jmicha

Good god, that double up looks like it's going to be absolutely insane. The speed it's going to be taking that is going to be crazy. If this is just the beginning of the ride, I'm excited to see what happens with the rest of the ride.

^First off, great song choice. Second, it appears that the pacing of the ride is a little bit faster since the POV was shot which is a nice improvement. The two big drops look like a great time, as do both of the barrel rolls/zero-g rolls. The ending appears to have a little bit more speed too which should be fun. Those last few turns (not sure of the name of that element) look like an interesting experience. This is the type of ride that I really like. It isn't huge so it has to stand out by being pure fun (like old video games. No glamorous graphics, great sound, etc. Just pure fun in order to be successful) and innovative. Seems like the perfect fit for a park like Kennywood. I'm glad it has turned out so well for them.

Ugh, that article is annoying to read frankly. The only positive part is the last part about the man making it his personal goal to better his own life and being able to ride a ride he wants to ride is just a positive side effect of this goal. Ride designers can't design around every single body type, and frankly being disappointed because you don't fit into a restraint due to weighing 265 pounds at 5'-8" when a healthy weight (depending on frame size, source, etc.) is in the range of 145-170 is a little ridiculous. Being close to or more than 100 pounds overweight is going to restrain you from doing certain things, and fitting into the restraints on some rides is one of these things. Three years ago I was beginning to reach levels of obesity (235 pounds at 6'-0") and was starting to have troubles on rides such as Top Thrill Dragster and Millennium Force with the seatbelts just barely fitting. The summer between my freshman and sophomore years of college (two years ago) I decided I was finished with being so overweight and made it my personal goal to make sure I never had to worry about not being able to participate in my favorite hobby due to weight so I started losing weight and have lost 70 pounds since then. It's really not that hard to lose weight and complaining because you want the world to revolve around your body dimensions is a little much. Well that's all the ranting I need to do for the month, onto something positive I'm in the process of planning my trip next winter to Universal Studios and the excitement level has jumped greatly since the opening of this land. Everything appears to be of the highest quality and really immerses the visitors in the atmosphere of Harry Potter. I would call myself a mild fan of Harry Potter in the sense that I have read four of the books, seen all the movies, and know the basics of the story but would not be able to tell you all of the little details involved such as names of minor characters, spells, etc. yet everything in the land responds to something I remember from the series, so I think they were successful in reaching out to more than just the die-hard fans. I can't wait to get back and ride FJ and see for myself how amazing it appears to be. I will forever miss the old Dueling Dragons entrance and the Oak Tree Tavern (I think that was its name...) but progress is necessary and when it's this level of quality, I don't mind losing a few bits of theming. They're still in my memory and now I will be able to make some new memories next time I visit.

^^Definitely the way it should be. It works for Pixar to only release a movie every year or sometimes more, and that's because EVERY movie they make is quality. Some more so than others obviously (most people aren't fans of Cars really, but I personally love it) and I think audiences would be more than happy to wait a little bit longer for each animated movie if it ended up being Pixar/How To Train Your Dragon quality. That was the best movie I've seen this year so far other than Avatar and am excited for it to come out on Blu Ray so I can see it again.

^Don't know if they're actually dumber, but they're most definitely lazier. My current plan is to get out to Universal Studios again this coming winter and I'm definitely excited to see the WWoHP. It looks very well themed and all the reports I've read make it out to be just as good as it looks. I'm thinking that this was a very intelligent move on Universal's part. I'll be interested to see how/if this changes their attendance for the year. Hopefully it'll bring on an increase in attendance and gain some future repeat customers that may not have ventured over to US and IoA in the past.

^I personally never bought the idea that it would be unsafe. Riders already ride outside the heartline on every coaster that is hertlined since you don't sit in the center of each car. And I'm honestly not even sure that all coasters that are 'heartlined' are actually designed around the actual heartline height of the average rider. More extreme turns may be, but from my viewpoint it seems like most lead-ins on these coasters aren't actually enough to truly make the train rotate about the heartline. Coasters are capable of being smooth without any heartlining whatsoever and I feel like a lot of these lead-ins/outs are designed to make the train rotate around a generally smooth line rather than the very specific heartline of the riders as that is not always necessary except on certain obvious elements, such as zero-g rolls and the like. Even so, I really doubt they are going to be converting Chang to a floorless coaster anytime soon.

^I just saw those on Autoblog today. They're amazing. Top Gear is amazing, and these parodies work extremely well. Genius advertising if you ask me.

Although sad, I do find this situation funny in a morbid kind of way. I'm not a religious man, but I find this whole ordeal rather ironic. And not going to lie, I really hope they don't rebuild it. It was one ugly statue. I still feel for the church's loss though.

^Although you're obviously joking about your trims comment, it's funny because even if they reduced the speed by 1/3 of the launch speed that would mean that riders would be hurdled into these turns at 100mph still. This thing is crazy large. And the pictures of the hills that go back into the building show how much bigger the building is than it appears without a scale reference. This whole project is crazy.

^Just be happy you get out of school for summer at all. I am currently on co-op interning with an architecture firm this quarter, I leave a week from tomorrow, and a week from Monday I start classes that go all the way through the summer. Oh how I miss summer vacation.

^It would cause more than that. The negative G's in an upside down loop would more than likely kill the riders or cause serious brain damage. Too much blood in the brain=bad.

^The park is massive. Trust me, there's room for 17 more coasters if they wanted them badly enough. Look at parks like Blackpool Pleasurebeach compared to Cedar Point and Cedar Point will look like an open field in comparison.

^It's not too bad, but it's also not amazing. Maverick moves through its line pretty quickly, so it has never really been a problem for me, but I feel that for the number of guests visiting Cedar Point on any given summer day, this should really be around the low point of capacities otherwise you start getting into excessive lines. And from personal experience with non-enthusiast friends, longer lines generally lead to them being worn out quicker and ready to leave around dinner time (meaning no dinner in the park).

^I agree to a point, but I feel that rides such as Maverick and STR at the low end of what they find acceptable. I think a slightly higher capacity than Insane would probably work if done properly. I'd be curious to see how they actually feel about the issue of capacity and lines from a business standpoint as you make a good point. Granted there are many counter points for the same argument, but it would be interesting to see how important capacity really is in making decisions for their future ride investments.

^Very true. It certainly wouldn't be impossible, would just require some interesting design changes. Actually now I m very interested in what a high capacity, monstrous version of Insane would be like.

^^I think that's part of the reason I have such bad luck with finding boys I'm interested in. At my age many gays are still recently out of the closet and many go through the phase where everything is about being as gay as can be, and it just isn't attractive. Plus on top of that I'm in an art school so I have to deal with fake artsiness in most of the gays I know on top of the fake flamboyance, which is just one heck of a mess. I'm holding out for the guy that is confident with who he is and isn't afraid to live his life the way he feels opposed to trying to fit into a group. When this will happen, I have no clue, but until then being single is amazing

^Although I know you were just joking around and I'm not a huge fan of the breaking records just to break them mentality, a massive version of Insane, or side by side versions that could in some way interact with each other would be pretty epic. "Falling" off the ends of one of those hills 200 feet up would be a pretty ridiculous experience in my opinion. But this is just me dreaming and not being practical. Unless they were able to produce higher capacity trains or, like I said, have side by side rides, I'm not sure the capacity would be anything near high enough for the crowds of Cedar Point, especially since it would be located in a very high traffic part of the park.

^I don't know about that my personality is pretty straight (in terms of stupid generalizations) and I've never really had any interest in any of the (again, generalized) "gay" things. With the exception of boys of course I have quite the interest in those (not with much success though, I'm also pretty poor at meeting people thanks to my awesome shyness).

^That actually reminds me of a funny story. My best friend (female) mentioned hating clutches and I just stared blankly at her, having ABSOLUTELY no idea what she was talking about. Then out of nowhere my very straight friend Joe described what a clutch was as my friend and I stared at him as he described it in detail, even including producers of clutches. When he was finished all my best friend said was, "and Josh is the gay one?" lol. I guess I've never really been very good at the whole gay thing...

My home park used to be Geauga Lake (25 minutes away) and I used to visit it anywhere between 5-10 times a summer and never got bored of it. Not to mention that I'd give anything to have it back. I liked the direction it was going under Cedar Fair (yeah, I know, no need to tell me it wasn't that great) compared to Six Flags and was excited for its future...but nope. Gone. So Cedar Point is now my home park and I love Cedar Point (not a fanboy mind you, Cedar Fair angers me all too often) and before going to college I used to visit it 5-8 times a summer. Now I can usually only get one visit in since I go to school all summer but it has never gotten boring to me. Occasionally when it's a little more crowded than I'd want I get worn out quicker than usual, but there's too much to do for me to get bored. Living in Cincinnati for school, Kings Island is my home park, yet I've only ever had a few opportunities to take a day off on the weekend from studio work and visit. I like Kings Island and there are still a few rides I've yet to ride so I don't feel it will get boring anytime soon. And Diamondback and Beast are super fun to me, so regardless there will always be at least two fun rides for me to ride over and over if I get bored of everything else

^I have no opinion on the matter of I305 since I've ridden neither version and therefore I'm coming at this discussion from an unbiased viewpoint, and although I agree on some levels that some of the responses to your comments were hardly inviting, I think the reason you are seeing these types of responses is that your posts aren't really a disucssion. Obviously you are more than welcome to feel the way you do about I305, that's your opnion of the matter which is fine, but your input into the conversation made it difficult for anyone to respond and did come off as feeling that the neutering of I305 was the end of the world which can easily be misunderstood. The people on these forums are more than happy to discuss the topic with you, but it has to be done in a matter that can actually be a discussion. Both extremes are difficult to respond to, you are on one end, and many are on the opposite end on these boards and a fun to read topic could come of this polarization if discussed in the proper way (by both extremes, this isn't just addressed at you). I came here interested in reading about the new trims and am having trouble doing so because of the events of the last few pages. I think everyone stepping back and reevaluating what this topic is about would help those like me who can't (unfortunately) get out and ride the ride ourselves to see how the changes have affected the ride.

^Which is unfortunately my problem. As I don't want to be utterly exhausted at work on Monday I won't really ever be able to go on a Sunday. Maybe I'll stock up on some Monster and just suck it up when I'm down here fall quarter I'm hoping to get up there regardless and get all of the credits there. My current credit count is FAR too low for my liking (63) and I want to increase this in any way possible. I need to start getting out to other parks a little more. I'm going to try to convince some of my friends to go to Holiday World this summer at some point as I REALLY want to ride everything they have to offer. I wish when I was down in Texas two quarters ago I had ridden more than Boardwalk Bullet but I had nobody to go with and being in the easternmost city in Texas meant pretty much everything was incredibly far away. Oh well, nothing I can do now. Maybe when I graduate from my undergrad program I will go on a TPR trip. I've always wanted to, just never really thought about it too seriously.

^I actually really enjoyed Ninja. I know I'm in the (very small) minority on that one, but with the exception of the entrance to the dive loop I didn't experience any headbanging and the ride offered some nice elements. Certainly not a top 10 ride, but a fun ride nonetheless. I didn't get the chance to ride the Wile coaster. Surprisingly it had a long line and I was on a (failed) mission to get onto Superman since it was around lunch time and I was hoping to get on the ride while most people were still eating. Obviously that didn't work out too well, but the detour still worked out in the end. I'm not sure I'd be able to do Acrophobia. I'm one of those odd types that can ride any coaster out there and not be bothered by height, but at any other point in time I have a severe fear of heights. Ferris wheels are honestly some of the most terrifying rides I've ever been on. Wussy, I know, but I just don't feel comfortable at all at such heights. I made the mistake of being talked onto Drop Tower at Kings Island last time I was there and regretted it about twenty feet off the ground. I've never felt as terrified as I was during the pause at the top. My friends found it hilarious but I just closed my eyes and attempted to think of happier times lol. I'll be going to Kings Island again in about a month or so when I'm back in Cincy for summer quarter and I am steering clear of that ride. Much more fun to watch than ride

Absolutely! I'm only down here for a few more weeks so chances are I won't be making it out to any parks from now until the end of the quarter but when I get back down here in September I'm hoping to try to get to SFOG, Carowinds, and possibly Wild Adventures during the quarter. Anything to broaden my coaster riding horizons I will definitely stay in touch though. And if you happen to be going to any parks between now and June 21, send me a message, I may just have to change any (currently nonexistent) plans I have for the few remaining weekends I have left here.

All I know is that when watching the video of the second half of the ride I'm still amazed at how fast this thing flies through those transitions. And the last couple airtime hills still look like they deliver quite a bit of nice air. The second hill, although slower now obviously, looks to offer nice sustained air. I still want to (somehow) get to Kings Dominion to ride this beast. It still looks like an absolutely amazing ride.