MrSum1_55

A few things to note: -This is not LA or Orlando; This is Salt Lake City. Residents of a city this size without a tourist market for theme parks are lucky enough to have a theme park, let alone one that can afford to build coasters in the double digit millions every few years. -Griffon, a coaster with a much larger track gauge and trains costed $15 million. -I am not worried about this coaster being rough, as it will only have lap bars. -Even if the drop and three inversions are all it does, how is that any less gimmicky than a dive machine? Actually, I am fairly optimistic that it will be better than a B&M dive machine, as it will have only lap bars and possibly a beyond vertical drop. Granted, I would rather they spend that $10 million on a mega lite, but for a smaller park, I am glad that they are finding ways to introduce larger thrills for a lower cost.

^It is located right between Los Angeles and Ulaanbaatar

A few of these already have small parks, but these cities could probably support much larger parks than the ones they currently have. -Huston -Calgary -Portland -Seattle -Phoenix -Berlin -Melbourne -Sydney Maybe the southern part of South Korea could use another park? There are still some major cities in the south part, but pretty much all the major parks are in the Seoul area, excluding some small-medium sized parks.

Now, I am really starting to take these rumors more seriously, after I decided to check the website. Turns out, Battlestar is not on the attractions listing. At all. I could turn out to be wrong, but I skimed through all of the areas, including Sci Fi city, and Battlestar is not listed on them. Generally, a park will have a disclaimer next to a ride saying that it is closed currently, but, on their website, there is simply no acknowledgement of the coaster even existing. Could this be a further clue hinting the end of Battlestar Galactica? Whatever it gets replaced with (if it is removed), I actually do hope it is a major coaster, just so this Universal park can still have a major thrilling attraction outside of a Mummy clone.

For me, my choice depends on one variable: time. If I had to spend only one or two days at each resort, my choice would be Cedar Point. For three or more, I would choose WDW. My reasoning is that I generally prefer theme parks to amusement parks. However, if I am limited on time, I will probably find myself focusing more on getting in as many rides as possible in the time I have. If I have more time, I can spend more time absorbing the theming of certain areas, as well as seeing things that I might be less interested in initially, such as shows. If i have a limited amount of time, I would choose Cedar Point, because with a limited amount of time, I would focus more on riding rides, and I enjoy riding rides at Cedar Point more than WDW. However, with more time to soak in the atmosphere, WDW would easily win for me. I have spent two consecutive days at Cedar Point, five days at WDW on one trip, and a two day run at WDW on another trip. I might take the two days at Cedar Point over the two days at WDW, but I would easily take five days at WDW over five days at Cedar Point. (Is any resort outside of WDW that is worthy of a week visit? Maybe Tokyo Disney?)

I recently came up with a somewhat ridiculous idea behind the closing of Battlestar. What if it were moved to another Universal park? It is possible that, if the coaster is removed at all, that Universal could pull a Six Flags and send it to a different park in which it could make more of its value. If it were sent to USH, it could be easily rebranded as a Dragon Challenge coaster, to go with the later stages of Wizarding World. Although it was not stated that USH would receive a Dragon Challenge coaster, perhaps this could be a new idea for the later stages of USH development. However, both USH and USJ have issues with space, while USO would not need a relocated coaster. This is just some speculation of what could happen if Battlestar were removed.

The problem is that I doubt this thing will be able to gain enough revenue, let alone receive enough riders to run both sides. Giant Dipper in San Diego rarely has more than a wait of a few trains, with one train running. And, San Diego is considerably more touristy than Long Beach. Although this coaster will be decades newer, and initially much more popular, I doubt that in the long run it will be able to justify 30 million.

^Sorry. I could have worded that better. I was mainly referring to the scale of the installations by price tag. I believe Tatsu was the last coaster SFMM installed that costed more than $15 million. Tatsu costed $21 million, while GL and FT were probably in the $7-12 million range. This does not come close to matching the $25 million or so required to build a giga. It just shows the different construction strategies between the two parks.

^Actually, it somewhat does make sense. Those two parks use entirely different business strategies. Carowinds and Kings Dominion both add major installations on a fairly infrequent basis, but when they do, they are major additions. SFMM tends to favor adding one low-cost installation every year or two. The last installation SFMM made on this scope was Tatsu, in 2006. I know everyone is hoping for an Intamin, but the cold truth is that it will probably be a B&M. Although a B&M giga is probably what the park least needs, now, I doubt Cedar Fair will go with Intamin on this one, considering the problems had with Intimidator 305, and how smoothly Leviathan has operated. It is possible they might go with Intamin, since Intamins use fewer supports and are therefore cheaper. Also, despite I305, Cedar Fair does have the success of Millennium Force to go off of (not saying I want it to be like Millennium, but the point is that the coaster was successful and has had fair reliability) Also, Intamins do offer a very different experience, so that might be a reason to choose them. It is not completely impossible that it would be an Intamin, but I am about 80% sure that if it is a giga, it will be a B&M. And, that 80% is probably a lowball, considering most of the other 20% is really wishful thinking.

Heide Park must really love painting their coasters white with green supports. Seriously, how many other parks (other than the former Expoland) can boast four roller coasters painted the same colors? The layout looks fun. It may not be too intense, but it seems unique. The only wingrider I have ridden is Wild Eagle, and my problem with it is that the layout does not really seem to take advantage of the wing coaster technology; it could be a floorless or an inverted coaster, and it would probably feel no different. However, this seems to have several elements that will feel unique on a wing coaster, including that crazy-looking double inversion element. Although I still do not believe it will have many G forces, it will be fun.

From the last page, I am glad I am not the only one who felt the same way about LL:DOD. I also rode a 70' Larson carnival tower, and CGA's drop tower within a month, and I found the drops on both of these to be superior to Lex Luthor. It is probably because these have much looser restraints; the ops tend to staple you in on LL. Still, LL is a good ride, but, overall, I actually found it to be my least favorite of the post 1st generation Intamin towers. This one has probably the worst view of any of the Intamin towers I have been on (it is of an open desert), and the drop was not as, since you are stapled in. I still think CGA's tower reigns as the best tower in California, as on one side you get a view of the San Jose skyline, while the other side allows you to see across the entire park, as well as the 49ers stadium. This may be the only instance I can think of so far in which lap bars actually make the ride worse.

Unpleasant: Cheetah Hunt WAIT! Before I am crucified for saying that, I would like to point out my expectations for it. I was NOT anticipating that it would be the "Next Maverick." However, I am a huge fan of Verbolten, and I love SWSD's Manta almost as much. So, I am a huge fan of these family launch coasters, and I thought Cheetah Hunt would live up to the standards of these rides, except be slightly more thrilling. Actually, I thought it was significantly less thrilling. I had heard that there was plenty of airtime, but, on my first ride, which was in the back seat, I did not experience much airtime or any sort of force. I only received three moments of gentle floater air, and no ejector air. However, I did ride again toward the end of the day in the front, and it was better. I got some very nice airtime on the first hill, followed by an extra bit of floater air on the hill over the Skyride (I received none when I rode in the back). However, I thought the ending was still unnecessarily lame, and that Verbolten and Manta, the coasters that were supposed to be less thrilling, were more exciting. Although I do believe that an "extreme family coaster" was exactly what the park needed, I did see several ways the layout could be more fun without being overly thrilling. I actually thought Cheetah Hunt was overall inferior to California Screamin, despite several reports claiming that Cheetah Hunt was more intense. Pleasant: Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit I was expecting a rough, unexciting experience. Although HRRR is rough in certain seats, the layout turned out to be a lot more fun than I was expecting. Although the layout does drag on in parts, I experienced plenty of airtime and unique elements, and the views are absolutely fantastic at night. In fact, I even thought the airtime on HRRR was better than most of the B&M hypers I have ridden. I found the experience to be very enjoyable, and it was a very cool addition to the park. Sadly, it is unlikely that another coaster will be built like this again, considering the excessive cost and construction problems.

I agree that the fact that there is almost nowhere to find water at a park is ridiculous. Last summer, I visited Knott's and SFMM consecutively on days that were both in the triple digits. At Knott's I became thirsty by 11:00, but this was no problem, since they had restaurants and drink stands open all across the park. At SFMM, when I was parched at 11:00, I found nothing open in the back or side area of the park by Riddler's, excluding one frozen lemonade stand. When I cannot find water in a park on a day that is over a hundred degrees in the middle of the desert, that is a true negative in my book. Really, it is the little things that parks do that make a huge difference. I would trade most of the coasters in this park for better overall operations and atmosphere.

I am somewhat surprised by the rankings this year, but, this time around, it is actually a pleasant surprise. In the past, the GTA has done a terrible job ranking coasters, glorifying average hypers within the US while ignoring great international coasters. However, this year, I do think the ratings have gotten better, with I305 breaking the top 10, Europa ranking #2, and Millennium winning by a much smaller margin than the past two years. The GTA is still not a good ranking reference, but it is better than it used to be.

^^The general consensus was that OzIris was not very intense, and I do not have that much hope for this one either. I can easily see it being another Talon or Silver Bullet. However, I do have some strong positive feelings, as well. Although this may not be my favorite type of coaster, it does seem to be exactly what the park needs; it currently lacks a modern, high capacity looping coaster. So, even though this may not be my favorite coaster type, I am actually glad that they are installing this. On an unrelated note, would this give KI a very Carowinds-esque lineup? The three most popular rides at both parks will be a B&M hyper, a B&M invert, and a Flying Dutchman.

Just got back from the park to see that Gwazi was actually open! I got in my first, and probably last, rode on it.

I don't live in the US, and I am named after the city I am located in.

I am the newest coaster at my park. My park is in an area with many other things to do, but the surrounding residential area is notorious for poverty and high crime.

^Better than nothing! Wait, wrong thread.

Kawasemi, Tobu Zoo

^^That is going to be pretty terrible when they start running one train.

Yes. That's it.

^^Nope. I am in other areas of the world as well, but I am mostly a design popular in America. The place where I live is not particularly unfriendly to Americans, but my culture is not a culture most people in the west have or would experience. Of my many clones, I was the last one ever built. ^Thank you for allowing me this!

Mind if I cut in?... I have many American brothers, but I am in an area of the world most Americans would never visit.

I agree about how Gold Striker, as well as some of the other improvements, really brought life into this park. Coaster lineup wise, I would probably place both parks at a tie. However, CGA has a vastly superior flat ride selection, more family rides, more consistent operations, and a much better water ride selection with Boomerang Bay (actually, I still think CGA would have the slight edge in water rides even without BB). Overall now CGA>SFDK