cal1br3tto

So I almost bought snacks for the entire campus today. Thankfully someone told me that you have to press "END" after you are finished with your vending machine purchase. Seriously, I had successfully purchased one item, and it said "Make Another Selection"...I imagine this process would have gone on all day if I had not hit "END". Other than that, credit card snack machines = a good thing.

Grizzly uses Morgan trains. Which explains a lot. (They're not too popular, although I don't really mind them.) I have similar feelings about CGA vs. SFDK. CGA is mediocre at best, but SFDK is wonderful. Great pics!

Not sure about how gawking at the trees will affect your timing, but for a credit whore trip you could most likely get Gilroy done in 45 minutes or less. At any rate it's a very "quick" park for that sort of thing. Although it is incredibly beautiful, so slowing down to take in the unique aspects is totally understandable. Be sure to ride Banana Split; it's a small but crazy swinging ship.

Heh. That's about how I feel about Silver Bullet. It's as tame as they get (but with decent forces through the inversions). I didn't like it at first due to its famous lack of intensity, but after a few rides it grew on me, and I simply found it fun. Sometimes that's all you need from a coaster. I'm looking forward to riding Patriot now.

It sounds like Klondike Gold Rusher has always been finicky. Got it on my second trip in September last year. Don't worry, you didn't miss much IMO. Some like it, I didn't. There are way better mice. I thought the airtime was decent on Timberhawk. It is slightly underrated, but I don't think it's great. It is a good fit for the park. WARNING: The Dragon powered coaster at Riverfront Park is probably closed! It is still a decent park, though.

1. Giant Dipper @ Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. 1924. My favorite wood. 2. Coaster Thrill Ride @ Puyallup Fair. 1935. My 4th favorite wood. If there's a reason this thread has been buried for so long, it's probably because the same answers just keep coming up over and over! How monotonous.

I'm basically mixed about this. I totally wouldn't mind talking about it, and I'm totally proud of my hobby. There's no need to be ashamed, or embarrassed in a "bad" way. I can understand "friendly embarrassment" because the hobby is considered dorky and nerdy, but not the kind where you just want to disappear into the ground if people find out. However, I generally prefer to keep it quiet. It's not because my hobby is coasters. It's just that I'd rather have people slowly find things out about me as opposed to frequently bringing them up. I definitely agree with a lot of posters in this thread. For whatever reason, people seem to label coaster enthusiasm as a weird, perplexing, and even shameful hobby. It doesn't necessarily help that many people simply view coasters as casual fun, or even something they'd rather avoid. I'm continually surprised by the interests that people have. Whether it's something genuinely unusual, or something that I wouldn't have expected that particular person to be into, or something common like sports or music that a specific person is much more into than your average fan.

I've never ridden an alpine coaster, but they sound intriguing. It's nice that they're becoming increasingly popular. I have ridden a half-mile alpine slide at the Mt. Hood Adventure Park which is open every summer. I must have enjoyed it because I rode it many times. It's easy to see that alpine slides are not credits (not sure if a few people were wondering) but I won't judge the alpine coasters until I've ridden one.

^That was annoying at Scandia! (Don't get me wrong, I totally understand that they have to do it, and there were fair warnings so we knew to expect it.) At the Tilt-a-Whirl and Gravitron they switched from one op for each to one op for both. I kept trying to figure out when that op would switch rides, and go to that queue, but somehow I never seemed to get ahead! Finally I decided to go ride some other rides and luckily when I came back there was one op per ride again. Then again they do run those rides on very "family friendly" cycles...not carnival style...so not quite as worthwhile as I might've expected. I enjoyed Scandia, though! Even though I feel Scandia Screamer is overrated.

1. X2 2. Goliath 3. Tatsu 4. Déjà Vu 5. Riddler’s Revenge 6. Scream! 7. Viper 8. Colossus 9. Batman: The Ride 10. Terminator Salvation: The Ride 11. Superman: The Escape 12. Revolution 13. Gold Rusher 14. Canyon Blaster I have written mini-reviews for these rides if anyone is interested. I decided not to post them for now because they seemed a bit shallow and repetitive due to the fact that I didn’t really get a chance to pick up on the unique nuances of each ride.

I am a complete idiot. I accidentally brought a copy of my birth certificate to the DMV today. FACEPALM!!! Tomorrow I am going to get there before opening, because I don't want to have the same wait two days in a row. Hopefully I will have all the necessary documents this time.

Too bad I can't vote, but I of course understand why. Let me just put in an unofficial "yes" vote of moral support. After all, being a (somewhat) nice person and all, I naturally want as many people as possible to be able to share in the fun that I'll be having that day anyway! Karma!

There is no question that I like Colossus better than Terminator. It's not overly rough (at least not to me), and there is a decent amount of mild airtime. It's not especially memorable and nowhere near "OMFG Amazing", but I enjoyed it and would like to ride it again. I don't mind smoothness and I enjoy tunnels, but Terminator didn't do much for me, either. The preshow did, though.

Things that often don't bother me --Roughness. It hurts, but I kind of overlook it in favor of judging other factors. Things that bother me, but don't affect how I rate a ride --Bad guest service or operations. To me this has absolutely nothing to do with the ride experience. It doesn't cause me to rate a ride low in order to 'dis' a park or anything. Things that may or may not influence how I rate a ride --Lack of theming/appealing setting. I don't know why I'm so split about this. I just am. In the end, as I may or may not have suggested in my earlier post, it comes down to two things. 1. Just plain fun, caused by my ride and park experiences. 1a. The fun that comes from obsessing over my views of ride and park experiences. This may seem negative to others, but is completely part of the fun for me. If it weren't, I would phase it out.

Apart from actively visiting theme parks and riding, 'philosophy' is my absolute favorite aspect of coastering! Therefore, this post will be very long, and not necessarily what you were looking for. --I absolutely enjoy rating, ranking, comparing, reviewing, judging, etc. Some say it takes away from the fun of coastering, but to me it is entirely part of the fun. --However, how I judge and rank rides actually does come down to how much fun I have. Basically, I primarily judge based on thrill factor and airtime, because both of those usually make a ride "fun" to me. --I love to count credits and to credit whore. I always try to ride every coaster possible. --I love lists and statistics of all sorts, both personal and collective, factual and opinion-based. --Theming and setting play a healthy role, but aren't everything. I largely judge based on how I physically felt on a ride. --I am first and foremost a coaster enthusiast. I am also a park enthusiast, but that is secondary. I can appreciate any and all ride locations, even the most ghetto of amusement parks and carnivals. However, my favorite park is easily Disneyland. I judge parks partly based on coaster collection, but largely on atmosphere and experience. --I am also a ride enthusiast, but coasters nearly always come first. I sometimes skip rides I would probably enjoy. --I will admit I am biased toward classic wooden coasters, and coaster history absolutely fascinates me. --I can't help but be very saddened by the loss of coasters, parks and rides. That's just how I am. --I strongly prefer shared lap bars, especially without seatbelts. Extra points if they can only lower to one position. --I genuinely love airtime; the more intense or extreme, the better!

Top Deck Flight Gun is still my favorite. I like Silver Bullet, too. Batman: The Ride didn't do much for me, because I am just that abnormal. Or does it just lose points for being the most blatantly generic (but not necessarily worst) B&M in all of SFMM?

^My guess would be that either they would rotate ads through, or they wanted to draw people's attention to the prices with something flashy so they'd notice deals beyond just what they were already planning to buy. Then again I haven't seen them, so maybe my ideas are crazy. TV screens in businesses are definitely becoming increasingly common.

^True, just because something is "normal" and "accepted" absolutely does not mean it is right. There are millions of examples of this. Of course, some are gray areas, but still. IMO it pretty much comes down to respect and safety.

This thread is really helping to reinforce my goal of moving to a city with easy access to "major" parks and/or outstanding small parks. Preferably at least one within a distance of 30 minutes or less, but I've always been one who will gladly travel to any day-trip or two-day trip park. SoCal is at the top of my list (hey, I love California) but there are obviously plenty of options throughout the US.

Home park (distance): Oaks Amusement Park As far as going by myself, this was very much a one-and-done park. I appreciate the collection of flats in number, charm, and thrill level, and I actually enjoy both coasters. However, the only flat ride I would really go back for is the Rock-o-Plane, with an honorable mention to the KMG Afterburner (great program but still a very common ride) and the Spider (the best I've been on, but I'm sure good ones aren't that rare). The only non-kiddie flat I need is the new Tilt-a-Whirl, and I might try the Frog Hopper and Rockin' Tug, or ride the dark ride again. I would only go with somebody, and only once a season. Although the price is very reasonable, it would add up for me. Home park (lifetime visits): Enchanted Forest I love this park. If you had to label them as being for one demographic, I would be easily outside of it because that demographic would be "young children". However, this really is to a large extent an all-ages park, as it is delightfully charming, creepy, and interesting. The last time I visited was only to check out the four major attractions, half of which were new to me. Of course I ended up sampling the entire park anyway! I would only go with somebody, and might consider only buying admission and ride tickets if the person wasn't interested in riding. (Do I even know anyone who isn't?) The only attractions really drawing me back are my beloved Ice Mountain Bobsleds, my first coaster; and Challenge of Mondor because shooting dark ride=automatically a good thing. In the end, in my case it's more about the parks inherently holding less interest for someone my age, due to number of attractions and overall thrill factor.

^Once in chat I wrote something like "Same hear, I know how to spel" Not only that but it was during (yet another) one of my lectures on proper spelling!

Now I know what all the sarcastic mace comments on FB were about! I thought it might just be made up BS, so I didn't bother to research. I wonder who's "really" in the right and wrong here. It seems that multiple parties could be blamed.

There is really nothing to say other than "What the [f-word]?!?" This is beyond ridiculous. Completely inappropriate in every way.

^I totally agree with your post and I wish many, many more people did too. I noticed other misspellings; I even randomly spotted one where the page happened to land when I scrolled up from your post! I like how the building turned out; the juxtaposition between the castle for the ride and the amusement park/boardwalk feel of the food & games portion creates a pleasing contrast. I'm glad they chose that instead of theming the entire building to a castle.

Wow, it seems like I may end up becoming a dark ride enthusiast. I'm totally not one now, because I only associate good dark rides with Disney where I just take them for granted, but it sounds like the really old ones are possibly just my kind of ride. Somehow I've only been on three non-Disney dark rides, and all are newer. Challenge of Mondor at Enchanted Forest--Unique and very fun shooting dark ride. Haunted Mine at Oaks Park (defunct)--Nowhere near as good as the Enchanted Forest walk-through haunted house, but had a couple of acceptably scary moments. Lewis & Clark Great Adventure at Oaks Park--Delightfully creepy, yet underdeveloped. It doesn't have a very good rep, but looking back I guess it was a pretty neat experience.