A.J.

I'm not sure it says it anywhere, but there has been speculation based on images of the plans, which imply a "B&M hyper-like" out-and-back layout.

If it's the standard 453m / Orkanen model like it appears to be, it won't have two trains. The station is the brake run.

I also feel like a separation between amusement parks and theme parks should be applied to basically any category for any "best of" awards outlet. While there is -some- cross-pollination between, for example, Knoebels and EPCOT in the "best / favorite park food" category, I do believe that they target very different demographics / clientele and should be treated as such. Now, granted, what constitutes an "amusement park" versus a "theme park" in this sense is another can of worms entirely. I kind of like how the TEA does their Thea awards each year, they kind of vary the "best of" categories depending on the selection and judging of nominees.

So far, Skyrush in 2012, Mine Blower in 2017, Slinky Dog Dash and Twisted Cyclone in 2018. My home park used to be Knoebels but now it's SeaWorld Orlando.

It's a double-edged sword in my opinion. If you don't have voting open to everyone, then you run the risk of the awards appearing to be illegitimate because of the smaller, hand-picked, possibly skewed sample size, much like many posters here are complaining about in regard to the Golden Ticket Awards. All of the "TPR haters" would immediately disregard the poll / awards because, "oh, Robb (as an example) was mean to me on Twitter or banned me from the forum and therefore anyone who he thinks is worthy of picking the best coasters / parks / dark rides / etc is rude and hateful too". And, as we all know, the people that are angry / dissatisfied are often the ones that are the most vocal. Some other coaster site would probably be having the same discussion we're having now! Though, perhaps I'm being a bit paranoid. If you do have voting open to everyone, then you get the largest possible sample size but, as we found with the coaster poll this year, the results tend to be skewed more toward the attractions that have been ridden by the most number of people. We attempted to strike a balance in instituting a "minimum rider" cutoff where a really great but lesser-known coaster (say, Wanda's Soaring With Dragon coaster) would still be placed highly on the poll but not officially ranked because it didn't receive enough riders that year. I think that it worked well enough, but we'll see what happens for the 2018 poll.

No, it will be Twisted Twister III: Built wilder the third time around because we were upstaged by some small little park in the middle of nowhere Pennsylvania four years after we built it the second time and we're finally doing something about it.

Nah, Robb and Theme Park Review will be just fine. It'll be ME throwing my computer out the window and moving somewhere else. From my own perspective, it would be really freaking challenging, but not impossible. We have the park index but, as Larry deals with on a regular basis, it can be very difficult finding information on attractions that have closed. We've drawn a hard line with the TPR Coaster Poll in NOT including defunct coasters because we want the rankings to reflect what people think TODAY. Plus, as you pointed out, some people have more...vocal...opinions on their favorite dark rides, and I feel as though nostalgia is a much larger factor. I don't know about the others but I could definitely get behind a "best parks" poll, though. That would seem like the most logical next step.

I'd bet that they were looking at Rocky Mountain's I-Box conversions with cautious optimism when Gwazi closed, and by the time they said, "hey, let's do it", Rocky Mountain's backlog was probably filled for years. Perhaps the new ride has already been designed, and they just have to wait another year for Rocky Mountain's manufacturing lines to free up for them.

I think that it already is known for that. But I think that it doesn't get Orlando vacationers because it's actually an hour and a half or so away from Orlando. The only people that can really go there at their own pace are those that pony up for rental cars when they fly in here.

Since I was just there last weekend - Six Flags Over Georgia! Twisted Cyclone and Goliath.

Oh, come on, Busch Gardens, pretty much everyone knows what's happening for 2020.

I really only kind of wandered around the park without a map. I had no real plan for the day other than Twisted Cyclone and Dare Devil Dive first thing. Honestly, I only ever really noticed one out of the two Sky Buckets stations. The extra walking helped me with my health insurance points too! But Monster Mansion? It's not bad, it's just that story progression is important in a dark ride like that. You literally hear "don't go near the marsh" once in the entire freaking ride and all of a sudden, hey, we're going to the marsh! It's a very drastic tonal shift and a parent wouldn't necessarily know that the shift happens during the ride until it's too late and their child is scared in their seat. There's nothing that telegraphs that, hey, this ride might be scary. It's all "make a funny monster face" and peppy happy music.

The snag that often comes with theme park awards is that theme parks don't really change very much over the years, relatively speaking. I feel like there should be less "best ________" awards and more "best new _______" awards. You'd get a much more diverse pool of winners each year, and the awards would probably be more meaningful that way. Opinion, obviously.

On Saturday, I left my house in Orlando and made the long drive up to Atlanta to take my first earned vacation. As a young, eager redhead looking to up his coaster count, where else do you think I would go? Why, Six Flags Over Georgia, of course! I got into town at around 4 PM, got my flash sale season pass processed lickety-split, and dove right in. It was fairly crowded but I got a few of the coasters in. I also met up with fellow coaster-er boldikus and he got to play the "no spoilers" guy a few times as I experienced certain coasters for the first time. He technically already spoiled what one of those "firsts" was, but I encourage you to jump ahead to my full day, which was Sunday. So, let's just skip the pleasantries and move onto the coasters! Let's count them out... #1 / 11 - Dare Devil Dive. Watch out for that dastardly holding brake at the top! The only other Euro Fighter I've ridden is Mystery Mine and, let's be real, it doesn't count because it's so different. I enjoy Fahrenheit at Hersheypark because it's fun and wacky and loopy, well, Dare Devil Dive is even wackier. The inversions are taken so fast and they're so oddly-shaped. Overhead lap bars make the ride really fun! Though, I really don't understand why they don't use the back half of the station platform for unloading. I feel like it could shave some time off of the wait, which, in all honesty, wasn't even that long. #2 / 11 - Superman Ultimate Flight. It's only good because it spawned much better flying coasters. I realize that there are better flying coasters than Manta, but Manta has really spoiled me. Superman Ultimate Flight was kind of boring. It's got some great interactions with the hillside but it just made me want to go to SeaWorld and ride Manta again! Interesting things to note with Superman - probably because it's effectively the genesis of the B&M flying coaster, the operators have to come up with a T-shaped key and lock your harness in place. I know Manta does it automatically. Another thing is that the operators actually instruct you that your articles such as phones and keys should go with you during the ride! They were also only running one station but the crew was working fast. #3 / 11 - Great American Scream Machine. Owowowowowowowow. Behold, my least favorite coaster. Worse than Thunderhawk at Dorney Park. Worse than Rolling Thunder when it was still open. Great American Scream Machine is the roughest coaster I've ever ridden, thanks equally in part to terrible, shaky trains and track that looks like a wild bear came through and tore everything up. Any airtime that this coaster has is drowned out by the repeated shaking headaches that you receive while riding. When you think that the worst coaster of your life is about to end, you see what appears to be a brake run that's too short to slow you down. Never fear, because this machine will make you scream in agony when it actually does slow you down to zero, throwing your entire body forward and then slamming it back against the seat. All this, and more, if the price is right. Seriously, it's bad. Apparently it used to have traditional three-bench trains and it was actually okay? I'm really curious about how much money was saved by putting Georgia Cyclone's trains on Great American Scream Machine instead of continuing to maintain the originals. Also, the row I was sitting in had two different types of lap bars. Because of course it did. Intermission #1 - Justice League Battle for Metropolis. Truth, justice, and... compressed air cannons? The original plan was to snag a ride on Blue Hawk before it threatened to rain, but one of the trains had a problem and had to be transferred off. I caught a glimpse of the team doing the job, and it was really cool to see! Next best thing, Justice League. I kind of liked it! The ride motion was good and the guns actually worked. The 3D effect is a little weird though. When you are in the screen-based scenes, the characters don't look like full-sized people, they look like action figures that you would hold in your hand. It was very weird, and I realize it's apples and oranges to compare these but Toy Story Mania's 3D effect is so much better. I did, however, really enjoy the "high-speed" sections of the ride at the end. The motion was fluid and they were really exciting, but there was kind of too much going on at once. Oh, what's that, Blue Hawk's back up? I'm coming for you, Vekoma Death Machine! #4 / 11 - Blue Hawk. The SLC of sit-down looping coasters? I actually really like Blue Hawk! Yes, it's an old Vekoma, so some transitions are super-jerky, and the lift hill is too slow, and you sort of just crawl over the top. BUT... The layout is really good and non-traditional for a looping coaster, and there are so many good head-choppers. I'm actually surprised that this layout only got built once, it feels almost exactly like their suspended looping coaster design. It's nowhere even close to amazing but I'd say it's at least worth a spin. In fact, if I could erase my ride on Great American Scream Machine and replace it with another lap on Blue Hawk, that would be fine. Now let's knock the family coasters out of the way... #5 / 11 - Dahlonega Mine Train. The fifth-wildest ride in the wilderness. #6 / 11 - Joker Funhouse Coaster. Why in the name of coaster-dom does this thing have such a consistently-long queue?!? Maybe it's because I was on some stupid mission to ride every coaster in the park at least once, but it was very silly of me to wait so long for Joker Funhouse Coaster. Never again. Dahlonega Mine Train was pretty fun and wonky. Discount Big Thunder Mountain, if you will. That drop at the end was really surprising, it's just like all of a sudden the coaster decides to pretend it's the most intense mine train in human history before being like, "ha ha just kidding". Intermission #2 - Monster Mansion. Where you spend the entirety of ONE show scene inside the mansion. Monster Mansion is a dark ride. That exists. It's all super-happy weirdo monster fun times and then all of a sudden you make a left turn and it's the creepiest thing in history. I have never seen a dark ride undergo that large of a tonal shift in that short of an amount of time. It's actually a little discomforting, especially when the "super happy fun time" angle is the only side of this ride that guests - and their children - see before they board and go in. To make matters worse it also follows the dark ride trope of having a truck horn be blown in your face to startle you. Yeah, also one and done. #7 / 11 - Batman The Ride. Na na na na na na na na COAS-TER! Batman is getting pretty close to reaching classic status and it's so good. Having skipped out on it when I visited Six Flags Great Adventure in 2012, I was eager to give this one a spin and it did not disappoint. It absolutely never lets up and now I get what makes old B&M inverted coasters like Nemesis and Flight Deck so well-regarded in our little circle here. I was greying out all over the place and it was glorious. It should also be noted that I would consider Batman as being the only themed coaster in the entire park. Sure, Superman has comic cut-outs in the queue and Dahlonega Mine Train is cool and rustic but from my perspective, Batman is the only one that tries to get you into some form of a story from the moment you enter the queue. It's so much better than sticking a DC character's name on a new flat ride. #8 / 11 - Mind Bender. Riddle me this, Anton. Speaking of classics, Mind Bender is a really freaking good one. Those two loops (and the marketing-speak "third" one) are properly intense and have such a good kick to them. It has the most beautiful setting in the park to boot. It's unfortunate that a large park can't successfully market a coaster that doesn't have anything crazier than a few vertical loops anymore. I love you Sooperdooperlooper, but Mind Bender is best Schwarzkopf. ...though Jetline and Lisebergbanan might be better. I'll find out soon enough. #9 / 11 - Goliath. That awkward moment when your second drop is actually your largest. Goliath is great. That is all. Okay, fine, it's great, but how great? Better than Nitro and Apollo's Chariot but not quite as good as Mako. I love how Goliath goes over and around the park pathways and the nearby entrance roadways. The downward spiral is wicked intense and awesome, and the airtime hill run as it heads back toward the park is incredible. I really just like Mako more - but only slightly - because the airtime is stronger throughout and it lives in a park that also cares about the queue and theming. It's not a matter of "good or bad", it's a matter of "better or best". That being said - kudos to the crew running Goliath Sunday late afternoon. They were on point and the operator at the control booth with the microphone was really entertaining. Very little stacking. #10 / 11 - Georgia Scorcher. It's not that bad, I swear! I skipped out on Green Lantern at Great Adventure as well, so this was my first standing coaster, and honestly, it could be a lot worse. The layout is so much fun and just a tiny bit aggressive, and the more exposed standing position makes it feel unique compared to other similar looping coasters. For a two-train coaster it's also nice and long, and the way the track just wraps all over itself is really a testament to how good the team at Stengel really is. Protip, it is possible to ride a standing coaster sitting down. It's not the most comfortable position but again, it could be worse. Okay, that's all the coasters in the park, right? It's not like I'm obviously stalling to get you to read my entire trip report or anything... #11 / 11 - Twisted Cyclone. THIS. THING. As many of you know, I am very careful about how I place my words, especially when I try to understand something that I personally don't have experience with. Rocky Mountain coasters are some of those things. As a huge fan of traditional (and new-school) wooden coasters, I've always looked at Rocky Mountain's work with a light touch of skepticism. Even as all of us have sung the praises within the halls of the Church of RMC, I've sat in the very back, twiddling my thumbs, watching, listening, thinking. Are those coasters really that good? While I'm not ready to become a weekly worshiper at the church just yet, after riding Twisted Cyclone, I can confirm the hype is most certainly real. Twisted Cyclone just flows. There are no dead zones, and there's very little repetition. Every element is fun in every seat. You get sweet airtime over the wave turn in the front, and you get yanked around the rolls in the back. The airtime is intense and aggressive. The coaster looks great. It rides smooth as glass. The only thing even remotely bad about this coaster is not that it's too short, but that it's over too quickly. It makes you want more. So, naturally, you get back in line. Again. And again. The best part? It's made for that sort of repeat riding. The airtime is crazy intense but the valleys are not. There's nothing to make you grey out, nothing to give you a headache. It's all just...incredibly amazing fun, and that makes it a coaster to remember. One more for the road. Finally, the usual stray thoughts: In a total of twelve hours across a day and a half, I rode Twisted Cyclone six times, Mind Bender, Batman, Goliath and Georgia Scorcher twice each, and every other coaster plus Justice League and Monster Mansion once each. I didn't use a Flash Pass. The park's layout is bad. Superman, Blue Hawk and Scream Machine don't get enough ridership because they're just so far away from everything else. Yes, Acrophobia was still down. Stop asking. The awkward park layout is made more awkward when you see there are exactly three DC Comics themed areas, all at different ends of the park. Gotham City, DC Super Friends, and whatever area Superman and Justice League are in. This means that certain characters, such as Superman, Batman, and The Joker, have multiple rides named after them. It's really weird. Georgia Scorcher -looks- like it should be the worst coaster in history based on the condition of its paint. And it's at the very front of the park no less! It's the first thing that people see up close as they walk in! They moved Goliath's sign onto the locker building but didn't remove the old entrance gateway. $14 for a single-patty cheeseburger and french fries / onion rings. No drink. Ridiculous. Joker Chaos Coaster is not a coaster. But Joker Funhouse Coaster is. Nice meeting yah, boldikus. Thanks for reading!

Twisted Cyclone at Six Flags Over Georgia. Two times in a row!

Hey everyone! Here we go again! The 2018 Golden Ticket awards winners. Check out the press release here for full results. The highlights: Best Amusement Park – Europa Park Best Water Park – Schlitterbahn New Braunfels Best Children’s Park – Idlewild & SoakZone Best Marine Life Park – SeaWorld Orlando Best Seaside Park – Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk Best Kids’ Area – Planet Snoopy, Kings Island Friendliest Park – Dollywood Cleanest Park – Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari Best Halloween Event – Halloween Horror Nights, Universal Orlando Best Landscaping – Busch Gardens Williamsburg Best Christmas Event – Smoky Mountain Christmas, Dollywood Best Food – Knoebels Amusement Resort Best Shows – Dollywood Best Water Ride – Valhalla, Blackpool Pleasure Beach Best Water Park Ride – Wildebeest, Splashin’ Safari Best Dark Ride – Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, Disney’s Hollywood Studios Best New Ride of 2018 – Amusement Park – Steel Vengeance, Cedar Point Best New Ride of 2018 – Water Park – Ray Rush, Aquatica Orlando Best Carousel – Grand Carousel, Knoebels Amusement Resort Best Indoor Roller Coaster – Revenge of the Mummy, Universal Studios Orlando Best Funhouse/Walk-Through Attraction – Noah’s Ark, Kennywood And the top ten coasters per category - Steel: 1. Fury 325, Carowinds 2. Millennium Force, Cedar Point 3. Steel Vengeance, Cedar Point 4. Expedition GeForce, Holiday Park 5. Superman The Ride, Six Flags New England 6. Apollo's Chariot, Busch Gardens Williamsburg 7. Iron Rattler, Six Flags Fiesta Texas 8. Leviathan, Canada's Wonderland 9. Maverick, Cedar Point 10. Diamondback, Kings Island Wooden: 1. Phoenix, Knoebels Amusement Resort 2. El Toro, Six Flags Great Adventure 3. Voyage, Holiday World & Splashin' Safari 4. Boulder Dash, Lake Compounce 5. Beast, Kings Island 6. Lightning Rod, Dollywood 7. Outlaw Run, Silver Dollar City 8. Ravine Flyer II, Waldameer Water World 9. Gold Striker, California's Great America 10. Thunderhead, Dollywood And, finally, the usual tidbits / stray thoughts - Only one award changed hands this year - best food. Knoebels edged out over Dollywood this year. Every other award with the exception for new rides was given to the same recipient that got it in 2017. The top ten wooden coasters really only shuffled around. No new additions or removals. Apollo's Chariot jumped up to sixth place having not been in the top ten last year. It replaced another B&M mega coaster, Nitro, in the top ten. Nitro was ranked at #11 this go around. Rocky Mountain's I-Box coasters were all over the place. New Texas Giant #23, Twisted Colossus #24, Wicked Cyclone #33, Twisted Timbers #38, Storm Chaser #47. No Medusa, and no Twisted Cyclone. Speaking of Twisted Cyclone, it wasn't even in contention for the best new ride category. Steel Vengeance and Time Traveler gobbled up all the votes, leaving Twisted Timbers, Wicker Man and Oscar's Wacky Taxi filling up the spots. Back to Wicked Cyclone, it dropped from #14 in 2017 to #33 this year! In the best new water ride category, Breaker's Edge was breathing down Ray Rush's neck. The Wiegand Slide wheel placed #4 in that category! Morgan's Wonderland, a theme park designed for children with disabilities, was beaten out by longtime winner IdleWild for best children's park. While Steel Vengeance and Time Traveler were in a near dead-heat for best new attraction, as coasters, they ranked pretty far apart. Steel Vengeance #3 and Time Traveler #18.

Met boldikus at the park this evening, we got the last ride on Twisted Cyclone and it’s pretty freaking great. I have a full day tomorrow to look forward to, and I can’t wait.

Also a victim of lap bar stapling on Skyrush. It's not pleasant. Thankfully it has only ever happened once in however many years.

Yep, that's going to be my plan for Sunday, I'm going to pop into the park Saturday late afternoon / evening to process all my membership stuff so I can go right in with no problems for spins on Twisted Cyclone in the morning (when, thankfully, the weather is forecast to still be nice).

It has to be better than Labor Day weekend, though, right? I figured that Sunday would be the best time to go because it's A) after Labor Day and B) Saturday is the Greek Day event which I'm assuming will draw crowds as well.

It's funny because years ago, I used to think that Meltdown was the best attraction in the park. Look how far we've come.

Now to make matters worse for me thunderstorms are in the forecast for Sunday, the day I'm going. Hey there locals, are the weather patterns unpredictable in the area?

You'll laugh but in some areas it actually IS a holiday and schools get a day off. EDIT: Apologies for my digression hijacking your thread...

Hey! I can do one of these now! The Fun Spot parks are the exact opposite of full-day affairs, and they're open until midnight. You can literally get off of Interstate 4, pop in, ride one of their wooden coasters for $10, and then leave, all in about fifteen to twenty minutes. I personally prefer the Orlando park (White Lightning) over the Kissimmee park (Mine Blower) but it's your call. Both are good coasters. Right now I personally would tell someone to get to Disney's Animal Kingdom and ride Avatar Flight of Passage, it's really that freaking good. But you might have a better motivation to experience the Universal parks considering you were there most recently and missed out on everything you wanted to do. Though a lot has changed since the time the Wizarding World was introduced - for example, Dueling Dragons / Dragon Challenge is now gone. You may or may not get as much out of the Universal parks as you would have several years ago. One advantage you have at Walt Disney World is that if you stay at the on-property Wyndham locations, you get two big benefits normally only for resort guests - extra magic hours and 60-day FastPass Plus reservations.

^ But they let you on the platform with them. That's okay then, I can put them in my case and zippered pocket for Twisted Cyclone so long as I can keep them with me.