coasterbill

If you don't mind me asking, what do you have planned for your visit to New York? Is there any way you could condense it into one less day? If so I'd go to Great Adventure, missing El Toro would be a real shame if you were that close.

God Bless 'Merica.

Not really, no. They have insurance. Who knows maybe the fire will burn down some flat rides, leave empty concrete pads and save SFMM the hassle of doing that themselves. Oh... and we're also kidding. No need to act like you're offended.

Don't forget that they could also use a little but of steel to reinforce the structure. Plenty of wood coasters feature steel supports (Comet at Great Escape, White Lightning at Fun Spot) and RMC has used steel beams for some of the supports on NTAG and Iron Rattler so I see no reason why they wouldn't do this on their wood coasters.

That might be up for debate

So I have a question because I've never been to SeaWorld before and I'm going with my girlfriend for the first time next month. Can we get a list of animal feeding times online or do we find that out when we get to the park (she's mostly interested in the Dolphins). Also, are there specific times you should visit Shamu Up Close? Their promotional material mentions that throughout the day they will have trainers there that will "enhance the experience". Should we plan around a certain time or just show up and see what's going on?

I'm loving the layout of this ride. If nothing else it's extremely unique.

I'm still curious as to why the changed the restraints. I'm not saying they won't deliver a good ride, but "if it ain't broke don't fix it".

I hate you...

I actually prefer these to most of the drop towers out there. They put S&S towers to shame and I prefer them to most of the Intamin towers too (including Lex Luthor). It just feels like more of a true free fall experience. I do find the gyro drops at KD and KI to be better rides and of course that little death machine of awesomeness at Knoebels is better as well but that's really about it. I love the first gens.

When we went to Magic Mountain last February Scream was running one train and that absolutely blew our minds. I understand that rides need to be rehabbed, but what I don't understand is why this ride would ever be running one train unless there was a mechanical issue. If they have 3 trains, why not rehab one at a time so you're always running 2 in the offseason? Sure they could have 2 trains running and they may need to pull one off during the day but it sounds like they're deliberately running 1 train for weeks at a time. Can someone please explain to me why that would be? Even though this park has historically bad operations this Scream thing still seems inexcusable to me. I know Great Adventure is a regional park and they rehab their trains in the offseason but since it's opened in 1999 I've probably been to the park 50 times and I've never seen it running less than all 3 trains. They stack the crap out of them sometimes but they still run them. Scream is a pretty decent ride, it needs to go to a park that will take care of it and run it properly. Running one train when you have 3 on a B&M floorless is ridiculous. It's the only time I've ever seen a B&M floorless run one train and that includes SFNE and Dorney where they only have 2 trains (and Dorney could probably run 1 train on Hydra and still have it be a walk on).

Great TR. Are those old Boss Trains in the Batman queue? If so that's embarrassing even by Six Flags standards.

I would consider either option an improvement (though as I said earlier I don't have an issue with the current design either... those are just better).

I like both designs but I much prefer option 2. I'm a creative director who deals with web and graphic design pretty much all day every day so I wanted to commend you on the amount of time and thought you clearly put into this. It's nice to see 2 mockups actually built out and functional and it's even nicer to see you include your members in the design process. I know web design is always a balancing act between content delivery and aesthetics and I feel like that's the conundrum with the Twitter bar (at least for me). I think option 2 is much cleaner and looks a lot more modern since it doesn't have that Twitter frame. By the same token I know you've been polling us about social media lately and I assume your motivation for putting the twitter bar there is because that's something you really want to push. If that's the major motivation then by all means put it there. One thing though, based on your tweets your Twitter account seems to be a tool for driving traffic to your website which is a good thing. But your last few tweets... either appear or probably will appear on the lower right or lower left side of the website anyway (I'm assuming this thread will make it's way there at some point too). If the Twitter account will have 75% the same content as those 2 bars already do then I might lean towards option 2. Again, that's just some food for thought (and you may have already thought about it). You know better than anyome how you want to run your Twitter and I'm not very familiar with it as I'm more of a Facebook guy myself. Honestly you guys could write a book on social media marketing and user interactivity. While you do have the distinct advantage of dealing with subject matter that's fun, very few sites combine great social media and a great website the way you guys do. I'm sure whatever design you pick will maximize user interaction since that always seems to be your key focus. The good news here is that you really can't go wrong. Both options are better than what you have now... and I like what you have now.

If you enjoy the experience of camping then disregard this post completely, but if the motivation is to save some money by camping it's been my experience that you can get a decent hotel in Sandusky for as little as $45 - $50 per night. We got one that was pretty good on Labor Day weekend right off the exit of I-80. Just some food for thought, hotels in Sandusky are so cheap that it might be easier to go that route...

Why are we still talking about this? lol

There's no way in hell this will ever happen. Ever. Not only does it make absolutely no sense but it removes the sensation of speed / wind in your face, would require that the trains be re-designed so the cable would catch, would change the aerodynamics of the trains and would probably cause a ton of breakdowns and mechanical issues on a ride that they are finally starting to make semi-reliable.

Did you fall asleep during the mid course?

I totally forgot about Laser. Those loops were really intense.

I've had slight greyouts on Millennium Force at the bottom of the first drop and Nitro in the helix. They're a little more significant on i305. Personally I don't care for them, but I just close my eyes if they start to bother me.

Every few weeks I click on this thread to give it the benefit of the doubt that maybe it's on the first page because something interesting is going on and not because people keep bringing up things that will never happen... and every few weeks I'm disappointed.

No thanks... "twisty, loopy, thingy" sounds like a lot more fun than "inversion". Inversion sounds like a douchy overpriced fusion restaurant or a terrible night club.

Fixed. I don't think it's a case of "being popular" in the US. There just doesn't seem to be any park (for now) interested in building one. Also, there are only 4 of these in the world at this time, so it's not like they are all over Europe and Asia. Those of us who have ridden them, just can't stop gushing about them. That's all. I meant popular in terms of "popular among potential buyers". Sorry for the confusion. I'm sure they would be popular with guests.

I love the fact that Dan Le Batard turned the vote over to Deadspin who then turned it over to the fans. Sure one vote means very little but it was a great way of sticking it to Major League Baseball. The amazing thing is that the fan vote was actually a pretty good ballot.

I can't even express in writing how much I hate Green Lantern. The ride is beyond horrible, and other than the Great Adventure Viper it's by far the worst ride I've ever ridden in my life. That last element simultaneously gave me a throbbing toothache and guaranteed that I'd never have kids. If I ever ride it again I'll wear a mouthguard and a cup like I'm in the NFL. I can't believe that a brand new ride is this bad. It seemed to be universally hated by everyone else getting off the ride too. I generally have a pretty decent tolerance for rough rides but this one sucks.