jamesdillaman

People die in bathrooms sometimes, shouldn't there be an AED and a trained EMT in every stall? Oh wait, no that doesn't make sense, about as much sense as putting a medical person in front of every coaster just because some people have died after riding one. Seriously, as stated earlier in this thread, with the sheer number of visitors to disney every year, one or two deaths are bound to occur. If the death is, as I have heard, some sort of stress-related heart problem aggrevated by the kid's fear of the forces on the ride, if his family had to swerve to avoid a wreck on the way there, he could have been exposed to much the same g-forces and the fear as on the coaster. It's an unfortunate accident, but I don't blame disney, as much as I'd like to I mean, how great a twist would it be if there was a serial killer who used disney rides to kill people... Ironic if you ask me. -James Dillaman

^ or the hospital should give them free passes to return after riding SOB.

A lot of things can impact how a person rates a ride: The time of day they ride, the seat they choose, whether it's a full train or fairly empty, temperature and weather, humidity, whether or not certain trims are turned on... There are many factors. Julia and I rode the Kentucky Rumbler back in March, and we thought it was great, even had some ejector air in the front seat, but by May and June when we got back to it, it was all floater air. I have no idea why, and it goes against what I thought about weather/breaking in rules for coasters, but it just goes to show that rides can change as well as people. -James Dillaman

um, I'm FAIRLY sure this has already been posted, like 3 other times.

^ If they cared about that do you really think Skyhawk would be where it is? Walking through there, it's like "nice wooded area, old fort, wooden shops, water ride.... wtf? Giant red and blue steel swingset!

Am I the only one who thinks this is a bad idea? ME should be rough as all heck, don't you think? It's almost a rite of passage in the roller-coaster riding world to get the crap beat out of you by your friendly las-vegas neighborhood togo. I think the rides charm is "Can you handle one of the roughest coasters in existance?" and they should re-market it thus. What teenage boy with his parents/girlfriend/whatever would want to be the one who chickened out, who wasn't "man" enough to handle it. And the ladies would want to prove they can ride it, too, as their just as tough if not tougher than all the little boys riding. Who's with me? -James Dillaman

The worst arrow hands down is X at SFMM. why can't they tear it down and move a nice arrow corkscrew in it's place. Heck, they could even build 3 side by side arrow corkscrews and get their coaster count up. Somebody call S&S stat! -James Dillaman

Well, they already own all of the parks in my state (Ohio) except for Wyandot Lake and Coney Island Cincinnati. Personally, SFMM has a good collection of coasters, but as a theme park I was dissapointed in it. I thought it was supposed to be the flagship park for Six Flags, and the park just felt like it was thrown together by a 12-year old (no offense for anyone of that age) in RCT. Tons of big coasters, but no themed areas or flats really. Also, Scream is still standing on a parking lot, with the lines still there! I'm sorry, but SFMM just isn't that great compared to a lot of parks I've been to. Scary to say it, but CP is doing a lot better job IMO than SFMM, and that's sad. I highly doubt CF would purchase SFMM, as they already unloaded way more money than they planned on with the purchase of paramount parks. (Everyone on the inside who clued me in to the sale a month before it happend made it clear to me CF only wanted PKI, but paramount would only sell the entire chain as a package deal.) Speaking of that, I expect CF will try and sell some of the paramount parks in the coming years, and SFMM isn't really a threat to them coaster wise. Anyone can build a bunch of coasters and claim they have more than CP, but if some of the coasters aren't operating from day-to-day, that doesn't count IMO. i.e. flashback should never be counted as one of SFMM's coasters. Besides, when you look at the investment CF is putting into CP next year, not to mention improvements to other parks in their own chain, why would they pick up somebody else's problem. It's clear to me after they purchased SFWofAdv (Geauga Lake) and bought the paramount chain for PKI, that CF really wanted the Ohio market. Knotts does okay for them, but I doubt SFMM and Knotts would fit together in direct competition with Disney and Universal. The closest competitor to the ohio parks are Kennywood, the Indiana parks, and SFKK. 3 small parks and one of the most boring parks in the SF chain. -James "sorry about the long post" Dillaman

^ Because the world isn't as mean as you'd like it to be, Joey.

James Dillaman, Loveland, OH - (P)KI about 5 minutes from me.

LOL @ "Fat Albert" Julia and I saw him when we were there a while back. Can I ask you a question? Did you notice chained off seats on corkscrew, gemini, ccmr, etc.? Cedar Point tends to do that on lighter crowd days, closing off whole cars for some reason. -James Dillaman

^ I have to agree, the clamshells are wonderful, like sitting in an easy chair. If I got stuck on one, I would have no trouble napping while waiting for the problem to be taken care of. -James Dillaman

Wow, that was just gross. -James Dillaman

^ Are you serious? sorry, sorry, i just can't believe some people speculating before anything is announced. What does it matter, anyway? I hope everyone has ridden every new coaster that opened this year, because if you haven't been on Voyage, Tatsu, Kentucky Rumbler, El Toro, Patriot, Goliath... I grow tired of listing.. you get the idea. Worry about riding all those first before you think about rides that aren't even built yet. Besides we all know it's going to be a B&M woodie, with 2 loops and a wooden corkscrew, kicking SOB's ass. If anyone takes that seriously they need to rethink their judgement -James Dillaman

Night time crowds aren't really bad, it's like the morning actually. Everyone getting ready to leave rides raptor, like when everyone goes in to the park and rides it first. The people staying until close usually want to get a night ride on either Top Thrill Dragster or Millenium Force, so the rest of the coasters are usually walk-ons. The only exception to this is, strangely, Wild Cat and Iron Dragon, as they are on either side of the place where people watch the fireworks/multimedia show at closing time. If you do just one ride at night I'd do MF, as it's awsome, as long as you don't mind eating a few bugs. If you don't care to do MF or TTD at night, you can do the entire rest of the park in pretty much the time it takes you to walk (or jog/run) between the rides. -James Dillaman

So we're off to Cedar Point. Updates to come, but maybe not until Saturday, as i'm in St. Louis and to get to the internet everyday I have to go to the cafe. I'll leave you with some pics from our trip that didn't fall into the coaster catagories to tie you over. -James I think it's this way! must be "Cool Jules" Julia Smith! Not Scott, either It isn't paul I thought I'd take a break from driving on the way to cedar point. So who's driving my car? Paul's all "Why is Cornball Express such a great coaster with such a stupid name?"

Here's the rest, with the much anticipated construction update! -James Dillaman Catch anything? "Just some CCI goodness!" Layout pic, with Scott and Paul. Can you find them? Not to be confused with Water Wars, near the front of the park Splash Battle! Not sure yet what these are for The new ride for Indiana Beach here's what you've waited for You really are great, but don't let it get to your head, Scott Yeah buddy, 1st skycoaster We had to remedy that Scott had never been on a Skycoaster before Paul and Scott didn't know what happened until like the 3rd time they rode. A little rough, but the cars are heavily padded This is a great ride Lost Coaster of Superstition mountain, the coaster that takes the most time to type.

After a day of driving and rest (we ditched my mother for Julia's cousin Scott and his friend Paul), we set off for days 2 and 3 of our 4-day mini-tour. Day 2 is Indiana Beach. This is easily one of my favorite themeparks and easily one of the most photogenic IMO. Although the clientel is, as Scott describes it, the "Grit-r-done" crowd, many in need of showers or more, the rides are fun. There's also a construction site in here: Splash Battle. I can't wait for this ride as it will be a great fit for this little park. The site is the old Tank Battle site, so it's readily accessable from the boardwalk and the chairlift goes right over it, so I got some good photos for you. Well I know nobody reads these anyway, so on to the pics! -James Dillaman The, "no restraints necessary" Tig'rr coaster Another look at the boardwalk Indiana Beach's ferris wheel My posse for this trip: Julia, Paul, and Scott Easily the best Antique Cars I've ever been on. The Hoosier Hurricane, one of 3 woodies. This is such a great park, rides wherever you look. No Photo TR to Indana Beach would be complete without a suspension bridge shot. Indiana Beach, through the trees!

Here's the much anticipated Dollywood Part 2: Electric Boogaloo. After hitting most of the rides, we decided to eat, watch a couple shows and check out the shops in craftsman valley. Here's my pictures. Indiana Beach will be up next. -James Dillaman to HillBilly Golf!!! This course is awesome. Another recommended attration from J&J After dollywood we went into gatlinburg to take this incline railway... Awesome steam engine at dollywood Even ducks love Dollywood here's DW's ferris wheel the longest wait all day was for this ride The kinfolk show is another of those "musts" so did this hottie! So I scored some fashionable new duds at the leather shop. we decided to ride the mountain slidewinder, this is the result. This guy or gal never did get finished, I had to go soooo bad... Anybody wanna loan me some money? Their disko, we didn't ride it, though. Line was too long for us The Birds of Prey show is a definite must for any dollywood visit. How often do you get this close to a bald eagle? The ACEr special

Sorry, Ed, I'll work on that, my photo resizer goes by filesize, not picture size, haven't figured it out yet. I'll try and be better next update.. -James

End of Part one, more to come from Dollywood soon, as well as construction photos from Indiana Beach of Splash Battle and of course Cedar Point (yes they're building a new coaster if you haven't heard) -James Dillaman Julia, you're such a WHORE! I love you, honey. This time's Different!! That's right, last time I was here I wasn't going to stoop to being a credit whore and ride this. Dollywood still has a credit for me... OMG, Verticle loop through the trees! Love this coaster! This Vulture told us all about the legend of the Mystery Mine. Nice touch if you ask me. Why couldn't you be open? *sniffle* But instead found "Spongebob Turbo Action Ride" Yes its the same film from the Paramount parks...

Day One part 1 continued: We were going to visit Clovis and Dolly, Back to the front of the park to go to the other side, as the path isn't continious around yet. Not mcuh to see, yet, but from what I understand, most of this coaster will be underground. AND it gives a great view of THIS! The mystery mine construction. It wasn't hard to lift up at all, no matter how much weight is on the ride. Actually it was pretty fun, though. WTF? This ride was weird OMG, Thunderhead THROUGH THE TREES! What a great ride, breathless describes it best. Favorite coaster trains, EVER! It just doesn't get any better than this for me Mmmmm, GCI goodness

So begins the immense task of resizing, renaming, and posting my 100+ photos for this TR. Day one part one will begin now, with updates to follow roughly "whenever I can get them done" throughout the next week. We're leaving today for the last day of our trip (Holiday World) and then it's on to St. Louis to visit my cousins, so the updates may be slow until I get back home. Day 1 Part 1: Dollywood We parked at the pigeon forge trolley station (something I really recommend for everybody) and took the trolley to Dollywood for 50 cents. Good deal! when we got there there was some girl scout ERT happening at Thunderhead before the park opened, but it's okay, they were all cleared out basically by the time 10:00 rolled around. As soon as we walked in the park, the first thing I noticed was the sign: Timber Tower is Closed Today!! Sad, sad, I was so looking forward to my first Huss Topple Tower, but it's closed as they wait for Huss to send them a part from Germany. Oh well, as the sign said, there's still much more going on. Thunderhead was amazing, as always, with good floater air in the front and in the back. My favorite thing about this coaster is it doesn't let up from the moment you leave the lift until you hit the brakes. Wow. Julia and I did the Lumberjack Lifts, a fun little do it yourself ride right by a huge construction site on the side of the mountain. Yes, that's right, construction has started on the mystery mine. There was even an animatronic Vulture telling us about the legend of the Mystery Mine. We then went to Blazing Fury (Coaster, or darkride? you decide!) and Tennessee Tornado, a great arrow multi-element. One of my favorite arrows around still. The end of Dollywood and construction photos from Indiana Beach and Cedar Point are yet to come, so stay tuned. On to the pictures! -James Dillaman and Julia Smith (With some help from James's Mom) Look at all the people going to Thunderhead, it really is like TTD at Cedar Point, everyone goes to it first. Awwwww... Yay! So we parked for free, and then for $1.50 all three of us got transportation to Dollywood, sounds good to me. This must be the place... Hmmm.... Hello, Dolly! Yeah, Guy, I got those credits! My chariot awaits! Our room at the Holiday Inn Express was at traffic light 1 right in pigeon forge

What?? Sandusky and Cleveland/Toledo Schools must go Really late, as schools are most definitely out everywhere in cincinnati. -James Dillaman

EGG TURN!!! Be sure and scream it out loud or the pretzel loop won't be as good! Seriously, though, it's an amazing ride, especially in the back seat. -James Dillaman