Canobie Coaster

Kennywood This was the first surprise park on the trip. Before the bus left, Robb and Elissa promised a lunch stop near Pittsburgh. I was 50-50 that it would be an amusement park or Carrabba's. Since all of Pennsylvania's Carrabba's were on the east coast, Kennywood was the lunch stop. I had been to Kennywood once back in 2010 and loved the park. I loved how the park blended classic and modern rides. After having the Potato Patch fries, we did a speed run through the park. Phantom's Revenge- Phantom's Revenge is intense. The second drop is one of the best moments on any coaster and the air-time hills at the end are taken at such a high speed that the airtime provided is matched by very few coasters. I'll definitely take this over the old Arrow loops. 10 out of 10 Jack Rabbit- The double down is legendary. That unassuming little drop provides some scary and intense air-time. The other drops are fun, but the ride is defined by the one drop which is fine by me. 9 out of 10 Sky Rocket- The launch is solid and the top hat gives some really nice air. I love both zero-G rolls as well. However, the finale is a bit of a letdown as the ride loses a lot of speed. Still one of the park's best rides. 8 out of 10 Thunderbolt- The biggest of Kennywood's woodies (that sounds so wrong, but also so right) is a truly unique ride. From the drop out of the station to the crazy lateral section to the largest drop being at the end, Thunderbolt keeps you on your feet. The ride has some of the most powerful laterals of any coaster and the lap bar only trains allow for some decent air on the larger drops. 8 out of 10 Racer- The Racer was a lot better than I remember. On my rides back in 2010, I remember loving the racing aspect but finding the coaster itself fairly tame. This time, the racing was just as good, but the coaster was wilder than I remember with some good airtime, especially in the back. 8 out of 10 Which way do I go? I miss Pitt Fall, but this looks like an acceptable replacement. Trying to be artsy. The double down is legendary. And I'm not talking about In N Out Burger. Surprise park 1! Classic fun house. Classic flat ride. Through the trees. There are also steel coasters. Phantom's Revenge is one of my favorites. The ride may be short, but the airtime is crazy powerful. So much water. It was a lunch stop. Look at those fries. Kennywood has lots of wood. Ready for launch. Classy top hat. Zero-G roll. The park's newest coaster, Sky Rocket. The park has some great flat rides too. I think everyone who visits Kennywood has this shot.

Defunct Incredible Hulk Coaster- Islands of Adventure Roar- Six Flags Discovery Kingdom Rolling Thunder- Six Flags Great Adventure Colossus- Six Flags Magic Mountain Cyclone- Six Flags New England Monster Mouse- Quassy Mean Streak- Cedar Point Galaxi- Funtown U.S.A. Rockin' Rider- Canobie Lake Park Nightmare at Crackaxle Canyon- The Great Escape Little Rickie's Little Twister- Riverside Park (now SFNE) Roller Coaster- Enchanted Forest (Rhode Island) Relocated SkyRider- Canada's Wonderland Midnight Express- Krazy City

There's just something magical about being at park's at night. The ride's seem faster and the park just feels more alive. It could also be that I'm a night animal.

It's not a coaster, but my favorite is the logs on Story Land's Bamboo Chutes. I mean look at that panda!

Maybe next summer. Like others have said, I'm sure it's fine and fun, but it's hard for us to get excited about a big B&M. I'm hoping to be proven wrong and it really is different. SFOG's Goliath is the second most intense B&M hyper I've been on, but Fury is far and away more intense and a superior ride. I'd say it's more intense than the Intamin hypers I've been on outside of Intimidator 305 or Skyrush.

Nice TR. I don't think I've ever tried Green Lantern in the back, only the front. Those stand-ups can be too uncomfortable even up front so I shudder what the back could be like.

^ Thanks again for taking the brunt of it in the front. Cedar Point The day before we were to go to Cedar Point, we heard about the water mane burst so we weren't sure what to expect. Much to our pleasure, there really wasn't an impact on our visit to the park. Having been to Cedar Point, I knew what to expect. Outstanding coasters everywhere I looked and fast operations. Some thoughts on the rides: Millennium Force- What a rush. While the ride isn't overly forceful, it's pure fun from start to finish. I love how well the ride maintains its speed and flies through Millennium Island. The scattered hills all provide good air and the first drop is still one of the best anywhere. 10 out of 10 Maverick- This is probably the park's most intense coaster. I love how varied the coaster's layout is- beyond vertical drop, launch, zero-G rolls, bunny hills, etc. Everything on this coaster is forceful and it never lets up. 10 out of 10 Top Thrill Dragster- It's short, but ever so satisfying. That launch is amazing, as is the view from atop the top hat. The front is even better as the force from the launch has to be experienced to be believed. 10 out of 10 Magnum XL-200- The first hyper coaster is still a really good coaster. The all-metal lap bars can be painful, so I recommend tightening your seat belt as much as possible. This should prevent you from smashing into the lap bar. This is important because Magnum has some of the most powerful and violent air-time around, especially on the return leg. 9 out of 10 Valravn- The new coaster for me was definitely a lot of fun. The ride has a great location near the Marina entrance and looks quite intimidating. While Valravn had more elements in its layout, I prefer Griffon because of the restraints. I found the vest restraints didn't let you float as much on the drops, while the old OSTRs did. The drops are still quite good and I love the zero-G roll. 9 out of 10 GateKeeper- I really like GateKeeper a lot. The ride's elements aren't forceful, but they are all smooth and graceful. I love how well the ride interacts with the new entrance and the inversion off the lift is one of my favorite starts to a ride anywhere. 9 out of 10 Raptor- A very fun invert. I love how it towers over the midway. The inversions are large and forceful with the cobra roll being particularly noteworthy. 9 out of 10 Blue Streak- If you ride this in the front seat, you get a very smooth ride. The other seats are noticeably more bumpy. But one thing is common across all seats, this classic gives great air-time the whole way through. 8 out of 10 Rougarou- I never rode this at Mantis, but Rougarou is a good floorless. The inversions are quite a bit different than the other floorless coasters I've been on and can see similarities in its layout compared to the other two big stand-ups I've been on in Riddler's Revenge and Green Lantern. Rougarou was forceful without much headbanging. 8 out of 10 Gemini- This is one of those rides that's just pure fun. Not only does the ride still race, but it also provides plenty of good air time while being smooth. 8 out of 10 Wicked Twister- I love how this one is right on the beach. The launches are great and the spirals really make it feel like you will fly off, especially going up the back spike in reverse. 8 out of 10 Iron Dragon- It's not the fastest, but the ride has a fun layout and is a relaxing coaster to go on. The final helix above the water is pretty cool. I should note that I didn't do the VR though. 6 out of 10 Cedar Creek Mine Ride- I like this mine train quite a bit. I particularly liked the big curving drop over the water and the helices are nice and smooth on this one. 6 out of 10 Mean Streak- In the front, Mean Streak was tolerable. The ride had a wide, sprawling layout but the trim brake sapped the ride of a lot of speed. After my ride in the back, Mean Streak made me join the group wanting to burn it down. 5 out of 10 Corkscrew- I love the ride's placement, but unfortunately it's not as fun to ride as it is to look at. The corkscrews and turns are pretty brutal on this one. The first drop and the bunny hill provide solid air though. 5 out of 10 Woodstock Express- I al Blue Streak is an airtime machine. America's Roller Coast! Where you are in for a wild ride. Seriously who would buy these shorts? Ouch. This view is new. I have to brag. I liked Valravn's layout better than Griffon, but the tighter restraints took away from the air-time on the drops. During my last visit to Cedar Point, this was the new hotness. I know GateKeeper is deemed forceless, but I really enjoy the ride's elements. The hyper coaster that started it all. Raptor is one of the older inverts, but still one of the better ones. This is one of my favorite coaster photos I've ever taken. Kick the sky! It has a little bit of everything- a launch, a beyond 90 degree drop, air-time hills, crazy twists, and inversions. Maverick is arguably the park's most intense coaster. Tired of the B&Ms yet? I hope not. Rougarou is a nice floorless. The park is absolutely beautiful when the sun sets. I accidentally walked into the park's museum and am glad I did. Ultra ouch. Nice model though! Power Tower gives some outstanding views. Screamin' Swings are one of my favorites and I got to ride quite a few on this trip. It's wicked good (I'm from New England, I had to say it). The ride absolutely hauls through the course and has a nice mix of airtime and overbanks. This is my favorite coaster at the park and my second favorite steel behind Fury. Cedar Point fanboys can get wet now. I'll show the Intamins Cedar Point is so beautiful at night (or anytime for that matter). ready had the credit, but someone else didn't. It's better than your average roller skater, but that's about it. 5 out of 10 Baby I'm ready to go! As is Magnum. Just make sure to keep that seat belt pulled tight. Very tight. I never noticed until this visit that Dragster has the Christmas tree on the tower.

Funtown U.S.A. I was shocked to have realized I hadn't been to Funtown in almost 8 years, so I decided to remedy that with a visit after York's Wild KIngdom as the park was offering an $11 late night special. I had all of the credits, so the visit was purely to ride my favorites at the park. I still love the overall family vibe at the park, but the ride park can definitely be done in just a few hours. Most of their recent additions have added to the water park. My ride count for the day was: Excalibur- 4X Dragon's Descent- 3X Astrosphere- 1X Thunder Falls Log Flume- 1X Bumper Cars- 1X Wild Mouse- 1X Excalibur- This was one of my first wooden coasters and it's still a favorite of mine. The ride has a great setting in the woods and the first drop is surprisingly steep which results in some powerful air in the back. The entire first half has some really strong air. The second half seems to lose quite a bit of speed though and substitutes the air for laterals. Night rides on this are particularly nice since there's no light out in the woods. 8 out of 10 Wild Mouse- This is a pretty average mouse. The ride looks big where it's located in the park since it's near the Tilt-a-Whirl, Frog Hopper, and Astrosphere. 6 out of 10 Dragon's Descent- In general I prefer other manufacturers' drop towers to the S&S ones, but Dragon's Descent is one of the best S&S ones I've been on. The park has a very nicely themed area around the tower and the views from the top are fantastic (sit on the side facing the dragon entrance and you can see the ocean and Palace Playland's Galaxi coaster). The drop gives a nice burst of air, but slows up faster than the other manufacturers. 8 out of 10 Astrosphere- This is hands down the best scrambler anywhere. It may not be as fast as some of the others, but it has a long cycle and an incredibly good light show. And Fire on High is one of my favorite songs. 10 out of 10 Thunder Falls Log Flume- A very good log flume. The ride hugs the terrain well and has a long layout. The final drop is fairly tall and the splash has the perfect amount of wetness. 9 out of 10 Bumper Cars- These are some of the best bumper cars around. The park gives a 5 minute cycle and allows you to go in any direction. This is also the only park I've seen that doesn't discourage head-on collisions. 10 out of 10 On a sad note, the park no longer sells authentic metal swords by Excalibur. It's highlighted by the amazing light and music show known as Astrosphere. The 5 minute cycle, head-on collisions are permitted Bumper Cars are up there too. Dragon's Descent is the tallest thrill ride in New England. Bye Funtown. I'll be back next year. And one of the best themed drop towers anywhere. Better than the prequel trilogy. I took a lot of photos of the drop tower, but that's because it's so well themed. It's the little things like this that make me like Funtown. This is what I like to see in the parking lot. The lift hill is about the only part of Excalibur you can see before walking up to it. Any park with a suit of armor is good in my book. The drop pod and mat racer slides were new since my last visit. I didn't get a chance to visit the water park though. They looked nice! I really like the Sea Dragon's appearance over the water. It's a small touch but I really like it for some reason. I did ride this water ride. Thunder Falls is a great log flume. The park really tries to give you an unacceptable amount of wetness by color coding the drop to the water cannons. The park has a good collection of classic flats. The park's other coaster is a pretty typical wild mouse.

Hey it's not that bad. Though I wouldn't mind seeing it get converted to a floorless. I know that's doubtful with Bizarro across the park though. I guess I'll continue something from the Lake Compounce thread, but the triple up on Boulder Dash is pretty violent and replacing it with a single air-time hill would remove the lone rough spot.

^ It very well could come down to when a sled was recently maintained. I had two rides on the Timber Ripper one this weekend. My first ride was definitely faster. It seemed like I could push the brake levers down further and had less resistance than I did on my second ride.

Ditto. I can barely get those things to move a few feet let alone snap.

That section has always been violent, but based on everyone's feedback it sounds worse than usual. I'll still ride it during the Haunted Graveyard but I'll be sure to brace myself.

Southern Maine Glad you enjoyed it!

I've been on 8 different mountain coasters and really like them. They're smooth, usually have great settings, and many of them build up good speed. I'd rank the ones I've been on as (separated into tiers): 1) Nor'Easter Mountain Coaster- Attitash Attitash has the best mountain coaster I've been on. The entire layout is well concealed and in dense woods. But the real thing that separates it from the others are the drops. This one has multiple larger drops including one particularly big one 2/3 of the way down that kicks the cart's speed into overdrive and gives a burst of air-time. 2) Timber Ripper Mountain Coaster- Okemo 3) Smoky Mountain Alpine Coaster 4) Beast Mountain Coaster- Killington These ones all build up speed quickly and maintain it the whole way down. They have multiple small dips that give pops of air and have powerful laterals. Good settings too. 5) Mountain Coaster- Jiminy Peak 6) Mountain Coaster- Gunstock Mountain 7) Goat Coaster- Goats on the Roof These ones aren't quite as good ad the previous tier. They have many of the same elements (laterals, mini dips, good settings) but they aren't as intense. 8) Mountain Coaster- Cranmore Cranmore's Mountain Coaster is the only one I wouldn't be willing to pay to ride again. While the others are in the woods, this one was plopped on a wide open hill. The ride was also shorter than the others and as a result, it didn't go as fast.

Kings Island Kings Island was the last park on the trip that was brand new for me. I found it to be pretty standard for what I expect from a Cedar Fair park (clean, well-run, similar feel to the others in the chain), which isn't a bad thing. The park's coaster collection is pretty good too. Banshee- This is my new favorite invert. The new trains eliminate any headbanging (what little was present) in the typical B&M invert and this one has a really cool and unique layout. The ride maintains its speed well and is pretty forceful for a new B&M. And I love the two rolls on the ride. 10 out of 10 Beast- As everyone says, make sure you ride this at night. The day rides are fun, but at night is when the Beast comes alive. You absolutely fly through the woods in total darkness. While there are trim brakes that slow you at points, I can't imagine how uncomfortable some of those turns would be. The highlight is that insane double helix at the end that seems so wrong looking at it. 9 out of 10 Diamondback- This is the worst of the B&M hypers I've been on due to the trim brake at the start of the second half. The first half has some great airtime, but the trim brake on this one saps the ride of its speed and airtime in the second half. The ride is still glass-smooth and has a nice setting. 8 out of 10 Flight of Fear- This is just like the Kings Dominion one which is fine by me. The launch was pretty strong and I love winding through the spaghetti bowl with the multicolored flood lights illuminating the layout eerily. The brake before the second half is a bit of a bummer, but the final corkscrew still provides a ton of whip for everyone in the train. 8 out of 10 Firehawk- This was similar to Nighthawk at Carowinds. The layout was nearly identical, but Firewhawk felt a little slower. Firehawk made up for it by being a slightly smoother and more comfortable ride. 8 out of 10 Bat- This is a clone of the Vortex at Canada's Wonderland, which I love. The ride has a great setting through the woods and maintains its speed the whole way through the course thanks to the large first drop. This layout is my favorite for the suspended coasters since the speed carries from the start instead of picking up at the end just before the brakes. 8 out of 10 Backlot Stunt Coaster- This is a great family coaster. The launch is good and the upwards spiral actually pulls some good Gs. The rest of the layout isn't particularly fast, but it's smooth and well themed. 7 out of 10 Invertigo- I'm still in awe how the love child of a boomerang (terrible) and SLC (even more terrible) is smoother than either of those 2 rides. Invertigo is forceful without headbanging. 7 out of 10 Racer- This is a really photogenic coaster. I like the classic layout and the park does a good job racing them. The ride is pretty bumpy though, but it does provide some decent air at points. 6 out of 10 Vortex- I was really nervous for this coaster, but actually found it fun. The large drops provided bursts of air in the back and the vertical loops were forceful. Because my head was above the restraint, I didn't run into too much headbanging on the transitions. 6 out of 10 Adventure Express- All I have to say is that the lift hill lived up to everything that I heard. It was a glorious experience. The ride seemed to be pretty long for a mine train and as a whole was quite smooth. 7 out of 10 Woodstock Express- Fun for what it is and way better than most junior coasters. 5 out of 10 Flying Ace Aerial Chase- Because the restraints have plenty of clearance with your head, this junior Vekoma is an enjoyable ride unlike its counterpart at Carowinds. 5 out of 10 I also liked the park's collection of flats- Delirium and Drop Tower in particular- and also spent some time at the water park. I was really impressed with the water park. The body slides were really intense while staying smooth. Oh and if we are talking about wetness, the park has an evil and unassuming looking flume in Planet Snoopy. Why do I feel like I've seen this in a movie before? It looks even better at night! More comfortable restraints, great speed, and some unique elements make this one a winner. It's so photogenic. I see what all of the hype was about for this ride. This is the typical zero-G roll. The slow roll at the end of the ride is a messed up version of this. Hello Banshee. I love Arrow suspended coasters. I still am shocked the park got another suspended coaster after all the problems the Bat prototype had. The Beast is hard to photograph, even atop the Eiffel Tower. All I have to say is ride this at night. Diamondback is the other big B&M. The trim brake on this one really hit the ride hard and sapped the second half of airtime. The first half was great though. I recommend riding to the top for the fireworks. It was Christmas in July when we visited. Am I at Kings Island or Kings Dominion? I think the former! I actually enjoy the Vekoma flyers. This one was a little slower than Nighthawk, but smoother. You get views like this. I love the Premier launched coasters. Flight of Fear is no exception. Don't be fooled. This ride will get you drenched. Just look at the look of horror in that kid's face up front. Blue! Red! While Banshee is by all accounts a better ride, I still wish I got a chance to ride this in all of its glory. I actually found Vortex enjoyable since my head was above the restraint. I was really nervous for this one.

While browsing around RCDB about a month ago, I was shocked to find how many coasters I was missing in New England and the nearby area. I knew I had never been to La Ronde, but several of the ski resorts added mountain coasters or there were scattered smaller credits I never got. I've embarked on a 2 month quest to try and reduce this number. York's Wild Kingdom- Page 1 Funtown U.S.A.- Page 1 Canobie Lake Park- Page 1 Story Land- Page 1 Cranmore Adventure Park- Page 2 Attitash Mountain Resort- Page 2 Santa's Village (in summer)- Page 2 Marshfield Fair- Page 4 Granby Zoo- Page 4 La Ronde- Page 5 Killington Resort- Page 6 Okemo Mountain Resort- Page 7 Gunstock Mountain Resort- Page 7 Adventureland- Page 7 Bowcraft Amusement Park- Page 7 Camelback Mountain Resort- Page 8 Party Zone USA- Page 8 Big E- Page 8 Canada's Wonderland- Page 8 Niagara Falls Fun- Page 8 Sky High Adventure Park- Page 10 Lake Compounce- Park Discussion Thread Berkshire East Mountain Resort- Page 10 Six Flags New England- Page 11 Santa's Village (in winter)- Page 11 iPlay America- Page 12 Six Flags Great Adventure (Holiday in the Park)- Page 12 York's Wild Kingdom I hadn't been to York's Wild Kingdom in almost 10 years. Primarily a zoo, the park also has a decent rides area with some good fun houses and other flat rides. The real reason for my visit was to ride the park's Wacky Mouse, a wacky worm, that wasn't there in my last visit. Wacky Mouse was basically what I expected except there was a trim brake on the ride's "big" drop. Why aren't people signing petitions for this like they did with the trim brake on Intimidator 305's drop? This is major news if I'm a kid. The fun houses had some effects down and the park doesn't allow you to go upside down any more, but the fun houses are still unique. The Persian Camel one has sliding staircases which is a rare and very fun gag. Then the Jungle Fun House feels like a cheap version of Noah's Ark and I loved every moment of it. My favorite ride at the park is still the Ferris Wheel. The park runs this one quite a bit faster than most parks and this produces a tummy tickling sensation going over the top. It also helps that the views of York Beach are very nice. On a sad note, the park removed their old Bumper Cars, which were amazing. They added new bumper cars by the Go Karts, but these cars were extremely slow and couldn't do anything more than tap other cars. This is still the best ride in the park. They seriously run this faster than any other park. This is some of the theming you get inside lol. The wonderfully cheap Jungle Fun House. Look at that gorilla! They also have a barrel, but you can't go upside down any longer. The other fun house is the Persian Camel fun house. I imagine the sliding stairs would be difficult/funny if one were intoxicated. Please add these to a German fair circuit. And a Scrambler. There's also a round up that can hypnotize you into going on the Wacky Mouse. I was hypnotized. There it is in all of its glory. The trim brake of doom. Specifically this one. York's Wild Kingdom. Most people come for the animals. I come for the rides. And you get views of the beach.

^ Thanks for the tips. The park was crazy crowded. Once I got off the La Ronde exit from the bridge around 1:30 (I stopped at the Granby Zoo on the way), it took 45 minutes to get to a parking spot and then over an hour waiting at the front turnstiles. I didn't realize they had a second entrance in back, but next time I may try that gate instead. Once I got inside, I grabbed my Flash Pass and was able to get on things quickly. Goliath was fantastic. I can't decide if this one or its namesake down in Georgia is my favorite B&M hyper. While there are larger ones, I find the larger ones are more graceful while both Goliaths keep their speed better and provide great air-time on all drops. I rode Batman backwards at Great Adventure last year and enjoyed the backwards train again on Vampire. The park had a great collection of flat rides, but I was short on time so I had to skip most of them. I only got to try Vertigo and Orbite. Both were quite good though. Goliath and Le Monstre had 1 1/2 hour waits according to the attendant at the front. The other coasters on Flash Pass appeared to have half hour waits. I ended up having to wait 45 minutes for Dragon due to slow dispatches and had to skip Toboggan Nordique since that one had a long line and I didn't think it was worth waiting for.

Kentucky Kingdom This was my park that was formerly owned by Six Flags with Darien being the first. While Darien still felt like a Six Flags park, Kentucky Kingdom felt like a family park. The park seems to keep on expanding with new attractions every year and I'm excited to see where this park goes since I really enjoyed what the park had already. Some thoughts on the rides: Storm Chaser- I had heard that this was considered the worst RMC. While it was the worst of the 3 I've been on (Wicked Cyclone & Twisted Colossus being the other 2), Storm Chaser was still an incredible ride. The barrel roll first drop is very weird as it starts with hang-time and finishes with a disorienting whip. The air-time hills all provided crazy ejector air. The barrel roll midway through the ride was different than the other RMC ones I've experienced. While the others give abundant hang-time, Storm Chaser's whips right through it and surges into its fun and demented finale where I truly felt like a rag doll. If this indeed is the worst RMC, I really need to ride all their other rides. 10 out of 10 Lightning Run- Wow what a 1-2 punch this park has. Lightning Run's first drop isn't overly tall, but it provides crazy ejector air in the back because of how steep it is. The twister section in the middle combined violent (in a good way) pops of air with directional changes. Then there are the return bunny hills. Just when you think the air-time can't get any more intense it does. And the whole ride is glass-smooth. I prefer Storm Chaser, but it's close. 10 out of 10 T3- The new trains actually made a SLC an enjoyable experience. The ride wasn't glass-smooth, but since my head wasn't getting bashed but the restraint I was able to appreciate the layout and all of the direction changes. I also enjoyed seeing the subtle differences from the standard SLC such as the non-banked finale. More SLCs need these trains added. 7 out of 10 Thunder Run- This felt like Hurler to me. The far-end turns were really uncomfortable, but the straight sections were enjoyable and had a few pops of air. 5 out of 10 Roller Skater- As opposed how enthusiasts often need the child to go on the kiddie coaster, I actually needed to help a child ride since she was too small to ride alone and her mother was riding with her sibling. This was a roller skater, so the ride was pretty typical but it had a nice setting above the water. 5 out of 10 The Larson/ARM drop tower was bonkers as usual and again shows that these rides provided more punch than the larger towers. I also spent time in the water park and wish I had some more time. Deluge was one of the best master blasters I've been on and had some strong airtime. Then Deep Water Dive is a scary and awesome 120 foot tall drop pod slide. I still prefer Summit Plummet, but after that Deep Water Dive is my favorite speed slide. Onto the pictures! The highlight of the water park is Deluge. Great air on the drops. I guess all former Six Flags parks need to have massive Ferris Wheels. The water park seemed like the main draw for the park. And it was a really good water park! Next stop, Kentucky Kingdom! Kentucky Kingdom gives hope to everyone out there who isn't well endowed. Small but packs a mean punch. No seriously. I know there's no one on this train, but I'm sure there would have if we could have ridden on it. Not banking the return leg really helped smooth the ending. The new trains really do make a difference. Thunder Run is basically Hurler.

Yep, when Dollywood replaced the braking system with magnetic brakes they took the splashdown out. For a few years the ending was dark but recently they have added a few smoke and lighting effects to the ending. Also fun fact, RMC actually retracked the drop a couple years ago. That's a shame the splashdown went out since it would have really made sense at the end of the ride. I didn't realize RMC retracked the drop. Maybe that's why there was air since RMC couldn't resist.

Oh I forgot they added that one. Haha I agree they'll go with a Disk-O. Or they could add VR to the Larson Loop.

Great trip report! I missed Lightning Rod when I was there a month ago and your review makes me want to return that much sooner. The ride looked so beautiful. On Impulse, the ride was running just one train last month as well. The park dispatched trains ridiculously fast, but the line still built up.

It will be like how SFNE has two boomerangs- one giant inverted one and one normal one. This addition makes so much sense for Six Flags. I think I'll be making my first visit to the park tomorrow. I plan to get a Flash Pass, but noticed two of the non-kiddie coasters (Toboggan Nordique and Dragon) aren't included on the Flash Pass. How bad are their lines typically? I'm guessing the Toboggan gets pretty bad since it's a mouse.

I like that the park was willing to install this even though they already had the smaller Huss frisbee in the park too. I think the rides are different enough since the Huss one is more about spinning and this one is more about the swinging/airtime.

Thanks for the photos. I'm really impressed with how well themed the park is and I hope the park does well so we can see it expand in the future.

The two big things I got from this announcement are that Comet wasn't VRed and the Alpine Bobsled survived another year. As long as Comet doesn't get VRed, I'm happy since that would kill the capacity of their only high capacity coaster. Thankfully I think the Steamin' Demon saved all of us from that fate. Then the Bobsled has seemingly been on the chopping block forever and it still seems to have another year in it, which is a good thing since it's the park's second best coaster. The last few times I was there, the water park attractions were definitely more crowded than the ride side, so I can understand this addition. Other than the extreme drop pod slide, I can't recall them having any body slides. Maybe next year they'll finally get that coaster and we all know it will be a Larson Loop