Rai Fox

King's Island, Banshee + Beast. Could even remove either of those, replace it with Firehawk, and still have my top 1-2.

Any ride at Rocky Point Park. My childhood. Other than that...BBW definitely takes #1, with Drachen Fire not far behind.

...interesting! Are you planning to check this out, Robb? I'm going to be in Orlando in a couple weeks, and I'm more than a bit tempted to see if I can talk my friends into making time for this. I'd love to get some idea of whether or not it's worthwhile.

He's referring to Dinosaur's past moniker, Countdown to Extinction (and yeah, that name is WAY cooler), and I also haven't seen much about it's refurb. Anyone got anything? Just saw earlier today that the refurb was extended until October 17th. ...naturally. I'm going to be at AK on the 16th...

That little place had a Huss Fly Away? And an Evolution? I really hope those get a good home somewhere.

Gotta make it another month and a half, but then Funspot, Universal, Busch Gardens, Seaworld, and Disney, two weeks of it all!

Cheaper side, Apparently not! LC was trying to minimize long term energy costs, so Phobia uses a kind of regenerative braking where it stores up power whenever it stops the coasters, and uses that to launch it; every 3rd launch, it's using stored power instead of the electrical grid. With that on top of the launch tech and everything else, that comparatively little coaster had a price tag well over $20 million; I believe closer to 25 million. That's straight from the park's GM.

Been a few years since I've been but it looks just about the same. What these pics don't show is the sad condition of the rides, too, assuming that hasn't changed. When I last visited (and, probably, the last time I ever visit), everything looked downright unsafe. The skydiver looked like it could collapse at any moment, the toboggan coaster seemed to be held up by rust, there were literally holes rotted through some of the cars on the Twister ride. It's a really sad little place, by far the most depressing park I've ever been to. I couldn't even stand being there for long. I would love to see some of the rarer rides go somewhere that will care enough to restore them, if there's enough left to restore, but as for Lakemont itself...I'd be very surprised to see it ever recover.

Before they shut down, Arrow was working on a new 2nd gen version of the suspended coaster that could handle inversions. So, uh...YES MAKE THAT HAPPEN PLEASE.

Hersheypark. So much potential, so many great rides...but crapped all over by operations and staff that make Six Flags look like Knoebels. To a much lesser degree, Cedar Point. It's GOOD, don't get me wrong, but after having it sold to me for so many years, it couldn't possibly live up to the hype. Some really great coasters, yeah, but it just felt like a rollercoaster tycoon park to me, one of the ones where you stop caring halfway through and just drop coasters in to meet the victory requirements until it's done with. Besides the coasters there isn't much really special about it, IMO.

I don't know if that only applies on weekends/busy days, or what, but I was just there yesterday. Wicked Cyclone and Batman did have assigned seating, but Thunderbolt and Mind Eraser we chose our own seats. Neither had much of a line, so maybe they were just relaxing policy a bit. Superman, we were sort of generally waved towards the middle of the train to try the VR. I don't know about anyone else, but I'd be just fine with that. Just gonna toss out there too that while I'm anything but a Six Flags fan and have thrown more than my share of hate towards SFNE over the last decade or so, overall, the park was a generally positive surprise yesterday. Best day I've had there in over a decade. Everything except Goliath was running, and running well. Staff seemed organized and pleasant, most were quite good. Operations were for the most part more than acceptable, apart from Superman, and that was really guests causing problems, not the staff. The whole place was clean, well kept (with the random exception of the Scrambler, which really, really needs a little bit of love), and looked great. It was no Knoebels, but it seems to have gone from complete hellhole to at least enjoyable now.

I don't know, you'll have to just call and see, but when I go, usually sun-tuesday or mon-wed there are usually free spots.

Every summer. 9 days 'til I'm there again! It's basically what you'd expect from Knoebels; simple, clean, and friendly. It's relatively basic; sites for tents and campers, with power hookups and all. Bathrooms with running water, though they're...well, as others have mentioned the bathrooms aren't the highlight of Knoebels. They're passable though. A camp store with the basics and lots of treats, and a place to buy buckets of firewood. Most of the "kick-ass"-ness comes from it being at Knoebels, really. Waking up to the sound of Twister testing in the morning and wandering on down into the park before it actually opens. Just...being there. Finishing the last rides of the night at the park and just walking up to your tent or camper right there.

I don't know what the requirements are for Planet Coaster yet, but I'd be cautious there. That isn't really a gaming computer at all, no matter what they want to call it. That video card is going to be okay for casual games at best...it MIGHT run Planet Coaster with the settings turned way down, but you're not going to get a great experience. On top of that, Cyberpower is not exactly known for consistent quality. Some of their machines are fine, some look and perform like they were put together by a middle school kid. Lots of people are happy with theirs, but there are tons of horror stories too. I know not everyone can afford to drop a ton of money on a high end gaming PC, but you're just not going to get a lot of enjoyment out of something like that; it's probably best to save up for something a bit nicer if you can.

Edit - double posted...hate my work internet connection...

4 days out; if you bought today on the 7th, they would be valid on the 11th. When you add a ticket to your card it will tell you when you can use it. 1 - Unfortunately that's a little tricky to answer since they often vary wildly. I've been on days where it was packed and days where it was all but abandoned despite nice weather. In my experience though...usually the lines on the dry side aren't bad at all, if the weather's good, as the waterpark absorbs a huge part of the crowd. Most rides are just a few cycles if not walk-ons. Boulder Dash usually about 20-30 minutes; that may change with Phobia this year, I haven't been since opening day to see how it'll spread the coaster crowds. Wildcat rarely has much of a wait at all, despite how well it's running lately. All that changes once the water park closes though and everyone floods into the rest of the park for a few rides on the big coasters before closing time; lines often double or worse then. In the waterpark, lines can be quite long, since there really aren't enough slides yet for the number of people in the park. 2 - No, they don't offer them. As for it being enough time for the park, it would depend on what you want to do there. If you're just there for the credits, sure, plenty of time. If you want to take your time, do the flat rides, try some food, get on the amazing skyride, maybe hit the water park, then there's plenty to do for a full day there. 3 - Yes, absolutely. Though I didn't think it was running great opening day, hopefully it's better now, and even at slightly worse than its usual run, it's still one of the best wooden coasters anywhere.

Last season, the Wave Swinger was making some pretty terrible noises on and off all season, especially on braking. It's definitely the best wave swinger but running it that fast must take its toll on it, so repairs aren't a surprise. They put a lot of money into the LED upgrade and refurbishment on it not too long ago, though, and the park's Gm always seems to speak fondly of the ride; no hints that it might be going soon like we got with the Rotor and Enterprise. I expect it'll stay at the park for quite a long time. Eep. That's depressing to hear. They were terrible opening day, but I hoped they'd be better by now. I don't know what's going on this year but they need to fix things fast.

I didn't know it was down, but glad to hear that'll be fixed soon. I'm not sure why I'm so attached to that ride, when I've been on MaxAir, Black Widow, etc, but I can't ever get enough of Fandango. It must just be the "everything's better at Knoebels" bit.

Banshee Alpengeist Montu Dueling Dragons, pre-neutering. Talon Sorry Coasterbill, but I'll take Banshee over Montu any day!

At least when I rode it, a bit after noon, yes, that was quite slow for it. On a better day, when it's warmer, it's amazing!

Wow, so, opening day... I apologize in advance if this seems overly negative; I hate to just bitch about any park, especially my home park. I very rarely have anything bad to say about it, but...opening day, from what I saw, was an absolute disaster like I've never seen in more than fifteen years of regularly attending LC, not even counting the weather, which was miserable and kept crowds to a pitiful minimum for opening of a major new coaster. To start the day off, ten minutes before the gates were due to open, we were still waiting to get into the parking lot. I assume they couldn't get the register system at the parking booths working; when they finally let us in, we were getting free parking because they couldn't take payments. Nice for us, not for the park. Trying to buy my season pass, the girl at the ticket booth had no idea at all how to use the register there. She couldn't get anything to work, had to ask for help from another employee several times, didn't know how to take a credit card, didn't know how to enter an address that has an apartment number, couldn't figure out which fields were actually required. It seemed to be the same in every booth; despite there being almost no one there, it took forever to to get in. Multiple rides weren't ready for opening day; Wave Swinger was still in pieces; Sawmill Plunge wasn't ready (not that we needed water rides with weather providing plenty of wet). Phobia was "fashionably late" opening, but no big deal there. Boulder Dash was not running all that well, quite slow, though that's more weather than the park's fault. Unfortunately, it went down a couple hours into the day. Zoomerang was also down for a while, and Phobia had issues a few times, until the Premiere guys had to come look at it and we were told not to wait for it, it would be down for "at least a while." I don't know if it ever reopened. Our group had lunch at Pinks'; out of five hot dogs between us, three were made incorrectly (not special orders or anything, just missing toppings). The Dippin' Dots booth was worth; the girls working there didn't seem to know what they had or how to make it. They took several orders then entirely forgot about making them. The woman in front of me ordered a sundae of some sort, then was forgotten, when she finally asked the girls there if it was coming, she got a confused look and was told they don't have the ingredients to make what she ordered. She told them she'd already paid for it, and just got a confused look in return. No one had any idea how to use the photo system. One of the people in my group tried to buy a photo at Boulder Dash, and was told they couldn't use the printers there, so he'd have to go to Zoomers and have it printed there. We tried that, and no one there could figure it out either. They had us go to another photo booth, where we were told "the printers just don't work well" and left waiting for a half hour while six employees tried to figure out how to print to a magnet. He did finally get the magnets, along with a ton of free regular pictures that they had accidentally printed out while trying to make magnets. It wasn't all bad there; Phobia really is a great addition to the park; looks great, and it fits in beautifully. I wasn't sure how they were going to make it look good in that spot, but they did an amazing job with it, and it's so much more fun to ride than I'd ever though it could be from looking at it. Wildcat is running the best it ever has in fifteen years or more; it's gone from a spine-cracking torture device to an absolutely fantastic classic coaster. As a couple people mentioned, the American Flyers are running pretty well now; far from anything like Knoebels, but worth riding, at least! A lot of the little bits of scenery and touch-up work at the park is paying off, and it looks better than it ever has. It just seems like, perhaps because of the focus on Phobia, there seems to have been a surprising lack of staff training this year. LC's always been run incredibly well, but it was absolute chaos all day all over the park...either that, or it was just following me everywhere I went. Even with tiny crowds, no one seemed to be able to keep up; if the weather and crowds had been better...I can't even imagine. Disappointing, but I'll be back in a few weeks, I'm sure, so hopefully there will be a big difference by then...and hopefully the weather is better to the park, too. The was most of the line for the Phobia opening; it only went a few dozen people behind us at 11:30, and that was the majority of people in the park at the time...

Boulder Dash has unfortunately been down a lot lately; they've had all kinds of trouble with the lift hill motor, even after replacing it. I hoped this season would be better, but it went down opening day after a couple hours...not looking great.

Really exciting for those of us in southern New England. I can't wait to see what this place looks like in a few years now

This is as fast as they move, sooo...

SO tempting to try, but...I kinda wanna try to have it put in a frame that looks...well, rustic, knoebels, wooden-coaster-ish...torn...thinking about it...by time I come to a decision someone else will have it, I'm sure. That does look really nice though!