gad198

Roar-O-Saurus at Story Land. Hard to believe that ride is only 40 feet tall with how much fun it packs in.

Some of my favorites: *Flame Tree BBQ in Animal Kingdom. I wasn't a fan of most every other Disney offering but the barbecue there was really good. *Cinnamon bread at Dollywood. As good as advertised. *Poutine at the fry stands at Canada's Wonderland. It's perhaps my favorite savory amusement park snack. *Green beans at Plymouth Rock Cafe in Holiday World. The pizza at Kringle's at the park is also very good. *Maple bacon gelato in Busch Gardens Williamsburg. I'm not sure that flavor is always on offer but that was a really nice combination of flavors.

1. Kraken. Rode this about a month ago for the first time in 4 years, and while it's a little rough around the edges it's still a really fun coaster. 2. Bizarro. The best zero-g coaster of all of the floorlesses. 3. Dominator. If it had a zero-g roll it would be the best of the bunch, but as it is, it's still very enjoyable. 4. Superman: Krypton Coaster. Love the setting. The pacing on the first third of the ride - while unique - just feels a little odd. 5. Scream 6. Batman: Dark Knight 7. Hydra 8. Rougarou

I completely agree with RollerManic's assessment of Mako. The first half of that ride is phenomenal, and when the trim brake is off the airtime on that ride is the best on any B&M ride. It is such a great coaster. Here's my list: 1. Fury 325. If B&M lists it as a hyper I will too! It's the best ride I've ever been on by a pretty sizeable margin. 2. Mako 3. Goliath at SFOG. Other than Fury 325 it has the best start-to-finish layout of any B&M. 4. Behemoth. This and Diamondback are really close, but the last bunny hill at the end pushes it slightly ahead. 5. Diamondback. Really good airtime in the first half, good floater in the second half. It's just an all-around fun coaster. 6. Leviathan. A tremendously fun coaster whose only fault is being too short in length. 7. Superman - the Ride at SFNE. It has the most complete layout of any hyper, but the uncomfortable restraints pull the ranking down. 8. Skyrush. The only coaster with truly thrilling airtime. The restraints are absolutely atrocious, however, and prevent a higher ranking. 9. Intimidator 10. Nitro 11. Superman - the Ride at Six Flags America 12. Apollo's Chariot 13. Steel Eel 14. Raging Bull 15. Phantom's Revenge 16. Titan 17. Goliath at SFMM 18. Steel Force 19. Mamba 20. Wild Thing 21. Manhattan Express

Nice report thus far. I totally agree with the Roar-o-Saurus love. Gravity Group did an amazing job on this ride. It doesn't look like much from the ground but it is just so much fun. You could make a case that it's the third or fourth best wooden coaster east of the Appalachian mountains behind El Toro and Boulder Dash.

I've been on all of the US B&M inverts except for Flight Deck. I'd rank the upper echelon as follows: Banshee Montu Afterburn Talon Alpengeist Silver Bullet Raptor Banshee and Montu are interchangeable for me. I like Banshee more if I'm riding in front, but Montu more in the last row. They're probably my two favorite looping coasters of any kind in the US.

The first Sunday of the NFL season has been a bring-a-friend free day here for the last few years. I made the mistake of trying to come here a couple of years ago on this particular Sunday and I will never do that again!

I'd rank the ones I've ridden as follows: Lightning Rod Wicked Cyclone New Texas Giant Storm Chaser Outlaw Run Iron Rattler Goliath Lightning Rod is legit. It is definitely a step above the other RMCs, and I'm sure we'll see it top a lot of enthusiast wooden coaster lists.

I'd like to find out why B&M uses different angles for their first drop supports. Fury 325, Mako and Valravn have their larger first drop supports that are not straight up and down, whereas Shambhala, Diamondback and Behemoth all have first drop supports that go straight up and down. Is there a reason for the difference?

My list: Fury 325 Wicked Cyclone Thunderbird Rougarou Fury 325 is without a doubt the best coaster I've ridden. Speed, airtime, and a really fast-moving line so I can get more laps in. I really liked Wicked Cyclone but Fury is in an entirely different class altogether.

If you don't want to super long waits at Franklin BBQ in Austin but still want the killer brisket, go to La BBQ. The pitmaster there is an Aaron Franklin disciple, and their brisket and beef ribs are absolutely fantastic - some of the best beef in the US.

This is a really nice report thus far. The I-81/Blue Ridge Parkway corridor is one of the two or three nicest drives in the entire US in my opinion. Everyone who might be traveling in the area should really strive to take a portion of their trip on the Blue Ridge Parkway and/or Skyline drive. Where was the restaurant where you had the blueberry pancakes?

The best possible addition in 2016 IMO would be a complete renovation of the front gate area. You have potentially one of the all-time great park entrance areas just waiting to be unleashed in full. Imagine walking up to the front gate and having a completely open view there. It would be absolutely majestic. I think a lot of you are partially right - lots of employees who work at a park are merely speculating about future additions. Having said that, I've talked with a few non-full-time employees at seasonal parks that knew about projects not only at their own parks but also some at other parks. They knew the type of ride and the manufacturer well before the ride was officially announced. Not everyone is guessing. The amusement industry may be relatively small, but lots of people outside the actual parks themselves are involved. Remember when Wild Eagle was leaked when someone spotted the blue B&M track on a truckbed, asked the trucker about it and told him where the track was going? You have people at Clermont Steel, transportation personnel, people at marketing firms, city planners, surveyors, water and sewage workers, etc. that know about these projects. Some of those people may be under "don't talk about this project" clauses, but not everyone is in that boat.

My sentiments exactly! A good size B&M hyper is exactly the kind of attraction that will help pull some guests away from Disney and Universal for at least a one day stop, especially given that none of the other parks in the area have anything remotely comparable. If this is really is a B&M hyper then it is absolutely the perfect fit for this park and would be an absolute smash hit with the general public.

^ Thank you for posting the pictures of the new flyers. The one thing that caught my attention was how tightly taught the cables are in the picture where the flyers are in motion. Clearly the picture wasn't taken when the ride was at maximum RPMs, but the cables were still incredibly tight. On the better flyers (Carowinds, Knoebels) the cables are very rarely that taught when the ride is in motion.

Definitely Goliath. Goliath is fun from start to finish, and the 3 awesome bunny hills at the end really push it over for me. Intimidator is a very fun ride but the fun really ends at the MCBR. I do like the airtime on Intimidator's larger hills though. Having said that, Fury 325 is on another level entirely. Several people have commented that it doesn't even feel like a B&M coaster they're right in some respects. It is MUCH more aggressive than any other B&M speed coaster and definitely more fun. The layout is absolutely brilliant. Most of the time you get off of a coaster and think "I'd change X, Y and Z" but there really are no discernable weaknesses with Fury 325. Bizarro is the only hyper that can come close to delivering the same ride experience but the current restraints completely suck, so until that changes Fury 325 is my #1.

I just got back from a trip that included Six Flags Over Georgia and two visits to Carowinds a few minutes ago. Fury 325 is absolutely spectacular! It is without question the best coaster I've ridden in either the US or Canada. Anyone who has a chance to arrange their affairs to ride this coaster needs to do it. It is a masterpiece.

If this whole thread could be summed up in two sentences these two statements would do it. Great post.

Agreed wholeheartedly. We all have different tastes, and it's very rare that anything in the world is met with a universal "this is absolutely the best " out there. Just because it looks like it Fury 325 will probably be my #1 coaster (which it does), doesn't mean that I disagree with anyone who says otherwise. My opinion is the only one that counts anyway since I'm the one enjoying the ride from a first-hand perspective. The beauty of so many B&M coasters is that I've never seen an interview with a park executive or spoken with a park executive personally who had anything but good things to say about any of their rides after installation at their parks. B&M is the most expensive coaster manufacturer right now, and despite that they are having absolutely no trouble selling their rides both in the US and abroad. Parks are going to B&M for a reason. B&Ms for the most part aren't going to WOW the "seasoned" enthusiast, but parks aren't buying B&Ms to satisfy those kinds of guests. They want to make sure that the rides are fun, re-rideable, move tons of people and, most importantly, working when guests visit. Creating rides that satifsy everyone is REALLY hard to do, but B&M is the best in the business at building large rides that riders of all types can enjoy comfortably. It's not a B&M, but that's the same reason as to why most everyone loves Millennium Force. You see all different kinds of riders that get off smiling. I've ridden all of the hyper coasters in the US and Canada except for Goliath at La Ronde, and Fury 325 looks like it's better to me than all of them. I didn't hear or see anything about riders indicating that it was "too fast to enjoy", "too slow", "too intense", "too uncomfortable because of the restraints", "too rough" or anything else like that. I've only seen one review thus far that said that there's very little airtime out of dozens of other reviews that say otherwise. I'll get a chance to ride this in a couple of weeks, but it's hard to believe that this coaster will be anything less than stellar both for me and the park.

Just got back from a Texas trip, and there are a few places I'd like to add (no links as I don't have the required post count yet): La Barbecue - Austin, TX - technically this isn't "close" to any of the parks in Dallas or San Antonio but is definitely worth the trip. The beef (brisket & beef rib) that we tried here was absolutely amazing. I'd go as far as to say that the brisket - particularly the point (fatty portion) - may be the most flavorful beef I've had in the US. The sides and the other meats are good, but they pale in comparison to the beef items. They sell out of a food trailer, and open up at 11 daily. The line moves rather slowly and they will sell out of the beef ribs early, so you'll want to make sure you're in line by 10:30 as insurance. Pancake Joe's - San Antonio, TX - we ate here for breakfast. Two words...HASH BROWNS. These are without a doubt the best hash browns anywhere in the country. Everyone at their respective tables had at least one order of these and with good reason - they are amazing! Think Ruffles Cheddar & Sour Cream potato chips in the form of a hash brown. Southtown Pub - St. Louis, MO - a mix of dive bar and BBQ. The pork and brisket here were both VERY good. I've been to a ton of BBQ places in the St. Louis and Kansas City areas and this ranks up there with the best and comes without the long lines that accompany the food at the other good establishments.

I don't usually spend enough time in any park to warrant use of these. I also don't visit on days where it's likely to be busy, as most of my travels are during periods of lower attendance. I've only purchased these kinds of items at two parks - Dollywood (because it's so cheap) and once at Busch Gardens Williamsburg (because we got unlucky and ran into a larger than expected crowd). Not everyone has the luxury of being able to travel at these slow times, however, so I do see the benefits of these kinds of items. Having said that... I don't think these Fast Passes/Lane/QBots, etc. affect wait times too much - most of the time. I've yet to visit a park where Fast Passes have been a problem at a park-wide level, but the issue with these kinds of items is that they can often make the already long waits of some popular attractions even worse, often for both the Fast Pass user and the standby guest. I go to Cedar Point a couple of times a year. I have never nor will I ever likely get Fast Lane there until they actually RAISE the price. There are too many days at Cedar Point where the big 3 Intamin coasters have Fast Lane waits of a half hour or more. I've yet to hear any complaints about the Fast Lane waits at any other coaster there, nor have I seen outrageous Fast Lane waits at any other attraction there outside of maybe maXair. Fast Lane (and the like) have simply further concentrated a portion of park guests to riding things that are very popular and that have - by extension - longer wait times. There's a reason why both Maverick and TTD are on Fast Lane Plus, and the only reason that MF isn't on Plus is because no one would buy the regular Fast Lane if MF wasn't included. There's a reason why the Fast Lane merge point at MF was moved from the back of the station to the bottom of the ramp. Diamondback at Kings Island is actually suffering from the same thing. Regulars there - myself included - will tell you that a half full upper queue setup pre-Fast Lane was around 20 minutes with typical operations. That same setup is about 25-30 minutes now. I have personally witnessed more than 100 Fast Lane guests go through that line in a half hour span on more than one occasion. There's a reason why Flight of Fear is no longer on the Fast Lane program at KI. My point is this - I think that those people who are saying that it doesn't dramatically increase wait times are right the vast majority of the time. However, there are some popular rides at the larger parks where Fast Passes have absolutely had a negative impact on standby times. I really believe that it's case specific.

^ Agree with everything posted here. I think that's one of the reasons that - if this dive coaster project is truly on the table - that it makes a ton of sense from a number of angles. (1) Tt would be another popular attraction towards the front of the park, which hopefully will help balance the crowds more than they currently are; (2) it's another high capacity coaster, which is something that Cedar Point still needs more of IMO. To coasterbill's point earlier, Gatekeeper sent through more than 2 million riders in each of its first two seasons. In 2013, Gatekeeper came up just short of giving as many rides as Top Thrill Dragster and Maverick combined. If you took the ride counts for the 3 highest capacity B&Ms in the state of Ohio (Gatekeeper, Banshee, Diamondback, in that order) you'd be able to absorb the capacity of Cedar Point's big 4 Intamin coasters (MF, TTD, Maverick, Wicked Twister) and still be able to absorb Iron Dragon's yearly throughput.

I've been fortunate enough to ride all but one of the custom B&M inverts in the US plus 5 Batman clones. I'd rank them as follows: Banshee Montu Afterburn Alpengeist Silver Bullet

Nice photos of my home park! The lines for Diamondback have consistently been longer this year than for Banshee, partly because of Banshee's much faster crew and partly because most frequent visitors still prefer Diamondback over Banshee. Both are definitely world-class.

I'm so happy that you did your homework before posting. The incident you mentioned in your post happened at Darien Lake. The accident I alluded to happened at Six Flags New England. Completely different situations in completely different years. However, just to save some time and avoid other misinformation, I'll quote several things directly from the ride accident report I mentioned in my original post: Seat belts on B&M hypers literally don't do anything except give the illusion of safety. Would you ride Behemoth with a seat belt only?