DBru

Got the pleasure of watching Velocicoaster cycle last weekend and can't overstate how incredible this things looks in person. Between the pacing, the wonky transitions, and the fantastic theming (the foliage looks like its been growing for decades)...seems like this is going to be the coaster experience to beat. Crazy how much my interest in the Universal Orlando Resort has grown with just two (very wise) additions.

**Coasty McCoasterface

No wonder that off-season maintenance took a little longer than expected!!

Went yesterday (Monday). Arrived around 1pm. Parking attendant scanned our pass for parking and scanned our reservation but the time was irrelevant. Took about 20 minutes to get parked in the very back overflow lot (because most of the regular lot is still being used for vaccination distribution). After the 5-7,000 step walk to the front gate, we got in fairly easily. Love the new metal detectors that allow you to keep everything in your pockets. Park was super crowded. 1-2 hour lines for everything. Multiple trains running on all the coasters but skipping rows and sanitizing between every few cycles. Inexplicably loading 1 row per car on Goliath and Gold Rusher instead of just skipping every other row (cutting the already-cut capacity by an extra 40%). No activity at CraZanity. Food lines were insane. The line for the drink/snack stand by Tatsu's entrance stretched all the way past the game area. (Just an observation--I didn't wait in it.) Saw people waiting in what must've been hour+ lines for Member Services, Flash Pass, and Guest Relations. In fact, the line at the Flash Pass center was about 50 people deep at closing... no idea what that was about. All this to say...it was basically exactly the experience we were expecting but it's really nice having the park open again and hopefully this will drive Six Flags' revenue through the roof. X2 is still insane and awesome.

I also found Great White to be quite a bit less intense than Goliath (SFFT). You'd think it would be the opposite with a longer/heavier train on Great White.

Looks like there will be a great whip effect in the back going down the first drop! Also love that it immediately hops up into a zero-g roll. Can't wait!

I'll definitely second Drake's! The food is totally delicious (and my face is on all the promos). Bardstown Road is also full of fun bars and restaurants. Hammerheads comes to mind.

The idea of you waiting out a tornado in a porta-potty makes me really, really happy. Also, Balder in a Box would be the best roller coaster in the world. Just sayin'.

I love how Cedar Fair has been incorporating story lines with their new attractions. The "radio station" playing "local commercials" sounds totally brilliant and so much fun.

One of the SNL writers must be from Kansas City. Got a few good laughs from this skit:

Wholeheartedly agree about "extremely intense." Wholeheartedly disagree about "comfortable."

Glad you stuck it out and got to ride Runaway Mountain! It's legitimately my favorite coaster in the park. I admittedly have an affinity for coasters-in-a-box, but in my opinion, this is the best one.

Dollywood just posted these photos of Mystery Mine. I’m honestly shocked. They’ve removed my favorite part of the ride (insane drop off the trestle). This would be like Great Adventure removing El Toro’s Rolling Thunder hill or Cedar Point removing Maverick’s Stengel dive. Hopefully the change comes with a retrofit of lap bars to the trains...but that’s not sounding likely.

Hey, I ended up at SFFT this weekend, too! Stopped in for a few hours both Saturday and Sunday. I also indulged in the Hurricanes-on-the-rocks, which were better on Saturday than Sunday because Saturday's (unintentionally hilarious) bartender was pouring Southern Comfort on top of all the drinks because she didn't think there was enough liquor in the pre-mixed cocktail. Amazing. Poltergeist was down both days so that makes 3 visits to SFFT where this credit has eluded me. I have a better track record with Lightning Rod... I was also queuing for the Pirate ride around 4:30pm Saturday when it went down and they emptied the line...and so was my friend who was also in the park (and also on these forums)! If it was the same breakdown, it's crazy that none of our 3 groups ran into each other! Overall, Six Flags Fiesta Texas felt alive and vibrant. A solid Six Flags park that could probably become the best Six Flags park with the addition of a hyper coaster.

Just curious, how were these results generated? Because I see in the overall poll that Millennium Force and Superman ranked above Goliath, but here, those two are missing from the list. I'm guessing these results only take into account how the coasters by each manufacturer compared to each other? Not sure how much work this would require, but it would be super cool if you added a "filter" feature on the CoasterPoll website so we could see rankings by manufacturer, park, country, ride type, etc.

One could only hope. Kentucky Kingdom's lineup would be drastically improved by replacing T3 with a similar-sized custom B&M invert. With that said...Herschend already has another Vekoma SLC in the chain. So I won't get my hopes up.

Something about walking into Liseberg feels truly magical. Of all the parks on the trip, this is the one that I legitimately can't WAIT to visit again. To me, it kind of feels like the (urban) Silver Dollar City of Europe. What it lacks in quantity, it absolutely makes up for in quality. It's collection of rides is definitely world-class. With that being said, Helix did leave me disappointed. While the layout and setting are spectacular, the train rattled and vibrated like crazy on every one of my 6-8 rides. Also, the lapbar tightens to an uncomfortable point throughout the ride. However, like you said, this was clearly rough day maintenance-wise for Helix, so I look forward to giving it another chance. I still have it ranked 36/<500, so clearly still a great coaster. And while Valkyria may be a middle-of-the-road B&M with annoying vest restraints, it sure does look pretty. And when you pull out on the vests and utilize The MethodTM, the drop into the mist-and-laser-filled-tunnel is pretty freakin sweet. Loki is insane and was one of the biggest unexpected surprises of the trip. My Intamin fanboy-ism may be showing, but putting (basically) lapbar-only restraints on a giant frisbee was ingenious and every swing made me feel like I was going to die. Amazing. Also the Jukebox-Octopus-flat ride was awesome, the haunted house was scary as f#@k, and I'm glad Caroline was unhappy riding the kiddie coaster cuz it's what she gets for being the reason I didn't get to ride AtmosFear. Okay, I'm done now.

I was riding with friends back to work at Cedar Point from Canada's Wonderland/Niagara Falls in 2013. We passed right by Martin's Fantasy Island and I asked the driver if we could stop for a hot sec so I could ride Silver Comet. But everyone was exhausted from the trip so they turned me down. In hindsight, I should've knocked a b*tch out and gotten my credit. Along the same lines, I lived 2.5 hours from Waldameer for 3 summers and didn't take the day trip to ride Ravine Flyer II. Now I live in Los Angeles...when am I ever going to get Erie, Pennsylvania?

I was hoping the same. That double pop of strong airtime at the top of the mountain was pretty spectacular.

I have El Toro as my #1 and SkyRush as my #2, so count me happy with this year’s results! Some lists I’d love to see: -Ranking of Mine Train Coasters -Ranking of B&M mega coasters (or maybe all “mega” coasters?) -Ranking of B&M inverts -Ranking of GCI’s -Ranking of all remaining Arrows -Parks with the best average coaster ranking -Top 10 coasters by continent -Ranking of all Disney & Universal coasters -Top 10 coasters in each major chain -Top 10 coasters built in each decade

I find it funny that the only other coaster I can think of with this kind of one-tone green paint scheme is Anaconda at Gold Reef City, the only remaining inverted coaster in South Africa now that the Ratanga Junction SLC has been moved to this park.

I'd be super shocked if it doesn't receive a Joker theme. I have no legit evidence of this, it's just a super hot/perpetually popular character that Magic Mountain hasn't taken advantage of yet.

This looks utterly fantastic. Hopefully it'll be super whippy with how the next largest element is only half as tall as the first drop! My nerd is showing (per usual) but that upward transition into the tight helix has me

^Which is why I booked nonrefundable hotel rooms for this weekend. Dammit. lol

Remember when people said that about Wild Adventures?