chickenbowl

Bold prediction. Everybody knows that RMCs are ugly disgusting rides. Especially with that rust-colored track, ugh, gross

For my second full day in Japan, I found myself in Osaka. My plan was to get to Kochi that night to start work on the cruise ship the next morning. I had plenty of time to spend at Universal, it was a Friday so I didn't expect crowds to be impossible. I still splurged for an "Express-4" pass that let me skip the lines on 4 rides. The pass paired with me being a single-rider led to a totally manageable day at the park, despite mid-to-heavy crowds. The Universal Hotel Gloire had an excellent view from both sides. This was out one window. And this was out the front. I love the smell of fresh B&M in the morning! I got to the park early and there was already lots of people lined up - Very politely, mind you! The way Hollywood Dream interacts with the entrance is really cool! I really wish USH could build a small coaster with almost no footprint in their upper lot, like this one. Watching it test, I felt the urge to come here first while there was no wait! I love when parks open up at 8am, and not 10:30 like a lot of US parks. Holy crap! I'm surprised by how much I liked this coaster! They fit in a surprising amount of airtime for such a tiny coaster. I was able to ride Hollywood Dream 3 times, twice in the back, and once in row 2. (I didn't ride backwards because the line was much longer - Riding backwards also doesn't do much for me.) I really liked the pacing of this one, it didn't feel as laggy as some B&M Megas can be. The hills over the park entrance didn't have much airtime, but the other hills on the run towards the helix did - And they were really fun! The helix had a lot of positives and the drop out of it had a really nice spot of airtime. Maybe I was expecting it to be really dull, but I had a ton of fun on it! This little drop in the back had a great pop - My favorite part of the ride! Time to work my way around the park. I do like the stacked B&M mega track through the main midway. This is different than the two other WWoHP's! This walk back to Hogsmeade definitely creates a more immersed atmosphere, especially compared to USH. It is a bit of a hike though. Probably my favorite thing about Harry Potter is the butterbeer! I really sets the mood for me I'm 3/3 on these rides - Still a fantastic dark ride, even in Japanese! The story-line is a bit of a jumble, but the mix of digital and physical effects is amazing Can't forget about the roller skater! I also rode the Snoopy roller skater. It's built by Senyo Kogyo, but it has a Vekoma 207m layout...? Next, I made my way back to the brand new, bad-ass, B&M Flyer Flying Dinosaur! Uh oh, 180 min wait. Good thing I have Express! Couple minutes later, I'm here. Woah, this station puts me right in the movies! I admittedly am not the biggest fan of B&M Flyers - I find the forces can sometimes be un-enjoyable or uncomfortable. I'd previously been on all the US flyers and found my favorite to be Manta (and now Acrobat) closely followed by Tatsu - But they still didn't overly impress me in general. Anyway, I went in with reservations based on previous experience, but HOLY SHIT, I was BLOWN AWAY by this thing! I was able to ride this coaster twice, row 5 and row 6. The first drop is unlike any flyer I'd previously ridden, the steepness achieved basically forces you into a handstand, and it felt awesome to have a normal pullout after that, it's like a flyer's version of airtime. You are flying right over the heads of the guests below, the path interaction on this ride brings it to a whole new level! Next, the floaty 540 roll twists you into the air, seemingly forever. You end up on your back, but without the crazy pressure that some pretzel loops sustain. You pull up in a half loop where you look out over the the Jurassic Park ride and area of the park - Quite a view! After a brief glide over another path, you are banked right into a compact pretzel loop that dives into a tunnel under a path. The exit of the pretzel loop is much cooler than any other flyer due to it having a straight drop completely to the ground. You get weird flyer "airtime" here, just like on the drop. Next you go into a speed hill of sorts, again with the pseudo-airtime, before an awesome fly-over-the-lake turn. The next big corkscrew reminds me of the one on Manta right before the MCBR. The coaster ends with an awesome finale of the most forceful flyer helix I've felt and a quick in-line twist. This coaster has excellent pacing/speed, feels more complete, and is more balanced than any other flyer I've ridden. One of my favorite B&M's of the '10's for sure! The interactions with the Jurassic Park area feel so natural. This towering B&M feels like it belongs here... cough.SilverBullet.cough... Seriously, just look at this! It made its way into my top-25 steel, previously unheard of for a flyer! I couldn't leave without riding the other Jurassic Park ride. Always a great, fun drop! I also got this snack - Dinosaur Wings! Check out the box, I found them both hilarious and delicious! I missed Jaws at USF, so I couldn't miss riding it here Here's my daily selfie, I was having a lot of fun! Even though I couldn't understand a word, the skippers were hilarious. Park guests loved this attraction! My final credit of the day, Space Fantasy. I've looking forward to this mysterious coaster for a while. Holy crap, the queue is amazing! The lighting effects were so well done. The continuous loading is always a great idea. This coaster surprised me. I had no real idea what it was, but I knew it wasn't very big. I won't give away the amazing finale, but I will say that there's three lifts, and the ride can get quite forceful at times! There's a story-line that I couldn't follow, but the whole thing is amazing - There's fairies, planets, asteroids, and stars! This coaster is up there with my favorite family coasters (Manta @ SWSD, Expedition Everest, Space Mountain). I took a spin on Spider-man. Just as good as the IoA version, just Japanese - Great ride! Here's a picture from my second ride on Flying Dinosaur. I'm seriously floored by this coaster. I took a last ride on Hollywood Dream before I made my way down to Kochi. This helix has got some force to it! Here's another random ferris wheel on top of a building. Japan loves their ferris wheels! I took the Shinkansen from Osaka to Okayama and then this train from Okayama to Kochi. It took 2.5 hours, but it was a comfortable ride. When people say how easy it is to get around Japan by train, they aren't lying! Next up, Quantum of the Seas and Happy Valley Shanghai!

Is this a kiddie woodie? I'm not sure if by "preparing" riders for Thunderhead they're implying the coaster will also be wood, or simply adjacent to Thunderhead in location. Either way, I'm surely due for a revisit to Dollywood after missing Lightning Rod this year, and both these additions make another visit very enticing!

They also said their guests would "fall in love" in 2017. "Drop"? "Fall"? Sounds like a drop tower to me

^ Intersting. That makes complete sense, I'm just happy that I didnt miss it on my quick stop! Thanks for the info

Part 1, Tokyo Dome City and Nagashima Spa Land Click Here Part 2, Universal Studios Japan Click Here Part 3, Quantum of the Seas and Happy Valley Shanghai Click Here Hey everyone, I am an engineer at FlowRider, and I was recently assigned to work on one of our rides on the RCCL ship, Quantum of the Seas. This FlowRider Double needed some repairs, so I was set to take embark at Kochi, Japan and disembark at Shanghai, China. I had never traveled to Asia before this, so I left a couple days early to see a little bit of Japan (and ride some coasters!). My itinerary ended up being 6 days - 2 days of travel, 2 days in Japan, and 2 days on the ship. My first flight from San Diego to San Fransisco flew right over my college town, San Luis Obispo. If you look closely, you can see Morro Rock! I hopped on the next plane to Tokyo, I had a couple Asahi's during the 10-hour flight! Due to my trip being so short and because I knew I'd be doing a lot of walking/train-riding, I packed up my clothes and construction supplies in only this backpack. After finding a bus into downtown (too late for the trains), I found the Tokyo Dome Hotel! The hotel is very tall - My room was on the 9th floor I lucked out by waking up with this awesome view. The room was excellent for only $100. I LOVED the amazing city setting of Thunder Dolphin I got on the first ride of the day Backseat was a lot of fun. Two spots of floater air, nothing too crazy. The amazing view and unique interactions with the other buildings make this coaster really special Due to my limited time, I decided to leave Tokyo early to get some rides at Nagashima. The subway system is quite easy to navigate From the Tokyo station, I got myself a Shinkansen ticket to Nagoya This thing looks like some futuristic anime train, SO AWESOME! Speaking of anime, I could really see Miyazaki's inspiration from the train. It looked straight out of a Ghibli movie setting. From Nagoya, I found an hour-long bus that went straight to where I was headed. What do I see that in the distance? Ah yes, if it isn't the LONGEST coaster in the world! I made it - And in only 2.5 hours from downtown Tokyo. The park was open until 5pm, so I had about 3 hours to check it out - Challenge accepted! I had no idea what crowds were like and was expecting to get maybe 4 or 5 coasters, better than none While entering the park, Steel Dragon 2000 seriously dominates you - even the second, 252-ft hill looks menacing. Steel Dragon was closed upon entering the park, but I was told to expect a 2:30pm opening, how strange. I walked next door for a ride on Ultra Twister first. I rode in the front and it was surprisingly awesome - Especially the drop and airtime hill! Next, I headed over to Acrobat to brave the longest line of the day, 90-minutes. On second thought, I utilized the one-use line-skip pass for ¥500 (~$5). This coaster is an exact clone of Manta at SWO. Nagashima built a great setting for this coaster, but it's not quite as immersive at SWO. It was still very fun, I had a great ride! COOL! Steel Dragon opened! This coaster is seriously a beauty. Purely massive in every sense of the word I was happy to be able to ride in new, comfy B&M trains I rode in the back seat! Wise choice, I think. Another note - This is a huge credit milestone for me, #420. YAAA BOIII! This was the final Giga coaster for me to ride, and although not as good as the other 4 it's still excellent! The first two-hills had floater air, but were very fast! The next section was a series of fairly intense helices. This "turn-around" section felt like it was so geographically far from where the station sits. From the MCBR to the end consisted of no less than 7 spots of airtime - All of which were strong floater. It was awesome and went on seemingly forever! This Looping Star was great in the front! Classic Schwarzkopf fun! The shuttle loop was closed all day - bummer. But I've been on two of the same model elsewhere, no biggie! With a little over an hour until closing, I made the scramble to the rest of the credits. Next, I made my way back to the massive, White Cyclone It's a very pretty coaster. I tried both front seat and back, non-wheel. Outside of Acrobat, crowds were pretty non-existent. Let's just say this one is definitely a front-seat ride. I followed up by riding the Tivoli and then this old-school Togo Jet Coaster - My first Jet Coaster, woohoo! Actually very smooth, and in a small forest Not pictured: I rode the Arrow Corkscrew, and one side of the dueling Wild Mice! I ended up riding all operating coasters 9 out of the 11 they had. Steel Dragon had closed again by the time I made it back around, so no re-rides for me. I think it was open for about 45 minutes while I was there. I was just happy to have ridden it at all! So with a little time left, I had to hit up the old-school, first-gen Intamin freefall! It was awesome! Another ferris wheel, this one was gigantic. Overall, I thought Nagashima Spa Land was an excellent park, a great set of coasters, good operations, and a beautiful setting! I love the ocean view from Steel Dragon and White Cyclone. I look forward to spending more time here on a fully-dedicated Japan trip! Oh, and here is a construction update on Arachi, the new S&S Free Spin opening in 2017. They have a bit of vertical construction with a ton of track in the parking lot. I made it back to Nagoya! The city was very pretty when I walked around a bit. I proceeded to take the train down to Osaka in preparation for the next day's park. Here is yet another ferris wheel I saw from my hotel. I was starting to feel the charm of Japan - The culture here is so idyllic. They give you little sandals to walk on the bamboo floor! This hotel didn't have beds, just comfy sleeping pads, very neat! Next up, Universal Studios Japan!

Looks like this is how the raft got pulled under and flipped by the conveyor, based on the released image. Pretty terrifying... Image from a reddit user

Coastal Ant, a Golden Horse kiddie coaster at Happy Valley Shanghai - It was strange. #437 for me

Is there a big difference between the Intamin mega lites?? I always thought they ran really similar.

Going to Japan for business (working on a FlowRider for an RCCL ship Kochi-Shanghai), but I'm going a couple days early to explore! My next park should be Nagashima Spaland (or Tokyo Dome City if you count that as a park)!

It's not that Blue Streak is the only wood coaster... It's that I (and many people) love wooden coasters and I think Cedar Point would highly benefit from having an awesome one (It could be as extreme and awesome Mean Streak was originally supposed to be)! Especially at a park that has an excellent coaster of every type - It just makes sense.

Although it will most-likely be incredible no matter the track, I definitely prefer Topper Track. In my opinion, the Topper Track RMC's ride differently than the IBox RMC's. Outlaw Run has a distinct wood feel that the others don't really have (Medusa comes closest). - I want Mean Streak to have that wood feel. - I think Cedar Point deserves a great wooden coaster. - I think they have a ton of marketing potential for records if they keep it wood. That's why I care between Topper and IBox.

I'm crossing my fingers the IBox is only for the transfer track (like the current Topper Track coasters) and we see some Topper Track show up for the rest of the layout! The track is placed right where the transfer is anyway... So I'm pretty hopeful!

Ooooh, I hope so!!!

Evidence for 2017: - Mean Streak closed before the end of the season (Just like with every other RMC conversion) - There's already demolition going on - There's already LEDGERS IN PLACE and TRACK ON SITE! - RMC knows how to build coasters fast, and this project has everything lined up for an off-season conversion. Some people will say that NTaG took "18 months" or something, but I'd like to point out that the first track/ledgers erection wasn't until March, 2010, only 12 months before opening. I sincerely doubt that it would take Cedar Point longer than that (22-month construction time? You gotta be kidding me). Twisted Colossus took only 8 months to build, and that coaster is 5000' long (Likely more track than this whole project would be). I can't see ANY reason to start construction THIS early if they weren't trying to open it in the 8-month time-frame they have before next season starts... Note: I don't care about marketing, season pass sales, or any of that crap. I'm looking at what is actually happening on site here.

Edmonton Mall? Montana Triple Loop at La Feria in Mex. City?

I've been on 4 Wing Coasters, 5 Flying Coasters, Banshee, and Valravn (Every B&M vest in the US). I think they are great in theory (no headbanging), but in reality they constrict on your upper body and inhibit any movement you'd have with the old. Examples: - Dive coaster drops: The ability to float out of your seat within the space between your body and restraints (anybody who's been on SheiKra or Griffon knows) is completely decimated. You are pinned in your seat the whole time and the positives at the bottom keep the restraint pressed down the rest of the ride. - Wild Eagle/X-Flight vest locking: On these tow rides the vest continuously gets tighter and tighter throughout the ride with no way to relieve the pressure on your collar bones. It's pretty uncomfortable sitting on the brake run not being able to take a full breath because of a vest constricting your chest... - Cedar Fair's restraints: Even with Cedar Fair "unlocking" the vests so you can push them out manually, they're still very tight and you have to continuously push the vest away from your chest to enjoy the ride... Not a fan The only B&M's I've ever had headbanging on are stand-ups, so I don't see the use for vests on anything other than that type of ride.

Coaster Crew spotted steel ledgers on site. (These are used for both IBox and Topper Track)

Giant Dipper San Diego runs year-round too, probably as much as those two (goes down to 5 days/week during off-season). And it doesn't close for months out of the year like GhostRider.

I get as much thigh pressure from the heavy positives on both those coasters as I do on Skyrush... just saying EDIT: The standard Intamin OTSRs have the same un-contoured bar that sits at the same spot as Skyrush. I seriously don't get the complaining

Agreed with all of this except that Storm Runner and Skyrush are not elite coasters. Poppycock, dude. I mean I know you hate Skyrush but have some respect How can anyone hate Skyrush?? Yes it's a little painful on the thighs but that's because the airtime seeks to destroy There's a vocal minority of people who've made a meme out of the insanely painful "Thighcrush"... It's hilarious how people adamantly HATE Skyrush, but love I305 and Maverick. I think they just can't handle the extreme airtime. If you want to experience actual thigh pain from restrainsts, try out the new ones on T3

Even if the ranking isn't that high, Volcano is a fitting follow-up to I305, so considering actually riding both coasters in a series, it's a great "One-Two Punch" indeed. If I was going totally by rankings (if I had any), Dominator would appear instead of Volcano, but I almost never actually ride them in series, in either order. I think Volcano, Flight of Fear and Dominator are all excellent coasters. I don't understand the people that complain about KD's lineup. None of those are "excellent" and none of them deserve to be compared against combos like Storm Chaser+Lightning Run, Maverick+MForce, Superman+WC, Balder+Helix, Skyrush+Storm Runner, etc. We just have different opinions of the word "excellent", you make it more of an exclusive term than me but I think we're sort of on the same page. Aside from Skyrush and Storm Runner everything you just named is an elite coaster in my opinion. I think that if a park has one of the greatest coasters ever built in I305 and surrounds it with coasters that are a slight step down but still amazing like the best floorless coaster in America, a super unique and awesome double launching Intamin invert that launches out of a damn volcano and (at least in my opinion with apologies to Mummy) the best indoor coaster in America that's pretty sick. Especially when right below that they have another tier of super fun coasters like Backlot, Avalanche and Grizzly. So in regards to this thread you could argue that they don't have a great 1-2 punch (though if you think Dominator, Volcano or Flight of Fear qualify then I won't argue with you because everyone has different tastes and they're all amazing), but regarding their coaster lineup I think it's awesome. I don't feel like they really "need" anything. PS: I f**king love Backlot Stunt Coaster. Ok, cool! I mean there's a definite sense of subjectivity when deciding "best" of anything, but my only point was that I don't think KD can qualify for this thread with the current selection of coasters. I think Dominator is the 5th best floorless in the US (where's the zero-g?), far below Kraken . I also think Volcano is great, but for exactly 16 seconds - The rest is pretty dull. Regarding FoF - my height makes it hard for me to fully enjoy Premier trains and the MCBR kills all pacing from that point onward.

I'd love to read a review from somebody who has actually ridden Formula 1 at this park. How's the smoothness? How are the vest restraints? How's the airtime? How's the pacing? How do the trains ride? etc. I think it's very fair to be skeptical of Vekoma's performance after everything they've given us thus far. The only Vekoma's I actually like are the Disney ones.

Even if the ranking isn't that high, Volcano is a fitting follow-up to I305, so considering actually riding both coasters in a series, it's a great "One-Two Punch" indeed. If I was going totally by rankings (if I had any), Dominator would appear instead of Volcano, but I almost never actually ride them in series, in either order. I think Volcano, Flight of Fear and Dominator are all excellent coasters. I don't understand the people that complain about KD's lineup. None of those are "excellent" and none of them deserve to be compared against combos like Storm Chaser+Lightning Run, Maverick+MForce, Superman+WC, Balder+Helix, Skyrush+Storm Runner, etc. I'm not even complaining about their coaster lineup (They have a ton of decent rides, and those three you listed are good), they just do not have a real "one-two punch" like other entries in this thread.

I agree but the other way round. I think the Vekoma is a much better layout and has the potential to be a much better coaster. And it has the potential to be groundbreaking. Especially if as we kind of all assume its cheaper the price is right (*this may not be true), If the ride lives up to its potential then more parks with lower budgets could end up getting hypers and thats a good good thing. I genuinely don't think the Intamin layout is as good as the Vekoma. Sure the first few hills look excellent but not significantly more so than the Vekoma and the ending is really weak. In my opinion It's overall quite poor layout from Intamin and yeah sure it's Intamin it more than likely will be a good ride but post final traditional airtime hill It does nothing for me. Which is something I never thought Id say Really? I have never felt airtime on a Vekoma coaster before - and although Formula 1 looks good, it still seems slow. I just don't have faith that Vekoma can deliver a coaster that can match each small detail that make Intamin coasters so good. The Intamin looks to have that crazy ejector, amazing pacing, and those crazy Intamin transitions (which I've never found from any other company) - I trust the Intamin would deliver what it proposes here. That ending looks like just like the twisy-ness that make I305, Maverick (and probably iSpeed and Taron) so good! Everything about the Intamin looks more interesting/creative/exciting/intense/better than the Vekoma. There's just no chance Vekoma is willing to push the boundaries like Intamin does. Umm, how long was Battlestar Galactica closed? How are those new trains working out? I'm not sure you can make that argument, especially when it comes to a prototype design at a height/speed unprecedented from Vekoma.