stdragon03

The land that the NSW government is looking at is Between Great western Highway Prospect and Elizabeth drive Cecil Hills it is definately big enough to hold a Disney park resort,However the NSW government wants to keep some of that land free for parklands,picnic areas and cycling trails.This would be a sticking point with Disney as they would want to have all the land so they would be able to expand and grow in the future. Personally i would like to see a Sixflags or a Cedarfair run establishment.These companies would be bring the coasters that i want.

My Favourite park is Knoebels,its free.Has the worlds best wooden coaster,the worlds best dark ride,the worlds best dodgems and those American flyers are the best.Parking is free, the food is some of the best theme park food in the world and not to expensive.

First and foremost im not trying to upset anyone i visited Disneyland with my family in 1999 and had a great time but my point some of the tradition Amusement parks do take you to another escape even more so than Disney Parks and they dont try to theme,They have more character due to their history, Nostalga and they represent who they are.There not just a bunch of rides thrown together. This has nothing to do with layout setup or theming this topic about how people's feelings and experiences.

Do you prefer Disney theme Parks or even other themeparks(Universal,BuschGardens) , or like me a person who prefers traditional amusement parks Knoebels,Dollywood,Kennywood? (on a side note i wonder if Dolly is still with Kenny these days)? After a few years travelling through America and Japan I tend to get in a debate about Disneyland or other Disney parks and how do I find them compared with other Amusement Parks. My answer these days is that Disney Parks are over commercialised and really when you think about it,it is only good for the kids.Yeah Disney is well theme but to me its not real.Point being why go to California Adventure when you can go to Santa Cruz Beachwalk or Rye Playland in Newyork and get the same experience. People say to me Disney parks are some of the most visited parks in the world but i say that doesn't make them any better.A good example would be McDonalds its popular but dosen't make it better than a homecooked meal. The Traditional Parks like Kennywood,Knoebels,Lake compounce even Nagashima Spaland off alot more than DisneyParks in terms of History,Nostalgic and the people are local and not tourists.Even the Amusement rides are alot more Fun. In the end i find traditional and local Amusement parks better because they are more Peresonifying than Disney parks or even other theme parks.

Rideworld has announce their latest trek Ridewarrior Midwest Conquest. June 5th to 12th 2005.10 parks in 8 days. They will be visiting Silver Dollar city/Celebration city,SixflagsSt Louis.Great America. Wisconsin Dells Parks, Indianna Beach, Michigans Adventure, Paramount Kings Island and Holiday World. Highly recommend it especially for any Aussie coaster enthusiast.all your accommodation and transport and Parking paid for in one reasonable price. I did their tour last year and it was a blast and hoping to return this year. Check out further info at www.coastertrek.com Check out the photos and videos from last year www.coastertrek.com/gallery

After My American East coast Trip i think i rode over 100 new coasters too many to mention but here's my updated top Eleven 1 SteelDragon 2 Phoenix 3 Superman ROS SFNE 4 Raptor 5 ThunderHead 6 Total Thrill Dragster 7 Beast 8 Nitro 9 Medusa SFMW 10 Beastie Wonderland 11 Laser

Ghostrider is a great coaster but Roar has the edge due to the Millenium Trains. Grizzly at PGA i haven't experienced but i have ridden Grizzly at Kings Dominion which is a great coaster.I dont know if they are the same design.

Sfmw my favourite American west coast park.Roar the best woody on the west coast. Medusa my favourite floorless.Plus they dont get the crowds like other california Parks. Oh yeah its near Sanfrancisco a great city

Forget launch coasters their good but they dont match Wooden coasters when comes to Airtime.Lateral Gs and Atmosphere.Great Coasters International are building some of the best rides around.Check out Thunderhead,Lightning Racer and Boulder Dash. Then their are the older wooden coasters that are still wowing them like Pheonix(knoebels) and Beast (kings Island). I do also like BM inverts and Schwarzkophf Looping coasters

Majority of all the coasters at Magic Mountain and Cedarpoint are better than what we have even with another one or two additions.Theirs not a bad coaster at Cedarpoint old or new. Flashback i haven't been on,so i can't critise. I believe Intamin still has Hairpin coasters up for sale.Theirs an idea for a replacement for Thunderbolt.

SixFlags Magic Mountain by a country mile.Dreamworld has 13 more coasters to catch SFMM.

Im actually not a huge fan of Disney parks i enjoyed Disneyland with my family 6 years ago.These days i like smaller parks with Cedarpoint the exception Heres my favourites CedarPoint A great park with excellent coasters and the best inverted coaster(Raptor)very friendly staff and very Efficient. Nagashima Spaland.This park has some great coasters including Steel Dragon i think is the best coaster in the world. A great shopping centre near by and Japanese people are beautiful ,they treat you so well. Knoebels Grove A real surprise.It has great atmosphere, food is good and not expensiveStaff were friendly and look like they wanted to be their and made sure you have great time.On the ride department they have one of the best Dark Rides in America.Old fashion bumper cars,The Flyers their are the best around.two great wooden coasters.The Pheonix my favourite wooden coaster. Two other parks i enjoyed was Dollywood and Lake Compounce both scenic and beautiful parks and very friendly staff.A mention to Sixflags New England and Sixflags America nice and friendly parks. Busch Gardens williamsburg is beautiful and has some good rides and shows but the staff their were obnoxious and rude and didn't care about the visitors.i will never go back their again. I hope Dollywood wins the next Golden ticket for the most Beautiful Park because Busch Gardens dont deserve it.

Great report Rob.I was their in 2002 and loved the atmosphere of tokyo and their theme parks.A few stories I was travelling from Fujikyu Highland by train after visiting the park and realise i left my camera at the park.I thought that i was on the last train to come out of that area.We arrived at I think Ueno station and found out the train we came on was doing one last run back to Fujikyu.I decided to go back hoping i might have a chance to find my camera.When i arrived back at the park their was the manager with my camera i bowed and said thankyou. I was also fortunate to visit Nagashima Spaland and the park was empty and every ride was walkon except Steel Dragon which had a five minute wait at the Max.The Steeldragon was great one of my favourites.But what else i liked was this shopping mall next to it called Jazz Dreams and in it had shop called the Edwin Shop which sold Edwin Jeans,Shirts and Accessories. I highly recommend japan to anyone especially if your into coasters and themeparks or in general i found a great Jazzmusic store in Shinjuko Tokyo. For us Aussies its cheaper for us to go their than America or Europe,UK.

Hey clint good trip report I did the same thing Flew into La hire car got loss on the way to SFMM Spent the afternoon or evening jetlag riding coasters. I agree with your sentiments about GoldRusher especially at night.But i didnt fine the staff their not to bad i would definately return. I feel sixflags at the moment a copping unfair criticism i think their parks are way better than Paramounts parks and buschgardens and even some cedarfair parks.Sixflags America and New england are very attractive and efficent parks i found their staff friendly.If it wasn't for sixflags their wouldn't be X,Goliath,Superman ride of steel,Batmans,Nitro,Medusas etc sorry to bring up this topic again. Cheers Ed

The Beast is a good coaster but at night is when it comes alive. i was fortunate to ride it around midnight early this year on my trip, a great coaster experience. My park list has increased to another 17 this year From CedarPoint to Knoebels.Next year hopefully returning to Kingsisland,Dollywood ,Holiday world plus Michigans Adventure,Silverdollar city, World of Fun, Sixflags Stlouis and Sixflags Great America.

Yeah i do considerate it worth saving even if it is to be relocated. A little History in 1980 a Park in SanAntonia Texas called PlayLand closed its doors.A wooden coaster called The Rocket originally built in 1948 remained idle for five years.In 1985 Knoebels Amusement Resort at Elysburg bought it for 1.5Million dollars.It was dissasembled and rebuilt by Charles Dinn it became known as the Pheonix. Today its one of the best wooden coasters on this planet.Enthusiast who have ridden both say the Pheonix is better than the original Rocket coaster at SanAntonio. This is probaly the best known relocation of a coaster that i know of and is my reason why i think the Bush Beast could work again. Like i said previously in the right hands the Bush Beast could still have some potential and be an assest to another park

I recently had a change of heart about the Bush Beast.Like most of you i agree especially in its later years it was a poor ride but when it first open it was a great coaster.It's sister coaster Grizzly at Kings Dominion which was built around the same time.Is still a great wooden coaster today it's smooth and gives pretty good pops of airtime.This suggest to me that the Bush Beast could still be useful in the right hands. The Bush Beast could be added value to any park,they could have it relocate to their park adjust the track Heights and Angles buy new rolling stock and tidy it up in general.

Clint Your point about Parks looking at the Whole market instead of us coaster Geeks is True.But us one % are entitled to a say.All these Speculative questions of what we would like comes up all the time in these forums and we should be thankful that we can tell people what we like. As a coaster geek who has Spent considerable amount of money and time travelling around the world riding lots coasters i do expect the park managers or whoever makes decisions their to atleast listen to what we have to say.i know they do in America.

I agree a clone of Raptor would be great its my favourite inverted coaster by a country mile. Dreamworld probaly would not spend that type of money anyway. Oh yeah i would love to see them add a tornado water slide to their water park

Great addition to a great park,shame about the shoulder restraints they look like the one's used on Stormrunner at Hersheys and if you are tall and have broad shoulders they hurt.

i would be ringing those guys from Great coaster International their wooden coasters are insane, smooth as any floorless coasters out their, plus the amount of airtime and lateral Gs is incredible also doesnt cost as much. If you want to buy steel purchase a BM Inverted a clone of Batman would be fine. People would see how bad Lethal Weapon at Movie world really is.

Awesome trip report Mikrowave.I share your sentiments about X being on the rough side. Batman is indeed one of the best rides today.Ninja is one my favourites and you should try to ride it at night. Despite all the critism of Magic Mountain its still one of my Favourite parks.

Mantis is a good standup but i found it very uncomfortable ride since ive only just got over a stress fracture in my left ankle. Wicked twister was good it was my first ride for the first day i was their due to no one lining up. Meanstreak i found it to be erraticm,on the first day i was their in the afternoon it was great.next day very jolty and painful. Dragster and Raptor were my favourites.A friend of mine who goes their on a regular basis said that Raptor is running really well better than the last couple of years.The best inverted coaster today. Ed

What is happening up their is the Gyroswing the Entree before the Main.What is fact or Rumored. Cheers Ed

They are already planning for next year im not sure when maybe in june again. They were discussing a various options for trek ideas Midwest or Texas and i think South East Dollywood down to Sixflags over Georgia. All i know is that i will be attending again next year.I keep you posted on what is going on.