Skycoastin Steve

^Back in 2008, I did talk to someone who worked at the weight guess game under TTD's tower that said they missed being hit by a falling cell phone by about two feet. Apparently the cell phone was blown to tiny bits in thy mercy. Two points for whoever got the movie reference.

I heard a GCI will be built on Kelleys Island, and that the world's fastest ferry boat will take you to the ride from the Marina.

^Thank you! You guys definitely need to do your own version of the Whore on the Shore trip. That day was truly epic in every sense of the word.

Oh, I certainly hope so! This would make visits to some Cedar Fair parks MUCH more palatable. Yes. Take for instance my visit to KD today when the line for 305 was to the switchbacks and they had one train with three operators moving rather slowly. A nice little Q-Bot would have helped tremendously, but I only rode the ride once and went on to do other things until I got severely annoyed with the park and left. If I had a Q-Bot, I would still be there.

^Gonna agree with him on this one. From personal experience and multiple years of training ride ops, I can tell you that no matter how much training they get, some of them just don't "get it" or care. At that point, hopefully the supervisors/management are paying attention enough to notice which employees do their jobs and which don't, but unfortunately, the bad eggs slip through the cracks sometimes. It's also been mentioned in this thread already, it could have also been a case where the ops were too timid to deny a severely disabled man a ride on the top coaster in the park. I can also speak from experience that it's rather intimidating and/or stressful to have to deny someone a ride sometimes, especially if you are a fairly new employee. Some just aren't assertive enough to put their foot down and say "no." It's very possible the ops were just too afraid or passive and didn't want the trouble of denying him the ride. That's no excuse for letting him on the ride, I'm just playing Devil's advocate here. To reiterate what's been said several times, it's just a very, very bad situation for all parties involved, and it's a bell that can never be un-rung.

^Nope, that's what the SFMM thread is for.

And you've ridden El Toro.........

^I was coming here to post that!

Yes, by tearing it down and using the wood to provide heat for homeless people.

^ Classic.

Ride in the back car at night and then come back and say this.

^Very interesting! I need a business card and a theme park to run so I can whore the kiddie credits.

Did you do some begging? I thought you had to be under 12 years old to ride that one.

Putting any ride inside or over/under/around/through Dragster would be a colossal mistake, it would murder the atmosphere around that ride (not to mention muddle up that midway even further).

There were two stacked on top of each other in this picture. And while riding, I remember seeing at least another pair stacked in the same fashion on the other side of the building. There might have been two pair, but I honestly don't remember.

Names don't change the ride experience, something the BGT crazies haven't figured out yet.

305 is worth the trip. As much as it hurts me to say this, KD is the best choice you have there. Dorney and KI are nothing special, and I've never been to MiA, but I've never really heard anything spectacular about it. Volcano, Dominator, and Grizzly are nice complimentary rides to 305. Had 305 not been built, I would tell you to spend the extra money and go to Kennywood or Hersheypark.

Dude, the Mini is AWESOME!

^I think perspective might set in one day and you'll be ok.

I don't know about that car, but the rest of them are sitting in Mean Streak's infield.

Went down to the park last Friday for a little while, took some pictures of the most recent work done on the Verbolten construction site, and the hole for the building is HUGE. Take a look! The station is pretty much gutted out. You can see this simply by going to the right of the bumper car building. One of the old footers, you get a good appreciation for how deep these things go into the ground. Massive hole. Can't wait to see the building!

I've been trying to think of a good way to explain my thoughts on the suicide theory, but you nailed it on the head for me. I mean, I guess anything's possible, but I would be utterly SHOCKED if it was "suicide by coaster" (which just sounds silly when you say it). ^What Joey said makes sense, as well. I just can't buy the full-on "I'm going to purposely get on this ride to die" scenario.

It all boils down to a few simple facts that really can't be disputed. Kids love dinosaurs. Parks will make money off of it. It's a low-risk installation. There's no reason to not install this attraction at other parks in the chain. KD was gifted a B&M and Intamin the last few years, now they need something for families (and making extra money off it can't hurt, either).

That rumor (or some form of it) has been circulating since I worked there, which was 2007-08, and probably even before then.

Gators!