A.J.

The list is for 2017 coasters right now. Not everyone has gotten to ride Twisted Timbers yet, it just opened! It will be on our 2018 poll if this one goes well enough.

I think that it's still pretty good overall! But given the choice between it and White Lightning, I would take White Lightning more often. If those bottoms (EDIT: VALLEYS!!! I can't believe I forgot that term!) were smoothed out it would be much better.

This is correct. Just click the button to edit, and then click it again to submit. No submission is "final and binding" until we tabulate the rankings for 2017 at the end of this month. We will be adding new coasters (Twisted Timbers, Time Traveler, et al) on a semi-regular basis in chunks (likely either every 3 months or every 4 months) and letting everyone know when we do, but we will only be generating results once a year.

I was there in 2014. In my own experience, I was not assigned a row for Alpengeist. The quick queue merged with the regular queue at the loading area and I was allowed to wait the extra time for the front. I was assigned a row for Apollo's Chariot though, where the quick queue waited at the exit.

Visual proof that coaster geeks will never, ever, ever be satisfied.

Intamin will use whichever track style is necessary to engineer the coaster. To speculate, I would assume that whomever made the NoLimits simulation knew the difference between the three-rail grid track style and the modern single spine style, and laid out the supports based on that style, but you never know. I would be willing to bet that the NoLimits sim is at least "somewhat" accurate (therefore using the grid style) based on how they seem to have laid out the supports / footers to take that one pathway into consideration. Fun speculation, of course. We'll find out!

I think the point being made is that the fact that the designer had that previous water slide design experience under his belt, and by his own work standard should have taken all precautions and pulled out all the stops, makes the apparent allegations of negligence that much worse.

Took a spin on Mine Blower this afternoon. It's still like it was in July - super-fun airtime, headache-inducing roughness at bottoms of hills and turns. It's a shame, really, that layout is nothing short of masterful.

In my opinion, to use this incident as an argument against the development of prototypes is wrong. There is literally nothing stopping Intamin from making a 400-foot tall hydraulic launched coaster or that guy to build the Blue Flash Mark 75 in his backyard, or anyone else from making their own amusement ride. Without prototypes, none of our favorite coasters and rides would exist. That being said - the indictment makes it sound like all the necessary precautions that come with a prototype were not taken (or worse, intentionally ignored), and that's the problem.

Exactly. I can draw a house, but it doesn't mean I should be an architect. "Design" as a blanket term is very weird. Part of my job is understanding who needs to be contacted / solicited to carry a design into the real world. I've "designed" several coaster layouts, flat ride themes, play areas, and other elements over the past few years as my job, but I am not qualified to engineer them. My kind of design doesn't often go past the concept or planning phases. When I like a design, and my superiors like a design, and our clients like a design, we have to hand it over to say, Intamin, or Vekoma, or Mack, because they're the ones that are qualified to make it happen. The laundry list of items on that incident list is everything that the general public fears about roller coasters and rides made real. It's unfortunate that in a world of sensationalized "someone got decapitated on this roller coaster" and "they had to tear it down because it was too scary" urban legends, an incident like those actually happened. Being serious, comparisons can be made to Knoebels' Flying Turns here. Both rides faced delays, both were first of their kind, both were toboggan-type attractions, both had weight limits. But thankfully, Knoebels understood the risks that they were taking with that kind of ride. They know that Flying Turns is only safe to operate under a specific set of circumstances, and it is immediately taken down temporarily if it doesn't meet that standard of safety.

I will totally give you the exposed show building thing, but I just don't understand what makes Verbolten weak, boring, and uncomfortable. The station and queue are very well-themed (as they should be) and the indoor section is dark and mysterious (as it should be). The launches have good kicks, and the indoor section is typical large Zierer, having tight curves and spirals that are intense but not gray-out-inducing. The drop track is the best example of its kind. The drop toward the river is just as iconic as Big Bad Wolf's was and is still one of the most beautiful settings for a coaster element in the United States.

As a simpleton, I am so happy that those three big hills in a row are all hills, as opposed to silly rolls, wave turns, or stalls.

KumbaK did the design though, right?

We are counting VR-optional coasters as their originals (no VR). That includes Air / Galactica, Kraken, New Revolution, Space Fantasy, etc.

Bumping this thread! Rank your coasters and smash that button!

Yeah, okay, but many destination theme parks and manufacturers go through great strides to protect their investments and intellectual property.

Likely not. These cars are based on the new-style Vekoma track with the rails / wheels on the outside, most Arrow and Vekoma coasters have the rails / wheels on the inside. Theoretically it could be done, but coasters with the old style track sit at a very low center line, and having new cars at what is essentially double the height of the center line would make awkward Arrow coasters even more awkward. It's the same reason why Rougarou and Patriot sit slightly higher than most B&M floorless coasters - they match the old stand-up center line. If they would have been replaced with, say, normal sit-down trains, some of the forces would have been awkward / uncomfortable.

That might be tough to only do a half day on Knoebels opening day. Traditionally, Knoebels runs a buy-one-get-one promotion on ride-all-day plans during opening weekend (that's on top of "discounted' pre-season rates). That's good news for your wallet but bad news for crowds, which will be heavier as a result.

Having worked on the Imagineering side myself, that's great that they were willing to show you around! To everyone on the team who knows who I am while reading this, I'm so happy for you, I'm so excited that I got to work with you, and I can't wait to see Pixar Pier finished!

Biased non-answer: Who cares about Hersheypark when Knoebels is an hour away? Unbiased answer: If you're making a two-day trip out of it, yes. You can have a "good" experience at Knoebels in half a day if it isn't super-crowded, and they have one of the most unique selections of attractions in the entire United States (fantastic wooden coaster in the Phoenix, unique Flying Turns, classic Black Diamond and Haunted Mansion, among others). What I've found to be most meaningful as a former local is to start day 1 at Knoebels, then drive to Hersheypark in the mid-afternoon or early evening, and use the "preview" feature of your Hersheypark ticket in the later evening to casually ride stuff you think will be crowded the next day. Then day 2 you spend it all at Hersheypark, Hershey's Chocolate World, etc. Total 2 or 3 nights depending on how long your drive is.

I hereby re-hijack this thread in the name of Knoebels. Praise be.

Interesting that they have a traditional slide tower. Most of the marketing for the Slide Wheel involved guests entering / exiting on the same level. I want to try one!

Raglan Road is my favorite place to eat (so far) at Disney Springs. I always get the Nom Nom Wings! Mickey WAFFLES. Don't get them confused.

That 3D model of the track is too good to be a strictly artistic rendering. It appears to be a NoLimits simulation with one of the Intamin track styles (2-seat hyper coaster, rocket coaster). However, the shaping looks like it's supposed to be a Mack. EDIT: Looking at recent examples, I'm now not sure. Perhaps it IS an Intamin. We'll eventually find out.

The app is great. The process to reserve / search for a FastPass to [insert attraction here] from anywhere, on or off the resort property, is smooth and easy. I would never want to go backward from that. I feel like some of the complaints come from the now apparent inability to get FastPass for some of the newer / "hotter" attractions. I just checked FastPass Plus for 30 days from now (April 14th), and I can't get Flight of Passage, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, or Toy Story Mania. Now, I bet that I'd be able to scoop one up for the 15th if I was at my phone at 7:00 AM tomorrow. As an annual passholder who really only needs to "catch up" by experiencing the Pandora attractions, I'm okay with that. I'll just go some weekend, no worries there! But unless that sort of process has now become the accepted norm (which it very well may have) for doing a Walt Disney World vacation, I could see why that would frustrate some people when planning. Maybe it's like trying to buy / pre-order a Nintendo Switch during the time when retailers were under-stocked. You would have either had to have your finger on the refresh button, or hoped that you'd get lucky at your local retail store. Not complaining myself, just speculating / trying to understand.