violakat03

1.Captain Nemo 2.Boddah1994 3.gigacoaster2k 4.Gordon Bombay 5.Mr. 3000 6.-8.beastfan26 +2 9.flightoffear4thtrain 10.Raptor66 11.CoastersRZ 12-13.violakat03 (+husband) 14.cincyboy79 15.-.17Brian5475E +3 19.Cory Butcher 20.coasterguy15 21.-23.iChase (+mom)(+friend) 24.Beast man 25.-26.Beast1979 and the famous Trooper Mom 27.IBEW_Sparky 28.KIFan73 29.pkiboy 30.windshawne 31-32.keiko_coaster and 1 friend 33.PhantomTheater 34.Rollercoast19 35.Dropthegloves97 36.-37.touchdown62 and 1 friend 38.-39.Ogrmac + 1 40.XGatorHead 8904 41.adventure2007 42-43.Kawana & Elina 44.standbyme 45.Avatar 46-48.G-Force and 2 friends 49.coasterguy15 Ok, fixed mine too. I would be one of the first people on the list, of course...

1. The Beast (at night) 2. Flight of Fear, though it's a very close second 3. Backlot Stunt Coaster 4. Flight Deck (back seat) 5. Racers King Cobra would be 3rd if it was still around. Cedar Point 1. Millennium Force 2. Top Thrill Dragster 3. Gemini 4. Magnum XL-200 5. Raptor (front seat) Overall 1. The Beast 2. Millennium Force 3. Flight of Fear 4. Top Thrill Dragster 5. Superman: Ultimate Flight (SFOG) 6. Great American Scream Machine (SFOG) 7. Gemini 8. Test Track (Epcot - only non-coaster to make the list) 9. Zippin Pippin (Libertyland - 2nd oldest coaster in US) 10. Georgia Scorcher (SFOG) King Cobra gets an honorable mention as the replacement 4th place.

My husband and I are already paid. Boddah1994 gigacoaster2k Gordon Bombay Mr. 3000 beastfan26 flightoffear4thtrain Raptor66 CoastersRZ violakat03

$6 is a killer deal. Already paid for me and hubby via PayPal, and the offer of a ride is still open! We can fit two more comfortably (three uncomfortably) in our SUV.

Cyclone for me.

What I find outrageous is how the management "had no idea" safety procedures were not being followed, yet there was CCTV installed where the ride loaded. So did they just never look at this footage, until the trial? That's pot poor management right there.

I have no plans for that day and will from this point on refuse to make any. And for anyone coming from the Dayton area, I will offer myself up to give rides to those who can't drive or don't have a car. 23 with a clean record, used to work for a car dealership, currently deliver pizza, I should go over ok with most parents. Thanks for posting the date! Woooo!

I can't wait to get that sweet "zoom" sound from the LIM mechanisms as Flight of Fear launches.

Just so you guys know - the food policy at WDW isn't a new thing for this year. It's been in place for as long as I can remember. People usually prefer to eat in the parks, however, because you get an experience with your food in most cases. At Epcot you've got not just the International restaurants, you've also got Coral Reef, where you can watch the aquarium while you eat and interact with the divers. You've got places you can eat with Princesses, Mickey, pirates, every character you can imagine. And you can also include your meal plans in with your overall vacation packages, along with your tickets and hotel. Some people like that "buy it all up front and pay nothing while you're there" option. The way Disney is setup makes it easier for them to allow food in without it hurting their profits - after all, you're probably going to give in to your kids when they say "but Moooooom! I want to eat with Snow White!" Plus they're making money not only off your tickets but also off your hotel stay in most cases, and all those souvenirs you buy. CF doesn't have the infrastructure at it's parks to lose some of it's food revenue but make up for it in other areas.

Yeah ... I didn't get the joke cause I had no sound. Now I get it.

Bah! Should have taken them just cause he was scuba diving! I'm a scuba nut, so I'd have gone just to see how a guy manages a santa suit and scuba gear at the same time... I wish Newport (and many other aquariums) was like Disney's Living Seas aquarium and had a diving program, because diving in an aquarium was quite possibly the coolest experience I have had in my life so far.

Great photos - of both the park and the mountains! You capture the essence of the Smokies in some of those shots, and the exact reason my husband and I got married about 30 minutes south of Dollywood. We stayed in a cabin too, but it was a free-standing one, and you want to talk about a treacherous drive ... one lane in and out for about 3 miles, on the side of a mountain with no where to go but reverse if a car is coming from the opposite direction!

I'm guessing that the track was wider for the trains, which in turn were built to be able to withstand the forces necessary to be able to go through the loop. So, indirectly, the track is wider because of the loop.

I've only recently really fallen in love with carousels and go out of my way to ride them whenever possible. I find the statistic about "375 operating" to be interesting - I'd have guessed there were a lot more than that!! You can sometimes find them in really unexpected places - and not just zoos or fairgrounds. The mall I used to work has a carousel - Wolfchase Galleria in Memphis TN. I'd love to know more about it but can't seem to find any information on where it came from or if it was made specificially for the mall. I've never had a chance to ride it - I didn't go to the mall in my off time because I was there more than enough as a store manager, but I probably will on my next visit to Memphis. I did get to ride the carousel at the now defunct Libertyland, which is another carousel that's on the national historic register (along with Libertyland's Zippin Pippin roller coaster, which was built in 1912 and is one of the oldest still in existence). There's a company trying to move both the Pippin and the carousel to a proposed development on the river bank.

Glad I got out of retail long ago! Luckily when I worked in the mall, we never did the crazy opening hour, I just always hated fighting for parking to get into work.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! No one in my house feels like cooking so my husband and I are taking my mom to Golden Corral.

Wow, I got married close to Maggie Valley a little over two years ago and had no idea they had an abandoned amusement park! If they ever get that coaster working again, I'll have to make a stop there on my next trip through the area.

I know by law they are required to carry liability insurance to operate the rides ... I'm talking about all the other little stuff that would concern me ... like how good is the training the operators recieve (or how well do they pay attention), how carefully are they transported and set up... It just brings up a lot of questions that I'd rather not have about a company that operates something that could easily kill you with a little bit of neglect. If they neglect one area (in this case, the protection of their assets), what else are they neglecting?

... and now back to your regular programming. If CF randomly decided to redo an entire ride, I'd nominate Flight Deck. I really do believe it's the hidden gem among KI's coasters and with a little bit of love could be a star once more. I agree with whoever said to add a second, higher lift hill to it and run it through SOB's structure. That would make it exciting and unique, and since it's already a great ride (especially in the back of the train), it would push it into the "awesome" category for many. Right now it's a long, boring hike to a short ride. I was never impressed with the Top Gun theming, and as Flight Deck it's a complete joke, because other than that awful grey-on-grey-on-grey, there's nothing that says "Aircraft carrier" about it at all. Redesign it into something more suitable to the swinging trains and wooden terrain, though I can't think of anything right now because I'm finals-fried. My second nomination would be Son of Beast. The only reason I ever rode it was for the novelty of the loop. While I can understand the removal of the loop, even though it saddens me greatly, they could have taken the opportunity to redesign more than just one short section into a bunny hill. There is no airtime to speak off, just two giant helices, one that's unnecessarily violent and one that's painfully slow with the MCBR before where the loop was. I agree with the idea to make it an El Toro-type tracking to smooth it out. Why not take out that horrible first giant helix and make it more of an out-and-back with some of those Voyage-type 90 degree banking? SOB's on some prime real estate and could be turned into more of a terrain coaster with a little bit of effort. A removal of the helices and extending it out into the woods more would probably still keep it shorter than it's daddy but still in the top rankings for length. It really is a beautiful coaster to look at (I love seeing all that wood rising high above the north side of the park) and could have been amazing, but it was poorly executed, and CF I think missed an opportunity to correct that. Other changes I'd like to see would be FOF-type trains on Vortex (not those new Intamin ones, they look awful IMO), and a return of recaR.

That really frightens me. If they don't have insurance on their rides, what else do they not have...?

If you wander around in Barnes and Noble, you'll find several books. I've found a calendar and many books there and spent lots of drool-time.

Hey cool! Thanks! Yeah, I expect to pay for them, but hopefully they aren't as expensive as they are in Memphis ... I just never saw a reason to spend $40+ on a horse-drawn carriage ride when it isn't even snowing and romantic-Christmasy.

I didn't even hear about Winterfest until this summer ... if that gives you any idea. I may check out the Beach's festivities this winter. Ever since Fairborn stopped doing horsedrawn carriage rides, I've been sad. My husband and I have never gotten to do one in a snowy area..

Usually a buck or two more an hour than a peon. The higher you go up in the food chain, the higher the pay and bonuses start to become available.

Same system that Disney uses. You get a single card and the photographer scans the number into the system with your pictures. you can see them there or at home for a period of time. I still have my Disney photopass. If all my friends and I had been in the same car on Test Track, I'd have probably bought the photo. I thought the system was really cool, only one thing to keep track of and the ability to go get it later. KI has had the online system for many years, I have a picture with a big group of friends from the 2003 season that I got online. I'd love to see Cedar Fair start doing something like the photopass where you can add your on-ride photos as well. I know I'd have loved to have had our picture from front seat on Millennium Force but we didn't have the money at the time.