Erik Johnson

Anyone like the Final Destination movies? You may be interested to know that the third movie (coming Feb 2006) features a roller coaster accident which starts the "death" events rolling. Could they come up with something else other than a roller coaster? I found this on filmforce.ign.com. James Wong (The movie's director) standing in front of what looks like a Vekoma or Arrow coaster.

That has to be the most frightening Kiddie Land I have ever seen. What a creepy looking Freddy. I used to go to Philly quite a bit during the summertime when I was in high school.

Iron Maiden Rules! Heh heh heh, Go Bruce!

Steven Tyler does ride his RnRc quite a bit. I have read several reports of others riding the coaster with him (with pictures as well). Though he is a IOA fan as well. I got to ride RnRc one seat behind Robby Knievel back the first week in May during WDW's media week. He was at the park promoting the new car stunt show. I did not recognize him myself, but someone else did as we were getting off the ride. Yeah Hulk Hogan lives in central Florida, anyone remember his show Thunder in Paradise? Many loacations for the show was filmed at WDW.

I am a Gainesville, Florida native, and I still live there. Gainesville is mostly known for being the location of the University of Florida. It is also a city with many many trees. Look at all that green!!! http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Gainesville+Florida&ll=29.651510,-82.386818&spn=0.070011,0.117416&t=k&hl=en This is a picture of our street. Again notice all the trees. This is a picture of our house. Leonardo's Pizza.....yum!! This is the closest place to eat from my house. There are three of them in town. Another Lake Alice photo. This is the Baughman building which sits on Lake Alice. Many, many alligators live around here. This is a neat feature, our Bathouse. Every night at dusk you can see hundreds of bats fly out of here. This is The Devil's Millhopper, a neat ancient sinkhole in which you can walk to the bottom. It really looks more like North Carolina than Florida.

Hooray...Its now official. Both Leanne and I will be joining you for this event. Robb mentioned a few weeks ago that you might be visiting other parks while you are down for this visit as well. If you are, we could join you (unless you end up dis-inviting us) for the other parks as well.

Dueling Dragons, Islands of Adventure, the ice side in the back row. The crazy intense cobra roll on ice...Yeahhhh!

Sometimes you have to reload the page. Or just try it a little later in the day.

I did it from 10:30 to 2:30. The lines for the rides were short (plus I did use single rider lines). And I only went to a few sections of the parks. Plus I know all the short cuts heh.

Oh I forgot to post the current Mythos menu, though the type is small. The Current Mythos Menu

Oh btw, My wife works for Publix.

As always, another great TR by TYG!

^ Yeah thats true. I actually might have if I had more time. But for people who have never been to either of the parks, it would be crazy to go see a TV show, but again, as Elissa pointed out, it is a movie studio.

KHAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Man the Great Gasp picture made me cry. Great TR!!!

Actually the line getting into the park was the longest wait I had all day. Most everything was a walk on. Yeah Hulk was a 15min wait. DDs was a walk on, maybe 5 mins.

More pictures!! On my way back home I noticed they had taken down Mickey...awwwww! sniff But that's OK. Its the typical Florida afternoon weather coming from the southwest. Me making faces because The Hulk has been closed over an hour. Also I never noticed the IOA1999 written on the booth on the right hand side before. Got to be one of the best dark rides ever. NOW GET OUT! Welcome to Dr. Doom's Tower! All Hail Dr. Doom! Poor Leopold. This is probably my favorite ride safety demo video. It leads right into the single rider's line for Dr. Doom Fearfall. Where does this secret door lead to you ask? IOA's DDR machine, Where is KrakenKing?

Ok more stuff! Sorry I just got a new camera. The best sign in all of IOA. I ended up riding the Dragons 8 times today.

What started out as a routine work day ended up kinda cool. Enjoy these pictures. Ice is now heading back into it's lair. Ice is my favorite side. Especially in the back seat. The front seat is a must as well. Up and up, up the lift go Fire and Ice. This coaster has the best and most entertaining ride ops as well. I like em so much I ended up married to a former one. Ahhhh! My favorite coaster at IOA. The Dueling Dragons. Another B&M with intense forces. Poseidon's Fury is getting a make over for HHN. This will be a haunted area in a little over a month. Who do we have to pay off to get a donkey banner in front of Mythos. If Theme Park Insider can do it, we should be able to as well. "PS2 is better!" "No X-box is better!" Even after six years these two guys are still fighting. I can't get enough of Hulk pictures, sorry. The crazy launch into the Zero-G section of the ride. The Hulk is one of the few rides that make me see white during its first half. Make sure you are hydrated before riding this one. The ride ops for The Hulk are the strictist (Probably in the world) when it comes to bringing on loose items. They have even recently banned waist packs. Don't even think about bringing a video camera in here. Why wait 15mins for the Hulk when you can get an Express Pass. Though it takes 15mins to get an annual Pass to work with one of these things. Universal really needs to address this problem. The neat splashing effect during the Hulk. What's that lurking over the tops of the Port of Entry? I know some people on this site will love the all you can eat all day for $19.99 deal. This does not include Mythos though. After riding the Mummy twice I headed over to IOA. (Universal is really great I just felt like going to IOA) WOW! What a long line getting into IOA. Im on the front row on the far left. Yes, this part of the ride is fun, all the effects were working today. Is it me, or did they put the spewing chunks logo beside the wrong heading? Unless fog effects make you barf. Ahhh, The Mummy. I love this ride. You get some great airtime, in the dark, on this one. Why would anyone spend $60 to come here to waste time watching a TV show pilot is beyond me. The big decision of the day is always what park to go to first, this time I pick Universal. The Long Walk (well not from the Spiderman section it isn't) into the parks. Who need trams when you have these cool moving sidewalks. The theming is incredible here, even the Coke machines are Universal themed. It is sad when the park attendents start to remember your name, I guess I come here too much. At least I get free parking. Woot! After a short drive I made it. Hooray, I finished early, and I am only about 45mins from Universal. I have to admit I was tempted to go to BGT today, but its about 20 miles further than Universal. My Grand Company Car while at Wal-mart. This one is a loaner, the BMW is still in the shop. One of the stores I stopped by for work. At least that silly dog in that recent movie is no where to be seen. Mickey can still be seen by the recently closed "Official Disney Welcome Center" in Ocala, Florida A little after dawn driving south on 1-75 heading down to Ocala. Boy was it early.

Yeah you can use the fast-passes after the time posted at WDW as well. Though I never tried to use past-time express passes at Universal or IOA before. Make sure you get a fast-pass first thing for Soarin at Epcot, since the lines can be quite long. Busch Gardens does not have any type of fast pass system, but the crowds will not be too bad in two weeks at any of these parks. If you are a AAA member you can get discounted ticket prices (though not for Disney). I recommend going to Universal as well, you actually can do all the big attractions in one day (Universal and IOA) if you go during a weekday. While I never been to Universal Hollywood, everyone seems to say that the Florida one a quite a bit better. Honestly if you are pressed for time if there are any parks you need to skip, it would be Animal Kingdom (Though you can do it in half-a-day). I think Busch Gardens is much better, plus they have a better selection of rides (I am glad you are going to Busch Gardens). If you have any other questions (other than hotel since I never stay in any of em in Florida), ask away.

Oh nice.....I have yet to ride a Hyper, so this may be my first.

heh heh heh......Probably both. Ever seen Hercules in New York? Now that's fine acting.

Looks like we will be getting some rain this weekend in Florida. I'm glad I went park hoping this past weekend.

Conan the Barbarian....well I loved Arnold movies (still do). But Conan was very cool.

I just got my new Sony Cybershot DSC-T3/T33 today and wanted to post a picture. Why not start a "Post your pet" forum. This is our cat Libby. We saved her from destruction a little over a year ago.