willh51

I waited 3 hours for Deja Vu at Six Flags over Georgia. Worth it at the time. The vertical tower scared the hell out of me. I was told the wait for Kingda Ka was 5 hours on my first visit. It was 90 minutes. Crisis averted. For a ride to have a 5 hour wait it must 1) have terrible capacity; 2) breakdown constantly; or 3) be at an insanely big park like Disney or Great Adventure.

Thanks for posting the video. I wish it was an hour long; I find the behind the scenes stuff fascinating. And I'd forgotten about that damn song! Interesting to see how much work goes into running a ride like Dragster. Last time I was at Cedar Point it didn't break down at all until 10 p.m. The crew then ran the ride in some kind of manual/slow mode that didn't launch trains as frequently so it would stay up. Another example of Cedar Point's great customer service. Some parks would have closed it down and called it a night. And Raptor is perfect, final "Vekoma turn" and all.

Has someone always been stationed on the midcourse or is this post-accident? What's the actual purpose of that? I understand why they do that on log flumes because you can immediately stop the logs or make people sit down, but a roller coaster?

There's a lot of talk about Cedar Fair not being pleased with i305. Now, I don't claim to know the inside scoop but from what I've seen it's the exact opposite. From casually talking with a few Kings Dominion park higher-ups during my visits I got the sense that they absolutely love the coaster and were beyond thrilled that the general public and enthusiasts thought Intamin knocked it out of the ballpark. Now, that may not transfer to the corporate checkbook but I don't think anyone at Kings Dominion is upset with Intamin over this particular ride. Plus, they're obviously working hand-in-hand with Intamin on the Volcano improvements. And i305 is one of those rides that you experience the first time and know it's WORTH that little bit of extra effort. Of course, Cedar Fair and B&M have a great relationship, too, and Carowinds already has a track record with the company. I think Afterburn (I still call it Top Gun, old habits die hard.) is my favorite B&M inverted. Carowinds is a nice park but has until now had nothing to really draw me back except Afterburn. I remember being so excited when they announced Intimidator. It's a fun ride but it doesn't call to me. I am halfway between KD and Carowinds and I have been to KD many more times in recent years.

You mean how one is actually a "decent" B&M and the other one is 300 feet worth of boring? I haven't ridden either but I'm re-evaulating my "OK with a B&M giga comment now." I thought if anything Leviathan wouldn't be boring. Carowinds certainly doesn't need that because Intimidator doesn't exactly knock my socks off. I have it ranked highly based on my first ride opening day when it wasn't trimmed all to hell.

After hearing how different Leviathan and Behemoth ride, I'm fine with a B&M giga. Would I like an Intamin? Yes, but Kings Dominion already has a decent giga in the market. But a blitz coaster like iSpeed would be the most perfect addition ever. If B&M, I'd love a "speed" coaster with huge drop and some low to the ground hills. Maybe some tunnel action between the states? Not to be a grouch but let's save the 300 foot Wingrider for some other park. Why not let Rocky Mountain build this coaster though? Carowinds could use a good "wooden" coaster and RM can certainly do 300 feet if they can do a dive loop and zero g rolls, right? And I completely agree with Robb's comments above (and his similar comments about Gatekeeper). $20-$30 million is a lot to spend on something just "OK." Blow us out of the water Carowinds.

I love this. Perfect. I remember a few years ago at East Coast Bash someone on management remarked about Anaconda "not going anywhere" with a wink when I asked him on the midway and I'm so glad to hear it's not only staying but being improved somehow. KD is such a great park and I can say without exaggeration this is as exciting to me as a new coaster.

I really like the idea of these retrofitted towers. Seems Intamin resurrecting their "track" style drop patterns from the older towers and updating them was a great idea. I guess Six Flags is confident the Intamin cable from Ka won't come flying up from below to further thrill ascending riders. Should be a great view up there, too. I know looking toward that direction is nicer than looking off the back side of KK. It should offer even better views than Lex Luther if timed right. I'd love to drop alongside a coaster train. I wonder if the entrance will be in the Golden Kingdom or back toward Bizarro?

Do you guys think this is a new ride or something relocated? Looks really good. The Top Spin (and it's variants from other companies) has always been one of my favorite flat rides. Hopefully they'll run a badass pattern to go with that sinister name.

A refresher year would be a wonderful announcement but I doubt it would go over so well with the GP. Is Scream! still running one train? That said, those new slides look pretty awesome.

Any news of a new Intamin Mega-Coaster is exciting! Can't wait to follow-up with this project and maybe (finally) get on a TPR tour to China!

Wow! They really outdid themselves here. That's some awesome engineering and a nice tribute to old Medusa's twisted layout. That drop

The audio on the Great Adventure Bizarro always had a ton of problems. Usually only one train had it working and it often cut out or stopped mid-ride.

I think those images and description are fake. I do, however, like the idea of them using the Bat name again.

Grizzly was designed by Curtis D. Summers and made by Taft Broadcasting/Taft Attractions. PTC made the trains.

^Hopefully they'll just spruce up that area with an awesome roller coaster.

To each their own but GA is a nice looking place. There's some areas that are works in progress, like Chillerland, but it's definitely not a rundown or dumpy looking park. That area by the mine train and El Toro on the lake is beautiful.

Remember the Pavilion? That did great business. That's what tourists wanted; a water-front park that you didn't have to drive to.

That animation above is what I imagined in my head happened when I first heard about the NTAG death. I was trying to explain to a relative today why the bar may have been locked and never failed but a person could still fly out.

Just out of curiosity, was anything running two trains in the middle of July?

I can just imagine the following dialogue played over speakers in tunnel: Boy: "Hey, why'd we stop?" Girl: "It's time to go [actual name of the coaster]." [pitch black is cut by strobe-light lightning, robotic voice booms "REVERSE THE BEAT"] Boy: "Wait, we're going backwards?!" Girl: "YOOOOOLLLLLLLOOOOOO!!!!" Dubset slams into your ears as the train rockets into reverse. Upon re-entering the tunnel riders question whether the boy and robotic voice are also yelling "YOLO." I imagine you would have previously met these characters on cardboard cut-outs in the queue and memorized each placard due to the three-hour, one-train assisted line. They probably have futuristic names like "Treble" and "Wah-Wah." The End. But I like the skateboarding dinosaur, too.

The video is terrible, but won't bitching at SFMM on Twitter and Facebook just give them reason to NEVER release anything?

Nice pictures. The new train and track changes look great. Too bad I won't be out there in the near future; I'd love to ride it. I think it's great to a very rideable "wild" wooden coaster like Hades.

Sorry if this has been answered, but is the station going to stay topless? I could see an X-Flight style metal roof, but won't it be super hot if they leave it open? I only ask because it looks like they put up railings around the station which makes me wonder how they would add a roof.

The beginning of the video reminded me of the Inbetweeners episode when they go to Thorpe Park. The Smiler sure is...squeaky. Looks like a lot of fun though.