coasterbill

Are they expecting to have the sky ride open this year?

^ "which brings me to my next point. Don't smoke crack."

Hahahahahahaahahahaha I Got more airtime on that than I did on Ghost Rider. It was also smoother We took a trip to SoCal last year and went to Magic Mountain and Knotts. I don't think I experienced any airtime on any coaster in either park. Also, Colossus was terrible. I don't feel the need to ever ride it again.

I'm guessing it's just a cost cutting measure. Now they have less rides (if you count play structures), animal areas and booths to staff.

Sure... This entire thing is closed now so to get from El Toro to Kingda Ka you have to walk through "Golden Kingdom" then through the boardwalk over by the Top Spin and then back into "Golden Kingdom" past where the turtles used to be, past the water play structures and over to Kingda Ka.

Upon further inspection of the map, it looks like Golden Kingdom will be connected again through the old Safari DIscoveries area. By the looks of it Rolling Thunder will be replaced with absolutely nothing for now except for the path and the gorilla exhibit will be where Safari Discoveries was. I guess now the big question is will that be opening with the park or will they just take the lazy route out and close the Golden Kingdom completely (except for the former Frontier Adventures part) until Zumanjaro and Kingda Ka open. They might as well... If the Gorilla exhibit is open all of the time (Safari Discoveries was only open during the daytime hours) then technically Golden Kingdom will be connected. It looks like an airbrush T shirt place will be opening up in the Safari Discoveries area so maybe that will always be open now (though there's a theater in the middle of it). Edit: Northern Star arena is now Plymouth Rock Assurance Arena because Six Flags sucks like that.

A Christmas Vacation reference? Just because of that I'm now infinitely more excited for Banshee.

I liked Scorpion a lot but it doesn't pack the same intensity of a lot of other Schwarzkopf loopers. The loop itself is great, but it doesn't do much else. That being said, it's a great coaster because it appeals to a lot of people. I just wish it had a higher capacity.

Apollo's Chariot on Saturday.

I really like it but you that flume looks way too glitchy right now. I'd suggest lowering that wood track by 1 with Map Object Manipulation. It's a 5 minute hack that would do wonders for that ride.

We had a bad experience with SORA last year (5 hour wait + 2 hour ride in the dark so we couldn't see anything), I'm looking forward to giving it another chance when it has a more manageable line.

You don't need to buy it before going to the park, if it's not busy then you won't need it but be prepared to buy them. Great Adventure can get very crowded.

Maybe I'm the crazy one but the amount of smooth coasters being called rough in this thread is amazing. Honestly I think the only rough coaster at either Bush Gardens park is Gwazi. I found all of the other coasters to be incredibly smooth. Maybe people complaining about rides like Kumba and Scorpion being rough are why B&M goes out of it's way to build completely forceless rides with no snappy transitions. I guess that's what people want. I've heard people complaining about roughness on Kumba, Alpengeist and now Scorpion just in the last few weeks and I'm in disbelief. Is it just me that's totally confused by all of this? I don't think it's possible for a coaster to be smoother than Scorpion, and I'm not exaggerating at all when I say that.

I did notice the arm room thing but that didn't bother me too much. I actually think it's cool that it's as loud as it is.

Great! It sounds like you're going to have a great trip. I have a few suggestions: Kings Dominion If you're not getting Fastlane, ride Volcano first as it always gets a huge line. I know going to I305 first is tempting but I'd get Volcano done before heading there as lines can get unbearably long. Hersheypark The best way to avoid lines is to go to the back first and work your way forwards. That being said to be safe you might want to ride Skyrush first anyway just to ensure you get the credit. Knoebels I wouldn't eat meals here, just walk around and sample everything. All of the food is great. Make sure you ride everything, most flat rides here run better programs than they do anywhere else. Their Bumper Cars, Flyers and Carousel are amazing. Don't miss the Skyride. Dorney Park There won't be lines there except for in the waterpark. My only tip is to only ride the Rapids if you're okay with getting completely soaked. Great Adventure Assuming Kingda Ka is open, ride this first for obvious reasons. Six Flags has really got this ride running reliably now (though it goes down at some point almost every day) but just to be on the safe side, ride it first and get the credit. I'd suggest riding it twice. Once in the second row of the first car because it never has a line due to the bottleneck caused by the line for the front row and then again in the very front. This ride is MUCH BETTER in the front but riding it in row 2 first gets you the credit while giving the ride the least amount of time to break down. After that I'd ride El Toro... and then you can really go in any order you want. I would suggest a Flash Pass for this park as Superman, Green Lantern, El Toro and Kingda Ka always have long lines. Don't miss Houdini's Great Escape. It's much better than the one in New England and it's a really cool experience. On El Toro, the best seat is in the last car, middle seat. When you get into the station just push your way to the back, lines for the back rows are always much shorter than the lines for the front rows. Remember that you can reserve your next ride as soon as the Q Bot attendant scans you in. Don't wait to get off the ride before reserving your next ride. Safari Off Road Adventure will take at least 2 hours out of your day not including the first queue in the main park. Only ride it if you're okay with that. SFNE I'd resist the urge to ride Bizarro first and instead do Goliath. Goliath is ridiculously unreliable and it can run in cold temperatures or in any rain whatsoever. Also, ask the operator who is assigning seats if you can wait for the front. Goliath usually has friendly operators (unlike every other ride in this park) and they'll usually let you. You have to ride this in the front to really appreciate it. Don't miss Buzzsaw or Tomohawk, they're both very good flats. You can't wait for a specific seat on Batman (even though the sign says you can... if you try to obey the posted rules you'll probably be treated rudely by the operators so just do what they say), Thunderbolt, Goliath (besides maybe the front) or Scream. On Scream, they'll randomly assign a tower to you. I know every other park let's you choose between blasting up and down so I wanted to mention that. Eat at JB's by Goliath. It's easily the best food in the park. Quassy Give wooden warrior at least one ride in the back car. Lake Compounce The Skyride is the most unique ride here but it's a very long ride. Unless you're in a time crunch make sure you ride this.

Thanks for the feedback guys! I'm still working on the African section but you can expect more screenshots soon.

I agree with everything you said here. El Toro, Superman, Kingda Ka and for some idiotic reason Green Lantern always have the longest lines in the park besides SORA. Nitro and Batman are always much shorter and unless the park is packed Bizarro is usually a 10 minute wait or less even with it's horrendous dispatch times.

My girlfriend and I visited the park on Saturday for her first visit ever and my first visit since 2001. You couldn't ask for better weather and we had a great time. All of the major rides were running except for Le Scoot and Roman Rapids and the park seemed like it was in mid-season form. They had 2 new coasters since my last visit (Griffon and Verbolten) as well some other major additions like Mach Tower and Dark Kastle so there was a lot to see and do. Griffon: We started the day off on Griffon which was a walk on first thing in the morning. While I prefer Sheikra, Griffon is a very enjoyable coaster and I like the fact that you get a little misting when you pass over the splash section before hitting the brakes. While neither American dive coaster is very forceful, I really enjoy them. We ended up riding about 4-5 times throughout the day, the line got to about 30 minutes by late afternoon but because of the huge trains and Busch Garden's great operations the line always moved very quickly. Alpengeist: After Griffon we headed over to Alpengeist for a few rides before they opened the gates to the rest of the park. Like Griffon, we rode it in the front first and then went to the back after the line for the front got longer. I have to say that I really don't understand this coaster's "forceless" reputation... we both agreed that it's easily the best coaster in the park now that Big Bad Wolf is gone. The cobra roll is flat out insane and is probably my favorite cobra roll of any coaster besides Kumba. The coaster does fizzle out a little near the end but we found the snow trenches pretty cool so that didn't bother us at all. This coaster really packs a punch and it's still smooth after all of these years. This coaster's awesome layout, snappy elements and great theming make for an awesome ride. We ended up riding this about 5 times throughout the day despite the 30-45 minute wait. Verbolten: I went into this with an open mind despite the fact that I was a huge Big Bad Wolf fan. It's hard to deny that the theming is great and the ride seems to be immensely popular as the line was about an hour long all day. We rode twice, in the middle of the train both times and this was a really cool coaster. The indoor section is completely disorienting, the drop track is awesome and the Big Bad Wolf drop / theming was a great tribute to a great coaster. I was under the impression that this was a family coaster but it was very fast and forceful. While it's not as good as Big Bad Wolf was, it's a great ride. Apollo's Chariot: I remember riding this back in 2001 and getting off being very underwhelmed. I wanted to like it but I just felt like it didn't do a whole lot. Given the praise this ride always gets I was excited to ride it again and I have to say... this coaster really won me over. I think I can honestly say that this ride has the best airtime of any B&M coaster I've ever ridden. It's still not even close to rides like El Toro, Bizarro, Maverick or Skyrush but this coaster blows rides like Nitro and Intimidator (both of which I really like) away. It's important to point out that both of our rides were in the very back which may have played a role in this, but we got ejector air down the first drop thanks to that pre-drop and in a few other places throughout the course of the ride. We made this our last ride of the night and it was a great experience in the dark. I have to give credit where credit is due here... this coaster is awesome. Loch Ness Monster: I don't know what it is about this ride but it's hard to deny that people love it. It had a 30+ minute wait all day long which is rare for an Arrow looper and because of this we only got one ride on it. I think the thing that makes this coaster good is that it seems like Arrow knew what they sucked at and avoided all of it. They suck at turns, so every turn was taken at a low speed, the suck at pretzels so they avoided them, they suck at entering and exiting corkscrews so they avoided them... all of this made for a really good coaster. I think it's fair to say that this is definitely my favorite arrow coaster after Tennessee Tornado and if the line were shorter I would have definitely given it another ride. Mach Tower: I expected this ride to suck based on all of the negative reviews it gets but I actually really enjoyed it. I loved the fact that it held you at the top for almost an eternity and I thought the drop was quite powerful... maybe not a Larson tower but probably on par with the big Intamin towers. This thing was great! Curse of Dark Kastle: I'm amazed that a regional park invested in a ride like this. We were at Universal about a month ago and loved Spiderman so naturally we were very excited for this and it didn't disappoint. I'm not going to compare it to Spiderman because that would be foolish given the size / budget differences of the parks but this may be the best dark ride I've ever ridden outside of a Disney or Universal park. The 3D effects on this ride are really convincing and the motion of the ride vehicles is great. We only rode it once because of the long line but we would have loved to ride it over and over. Escape from Pompei: I told my girlfriend when we were first planning this trip that if this ride was had to ride it regardless of temperature because of how awesome it was and she reluctantly agreed. Luckily we ended up with a 75 degree day with the water cannons turned off so it was perfect weather for Pompeii. The ride was just as awesome as I remembered it. This is probably my favorite water ride anywhere except for Jurassic Park and Splash Mountain. I might even put ahead of Journey to Atlantis and Ripsaw Falls. Overall we had a great day at the park and will definitely make this an annual trip for us. PS: I know I just said "B&M" and "Ejector Air" in the same sentence. I can't believe it either.

Well obviously you're not going to get any airtime from a B&M looper. That's not what it was designed for. I don't think I greyed out on it either but that doesn't mean the coaster isn't intense. I guess we just disagree on what makes a coaster good. Bizarro takes every element really slowly... I like Bizarro, but Kumba is like Bizarro on crack with better scenery and a tunneled helix. I'm also confused by the reports of Kumba being rough. I rarely find a steel coaster rough, probably because of my height because I can ride coasters now that I hated when I was younger. Quite often I'll think a ride is pretty good and my girlfriend who's a lot shorter than me will hate it and say it's rough. This happened on Loch Ness Monster, Anaconda and Raptor at Cedar Point (until she started riding with her head forward). On Kumba we were both amazed at how much smoother it was than Bizarro and Scream (neither of which I'd consider rough but they're definitely a little bumpy) even though it took every element at a much higher rate of speed.

Since the only other coaster at Kings Island that really fits this profile where the whole ride is about the inversions is Vortex I doubt this will happen. I think it's safe to say Banshee will blow Vortex away and I doubt people will consider the best traditional looping coaster in the park "jumping the shark". Maybe if they built 5 more rides like Banshee it might happen but otherwise I doubt it. Banshee will be a very unique experience for this park.

That logo is outstanding.

I'm going to have to go with Millennium Force, Maverick and Raptor. I absolutely love all 3 of them. Honorable mention goes to Great Adventure with El Toro, Nitro and Kingda Ka and Busch Gardens Tampa with Kumba, Montu and Sheikra. In both of those cases though I feel that the #3 coaster is significantly worse than #1 and #2 which is why I went with Cedar Point's trio.

This. Kumba is one of the few coasters that I still get off trying to figure out what the hell just happened to me. It's incredibly smooth but at the same time it rips trough every single element like it's trying to kill everyone on the train. Oh... and that zero g roll puts every inversion on every other coaster to shame. Edit: I think this right here explains why you don't like Kumba. Fun, re rideable coasters are great and I know they're ideal for a lot of people. Sheikra for example has an incredibly fun first drop and then glides along the course through drawn out turns and inversions which are a lot of fun but really not overly intense. To me... coasters like that are great, but I'd rather ride something intense that pulls a ton of G's, is relentless from start to finish and leaves you completely disoriented. If a coaster can do that while still being smooth then it usually becomes one of my favorite coasters (like on Kumba, I305 and Maverick). That's what Kumba is all about.

That looks great. I think they're still doing some work on it as there's a crane in the background but it looks 99.9% done.

Those rainbow inserts look really cool. What a great idea!