odene497

^Gah. I'll be in NYC Wednesday and half of Thursday. I plan on going on Thursday. It'll be close.

Looks good! Hopefully testing goes quickly and smoothly so it's open on my visit in two weeks.

I was also at the season pass preview day. The hours were 12-5. ROS was down for the majority of the day. At 4:40, the sun came out, and after some more ROS tests, the handful of us that were there were let in to board at literally 4:59. They were nice enough to run the ride until about 5:15 and cycled maybe 6 rides, which I got 3 of with having to walk around. It was pretty gloomy and windy and sprinkled on and off, with some heavier rain for about 5 minutes at one point. I got on each of the coasters except Motocoaster, which looked like it had the flywheel running and had ops in the station, but I never saw it run. I rode Mind Eraser totally alone, as no one was really in that area of the park. The free Tim Horton's for the season pass line before opening was really nice. The park looked decent. Viper has a nice newly painted sign. All in all, I was just glad they worked to get Ride of Steel open even when the park was only open for another 10 minutes. It ran super slow, but it'll get there when it gets warmer out.

That drop into that enormous stall looks fantastic.

I really like the layout of this one. Looking forward to trying it this summer!

This is easily my most anticipated coaster of the Scandi trip. I loved the freedom of the restraints on Blue Fire. Can't wait to see the pretzel and top hat go up!

Option 1. It's more concise, I can see more at once. I don't care about Twitter, but can see where that's a nice touch. I just don't like how with 2, I just get the big picture, and have to scroll before I start seeing updates under it.

Trick track to triple up on Boulder Dash.

^The crane over the tophat leads me to think they were just doing a pull through, but I could be wrong.

^While I can't say "You'll like this better than this," I can't see Cheetah Hunt beating Maverick, even for someone who doesn't care for strong forces. I don't always care for strong forces. But Cheetah Hunt is more like an Intamin launched mine train with a slow barrel roll. Which is fine. Despite being the same "type" of ride as Maverick, it's so far from it.

I don't have any sort of current set list anywhere, but I'll throw out ten of my favorites. Dinoconda Eejanaika X2 Skyrush Expedition GeForce Boulderdash New Texas Giant Kumba Olympia Looping Maverick

Ohhhh duh. My mind went right to the Brussel's fair. Some of the stuff looked really similar!

I still remember our visit here a few years ago, they had some crazy stuff then! Nice pictures, and good to see everyone having fun.

Those Knoebel's flyers make me legitimately nervous, it's almost hard not to snap them! And the Skooters are probably my favorite ride in the park, or at least up there with Phoenix. Can't wait to visit in two weeks! I'd love for Flying Turns to be open but I'm not expecting it.

Any of the S&S 4D coasters, especially Dinoconda or Eejanaika. Dodonpa, Skyrush, and Kumba are up there as well.

A friend mentioned talk of a new coaster, but actually seeing the concept made my jaw drop. My home park, possibly getting a crazy RMC ride? This sounds amazing. And as bummed as I would be to see good ol' Predator go, an awesome custom coaster would make it worth it. I'm really looking forward to seeing more about this and I hope the park will go through with it.

^^I've read about this before but don't think I'll be able to explain it as well, I think a lot of modern day Intamin lift hills have a fin running along next to the anti-rollbacks, it creates some sort of a current that holds up the rollback "dogs" or whatever (really digging into my childhood nerd here), and only when the car stopped or slowed, like if it was going backward, would they come down and catch onto the ratchets. It gets rid of all the noise. Apparently something didn't work right this time.

I can agree with that, I always think about it.

Jesus! That is terrifying. If people were a minute or two slower in responding this could have been a crazy tragedy.

For the longest time drop towers were the one ride that still got to me, but I've become pretty jaded towards them. So I'm really looking forward to one this tall, with the full tilt. Definitely sounds like it'll be a cool experience.

This ride, and other Star Flyers this high are easily the scariest rides in the world to me. I think they look gorgeous. But having a one bolt connection at the top of each swing just freaks me out. I liked the look of the one that was built at St Louis, where each swing shares chains. Sure it's absolutely safe, but add in the height, and I want lots of chains and lots of connections between the chair and the tower.

As rough as it was, I thought it was incredible on the Mid America tour in 2010. All the directional changes and tiny hills underground make that whole part pretty intense. Hopefully it'll all be good as the new train breaks in more, and ideally the track will remain decent with the Timberliner.

Went to the park today for the first time this season, and for being some sort of school band day it was actually really dead. The "new" area looks nice, Blast Off looks great, but was still being worked on. It was slowly raised and lowered throughout the day, sometimes with workers going up to the top. Ride of Steel broke down while we were in line, we waited it out for a bit but (luckily) left as it ended up being down for around 3 or so hours. The Viper train looks nice, and that was actually the longest wait of the day with a full station. Predator was running pretty decent too, but I pretty much only ride in the front, and also am a little biased towards it as my first coaster. I was surprised to see all the ferris wheel cars on, I thought they were going to group them in threes again. One other thing, it's going to take a while for people to get used to the fluffy bunnies at Ride of Steel, the employee at the entrance would basically tell people to use it or "Put it in a bush somewhere but I'm not responsible." If it helps speed up the boarding process I'm all for it. Looking forward to being able to ride Blast Off, hopefully within the next few weeks.

Great pictures, thanks for posting them. I feel better missing out on opening weekend knowing Blast Off isn't operating yet. Hopefully I can get out before Memorial Day to get my free bring a friend ticket with my pass. The Viper trains look great! Especially nice against the black track. I'm also happy about the new UFO station wood, I'd hate to lose a solid flat. Unrelated: I wish Blast Off had some sort of cap to it, it looks naked! Thanks again for the update, it's great seeing all of the improvements.

I love the Viper shots. I'm not sure if I'll make it for opening day but at least at some point next month, I'm really looking forward to the redone area and having another solid flat ride. Of course I'd love to see a cool new coaster for my home park, but I'm just as content knowing they're at least making all of these thorough park improvements.