downunder

Definitely Zuma's at Knoxville on the Deep South Trip, an all time low. I drank a lot that night to try and deal with the shame. I even took a POV, I rode the next train after the enthusiasts in this photo. The all time low, never ride a coaster where you are taller than the lift hill.

Really nice report, some of the colour you get in those shots is excellent, especially the flags one and I liked that batman shot with the police car in it. Sorry you missed out on Hades, I rode it in the back at night and it was amazing, the drop from the station and the track before the lift hill are a ride in themself. Glad to see you took the Cyclops challenge.

I'm dying to see how this comes out because I think there might a few more of these refurbs if it goes well, or they might be happening anyway. Prime candidates - Rattler, SOB, Mean Streak, Ghostrider to name a few.

Has it re-opened yet? Please read disclaimer at the bottom of the page before launching flames.

An indoor megalite in complete darkness at IOA, I'd be on the next plane to Orlando if that had just opened. Not going to happen but I can dream.

This is something that really irritates me about Cedar Fair (though I haven't tried Six Flags yet) that they won't let us scumbag non North Americans buy tickets. I had the same problem with buying Knott's Scary Farm Tickets last year. In the end I had to buy tickets through Ticketmaster at an inflated rate plus booking fee. I checked Ticketmaster and they are only selling tickets for events at Kings Dominion, so no cigar there. The funny thing is I had no problems buying accomodation as Hotel Breakers for a Cedar Point visit but that must operate on a separate system.

I agree, all parks should have a mega-lite and if they already have one, then they should have duelling megalites. Megalites are awesome coasters but I think they lack the wow factor of their 200+ foot cousins from a marketing perspective, and they aren't significantly much cheaper than a full size hyper (they're not like half the cost of a 200 footer for instance), so I would be surprised to see a North American installations but I would be very pleased if anyone did. If Knoebels got a megalite, my future coaster trips would involve only going to Knoebels.

^KI officials have probably got the arson squad staking out certain TPR member's places already. The band Bloodhound Gang were ahead of their time when it comes to what should be done with SOB - "we don't need no water, let the mother****er burn / Burn , MF, burn". Who knows, they might turn it into a 200 foot Gemini (albeit not twin track), that could actually be fun.

Every time I've visited Knott's (except for Scary Farm) it's been a ghost town in more than just theme, and I've wondered how they make money. I read somewhere that they get 15% of their annual attendance from Scary Farm, what's that, like around 20 nights in late September/October. It's a shame they don't publish the attendance figures for North American parks outside the top 20, I'd be very interested to see how some non top 20 parks are going.

I know it was a few pages back, but Elissa, this comment was all kinds of win. I love it, have the loop just after the turn from the first drop, and call the ride Blackout. I didn't have too much of a problem with Son of Beast, I rode it in 2007 after the loop was removed, and I just found it mediocre. My greatest regret with SOB is that on my last ride 2 girls flashed theirs tits for the onride and I didn't get a shot from the monitor after, impressive effort, I'm surpised they didn't knock themselves out. The former Paramount Parks seemed to have a real taste for mediocre coasters which at least KI was spared to a degree - Zamperla Volare's, Togo Stand Ups and so on. I see the evil geniuses at the CEdar Fair naming department have been up to their usual tricks again - Flying ACE Aerial Chase for the Runaway Reptar. ACE will think it's named after them, even if they wouldn't fit on it.

Yay for Wet and Wild Australia making the top waterparks in the world at #8, and there's even a coaster credit at our waterpark too. Kings Dominion isn't listed and I don't know if it's even close to getting in the US top 20 but it would be interesting to see the impact of the addition of I305 at the turnstiles.

I bought a laptop with Windows 7 on Saturday, turned it on and it installed it. Then it shut down when it was finished, turned it back on - cannot find operating system (apparently it's been happening a lot with Toshibas). Because it didn't have a disc drive, it couldn't be restored from a disc and I wasn't prepared to fork out money for an external disc drive. Took that laptop back and got my money back, I'll have to experience Windows 7 later.

With that budget I'd personally go for something like a slightly bigger version Balder which would fit that budget nicely. The hypers and Intamin pre-fabs aren't as gimmicky as other coasters but my own observations are that people really want to re-visit and ride them again because of the thrill factor. I think $15 million would only get a small B & M Invert.

I'd really like to ride Jennifer's Body. A Vekoma SLC could be themed to the Hangover, given the SLC's memory loss inducing capabilities. I'm sure there would be many supporters on this site for a Mega Pirahna ride, we could have a collection to buy the rights, don't worry I just checked my pocket and found that two dollars for the rights. And I hope they don't do Debbie Does Dinn, that would be one rough ride.

Congrats on getting the job, though you made need counselling from seeing all that suffering.

^Roxy, look up the park index and see what types of rides you prefer. I personally would choose Knoebels because it is so much fun, Phoenix is the most amazing wood coaster I have been on, the airtime is amazing. They have a lot of really fun traditional rides, the stand outs for me were the Dodgems (the GCI guys got them semi airborne in collisions) and the haunted house. To me Knoebels, was like finding a magical little place hidden in the middle of the forest. Dorney is more stuff you would have been on before - an OK hyper, floorless, invert, impulse, a mouse, an average woodie and kiddie coasters. For atmosphere - all concrete and trashcans. Though the water park is supposed to be good.

Good luck with the interview. Rampage with no potholes will be awesome, that coaster has such a great layout, it was fun last year as long as you were ready for the potholes. It's a shame there isn't any good wood at Carowinds, I found Hurler punishing though it looks impressive and Thunder Road was just ok.

I looked up the coaster on rcdb, this is interesting, I quote "It is rumored an individual from Melbourne bought the coaster at auction with plans to set it up at his home." I don't know what happened with that, I'd be surprised if anyone did. Unless Luna Park Melbourne got it.

^Never heard of him, they do have plenty of serial killers down there.

I checked the website, they don't have the actual timetable up for the daily services in June yet. I found I got the same information on the summary page, but I found by accident that the buses ran from 7.30am in the morning in summer. As far as bus tickets go, I didn't need to pre-book, I just went up to the NJ Transit ticket window and brought a ticket. When I was there they started selling tickets from 7.00am and then I went straight to the gate and lined up for the 7.30am bus. If in doubt maybe email NJ Transit and ask them.

^That part after the second lift hill on Beast was horrible when I rode, I thought I was going to break some ribs. So Adventure Express is not only dumb but painful as well now.

I just brought a Toshiba laptop with Windows 7 Premium loaded on it, wish me luck. My view is that it has to be an improvement on Vista - which was absolutely diabolical. If I had known how bad Vista was when I brought my last laptop I wouldn't have bought the laptop.

Adelaide is a very quite place, so a 3.8 for them would be like a twenty to Californians. Tongue in cheek, I've always thought of Adelaide as a place to visit if you want to catch up on your sleep, maybe after some wine swilling.

Yes. Do you listen to radio on the internet?

Nice pictures, you got some interesting angles on some shots. A question, what was Beast like this year?