haiderodes

I totally agree that fire would be awesome, but I'm not sure they'd wanna risk fire on that building.

I'm still holding out for the 2009 announcement to include something about a bucket or two of paint landing over in "parking-lot-coaster-land". Now THAT is something I wanna see

^^ I know! The mist in the tunnel was good stuff! I hate when they build rides with mist/fog and then shut it off. I wonder if in the case of Speed if it was due to ill effects on the hardware or just a way to save water?

^ That was on thing that irritated me about the operation of the ride after its inagural season when they started limiting the number of launches per hour unless really busy. This was to cut down on power consumption. It was so frustrating to stand there at the gates, staring at the empty train while hearing the workers talk about their personal lives.

May I ask what time were you at the dome? School is in session, so that always has an impact on daytime crowds even if it is a "getaway Friday." When I worked there, it never got hopping until about 6 or 7p on Friday nights unless it was a holiday weekend. Oh BTW...im working FrightDome!

There's Chick-Fil-A in Arizona and So Cal, but of course none here in the "great" state of Nevada. I know this is even more off topic, but Arizona seems to have a lot of things normally found in the Midwest, South and East ala Culver's, Chick-Fil-A, Quik Trip, and Whataburger. None of which have seemed to make it up here to Las Vegas. BTW...the founder of Chick-Fil-A is a Southern Baptist.

Superman: The Escape is the loudest I've heard...especially back in the day when they'd use both sides! When Freefall was open, the last part of the queue under Riddler could be maddening due to the B&M roar. As far as lift hills, X2 is pretty crazy. Those anti-rollbacks are huge!

^ I second that motion. Everytime I have stood in the X2 line this year I've overheard the conversation discussing how "they tore down X and replaced it with X2". Hell, people enter the X2 line thinking its Viper! They are shocked when they to the split and realize its a different ride.

Last night I watched the Behind the Screams videos Knotts has up on the haunt page. I thought it was interesting how the head creative guy was like...Asylum and 13 are in really bad shape from construction and destruction over the past 6 years. Yes, he put it out there plain and simple. I guess its cool that he's honest with his audience, but I was suprised he didn't try to "spin" their demise as something like "we want to go in a new creative direction next year"

My roommate had lived in Orlando for the past 4 years and had grown accustomed to the USF version as well. Like you, he was taken aback by the thought of two years with the same characters. BTW he was also annoyed last year when we got there and realized they dont serve liquor at the USH event like they do in Florida. As for me, I think its a smart idea for them to keep the characters around for a second year. Remember USH went years without a Halloween event and these things need time to mature and grow. By building upon what worked well last year they can better refine the event. Because it seems that the Universal approach is one of an overlying theme versus a bunch of random haunts, its going to take time for them to have all the pieces in place to truly deliver as I believe they can. While I would have liked to see an additional maze announced this year, I think the key to the success is going to be the updated Terror Tram. Plus the Freddy maze is going to be all new as well, so that sounds fun.

They are building the world's largest bonfire!

From what I've read lately, it seems they are adding more in the way of scare zones which is a great way to build the atmosphere for the event. I just hope the Terror Tram really delivers this year, last year it was kinda bleh. I was hoping to have people popping out of the bushes instead of randomly standing there shaking a can at me.

X2 last Sunday (9/14) around 530p.

I find interesting that all year they have been promoting that Play Pass holders get free Fright Fest, which usually is the same as using your pass any other day. Now with the upcharge for the mazes, does this mean that us passholders get free maze admission or do we still have to pay?

Something I forgot to mention... There is a bee infestation at the Freshers Lemonade stand next to the WB stage in Six Flags Plaza. It was the craziest thing I have ever seen...bees inside and outside the booth. The worker was unfazed by it and even his supervisor who was delivering cups didnt seem to be concerned. This was considerably more than 5, 10 or even 20 bees. Some were flying around. Some were walking around sucking up spilled lemon slush, while others seemed to be dying a slow hot death on the inside of the window sill.

^I noticed they started putting some of the decorations up. Spider webs/cheese cloth all over Samurai Summit seemed to be the most visible additions so far.

I was at SFMM yesterday with a friend. We were at the gate by 9:45a, they opened them up about 5 minutes early. Noticed the Armitron now has a new favorite temperature...71 degrees. After a little hassle getting a locker (only the credit card reader was working but no sign to indicate it), we started with X2. Waited about 45 min. They werent assigning rows as I've seen before, but simply letting in two train loads at a time. Next up was Tatsu (15 min), Goldrusher (walk), and Riddler (walk). After a snack at the Waterfront, we hit up Batman (20 min on the stairs as they added a second train), Scream twice (walk), Colossus (walk) and Goliath (walk). We were taking our sweet time too! Later on we made our way back up the hill by riding Revolution (walk) and Ninja (walk). Superman had a line that extended to just inside the entrance, but it was hot and the line was nice and cold, so we decided to just hang out in there and wait for the ride. Unfortunately, the last little anteroom was not as well air conditioned. We waited a total of 30 minutes. Made it back down sucide hill and hit Goldrusher again (walk), Scrambler which takes forever to stop (walk) and Riddler (one train wait). Wanted to ride Atom Smasher, but it was down which was fine. My main gripe was how the operators handled it...kinda gave us attitude. Also had a similar complaint about the churro cart near the entrance to Gotham as well. So on to Gearworks and the pursuit of an open churro cart (or one that had them). Found one near Valencia Falls, but I didnt care for it, perhaps it wasnt fresh, but in any case, she offered to make me a new one or give me my money back. My friend still bought one, I took the money and we went to the Cyber Cafe for mini donuts. Last rides were on Viper (walk) and X2 again (15 min). In fact I have never seen an X2 line that short. It was only in that last straightaway before the split. Noticed that the remaining X train is now sitting in the dirt below Viper. What was weird was that there were a lot of cars in the lot, but none of the lines were particularly bad. Only closed rides we saw were Jet Stream and Deja Vu (which might have opened later, but we didnt walk back by there). For the most part the operations were good, so perhaps that helped. All rides had two trains (except Superman of course). Tatsu was running single station. Stacking on rides, if occuring, was usually guest related. So all and all a good day.

^ You're in luck! Disneyland Resort has a College Program, albeit smaller than the WDW version. They recently reintroduced a living component as well with a new housing complex/facility.

I've only been to SFDK twice, but I have noticed that Medusa's operational policy seems to work against the crew making interval. On a typical dispatch with one person at load and one at unload the loader brings the train in, then before opening the gates goes up toward the front to let in FPs checking heights on the way up and back. Then he/she opens gates from the back of the station, gates close and then proceed to check their 16 (out of the 32) harnesses front to back. Add a few loose articles and larger proportioned guests and you have a back up situation. The fact that all over the park, they let FPs go directly onto the trains, instead of merging them with the station crowd (ala SFMM), also slows things down.

I've only been to the mountain once during Fright Fest and even then, never hit any of the mazes because the lines were rediculous. What time do the mazes start opening? At dusk or is there a certain time? Also any idea on which coasters will be "in the dark"? I think last time I went it was Colossus Backwards, Goliath, Riddler and Batman.

I love a ghetto water/theme park! I do question the persistent "ring" in all the pools. Kinda nasty no?

I like Disneyland's Splash Mountain best. The change of angle partway down the descent is great stuff!

Strictly speaking coasters... KBF: Windjammer Wacky Soap Box Racers SFMM: Flashback Psyclone Las Vegas: High Roller Lightning Bolt (all three versions)

^ I'm sorry I cant agree with that. If you have a temperature clearly displayed to inform your public, it should be working. They should either reprogram it to take off the temperature or just turn the whole thing off. Those things are not that difficult to reprogram.

I just think its funny because during the opening show, the two kids use the clock to figure out how much time they have left. The second day the girl looked over and was like..."only 10 more minutes till the park opens and its 93 degrees. what? 93 degrees already?".