imbordisux
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Posts posted by imbordisux
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Are you starting and ending in Indiana, or are you arriving in Indiana and leaving from Jersey?
If you're starting in IN, and ending in NJ, here's a good "starter plan":
1 - arrive at IN, get some sleep from your long trip
2 - "Holiday World", stay second night
3 - drive 7 hours to CP
4 - "Cedar Point", stay second night
5 - "Cedar Point", drive 1.5 hours to GL
6 - "Geauga Lake", drive 2 hours to Kenny
7 - "Kennywood", drive 3.5 hours to HP
8 - "Hersheypark", drive 2 hours to SFA
9 - "SF America", drive 3 hours to DP
10 - "Dorney Park", drive 1.5 hours to SFGAdv
11 - "SF Great Adventure", stay second night
12 - "SF Great Adventure"
If you can fly out of Virginia to go back home, do this:
1 - arrive at IN, get some sleep from your long trip
2 - "Holiday World", stay second night
3 - drive 7 hours to CP
4 - "Cedar Point", stay second night
5 - "Cedar Point", drive 3.5 to Kenny
6 - "Kennywood", drive 3.5 hours to HP
7 - "Hersheypark", drive 1 hour to DP
8 - "Dorney Park", drive 1.5 hours to SFGAdv
9 - "SF Great Adventure", stay second night
10 - "SF Great Adventure, drive 3 hours to SFA
11 - "SF America", drive 2 hours to KD
12 - "Kings Dominion", 1 hour to BGE
13 - "Busch Gardens Europe"
Of course, these are based on my "old fart" style of road-tripping, where we only like to savor one park for an entire day; if you'd rather credit-whore than ride the same rides over and over, you can definitely combine some of those (HP and DP, SFA and KD) into one day.
In two weeks, you can hit a TON of stuff - definitely get on the following sites and get planning:
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Unfortunately we'd be there on a weekend so I guess this time we'll skip it.
In that case, I go back to my original vote: SFA.
I think I'd take vomit smell over the diarreah smell in the tunnel on the Voyage at Holiday World.Yeah, it definitely had that weird "farm animal" smell around there - I noticed it most just before the brake-run. Odd.
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I won't ride my first Vekoma FC for another two months, but I'd imagine they pretty much have to be; the Zamperla's are horriby painful, and I find Ultimate Flight spends too much time zigging and zagging instead of actually simulating the feeling of flight via long straight-aways over peoples' heads.
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Toro usually doesn't open with the park, and sometimes doesn't open until mid-afternoon - unless you're looking for a certain seat (front or back), you might do best with a Q-Bot if you're short on time.
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But... but... we're there!
You liked us!
You said we'd be best friends forever!
We make up for ugly bad poo-poo New-Jersey yuck-yuck!
Seriously though, while the park has the reputation of being filled to capacity with lots of incredibly rude people, it's really only on Summer weekends that it's like that - if you go pre-season, or during the week in the Summer, you'll be fine. Give yourself two days like that, and you'll get on everything multiple times.
It's an incredible park that just happens to be in a terrible location.
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Have you been to "Kennywood"? That's an amazing park, and much closer than some of the options you listed.
As for "Dollywood", I'm pretty sure they're going to be adding a new ride each year for the next few years, so you might want to wait on that one to get the "full experience" down the line.
And if you like woodies, check out "Holiday World" if you haven't been - our personal favorite park.
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We haven't been to "SFA" yet, but it got several mentions in the "Most Underrated Park" thread.
Without having experienced the park first-hand, I would guess it's probably not up to the level of "Hershey" or "Kenny", but it definitely seems to be worth a stop; if you can deal with a "good" time rather than a "great" one (especially knowing that you two are big on credit-whoring), you should probably hit it. It's not like you're going to a park that's known for being completely crappy, you know?
Also, if I remember correctly, you've never been to "SFGAdv" in NJ - you should definitely go if that's the case, it's in the general area of where you're gonna be. If you can do it on a week-day (or a pre- or post-season weekend), it's bliss - an absolutely amazing collection of coasters with above-average operations (with the only real problems being getting KK and Toro open with the park). However, if the only way you could schedule it would be on a Saturday or Sunday, then don't bother, the crowds will eat you alive.
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Save your money for a month.
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^ Uhhh, Steel Venom is leaving Geauga Lake, so I suggest going on Wicked Twister...
Forgot about that, thanks.
Umm, my point still stands, though - if several parks you're visiting have clones, you can save some time with that.
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Anyone know a good site for getting ride logos? I'm making my first trip movie, and would like to have a logo at the beginning of each on-ride.
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Here's a great resource for you:
If you're doing "Cedar Point", you should definitely hit "Holiday World" in Indiana, which is about 7 hours south-west ("Indiana Beach" would be another good stop); then, head back east and hit "Kennywood" in Western-Pennsylvania, and "Hersheypark" and "Dorney Park" in Eastern-Pennsylvania on your way to "Six Flags Great Adventure" in New Jersey.
And then, depending on the radius you are willing to travel, there a bunch of other great parks you could hit as well.
The only other advice I can give is that you should try to schedule the really big parks (CP and especially SFGAdv) on week-days, and do the smallest parks on weekends, unless they're known for handling crowds well. For instance, "Hersheypark" is safe to do on a Saturday as they are AMAZING when it comes keeping lines moving, whereas I always advise people who are going to SFGAdv to NEVER GO ON A WEEKEND, you WILL spend all day on line and get on almost nothing.
If you go to SFGAdv during the week, two days should be more than enough.
Oh, another quick hint: take note of which parks share similar/identical coasters, so that you can skip them at bigger parks and do them at smaller ones. For instance, you might want to skip "Wicked Twister" at CP where crowds are bigger, and then hit "Steel Venom" at GL later.
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I second (third?) SFKK - not much to do there, but I thought Thunder Run was an amazing woodie, and I'm a sucker for shuttle-loops.
And whoever mentioned SFGAdv, I agree - the biggest, rudest crowds you could ever imagine, but arguably the best collection of coasters anywhere. If you go on a weekday, it's amazing.
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The best way to judge restraints is not by park, but by manufacturer.
A commonly held misbelief by those that aren't "in the know" (aka, coaster-nerds like most on this board) is that each park builds its own rides, and that they are the ones responsible for designing every aspect, including the size of the seats and restraints. However, this is not true - the parks merely buy coasters from different roller-coaster manufacturers, with each manufacturer having their own standars for size. For steel coasters, "B&M" ("Bolliger and Mabillard") are generally known for having the largest seating and most confortable restraints, whereas for wood coasters, any older model that contains "buzz-bars" (that metal bar that just kinda levitates above your lap, but doesn't actually touch you) that doesn't have seat-belts will generally do. Conversely, the "Premier" company generally has the smallest seats and restraints, with several "Intamin" designs also being pretty small.
Once you know the manufacturer and style of the ride you are wondering about, you can rest assured that you will fit into the seats and restraints on all similarly-styled coasters by the same manufacturer. For instance, if you fit into a B&M Inverted coaster, the same seating is used on all of their Inverted coasters, as well as all their Floorless coasters as well. Keep in mind that this does not necessarily mean that you will fit into the restraints of a similarly-styled coaster by a different manufacturer, such as a "B&M" versus a "Vekoma" Flying coaster.
A great place to find information on who manufacturers each of the coasters at your home park is http://www.rcdb.com .
As for your question, not knowing which "Busch Gardens" you are referring to, as well as not knowing your body-shape, here is a list of the coasters at both parks [with very generic styles listed, so as to group similar restraints together]:
Busch Gardens Williamsburg/Europe
Alpengeist - "B&M" Invert (OTSRs)
Apollo's Chariot - "B&M" Hyper
Big Bad Wolf - "Arrow" Suspended (OTSRs)
Griffon - "B&M" Looper (OTSRs)
Loch Ness Monster - "Arrow" Looper (OTSRs)
If you fit into either of the "B&M" coasters with OTSRs (Alpengeist and Griffon), you can rest assured that you will fit into any "B&M" Looper, Floorless, or Invert.
Busch Gardens Tampa/Africa
Cheetah Chase - "Mack" Wild Mouse
Gwazi - "GCI" Woodie
Kumba - "B&M" Looper (OTSRs)
Montu - "B&M" Invert (OTSRs)
Scorpion - "Schwarzkopf" Lapbar Looper
SheiKra - "B&M" Looper
Again, all three "B&M" coasters at "BGA" utilize the same size seats and restraints, so you should feel comfortable in knowing that, if you fit into a "B&M" with OTSRs there, you will fit into them anywhere.
With that in mind, let's look at the OTSR-utilizing coasters at "CP" [for a full list, click here:
Cedar Point OTSRs
Corkscrew - "Arrow" Looper
Iron Dragon - "Arrow" Suspended
Mantis - "B&M" Stand-Up
Maverick - "Intamin" Looper
Raptor - "B&M" Invert
Wicked Twister - "Intamin" Invert
If you can fit into the "B&M" and "Arrow" ones where you are, then you'll have no trouble here. As for "Intamin"... again, I can't say for sure without knowing your size, so I'll just say that the "Intamin" coasters that utilize OTSRs are relatively large, but are slightly smaller than the "B&M" ones.
Hope that helps.
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Park websites should definitely have footage of the rides.
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Sorry for the (very) late reply, but Monica and I both send you our congratulations and wish you a lot of happiness.
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Ohio has bean-bags.
New York has $600 videogame systems.
Culture shock.
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I really like their products, but seeing their website reminds me how nasty they were the few times I called (when I was selling computer chips).
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Wow... that looks f'ing amazing.
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Just trying to save every day and dollar we can; with new management at work, and some recent hits on our wallets, we're trying to cut out some parks. We've already removed Michigan's Adventure, Geauga Lake, and some of the parks we've already been to (Kenny, Hershey, Dorney, Holiday World, etc.).
Three months to go, and we're still making changes almost daily.
Anyway, thanks for the help; we both really want to hit it, but weren't sure if it would be worth giving-up a different park.
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We're interested in visiting SFGAm, but as frequent visitors to SFGAdv, I'm curious as to whether or not it's worth the stop on an already-tight schedule.
There are a lot of similar coasters (B:TR, S:UF, a B&M Hyper, an Arrow looper), and the one I'm most interested in (Deja Vu) is usually closed - is the rest of the park worth it?
Thanks for the help.
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Probably something like "Mine Kart" or something.
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We've done three of them (Dorney, Lake Compounce, Kennywood), and they've definitely become our favorite flat. Sad the parks run such a short cycle, as the ride experience itself is phenomenal.
Does anybody know if there's a reason for the short cycles? Is it possible that it's not up to the parks, but maybe has to do something with how much the air-tanks can hold or the machinery can handle? I mean, we know how much is involved in air-launching a coaster, maybe a longer ride-cycle would mean that the air-tanks would have to be made larger, making them impractical?
We both think the sensations felt while riding are flat-out amazing, though there definitely is a small feeling of disappointment due to the short ride-time.
As for your question, I really didn't notice any difference between the lower- and higher-capacity versions, and we both feel that a small fee ($5 at Dorney) is well worth it.
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Thanks for the info, everyone.
Think I'm gonna stick with tapes for now, as it sounds like the video-quality isn't as good; my tapes are absolutely crystal clear, and never choppy.
Short, grainy-looking DVDs?
in Ask Alvey
Posted
Ok, so I just burned my first home-made DVD. I have two problems, though, and was hoping someone could help.
1) I have the same camera that Robb uses (Sony DCR-HC32), but when I transfer it to my computer, the footage becomes grainy, which causes my DVDs that are being played on my TV to look pixelated (as opposed to the tapes I dubbed, which are crystal-clear). Do I have to use a certain capturing program to make them record at a better quality?
2) I bought some blank DVDs, and can only fit about an hour of footage on each. Well, to be more specific, I can only fit an hour of "high-quality" footage on them, I could record much more at a lower quality. Anyway, as you can tell, I'm not exactly a computer-geek, so how come I can get a 3-hour, crystal-clear movie from "Best Buy", but can only get an hour of jumpy footage at home?
Thanks in advance.