haiderodes

^^I was thinking grandpa vs. dad.

Seems like quite a few people are planning on being there on Friday! I'm still planning to be there as well. Flight gets in about 930a. If the rental car line goes fast I hope to be there by 1030a. I will be doubling back and hitting the park again for a few hours on Monday morning (4/5) as well.

I wont be getting to the park until 10a, maybe a lil after. But feel free to drop me a PM.

^^Mega Mtn has no preferred parking, just valet. However, I assume the free parking reward isnt valid for that.

Most of my park trips have been alone...all over the country. Usually I'll try and meet up with friends in the area, but I'm good alone. Sure its better to have someone to talk to while in line, but its not a dealbreaker. There's no one here that I know that can/wants to visit these places so I just feel that I'd rather go alone than not go at all.

I last visited the park on consecutive days (Sun 3/21 & Mon 3/22). I got each the morning after the visit. I wonder, are these rewards only good for your home park?

So far... Six Flags Magic Mountain 2x Knott's Berry Farm SeaWorld Orlando Busch Gardens Tampa Also... Stratosphere Tower Buffalo Bills

First Park: Six Flags Magic Mountain (Jan 17) First Coaster: Goliath First New Park: Kings Dominion (April 2 ) First New Coaster of 2010: planned to be I-305 First Food Bought: Chicken Teriyaki @ Seafire Inn @ SeaWorld Orlando (Jan 29)

Desperado 3.22.10

Does anyone know how the audio is triggered? Is it set to a timer that counts down once the train is dispatched or is it synced to certain points along the track? I ask because of the craziness I noticed on Sunday at X2 (playing the lift portion at full volume during loading).

In response to the parking... Magic Mountain has also added a new POS system to the toll plaza in the past two years. When one considers they built the park when computers were anything but common place, it probably costs them a pretty penny to implement something like that. Also, some parks don't have trams at all - its a long walk from the far reaches of the big Knotts lot across Beach Blvd.

When was this? I visited Adventure City twice in 2009 without kids and didnt have that issue.

^Its the airhorn they use to signal the start of the ride. Similar to the one on Scream. Also, audio was hit or miss on Terminator Sunday and Monday. Sometimes it would play, sometimes it wouldnt. Or you would get some audio on the lift, but none again till you hit the brake run.

When I was on the WDWCP, I was able to go on a behind the scenes tour of Tower and it was definitely one of the highlights of my program and something I will never forget. I think this on stage tour is a great idea. I imagine if successful they will carry it over to the other parks.

I miss "Tatsuuuuuuuuu".

There are so many things I think the company is doing right these days especially in the face of the economy and whatnot. I'm really digging the Funatic Rewards program. I visited SFMM Sunday and on Monday morning I was able to print out a voucher for my skip the line pass. I went back to the park Monday and this morning I had my free bottle refills/2 free fountain drink voucher already!

^Isn't that the same voice they used to use for the park annoucements? I agree I would much prefer that. Its always interesting that the ops always suggest something thats always on the other side of the park. AND, I still find it strange they suggest orange chicken and funnel cakes...REALLY? Now that I think about it, there are few other things I noticed this trip that I didnt notice when I was there in January (nor any of my trips last year)... The National Anthem now plays at park opening. How long has that been there? At least its better than the lil shows they used to have out there. Its probably a lot more cost effective for them as well. The pre-recorded speil on Batman. I like! Perhaps it was just the lead who was running the ride, but on Deja Vu, they were blasting the horn as you fly backwards through the station. Pretty cool stuff. Just wish they'd add some station/queue music as its really quiet back there between cycles.

Deja was open Monday.

I was at the park on Sunday and Monday and it was pretty good. Sunday was busier than Monday, but no rediculous waits with plenty of re-rides and walk-ons for the taking. Deja Vu was closed all day Sunday (we did see a test and miscatch sometime in the afternoon), but was open for business on Monday. Overall, ops were great with limited amounts of stacking. I noticed this new high-five thing going on at all the rides when exiting. I guess its nice to have enthusiastic employees and what not, but I'm not big on the touching. Big props for them keeping up on their speils and the clapping while returning to the station. And I chuckle everytime I hear "Revolution, the one loop wonder" Some other things I noticed... They have torn out the pond that used to sit below Revolution's final spiral. The ground has been flattened and covered in fertilizer, I assume some kind of flowers will be going in there. They have started prepping the concrete to put in holders for extended queue poles near the entrance of X2. This will definately be a much classier approach than a couple of trash cans with rope strung between them. X2's audio on train 2 was on the fritz Sunday. It would start playing the lift portion of the soundtrack while in the station, but then cut out when it got to the part when you drop. It seemed to be fine on Monday.

Why skip any rides? I mean, we all have our favorites, but if you make the trip to the park, why not ride as much as you can? It's not like there's any world class shows or other attractions to fill your time. YMMV, but I just dont get it.

The stadium will not be any taller than anything else they already have. University of Nevada, Las Vegas has an arena across the street and directly in the flight path of McCarran International Airport. The arena was built well after the airport and its fine. Not sure what the security risk would be...a crash? Well any area around an airport would run that same risk. Especially ours since its surrounded by homes, businesses, hotels and a university. The planes seem to make it up and down over all of them everyday, all day.

Clark County School District (Southern Nevada) has their spring break March 29 - April 2. There are tons of families that make trips down during that time. I shall hopefully be avoiding large crowds by making my next visit March 21 & 22nd (Sunday and Monday)

As for Lickskillet, I'm thinking those shops are boarded up because that area got the bulk of the flooding back in September. Its a shame to hear they tore down the Wild West stage, but I imagine that had to have suffered a lot of damage as well. Hopefully they can get everything back up and running before the crowds come.

Sshhh before Knotts finds out

I shall be there opening day. Making a nice long weekend trip out there to hit up some parks I havent been to yet...KD, SFA, BGW