singemfrc

Well granted, you were purely talking about would it benefit, and almost any coaster would benefit. But the reason modification of either of those coasters is completely off the table is almost the same. Giant Dipper is actually on the National Register of Historic Places, so not only would SCBB be unlikely to want to modify it since it's 90 years old and still the most popular attraction in their park (And still running great btw - it never beats me up), I don't even know if they would be allowed to. GhostRider does need it most and would benefit from it the most, but unfortunately that's still moot, because Matt Ouimet has been clear in stating that because it was the last ride planned by Walter Knott, he and CF are unwilling to mess with it at all. This is all fine with me cause as well as it's been running lately, I would absolutely love to see Roar made over. Any new major attraction at SFDK is exciting as hell to me. An RMC coaster in my backyard is beyond my wildest dreams.

Im in Sacramento, so I don't live in LA but I fly down often. I'm a creature of habit though, and I always fly into Burbank when I go to SFMM. I've flown to every other airport in Southern California and can give advice on all of them except LAX, which I always avoid. (Burbank and Ontario are awesome, John Wayne is terrible, Long Beach is always inconvenient) If you want to know what traffic is like on I-5 or in Santa Ana, or where cops hide on the grapevine I can help you out. I've driven them a lot. The 405 and the 105 though I just haven't driven a lot. I also always go on Sundays when I can, I can't remember the last time I was down there on a Friday, so rush hour on the 405 I wasnt familiar with. I found out though that Friday night on the 405 is about the worst traffic you can imagine. What would be a 45 minute drive on Sunday morning is a 3 hour drive on Friday rush hour. I decided to fly into Burbank...driving from Buena Park to Burbank on I-5 Monday morning won't be half as bad as trying to drive from LAX to Valencia on Friday night.

All coasters go through this. TC is a bit more complex (mechanically) than a typical coaster, so it's understandably having more issues.

Yeah the paper avoided mentioning the park, saying "Cedar Fair park near San Francisco" or something, which didn't explicitly say it but made it obvious. Same thing with the RMC job posting that gave away the Roar makeover. It just said "Project is in CA" and by process of elimination we know it really can't be anything other than Roar, especially as loose lipped employees at SFDK have been warning guests that Roar will be closing later this year.

Yeah, I was talking about their decision to keep the ride down longer to refurb the lift, not the speed, which is definitely slower. Im guessing that's due to staffing.

So you know for certain fact that there is no possible way that Goliath's lift chain could be repaired any faster without disregarding safety of the riders? I'd be interested to know how you know that. I dont think I said anything of the kind, nor did the person who reported it was being repaired. They discovered a problem they werent aware of it, and they elected to repair it instead of ignoring it and potentially putting people at risk.

Yeah, how dare they properly maintain a ride. Keeping the guests happy by opening the ride is much more important than keeping them safe by keeping the ride up to code.

Won't open until September. An inspection found that the lift was not up to code so they're doing a whole refurb. Ahh, now that explains why its taking them so long to replace this chain. Hope it's up and running by 9/12.

Yeah, that happened to me when I went to Cedar Point and tried to do everything in one day. By the time I got to the back of the park and was riding Gemeni, Mean Streak, and Magnum I was just sore and unimpressed after having ridden TTD, Maverick, and Millenium earlier, which is unfair - except for Mean Streak. Mean Streak can burn to the ground. Anyway, I am definitely planning on doing Magnum first the next time I go to CP, because I don't think it got a fair shake in my mind

Yeah I figured that. It's a little bizarre that upcoming projects for both SFDK and CGA have been leaked. In both cases it looked like they were trying to be slick not explicitly saying which park or coaster, but it was obvious on both.

Giant Dipper does not fall into that category, but the other three do. Giant Dipper could be made smoother, but as it's a historical coaster I really think making it smoother would ruin it. It's not rough to the point of being uncomfortable now anyway, unlike GhostRider and Apocalypse. Though GhostRider would probably benefit most from topper, it's unlikely to happen for a similar reason as Giant Dipper. It would probably need to get a lot worse before CF considered it. CF will never change GhostRider's layout, topper is the only thing they'd ever maybe do to it. That ride is as sacred to them as the Timber Mtn Log Ride or Calico Mine Ride. I don't personally agree, but I know that's how CF feels about it. I don't think SFMM cares to makeover Apocalypse, I think they'd sooner demolish it and build something bigger and faster. Grizzly might happen later, but won't be happening this year since they're already redoing a different coaster at CGA this year (Vortex). It's Roar, no doubt about it.

It's the same with NTaG. I noticed it all 3 of my NTaG rides, and I don't know what it is, but I noticed it. I have never heard it on IRaT, though. Yes it does, the noise comes from the spring suspension which helps make the ride smooth. Search back in this thread a ways the photo of said suspension was posted twice.

That's what I always tell people to do. Be prepared to pay for it, but don't buy it ahead of time. Wait till you get there and if the lines are unacceptable, then go buy one. Also note the cost of Flash Pass is higher on days that they think they will be busier and there will be more demand, such as holidays..it goes up and down.

Quick locals question about LA area traffic - I'm currently trying to decide whether to fly through Burbank or LAX. I have to fly in and out of the same airport, so in one and out the other is not available to me. If I fly into Burbank, I can get to Valencia easily on Friday night, but I'll have to drive farther up I-5 Monday morning back to Burbank. If I fly into LAX, I have a longer drive up the 405 to get to Valencia on Friday night, but a long drive on the 105 to LAX from Buena Park Monday morning. All things are not equal when it comes to LA traffic, and I'm not as familiar with the 105 and 405..so considering traffic Friday evening or Monday morning, which route do you think would be the least painful? Also I've never flown into LAX before (I think its the only LA area airport I've never used) so I don't know how easy rental car return is there, that's a consideration. EDIT: Just noticed there's an extra flight or two on the LAX route, so I may lean that way if traffic isnt significantly worse. I'm flying interline (standby) so the more flights the better in case I get bumped, since it's a Friday, typically a busier travel day.

RMC saying they have a project in California doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be Roar, as it could be CGA or KBF, but combined with numerous reports that Roar will be closing later this season, plus CGA getting a Vortex/Rougarou and Cedar Fair's CEO stating that he doesn't want to mess with GhostRider, this is about as close to a confirmed fact as a rumor can get...I dont see how it could be anything else. I guess it possibly could be topper on GhostRider, but I doubt it.

If your group is small then you could take advantage of the Single Rider line that Twisted Colossus has and ride that anytime. In that case I'd start off with YOLOCoaster and work my way around and hit X2 after 4pm. If you're in a large group or not willing to split up, then you might want to start at Twisted Colossus. If Superman is a priority you might want to do that early too, it can get out of hand sometimes and isn't likely to be running both sides on a Friday.

Makes perfect sense to me, if by "when a ride is responsible" you mean "when a ride is suspected of being responsible". There isn't any evidence that Revolution caused this girl's death, and quite the opposite. It's EXTREMELY rare that a ride (meaning the design or manufacturing of the ride and/or vehicles) would actually be responsible for injuring a rider. Occaisonally it's maintenance oversight/neglect (BTMRR 2003), random accidents (Ninja), or unauthorized modifications (Terra Mitica) but the majority of incidents that I have seen or read about have been a combination of rider and/or operator error. I only personally know of one incident where injuries were caused by the design of the ride. The old Hurricane coaster at Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk hurt some people the first day it was open in 1992 (I was there that day but didn't ride). A majority of the people getting off the ride that day complained of neck pain and some were taken to the hospital. I remember being told that steep drop/turn was being taken too fast and the ride was closed, modified, and reopened later. I guess they didn't do enough human rider testing before opening...I don't think such a mistake would be likely to happen anymore.

First theyd have to actually be reporters. Thats the problem, anyone can upload something to a website they create and call it "news" without any kind of training or integrity. I heard the Goliath chain had arrived early last week and the ride was supposed to open by this past weekend. Hadnt heard any confirmation of it opening, though. Perhaps the Revolution incident sidetracked the maintenance staff.

That would be cool. It would also be cool if they would bring back the light effects on demon. Utilize some LEDs in that dang tunnel! Yes, and fix the dang audio too. I'm tired of having to yell it myself when I ride.

There's no likely about it, it absolutely spanks Roar in everything.

Given it was reported here that the ride was open this weekend I would assume SFMM was given the all clear (that it was not related to the ride) otherwise it would be closed. Right? True. If someone died and the ride is already open, that says to me that it was a preexisting condition and they know that the condition caused it. Update: I saw an article in the LA times today that said that right after the incident while the girl was still in the hospital, the park had determined that it was not caused by the ride and they had reopened the ride. Now that the girl has passed away in the hospital, they have closed the ride down again for investigation. http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-girl-dies-magic-mountain-ride-20150615-story.html

Given it was reported here that the ride was open this weekend I would assume SFMM was given the all clear (that it was not related to the ride) otherwise it would be closed. Right? True. If someone died and the ride is already open, that says to me that it was a preexisting condition and they know that the condition caused it.

Sounds like virtual confirmation of a Vortex floorless conversion. I can't complain.

On Gold Striker at CGA I came to exactly the same conclusion for exactly the same reason.

Given those options only, I'd go with the LAX flight. Youd probably have to leave by at least 4 to catch the one out of Burbank safely. With the 8:30 flight out of LAX, I'd feel safe leaving as late as 5:30. The biggest difference though is that the LAX flight is non stop and will have you in Denver by 11:40. The Burbank flight, which leaves at 6, has a 2 hour layover in San Jose and doesnt get into Denver until 12:30 am - ouch! So fly OAK - BUR in the morning and fly out LAX - DEN. For future trips try doing Sundays. It's the only day in Los Angeles that traffic is light (relatively speaking), so you can use LAX without much worry.