crazydaveh

Thanks for all that you guys to! TPR is always a great way to kill time at work and at home. You give us chances to see some great parks that some of us just can't get to. Happy New Year!

As always, quality stuff from the "Honeymoon Capitol of the South!" Way to start off with a bang and the General Lee(s). Seems like you enjoyed this place a lot better than the World's Record place!

Wow... That place looks like it too holds a record for "World's Biggest Place to Blow $10 in Five Minutes!" Thanks again for the Smokey Mountain fun! Your reports are always fun to see.

It seems the B&M area is smaller this year. I'm just going off the pictures posted, but it seems they and others are "cutting back" this year? Quality stuff all around!

You know what's great about living in Orlando... The season never ends! Sorry, not trying to rub it in anyone's face! I might head down to SeaWorld and hit Manta & Kraken a few times today... Maybe I'll check out the Hulk... I don't know! The possibilities are endless!

As soon as we left you guys, we went into Shrek and then Single Rider line for Rockit. 15 minute wait... Not to shabby!

It was cool meeting you today. Hopefully you were able to ride Rockit without getting soaked or having to wait to long.

Oktoberfest 2006 was awesome! Please post beer pics! I miss the good beer of Germany!

The main news stations here in Orlando are blasting Brighthouse's Cable Channel 13 for pumping this up yesterday, saying it was a done deal and that an announcement would come at this morning's meeting. You would think that a press conference on a pretty large scale would be called for an "announcement to the public." This is no small garage sale, this is big for Orlando and the other areas BEC has parks located. When and if something happens, we'll find out from the companies, not sources close to the deal and my best friends sisters boyfriend who heard it from the guy who knows the girl who saw him pass out last night at 31 flavors!

Old news that is just now getting back into the light. I don't care for InBev and I want someone who will help the company, not penny pinch it to take over. AB III would be a great owner... If only his son wouldn't have screwed up the company!

With all the money put into the attraction, it will be around for a while. Do you honestly think they'll just say, "screw it, let's tear it down?" Fifty million dollars (reportedly) is a lot of cash to throw away, so if anything, they'll keep tweaking it and make it better. I was at Uni on Friday. HRRR operations have improved so much over a few weeks. They were running four trains with the single rider line open around noon. The standby line was an hour with single running about 35 minutes. The ops ate their Wheaties that morning because they were moving people on and off the ride as fast as they could. Am I saying it's the best ride in the world? NO. Not even close. Is it fun, yes. Can they make it and any other ride at Uni better? Sure... It's all in the attitude you have going into it.

Ober Gatlinburg usually opens, weather permitting, around mid December. They always try to be open for the holiday period, as they can charge an arm and leg for three slopes being open! If you want some good quality southern skiing info, visit skisoutheast.com or skinorthcarolina.com.

Great stuff as always. What's the weather like up there right now?

I'm down for the Fantasy League

Ask any TM at the park and they will tell you the ride is "100 percent open." I saw several commercials last night and this morning saying the ride is officially open as well. The Technical Rehearsal signs are no where to be found at the park anymore. Even though it's not operating at 100% it's officially open. A TM told me the other night that the reason Express isn't open is so "everyone has the same chance to ride right now." He gave an honest answer as to when it might open. He said, "That's a question I can't answer because I have no idea."

I too was there today, and didn't even try to attempt to get in line. We saw that the single rider line was open for a bit this morning, but closed later in during the day. Being local, I can't justify waiting 120-150 minutes with rain delays coming. In my opinion, I really think they should have waited to open the coaster when it's 100% operational. I saw a TM have an argument with a tourist from across the pond where the TM was saying the coaster is 100% operational and it's just "so popular that the wait time is so long." I have to agree with the tourist here... Yes, the new coaster is drawing a lot of attention, but if Universal ran four cars and not two, 120 minute wait would cut down to 60 (general math here folks, don't think too much into it) and guests would be a lot happier. I also saw the same TM threaten what looked like a mother and her son who left the line saying they had to go to the bathroom... He told them if they returned, they would be "jumping in line" and could be escorted from the park. Let's think about this... You're standing in line for two hours. Mother nature calls and you just have to go... Have a heart. I'm sure many of you will disagree with me on this, but think about it... That's a long time to wait and when entering the que, we don't always think about if we'll have to "go." I'm going to try again in a few weeks, when school is back in session and it's just locals and our European friends here in September! Until then, I'll hang at Disney and SeaWorld...

Bummer that moonshine still isn't in operation! I bet that would make the caverns a lot more interesting! Great stuff as always!

I really enjoy your reports! Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge used to be a yearly stop for us back when we lived in Atlanta... I haven't been up there in years so it's great to see it all in your reports.

It looks like the Halloween fun will be over on the Universal side, and not IOA, so August or September could happen, and once school starts, it is dead until HHN kicks up... To answer the original question... Believe who you want to believe and just know going into your trip that they might not be open, but then again, they might be! When the first of September rolls around, start asking again... You'll either already know the answer or you'll be able to get a better answer rather than speculation.

Man, it looks like the honeymoon capitol of the south has stepped it up a notch! Hauntings looked pretty fun. Great stuff as always!

Quality Blue Ridge Report as always! You know what would be nice... An Alpine Slide POV report! Think you can work that in sometime this summer?

Nothing like some Double Covered and Smothered before hitting the Deep South! Quality stuff so far, reminds me of the mothered land! If you can, hit the Varsity downtown! So greasy, yet so quality! Also if Erik is on this trip... One suggestion, that UF stuff he wears will get him hurt in just about every state you guys are going to!

We were down at WDW yesterday and stayed over night. The news kind of the accident put the resort we were staying at (Saratoga Springs) in a damper because everyone was saying, "how could that happen?" I think people were also very concerned for the driver and his family as this is a freak accident. CM's were asked about it but were just answering (very nicely as always) questions with replies such as, "The monorail is not operating today, other forms of Disney Transportation will gladly get you to your destination" as well as. "I'm sorry sir, I don't know more than what the news is telling me right now." The crazy thing was, we rode shotgun in the monorail just an hour before the accident... When we heard the news, needless to say my wife and I kinda freaked. It wasn't our train, but still, it really hit close to home. Like someone else said, accidents lead to change in SOP... It's just sad.

I was at Silver Springs a year ago, looked the same! Great pics from the day!

It's going to be a Sesame Street coaster. BGT is in desperate need of one for the little ones. I'm excited about it. BGW's Sesame area looks really fun. An added bonus, my daughter will be getting into Sesame Street when it opens! Double bonus!