A.J.

Reason being, from what I understand, is that the coaster has a safe operating "speed envelope". If it's going too fast or too slow, they take it down. I believe that was one of the problems that they were having initially when the trains would jack-knife around the turns.

Because it's so small and you can't see the cars run down the trough very well from the queue, it's rather unassuming. But once you go up and over the second lift and into the switchback turns, you'll be pushing 65-75 degree banking as you go along. It's not "scary" but it's very unexpected.

^ Yeah, I missed that element there, and I'll bet that's why Family Kingdom can continue to exist. It's right there in the thick of it! It does make me curious though. I worked in the rental car business part-time when I lived in Savannah, and we got a lot of people out of our airport that specifically were vacationing at Hilton Head Island. I wonder how many people that fly into Myrtle Beach for vacations actually do rent cars out as opposed to being shuttled directly from the airport to their hotel along the beach...

Yeah, this may be somewhat of a generalization but I've always felt like the people that go on vacation to Myrtle Beach aren't the type of people that would visit a Hard Rock theme park with big thrill rides.

Fixed it for you.

I agree with you. If a park really really really wanted to have a coaster built with the old design, they probably could. But that decision would need to be made before the layout was even drawn up. The new trains might be wider, ligher or heavier, more or less aerodynamic - than the old style. The new dive coaster at Happy Valley Chengdu runs the old style, and it hasn't opened yet. But based on my own experiences in working on new theme parks, ESPECIALLY those in markets like China where completed park designs can be stalled, I'd bet that that coaster was probably designed and finalized years ago and is only now getting built. Unless B&M pulls a fast one on us and puts the old style on Grona Lund's new inverted coaster, I stand by my prediction of the new vest style being on every B&M coaster save for the hyper coasters from now on (though without the vest for the family inverted coasters).

At this point, the vest harnesses are now the standard.

Also, God forbid, the stupidity that would go down if the ride had an unexpected breakdown / early closure and everyone who waited until the very last hour of the day to go get their ride in couldn't.

This means that there are now only three existing coasters of that type - one in Australia and, surprisingly, two in Indonesia.

Seriously though, Magnum XL-200 is a capacity monster. You'd be asking them to cut the total capacity from 108 people down to 48, as Magnum runs 3 trains, 6 cars, 6 people per car vs Titan Max's 2 trains, 6 cars, and 4 people per car. You literally don't have enough cars to fully replace all of the trains on any of the other Arrow hyper coasters, and that includes Phantom's Revenge.

Yeesh, that bites, and actually gives the whole "Dorney Park never gets anything new" thing some context. They can't really build anything major on the north end near Hydra and White Water Landing either, I'll bet. Those neighbors are really close to the park - not in their backyards. It's the unfortunate consequence of being a local park. You get lots of local business but with all of the local hurdles.

Tennessee Tornado did get the new-generation train design, but I believe that they went with the old-style blocky body for thematic purposes. There are some giveaways, such as the taller headrests. From what I understand, Arrow built five coasters with the new-generation train. I believe that Tennessee Tornado and the roller coaster at Al-Sha'ab in Kuwait have the new chassis with the old-style body; Drachen Fire and Canyon Blaster had / have the new chassis and new-style body. The fifth is the Hot Wheels SideWinder at Dreamworld in Australia. When it was the Cyclone there and the Big Dipper in its previous location, it had the new chassis / new body, but a few seasons ago they put the new Vekoma trains on it. I would assume that the Adventuredome bought the old trains to use for spare parts. Obviously, Arrow started using a new track rail / spine / tie design in the mid-90s too. Al-Sha'ab's coaster and Tennessee Tornado have it, and Road Runner Express at Fiesta Texas has it as well. Those, and X at Six Flags Magic Mountain, were the only "big" coasters that Arrow built with the newer designs before they went down the toilet for the last time. It kind of makes me wonder about the kinds of coasters we'd be seeing from Arrow today if A) they were still around and B) Schilke was still doing work for them.

[attachment=0]cheese-wrong.jpg[/attachment] On the contrary, I like to ride hands up as much as the next person but I tend to keep my hands down at the bottoms of hills or during turns where the Gs are high. It's nice to just have a place to "rest" my hands out in front of me when I want to, kind of like a car's steering wheel.

Also, the "destination" amusement / theme park market is extremely volatile in North America. If you're not a part of "the big five", that's Walt Disney P&R, Universal P&R, SeaWorld P&E, Six Flags, or Cedar Fair, you're basically a nobody if you're in that particular "destination" market. Of the top twenty most-attended parks in 2016, only one of them isn't part of those five companies - Hersheypark. Because of that, I don't believe that we will ever see a new, I.P.-driven, all-season, destination theme park unless the entirety of southern California spontaneously combusts or the entirety of central Florida gets flooded due to climate change. I consider Nickelodeon Universe at the Meadowlands somewhat of an anomaly because it's entirely indoors - I think it can break in based on the apparent popularity of indoor water park resorts in the mid-Atlantic. If I were to speculate - I do think that there still is room for small parks like Galveston Pleasure Pier, the Fun Spot parks, and The Park at OWA to succeed based on local appeal, but I'd bet their growth would be slower due to smaller attendance numbers and less revenue. Perhaps others should follow the Fun Spot model of "amusement park + F.E.C., rec center, or some other extra thing" to broaden their appeal.

Because of the market's maturity, we're also seeing a lot more smaller, "self-contained" themed entertainment experiences such as themed museum exhibits, independent haunts, pop-up events, and escape rooms. Those kinds of developments are really popular in dense urban areas where all that needs to be leased / rented is a single floor of an office building or a small space in the middle of a plaza.

Yes, I can confirm that you have the correct "avoid Washington" route to Williamsburg from Frederick MD. Follow US-15 Southbound all the way to Warrenton, then follow US-17 Southbound to Fredericksburg VA. If you do decide to go from Hershey to Fredericksburg VA in the evening and you have some money to spare, you can take the fast route through Washington. In the evening, the I-95 HOV / express lanes that go all the way to Garrisonville VA will be open in the southbound direction. The tolls on those lanes, as well as those that go both directions on the I-495 loop, vary depending on how much traffic there is. Heck, if you leave Hershey in the early evening, you will likely end up around Washington after rush hour, and you might not even have to use the express lanes at all. Also, don't use Mapquest, use Google Maps instead. You'll get real-time traffic info too.

Nice to see that Hersheypark's "cram as many tracked rides into the smallest space possible, even if it means going over buildings" philosophy continues to the water park attractions.

Yeah, in hindsight I meant "you won't be looking forward to work in the morning".

As a person who drove east > west across the entire length of the country a few months ago, driving long distances absolutely reeks. That last day, driving from Charlotte to Detroit, when you're tired of all the park-hopping and you're not looking forward to going to work the following morning, is probably going to be the worst drive of your life. I would dump Carowinds and add Kennywood in its place. It will be a nice "encore" day after Kings Dominion, and it's on your way back to Detroit. Kennywood isn't as much of a coaster junkie park but Phantom's Revenge and back seat Jack Rabbit are not to be missed. Busch Gardens Williamsburg does have a line-skipping system, Quick Queue. They only have info for Christmas Town Quick Queue right now but you can upgrade your ticket the day you get there.

In my opinion, the most popular attractions right now are Guardians of the Galaxy Mission Breakout, Radiator Springs Racers, Toy Story Midway Mania, Soarin', It's a Small World, Star Tours, Space Mountain, Indiana Jones Adventure, and Haunted Mansion. All of those are FastPass-enabled (including It's a Small World now). What you do is you go to one of those super-popular attractions right after opening, which will likely have a 5-20 minute standby line when you queue up, and then make your first FastPass reservation for another attraction through the Disneyland app while you're waiting. Take a few minutes and browse around to see what you and your family want to do in the moment, even if it means your return time might not be right away. If you're running late for whatever reason, you can make your FastPass reservations for all four people at once from your hotel room, since it all runs through the app. What you HAVE to get a paper FastPass ticket for are the parks' nighttime spectaculars, Fantasmic and World of Color. Fantasmic's distribution is in Frontierland near the boats and the Golden Horseshoe, and World of Color's is between Grizzly River Run's big water wheel and the entrance to The Little Mermaid attraction. Those FastPasses will not affect your other reservations, but the best viewing areas run out fast, ESPECIALLY Fantasmic's. If your family wants a decent spot to see Fantasmic from, you will have to have one morning when you are basically standing there waiting for Disneyland to open, and then make a bee line straight for Fantasmic's distribution. That being said, if I recall correctly, you also have to scan your paper ticket for either of those, so you might be able to have one person take all four tickets and get your FastPasses for Fantasmic, while the rest of the family catches up at their own pace.

Just as a tidbit to add, that relationship also means that Rocky Mountain Construction doesn't have to spend time and resources shipping their stuff over for the Euro Attractions Show every year, because Vekoma is already there.

Don't get too excited there. Vekoma is just the broker for Rocky Mountain coasters in Europe.

Cedar Point's, Magic Mountain's, Canada's Wonderland's, and Energylandia's "most roller coasters" cards are really only draws to get people in the gates. Do you really expect any "normal" guests to even consider riding the SBFs, Wacky Worm and Go Gator? I certainly don't. In addition, I'd bet that Energylandia's top demographic is families, and that it will likely stay that way even if they take the record. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that the "eh" reviews you speak of would likely come from parents who would remark that there aren't enough choices for their children, had they not added these kids' coasters. You also have to consider that these kids coasters are alternatives to children's flat rides both to the guests and the park's design team. There are only so many variations on the Zamperla Jump Around formula. If they can kill two birds with one stone by having a children's tracked ride with its own layout that they can just so happen to call a coaster for their count, then so be it.

Certain roller coasters are designed with certain sensations in mind. Having the typical "holding chain drop followed by Immelmann" on a dive coaster is really no different than having "vertical lift, 95-degree drop, vertical loop" on a Euro Fighter or "lift immediately into dive drop" on a wing coaster. The only dive coaster layout that has been explicitly cloned is SheiKra. Griffon is larger and with an extra inversion, and the total outdoor setting of G5 seems to make it different compared to Oblivion. The one at Chimelong looks kind of like a hybrid between SheiKra and Griffon.

What "return to form" are you talking about? iSpeed isn't even ten years old. If you're talking about being let down by Divertical, what did you expect from what is mainly a water ride? Mirabilandia has no obligation to the coaster community. They are a theme park first, and it would appear as though they want to grow into a destination park (if they aren't there already) that caters to all demographics. In my opinion, if that means leaving the "coaster enthusiast" category alone for a little while longer, so be it. From what I understand, the Spike coasters are like Bobkart attractions in that they can have multiple cars on the circuit at once. Since each car is individually powered and controlled, safety systems are in place to stop or reduce the speed of a vehicle that gets too close to the one in front. Maurer's own promotional material shows a bunch of cars moving around the circuit at once, so perhaps Mirabilandia will operate theirs as intended.