Wood Dragon 1988

I've only been on Kingda Ka, but I would agree somewhat that I don't "get" it. I will say there are two things about the ride that absolutely blew me away: The Launch The View from the top It's certainly an adrenaline rush. But it doesn't compare to a great coaster with an actual layout like El Toro next door, or Bizarro at SFNE, etc. Also, it is several notches below Storm Runner. Storm Runner is short, but it sure does a lot of "good stuff" in a short period of time. Launch, great airtime on the top-hat, boring (IMO) first inversion, absolutely insane laser snake horse on fire inversion, then an awesome funky twist at the end. So that ride has like four elements, but it is SOOO much more complete than Kinda Ka's one trick.

Santeria - Sublime. Diggin the classic. LBC

I'm sure they can, but why not partner with a huge, international company with years of experience and success marketing in Europe and Asia? Vekoma has relationships with a ton of parks in those areas, and probably have marketing staff that can communicate with those parks better than RMC. It makes perfect since to me, both companies can do what they do best. RMC can engineer some of the greatest wooden and hybrid coasters we have ever seen and Vekoma can sell rides in masses.

I'm surprised how if you go to American Hustle's wiki page, it has been nominated for a million awards and hasn't even been released! Not saying awards make a movie good, but that's impressive if not a little strange. Anyway, I've been looking forward to that movie since I saw the trailer, so I'm excited for it opening!

Great TR! I haven't been to BGW in MANY years, but really need to get back! You really captured the beauty of the park very well in your pictures. One thing that surprised me was how many flat rides you pictured. I've been to BGW five or six times and never went on any. There's too much other stuff to do like coasters, highly themed water rides, Oktoberfest, animal exhibits, shows, etc. The flats look decent and highly themed as well. They could use a few modern ones though.

I've only been once, and I didn't get all the credits that day. Here's my ranking of the ones I've ridden: 1. Maverick 2. Raptor 3. Millennium Force 4. Gemeni 5. Magnum 6. Blue Streak 7. Corkscrew 8. Iron Dragon 9. Mean Streak Yeah, I need to go back, especially now that they have fast lane!

Loch Ness Monster. One of the better ones as it turns out! Also my first looping coaster. I remember being terrified standing in line with my dad for what seemed like eternity.

Cedar Fair: Maverick Six Flags: El Toro/Bizarro (SFNE) SeaWorld Entertainment: Griffon Parques Reunidos/Palace Entertainment: Boulder Dash

Strange to hear these type of comments about Superman. I havent't ridden it in 4 or 5 years, but last time I did, the airtime was definitely still there. It was getting rough in some of the turns and helixes, but for me still a good ride from the Intamin ejectors. From what I remember about the ert we had on the Darien Lake one (again 5 years ago on TPR's Behemoth Trip), the ride took one or two rides to warm up, and then it was ejector city. Everyone talks about that third hill, but the last three hills (the one twisty hill and the two small bunnies) diliver solid ejector air in my book. Everyone always complains about the straightaways, but at least you are going at a high speed. I think they go by pretty fast when your actually on the ride and are more disturbing to look at than actually ride. This ride is 1999 technology and compared to anything else we had seen at the time, state of the art. It was kind of the step-up to rides like EGF and SFNE's Superman for Intamin. Sure I would rather have the SFNE version in my back yard rather than the Darien Lake clone, but it's certainly better than nothing! Much better than any other manufacturer like B&M and Morgan at the time as well. Well, at least from your report, it is running fairly smooth. Maybe I will need to check it out next year. I've been avoided SFA for several years as much of its market still seems to be doing.

Sublime - Boss DJ

I actually really liked the old SFKK. So glad to see it reopening. I liked Thunder Run, so its great to see it will operate again. The new additions look great, both the dry and wet ones. Just great to see Louisville having a solid theme park again! I wish this park the best.

I would suggest 4. I've never been to any of those places, but it is exactly the same type of trip I've been wanting to do for a while. Kauffman Stadium has always been a beautiful park and they just renovated it. St. Louis is a great baseball town as others have said. Going to "souless" Nats Park recently, I really appreciate "real" baseball fans in "real" baseball cities. Outlaw Run makes this type of trip even more appealing. If your dad is not so in to coasters, SDC has so much for non-coaster fans. Plus, if your in KC and STL, there are parks there that may require a few hours to pick up a bunch of credits!

That is wrong, they are "only" spending €4 millions on this, the 35 millions is in Danish Crowns. Ah that makes more since. Still good to see them investing in a classic ride!

Wow. 35 million euros is a heck of a lot of money to pump into any ride, let alone a 100 year old ride! It's great to see that Tivoli wants to keep this oldie a fixture in the park for many years to come.

This is a very green looking coaster. It should look beautiful in the summer weaving in and out of the trees, Lisebergbanan, and the flume ride!

National Bohemian - Maryland's finest.

This argument makes no sense to me. All those parks you've mentioned besides Great America have received huge rides in the past from Cedar Fair. WOF got Mamba, at the time one of the largest steel coasters in the world. MIA got Shivering Timbers, one of the most massive wooden coasters in the world. ValleyFair got WIld Thing, at the time one of the largest steel coasters in the world. Dorney got Steel Force, at the time one of the largest steel coasters in the world. Dorney got Hercules in the 80s, and a 150 foot wooden coaster drop at the time was insane. I just don't get why any of these parks aren't a candidate for another huge coaster, such as a giga. Say what you want about Cedar Fair, but they certainly give just about every major park in their chain a massive coaster every once in a while, however big or small the park may be. And to say KD is a "bigger" park or somehow more worthy of a giga than any other in the chain doesn't make any sense to me. Richmond has just over 200,000 people. KD is a regional park just like any other Cedar Fair park besides maybe CP. They plunked a giga in their, and I could imagine them installing one just about anywhere else. If anything their giga installations have been pretty random over the past few years! CP having a record breaker in 2000 makes since, but I don't think anyone saw Intimidator coming to KD more than a year before it arrived. And CW just had gotten a very similar coaster 4 years before Leviathan!

Spread too thin - Dirty Heads

I-305 Titan Batman Raptor Mindbender (SFOG) Shockwave (SFOT)

Great update, this such an amazing looking park! I really wish I could go on the Scandi Trip next year. Balder is looking old! It sounds like these Intamin wooden coasters are holding up just fine.

Looks amazing. I seriously have to do that one day.

Do you feel that it is redundant for a park to have more than one mine train? That might happen if they get a B&M giga. I agree with what you are saying about the capacity and reliability. Also, I don't think most GP would care, and 99% of park guests don't know what B&M is. But there is nothing wrong with enthusiasts hoping for some variety in the coaster selection. Or hoping for a world class ride that would most likely come from Intamin vs. something forceless or even boring that we've been seeing from B&M recently.

I agree. I think that save record means less than almost any other every other record in baseball, since teams didn't use closers this frequently until very recently. No conversation about Rivera cannot include what happened in 01 against Arizona and 04 against Boston, but you have to give him credit for closing 4 World Series Championships. He seems like a total class act. As an O's fan, he is one of the only Yankees I have ever liked. I suppose he is the "best ever" even though closers were not used the way they are now throughout most of baseball's history.

^Mariano Rivera blew three saves in a row recently. All closers are prone to blowing saves. Melancon still has a 1.30 ERA and is 16/20 in save opportunities.

Mind Bender at SFOG or Shockwave at SFOT for me. Just great, intense, smooth rides and even some airtime!