shivtim

Surprisingly few people spoke English, even in touristy areas (none of the taxi drivers I had, nobody at my hotel, nobody I talked to at SFM or La Feria spoke any English). That being said, it was still pretty easy to get around. Just learn a few key phrases and you'll be fine. As an American, I already have some survival Spanish skills, and that was more than enough. Don't let not knowing Spanish deter you from traveling to Mexico City! SFM really didn't have very many flat rides. It isn't a very big park. They have all of their rides listed on their website if you want to take a look at what they have. Superman does have *real* ejector airtime at one point on the ride, which really surprised me. After the huge awesome left-turning helix, the train goes over a sharp hill before diving to the right. This is where the fantastic airtime is. The rest of the airtime I would describe as strong floater, similar to what you might find on Steel Force or Mamba when they're running well. This is definitely the most intense Morgan hyper I've been on, in terms of both airtime, positive G's, and laterals. I haven't been on the Arrow/Morgan Phantom's Revenge, or Steel Dragon 2000, so I can't compare it to those.

I recently had a chance to spend a long weekend in Mexico City, and visited Six Flags Mexico and La Feria Chapultepec while I was there. Overall Mexico City is great. Very friendly people, fantastic food, and cheap. There are some really neat sights and a world-class museum. I never once felt unsafe, even when walking at night. Many US cities have a higher violent crime rate. I also did not get sick, despite eating tacos and quesadillas off the street (I did avoid ice and water/juice). Here's a little bit of transportation information in case anyone is interested in doing the trip themselves: Six Flags Mexico: I took Metro line 3 to the southernmost station, Universidad. There's a large taxi stand right outside the station (next to the buses), and it was about 40 pesos ($3.50) to take a cab to SFM from there. It's only about 7km away and takes maybe 10 minutes depending on traffic. On the way back, I caught a cab on the street right outside SFM, and took it to Universidad station to do the trip in reverse. You also could just take a taxi all the way from the city center, but it's 25km so it would be more expensive, especially if you hit traffic. La Feria Chapultepec: I took the metro to Constituyentes Station. It's about a 10 minute walk from there. Unfortunately it's not marked at all, and it's a rather unpleasant walk across a couple of major roads. Walk past the science museum and the main entrance to La Feria is on the right. Now on to the pictures! I'm here! Superman from the parking lot. Medusa in the morning light. It was about 10:30AM on a Thursday. Lots of Six Flags theming, and plenty of trees It wasn't very crowded yet... and turns out half the rides weren't open yet! First up: Superman, El Ultimo Escape! Obligatory sign shot for Larry. Spanish makes everything sound more badass. Here's the Superman station. They were only running one train, but it was only about a 10 minute wait. Superman's train The first drop isn't that steep, but it's still pretty good. Can't compare to an Intamin drop! Almost there... The drop is similar to Steel Force or Mamba, but with a slight jog to the right like Steel Eel. The ride towers over the front of the park You get some great laterals and positive G's in the helix, and the train maintains a high speed all the way through it. Overall, Superman is a fantastic ride. Easily the best coaster in Mexico, and by far the best Morgan hyper. I think it's even better than most B&M hypers, and dare I say it, better than some Intamin hypers! Fantastic ejector air time going over this hill. More strong airtime going into the mid-course brakes, and over this bunny hill. Unfortunately it's not very easy to photograph the ride from inside the park. Yep, we're at Six Flags! But it's in Mexico so there are 50% more tacos than a normal Six Flags. Lots of nice theming and trees. This is one of the best looking Six Flags parks! Medusa! I'd heard this ride was really rough, but the layout looks incredible. I was excited to give it a try. OH NOES! Medusa was closed! It looked like they were doing some serious re-tracking. And it would have only been a two hour wait time... Not even a train in the station. Senor churro is NOT happy about Medusa being closed! On to Dark Knight, one of two Batman themed coasters in the park, and also the newest coaster in the park. It's the same as the other versions, except the pre-show is dubbed in Spanish, making it even more boring than the original! Luckily the brakes were almost entirely off, so there were some pretty wicked laterals on the ride. Decent "Gotham City Subway" theming outside the ride. Blurry ride shot Walked by the roller skater... not open yet... Very nice looking S&S tower ride. This one is themed after a volcano. Come children, walk through the giant creepy clown's mouth to get to the Bugs Bunny Circus! Six Flags Mexico also has 50% more giant soccer balls than an American Six Flags. Boomerang and Batman were also still closed (Oh, Six Flags) so I went over to Tsunami. Larry shot! The whole ride is under a weird steel pyramid structure. Nicely landscaped. The train dives through a small "cave" next to the station. Superman's second hill and helices tower over a Batman-themed stage It was 11:30 at this point, but Boomerang was still closed even though the sign said it opened at 11. Look at that air pollution! Mexico City will literally turn your boogers black. Boomerang opened around noon and had an immediate line. It was about a 25 minute, 3-train wait, mostly because of slow loading procedures and a reaallly slow cable lift. This is the very first boomerang EVAR, and man is it rough! One of the roughest boomers I've been on. Giant barrel of Mexican beer! Nice shaded areas... I said it before, but it really is a nice looking park, at least for a Six Flags. More theming Lots of directional signs around the park Pirate Battle ride! Domo won't stop until he achieves TOTAL WORLD DOMINATION Park map! Ohh, Batman is open. Well it looks pretty nice... But it's a typical SLC! Shame they couldn't have gotten a normal B&M Batman. Batman ride sign! With sun flare... oops, sorry Larry. I got a bit sunburned, probably because of the high elevation. Ouch ouch ouch The guy in the front left is actually frowning. Thanks, Vekoma. One of these things is not like the other, one of these things just doesn't belong Inversion geek shot! Back to the Roller Skater... And it's open! Time to do some credit whoring. Walking back by Superman on my way out of the park. See, I told you there were 50% more tacos. Also more fountains and ceramic frogs. Buildings near the entrance. It was getting cloudy and looked like rain. Another aqueduct/fountain near the entrance. Adios, Six Flags Mexico! Superman looms in the distance. And through the magic of the internet, we've arrived at La Feria Chapultepec on a Saturday afternoon! The entrance plaza. La Feria is in a large urban park (Chapultepec). Welcome to La Feria! It was somewhat crowded, but not too bad. I got my Pasaporte Platino... good to go! A grasshopper, the symbol of Chapultepec. Montaña Infinitum is right in the entrance plaza. Two intense swooping drops on this ride! The restraints are odd - lapbars with a separate "back-pack strap" restraint. They're OK, and better than OTSRs, but there's no reason this ride couldn't just have a lapbar. Three big loops - nice intensity and pretty smooth. Mmmm, Schwarzkopf... I think it's themed after a cell phone company. Take that, T-Express! Overview of Montaña Infinitum. Very compact ride. Unfortunately it looks like rain again... On to Montaña Rusa, the classic Mobius coaster. It turns 50 soon. Nice old-school trains. Unfortunately they were only operating one train on the ride, so the line moved veeery slow. Still only had to wait about 20 minutes. The second drop is fantastic, and probably the best moment on the ride. Ejector air. La Feria is a Pepsi park. I do not approve! Montaña Rusa's station Train full of riders coming back to the station. Unfortunately the trains have an uncomfortable steel lap bar. Overall I liked the ride, but it has some issues. It is very rough and intense... kind of like the Coney Island Cyclone. You wouldn't want to do much re-riding. About half of the drops (including the first drop) are "rampy" and not that exciting, but the other half are steep and have huge pops of ejector air. Ride sign Lots of flat rides around the park The park is not that big, so they cram a lot of rides in. On to Raton Loco, the next credit! This ride is crazy intense. The brakes only kicked in twice on the whole ride, and just a very light touch. So the spinning was LOCO. Way too much for my tastes! They also made me take off my glasses on this ride and hold them in my hands. Weird. The locals loved it! Haunted walk-through Log flume time! Very popular ride. Condor! On to Cascabel. You may recognize this coaster from Kennywood. More Schwarzkopf looping goodness! The front spike. Cascabel is a fantastic ride, as expected. Smooth, fast, powerful loop, and nice hangtime. And all with a simple lapbar, the way Anton intended! Well that's it for the two parks. Time for a CULTURE CREDIT MINI PHOTO TR! Yes, that is a cop with a sombrero. Better than a Canadian Mountie (and I didn't think any police officer could be better than a Canadian Mountie!) Mexicans are big on PDA. We saw lots of couples making out all over the place, even in the subway and in church plazas. Interestingly, this also included gay couples. Gay marriage is completely legal in Mexico. Palacio de Bellas Artes. A fantastic building. Courtyard of the National Palace... another beautiful building! EPIC PYRAMID JUMP! Hope you enjoyed the report

Delaware is now a credit-less state! Take that, Wyoming.

Attacked by armed gunmen?

^I agree with all of that. But, sometimes the complete experience affects how much you like a ride! ERT is a great example. If I wait for 2 hours on a hot day to ride a coaster, or if I have multiple ERT rides, even if it's *technically* the exact same ride, the experience is different, and I'll probably like the coaster better because of an ERT experience. As far as coasters in other countries, the same thing applies. I really do agree that nobody should purposely rank a coaster higher just because its "rare" or farther away. But they might subconsciously rate it higher just because they were having a really unique time in a foreign park.

Couldn't agree more that Phoenix is amazing at night. I had some summer night rides in a light rain that were so incredible that I don't think any coaster will ever be able to top it. Really it just comes down to your own personal preferences and experiences. If you catch a coaster on an "off" day, you might rank it lower. If you are having a fantastic ERT session, you might rate it higher. If you live in the US and you're visiting a park in Europe or Asia, you might rank the coaster higher just for novelty factor. I think the actual ordering of Mitch's poll probably isn't that important. What it shows is that the vast number of coaster enthusiasts love coasters such as El Toro, Phoenix, T-Express, and Boulderdash. What's #1 vs what's #2 or #3 doesn't really matter.

I've been on #1,2,3,4,5, but NOT #6,7,8,9,10. Weird. Phoenix is my favorite, glad to see that it continues to rank so highly. Just a very very FUN coaster! Love El Toro too, I actually think it's quite a bit better than T-Express (although T-Express is still my #3). What's remarkable is that as amazing as the Intamin woodies are, there is still room for improvement.

Thanks for the pics! This is a major project and really has the potential to return the Cyclone to its full potential. Can't wait to ride it.

Mmm, takoyaki... Fantastic trip report! I hope to make it to Fuji-Q someday, even with the horrible park ops.

Couple of tastings with friends:

^This. That ride is pure evil. Going into the first corkscrew the entire train slams violently to the right, then to the left. By far the worst coaster I've been on.

You're exactly right. Although it was the lowest rated BCS championship game, it was the 2nd highest rated program in the history of cable television. Only last years Auburn/Oregon match-up beat it. http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2012/01/alabama-lsu_game_draws_second-.html

'07 and '08

Definitely make sure to check ahead of time if Kawasemi is open. You can get someone who speaks Japanese (maybe at your hotel?) to call. There's also a spot on their website that lists rides closed for maintenance, but it's all in Japanese. A couple of my friends went up to Tobu last October and Kawasemi was closed all day. If you're not interested in doing the whole park all day, you can easily get all of the credits at Tobu in just an hour or so. When I went a few months ago, we had limited time, but we were able to ride Kawasemi and Regina and walk around for a bit and buy some souvenirs, and still made it back to Tokyo for a late lunch. Unfortunately the kiddie coaster was closed, and there wasn't even a train on the tracks.

I say LSU wins by 10.

Looks like at least 8 inversions, and probably at least one launch... and maybe a lift/drop in the middle of the ride. source: http://publicaccess.staffsmoorlands.gov.uk/upload/PublicAccess/proposedsiteplan%20(37877).PDF

There's also an express train from Asakusa Station to Tobudobutsokoen Station. It's the Tobu Nikko line. You don't have to transfer and it's the third stop (after Kita-senju and Kasakube); it only takes about 40 minutes. Make sure you pay the extra 500Y since it's an express train. It runs about once an hour. The staff at the information booth in Asakusa Station should be able to help you! Otherwise you can take a local train, which is cheaper but has a ton of stops so it takes 90 minutes. When you get there, you can either walk (15 or 20 minutes) or take a shuttle bus for about 100Y. Before you go I would double-check that Kawasemi is going to be open. I had a friend that went on a Friday in October and it was closed. It was open when I went on a Saturday in November. Unfortunately the "ride closings" section of their website is only in Japanese.

Exactly. Except you left off a few $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Boise State trounced ASU last night. They didn't look perfect, but they didn't need to be. Remind me again why they're not in a BCS bowl, but Michigan and VA Tech are?

Here's mine! Nothing fancy, but I like it.

Awesome, I love Seoul! Have fun at Lotte World, but watch out on Comet Express - single riders spin like crazy!

I love 333 West Wacker in Chicago. It bends along a curve in the Chicago river and has alternating bands of green glass. Probably the best skyscraper from the 1980s. source: jolyn27 on Flickr source: spudart on Flickr Sagrada Familia in Barcelona is awesome and very unique: source: ShertilaTony on Flickr source:GerargW(:)ng on Flickr And the monasteries in Meteora, Greece are also amazing because of their location (my pics from vacation):

Had the special winter version of Wild Heaven's Ode to Mercy. It's aged on Bourbon oak chips. Pretty nice. http://wildheavencraftbeers.com/

Whoo-hoo, it's coaster poll time! 1. Phoenix, Knoebel's 2. El Toro, SFGAd 3. T Express, Everland 4. HellCat, Timber Falls 5. The Voyage, Holiday World 6. Raven, Holiday World [My Favorite Steel, Anypark Anywhere] 7. Boulder Dash, Lake Compounce 8. Prowler, Worlds of Fun 9. Cornball Express, Indiana Beach 10. Thunderhead, Dollywood Botom two: Coaster-Express, Parque Warner Madrid Son of Beast (SBNO), King's Island

Interesting that the Texas Giant is still on there... I wonder if it's supposed to be ranked as the old (wooden) Texas Giant?