griffon
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Posts posted by griffon
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I was skimming through the Sunday ads today, and came across an advertisement for this new ride in Maryland which I had never heard of until now.
So my main question is whether these Alpine Slides are generally considered coaster credits?
I've never been on anything like one of these, but looking at the couple pictures I found, and some crappy videos on youtube, they appear to be more 'coaster-like' rides than some other credits I have (like powered coasters). But part of the description says it has a centrifugal braking system which limits the speed to 25mph. This one is not listed in rcdb, but there are several of them in Europe. Anyone else have any insight?
Either way it still looks like a cool ride, and might make a nice road trip in the winter. Also sounds like it will still be running in the snow, which means I'd definitely be there...
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This just has bad news written all over it. You've already got herds of 12 year olds with those roller shoes zipping around the parks bumping into people. Seniors on Segways would add a higher annoyance factor as well as the safety concern.
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Thanks for posting the full resolution version, that's a great shot. I like how the stars show up through the clouds.
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That's just scary... I was really hoping they could re-locate Villain, retrack it, and scrap the trains... then put some new PTCs on. That would make a great re-located ride, and you could pretty much consider it new. I guess that's still possible, but probably not likely.
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Euroburg typically gets some monstrous crowds for Howl-o-Scream on Saturdays. It will probably be lighter this weekend compared to next, and the lines should be a little shorter during the day since most people tend to come into the park later in the afternoon for the scary things. No fast-pass system is offered. And don't bring any bags.
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Not sure if this has been mentioned, but I stumbled upon the first picture I've seen of Dominator being dismantled via geaugalaketoday
While I understand the disappointment of GL fans, the thought of this many coaster seats coming to Kings Dominion all in the same year is very exciting. That's more seats than their last 3 coasters COMBINED, dating back to 2001. Of course we'll have to wait and see if it ends up being official, but it's pretty clear now that it should end up in someones backyard next year.
greatness
from gltoday
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I'm glad to see that BG is taking something like this seriously, although I think they might have a legal case against these individuals if they can prove the restraints were tampered with. It jeopardizes the safety of everyone on the ride to mess with the restraints, whether the design "allows" you to or not. Most coasters have accessible manual releases so that restraints can be unlocked by employees or maintenance in the event the train has to be evacuated outside of the normal loading area. They are designed so that a normal guest wouldn't be able to access them unless they had another object with them (like a screwdriver), and knew what they were doing. Not to mention, Virginia is one of the states which as adopted the 'Amusement Device Rider Safety Act' which has the following condition:
"c. Disconnecting or disabling a safety device except at the express instruction of the owner's or operator's agent or employee."
If the park can prove the rider violated this condition, they could easily be slapped with a state fine.
I think it's possible, if not likely, these individual(s) could have worked in the park in the past, and may have a history with Busch Gardens. According to the article, they're both from the tidewater area around the park, and if one of them had worked there, they may know how the B&M restraints can be manipulated. But that's just a guess.
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What's up, thanks for the comments, I'm glad yall liked the pictures. Jeff [pkdcoaster] got some shots on the trip that blow mine away, so I'm sure he'll post those on the forum at some point when the wife and kids give him some free time
One thing I'd really like to know... how do you guys on TPR spend all day in the parks, and then post pictures here the same night??? I've thought about doing one of those "ongoing" or "in progress" trip reports, but every time I get back from a park at night, I just find it impossible to make time to do that. Well, combined with the fact that Cedar Point Resorts have a hard time keeping up with technology and are baffled by the concept of internet access. But anyway..
I'll be happy to send some higher resolution pics if you send a PM and let me know what you want.
Hey! That girl used to run the Rebel Yell!
I think it's hilarious you noticed that. Actually, we all worked at KD at some point in the past, that's how most of us know each other.
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Last week my best friends and I packed up the van and headed off to the thriving metropolis of Sandusky, Ohio for some end-of-season coaster riding at its finest. Normally we don’t go to Cedar Point in the summer because of the crowds, but seeing how some of the local kiddies were supposed to be going back to school we thought we would give it a shot. Oh, and Maverick may have also had something to do with our decision. When we were there in May, track pieces were being “replaced” and we missed the opening by a couple days. Apparently modern technology wasn’t quite advanced enough to predict that a ground level lightning- quick inversion hidden behind a rock wall may cause a slight amount discomfort at 70mph. It was more of a trial-and-error design I guess, so I was very interested in seeing what the hell Intamin/ CP were thinking and how intense it really was.
We arrived on Wednesday, conquered Maverick a few times and then just relaxed for the next few days, drank plenty of beer and took about a million pictures. The other details of the trip are probably less interesting than the pictures, so here you go:
And lastly, no trip report should be complete without a sunset pic... so here you go. So long Sandusky
Raptor was running as beautiful as ever and still remains my favorite inverted coaster
This bird was like... you have your tower... and I'll have mine
Jeff clearly points out the Mantis is still the #1 worst stand up in the park
Magnum
Mine ride and Mean Streak need to be combined into one picture since we didn't spend much time on these
One handed on Gemini is how we roll..
During the downpour we took shelter outside of the convertible cars which were open but not very popular at the time.
This was an interesting picture that I'm surprised came out as clear as it did
On Friday night a storm came through and closed all the rides down about an hour early. But still gave us some cool photo ops
always a great experience
Dragster was happy to see us this time and didn't roll back once in 3 days (that we know of)
In order to get great photos you have to lean backwards. No exceptions. It also doesn't hurt to lie flat on the ground to get the best possible angle
Jeff and Rob celebrate the best exit gate in the park. Time for another lap
It's a sign
over the river and through the...
Millie was running as fast as ever, and surprisingly had a short line the majority of the trip.
Now for some Maverick ride pictures
Brace yourself kids, it's really not clear whether these twists and turns were meant to be taken at insane speeds, but not many people were complaining. This ride really hauls.
First up was the ever-intense Maverick. Ben and Rob almost gave it a 'thumbs up' immediately, but needed to make sure their heads were on straight first
We all up in Cedar Point like we ownz the place
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Nice pictures of the park, I've enjoyed your trip report! It's nice to see the sun is cooperating for other people at Busch Gardens this year . Seems that every time I make it down there, it runs away. Oh well, glad you had a good time. Did you do anything else in the Williamsburg area?
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Great shots!
So do you just set the camera on a slower shutter speed and hope you get a decent shot? Or is there a different more effective way?
I was at the Oriole's game last night and there was lightning everywhere! Would've made for some cool shots if I had a decent camera.
I tried different things with the shutter speed. First I was setting it at about 7-10 seconds, which didn't really work. The aperture won't go high enough on my camera to just let it sit there. The sky just comes out white when I did that. A couple of the last shots, I used a 1/2 second shutter speed, and had my finger ready whenever I saw a flash in the sky, and I was lucky enough to catch a few.
The storm was a really good one with flashes almost every second for a decent amount of time. That's not too uncommon around here in the summer, so hopefully we'll get another storm like that soon.
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Ever since I was a kid, I've always wanted to get pictures of lightning because it seems like it would be one of the hardest things to do. I remember when I was about 10 years old I would run around the back yard with my $12 camera trying to get lightning pictures during a storm on summer afternoons. Needless to say the roll would come out with nothing but grey pictures...
Last fall I got a new camera that has a full manual mode (not an SLR though), so I've been waiting for a storm with frequent lightning so I could practice. Tonight we had a good storm come through the area, and I sat out on the balcony for about an hour - took over 150 shots, and came up with 2 or 3 that might be halfway decent. So I wanted to see if anyone else out there has any experience or advice, since I'm definitely going to try this more often.
some cloud to cloud action after the storm. I wish I could have gotten more like this, but this was the only one that came out.
This is probably my favorite from tonight. The car in the foreground with double bolts in the background
not quite where I wanted it, but the exposure came out decent on this one
some cloud to ground
sky gets darker
the storm approaching
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Yea man, thanks for the update as usual! Crowds have been pretty heavy on the weekends from what I've heard, but I need to get back over there again soon. Glad you picked a good day to get those shots and video (while I was sitting at stupid work ).
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"X-Base- Experimental Testing Flight Training Site" haha
Definitely sounds like something out of Paramount's cheey-a$$ theming department. You would think Top Gun should also be near this "flight training site", yet it's several thousand feet away.
Cool trip report man, I'm surprised the park was that dead. I've never been to Kings Island with light crowds - must be nice.
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You definitely lined up some great pictures there, thanks for putting those new ones up! Glad you had a good time at the park around the same time I did.
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Did I spot a reverse pov video system on Raptor? Was it working?
Yup, it was working. Looked pretty good.
Didn't feel like spending the $20 for a DVD though.
Those are small cameras on the trains, but you can hardly call it a "POV." Thanks to the internet I found out beforehand that the $20 gets you about 90% stock footage and offride footage of the ride. The rest of it is just small clips of your actual ride edited in, so I didn't even bother trying to get one.
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Gemini was running both sides on Sunday, although they weren't really racing at all.
Odd...they were racing on Sunday when I was in that area of the park.
I'm sure they attempt to race them any time both sides are running together. It's so much better when they do. I actually didn't make it near Gemini on Sunday, but I know they were running one side each on Mon and Tues.
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Just got back from Cedar Point last night, and had awesome weather the past few days in Sandusky. I've been to Cedar Point in mid-May the last seven years and have to say this was the ONLY time we've had sunny skies the entire trip. Most of the time it’s cloudy and/or raining 80% of the time. This year it started off a little cold on Sunday, but climbed up to about 75 degrees on Tuesday when we left in the afternoon.
After hearing that Maverick would be closed, I almost postponed the trip, but decided that lighter crowds and no Maverick was probably still better than huge crowds and Maverick running. At this point I'm still happy with the decision - and might try to get back to the park at the end of the season... so we'll see.
As for the trip itself... My fiancée Erin and I left on Sunday morning, and met up with a couple friends at Lighthouse Point in the afternoon. Unfortunately, I came down with a cold the night before we left, and fought with a sinus infection almost the entire time. I also didn’t get any sleep the first night because my friends found a bachelorette party a few cabins down from ours, and attempted to turn our place into a miniature frat house. This would have been cool and everything, had I not been with my girlfriend, sick, and sober all at the same time – but when all I needed was rest, it didn’t help the situation at all. Either way it didn’t stop me from having a good time in the park. The next night, Erin and I went over to Hotel Breakers and got our own room for the rest of the trip- so after getting much better rest the 2nd night, I was able to enjoy everything a lot more.
We managed to get on just about all the rides multiple times over the span of 3 days, but only one ride on Dragster (thankfully in the front) because it had a significant amount of downtime. I couldn’t tell what the issues were, but it was down for a large portion of the afternoon on both Monday and Tuesday. I also got to see some of the track being installed on Maverick.
So, here are some pictures to highlight the rest of the trip. I also got some great video, and may be able to make a music vid soon… depends on how much free time I have. Also, I’m linking these from another site now, so hopefully they will display correctly. Let me know...
No Intamin track being transported on the interstate, instead... the DC Metro??
Have to represent the hometown hero, Griffon
Twister is such a cool ride, especially in the back seat
Close up of the twisted greatness
More twister
Raptor was running spectacular with just a slight pinch on the midcourse brakes. I wish other Inverts would fly through those like Raptor does
Climbing the lift
Into the brakes
It's the tallest and fastest Blue Streak in the world!
My all time favorite flat ride
Maxair's wait time was twice as long as Wicked Twister's the entire time
Iron Dragon has a great setting, but still wishes it could compete with Big Bad Wolf
Hey, I've seen one of those before. In Williamsburg I believe
Gemini was only running one side the whole time, but they alternated sides each day.
The cheesy but fun Paddlewheel Excursion
And some ducks that were fighting...? er, mating?
Intamins break
I managed to get 2 pictures of Dragster before it broke down the first day. The next day I got 2 more and then it broke. The 3rd day I got 3 pictures before it shut down. I'm thinking there was a trend.
More Dragster
Not my favorite coaster in the park, but definitely a great experience in the front.
Now for my favorite part of the trip. Behold, The Force
Heading down the home stretch
Flying through the island
Can't leave out the sunset pictures
I love this one with the bird flying across the middle.
... and Gemini was once the tallest coaster in the world
The same night at Lighthouse point on the dock
Sunset
Now for some sad and pathetic Maverick photos
You can get a good view of it from the dock at lighthouse point. Can you tell it's one of my favorite places?
The track had just arrived the night before and we got to watch them do some welding
A close up of the surgery
Hopefully it will be up and running soon.
So long from Cedar Point. I'll be back.
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Yea man, you had some good luck on the skyride on Sunday!
Great job as usual with the comprehensive set of photos. I'm looking forward to riding more, but after the VIP event last week with no lines, it will be harder to bear with the monster lines this summer.
And as far as the bag policy... if anyone is planning on going to the park. Just buy a pair of Cargo shorts with the biggest pockets you can find. Preferably zipper pockets. That way you can "secure" you're loose articles without having to pay for a locker. It's worked very well for me so far this year.
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^ When I rode Sheikra on Wednesday, they were loading and unloading from just one station. Not sure if it's like that just on slow days or what, but just an observation.
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What kind of camera do you have? DSLR?
I wish I had a DSLR. I'll probably end up getting one before the end of the year, I'm getting more and more into photography. I use a Sony DSC-H5 right now which is a great camera, but nothing professional. I actually do a lot of work in Photoshop to boost up the contrast and bring out the color in each picture. It's a lot of work, but I love doing it for some reason.
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wow... Disneyland looks awesome at night! I really wish I could remember when I went to the Paris one all those years ago (over a decade!)
Really nice photos! Makes me envy American coaster enthusiasts that little bit more...
Thanks everyone for the comments, I appreciate it. Since you're from "somewhere in England" I thought I would mention that the parks I went to seemed to be filled with a lot of families from England and Europe this time of year. There were all these families with kids and I remember thinking "why aren't these kids in school" but I noticed they all had British and European accents. Maybe school is letting out this time of year in Europe? I don't know?
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Day 5: Wednesday, 4/25 - Busch Gardens Tampafrica and Old Town
When we originally planned this trip, I didn't think we would have a chance to make it to Busch Gardens, mainly b/c I didn't want to have to rent a car. But shortly before we left, I found out that Busch Gardens was smart enough to offer a daily shuttle from Orlando to Tampa. This was a perfect situation for us, so we jumped on the shuttle and headed down to the park on Wednesday.
This was my first time to BGT since 2000, and I have to say that I am much more impressed with the park now than I have been in the past. The landscaping was better than I remember, and despite being a little hard to navigate without a map, the park just seemed to have something for everyone.
Sheikra was great, and in a way I'm glad I got to ride it before it goes floorless. I think the floorless aspect will make a huge difference in the front row, but probably not much of a difference in the back two. The drops and immelman were both great, and I loved the ride.
However, the best coasters of the whole trip for me were Kumba and Montu. Kumba was a little rough, especially on the end seats, but it was much faster than I remember, and the layout is so great. It's a good ride in any seat and transitions into each element really nicely. Kumba is now easily in my top ten, which it wasn't before.
In previous trips to the park, Montu has always been a good ride, but seemed kinda slow throughout the second half of the ride. This time it was flying through the midcourse brakes , which made the 2nd half of the ride much more intense as you dive through the cool trenches. This is easily now my favorite inverted coaster.
Gwazi, on the other hand, has obliterated into total crap. I can't believe a ride like Drachen Fire was removed for being rough, while this ride is still operating as rough as it is. It's a shame because it used to be so great. Anyway, overall, I really enjoyed my time at the park, and it was a great way to end the trip.
Our flight left on Thursday afternoon, and we were going to try and get to Sea World that morning, but I wasn't able to arrange transportation back to the airport, so we decided not to. Still, I'm very happy that we were able to do as much as we did in just a few days.
And finally, a sunset from the plane ride home. When I got back to Richmond, it was again cloudy and raining. Back to reality I guess.
The G-Force ride was too expensive for what it was, so I just watched a couple launches
I thought I would be able to get this credit, but was turned away as I did not have any kids to snag and ride with.
Later on Wednesday night we stopped over at Old Town and hung out for a while.
And lastly from Busch Gardens, a donkey
The park theming and landscaping was excellent
Flamingos are cool. I wanted to take one back for the yard, but I was told Airport security wouldn't allow it
Chasing dinner
Hey, what are you lookin' at?
Lunch time for the giraffes
I didn't know what to expect, but the river part was definitely cool, and made it more of a ride than an attraction.
I thought Rhino Rally was really great!
Scorpion the g-force machine. Still a decent ride
Gwazi the jackhammer. Geez, this ride used to be so good
My first re-located credit, although I don't think it's fair to count it as a new one. The brakes were on pretty heavy, and it ran very slow. A much better ride in VA.
Montu from the safari
Loop #2
Flying through the awesome trenches
Montu fan turn
Immelman greatness
This is my kind of line!
Signature Kumba shots
this is such a cool effect for a coaster to have, and it was definitely very popular
Looks like a close call in the back seat for getting wet, but I know for a fact now that you don't feel any water
splash zone
2nd drop into the fog
I love this picture of both drops
Chain dogs and anti- rollbacks
Splash
B&M goodness
Sheikra and flowers, for Sheikra and flower lovers
Countdown until the ride closes. They were really advertising this heavily throughout the park, and on billboards in the area
Out of the fog
I know there are pictures of this already, but since it was part of my trip, I'll put them up here too.
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Day 4: Tuesday, 4/24: Islands of Adventure
After being worn out Monday, I slept in on Tuesday, while Erin was at another event. We met back up around 1pm, and headed over to Islands of Adventure for the afternoon. Practically everything was a walk-on so we didn't need all day in the park.
Dueling Dragons and Hulk were both awesome as usual. We had to ride Ripsaw Falls, despite getting soaked, but after that I didn't feel the need to go on Bluto's raft ride and get even more drenched.
The coolest part was that I managed to get the impossible Pteranodon Flyers credit. You're supposed to have a kid with you in order to get on, but at the end of the day we kept looking up at the ride and noticed there was nothing but adults on it. I walked up to the entrance to see if we could sneak by, but the employee stopped us and tried to discourage us from getting in line by saying the ride was for kids and it was really boring and short. I kindly explained my coaster nerd status and that I've been on everything in the park but this one ride, and also how I missed the Primeval Whirl credit at Disney the day before. He laughed at me for being a total dork, and then let us through. There was about 10 people in front of us, which translated into a 10 minute line, but I really enjoyed the views from just above the trees.
After the day in the park, we hung around City Walk for a while and looked in the shops, then went back to the hotel.
Would have been cool to eat here, but we didn't make it in time and it was packed
Hard Rock cafe at night
We hung out at Universal City Walk for a while and saw some interesting shirts (in the endangered species store, of all places)
Another sunset on another great day. I actually made this one in Photoshop though
Spiderman- amazing just like I remember
Actually the Pteranodon Flyers were pretty cool despite being a kids ride
I look mad in this picture, but I'm actually pretty excited to be here
Hulk close up
Train coming out of the clouds
Hulk was running faster and more intense than I remember. But also a little more rough
If you look closely, the guy in the front row was in the process of losing his hat
Best train wheel covers too
The most exciting vertical loops in existence
Dragon entrance. Both sides were running as good as I remember
Hulk and Dr. Doom's Fear Fall
I visited IOA for the first time a few months after it opened, and I was very impressed this time with how well everything has been kept up.
Hello IOA
New Alpine Coaster Opening up in Maryland.
in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
Posted
Ok, so I'm not the type of person who counts any type of rolling contraption as a coaster, and I generally rely on rcdb for the deciding tally... but I feel like I'm starting to find some legitimate arguments here as to why this "mountain coaster" should be added to the list. For example, I came across this crazy ride in Ontario which is basically a piece of plastic on wheels that rolls down steel track.... apparently that counts as a coaster. It looks to me like the same general idea with the exception of maybe the "centrifugal braking system."
I'm not taking the hand brake into consideration, since it looks like you don't have to do anything with it. If the centrifugal braking system is the only reason it doesn't count, then how do the Zamperla powered coasters count? They have a restrictor plate too (for lack of a better term). I've been around long enough to know that there are some pretty vague lines and some credits are just left up to the individual person as to whether they should be added to the infamous credit list. So I've almost decided I'm counting this one, only because it will make me more ambitious to drive the few hours up to the road and get another credit in the snow.