Gazza

Ever been outside the Disney/Universal/I-Drive precinct...Still is http://maps.google.com.au/maps?q=Lynx-Customer+Services,+Central+Business+District,+Orlando,+&hl=en&ll=28.546651,-81.39322&spn=0.007464,0.016319&sll=28.519213,-81.385131&sspn=0.014932,0.032637&vpsrc=6&gl=au&hq=Lynx-Customer+Services,&hnear=Central+Business+District,+Orlando,+Orange,+Florida,+United+States&t=h&z=17&layer=c&cbll=28.546568,-81.39322&panoid=rb8nyYL6oJTnxvWVCMvtYg&cbp=12,353.6,,0,-1.8

Do people behave like this at Universal? No. -For starters, when busy there is often a line to use the lockers in the first place, so that is a disincentive against people doing that versus having your own personal one in a central location. -It wastes peoples time to have to keep running back to the front of the park every 80 mins, and fast becomes unviable when the queue is short, and you'd have to be running back every 30 minutes as the rental period is adjusted down by the operator. And you were trying to prove people wrong to say it wouldn't work, even though it works on multiple attractions overseas. PS, my favourite item storage method is the one seen at Merlin parks...Having a cloakroom just before the boarding area. Your stuff gets handed over and put in a numbered bay, and you get a wristband with a number. At the end of the ride you return to the other side of the cloakroom and get your stuff back. Simple!

Mate, you clearly said that free lockers, like Superman, wouldn't work because people would use them all day. And I proved you wrong.

Option 4: No need to offer a VIP pass beyond this period, is because the world will be ending in 2012 anyway, so people wouldn’t get the full 12 months use out of it.

Do you even think before posting? What has the number of cars a ride runs got to do with being able to use lockers? Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey sends out a 4 person bench every 5 seconds, and has free lockers. Revenge of the mummy has cars rather than trains, with a double sided load station, and sends out cars very frequently, and has free lockers. Men in Black has two sides/tracks, with multiple 6 person shooter pods running along each track, and has free lockers. All of these rides have you exiting separate to where you board. Why is Scooby significantly different operationally? The point is, you store your items before joining the main queue, just like Superman. The free rental period is adjusted by the attendant to reflect queue times...On Dragon Challenge for instance, you had 25 mins when it had a 5 min queue (So long enough even for people wanting to use the front row queue and wait longer to get through in time) When Potter had an hour queue, they pushed the rental time out to 80 mins. People don’t use them as all day storage because of the cut off time (You get charged for staying longer), and because sometimes there is a short queue for the lockers anyway, so who can be bothered.

Plus you couldn't organize a flat ride overnight to make up for a ride closure, and a rock climbing wall would not make up for the lost hourly capacity. Re free lockers, I found they did work, even in the mad crowds of the Potter ride. What difference does it make if you've paid to use them initially, or have used them for free? If you've overstayed the limit, you're equally stuffed under both situations aren't you?

Hey what are those things under cover to the right of the entrance: Also, if you've been to the park you'd know they make you put bags in the lockers, just as they do on MiB. http://netdna.orland...florida-442.jpg

But MW and DW have differing urban contexts...I thought this would be obvious. Where do they get stored?

To be fair though, Manta is a particularly sprawling B&M that covers much of the central area of the park. I'd perhaps go for one a bit more compact.

Which ones? The two Screamin Squirrels that got built? I think it would be an absolute stretch to count in Eurofighters as being similar too, but even if we did, the number of Eurofighters + El Locos + Screamin Squirrels is still less than the number of B&Ms. I wouldnt call it fact or else we wouldn't be having this discussion. This.

Yay, Im home now, so I can write the proper response. ... Yeah, agree with Joz totally. You'd get a B&M because.... -Reliable, and cheap to maintain. -Will stay popular with park visitors due to the higher ride quality and higher comfort level. You wouldn't pick a B&M to attract internationals, I mean, has Wallygator Parc become an international tourist destination because they've put in a B&M very recently? Is anyone from here going to make a special trip to ride it? (After all, enthusiasts like us are probably the 'sitting ducks' to go do that) http://content.yudu....esources/26.htm In reference to Raptor at Gardaland. I think the cheapest recent B&M was Krake for €12 million ($16 Mil AUD), but you don't get a terrible lot of B&M for that money: http://www.rcdb.com/m/9097.htm?p=34951 It cost the same as Superman, and is indeed the same height, but has 300m less track. Be very cautious when comparing costings with attractions in the US specifically, since labour costs are significantly lower there. European costings are more comparable (Except for perhaps Spain) 74 B&Ms exist, which are overwhelmingly located at the most "Famous" and highly visited parks in the world. Versus 4 El Locos, which are at somewhat obscure places like Indiana Beach and Fratsiperius City.

You do realise Chang (Green Lantern) was built in 1997...... THAT is why it was only $12 Mil.

So you've gone from quoting GL as being 10-11 mil last night, to 12 million today? Why the $2 mil escalation overnight? With cost blowouts like that you could be qualified to work on state government projects!

The ride isn't launched up the lift hill either. True story.

Thats a bit of a fallacy too. If I were doing a coaster trip, it would be far easier for me to come across B&Ms than El Locos.

No there isn't.

What dreamtime related films are there though?

^I'll be getting to that in more detail later, but I reckon Forbidden Journey is my new favourite attraction...so much depth to it. If only they had done a better job at making sure you didn't see other ride vehicles. Ok, Shamu Express: http://www.parkz.com.au/parks/US/Orlando/SeaWorld_Orlando/rides/709-Shamu_Express.html With that out of our system, Lets check out a couple of newish, and big coasters in Orlando, Manta and Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit. MANTA I love B&M Flying coasters, and this is no exception...Intense pretzel loop and a good mix of elements. It also spent a good amount of time 'high up' like Tatsu, above trees and so forth, so it did give a proper feeling of flight. The wing dip is really cool too. It looks better in the back, since at the front you can only see the jets barely beginning to fire. The queue is indoors through an aquarium, lots of nice rockwork and mosaics, and water effect gobos (Correct term?) with a room where there is glass above you. They actually blow air on the surface to keep it moving so you don't see concrete and bricks of the aquariums above surface maintenance/feeding area. What was curious was the way they exaggerated queue times. It always seemed to say 55 minutes or so. However, the queue building was posted as having an occupancy of 400 people, and it was half full most of the time, so that's 10-20 minutes worth of people, max ...Which is what it turned out to be. Anyway, its a very nice way to wait for a ride. Only 2 negative points. -They used Comic Sans MS for the rides signage...Why why why? Looks cheap and cartoony on an otherwhise well themed ride. -And following on from the last point, on the bit of track from the Corkscrew, to the MCBR and onto the water splash, you go straight over the filtration plant for the manta aquarium and a back of house area...Most of the ride is beautifully landscaped, but why not make an effort to disguise this, or put it somewhere less obtrusive. On the final brakes you come back through this area. Some screeing along the access platforms would have gone a long way. HOLLYWOOD RIP RIDE ROCKIT Unfortunatley not as good as Manta, owing to the fact that the ride is rougher than an SLC. Yeah, there is no head banging, but the size of those seats and the bear hug harness means you just get jostled all over the place. There is a marked difference between the front and back seats. Go to the front and it's bearable. Back rows and it's horrid. The front row is the only real way to get air of the drops. On my rides I did Daft Punk (Stronger), Limp Bizkit (Rollin') the and the "Chicken in a bread pan picking out dough" song for the lulz. None of the music really took me, and when I was on the ride I forgot the secret codes to put in for the hidden song listings. At the end of the ride the soundtrack cuts off rather than fading out, and the characters that host the ride say something to the effect of "Wow, great take, those expressions you were making were awesome"...The ride has an onboard camera system that films you, and the story of the ride is that you are filming a video clip. You can buy it at the end, but I didn't because my video just made it look like I didn't want to be there. As for the ride, the layout is pretty good, despite having a crapload of brake runs, and you get some little bits of air as mentioned. Special mention goes to that crowd surfer element that attempts to tip you out of the train. Who said lateral g forces were a bad thing? So I'm excited for that outside turn on Green Lantern...It's just cool when a ride feels 'unstable' and gets you out of your seat a bit. The drop tuning element was pretty bad since that just gave the train an opportunity to shake more. Also have to mention the loading system. Universal now has a system on some rides (Rockit, Potter, Dr Dooms) where harnesses get checked, and then the op taps with an RFID wristband to basically say "Hey, these riders are checked and safe". This eliminates the need for thumbs up, and works well in situations where things are happening quickly (Eg Potter and Rockit) or where the control booth does not have a clear view of the entire load area (Dr Dooms). When the vehicle has been "tagged" it then is over to the controller to dispatch when they want to.

What isn't?

^Except if your name is Reanimated35.

I wouldn't consider Dollywood a smaller park!

^Well of course, it (had) a B&M Batman clone. That coaster alone makes it better than DW, and the rest of the park is just to show off.

Heres the standard layout: http://www.rcdb.com/2722.htm?p=21865 Here's what's getting built: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/101/ellocomw.jpg/

Six Flags Over Texas, Part 2. There's a few of the minor attractions I didn't ride, as well as general park scenery. Browse on from here: http://www.parkz.com...otos/page6.html The full index of attractions is here: http://www.parkz.com...ags_Over_Texas/ My personal favourite: As for the other coasters. Flashback Last time I rode one of these was at the end of 2003 just before Wonderland closed. To be honest, the roughness I can deal with...Its more doing 6 inversions in a very short space of time which makes this not fun. Mine Train A typical arrow mine train, so it has a bazillion lift hills and doesn't go very fast. But it was a nice ride with lots of twists and turns, and it was very long. The point I realised I liked the ride more than I thought I would was when the track passed through a a short indoor section in a full blown western saloon full of mannequins. Mini Mine Train Random, but this coasters saving grace was a clack clack sprinker that was left on, that wet riders as they went through. This was no accident, as the ride op tells you of its presence as you depart the station. Runaway Mountain It's basically a layout similar to this, in a giant shed which is 100% dark inside, so pretty cool, and pretty comfortable. It is nice to see a ride where they have truly let it be dark, since there is no knowing what lies ahead at all (And I didn't know the layout by heart or anything before riding, so it was all unexpected) That said, this ride would be amazing with Scooby style lasers. Superman: Tower of Power Glad I rode this. It ran a combo tower cycle, which I was unaware of until I was on the thing. So what happens is it start off like Batwing spaceshot, with a launch to the top. But instead of reversing quickly and doing the downwards slam, it just slows and drops say 1/4 of the way down. It then gets raised slowly to the top, and then launches downwards like Supreme Scream at Knotts. The plus of this cycle is you get a full height drop rather than a part height one like on Batwing, the negative is that it comes at the expense of pacing. So I think I prefer Batwing. Texas Chute Out Bleh, so now I dont care that the one at Adrenaline Park will never open. You go up, stop for a few secs, you go down, not particularly fast. 20 seconds tops. I stepped off thinking "Was that it?" Oil Derrick Always feels like a gamble at SF wether the observation tower will be open. This was no exception...Walked past once, closed. Walked past half an hour later, open. Good because it meant I got shots of most of the coasters with no real effort on my part. Batman the Ride Typical B&M invert, so in other words very good. My favourite part (And a few rides at this park had them) was a plaque over the ops booth with 3 words: "Sense of urgency". More parks need to have these. It's nice when ride attendants work quicky, keeping queues moving, and certainly, the crews at SFOT work a bit more efficiently than the ones at SFMM. Shock Wave Old and rusty...Looks like its ready to fall apart, but I didn't when I rode so that's all that matters. Ran pretty well though, and bonus points for having lapbars. Judge Roy Scream It sits on a plot of land separate from the rest of the park, accessible via a ped underpass. It's location means I took far more photos the necessary, including some from my hotel room. The ride was dead and had no queue, so a walkon. Was ok I suppose, nothing really noteworthy to be honest. Titan Arrgh...Only two hypers ridden, and both more or less the same layout. That said, its a solid, intense ride, with very strong Gs in the helix. Cant help but think it should have had a couple more hills in the mix. The MCBR is still a car crash and basically stops the train dead. Rode this at night too, with no real queue, so win there! Pandemonium More of a 'turning' coaster rather than a spinning coaster..It doesn't go silly like Dragons Fury at Chessington, which can be a good or bad thing depending on who you are. It is a nice layout though. Also, comfort wise it is more refined than the Maurer version though...The straightening mechanisim at the end of the ride is a friction wheel that spins the car around, rather than a bar the car bashes into. However, waiting to proceed to this part, your car sits on the block brake, and they don't seem to lose their momentum, so its like spinning on an office chair for a minute in the one spot, which could make some queasy. Had a good WTF comment from the members of the GP i was riding with (Or maybe it was just because they were Texan)...."We're facing backwards, and we started off facing fowards...They must have an odd number of cars" Not sure about the thought process there. Yosamite Sams Gold River Adventure A nice kids boat ride, much like LTRR, but with smaller boats. I believe the story followed Porky Pig having his gold stolen by Yosemite Sam, with Bugs Bunny being the sherrif. The scenes looked well done, and in the end Yosamite gets blown up. The next update can be by request...What do people want to see first? A water park? Or a couple of new coasters?

Why do you capitalise every letter? It looks stupid.