I've been thinking about going on a few of these tours. What do you guys think? Have you been on any of them? I'm thinking about the roller coaster one, maybe the animal one too.

I've heard the coaster tour is great and I'm actually determined to go before the end of the year.

What's the difference between the two coaster tours? One is for a non rider, so you just don't get the ERT on the Grifffon then? Do you get to look at more than the griffon and loch ness?

Not sure what the difference is. I'd imagine that you don't ride Loch Ness and don't go up on top of Griffon like you said, other than that, couldn't be sure, I know someone that just went on the tour last weekend, I'll ask them if there were any non-riders there and if there were, what they did.

bgwfans, ever hear back from your friend?

I'd like to do one of these tours.. I guess i'll need to wait till next year or convince my girlfrend to do it in tampa instead of the animal tour.

There's a pretty big difference between the two tours. Both still do the behind the scenes stuff, but the 'participant' version gets the ERT's and photos while the 'observer' version doesn't. At least, that's what I've gotten from their website. I also think that the 'participant' tour gets the CD of pictures whereas the 'observer' doesn't.

My husband and I went on the train tour in August for our anniversary. It was awesome. They're not nearly as popular as the coaster tours (obviously), so we were by ourselves on the our, but that just meant it was a personal tour for us.

We did the 'participant' version. I'll say this much, the price for the tours is right on. For what we paid, it was very much well worth it. We got to see the ins and outs of the trains, they explained all of the mechanical inner workings, showed us what they do on a daily basis, took us into their workshop and showed us various parts of the trains, and we even got to watch a steam test, something they do daily, but only in the early 2am hours. It was cool to watch, the station was filled with so much steam you couldn't see the person next to you.

What we didn't realize when we got to the tour is that breakfast is included in the price. After showing us around the station, they took us to the Festhaus, in the employee meal area, and we got to get whatever we wanted to eat, and they paid for it. We then got to sit and chat with the head engineer for almost an hour while we waited for the park to open. After the park was open, we went back to finish our tour, which included getting to drive the train.

Since there was just myself and my husband, we got to ride in the engine area together while one was driving, then we switched. Obviously they'd be crazy to allow people who aren't trained to actually drive the train on the throttle side, but we were on the left side of the train that operated the steam controls. It was an awesome experience and we gained a new appreciated for the guys who operate the trains as it really is a two person job. Your view out front is partially blocked so each side relies on the other for guidance around the park.

Along with the tour, we also had a personal park photographer who took pictures of our visit. Anything we wanted, we could ask them to take pictures of. We just let our photographer take whatever she wanted. They mailed the CD of pictures, which ended up being a little over 100 total, and they all look great.

totally doing this in the spring I think.

I asked and she said that she wasn't sure. I'm pretty sure the observers aren't supposed to participate in the ERT. I'd definitely go with the participant version just to make sure I wasn't limited on the tour.