ginzo

I think one of the ERT sessions should be for resort guests only, probably the morning sessions. Cedar Point has some very expensive on-property rooms and they frankly don't give you a lot of perks for what they charge. They should give resorts guests truly exclusive ride time every day. Allowing anyone who spends $20 on the Joe Cool Club to join the ERT session all year long is lame.

^Thanks for posting this. I didn't even know Asterix was adding something this year. I look forward to checking this out in June.

Great success! You're a good photographer. Keep up the fine work. I think the removal of Houdini is dumb as well. Six Flags claims to be trying to install more family attractions and they go and remove that. If they remove the parachute ride, that would be even worse.

Mind Bender is in my top 5 for steel. It gives such a surprisingly great ride, especially when you hit those insane drops from the back seat.

So, basically what Great Adventure has right now?

It doesn't. Think of them as polar opposites. One is a very quality-minded chain and the other can barely be categorized as food. White Castle is only good to eat at 4 AM when the alcohol is wearing off and that late night hunger is kicking in.

Nobody conquers White Castle. It conquers you.

Did you ride it after it rained? Mean Streak is quite rough at times. It wasn't the worst roughness I ever felt, but more like a really annoying vibration that made my forearms itch.

No, they're not supposed to be rough. Roughness is a function of poor design/construction/maintenance. You can't find a single wooden coaster vendor that brags about how rough their wooden coasters are. And, if they did, this would be equivalent to them putting up a big "PLEASE SUE US" sign outside of their office. http://www.greatcoasters.com/

This is a very pretty little coaster. I certainly prefer woodies made with real wooden structures as opposed to steel structures. Can't wait to ride it in a few months!

You obviously never rode Outer Limits in its inaugural season. That was easily the worst thing I ever rode. Intamin never botched anything that badly.

Has there ever been any talk of doing some rehab work on the Matterhorn's track? It seems like the ride could be amazing if it were a little bit smoother. The ride experience is very unique: Not many coasters are as immersive, bringing you right into the nitty gritty of the action. But the bumps, while not horrible, prevent it from being a great ride. Oh, and I've only rode the left side. If the right side is better, I wouldn't know.

There are plenty of smooth woodies apart from the Intamins. Most of the GCIIs, Phoenix, the Kennywoodies, Cornball, Phoenix, Viper (SFGAm), etc. Sure they have a little bit more bite than most B&Ms, but it's a very reasonable amount of roughness. Just enough to let you know that you're on a woodie. The problem with Mean Streak, SOB, Texas Giant, etc. is they're too big. Wood isn't the most durable material and when you start subjecting it to the high forces of a 150+ foot drop things start go bad.

You poor California people.

Make up your own mind about Mean Streak. A few freaks actually like it. I mean you've been on Phoenix, and to many, many people, myself included, that's about as good as a woodie gets. Smooth and tons of awesome air. But really it's up to you to decide what you like.

Damn dude. Nice post!

^It would be silly to promote SFMM nationally as a destination park right now because they don't have any on property hotels. Cedar Point is limited by being a seasonal park in a fairly isolated location. That being said, I do think a lot of the larger US parks should be reinvented as resort type places with on property hotels, decent food, high end shows, etc.

Neither park deserves the crown. Cedar Point might have a slightly better coaster line up, but Magic Mountain gets many points for having the cojones to remove old crappy coasters. Cedar Point needs to either remove or fix Mean Streak, neither of which are going to happen any time soon. At least Magic Mountain had the vision to tear out Psyclone. Also, neither park has a high quality woodie, so that also makes them lose a lot of points. When you're creeping up on 20 coasters there's just no excuse for not making a really nice woodie a part of your line up.

AquaTrax???

Break his back. Make him humble.

I really hope they don't shut Dragons down for any appreciable amount of time. They're by far the best thing at the Universal Resort and it would be a huge loss to not have them running.

Yeah, I just wanted to point out that there's more to college than the football team. Frankly, I prefer small private colleges to big research institutions like Michigan where the prima donna professors are there to do research and lecture grudgingly. Though the Michigan name would certainly open a lot of doors for a person.

The Europe trip has spots open and it has INSANE ERT: - Parc Asterix - ERT on Tonerre De Zeus & Trace Du Hourra - Bobbejaanland - ERT on 7 different coasters & Rides! - Toverland - ERT on Troy, Booster Bike, and more - Drievliet - ERT on Formule X - Walibi World - ERT on Goliath & Robin Hood - Heide Park - ERT on Colossos & Desert Race - Movie Park Germany - ERT on several rides & Coasters - Tripsdrill - ERT on G'sengte Sau - Holiday Park - ERT on Expedition GeForce

Fail.