coasterbill

This is really off-topic but this ride gets absolutely no respect and it deserves some. It's a very solid coaster with a creative layout. I love the fake-out heading into the corkscrew that twists in the opposite direction of what you expect... it's the only inverted coaster I can think of that uses the obstructive nature of the trains to it's advantage by having an inversion that comes as a surprise to everyone not in the front row since they really can't see what's coming until they're already in the inversion. Yes it's a short ride, but it's unique and that's rare for a B&M. Then again... it was built in 1998 right before B&M lost their creativity. I agree 100%

You've got to love Universal. They never stop building awesome new stuff. It seems like something is always under construction.

I kind of use the terms interchangeably. I know there's a difference but I don't know what it is. I'm really not sure, you may have a point... but I have a hard time believing that people keep asking Intamin for awesome rides and only ask B&M for mediocre rides. I'm sure it has a lot to do with the manufacturer as well as the parks... maybe someone can enlighten me on how this process usually works though because I'm just guessing. By the way, I'm not really talking about the family coaster. Obviously I don't expect that to be a thrill machine. lol And you came to this conclusion how? At my home park (Six Flags Great Adventure), Kingda Ka and El Toro have some of the longest lines in the park. At Cedar Point, Raptor has a 1-2 hour line pretty much every morning in the summer, as does Top Thrill Dragster and Maverick (later in the day). At pretty much every park with a crazy Intamin or RMC coaster it's the most popular or one of the most popular rides in the park. Are we supposed to believe that those lines consist of only enthusiasts? Generally this would seem like the most logical approach but look at how much activity this thread has seen today. People love speculating about rides, we wouldn't have much to do all off-season otherwise. And in the case of B&M I think you can speculate because every ride they've built in the last 10 years has felt pretty much the same (with very few exceptions). I like all of them, but except for Tatsu and Gatekeeper (which is forceless but I like the gimmick), I don't love any of them.

I nailed that one... Even if you forget about the speed which would be ridiculous, just look at the construction of that barrel roll. I could play an entire game of Risk in the time it takes that thing to make it through that barrel roll. It's really spread out, it's not tight or snappy at all like the older B&M coasters, not even close... and it doesn't matter how hard you try to convince yourself otherwise.

That has nothing to do with the conversation we're having. Let's look at what I said... See, I said it was going to be fun. But in the way that Silver Bullet and Gatekeeper are fun... not in the way more intense B&M rides like Raptor and Kumba are fun. If your ideal ride is a middle of the road fun but forgettable B&M coaster like Diamondback, Hydra, Silver Bullet or Intimidator for example then this is perfect for you. I'm just frustrated that B&M used to build "OMFG WTF JUST HAPPENED TO ME" rides like Kumba, Montu, Raptor, Alpengeist (though the second half is a little slower than the first) and Nemesis (which I'm yet to ride) and now they build floaty rides like this that just kind of glide around the course through drawn out elements designed to be really comfortable and re-rideable even when it comes at the expense of intensity. When a park spends 25 million dollars with RMC or Intamin you know you're going to get a ridiculously insane coaster. When someone spends that with B&M they get a ride that rides just like every other ride they've built in the last 10+ years. The thing that makes the great coaster manufacturers great is that they were / are innovators. Arrow, Intamin, RMC... they all got better and better over time (I think Arrow's last 2 coasters were Tennessee Tornado and X which most people consider the 2 best Arrow coasters ever except for the crazy people who think Magnum is gods gift to coaster fans. I'm not an X fan but at least it was innovative, and a lot of people love it. RMC has always been awesome and Wildfire looks like it's going to be their best ride to date. They keep going higher and faster and trying new things. Intamin dominated the steel coaster polls, so they decided to re-invent wood coasters and they built rides like T Express and El Toro which are considered the best wood coasters in the world. They keep going higher and faster and trying new things... they built the world's tallest drop tower, the world's tallest coaster, the world's fastest coaster... they never stop innovating. And then there's B&M. When they came out they changed the industry, they made looping coasters higher, faster and smoother than anyone else did (successfully). They started with smaller rides and innovated to the point where they built huge, amazing rides like Montu, Kumba and Alpengeist. And then they just stopped. They kept building new rides with similar layouts while continuing to make them more and more forceless. The only innovations they've come up with over the last few years are concepts like the Wingrider and the Flying coaster that are very similar to what other manufacturers were already doing, and their versions almost always turned out being forceless compared to their predecessors. B&M is the only company I know of that built significantly better rides 15 years ago than they do now. Even companies like Zamperla are better now than they were 15 years ago. B&M has a solid business model by playing it safe... but the result is coasters that aren't as good as they should be. Banshee will be fun, but for 25 million dollars it should be great. it should be Kumba with almost 2 decades of innovation added on to it. Instead it will be a ride that doesn't even belong in the same conversation as Kumba, Alpengeist, Nemesis, Montu or even Batman.

Ever since I went to Dollywood I've been dying to check out SDC. There's a special kind of authentic charm that these parks seem to have that nobody else can match.

This area is really coming together. I can't wait to see what it looks like, especially at night.

When Six Flags Dubai's coasters are getting old, SFA is their new home. SFA will always be the bastard child of the chain. (This is assuming that this park is ever built, which it won't be).

Look at the speed it takes that barrel roll, and how drawn out the barrel roll is. While I have no doubt in my mind that this will be fun because of it's size and speed, I think it's going to be completely and entirely forceless just like every other B&M built in the U.S. in the last 10 years (maybe I'll give Tatsu and Manta a pass though I wouldn't call them forceful but they do have those pretzels). People who are really in denial will mention the wheels, the temperature or speculate that the trains may not have had water dummies in them but give me a break. It will get a little bit faster, but it's probably not going to be that much faster. It's so frustrating because B&M used to build barrel rolls like . Now take a look at the dive loop. It's long and drawn out just like Griffon and Sheikra... which are good rides, but they're not like they used to be. is how B&M used to build barrel rolls and how B&M used to take downward half loops (the second half of a cobra roll ends up being pretty much the same as a dive loop). Watch the back car dive down that cobra roll and then watch Banshee do it with it's first inversion. It's actually kind of depressing because B&M is capable of building amazing rides. All of a sudden they love to build drawn out inversions with no forces. I guess they've determined that that's what people want but I'm glad Intamin and RMC don't agree. I'm sorry because I didn't want to make judgments about this ride before riding it but since B&M keeps using the same formula over and over it's kind of hard not to. Like I said I'm sure it will be fun... but it could be so much better if B&M just went back to what made them great in the first place.

So for the price of 1,000 tickets for a fake amusement park in a terrible game you could buy a 1 day park admission to Walt Disney World and still have $25.99 left over. Good luck with that Atari.

No thanks. Even though the app is only $2.99, I still don't want to buy it because I feel like it's just encouraging this kind of crap. I'll be playing RCT2 if anyone needs me.

Well if you like forceless coasters then Banshee will probably be perfect for you. As far as this post goes... I don't know what you mean by that. What's an example of a ride that's forceful but has forces . That makes no sense... do you mean something like Superman Ultimate Flight at Great Adventure where there is one moment of force but the rest of the ride is an incredibly boring series of turns over the old parking lot? I don't get it. lol

Out of curiosity, how many flumes have you been on? Personally I've never heard of a rough flume and thought Jet Stream was a pretty standard, enjoyable ride that we rode four times on our visit last year (2 double rides thanks to the Platinum Flash Pass). What about it would you consider rough?

I haven't really been following this but is it over by the I-95 drawbridge? I'm sure it will still have nice views but it's really nowhere near the Washington DC landmarks (though you'll be able to see them from the top... barely).

Great report. I can't wait for our annual trip to Kings Dominion.

I noticed that too, though I don't think that's the exact same wheel. Anyway.. I hate people.

Wow, that's really impressive looking drop. I didn't realize how steep it was going to be.

This ride is going to look enormous in this park. Very cool.

You should be riding Dominator in the back row anyway. I think it's the most forceful floorless coaster there is when you ride it in the back row. I realize that being the most forceful floorless coaster is like being most ferocious bunny rabbit, but it has a nice whipping action down the first drop.

I read through all of it too, and while a lot of it was already discussed on here it was very interesting to see how completely ridiculous this film really is. In most cases the people speaking in the film were 15-20 years removed from actually working at the park when the incidents they were bringing up occurred. That's stunning.

No... but it's a great ride. I was under the impression that this was more of a family coaster but after riding it I think it's far too intense to be a family coaster. It's not in the same league as Maverick but it's really good. *Still not as good as Big Bad Wolf was though

That's a little uncalled for. I've only ridden a handful of operating coasters that are so bad I refuse to ride them ever again. I find very few coasters un rideable. The only ones I can think of are Mind Eraser at SFNE and SFA, Green Lantern (which I would ride again hoping that maybe I just got a terrible ride but if I have the same experience then screw this ride) and X2. I actually have a pretty high tolerance for crappy coasters... rides like Anaconda and Shockwave at KD, Mean Streak and the now demolished Son of Beast actually never bothered me that much. They're not good rides but they're not nearly as bad as X2. Maybe it's not that way in every seat, and maybe it's not that bad for people of different heights / body types but the 2 times I rode X (X2) back in 2002 and again in 2013 were some of the most horrendous coaster rides I've ever had. I have rides like Maverick, Kumba, El Toro and I305 in my top 10 so I'm actually a big fan of G forces, don't confuse extreme head banging for "extreme G forces". I've never been to SFMM so this is a serious question: why do you think the GP loves X2 so much in your opinion it is the worst operating coaster you've been on? Second worst... lol If it were just the GP, I'd say it was because it has a cool gimmick... and it really does. But since so many enthusiasts like it too I think the ride must deliver drastically different ride experiences for different people. I'm not sure if this is based on inside seats or outside seats, what side of the train you're on, what row you're in, your height or body size... I really don't know. All I know is that both times I rode it I was assigned the back row on the left side and sat on the outside... both times it was a horrible ride. I also know that my girlfriend who's a lot shorter than me also thought it was horrible and she would rank it below Green Lantern as the worst coaster she's ever ridden... period. Back in 2002 I rode with my brother who's about my height and he also thought it was horrible. Because of this I think seat location may have more to do with it than anything... but I really have no idea. I'm not attacking anyone's opinions. I'm sure for one reason or another you have found the coaster to be great... but personally I hate it.

No, I would probably say 1) Alpengeist 2) Apollo's Chariot in the back row 3) Verbolten 4) Griffon 5) Loch Ness Monster (which is really good for an Arrow looper) 6) Apollo's Chariot in any other row All of their coasters are very good. I think Alpengeist is incredibly underrated and put it behind only Raptor, Montu and Afterburn as my favorite invert in America. The cobra roll is nuts, especially in the back.