Josh Linn

I've only been on one...rode Sidewinder in 2008 and it was one of the worst coaster experiences of my life.

An Olive Garden opened in Buckhorn earlier this year, but I'd much rather go to one of the two Italian places I posted...Balzano's especially. All three that I listed are within 10 minutes of Buckhorn.

For Knoebel's: Balzano's Rose Marie's Marley's All in Bloomsburg. The first two are Italian places and Marley's is a microbrewery/restaurant. Really, really good beer and they have a pretty large variety of food (seafood, steak, pasta, wings, etc.)

Intimidator 305's first turn before they modified it was about as much as I could take.

I've found that the larger cobra rolls (e.g., Dominator) are much smoother than the smaller ones (e.g., Alpengeist). I haven't ridden it since 2002, but good lord Alpengeist's was bad. I remember my head being bashed into the side of the OTSR during the first inversion.

The one and only Flying Turns.

I'm hoping their next coaster is on the bigger side. I'm holding out hope for a Boulder Dash type ride on the side of the mountain by the skyway.

I figured I'd give a more detailed review...was at work when I posted those pictures (sorry for the quality...was using my phone and was in a huge rush): It's not nearly as tame as I was expecting. I knew they wanted to limit the design a little to make it more family friendly, but by the end of the ride you're actually moving at a decent pace, and the tightness of the turns create a solid sense of speed. The helix after the first lift was taken faster than I was anticipating, which is great. The ops were doing a really good job as well. Overall I'd give it a 7/10. Much better than the two steel bobsleds I've been on (Avalanche/Disaster Transport) and a really solid "tweener" coaster. Not as intense as Phoenix or Twister, more intense than Kozmo's Kurves and Black Diamond, but family friendly enough for young kids to ride. Well done, Knoebel's.

You were right behind me in line...I'm in the black shirt in front of that kid with the green YOLO glasses. Anyway, I was impressed with Flying Turns...solid, fun ride. I definitely enjoyed it more than the steel bobsleds that I've riddlen. I got in line at 1:45 and got off the ride at roughly 3:20. I'm glad I got there when I did because the line went almost all the way back to Stratsofear when I got off.

You were right behind me in line...I'm in the black shirt in front of that kid with the green YOLO glasses. Anyway, I was impressed with Flying Turns...solid, fun ride. I definitely enjoyed it more than the steel bobsleds that I've riddlen. I got in line at 1:45 and got off the ride at roughly 3:20. I'm glad I got there when I did because the line went almost all the way back to Stratsofear when I got off.

Standing in line now...pretty sure it broke down. I haven't seen a train cycle for like 10 minutes.

I know...I live in the area...I've never seen traffic like this other than when the local high school football team has a home game. I've gone this way to the park hundreds of times including covered bridge/PPP days.

Don't know if they're all going to Knoebels, but traffic in Catawissa is horrible right now...I've never seen it like this. EDIT: they're having some sort of event in the middle of town...just a warning if you're headed that way.

For me it's not about being first, it's just that I've been waiting so damn long to ride this thing that I want to go ASAP. Plus it's only a 15 minute drive for me, so it's not like I'm committing an entire day to it. EDIT: The park's opening at noon tomorrow, correct? The calendar on their website is only showing that it's the covered bridge festival and doesn't show any times.

MOTHER OF GOD IT'S ALIVE

Of course I have to work every single day this weekend. I might be able to squeeze a ride in if I go Saturday morning.

I think it'd look a lot better with the pre-drop...I hate change.

This is what I don't understand...why would they change their style/philosophy when they were churning out world class rides year after year? I understand that parks have a great deal of input into what they get, but pretty much all of the B&M's built since like 2002 are considered "tame", which leads me to assume it has something to do with the manufacturer.

I live in the area (Big Ben's is locally made), and I've never liked birch beer.

Thunderhawk has always been ridiculously boring to me. I can't think of any other large® park in the country that needs a new wood coaster more than Dorney does.

I don't necessarily miss it, but I liked it more than I like Thunderhawk.

The park still seems to add new rides on a regular basis. Not only that, but they added Black Diamond not too long ago and Flying Turns (which is another large woodie) is supposed to open sometime soon. In a lot of cases corporate parks will go years without adding rides. Knoebels is fine the way it is. Completely disagree. They haven't added a major/adult coaster in 14 years...while they have added three solid family coasters in the meantime (Kozmo, Black Diamond, soon to be Flying Turns), they could really use another large® wood coaster. I'm not talking about a massive ride like Voyage/El Toro/etc., but something like Boulder Dash would be awesome. I know years ago there were rumors of them considering re-making the Rye Airplane Coaster or Idora Wildcat...either one of those would be awesome. Most flat rides are a no-no for me because of motion sickness, so I go to parks pretty much strictly for roller coasters. I'd rather be 15 minutes from Hershey and an hour from Knoebel's instead of being 15 minutes from Knoebel's and an hour from Hershey like I actually am.

It looks cool and all, but I just hate the way things are going with more wood coasters having inversions...what's wrong with just having some heavy banked/overbanked turns and airtime hills instead of dive loops and zero g rolls? Idk...wood coasters without inversions remind me of better times, and these new rides aren't helping matters. Son of Beast was understandable because they were trying for something so immense and over the top, but stuff like this is just depressing. I mean, El Toro doesn't have any inversions and it worked out pretty well.

I wish they'd become more corporate...then we might get a new major coaster sooner instead of once every 10-15 years. I love my home park, but another large woodie would go a long way in rounding out their collection.

I could see the turns being pretty exciting. It seems somewhat comparable to driving your car at 25 MPH through extremely tight, downhill turns in the road. I would KILL to have another marquee wood coaster at the park.