chickenbowl
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Posts posted by chickenbowl
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Here's a link to the LA County planning board government site. Click the pdf link to view the submitted (and approved) plans for the modified Jersey Devil clone.
https://epicla.lacounty.gov/SelfService/#/plan/c292f719-db4c-44ad-a217-011599501c9a?tab=attachments
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Yeah, I'd never blame anybody for ranking Boulder Dash high (it was divine in 2011), but even in 2016 it was awful. Seeing how far it fell was really the low-point of my coaster year. Haven't returned since
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Yay - Some results! I'm happy to have ridden 41/50 of these incredible rides. Now for some notes:
Although Untamed is one of three RMCs I have not yet ridden (so I can't fully judge), I find it surprising to see it place so highly. In fact, every European coaster I've ridden is ranked higher than I would personally rank them (EGF, Taron, Helix, Wildifre), so maybe there's a strong European voter swing, or maybe I had universally 'worse' experiences across Europe (doubtful... I loved these coasters)?
I wish Hakugei had enough voters to compete because I think it absolutely deserves a spot in the Top-25. Same for Zadra, which I haven't experienced yet.
I also find it funny to see a separation between RailBlazer and Wonder Woman when both felt nearly identical to me (I'd even give a *slight edge to WW for keeping it's speed marginally up at the end)
Glad to see T Express make top 5! (Although it deserves top 2 to be honest) And it's good to see Outlaw Run beat out Wildfire!
The love of my life, Coaster at Playland, is still holding strong, well done!
And finally, it's nice to see more recognition for the best US GCI, Prowler, although it deserves a spot closer to Mystic Timbers.
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So did we confirm that there is no roof on this station? I'm kind of surprised that California amusement regulation is so anal about everything but gives this a pass. Not that it is any less safe or anything, but just that it seems like something they wouldn't let fly.
I take it you've never been to CGA... SWSD confirmed they will have shade structures, but no roof. Similar to Journey to Atlantis and Tidal Twister
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Here's a picture I took of the completed layout!
And one of the new train in the maintenance shed.
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Construction is cruising. The Hammerhead is up
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New image of Texas Stingray from the parks facebook:
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Two new images from reddit:
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I just want to point out that the loading process on WCR is actually faster than Full Throttle because they don't have to check every seatbelt before lowering the lapbars anymore. WCR doesn't have the secondary seatbelts so you pull down your restraint once you're seated. Also, WCR has a loose-article system that happens well before riders load into the trains, so that quickens loading as well. This is possible because load/unload happens on the same side of the station (like Skyrush).
Also I have never had an easy time loading onto any Premier coaster. Their seats have always been designed with such minimal rider space that it's such a pain navigating into/out of them. The collars make that difficult process even worse. I seriously feel like I'm on the verge of spraining my ankles every time I have to shimmy into the far seat.
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Is it too late to add West Coast Racers into the poll this year?
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Excellent report! Those shots with Mt. Fuji are incredible.
Out of curiosity, where are the single rider lines at Fuji-Q? Are they by the main entrance or do you have to go hunting for them?
The only rides I saw single rider lines for were Eejanaika and Fujiyama. For both of them we went to the main entrances and used the same queue as the priority tickets/fast passes. Maybe they started labeling them just recently? Do-Dodonpa might have had one too, but I'm not certain.
They were definitely not running the single rider line on the crowded summer day I visited (a label on the signs said "no single rider available today"). I think it's based off crowds. Also the skip-the-line passes cost me 2500 yen instead of 1500 yen each on the day I visited.
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You describe my feelings on these coasters pretty well. Do-Dodonpa's launch is incredible! I can't wait to see how you rank every Japanese coaster overall
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Finished my rankings. I stopped at 200, because nothing below that matters.
I'll give my top 30 in case anyone's interested:
1. Steel Vengeance
2. Lightning Rod
3. T Express
4. Intimidator 305
5. Maverick
6. Hakugei
7. Outlaw Run
8. Skyrush
9. Twisted Timbers
10. El Toro
11. Expedition GeForce
12. Phoenix
13. Coaster (Playland)
14. Wildfire
15. Medusa Steel Coaster
16. Fury 325
17. Wonder Woman Golden Lasso Coaster
18. RailBlazer
19. Iron Rattler
20. Helix
21. Twisted Colossus
22. Mega-Lite (Happy Valley Shanghai)
23. Kawasemi
24. Prowler
25. Superman the Ride
26. Behemoth
27. New Texas Giant
28. Mystic Timbers
29. Silver Star
30. Taron
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It appears you can't ride WCR without some sort of pass/membership (aka a normal, ticket-buying guest) until 2020, so maybe the jury is still out on if it "opens" in 2019 or not.
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(My pic)
We are already just one piece away from being topped off. It's very steep and simply massive for this park!
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Not only is Emperor progressing extremely quickly, but the park has submitted plans to the city for yet ANOTHER coaster.
The proposed coaster looks to be an Intamin family launch coaster similar to Wave Breaker (or Jet Rescue in Aus). It would take over the space the Wild Arctic simulators take up and use the employee lot/storage area to the East. The ride would be 30ft tall (under the CA Coastal Commission limit) and travel 42mph. The Wild Arctic animal exhibit would remain.
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I think they'll have some serious challenges though because that puts them in direct competition with Legoland for the same patrons in the same area.
I was considering that too, but keep in mind that San Diego County has 3+ million residents and Legoland and Sesame Place are ~1 hour apart (without traffic). Hopefully both can successfully co-exist because I doubt at this scale Sesame Place can fully compete with the family-resort offerings that Legoland currently has (2 hotels, small waterpark, aquarium, and full theme park).
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Haha, yeah whoops. $2,500 for Fuji and $500-$1,000 for Nagashima. Sorry, my conversion brain messed up a bit.
I spent ~$50 USD to skip 6 hours of lines at Fuji, so in that perspective it's worth it.
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Hakugei is one of these coasters that's apparently just as great to photograph as it is to ride. More good analysis of the ride and how it compares to other RMCs!
Question, how/where do you obtain fast passes for Fuji-Q? I've tried looking into this but I'm still a little unclear. And Nagashima does not offer one, correct?
That's indeed disappointing news about the rides at Hakkeijima Sea Paradise if true. I'm looking for a way to confirm with the park about this ahead of my trip coming up in Oct-Nov but I haven't found any English language contact info for them yet.
Elissa basically got it: Fuji-Q has vending machines in front of every queue entrance where you can choose a time slot (they cost 25,000 yen each the day I visited).
Nagashima is pretty similar, vending machines that sell passes, but they weren't time reserved (they cost 5,000-10,000 yen the day I visited). They had them for SD2000, Hakugei, and Acrobat.
Our Japan trip was absolutely awesome. Almost everything exceeded my expectations. Both T Express and Hakugei were unreal experiences. I still cannot believe how insanely fast Hakugei is... I was definitely not anticipating a "WTF, this is like Steel Vengeance" kind of ride.Also, FUUUUUUUUUJIYAMAAA FUUUUUUUJIYAAAAMMMAAA FUUUUUUUUUUUUJIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIYAMAAAA
The songs in every Fuji-queue were hilarious. I just remembered how painfully slow the Eejanaika loading system was. All shoes muse come off, 3 different seatbelts, making everyone pray for their lives basically.
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Glad to hear T-Express is still the awesome mix of El Toro and Balder! I hope they continue to take care of it.
You have way more patience than I do for some of those wait times though. The only way I'll even tolerate FujiQ is with the express passes for ALL the coasters. Especially if I'm going to get beat up on them in the process!
Yeah, standing in Eejanaika's queue for 3.5 hours is a "never again" type of experience. I would've bought more passes, but Fuji was so late in the under-budgeted trip that it was hard to justify the expense. Even the ticket counters had a 45 min line. I think my visit could've used a bit more prep/planning on my end, it was an achievement to only miss one coaster that day.
Love the pics, Jeremy! The only two things I'm sad I missed in Japan are Hakugei and Journey to the Center of the Earth. But I know I will be back soon and will get on both!Thanks, Taylor. Seeing how much you loved Japan, I'm sure you'll eventually get back for these. It seems TDR always has at least one major attraction down, and I felt lucky to only miss Splash Mountain. Though I was nervous when I saw the entire Volcano covered in scaffolding. The resort was under heavy construction and beautification getting ready for next Summer's Olympics. Sorry you missed out on Journey.
My biggest miss was Sea Paradise, which had both Blue Fall and Surf Coaster down for maintenance all day. Also was denied entry to Toshimaen for having tattoos. Even after I covered them they still refused admission.
Great report! It seems like the few people who have ridden Hakugai all agree it's running way faster than the initial POVs looked.T-Express is a big bucket list coaster of mine and I'm glad it's still running well.
Thanks! I was surprised and thought my experience was unique, but I too, have seen others share my sentiments. Everland is pretty out there, but it's worth the trouble.
fantastic pics, and love all the ones from Japan.is that Mt Fuji I spot in the Fuji Q pics? a fairly rare occurrence from what I understand, and it makes a great pic.
in regards to SFFT tho, I do wish to point out that WW isn't the clone, since it opened 1st, right? Railblazer is a mirror anyways, so not technically a clone
Yeah it is! Due to the rain, we weren't expecting to see it, but right at sunset it started peeking out.
I'd say Wonder Woman is a clone because RMC designed and sold the ride as a standard design. The fact that two prototype versions were sold at the same time reinforces that. The opening date isn't super relevant when they were clearly developed together.
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Hello again, everyone - We're finally catching up to the present day here. This August I took my second big International coaster trip. I visited Japan and Korea and rode a lot of bucketlist coasters. I'll share a few thoughts on some notable coasters, but let's dive into the real reason for this Trip Report.
Hakugei.
I've been following this coaster since the beginning and to be honest, when I saw the layout and initial test runs/POV I wasn't expecting too much, maybe middle of the pack RMC? There was so much to look forward to on this trip, that by the time I got to Nagashima, this coaster was able to completely catch me off guard. It's fast. That initial drop delivers so much power that even the shallower, less-dynamic elements are taken at a speed where they become insane. I love this type of ride pacing so much.
I was able to get four rides on Hakugei (~2 hour queue all day), but the lengthy duration made for a satisfying experience and I wasn't disappointed with my outcome. This ride starts off with the most interesting pre-lift on any RMC to-date, but like the rest, it pales in comparison to what follows. There's a nice long lift that provides a stellar view of the park and ocean. The pre-drop turn is much like Wildfire where there's a bit of speed and some laterals too. The small rise into the drop really helps boost the airtime duration across the entire train and it's spectacular in the back. The double up is filled with ejector in every seat somehow and I immediately knew I had downplayed this coaster beforehand. The small outward-banked hill in the middle of the structure is the wildest one to-date and is more comfortable than some others I've done. The following double down is faster and stronger than I expected too. The first half is wrapped up with a decent zero-g stall, much like others but unique to Asia.
Every element following is very low and taken at a rapid-fire pace. A turn-around cleverly inserts two sideways airtime moments to break up the positives. There's a low roll that feels like you barely raised in height. The lap continues with ejector, laterals, positives, and structure weaving that reminded me so much of Steel Vengeance. As it wrapped up I knew it was my favorite coaster in Japan and one of my favorites ever. I'm so glad RMC is finally spreading across the globe. Chasing these installations has been so much fun.
RMC Rankings Today:
1. Steel Vengeance
2. Lightning Rod
3. Hakugei
4. Outlaw Run
5. Twisted Timbers
6. Wildfire
7. Medusa Steel Coaster
8. Wonder Woman Golden Lasso Coaster
9. RailBlazer
10. Iron Rattler
11. Twisted Colossus
12. New Texas Giant
13. Joker
14. Storm Chaser
15. Goliath
16. Wicked Cyclone
Walking to the ride, this thing towers over you and feels massive.
Pyrenees was a bit out-of-the-way, but was running like a dream. So intense and so long. This quickly became my favorite operating invert!
[RMC #16] Time to ride the world's best whale-themed coaster!
The rest of Nagashima was a ton of fun. SD2000 backrow is great! Plus the Ultra Twister and old Schwarz collection are amazing classics.
Tobu felt like it's barely holding on. Regina's demise was announced the day before we arrived and the park was dead. But that meant we got 10 rides on this little beauty and it solidified by love for Mega-Lites.
There's not much "zero-g" in this whippy roll
They were definitely able to retain the enormous beauty of White Cyclone's structure
Yomiruiland was a really cool park, but the coasters didn't really stand out. I did love the Gondola though and the way Bandit jumps over these hills!
This little stretch of midway provided such a cool vantage point
Can we agree that this is the most beauty RMC has achieved in an install?
I still don't get how the designers fit TWO airtime moments into a turn-around
Fuji-Q was a mess. Even a rainy day made for insane lines. The only solution is to spend a ton of cash on line-skippers. I did wait 3 1/2 hours for Eejaniaka. Although it had a more interesting layout, it was riding more violent than I've ever felt on X2. I didn't need to ride it again.
Fujiyama was a lot of fun though, and the line was only 90 mins.
My return to Universal was amazing. Flying Dino is still VERY intense. Hollywood Dream Backdrop is hilariously fun and Space Fantasy is a gift (Running with full effects and without any VR now)
The mythical Aquatrax... Actually quite punchy and and super fun. The theming was so incredible and had some very tight clearances. Lotte was a beautiful park with a amazing collection of rides. I can't wait to return someday
Moving on to other parts of the trip, here's T Express. This coaster was insane. 1/2 of El Toro + ALL of Balder. Felt so long and was running so fast. This is now my favorite Intamin and my #3 coaster ever.
Splurging for passes on the last coasters turned things around a bit. Do-Dodonpa's launch is something else. Terrifying. The rest of the layout was mediocre.
Takabisha was great too, had some Eurofighter roughness, but felt more complete than any other.
We swung by the wonderfully-set Seoul Land and got to encounter this horrible pile of steel, Black Hole 2000.
Oh, and I also visited the best theme park on the planet!
That wraps this up. In 2020 the US will have 3 RMCs that I need to ride, so that's all until then!
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This park will have such a killer lineup next year. Finally an RMC in Florida - This will no doubt be the best coaster in the state, IMO
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Great report!
Out of curiosity, did Wonder Woman have a shuffle/shimmy to it? I've seen a few people mention that. It wasn't there when I rode it, but I rode it opening day.
Thank you! I did not notice any roughness/rattle/shuffle on either ride, nor did I find discomfort from the restraints (which I do on B&M's or S&S's vests).
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My next RMC venture came in the form off a free afternoon during a business trip in Austin, Texas. I knew if this coaster ran anything like it's California clone the drive down to San Antonio would be worth it. Needless to say, it was.
Wonder Woman Golden Lasso Coaster.
Firstly, I want to lay out a "hot take" of mine: A coaster being "cloned" does not inherently devalue either version of that coaster. When a ride is good, it's good (see: Batman, Mega-Lite, Manta/Acrobat, iSpeed, RailBlazer/Wonder Woman). If a park had nothing but these 5 clones, it would have one of the best park lineups anywhere.
This Raptor V.1 is my favorite cloned coaster ever. In short, Wonder Woman rides just as good, if not better than RailBlazer. It holds it's speed incredibly well. It moves through every element much faster than you think. It's tiny and it's incredible. Just read my report on RailBlazer if you need more specifics - It feels just the same.
I can't wait for Jersey Devil Coaster (and it's eventual clones that everyone will complain about)!
RMC Rankings as of April 2018:
1. Steel Vengeance
2. Lightning Rod
3. Outlaw Run
4. Twisted Timbers
5. Wildfire
6. Medusa Steel Coaster
7. Wonder Woman Golden Lasso Coaster
8. RailBlazer
9. Iron Rattler
10. Twisted Colossus
11. New Texas Giant
12. Joker
13. Storm Chaser
14. Goliath
15. Wicked Cyclone
Pleased to say that this version if just as batshit insane as RailBlazer.
The backrow on this drop is divine.
[RMC #15] Yes, yes, yes. I love Raptors!
Save for the top of the quarry and overall length, this ride is fast and fun!
Up next: RMC's first Asian masterpiece
One of my favorite outward banks ever, sustained ejector. Looks like an 8 year old designed this.
I want every park in the country to have one of these. SeaWorld SD next please?
Night rides are insane too. The flimsy-looking ribbon track is still hilarious to me.
Great little corner of the park. Superman stills holds up as my favorite floorless!
Yeah, this thing rips
Also, Iron Rattler is still amazing and so smooth. I prefer Wonder Woman by a hair.
The Six Flags Magic Mountain (SFMM) Discussion Thread
in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
Posted
^ So you're essentially confirming that not all future projects are completely stalled for the park at the moment? That's good to hear, I was hoping things are still moving behind the scenes there