MrSum1_55

Wait:...Installing a water ride is very un-SFMM. They usually prefer to install coasters, so it could be a combination. That means that Chlamydia: The Ride is going to be an Aquatrax!

I havealso been pleasantly surprised by how empty the park has been lately. I visited on the 3rd (probably a pretty good day to visit), and YOLO had a 15 minute wait at 2:00 pm, and x2 had a 15 minute wait at 5:00 pm.So, not only was the park not too crowded, but what are normally the most popular rides turned out to have the shortest waits, with some lucky timing. This may have been the first summer day when I managed to ride X2 3 times in an hour.

^No. Absolutely not. Both of those costed about the same. The only hope of seeing a world class coaster within the next few years lies in the possibility of Iron Colossus.

Currently, the point is that any politics that may have gone on in the past are now over. We are happy we have a new coaster, the park is happy it is open, and the tenets are probably happier that the coaster is now in harmony with the agreement. Sure, the mess did happen, but it is now over. Now, if the park were to build more in the future, why not look more into the east side? A satellite image shows that the east side is quite far from any outside real-estate. Also, a coaster has been built in this area before, meaning noise is probably not an issue. Granted, with the addition of Boomerang Bay, some shoehorning would have to be done. But, considering how compact GS is, this seems entirely possible. This park will probably not reverie any more major installations any time soon, but this does seem like an ideal location to place a new installation, if they so desire.

Exactly. YOLO, nor does any coaster in CA, come close to matching designs such as El Toro, I305, Phantom's Revenge, Maverick, and as much as I hate to say it, Millennium Force. (Yes, I am aware that there are more coasters that should be on this list, but I am just listing the ones I have ridden) Also, this is not, nor will it ever be, on par with any of the larger multi-launchers. If a person rode this expecting a giant Maverick or Cheetah Hunt, they would be severely disappointed. In fact, this is the main reason the ride announcement was so disappointing in the first place. However, if you board with the mentality that this will be a short, fun ride like Xcelerator, you will have a good time.

I can say with quite a large amount of certainty that Grizzly is not going anywhere anytime soon. The main reason is that the coaster is really just a giant family coaster, and the park is marketing it as such. (The park website lists Grizzly under the 'family rides' section) To me, it is meant to be looked at as a family coaster, the park is marketing it as a family coaster, and it is still popular, meaning Grizzly is successful for what it is. (Even though at least half of the kiddie wood coasters I have ridden are more intense than Grizzly)

So, I do think pretty much everyone agrees that YOLO is overall an excellent addition. It really deserves its status as one of the best coasters in CA, right up there with Xcelerator, Tatsu, S:UF, Gold Striker, and X2. (The last one is a love-it-or-hate-it experience and may not be completely agreed on, but you probably get the point) However, I do have to bring up one negative about the experience. Am I the only one that did not like the final brakes? I felt like I had been punched in the gut after riding with my hands in the air. On the next ride, I figured out how to ride defensively, by grabbing on to the small handle on the seat in front of me right as the forward jolt began. To me, the brakes detracted quite a bit from the ride, and added an uncomfortable sensation in place of what could have been an excellent moment of airtime. Am I the only one who has this view?

Had a good day at the park today! I rode YOLOcoaster a total of three times. Unfortunately, there was no choosing seats today. The loop is absolutely amazing in any seat. However, the rest of the ride is better experienced toward the back of the train. I first rode in row 3, and I was unimpressed by the ride, with the exception of the loop. However, riding in row 7 completely changed my view of the ride. It is one of the vest coasters in California, and gives Xcelerator a run for its money (although it is not as good as Xcelerator in my opinion) Operations were OK today, dispatch wise, but there were several other negative aspects, such as Tatsu not opening until 12:00, S:EFK running one side until early afternoon, and few drink stands open until 11:30 (even though today had projected highs near the triple digits) Yet, the absolute greatest thing I heard all day was in the line for X2 there were two Hispanic guys behind me, and one was talking to the other about the unusual multitude of Caucasians in the park today. The actual words were "Bro, there are so many white ass bitches here today" Only at SFMM!

Additionally, did it ever reopen? Is it speculated to be operational by tomorrow? (I know no one can really know, but I was wondering if there is a chance that this may not open tomorrow)

Almost forgot!

The website is called THEME park review. Yes, this is a roller coaster website, but people on these forums also appreciate when a ride is THEMEd. It is pretty much a given that THEMEing always makes a ride better, and a lack of THEMEing can lead to some ugly looking rides, such as Scream. Also keep in mind that this replaced Log Jammer, which was already a well-landscaped ride, but, as of now, this ride is not. Granted, that could change, but we are speaking of the condition the ride is in right now.

Money should not be an issue for a park as large as SFMM. Considering that they have the most coasters in the world, I doubt they did not invest more money into the project because it was not within their budget. That being said, this ride does do a lot of stuff, especially for being as short as it is. In fact, I actually think that this is a fairly clever investment, as I can name few other rides this short, and built on about this budget, that do this much stuff. Even though it does not seem to come close to matching its potential, I think this will be a good time overall, and I am excited to be able to ride this next week.

^^/^^^ But we did find out. I believe that was the list of things Jay Thomas tried to do. I think the problem was that they simply never marketed the family atmosphere, and instead chose to invest in near constant advertising for X2. They tried the family atmosphere, and it did not work. Granted, I do think there were a few problems in the way it was presented, but the bottom line is that, because that strategy failed, they are probably never going back to that strategy. However, it might be possible that they could go back to the old way of waiting a few years and investing in a major attraction, instead of making these small, gimmicky investments. I would like to see that, but not before seeing a better maintained park. ^Yes. It is sarcastic, but it still was stupid, on my part.

I do have a sad confession to make, being that I am actually kind of hoping this ride sucks, just so I can bash SFMM more. I am crossing my fingers that is goes as slow over that hill as the tests show.

I have ridden an elastic slingshot. And I will say, it was the biggest piece of crap I have ever ridden. I would rather marathon an SLC 20 times than ride that again. The center of gravity on the ball seemed very low, to the point of which i often came to the bottom upside down, which is not a pleasant experience. The entire time, my head was excessively being banged against the headrest; the head banging was so bad, I can't even imagine a Togo coaster being worse than this. I have yet to give the spring type (which is the more common type) a chance.

From my understanding, it seems that the sound testing has to be conducted before the 30th. It makes sense to conduct the testing before operating hours. This is just my perspective, but it seems that, if it passes the sound tests the first time (which is not too implausible considering that it is being conducted by a third party tester), it might not have to close at all. If it does not pass, the park will add more sound walls or tunnels so that it does pass. Once it does pass, it will receive a full construction certificate, meaning that, from that point on, it is a done deal. The coaster will be able to fully operate as planned. I am trying to plan a trip out there, but I will have to wait, since there is no telling when this thing will operate. As for future additions, why not the area behind, or even over, Boomerang Bay? They have built a major coaster there before, so I do not believe that area would cause problems. There are several areas of the park that are pretty noise-safe, but building in these areas would also require some creativity, as these areas also happen to be the areas that already have rides built on them. Grona Lund America, anyone?

My mind has, more or less, been blown. I guess all the questions that have previously been raised have been explained. Now, I do wonder what the future of this ride will be. Will it become tunnel: the ride? Will the prudes back off their claim? (It is unlikely it will be that easy)? I do wonder if these people are really complaining about noise, or if it is simply a power struggle. I live a block away from a public park. A small section of the park had remained in a dilapidated condition for quite some time, so a nearby private elementary school, which has no playground, funded to build a new, open playground in the fenced off area. The park now looks so much nicer, and everyone is happy with the changes. Yeah, not really. People complained. I have no idea why. Some people down the street from me are literally complaining that they made an area nicer. This proves that sometimes, people complain just for power, and not actually because they are bothered by what is actually there. This could be what is happening here, just on a much larger scale. Or, it could be argued that this may be, of all things, a publicity stunt by Prudential.

You have got to be kidding me. www.screamscape.com/html/california_s_great_america.htm Do you think that, maybe, some executive at Prudential had a bad experience on a roller coaster as a kid? As in, vomited in front of his friends? So, now he has to make sure no one else can have fun.

If you watch the Dinoconda pov, the rocking in very noticeable, and clearly intentional. So, it might be possible that this is also intentional for X2, but I have never been quite sure of that.

Honestly, this is one of the most difficult issues to take a stance on. On one hand, I always see massive amount of people abusing the system at all park chains. On the other hand, I do believe that truly disabled people deserve special privileges. If you are truly disabled, and you want to cut me in line, that is fine with me. On the other hand, people paying for use of a disabled person is a major low, and eleven people joining a single disabled person does not seem too justifiable, either. If only there was a way to distinguish the actual disabled people from able-bodied people who are faking or piggybacking. This would make this system a lot easier. Faking disability to get to the front of the line is something I consider to be an insult to actual disabled people.

^^I was mainly talking in terms of a large park, in the way that a Mega-Lite would seem small compared to rides at a medium-large park. Although I could see a small park benefiting massively from one of these, I believe these to be the reasons why no parks in the US have installed one.

I think the major problem with a Mega-Lite is as follows: The design does not have any gimmicks to it. In the advertising world, we need gimmicks. Sure, you could argue that the capacity is a little low, but it is certainly better than a wild mouse or SFDK's S:UF. Heck, most of the coasters in California probably do not even reach 800 pph on a regular basis. So, that may not be too big of an issue. What is an issue, however, is the lack of gimmicks. In the advertising world, gimmicks are needed. I305 and Skyrush both have the gimmicks of being very tall, and one has a unique train design. It does not matter whether the unique train design actually enhances the experience or not, but in general, the GP are more easily swayed by gimmicks that award-winning designs. A Mega-Lite would cost about the same as a GCI of similar size, but the GCI would have the gimmick of being a wood coaster, so it could be marketed as such. On a related problem, I could see a 108 foot coaster with no inversions at a large park being falsely labeled as a family ride to the average park-goer on first examination. Therefore, it would lead to these cases: -A thrill seeking individual would skip over it, thinking it to be more of a family ride -A person that does not have the desire for intense coasters would ride it, thinking it to be not very intense, then complaining that it is too intense I do have another possible reason why one has never been built in the US. Maybe most American park managers have simply never heard of the design. I have heard the concept of building a Mega-Lite be brought up at many TPR events, and it seems that the vast majority of American park managers have never heard of the design. Can anyone name a park manager who, at a TPR event, had heard of this design outside of a question from a TPR member? (This also seems to be the case with an Aquatrax, as well, but that seems like a design less likely to be built by most parks)

I rode all three major standups (RR, GL, and Mantis) in the 2011 season, and I found RR to be by far the roughest of the three, as well as being the worst operated (the others could run 2 or 3 trains without stacking), while RR almost always stacks, unless it is running one train. In fact, I believe Riddler's and Scream to be the two worst big B&M's I have ridden. Batman and Tatsu still run fairly well, though.

Well, if you really want a good counter argument: Amusement parks are multi-million dollar venues that can only thrive on excess income within the general population. This is rarely possible outside of a capitalist society. Therefore, anyone who truly hates the simple presence of amusement parks must hate capitalism.

People are acting hopeful form more theming. Honestly, even though more theming would be nice, this is Cedar Fair we are talking about. I think we are lucky to have received this much theming already.