coasterdude2011

Sicko looks well.... sick!

If the Giga coaster rumor is real, is anyone else thinking that Magic Mountain is growing too fast too soon. Between Apocalypse, Road Runner Express, Lex Luthor and now this rumor, that is a total of three roller coasters and three major thrill rides. It seems like a lot within a couple of years like it was in the early 2000's.

has anyone gone to Phantom Fright Nights this year? I just went for my first time last night and honestly loved the entire event. The atmosphere at the park was incredibly creepy and I thought the haunts were really well executed. Especially Biofear and Shadows. Biofear had some extremely committed actors and I have never gone in a maze like shadows before seeing how Cedar Point has no mazes like that. Any thoughts on the event compared to recent years this year?

Did Flight School have the new SLC trains? It looked like it from the picture.

I love drop towers so much but this one makes me a bit nervous even. At Cedar Point the GP has enough trouble getting on a 301ft Windseeker, a 415ft drop tower would scare the crud out of most people. I love the idea of it, but it should be interesting to see how many people go on it when it opens.

Tell that to Parc Asterix!

If any coaster were going to go to King's Island, they need a B&M invert of some sort. This is the one coaster that is really missing at this park. It would fit in perfectly at the park, much before a Giga anyways.

If anything Cedar Point has become much more well rounded since Maverick. Cedar Point added starlight experience, planet snoopy, windseeker and shoot the rapids. For all of us thrill seekers it's not a fun addition but in reality Cedar Point is becoming a much more balanced park then just the typical thrill park that only emphasizes that and leaves the family experience behind. Soak City needs the slide complex and I hate the idea of Dinosaurs, it will make little 5 year old boys giddy when they get to the park,

Chances are this will be a one season attraction. If the sole purpose of Dinosaurs is to make money it will do that in its opening year. After that however it will lose money rapidly. An upcharge attraction like that won't bring in guests two or three times if it doesn't change or renovate itself somehow.

I'll bet money that the rumored drop tower for next year will end up at Deja Vu's soon to be old site. A drop tower could easily fit there and would fill a void in the skyline after Deja Vu's removal

I really don't see the bad ride ops at Cedar Point. I go their 2 or 3 times a week because I live rather close to the park. Comparing this year to the past three years I actually see an improvement. The operations have been very quick this year and the employees seem very nice. Granted the ride operators do, the food services don't but they work in food services so I understand the hatred. But I'm actually very impressed with the employees and most of the rides have good ones, especially Maverick, Magnum, and Wicked Twister in my opinion.

I went to the park today, and the park was absolutely packed. Cars were parked to the edges of the parking lot and soak city's lot was full. I know from facebook they now have Platinum Pass Sundays where if you have a platinum pass you can bring a friend for twenty bucks. The program is running outstandingly for how crowded it was.

I personally think that Holiday World should start a little smaller out on the steel coaster then going for a hyper or giga right away. I would LOVE to see a Mack or Maurer Sohne launched coaster with inversions. Something bigger but not huge. For instance maybe a 0-50mph launch with three to four inversions would be good for me.

Mantis. I absolutely love the ride. Whenever I'm at Cedar Point I must ride it and it ranks at the top of the park for me. I just love how intense it is and it easily pulls some of the strongest G forces at the park.

The one ride I've always been fascinated with is Nemesis. Just the reviews of the forces and the scenery and how well the ride is placed in it's location just makes me want to ride it. It helps I love B&M inverts also.

It's about time Soak City got something, I'm not a huge waterpark person, but this park seriously needs something, its just fallen behind every major water park thats connected to an amusement park. I'm actually heading there today and I'll check for any signs of construction if this is true.

And the teasers continue, a new present was spotted at Planet Snoopy that won't be open till August, 7th. Hoping it was better then the cookies last year.

Well I just graduated from high school this past year and my parents asked what I want for a graduation gift, I of course said I wanted to go to some amusement parks. So my mom and I started planning for our trip and decided on northern New York and western Pennsylvania. We decided to go to Waldameer, Martin's Fantasy Island, Seabreeze, Darien Lake, Knoebels, Delgrosso's, Lakemont, and finish off at Conneaut Lake. We decided to leave out Kennywood because we already stopped there last year for a trip that included it and Knoebels and I already stopped earlier this year. So without further ado, the reviews! (Sorry for how long this is) Waldameer : I love this park, I seriously can not get enough of it. The park is only two hours from my house and this is the third year in a row that I have gone. The park is incredibly clean, well shaded, employees are nice, food is affordable and has the perfect family atmosphere. The North End expansion looks great and the three new rides were a perfect fit for the park. Obviously the big draw for me was Ravine Flyer 2 which is still in my top 5 and just blows me away every time. The drop tower, X-Scream puts many to shame with some intense airtime during the freefall. Only downside is that you slam into your seat when the ride hits the brakes but still a very fun and enjoyable ride. Besides that, Pirates Cove, Wacky Shack, Comet, Steel Dragon, and their other rides all are family fun and perfect for a day visit. Especially with Presque Peninsula right outside of the park and the diner's amazing food about a quarter mile down the road! Martin's Fantasy Island : I had no clue what to expect from this park other than the Silver Comet. We paid our starlight admission for the affordable thirteen dollars and walked in. We immediately toured the kids area which I was very impressed with. Very well shaded, rides seemed like they were kept for, nice fairy tale story booths, a petting zoo, it was a very nice surprise! Then we went to the amusement park side and I wish I could say the same. I rode Silver Comet three times that day due to it being a walkon mostly the entire day. I would've rode more but the ride ops were painfully slow. I don't know if most parks do this but I come from Cedar Point where they buckle the seat belt and push down the lap bar at the same time. Martin's has to buckle each seat belt, then the ride op screamed hands up and do not pull down the lap bar where she then pushed it down for you. If a little kid pushed down the lap bar, the other operator released the lap bars and the whole process repeated. It took almost 5min for a train to dispatch while both ride operators were talking about their day. Silver Comet itself is a great wooden coaster, especially in the front however. I then went and rode Devil's Hole. First time I have been on a ride like this and I honestly did not like it and it made me feel sick. It was loud, hot, and I hated the jolt when you raised from the floor. After that I did not feel too good, rode Full Tilt, Crazy Mouse, the car ride, and called it a day. Wish I rode Mind Warp but I just felt like crap and it didn't look promising. This park needs some landscape help pronto, chipped pavement, and randomly placed rides. I feel this park could do much better especially in their good location by the falls. Seabreeze : Biggest surprise park of the trip. This park truly is the Waldameer of New York except with a little less of a ride selection and a tad more history in the park. The park is extremely clean and tidy with very efficient ride ops. Almost every ride only had one and they were getting people through the lines. Jack Rabbit is a fun old wooden coaster, doesn't do too much but its a ride where you throw your hands up and have a good time. The Bobsleds is without a doubt one of the cutest coasters I have ever been on and just like the Jack Rabbit is good fun. Whirlwind is the same as Steel Dragon at Waldameer only not as trimmed and more forceful as well. They need a couple more rides but I was impressed with the Screaming Eagle and their Flyers especially. The park is well landscaped, needs a little more shade but has an amazing location and atmosphere on the lake. I loved this little park and make sure you go to the burger joint by the park, you can't miss it when you're driving there, its amazing. Darien Lake : I was finally going to get my first Boomerang and SLC after missing them at Geauga Lake until I read Boomerang was down for the entire day. This park didn't really surprise me, I thought it was going to be your average corporate park and it was. The food was terrible, a pretzel (luke warm) and a small drink cost nine dollars and just very unacceptable. Having said that the coasters surprised me. I was iffy about RoS in the back seat, it was a tad rough and I was just very confused by the layout and all of the potential it had. The front seat changed my mind, I loved it, smooth, nice floater air time during the first half of the ride, amazing ejector on the last half. They just didn't need the helixes and random straight piece of track. Predator stunned me, I loved it, it wasn't butter smooth but it ran very well, had airtime, great layout and is right up there with Silver Comet for me. Motocoaster was great fun, I loved the launch, the tight turns, the brief airtime and I would love to see Cedar Point replace Wildcat with a motocoaster. Also they were really getting trains through the station on this one. Mind Eraser was rough, but I was expecting much worse, so it was a little surprise, but still rough. Operation were mediocre for the most of the rides and I saw the famed Batman from the top of RoS and pieces of the Thunderbolt from Celebration City by Mind Eraser. (Also alot of park goers still refer to RoS as Superman, struck me odd.) Knoebels : My favorite amusement park, they can't do much wrong here. The food is the best theme park food I've ever had, its unique, affordable and tasty. There is shade everywhere, all of the employees have a smile on their face, operations were top notch, especially with the under thirty second dispatches on Phoenix. Speaking of Phoenix, easily my top coaster. Amazing airtime, smooth, and all with a buzz bar. It's simple and amazing all at the same time. Twister is the king of Lateral G forces, it is rougher then Phoenix but still enjoyable and just soooooooo many laterals on the ride. I absolutely adore the Haunted Mansion, it is without a doubt the best dark ride I've been on. All of their flats have long programs which makes them all worth riding. Fandango and Power Surge both provide very thrilling long, intense cycles and wish more parks had them. Flying Turns looks good and they have a POV of the ride next to the ride and it looks like Black Diamond will open soon! I love this park and everything about it! Del Grosso : Stayed here for about an hour. Its a very good family park, great kids rides and enough family rides to have an enjoyable evening. The park needs some shade but for the most part is still very good. I rode only the Crazy Mouse, Space Odyssey and their Drop Tower, all providing good rides and stopped and had their AMAZING pizza. Completely worth the stop for that alone. Del Grosso's is a good way to kill some time and is the better out of the two Altoona area parks. Lakemont : This park has so much potential, good location by Altoona, oldest wooden coaster, classic flats and a good "big" wooden coaster with Skyliner, but sadly does not come close to what it could be. The rides are all starting to become run down, the food is not very good, there is no shade at all in the park and no flow to the park. Leap the Dips was great fun, but it looks like it needs some attention and Skyliner definitely needs attention. It does not look good at all lately and ran just "ok" in the front and very rough in the back. You can hear the train throughout the park because it is squealing so loud and if you go on it you will get a headache. I also rode my first Chance Toboggan, only to hit my head during the drop after the helix, the ride honestly terrified me. The lake/creek by the park was stagnant and screamed malaria creek. The water park was decent but this park needs something to get it in the right direction. They have all of the resources to be good, but it honestly felt like no one really cared for this park. I hope this park does better in the future. Conneaut Lake : I visited the park two years ago when it was closed and examined it. Yes, this park is still rundown but I loved it. Within two years they reopened Blue Streak (even though it was closed on my visit) redid sections of the boardwalk, added some working lights, made the putt putt area beautiful, reopened almost all of the flat rides and kiddy rides. You could tell the park was really trying to be a very good park again and it was a nice contrast from Lakemont. Conneaut Lake itself is beautiful with a very nice hotel that was hosting a wedding reception. The employees were the nicest of the trip, especially the ride op to Devils Den who gave candy to children and tried to scare guests at the end of the ride. I hope to see this park make it, I truly feel like they are trying to make this park good again. By the way, I completely did not know they installed a new kiddy coaster with the Go Gator, rcdb doesn't even have it listed yet, anyone know more?

Visited Conneaut Lake Park today, Blue Streak was down and they said there was a small chance tomorrow for it to reopen. Also when did Conneaut Lake install the Go Gator roller coaster?

I wouldn't be surprised to see the new Bizarro restraints. Those are not OTSR and were just recently installed, so I mean those are always a possibility.

I might be one of the few people that really disagrees with this. I understand the benefits of a fast pass and I'm not against parks having them, but this specific system. For instance, I loved Kennywoods, it was very cheap and had a specific time listed for each ride that the general public could see so if they wanted they could avoid the ride during that time. My problem with this is that I feel that it takes away the park experience for families that can only visit once a year and can't afford a fast pass, making the waits even longer for them. Also the fact that it is unlimited, riders can get off a ride, walk right back up the exit, and then take that seat again from people who have been waiting for an hour, without limit. I personally really do not want to see this spread unless it is heavily revised.

Prince Desmond might be at it again! http://www.wkyc.com/news/article/198157/45/Geauga-Lakes-Big-Dipper-has-buyers-lined-up

I was personally never on board with the Dragster idea, but there is a ton of room inside that junkyard. They already have a line setup because Mean Streak's line never hits the switchbacks and could just recycle it. I was there yesterday and could easily see the park constructing one there. My only point is if they were going to build one, it would be a decent location to do so.

If for any reason a Zacspin was to be built, the one area that I would love to see it would be inside Mean Streak's super structure. Lengthen and widen the entrance to Mean Streak and use some of Mean Streak's enormous queue for the Zacspin and use the junkyard for the location. It is a huge area that would fit perfectly besides being able to see the ride, so naturally it would need heavy advertising in the park.

I personally hope that the point will get Pirate Ride back soon. I mean they have the building there still and lack a good dark ride. I'm going with the random hope that they might get this along with Dinosaurs Alive for 2012, but I just don't see it happening until after this 2013 project.