Ryancrash

I grew up outside of Seattle, so I have lots of good memories of the Puyallup Fair. (The scones are incredible!) Coaster Thrill Ride was the first woodie I ever rode as a child - I'm sure it played a very big role in the formation of my coaster obsession. I love that the third drop is the biggest one. I last rode it in 2008, during a trip back to Seattle for a wedding - nice to see it's being well taken care of and still running good today. Nice onride photos!

Too bad no one got video footage of Jon when he terrorized those teenage girls with Turbo Backward! Too damn funny...

The go-karts were awesome! I think this was the first time I ever did go-karts. (And I only spun out three times - no wrecks!) One of the many many highlights of a truly amazing trip. I wanna go back to Finland now.

This video just reminded me - six more months until UK 2010!

Cedar Point is awesome... IF (and ONLY if) you can hit it on one of the two days of the year when the lines aren't so bad. No one should ever have to wait eight hours for a coaster! I got lucky on my last visit - the longest wait was 30-45 minutes (for Maverick), and many rides (including Magnum and Millennium Force) were walk-ons! It was the only good visit to Cedar Point I've ever had. The Ghetto Fair video reminded me of an episode of the Nancy Drew / Hardy Boys Mysteries that I watched recently. This was from 1977 - Robert Englund and Jamie Lee Curtis guest starred as members of a carny biker gang suspected of commiting a jewel heist. Nancy Drew tried to infiltrate the gang, and Robert Englund tortured her by making her ride The Zipper! Awesome...

The attack on Craig was pretty damn funny. But Kristen didn't seem to think so - I remember she was so distressed by this, she cried until she threw up! (Now that's some love right there!) Linnanmäki was awesome - the perfect way to finish off such an amazing adventure. I wanna go back to Finland! (And Sweden... and Norway... and Denmark...) Thanks Divv for an excellent TR! Brings back so many good memories. And thanks Robb and Elissa for another incredible TPR trip! I'm sure looking forward to the 2010 trips - six more months until UK and Mainland Europe!

Ah, home sweet home... Coney Island got an exciting new roller coaster this past season - Michael Jackson's Dragon Wagon kiddie coaster from Neverland! (Really!) With most kiddie coasters, you get to go around three or four times. With this one, you go around about twenty times - and you just wish the damn thing would stop already! (Oh... my knees... OUCH!) The coaster is definitely not intended to be ridden by anyone over three feet tall. And to anyone who ate at Wendy's - shame on ya! (A nice way to not experience Coney Island.) Coney Island = NATHAN'S HOT DOGS... and raw oysters on the shell, and soft shell crab sandwiches, and pistacchio soft serve cones... mmm...

Thanks again Mattias!! I can't wait to come back to Stockholm and visit Gröna Lund again - and Skara Sommarland too. Another awesome update Divv! (And yes, that prawn sandwich was soooooo delicious... now I'm hungry.)

One of my fave nites of the trip. Gröna Lund really rolled out the red carpet for us - that welcome reception was amazing! Some truly impressive hospitality. And what an all-around AWESOME park! Great coasters (INSANE!!), great rides and attractions, great food, great atmosphere - and how about that location? Right on the waterfront, in the heart of Stockholm - wow! I could have spent an entire week here.

Just sent in my first ever Steel Poll Ballot. That sure took some doing, but it wasn't half as bad as I'd expected. (I'd thought I was gonna have to try to rank every kiddie coaster I'd ever ridden, every Boomerang, etc.) The SLCs are lucky they're all grouped together under the banner of my "Favorite Vekoma SLC" - otherwise there would be a LOT of SLCs at the very bottom of my list! (How do we get Toshimaen's Cyclone added to the ballot? The one with the trains that look like logs? Not that it's a top ten coaster or anything, but it's good enough that it deserves to be on the list...) TOP 20 STEEL: 1. Expedition GeForce 2. Diamondback 3. Behemoth 4. SROS (aka Bizarro) (SFNE) (Favorite Woodie - Balder) 5. Steel Dragon 2000 6. Nitro 7. Goliath (La Ronde) 8. Goliath (Walibi World) 9. Piraten 10. Phantom's Revenge 11. Steel Force 12. Apollo's Chariot 13. Thunder Dolphin 14. Ride Of Steel (Darien Lake) 15. Goliath (SFOG) 16. Wild Thing (Valleyfair) 17. Alpengeist 18. Tornado (Särkänniemi) 19. Speed Monster 20. Millennium Force And the bottom of the list: 223. Superman: Ultimate Flight (SFOG) 224. Ninja (SFSL) 225. Pirate's Hideaway 226. Space Mountain: Mission 2 (Disneyland Paris) 227. Great American Scream Machine (SF Great Adventure) 228. Gouderix 229. Favorite Zyklon Loop 230. Ninja (SFOG) 231. Favorite Zamperla Volare 232. Roller Soaker

I just voted for the first time ever. It was a bit complicated and took a long time. But if someone as computer-illiterate as myself can do it, anyone can. The hardest part was the ranking itself. I think if you do this on a yearly basis, it's not so difficult - each year you just make the necessary additions and adjustments. But when you're doing it for the first time and have ridden hundreds of coasters, it's more than a little intimidating! (I'm dreading the steel ballot...) How do you accurately compare a coaster you rode twelve years ago with a coaster you rode seventeen years ago? My top woodies: (1. Favorite Steel - Expedition GeForce) 1. Balder 2. El Toro (SFGA) 3. Boulder Dash 4. Ravine Flyer II 5. Colossos (Heide Park) 6. Troy 7. Thunderhead 8. Rutschebanen (Bakken) 9. The Beast 10. Thunderbird 11. The Voyage 12. The Comet (Great Escape) 13. Hell Cat (Clementon) 14. Tonnerre de Zeus 15. Shivering Timbers 16. Phoenix 17. The Raven 18. Kentucky Rumbler 19. Tremors 20. White Cyclone (Nagashima Spaland) And the bottom of the list: 98. Georgia Cyclone 99. Regina (Tobu Zoo) 100. Wild Beast (Canada's Wonderland) 101. White Canyon (Yomiuriland) 102. Predator 103. Anaconda (Walygator) 104. Mean Streak 105. Grizzly (Great America) 106. Son Of Beast 107. Bandit (Movie Park Germany)

Next time I'll know better! I didn't think our boat was THAT heavy... but I sure picked a fine time to sit in the very front and take one for the team. HA!! ("Are you serious?" ) And the answer is: "pineapple".

It took me SIX hours to dry off after that damn log flume! This was such a phenomenal day - the beer, the hammers, the nails, the hats, the snacks, our VIP tour of Hotel Gasten, the AMAZING group lunch, Lisebergbanen, the Swedish meatballs with lingonberries, and of course, most of all... the best wooden coaster on Earth by far... BALDER!!! I need to seriously take up the fine art of bank robbery so I can afford to back to Sweden more often.

^On my first two or three rides, I totally got the gray-out - it was awesome! After that, I think I was just used to the ride, and it didn't happen any more. But even without the gray-out, it was still an amazing ride experience.

Djurs Sommerland was a blast! Piraten absolutely rocked - it may not quite have been the "best coaster on earth", as some people claimed, but it was still a truly GREAT ride - one of the best on the entire trip. And I liked the parrot in the loading station, the one saying something in Danish that sounded like "Ha ha ha... wake-up time!" I also dug Thor's Hammer - any coaster with a Viking theme is alright in my book. It was nice to see the sunshine again as well. The rain finally realized it wasn't doing anything to dampen our spirits, so it gave up and stopped trying. (The rain certainly didn't stop me from getting in LOTS of amazing rides on Lynet and Falken... Fun!) Excellent updates Divv - keep em coming!

Great update and video! The TPR grand prix was such a blast - yet another standout highlight of an already phenomenal trip. (Seriously, could Scandinavia possibly have been any cooler? The entire trip kicked so much @$$ on so many levels!) I think this was my first ever go-kart race. (I spun out three times in the qualifying heat - Wowch!) So much fun - I totally wanna go back to Finland and do this again. Congrats again to Tom, Ivan and Rich!

Europa is one of my fave parks in the world. And from the photos, I'd say it looks even better decked out with Halloween decor! Can't wait to go back next Summer and ride Blue Fire. Oh yeah - Hotel Colliseo is amazing, easily one of the nicest hotels I've ever stayed at in my life. I highly recommend it.

Great TR! I lived in Germany for a year and a half, and I've been back a few times since, but I still haven't been to Oktoberfest in Munchen. Hope to make it there in the next few years! I did get to go on some of these rides at Hamburgerdom in the summertime (including the AWESOME Olympia Looping) - not quite the same though. The Germans always know how to throw a party - and they make the best beer in the world. Can't wait to go back there. Ich liebe Deutschland!!

Even with "incomplete" theming, Fluch von Novgorod quickly became my new favourite Eurofighter. I haven't ridden Speed yet, but I liked FvN even better than Mystery Mine, and I love Mystery Mine. Can't wait to ride again after they've finished the theming. Hansa Park was awesome - as was the evening in Flensburg! (Bar photos?) Oh yeah - and I ate all of my asparagus too, which is saying something. I NEVER touch that stuff! A testament to some really good food.

^Oh yeah, of course I'll be adding days in London. Gotta get in some culture credits. Thanks for the tip Joe!

Tivoli Gardens was a blast! One of many major highlights of the trip. I had several cherries popped this day - it was my first Scenic Railway, my first ride on a Star Flyer (scared the crap outta me - I loved it!), my first experience with Vertigo (turbo!!), and yes... my first time eating at Wagamama. Wagamama was great - we need one of these in New York and we need it NOW. But I'm guessing I'll have to wait for next Summer's UK trip until I get to enjoy the magic of Wagamama once more. Thanks Divv for another awesome update!

Yeah, Scandinavia! This was such an awesome trip. I wanna go back NOW! The TR's off to a great start - and I'm sure looking forward to the rest of it.

Well it certainly sounds like Europa Park has made some improvements to Silver Star. When I rode in July 2008, it literally felt like a family coaster (I rode it 5 times, over 2 days). It was still fun, but there was NO AIRTIME AT ALL anywhere on it. On every single hill we'd be expecting some airtime, then the trims would kick in and slow the train - and our entire group would groan loudly with disappointment. I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope the improvements carry over into next year, so I can finally have a good ride on it. I really want to love this coaster, but right now it's probably not even on my top fifty steel list.

Can't wait to go back to Germany! I should make it there again next year. Can't wait to ride GeForce again - my #1 fave coaster! And hopefully Ring Racer will be operational by then. Exploding coasters are funny on RCT, but not so amusing in real life when it's a coaster I really want to ride. And of course, I'm also dying to ride Blue Fire. Glad you got some good rides on Silver Star. Although I did enjoy Silver Star, I was also a bit disappointed by it. Seeing that this was the tallest of the B&M hypers, I was expecting so much more, and for me the trims just ruined it. I've now ridden all nine of the B&M hypers (and mini hypers) and Silver Star was by far the weakest of the bunch. And it had the potential to be soooooo much better! But who knows - perhaps the park has toned down the trims since I was there in 2008? I sure hope so. Europa Park is so awesome - one of my fave parks in the world. I should be back there next summer - can't wait!

Unless you're Joey! Fireball looks AMAZING! But... no ninety degrees?