coasterbill

The weather was nice all day yesterday but at 10:00 the sky opened up and it rained really hard. They were running the ride with riders for at least 30-45 minutes in a hard rain to run out the line.

Put me in the category of people that really liked Flying Turns. We got to the park about an hour before they opened and only had about a 10 minute wait once 12:00 hit. Its definitely a family coaster but it's a lot of fun and gets pretty far up the sides on the first helix after the second lift which really took me by suprise. We only got on it once today but we'll be back tomorrow to check out the covered bridge festival and ride some more rides. Oh, and this is totally off topic but I want to mention again how awesome StratosFear is. This little drop tower puts drop towers that are twice it's height to shame. We rode it at least 10 times today. If you haven't been on this style of Drop Tower do yourself a favor and ride one of then. It's insane. As always we had a great time at PPP and can't wait to get some more rides in tomorrow!

^ That one has been brought up a few times already but I don't think it had the kind of hype that Hypersonic and Gwazi did. I agree that Gwazi is probably the biggest coaster fail since SOB. The only other one I can really think of that's really comparable is Hypersonic XLC (which has been mentioned). There were coasters that needed a lot of tweaking and were broken down a lot like Top Thrill Dragster, I305, Kingda Ka, Maverick... but once they were tweaked they all became good if not great rides. No amount of tweaking was going to help Hypersonic and Gwazi so they were removed which makes them much bigger failures. Rides like I just mentioned aren't even failures, they're just rides that needed a lot of tweaking. The jury is still out on Ring Racer at this point since it's STILL a work in progress.

Okay, so I've now waited 5 hours for a ride and decided to comment and explain myself. The ride was Safari Off Road Adventure at GADV on it's opening weekend. If I had known the wait would be 5 hours I would have never done it, but looking at the length of the line I never expected it to take more than two... I really overestimated the capacity of the ride. The problem is that after 2 hours, you'll end up waiting 3 more because you don't want to have wasted 2 hours. We kept thinking "well we've waited this long..." and ended up waiting the full 5 hours. So I think a lot of people WOULD wait 5 hours for a ride but wouldn't get in line expecting it to be a 5 hour wait. The problem is that after an hour or two you're committed. Very few people actually left that line.

It looks like a combination of a zipper and a roller coaster which really makes it the greatest thing ever.

I'm happy to see Phoenix on this list. One of the great things about things about this hobby is that everyone has a different opinion and obviously Robb isn't the final authority on coasters (and he would never claim to be), but when someone has been on 1500 coasters it does give a ton of credibility to their list... and I'm happy to see that after riding well over a thousand coasters this is still one of the best. The more you think about Phoenix, the more amazing this coaster really is. While it's not the best coaster in the world, it's been near the top of the list for decades and as other coasters have come and gone (either because they didn't age well or because bigger, better coasters forced them into obsolescence) this coaster has remained one of the best in the world, usually in top 10 lists surrounded by coasters built in the last 15 years. Great job with the blog Robb! I enjoyed reading through it.

Nope, this park is far from dead. Actually, I have a small update for you. The Wildcat plaza is bustling, the area is anchored by the popular classic wood coaster and the new free fall drop ride! In addition to Wildcat, the park also features Vulture, an Intamin Zac Spin coaster. Please forgive the unfinished exit path.

I really don't agree. If they build a high capacity coaster like a wingrider it will be a walk on on it's opening day and every day after that just like Talon and Hydra are. The coasters are not the big draw at this park, the waterpark and family rides are much more popular. The only way this would make sense is if they want to build up their coaster collection to compete with Hershey and Great Adventure and if that's the case... good luck with that. I think the appeal that Dorney has is the waterpark and the fact that it's combined with decent flat rides and decent coasters. If you want great flat rides, you'll go to Knoebels and if you want great coasters you'll go to Hershey or Great Adventure but Dorney has a little bit of everything all in one park. I think if this park keeps adding occasional low capacity relocated or cheap coasters (like a spinner or something) they'll be fine.

I love B&M but you're insane if you think they hold a candle to Intamin coasters. There are a few old school B&M's that do but for the most part Intamin makes much better rides.

I've ridden I305, Skyrush and Maverick but my favorite first drop on a steel coaster is Millennium Force. I love how it keeps getting steeper as it goes on and the view at the crest of the hill is awesome. I prefer El Toro's drop but Millennium Force is my favorite on a steel coaster.

lol what? I'm ecstatic... not sure why you wouldn't love this, even if it does turn out to be a B&M. I can't believe people are complaining about a potential giga coaster.

An unbelievably pathetic amount of Six Flags over Georgia has been added too.

I feel the strange urge to defend Thunderhawk a little bit. We rode this ride during Coastin for Kids and it's hard to deny that this ride sucks now. That being said this ride really doesn't have to suck, and even a few years ago when they did some track work to it it really wasn't such a bad ride. One thing this ride has going for it is two serious pops of air, one on the hill leading to the first turnaround and one on the top of the next large hill. The problem with this ride is that it's been braked to death and has gotten pretty rough. If the park was willing to throw some money at it it could really be a solid ride. They need to re-track everything after the first drop and bunny hop and they need to remove the brakes (one on the first airtime hill and one in the final run of bunny hops). They won't do this because removing the brakes will mean they'll have to re-track it again every few years but this ride has a lot of potential, plus they probably can't justify spending money on a coaster that would be under appreciated even if they did both of these things because it's completely overshadowed by Steel Force. I'm not denying that this coaster sucks right now, but with proper maintenance this could be a really good ride. One thing I do highly suggest is riding this coaster in the second row of the first car... this ride in that seat has by far the most airtime you'll get at Dorney (which isn't saying much) and since you're not in a wheel seat the ride is about as smooth as it's going to get until they finally cave in and re-track it.

I suggest riding it in the front, and leaning your head forward on the cobra roll and the last turn. I know the old line about how you shouldn't have to ride the coaster a certain way to enjoy it and all that but it eliminates any minor headbanging (and it really is minor) that might occur.

Who cares about the tire kickers? They don't have any effect on the ride experience, your park experience or really anything at all. If the ride is open and functioning, why would anyone care if a few tires aren't working. Batman at Great Adventure has had some tires not working and the world didn't end. Raptor is an outstanding coaster, we rode it 5 or 6 times over labor day weekend and I didn't notice anything wrong with the tire kickers, probably because I wasn't paying attention to them because... who cares?

Assuming you mean Rolling Thunder... Great Adventure already has the #1 wood coaster in the world (according to the Mitch Hawker poll), so I don't really think they need another crazy wood coaster. Honestly I don't see them getting another wood coaster for a long time, because even a great GCI would be a tough sell when you already have El Toro. They have no shortage of space to expand (don't forget about Old Country) but I think their next big coaster will probably be a wingrider simply because there's not much else they don't already have. They have every other kind of B&M coaster covered (standup, invert, floorless, flying and mega), they have the tallest coaster in the world, they have an amazing wood coaster, they have family coasters... what's left? They could build a dive coaster but they haven't built one of those in the US in years and Great Adventure already has a coaster with a 400+ foot vertical drop, they have a hyper, and a strata so I don't know if they'd bother with a giga since it wouldn't even be the tallest coaster in the park and a mega-lite is every enthusiast's wet dream but we all know Six Flags isn't going to build one. A Wingrider is a painfully obvious choice for this park. There isn't one within hundreds of miles so it's a totally unique concept for the area.

Here are some pictures from the Coaster Crew. They don't look so bad honestly. I think it's great news that it's open.

I think it's close between Tatsu and Apocalypse but I have to give it to Tatsu. I'm suprised at everyone picking X2 as the best though, other than Green Lantern I think it's the worst ride in the park. I know it's a 20 year old list but I think Ninja is one of the most underrated rides I've been on. It has a unique layout, a great sensation of speed because of it's close proximity to water and trees and is overall a great coaster.

Governor Christie just said on NBC that they're cutting the boardwalk near Lincoln St. As larrygator said the governor stated that everything south of that may be destroyed but they're "confident" that they can make a stand there. There are a lot of mixed reports but since that came directly from Chris Christie I guess it gives it some credibility. if that's true then the "80%" that was being reported is way off.

^^ First of all I highly recommend the Flash Pass. If you want to do the Safari I'd suggest doing it first thing, but honestly if you only have one day there I might skip it because as cool as it is, that's valuable El Toro re-riding time. I echo what larrygator said about Houdini and the Parachutes. Houdini is really cool and you shouldn't miss it, and the Parachutes are very unique and rarely have a line. I also really enjoy Sky Screamer but it's not very unique. The log flume is pretty good too and it's pretty long. As far as general tips go, I would suggest eating at Best of the West as it's probably the best food in the park (though Great Adventure really doesn't have any great food), I also recommend using the Skyride as it's a big park and the lines on the fort side are almost always shorter than the lines on the other side. One last thing... I know it's going to have a long wait but ride Kingda Ka in the front row. The ride is kind of a letdown everywhere else but it's amazing in the front row. Even if it's an extra 30 minutes it's worth the wait.

I know it's painstaking but this park really needs some variation in the trees. Right now they're all the same time and it makes the park look rushed.

El Toro's ejector hill over Rolling Thunder is amazing, especially for first time riders who aren't expecting it. I think that coaster has the strongest finish if any coaster I've ever ridden.

There is still one burning question that for some reason is being completely overlooked... Photo from Great Adventure History Now that both left and right Twix are getting demolished, does that mean they both lose? If so... where will we all turn when we want a candy with a cookie crunch?

Millennium Force is near the top in the Mitch Hawker poll too (unlike Magnum). I wouldn't go so far to say that it's nowhere near the top. Even on this board a ton of people have it listed as their #1 coaster... myself included and I've been on almost 200 coasters (which isn't a ton but it's not too shabby either).

So if you got there at 6:30, the park closed at 8:00 and you got 4 rides in can I safely assume that Rolling Thunder had pretty much no line at all even though it was it's last day of operation? Despite the outcry on a few other coaster sites I think this is really all we need to know about why this coaster was removed.