Skycoastin Steve

Exciting news!

I'm going to be in Florida all next week and Gwazi is opening the day after I leave. I love my luck!

^Right when I get home from work and start wading into the evening's activities, you gotta go and delete it all.

I hear an Ohioan and a Kiwi are freed up from their latest business venture. Maybe they can take over Cedar Fair.

All kinds of shadiness going on in this episode, yet I'd be lying if I said I didn't see it coming a mile away. Impulse purchases on roller coasters rarely ever work out.

Back in 2001 two trains on SFNE's Bizarro (S:ROS at the time) collided in the station. http://capital2.capital.edu/admin-staff/dalthoff/sros.html That page is a bit dated, but has some good info as to what happened. A punctured air hose left the calipers "open" due to lack of pressure. That sorta thing happens more than you would expect, just the times when guests are involved get reported. I know for a fact it happened to MF a few years back when the trains were empty.

Why not rename it the Bed Intruder Coaster?

So why didn't they rename it Family Hunt?

The only question is price.

I figured for sure we would find out what the name of the coaster would be when they put the trains on the track, but alas, it's still a nameless beauty.

I will concede that the one ride I had on it was a horrible experience after about an hour wait, so that probably had a lot to do with it. But all I could concentrate on was how much my seat was shimmying the entire time, and then the uncomfortable "crowd surfing" portion that just hung me over the side of my restraint. I'm sure I'll give it another shot whenever I go back, I just hope this time it's better.

I'm really curious to hear about where there is any airtime to speak of on this ride. And I doubt the refurb made the ride any faster than a slow, boring, meandering trudge through an uninteresting layout full of brake runs. But I'm glad you enjoyed it!

I rode Wildcat this year and didn't think it was that bad. There was some shuffling on a couple turns towards the end, but it was certainly better than it would have been with PTCs.

^Not really comparing the park to CF or SF, just saying that branding of rides rarely works out in the end. The cost of the branding does nothing for you in return.

^Have we not learned a lesson from other parks using unnecessarily expensive branding for their rides? Italian Job? All the Six Flags brands?

^^You never know, maybe it was a cleverly introduced bit of sarcasm.

^Maybe Verbolten was once a terrible creature that roamed the German Autobahn giving out ticky tack speeding tickets, and this is the drivers doing their very best to get away from him.

^Of the four names they gave, Verbolten is by FAR the best. And it sounds like Der Fallinfast.

I can't wait for this to invariably be the coaster that EVERYONE thinks is going to be the newest ride at their home park for the next 10 years. Wooden supports going up? It must be the Intamin 12-inversion coaster! B&M track on site? 12-inversion coaster! It's the Aquatrax for the new decade. Can't wait!

That ride literally looks like it would end someone's life.

^I guess I can put it this way. If you have great management, the odds of everyone below them following suit are much much better than if you have crappy management. If management sucks, then there's basically no chance of any quality out of your operations department. Now personally, I don't know what management is like at BGT, and I'd rather not throw them under the bus. However, based on what I've seen in my visits there the last few years, my impressions of their operations management isn't very flattering.

^Not true at all. There are tons of parks that have fantastic operations employees that have great dispatch times. BGT just isn't one of them. It starts at the top. If you don't have management and/or supervision pushing capacity and dispatch intervals, it doesn't matter what kind of employees you have, your operations are going to lack severely.

^BGW is usually pretty on point with their operations. I won't say they're above and beyond what you usually see, but for the most part they actually try. Other than that, you're right about the whole SeaWorld Parks chain. And it's not even like they have slow-dispatching rides. We're talking a wooden coaster and basically all B&Ms at the rest of the parks. Those things are made to be people eaters, and they still f*** it up.

I think in General BGT operations are going down.....The only crew I've seen that seems to care about their work is the Montu team....as for Shiekra.....they've been running with only one bay....and taking their sweet time..... -Kumba has been running 1 train on busy days....while Montu is running at least 2....REALLY 1 TRAIN!!!! -COME ON BGT!!!! PICK UP YOUR GAME! There isn't a single crew at BGT I've seen in the last two years that I would describe as anything but sub-standard to awful. That includes Montu. They probably have some of the worst operations I've ever seen in my life, and that's with over 40 parks under my belt, including several Six Flags parks (who set the standard for horrible operations in the last 10 years). It really is a shame, a park as good as BGT with operations that bad. It's the only real black mark on their record, and I wish it wasn't that way, otherwise I would be more eager to go back on a more regular basis.

The highlights for me were undoubtedly my trip to the West Coast in March for WCB, two separate trips to Kennywood, a trip to Knoebels, and being at opening day for both Intimidators. There were plenty of other great moments, but those stand out above the others.