The Parks

[Avaitor]

You know what I mean. Disney, Universal, Six Flags, Seaworld, Busch Gardens, and so on. Who doesn't love a well-done theme park or awesome ride?

Since I live about an hour or so away from the Orlando parks, I go occasionally and keep up with their developments. Disney and Universal at least. I don't give a fuck about Seaworld. I might finally get an annual pass to Universal this year, so I can go whenever I want and have something to do when I visit my friends who will go to school around that area. It's more fun to go to than Disney, and has a lot to offer, so I'm up for it.

As for Disney, here's a recent addition to California Adventure, the new Little Mermaid dark ride. I think it looks cool, if an inferior version of the Snow White one at Magic Kingdom done for The Little Mermaid instead. I also really don't like Sebastian's replacement for here. It sounds very weak.

[Kiddington]

-bump-

Living back in Michigan prior to 2007, Cedar Point was my jam. In saying this, though, I must admit that I've never been on the two "mega coasters" they host, those being Millennium Force and Top Thrill Dragster. Long lines are a natural part of any amusement park, and it may seem like a weak excuse, but I've just never had the patience for these two. Dragster, in particular, is like a 4-6 hour wait (not kidding here; at least, last time I went it, it was), and the ride itself lasts no longer than 20 seconds. Keep in mind, I haven't been there since 2006, and both of those rides still had "novelty factor" working in their favor then. I'm sure now, the lines aren't quite this bad... but I'll have no way of knowing; Nevada, obviously, is much too far away from Ohio for me to make any return trips in the near future.

Probably my favorite roller coasters at Cedar Point were Raptor, and Disaster Transport; both are fun rides, and the lines aren't very long either (older rides do have their benefits). Cedar Creek Mine Ride was another fun coaster; it acts more as a "tour guide" throughout the park, but obviously it's still a roller coaster, so you're covering twice as much ground in seeing things as you would walking/riding other, slower "transport" rides.

Also being a water park kinda guy myself, Soak City (adjacent water park on the same grounds, if you didn't guess) was a lot of fun as well. Eerie Falls was definitely my favorite slide; the gimmick is that it's completely pitch black inside, making for quite an interesting slide down.

Man... reminiscing like this, I want to go back so badly... but obviously, again, that's not really an option, given my current residency being hundreds of miles away. At some point here, I need to make my way down to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, which would be the closest park to where I'm living now. It's actually a lot closer to Reno than Cedar Point ever was to where I lived in Michigan (city called Fraser, if you're curious), but I can't get my parents to take me to amusement parks anymore (too old; bleh), and I don't have the means to go by myself. I'm unemployed, once again, for one thing, meaning money is an issue... and I'm completely unfamiliar with the city of Sacramento, so navigating it by myself after having only been there once or twice before would be a herculean task that I'm just not up for.

Oh well. One of these days... one of these days, I'll make it down there.

[Commode]

Yeah, there's a whole bunch in California, most of which I've been to at one point or another.  I don't know about the Sacramento thing(personally don't much like Sacramento or the surrounding area), but there is a Great America in Santa Clara, right outside San Jose, that I used to go to a lot as a kid back when we lived there.

Of course, then you can go down to Southern California, where they've got Disneyland and Universal Studios Hollywood and Knott's Berry Farm and Six Flags Magic Mountain and SeaWorld and Legoland and...

I haven't been to a theme park since last year, when we went to Six Flags Great America a few times last summer, which is just north of Chicago.  I don't know where the closest Six Flags to Norfolk is, but I know we have a Busch Gardens a little ways away from us, up towards Richmond.  I'll probably check it out sometime.

[Angus]

Legoland's good for the little pups but they do have a Bionicle ride that's suitable for 55" and up.

[Commode]

So they have a Legoland in Florida now?  Huh, you learn something new every day, it's just that I learned this little bit of info from a box of Life cereal...

[talonmalon333]

I seriously love and miss Disney World. I was only there once for a week, and that was three years ago. But it was probably the best week of my twenty-one years thus far.

I need to get back there with my friends someday.

[Nel_Annette]

The only time I was in Disney World was 1998, and honestly I think I was too young to really appreciate it. I'd like to take my parents there some day. When they took my sister and I, we were ungrateful brats the whole week.

[Commode]

Never been to D-World.  Been to Disneyland a few times, but I have much more experience with Cali than I do Florida(considering I was born there and lived there for half my childhood, plus before joining the Navy the furthest East I had ever gone was Colorado).

[Avaitor]

So they have a Legoland in Florida now?  Huh, you learn something new every day, it's just that I learned this little bit of info from a box of Life cereal...

Yep. I haven'y been though. I also actually haven't been to Busch Gardens either.

And since I've barely left the state of Florida, let alone the east coast, I've never been to Disneyland. It's been a goal of mine to when I move to California for my career to go to both parks at least once, but it obviously hasn't happened yet.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I remember back when I used to live in Orlando. Every Summer I'd go to Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure, since they were back to back and I'd have a blast there.

Now that I live in New Jersey, the closest theme park to me is Six Flags which I've gone to a few times. Its a great park, but it also feels kind of limited in scope since I've already gone on every interesting ride in the park at least once (most of them multiple times, though). That said, its still fun to go there just to hang out with a group of friends, but I rarely ever have the time to do that anymore, even during the Summer.

The 2nd closest theme park is Hershey Park, which is about 2 hours away from my house and I've only ever been to it once on a school trip (though we did get to stay overnight, so I got plenty of time to see what the park had to offer). It was pretty cool, but I haven't had a chance to go back. Actually, some of my family went there just the other weekend, but I couldn't go because I was too busy with things at home.

Believe it or not, I've never been to Disney World, and have only ever been to Disney Land once in my entire life, and I was really young then, too, so I barely even remember the experience. I'd love to go there again sometime, but for right now its just not possible as its very far from where I live and even if it was close by I simply can't afford to go there right now.

Other parks I've been to only once are Bush Gardens, Dorney Park, and King's Island. I was really young when I went to Bush Gardens, so just like DL, I barely remember it (though my visit to that park was the first time I ever went on a roller-coaster, so it was still a great experience for me). As for Dorney Park, I went there on a school trip just like with Hershey Park. Honestly, I wasn't too impressed with it, but to be fair I was with a group of friends who weren't so keen on going on too many rides so that really limited what I could go on. Either way, though, I don't have any real desire to return there. As for King's Island, I just went there for the first time last summer when I was staying in Kentucky with my cousin. He took me there on my last weekend staying there before I flew back to New Jersey, and I really loved my experience there. All of the rides I went on were awesome, and Flight of Fear may just be the best indoor roller-coaster that I've ever been on. Invertigo and Diamondback would also rank in my top 10 favorite roller-coasters out of all of the ones that I've ever been on (Diamondback especially since it reminds me of Nitro from Six Flags, which is probably my personal favorite roller-coaster).

[Avaitor]

I remember watching a video about Hershey Park in one of my classes when my teacher didn't feel like doing any work. I also know that Demi's done a couple of shows there over the past year.

I've also been to Six Flags Over Georgia once. I really enjoyed it when I went, but I can see how limited in scope they can seem in comparison to Disney and Universal.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Yeah, Six Flags has some great rides and attractions, but it doesn't take more than a couple of visits to the park to feel like you've seen it all and then you'll never really have any interest in going back. I feel like with Universal I could spend days there and still have plenty of things that I didn't experience, yet. Also, I just like the theme of Universal more, what with all of the movie-inspired rides and shows.

[Avaitor]

Truthfully, I've only been to Universal Studios once. For my grad bash senior year and I got to go to both parks. Sadly, not everything was open in either park. But yeah, I liked the Hollywood theme it had. Oh, one thing that really annoyed me is that my two favorite rides from there, Jaws and Jimmy Neutron, are now gone.

Islands of Adventure is the one everyone else wants to go to if we have a choice, and that rules for all the islands it has. The Marvel island, Jurassic Park, Hogwarts, etc. There's a LOT to explore.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Truthfully, I've only been to Universal Studios once. For my grad bash senior year and I got to go to both parks. Sadly, not everything was open in either park. But yeah, I liked the Hollywood theme it had. Oh, one thing that really annoyed me is that my two favorite rides from there, Jaws and Jimmy Neutron, are now gone.

They took out Jaws!?!

That was my favorite ride in the entire park when I was a kid, and I was hoping to one day go back to it for the sake of reliving some great nostalgia. Why the fuck would they get rid of it?

Islands of Adventure is the one everyone else wants to go to if we have a choice, and that rules for all the islands it has. The Marvel island, Jurassic Park, Hogwarts, etc. There's a LOT to explore.

I love Islands of Adventure. I haven't been there in so long, though, so I've never had a chance to explore the Hogwarts section of the park, since that was only built a few years after the last time I've been there. I always loved the Marvel island, as well as Jurassic Park and all of the other sections.

[Avaitor]

They always get rid of stuff to "update" things, even moreso than Disney does. On the top of my head, the only thing they have from the day that the park first opened is the Lucy exhibit, or whatever that is.

What's funny is that I don't think Islands of Adventure has replaced one thing since they opened. Even the unlicensed mystical stuff they had is either still around or changed to become Harry Potter related. They might even keep Marvel for a while, since Disney doesn't seem to mind as long as they get some cash settlement from it.