PeoplemoverMatt

Yes. Green Lantern is a human torture machine that belongs in a museum next to an iron maiden rather than in a theme park. Have you ever ridden an S&S El Loco?

Chipotle!

Yeah needing a Skylander of a certain element really threw us, especially since we never seemed to have one of the element the game was calling for. Pretty frustrating since we had 7 figures thanks to a decent sale but still didn't have the "right" figures. Oh well, kids like the figurines more than the game so far. Just gotta make sure they keep the Swap Force characters intact. Otherwise we'll start losing halves like people lose socks.

It's not on your list, but if you were planning on hitting up the three MLB stadiums in Southern California - Dodger Stadium, Angel Stadium, Petco Park - there are a plethora of parks surrounding those stadiums as well. You'll find Dodger Stadium roughly 30 minutes south of Six Flags Magic Mountain and just down US 101 from Universal Studios Hollywood. Angel Stadium is just a few miles from Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm in Anaheim/Buena Park, which is about 45 minutes south of Dodger Stadium. Petco Park is about 2 hours south of Angel Stadium, and very close to Sea World San Diego, San Diego Zoo, SD Safari Park and Belmont Park. Just a thought in case you were thinking about heading further west than Chicago/St. Louis.

It's worth the money in that it provides for a reasonable expectation of being able to ride everything in one day regardless of crowds. If he really wants to ride everything, and is willing to pay to ensure that happens, it's worth it.

What about convention/conference space? Do any of their three hotels offer that already?

Leviathan - Canada's Wonderland

I don't like pain. It hurts too much.

Fry's decided 45 minutes of my life needed to go into expanding the "Examples of why humanity is doomed" file today... Received email at 8:45am saying order is ready for pick up. Left at about 6;30pm to head for Burbank to pick up the order. But before I picked up the order, I browsed around a bit. After noticing what I ordered wasn't on the shelves and had apparently sold out, I felt relieved that I had ordered it online and it was at checkout waiting for me. So I picked up a couple other things and headed for checkout. At checkout, the cashier goes off to get the order from their cage. She takes about 10 minutes, comes back and says my order isn't there. Someone must have sold the stuff I ordered to someone else, or never picked it in the first place. Now she has to go to the floor and pick my items off the shelves for me. (Remember, I had already noticed my stuff wasn't on the shelves.) No joke, 25 minutes later, without a word or question from anyone as to why I was standing there with no cashier, cashier comes back saying only 2 of the 5 items I ordered were found. She had checked with the sales reps in the area who checked their computers to confirm the missing items were not in store stock. I asked how I could receive an email saying my order is ready for pickup when what I ordered isn't in stock at the store. Cashier said she didn't know and that she's in training & doesn't know how any of this works. I requested to speak with a supervisor. Supervisor comes over, and cashier only says what I'm asking for isn't in stock. *I* have to clarify saying I'm looking to pick up an order placed online and cashier is saying they don't have it and couldn't find what I ordered on the shelves. Supervisor goes back to the cage to check. About 3 minutes later, she comes back with my complete order in hand. Turns out it was mistakenly filed in their cage according to last name when it should have been by first name. Cashier apparently only went by my first name, didn't find it, and gave up despite taking 10 minutes never thinking to check the last name. Okay, maybe that's understandable, especially for someone who was new, right? Thing is, my first name starts with M-A-T...last name starts M-A-R. How far away from where it should have been could my order have really been filed? Apparently even Fry's Electronics, the most nerd-friendly major brick & mortar store I know of, hires dimwits...

Granted, and its staffed with 15 year olds who don't care, never more than 1 car operating on Journey, and Mt. Prometheus was just removed to make way for the park's 20th roller coaster. I wish humanity wasn't as dumb as it is.

Needles

Desert Storm was one of the few coasters I thought there wasn't going to make it back on. One teenage girl checking the restraints, supports that would bend and sway with each cycle...freaky stuff. One of the more unique coasters I've been on for sure.

Those are one time, sometimes once in a lifetime events with massive crowds. That's a far cry from a day trip, much less an afternoon at a park known to be nothing except coasters. Dodger Stadium parking is $10, and there's free parking on Stadium Way if you don't mind a small hike. Angel Stadium parking is $10. Disneyland parking is $17 IIRC. Knott's charges $20 for Haunt but less for the rest of the year. Universal's non-preferred non-valet is less than $20. Now SFMM is $20. Seems shocking, but SFMM was the first to start charging $15 for parking while all those others were $10 or less back in the day. Good to know nothing's changed over the years.

I would never waste my time with trash like GTA. Have you been to Japan?

Granted, but now their rides are so intense that nobody wants to ride them, no park wants to buy them. But instead of going bankrupt, B&M accepts a federal bailout package that includes legislation forcing all new coaster designs to meet new federal regulations that forbid all roller coasters from exceeding a height of 40 feet and a speed of 10mph. Nice job. I wish I had the time and money to see all the parks around the world that I've always wanted to see.

Being dead. What's worse than trim brakes on a water slide?

S&S

Ultra Twister - Nagashima Spa Land

Oh sure, this is absolutely the case, but only because the park has mainly focused on nothing but coasters for just about your entire lifetime. Back before the huge coaster boom, the park did care about the other kinds of rides and aesthetics that made for a much more pleasant experience in between riding the big rides. The park is so impossibly behind in its infrastructure now that any effort going towards restoring those qualities seems like a laughably wasted effort, but that doesn't stop me from at least wishing that minor improvements would be made in that regard. They are going to have to do that eventually. Those old & decrepit buildings both on and off stage are not going to last forever. The business model is set up for short term water treading, and long term failure. Just to tie it back to my earlier question regarding the merits of building coasters for the sake of building coasters just to get to 20 and/or be "the roller coaster capital of the world"... I don't really think it's worth to do that if it makes the complete neglection of everything else to the point where the park completely reverts back to its condition where Robb told park brass flat out that it just wasn't fun anymore to visit SFMM. It's not there right now, but it seems to be headed back in that direction.

That's so much better a story than the real controversy.

Theme Park Review...for when your airplane really needs to fly straight into the ass of a jolly green giant.

Yeah, I get that, but there should be more to the attractiveness of a park than just a new ride that can be seen & done rather quickly. I think SFMM has trained its guests to not care about anything besides coasters more than anything. Eventually people learn they need to go elsewhere for something that isn't a giant roller coaster. Adding a new coaster does nothing to bring those people back.

Being "The Roller Coaster Capitol of the World" is a nice tagline, but is it worth sacrificing quality for quantity to get it? Then you have to wonder, how much of an impact does it have in the crowded and super competitive SoCal market vs the midwest?

I remain impressed by how many people either don't realize or completely disregard how Riddler's is meant to be ridden standing, rather than sitting. Those aren't bicycle seats!!!

Hurler - Kings Dominion