ginzo

So, move to Kentucky. It'll save you $30! Actually, my pass is from SFMM, which I haven't even been to for over a year and a half. Online renewal FTW. $90 is still about $60 less than the comparable Cedar Fair pass.

Like... lower admission prices? Not to mention that Six Flags season passes are the best deal in the industry. My renewal was $60 this year, which gets you unlimited access to every Six Flags park for less than the cost of 1 day at Universal or Disney.

Wow, only an hour from the 107th largest metro area! It's still 5 hours from Seattle, which is what most people would think of as the nearest big city. The IAAPA lists Silverwood as Class 1: "Amusement and waterparks under 500,000 in annual attendance; family entertainment centers; attractions; nonprofit zoos, aquariums, and museums; and concessionaires" Silverwood might be a very nice park, many small parks are, but it's not likely to grow its attendance figures any time soon. And the fact that it's in a relatively low population density part of the country is what drives this. Holiday World, despite their remote location, has managed to claw their way up to over 1,000,000 guests, but they are drawing from several decent sized cities: Indy, St. Louis, Louisville, Cincy, etc. Silverwood, on the other hand, just doesn't have this advantage.

Reality check: Silverwood is in Idaho and this ride will probably be down a lot. Seriously, I wish this park all the best, but it's 5 hours from the nearest major city and Six Flags dumped this ride because it was not treating them well.

They're all about the high force vertical loops with no OTSRs. Pretty damn powerful statement considering that Intamin has taken to putting their crappy OTSRs on non-inverting coasters now. Also, some of them were remarkably well made: Mind Bender tracks smoother than a lot of steel coasters from the 90s.

Thanks for posting this Jahan. It's nice to hear the good side to this policy as opposed to the 89234892389423 posts griping about how families are going to have to wind up homeless and sleeping under a freeway overpass after visiting a park due to being bankrupted by the $1 locker fees.

I don't see the similarity to Cyclops at all. Raven has a fierce pace from start to finish. Cyclops just meanders around for a bit until you hit that awesome last drop. Raven is very much a back seat ride. It consistently delivers very fun rides and the night ride is spectacular. I think it's one of those rides that you really have to ride several times, particularly at night, for it to really shine. It sunk in for me last August after several night rides.

Sounds like my kind of ride!

Probably because most coaster nerds want abundant airtime from hyper coasters. Millennium Force seems to be the only exception to this. If you look at the past several years of the Internet coaster poll, there have been only two coasters that have made the #1 slot and they both have massive amounts of airtime.

OMG, Cy Sperling. Remember: I'm not only the Hair Club president, but I'm also a client.

2012? Why are they even bothering? The world will be over before this place opens.

I think that one is a lot of fun. It's nicely placed right there on the beach and gives a great little ride. It's certainly not a top ride for me or anything. More like an overgrown flat ride or something. Certainly kicks the crap out of Deja Vu, Invertigo, Boomerang, etc.

Only thing I'm sorry about is that I wasted $50 (two people) riding that thing last year. I still want a refund because when you only have one coaster in your park it shouldn't run like Predator or Villain. I did get the satisfaction of ranking J2 dead last in the wood coaster poll last year, but other than that it was a complete waste of time and money.

Ya, not true...I see people get turned away quite a bit. Not just men. I saw a women who had enormous "jugs" that blended in well with her stomach. It was quite a site to see the ride ops trying to get her in...but after a few trys, she didn't get to ride. Uhm, couldn't she just have lifted them up on top of the lap bar?

I dont think this in entirely true? It depends on the ride operator who is checking the bar. On the day I rode El Toro they had one checker who was the king of staplers and the other guy was a lot more lenient. Because of the extreme negative-g forces El Toro has, I think they do lean more towards the stapling side of things.

Shhh. Don't remind them or they'll brake rape those as well.

It's a Cedar Fail park. If they took the brakes off, you might get some airtime. They can't allow that.

I'll second that. As far as woodies go, I only like El Toro and Phoenix more.

Considering that Six Flags is paying out like $7.5 million for wild mouse coasters this year, $1.2 million for a good sit down looper does not seem unreasonable. Though, if Dorney really wants it gone, I bet they'd be willing to take a bit less. Knoebels would seem a pretty good place to move this ride to. It's close and they're experts in tinkering with older rides. Only I'd imagine they'd want to get their Flying Turns mess sorted out before taking on another big project.

Fail

Maybe they should, I don't know, get their current coaster mess resolved before taking on another big project.

I think he freely admits that he exaggerates things on his website just to annoy humorless shutterbugs. You can take nice shots with crap gear, it just takes a lot more time and patience than most people have. My crap point-and-shoot often takes really nice shots in full daylight, but is completely awful in low light. The zoom, like you mention, ruins more pictures than it helps. Nice gear just makes things easier.

Having never been to Dorney, how does Laser compared to Scorpion? I like Schwarzkopfs in general, but don't think much about Scorpion.

You could just email him, but he'd probably poke fun at you. He raises a good point though. It's really all about the skill of the photographer, not what camera you have. I could be in a great location and still not take amazing pictures because I wouldn't know when the lighting is going to be just right, etc. And no amount of money spent on gear is going to substitute for skill honed through years of practice.