MattMattMatt

This is why we have things like Mitch's poll which compensate for popularity and number of votes. http://www.ushsho.com/detailedsteelrollercoasterpollresults2008.htm As of last year, Montu was ranked #18 in the world, Afterburn is ranked a very respectable 34. Sounds about right to me. While there is an awful lot to like about the ride at Carowinds for me it doesn't add up to Montu in any way. I don't think I've ridden Montu since the MCBR started grabbing hard but that dramatic dive into the 2nd vertical loop and all of the below-grade stuff after that is an absolute phenomenal finale, whereas Afterburn's rides like little more than an afterthought.

It's unfortunate we're grouping Fire and Ice Dragon together because Fire is my favorite B&M invert and Ice Dragon would probably be in the lower half of the pack for me. Fire Dragon, to me, is the most perfectly orchestrated looping coaster B&M has ever built. The entire coaster is a masterpiece, but the camelback, followed by that HARD kick to the right into the helix-wrapped Immelman and then the long, dramatic straight track into the vertical loop is one of the most dramatic, powerful, and awe-inspiring sequences on any coaster. And this coming from a guy who isn't even into looping coasters that much.

Magnum is hands down my favorite steel coaster, anywhere. Haven't ridden Maverick yet.

I guess it still depends on what we mean by "small park" but I consider Knoebels and Kennywood to be in my absolute top tier of favorite parks. In my 2nd tier would probably be Compounce and Waldameer.

Follow that logic and suddenly nobody would ever do anything. Imagine the risk you take every time you go for a ride in your car! I'm not implying that going down a roller coaster in skates is one of humanity's great achievements but someone had to be the first to eat an oyster, ride a roller coaster, bungee jump, swim in a shark cage, go to the moon, etc etc

Of the ones I've ridden - SFGAdv's Bizzaro really kicked my butt in the back of the train this Spring. I've never been bonkers for the ride but to me it felt like it was running better than ever and the first half especially was really rambunctious and powerful and fun. Probably still my favorite, although I remember when it first opened one of the biggest things was comparing it to the similar but far superior Kumba. Shame none of the ones I've ridden still haven't approached that level of greatness. SFNE's I think is quite good and bit underrated but there's that unfortunate rattle through much of the train. Great first drop, great camelback inversion. Dominator never did it for me for two reasons - no camelback inversion, and a second half that always seemed a little sluggish and boring to me. That's too bad because the first drop, loop, and low turn around the cobra roll is probably way better than anything else on any floorless. The rest just doesn't add up to me. I haven't ridden it at KD but I'd probably be sad about losing the lakeside setting too which I always thought was way cool.

Those "Dive Coasters" are, indeed floorless in the sense that they have no floor but anytime someone regularly refers to a floorless they mean the standard, 4-across B&M sit-down looper model unless they say otherwise.

That's what I was thinking. It seems like it would take a tremendous amount of lower body and abdominal strength to keep yourself upright the entire time.

Certainly not unique to Kentucky.

CP breaking the inversion record has been around since the early 90's when every coaster they built was a record breaker and people still cared about that sort of thing. The park has so many coasters it only makes sense that rumors about what they don't have (a flyer, something with 27 inversions, the beachside GCI woodie and "boardwalk" area) have been around for ages.

I thought the horn was the best part. It's a classic dark ride effect on a ride that should have taken many more cues from classic dark rides.

To an enthusiast or most adults, the Orbitors look like the same spinning ride as Dumbo but that's completely missing the point. The Dumbo ride is a Disney icon and for most little ones is absolutely the most essential ride in all of Disney-dom. The target audience is absolutely not people who would care if the park had four similar rides, all they care about is meeting Mickey and going on Dumbo. The subs aren't coming back to MK. Check out an overhead view, the lagoon is completely filled in. It's not there any more. As for WDW having different rides from DLR with the same names...why does it really matter? I many (most?) cases that's already how it is, but cloning rides saves Disney a millions upon millions of dollars and it's not as if your average park goer is even going to know. Sure having different rides can be nice for us enthusiasts but most people don't hop from CA to FL and know all the differences.

Dumbo, for whatever reasons, is one of the most iconic park attractions in the world, and with it's low capacity is a long-line nightmare for those with small children. Surely there would be an obvious benefit to building two Dumbo rides side by side. Not having Dumbo at all would cause toddlers all over the world to riot in the streets.

If they were to have purchased a B&M hyper it would have been long before they filed. I completely agree with you that the idea sounds far fetched but the bankruptcy is like, #10 on the list of reasons why.

Body slides in general don't go over well with me. Even ones that are very small tend to be painful going over the joints in the pieces on my back. I'm 5'10" around 260lbs though, I don't know if being a fatty makes it worse for me. Maybe. Then the really big ones, forget it. Way more painful than the roughest wooden coaster I can think of.

I think 30 years of not removing a coaster (and even then, relatively minor coasters compared to the sprawling CCMR) set a good enough precedent for most folks to know I didn't mean back in Cyclone's days.

CCMR is still doing around 850,000 riders per year which is right in line with rides of similar status in the park. I'd also speculate it's not expensive to maintain, and there's really not much land to gain in a full removal that they couldn't find elsewhere. Not to mention CP really does not have a history of removing roller coasters. I wouldn't call it likely.

This is beyond ridiculous. The park has never published an official opening date, not to mention the park is free to get in. It's not like people are just showing up and paying money to ride a ride that everyone knows isn't open. Nobody is getting screwed here. That kind of attitude you just come across as really, really entitled and petty. Is the whole thing kinda crazy? Sure, but it was crazy from the very start. We should applaud for the park for even attempting such a project, and even if the project ultimately succeeds or fails the rest of the park is still 100% brilliant either way.

They always said "It will open when it opens." I'm sure the park is doing just fine business without the ride being open, and it's not like they've ever given an exact opening day and then taken it back. I'd say get over it, they don't owe you anything, and enjoy all of the other wonderful things there are to do at Knoebels already.

Part of what I like about the bottom of Legend's first drop is that really heavy positive + lateral in the tunnel reminds me a lot of Beast's helix back when you took it at (closer to) full speed which I grew up adoring. I just got back from my first time at Kennywood and Phantom feels similar at the bottom of the big drop, I'm obsessed with that thing now. Voyage's is also the bomb. Feels in shape similar to some of the Intamin hypers, and of course it's close to that sort of size. Way superior's to El Toro IMO.

The Legend. Killer airtime in the back seat, into the tunnel with that massive positive g force and lateral as you curve to the right. El Toro's is amazing, of course, but being 100% stapled into the car kills it for me. The airtime and suddenness of it is great but there are quite a few woodie first drops I like a whooooole lot more.

No matter what general preferences are (unless you're going JUST for a waterpark) I can't imagine calling Dorney over Hershey for anything. For me, Hershey is absolutely one of the best parks out there, and Dorney...I almost hesitate to say but I don't care much for at all. Some OK coasters, but not a single one remarkable, and just really generic, drab atmosphere for much of the park. The only real gripe I have with Hershey is the occasional long lines.

There's little to no chance of a Diamondback clone considering the very unique site Dback sits on, including the pretty extreme terrain differences. I wouldn't be surprised if the ride ends up being a very, very traditional B&M out and back design, but I really don't get how anyone could be disappointed with any sort of B&M hyper.

The themeing on Dragster is fantastic, I think. You don't have to have some sort of story and pre-shows and lasers and immersive queues to really add to a ride. When it comes to atmosphere and add little touches here and there CP really got that one 100% right. Cedar Point actually has a number of really fantastic, subtle visual and audio touches on many of their rides, but I don't think they get enough credit for them because they're not in your face and over the top like in the full, dedicated theme parks. Compare Dragster to Kingda Ka which has a much more specific atmosphere built around it, yet there's no good place to watch the trains launch and the tower might as well not even been in the park. I think the whole area and theming effort surrounding the ride is quite good, but the installation for me really misses the mark of why you would ever even build a ride like that. For this one at KD I really doubt onboard audio would even be considered, but then again, I wouldn't have even thought a ride of this size would have been considered. Seeing how out of the blue this whole thing is, I'd say all bets are off until we get more details.

Alcohol evaporates much faster than water, so if they do go with the vodka route I fear they're going to have to do a lot of refilling. You people really do need to do some research next time. I'm currently working the evaporation rates of beef vs. turkey gravy, then we will have our true answer.