Erik Johnson Posted March 16, 2007 Author Share Posted March 16, 2007 ^^ Hey no problem Soren! Thanks for coming along with us, it sure made the trip that much better. Yeah work has been really busy this week for me as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gorwingel Posted March 16, 2007 Share Posted March 16, 2007 Very, very good trip report. Loved that you went to Warner Brother's... I've heard of that, been interested, but I just might have to do it next time. Glad you had a wonderful time though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MisterP Posted March 16, 2007 Share Posted March 16, 2007 I kept refusing to look at this TR because I looked at the title and was afraid I was going to see a shirtless Cedric the Entertainer in a hot tub! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
disneyfan1313 Posted March 16, 2007 Share Posted March 16, 2007 Yae! That is the worst photo of me ever! It was cool to hang out with you guys out there for a little.. wish it could have been longer!! It looks like you had fun on all your other crazy adventures. Can't wait to see the next parts! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erik Johnson Posted March 16, 2007 Author Share Posted March 16, 2007 ^^ What do you expect? We were riding Crappy Pooh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cfc Posted March 16, 2007 Share Posted March 16, 2007 ^There's no Pooh like Crappy Pooh! An e-stop would actually be an improvement, as you've shown here, Erik. Â I actually rode this thing "sad-and-pathetic" style all on my lonesome last summer. I never thought I'd ever pine for the return of the Country Bears, but . . . Â I am looking forward to checking out the Tokyo version, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erik Johnson Posted March 16, 2007 Author Share Posted March 16, 2007 Ok, Its Vegas time. Â Vegas: Part 1 After Manhattan Express I doubt that the new trains made much of a difference. #12.50 to ride a Togo coaster? Yes please!! Oh dear. Onward to NY NY Hotel and Casino. Our first launched-looping-Premiere coaster. It was quite fun, the 2nd launched section was unexpected. Best coaster in Vegas. This one costs $10. Lots of Nascar fans in town due to the race. How can you be that bored in Vegas? But that is ok, I am sure this one is a much better coaster. They no longer have a credit, so we skipped this one. Yep, all of this is found here. We decided to pass though. They do have a 2nd credit. The Canyon Blaster train. All about Canyon Blaster. It pretty much goes all over the Adventuredome. This actually was a pretty smooth Arrow coaster. Its costs $7 to ride Canyon Blaster. It is free to park at the hotels. Yeah, we stopped by the Adventuredome first. For you Prince fans. Almost there. Yeah, its really in the middle of no-where. They do have a monorail that takes you to the other area hotels. The coaster track goes all over the hotel's property. One of the smoother sections of the coaster. I can't remember if this part had bashing or airtime. After leaving the hotel it goes up 200 feet. This is what the coaster train looks like. Yeah, its costs $7 to ride. As well as a roller coaster. Yeah, they have a Buffalo shaped pool. We stayed at Buffalo Bill's in Primm Nevada. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BarryH Posted March 16, 2007 Share Posted March 16, 2007 Great LV photos! Â How bad/good was Desperado? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meteornotes Posted March 16, 2007 Share Posted March 16, 2007 I've been enjoying this photo TRI was in Vegas last week, and skipped all those coasters. One ride on ME many years ago was enough! I don't remember CB being too bad, and rode Desperado many, many years ago when it was still OK. I'm thinking that there will probably never be another coaster built in town, as the casinos seemed to have shifted away from any sort of "family" focus and are moving back to the old standards, gambling and booze. Â dt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erik Johnson Posted March 16, 2007 Author Share Posted March 16, 2007 ^^ Yeah I totally noticed that the area was not very family friendly. We did not care much for Desperado. The first drop was pretty good, but the rest wasn't. It is still better than Manhattan Express though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erik Johnson Posted March 16, 2007 Author Share Posted March 16, 2007 Vegas Part 2 I think its funny how a little dinky place of eating from Clearwater, Florida has made it so big. Blah Blah Blah. Just like Italy. See, Pirates. You find the free pirate show here. Kind of like the low rent James Bond hotel. Maybe we can stay here next time. These were very cool. Veags is really an awesome place. The Hoff: In Paris. Just like Paris, I am sure. There are some of these cool fountains around the Paris Hotel. You find these cards everywhere around Vegas. The Strip at night. The Luxor was certainly interesting. Excalibur's castle is bigger than Disneyland's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erik Johnson Posted March 16, 2007 Author Share Posted March 16, 2007 HOOVER DAM time!!! Inside the train car. Basically the seating is inside a train car. The Barstow McDonalds. The last time I ate here was when I was 13. This is what the Zzyzx Road sign looks like at night. Too bad Soren ate all the food. We felt like going to Dairy Queen to eat Blizzards. Another McDonalds playland bites the dust. LOL! Sorry ladies, Soren is already taken. Soren almost got smashed. Poor Puppy. They really should add a speed waterslide. Yeah, you do get a nice view. No Soren, don't! We just jumped ahead one hour. Basically this is where we enter Arizona. Lake Mead. Yes, we are in Nevada. I had a nice nap during this presentation. Yeah, Hoover Dam. They are building a new bypass for the highway. We are pretty high up. They just re-opened this area a couple of months ago. After they cram 100 people into an elevator, you go down and see this. Its the ticket for the tour. The tour starts here. The next day we went over to the Hoover Dam. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erik Johnson Posted March 16, 2007 Author Share Posted March 16, 2007 Ok, its time for the Winter Solace event at Knott's Berry Farms. Isn't he riding the wrong coaster? Jaguar! Jaguar! was the first ride of the day. Its also was our very first coaster event with ERT. Its our very first visit to Knott's. Its really freaking early in the morning. We had a really bad ride on Ghostrider. The most annoying speaker in the world. This thing causes headaches. We did not want to stay until 10PM for ERT, so we decided to wait 30mins. Next was Ghostrider. It was not a bad ride, though its not my favorite B&M invert. Silver Bullet certainly had a unique layout. Lucky that we were already in line when they opened the park. Next coaster... I can't believe that they had ERT for this one. Say "hello" to Chris Godsey from Rideworld. We got to ride it 5 times. ERT rocks. This one was my favorite coaster on the trip. What a huge line waiting for this one to open up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erik Johnson Posted March 16, 2007 Author Share Posted March 16, 2007 Knott's Part 2 Because we still need these credits. On our way back to you know where. Bye Ghostrider, you are a crappy coaster now. And got to experience an ACE buffet. We visited the old school house. Found one of Yeti Ball's redneck cousins. Watched Soren have fun with the shooting gallery. Rode the sort of lame S&S tower. Watch Silver Bullet go by. It sure felt like a real horse tail. Yeah, that is us. We rode the Merry-Go-Round. It certainly was a unique park attraction. We did do this attraction as well. We did the little train ride through the mine. We watched people pan for gold. So we did do the train. We got all the credits finished by 10:45 that day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan King Posted March 16, 2007 Share Posted March 16, 2007 DUDE! I totally laughed my ass off when I saw this pic! Jesus... I love following this PTR...when I saw more was posted..I got all happy inside! Nice PTR Erik! Keep it comin! Â -Ryan LMAO! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erik Johnson Posted March 16, 2007 Author Share Posted March 16, 2007 Back again to SFMM for the WCB. Nothing better than having ERT for X and Tatsu. Weeeeeee...... Yeah, we really liked it. Best flying coaster we have ridden, and we have ridden quite a few. Yeah, we rode Tatsu 3 times that morning. Leanne is ready to fly! Here they go! Ready to fly? How often do you see the station look this dead? Look at that line! Tatsu is now Leanne's #1 coaster. 3 back to back rides on X in 20 minutes. Even though there was like only 50 people in the station. They were running 2 trains. Yeah, the track is quite wide. Here is the lift hill. How often do you see nobody in the Queue? We enjoyed X. I understand it was running really well that morning. Oh heck yeah. Yeah, everyone has this photo. Yeah it goes upside down a lot. We had a whole train to ourselves. Unlike everyone else, we rode Viper first. Yeah, some of these are true. Our special pass of coaster awesomness. Robb showed up. I think this event had a better turn out than Solace this year. We had to get our stuff. Yes, we made it back. Is it me, or is the parking lot really far away from the entrance? Its another early morning. We were finally going to get our chance to ride X this morning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erik Johnson Posted March 16, 2007 Author Share Posted March 16, 2007 OK SFMM part 2. Last Batch of Photos. You know, I forgot to eat one of these. Oh well. That's the end of the pictures. Critters in the Park. SFMM actually spent money on theming for a coaster. Yeah, I needed to experience the helix of doom from the back row. Yeah its very intense. Should it say "PUPPET SHOW, and spinal tap"? Or is this the wrong sign? We got to ride Ninja, it turned out to be one of the best in the park. Orient Express = Best Ride Ever. Yeah we pretty much invaded this place. Leanne got the SFMM happy meal Lunchtime! We already earned this credit last week. The coaster shrine. Insane people showed up. Due to high winds, the Sky Tower was closed. Well, maybe later in the day. Maybe we will get lucky today. Yes, another Superman credit for Leanne. Yes, we got Superman on this visit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Top Thrill Dragster Posted March 16, 2007 Share Posted March 16, 2007 Great PTR!!! I did not even know Knotts still had panning for gold, and I go to the park a lot. Also sorry to read that you had a bad ride on Ghostrider, if you rode in the copper train then I really understand for such a crappy ride. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DATman Posted March 16, 2007 Share Posted March 16, 2007 Awesome TR! That Mantis Man comment was so amazing. I swear, I was laughing for at least a minute. Â Just a great TR in general, and it was so much fun to read, not just a few pretty photos, but an interesting story behind them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robbalvey Posted March 16, 2007 Share Posted March 16, 2007 Also sorry to read that you had a bad ride on Ghostrider, if you rode in the copper train then I really understand for such a crappy ride. I dunno, I've ridden in both trains fairly recently and I found them both to have equal amounts of suckage. Â If there was a "smoother" train, I certainly couldn't tell! Â --Robb "So disspointed in GR especially given that I did it's commentary as a top ten coaster in 2002!" Alvey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheBannedKid Posted March 16, 2007 Share Posted March 16, 2007 I liked it in the front, but that was a while ago... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jayjay719 Posted March 16, 2007 Share Posted March 16, 2007 Awesome photo trip report! I enjoyed every part it. I must get to California soon. God I love these photo trip reports, it helps me get through my day! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Masked_Maverick Posted March 16, 2007 Share Posted March 16, 2007 Great TR makes me want to go to California agian that much more. btw was I the only one who was reminded of the movie Vegas Vacation with the hoover dam pics? Â Tour guide:I'm the dam guide take all the dam pictures you want. Now are there any dam questions? Â Cousin Eddy: Where can I get some dam bait? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Top Thrill Dragster Posted March 16, 2007 Share Posted March 16, 2007 Also sorry to read that you had a bad ride on Ghostrider, if you rode in the copper train then I really understand for such a crappy ride. I dunno, I've ridden in both trains fairly recently and I found them both to have equal amounts of suckage.  If there was a "smoother" train, I certainly couldn't tell!  --Robb "So disspointed in GR especially given that I did it's commentary as a top ten coaster in 2002!" Alvey  When did you last ride? The reason I ask is because the Ghostrider just came out of a rehab and a lot of the problem spots where re tracked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erik Johnson Posted March 16, 2007 Author Share Posted March 16, 2007 I am glad that everyone has enjoyed this Photo: TR. It was really great to be able to hang out as well as meet quite a few of you this past week. I wish that we had more time to get to talk to all of you more, but it was just as insane weekend. I want to especially thank Rick and Gwen for showing us around SFMM, Chris and Natalie for showing us around Knott's, and for Robb and Elissa for inviting us out there in the first place. We really enjoyed the WCB event, it certainly was a major highlight on our trip. Thanks again Soren and Alessandra for putting up with us for 10 days. Other than our flight back, the trip went flawlessly. I will finish up by making a list and a short opinion of the 37 new coasters that we were able to ride on this trip:  Legoland 1. Coastersaurus: Pretty typical kiddie coaster with some really nice theming.  2. Technic Coaster: It's probably the best mouse coaster in California, it was quite a bit of fun.  3. Dragon: Probably my favorite Vekoma Skater. Its part dark ride as well as part coaster.  Castle Park: 4. Merlin's Revenge: A typical Vekoma skater that can get you soaked if you sit in the back rows.  Scandia: 5. Little Dipper Coaster: A kiddie Miller coaster, I like how it rolls back on to to chain lift.  6. Screamer: This thing was really, really scary.  SFMM 7. Revolution: I really wish that I got to ride this one in the old days. The restraints and trims kill the experience.  8. Canyon Blaster: Just a silly kiddie credit.  9. Goliath: I was surprised with this one. We eneded up liking it more than expected. The helix really is intense in the back row.  10. Batman: The Ride: These coasters are always great.  11. Colossus: Probably the best wood coaster of the trip, it was really running well that day.  12. Scream!: A typical B&M floorless coaster. It was fun, but nothing too special.  13. Riddler's Revenge: I finally found another standup coaster that I like (the other being Georgia Scorcher). We really liked this one, plus it has a unique layout.  14. Gold Rusher: A fun mine train coaster.  Disneyland/DCA 15. Big Thunder Mountain Railroad: While I like MK's version better, this was still fun. We only got to ride it at night.  16. California Screamin' Yeah, this is a great coaster. We all really enjoyed it.  17. Mullholland Drive: Typical Mouse coaster, nothing really special about it.  18. Space Mountain: Even though it was the Rockin' version, we found it to be quite fun. I still like MK's track layout better.  19. Matterhorn Fantasyland Side: This was fun, but we liked the Tomorrowland's side better.  20. Gadget's Go Coaster: My 150th credit, nothing really special.  21. Matterhorn Tomorrowland Side: The better of the two Matterhorn credits.  Primm/Las Vegas  22. Desperado: Great frist drop, but the rest of the coaster was not very good. Certainly a bit more bumpy than a steel coaster should be.  23. Canyon Blaster: Actually this Arrow was quite good. Great theming as well.  24. Speed: The Ride: Best coaster in Vegas.  25. Manhattan Express: Worst coaster of the trip, yes its really bad.  Knott's  26. Jaguar!: It was quite fun, it certainly has some length to it.  27. Montezooma's Revenge: We finally rode a Schwarzkopt Shuttle Loop. These things are a lot of fun.  28. Boomerang: Another Boomerang credit.  29. Xcelerator: I really liked this coaster, probably my favorite on the trip.  30. Timberline Twister: Not very good, even for a kiddie coaster.  31. Silver Bullet: It certainly has a unique layout. We kind of liked it, there are some forces in the last row.  32. Ghost Rider: We had a terrible ride on Ghost Rider, so we did not care much for it.  SFMM (Part 2) 33. Viper: We rode in the very front row so it was kind of fun.  34. X: We had 3 really great rides on this one, so yeah we liked it a lot. The first drop is insane.  35. Tatsu: By far the best flying coaster we have ridden, Leanne's brand new #1 coaster. We rode it three times.  36. Superman: Kinda fun, we got back-to-back rides on it.  37. Ninja: Great suspended coaster, certainly one of the best coasters in the park. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts