doom1001

I go to Disney pretty frequently and have to say the times when crowds are low are few and far between.So for example if you want to ride a particular ride just be smart about it and grab a FP when the park opens cause even on days when it's not insanely crowded, rides like Soarin and Everest always end up with 60-90 minute waits!!I have the seasonal pass which blocks me out of the most busiest times of the year like Summer and 2 weeks in Christmas and 2 weeks in Spring Break,but it still seems almost any other time I go it's still plenty crowded!!

Scenery,theming and location= Has to go to BGE,I love the woody,hilly location of the park as well as the European countries theme! BGA is also a very beautiful park with great landscaping but I prefer the European theme over the African and Zoo thing!! Coasters=Slight edge to BGA.Montu rocks while Alpengeist has the lamest ending of any B&M invert.Divers cancel each other out since I haven't been on Griffon.I love Apollo's Chariot and even if people complain about Gwazi being rough I also love it,so then you have to put up Kumba against Wolf and Lochness. Even though I bang my head too much on Kumba's restraints I will say very few rides have a HOWL like that ride and has amazing speed throughout the ride,plus Montu is the coaster that truly got me hooked back in 96! Flats and other rides and shows=This has to go to BGE with it's much better collection of flats as well as rides like Darkcastle and Corkscrew Hill and like I said before even though I prefer Rhino Rally to Disney's safari I'm not a big zoo guy so while I ride it it's never a must do!! Both parks in my opinion have some of the best food at any park as well as great stage shows and special event like Howl-O-Scream,so for me I would give BGE an 8.9 out of 10 while BGA gets a very close 8.7. They're both excellent parks,I'm giving Williamsburg a slight edge for some of the reasons I've stated but also you have to consider I've been to BGA dozens of times,probably even over a 100 times so that park just won't have the same appeal as another park you also really like but have only visited 3 times!!

My favorite has to be Montu followed by Gwazi ( I love wood coasters,rough or not) then Sheikra which is a very short ride,but the drop is insane.then Kumba which is an awesome ride but I always bang my head on it's restraints,and Cheetah Chase and Scorpion are also fun rides!!

These new trains really have kind of a "Montu look" to them.With this change even more people are going to want to ride the front row.Busch Gardens should make a change to the station and separate the front row from the other two.Many times there's like 3 people in the back lane and 2 in the middle since the line just bunches up with people waiting for the front so people who want to ride in the back can't get through!!

It seems like they don't make as many of these shows as they used to.Back like in the late 90's up until a few years ago there were new shows constantly,now all you get is an occasional repeat and 1 new one a year!!!

I made my first visit to this park in Oct.2006,on it's last days known as SFMW.I thought the park overall was allright but definitely needed some sprucing up.It looks like they made some nice changes!!!

I'm also from Miami and you really can't judge parks from pictures,go to Busch Gardens in Virginia,that's like one of my favorite parks,or Cedar Point in Ohio,sure it doesn't have IOA or Disney theming but it's location next to Lake Erie is beautiful and what other park has 17 coasters.I would trade IOA for CP anyday. Even Six Flags parks like SFOG you can have a fun day with their coasters.Another thing is, how many of these parks and cities have waterparks,us in Miami are water park deprived.When I went to King's Island in Cincinnati they have a waterpark in King's Island and another one (The Beach) like 2 miles away!!You need to hit some out of state parks and judge for yourself!!

You might have seen threads about New Jersey's looping waterslide from the 80's and 90's that probably had as many injuries as riders. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Action_Park_looping_water_slide.jpg Well now a swiss company looks to be creating one that's supposed to be safer,but at least from the illustration looks more insane,it looks like a near 90 degree drop into a loop????How could that be safer???? http://freizeitparkweb.de/cgi-bin/dcf/dcboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=264&forum=DCForumID74&viewmode=all

BBW is def the best, the drop into the river and going through the town can't be beat!!!

I love The Lost Continent just the way it is and don't really care much for Harry Potter, however If this new Harry Potter land leads to a major new ride and Dueling Dragons doesn't get touched I'm all for it!!!

The beginning of November isn't as dead as you might expect, the Food and Wine Festival brings a lot of people and I think the second week is called Jersey week as New Jersey kids have the week off.After Thanksgiving, Yes it's pretty dead,but it's the best time to go as you get to see most of the Christmas events and lines are SWEET!!!!

If you have 5 days I suggest this itinerary in no particular order: Day 1 Universal and IOA Day 2 Magic Kingdom and Epcot Day 3 Busch Gardens Day 4 Universal and IOA Day 5 Animal Kingdom and MGM Sea World is a great park but since you want to hit parks with thrill rides it only has 1 coaster( although a very good one) and a water ride.It seems like you would rather do both Universal parks for 2 days and I also feel if you come down to Florida you have to do Disney for at least 2 days and Yes Busch Gardens is a must!!!

As of this moment I have the least amount of bills since I was like 18 years old, however I will have to get into a new car soon as my 1999 VW Jetta with 240,000 miles life is sadly coming to an end,pretty much everything is breaking on it but it just keeps on running and honestly running WELL.I swear on the Hwy it drives almost as good as when it was new.I really believe the car would probably drive itself from Miami to Orlando after all the trips it's taken.But I refuse to spend over $200 on any repairs and right now the A/C compressor works but it's so old that when I use the A/C sometimes it makes the car stall.So a used compressor for $450 or a new one for $900 is out of the question, and I live in S.Fla, so come June it's A/C or bust.So new car payment here I come!!!

WDW from Dec.21 until after new year's is just WAY too crowded!!! I went for New Year's years ago and after I waited 3.5 hours for Splash Mountain I decided this time of the year is not doable.I live in Florida and have the seasonal pass which blocks me from going between Dec.22 and Jan.5 which is just right.I still go before my pass gets blocked out and can see all the holiday events at Epcot, the Osborne lights at MGM, at MK the MVMCP would still be extra.And if I needed to go to a park during this time my Universal and Anheiser parks annual passes still work!!!!

Alpengeist

When I first visited Cedar Point I didn't really think much of Gemini, but I found it to be one of my favorites at the park, don't know what it is about it, but I just find it to be a fun ride!!!

I think you should try it, see if you can get a later flight out so you don't have to be rushing since I do agree if you get in at noon you're not likely to be at the park till at least 1:30pm.I went to SFOG for Fright Fest a couple of years ago I think on a friday with temperatures in the high 20's.The park was open like from 6pm to 11pm.I was there when they opened and rode Georgia Scorcher, Batman,Psyclone, Great American Scream Machine,Ninja, the Mine train, Acrophobia and made a 2 hour wait for Deja Vu.Couldn't ride Mindbender and there was no Superman or Goliath at the time.So that's not bad for like 5 hours in the park, so I say go for it!!!Also remember Fright Fest isn't like Halloween Horror Nights, it's simply a couple Halloween decorations with a couple haunted houses you have to pay extra for, I didn't I was there for coasters!!

Brave!? More like a combination of stupidity and ignorance with a helping of overly PC bellman on top. I was at the Embassy Suites on the 17th St. Causeway. I mentioned to the bellman that I was going to walk down to Boomer's in Dania Beach and he started saying "Oh no! That's way too far to walk...let me call you a cab." What I didn't know at the time was that that was code for "Good God man are you crazy!" What looked like "a straight shot down Hwy 1 to Dania Beach and then hang a right" became a bit more of an adventure. Hwy 1 starts off as a nice 4-5 lane road with sidewalks. Then as you approach the airport, suddenly the sidewalk ends and the road is a limited access highway. I detoured around that and should have known that it would be rather deserted (If anything bad had happened, I probably could have lain on the side of the road for days before someone noticed). Then once I reached Dania Beach I had to walk through a pretty rough looking neigborhood that was "way too far away" from my hotel. Boomers itself was fine and the coaster was well worth the trip. Needless to say, I called a cab for the return trip. After the cab got poached the first time he came to get me, I casually mentioned to the driver that I had walked down there and he said "Oh No!! You don't need to be walking in this neighborhood!" Finally...some good advice, just a couple of hours too late. Should've listened to the bellman, quite a long way and definitely not walking friendly.I just checked mapquest and that's a 4.90 mile walk, but you know what if it was me I would've done the same, it is a pretty good coaster!!! Did you get the $10 ride all day deal?

I've gone from Miami to Cedar Point several times, hitting other parks to and from, and i drive 4 hours to my central Fla. parks every couple of weeks!!!

About an hour and a half the second week the park was opened in 1999, on a saturday if I remember!

I was pretty unimpressed with the 360 show, first of all the show was to have started at 9:45 pm, 9:45 came and went and nothing happened, 10 pm and nothing.People are now becoming mad and asking employees but they seem to know nothing. At 10:10 and announcement come on saying they're experiencing technical difficulties,why are they saying this now and not at 9:45, well about a minute after the announcement the show starts and as someone said it was mostly videos of Universal movies on the globes with some fireworks, projections on some building and lasers thrown in.The show overall was fine, but it nothing great!!!

Definitely Manhattan Express!! Followed by any Arrow corkscrew.

If you go to Busch gardens on a weekday when school is in session then Sheikra's line might be 20 minutes but weekends or summer count on at least 30-45 minutes!!!

Top Thrill Dragster

Since you've never been in the U.S, you have to start with the Florida parks.You can't go wrong with 4 Disney parks, Universal , Islands of Adventure, Sea World and Busch Gardens Tampa. Then save your money and come back in 2-3 years and do Cedar Point and a couple of east coast parks like Busch Gardens Williamsburg.Then a couple years later go to the California Parks.This way you always have a future trip in the plans to look forward to.