Invertalon

Thanks. We don't marathon rides, but we like being able to roam around parks and ride when we feel like it, without spending much time in line. Showing up early and trying to somewhat rush our rides isn't really our purpose. FL+ is really conducive to how we like to enjoy parks. My concern is that I don't want to purchase $300 worth of FL+ and feel like an idiot when the normal lines are only a few minutes longer than the FL+ lines. That happened to us a SFFT about ten years ago and it left us feeling like idiots when everything was a station wait. Like i said though, if we can save 10-20 minutes per ride it will be worth it for us. We're lucky enough to always have the budget for FL+, so we're spoiled and would rather go without than wait in lines. I just want to avoid looking like an idiot, even though I've built up a tolerance for that due to frequent occurrences of looking like an idiot. Just don't pre buy the FL. It won't sell out with the crowds typical in June. That way, if not busy, you didn't waste money! Not once have I seen Fastlane sold out!

Honestly, the past few years, the park isn't even that busy until late July. If you want to maximize your riding, get the FL. But honestly, it's not required so early in the season for me at least. But I'm not one that needs to ride stuff over and over again. If you have early entry, it's very easy to do everything within a few hours. Weather, of course, will be a big driver on attendance.

I am no engineer but I don't know if the stress of the forces would be suitable for a wing coaster car. The stress on a wing coaster train has nothing to do with the height or drop of the ride the train is mounted on. It's all in the design of the ride itself. You can design a 400ft coaster that puts less stress on the train than a 100ft ride if you so desire.

Ask yourself... When was the last time professional GA drawings were leaked and were *NOT* real? Exactly… Don’t buy into the conspiracy theories. Those drawings are the real.

Yeah, which is a bummer! I mean, I like the RMC rides I've been on (so far that includes Goliath, Joker, Steel Vengeance, Wicked Cyclone and Storm Chaser), with Wicked Cyclone and Goliath being my favorite of the bunch actually. All really fun, though. I just would love to see RMC pump out something like Voyage or something comparable, in terms of airtime and layout, with their I-Beam track. Would be a huge hit, me thinks.

I look forward to the day we get more, 'boring' RMC layouts. Less of the abrupt hills and outward banking and a ride with longer sustained airtime hills, less gimmicks, etc... I know I am in the minority, but the layouts do very little for me (Steel Vengeance included). That corner stall looks cool, but the rest of the ride doesn't do much for me (I know, judging before riding and all that.. But I find RMC's like B&M, you can kind of just know how they will feel/ride by how it looks).

Hopefully given KI already has the signature "Cedar Fair Special" paint jobs dominating the skyline (the red hues of Diamondback and Banshee), this one hopefully will be something on the opposite side of the color wheel, perhaps. We can only hope...

AJ, I have used a 70-200mm f/2.8 lens for years and it’s fantastic for park photography. I often will find myself using a 1.4x converter at times to give me ~280mm when needed. What exactly are your lens options? Because I’d take a better quality XX-200mm lens and crop over a poorer quality XX-300mm lens. Put priority into the quality of the lens itself. Typically, the larger the zoom range, you sacrifice image quality somewhere. Not always significant anymore though, newer high end lenses from Canon/Nikon perform great on both ends of the range. If you are taking pictures of moving coasters, typically your shutter speed is high enough anyway that camera shake is non-issue. IS still helps of course, but is not really required unless shooting at lower shutter speeds. There are so many lens options though, which specifically are you looking at? In terms of 200mm vs 300mm though, a XX-300mm is a more useful park range. But again, I’d pick quality over zoom range.

Anybody have an answer (or guesstimate) on why this ride aged so poorly compared to El Toro? Are they really replacing track pieces often on El Toro or doing that much better of maintenance compared to Heide? Or was there design changes from this first model to those following?

Likely true, fairly 'routine' as far as those rides go.

Sounds good, i'm quite sure we will squeeze it in! Thanks!

I want to know why B&M felt the need to do that weird transition on the dip before the lift. It's so awkward and a weird pet peeve of mine on Valravn. Now, they threw it on this one, too. Copy/mirror/paste, perhaps? ha Yukon Striker looks cool and all, but as mentioned prior, the vest restrains absolutely suck on dive coasters. Valravn is just so "meh" to me, compared to even say Sheikra (likely due to restraints) that it just burns up any excitement i'd have for this one.

Awesome, will keep in mind once we firm up some things! Another side question for those in/around Germany... As far as navigation goes, is using phone navigation such as Waze good enough to get around the country? Or is it worth me buying the dedicated GPS maps for Europe for my Garmin? Debating on if I really need to or not, seeing how awesome the Waze app is for navigation (here in the US at least!). Also, we may or may not add in Tripsdrill after Holiday Park on the way to Munich. Looks like a quirky little park. Any thoughts?

I kind of remember that now that you posted the pics of it, thanks! (Troy) Robb, Absolutely! It's just unfortunate and i'm sure given the structure (looking busy with the other segments around the lift), will complicate the re-assembly of the lift structure a bit more than say, Troy. But not impossible, of course. Those guys in the field doing the work are amazing at what they do to figure things like that out with the help of the manufacturer. I have worked with some erection crews on some pretty crazy rigging/lifts/assemblies and their problem solving skills are top notch for complications along the way. Looking forward to see this project complete!

Not sure on Troy, perhaps it's more common than I think with wooden construction. No doubt that the design is likely sound, but it is just wild that all three of those sections came down. For sure a chain reaction due to the unsupported top members... I'm sure in those gusts, created a pretty huge moment on whatever was supporting the "vertical cantilever" in the winds, causing failure at the point and creating the chain reaction on the rest of the structure. Sucks, regardless! That can't be any fun at all to figure out how to repair/rebuild, as things are typically build in a precise order for a reason.

I'm no structural engineer (mechanical), but it surprises me that given how much structure was completed already, that the 60mph or so winds caused failure the way it did in three different points. The track will stiffen the structure a bit, but unless they still have more lateral bracing to install to an already fairly robust looking structure, I am wondering if there was some type of building/design error on the structure (perhaps the type or quantities of fasteners utilized) and the method the structure is secured to itself. 60mph winds (or more) will happen again. Hopefully the completed structure was designed properly (likely) and build properly (questionable, perhaps?) to account for such things. I'd assume so, but again, just seeing how much structure was complete already and that type of multiple-point failure is a bit hard to believe... Even for 60mph or more. As mentioned above, if SOB had similar collapse during construction, that isn't a good sign As we all know there was flaw in both materials and design/construction, if I recall.

My thoughts exactly!

When will people realize that almost ALL B&M installations done with CF have been done around the same exact time? It's not early, it's on schedule as planned. Finishing in Jan/Feb is common. Fury was finished Jan 30th. Gatekeeper was Feb 27th. Banshee was Jan 23rd. Leviathan was in Feb sometime. And so on...!

I hope this thing will look better in real life than what I am expecting. I just find the entire structure hideous and there is just an excessive amount of structure used due to the track design (and S&S or whatever not utilizing a deeper spine to allow for longer spans without support). I can't help but think that it's somewhat, sloppy engineering? Could be that support fabrication is just that much cheaper, given its just long pipe with welded flanges, versus track which is a bit more complex in fab which is why they designed it the way they did. Anywho, looks like a blast!

San Francisco is such a beautiful, fun city. One of my favorite parts of the US, for sure. Between the red wood forests, Big Sur, Golden Gate, NAPA, Alcatraz, Japantown (incredible ramen place there called Marufuku Ramen, heavenly!)… You can easily feel up a week or two, non-stop. Amazing breweries as well, one of our favorite locations if you are into that. We loved it so much our first visit two years ago we went back again this Spring. But now we are good for a few years before we return lol

No specific spot in Switzerland, as of yet... Just a placeholder in the routing. Perhaps something like a cable car up into the alps to an overlook or something of the sort. Just depends what we find! If we do go, we plan to stick near the German border and not venture to deep into the country (to save on driving and such). So basically, details TBD! I was hoping that would be the case. We will plan to get any express/fastlane options if need be wherever they are offered, but not too worried about it. Appreciate the heads up!

For Sure: Phantasialand Holiday Park Toverland Europa Park Efteling Universal Orlando Cedar Point Probably: Kennywood Kings Island Canada's Wonderland Maybe: Knott's Sea World Orlando Walibi Belgium Carowinds

My new IPA... Brewed with Nelson Sauvin and Citra. Tapped a few days ago. 6.6% ABV

Bummer, be about two weeks too early! I think we have decided to skip Walibi to gain a full day back to fit in other stuff... Maybe next time! Still planning on Efteling and Toverland, though. Now the classic, annoying question... How are crowds at these parks early June? Most of these parks we will be at between June 3-8th (Mon-Fri), including Europa which now is Thur/Fri (6/7th). Holiday Park will be on Saturday as of now, mid afternoon to evening per Robb's recommendation.

Here's some notes.... Holiday Park - If you're only going to spend a few hours at that park and your schedule allows for it, GeForce really does warm up later in the day. I've had some pretty "meh" rides on it earlier in the day and some HOLYFUCKINGSHIT rides on it later in that same day. Toverland - Great park! Lots of fun. You probably only need a few hours though. Depends on how many re-rides you like to get on coasters. Efteling - Has a lot of attractions. Many of which I find decent, but totally overrated. However the park can get VERY busy and I don't believer they have rolled out their front of the line pass very widely. A handful of rides do have single rider lines. This is probably a full day park simply because there just isn't a way to get through many of their attractions that quickly. Great info, thanks. I will be sure to try and push our stop at Holiday Park a bit later in the day. Toverland does look like a lot of fun, we are excited for that one. As far as re-rides, unless something is crazy off-the-walls, a ride or two will likely be just fine and I/we need.