coasterbill

Definitely Megaphobia... how are people so good at this? lol

^ Don't listen to him. Gatekeeper is awesome and the restraints are great now. Front left seat is the best.

That's what I'm referring to as the pre drop. After that section it goes into a more traditional drop.

If you're referring to that pre drop, then no. I always thought that was a great feature of Great Bear. Great Bear was actually my first inverted coaster and it was pretty unsettling being that high up in the air with nothing below you. As enthusiasts we probably don't think about it but that pre drop section is a great way to maximize the potential of the inverted concept. It gives people a chance to realize how high up they are with no floor below them.

Thanks for the great photos. It's nice to hear even more positive reviews for this ride. I might have to eat my words about it being forceless... which is great.

There aren't even any words for that first picture...

Honestly I think Mean Streak gets more hate than it deserves. Sure it's a bad ride... but I still ride it every time I go to the park which is more than I can say for a lot of coasters. I'd suggest riding it since it usually has a short line... if you lean forward in your seat the ride is tolerable. Mantis sucks and has no redeeming qualities, so if you're not a credit whore I agree with your decision to skip that. Assuming you have a Platinum Pass and are going for early entry I would suggest parking in the Challenge Park lot (when you come up to the parking booths stay to the left and tell them you want to park at Challenge Park) and hitting Dragster or Maverick first. I always ride the Intamin coasters first when it's my first trip to a park as they're pretty unreliable and it would be a shame to wait until later in the day to ride them and then have them break down. I didn't include Millennium Force here as it's much more reliable than Maverick and Dragster. If you're not taking advantage of Early Entry then you can really do whatever ride you want first except for Wicked Twister, Gatekeeper, Raptor or Blue Streak. These rides always have their longest lines of the day in the morning. Personally I highly recommend Fastlane Plus and in that case you won't have any issues anyway. I guess my only other tips are minor... take advantage of the Skyride. The line moves really fast because they run a ton of cabins, it offers a great view and your legs will thank you later in the day. Also, I HIGHLY recommend riding Dragster and Raptor in the front row (on Raptor because it's the smoothest spot on the train, you get a great view and will only add 5 minutes to your wait and on Dragster because it's ridiculously amazing). This can add about an hour to your wait time for Dragster but it's worth it if you have a little time to spare. And my final and most important tip... I don't know if you enjoy miniature golf or not but even if you love miniature golf and love playing new courses don't waste any of your life on Challenge Golf. It's seriously the worst excuse for a miniature golf course in the history of miniature golf. The only reason to play this course is if you want to be able to tell your friends that you traveled to Sandusky Ohio and played the worst miniature golf course in the world which is ironically located at "The Best Amusement Park in the World". Life is too short to play Challenge Golf... and may god have mercy on your soul if you decide to play both courses.

That video was really interesting to watch. Great job!

Hopefully they were just trying to get an idea of the types of rides their guests wanted. I could absolutely see this park removing Ninja it would be a real shame as I think it's one of the best coasters in the park and it's one of the few truly unique experiences they have that takes advantage of their terrain.

Great report. I'm glad the ride lived up to your expectations despite the long wait.

That's great news about Beast. Hopefully we get out there this year before it returns to it's former state.

Nemesis

I think the issue is really the fact that Westchester County is running the park, and Westchester County can't do anything very efficiently.

While you bring up a good point, I think Playland is there to serve the Westchester county market more than the New York City market. They do advertise in New York City occasionally but their primary audience is from lower Westchester. I don't think Playland is trying to compete with thrill rides like Coney Island us, they're really trying to be a family park. To answer your question about the area the park is in, here's the weird thing... The park is relatively nice, but it doesn't attract the best people which really brings it down. While the park wants to attract people from the upscale areas of Westchester, what usually happens is that they attract school groups / teen groups from lower Westchester (places like Yonkers and Mt. Vernon) that aren't necessarily the nicest (though there are isolated, nice sections of both). That being said, Rye is great besides the park. If you're looking for good restaurants I suggest either Seaside Johnnies which is just a short drive from the park or the Pier Restaurant Tiki Bar on the Playland boardwalk. PS: As far as rides, the Old Mill and Derby Racer are can't-miss attractions. The log flume is probably the best ride in the park, though it's really just an average flume. There's really nothing special here, adults can't ride the wooden kiddie coaster and the mouse has a very low maximum height restriction. Just some things to keep in mind...

Actually, that's one more train than Cedar Point would run in that situation because they close pretty much everything in the rain.

To be fair when people are strapped into a coaster they're not usually thinking clearly. I'm sure many reporters were pretending not to be terrified. That doesn't explain the world's longest coaster mistake but like I said I don't think it's that important. Maybe it's just me though... and I'll admit that it's pretty bad that it's in the headline of the article.

I just saw this too... I guess it's an honest mistake.

You may have a point, but while the coaster is running better now than it ever has thanks to the topper track I still don't think it's anything to write home about. That's just my personal opinion though. I think Thunderbolt is a wonderful classic wood coaster. It's smooth in every seat (I know some people will disagree with this but I've ridden this ride probably at least a hundred times over the last 10 years or so and have never had a rough ride on it), it's family friendly and it's a ton of fun. SFNE already has a classic wood coaster so I have no problem with them iron horsing Cyclone. In my opinion Cyclone is too modern to be classic anyway, and it's already been modified dramatically. I think giving it the iron horse treatment would make a mediocre ride a great ride and might even allow the park to being back the old layout of the first drop. I'm all for it.

Are you insane? Why would they ever do this? Goliath is one of the most popular rides at SFMM, SFA already has a hypercoaster that (while far from perfect) is much better than Goliath at SFMM, SFMM has more than enough room to do whatever they want to Colossus already and moving a hypercoaster from California to Maryland would be incredibly expensive. SFA doesn't need a hypercoaster, they need something unique that they don't have anywhere else in the park... like a tree for example. I'm just hoping for a tree.

I've always thought that Flight of Fear was underrated, and I'm surprised to hear about people thinking it's slow or shaky. I really don't know what's not to love about these rides.

I don't think Nitro will ever be painted because of how far away it is from the rest of the park. They might do something really lazy like just paint the brake run, pre-lift turnaround and lift hill but I'm not counting on them painting anything else. They did paint the queue rails though which would have been nice if they had dried by opening day... but since they didn't everyone had purple hands.

While I do think that they're horrible coasters, I'm surprised to see them ranked last. Personally I think X2, Green Lantern First Flight, Mind Eraser at SFA and Mind Eraser at SFNE are all worse rides... I know people enjoy X2 and Green Lantern but I thought the SLC would be universally hated more than the Volare flying coaster.

I really don't think the rattling is a big deal. I feel like Nitro is just as good as it ever was... but it was never on the same level as El Toro.

I kind of think Steel Force should be lower, Hydra and Magnum are where they should be and Batwing and Gatekeeper should be higher. I never understood the hate for the Flying Dutchman coasters.

1900's - Leap the Dips - Lakemont 1910's - Haven't been on one unless you could Giant Coaster at Paragon park which is now Wild one at SFA 1920's - Thunderhawk - Dorney 1930's - Yankee Cannonball - Canobie Lake Park 1940's - Thunderbolt - Six Flags New England 1960's - Blue Streak - CP 1970's - Montezooma's Revenge - Knotts 1980's - Phoenix - Knoebels - I wasn't sure if I should consider this to be built in the 1980's as it was relocated. 1990's - Kumba - BGT 2000's - Millennium Force - Cedar Point 2010's - Intimidator 305 - Kings Dominion I think it's you. B&M built a ton of spectacular rides in the 90's, Kumba, Montu, Alpengeist, the Batman clones, Apollo's Chariot, Nemesis (which I haven't ridden), Dragon Khan (which I haven't ridden) Raptor, Top Gun and many others (I didn't forget about Medusa and the standups, they just weren't good). Oh... and Knoebels built Twister which is an amazing ride that's unfortunately completely overshadowed by the Phoenix. A few other great wood coasters opened like Comet at great Escape (relocated) and Raven.