mark549

My opinion: I've been on all three Vekoma flyers (SF America, Carowinds, KI), and all three Supermen flyers (Illinois, NJ, Georgia) and Tatsu. I hated two of the three Vekomas, although the KI version was running well when I rode it. B&M's versions have all wheels touching the rail 100% of the time and are much smoother, the Vekomas have a gap between the rail and the side wheels, which seemed like a bad design. The Carowinds flyer I found particularly bad and couldn't wait for the ride to end. I like not getting rattled on a ride and am not a fan of headaches. Aftershock is my favorite Vekoma I've been on. The rest are tolerable or painful (ie. Kong). I thought the suspended boomerang at KI was so-so -- not great but not the worst.

I think the point was to honor the (relatively) nearby Giant Sequoia forests, some of the most beautiful places on the planet. Unfortunately, neglect and disinterest turned this into an overgrown pile of decaying polyurethane foam full of wasps feeding on sugar water drinks. (Ironically, some fallen Giant Sequoias observed over a century ago are still mostly not-rotted on the forest floor, they take a very long time to decay, unlike foam fake trees.) It doesn't inspire me to go back to SFMM although I have two "credits" to get there (yolo and the drop tower). Riding the RMC coasters is a bigger priority for me than another visit to SFMM.

Yes, it's being removed sometime this week or the next Bummer. It's my favorite "theming" at SFMM. I'd rather see them repair the fake tree and put up an exhibit about Giant Sequoia trees (which really do get that wide), but they wouldn't make any money from doing that. "Ain't No Such Thing As Superman" -- Gil Scott-Heron

It is curious that Silverwood claims they manage to get about 98% uptime on their Giant Inverted Boomerang. It's an excellent ride. Rocky Mountain put it back together after Silverwood bought it from Six Flags. It's interesting how a small park manages to run this much better than the mega chain of Six Flags.

I love I-305 and Dominator and KD is where I went on my first "big" coasters, a generation ago (Rebel Yell and King Kobra). But I don't understand this show. Sorry I don't enjoy violence themed entertainment. Perhaps a more appropriate theatrical production would be re-enacting the Buffalo Creek Flood (where tailings from coal mining drowned a community) or the Marsh Creek elementary school (where tailings from mountaintop removal currently threatens to drown a community). It could be an interesting theme for the water park. KD could do a haunt about the North Anna nuclear power station (not far from the park), which is a lot scarier to me than fictional monsters. Just my opinion.

I wonder how well one will be able to see the lift while going through the loop on an inverted train? Riddler riders can easily see the lift (and it looks uncomfortably close ...). I presume Kumba has the same experience (haven't ridden it yet). Is Banshee the first upside-down B&M without a corkscrew?

Maverick is a good example that both hills and inversions can coexist. I'm looking forward to Iron Rattler and Outlaw Run.

I've only been to Dollywood. It was pleasant but not my cup of tea. The coasters were good, not my favorites (not even Thunderhead, which didn't have much airtime for me). Wild Eagle has the best views but the ride was average. Tenn. Tornado had me wonder what Arrow could have done if they had continued as a company. Their S&S swing had the shortest ride cycle of any of the ones I've been on, I guess their customers are not seeking maximum thrill. It was also surprising to see how many motorized wheelchairs were there and their sizable handicapped parking lot. I'm sure Firechaser will be popular (Tennessee is crazy for fireworks) and would be surprised to see an extreme thrill ride ever built there. I'm looking forward to Outlaw Run at some point and am intrigued they have a cave tour in the middle of SDC.

The bottom of Skyrush's first drop was probably at least as high G as I-305, but the high G zone was mercifully brief. I liked the trimmed drop version of I-305 (October 2010) more than the current (spring 2013) version, solely due to the curve after the first drop. I don't like "grey out," it feels like something is wrong medically when that happens. Furthermore, I-305 with the trim on the first drop still had an amazing drop and the third airtime hill wasn't trimmed then (and had more airtime than it does now, with the trim).

Aftershock at Silverwood.

The first drop looks "almost" like the B&M version of the Crystal Beach Cyclone first drop. Almost. I'm hoping Cedar Fair bought something like Raptor or Flight Deck, not Silver Bullet nor Talon. (I haven't been on Patriot, but have heard it is more like Talon than Raptor.)

It's probably been mentioned before ... Tatsu pretzel loop. And for the "best acrophobia" moment, Tatsu's lift.

In the past several years, I've been on Rebel Yell KD Collossus SFMM Racer Kings Island American Eagle SF Chicago Rolling Thunder SF NJ Thunder Road Carowinds Lightning Racer Hersheypark Gemini Cedar Point of this list, only the last two were racing, several visits were on reasonably busy days I went on Rebel Yell when I was a kid and it was the star attraction at KD, it always raced then (but it didn't have much competition). It's probably why most racers are not Mobius designs - that way the park can idle one side to save money. The only Mobius racer I've ridden is at Kennywood and it's been a long time since I've ridden that.

I like coaster rides in the cool night time of fall (and winter) but I avoid Fright Fest / Haunt / Halloween excessiveness. I've learned about too much actual violence to enjoy simulated violence as entertainment, plus I don't like the smog machines used to create fake fog (as if that is supposed to be scary). It wouldn't surprise me to see a Halloween event show snuff films to ratchet up the scariness factor, although the daily news from many parts of the world is far scarier than fake monsters.

I haven't been on 1-3, but I really liked Hercules and did not think it was a failure. I went to Kings Island when SOB was SBNO, it was bizarre to see that huge pile of wood, unacknowledged by the park map ... However, I rode Hercules when it was relatively new and smooth, I didn't ride it later when its nickname was "Hurt Your Knees." I imagine maintaining the turn after the big drop was a never ending maintenance headache, too bad it didn't last long enough for Topper Track. (I visited Dorney last year after a long hiatus and thought Hydra, its replacement, my least favorite floorless coaster, too tame and the only time you feel like you're upside down is coming out of the station.) I guess the very large wood coasters have tested (and gone beyond) the limits of wood coaster engineering. The biggest wood coasters all seem to be either Intamin plug and play, Rocky Mountain, steel structure (ie. Voyage), or trimmed (Mean Streak). Conventional wood coasters don't seem to have a good record above a certain size. I also wonder if there's a weather factor - is it safe to assume the wood coasters in places that get rain in the summer and don't have a winter season last longer than those with hot dry summers (Ghost Rider) and / or have to run year round (Gwazi). In the realm of partial failures, I'd add Goliath at SFMM (the hard braking needed to avoid excessive G force at the helix) and I-305's change of design. I really like I-305 but find it strange how it had to be redesigned. Maverick's zero-G roll might be a partial failure, too, but it was quickly dealt with and forgotten.

Biometric scanning to go into a Six Flags? Looks like technological overkill. What was wrong with the photo on the card? Doesn't Six Flags have better things to spend money on (like fixing up their rides)? I hope they let people "opt out" of giving SF their fingerprint.

That looks awesome, yet so weird. This is a really great picture. Duality, yin yang, all that. Looks like they could have had the world's first interlocking Immelmann loops if the rides were just a little closer together ...

Only if there's a used Wingrider that can be moved from somewhere else.

Intimidator 232 is a nice ride, but of the six B&M speed coasters in the US it's my least favorite. It would be a great ride to marathon since it's relatively mellow for a ride of its size, but I didn't find it that impressive. Either Goliath in Georgia or Diamondback is my favorite B&M speed coaster - Diamondback starts off stronger but Goliath has better pacing (and DB is weak at the end). I haven't been on the B&M's in Canada or Europe. I have ridden Millennium Force and I-305, which are superior to the B&M speed coasters except for their trains - B&M speed coasters have the best restraints. I found Afterburn more intense than I-232. None of the rest of the coasters there were that interesting to me, I did try a few a few times to see how they rode in different parts of the train (Vortex in particular). Most of the rest were one and done. Their Vekoma flyer is my least favorite of the three. Ouch ouch ouch. My vote for Carowinds new giga would be a 300 foot version of El Toro ... although I don't expect to see that. One addition I would like to see Carowinds add, one that is more reasonable to hope for, would be more awnings over the ride queues. A shade over the stairs in the queue for I-232 would not cost much.

King Kobra was my first upside down coaster and yes, it was much better than Anaconda.

Haha. This could not possibly some up how I feel any better. A 2000m long Giga with raging airtime would be an awesome investment. I guess the number of 20th coaster could also be symbolic in a 2000m long coaster! Unfortunately, this is the land of No Metric System, so the symbolism would probably be a 2,000 foot long coaster, not 2km. Another Yolocoaster, not a Voyage. (It is actually illegal to post metric measurements on US highways, thanks to a law signed in 1995 - we cannot even have signs in both US and Metric, which would be needed to help with the transition.)

Great Adventure doesn't have enough B&M coasters ... (/sarcasm) Whatever they do to this section I hope they keep the naturalness of this area as intact as possible -- there's already enough blaring beat music and high fructose corn syrup vending stations elsewhere, perhaps they could theme the path to mid-Atlantic forest. It would be nice to have a path from Toro to Kingda Ka and also some sort of display for the drop tower queue explaining, in basic terms, what is in the weird building next to Ka's tower (the launch motor) and the amount of people energy it takes to keep the thing running. I'd prefer that to cartoon character cutouts of some comic book story, it might resonate with some of the customers, especially those who've been on Ka and wonder how it works.

Tatsu has the best view at SFMM, certainly the most intense view from a lift hill.

If Rocky Mountain converts this into Iron Streak it would likely have a huge line ...

I'm waiting for a time when Hades will be running mellow. Closest I've been to riding Hades was taking Amtrak through the Dells, you can see coasters from the train (and a "Torture Museum" next to the train station). Photo taken from the train at the Wisconsin Dells station. I wonder if the Wedding Chapel and the Torture Museum (see photo) are owned by the same business? Goliath Number Seven (next year) seems far more worthy of a visit than Hades 360.