Oryp

Verbolten at BGW with the below pic as a backdrop... One of the coolest rides I've ever had on a coaster.

RANK THE FOLLOWING RIDING SENSATIONS <-LEAVE THIS LINE AS IS Abrupt Airtime_____________________________,y,y,1 Floating Airtime___________________________,y,y,2 Out of Control Feeling/Directional Changes_,y,y,3 Positive G's/Loops_________________________,y,y,4 Sensation of Speed_________________________,y,y,5 Lateral Forces_____________________________,y,y,6 COASTER NAME PARK LOC <--Please leave this El Toro SFGAd NJ,y,y,1 Phoenix Knoebel's PA,y,y,2 Lightning Racer - L Hersheypark PA,y,n,3 Lightning Racer - T Hersheypark PA,y,n,4 Twister Knoebel's PA,y,y,5 Cyclone Luna Park NY,y,y,6 Wild One SF America MD,y,y,7 Blue Streak Cedar Point OH,y,n,8 Comet Hersheypark PA,y,n,9 Rebel Yell Kings Dominion VA,y,y,10 Grt Am Scrm Mach SFoG GA,y,y,11 Thunderbolt SF New England MA,y,y,12 Thunderhawk Dorney Park PA,y,y,13 Hurler Carowinds NC,y,n,14 Wildcat Hersheypark PA,y,n,15 Rolling Thunder SFGAd NJ,y,y,16 Mean Streak Cedar Point OH,y,y,17 The Grizzly Kings Dominion VA,y,n,18 Roar SF America MD,y,y,19 Hurler Kings Dominion VA,y,y,20 Ghoster Coaster Kings Dominion VA,y,y,21 Woodstock Express Carowinds NC,y,n,22 Thunder Road Carowinds NC,y,y,23 Cyclone SF New England MA,y,y,24 Georgia Cyclone SFoG GA,y,y,25

I've started work on a GCI shuttle coaster. It's like a full-sized version of the Back Track model they released at IAAPA. The auto-supports in the pics are just for now. Keep in mind, this is only my third or fouth (EDIT: fifth) Nolimits coaster ever. Lifts in an "X" shape The ride is TWISTYYYY!! Overhead view of the layout

The stations at Dorney are pretty bad, with those stupid magnetic-release gates instead of air gates. None of the GP have any idea when to push the gates open. Another one that comes to mind is S:ROS at SFA. You enter at the back of the train, then they have one walkway going all the way to the front, but there's room one both sides of the railing, so lots of people jump under and nab the empty rows.

Sooperdooperlooper at HP. Good ol' Anton!

I always love a Premier spaghetti bowl, and Rock n Roller Coaster is a good compact one too. Also, Dare Devil Dive is a great ride in a tiny footprint. Those new GCI coasters, Big Fun and BackTrack need to be built!

El Toro and Phoenix give incredible airtime, of course. Also, I305 in its original form had incredible ejector on the first camelback.

Steel: Kingda Ka Wood: El Toro

There is no such thing as a "hand me down" park. The Chain cares about all their parks!!! Which is why in 2012, SFGAm got a brand new B&M wing coaster, SFDK got a brand new Premier launcher, and SFA got a 20 year old stand up (after 11 years without a new coaster, or much of anything really)... Yeah, SFA definitely hasn't been neglected by the chain [sarcasm] Back on topic though, I wish I could have gotten to Astroworld. Having three Schwarzkopfs was pretty impressive, and the park had some good potential.

1. El Toro 2. I305 3. Maverick 4. Bizarro (SFNE) 5. Millenium Force 6. Phoenix 7. Nitro 8. Alpengeist 9. Lightning Racer 10. Storm Runner

Catching the brass ring at Knoebels Visiting 9 amusement parks (an all-time high for me) Getting 41 new credits (another all-time high) Riding 3 of my top 5 coasters (El Toro, I305, and Bizarro SFNE) The fact that SFOG, SFGAdv, and SFNE were actually fairly nice parks (compared to SFA, at least)

I'm glad to hear Verbolten is going to be open this year, although I kind of wish it were Alpengeist. I'm definitely going to have to try to get to the park for Christmas Town this year!

When I went, the park was empty, so I was in a group of 6 for Blood Factory, and a group of 4 for Backwoods Bloodshed. I can imagine that larger groups would've really taken away from the experience though.

Superman: Ride of Steel at SFA in the dark!

Batman: TDK is my favorite just because of the perfect zero-g roll. Griffon is a close second. Dominator has always been good, but has gotten a bit shaky. Bizarro was good, but nothing special. Just one element after another. Hydra can give good rides, but I've had too many rough rides on it.

1. Maverick 2. Storm Runner 3. TTD/Kingda Ka (they're too similar to take up two spots on the list. TTD is better than KK) 4. Volcano 5. Mummy USF 6. Verbolten 7. Hulk 8. FOF/JJ (again, identical rides, but FOF is better because of the atmosphere and faster launch) 9. Rock n Roller Coaster 10. Intamin Inverted Impulses (I've only been on WT and Possessed, WT being the better of the two) 11. Hypersonic XLC (that launch was insane, but the rest of the ride was too short and painful) 12. Backlot Stunt Coaster (KD)

1. Mummy USF (I can't wait to see how the Singapore version compares next summer!) 2. Verbolten (gotta love that drop!) 3. FOF (Premier > Vekoma) 4. Rock n Roller Coaster (Music and scenery helped bump this up a few spots on the list... the ride itself isn't great) 5. Dark Knight (SFGAdv) (best wild mouse I've been on) 6. Space Mountain WDW (I was little when I rode it, so I don't remember it very well.) 7. Disaster Transport (it would've been higher on the list if the ride hadn't been 110 degrees inside, and if the lift had been faster; I was boiling)

My top five are El Toro, Phoenix, Bizarro (SFNE of course), I305, and Goliath (SFOG)

Both of my rides have been in the rear... but back to SFA. How likely does it seem for ROAR to get Millenium Flyers? Right now, it's the only GCI with PTC trains. I'm not sure how likely it is, but it needs to happen soon. It's way too rough as it is. Superman also needs new trains like the ones on Bizarro at SFNE. The current ones are tiny and have no leg room, even if they didn't have those stupid ankle restraints. Mind Eraser needs those new Vekoma trains with the soft restraints. One of these years, they should use the budget to get some new trains for Roar, Superman, and Mind Eraser. Also, I wonder if they'll change the "bring a friend for free" day to tonight.

You probably already know this, but I'll post it just in case. My strategy for getting pretty comfortable rides on stand-ups, particularly Apocalypse, is to have the restraint set one notch lower than needed. I then push up with my shoulders against the OTSR, which allows me to stabilize my head better. Just thought I'd throw that out there. Also, JJ didn't have the lights off in the spaghetti bowl when I went. Wild One was running VERY well. The airtime was awesome in the front row.

Intimidator 305! I didn't get any night rides though. Also, it wasn't the best coaster I've ridden this month, but I'd like to point out that I had my best ride ever on Wild One at SFA this month. It was running very fast and had pretty awesome air in the front row.

It was open the whole time I was there.

Just got back from the park, and now I've done all the mazes. Blood Factory surprised me with how well-done it was. The sets were pretty amazing, and the actors weren't too bad either. It was much better than some of the ones at BGW (specifically Catacombs). One problem our group had (other than the e-stop that happened while we were in there) was that there was so much fog, it was nearly impossible to see where to go. We ended up walking into a corner where a scareactor was hanging out. Toxic Fallout was a big disappointment, with no fog and only about 5 actors in the whole maze. Also, it was really easy to see where everybody was hiding. It's definitely not worth $3. Backwoods Bloodshed was the highlight of the night. The woods setting really makes this maze incredible! There were some good scares and cool effects, as DarkRideNick said. This was one of the best mazes I've ever gone through, although there were one or two spots that would've benefited from one or two more actors. I hate the extra charges for mazes, but Blood Factory and Backwoods Bloodshed are right up there with some of the big boys of Halloween events like KD and BGW (those are the only other two I've done... )

Headed to the park tomorrow for the day, and staying for about 3 hours of the haunt. I haven't been to the haunt since 2010, so I don't know how long the lines will get for the new mazes. Last time (I dont remember what day of the week), I never waited more than 20 minutes for any of the mazes (except Blue Ridge Bloodbath), so I'm not really sure what to expect on a Saturday night in late October. Any advice on when to hit things like Corn Stalkers and No Vacancy? I'm assuming it's best to just head to those as the haunt is starting, although I can imagine Corn Stalkers is much better at night. Also, I hope Doll Factory is as good as it was two years ago!

I've got 41 new credits this year. This has been my best year yet, but I hope next year can match it!