JFrombaugh

I must agree with Ginzo and BeemerBoy's posts about tailgaters 20 pages back or so. Pretty much everybody here in Texas tailgates, even while going 5mph over the speed limit. And I've had a couple close calls with people who recklessly switch lanes...At 9am on my morning college commute I can look at the way some cars sneak through traffic at high speed and tell that they're late for work...One guy freaking zoomed across about four lanes of freeway in between all these cars when he was 100 feet from the exit and just barely made the exit (cutting across the white striped area in front of the sign)! Sheesh, man, just continue driving forward, even if that means you miss your turn - you can always turn back later! TPR Texas Trip Bus Driver, you be really careful when driving through Texas. We've got some really crazy drivers here...

"Some enthusaists claim that Steel Hawg's drop is steeper. Here's how Nick Buckley, Flamingoland's Operations Director, counters the claim: "Answer on the 120º issue is that Steel Hawg is actually 111º - the 120 was an early design, and the S&S marketing people weren't quite as up to date with the engineering people when that coaster was launched. Ours will be 1º steeper than Indiana beach."" Taken from: http://www.coasterforce.com/home/p2_articleid/645 There's also an explanation for the name on there, as well as images of the trains and layout. [/plug] Indiana Beach...boy oh boy. They dropped those bombs on the enthusiast community well about Steel Hawg, you know that? Big time. So I guess this is why Steel Hawg's opening was slightly delayed, because the drop was secretly modified. For all we know, the listing of the other elements could be wrong and/or outdated as well, if the whole design was changed: 90 degree "Wall" Turn - Either the turn into the Dive Loop, or a removed element that marketing didn't know about (probably the 90 degree outside turn from the promo video) 45 degree Tip-Out - 45 degree outside turn, still there Inverted Drop - Either an S&S Dive Loop name or a reference to the falling portion of the heartline (dropping while inverted) Outside 360 Roll - Heartline roll

I just got this off RCDB, and it appears this ride will have a "Twisted Horseshoe Roll" just like Maverick! Judging by the photos, the ride looks a lot like Maverick, too! Wow, up until now I thought Twisted Horseshoe Roll was a term coined by Intamin...kind of like the "Airborne Inverted S-Roll" on Fahrenheit. Joseph "What's next, a Premier launched coaster with a Flying Snake Dive?" Frombaugh

(From the Itchy and Scratchy Land episode) Loudspeaker: Attention Marge Simpson. Your son has been arrested. (crowd gasps) Woman: I'd be terribly embarrassed if I were that boy's mother. Loudspeaker: Attention Marge Simpson. We also arrested your older, balder, fatter son.

Here's the Robo Coaster promo video for anyone who might've missed out on it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gldjaUfS9jc&NR=1 The music is pretty cool too. The last product at the end, the one that's an actual coaster, is the one that caught my attention the most...the other flat rides I believe already exist at Legoland. The track looks a lot like B&M track...If it turns out that its marketed as a "B&M 4D coaster" (with the RoboCoaster trains) I might need a tissue... Though I must admit, there is one thing that I think could end up describing that ride... Still, it could be freakin' sweet if one with raven turns and hearltine rolls gets built!!

I haven't seen all the construction photos of this ride or any real station pics, so does anyone know if it'll use the different sideways loading system for B&M flyers that was brought up in this thread?: http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=47231 I kinda hope not, I rather liked the feeling of lifting up into flying position on the two B&M flyers I've ridden.

It could be another family coaster with a different theme though.

My guesses as to where these coasters are headed: Led Zepelin: Wild Adventures or Magic Springs Maximum RPM: Indiana Beach, BGA, or Dorney Eagles: Carowinds or Holiday World Shake Rattle & Roll: Random small family owned park Slippery When Wet: SFMM 2010 coaster!

I think he was referring to the fact that unlike those so-called "ACE-hole"s that enjoy the attention they get for acting how they want and when they want, the laid-back and nice ACEers, who are least responsible for the club having it's bad rap among some, are unfortunately the ones who suffer most from it. I am an ACEr myself. Pretty much everything else I would say on this matter has been said already, so rather than re-hash I'm just going to state that after reading all these mixed opinions of ACE I've decided to do one thing. I'm going to attend a couple events this year, and see for myself. I'll give the club a shot before I pass any judgement of my own, and if it turns out that there are enough obnoxious people to annoy me, I cna always leave the club and maybe it'll be easier for me to make fun of them like R&E do. Otherwise, I suspect I'll be both a TPR and an ACE member, like Eric. Joseph "Just thought I'd get my 2 cents in before this thread gets closed" Frombaugh

Earlier today when I was playing WoW I unknowingly took some guy's kill. He came up to me and typed "mine" and then "d**chebag" and then challenged me to a duel. My answer? I ended up beating him, and I then put him on my Ignore list. Don't mess with Encendedor.

http://www.rcdb.com/id4346.htm

Agreed! There's this haircutting place in my hometown known as Killer Kuts that's so overdone. They have this crazy atmosphere, they give you all kinds of goodies and stuff, and the first time you go there you get 5 minutes in a massage chair for free (which was more than enough for me, that thing tickles!). First time I got my hair cut there I was like, "Gee, I don't know whether to faint or hug the barber..." I wonder if these Coaster Cuts will be gimmicky like that too, probably, but it might be cooler to me if they're themed to a BTR station or something, with the B&M restraints on the barber chairs one poster mentioned, maybe they could be "floorless" barber chairs so your legs hang when they pump the chair up. Hmm...I guess I'll have to see. EDIT: Yeah, it certainly does look gimmicky to me! And...what does it say on that site?!? "If you are taller than 54 inches you must be accompanied by a minor???" WTF?!?! Well that pretty much locks me out of getting one if that's the rule.

When I saw that T-Express was the new #1, I immediately thought of that LOL. I bet HW is pissed, Voyage has dropped to second place.

^I suspect if I followed that plan I would cut out SFStL at the end and use two days of driving back to Houston. It looks like a somewhat "forgettable" park to me, with very little about it standing out, and chances are I'll be feeling pretty fatigued by then. And I'm afraid a 14-hour drive is out of the question...with my projected driving skill level by next summer, I can expect to be making AT MOST 10 hours per day. This is enough to reach Magic Springs in one day, VF and Dollywood in 2 days, and WOF in 1 1/2 days (leave the hotel early and get to the park around noon or so). The pace of this trip will be rigorous no matter what, but I suspect it'll make for a really good TR afterwards!

I've been to KI this year. Remember this TR I posted? http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=45715 The fact that there are many other parks in the midwest I have yet to visit and that I will have limited cash keeps the Diamondback detour from being a viable option IMO. I am just better off spending my time and money on new parks and driving distance than on a 4-hour diversion and $40 KI admission just for the Diamondback and Flight Deck credits. That said, I may change my mind if and when I do the trip! I calculated it all up, and the Dollywood detour and the Valleyfair/NU detour are both an extra 3-4 days on the trip. That means I can only do one or the other. Right now I'm leaning towards Dollywood, it seems like Mystery Mine and Thunderhead would make it worth the drive alone. Magic Springs is on there mostly for location. Wisconsin Dells is an alternative option to the Valleyfair/NU detour, and has many hyped up woodies, but...is it worth the adjustments and bad operations there just to ride them? Steel Hawg at IB, BTW, is currently my #1 most sought-after coaster to get to! EDIT: Yes, I have a TomTom too!

Assuming I can prove myself to be a responsible driver, my Mom and Dad will let me take my own road trip to various theme parks out of state. I won't have time to hit every park I've listed below - so I'd like to hear which parks you guys think I should choose out of these. Parenthesis indicate the attractions which are my main reasons for wanting to visit that park. I will leave from Katy TX (west of Houston), and the trip will last about 6-9 days. The following parks are all on my list of places I may visit: -Magic Springs (X-Coaster!) -Worlds of Fun (Prowler!) -Dollywood (Mystery Mine/Thunderhead!) -Indiana Beach (Steel Hawg!) -Holiday World (Voyage/Pilgrim's Plunge!) -SFGA (Raging Bull!) -Valleyfair/Nick Universe (Renegade/Spongebob/Avatar Airbender!) My credit list badly needs good woodies, and this trip will give me quite a few, no matter which parks I visit! My current plan is to go up to the Indiana area and hit Indiana Beach and Holiday World, but there are also a lot of interesting parks I can visit on the way to and from there, and the Valleyfair/Nick Universe detour is another tempting add-on, if I can squeeze it in. But in order for this trip to happen, I have to prove to my parents that I am a good driver, and that means no wrecks or tickets between now and next summer. Hopefully I won't make any careless mistakes...I'm not going to miss this trip if I can help it...

You know a park needs help when a Boomerang is an improvement.

Pretty much all I ever did in AC for the GameCube was annoy Mr. Resetti by resetting the game!

I really hate companies that give personality assessments to applicants and then refuse to interview them if they answer a certain way. I like taking personality quizzes, but job applications are definitely NOT the place for them IMO, especially if the answers are made available to the employers. I applied for a job at Wal-Mart, and at the end they gave me an assessment that was about 60 questions. Only the first 10 questions or so were regarding reactions to various job scenarios, the rest of it was a ranking scale of your qualities and how you felt about things. When I finally finished it, I got this message: “You have completed but did not pass the assessment.” If that’s not an attack against my personality, then what is? I mean, I can understand the reasons for giving an assessment test based on things relevant to the job, but to say you failed an assessment that is mostly personality-based questions just screams “We don’t want you if you’re different from our managers, kindly leave!” And while I know that rejection is an inevitable part of any job search, all of the other companies that I have applied for have at least been kind enough not to bluntly tell me why they chose not to Interview me. I have to do some Christmas shopping this week and I definitely will not be giving any of my money to Wal-Mart. From now on, I’ve sided with Target, all the way.

I just read on Gerstlauer's website that Mystery Mine, Speed, Rage, and Typhoon have an insane negative G rating of -1.3!! I knew that Speed at Oakwood pulled -1.3Gs, but Wikipedia said this was during the airtime hill (which everyone says is really powerful). But I tested out the Typhoon recreation in NL, and it hits that same number right at the start of the beyond vertical drop. The Gerstlauer website says Speed's airtime hill is only -1G. Spongebob at Nick Universe, for some reason, is listed as pulling -0.7Gs, don't know why. That's awesome, I didn't know all Euro Fighters except Spongebob pull -1.3Gs!!! It's a good burst of "yellow" airtime according to NL. You can read the various fact sheets here: http://www.gerstlauer-rides.de/english/Gerstlauer_E.html (Click English and Euro Fighter under Products if you need to) Are there any other coasters you guys know of that have high negative G readings? I know that Rita at Alton Towers pulls -0.7, and G-Force at Drayton Manor pulls -1, but parks seem to advertise positive Gs more than negative.

Never. Because that's the way we are - we find faults with our parks and complain about them, no matter how many coasters we have already.

Top Ten (in no particular order) -Steel Hawg -Avatar Airbender -Spinball Whizzer -Rock 'n Roller Coaster -Mystery Mine -Rita: Queen of Speed (even though many hate that name) -Borg Assimilator -Gravity Max -Silver Bullet -Top Thrill Dragster Names I don't like -Roller Coaster (duh) -Air -Patriot -Prowler -Flight Deck -Names with a state in the title (Texas Giant, Georgia Cyclone, etc.) -Names that end with "the ride"

Six Flags has this holiday event (at least at my local parks). Called Holiday in the Park, it features several Christmas decorations, which light up at night, as well as one part with fake snow made out of some kind of foam. I think there's also a sledding area when it's cold enough, but I didn't see it. My Dad and I made a trip up to Dallas on November 29th, as I was off college on Thanksgiving break, and stayed in the Hyatt Place, which is a rather high class hotel at the low, low cost of $80 per night for a room. If you're planning on going to SFOT at some point, I would definitely recommend this hotel, as it is both well-kept and not too expensive (less expensive than some of the other simpler hotels in that area)!! At the park it was pretty chilly, with temperatures hovering in the 50s, but we were able to tough it out. One disadvantage of visiting out of season is that the park is only open afternoon to night (on this day it was 2pm to 10pm), and many of the rides were not running. The water rides were all closed (no big loss in the cold), as was the whole Gotham City area, and Flashback and Texas Giant. The main hit of the day for both of us was Titan!!! We were kind of nervous going on it, but honestly, it was REALLY GOOD!! If you've been on Goliath at SFMM, Titan will be second nature to you (just remember the bonus helix before the midcourse brakes), otherwise, if you're on the 2009 Texas Trip, know that you've got one really awesome coaster to look forward to!!! The ride ops at SFOT seem to be a diverse bunch - some of them have been really enthusiastic and having a great time operating the ride, while others were just quiet and doing their jobs. One thing that was uncalled for, though, was the op on the powered train ride around the park that told everyone to scream while going through one of the tunnels!...Though the autospiel on that train is funny: "Please refrain from tossing things over the edge, because if you don't want them, what on earth makes you think that we want them?" Anyway, here are the photos! The other fatality of the day was my necklace. =( Oh well, I'll just get a new chain. Thanks for reading! So as we're leaving, after about 5 minutes of driving, we note this odd rumbling in our car. Yes, we had a flat tire. Aaarrgh! In fact, this now marks the second flat tire to happen on a theme park trip (the first was on the way to Sea World San Antonio with my Dad and some of his friends). So we changed it in the cold weather at a gas station...ugh. On our way out of the park we noticed this cool lighting effect projected on the floor. The train ride passes by some more lights. Wish the quality on this shot could've been a bit better, but hey, you can't get everything you want out of life. Night falls and the christmas lights light up! There was chaos before boarding JRS as often two people waiting in one gate would board the train and sit seperately, leaving other riders with nowhere to sit! From here you can see how outside the park Judge Roy Scream is. It pretends to be pretty and tantalizing, but it really just kind of sucks! Some of the Christmas theming. The theming on Runaway Mountain is pretty good, if a little weird. In the middle of the park they have a monument of the original park map. Superman Tower of Power can be seen from all over the park! LOL! I didn't know SFOT's mine train was an ACE Landmark! Tony Hawk was fun, but not by any means fantastic. I decided not to buy the onride video. It makes me want to ride the Maurer spinning coasters even more, as it seems like those have better elements. Airtime! On Shockwave, if you sit all the way in the very front row, you'll hit nearly 6Gs in the two loops (5.9 to be exact). I rode it in that seat on my first visit, and it's not as insane as it sounds, it's more of a quick burst of Gs, unlike Titan's helix, which sustains about 4Gs. Be ready for some crazy Gs on the helixes!! First drop kicks a$$! I might like it even more than MF's drop. The airtime on the airtime hill lasts for awhile too. Titan is the largest coaster in the park which I missed out on my last visit, and OMFG, is it AMAZING! My Dad with Daffy Duck. La Vibora is a so-so bobsled. It has too many brake sections. I passed this time around. The closed rides. I already have my Mr. Freeze, Batman, and Texas Giant credits, and I've ridden boomerangs at other parks, so this wasn't that big a deal, it only made it so that my coaster count only rose to "94" instead of "95". From our room on the 6th floor we could see the park pretty clearly! Our hotel room at Hyatt Place. A real nice hotel at a real bargain price!

1. Mother in line for SKC talking to her son: (pointing at the big loop with Superman on top) "That's the only loop it has. At least I think it is." The rest of the inversions, six of them total, are all pretty visible from the other viewing areas around the park! 2. Another mother in the ToT line at MGM: "You rode Space Mountain, so why can't you ride this one?" 3. Girl on the bus from Animal Kingdom talking on the cell phone: "I rode the mount Everest one, and it's so awesome, it drops you 200 feet!" Um, sorry to dissapoint you, but it's the mountain structure that's 200 feet, the actual drop is only 80 feet...

As it says, what is your opinion on face-off seating (seating arrangement where the seats face each other instead of all facing forwards, like on the Vekoma Invertigos and the Gerstlauer spinning coasters)? Personally, I’m not a fan of it. I kind of prefer traditional seating or back-to-back seating (like on Maurer spinning coasters), as I like being able to get a front row view if I want one. On the Vekoma Invertigos I will usually sit in the front or back to get the hanging out sensation on the spikes, which is really fun, these are also the seats that have the strongest G-forces. I have to confess, though, that it can be REALLY fun to sit opposite your friends and watch their facial expressions throughout the ride. All of you can have a grand time! But since I’m usually a sad and pathetic single rider, I’m not really a fan of face-off seating, I’ll be hating the manufacturer every time I end up sitting across from someone who screams in my face the whole ride. I’ve found that the new onride videos you can buy do it much better for me.