doom1001

If I've ridden Wilde Maus at BGW and Cheetah Chase at BGT,is that 2 credits or one?

I don't find getting to Cypress Gardens from the Disney area all that difficult,just take I-4 west to US 27 south to Cypress Gardens blvd and make a right.But I would agree that in that location it wouldn't get the same amount of visitors if they were to build it in the Kissimmee area.I only visited Cypress Gardens once like the year after they put in the rides and I liked a lot of the park and thought it had potential to improve,but I guess it just didn't get the visitors.It couldn't have been from lack of advertisements as they had billboards all over Central Fla and brochures at every stand.I think it's more than anything the Disney magic your way tickets keeping people at Disney.Why go and spend $140 for a family of four to visit Cypress Gardens when you can do an extra day at Disney for $30 or less for the whole family.The coaster people will leave Disney and go to Busch and Universal but Cypress Gardens just didn't get the people.A legoland would draw more but it would be smart of them to keep it within a 20 minute drive.

My first ride on Sheikra I thought the first drop felt very intense,however by the end of the day I had ridden it like 6 times and it definitely was not as intense on the 6th ride.I've felt that way on other visits,first ride intense then not as much.

On another board someone claims to have ridden Expedition Everest over 2000 times,he's apparently at Animal Kingdom 5 or 6 days a week riding it 20 times or more a day.It's a good ride and all and I've probably ridden it 70-80 times but with all the other parks and coasters in the area why limit yourself to just riding this one to that point.I myself can't think of which coaster I've been on the most,probably between Montu,Kraken and Hulk each probably over 200 times.

196 on the first try.

Manhattan Express or whatever they're calling it nowadays.Kong at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom and even though I had always enjoyed my rides on Gwazi and felt it was just rough enough that I liked it and didn't cause me pain,my last ride on it was the roughest yet and actually hurt.

I'm about a 4 hour drive to WDW and I'm probably at the parks 12-15 times a year since I'm a coaster/Disney Hybrid enthusiast.I frequent other forums more geared to Disney and there are definitely a lot of people who come from much further away than me,New York,Massachusets for example who visit 3-4 times a year.

I would also agree with the fact that they should improve their current parks before they build another one,however there are some pretty good reasons to consider building a park soon.Number one,right now labor is the cheapest it's been for a while and building a park for 700 million that 6 years ago or 6 years in the future could cost 1 billion is something that would make them think about it.Number 2,money,they have a lot of hotel rooms and a big part of their business is keeping these rooms full,if the parks stagnate and just keep putting new parades or park promotions every year instead of full fledged attractions or a new park it could be difficult to fill them up even after the economy improves.Which leads to number 3,competition,not just from Universal and Potter but other destinations around the world which are improving their attractions to draw more tourists,many of which could come from say 4 hours away by car versus taking a plane for the whole family and spending several thousands at Disney. Disney would also have several obstacles in building a new park,such as the risk of building in a recession with hopes of it paying off in the future when things are brighter.Also finding enough workers for the park when they have issues finding enough right now,they would probably have to bring more in from other countries as there wouldn't be enough from Central Florida who would work at $7-$8 an hour,to find the amount of workers from the area they would need the quality of workers will just continue to drop,it's still good right now but not what it used to be.

It was awesome seeing and hearing him talk at EPCOT's 25th anniversary.

I went to EPCOT on my birthday October 1st 2007,which was also EPCOT's 25th birthday and Magic Kingdom's 36th.EPCOT had special fireworks and even head Imagineers like Marty Sklar there for EPCOT's 25th,but I knew who they were really there for.

The best I can say is I don't hate the logo.

I'm hearing a name has been picked out and as Simon Cowell says "It's Ghastly",FREESTYLE MUSIC PARK??? What is that? Isn't freestyle music that 1980's music from Miami with groups like Expose and Stevie B,will they be playing daily at the park?Even in only a couple of weeks couldn't they come up with something better than that.

I have the same exact passes you have,the only difference was that I was too cheap to upgrade my Busch Platinum pass which I pay $12 a month (2003 prices) to $16.24 to simply just add Aquatica.I felt I was getting a deal for all the other AB parks so until I go to Aquatica for a day and fall in love with it I won't be upgrading it.When you say you still have the old Universal passes do you mean the plastic card with your picture,cause I still have mine too,the attendants look at it funny when I go into the parks apparently there's not many of those left.

Another park with "Adventure" in the name?How bout just calling it "The Music Theme Park",it would be the same dumb down advertising used in the NY NY casino with "The Rollercoaster".

My dog is named after a coaster,but not on purpose.My uncle picked out the name because he was a fan of the monkey in Tarzan whose name was Cheetah!!

The one and only time I booked a room with Skoosh I remember calling the hotel to make sure I was getting a 2 bed room and them telling me they had no reservation in my name,luckily I booked a couple of days ahead of time and about 3 days after I booked the room the reservation did show up,but I didn't need the stress of worrying about if the company was legitimate.Also the hotel I booked with them is in my top 3 list for WORST hotels I've stayed in.I was trying to book a cheap room in one of those super busy weekends in Orlando and I found this unknown hotel,no real hotel brand but it was cheap and I booked it.Well we ended up in a room next to a bar that was located in the hotel and worst of all the A/C wasn't working right,I could deal with the room next to the bar,especially since there wasn't really anybody there but no A/C,no way.I called the front desk and they said they didn't have any other rooms,it was so late I put up with it somehow but we left the next day and found another room the next night for our second and final day there.I always use Hotwire or Travelocity,Hotwire is a bit risky since you don't get the hotel until after you book but I've gotten amazing deals with them and just about every hotel has been worthwhile.

I've been to BGT/BGA probably a couple hundred times with my first visit in 1991 when I had a baseball tournament in Tampa,no Kumba,no Montu,no Shekra or Gwazi but I remember riding a simulator called Questor or something like that,I had yet to go on Back to the Future or any other simulator so I thought it was amazing stuff.Also I remember me and my team riding Congo River Rapids in 50 degree weather like 6 times in a row without getting off and being close to pneumonia a week later, good times!!

They can always put a Marty Moose character out front with a button that you press that explains the situation!!

It's failure was a combination of all of the above,nobody can tell me the economy didn't play a big part,I can tell you I planned to go to this park this year and things like $4 a gallon gas kept me home.The location of the park was highly questionable,how did they expect to have year round operation in South Carolina?Everything about the management is true,but what I find to be another big point of it's failure is that after seeing a few photo trip reports of the park it looked like it had good potential but I wasn't overly impressed with what the park had to offer right now,especially charging Florida theme park prices,there seemed to be a lot of open space with no trees or shade,a lack of rides,a few small themed carnie rides with a true world class coaster thrown in.I think even if you stuck this park somewhere off International Drive in Orlando,it would probably struggle for a couple of years and maybe in 4-5 years with the right management and some additions the park would flourish,but in my opinion it had no chance,too many things not working in its favor!!

Watermania's been closed for years now,at least I made it over there once,the one unique attraction they had was the body board surfing ride,it was cool even though I never got to stay on the board for over 10 seconds.The rest of the park was small and old looking,so I don't mind that it's gone.I voted Blizzard Beach for the cool theming and good slides,Wetnwild is my number 2,it lacks trees,so you can't spend a full day there with a lot of sun without leaving looking like a tomato,but it has really cool slides and my favorite attraction at any waterpark,the knee-ski where a line takes you around the lake on a knee board.My number 3 is Typhoon Lagoon which is really nice and lush,but needs a few more slides,this park has so many trees even with a strong sun all day you'll barely burn.I've had the platinum passes to the Busch parks paying them with EZ pay for years and if I want to include Aquatica my monthly rate will go from my current locked rate of $12 to nearly $17 for just adding Aquatica.I went to Aquatica earlier this year just to see if my pass would work and of course I knew it probably wouldn't but I tried anyways and got rejected when I handed the parking attendant my platinum pass,I already knew I didn't want to pay an extra $120 a year for 2 passes to just add Aquatica as my $12 monthly rate for all the other Busch parks seems like a deal to me,so with Aquatica looking crazy full I skipped it and made a beeline for Blizzard Beach.I'll go in 2009 and just pay for a 1 day pass,If I really like the park maybe I'll add it to my pass.A park that doesn't look that great from outside but once inside is pretty nice is Adventure Island in Tampa,and it's included in my platinum pass.

Crime in Orlando is getting pretty bad in a lot of areas.If you're going to live there you need to stick with areas in west Orlando like Windermere or Dr.Phillips or head north to Seminole County.Even areas that appear nice like Metrowest is so close to bad neighborhoods like Pine Hills that you should definitely avoid as well.I've been researching a possible move there and the crime is definitely a concern.

It's still a bit too far away from the major Central Florida attractions for the tourists to decide to venture there for a day but as far as locals,they might visit it occasionally but the major parks are still too close to skip them and go frequently to Cypress Gardens,kinda ironic,don't you think?I don't really know what their plans are,but they don't sound too impressive,keep the gardens and make a bigger waterpark.Last time I went to Cypress Gardens we somehow ended up walking by the waterpark area even though it was closed off and it took us about 2 minutes to walk it,they would have to seriously improve and increase it for people to consider going there instead of the waterparks 45 minutes up the road.I kind of liked what they had going there,I remember getting passholder newsletters for the park,even though I wasn't a passholder,have no clue how they got my name,but I liked that they had concerts and I liked the rides area,especially that MegaBounce,I could ride that all day!!If that park was down here in theme parkless South Florida it probably would be able to get more visitors.

Inverted stand-up!!!

First Enchanted Oak,one of the cooler counter service restaurants at any park and now the DD statues which made the ride's theme ultra cool and has anybody thought with the Dragons trashed,the name Dueling Dragons is probably also a thing of the past!!Wonder what the new name will be???

The Florida parks are still doing well with the way that visitors are coming from other countries,if you go frequently you'll see Europeans,Japanese,Latin American and especially British everywhere.They're coming here in droves with the weak dollar giving them a great vacation on a budget.If it wasn't for these visitors from other countries the Orlando parks would probably also be having some attendance issues.So in my opinion the problem with this park is LOCATION,when I first heard of this park and it appeared to be a park with a high ticket price and appearing to have the glitz of a major Florida park,I just kept thinking to myself,why is this being built in South Carolina,where even the population of the area isn't that great to support a park,add on high gas prices and voila,nobody shows.I think if gas prices come down in the coming years,and the park spends some money in advertising and offering discounts and promotions then people will show.But first they have to develop a base and get people a reason to come back.