Oryp

If it does happen, I wonder how much height they would add, if any. Hurler is only 83 feet, and the shortest RMC right now is Medusa at 98 feet. It would be interesting to see what they do with the layout and space.

It really is a decent ride, and it completes that area of the park so well. And the path to Gotham was SO overdue. Now they can move on to bringing the other areas of the park up to the standard they've set in Mardi Gras. I'm excited for the future of this park.

I'm going to agree with the echo chamber in here and say that they can be amazing rides, and that it does seem to have something to do with how well they are maintained. My first rides on Thunderhead 2 or 3 years ago were incredible, and nowhere even close to rough. Lightning Racer is also holding up very well. Roar East has taken a huge beating from the trains and the lack of TLC from Six Flags, but they have done a ton of track work over the past few years and gotten it back into shape. The PTCs still shuffle like crazy, especially coming into the 2nd straight airtime hill, but every ride I've had on it this season has been fun, pain-free, and actually borderline smooth. When I went last weekend, I had a smoother and more enjoyable ride on Roar than on Wild One. The track is back in pretty good shape, and I really think Millenium Flyers could turn this 17+ year old woodie back into a great ride (please SFA, please).

I was there on Friday and took some pictures of Joker's missing support. It doesn't look good. There were some straps around the top of the support and the one next to it. Here's the footer end. Oof.

Verbolten while surrounded by Christmas trees on the Rhine.

What's interesting is that when I was there earlier this year, they were launching both trains but only loading one. Think of all the electricity they were wasting launching empty trains. That's insane. Almost as insane as Roar's "DO NOT TOUCH YOUR RESTRAINTS" policy, and also the brilliant idea of strapping the woodies' seat belts around the lapbar in empty seats. Roar has the worst operations of any ride I've been on. Do not touch your restraints? WHAT? During the ride or during loading? Either way, it's pretty stupid. During loading they tell you over and over not to pull down your lapbar, and that an operator will do it for you. The only thing I can think is that it's so they can more easily check the seatbelt before it gets squashed under the bar, but it's definitely not making things better. I've clocked 4+ minute dispatches. Not cycles, dispatches.

^Is that really what the park has been doing and does anyone have proof? If so, does anyone know if the FoF's at the Cedar Fair parks also been power-neutered? I know that FoF at KD seemed to crawl through the 2nd half, but I thought that was just due to the heavy brake in the mid-course run. The launch still seemed pretty intense at the beginning to me. Wonder what would happen if this would have happened on FoF? Do they evac equipment inside the building (or have room for it), or would they have to remove part of the building in order to access the riders? KD's FoF still has the full-speed launch, which actually gives some light airtime at the same spot where JJ just valleyed. The difference is pretty significant. You are correct, FoF has a slower second half because it nearly stops on the MCBR. I can't speak for KI. Hopefully I'll get out there next year.

What's interesting is that when I was there earlier this year, they were launching both trains but only loading one. Think of all the electricity they were wasting launching empty trains. That's insane. Almost as insane as Roar's "DO NOT TOUCH YOUR RESTRAINTS" policy, and also the brilliant idea of strapping the woodies' seat belts around the lapbar in empty seats. Roar has the worst operations of any ride I've been on.

Maybe they'll actually run Joker at decent speeds from now on. I thought the valley earlier in the season would do it, but apparently not.

I'm not sure about Wicked Twister since I didn't get to ride it when I was there last year, but I'm a 6'2" guy and I use the back buckle on Possessed.

If you sit near the front, that pop of airtime carries right through the hangtime of the heartline roll and the flying snake dive. It's a pretty cool moment, maybe one of my favorites. On a good day, it feels like airtime while upside down, rather than just hangtime (at least that's the best way I can think to put it into words).

They have been selling those for a few years now, I'm not exactly sure why...

Gold Striker is only 108ft and that thing has tons of pop! One word: Phoenix

Regarding Bizarro's trains, I honestly found them to be more comfortable than the S:ROS ones at SFA, which I assume are the same that were on Bizarro before the transformation. There is absolutely no leg room if you are more than, say, 5' 10'', and the ankle bars are at the worst possible angle so that they put way too much pressure on your shins (not sure if Bizarro ever had those or not, but they suck). The plastic boxes on the seat in front of you push into your legs and cause bruises on the knees.

The drop slides at Six Flags America (a Splashtacular Down Under model) allows shirts to be worn, and the experience is much better if you do wear one. I went without the first time I rode, and my back was pretty chewed up. With a shirt, re-riding comfortably is actually an option.

Well, bad news. My hard drive failed, and I hadn't backed up my NL2 files yet. I had a sweet mine train coaster where the first half was done in NL1, and I finished it up and added a second lift and section using NL2. I had some other projects going on as well. Bummer. I saved the key and the installation file, so I should be good to go when I get a new computer. Sigh.

I had a similar, but more absurd experience last fall. It was roughly half an hour before closing, so we figured we would ride Phoenix one more time, then do the haunted antique cars to close out the night. When we went to get on Phoenix with 20 minutes 'til closing, both rides were still open. We get off Phoenix with 10 minutes to spare, only to find that they had closed the line for the cars early. Now, I completely understand closing an hour early to keep the staff from having to stay late, but 10 minutes is insane, especially when 4-5 groups MAX would have shown up in that time. We talked to management and got a similar "out of luck" sentiment, so we expressed our disappointment and politely pointed out that closing 10 minutes early with no notice is unheard of and gives negligible benefit to anybody. They've always been pretty good about customer service, but they've been knocked down a few notches in my book. At the VERY least, put up a sign.

Honestly, you'll probably be fine. They usually have people with the scanning guns walking about 10 feet before you get to the turnstiles, and they tend to just scan the pass without looking at pictures or anything in order to save time. They let me in earlier this year before I had written my name on the pass without a second glance. Bring some photo ID just in case, but odds are, they won't even check.

Wild One at SFA (followed by marathoning the new French Quarter Flyers ). It's still running great and giving fantastic airtime.

I went down to the park today, so here are some thoughts. -Roar is running REALLY well because of the extensive retracking they've done. If it was this enjoyable with the old PTCs, I would love to see it run with Millenium Flyers. I think they would fare better here than on Gwazi and Wildcat because the track is mostly in great condition now, and the new trains would be running on new track. -The flyers were open, and they have a decent bit of snapability. Better than the ones at KD and Hershey. -Superman was running one train, and the red one was nowhere to be seen. -Operations were bad as usual, but the staff is still really friendly. Makes me think the issue lies with management and training. -Mardi Gras as a whole looks really nice. I'm confused as to what they're doing with the train, but I never liked the old tractor anyways. -Joker's paint looks really nice. -Apocalypse was lacking fire -LOL was not nearly as good as expected. They chose audience members who were too young to understand the format, and over-utilized audience participation in general. I assume it will be much better come summer. I did some dreaming as well while I was there. The park needs something to put them on the map, and they have space between Superman and Batwing for a signature attraction. I would love to see an Intamin pre-fab or RMC woodie in that space in a few years, after a SkyScreamer and some flats.

I'm going today, and have never been to the park this early in the season. Will the safari be open already, or are the animals not out yet?

If the flyers can be snapped, I'll probably be heading to the park about twice as often as I usually do.

I posted this in the Knoebels thread but thought I'd put it here for the sake of compilation. I threw together a mockup of the Knoebels 2015 ride to allow for a POV vid, so here it is! It was put together pretty quickly so there may be some pumps and clearance issues and such, but you get the idea. Enjoy, and let me know if you want me to share the park file. Overview Another angle Vid:

It may be, but to be fair I just took the height and basically eyeballed the rest. It's mostly just to give the general idea, I'll probably revise it once more info comes out. However, bunch of the clearances are already pretty tight, and the whole thing looks about the same as the one from Knoebels if you view it from the same perspectives.

I threw together a NoLimits 2 mockup of the 2015 ride to allow for a POV vid, so here it is! It was put together pretty quickly so there may be some pumps and clearance issues and such, but you get the idea. Enjoy, and let me know if you want me to share the park file. Overview Different angle Vid: