Zand

1. Talon 2. Raptor 3. Alpengeist 4. Batman 5. Great Bear First 4 are incredibly close together. Great Bear simply lacks.

The first TD was clearly a TD. The ball went over the line before he hit the ground.

1. Superman Ride of St- SF New England..... 1/.9949 2. Apollo's Chariot- Busch Gardens Will....... 14/.9517 3. Storm Runner- Hersheypark................... 13/.9585 4. Millennium Force- Cedar Point................. 3/.9885 5. Talon- Dorney Park............................... 46/.8328 6. Superman Ride of St- Six Flags Darien L.. 12/.9574 7. Top Thrill Dragster- Cedar Point.............. 22/.9219 8. Raptor- Cedar Point............................... 32/.8770 9. Chiller: Robin- SF Great Adventure......... 83/.7168 10. Alpengeist- Busch Gardens Will............. 36/.8618 Here's how the coasters at my home park (SFNE) ranked: Superman Ride of St- SF New England....... 1/.9949 Batman Dark Knight- SF New England....... 95/.6881 (Hey... it beat Scream!) Didn't dig deep enough to find the boomerang or SLC. MSP wasn't on the poll.

The only trip besides local parks (SFNE, Compounce, Canobie) I have planned for next year is a trip to Dorney, Knoebels, Hershey, and GADV. That could all change, but that's what it looks like currently.

Definitely Talon.

My favorite queues: TTD- Constantly moving, the ride is fun to watch, and the music is good. S:RoS (SFNE)- The "S" made by the queue is cool and the line moves in big chunks every 2 minutes. Storm Runner- Good music and the amount of shade is great on a hot day. Least favorite queues: B:TR at GADV- Being stuck in that tunnel on a hot day is NOT fun. Millennium Force- Seems to always move slow. Wildcat at HP- Queue is 15 miles long, but there's never a line. Disaster Transport- You can't tell how long the line is and it goes on forever.

First Coaster: Apollo's Chariot (April 2) Last Coaster: S:RoS (October 31) Highlights: First trip ever to BGW. Weather sucked, but the park was great and no one was there! Riding my first spinning mouse at SFNE, Pandemonium was a fun little coaster, too bad the lines were always so long. Riding S:RoS 15 times in a row after a thunderstorm in late June. My first trip to Geauga Lake and a return to Cedar Point. Getting on S:RoS's last ride of the season in the back! Also, I got my 80th credit on GL's Boomerang. Either Kingda Ka or El Toro will be my 90th next year.

I picked El Toro as it's likely the only one I'll be able to ride this year, but damn, a lot of those look great.

I have a whole list and most are B&Ms: 1. Mantis. It has a great layout, but after waiting 2 hours in the 100 degree heat, the headbanging didn't go over well with me. It was the only time I ever felt like I was about to puke on a coaster. 2. Medusa. Everything is all drawn out and forceless. The only good part was the cobra roll. B:TDK and Dominator are a lot more forceful. 3. Nitro. Also forceless besides the helix and the weak floater air is boring. Apollo's Chariot owns it. 4. Millennium Force. It's in my top 5 mainly because of the drop and speed, but there's a whole 2 spots of airtime on the entire ride and it's just a bunch of turns. 5. Great Bear. I wish they'd tear everything down after the Zero-G and try again.

1. Hersheypark 2. Knoebels 3. BGW 4. Cedar Point 5. Canobie 6. SFNE 7. Compounce 8. Geauga 9. Dorney 10. SFDL 11. SFGAdv 12. WDW (haven't been there in a whole though)

Another ride I don't care for is the Chance Slingshot. I'd rather not snap my neck in half.

Worst Endings: Cyclone (SFNE)- Trimmed to hell before the last few turns Great Bear- Boring turns, a random photo at the start of the brake run Alpengeist- Last helix is weak Best Endings: Superman (SFNE)- 2 sharp ejector hills and a tight banked turn into forceful brakes Boulderdash- Never lets up Apollo's Chariot- Big hill into trench WTF Endings: Mantis- What the hell is that banked turn? Raptor: Wee, wee, OUCH!

There's none I won't ride anymore, but I rode Space Shuttle at GADV when I was like 8 and I haven't been on it since (went in 1999, 2000, and 2004; was still scared of it in the first 2 and it was closed last year). I'd like to try to get back on it now though.

Screw rain, try hail. I rode Loch Ness Monster in a suprise hail storm last April. Boy did that suck. I've ridden the following in rain: Superman (SFNE) Batman (SFNE) Apollo's Chariot Big Bad Wolf Loch Ness Monster High Roller (Vegas) And the following in the snow: Everything at SFNE

1. Super Mario Bros. (NES) 2. Legend Of Zelda (NES) 3. Pokemon: Yellow, Followed by Red And Blue (GB) 4. Tetris (NES) 5. Roller Coaster Tycoon 1&2 (PC) 6. Mario Kart (N64) 7. Legend Of Zelda: O'Whatever Of Time (N64) 8. Operation Flashpoint (PC) 9. Yuri's Revenge (PC) 10. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PS2) 11. Sly Cooper (PS2) 12. Madden (PS2) [i turn off commentary, I can't stand John Madden] 13. Top Gun (NES) 14. Super Mario World (SNES) 15. ATV Offroad Fury 2 (PS2)

We got 14" here today. Some places near Boston reported 3-6" of snow an hour and 70 MPH winds. The storm center formed an eye and strengthened at a speed no storm besides a hurricane could do. Boxford, MA hit the jackpot with 19" of snow. It only lasted about 10 hours. The snowmobiling was great. Another storm may come up the east coast next Thursday-Friday. My area has recieved 20" of snow so far this year. The annual average is 68" per year, but it's lately been more like 115" per year.

Superman at SFNE... Last train of the season in back!

I was looking through the Knotts pics and saw the one that said "the end of the ride we almost got killed on, ask for the story sometime." I'm assuming it's probably funny as hell and I'd love to hear it.

1. Talon 2. Raptor 3. Alpengeist 4. B:TR 5. Great Bear That's all I've ridden for B&M Inverts. The top 4 are all awesome, and Great Bear is kind of meh after the Zero-G. 2-4 really are all tied for me. Talon stands out a bit, and Great Bear is the definite bottom. Raptor was my favorite coaster at CP for a time, but I took a front-seat night ride on MF which slightly edged it out. Talon is easily my favorite at DP, and BTR may as well be my favorite at GADV. That, Chiller, and GASM are the only ones there I wouldn't consider "mediocre".

The three steelies that fit into that category for me are MF, Nitro, and Medusa. MF is in my top 5, but only from my 1 night time front seat ride. The rest weren't anything special. Nitro was kind of weak and just some floater airtime (guess I'm used to S:RoS). Medusa was also weak and most people say B:DK is the weakest floorless they've been on, but I think Medusa is weaker. As for woodies, there are 2 I don't understand: Phoenix and Lightning Racer. When I rode Phoenix, I wasn't getting that much airtime and I rode in both 1-3 and the back. Lightning Racer just kind of seemed forceless and too curvy, especially after riding Wildcat right next to it.

Doesn't that kind of defeat the purpose of the poll and it's annual results? I know for a fact that most parks look at this poll and if they see their ride is still ranking high, what is the incentive to improve a ride's quality if it fact the quality is slipping? The poll takes into consideration votes from people who have ridden it recently versus people who haven't. So if people who haven't ridden it since 2003 rank it high, and people who HAVE ridden it recently rank it low, it will show up in the results. If people who HAVE been on it recently keep ranking it high based on rides from 2 seasons ago, when in fact the quality is slipping, how is the park supposed to know? --Robb Wow, never thoght about that. Good point.

I ranked it #3 and Thunderbolt #11, so it must've helped. Boulder Dash is my #1, but I will admit it sucked this year. I got a headache everytime I rode it. The rides in 2003 were amazing enough to keep it #1 though. If the Lake doesn't do something about it next year, Villain and Cyclone are going for the top spot. Good to see Mean Streak way down there as well. I can't wait to see how El Toro and Voyage compare next year. I'm riding El Toro at least, so that could be another contender for my #1 next year.

Here's mine...

August 1999: Stuck on Mine Train at GADV on the lift for 5 minutes for unknown reasons. July 2003: Stuck on Superman at SFNE on lift hill for 10 minutes for an E-Stop so maintenance could climb up and take away a camera. May 2004: E-Stopped on Nightwing at SFNE. July 2004: E-Stopped on Nitro at GADV for 10 seconds because the ride-op was fooling around with the button. July 2004: E-Stopped on Chaos at SFNE. June 2005: Stuck on Superman at SFNE on brake run for 5 minutes for a sensor problem. September 2005: Stuck on Moser Energy Storm at the Big E for 10 minutes, restraints stuck closed.

In order of preferance: 1. Hersheypark 2. Knoebel's 3. BGW 4. Cedar Point 5. Canobie 6. SFNE 7. Lake Compounce 8. SFDL 9. Dorney 10. SFGAdv 11. WDW (I need to get back there, and it will probably go way up when I do) I've also been to Stratosphere and Adventure Dome in Vegas. Desperado and Manhattan Express were closed when I went and I didn't ride Speed.