I think I want this bunny to live in my office. This little guy opens letters for you so nicely!

Centralia, PA used to have a population of over 1000. Now it is only 12. What happened? A mine fire started in 1962. It still burns today. The ground is hot to the touch and it spews gas. This place looks like Silent Hill. Link.

NOTE: Please do not do what the guy in the video is doing and visit Centralia. The ground can cave in. The gas is toxic and can kill you!

ALF sounds like a fat old man from the planet Melmac in the Spanish version:

Did anyone else watch ALF? I loved it. I think I was in like, 1st grade or something when it was popular. Everyone in my class watched ALF. I also liked the animated ALF Tales. It was Fairy Tales from the ALF point of view.

For some reason I do not remember that they made an ALF movie or an ALF animated show aside from ALF tales. Maybe they were bad and that is why. I will have to get them and watch now to find out! :D

Thanks goes out to Mark Kane, Park President of Six Flags for giving me and my friends free admission to Six Flags, NJ plus line jump tickets! Because of this we visited the park last week and got to ride all the rides we could handle. I am a big fan of roller coasters, so you can bet I went on most everything in the park! :D

Six Flags is a very busy park. Because of this I have left the park feeling bad in the past. However, my experience this week was actually quite fun!

I noticed that the bathrooms and such were a lot cleaner than in the past and the food was much better. For $9 you can get a kid’s meal at the Carnegie Deli in the center of the park. It is very healthy and the perfect size for an adult. It comes with a 100 calorie pack of Oreo crisps, string cheese, smiley face fries, a small soda in collector’s bottle, and an entree. The entree is something like either a hot dog or chicken nuggets. All of it was in a plastic Six Flags bucket and it was not greasy or gross. I think this is the most healthy amusement park meal I have ever had!

The only problem is that this park is very popular. Even on a Tuesday, there were long lines. Some lines were 4 hours long! I have had the opportunity to see the park as both a regular paid admission and as a person armed with line jump tickets. I’ll will share with you advice about the best way to visit Six Flags. Basically, we’re going to talk about the infamous FlashPass that is taking over all large amusement parks – not just Six Flags.

FlashPass or No FlashPass?

There is good news and bad news about FlashPass. The good news is that with FlashPass you can make appointments to ride certain popular rides and bypass standing in line. You can spend the time you would normally wait in line doing something else in the park. The bad news? Price! The regular FlashPass is $50 for 2 people and $84 for 4. This is all after paying your $29.99 to get in. OUCH!

If you can afford it and you value riding the rides, I think it is worth it. Why? It just seems that due to crowds and popularity that amusement parks on the East Coast are no longer a budget-conscious option. Parks created FlashPass to alleviate waiting in excessively long lines, but so many people buy it and so many people are in line that it seems that it’s the only way to go if you value getting on the rides at all.

If you (just like most people) get sick at the price, your only option is to buy the $29.99 entrance fee and sit in 4 hour lines all day. I have done this and I have left the park feeling like I may as well have not gone because I was hot, tired, and I only got on 2 rides.

If I were planning my Six Flags trip right now, I would personally just save up for Regular FlashPass and consider that the price of general admission for me because I feel ripped off if I don’t ride a ton of roller coasters. I think Regular FlashPass is fine enough because there are never too many people waiting in the FlashPass line at any one time as far as I have seen.

If I couldn’t afford FlashPass, I’d just not go to the park. The fact is, parks aren’t cheap anymore (I wouldn’t have been able to go this year without them comping our admission!). If you want to ride, you have to pay. Of course, If you don’t care about riding, don’t worry about the FlashPass at all. :)

I dug up some info about FlashPass. There is a Regular FlashPass and a Gold FlashPass.

Regular FlashPass – This FlashPass allows you to jump in front of people who do not have FlashPass. Here are the 2008 rates:

Gold FlashPass – This FlashPass allows you to jump in front of both people who do not have FlashPass and people who do have Regular FlashPass. Here are the 2008 rates:

You can calculate the exact price for your party here..

Well, that is my basic impression of the park. I will write some more later about what rides I thought were worth it and what rides I thought were not. :D

I just happened to be walking in the Bridgewater Mall here in New Jersey. I found the most amusing thing in the window of the BCBG MAX AZRIA store. Apparently they are having a sale on CrotchMonkeys: