coasterbill

Someone is taking a crappy stand-up and putting floorless trains on it which has been an enthusiast pipe dream for years but has never been done. I'd say that's groundbreaking. They're taking arguably and in my mind the worst coaster in the park and making it good. Will Rougarou be as good as Millennium Force, Raptor, Maverick, Top Thrill Dragster or Gatekeeper? Probably not... but it's going to be another high quality coaster that I'll probably ride a ton every time I visit the park, and it's amazing that they're getting a fun ride out of an awful ride for a minimal investment. When we went for 3 days this year we rode every adult coaster multiple times except Mantis which we avoided like the plague and didn't even ride once. There's nothing not to love about this.

I feel like the reason Loch Ness Monster is good is because it avoids every element that makes other Arrow coasters rough. The worst things about Arrow's are any inversion that's not a loop, curved drops and high speed turns... this ride has none of those. Every turn is taken at a low speed (either because the train doesn't have any momentum yet or because it's high up in the air) the drops are all straight and there are no corkscrews so there's no awful transition leading into them. Loch Ness Monster is smooth because it was never given the opportunity to be rough. Arrow avoided all of the problem elements they had on their other coasters.

I think the most disappointing thing about Arrow is that they went out of business right after that figured out how to build amazing looping coasters and B&M completely took over that market for awhile. Personally I'd have loved to see more coasters like Tenessee Tornado and less coasters like Medusa, Hydra and Led Zepplin. Those coasters are fun and all, but not nearly as good (or even as smooth which sounds ridiculous to say about an Arrow) as Tenessee Tornado. EDIT: I'm not calling those coasters rough, just saying that Tennessee Tornado is holding up much better. I'm also a big fan of the suspended coasters which are all great. I don't understand why these rides are so often overlooked... the Bat for example is probably one of the best coasters at Kings Island, the same goes for Vortex at Canada's Wonderland and Ninja at Magic Mountain. Personally though I think my favorite thing to come from Arrow is the log flume which they basically invented and was at one point at almost every park in the country. These rides have mass appeal and I go out of my way to ride them whenever I'm at a park... even if it's dark out or freezing cold. They're all great rides. Sure this company built some death machines (Vortex, Anaconda and X2 which is horrible and I'll never understand why anyone likes this awful piece of crap) but that's going to happen when you build such innovative rides (they brought back the loop, pioneered the steel coaster, built the first hypercoaster, invented the mine train, log flume and flying saucer ride and a built million other things I'm forgetting about).

That's great news! It's worth pointing out that that may spell the end of the ride operating in the rain like it does now. I'm assuming the reason this is the only coaster in the entire park that never shuts down for rain is because they have so many extra blocks. Most of the other coasters have been known to operate in the rain if they transfer a train off but usually they elect to wait the rain out instead and take the ride down (In some cases they run in the rain without removing trains but the policy is horribly inconsistent ). Again, this is pure speculation but it seems like the only explanation as to why this ride doesn't follow the same rain procedures as all of the other coasters. I was told by a gatekeeper ride op that Wicked Twister won't shut down unless lighting is spotted, they have a certain type of brakes. I'm not sure why, but they did shut Mantis down when it was raining last time I visited. I don't get park policies. Wicked Twister is particularly ridiculous. This ride does operate in the rain more than a lot of other rides, but keep an eye on the live cams when it rains and you'll see it close frequently (many times while Mantis still operates). This ride should never close in the rain. The brakes are all magnetic, they're all covered and most importantly there isn't another train so there's a 0% chance of an accident similar to the one on Magnum that started all of this crap.

Political correctness will eventually spell the end of Halloween events at parks. People have a need to act like they're offended by things so they can complain about it and make themselves feel important as if they're championing some great cause. I have a hard time believing anyone is actually offended by this. The overuse of the word "offended" has completely cheapened it's definition. Now people think "offensive" means "I could see how someone somewhere might not like this even though it doesn't bother me or 99.99999% of the population". Again, to the people saying you're offended by this... I don't believe you. And even if you are offended that doesn't mean the park (or anyone else) should care. Get over it... if the park does something that legitimately turns enough people away then they won't do it anymore, but them cowering to these idiots is setting a bad precedent (just like Kings Dominion did last year) and later on they'll regret not taking a stand now.

You should absolutely complete it as it's very good, but regardless I would suggest posting it there if you're considering it. The focus is now highly on screenshots and many of the things posted on the home page never get finished. As far as the new screens they look great. It's always nice to see people going back and improving things.

Isn't Riddler still relatively popular? When we rode it last year it had a pretty significant wait (though now that I think of it they may have been running one train).

That's great news! It's worth pointing out that that may spell the end of the ride operating in the rain like it does now. I'm assuming the reason this is the only coaster in the entire park that never shuts down for rain is because they have so many extra blocks. Most of the other coasters have been known to operate in the rain if they transfer a train off but usually they elect to wait the rain out instead and take the ride down (In some cases they run in the rain without removing trains but the policy is horribly inconsistent ). Again, this is pure speculation but it seems like the only explanation as to why this ride doesn't follow the same rain procedures as all of the other coasters.

Just stop...

Don't you think if this were the case (which it's not) B&M (a company of experts who do this for a living) would have realized that before some people on a message board did?

Please explain to me how this is a new credit. If this is a new credit then Batman backwards is a new credit and rides like the Giant Dipper in California have been like 4 different credits throughout their history. Also how many people have both Sheikra credits from before and after it's floorless conversion?

I don't see how anyone could count this as a new credit. If this is a new credit any wood coaster that ever got a new train would have to be considered multiple credits.

Since it's just a rendering this could mean absolutely nothing and I'm sure it's going to be discussed ad nauseum but I have to bring up the fact that the trim brake on the drop appears to be gone in the video. Hopefully they remove it, it probably won't be necessary with these trains.

This is great news. I don't expect the ride to be amazing but I expect it to be a lot of fun and another solid addition to Cedar Point's lineup. As far as I'm concerned it's the same as adding a new coaster because I never rode Mantis under any circumstances since it was so unenjoyable.

Yeah, but to be fair since they both already clinched that means there won't be any meaningful games played for either team until October so the next few weeks should be good weeks... especially since the Redskins don't play next weekend at all because they play on Thursday.

Most of us knew you were being sarcastic. Always a few slow ones that don't get it. I appreciated your humor. Ignore ignorant!!! I enjoyed it as well. The reaction to this announcement from the enthusiast community has been downright embarrassing (not so much on this site but definitely on some others... especially the ones geared specifically towards Cedar Point).

This is a random question but does anyone know if they keep Thunder Creek Mountain open all year? We actually think it's one of the best rides in the park so we're curious to know as we may be heading back there this year.

I was never a big fan of Scream Machine as it was pretty rough but I agree that it was better than Green Lantern.

I don't think there's anything to that personally. He's just screwing with us.

That makes sense... they probably just pulled the wrong email list and screwed up the dynamic fields. They probably confused it with the similar email they send everyone that visits Six Flags America that starts out much the same way... I can see how this caused some confusion with the marketing team.

Conneaut Lake needs to be put out of it's misery. I'm all for trying to save and preserve classic parks but that one is too far gone.

I liked Viper quite a bit. It's right up there with Loch Ness Monster for my favorite old arrow looper (Tennessee Tornado is obviously much better than either of them but it's much more "modern").

I hate to repeat myself but I'm still loving each update. It's such a unique perspective and I wish every employee at every park was as enthusiastic as you are.

I wish they'd do away with Voodoo Island and leave the Log Flume open all season but unfortunately that's never going to happen.