Nitro1118

At GAdv, I usually avoid GL/Superman. I have always disliked the Boardwalk section of the park. It's unshaded, rather ugly and an annoying dead-end midway off the relatively straight shot path from Nitro to Bizarro. I do enjoy Superman, but its lines are usually too long to justify the wait. GL is decent enough but is not worth any kind of wait. All of these thing combined are why I never step foot in the Boardwalk area beyond the Golden Kingdom entrance.

Pretty much exactly my opinion of the place from my trip last week. Pretty solid coaster collection, nice appearance near the front half and the park was mostly clean. The employees really killed most of the experience for me. Rude employees at Roar and Superman, safety negligence at Superman and Joker (not even bothering to say "all clear" on Superman and missing seat belt checks on Joker), and just terrible morale all around. The clientelle was distracting but for the most part everyone behaved. Oh, and the Gotham area is pretty hideous. The lack of shade and ridiculous walk to Batwing was irritating. Overall, it is worth the credits and some rides on the good coasters. I won't be returning until they make some major upgrades.

After my trip to SFA, I think I'll slide S:RoS in at #5. My best rides on Steel Force were better than S:RoS, but I've had a bunch of forceless duds as well, which is a problem I doubt I'd have with S:RoS.

^Glad you like it! Below are two other ones from that trip that I absolutely love:

I mean, the collection is solid and I have a strong feeling everything is pretty much always a walkon, so it's worth a single visit just for that. But it is definitely a park that is in a pretty terrible sad state.

Day 3- Six Flags America Ride count: Superman: Ride of Steel- 3x Joker's Jinx- 1x Wild One- 1x Apocalypse- 1x Roar- 1x Pirate Ship (don't remember the name)- 1x Notes: -Being my first time at the park, it was hard to go in without certain expectations. I've been hearing about the sketchy clientelle, poor operations, ugly aesthetics and mediocre lineup for nearly two decades now. After my visit, I would say the park met all of the negative expectations I had. It was definitely a rough park atmosphere, although everyone seemed to be relatively well-behaved despite very little security presence. The operations were beyond terrible. Everything had a 1 train wait, which was understandable since every ride was a complete walkon. But it still took almost every ride a minimum of 5min to dispatch, with some approaching 10min. Some ops were cursing loudly, an op on Joker's Jinx missed securing a rider's seatbelt during his check, guests were getting borderline yelled at for touching their lap bars on Roar, and also on Roar they were very loud about hoping for a thunderstorm they could go home. Aesthetically, the front of the park is rather nice, but the back half is hideous. -Superman was honestly better than I expected! The airtime was great, the helices were forceful, and the straightaways didn't bother me as much as I thought they would. A lower/mid tier hyper for sure, but definitely a very good ride. I did notice a fair share of rattle and shuffling in the back of the train, but it didn't hinder the experience at all. If anything, it gave the helices and straightaways a little wildness that they would have otherwise lacked. -Roar was closed upon entering the park but opened later on. I had no idea they had recently done a fair amount of trackwork to the ride. We got front row and had a really good! It was relatively smooth and had solid pacing and laterals. -Wild One was slightly disappointing. Don't get me wrong, for a 100 year old ride it runs amazingly well. Nice speed and some great pops of airtime. However, it has a serious shuffle/some jackhammering, notably in the 2nd half of the ride. I enjoyed the ride, but was missing why some people hold it in high regards. -After riding FoF yesterday and Joker's Jinx today, I think I prefer Joker. The lack of MCBR makes the 2nd half very intense and I felt it was considerably smoother as well. -Apocalypse was as I remembered ut from its Iron Wolf days. It gets more hate than it deserves. Solid, forceful little standup. A bit of a chore to prevent headbanging, but not enough to kill the experience. I lol'd at how long SFA designed its queue. -Batwing was closed most of the time I was in the Gotham City area. I got in line inside the station when it was testing, however it broke down when one of the rows wouldn't rise (pic down below). Never felt the desire to check on it at any other point of the day. -Overall, I do not plan on coming back unless they make some major upgrades, which is doubtful. My 3-4 hours there were decent enough, but uncomfortable at the same time. The lack of shade, bad operations and rowdy atmosphere were kind of distracting, especially after 2 great days at KD. Glad I lucked out with Superman and Roar considering they were down the last few days, though. I'm glad I got the new experience and credits. Pucs below. Sorry for the quality, we were in a time crunch so I had little time to find good angles or wait for 1 train every 10min to come thru: The entrance plaza. Closeup of the entrance. The Main St area was actually very nice. Unfortunately, it did not represent the things to come... This made me miss Movietown Water Effect at GAdv. Early in the day, Roar was closed, but it opened up about an hour after this pic was taken. Over-hated standup, albeit still mediocre at best. Gotham City- Doing its very best to rapidly boost the rate of skin cancer in the greater Washington D.C area. Love this tangled mess of track and supports. Thank god Superman was open for my visit. Easily the highlight of the visit. The Zumanjaro of the coaster world. This coaster is ridiculously out of the way. Superman from the exit. These bunny hills provide pretty strong ejector. Last Superman shot. The long walk to a broken down Batwing. Another Batwing shot. The cause of Batwing's breakdown. Great coaster duo in a terrible themed section. 100 years and still going strong. Random shot of the park's Flyers. Shot of Roar in the station. Note the empty queue on a Friday at peak time with 1 train ops. Best angle I could get of Roar besides the entrance plaza.

Day 2 ride count: Intimidator 305- 5x Grizzly- 2x Woodstock Express- 2x Volcano- 1x Flight of Fear- 1x Dominator- 1x Rebel Yell- 1x Ricochet- 1x Anaconda- 1x Flyers- 1x Delerium- 1x Notes: -Had a very good, but exhausting day at the park. Was there from rope drop until the very last ride of the night on Intimidator 305. Crowds were low-moderate. Most rides were walk-ons. The rides that had waits never saw lines past 20min or so. One thing that went unnoticed last night due to the extremely low crowds is the very slow ride operations throughout the park. Almost every ride had slow operations staffed by uninspired employees. Every coaster with 2 trains was stacking, and coasters with 1 train were taking forever to load and dispatch. I305, Grizzly and Rebel Yell were all running only 1 train. -Got some better looks at the Twisted Timbers construction site. They seemed to be working on the brakerun area throughout the day. That stretch of 3 straight camelbacks is going to be absolutely amazing. -Finally got my Grizzly credit after 12 years, and I found the ride to be fantastic! Some really solid airtime moments, great setting and it was acceptably smooth. After I305 and Volcano it was possibly my 3rd favorite coaster in the park. Very underrated. Sidenote- who the hell thought it'd be a good idea to make you walk through the Dinosaurs Alive gift shop to get to the Grizzly entrance? It took us far too long to find the ride, which is already hidden by trees as it is. -Rebel Yell was just as forgettable as I figured it would be considering I had 0 recollection of it from my 2005 trip. -This park has some fantastic offerings for families and guests of all ages. My step son loved Planet Snoopy and could have spent all 10 hours there. Woodstock Express is a great coaster to transition little ones from baby rides to the moderately thrilling coasters. We saw two shows; "Jump" which was a dog show, and "Cirque" which was a take on "Cirque De Solei." Both shows were well-done and broke up the day for us nucely. The Kings Dominion Theater was really nice for your average theme park show theater. -After 5 more rides on I305, including on the last train of the night, I officially have put it in my top 3, behind El Toro and Wicked Cyclone, above Skyrush, and neck-and-neck with Superman: The Ride. After some more rides I do think I prefer the front two rows compared to the back of the train. I can't wait to get on it again next season. Considering how highly I value Wicked Cyclone, the I305/Twisted Timbers duo should pack a serious punch! Tomorrow I will be visiting SFA for the first time so look out for that update. I am very curious to see how it goes considering its reputation, but either way it will provide new credits and break up the 5 hour car ride. Crossing my fingers that Superman is open since it appears to have been down the last couple of days! Pics: Julien and I in front of the fountains. Dominator in the distance. Random shot from Planet Snoopy. Dominator again. I305. One train ops all day on I305. From the dog show, "Jump." In this one the dog was in mid-backflip going for the frisbee! Another pic from the show. This one is borderline animal abuse lol. Anaconda from the queue. Decently smooth for an Arrow looper. The underground tunnel was pretty cool. Anaconda again. Volcano. Volcano's entrance. Candy Apple Grove. Very glad CF didn't go with the coaster community favorite "Rotten Apple" name for Twisted Timbers. Ferris Wheel. Twisted Timbers construction. Work was focused on the brakerun most of the day. Windseeker. Didn't bother even entertaining waiting in line for it at any point this trip. NESS at SFNE really spoiled these types of rides for me. Great place to see a show if you get the chance. Underrated gem of this park. This is about the best view of Grizzly you can get from the ground. It is nicely hidden by the trees for most of its layout. Delerium made me want a Giant Discovery for GAdv even more. Great ride. A random but nice clock display. Kicking myself I didn't set aside some time to take a spin on this. Thank you KD for a fantastic trip!

Kings Dominion 8/23: A little background before I begin- Kings Dominion is a park I have only visited once, way back in March/April 2005. Since that time, a lot has changed at KD. The park has seen a change in ownership/management plus added a variety of new attractions, including Intimidator 305, which has been a bucket-list coaster of mine for 7 years now. My opinion of KD based on my 2005 trip was that while it was a good park, it seemed to be missing...something. Keep in mind, I caught the park very early in the season with Drop Tower and Grizzly down for maintenance and Hypersonic broke down at about 11am right before I boarded (and never reopened). Still, I never felt compelled to travel back to the park, despite the park having no significant flaws. Anyway, on a random night 2-3 weeks ago, I decided that I wanted to take a small roadtrip to end the summer.. I had already visited LC and SFNE this summer on a mini-trip. I hit Hershey last season as well. That left Knoebels or a KD/SFA combo. Considering I needed that I305 credit and had never visited SFA before, the choice was easy for me...KD/SFA it was. PSA-Up until Sunday night, my plan was to stay at the Centerstone Inn (basically an on-site hotel) from Tuesday-Thursday. We booked the hotel two weeks in advance. With the weather report showing scattered thunderstorms all day Wednesday since early last week, we decided we would try and play things safe and book Wednesday-Friday (arriving Wednesday, visiting Thursday, then hitting SFA on the way back home on Friday). However, the Centerstone Inn was very shady about re-arranging the dates. At first, they said that they had no rooms with a queen bed available on Thursday. Then, they said that they had no reservations booked for us on the original dates. This was bull as when I initially gave them my last name to retrieve booking info, they confirmed that my first name was Alex. After arguing with Expedia over this hotel's shadiness, we got our refund and booked the Days Inn across from the park instead. Day 1: Considering the weather in Doswell today, we decided to hit SFA instead as the forecast seemed more clear. However, while driving down the NJ Turnpike, we noticed that Superman was showing up as closed, so we chanced buying the 2-day ticket for KD instead to get in a couple of rides tonight before our all-day stay tomorrow. This turned out to be an amazing choice. After an uneventful 4.5hr drive from central NJ, we arrived at our hotel about 3:30pm. The hotel is very meh, but for $60/night we weren't expecting much. The shuttle to the park is extremely convenient and saved us from the usual, pricey parking upcharge. Anyway, we ended up with 3.5 hours for the night... Ride count: Intimidator 305- 7x (2x front row, 4x back row, 1x 3rd to last row) Flight of Fear- 1x Volcano- 1x Backlot- 2x Drop Tower- 1x Dominator- 1x Avalanche-1x Eiffel Tower- 1x Notes: -After reaching 150 coasters tonight, and being an enthusiast now for nearly 20 years, there isn't many coaster experiences out there that are new or different for me. I305 is definitely an exception. For 7 years now I have pretty much known the layout front to back. And while I have seen the POV's and many glowing reviews, on the surface it never really grabbed my attention. Still, I knew there had to be something more to the experience than what meets the eye, so it always was near the top of my bucket list. After 7 rides tonight, I can safely say that this ride is an absolutely INCREDIBLE, completely unique experience. There is no coaster I can really compare it to. It surpasses Skyrush's overall intensity with raw speed and positive G-forces instead of airtime. What caught me by surprise was the random pops of ejector in the back rows, in spots I didn't think there would be any airtime. This was most noticable in that middle twister section, where you get a dazzling array of speed, positive g's, laterals and sprinkles of ejector all in one. I am not ready to rank I305 yet, but it is definitely in my top 5, possibly top 2-3. I can't tell if I prefer the front or back row. The front row gave the best sense of speed and had the best positive g's on the first turnaround (I stayed grayed out until the airtime on top of the 2nd hill). The back row gave the more intense airtime and laterals during the 2nd half of the ride. I can't wait to try both out again tomorrow! -The park was DEAD the 3 hours I was there. If I had wanted to I could have marathoned I305 all night without getting off. The longest I waited all night was two trains for Volcano. This was especially helpful since it allows more time to focus on family rides tomorrow with my 8 year old step son (Julien) tagging along. -Volcano was running as well as I remember. Very underrated invert. -Backlot was a new credit for me and a priority since I knew my step son would love it. As usual, Premier delivered an exceptional ride, and it was a favorite for Julien. Great balance of thrill and pure fun. -FoF was running a lot rougher than what I remember. It was still a blast and instantly made me miss Chiller at GAdv, but I definitely had to brace myself quite a bit. -Finally got my lost Drop Tower credit after 12 years! Zumanjaro definitely killed some of the experience for me as it felt exactly like a scaled-down model of it. Still, it was very fun, despite the very abrupt braking which crushed my man-region. I had the side that faced the Twisted Timbers construction site which was cool. -Speaking of Twisted Timbers, it's amazing how much action they will pack into that footprint. It will be even more compact than the animation suggests. I remember very little of Hurler, but I do remember it was rather uninspired and unenjoyable. Twisted Timbers will be the perfect, airtime-filled counterpart to I305 that the park needs. Super excited for that addition. -Dominator was interesting as I had ridden it back in 2003 as Batman: Knight Flight. The coaster is still my 2nd favorite floorless next to Kraken. It is unusually intense for a B&M floorless and breaks the standard layout protocol. Unfortunately, the 2nd half has the worst B&M rattle I have ever experienced, but it didn't kill the experience for me. I'm very glad CF salvaged this ride. -Overall, the park seems to be in much better condition to what I remember from 2005. CF seemed to have put in a good amount of work into fixing the park's aesthetics and has infused some amazing thrills for good measure. Everything about my 3.5 hours tonight was fantastic and I cannot wait to spend a full day tomorrow! Pics: View from the hotel parking lot. Kings Dominion entrance plaza. Girlfriend and step son. Unfortunately, there aren't too many good views of I305 since most of it is outside of guest boundaries. This is one of the better vantage points. I305 RIPS through the course. Volcano doing its thing. Volcano and Avalanche from Avalanche's exit plaza. Obligatory shot. Backlot Stunt Coaster. Very cool family coaster. I would kill for a similar coaster at GAdv. Drop Tower. Obligatory shot #2. Hurler construction. This ride will run very low to the ground. Cannot wait to crest these ejector hills next season! Dominator. The fountains from atop the Eiffel. My camera did a terrible job of capturing how good the color display was. A shot down the main midway. Possibly the best picture I have ever taken; Dominator at sunset. Another one. I305 at sunset. Love all if the different displays they have around the park. Tobs of great photo op's.

Mine would go something like: 1) Superman: The Ride 2) Skyrush 3) Apollo's Chariot 4) Nitro 5) Steel Force 6) Raging Bull 7) Magnum XL-200 I'm very comfortable with the top 2 rankings. Superman is much more comfortable for me than Skyrush, and the layout is linger and more varied, so I give it the edge despite being a notch or two less intense. I must've hit Apollo on a very good day 12 years ago because I got some fantastic airtime on it, which most people report getting very little of. If it is as tempermental in terms of ride experience like Nitro is, those two could be flip flopped. 5-7 rankings are pretty much set for me. I will be riding S:RoS at SFA tomorrow so we'll see where that stacks up.

They aren't always to throw people off. GAdv was very blunt with their clues regarding Looping Dragon/El Diablo: https://www.coastercrazy.com/forums/download/file.php?id=1352

Wow, that teaser definitely threw me off. They got the Joker bobble head and the spinners are Joker colors. If not an RMC conversion, I would suspect a Joker 4D or a clone of what GAdv is teasing at (except Joker-themed).

Don't believe so. It checks all the boxes based on the clues: -Gyroscope=spinning. -Accelerometer=launched. -Seems like an affordable option with multiple gimmicky selling points. -Can be cloned easily. -Can fit in a small footprint. I would MUCH prefer this to a Skywarp. It would give an already diverse-lineup more variety. I would prefer our next coaster to be more traditional given just last year we got a coaster with spinning cars and a very basic layout. It would also likely knock us out of the RMC sweepstakes until 2020. Still, it would be a very welcome addition to fill out Metropolis.

The gyroscope clue makes me think it will be some kind of flat ride that spins. Are there any protype coasters out there that includes spinning cars? Maybe I am taking the gyroscope part too literally and it will just be a Skywarp. Hopefully we get a few more clues leading up to the announcement.

So we now have 4 of the 6 U.S RMC's confirmed: Steel Vengeance, Twisted Timbers, Wonder Woman and Railblazer. Georgia Cyclone is pretty much a lock, which would be the 5th. Any ideas about the alleged 6th? Since RMC produces the track for the S&S 4D's, that is a possibility. I also heard they will be producing track for the Skywarp, so they could be referring to that as well. I think that any conversions would have announced the host ride's closure by now, so I don't see that happening. My only guess is another Raptor clone for a SF park,. Any thoughts?

TT looks amazing! Almost reminds me of RMC's take on a Balder-type coaster. I just really hope with the new trains that it won't lose momentum like some of the other smaller RMC's (which is apparently only an issue randomly at different points of the season, regardless of weather). Either way this thing will have insane amounts of aurtime and is a perfect compliment to I305.

Glad to hear my pockets and loose articles won't be an issue. I only go to parks with my wallet, phone and sunglasses. No need to weigh myself down with extra stuff I won't need. I kind of want to save I305 as my finale coaster. I'm pretty sure I'll want to give it a good 5 - 10 re-rides in a row (if I can handle it). Volcano will probably be 3 to 4 re-rides and I've done Dominator back in it's Geauga days, so once or twice will satiate me there. Plus, I assume that once you ride I305 everything else at the park becomes crap, so culminating with I305 seems to be a logical choice for a first time visit. That's a risky strategy. I made the mistake on my one-and-only visit to KD of waiting 10min too long to get to Hypersonic XLC. It broke down and never reopened throughout the day. Obviously I will never get the chance to get that experience again. I would strongly reccomend hitting I305 shortly after Volcano and maybe FoF. I will be visiting in 1.5 weeks for the first time in 12 years. I will be staying basically on property at the Centerstone Inn. I am very excited to see what CF has done with the park and cross I305 off my bucket list.

If KK wants a B&M, we (GAdv) will give you Chang back for 3 bags of Skittles, night lights for the Golden Kingdom and 10mins of work from one of your employees to open the gates to our fenced-off dead ends in Old Country and the Golden Kingdom. The number of Skittles are negotiable.

I recall that the path was open before the paintball building was built. Now, I have some research to do. If memory serves me correctly, the constantly broken Jumpin Jack Flash was in that spot before the paintball building. I got my first season pass in its opening year of 1999, and only ever managed one ride on it. That ride broke down and we were stuck for over 20min.

Agreed completely. Since my first rides on it back in 2004 I have always felt the front was better. The ejector is stronger, the view is obviously better, and nowadays a lot less shuffling up front.

See, I don't know, I see things differently. I've had the same thought of "How would marketing advertise a year of TLC?" and felt it would never happen because most people coming to the park would s**t all over that. I just don't think it would entice people the way you think it would, otherwise we'd have seen it before elsewhere. Has any park used TLC in a "New for..." marketing plan? Unless it is coupled with maybe some new shows or something, it isn't something to be advertised. However, improving the little things will help people keep.coming back. The entire park experience would be greatly improved with a couple million dollars worth of TLC.

I'd be very disappointed if we got a Skywarp. It is actually shorter than El Diablo and would be way too similar. I have a gut feeling we won't be seeing it here, though. I'm expecting a world's first flat of some sort, but not a Skywarp. Could definitely see those models popping up at SF parkers without superloops as the capacity seems to be better and it is a tad more eye-catching. Honestly, the park really should take a year of capital investments to simply put TLC into existing structures. Superman is terribly faded and is one of the first things you see when you pull in, Nitro is going on 17 years old without ever getting a paintjob, the tent structures look run down, the Boardwalk is completely washed out, etc... That isn't even including $ they could put towards finishing OC and having that path reconnect, either opening or demolishing the old simulator building, adding lights and some life back into the GK, possibly refurbrishing or replacing KK's trains, a full rehab of RMT and the Log Flume (both of which had many problems this year), etc... Since I'm enthusiast I will always eagerly anticipate an RMC coming our way, but so much around the park needs a lot of work done.

https://m.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1902226783359372&id=100007162068288&set=gm.1248796118562678&source=57&refid=18&ref=group_header&__tn__=EH-R SF released a little b-roll video today that included an animation of Nitro with a different paint scheme (seen in link above). Normally I wouldn't put much stock in it, but it is odd how Nitro is the only animated ride in that video. It does have Nitro's train design. I would much prefer them to keep the unique scheme it's always had, but if it is either no paint job or the new color scheme, give me the new paint.

Thanks for the advice guys! I'll just suck it up with going thru DC on 95. I have a bad history with it as back in 2005 my mom totalled her car there on our way to SFA from BGW. So, along with the memories of terrible traffic, I was really trying to bypass it if possible. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Hey guys, I will be making my first trip to the park since 2005 on Wednesday the 23rd. I am very excited to finally get on I305, ride Dominator for the first time since I visited SFWoA in 2003, and hit up missed credits from last time (Grizzly and Drop Zone, both of which were down). I will be staying at the Centerstone Inn, which is essentially on-property and saves me $ on parking. I know the general advice is to hit up Volcano and FoF due to capacity issues, but I had a few general questions: -For anyone familiar with the drive from central NJ, are there any options to avoid the crazy DC traffic without going too far out of my way? If not, how do you guys think traffic will be on 95 in that area around 8-9pm on a weekday? -Any suggestions on where to eat? Preferably something a sitdown place a little nicer than your usual theme park food. -Not expecting to deal with rain, but if it happens will the coasters continue operation as long as there is no lightning in the area?

People have been complaining for years about line cutting at GAdv. It has always been one of the biggest gripes I've heard from people. Even if it was dead I am glad they are still making an effort to deter line cutters. During my last visit that ticket helped prevent one kid from cutting about 10 people through El Toro's switchbacks. It was also a walkon that day, but the point is it did its job. The worker at El Toro wasn't checking any of them even though there was a very small line and Nitro I walked straight into the station, it really just seems like a waste unless there's actually a line, especially when they aren't bothering to check. I'd honestly rather see them stick a security guard at rides where this is actually a problem and have them take care of it instead of this system. Are there any other parks out there that do the paper system? Just giving out the tickets cuts out a good number of line cutters. Also, on busier days I have seen them check the numbers, so I'm sure they are doing it on slow days just to keep it as the standard (even if they aren't keeping an eye on the order these days).