verticalzero

I think the name is fine, "Hades" is a worse name as this can be linked to satanic things. "Banshee" was a bit too far but a great name, it means "whaling death" which is right for a stand-up coaster, but can put people off from riding it due to them thinking the ride is unsafe. To make the ride more spooky - paint the track or supports in "glow in the dark" colours.

This news was posted in July on the Website, I know it is old news but not everyone may of heard about it. Does this affect the "Big Dipper" and "Tumble Bug".. The owners of the historic former Chippewa Lake Amusement Park are pleased to offer for sale approximately 95+ acres of land adjacent to Chippewa Lake, the largest natural inland lake in the state of Ohio. The land offered for sale will include lake rights and access currently enjoyed by the owners, including beach use, swimming, boating, docking rights, boat ramps and parking areas. The lake itself has recently been purchased by the Medina County Park District.. This property is a rare jewel for residential, resort, commercial and mixed-use redevelopment, providing opportunity that is simply unavailable elsewhere in Northern Ohio. Asking Price: $3,500,000 http://www.cbre.com/USA/US/OH/Cleveland/property/chippewalakepark.htm?pageid=0

I know the Wild Mouse can give a punishing journey to its rides on bad days, but "death" riding.. Look behind the women in front and it looks like the "Grim Reaper" is having a secret ride on the Mouse at Blackpool.

I won't skip work just for a game, I'll buy the most expensive version of Halo 3. For the UK launch Microsoft is hiring out the I-Max cinema in London, http://www.londontown.com/LondonInformation/Entertainment/BFI_London_IMAX_Cinema/9135/ With a screen the height of five double decker buses, a 12,000 watt digital surround sound-system, and the special multi-dimensional technology of the iMax format (short for Image Maximum), the BFI Imax is, without doubt, the most technically impressive modern cinema in the country. Watching a film here is more like taking part in the action - travel from the depths of the ocean up to the far reaches of outer space via a series of spectacular 3D and 2D films. A large proportion of their 3D programme is dedicated to children’s films, but by virtue of their powerful, technical brilliance many of these are just as fascinating for adults to watch. 3D documentaries and mainstream movies also add to the portfolio and, while the 2D films are by no means as visually dynamic they are still impressive on this – the largest screen in the UK. Right outside Waterloo Station, within walking distance of the South Bank and the London Eye, the location of the cinema couldn’t be better – even the fact that it currently acts as a kind of roundabout and can only be accessed via a series of illuminated tunnels is quite a coup. As you navigate the tunnels with their space-age blue lights on your way to the cinema you feel that the “living cinema experience” has already begun. The building itself – a seven-storey tall, glass-enclosed cylinder – sucks you into its vortex welcoming you into a new world. The BFI London Imax has the most advanced 2D/3D projection system in the world.

MF and Magnum are my fav, but really all of them, execpt for Wicked Twister and TTD they were not built when I visited the Park. CP and KI have excellent coasters while England does not.

A very sad day indeed, another park closes and some of the rides are lost for ever. Why was the wood coaster, pretzel dark ride and in-house waterslides not in the auction..? All the "Cyclone" needs is to be re-tracked, repainted and replace any supports which are loose or infected with woodworm. Give the trains new wheels and once that has been done it will be a fantastic ride. I think it should be saved, it is the only coaster left from it's designer and this alone makes it worth saving, the more "coasters designed and built by different designers the better". I guess that is asking too much for some one to buy it if the coaster ever comes to being sold, I will assume the "Cyclone" will go the same route as "Big Dipper" at Chippa Lake, left to rot and collapse back to nature. I bet the " Blue Streak" will be left to die if the Park does not open next season.

Grand National is great, gotta love the "double downs" The only downside for "Nash" is the speed, needs go faster on the return straights to the finishing line.

Cute Pigs

I visited Heide-Park in 2005, it was friendly, clean and can't wait to go back. 190km = 118mph, but taking a photo at the same time is madness.

Never been on Goliath at SFMM, looks a great ride with it's 1st drop into a tunnel and the "Pass out helix" near the end of the run. I can say " Goliath" at Walibi World rox's and I could ride it's super layout all day. Shame it's 5 hours drive and 3 countries away from me.

Who the hell made YOU the keeper of the truth? If I found it boring, then that is truth for me. If you did not, that is truth for you. For you to insist that your truth is more valid than mine just makes you seem arrogant. I didn't say I didn't like it. It was, in fact, somewhat enjoyable, but I stand by my opinion that it was boring. I thought the layout was uninteresting, I thought a great deal of potential airtime wasn't delivered, and I like a twister to feel a bit more "out of control". Those are just my opinions, but they are valid for ME. I could care less if you agree, but I resent you saying that I'm being untruthful. "Boring" isn't something that you can validate as true or untrue in general. If I say that a coaster is 100ft tall and it is in fact 150ft tall, then that would be an untruth. When it comes to an opinion such as "boring" or "exciting", then the only way it can be an untruth is if I say it is one thing, but I really thought it was the other. I thought the Kentucky Rumbler was boring. Deal with it. Not at all. Until this year, my #1 coaster was a steelie: the very-smooth Expedition GeForce. Shivering Timbers is smooth (at least it was when I rode it opening season) and it is high on my list -- ahead of Bullet. I don't equate "smooth" to "boring." Hell, I got a big kick out of Leap the Dips, which is smooth, plain, and SLOW... but a lot more interesting and fun than Kentucky Rumbler IMHO. See above "Leap the Dips" comment. What I like in a coaster depends on what kind it is. If it's an out and back, I want floater airtime and lots of it. For a Cyclone, I want falling-off-the-planet drops, heavy laterals, and anticipation-building slow, flat turns. If it's a twister like KR, I want to feel that the coaster is out of control, I want some surprise direction changes, I want to get "lost" in the layout, I want to feel that I need another ride or two in order to figure it all out. KR gave me none of that, and so I found it rather boring. If you read my initial post on this, you'll see that I said "I may be the only one who thinks so..." or something to that effect. I know that KR has its fans. I'm not one of them. The two people I rode it with said it was "OK" but neither of them was in a big hurry to ride it again. Others on the same train LOVED it, so I know we didn't just get it on a sluggish day. No, it's great IMHO because it's a twister that does EXACTLY what I want a twister to do. It meets all the things I list above, PLUS it's a truly unique design with a lot of nice touches. It's one of the few "rough" twisters that I could ride 50 times in one day, which I did on Monday. As much as I love the Voyage, there's no way I could go 50 times in 12 hours. I'll mark this on the calendar: I agreed with you on something. Bullet has the potential to become unridable in short order if they don't maintain it well. At the moment, however, it's rough but not too rough. It's wild but re-ridable (there was at least one person who broke the 100-ride mark this weekend). It has everything I want in a wood twister, and when it consistently runs as well as it runs in the rain now, it might even move up another notch or two on my wood list. Right now, it's at #4. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Texcoaster: Think yourself lucky you can ride all these new coasters like the Kentucky Rumbler, due to me living in England I have to suffer any wait to see if a Park is brave enough to install a steel or a decent woodie. I thank "Oakwood" in Wales for building "Megafobia" but that is a 4.5 hour drive down the M4 Motorway (Highway). Any UK coaster lovers have to leave the country to ride "Balder", "Zeus", "Robin Hood" and "Collossus", Apart from "Megafobia" I can say "there are no decent" woodies which have been built in England, the ones in Blackpool (5 hours drive away) don't count cos they are all Out n Back's which were built years ago. Stop complaining on how they ride, rough or super smooth, savor the moment when your on the train and think to yourself, shame other countries can't have a coaster like this one. The "Bullet" is brand new, give it chance to break-in, send a letter or email to the company if you think it's to rough and they will put you straight.

If the renders of the Park are the same as the real Park, it will be amazing, lots of details, calm and relaxing. The park gets better with every update, not far from me, only 2.5 hours flight from England. How high will the waves be, higher than 9ft, due to Mt Olympus being the record holder at the moment.

I like riding Boomerang's as long as the track is not rough which makes your head go from side to side. The drop into the station is the best part, can last for ages before the chain / pulley lets you go. I've been on the one which used to be at Walibi World, still at Walibi Belgium and a few more parks around England.

I would love to ride this classic coaster, have to save up and visit Florida in a couple of years. I just hope the park is not closed down and the "Starliner" is left to rot and become like the "Chippa Lake Park" Big Dipper.

What did the 1994 Northridge earthquake do to the area and SFMM... I have never ridden the woodie due to being so far away, it looked ok and had the same layout as the "Cyclone" in New York. Why did SFMM not retrack it if it was becoming too rough, were the cars bouncing along the track down the drops.

If those 2 guys are found "guilty" of damaging the ride then yes they should get slapped with a "banning" order, only the ride Ops and Technical people can mess around with the coaster cars. What's the link on youtube for the video... I'll be happy to visit other parks if I got banned from one for a year or 2.

I think we will see a new 300ft high coaster appearing in the near future, depends if a Park wants to spend $30+ million on a single ride. There are only a few parks in the world who can budget for that amount. I want to see more taller and bigger woodies appearing esp in England, someone has to break the "Beast's" record of being the longest in the world.

If the Park knew they were going under or put themselves up for sale, why did the park owners waste their money to buy and re-build the "Starliner"..?

Nice pic's of your adventures: Do Cedar Point recieve loads of letters of complaint about "Mean Streak" due to it's roughness, trims on the 1st drop. I don't know why CP don't look after "MS", re-track it, remove those trims and get the full speed back. "Mean" is coming up to 20 years old which is still young for a woodie.

This is one Park I have to do in my life-time, just to ride "Phoenix". Great photo's of the rides during the day and night. Did you get a free ride go on the Merry-Go-Round...

Sorry if this has already been posted: Taken from CNN News: A Verona man shattered a vertebra in his back on a thrill ride that crashed and will spend up to three months in a back brace, according to authorities. Steven Schroeder said he was spinning around in an Octopus ride with his 9-year-old daughter, Mary, at the Price County Fair when the tub they were in crashed and he was tossed out Aug. 18. "It was the experience from hell," Schroeder said after he returned home following a 10-day hospital stay. "I was very concerned about my daughter when this was going on. I was in excruciating pain. I couldn't get to her, and I could hear her crying in the background." Schroeder, 57, the technical director of the Overture Center for the Arts in Madison, said he'll be out of work indefinitely. His daughter, who wasn't seriously injured, has since complained of headaches and whiplash, he said. At least one other person complained of head and neck pain as a result of the ride failure, according to a Price County sheriff's report. The accident at the county fair in Phillips, four hours north of Madison, is under investigation by the state Department of Commerce. Tony Hozeny, a Commerce spokesman, said the agency could not comment on the accident or the ride because the investigation is not complete. The inspection process and the amusement ride industry in Wisconsin has been in the limelight recently after the death of a 16-year-old Menasha teenager in July. Dan Barbacovi, an owner of Spectrum Entertainment of Ironwood, Mich., which owns the ride, said the accident happened because a knuckle holding one of the ride's arms failed, causing the arm carrying the tub to fall. "It was a freak accident," Barbacovi said. "I've asked myself if I could've done anything to prevent this accident, and I couldn't." The knuckle was not receiving grease and had worn down through recent use, the Price County sheriff's report said. Barbacovi said it's hard to see if there is wear on those knuckles. The ride operator told police he had last greased all the machine's joints when he set up the ride three days before the incident. Barbacovi said the injury is his company's first serious accident. "I haven't slept since it happened," he said. "It's the worst thing that's happened in my life." Mark Doman, principal engineer for the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Growth Commercial Enforcement Division, said the ride passed Michigan state inspection. A recent engineering analysis performed by a Green Bay company showed the ride was in good shape, Barbacovi said, but from now on, the company will take apart the knuckles each week. Wisconsin officials wouldn't say if the ride had been inspected by state officials this year, and state electronic records are antiquated. Greg Jones, administrator for Safety and Buildings, the state division that oversees ride inspections, said that state ride inspectors usually make it a priority to check out Spectrum Entertainment because the company tends to have a lot of violations. Schroeder said that the accident was the most painful experience of his life and his daughter has vowed to never go on an amusement ride again.

I'm planning a long weekend from London to Paris via the Eurostar train sometime in Oct. I'll take a day off work on the Friday, check into the hotel and on Sat morning catch the Parc Astérix shuttle bus, return to the Hotel, catch the train back to London on the Sunday evening. I've never been to this park before and I have heard reports that their coaster "Tonnerre de Zeus" is an amazing ride. I'll pull down the "Buzzbar" 1-click to see how much I get. Zeus is the bigger badder brother / sister to Megaphobia which is at Oakwood. As for riding "Goudurix", I'll wear a neck brace.... What is the Park like in Oct, are the Q lines quite short as I want to ride "Tonnerre de Zeus" as many times as possible. If I manage to do this trip I will post some pic's.

I love "Flyers", hope B&M's Flyer for Thorpe Park has an "inclined loop" and a "Pretzel loop", tunnels and interlocking corkscrews. I won't count on the "Pretzel" appearing in England due to this inversion being far to scary for us "English" folk.

Congratulations Alex, that is some record of riding 1 coaster a 1,000 times. What do the Ops say to you when they see you q'ing..? Keep going, maybe Cedar Point might give you something special when you reach 5,000 times. I rode it 3 times when I visited CP, that last helix is a "grey-out" area. Have you noticed if "Raptor" has got faster or slower over time... Well done and hope you continue to fly with "Raptor" for many years.

The owners of the house got shown the coaster details by the Park, they could of sold up and moved house, but they choose to stay so they have to live with the noise. I bet their house price goes up loads within the next couple of years. Anyone know some good double or Triple glazing specialist firms for their windows