xVicesAndVirtues

I completely agree on that. While it's not in my top 10, Expedition Everest is extremely under-rated. By far the best Disney coaster.

My recently-updated list... Steel: 1. Bizarro - Six Flags New England I've been riding this coaster every year since my first visit to SFNE in 2003. Since about 2006, it had been in a real need of TLC, to the point where the airtime was affected and the overall power of the ride just was getting lackluster, although it still remained my #1 coaster. I'm happy to say that the Bizarro treatment,new trains, and TLC given to it make it 10x better an experience than before. The drop, 2 underground tunnels, and 9 extreme airtime moments make this coaster a BIG step above the rest of my top coasters. 2. El Toro - Six Flags Great Adventure Not much to say here...incredible first drop, incredible airtime, including the most extreme moment of airtime I've ever experienced, going over Rolling Thunder. 3. Millennium Force - Cedar Point Just rode this coaster for the first time a few days ago, and got in about 20 rides over 3 days at all times of day and in all parts of the trains. I never thought I could enjoy a coaster this much without having tons of airtime, but the way this coaster keeps up the speed is just fantastic. Also, I nearly blacked out almost each time while going through the huge first overbank. 4. Superman Ride of Steel - Six Flags America Great first drop, awesome airtime, VERY intense helices. The blue train gives MUCH better rides than the red train, though. I rode this about 20 times during my visit, and the red train just shuffles and rattles a lot. This coaster is fantastic, but would be even better, and possibly even beat Millennium Force on my list, if it got new trains and some TLC. 5. Maverick - Cedar Point One of the most intense coasters I've ever ridden. My first two rides I actually didn't enjoy because I've never had my head bashed so hard into an OTSR before in my life. However, once I "learned" to ride it, it was incredible. The airtime hill is nuts and the snappy turns and inversions are extremely intense. Also, the slow-down followed by 0-70 launch beneath the station were extremely cool. 6. Storm Runner - Hersheypark Easily the best Intamin Accelerator coaster I've been on, and I wish more parks would build coasters like this. The launch was extremely powerful and the entire ride was just pure speed, and even had a few good pops of airtime. 7. Ride of Steel - Darien Lake Beautiful coaster with a beautiful setting. Unfortunately, this one doesn't run quite as well as Six Flags America's version. The trim was on toward the end of the ride, which hurt the airtime on 2 of the bunny hops at the end. But overall, still a great coaster. 8. Talon - Dorney Park By far the best and most intense B&M invert I've been on. The trenches at the bottom of the first few inversions are very cool and create great foot-choppers in the front row, there's a good pop of airtime in the middle of the ride, and the on-the-ground turns toward the end were crazy. The speed almost never lets up throughout the entire ride. 9. Nitro - Six Flags Great Adventure Great floater airtime, a very different experience from the Intamin megas/gigas I've been on. Overall a fantastic coaster. 10. Fahrenheit - Hersheypark Vertical lift followed by a 97 degree drop was a VERY unique and intense experience. Also, the pretzel-looking loop had great forces, and there were 2 pretty good pops of airtime. Another type of coaster I wish we'd see more of.

^Exactly...I look at it the same sort of way. It's better than no coaster at all, and it's still an enjoyable experience. And while it doesn't necessarily compare to Intamin or B&M creations, I'm glad they're there, because they provide a different type of ride experience.

She's a dirty whore. Ohh, wait, we're talking about the Chance-Morgan coaster company. Well...I've only been on one, Steel Force. While it's a "fun" ride, and I really enjoy all coasters...I'd have to say, I'm not surprised that it's been 5 years since they've gotten any business. Even conservative companies like Bolliger & Mabillard update their designs/trains periodically. Morgan has pretty much stuck to the same exact thing for years and years. Sure, their coasters are fun, but they don't compare to the competition. What incentive would a park have to buy a Morgan hypercoaster, when they can consult Intamin or B&M and get a more popular design, and spend the same amount on steel? If they could come up with a design that could eclipse their rivals, they'd probably get a decent amount of business. That being said, it almost seems like they're on a coaster-building hiatus. Does anyone know if they even submit bids for projects to parks anymore?

Just to add while everyone's hating on the layout...I know nothing of KD's property boundaries or height zones or anything, but, wasn't it said a bunch of pages back that this construction site was compact for a reason? Maybe this is all they could do, given the site constraints. And, I'm sort of not buying into the whole can't-be-better-than-MF idea here... Millennium Force has already been eclipsed a few times in height, so I don't see why Cedar Fair would beat a dead horse and try to make it "not as tall as MF". That's like if KD were to get a GCI woodie, and them saying "well, we can't POSSIBLY go any higher than Mean Streak". If they wanted to be able to sell Cedar Point to people, I'm sure they'd do it by saying "if you like this, then go check out Top Thrill Dragster! Its 420 feet tall and makes this thing look like a kiddie ride!" I personally just feel that this is something the Intamin engineers we all love came up with, maybe to make some 90mph S-turn enthusiasts out of us.

^Why wouldn't you want one of these at Great Adventure...?

Thanks for the info everyone...now I'm pretty excited for this park. I'm really looking forward to ROS after riding SROS at SFA 2 weeks ago, and finding it to be an excellent coaster. The fact that ROS is over water should be pretty cool.

^Because with Intamin, we can always appreciate a unique layout with each coaster design with different elements. For example, after going on Nitro, I wouldn't want to travel the miles to go to Kings Island just for Diamondback. The layouts are almost exactly the same. But, with Intamin, each coaster has a drastically different layout. ...Except SROS/ROS.

I'm totally pumped for this coaster now...the layout looks short but sweet, and it looks like the entire ride from drop to end is just going to be pure Intamin speed. I kind of wish they could have gone with U-bars, too, but the OTSRs don't really bother me at all. I'm 5' 11" and Storm Runner's/KK's OTSRs come nowhere near my shoulders. The only time I've felt at all uncomfortable in them was during one ride on Storm Runner, where I didn't have the restraint tight enough and smacked my shoulder against the side of the restraint in the flying snake dive. That all being said, am I the only one who thinks the crest of the first "airtime hill" seems a little too drawn out to give any strong airtime? The smaller hills seem fantastic, but the under-lift hill just seems too drawn out to give anything but floater air...kind of like Kingda Ka's second hill. It almost seems like it might have been better, had they used a stengel dive in that spot. But either way, I guess I'll find out when I ride it. Even if its not a super airtime machine like SROS or Bizarro, I'll still enjoy it for what it is. Who can deny ANY Intamin mega/giga?

Hello, I'm new to the board, and I plan on visiting Darien Lake for a few hours on my way to Cedar Point next week. I've been reading everywhere that the PARC management parks are having a lot of operational issues this season (rides not running, sections of parks closed, maintenence not being kept up, etc). Are their any TPR members in/around Darien that would be able to give a status update on the way the park is running? I'll be there from park opening (10:30am) until around noon or one o'clock, just doing a credit run pretty much. My main concern is just that Ride of Steel be up and running, because that's the reason why I want to visit the park.

I'm going to be going to the park the 26th (evening), 27th (all day), and 28th (morning). Does anyone know or have an estimate on how Wednesday evenings, Thursdays, and Friday mornings are at the Point, as far as crowds are concerned?

After reading so many bad reviews about SFA over the years, including claims of rude employees, rude patrons, uncleanliness, etc., I was actually pleasantly surprised when I visited a few weeks ago for the first time. I did it as a joint trip between SFA and SFGAdv, figuring we'd just do a credit run through the park, maybe ride SROS a few times in a row, then head out to Great Adventure. We ended up staying the whole day. The park's entrance and themed areas are beautiful. The layout is slightly confusing, but they have a LOT of room to expand. Employees seemed to enjoy their jobs, and ride operators seemed to have fun dispatching trains. Also, the biggest plus was that the lines were nearly inexistant. Never more than a one train wait for an Intamin mega is fine by me. SROS, while not Bizarro, is a fantastic ride. It definitely wins out Nitro in my book. The red train definitely rattled a bunch and felt like it needed some TLC, but, several times we waited purposely for the blue train, because it gives a 5x better ride. The first airtime hill is hit or miss for floater air, depending on the weight in the train. I don't know how anyone can call those helices forceless, I thought I was going to black out on the first one. Then, the other large hill and the 3 bunny hops at the end provide all the warm gooey Intamin airtime pie that you need! Wild One is a fantastic woodie. The double-up, soon followed by the double-down is one of the most fun and unique elements of any wooden coaster I've been on. I don't know how this woodie doesn't get more recognition. Batwing, while slow to load because of the complicated restraints, was a very cool ride. Definitely beats out Superman Ultimate Flight (the only B&M flyer I've been on). Joker's Jinx is awesome. I'm a huge fan of the Premier coasters, such as ROTM at USF. The launch is fun, the first few inversions are exciting, then theres a slow bit in the middle that lets you catch your breath, followed by a great forceful ending with a lot of directional changes. Not to mention, lapbars! Mind Eraser, while being a death-LC, was actually pretty smooth. Front row ride with minimal head-banging. And last but not least, Roar was a cool ride as well. Not as good as the GCIs with the Millennium Flyer trains like Wildcat at Hersheypark, but still an exciting woodie. At the end of the day, I ended up breaking one of my flip-flops back in Gotham City, and one of the ride employees was able to point me to which shop had flip flops, described to me what kind of assortment they had, and also knew the prices. Needless to say, I'm wearing them still now as I'm typing this. I guess it all comes down to your outlook, to determine what kind of experience you're going to have. If you walk into the park looking for everything that you can nit-pick and let the one rude employee among the hundreds of friendly ones ruin your day, and go on Roar expecting it to be El Toro, you're going to have a miserable day. But, if you go looking for a day of fun and some decent coasters, you're going to have a great time. All in all, I'll be visiting SFA again next summer.