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violakat03

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Everything posted by violakat03

  1. So far on Fun TV I've seen: The Beast, Banshee, Millennium Force, Gatekeeper (saw it in line for Gatekeeper! lol), Intimidator 305, Rebel Yell, Fury 325, Carolina Cobra, Xcelerator, Mamba, Steel Force and Gold Striker. I think I see Banshee the most frequently.
  2. For those who haven't seen it yet, I posted a trip report of Holiwood Nights 2015 on my blog. http://chasingthrills.com/track-to-the-future-holiwood-nights-2015/ Enjoy reading!
  3. I'm hoping that the Festhaus will become the next Harmony Hall sometime in the near future.
  4. I probably saw you at some point and didn't even realize it. I rode second to last train on Beast (my husband and his brother rode the last train in the same seat), and we headed over to Banshee to discover that the line was longer than it had been when we rode it at 9:15. We still got I think 3 rides in, and 2 cones of Banshee Twist, plus some hang out time with good friends.
  5. They are in the station, not the entrance plaza, at Holiday World. But they also have unsecured bins in the stations. I can't speak for Thunderbird as I won't be making it out to Holiday World until Holiwood Nights later this month. As for the CP dining plan options (which were a serious joke), we had a long discussion with one of the foods managers at CP after a very disappointing experience at The Corral. Neither of us wanted to eat something greasy and the only options we saw were cheeseburgers, hot dogs, chicken tenders and pizza. We finally gave in and went to The Corral where kittenpooh had chicken tenders and I had a hot dog. I got a fruit cup with mine, expecting you know.. a cup of fruit. Not one of those little lunchbox cups of diced fruit you put in a kid's school lunch, full of unnecessary extra syrup. We are both trying to lose weight to fit more comfortably on coasters. Most of my meals at KI are either a salad from Red's or a sandwich from Subway. There were no healthy options at CP, and to ask for the healthier side and then get .. that? Absolutely unacceptable. Steph's chicken tenders were pulled from under the warmer and tossed back in the deep fryer to .. warm them up? Aka make them hard as rocks. She only ate half her meal because it was inedible. The fries had also been re-fried and were disgusting. I ate all of my meal (they charge $15.99 for this same combo I had) and was still hungry. A regular sized hot dog and a tiny little diced fruit cup is not enough to fill someone up. We went to guest relations because we'd just used our meal swipe and wouldn't be able to eat again for 4 hours but were both still hungry and I'd also had a serious issue with the supervisor at the location who just walked away from the cash register I'd been waiting for, causing me to have to wait again at another register. We ended up talking to Kyle, one of the foods managers, for a good 45 minutes about how their options compared to those at the parks we'd used it at already (Carowinds and KI) and how incredibly disappointed we were that there were no non-greasy options. He started off making excuses about "well we added healthy side items this year" but we quickly shot that down when pointing out the "fruit cup" was a sugary bite-sized mess and the location we went to didn't even have salads even though they were supposed to. Chuck Wagon, which has the same offerings as Outer Hanks, looked amazing - but didn't take the meal plan. Chickie and Pete's, similar to Red's, also did not take the meal plan. Subway is an upcharge, which I am not paying considering it isn't at KI and I've already dropped a pretty penny on this dining plan. I'm certainly not paying $8 to eat at Midway Market (yes, it went up from the $5 they charged opening weekend) - if you're having that much trouble with people abusing it, which I'm sure they are, then take it off all together, IMO. We talked at length about ways they could improve it, options we'd like to see added (he said they are working very hard to get Chuck Wagon added, and he'll especially push for it considering our conversation and what we pointed out) and he also said they are hoping next year to have better options throughout the park in general. They hired an executive chef at Carowinds this year and he has completely transformed their food offerings, and it has been so successful so far that they'd love to bring a similar person and experience in to other parks. Basically, what we got out of our conversation is that while KI is pretty well set with their dining plan so far because of the great variety they have, CP is very much a work in progress and expect to see major changes happening this year as they try to add more locations and options to the dining plan. Edited to add: He also resolved our issue with still being hungry in a fantastic way by taking us to Chickie and Pete's so we could have those salads we'd so wanted to start with. Which, by the way, were amazing, filling, and refreshing. He said they would investigate how the dining plan works at Red's at KI and see if something similar could be implemented.
  6. On The Beast: 5-3, last row of the second to last car. I kid, I kid. Seriously that is well known to be the worst row on the coaster. But I'm not telling my favorite row, the magical row of smooth intensity, because it already has a long enough line most nights and I like to be able to get my preferred seat after the fireworks shut down without hearing the dreaded "If there are more than 2 people in front of you please find another row." That's why I no longer wait until the last train or slip into line just before the fireworks start. I try to get in line 5-10 minutes before they close the queue in the hopes of getting my favorite seat. As a side note, for all the times I've had to move to another row at the end of the night, I don't understand why they let the Banshee front row line get partway down the stairs during passholder ERT last night and then ran enough trains to allow every single one of them to ride in their preferred seat - without allowing a single person on the rest of the train to re-ride. They sent something like 6 or 7 trains out with 3 or 4 people on them at the end of the night. Not the KI operations I remember, that's for sure.
  7. I'm super late to the party here, but thought I'd throw my 2 cents in. I went to CP on Wednesday with kittenpooh, and it was significantly busier than KI was on Tuesday, Thursday or Friday. (Can you tell I had nothing to do this week?) It wasn't horrible, and certainly wasn't as bad as a Saturday, but it was busier than we'd hoped. Millennium Force, Maverick and Dragster were running 45 minute waits most of the day. We waited about 15 minutes for Gatekeeper in the late afternoon as things started dying down. Up until the school groups started leaving, we rode everything that had no line (such as Blue Streak) and then after 5 when the busses started rolling out, lines dropped significantly. We took a ride on Millennium Force with a 10 minute wait and Dragster with 5. We'd hoped for a walk-on day considering it was COLD, cloudy and windy, but we still managed to have a lot of fun. I'm probably heading back up there this coming week as well.
  8. Wondering how it's looking tonight too. I've got a ton of friends at Coasterstock but none are replying to my messages! Guess they're having too much fun. lol
  9. For you, it's not. But what if he had severe allergies and you had his Epi Pen? Or if he was autistic? Or he had a panic attack on the ride? I understand that it's not a big deal for you, but what these ride operators have to realize and understand is that it COULD be a big deal.
  10. I wish you had complained. That's a huge safety issue. Not that he would have been hurt on the ride, but that he would have been by himself afterwards. He was with you for a reason and regardless of his age, it is completely unacceptable. If that ever happens again, please do us all a favor and pitch the biggest fit you possibly can. Make them call out a rides manager. Maybe you will be the one to help end this unsafe and ridiculous practice and make them realize that SAFETY is the first concern and it is being put aside for capacity.
  11. That is so unacceptable that there are no words. It is NEVER okay to split a child from their parents. You handled it with far more grace than I, or many others, would have. And there is also really no reason to deny seat requests unless that row is legitimately full or you have nowhere to put them. This was the case at Mystery Mine. With only two rows, and well over half of the riders wanting the front row, there was no way to grant seat requests. We simply had nowhere to put them as our corrals were only big enough to hold four people at a time. And it's not like it was that big of a deal with only two rows. Come back later, you've got a 50/50 shot of getting the row you want.
  12. I totally get what you are saying, but in the way its happening now, it just doesnt work. I have seen them send out half empty coasters with a full line. Its like they wont fill the que until the new coaster comes and parks and then we have to rush up to jump on the ride. Okay the fast laners and the general pop merge at the same point of seat assigning, then you better have a system. It really appears that the seat assigner, pulsar, separator just keeps the station empty. I dont claim to know how hard or how easy that job is, but the way you described it makes it seem fairly easy or easier than the way most at KI do it. Dear quote box, why are you dumb? Anyway. You nailed it. They wait too long to fill it. Keep your gates full. You have to give yourself enough time for people to be difficult. Not everyone is going to cooperate. You're going to have seat requests. You're going to have height checks. You're going to have someone get to the platform with something they aren't supposed to have. 32 people are not just going to appear in their correct spot in 10 seconds. You need to have every gate filled and be ready to start filling them again by the time the train parks. Take the time that the loaders are checking restraints to fill your gates. You should be done by the time the next train is starting to enter the station. That gives you a breather while you wait for it to park. Find out how many people are in the next couple groups. Gates open, start filling the corrals again. People don't like running from line to ride and it makes them less cooperative and gives you less time to sort out mistakes. If Fast Lane comes up mid-train, they wait until the next one. Alternate between the two queues. Yes, you want to get the priority boarders out of your face (they are the most annoying) but they can wait one train. Even two. If the group you have in front of you isn't the right size to finish filing the row, pull from the other queue. Again, this is not rocket science. Going back to the issue of Power Hours and safety: With how long they are waiting to fill the gates, are the separators even checking height? And even more importantly, are the loaders assuming everyone has been height checked by the time they reach the train? That's a recipe for disaster.
  13. That's when the loaders need to be paying attention. Regrouping isn't an issue unless you let it be because you're blinded to what's going on around you. This is the biggest issue I have with Power Hours. They focus so much on throwing people in the seats and getting the train out that they are paying zero attention to anything else. When you're sending the train out and waiting for the next one to come in, you can be watching from the corner of your eye to make sure there are 4 people in each corral, all are the appropriate height and none have loose articles. If you see things all jumbled up, it's easy to correct. If you see two people board a row and two people stay behind when the gates open, you tell the other two to board. Empty seats are the direct result of a ride operator failing to fill them, whether it's a separator, or a loader. Yes, guests will try to regroup themselves or not board when they're supposed to, but it only takes a second to straighten that out and fill the row. The separator position can keep an eye on guests in the corrals in between trains if they are filling the rows with adequate speed to give themselves downtime and that keeps regrouping from happening. I guess I just don't understand why they have so many problems with it because I've been in that position, arguably in a much more challenging situation (faster dispatches and a huge language barrier), and have never had any of these problems, even when I first started learning the position. Grouper (the position name at every other park I've worked at) is considered one of the easier positions, but everyone knows that the ride's capacity relies largely on that job being done correctly. The grouper can make or break an hour.
  14. On 2-seat coasters it makes significantly more sense to pulse the station and let the guests sort themselves. In that situation the separator is essentially acting as traffic control, keeping the station from getting far too crowded, and allowing Fast Lane to merge in. In the Florida parks, there is a Merge position at almost every ride that allows for this to happen just prior to the station. Because of the way KI's queues have been built to accept Fast Lane riders, the merge and separator positions are the same, which makes sense at a seasonal park that doesn't need the throughput capabilities, nor has the staffing, to support a second employee there. However, you will never understand just how hard it is for people to count to 4 until you've worked a 4-seat coaster. In this situation I do support seat assigning when done correctly, otherwise you will have half a coaster going out empty because groups of 2 can't figure out how to group themselves with other groups of 2. But the separator needs to be able to do their job quickly and effectively. It can be done one train at a time - which is the best way to do it when working with groups of foreign individuals, because otherwise 8 people will try to board a row when the gates open - but you have to keep moving. Don't stop and second guess yourself. Know where your rows are. Have a system. Know where you have empty seats available. I always worked front to back with even groups, back to front with uneven groups, so that you meet in the middle with no more than 1 empty seat. There's no reason to deny seat requests either. I've never had to do it. If your front seat line is getting long, warn people it will be XX extra minutes - most of the time they will decide it's not worth it and go to another row when presented with the cold hard facts of how much extra time it will take. Four? Row two. 5? Three in row 8, two in row 7. Three? Row 3. 5? Two in row 7, three in row 6. It is NOT rocket science. I've noticed they tend to let Fast Lane seat themselves, then have to stop, recount each row, find their empties, and then figure out how many are in the group in front of them. If you have a pause where you aren't actively seating, find out how many people are in the first 2-3 groups. Then when you're in a crunch you don't even have to ask them, just send them to rows, and you've already filled 1/4 of your ride.
  15. 3 currently open and 1 under construction as far as alpine coasters. SMAC is the longest, but Gatlinburg's is the best IMO. It's not speed limited like SMAC. Goats on the Roof is just a little further down Wears Valley Rd from SMAC. You can pick up a discount ticket for it at Fun Stop or Fast Tracks (they're all the same owner). If you're a credit whore, there is a Dragon Wagon at Fun Stop. They will all have long lines during the main part of the day. Go early or late - they're all open after dark. If you are an active ACE member, your membership card will get you a discount at all 3. July will be busy at Dollywood. They are open until 10 pm during Great American Summer and the crowds won't be KI level but also remember that their crews are never in a hurry. Average wait times will probably be 30-60 minutes on the coasters. A full queue on Mystery Mine (with back queue open) is 1 hour 45 minutes on average. Full queue on Wild Eagle is just over an hour, same for Blazing Fury and TN Tornado. Full queue on Thunderhead is about 30 minutes. Country Fair (kids area) will be slammed. I highly recommend not skipping the shows. Dreamland Drive-In (assuming it's back this year) is fantastic. If you get a Q-bot remember that you can reserve both rides and shows with it. On the shows, you will get priority seating and guaranteed the show time you want. Whereas you may not get into the show if you just wait in line. You can reserve both rides and shows at the same time - they don't cancel each other out. I believe shows must be reserved at the Q2Q center but rides are reserved from the Qbot itself. There's no such thing as a bad place to eat at Dollywood. Try to avoid peak meal times as the lines will be insane. Aunt Granny's is a fantastic sit-down buffet. Other buffets include Backstage Restaurant and Miss Lillian's Chicken House. Miss Lillian provides endless amounts of entertainment - if you don't decide to eat there, at least go hang out in the dining room and watch for a little while. She also does the preshow for Country Crossroads at the stage next door to the restaurant. The Big Skillets are great, as is Hickory House, and if you want pizza, the giant slices at Lumberjack's by Mystery Mine are more than enough food for a meal or two. As for a plan of attack - go to the coasters first. Mystery Mine and Firechaser develop the longest lines so get them first. The coasters are laid out in a nice semi-circle that makes it easy to get them all in a row. The lines do significantly die down at night - it's not like KI or other parks where the crowds stay up until close. The last hour should drop everything down to a walk-on or close to it. Lockers are not necessary at any of the rides. They all provide bins in the station (or in the queue, on Mountain Slidewinder). Loose articles, including hats, are not permitted on most rides. You cannot sit on your hat or stuff it down a shirt, it must stay in the station. Please don't fight the ride ops on this. Enough people do as it is. For tickets: If you buy a ticket after 3 pm, the next day is free. Downside is the parks do get a little busier after 3 each day because of this and you do have to pay parking twice. If you are going for 2 full days, buy a season pass. It's cheaper. Plus it gives you an excuse to return during the Christmas season and see the park in it's most magical form. A Gold upgrade is about $45 and gets you a 10-20% discount on everything plus free parking. Only going 2 days in a season would be a challenge to make it worth it, but if you return for Christmas it could easily be done. There are no decent discounts available in the community. I believe McDonald's cups give maybe $3 off during Great American Summer (or at least they did last year) but the best deal is either the after 3 deal or a season pass. In the local area: Yes, Dixie Stampede is a blast. It is geared towards kids so you have to be able to appreciate the cheesy humor. But if you aren't one of the times to just roll your eyes at everything and are willing to find the humor in it, definitely go. The food is amazing if nothing else. Also, if you arrive 45 minutes to an hour before the show starts, they do something called the Parade of Horses, where you can go down to the edge of the show ring and meet the show horses. Very cool and little known fact. Lumberjack Feud is also another really good show and I've heard Hatfield & McCoy is hilarious if you like cheap humor. For non-show food, my favorite place to eat is Holston's Kitchen in Sevierville (Michael, I took your sister there when she and her husband visited) which has a really nice variety of burgers, sandwiches, pasta and salads. Apple Barn/Applewood Farmhouse are also fantastic, though a little more touristy and a little more expensive. But the hand made apple fritters ... mmmm! The food is one of the things I miss the most about living in that area. Other local favorites are The Pottery House at the Old Mill, Bellacino's Pizza in Sevierville, and Smoky Mountain Brewery. For easy sight-seeing: The Roaring Fork Motor Trail runs out of Gatlinburg and is about a 15 mile one-way loop through the Smokies with some beautiful views and even the occasional bear sighting. Cades Cove is about an hour away and will be very busy as it's a very popular destination. The best time to get to either location is right after sunrise when they open the gates - that's prime bear-spotting time. You don't have to stay in your car, but if you don't, please park in a designated area. Don't just stop in the middle of the road and block traffic like all the rest of the tourists do. The sunsets off of Roaring Fork are also very beautiful. Place of A Thousand Drips is a cascade waterfall that's directly beside the Roaring Fork Motor Trail. For hiking, there are some very easy trails just inside the park. Sugarlands Nature Trail is about 2 miles in on the left. It's a paved trail with lots of flowers and other plant life. The Fighting Creek Nature Trail and Gatlinburg Trail both originate at the Sugarlands Visitor Center just inside the park on the right. The Nature Trail is a gentle loop that takes you past a few historic structures and through some nice areas of forest. About a 1/2 mile off the trail is the 30 ft Cataract Falls. Not the most impressive waterfall but super easy to get to. The Gatlinburg Trail is a 2 mile trail that goes into downtown Gatlinburg. It runs alongside the Little Pigeon River and also takes you past the remains of former homesites along the trail. All that's left are the stone chimneys and foundations and it's cool yet creepy. About 2 miles down Little River Rd (A right turn at Sugarlands Visitor Center - on the way to Cades Cove) is the trailhead for Laurel Falls. It's a 1.2 mile hike on a mostly paved trail to a very nice 80' waterfall. You can also make the drive up to Newfound Gap and Clingmans Dome. Newfound Gap is about a 45 minute drive into the Smokies on 441 and Clingmans Dome is another 15-20 minutes beyond that. Absolutely stunning views from both. You can hike the 1/2 mile, very steep trail up to the observation tower at the top of Clingmans Dome, the highest peak in the GSMNP. If you only have one day to explore the Smokies, I recommend driving to Newfound Gap and taking in the views, then going up to Clingmans Dome and seeing the observation tower. Then drive back down and head over to Laurel Falls for a fairly easy hike with a super rewarding waterfall at the end. Then before sunset, get on the Roaring Fork Motor Trail and get some beautiful sunset views, explore the restored cabins, and see another pretty waterfall. Or you can reverse that if you're really into sunsets - trust me when I say the sunset from Clingmans Dome is breathtaking. The drive back down in the dark can be a little scary if you aren't used to twisty mountain roads, but it's very, very worth it. Insider tip: Unless you are going in to Gatlinburg for a specific reason, take the Gatlinburg Bypass. It's the last exit off of the spur (the section of Foothills Parkway between Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg) and takes you up and around the main part of Gatlinburg. Very little traffic, and there's two fantastic overlooks on to downtown Gatlinburg along it. It will drop you off south of town, just inside the National Park. Also, take Veteran's Blvd instead of the Parkway if you can. Collier is the only cross-road between it and the Parkway, it will put you out in front of Walmart, next to Nascar Speedpark. Sorry for the super long reply. I lived in Sevierville for the last 3 years and I absolutely adore that area. If anyone ever has questions about the area, places to stay (Rodeway Inn is a good one - don't forget to get your free pancakes!), places to eat, or things to see, you guys can always PM me through the boards.
  16. Sneaky sneaky. Hiding under a new heading. Thanks for confirming my fear. lol. I'll keep an eye on the wait time thread and see if anyone else is braving it today.
  17. I haven't been able to find any information on this year's Math & Science Days schedule. It used to be posted on the website (under "events") along with the dates for Music in the Parks, making it easier to avoid ending up there on what you expected to be a walk-on day to be faced with wall-to-wall school kids. I was thinking of making a trip down there today after lunch but am leery without this information. I know Friday was one because the busses were just leaving when we got there in the early evening. As a tag along question, anyone know the same information for Cedar Point? I have this week free and want to make use of it.
  18. Cinderella Castle was, if I recall correctly, the first use of forced perspective in theme park design, which is also employed on KI's International Street. It takes advantage of an optical illusion to cause it to look taller than it is. Also, in regards to height restrictions - some municipalities also have local ordinances against building above certain heights. For instance, Pigeon Forge had a restriction of no more than 100 ft, which is why if you look up and down the Parkway, you won't see huge structures except for the Wheel. The Wheel was granted a special exclusion to the restriction, at 186 ft tall. The go kart tracks which offer things like Skyscrapers and Skycoasters all use models that when "parked" are under 100 ft tall. Dollywood actually sits outside of Pigeon Forge city limits, and therefore is not restricted.
  19. Guests can only be blamed for so much. The ride operators have to accept some of it as well. For example, Vortex was consistently triple stacking on Friday. While there was no line, it wasn't as big of a deal, but it would be exceedingly frustrating to have waited in a line to discover the reason for the triple stacking had nothing to do with guests and everything to do with the fact the ride ops were too busy chit chatting to dispatch their trains in a timely fashion. I saw it both on our train and the train ahead of ours. The ride ops were chit chatting instead of scanning and clearing. This was my absolute biggest frustration with working on Manta also - I was often the only op that finished checking and returned to my spot immediately, ready to clear the train, instead of taking 10-20 seconds to chit chat with the other operators before slowly meandering back to position. This holds up capacity and while it seems like a short break to those doing it, to the people sitting on the train, sometimes in uncomfortable restraints or positions, it seems like an eternity.
  20. I didn't used to have an issue with Power Hours back in the early years of Diamondback. The station master was consistent with their announcements of it and even the separator was saying "we're doing a Power Hour to try to hit a new record, have your loose articles ready to hand across" etc. However, the one time I've seen Banshee do it this year I saw all the same problems being reported in this thread. Guest Service goes out the window. Safety is going out the window. I'm betting a short kid could VERY easily slip through on a Power Hour and no one would even notice it. What else might they miss? Can we take a moment to address how awful the separators have been in general this year, Power Hour or not? I don't understand why they find it so difficult to count to 4. Even when not in a "rush" they can't manage it. It took the separator at BLSC 3 tries of walking back and forth between us and the gates to decide where to put 3 people. At Banshee we are constantly getting our group split up into different trains by the separator. We've had them let a group of equal size to ours in front of us to fill rows that we could have filled. It just boggles my mind how difficult they are finding this task. Want a challenge? Go be a separator at a Florida park. They don't need Power Hours to hit their capacity on those rides - they do it. In several cases, they do it or the ride shuts down. Add in the challenge that roughly 50% of the guests don't speak English, and they still manage to fill every seat. I spent entire shifts doing nothing but grouping at Dragon Challenge and even without a single rider line, I could fill most trains to capacity with no problems. I just don't get it. 6 rows. 2 seats per row. 18 people. You've got about 1 minute to fill them. There is nothing difficult in this equation. I hate being that person that complains about everything, but honestly, it's ridiculous. Separator should be the easiest job on the ride. It's straight forward. You aren't expected to be an information post like greeter. You aren't going to get a safety violation for missing something. Just fill the rows. Count to 4 (or 2). Pair up single riders. Send them to a row. Done.
  21. Trust me, it sucks. I've worked on spieling rides and non-spieling rides. The second always suck. It leads to bored, uninterested, disengaged crews. The one I've seen this be most prevelant on is when I worked on Manta. We actually were not allowed to spiel there because it "freaked people out" supposedly. What it led to was a complete lack of interaction with guests. The ride ops were all more interested in talking to each other, especially if they were in close proximity to another ride op (such as the back unload positions of each station, which are very close to each other). If you were trying to communicate with someone out of yelling range, we had phones at each position. And so people would call each other just to talk about stupid stuff instead of doing their job. The number of times I saw 5+ minute dispatch intervals was ridiculous because the operators were all chit chatting instead of checking restraints. At Universal, most of the rides have headset communication, which again leads to just chatting with each other instead of the guests. This was very prevalent when I worked at Forbidden Journey, and I noticed Hulk was really bad about it also. Flight of the Hippogriff didn't have headsets and we had pretty fantastic communication with our guests (though part of that was also due to excellent leadership). Dollywood is a mix of spieling and non-spieling. Tennessee Tornado and Mystery Mine both have automated but can also use the mic. It depends on the operator as to which they use. Thunderhead, Wild Eagle and Blazing Fury are mic only. At Mystery Mine, I used the mic most of the time (unless I was just dead worn out) because I enjoyed getting the energy in the station up, but there were many ops that didn't like to.
  22. I agree that Maverick is definitely turbulent, but not rough. I still have no desire to ride it again. I'm certain I will ... and I'm certain I'll regret it, like I do every time. I don't mind it when wooden coasters beat me up, but I can't stand the neck choppers that Maverick dishes out.
  23. Apparently they've had a bit too much rain lately. The park was originally supposed to open late today but elected to remain closed due to flooding.
  24. I will certainly be there (with my husband of course), as well as present at the rest of Spring Con.
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