Erik Johnson

Great TR. Busch Gardens is one of my home parks (I guess anything within 2 hours by car is considered a home park...not sure though). I enjoyed reading it.

Canobie Fan said: "Hulk just didnt seem to great.. Oh Boy! 5 to 40 (35MPH LAUNCH!!!11!!!) in 5 secs... YAY!!!!! " The launch actually is in 2seconds which flips you over into a dive over the water. The coaster does reach up to 67mph...not sure if that's on the first dive. It always seems to me the fastest part of the ride is when you are coming down from the 360 degree loop through the mist tunnel. But I am not really sure. I also think the Dragons are my favorite coasters at IOA (more intense), but The Hulk is also great. I think IOA is great park IMO.

Thanks for the attempt at taking an onride photo of the French edition of Rock N Rollercoaster. It does look pretty cool. Do you think its better than Space Mountain? I finally made an avatar!! Yeah!

Robb said about Rock N Roller Coaster MGM pre-show. I hate the pre-show in Orlando (Give me a stretch...make that a SUPER stretch!) so this pre-show being over in like 10 seconds is SO much better! Yeah the pre-show on Orlando's version of Rock N Rollercoaster was fun once or twice but after the 50+ times I have ridden it, it does start to get old very fast. I think its goes on for at least 3 minutes it seems....(still short compared to Mission Space's..."I want to go to Mars NOW!") Have you ever seen a Disney Cast Member act out as Aerosmith's roadie named Chris during the pre-show? I have only seen this twice..both in the same visit to the park. When Joe Perry asks for, "Chris could you get my Black Les Paul." Joe looks over to the right side of the screen nodding to a live employee standing beside the gutar rack. The employee grabbed the black Les Paul and took it through the back door of the recording studio. The line of the other roadie telling Joe, "that he would get it for him," is still there. I guess the movie roadie magically receives the guitar from the real Chris. Like I said, out of the many times I have ridden this ride I have only seen this happen twice...and that being this past April. Does the Paris version also have the countdown at the start of the launch? One of the most interesting moments of the ride occured during the countdown. We were sitting in the car during the normal Steven Tyler countdown (does he speak in French in Paris?) as he reached to "1", when the launch is supposed to occur, our car just remained in the parking garage. The music was blaring out of the car like normal but we just sat there. After a minute of sitting there we all assumed that the ride broke down and we will be getting out of the car soon. How wrong could I be as in a blink of a eye the light turned green and down the tunnel we went. That made quite a thrilling launch not knowing when you were going to launch...maybe they should make that a new feature..heh heh heh.

I have seen the Orlando version of Lights, Motor, Action twice. They have been able to speed up the transitions between the stunts better. The show lasts about 30mins now. I suspect with practice (since its a brand new show) they will get better with the transitions. I was able to see the very first performance of the Orlando show back in March and it was well over an hour to get through the whole thing (and not everything was in place like the sea-doo part). The 2nd time I saw it was in May and it moved a lot better. Having some of the Paris Disney guests participate in the show looks like fun. Does the Paris version have the section where they pick a kid out of the crowd to try out driving a car with a remote control? Thanks for the video grabs from the Paris RnRC, the lighting looks pretty neat. Since the story or the themeing of the coaster seems to be different, do they have the same pre-show? (Since you are at the show now instead of driving to it). One feature that many people seem not to notice in the Orlando version of RnRC is the small lighted city on the floor in the center of the coaster building...I thought it was kinda neat. Till October for Halloween Horror Nights, and Not so Scary Halloween! You guys doing Halloscream at Busch Gardens as well?

WOW! I think in every post to my question, everyone mentioned how great the flyers are. I never been on a flyers ride so I guess I will have to try it out. Hope I can bottom them out like everyone else, heh heh heh.

Robb mentioned that he prefers the Paris version of Rock N Roller Coaster over the Orlando version which leads me to believe that the Paris version is simply not a clone. Since I am a fan of the Orlando one, I was wondering if there were any other differences between the two coasters. Hope to meet you all in Orlando this October...I hope you do schedule a few weekend days for your upcoming trip.

What was the reason that they took out Drachen Fire?

Well thanks for all the advice! I guess then its a "yes" that we will try to go to this park as well. If you ever need any advice on the parks around Orlando look me up! I think the plan is we will go to the park on a Tuesday or Wedesday.

We are planning to go to Six Flags Over Georgia the fourth week in July as a part of our vacation. I noticed that Paramount Carowinds is about 4 hours away by car (which will add an extra 3 hours of driving for the return home). Do you think its worth going to? If so, how are the crowds for a July weekday? Also, does anyone have other suggestions about this park?

Yeah Go Gainesville, heh heh heh. I am probably the only here who can say that Gainesville is my home town. I left for a few years but came back. Sorry that you cant drive since you can get to Orlando in about an hour and 45mins.

I dunno, I found the Vekoma coasters to be a bit rough. The Triple Hurricane was a bit fun as a smaller wooden roller coaster. We had a decent time at this park today, but I do have a difficult time with quite a few of the carnival-motion-sickness rides. I just prefer roller coasters, they dont make me sick. The park was clean and as someone said, there is something for just about everybody. The park was not very crowded, but many people did arrive in the afternoon for the concert. The parking lot was full.

When you come to Florida let me know...I live less than 2 hours away from the parks...

Kumba may be old, but its still fun. Still a smooth coaster. Im sort of a late-bloomer roller coaster fan. I always did ride the Disney coasters since I was a kid, but after a sorta bad experience on Busch Garden's Scorpion in the mid 80s (wow that coaster is much smaller than I originally remember) I stayed away from looping ones until I got married about a year and a half ago. My wife loves em and got me to try them again. Also riding Mission Space around 50 times really helped me overcome my motion sickness problem lol!

Yes, there is a lot to do in Hong Kong....If you go to Hong Kong make sure you visit the other park Ocean Park. I got to go to Hong Kong in 1996 for about 4 days...there is a lot to do there...though I only drove by Ocean Park. I do remember seeing that they did have one or two roller coaster there. Its located on Hong Kong island itself....kinda build up on one of the mountains. Make sure you take the train ride up to the peak as well.....you get a great view!.

First Kiddie Coaster: The Serpent at Astroworld Houston Texas (1978) First Roller Coaster: Big Thunder Mountain Railroad at Walt Disney World Orlando (1982) First Looping Coaster: The Scorpion at Busch Gardens Tampa (1986)