haiderodes

haiderodes Not on all the time, but if you see me...say hi

^^I take it there are not that many asian people where you are from? Its a west coast thing. Glad to see you had fun!

With a girl...17. We were standing in line at the Stratosphere Tower. With a boy...17. We were in my car on the top floor of a parking garage.

YES! The good ole' Poly. Us parking lot folks would always ask for a Parking 5 van or an extra truck so we could either go to McDonalds or to the Mouseketeria (especially after they added the Subway). ANYTHING was better than the Poly...even Westgate.

The misting system on ToT isn't new.

West to East... Hawaii California Nevada Arizona Texas Louisiana Mississippi Illinois Florida Pennsylvania Virginia (and Washington DC)

I can give you a rundown as for the couple of places I worked at WDW as a CP. For the restaurant (Plaza Pavilion before it became the Noodle Station), we had to clean and sanitize EVERYTHING and then polish the counters (prevents corrosion due to humidity). We restocked bottled drinks and basically got everything ready for the next day. Nothing that glamourous and because additional cleaning and maintenance come in over night, we never really "locked" anything except for the drinks, coolers, office and what not. Thats not to say that it was open to anyone to just walk in, because it wasn't. We usually closed well before the park closed so my experience differed from most. As for the Magic Kingdom parking lot, closing was a chore! We kept running trams until there were no more than 10 cars in the lot (but usually later if there were still people). I remember working shifts that didnt start until 8p! At park closing time, we would try to be up with a good number of trams with two or more waiting if necessary. We would get constant reports via radio over how many monorails and ferry boats were running. If a monorail or boat went down that meant a crush when it started back up again so we had to be prepared for that. Because of this, the trams vary their routes throughout the day and night to accommodate rushes of people. Generally, about 1.5 hours after park closing there would only be a single tram running so everyone else was busy doing other duties such as "setting the lot" for opening the next day. This consisted of putting cones in thier proper position, configuring the signs to point in the right direction, and "setting" the entrance road. Other duties included rounding up wheelchairs that people liked to leave scattered around the lot and in the various canals (thinking we wouldnt find them half submerged in the darkness). Its kinda hard to lock up the Magic Kingdom parking lot since its so huge and has a number of roads nearby, so after a certain time security takes over the main toll plaza and access is restricted toward the lot itself. A good number of the Disney busses "sleep" at the TTC in the bus lot, but thats something that the bus people take care of. It gets really empty and quiet quickly out there except for the street sweepers. They added additional lighting while I was there, so its not as creepy now as it was before.

That's what I was gonna say! Simmah down now

Considering that they had all that time it was closed, they should have been able to make the necessary adjustments to the station with these trains being 6 car 4 passenger trains instead of 6 car 6 passenger trains. Or maybe it was a tribute to "The Father" so to speak?

That fair seems to have great rides...something fairs around here severely lack! And as for that restroom, that's so old school. HAHA! I haven't seen one of those in forever. I remember them having one of those downtown at the bus station...keeps undesirables out of the restrooms!

While Gravitrons seem more forceful, have the lights, the music, etc...my vote is going for the Round Up. I like the fact that it tilts up and is open air. There's also that wierd side to side movement that you get as you spin at full height that I enjoy. That said I tend to like the classic Round Up more than the Super Round Up because they seem to go higher on the incline (if that makes sense). Granted the only Super Round Up I have ridden is Grider Gearworks at SFMM, but it didnt seem to go as high. If I had to rank them I'd put... 4. Rotor 3. Super Round Up 2. Gravitron 1. Round Up Finally, one thing that always worried me about the Gravitron was the whole possibility the walls blowing out and me being flung to my death. I remember seeing a news story about it when I was a kid and that pretty much scared me away from them (even though I have ridden them since).

Went to two 7-11s last night after work. All sold out of the donuts, but they had tons of the cereal and the soda. Still debating to buy some...would it be worth money in the future? I read that the cereal is being produced by Malt-O-Meal aka the bottom-shelf-generic-cereal-in-a-bag folks. I bought a collectable cup for 1.79 and tried the blue vanilla squishee. I really wanna try that donut! I have a feeling it would be best to go early in the day for that.

I'm not a big Simpsons fan, but when I heard about this I was really excited. Now that I have seen this photos, I'm even more excited to go check it all out. Suprisingly we have one here in the Las Vegas area. Actually its in Henderson, NV. Perhaps I'll go tonight.

My suggestions are probably some of the same things everyone else wants, but here are a few extra things I would like to see... Disneyland Park - Make use of the unloading zone for Space Mountain instead of loading and unloading in the same spot. Disney's California Adventure - Demolish/refurbish the old Hollywood and Vine building and put in a nice thrilling dark ride themed to something else in the Disney universe besides Pixar. I'll even take a spinning coaster ala Crush's Coaster, but lets be creative and use some of the other properties such as The Muppets. - If we get a new Muppets ride, lets get rid of Muppets 4D and come up with another 4D experience. People like these attractions, but you cant let them just sit there for 10 years without changing it up. Perhaps something with a live action slant ala T2:3D. - Bring Festival of the Lion King or a Meet the Robinsons attraction-in-the-round into the old Millionaire building...just something NOT Pixar for a change. - Replace Golden Dreams with a new film. It could still be educational in focus, but just give us something new. - Construct a two story queue for California Screamin'. I always thought that the Avalon Cove restaurant building would have made a nicer queue house for the ride. Plus this would keep the line off the boardwalk and lessen conjestion that the new Toy Story ride will likely cause.

Although I have yet to stay in a Disney resort, I did my fair share of resort pool hopping during my College Program and I have to say that I liked Carribean Beach Resort. It covers a LOT of land area which I really liked. In addition to that main pool there are also smaller private pools scattered about the resort that are nice to relax at. I also liked the little island in the middle of the lake that you can walk around and see the birds...kind of like a miniature Discovery Island.

^Much better photo. Now, I'd have to agree that it has something to do with the first drop/curves.

Tatsu...bleh.

^^The shape of the nose is slightly different between the two, but no zero car. It seems they lowered the nose in the second photo and perhaps made it a little flatter.

I remember hearing something on these boards about the repair/maintenance procedures for the Intamin belts. Something about how they vary in length because they cut frayed or stretched out belts instead of replacing the whole thing. I do agree they should all be the same length. Talking from strickly a customer service standpoint, it's not really fair for someone who can fit into the test seat correctly, to have an issue once they get to the platform. That negates the purpose of the test seat. One more point... Back before they changed the boats on Perilous Plunge and still had those racing-style belts, I saw a lot of kids that were too skinny to ride. So I suppose it works in both ways. Its just one of those things that comes with building bigger and wilder rides.

^ Oh yes, the magnitude is definately greater. Before I did my CP and subsequent seasonal stints, I had worked in multiple theme park settings while in high school. Nothing could hold a stick to the level of angst and stupidity that Disney World guest exhibited. I thought I had good stories of working at parks at home, but they pailed in comparison to my Disney ones. I've seen every extreme, from people going out of there way to thank you with W.W.W.D (What Would Walt Do) pins to the other extreme of physical violence. People get so worked up because they have saved all this money and they want everything to be all perfect and they snap when it doesnt. When I worked out in the MK parking lot we were the first and last people seen for those not staying on property. So we get the riff raff basically, the ones who want it all for nothing. The ones who feel its their duty to circumvent procedures because apparently they know more than Walt and his team of designers did when building the resort. Those are things that they don't tell you in the presentation, but make the whole thing an eye opening experience. If you only get one thing out of the program, it will be a better understanding of how to deal with people. With that said, another thing they don't really prepare you for is the interaction with fellow cast members (non CPs). There are some that are really welcoming and helpful, but then you'll run into the few that have a chip on their shoulder. Or you'll have the ones that act like they were there when Walt bought the first piece of land and dug the first ditch. Its definately an adventure. My roommates and I always joked they should make a reality show about CPs...a lot of it is better than the stuff they show on The Real World.

And seeing how the Vegas Valley is a big bowl of desert full of houses and dry grass, it amazes me that fireworks are still legal here. Granted they have the so called "Safe and Sane" ones that the county has approved which are generally the low to ground pyro, which I am fine with. What irritates me are all the people, including some of my family members, who go out to the "Indian reservation" in Moapa Valley and buy loads of "illegal fireworks". Now these aren't necessarily black market type pyro, but they are considered illegal in Clark County becuase they either explode, move along the ground, or lift up into the air. The problem is that it is so dry here and houses are so close together that all it takes is one errant rocket to set a block ablaze. Every year we have fires. As far back as last week driving home after dark I have seen people ALREADY shooting these things. They can't wait, they must burn their money asap apparently. And calling to report them on 4th of July Night, forget about it. Its gotten so crazy here with fires and injuries on the 4th that the police just say drive to the substation and fill a report because no one is going to come unless its life or death.

So my birthday is coming up next month and I just got an email from Six Flags Magic Mountain offering me up to 5 tickets at the child's price. I assume this is just generated automatically from the season passholder info like the other emails we get. What's interesting is that I never got anything like this last year and I have to say its pretty cool. I work in marketing so its always cool to see the lengths people will go to keep you coming back. So has anybody else gotten this email?

Mission: Space (July 2003) - Added Degree of Difficulty is that I rode it during the intial cast-only previews (I was on the college program at the time). Shrek 4D at USF (July 2003)

<< For those who don't know, its pronounced neh-VA-da. The "A" sounds like the a in apple. We are a little sensitive to that here

They try their best to put you in the housing you request as far as number of rooms goes. Keep in mind that Vista Way only has 2 and 3 bedroom apartments so if you want 1 or 4 bedrooms, you will more than likely end up at Chatham Square (they have 2 and 3 bedrooms as well). Also, at Vista all the 2 bedrooms are on the third floor...something to think about when packing. When I was going through the paperwork before I went down in 2003 they were trying this thing where you fill out a questionnaire and they try and place you with similar people. I.E. late night person vs early morning person. I'm still not sure how successful that is, as the people I ended up rooming with were people I was standing next to in line with the same check-out dates (as it had been all the years before then).