Gav

I did, basically to get cheaper rates, and because I didn't feel like hunting for hotels potentially late at night.

You're basically dicated by the park calendars. When I was in the east coast I had to travel in April/Early may, so the parks are only open Fri/Sat/Sun, which meant I had to "fill in" days seeing the sights of DC. Not bad in itself, and the parks weren't busy at this time of the year, but in order to do things in the time I had, I had to do some undesirable stuff like visiting Knoebels and Dorney Park in one day, and Lake Compounce/SF New England in one day. Also, consider travelling after the 30th of May. Memorial Day tends to be the day parks in the US open their new rides, and for me unfortunately, due to when I travelled, meant I missed several of last years new rides, including Laaf Trak at Hersheypark and Wicked Cyclone at SF New England. In terms of suggested Itineraries. Start off with Busch Gardens Willamsburg which is one of the worlds best parks overall, home to 3 big B&M coasters, Tempesto (Launched sky loop style coaster), Verbolten (An indoor/outdoor coaster with a cool surprise in the building), plus really good theming and a cool 4D Dark ride (Curse of Darkastle) Head north west for a couple of hours to Kings Dominion, a big coaster park with the main highlights being Intimidator 305 (A giga coaster which gives Millennium force a run for its money), Dominator (Floorless coaster), Flight of Fear (Indoor launch coaster with 4 inversions in the dark) and Volcano (The only example of a full circuit launched coaster...you launch straight up out of the volcano and wind your way back to earth through several barrel rolls) You can then keep heading north, and perhaps visit Six Flags America when you hit Washington DC....It has a bit of a bad reputation, but if you get a six flags annual pass (Valid at all of their parks) then it's not really costing you anything to drop in. They have a Vekoma Flying coaster (Batwing), a decent Intamin hypercoaster (Superman)....a coaster that launches into a spaghetti bowl of track (Jokers Jinx) and a reasonable GCI wooden twister coaster (Roar)...I had the place done in about 4 hours. It was OK. Heading north into Pennsylvania is a triangle of parks that are all within 90 minutes of each other... Hersheypark is a big coaster park with an impressive line up..Highlights include Skyrush (A mental intamin hyper with winged seats and the strongest airtime of any ride)...Storm Runner (Imagine Superman Escape at Movie World, but with inversions) and Fahrenheit (Vertical lift, 97 degree drop, 6 inversions). There's also the incredibly fun Lightning Racer (Two wooden twister coasters that race and tangle amongst each other), Great Bear (B&M inverted coaster)...I could go on, but there's heaps there, and well worth it. I managed to get through it in a day, with re-rides on my favourite, but I've heard it can get rammed, so you might allow a 1.5 to 2 days, or buy their line skip pass. Knoebels is a unique traditional amusement park. The phoenix is a great wooden coaster, they have Flying Turns, which is the only example of a wooden bobsled coaster. Twister is a wooden twister coaster, and last year they opened Impulse, another example of a vertical lift and drop coaster. But Knoebels has a heap of other classic rides, including the Flyers, a ton of flat rides, a couple of nice dark rides, and the unique food offerings are good too. Dorney Park is the last of the trio. It's a bit vanilla and generic as far as amusement parks go, but it has a few highlights...A solid B&M inverted coaster (Talon), a Floorless coaster with a unique layout (Hydra), plus a hyper coaster (Steel Force), an Impulse coaster (Possessed) and a rare example of an early Intamin "first generation" freefall ride with a curving drop (Demon Drop) You don't really need a full day here, but it's 'on the way'. South of NYC is Six Flags Great Adventure...Perhaps the East Coast's answer to Cedar Point and a must do. Heaps of coasters including Kindga Ka, the worlds tallest/2nd fastest. The worlds tallest drop tower runs down the side of this (Much like what is done at Dreamworld) El Toro is one of the worlds best wooden coasters, combining a smooth ride with massive amounts of airtime. The park has 5 B&M coasters...Flying (Superman), Floorless (Bizzaro), Inverted (Batman), Stand Up (Green Lantern), and Hyper (Nitro) They're adding Total Insanity, an S&S free spin coaster with flipping cars. That's 7 parks so far... You can continue north to NYC. Coney Island has a few coasters including the Coney Island cyclone. North of New York are Quassy and Lake Compounce. Can't speak for Qassy, but Lake Compounce has one of the worlds best wooden coasters, Boulder Dash, which runs along the side of a mountain at breakneck speed. They're also adding a launched coaster similar to Tempesto called "Phobia Phear Coaster". Six Flags New England is not that much further north, but they've got Superman (Formerly Bizzaro) which consistently gets voted the worlds #1 steel coaster....heaps of airtime and a great layout. Their newest is Wicked Cyclone, an RMC coaster which combines inversions and airtime. Theyve also got a Batman Floorless Coaster, a rare example of a Vekoma Giant inverted Boomerang (Goliath), a cool spinning coaster, plus plenty of other coasters and rides too. From there you might fly to Toronto from Boston, and then start a 2nd leg, taking in Canadas Wonderland, Marineland, Darien Lake, Waldameer, Cedar Point, Kings Island, Kentucky Kingdom, Holiday World.....really depends when you want to cut off. Well worth just starting a word .doc and drafting up an itinerary, google driving times, look up park operating calendars and see what you end up with.

Few more points. -Have a look at flight prices and consider coming in via LAX and out via SFO...Discovery Kingdom has a few good coasters including a new RMC, and Great America is "okay" (better than I was led to believe) Both parks can be readily reached from the middle of San Fran without a car. The Santa Cruz beach boardwalk I wouldn't say is specifically worth going out of your way for, given your time/priorities. -If you are doing Cedar Point, then just pay the $90 for fast lane. I used it, and wouldn't do things any other way. Considering the park is such an effort to get to, it basically guarantees an awesome day. If you are going to Oklahoma I think the nearest big parks are 3 h away at SF over Texas, or 4h away at silver dollar city. If you are going to DC you might do what I did, and fly into an airport like Newport News or Richmond or Norfolk, go to Busch Gardens Willamsburg, Kings Dominion, then press on to DC. After DC you can then keep heading north into Pennsylvania, New Jersey and beyond.

Ive done a couple of big coaster trips in North America over the past couple of years from Australia, my tips would be. -Yes do SFMM. Flights from AU/NZ tend to arrive at LAX early morning and leave late night, so its easy to hit the ground running on your first day, or do SFMM on your last day before you fly out. Coast2coaster.eu is a great site that maps parks with coasters. You can use a slider to filter down (Eg show parks with between 5 and 18 coasters for example) and figure out a logical driving route. As others have suggested, focus on a specific region of the US where you can chain the parks together with easy 2-3 hr drives from one to the next. You get more thrill for your buck, because you aren't wasting so many days flying, less car hire days needed etc. I did the east/north east part last year, and highly recommend it in terms of having a lot of good parks and coasters....All the people in this thread suggesting it are onto something. I did Busch Gardens Williamsburg, Kings Dominion, Six Flags America, Hersheypark, Knoebels, Dorney Park, Six Flags Great Adventure, Six Flags New England and Lake Compounce. Plus you can see Washington and New York on the way. How recent was your last visit to Cedar Point? It IS good, but at the same time I I think its worth broadening your horizons and checking out the other great thrill parks in the US in preference, and revisiting in a year or two once they have had a chance to add a couple more coasters. That said, I did a trip from Toronto a couple of years ago, raking in Canada's Wonderland, Darien Lake, Waldameer, Cedar Point, then down to Kings Island, Kentucky Kingdom and Holiday World (I could have pressed further to other parks had I had more time)....Again this is a good logical string of parks that are all 2-3h apart. The Orlando area is also really good too In terms of lots of good parks and thrills in a small area.

The final sharp hill on ZacSpins seems to violently pull stuff out of pockets. This is the only time I've actually witnessed it. A phone landed several meters from that point.

I saw a clip of it a while back, but the row just swings down gently after a certain number of turns of the crank tool. They seat row seems quite nicely balanced so the movement is say comparable in "intensity" to when a zacspin car freely levels itself, or the car on a zipper.

OMG it's one of those Mr Bean elephant slides in the last pic!

I visited BGT for the first time ever yesterday... Currently in line for Volcano at KD, so I'll condense some thoughts. -Loved Darkastle....Didn't have the same polish as Spiderman and Transformers in terms of scene transitions and forced perspective on the screens, but the ride system was great...Liked the part where you go down the spiral staircase at a tilt. -Tempesto...Good ride but the one at SFDK was better. The comfort straps just make those trains even more of a contortion act, and they are at ear level for me, which wasn't fun T hitting them on a cold day with cold ears. Theming was passable...I just think of this type of ride as a big flatride. -Roman rapids shut -Griffon was great! Probably rode it the most of everything. Best in the front with your legs curled back like a skydiver. -Alpengeist...Great too! Loved the bits of theming your feet would pass by, and that snow canyon at the end. The cobra roll had some kick. -Apollos Chariot is probably my least favourite B&M hyper....Levaithan, Behemoth and Diamondback had "some" airtime at least, this on the other hand just seemed to have small little pops on the last few hills, and virtually none at all on the first two big ones. Tried front and back, made little difference. -Verbolten I liked more than Apollos. Great ride and well rounded. I got a ride with wolves, and another with the forest lady. The German girl in the first queue building seemed borderline racist. I did think the entrance to the show building seemed I'll thought out...Just a wall on poles. The final outdoor bit had some kick to it and was appropriately furious. -Loch Ness monster was one of those special old arrows, and ran very smoothly. I previous had no idea it had a triple helix in the tunnel. - Ate at Festhaus and watched the show. My roast chicken, German vinegar potatoes and hot choc was very nice, and s good reprieve from the cold. -Overall a beautiful park. The Da Vinci gardens and the darkastle outdoor queue stood out. -Escape from Pompeii was pretty cool. Not too wet thankfully. The bit where the ceiling caught on fire was trippy. -One of the best parks I've ever been to. In the future a scandanavian themed land would be a great expansion. Fits well with the landscape, and lots of fodder in terms of ride storylines. .

My Favourites: I'll chime in with Wipeout, Superman Escape and Scooby Doo Spooky Coaster too, but also. -Storm Coaster: A water coaster that dumps you down inside an upturned ship where the engine room is exploding, oh, and they stop the boat in front of a water park style "giant tipping bucket" in the dark ride section to give you an unavoidable drenching. What's not to love? http://rcdb.com/11059.htm?p=51863 -Funnel Web A Funnel Web spider is one of those dangerous creepy crawlies that live here, in this case it's a proslide tornado, which fits the theme pretty well since this type of spider spins a cone shaped web to catch prey. But its a solid ride just because its way longer than most other Tornadoes. http://www.parkz.com.au/photo/6961-Funnel_Web/gallery/sort/oldest/location/ride-1482/offset/1 -H20 Go Racers At Wet n Wild Sydney, its a massive 8 lane racing slide that has a braided section, and helixes, and then dumps you down a steep drop to the finish line. A timing system completes the package. http://www.parkz.com.au/photo/7336-Thrill_Slides/gallery/sort/newest/location/ride-1548/offset/0 -Wild West Falls Probably the most photogenic, well themed from start to finish ride in the country. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cf/Movie_World_Wild_Wild_West_z.JPG -Atmosfear Should give the Kiwis some love, this is one of those discovery/gryo swing/frisbee type type rides, but it goes all the way around. http://rainbowsend.co.nz/whats-on/news/new-ride-now-open -Giant Drop/Tower of Terror One or the other should be in this list, both were world record holders at one point http://www.dreamworld.com.au/Rides/Thrill-Rides/Thrill---Tiles/DSC_0023-LR_469x232.jpg -Abyss Yet to ride this one, but a Eurofighter at Adventure World, perth, with some nice theming and a dark section with enclosed barrel roll, a-la SAW http://rcdb.com/7444.htm?p=48342 -Gold Rush http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/files/dscf0087__800x600__151.jpg More love for the Kiwis, a Mine Cart themed mouse type coaster, but really well themed, and some cool slalom type sections. -Aqualoop Set of 4 looping water slides, and still one of the best slides out there. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b7/AquaLoop_at_Wet'n'Wild_Water_World.jpg -Scenic Railway TPR did this one yeah? A crazy, steep ride down a mountainside. Steepest railway in the world, at 52 degrees. http://www.tripadvisor.com.au/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g261618-d646823-i87217407-Scenic_World_Blue_Mountains-Katoomba_Blue_Mountains_New_South_Wales.html -Skytower Jump http://book.cdn.grabone.com/goimage/440x267/ifle32x.jpg A controlled jump off the tallest building in New Zealand. Hopefully that's a fairly balanced list.

Conceptually, a launch on your back would be the same as a launch on a space shot...the G-Forces are being directed through your butt.

It's really no different to any other sign you'd see in everyday life. Designed by a graphics designer then printed, produced by a signwriter or fabricated (Often with the help of a CNC machine). Some bigger parks/operators may have their own inhouse graphics teams that would be able to do signs and logos, others would just contract the work out to a graphics design firm. In terms of who makes signs, just type 'signs' or 'commercial signage ' into google and the first few results on the right hand column should be local companies that make them. Or look up 'signs' in the yellow pages.

I believe you can. I just don't know exactly how. Does anyone know? On the example pictures you posted I reckon it works as follows. Basically for the magnetic field to exist you have to have a pair of magnets opposite each other. If you only had one half of the pair no magnetic braking would occur. What seems to be happening is that the two halves can slide past each other. The more it slides along the less "overlap" there is between the two magnets and therefore the less length where a magnetic field is fomed where braking could occur: Max braking: --NNNNNNNN-- --SSSSSSSS-- Reduced braking mode: --NNNNNNNN-- ---------SSSSSSSS--

Well, Wild Train is already on the Ballot anyway....The system works! - - - Only thing I was surprised about was that the El Locos got grouped....The one at Adventuredome I reckon will be better received than the earlier ones for instance.

Isn't Austrailia South??? Yes, but you'd still have to keep heading east in order to cross the Indian ocean to reach Australia. So it's basically a South Easterly journey.

Yeah, so it definitley won't be opening any time soon. They have recently rebuilt the scenic railway that takes you down to the valley floor. But check out the awesome kludge they did where one of the new railway supports intersected with the track:

Disagree. At least they have done something with it to differentiate it from the typical plain box most shopping malls are:

It's a nice sentiment, but in practice it means the hourly capacity of each slide is really determined by the master blaster leading into it. At Wild Wadi, there are only two actual entrance points to the master blaster system, so the waits to actually join the chain of slides can be were quite long. At least at wnw Sydney they have a couple of big 4 man slide complexes, and the raft slide complex has 8 slides running off it, so the hourly capacity is insane with all going at once.

Fixed. Here's the example layout from the same patent document:

Media day was today, and the local newspaper posted a POV. Too bad it is mounted though, you can't see a lot of the theming detail to the sides. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hahc79Z1H2A

Yep, stood dormant for a couple of years till they got around to gutting the show building and putting storm coaster in. The ride was cloned at Movie Park Germany, so it still lives on in some form.

The ride soft opened yesterday at 12pm. I made it to Sea World at around 3:30, so took 3 casual rides and a few pics/vids. Really fun ride, and wetter than the two water coasters I've been on at the SeaWorld parks in Orlando and San Diego...It's about as wet as Dudleys, or the rapids at SFMM if you sit in the back row. Front row is marginally better, middle rows have a moderate amount of wetness. You wander into the ride area through a shipping container bridge. A sign gives the story that a cyclone has ripped through. Thing seem calm because you are in the eye of the storm, but you must evacuate to the coast guard boats to escape before the trailing side of the storm hits. You walk through an outdoor area filled with wreckage, themed to be like a container port. You then enter a warehouse which has the floor flooded and toppling shelving, floating containers etc. You are grouped at the load, with single riders filling spare seats. The ride has individual lap bars, and a diagonal sash seatbelt, which works well because the ops can clearly see if you have it on. A short flume section takes you out of the building, past a window with a projection of the storm raging outside. The coaster section is fun enough...A direct clone of the one at Djurs Sommerland, so right turns only the whole way generating good laterals. The big drop into the trench is fun, with a pop of air over the hill with the waterfalls. As you crash through the upturned ship you splashdown, and get very wet. The rest of the ride floats through the same warehouse (But a wall down the center means the queue doesn't see this part of the ride), which has broken bits of ship scattered about (bits of hull, steel framing, a giant diesel ship engine, control panels, boilers etc. The fire effects aren't turned on yet, but you can see stacks of oil drums where they will be set off from. The grand finale effect is passing under a complex set of pipework, where the boat is held for a few seconds and a tipping bucket arrangement sends a huge cascade towards the boat. There's no escape if you are seated on the right. And then you are back at the unload. A short ride, but never a dull moment. As you head out the exit the walkway continues out past the dark ride scenes, so you can watch boats splash down. A split in the walkway leads to a viewing area right by the splash down where you can get soaked by wave of each boat if you wish. It's the best overall attraction at the park, great, detailed theming, but Jet Rescue is still probably the better "coaster". Ride entrance barge tyres = theming The seat belts used on the ride. Those between 110cm and 200cm can ride. Heading into the dark ride finale The propeller rotates and drips water onto boats as they shoot under Entrance to the indoor queue inside the warehouse Nerd shot! loading area the soak zone next to the splashdown Some of the broken ship theming hard to photograph, but the water dump effect is up the back lots of water! Well done Sea World!

Thank you for the clarification! Are there many of these around? Except the ones at Noah's Ark and New England? Whitewater West makes/made a version too called a Zip Coaster (They pioneered the concept) There's one at Chula Vista in the Dells, and I think one of the Great Wolf lodges has one too.

Please explain the difference between number 1 and number 3? Number 3 used high speed belts to move rafts uphill, but since they started using LIMs they've effectively stopped selling them. 4:44 in this video shows the one at Noahs Ark http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qj0qTOGipoY

Possibly better capacity? Since you could have a few cars progressively working their way up the spiral lift...There would be enough blocks on the way down to permit this sort of operation anyway.