Xcoaster

Riddler's Revenge. Back in the summer of 2000, I think.

Leap the Dips. It definitely seems like a relic compared to any other coaster. I'm hoping to make it to Hullámvasút at Vidámpark this March.

Space Fantasy @ USJ Really, not a single mention??? It's just so awesome! It's a Mack Spinner (Euro Mir? Sierra Sidewinder? Awesome!), with a long ride (3 lifts!), fantastic special effects, and great theming. It makes Space Mountain look like something from the 70s. To be fair, I've yet to ride Ghost Galaxy. Anyways, here's a long list of other notable mentions: *Winjas (it's only about half dark, but if you count both halves you're good) *Space Mountain (take your pick) *Eurosat *Revenge of the Mummy @ USF *Rock'n Roller Coaster (either one) *FoF *Vogel Rok *Hollenblitz *Pirate's Blast (it's 90% indoors) *Disaster Transport *Crush's Coaster *Evolution *Van Helsing's Factory (it's a mix of good and WTF) *Raptor Attack *Dragon @ La Ronde *Galaxy Express 999 *Black Diamond (it's more of a dark ride) *Exterminator *Verbolten (the indoor section is great!) The weirdest one would probably be "Bullfight Roller Coaster Matador". It was rough, but it was so bizarre that I almost wanted to ride again. Then the most boring would probably be "Temple of the Night Hawk"

^ Yeah, I liked both Rita and Desert Race a lot. LOVE: * Steel Dragon 2000 / Morgan hypercoasters - I loved Steel Dragon 2000, and I really like most of their other designs. * X2/Eejanaika - They can be truly rough, but I love them. * Saw - One of my favorite Eurofighters. Granted, I only got one ride on it, so maybe I was in the smooth seat, but it was easily my favorite coaster in the park. * Grizzly @ KD - I've seen a few good reviews for it, but most seem to dislike it. It reminded me of CCI's better smaller layouts. * Air @ Alton Towers - This seems to get the worst reviews for the B&M flyers, but it's one of my favorites (along with Manta). * Blue Streak @ CP - It's not really hated, but I was getting some awesome airtime on this while I was there last time. LIKE: * Disaster Transport (RIP) - I really liked it, and it made a nice change of pace from the other coasters. * Viper @ SFMM - I usually have pretty smooth rides on it, and I love the layout. * Space Mountain @ DLP - It rides the worst of the Space Mountains, but it's still fun, and I love the theming. * Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit - Not sure it's hated, but I thought it was a lot of fun. G Force was ok too, just odd. * The older GCI's (Gwazi, Wildcat, Roar) - They're a bit rougher and less eventful than some of the newer designs, but I still like them a lot. * Thirteen -Probably not hated, but it got a lot of negativity at first. I thought it was a great ride. NOT THAT BAD: * Predator @ Darien Lake - I thought it was pretty good. * Sierra Tonante (RIP) - It had a pretty uneventful layout, but I still liked it enough to ride a few times. * Psyclone @ SFMM (RIP) /Cyclone @ Astroworld/Georgia Cyclone - They're all a bit rough, but I still like them. * HellCat @ Clementon - I thought it was decent.

I'm not sure where else to post this without starting a new topic, but I come bearing terrible news. According to the unintelligible Google translation below from the Yomiuriland website, White Canyon will be closing in January. It seems they finally ran out of ways to add more padding to the seats. I'd like to imagine it's because they're planning on converting it into Iron Canyon, but somehow I doubt it. But with this and SL Coaster gone, they're certainly due for something new. Anyways, here's hoping the coaster gods smile upon me, and I manage to get my credit in before it closes.

I can't think of any better coaster views. I especially love the first photo because of the way it looks like the whole world is spread out below you.

The S&S site says up to 720 pph, but I'm not sure if that's for the 4 seater or the 8 seater. I'd guess the 4 seater, since the site doesn't seem entirely up to date, and I don't see any mention of Green Lantern. In that case, assuming the number of cars were the same, the 8 seater capacity would be double, minus some percentage lost due to increased loading times per car. So maybe 1080-1440 pph?

[sarcasm] Here's Knott's new coaster: Wacky Soap Box Racers - The Revenge! [/sarcasm] Seriously though, I hope Adventure City's wild mouse coaster (Tree Top Racers) gets picked up by someone. And if we only get flats, I'd want flyers. Airfield maybe?

^^^^ Yeah, except there's not much sacred charm to ruin over there. They'd have to try pretty hard to do worse than PP or the concrete pad we have now. ^^^ It's always about balance, and I think really only Silver Bullet has been a big offender on the coaster front. They've also shown they don't need to add coasters to mess things up. And of course, people will always complain about everything, inevitably including complaints about complaining. Anyways, this sounds like the rumor that was posted here a few days ago. The Knott's rumors have been so far across the board (Intamin Giga awesomeness -> B&M mediocrity -> flat rides) to the point that it can be almost anything, and now I'm just waiting to see what they announce. But if we do get flatrides, I'm hoping one is the scrambler in a box.

^ A few people have posted that they're going. I'm planning on going, but I'm waiting a little longer before getting my ticket so that I'm sure I'll be in town.

And they both could have their drink sponsor, continuing the proud tradition of coasters themed to soda. I'm still hoping Knott's can bring a top tier coaster to California, but after Full Throttle and recent rumors (Intamin Giga -> B&M Giga -> something small-ish -> ?), I'm setting my expectations very low. Like, "launching directly into brake-run" or "upcharge scrambler" low.

What's there looks damn cool. But, as most others have echoed, it's what's not there that's so disappointing. It's the same complaint with Apocalypse and Leviathan - a great first half-or-so of a ride, but then the rest has just disappeared. Normally I might just shrug it off, but in this case the rumors for months have correctly pointed to three launches and a giant loop, plus that it'd be a long ride (unless you count the Kingda Ka rumors, which now seem semi-valid). Then getting all this awesomeness, which was expected, with a BS ending, just makes for another failed opportunity at what could've been a world-class coaster in a state that could use one. I'm going to the start the rumor now that this would've been longer, but they cut it down dramatically to save money to spend elsewhere (probably on the short-lived fog machine and theming). Of all the words of mice and men, the saddest are, "It might have been.” While I'm disappointed, we certainly could be worse off - most of the chain isn't getting much. So, onto the positives: The twisty bit after the loop, the dive-loop, and the tophat should make this worthy of rerides. Can we call the loop-hat the "YOLOOP?" The backwards launch I'm undecided on - it's interesting, but probably a bad idea for capacity and overall flow, and yeah, will probably be short-lived. I really like the color scheme; it's clean and modern and reminds me of old Tomorrowland, Revolution, or classic Sci-Fi spaceships. When parks get as many coasters as SFMM, I'd actually prefer that they start toning down the colors like this just so things don't start looking like Knott's. Lastly, the new Gold Pass looks great. I'd go for it just for the parking, but the added perks of parking at all parks (I remember this was a frustration for some a while back, though I've never had a problem just using my SFMM pass at other parks) and early entry are awesome. I probably won't use the HH or 'bring a friend' perks, but they're nice bonuses as well. Nice to see that Six Flags was listening to us on something.

Yeah, I think either way (loop+tophat or loop+non-inverting-loop), this rumor actually sounds pretty cool, assuming there's more to the ride. A loop like this as the centerpiece would be perfect because Six Flags would have their cool gimmick, and they could spend the rest of the ride (hopefully all 6000+ ft and 3 launches worth of it) just being awesome. Sky Rocket was a lot of fun for such a small ride, so something like that, with more airtime, would be great. Maybe not "Maverick of the West" great, but hopefully pretty close.

When it first opened it was the tallest and steepest water ride in the world. I thought Hydro later bested it for something, but now I can't find anything to support that. Anyways, since then, Pilgrim's Plunge and DiVertical have both beat it for height. So it might still hold the record for steepest drop, but if not, it's still big enough where they could certainly claim some sort of regional record. Anyways, I like the idea of moving it to one of the Soak City water parks. I've always thought it would've worked better there, given how drenching it is. The only problem I see there is it wouldn't have any freshness in the market, I don't know if any of the parks have room for it, and at this point CF probably just wants to be done with it altogether.

Yay, it's leaving! Perilous Plunge was nice for the steep drop when it first opened, but Xcelerator has since made it somewhat redundant in that regard. Because of its low capacity and extra-drenching qualities, I don't think I've even ridden it since it got the new boats (of course, it's supposedly been better in both respects since they got the new boats), so I don't mind it leaving at all. It's also just kind of ugly and takes up a lot of room for what it is. I'm glad they're freeing up space for something new (Intamin giga?). I also read the "thousands of visitors" line as basically saying "yeah, it was low capacity and nobody really liked it"

The layout looks awesome, definitely the sort of thing I'd expect for Cedar Point. I even like the name and placement. It looks like B&M mixed their American wingrider layouts with a hyper, which should be very good. I agree that it'll probably be one of CP's best rides when it opens. My only criticism would be that I'd like to start seeing more wingriders built like X-Raptor, with lots of scenery and landscape interaction. I thought those aspects made it a much better ride than Swarm. However, I don't think this particular layout (or the park) really lend themselves to a ride with lots of near misses, so it's kind of a moot point here.

Most of the people "in the know" seem to be pretty sure it's a Premier, so I think that's why it's winning the rumor contest. I think a lot of us are just hoping for Intamin, because potentially similar coasters like Maverick, iSpeed, and CHunt could help SFMM finally get some airtime. And of course, Mack would always be nice, they just don't have much history with SF (except for mice), and from the rumors it doesn't sound like one of theirs. But if it is Premier, and the layout rumors are true, I could imagine a mashup of something like Sky Rocket, with Mr. Freeze's speed and tophat, and S:UF's loop, making for an interesting ride. The whole "it's a launched coaster, so it might be built by..." conversation reminds me of what Busch/SeaWorld did with their recent coasters. They built three similar multi-launched coasters at three parks, and all were by different manufacturers. Granted, I think there were good reasons for each manufacturer to build their particular rides (except maybe Verbolten - at first I really thought Intamin would've made more sense), but it goes to show, it can be hard to predict these things. Since they'd mentioned at WCB that the new ride would have something to do with July 4th, then nothing happened, I started thinking about what the connection was supposed to be, if anything. It seems like a big stretch, but if it does turn out to be a Premier, maybe they were referring to Sky Rocket at Kennywood? July 4 -> Fireworks -> Sky Rocket -> Premier Launched -> ? -> Kevin Bacon?

I'm going for both days, it should be awesome! I'll be in town for business and already figured I'd at least make a visit to BGW, so it worked out perfectly when I realized ECB will be happening at the same time. Anyways, I'm looking forward to seeing folks from TPR trips, glorious i305 ERT, and getting my first ride on Verbolten!

Vampire at Chessington, 2 weeks ago. It was pretty good, I thought. Maybe not the best layout (not as fast as some others, but still 1000x better than Iron Dragon), but when combined with the floorless trains it became one of the better suspended coasters I've ridden.

Yeah, that looks awesome. A big improvement over Test Track; definitely more on par with Journey to the Center of the Earth. The dark ride portions look like some of Disney's best work. My only complaint might be that the cars look just a little sluggish through the turns (could just be that they're still breaking it in). The straightaways look great though, that one with the bunny hops especially. I'll definitely have to swing by once the crowds die down a bit.

^ Oh yeah, I'd forgotten about that - you probably read it on Screamscape: During the Q&A they said that Log Jammer's replacement would have something to do with July 4th. I'd figured they meant July 4th would be the announcement date. June 27th is one week earlier, so maybe the June 27th news is that they're making a ride announcement on July 4th. Makes sense to me. Regarding the Drop o' Doom news possibility (which the wording and timing seems to otherwise imply), I'd be somewhat surprised if they were using June 27th to announce passholder previews for the following two days. Kind of short notice. But it's Six Flags, so who knows...

The bottom of today's SFMM newsletter reads: Announcement for 'Full Throttle'? Or just something related to Drop o' Doom?

I've also had Dole Whip at Island Freeze in the International Market Place food court in Waikiki. It's Hawaii again, makes sense. Anyways, looks like Magic Mountain has an eatery that might actually be worth checking out.

I'm impressed with the detail put into making it look like an authentic government compound. Particularly the equipment racks (buttons!) and the signs citing various standards. My favorite was the drinking water sign in the child swap room. Anyways, I'm very excited to ride it, but I probably won't make a special visit until I'm there for HHN.

I'm a little disappointed that they passed up the opportunity of doing something on a Wednesday for the ride (Wednesday/Wodenstag/Wodan's Day/Odin's Day). At least I haven't heard of anything. But on the other hand, fire spitting wolves, a choral theme song, incredible theming, and an awesome looking wooden coaster will *probably* make up for it. Hell, Hel even has a rotating sand-dial of death! Seriously though, I can't wait to visit this summer, Wodan looks fantastic.