Richard

wonderbus, we're having this discussion because people think that even parks that don't have a no-items policy, i.e. Sea World, Disneyland or Universal Studios (who even have recordings suggesting you do it, but to be careful of the water, on Jurassic Park). The parks that do have such a policy in place, i.e. Dreamworld, Knott's Berry Farm, provide space for items to be stored. Okay, it's one thing to use different sides of the station to enter and exit the ride, but what about rides like Scooby-Doo Spooky Coaster or practically every non-stationary ride at Disney parks, which have separate load and unload stations? This is about the only situation I can ever think of where storage space isn't practical. Wonderland has none of these sorts of rides, so that's not an excuse for them, and every ride I've ever been on like this allows the loose items on the ride. My real point in that is not really anything directly to do with the cameras on rides issue, it's that Wonderland enforces such a no-items policy, but doesn't really provide any suitable space for the items to go for the duration. All Sea World uses are a few store-bought plastic boxes, and that's all you need, or expect from a park. It's a bit unreasonable for them to expect you to not take them on, and instead to leave them lying around the station. I'm not necessarily saying they should change their policy and you should be allowed to take them on. I'm saying if they want the policy, they should give a safe alternative.

It's pretty ironic, Daniel, that for someone who's so intent on insulting everyone else that you're getting so worked up about something that was nothing more than a simple example. I'm fully aware that there's no harm in the actions you took. It was simply used an an example of how something can be done in a way other than they would be expected to do it. Daniel, would you have done the foot thing if someone from management happened to be standing behind you? I'm well aware that my scenario is about as likely as, well, a camera held tightly in someone's hands being ejected from the ride. Tell me, anyone, in your experience as a ride operator, how many times did incidents occur where an object held in a rider's hands was ejected from the ride? I don't mean a mobile phone falling out of their pocket, or a stuffed animal sitting on their knees, but a camera, held in the hands, falling out.

Is is procedure to press buttons with your feet? Would you get into strife if you were seen by a supervisor or management? If someone is going to do something the wrong way, regardless of how insignificant it may seem, how can you tell me it's entirely impossible for it to happen in another situation? How about we get back to the topic at hand? If a park says something is alright, then who am I, or anyone else, to suggest otherwise?

You're saying that there's no chance of staff taking shortcuts or doing the wrong thing for one reason or another? If an operator dispatches a ride using their foot, then I wouldn't put it past them to change things to suit their purposes. It's pretty poor that you say Wonderland has a very strict no-items policy with their rides, yet doesn't provide any safe way to store them for the duration of the ride. Every other park I've ever been to has done so.

I didn't read between the lines. I told the truth. Disneyland Resort only has two attractions where space is provided and they insist, or even suggest you should not take items with you. We're talking about Disney here. They have what are probably the highest capacity rides in the world. The only rides where there is not multiple groups running are the small flat rides, for obvious reasons. Most rides also have different load and unload stations. Placing items randomly around the station isn't what I'd call safe. Let's say I've left a bag in the station of Demon. During the course of the ride an operator is moving around the station for one reason or another. His foot gets entangled in a strap and not only has he landed flat on the track, but there's a several tonne train heading at 75km/hr straight for him. If a park wants people to stow items, they should do what just about every other park out there does and put in some sort of proper storage system. I understand Flea's camera was damaged because a ride operator stepped on it, so obviously you can't say it wouldn't happen.

Let's learn to write properly. Take the extra time to use punctuation, capital letters and correct spelling (sumfin is not a word) and people might actually read what you have to say. One Nightshifter is enough around here. Now, wonderbus, two things. He says explicitly that it's not forbidden. Meaning simply that they allow it on attractions (meaning all rides, shows, walkthroughs and other experiences). Don't go trying to fill gaps in what you were told. Secondly, and I repeat this from earlier, there are only two rides at the Disneyland Resort that provide any sort of place to store belongings - Maliboomer and Orange Stinger, both at DCA. The only lockers anywhere are found outside of the park, about 100m down from the Disneyland entrance. It can take up to half an hour just to re-enter the park. Unless "most attractions" means those two, our friend James is slightly stretching the truth.

Down in Texas now. I can see Judge Roy Scream and Superman at SFOT from where I'm sitting right now. We got into town at about 4:00 this afternoon - the best thing about having a SF season pass is being able to just hop into the park to kill an afternoon... pity that there's only two parks open right now. The Grand Canyon was quite nice. Absolutely freezing, it was snowing most of the way up and back, and hit -12ºC. Don't buy hot chocolate in America unless you want to die of a sugar overdose - that's all I can say. We didn't really do much of the strip, which I think was quite a disappointment. Before I come back (I really want to do it in a few years time again), I'm going to learn to count cards (which isn't illegal, by the way ), win a few hundred and spend it all on a few nights at the Bellagio. Off to SFOT for two days. The park is only open 12-6pm, so it means we can sleep in nicely and get other things done as well for a few days. I rode Titan this afternoon, which is really nothing more or less than Goliath at SFMM, though has a few different turns and whatnot. I'm really looking forward to the rest of the trip down in Florida (a stop in Georgia on the way). It'll be nice and touristy and what'll be the best parks of the trip hopefully.

Yeah, Boxing Day's are typically fairly quiet (certainly on the Gold Coast). It's more of a family day than anything. If only Vegas was the same, but too many gambling addict parents and their incredibly whiney families everywhere! The Shrek show would more than likely be the Shrek 4D that the Universal Parks are running. It's a pretty good show - certainly one of the best "4D" shows I've seen. It'd be a very cool addition, but I can't imagine it being cheap (especially if they go as far with the effects as they did here).

Pretty miserable day in Vegas. It was actually snowing at the top of Stratosphere (obviously melting before it hit the ground below), so not only were all the rides up the tower closed, but so was Speed, Manhatten Madness and we didn't bother heading way out to Bufullo Bill's to find out Desperado was closed too. So we only did Adventuredome at Circus Circus. Canyon Blaster was good, but not great. Certainly nothing like what it's been made out to be. It was no smoother than our Corkscrew or Viper at SFMM. The whole park was pretty bad. The roof leaked, and most of the ground was painted smooth concrete - quite a lot of fun to slide down to wheelchair ramps on the slippery floor, but a lawsuit waiting to happen. We're going to the Grand Canyon tomorrow (there's more to the world than coasters ), and flying down to Texas, so we unfortunately won't have a chance to get good weather for the rest of the rides. We're staying at Days Inn Downtown - it's two blocks from the Fremont Experience - the biggest and most confusing waste of $70 million dollars ever - and this is Vegas. It's a pretty dodgy area (we're surrounded by hotels that you can pay for at hourly rates :shock:), but only $40/night and not the worst we've stayed in.

Well, it's good to know that December 26 (today over there ) is the reopening date. They were pretty quick about it - they said no internal damage was done, so it was just facade repairs.

After forever, we've finally updated CoasterTrips.com with the Disneyland Resort report and galleries. See: http://www.coastertrips.com/gallery.php?dp...er=/california/ Check out the Disneyland and California Adventure galleries. They have to be some of my favourite photos. There's something like 150 of them there, so it'll keep you occupied for a while. We're in Vegas now, about to head out for lunch and do some of the rides (admittedly the only ones that really take my fancy are those up on the Stratosphere, but we might head down the strip to Circus Circus or NYNY after). There's still a Knott's Berry Farm update to come, and probably something from San Diego (SeaWorld and the zoo) and then Vegas. Then it's down to Texas for SFOT and over to Florida via Georgia.

I last rode Skyrider (that's the cable car ride, right?) in 1999, and I'm pretty sure it was operating through until last year. The park was built by an American company, and has been sold a few times up until now. It's now owned by Sunway (The Malaysian company), who've definitely had plans for big things, but none of them have come to fruition sadly. I don't hold too much hope for the park in terms of new rides to be honest. They're still surviving with pretty decent attendance, but they don't seem willing to add anything to the park. Even if they only spent relatively small amounts replacing the small flat rides that have been retired over the years, it'd just be a nicer place to be, which would really give them a lot in return.

Well, the media preview of Tomb Raider was on the 17th. No Total Thrills gallery updates or reports from it, given that I was at Disneyland that day. That's pretty much it.

As I mentioned earlier in my trip thread, today was our video day at Disneyland/DCA. It's not just a few small Australian parks that choose to stupidly risk every human being on the face of the earth by allowing loose objects on rides, but the father and leader of the industry. Both Disneyland and California Adventure make you take all objects onto the ride with you, with the exception of Maliboomer which has the strict "absolutely nothing but yourself" rule. We got videos of Mulholland Madness, California Screamin', Matterhorn and a heap of others, which I'm sure will please some people. Operators were more than happy, and there is absolutely no written policy about loose objects. Just something that's been looked over for the past 48 years. Clearly something that they've never looked at and thought about. I tell you what, Roy Disney's campaign to highlight the problems with the corporate side of Disney is a wasted effort. He should be just get a season pass and open a can of whoopass on anyone he catches with any sort of loose item on any ride. That's where the problems lie.

I'd presume that if it was there when you were last here, it's still there now. The name sounds familiar, and as far as markets go, the Disneyland area would be pretty stable. Today we made use of our video camera; we filled nearly two 60 minute tapes. I'll add something to the on-ride video debate shortly. Great day, though packed, considering it's not a holiday and Tuesday is supposed to be their weakest. Contrary to my last post, we decided it wasn't worth the hike to off-property food, and we ate in DCA this time. The nachos were a decent size so we went with them. Not too bad - at least filling, but I'm not a fan of refried beans, which make up a lot of the gunk they stick on the chips. Day three tomorrow. We've done everything we needed to, wanted to and most of the "what the hell why not"'s, so it'll be a fairly quiet and slow day, probably mostly spent in DCA. Disneyland's great and all, but considering two of the four mountains are MIA, and it is targeted at the families more than "our kind". At least there you've got less crowds, smaller queues and more thrilling rides.

I'm trying my hardest to resist the temptation of Denny's. It's right there - a lot closer than McDonalds, but do I want to put my body through the torture of all-you-can-eat? They seriously should change the name to all-you-should-eat for the sake of people like me.

Disneyland Resort (Disneyland and DCA) Quick report from day one of three at DLR. We covered both parks with ease today - including the notorious big-queue rides, Soarin' and Indiana Jones thanks to Fastpass, which is a great system. The best indicator of the quality of the coasters and rides in general is the amount we laughed in enjoyment during the ride. To give you an idea, at Dreamworld I don't think any rides have ever made me laugh. Not Cyclone, not TOT, not Giant Drop. Scooby-Doo got us going a bit when we first went on it. Mattorhorn had us wowing and giggling from start to finish. Same for Splash Mountain (a great ride which you can't judge at all until you're walking down the exit path) - the final drop is crazily steep. Same with California Screamin', which was the first true airtime I've ever experienced sadly. We're not talking about rides with the most ejector air or the tightest curves, but rides that are next to flawless in terms of enjoyment. Now, onto the bad stuff. Their food is nothing short of terrible, and also a ripoff. At least Dreamworld's food is relatively cheap for the crap you get. US$10 for a burger, chips and drink. The burger is tiny (even by Australian standards!) and made for looks, not taste. The chips were nothing special and you got barely any. For $2.50+tax, a cup of ice with a dash of Coke is a complete ripoff. Take this advice - head out the front gate when you're hungry and shoot straight down to McDonalds off the resort (onto the midway that divides the two parks, head away from Downtown Disney). Half the price, food you know you can at least pretend to like, bigger servings (food is huge here... don't go near large, let alone super/king sized) and free refills. We've got the next five meals booked with them.

If you're going to annoy each other, let's do it with minimal offensive language. It doesn't offend me, but I can't be bothered dealing with juicy complaint emails from people who decide they don't like it. There's better word choice out there anyway.

Hopefully insurance will mean they won't cut too many corners. I'd otherwise be pretty worried, given Movie World's current "cheaper is better" way of working (don't you just love the plywood box extension to the Commissary Restaurant at the front of the park). If they do it cheap and quick, then that's all insurance will pay for, so they're really not getting their money's worth.

Without taking this too far off topic, I must add that as a very anti-hiphop person, that song is just about the only one I actually enjoy hearing. The Cat Empire have done better stuff though. 8)

They had a guy (standup comic by trade) who was sort of hosting the audience. He walks everyone through the whole process, answers questions about the production process for everyone and keeps everyone interested, and hands out prizes and incentives for being an enthusiastic audience. This show was relatively quick - it started at about 6:30 and we were out by 9:30, which is fairly rare, but still very teadious. They've generally worked out a whole heap of different lines for different scenes. If what they do doesn't work as well as they thought it would, they'll try a different line. This show might be different from Friends in that it's only in second season, not fifth like you said. I'd imagine there'd be a lot less pressure in "Good Morning, Miami" for this reason. The stars (or anyone) didn't come up at any time during the show. Given that they're "in character" and all that fluffy stuff, I don't think coming up into the audience to say hi would be too practical. But before the show they would wave back to people yelling out and whatnot, and afterwoods they were more than happy to autograph. I found the process particularly amazing. It takes a single week to film a show. They do one a week and it's usually airing just two or three weeks later after post-production is finished. They did no more than two or three takes for any scenes. We didn't see King of Queens, because we slept in and didn't get to the park until about midday, and I guess they had run out of tickets. If we were staying in Hollywood until after Tuesday (we're leaving tomorrow), we'd probably see Will and Grace (which is the sister show of "Good Morning, Miami", and was created by the same two guys) on Monday night or Becker on Tuesday, but otherwise it's a choice of sitcoms that I've never heard of and will never see. I did it once, and if I were doing it again, it'd certainly only be a show I know if.

What do you think I'm sitting in right now, typing this?

Blast them and their movement! Good to hear Wonderland is coming back to life for the summer. Maybe I should push back my Sydney-Brisbane flight on the way home to check it out while it's at its peak.

To be honest, in my opinion, she's passed her peak. She's still better looking than most girls I'll ever meet.

The park closes for the first three weeks of December, so it was expected, and pretty well unavoidable. Given that the pre-departure photos never really happened, I wouldn't keep my fingers crossed. We went to Universal Studios today, came out with annual passes and spent the evening in the studio audience of a sitcom (Good Morning, Miami), featuring Tiffany Thiessan (Saved by the Bell, 90210 etc.). Tomorrow we do the same, only we're looking at seeing King of Queens (something I've actually heard of!). I'll hopefully get the pictures of this part of the trip up tomorrow night or early the next day, as well as a more comprehensive trip report for CoasterTrips.com.