Xcoaster

My only noteworthy "New for 2014" coaster was Helix. I thought it was a great ride. Not my favorite in the park (Balder), but it's in my steel top ten. Medusa and Lightning Run look like they'd also be likely contenders if I'd ridden them. Medusa looks amazing and Lightning Run looks like the next best thing to an Intamin airtime machine. Probably in 2015.

Someone may have joked that he was purposefully being slow in order to keep with the area theming. That, or he was making an ironic statement about the name of the ride. Or maybe he was also still recovering from the evening before. Either way, I got my El Paso Express "credit"

Not officially, though the work happening in and around the old Kingdom of the Dinosaurs darkride makes that a pretty safe bet for the location of the next attraction. That, and the recent refurbs at Knott's and CW's latest attraction make a darkride seem all the more likely. An announcement will probably come within the next couple months. The only "hints" I pulled from the WCB Q&A were that they were reluctant to talk about KOTD, fixing Ghostrider, or the long-rumored Gigacoaster/Hypercoaster (but based on previous years responses, I expect they didn't talk about the last two mainly because they have nothing further to say on the subject, not because they're hiding something, but I could be wrong - they also didn't seem to defend Ghostrider as much as usual). When asked about expanding into the backstage areas, they said work was happening backstage but they didn't elaborate, which very possibly could be something mundane. I think there was also a question about whether they'd work with B&M or Intamin again, and the response was something along the lines of "probably". When asked about their 5 year plan, they made it clear they're not done improving the park. I had a great time at WCB this year; Knott's put on another fantastic event! My favorite moment was probably when the sound for the "Tooth Fairy" haunt promotion video didn't work and so the panelists provided their own sound effects.

Great TR! I'm sorry you guys had such a terrible morning. I think this was my first day in the back of the bus, so I was especially glad that you all made it until we got to the park, even with the longer-than-expected bus ride. Despite all that, I'm glad to hear you recovered somewhat and were able to enjoy the day at what became one of my favorite parks of the tour. I loved all the detail that went into Fluch von Novgorod (I even bought the soundtrack, so I could listen to the opera singing ghost all the time) and was impressed to see that they put the same effort into many of the rides in the park (the kiddie coaster and Space Race come to mind). Other highlights for me were the Tetris bears, a great free hat, the double bayern curve's obstacle course queue (and the amusingly slow ride-op), the absurdly terrible wild mouse, our flume boat soaking Ken when we was off-ride taking photos, and later getting soaked myself on the log flume and having random Danish people laugh at me (this wouldn't be the last time on the tour). I can't wait to see what they do with the new coaster. Woof.

I'd still argue Gold Striker. It's really kind of California's best kept coaster secret, you don't realize how amazing it is until you ride it. There isn't any one statistic you can look at like speed or height or drops or inversions (none), but it's just pure fun and filled with airtime. Most videos don't do it justice, but this one does - specifically skip to 4:41 in this video: I've ridden Gold Striker, I agree it's very good, certainly one of GCI's best designs, but it's still not on the same level of crazy ejector airtime that you get with the better Intamin's and RMCs. When you're talking about something like Piraten, NTAG, Bizarro, El Toro, or Balder, there is really nothing quite on par in California. But Gold Striker is probably the next best thing, for now.

Ok, so it's the first time California will have had a coaster with lots of crazy Intamin style airtime.

This looks great, I trust it'll be a lot better than Green Lantern. Looks like I might need to include a visit to SFFT in my plans for next year.

This looks AMAZING! Things I'm especially stoked about: * So much airtime! SoCals first airtime machine and the best coaster on the West Coast (and almost certainly a new top ten steel coaster). Normally I'm more suspicious when a park says something will have 18 airtime moments, but given RMCs track record I think they'll deliver (Robbs airtime counting video on NTAG seems appropriate). * High five element (during the turnaround) AND two (!) Top Gun rolls! I'll admit I was worried this would be filled with barrel rolls and loops, but I can't think of a single better "gimmick" that they could've included. Looks so fun! * One continuous track with 2 lifts means we get a long ride, retain some racing/dueling, and they can't shut down one side when the park is quiet. * It's scheduled (yes, we know, SFMM) to open Spring 2015. Not fall 2015, not 2016. So not that long of a wait * All the obnoxious pre-announcement speculation-complainers on here (you know who you are) were completely wrong - it still has two lifts, no twisted first drop (thanks for those 15 pages of whining, BTW), and not a ton of inversions. Well, time to go check the other announcements.

Yeah, we were kickin' it in California. We cheered on the Colossus marathoners while we were there too. And got two solid flips on GL (ugh). The only things we didn't get on was the left side of S:EFK (it was only open for a few hours in the afternoon), LL:DOD (closed for high winds by the time we made it over there), and Jet Stream (didn't get around to it). Also, I was too fat for the new kiddie coaster (I'll try again sometime). Even with Flashpass we stayed pretty busy getting Joe all his credits. Without it I doubt we could've gotten on everything (maybe just barely, if we hadn't left the park for lunch and if we'd abused single rider lines) Question: can you use the Flashpass to ride the left side of S:EFK, or do they only use it on the right side? We'd planned on trying to use for the left but it'd closed again by then so we just did a second ride on the right.

^ Yolossus

Yeah, WCB ERT is some of the best you'll find. Many of the coasters will be open and there aren't tons of people, so the crowd gets spread around pretty well. Some rides will be busier than others of course (X2, YOLOcoaster), but you should have no problem getting plenty of rides in. Regarding Apocalypse, wasn't there some kind of incident that it had closed for a while last summer and required some track work? I rode it shortly before that happened and thought it was fine, but during my WCB rides I thought it'd gotten significantly rougher (and it has remained so). It's far from being unrideably rough (it's still one of my favorite coasters in the park; the first half of the ride is great), but it's nowhere near as butter smooth as GCI's tend to be.

This was easily the most terrifying thing I've done at a park. I'm very glad Robb and Elissa arranged to have it included, otherwise I would've had another reason to chicken out (I was already reluctant to get in line).

Magic Mountain's operations are slow, but Fuji-Q appears to be actively pursuing new methods to maximize wait times. It's a perfect combination of low capacity coasters, slow operators, bizarre loose article and weather policies, and exceptionally inefficient loading procedures. On the plus side, it's in Japan.

That's great news, especially since it seems like Japan closes parks and coasters much faster than they open them. And I'm always happy for another reason to go back to Japan.

Now that I'm back home and settled in (and finally over this cold), I'd like to post a huge thanks to Robb & Elissa for going above and beyond in organizing this trip! I had a fantastic time with an awesome group of people, so many wonderful parks, lots of great food, several top-tier coasters, and a bunch of unique experiences. My highlights: Sommerland Sjælland - Bonus Park! The obstacle course, jungle cruise ride, great food, and guf! Bakken - Tornado (!?!), watching people take the "special ride" on Extreme, funhouse, and more great food Tivoli Gardens - The awesome Rutschebanen tour and boarding at the top of the coaster, Plane on a Stick, funhouse, darkrides, great bumper cars, lazer-maze high score. A beautiful park and one of my favorite days of the trip. Bon Bon Land - Dog Fart, the weird theming, the giant hidden indoor area, an incredible unbalanced ride on the spinning coaster. Hansa Park - One of my favorite parks of the trip. Fluch von Novgorod was easily one of the best themed coasters I've been on, and it's a great ride to boot. Even the little family coaster was very well themed, so I'm looking forward to seeing what they do with Karnan. Also, SPACE RACE!!! Legoland Billund - Polar X-plorer ERT, Mini-Land, getting drenched on the kiddie log flume (our boat may have been slightly overloaded) Djurs Sommerland - Another fantastic park! Piraten ERT w/ pass the sword/gun! Juvelen was a fun surprise, and the park staff here were amazing Tivoli Friheden - Park takeover and of course, the terrifying SCAD tower. Farup Sommerland - Farup, Farup, Farup... A great ERT session, an awesome obstacle course, more great food, and pellet guns Tusenfryd - Great ERT sessions on Speed Monster and Thundercoaster was a huge surprise from Vekoma Liseberg - Balder ERT was awesome (my new #1 wood), Helix was even better than expected (top ten steel), and it was a great day at an awesome park. Skara Sommerland - Soooo many rides on Tranan during ERT! Such a weird, fun coaster! Also, the ABBA/troll mine train, and watching people fall off the waterpark zipline. Gronalund - A fantastic pair of ERT sessions; I got a ton of rides on their coasters. Great food & beer, funhouse, kiddie log flume, and the recently updated Ghost Train. Overnight Ferry - Another tasty buffet, Finnish Karaoke takeover, and beautiful scenery. Fun Park - Surprise Bonus Park inside a mall! Powerpark - Fatty train and TPR Grand Prix made this an awesome visit! Plus, a very cool hotel and yet another great buffet w/ beer. Wasalandia - Another Surprise Bonus Park! We had a whirlwind tour of the park's highlights, and the coaster had some surprise airtime. Särkänniemi - ERT on dayglo orange Tornado train and Half Pipe spinning science, Speed Boat, and a steamy Dolphin show Linnanmaki - Great ERT session on all the major rides, crazy front-car airtime on Vuoristorata, egg ride, Shark Cage 4D

Yeah, ever since NTAG was official, management has been saying at the Q&As that it's the greatest thing they've ever seen and they need it for themselves. Unlike when people ask about Wingriders and they're like "yeah, lame" or Megalites and they're all "WTF is megalite?" But at least when their standout coaster is closed you'll have another good excuse to not visit. So there's that. OMG! 1:43 of that video is amazing!!! LMAO!!! It's wonderful because: A) He's saying on-air that their new ride is actually kind of boring. Which is definitely true nowadays. B) Needs more loops YOLO!!! C) He's foreshadowing it's eventual transformation into a steel coaster. So anyways, I'm giddy with excitement. And while two separate tracks with totally different layouts would be very cool (presumably either Colossus Classic / New Colossus, or Looping Yolossus / Airtime Awesolossus), I'm really hoping they go for the length record and just make it the undisputed best coaster on the west coast. Plus, it'd be more time riding and less running to get back in line. And they wouldn't have the option of just closing one side when it's convenient, so there'd always been some dueling and full-ish capacity. Win win win.

The drop tower at the former Alabama Adventure chucked a wheel while we were riding it. We heard some unusual noises while riding, and once we got back to the bottom we saw an employee run over and pick up a wheel (one big piece and a smaller wedge that'd broken off), prior to closing it down. That said, it wasn't especially troubling during the ride since we didn't notice the wheel until it was over, and if I'm going to lose a wheel on anything I'd prefer it be a drop tower. While I was at the Funtown Pier (a few months prior to it getting destroyed) it'd started raining, and I was waiting for the Mighty Mouse to reopen so I could get my credit. I figured I'd ride the ferris wheel while I waited. It was pretty windy at the top of the wheel, and on the first revolution the door to my cage blew open. Once I got back to the bottom I had to get the attention of the attendant for them to secure it. That said, the fact that I was in a cage to start with meant that I was already pretty well secured, which is more than can be said for many other ferris wheels. Mostly it was just surprising.

Only forwards, I think. When I visited last year they had a schedule where the ride was supposed to be running the backwards sit-down train half the day and the stand-up train the other half. I got backwards, but yeah, it wasn't bad at all. Could use some fresh paint though. The highlight of this park for me was the beautiful views of the inland sea.

The less techno-y bits of the Helix soundtrack actually remind me a lot of Blue Fire's soundtrack (appropriately enough). Can't wait to ride in June (and maybe add another soundtrack to the collection).

^^^ While we're on the subject of the awesomeness of Japan, I've always found Thunder Dolphin to be pretty spectacular, between being one of the tallest coasters in the world stuck in the middle of Tokyo, riding along rooftops, and threading a ferris wheel. Granted, it doesn't ride as well of some other Intamin's, but it's definitely awe-inspiring. On the subject of coasters built in odd environments, something about the construction of Nemesis and that required excavation work would be cool. For that matter, just going into some of the height restrictions that Alton Towers has had to deal with might be interesting. And as was mentioned a page back, Hex might make an good topic (especially considering American audiences have probably never seen anything similar). I especially liked how the park loosely based the story of the ride around a local legend. Plus, it's built inside a actual castle. Also, I could always use more Europa Park. I've found their function as a Mack showcase to be fascinating, and I think a segment about how some of their more unusual attractions work might be interesting (Euro Mir, Arthur, the vertical lift on Matterhorn Blitz, Food Loop).

Hershey is definitely my top pick, though Holiday World is also a good option when Voyage isn't trying to murder you. Hershey Park: Skyrush, Stormrunner, Lightning Racer Holiday World: Legend, Raven, Voyage BGT: Kumba, Montu, Sheikra (or Cheetah Hunt, which I haven't ridden) CP: Maverick, Millennium Force, Magnum SFMM: X2, Apocalypse, YOLOcoaster (or Tatsu) Europa Park: Euro Mir, Blue Fire, Eurosat (or Wodan, or Silver Star) Dollywood: Thunderhead, Mystery Mine, Tennessee Tornado (or one of the new coasters that I haven't ridden) Kennywood: Phantom's Revenge, Sky Rocket, Racer (or Thunderbolt, or Jack Rabbit)

^ Backwards Batman. It's also sometimes used to refer to those Batman clones with a mirror-image layout.

I can't think of anything that sounds out-of-the-box crazy enough, so for now I'm putting my money on a RMC woodie with a traditional lift and a midcourse launch (Maverick), lots of fire (Valhalla), indoor scenes (Blue Fire) and maybe some tunnels (Tremors). Or maybe a next-gen Free Fly. In the meantime, I'm very impressed by the teaser and can't wait to see what's coming.

Yeah, I was definitely impressed by Dark Harbor. Hellfire was my favorite, in no small part because of the awesome bridge scene. Submerged did a great job of using the history and layout of the ship to it's advantage and was an impressive maze. Deadrise had some great atmosphere and was a lot of fun. Circus was a little short, but I liked some of the gags used to disorient and split up the groups. The Village was a little vanilla in concept, but the actors and long maze length made up for it. Containment did almost nothing for me, except that it had the merit of being the third maze on the ship. Of the freak shows, the Shadow Spirit was by far the best, and close to being an actual maze. With the darkness it was a challenge not getting lost in there. IIRC, Headless Hannah was basically a prop, Human Crab was an actor that wandered around, Sparky was a Sad-Eye Joe sort of thing, and The White Spirit just seemed to be a lot of fog.

This was a lot harder for me than the wooden poll, partly because I've never done the steel poll before, and partly because there's just so many good steel coasters (especially after you cut out the kiddies and lump all the clones together). I ended up ranking my first 100-ish and the last 5, then the rest I just lumped together in a few in-between tiers (good, decent, meh, bad). Here's my top 30 and bottom 5: 1. New Texas Giant Six Flags Over Tex 2. Expedition GeForce Holiday Park 3. Favorite Wood Coaster (Boulderdash, Lake Compounce) 4. Intimidator 305 Kings Dominion 5. Skyrush Hersheypark 6. Maverick Cedar Point 7. Eejanaika Fujikyu HighLands 8. Bizarro SF New England 9. Euro-Mir Europa-Park 10. Kawasemi Tobu Zoo 11. Nemesis Alton Towers 12. Millennium Force Cedar Point 13. iSpeed Mirabilandia 14. X2 Six Flags Magic Mo 15. Nitro Six Flags Great Ad 16. Goliath Walibi Holland 17. Space Fantasy Universal Studios 18. Blue Fire Megacoaster Europa Park 19. Olympia Looping Traveling 20. Storm Runner Hersheypark 21. Phantom's Revenge Kennywood Park 22. Takabisha Fujikyu HighLands (this fell a few spots this year) 23. Raptor Gardaland 24. Superman - Ride of St Six Flags America 25. Ride of Steel Darien Lake 26. Steel Dragon 2000 Nagashima Spa Land (this also fell quite a bit this year) 27. Goliath Six Flags Over Geo 28. Pyrenees Parque EspaNa 29. Katun Mirabilandia 30. Dominator Kings Dominion -5. Mirage Rosso Zoosafari Fasanola -4. Fav Zamperla Volare Any Park Anywhere -3. Fav Vekoma Corkscrew Any Park Anywhere -2. Fav Vek Susp Loop SLC Any Park Anywhere -1. Goudurix Parc Asterix