thrillseeker4552

I mean, October 2016 to January 2018 was roughly the entire time frame Silver Dollar City was building Time Traveler, and there haven't been any major issues as far as we know. Icon was also built in that time frame and, again, hasn't had major structural issues as far as the public knows. Copperhead was also built very quickly in the last few months. Granted testing hasn't begun yet, but part of me is skeptical about that article.

That's funny, to see those tiny pieces of track sitting on the supports! Lol I didn't hate Firehawk, but I also didn't really love it. I don't mind one bit it's getting scrapped. Onto bigger and better things. I have faith in Kings Island to make the replacement worth it!

I’m still patiently waiting for RMC to construct a zero-g stall that does a trick-track while upside-down (think Wicked Cyclone’s stall but more direction changes). That’s an element I’ve had in mind ever since Wicked Cyclone came out. Just a random thought. I also find RMC projects 100x more exciting when we don’t know the layout very well (this, the one at Nagashima, Steel Vengeance the first year of construction). I love being surprised by each new piece of track put down.

1. Name 3 of your favorite roller coasters, but not your top 3. GhostRider, Nitro, Millennium Force. 2. About how many different parks did you visit in 2018? I visited 8 different parks. 3. Which 2018 park visit was your favorite? I had an excellent first visit to CGA. Great weather, rode all the rides I wanted multiple times, short lines, good food, fun time with family. Couldn't have gone better really! 4. Your favorite 2018 park addition (ride, food, show, etc)? That I've experienced, Railblazer! Otherwise the answer would of course be Steel Vengeance. 5. What ride exceeded your expectations the most in 2018? Superman at SFDK. I prefer it to Full Throttle, and it's amazing how much better (and faster) the coaster is with two-car trains and no dumb comfort collars. Rode it more than any other coaster in the park. 6. Best meal/food at a park in 2018? California's Great America and Seaworld San Diego both have great food. I don't think I can pick out a certain meal. 7. What was your favorite new coaster of 2018 NOT made by RMC or Larson? HangTime! 8. Name one park you will definitely visit in 2019. Lagoon. 9. Best ride themed to a bird? Tatsu is themed to a bird, right? 10. Lamest ride/coaster you rode in 2018? Grizzly at CGA. It's really not too rough, just SO boring and with painfully slow operations. 11. What roller coaster currently sits at the top of your bucketlist? (degree of difficulty: NOT a new-for-2019 ride) I have many, but probably Eejanaika or Dinoconda since I LOVE X2 and apparently those are even better and more insane. 12. What new-for-2019 ride or coaster are you most looking forward to? Overall, Steel Curtain. But the only new-for-2019 coaster I am certain I'll be riding is West Coast Racers. 13. Name the first totally middle-of-the-road (not bad/not great) park that comes to mind. Definitely Dorney Park. 14. You're in Orlando and magically have a 1-hour ERT session on 1 coaster of your choice at any park in the city. You choose... Mako! 15. Holiday In The Park vs. Winterfest. Who reigns supreme? Holiday in the Park, for sure. 16. Mystic Timbers mystery shed or Wicker Man fire infusion? Wicker Man fire! 17. Which Six Flags have you been to most recently? Magic Mountain on December 26th. 18. Intamin or Schwarzkopf? You may only choose one. As much as I love Schwarzkopf, I have to say Intamin. 19. Battle of Kings Coasters: Island or Dominion? Pick one. Kings Dominion. I love both parks but KD has better coasters and more "atmosphere" IMO. 20. What was the longest you waited for a ride/coaster in 2018? My sister and I waited exactly 2 hours for HangTime during Knott's Scary Farm. 21. What roller coaster have you ridden more than any other? Either Montezooma's Revenge or Silver Bullet. Something at Knott's for sure. 22. Best drop tower under 150 feet? Any S&S Double Shot. 23. Maverick or Millennium Force? (If you haven't been to CP, pick what you want to ride more) Maverick, no question. 24. Log flumes or sky rides? You can only choose one. Log flumes. 25. What are 3 things you enjoying doing at your home park other than riding rides? Eating (of course), spending time with friends/family, people-watching. 26. What is your second favorite Cedar Fair park and why? Kings Dominion. Like I said earlier, a solid coaster lineup, very green (which is impressive to me as someone from the West Coast lol), good flat rides, nice atmosphere. I went in 2017 so I imagine it's even better now with TT. 27. What is your home park and give us two good reasons why we should pay it a visit. My "true" home park is Knott's. It has great charm (that has been restored immensely in the last 7 years under new CF management), a solid top 5 coaster line-up, not too big so it's easy to navigate and you don't get too tired, an excellent one-of-a-kind log flume and dark/train ride, and well-themed in some areas. It has a different feel than many other Cedar Fair parks due to its history. My "secondary" home park is Lagoon while I'm at college in Utah. It actually draws many similarities to Knott's: nice charm in areas, an "above average" coaster line-up (especially with our two wonderful Schwarzkopfs), of course Cannibal, good location and easy public transportation from SLC airport. Many museums and interesting pieces of history in Pioneer Village, two very old-school dark rides, many vintage flat rides, lots of shade and water attractions in the summertime. I would compare it to a slightly more modern version of Knoebels. 28. Launch or Lift? I love powerful launches, but my top 5 coasters all have lift hills, so I'm conflicted. 29. Did you buy fast pass at all in 2018? Nope. 30. What is your least favorite wooden coaster? Most boring: Grizzly at CGA. Roughest: probably Wildcat at Hersheypark. 31. Disney fanboys: cool or cult? I don't really have strong opinions about Disney in general, so no comment. 32. Best Batman themed ride? Well, the B&M Inverts, of course. 33. Name something that tend to take home from parks that you didn't bring with you. I really can't think of anything. I pretty much never buy merchandise, nor do I ever bring home a "sickness" or something like that. Hmmmm. 34. Best wooden coaster over 110 feet tall? (rcdb will help you) El Toro, duh. 35. Have you ever been hit with something (loose change/a tree/vomit/etc) while riding something? I caught my brother's hat (who sat a few seats in front of me) on Jaguar at Knott's. I also came VERY close to getting hit by a phone on El Toro back in 2016. And of course bugs on many coasters at Cedar Point. 36. Skywarps: credits or no? State your case. I go with what RCDB says because I really don't care enough to argue either way, so I suppose it's a credit. 37. Turkey legs: nah or yaaaaassssss? Too large and too messy for what it's worth. 38. What is the most recent B&M that you rode? Silver Bullet at Knott's on New Years Day. 39. You can eat nothing but corn dogs, churros or funnel cake for the next 48 hours, which do you choose? Wow. I don't "really" like any of those three foods. I guess churro is the one least likely to make me throw up. 40. Post a great on-ride shot of you from 2018. (DO IT!) See my profile pic! This was from December 19, 2018.

This isn’t too unusual based on SFMM’s history. They couldn’t even open a flat ride until mid July. Their last new ride that opened in the Spring was Twisted Colossus. Even Full Throttle didn’t open until late June. I expect West Coast Racers to open in late June/early July at the earliest.

They are horrible capacity wise. That is a fact. The lines don't get too long, because the ride is not universally loved. Don't get me wrong, they are by no means "good capacity." I was just speaking from my experiences with Superman and Electric Eel, both of which kept the line moving quite well with good operations (particularly Superman). I wish I recorded it, because that crew was sending out trains every 30-40 seconds. But you're right, even with the world's fastest ride operators, the ride will never have a high throughput. The lines for both coasters just exceeded my expectations for how fast they were moving relative to what people describe.

On the topic of Tigris... I'm really happy to see this ride come to the park. I like the Sky Rocket II coasters more than most (granted, I like them even more without the "comfort" collars), but nonetheless they are smooth, intense coasters that also have a surprisingly not-totally-horrible capacity. BGT locals/fans are really getting spoiled with this and RMC Gwazi next year.

Nothing until the second week of March. It will either be Knott's or SFMM.

Goliath indeed has a mind of its own. While it always heavily trims the train at the MCBR, there have been times we came to a full stop and waited a few second before releasing, and other times we never dipped below 8 mph it seems.

Funny how opinions differ. The corkscrews on Nighthawk were actually the exact reason I prefer Firehawk and Batwing! They felt so unnatural and awkward and really tossed you around uncomfortably.

This is great news! I'm happy to see another B&M come to the west coast. When was the last one... Tatsu? 13 years ago? I will be very interested to see if this has the vest restraints or not. B&M has produced 6-across trains both with and without them.

The last coaster I rode was a night ride on HangTime on January 1st. I still love this ride to bits and can't get over how much of an improvement it is to Boomerang.

^I'm curious about Steel Curtain too. It really doesn't have a similar layout to any other looping coaster. It has tons of inversions, but not where it's gimmicky/repetitive (Intamin 10-loopers) or back-to-back inversions with little stuff inbetween (B&Ms). I would love for it to be successful and see S&S rise in the traditional looping coaster business. As for B&M, if a park wanted a completely loopy coaster and had a high budget, I'm sure B&M would have no issue creating one. I think it's just a matter of demand and fitting the park's needs and price point.

Last new credit was the Manhattan Express / Big Apple Coaster / Roller Coaster / whatever the heck it's called now on December 14th. It was a piece of crap and I'll likely never do it again, or at least never pay for it again.

I am glad Copperhead Strike will operate during Winterfest next year. I think I read somewhere that Cedar Fair specifically requested that it be able to operate in colder temperatures, which I'm sure wasn't a problem for Mack since Helix and Blue Fire likely operate in temperatures much colder than the Carolinas experience anyway.

Where's "Unnecessary floorless conversion of hand-me-down coaster that should have been scrapped years ago: the Ride?" Seriously though. After riding Patriot, I feel like the older B&M Stand-Ups are just better off scrapped. Floorless trains turn them from a "completely sh*tty coaster" to a "this is actually kinda tolerable" coaster. I think there was a very strong case for Rougarou, but not so much for the smaller ones with uninteresting layouts. I'm interested to see how this one turns out since it is Six Flags' first and we don't have any "real" concept imagery of the final product.

The last coaster I rode (and last of the year for me) was Viper at SFMM. It's running very well after its refurbishment and still reigns as one of my favorites in the park.

I went today and had a similar experience. Might I also add that there is now a single rider line on GhostRider. There is no signage, but I heard about it on Instagram and asked an operator who ended up directing me up the stairs at the front of the station. Got on the ride in about 5 minutes, and the seat assigner was doing a good job of filling in the gaps with single riders. The process is still rough around the edges, but I hope they work out the kinks and continue to assign seats (I know some people don't like that, but the train often goes with several empty seats when they don't assign, and they're usually pretty good at taking requests). I'd like to see this process applied to HangTime and Xcelerator as well, where capacity suffers most. I suppose Silver Bullet could use it as well, but even with a few empty seats per train the line moves quite well on that ride.

Knott's Berry Farm tomorrow, then Six Flags Magic Mountain on Wednesday!

Living in Utah the last 1.5 years has put Elitch Gardens on my radar, but I still have no real desire to travel there despite it closing soon. It's always sad to see a park go (assuming it isn't relocated), but when the "top" coasters in the park are an SLC, half-pipe coaster, and mediocre/bad wooden coaster, I don't think it's too much of a loss. I would love to see the park relocated, rebranded (maybe Six Flags is still looking for parks?), and upgraded. Time will tell how likely that is to happen though.

I haven't ridden Viper since it reopened, but from what I understand this maintenance period was mostly electrical and operating system upgrades. I think they also replaced the lift chain. I would imagine the ride experience is the same as it has been in recent years since almost nothing was done to the trains, at least visibly. I'll ride it on Wednesday. It's one of my favorite coasters in the park.

The best coaster I rode this month was an awesome night ride on X2 yesterday (see profile pic). This pretty much confirmed it as my favorite coaster in the park and one of my all-time favorite coasters ever. I know my face might say otherwise, but that ride is just so wild and out-of-control - things I tend to like in coasters.

All of the animations and photos we've seen has this coaster placed in a grass field, so I'm excited to see how it fits in with the surrounding area and rides. Definitely my most anticipated roller coaster for next year even though I likely will not be riding it. We typically know what to expect from B&M, Mack, and Premier, but Steel Curtain and Maxx Force are very different from what we've seen here in the US lately and are both huge steps for S&S.

Love it! I have still yet to ride one of these Gravity Group woodies, but Kentucky Kingdom has been on my radar for a few years now. This, Lightning Run, and Storm Chaser will be a very solid trio that not many parks can match.

Great read, thanks for sharing. I had the pleasure of meeting John during my first visit to Cedar Point back in 2012. He's a great guy and was very kind to meet with my dad and my 13-year-old self on our first visit. Cedar Point really has a great history.