Satchboogie3

I would go to Cedar Point. Six Flags Great Adventure has something amazing rides (El Toro is my #1 wood, Nitro is possibly my favorite B&M) but that is about it. Cedar Point has an amazing atmosphere that is hard to top. Right on lake Erie, it's a beautiful park that is well run with friendly staff. It has a ton of great attractions other than just coasters. The food is pretty good (better than SF, for sure), there are some decent shows, and there is the whole "activity" area "outside?" the park by Magie, where they have go-carts, minigolf, etc. Honestly, I don't think there are many experiences that can top staying in Hotel Breaker and having the 'Point as your playground for a day/couple of days. (I went to the ACE coaster con at CP in 04, it was easily the best vacation of my life) On top of all that, you have some amazing coasters. I'll admit, Great Adventure's El Toro is better than anything at the Point (I have yet to ride Maverick), but just about everything else at the Point is better. Millennium Force and Nitro I guess could be a wash, but the first drop of Millie is simply amazing. It's a great ride. I prefer Top Thrill Dragster to Kingda Ka. Its basically the same ride, but the theming/experience is SOOO much stronger with Top Thrill. From this point, Cedar Point pulls away from Great Adventure. Raptor is one of B&M's finest inverts, much better than Batman: The Ride. Mantis, while not the best coaster, is still a fun B&M stand-up. Maverick, from what I have heard, is an amazing ride, filled with speed, airtime, a great launch and layout. I would say this ride is matched up with Medusa. Clearly, Maverick is far superior ride. Blue Streak is a classic wooden coaster that gives fairly good airtime. Rolling Thunder is a pile of kindling compared to Blue Streak. Mean Streak... sucks. period. Wicked Twister is fun, nothing all that great, but fun. Magnum XL-200 is an awesome coaster. It is classic arrow that boast some amazing airtime. There are some who think it can be painful, but I am not one of them. Gemini is another classic that is just pure fun. Then you have the rest of the stuff (Mine Train, kiddies, Disaster Transport, Wildcat, etc). So, for Great Adventure you have 3 Great coasters (El Toro, Kinda Ka, Nitro) 3 Fine Coasters (Medusa, B:TR, S:UE) 7 "meh" coasters Cedar Point has 5 Great Coasters (Millennium Force, Top Thrill Dragster, Maverick, Magnum XL-200, Raptor) 5 Fine Coasters (Mantis, Gemini, Iron Dragon, Blue Streak, Wicked Twister) 7 "meh" coasters Clearly, CP has the edge. Also, factor in the history. Cedar Point has a TON TON TON of history. It's one of the oldest parks in the country. It has a ton of history in respect to rides and coasters:The first 200' ft hyper coaster (Maggie), the first 300' Gigacoaster (Millennium), the first 400' ft stratacoaster (TTD). Corkscrew was one of the first Arrow "corkscrew" coasters, and is a very photogenic ride, right in the middle of the park (or what used to be it). As I mentioned before, Blue Streak is a classic woodie that (I believe) is an ACE historic classic. In my opinion, if you want to ride 1 or 2 amazing coasters with a ton of airtime, and nothing else, well... you could still go to the Point... errrrr. OK. Great Adventure has 2 amazing coasters.... Cedar Point has that and everything else. It's a complete park, the best "Amusement" park in the world.

Dude, spell check, please.

To each his/her own, but I'd take Scream at SFMM over a Disney coaster any day. Hell, they could name a coaster Pooperscooper: The Ride, and I wouldn't care less as long as it's a good ride. Ugh, I was more referring to Busch/Universal parks, Alton Towers, Thorpe Park; well, basically Theme Parks as as apposed to Amusement Parks. I'll take Kraken (yes, I don't have the credit, btw) over Scream/Dominator. Montu over Batman: The Ride. Big Bad Wolf over Top Gun. Expedition Everest over any other Vekoma. Theming just adds more depth. Sure, I'll take Parking Lot: The Ride over Space Mountain, etc. But why settle for that? If a park is going to spend millions on an amazing coaster, why shouldn't they give it theming to match? It can only make it better. I'll ask you this, which would you rather. Scream: The Parking Lot Coaster, or the same B&M coaster, but with theming as good as "Nemesis"...

That doesn't mean or prove anything. It's all speculation. Look at Great Bear's funky supports because they couldn't put footers in water...you never know. Also, they caught on to us finding out the park and made the "Customer" part a random code. Whats to say they didn't do the same to the "Part Number?" You can speculate all you want, but right now my and your guess is as good as anyone else's. I used to be like you. I remember in the Maverick thread I posted tons of pictures and deeply analyzed EVERYTHING. All I accomplished by doing that was wasting my time. Now I just sit back, read a few replies, maybe make a couple replies myself, and patiently wait to see what it turns out to be. Changing did me wonders. Why in the world would they change anything but the customer in formation? Honestly, I don't think B&M care if us nerds can figure out what type of coaster they are building. Their only concern is that we don't figure out where it is going to. We are just looking at the FACTS and finding patterns. B&M labels their coasters in a very specific way and it is somewhat outlined above. A "track element" of a coaster that has the label "MC" is a Mega Coaster. Period. We have found many examples that back this up, including new coasters like Diamondback. Until you can find a label to the contrary, you really have no basis to say its "Wrong". It's not just conjure, its backed by much evidence. I understand/agree that the "support placement" theories aren't very convincing, however, the track structure (shape, ties, etc), is very accurate. The point is, the Yellow Track is for some type of sitting coaster (could be a prototype...) and the Red Track is a Mega Coaster. Period. I would bet on it (no, seriously, I'll make a wager with anyone who isn't convinced).

I don't think any particular color looks better than any other, It's all in the combination. Some color combinations are better than others. Puke green and flesh tone probably won't make for an aesthetic coaster.

Man, this thing is looking amazing. I'm sooo jealous of Florida parks. If only Six Flags could learn to use theming. I'm sooo sick of Batman this, Superman that.

I'm a huge Red Sox fan and baseball fan in generally. I generally try to watch as many games around the league as I can. I find baseball games are great to practice guitar to. I don't know quite what to think of the Marlin's at this point. They definitely have a ton of potential, but I just don't see them wining the division.

Is the media event open to public, or just media? (Probably a stupid question). I'd love to be there as soon as Bizarro opens.

I've been working on "The Epic" - Pat Metheny Group.

DisneyKnottsfarm, I used to absolutely LOVE Dream Theater. I own all their stuff, I've been to about a dozen concerts (The famous MSG show w/ the live cellist for Vacant, the 20th Anniversary "Score" Concert at Radio City Music Hall), but they have just become too dark and too "shred" for me. I still enjoy the earlier albums from time to time, but my musical focus is on Pat Metheny, Mike Stern, and other contemporary jazz artists.

Are we defining "rush" as the "butterflies in your stomach" feeling, or just a release of adrenaline? For me, I never get that "butterflies" in the stomach feeling at theme parks (although, I still sometimes do get it before going to a poker session if I'm on a bad downswing...). However, I still often get the adrenaline rush. The big rides (El Toro, Nitro, Superman: Ride of Steel, etc etc) will always give me the adrenaline rush and get me very exciting. New rides/roller coasters always get my blood pumping as well, but as for the "butterflies", those are long gone in theme parks. Anyways, I don't really care for the "butterflies", its all about the adrenaline for me. I guess, though, it does suck a little that a lot of us no longer get adrenaline on normal/small coasters.

Canobie Lake is my home park, about 30 minutes away, but I will probably only go there 5-6 times this season. I would go far more often, however, they don't have season passes... and I don't feel like spending $25+ every weekend. Funtown is about 1.5 hours away in Maine. I haven't been there in a long time, so I'll probably go 2-3 times this summer and get my credit on Excalibur. SFNE is 2.5 hours away and I'll probably get there 4-6 times.

I went to Busch Gardens Tampa on Thanksgiving (or maybe the day after, I can't remember, lol) a couple of years back. I went to SFNE on mothersday, the park was empty. I like to avoid normal summer holidays, as parks tend to be packed.

#100: #200:

I'm listening to/learning "5-5-7" by the Pat Metheny Group.

(Cross The) Heartland - Pat Metheny It just doesn't get any better.

Why Tony, Why? Why did you have to go all bad on me and kill Moss? WHYY!!!!!

I was at Berklee College of Music for 2 years until I realized that, well, $40K+ a year just isn't worth it for the place. I play guitar and lately, I've been just a little bit obsessed with Pat Metheny. Yeah, I have good taste.

Another nice TR, I'm totally Jealous. I sooo want to make another Cali trip.

18-1 still means we did better than 30 other teams and were on the cusp of making history. Don't worry though, with Brady back this coming season, we'll get that elusive 19-0. Back to the thread, I'm relieved that you think the trains might improve thunderbolt, if anything.

Intamin, and it's not even close for me. According to Mich Hawker's rankings, 5 of the top 10 Steel and 5 of the top 10 wood are ... you guessed it, intamin. Think about that, the #1,3,4,5,8 steel and #1,3,6,8,10 wood. B&M is great and all, but they don't even make woodies, let alone the best. To me, its between B&M and Intamin. To compare, I look at the best of each company as well as their overall ideas/rides. B&M basically have 5 types; looping (including floorless and standup), hyper, Dive Machines, Inverted, and Flying. Intamin have 9 types; looping, hyper, inverted (inc. impulse), launched, bobsled, 4-D, halfpipe, (pipeline), and wooden. They have 8 types currently operating (pipelines are gone). So Intamin have the greater variety of rides. They also have more overall coasters, 115 to 77. Comparing types, B&M definitely has the better loops (opinion) and inverted (loopers). They have Dive Machines and Flying coasters, which Intamin does not. I have yet to ride a Dive Machine, so I can't comment on that, however, I have ridden several of their fliers and I find them very boring. Intamin has the better Hypers (opinion), has great launched coasters, some of the worlds best wooden coasters, and a slew of other types of roller coasters. I would say that the two companies are fairly close, when considering steel roller coasters. I'd probably give the slight edge to Intamin for their extremely strong lineup of hypercoasters and launched coasters. However, the fact that Intamin ALSO makes some of the world's best wooden coasters, where as B&M doesn't do wood, puts Intamin clearly in the #1 spot for me.

The park looks absolutely great. I'm a bit taken back by the new lapbars on Thunderbolt... Oh well. I can't wait for Bizarro to be complete, I was fairly skeptical early on, but it just keeps looking better and better. I'm also a bit surprised that they wouldn't use a Patriots logo on the field, but the Redskins I don't mind. They haven't won anything in a long long time. Oh, and the Patriots are the team. Don't get me started. The Eagles...? What a disaster. TO - fail. McNabb - fail. Benching McNabb - fail. Downgrading the Offense - fail. Back to the topic at hand, I'm thinking of heading down to SFNE this friday. Got to check out my home(ish) park.

Nitro17, since you're here, you might be able to answer this question. Does El Toro ever cycle empty trains? I have heard the excuse, but I haven't actually seen any coaster that can't run empty trains.

Yes, a thanks here as well. I ordered a DVD and hoodie a month or so ago and got some nice maps. I find that they make great bookmarkers.

It's because the park, as I've experienced it, is most concerned with cutting cost at all costs. Just about every time I have visited the park, they were doing something wrong, whether it was well understaffed/untrained (mid-season), opening rides late/closing early, etc. Now, I expect that from Six Flags, but that doesn't mean I have to be content with it. I am fairly tolerable with parks. I was there opening day and, although I was disappointed that Nitro and Kingda Ka didn't open, I understood that Six Flags couldn't do anything about it, the weather didn't allow it. However, there were still a bunch of rides/coasters that weren't open and had nothing to do with the weather, but I still just accept that because its early in the season. Doesn't mean they don't need to do better. Robb is right on. You can't expect to have a perfect day with bad weather conditions. You are always taking a risk when the forecast is rainy/stormy/windy.