downunder

^Maybe they are moving the Guantanamo Bay facility and inmates there, out by the private picnic area might work.

Good topic, I have had some strikingly different rides on the same coaster, sometimes on the same day and other coasters have improved or gotten worse over the years. I've tended to base my ranking on my best ride, but in some cases where I think the coaster has gone to hell over a period of time I rank it on how they are the last time I rode them. Ghostrider is a classic example, I have had some great rides on Ghostrider but my last rides were so awful I couldn't wait for the ride to be over. Some examples of coasters that were radically different at differnet times of the day: Ravine Flyer II - I had a ride during the day and was disappointed, then the at night ERT it was absolutely amazing. Vortex (Canada's one) - so average during the day, that I wasn't going to bother riding it during night ERT, I'm glad Behemoth ERT was delayed because this was crazy at night. Hades - I had a brilliant back row ride at night, but morning ERT was average. And so on: I've also had variable rides on Superman at SFNE and El Toro. I missed riding Voyage at night, and that certainly influenced my ranking because the day rides I had put it well behind many other woodies I have ridden.

I'm just hoping they don't get a HRP coaster because they all look very mediocre even the B & M. I wish they would fix the coasters they have, I rode ROS at Darien Lake and the SFA version within a week of each other and boy did they ride differently, the SFA one was terrible - it was hard to believe it was exactly the same layout as DL.

The park has potential to be much better, but I was really under the impression that Six Flags had written SFA off. I have absolutely no idea what they could be getting, because I don't think SFA has much sway when it comes to getting a slice of the Six Flags capital expenditure pie. So I would be very surprised if it was something big and I doubt they would be able to get it in by the time they open.

The thing that annoyed me about Dark Knight was that there is all this build up to was very ordinary, even for a wild mouse. I think they could have put something much more interesting in that box without altering their capital expenditure on the project. Maybe they wanted something that would just amble by the "theming" - well they certainly got that. It was so ironic that it was the only coaster open for most of the day, marathoning that thing was mind numbing.

^It's a shame that Australian parks don't get the numbers to fund $20 USD+ coasters, I think B & M's are generally viewed as a bit expensive for oz parks. What I'd love to see is an Intamin Megalite, which is still probably around $16 million USD. My rumour is that there will be no new coasters at the Gold Coast parks in 2009 (note Jet Ski opened 2008).

^I did think of that, but that only got to the proposal stage so I doubt they would have been fabricating track that early, they didn't even get to the point of funding it.

I'm a little sceptical, I know people who would have known if something like that was coming to Australia and I haven't heard a peep. I also think if they were at the point of fabricating track for a ride, it is bit beyond the point of cancelling the project without significant financial penalties. Do you have a source on this?

I don't Feb is a particularly good time to go personally, Ian won't know what the hell hit him when he gets to Japan in winter. I'll tell him Everland and Lotte won't be a good idea in Feb. I'd rather let the experts handle it for my coaster travel - it's all Greyhounds and youth hostels if I organise a coaster tour.

Is that because you are too big a celebrity now?

Wooden Out & Back- Phoenix Wooden Twister- Kentucky Rumbler Wooden Racing/Dueling- Lightning Racers Mine Train- Eureka Mine Train (Dreamworld, Australia) Wild Mouse- Scooby Doo (Movie World, Australia) Bobsled- Disaster Transport Stand Up- Riddler's Revenge Floorless- Kraken Mega-Looper - Vortex (Kings Island) Flying- Tatsu Suspended- Vortex (Canada's Wonderland) Inverted/SLC- Lethal Weapon (Movie World, Australia) Non Looper Mega Coaster- SROS @ SFNE Hypercoaster- SROS @ SFNE Giga Coaster- Millennium Force Strata Coaster- Top Thrill Dragster Boomerang- all the same LIM- Maverick for LSM, Flight of Fear (KI) for LIM Arrow Multi Looper- Vortex (KI)

The one's that really stand out for me: Balder Piraten Kawasemi Expedition GeForce Nemesis T-Express Eagle's Fortress Atlantis Adventure Montu

Ideally it would be Compunce for Dash, Knoebels for Phoenix, and GAdv for Toro - I'll take any of those three, they are just so close.

Maverick back row, ejector air on a first drop - too cool. Millennium Force and Top Thrill Dragster aren't bad either.

1. Phoenix 2. Boulder Dash 3. El Toro 4. Superman Ride of Steel (SFNE) large amount of daylight 5. Maverick 6. X 7. Top Thrill Dragster 8. Behemoth 9. Millenium Force 10. Ravine Flyer II

^Mike, I'm amazed, there was something that wasn't RUBBISH on the east coast trip.

Ian is going with Jim Disney and all those guys to Japan (Tokyo parks, Universal and Tobu), I was thinking of going too but I can't because of sport committments. Anyway, Ian and Lucas (from Cali, don't know if you know him) were thinking of doing a side trip to Korea for Lotte World and Everland, it doesn't sound good to get on the good rides. I'm actually surprised they aren't doing the whole trip a bit later in the year. Thanks for the info, I'll let Ian know.

I am trying to find out for a friend whether it is worth going to Lotte World and Everland in February? All I could see on the net was that the parks are open but there wasn't really any indication whether the gun coasters are open at this time, and I imagine it would still be a bit on the cold side, thoughts please?

I went to one of those places in the Everglades in 2004, where they take you out on an airboat as well and the guy did the thing with his chin and the alligator. I'm glad they don't have an employee exchange program with Australia because our crocodiles wouldn't cop the holding their mouth open with your chin, your head would be in the belly real quick.

I was thinking Bad Boy Billy could come in to broker a deal. Though I think Billy only likes chubby chaser porn.

^ I liked Exterminator, and I love Scooby Doo at Movie World. I agree that enclosing it made it better, but I felt considering the amount of money they spent on Dark Knight, they could have brought a lot more interesting coaster.

Six Flags Great Adventure Part 1 My relationship with great adventure started in 2004, and it's been a bit like a relationship with a girl where you put up with unreasonable crap because she's good looking. I've put up with Great Adventure's crap because of the stellar coaster line up. My last visit prior to the TPR trip in 2006 was only made bearable by a gold q-bot. Well times have changed and Six Flags has undergone a Darth Vader back to Annakin Skywalker like transformation, not perfect but a hell of a lot better. We had ERT on the Dark Knight first up, I had low expectations and those expectations were exceeded, downwards that is. A largely pointless pre-show led to a stock wild mouse. I'd go postal if I'd had to line up for 2 hours plus to go on this. The special effects on Dark Knight were only slightly above Disaster Transport at Cedar Point, they looked like a spray paint and paper mache job from 12 year olds (no, that's an insult to 12 year olds). This ride was a misfire and I think Six Flags know it, hell, they sent the last one down to Mexico. I think Mexico deserves better. El Toro was next for ERT, it wasn't running at it's best early in the morning but still sensational. This was followed with the first ride of the day front row on Kingda Ka, I have to admit it was a sensational ride. We got some rides on Road Runner Railway, Skull Mountain, and Nitro. Things were looking good, Matt's mom dropped by to pick up his laundry which was the entire New York Yankee clothing merchandise range. Then it rained, and only two rides which were opened were Dark Knight and the 3D thing for the rest of the day, what did we do? We marathoned Dark Knight, and at times we fell asleep while riding. It was a cruel and unusual twist to our day but sometimes you've got to just take what you get. I've thrown in a few retro photos so let's see if you can spot them. If that's an airtime hill then I'm Michael Jordan. I'd be doing a lot more TPR trips if I was Michael Jordan and I'd be playing less golf, gambling less, and bat better in baseball. To be continued.... Wait a minute, Marineland's Dragon Mountain is biggest (as claimed on their website). But biggest turned out to be a very crafty use of semantics by Marineland, something to do with the size of land area covered or something. I think Marineland also has the biggest amount of unused land and biggest distance between attractions. Jolly green lawn ornament no more. It's alive, unlike most coaster enthusiast's love lives. Not today, no Kingda Klosed for us. Six Flags signature "mines bigger than yours, Cedar Point" coaster. I would have worried about being better. Well Toro made up for that. My only gripe with El Toro is that I wanted even more airtime, the 3 airtime spots and the drop are so good they make the rest of the ride seem ordinary by comparison. But femur snapping airtime overload may not go down too well with those wimpy non enthusiast types. Oh yeah aren't coaster nerds the wimps. The lift hill is so quick that it is not far off being a launched woodie, which has long since been rumoured on Lemon Chill Guy forums all over the net. I wish Mythbusters would do something to see how far you would get thrown out of your seat on this airtime hill. The airtime is so extreme it should be sponsored by Pepsi max. The best drop since Britney f##cked off K-Fed. I thought a drop like this could only exist in the world of the Simpson's like at Duff Gardens. In the back row, the lap bar is the only thing between you and certain death. Now that's better, the Bull with balls - Raging Bull at Six Flags Great America in Chicago just cowers away in utter unworthiness. Next up was El Toro, WTF! Definitely not a positive moment for time travel. The verdict on Dull Knight was emphatic and unanimous. This photo was the onride which is taken on the last drop which is the least sleep inducing part of the ride. Geez, putting theming on this coaster was like putting icing on a dog turd. If there was any justice, the Dark Knight would get a truck load of Nitro. Bring back Chiller, if it took up too much electricty attach it to a bunch of bikes to power it and get those fat ACErs peddling. Nitro was still asleep, but soon it would unleash the B & M fury, well the smooth floating airtime fury. The park was as empty as Homer Simpson's skull when we got there. Some people might think of that as lonely but I felt like Cartman - the park is mine assmasters.

The rock hard reality is that this will face stiff opposition in congress, unless both parties can come to satisfying agreement. Though Obama likes lots of jobs so I'm sure he will support an industry that gives so many jobs. And Larry Flynt could come up with a very stimulating audio visual presentation for the pollies that may get them all the way on this issue.

The thing that polarised so many of us about SROS at SFA is that all of us who went on the Behemoth trip went on the ROS at Darien Lake which is an identical layout and that was so much better. So we knew what the SFA version was capable of, and it way below it's potential.

It wouldn't have mattered you were stapled on SROS at SFA due to the complete absence of negative g-forces. Never has such a potentially awesome coaster been so emasculated by lack of maintenance. Six Flags Awful could be Six Flags Awesome with some maintenance and motivated staff.