The49er

I thought about that for awhile, and though B&M does stick with usually tried designs; the invert, the flying, the floorless and the drop machine were all untried before they were introduced and all of those turned out to be successful. Vekoma and CGA's Stealth would like to have a word with you

..the park has Six Flags in the name or is owned by Six Flags. Just to avoid generalizations ..you're just trying to buy tickets and a rather indifferent teenage/twentysomething lady keeps trying to upsell you. "Well, if you get the Super Mega Gold Pass, you get a 0.0000251% discount on tuition at select colleges." Ma'am, this is exactly why I wasn't planning on getting a season pass

This looks like a great thread, so I figured it would be worth resurrecting. My current favorites: -X2's Skydive and 2nd raven turn -Drop Tower at CGA -Most of the SCBB Giant Dipper's airtime-laden drops -DCA ToT's drops...haven't been on the other ToTs -Griffon's first drop -Boomerang's first drop, believe it or not; I like the surprise factor

Hit 50 last month on Riddler's Revenge at SFMM. We'll see if I ever get to 100...or beyond, for that matter.

POVs for all Cedar Fair coasters on FunTV, you say? Can't wait for Taxi Jam

It was supposed to be Banshee until people got all concerned over the superstition surrounding the name...or something like that.

I think that if they chose the hyper route, they could find some success. For example, one of my brothers enjoys most roller coasters, excluding those that tend to be unusually intense (Xcelerator, SFMM Goliath's helix for some people, etc.) I'm sure he's not alone, so a B&M hyper could be a nice compromise between overall thrills and intensity.

Best Steel: X2 (rode back row inside and found little to no roughness), Tatsu, and YOLO Best Wood: SCBB Giant Dipper (with Gold Striker as a very close second; I still haven't been on Apocalypse) Worst Wood: Roar...which could be awesome if it didn't give me a severe headache every time I ride it. Worst Steel: Kong. I actually don't mind Vortex for whatever reason, even though I noticed a teeny bit of headbanging.

Now, to answer your question...In short, it depends on what you're looking for. Washington D.C. Area: -Busch Gardens Williamsburg: Of the three parks closest to DC, BGW is the only one I've personally visited. I enjoyed it a lot, as it has a great balance between coasters (all of them are pretty solid, by the way) and theming (awesome atmosphere, rides like Curse of DarKastle, shows, etc.) If you're looking for a well-rounded park in terms of entertainment options beyond coasters, this park is for you. Be advised, though, that it is farther from DC than KD or SFA. -Kings Dominion: Though BGW has its merits, I would have loved to visit KD, especially for Intimidator 305 (which was actually closed when I was in the area). This is probably the best ride park of the three, with I-305 topping or nearly topping many enthusiasts' lists. Also worth mention are Volcano: The Blast Coaster and Dominator, though all of the rides are at least decent (with the possible exception of Shockwave). If you're looking for the best coasters in the area, this is your place. -Six Flags America: This park has a middle-of-the-road coaster collection (which you can easily find on RCDB), with standouts like Wild One and SROS as well as some more infamous rides like Mind Eraser and Apocalypse. This park also tends to be maligned for its operations; frankly, it's what you tend to expect from Six Flags these days. Aside from a couple relatively rare installations (Batwing, for one), SFA isn't recommended. However, it's closer to DC than any other park, so convenience gives the park a boost in that respect. NYC Area I've never been to any of the closest parks here, so bear with me. -Coney Island Parks: CI obviously has Cyclone, but Scream Zone is a block or two away, providing a look into Zamperla's ride catalog. Aside from the new Thunderbolt, everything else has a clone somewhere. If you're an amusement history geek, come here for the Cyclone and stay for the other things. Convenience factor is pretty obvious. -Dorney Park: Dorney is next closest at 92 miles, according to travelmath.com. Being a Cedar Fair park, it has some major coasters: Stinger may or may not be open, but Steel Force, Hydra, Talon, and even Possessed are good fun. Even though it's a good park, it's probably not your best bet when you have... -Six Flags Great Adventure: What more can you ask for from a park? (Besides a Mega-Lite or AquaTrax, of course ) Kingda Ka, El Toro, and Nitro are all Top Ten-worthy coasters, with plenty more enjoyable rides rounding out the bunch. You will likely find something there that you enjoy, so unless Coney Island really appeals to you there, this is your place. Of course, it's 95 miles away from NYC, but that would certainly be worth the drive.

^Wow! That looks nice! Sure, it doesn't look like it would be intense a la I-305 or Skyrush, but I would guess that it would still be a fairly solid ride.

Nice! I think I read that you were working on Iron Mean Streak in a different thread...or maybe I'm confusing you with someone else?

I have to agree with Green Lantern and Riddler at SFMM. There are just some odd things going on there.

B&M: I really wanted to like Riddler's Revenge, but the fact that the seat kept rising and causing some discomfort distracted me throughout the entire ride. This is coming from a rider of Scream and CGA's Vortex. Intamin: I'm not a big Green Lantern: First Flight fan, and it seems I'm not alone. GCI: Out of a whopping 2 GCIs, I'll have to say SFDK's Roar. Ouch.

^Did it really take that long for "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" to be referenced in the Cedar Point thread? I'm shocked, really.

I could be completely wrong, but I don't remember any sort of mandatory metal-locking-box policy in place As for crowds, you might have seen my post up there. I was there for two half-days in the middle of the week in July (one evening and one morning). I would guess that the worst of the crowds will descend at midday, judging from my visit, but I understand that my visit might have been a once-in-a-lifetime dead period. Of course, it's summer, so I'm sure you can factor that in there.

Nice report! Sorry to hear that Space was down...in fact, my last visit was my first Space Mountain-less visit since before I had ever ridden the ride. There's always next time, though

Hello! I would love to hook up to this server, but an error message keeps coming up. It looks like the server isn't in the latest version of MC; do I need to downgrade my client? Thanks!

I went in July last year on 2 consecutive days and aside from midday, it was DEAD. Stormy weather probably helped, but my longest wait was on half-day #2 waiting for the front on Alpengeist. Be warned, though; this may not be a typical experience.

Oh, Facebook...Colossus wasn't even that great. These would seem somewhat more plausible if they actually contained correct English and common sense. /endrant

Glad to hear Disneyland and DCA went well! -The "Still Working Through My Space Mountain Deficit" 49er

Let me put it this way: There's a reason we're not called Amusement Park Review Or maybe not...but I grew up going to Disneyland frequently (for a NorCal family, anyway), and it has always been one of my favorite places to be.

^May is during Magic Music Days at DLR when tons of music ensembles from schools descend upon the parks, but that's a different discussion for a different thread, I guess. Certainly glad to hear the expansion is all it was hyped up to be. Maybe one of these years we'll make it to Orlando...

As much as Montezooma's Revenge was a fun ride, I'll have to say that my #1 shuttle coaster is SFDK's V2. The main part of what gives it the edge over Monte is the longer ride time, as well as the awesome inverted hanging in the front row on the first and third forward trips. Unless SFDK's Superman also counts, in which case I would have to say Superman. That ride is short but completely insane.

Maybe. My recent visits have been somewhat hectic, but I could've sworn that Peter Pan FP was only at WDW, and I'm not sure I've ever seen HM's FP open in 20+ visits to the park. Maybe my memory deceives me...

A few things: -Congrats on the wedding! -Mary Niven (DCA's VP during the big rehab) moved RSR's FP because the original location was a huge bottleneck. That and nobody cares about It's Tough to Be a Bug The standby time is often wayyy overestimated, so if you feel the need to do that, then do that. -Toy Story always seems to have the exact same line whenever I visit. It's always mostly filling up the queue, which looks bad but is endurable. -There is no FP for Peter Pan or HM (anymore) at DL. I've only seen PPF at 40 minutes, which isn't great but isn't awful either. -Be warned about the Clarion. Yes, it's cheap, but there's a reason for that Oh, and you can call me one of those people who likes Soarin' for some reason Maybe it's because of the scent effects? I don't know...