How about a Trip Advice forum?
If it's a matter of heading space, I'm sure you could get away with combining the NoLimits and Hyper Rails forum into one.
Later,
EV
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Remember that if you're one in a million, that means that there are 5000 other people on Earth just like you.
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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com - Sillynonsense.com
"Pray that your country undergoes recovery!" - KMFDM
I never understood all the posts looking for advice or help with trips. Doesn't anyone just research anything themselves anymore. Between the databases here and at RCDB, official park sites, map sites like mapquest, and various hotel and/or travel sites, you can find all the info needed to plan entire coaster trips in minimal time and usually save a few bucks in the process. Plus, you don't get bad info or "your trip experience may vary" info. On top of all of this you can usually book rooms and buy tickets to parks, etc while researching your trip. You're going to have to do all of this anyway if you're serious about taking a park/coaster trip of any kind, so why not just eliminate the middleman?
I'd coordinated entire weeklong, different park everyday trips using just the 4 or 5 sites I mentioned, paid for most of it in advance, knew how long it'd take and when to drive or stay and been ready to go in just a few hours several times in the past. Heck, we're taking off on Sunday for a 10 day vacation including at least 4 park stops. Did the whole thing online by myself.
As for *park* advice - I have to agree with Jeff. Trip reports, official sites and fan sites can answer just about every question you could possibly think of. If you can't find an answer then there probably is no definitive one (i.e. "What will crowds be like on this date?)
I never saw the point of those posts, let alone an entire forum dedicated to it.
That's all :)
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www.coasterimage.com
Dorney Park Visits in 2003: 4
Later,
EV
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Remember that if you're one in a million, that means that there are 5000 other people on Earth just like you.
I have poseted one of those "Which park" threads in the past when I'm going to an area I know nothing about. Between SFMM, KBF, and DCA, there are some really good parks in So Cal. Being from Alabama, I have no way of knowing how these parks stack up in comparison. My thread was asking which ones people preferred. Usually if a TR covers all parks in one area, they comment only about one park at a time, which isn't too useful for comparison purposes.
As for the "where to stay" questions, I don't think it's a question of not knowing what hotels are available. A quick trip to a myriad of travel sites will show you all the names and even a few photos of the hotels in the area. But on the web, the hotel is essentially making an advertisement for itself, putting the best rooms on view. Many times I have stayed somewhere that did not even slightly resemble pics on the web. Again, these threads are asking for comparisons of many like hotels in a certain area.
People asking "how long's the drive" or "how many people will be there" are just lazy and/or stupid. But we've heard all the reasons not to post such things in the past.
To summarize, sometimes a TR or website just doesn't give a person the real lowdown on the comparison of other opitions. And why would they? The purpose of a TR is to tell about your day at a park, not to say how much better/worse it was than park x. A hotel website is an advertisement, meant to separate anyone with an isp from their dollars in exchange for a room.
Fafolguy
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I sing sometimes for the war that I fight, 'cause every tool is a weapon, if you hold it right. -Ani Difranco
The single most annoying thing people ask is, "How will the crowds be at [park] on [day]." Am I expecting too much out of common sense for people to account for the day of week, holidays, weather and whether or not the kids are in school? Is it unreasonable for people to take these things into account?
Probably the second most annoying thing is when people ask questions about ride or park quality after they've already made plans to go there.
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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com - Sillynonsense.com
"Pray that your country undergoes recovery!" - KMFDM
j/k
It's not at all unreasonable to expect people to do a little homework. But, apparently MapQuest hasn't done a good enough job with driving directions or estimating time between two points.
For everyone else...
distance = Arccos[Cos[a1] Cos[b1] Cos[a2] Cos[b2] + Cos[a1] Sin[b1] Cos[a2] Sin[b2] + Sin[a1] Sin[a2]]/360 * 2Pi * r
d8 - who wonders how people think this stuff up...
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"Welcome to Wisconsin... Illinois' Largest State Park."
*** This post was edited by du8die 6/3/2003 10:39:59 PM ***
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Final Deja Vu Count for the 2002 Season: 52
Superman: Ultimate Flight Count (SFGAm) = 42
http://www.SFGAmWorld.com
With the recent flux in these types of questions lately (I know I noticed it at least), I was wondering if maybe you'd reconsider the idea? These posts are starting to clog up the general buzz, maybe it would be easier if the "which park should I go to" questions could be posted in their own area?
Just a thought, do with it what you want. :)
I still can't convince Jeff to put "Gonch" on the CB event nametags...sigh.
As far as the topic at hand, I stand by my original post 100%. If I had any say, I'd kill posts like that - not add a entire forum for people who can't make their own decisions.
I can usually see the flip side of things even if I don't agree, but this one baffles me. Why would anyone want someone telling them where to go and how to do it?
Granted, it would spawn a whole heap of them, but at least they would be in a controlled environment. :)
Doesn't anyone just research anything themselves anymore
The answer, of course, is no. For reasons I still don't understand, the internet (chat rooms, bboards, etc. etc.) seems to have spawned an entire generation of people who ask other *people* a question that search engines/dedicated on-line DBs are much better at answering much faster.
If you ask a person, you have to wait for someone to see the question, and provide a custom answer for you. If you are lucky, two or three people might answer. If you are really lucky, one of those two or three knows what the hell they are talking about.
If you look it up in an online resource, you get the benefit of actual fact, provided you can sort out the trustworthy sources from the others. In matters of opinion, you also get archived past experience---many people to base an opinion on. Dozens, and sometimes even hundreds of aggregated opinions.
A matter of fact: What hotels exist? Travelocity, Expedia, etc. can tell you nearly instantly.
A matter of opinion: What hotels suck? Tripadvisor knows. As long as a good 8-10 people have rated it, you'll have a good idea of what to expect.
Honestly, I have no idea why online tools have spawned this ask first/think later style, and I'm not even sure the 'net is to blame. My mother's universal response to any matter-of-fact question was always "Look it up." After all, we had to get our money's worth out of that Encyclopedia Brittanica somehow. Maybe now that Encyclopedias are freely available, Moms all over no longer feel the need to make sure their kids use them to extract value.
*** Edited 8/29/2005 7:31:05 PM UTC by Brian Noble***
But that isn't always true, and that is part of the problem. Case in Point? There is a Hotel we stay at yearly in Myrtle Beach. The Sea Crest is one of the nicest places I've ever stayed anywhere. It really is very nice, inside and out. Has great cust. service, amenities, beach front, 7 different pools. Sure, there are places that offer more there. There are more expensive places (though not by much).
I've never talked to anyone who has had a bad experience there, and we've successfully recommended it to other people. But if you look on some trip advice sites, they rate it a 3 (on a 1-10 scale). I've stayed in roach motels, as well as top star/diamond resorts. I would rate Sea Crest about a 7. Very nice, and def. above average, though there are places out there nicer.
I can see why people want to ask, but for me, I'd rather ask someone I know whom I know has like minded taste. But I still wouldn't just come here and say "Where should I go/stay", regardless of if I was asking 'where should I go that is nice' or 'where should I go because I'm passing thru and it is close'. I can research that. But I do see both sides.
I don't, however, think that there should be a trip advice forum.
Tripadvisor's users give it a 3.5 out of 5 rating. That equates to your seven, on the button. There are 10 reviews from the August alone, which I'd say gives a good recent impression of the place. Expedia's user rating is lower (2.8 out of 5)---that's still reasonably close to your own rating, and also comes from many fewer total reviews, so shouldn't be quite as accurate.
Based on reading the reviews, I'd say it's a mixed bag---a nice but older property, with rooms in need of a refurbishment. AAA rates it a three-diamond, which sounds about right, and is a tip off that it's not the "resort experience" that it might sound to the unwary.
As an aside, I'm not familiar with the Myrtle Beach market, but if this is one of the high-end properties there, it's a heck of a lot cheaper than the Outer Banks.
That said, I agree about asking people of like mind for specific recommendations, but that requires that you know someone of like mind who's been there. What makes anyone think that posting a query to a bulletin board will find like-minded people? Yes, we all enjoy roller coasters, but that doesn't mean we all look for the same things in hotels. Gonch and I are both hotel snobs. Others are looking for a place that is both cheap and not infested. I only know that I can trust Gonch from a couple of years of reading his TRs---a random flyby poster would have no idea.
That's what makes tripadvisor great. By definition, most people are in the majority. So, as long as there are enough recent reviews for a property, you have a good idea of what you're getting, and can sift through the people who complain about things you don't care about, focusing on the people who compliment or complain about things you do. If it has a sufficiently high rating (say, 4 or better) and enough people reviewing it, even us hotel snobs will probably be able to cope.
*** Edited 8/30/2005 3:48:54 PM UTC by Brian Noble***
Sea Cove is a dive. The place we stay (Sea Crest) has just been completely remodeled (buildings outside and in, looking totally different), and is more on the resort side. I was going to book us there in August (my friend and I), but I couldn't justify $250-$300 a nite for a side view basic room.
If the Sea Cove got a 3.5, then I can tell you that those sites are wrong. We stayed at a place called the Chip Inn. I'd stayed there once before, and I can tell you that it is very basic. It is 'clean', but I would rate it a 1 on a 1-5 scale. The sites that I looked at gave it an outstanding rating, talking about how it had been nicely remodeled. Yeah, it just recently got some paint and new curtains, but the rooms look straight outta 'The 70s House'. In fact, by the phone book was a 'Welcome to the Grand Strand' book...from 1972.
I just don't trust those sites. YMMV :).
I can trust Gonch from a couple of years of reading his TRs
I do agree with you there. Along with some other posters whom I just IM on AIM since Gonch totally ignores me ;).
*** Edited 8/31/2005 1:33:56 PM UTC by Brian Noble*** (link edited for formatting -J) *** Edited 8/31/2005 3:11:58 PM UTC by Jeff***
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