Bolliger&Mabillard

Oh. Well then. Shouldn't have pissed off the title fairy then...

^According to your custom title, you think Tatsu sucks...

Even the regular guests know that? Sad... I will have to agree with the central theme over the last few pages that not everyone going to parks will know about rides. Heck, I've loved riding coasters since I was 10, but I didn't turn this into a hobby until I was 19. Before then, wouldn't have known an Intamin from a Maurer Shone. Astronomy has always been my lifetime interest, and I know tons of stuff about our solar system, nebulas, star systems, and even some binary code lol. The next time you encounter something "dumb" GP say aboout coasters, ask them what their interest is, and try to talk to them about it. These people aren't idiots just because they don't know that older B&M's are more intense because they're all Stengel designs and use nylon wheels, verses new in house designs with polyurathane wheels. Who would know that?...Well...at least I do.

^Oh no no no, sir. You can clearly hear "THE MACHIIINES!!!"

^Most ride time's are "dispatch to dispatch" which is the time you sit down to the time you get back up...

Still confused as to what the name will be. I mean this gives a strong idea as to what the theme will be, but the name of KD's coaster is specific to it's design. Also, the way it's being marketed as the tallest and faster coaster in the Mid-Atlantic, it can't help but make you wonder how Carowinds' coaster is going to be "record breaking" and "history making" if i.305 isn't even going to be bigger than Millienium Force?

^^That shut me up...

^You know, you'd think they'd have put the number "3" somewhere...

I think this thing looks pretty cool though, just saw the POV and off-ride videos. Great addition to any park, though as previously mentioned, I can't help but sense the vibe that CF went out of their way to not make this ride "better" than MF. It's almost like they built it with the mentality, "You think this was fun, go check out the one at our flagship park". But I've been meaning to check out the Mid-Atlantic one of this days, BGE, SFA, KD, and maybe even CW if time permits. I'm not gonna lie, this is giving me more of a reason to do so.

Imagine if Nitro had standard sitdown trains. Not so great of a ride anymore. Oh well. Looks like anything better than B&M would've built.

Though a some feel that Cedar Fair would not have installed a ride that is faster or bigger than what CP already has or would get, I feel that judging from the layout they may have inadvertently build a "better" ride than Millienium Force. It's not as tall (5 feet shorter...oh no!) or as fast (3 MPH slower, oh no!) as its predessor to the northwest, but with a more transition filled layout it could be that beast that we all wanted MF to be. It's almost as if this ride is Millienium Force without the fat. i305 is sleaker, looks to be more thrilling, and looks like it could give a better ride than a certain ride everyone's comparing it to...

A B&M hyper makes sense. CP will break a record by having three rides that do exacly the same thing, but each by a different manufacturer.

^&^^^Backlash? I'd shake your hand. Batman is by far the most OVERALL intense ride at the park.

No worse than the cameras Knott's put on Silver Bullet...

^You really are officially bankrupt when buying beches is a large investment...

^You can't. Marketing can only get you so far. Though these may be intangible attributes of the park you can't put in a commercial, it enhances the experience once you're there, rather than being the reason you came. I remember a while back (possibly 100 or so pages ago) during the Metro/Monorail discussion that the park shouldn't have added a transportation system because it's not "marketable". True. You're not going to see a spike in season pass sales if they add a monorail. But if you make it easier to access the park, people won't get tired as easily walking up and down hills all day, which opens up the potential for people to stay longer, which results in them spending more money, which means adding a transportation ride aided in park revenue, though it may not have been the main draw. Marketing is what will get people to check things out, but it's those intangible things the park could do more of to get people saying "wow, this park was better than I expected", or "I don't remember Magic Mountain being this nice". Marketing is telling your guests that your park is the best. Putting capital in general upkeep in things other than rides is showing them your park is the best.

hmm... What's with Dick Kinzel putting his name on everything

I think X2 is not the best example. It's not going from one extreme to the other. It's going from one extreme to further extreme on the same side. Who here can say that X wasn't already an awesome ride? Before the overhaul, X was still by far the most popular ride in the park. Even if you factor slow dispatch times into the queuing time, you figure that a 3 hour wait for a ride in a park where the average wait time for major rides is 45 minutes to 1 hour (again, these are 2007 numbers) that says something. Even as far back as 2002, people have been flocking to X2 as soon as the gates open. It's not like the park took a ride that nobody cared about anymore and made it great again. I've ridden Bizarro. I can't lie that it made Medusa more popular. I can't deny that people are excited to see this "new attraction" the park has. That's fine and dandy. I truly think this wasn't a bad move. But I still feel that with the ride structure not changing, how long is it going to take for the flare of that "new car smell" to wear off? I think Scream! will benefit from a remodel in the short run, but overtime when the soke clears and the mirrors have smudges-it will end up being the same ride that we all know is fun, but nothing great. Tatsu in my "biased" opinion is a much more intense ride than Scream!, and in three shaort years, when the flare of a new ride has gone, it averages minimal wait times, despite less than stellar operations. It's hard to see spending the money to market the ride as something new, just for it to end up having the same reputation a few short seasons later. Of course this is speculatory, and I could be wrong, so take what I say with a grain of salt. I just think the money could be used to instead revamp Scream! ( a ride that 6 years old and shouldn't need a revamp) use the capital to improve landscaping, more indoor seating for eateries, better training of employees, and overall upkeep. I may be alone on this, but I personally wouldn't mint not seeing a coaster for the next four years if it ment the park would use its resources to have a train on Tatsu hitting the lift every 70 seconds, or having more than one parking lot tram running on a saturday in July, or seeing more than two ticket booths open at park opening, or having a nice, air conditioned room to eat my $16 combo from Johnny Rockets. In my mind, all these things hold priority to painting a ride that's perfectly fine. More people would come, but there are things the park is lacking in that would prevent them from coming back.

I don't get it...Pirates of the Carribean is 42 years old and the animatronics look lightyears better than Mine Rides. I dont understand how one park coul....Oh yeah. Disney spends money on capital improvements other than coasters. Don't I feel like a rube.

^That's not necessarily true. Tatsu is different as each station exit needs to be reset so that the brake calipurs in the stations reset, so the advance buttons must be released and repressed. However rides like Riddler's, you can keep pressing the buttons, and the train in transfers will roll right into the station if its clear. Some rides, like Scream and Silver Bullet, have "split blocking" where the train in transfers will enter the station while the train hasn't fully exited the station (which is that 3/4 thing you were talking about) but who knows, maybe Busch just has different operating procedures than Six Flags...

^How so? I know Tatsu and the Ultimate Flight in Georgia share the same block system in the sense that the ride has four blocks (Station, Lift, Main Brake, Transfer) with the station as a whole acting as one block, though obviously there is a split between both stations. This was a modification of Air's block system, which differs somehow, but not sure on the specifics. I just know Tatsu's layout. I would have assumed it would have been the same for Manta.

^The only way someone could think that is if the ride itself rattled your brain to a gooey substance lol!

^That's your opinion, and I respect it. However, we will have to disagree on the sentiment that effects don't make the physical ride better. Sure it may make for a better "experience" per se, and in that regard, I could agree with you. However, as it stands, Scream is the odd-ride-out in a family of thrill machines. I think its a fun ride, but I don't think its gonna knock anybody's socks off, even if you add fire and misters to it.

I'd have to say mine is Rocket coasters...

Newer B&M's (circa 2002 and beyond) with no mid-course brake have what's called a "creep mode" on the lift, where if a train in the station is dispatched with a train still cycling, it will reduce the normal lift speed (aprox. 8 mph) in half (aprox. 4 mph) until the cycling unit clears the safety brake. Now you know.