Xcoaster

* Ghostrider - Besides all the obvious stuff (topper track, RMT, removing midcourse, etc), mine would be to add banking to the finale helix. I'm probably alone on this, but I hate that unbanked helix. * Sierra Sidewinder - Add Euro Mir theming/soundtrack. * YOLOcoaster - Add some track after the tophat. * Pony Express - Add more track. * Silver Bullet - Paint it completely silver. * Boomerang (any of them) - Lapbar only trains, like on the one at Wiener Prater. * Apocalypse - Make the section after "the tunnel" into a good finale. * Revolution - Remove the OTSRs. * Green Lantern - Fix it so that the cars aren't always getting stuck upside down in the station. "Kick your legs!" * Temple of the No-Hawk - Add some theming or something, so that it's less boring. Poor Ken fell asleep! * Belmont Park Giant Dipper - Millennium Flyers, or something more like the original trains. * Santa Monica West Coaster - How do you make this interesting? Spinning cars? * Journey to Atlantis (San Diego) - Add a darkride section. Same thing for the one at Gardaland. * Volcano - Add some theming to the indoor sections. Lava monster? * Stunt Coaster - Enable fishtailing. * Blue Fire - Replace that turn-thing after the launch with an Intamin tophat. * Thunder Dolphin - Replace the "trick track" section on top of that weird smelling building with some bunny hops. Bunny hops >> trick track. * Togo Ultratwisters - Replace switchback with dive loop. * Goliath @ SFMM - Add some airtime hills. * B&M Hypercoasters - Replace some hills with zero-g rolls. * all others - Add Euro Mir soundtrack

Yeah, when I saw the topic title I'd thought this was definitely going to be the Poler Coaster announcement. Even so, the mysterious Sky Plunge attraction sounds like it could be awesome. And it's certainly a unique looking building.

Maybe best of all, it looks like this won't be the only Polercoaster of 2014: Maybe the Vegas PoleDancercoaster is still happening? Either way, 2014 looks to be a great year for S&S. Anyways, this looks like easily the most unique coaster to come out in a long while. Given their success with the El Loco's in building exciting small footprint coasters, if anyone could make a great layout for one of these it'd be S&S. My dream layout would include some El Loco style outside banked turns at the top, some twisty inversions and direction changes midway down, and a fast spiraling finish.

Last year it was on Nov 1st, the first Thursday of the month, so I've been secretly hoping we'll hear something tomorrow (probably not). But yeah, there haven't really been any new rumors flying around, so anything could happen. If nothing else, I'm at least expecting that they'll eventually announce the Mine Ride update.

I've always thought the tree was ugly, and that it stood out in a bad way. It's too bad that Six Flags is doing a poor job of keeping up the park's history, but if there's one thing I don't mind leaving, that's it. Now if it'd been a bit shorter, more realistic looking, and maybe surrounded by some smaller trees so that it didn't stand out so much, maybe then it would've looked ok.

Great PTR! I've loved my trips around the Baltic countries, but Vilnius is still probably my favorite city in the area. It's also easily my favorite place for cheap, delicious beer.

My favorite is probably Expedition Everest, followed by Le Big Thunder Mountain, and RnRC. Honestly, I think I like more Vekomas than I dislike. The only ones I really don't like are SLCs, most loopers, and most Boomerangs (except Wiener Prater's lapbar-only model, it's actually fun). I enjoy the GIBs (Deja Vu), Invertigos, mine trains (Colorado Adventure, Calamity Mine), suspended coasters (Grampus Jet), flyers (X-Flight), weird ones (Megablitz, Evolution), Booster Bikes (Velocity), lapbar-only junior SLCs, and even roller skaters (Devil's Mine).

Putting a ride called "Centurion" in the Mexican section seems more like a Six Flags move. I'm in agreement with Screamscape that the name sounds like a more likely candidate for Carowinds new coaster.

Quick rundown of the mazes and shows from my visit on Saturday: Black Magic - Probably one of my favorites this year, lots of great effects, and a good overall theme. Also, I thought the Skeleton Key room was a good setup. Mirror Mirror - It was ok. I'm not a huge fan mostly because it was too crowded inside, and I've experienced the same gimmick used to better effect in other haunt mazes (Krake Liebt! was implemented a lot better, with projection effects, not as crowded, and more to the maze than just the mirrors). I'd like to see this again, but maybe as part of a full maze Pinocchio Unstrung - This was a favorite last year, but it felt lacking this time. A few effects weren't working (the cage, for one), and it came off as a bit stale. Slaughterhouse- Still a good standard cannibal hillbilly maze. Probably my least favorite of the Skeleton Key rooms. Gunslinger's Grave - Not a ton of scares, but a great atmosphere, and one of my favorites of the event. Easily the best Skeleton Key room. Forevermore - Another of my favorites, I really liked the variety of rooms in this one. Loved the narration throughout the maze, I thought it nicely tied together what otherwise seemed like unrelated scenes. Endgames - This was one of my "almost favorite" mazes from last year, and there it still remains. Not a lot of scares, but a great atmosphere, cool props, and I love the soundtrack. One of the shorter Skeleton Key rooms, but the actress was great. Dominion of the Damned - Better than last year (though I liked last year's symmetry of "normal" half and "creepy" half), but still just ok. This one was always a little too crowded when we went through. The Skeleton Key room was pretty good. Delirium - I still love the nightmarish Lovecraft vibe. Maybe not quite as good as last year, but I still liked it a lot. I'll be a little disappointed if this one goes away. Trick or Treat - Still a cute little maze, not a lot of scares, but the ending show is fun. I like that it ties into the Green Witch thing, which seems to be their new mascot. Anyone else get a "Halloween Tree" by Ray Bradbury feel from this one? Trapped - Pretty cool experience, but I'd definitely recommend going with a group to share the cost; I wouldn't have wanted to have spent more than $20 per person. I didn't do this last year. The Witch's Keep - Did this daytime and nighttime; basically the same experience both times. I was expecting it to just be the usual ride with a few spooky things thrown in, but it was really a completely different ride, very cool. The Hanging - I really liked it this year, lots of laughs Elvira's Sinema Seance - Pretty good, I enjoyed the dancing and stupid puns. Possessed - Very good use of the Mystery Lodge building, I hope they keep using a similar concept. I missed Unearthed last year, but I'd like to see what else they can do with this. My standout favorite mazes were probably Black Magic, Forevermore, Gunslinger's Grave, and Delirium. Least favorites were probably Pinocchio, Dominion of the Damned, and Mirror Mirror. We also did Dark Harbor and HHN this weekend, but Knott's was easily my favorite event. The maze quality was great (maybe not quite as good as Universal, but pretty close), and there's a ton of stuff to do (unlike Universal). I'll probably make a point of doing Knott's every year, and the others only every couple years.

The Mummy at USH, three times last night during HHN. Usually I'm pretty down on it, because it doesn't compare favorably with the versions elsewhere, but it was pretty fun with a few pops of airtime.

If we're just talking theme parks, then Central Florida. That's the focus of the area, and they do it well. * WDW > Disneyland/DCA - Mostly because of Epcot. Going individually park against park (ie. Mk < Disneyland), I'd rank the California parks higher in my ratings, but overall WDW wins out. * IOA + USF >> USH - If we were just talking USF versus USH then USH might almost have a chance, but with IOA there's no contest. * Sea World Orlando > Sea World San Diego - This one is close, since I prefer the atmosphere and location of San Diego, but Orlando has better attractions. * BGT < KBF + SFMM - This is tough, since BGT is one of my favorite parks, but I'd probably take KBF and SFMM over just BGT. Otherwise, one on one, I'd definitely give the nod to BGT. * Legoland - I haven't been to Florida's, so I can't really judge. From what I've seen, Florida's looks to have more rides, but CA's might have better atmosphere. * Florida Small Parks (Fun Spot, etc) > SoCal Small Parks (Belmont Park, Castle Park, Scandia, etc) - I haven't been to the new Fun Spot, but White Lightning looks like it'd tip the small park scale in Florida's favor. Belmont Park and Pacific Park have great locations though. * Top Three Central Florida Parks (Epcot, BGT, IOA) >> Top Three SoCal Parks (DL, KBF, SFMM) - Even ignoring the parks I don't really care about (Sea World, Legoland, etc), Florida still comes out ahead for me. It might just be because I can go to the CA parks whenever I want, but I'd much rather visit any of my favorite Florida parks instead. I think the two biggest advantages SoCal has over Central Florida are non-theme park sightseeing attractions (unlike with Florida, I think theme parks are a secondary concern for most SoCal tourists) and weather. I think we might also have an advantage with Haunt events, but that's another debate, and I'm not really qualified to judge since I've done none in Florida and only the big events in SoCal.

Assuming you go during regular operating hours (before 5pm), you should be fine. However, if you go during Haunt hours (after 7pm), you'll need to pay Haunt admission. That's assuming Haunt is still happening on the 1st; I imagine it goes for a few days afterwards.

^^ You don't like Soarin' ? It's supposed to be this system (from Screamscape again): Looks like 4 theaters, 2 simulators per theater, 28 passengers per simulator. Lots of people.

I haven't been on Gatekeeper yet, so I'm not voting, but I liked YOLOcoaster a lot more than I thought I would. The hangtime in the two loops is incredible, unlike anything else I've experienced, and the airtime over the loop-hat is a nice bonus. It's probably my third favorite ride in the park now, after X2 and Apocalypse. EDIT: Regarding wingriders in general, I loved X-Raptor at Gardaland, but mostly because of all the theming and landscape interaction (which subsequent wingriders seem to lack). I rode Swarm shortly afterwards, and was pretty disappointed (granted, I only had one ride, so maybe that could change).

From Screamscape a while back: The E-Ticket attraction is supposed to be a new type of motion simulator. This is presumably represented by the artwork with the dragon-things. I'm most interested to see how the outdoor area works out.

X2 is definitely one of my favorites too. As for effects, audio has been pretty spotty lately, usually I'm lucky if I can even just barely hear it on the lifthill. You definitely have to get lucky with that. When it is working, it'd be cool if they utilized alternate tracks more often. The fire almost always seems to work for me on days when it's not windy. I don't recall seeing fog since maybe the first year following the conversion to X2. The fog was a pretty nice effect at night, and they still show it on the park maps. Similarly, it's too bad they didn't do Foggy Batman again this year, it was awesome when they had it during WCB a few years back.

I went last night for my first Fright Fest visit since 2011. After arriving at about 6:30, I bought my wristband at the booth outside Flags, though I found later that they were selling wristbands at many stores throughout the park. Also, didn't Gold Season Passes once get you a free wristband? Anyways, from there I went to Ninja, which was running only one train, so the wait was about 20 minutes. My first maze after Ninja was Willoughby's Resurrected, which must have opened a little early, since it was still a little before 7pm. There was no wait, and this was my first visit since the renovation. Overall, I was very impressed; they had a good amount of talent (unfortunately, largely shaker cans), and the sets were great looking. There were some good uses of projection effects, such as having tendrils of darkness coming out of a wall, rats in the ceiling, and moving paintings. They also had a couple preshows; one where they took your photo, and another with a spiel by the butler, which I felt was well done. My only complaint would be that I didn't get many scares, but that may have just been because I too busy admiring the details. I'd give the maze at least a 7/10. Following Willoughby's, I got in line for Black Widow at about 7pm. Unfortunately, this was a bad idea, as the short line didn't move at all for about 25 minutes. In the meantime, I got to watch some scare-actors working their magic. Two or three of them would double-team guests as they went down the hill, and because of the darkness, people usually didn't notice them until it was too late. There was also a girl leading around a large shaggy dog-like monster, and when asked what he ate, she replied "Babies! So many babies...". Thought that was cute. Anyways, eventually the line moved and Black Widow happened. The interior looked like someone covered Bitten in webbing and added some spiders. There were a fair amount of actors, but too many of them were relying on shaker cans, and there were few scares to be had. I'd probably give this one a 3/10. From there I went down the hill to Aftermath, which was about a 5 minute wait. The surrounding scare zone is decent looking, but the actors don't have anywhere to hide, so they seem to be there mostly for photo-ops (especially the stilt-walker). I did Aftermath a couple years ago and found it impressive, and it still didn't disappoint. I loved the introduction by the Tina Turner lookalike, followed by opening the gate and heading into a very foggy corridor, before entering the inside of the arena. The use of the existing Batman stunt-show theater makes this one a winner, because it's very big and realistic looking for a post-apocalyptic themed Thunderdome meets Walking Dead sort of maze. Plus, there was fire. The whole thing reminds me a lot of the plane crash scene during Universal's Backlot. My only complaint is that I got few scares, except a couple at the very beginning in the fog, and the energy could've been a little higher. Still, easily one of the two best mazes at the park. 7/10. From there I went to Cursed, which is still pretty lame. Basically you walk through the Tidal Wave queue, through 10,000 hanging "vines" while a handful of scare-actors come at you from the side. Also, after giving you a short safety spiel, they just basically say "Ok, no running. Now, 1, 2, 3.. Go!" and the entire group runs into the maze. Luckily it was a walk-on, since it has the feel of a "better than nothing" filler maze. 2/10. After that, I went to new Weepy Hills INSANEtorium (in DC Universe), which replaced Slaughterhouse, which was one of my favorites from my visit in 2011, so I was looking forward to seeing how this went. Unfortunately, it's pretty clear from the get go that this maze had ZERO budget associated with decorating, as there's nothing on the exterior, and after the pre-show video the rest of the maze is nothing but black plywood walls, with a bed or sink in each room for theming. This was really a step back from the level of quality they'd achieved with Willoughby's and Aftermath, and just looked sad in comparison. However, on the bright side, the talent was working hard and I probably had the most scares in here out of any of the mazes that evening (possibly because I didn't have to worry about admiring the decorations). Also, near the end the maze got pretty dark, so that the black plywood actually kind of worked. 15 minute wait, 5/10. Next up was Total Darkness, located in the theater near Colossus, which has been getting pretty hyped up for it's trick of having guests walk through the maze in darkness, while the group stays together by holding a rope. I like the concept, and there were a couple creepy moments, but I couldn't get over the feeling that there wasn't anything to it. Maybe it needed more audio effects. I also didn't care for holding the rope, I'd prefer if you were really feeling your way through the dark, maybe holding a handrail, or following dim markings on the walls. Also, I don't know what the sign outside warning of static shocks was for, my best guess is they were worried that the fuzzy walls used in the maze would make guests shock each other on accident. Anyways, cool concept, but I know it could be done so much better. 6/10. After that I rode Colossus backwards (in the last car, ie, the back of the station), which was rougher on my back than I remembered, but still a fun experience (about a 15 minute wait), followed by YOLOcoaster (20 minutes). From there I waited about 15 minutes for another new maze, Toyz of Terror, located at Flashback's old station. It had a decent pre-show narrated by the evil toy collector, but the rest of the maze was your typical brightly colored "3D" maze (though without 3D glasses), which looked like the games area threw up it's prizes. However, it had a spinning tunnel that got me pretty dizzy, largely because the people ahead of me moved so slowly, and also because it had a spinning wheel at the end of it, so that you couldn't orient yourself. 5/10. The last maze of the night was Chupacabra, in the Revolution overflow queue, another one I did back in 2011. It's a short maze, but has a good mix of talent, scares, and atmosphere. There were a few especially dark corridors that worked nicely. Also, this is one of the only mazes with a nice looking facade, which I think is always a huge plus in giving a maze its identity. No wait, 6/10. After that I left the park at about 10:30pm. The real standout mazes this year were still Willoughby's and Aftermath; they're the only ones I might see working at an event like Knott's. After those, I still think Chupacabra is a solid maze. Toyz of Terror and Total Darkness are weak, but still interesting enough to be worth checking out. Black Widow looks decent, but it's lacking in scares. And if you want to get the impression that Six Flags doesn't budget ANY money in decorating their mazes, I recommend hitting Cursed, Weepy Hills, and Total Darkness back-to-back; it's kind of funny that the combined budget for those three was probably determined primarily by the cost of plywood, fuzzy cushioning, and hanging vines. One other thing I was impressed by was the usage of pre-shows or introductions in some of the mazes, especially Willoughby's, Aftermath, and Toyz of Terror. Having a pre-show really helps to sell the maze as a more complete package, and the crowd control timing works out better than doing a finale show. Anyways, my next planned haunts will be closer to the end of the month at Queen Mary, Knott's, and HHN. City Under Siege (aka DC Universe) looks nice at night Entrance to Total Darkness Entrance to Toyz of Terror. This area was lacking in atmosphere. Nice looking entrance to Chupacabra I had bad luck with getting pictures, so just imagine there's a couple fireballs shooting out every five minutes. Demon's Door was one of the nicer looking scare zones

Hopefully the unusual outward facing carousel and the dark ride will also be saved. The story last time was that the adjacent zoo would take over operation of the rescued rides. I went by the park in late March this year because their website and facebook indicated they would have reopened by then, despite news articles to the contrary, but the person at the ticket counter said they would only have kid's rides opened that day, and the larger rides would open the following week. I guess their revival season didn't work out. It looked like an interesting park, and the area where it's at has some other nice tourist attractions - it's kind of the Hungarian equivalent to Balboa Park (which also once had a coaster). perpendicular carousel Park entrance Ticket booth

A lot of parks I've been to with TPR, so it's hard to gauge how difficult they'd be to visit on my own. Driving to Alton Towers was pretty terrifying. For starters, it was my first day driving in the UK, and most of the drive was through little towns and along winding country roads. Driving to Tripsdrill was a similar experience, except it was my first time driving in Europe, and since I was in Germany I always felt like I had F1 drivers waiting to pass me. For Japan, I'd probably say Nasu Highland (my first time going to Fuji-Q was also pretty bad, and then there's dealing with the park itself). Coming from Tokyo, you take a bullet train, followed by a local train, followed by either a bus ride or a taxi. Many parks in Japan are variations on the same formula (train, train, bus/taxi), it's just with this one, the park is so far from the train station that it's either a long bus ride (~1 hr), or a very expensive taxi (~$50). I got there late in the day, and the next bus wasn't for about an hour, so I took a taxi there, then took the bus back. Plus, the drive there reminded me a lot of getting to Tripsdrill, so I imagine driving there in a rental car would've been scary. Of parks I've been to with TPR, I imagine Rusutsu Resort in Hokkaido is the most difficult to reach, since it seemed like it was in the middle of nowhere. Also, La Ronde probably would've been a nightmare on my own; I remember traffic being a mess, not to mention the rest of the park.

For me, it's mostly wooden coasters that are overshadowed by other coasters in the same park. Wild One @ SFA was a great surprise. I had some airtime filled front-car rides on Blue Streak @ CP on my last visit, and I thought Skyliner @ Lakemont Park was comparable. I thought Thunderhawk @ Dorney was surprisingly decent. Cyclops @ Mt. Olympus is awesome (although I think this is common knowledge). King's Dominion has several that I think are under appreciated: Rebel Yell, Grizzly, Dominator, and FoF. I really liked Boardwalk Bullet in Texas (I think the consensus is that it's too rough?). I've enjoyed every Morgan hyper I've ridden, but I especially like Steel Eel, Phantom's Revenge, and Steel Force. And at Knott's, I really like Sierra Sidewinder. As for underrated rides that are just too far out of the way, Coaster @ Playland is terrifying, either wooden coaster at Silverwood is great, Spaceship 2056 @ New Reoma World is an excellent Space Mountain ripoff, Mammut @ Gardaland is a great minetrain, and German El Toro is one of my favorite GCIs.

On the plus side, your head will probably be hitting the headrest more than the restraints on Eejanaika. As for food, they also have a couple Japanese fast food chains inside the park, including Pizza-La and Mos Burger. If you want to get your Japanese pizza or hamburger credits (yes, they're different enough to count as culture credits), I heard good reviews from Pizza-La, and I always like Mos Burger (it's basically a Japanese Tommy's). Plus, this Mos Burger had a Fujiyama burger, which was a double.

Europa Park is easily my favorite overall, even including the USA (Canada?). Other international favorites include, in order, DisneySea, Alton Towers, Efteling, Blackpool Pleasure Beach, Universal Studios Japan, Phantasialand, Heide Park, Gardaland, Mirabilandia, Gronalund, Tripsdrill, and Tivoli Gardens. I imagine Liseberg and PortAventura will someday be added to that list.

I'm hopeful, but not expecting too much, considering this isn't his first push to rebuild it (OTOH, maybe it's all sorted out by now). I've still got my t-shirt from last time. Bought this from him about 14 years ago.

79/100. Yay.

I'd only wait 5 hours if it was for something especially impressive that I hadn't done before, it was out of the way, and I knew I wouldn't have another chance to ride for a very long time. For example, if I went to Ferrari World and Formula Rossa had a 5 hour line and my flight back was the following morning, I'd wait for it. Plus, I figure at that point I've already invested a lot of time and money in getting there, so what's five more hours in getting it to actually happen. I'd probably do the same for T-Express, Eagles Fortress (if it magically reopened), Balder, and maybe a few others. Now, I don't think I've ever actually waited that long for anything. I know I've waited 2 or 3 hours several times (mostly at Fuji-Q and SFMM), but I don't recall ever going above that (unless if you were to include travel time and such).