Wolf
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Mitch Hawker's Wood Coaster Poll RESULTS!
Here are the results of the 2010 Mitch Hawker Wood Coaster Poll:
Top 25
1t. El Toro - SFGAd
1t. T Express - Everland
3. Boulder Dash - Lake Compounce
4. Phoenix - Knoebel's
5. Ravine Flyer II - Waldameer
6. The Voyage - Holiday World
7. Balder - Liseberg
8. Colossos - Heide Park
9. Aska (S) - Nara Dreamland
10. Fireball - Happy Valley Song
11. Troy - Toverland
12. Prowler - Worlds of Fun
13. El Toro - Freizeitpark Plohn
14. Thunderhead - Dollywood
15. Rampage - Alabama Adventure
16. Thunderbird - PowerPark
17. Tremors - Silverwood
18. Renegade - Valleyfair!
19. Hades - Mount Olympus
20. Ozark Wildcat(SBNO) - Celebration City
21. Raven - Holiday World
22. Shivering Timbers - Michigan's Adventure
23. Tonnerre de Zeus - Parc Asterix
24. Evel Knievel - Six Flags St Louis
25. Joris en de Draak W - de Efteling
Bottom 10
171. Predator - Darien Lake
172. Antelope - Gulliver's World
173. Mean Streak - Cedar Point
174. Lil' Dipper - Camden Park
175. Magnus Colossus - Terra Mitica
176. The Bandit - Movie Park
177. Coaster-Express - Parque Warner Madrid
178. Son of Beast (SBNO) - Kings Island
179. The Grizzly - Great America
180. Anaconda - Walygator Parc
For the full results and completed ballots please visit Mitch Hawker's site:
Lot of movement in the polls this year. I think the reduced voting turnout had an effect that might result in this being an outlier year in moving average tabulation. Be really interesting to rerun this year's results by including the polls from the people who voted last year, but not this year, and see what moves.
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^I don't think any sane individual (read: someone not from Ohio or New Zealand) thinks it's going to ever reopen, or a poll like this would have an influence. Mostly what it is is people remembering the ride fondly and thinking of their best rides on it, when in reality if they were open today it would probably be ranked much lower.
Mitch's Within-year is a better method to establish the answer to that question. Voters on the overall poll, though, are free to vote however they please, be it based on what was the best that season, or what gave their best ride ever, across their entire riding experience. Is it reliable performance, peak performance, both? Do you just a ride you visit every month different than a far flung ride you rode once, 15 years ago?
I tend to vote based on best ride ever, with some attention paid to how often the ride seems to give that performance. I knocked Clementon's Hellcat down this year because the old coaster that was so amazing has been profiled and trim-braked away. But I still voted it a hell of a lot higher than it merited from the weak-sauce ride I got last year.
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^I feel and share your pain, man. It really is a shame that The Beast wants to do more than its structure/roadbed can reliably tolerate. Again, "perfect world" scenario: Let Intamin put the entire course through a thorough CAD workout, get a reprofile designed, and throw down "prefab" track to make The Beast an El Toro-esque bad boy.
And while we're at it, I'd like Brooklyn Decker for Christmas, too.
Beast isn't particularly forceful. It's just long and far-flung. And it's trains are... tragic.
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Ordering another train seems like a huge waste of money
PLEASE READ! Paula didn't say they ordered a "another train", she said they ordered some "extra cars." How do you know they may not have needed these cars anyway for Raven and Legend? I highly doubt that any park in the world is going to go spending the large sum of money that additional PTC cars cost if they didn't feel they needed them for something.
--Robb
Voyage runs modified PTCs, doesn't it? While those are backwards-compatible with Raven, they are more expensive than standard PTCs, aren't they?
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Teufels Rad is a great video opportunity -- and you'll find nothing like it in the US.
Check out the Toboggan. Especially after drinking. Come on. It's gentle. It's like Knoebels' spiral slide...
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Looks like a blast.
But I doubt that we will ever see anything like this in the states.
Why? There are racing coasters with similar concepts.
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Press release from Martin & Vleminckx:
HIGH FIVE!!!The rolling stock Timberliner is the latest State of the Art Wood Roller Coaster trains from MVR’s partner Gravity Kraft. These new Wood Coaster trains are fitted with the latest ergonomic seat restraints which eliminate the need for the traditional seat belts in Wood Roller Coasters and creates the opportunity to do elements like the HIGH FIVE. The new restraints also substantially increasing capacity. The Timberliner trains are the Platinum Standard for Wood Roller Coasters.
How would seatbelts prevent that?
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What's your inseam?
32-34"
If you are 6'5" with a 32-34" inseam, you have a really tall torso. I have a 32" inseam at 5'9", which means your torso is 8" taller than mine, even though we have the same waist height. That's probably what's messing up the restraints for you. You basically have the torso of a man who is 6'10".
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Seems the trick is to go either really early or really late. We were walking through the front gates if IOA by 8:30 and joined the line for WWoHP right around Bilge-rat Barge. By 9:30 (30 mins after park opening) we were in. Left after about an hour or two and watched the line throughout the rest of the day (while riding other rides). It eventually extended back as far as Superhero Island (we were told at that point that it was a 5 hr wait), but by about 1:30/2:00, you could walk right into WWoHP without waiting. Line for HP:FJ stayed around 1-1.5 hrs throughout the day. Was a little disheartened to see two of my favorite effects not working on my first ride, but only one (known) effect not working on the other couple rides (the said effect is one where you're pulled pack through a fog screen and you can see your face in the fog [projected of course... won't go into detail on the exact place in the ride where that happens as it might ruin some "surprises", but it's towards the end]... it's a VERY cool effect)...
Got to the park at 3:30 on Wednesday. Walked right into the area. FJ had a posted 90min line, that was closer to 70 minutes. It looked by 8 pm or so like it was legitimately 90min, however.
The bigger issue was that the shops were beyond slammed -- probably had a 1-2 hour line themselves. It was like an Indian train inside. Enchanted Oak Tavern was understaffed, which was criminal. The 45 min line to order was bad enough, but what was worse is that half the tables in the place were empty -- they couldn't get people food fast enough to fill the tables.
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I didn't bring it up in my previous posts as I didn't want to cause a stir. Since it's already brought up, here was my experience.....You guys are focusing on the "fat" part of the issue. To me, that's not the whole issue. I'm 6'5" and ~270 pounds. Sure, I'm a bit over weight, but no where near obese. I don't think 6'5" is ridiculously tall either. In my case, the issue wasn't my weight, it was my height. The restraints pushed down on my shoulders before it hit my stomach. They couldn't manage to fit a seat that fit slightly taller people? I got 2 clicks, but couldn't get the 3rd. My worry was my son as he won't ride any ride by himself for the first time. There was a lady with us that wasn't obese by any standard. She rode the first time with no issue. We called them to come up and ride with my son (we were taken to the "special" loading station). After just getting off the ride, she couldn't get 3 clicks in that loading station. We ended up just sending the 2 kids on by themselves.
I knew of the issue before hand, so wasn't really surprised. I was surprised that all seats aren't nearly the same size as one seat I couldn't get one click in, the inner seat I got 1, and the outer right seat I got 2. Add to the fact that the lady with use rode in the normal queue with no issues at all (wasn't any type of struggle to get the 3 clicks), then couldn't ride in the special queue, something is not right.
In addition, there was absolutely *NO* warnings that if you aren't 5'10" and 150lbs, you may not be able to ride. I read every sign expecting some type of disclaimer, but there was none. If I would have waited in that line for over 2 hours like I did, and not know I wouldn't be able to ride, I would have been extremely angry.
What's your inseam?
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^This is true, although it was never JKR Rowling's intention of it being a kid's series. The first book has a evil sorcerer growing out of the back of guy's head (ala Total Recall style). This is hardly kid book material!
You're not familiar with the Brothers Grimm, are you?
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I asked Mike Graham if they had the idea for the Timberliners before Voyage or if they came up with them for Voyage. He said it was the latter.
There's an easy answer to that question.
Drive up to Monticello, Indiana, and take a good look at the chassis on Lost Coaster. Then take a look at the photos of the underside of the Timberliner cars. The Timberliners are an idea that's been in the works for a long time.
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Timberjiners
As much as I love Voyage, I still have to say El Toro is better. Maybe the Timberliners will change that since I'm tall and it's uncomfortable for me to sit in PTC's.
How do you deal with the mega-staple on El Toro?
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^Although there was no lightning, the lightning bugs/fireflies that were everywhere made for a cool effect. It kind of reminded me of Space Mountain!
Legend was running great, faster than it has in at least a few years and it wasn't bad in the wheel seats either!
Wildebeest was awesome, I also noticed more air on my first ride (with the least amount of weight in the raft) than the last 2 rides. The front was good for me because I had sunglasses on to shield the water spraying in my face!
I actually found the front drier than the back. And yes, the lighter rafts go faster. I saw a couple of empty rafts get thrown over the tops of hills.
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I don't know about anybody else but if I had to choose between two PTC trains or a single Timberliner for this event I would choose PTC every time.
Agreed. After seeing some of the pics from the event, I can only imagine the line that one Timberliner train would have created.
The waits weren't actually that bad. The front car was slammed, but other than the back-back, it was maybe a 1-cycle wait most of the time. There were a lot of people sitting out.
Now, there were a lot of people milling around the example cars and taking photos, so perhaps with them running, we would have seen more riders.
I hope the Timberliners are in action this weekend! We're holding off our trip until they are on!This makes absoultely no sense to me, unless you're a local.
I read reports from this weekend saying The Voyage was giving some of the best rides people ever had on it. Why wait to go?
Or unless you've ridden it before. I didn't notice it running any especially better than it did in 2008. The Raven train was interesting, though. Still, I would have crawled over my dead mother to have ridden the Timberliners. Some of us have been waiting awhile for wooden train technology to realize the 1930s are over.
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I'll be making my first trip to Hershey this weekend (weather permitting) and I was wondering if there was anything food-wise I should try. Or is the food standard park fare?
It's pretty standard, although the barbeque place in the hollow below Storm Runner is pretty good.
It's worth it to check out the Zoo, too.
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^Why are you dissapointed? I mean the Timberliners won't be ready, but the Voyage is still an awesome wooden coaster and Holiday World is still an amazing park, plus there are some awesome things going on at Holiwood Nights this year!
I get all of that. I've been to HW before.
But I get a chance to get to HW's part of the country about once every 5 years or so. I've done all those other things. I don't care that much about water rides. Let's just say that if the rest of the park burned down tonight and HW only had Voyage, I still would have come for the TimberLiners. I've been waiting for a modern wooden coaster train for 20 years, and I miss 'em by a week.
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**Timberliner update for HoliWood Nights attendees from Will Koch (6/2/10):
Thanks so much for your patience and understanding as we work to get the first Timberliner trains built, tested and open for riders on The Voyage.
Unfortunately, we’ve had to make the decision that although we’re close, we’re not yet ready to put riders on the Timberliner train for HoliWood Nights.
We know this is a huge disappointment and hope you know how hard we’ve tried to make it work for this weekend.
We’ll tell you more about it when you get here.
Meanwhile, we’re going to have lots of fun! To make extra sure, we’re adding:
• Earlier start for extended Wildebeest ERT on Saturday morning
• Wildebeest photo walkback during Saturday morning ERT
• “Open House” with me (Will Koch), The Gravity Group’s Mike Graham, and the front car of Timberliner #1 during both nighttime ERTs
• Q&A with Will and Mike prior to Friday’s ERT
• Rides on HallowSwings and Turkey Whirl (Friday) plus Pilgrims Plunge and Scarecrow Scrambler (Saturday) during evening ERT
• Other goodies tba when you arrive
Thanks for understanding.
We’ll see you soon—safe travels! Will Koch
http://www.holidayworld.com/visit/official-holiwood-nights-page
Considering the TimberLiners were the sole reason I decided to go this year... color me disappointed. Bit of a waste of $1,000. And too late to cancel now -- airfare is non-refundable. Oh well -- that'll teach me.
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Regarding the Timberliners on Holiday Worls Facebook page -Voyage train update: 1. We’ll provide public rides only after
*both* trains are tested and pass State inspection (we hope by June 12); 2. The
first train is scheduled for State inspection this Thursday morning; 3. If the first
train passes, it will run after-hours during the private event HoliWood Nights,
w/ the 2 older trains running during the days until *both* new trains are ready
to go.
I wonder if they'd run it head to head with the old PTC.
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The zero car on the Timberliners being out in front of the front seat is kinda odd. I wonder if they tried to figure out a good way to get the zero car with seats on it or if they just wanted it that way all along.
Do you think it's a null zero car (ala B&M), or just that they took the body off of car 1 to repair the broken fiberglass?
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I don't know what's worse...
Posting a pic not sure where it came from or posting the link from the original post which is on another message board site.
Here's both.
http://www.ultimaterollercoaster.com/forums/cgi/forum1.cgi?read=209425
I've scoured Holiday World's and TGG's Facebook page, did a google image search and looked elsewhere for this image and I can't find it anywhere.
Fiberglass bit needs a sign: "This is not a step."
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The park said they are keeping the 3rd PTC train but do not know what they are doing with it.
Raven could use a three-train operation.
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Curious, are companies as small as Interpark, Barbieri Rides (among other small Italian compaines) there displaying their scaryass little rides? I wouldn't mind seeing some of those concepts if they are indeed there! Thanks for the frequent updates!
Heege Freizeittechnik was there.
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Did you guys see anything of the NoLimits simulator, I was told they would be at IAAPA Vegas this year.
I saw it. MaxAir or something like that.
Looked pretty neat. Nauseating, but neat.
Mitch Hawker 2010 poll
in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
Posted
I'll never quite get the love for Boulder Dash (it's good, but not great...). Interesting observation is that had I prefered BD to El Toro, T Express would have finished #1. Out of 118 voters, one defector would have changed the #1 entry, and #1 and #2 tied head-to-head. Mitch's poll, as its really obvious this year, is very sensitive to who votes, and tends to be less stable in results for rides with lower rider numbers.