A.J.

Finally, here is some info on some additions and changes for 2019! Brand-new coasters for 2019 Alien Taxi - Trans Studio Action Zone Batman The Ride - Six Flags Discovery Kingdom Big Top - Oriental Heritage Changsha Celestial Gauntlet - Oriental Heritage Changsha Copperhead Strike - Carowinds Delvin Kileri - Wonderland Eurasia Dragonflier - Dollywood Dueling Dragons - Guangzhou Sunac Land (separate entries for red side / green side) Dynamite - Freizietpark Plohn Falcon - Wuxi Sunac Land Flight of the Himalayan Eagle Music Roller Coaster - Happy Valley Beijing Flying Dragon - Oriental Legend Handan Fury - Bobbejaanland Gold Rusher - Tatzmania Löffingen Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure - Islands of Adventure Hakugei - Nagashima Spa Land Kentucky Flyer - Kentucky Kingdom Lightspeed - Wonderland Eurasia Maxx Force - Six Flags Great America Mystic - Walibi Rhône-Alpes Nid des Marsupilamis - Parc Spirou Panic Coaster Back!? Daaan!! - Tokyo Dome City Phoenix - Adventureland (Iowa) Power Splash - Happy Valley Shenzhen Steam Racers - Wuxi Sunac Land Steel Curtain - Kennywood Stress Express - Silk Road Dreamland Jiayuguan Taiga - Linnanmäki Tigris - Busch Gardens Tampa Untamed - Walibi Holland Volare Hiz Kizagi - Wonderland Eurasia Wilkołak - Majaland Kowanty Yukon Striker - Canada's Wonderland Zadra - Energylandia Coasters that opened too late in 2018 to be ranked on last year's poll Insomnio - Kataplum Steel Dolphin - Shanghai Haichang Ocean Park Torbellino - Parque Diversiones Wilde Hilde - Schwaben Park Coasters added to the poll because coasterbill just HAD to have them Cyclone - Wonderland Amusement Park Wild Chipmunk - Lakeside Amusement Park Coasters that have re-opened in the 2019 season after being defunct / SBNO Colossos Kampf der Giganten - Heide Park Euro-Star - Traveling Coasters that have been left out of previous polls by mistake Twisted Typhoon - Wild Adventures Some notes on this list: All parks in the Dalian Wanda family of theme parks have changed ownership, and all of their names have been changed to reflect this. This will not affect the coasters themselves, but keep this in mind if you've been referring to certain parks as "Wanda" parks. Colossos at Heide Park is now on the list and can be ranked! It's been given its new name, Kampf der Giganten. Colossos has always been a popular coaster so please, if you've ridden it, rank it! Also, see the note item below regarding SBNO coasters. Dueling Dragons at Guangzhou Sunac Land is treated as two separate entries and each side can be ranked individually if you've ridden it. This is not typical of our procedure for racing / dueling coasters on the poll but the two experiences are different enough from each other, much like Battlestar Galactica at Universal Studios Singapore. The Vekoma Space Warp coasters are grouped together as a clone even though the "hyper" variant has a lift and extra length. This means that Formula at Energylandia is now considered a clone under the "three installations" rule. If Vekoma ends up building three of each variant (launched / lift), we'll split them off further. Euro-Star, the (in)famous traveling inverted coaster, is now on our list and rankable! It's listed under the "Traveling" park like the other major traveling coasters. The five coasters inside the newly-opened Nickelodeon Universe in New Jersey have not yet achieved consistent operation, so they will be excluded from the poll entirely. West Coast Racers at Six Flags Magic Mountain will also be excluded from the poll, even if it opens in 2019. Vortex at Kings Island is still rankable in this poll, as it operated for the entire season. New coaster poll protocol for standing but not operating (SBNO) coasters: If a roller coaster that was previously listed on the poll goes into a standing but not operating (SBNO) state, and it's assumed that the coaster will operate again eventually, you will still be able to rank it like any other coaster. However, during any season(s) where the coaster is SBNO, it will not be calculated in the final ranking and will not show up on the final results. Quimera, the Schwarzkopf Dreier Looping coaster recently involved in an accident, will now be excluded from final results since it has become SBNO. However, you can still rank it if you've ridden it and it won't be removed from your lists. Colossos at Heide Park was SBNO before we began the poll for the 2017 season, so it never received a listing. Since that coaster has reopened, it now has a listing, it can be ranked, and it will be included with the results like normal. Any coaster that is SBNO as a result of an upcoming conversion, such as with wooden coasters being re-made by Rocky Mountain Construction, will be eliminated from the poll entirely as the "old" coaster is effectively defunct. Announced new-for-2019 coasters that will NOT be included on the poll Boomerang Hyper Coaster - Trans Studio Action Zone Canavar Dalga - Wonderland Eurasia Dragonfire - Adventure Island Qatar Launch Coaster - Sun Tzu Cultural Park Mission Ferrari - Ferrari World Abu Dhabi Nickelodeon Slime Streak - Nickelodeon Universe New Jersey Relámpago - Mundo Petapa Sandy's Blasting Bronco - Nickelodeon Universe New Jersey Shredder - Nickelodeon Universe New Jersey Timmy's Half Pipe Havoc - Nickelodeon Universe New Jersey TMNT Shellraiser - Nickelodeon Universe New Jersey West Coast Racers - Six Flags Magic Mountain Coasters that have been excluded from this year's poll by mistake Dancing Oscar - Shinhwa Theme Park Thunderbolt - Gyeongnam Mason Robot Land Please help us out! If you see a coaster on the poll that has closed and shouldn't be there, or if you see a roller coaster that was re-named and it's not reflected, please let us know! coasterpoll.com And, as before, please let us know if you have any questions!

Here are some Frequently Asked Questions regarding the poll. How does the poll work? The way coasters are ranked is based on whether riders prefer one coaster over another. The more that one coaster is preferred over all other coasters, the higher its individual rank is. It's not just about how many votes a coaster gets. How did you decide which coasters to include on the poll? Generally, any coaster that is the size of a wild mouse or larger is included on the poll. However, there are exceptions - a few smaller coasters are on the poll, and a few larger ones aren't. Selecting the cutoff based on size means that we can be objective about which coasters are included. In addition, we require that coaster has to have operated for the majority of the season to be considered. Are large traveling coasters such as Olympia Looping included on the poll? Yes! Search their names or find the park called "Traveling". I've ridden so many coasters that I don't feel like individually ranking them all. What happens? You can rank your coasters in batches if you want! For example, you can give your "best" coasters all tied ranks of #1, then your "awesome" coasters all tied ranks of #10, "good" #20, and so on. Or, you can just choose not to rank coasters you consider as "okay" or "average". Or, you can rank your top 50, and then give your "middle" coasters all tied rankings, and then rank your bottom 10. It's up to you! The poll cares about how coasters compare to each other, not just which ones are ranked first or last on peoples' lists. I can't recall which of the Vekoma boomerangs I've ridden is the best. Does it matter? For "cloned" coasters such as Vekoma boomerangs, B&M Batman inverted coasters, and the like, we have "aggregate" entries. You can search for the word "clone" and they will all show up, or you can rank a cloned coaster individually. All the appropriate entries will be averaged together and the aggregate entry will be the one that gets ranked in the final results. We have done it this way so that casual users can search for the Hersheypark Sidewinder without knowing that it's a Vekoma boomerang, for example. My favorite coaster is missing! Why is that? We've gone to great effort to include every major coaster on the poll, but we may have missed one. If it meets our "rankable coaster" guidelines, and there is enough of a desire to include it, leave us a comment or a reply to the TPR Forum thread and we'll look into it. Will I be able to see other peoples' ranking lists? No, we won't be making any users' ballots visible. We understand that previous polls have done it this way, however, we value privacy. If you want to publicly share what your top coasters were, great! However, we won't force that on anyone else. Is it just me, or is the poll happening earlier than usual this year? From now on, we will be opening ballots before the calendar year ends, so that "2019's best coasters" aren't determined so far into 2020. We feel it's better that way. coasterpoll.com If you have any more questions, please don't hesitate to ask!

Voting in the 2019 poll has now CLOSED. Thank you to everyone who participated! Hey everyone! The TPR Coaster Poll is BACK for its second official year! coasterpoll.com We have over ONE THOUSAND coasters that you can rank on the poll, so whether you've been on every Intamin coaster in the world, or only have been on the coasters at your "home" park, your vote matters! As always, we're taking steps to promote the poll on Theme Park Review's social media channels. If you're one of TPR's followers on social media, and you're reading this for the first time - welcome! Please read all three of the following posts in their entirety! So how do you vote? Follow these steps! 1. Go to coasterpoll.com. That's the easy part! 2. Click the green "Sign Up" button at the top right of your browser window. This will be your login so that your vote will be counted, and your rankings will be saved for next year. If you are already a member of the TPR forums, we kindly ask that you give yourself the same username that you have here. 3. Search for parks and coasters that you've been to! You can use the search bar at the top right to search for a specific coaster, or use the "Coasters" link at the top left to see the the full list. When you're viewing the full list, you can use the "Change List" button to sort or filter the list out. You can view all of the coasters at one particular park, or all the coasters by one manufacturer... It's up to you! 4. IMPORTANT - Mark the coasters that you've ridden. Next to every single coaster is a green "ridden" button. If you've ridden a coaster, click that button and it should turn to a solid green color. You need to do this for every coaster you want to rank! 5. Rank your ridden coasters! When you click the "Ranking" link at the top left, you'll be taken to a listing of all the coasters you've marked as ridden. Now, you'll want to assign each coaster a number rank. You can either drag and drop each coaster to the order you want, or complete your ranking in a spreadsheet style. It's up to you! You can also give coasters tied rankings if you want, like if you can't decide what your favorite Vekoma SLC is! 6. If you voted last year, make sure you click the yellow "Not Done Yet" button to "release" your rankings so you can add the coasters that you've ridden in 2018. 7. IMPORTANT - Click the green "Done Ranking" button! When you click this button, you're all set! If you ride a coaster between now and the day the poll closes, you can go back to your ranking and click the yellow "Not Done Yet" button and adjust however you please. Don't forget to click the green button when you're done. Due to an overwhelmingly good response, we've EXTENDED the deadline for voting! Voting closes at 11:59 PM Eastern on January 17th, 2019! Just like Mitch’s poll you will find that not every roller coaster is included, as that would be impossible, but we have included as many relevant ones as possible. See the next post down (the FAQ post) for more info on our selection process. The other thing that would really help us out... Please SHARE this link as much as you can! On your social media, on your blogs, in any videos you might produce, etc, getting as much data as possible will allow this poll to get better and better! This is a continued team effort by Chase (Comeagain?), Robb (robbalvey), and myself (A.J.). We appreciate your support and we look forward to seeing the results as much as we're sure you all do. Have fun, and happy ranking!

Nope, it's just me and my gigantic forehead.

Allow me, Theme Park Review's resident "I can pick out the type of ride just by looking at it because it's actually my job" guy. The Aang / Avatar ride is an Air Race looping plane ride (like the one at Luna Park). There are a bunch of rides themed to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Shellraiser being the Takabisha clone and largest coaster. Shredder is the tamer spinning coaster, and the Kraang ride is a swing pendulum ride that goes upside-down over the top. Timmy's Half Pipe Havoc is an Intamin half pipe, Sandy's Blasting Bronco is a new Intamin launched coaster similar to Gale Force at Castaway Cove. Skyline Scream is an S&S tower, and Slime Streak is a Chance family coaster. Jimmy Neutron's Atom Smasher is a Chance Unicoaster like BrainSurge at the Minnesota park, where the cars run around in a circle and you can use a lever to roll the seat forward or backward. Weirdly, Aang's Air Gliders is listed as a kids' ride AND a thrill ride, it is most certainly not a kids' ride.

Here is the official video of the Axis ride that S&S posted on their social media channels: [fbvideonew] [/fbvideonew]

Not really a nightmare, but it can get insanely frustrating. For what it's worth, everyone kind of keeps to themselves so there's never any screaming or shoving, and once you get to the air gate of the row you want, boarding is pretty much business as usual unless, as I said before, a rogue single rider seat-hops into your row.

The free-for-all death match doesn't even have anything to do with the single rider line - once everyone in groups 2 and 3 go through their turnstiles, there are no longer sanctioned lines and people gaggle up in front of the automatically opening door. Once the door opens, it's wide enough that people can go around each other and literally run to their desired row (though I recall the front is still blocked off) if they really want to.

I'm not sure I understand... What do you mean? Robb explained this pretty well a few pages ago. At the end of Hyperion's queue before you board, the queue splits into four groups. You have front row in #1, single riders in #2, and the rest of the train in #3, split into two groups themselves. When Hyperion is cycled, the turnstiles will open and let 4 people through #1, 4 single riders through #2, and 10 people through each gate of #3 for a total of 28 passengers. There are so many problems with this. Splitting the rest of the train 10 / 10 means that each train is guaranteed to leave with empty seats, as no one is willing to communicate with each other for fill-in groups to step forward, nor do they understand what's going on in the first place. And what's worse is that once the doors open and you go to the boarding platform it's pretty much "anything goes death match" anyway. There were several instances where I saw single rider teenagers running around trying to hop from seat to seat, and even if you stick together a rogue single rider might split your group because they aren't told where to sit like they're supposed to be.

I sure did!

Accept that you'll be putting some money down for an all-day roving locker rental. At least back in July when we visited, they had station bins but you weren't allowed to use them. For most of the rides you'll drop your stuff off in the locker before the stair steps up to the platform, and then you''ll pick your stuff up by opening the door on the other side when you exit. The park layout is atrocious so be prepared for that - for example, Formula's lockers are nowhere near the exit, you have to walk a ways and then turn around and go down a different path to retrieve your stuff. Also, be wary of posted wait times - they're probably wrong. Also be wary of Hyperion's guest pulsing system at the end of the queue.

I know people are gushing about Steel Vengeance and Zadra and will probably gush over Iron Gwazi, but there's something amazing about a "mid-sized" coaster like Untamed pulling way above its weight. 90-150 feet max height is like the sweet spot for coaster sizes for me. The Wilderness area has an advantage because natural architecture doesn't really go out of style, but I wonder how long it will be before the "style" and "attitude" of the other areas of the park become dated. You can see a little bit of this dated-ness already in the area around the Business Center ("Bizniz Center") and Speed of Sound.

It's okay, I've taken their names down for future reference.

Personally, I think that it's a bit out of character for Busch Gardens Williamsburg of all places to have a 300+ foot tall coaster tower sticking up over the trees. I've still thought that even the heights of Alpengeist and Griffon are cutting it close.

Episode 5 - "Walibi Holland Went A Little Heavy On The Grafitti", or, "The Wilderness Apparently Loves Instagram Influencers" Our next park in the Netherlands was Walibi Holland! For those of you that don't know, Walibi Holland has been through a lot in the past twenty years. They've been bought, sold, invested in... Today, they're owned by the same people that run Parc Asterix in France, but at one time they were a Six Flags park! So, from now on, I like to consider Walibi Holland to be what a Six Flags park would be if it were actually good. We again met up with some tag-alongs and made our way to the entrance. M for mini, or W for wumbo? Walibi Holland's main street isn't like your typical theme park main street. It's a mish-mash of old-style city buildings plastered with bright colors, graffiti, and other stuff that would normally be found in a city but from completely different time periods. Breathe less? Breathless? What are they getting at here? Our first ride session of the morning was Goliath. I've always thought that early-2000s Intamin is the best Intamin, so I was really excited for Goliath, and it certainly didn't disappoint. This photo was actually from later in the day, but it's one of the only photos I have from this side, so, enjoy Goldberg and Ryan's facial expressions. The first big hill and the Stengel dive are awesome. The spirals are intense without inducing greyouts. The return run of bunny hills is absolutely incredible. The trains are open and airy, kind of like you're flying. It's not my number one steel coaster (hint hint), but I really can't find anything bad to say about it after more than five rides. It's so consistent and should not be overshadowed by its new hotness cousin on the other side of the park. Speaking of the new hotness cousin... How about a jolt of Rocky Mountain to start your day? Side effects include increased adrenaline and an urge to book a flight to Idaho. Ask your doctor if RMC is right for you. We also had a morning ride session on Untamed! But since we were scheduled for an evening ride session as well, it's not worth talking about right this second. Let's move onto our third ride of the morning, Lost Gravity! It's okay, I don't know how to land a helicopter sideways either. Lost Gravity is probably the wackiest roller coaster I've ever ridden. The theming is completely absurd. The layout is so haphazard, with a yank-you-over twisting drop and a whole bunch of elements that look like they're in the wrong order but in reality flow so well together. The airtime is particularly aggressive and kind of suddenly yanks you out of your seat each time. It was very good. Awesome twisted multi-color mess of track! And two-train-on-the-circuit operation! Most excellent! I generally stuck to the front row, but on my last ride I decided to get over my fears and try the back winged seat. Having no floor to rest my feet on and getting yanked over that drop was probably one of the most surreal experiences I've had on a roller coaster. It's so sudden, and so scary, and I loved it, and I'm never doing it again except I probably will because it's that incredible. Contradictions, how do they work?!? Coaster, kebab, shipping containers, radio antennae, plastic yard furniture, waffles, pofferjes, and trees. Trust me, it all works well together! After our Lost Gravity session we made our way back to the front of the park to receive our Fast Lane passes. We split off into groups of six-ish. I went off with a group with a few too many Andrews. The first stop of the Andrews group was close by - Xpress! Xpress is, for those that don't know, a clone of Rock n' Roller Coaster. It has the same sea serpent roll, the same boring sweeping turns, and the same "almost airtime" at the end. However, it's also outdoors, so you can see everything! What makes Xpress interesting, though, is its queue. Xpress is themed to a haunted subway / metro train and platform, and with a haunted theme comes an actual haunt maze. Xpress' queue features a foreboding atmosphere, dark corridors, creepy props and triggered jumpscares. It's a really cool experience and you wouldn't know it based on the fact that Xpress' entrance totally fits in with the garish aesthetic of the city-like main street area. Unfortunately, however, that immersion is broken as soon as the doors open for you to board, as you're faced with a bubbly, shiny mid-2000s Vekoma train. Still, the ride is fun and worth a spin for that queue haunt alone. The Andrews group continued onward, stopping at pretty much every thrilling flat ride along the way, which this particular Andrew would then skip. One of these was Spinning Vibe, a rare park-built example of a Huss Magic, normally found on the European fair circuit. Well, yeah, Chris, if I would have known I'd be on camera I would have made that facial expression too. Over here, we also took a spin on Speed of Sound, the park's themed, EDM-pumping Vekoma Boomerang. It was fine. We then made our way over to Drako, the park's kids' coaster, taking a spin on Crazy River, the park's forward-backward double-dip log flume along the way. We also caught a glimpse of Larry going into some sort of virtual reality experience called NeuroGen. Remember that, it will be important later. The Andrews group also ran into some of the other groups and they all also took a spin on Tomahawk, the park's Frisbee. Looks like a frisbee, sounds like a frisbee, smells like a frisbee, but it isn't one. But unlike the Tomahawk that U.S. Six Flags fans would know about, this Tomahawk is actually a fake! It's not a Huss Frisbee, but actually one made by SBF. It didn't get anywhere near as high as the real Frisbee we'd see the next day on the trip, nor did it spin as much. I skipped it thinking it was a Huss initially but it looked so tame that I might have actually enjoyed it. In the early afternoon, we all headed back toward the front together for lunch. I had a sandwich that I thought was fish, but it really ended up being breaded cheese. I was confused for the rest of the day. More importantly though - after lunch we were given one of the coolest opportunities on the trip - a backstage tour. However, it wasn't just a backstage tour of one attraction - they took us behind the scenes of three. We got to see and take photos of Xpress, Goliath, and Untamed, in areas that are not normally accessible to the public. WARNING to casual readers! Do not take any photos during behind the scenes tours without prior permission and / or an escort! Not only is it against Theme Park Review forum rules, it's also dangerous and illegal! Whoa, check out Steven Tyler's hat! Comin' at yah! Going down! Awesome twisted airtime hill! Still the world's only Stengel dive, according to the RCDB. The master at work. Master of what, well, we're still not sure. Coming out of probably the wackiest inversion you'll ever experience. No one expects the Spanish Inq... I mean this heartline roll at the end. Do not try this it home. Seriously. Get permission first. After our behind-the-scenes tour, the Andrews group wanted to do some more rides. Unfortunately, "more rides" also included this monstrosity. It's Condor, the genesis of the Suspended Looping Coaster. Well, I supposed if T3 is allowed to continue to exist, Condor gets the "historical" label... I skipped Condor. In the years that I've been involved in the theme park scene my attitude has shifted. I no longer care about getting every coaster credit in a park, and I have no desire to gain any "street cred" for having ridden one of the worst-ranked roller coasters in the world and survived. Good? Good. Apparently it will finally be getting those nicer Vekoma vest harnesses. Maybe I'll not ride it the next time I go. Yeah, not riding it still sounds like a good idea. As the park got closer to closing I found the Alveys in the Wilderness area and we kind of waited around for everyone to show up. Eventually Larry and his group found us, and Larry proceeded to recount his experience in the NeuroGen virtual reality attraction in a way that left everyone confused, amused, and dumbfounded all at the same time. It was probably the most entertaining story I've ever been told in my life, so good on you there, Larry! So - finally - let's talk about Untamed. Another spectacular first drop. For years and years I was a skeptic of Rocky Mountain's coasters. They looked really weird, I wasn't a fan of rolls and loops on a wooden coaster, I wasn't a fan of the "RMC fanboys" singing their praises... I much preferred Intamin's approach to the wooden coaster, and to be honest, I still do. But last year I went to Six Flags Over Georgia for some spins on Twisted Cyclone, and after that, I got it. I understood why people love Rocky Mountain coasters. They're really that good. Twisted Cyclone ended up very high on my list. This is seriously one of the best turnarounds I've ever experienced on a coaster, and you don't even realize it. Untamed, though, was on another level. If there's any steel coaster that reminds of Phoenix, my number one roller coaster, Untamed is it. Hill after hill of glorious airtime, a height and length that's significant but not scary or imposing, a wonderful double-up double-down... Untamed is absolutely my kind of coaster. The airtime is relentless, and the inversions are smoothly integrated into the ride's layout. Add in theming (minus the crappy Instagram stuff), station architecture, and a color scheme that I enjoy... ...and Untamed is now my number one steel coaster. I think that it's literally impossible for any person to come off Untamed without a smile on their face, unless the ride made them physically sick. It is just so, so, SO much fun. It doesn't have to impress anyone with a record-braking height, or a crazy brand-new acrobatic maneuver (though it does have one). There is nothing in particular that stands out about Untamed's ride experience because it ALL stands out. It was the first roller coaster of the trip that I was truly disappointed that I couldn't ride anymore because we were leaving. I'm certainly looking forward to Iron Gwazi next year, but it's going to take a lot to topple Untamed from the top of my steel coasters list. Steel Vengeance is probably objectively better. In fact, a lot of coasters are probably better. But all the stuff that I like about it, plus just how much stupid fun it is, seals it for me. And the queue is even lovely, too! There's only one thing that I don't like about Untamed, and it has more do do with me than the ride itself. During our evening ride time and filming session, I got to ride nine times in a row, and that was amazing. But what wasn't amazing is that my small, skinny figure meant that the seat belt buckle rested on my right thigh. I left the park and a few days later I had a huge bruise on my thigh from the buckle being forced into it during every ride. I guess that's just a testament to how much airtime Untamed really has! Why, yes, I do LOVE this coaster. Do I really have to post to Instagram about it? That's a minor nitpick though. I would ride Untamed over and over again despite that flaw. It's really that good. If you're looking to ride your first Rocky Mountain coaster in Europe or in even in general, look no further. You can keep your Steel Vengeance, Zadra, and the like. I will gladly ride this instead. And...that was it from Walibi Holland! Random thoughts and musings: Like I said before, this was probably the nicest "corporate amusement park" I've ever been to. Sure, stuff looks cheap, and some of the operators are younger people on part-time jobs, but nothing made me go, "ugh" like I did the last time I visited Six Flags Over Georgia. It was all, at the very least, decent. The park's management gave each of us little care packages with Untamed swag and sunglasses. More importantly though, they wrote out individual greetings for every single person. It was nice to see that they cared so much about giving us a good time. I caught a glimpse of the Condor charity guy while I was waiting for the others to take their ride. What an endurance match. The one constant throughout the park's mish-mash of theming was graffiti. It was everywhere, even on scenic elements that would have otherwise seemed normal (like the Merlin's Magic Castle ride). Some people didn't like it. I thought it was fine, but maybe a little overdone. The park had an interesting selection of flat rides. In addition to the others mentioned, they had a particularly wet Top Spin, a madhouse, and a unique type of Skycoaster, to name a few. Goliath is blue and black now, but there are plenty of reminders of its former life as being bright green. All of the lap bars are the same purple they used to be. You can also tell that they don't replace all of the lap bar foam pieces at once, as a lot of the lap bar pads are still their original bright green. This trivia is useless and shouldn't affect your enjoyment of Goliath at all, but I have a tendency to notice the stupid stuff like that. The Untamed station platform might be one of my favorite pieces of architecture in an amusement park, and yet, I didn't even get any photos of the inside! What was I thinking?!? Next time: Well, this is a nice construction site... Oh wait, it's Drievliet!

Looks like we may be losing two Schwarzkopf legends in one go... This time it's Tsunami. Apparently the park's operators, the state government, did not take good enough care of the ride for it to be operated well, and they couldn't find a buyer willing to invest in it. So the ride in its entirety will be scrapped. This is quoted from a new post on the above Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/TsunamiCoaster This was also apparently confirmed on page 4 or 5 of the following official document: http://eservicios2.aguascalientes.gob.mx/periodicooficial/web/viewer.html?file=..%2FArchivos%2F3740.pdf&fbclid=IwAR1KMG3Avp4V5STZwuWLVSpyycgI8ZdSjgHC297rTDVksIUZwuv4-LOt5BY#page=1 I've become a Schwarzkopf coaster fan after riding Jetline and Lisebergbanan, so this one hurts. I'm now considering doing a "quick" international trip to London or one of Olympia Looping's other stops soon.

You'd think that it's the end of the world based on the reactions from some "fan" sites (ESPECIALLY people in the comments).

Absolutely not, not even close. I'm very curious about the condition of Bullet and Cascabel now. Here's hoping that a pattern hasn't formed...

Oof, that means that Bullet may have been neglected as well. Just sell Quimera to Knoebels already!

Are you sure you didn't go into the Neurogen attraction at Walibi Holland?

I haven't followed this anywhere near as much as others, but has the prevailing rumor always been that Six Flags was buying Cedar Fair? Has there been any scuttlebutt about the merger possibly being the other way around? Cedar Fair buying Six Flags?

I'm not sure you're giving maintenance teams in the U.S. enough credit. These are people who are trained to work at parks with ten or more roller coasters and even more flat rides and other attractions. Obviously they can't have every detail of every bolt of every attraction memorized in their head, so they do what you're supposed to do - read the freaking manual. If the manual says, "hey, do a complete teardown of the train after X amount of operating hours", that's what you do, because the last thing you want is to be even partially responsible for an incident at your park.

Mega-corporations keep getting bigger.

Pretty much every large Schwarzkopf coaster since 1976, and all the way up to as new as 1989, has some iteration of that train design. The exceptions are the West Edmonton Mindbender for obvious reasons, the traveling coaster Teststrecke which received new trains from Zierer, and Tsunami which received new (but similar) Wieland Schwarzkopf trains when it was Zonga at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom. Also, Sooperdooperlooper and Psyke Underground received new trains from Gerstlauer. Schwarzkopf coasters technically aren't sold anymore and the company technically doesn't exist anymore, so it's not like they can perform recalls or issue notices to stop operation (unlike KMG after the Fireball / Afterburner incident). Now, if, say, Gerstlauer had provided a new set of trains for Quimera like they did for Sooperdooperlooper, THEN they would likely be facing at least a little bit of scrutiny.

Not particularly. I believe that when Flamingo Land in the U.K. picked it up they attached backpack straps to the seats, but the trains have been the same otherwise. That being said, the trains were completely torn down to their chassis(es?) when it was moved to La Feria. See here: https://rcdb.com/3605.htm#p=16503