bill_s

^^-- yeah was continuous. Now doing blocking tests: it stops on the second launch, backs up, goes forward very slow over the hill, backs up again and up a bit of the preceding element, and then back forward fast and completes the course. !!

Like they started the video with? I think anyone into this enough to look at mud and concrete might consider the sounds significant. Certainly better than some of the potential music choices! (most of the music in coaster videos is bad!)

If it wasn't for your posts here, I'd have no idea what Fortnite even is.

While this is a terrible case, it's pretty obvious the severity of the charges had something to do with the father's political influence.

My impression as a frequent KD vistor was it was more case of 2017 being weak than 2018 being strong. Going back to 2010 and I305, again 2010 wasn't all they hoped but 2009 was very weak, worse even than 2017. This supports getting a coaster less often, but still getting them. I don't know what it would take to increase attendance and profit higher than ever before, but if they want to keep business from dropping off, big attractions are still periodically needed. Maybe it's just that in the old days the new ride made people think "fun" and now they think long wait times and crowds. It's hard to push it beyond that.

That last pic of Timbers shows one of my favorite quirks and features of the ride. At the bottom right, that angled support dips down between the footers, lower than the concrete. There's also an I-beam trimmed down to sit right on the footers on the dip coming out of the overbank. They took every last inch available. Saying those who like Anaconda are insane and then praising Hanks' fries? The shrimp are legit though. "Because of course that's where we headed. And let's be real - if Volcano was operational we would have done the same thing. That's what happens when you put in an RMC." ... Yeah TT was a big distraction from Volcano the short time it was running. I would have ridden it a lot more if I had known what was coming, but also any other time other than the start of last year! But my last opportunity to ride TT, I ended up riding Grizzly instead and judged it "perfect". Not too big, not too small, just right.

I'm not "devastated" by the news but definitely stunned. I think Volcano had become slightly rougher. On a normal ride this was no problem, but on a lightly loaded or solo ride it was probably always rough. I managed to swing at least 10 solo rides in the past 10 years and they were so amazing and vicious usually had to assure myself they test ran it every day going even faster. Supposedly the board showed the speed would reach 75 MPH. I really had a system for not having to wait and also enjoyed many rerides.

What I don't understand about B&M standups is why haven't they tried a vest restraint? That would solve at least one of the many ways their standups are inferior to Togo's.

It could be more internal, for example 4 out of 5 of the last foreigners they let ride complained. They're embarrassed?

Is it possible that a foreigner tried to sue one of these Chinese parks after being allowed on some horrendous deathtrap ride and they're trying to avoid a repeat?

The Wild One @SFA on New Year's Day. Stopped on the lift near the top. The wind suddenly seemed very noticeable. Someone walked over and yelled assurances at us since there's no PA and it finally went and was kind of awesome. Had wanted another couple rides, but chilled enough decided it was a good time to call it a night.

Why would they do all that just to "claim a full day" when they can send everyone home and save a bunch of money since they're not making any anyway? They're closing at 6, which was posted when I checked their schedule at 5:30. That's a late enough that if anyone complains they can say they were open plenty where were you?

Light rain vs. a lot of people with 2 more days off, I wouldn't be so sure, they might just close a lot of stuff early and the park at 8 and sort of claim a full day. Making a big Drive is still risky.

The new development is supposed to have recreation which looks to me like large open areas with no shade... it's ironic. They might be able to do better than the current park outside of town by moving half of it and building a new coaster though. I looked at the parks on Google Maps, Elitch is kind of comparable to SFA without Superman and JJ, and Lakeside is maybe 1/3 the size -- about the size of the nearby Walmart supercenter including parking lot. Check out the Lakeside Speedway between them, looks perfect for a zombie apocalypse!

This. Not to mention that Cedar Fair does it all the time too. Does anyone honestly believe that Cedar Fair would give a sh*t about this if it were (let's just say) 38 degrees on the final Saturday of Haunt with 30k+ people in the park? Every coaster at Cedar Point, Valleyfair and Kings Dominion has operated below this arbitrary number at one point and the same is likely true for many other parks in the chain. I'm pretty sure it was below those temps for Steel Vengeance, Twisted Timbers and Banshee media day. Did they send the media home? Plus, while they don't run many coasters for Winterfest they've already run Dominator, Racer75, Afterburn and others below 40 degrees and they ran Mystic Timbers into the high teens / low 20's last year routinely. They even sent a test train when the tracks were covered in snow and it ended up stopped somewhere in the woods. Great photos! KD also ran Dominator on the day in 2012 that hurricane Sandy blew Star Jet into the ocean, and I have no idea how much cold alone it would take to slow it down as much as the cold and wind combined slowed it down that day. Nevertheless, now that it's Winterfest they're cutting it at 39 degrees exactly, even if it's already running. They closed it about 5:30 on last Friday (5:00 park opening) which would have been about that temperature. They even sent around only 4 people in the train after cutting the line, certainly not something you'd do if there were actual problems completing the course.

I've seen with other hobbies that there is a transition from the initial fervor if one stays in the hobby long term. Some of the people that go at it hard at first are the ones that don't stick around. This is true of coastering and will be true of any other hobby you go to as well. I'd say you have done enough of everything that if the purpose is to do something truly new or more extreme you're not going to find much. If you can take a break and grow some hunger for it and then go in with the right expectations there's still fun to be had. Also rides are very subjective and if you can go back and experience some of them again under better less hurried circumstances you might find them more enjoyable.

He was an eccentric for sure!

^^-- I went Sunday the 12th and crowds were as expected, may have been the cold though. I have a feeling that every time someone warns of these deals at GrAdv or SFA, I've already been during one before and didn't even know it. However the difference between around Sept. 20 @ SFA (the KD closed weekend) was completely different between 2015 and 2016, which has me on guard.

Is there somewhere I can find out this schedule, or someone post it? I'm a SFA member so I don't get BAF at other parks apparently, or even get access to the BAF schedule which everyone paying more or traveling long distances to get in needs to know! Will BAF deals kill a previously awesome event? Or did they actually have it last year too and I just didn't know it? I guess I'll also be watching queue times carefully but still can only assume it even is the same that day.

^^-- there was a lot of precip. earlier that week and yes I heard blowtorches were involved to get Ka running. Nitro opened about the same time or even later that day. It could be they did some wheel swaps before running Nitro -- what it does during HitP doesn't happen by itself. From what I could tell Lantern was stuck on the MCBR all day except around 6:00 they were doing endless test runs. I thought that was commendable they were trying to get it going that late in the day until I realized it really was probably for the next weekend! So some of the stuff they did that day wasn't just for that day. It was down to about 36 degrees when I left.

It's open because they're awesome. Last weekend to experience Toro; Safari closed though. Last year Nitro and Ka were closed at least a day each due to cold and weather, but they got out the blowtorches and opened Ka on Sunday.

ANY park? Down here in Virginia it usually isn't bad at all, I usually go about 10 times during the Halloween events. Some strategy is needed, but it's still easy to get more night rides this month than in any other 2 months. Edit/rethink: This is short visits as a local, so maybe not fair -- but I'm also prepared to believe even that doesn't work at the parks you're talking about. GAdv is scary to consider! KD has been more crowded maybe due to the new ride, although I think the big difference was it stayed warm longer so there wasn't a lull in the crowds early in the event. Now it's getting cold, but too close to the end to make much difference. Sunday before Columbus Day I screwed up though and went too early, and just left after a Grizzly, dinner and scarezones. They may be getting too successful.

I am impressed to find out about this coaster and to think about what it was like to be there. It makes me want to check out Coney Island more, experience that kind of combination of coaster and nostalgia and location. I'm also impressed by the technical work towards the coaster and I bet the model is impressive in person. However I'm skeptical of the current proposal, maybe it takes more imagination from what you have, but the location seems unsuitable. I don't think it would be credible for hundreds of enthusiasts to go "that's great!" to the board over what you are showing, and that's all MOST of us could do for you. I don't know if the perfect time and place for this coaster will happen again. As an exact repro it seems it would have to be part of a larger retro project, as a concept/starting point it would need to be complementary to a more modern ride.

Doesn't sound like a very good choice of coaster to build completely from scratch.

I have KD and BGW season's passes, forget that. Of course I went to BG last Sunday and KD is only a regular 8 pm close this Sunday, so I was thinking this would be the best time for SFA -- I can't really go any days but Sunday. The Gold flashpass is $50 (the haunted houses already cost $20); one could bring a friend on a normal day for a $42 ticket. It seems odd to complain about a freebie, but this really seems to favor locals, who can almost surely find someone to bring. And you guys make it sound like no freebie at all, because it's not a good time to be there. However, the weather forecast for Sunday is cold and rainy, maybe instead of mobbed, the added crowds will keep them from closing early?