A.J.

Personally, I see an obsession with the Harry Potter I.P. in that wait time, rather than a passion for coasters.

The team at New Braunfels developed the master blaster slide as a concept, but in 2006, the rights to the design were sold to WhiteWater. Obviously Crush n' Gusher was designed under close supervision.

Another thing to note - In 2018, Schlitterbahn New Braunfels was beaten out only by the Orlando water parks in terms of attendance in North America. I think that Cedar Fair made a good decision.

Wiegand has debuted a new wacky water slide concept at IAAPA Expo Asia this year - how about a launched water slide?

Expedition Everest was reportedly $100 million in 2006, or approximately $127 million adjusted for 2018 inflation. Universal's $300 million number might also include necessary demolition work for Dragon Challenge.

The reverse spike is justified with a (narrated) loss of power to the motorcycle causing you to roll back, and the drop track is based around the Devil's Snare, a plant within the Harry Potter stories that becomes restrictive if you struggle but lets you drop right through if you relax.

Even after Hagrid's, I still consider Big Grizzly Mountain and Taron to be better themed outdoor roller coasters. That being said, the Harry Potter I.P. will keep that coaster busy for a very long time.

I don't care who you are - if you're waiting ten hours (!!) for a roller coaster, you need to reconsider your life choices. That being said, obviously, congratulations to Universal on a successful opening!

You answered your own question. If they really did have to repair four vehicles (that you probably rode in) because of those insane cycles, then the ride was definitely not operating as designed. It's super-awesome that Knoebels operators know that people like to ride that way, but think about all the disappointed guests that might not have been able to ride Wednesday if they weren't able to complete their repairs.

Tigris is (rightfully) suffering from new hotness syndrome, and will always have longer waits earlier in the day, but will generally cool down by the evening. Cheetah Hunt, on the other hand, pretty much always has long waits, so it might be worth it to make your "opening run" to Cheetah Hunt first. SheiKra and Cobra's Curse are other coasters that get longer-than-typical waits. Montu is pretty typical. Scorpion is typical but moves slowly because there's only one train. Kumba is lighter than typical because it's all the way in the back. A good breather during the day is a complete loop of the train, which takes a little over a half hour. Falcon's Fury and the Skyride will not operate during windier days.

Anyone playing Enter the Gungeon? I hate that I adore this game because it's infuriatingly difficult.

There are different theme park expectations between Europe and the United States.

If you're going on your own, Impulse offers a single rider line, you just have to ask the team member at the entrance to use it.

I didn't experience it myself, but Tumbling Timbers looked like one of the craziest and most deceptive "children's" rides I had ever seen.

Forgive me for playing the good guy here, but I'm honestly not sure I'd be comfortable with that, especially if it meant separating a group. I've never been the kind of person to flaunt their passholder status (unlike those silly people that actually wear their Six Flags Diamond Elite Member lanyards).

I'm sure there are also plenty of developers on the starting line, ready to pounce on bulldozing it to turn it into some high-end mixed-use district.

Cue the you-know-what speculation! I'm ready for round two!

That's what I was looking for, thank you very much! Be mindful that you'll need to get the 4-park option (after selecting a pass level) as they no longer sell the SWO/BGT only combo any longer. The only way you could keep that combo is if you have had it on EZpay before Oct 2018 and keep it as is (passes paid using EZPay don't expire unless you cancel or upgrade). The cost is about the same (at least right now) for the four-park Silver pass as it was for the previous setup's two-park pass, or about $240-ish. Being a local and not caring about preferred parking, the Silver pass is the one I'll be getting when I renew here in a few months.

And this looks even better! The first on-ride video!

I don't usually get really hyped about new coasters anymore, but, well, you know...

Respectfully, is anyone even completely certain that it's from Premier Rides? Apart from that really rough concept image I don't see anything that corroborates that... It wouldn't be a bad thing, but I'm surprised people are so certain about it (even if it does eventually end up being correct).

Now all we need is for someone to confirm that Thriller / Zonga / Tsunami is still alive, and we'll be set! EDIT: Here's an old on-ride video, in case anyone was wondering:

Dragonflier is a cloned Vekoma suspended family coaster. The only way to make that happen would have been to go with a custom layout, as the main brakes are in the station. That's just how those coasters have been designed, Vekoma's smaller layout does it that way as well. In Dollywood's defense, every other installation of the 453 meter Vekoma suspended family coaster has had no problems operating with only one train, so perhaps they're banking on the ride's popularity subsiding in the next few years. But on the other hand, it's interesting to wonder why Dollywood didn't go with a custom layout considering that every one of their other major coasters has one.

I believe that the Premier Rides rumor started with that leaked presentation, it showed the rough concept layout with cars that were set up 6 seats, 3 cars, leading to a three-car Premier Sky Rocket train. Personally, the "immediate sideways transfer out of the station" makes me think that it's a Mack coaster, considering that's exactly what happens on Star Trek Operation Enterprise at Movie Park Germany.

So the "dive" portion could really just be the vertical drop of a top hat straight into iceberg theming or something.