jmicha

^^I'm not sure what the policy is with the reride door, but it was open three of the four days during my trip to IoA last week. Maybe it just depends on the day and how they feel crowds will be. My biggest disappointments were only personal ones and those would be... -Not getting to visit Cedar Point for the first time in the 13 years I've lived in Ohio. -Only visiting Kings Island once despite being 20 minutes away from it all summer long. -Not getting to Carowinds (for the first time I might add) before it closed for the season when on Co-op on Hilton Head. -Overall lack of park visiting. SFOG once, Kings Island once, and my four day trip to Universal Studios last week...I'm hardly being a good coaster/park enthusiast.

Just watched Human Centipede...I worry for civilization...

^Quite strange, I just watched both those movies yesterday. And my opinions are pretty much the same. I loved the 3D in Tron as it wasn't overdone like most movies and actually added to the movie. People were complaining about it in the theater after it was over but I feel the message at the beginning is what put them off. A little unnecessary in my opinion (the message that is) but I really liked how well done it was.

^Either that or the end of a dive loop. Can anyone familiar with the park tell which direction that element is going based on the amount of room between the drop and this new track? For those of us unfamiliar with the park it is hard to tell exactly what is going on.

^The thing is China is changing at a rate Americans and Europeans generally don't understand since we experienced similar growth (as nations) well before any of us were born. I watched a documentary made in 2007 in one of my architecture classes and at the time it was estimated that from 2007 to 2015 more than 400,000,000 people would move from the countryside of China to urban centers. This essentially meant that all of the infrastructure of the entire United States and then some had to be constructed in those 8 years (yes, I know that it is not an exact translation, but it's still an epic amount of infrastructure). These parks may be popping up fast, but the amount of potential customers is also increasing at a similarly rapid rate. If you look at cities like Shanghai 20 years ago, they're not even recognizable. These parks may take some time for the population to grow into the areas around them, but it will definitely happen with the rate at which Chinese cities are growing. I'm quite interested in the wooden coaster at this park. I wonder if it will be a massively tall ride resulting in an extreme length or if it will be like Beast following the terrain and have multiple lifts. Either way, it should be pretty epic considering that all the major wooden coaster companies operating today are making some fantastic rides.

^Your opinion is absolutely WRONG! In all seriousness, it's not a movie for everyone. Personally it's my favorite movie of all time but don't expect most people to enjoy it since it attracts such a small portion of the population. I saw the new Harry Potter last weekend when it came out. It was quite good, possibly my favorite of all the movies so far. I like all the other movies but this felt significantly more mature and serious compared to the others. And not being set in Hogwarts was a great change of pace. I'm very much looking forward to part 2.

^That's great to hear, I'll be there in three weeks and was hoping it would be running consistently during my visit.

This looks like a fantastic little coaster. Looks to me like it will have a few nice hills and quick sharp turns. Should be a great addition to this small park.

^I can attest to the steepness of that ramp/stair going up to the upper area of the Cleveland Zoo. It is a surprisingly steep hillside that has an effective means of circulation that is minimally invasive on the landscape. Hopefully one day I'll get out to Waldameer. I've always wanted to go, especially since the addition of RFII but have yet to find the opportunity. It seems like a great small park and I'm glad it is continuing to expand in a time when small parks seem to be closing left and right.

This is fantastic news. From what it seems the Harry Potter addition has opened the eyes of many tourists as to what Universal Studios actually has to offer. Most people I talked to knew it existed but the thought of visiting over Disney World never crossed their minds as they had no clue what the parks encompassed but now people are making the journey to Universal Orlando to see the Harry Potter section and realizing that the resort really is fantastic as a whole. I've heard from quite a few people who regularly visit Disney World changing their tentative future plans to Universal instead of Disney just to get a new experience when in Orlando. And it seems like this is what much of the country is doing also as the numbers obviously show that many more people are visiting the parks and hopefully they are gaining repeat customers in the process. I'm happy to hear the great news from my favorite Orlando resort. Only 53 days until my stay at Royal Pacific and four days at the parks. I'm looking forward to riding Forbidden Journey and getting to ride my number one coaster, Revenge of the Mummy, for the first time in three years.

^I was thinking the same thing. I just kind of assumed it would be yellow. But I'm SO much happier with this color (Cedar Point being my homepark I've seen more yellow than one should have to ever see). Green doesn't seem to be used often in coasters and it is a shame since it looks so good just as it does in this case. I'm excited to watch this coaster go up and hopefully at some point in the (hopefully not so distant) future I will be able to get to Busch Gardens and ride it as well as the rest of their collection.

^That movie was...interesting. The 'twist' wasn't very twisty. It was about as twisty as Superman: The Escape. The premise was fun though. A nice alteration of the classic slasher movies. I saw The American the other day with some relatives. It was alright. Not quite as good as many reviews were making it out to be but still entertaining. It just failed at really developing ANY connection to the characters. Because of this the story really lacked since it really didn't feel like it mattered at all. And as a picky side note, the whole butterfly metaphor...cliche...poor choice. But overall still entertaining. I'd give it a 6/10.

I just got back from seeing Piranha with my brother. First off, the 3D...well...it was awful at best. It was seriously poorly done. Beyond that though, it was a fun movie. Ridiculous (like it needed to be) and great entertainment. Not worth the price of a 3D movie though, that's for sure. I'd give it a 5.5/10.

^Exactly. And they offer an exciting ride that isn't all that intense that most people can ride (low height limit). I think these additions will work great towards rounding out all of the parks' flat lineups for a low cost relative to some of the more recent major rides Cedar Fair has put in their parks.

No, it was earlier than that. It was a teaser website and one portion of it accidentally linked to a ride that already existed at another park which led people to believe they had some correlation when in reality it was just a mistake on the website creator's part. Oh well, regardless, it will be interesting to see if this plays out to be anything meaningful. I guess we won't have to wait long to find out.

I'm not sure if I'm just remember something wrong, but didn't this happen once before with some other Cedar Fair ride? I seem to remember a lot of talk about a link on a teaser page leading to a ride at another Cedar Fair park and it just ended up being some random leftover code or something that resulted in the link and wasn't intentional. Does anyone remember what I'm talking about or am I just crazy...?

^^Top Thrill Dragster and Maverick were four years apart. I'm really interested in these Star Flyers/Wind Seekers. I'm just not sure if I'd ever ride them. Heights on anything but coasters gets to me. I feel like spinning in circles hundreds of feet up would kill me But if this is indeed what is built it will definitely be an awesome ride to watch (from nice, solid ground) and a nice addition to Cedar Point.

^^Well it probably won't be that long actually considering Wikipedia has moderators that check the changes made to public pages by anonymous people. But as for this incident, this is just unfortunate for the park. If the media wouldn't make this out to be something it isn't there wouldn't be a problem, but that is, unfortunately, not how this country's media outlets work. Epic sigh.

^It kind of reminds me of the turnaround on Voyage and how some of it changed during construction, such as the addition of the second 90 degree turn. I'm curious as to what the structure for the overbank is going to look like since obviously it has never been done on a wooden coaster before. Hopefully it is something that will be integrated into other projects in the future since I don't see why it wouldn't be able to be applied to an all wooden coaster.

^^The only thing is, you are being pulled up the back of a Boomerang. On Superman you are following your body's natural path and floating weightless meaning you wouldn't fall into the restraint like you would on a Boomerang. And although you never travel backwards on Top Thrill Dragster the forces exerted on the body when stopping while going forwards are the same as those exerted on the body when accelerating while backwards. Your body is pushed away from the seat back in both. This is what really matters, not the direction of travel and the forces on Superman would not be as strong as most coasters stopping. ^Magnetic brakes can't actually stop a train. That's why on coasters with magnetic brake runs there are either normal brakes at the end or a tire drive system to take the last few miles per hour off. It would slow the train to a crawl and it would slow its descent back down until it was released from the magnets.

^Magnetic brakes don't use any power. They are just stationary magnets that interact with metal fins on the train (or other way around on some coasters).

^But how is this any different than stopping in the brake run? It's not. If it was there'd be lawsuits about this same problem on plenty of coasters such as Top Thrill Dragster. That would have a much greater force being applied in the forward direction than Superman ever would. OTSR aren't necessary for such a prolonged launch. I still don't see how launching backwards would ever be a problem for Superman.

Just as a comparison to the launch forces of Superman and Top Thrill Dragster, Dragster averages about 1.37 G's during the launch (0-120 in 4 seconds). Superman averages .65 G's (when launching to its full 100 mph in 7 seconds). I can't confirm this, but I've heard that Dragster is still traveling around 100 mph when it hits its brake run and for the sake of this comparison, let's just say it takes a similar amount of time to slow down as it does to launch since the launch track and brake run are very similar in length (I know this isn't exact, but it's close enough). Decelerating from 100-0 mph in 4 seconds is the equivalent to about 1.14 G's of acceleration. Even if it takes 7 seconds to stop (the same as Superman takes to launch to about this speed) those G forces are very similar. This is why I feel that a backwards launch on Superman would not be a problem. The only thing that would possibly be a problem would be the initial jolt of acceleration since that is generally when the strongest forces are exerted and this could easily be avoided by varying the force of acceleration to be smaller at the beginning of the launch.

^Honestly, the acceleration of Superman is no more powerful than the deceleration of say, Top Thrill Dragster. And that isn't uncomfortable by any means. It would feel like going into a really long brake run in all actuality. I don't think it would be at all uncomfortable.

So I have watched a few random movies this weekend I had never seen before or hadn't seen in a while. I think you'll notice a trend in the movies I watched. The first was Life as a House. I had seen part of this a while back but knew nothing about it really and enjoyed it thoroughly. Nothing groundbreaking, but definitely Hayden's best performance to date. The story was nice and the house was pretty interesting. I'd give it a 6.5/10 The second was Glass House. I decided to watch this since I hadn't seen it since it came out. I loved it back when it did, but I was much younger then and was mostly interested in the (extremely sexy) architecture of the Glass' house. My opinion has definitely changed. The movie was entertaining but pretty poorly acted and didn't really do anything for me. The house was even sexier than I had remembered however. The blue cabinets in the kitchen and the glass-walled master suite are right up my alley. The movie, not so much. 3.5/10 The last was When a Stranger Calls. I had heard basically all bad things about it but saw it in the related videos section on IMDB when looking up information on the house used in Glass House and decided to check it out. Before watching it I found pictures of the house used in the film and had to see it if only for that reason. The reviews were pretty accurate in that the movie was pretty crappy and filled with boring horror movie cliches. The house though. My god that was one gorgeous house. Unfortunately after doing some digging I found it was just a set built in the Upper Franklin Canyon Reservoir in Beverly Hills and was not a real house. That didn't stop it from being gorgeous though. I just wish that modern architecture in house design wasn't portrayed as cold and menacing like it is in most movies, including this and The Glass House. I'd give this movie a 3/10 with two of those points going to the house. If anyone has any suggestions for any movies where modern architecture (or architecture in general) plays an important character in a movie, let me know as I would be very interested in seeing them.