PhantomNick

Well, my thoughts go out to everyone in that general Texas coast area being affected by Ike. And although there are tons of things that I imagine those residents are concerned about, here's hoping that the Bullet makes it out of this without any major damage. I would hate to see the area lose a coaster that is essentially still new, especially one that seemingly put the little Kemah Boardwalk on the map.

Let's see what I can remember..... Geauga Lake - Corkscrew, Double Loop, Villain, and likely Raging Wolf Bobs & Big Dipper (sniff!) Stratosphere Tower - High Roller Kennywood - Laser Loop and Steel Phantom And by next year, I will be adding one of Anton's gems to the list - Dorney Park's Laser.

I'm really enjoying these updates! Looks like it was quite an awesome trip. Sounds like the trip to SFA turned out to be the exercise park of the trip with all the back-and-forth during ERT breakdowns. Thanks for all the great photos too, keep 'em coming!

I really like the look of Prowler. I've really enjoyed the couple GCI's I have been on, and this design seems plenty innovative (for them at least) with many low to the ground segments. I'll be curious to hear reports next year from riders on what kind of airtime this delivers. I think Worlds of Fun may have a winner on their hands with this one. I'd like to swing by the park at some point, especially after this installation.

Nice Trip Report with some awesome photos! Ravine Flyer II looks incredible, and I am extremely pumped to be heading there one week from today!! Their other 2 major coasters look like fun little rides as well. I've been on spinning mice before, but never on an actual spinning coaster like Steel Dragon. I will definitely take the advice and catch a ride on Waldameer's Ferris Wheel to try and snag some quality RFII shots.

According to Paula's latest post on the Holiblog, apparently their twitter page will be the place to go for the latest info on Tuesday (it is easily accessible on the right side of the Holiblog page). The "loyal followers of twitter" will be the first to get the scoop on what is being added. She also mentions (on twitter) that there will be four videos. With that many videos, it's either going to be multiple rides or a roller coaster. I can't imagine 4 videos for just a water ride or something like that. We'll all find out in a few days! I guess it's time now for me to log an official guess - I'm going with a custom Eurofighter, about 125-150 feet in height. They're family friendly enough (heck, Mall of America has one), and it would be a great steel complement to their dynamic wooden trio! Of course, come Tuesday I will likely find out how dead wrong that guess is!!

Am I the only one who thinks that "a launched woodie" is a rather ridiculous concept? No offense to those who suggested it, I'm only saying that wooden coasters need to be just that - wooden coasters! The gimmick route was tried on a wooden coaster once before (SoB with it's big loop), and we all know what a disaster that ride turned out to be. Not to mention, the gimmick was eventually ripped out anyway. I'm not ruling out a coaster anymore based on the clues, but I have to give a big "No Way" to the launched woodie idea. I've thought about something like Lost Coaster of Superstition Mountain (which GG designed when they were CCI, and it contains an elevator lift), but I can't imagine something like that costing too much. I think now I'm starting to lean towards a water coaster or very large shoot-the-chutes.

I don't usually get to debut a ton of new coasters in their opening year that aren't at my home park, but when I thought about it, I usually will at least hit one of them in any given year: 2002 - Wicked Twister, CP 2003 - Top Thrill Dragster, CP 2004 - None 2005 - Hydra the Revenge, DP 2006 - El Toro, SFGAdv 2007 - Maverick, CP 2008 - I might actually get to debut 2! Ravine Flyer II is a definite when we hit up Waldameer on the 29th. Dark Knight coaster is a possibility when I hopefully go to SF Great America in Sept.

And the hints just keep on comin'! I love it! Paula and her crew sure do know how to have fun with this. Kudos to them for intriguing us as to what's next. On today's Holiblog: Too bad the name is already taken ...or I think we'd need to consider the name "Vertigo" for our new ride. Note to self: Stop watching the ride simulation. I'm just enjoying watching this all play out and seeing everyone's guesses. I haven't come to an official guess yet, but I'm tossing a couple ideas around in my head. Although, each time I seem to have an idea what it is, I get thrown off by a clue that makes me think of something else! A week to go and we will all find out......

Couldn't agree more with either of those 2 statements, Rich. The way the park is transformed for Phantom Fright Nights truly is incredible. I honestly don't think they get enough credit for the Halloween event they put on. Granted, they're no Universal (in size or budget), but I think that makes theirs all the more impressive, as they put a ton of effort into it. I usually try to go 2-3 times for Fright Nights alone! The park is definitely a place where you get tons of "bang for your buck". The ride and coaster collection is excellent, and things inside the park are very reasonable from a price standpoint. A group of 6 of us went Sat. night for their "Night Rider" admission and had a total blast! The tickets were discounted to only 12 bucks, and we played a fair amount of games, all of which cost a single BUCK to play! If that's not amusement park value, I don't know what is! ^Ginzo, I had a boat of those sinfully delicious bacon cheese fries plus a drink Sat. and it came in under 7 dollars. The portion was huge and the quality certainly does blow away the "food" offerings at a place like CP. Mmmmm, bacon cheese fry goodness!! As for the season passes being offered next season, I couldn't be happier to finally be able to get one for my home park! I don't buy in to the whole gloomy forecast that some are predicting where it will turn Kennywood into a "glorified babysitter". Will the park be busier? Probably. But I honestly like to see that, and the crews work well and keep lines moving great anyway. The Phantom's line Sat. night filled up the ENTIRE queue, which I haven't seen since it opened. The sign listed the wait at 1 hour with 2 trains running, but we were sitting in our seat in 35 minutes. So, the park is more than equipped to handle larger crowds. And more folks through the gates means more revenue for the park, which can only bode well for the future. I'm very intrigued to see how the new land is developed, as I for one think it will happen regardless of the development (or lack thereof) of the Mon-Fayette Expressway.

Racer at Kennywood on this past Saturday night. Ran great, we won the race, and slapped hands along the way! Great times indeed!

Well, I honestly have no recollection of my "in between" milestones like 25th or 50th coaster. However, I do remember the first one - Jack Rabbit at Kennywood. With any luck, I will hit number 100 in early September out at Six Flags Great America. My hope is to save number 100 for one of their coasters that looks like it will give a great ride. My top 2 candidates for that honor are Viper or Raging Bull.

Awesome trip report and photos, Natalie! Your captions were cracking me up!! And that batch of photos of Ride of Steel from the pavilion area were stunningly great - I'm assuming you have a pretty kick-a$$ camera! The more and more I read these TPR Trip Reports, the more certain I am that I need to attend one. And I'm with ya on gaining an appreciation for the smaller parks. One trip to Knoebels did it for me! Darien Lake is a nice mid-sized park, and I love RoS. However, it is also home to the worst roller coaster I've ever ridden......yep, it's the "boob bouncer" itself, Predator. What a pile of crap that thing is!

For me it's El Toro by about a thousand miles! It is truly a masterpiece, and only a hair behind Voyage for my #1 woodie spot overall. That could change with rerides on Air Bull, but lines were obnoxious during my lone visit to the park in 2006, so 1 ride was all I could manage. And for the record, I loved Nitro a ton as well, although it just pales by comparison to Toro's out of this world greatness! My Top 5 there: 1. El Toro, FTW! 2. Nitro - Exceptional, but no Bull 3. Medusa - Favorite Floorless currently 4. Kingda Ka - Great, but really, why the dang OTSR's?? 5. Batman: TR - Classically great

Nice pics and report. It looks like a neat little park to me, and it is definitely on my radar as a place I would like to visit at some point. Shivering Timbers is the main reason why, as that coaster just looks awesome. As for T-hawk, I never really had a problem with it even when it was at GL, although I'm that weird guy who actually as a whole doesn't mind riding SLCs! Did they do any refurbishment to it before installing it at Michigan's Adventure?

At 11 years old, my first coaster with inversions was the Laser Loop at Kennywood, a ride that previously scared the living crap out of me!! It was in its last year, so I figured I could "brave it". Ended up taking 4 spins on it that day, and loved every one of them.

Appropriately enough, I will be at Kennywood tomorrow evening!

From what I've experienced, a simple equality tells the story: Intamin = AIRTIME. Out of what I have ridden, the best airtime I've found has been: Wood - Voyage and El Toro Steel - Phantom's Revenge

Amen to that! I totally agree about Talon being rather underrated in the world of Inverted coasters. However, I have a coaster that in my opinion is even more underrated than that - Phantom's Revenge at Kennywood. I honestly don't understand why you don't hear the Phantom mentioned when there are discussions of top hypercoasters. PR is a night-and-day improvement over the original, and the airtime is incredible, especially the ejector airtime that fills the second half.

"Carowinds Got The Crappy Leftover Coaster" Sounds about right for the "creative" direction CF went with ride names in the park!

The one I can remember is at Kennywood, in line for Steel Phantom/Phantom's Revenge. There was (can't remember if it's still there now) a block wall that had Kennywood painted on the side, which the old Laser Loop used to pass over. The top of that thing used to be littered with gum - definitely looked pretty gross.

Well, they already have Liberty Launch, so I would think a drop tower would be pretty unlikely. I think a ferris wheel would be great for HW, along with a frisbee-style flat ride (those things just flat out rule!) From a coaster standpoint (although I think it's a bit too early for them to get another one just yet), I would love to see HW get a steel spinning coaster, as it would be the perfect complement to their 3 woodies and the whole family could enjoy it. Just my two cents.....

Hercules says it all in his post, really. It's Dorney Park FTW with those 2 choices. I'm a big fan of Dorney, quite honestly, as it is a nice park with a good assortment of rides, coasters, and things to do (In fact, this was the first time in the past 5 years that we didn't make it out there.....and we live a good 5+ hours away). The water rides there are very good, I might add, as the flume is unique and the rapids ride is the best I have ridden to date. There are milder rides and/or kiddie rides very close to all of the coasters, so I'm sure there would be plenty to do for everyone in your family.

I've been intrigued by this project from the beginning, and it has if nothing else been very interesting to see it progress through the construction to the current train/car problems they are having now. I can understand Knoebels wanting it to appeal to everyone to a point, but looking at old shots of this type of ride, I don't think it was meant to be tame in the first place. Jim, for the record, I really appreciated the synopsis you provided from that article. Any news heard on this thing is worth passing along. I hope the park stays the course with this coaster project, as it is a unique ride that is very fitting to the makeup of Knoebels. As for sros1fan, I know we are all thrilled that he joined the site to provide such wonderful and insightful posts that added so much to the conversation!

Awesome trip report! The photos were great.....the captions were even better! It was very informative too, and I'm trying to get as much info as I can on this park, since a work trip in early September is taking me to a suburb of Chi-town. If all things work out, I should be hitting up this new park for me on Sept. 7th! Looks like a nice assortment of coasters for sure. I'm very intrigued by Raging Bull, with its more twister-like layout. I've also heard rave reviews for Viper. I'm just debating if a Flash Pass is a necessary evil for a Sunday in September, as they do have reduced hours by then.