Hi everybody,
I'm basically posting this so I don't get dumped.
I joined the site in March 2006 and as I'm celebrating my 52nd birthday this weekend I guess I'd be one of the site's senior citizens. LOL.
We're starved for roller coasters, and theme parks generally, in Australia. I'm in Sydney and Australia's major theme parks (all three of them!) are up north on the Gold Coast in Queensland.
I've loved the thrill of roller coasters since first riding the great woodie "The Big Dipper" at Sydney's Luna Park as a kid. In 1979 I started travelling extensively overseas and my exposure to roller coasters began. I first visited Magic Mountain in 1980 and it remained my favourite park for years. Colossus is a sight to behold!
In 2005 my partner Andrew and I headed to Cedar Point to ride Top Thrill Dragster and Millennium Force then we headed back to Disneyland to celebrate my 50th birthday at that park's 50th. My generation in Australia grew up with Disneyland and Mickey Mouse thanks to weekly exposure to The Wonderful World of Disney on TV. I have to say I was disappointed that Disneyland couldn't care less about the fact that we had travelled from Australia to celebrate the double 50th. From LA we hit Las Vegas and did all the coasters there.
If I'd known about this site and joined prior to that, maybe Robb could have worked a little magic with the folks at Disney. Oh well, to those of us starved for great coasters, I think Robb and the team constantly provide a touch of magic.
Hopefully, we'll join a Theme Park Review trip sometime soon, maybe in 2009. Next year my best mate is turning 50 so my partner and I will be joining him on a trip to Florida's parks to celebrate. It will be November 2008, so any tips would be greatly appreciated.
Anyway, now I've rattled on long enough to be considered a boring old f**t, so I'll sign off.
Hopefully this will keep my membership active and I won't get dumped because of this ramble.
Keep riding for the rest of us!
paulie_oz