Condor

I was also blown away by Time Traveler. Sorry you didn't get to ride it more. And I laughed at your I-35/Cedar Creek Mine Ride comment. CCMR has the ability to make other Arrow mine trains feel like Magnum.

Ostentatious East Coast-Midwest 2018 With all these “Mega” and “Epic” photo TRs, I thought it was time for a new adjective. I hit seven parks over nine days for my longest coaster trip of 2018. I had been to five of them before while two (MA and SFGAm) I would be seeing for the first time. Here was my itinerary for June 19-27: Day 1: Kings Dominion Day 2-3: Hersheypark Day 4: Knoebels Day 5: Waldameer Day 6-7: Cedar Point Day 8: Michigan’s Adventure Day 9: Six Flags Great America Edit: For some reason these images are now displaying out of order. I may or may not get around to fixing them. Another funny ACE moment. Apparently the fad of the day was to spread your arms out like wings while riding the major coasters. I watched a few trainloads of people doing this on Twisted Timbers and it actually got pretty hilarious. TT’s station allows ample viewing of the layout so it was quite comical to watch a train come down the first drop and overbank with the entire back half going full spread-eagle with their arms “making the train more aerodynamic” and then see it again when the train came back around for the bunny hops. Everybody in the station laughed. And you know what? I almost did it myself. Temperatures ran just over 100F for much of the day so all of the coasters were cooking, including the most prolonged gray-outs I’ve ever had on I305. But then mid-afternoon came and a massive storm rolled in for the next 1-2 hours. I happened to be riding I305 when the rain hit, which was awesome because I'm the type that loves being blasted with water bullets in the face while going 90mph. But the awesomeness quickly ended once we hit the brakes. Backstory first. I noticed earlier in the day that a train had stopped on the lift just out of the station. It eventually got up and running again, and I got back in line not long after. So after the water bullets, they sent the train ahead of us out empty to then pull us into the station. But wouldn’t you know, that empty train stopped on the lift just feet out of the station just as had happened earlier. This meant that the last seven cars of my train (I was in the back) got stuck out in the rain and lightning for the next 10+ minutes while we waited for engineers to race out to I305 in pickup trucks to move us into the station. I was already soaked just from riding, but being locked into the seat in a downpour is an entirely different thing. The guy riding in front of me had it worse as his leg apparently cramped up during the ride, and as anyone familiar with Intamin megacoaster trains knows, you can’t move the lower half of your body at all. So here we were, getting soaked through our clothes with lightning nearby and the guy in front (understandably) moaning and shouting at the ride ops and engineers. Anyway, they finally got us inside and my wet shoes and socks left me with blisters I had to bandage and pad with gauze every morning for the next 8 days. That episode aside, I had a great time at Kings Dominion. I think it’s the second best Cedar Fair property behind CP with one of the top 5 coaster collections in the country. I hadn’t been since 2014 and I don’t remember much about the atmosphere/landscaping/operations from that visit, but the park looked excellent this time. Whatever sprucing up they did to Candy Apple Grove to coincide with Twisted Timbers seems to work and guest service and dispatch times across the board were just fine. Twisted Timbers I honestly wasn’t sold after my first couple morning rides. After hearing so much about it, I didn’t think it was any different than Twisted Colossus, New Texas Giant, or any others that I would call “mid-tier” RMCs if there is such a thing. But that steadily changed throughout the day. It just kept running faster and faster. While not my favorite, TT is definitely a top-tier RMC and top 20 steel coaster for me. They’ve perfected the barrel roll first drop since its inception on Medusa. TT’s tosses you out of your seat the whole way down while Medusa’s is more of a visual element. The big overbank pulls some unexpected positive g’s, though maybe not quite as high as Wicked Cyclone’s, which once gave me a mini gray-out. The ejector airtime on this thing is unreal and there are two holy sh*t moments on the straight hill after the right-left double-up and then again on the outside-banked-turn. 9/10 Here’s how I’d rank my RMCs up to this point: 1. Medusa Steel Coaster 2. Wicked Cyclone 3. Outlaw Run 4. Twisted Timbers (with a moderate gap between 4-5) 5. Twisted Colossus 6. Iron Rattler 7. New Texas Giant 8. Joker Intimidator 305 Still my favorite ride at the park. I’m not in awe of it the way I once was but there are few, if any coasters as intense. So here’s a first rate example of a first world problem! Now that my chest and shoulder dimensions are larger than they were four years ago, I find that the Intamin soft-harnesses now grip me just tight enough that I can’t get any real airtime on the drop and camelback. I know… Poor me, right? Come on, show a little sympathy for a not-quite-a-gym-rat. For whatever reason I didn’t have this problem on the Hersheypark Intamin duo and Maverick’s harnesses were looser still. But whatever, I won’t hold I305’s mistakes against it. 9/10 Volcano Closed, obviously. There was a lot of chatter among the ACE crowd that it will be removed next season. I have no idea if there’s any substance to that, but hopefully not. Dominator I rode this twice and both rides could not have been more different. The first was back-left and it felt like the same tall, fast, relatively intense floorless I remembered that was no rougher or smoother than other B&Ms of similar vintage. The second was front-right, and for whatever reason it absolutely beat me half to death. I’m not exaggerating when I say this might have been the worst single ride I’ve had on any B&M. It jackhammered badly exiting the loop and at several other points. I was dumbfounded. I get smoother rides on SFMM’s Viper than this and it was totally out of character for a floorless that on my last two visits (once each at Geauga Lake and KD) I really liked. I’ll give it an average of my two rides this year and say 6/10. B&M floorless/sitdown rankings: 1. Kumba 2. Wildfire 3. Hulk 4. Kraken 5. Superman Krypton Coaster 6. Rougarou 7. Medusa (SFDK) 8. Dominator 9. Batman the Dark Knight 10. Bizarro/Scream 11. Hydra (An aside as this TR continues. I like ranking coasters. I enjoy being analytical and diving into the details to figure out what makes one coaster better than another. I’ve always found it valuable when looking to understand a coaster I’m unlikely to ride in the near term when I can see how other enthusiasts compare it to those I have ridden, so I always try to do it myself when I have the opportunity. I know others stand by the “time spent ranking is time spent not riding” mantra and that’s totally fair. Not everyone will enjoy it and there’s no right or wrong way to be an enthusiast. I just happen to see it differently. You can’t always be riding coasters. So why not compare and analyze them? Just my approach.) Flight of Fear On the contrary, I actually liked this one a lot more than I remembered. Poltergeist at SFFT shows that KD doesn’t have to brake theirs on the MCBR like they do, but it speeds up soon enough thereafter. Still a really fun, enjoyable coaster that felt great indoors when the temp outside was so high. 8/10 Backlot Stunt Coaster I like these a lot more than I probably should. The effects barely work anymore, but it’s an intense, thrilling experience for something that from off ride looks like it should be a family coaster. The quick launch into an upward triple helix always gets me. I only rode once this time, but wish I had ridden it more. 7/10 Racer 75 I’m in the camp that rolls my eyes at the name change, but who ultimately cares? The recent trackwork KD did has really paid off. The outbound leg on both sides was perfectly smooth and there was even some floater air riding on a rain-slicked track after the storm. Plus, that view of I305 towering over the far turnaround is hard to beat, especially if you happen to catch a train going by. The return leg was a bit of a different story and got just a little rough, though not enough to hamper my enjoyment of it. Hopefully they can get the whole thing running as well as the first half does. 7/10 Grizzly I barely remember this one from four years ago. I know that it has one of those weird cult-followings that some off-beat coasters get while others considered it only marginally better than Hurler. I’m somewhere in between. I rode it once each in front and back. It’s definitely on the thrilling side compared to its West Coast cousin and I can see how it would have really impressed people in the 1980s. It could probably still be a nice wooden coaster if Cedar Fair found it worthwhile to go all-out and Ghostrider-it-up with a GCI refurbishment and Millennium Flyers, but it’s probably not worth the investment. As long as it runs as it does now, I’ll always give it a spin or two. 6/10 Anaconda Riding old Arrow loopers is kind of like driving a classic muscle car the owner hasn't take care of, if you've done that kind of thing. If you're not used to it, you're in for a rough time. But if you drive that particular muscle car enough, you learn to work around the countless deficiencies and find ways to squeeze performance out of the areas that can still deliver it. Once you know your way around the clunky engine, suspension, and transmission, you eventually figure out a way to have a lot of fun with it. That's how it is with me and my local Arrow looper, Viper. I know just how to position myself to get a pretty good ride on it almost every time. I don't have near enough experience to do that on Anaconda. If this was my home park, I bet I'd have every curve and transition of this thing mastered. But I've only ridden it once years ago before this visit and Anaconda took full advantage of me. Not fun at all. 4/10.

3.5 days will be great for your first time. CP was always a 2-day park for me back when the big 4 were MF, Magnum, Raptor, and Mantis. I go once every 2-3 years now and it dawned on me last month that 2 days no longer feels like enough given how many more rides have been added since my first visit in 2000, plus the general improvements in park atmosphere/entertainment and all the quality dining options that have been added over the last 5+ years. I think I'll be doing 3 days per visit myself going forward.

Interesting thoughts on Wildfire. Good report! Out of curiosity, how would you compare Expedition GeForce to Goliath @ Walibi and Blue Fire to Helix?

Last week the Express Hotel handed out early entry cards for hotel guests, but they did not check for them at the resort entrance by Magnum. They let all types of passes/tickets in at 9am regardless.

Just finished up a Midwest/East Coast trip and there's been a little movement. 1. Skyrush 2. Steel Vengeance 3. Voyage 4. Expedition GeForce 5. Maverick 6. El Toro 7. Medusa Steel Coaster 8. Boulder Dash 9. Fury 325 10. Superman the Ride

2018 update 1. Skyrush 2. Steel Vengeance - I very nearly put this at #1 and I still haven't completely made up my mind. It's every bit as good as you've heard. Skyrush just has that extra 5% psychopathic intensity and for now that gives it the edge even though it's far less of a complete ride. 3. Expedition GeForce 4. Superman The Ride 5. Phantom's Revenge 6. Magnum XL-200 7. Schwur des Karnan 8. Goliath (SFOG) 9. Nitro 10. Superman el Ultimo Escape 11. Mako 12. Silver Star 13. Diamondback 14. Apollo's Chariot 15. Titan 16. Goliath (SFMM) 17. Raging Bull - I really wanted to like this one. Everyone knows about the trims, but there are some people who manage to enjoy it just fine despite them. I wasn't one of them. If they let this thing run like SFOG's Goliath I think this could actually be one of the best B&M hypers. 18. Intimidator 19. Steel Force 20. Mamba 21. Desperado

This is exactly how I feel. I rode it 23 times over two days this week and it only cemented why it's been my favorite for so long. Active participation is the perfect way to describe it. I had to devise a method for riding it, but once I figured it out, it reached a thrill level that nothing else has quite matched for me. This is why Skyrush is so polarizing and why I love it.

^I agree with all of that. Ghostrider, Xcelerator, and Montezooma are the standouts, Hangtime and Silver Bullet are fun enough but not great. I was there yesterday myself and even with Knott's as my home park, I don't think I've ever seen the line jumping so bad, and it's often pretty bad. Sometimes it seems the typical guest M.O. for Ghostrider's queue is for 1-2 people per group to remain in line while the rest make use of the numerous entrances/exits to come and go as they please until they board the train.

So then it appears I'll be at KD the same day as coaster con. I had no idea. I don't know how to feel about this. Does anyone know how many people ACE events usually attract? Was going to wait and see about Fastlane once I got there. Now I'm wondering if it may make sense to buy ahead.

And just when you think a joke is obvious...

Surely it's the maximum allowable weight for individual riders.

Hersheypark has a coaster lineup with few or no obvious holes. An RMC hybrid is the ideal niche to fill at the moment and Wildcat is the obvious candidate. Plus, the park would have to set up a kiosk in Comet Hollow renting motorized scooters to all the enthusiasts complaining about bruised thighs if they had Skyrush and RMC Comet virtually right on top of each other.

I suddenly feel a lot better about this coaster.

On the silver lining point, I have to agree that while it will disappoint fans of Pirates, this will be an opportunity to replace a dated, derivative attraction with something hopefully more original and better. Of all the areas that Europa could have been lost, I think this is honestly one of the lesser ones. Considering the extent of the damage it's fortunate no one was apparently hurt.

On the Medusa discussion... I'm reasonably sure it ran with steel wheels on some, but not all of the cars as early as 2015. On my visit in October of that year, both trains were running 3 different types of wheels simultaneously - 2 kinds of poly/nylon plus steel, all on different cars. And both trains were set up differently. It looked like a Frankenstein chassis and sounded like it too. It was like someone mixed a B&M roar with the sound of steel girders bending. Never heard a coaster sound like that before or since and it ran brutally fast with ejector air at every point. And secondly, great TR and photos! I'm also a huge Superman El Ultimo Escape fan. The top of the second helix with the combined airtime+lats you mentioned is incredible.

While part of me wants to trot out my usual, "looks fine, but too tame for me!" cliche, Time Traveler has taught me to trust Mack. Plus, I figure later POVs will look a little faster. And Cheetah Hunt-UK is hardly a bad deal at all if that's what it turns out to be.

^Yeah, I didn't feel like making this a full play-by-play trip report, but I certainly had my caves and cinnamon bread!

Good to know Bullet is still getting some rave reviews. Always wanted to ride it. I've been looking for opportunities to go back to Texas this year so this sounds encouraging despite the bad ops.

Ahh Branson... land of 10,000 motorized scooters. And here's a brief Photo TR from May 9-10. My first time at SDC was in summer 2013 during Outlaw Run's first season. I decided almost right away that it was one of my top favorites and even now, five years and many parks later, it still is. But I hadn't been back since then and the opening of Time Traveler was the prefect occasion to go back and see if Branson was still one of the nation's best places for scooter-watching. It is. Mid-week in May ended up being the perfect time to visit. Only Time Traveler and Powder Keg ran more than one train, but that's all that was needed. My longest non-TT wait was about 20 minutes for Outlaw Run and most were 0-10. I still love just about everything about this park. I don't bother with the shows and stuff like that and two days was the perfect amount of time to enjoy the coasters, food, and scenery. Time Traveler I'll be honest, I wasn't sure I'd like this ride. The contemporary Mack coasters I've ridden are a little too tame for me and I wasn't sold on the spinning concept despite the positive reviews it was getting. The only spinner I'm a big fan of is Euro Mir, which is also a Mack, so I should have had more faith because it turns out TT is awesome! It's the most intense Mack I've been on. I haven't done Helix yet, but I thought TT was more thrilling than Blue Fire and much better than Star Trek. Photos and video do not do the 90-degree station drop justice. I truly did not expect the kind of sustained ejector air it has in the back car. It's not like that in the middle or front, but other elements make up for it. The twisting airtime hill after the loop was another highlight and the front car really tries to whip you out of your seat there. It's true that no two rides on this are exactly alike, though you eventually get to the point where you can kind of anticipate the spins at certain times. Overall it's extremely fun, more intense than I would have believed, and my favorite Mack so far. Now if they can just program it not to stop on the first launch track... 9/10 Outlaw Run As good as TT is, Outlaw is still king at this park. It might be tracking a bit rougher than opening year, but it barely registers. This was my first RMC five years ago so I was curious how it would stack up after riding a bunch of others. I slightly prefer Medusa and maybe Wicked Cyclone, but I think Outlaw Run will actually move up a few notches when I do my rankings next year. RMC just packed so much into this layout. Every element delivers. My dad and I had a blast seeing who could clip the leaves on a tree branch overhanging the wave turn most often. We're both 6'2" with a long reach, so I doubt too many other riders could touch it, but apparently someone else did and freaked out about it, so the ride went down 3 hours before closing on our second day and never re-opened. A minor down-note to end the trip on, but I got plenty of rides in beforehand. 9.5/10 Powder Keg aka "No, Ally, not Powder Cake..." (overheard in line) I love this coaster and I think I ranked it higher in the poll than anyone else that I saw. It has a forceful launch and several moments of strong, sustained airtime, plus it takes advantage of the mountain setting to offer great views and terrain interaction as do Outlaw and Wildfire. I could ask for a couple more cammelbacks after the mid-course lift, but even without, it's still a great coaster that's entirely unique to SDC. 9/10 Wildfire One of my favorite B&Ms and also one of the most overlooked. I'd still take Kumba over it, but I think Wildfire is easily better than any of the floorless coasters and quite a few of the hypers too. I'll go as far as to say that this is B&M's best first drop outside of the dive coasters and Fury. It's not often that you find prolonged ejector airtime on a B&M looper and the view off the side of the mountain makes it feel like you're falling forever. I like how you can easily tell when Wildfire is really cooking, because you can hear the trim brake before the cobra roll activate, but it barely nicks you and you still plow full-steam through the cobra roll and can feel the higher forces. I don't often rate this many coasters at one park so high. 9/10 Thunderation Though I had no issues, Thunderation was a bit too jerky for my dad so we only rode it once per day. Regardless, still one of the greatest mine trains there is as well as one of the few actually thrilling ones. It's even better now with some nice views of Time Traveler while on the ride. 7.5/10 And some bonus Brownfire...

Thanks! And I used an iPhone I don't consider myself any kind of photographer at all, but I find that taking the time to set up angles and fill the field of view can make even iPhone pics look surprisingly decent.

One more Hangtime photo TR? Sure, why not. I got to the park around 4:30pm and managed two rides on Hangtime with slightly over an hour wait each time: row 4 in daylight and row 1 at night. This was my third Gerstlauer Infinity and I really liked the other two (Karnan and Karacho) so I was excited for Knott's to get one, but I knew I had to keep my expectations realistic as construction and testing progressed. Knott's clearly wasn't trying to break the industry here. If what they wanted was a smooth, fun, visually impressive coaster to draw crowds while not pummeling them with forces, they got it with Hangtime. I really enjoyed both rides I had on it. That said, if I'm going to critique the thing, I'm going to do it honestly. Hangtime is not an intense coaster at all. I didn't notice any serious positive g's, but there are a few pretty good moments of airtime. The drop has at least some air up front and full-on ejector in the back. Gerstlauer's approach to the holding brake might not please everyone who likes B&M's method. The train takes its time releasing, so you don't get the sudden B&M plunge, but once it gets rolling past 90 degrees the airtime is definitely there. The second, and probably stronger moment is the drop leading into the cobra roll. That was probably my favorite part of the ride. There's also a quick pop of air climbing into the brakes. Unfortunately, none of the inversions stood out to me and I didn't feel much of anything going through them. Hangtime is definitely the kind of coaster you have to appreciate visually rather than seat-of-the-pants, and that's in part why I think it's going to become one of those "must-do at night" coasters. The lighting package is all kinds of cool on or off-ride. Overall among Gerstlauers I've ridden, I didn't like Hangtime as much as Karnan, Karacho, or Fluch Von Novgorod, but it's about even with Mystery Mine and well above Dare Devil Dive. Ghostrider remains king at Knott's and I think I still prefer Xcelerator and Montezooma too. But I'm the kind of enthusiast who isn't truly happy unless Skyrush/I305/un-trimmed, 7-car-Voyage-circa-2000-and-whatever is trying to nearly kill me, so what do I know. Hangtime is still plenty good. The best Long Beach International Airport-themed gift shop I've ever seen.

^I agree with that. Even though Hangtime is new, one ride on Ghostrider right at opening is still a good plan to avoid the 60-90 min queue throughout the day. I think it's safe to say you should probably hit Hangtime immediately after though. Then I'd wait to return to Ghostrider until the last 2 hours before closing. I also suggest Ghost Town Grill if you're looking for another sitdown restaurant.

That's impressive if Steel Vengeance is getting that kind of buzz in and outside of Ohio. Here in SoCal probably 3/4 of the people I talk to still don't even know about Twisted Colossus.

Yeah, Flight Deck is crazy intense and it and Gold Striker make an ideal 1-2 punch for the park. It's been a few years, but if I remember correctly the seatbelts on FD are a couple of inches shorter than on other inverts.