Generic Name

Reason I asked is because some RMCs (like NTAG) use Gerstlausers. Was just curiosity if anything. Also if those are the trains they're using, how roomy are they? The PTC trains had not much in terms of legroom.

- People who cannot have a conversation. Are you really that antisocial? Thankfully this rarely happens to me. - Ride Ops hamming it up when the train departs or arrives at the station. Look, I'm not saying that it should be like getting off an Amtrak train but I'd rather have "Ladies and Gentlemen please remember to stay seated until the restraints go up" (or similar to that) than "WA-HEEEY I HOPE Y'ALL ENJOYED THE RIDE ON (insert ride name here)." It's so fake and it's more annoying than anything. - People saying wooden coasters aren't safe. - Parents not controlling their kids. - Line Jumpers. - Disgusting, unmaintained restrooms. - Not having storage bins at stations. I understand lockers; I'm fine with those, and for certain coasters I can see why bins would not be either necessary or possible. I can understand taking, say, my backpack on certain rides. Note how I say certain; I was shocked to find out that when I rode Rock 'N' Rollercoaster I had to take my backpack aboard. Now, my memory is a bit hazy - this was back in 2005, but I do not recall lockers outside the ride. If they were there, then disregard that (I still think bins should be at every station but that's just me).

Any idea on what trains will be used on this?

One name I would be very surprised to see being used is Twister, considering we had a tornado strike Springfield a few years ago, and I still hear about cleanup stories till this day on the evening news. I'm not saying Six Flags won't use Twister (or Tornado or any variation of those two), but I'm not expecting it.

Goliath was taken. Here we go again with Six Flags overusing a name that doesn't involve a DC Comics superhero or villain! Two things... 1. It's actually SMARTER for them to overuse a name that doesn't involve a DC Comics character since there are no additional licensing fees involved. 2. While I get that people don't like it when Six Flags reuses names, no one seems to complain when companies like Disney or Legoland does it. How many Space Mountains and Dragon's do we have in the world? Look, I get it. You want a more original name or theme. But let's also remember this is Six Flags we are talking about. Personally, if it means they spend less money on creative for a name that none of us would really give a crap about anyway, and 99% of their guests would never know that "Goliath" also appears in several other parks, I'd rather they save that money across the chain and spend it on putting in another ride at one of their parks. I think the majority of you guys know I'm right. --Robb Oh I get that, and it makes sense for Six Flags to reuse names. My jab was that they were just going down the list of names they used, but yes you are right. And in all fairness, Apocalypse isn't that bad of a name (compared to some other names for rides I've seen, and not just at Six Flags). Part of me wants the Cyclone name to be retained (New England history and all that) but I'm not originally from NE so it doesn't really make a difference at least for me. Really as long as it's not "Apocalyptic Cyclone" I'm fine with it.

Goliath was taken.

On Thursday I heard a song on the local pop station (the radio has it on at work, not my choice) that uses a sample from Spongebob Squarepants. Specifically, the "I'm ready" thing Spongebob says. And I thought pop music couldn't get worse.

I hate to be that guy but I'd love some more comments on the park! 50 some views since I last checked but no comments kinda make this hard to go forward, so please, comment away! ____________________________ A Balancing Act Year: September 1972 Stan Johnson here; it has been a very busy 1972 for us. With the introduction of Jet Setter, park attendance has quadrupled, bringing in much needed funds for building. The area to the west of the coaster has been completely transformed, turning from bare grassland to a nice, shaded family area. It also brought forward a new restaurant, which is aimed to be more affordable than the upscale Red Shutters. Behind the scenes, the folks at Arrow Dynamics are working with us and Norfolk and Western to come up with a very thrilling ride. Several ideas have been bounced around, but we have been told to stay quiet. They did give us one clue: it will involve trains. Onto that, some pictures! The new family area was a much welcome sight! I love how the park transplanted some large shade trees; that will definitely keep guests happy in the summer. These large swings will be a huge draw to children. We have gotten complaints that we were not looking towards families and coupled with our mission to be as green as possible, we have come up with a terrific solution. This is The Barn, the second restaurant at Roanoke Hills. The second floor currently is empty but we are looking at ideas to either convert it to a meeting floor or as a dance room. Rotor was recently closed, for supposedly a burnt out motor. We have been communicating with Hrubetz, the manufacturer, about sending over a new motor, but they want to send a worker out to check on the ride. Jet Setter is definitely hauling though!

That could be said about most SLCs however.

Trust me, 99 percent of all the people who ride this coaster will declare it the best ride they've ever been on, and a fair number of enthusiasts will too. And again, I think everything about this ride looks at least as good or better than Millenium Force. What an exciting time that it looks like coasters that go faster than highway speed will be built regularly. Indeed, though I'm waiting for the first coaster to break the 186mph mark, which is the speed of most high speed trains. We've pretty much hit the 150mph mark, so I wouldn't be surprised to see faster rides. And honestly I think it's great that this coaster is not about airtime. Not every ride should be about airtime (and heck there are times where you DON'T want it), and the layout, especially for an out-and-back coaster, looks really interesting. If I ever go to the Charlotte area (which unfortunately will not be any time soon as I have no means of going down there), I'll check it out. And as a pure aesthetics thing I always preferred B&Ms to Intamins. I don't know why, but I just do.

Fixed! Even more fixed To be honest though Crystal Beach Cyclone looks more like a GCI thing; heck, they have similar trains. RMC could do it as well though; their layouts can be quite twisty. The one I have my doubts on is Intamin; I dunno why but every time I think of Intamin woodies I think of straight drops, though that might be a small sampling of their woodies. As for crazy ideas, I want to see a Chance-Morgan hyper mine train.

I'm liking this a lot. I love the station and from the POV posted here it looks like a very fun ride; the sensation of speed must be great. Congrats to Carowinds; this looks like a solid coaster and if I lived closer I'd definitely would go there next year. Question though; will this use one large chain or 2 chains a la Steel Dragon?

Here's my take on how the park was operating, at least when I visited it. - The staff was, well, all over the place. I thought they were friendly, but by the same token it was spotty; Thunderbolt (the first time I rode it) had a great ride op, but when I rode it a second time there was a different op who clearly wanted to be elsewhere. The clerk who worked at the little ice cream shop near Bizarro clearly wasn't trained enough - heck he told me he only had been hired the week before and he was looking everywhere in the counter for the ingredients for what I wanted to order (which was a small sundae), only to tell me they were out. So I asked for a different item (which I forget what it was)...and they were out of those ingredients, to the point where I got a small ice cream. I do feel a bit sorry for him because he clearly was anxious and now that I thought about it, he should've been better trained. As far as efficiency goes, that too was also sporadic. For instance, Thunderbolt was only running one train (which I think it typically does), but the ops were quick-ish. I think the turnaround time was 3 minutes between arrival and departure. Cyclone on the other hand was slow as hell, with trains stacking like crazy. I know many were trying to get their last rides in (myself included since it'd be my first and last ride), but it was ridiculous. By contrast, Batman - which also runs two trains - had a much shorter turnaround. Maybe Batman's staff was better trained? I wouldn't know, but two similar sized rides running two trains should have similar turnaround times, right? - Advertising was to be expected. Yes I did think it was a bit obnoxious at times, but by the same token, it's a Six Flags, not a Busch Gardens park or Disney park (I can't comment on Cedar Fair since I haven't been to any barring KD - which the last time I visited that park it was still owned by Paramount), so I was expecting some advertising. - The no cameras policy is stupid. Does that mean, for instance, if I were to go alone I can't take iPhone pictures of, say, Flashback or Mind Eraser? I can slightly understand trying to keep the new coaster somewhat secret but when RMC trucks and equipment have been arriving, the cover has been blown, so to speak. I'm guessing they are going with the thought that the GP doesn't know what RMC is or that the GP thinks RMC is a demolition company. Either way, that story left a sour taste in my mouth. Maybe I'm jaded from living in Richmond; Kings Dominion was a 30 minute trip and Busch Gardens was about 90 minutes, so two major parks were nearby. I'll look forward going to Lake Compounce next year along with SFNE. I guess I just wish there was a second larger park in or near Western MA (yeah, there is SFGA but it's four hours away and if I go there it's gonna be a 2 day trip with friends).

I might be one of the few but I love that white building you see before going into the park itself. I know compared to the main entrance it's bland but with the typeface and minimal details the park chose the building gives a Bauhaus-like feel. That said I'm a sucker for any minimalist or modern architecture. Great photos as well; I love the shot of the train going through the quad-inline twist. Looks like a very fun park to visit.

I wonder if the other 2 (well, 3) Spaghetti Bowls were the same way. One more question; which was worse? Psychlone or White Canyon? I mean, one's a Dinn and the other was the unholy offspring of RCCA and Togo...

Cleared for Takeoff! Year: March 1972 Stan Johnson here! It's been two years since our opening, and to start it off we have completed our second roller coaster, a thrilling ride built by Meisho Amusement Machines of Japan! Jet Setter, as the ride is called, has been in our project list for a while so to have it completed is a real treat, and I am sure the guests will love it. In addition to our fastest ride, it is one of our more intense rides, as well as being the tallest one in the park. Here we see the ride being tested, just before park opening. Meisho's trains are quite comfortable, or so I have been told by the park employees who rode it before opening! Some might think we went overboard on the station, but I disagree. We decided to call it the Jewelbox, from how it lights up at night. In addition to Jet Setter, we purchased a used Eyerly Loop-O-Plane from a nearby carnival. After a bit of servicing, Sky Jumper is now ready for riders! The grounds near Jet Setter are ripe for expansion. 1972 will most likely concentrate on more family oriented rides and environments, so keep on the watch!

Several traffic related ones: Hey idiot who thinks he's Lance Armstrong: Just because you're riding a race bike does not mean you have the right to not follow the rules of the road. You see that red octagon that says STOP on it? Yeah, that's what you're supposed to do; stop the damn bike. It also means you have to signal using your left hand and actually learn how to signal, as well as following traffic lights. You see that pedestrian light? That's not for you unless you dismount your bike. I don't care if you're trying to "save the environment" and that "car drivers are the work of Satan and should be banished on the spot," you have to follow the rules of the road like everyone else. To the hipster jaywalking: Just because you're in a hurry does not mean you can cross willy nilly; use the crosswalk like everyone else. Oh, and learn how to use pedestrian lights. If the light is red, that means to stop, and if you go when I have a green I will be honking my horn at you. And finally, for the idiot in the Cadillac SRX that decided to take up two lanes: READ THE SIGNS. The leftmost lane with the left arrow means it's a left turning lane, which means you have to turn left. That doesn't give you the right to be in the middle of both lanes because you're lost. Don't get me started on the roads here anyway; I shouldn't have to buy a rally car just to navigate them.

Gao, as in Mitsui Greenland's Gao coaster, is an onomatopoeia for "roar" in Japanese. So that makes 5 coasters that are named "Roar" in one way or another. The two Roar coasters, Kumba in BGT, Kumba in Africa, and Gao.

Youtube comments are usually up there with bathroom wall scrawls and CNN comments on stupidity.

Makes sense.

SoB was a 3 minute car accident. Bad choice Paramount! I'm just wondering why of all manufacturers Paramount went with RCCA for the ride. Were they the only ones that took up the risk to do SOB?

Seeing the SFMM thread and the name discussion for Colossus someone suggested Mecha Colossus. So how about Mecha Cyclone? That actually sounds pretty good. Like, who wouldn't ride a coaster named Mecha Cyclone? Heck, you can stick Mecha in front of every ride name and it'll automatically sound better. Mecha Bizarro, Mecha Thunderbolt, Mecha Mind Eraser, Mecha Great Chase...

It'll be called Quick U-Turn. You heard it here first folks.

I'm just quoting this post I made in 2011 because it still holds true to this day. Screw wisdom teeth.

Pleasant: Rock 'N' Roller Coaster at Disney's Hollywood Studios (then MGM): So my first major roller coaster was going to be a launched Vekoma spaghetti bowl. What I expected was headbanging, but instead I got a nice, enjoyable ride. Cyclone at SFNE: Sat in the back for my first ride on it. Unforgettable; here's hoping the new coaster will deliver the same amount of excitement. Flashback at SFNE: For the fact that it was surprisingly smooth - though it did leave an unpleasant after effect when it ended; see below. Space Mountain at Magic Kingdom: Surprisingly forceful and felt faster than it really was. Unpleasant: Big Thunder Mountain Railroad at Magic Kingdom: It didn't really do anything. Pretty much all my moments were expecting some larger drop or something and it never happened. I guess I was expecting too much but still. Flashback at SFNE: It wasn't the roughness that got me - in fact, I didn't notice much aside from a little headbanging in the cobra roll going backwards, and even then it was minimal - it was the fact it made me sick, to the point where I had to sit down for about 10 minutes before walking. Going forwards wasn't the problem I thought; it was the return trip that did it in for me. Thunderbolt at SFNE: Don't get me wrong; it's a great coaster, but I must've gotten a bad seat on my second ride because it was surprisingly rougher than the first time around. Must've been a wheel seat.