coasterbill

If I didn't know better I'd say the top of that pretzel looks like it might have a little snap to it.

For some reason I'm kind of surprised that the Skyride buckets stay in the station during the offseason. It almost seems like they could just transfer them on and have the thing running in a few minutes if they wanted (though that's probably not the case).

I've decided that Great Adventure really doesn't care about weather. Pretty much if there's no lightning in the area or snow on the tracks they'll open the coasters. Temperature and amount of precipitation mean nothing to them as long as people are still riding. Even if there is lightning they'll keep a lot of the low-to-the-ground flats open. I saw this first hand this year. We rode Rolling Thunder, El Toro and Nitro multiple times in a torrential downpour. It couldn't have been raining any harder. The exception is Kingda Ka, anything more than an extremely light drizzle will close that ride. We've also been there a few times with the temperatures in the low 30's, including the last day of the season a few years ago when there was snow on the ground and everything was open. Was that the day you were talking about in your post by any chance?

That's a really good one... I'm surprised it hasn't been mentioned more.

I've got to go with Wood Coaster at Knight Valley.

At Dollywood it needs to be 40 degrees to start the coasters and then they'll run until it gets below 36. Hershey is very conservative with their minimum temperatures.

Absolutely yes! By the way, how did they manage to make Apocalypse suck that quickly When we rode it back in February it was probably the best ride in the park after Tatsu.

This ride needs to be burned to the ground.

SooperDooperLooper at Hershey is the obvious choice for you. If your first inverting coaster sucks then you may think you don't like inversions and a lot of the rides you've suggested really suck. At Great Adventure I'd suggest Bizarro (Batman is smoother but more intense) but go to Hershey and ride SooperDooperLooper because it's the best choice by far. It's smooth, fun and you'll definitely get off wanting to do it again. Or if you want the "go hard or go home", "YOLO" method drive down to Ocean City Maryland and ride the Zipper. It's not a coaster but if it doesn't kill you nothing will. Please don't really do this. It's amazing but if you don't like inversions you might die.

Phoenix's first drop, first turnaround and run to the turnaround over the station are fun but not world beating. At the end of the turn over the station you get ripped down the drop (especially in the back seat) and from then on that ride is Amazing. That last run of bunny hills is one of the most fun moments of any coaster I've ridden. As for the Blue Streak thing... I like Blue Streak. For me it's an average or maybe slightly above average wood coaster with some decent airtime. I really enjoy Blue Streak but Phoenix blows it away.

Just curious, what would you lead you to believe its underrated? As long as there are still nut-jobs putting Boulder Dash ahead of it on the Mitch Hawker poll it's underrated.

Adding the lap bars to Flight of Fear made a coaster that was unbearably bad one of the best rides in the park (at both KD and KI).

CNN is posting about this again on Facebook and has really stirred up some anger in their fans. These animal rights activists (and by activists I mean people who sit at their computer and complain all day about things that don't matter without knowing all of the facts so they can feel important) are up in arms.

Amazing trip report!

Thanks so much for the advice everyone. I really appreciate the help. I'm taking notes. lol

Thanks for the great photos. For some reason you don't hear much about this park... it looks like a cool place.

Blue Streak above Phoenix? That may be a first.

I like this color scheme much better. Good choice.

Facebook and Youtube... but you guys are great at making them go hand-in-hand since you post so many video links on Facebook. I can't even tell you how much time I've wasted at work watching TPR videos that show up on my news feed. Keep em' coming.

Thats not a neuter though. That's just the ride running on a cold day. That happens to just about every coaster. I agree that this ride is a shadow of it's former self but I can't pinpoint a reason why which is why I didn't mention it. I used to have this as my #1 coaster but it's down around #15 now. It's slower, it rattles and the lapbars are really uncomfortable but there's no one thing that diminished the ride experience. It's still fun but nothing like it was.

Does it have a separate load and unload station by any chance?

I thought of this coaster immediately. The trim in the bunny hills is awful and they have a few throughout the course of the ride that really take away from any potential airtime (they have one at the top of the turnaround by Revolution that can kick on really hard sometimes). Thunderhawk has gotten rough lately but if they removed the trims and did some re-tracking this would easily be the best ride in the park.

I agree. Topper track did wonders for this ride. I never used to ride it but now I usually ride it once per visit. If they added a little more topper track to the first turn and drop and then removed the brakes they would have a really good coaster on their hands... as it stands the ride is finally smooth (except for the first drop and turn) but because of the trims it's really slow and boring.

I'll probably be there on the Saturday or Sunday of Presidents Day weekend unfortunately... sorry, I should have specified. I'm expecting crowds but figured they wouldn't be as much of an issue with the pass. Is that the case or will it still be an issue?

So I have a question about the Universal Express pass and the 2 park ticket. We're going to Orlando in February and it will be our first visit to Universal. We only have one day. My first thought was to just go to IOA but now I'm thinking about getting the 2 park pass and the 2 park Universal Express pass because even though we'd like to spend most of the day at IOA I'd really like to check out Mummy and Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit (plus maybe a few other things if we have time). My question is is it reasonable to do all of this in one day or should we just stick with IOA? We'll probably go on a Saturday since the parks will be open from 9 to 9 and since we'll have the express pass anyway so I would think crowds wouldn't be so much of an issue (let me know if this is a stupid idea). I really don't know much about this park so all the advice I can get would be appreciated. I don't want to rush through it since I know the theming is amazing and I'd like to take some time to enjoy it but since we only have one day rushing is kind of inevitable. Also, besides the coasters is there anything at Universal Studios that we absolutely need to do (that's worth taking some time away from IOA)?