Condor

^A full re-track would surprise me for the same reason, but who knows I guess. If RMC determines their trains can run on both types of track simultaneously I think we could see I-box replacing the highest stress areas first with more sections added in subsequent seasons if needed. I really have no idea, but I'm excited to see whatever this ends up being.

Almost everything about this ride lines up for it to be an elite coaster. 4,700 feet also makes it the longest Intamin blitz coaster, beating Cheetah Hunt, Maverick, and Taron all by a few hundred feet. Those trims on the top hat are the only thing worrying me, but hopefully the effect is negligible.

Wow I'm glad I altered my planned October Tennessee/Texas trip to an Orlando/Texas trip last week. I still haven't been able to ride Lightning Rod and going back with it closed yet again would have been beyond frustrating. Easy for me to say, but if it turns out we'll see a partial or full i-box replacement I think it will be for the better. If it means LR has less downtime and (fingers crossed) can launch full speed again then I think everyone wins.

Great photos and reviews. My experiences on all of the coasters in July closely mirror yours except for Comet, which felt slower and rougher than my previous visit. Glad some people are still getting quality rides on it this year. Maybe I caught it on an off day!

^It's honestly one of the most underrated coasters there is. Labels like that get thrown around a lot, but in this case I think it's absolutely true. Probably aided by the lower ridership compared to other hypers.

KI is one of the parks I need to get back to most (I was supposed to this summer, but you know...). My last visit was in 2015 and I liked the park atmosphere, but found the coaster lineup slightly underwhelming since it lacked what I would consider a true headliner. Diamondback, Banshee, and Beast all came up just short of that for me. From the looks of it, atmosphere and especially f&b have improved even more and Orion or Mystic Timbers could be that halo coaster I've been waiting for.

Always glad to see more Fahrenheit love. It seriously is the only coaster where FTU helps at all on some days. Good report. I think you and I agree on most of the coasters, though I seem to enjoy the overall park a lot more.

Day 3—Six Flags America I have to say, I never thought I’d be here. And I don’t mean that the same way I meant it when I described laying eyes on Steel Dragon 2000 for the first time. I legitimately saw no reason to include this park on a plethora of trips that have taken me right by it. And there goes my harsh, elitist, coaster enthusiast shadow bubbling to the surface. Carl Jung would be so proud, I swear. In lighter terms, Six Flags America was never that interesting to me. Service and operations are notoriously poor, there’s no shade, and even its parent company sees it as Six Flags Great America’s abortion clinic. It’s surrounded in all directions by better-run parks with superior coaster collections and every trip report or YouTube video I’ve seen about the place could probably be adapted into a Blumhouse movie. I’m still not doing a very good job at keeping this light, am I? The thing is, I actually had a really good time. Visiting a park known for long lines and slow operations during a pandemic might just have been my magic ticket. I got three rides on Superman, two on Firebird, two on Roar, and one on everything else that was operating all in the three hours I had allotted before driving back to Dulles for my flight home. Would I have enjoyed Six Flags America the same had I attended on a non-pandemic summer day? Well I have no idea, but I suspect not, so I’m glad I visited when I did. The first thing that surprised me is how big this park is. Its stature within the chain might suggest something other than a sprawling behemoth of a park, but that’s exactly how it felt. It reminded me a little of Six Flags Great Adventure with how the impression of size is further inflated by a convoluted layout with lots of dead ends. If Six Flags ever saw reason to ramp up investment here, they certainly have the space to build. It was bright, clean (though that may have been the lack of people), and probably would feel a lot different if all it added were a few tree-lined midways. I feel for the locals who have patronized this place for years. You haven’t gotten a legitimate new coaster since Batwing in 2001. But at least to me, the coasters here stack up nicely against those at Discovery Kingdom or St. Louis. The only coaster closed was Wild One, unfortunately one of the three that really interested me along with Superman and Firebird. I saw a couple of test runs right around the time I had to leave, but ride ops said they didn’t know when it would open. An enthusiast I met told me it eventually opened about an hour after I left. I still want to ride it. An excuse to go back? I won’t get ahead of myself, but never say never. Superman: Ride of Steel I guess I’m a latecomer to the S:ROS clones. I rode Six Flags New England’s improved version, which as most know, is not a clone at all, a decade ago and I’m just now getting around to one of its predecessors. While an Intamin hyper is always something to get excited about, this layout is just so simple and bland I that it was never much of a blip on my radar. Would I have made more of a point to seek it out had it been at a different park with a better reputation? Probably. After riding it, I’m a fan. This is still a great coaster. It may not be its New England brother, but I can see why it remains in high esteem. The ejector airtime and forceful helixes are all there, just in simplified form. I found the sustained sense of speed reminiscent of Millennium Force. The straight track and low, wide turns mimic the sensation of its bigger giga-cousin quite well. The only down aspect of the ride I found was the trim before the final bunny hill. It diminishes one last pop of airtime, but I can see why it’s needed given how comically short the brake run is. After three rides I even decided I preferred it to Candymonium. A very surprising 9/10! Soaring over the trees and the expanse of flat land SFA is built on amplify Superman's size. 200 foot hyper coasters are commonplace now, but this one feels huge. I didn't even realize I caught the Roar train when taking this shot. This hill, the second to last, has plenty of airtime, but the trim on the descent drastically slows the hill that follows. Drops of 70 degrees don't look as steep today as they did 20 years ago, but that doesn't mean one can't still deliver great ejector air! Joker’s Jinx I wonder if these Premier LIM bowl coasters were 15-20 years ahead of their time. Sure Premier built a handful of them, but I suspect they might have been even more popular today. Would we have seen these popping up as frequently as the Sky Rocket II models? Just maybe. I only rode once, but I would happily have done more if I wasn’t limited on time. 7.5/10 Who doesn't love the look of a Premier LIM-bowl? Joker and Poltergeist are especially fun since they lack the MCBRs found on the Flight of Fear twins. At Six Flags America Wonder Woman isn't a RMC single rail or a Zamperla Giant Discovery, she's a Star Flyer! Firebird My interest in Firebird was rooted in it strictly as a historical curiosity. What enthusiast doesn’t want to have the original B&M on their ledger? For anyone who may not know, Firebird was once the standup coaster Iron Wolf at Six Flags Great America, opening all the way back in 1990. I never got to ride it at its old home or with the standup trains, but finally checking it off my list felt like a right of passage. Iron Wolf was long known as an uncomfortable ride and it stayed that way after its relocation to SFA as Apocalypse. Some still say that even now after its floorless conversion. So imagine my surprise when I found this coaster to be a blast. I didn’t think it was rough. It felt like a moderately intense, unique little looper that was smooth enough given its age. I enjoy B&M’s earliest layouts that were often light on inversions and high on tight twists and turns and this is a great example of it. It’s a true spiritual predecessor in more ways than one to a favorite of mine, Georgia Scorcher. Firebird is longer, smoother, and better than CGA’s Patriot, another standup-to-floorless conversion of similar vintage, and I’d also take it over several ground-up floorless coasters like Hydra, Batman: The Dark Knight, Bizarro, and Scream. 7.5/10 Even if you aren't impressed with Firebird as a coaster, you have to be at least a little impressed with the effort Six Flags put towards its presentation. I was surprised how much I liked it. The first drop has a slight kink in it halfway down you would never see on a B&M built today. Batwing I was looking forward to this one too. I’ve always thought the second-gen Vekoma flyers are good rides. X-Flight was my favorite coaster at Geauga Lake and I remained a loyal supporter when Cedar Fair moved it to Kings Island as Firehawk. I was disappointed when they announced it would be removed, although I understood the reason for it. I cannot say the same for Nighthawk at Carowinds. That one tracks much rougher and its double corkscrew finale is less satisfying than the inline twists into a helix combo seen on Firehawk and its twin, Batwing. Fortunately Batwing feels exactly like Firehawk. Riding up the lift hill on your back will always suck when the sun is out, but after that I enjoy every element. This is a punchy, forceful layout and I’ll take Batwing over a Superman: Ultimate Flight clone any day. 8/10 Batwing looks kind of SBNO without a train running. With Firehawk gone, I'm glad its clone remains, even if it has to be at a park I'm unlikely to visit often. Batwing doesn't spend as much time flying as the B&M models do, but its standard set of elements provokes very different sensations in the flying or prone positions than when seated. The second-gen Vekoma layout is a good one. Roar I rode this twice. First was a cautious attempt in the middle of the train where I was so pleasantly encouraged by the comfortable ride experience and two pops of airtime(!) that I immediately went back around to try out the back seat. It did not go well. It was at least as rough and possibly rougher than Wildcat, which isn’t all that surprising considering this GCI still runs PTC trains. My memories of Six Flags Discovery Kingdom’s Roar aren’t vivid, but I recall coming off of it with a similar opinion. The Roar layout is a good one, better than Wildcat’s, but without the dedicated trackwork necessary to keep it in good shape, it just tears itself up. 5/10 on the strength of a better than expected first ride. Do rock monsters have vocal cords? Roar has the same aesthetic design symmetry that I liked in Wildcat. It just doesn't translate on-ride. Mind Eraser Not the worst SLC I’ve ridden! This one doesn’t have new trains or restraints, but the headbanging was manageable. I’d like to see Six Flags upgrade all their SLCs the way they have with Six Flags New England’s Mind Eraser (or Riddler Revenge now I guess…) 5/10 Rajun’ Cajun I can see why this little spinner has developed a bit of a cult following. If I were a Chicago local, I’d be disappointed Six Flags Great America lost it. When left to run unhinged without significant trim-braking these Reverchon spinning coasters are downright thrilling. I’m talking alarming amounts of spinning during the second half. Not since the even more unhinged (and sadly SBNO) Raton Loco at Mexico City’s La Feria have I spun this much on a coaster. If I had a full day here I would have gone back for seconds. 7/10 I got to watch Wild One test a couple of empty trains, but the credit eluded me. I won't rule out coming back one day.

Day 2—Knoebels I had a mission on this visit: either quash or validate my opinion that Phoenix might just be kinda-sorta overrated. I worshiped at the altar of Phoenix my first time at Knoebels. Evening rides with hues of a pink and orange sky over the treetops had tears forming at the corners of my eyes while I laughed and cried from the boundless airtime and buzz bars. I honestly couldn’t decide if it was better than El Toro, Voyage, and Boulder Dash or only as good. But on my next visit Phoenix was, dare I say underwhelming. I still enjoyed it, but the airtime and freedom of movement the trains offered were more “pleasantly amusing” compared to the borderline euphoric memory I had of it. I dropped it a good twelve places on my wooden coaster list, landing among other “very good but not world class” woodies like Shivering Timbers and Rampage. Twister became my preferred Knoebels coaster and I rode it double what I rode Phoenix, though that had as much to do with my developing a true appreciation for Twister’s unique blend of attributes as it did with Phoenix becoming a slight disappointment. I hoped to firm up my opinion one way or the other on this trip. Flying Turns was closed for retracking/reprofiling and Impulse was closed because… reasons. Missing out on them this visit wasn’t a concern for me. I like Flying Turns, but it's more of a fun novelty rather than something I come back again and again for, and I don’t like Impulse even a little bit, so no loss for me there. Knoebels stellar collection of new and old school flat rides were all operating minus one or two exceptions, so the park still had more than enough things to do to fill up the 12pm-8pm operating day. It felt about as crowded as Hersheypark did the day before and Knoebels normal practice of one-train operations on Phoenix and Twister presented the same capacity problem with social distancing measures in place here as it did on Wildcat. If there was a time for Knoebels to go to two-train op on them, this may have been it. I haven’t visited this park as often as some members on here do, so I suppose it’s possible Knoebels does two-train op more than I realize and I just haven’t seen it. Flying Turns... It would have been nice to ride it, but I can think of no coaster with worse capacity if adjusted for socially distanced seating. They really wouldn't even need to on it, but it's terrifying to think about. Inside the Flying Turns station and transfer track. I do like the look of its trains. Knoebels has always worked hard to lend this ride the utmost authenticity they could. Some major retracking/reprofiling was taking place on it. I haven't kept pace with the project, but from the looks of it the end of the ride might be significantly altered. Phoenix Look, so Phoenix is still really good. Like seriously good. Like so good it’s almost as good as the very best wooden coaster at Knoebels----Twister! After six rides on it I did in fact rediscover some of my fondness for it. The legendary airtime was only present on half of the hills in my estimation, but even I couldn’t help myself from stupidly grinning like a Godzilla fan in Shinjuku on the return run of bunny hops at the end. It’s impossible not to at the very least really like this coaster, even if I have to face that it's just not going to be one of my favorites again. I favor intensity over easy-going fun and re-rideability in most of my top coasters. Phoenix is not that kind of ride and that’s fine. Even I wouldn’t want every coaster to be like that. 8.5/10 Phoenix is the rare airtime coaster without airtime on the first drop. It's just there to get you up to speed. The good stuff comes later. Phoenix is not the easiest coaster to photograph from inside the park. But since Knoebels doesn't really have a "inside the park" I walked around behind it by a bunch of homes/offices and maintenance areas, none of which were off limits, to find some different angles. Probably the strongest airtime moments on the ride - the final two hills before the turnaround into the brakes. I love how the antique cars form a neighborhood park-like setting around Phoenix and drive through its structure. The down side of Phoenix's iconic double-up-double-down. Another particularly strong airtime moment. The ride's first bit of air comes on the drop off the first turnaround. Phoenix's second lap is where you really can appreciate the single-position buzz bars. Twister Now this is my kind of wooden coaster. It felt maybe a hair slower and a touch tamer than last time, but half-empty trains can do that sometimes. Regardless, Twister is unique, aggressive, and relentless. It’s also quite smooth, superbly so for such a laterals-focused ride running PTCs. I spotted plenty of fresh wood so it’s evident Knoebels believes in taking immaculate care of a coaster that probably doesn’t generate the kind of ridership or publicity Phoenix does. Twister is an underrated airtime coaster too. While the ride ops kept thwarting me by assigning me rows one or two on all but my final ride (imagine trying explain that to an average guest, “Dammit, I got the front again!”), the back seat delivers sharp airtime on the two big drops and at several points between the helix and the brakes. And if you do ride up front, you’ll get that second half air there too. 9/10 Something about Twister makes it look massive as you approach from the road bordering the main park. The Elitch Gardens Mister Twister is in my top 5 coasters I'd bring back from the dead. If Knoebel's more compact, near-replica is an indication, I'm sure I would have loved the original. Watching Twister speed through the helix circling the station is a great way to build anticipation while in line. My second favorite wooden coaster helix after the slightly more ferocious one on Legend at Holiday World. The curved station is a nice touch. I don't know if there was a structural reason for including it or if was done to emulate Mister Twister. Either way it's just one more thing that makes this ride unique. Like Phoenix, Twister's best angles can be found by walking behind the coaster, in this case through Knoebels' campground. It's not Boulder Dash or anything, but Twister has just a bit of terrain coaster going on. Strong airtime in front or back before hitting the brakes. About to enter the concrete tunnel. This tunnel absolutely HOWLS during night rides. Twister is an underrated airtime coaster. It isn't the focus, but what's there is strong and abrupt. The first bit comes in the back during the second drop. I finally got the Kosmo's Kurves credit after forgetting about it last time. This is a kiddie coaster done right. Just thrilling enough, yet not intimidating. Phoenix's line ran a consistent 20-25 minutes by mid afternoon. I have only ever seen it run one train and the ride ops always have the same reply, "We like it to have a more sustainable line," which I've never fully understood. If it's strictly about maintenance costs then I get it. But otherwise, I'd think a park operating on a ticketed pay-per ride system would want to increase throughput as much as possible to spur more ticket sales. But I don't know as much about Knoebels as some people on here. Maybe I'm missing something. Phoenix's second train valiantly campaigned to help with capacity during social distancing, but its efforts were constantly rebuffed. I think it looks sad here. The Flyers, the third best ride in the park. Not that Knoebels is the kind of park that needs to serve beer, but if they did, the flyers might just become THE best! See ya Impulse. I might'a ridden ya if ya were open, might'a not.

They switched to a softer foam at some point but my guess is you'll still find it painful if it was that bad before. Even though it's my #1 I'll admit the lapbars are an awful design. I've just figured out some workarounds!

Crowds on the late July Saturday I went were mild, but seating every other row on the woodies with one-train op resulted in 20-25 minute waits by mid afternoon. The only other ride with a comparable wait was StratosFear.

Nice photos and reviews! Indiana Beach, Holiday World, and Kings Island were all supposed to be on my aborted road trip last month. I'm always glad to see new people learning to really appreciate Voyage and Legend. They're two of my all-time favorites, but seem to have declined in popularity recently.

My review may have come across a little harsh, though my 7/10 was meant to show it's a quality coaster that has simply never made a big impression on me. I've noticed racing/dueling makes a bigger difference to some enthusiasts than others. For me it has never mattered much, with Dueling Dragons as the lone exception. Generally if I don't enjoy it as a single coaster, dueling isn't going to change that, but I understand why it would for others. One great thing about Skyrush is that it often has a one-train wait at most in the evening. So unless you're there on an especially busy day, almost any evening can become a Skyrush ERT hour!

Pennsylvania & Maryland July 2020 You’re never going to believe this, but my 2020 theme park itinerary did not work out as planned. Way back in January I made plans as follows: (1) a ten-day, seven park road trip from Indiana to Virginia in July, and (2) a seven-day, seven park retreat to Orlando in October. The summer trip gradually eroded and morphed into a four-day weekend to Pennsylvania and Maryland in late July and I’m currently cobbling together a trip to Tennessee and Texas for the fall. Hersheypark was already one of my favorite parks in the country and is among the fortunate few to debut their new for 2020 coaster, so it was an easy choice to anchor my trip. And while in the area, there was simply no way I could pass up a visit to Knoebels, even with two of their coasters closed for the season. I flew into Washington Dulles on Thursday and had a late afternoon return flight that Sunday, which seemed like the perfect amount of time for my first visit to Six Flags America on the way to the airport. The whole thing turned out pretty well. Hershey and Knoebels had the lightest crowds I’ve seen, but still felt lively enough to not seem too far out of the ordinary, and SFA was practically empty for two of the three hours I spent there. I won’t comment much about mask-wearing and social distancing. I work in the hospitality industry so I’m already used to wearing a mask all day and being around throngs of people who either won’t wear one or wear them incorrectly. Seeing it at a theme park made no difference to me. At no point at any of the three parks did I feel at greater risk than I do every day at work. Hersheypark now has an entrance befitting a park of its stature. The new plaza fits so naturally it feels like it's always been here. I'm always a fan of seeing a park's skyline from the the front gate. Day 1—Hersheypark I have long felt that Hersheypark had the second best coaster collection in the United States after Cedar Point. They are the only two parks with lineups I enjoy enough from top to bottom to spend two full days at without resorting to extended marathons on just one or two coasters. I don’t think Candymonium makes Hershey’s collection any qualitatively better, but as the saying goes, “quantity has a quality all its own.” After four rides on it, I’d rank it in the middle of the pack among Hershey’s adult thrill coasters. What it does is add yet one more perfectly enjoyable and visually striking coaster to spread the day out even better. Soaring over the midway makes Candymonium's finale more exciting both on and off-ride. The Brothers Hyper. I think Candymonium and Skyrush are a superior complementary pairing than the B&M hyper + B&M giga duos Cedar Fair has been going with lately. You can really see the Cedar Fair influence on the park’s new entrance plaza, “Chocolatetown.” The placement of the B&M is different, set farther back from the gates than Fury 325 or Gatekeeper, but the effect is similar. I might even like Hersheypark’s approach better. While I like seeing the CF coasters soaring over the entrance as much as anyone, Candymonium’s distance from it creates a picturesque vista that will only improve as the landscape around it fills in. So how do I think it rides? Candymonium I waited twenty-five minutes for my first backseat ride at opening, the longest queue I waited in all day. While I avoid judging a major coaster on a single ride, let alone before it has warmed up, I wasn’t particularly impressed. Excluding the gigas, I have two B&M hypers I really like (Goliath @ SFOG and Nitro), two I really don’t (Sitting Bull and Intrimidator), and all the rest are grouped together somewhere in the middle. I’m much too sardonic in most situations to dare call myself an optimist, but I kind-of-sort-of expected Candymonium to be in that upper tier and it just wasn’t. The first and second drops were great and that was about it. The rest of it felt a lot like Diamondback, like it was just going through the motions in typical late B&M fashion. But I’ve done a complete 180 on new coasters before and that’s exactly what happened. I came back to Candymonium in the afternoon and rode once up front and twice more in back, and predictably, giving it time to warm up made a noticeable difference. First the hammerhead whipped a little harder. There’s nothing that can be done about the trim that follows—it kills the subsequent cammelback no matter what. On the speed hill after the camelback is where I really noticed a change, feeling for a moment like I was back on SFOG’s Goliath being vaulted up into my clamshell. The upward helix pulls just hard enough to be interesting and the banked drop and bunny hop had strong floater air, though not as strong as the speed hill. Candymonium is still not an elite B&M to me, but I ended the day a much bigger fan of it than I started. It feels the most similar to Mako, but Candymonium finishes strong whereas Mako kind of meanders through the final third of its layout. 8.5/10 The first drop is very good. It feels exactly like Mako's. It's a minor touch, but I'm glad to see B&M tinkering with their established formula even in small ways like the extra banking here. The trim on this hill never harmed it much, something that cannot be said about the first trim earlier in the layout. Real men ride the Reese's train. There's lots of room for Chocolatetown to grow or landscaping to fill in around Candymonium. Hersheypark could probably relocate some of its older, smaller attractions here to free up more water park space in the back. B&M hypers ranked: 1. Goliath (SFOG) 2. Nitro 3. Candymonium 4. Mako 5. Silver Star 6. Diamondback 7. Apollo’s Chariot 8. Hollywood Dream 9. Raging Bull 10. Intimidator The hillside behind the railing at left leads to what used to be the Skyrush path along the creek. There is still space to pave and reconnect it if the park chooses to do so in the future. Hopefully they do. Skyrush Still my number-one coaster. I’ve expounded at length about Skyrush in past installments, so I won’t break it down element-by-element here. It’s the kind of coaster that screams in your face, “There are two kinds of riders in this world—those who work out their quads—and those who don’t!” There are however several ways to improve your comfort level with a little practice. For one, I scoot forward a couple of inches in my seat as I go up the lift to position the lap bar higher up on my thighs. Second, I place my hands on my knees and lean forward during the low-ground turns. Skyrush can vibrate and this mostly alleviates it. And if you’re a real Skyrush masochist like I am, you can sit on a wing seat and plant your inside foot on the floor of the seat beside you on the pullouts to keep the lapbar up. Getting a good, comfortable ride on Skyrush is like a game and while some may hate that, it’s part of why I love it. There aren’t many coasters out there that can make seasoned enthusiasts brace and hold on for dear life, and of those that do, Skyrush is king. That’s why it remains my favorite. 10/10 Skyrush is like the last of Intamin's old guard. The last major coaster they built that alarmed people with its intensity. After 2012 they still built plenty of excellent coasters, but seemed to dial the aggression down a notch, probably the right move for them. The lack of the Skyrush path has turned what used to be one of the most photogenic, easily photographed coasters into one that is now especially difficult. My favorite airtime moment in the world. Candymonium's banking transitions have nothing on Skyrush's. Fahrenheit Another coaster I found underwhelming the first time I rode it, but over time my esteem for Fahrenheit has steadily risen to the point where I now consider it the second best coaster in the park, even when Storm Runner is operating. While I think the general enthusiast opinion of it has similarly risen, it still occasionally gets a bad rap as a rare blemish on Intamin’s record from the 2000s. “If Intamin built a B&M,” is a phrase you might see crop up every so often. It’s certainly not Intamin’s most intense work, but it might be their most well-rounded from that period. Ejector air beyond-vertical drop? One of only two Norwegian loops in the world? More airtime on the exit of said Norwegian loop? A uniquely forceful cobra roll? Snappy, actually worthwhile corkscrews? An ejector air bunny hop finale? Check the box for them all please. 9/10 Fahrenheit looks like a small child's drawing of a roller coaster from some angles. I appreciate it more and more every time I visit. The Norwegian Loop is a great inversion. A little side-to-side shimmy at the top, positive g's on the bottom, and airtime on the way back down. I'd like to see more of them. Most corkscrews are usually duds, but not Fahrenheit's. It packs a diverse set of elements and forces into a tight layout. This ejector airtime hill is the perfect finale for an inversion-focused layout. Great Bear To any Pennsylvania enthusiasts who like to complain that Great Bear’s layout is incomplete, I’d like to propose a trade. I’ll give you Silver Bullet for it, straight up… Any takers? Okay, I’ll also throw in your pick of Sierra Sidewinder, Coast Rider, or Pony Express. Any takers now…? Didn’t think so. Sure, the bear’s layout could be more fleshed out than it is, but I argue its myriad idiosyncrasies are part of what makes it special, it’s mimicry of IOA’s Pteranodon Flyers at the end included. A brief stretch of track to admire scenery and reflect on the ride experience can actually be a meaningful element not enough coasters take the time to include. It helps too that Great Bear’s big moments are pretty intense in the old school B&M way. The helix, first drop, and four inversions all deliver and I think the swooping drop/turn between the zero-g-roll and corkscrew is an underrated airtime moment if you catch it at the right time in the back row. 8.5/10 Great Bear is an excellent example of how space constraints can lead to some very creative solutions. I would have loved to see the elevated helix into a drop duplicated at Knott's Berry Farm. Great Bear was built after several big 1990s inverts like Montu and Alpengeist, but to me it feels most like one of the earlier, smaller ones, Flight Deck. Great Bear will gladly accept all of your favorite camera angles Skyrush was forced to give up this year. I enjoy the low-to-the-ground straightaways on Great Bear and Raptor. Some might see it as wasted track, but to me its adds character and an instant to take in and appreciate what you're experiencing. Lightning Racer I apparently took no photos of Lightning Racer, which actually makes a lot of sense given that it’s a coaster I’ve long felt completely indifferent towards. In terms of ride experience, I’ve always seen it as the point where GCI began the switch from its original formula as shown by Wildcat, Gwazi, and the Roar twins, to its later design philosophy starting with Ozark Wildcat and Thunderhead, and still being continually refined up through Texas Stingray today. Lightning Racer seems caught in the transition phase between the larger, more drawn-out elements of first group and the lower to the ground, quickly paced elements of the second. If Lightning Racer was firmly in group two, I’d probably like it a lot more. As it is though, I always enjoy it once, but never feel compelled to re-ride. 7/10 And the coaster with the second longest wait of the day was… Wildcat! The ‘every other row’ socially distanced seating is not friendly to the Millennium Flyers’ capacity. The duel tracked Lightning Racer mitigated it, but Wildcat was helpless. It felt exactly the same as I remembered it from two years ago. Rough, but not brutal, and lacking airtime or forces of any kind other than jackhammering. Speculation of eventual RMC treatment isn’t going away unless Hersheypark actually goes through with it, but doing so would ironically rob the ride of its one redeeming quality—its aesthetics. 4/10 Rule #1 of GCI aesthetics - the better they look to the eye, the worse they actually ride! What I mean is that GCI's oldest coasters had an almost poetic flow and symmetry in their structures. You can't really say that about Goldstriker or Mystic Timbers. But I'll the the function over form approach of Goldstriker any day! Comet This was running brilliantly in 2018. I even stated it was Hersheypark’s best wooden coaster at the time. I could still probably find a way to make that argument in 2020, but Comet was not running nearly as fast this year and I couldn’t tell why. Maybe it needs a full train to properly hit its mark and leaving every other row empty left it too light? Maybe it was helped in 2018 by the fact that it was blazing hot that day? Were portions of it retracked two years ago and the PTC trains have spent the last couple of seasons chewing it up again? Hard for me to say. It has a great layout. It reminds me of a longer, more spread-out, terrain version of Phoenix, a fellow Herb Schmeck design. The on-ride experience just wasn’t there this time. 6/10 Comet isn't the easiest ride to photograph either. The other end of the now-closed Skyrush path. Inside the new two-story retail space at Chocolatetown. The upper level was not yet open when I visited. Overall, Chocolatetown and Candymonium are a win for Hersheypark. I made the obligatory stop at Troegs Brewery after the park. As a SoCal craft beer guy, my standards for breweries are high and Troeg's is one of the best. Interior seating was sparse and socially distanced. The patio was full.

^In 2017 Bandit actually surprised me with how (relatively) smooth it was after what I believe was some recent track work... up until the final lap through the structure when it decided to justify its reputation to us. Smooth for a while with a brutal finish. I feel like most of the really rough coasters from the bad old days - which for me means the 90s and early 2000s - have either been removed, given new trains, or converted to hyrbrids. The remaining two that gave me trouble were American Eagle and Carowinds' Hurler.

These look very okay. Very, very okay. I could see the Chinese parks and Energylandia buying lots and lots of them. Okay... Maybe the Giga Splash looks a little better than okay!

I'll go with the original DL for now. I think it has the best "quality and quantity" blend of attractions and the riverside New Orleans Square setting really makes the park's atmosphere for me. Very tough decision between it and DisneySea, but as much as I liked the latter, my experience there felt incomplete with Journey to the Center of the Earth down for refurbishment. With both that and Fantasy Springs I could see my opinion changing one day.

Nice photos! Kraken was my original #1 coaster starting in 2001 once I began to travel to parks outside my home base of Southern California. At that time it was the smoothest coaster I could remember riding although it's roughened a bit with age. My tastes in coasters have changed a lot since then but Kraken is still my favorite floorless and will always have a spot in my "sentimental top 10."

Looks like there may be a small wave turn tacked on at the end leading into the brakes. Hope this happens, although as others have stated I won't be surprised if it's delayed or canceled.

Not that I have or anything, but have you been on Monster? Comments I've seen describe it as something like Raptor without the hard slam into the brakes and 5-10% extra juice. Sounds pretty good to me.

Here's my combined ranking. And full list. 1. Skyrush 2. Steel Vengeance 3. Voyage 4. Expedition GeForce 5. Maverick 6. El Toro 7. Medusa Steel Coaster 8. Fury 325 9. Flying Dinosaur 10. Superman The Ride 11. Eejanaika 12. Intimidator 305 13. Millennium Force 14. Kumba 15. Goliath (SFOG) 16. Boulder Dash (What can I say? My rides on it have been mostly great) 17. Hakugei 18. Twisted Timbers 19. Wicked Cyclone 20. Outlaw Run 21. Raptor 22. Phantom's Revenge 23. Magnum XL-200 24. Ravine Flyer II 25. Taron I also want to add how glad I am that all the recent Japan travel on here has resulted in a very solid #17 steel ranking for Flying Dinosaur, joining Fury 325 as the only B&Ms on the list!

Thanks again to A.J. and everyone else involved! I haven't ridden Untamed yet, but as good as it looks I'm as surprised as anyone that it made #1. I hate to jinx a poor little RMC that has yet to even open, but I can imagine a three-way brawl between Untamed, Steel Vengeance, and Iron Gwazi for the top spot in the years to come. Glad to see my #1, Skyrush, continue moving up the list. Third highest steel Intamin after Expedition GeForce and Maverick is not too bad! I'm also surprised to see Shivering Timbers as high as #16 on the wooden list. I really enjoyed it in 2018, but found the roughness verging on a level I think most enthusiasts would find unacceptable. It's impressive that it outranked a more highly-ridden and much smoother CCI in Ghostrider. Hopefully this means Michigan's Adventure continues to address the problem sections of track.

2019 Season Update 1. Skyrush 2. Steel Vengeance 3. Expedition GeForce 4. Superman The Ride 5. Goliath (SFOG) - Moved up a few spots. Ran the fastest I've ever seen it. Airtime and forces can sometimes feel more Intamin than B&M 6. Phantom's Revenge 7. Magnum XL-200 8. Schwur des Karnan 9. Fujiyama - Epic, long, good air, and great views of Mt. Fuji. I found its airtime abrupt like Magnum and not at all painful 10. Nitro 11. Superman el Ultimo Escape 12. Bandit - Similar sentiments to Fujiyama, but less intense and on a smaller scale with much crappier trains 13. Mako 14. Silver Star 15. Diamondback 16. Apollo's Chariot 17. Titan 18. Goliath (SFMM) 19. Thunder Dolphin - Has nothing going for it after the first drop besides the setting. Too tame for a ride this unique at this size 20. Raging Bull 21. Intimidator 22. Steel Force 23. Mamba 24. Desperado

More great photos! I appreciate all the aviation stuff as it's a hobby of mine as well. I love the 70s era paint scheme on that Saab Viggen! Thanks for all the detail in your descriptions.

Wow and I just days ago booked a flight into Chicago so I could visit this park on the way to Kings Island. Hmmm... if only Six Flags had a park in the Chicago area with a new S&S credit I don't yet have that I could visit instead... Well, nice to dream I suppose!