Chroniq

Since our entire family is participating, here are all of our interests.. Chris (me!) Raptors! (I have no other interests whatsoever) Bean (the baby!) cute raptors as well as friendly dinosaurs Kristin (the awesome wife who puts up with us) absolutely nothing dinosaur related. If for some reason pinterest.com costs less than $25.00 dollars, she'd like that. -chris "I'm sure this was of absolutely no help" con

Queue with interactive things and stuff to touch > staring at old wood for 45 minutes. -chris "or at least my ADHD thinks so" con

Awesome photos! thanks for sharing.. chris "pretty sure at this rate transformers will be open next week" con

After all these years, I didn't think I'd ever enjoy a traditional Arrow Looper.. Boy, was I wrong.. Easily, the most pleasant coaster surprise I've had.

^Well said.. According to the "Themed Entertainment Association" (TEA), the highest attended park in 2011 that wasn't a Disney or Universal Park was Lotte World (number 11) .. Maybe an AQUATRAX is the key to long term success ? (sorry, I had to take it there)

^

Wow. just wow.. So the original poster's metric of success is that if you build a hyper coaster then your park won't close within 20 years? How about the idea that if your park can afford a capital expense of 20-30 million dollars then they are on solid financial footing? I'd chock this up to the simple fact that parks that can afford this type capital expenditure are either A- corporate parks or B- Were doing well enough before the coaster was built to afford the expense or C- Have owners that are in it for the long run, no matter if the park has up or down years..

This is how I formed my opinion.. (Photo courtesy of theme park guy.. Again thanks )... I can't stress enough about how I'm probably the last person you should talk to when it comes to track designs, but these do look similar. Photo is of Premier rides Mummy installation at Universal Studios Singapore.

Courtesy of the nice folks over at Orlando United (and Brice for posting a link to this earlier)... So the tubes are filled with rumors saying this is an Intamin designed roller coaster. Unforunately, I'm not an expert on track design like many of you, but based upon the cursory search I just did of track designs; To me this could just as easily be a premier designed track.. Thoughts?

^Fuckk.. They setup a tumblr account to promote dragons. Looks like an add-on to the new fantasyland that will premier during the media day on December 6. What is this world coming to? http://disneydragons.tumblr.com

So they are clearly "teasing" this. For the uninitiated, this is the turbo-prop based airplane that Disney has been testing in California over the past few months... The harder question to answer is where does this fit into the Disney cannon? .. While the rumor mill has hinted at this being an Avatar dragon, smarty money says it will be an addition to Fantasmic that premiers in December.

Just wanted to give the obligatory hat tip to your IAAPA coverage.. Thanks for the photos, and the best IAAPA videos/interviews you'll find on the tubes.

^^This... And honestly, the last thing an exhibition company like IAAPA is worried about doing the day of the show is creating "IP" signs that meet their design language.... The organizers are typically putting out "real fires" on show days.. Think about what effort was put into this sign.. Booth is banned..The organizers decide to ban the the exhibitor. They contact the PR people to inform the the exhibitor. The PR person has to contact the graphic design company to create a sign that follows the design language of the show.. The sign has to be designed, created, signed off on, printed, and delivered before the show opens.. That's a lot of work, for an arbitrary sign (even with a template). - just saying

In regards to the Golden Horse booth- You have to assume that IAAPA planned to do this.. Do you see how well designed that sign is? I've been to trade shows where this sort of thing has occurred and the sign is usually handwritten in sharpie.

@Gravity Group..

Am I the only one who doesn't like shuttle coasters? --- That being said, GCI is one of the more "TPR friendly" companies and they have built some of my favorite coasters.. So I mean no disrespect, I'm just pretty sure I hate shuttle coasters.

Scott brings the jokes Basic psychology theory says the family will try to rationalize the child's death by blaming the zoo and not their actions. The only thing the zoo can provide is monetary compensation. It will be pursued. Actually laughed out loud. Quoted for accuracy Quoted for truth Best practices ensure safety 99.9 percent of the time.. If I threw my baby over the suicide prevention walls at the Empire State Building observation deck. Is it partially the building's fault because they didn't build the walls high enough? So if I drink and drive and kill a bunch of people (or my child) in an accident, should the community help me? should my car have had a system to prevent these deaths? In America, it's tradition to not pursue charges on parents that have dead children in issues that could be perceived as accidents. State prosecutors typically only pursue these charges if the parents were under the influence of drugs or alcohol. This is EXACTLY what will happen. The zoo will also require the parents to sign a confidentiality agreement to prevent us from ever learning the terms and to prevent additional negative press to the situation. If you are still reading this, this was one of the first TPR posts that actually made me sick to my stomach. As a new parent with a young child, the idea of this happening to him is incomprehensible. It's an image I never want to think about again.. That being said; we practice common sense. So, statistically, he'll be just fine. chris

Off topic, but I really like the concept artwork from "s. palk" (look for the signature) featured in the photos that Adam posted. .. It really has the old school, Disney, impressionist feel and beats the comic book style concept art we've seen in recent years.. Does anyone know anything about this artist?

2012 was a pretty awesome year.. We had the introduction of polarizing rides like Skyrush, wingriders in the US, the world's tallest Beemer, Transformers, dueling Chinese (American made ) roller coasters that let you high five, and apparently California Adventure welcomed their first guest.. It was a pretty great year. So assuming the world doesn't end on 12/12/12, What are your most excited for in 2013?

^That photo would easily have a value of 30 dollars.. Thoughts for people that are participating for the first time this year----- Giftcards are something you give your crazy aunt (you know, the cat lady)... The "spirit" of this is to get to know each other and spend time thinking up a great gift that fits the person you are giving it to...

Count the Connollys in .

^ and that's why I love TPR

Here's my take on this-- 20 percent of the town where my business is located was flooded.. Many of my friends still lack power and heat. I have friends whose cars and possessions were destroyed. People are waiting 3 hours to get gas. My wife's job is still closed a week after the storm. The supermarkets are running bare and tensions are high. All that and , we live on Long Island which was not as affected as coastal New Jersey and Staten Island... These are just shitty roller coasters. These piers were located inside FEMA flood zones which mean's their business insurance is backed by the federal government. It happened at the best time possible for these piers as they were closed for the year and still have a significant amount of time to rebuild (at least) something before the tourist season starts up again. They will rebuild with newer but, in all likely hood still, mediocre rides. .For anyone that is truly sad these roller coasters were destroyed has their priorities completely messed up.... -chris "they will rebuild and you will still probably skip over these places" con Edited to say- Absolutely amazing photos on this thread- I hope people reading this and see destroyed roller coasters can convert those images to how the average person was affected..... Hope everyone reached out to check on people like the moderator "larrygator" who lives in an affected area before they started bitching about the loss of rides.

Just saying-- Spiderman is arguably the favorite ride of both enthusiasts and the general public at Universal Orlando. Comcast buys the company and then decides to work day and night to provide another amazing ride by summer 2013 (and builds it in less than a year) .. If you have anything bad to say about this announcement, you are wrong.

Robb - While we may differ in opinion from time to time, those photos and videos were easily the best of 2012. Thanks for everything you guys do chris "fuck that ride looks awesome" con