mark549

Silverwood also has the original Arrow corkscrew, which runs reasonably well, and a Vekoma giant inverted boomerang which runs far more reliably than it did at Six Flags. Tremors with topper track is excellent, I hope Voyage gets some topper track, too. Raven's curve over the lake might be a good application for topper track.

And this is EXACTLY why TPR limits the amount of people we allow on our events and trips based on the operations of a ride. It's not "ERT" when you wait an hour plus and only get one ride on a coaster. Glad to hear the ride is a WIN, though! I'm really looking forward to riding it after the Scandi trip. --Robb Half of the problem was volume of people and the other half was very slow, one train operations. Supposedly the second train hadn't been certified yet for operation, but even if they had both trains today it wouldn't have sped things up at all. But it was the very first day, hopefully it will be better once they get some practice. The park looks like it will be a success and will be flooded with customers all summer. There were a bunch of people in the station wearing "Chance" branded jackets who looked very pleased. My guess is they will sell several of them soon (say that three times fast).

I got to ride this today. One ride only, unfortunately. The line for the "coaster clubs" was over an hour due to one train operation and six to eight minute dispatch intervals. I assume the line for the Amazon employees (whose bosses had rented the park for the day) would be far longer, there were thousands and thousands of them. It was so busy I was not able to ride the newly repaired wooden coaster but it was reportedly running very well. Lightning Run is spectacular. If you like ejector air time, you will love this ride. There wasn't any "floater" air. The transitions were very smooth. Not a bump anywhere. Very re-rideable. I had a middle of the train seat and it was ejector. Front and back must be even better. I've never been on a "mega light" but this must be the USA equivalent. I can see a lot of parks buying this who don't have $20 or $30 million for a big B&M or Intamin, and it's as good as any of them. It's not as fast as i305 but it has more airtime. You do get "stapled" on the ride and it has seatbelts, too. If anyone makes a trip to ride this, I recommend a detour to visit Mammoth Cave, about 100 miles / 160 km. south, one of the wonders of the world. A "culture and nature credit." And Kentucky Rumbler isn't far from the cave.

They are just cloning the name.

You're lucky you don't have a "Columbus Day" section--then you'd have to choose Nina, Pinta, or Santa Maria, which could've meant a much longer meeting. In Berkeley, CA they celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day instead. I'd like to see Holiday World have a Summer Solstice section or event ... maybe Liberty Launch could be used as a sundial that day.

There is also an ACE preview event on Saturday May 17, maybe they're overlapping, maybe not.

I also find it interesting, if not just strange. I305 is a great ride, but pretty overrated in my opinion (although to be fair, I think I rode it when the trim brakes were active on the first drop). I mean, it's whole point is ultimate speed and intensity, but you can accomplish the same sensation with a smaller lift hill and tighter turns. The drop was awesome, and I did enjoy its great snappy transitions, but it lacked airtime and big maneuvers to complement its impressive 305-foot height. My unconventional view: I liked i305 more when it had the trim on the first drop than on the third hill (opening year vs. 2013). I don't like the grey-out effect in the first turn. The third hill had more airtime when it didn't have the trim and the first drop still was ejector even with the trim. I hope Intamin did some thinking about what didn't work with their design for the ride, it's great but it's teething problems might intimidate others from installing a similar ride. It was my #1 favorite when I rode it the first time, but since then I've been on El Toro and like that more than 305.

I found Mystery Mine to be like a rough wild mouse on steroids. It was my least favorite of the big rides at Dollywood. I liked SFOG's Dare Devil Dive more. Tenn. Tornado had me wondering what Arrow could have done if they had continued. Thunderhead was very good, although it continues the GCI tradition of more curves than airtime. I liked Mild Eagle - it was a lot of fun, spectacular views, although definitely tamed down for the Dollywood crowd (just like their S&S swing ride was run as short as possible). Smooth rides are my favorites, although I like ejector airtime, too.

The movie "Religulous" has a segment where Bill Maher visits Holy Land.

88 year old loves Diamondback

Wildfire does look a bit similar to El Toro in this way. A slow turn around at elevation before a near vertical drop followed by two ejector hills, except with Wildfire you're not right side up at the top of the ejector hills. New and improved Toro ... but with more twistyness, more elements, terrain and inversions. The only way this won't be the World's #1 coaster is if RMC builds something better for 2015. Watching the video with the interview of Fred Grubb there seemed to be a hint that this is their next topper track coaster (as in, no topper track for 2015). Perhaps that means 2015 will just be Iron track refurbishments (Colossus? Boss? Riverside Cyclone?). Perhaps I misunderstood and they will have a topper track ride for 2015. The most important question - will it have seat belts? (just kidding)

re: tattoo survey Aren't there parks in Japan that don't allow visible tattoos for the customers (not just the employees)? I guess there aren't a lot of "yakuza" who like to ride coasters.

The northbound California to Oregon route is one of the nicest Amtrak routes. You go over five thousand feet elevation over Willamette Pass in the Cascades. Southbound it's night at the summit unless it's around summer solstice. You don't get to see Mt. Shasta either direction, but if the train is late you might see it northbound at dawn. The southern California route of the "Coast Starlight" is also dramatic, especially where it goes through Vandenburg Air Force Base. It's easy to transfer from Amtrak to the light rail to get to Great America. CGA is probably one of the best parks in the country for access by train.

The only question for me is whether the new theme will be football or some Silicon Valley billionaire's subsidy. A few years ago I'd have voted to retheme it to the nearby Big Blue Cube (google it) but they've relocated to Southern California. It would have been a good update to the jet junk theme but probably too obscure. And it could be the basis for a realistic "Haunt" theme - much better than Hollywood fantasy scares. It's fascinating how CGA has one of the best B&Ms and one of the worst B&Ms next to each other.

Sounds similar to the "SCAD tower" accident down the street that almost killed a young girl. Wisconsin Dells is not on my "bucket list" of coaster destinations. (RMCs are on that list instead.)

Nice images in today's update. The banner is worth noting: coming summer 2014. It looks like they still have a lot on their "to do" list to open for public rides on Memorial Day.

Carowinds is within the 10 mile evacuation zone of Catawba 1 and 2 nuclear power station, you can see its steam while riding Windseeker. McGuire 1 and 2 (nuke) is just north of Charlotte, I don't know if the lake it is on is where Charlotte gets its drinking water. I've heard that Carowinds used to mention the evacuation potential in its park flyer, but when I was there two years ago there was not any mention. I liked Afterburn, thought it was great. Intimidator is my least favorite of the B&M speed coasters in the USA. Very smooth but not very exciting. Vortex was OK and the rest of their coasters were forgettable. I hope their Leviathan clone next year will be better than not-so-intimidator.

Cedar Point while riding Maxair. Kings Island while riding Delirium. others: SFMM, SF Great Adventure.

SKYRUSH first drop in back seat. runner ups: El Toro final hill in back seat. Tatsu pretzel, front or back. i305 first curve. Volcano launches. X2 drop. Kingda Ka launch. Maverick first drop in back seat. Aftershock's towers. Afterburn batwing Superman (SFDK) ejector airtime Superman (SF America) third hill B&M zero g roll (Medusa / Bizarro / Scream) Batmen (for consistent positive G force) haven't been on a RMC (yet), Kumba/Montu or Intamin Bizarro. Green Lantern (SFMM) was intense but I disliked it intensely. And yes, it spun several times.

It will be interesting to see how parks in Colorado deal with the legalization of marijuana issue. Will they ban it in their parks? Confine it to a beer garden? It's likely to be legalized other places, too. I have a libertarian attitude - I don't care what people choose to put in their bodies but I don't want to be forced to breathe it in against my consent. I'd prefer not to have smoking areas, but some people will smoke and focusing where they do it is a practical necessity. And there are other forms of smoke besides tobacco and pot that people can be downwind of. I've smelled some particularly aggressive barbecues that probably have as much benzopyrenes as a cigarette. It's funny to be in places that are anti-cigarette while pumping out huge amounts of smoke into a crowd of people. One amusement park I visited a couple years ago had a great wood coaster that was enveloped by strong toxic smells from the adjacent gas powered mini car ride. I don't like cigarettes and I don't like strong petrochemical smells either. As many of you know, Dollywood's Mystery Mine has a fireball right in front of the riders at the top of the second life. It wasn't second hand smoke, it was first hand when I rode it, impossible to avoid breathing! Plus, it was a hot day and the surrounding area already had air pollution warnings, since NOx-ville is one of the more polluted cities in the country, rivaling Los Angeles in ground level ozone counts. It's not the main reason I didn't like the ride, but it was a factor. I hope their new "firechaser" coaster has a less enclosed area for whatever pyrotechnics they will be doing.

You say being stuck with Intamin's way like that would be a bad thing. I love RMC but there's nothing wrong with this either Didn't RMC build El Toro (the construction, not the design)?

If it was much taller, it might interfere with planes taking off from the airport formerly known as National (DCA). It would be much more appropriate on the National Mall, they could theme it to the political circus and it would have ideal views of downtown D.C. The "National Harbor" development seems an odd place for this, definitely a bit off the standard tourist routes. And if it goes broke, they can sell it to Six Flags America.

Skyhawk and Maxair have better airtime than the coasters at SFMM. (I haven't been there since FT was built.)

Voyage. Honorable mentions: Flight of Fear at Kings Dominion and Kings Island ...

Mild / Wild One was better as Giant Coaster in Massachusetts. I rode it as a kid. I remember it had more airtime in the turn around than the current version in Maryland. http://rcdb.com/147.htm?p=20056 shows how the top of the turn around used to be sharper, you can see remnants of this in the current configuration (old supports under the new track). There's not really any airtime now, even in the front, when cresting the top of the turn around. The helix in the current version didn't exist in Massachusetts, at least not when I rode it. I think it was part of the original design but was ruined in a fire, and not part of the repair. Anyone else ride the before and after versions? Wild One is better than Roar, the worst GCI I've ridden (worse than Hersheypark's Wild cat). Roar West (SFDK) isn't good but it's not as bad as this. Maybe it was good when it was new ... Iron Wolf was also better in its original location. SFA is the "Dorney Park" of Six Flags (a place to send old coasters). Ride of Steel is SFA's best coaster, although with a slight bit more creativity (small hills instead of straight sections) it could have been much better.