xmichellex

I'm guessing SFNE was aware of the possible maintenance and downtime issues before they went ahead and decided to place it in the park (as well as order new trains for it). SFNE does a pretty good job of keeping things up and running, unless of course there's a major issue, so I would think they'll keep Goliath pretty reliable... as reliable as it can be I guess. Can't wait to check out the new trains - it will definitely benefit the ride to have an improved design.

This is great news! Things are lookin' up! I hope the restraints are at least somewhat smaller than the bulky ones it has now... Now I'm more excited to ride it again. Although, I hope Premier knows how to build an inverted hyper dive coaster train

Thanks for all these great pics! Port Aventura looks like such a nice park. I have wanted to ride Dragon Khan ever since I saw pics of it in my "White Knuckle Ride" coaster book years ago... It still is such an awesome coaster to look at. I love the on-ride pictures! That drop tower looks insane

In my opinion, it has not aged well. It used to be a favorite of mine (and was one of my first wooden coasters), and now I don't really care if I ride it or not. The first drop (especially in the back seat) is still pretty awesome, but it only stays fun for about half the ride... then it gets boring and more rough. It's really too bad since it was such a great coaster. I would love to see them re-track it a little more, especially on the turns. I actually prefer riding Thunderbolt over the Cyclone now, but that's just me. It seems from reading the trip reports from the TPR trip that a lot of people really liked the Cyclone, so maybe I'm just bummed it doesn't live up to my memories! I wish SFNE would put in another awesome woodie instead of having one awesome steel coaster and a whole bunch of mediocre coasters as filler.

At Kings Island, Top Gun/Flight Deck is that awful gray color, or at least it was years ago when I rode it. Also at KI, Vortex bums me out color-wise... it just looks so drab. That dark green color they used is awful, and having it topped with bright orange makes it worse. I do love the way the coaster itself looks though, I always loved the layout of the big Arrow loopers. Speaking of green and orange, Pandemonium at SFNE gives me the same feeling. I also agree with Nitro at SFGrAdv. It's such an awesome coaster, I feel like it should look a little more menacing. This post also made me realize my favorite coasters for color/aesthetics... Drachen Fire (that light blue with the red trains was awesome), Kumba, and Talon at Dorney Park.

So sad. Arrows made up almost all of my first coaster experiences when I was growing up, including the all the Arrows at BGW (DF, BBW, LNM), Corkscrew at Canobie, GASM at Great Adventure, Black Widow at Riverside/SFNE, and several others. Without a doubt, I credit those firsts with contributing to my love of coasters. Thanks for your work, Ron, and all the amazing rides you gave us (especially the Big Bad Wolf )...

Canobie Lake Galaxi BGW Big Bad Wolf Drachen Fire (before it was modified too) SFGrAdv Great American Scream Machine Batman & Robin the Chiller (both sides) Pirate's Fun Park, Salisbury Beach, MA Galaxi Rocky Point (Rhode Island) Loop Corkscrew SFNE Black Widow (back when the park was Riverside) Whalom Park Flyer Comet Las Vegas/Sahara Nascar Cafe Speed: The Ride (not gone yet, but probably will be) SFMM Psyclone SFoT Texas Giant (original) - I think that counts? PKI King Cobra Scooby's Ghoster Coaster

Cedar Point Millennium Force - 2000 TTD - 2003 Kings Island Son of Beast - 2000 SFMM Scream - 2003

^ Agreed on Deja Vu. I'm going to have to go with B:TR at SF Great Adventure. For some reason that station is always miserable to me because it's either really hot or there is no air movement. That is one of worst lines to wait in too, imo. For some reason, every time I've been in that line over the years, there's never fans or a/c working (or working well) in the queue or station... I always get annoyed waiting for that ride. Also, the Cyclone at SFNE - the queue used to be on the opposite side and seemed much less crammed. It was kind of irritating being in line for a row and having people have to really squeeze by you and the wall to get past.

Thank you! Was thinking of maybe hitting up BGW and KD over the course a few days, but because of their limited schedules and Halloween stuff going on, I don't know if it's going to be worth it... I've been dying to get to BGW because I haven't been since Drachen Fire was there... I haven't ridden Apollo, Alpengeist, or Griffin. I've also never been to KD so thought it'd be a good add-on (even if only for Intimidator).

Random question - are all the rides (especially the coasters) open during all of October? I know the park is open, I was just curious as to if they had everything still running... Thinking about a last minute trip. Also, how crowded does it get at that time? Can it be done in one visit?

Glad to see it's improving somewhat. What a bummer to have to deal with cleaning up after that... I can't imagine how people in the area/PA are dealing with that same issue in their homes

The KK and Nitro tour pics are AWESOME. I'm insanely jealous of the pitch black El Toro ERT! I'm not afraid of much, but I don't know if I'd go up in that KK maintenance elevator

Poor Hershey... this is awful. I feel so terrible for the Zoo workers, what a horrible situation to be in

I think the quality control on here is just one of the many reasons TPR has been (and continues to be) so successful. You guys have made great relationships with parks, as well as with the people in the business of those parks, and it's due to the effort you guys put into TPR. Keep doing what you do!!

http://www.sixflags.com/newEngland/tickets/seasonpass.aspx See! It is a hyper! Oh good! I was worried they were going to put in a second boomerang...

I started laughing while watching the videos for this... it just looks that crazy and ridiculous... Must.Go.To.Magic.Mountain.

I'm so into this coaster... and agree with whoever said they'd rather have this (even if it is low capacity) than another boomerang (SFNE). This thing just looks like it's going to be a blast... and it looks like it's just lap bars! The hang time at the top will probably be crazy!

This looks so freaking cool. I hate that it will be across the country from me... I love drop towers!

This coaster looks like it's going to be pretty awesome. Maybe I'll get to SFDK... someday Hopefully they'll post a vid/animation of what it will look like in action!

They took the article down, it was posted prematurely (giggity).

^ I believe the article said it would be on both sides of Superman, at least from what I gathered... but the article is gone now so can't double check. Guess it was too early to release the info!

Wow, awesome pics! I love the expressions of the people on Nitro! I agree about Bizarro/Medusa being pretty rough... It seemed like it had really declined when I rode it last summer. It used to be one of my favorite rides in the park and I would ride it a bunch of times in a row, but last year, once was enough... rattled us around enough that we didn't bother to go back. I wonder why this coaster is aging so badly?

They have full day fluffy, fluffy bunnies filled with medicine and goo all over the place. The best ones are right through the main gate, to the right. You don't need a key or anything. It's pretty cool. Or you could call guest relations and ask them if you could leave your medicine in the first aid building. I think they would approve that but you never know. We got an all day lock.er (I didn't want to drag my purse around with me). It's $13 for an all-day lock.er - well, $13 for the smallest size, but that fit 2 sweatshirts, a bag of bathing suits and stuff for the water park, and my purse, so that's probably all you'd need. There's also a medium and large for a couple more bucks each. The lock.ers by the big coasters are $1 per use and the time limit is 2 hours.

Yes, I'd say that the original drop was crazier than now... I don't remember the airtime pop that's there now, but I remember that the Cyclone's first drop was truly the only drop that scared the crap out of me consistently. In addition to Flashback and Cyclone, I remember seeing that Pandemonium had cubbies too. They were being VERY strict with loose items on Bizarro. If people were putting hats, sunglasses, etc. on the side, they would not dispatch until people were wearing their stuff announcing the items would not be there when the train returned. The only things people were leaving on the Batman platform seemed to be flip-flops, which they were allowing. I believe you can leave things on the side on Thunderbolt, but can't remember for certain.