BugEyed

I totally get that. Sometimes roughness and intensity make a fantastic partnership.

This TR makes we wish I hadn't skipped Frontier City on my Texas trip a few years back. I'd planned a side trip to the park on the last day, but that morning I was just too lazy to make the drive. I went to Sandy Lake instead, which in hindsight probably wasn't the best decision. The parrots are awesome.

^ and if anyone is wondering... Yes, that really was just an excuse to use "fisticuffs" in a sentence.

The seatbelts are a harmless placebo that have little to no impact on the performance of the ride or it's operations. The sniping, salty language and a near outbreak of fisticuffs over them is a bit of an overreaction.

^ precisely. The belts are no big deal.

How do you figure that? Leviathan is ranked much higher than Behemoth in polls. Polls schmolls. Behemoth is the better ride.

That's a good question (that I doubt we'll ever know the answer to). I've just assumed it's an insurance reason; in the same manner that increased car accidents raise your premium, regardless of how safe a driver you are and what vehicle you drive.

The seatbelts added to Behemoth this season have not detracted from the ride experience nor have they increased the wait time. I thought they would (on both counts) but I was wrong.

Griffon is so ridiculously smooth I actually hoped it'd "roughen up" a bit. It didn't.

Thank you for knowing that.

That's funny stuff right there.

They absolutely are. The endless stream of people that believe they cancel one another out is amazing to me. It hasn't occurred to me for a second that Fury and Intimidator are unfit to exist in the same park. If anything they'll perfectly compliment one another.

Agreed.

^ an excellent point. I particularly like the part about having the "same holes".

It's a solid coaster with what look to be small, but important improvements on the manufacturer's previous similar coaster (in this case, Leviathan). I'm not going to drop everything and reschedule my life around it, but it's certainly enough to convince me to visit Carowinds for the first time next summer. And that (for me) essentially sums up most B&M additions to North American parks in the last several years.

The animation video is fantastic. I'm such a big fan of Cedar Fair's trend to interact new coasters into the park entrance. Underground Dive!

Wonderland has always been a place that teenagers hang out, particularly in the late-August period prior to school commencement. Does anyone here remember the days of the Kingswood Music Theatre "$5 Concert Series"? From park opening until 6pm there'd literally be thousands of teenagers milling around the area where Psyclone now is, waiting for the gates of the theatre to open. In July and August there were major acts 4 or 5 days a week. I saw Iron Maiden there... for 5 bucks!

^ I'm short and skinny. Stand up coasters just aren't my thing.

I am 100% in support of free speech and support everyone's opinion as valid, but all this talk about SkyRider being a smooth ride is making my nuts ache.

If it ends up being SFFT I'll make the journey. I feel like it's a park that's just one more unique coaster away from being able to justify the trip. And it's the only major park in the Southwest I haven't been to yet.

non-mobile link: http://news.hjnews.com/allaccess/logan-company-s-spinning-roller-coaster-promises-unique-experience/article_252562fa-013f-11e4-85f2-0019bb2963f4.html Logan company’s spinning roller coaster promises unique experience Herald Journal By Kevin Opsahl Engineers at S&S Worldwide in Logan may dub their newest project the “little brother” of its counterpart, the 4-Dimension, but don’t be fooled — the 4-D Free Spin is set to provide an unmatched suspended experience. The $7 million ride — with a speed of 38 miles per hour on a 1,265-foot track — is currently undergoing prototype testing at the Logan plant on 2500 North, not far from the highly successful Zip Line creation. By April or late May of next year, the 4D Free Spin will debut at a yet-to-be-named amusement park somewhere in the U.S. The Free Spin earns its distinction from its “big brother” 4D — which debuted at Six Flags in 2002 — because the “free spins” the eight-passenger ride induces are not mechanically controlled, explained Mike Worley, senior mechanical engineer. Riders are suspended off to the side of the coaster track, where the seats spin independently. S&S wants to make “a more family-friendly ride with more variability where with each time you ride it you get a different experience,” explained Worley, when describing the 4-D Free Spin. The Free Spin ride thrives on natural dynamics — and even personal interaction with the movement of a person’s feet — to invoke spins. But the 4-D Free Spin is using old technology in a new way to help control some of that. S&S Coaster The Eddy Current technology is usually used to help slow the roller coaster to prevent an uncomfortable experience — but S&S is testing it to help “force or retard spins,” Worley said. “No one has a vehicle like this or is using the spin technology in this way,” he said. “As far we know it is the first of its kind.” Rich Allen, CEO of S&S Worldwide, explained how the company creates ride concepts and then markets them for amusement parks to purchase. Allen said a common misconception among the general public is that amusement parks come up with the concept ideas for specific rides, when actually, the opposite is true. “They kind of wait for manufacturers to bring things to market,” Allen said. “We come up with these that we think parks and the general public would like. What we want to do is say, ‘OK, we think this will be fun … but is it really going to give the kind of ride experience that we want?’” S&S Coaster A prototype, like the 4-D Free Spin model that S&S is testing now, is one way to test that concept. “Once we prove to ourselves that the ride is going to deliver the experience we think we want, we take that concept to the market and we put together our information, go the industry and see who would be interested in owning it,” Allen said. “Fortunately, this is a high-tech-high thrill ride and we’ve gotten a lot of interest in the industry and it’s been purchased by a significant park ground.” Allen noted that S&S pioneered the concept of having rotating seats on the outside of an axis. “It’s radically different from other coasters that would be in the park,” Allen said of the new 4-D. “I’d classify this as a high-thrill family coaster; I wouldn’t call it an ‘extreme coaster.’” The S&S CEO also talked about the emerging trends in the roller coaster business. Many parks are showcasing the biggest, fastest, heart-stopping ride — oftentimes accompanied by a sign warning people with heart problems not to ride it — as a centerpiece of their entertainment. S&S Coaster “Amusement parks want to drive attendance. A lot of what you’re expressing is marketing,” Allen said. ”It’s kind of like Halloween and going into haunted houses; you want to hype the extreme and parks always try to one up each other … If they’re going to open the ride they’re looking for something they’re going to market above their competition.” S&S Worldwide is also known for other high-speed coasters and towers. The Space Shot tower ride is known for its rapid 4-G vertical launch before dropping into a breathtaking negative 1-G descent. The Screamin’ Swing “excites riders with the feeling of wind in their face and 0-G floats similar to riding a roller coaster that is diving toward the ground,” according to the S&S website.

YAY!

El Loco @ Adventuredome. 2 weeks ago.

SkyRider's crotch-rupturing "trick track" is the reason I've existed well into adulthood without the burden of an unwanted pregnancy.

My plans have changed quite a bit since my last post. This is how it looks now: Canada's Wonderland (have already been twice) California's Great America Six Flags Discovery Kingdom Oakland Zoo Pixieland Amusement Park Gilroy Gardens Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk Castles n Coasters Adventuredome Buffalo Bill's Stratosphere Tower Six Flags Great America (wasn't originally intending to visit this year but Goliath has made it necessary) Liseberg (this one's still tentative, but I'm hoping...) and the back up plan if Liseberg falls apart will be Silver Dollar City/Worlds of Fun/Six Flags St. Louis