Invertalon

The official animation for this ride was not done with No Limits. Also, the ride CAD models themselves are used in the animation model itself (imported), so unless the ride undergoes modifications once in the hands of the animator, are spot on. Speed data is also included, with how fast the ride is at specific points along the entire track length and other information of course. Therefore, the final animation is extremely realistic/accurate.

You do realize that airtime is not proportionate to how well liked a ride may be? Wodan is great fun. Not sure what you rode, but I flew out of my seat during the ride multiple times. Typical GCI goodness. I also really enjoyed Silver Star. Better than I expected it to be, honestly. It was running really great when there.

Glad Hershey will have an *proper* hyper now! (No, I don't like Skyrush... ) Looking forward to seeing this take shape.

Kristy, Two days is enough, especially if you get Fastlane (and still even enough without). Even one day could be enough with FL+ depending on what you like to do and see. But I would say CP is a two-day park if you never have been before. This way, things aren’t as hectic and you can enjoy your time a bit more. Buy your FL+ the day you are there. I NEVER have seen them “sold out”. This way, you can see how the crowds are and get it if you need it. The only time I would ever suggest someone pre-buy FL is if they plan to go during Halloweekends on a Saturday. No crowd calendar… Expect it to be busy. How busy? Nobody knows. Very weather dependent. I have had DEAD days in July or even August, and packed days in May or June. It’s a busy park usually all of the time, so just assume it will be when you go. You are correct, no real advantage from staying on-site then early entry if you need/want it. However, location and such is a nice perk. Not many decent hotels around the immediate area.

Even if that were the case, Universal has already proven that they were willing to rebuild a signature steel coaster from scratch to maintain (if not pluss) the experience. There is nothing to say that they couldn't have done the same thing if they really wanted these coasters to live on... This situation is simple enough to pin it to the factors that are apparent--Universal and JK Rowling made the determination Dragons no longer had a place in The Wizarding World and the land was more valuable to be used for a different attraction. End of service life was an excuse to pull the plug despite the fact that they extended the service life of a comparable attraction in the same park without challenge less than two years earlier. Oh, absolutely. There is no doubt JK Rowling 'aided' the decision making process.

Machines are typically designed with fatigue of materials in mind, it is called the "endurance strength". Basically, engineers design structures or mechanical devices with the fatigue accounted for. Some figure is typically used based on the material, such as 10^6 cycles (1,000,000 cycles) for steel. Which basically means beyond that many cycles (load/unload occurrences), failure due to fatigue should not occur. However, this is just one aspect that can cause wear/tear. I’d assume that in any case, rides never have an issue with this. Steel is a very predictable material and can be easily over-engineered to never have an issue with this. Then you have structural deformations, such as the foundations settling or shifting. So stress risers in various points of the structure can potentially pop up. Supports that should support “X” load may change slightly to support more/less. I’m not a civil engineer, so not sure how the foundations and such hold up over time with ground settling and stuff. I’d assume that they have a grasp on this and it’s not a source for serious issues over time. You also have vibrations due to the ride vehicle, which depending on the magnitude and frequency of the vibrations over time, can cause damage. Back out fasteners, cracking at the welds, etc… These would then be repaired as needed. Environmental is probably one of the bigger issues, especially in say, Florida. Coasters are made of carbon steel, which require the primer/paint to prevent corrosion. Over many years, this can cause the steel to weaken. Florida is not the most friendly environment for steel structures, but this is also why Florida parks are usually on their game to repaint and protect their coasters. Then the weather of course. Thermal cycling can also stress the structure quite a bit, especially those seeing large temp swings. Don’t forget the “human factor”. You have guys in a steel fabrication shop hand welding most of these track pieces or whatever else. I’d assume they are doing non-destructive testing to an extent, but do they do it 100% or spot check along the way? Just another factor to consider. I’m sure there are more potential design considerations I am not thinking of, but at the end of the day you could have two identical rides built in different parts of the world and the same amount of ride cycles, but have completely different end results in terms of the upkeep on the structure and the amount of wear due to all the other factors at play. So to assume a ride is worn out, or not, due to age alone is silly. Too many factors. Even at B&M, those designing the rides are not perfect and there could easily be “oops!” areas of the design that prematurely compromised the structure itself to bring on its demise. Just remember these rides are designed, fabricated and assembled by humans. There will be mistakes made, corrections required and lessons learned for the next time. Dragons could have very well had some design or manufacture flaws that required it’s early demise. It’s way too complicated to assume one thing or another, IMO.

Probably because the park gets more and more high caliber rides and attendance never really goes up (and has been level around 3 million give or take, if I recall). Think about it… With rides like Maverick, Gatekeeper, Steel Vengeance, Valravn, etc… Those seeking the “top of the line” thrills now have many options. People are more dispersed. I would say that is the reason, not that it’s less popular. Also, the MF 'rattle' is not an 'age' issue at all. It's different season to season. I've had rides back in the mid-2000's that were far more rattly than just last year, for example. It varies each year I assume based on the level of maintenance done in the off-season. Maverick is the same exact way. Years ago it had such a bad rattle all season long I didn't even want to ride the thing. The next year, smoothest I ever experienced that ride.

I'd be curious for the reasoning for the strange cross-tie density changes. Yes I know ride manufacturers space ties based on forces and such (yes, I'm aware that is likely the answer to the question).. But this ride just looks so weird with the larger gaps around support placement and the drastic change in tie density. No other ride manufacture does it so "severely" as this one that I can think of. It makes the ride look more tacky, from strictly a ride design/aesthetic standpoint. I think if this same exact layout was done by any other major manufacturer, it would look far more impressive/sleek. The support structure just reminds me of someone who was bored in No Limits Look forward to riding it, though!

I admittedly didn't have any real expectation for Taron. Like, I knew it would be great fun and such reading reviews, but didn't really let the hype build up or anything in my mind. Watching POV's I always just thought "It looks fun!" but the POV's never did the ride justice. By the time we hit the brake run after our first ride I was literally speechless. I personally think aside from front for visuals, the back is where it's at on this one. The airtime and out of control sensations are amplified for sure. In a nutshell, it's just a kick ass ride. Enjoy your trip next year. Just got back from our first trip to Germany/Netherlands and we are already planning on going back. Phantasialand is incredible, we look forward to going there next time once the new area and coaster open up. It will really make the park feel more complete in terms of size/attractions.I hope you are also going to other parks in the area too, I assume?

CP is my home park and I also just visited Phantasialand a few weeks ago... Taron is better. Maverick is fun, but Taron is just better in almost every way for me. No contest. I'd give up Maverick and Steel Vengeance in a trade, if I could

In no particular order, I think it would look something like… Taron Raptor Troy Fury Millennium Force Talon X2 Expedition GeForce Mako Afterburn At least, that is my best guess!

HHN has no real "slow days" anymore. Wednesday, Friday, Sunday... September vs. October, early vs. late... Makes no difference. Been going since 2004 or so and honestly the past few years is simply a gamble on weather and other things if you end up with good/bad crowds. We have changed our approach over the years, but now we simply plan to buy express two of the three or four nights we are there. The other nights we do houses when we see them shorter (usually early or end of the night) and hang out in zones and such otherwise. For the best technique though, make sure to do stay and scream. Get into the hold area before the park closes and hang out for the hour or whatever until they allow you do go to a house. If you get a good position (or just avoid the hoard to stranger things and go to the alternative), you can often hit a few houses quickly with no wait at all. Last year I think we got through five or six houses before we even had to wait. But as expected, then things get bad quickly time wait wise. But crowds come in waves, so keep an eye on the app and watch for when lines dip to reasonable levels.

Agreed. Every time I heard someone say "Oh, Dueling Dragons is at the end of its service life" I wanted to punch them because they were either: 1. Lying. 2. Took such bad care of Dueling Dragons, to the tune of the WORST maintenance of any B&M in existence. Or even.... 3. Had been lied to so many times that they now believe the lies they were told as fact. There is simply *NO WAY* that Dueling Dragons was the end of its service life unless #2 was actually the case, and even still, a park IF THEY WANTED TO KEEP the ride, could give it a nice rehab. But the park couldn't publicly say "Oh, yeah, we simply just want to get rid of it because this British woman now controls our decisions, so... yeah... BRING IN THE BULLDOZERS!!!" So "end of service life" was the bullshit terminology that was used. For what it’s worth, I know someone that was involved in the Hulk project… Years ago while talking with them, the ride was legitimately at the end of it’s life cycle, as the most highly cycled B&M on the planet (even beyond say Kumba for example, which opened many years before). Being a year-round park often running 2-3 trains every single day for relatively long hours, it accumulated quickly. I don’t recall the specific detail, if it was B&M who advised, or it was repair based or how that all went down. I do recall that Universal was often doing repair on the structure/track, due to fatigue. If you compare before/after rebuild, some supports have been beefed up and the track spine increased in depth to make the entire structure more robust in specific areas that required more upkeep/repair. Once decided they were going to retrack the ride, per-say, Universal also did some other testing, such as train options, along with other things once it was decided the ride was staying/rebuilt. But eventually it was decided to just replace the ride as-is. Was quite interesting to hear the entire story at the time, though. Even some of the post-issues the ride had, such as the bogey-tracking issue when the ride re-opened with the new trains, which did get addressed shortly after with B&M. At the same time this discussion occurred, I knew about Dragons as well. Dragons wasn’t as highly cycled, so it wasn’t as urgent. I was simply told to “Ride Dragons now, it won’t have the same fate as Hulk”. No other details, of course. Dragons was one of my top coasters, for sure, so it really sucks. I’m sure if JK didn’t want the ride there though, it was easy enough for Universal to just level the ride vs. trying to keep it around like they did Hulk.

Rattle on Silverstar was very minor, I've had much worse on other B&Ms so it must have been improved some. Completely non issue and didn't take from the ride at all. I'd also recommend Europa as a two day park. We usually fly through parks and I was even skeptical we needed two days, but no issue filling both days up. Even considering we never waited over about 15mins for anything. But if you strictly run in for the coasters and nothing else, you might be able to squeeze it in. So much more to the park though worth experiencing. Holiday Park can be done in an hour or two. Depending how many rides on EGF you want, of course. But given the single train ops and such, it can get lengthy. Holiday was a mediocre park overall though. Yes, 6pm is a safe assumption for most things closing here. Europa was 6pm our first day, 630 the second day. Many shops and stores close then as well.

I hear ya... I'm good for a few laps at most (although, I've always been that way). Im fine with it though, it's very much diminishing returns IMO on riding over and over again. Liked it probably as much as EGF, but in different ways, though. I personally think the sweet spot is around 3 or 4 rides myself, haha. The ride that somewhat surprised me most on this trip might have been Silverstar. Always thought of it as an overtrimmed, boring layout, but I was so wrong. Trims either didn't kick on at all or extremely light, fantastic air on each hill. Off the MCBR and out of that helix was ejector air I did not expect. Genuinely enjoyed it, way better than anticipated.

Expedition GeForce was really good! Extremely strong airtime. After three laps my thighs were in pain on each hill, haha. Got two in backseat and one near front. One train and slow ops prevented more rides. The rest of the park was really weird. We didn't care for it at all. Tripsdrill was fantastic. So beautiful! The flume and coasters were really good, had a nice time there. Really nice parks here, that's for sure! My top rides remain on this trip, Taron and Troy!

We did Europa today and tomorrow, Saturday is Holiday Park and Tripsdrill.

Currently on our trip now, about to depart our hotel for Europa in a few minutes. So far, spent a day at Phantasialand, Efteling and Toverland. More detail later, but so far we enjoyed Phantasialand the best, followed by Toverland and Efteling. All so awesome in their own ways, though. Taron and Troy both became near or top steel and wood for me. Incredible rides! Taron was near flawless. Trains, theme, layout, etc... Excited to see what Europa has in store for us the next two days!

I'm throwing out a mid-July opening as my guess. Intamin was able to fix their design flaw within a week on Maverick, wonder what is taking S&S so long

Probably Steel Vengeance, last year. Don't think a new coaster since!

Phantasialand in about 6 days!

Will do! As much as I love coasters, I don't really need to ride like I used to. Taking in the smaller rides, atmosphere and all that is just as important. We have two full days at the park, looking forward to checking out as much as we can!

Yeah, that's fine. Walk or shuttle, whatever. Don't matter to me!

Will be at Europa in about 3 weeks and we have our hotel booked at Krønasår... Looking forward to it!

For example..... That is an epic amount of bread. Melt has never looked good to me, coming from someone who absolutely loves sandwiches (and cheese).