ajm1240

My initial thought on this is kinda what you said in the first post. Floorless if there are inversions. Otherwise I don't much care.

Green Lantern at Six Flags Great Adventure. Meh...

I bought the pass at Cedar Point at the end of last season (not online) so I did not get a PDF...only a receipt and a form to fill out with my name address, phone, etc. The receipt has a bar code label on it, so I'm hoping that it will be sufficient enough to get me in the gates. I did't even know you could do that. They don't offer that at KD. Passes, renewals or otherwise, are not sold until after the first of the year.

In Cedar Fair speak, I believe your "E-ticket" is the PDF you should have printed out after you purchased your pass online. It should have bar codes printed on it. Just show them that at the parking booth. They scan it just as if it was a pass and you get your Platinum parking. Assuming it works the same way passes purchased for KD do. Which I imagine has got to be standard across all parks at this point.

Rode I305 20 or so times today. I would say this thing is once again crapping on Cedar Point. First drop is back to the intensity of last April. And I don't remember the second hill being this great last April. WOW! I'm a back row rider most of the time, and you get gorgeous, sustained floater airtime there on hill two. But near the front, it is totally different. That "floater air" becomes crazy ejecter air. It really is like two coasters in one now. Also, after talking with many folks who rode it before the drop was trimmed last year, we all seem to think that the trims on the backside have been reduced from then. The braking seemed less jarring than we remembered and the speed kept up better, giving decent air on the last hills. Could have been an illusion. None of us were 100% positive that was the case. All in all, I was more than pleased. I just hope it stays this way. The G's are still there, they just don't seem to last nearly as long. But the speed and airtime appear to be up near where they used to be. Hopefully the wheels will wear better and this is the last of the tinkering. Long live I305, 2.0.

Hershey and Dorney Park is a good combo too. Add a third day and you could add SFGAdv in as well.

Kid Tums must think that you guys somehow brought the snow with you from Utah!

Totally agree with the original post. BBW was a nice thing to do on a visit to BGW, but it was never a re-ride for me. I'd ride it once every time I'd visit because of the novelty of the ride type, theming and location. But I only ever rode it more than once in a day on my last visit before it closed. I do miss it, no question, but not because it was a mind blower in any way. Mostly because removing it reduced the big coasters there by 20% and as a season pass holder, I never want to think I'm getting less for my money. This year, I got a little less than last year. Simple as that. However, if getting rid of it means getting this drop tower next season and something as big and innovative as they seem to be promising for 2012, then I'm okay with the trade off.

I like the kid on the left side flipping the double bird to the camera. Nice kid.

Me thinks the new CEO took a look at some of the salaries and decided to slash, regardless of the great jobs they were doing. Just speculation on my part, but something similar is happening at the company I work for. Been there. Done that. Yes that is what I think is happening here. Good call John.

A couple of these guys should get some investors and try their own thing. There are still some underserved markets in the US. Seattle and Portland anyone?

^Would a radar gun work from the public road behind the coaster? There must be some "poe-leese-man" coaster nerd who could zip by and get a measurement. I'll say this after having ridden it last week. It feels like it COULD be as low as 79mph,(Still a fast coaster) but honestly how the heck would I really know? Just a guess. The rumor was that it was actually running quite a bit faster than 94mph to start with, so who knows? I'd estimate in the Low 80's but nothing to really back that up other then comparing it to what the speed felt like before. -Big_Al

I've said it before in this thread, but I'll say it again. These kinds of things happen all the time. If you think that you can open a $25 million dollar ride which is one of the biggest, tallest, fastest, etc, in the world and expect it to work perfectly from day one and all the engineers walk away from it, then you don't know a single thing about theme park projects at all. Every project that is built, even the 1000th Boomerang installation requires some "work in progress" for a couple months afterwards. A project the size of I305 I expect them to work on it for a good few months. I can't think of a single project that hasn't gone through similar tweaks. This one just has much more exposure than others. --Robb Fair enough. Not to be a troll, but are there many coasters with trims most of the way down the first drop like this? I honestly just don't know. At first blush to me it seemed like a drastic tweak. But I must admit I really don't know that for a fact. It might be a common practice. -Big _Al

Well, I have no way of knowing for certain, but I think that the constant wheel maintainance was the driving force behind the trims not the "Grey Out" situation. They could not keep 2 trains running on most days in April and May due to wheel warping and blistering. People are still "Greying Out," so I don't buy that as the main excuse. Which, to me, makes it again, a design flaw in my mind. Point being, I am more disappointed in Intamin than KD or CF. It is still a great ride, but it is reversed now for me. Used to be the first half was outstanding and the second half was merely okay. Now the first half is merely okay, with everything after the second hill being outstanding. Again, just my opinion.

Saying no to a client is tough, which is why I think they can say "sure, PKD, we'll give you what you want, but if that doesn't work, we have a backup for you" I'm not blaming anyone, I just think its funny when people get all mad at Intamin, and don't want to think that maybe Intamin delivered exactly what the park asked for - with eyes bigger than their stomach, so to say.. devil's advocate and such Clients ask for more than is possible all the time. They get told "No" all the time. In all forms of businness. Intamin should know it makes THEM look bad in the industry when stuff like this happens. They know what will work. They have all the numbers and science and experience. If what you say is the case, then they are even more at fault, because they had to KNOW the ride was not maintainable at specs. They have hurt their own chances of getting the contract the next time a big park wants an extreme ride. Not that they are hurting for clients I suppose, so maybe they just don't care.

You do realize this analogy was lost on 99.9% of the crowd, right? Yeah, but that .01 percent REALLY gets it!

I think the engineer's probably did quite fine. Could it be a marketing dept fail instead? Maybe your home park went to Intamin and asked for a 300ft/90+mph ride, and didn't really think it through too much (for whatever reason it was trimmed, stress on the riders, maintenance, whatever) I imagine the "plan B" that is the trims was in the plans all along - much like how they change out all sorts of wheels when testing and opening a new ride, they need to tinker with it a bit No, if there is "Blame" to be laid in the fact that I305 is not quite up to the promised specs anymore, it is definitley Intamin's. If the technology was not there to make a ride with the requested specs, they just should have said no to the client. They have "Over-promised" before. It is still a great ride and a great addition to the park. And some like it better this way then before. To each his own. I've ridden it both ways and I still like it alot. It just does not have that "Danger Factor" anymore that knocked my socks off before the trims. It's like after you've had sex with Angelina Jolie, sex with Jenifer Love-Hewitt, while still awesome, is not the same. With Jen it is great and all, but with Angie, you've got that whole "I just might die from the experience" thrill. Big_Al

Word around the park is that the change was made not for guests complaints or concerns, but because it was throwing wheels on a daily basis, only running 3 days a week. 7 day operation starts next week and they need the wheels to last longer. Apparently many still get the grey out along the first turn.

At night time ERT at "Intimidation" (on Saturday 5/1), the ride ops were constantly quoting Robb's video to us. Asking if we liked the "Twisty" parts best or the "Insanely fast lift hill." The one ride op got really fired up at one point, screaming how I305 "Craps all over Cedar Point." It was pretty funny. It was also my first chance to ride I305 at night and that was pretty intense. As that area of the park does not have much around it except woods, it get's pretty dark, making the first drop seem like a bottomless pit as you start to wonder if you will ever pull out of the drop. Cool Stuff! Big_Al

Hehe... In fact, the "Winners Circle" is about 50 feet from "Fort Kinzel," aka Flight of Fear.

Haha! I made the big time! The very last train coming down the final run, I'm the dude who gives the single armed fist pump. My mom is so proud! Big_Al

The "First Team" (Morning Hours) was AWESOME. A full queue spilling out onto the "Winner's Circle" only took them 45min to an hour to run through. The "Second team," in the afternoon, was not as good. Particularly with the Single riders line. The "first teamers" did not give single riders any choices. They pointed you to the empty spot and you went. However, in the afternoon, I must have seen 3 "Couples" in the single riders line ask to be seated together and the Ride op seemed to never be able to say no. The op then got heated questions from several folks in the main line and she had no answers for them. She did not seem to totally grasp the concept of a SINGLE riders line. This was at the height of the crowd in mid-afternoon. To be fair, this is the fist coaster in the park with a single riders line, so I suppose it is going to take some time for ALL the ops to get up to speed. Overall, this is the best coaster I've ever ridden. It is short in duration, but there is NO downtime on this ride. Heck, in the front row you even get airtime cresting the lift hill! Great meeting Robb. He mentioned that the wind in the front was messing with his contacts on media day. And later in the afternoon I heard a lady say one of her contacts blew out of her eye! Just something to keep in mind. Also, glasses straps are required, although, I saw many slip by. Or as the PA announcer said on my first ride "Glasses and Sunglasses must be removed. Unless you have a strap-on..." You can't make this stuff up! -Big_Al

I think the Premium Tier option is a really good idea. You do not seem to be taking anything away from the current membership, so no big deal. Personally, I don't see myself being able to use it for this coming year. BUT, it is a nice option to have for when my circumstances improve in the coming year. (Come on economy!! YOU CAN DOOO IT!) While I do like the ad free nature of TPR, I am not so militant about it to say simple banner or sidebar ads would "Ruin" my experience. It is just the pop-up, pop-under and rollover ads that kill sites for me. (Lance, are you reading this?) A particularly easy way to generate residule income is a partnetship program with say Amazon. I spent $100 on Amazon for Xmas this year and I would have happily done it through a TPR partner link if it was available to me.

I wouldn't call it boring. It wasn't as slam you around fun like Magnum, but it was IMO a very enjoyable ride, especially in the back seat. It had that awesome pull you up out of your seat first drop which I really like. I know... I SHOULD like it. Every other coaster with similar stats, I've pretty much loved. I rode it 4 times on a visit in September. All different positions. And it was "Nice" to me, but that is all. Perhaps I hyped it up too much in my head beforehand. I don't know. By that last ride I was pretty much bored. I don't think it's a bad coaster, it just didn't live up to what I had read and heard about it. Thus, to me, Over-rated. As this thread has shown, just about anyone's favorite all time coaster, can be someone else's most over-rated. I love Apollo's Chariot, but I see a lot of people feel it's over rated. It's interesting to see others opinions.

I was really disappointed with Steel Force at Dorney Park. All of it's stats say I should love it, but it is in fact, the tallest boring coaster I've ever ridden.