PREMiERdrum

Just for perspective's sake, that is a Honda Pilot crossover, not some compact. He's quite lucky to have survived, as impacts with school buses like this are quite often fatal. I'll say a prayer for him, his family, and his coworkers tonight.

Wasn't there an incident involving this ride at the state fair in '09? I might have to email Dave... Edit: The 2009 OSF accident involved the snapped cable on Slingshot. I seem to remember that this ride was involved in an accident that took it off the circuit.

I've had this stuff at Port Columbus once or twice... it's good. Safe, but good. There was also a Famiglia location inside Easton Town Center for a while, but that space has since been filled by a Sbaro. And I'm with Terpy on the Chuck Wagon pizza @ CP... they made lots of noise in 2010 about their "fresh made" crust (as compared to the frozen they'd use previously) but it was awful.

The park's Midway sound system is interconnected through the whole park, with the ability to be zoned. Zoning is used most of the time in the summer, except for the national anthem and the night show. At one time the music zones looked like this park map. Recently, the zones have been reduced combining Main, Gemini, Kiddy Kingdom and most of Oceana. Games area uses Johnny Rocket's, Planet and Camp Snoopy each have there own loop. Frontier town/trail are there own loop as well, until the trail switches to starlight (trail is the only midway not to have the night show played on it). There are three out of park zones main gate, boardwalk/challenge and Soak City. During Halloweekends, the whole park minus Camp and Planet are on the same zone until night when trail becomes the Fright Zone. Ride and que sound systems are exclusive to the ride and are not connected to the midway. (thus is why one cannot hear the night show in MF's que). The Dragster scenario you mentioned would require it to go down during the show thus making it unfeasible. The HD will come in handy in the fall when they show sports on the screen, ruining the atmosphere of Halloweekends. Finally, The night show takes place on the Million Dollar /Laser/ Hot Summer Lights Midway not the funway. The funway is the old name for the Main Midway (between the Sky Ride stations) in which the original CP&LE station was until the moved it in 1970. The never bothered to change the sign on the station. See this map for more details. Thanks for the info. It sounds like they have it done better than I expected. I wouldn't call a :30 to :45 minute closure of TTD completely "unfeasible." Close the queue at a posted time (:20 minutes before showtime?), continue to operate the ride until showtime, allow patrons to watch the show from the queue, and then finish out the line after the show.

The screen has been torn by severe weather a few times, but they always insist on replacing it. For a park with the acreage and capacity of Cedar Point, a location-based "spectacular" makes absolutely zero sense. Only small percentage of the day's guests can cram into the Funway to watch it, and the daytime aesthetics of all the infastructure are atrocious. If they're really want something they can market... Install a rolled screen (automated or manual) 1/2 to 2/3 of the way up Dragster's tophat. Put the projection and laser equipment in the infield, keystoned up towards the screen. Use one of the secluded areas around PWE/Millennium Island for your launch site, and presto! You have a video/laser/fireworks spectacular that can be seen from the entire front half of the park. The soundtrack could be played throughout the zones where the screen can be seen (I'm not sure exactly how the park's audio is zoned, but I'm certain that it is). Since the screen rolls and stows when not in use (which would be 23.5 hrs a day), it would be better protected from weather damage than the current set up. The potential with a set-up like that is incredible.

I'm happy to hear about the HD upgrade to the projectors on the Funway Screen, but I was really hoping we'd see that eyesore come down entirely.

Hey now. We're not all bad.

Perhaps the redesign is held up in Customs at the border?

Glad to see this finally moving forward... The zoo's next major expansion, the African Savanna, had been slowed while the hotel was being debated, as there are plans to integrate the hotel facility along one side of the the open savannah.

How many straight quarters have they seen per caps decline? You'd think they'd get the point by now.

An equipment malfunction caused by your magnetic personality, I'm sure.

For those who have wondered how this works... LINK - Gizmodo (with pics)

That's a tough one... -Horizons wins over all (I have the icon as a tattoo, for crying out loud!) -DHS Tower of Terror is my favorite contemporary -Spaceship Earth would be my favorte "traditional" dark ride (as traditional as one can be inside a 200' geodesic sphere) -Monster Mansion would be my "regional park" favorite

Looks great. The San Diego park is by far my favorite SeaWorld... the setting on Mission Bay, the sprawling paths and beautiful landscaping are much appreciated. We have family that lives on Mission Bay, a short walk from the park. This could be the push we need to make our way back out there next year.

I'd guess that the out-of-the-way location (unless you're heading to CP) has to do with this. Also, there were 2 example images sent along with this release (in my email, at least)

Already read both, and LOVE the discussion of such at both the Ford enthusiast site (blueovalnews.com) and GM site (GMInsideNews.com) that I read.

Not to get too far off topic, but have you guys been following Dan Akerson's tenure as the new CEO of General Motors? He and Kinzel could be twins. My favorite quote from Akerson so far: "People don't care about fuel economy. When it's empty, you fill it up!" Sound familiar?

If only that attitude reached into upper management.

I know a certain someone, who may or may not be a newsroom assignment editor with a Communications and Journalism degree, who is currently in contract negotiations. I love options.

Discovery Cove is on the list for one of these trips. We will get this one under our belt (first big vacation with the little one) and go from there. As to the timeshare, it's the best investment we've ever made. We paid upfront, and now own 2 weeks of vacation every year for the rest of our lives. We own at a resort in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, but we only really bought there because the annual maintenance fees are incredibly low (about 10% of what they would be at an Orlando resort). We pay $100 to exchange into a different resort, guaranteeing a 4- or 5-star resort. Because of the size of the unit we own at our home resort, we're guaranteed to get a suite that sleeps 8 (with privacy for 6), a full kitchen, washer/drier... it's great. The best part is that, since it's a deeded property, we'll hand it off to our kids and they'll get 2 weeks of vacation a year too. As long as it stays in the family, it keeps passing down.

I'm excited to see all the new stuff the Orlando parks have cooked up. We own a timeshare, so we typically trade into a Celebration or Kissimmee-area condo for 7 days. We typically do 3 days at Disney, 1 at Seaworld, and 1 at Universal. Our plans this year are scaled back a bit, waiting to see how Avery handles things. We'll likely do 2 days at Disney, and 1 day split between SeaWorld and Aquatica. The "grown ups" might venture to Universal, and leave the little ones (good friends of ours are travelling with us, they have an 8 month old son) back at the condo with the nanny. (my mom travells with us as our nanny and cook. LOL)

Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan. in fact, we just booked our trip for April, which will be our 10 month old daughter's first visit. I love the whimsy of the Magic Kingdom, the built-in (though recently watered down) optimism of Epcot, the perfect placemaking at DHS, and the incredible design of Animal Kingdom. Where I see guest experience declining is mainly an effect of a complacent and "good enough" attitude in management. -Nemo made no thematic sense for The Living Seas, but it was an easy fit. Kids like Nemo. "Good enough" -The "star" character in Expedition Everest has been broken for, what, 4 years now? Point a fan at him and fire up a strobe light. They won't know the difference. "Good enough." -In an age where energy is a hotbutton issue, the Energy pavilion at Epcot hasn't been updated in 17 years. But, what the hell, Ellen's still on TV. "Good enough." -An aerial ride track has been left to rot above DL's Tomorrowland untouched for 11 years. People must have forgotten about Rocket Rods by now. "Good enough." I studied Stagecraft and Design in college with the pie-in-the-sky dream of one day working for WDI. It kills me to see them let go of the high standards that they used to hold themselves too. They're being hanged with their own noose.

DQ also has (or had, a few years ago) reasonable price caps on their products. With it being a "Grill & Chill" location, that means the food product will also be sourced from Dairy Queen (Grill & Chill is the new Braizer system, essentially) so the quality should be there. Oddly enough, with the DQ system, stores that aren't signed as "Braizer" or "Grill & Chill" are free to order their hot food product from whichever supplier they wished, and only have to order their ice cream selections from DQ.

They've been moving this direction for a while.. and it's all designed to appeal to their "agenda-driven" tourist, and prop up their PhotoPass sales. It's another case of TDA and TDO managing from the 10th floor. They look down on the park, see a line of people crowding a character on the street, and decide to give them a permanent 'home'. What they fail to realize, however, is that they're gutting the character experience of any whimsy or magic. Part of the excitement with the walkarounds was their randomness. You rounded the corner and see your favorite character face to face, on your level, and ready to meet you. Under the new plan, you get in a queue, walk up to a set up that resembles a KMart Photography studio, and meet your Princess in front of a cheesy, printed backdrop. The end result might be the same (you meet and get photographed with the character), but the experience is decidedly different.

One would hope. While the old Jet Stream and Zuma Falls are, well, old, they deliver a good ride. The Jet Stream, specifically, delivers a great "Oh Crap" moment about 1/3 of the way thru its course. They have some life left in them.