Oldiesmann

I enjoyed it when I rode it. In fact, one employee went out of her way to tell us to have a great day after she soaked everyone in the boat The only thing I don't like is the changes they made to the guest-controllable part of the ride. I miss the guysers. The new water jet things aren't nearly as much fun.

Why are you complaining about the rides? IJST and Launch Pad are the only new rides this year, and you've indicated that you've visited PKI in the past, so you should have known what to expect. You chose to come anyway. Not PKI's fault. "Ride ops as slow as turtles" - ride ops have a lot of responsibility, and can't always move as fast as you'd like them to. As far as SoB - did you really expect a large crowd on a Monday?

Thanks for that answer Jake. That's what I was thinking, but since I couldn't remember if they were still there last year or not, I wasn't sure.

RoadRunner.

Boddah - the problems mentioned here are easy to fix... First, to keep the flash movie from repeating over and over, just add the following tag within the object tag right before the embed: <param name="loop" value="false"> Second, to prevent the sub-menus from being covered up by the flash movie, simply add the following information to the object tag: style="position:static;z-index:-1" That will force the Flash movie to be behind anything else. (More info: http://www.w3schools.com/css/pr_class_position.asp and http://www.w3schools.com/css/pr_pos_z-index.asp). The only thing is, that "z-index" thing doesn't work in Netscape 4, although I wouldn't be too concerned with supporting such an old browser.

I'm off on the 25th, so I will definitely be attending.

Tasmanian Typhoon is by far my favorite. I also like Snowy River Rampage, Sidney Sidewinder, Coolangatta Racer and Didgeridoo Falls. I'm not a big fan of the body slides mainly because I can't seem to ride them properly - I do what they tell me to, and my elbows and shoulder blades rub up against the dry plastic, causing painful burns. Awesome Aussie Twister is loads of fun though (once I managed to get going...). Two quick questions: 1. Anyone know why Bondi Pipeline isn't listed in the park map? It's pictured, but there's no map indicator for it and it isn't listed in the boomerang bay section. 2. Whatever happened to those big tall white body slides they had? I used to love watching people do the one that was almost a straight drop down. I'm almost positive they still had those last year (although I could be wrong).

Because some people might actually like the rides that they have to tear out to build new ones (such as the Antique Cars and Flying Eagles).

Many years ago, I bought a slide puzzle with either Scooby Doo or Scrappy Doo on it (don't remember). The most recent souvenir I've purchased is a Beast 25th Anniversary Souvenir Cup (got it from Outfitters in Rivertown earlier this year). I've also purchased a few souvenir pennies and souvenir quarters over the years, although I always seem to lose those.

After riding Flight of Fear for the first time in several weeks yesterday (I've been really busy lately and haven't had enough time to ride it before work), I noticed several changes in the queue building. First, it appears that they've replaced the TVs and speakers - the TVs are no longer in those stupid "cabinet" things like they are everywhere else in the park, and they have two speakers now (one on either side of the TV) instead of a single speaker right below the TV. However, PKI also added permanent lighting in here, which is annoying in my opinion. Although you can see better in here now, the new lights are so bright that the special effects lighting has little to no effect anymore (no pun intended). When everything goes out, the building is still fully lit, so nobody "screams" anymore and the building isn't pitch black. I'm sure PKI did this for safety reasons (who knows what people could do during the few seconds when the building is pitch black...), but it was the one part of the ride that has basically remained unchanged since it first opened. I still miss the fake fog and the nearly-dark ride building. Why'd they get rid of this?

387mph - yeah, right 3007-foot drop - don't be ridiculous. The current record for highest drop is 418 feet (Kingda Ka at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, New Jersey). I do agree that PKI needs a good high-thrill steel coaster. Something like Cedar Point's Millennium Force or PKD's Hypersonic XLC. Italian Job is fun, but not all that thrilling. Flight of Fear is still a really fun roller coaster, but PKI still dosen't have anything to match up to the latest and greatest coasters.

I also got stuck very briefly on SDATHC once (might have been the same time you got stuck on it - I was stuck either near the pictures or near the "dining room" scene - don't remember). I managed to score 1320 that time. Oddly enough, I managed to score nearly as much a few weeks later without getting stuck anywhere (1290).

There's also the all-time favorite holding your arm up in the air with a "thumbs up" and yelling "Clear!"

The only time I can remember being stuck on a ride was July 2nd on Congo River Falls. A photo eye right outside of the station got blocked, causing two boats to be sent out back-to-back. This in turn caused the conveyor to keep stopping - there were 4 boats on the hill, and there was too much weight on the conveyor (most likely a safety feature to prevent burning out the motor). I was only stuck on the hill for 5 or 10 minutes (maintenance came out and shoved the first boat off the conveyor (since it was about ready to come off the conveyor anyway), cycled everyone back around and shut down the ride again to fix whatever the problem was (my interpritation of the problem is a combination of what an associate told us and what I heard from other guests, so it may not be totally accurate).

Sounds interesting... I'll definitely be there if I can.

I've got two of them... Adventure Express - nice family coaster, but not much theming, and the ending is really lame. Yogi's SkyTours - great views of HB, but not all that exciting. There are pedals in the helicopters, but nothing happens if you pedal. The pre-recorded announcements during the ride are also rather lame. And yet, people wait 20 minutes or more to ride this (on really busy days, the line is 45 minutes or more).

5'10" here and no problem either... The trick is to sit all the way back in the seat and sit straight up, with the lap bar down as far as you can get it and your legs straight up against the front of the seat. That way you won't have too much trouble with knees banging.

I thought the fireworks show was pretty impressive this year, but I felt that PKI didn't provide enough information about the show... TV ads still showed fireworks being shot off of the tower, even though that wasn't part of the plan. The in-park announcements regarding best viewing areas were rather vague (clear view of the top of the tower and the open sky to the left - this puts you at many different angles, some of which would result in the fireworks being behind you). There was never any mention of being allowed to put a blanket or towel down in front of the fountain to view the fireworks - although this is a great idea, you wouldn't have known this unless you strolled by there and saw it. The additional entertainment was good (I particularly enjoyed the River Rats band in Rivertown - made the theming seem even more authentic), but PKI pretty much left guests to discover this entertainment on their own and provided little additional information about the entertainment, even to employees.

My sister went to it and had a great time, although it seems that Pillar wasn't very impressive in concert this time. I would have gone, but I had to work two out of the three days. I didn't request any time off for the concerts because the promoter didn't post a time schedule (other than what artists were playing on each day), and I didn't want to request time off if I'd only be riding rides part of the time.

The only advice I can offer you is to visit during the week, because it's less crowded then, and you'll be able to do more.

Not that I know of. The only riding I've ever done before the park opened was test-riding on Beastie and SkyTours.

National Weather Service says 50% chance of rain tomorrow.

I love the "Delirium is out of service" message on that sign. Apparently they didn't think we could figure that out...

Yeah, I was a little surprised to see The Beastie line so long yesterday - by noon it was all the way back to the brick wall with all the queue lanes open...

Adventures For Wish Kids had their annual PKI event yesterday, and the Shriners also had a huge group out there (patients of their Burns Institute and the patients' families).