MayTheGForceBeWithYou

Add me onto the list of wanting a park with a multi-tower installation to put one of these on. Looks like such an awesome concept.

With Japan largely handling its COVID scenario better than some other countries, I was able to finally check Nagashima Spaland off my to-do list after having been on for quite some time. With my trip landing in the middle of what would ordinarily be one of Japan's busiest travel seasons, I was expecting some fairly decent crowds, but I was surprised to see just how much COVID was doing to the parks. With the crowds being extremely manageable, I was also curious to see how the park was handling operations in light of everything. Outside the sanitation procedures, rides with smaller trains had distancing enforced through cut capacity (Hakugei being the worst affected). Thankfully, most of the other major rides had enough distancing built in to operate almost normally (Steel Dragon, Arashi, Acrobat), which offset some of the capacity issues. Overall enjoyed the park and thought it had a solid lineup (especially with Hakugei on it now). Onto the photos: The gateway to happiness. Fairly average queues for the day (though the half capacity one train ops made for longer waits). Longest actual wait time was about 30 minutes. Masks are mandatory for Hakugei and Steel Dragon per newly posted policy. And yes, they survive both just fine. Easily the most photogenic of the RMCs. Probably best to let the photos do most of the talking. There's just no angle that doesn't look good. Fantastic ride with a ton of airtime and awesome elements (this "actually zero G" zero G roll being my favorite), and my new #4. A+ With the last time on a first gen being almost 15 years ago, it was nice to get to ride one again (and the kerchunk wasn't even bad). A Heading to Arashi. With the only similar ride in my count being Green Lantern and knowing how annoyed people have gotten with the 4D Free Spins popping up everywhere, I really didn't expect much out of it. Thankfully, it went against my expectations in all the right ways and ended up being my second favorite behind Hakugei. I don't know why S&S decided to make this particular one able to get every ride spinning almost nonstop, but they need to keep doing it. A+ Steel Dragon 2000 (Nisen), the other big and bold headliner. Pretty solid, long (obviously), with some good speed and nice floater moments. Basically a super giant old school hyper. A- I was also excited to try out an Ultra Twister for the first time. Rough around the edges (Togo, what else?), but still a quirky and enjoyable ride. Sadly, I had also been planning to go to Rusutsu to try the dive loop variant, but my trip plans fell through. But for this one, B. Heading to Acrobat, the Manta clone. "It looks like Manta, but due to international copyright law, it's not." I Can't Believe It's Not Manta!™ Ran fairly rattly, but it's the Manta layout, so it's still good stuff. B+ And some classic Schwarzkopf goodness to round things out. A- Can't go wrong with the Shuttle Loop. A- Not sure if this actually does anything to help pandemic stuff, but still nice to walk out to.

Up to two box coasters and a box rapids now, looking good.

Looking nice, great update.

白鯨, Nagashima Spaland. New #4.

Nagashima Spaland on August 5 and Rusutsu on August 11, both new parks for me.

Resort just announced it will be reopening on July 1 with precautions and restrictions in place.

In case anyone needed this:

^Nice to have a date announced, and I'm also really liking that new concept art.

Given how big of an investment it is in conjunction with the park's fairly steady improvement, I'll definitely be keeping my eye on what develops.

1. How many parks did you visit in 2019? 10-ish 2. Best new-for-2019 (or new-to-you-in-2019) ride? Soaring at Tokyo DisneySea. Not normally a fan of the Around the World version, but the complete experience there makes it work pretty well. 3. Name the first 3 coasters that come to mind. Steel Vengeance, Eejanaika, Maverick 4. What was the best flat ride you rode in 2019? European traveling Top Scan 5. What is your favorite RMC under 130 feet? Twisted Colossus 6. What was the last Premier coaster that you rode? YOLO 7. Name a park you've been to that you're already planning to revisit. Tokyo Disney 8. What is your home park and how many times did you visit in 2019? Technically Elitch Gardens, but a nice whopping zero 9. What park are you most looking forward to visiting in 2020? Nagashima Spaland 10. Kennywood or Dollywood? Pick one Dollywood (haven't been to either) 11. What ride/coaster disappointed you the most in 2019? Fuji-Q had this temporary dark ride set up called Endless Mine (I think), but it was pretty underwhelming. 12. You're at Great Adventure. You play that racist-ish gong game and win a one hour ERT session for you and your friends on ONE coaster of your choice. But damn! El Toro, Kingda Ka and Nitro are all down! So you ride... Batman 13. What is the last coaster that changed your top 10? Eejanaika bumped up to my #2 14. Most recent park food you ate. Churro, maybe? 15. What park do you wish was your home park? Pretty much anything around Orlando/Tampa 16. What 2020 attraction do you have the biggest boner for? Iron Gwazi 17. What park will you visit next? Busch Gardens Tampa 18. Favorite breakfast before a day at a park? Whatever's available. Don't really have a set meal plan. 19. Cedar Fair park you visited most recently? Knott's during Haunt 20. Was it awesome? Yeah, pretty good 21. Skyrush or Candymonium? Skyrush 22. What 2 overseas parks do you want to visit the most? Hansa Park, Alton Towers 23. The best B&M coaster you rode in 2019 was? Kumba 24. What is the saddest/dirtiest credit whore thing you've ever done? The little Wacky Worm at Oktoberfest several liters in 25. Last time you bought fast pass? Knott's during Haunt 26. What was the longest you waited for a ride/coaster in 2019? ~75 minutes for Journey to the Center of the Earth 27. What season passes/membership do you currently have? None at the moment, will be getting a Tokyo Disney pass when I move out to Japan in the spring 28. If you could go to a park with anyone on this forum for a day who would it be and to what park? I don't know enough people to namedrop, but I'd be cool visiting Japanese parks with whoever. 29. Battle of the Busch 2020: Iron Gwazi or Pantheon - which would you rather ride? Iron Gwazi 30. Most times you've ridden one coaster (rough estimate or exact if you're a super nerd) Probably Space Mountain at Disneyland because of how often I went there as a kid (few hundred maybe, not sure) 31. Congrats! You just won passes to spend A WEEK at the park of your choice! Dorney Park or Valley Fair? Pick one and why. Dorney's collection seems a bit better 32. Talk about a park food that knocked your socks off Still wish potato mochi churros were a thing outside of Japan 33. Pick one: Kumba or Montu Kumba 34. What are your three least favorite woodies? Including defunct ones because I'm lazy, Psyclone, Mean Streak, Twister II 35. Best sweet snack at a park (degree of difficulty: not Dollywoods cinnamon bread) Still partial to churros 36. Kings Island is on the phone and they want you to decide what is going in the old Vortex spot. What do you add? If time travel is allowed, RMC T Rex when it's ready. If not, twisty terrain Intamin multi-launch. 37. What roller coaster currently sits at the top of your bucketlist? (degree of difficulty: NOT a new-for-2020 ride) Der Schwur des Kärnan 38. Name 3 parks you want to visit in the next 3 years. Nagashima Spaland, Rusutsu, Hansa Park (first two should happen this year) 39. Name 3 other forum members you hope fill this out. Again, don't know enough people to namedrop 40. Show us how cool you are by posting a picture of yourself on a coaster or in front of coaster. Bonus points if you're holding a sign with a number on it like the nerd you are. Dodonpa this last August with some people that started chatting with me in line. They wanted a group photo afterward before we parted ways:

Since I'll be living near Tokyo this coming year: Definite: -Pretty much anything in the Kanto area (Tokyo Disney, Fuji-Q, Yomiuriland, et al) -Nagashima Spaland -Universal Japan Pretty likely: -Rusutsu Resort (both summer and winter seasons)

That was actually my first thought when I saw the original announcement; it looked like what Windjammer could have been like if it wasn't a total piece of crap. Nice to hear that's a pretty accurate descriptor.

Nike, I guess. Sriracha or Tabasco?