July 21st and 22nd

The TR is very detailed and really long.....too long in fact that I can't post it. So I had to link it to my server

http://home.comcast.net/~mscarpenter84/TR.rtf

please tell me what you think. We had a great trip!
*** Edited 7/27/2005 3:35:06 AM UTC by Carpy***

Wow. That's the most detailed TR I've ever read... anywhere! Great job, and glad you had a good time. I like the fact that you thank a lot of people at the end.
4 days at CP... the best 4 days of your life. ;)

I don't know what's scarier, the fact that you took the time to write all of that or that I spent the time to read it all. :) Good TR.

I bet Wicked Twister went down for someone getting sick. That would explain a short delay followed by them running the train once empty.

You mentioned how smooth you thought Gemini was, as smooth as a steel coaster. Well that's because it is steel, it just has wooden supports.

Did you guys ever go on some of the smaller/older coasters like WildCat, Cedar Creek Mine Ride, or Blue Streak? WildCat and Blue Streak are really fun rides even if they don't look that thrilling. Cedar Creek Mine Ride is...well...Cedar Creek Mine Ride. ;)

eh, I took all that time at work anyway. I work for Dell's tech support and have lots of down time since I work 12 hours a day; so I had lots of time to write it.

We never checked those smaller ones out cause they didn't look thrilling. Wildcat looks like a kiddie ride; its probably not, just looks that way.

I dont think someone got sick on WT. I was next right outside the station when they did this and I didnt see them trying to clean up anything. Or maybe you're right and they just ran it empty once and that was enough to dry it.

Oh man, I totally forgot to put the totals.

MF - 6
TTD - 6
Magnum - 10
Gemini - 8
WT - 3
MaXair - 2
DT - 1
ID - 1
PT Red - 6
PT Green - 2
Raptor - 1
SkyRide - 2
Space Spiral - 1
Mean Streak - 1 horrible ride
*** Edited 7/27/2005 7:05:22 PM UTC by Carpy***

who is

"Who is?", what?

MrScott

Carpy, I have never read such an awesome trip report. It sounds like you had an awesome trip. I love Mean Streak though, that's the only thing I disagree with you on, and the fact that you didn't write the smaller once because WildCat and Blue Streak are awesome. You work for Dell support eh? I've called it a couple of times, very helpful ;).

excellent TR. Felt like i was in line with ya lol. Nashville TN, r u a Titans Fan?. Im a huge fan!

Gotta love those cheese fries. Last time i had a hot dog at CP, it had a rubbery texture to it and i tossed it. I do blame it on being close to closing and figured it was probably far from fresh, no excuse, but i could have cared less at that point. Went back to breakers and had a kick butt steak burger from mama chettas.

Carpy said:
I work for Dell's tech support

So you're the guy...

-S. Eagle

I was a Titans fan back in '99 when they were actually, um, GOOD.

Yea, I'm the guy at Dell taking crap from whiny customers 12 hours a day who are expecting me to be a magician and not someone who's knowledgable about computers, lol.

I didn't know Dell still had tech support based in the United States. I thought it was all in India.

who is

He's probably the guy THEY call when its something more difficult than "Are you sure the power cord is plugged in?" or "Just type format C:\ and insert your system disk when its done".

We spent a week with Dell tech support troubleshooting my workstation. I was having BSOD issues, even during the XP install. It was obvious to us and Dell that it was a hardware problem.

Of course, every time we called back, we got a new person who had to read through the notes. Some techs were really good. One, though, insisted we had a virus. After explaining to her why that was not possible, she kept insisting that was the problem - going to the point of ignoring all the notes from the previous techs, including the guy who came on-site. We asked her which virus it could be. She responded, "I don't know."

Her answers to a couple more questions left us to conclude it was her first day on the job and that she probably thought she was talking to a typical home user. We told her we would look into it, hung up, called back and got a tech who understood the issue.

We eventually replaced a motherboard, hard drive and memory. It was difficult to troubleshoot because the problem ended up being related to both the motherboard and the memory that we were using. But no virus :)

Interesting. How old was the computer? I'm suprised they didn't just send you a new box to replace it.

I've given up on the retailers and just build mine now. At least then I know what's gone into the PC. And its both cheaper and more fun.

That's the thing about any companies tech support, you call with a problem and you may get a really awesome tech support worker and they help you, but then one day another problem comes back and you call again but get someone different who barely knows anything. My encounters with Dell tech support personnel has been great. We got our first family computer back in '99 and it was a Dell and it lasted us well, it's still going strong and then about this time last year we ordered the computer that I'm using right now and I love it. The only problem I ever had was when we ordered they were busy and were out of stock for something so our system was back ordered, but when it finally got here I was very impressed. The online ordering system is great and easy to use. Although, I call Dell tech support with a number provided by Dell Canada and I believe I spoke with someone who had a heavy accent.

I've never actually purchased a pre-assembled system. I bought a base system years ago, and keep upgrading parts inside of it, and when I've got enough parts for another computer, i'll build another computer.

I like how this topic went from a trip report to talking about computers.

This was a corporate situation. We buy Dell because of the warranty and support. We just don't have the staff or resources to build our own machines.

The system was 2 years old with a 3 year warranty. Because of the lost productivity, the age of the computer, and various other reasons, I ended up with a nice, new Precision M70 anyway.

Oh, I thought you were takling about a home PC. I understand using the big guys for corporate though, especially since most companies get the exclusive discount deals for going with just Dell or HP.

Dell has become so much more popular in recent years, I've noticed. Schools always used to have Macintosh computers but it seems they have all been replaced with Dells.