thrillseeker4552

Looks like you have a nice little start. Some advice: I would focus on the little things initially. It's very easy to get carried away with big additions and all that (of course, that's the fun part), but small details like themed (or detailed/well-designed) queue lines, good fencing for your rides, vegetation, buildings, restrooms, food, and other things like that are essential to a realistic park. It's totally up to you in the end, though. I'm just suggesting what I've seen from other successful story parks as well as my parks. I look forward to the next update!

Looks fantastic! It makes me jealous that we can't have a big skyline of B&Ms here in San Diego.

I'm not sure about custom queues. For supports, I generally use Steeworx, but it is fairly simple and maybe not as complex as you would like. If not, it's worth it to check out Moby's Steel Jungle. For Intamin drop towers, I found a website that has 4 of them (40m (tiny one like at Gardaland), 70m (standard height), 100m (Big Tower at Beto Carrero World), and 120m (Blue Fall)). In fact, that whole website has a ton of great stuff. Note: I have all 4 towers, and the 70m is most accurate with physics (the cars free falling). The 40m is okay, but the larger ones like 100m and 120m seem to fall too slowly, but still realistic and fun to use nonetheless.

I feel that this coaster is going to surprise a lot of people. It's unfortunate that the poor animation made people think negatively about the ride. I have no doubts that it will be up there with Medusa, Joker, and Wicked Cyclone for "tiny" RMC hybrids.

They better get cracking if they want to make that date. The wood work is mostly done, but there still aren't rails installed on most of the course yet. Considering the work they've done over the last 5 months, I have no doubts that they will make that date (in 3 months). I can't wait to experience GhostRider in its good days. It could very well rank up there with Twisted Colossus if it's as good as everybody raves about!

Wow, a 10-year bump. I wear contacts at theme parks and have no problems. Unless you're on the front row of Kingda Ka with your eyes wide open, there should be no issues.

RMC could make their coasters out of recycled soda cans for all I care... If it's a good ride, I don't give a flying poop what it's made of or classified as.

I'll keep my answer short & sweet: Alan Schilke is my role model.

I'm interested to see how this ride turns out. Cedar Fair hasn't really bought from Gerstlauer much at all; I'd love to see more of their flats at CF parks.

The giga coaster for Knott's.

Thanks for the coverage. Even if this turn out to be a "weaker" Intamin, it still looks better than most B&M Hypers out there. I'd kill to have this thing in America!

Green Lantern (at SFMM) is extremely subjective. I've had fantastic rides not it, and I've had totally awful rides on it. If SFMM would just open up all the resistance to let the cars spin freely like its counterpart in Sweden, it could be such a good ride. But I doubt that will happen. I haven't ridden the one at SFGAdv, but I have ridden Mantis which is fairly similar, and it was awful. Yet Riddler's Revenge is fantastic. B&M really did something with their stand-ups between 1997 and 1998 since RR and Scorcher seem to be the best ones out there. A like coasterbill said, even if Silver Star and OzIris are boring and forceless, at least they don't smash your brain to pieces. It depends what you define as a "bad B&M".

Did they use some type of different paint on X2? It's amazing how leading into its 9th year of operation, X2 still looks brand new, but Tatsu, only 2 years older, is much worse. I'm very curious.

I had a mini heart attack when I saw the Millennium Force restraints, then quickly realized it was fake. They got me! Thanks for sharing the photos! Can't wait for more.

I prefer the all-white loop, but I don't have an issue if they paint parts of it blue. I'm just glad that SFMM is doing such a great thing by furthering the life of one of the most iconic and classic coasters in the world.

^That's a bummer. I really hope Knott's replenishes their flat ride line-up soon after the removal of Windseeker, Screamin' Swing, and now this. I liked Riptide, but I understand why it's going.

Or vice versa--when people treat a fact like an opinion. I am hating my calculus class so much right now. I've always been able to handle my school and academic life pretty well compared to others, but second semester calculus is really getting to me. And I want to be a civil engineer, so I can't exactly BS my way through... Everything makes sense in class, then I come home and do the homework and nothing seems to click. Ugh.

Even if it's one of the weaker B&M Inverts (I personally love it), Silver Bullet's layout is perfect. The pacing and flow of elements is spot on--particularly the corkscrew/hump/corkscrew/helix finale.

^Yes, it was stuck in that position all day (like it's mid-swing). I knew somebody would bring that up.

It's still there, but it wasn't operating today. This is the only photo I took of it. It's pretty well hidden behind the trees.

Hi everybody, In the wide variety of amusement parks in Southern California, it is very easy to overlook this small park (or large FEC) in Riverside, California. It isn't anything to rave about, but I figured it was worth it to write up a small photo trip report on my visit to Castle Park this afternoon and evening. Oh, and it's dirt cheap if you're there for just rides! In case you are unfamiliar with the park, Castle Park has 3 roller coasters: 1. Merlin's Revenge: A standard Vekoma roller skater 2. Screamin' Demon: A "holy crap is this really allowed to operate" Fabbri spinning wild mouse that beats you up 3. Little Dipper: An itty bitty "this could really fit in my backyard" kiddie coaster Like I mentioned, nothing is super amazing about this park, but they have a cool flat ride lineup which I will get to later. They also have a decent log flume with a pretty steep drop that apparently came from the same guy who did the Mine Ride and Log Ride over at Knott's. Unfortunately, a few of their rides were closed, but it is the off-season and tickets were ridiculously inexpensive, so I'm not going to complain. Since Castle Park is really only a half-day park (and I have been a few times before), we decided to arrive around 4:00pm and stay until closing (around 9:00pm). 5 hours is plenty for this small park, unless you plan on doing the arcade and mini golf which we weren't very interested in anyway. Now onto the photos. I didn't take too many, but enough to share. i'll include some information in the captions so be sure to read those. Upon entering the park, one of the first things you see if the log flume. Unfortunately, probably due to it being the off-season, it was closed. I had been on it before and can say it is semi-decent. Walk a little further and you see the parks giant multi-looping roller coaster, El Diab... wait... Joker Chaos Coast... wait... Fireball! That's it! It's your standard super loop ride (not sure who manufactured it), however much rougher and much sketchier than the Larson models. The park also has a nice set of flyers. I believe these were the only ones in Southern California until Knott's added some in 2013. Castle Park also has an S&S double shot. This thing is tiny... but whole crap... ejector airtime galore! The two namesake "double shots" had to have pulled more than -1 Gs. Small but mighty. Unlike the other S&S tower in California, this one ("Dragon's Tower" as they call it) has 3x3x3x3 cars as opposed to the more common 4x2x4x2. Why do I notice these things? The park also has this weird "telescope" observation tower thingy... which is surprisingly the tallest thing in the park. From the ride, you can see the flyers, Dare Dev.. I mean Fireball, and Screamin' Demon (the park's super sketchy spinning wild mouse coaster...which was closed today). I probably wouldn't have ridden it anyway... it's that brutal and I already have the credit. Near the back of the park is Little Dipper and the aforementioned Log Ride. Dipper was operating... it's a shame the log ride wasn't. The drop is actually pretty steep! Castle Park also has some standard flats like the Scrambler and Sea Dragon. Scrambler was operating; Sea Dragon (not pictured) was not. Here is their Chance Yo-Yo. Pretty unique swing ride. The seats tilt back and forth during the ride... something that the ones at SFMM and Knott's don't do. Onto some night photos, here is the park's roller skater. Something unique: this one gives 2 cycles every ride. Not just today either... every time I visit, they make the ride go around twice, like it's permanently incorporated into the system. Something cool that more roller skaters should do. The best ride in the park, in my opinion, is even better at night. Those lights are blinding, though! Joker... I mean Fireball also had some neat lights. The ride is still just as sucky though. The flyers are also lit nicely. Rode this one a few times to take advantage of no lines... even though the ride ops were butt slow. Really, really slow. That's all for this report. Just thought I'd give some insight of this little park. Operations weren't the best, rides closed spontaneously, but overall it's a neat little park with some decent rides (the S&S tower, chairswing, and log flume). Like I said, they also have a golf course and arcade, but those require you to pay more. If you want just the rides... it is dirt cheap, especially with their Valentine's sale this weekend. If you're in the area, I'd recommend a stop. Oh, and also worth mentioning. Castle Park also used to have a "Falling Star" ride (not sure what the model is... they had one at Knott's a while ago, and one just got removed at Nickelodeon Universe). That was one of the best rides there, but it must have gotten removed since the last time I visited which is a bummer. They also have a Spider ride (which was disassembled for maintenance), an antique car ride, some kiddie flats, bumper cars, and a graviton/UFO. Maybe I'll visit again this summer when more rides are operating. Hope you enjoyed reading.

I have no problem with them removing this ride. After all the problems they've had with it, it's time. And it opens up quite a bit of real estate.

I used to despise B&M Stand-Ups after having awful rides on Riddler's Revenge and Mantis. But after riding RR a few more times recently, I've had some VERY good rides on it (1000x better than Scream). Sitting on the inner 2 seats really help, and having the seat adjusted to the right height helps a lot too. But then again, people always praise Riddler for being the best Stand-Up out there, so maybe I'm spoiled a little.

I believe this is exactly why.

Same exact restraints as Millenium Force and Top Thrill Dragster if you've ridden either one, the original intamin tbars were much less restrictive and thinner padding. I personally don't hate the restraints now just the noticeable rattle and the massive speaker headrests from the Bizarro train mods. Not to get too technical, but MF's restraints and TTD's restraints are quite different. They are both T-bars, but Top Thrill Dragster's is more of a "2nd generation" that form fits the rider a bit better and is angled a little more comfortably. As for Superman...ugh. It will definitely look better, but from the sounds of it, the ride experience will be no different. I guess I could understand keeping the restraints because of all the hassle the park has been through with the incidents, but the headrests and speakers... come on.