Invertalon

Just throwing it out there as it happens with each and every B&M installation... Track work will be done by Jan/Feb like clockwork and yet everyone will comment on how quickly the park got it done, lol. Don't forget the past year of land clearing and foundation work that is the big time consumer over the relatively quick assembly of the ride itself.

To me, that part especially comes across as a design flaw IMO. It doesn't feel 'right' and doesn't add anything to the ride aside from feel weird and out of place. That is the start of the finale I absolutely hate, though. Nothing good comes out of that part forward on SV

Aside from the initial whip on the first drop, maybe, Banshee is farrrrrr from snappy. It's like the anti-snap. It's still intense, but intense =/= snappy.

We absolutely loved Toverland! The ‘charm’ was just too cool. We had more fun and enjoyed it more than we had expected to. Fenix was great fun and Troy to me was a highlight… I love GCI’s and this was no exception. Moved up to probably my #1 wood coaster, honestly! I also liked the racing GCI’s at Efteling (and the one at Europa wasn’t too shabby either!), but Troy took top spot. It also helped the day we were at Toverland, it was completely DEAD. Beautiful day, as well. But re-riding Fenix in front row, lap after lap (as well as Troy) was just awesome. We look forward to getting back to this park in the next few years!

Banshee is plenty intense, but for me, not in the way I like my inverts. It also ranks as one of my least favorite B&M inverts (my favorite style). It's got a great first drop and some pretty intense G's, but the elements are just so BORING. The transitions especially have no 'snap' to them, awkwardly shaped (you seriously 'wiggle' side to side entering those dive loops... That's just weird to me) and that completely kills how awesome that same layout could have been... Done say, 10 years prior or something. I still like the ride, but in my mind, such a waste of a killer layout by designing the elements so terribly.

They also did a straight drop on Invadr, but I agree it's very rare for them. Joris en de Draak at Efteling as well!

Looks fantastic! It's nice to see another brand new GCI go up. Seems like everyone is after RMC, but this more exciting to me personally. Looks like I will finally need to get to this part of Texas to visit (and SFFT of course)! Yay for new wood coasters!

Nope. Not in my experience, especially the past few years as it's gotten more and more busy (on Friday's in particular which used to be very low crowds). Not to mention the lines for the mazes are very, very slow moving. What should be a 5-10 minute wait end up being 45 minutes due to small groups, spiel to each and every group, etc...

Me. I don't love Steel Vengeance and much prefer rides on MF.

My best guess: 1.) Raptor 2.) Millennium Force 3.) Dragster 4.) Gatekeeper 5.) Maverick 6.) Steel Vengeance 7.) Magnum 8.) Valravn 9.) Rougarou 10.) Blue Streak 11.) Iron Dragon 12.) Wicked Twister 13.) Gemini 14.) Cedar Creek Mine Ride 15.) Corkscrew

Crowds have shifted at CP the past few years. You can basically go anytime in May, June or July now and it's never THAT bad. But come late August through October, good luck. With the pass promotions (including free fastlane), bring a friend free, Halloweekends, etc... Even the glorious Fridays in September are thing of the past unless weather is bad. Sundays are picking up as well, as those ticket and free fastlanes are only available Fri/Sun for use. They have filled up what used to be their slower days. I miss those dead Halloweekends Friday's! Could always count on a dead park... Easily my absolute favorite times to go to CP. Now, as an example, last year the second Friday during Halloweekends I believe it was, I had to turn around and go home as the wait to get into the park was across the entire damn causeway! In the past, you would be surprised if the lot was more than maybe half full. Good for the park, though!

Stopped by the park yesterday evening, arriving around 6pm to a 2/3 full lot. The only thing we really waited for was Valravn, at 1hr which was sad because it should have easily been half that. They stacked each... and... every... train. I couldn't believe how terrible this crew was the entire time we were in line! Running three trains and constantly stacking all three. Oy. Six Flags operations here! Last ride on Raptor had another issue, where a rider was sick/fainting or something and waiting for EMT to arrive. Crew never announced anything, so the station got a big rowdy. To the point a guest nearby was practically insulating the poor girl on the ride for not getting off (who was fainting and/or sick),yelling that that the park is closed, she ain't stuck, etc... Quite rudely. The girls friend was basically yelling back at this guy, it was getting fairly heated and totally unnecessary. Felt bad for the girl. Sad thing is, there was an officer in the station who did nothing except stand there, on top of the ride crew not even as much as informing the guests there was a medical issue and awaiting EMT before continuing operation. So it just fueled this station of people basically verbally insulting this girl awaiting EMT's. Could have been handled so much better... Aside from that, all was great. Everything else we rode was 5-10min... Blue Streak, Magnum, Rougarou, Gatekeeper and our rides on Valravn and Raptor... Enjoyed a lap on the train and the antique cars. Beautiful weather, perfect evening. So aside from the horrendous Valravn crew and the incompetence at Raptor, great visit!

Houston... We've got burnt ends. Brisket finished around 13hrs... Put the flat away to rest a few hours, cubed up the point and that is what is pictured above. Currently smoking after being re-seasoned and sauced.

Brisket for today! Started it about 8hrs ago, probably another 4 to 6 hours remaining before it's 2-3hr rest. A massive 20 pounder pre-trim! Once it hits temp, flat will rest while the point is prepped to become the best food known to man, burnt ends! Will have brisket leftovers for a while... But nothing a vacuum sealer and some freezer space can't handle! Smoked primarily with Mesquite and Oak, with a little Hickory.

Banshee wishes it could be as awesome as Raptor! (I like Banshee, but no contest for me!) This giga looks like great fun. I don't love the ending, but the rest of it looks awesome. Not a big fan of Diamondback, so i'm excited to have this at the park to pair up with Banshee, Mystic Timbers and Beast. Quite a collection they have now compared to pre-CF days!

This weekend, did my first tri-tip! I did a reverse-sear, using my Weber Smokey Mountain. Smoked it at 225F for about an hour over charcoal and pecan wood. Then once the meat hit 110-115F, pulled it off and put my grate directly over the coals to turn into a grill. Had it on for another 2-3 minutes each side to sear the exterior and pulled the meat at 135F internal temp. (Next time, I’ll pull a hair earlier by a few degrees). Let rest for 20 minutes and then sliced. I rubbed the tri-tip with salt, pepper, chipotle, coffee and onion/garlic. Let’s just say tri-tip became one of my new go-to’s! Flavor was incredible!

Honestly, look at is as a blessing in disguise. Park has been mobbed as of late. A chance of storms rolling through for an hour or two may be worth far lower crowds.

Southwest Airlines Credit Card in the US, for sure. Highly recommended. Got 50,000 points just for signing up and spending $2,000 in first three months. Then referrals.. My girlfriend, who then got her 50,000... And a few friends at 10,000 points a pop. Together, the girlfriend and I had a combined 140,000 points or so. In perspective, round trip to Cali is probably around 20K, Orlando around 15K per person. I use that card everywhere as my default now, so the points keep accumulating. Especially with rental cars where you can snag 3000-7500 points or some hotel deals. For the past two years or so, we have flown free within the US. Still have some 80,000 points between us. This is probably 3 or 4 flights per year since we got the cards. San Diego, San Francisco, Nashville, Orlando a few times... And you can avoid the ultra-low-cost carriers such as Spirit and Frontier...

I have three, actually. A Weber Smokey Mountain (Charcoal/Wood Chunk), Green Mountain Daniel Boone Prime (Pellet Smoker) and an electric smoker as well, but I don't really use that one anymore. The Pellet Smoker is now my workhorse, just love it! 12 pound pulled pork yesterday! 15hr smoke over Hickory, Cherry and Oak. Bone pulled right out clean. Piled on buns for some pulled pork sandwiches. Today, using the leftovers for some smoked pulled pork nachos. Can't wait.

This weekend I did some pork loin on the smoker… Rubbed with fresh garlic, rosemary, paprika, salt and pepper. Smoked over Hickory for around 2 hours or so. Served over mashed potatoes with a beer beef gravy (used my homebrew English Porter as the beer). Side of chipotle green beans. Planning on pulled pork this coming weekend!

Wow, lucked out on timing I suppose! Like I said, we used to go nearly every weekend for early entry and it was common for it to be busy quickly, especially by the time early entry ended. I guess SV just draws the masses, which is good for everything else! We checked SV right at 9am or so, first ride we walked to and were in front of the masses. I wondered why it was so busy already at that ride, given we were there almost right away, but then found out about the ACE event. At that time, ride wasn't even cycling trains so we bounced to Maverick. I didn't want to waste all the early entry time on SV.

Are the trains the same as Blue Fire? That ride was one of the most eerily smooth coasters I've ever been on. That was just last month and that ride has some age on it.

Made my first visit this season on Sunday… Probably won’t break even on my Platinum Pass at this rate, haha, but what can you do. Thankfully my first visit of the year was absolutely beautiful. My goal was simply to get a ride on Raptor and MF if nothing else. Weather was beautiful, so expected some hefty crowds. Arrived for early entry at 9am and the park was a ghost town practically until the time I left around 1pm. Hit up Maverick, Millennium Force, Valravn during early entry all walk-on and got to Raptor at 10am. Used to do early entry all the time and don’t even remember it so dead in the morning. So that was a pleasant surprise. Raptor had the only wait all day (10min?) as the park just opened before we got there. Then Gatekeeper followed by Dragster, also both walk-on. Waited the 4 trains or so for front seat on Dragster, which is always a treat. Took a spin on Magnum and checked out Forbidden Frontier, Petting Zoo and some shops with a closing ride on the cable cars. By the time I left it was slightly more busy, but still wasn’t bad at all. Lot was maybe ½ full? Steel Vengeance had about a 30 minute wait when I checked on it during early entry, but didn’t really care to ride it. Not sure how busy it got later on. Park looked great though. Forbidden Frontier is nicely done but think the park needs some workers/actors to explain to those coming in what is going on, how to interact, etc… Also, wish it connected from the Gemini Midway to Frontier, versus being one way in/out of the area from Frontier Trail. Would be awesome to have that cut through the middle of the park. One of those nice days though where you could have done every major coaster within a few hours if you so desired. Great visit.

I know animations have had to be re-worked due to last minute changes in design or tweaks. Sometimes, changes are made once animations are released and as you noticed, no longer match exactly. RMC's from what I recall, do tend to change more last minute than most others. But at that point, the animation did what it needed to do (advertise), so it's really no big deal obviously. Only enthusiasts will actually notice small differences. But yeah, B&M for example, I'd assume those designs are bullet-proof by the time the time the animation is being worked on... So those typically tend to be extremely accurate. Still awesome to see the final renderings and how close they are to the physical ride once opened up. Goes to show just how powerful and accurate CAD packages have become in simulating all that is going on in the design.