XGatorHead 8904

Good! That saves me from doing one since we were together most of the time! Good one! Yes, I was quite literally in the dark... In the course of 2 hours on Friday and ERT through Close on Saturday, we made it through all the haunts at least once and a good amount of rides in (yes rotag, I rode Blue Streak, and it was running better than I've ever felt it before!). As always, the stand out haunts were Eerie Estate, Terror Island and CornStalkers (I scared the group in line in front of us at CornStalkers... all it took was shaking one of the cornstalks next to the queue. I'll let MF2000CMH tell you what happened in CornStalkers that made us laugh). I was a little disappointed with Happy Jack's this year... we got there right after it opened on Saturday so maybe they weren't in their groove yet. CarnEvil seemed to step it up a notch, or it could be that it was just better because they terrorized one specific person in our group after someone gave the clowns their name. And no, I wasn't the culprit, but I know who was! On Friday when we went through Terror Island, we were the last ones to enter. I guess we took too long because we were talking to one of the Screamsters when all of a sudden the lights go out. And I mean ALL the lights. It was so dark on the island that we got our cell phones out for light. Security came along shortly with flashlights and led us out... and that's when we saw Phantom Theater. StalkerChick was expecting him this time (after he got her good last year... I didn't tell her he was in there and then he started calling her by name ). So unfortunately he didn't get a good scare in with us, but it's always nice to see someone else from here hard at work doing what we love. Maniacal Mechanical Screamworks is a retheme of Fright Zone, but with the exception of new costumes and some steampunk props, not much seems to have changed. It was good before and is still good. Mr. Skull wasn't ready on Friday night, and when we stopped to watch him on Saturday, you could barely make out anything that he said. They need to adjust the effects on the microphone. Last year Mr. Skull was much better; we watched his crowd interaction for a long time, and he started referring to our group as his groupies. This year Mr. Giggles (at least that's what another Screamster told us was the name of the "garbage can guy") provided us with some great laughs with his scares. Blood on the Bayou was decent. No real scares in there for us though. There was a butcher in there, who I referred to as my Cajun butcher brethren, who was so intent on playing out a scene and not interacting with the guests. That would have been fine if he had served as a distraction and had a partner do the scare, but there was no partner and all he did was stay under his canopy and chop meat. It was great to spend time with good friends at a place we all like. Working Haunt takes away from being able to visit other haunted attractions in the area, so I love that CP opens their's a week before we do. Rides by day + haunts by night = FUN! Just heed this warning: the floor of CP's Dodgem is slick.

I'm going tonight! (and tomorrow) I can't wait! The Haunting season is HERE!!!

You know, I think you might be right about us!

If history is any indication, you picked a good night to go. The crowds tend to be lighter earlier in the Haunt season, and Fridays are usually less busy than Saturdays. As far as wait times, I can't really give you a good idea, since I haven't waited in line for a KI maze since 2007... I've been too busy inside them!

So I got out our Brady Bunch Season Five dvd (yes, we have all the seasons on dvd), fast forwarded to that scene and saw you. How cool! Of course, being the mom that she is, the first words out of Mrs. Gator's mouth were "Why is she walking all alone?" Mrs. Gator had that book, leant it to a friend, and we haven't seen it in years.

Now RingMaster, why did you have to go and give tips that could hinder our fun?

^ ...and... ...can be taken in a good way?

^The big difference between this and Fast Lane though is that Fright Lane only allows the holder once per attraction, whereas Fast Lane is unlimited on the rides.

Um... wow... Just the thing to post about your employer. Insulting their costumes will insure that you'll work Haunt for a long, long time... [/sarcasm]

I like the German twist you've given to Slaughter House. Maybe I could request them to change my outfit to some bloody lederhosen! (And yet that wouldn't be the first time I wore lederhosen in the park. Gator, reflecting on those days long ago working at Bier Garten...)

You're not alone, Shaggy. I can think of a few people like this. I just listen and bite my tongue because if you try to correct them they'll just argue that they know people and this is what they told them (and a lot of times I personally know the people that supposedly told them, and find it hard to believe that they would say something like that).

Yay! Terror Island is one of my favorites there. I'll be there with StalkerChick (and a few others) again on Friday and Saturday. Hopefully you can get her like you did last year (although she may be expecting it this time!)

I have no problem with NA having the picture instead of a graphic. In fact, I rather like that picture. Good question! I love chainsaws! is it just me or is the "all eight indoor mazes open at 5 pm" a new thing this year? I dont ever remember them opening early A couple of weeks into the season last year we started opening Slaughter House earlier than 7. I think it was 5:00, but I'm not 100% on that. IIRC there were a few other houses that opened along with us. Nope, see above... I liked the Overlord. That was a great costume. I know Wizard Lizard. In fact, Wizard Lizard once told me that I was the one responsible for him being called by that name! I've started growing my goatee, and Sam is starting to emerge after a long hibernation. Sam's getting a little different look this year. All I'll say about that for now is I should be getting a package in the mail today that will really change the way Sam sees the world. Only two weeks to go! (and one week until my trip to CP's Halloweekends!) I can't wait!

I was nervous about that too when I first began, but you'll get the hang of it. Just have fun and listen to any suggestions that the supervisors and other scareacters may have for you.

I like how the artist's rendering of the new entrance (http://www.visitkingsisland.com/public/park/soakcity/2012/entrance.cfm) shows the ticket windows on the right hand side of the entrance, but doesn't have a sidewalk in front of them. I imagine it would be a little difficult to conduct business over that flower bed they show there! Sorry, that's just the old Admissions geek in me coming out!

I'll keep that in mind. If there ever comes a year when someone in our group can't make it, you'll be on the list of people to call as a replacement. With as close as they had us park to each other end to end on the track, it felt like bump drafting (only at an extremely slow pace ). There was no way I was going to even put a scratch on those trucks. They were too nice and too expensive!

^As long as you're not Haunting, that is...

Great idea! Just make sure to have some sort of lock on the zipper too so that they don't just open it up and take your stuff out instead of taking the whole bag! When the Boomerang Bay re-theme first occured, it was called Crocodile Dundee's Boomerang Bay. Soon after CF bought the parks, they dropped the "Crocodile Dundee's" from the name. That was all that was really needed to de-Paramount BB. Well, that and taking out the Crocodile Dundee movie posters that were on the fence near the train. Huh? They're still on the artist rendering...

You know, I've always had difficulty understanding why a lot of waterparks have two wavepools too. But the thought just occured to me a few minutes ago that it's more than likely a safety thing. With as busy as the one wavepool gets, I'm sure it's much harder for the lifeguards to keep an eye on everyone and their safety. Spreading that group out to two wavepools would help them out and help make it safer for the guests. I would have loved to have tried the one at Schlitterbahn when we were down there last year. It looked like a lot of fun when we were watching it from Master Blaster's tower. I hope that's not the case. It's nice to have someplace to relax in the water, so keeping it and adding a new not-so-lazy river would be ideal to me. Some angry customers? If they did that, I predict thousands of angry customers. 23 years of including something "free with park admission" is a huge hurdle to overcome. Well, I'll wait to see it before I pass judgement on it then. If the transformation is like Schlitterbahn's, then I would have preferred an additional river. We'll see though. It will probably be somewhere between the two extremes. Whew! I would have liked to have seen a watercoaster, as it's one thing our waterpark truly lacks that seems to be popular with the crowds. Oh well, maybe in the next few years. I can always go over to HW since they'll have two next year. Overall I like these additions. I just wish I had had time this summer to get over to BB. This is the first year in a long time that I haven't made it over there. (And yes I realize it's open 3 more days, but I have other plans that will keep me busy and away from KI this weekend).

As huge WDW fans, the Gator family is eagerly awaiting all these new attractions. We were down at MK in July, where GatorGirl got coaster credit #10 on Space Mountain, and all three of us got our first rides ever on Splash Mountain. We could see the construction of The Little Mermaid ride and Beast's castle behind the walls, and we made sure to get our last-ever ride on Snow White's Scary Adventures. When we first bought The Little Mermaid on DVD years ago, the thing I was most excited to see was one of the extras, which was a POV computer rendering of an abandoned concept for a Little Mermaid darkride. Lo and behold, a few years later it came to be. The POV of Disneyland's actual ride is pretty close to the computer animated version on our DVD. Also, I love the Mine Train cars. The concept behind making them swing looks so simple, it makes me wonder why no one ever did it before. We're still debating where to go for vacation next summer, and whether MK will be a part of those plans or if we're going to wait until at least Little Mermaid opens. The new Legoland is high on my list of places to go, as are Sea World (which I haven't been to since the early '80s), Busch Gardens Tampa (which we haven't been to since our honeymoon in '97) and Animal Kingdom (which we've never been to). Of course, if we do Animal Kingdom, then we have to go to MK too because in my mind no trip to WDW is complete without a trip to the original park.

Bring back WaterWorks! (Just kidding. I always thought that was a clever name though.) If only... But as jrose530 pointed out above, it's four hours between KI & CP, so I can completely see why most KI patrons would probably not know about Soak City.

I've seen people come through Slaughter House while texting. I let them have it... they're distracted & I can usually get them pretty well. Screaming for help usually works better than texting for help!

I'm not really sure how exactly it came about, all I know is it was through a friend (or a friend of a friend) of Rich's that got us on the list. Rich had been working on it for months, and we finally got confirmation a few weeks before that we would be doing it. We each got a FedEx packet on Wednesday (the day before we left) from Ford Racing that gave us all the details on where to meet, all the rules, etc.

My biggest piece of advice for a first time Haunt-goer is to go early in the season. As the weekends go on later into October, the crowd sizes typically increase, and the crowds tend to be smaller on the first couple of weekends. Also, Friday nights tend to be less crowded than Saturdays.

As some of you may already know, my friends and I have been renting an RV and going to the night race at Bristol since 1999, so this would be the 13th annual trip for our group. The group has changed a few members over time, but the last five years or so it's been Brian, Jason, Rich, Gary and me (Brian & I are the only originals left from that 1999 trip). Over the years we've had our fair share of experiences there (and on the road to and from there), including getting daytime tickets (cold pit passes) into the infield a few years ago, but nothing like what we experienced this year. We got to drive the drivers around the track for driver introductions before the races! This experience was possible because of a friend of Rich's. Rich, Gary & Brian got to do this at Kentucky Speedway last month too, but we were all looking forward to doing it at Bristol because it's the best track, we've been going there for years, and the banking of the track is incredible! Prologue: Wednesday, August 24th Lebanon, OH - We always go grocery shopping the night before we leave, that way we can get on the road a little earlier. We've been doing this so long that we have it down to a science. This year, to get us on the road even earlier, we decided to get the RV the night before as well. Gary was to go pick up the rental RV and then meet the rest of us at the Kroger in Lebanon so we could load up our food and all of our gear, allowing us to leave as soon as we got all of our kids on the school busses on Thursday. As I was heading up to Lebanon, Rich called and asked if I was sitting down. Being as it's very difficult to stand up and drive, I told him that I was. He then hit me with the bombshell: "We don't have an RV for the weekend." We've had a few problems in years past and had gotten them quickly resolved but this one was different. Some of the guys had been calling other RV rental places and no one had any available. It turns out the rental company had dropped their insurance, so we had to supply our own for the rental. No one had told us that when we reserved back in January, and the person who took the reservation was no longer employed with the company. Gary stayed up at the rental place for hours trying to come up with a resolution while the rest of us completed the shopping. The woman at the rental company was going to come in extra early the next day to contact their insurance company first thing and see if anything could be worked out. We went our seperate ways not knowing if we would be able to get an RV, or if we would have to take Brian's in-laws' pull-behind camper... at least we had that to fall back on if we needed it. Bristol, TN - Meanwhile in Bristol, the truck race was held. During the race, there was a misunderstanding on the track between Kyle Busch and Elliott Sadler. Busch thought that Sadler purposely wrecked him, so Busch waited for Sadler to come back around the track, then ran into Sadler's truck. To me it looked like it was Busch's fault for wrecking in the first place, and many fans had the same opinion as me (as I would especially find out on Friday night... more on that later). Day 1: Thursday, August 25th Gary, Rich & Jason went to the RV rental place to work on our situation some more, and Brian & I were told to wait at home for them to call us. I finally got a text from Jason at 11:40 that read "Long story, but we got the okay from Rich's attorney to rent the RV," then another text at 12:15 instructing me to be at Rich's at 12:50 "unloaded in the driveway and ready to leave." Apparently some sort of agreement was reached, the full details of which I still don't understand and I'm not sure I want to. All I know is Rich was the only one allowed to drive, which was just fine by me. We loaded up, and were finally on the road around 1:30... 4 hours behind schedule. We decided to cut out our side trip to Pigeon Forge and the go-cart tracks there and head straight for our campsite at All American Campground. After stopping for dinner in Knoxville, we made it to our site just after dark. We quickly set up our site and joined other campers in the festivities. Day 2 - Friday, August 26th We started the day by going down to some of the vendor tents, going back to the RV and watching Boat Trip & Animal House, then soon it was time for us to go to the staging area where we would pick up our trucks. We were let into the Hospitality Village entrance at 5:00, then walked to the sign-in area where we signed all the appropriate waivers. As we were waiting for everyone else to sign in, we all agreed that this would be cool to do once, but then go back to our normal routine next year. Our main reason was that since we had to be there so early for the race (5:00 on Friday, 4:30 on Saturday), it really cut into our... um... how do I say this?... our "libation" time, since we had to be sober to drive the trucks. Our opinion changed though once we actually got out onto the track. We had a meeting with the Ford representatives, where they went over the rules with us. Do not go over 25mph, stay on the flat part of the track around the turns, turn headlights and hazard lights on, and no air conditioning (to prevent water from the AC dripping on the track). They had us line up, and they randomly picked which trucks we woud get by picking out a key from an envelope. Once we were handed our key, we had to find our corresponding F150. I got truck #22, which meant I was toward the end of the line, and got one of the better qualifiers to drive around. Before we get to the pictures, I apologize ahead of time for the quality. I didn't have a real camera with me, so these were all taken on my phone. Here is the truck that I got to drive Friday. I've always been a GM guy (my first car was an '89 Grand Am, I inherited a '93 Pontiac Sunbird through marriage, then we bought the '01 Chevy Malibu which Mrs. Gator currently drives, and now my '07 Impala), but I will say these F150s were extremely nice. I didn't look at the sticker on the window myself, but Jason did and IIRC he said it was about $47,000 sticker price. They were loaded with pretty much every option you could want. We played follow the leader from the Hospitality Village, up the hill to the entrance tunnel into the track. We lined up and had to pull as close to each other as we could. The view from my windshield... ...and out the passenger window. Once lined up, it was found that the last few trucks were covering the logo of the race sponsor that was painted on the track. So the last few drivers in line had to pull up onto the track next to other trucks in line. And who was the first trck in the line that had to pull up? Me! This is when I got my first feel for the banking... and it was just the bottom of it. I tried to take this picture straight so you can see the angle of the truck by the hood. We had to pull around to the Start/Finish line to pick up our drivers. Most trucks got two drivers in the bed of their truck, but the higher qualifiers got a truck to themselves. And who did I get? Elliott Sadler, who two nights before had been crashed into by Kyle Busch. As I slowly started to drive around the track with Sadler, people were yelling at him from the stands "Take out Kyle!" This made me smile, and I took my time going around the track to enjoy it. I got nowhere close to 25mph... the most I did was maybe 12mph. I found out later that the same was true for my friends. We dropped off our drivers near the turn 4 entrance to the pits, then we had to do a U-turn to go back to the track entrance, so that we were facing the "wrong way" on the track. Going the wrong way at Bristol. We drove back to the staging area, left our trucks and went to our seats (1st row at turn 4) just in time for the start of the race. Sadler and Busch didn't have any squabble during the race, but unfortunately Kyle ended up winning. Day 3 - Saturday, August 27th We started the day by going to the drivers' merch trucks and the sponser tent areas. It's always nice to hit up the sponser area because you end up getting free stuff from the various booths. We got a sample of steak from Outback Steakhouse and a coupon for a free steak dinner, a free roll of Tums (much needed on Sunday morning), and since Irwin Tools was the sponsor of the Cup race, they had a huge area where we got a free slip-notch pliers. We went back to the campsite, and Rich started talking to the people across the way from us. Now, each of the introduction drivers could bring a guest with them to ride in the truck, but since all five of us were driving we didn't have anyone in our shotgun seat on Friday. But Rich invited their group to join us on Saturday, and so four of them agreed to meet us at the Hospitality Village at 4:30. We went into the RV and watched the first half of Hall Pass... very funny movie. We went down to the Village and only two of the four people ended up coming to join us. They said that the other two decided that food was more important to them and they didn't want to leave their site so early. We were wondering why we had to be there so early ourselves, but we soon found out. We had our pre-race meeting and were told that our route was different that day. We would pick up the drivers at the tunnel, where there was a "plank" that they would jump into our truck from after coming out to some intro music and saying something to the crowd. I got truck #9, so I had some lower qualifiers that day. We pulled into the track, went around to turn 4, and had to do a U-turn to face the other way. This U-turn required going almost straight up the banking. Now that was some serious fun, gunning it to make it up that hill. We lined up, and I was situated near turn 3. We were told to shut off our engines because we would be sitting there for nearly an hour. My truck was up much higher on the banking than the day before, and it was a challenge sitting at that angle for an hour. The view out my sun roof... ...and out my windshield. There were many pre-race things going on, one of which happened to be the Budweiser Clydesdales going around the track. There was a pre-race concert by Darryl Worley, during which I decided to take another picture of the crowd in the stands. After the concert, it was time to pick up our drivers from the plank. I ended up with Martin Truex, Jr. and Brian Vickers. We drove clockwise around the track, and when we got to turns 2 & 1, we had to go a little higher on the track than the day before because of trucks and cameras that were set up there. After turns 4 & 3, we pulled into the infield area, where we drove through a crowd of people with hardly any room on either side of us to clear them, to the turn 4 entrance to the infield. I stopped, let Truex & Vickers out of my truck, and lined up on the track again, gunning it up the banking again to make the turn. As I was sitting there waiting for the rest of the intro trucks to end their laps, I saw Brian drive by and snapped a quick, blurry picture of his truck. Our time on the track was over, and we had to join the rest of the crowd in the stands. We once again made it to our seats (at the beginning of turn 1 this time) just in time for the start of the race. My guy Kenseth ran a good race and led a good amount of laps, but Keselowski won. I was okay with that since I had picked him for my fantasy NASCAR team that week. After the race we went back to the RV, watched the rest of Hall Pass and went to bed. Day 4 - Sunday, August 28th Ever since Rich started coming on the trip, he's woken up early to get us on the road as soon as possible. This year was no exception, as he and jason got up and we pulled out of the campsite around 5:00 in the morning, while Gary, Brian and I slept. Once back in Ohio, we cleaned the RV up, packed our stuff in our own cars and said our goodbyes. Another year of Bristol is in the past, and it's one we won't soon forget. I really want to do this again, and hopefully we get the opportunity next year. There's a possibility that one or two of us may not sign up to be drivers so that we can have someone in the truck with us to talk to while waiting on the track, but we'll see.