coasterbill

I want to point out that when I said it was shaky I went out of my way to say that it wasn't rough. I think Diamondback is an awesome ride and probably my second favorite B&M hyper but when compared to a ride like Apollo's Chariot it's really bumpy... it's not painful or anything... just bumpy. It really doesn't take away from the ride very much.

I know the answer to this one, so I will answer. New Jersey has a law banning the T-bars, so they can't use them on Kingda Ka. El Toro doesn't have the either. This just seems like a weird law. By the way, those videos of Kingda Ka and Zumanjaro running together makes me want to get out there as soon as it opens - the structure will probably shake a lot while the gondolas are waiting to drop. Also, the gondolas appear to be going faster than Kingda Ka when they fall! It's probably just due to deceleration of speed on Ka, though (Hasn't reached top speed on the descent until later) I never knew that... how is this okay then? (I have no idea who the people are in this picture but they look like they love Nitro lol)

They also have a Disk-O, a large drop tower, a log flume, Flyers and an awesome chairlift ride that's 30 minutes long. Their waterpark is small but constantly expanding and there's still plenty to do there. Lake Compounce is a family park that's very clean and well kept and attracts a great crowd. They also charge very reasonable prices for everything and have free soft drinks. I'm not sure how it got mentioned in this thread.

My guess is because it's a totally different ride depending on where you ride it. This is true of many coasters but especially Diamondback. In the front the ride is very smooth and a pretty typical B&M hyper with mediocre airtime. In the back the ride has great airtime (for a B&M) but on the downside it's pretty bumpy... probably the bumpiest B&M I've ridden. I still don't consider it rough but it's not a smooth ride like most B&M's are. Since they have a grouper you don't always have control over where you sit which is pretty annoying (though when we asked they always let us ride in the back) and makes this a bigger issue than it would be otherwise.

From what I understand Alton Towers was not very cooperative to work with. I don't think it was a lack of wanting UK coasters on the show, it was more about what parks were willing to work with the production company. While I'm not involved in the television or theme park industry this doesn't make any sense to me. Do you have any insight into why a park would ever turn down what is essentially a free extended commercial for their rides? You would think that parks would bend over backwards for anyone that wanted to give them free publicity, especially to such a large audience.

Here's a Slingshot testing video for anyone that cares.

The only times I understand it are when a coaster has a tiny station. Thunderbolt at SFNE is a perfect example of this. If they didn't have a grouper a ton of rows would go out empty because nobody could squeeze past the people waiting for the front. I also understand it on flat rides, drop towers or rides that need to be balanced. On coasters though unless the station is tiny it's totally unnecessary and annoying.

The groupers on Banshee leave empty rows and seats all the time. I wish they'd eventually just let people choose where they want to sit but I doubt that will ever happen since they still have a grouper on Diamondback for some reason. I see no reason for this stupid policy... people would be much happier if you let them sit where they want and rows would rarely go out empty.

I love the angled lift built in to the terrain. Very nice.

So Cedar Point has officially retired the old webcams and is now just using the live cams. One thing I've noticed that's kind of funny is they do anything possible to avoid showing closed rides. A little while ago they had the camera on Raptor but the Skyride was showing on the left. The wind picked up and the ride will probably be closed all day give the forecast so they went through the trouble of moving the camera just a tiny bit to the right to hide this. They did the same thing the other day with Dragster. They realized it wasn't running and changed the camera so that it was just out of view on the right. They do this every time a ride is closed even if it's only barely visible.

You're better off just deleting Wacky Worlds and Time Twisters. They were both complete crap... the RCT community has added so many great objects to RCT2 and they're all much better than anything in either expansion pack. RCT3 was pretty unrealistic, but RCT2 can be very realistic with all of the custom rides and objects we have now. Just look at some of the recent work coming out from the RCT community. If you're willing to dedicate enough time to the game you can make some ridiculous things. Starpointe by Pacificoaster (link to TPR thread) Thorpe Park by Airtime (over at New Element)

Great pictures as usual! I love the fire bathroom.

I thought of RCT when I saw it too... I'm very disappointed that it didn't explode when it hit the ground.

That's pretty strange as Cedar Point generally has very pleasant crowds. What's your opinion on Gatekeeper by the way? It's the only ride you didn't really describe your experience on so I'm assuming it was mediocre and forgettable? lol I love Gatekeeper but I know I'm in the minority.

It's unpredictable but May and early June seem to be the worst for that. As far as coasters if the forecast calls for wind ride Raptor and Gatekeeper early if you see them open. This is the opposite strategy of a normal day but they're the first coasters that go down for wind... Skyride and Windseeker are the first rides that close. If it rains, the policy is horribly inconsistent. Raptor and Dragster will close, Mantis will stay open. Any other coaster is subject to be open or closed with complete disregard for how hard it's raining, the braking system of the ride, the speed of the ride, what the rain policy was 5 minutes prior or anything that a normal person would consider logical.

One big thing to remember is that Kingda Ka breaks down constantly. Anything that makes the systems of a ride that already goes down multiple times on an average day more complicated than they already are should be avoided at all costs. From the sounds of things though it seems like it will operate independently. Ryan seems to be a great source for info like that.

One of them is a Calypso car which is pretty cool since that ride closed in 1987. There is a Calypso ride currently running at Cedar Point. That's the only other one I've heard of but there may have been a lot more. Great Adventure History page on the ride.

We were at Kings Island a few months ago and I agree with you. The park and guests were great. The crowd was very well behaved and the park is really very nice overall. Up that by about 100 and that's Dollywood. I have never in my life experienced a friendlier, happier theme park crowd and staff than I did at Dollywood and that includes Disney and Universal. When we were at Dollywood for the Christmas event we were blown away by the people. Everyone went out of their way to talk to you and welcome you. At the end of the night when we got off the last train of the night on Wild Eagle the ride operator ran all the way down the stairs, down the long ramp and path, through the gift shop and out to the front of the shop because he thought we left our souvenir cup in the bin and he didn't want us to forget it. We thanked him and said it wasn't ours but he smiled and handed it to us and said "Well here's a free Dollywood cup then, thanks for coming!". I'll never forget that... those people are amazing. We were just about ready to leave New York and start a new life in the Smoky Mountains. lol Since friendliness is such a big thing for you then you should absolutely be looking forward to Dollywood.

I actually enjoyed Mach Tower quite a bit though the seats are a little small. Verbolten is a lot of fun too... I thought Big Bad Wolf was better but this ride is still a lot of fun. The indoor section is really cool and disorienting.

I understand where you're coming from 100%. I feel that way with my Honda Fit versus a Ferrari... you drive you get where you're going... same thing *shrug* Same thing with Top Thrill Dragster and Woodstock's Express... you roll, you coast, same thing.

I see what you're saying but in the case of the bumper cars this isn't a minor thing nobody would notice. The cars are made out of metal with bumpers that are also made out of metal (they're made out of rubber on every other Bumper car) at all so when you hit someone it really feels and sounds like being in a car accident and sparks fly everywhere. Watch this if you don't believe me... watch it all the way to the end. lol http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjFyGDTemUg

Because I don't notice any difference between this year or any other year in the last 20 years. I am basing that on one visit but when we visited on Memorial Day this year they were even using the overflow parking lot which I've never seen but the coasters were all just 5 -10 minute waits which is the longest I've ever seen them (though the waterpark was closing for the day by the time we pulled in). We visited 4 or 5 times last year and the crowds were pretty standard. It's not like there's an obvious decline in attendance.

If you don't get Knoebels at all and you'd prefer a large overpriced corporate park with (usualy) bad food, no unique flats and short, slow ride cycles that's totally fine. Those parks have their advantages to like awesome steel coasters that Knoebels will never have. People like Knoebels because it's a step back in time, it's unique, laid back and every ride they have seems to be run longer and better than it's counterpart at other parks. If that's not your thing then that's totally fine, to each his own but... Drugs are bad.

I said the coasters don't have lines, I didn't say that the dry side was abandoned... but the park is clearly doing fine because all that matters is how many people they bring in, not what they do once they get in the park. I agree that the coasters have great capacity (well the popular coasters do) but the same coasters with the same capacity in parks that are more focused on coasters and bring in more people can see some really long lines. This debate is really at a stand still. Let's just wait and see if the park adds an expensive coaster soon. As my original argument states if the park thought it was a good investment they would have added one at some point but they haven't since 2005. I really hope you're right... I just don't see it. The only way I see them adding a large coaster is if they decide they want to bring the park up to a level that can compete with Six Flags and Hershey and attract new markets. I don't think it's going to work because I think they tried that with the big B&M investments just a few years apart from eachother but with a new CEO maybe they'll try again... I doubt it though. They seem happy with the market they have and they can maintain that by doing what they've been doing for almost a decade.

41.83 seconds