2 week Theme Park Review coaster safari

[Gold Coaster]

EDIT: (Ok so here's a sample anyway while I sort out the rest.) TPR Midwest Trip Day 0 - Bonus Park: Coney Island August 2nd, 2007 Well, after months of counting down every passing minute until the trip, we're finally on it... ZEN COASTER REPRESENT! ... Myself, Andrew Janes (The Eh!mazing Avenger), Allison Alvarez (Moppie Mouse), her brother Chris, Jay Hill (El Toro Extreme), Nadia Begdouri (Coaster Contessa), AJ De Jager, David McCollum & Evan Darlington. Via Air Pacific (Fijian airline) I had flown into LA on July 24 and stayed at Evan's place (great hospitality, thanks Jeanette if you find yourself reading this & will phone you in the next couple of days anyway). We hit Six Flags Magic Mountain, Universal Studios and Knott's experiencing pretty minimal lines for the most part, way shorter than my expectations for a summer coaster safari. Evan then flew to the Midwest to hit Geauga Lake with some TPR peeps while I stayed with Allison and Chris. Did Disneyland and Disney California Adventure for the next 4 days & was introduced to the uber-cool Hip Hop Harry (Google it!). Wink Moppie, Chris and I then flew on the morning of the 2nd from LA to Ohio. Left at 1AM, 3 hours to Dallas then layover at Fort Worth airport then another couple of hours to Cincinnati. The very definition of 'red eye', ladies and gentlemen and none of us drinks coffee so didn't have that to fall back on. On both AA flights, I managed to finally get comfortable ... right when they announced the plane was going to start its descent. TPR supremo Elissa Alvey met us with goody bags (including our Midwest Trip shirts that we'd ordered; I have one in each colour - white/grey/black) which contained amongst other things a Son of Beast survival kit (headache pills, basically) & a cool name badge on a lanyard with a credit list on the back that we can tick as we go. Robb was at the bonus park but their new baby was there & very placid. It was nice to meet Wes who is a pretty friendly guy & weird to meet people who I had never even spoken to on the phone & had just been IM-ing for months. It was soon revealed that the bonus park was old-fashioned family fun park Coney Island with a staggering coaster count of 1 Tongue A coaster called (Pepsi) Python. A short drive later and we were there. Some of the TPR trip gang were spread out on the lawn in front of the coaster including Zen Coaster staff members Jay Hill & Andrew Janes (who kind of looks like a cross between Ron Weasley & Harry Potter Wink) who I am rooming with for the trip. I got on with Divv, a Scottish forum member who I had the pleasure of meeting after months of MSN chat, around the front. Ahead of us were Kim and another Allison, who had flown all the way from Florida. Sitting down, I had my bags stowed at the station and video camera primed in my hand... and the coaster coughed and died. The very first credit, the very first ride made by the 2nd batch picked up at the airport....and it broke. We soon however got our ride and found it actually to have quite a bit of kick to it. It was pretty fun but if you've done a fairground coaster you've done Python, basically. I also rode with Jay as well as another Australian, Jacob, who I'd met once before the trip at Warner Bros Movie World (Australia). Divv & I did a whistlestop tour of the park to take some pics and see what was around. It's basically a little fair with various flat rides, many of them kiddie, and assorted amusements like mini golf & even a water park. We soon bumped into Robb Alvey shooting video of the Python. We left soon after to get to our first hotel: Holiday Inn Hurstbourne. Dinner was at Olive Garden, a place for American-style Italian & a popular meal spot for TPR so an appropriate starting meal. There are over 100 of us so we had split up into groups to choose from the twenty restaurants near the hotel. Photos were taken, pasta was consumed in massive quantities & the ice was broken between a diverse group of 20+ people who were from places as diverse as Holland, Australia (woo!), England & more! We then headed back to our rooms for an early night before Holiday World.

Edited October 7, 2007 by Tony Teulan

[Gazza]

Did you end up posting up the updates and any videos? All that talk of wooden coasters in the other topic has given me a desire to watch videos of a few.

[GoGoBoy]

Come on Gazza, this is Tony we're talking about. Sorry Tony not meaning to offend you personally again as I have in the past... but in all seriousness his track record for posting pics and vids that he says he is going to post is pretty poor

[Gold Coaster]

BEFORE THE TRIP: Not visiting parks that much. Busy working to save money for the trip. Many people around to post updates of Motocoaster construction/Surf Rider/Little Rippers/new Wet'n'Wild flumes etc anyway. DURING: Received angry emails demanding to know when I was updating. This was during early mornings, long days at the parks racing around to get everything done (which was fun but exhausting), not getting back to the hotel until late at night before departure early next morning. When you get that after a 16 hour day, the last thing you want to do, really, is spend another couple of hours doing an update particularly when you cop abuse. So I thought 'Ah they can just wait'. I was on holiday anyway! NOW: Definitely have the time. I just have a heap to sort through.

Edited October 7, 2007 by Tony Teulan

[Richard]

I'd say this has run its course.