Aceattack52

Wildcat at Hershey was really rough when I rode it, but it seemed like it could have some pretty good potential if it had the RMC Treatment.

^^ Uh oh. Ninja is costing them money to fix and it's suffering from low ridership.....

Wow everything there Still looks great! I'll be in Orlando in a few weeks and IOA is at the top of my list.

Both the Scream Machine and the Cyclone both run PTC trains but the trains on the Scream Machine are older; is that right?

Wow so the SkyScreamer here hasen't even gone skyward yet? The one at SFOG is almost finished. If they are looking to open both at the same time I don't know if they will be able to.

Oh yes, I have had plenty of experiences with poor park operations... Carowinds: Hurler- On my first trip to Carowinds, I made a clockwise trip trough the park and eventually made my way over to Hurler. When I walked into the station, things were calm, quiet, and there were only about 50 people in there. Each stall had only about four or five people, so I figured this would be a five to ten minute wait, max. As it turns out they were only running one train, which was OK, there weren't that many people looking to ride-it ended up taking 25 minutes before I was able to ride. Carowinds running only one train was not the culprit; it was this kid that looked like he was 20-but that was only a facade for a 90 year only man. This kid was so freaking slow. He didn't look tired or under the influence of anything, he was just slow. This kid was working the controls up front, so all he had to do was press some buttons, talk into the microphone and so on. Apparently that was FAR too much for him to handle. When a full train arrived in the station, he would turn on the PA and ask "Did everyone have a fun ride?" If there was little or no answer, he would repeat it. Only once he received a satisfactory answer would he unlock the retrains and let everyone leave. He did the same thing when the train was going to leave. "Are you ready to ride?!?" Again, when, and only when, he received a satisfactory answer would he dispatch the train. The other thing he would do is not pay attention, he had a magazine up there! If you're saying to yourself that this isn't so bad and that you've seen worse, you haven't heard the whole story. The other thing this kid would do it allow everyone to be seated and locked in, then let the two attendants come by and check everyone's restraints. After that, if anyone seated looked even close to being under the height limit, he would say "height check, (X) and (Y) row." That means the person is question (who was usually within the height constraints) would have to get up and be checked, and then everyone in the car would have to be locked back in again. Couldn't you do that before people get into their seat? Thunder Road- This was probably the most frustrating experience with a ride op. This girl was probably 17 or so and was working the control panel up front, sitting on a stool. There were two attendants working the restraints, but there were nine ride ops in the station. Lets see, one and two, that's three, oh yeah there were SIX OTHER RIDE OPS talking to this girl behind the controls. Needless to say, nothing got done. When a train arrived in the station, she would be talking and people would have to wait one, two, even three minutes, for her to press the "release restraints" button. The same goes for opening the air gates. The train would be empty, but no one able to get in it. I have no problem with anyone talking on the job, just as long as it doesn't interferer with your job performance, like what occurred in this instance. Hershey Park: SooperDooperLooper- This was a very odd experience I had. SooperDooperLooper is a pretty good ride, so I visited it frequently during the course of the day. At the beginning of the day, they were running both trains. A few hours after they opened, they brought the second train out of service, but the wait was nearing an hour at that time; the line was out the entrance. Later in the day, around six o'clock, I returned. At that time, they brought the second train back into service. At that time, the line was down to five minutes or so. The peak operating hours were over at that point. Sure it could have been some kind of maintenance issue, but it seemed unlikely since they brought that train back into the circuit again later in the day. Six Flags Over Georgia: Superman: Ultimate Flight- This story is not very uncommon, I have seen it happen on multiple time. During peak operating hours on a weekend, Superman is guaranteed to be packed. I have seen the line coming out of the entrance onto the midway plenty of times. There is a sign that says "90 minutes from this point." That sign is about 40 feet in from the entrance, which means that a line extending all the way onto the midway could mean a two hour wait. (Oh yes, you read that right) Superman has two stations and three trains available for use, but even in these circumstances, I have never seen that third train running or both stations open at the same time. I asked Ms. Ashcraft when they open the second station, and she said "when we are expecting a high level of attendance or when there are many people looking to ride the coaster." I can't imagine when they open that second station, then. If a two hour line won't do it, what will?

^ I know just what you're talking about. When I see a POV or something like that, I always anticipate a snap going into the final break run or coming out of a mid course break run.

^ Mindbender runs quite exciptionally for its age. The Scream Machine has been doing well also. It may be getting rough, but it is aging much slower than the Cyclone did.

The one at CamelBak is open all year round, so you can plan on gettin there any time of year. The other really nice thing they have there is the 4,000 foot zip line from the top of the mountain to the bottom. It's a very nice ride down! But, I is pretty expensive. (Something like $28 for a ride)

This is really funny. 2 people working; 3 people watching. Very nice trip report as well. Did you get to go to Silver Dollar City on you're way back up?

My first time on a WindSeeker kind of put me on edge a little bit. I wouldn't go so far as to say I was "scared" but it was certainly a little uncomfortable. Especially when I looked up at the tower above.

I think I remember that on another ride, but there was no reverse and the obstruction moved out of the way just in time. It was a coaster, but I couldn't tell you which.

This is a little more information on the NEW alpine coaster at CamelBak. I am looking to go on it this summer, so hopefully I will be able to contribute a little more at that time as well. [youtu_be] [/youtu_be]The cost is $8 per rider, regardless of weather you are the driver or the passenger. I noticed you didn't have that included under the information on all of them in an earlier post.

Yeah this one particular video has been circulating for some time now. It is not the most impressive back yard coaster on YouTube, though. If you just look around a bit, you can certainly find some pretty good ones. Some people had the time and capital to make theirs quite elaborate!

After seeing the outlaw run POV, I'd love to see SFoG do a large project with RMC - either something totally new or something like the RMC treatment to scream machine. You know, that sounds exciting and all, but I would not like to see them change the Scream Machine like that. It would be smooth, fast and an all round better ride experience, but the thing is is that it's been around for so long. It's different from other woodies that have been around for 10 years or so and now need the Rocky Mountain Treatment to make it a hit again. The Sream Machine is part of the park's early history; it was one of the first attractions to be built outside of the railroad. It's one of those coasters built during the age when new innovations in ride design were coming up all over the place. It was the highlight of the coaster world when it first opened, being the tallest and fastest. (Probably didn't last for long) It's kind of like putting all steel horses on the Rigerview Carousel. Sure the new horses could be more comfortable and would certainly last longer, but the carousel is part of history, unlike modern day carousels that can be changed to go faster, ect. That's all right because those aren't significant in history. Now sure, steel horses are probably not going to outfitted on any carousel, I was just trying to get m point across.

I may be able to she'd some light on this. I took these pictures last August. It was either as soon as the park opened or pretty early at least. In the first picture, it looks like they installed some kind of wood block or something like that to keep the chain in line. Does anyone else know anything else about this? ALL HANDS ON DECK!

Very nice trip report. It's great to see Mindbender and the Scream Machine doing well. With all these great things coming in about the Cyclone, I may need to try it for myself when I go!

A lot of people are saying the cobra rolls are the worst, and I agree with them when it comes to boomerangs, but I have had some good experiences with a cobra roll; the Hulk's was fine, it had smooth continuous rolling unlike the jerking of a cobra roll on a Vekoma boomerang.

I would have to say Sky Rush from Hershey as well; It's nice and compact so I wouldn't have to move, and it's loud so I can annoy the neighbors who hate me enough as it is.

It sounds like your seats would have to be a lot like the seats on Acrophobia. They allow for your legs to hang straight down. They aren't the most comfortable, so there would probably have to be some form of redesign involved. These seats are fine for the quick ride up and the drop down, I don't know how well they would do with sustained G's and lateral G's.

An inverted wooden coaster? My concern would be structural problems towards the top where the rails are. It looks very interesting, though.

I know exactly what you're talking about when you say "it's still rough at the end." It's those few bunny hills and the airtime hill that is the station fly-by, isn't it. That is the worst part of the ride in terms of bumpiness aside from the valleys of the first three drops. Now that those are fixed, those bunny hills are the worst. It is disappointing that they didn't get more done during the break, I really wanted to see a smooth Georgia Cyclone.

^^ It looks like one side of the track in the foreground was done very recently and the other was done a year ago. The one that is topped with the red looks much newer than the other side.

It is interesting to see that B&M did this. Now that they have the plans to make these new trains, hopefully they will be able to make them more easily for other Morgan hypers and we will be able to see them coming to other parks soon.

I really don't like ANY of the banked turns on Hurler at Carowinds. It's not head banging, since its a wooden coaster and doesn't have OTSRs, but you get thrown around a ton! I usually can only do one ride and that's it for the day. The turn at the end of this stretch is the worst.