GayCoasterGuy

It's a great ride with out the shoulder bars. It's not a super fast intense thrill ride; it's a middle of the road family thrill ride. A tiny step above Whizzer at Great America.

I'm sure someone could explain how incorrect this is (and why), but it's not me. (I just re-read what I wrote and it sounds abrasive. My apologies. I'm sure someone can explain the YOLOish guest phenomenon.)

^I'm sure there could be an argument for keeping Viper, but the bigger reason would be to create a kick-but and top-rated ride like Phantom's Revenge. That is very far outside the Six Flags box though. One can hope!

We have so many coasters that "do a bunch of things quickly" (including speed hills). Revolution is an old design from a different time. Different things are cool. I may (or may not) be in the minority on this, but you will never ever convince me that changing Revolutions track profile (other than a minor tweak to the loop entrance/exit) is a good idea. What is there is pure genius; it's a work of art. I could nearly say the same thing for Mind Bender and Whizzer... just my 2 cents though. Maybe they can redo some of the old Arrows (envision a Phantoms Revenge-ish remake of Viper! Now that sounds good!)

Oh no it's the flash pass argument again I'm more on the not sell line cuts side, but I think there is a nice middle ground. I've warmed up to it more and more... I think the BIG issue is Six Flags operations and how they have made the decision (years ago, now) to capitalize off their extremely poor operations. If Great America was run *on the dime* like Cedar Point, it wouldn't be such a big issue. I would guess our ride capacities are 60% of what Cedar Point runs. It's not an issue of the employees so much (there are some damn fine ones that do their best to carry the load and go above/beyond), as a trickle down from people that don't care as much as would be nice. The high efficiency/friendly/know-whats-going-on-at-your-ride stuff simply is not a part of training anymore. It was lost long ago.

^As much as I LOVED that ride and would LOVE to ride it again (at my home park or anywhere), I don't see it happening. Mainly due to the YOLO crowds; how does Great Adventure still get away with having a sky ride? Six Flags attracts some super-acting-out folks; it would have to have shoulder bars to keep you seated at this point. Watch me eat my words. I would love to see Sky Whirl again. Geez, memories! I remember driving past the park before all the trees grew in. The 2 sky rides, Sky Whirl and Tidal Wave dominated the skyline. Demon was a real monster, too! Then of course Eagle was built, and it was like WOW!

Revolution definitely ran 5 trains, no problem (and had 6 on hand). Whizzer at Great America ran 5... and it's a shorter ride. Anton had respect for people's time and money when they went to ride his rides! There is another very big Anton fan around here that could explain how Anton built his big coasters to run between 5 and 7 trains (although he disagrees with me on the profile shape of Revolution's loop and entry/exit; I studied the crap out of those curves!). Crazy, huh!? Growing up riding Whizzer, I remember the train stopping - you plopped down - and the train took off. There were no pesky operator-dependent air gates; no seat belts and no song and dance "take 5" routines. People were also a little tougher (or had more common sense?) Mom took her purse on coasters; you usually took whatever you had with you. I remember taking my green Eastpack back pack on all the coasters at Kings Island. Long before cell phones that easily slip out of hands.

This makes SO much sense... yet they do it time and again. Something about a quick ROI via a short but YOLO looking ride (with very low capacity, to boot.) Let's be grateful that at least the corporation decided to use most/all of the former Medusa (SFMexico) and Texas Giant layouts, resulting in reasonable-length rides.

Other people have mentioned it over the years, but the rumored and silly reasons usually get more weight. And maybe it will again! Let's hope! Well... those 2 big twisting camel back hills do slow down quite a bit at the top. It was designed that way; it's a build-up to the loop. If you watch the old video, you notice the ride stays consistently faster after the loop. Artistic pacing of rides is mostly a thing of the past. I love rides with it! We have so many wham-bham-thank-you-mam intense rides now where everything is rush. Variety rocks! There was a very detailed description of Revolution's layout somewhere online. The writer was very intune with the movement of the ride as a work of art. I'll try to find that... Also note Revolution's importance as a family ride (back then and could be again), with a 42" height requirement. (Isn't it 48" now?) Geez, I thought I was picky Trade offs my friend, trade offs. Sometimes a view is more important; the enjoyment of coasting through the hills and going someplace. Revolution goes everywhere! With low brake settings, there is airtime later in the ride. Heck, even Whizzer has light airtime when it's running fast (on a cool night, after warming up all day!)

^Good job with the graphics! I was a showing a friend of mine the applause award during her first trip to the park a few weeks ago. She brought to my attention something I never noticed: the fountain sounds like clapping hands! I was clueless! Wouldn't it be amazing if the big thrill parks could at least get the operational stuff down? (Cedar Point and Busch Gardens Williamsburg are not included in that list.) I've often wondered if Holiday World could contract out their employees to other parks for training courses? But now that I think about it, the other parks wouldn't want that as they can just rest on their laurels as there may not be enough complaints; many of the guests who go to some of those parks don't know any better. If they pay for bad service, the service will continue.)

There is always a chance... I hope Magic Mountain someday takes the opportunity. If they marketed the whole "restoration" properly (in a NON-YOLO way) it could be a huge success for them. That would be dreadful. We have enough rip your face off short rides at the park. Seatbelts maybe, but the bars work fine on Shock Wave, Mind Bender, sooperdooperLooper, Montezooma's and Scorpion. Heck yeah! Those train bodies are classic! You crazy!? The shape of those dramatic hills diving all over the hillside are a work of art. You can have wild speed bumps on other rides. The progression of the bigger drops and curves are what make this ride so special (well, before the painful shoulder bars). I did my Senior Engineering project on the ride back in 1995. My finding was that the shoulder bars were there mainly to keep riders upright while entering and exiting the loop; the immediate entrance and exit to the loop are a hair too tight. It's very subtle, but it's a different radius than what was later used on sooperdooperLooper (and then even different for the Anton loopers after that). Also, the approach is different on those rides; the acceleration happens earlier so riders are better prepared for the G spike in the loop.) I figured you could re-profile the long ramp to a very slightly steeper angle, and have a much larger pull-out before the loop. Same thing after the loop... This is very expensive, of course. My other plan of action was to come up with new lap bars with a higher grab bar to encourage riders to sit upright. The universe saw my idea and the bars appeared later on Premier coasters! There were most likely similar bars on other coaster, but it was cool anyway. Ironically, I had a call from Peter Schnabel of Premier after my Senior project, but the interview never happened. (I'm no longer in the Engineering field, btw. Good luck to my fellow coaster nerds looking to get into parks/coasters! Get to know EVERYONE! That summer of 1995, I was an intern at SFOT and had the pleasure of meeting the whole group of SF engineers. Unfortunately, the internship didn't include much engineering and I ended up doing game management most of the summer culminating in a little hands-on with the interactive "Chameleon" up-charge ride. It was the first year of the intern program and they didn't know what to do with us. Good thing is they let us work whatever we wanted so I got to spend a few days on the wood coasters. I was pushing for some cool stuff, but most of it never happened. Thanks to then SFOT Bob Bennet, I was able to meet those engineers. At the end of summer, I transferred to Magic Mountain. They were so unorganized when I got there, I ended up leaving and going back home to Chicago.) I figure mag brakes would be a given, sooperdooperLooper got em for it's restoration. The other Anton coasters in the chain could use em too! Yup! One train would pull right behind the other, same as Whizzer at Great America (Whizzer doesn't unload there anymore). Yes! I often think rides in trees look nice painted to match the trees, but the white really POPS and like the shape of the hills, is one of the ride's hallmarks. 3 at minimum. The ride originally had 6. I think it comfortably ran 5 back in the day. Ha! Imagine how great this ride would be running like it did originally but with all the current trees!? So cool and dark under those trees on a nice summer night! I remember the accident, but not sure if the system has been changed? I always remembered the loud drive chain pushing a train onto the lift, then another train being pulled into the station after that. When the ride was new, two trains were lined up in the station; the single chain would push one train onto the lift while another was pulled from unload to load at the same time (I never saw that, but that's what someone told me).

I know a band that could represent the ride (Nah, the B-52s are way too awesome for a togo coaster!)

Great animation! I'm wondering... just how much land does the park own across the road (Legend lot area, which I've never been to)? I always think it's strange when people complain that Legend is rough, but then have no problem with something like Maverick (pain! neck and/or head - ouch!). Legend has strong laterals (which ROCKS in my book), and constantly needs work, but it's hardly what I would call any sort of painful rough. It's my favorite of the three at the park; maybe I'm just stickin up for it.

Didn't they already do this? Georgia Cyclone and SFNE Cyclone have a little topper track.

^^I said that partially in jest. But, you never know. As far as room for a longer Rattler or where it could go, the limit is endless. All you have to do is take a look at Grona Lund, Indiana Beach, Liseberg, etc... there is always room for what ever you want to do with a coaster track. It urks me when I hear "well, there was no space for it." It's one of the main things people say when they are talking about Goliath here at Great America. It's silly. It should be "this is what we had to do to stay in our budget." Six Flags loves to take things that aren't so cool, and try to turn them around. Either which way, they are still fun rides. I wonder what's going in next year?

Has anyone thought (sorry If I missed it) they would build the last 1/3rd of Rattler? They can market it and everything Maybe they'll finish Goliath at Great America after Rattler. (PS - those truncated designs are NOT an issue of space, they are an issue of money.) Cough up the rest of those coasters, Six Flags! YOLO!

Unfortunately, that's my experience as well. I have a vivid memory of a ride operator helping my mom find change she lost on the Industrial Revolution (an uncovered himalaya ride that sat directly next to Demon's lift. It was white with red padding ) in 1980. She was going out of her way to be helpful and friendly. What I experienced at Great America in 1980 I can still enjoy if I go to places like Holiday World, Knoebels, even Cedar Point still has a stellar operation. I see so much stuff at the park now where my jaw just drops. After working 3 summers at Cedar Point in the early 90s and one summer at SFOT as an intern... well, it's just hard to believe. The issue is not only with the clientele and employees - I think it goes much deeper than that. There is a very low level of expectation; a whole lot of customer service and general operation/organization *stuff* is completely missing. It's gone; not a part of training or anything. I'll occasionally see an employee do something that requires thought, or make an attempt to do a good job - or go out of his/her way. It must be frustrating trying so hard to do a good job with all that around you. When I see an employee doing a great job or going "above and beyond," I always stop in guest relations to fill out a compliment. That seemed to get heavy after Batman came in. Did I publicly act-out that annoyingly when I was a kid/teen/20-something? I sure hope not. I was nuts and wild, but I still had respect for other people. A couple years ago, we saw a kid nodded out on dope in the Raging Bull test seat; his friends thought it was funny to leave him there. A few weeks ago a friend and I saw this loud ghetto mom swearing obscenities in the Raging Bull station. Some guy apparently touched her 11 year old inappropriately; the kid was now in tears. You could tell she was crying out of fear after her mom started screaming obscenities and demanding security. Could it get better? Yup. The accused guy (probably teen/early 20s) had a friend with him that kept slapping him in the face, telling him to "shut the f*ck up!" We couldn't get out of there fast enough. Six Flags has asked for this. They have found how to turn a very quick profit at the cost of integrity and service. I was at the park a couple weeks ago and I saw crews moving very quickly - at 9pm at night. The Goliath crew was especially hustling; there were 4 ops checking restraints. I dunno if there is some sort of operational improvement initiative or what, but I hope it lasts. I *love* my home park, but it's hard to go sometimes. It's such a relief to go to places like Holiday World where you are treated with respect and also a respect for your time/money.

I thought it was ironic that the man lost a bunch of his mass to ride a coaster that also seems to be missing a bunch of it's mass I hope he enjoyed his rides on Goliath! Short or not, it has broken in nicely.

^I remember Will saying that years ago. Geez, I miss him being at the park, especially during HWN. His spirit is still alive and well, that's for sure. I was looking at the Google satellite map of the park, trying to figure out what will go where. Ahhh... dreaming is free. One can only imagine what they have in store for us down the years.

Will the winners of Season Passes have the opportunity to upgrade to GOLD passes? Sorry, had to. YOLO

^That is excellent! One thing I noticed when looking at the Thunderbird renderings was just how far away the ride is. A sign of things to come

You bet! I just found another commercial, shot at night: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiWbedEilSc Sorry for getting off topic again. Old footage of Revolution makes me melt... now I wanna get out the Rollercoaster (1977) and Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park DVDs That ride was in so many freaking movies and tv commercials back in the day.

I've seen employees struggling with a decision of what to do, and I've seen employees deliberately being as*holes. And everywhere in between. Unfortunately, this still is a Six Flags park. Yolo.

^Heck yeah! Just check out the side to side action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ida3FgIcB6E It's like the best parts of Whizzer, but faster and with steep drops. And a loop

Huh!? That ride looks insane! Yes please! I'm assuming that is the estimated cost of a newly manufactured Olympia Looping.