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TR – Day 2 (Disneyland Resort) Well what a day of contrast to yesterday, except for the weather, still raining on and off but morning started out very nice. The photo below sums up today perfectly… Indiana Jones and the Temple of the 3 Hour Line as usual was not so fortunate in its wait time and the line actually blew out to a whopping 15 minutes at one point in the day! If ever there is a time of the year to visit Disneyland, this is it. The park may has well been empty, the longest wait time for any ride all day was 20mins and for the most part they were all walk ons. I got into the park before opening and made my way to the end of Main Street. As it was only 9:40 I waited with everyone else behind the rope for the park to open. On opening I headed straight to Indy as at this point I didn’t know what the wait would be like. I think I was on the second Jeep of the day and well, Indy is Indy, not much left to say really. I then went on to hit Splash Mountain, Big Thunder, Star Tours and my favourite, Pirates before midday which was just awesome. I am on a park hopper so I then headed over to California Adventure to hit the main rides there. First Up I went over to get a Soarin’ fast pass as it was only an hour till it was due and I figure if I can save waiting 20 mins why not. It’s a far cry from the 80min wait I had on my last visit. I then intended to ride Tower but on my way over Aladdin was about to start so I headed in there. I can’t say enough about this show, I saw it last year and was amazed then and today was no different. The whole thing just blows me away as someone who works in theatre. First of all the theatre would be as big as anything we have in Sydney and this is just for a free theme park show. Then there is the show itself, from a technical point of view it’s amazing. The sheer number of sets, effects, lighting and machinery is crazy, the crane for the flying carpet in the roof is simple beautiful. The Genie stole the show again and was great to see his new lineup of jokes. After the show I walked over to Tower of Terror. Despite what any of the winging yanks may say this ride is unbelievable. First of all you have the physical building itself. I saw it being built last year and couldn’t believe the size of it then, now it’s finished it really does impress. It is certainly the actual size of a real hotel. As at Disneyland there are no waits in this park either so it’s straight into the themed part of the lobby. The attention to detail is 100% Disney. We then headed into the library when the quality continued as for the boiler room. The cast members loading the lifts come close to those on Jungle Cruise (my favourite Disney attraction) in terms of personality and originality. Each one adding a certain something to the ride. The ride itself is literally breathtaking. The special effects and ride sequence are top rate and the ride is extremely thrilling in its drop sequence. I spent ages waiting to find the un-themed corridor the yanks were talking about but I never did. I don’t know what they were looking at but everywhere I went was done well. From here I headed over to Soarin and jumped straight on. I sure am glad it looks like MW isn’t going to attempt to build a copy of this. I’m sorry but we just don’t have the skills. This ride is damn amazing both in mechanics and experience. It’s just such a beautiful piece of work in every way. I then rode Cali Screamin’ several times and Maliboomer. Screamin’ is a top class coaster in every way. It’s an Intamin which are my favourite coasters however it was getting a bit of a roughness to it. I hope its just train rehab time otherwise it could be a bad sign. You just have to love this thing, the launch, speed, airtime and transitions are all perfect and it just works so well with all demographics. Plus it’s physically beautiful. Unfortunately they were only running 3 trains today and one side of the station so the amazing capacity and huge train count didn’t get a look in. I hit Grizzly next and with no wait this Rapids only gets better. It just makes SRR look like a joke HAHA I then went back over to Disney for a few hours. I went to Great Moments with Lincoln as I was there and was completely surprised. This attraction has some fantastic audio effects and I’m surprised that isn’t made more public. I grabbed lunch at the French Market which was pretty good and well priced. I caught another ride on Indy and some other stuff before heading back over to DCA for the last hour. I was originally going to take photos around Disneyland in the afternoon however the weather went bad so I’ll do that tomorrow. I grabbed some more rides on Tower before heading back over the road. I’m sure I did something else but can’t remember  Unfortunately it wasn’t yet dark so I won’t get the see the Tower lighting up close. Back over at Disney I again rode Pirates before heading to Haunted Mansion Holiday. It looked great but truth be told I don’t remember it well enough from before to know what they did in the makeover… I hit Splash Mountain again in the dark and then went back around to Big Thunder. This turned out to be a water ride as it started pouring as soon as we pulled out of the station. I was in the death car and the ride only gets better in the dark and wet. The train was flying around the mountain and I got absolutely soaked. It of course stopped raining as soon as I got off and I went to ride Jungle Cruise in the dark. The ride was damn funny as well and it’s kind of cool in the dark. I then rode Indy and JC another time before leaving for the night. All in all it was a fantastic day, WAY better than yesterday. The park is looking great with all the refurbs they are doing although I think closing access off completely to Tomorrow land from Fantasyland is a bad move and makes for a big dead end. It’s just nice to get back to Disney where service is as it should be and theming is done as it should be. I am being joined tomorrow morning by my mate Nev and we’ll be hitting the parks again tomorrow. Cheers Guys

TR - Day one (SFMM) Well today was one pretty damn full on day... Brief synopsis goes like this; 7am - Wake Up (on 4 hours sleep) 10:50am - Scheduled departure from Sydney 11:50am - Actual Departure from Sydney 8:00am (LA time) - Arrive LA 9:00am - Pick up Hire Car - Drive to SFMM 10:00am - 4:00pm - SFMM 4:00pm - Drive to Orange Country 6:30pm - Finally Enter Paradise Pier Hotel, Disneyland 10:45pm - Typing this. So yeah it’s been a damn long day, and I pretty much didn't sleep on the plane either. Was a good flight but being an hour late totally screwed me. This meant that I didn't get to SFMM until 10:10am so missed getting in first thing to hit X, when I got there the line was already back over the bridge towards Revolution. My thoughts on that were pretty much 'screw that' and I went towards Viper. That had its queue down out of the station and into the downstairs queue. Again, same thought. I decided to head around to the back side of the park as usually the stupid people pack the front half leaving the back empty as. Yup, that was the case however the Mountain being the Mountain nothing back there was even testing yet. I did manage to hit Batman though in the front and it was awesome as ever. Next stop was Goliath which as usual was pretty much a walk on...although it’s not running all that first rate its still a great ride, I did pretty much overcome the helix though this time round! It started to rain again as I made my way back around to the front of the park. I decided I'd tackle the X queue which was much shorter round. This was around 11:10am... ...fast forward to 1:14am when I boarded the single train that was running on 6min dispatches. I pretty much wanted to go and throw the Op. off the bridge and start operating myself because she was too busy sitting on her fat arse than to even bother pushing the train through the station as quickly as possible. X itself was very much the ride I remember...bloody awesome. I was much more prepared this visit and had much more of a sense of what was going on. It’s true you get a little bit of jerking in the seat rotation however the train was running pretty smooth. I went on to hit Riddlers, Colossus, Goliath again and Gold rusher. Riddlers is one coaster I'm a big fan of, just the site of it and how many elements are jammed in make it really great. They even had 2 trains running :eek: ! Biggest surprise was Gold rusher. This was the first Coaster I ever rode at Magic Mountain and didn't really take it in before. Today I was hit with a great ride, bloody nice mine train. I then thought I'd give Freefall a try just because its there. WHAT A SCARY PIECE OF ****. Like it was rattling all around and something fell from the car in front as we were at the bottom of the lift. Its one unhealthy ride but the G's were unbelievable. Last of all was my favourite...DJV. The ride by nature is not all that high capacity but it was churning through the people. Unfortunately it went tits up the ride before I was about to board. The Mechs came and got her running and made the comment "ah, we'll send it through and see what happens:) LMAO I was in the very back seat and this smooth beast packed a major punch. Yes I know I just said a Vekoma was smooth! OMG That was enough for me, by this point I was totally un-pumped to try and get the others in. I just couldn't take any more unnecessary lines and stupid, turd people that go to the mountain. The staff today just made me soo angry, they were disgusting. There were too many coasters with 1 train op. (DJV included, with the capacity that thing has they really should put another train on) and the slackness of the Ops just made the situation worse. I just don’t know how they can stand to be in a job they so clearly couldn’t give a toss about. I don’t know why Six Flags hires the people they do. There is just ZERO efficiency, the ride crews just wander back and forth checking trains and the guys on the panel would just happily chat away rather than dispatch trains as soon as they were ready. Another idea worth considering perhaps is the thought of hiring some staff that speak English! I don’t mean to sound offend but there was barely a ride Op. that had a vague grasp of the English language. Don’t put people on PA unless you can understand a word they say. I left the park about 4:00pm, spend a good 20mins wandering the car park trying to find my Hire Car…  Pretty crap effort on my part but funny none the less. When I did finally find my tasty GRAND AM I left the park and headed for trust Maccas. This was the first thing I’d eating all day since getting off the plane LOL The real ride of the day came next, getting back on the freeways and heading down to Orange Country. Dropped the car at the airport and got a shuttle over to Disney. Checked into Paradise Pier about 6:30pm which is a nice enough hotel. I have photos for Rabid so you can check it out when I get back. It’s nothing special but has that great Disney service and looks right into California Adventure. The park was still open when I arrived so I got to check out the view of the amazing lighting scheme on Tower. Headed over to Downtown Disney for dinner at ESPN… Got just what I had needed all day, fantastic US customer service, bunch of BBQ Ribs & Chicken and a couple beers! Got back to the hotel around 10pm and started typing this trip report and fell asleep writing it (sorry Liam) so just finished it now after day 2. Till then…

Well I think that is a bit unfair. Not every park gets something new EVERY year. IMO Movie World is certainly one park that you can't really be critical of its attractions...

Did I miss something or did SFMM open a Gold Coast branch LOL

Here's another thought... (as this is a pet peve of mine RANT-ON) How about people just answer the question asked? Why is it whenever a question is asked with a few options people must insist on adding their own little tid bits or other choices. If you want to start a discussion on other coaster, start a new thread, why can't people just stick to the topic ONCE in a while? EDIT - HAHA Joz guess we think too alike ay

If it was was at the end of the month I'd come up however I'll be heading off to the states this weekend and won't be back until the 28th...

Well going back to what I said it makes perfect sense for DW to add a ride next year even after opening The Claw. The Claw is not exactly a MAJOR attraction in terms of extreme expenditure and its a good length of time after Thunderbolts removal to make a significant impact. Only question is how big and what type of coaster it will be... as for the answers to that why don't we all just wait a while and see what happens as opposed to another 3 threads being started speculating on it

First of all why have you posted this twice?? To answer your question as to which is my favorite Corkscrew wins hands down for sure. Although LW could be said to be a more thrilling ride I don't think a better example of a well looked after coaster exists than Corkscrew. It simply throws any argument out the window that an Arrow or old coaster cannot be Smooth. It is simply silky and fluid and whilst short is still a great ride. Its been a while now since I've ridden it, will have to get back up soon to get reacquainted.

Nah Bus I'm not talking about gaps in the boarding between the tracks I was refering more to 'pits' in the track itself, where you could physicaly feel the train sink in and out of. It was mostly at its worse (then again it could just be because that's where you were moving slow enough to see) just after you left the station on the turnaround into the lift. All that being said I always found it still fun to ride and my last ride on that coaster is certainly one of the most memorable I've had on any ride ever.

I think ST Dragon summed it up perfectly... Its true that parks should still listen to us geeks when planning but they should therefore be able to expect the same in return from us. My point was more about us looking at the bigger picture when saying what we think the park should get. The only way we will get new rides built for us is if the park can make a profit out of them. The only way for that to happen is for the GP to be attracted by the ride and thus visit the park. This is why it was a really smart thing for them to put in The Claw. Its a reasonably priced crowd drawer which will bring in the punters. For them to replace the bolt so early wouldn't have been very smart as it probably hasn't sunk in with a lot of people still that it's gone. So you build another coaster in the same location so soon and a lot of people would just think 'hey wasn't there always a coaster there, so what.' They have a much better chance of a successful major attraction launch if they leave it a little while. We should all be able to see this, after all we are supposed to be the ones with the 'informed' opinions.

Its funny because whilst it got a bit violent towards the end it certainly never gave me any 'injuries.' Funniest thing is on the last day of operation I actualy found the front seat to be quite smooth! :eek: I will however say that yes it was shockingly maintained, you only had to look at the giant 'holes' in the track after you came out of the station to see this. Same goes for the way it would lock up in the the banked turn after the second drop. Its 100% true what you say though, Ghostrider is one kick arse woodie which has that roughness but it a very comfortable and good ride. Compare this the Psyclone at SFMM which is painful and rough and not fun at all.

You know what I don't understand?... Why do people always expect a park to build a coaster 'for them'. All too often I read on here about how 'I want this' and 'I don't like that'. The park should be building rides that cater to the market as a whole not just some coaster geeks on a forum. my 2 cents

However as someone who has ridden one I can say it is one friken amazing ride and can't wait to be on one again in 10 days :-)

We have decent coasters interstate??? :eek: Where?? Tell me...tell me now!!

I'm sure all of those that were injured would feel much more comfortable know that they know it doesn't bother you because you don't like the particular brand of ride that hurt them... *wonders if some people EVER think before they open their mouth*

Well I know nothing about the incident but I'd say the blame with the chairs crashing lies with the rides design and not the Op. At that speed a ride of that nature shouldn't just snap to a stop when the e-stop is hit. It should coast to a gentle stop, anything else is just stupid. AND DANGEROUS.

Hey Bus What on earth are you doing to be driving past WL that often? With the SP thing, I think everyone will find that what is dirty is the signage holding the NTG logo that has gone all ****ty and brown where as the pod itself is still clean...

I think another big part of the problem with Bush Beast was that (well to me ayway) it wasn't built all that well. When you look at most woodies they are pretty dense with a fairly hefty structure to them. When compared with Beast you see that it was only really a single track width deap and pretty light on in its compliment of wood... Sorry to get off topic.

Oh BAD bus BAD!!

Well I'm pretty damn sure given Bus's past and what he said that any rides are currently still standing in a quite little spot right next to some major freeway construction... Am I warm man?

I have always been interested how this very unique (ive never seen another one) ride that was Taz operated. Has anyone got any pics of how that central hub worked or anything like that? More interested in how they managed to transfer all the hydralics and electrical connections (well I know these were on rings with brushes) with the hub rotating. Always a ride that facinated me :-p

How about they just put in am all night bar and you and I can go grab some Tequila Sunrises?? Maybe not, however might be coming to do the later part in a couple weeks, will keep you posted!

Better question would usually be what "isn't"... Just an running industry joke amongst anyone fortunate enough to never have worked there :-)

Not really, the Crystal Palace is a fully functioning function centre and one owuld have to agree it boasts some of the most magnificent views of Sydney harbour. You really don't even have to take the park into account when you consider the functions that take place there. It is however a Staging Connections venue EWWWWWWWW but thats another story :-)

I'm thinking there must be something going to happen to modify the restraints on the pod?? Really there isn't much other than that you could change, is it something to do with the recent restraint changes happening in the US? God lets hope we don't get something dumb like OTSRs on the ride LMAO As for 'changing the ride completely' I really can't see what they could be doing using the existing ride at all. I mean it goes forwards, it goes backwards, its fast. What else can you do with the thing? Don't get me wrong I love the ride, but it is what it is, is it not??