webslave

Quite. I figured since R35 was going to be a little bit funny I'd have my own go at it. I have failed you.

If you look closely you'll see the section that was burned is now at the bottom of the lift hill.

Technically it was the bottom of the lift hill that burnt up.

'twas 42, wasn't it? I dunno, I'm not a Monty Python fan... I know, it wasn't a Monty Python thing.

Yes, you'd need it delivered often, and dry ice is rather expensive. You then have OH&S risks associated with the handling of dry ice as it can be quite dangerous if the correct precautions (eg; PPE) are not taken. Some go with combination systems that use ice (being cheaper) to cool the regular output of a glycol system causing it to sit low to the ground. Antari, for example, make such a product; http://www.antari.com/index.php/web/Products_i/28. Of course, that's all well and good so long as you're going to be content to keep refilling the machine and have a process for dealing with the water. You can purchase refrigeration addons so that you don't need to use ice, but by that stage you're spending quite a bit of dosh. Some people just cut entry and exit holes into an esky filled with water and let that do the job. The thing that keeps the fog low is purely the temperature. It will fall down steps and off edges of stages (and in stage shows, particularly, the orchestra pit). Dry ice will provide CO2 and water vapour and that's what gives you your smoke. It is normal in higher concentrations of smoke to find water deposits afterward. Conventional (warm) smoke machines use glycol, usually mixed with distilled water (cheaper!). Different concentrations give you different dissipation times. The basic principle is that the stuff is pressurised (hence the noise you often hear at release) and passed through a hot element to vaporise it. It'll spread out through the air because it's quite warm. Afterwards in higher concentrations you'll end up with a sticky glycol residue over all your gear. Common failures on these machines are the pump assembly, the heating box/element, and blocked fluid hoses. None of that is much use if you run the machine dry though... Hazers are a little different and are often considered 'atmospherics' by effects designers and is used to highlight beams of light through the air where they would otherwise not be visible. The trick with haze is to keep as low of a concentration in the air as possible whilst still being able to see light beams. Haze is designed to be turned on in advance of its use to allow it to spread throughout the space and is intended to keep a uniform distribution of particles through the air and uses a fan to achieve this. Afterwards you'll end up with an oily deposit across all of your gear. Hazers are more expensive, so you'll often see people buying smoke machines where a hazer is what is actually required. Smoke is used when you want to give the appearance of smoke; haze is used when you want to see beams of light. All of these systems will set off photo-detectors when fitted to fire systems except in cases of low concentration where the detectors have been suitably desensitised once the smoke hits them. A more popular choice is to fit thermal detectors in areas where smoke is likely to be used. Many venues use a combination of both and isolate groups of detectors as required. In terms of Scooby in particular, whilst I've never ridden the attraction with the effects working I would suggest that the correct choice for the space would be two hazers. Of course, these hazers will need frequent maintenance as they are usually not made to run for days at a time, and will also need frequent fluid refills to stave off the danger of running them dry (needing repairs). A consideration for the ride itself would no doubt be the continued deposits of residue on the track and associated equipment. No doubt this requires careful management. And for the record (usually) don't use gobos as their beam width (being a laser and all) is insufficient. Instead they use mirrored prisms that move and rotate to create moving patterns. They also aren't gelled to different colours as white laser emitters are extremely rare, and therefore you can't make green light by using a subtractive process from a red light source. Instead there are separately coloured laser emitters in the same casing. Most lasers (or, at least most lasers you should be using around the general public) should have safety cutoffs so that in the event of a failure of the prism system (which would leave the entire output of the laser pointing in a single straight line without moving) the laser will be cut off to avoid damaging the sight of anyone in front of it. Any questions?

At the end of September I did the same thing as you. Whether or not you'll say it was a bonus by the end is a matter of some debate ;)/> If you're making it solely a coaster holiday while you're in LA, then that will do. Of your list, I did: Disneyland Resort and DCA Universal SFMM SW San Diego Grand Canyon Vegas I didn't do front of line passes at any park we visited, and we got through everything. SFMM was done mid-late October, and Universal was on a hot day in September. Save your money. I know everyone raves about Disneyland, and how you could spend forever there, but even as a theme park fan I found that although you could, the economics of it just don't stack up. I mean, you can spend days and days and days there trying to see everything, but how much of it is really worth seeing? They have some great shows, and you can usually check out the schedule of those in advance to help plan out the best way to be at all of those. From there, you can start planning out what rides you'll want to hit (and re-hit), and you'll already know what you want to re-ride. Particularly if the weather is going to be warm, you're going to find that it's a lot of walking around, and honestly - don't underestimate how tiring that can be. We did both parks in four days in 40 deg C heat, and we were stuffed. We stayed over the road from the park, so we would routinely escape in the middle of the day for a couple of hours to recharge. Depending on the opening hours when you're there you may feel like doing the same. I thought I would be running my arse off trying to see everything, and to an extent we sort of were, but we saw absolutely everything we wanted to, and got in plenty of re-rides. You have to remember that a lot of it is very, very kiddy - there's nothing wrong with that, and it's easy to appreciate the scale and quality of it all, but a lot of the time consuming stuff will be lining up for characters or rides that are geared at very small children. I can't tell you anything about the zoo unfortunately, but I can tell you about Sea World. We went in late September on around a 30 deg C day and the crowds were pleasantly light. It's going to come down to whether you will want to do the shows or not. If you want to do the shows you could easily spend the whole day there because the shows are staggered to make that happen. If you're going to avoid the shows you're probably going to find it's a disappointing park. For me, the Manta ride was nothing special, and a lot of the rest of it is simulators (which you'll have had more than enough of once you've done Universal, I promise). The rollercoaster at New York, New York Hotel and Casino looks impressive, and probably is, but it's as rough as guts. If you had trouble with Lethal Weapon before the refurb you aint seen nothin' yet. Expect the new wife to complain bitterly. It's also pretty expensive for what it is, so be prepared. I know it's easy to try and ignore the guys who are saying you should reconsider your Vegas accom, but doing so would be a huge mistake. The monorail is total, expensive garbage. I stayed at the Mirage on the strip, and that sort of thing puts you right in the middle of the action. Do not, under any circumstances, stay somewhere off the strip. You certainly wont feel safe walking the streets off the strip at night, either. Be wary of scams in Vegas. A common one is selling fake wrist bands to clubs that allegedly get you VIP access and free drinks - they don't. I loved Vegas, but my wife hated it. She isn't into drinking, gambling, or late nights, whereas I am. Plenty of stories there, and would go back to Vegas in a heartbeat. If you're considering seeing a show in Vegas you wont need to book in advance. What you want to do is head for Casino Royale and find the Tix4Tonite counter. They sell tickets to most of the shows in Vegas at a very significant discount. They also do discount entry to many of the buffets, so consider doing that too. I did a couple of the buffets, but preferred the one at the Wynn. YMMV. Have you driven in the US (or somewhere else on the other side of the road) before? If not, I was given some great advice which helped me get used to it very, very quickly, and am happy to share it. Have plenty more tips if you're interested.

I'm curious. I lurk, and have for a number of years - so I'm hardly someone who blows in the door blazing something between ignorance and criminal stupidity, but incidents such as the one at the top of this page intrigue me. From everything I've observed if someone posts 'inside' information from the parks they are shouted down or chided by members on these forums that are already known employees of the parks for revealing information against their contract of employment. Why, exactly? I can understand if Parkz wants to protect its interests and as part of this feel that keeping on-side with the parks helps them achieve this end, but I'm curious to know how this works. Are the theme parks feeding Parkz information or providing them with special privileges sufficient to make them put an embargo on disclosures of information from the parks not yet made public? If this is not the case, than surely Parkz exists for people to share news, information and views on the parks themselves, doesn't it? If so, why not allow those whose identities have not yet been compromised to share the occasional piece of inside information with us? Or, alternately, is there some form of jealousy going on amongst outed staff that don't want others revealing information they couldn't for fear of being found out? It's not an entirely silly concept. I understand if Parkz doesn't want members to put themselves into a position whereby they could get into problems at work for what is said, but to this end wouldn't it be wiser to assist these members as much as possible in concealing their identity whilst still sharing the latest news with us? I run an Australian website that is a bit larger than Parkz and have many members who are in a similar position as far as employment contracts go, but it would be unthinkable for us to censor them on the basis that the information they are providing is not publicly available. We can and do remind them that if they are going to post information they should ensure their identity is not compromised, and sometimes we even allow them to sockpuppet (with moderator oversight) in order to keep their inside and outside persona's separate. So, I guess, I'm humbly asking why such an apparent policy exists, what it's aims are, and what alternatives are available. I'm not knocking the work of the Parkz team by any means, I'm just curious here.

Well, to add another piece to the speculation and whatnot, I'd read somewhere around a year ago that there was an incident on the mine ride whereby a passenger car was allowed to run into the back of another passenger car near the old unloading station or similar. It may have included something about the ride being immediately closed. Sorry I don't have any more information on the above - I had a quick google and couldn't find the original article. I'm aware that people likely wont take kindly to unreferenced speculation from a newbie on this issue, however I'm in the process of planning a trip to DW early next year and happened to notice the ride closed, and the ensuing search led me here. Take my information for what you will.