halltd

The new monorails are oh so pretty! I wonder if new ones are in the works for WDW anytime soon? Did the monorails at DL ever have A/C in them?

I've only been to Alton Towers, but Nemesis is by far my favorite B&M invert anywhere. I absolutely love Rita too, but that has more to do with their advertising campaign than anything. ha ha!! Actually, there wasn't a coaster at Alton that I didn't like. Nemesis is just their best.

Wood = Cyclone at Six Flags New England Steel = Viper at Six Flags Magic Mountain Viper at Six Flags Great Adventure was also rough as hell, but thankfully it went to coaster hell.

If you go to Dorney, don't go on a busy/hot weekend. We just went last Saturday and had probably the worst theme park experience we've ever had. It seems to me that Dorney Park has replaced Geauga Lake when it comes to quality of their guests. There were times we didn't feel safe and that's why we left the park six hours earlier than originally planned. I have to say, the last time we went, we absolutely loved the park. So, I hope it just happened to be the day we picked this year. But, it will take a LOT to get us to go back there.

It was like we had entered the Twilight Zone. Very strange indeed. Also, what's up with the "no open toed shoes" requirement on their top spin? We've ridden this before with open toed shoes, but were rejected this season. The safety sign had a "sticker" on it with this new rule and people were being turned away left and right. Did someone lose a toenail on the ride?

First off, I have to say, my friends and I were stunned at our recent experience at these parks because we've visited both before with completely opposite results. We hit up Great Adventure on Friday, July 25, 2008. We arrived at park opening and went right to Kingda Ka. Although the ride was VERY rough compared to its sibling in Ohio, we were stunned to see four trains and both sides of the station in operation. Needless to say, the line moved at a feverishly fast pace. The same could be said about all of our other rides. El Toro was absolutely stunning as always, Nitro, Superman, etc... All running with very fast queues, little to no line jumping, security in EVERY queue, no loose articles, all trains running, and very fast dispatches. Medusa was running three trains and almost NEVER stacked. We were all just scratching our heads in disbelief that this was a Six Flags park. Plus, we'd been there before and had horrible experiences. The park also seemed VERY crowded, so I don't think that was the issue. The midways were packed to the gills and the parking lot looked pretty dang full. We skipped The Dark Knight because it had a 2 hour wait and we already knew it sucked from reading all the reviews. So, we opted to hit up Nitro and El Toro a couple more times instead. Last train of the night on El Toro is absolutely stunning by the way. Then on Saturday, we hit up Dorney Park. We'd been there once before and loved it. We thought it was like a mini Cedar Point. However, this year was something totally different. The park was awesome before noon (we got there at opening). There were no lines, rides were really fun, the weather was beautiful, etc... But, then we headed up the hill to the main midway and all pandemonium broke loose. The park was PACKED beyond belief. Lines were still relatively short, but we experienced line jumpers in EVERY SINGLE LINE. It was obnoxious. People would just walk passed us and get on the ride. We were starting to get pissed off. We even had people cut in front of us for the front row on Talon - IN THE STATION. No one said a thing. Not only were people smoking all over the park, they were also lighting up joints in the queues. People were walking around shirtless, or in miniature swimsuits (which they shouldn't have been wearing anyways), throwing trash all over the midway, etc... It was one of the absolute worst park experiences we've had in a long time. I hate to say this, but we were blown away with the efficiency of Six Flags and the horrific "free for all" experience at Dorney Park. We were also HUGE fans of the mandatory lockers at SFGAdv. It was amazing what they did to the load and unload process. Seeing it in effect just one day prior to seeing Dorney's loose article bins really solidified how awful the bins really are. Has anyone else seen an increase in efficiency and park operations at Six Flags and/or a decline in operations at Cedar Fair parks?

^^ Don't Sky Rides have fray sensors on them? I didn't think the drop towers did because a cable failure didn't mean immediate death to everyone aboard. What kind of new "sensors" have been installed on the drop towers? Cable fray or cable break sensors? Also, I'm pretty sure parks would replace Sky Ride cables way before they even need to. If that cable breaks, LOTS of people die. If the cable on a drop tower, MF or TTD breaks, people MAY be injured, but it's not as likely. That's why it appears parks have been pressing the limit of these cables. Maybe now they'll start replacing them before they see evidence of fraying/fatigue/failure.

That's actually why I am finding it difficult to want to get on an Intamin tower. I've always been a proponent of park safety and exactly what you said about driving, showering, etc... Accidents are extremely rare when it comes to parks. And, I still believe that. But, when the same accident (minus the horrible injury part) happens to the same type ride in less than a year, that raises a flag to me. To me, that's more than just an accident. I guess it's easier for me to say I'd rather not ride the tower because I never really liked them in the first place. So, it's no big deal to just skip them, ya know? There have been two (right?) accidents on the MF-type coasters too, yet I love riding those. It'd be really hard for me not to. But, then again, we're talking two totally different accidents which are either a result of rider issues or ride issues. If it's something I can't control, I get nervous. I don't ride Chaos anymore either. But again, I never loved it to begin with. So, no big deal passing that one up. edit: I fully understand the Intamin towers, thank you. And, I also have a great understanding of the operating mechanics behind the S&S towers. I also specifically questioned what I didn't understand - of which has NOT been answered so far. So, I'm not sure what the deal is. No one has said what happens immediately after a cable snap on an S&S tower. Does the ride carriage stop right away? Does it do that automatically? Does a ride op have to press the e-stop? Are there physical brakes on the carriage itself in case all four cables snap like another posted asked (and was never answered).

Are there not e-stop "brakes" on the ride carriage itself? I honestly don't know. But, I know elevators have "brakes" on them to prevent the cab from crashing into the bottom of the shaft if the cables break. Also, I'm still confused about the S&S towers. I know that if one cable breaks, there are three others so the ride carriage won't plummet to the earth. My question is, if a cable breaks, does the ride e-stop automatically AND immediately? Or, does someone have to press a button? The reason I ask is because during the ride cycle, the carriage is going up and down quite quickly. So, it doesn't really matter if the cable breaks in the "direction of travel" of the ride carriage because that direction is going to change pretty quick. So, unless the ride carriage stops immediately, there's still a chance there's going to be a flopping cable out there that can grab onto someone's limb(s). BTW, I wasn't complaining about the ride safety systems when I said I chose not to ride the Intamin towers anymore. I know it worked right the second time. But, two amazingly similar accidents in less than a year is too much "coincidence" for me to overlook - safe or not. (I don't do well when I gamble. )

^ If that's the case, cool. The official report didn't say that though, that's why I didn't think it were true. That makes just as much sense though.

edit: The post above mine wasn't there when I replied. But, your explanation makes sense. Yeah, and the S&S cables are actually used to propel the ride carriage in both directions. On the Intamin towers, that cable is ONLY used to lift the ride carriage to the top of the tower and then lower the catch car back to the bottom. So the S&S cables definitely see more stress - or at very least more varied stress. From reading of the results of the accident report, the girl's feet were entangled in the cable only once the ride carriage was released from the top of the tower. So, the cable snapped, didn't hit any of the people, the carriage continued to the top of the tower, then dropped. On its way down, the dangling cable wrapped itself around the girl's feet and severed them. That's why the report said if the e-stop had been pressed in the time between the snap and the ride carriage reaching the top, no one would've been injured. Thinking about that, it almost seems like the S&S towers would put riders at greater risk. How does an e-stop on the S&S towers work anyway?

I think it was two summers ago where I was really close to not fitting on MF and El Toro in the same season. It's really the luck of the draw. Three rides on MF and I was fine. But, one the ride op was like, "keep pulling". And, it took like a minute before I could get the slack I needed. The same thing happened on El Toro, but with the lap bar. Three times, no issues. But, once the ride op had to push down semi-hard to get it to turn green. It barely took any time to do that, but it was a wake up call for me. I NEVER wanted to be the guy that has to walk off the platform. So, since then I've changed my diet and been doing a daily workout routine. I even work out with a personal trainer a couple times a week. It's really awesome. I've lost almost 50 pounds, so there will be no issue of fitting this year. Even last season it was cake. I can't even begin to explain what a relief it is to not have to worry about fitting on a ride for the 1.5-2 hours you're standing in the queue. I'd recommend to anyone that's worried about fitting on a coaster to make some drastic changes in their lives. You'll be happier in the end - and healthier.

I don't think I'll be riding another Intamin drop tower again. After the SFKK accident, I said there must be a design flaw if the cable can snap into the path of the riders so easily. Everyone said I was crazy and this was just some freak accident. Well, it's no freak accident if it happens again in less than a year. The story doesn't say if the e-stop was manual or automatic. But, I'm not going to trust my limbs on that type of ride to a teenage ride op. I guess the good thing is this happened on the stand-up side where limbs are less likely to be flailing about like on the sitting side. Does anyone more familiar with the S&S version of the ride know if this same type of accident is possible? What happens if the cable snaps on one of those rides?

Cool video. I love DAK at night. It really is special. My family and I just returned from a 10-day holiday there and the Extra Magic Hours at DAK one night were from 8pm until 11pm. Of course it was also 30 degrees outside. So, not only did we ride Everest five times at about 10:30pm, it was literally FREEZING outside. Definitely an experience I won't forget anytime soon.

Personally I would have liked to see purple supports with the yellow track. I mean, why come up with a sweet logo containing certain colors if the ride has nothing to do with those colors?

I've been an avid reader of TPR for quite some time because of your great photo trip reports. But, for some reason I never posted. Seeing that I was recently banned from PointBuzz and CoasterBuzz, I figured I might as well try and find a new family. My name is Tim. Currently I work as a construction manager on a resort in the Caribbean. I was also an Imagineer during my Architecture education. Talk about the best job ever. Hopefully one day I'll be back there. Compared to members here, I don't travel all that much for parks. But, I've been trying to travel a lot more recently. I finally made it to Alton Towers, Holiday World and Magic Mountain in the past two years. Hopefully 2008 has more new parks in store for me. I'm looking forward to being part of the TPR family.