downunder

I'm a "we're going to die"-er. But when I am actually scared which is on monstrous European Star Flyers and SCAD towers, I'm dead silent - preparing for the end of life.

Well New Zealand is way ahead of Sydney when it comes to getting new rides.

^Savages, those Europeans with their evil metric system, though we have it too. It will be interesting to see Kristen's reaction when she rides her first giant coaster, and I've seen some small kids on rides like Millennium Force. Back to the poll, the steel one looks like the usual suspects, though Blue Fire might be right up there,

^Would she make the cut for those junior wood coasters at the the former Paramount Park, I they're Fairly Odd Coasters these days? I think I might have a new number 1 steel next year, and I see another potential top ten candidate.

In this ballot, poor old Leap The Dips, couldn't get this girl's No. 1 rating and it was her only coaster. I would have thought with Kristen's love of Frog Hoppers that abrupt ejector airtime would have rated highly. ~"Kristen Alvey" Abrupt Airtime_____________________________,y,y,5 Floating Airtime___________________________,y,y,1 Lateral Forces_____________________________,y,y,6 Out of Control Feeling/Directional Changes_,y,y,4 Positive G's/Loops_________________________,y,y,3 Sensation of Speed_________________________,y,y,2 Leap the Dips Lakemont PA,y,n,2 ------------------------------------------------694Ballots so far = 694

I think it's lack of vagina that drives this behaviour.

^I realised my error and submitted a corrected ballot straight away and that was accepted so I don't know what happened there. I've sent the ballot again, so here's hoping it gets fixed this time. I have no idea why I did my wood poll from scratch this year.

Knott's Scary Farm Part 3 - Knott So Scary The scare zones at Knott's ranged from great to a little thin: Ghost Town: awesome scare zone with some exceptional costumes, very foggy with all kinds of nasties in there. The Gauntlet: another very atmosheric scare zone with plenty of great looking scare actors. CarnEvil: very ordinary but mainly by virtue of being in the wide open spaces in the Xcelerator corner with a lack of darkness and corners to work with. Mazes covered in this update: Labyrinth: more a fantasy maze but still had people jumping out at you for some okay scares, it had a nice dreamlike quality about it and some good sets. Cornstalkers: had some good scares in places but mostly pretty ordinary. One problem was that the maze was in a straight line and the walls made of hay were a bit threadbare, to the point where I could see Beach Blvd on one side. Without turns and corners the scare actors had less to work with. "Are you happy with your carrier sir, I think I can convince you to change carriers". Staff on commission are way scarier than any monster. The Guantlet had great atmosphere and more Pumpkins than Billy Gorgan's pool of touring musicians. The monsters at Knott's seemed like the malformed children of the HHN monsters. Labyrinth was almost exclusively manned by girls, especially on Thursday night. I was wondering why I kept getting drawn back to this maze. The ACEers starved to death and withered away because there was no gravy at the buffet so they wouldn't eat. I asked her for a scary look, well she tried, it was reflective of the scare level in Labyrinth. This guy kind of just sat there, got up walked a bit, and then sat there again. He should be in the public works dept of our local government. The guru of the Gauntlet, not to be consulted on spiritual matters. This guy's very presence scared people. The stalkers in Cornstalkers tried hard, I can think of a few coaster enthusiasts who would make good stalking consultants for next year? Voyage fanboy who put T-Express at #150 on the Mitch Hawker ballot - I guess they really are cracking down on errant ballots this year. The corn fields next to the parking lot at Holiday world looked scarier, maybe they should hire inbred rednecks for the mazes, though a don't eat the customers module would have to be added to the staff training. Thank heavens for metal detectors, I could just see some gang banger getting scared and capping some poor scare actor with an uzi.

It's been observed before but it's well worth repeating Intamin woodies are more made of wood than The Voyage with it's steel supports. I made a mistake by not putting the "y's" in on my wood ballot because I rushed it and then resubmitted a corrected ballot which was acknowlegded as received but the original incorrect ballot was listed so I have resubmitted the corrected ballot again. I hope he fixes it.

^I've went to La Ronde in 2005, they are absolutely shocking, do they put sedatives in the staff drinking fountain? I almost needed to wake someone up to open the airgates for Le Monstre.

I'm ready to put in my deposit! I'm still bummed I missed Superman Escape when I visited Movie World.. Scooby still ranks at best coaster experience ever though! I must have ridden it 20 times that day... Movie World seems to have a knack of combining a dark ride with a coaster really well, Superman Escape does it nicely as well. I have no idea when they'll do another coaster though. I dream of a Mitch Hawker Land - here's the line up: Expedition GeForce, Bizarro (ex SROS), Boulder Dash, El Toro, Balder, Kawasemi, T-Express, & Nemesis - totally absurd commercial wise but I'd go. Of course you can't leave Mitch Hawker Land until you have voted. Sydney would be an ideal location, at least for me. I have to admit my taste in coasters has evolved over the years, I had never heard the term airtime before 2003 but maybe that was because the only parks I had been to in the US before 2003 were in Cali. I think I am starting to appreciate GCI more this year, unlike the Intamin and other woodies that rip you out of you seat. GCI's have moments where it feels like the whole train has left the tracks and is flying.

Mate, asides from a couple of potholes, Rampage was righteous in July when TPR was there, definitely right up there for me and I did vote. The TPR Mitch Hawker tour - SFNE, Compounce, SFGAdv, over the Atlantic, Alton, Holiday Park (not World Voyage fanboys), Liseberg, over to Asia, Everland, Tobu Zoo.

Judging from this, we can assume that it won't go indoors at all. Thats too bad, a half indoor, half outdoor Batman Clone would be awesome! I'd be disappointed if they were spending 12 million Euros and only getting a Batman clone for that much money, albeit they could theme the living crap out of it. This better go up quick, I'll be in the neighbourhood in late June/Early July.

Knott's Scary Farm Part2 - Production Values : Not At Knott's Knott's had 13 mazes, which ranged in quality from almost Universal to slightly better than the Disaster Transport queue. Two mazes covered in this instalment: Pyromaniax - the log flume ride with a crap load of mist and people jumping out at you from the sides. Hardly state of the art but fun. Quarantine - a busy maze, people don't really jump out at you, the scare actors just kind of stumble around in there and get in your way. The special effects were okay but it had good atmosphere. "Hand over your wallet, your dignity, your house, custody of the children, 80% of your income". Oh just kill me, or go on retainer with Tiger. Pus the ride, the bodily excretion experience. Now there's a concept for a new Epcot Pavillion. It was hard to tell the cast members from the park visitors. Everyone seemed kind of confused in the Quarantine maze like they were supposed to be rostered on somewhere else. Into the Quarantine to be shed of any unwanted diseases, huh, what classifies as a wanted disease? This is what a summer working at Cedar Point leaves people looking like. "If I work that extra 100 hours a week I'll get that $0.10 an hour bonus". One of the friendly exit attendants at the end of Pyromaniax, nothing quite improves throughput like scaring people out of the ride. No Satan Claus just lots of fog which made things challenging for the scare actors to get people's attention. There was talk of flame throwers. Up we go into the red cave, was Satan Claus up there or Beatle Ben with a flashlight with red cellophane over it? It was advisable to get the ride mazes out of the way, Pyromaniax was first up. Not quite the flume of doom, but flume of moderate thrills. "I have to disagree with you, Monster Energy Drink is way better. Oh, by the way, aaaarrghhh!!!!" Some of the cast members had been sneaking to the beer stand on their breaks. Something told me this would a bad idea...

Knott's Scary Farm Part 1 - The Not So Emo Black Parade After it rained most of the day on Wednesday, it cleared up nicely by 4pm for my first night of Knott's Scary Farm. I'd just done HHN the previous weekend, so the bar was set impossibly high for Knott's. Haunt Dick made the call and it was scare time. To be continued... The Dick Kinzel of Haunt arrived, has Dick K actually heard of Knott's? Maybe if they changed the name to Cedar Point's Southern Californian Resort he'd care. The wolf wasn't as scary as some of the cougars. Rat Face was pulling big time by saying he was the "Magic Rat" from the Springsteen song Jungleland. Least scary award goes to gay mask guy. Congratulations, we believe in you. Unfortunately, not one of the cast members, I am forever scarred. The scariest part was she's available - a well known TPR tourist (and local) was seen lurking in the mist. Local male crack whore, he moved to Buena Vista because he was too classy for Garbage Grove. This is what happens when ACE attempted cloning in their basement laboritory, an improvement actually. Knott's management told Wolfy he only had to work on full moons, not a happy lycanthrope. An actual zombie child, with no ritalin required. State of the art animatronics - Buena Vista style. Ironically, on every other visit to Knott's it actually was a Ghost Town - like an all you can ride (or stand) buffet. But not tonight. The men in yellow wielded their metal detectors like they were compensating for inadequacies in other areas. The heinous crime of attempting to bring in non-Knott's food was punishable with a bring your own lube body cavity examination. Ghostrider had recession proofed the practice of Chiropractic in the Garbage Grove/No Buena Vista area. The weather had cleared nicely for haunt, Los Angeles residents seem confused by rain. Well the action McDonald's does in my stomach is scary enough - down then up (or worse still, out very quickly). I had a feeling McDonald's were going to regret this.

I agree with you there, Luna Park is in one of the best spots in Sydney. I went there before the original park burned down (I was actually a tiny tot at the park the night it burned down in 1979). The park was like a mini Blackpool before the fire. Sydney has one wild mouse and that's it, and there's no prospect of another coaster coming - ever. The Gold Coast parks are 1000km away, probably 12 hours drive. Oh we do have Magic Mountain about 6 hours drive south of Sydney - Merimbula's Magic Mountain with it's one portable coaster. It's totally strange to me to be able to go to an amusement park any time you want.

Nice work, being an analyst by profession, I am a total stats whore so keep it coming. I love RCDB, it is such a great reference, it's really helped with my travels and it's heaps of fun to check what coasters are out there in the world.

^If it's any consolation Luna Park Tel Aviv is way better than Luna Park Sydney, in fact our park makes your park look like Cedar Point by comparison. A Tranan style coaster would be an interesting addition, it was actually a lot better than I thought it would be. Scandanavia seems to be the land that public liability forgot relatively speaking so I don't how a coaster with that type of restraint would cut it against safety laws in other countries.

I'm surprised that there wasn't a blog up straight away crowing about the topping off when it happened, and they didn't even put up a photo update straight away either. The i305 website seems rather benign and unattended to. If KD PR don't act like they're excited about i305 then how are they going to convince anyone else, luckily they're not trying to generate buzz about a second hand roller skater like SFMM.

You didn't miss anything. At least not IMO. I have been on it during the day, at night, during rain, etc, and I pretty much find it to be very similar anytime you ride it - uncomfortable. Last time we were there I took my one night ride and that solidified my feelings that I should be over at The Raven instead. --Robb I hear you, I preferred Raven as well, it's short but it flies. The Voyage has a great, epic layout but it didn't do much for me when I rode it. I gave it a good go as well, 11 rides during the day mainly front and back rows with some middle as well. But my take on the Voyage is purely subjective, I can only rank it based on my experience and likes in a coaster. How I rank my coasters is I just ask myself out of two coasters - which one would I rather ride and work my way through my list that way, prior to this I sort the coasters into broad quality bands. I don't get any dead heats and sure there's some rides I really liked that not too many people do like the Flight of Fear coasters. I'm also not too fussed with flyers and stand ups, so they don't get much love from me.

Different times of day seem to have a huge impact on some rides. I rank Ravine Flyer II very highly but my afternoon ride on it was very mediocre but at night - wow; other examples for me were Vortex at CW, and Hades. As far as Voyage goes, I really regret not riding it at night as I possibly would have ranked it much higher, my day rides in 2007 lacked airtime and were brutal at the turnaround plus the the brake going into the tunnel on the way back. I've don't get the mentality where people consider it an affront if you don't like what they like. Though most people who flame people on the net are seldom as brave in real life.

I second El Toro first drop, the drop looks amazing, even though it's not the steepest drop in the world, it look so steep it doesn't look real especially at the right angle.

^I had Roller Soaker last as well, I rode it once that was enough - the things we do for a credit. Got mine in, my top 25: 1. Favorite Wood Coaster Any Park (Balder) 2. Piraten Djurs Sommerland 3. Bizarro SF New England 4. X2 Six Flags Magic Mo 5. Maverick Cedar Point 6. Top Thrill Dragster Cedar Point 7. Behemoth Canadas Wonderland 8. Millennium Force Cedar Point 9. Goliath Six Flags Over Geo 10. Ride of Steel Darien Lake NY,y,n,10 11. Phantom's Revenge Kennywood Park 12. Nitro Six Flags Great Ad 13. Mindbender Six Flags Over Geo 14. Vortex Canadas Wonderland 15. Magnum XL-200 Cedar Point 16. Lynet Farup Sommerland 17. Afterburn Carowinds 18. Storm Runner Hersheypark 19. Kingda Ka Six Flags Great Ad 20. Fluch von Novgorod Hansa-Park 21. Flight of Fear Kings Island 22. Flight of Fear Kings Dominion 23. Raptor Cedar Point 24. XCelerator Knott's Berry Farm 25. Alpengeist Busch Gardens Euro

Got Some - Pearl Jam

I really don't like fast food, I have a McDonald's at the bottom of my building at work and I go there only once or twice a year. I think Australians have grown tired of Krispy Kreme and our ranking has slipped significantly.