singemfrc

I noticed in S&S's freefly demo video they're using soft vest restraints like on B&M's WingRider trains. This is good to see!

I don't think anyone is right or wrong, coaster building is a fluid process, the projected opening can often change back and forth several times. I know that December was Adventuredome's targeted opening, but it's possible that there have been difficulties in the last couple weeks, or it's possible that S&S may not have the most current info and the park may still be able to get it open by December..we'll just have to wait on more official word. This was mentioned kind of in passing rather than as a real announcement, so in my head Im kind of taking "December" and "Late January" and averaging them to form my expectation

^ the lap restraint comes more into play during the hangtime. Especially on SUF at SFDK.

I noticed in the IAAPA video that S&S snuck in the fact that El Loco would be opening "Late January" now, good thing I havent bought my plane tickets yet. Hopefully that may just be a "worst case" and it still may in fact open sooner.

The two photos of the cars posted in the IAAPA thread look amazing. Way beyond expectations...can't wait to ride in those!

I still like Goliath, though there are certainly much better coasters out there, within SFMM it's a nice change of pace from all the rough inverting coasters. It's not really thrilling to me anymore, but it's still fun.

From what I've seen it's determined by the manufacturer. Togo calls their coaster in Vegas a "Mega Coaster", but I havent seen any others called a mega. Hyper coasters started with Arrow's Magnum XL and are defined as 200-299ft with no inversions. Giga coasters were started by Intamin (I think Millenium Force was the first) and is the actual model name of the coaster, the cars are physically stamped with "Intamin Giga Coaster". They are also defined as 300-399ft with no inversions. Stratacoaster was Intamin as well for TTD and Kingda Ka but I think that's more of an informal name. "Accelerator" is the model name for TTD/Ka. tl;dr - Hyper and Giga were named not only for the height but also the design. Strata was purely about height, coming from the thought that the coaster goes "into the stratosphere". This new one is an entirely different kind of coaster altogether, I'd assume they just keep calling it Polercoaster due to the design.

I think the guess that it's going to China (or at least to that part of the world) is probably correct..makes total sense that they would truck it to California and then ship it to China from there. No other reason for it to come this far west unless it was going to a CA park, which we know it isn't.

Perhaps (or should I say hopefully) it depends on the type of restraint..perhaps the newer Premier cars will get a pass because of how much more comprehensive their restraints are compared to traditional lap bars. Those new cars have such tight restraints a seat belt might actually be uncomfortable. Ironically with the old restraints that Goliath used to have I actually did think seat belts would have been good (and I had a friend who was very nearly ejected from Goliath many years ago with the old ones - restraint failed and he had to hold on) but the new lap bars put in a few years ago are much better..stupid that now that it has better restraints the seat belt has to be added.

Not much competition with the only others being a Togo and a short Arrow Looper. I personally like Manhattan Express, I don't find it to be as rough as most people, but clearly El Loco is going to be in another league.

They've targeted December, but it's too soon to set an exact date. I'm tentatively planning to go down there in January, so barring a big set back it should be open and hopefully I'll finally get my Canyon Blaster credit too.

^ Yep, Supposedly over 400 school buses supposed to be there today. To add to the misery I hear that Tatsu broke down, and X2 is obviously still closed. No bueno.

I'm hearing the line to get into the park this morning is backed up all the way to the bus dropoff. Holy cow, I wouldn't want to be stuck in there today.

Cool little nugget buried in the current newsletter:

Yes, and I think that the news is stupid to even cover this..they said the treatment was a shot, a band-aid, and neosporin..sounds slightly more serious than a cat scratch.

Don't underestimate Key Club day, its the busiest day of the year. During the actual rally lines might be a little shorter than the rest of the day, but the whole day overall is by far the busiest of the year. For some reason they never list it on the SFMM Events Page. If you can go any other day, do it. If you can't, buy a flash pass in advance. If you dig through this thread there are some photos and TRs from the last couple years' rallies. Second post down on this page describes this years' rally up north: http://themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=579&start=3440 its there but the signal is really badOn that particular day it might suffer due to the amount of people using it (similar to how its hard to get a signal at a football/baseball stadium)

Ive seen a report today that the SP line is not too bad (so far) but the park is pretty busy already due to a special event going on. If you're local and just want to get the SP without staying, it might be a good time.

Looking forward to the new El Loco in Las Vegas, and visiting King's Dominion for the first time next Summer to finally get my I305 credit!

Should be very slow, a great time to visit I think. Especially on Sunday.

^ Sorry you weren't able to get on Undertow..it has been particularly touchy in it's first couple weeks even by new ride standards I think. When I was there opening weekend it had about 40 minutes of uptime in the first 8 hours the park was open. That's not for lack of effort on SCBB's part though, they had managers and maintenance techs camped out all day ready to respond at a moment's notice.

How many DVDs or Blu-Rays do you purchase each year? 10-20 How many digital downloads do you purchase each year? I normally shy away from digital downloads, but specifically because they are usually of a lower quality than the hard copy blu ray disc. If the digital download were offered in 1080p with lossless audio, I'd be more likely to use that outlet. How do you purchase digital downloads? (iTunes, Stream, etc) Normally from smaller independent outlets, they're usually the only ones supplying high enough quality content. (Admittedly, Im picky!) Do you download directly from iTunes to your device, or iTunes to your computer, and then transfer to your device? My normal modus operandi is to purchase Blu Rays and then when I'm taking videos on a trip or something I copy them to the device. If it started as a digital download, I'd burn it to a BDR disc, and then copy it to my portable device when needed. Is a 1.5gb - 2 gb file "too big" for you to download to your device? For my connection, a file would have to be approaching 25GB or so before I hestitate on it...even then, my ISP doesn't have a bandwidth cap so as long as I'm not in a hurry there's really no ceiling.

^ ^^^ You can always google "key club fall rally" before planning your trip to check the date and avoid it. They do this every year at SFDK and SFMM and it's always the busiest day at both parks, the experience is just miserable for anyone not in Key Club.

Yeah I know its kind of a non answer but I agree, I find it hard to compare the two. Its kind of how in California we can choose to go to Disneyland Anaheim if just looking for a laid back amusement park experience or Magic Mountain if all you want is thrilling coasters..theyre in different classes to me. If I had to choose one I'd pick Cedar Point because personally I prefer coasters.

Someone just shared their story about going to the Key Club North Rally at SFDK last week so I thought I'd pop in here and post a reminder/PSA that the Key Club South Rally is Saturday 11/9. If you're planning to visit the park this day you may want to change your plans, this will as usual be by far the busiest day of the year. If you can't change your plans, pony up for the platinum flash pass and buy it asap. Expect overflow parking and ridiculous lines for everything. I heard at SFDK they even ran out of beer!