bill_s

^^-- the spot coming out of the turn after the tunnel on Grizzly can hurt especially if someone else is thrown into you at the same time, I think it would be if you're on the left seat. Hurler same thing but surely you see that coming! Wild One was the last to really get me even solo, those sudden ejector lefts on the way back are a real surprise.

Best: International Street Pizza @ KD in April Worst: International Street Pizza @ KD in May Inspired by a recent comment in the CP thread " If u can mess up pizza there's something wrong." Actually I think why they mess it up is they charge too much, then try to make a huge pizza to make it worth it and it doesn't cook properly. The slices I had last April were among the best 2 slices of pizza I've had in my entire life. The next time they were falling apart in my hands and I threw the rest away. It hurts me to see crappy pizza, when it's right it's sacred.

I wonder if it will keep the original layout. Taller lift + urethane + Iron Horse + steeper banked curves = ejector air = sit back and laugh as El Toro ages. As to 2017, my argument was that a ride not opening at the normal time would not be announced at the normal time, but by now the opening would be so late it becomes unbelievable. However I still think announcing a ride opening in August would sell passes if announced in March.

Seems to me if you say Wildfire isn't floorless, it becomes a bit of an orphan for polls at this level of limitation, there isn't any other looping coasters with floors you don't touch I know of. It's kind of a pre-floorless or pseudo-floorless, stylistically very much the same but of course sometimes the earlier B&Ms are better. If it's in someone's list you can easily convert that to a list without it. Of one's I've ridden, Dominator is a better ride overall than Bizarro but I liked them both (except the bad brake shoe on Bizarro which felt like hitting steel).

Finally someone else who admits to feeling sick on frisbee rides. I might be OK on another try but the first time was enough. Not as bad as Fireball though. Anaconda's corkscrews get a me a bit even but I can handle it. Haven't ridden Wicked Twister though.

You may as well close your eyes because you sure can't see where you're going. Vekoma ended up talking as much about disorientation as anything else when describing their flyers.

I saw a video of La Ronde and thought it looked very good with all the water around. Before that sounds too positive, I don't like waiting for rides and it sounds like every time that would be ideal to get lots of rides the place closes or doesn't run anything.

I don't know about "saving" B&M standups through conversion because the layouts are extremely mild and rely on a sense of vulnerability to be thrilling at all. Green lantern has a straight drop and still manages to have zero airtime in the back row, which makes no sense because airtime is both the most thrilling thing a standup can do and doesn't hurt the riders (although some always complain). The problem is the riders don't just feel more vulnerable, they actually are, it's not a "free" source of extra thrill. At best, a conversion will feel like some kind of looping family coaster. Could be good but is hardly ideal. I hear Rougarou isn't liked that much. The real way to save B&M standups would be a new restraint design, but even then the layout deficiencies will remain. No, I never rode Skyrider, I rode Shockwave ... often with my hands up. The "trick track" on Skyrider seems pretty minimal, although I saw one extreme complaint about even that, when I first watched the POV it just looked like it leaned one direction so when it goes back it improves the transition into the banked turn. I also rode 2 other Togos for which I found no real evidence to support the complaints. They were a little lacking in the fully 3D design area, example the exit from Shockwave's helix and many other details from their rides, which made Shockwave's "turn of doom" all the more amazing to me because I think it came out perfect. The president of Togo came all the way over here and pronounced it good! He was a little old Japanese man, I'm a, um, short old American man, the teenagers and 20-something complainers ought to be ashamed. And there are many coasters I will complain about being rough, but they have to actually hurt me.

B&M vs. Togo, let's do a simple comparison. The B&M's are clearly intended to be glass smooth but you can't even make it around a simple banked turn without hurting your head. Togo, or at least Shockwave, except for the exit from the helix I didn't get the impression there was one single spot on the coaster that was rougher than intended or that got rougher as it aged. There were numerous spots of slight pain but most of them were exactly the same amount and they were all necessary to make the ride thrilling. It's not even close. B&M's standups make me doubt that they ever ride their own creations or their competition's for that matter, or they just think everything they do is automatically better. Maybe they can adequately imagine what it would be like to ride the things they get right, but you can't imagine how wrong their standups are (or flyers, for that matter) you just have to experience it. The other thing Togo got right was the restraint, although they are odd and hard to get into and larger people hate them. Well away from you head and neck. The best restraints for a standup would have something like seat belts only above shoulder level. Actually, even better than that would be restraints with nothing over your shoulders, that theoretically you could climb out the top of, although this would require no inversions and some guest trust. I'd let every B&M standup slide off the face of the Earth just to ride that one more time. In something like 2000 rides on Shockwave I don't think there was one time I wasn't sacred to crap for just an instant mid-ejection. The actual curve was intense, but not one tenth as painful as it seemed for a moment it was going to be. Brilliant! This is a really painful thread for me to contemplate.

Dominator, it's right there, if I ever go to KD at opening of course I rush to Volcano but that's like one Haunt night a year. Usually don't ride Dominator on the way out because the park is closed by then. The location does tend to eliminate much variation in when I ride it. Biggest variation is when I ride Dominator, eat on dining plan, maybe go up the Eiffel and leave. For SFA it's usually RoaR followed by Mind Eraser, habit and max. difference combined with late-day shrinking crowds strategy.

That's interesting because a full speed rollback would reach about 120 MPH and the needed curving recovery would be the largest element of the whole coaster except the lift itself.

^^-- I feel like if that's his attitude, maybe he's right. But riding coasters is not all about novelty and newness. It can even be more a case of bonding with a place you've been going your whole life. And in yet another view, to me it's more a case of if I'm on a coaster or not, than which one it is. Thinking about if a normal good coaster is still fun after riding an extreme and great one (meaning last weekend not 5 minutes ago), they're both fun, the biggest difference is the extreme coaster has me going OMG, jaw drops, lots more thinking this is so over the top it's ridiculous. Much bigger difference there in amazement than in fun. I get excited about going to a new park, while the thought of another trip to the local park makes it hard to get off my lazy ass -- but whenever I get on a decent coaster it all comes back. P.S. Maybe RMC needs a year off to come up with something new or just more time to beat themselves. Go ride the existing ones for what they did.

I thought Rebel Yell was pretty good this year and was surprised to see such extensive work being done. Not super smooth but no spot that stuck out. The few rides that seemed rough also seemed extra crazy. The return is a little slow so seems more like just enduring it. It's been truly bad some years, 2008 was when they stopped running a side backwards, by that point riding it forward was hazardous enough. For 2009 they retracked the rise to the turnaround and it stuck out as too smooth, by now that's getting a little rough again. Guess they've been working from there back towards the lift since then so the drop is where they are now.

News: The park is showing Rebel Yell retracking on their Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/kingsdominionva/photos/br.Abpw6KCERZzEDVVPOP1FrVtbMQboro4FCVqXK30BswqnwW0dXY2xTlw_J20GZOkSHEc0ovN3B-ubDYBggFCO6mBLfOkrtSJnTjsmqwMO-aeV5Qh1C26yXLkLAVJlwUK3r92YKpIUSu18j9TTu-AB7JO2o51YupJgN4YUPbx08fMawUUeDk6i1iZbW5CeFKxTD0Q/10153946582921875/?type=3&theater (Got my hopes up for Hurler when I first saw it! Anyone see trucks?) They're also adding Panda Express and ChickFilA to the dining plan! I was starting to get a bit bored with it (although the deal for a local is undeniable) and sometimes their better non-franchise restaurants are closed, so this is really good. I thought a purpose of the plan was to help keep their own restaurants busier, maybe not, maybe there will be some difference of meal. I think they did a bit better on having places open this last year, that could have been in response to complaints. Choices are few when the park is dead.

Dahlonega Mine Train (best I've ridden there anyway -- around 1975) (that's a repeat from just last page but that's allowed, I only checked back a couple) Six Flags America

The cases of this I've been seeing at SFGAdv they sometimes ask everyone to pull their restraint down together to try to get it to release. Something's sticking. It's an issue on Nitro too but they can't do that to fix it. I don't think they pull down to release individual seats, the whole train is unlocked already.

^^-- allow wood and 10' under 200, El Toro for that matter! .. it is an interesting point that NYNY is kind of segregated into 2 styles, although the coaster itself isn't that tall (or great). But then, so was Steel Phantom. Could be a concept to try again, although I think corkscrews/rolls get the short end of the stick, I want to see a 300' drop or big launch put you straight into a floaty zero-G roll that doesn't drop below 70 MPH. Then a big airtime hill (or even a spike) maybe followed by one of those "head for the sky" Arrow loops.... I'm somewhat unexperienced on hypers, but my best single ride on one was Nitro at sunset, and my first ride on it being a dark night was a little scary too.

I wear cargoes, although ironically the non-cargo pockets of them are the worst and often it's better walking with the stuff transferred out of the cargo pockets. I have some "hiking" shorts that have huge pockets that go almost the way to the knee so anything in them bang around -- must be for putting other clothes in or something. I've never had any problem with jeans pockets but when it's hot something looser and thinner is more comfortable. Had my phone fall out of my pocket on I305, didn't know I had it with me in the first place. Heard and felt a clunk that sounded like a cell phone hitting the floor, looked down and there it was. Quickly pinned it to the floor with my foot until the end!

^^-- The twisting force on the track is higher with inverteds, so might not be a good match to monorail-like track. The look wouldn't be that much cleaner than a conventional inverted either. Otherwise, it's still a coaster but surely they'd want to do a sitdown coaster first.

Williams Grove Cyclone

^^-- I thought it was that Wild One was the most popular when I rode it first, guess it was mostly timing (went back to it later). Good to know I missed most of the crowds by going later, I figured the opposite but maybe everyone stayed for the lights but then left. Sundays people go home early. Decent time, I didn't get Christmas-y feeling, but then just rode coasters, maybe next time on the shows... could have ridden one more time before close and then it started raining (lightly) as soon as I got off! I see they put extra trains in storage already 6 Wild One 4 RoAR 3 Reindeer's Flight: Le Attaque 2 Apocalypse (in a row too -- 3rd would have had to carry me off) 1 Beef Brisket sandwich w/fries (out of mashed potatoes)

Togo knew what standup coasters were about, making you feel vulnerable. Didn't you feet come off the floor, how cool is that? NYNY was ugly but not at all a bad coaster on my one ride. SLCs should have been fixed before they built so many, but still they were good rides for their times and I loved the hell out of them when I (and they) was younger. Rode GN'E 25x one night back when it was still pink, so much fun (I was riding with friend who weighed 280 lbs. at the time, it wasn't until much later I figured out what all the complaining was about in the first place). All they'd have to do to make these "flying" coasters a lot better is get rid of the headrest so you can turn your head further up and see where you're... oh yeah, if you're not front row all you're going to see is feet. How is not being able to see where you're going and being in an uncomfortable position, and going through an extremely mild layout except for the obligatory pretzel loop torture device, a good thing? Sure, you may not be able to beat them for a WTF ride, but that's one and done without ever returning, not a very good use for a millions dollar ride. I do agree with is that the Vekomas are just as good as the B&Ms. Dominator makes me feel like I can fly. Superman:UF makes me think I don't even want to.

Haha. Come on, dude. I hope you're not being serious. Absolutely serious. It was a hard hit. I still ride it -- actually somehow they seem to have improved it somewhat -- and love that they still have a true He-Man coaster, but not that row or when the headrests are slippery.

^^-- Manta and Tatsu, no, would have mentioned either way. I guess B&M was persistent, still can't see them really being better than other coaster styles, although I did like how one of the twists felt really inline on Superman. Lol. It does kind of dominate the experience. I understand that's one of the main "opportunities" a flyer design provides, but at the same time it's an uncomfortable element on an already uncomfortable ride. Not even close to the worst, and each had more airtime than probably every B&M standup combined.

Arrow made some great rides but many will try to hurt you. I even got headbanging on the mine train at Hershey. I was out of it for 3 days after getting concussed by the middle row of Anaconda. Back rows of Loch Ness hurt my spine coming out of the loops. I'll endure some pain for a thrilling ride. Make it thrilling enough, I might not even notice pain, make it boring and what else is there to notice? Of course I mean reasonable amounts of pain with that like SLCs and Togos, not something like hitting "the spot" on an old Arrow unprepared (or being falsely restraint-indicator stapled on El Toro). I was sort of with you but you can't really criticize the responses in the thread when your response is even more out of left field than most. I'm not sure what Superman Ultimate Flight you're talking about. Both are short (the B&M flyer and Premier launcher) but listing either as the "worst coaster ever" when they're both so smooth seems strange. Even if you're bored by them I'd rather be bored than in pain, so I'd much rather pick something like a Volare as my worst coaster than a smooth coaster that I find boring (though I don't consider either Superman coaster type boring). That's just me though... Anyway, to each his own, but this thread isn't that bad. People are going to disagree and everyone is entitled to their opinion (well... unless they bitch about B&M or Millennium rattle, then they're pathetic). The so-called flying coaster at Great Adventure. I'm not sure why I consider it worse than Batwing, I guess I just expect more from B&M (like for them to actually ride their creations and realize flyers and their standups suck). I don't think you'll find me disliking a normal roughness coaster. I dislike the ones that leave you licking your wounds and the boring ones. And any ones where not being able to see where you're going is a feature (Boomerangs are about my limit on that).