A.J.

I can think of four exceptions - Northern California (Discovery Kingdom and Great America), southern California (Magic Mountain and Knott's), Washington DC / Fredericksburg VA (America and Kings Dominion), and Philadelphia PA (Great Adventure and Dorney Park). Obviously some locations have a better park (Kings Dominion and Six Flags Great Adventure), but the difference in perception for a weekend warrior and / or their family isn't as great as we here make it out to be...

Because I want to. I usually park my car around 9:15-9:30, and by the time I get in, take a spin on Kraken, and meander over to the Sky Tower, they're about to let people back to Mako's plaza and I can get a ride in the front or back (or both!) with minimal wait. After doing something else or exploring, I queue up for Manta before I leave. I'm only ever at the park for a few hours, I always have other errands to run.

When I go in at opening on the weekends, it's always Kraken > Mako > Manta. I don't think that I've ever waited longer than fifteen minutes for Manta any weekend morning that I've gone, even with a mix of single- and double-station operations.

It's tricky. Sometimes they'll run one train per side, sometimes they'll run two trains on the same side. I think it all depends on how many team members they have available to work, since you basically need double the staffing to run both sides.

Once Wildwood Grove opens, I'd be perfectly okay with Dollywood's coaster lineup as it stands for the foreseeable future.

Six Flags does very well with the perception of value. I couldn't even count how many people were walking around with Diamond / Diamond Elite member lanyards when I visited Six Flags Over Georgia. Those people think that they're the top of the world because Six Flags has done a fantastic job in upselling that higher-level membership, and also because of the little things like showing your badge to a team member and being thanked for it. The concept of "owning" a season pass isn't exclusive to Six Flags (just look at Universal's recent passholder advertisements), but they do a really good job of making guests feel special for the least amount of money, even though we here likely have a different expectation of what "special" treatment really can be.

One could argue that Rocky Mountain's highest-profile project was New Texas Giant, which immediately put them as a new company on the map.

So...where's that "waiting for parts from Europe" sign? Knoebels' Facebook page

Orlando traffic has been the absolute worst this week. I live 7 miles from where I work and it took me 45 minutes to get home Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, AND I don't even have to use Interstate 4.

2013. Close enough. More recent photos look about the same to me, but with fresh coats of paint here and there. The one arm of the Roto Jet-like ride is still missing its vehicle though.

Oof.

There will be a restaurant attached to the NBA Experience but as of now it won't be branded as being part of it. https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2018/10/looking-ahead-city-works-eatery-pour-house-will-open-at-disney-springs-in-2019/

To you (and us), sure, but to everyone else? I feel like losing that big amusement park in the heart of the city is going to be rough.

I wonder if the city of Denver would be willing to put some money into Lakeside based on this. I haven't been there in years, but if it's still basically the same as it was, it could really use some love.

Funny story, I prefer back seat on White Lightning but front seat on Mine Blower. But honestly, the queues are often so short that you can get multiple rides in minutes.

Okay, everyone, we believe that we've come up with a solution. In the 2017 poll, we found that the existing four Intamin Mega-Lite coasters (Kawasemi, Piraten, Mega-Lite and Fly Over Mediterranean) were skewing the results and taking up valuable spots on the top 25 coasters. Since we wanted to have as wide a representation as possible for that top 25, we decided to group those coasters together into one entry when the time came to get the results. Together, those coasters placed 14th on the combined ranking. If we hadn't grouped them, Shambhala, iSpeed and Iron Rattler wouldn't have been in the top 25. For 2018, we will be doing a similar thing for any "clone" or that has three installations or more. For example, the Superman flying coasters and Crystal Wing will be "grouped" in this manner, since there are four examples of that layout, but Manta and Acrobat will not be. We will also be doing some curation as to which layouts aren't clones exactly but are similar enough that they should be grouped (such as S&S El Loco coasters). How does this affect you as a voter? Short answer: it doesn't. All of this work is happening behind the scenes, and we are doing this in such a way that every individual coaster will still be available to search for and rank. So all of you completionists out there can rest easy. This method will also allow us to make sure we aren't using any hardcore coaster jargon as to not alienate our casual voters. Look for more details coming soon! Only two more weeks!

Looks like a trailer-mounted version to me.

Dropped into the park this morning, and, well, they actually went there.

That could be something added on as part of our "random stuff" info dump at the end, but regardless of which harnesses or trains are used, an SLC is an SLC and a boomerang is a boomerang. Breaking them up like that is splitting hairs, and really, is the difference between the 225th-ranked coaster and the 250th-ranked coaster that significant? Breaking it up in that manner won't magically make Great Nor'Easter rise to the top 100.

Six Flags is now effectively offering rain checks for people that buy tickets for a specific day. If guest relations considers the weather to be "bad" or "unpleasant", you can change your selected day to another one before your visit. I don't believe that this applies once you use your ticket to enter the park, though. https://www.sixflags.com/weather

On the contrary, studying theme parks all day is actually my job! Agreed with Robb. I feel like they're "kind of" different because you can control your speed, and in terms of layout, they're definitely on the more extreme end of the powered coaster spectrum. For what it's worth, we don't have Sky Dragster (the one at Skyline Park) on our poll and we don't intend on putting Bolt or the Ducati coasters on the poll either.

Hey everyone, I'm in the early stages of planning a big trip. When does Liseberg typically post next season's opening dates and hours?

Tennessee had some earthquakes last night. It didn't seem like anything major (apart from people's photos being rattled off of their desks and nightstands), but Dollywood was in the affected zone. According to the USGS, Pigeon Forge felt the equivalent of a magnitude 2.5 (out of 10). https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/se60247871/executive https://apnews.com/7d15bfe851284a90a80cc0699f359745

Honestly, I love the pretzel loop, but after being spoiled by Manta, Superman Ultimate Flight is rather boring. I'd rather ride Georgia Scorcher than that. But Superman, Georgia Scorcher, Blue Hawk, and Dare Devil Dive are all about even for me. Great American Scream Machine is, well, you know. Dahlonega Mine train is boring too, but it's a mine train.

That's where a bit of curation comes in. Being the team that's making this thing happen, we also have to ask ourselves about coasters that aren't clones, but are so freaking similar that they might as well be. Perhaps every variation of the Intamin Half Pipe (Half Pipe, Surfrider, RC Racer), or every Arrow mine train, or Mack water coasters and SuperSplashes.