coasterbill

That would be a terrible idea as many people hate Batman backwards and love Batman forwards, what might be cool is if they turned the back half of the train around and gave people a choice. Personally I don't understand why they'd screw with the second best coaster in the park anyway, but it Six Flags and they love a good gimmick I guess. It might be fun to try once, but I'm counting the days until it's running forwards again.

I don't even know why this is a conversation...

I highly suggest the very back row of Apollo's Chariot. Not one from the back, the very back. Also, I second the advice about the Predator show.

Carowinds rarely seems to be crowded except on Saturdays and for their Haunt event, I hope they see a decent boost in attendance from Fury because with the naked eye the park almost always seems slow.

^^We're speculating until 2025 now? Cool... Why stop there? 2026: General improvements, new parking lot that can accommodate flying cars is added given the increase in the popularity of flying cars. 2027: Snoopy's moon expedition ride added, the ride will take guests to the moon because that's all the rage in 2027. This ride will open a few years after Moon Force opens at Cedar Point but Cedar Point's version goes 5 feet higher into space, enthusiasts speculate that the Kings Dominion ride intentionally goes 5 feet lower into space as to not break Cedar Point's records. Complaining ensues. 2028: Hurler gets new wood on the lift hill which really annoys enthusiasts who are complaining about why they haven't done a Rocky Mountain conversion yet, they speculate that the new wood on the lift hill means that they're stuck with the ride for awhile... they're right. 2029: Dinosaurs alive updated with actual dinosaurs who are really alive because by 2029 the technology is in place to have Dinosaurs that are alive. Despite the fact that Kings Dominion has ACTUAL FREAKING DINOSAURS now which is awesome, enthusiasts complain that they would have rather seen a Hurler RMC conversion. 2030: The moon ride is re-skinned as Space Ghosts for Haunt but the park is forced to change the name of the ride after it's deemed offensive due to the recent outbreak of space terrorism on Mars (which by now is inhabited by the way, mostly by hipsters and the previously noted space terrorists). 2031: Flight of Fear closes because it's kind of dumb to have a space themed ride when they actually have a ride that actually goes to space now. Enthusiasts complain that while they understand the move they kind of like the ride as it's nostalgic and Kings Dominion hast lost it's charm over the years, plus if the park were to remove a coaster it should really be Hurler. Hurler is not removed, enthusiasts continue to complain. What do you guys think?

So it's basically Chaos without the individually flipping seats?

I love your work, it's incredibly fun.

I'd say that's much more likely and I really hope it's true. Those are excellent rides. I'm still not basing that on anything other than an enthusiast pipe dream though.

I don't think you're being unreasonable at all by jumping to any of the conclusions you just jumped to in that post. A post stating that Bizarro usually opens later in the day than most rides and a post on Instagram very likely mean that... 1) Bizarro is probably being removed 2) Green Lantern is getting the Rougarou treatment 3) We're getting an S&S Free Spin I'm not sure why everyone is so skeptical.

I thought you said "good" parks.

I love Hershey. I won't go so far as to call it my favorite park but it's definately my second favorite park in Pennsylvania I can't help myself...

I'd be shocked if they ever buy another S&S Giant Swing after the unbelievable amount of problems they've had with Skyhawk.

Great Adventure has better coasters but Hershey is better at absolutely everything else... friendliness, clientele, aesthetics, cleanliness, flat ride selection, upkeep, customer service... and really the coasters aren't too shabby either.

I really don't mind some light hearted ribbing of other rides. It leads me to believe that the ride ops take pride in the ride they're running and therefore take some pleasure and pride in what they do. Whether or not that's actually true I don't know, but that's the impression I get.

Every park does that at every food stand with fountain drinks. It's the best trick ever.

Great report, though I'm sorry you had to deal with all that on your day off.

I would compare it to having jackhammers attached to either side of your head while rolling a rocky cliff in a shopping cart with square wheels.

Other than the Comet the Alpine Bobsled is the only coaster in that park that doesn't suck, if they remove it I really hope they replace it with something decent.

Bizarro has really become a front seat ride. The further back you get it feels sluggish compared to the way it used to run, but in the front the ride is still as great as ever (with the exception of the crap restraints).

Nice list. I use coaster-count mostly, I just love grotto for the top twenty. Any other sites you use? Thanks! Nope... I've always used Coaster Grotto and never bothered to change. I know I'm a dinosaur. lol

Wow, thanks for saving me the trouble. Also, I've never been called "wise" before. I should probably soak that in. lol But yeah, go to Knoebels.

Maybe it's just me but I really don't mind when B&M's throw you into the restraints once or twice. It's actually kind of fun and I don't find it painful at all (assuming you put your head forward which I do instinctively on every single coaster with over the shoulder restraints). I enjoy Batman at SFNE quite a bit. When I think rough I think of coaster that just mercilessly bashes your head into the restraints over and over again (Mind Eraser), one or 2 little bounces like on Batman, Alpengeist or Raptor can actually be fun. Maybe it's just me though... this is coming from someone who thinks the Raptor snap is the greatest thing ever.

Awesome captions, please do more trip reports. I enjoyed hearing about your days of operating Vortex also. It's great to get a ride ops perspective on things, especially the ridiculous ways rides are now operated at every American park not named Knoebels.

We made a last minute decision to visit the park yesterday and had a great time as always. It really was a last minute decision, late Saturday night we were talking about our plans for Sunday and realized we didn't have any, then we realized that it was going to rain at home all day but it was going to be sunny at Great Adventure so we decided to hit up the park. We got there at noon and after braving Six Flags Parking Lot Off Road Adventure we headed right for Golden Kingdom. Zumanjaro was closed but testing and since we really never ride it we figured we'd wait for it to open in hopes that most of the line cleared out when it broke down. That turned out to be the case and we got on twice, each time with a 5 minute wait. It's really a lot of fun and it's one of our favorite drop towers (though I prefer Knoebel's Stratosfear and Dorney's Demon Drop). It's insane how much the tower shakes when Kingda Ka launches and it really makes me wish they could run together as it's really cool just sitting there while the train is loading. Either way though, what a great ride. Anyway, like I said we had a great day but if you don't mind I'm going to do a tiny bit of complaining because this IS a Six Flags park after all... After Zumanjaro we headed to the Log Flume as I hadn't been able to ride it in years since despite it's overwhelming popularity Six Flags only operates it when there was a full moon the night before, it's between Labor Day and Memorial Day and it's between the hours of 2PM and 2:07 PM. We got paired with another group which is awesome because that's not awkward at all on a Log Flume when you have a complete stranger between your legs. I've never seen another park group people on a Log Flume but I guess Great Adventure decided to start caring about capacity for the first time in the history of ever (and not pass that information along to the ops of any other ride)... who knows. When we tried to ride it again later around 7:00 PM they cut the line off despite the wait being about 45 minutes long because it's Six Flags and there's nothing that makes them happier than budget cuts. Okay... no more complaining I promise. Anyway, despite the grouping the Flume was great. It was nice to finally be able to ride it again. After that we headed for the Safari which was fun as always, they have 2 bear cubs as well as Stubbs the lion cub in Camp Aventura now and they're really cute (and very active). They were pulling wood slats off the top of their enclosure which was fun to watch and basically doing whatever they could to break everything in their cage. The guy standing there was saying that that was normal as they're pretty mischievous. We love the Safari as you always see something different both on the ride and at camp. By the time we got off Safari we realized that we had been in the park for about 5 hours and had yet to ride a coaster, so we headed for the Skyway (which was running both sides) and then got in line for Nitro. Nitro was running great, fun ride as always and only about a 20 minute wait. After Nitro we headed over to Batman to get one last ride on it before they turned the trains around for 2 months. It was running 1 train with the backwards train in transfer so the line moved a little slow, but one train is better than none and we were just glad it was open. A front seat ride was still only about an hour wait and the ride was running great (of course). Easily our second favorite coaster in the park after El Toro. After Nitro we kind of hopped around, getting a front seat ride on Kingda Ka (which was having an Intamin sh*t fit for most of the day but luckily got it together later on), getting a second ride on Skyway, a ride on a totally empty Runaway Mine Train (which we never ride but it was fun), a walk on ride on Bizarro and then we ended the night with 4 consecutive rides on El Toro without getting off. There's nothing to say about El Toro that hasn't already been said... it's just an amazing ride and now that I've finally ridden Wicked Cyclone I can confirm that as great as that ride is, it doesn't even belong in the same conversation as El Toro. Last night it was ripping through those final turns so fast that I couldn't believe the track wasn't just ripping itself apart but the ride was as smooth and great as ever. God I love El Toro. Rides: El Toro: 4 Skyway: 2 Zumanjaro: 2 Bizarro: 1 Batman: 1 SORA: 1 Runaway Train: 1 (ahem...choo choo lol) Nitro: 1 Log Flume: 1 ... I think that's everything. As a side note by the way, El Diablo looks great and we would have ridden it but the line was pretty long. It's great to see a ride with that kind of lighting package at Six Flags, the statue looks great and it really brings that midway to life. It's funny to hear the ride ops all talking crap about it though. An El Toro train came in and when they asked how the ride was nobody said anything so the ride op said "Okay that was mediocre so I'm going to send you to mediocre rides, be sure to check out El Diablo". The Kingda Ka people said basically the same thing. Nice touch... lol

I'm not familiar with DP layout, so where would you think a good location for a Coaster like that would be? Would a Coaster removal be necessary? I think it would be a good idea to replace Stinger with a GCI wooden roller coaster. Except it should have steel track, made by Schwarzkopf, have 2 loops, and named Laser. I like you.