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Twister looks like Wooden Warrior's bigger brother, which was a brilliant ride. Looking forward to riding it later this year!

Part Fifteen: Six Flags Great Adventure The holidays are over so it's time to start finishing off this report! Our final stop on the East Coast would be Six Flags Great Adventure. We almost didn't get this park - the forecast was for rain, rain and more rain. But because we only had one day left we decided to go anyway, thinking that we'd at least get the two indoor coasters. As luck would have it there was a two-hour window during which the rain let up and we actually managed to get at least one ride on all of the credits, if not a lot of pictures. I was really impressed with the coaster collection here - Magic Mountain might have a bigger number of rides, I feel like there were more at Great Adventure that I'd want to ride over and over again. El Toro - if anything this one is underrated. Easily the best woodie I've ever been on (although I hear Balder will give it a run for its money!). Nitro - after riding Apollo's Chariot and Diamondback earlier in the trip, this was probably my least favourite of the B&M hypers I'd tried. It was a little rough (possibly due to the wet weather) and didn't have as much airtime as the other two. Dark Knight Coaster - well, it was out of the rain. I always like themed wild mouse coasters, didn't catch much of the preshow over the screaming kids in the queue though... grr... Batman the Ride - decent B&M invert, I think I liked Magic Mountain's more for some reason. Skull Mountain - the other "sure thing" in the wet. Pretty dull. Bizarro - rode it four times with no wait. This has dropped way down the Mitch Hawker rankings in recent years but I thought it was pretty solid. Runaway Mine Train - the best part of this ride is that you can see El Toro from it. Green Lantern - the first standup of the trip I'd really enjoyed. At least they put gravel over the carpark. Superman: Ultimate Flight - so the layout is nothing spectacular and the load times are dismal, but the forces on the pretzel loop are fantastic! Rolling Thunder - not bad, but hardly a surprise that it's gone now. Kingda Ka - wasn't going to miss this after wind denied up TTD earlier in the trip. It might be a one-trick pony, but it's a very good trick! We also checked out the (then) brand-new Safari Off-Road Adventure. Even though it was still very new and unfinished in spots, this was better than some safari-type zoos I've visited, so I came away pretty impressed. A great addition to the park! It was a very wet day at Great Adventure. I thought June was supposed to be summer in the Northern Hemisphere! Not as good as the Bizarro in Massachusetts, but decent all the same. The non-existent wait time helped as well! Theming at a Six Flags park? Awesome! Artsy. The park was running three trains too! I spy an awesome wooden coaster through the trees... El Toro! Nothing less than impressed with this one. Ticked all the boxes for me - speed, intensity, forceful, and very smooth for a wooden coaster! That's a lot of wood... Traditional "El Toro reflecting in the lake" photo. Love how Kingda Ka is disappearing in the fog. The ducks were pretty happy. Once it started to rain again, we decided to go look at some animals. Puddle: the ride. The queue area had some serious drainage issues. Not today. Wait time: as long as it took you to navigate the parts of the queue that were still above water. We were lucky enough to get the accessible tram, which had some plastic "walls" as well as a roof. Drive along, watch some videos, see some animals. You know the drill. Animal shaped topiaries are always cool. These animals don't seem to mind the wet weather. Elephants. Apologies for the general crappiness of these photos, I was shooting through a plastic tarp which made things tricky. Did I mention it was wet? Zebra checking out the truck. The variety of animals you see on this ride is pretty good. This is where they drop you off mid-trip to do some activities, apparently. We drove right past because (a) it was pouring rain and (b) clearly they were still building the thing. Slightly blurry bear. It always excites me to see the "Australia" section of foreign zoos. Something about how our country is perceived by the rest of the world. Some very wet emus. The kangaroos were as confused as I was about all this rain in summer. Another log flume I rode by myself. My argument that we were already wet did not convince my brother to join in, but the dedicated flume enthusiast is immune to a little rain. This one was actually pretty cool, riding out across the lake over to the island and then back again. If anyone asks me what the tallest coaster I've been on looks like, I show them this. Something about it disappearing into the clouds just looks so foreboding. When we got to the top of the ride you could barely see the ground - awesome! Angled = good photography, apparently. Rode this in the 20-minute window it was actually opened. The launch is fantastic, no question. It doesn't need to do anything else. That's all from Great Adventure. Next update we head back to California and visit Magic Mountain!

Seems like a lot of Twitter users also use Facebook, but not the other way around. For me, the TPR forum + Twitter + YouTube combo works really well!

Voted - good luck Shawn!

Twitter for me, although I do use Youtube a couple of times each week.

Ghost Rider - topper track would be awesome. Nothing wrong with the layout, no gimmicky inversions needed. Coney Island's Cyclone - finish re-tracking the ride. The parts that haven't been retracked are rough as guts. SFA's Roar - another decent layout that needs some TLC to make it rideable again.

^I'm optimistic this park will come good, but at the moment it's looking like a case study in why you don't open a brand new water park right before the summer peak!

Rode over 140 new coasters in 2013 - a very productive year! My top three most memorable rides are: 1. Intimidator 305 2. Transformers (USH) 3. Maverick

^^You need Homer free to start them.

So I've picked up quite a few on my travels, although it occurs to me that this might be just one step away from being a pin trader... They all live on the side of the refrigerator. Griffon from BGW. Very sparkly. I like this, and it pretty much captures Knoebels' character perfectly. The 'drop car' on this one moves up and down, which is kind of cool. Waldameer pirate!

I like the first idea, it was kind of amusing to see that in Diamondback's queue. As for parks putting up quality POVs - there are already plenty out there for most "major" rides. People will keep trying to take cameras on anyway because they are morons (it's the same reason most concerts these days involve a sea of iPhones filming a terrible bootleg nobody will ever watch).

^^I think we paid about $70, so expect it to be $75-ish in 2014.

I did it earlier this year - was definitely worth the money, you get a good behind-the-scenes look at Loch Ness Monster, Griffon and Alpengeist, as well as multiple rides on all coasters including Apollo's Chariot. It had rained very heavily the night before our tour so instead of going up Griffon's lift hill the guide gave us a behind-the-scenes look at Verbolten as well, again with multiple rides. And then after the tour you get a front-of-line pass for the coasters as well - I'd definitely recommend this tour!

Great idea for a thread! I'll have to break out the camera when I get home.

Weirdly the wait times aren't too bad on a regular day, even though it only has 12 seats (with two of those out of commission as of last count). I'd love to see more "wet rides" in water parks - a really extreme river rafting ride, for example.

Sounds like a frustrated ride op decided to take it out on guests. Capacity on Superman is hardly stellar in the first place, and when you have to unlock and re-check almost every train because somebody forgot their seatbelt that would be a huge pain in the ass. But I still don't think that's justification for being a condescending douchebag!

If Movie World can replace the Looney Tunes ride with a clone of this, I would not be disappointed.

^Interesting to see Wolverine in the hype reel, I wonder if Fox bought the theme park rights to X-Men as part of their movie deal?

^I noticed those signs on my last visit as well. I wonder if anyone's ever actually asked to see one of these "certificates of compliance"...?

Great trip report - Christmas is an awesome time of year to visit Disneyland, and Cars Land is pretty spectacular in itself. The Nightmare Before Christmas overlay might be even better than the regular Haunted Mansion!

Jet Rescue - Sea World

Dives on standups are kind of cool, especially in the front row. But I definitely prefer floorless or inverts, and some of the older models are pretty uncomfortable. Of the half a dozen or so I've been on, Green Lantern and Riddler's are the only two I'd be keen to go back for. The fire effects on SFA's Apocalypse do make it fun though!

Exterminator - Kennywood

Arkham Asylum - Movie World

I've got all the prizes, and I'll keep dropping off presents but no need to leave them in my town anymore. Of course, if there were donuts on the wheel of chance that would be a different matter!