stevenamos
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Posts posted by stevenamos
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Good evening! I wanted to let you know we are still looking for people to sign up for Coasting For Kids at Kennywood on September 1st! Team TPR is doing incredible and has already raised $1429 for the event.
The event will include early ERT on Jack Rabbit and Steel Curtain, as well as everyone receives free admission to the park following the ERT. Everyone even gets a free Coasting For Kids t-shirt and credential for participating.
To join the Team TPR roster, follow this link: http://support.gktw.org/goto/TeamTPRKennywood
Even if you can't make it out, you can make a donation to Team TPR by clicking the link 'Donate Now'
Thank you everyone!
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We still have 11 more Coasting For Kids events left across the country and are nearing $70,000 already raised. We need your support! Please sign up for one of the events in your area if you're available. Thank you!
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Hey everyone! We're just under two weeks from this event and would love to have someone join the Team TPR team for this event. All of the info is below - thank you!
We are still looking for people to sign up for the Team TPR team for Coasting For Kids at Six Flags Over Texas! Here are the details:Six Flags Over Texas: http://support.gktw.org/goto/TeamTPRSixFlagsOverTexas
Date: Saturday, June 22
Schedule
8:00am - Registration
8:30am - ERT access to New Texas Giant and Titan
10:30am - Ceremony
11:00am - All-day access to Six Flags Over Texas
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We're still looking for people to come out to Sesame Place next weekend for Coasting For Kids! It'll be an incredible day with so many wish families coming out to ride!
Here is the schedule:
8:15am - Check-In
8:45am - Opening remarks from Pam Landwirth, President and CEO of Give Kids The World
9:00am - Exclusive access to Oscar's Wacky Taxi and Vapor Trail
10:00am - All-day access to Sesame Place
Fundraise $100 for Give Kids The World and receive the ERT, park admission and a Coasting For Kids t-shirt!
Here is the link to Team TPR for Sesame Place: http://support.gktw.org/goto/TeamTPRSesamePlace
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We are still looking for people to join Team TPR at Silverwood for Coasting For Kids on June 29th. Here are the details:
Silverwood: http://support.gktw.org/goto/TeamTPRSilverwood
Date: Saturday, June 29
Schedule
9:30am - Registration
10:00am - ERT access to Timber Terror and Tremors
11:00am - All-day access to Silverwood Theme Park
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We are still looking for people to sign up for the Team TPR team for Coasting For Kids at Six Flags Over Texas! Here are the details:
Six Flags Over Texas: http://support.gktw.org/goto/TeamTPRSixFlagsOverTexas
Date: Saturday, June 22
Schedule
8:00am - Registration
8:30am - ERT access to New Texas Giant and Titan
10:30am - Ceremony
11:00am - All-day access to Six Flags Over Texas
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We are still looking for people to join the Team TPR for Sesame Place Coasting For Kids, happening on June 8th.
Here is the schedule:
8:15am - Check-In
8:45am - Opening remarks from Pam Landwirth, President and CEO of Give Kids The World
9:00am - Exclusive access to Oscar's Wacky Taxi and Vapor Trail
10:00am - All-day access to Sesame Place
Fundraise $100 for Give Kids The World and receive the ERT, park admission and a Coasting For Kids t-shirt!
Here is the link to Team TPR for Sesame Place: http://support.gktw.org/goto/TeamTPRSesamePlace
Thank you everyone!
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We are still looking for people to join the Team TPR for Quassy's Coasting For Kids, happening on June 8th.
Here is the schedule:
9:30am - Registration
10:00am - Exclusive access to Wooden Warrior and Little Dipper
11:00am - All-day access to Quassy Amusement Park
Fundraise $100 for Give Kids The World and receive the ERT, park admission and a Coasting For Kids t-shirt!
Here is the link to Team TPR for Quassy: http://support.gktw.org/goto/TeamTPRQuassy
Thank you everyone!
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Episode 4: Coasting for Kids at Legoland Florida or "Would you insects please stop trying to mate on the hood of my car?"
I decided late in the game to fundraise for Coasting for Kids this year, and, thanks to some generous donations from Dustin here on the forums, my office's principal landscape architect (thanks Greg!) and some family members, I was able to raise my $100 in two weeks. So guess who decided to take a trip to Legoland?
This trip was also my first time trying out some new camera equipment, so you'll see a mix of phone and camera photos.
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It's a clear, sunny day... for now!
I arrived and was greeted by Give Kids The World's Steve Amos, a manager and [apparent] friend of Theme Park Review. I got my T-shirt, and mingled with the other participants until it was time to go in...
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Giving us the low-down before the day begins.
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Express park entry, stage left!
Unlike the other events where exclusive ride time (ERT) is involved, this year's Legoland event just let all the participants loose in the park! Some participated in the scavenger hunt, but I decided to poke around at my own pace.
The park's newest addition is The Lego Movie World! This land was originally themed to one of Lego's fantasy properties, Legends of Chima. However, it's now turned into a colorful explosion with meet and greets, a play structure, a family drop tower ride, and what is now the park's most popular attraction, Masters of Flight.
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Masters of Flight is a flying theater, similar to Soarin'. You sit in hang glider-like vehicles (in this case themed to a triple-decker couch) and watch a ride film as the vehicles move and bank around. It's pretty fun, but it's very aggressive for the kind of ride it is. It's also a trick ride system where you actually walk up to the upper floors of the building to board, much like Avatar Flight of Passage, and then the entire section of seats turns 180 degrees to begin the ride itself. It's pretty neat!
However, the ride story moves very fast and if you're unfamiliar with the lore of the Lego movies (I've only seen the first one myself), it can be hard to follow.
Elsewhere in the Lego Movie World you have a meet and greet with the characters, some themed dining (Taco Tuesday every day!), the Battle of Bricksburg splash battle (left over from the Legends of Chima world), and Unikitty's Disco Drop, my favorite attraction in the park in terms of looks and presentation.
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Let's take a loop around the park!
Close by The Lego Movie World is the Dragon. Legoland Florida was originally Cypress Gardens, an amusement park and botanical garden that changed ownership frequently in the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s. The park's owner before Legoland invested heavily in rides and coasters in 2004 and 2005, and one of them was a Vekoma junior coaster called Okeechobee Rampage. While the other Legoland parks have custom-built Zierer family coasters, Florida's Dragon is that same Vekoma junior coaster, but extended with a dark ride section.
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The Lego Movie World's "personal space bubble" proximity to the Dragon makes taking a good photo of the layout somewhat challenging.
Moving into the Land of Adventure, we find Coastersaurus, my favorite coaster in the park. It's a "junior" wooden coaster similar to the Ghoster Coasters and the Waldameer Comet. When it was built it was basically in a wide open field, but 15 years later, it's bathed in a gorgeous canopy of trees. It's relatively smooth, and while there isn't a whole lot of airtime, it's certainly not boring!
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It's also the only coaster so far with Great Coasters' Mini-lennium Flyer trains, which are designed with children in mind. You just can't hate the cushy seats of a Great Coasters train!
A quick skip away from Coastersaurus is Project X Test Track, now known as The Great Lego Race. But wait, this coaster wasn't at Cypress Gardens! You're correct, but it wasn't a brand-new installation - it used to be Legoland Windsor's Jungle Racer, with an odd vehicle design where the riders were completely enclosed inside!
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Thankfully, it's just a regular wild mouse now. The ride was re-themed to The Great Lego Race during the great virtual reality race of 2017 and 2018, in conjunction with the addition of VR goggles. Today, the VR goggles seem to be nowhere to be found. It's really just a slightly tamer wild mouse, but the large first drop makes it a bit more exciting.
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Quick overview of the rest of the Technic land.
Finally, all the way in the back of the park, near to the entrance to the water park, lies Flying School. This is firmly "old Vekoma". The layout is great but the ride is awful. I feel spoiled that the only suspended looping coaster I'm familiar with is the one good one, Great Nor'Easter.
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Seriously? How do you get head-banging at 15 miles per hour? How is that even possible? Have I made a grave mistake by committing to subject myself to Walibi Holland's Condor?
So there we have the coasters! Enjoy some other photos from my day at the park...
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The beautiful Cypress Gardens. I could spend days there.
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Future Florida drivers. Have mercy on their souls.
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Mia's Riding Adventure, a Disk'O ride themed to horse-riding. Appropriate.
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And finally, the park's great-looking double-decker carousel. Not as good as the triple-decker couch, unfortunately.
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Thanks for reading! Thanks also to Give Kids the World for putting the event on - those kids deserve every sent that the organization raises.
Thank you again for coming out last week - appreciate the support to Give Kids The World!
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So after all the negative reviews of Darien Lake this past weekend, I decided to take a trip out to see for myself how bad it could possibly be. I also was happy to support Give Kids the World Village at the first ever Coasting For Kids event held at Six Flags Darien Lake. Let me start by saying I'm not at all surprised at how exaggerated the poor reviews were of the park, as it was no where near as bad as I've seen people saying it has been. If you've been to Darien Lake before and you've spent some time getting to know how the park functions like I have for years now, you'd agree that things went pretty well for this weekend and the park is in pretty good shape.
If you're walking into this park for the first time and expecting Magic Kingdom level quality and perfect operations immediately then of course you're going to be upset. I don't expect people to be 100% satisfied with one train operations or some chipped blacktop, but at the end of the day, I was just happy to get back into the park, seeing a new ride looming over all the others, and enjoying the coasters.
Ride of Steel's operators were actually getting trains out pretty quickly aside from the occasional ejection from the ride which isn't the operators fault since the entire train needs to be reset if one guest has to get off... plus the gentleman on the PA system in the station was energetic and fun which I have seen at the park before, but not at RoS up until this point. Boomerang is indeed running better with those new wheels. Its a slight change but its certainly appreciated. Mind Eraser was even running better with the Franken-Train which I also enjoyed. We still have two train ops on Tantrum, no surprise there (I hope), and MotoCoaster was open today leaving only Predator closed. The entire duration of the time I was at the park today all of the coasters that were able to be running, were running. Blast off indeed is getting work done to it and I'm glad to see that instead of it just being closed for the sake of it being closed. Crazy to think Darien Lake keeps rides closed to make improvements to them, isn't it? And yes, I'm being sarcastic with that last one.
On to some pictures and more unnecessary commentary from yours truly!
Thank you so much for coming out and supporting Give Kids The World!
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So excited for this! Thank you!
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Steve here from Give Kids The World! Thank you so much for being such strong supporters of Coasting For Kids over the years! We are hosting our first event of the year at Busch Gardens Williamsburg with an incredible ERT schedule:
7:30am - Registration
8:00am - Reception with light refreshments
8:30am-10:00am - Exclusive Ride Time on Loch Ness Monster
9:00am-10:00am - Exclusive Ride Time on Griffon and Alpengeist
9:30am-10:00am - Exclusive Ride Time on Invadr
9:55am-10:00am - Exclusive First Ride on Verbolten
10:00am - All-day access to Busch Gardens Willamsburg
Theme Park Review (Team TPR) Link: http://support.gktw.org/site/TR/CoastingForKids/General?team_id=6867&pg=team&fr_id=1872
Look forward to meeting you all - I'll be at almost all 16 of them events this year - woohoo!
Coasting for Kids 2019 - Yes! C4K is Back!
in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
Posted
Yes - please let me know. You currently aren't on the Team TPR team but I can move you over and that would increase your team total by $366. Feel free to reply to the email I sent yesterday and it just takes one click.