MrSum1_55

In the last few pages, I have seen RMC's be called 'sloppy' and an observation that WC has a repetitive layout without airtime. Seeing an RMC is the sexiest thing on Earth. Even the worst RMC is better than 99% of other wood coasters.

Well, this is looking pretty monstrous. If they are going to market this in the South, they should describe how much closer to heaven you are going to get.

It is a bit ironic that, with all these big projects planned for Dubai, the one that did actually get built was a Blue Fire clone. (Yes, I am aware that Formula Rossa exists. And that it is in Abu Dhabi, not Dubai) However, I still will not be supporting the Emirates anytime soon as long as slave labor is still being used.

Often, inflation prices have to be taken into account. To put this into perspective, I305 and MF costed the same. Yet, I305 is shorter in length, and uses a structure with FAR less steel. (Take a look at the lift/first drop structures of both of these). All these feats of engineering that were made to reduce costs brought the costs of the two to be about the same after 13 years of inflation. In an even greater perspective. Giant Dipper in Santa Cruz costed $47,000 in 1924. Adjusted for inflation, that should only be $650,000 in today's money. You could not even build a ride of that size today for $6 million. Things do change over time.

^I actually thought that Alpie's brakes killed the second half of the ride for me. (I rode two years ago). I have never seen any other ride go from blackout forces to meandering to the end that quickly. When I saw that one of the last features is the helix, I was excited, as B&M does know how to make a great final helix. But, this element had barely any forces at all. Without the intense breaking, this would probably be my favorite invert. My favorite coaster in the park is probably Griffon. But, not even for the front row. On dive machines, I actually think that the back row is the most thrilling. The visuals in the front are cool, but the drop is hindered by the extra drag in the rows behind you, resulting in a "floaty" feeling down the drop, at best. The back row, however, gives you a shot of air at the top, causing you to remain stuck to the top of the restraint the whole way down the drop. The second drop is far better in the back as well. And, I do not really care about any of the other features of this ride other than the two vertical drops.

Maybe all the people in SoCal are conplaining about the drop on this ride because they have never experienced for themselves what a good drop actually is.

1. There is no reason to complain that this drop is not big enough. 2. Even if you really think that that is a problem, just remember that this ride has TWO of them. It has TWO of those steep RMC drops over 100 feet. The only other RMC coaster with anything like that is IRat, with the first and last drops. However, this one will be the first one in which the largest height is experienced TWICE. It is safe to say that no other big coaster on Earth delivers an experience like that. While many mine trains have multiple lifts, the only other full sized coaster I can think of that reaches near its maximum height twice is The Beast. But even on this, the section after the second lift is quite short, containing a very gradual drop into a single large helix. But, TC is a big ride that delivers a near equally good experience off both lifts. That is truly unique. On another note, which "track" of TC do you think will be better? It is difficult to tell, but I think that the blue side looks more exciting to me. On this side, you have the larger drop off the turnaround, as well as the straight airtime hill, faster zero-G roll, and final drop before the second lift. It is hard to tell, so which one do you out there think?

I am still shocked that Busch is the second park in the US to get one of these. It is without a doubt a fun coaster, but it just does not seem to the type of ride a Busch park would get. This does seem like a design that would fit better at a mid-sized park. (All three other parks that have announced one of these are small to mid-sized). I do wonder (and hope) that this one will have the transfer track like the one in Mexico. It would seem very un-Busch like not to have that feature. On a more positive observation, this installation could lead to more clones, as this is probably the first big name park to be buying one of these. I doubt that many GP outside of Central Europe are aware of Holiday Park, or that many people outside of the Bay Area and surrounding states are aware of SFDK But, a fair amount of people across the US do know about Busch Gardens. The purchase from a park this well-known and popular could lead to more purchases, possible leading to this design to be this generation's boomerang.

The clear answer is Phoenix. While I would say that Twister is a good ride, it did not blow me away. I felt like I was just riding a standard CCI coaster with less airtime. Twister is a lot of fun, but I would never rank it anywhere near my top 5. Phoenix just blew me away. I still tie it with El Toro as my #1. While experiences can vary on Phoenix, riding it in row 3 at night in the rain beats El Toro any day. Twister just feels like a 'standard' wood coaster, while even slow rides on Phoenix always amaze me.

^^^I actually disagree. I had the complete opposite experiences with both coasters. I was not expecting much from Verbolten at all, but it turned out to be an all-around great ride. The indoor section was better than I expected (it was actually pitch dark, unlike Space Mountain or Flight of Fear). The drop track was a lot of fun, and the outdoor section was a good, intense ending. So, knowing this, I was very excited for Cheetah Hunt. I thought that Cheetah Hunt would be the more intense version of Verbolten. But it was actually...weaker! I first rode in the back. I was actually shocked at how little airtime I got. I encountered exactly two spots of airtime: one on the largest drop and one on the hill after the third launch. But even these momens were not as fun as they looked. The inversion was cool, but I felt like I spent every other moment of he ride waiting for something interesting to happen. I even thought that the trick-track was just ok. Cheetah Hunt is also high on my list for having one of the least exciting endings I have ever experienced on a coaster. Granted, I did try it in the front at the end of the day, and it was better, but still nowhere near as good as Verbolten. I was not alone in this view, either. I rode with six other friends, all of us had ridden Verbolten before. Not one of us thought that Chertah Hunt was in any way better. I respect all opinions, but the general view that Cheetah Hunt beats Verbolten perplexes me and my friends to this day. Did anyone else have an experience like this?

If Phoenix got rid of its 3-bench buzz at PTC trains, I would cry.

It is true that on some coasters it is consistent and hard to keep track of. For example, I rode Dominator in 2011, and the rattle was one of the worst I had experienced on any B&M. Then, I came back the very next year to find that the rattle was gone. I had heard that they replaced the wheels over that offseason, but I cannot confirm this. Several other B&M's can be very hit or miss, as well. I have gotten both amazing and bad rides on Scream, Riddler's Revenge, and even Mantis. Some others I feel are only perceived as rough due to the snappy transitions. Batman, Flight Deck, Raptor, and Alpengiest most come to mind for this category. (Alpie's transition into the MCBR is probably B&M's worst transition on any of their 'big' rides in my opinion)

^^^True. Normally, I would have said the same about a modern GCI. But, I actually think that, when compared to other GCI's of the late 2000's, Apoc is actually one of their weaker designs. It is still 1000x better than what was there before, though. I understood the complaints about Full Throttle, Green Lantern, Apoc. In all three of these announcements, I agree that I was expecting a bit more for a park this size. But TC? Seriously? This is their biggest project since Tatsu (which is 8 years old). Why are there complaints about the length of this thing? Correct me if I am wrong, but won't this be the third longest steel coaster in the US? Also, I would understand the complaints about capacity if this were built at a park with descent operations like Cedar Point. But, this is SFMM. 700 pph is rocking it by SFMM standards. Edit: okay, not the third longest steel in the US, but still probably in the top ten.

As a Nevada resident, I can ride New York, New York for half the price. But, I would still much rather pay $20 for this than pay $7 for New York, New York. And, if this has an unlimited rides pass, you bet that I am going to be buying that thing.

First coaster: Gadget's Go Coaster (DLR) First "real" coaster: Matterhorn Bobsleds First looping coaster: California Screamin" First Inverted: Silver Bullet First wood: Ghostrider First racing/ dueling: Dueling Dragons First flying: Tatsu First hyper: Goliath (SFMM) First floorless: Scream First standup: Riddler First SLC: Kong First 'old' coaster: Thunderbolt First TOGO: Shockwave Now for my favorites: Favorite kiddie: Woodstock Express (Carowinds) Favorite Disney coaster: Space Mountain (Florida) Favorite looping coaster: Afterburn Favorite inverted: (same as above) Favorite Dueling: Dragons Favorite flying: Manta Favorite hyper: Phantom's Revenge: Favorite floorless: Dominator Favorite Standup: Green Lantern Favorite SLC: None Favorite 'old' coaster: Giant Dipper (Santa Cruz) Favorite Togo: New York, New York Favorite wood: tie between El Toro and Phoenix Favorite steel: I305

^^Yes. That is actually my biggest problem with the ride. It looks so amazing, but I have to go through this park to ride it first.

While I do think that Vortex would be better off scrapped than with new trains, I still think that getting new trains on that would be one of the most exciting things to happen to this park in the past decade. Besides Gold Striker and Boomerang Bay, new trains on a coaster would serve as huge news for the standards of this park. However, I will say that this park that was once in danger of closing made a pretty amazing comeback, almost like the west coast's Kentucky Kingdom. Maybe we will only have to wait every few years for a major attraction now, instead of every decade or so. '

If you geek out as much as I have about all this IAAPA stuff, then congratulations. You just found the most effective method of birth control.

Steampunk is great, if used properly. I actually do like going to Steampunk events, though not just for the partying aspect. I enjoy seeing the random machines people build for some of these events. In Nevada, we call this "Burning Man for smart people" I see this fad as far more than a partying gimmick. It really is interesting, if you can find the right event. Having a steampunk themed ride would be the best thing ever. And, we could be getting a bit of that at both Knott's and SFMM.

I actually disagree. I still think CP beats out SFMM's coaster selection even with those removed. While SFMM may have more 'good' coasters than CP, I think that CP blows Magic Mountain out of the water on the topic of variety. Whatever your preference of ride is, CP probably has something that can fit that, and I think they do a much better job at making sure each coaster provides a unique experience. This is now counting TC, however. TC might give SFMM the edge for me. By comparison, CP would easily beat SFGAdv if not for El Toro, but the addition of that one ride places the selection at a draw in my eyes. But, we could debate which park has the best coaster selection for days. And, CP does have vastly superior operations to both of these parks. So, CP will always win out for me. And, I am not saying this as a CP fanboy. In fact, if I ranked all of my parks first to last, CP would probably be near the middle, while the two SF parks I mentioned would be near the bottom. None of these parks excel in the grand scheme in terms of overall atmosphere. Plus, I am more of a fan of quality over quantity. Liseberg's coaster lineup actually impresses me more than does a park like Kings Dominion. And that is not even factoring in other park elements (of which I am sure Liseberg dominates at)

I am going to add another unpleasant surprise to my list: Possessed at Dorney. I normally think impulse coasters are a lot of fun. I do like coasters like Wicked Twister and SFDK's V2 a lot, so I was really excited to try one with a holding brake. But OUCH! That element I looked forward to probably came close to ruining by ability to have children.

Yes. After TC, I would be so happy if they spend the entire next decade adding no new rides, just focusing on park repairs only. The addition of TC is exactly what is park needs to round up its coaster lineup, so after that they should just stop building coasters entirely and focus on making a guests day great while he is not on a coaster.

I believe the reason why RMC has not built a vertical loop yet is due to structural limitations with the wood supports, and not the decrease in popularity of loops. So, no. I do not think that the vertical loop is going out of style. Recent additions have included rides like Banshee with two vertical loops, or YOLOcoaster, which massively publicized its large loop. Even after experiencing many other types of inversions, I still think that few things beat a good, old-fashioned high-G loop.

^^Well, considering that I could see any park in the chain doing exactly that (all other super loops are being advertised as coasters), then I guess it would still be somewhat stereotypical of this park. However, what would be very stereotypical of this park would be to build a short ride that breaks some sort of record. But honestly, if TC even lives up to half my expectations, I would not really care if any future additions over the next decade were gimmicky or falsly advertised.

^x5 That is actually my biggest problem with the Beast. It is amazing...only if you ride in a specific seat at a specific time of the day. I agree that night rides on the Beast are one of the best possible coaster experiences. Riding the Beast at night is something everyone should try once. However, the same cannot be said about day rides. While scenic, the thrill level is only slightly higher than CGA's Grizzly. I experienced nothing more than large, drawn out, rough turns. To be able to ride an RMC version of this would be spectacular, but alas. Day rides on the best will always be unexciting as long as enough fanboys are determined to keep it that way.