doom1001

The last time I visited Stone Mountain was before they built the Crossroads Village,looks pretty cool.Can you still hike all the way up to the top of the mountain,I loved doing that last time?When does the snow mountain tubing start and end?

The article said they will be keeping one of the two wood coasters,so it's looking like the Starliner is probably the one going away since I've heard nothing of a sale of the Triple Hurricane.Too bad since my last visit to Cypress Gardens was pre-Starliner so I might never get a chance to ride it.The Triple Hurricane was pretty decent though,small but a fun little ride.

Even though this stretch of US 27 is far from the most ideal street to get to the park,it at least has some businesses and restaurants and is not a total country road.I've done the drive many times the whole way from Miami to Orlando on US 27 cause I get bored with the Turnpike and I-95 and in all honesty US 27 from Winter Haven to I-4 is "Magnificent" compared to the dilapidated towns and empty fields you'll see around Lake Okechobee until approximately Sebring which is probably the first decent town you'll see on the whole trip up US 27.

I wouldn't say it's overly difficult,but it's just not that close, and in between traffic lights and traffic it's like at least an hour to get to Disney.I haven't done the drive from Cypress Gardens to the Orlando theme parks that much,I think only twice but all I kept thinking is how much longer it's taking than I thought it would.Also I know I heard they changed or were going to change the entrance and parking of the park last year but the parking they had about 3 years ago in my last visit I just don't remember it having a parking lot that will hold that many cars.I think parking might be another area they might need to look at if it becomes a Legoland.

Any way you look at it the park has little to no chance of surviving as the smaller traditional attraction that it used to be.It still is a beautiful park but the last couple of years have shown that the park from the 50's and 60's when Disney was not around cannot maintain enough visitors unless a major change is made.In my opinion one of two things is going to happen,Merlin will build a Legoland and will have success bringing in people with advertising,offering a shuttle service to simplify the process of getting there to the millions of people visiting Orlando and eventually 3 or 4 years down the road Legoland will just mesh into another Central Florida attraction where hundreds of people daily will make the drive down there without thinking about it.On the other hand if it doesn't work the only other viable option is for Winter Haven to make it a city park with only a few employees to maintain the site.An example of where something similar happened is when Parrot Jungle in Miami left the Village of Pinecrest to move to an island just off the Macarthur Causeway about 2 minutes before you enter South Beach.The old location in Pinecrest was beautiful,lush full of trees and gardens,where they moved to not so much,sure it is next to the water and they added trees to make it as nice as they could and in maybe 20 years it might have the same lush look similar to the old location,but one thing I guarantee you is they're getting waaayy more visitors 2 minutes from South Beach and charging higher prices as well than when they were located in Pinecrest which is tucked away in south Miami Dade county.I visited Pinecrest Gardens,where Parrot Jungle used to be about a month ago and I think I saw two employees,one cleaning and one charging $3 to use the water play area for kids,there was no charge to enter the gardens and there were maybe 10-15 people inside the gates.They're probably getting hundreds to visit the new location daily charging $30 a head and parking.

Their Preferred AP renewal went from $117 to $159,it's still a pretty decent deal and I will renew it since to get new Preferred AP is well over $200 so I'm not going to let it expire,but it's been like almost 10 years that the price was $99 or $109 plus tax and now it went to $149 or $159 with tax.It used to be the deal of the AP prices and now with Potter they plan to try to catch up with Disney.

I thought about Manhattan Express or "the Coaster" or whatever they're calling it nowadays,and it's definitely a painful ride,but I thought to myself there's only a handful of coasters in Vegas,so let it stay.

Kong at SFDK,way too painful.

In your poll do you mean Islands of Adventure in Universal or Adventure Island which is the waterpark next to Busch Gardens in Tampa?If I have to pick one assuming you mean Islands of Adventure then I have to go with Disney,can't really pick the other ones over Disney even though they have better coasters.

How about "Sea World Gardens Escape"

I remember going to Tampa around 1991 for a baseball tournament with my team and visiting Busch Gardens.This was before any of the big coasters showed up and before my addiction to theme parks began.I remember the Questor simulator and riding Congo River Rapids about 6 times in a row without getting off as there were no lines as it was a 55 degree overcast day,getting off totally soaked and nearly catching pneumonia a few days later,good times!!I think I have one of those early 90's Busch Gardens brochures somewhere from that visit.

While we're on the subject of Moe's and Chipotle(my favorite),has anyone had Panchero's Mexican Grill,I got one opening about 5 minutes from my house and from the website it appears to be another Moe's,Qdoba,Chipotle clone,just wondering if it's good.

I visited Six Flags Atlantis/Atlantis probably 2 or 3 times before it closed.I was probably 13 years old the last time I went and what I remember most is a huge slide tower with most or all of the slides in the park and a pretty big wave pool,I also remember that it didn't have many shaded areas.If I would have been older when it was open I definitely would've visited it more times.However to this day I know that it was located at what is now a shopping center with a Dave and Buster's on I-95 between Stirling and Sheridan in Hollywood,very close to Boomer's and the Dania Beach Hurricane.There's been talk for about 5 years now of another waterpark being built about about 5 minutes from my house in the parking lot of the Miami Metrozoo,the latest I've heard is two firms have submitted proposals to develop the waterpark,Parc Management and a Ft.Lauderdale company who recently built a small waterpark by the Miami airport.It's been so long I've been hearing about this waterpark being built that I don't know if it ever will.

I went to Adventure Island in August and the middle slide on the Water Mocassin was still there,you definitely catch some air on that slide!That explanation of why they got rid of the Tampa Typhoon makes no sense to me.

You my friend have the holy grail of Adventure Island brochures.I'm also a fellow brochure collector,I possibly have thousands of brochures,park maps,magazines etc.. going back almost 15-20 years.Whenever someone goes on vacation somewhere I don't want a t-shirt or some souvenir,I tell them to look in their hotel lobby and see if they see a theme park brochure and bring it back to me.My earliest visit to Adventure Island was probably around 2002 and from these pictures it seems like this park got infused with trees between the time of these brochures and my visits,some of the slides in the brochures look so plain,the park now seems to have many more trees and shade.It's still very cool to see these pictures.

One day we drove up from Miami to Busch Gardens Tampa and as we're getting close to Tampa we hear on the radio that there's a tornado watch and while the weather was cloudy we still head to the park,usually these tornado warnings are for an hour or two and then you might get a nice day.Well a little later we hear that a tornado has been seen 6 miles south of downtown Tampa.Well we get to a cloudy park on a weekday during school so we were maybe the 10th car in the lot.We rode Montu twice and then headed back in the park to ride Kumba,this was the pre-Sheikra days.As we get near the back of the park it was like they dumped a continuous bucket of water all over us,we try to find some cover and see the bumper cars are still operating,we get in the cars and see that there's water almost coming up and over into the floor where the cars are at,and I start thinking these probably run on electricity and water coming in here is probably not a good thing,well before they started the cars they told us to get out of the cars as they were shutting it down.We hid out until the water slowed down somewhat.There couldn't have been more than 20 people in the park at this point.We made it back to the car and drove off to Universal which had nicer weather for a while but about two hours later it turned wet and ugly,thus making us leave again.Not a good day.

I wonder what's going to happen to this park,I mean the Legoland thing would be cool,but they would probably need to have a multiday ticket that would include it along with the other parks that might or might not become owned by Merlin/Blackstone,I think it's the only way to get people to venture southwest on US 27 from Orlando.I hope the coasters stick around or find new good homes,I never got to ride Starliner as it was being built when I last went and I really liked that Jr woodie,Triple Hurricane,my favorite ride however was the bouncy bouncy.

Can you picture Spider-Man replacing Tinker Bell during the Wishes fireworks.

That banner looked cheap and flimsy and I didn't like it,maybe they'll consider putting a worthwhile replacement.

Here's post #6 about how the banner just doesn't look right,it's OK for now as they obviously have bigger issues like getting it open and running safely.But from the moment I saw the artwork I was hoping for a full video screen on the side of the coaster playing videos.Is that even possible,I don't know but what they have right now is looking allright at best.

I've been to Six Flags over Georgia like 5 times and I've never ridden MindBender, once it was closed all day,another time I stood in line and it broke down,other times like during Frightfest I just didn't have that much time and opted for another coaster.

I came upon this and felt the need to share what an amusement park/fair looks like in a country that's been isolated from the world for like 50 years.Kind of amazing and makes you appreciate everything you have. http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/aspey-189551-disney-al-estilo-cubano-castrista-entertainment-ppt-powerpoint/

I hear that when Dueling Dragons closes in a couple of months for the Potter change the track will be painted in darker colors.Even though I like it now,it would be cool to see a change,maybe one of them a dark,dark green with black and the other one a dark red with black.I'm not a huge fan of Potter or the changes to the Lost Continent as it was an already cool land,but I've come to terms with the change and excited to see them and how the dragons will look in half a year or so.

Universal has a deal online right now of $99 unlimited visits for a week or two.The cheapest you'll find a one day ticket to Sea World is probably like $60.There's also the Orlando Flex Ticket which is unlimited visits to both Universal parks,Sea World,Aquatica,Wet n Wild and you also include Busch Gardens for around $235 up to $280 depending if you include Busch Gardens.Disney pretty much doesn't have much in the way of deals with their Magic your Way tickets which could cost you $80 for one day but if you buy 10 days it's $250 or so,plus you could add the park hopping option for $50 to your ticket so you could visit multiple parks in one day,for example a one day park hopper would be $130 but a 10 day park hopper would be $300,the more days you buy the less you pay per day.

Devil went down to Georgia would be my first choice followed by Pump up the Volume.I think the list is so-so and hope the song choices get changed frequently.