singemfrc

No not a chance. These hydraulic restraints hold thousands of pounds more than necessary (Go dig up the NTAG accident thread where stats and diagrams were posted). There's no way that any human being's weight could cause a hydraulic restraint to fail simply by force. The restraint just "failing" mechanically is equally as improbable. I also doubt that even with both straps failing that you would be thrown out of the ride, that lap bar holds you in pretty securely, much like the newer Premier and RMC restraints do.

^ Yeah thats the thing, and I've seen it on a couple other coasters this year where theyre voting and they go "Oh airtime, that had lots of airtime!" These people clearly have no clue what airtime even is. That's not Travel Channel's fault, but ideally someone should at least give them a one sentence explanation of what each category is that they're voting for.

I just about spit my food out when they called Gatekeeper "the most intense coaster in the world" I mean, I like Gatekeeper, it's fun, but intense is not a word I'd use to describe it. Also lol'd at the rider who said it had "serious airtime". She needs to go ride Magnum XL on the other side of the park and then get back to us. I saw that and it was very interesting. Sad to hear that the park hasn't really done any better since the show left (There's a TR on here from afterwards). It seemed so promising by the end of the episode.

Wow thats pretty bad. The park definitely should have at least given you guys exit passes, SFDK always hands out exit passes when you get stuck and have to be manually released like that.

^ Nice to see someone else knows how to ride Kong Tough to get much airtime when your coasters can't exceed 150 ft. You can sometimes get a pop of airtime in the back seat of roar, but youll pay dearly for it. The only significant airtime is the back row of Superman on the first drop after the roll, that part is pretty fun.

They definitely still do it, I asked about it last time I was there at the X2 booth. Whether they have any sticks in stock I have no idea but it wouldnt surprise me if it were out.

I know, the Boardwalk is such a great place that the rides (other than the 'Dipper) really are just a bonus.

Yeah thats true since with Ninja the FP riders board the train from the exit side instead of merging with the regular line like most coasters. It's worse when you have a platinum wristband and come around and they have to wait again (especially if it's one train ops). Do you remember which rides would not allow any re-riding in any row? Me and another user on here a while back were trying to figure out a list of rides that didn't allow PFP double rides.

Yeah, its a crap shoot, but I find that skip-the-line merges are the one thing that SFMM consistently does better than CP, as most of CP's are like Apocalypse.Yolo and X2 are always going to be walk-ons if you purchase them, since they sell appointments it's literally impossible to ever encounter any kind of line. Also, normally I say don't bother with the Platinum upgrade, but it sounds like it was worth it that day for the YOLO line skip alone. Ninja, like a lot of coasters that existed before the Flash Pass did, has a makeshift que. I've never had a problem with it though, you just go up the exit and get an op's attention and they put you on a train..I've never seen them do that like you mentioned. Then again theres never anyone more than my group in the FP line when I'm there, if they had an entire train's worth of FP riders then that actually makes sense. Tatsu usually isn't a walkon, most often for me I join the line going up the stairs and wait 5-20 mins depending on whether I want the front row. It's usually the best deal in the park for flash pass since its free, there's almost never a wait to use the pass, and its usually a pretty long line that you skip most of. Superman is the only other one that I think is a wonky FP system. You can wait (and I have) 60-90+ mins from the flash pass merge. Agree with you on that one, derelict is the word I think. Since I'm not a big fan of Apocalypse's current condition I tend to avoid that part of the park for the most part.

I don't think anyone believes that would ever happen, in fact I think the person who brought this up specifically said no GateKeeper-like coaster. I'm kinda torn on the new entrance idea (not that itd happen anyway) as nice as CP's entrance is (not considering GateKeeper) CGA's ticket booths have been there forever, were recently renovated (at least on the outside), and are pretty iconic to me. Any improvements I think would have to still incorporate those original booths. P.S. I know, I have a problem with overuse of parentheses..its like typing with ADD

Theyre both weekends so school sessions won't matter

Sundays are almost always less crowded than Saturdays. In my experience the Discover days don't really add anything noticeable to the crowds. If youre picking between the two I'd pick 8/10.

Post some pics and enjoy Suzy, I've seen here up here at the State Fair, she puts on a great show.

I'd wager it still does on unbalanced rides. I rode once by myself on one side with two fat guys on the other side and it about tore my face off. Apparently not. See X2 and Revolution. Revolution isn't particularly popular, is it? As for X2, I don't really know. X2 is still arguably (vs. YOLO) the most popular ride in the park despite being the most painful in my opinion. Revolution is still moderately popular judging by the wait times I see, but I think a lot more people would love it if they took those damned restraints off. That was more my point- that SFMM apparently doesn't realize (or care?) that a painful ride is turning off a lot of riders since they could eliminate the pain by removing the OTSRs but won't do so, probably because of the cost of doing so since it's been well discussed that there's no known laws requiring them. If cost is an issue (and thats totally a guess on my part) Id totally be willing to contribute..a kickstarter or something would be awesome. Not that I expect that to ever happen.

I don't think the intensity was lowered because of a potential lawsuit, I think that was an SF/SFMM business decision. They felt that if the ride was more intense it would attract less riders. From my experiences I'd say they're correct. Although you and I would prefer it to be more intense, as coaster enthusiasts usually are we're in the minority. Every GP guest I've gone with on that ride already thinks it's way too intense as it is. Apparently the Swedes are just more generally appreciative of a more intense ride than most Americans appear to be. Don't they realize that a more painful ride will turn off riders? Apparently not. See X2 and Revolution.

I don't think the intensity was lowered because of a potential lawsuit, I think that was an SF/SFMM business decision. They felt that if the ride was more intense it would attract less riders. From my experiences I'd say they're correct. Although you and I would prefer it to be more intense, as coaster enthusiasts usually are we're in the minority. Every GP guest I've gone with on that ride already thinks it's way too intense as it is. Apparently the Swedes are just more generally appreciative of a more intense ride than most Americans appear to be.

^ The only thing that is confirmed is the ride's closure. What they are going to do with it we don't know for sure, they haven't said anything officially. The most pervasive rumor is that RMC will probably convert it in some way. They could do a major Rattler/Texas Giant style conversion or they might rip it totally out and build something new but I don't think it will just be topper track.

Not sure if you're being sarcastic or if you don't know Cedar Fair owns the park... The 49ers must be paying them quite a bit to close the park on multiple Sundays, so they might in fact be loving this.

I know there's always been a locking mechanism to keep the cars positioned correctly as they load and unload, but I don't know if there's always been one that rights the car as it enters the station. I'm not sure if they improved it or what, but I've sat and watched people come in for quite a while and not seen any stuck upside down. Even on my craziest most unbalanced rides I've never come in upside down. (I first rode GL in 2013, when I visited in 2012 there was no FP for it and the line was 120 mins so I skipped it.)

Am I reading this correct? On all 49ers game days, CGA will be essentially closed for a private party namely the Red Zone Rally pass holders? http://www.mercurynews.com/southbayfootball/ci_26047902/49ers-tailgate-party?source=social

There is nothing wrong with the current entrance. The fountains and Columbia Carousel already make a really nice entrance area. I think he means just more of the "front gate area" coming into the park (from the parking lot to the turnstyles), not replacing the fountains and/or carousel inside of the park.

I don't think the issue with staffing people to flip the cars still exists. I know it did when the ride was new, but in the last few years when I've come into the station upside down and been automatically rotated right side up, and when I'm sitting there waiting facing out, I see cars come in upside down and then rotate. I believe some kind of mechanical catch was installed at some point that catches the cars as they come in and rotates them if they arent right side up. I never see anyone stuck upside down anymore. This would be a good quesiton to ask someone from Intamin (whether that is correct, and if not, if it could be implemented).

The park today posted this fantastic 23 minute video that includes tons of interviews, features on the 'Dipper, and behind the scenes of making their commercials and booking of the bands. I love that for a 90 year old roller coaster they say the Giant Dipper only averages around 4 hours of down time per YEAR! Take that Six Flags!

ERT Saturday mornings for SP holders is new this year, but last year they did similar "Thank You Thursdays". The park is certainly much busier after it opens to the public on Saturdays.

Agree with this post wholeheartedly. It may be more compared to other ordinary wooden coasters, but compared to all coasters it's rather middle of the road, and all the ones that have been built have been very popular. To me it sounds like a pretty great deal. I'd love to see more. Wooden coasters in general are blowing up right now - not just the hybrids and conversions but all wooden coasters, there seems to be a huge resurgence. Even GCI's new coasters have been pretty fantastic. lol @ "Kingda Kostly". SFGAdv seems to me to be struggling to maintain that thing. I hear a lot of complaints about it being down entire days and not running enough trains..typical SF. It seems as though Cedar Point does a much better job maintaining and operating Dragster. Though it's slightly different, KBF also seems to do a good job with Xcelerator on a day to day basis though there was that one cable snafu (whether it was caused by insufficient inspection was debated). tl;dr: Balder and El Toro are both on my bucket list, and I would love to see one built closer to me.