRATS Diablo! Well earned! Juno makes me smile. -Jahan EDIT: Thread title amended.

Great installment! I laughed at that "Playboy Club" tower! -Jahan

She didn't buy them. Normally with these kinds of things, they don't purchase them for the Oscars but rather the designers let them wear them. Why? Because they're walking billboards for the designer's other work when they're on the red carpet. Anyway, back on topic, here's hoping DCody wins the Oscar! Juno has to be the most engaging of all the films listed there! You can literally walk in at any point of the movie and be pulled into the characters' world. -Jahan

^ Was it just me or did I hear that 8 people returned from the island, with 6 survivors from the Oceanic flight? I'm probably just hearing things. But I assumed that Aaron was one of the 2, non Oceanic-survivors. Either way, this episode blew me away. I usually don't care for Kate episodes, but this one had watching intently! -Jahan

HECTOR!!!! I'm glad you had an awesome time at Sea World! I cant complain too much from my last experience of the park, which entailed a quick drive around the parking lot once discovering JTA was closed! I shake my fist at your penguin picture, but there were some great shots! When you "count" past the one penguin, a lot more in that photo begins to unfold! On the bright side--it wasn't a fire alarm. -Jahan

Woah, woah, woah, woah, woah, woah, woah, woah, woah. Hold on there. First of all, thank you. Second of all, I have HAD a job for some time now and it's always been at Magic Mountain. This is just a new position. Third of all, I have a lot of friends that work at Disney, all over the parks. Do you know what they do at work? Push buttons. Wave batons. Paperwork. And that's it. They're told to follow a set list of instructions. When you think about it, the "Disney Difference" is pretty much about sucking the individuality out of each cast member in order to standardize an experience. Now, that's not to say that cast members don't do an awesome job--they execute these "set instructions" flawlessly, normally. But I work in an environment where my superiors don't only ask me to follow a set list of instructions, but seek my advice, and the advice of all my peers, on improving the guest experience. Essentially, at Magic Mountain, they celebrate what each individual can bring to the park--rather than try to neuter that. Again, Disney is great. My favorite place in the world is Disneyland. But I've had CMs tell me they're jealous of the open work environment I'm in. That they're simply subjects in a fascist dictatorship, while I have the ability to really participate in the direction of the company. After the experiences I've had, I don't know if I can ever downgrade my work environment and go to Disney. -Jahan EDIT: The original post I was quoting to has been deleted. I didn't mean to "single out" any individual or jump on you, as you were just giving a personal preference. But now that I've posted this, I'm going to leave it because what I have to say still stands true.

^ They were just following rules set forth by MPAA in order to make the trailer acceptable for "All Audiences" (the green screen you see before trailers begin). If those rules are legit or not--That's a whole another debate. I'd say start a thread, but I personally think we've exhausted the "PC--is it bad?" thread. Yes, America sucks. We know that. As for Indy 4 v. the Star Wars prequels, I've always had the impression that with the Star Wars prequels, Lucas had this "story" he was trying to tell, with a "message" he was trying to convey. And honestly his interpretation of a story bogged down the films. I always remember watching the Simpson when they go to watch the prequels, hoping for a Star Wars and getting a bunch of planets debating in the Galactic Senate for 2 hours. With Indy 4, I have the impression that everybody kept bugging them about making another Indy, they said "We can make a crap a lot of money with this", so the hope is they just jammed a bunch of obligatory Indy stuff in and call it a day. That's what I'm hoping for, at least. -Jahan

Yay! I was just talking to Robb last night about how awesome your photos are! So happy to get another taste! Thanks for shooting this update for us! -Jahan

The only person in this thread with any unhealthy degree of presumed self-importance would be me, and I'm declaring that there's no need to escalate this argument over escalator etiquette any further. Violators will be shot. Thank you for understanding. Sincerely, Jahan Makanvand Person of Importance

That was actually very interesting. I would love to see this technology incorporated into games. Being able to physically duck behind and beside objects in the game would be pretty neat! -Jahan

It's not that I go out of my way to "save money", but I do typically set a budget every time I go to a park. Just a figure that I try to meet. It kind of keeps things in perspective for me. So I don't start spending on souvenirs or sit down meals I cant afford. -Jahan

^ At the moment it still stands, but it's on the chopping block right now. Honestly, I don't think that X and Viper contrast with each other. By nature of being an Arrow, both rides have such MASSIVE support structures in relation to the track, that X really seems more of a "dark" ride and Viper seems like a "light" ride. They almost seem to work off of each other in that manner. Just an aesthitics-opinion thing, I suppose. -Jahan

I agree. I had the understanding that Golden Dreams will close before the year is out and construction would begin, sometime after F**kin' Mania opens in June. That being said, we all know how long the construction takes. I mean, "F**kin Mania" came about in December of '06, and construction was well underway then. If Mermaid is anything near the scope of Mania, construction will inevitably last into 2010, in my opinion. -Jahan

Great update Robb! Thanks for shooting it! I love the shot of KT with the Toons. -Jahan

^ I'm afraid you will not be able to. This year, the Value Book free passes have been increased from 3 to 5, but are now more specific in their use. The five free friend passes are now only applicable for-- -Mother's Day -Father's Day -Pick a Day: March 30, April 27, July 27, September 28, November 30, December 28 -Pick a Day: Weekdays in June -Pick a Day: Weekdays in August You can find more information here: http://www.sixflags.com/magicMountain/tickets/ValueBook.aspx But the special, one-day admission of $18.50 for WCB attendees, even on top of the $20 event fee, is very reasonable, in my opinion. -Jahan

Thanks guys! I had a great birthday! Thanks for all of the nice messages! -Jahan

I am wondering if two trains are really on-site, or if it's actually two coaches. Because those tiny thumbnails show two coaches, with the second transfer run still empty. Just what I figure. I'd believe it if they say 2 out of 3 trains are here, but it does make more sense that 2 coaches have made it here so far. -Jahan

Great start to your PTR Chuck! I agree with you on everything about Knott's--except for Sierra Sidewinder. I just didn't seem to care for it when I rode it a week ago. I think I gave it a smile, but nothing beyond that. Look forward to the next installment! -Jahan

It SO was. Great PTR Colin! I always love reading about "first time" visits to SFMM and this one was a great one! I agree--the Goliath crew is the best crew in the park! Hope to see you back in a few months. -Jahan

...let's finish this thing! That should do it for today's PTR. I'm going to end the report with a photo of Hector and Chuck battling each other with spoons, because it's an awesome photo! I hope you all enjoyed reading the report! Thank you! -Jahan After coasting down the hill at "way fast", we arrived in Valencia safe and sound. Our trip was over. I love how you're just driving on the flattest land you've ever seen, and then all of a sudden---BOOM. You get hit in the face with the Transverse Range! It was actually all right! Like I said, not a Frozen Coke, but enjoyable! A photo of us awaiting our CreamSlushes. I really like this one, for some reason! But first, we stopped at a Sonic--my first Sonic too, since apparently a Sonic Slush is amazing. Not Frozen Coke amazing, but amazing. The following day, we slept in--the cherry on top of an entirely relaxing weekend. After sleeping in, we headed back for Valenica. The Chuck's niece and I engaged in a tickle-war which became so painful for me (I was losing), that I forced her to agree to a truce! She doesn't seem to happy about it! We concluded our night by playing Rock Band, which I sucked at but eventually did decently on the drums. When I arrived at home, I sure as hell didn't take it for granted! I was lucky to be alive! LOL. Driving back, we almost died tons of times! We thought we'd take a "short cut" and well--that's how most bad stories begin. We took the 41, a highway that, unlike it's counterpart (the 46) was so windy that you'd often times not see where the road in front of you was leading to! Add that, the fact we heard gun shots, and the case where we almost got in a head-on collision and you have the SCARY drive home! With all light gone and the small city sparkling away, it was time to head back home. Realizing there was still a little bit of light in the sky, we decided to drive out to the "plug" and hang out by the crashing waves as we lost our light. No caption I can think of would make this photo any better. We found these random "grab bags" and were VERY scared to know what was inside of them! After the sun set, we went walking along some shops at the shore. Here, Chuck looks for a whale penis. *cease dramatic background music* I love the colors the sunset produces. Nearly gone! Sort of a dorky-shot, but I think that it came out well! Getting closer! Notice the seal in the water. Waiting for the sun, I was able to appreciate the quaint little port that is Morro Bay. Much smaller than CA's other ports. With the exception of San Fransisco, which is probably the best natural harbor in the world, California has horrible natural harbors. A problem mariners have faced for nearly 500 years now. That was random. With the Rock there, it really is quite a dramatic scene! With *just* enough time to spare, we arrived to catch the setting sun. We went out onto some random, small dock. When we arrived in Morro Bay, we were greeted by Morro Rock, which is apparently a "volcanic plug". Naturally, the word "plug" led to all sorts of fun names for the rock. =D