rollermonkey

1. Millenium Force, Cedar Point ---- 3 / 0.9885 2. Dragon Khan, Port Aventura --- 27 / 0.9061 3. Superman Ride of St, SixFNE --- 1 / 0.9949 4. Venus, Space World ---------- 81* / 0.7232* 4. Kumba, Busch Gardens Ta ----- 24 / 0.9180 5. Superman Ride of St, 6FDL ---- 12 / 0.9675 6. Medusa, Six Flags Great Adv -- 37 / 0.8574 7. Air, Alton Towers --------------- 54 / 0.8125 8. Dodonpa, Fuji-Q Highlands ---- 43 / 0.8415 8. Fujiyama, Fuji-Q Highlands ---- 90 / 0.6991 9. Expidition GeForce, Holiday ----- 1 / 0.9936 9. Bandit, Yomiuriland ----------- 115 / 0.6237 10. Apollo's Chariot, BGW -------- 14 / 0.9517 Living in Japan has really skewed my poll results. Additionally, I'm an invert guy, although I don't have as many B&M loopers in my top ten as I used to! Chris B

I was a bit surprised this thread didn't get locked during the flame war! There was lots of shuffling in this year's poll, that's for sure. I actually prefer DL's S:RoS to 6FA's. :shock: My rides at DL were after dark, and with the mist on, I couldn't see the track making it a more enjoyable ride. (5th and 12th on my ballot, respectively.) I have EGF #9, as I have many loopers above that point on my list. I prefer inversions, hence I rank Kumba and Dragon Khan higher. My #1 is MF, and it will probably stay there a long time!

--My 2005 year in review: --Your first coaster of the year: Raging Spirits, Tokyo DisneySea, 1Jan05 --Your last coaster of the year: We rode Big Boom at Nasu Highlands last, right? 31Dec05 --Best new steel to me: Orochi, Expoland It's better than Rapor, but uglier. --Best new wood to me: Aska, Nara Dreamland --Best new flat ride to me: Intamin Giant Frisbee, Lotte World --Best new water ride to me: I did ride a few water rides, but none were memorable, unless you count DIRTY! --Best new dark ride/walk through to me: Japan has so many weird walk throughs! To pick one would be impossible. My 2006 has happened already though! EDIT: Oh, dark rides too? Gotta be Spiderman at Universal Studios Japan! This ride is so good, that even though I've never done the FL one, and the whole thing is in Japanese (minimizing the story aspect) it is one incredible ride system / presentation! --Best new water park attraction to me: I visited zero waterparks this year! --Best new park to me: Tokyo DisneySea. It's amazing. (Nagashima Spaland for a non-themed ride park.) --Best park "moment" of the year: Riding Galaxy Express 999 for the first time and "discovering" the loop before even Duane at RCDB knew about it! --Best overall park "trip" of the year: My Malaysian Coaster Madness trip. My only multi-day trip, I got to ride 10 of 11 coasters in the country of Malaysia in 29 hours! --Worst new attraction (any kind) to me of the year: I tried my first swinging ship. I'm with Elissa on these! Nausea City! --Best event at a park: Participating in R&E's Asia Trip 2005 in the snow was far more fun than being rained out with the ACE'rs! --Best non-event day at a park: Hitting #400 at Nagashima Spaland. Too bad it was White Cyclone instead of Steel Dragon 2000! --Favorite TPR post/thread of the year: Tatsu Construction tread. --Best Amusement related news of the year: A 4-D coaster coming to near me! I finally get to try this concept, maybe. --Worst Amusement related news of the year: The park closure list seems long this year: Joyland, Astroworld, Kobe Portopialand, etc. --Ride that I had to rethink my opinion of in 2005: Roller Coaster, BPB. I need to ride this again and find out why everyone thinks I'm crazy. --Hopes for 2006: I hope I can make it to the UK trip! I'm on the list, but I can't submit my vacation request until 60 days before it starts! --Best non-park related moment of the year: Got married! My family left the US for the first time ever to attend the wedding.

Nicky's Circus

I just posted some notes on Kobe Portopia in it's thread about the closure.

I was at Kobe Portopiarland yesterday. The park is closing 31 March 2006. There are countdown signs at the Sannomiya Portliner station, outside the entrance and in front of the information office. Many of the employees didn't seem to know why the park is closing, but a few mentioned that money was a major factor. The new Kobe Airport is opening on a new landfill island just south of the park in February. As the park is closing AFTER the airport opens and the large container handling cranes between the park and the airport are taller than every ride except the Ferris Wheel, it isn't height restrictions that is causing the park's closure. A few employees think that the land is being sold. Either way, with square footage on the airport island at a premium and the Minami Koen Portliner station so close to the park and the airport, it's no wonder the park is closing. Between rental car companies and even just a large parking garage, it will be much easier to turn a profit. Couple this with the difficulty in maintaining attendance levels with zero room for expansion, aging rides and new restrictions (There's an airport less than a mile away now!) and it's not hard to see why the park is closing down. The coasters were very nice. I've been on several Mack bobsleds, and this one reminds me of the one at Heide Park, a nice comparison. Double Loop was better than the Meish Doube Loop at Fuji-Q, but time isn't being nice to it, and it is rustingbadly. BMRX, this was incredibly fun, and I rode it six times back-to-back in different seats just to experience it. I haven't been on LBB, JL, Zonga or Lightning Coaster so I can't compare it to those. What I can say is that this was great fun. It was great for a non-looper, (I love inversions almost more than I love airtime!) had some air towards the front of the train, and the back gets some wonderful "pull-down" action. There are blasts of water-fog at several points of the ride, and the first indoor one scared the heck out of me because I didn't see it coming!. Sadly, the theming on this ride has fallen into disrepair. At one point it must have been a truly beautiful coaster. I'll talk more about this after I compile a TR. Chris B

Yagiyama Cyclone (Is ending in 'Y' twice with the same coaster name your way of saying you don't play well with others?)

Diavalo @ Central Park, Himeji Next up Parque Espana?

I made it to Seibu Yuenchi today, I'll post more later. I am getting down to Kobe Portopialand tomorrow (New For Me!) and I am hitting Central Park in Himeji as well. I have POV of the TOGO loopscrew at Seibu Yunchi, any guesses how it was? More later, someone was robbed and killed less than 100 meters from my house on Wednesday (In Japan!) and my wife is a little afraid to walk back to the house from the train station past the scene of the crime. The guy was caught the next day due to the insane number of cameras in this country.

Tami Tami

Abismo

Actually we were trying to drive to Seibu Yuenchi after sunset which made negotiating nameless streets more difficult. I am going there today by train which will be much easier! As for travelling around Japan this time of year, parks north of the Kanto region tend to have a closure period. The farther north you go the longer the period. Hokkaido parks closed the last week of October. (I was there the first week of November.) As for Tohoku, the closures were generally in December with a New Year's event, then closed again until March. If you are interested in things besides amusement parks up north, the Sapporo Snow Festival is fantastic, and winter sports are plentiful. Schuss-boom! As you head south, more parks are open. There are tons of parks on Kyushu, as well as other parks you may not have found on your first trip here.

Lil' Shaver

I drove them back! Actually we were going to visit another park, but: A. We couldn't find it. B. We had other things to do. C. I couldn't stand the Alvey's anymore and kicked them out at the first train station I could find! D. The Alvey's couldn't stand me and begged to be dropped at the first train station they saw. E. My wife of about 2 weeks called me and said she wanted sex. F. A mixture of some or all of the above. If you want info on how to get to parks, I can help. I live here, speak english, and have figured out how to get to almost all of the major parks and many smaller parks.

Turtle Chase (Coming Soon!)

Now THAT is a simple and accurate way to describe the answer to the original question! A coaster either starts out rough or it doesn't. That's design. As the coaster ages depending on the materials used and original design tolerances, it either gets rough quickly or slowly. Maintenance can prevent some or all of this tendency to become rougher depending on quality of replacement parts and skill of the maintanence personnel. Holla, you sly dog!

Tremors ("Unknown" is DEFINITELY cheating!)

Nemesis Inferno (Roller Coaster?!? That's SO cheating!)

Lost City of Gold

La Vibora (See, I used a different coaster name for 'L' this time, try it!)

Ultratwister

Thunderhead

Mayumi forced me to wait 20+ minutes for the curry-flavored popcorn! It was the longest popcorn line in the park, and it actually smelled really good. The flavor was pretty weak though, and mostly just tasted like regular popcorn, but weirder. We did the castle walk-through as well. It goes under the castle, then up an elevator to the final room. There is actually quite a bit of Black Cauldron reference during the "experience" which is weird considering how bad the movie bombed! Chris

^Thanks! I was posting stuff about this one in the other thread! Robb, you were in DisneySea the other day, did you notice the crane that appeared to be between the parks? It seemed to be behind Critter Country from the TDL side. Chris B

Arkansas Twister