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OK, you've convinced me.  I guess I'll have to buy both!

How about watching (or riding) the hot air balloons in the Cathedral Room?

I've always wanted to ride the sphere thing around the Wildfire track.

I'd like to see Fire in the Hole with the lights on.

I'd like to spend the night in Marvel Cave.

Does anyone else have any "fantasies" (Keep 'em clean.) that involve SDC?

Awesome photos.  I assume we can't see these on the tour?

The Float Trip must have been before my time.  I remember seeing a sign advertising it along the AP route, and I've always been curious about it myself.  The music on the AP was one of those things that ran in the background.  Most people probably didn't notice it.  It was almost as infectious as "It's a Small World" or "Yo ho, Yo ho, the pirate's life for me...".

The cabin?  A guide had told me this was the cabin Harold Bell Wright built for a place to write The Shepherd of the Hills.  Is this not true?  If so, is the current location not the original location?

At one time, I think the plan was to keep the park as "three rings".  The inner ring (around the carousel) would be the area focused on young children (This idea has been violated with the addition of the Grand Exposition.)  The next ring out was to be a kind of safe area for slower moving patrons (read, senior citizens).  This area would be your crafts demonstrations and shopping section of the park.  Then the outer ring would be for the more active patrons (read, teenagers).  This plan, as I understood it, was pretty well executed and pretty effective.  It drew the louder kids out of areas frequented by the old folks, and it accounts for how old and young come out of the park with smiles on their faces and memories in their hearts.  Most parks would have the kids running over the elderly, thus alienating a whole section of the population.  This plan is still intact with the placement of most of the thrill rides on the edge of the city.

One of the problems was that it felt like you were enclosed in plexiglass.

This was the first year I've ridden AP in a long time.  I share your disappointment with the shortened ride and lack of theming.  This was the best flume ride I've ever ridden, but now it's more like a Shoot-the-Chute ride (just up and down and it's over).  The most glaring problem to most people may be the tunnel, but the thing I missed most was the lack of the theme music.  What happened to the great catchy song about getting things accomplished together?  That's what the ride has always been about.

Most memorable?  Probably my first visit when I was tiny.  Even the American Plunge was scary.  I hated going through the dark cave on that ride, back when the floating part was longer.  Then, we stood in a long line for FITH.  When I caught a glimpse of the cave walls at the entry point, I threw the biggest, bawlingest fit of my life, until my parents gave in and we left without riding it.  Now, four decades later, I believe FITH is my favorite attraction.

That would be the best!  People would really interact with some talented strolling characters and maybe even a mini-show of Twainisms.  BTW, the Treehouse there and GF's Mansion are some of those little "tweaks" that make SDC unique and amazing.  Other little nuances include:

the talking railroad bucket (whose signage was repainted this year)
the tree with water coming out of it (near the American Plunge)
the "Don't look through this hole" and the "For Men Only" type things built into the fences and knot holes

Even after 40 years, I still love discovering something new like these every time I visit.  Just finding one thing makes my Season Pass worth the price.

I want to say it was the Greedy Brothers who helped you row the boats.  It was a little dock somewhere between the Lost River and Fiddlesticks, and you just rowed around the lake and around that stuff in the middle.  Water shot out of that thing and it soaked the whole boat.  It was the wettest ride of all until the Waterboggen was built.  I forget what the premise of the ride was, but it seems like the Greedy Brothers were the villains of that area.

The Diving Bell was still one of the best attractions in park history (I love the rides that tell stories.).  I was too young to appreciate it when it was there, but I remember the floors flooding with water and thinking that we really were under the water.

Does anyone else think the last room of the Lost River has never been completed?  All along the lines there have been signs about Ponce de Leon searching for the Fountain of Youth, and I always expected some kind of fountain at the end, maybe with some characters around it in some humorous scene.

There's no mention of it here that I've seen, but the collapse of the bridgeway to the Lost River a few years back is a part of SDC history, too.

Truth be told the tattoo booth and the bouncing basketballs confuse me.  SDC should hire some of us from these forums as an advisory committee for present and future projects.  I know we could walk through and scrutinize some of the easy-to-fix things in the park, and we all know we could come up with some creative additions and concepts for the future.  None of this would be a complaint about the park - just a road to discovery for ways to improve the park and expand revenue.  After attending this park for the past 40 years, I feel like I've made somewhat of an investment in the place, and I want it to be the best it can be.  That's what it seems these forums are about.

The contraption where you shoot targets was also a part of a paddle-your-own-canoe-type ride where riders ended up getting drenched when they rounded the corner and rowed past the stuff.  I believe this was the replacement for the Diving Bell before the Lost River was installed.

Yes, Kidsfest gets the park off its theme.  The 1800s didn't see very many Extreme bikes and skateboarders with their thumping music (or singing vegetables for that matter).  I can buy the Circus on Ice thing as a passing-through-town attraction of the day, but they should really be careful about breaking with the theme.  Keeping it fresh while keeping on-theme is the challenge that makes SDC fun.  Are you reading all these posts, Conductor Sam?  Just say no to tacky.