Arrow Dynamics fan

I did the survey and I am sure all the details are not all listed for competitive reasons but I sure hope they are not planning on getting into this alone. If so, getting into the Hotel Business is a questionable venture for SFSTL at best, it's not a true year round park and doesn't have enough destination attractions to justify such a move considering the many already existing hotels in the area. The Hospitality industry is VERY competitive and having traveled for work a lot, if they want to get into this, they need to understand, they cannot run hotels like they run amusement parks. You can get by with running our park the way they have and get by with it. You can NOT run a hotel this way and expect good reviews which are vital to getting new business and repeat business at the rate you want regardless of what your perks are. Even hotels under the prestigious brands in certain cities fail coming from corporations with nearly a 100 years of experience. They also need to be aware of the return of a certain pest and how difficult it can be for even good hotels to keep those out and the lawsuits that have come from these even against hotels with very high ratings on Google. If they go such a route, they would be wise to have an experienced business partner (ex. Hilton, Marriott, Holiday Inn, Best Western, Drury, etc) connected with them to help them with having off season customers as the hotel will need business during those times as well and if it is not connected to a brand (and the rewards programs) this would be more difficult to have business during the significant portion of the year that the park is not open.

Okay, plans have changed again. How busy will the park be during the week of Aug 27-Sep 2? I know during the weekdays the park has shorter hours. Any suggestions on which day to attend for reduced crowds?

Given Six Flags' past, they probably have the old SFOG Ninja trains somewhere and they are using them for parts. I mean they still use parts from Mega Zeph's and Twisted Twins' trains on the Boss' trains. The only new parts train I've seen is one train from Roar. The park didn't get Medusa's trains after it closed and the last Arrow train the park received was the spare for Boomerang. Also weren't the old trains on Blue Hawk Vekoma? If they were I doubt very many parts from thpse trains would work on an Arrow. One of the trains on Blue Hawk was one of the arrow trains from GASM from SFGADV.. It was supposedly the " smoother " train. When I rode the Blue Hawk last year one of the things that surprised me was that it was running on Arrow wheels on the new Vekoma trains; therefore, I would conclude that there might be other interchangeable parts. It doesn't surprise me if the Arrow train was smoother than the original Vekoma train due to my experience on WOF Boomerang (all around painful). In my view, I don't see the down side of buying the new Vekoma trains for the Ninja. Even if the coaster is only going to be here for less than 5 years, there still lots of Arrow and Vekoma shuttle coasters still in Six Flags line up that would benefit from it after Ninja is gone. Frankly the trains were the only thing that made Blue Hawk tolerable. The layout on Blue Hawk is weird. It is like they wanted to create a big knot out of steel track and it lacks a good airtime drop hill like SFSTL's Ninja has at the beginning. I still prefer the Ninja in its current form over Blue Hawk.

Note that I said "If", meaning I don't think we need it right now. As of right now, you are 100% correct that this would not make sense. My point is I can see this someday being a possibility because I have ridden many GCI's that haven't aged all that well. I don't see it happening with the Boss as it remains popular, I don't see it happening with the Screaming Eagle because it remains a staple and has aged quite well, but I could see it happen to the American Thunder say 10 years down the road if it has aging issues like many other GCIs. To be honest, it is the one I would prefer to be transformed IF one had to be. The truth is SFSTL has a great line up of wooden coasters as of right now. Is it the best? No, but in my view it is among the better to best range in the wooden coaster department that so far major coaster parks like Cedar Point, Kings Dominion, Busch Gardens, etc. haven't matched let alone many other SF parks in the variety that it offers. It might not have a famous one high on the coaster lists, but it compares better than many other parks as a team. It's weakness is in the steel department, but let's not go there it is not going to happen and there is no point rehashing it for the millionth time. I just hope they decide to start doing upgrades to their current rides to address the criticisms such as using new Vekoma trains for the Ninja with some track work, individual restraints on the Mine Train, adding topper track to the Boss, etc. I agree that while these may not be as marketable as a new attraction (trust me I want a new noteworthy coaster as bad as anyone), but I think if they could at least improve the ride we already have, it can potentially extend the life of these rides, make the park more appealing for the General Public & enthusiast alike in having less painful experiences and more that they can re-ride which will keep them coming back and when they talk to friends they can at least talk about a more positive experience. Remember that in Marketing there are few things more valuable than good word of mouth. Other than this, if they can continue to work on the quality of the food and continue to improve the parks appearance, that would also help them in the long run.

Thank you joelwee for the information. Do you have a link for this quote? I honestly would prefer to wait a year or two before going back, but with the rumor, I really don't want to miss the last chance to ride the Viper (or the Ninja for that matter).

The former Rattler and Boss are two very different coasters with very different levels of roughness. While the Boss will never be mistaken for smooth, the Rattler was so rough in shaking left and right it slammed my rib cage pretty much non-stop on the ride. The Boss at least has some pretty good airtime hills, the Rattler was pretty much just a never ending helix. The Rattler desperately needed the Iron Horse conversion and the parts removed, no one misses. The Boss all in all is a very good wooden coaster, if it could be smoother that would be great, but it doesn't need it like the Rattler, Mean Streak, Hurler, and Timber Wolf do which lack airtime or much inspiration to their design. If they do a half effort job on it which is probably all SF corporate would allow, it won't be right. If we need a RMC conversion, I suggest American Thunder.

In light of the rumors about the Viper being possibly tore down, I'm looking at visiting the park again either the week of June 4-10 or on September 21. When would be better to attend in attempting to have shorter ride lines? Do when know if any of their coasters are scheduled to be down during either of these time frames (particularly X2, Viper, Ninja, Twisted Colossus, or Full Throttle)?

What would be interesting is if they built them using the T-Rex track set up. That would probably help to make them more affordable. I could see this with new installations, but not as much with refurbishing Arrow Mine trains. The Mine Trains are the oldest group from Arrow (aside from Disney's unique attractions) of rollercoasters that exist today. While some are most certainly not the smoothest and in fairness a number of them could use some re-imagining in parts, they seem to be sufficient for the parks needs hence the reason that they have mostly not been torn down and replaced (unlike some of their loopers unfortunately). With wooden coaster transformations, it was usually because the coasters were either too rough, had a bad layout, were requiring constant repairs, or out of date. While it is easy to argue that an Arrow Mine train fits this, remember that the wooden coasters that have been transformed were not "family rides." The wooden coasters that Six Flags has replaced have been primarily adult level thrill rides. The family rides are important but at this point the flaws with existing rides has not warranted replacement to date or at least not seen as important enough (not saying it isn't just not seen that way at this point). What would be more interesting in my mind is if RMC could convert an existing steel looper with their track and style and do it correctly. Do you think that would be possible?

This is what I will say on the matter. I'm not thrilled about the new attraction but I'm not going to carry on about it. Many of the people who work at the park are saying that the park is investing in park maintenance that had been neglected for a long time. Let me ask you this. How is the impact on the attendance of the park itself since they have been going this direction especially considering the increasingly aggressive competition from HW and SDC? Also, what exactly have they been working on as there is much there that looks to be in terrible condition (parking lots, roves, paint job on the track of the Mine Train, etc.)? Why have they not addressed the quality of the food sold in the park?

Visited Dollywood on 06/20/2016 (if I remember correctly): Tennesse Tornado: The Arrow for B&M fans. This has to be one of the smoothest coasters I have ridden and much smoother than a number of B&Ms I have ridden (any Batman the ride but especially SFOT, Rougarou/Mantis in both forms, Raptor, Riddler's Revenge, Scream!, Dominator (KD), Alpengeist, just to name a few). So smooth, I did not even hold on to the handle bars and did NOT knock my head once. Air time was a bit weaker than I remember experiencing on Vortex and Loch Ness Monster, but stronger than most B&Ms. If it had more inversions it would be in the running for the best Arrow looper in my list. 9/10 Wild Eagle: A decent B&M offering. I liked it more than Gatekeeper, but it kept holding back. Many of the points had potential if they would have made the transfers more abrupt. I want to feel the experience not just have a great view, I can do that on youtube. 7/10. FireChaser Express: Pretty good for the class. I liked the theme with the fireworks towards the end. The first ride that I can recall where I got more airtime going in reverse. 8/10. Mystery Mine: Excellent title as it is a mystery to me why anybody wants these coasters. ROUGH. Constant right to left jerking causing head banging and the drops didn't give as much air time as you would think. Worse than any Arrow and up there with the worst Vekomas. 1/10 Blazing Fury: Better than Fire In the Hole currently is and seems to have a bit more to it. Good dark coaster ride with a good theme. Good for the class it is in. 7/10 Thunderhead: Probably the most intense GCI I have experienced so far and one that actually has airtime. Needs a bit of work but pretty good. 8.5/10 The park frankly needs Lightning Rod to make it complete, but I'll accept the fault for coming on the first year on a brand new, first of its kind of attraction. Once it has this it will be a great park. The Bald Eagle exhibit was cool. I just wish this park didn't charge for parking as SDC doesn't.

Visited the park on 06/22/2016: Goliath: Hands down the best coaster in the park. Stronger airtime than the very overrated Diamondback (KI). Not as strong as Magnum XL-200 or Phantom's Revenge. The very back seat hurt my back at the last dip before the break, towards the front seems to be the best location. 8/10 Mind Bender: One of the best Schwartzkopfs I have ridden. Would have to ride this back to back with Schockwave to see which I like better. It would have benefitted from more elements though, but it is an older coaster afterall. It took almost an hour to get on it though 7.5/10 Great American Scream Machine: A decent wooden coaster. I prefer this to what SFOT has to offer (Judge Roy), KD's entire wooden line up, Timber Wolf, Cedar Point's wooden line-up, but it unfortunately is a bit too short and slow for my taste. 6/10 Georgia Cyclone: Meh. 5/10 Blue Hawk: The new train restraints do wonders to help make this ride tolerable. The layout is not fun though. Every Arrow would benefit from these trains. 5.5/10 Dare Devil Dive: It took an hour to get on this thing even though the line was in the station house. Forceless and not fun. 4.5/10 Batman: Worst Inverted Coaster experience ever. Constant headbanging and shortly after we rode it it was shut down. I don't know if something was broke that they fixed or if it is really in that bad of shape. A shame because the theming was in excellent shape. 1/10 Dahlonega Mine Train: A solid minetrain. I wish SFSTL had these trains as it would do wonders for ours. 7/10 I didn't ride the Georgia Scorcher as stand up B&Ms have been painful to me, Superman UF was down a couple times and the wait was 1.5 hours. All I can say is I'm sorry but this park did not impress me at all. Coca-Cola World was awesome and made staying in Atlanta worthwhile.

I could see the point of adding Mystic Timbers if the park was using it to replace the Racer, but frankly what does this add to the park experience that was lacking? If this were 15-20 years ago, I could possibly see the wisdom of this addition or if it were to have around a 150-160 ft drop as a way to compete against HW's Voyage in being a more modern type, but why this and not an RMC coaster? Why not have RMC make a replacement to Son of Beast that is actually good? KI the park that broke the records for having the longest wooden coaster (still standing record), the first suspended coaster, the most inversions, the first wooden hypercoaster and with a loop at that, is adding a lot of rides that would have been awesome if this were late 90- early 2000s. This coaster would be a great addition to KD which has nothing noteworthy in the wood department, but in the park that has one of the best wooden coasters, I think they need something other than a B grade wooden coaster, considering how many parks small and big are getting RMC coasters in their region. Very strange.

This is obviously the case. Corporate in general seems not to really care about investing much of anything into the park. The often lamented poorly treated SFA since the bankruptcy has received 2 coasters while we received 1. SFFT has received 2 new coasters (one fixing their terrible wooden coaster). SFOG received a new coaster and a noteworthy refurbishment to an old one (not just adding a silly gimmick that does nothing to enhance the ride for everyone. I will also say this to be fair. While SFSTL may not have the best coaster line up (anymore) compared to its local competition (SDC and HW), I find their line-up to be better than most of the Six Flags parks I have attended. Having visited SFOG, I am glad they had the Goliath (don't misunderstand me I wish we had it) because that was the only coaster there (aside from Mind Bender) that I was impressed with and considering how much I am meh about B&M hypers that should tell you something. Dare Devil Dive is VERY forceless and takes FOREVER to get on it. At the station house itself, it took an hour to get on. Even Ninja doesn't take that long even with those silly gimmicks. Their Batman was very ROUGH (Vekoma category) with constant headbanging. I'm not sure which is worse between that and the Mantis (when it was the Mantis). Hands down the worst Inverted Coaster experience. The Great American Scream Machine is very mediocre, Screamin' Eagle is way better. Georgia Cyclone was even more mediocre. The Blue Hawk (Ninja) was painless and demonstrated how good the new trains are but that can't make up for how bad the layout itself is (no airtime unlike our Ninja, nothing really enjoyable about it). Mind Bender was good but it took nearly an hour to get on it and even then I would rather ride the Ninja, Mr. Freeze, or a properly riding Batman. Their Mine Train is good but not all that important to me. Superman Ultimate Flight kept breaking down and would have been a 1.5 hour wait. Georgia Scorcher has no real appeal to me as I don't like B&M stand ups. SFOT has more good attractions with having equally good attractions (Batman, Mr. Freeze, Mine Train, Pandemonium) having a couple unique ones (La Vibora, Shockwave, Titan, and NTAG), but where they fall completely flat is their wooden coaster line up. Judge Roy Scream is small, rough, and not impressive. It is better than Timber Wolf, every wooden coaster at KD (except Rebel Yell), and a hand full of other wooden coasters, but being that it is now the ONLY wooden coaster the park has, it is sorely lacking. Some of their best coasters can be found at SFSTL, they have a couple on us (NTAG and Titan), but we have a much better line up of wooden coasters. I will have to go back to SFFT before I can judge it fairly as when I attended the Rattler had not been transformed yet and Batman had not been added either. Rattler was the worst wooden coaster ever. Superman Krypton Coaster was the only highlight (better than anything we have). Poltergiest is like Blue Hawk a big twisted pile of steel with no airtime and not that fun. The Goliath was equally good though not as well themed nor air conditioned as our Batman. Their Road Runner Express was okay, but I prefer our Mine Train going through the woods and the air time drop in the tunnel. The only park that had a clearly superior line up that was worth traveling for has been SFMM and even then many of the rides were not as great as they look (Scream!, Riddler's Revenge, Apocalypse) and the line up was not nearly as impressive as Cedar Point. As disappointed as I am with Six Flags decision concerning not adding anything good to our park in terms of coasters, I will state that in fairness I think we have one of the better lineups as far as Six Flags is concerned. I just wish instead of giving us junk that we don't need (Boomerang), I wish they would instead fix up/modify our existing rides to improve the experience and make them more enjoyable (new soft restraint trains to Ninja and topper track for the Boss). If we can at least improve our offerings and make the most of them, hopefully we can build a better reputation and eventually maybe we can someday get something noteworthy.

I think it's really interesting that WoF seems to have what we all claim Six Flags needs, a legit hyper. But when it comes down to it you still say it doesn't have one of those rides that really grabs you and makes you want to come back. Makes me wonder if SFSTL ever did build a hyper if it would calm the masses, or if its just been seen as another geneceric or clone. I understand what you mean, but just going by the statistics isn't enough to compare roller coasters. Imagine taking cars with similar track/performance times and saying they offer similar driving experiences, because they are close on paper. My WRX had almost identical stats to my 350z, but they offered very different driving experiences. Morgans are just kind of "meh" in my book compared to B&M's or Intamin for that reason. I'd also be perfectly content with riding Goliath (SFoG) from sun up to sun down, where as I'm pretty much done after a couple laps on Mamba. Morgans just look and feel so much more dated to me. Even though they aren't that old, they just feel dated. Everything from the bulky ugly trains to the loud nails on a chalk board lift hills.... eh. You're probably at least a little right, though. I'm sure if we do get something modern and large scale some people will still complain. Not trying to get into an argument but let me ask you this as I agree that the original Morgan coasters (Mamba, Wild Thing, etc.) were on the weak side, the trains feel extremely bulky, and the lay out was basically a rip off of Magnum XL-200 without the intensity. Have you guys ridden the Phantoms Revenge and if so, how does that rank in comparison to the B&Ms and the Intamins? I think the problem is the layouts and the trains. The Phantom's Revenge surprised me with how much airtime it contained and the converted Arrow trains while far from perfect was still an improvement over the enormous Morgan ones. I can agree that the B&Ms have a nicer train design that is more comfortable in the seating position, with more open feel is more thrilling, and the layouts are newer and naturally more original than the original Morgan hypers, but I still do not feel much airtime difference between the old Morgans and the Diamond Back. Apollo's Chariot is a bit better, but not exactly the best airtime machine I have experienced either. The older none hyper B&Ms seem to be more intense and more fun from my experience .

Nor do I hence why I rate the Rattler below it as that slammed me side by side resulting in very hurt ribs and a hurting back and debate whether Mean Streak is worse or not. If it is supposed to be a family friendly wooden coaster, why does it have the same height requirement (48 inches) as Prowler? Why does WOF rate it as a 5 (Aggressive Thrill) and the Prowler as only 4 (High Thrill)? Also why is it not listed under WOF's family rides & Family Attractions? Considering its established reputation of having injured riders (an 11 year old boy in 2014 not to mention the 1995 fatality and the 1990 train collision), I hardly consider this ride family friendly. Say what you want to about the Boss, no one has died on it yet nor numerous injuries big enough to capture press attention. The Prowler by definition more accurately fits the family friendly claim per is superior comfort, shorter height, and spotless safety reputation, that is why many of us "self proclaimed thrill seekers" like it. Not every coaster must rip our faces off and have our heart shoved up our throats, we just expect the additions to do what they are intended to do and to do it well. The Timber Wolf needs to be re-imagined in order to accomplish this. The fact is many of the coasters that I have listed are smoother and provide a superior riding experience. The ones that are not make up for it with heavy intensity. To be rough and have no intensity offers nothing to me, maybe the work helped to address some of the roughness, but it will eventually become rough again without much intensity to excuse this weakness. There is very much a place for family friendly rides, hence why I wish they would have kept Zambezi Zinger instead of Boomerang. This is also why I prefer the Zambezi Zinger to Spinning Dragons as I prefer not to be on the verge of barfing after riding a coaster.

The more I see of this coaster the more I like it. How a coaster looks and how a coaster will ride are not always the same thing, TPR Xtreme Fan. I have been both pleasantly and unpleasantly surprised by different coasters by all different manufacturers. We can all speculate as much as we want but we won't know for sure until we ride it. Based on my taste, I will probably like this better than NTAG as I like having inversions, but again time will tell.

This should make the ride 200% better, just by getting rid of the horrible OTSR that landed on an awkward position. I don't care how it looks, as long as it rides good. Frankly the new paint job and refreshment look fantastic. Good job! Thanks for sharing this update.

I also second this. Even when it was newer, the Timberwolf (my second wooden coaster experience) did not impress me at all (around 1995) compared to the Screaming Eagle and after riding all the other wooden coasters since then (Outlaw Run, the Boss, Raven, the Legend, the Beast, Prowler, Comet (HP), Wildcat (HP), Lighting Racer (HP), Colussus (SFMM), American Thunder, Jack Rabbit (KW), Racer (KW), Thunderbolt (KW), Apocalypse (SFMM), Grizzly (KD), Rebel Yell (KD), Hurler (KD), the Racer (KI), Blue Steak (CP), Judge Roy Scream) makes it seem even weaker. The only wooden coaster that I can say for certain is worse was the Rattler (SFFT) and I go back and forth on whether Mean Steak (CP) is worse than it. I have never understood how this thing ever won any award. Even if it was made to be smooth as glass with all this work, it would still be slow, short, forceless, and boring due to its rather uninspiring layout. The money should be spent on either keeping Prowler up (which is a very good coaster) or spent on doing an Iron Horse conversion. The last time I went it was shut down and I did not miss it one bit. It meant more well spent time on the Prowler, Mamba, and Patriot.

Meh...another gimmick. My concern would be what if this thing comes off during the ride and knocks one of the other rides on the head. Will they have a fool proof way of keeping this attached to one's head? Concerning the red paint topic, I never remember it turning pink. It looked more orange-ish red from what I recall in its last year before the repaint. It didn't look new by anymeans, but from what I recall it still looked better than it does in black. I know 1995 was not the last year of its red paint but this is about the only one I can find and it still looked pretty good looking orange-ish red, not pink. On top of this, did they repaint it when it was installed or were they still using the original paint from the '86 Expo. My guess would be they repainted when they installed it which meant it lasted roughly 9-10 years, if not it lasted 12-13 years. The first black paint coat was used for 11-12 years.

As much as I love Arrows, they are not the smoothest of coasters whether looping, hyper, or mine train (the swinging due to their swinging ability tend to be their best received creation). They are an acquired taste. I am able to overlook their roughness because I know how to ride them and their drops are some of the best, their up then flat transfers (after the 3rd loop on the Viper) are very intense. The corkscrews are fun with the momentary hang time. The Batwing inversions (Vortex at KI and Viper at SFMM) are unique and a lot of fun. The X2 is intense and crazy fun. Their transfers into turns are usually their problem along with turning things in not quite the right direction. Its hard to explain the second one but what they did on the hill after the initial drop on Vortex (KI) is just odd and would benefit from re-engineering compared to what they did for the Loch Ness Monster (although not perfect it is done better). The transfers on the Ninja (SFSTL) with the initial turn at the top of the lift hill is more abrupt rougher than most (see Vortex, Loch Ness Monster), the turn in the Sidewinder is also more abrupt, as are the transfers after the corkscrew, and after the helix. Some like the Anaconda (KD) have parts like the helix in mid air that the coaster would be better without as they were not done very well and add little other than nausea. They used long pieces of wire for designing many of their coasters which didn't help, they needed to update their method sooner than they did, once they finally did after Ron Toomer retired, it was too late. Older Vekoma designs are even more rough. The Ninja at SFOG is well known for its roughness and is mentioned just as much if not more for its roughness to SFSTL. I know Rob has made many references to Goudurix at Par Asterix as being one of the roughest coasters. SLCs and Boomerangs have earned their reputation for roughness as well. Despite the Ninja's flaws, I can live with them as the initial drop, sidewinder, corkscrews, and helix make it well worth while. Many other coaster I have ridden such as Scream! (SFMM) offer no air time or anything noteworthy and can still be rough. The Rougarou (CP) while an enormous improvement to Mantis, can still be a little rough at certain points and unless I sat in the wrong row (the last row), it was lacking on air time, not a bad coaster, just not one of B&M's best either. I can handle a little roughness if it is in the tolerable range the payoff is good enough. I typically knock my head on Maverick a couple times but it really doesn't hurt with their restraints (unlike Arrow's, older Vekoma's, B&Ms, etc.) and the payoff is more than worth it. The Viper (SFMM) and Vortex (KI) like the Ninja can be a bit rough but I can work around it without getting my head knocked and their worth every second of the experience. Finishing someone else's project (or maybe redefining it) can actually be good at times if not better than either. The Phantom's Revenge is a really fun hyper coaster that would be a Arrorgan and ranks better than the original Morgan clones like the Mamba (WOF) and it out ranks many of Arrow's hypers. Okay Steve, but what can we get that will fit this height demographic within the foot print where it currently stands that won't be a distraction from what our park needs? I must respectfully disagree as Wing Coasters have the height restriction of 54 inches are pretty weak in the intensity department with the possible exception of Thunderbird (which cost $22 million) and you know Six Flags is not going to spend that much.

Agreed! It looked way better in red paint than it does in black. Three coasters in black (KRMT, Ninja, & Batman) is simply 1 too many.

It looks like a ripoff to me of S&S's. I hope they are engineering these to be different than what the current Intamin models are which seems to be weight distribution alone. The Green Lantern is by far my least favorite Intamin. It ranks with the former Mantis (CP), Boomerangs, and the former (wooden) Rattler (SFFT) in a 4 way tie for being my most painful coaster experience. That said, Intamin has made many of my favorite coasters (Maverick, Millennium Force, Volcano the blast coaster (KD), etc.)

It is really both, but I count it as an Arrow as they were the ones who started it.

My first was Batman the Ride (SFOMA/SFSTL) in 1995. I loved it and is still one of the better B&Ms in my eyes. My second was Patriot (WOF) in 2007. Not quite as good but I still like it better than some others (Alpengeist, Raptor due to head banging) My first floorless was Superman Krypton Coaster (SFFT) in 2011. One of my favorite B&Ms and by far my favorite floorless (excluding dive coasters). My first B&M hyper was Diamondback (KI) in 2011. My first disappointment with them. My first B&M stand up was Mantis (CP) in 2012. The first B&M I hated; however, Rougarou is a huge improvement (still not one of their best in my opinion). My first B&M sit down was Wildfire (SDC) in 2013. Among my favorite B&Ms. My first B&M flying coaster was Tatsu (SFMM) in 2013. Not a bad coaster by anymeans, It's not for me and neither are the Vekoma flying dutchmans to be fair. My first B&M dive coaster was Griffon (BGW) in 2014. One of my favorite B&Ms. My first B&M winged coaster was Gatekeeper (CP) in 2015. It's okay, Cedar Point has yet to have a B&M that I really like, but that's fine because they have my #1 and #2 favorite Intamin coasters and 2 of my favorite Arrow coasters.

The fact that someone died on the Rail Blazer and no one died on the EXT has always confused me especially including the fact that when I was young and extremely stupid I stood up a couple times on the mine train and survived and I'm positive I'm not the only one who has done this as I rode it within a year or 2 and saw two teenagers doing what I did at their age and I warned them not to do it because of this very incident. I'm guessing they changed the train over to the EXT's lower restraint and that addressed the safety problem?