attack7

Fantastic photos, Hanno. Anxious to return to Holiday Park to get some more time in on GeForce. I was not prepared at all for how insane that ride is.

But why start at 4:08 and deprive yourself of the preceding craziness?

I agree, the Blue Fire-esque inversion at the end has me wetting my pants a little bit. Love the way that makes you feel and has everyone screaming.

He's making the guy in orange in the third row pull a Linda Blair. Great picture, Hanno!

LOL!

^ I feel better with more Chicagoans around.

I wanted to ride 'X' badly from the announcement, watching it get built, (and then re-built) - so much that I had many, many dreams where I was waiting in line, and just before I got on it, I'd wake up. Or I'd be at the park and rode everything else and forgot to ride it. Finally last year I got to go out there and ride X2 5 or 6 times. Loved it. First drop is insane. Then there was Silver Star, which I got to watch them build, and thanks to TPR, had ERT on it just a few weeks ago. Whee! (Of course Blue Fire was a few thousand times better) No more dreams

Ticket bought! Can't wait.

I'm in. Can't wait to get on Goliath and DDD. -M

Hi All - ^ Along the same lines, are the crowds horrible on July 4th? I imagine so, but with a FlashPass I assume it can be manageable? Thanks for any advice, Matt

I had mixed experiences on Oz'Iris. The very first ride of the day was extremely smooth, and I was wondering what other people were complaining about when it came to rattle. Later in the day, when I rode again (I was in a different seat, and perhaps on a different train), it was really pretty rattle-y. I wonder whether one train had been recently re-wheeled or better maintained? It's not that Oz'Iris can't run smoothly, it's just that it doesn't always. Again, my first ride was fantastically smooth. Aside from the first drop and the last inversion, though, I did think the ride was pretty dull. I love B&M inverts, and I really wanted to love this ride and was looking forward to it... but it did let me down. I agree that the theming is great. I loved all the detail in the queue, on the castle, in the physical placement of the ride, etc --- it's going to be a popular ride for a long time. I feel like if they had built the ride after the drop slightly smaller (shave a few feet off the height of the inversions), the intensity would be earth-shattering, but that's probably not what the park was going for. There are very few really rocking B&M inverts out there these days... the more compact, twisty-turny rides are delivering the experience a little better these days. -Matt

Wow - Shock looks great... I had no idea there was another one of these non-inverting loops in the world... but I agree, this layout looks much more intense and fun than Rockit. HASTAAAAA.....

Wait, am I really going on one of these trips in a couple of days? WHAT HAVE I DONE?!!?!?!?

If any of you were at tonight's ERT on X-Flight, I had a great time riding with you. Hope you all had as much fun as I did. -matt

Best: Fire Dragon: I love that last minute flip over when you're so close to the ground X-Flight: (Just cuz it's brand new) - that slow roll with head and foot choppers is quite fun X2: You have no idea which way is up, and then you're on the brake run facing backwards Worst: Volcano (PKD): Giant drop into.... brakes? After such a good ride leading up to it, they coulda done better Ice Dragon: Compared to Fire Dragon, I sometimes wish I'd brought along a book

I got a good 10 rides in on morning ERT today. Got to try both sides in front and back. Visuals from the front seat are great on both sides. Forces are fun in the back (although I prefer the right side to the left). Operators were great today... friendly, nice, and efficient, even while training. Overall, loved it! And then Raging Bull claimed my hat, even though I was sitting on it

The 'Hawks game is killing me right now. Killing me!

Congrats! That stuff is great. I have a co-worker who's obsessed with Tough Mudders... he travels around all summer doing them, some of the ones in early fall are subject to some ultra-crappy weather around here. Is it ridiculously hot in Vegas doing these?

Is the fact that Nicki Minaj is playing at Hyde Park relevant?

That was kinda fun picking a couple of random people to support... Ron & Jason - have a great time at WoF! --Matt

Is it May 12th yet? I was just up in Waukegan today with no idea this was happening. Can't wait!

That looks completely awesome and I can't wait to ride it this summer. I love a good B&M invert Really cool that the first element isn't a vertical loop also.

Thanks very much for the pictures -- I can't wait for this ride. I was just going to go buy an Xtreme pass so I could attend the event on the 12th... has anyone else been able to buy one? Looks like the SF.com cart isn't working right for season passes at the moment. -Matt (from Lakeview)