Condor

SIX FLAGS OVER GEORGIA + ALABAMA SPLASH ADVENTURE (RAMPAGE) - June 2019 This June I took a long weekend to the Atlanta area for Six Flags Over Georgia plus other sightseeing, along with a day-trip into Alabama for a certain, long sought CCI wooden coaster. Day One was Six Flags and I apparently ended up with the wrong Lyft driver on my way to the park because mine was pretty normal. Had I been content to wait until noon and arrived later in the day with my friend, I could have had his driver who extolled the virtues of “The Mushroom Ride” (Acrophobia. I still don’t get it), would have prepared me for the awesomeness of the “New” Batman: The Ride (blue paint), and could have told me to which ATL nightlife spots “all the Millenniums go.” I really wish I had been in that car. SFOG has been my favorite Six Flags park ever since my first visit ten years ago. It has all the same operational and customer service issues as the rest of the chain, but the atmosphere has always felt a little nicer and the collection of rides more well-rounded. This was even the case without a stellar Intamin or RMC headliner. The one-two punch of Goliath and Mindbender was always enough for me. But last year they addressed this hole in their lineup by recycling their 1990 Dinn Corp. wooden coaster, Georgia Cyclone, into the 2018 “pocket RMC” Twisted Cyclone, the main reason for my return visit. I actually liked Georgia Cyclone. It was always in need of more trackwork, but I never found it rough enough to make me avoid it and it wasn’t ruined by trim brakes like some of its Dinn contemporaries. It beat you up a little, but the high points in the layout were worth the grind. That said, with Great American Scream Machine still across the park (more on the fate of that ride in a moment…), the obvious thing to do was for Cyclone to go full-Schilke. Twisted Cyclone I got to the front gate right before the advertised 10:30am opening to find that Twisted Cyclone had actually been giving rides for the last 30 minutes. Might have been a passholder/membership thing, I don’t know. Anyway, it was still a walk-on by the time I got to the station and it already felt nice and warmed up. The back row on both trains was closed off as was the entire back car on one of the two. Normally that would bother me, but this is RMC, so I there’s ejector airtime aplenty in any row. I would describe Twisted Cyclone as a more refined version of one-half of Twisted Colossus. Its west coast cousin has a few parts that feel abrupt in a way that’s actually a little too quick to properly enjoy the airtime. The green side double-down and the double-up on both sides almost happen too fast. On Twisted Cyclone everything feels more fluid. Yes it’s short and yes I wish they had found a way to complete a third lap inside the structure, but I also didn’t feel like I really missed it. What the layout has is fine. The wave turn on this ride is one of RMC’s greatest singular elements, even better than the ones on Outlaw Run or Steel Vengeance. This coaster is exactly what SFOG needed, but it hasn’t claimed top spot for my favorite ride in the park. 8.5/10 RMC Rankings: 1. Steel Vengeance 2. Medusa Steel Coaster 3. Wicked Cyclone 4. Outlaw Run 5. Twisted Timbers 6. Railblazer 7. Twisted Colossus 8. Iron Rattler 9. New Texas Giant 10. Twisted Cyclone 11. Joker 12. Goliath (SFGAm) Goliath Even with a new RMC nearby, this B&M is still the class of the park for me. I like most of the other B&M hypers, but wouldn’t call any of them outstanding coasters (not talking gigas). Goliath is different. It takes the big cammelbacks just a tick faster and the intense helix turnaround packs a punch the others lack. This one feels more like New Texas Giant or even Superman the Ride than it does just another big, out & back B&M. I had read about it developing a rattle this season, and while I don’t visit this park often enough to make a comparison, I could feel it on the pullouts of the three biggest drops, but didn’t notice it elsewhere. Rattle or not, it’s still an awesome coaster and I liked it even more than I remembered. 9/10 Mindbender Has SFOG made any adjustments to it this year? Mindbender was still good, but I felt like the two sets of trims came on harder than I recall. I actually don’t think the second trim activated at all the last time, leading to a nice burst of airtime before entering the second loop. This time they clamped down and the whole ride felt a little sluggish. I don’t know. This is still one of the most unique coasters around and I hope it achieves ACE landmark status one day, as I hope the park realizes what a gem it still is and keeps investing in its upkeep. SFOG truly would not be the same without it. 8.5/10 Georgia Scorcher I miss the yellow, but thank god they finally painted it. The thing is, I can totally picture writing a TR where I say the exact same thing about Goliath in 2024 or something, so… yay SFOG? New paint or not, I think Scorcher is the best standup coaster ever built, and this is from someone who grew up with Riddler’s Revenge in his back yard. The light-on-inversions layout is a throwback to B&M’s early days but with the comfort and smoothness of their prime years. A great, mildly intense little coaster with fun, snappy directional changes that does its own thing in a sea of B&M homogeneity. 8/10 Batman: The Ride For whatever reason, all my best Batman laps have come on this one. It always seems to have an extra 5-10% more oomph behind it than any of the others. I often gray out on these coasters through the first loop and regain my senses exiting the zero-g-roll. But this time I grayed out a second time starting with the second loop and ending with the first corkscrew. It was the single most impressive B:TR experience I’ve ever had. This model is not usually one of my favorite inverts, however if they weren’t clones and SFOG’s was a standalone example, I could see myself rating it higher. Here’s something I thought was weird. The crowds here seem to regard it as a marquee attraction in a way they haven’t at other Six Flags parks in years. It had as long a queue as anything else in the park and it’s even limited to one ride only on the Flash Pass. For Batman? From 1997? 8.5/10 Superman: Ultimate Flight Confession. I really like these coasters, especially this one, the original installation custom suited to the terrain. It’s easy to dump on them if you’ve ridden Tatsu or Manta because the S:UF clones just don’t do a whole lot, but I still thoroughly enjoy them. Maybe I’m just a sucker for any and all flying coasters. I mean, my third favorite coaster at Kings Island as of a couple of years ago was Firehawk, so.… It’s just too bad they still can’t seem to properly operate the thing. One train ops in a dual-loading station with a second train parked in the shed? I really shouldn’t be surprised by things like this anymore. 8/10 I see you Ninja... Blue Hawk Wow! This was my first time riding it since its old Ninja days and whatever magic Six Flags and Vekoma did to the trains and track paid off in spades. It went from a once per visit kind of thing that you rode only to remind yourself of why you don’t ride it very often to a coaster worth multiple same day re-rides. I’m no engineer, but the improved ride quality felt like it resulted from some type of shock damping assembly on the wheel bogies. Regardless of how it works, I’d like to see SFMM get a couple of these trains to run on Viper. 7/10 Dare Devil Dive Coaster What a relief to see this thing running without VR again. Now the dispatches improve from abysmal to merely frustrating! Capacity issues aside, DDD is a fun enough Eurofighter that might very well be awful if it had OTSRs, which it thankfully does not. Gerstlauer has certainly done better layouts for these, but I enjoy this one just fine. It’s almost like SFOG thought, “Why don’t we build a deluxe family coaster with a beyond-vertical drop?” 7/10 Great American Scream Machine Why in the world did they feel the need to replace those wonderful 3-bench PTCs with buzz-bars with the 2-bench, ratcheting lapbar trains from Georgia Cyclone? Unless the old trains were becoming a maintenance headache I don’t understand it. First of all, this ride has never run faster. These trains flat-out fly and deliver better airtime than the old ones. Unfortunately they also track a whole lot worse and the roughness becomes painful and jarring in the back half of the train. If only they took care of GASM as well as Six Flags St. Louis takes care of Screamin’ Eagle. Then this could be a great, classic wooden coaster. 5/10 Dahlonega Mine Train I nominate this and Hersheypark’s Trailblazer for worst Arrow mine train. Mine trains can be a lot of fun if terrain and scenery are built up around them, but Dahlonega has basically none. It’s just a starter coaster for kids and nothing more, which is fine, it’s just lackluster compared to a few of its counterparts. 4/10 Monster Mansion This dark boat ride has got to be the single most anomalous ride in the entire chain. Every SF park should have something just like it. Who even needs Justice League? May it live forever. 10+++ It just occurred to me I didn’t even think to ride the new for 2019 Pandemonium. Guess I’ll make do with Crazanity. ALABAMA SPLASH ADVENTURE Like my layover at Michigan’s Adventure last year, I can trace my first ever visit to the state of Alabama back to a Discovery Channel coaster special almost two decades ago. I first heard about Rampage from this episode of More Top 10 Coasters from 2001 (the video title states 2002, but I’m pretty sure that’s wrong). I recorded a bunch of these Discovery coaster shows on VHS tapes that I watched on what I’m sure must have been at least a weekly basis back then. The top 10 episodes in those days used the Golden Ticket Awards to select the coasters and in that year, an otherwise little-known CCI at a park then known as VisionLand claimed the #4 wooden coaster spot. Skip to 12:11 for Rampage. Like Shivering Timbers (also featured in this episode), Rampage became a bucket list coaster that was difficult to acquire due to its remote location. There just aren’t any other parks around it. Compounding the difficulty of acquiring the Rampage credit even further is the fact that VisionLand went through several ownership changes and the coaster itself went SBNO for several years starting in 2012, the year I started really making an effort to travel to more parks. The park eventually ended up in the hands of the Koch family under the name Alabama Splash Adventure in 2015 and Rampage has been in consistent operation ever since. Once I knew I would be going back to Atlanta, I checked the distance to Alabama Splash Adventure and decided the three hour drive was worth finally landing my elusive Rampage credit. There isn’t much to this place. The modestly-sized water park is the main draw and the dry side is little more than ten or so kids rides and a funnel cake shop. Rampage is the only true thrill ride in the park. It looks gigantic, looming over the kiddie rides from a hillside in the back of the park. The place is exceptionally clean and the service from every employee I met inside the park was great. The weather forecast was clear and I was amped to finally ride this thing, but we arrived at the gate to learn that all the “tall rides” were down due to lightning nearby. We weighed our options for a few minutes, then had our minds made up for us when they announced that Rampage was up and running again. We quickly paid our admission and made it over to the coaster as the first of two test runs was completed. After the second test, they opened the air gates and let us board the train, but as they started checking restraints, the ride ops announced that Rampage would once again be closing for lightning. I WAS SO CLOSE… And this remained the state of things for the next 2.5 hours. We remained in the park as the lighting grew nearer and all rides shut down until further notice. I was getting pretty nervous. We only got to the park at 3:00 ahead of a 6:00 closing time and Alabama Adventure is not exactly a place I’d be able to easily incorporate into another trip in the near future, so it was looking grim. With no lightning for a while, we walked back to Rampage at 5:20 to check things out. And wouldn’t you know it, an employee came strolling down the entrance ramp to tell us that Rampage would begin testing again and opening again was looking likely. We chatted with the ride ops for a few minutes as testing commenced. They absolutely could not believe that I had come all the way from California to ride this thing. This is a common sentiment I run into when traveling around rural America. Park employees usually have little understanding of the significance of the coasters they operate and they always love it when I tell them. The day actually ended perfectly and I rode Rampage nine times before leaving. And to the park’s credit, they kept it open past 6:00 as the coaster was still running when I left. Rampage It was well worth the wait. I’m a huge CCI fanboy and Rampage delivers on all the stuff they’re known for: select spots of jolting ejector air, rows of floater cammelbacks, big swoop turnarounds with lateral g’s, unbanked turns within the structure packing even more laterals. This really is the prototypical CCI in many ways, the ride that best exemplifies the full catalogue of what Custom Coasters could do. That doesn’t mean it’s CCI’s best work though. Boulder Dash, Shivering Timbers, and Legend have greater highs even if they’re more polarizing. Ghostrider, Tremors, and Timber Terror are smoother and more consistent. Raven is friendlier and more fun. But Rampage is still great and it’s in better condition than Shivering Timbers was when I rode it last year. Timbers had several rough sections I had to brace for where Rampage’s only problem spot was the first drop pullout. Other sections showed plenty of fresh wood, so it’s clear the park is taking care of it over time. I think it’s far superior to The Boss and probably The Villain, but I rode that one so long ago I hardly even remember it. Rampage isn’t the most convenient credit to get, but I recommend seeking it out if you can make the drive and want to couple it with SFOG or Dollywood. 8.5/10 CCI Rankings: 1. Boulder Dash 2. Legend 3. Ghostrider 4. Timber Terror 5. Tremors 6. Shivering Timbers 7. Rampage 8. Raven 9. Boss 10. Villain This may seem low for a coaster I’ve praised so highly, but that’s only because I have so much love for CCIs in general. For perspective, Rampage is above all but maybe 3 of the 14 GCI’s I’ve ridden. On the cultural side of the trip, one of the attractions we visited was the excellent Atlanta History Center, a museum dedicated to Atlanta's part in the Civil War and the Civil Rights movement. By far the coolest thing at the center was the "Cyclorama." It's an enormous painting over 300 feet wide and 30 feet tall situated in a 360 degree wrap-around exhibit hall depicting the Battle of Atlanta of 1864. This battle was significant because it occurred at a time when Abraham Lincoln was almost certain to lose reelection and the opposition party intended to sign a peace agreement with the Confederacy that would have left the country divided. But Union General William T. Sherman's Northern forces were victorious and captured the city. This victory lent Lincoln a much needed win and all but secured his reelection, insuring the war would go on until the South was defeated. The Cyclorama itself was painted by German artists in 1886 and has been altered and restored numerous times - first to suit revisionist history and depict a Confederate victory - and then back to the artists' historically accurate original intention much later in the 1950s. You observe the Cyclorama from a raised platform for proper perspective. This photo also gives an idea of the size of it. It is actually a mixture of a 2D painting in the background and 3D plaster figures in the foreground. It looks almost seamless in person and practically imperceptible in photos. Since photography of the 1860s could not capture scenes on this scale, art like the Cyclorama was the most immersive way 19th Century people could see Civil War battles. The figure on horseback in the center is said to be General William Tecumseh Sherman who led the Northern forces to victory in Atlanta. Gone With the Wind actor Clark Gable came to view the Cyclorama once. Supposedly he stated, "The only thing it's missing is me." So they added him in. Here he is!

I enjoy Wodan a lot for its sprawl and interaction with the surrounding environment. That said, it was my least favorite of the three European GCIs I've been on. Troy was superior and I liked Joris en de Draak better too. Fortunately, Europa is a place where my enjoyment of the park and its rides is not limited to how well the coasters stack up against their peers.

Great photos! I didn't know what to make of this coaster when it was announced but it looks like a must-ride now that we've seen it in action. That it takes the inversions fast appeals to me too. Way to go S&S.

^That was my thought too. If it's anything close to the rendering, this layout could produce an I305 or Skyrush type of experience in terms of pacing (though almost certainly not intensity). A relentless, if somewhat short layout that maximizes every foot of track it has. I also think this does a better job differentiating itself from Diamondback than either Fury 325 or Leviathan do from Intimidator and Behemoth.

The one that continues to surprise me is Soaring with Dragon. If I remember correctly, it would have ranked highly last year too if it had enough ridership. It just doesn't *look* like it has the makings of a top 10 steel coaster, but something about it must really work. I'd be very curious to hear more from someone on here who has ridden it. Here's mine: 1. Skyrush (Hersheypark) 2. Steel Vengeance (Cedar Point) 3. Voyage (Holiday World 4. Expedition GeForce (Holiday Park) 5. Maverick (Cedar Point) 6. El Toro (Six Flags Great Adventure) 7. Medusa Steel Coaster (Six Flags Mexico) 8. Boulder Dash (Lake Compounce) 9. Fury 325 (Carowinds) 10. Superman The Ride (Six Flags New England) 11. Intimidator 305 (Kings Dominion 12. Millennium Force (Cedar Point) 13. Kumba (Busch Gardens Tampa) 14. Raptor (Cedar Point) 15. Wicked Cyclone (Six Flags New England) 16. Outlaw Run (Silver Dollar City) 17. Twisted Timbers (Kings Dominion) 18. Phantom's Revenge (Kennywood) 19. Magnum XL-200 (Cedar Point) 20. Ravine Flyer II (Waldameer Park) 21. Taron (Phantasialand) 22. Afterburn (Carowinds) 23. Legend (Holiday World) 24. Twister (Knoebels) 25. Schwur des Kärnan (Hansa Park)

No, no, no, see it's all in keeping with the theme. The P-47 Thunderbolt pilots the zero cars are based on listened to the same thing in the skies over war-torn Germany.

This is now my pick for the best looking RMC aesthetically. My November trip can't come soon enough!

I'm pretty sure I made a joke about this very thing happening in one of my first posts after signing up six years ago. Let's hope we didn't both have a premonition!

The uphill barrel roll sounds a lot like one half of the double barrel roll ending on Outlaw Run. Can't wait to see the full layout of this.

To me, this ride looks like the midpoint between Steel Vengeance and New Texas Giant. That's honestly the sweet spot I think a lot of RMCs should (and do) hit. And even if it ends up being more like "NTAG with inversions," that's still good enough to be at minimum a top 20-30 coaster for 90% of the people on this forum, including myself. I look forward to riding it on my first Japan trip this fall.

I was thinking the same thing. Working with Mack opens up a lot of possibilities for this space. I'd love to see something like an Xtreme Spinner that utilizes the volcano. I got to ride Volcano once in 2014 and it was closed in 2018. My sample size is too small to properly critique it, but I wasn't wowed by it like many of you were. Thought it was more "unique and cool" than "great."

Almost Definitely: Canada's Wonderland Darien Lake Fantasy Island Definitely: Knott's Berry Farm Disneyland Disney California Adventure Six Flags Magic Mountain Tokyo Disneyland Tokyo Disney Sea Fuji-Q Highland Hakkeijima Sea Paradise LaQua Nagashima Spa Land Universal Studios Japan Not planning on doing as many Japanese parks as I easily could. They will have to share priority with visiting a dozen or so landmarks from various Godzilla movies, because like, what better reason is there to go to Japan???

Now watch this B&M hyper become the love-child of Mako and Shambhala and blow everyone away at how great it actually is. At the very least it will probably be a top 10 Golden Ticket mainstay! This is actually the perfect coaster for Hershey the way I see it. Right now they don't have a single coaster over 4,000 feet long and this will comfortably exceed that. Skyrush is currently their longest and it blitzes through so fast you barely have time to breathe. Entrance plaza looks great too.

Went to Scary Farm last night 9/27. The park was not crowded at all as you'd expect on a September Thursday, but I opted for Fright Lane anyway to avoid the queues for Ghostrider and Hangtime. The only mazes with waits longer than 10-15 mins were Paranormal Inc. due to the pre-show and Trick or Treat: Lights Out with the staggered, small group entry and flashlight distribution. Both of those queues would have otherwise been about 45-60 mins. I still recommend picking up Fright Lane even on slower nights if you want to get re-rides on the major coasters and repeat the mazes you liked. Overall I was impressed with the quality of the mazes this year. I won't comment on the scare zones as the scare actors aren't exactly out in full force on week nights this early in the event season. Voodoo had deteriorated from one of the best mazes in its first year to an afterthought last year, so I was glad to see it replaced with The Depths, which has some of the most elaborate sets I've seen from Knott's, although the theme made no sense to me. You start out in a subterranean mine and somehow come out of a ship on the other end? The other new maze this year is Dark Entities, with an outer space theme I also really enjoyed. A few returning mazes like Paranormal Inc., Red Barn, and Pumpkin Eater feel tired or lacking compared to the new ones while Shadowlands, Trick or Treat, and Dark Ride are still going strong. Here's how I'd rank this year's mazes: 1. Shadowlands 2. The Depths 3. Trick or Treat: Lights Out 4. Dark Entities 5. Dark Ride 6. Paranormal Inc. 7. Red Barn 8. Pumpkin Eater. As usual, I skipped Special Ops Infected. And for anyone worried about Ghostrider after the MCBR was reinstalled, don't be. Ghostrider is still smooth and was absolutely flying all night. The brakes didn't so much as graze you. It's running as well as it ever has right now.

This was actually my favorite ride at Geauga Lake and I was surprised at how much I still enjoyed it when I rode again a decade later as Firehawk. It felt a lot smoother to me than Nighthawk. I'm disappointed to lose it over Vortex, but I'm talking as a dispassionate, California enthusiast who has only been to Kings Island twice. I'm sure if I was an Ohio local with the same nostalgia for Vortex that I have for Viper I'd be happy with this decision too.

At first glance I honestly thought the rendering looked kind of underwhelming, but after a closer look there could actually be some really cool elements here. Will have to wait for the video, but this could easily be one of the best RMCs. Stats make it the second longest and sixth fastest. And most importantly... 13 months until I get to ride it!

I don't know when your last visit was, but Comet ran awesome this season. It was HP's smoothest wooden coaster when I visited in June.

Agreed. Even if the hyper is a B&M it would still give CGA one of the best small-midsize coaster collections in the country and I'd make the trip annually instead of every two years.

CALIFORNIA'S GREAT AMERICA - August 2018 I got to thinking as I entered my second Great America in two months, “What would these places look like if the original owner, Marriott, still operated them?” I honestly don’t have the faintest clue what such a pair of parks might look like, even as someone with a hospitality degree. The only company owning and operating theme parks coupled in-house with first rate on-site hotels in the U.S. is Disney (there’s probably an obvious example I’m forgetting). Even Universal opted to work in conjunction with Loews Hotels to do it. But imagine if Marriott never sold the two Great Americas, went all-in on developing them over a period of forty years and somehow resisted the urge to repurpose the land into golf courses or whatever. Best case scenario (i.e. not in a million years) I can picture towering JW Marriotts spanning the entrance gates with a spa and elaborate pool complex on one end and attached retail and dining on the other. JW guests would have their own private entrance of course, and Marriott Gold and Platinum Rewards members would receive complementary fast passes for every day of their stay. Both Whizzers would still be there, and RMC’s Goliath would be a full 2,000 feet longer… Nah, who am I kidding. A more realistic scenario would see both parks looking much like the California park does now with the same dated, generic Marriott + convention center across the street… from the back of the park. Not the front. I think it’s remarkable just how much I like California’s Great America considering its actual history. While Six Flags scooped up the Illinois park, the California park was sold first to the City of Santa Clara—who outsourced operations to Kings Entertainment—who then bought the park outright—and was then subsequently acquired by Paramount—who eventually sold it to Cedar Fair. Whizzer left and new coasters like Tidal Wave, Invertigo, and Stealth came and went, and by the end of the 2000s it wasn’t unreasonable to question whether or not Cedar Fair even saw a future for the park. I first visited in 2012 when the only worthwhile coaster in the park was the still-excellent Flight Deck. I made the rounds for a few hours then left. There just weren’t many quality rides to do. But despite that, I liked the atmosphere and greatly preferred CGA to Bay Area neighbor Six Flags Discovery Kingdom. Things have changed immensely in the last six years, all of it for the better. A pair of elite new roller coasters, a revamp of an old one, and other smaller additions and refinements have turned CGA from a three-hour jaunt into a full day park. I also like it a lot more than former sister park, Six Flags Great America. SFGAm’s location and more stable ownership have allowed it to grow much bigger, but I think CGA hits harder pound-for-pound. I’ll take CGA’s top three coasters—Railblazer, Flight Deck, and Goldstriker—over SFGAm’s whole lineup any day. Goldstriker This and Ghostrider are the great wooden coaster standard-bearers on the West Coast. I’ll flip-flop almost daily over which one I prefer, which is actually kind of maddening to a strict rankings guy like me. How did it run this year? Firstly, it has not gotten rough. It’s no longer opening day smooth, but there isn’t a single jarring moment on the ride. Lightning Racer and Goliath (SFGAm) both ran rougher than Goldstriker this summer. The coolest thing about this ride to me is how much speed it carries into the final brakes. It could go another thousand feet on that momentum, easily. The weirdest thing about this ride to me is how the layout seems “elementless.” What I mean is that you can’t point to any one stretch of track and say, “Oh when it did __X__ it was great.” After the first drop and straight cammelback, the whole course is a series of rising or diving turns with little airtime speed bumps all over the place that blur together into a cohesive whole. On Thunderhead or Wodan for instance, you can pick out certain track elements by name or shape and easily discern them from the rest of the layout. You can’t do that with Goldstriker. Doesn’t make it any worse, just a little odd. 8.5/10 Patriot This was my first time riding since the standup days. I hated Vortex same as most and I think the floorless trains are a nice improvement. The scope of this coaster is too small for them to make the kind of difference they did in the transition from Mantis to Rougarou, but it turned a coaster you previously cared about only for the credit into one worth a couple of laps per visit assuming the line is short. I experienced no head banging in the front row or back. 6/10 Flight Deck Still the top invert on the west coast. We all know the details. It’s still short, still super-intense, still red, still needs a station roof, and still has a mural of F-15s overflying an aircraft carrier even though F-15s cannot operate from carriers. What took me by surprise this time is how it actually feels kind of drawn-out now in comparison to the new RMC across the park. Flight Deck and Railblazer are close to the same size, but Railblazer packs so much more into its layout even though it’s slightly shorter. That’s nothing to diminish Flight Deck, just a sign that CGA has finally grown to a point where an old (but excellent) invert need not be its best coaster any longer. 8.5/10 Railblazer This was the last of my four new RMCs this year along with Twisted Timbers, Steel Vengeance, and Goliath. It also meant I had completed Cedar Fair’s New-For-2018 set, also featuring TT, SV, and Hangtime. And as a guy who calls Knott’s my home park, consider me jealous. One of these RMC raptors in that compact Hangtime spot would have me visiting almost weekly because Railblazer is really, really good. Unlike Flight Deck, it doesn’t feel particularly short even though the stats say otherwise. Every inch of track is maximized for a particular kind of force. Four moments of trademark RMC ejector airtime, sudden, yet silky smooth directional changes, and I even grayed out from positive g's a couple of times in the front seat during the upward turnaround following the twisting camelback. It was generally reliable for a new coaster on the day I went. They kept the line moving quickly with two trains most of the day and it still cranked riders through when it did eventually break down and go down to one train. I think it’s the best ride in the park if not decisively so (I can still make a case for Goldstriker) and I’d rank it a strong, mid-tier RMC, though it’s also the hardest to place. I could honestly put it anywhere in that middle grouping (see below). 9/10 This is Carlos. His home RMC is Medusa Steel Coaster. Impressive ride. But will he be impressed with Railblazer??? He's either cheering because Railblazer is great, or because he's happy that Medusa is still better. I think it's the former! Updated RMC rankings: (top tier) 1. Steel Vengeance 2. Medusa Steel Coaster 3. Wicked Cyclone 4. Outlaw Run 5. Twisted Timbers (middle tier) 6. Railblazer 7. Twisted Colossus 8. Iron Rattler 9. New Texas Giant (lower tier) 10. Joker 11. Goliath This is the sound I'm making during the following two on-ride photos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsFYPVxHKdc And one more just to prove that I'm also capable of taking normal on-ride photos. The Railblazer craft beer is a medium-bodied, citrusy IPA. It's pretty good. We had several. The last time I was at CGA, Gnome and I somehow got blackout drunk after lunch at the nearby Fault Line Brewery and then with a few more beers inside the park. The last thing we remembered the following morning was sprinting down the midway from Flight Deck to Goldstriker for no reason and we were so hung over that we almost didn't make it to SFDK that day. I was careful not to repeat that this time! Demon This was the first time I didn’t have an absolutely awful experience on Demon. Every other time I’ve visited I thought the entry into that first corkscrew would result with me leaving the ride with severe scoliosis. But that didn’t happen at all this time (or on SFGAm’s Demon this summer for that matter). I winced and braced for the corkscrew… then nothing. I felt intact and totally fine. On this occasion I actually enjoyed Demon about the same as I did Patriot. 6/10 Grizzly I don’t even know what to write about this coaster that everyone doesn't already know. It’s slow, doesn’t do anything, needs new trains, and remains popular as ever as a full-size starter-coaster. 5/10

SFOG was my favorite Six Flags park even prior to Twisted Cyclone. Their coaster collection isn't as top heavy as SFMM for instance, but I think it's overall more enjoyable and the atmosphere is much better. Glad you enjoyed it! But I'm saddened to hear how far GASM has fallen. It always ran really well in my experience with the 3-bench PTCs. But its cousin Screamin' Eagle has been running just fine with 2-bench cars for years, so maybe there's still hope.

Bold = new this year. Edited to bump Railblazer up a few places after riding it and Twisted Colossus a few weeks apart 1. Steel Vengeance: Probably the most complete, well-rounded, and thrilling--not just RMC--but coaster I've ever ridden and it comes damn close to being my #1 overall. None of the others can match this layout or have the kind of sustained ejector air this one packs. 2. Medusa Steel Coaster 3. Wicked Cyclone 4. Outlaw Run 5. Twisted Timbers: The most intense and aggressive RMC. That ought to be enough to put it near the top, but the layout and ebb/flow of the pacing doesn't quite do it for me. 6. Railblazer: A whirlwind of abrupt airtime and intensity with surprisingly comfortable and fun-to-ride trains. It's too brief to rank higher, but could scarcely be any better at this size/length. 7. Twisted Colossus 8. Iron Rattler 9. New Texas Giant 10. Joker 11. Goliath: The only one I didn't like. It's honestly not even in my top 20 wooden coasters. Sure the airtime is very good, but it has none of the other qualities I look for like strong positive g's or a complex layout with clear, linear pacing. It was also uncharacteristically rough for an RMC when I rode it.

The comparative lack of "RMC aggression" is the only thing preventing Steel Vengeance from being my #1 coaster, honestly. The most violent airtime on the ride is probably the double-up into the MCBR. I think part of this has to do with how long and sustained the ejector air over the big elements is, it's not going to be quite as abrupt as on a smaller RMC. That's why I really need to get on Lightning Rod. I feel like the aggressiveness will be right up my alley.

I think Rougarou was actually a pretty big improvement over Mantis on every level and Patriot is definitely smoother than Vortex was, but the layout is so limited it hardly feels worth it. Apocalypse is a full 1,000 feet longer than Patriot, so if it runs smoother as a floorless this could actually become a decent coaster. As for the other remaining standups, leave Scorcher (I think the best of them all) and Riddler alone. They've aged much better than the others. But now with Six Flags is getting in on this, I'd love to see Green Lantern receive the Wildfire elevated sitdown trains, not that I think it's likely to happen. Carowinds Vortex is the same story as Great America's, so I'd almost rather see it removed.

That's pretty close to how I felt, though I might not even put American Eagle on that list. It was a park with plenty of nice B-level coasters, which at some parks would be okay, but with SFGAm's size and history it needed something more.

So far I think this will be my most anticipated U.S. coaster next year. Those circular loops could offer some really interesting forces or be the tamest thing ever. It's hard to tell. Overall this is probably the second strongest mega-coaster layout Mack has done after Helix and a pretty good one considering its making do with flat terrain.