coasterbear30

I rode Gwazi back in March of 2009 and OMG had it gotten so much rougher since my first ride in 07. So rough in fact that I said I would not ride it again. It beat the hell out of me. For wood coasters, it rates right up there with GA Cyclone and that crap is the worst. So a HUGE THANK YOU to BGA for getting MF's for Gwazi, it will for sure improve the ride experience.

^ One word: AWESOME!

It's a done deal!

I have a book called "Roller Coasters: The Thrill Seekers Guide to the Ultimate Scream Machines" and it is pretty awesome. It has a ton of pics and is a nice hardback coffee table book. You should be able to get it at Barnes and Noble for around 13 bucks. I just picked up 3 more copies of it for some friends on a discount rack there for 4 bucks each!

My faves are all 3 of DW's major coasters. Have ridden Thunderhead several times in pitch black(just recently again in Nov.) and those rides are insane in the dark. You can't see anything. Also Mystery Mine in the dark...that last drop you can't see the bottom and it looks like you are dropping into total darkness and you don't know when it will stop. Awesome. Then just in Nov again, I rode Tornado in the pitch black and that drop through the mountain is amazing!!! I also like Goliath (SFOG) Mindbender (SFOG) Although not a coaster, the Crypt at KD is amazing at night with all the lasers and fire and fog...

^^That's funny....we posted the same review at the same time.....guess I'm not alone in thinking that.

Quote: Good lord! What is with all the hatred of Shockwave on this thread?! How many stand ups give ejector air?? This one does! It may hand out a jolt or two as well but nothing horrible IMO. Seriously? Have you ridden a good stand up? Shockwave is God awful. I was ok until the helix of death! Coming up and over that airtime hill and being slammed into a 90 degree helix is BRUTAL. I seriously thought I had broken some ribs. Then the short little bumps after that killed my man bits. And on top of all that, I don't think this ride is safe. My whole entire seat you could shake back and forth. It didnt even looked bolted in good. This TOGO death machine deserves to die.

It would be a tie between GA Cyclone and Shockwave at KD. But my first choice would be GA Cyclone. Havent ridden it in 2 years because it got so rough. Burn It Down!

- Favorite new coaster - Goliath (SFOG) - Favorite new ride - S & S Screamin Swings - Favorite new park - I will have to say Freestyle as it is the only "new" park I have visited - Most memorable park moment - Getting to walk out on the tracks of Thunderhead and an inside tour of Mystery Mineat Thrills in the Hills at Dollywood '08 - Most memorable coaster moment - Big tie between riding Sheikra, Goliath, Thunderhead and Hypersonic for the first times - Best ERT session - Thunderhead/Mystery Mine rides in pitch dark for an hour and a half - Least favorite coaster - Nighthawk/Borg at Carowinds (BRUTAL) - Least favorite ride - can't think of one - Least favorite park - Wild Adventures, hands down - Most interesting ride you've seen introduced - Intamin 4D ala Insane - Least interesting ride you've seen intoduced - Vekoma Stingray - Your favorite TPR moment (favorite post, trip report, video, whatever!) - hanging out with TPR at SFOG on the Deep South trip this year - The decade's biggest flop - Freestyle, even though I didnt think it was awful. Would rather go there than Wild Adventures. - The decade's biggest success - probably Millennium Force - The best meal you've had at a park - Backstage Restaurant at Dollywood - The worst meal you've had at a park - pick one, I've had several - Best park turnaround - don't really know - Worst park turnaround - Freestyle - What was the biggest trend of this past decade? - spinning coasters

I gotta say that I hope they can make a run of it but just in case...glad I already got my credits and rode the only ferris wheel lift coaster!

I chose Goliath (SFOG) since it is my number one coaster overall! I have also ridden Apollo's Chariot.

Yeah, the black and whte/color photo with TT in it is amazing! I love B & W photography with a little bit of color. BTW, are you guys going to be at Coasterfest on the 21st?

^Yes, I guess they renamed it before it opened, but I thought it was interesting that it was supposed to be called Intimidator and named after Earnhardt.

Sorry to drag up an old thread but as I was reading through a book on coasters tonight, I find that there was an old park called Winston Cup Race World in Pigeon Forge. They apparently had a woodie built in 2000 called "The Intimidator" and it was named after Dale Earnhardt. Way to go Cedar Fair for ripping off an old idea.... Guess this place turned into the Belle park discussed in this thread. Interesting to find out.

Great trip report. Were you guys there on Sunday or Saturday? I went on Sunday for a while and it was pretty dead.

Name: Rob Age: 33 What is your roller coaster count? 96 What is your home park? Six Flags Over Georgia What is the nearest big city? Atlanta What is your occupation? Unemployed at the moment About how many times a year do you visit a park (including your home park)? 25-30 About how many times a year do you travel to a park that is not your home park? 4-5 When you travel do you go primarily to amusement parks or do you also try and hit other sites? Mostly parks but some others as well What is the farthest you’ve traveled to go to an amusement park? Opposite side of the country Does roller coaster time get in the way of family time? (Do you choose to miss your children’s or family’s sporting events, holidays, birthdays, etc…) No Do you have any other major hobbies? Music fanatic...collect music/horror movies Do you get feelings of sadness in the offseason? Do you even have an offseason? Do you travel during the offseason? 1. Yes 2. Yes 3. Not usually Do you consider yourself friends with someone you met who works at an amusement park? (Or reverse it, if you work or worked and an amusement park have you made friends with enthusiasts?) Yes Would it bother you to go to an amusement park by yourself? No Have you gone to an amusement park by yourself? If so have you ever ran into another enthusiast and tagged along with them? Yes and Yes Do you find it easy to make friends with other enthusiasts? Sometimes How do you get your coaster news? TPR How many different forum sites do you regularly post on? Just here If there was a poll that asked a large pool of enthusiasts what their favorite roller coaster is, what do you think would be the top 3 responses be for wood? And for steel? Wood: 1. El Toro 2. Voyage 3. T Express Steel: 1. Millennium Force 2. S:ROS (SFNE) 3. TTD Same scenario but for amusement parks, what would be the top 3? Cedar Point, Busch Gardens, SFGrAdv Have you ever “stole a kid” to get a credit on a kiddie coaster? No, but I would as long as I didnt look like chester the molester Do you cut other categories out of your budget to make trips to parks? (Entertainment, fast food, holidays, tobacco or alcohol, etc…) Sometimes Before you visit a new park do you research the park finding the best way to navigate the park, get the best deals, or what days to go? Sometimes Do you feel the roller coaster enthusiast community is a warm and accepting community, or a negative and discouraging community? Accepting Do you like to talk about your hobby with people who are not roller coaster enthusiasts? Yeah, if they are interested.

I was there on Saturday night(10/10) for Fright Fest and everything was open, even Mindbender and GASM. Begin Rant>BTW, Six Flags does a terrible job for fright fest. There were all of 7 scare actors in the whole park and they weren't even trying to scare people and the halloween decorations were lack luster at best. I am assuming that a lot of this is because of the bankruptcy. Oh, and a 10 dollar upcharge for one haunted house is ridiculous! Why can't we have haunts like the Cedar Fair parks? I would gladly pay an extra admission if there were several haunted houses and scare zones.

Thanks for the info Robb. For me, it would not make a difference if you added some of the other asian countries. Honestly, the only coasters I care about in Asia are the mega-lites and Fireball and a select few others. For some reason there just seem to be a lot of Vekoma or Arrow's there and those do nothing for me. I ordered one of the Coaster Expeditions that had all asian coasters on it and honestly only watched it once. I think it would be better to highlight Europe as a whole and make a Raw series of all the new coasters that opened there in the past few years. That would be great!!!

I am saying no because I am not a fan of coasters in Asia. Many of the coasters they have just seem ho-hum to me. They have a few good ones but Asia is honestly the last place I would ever go to ride coasters unless I was just bored and had every other credit in the world. Just my opinion.

I live about 8 miles from the park off 285 and there are several neighborhoods around here that are flooded close to the chattahooche river. There were lots of houses destroyed and the flooding was pretty bad but nothing happened in my neighborhood thank God. Lets just hope that this does not affect GASM or Mindbender. They seem to have the worst flooding. And as someone said before, God please wash Ninja away and bring us something better in its place! PLEASE! Oh and just one more thing...maybe GA Cyclone will fall apart if we are all lucky!

We didn't even go over that far in the park because we knew we couldn't get the kiddie credit so I guess I missed it! Dang...

Where in the park was the dark ride?

I didn't get to ride any dark ride at Family Kingdom. I didn't even see one for that matter. Swamp Fox was great, although a little violent, the airtime was awesome! As far as the drop tower...it was strange. It sat at the bottom forever and then without any warning it shot straight to the top...it then held at the top for a few seconds before it dropped again...weirdest drop tower ever.

We also heard that they were getting a log flume next year from one of the employees....lets hope they make it that long...

^^ No there is no revolving tunnel upon entrance or anywhere in the ride. There is also no glasses you wear on the ride. It seriously was terrible. The only good part was when the ride first started and we were in the dark, my friend Shawn grabbed my friend Scott in the front seat and scared him. Other than that it was just lights, music and carboard cut outs. SUCK CITY! ^Well kind of...there was no "dispatch, enjoy your ride" or anything. They held their thumbs up and the train started moving. Seriously bad ops. They were not friendly at all. I could have eaisly stood up in the cars or even thrown what I had in my hand at someone and they would have never known the difference. Thus why this park might/probably won't make it.