Rotura Violenta

Understood; my apologies. Take care, everyone.

Sad to see people in a forum of coaster enthusiasts resort to name-calling and self-aggrandizement over the discussion of a roller coaster design. Certainly not conducive to discourse, but perhaps the self-righteousness is worth it? As I mentioned, the drop on Apocalypse is small but is, in my opinion, one of the most powerful in the park. My comment was based on the visual rather than the experiential effect of the ride. So yes, sad to see that discussion here is frowned upon and considered to be "nauseating" and "embarrassing." Hope your day picks up from here, guys

I'm torn on TC. Of course evaluating the ride based on what we see here is silly, but it is natural to project and hypothesize. The drops do look relatively unimpressive, but as others have mentioned, that has little bearing on how intense a ride will be. Given that much of the remainder is fairly low to the ground, the speed by which it takes the course should produce some intense forces (hopefully more than just violent seat-slamming). With that said, Colossus is a ride that has an unmistakable visual presence—it was iconic in the past due to its size/complexity, and its position in the park marks it a spectacle. In that sense, the visual of the drops isn't anything to write home about, and hopefully as the rest of the track develops, it'll look a little more eye-catching and spectacular. Of course the experience of the drops is a different matter altogether. The thing that really has me torn is the "big oval" layout as part of the appeal of a wooden coaster (for me) is the directional shifts in and through the structure—of which this has very little. One the one hand, it does look like it's going to have some nice engagement with the other track (on the inversions at least—that hi-five thing doesn't look even remotely appealing to me as of right now), but on the other, I'm with Schilke in that it's not as impressive looking as some of the rest. (Then again, when I first saw Full THrottle design, I was entirely unimpressed, but ride-wise, I now find it to be the best thing in the park.) As far as other drops in the park go, I do seem to recall Goliath cresting the lift hill a bit faster when it opened, but I don't recall the effect being that different on the first half of the ride (the second half has been severely neutered). I still find it to be a great first drop, but it's the only one in the park that feels somewhat intense to me as the rest are largely swooping or banked. The first drop on Apocalypse is a good one though—especially toward the back of the train, even though it's not very high up. X2's drop does nothing for me at all, personally. Anyhow, it's great to watch this all develop!

^ Nice pics! Went to the park tonight to check out the xmas stuff (a bit meh, but whatevs). Rolled in late and went straight to Apocalypse as I skipped it last visit due to one-train operation. The train got the top of the lift and then stopped, leaving us sitting there for about 20 minutes. Maintenance guys came up to take people's names, and they were talking about a possible evac, but they then got a call to send the train through the circuit. 5 minutes later, we were on our way and it seemed far more smooth from the last time I rode (a few months ago). They shut the ride down after that though, and I returned later to find that they'd removed the train and were back to a single train—one that felt far more rough. The park wasn't too busy, but there were lines for Full Throttle and (strangely) Goliath for much of the night. The xmas stuff is really just a bunch of lights, some fake snow, and some props. Nothing too mind blowing, but they did manage to keep the crowds entertained. Rode Tatsu for the first time in at least a year (I've never liked it). It felt faster, but that's probably because it had been running all day. Still don't like it though. Colossus is a bit of a mess right now, but as you can see from the pictures above, the crest of the lift is almost done and you can get a sense of how the angle will be pitched.

Just to clarify, when people say Scream "rattles a lot," what they essentially mean is that there are sections of the ride where it feels a little rough? Apocalypse has quite a rattle to it then, right? To me, Scream is very smooth throughout, but a ride like Tatsu get quite bumpy when it hits the bottom of that pretzel loop. So, by definition, Tatsu would have more of a rattle?

Slightly tangential, but I actually expected Nitro to suck based on how forceless B&Ms can be, but it ended up being my favorite ride in the park. The airtime was so well calibrated throughout in contrast to the jarring violent airtime of El Toro (which I liked, but not nearly as much). Nitro was a huge surprise for me.

Scream is the one that gets cited as having "rattle" but I've yet to experience it myself (and I've probably rode it 30+ time). I suspect that I just don't know what I'm looking for though as I find a number of B&Ms to have rough-ish spots. I'm one of the few here that thinks Scream is actually one of the better rides at SFMM as I'm not a fan of Riddler or Tatsu. But I've also ridden the B&Ms on the East Coast and I can't think of what this rattle could really be.

It looks fantastic—thanks for posting! I find these more compressed, immersive layouts to be more appealing than some of the others RMC are working on, but I look forward to trying them all at some point.

I'm not the biggest fan of violent ejector air myself (I found Skyrush and El Toro to be rough endurance tests) but I love some serious floater action (such as on Nitro). With that said, I welcome both ejector and floater on TC as SFMM is long overdue for both, but Green Lantern, for me, is something else entirely. I'm probably one of few people on this site that really enjoys Ghost Rider—even at its most jarring—but I find GL to be deeply unpleasant, poorly designed, with zero redeeming qualities. So it has nothing do with whining or some fear of extreme air (GL has no "air" to me), and everything to do with my personal preference not to be slammed against steel bars over and over while being spun in circles. And that's sad to hear that Robb hates Californians. I wasn't aware he'd made such a statement, only that he'd expressed annoyance with aspects of living in LA. Given that I know some of the Californians he's friends with, I'm sure they'll be upset to hear that too. Thanks for expressing his thoughts more clearly.

Not that I care that much, but I did watch the full POV video and try to count the moments that looked like there'd be airtime, and it was indeed 18. A few of them look they'l be weird ejector-looking moments rather than standard airtime hills (in which the hill is taken with the train tipped on its side). My count didn't include the little bumps at the beginning—it all came after the first lift hill.

That's interesting about the different accelerations. I've never really noticed any kind of acceleration on Supreme Scream or Lex Luther before, but it makes sense. If the platform that the cars sit on is on a taught cable system pulling up and down, you'd think whatever spinning mechanism ToT uses to roll the cable would need to accelerate as well. I guess, I'm mainly just going on what it feels like to me—which is very tame, but definitely a seat lifter. What's most interesting to me though is that I find drop towers like SS and ToT to be super tame, but the old Intamin freefall at Magic Mountain was gnarly. Also, I just rode a carnie-style drop tower a couple of days ago (at Scandia) at it felt far more intense than SS or even LL. I wonder if acceleration is playing a role there as well?

I've only ridden the CA one, but no, it doesn't feel like a regular drop tower and certainly isn't free-falling or being pulled faster than gravitational pull. You come out of your seat on it, but I doubt you'd even need the seatbelt to be honest whereas on a regular drop you wouldn't stand a chance. A quick bit of googling suggests that the speed of the drop on TOT is about 40mph, Supreme Scream (a fairly slow drop ride) is 50mph, whereas the Intamin towers (like Lex Luthor) are 85mph.

I must say that I wasn't impressed by Knotts that much this year either. Although much smaller in scale and budget, Scandia was scarier than both. I've still yet to visit Universal's halloween thing but the crowds are a bit of a turn-off. Maybe next year I'll brave it.

Was at SFMM last night riding in the rain. Goliath gets a bit "pelty" and Yolo ended up getting shut down. So yes, many times.

I ended up going to the park last night and, as I suspected, it wasn't that busy (it was drizzling and then became torrential around 11pm). For the mazes, the longest wait was about 20 mins and, for the rides, Apocalypse was about 40 mins due to one train (I didn't bother). And for those looking for TC developments, there are none. It looks the same as it has for a week or so now. No "men talking by the track" or what have you I rolled up around 6:30, grabbed a wristband and went for a spin on Full Throttle before the mazes opened up. FT is quickly becoming my favorite ride in the park, threatening to knock Ninja from top place. It’s just a fun ride from start to finish with some real thought going into the transitions and moves. Through the night, I also rode Goliath, Ninja, Superman, and Revolution, but it was the mazes that I was really there for. First was Vault 666: I wasn't overly thrilled by this. It had some nice sets, but no standout moments or good scares. The scare actors were half-baked, and there's not much I could say about it. I'm not entirely sure what the narrative was all about, but it reminded me a little of the old Knotts' Asylum maze. Chain link fences with splattered paint seemed to be the theme? The whole thing looked very recycled from other mazes. Next was Toyz of Terror 3d: I really quite liked this one. I did it twice—once with and once without the glasses. The 3D effects are effective in that it's not about the scenery looking like it's going to poke you in the eye, rather the glasses provide an additional layer of disorienting movement. I found the detail in this maze to be good as well (the plush toy hallway was cool), although not a patch on Knotts’ Doll Factory maze from a few years ago. Red's Revenge: Clearly one of the more elaborate, but you can tell that Six Flags got a good deal on the wolf masks because they're everywhere in the park, seemingly all spilling out from this maze. There was a good gag upfront (a well-timed air blast), and the interior was more elaborate than some of the others. Also, there was a very dark section that was quite disorienting and fun as well as several large-scale and fairly impressive animatronic props. While I liked it overall, I couldn't help but think that much of the scenery looked like Rainforest Cafe, and the scares were minimal. Total Darkness: This was just lousy. I recently tried the "blackout" maze at Scandia and it was so much better than this. Here, there really are no gags—you're simply walking through a what is obviously a large, dark room with some walls thrown up. There was an interesting forced crawl effect at the end (a low-hanging inflatable ceiling), but overall, this was hopeless. The Aftermath: This is the other one that reminded me of Knotts' Aslyum. It's essentially an ornate, curated scare-zone in that it's all in an arena type space. It was elaborate with some big scenery pieces, but it didn't do anything overtly special. The scare-actors, like in the other mazes, detracted from the experiences with a bunch of half-hearted “boos” and bleats. Somewhat mediocre given the scale. Willoughby's Garden of Darkness: A one-trick pony of a maze, but one that's quite well-done all the same. This was basically lots of fake leaves and ivy everywhere with scare actors well-camouflaged and jumping out. Nothing special, but not horrendous either. Both this and Chupacabra show that effective scares come more from tight paths and lots of hiding spots and that huge props don’t always add to the scare factor. Willoughby's Resurrected: I think this is the best one there right now as it makes great use of the space it's in and it has some fantastic animatronics to boot. The scare-actors were all very good in this maze, engaging lots of unique gags and making me jump a few times. The props were great, as were the scenes, and there was a good opening scare (another air cannon) timed to a photo opportunity. Very well done throughout. Chupacabra: This one's sloppy. Just a few makeshift walls with a ton of wolf masks throughout as well as a few mannequins. Good smoke / lighting effects, but otherwise uninspiring. Where it did succeed was in the design itself as it allowed for some good, smokey walkways and a number of good hiding places for the talent. Low budget though. The scare zones were hit or miss. Some were more populated than others with some interesting effects throughout (the DC universe one looked cool, but the talent was lousy; zombie crossing was a joke etc.) Overall, Fright Fest was worth the $15 I paid for the wrist-band (I have a season pass), but I would hate to see anyone pay the asking price for this place as it stands. It reeks of Six Flags in that much of it feels misdirected and naive. I’m just glad I went on a night that was relatively crowd-free as I’d imagine it would be miserable to have to stand in line for some of these things for more than 15-20 minutes. Out of the three haunts I attended this year (Knotts, Scandia, Fright Fest), Scandia stood out the most for scares (and airtime, really)—especially given their low budget. It just goes to show that the super elaborate / bigger-is-better approach isn't always the right choice. Some pics (shot with an iPhone—sorry!): Cool lighting effects over by Riddler. This was also by Riddler. It was a scare zone but there weren't any scare actors in it. This maze is more of a curated scare-zone than anything. I guess this is there every year? The talent over by Willoughby's was by far the best. DC universe lighting effects. The scare-actors here were hopeless, though. Again, more cool smoke and light effects. Red's revenge was a bit like a Rainforest Cafe with the lights off. This was consistently un-scary all night. Total Garbage, more like. I think this was over by Riddler's as well. Floodlit smoke sure is pretty. By Riddler's again. See above And again I'm still not sure what this was supposed to be about. There was an escaped animal or something?

Saturday is busy, as at least one other has said...have a look here. The park will be less busy on Sunday evening (which is the last day for Fright Fest). Actually, Saturday is the last day. I might head down there Saturday. It hopefully won't be too busy, considering it's after Halloween. Let's hope that most people don't know that it is still Fright Fest. This is what I was thinking (hoping) too. We're gonna get our 2015 passes and possibly do Fright Fest as well. There's rain scheduled for both Friday and Saturday so that might thin crowds out a bit as well. I might head over there mid afternoon and scope it out. Maybe buy a wristband and haul ass through a couple of mazes before it gets packed and then bail.

That was my thinking as well—people might be going to parties and stuff that night or might think it's over. Who knows? I might go . . . we'll see.

To be honest, there are few rides at SFMM where I find it makes that much of a difference where you sit (unlike Scandia Screamer, which I just rode last night). With that said, I like: Apocalypse — Back as you'll get launched on the first drop, but the front provides a good "push" effect into some of the smaller hills. Viper — Back for a good whip off the lift, but front for a little bit of air after the loops. Full Throttle — Anywhere, for me, but I find the middle get's the best of everything that this ride has to offer (the loop, essentially). X2 — Front (which looks like the back in the station) for the excellent hangtime before the beatdown begins. Tatsu — Back for a good dropping sensation into the pretzel loop, but all the seats suck on this if you ask me. Goliath — Back for the first whiplash, but the front seat-view on this one is really good. Ninja — Front, otherwise you don't see much. Batman — Same as above. Riddler — Same as above. Superman — Doesn't really matter, but the arm-shield things on the sides are a bit awkward. Back seat doesn't have them. Green Lantern — I'd agree with the park bench suggestion. It's that bad. Revolution — Doesn't matter. It's going to hurt wherever you sit. Scream — Doesn't seem to matter.

The blackout concept isn't that appealing to me either, but I must say, it was effective here—genuinely freaky, especially once you discovered that some of the walls you were feeling for guidance were electrified. It made me think twice about going through a second time. What amazed me about both was the hazard factor. There are a LOT of jumps, and a lot of walls to run straight into if you were to try and get away from a scene too fast. Also, the tilted floor in Blackout (probably a 30-degree angle to the side) was rough going as you don't want to touch the walls, yet you have no clue as to how far you have to try and walk like that. The handful of tricks in there were simple but totally effective.

Searched, but didn't find a thread to piggyback onto. Anyhow, just a quick photo-less (I took one picture!) trip report: Drove out to Scandia in Ontario, CA tonight for their haunt. Wasn't expecting much, but it was surprisingly fun—and my first time at the park. First, there was barely anyone there (maybe 50 people when the haunt started), but they cleared out within the first 30 minutes and we essentially had personal ride-ops going from ride to ride with us. There were two fairly simple mazes—nothing showy, but much better than I'd expected. The first was the embarrassingly named "Wussmaker"—a makeshift affair constructed underneath the Screamer roller coaster. The sets were basic, and the walkways were very tight, but it was all incredibly effective. I'm not sure how accurate the data is, but apparently Scandia counts the amount of "wusses" who don't complete the maze. This sounded like a great, but unbelievable piece of marketing, but I can honestly see why people would bail. They only send two or three people through at a time, and consequently, all the scare-actors are focused on you. The maze is set up so the actors can jump at you from all kinds of places, and much of it is very dark indeed. Not only that, but they can touch you—and they touch, a lot. (You also find yourself touching them as you feel your way through pitch-black walkways). There's a baffling mirror-maze section, a moving floor section, some animatronic gags, live rats (in a cage)—all kinds of stuff in there. Although the second time through wasn't nearly as intense because we knew what to expect, the first time through was genuinely frightening. Clearly a low-budget affair, but far scarier than anything at Knotts this year. The second maze was Blackout—another makeshift maze next to the Gravitron. As the name suggests, it's almost entirely blacked out and you're supposed to feel your way through. There are squishy floors, wind blasts, slanted walkways, panels that will give you an electric shock (!!!), and more. There are scare actors in a few well-timed and very scary strobe scenes, but for the most part, you're just trying to feel your way through it in the dark. Mid-way, you enter a room with what appears to be a large truck / horn effect, but it's actually taking your photograph and projecting onto a screen outside (they also give you a free copy right as you exit). Again, far more unnerving than anything I've been through at the major parks, but done on the cheap. The second time through was a bust, though, as the actors had cleared out somewhat (it was that quiet at the park) and we accidentally took a wrong turn and cut off part of the maze by going through a monster hiding place. Although it was ridiculously quiet (maybe 20 people there toward the end?), the overall effect of the haunt was pretty great, and I think it'd be a blast when more crowded. The rides: Scandia Screamer: Far, far more intense than expected. Given how laughable the restraints were, this thing was launching us out of the seat all the way through. There's some serious airtime moments on this ride, but there are at least two moments that are rendered intensely painful because of how hard it launches you before slamming you back down again (the third drop and the second half of the double-down, in which you can see the otherwise-rounded angle of descent tip severely and sharply before the drop levels out). Middle seats provide the right amount of whiplash over the hills whereas the front tames it just a little too much. The back, however, is absolutely brutal (like car accident-style whiplash). But for as brutal as it is, it's a great (not so) little coaster. Impressive and very fun. Cliff Jumper: Drop rides rarely have an effect on me. I find Supreme Scream to be bizarrely tame, and even Lex Luther at SFMM doesn't feel as intense as their old Freefall ride. This thing, however, was gnarly. It felt much higher than it actually was and the drop seemed far stronger than other drop towers I've been on. There was no warning or even a hold at the top; it was as if it climbs to a certain height and then just lets go. I guess there are certain carnival drop rides that are considered "good" and I don't know if this an example of one, but it was surprisingly intense. Swedish Swing: Had no idea what to expect with this, and found it to be a lot of fun. Great airtime, great height, good g-forces (not too much) and, in general, totally fun. Although we rode everything else, the other rides are standard carnival fare (the Gravitron was pretty nauseating). All in all, a fun night with surprisingly intense rides and genuinely frightening mazes. The only photo I took while waiting for a ride op to come over from one of the other rides and let us on.

^^ Goliath's drop is one of the few drops on a coaster that still "gets me" every time. The ride is far more braked now than when it first opened with the mid-course being necessary due to that helix, but it does seem like it almost stops you at the crest of the first drop now. Still, I think it's one of the best drops I've been on—far better than something like Skyrush which, to me, was little more than a violent slamming sensation. I might head over there on Saturday as I haven't checked out Fright Fest yet.

Lightening Racer is a must. IMO it is better than the Great Bear, the bear has a great first half but after the corkscrew it just meanders around till the end. I agree. Lightening Racer is excellent whereas Great Bear has a cool pre-drop, a couple of nice inversions, and then it feels like someone hit the "auto-complete" button on RCT3 and ended up with a weird, meandering section with a corkscrew. Lightning Racer is pure fun. As much as I love Anton's coasters, I found Superdooperlooper to be pretty lame. Ride it for posterity, but don't expect anything that impressive as, like Great Bear, it's built on that same awkward hillside and meanders accordingly.

Ugh! I loved these as well. I don't know how it's different, but modern drop rides don't have the same effect on me that these things had. The whole experience from the weird automation of the elevator, to the clunky slide of the edge, to the seriously gnarly drop, to the reverse clunk back to the station, is just so much better than these uber-tall drop rides. Genuinely frightening from start to finish!

I can't say I've ever really run into one that felt so unsafe that I wouldn't ride it. Often, the "unsafe" feeling is part of the experience. Blackpool's Wild Mouse springs to mind, and there are some safety concerns associated with that—reaching up on the lift hill, for example. Also, Ghost Rider "feels" like it's going to derail after the drop that follows the turnaround. And I did feel worried while on the Sky Screamer at Great Adventure, but there was never any real concern, obviously.

The Whip was pretty lame. We were the only ones on it so there was a general "unenthused" feeling all around. Flying Falcon looked good, but it was closed the day we visited. Aside from that, there's not much in the way of mandatory flat rides IMO. There's a weird dark ride that feels more like a commercial of some kind, and there's the dark ride outside the park that takes you through part of the factory (that was kind of cool). Also, watch out for the chairlift ride: We hopped on thinking it might drop us off on the other side of the park, but it just turns around and comes back. It gives you great views of the inverted coaster though.