Big-M

From Screamscape:

Lakeside is FREE! Elitch's is $12 if I remember correctly.

Boulder Dash!

It loaded in about 7 seconds for me in Firefox. It seems to be a little slower than most TPR pages, but not by a lot. Took about 9 seconds in Internet Explorer.

Phoenix is awesome! The last one I rode was Lakeside Cyclone.

^ Ouch! I've only been to 1/10 (Knoebels). EDIT: \/ I've been to 3 of the Top 20.

After seeing this year's results, I began to wonder which parks had the best collections of wooden coasters. In order to find out, I subtracted each coaster's rank from 181 so coasters with a high rank got the highest numbers (El Toro was worth 180, Anaconda was worth 1). Then, I added the numbers of all of the coasters in a specific park to get a final number. Doing this got a nice balance of quality vs. quantity. Blackpool came out on top, with 493 points. Holiday World was #2, with 475. In order to deal with dueling coasters where each side was ranked separately, I averaged their ranks. The first number is the park's rank, and then the park's name is shown. Finally, for those interested, the total number of points is shown to the right. Enjoy! 1. Blackpool Pleasure Beach, 493 2. Holiday World, 475 3. Mt. Olympus, 396 4. Kennywood, 358 5. Six Flags St. Louis, 348 6. Indiana Beach, 346 7. Hersheypark, 329 8. Silverwood, 314 9. Knoebels, 309 10. Six Flags Great America, 234 11. Michigan’s Adventure, 227 12. Worlds of Fun, 226 13. Kings Island, 225 14. Kings Dominion, 220 15. Lake Compounce, 217 16. Waldameer, 211 17. Valleyfair, 208 18. Six Flags America, 207 19. Adventureland, 203 20. Six Flags Magic Mountain, 198 21. Six Flags Great Adventure, 195 22. Everland, 180 23. Liseberg, 174 24. Heide Park, 173 25. Nara Dreamland, 172 26. Happy Valley Songjiang, 171 27. Toverland, 170 28. Freizeitpark Plohn, 168 29. Dollywood, 167 30. Alabama Adventure, 166 31. PowerPark, 165 32. Celebration City, 161 33. Parc Asterix, 158 34. Six Flags Over Georgia, 155 35. Timber Falls, 155 36. Efteling, 154 36. Six Flags Over Texas, 154 38. Beech Bend, 153 39. Oakwood, 151 40. Playland at the PNE, 149 41. Great Escape, 148 42. Carowinds, 146 42. Dreamland, 146 44. Cliff’s, 144 45. Tusenfryd, 143 46. La Feria Chapultepec Magico, 142 47. Boomers, 139 48. LeSourdsville Lake, 137 49. Martin’s Fantasy Island, 136 50. Kemah Boardwalk, 135 51. Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, 134 52. Coney Island , 133 53. Kentucky Kingdom , 130 54. Walibi Belgium , 128 55. Six Flags New England, 127 56. Funtown USA , 126 57. Farup Sommerland , 125 58. Knott’s Berry Farm , 122 59. Bell’s , 121 59. Dorney Park, 121 61. Tivoli Gardens, 120 62. Six Flags New Orleans, 119 63. Cedar Point, 118 63. Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, 118 65. Puyallup Fair, 117 66. Lakeside, 116 67. Bakken, 115 68. Legoland FL/ Cypress Gardens, 114 68. Morey’s Piers, 114 70. Clementon Lake, 113 71. Walibi World, 112 72. Canobie Lake Park, 108 73. Conneaut Lake Park, 107 74. Geauga Lake, 105 75. Arnold’s Park, 102 76. Luna Park-Melbourne, 101 77. Belmont, 99 78. Family Kingdom, 98 79. Tripsdrill, 97 80. Tobu Zoo, 93 81. Upper Clements Park, 90 82. Nagashima Spaland, 88 83. Linnamaki Park, 84 84. Stricker’s Grove, 83 85. Canada’s Wonderland, 80 86. La Ronde, 79 87. Busch Gardens Tampa, 77 87. Wild Adventures, 77 89. Luna Park-Sydney, 75 90. Waterville USA, 74 91. Magic Springs, 71 92. Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach, 69 93. PortAventura, 65 93. Rye Playland, 65 95. Six Flags Mexico, 63 96. Joyland, 59 97. Seabreeze, 58 98. Vidámpark, 55 99. Camden Park, 54 99. Idlewild, 54 99. Wiener Prater, 54 102. Hirakata Park, 52 103. Lagoon, 49 104. Little Amerricka , 46 105. Kingdom Coaster, 42 106. Frontier City, 40 107. William’s Grove, 32 108. Wild Waves, 31 109. Jungle Jack’s Landing, 26 110. Yomuriland, 24 111. Kijima Kogen, 20 112. Elitch Gardens, 17 113. Six Flags Fiesta Texas, 13 114. Darien Lake, 10 115. Gulliver’s World, 9 116. Terra Mitica, 6 117. Movie Park Germany, 5 118. Parque Warner Madrid, 4 119. California’s Great America, 2 120. Walygator Park, 1 Best Wood Parks.pdf Here's a PDF version.

Okay, here's my analysis of the Top 6: 1 (tie). El Toro: This ride kicks a$$. It deserves to be #1. 1 (tie). T Express: Never been on it, but it looks awesome! 3. Boulder Dash: My #1 coaster. I love this ride. 4. Phoenix: This is as good as classic wooden coasters get. Not to mention the insane amounts of . 5. Ravine Flyer II: Someday, I will ride this. 6. The Voyage: There are many fanboys crying inside right now. Some other things to note: ~I really wish that Boardwalk Bullet and Lakeside Cyclone were ranked higher. ~I may be alone when I say this, but I honestly hated Coney Island Cyclone. I'm only 15, and my back hurt for two weeks after riding. How does it score in the Top 50? (I'm sure they gave the ACErs free Nathan's Hot Dogs when they visited. ) ~ I can't stress how happy I am about El Toro, Boulder Dash, and Phoenix. Those rides are as good as a wooden coasters get. It's great to be able to say that I've been on 3 of the top 4! ~I think the "TPR Bump" went really far this year. Voyage in #6? El Toro and T-Express at #1? Colossos at it's best ever rank?

Maybe the next clone we'll get will be a Mega-Lite. I totally agree about Lakeside Cyclone. Gotta love that first hill where there is about eight inches between your butt and the seat! .

I agree. It is one of the best looking coasters ever, then you ride it and it's totally forceless. It's a lot like Mean Streak actually.

I think that the sign really symbolizes the type of ride this is. You have the new sign (new steel track) on the old wooden structure (self explanatory)

^ This is correct. Demon opened in 1976 as Turn of the Century, and had its airtime hills replaced with loops in 1980. It was also rethemed to "The Demon".

Hi TPR! Earlier today I was near Elitch's, so I figured I would take some off season pictures. I didn't have any time to cross the Platte to get closer photos of the rides, but I think that some of the shots turned out decently. By the way, there are no pictures of Flying Coaster because there really isn't anything left to see! I'm not sure if it's completely gone or not, but it isn't possible to see anything remaining from across the river. Let's start with Twister II! From here, you can get a good view of the first drop. I've always thought Twister II was smooth, but really forceless. ...one last view... There's the Intamin "Giant U" We now take a break from coasters to look at a random waterslide shot. Carry on now. Let's move onto the Boomerang. I only rode it once this year. Ouch! Here you can see our giant Intamin Tower (and one last look at Boomerang) Let's move on to Elitch's other Vekoma torture device, Mind Eraser! This would be your view of Mind Eraser... if YOU LIVED IN A VAN DOWN BY THE RIVER! They don't call it hang-n-bang for nothin! Thankfully, it's still photogenic. All those inversions make it look a bit TWISTY! Okay, here is another last look at Boomerang, and Mind Eraser as well. There is the tower thingie. I'll close with another shot of the tower thingie.

From Mitch's Site: Expect 2010 Wood Results and Steel Ballot Here Soon I can't wait!

~ Riding Boulder Dash, and having it become my #1! ~ Riding SFNE Bizarro ~ Visiting Knoebels, eating some great food and riding Phoenix ~ TEH BIG DIPPING ROLLIES COSATR!!! ~ Ending the season with two great rides on Lakeside Cyclone

^ It confused me when I tried it out last year, so I did too. However, I tried using Excel this year and it wasn't that bad. IF YOU HAVEN'T CAST YOUR BALLOT YET, DO IT NOW!

^Wow! The theming in those waterparks is incredible! ^^A coaster like that would be awesome! Have you ever heard of the proposed Arrow Fish-Hook coaster?

The pool used for the Bumper Boats at Lakeside was originally used for their Shoot the Chutes ride. The skeleton of their old ferris wheel (Star Ride) still remains as well.

You weren't dreaming. Here's a picture I took in 2010 that shows the original drop below the current one.

^ Thanks, man. Lakeside is a good little park.

I wasn't sure where to ask this, so I figured I would post it here. It looks like Lakeside's website is no longer existant. It wasn't a very good site to start out with, but I wonder what this could mean for the future of the park. You will find their website here.

Go for Great Adventure! As far as coasters are concerned, you will get FIVE (count 'em) B&Ms, as well as El Toro (which I personally prefer to SFNE Bizarro), and the tallest roller coaster in the world. While SFNE is a nice park, their collection just cannot compare.

Is GhostRider still getting trimmed at the midcourse?

This is amazingly sad and pathetic, but... Lake Compounce, From their site: Kiddie Coaster - The Wildkitten HEIGHT REQUIREMENT: Minimum 36", No more than 56" without child. Adult may accompany child. SFNE, From their site: The Great Chase Height Restrictions 42" to ride alone, no height min. with adult. I don't quite understand what SFNE is trying to say about theirs, but it looks like you need a kid to accompany you for Lake Compounce's.

^Just be happy it wasn't called Stingray Hunt. Anyway, this looks like a great addition to the park!