willski

^My point exactly. Maybe at one time it was great, but now it's awful. My apologies for (a) not judging it on past performance or (b) going along with a bunch of fat ACErs who still claim that Beast is the best woodie and Magnum is the best steel.

At the risk of putting smaller riders in danger? No thanks. If you weigh too much, sucks for you, you can help it and lose weight to ride the ride. Now, if you're a 48" kid, you can't help the fact that you are short and probably (although in today's world, not as much) skinny as a rail. If they change the restraints to accommodate larger people, smaller/shorter people won't be able to ride. The height restrictions would raise, and you might even see minimum size limits on coasters, which is unfair to people who are not overweight ("normal" sized people, at least before the majority of our society became overweight). Oh yeah, the European Intamins have longer belts. At least Goliath at WW did.

^You might not be able to find one at the Publix in Savannah, just because it's so far from SFoG that not many people would buy them. But you never know. If you can't go on a Sunday, my advice is to go as late into September as possible (in fact, if you go the first weekend in October, there will be almost no lines). The lines shouldn't be too terribly bad on a Saturday as long as you go once Atlanta schools are in session (usually they start around August 8-10). Also, definately do not go on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend-it will be like a Saturday in July, which is miserable. You shouldn't need a Q-bot or whatever they call them now, your longest waits will be Deja Vu and maybe S:UF at around 45 minutes to an hour. Goliath never gets more than 30-40 minutes as long as they have a decent crew running it.

I'll have you know that Beast is my #3 coaster. That's even ahead of Voyage. Ahahaha, Number #3, haha. The Beast is nothing special. It's really quite pointless now with the magnetic trims. Just a ride through the woods with brakes every 1500 feet or so. To be honest, I liked recaR and the kiddie wooden coaster more than The Beast. And the funniest part is the sign at the entrance that claims that "enthusiasts from all over the world recognize The Beast as a top 10 wooden roller coaster." Are you kidding me? The ride is this: -Lift -Drop with brakes (no airtime and slow) -Turn -Hill -More brakes -Slow drop -Turn -Long straight with brakes at the end -Boring turns, hills, and tunnels with no speed (caused by brake) -Former airtime hill that now has an anti-rollback strip at the top because the speed was greatly lowered by the brakes. -Lift -Straightaway into double helix with brakes -Neutered double helix -End of ride It's really just a scenic ride through the woods. Anyway, back on topic, GL was really dead when I was there (June 5th, a Tuesday with cold and cloudy weather). It's almost depressing when you enter a park and there are more employees than guests. I'd give it 2 or maybe 3 more years before it fails and all the rides are shipped off to other CF parks. Maybe Carowinds will get Dominator...

Go to any Publix in Georgia on your way to the park. Your location says Hilton Head, so any Publix between Augusta and Atlanta on I-20 should have discounted SFoG tickets. I think they are $26.99 or $27.99. Either way, it's a pretty good deal, sine the gate price is almost double that ($49.99).

/win 2007- Maverick, Firehawk 2006- El Toro Apart from Goliath, S:UF, and Scorcher at my home park, that's it. I've missed a lot by one year or it was closed. TTD, Air, SheiKra, Kraken, Borg, KK etc.

The lines get longer on the FlashPass as the day goes on, no matter what happens with the actual lines. Thus, going to the park from 2pm-8pm and getting a FlashPass is a waste of money, because the FlashPass line will be longer than the actual line (for the most part). This is how they are able to claim "FlashPass guests wait in line just as long as regular guests." The Flash virtual queues are less than 10-15 minutes for the first two hours (which is really 5-10 minutes since you can come 5 minutes early). Then, they get longer and longer, so the average time spent in a virtual line evens out with the average time in a real line. For example, Deja Vu's queue at SFoG is usually 45 minutes to 90 minutes depending on a variety of factors. However, from about 10-12, the virtual queue will be anywhere from 6-15 minutes. Later in the day (around 5pm), the virtual line will be 2 to 2.5 hours, while the real line will be 1/2 to 1/3 of that.

Was joking... They're probably more likely to get killed by the "third rail" than the train if Chicago's metro is electrically based. Anyway, clever-ish commercial. I couldn't really see what they were doing at first, but it ended up being pretty cool.

Who is "they", the kid's parents? The police? Big brother? Is playing on railroad tracks a capital offense in Chicago now?

^Ummm....maybe you got the two mixed up. Cyclone is the twister woodie at the front of the park that opened in 1990 and has amazing ejector air. GASM is the out-and-back woodie towards the back of the park that opened in 1973. It has a few moments of decent to good floater air, but certainly nothing amazing. Also, the problem with the drop tower at SFKK was simply a freak accident, not to mention the fact that the rides are entirely different, with different vehicles and lift systems.

Errmmmm...no. Vf2=vi2+2ad, but if the new wheels improved the train's momentum, it is possible that the ride is completing its course faster than before. Both the new "improved" wheels and that formula show that the initial speed is not as big of a factor as many of the posts in here would lead you to believe. "yay, I R FSICS" Seriously though, if they really did manage to get wheels with bearings that are more suited to maintaining speed, the first drop may not be the exact same, but the following hills (especially on the back run and the RT hill) would be as fast or faster than before. And the twister portion might have airtime instead of dying like it did last year.

PKI was fine with it on most every ride. On Italian Job (separate load/unload), they made my dad wear his backpack on his chest, but it was no big deal. The only other coaster with separate load/unload is Flight of Fear, and they have a special area to drop bags so they can be picked up from the unload station. Just ask an attendant and they'll point it out to you. Every other ride at PKI has provisions for loose articles

Yeah, as of a few weeks ago, they are really inconsistent, but if you are firm and persuasive they will allow cups in all lines except MF and TTD (we had ours from PKI earlier in the week-they honored these). I say TTD because it was iffy as to whether you could bring the cups in line or not. No employees seemed to be clear on what was okay as far as cups go. We rode TTD twice, and once we had a new employee who had been given instructions a few seconds prior to us walking up to be "very strict" and the other time we had a lax employee. We got through with the cups once and were stopped once. When we got to the station, we passed them over the railing to my mom, who wasn't riding. Maverick has two train slots, but load and unload happen simultaneously. It's a lot like SheiKra's load system. They'll allow smaller loose articles (hats, glasses, keys, etc.) if you have a cargo pocket. That said, good luck getting a souveneir cup into a cargo pocket. I'd advise people going on the trip to buy the cups only if they're going to drink a TON, because they'll have to figure in locker fees ($1?2? don't remember how much it was) each time they ride MF or TTD, thus significantly lowering the discount gained by getting those cups. Hope that helped...

^^^The cable drops with the car, unless it gets stuck on something, which is another possibility. The cable would continure to fall with the car, until the car began braking. Even then it shouldn't rip her feet off, as the cable is only going 60 mph, which is fast, but fast enough to do that. It could have gotten stuck on something, and the falling car vs. a stuck cable would definately have ripped her feet off. Yeah, that does make sense. It just depends on the other two cables ability to pick up the tension instantaneously, which I'm not sure if they would (we didn't exactly cover Intamin ride cables snapping in AP Physics). If so, then that is a ton of force in addition to gravity, possibly enough to sever the feet. I still think it happened on the drop, but it could've happened either way.

I understand what you mean, and it makes sense to me now, except the last part that I highlighted. The force of gravity on the cart is negated by the normal force exerted by the lifting mechanism. The only force acting on the broken cable would be gravity, which would not accelerate it to the speed necessary to slice off a limb. Think of it like this: Cable 1 and 3 don't break. Cable 2 snaps, but tension from lifting mechanism and car are equal, so cable simply breaks in the middle with no speed up or down. Starting from rest at the break point, Cable 2 falls, accelerating to a speed that would cause a nasty friction burn or possibly slight cut, but certainly nothing that would remove a limb. I think the cable had to be from another vehicle on the tower or the cable broke on the ascent and ripped her feet off on the way down.

^At this point, they're beyond the realm of engineering and more in the "guess and check" area. They'll have to add some weight to the trains to complete the circuit, which defeats the purpose of the new trains and removing the loop in the first place (less wear on track). Haha, Kings Island, you make me laugh.

No, the cable would snap upward due to the tension, and that's what makes the least sense to me. If they were really at the top and the cable snapped (assuming high tension), it wouldn't be able to reach the girl's leg, which would have been 10-15 feet below the attachment point. It would come to rest at or above the attachment point (especially if it had curled). I think a cable on another car snapped and wrapped around her legs, possibly mid-fall. This would also support eyewitness reports that the cable came around behind her legs (althought those are most likely inaccurate). Either way, I hope they were able to reattach her feet and that she will have a full recovery. Not to discount what you heard, but I'm fairly certain that they would not have left her detached feet on the ride platform. They would have been placed over ice or some other preserving substance so they could be rushed with her to the hospital to be reattached.

^I was going to say, looks like you missed the best coaster in the park. Top Gun really is the one redeeming reason to visit Carowinds, because Borg is the worst of the flying coasters (B&M and Vekoma).

Honestly, what was Paramount thinking when they authorized this purchase? $25 million dollars for a wooden roller coaster with no great features-minimal airtime, several giant, boring helixes, and a ton of uneventful track. The only slightly redeeming feature was the loop. Essentially, PKI spent $25 million on a loop. They then removed the loop. Now what? Honestly, think of what $25 million buys: 3 Voyages MF 2 El Toros TTD An enormous B&M anything with some cash to spare I think it is safe to say that this was the worst investment in theme park history. Even if the ride hadn't been rough, there was really no hope, since the track design has no airtime hills (or more accurately, no hills that produce airtime).

Timbers- 14 times Nothing else in the park is worth staying for.... http://www.rcdb.com/ig478.htm?picture=5

Well, there's your problem. You really can't judge a decent/good ride based on a single ride in a single row. You really need to ride in a variety of rows to make an accurate judgement. AC is a really great ride in the back few rows, and also the front. Honestly, I don't understand how someone can ride once in a middle row and say, "That ride sucked." They didn't even experience the ride in the best row, let alone ride it more than once or twice. Personally, I try to ride "good" rides at least 5 times in a variety of rows-more if possible. Of course, there are the rides that are so bad they're not worth riding again (El Condor and Ninja come to mind). Ummmm.....Alpengeist was never all that smooth. The invert wheels/assemblies do not like those speeds and have always vibrated pretty badly. In some rows, the train shuffles through the Immelmann and generally beats you up. I only ride in the front and back, the other rows are unbearable.

Well, assuming you went this past Saturday, I went a week and six days before you on a Sunday, not knowing really what to expect. Raven ran one train, which at first created a huge line after the opening mad dash. Later in the day, it was running 1/2 to 2/3s empty trains, and I rode it several times in a row. Legend ran two early, then had some problems and went down to one. With two trains the line started on the stairs to the station (no switchbacks), and with one train, the line was about the same. The Voyage started out with what I thought was a pretty big line (2/3s of the underground queue full), but even with two trains, the line moves quickly. We went to eat at Plymouth Rock, and when we came back, the shortcut had been opened up and the line was in the station, where it remained for the rest of the day, allowing me to get 30 rides on the Voyage before leaving at 6:30. The waterpark really drained people out quickly, and for the most part, the rides section had shorter lines than any of the waterslides. Oh, and where Plymouth Rock Cafe was a highlight of your day, it was the least favorite part of my day, because the food was really not very good at all (What is up with that gravy?...blech). Decent meal for a decent price, but certainly nothing special. Plus, riding the Voyage is much better than eating anyway (you can tell I'm not an ACEr, haha). Overall though, Holiday World was my favorite park of my trip (HW, PKI, GL, CP, MiA), because of the Voyage and free drinks. You really don't fully appreciate the free drinks when you first hear about them, but on a hot day, they're a godsend. And then you really appreciate them the next day at PKI when you're baking on the asphalt and a Gatorade is $3.50.

You summed my feelings up perfectly. Last time I went to CP (2003), I thought MF was the best coaster in the world, hands down. Of course, at that point my coaster count was around 50, and I hadn't ridden that many great coasters. My count is now 120, and I was seriously underwhelmed by MF. There are simply no forces after the drop and overbank. The only air hill that has any substance to it is the final one-the middle two deliver a mixture of floater and no airtime, while the helix and overbanks are boring and forceless. It's really just a "blah" ride that became popular/famous entirely because of its height and speed. In my own personal rankings, I would put Voyage, Goliath (SFoG and WW), Apollo's Chariot, and Maverick over MF in a heartbeat. Maverick, on the other hand, does not have the gimmick of great height and speed, forcing it to be a great coaster to gain any sort of recognition. Instead of a tall, fast, and forceless ride, Maverick delivers insane airtime, great whippy transitions, a very cool LSM lift and launch, and two inversions with great hangtime. Tack some decent theming on top of that, and it is certainly the best coaster at CP.

Basically it's a bunch of splines in a CAD program. The splines are generated by mathematical formulas by a program like Maple (actually, the program used is Maple...), which also calculates forces. You then have a CAD drawing that you can use to generate site plans/blueprints for ride contruction/fabrication and you have a roller coaster! Of course, that's a very, very simplified version of what actaully happens. You can see how this is useful in designing a coaster: http://www.maplesoft.com/products/Maple11/professionals/index.aspx and http://www.maplesoft.com/engineering_design/index.aspx Check out the first demo in the second link. Amazingly powerful stuff...

That's how it is with traditional wooden roller coasters (by that I mean not plug-n-play). They speed up as the day goes on and for a variety of other reasons. Now, you may say that you want consistency, but it is simply not possible with traditional designs. This is why I agree with Real that Plug-n-Play woodies are not so much a traditional wooden coaster, but rather a steel coaster designed in wood. Think about it: Prefab: -Laser-cut, layered wood (cut by a computer/robot) -Poly-u or related derivative running wheels -Heartlined track -Cannot be easily modified or retracked-requires computer-cut sections for retracking. All of those characteristics are the same as an Intamin steel coaster, with the single exception being that the medium is wood and not steel. Due to this design, track requires minimal maintenance (no grease, no retracking), essentially providing wooden coaster looks with the ease of maintenance and smooth ride of a steel coaster. On the other hand... Traditional: -Track assembled from raw lumber on support structure by specialized workers -Track not heartlined (for the most part and certainly not as well as plug-n-play if heartlined) -Steel running wheels on a steel track The traditional coaster is more likely to be affected by weather, temperature, etc., because it operates with steel wheels on steel track. The coefficient of friction between the wheels and track is affected by temperature, weather, and viscosity of track lubricant (which is also affected by temp. and weather). Because of the multiple factors, large variations in ride performance will occur on a traditional wooden roller coaster, especially one on such a large scale as Voyage. Even the slightest change in temperature of the lubricants throughout the wheel/track system could cause a significant shift in ride speed, especially considering the length of Voyage. Just from riding it 30 times a week ago, I could tell a big difference between morning and late afternoon/evening rides, as they became faster and faster. To be honest, if you want consistency, don't ride a traditional wooden roller coaster-especially a longer/taller one with a greater room for deviations.