xVicesAndVirtues

Yeah, Vans and most of the mall except for a few shops like Bass Pro are closing, and as stated above, the whole place is basically being gutted/remodeled to be an outdoor shopping center...which again I doubt will be successful, because the super high-end brands already have their footing at Millenia. I wonder if there's a chance this wooden coaster could end up being a Gravity Group creation. I just hope that if it is, they take much better care of it so its a Ravine Flyer II and less a Hades. I wish they'd invest in something like a Mega Lite from Intamin for their steel coaster. One of these in Orlando would be so epic. But that would fall into the category of very, very wishful thinking. We'd be more likely to be spared any hurricane for a straight ten year period.

^Vans is actually closing the Festival Bay location come January. Bass pro is keeping that place alive. The rest of the mall is just dead. Where did the Fun Spot owners go coaster riding in their research? Just curious...

I'm another local who is totally on board with this idea. I know that the strip of I-drive between Kirkman Road and the outlets seems kind of dead, but I really think that it just "feels" dead because of Festival Bay and a lack of other interesting attractions there right now. I think that this will really amp up that end of I-drive again. Festival Bay is really only so much of a failure because Millenia is a mile up the road, and I can vouch for that because I run one of the stores in Millenia and not only has business grown more year after year, Orlando visitors will buy anything! Also, don't forget that the outlet center is right there, and that place is always busy. It's impossible to find a parking spot there. I can't wait to see the results of the expansion and I'm itching for the details on the new coasters. I'll listen to the experts in this thread on this one. I think this expansion will only result in further future expansion.

^Thanks for the info, do you know if on-site registration is offered, or would I need to register on the IAAPA website? Also, do you know what the prices are for one-day tickets?

Just out of curiosity...how does one get invited to the IAAPA convention? I'd really like to attend since I live in Orlando now.

^What, nobody told you?!? This coaster is mini-305! !!!111 But, in all seriousness, I'm not crazy about the lap bar part of the Intamin overhead/ots restraints either.

Awesome, I can't wait to see pieces of track go up! "Overhead lap bars"?!? If it's true lap bars, let's hope they're the El Toro-style ones and not Bizarro-style. Oh god, why are we discussing restraints...

Reading this makes me miss my old home park so much... The Comet is such a great coaster. So, maybe it's been eclipsed by El Toro and a few others, but it has such a classic yet extremely smooth feel, I haven't been on any other wooden coaster like it (haven't been on Phoenix). I can only think of one time a few years back when me and some friends rode in flurries mid-October. I don't think it got too slick then, but riding it in the snow was indeed awesome!

I love the colors of this, it's going to stand out quite a bit from the rest of the rides at the park, especially when observing the skyline from I-78. Hopefully they at least build a halfway decent station for it...I'm not expecting theming, but maybe just a nicer station than it had at CGA? I'm okay with Dorney continuing to get used rides, as long as they keep getting good ones like this, Possessed, and Demon Drop. That GCI would be nice to see, though.

I was also at the park on Thursday, but I just did a quick ride on Hulk and then went and marathoned Dragons for an hour. What else was closed? And you're absolutely right about the park being 100% based on Potterworld. I have a few friends who work in the park, and employees that work in Potterworld have to take a Potterworld test to show their knowledge of Harry Potter and everything to do with the book series. Employees must score an 85% or higher in order to work in Wizarding World. Landing a job in Wizarding World also pays a little more, an additional 25-75 cents an hour, depending on position. So basically, what ends up happening, is that the more competent employees are ALL together in Wizarding World, while the less competent employees run the rest of the park. This is very obvious sometimes, as Hulk has some pretty sporadic operations such as occasional train-stacking or empty seats or whole rows going out due to the station queue attendant not knowing how to send 4 guests to each row. Also, there's always a CRAPLOAD of people in that little narrow area of the park, and it's such a hassle to get to the entrance to Dragons when you have to dodge insane people trying to take a picture in front of the damn train or every single building. It really turns the rest of the park, especially the back areas like Jurassic Park, into a ghost town. I really still feel like Wizarding World would have been a better fit for the Universal Studios side of the park. I know that the area is themed to an IOA level, but it just really throws off a once perfectly-balanced park and took away some of the best theming the park had to offer.

I absolutely love Dorney park, despite what anyone says about it being "corporate", "lost its charm", etc. Talon is my favorite invert, Hydra is one of my favorite floorlesses, and the overall park is just awesome with tons of things to do. That being said, I haven't been to their Haunt since two years ago, but I have to ask, did they do away with CarnEVIL? I went in 2008 and 2009 for Haunt, and CarnEVIL was an awesome haunted clown house set-up somewhere in the middle of the midway between the entrance to Talon and Hydra. I think it may have been a little closer to Talon. It's also a shame to hear about the under-populated Haunts, as the last time we went through Corn Stalkers, we had actors jumping out of the corn or waiting behind the corners constantly, doing a great job acting their part. I know the hiring for scare actors can be difficult for parks, though, as most parks hire a TON of scare actors just for their Halloween event, just to lay them off a month later, and the turnover is bad and the quality of employee is pretty low, as they tend to hire just about anyone. Great to see you reporting from Dorney, though. If you go again, please take pictures!

It's great to see so many of you guys enjoy my old home park of 21 years, before I moved to the land where Wizards and anti-semetic mice rule the theme parks. The Great Escape has always been a pretty classic, charming park, and they actually restored some of their old charm this year that they had lost for a while, by dumping most of the Six Flags corporate branding and going back to their old roots by bringing back some of the Storytown USA characters and houses to the park. A few years back, I think you guys would have enjoyed it even more, as there used to be a Huss Rainbow where the Sasquatch S&S towers now sit, the Blizzard Scrambler used to be inside a dome with strobe lights, the Flying Elephants from The Golden Kingdom at SFGAdv sat where the Blizzard is now, there was a Schwarzkopf Jet Star in the now-storage Nightmare building, and the park also had a Trabant in front of the Skillet building in Fest Area. The Comet has always been a great old classic woodie, and I'm really glad to see Alpine Bobsled spared from the scrap yard despite having a few rough runs into the brakes. The waterpark is also great for a park of it's size, and they're adding a proslide KrakenRacer and Trapdoor slide tower next year. They have been throwing around the idea with getting something new into the Nightmare building for a few years, but the park definitely has some funding issues with corporate Six Flags. Did you guys get a Q&A session with anyone from the park's management at all? Don McCoy, the Park President, is a super nice and knowledgeable guy to talk to.

I'm surprised nobody has posted about this yet...from Six Flags Great Adventure's Facebook page: I wonder why the sudden change...now a 240-foot tower instead of 150? Hopefully the other flats are still to follow...

I went to SeaWorld Orlando a few weeks ago, and the past 3 or 4 visits I've made to that park make me want to return less and less. Manta is usually run fairly efficiently, and to be fair, on super-crowded days they run both stations and 2 trains on each side, which gets the line moving pretty quickly. However, Kraken is run SO badly lately. Two visits ago, they were running two trains, but managing to run them as slowly as possible, to the point where they'd stack for 2-3 minutes each run. On my last few visits, operations were so awful that they made the old Six Flags way of doing things look good. They were running one train with just a station wait, but a 4-train wait took about 45 minutes, I lost count. The one train would run the entire huge course, then it'd come back, they'd wait until everyone left the station, the 2 ride operators were joking around and walking TOGETHER to release the safety buckles to open restraints on non-used seats from the train before. Then, after they were finally done (this took about another 1-2 minutes), they finally opened the air gates. After doing so and waiting for everyone to sit down and get comfortable, they went back up to invite guests into the empty Quick Queue designated rows to fill the train. Then, they'd close the air gates, then finally lock the train. Then, they'd again walk slowly together around the train while joking around, half-assedly checking restraints as they went. I'd say the whole time between the train pulling into the station until the next dispatch was at LEAST 7-9 minutes. Plus, the ride is about a 3.5-minute course. And that isn't the only bad news I'd report about the new SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment and their operations. On my last visit to Busch Gardens Tampa, on a moderately busy day, they were running one train on Kumba, two trains on Montu but intermittently stacking, two trains on SheiKra with only one station, and only one side and one train on Gwazi. The only "good" operations I saw all day were at Cheetah Hunt. I really hope this isn't a sign of future continued poor operations for that company, because the Worlds of Discovery used to be arguably my favorite chain of parks out there.

Some of the categories are so close, making them hard to rank, but for the most part I'd go in this order: Inverts: I've been on more Inverts than any other B&M coaster type, and this is undeniably their best-selling product that's stood the test of time. Having been on 12 (BTR@SFGAdv and SFoG, Dragons, Talon, Raptor, Alpengeist, Great Bear, Montu, Le Vampire, Flight Deck, and Afterburn), there are some that can be a little bit tame or hit-or-miss, but for the most part, nearly all of them are extremely thrilling and unique. I can't deny the crazy directional changes, wing-overs, and pacing of these coasters. I'd call Talon, Raptor, and Dragons the superstars of this category. Sitdown Looping: Sometimes I feel a bit unfair for ranking this category so high, as I've only been on Hulk and Kumba in this category. But, both coasters deliver awesome, fast-paced experiences with high positive g forces, and I think they really represent when B&M was absolutely in their prime. Plus, there's just something for me about being able to feel the vibrations of the wheels under my feet as the train speeds along. I'd love to see a comeback in this category. Speed: Each of these coasters pretty much delivers, despite some of them meshing together and being a little bit difficult to distinguish. But, the floater (and once in a great while, if you get lucky, borderline ejector) airtime, combined with some cool elements such as hammerhead turns, really make this a great category of coasters, and I can't wait to experience the giga version of one. Having been on 5 (Nitro, Apollo's Chariot, Goliath @LaRonde, Goliath @ SFoG, and Intimidator), the ones that really stick out above the rest for me are Apollo's Chariot and Nitro. Oldies but goodies. Floorless: I think this is a category with potential, and I've seen a few of these that really do deliver. The front-row experience is obviously the only place where the "floorless" matters, but the back rows can provide an intense ride on a select few of these. Having been on 6 (BTDK, Bizarro, Hydra the Revenge, Kraken, Dominator, and Medusa), I'd applaud Hydra for incredible uniqueness and Dominator for feeling so awesomely out-of-control and fast with an El Toro-like ending. But, Bizarro is always so forgettable for me that I always tend to get off wondering why I just waited an hour for it. The rest are totally hit or miss. Flyers: This is where I'd say the "lower tier" of B&M coasters starts for me. Don't get me wrong, the Flying Coaster is a great new way to experience a coaster, and everyone on this site will agree that Pretzel loops are orgasmic, but the rest of the experience tends to be...forgettable. I've been on S:UF at both Great Adventure and over Georgia and Manta. Manta is the obvious winner here, and I really enjoy the whole layout, especially the strange flying airtime out of the MCBR. Dive Machines: Griffon and SheiKra. For some reason, Griffon definitely delivers a noticeably better ride experience than SheiKra, despite them being nearly identical sans a loop. The holding brake before the drop is enough to make me crap my pants like a schoolgirl on an Intamin drop tower, especially on the outer edge on Griffon's extra EXTRA wide trains. But, after the cool drop, the rest of the layout on both coasters is so tame, although I slightly enjoy the hangtime in the immelman loops on both. Maybe if B&M could further develop this coaster design, throw in an airtime hill or something to keep the riders from falling asleep. Stand-Up: Okay, bottom of the barrel here. This is another category that I really see as having great potential that it never really got the opportunity to live up to. Of the 5 I've been on, including Mantis, Vortex at CGA and Carowinds, Georgia Scorcher, and Green Lantern, I really only loved Mantis. Green Lantern and Scorcher are both "okay", but rough in spots, and I absolutely hated Vortex at CGA. The whole standing concept is cool, I really like the bigger models with the huge soaring inversions, but it's when you get down to those little tight turns and directional changes on the smaller ones, that's when you really need to hold onto your ears and balls. Now, I just need to experience my first WingRider. Dollywood 2012 here I come.

^Yeah, I mean, I could see Intimidator305 being an attraction you have to "move up to" when you work there, but there's no excuse for Dominator's crew being extremely slow, when it's arguably the second-best coaster in the park, and it's right in front, so everyone rushes to it when they get to the park. Thanks for all the awesome comments, everyone!

All my photos that I've posted throughout the entire report are actually taken with my iPhone 4. It takes really great daytime pictures, but at night you really have to hold it still to get a decent picture.

This thread is not dead! Sorry for the delay, now onto the Kings Dominion report, from the final day of our trip! Okay, so, it was Easter Sunday. We’re in the South…we were really crossing our fingers for an empty park...and that was exactly what we got! We arrived a little past opening time, to find a nearly deserted parking lot. Walked in, headed straight to Dominator, a tradition I usually follow with my KD visits, to find a back-row walk on for what is easily the best B&M floorless coaster. Seriously, this thing kicks a$$, despite lacking a zero-g roll. I believe Dominator is the tallest of the B&M floorlesses, correct me if I’m wrong. You just get so much speed and forces because this thing is so big. You zoom through the turns, especially the one right after the vertical loop. Usually all of the B&M floorless coasters kind of blend together for me, since so many of them have nearly the same layout. Dominator and Hydra the Revenge are the only ones that really stick out above the rest for me. The fact that KD got to snub Busch Gardens by installing this coaster is also pretty amusing. After a fun back row ride, it was time to quit messing around and head for the main reason to visit this park. Intimidator305. Yeah. If you haven’t been on this coaster, go ride it. This thing is NUTS. Kind of scary nuts. I got to ride it last year with the trims, and thought it was amazing then. Now, without the trims, the forces this coaster gives are just completely insane. The drop feels like you’re being thrown of the edge of the world…I’m not sure if it’s the lift speed or the angle or what it is, but that drop completely trumps Millennium Force’s. Then, even with the modification, the turn still makes me completely black out, and I never black out on any coasters. The BIG difference with the trims being gone is that the second hill gives the kind of ejector airtime we all know and love from Intamin, instead of the weak floater it gave last year. Then, you get thrown into a labyrinth of twists, turns, and more airtime. The 90-degree to 90-degree banking transitions are crazy, and by the time you hit the brake run, you hardly know what just happened. I’m kind of not a huge fan of the trims toward the end of the ride, but they don’t affect the forces or airtime whatsoever, and I understand that if they weren’t there, the ride would probably tear itself apart, so I’m not complaining. I’m more of a fan of El Toro’s overall ride experience, but this is easily my #1 coaster for the steel list, pushing Bizarro from my top spot that it’s held for years. I’ll also note that I absolutely love Millennium Force, but this is just such an evolution from the year 2000 that it’s blown completely out of the water. Please, Intamin, keep finding more contracts for these coasters. I’ll be delighted if Hershey’s 2012 project turns out to be a Giga. After three wait-less rides in a row on i305 completely scrambling our brains so early in the morning, we decided to give it a break and mosey on over to Volcano the Blast Coaster. There is nothing at all wrong about having two Intamin coasters in one corner of a park. I wish Intamin had gotten more of a chance to evolve this inverted LIM-launched concept, as it’s a really cool ride with awesome potential. Strangely, Volcano had about a 20-minute line…I think everybody that walked into the park headed right to Volcano. After waiting, we finally got on toward the back of the train. I really enjoy the launch followed by the turn on the ground, followed by the other launch up into the volcano. After the inversion at the top of the volcano, the ride kind of mellows out for me. I think it would have been cool if they designed the coaster with one in-line roll, followed by some unique inversions such as some kind of diving inversion. The repeated in-line rolls just get old and the train seems to crawl through them. Also, I wish there was some more turns or something back on the ground, rather than just going down the mountain to the end of the ride. Overall, though, this is a really good coaster, it just leaves a little to be desired. Since we were still in the Congo, we decided to hit up The Crypt. Normally, Huss Top Spins make me feel like a rag doll being tossed around in a stomach-punching cage. But, the floorless design has MUCH better restraints than the standard design, and doesn’t seem to jerk around as much. The fire, water, and music effects are pretty cool, too. Who knew Universal-style theming and effects existed in a Cedar Fair park? Oh yeah, Paramount installed this. We felt that after being treated so well by Dominator, i305, Volcano, and The Crypt, we felt we needed a little bit of punishment in the form of Anaconda. Don’t get me wrong, I love these old Arrow multi-loopers. However, Anaconda just happens to have one of the worst transitions in the middle of the ride, a few unnecessary coat-hanger turns of death. Ron Toomer had to have been feeling sadistic when he designed this thing. I think a little TLC or something could make some of these rides a little better, though…how does Loch Ness Monster manage to be B&M-smooth? Flight of Fear was up next, as we kind of forgot about it the first time we were over that way. Premier launch coasters are always awesome and smooth, and this one is no exception. Joker’s Jinx has always seemed a little more intense, possibly because the mid-course brakes are on so hard on Flight of Fear. But, despite that, FoF is an enjoyable in-the-dark experience. I’m not sure why, but we decided to spare ourselves the pain of Shockwave as we walked into the center of the park. Usually I give this a turn or two just because it’s one of the few coasters that really make me fear for my life. So, we headed over to Rebel Yell, as we found Drop Tower closed. =( Rebel Yell was MUCH smoother than Thunder Road had been the day before. We got some really nice airtime in the back seat, and I really love the view of Intimidator305 from the turnaround. It’s funny to feel so inferior when you’re 75ish feet up on a coaster, looking at a 305-foot giant towering over you. We made an attempt to go up Eiffel Tower, but we found it closed when we got over there. Sad, as I was really hoping to take some photos from up there. We ended up never getting the chance to ride it, as it remained closed the rest of the afternoon. It was getting to be the hottest day of the trip, despite the fact that we had just been in Florida a few days before. We opted for the log flume, and found a decent-sized line, as everyone seemed to be thinking likewise. Since most non Dudley-Doo-Right’s log flumes never seem to get you wet, we had to improvise by splashing each other back and forth while traveling along through the wooded course. Glad we did, because the end drop only produced a few drops. Then, we went off in search of food, where we found a closed Chick-Fil-A (sad), so we settled for the Congo Grill. Here, we found one of the slowest food experiences I’ve ever had at a park. In addition to some white trash family being in front of us having quite a bit of trouble deciding what they wanted to get, most of the food options still had to be cooked. Overall, we stood in line for about 20 minutes with only the one family ahead of us. Thankfully, the food was freshly made and hot. I’d have to say, though, the food quality was complete crap…but what do you expect from a Cedar Fair park? Hurler was up next, and every time I go into that area of the park, I always lament the fact that I never got to ride HypersonicXLC. I’ve actually heard guests mention it numerous times, and while in line for Hurler, a kid and his father was talking about how “Supersonic was gone”. Always a fun woodie, I think Hurler is really underrated. It’s a little rough, but back seat rides give some great airtime and the turns are really fun. As we still had to drive back to upstate New York that night, we decided to give Intimidator305 a few more rides, hit Dominator one last time, and call it a day. Overall, despite some closed attractions, the lack of crowds made for an awesome day. Kings Dominion is definitely the best-themed Cedar Fair park I’ve visited, but I think the credit is deserved to the Paramount days. But, hopefully Cedar Fair will continue to make investments like they did for 2010, which will really put this park on the map, which I already feel it is. 10:30 in the morning, parking lot empty, coasters running, looks like a good start to the day! I think this was everyone in the parking lot so far! Dominator up first! Yellow loop One of the insane turns on this ride that help make it the best B&M floorless I'm pretty sure you couldn't get this picture at Geauga Lake Now, the reason we're here, Intimidator305! This wasn't the line, this was everyone walking into the empty station Exit photo Overview of awesome More I can't get enough pictures of this coaster Brake run porn Four restraint-checkers at a Cedar Fair park? No way! Read the sign The only wait of the day Good operations...theming...are we still at a Cedar Fair park? Mt. St. Helens the ride...too soon? Grit your teeth and take it Double-shot of lift hill porn Beautiful Flight of Fear station theming Skipped the Togo Death Machine this time...cool new paint job, though. Nice landscaping details Le Tour Closed. Wish we could have swam in this today We opted for the Log Flume instead Through the trees We also skipped out on the flyers Wayne's World. Turn, turn, turn Going up The best coaster modification yet Trains with the awesome shoulder straps Front row ride awesomeness I really like this photo...the stacked brake runs look cool Dominator's crew could have used i305's crew's enthusiasm Should have taken this photo on the way in...fail Saying goodbye...it's been a great day, Kings Dominion! And what trip to the south would be complete without Krispy Kreme? We each bought two dozen to hold us over, since we don't have any nearby where we live! Thanks for reading and all the great comments!

This is the best thread I've seen in a long time! I've been on 8. All the coast-to-coasters, and to be honest, the only one I really *hate* is LaRonde's. That thing needs the new trains pretty badly. Carolina Cobra was probably the most enjoyable by no headbanging, but the truly "smoothest" is either Great Escape's, Hershey's, or Lake Compounce's. Boomerang - La Ronde (Operating 1984) Boomerang Coast to Coaster - Six Flags Discovery Kingdom (Operating 3/27/1998) Boomerang Coast to Coaster - Great Escape & Splashwater Kingdom (Operating 5/23/1997) Boomerang Coast to Coaster - Darien Lake (Operating 5/16/1998) Carolina Cobra - Carowinds (Operating 3/28/2009) Flashback - Six Flags New England (Operating 5/5/2000) Sidewinder - Hersheypark (Operating 5/11/1991) Zoomerang - Lake Compounce (Operating 6/27/1997)

I think that Cedar Fair and Six Flags should do a "train trade", where Kingda Ka and Top Thrill Dragster trade trains, and Bizarro and Millennium Force trade trains. Nobody will hate on Bizarro for the crappy new slow trains, and nobody will hate on Kingda Ka for feeling like they got shaken infant syndrome or whatever, and everybody can satisfy their Cedar Point hate. But, no, in all seriousness, as much as everyone likes to hate on Millennium Force for being at Cedar Point, Millennium Force is pretty awesome. Just not as awesome as the purposely-five-feet-shorter-so-Cedar Point-stays-boss Giga.

I can mostly agree with the results. I was honestly hoping that Intimidator305 would take the #1 or #2 spot, as I think it's a LOT better than Bizarro, but we'll see how it ranks next year once more people ride it in it's revised form. I think it's funny with the B&M speed coasters, too, but the only thing I don't get is the placing of Apollo's Chariot below the top group. Maybe I got it on a REALLY good day, but I got nearly Intamin-quality airtime the whole ride, and I rank it several spots above my next-best speed coaster, Nitro.

Day 2: Carowinds 4/23 After a few hours driving from Atlanta and through rural Georgia on I-85, we finally made it up to Charlotte in the early afternoon. It was the day before Easter and the park was having a Guiness world record-breaking event, to have the most people dyeing Easter eggs at one time, so we were prepared for the worst. And yeah, this was one of the most crowded days I’ve seen at a chain theme park in a few years. We pulled into the parking lot to find the awe-inspiring sight of Intimidator towering over us, and, thankfully, as a train was exiting the MCBR, another train was already ascending the lift hill. At least operations weren’t going to be a concern. The entrance to this park is VERY southern-looking, but in good taste. The entrance area to this park, and most of the park itself is very beautiful. Good landscaping everywhere. We headed in and I made a desperate attempt to see if Carowinds had some kind of queue-skipping system. Nope. Please, Cedar Fair, invest in an Lo-Q system! We went for Intimidator first after seeing a full queue for Nighthawk. Intimidator had a full queue, but thankfully, with fast 3-train operations, the line only took about 40 minutes. I was pleased to see that they were using the station control technique, and assigning seats. I really wish that all parks would do this, at least on the busy days. I wish they’d do this with Nitro and Bizarro, as their stations are always huge clusterf*cks. We got seated somewhere in the middle of the train in the front of a car, so we were in the side-by-side seats. Our first ride on it was pretty decent. Good floater airtime throughout and the best hammerhead turn on any speed coaster I’ve been on. This first ride wouldn’t come close to our ride at the end of the day in back row, though… From here we wandered our way around toward Afterburn. The sign-less queue entrance was kind of difficult to find for a couple of Carowinds first-timers, and when we finally found it, we found a brutally un-shaded concrete slab of switchbacks where you had to watch your back for wasps ready to tear away at your skin. Cool. After waiting about 20 minutes we were finally in line for back row. I have to say…I’ve seen so many people rant and rave about how this is the best freaking B&M invert in the country, and I just don’t get it. Don’t get me wrong, it was a great ride, but it doesn’t shape up to Montu, Talon, or Raptor for me. The layout was great, and any invert with a Batwing element is good in my book, but it was kind of short and lacked the crazy directional changes that other inverts seem to provide. Also, the “airtime” hill didn’t even deliver any floater airtime. But, it kept up it’s great pacing the whole ride and the drop was one of the best on any of the inverts. We then went on off in search of food, and found a Chick-Fil-A in the park. You could tell we were in the south, because all of the normal Cedar Fair food places were empty, and Chick-Fil-A was getting tons of business. Hopefully Cedar Fair makes a good profit off of them, because they’re clearly stealing all the business (not that Cedar Fair has actual good food, anyway). After eating, we kind of meandered off in search of which ride we could justify waiting in line for. Nighthawk had an insanely long line and was running one train, which is never good news for a Vekoma Flyer. Carolina Cyclone’s line was stretching onto the midway. Hurler was running one train and had a line back to the entrance. Carolina Cobra had a full queue as well. Finally, we settled for a flat ride, Enterprise. It was here that we’d have the closest experience to witnessing a death at a theme park we’d ever have. As the ride started moving, a little teenage b*tch decided that she didn’t want to ride, so she hopped between the bars and out of the car! Luckily, everyone in line started shouting and the ride operator e-stopped the ride immediately. It’s people like this that ruin theme park attractions for everyone. I was so infuriated seeing this that I wasn’t sure if I was more thankful that the ride operator stopped the ride in time, or if I wished that Charles Darwin had taken one of his own. Then, to add to my annoyance, the ride operator let her get back in and ride because she decided she wanted to! She should have been ejected and trespassed from the park, in my opinion. Ridiculous… Then, we decided to hit Vortex, as B&M stand-ups are usually worth waiting a bit for. After about 45 minutes of waiting, we were on. Again, the ride operators weren’t really showing anyone how to ride a stand-up coaster. What was worse, they weren’t even giving people 5 seconds to get their seat height adjusted before locking the height adjusters. I ended up getting stuck with my feet barely touching the floor, and prepared for the worst. Luckily, the forces weren’t too strong, so my balls survived the ride. For such an old stand-up, I was surprised to find the ride smooth except for one neck-chopping turn toward the end of the ride. Not quite as fun as Georgia Scorcher, but miles better than the other Vortex at CGA or a Togo Death Machine. We decided to do a little credit-whoring and rode the Carolina Goldrusher, as the line looked pretty short. We were wrong. It was running one train and the station was packed with people. We waited it out anyway, and after about 30 painful minutes, finally got on. It had a few cool moments of speed, but it was probably the lamest of the Arrow mine trains I’ve been on. I was determined to ride Carolina Cyclone to experience how new trains could change an old Boomerang. We waited in a full queue, but it only ended up taking about 20 minutes, as they were filling the station while the ride was still going. I have to say, these new trains make a BIG difference, and I wish every rough Boomerang would get these, particularly LaRonde’s. The side bars are a few feet out from your head and it’s as though they aren’t even there. The chest piece reminded me a bit of a B&M flyer. Now it was getting close to closing time, and we had a few hours’ drive up to Virginia for Kings Dominion the next day. We wanted to ride Nighthawk really badly, but it still had a 100% full queue. We decided to skip it, and rode Intimidator a second time. Such a good decision. We were first in line for the train to start getting loaded, so I asked if we could ride in back row. The operator let us, and it was AWESOME. Insane airtime over every hill, and we loved the spaced-apart seating. I still can’t quite say that Intimidator lives up to Apollo’s Chariot, but it was on-par with the awesome rides Nitro was giving on opening day, but I give the slight edge to Nitro for being a little longer and having the small airtime hills at the end. A bunch of missed credits but oh well, I’ll be back again at some point. We walked back to the car with Intimidator roaring past us, happy that we finally got to visit this park and ride their awesome new B&M speed coaster. Now, onto the pictures! Driving in Really nice views of the park driving into the parking lot Intimidator towers over the parking lot Soaring through the hammerhead First drop Very nice "southern style" entrance Fountain and tower. This park is one of the more beautiful Cedar Fair parks We've all seen this photo. Now with less boobs! Oh yeah, tomorrow is Easter. And the park was having a contest to break the Guinness world record for the most people dying Easter eggs at the same time Full Intimidator queue. Luckily they were running 3 trains very efficiently Lift hill from the stairs Somehow we didn't see the queue right in front of us... Final helix Another full queue...this was the theme of the day. Overview of Afterburn from the hill behind it A lot of nice little fountains and landscaping features everywhere in this park really made it look beautiful Stealing the show and revenue from the rest of the park's food offerings More cool park theming Unfortunately, I was a little too late to take a picture of the girl hopping out Another full queue The obligatory B&M dive drop and vertical loop Flat spin Nighthawk...unfortunately we missed this credit. I really like the color scheme. A boomerang that can't bash your head from side to side! What?!? Vertical loop Full queue for Intimidator even toward the end of the night Intimidator drop awesomeness More nice theming details Afterburn looking epic on the way out What an awesome view when entering/exiting the park And I'll end this with the awesome view of the park from the highway. Until next time, Carowinds!

On our way back from Florida, me and a friend of mine decided to hit up a few southern parks to split up the long, emotionally strenuous drive back to upstate New York. We sort of squeezed the parks in with a lot of driving, so we didn’t exactly get all the credits we wanted, but we still had an awesome time! Day 1: Six Flags over Georgia 4/22 We didn’t make it up to Austell until 4pm on an 8pm closing because of a low tire pressure drama and some awesome southern traffic. We arrived to find a fairly full parking lot, but we were determined to make the best of it. It’s sort of strange how the parking lot sits behind the park. I don’t think I’ve ever been to a park that does this, but it’s kind of interesting, since you get a snapshot of the park’s layout before setting foot in the park. We walked into a nice entrance plaza with probably the smallest “main street” I’ve seen in any other Six Flags. Size aside, from here it was already evident that this was going to be one of the nicer parks in the chain. We made our way around to Georgia Scorcher to find about a 20-minute wait. Upon entering the station, I noticed that the ride operators weren’t instructing anyone on how to properly ride a stand-up coaster. I saw a bunch of people actually sitting down on the bicycle seat, and some at just awkward angles. A lot of these people had to have had a ball-crushing experience. Scorcher was a decent coaster, definitely one of the smoother B&M stand-ups I’ve ridden, but it was kind of weak and short. It was like the Batman the Dark Knight of B&M stand-ups. I definitely prefer the larger ones like Mantis. Still a fun ride, though. I just hope that when Green Lantern opens at Great Adventure, they make an instructional video on their SFTV about how to ride a stand-up. Also, there was quite a bit of stacking going on. From there we made our way to Goliath, which I was pretty stoked for. We found a 30-minute wait, but the line moved quickly and the crew was doing a nice job not stacking the 2 trains they were running. I’m not absolutely crazy about B&M speed coasters, as I prefer the Intamin megas, but this one was still a lot of fun. Really nice floater airtime over all the hills, especially over the last few. My only bone to pick was that the coaster was kind of short. Not nearly as good as Apollo’s Chariot or Nitro, but better than it’s French Canadian counterpart. A solid “top 20” ride. Then, we wandered toward the center/rear of the park, and ended up over at Ninja. I have to say…I think this is my new #last coaster. So much neck-slamming, even with “defensive riding”. Sadly, we were even in the front car. I would have hated to be anywhere in the middle, as people were getting off looking as though they had just been raped by this thing. Also, they seemed to be using an Arrow train from another coaster in addition to the Vekoma train they had running. The Arrow train didn’t match the coaster or other train at all, and I suspect that it may have come from Great American Scream Machine at Six Flags Great Adventure. Does anybody know anything about this? After taking our punishment for the day, we meandered over to Superman Ultimate Flight. The second you walk up to this thing, it is evident that this was the first Superman flyer. It’s built perfectly into the hill that it sits on, every element wrapping the landscape just the right way. Why did they have to clone this, rather than giving Great Adventure and Great America a custom flyer? I’ve been on the one at Great Adventure, and it just kind of sits in a field, as opposed to hugging the terrain. The terrain interaction magnifies the feeling of flying, and almost makes you forget that you’re on a 30-second Superman flyer. This made the ride experience a hundred times better than the one at Great Adventure. The only thing that was unfortunate was the 45-minute wait running two trains and only using one station. Added to this, the queue experience was one of the worst I’ve ever had. A couple of locals that were directly behind us decided that they were above waiting in line, so they proceeded to pretend to be looking for a family member, and attempt cutting the line. After two of them did it, a couple of people a bit of the way up the line decided to make a human chain-block against the others trying to line-jump. Some words got exchanged and it started getting a little racial, but luckily ended without any violence. This exchange was definitely an “oh yeah, I’m in Dixie” moment. These kinds of things are definitely tensions you forget exist when you live north of the Mason-Dixon line. After Superman, we walked through the heart of the park. I really like the way this park is set-up, especially around the chute-the-chutes, mine train, and kiddie coaster. Everything was squeezed in but just fit together the right way. We were a bit confused at this point, having failed to look at a park map, and we were looking for Gotham City. For some reason I thought it’d be over in that direction, but it turned out that the park just wraps around from there back to the entrance, and you have to walk behind the new Dare Devil Dive in order to get to Gotham. We didn’t notice this whatsoever on our first walk back, so I think a lot of the GP is going to miss out on Mindbender and Batman if they don’t know that area is back there. Finally having made it around to Gotham, we headed straight for Mindbender, to find it a walk-on. This old Schwarzkopf classic was absolutely fantastic. It feels so dangerous and out of control with the little lapbars and the way it takes the turns so quickly. Also, the fact that it’s so well-hidden in the trees keeps you from knowing the layout before you ride it. It really flies through the trees, the loops give great positive g’s, and there’s a few good pops of airtime. I really hope Six Flags keeps this coaster for the long haul, because it’s getting rare to find a classic like this. Really makes me miss Laser at Dorney Park. After our Mind-bending experience, we headed over to Batman. The walk over also gave us the opportunity to admire the Gotham City atmosphere and theming. I really enjoyed the “old school” Gotham look at this park. It really made the Gotham theming at Great Adventure look half-*ssed. Batman had a pretty long line, but I also enjoyed the added queue theming. After about 45 minutes, we finally got on the back row of the train. I’m not crazy about Batman clones, as I much prefer nearly all of the custom B&M inverts, but they’re still decent. I’d say this one gave about the same ride as Great Adventure’s, and not quite as intense as LaRonde’s. From here, we only had about 15 minutes left in the park. We knew it’d only be good for one last credit, so we decided to hit Great American Scream Machine. Beautiful setting for this wooden coaster, shame it gets flooded nearly every year. It was definitely well-maintained, and I didn’t expect buzz bars on a wooden coaster this large. I gave my seat belt a little slack, so I got NUTS airtime, especially on the return hills. This woodie reminded me a lot of Wild One at SFA, how an unsuspecting woodie can give a totally sweet ride. Now it was park closing time, and time to lament the loss of a few credits and a few other rides we would have liked to ride. But, we still had a great four hours in the park, and got to take some pictures and see what the park had to offer. I plan to hopefully return, possibly as early as next year. Now, onto the pictures. Carowinds and Kings Dominion coming up soon! From the parking lot...2 trains in one photo is a good sign! Walking around toward the entrance...Goliath looking majestic and awesome! Any B&M Speed Coaster with a downward helix is fine by me Entrance shot...welcome to Six Flags ga The small but nicely-done main street Probably the only appropriate Six Flags coaster wrap Goliath stealing Scorcher's thunder A little too early to get this credit...shame. Goliath has one of the most epic non-themed stations I've seen Goliath lift and drop A preview of the pain yet to come It looks innocent and nice...but this thing is brutal Better than the Boardwalk entrance Superman entrance and pretzel loop First drop...you can see how this thing fits in with the hillside Terrain-hugging awesomeness! From the station Are we at Six Flags New England? The only picture of Mindbender I could get from the station. Sorry for the poor iPhone quality Batman through the awesome Gotham theming Twisty bits This Batman the Ride is a favorite among mosquitoes! I see you, Mindbender The queue was all the way into the first tunnel Forget Fukushima Dai-ichi. Batman was irradiating guests today GASM being beautiful Almost the same picture of Scream Machine...and I think this is one of those "assume the position" skycoasters Scorcher and Goliath on the way out More night-time Georgia Scorcher/Goliath awesomeness! One last shot from the parking lot of Mindbender...sorry again for the iPhone night blur. Thanks for reading! Carowinds up soon!

Nice photo TR! I really miss this park, I haven't been in two years. Everyone always thinks of SFA as the "garbage" SF park, but I've always really enjoyed it. Their SLC is one of the smoothest I've been on, Superman kicks a$$, Joker is less trimmed and more intense than Flight of Fear, Wild One is amazing, and Batwing is a nice alternative to all the B&M Flyers everywhere. Has anything changed/been updated with Superman, or do they still keep those terrible leg bindings on the restraints?

Thanks for the replies, guys! ^The wooden coasters thing was something I heard a member of the GP saying when I was in line for Nitro. Also, after a rollback on Kingda Ka, a bunch of girls started FLIPPING out saying "dat sh*t is dangerous, we leavin'!", even though there's signs in the queue stating how rollbacks are a normal occurrence.