dippindotsguy8

If you have never seen a full VF parking lot then you need to come on a Friday or Saturday then between June 15th and August 21th....provided it is a nice day. Agreed! Also, they're likely not asking if you thought there were enough parking spaces.... It's probably more about the process of parking. Is it set up efficiently? How was your experience at the toll booths, was the pavement horrible or satisfactory? Those kinds of things.

Got a bunch of rides in today, and absolutely loved it! I'm not sure if it's my favorite of the RMC's, but it's in my overall top 5 somewhere. The ops were working very hard to crank the trains out. They now have it down to where if the guests cooperate, they can reliably duel. The only problem is that there's absolutely no margin for error. If anyone has to do the walk of shame, it's too late. If more than 3 or 4 bars have to be re-checked, it's probably too late. I imagine that when the ADA entrance is being used, that will become an issue as well. The time it takes for the trains to park and for the restraints to release isn't helping them much either. Again, the loaders were hauling a** pretty much all day. I never personally saw a failure to duel that wasn't related to a guest. Hopefully some of these obstacles can be reduced over the next few weeks so that common delays are manageable, and a guest's simple mistake doesn't throw things off. This is one of the few rides where I can honestly say there isn't a bad seat on. I rode all over the train, due to the strict "no preferred seating" policy. There wasn't a single ride I felt wasn't thrilling, especially when racing the other train. That said, I the airtime is substantially better in the very front and very back cars. The most notable moments are the beginning of the first turnaround, the top-gun airtime hill (blue), double-up if you're in the front (blue), and the two main drops (blue or green) in the back row. It's wonderful that the park now has a drop that's shaped so well to balance out the (in my opinion) incredibly unexciting ramp-o-doom on Goliath. The stall on the green side is now my favorite inversion on any coaster. It's done perfectly so that you don't feel like you're hanging excessively in the restraints, but you're not exactly planted in your seat either. It feels like a perfect zero-g moment that goes on strangely long. As others have said, simultaneously having another train rushing underneath you close enough to make eye contact and wave with the riders takes it over the top. One of my favorite moments was riding behind some random teens. As we climbed the first lift, they were pointing at goliath and saying things like "wow, this isn't even half the height of it". Watching the opinions change over the course of just the blue side was extremely entertaining. They were caught off-guard by so many of the elements, and by the time the ride ended, they were cheering just as loud as the other enthusiasts on the train as it returned to the station. I think everyone is going to react well to the ride, and I just hope they can find a way to buy the ops (and guests) a bit more time. Hopefully having a test seat will help, and maybe they'll get the lap bars cooperating more. All in all, a great ride, and West Coast Bash can't come soon enough!

WOW....after seeing this I cannot help but to think how great GhostRider would be with this treatment. Agreed, and seeing how Medusa turned out especially sold me on a GR overhaul. I still think just topper track would fix it, but I definitely wouldn't mind letting RMC go to town on it either.

Can't wait to check it out tomorrow. The stall/airtime hill look insanely close, too!

Y'all are not understanding me. I am thrilled about this ride. I can't wait for it to open this weekend, and I will definitely be riding it all day. The reason I used the term "fanboys" was because some of you don't seem to think a person can be disappointed about an aspect of a ride and still like it. It's not because I don't want you to be happy (I'm overall happy about the ride too). The fanboy alarm starts going off in my mind when people start saying you aren't allowed to say anything negative. All I've said is that it appears unlikely dueling will be the norm, and that i'm disappointed by that. If that's "bashing" the ride in your mind, I think you're a bit too defensive. It didn't become a multi-page battle until someone decided that it's not okay to be disappointed, and it's not okay to be skeptical about the dueling. You don't have to agree with me about the importance of the dueling element of the ride, but to say anyone who takes issue with it is out of line is ridiculous. As I said before, I'm so glad CA finally has an airtime machine.

Before the fanboys unleash their wrath against me for being skeptical, allow me to quote myself from a few pages back

For the last time, dueling IS an important factor on this ride. It's totally appropriate to be frustrated if they don't get that figured out. People who doubt the park's ability to get it racing are coming to that conclusion based on three factors: 1) The park has been struggling with this even for their media events, and when people aren't even getting on and off the train, 2) Even with three trains, any park would be hard-pressed to maintain 30-second dispatches, especially when a guest pulling the lap bar down creates a delay, and 3) The park has a track record of terrible operations over the years. It's perfectly reasonable to not hold your breath on the dueling, and it's also perfectly reasonable to be irritated if it doesn't happen.

I never thought I'd be defending Mt Olympus, but.... They have a good hand-full of these. And I'm sure someone even did it before them. Even if we were to accept that this is a "coaster" of sorts, they've already been around for years.

This is from a long time ago, but I like the topic. I love wild thing, but mamba is just SO much smoother especially around corners. And wild thing gets all shaky, when I took my friend on it they screamed the loudest on the ride, and there was a wild pack of 14 year old girls behind us. The other significant difference people forget about is that Mamba and Steel Force have the tall second hill, whereas WT has the low, extended floater hill. I also like Mamba a lot, but primarily because the first two drops are more parabolic. In the back rows, you feel more of a pure freefall sensation. Wildthing's first drop is less curved, which results in some quick pops of airtime in the back when you hit the straight part of the drop. I've never been able to decide which ride I like better.

The Texas RMC's both have the Gerstalauer trains, which are different from the ones used on Twisted Colossus and the rest of the RMC coasters. It's probably more difficult to check the seatbelt on these trains. Plus, none of the GP are going to consider that the attendant needs to check the belt and make it convenient

I don't follow. Why did TC prevent them from announcing backwards Colossus for FF2013? Why were they able to announce it backwards for last spring? It prevented them from telling guests it would be the last time Colossus would run backwards.

In my experience, Chickie and Pete's has always been slammed during the summer days. I usually avoid it for that reason, actually. I think these first weekends and weekdays just aren't an accurate way of judging what the standard traffic will be like in the park. The water park is open for most of the season, and all of the busiest parts of the season (aside from haunt), so it makes sense to me where the restaurant is located. Plus this year, with an expanded waterpark, there will be even more people back there. I'm sure they'll do fine. No. I love Herschend as much as anybody, but VF isn't the kind of park they seem to want. I know it seems like they're building a lot more thrilling things than VF right now, but you have to consider the full lineup of those parks. They're much more family-oriented, and if anything, VF would continue to see family additions for years to come in an effort to create this balance. If you've ever been to Silver Dollar City or Dollywood, those parks are about so much more than coasters and thrill rides. The closest comparison in the Cedar Fair chain is probably Knott's.

I understand the push for capacity, but I think it's completely fair to be frustrated with the dueling issue. It's a major part of what the ride was designed to do, so it's pretty lame to just give up on what appears to be a huge part of the experience in the name of throughput. Especially if they're trying to have all of the official media/B-roll consist of dueling. Why show people what they're relatively unlikely to experience? *Disclaimer - I am still excited about this ride. I just think the failure to duel is a legitimate problem*

^Cool stuff! I'm gonna say the map is from 1984, based on the presence of the water slides, and the fact that Red Garter Saloon wasn't there yet.

I remember noticing the difficulty on Outlaw Run, but I don't remember how it was on NTAG. It's not difficult enough that people won't be able to do it, but it's slow and certainly won't help capacity.

I think people would get it once the Blue side came around and the lift started going again. Especially if it did it frequently, people would understand. Just because they're GP doesn't mean they can't figure out simple things like that. (at least most people with a some ability of cognitive thinking). I think the issue, though, is still having riders sitting on a lift hill for an indefinite amount of time. A simple announcement could play saying something like, "Hey riders, let's slow down and wait for the next train to race". My concern isn't that it can't be done. I just have a feeling no effort will be made, and if it actually is going to be five minute dispatches, I feel the park will just say "screw it" and opt to have riders stack on the brake run rather than on the lift. I really wish they could have either done dual-loading or used the other side of the station, but I guess I understand them wanting to maximize queue space.

Very sad to hear that those of us skeptical about the park actually racing/dueling the trains were probably right. That said, I'm thrilled to hear that the track-work is as good as it looks, and I can't wait to finally have an airtime machine out here in CA. Super excited to ride on Thursday!

This is great to hear! Perhaps I'm mistaken, but didn't CP previously have an excessively strict rain policy? I think they used to shut pretty much everything down. Glad to hear they've loosened up on the policy. It makes it less of a gamble for non-passholders.

Basically, the front row of any car is ideal. I usually ride row one, or row 13

Thanks for all the pictures. The park is looking really nice!

Being able to visit all the parks has always been the main draw of the platinum pass. If I'm not mistaken, I think Cedar Point is the only park to to ERT specifically for platinum, and that's probably because they need to in order for it to feel exclusive at all.

The sign is there to inform guests that they can't put three or more in a seat. On coasters without seat dividers and with shared lap bars, guests can't see the specified amount of riders per row unless there's a sign or other form of communication. It just works better than having to tell guests after they sit down that there are only two allowed per row.

^Eh, 2014 was an extreme year. Typically the flooding of the main lot has been confined roughly to the area that the cones mark.

^Interesting. Well in that case I'm definitely not planning on getting platinum. We were able to get the whole park done with gold in just a couple of hours last time, and I really don't see the value in paying that much more just to reserve Goliath once.

RMC: Medusa Intamin: Maverick B&M: Kumba