RAWKIN_coaster38

I agree with you. If I lived further south I probably wouldn't go to these parks as much as I have. At least not because of the coasters. SFDK is a good park for non-coaster/ride-enthusiasts (such as people too old or too young for the rides) but it's just mediocre in the coaster sense. It's been a long time since either park had any great new coasters, and with CGA taking some of the best ones out, it's not getting any better. One problem I've seen with both parks is the lack of space to put new coasters. SFDK has very little space to add significant new rides and would have to buy new land and rework the entrance of the park to do this. I don't know CGA well enough to know how easy it would be, but I assume they have the same problem. SFDK also has a really insanely annoying height restriction of 150 feet (the height of Medusa, Sky Screamer, and V2). V2 used to be 180 feet until the county caught wind of it and ordered them to take it down to 150. I've never really known why they can't make anything higher (I don't know of any nearby airports), but this poses a significant threat to any coaster development. SFDK had the animals and the whales years before they had any rides. SFDK (Six Flags Marine World prior) used to be just Marine World before that... and Marine World Africa USA even before that. MWAUSA used to be in Redwood City before moving to Vallejo. They had killer whales in Redwood City and still had them until 2001. The reason the whale show may seem new is because Yaka (the whale) died around '97 and Vigga was the only whale until she died in 2001. They got Shouka a few years later. I visited the park only once in the few years that they didn't have any whales and it was the saddest thing ever to see this guy doing a diving show in the whale stadium with no whales. Ignoring the roller coaster aspect, they really should update their whale tanks and many people have been hoping for years that they'd get another whale. Orcas are pack animals (similar to dogs) and don't do very well alone. SFDK moved Merlin the dolphin into the whale tanks where he performs with Shouka, but if you visit the viewing tanks Shouka looks bored and lonely as the sole whale swimming around. I've heard talk about wanting to artificially-inseminate Shouka, but it's quite costly. I keep thinking that they might just do it one of these days, but it's probably more cost-effective to get new rides or exhibits. Anyway... digression there... LOL... it got dead last on that wooden roller coaster poll several years in a row. I really liked Invertigo too and was disappointed to hear that it got taken out. I haven't been to that many Cedar Fair parks but I think I'd have to agree that CGA is one of the worst. However, the park has a severe disadvantage to other parks like Cedar Fair. The one time I visited this park I was struck by how central the park was in the city. It really seemed like it was right smack in the middle of town amongst office buildings. There has been significant complaints from these offices about the park's attempts to add new coasters; and like I said before, I'm not sure how much room there would be too add a lot more. My biggest hope at this point is that the park has enough of a turnaround that it won't get sold and made into a football stadium.

Looks great! I've always been intrigued by this park but was more than daunted when I heard all that bad stuff about this... this post gives me some hope that if I ever get over to Japan and go to this park, it may not be so bad after all. So explain this... this park is empty and line-free when it's sunny, but there are horrendous lines when it's rainy and miserable? How does that compute? Also, has any of you ridden Ejanaika? How does it compare to X2?

Frankly, I'm really enjoying being single. And I'm not saying this in the sense of, "I'm just saying I enjoy being single because secretly I hope I'll meet someone/someone asks me out because I'm lonely and I don't want to admit it." That's how I was in high school... But really? I have no use for dating at the moment, and when I read threads like this (or hear my friends bitch about relationship issues) I'm really really REALLY glad to be single. I'm planning to only be here for another year to get my AA and then transfer down somewhere in SoCal. Maybe after I move I'd be more willing to flirt with dating again (pun intended). But then again, maybe not. Plus, there are very few guys I find attractive here in this small town. Besides, I have enough kitty love to last me for a while. And I'm enjoying spending time with my family and my girl friends. The single life: I recommend it.

Good luck! I wrote a novel, haven't finished editing it enough to get it published! Planning to work with my professor this summer to get tips on what I need to revise still.. my number 1 suggestion... if you have a good story, don't give up on it! It took me like 5+ years to actually finish writing the first draft, but I'm glad I followed through with it! Some writers suggest a minimum daily word count or page count (i.e., "I will not eat or go on Facebook until I finish ___ amount of my story.")

I thought I read on screamscape that they were disallowing Six Flags from using "Green Lantern" as the name... is that just the case for SFGAdv or might SFMM have to change the name/retheme the ride in the near future?

I'm 99% sure I'll jump off of SOMETHING for my video. Just not sure off of what or into what. I may do a few different things and edit it so it's 60 seconds. We live in the mountains, so there are plenty of natural things to jump off of. Not too many manmade thrill options... but maybe it's better that way! I know some cool rivers with jumping rock areas/waterfalls

I'm 20 and my first coaster was Medusa at SFDK. I think I was 10 or 11... I had ridden some kiddie coasters before that, but nothing taller than maybe 10-20 feet tops.

The wheels Don't like... 99.99% of coasters have wheels on them somewhere?? That was a tricky answer!

I've never been on this ride before, but I looked at the pics on RCDB. What part of the trains spin?? That clue confused me...

What I'm trying to say is this: if you're scared, just make yourself do it and you'll probably be glad you did it. I'd say when you get to the park, RUN to Saw and get in line. Tell yourself, "I can do this, It's going to be fun." Make yourself stay in line and get in the seats and strap in. Don't let yourself talk yourself out of doing it until the ride has already started, because then you HAVE to do it. The ride will be over before you know it, and you'll be really glad. Then your classmates will be saying, "how did you do that ride? It looks scary!" and you can tell them how fun it was. I always do that when I'm in situations where I think I'll be too scared and back out. I never back out of thrill rides and thrill situations because I always force myself to do it because I know I'll be glad I did. I was really scared to go on the sky swing thing at the Hilton, but I got strapped in with my friend and next thing I know they're pulling me up God knows how high. And then I'm up there and they say "Pull the rip cord on three" and I just said "One...two...three!" and pulled it. The first drop was terrifying but then I was having so much fun and it was over too soon. I haven't had the money to do it again, but if I did, I would do it in a heartbeat. I know someday I will go skydiving and probably bungee jumping and I'll go through the same process. I always think, "how would I feel if I backed out now?" and the feeling of chickening out is always a lot worse than the nervousness of doing it.

Personally, I have never had a fear of any coaster since the first time I rode one! Every once in a while when I'm in line for a coaster I've never ridden (esp. if it's taller, faster, or steeper than any I've ridden before) I get some pre-ride-nervousness. But I always still ride it, because I know that by the time I get off the coaster, I'm going to be saying, "That was AMAZING! Let's do it again!" instead of "OMGOMGOMG WHY DID I DO THAT??" Whenever I'm with friends who are nervous about a coaster, I just force them to ride it with me and they're always glad they decided to go. I've only had one incidence that I can remember where someone started crying (It was my sister after Deja Vu because she had told me that she didn't like coasters that went backwards, and I made her go anyway and she didn't like it). But even if you don't like it, it's like 1-3 minutes of your life and you're not going to get hurt. If you don't like it, you can say "okay not I know I don't like it, so I can not do it until maybe someday I will decide to try again and will like it." But it's mind over matter. My sister started crying because we waited in line for about an hour and every five minutes she was saying "I don't like this, I don't want to do this. I'm not going to like this. I don't like coasters that go backwards." If she had just said, "Okay, I'll try it and I'll try to have fun." she probably would have. But she had already decided BEFORE she got on the ride that she wasn't going to like it. Okay g2g my computer is about to die. Hope that helped.

My brother is about 6'2'' or 6'3'' and over 300 pounds. He recently took a trip to SFDK after several years. He was barely allowed to ride Kong (after the ride ops had to shove the restraints closed) and he had to ride in a special seat on Medusa. They wouldn't let him ride anything else. I was trying to convince him that I thought that newer coasters with newer trains (and esp. ones with lap-bars) would probably be able to accommodate him. But I'm not sure, because I've never had the problem that he has. Do you know if there are certain types of coasters/coaster trains that more easily accommodate tall and fat people? He used to be the one that would tolerate me dragging him around with me at the parks and riding coasters non-stop all day. Now I'm worried that he won't even bother trying to go to a park because he thinks he won't be able to ride anything. Is there a certain specific size restriction? I don't want to get too fat someday to ride coasters. If there was anything in the world that could motivate me to lose weight fast, that would definitely be it.

There are tons of chain hotels nearby. I think we stayed at Howard Johnson or something like that. Just do a Google search for the area and compare prices. Also I would get public transportation rather than renting a car. IDK where you're from, but we're from California and the road-system in NJ was really complicated and confusing. We spend a lot of time driving in circles because we kept missing the exit or taking the wrong exit and so on. Plus the toll roads are hideously over-priced. I would also get a Six Flags season pass and leave yourself two days just in case. I think we got lucky with the lines (I don't remember them being too bad) but I know that they CAN get really bad. We had a Six Flags season pass and the first day we went to SFGAdv it started raining like HELL within about an hour of the park opening. They closed every single outdoor coaster and ride. I would have been REALLY disappointed but we just decided to leave the park for that day and visit NYC. The next day was dry and I got to ride all of the coasters I didn't ride (and El Toro again ) I would definitely ride El Toro really early in the day ASAP. But even if the lines are long, it's worth the wait! Kingda Ka was closed when I went. It got struck by lightening that year.

That's really interesting. I'm still very young, but I'm also very bad at money managing. I already have a long list of things I want to do "whenever I get a job and earn some money". I have a one week job set up for the last week in June, and I already have the money pretty much all spent before I even got it! I really need to learn how to save better. >_> and on top of that, I smoke (I've managed to keep it down to one $5 pack a week in the last few months though, but that's still $20 a month that I need to reserve to cigarettes) and I'm turning 21 this year (which means I'll probably want to drink on occasion, which is more $$!). However, my parents are really good at money managing. With a family of 6 it's certainly not easy to go on any vacations, but we still manage to go on a few vacations every year. It's never far away trips, we've never flown on a plane as a family before, we always take car trips. I've always wondered how you guys were able to take so many trips, now I know! I hope I can learn to be more conservative when it comes to money by the time I finish college and find a steady job! Either that, or I just need to be super rich. Here's to working my butt off to get become a NY Times best-selling author with Hollywood movie producers lining up to make my books into movies! /unrealistic dreaming.

My bad. I think I misunderstood the use of "rare". Tower of Terror would have been obscure AND rare if it hadn't been closed. *cue resurfaced frustration* EDIT: I went back and read what Robb defined as "rare". I've never been on a "rare" coaster before, but would we count coasters that were modified permanently? Like people who rode the coasters pre-modification?

THIS. The first time I was tall enough and went to SFMM (SFDK) when they had the coasters, I was too chicken to do much of anything. It took me all day at the park before I worked up the guts to ride Medusa. I closed my eyes the entire time. xD Since then, I'm pretty much willing to do anything. Jumping off of tall rocks into the river, whitewater rafting, those skycoaster things, any and all thrill rides, riding bikes fast down hills, all kinds of waterslides, water-skiing, snow skiing, sledding down the steepest hills we can find, those water motorcycle things, loud music/loud concerts with moshing, etc. The roller coasters were just the first step toward bigger and faster thrills. I was always the kid climbing the trees as high as I could go and jumping off the slides at the park. I probably would have tried thrill rides earlier if my parents had let me. I was 10 or 11 when we went back to SFMM (after the whales died and before they got Shouka) when they had put the coasters in. We always went to the fair and the fair always had rides, but after I was in a ferris wheel accident at the fair and my parents went through weeks and weeks of talking to lawyers and working out a settlement with the company, and then months and months of doctor visits to check on my eyes (I hit my head) and my back and my knee (I hit my knee too), my mom wouldn't let us ride the rides until probably 6 years later. I always thought my coaster enthusiasm came from me getting thrown off the ferris wheel at age 5. My cousin was about 7 and had a worse experience (because the wheel kept going up and she was hanging onto the handbars with one hand) and now she's afraid to even ride the ferris wheel. We moved towns when I was 12, but I still ride the ferris wheel every year at the fair. If you don't believe me: I'm actually surprised I found this article. It's kinda scary what you can find about you on the internet

Wow.... now THAT'S a bit much.... but I guess it works for that park. And it probably would be really fun to ride the wooden coaster, then get off and ride the steel coaster (or vice versa) and ride over and between the coaster you just rode. But what about loose articles on the ride? Even though people aren't supposed to bring them on, it still happens. If someone looses their hat on the steel coaster, does that present a problem for the wooden coaster? What about people who lose change on the steel coaster? It doesn't look like there are nets between the coasters going over the GP. Some falling change could really hurt if it hit you in the head...

I was in South Africa in 2007 for a missions trip. Our group leader surprised us and took us to Gold Reef City on our last day. I found out about Gold Reef City's existence by accident before the trip because it was the featured park on RCDB one day. I mentioned my coaster enthusiasm to a few of the leaders but they told me we probably wouldn't be able to go because we were very pressed for time and our week was already planned out. Then they told us we were going to a gold mine and next thing I knew we were pulling up at the park! I was really disappointed that Tower of Terror was closed, but I took a few pics (I don't know where my pics are, all of these are fro RCDB). But I did get to ride this: And this: I think they even let me take an on-ride video of Jozi Express with my little digital camera. It's buried on our computer somewhere probably along with the photos... but it wasn't good quality anyway. I can't take on-ride videos like Robb can. They had a lot of rides that were closed (including another coaster called Super Loop). I'm not sure if they all needed maintenance or if it was because it was their off-season (summer for us, winter for them). I think Tower of Terror was SBNO all that year also. But still, when I prepared to go on the missions trip to South Africa, I never thought I'd get two coaster creds out of it!

I only really see Six Flags commercials here because SFDK is the closest park and occasionally I'll see SFMM commercials if I travel further south. It really really REALLY bugs me when they show East Coast Medusa (which isn't even Medusa anymore! It's Bizarro!) in the commercials for SFDK. I actually prefer Medusa at SFDK to the [former] East Coast Medusa. SFDK's Medusa is a really great ride and there has to be SOMEWHERE that they can take a decent video of it. Why do they need to use the old SFGAdv videos in their commercials? >_> But IDK if I've ever seen a Six Flags commercial for a park that DIDN'T use other coasters in their video. It's like they take a few videos of coasters, and then just put them in the commercials even if those coasters aren't in the park their advertising! Nevertheless, I really like the videos of Shouka they have. I'm well-acquainted with the whale stadium and with Shouka in general. I would probably notice if they used old videos of Vigga, but I've never seen one.

Exactly, Batman is one of my favorite rides in the chain IMO. And you could not compare Boomerang to B:TR, and for the part it's the last one that I haven't ridden. I gotta say, though, you should ride it at night in the back when you get the chance. I did that the first time I rode it and it blew me away.

LOL. I don't know if I've heard that as many times in line for Kong as I've heard it about Roar. For the longest time I was afraid to put my arms up too high in those tunnels. Now I know there's plenty of clearance, but I still always see at least on person who puts his/her arms down only in the tunnels. xD LOL I do that to my friends and family all the time. But it makes me LOL when they ask "what's the name of this ride?" when I've been babbling about the ride the whole time! My dad still doesn't know "Kingda Ka" even though I've pretty much talked about it since it opened. I'm still mad that it got struck by lightening the ONE AND ONLY year I went to the east coast. >_>

I like it too. But compared to Tatsu, X2 and Goliath? Not the first on my list of coasters to ride.

I have to second this. They could do MUCH better. Also I'd probably tear down Kong and Boomerang at SFDK and build something better. SFDK doesn't have much room for any coasters, so tearing down these two (the two worst at the park) would provide enough room to get something pretty good. It's about time they got a new coaster (THBS does NOT count as a new coaster, although it is fun).

You know you're an enthusiast when you're disappointed that a mediocre coaster is closed for the sole reason that you didn't get to ride it before. I never rode Boomerang at SFDK for the longest time because it was always closed for maintenance, and every time I went and heard it was closed, I was disappointed. Now, I could care less about it.

Oh okay. So could you buy a 2012 membership in November? Or does it have to be bought the year of the membership?