foss123

I honestly haven't been able to settle on a top ten, but here's where I stand at the moment: 1. Fury 325 2. El Toro 3. Maverick 4. Storm Chaser 5. Xcelerator 6. Storm Runner 7. The Voyage 8. Diamondback 9. The Legend 10. X2 Honorable mention goes to Gravity Max, which was infinitely more exciting than any of the dive coasters I've been on. List out of 180 creds.

Went to my first West Coast Bash yesterday and absolutely loved it! The park was absolutely dead by the end of late night ERT, so I managed to get a ride on Xcelerator with a train completely to myself. Such an unreal experience. Also won a piece of track from Silver Bullet at lunch, which I still can't get over. Such an awesome souvenir. Thanks for planning such an awesome event, Robb!

Just got back from my first visit to the park after moving to SCV this month! It's a gross, dirty place, and it has some of the worst operations I've ever seen, but that ride on X2 at sunset made the whole day worth it. I felt like a rag doll in the best possible way. The last raven turn has a death rattle but I don't think I've ever had more fun on a coaster in my life!

Wow! This is my favorite announcement of the day. Looks like it's going to be absolutely nuts.

I waited 7 hours to ride Firehawk on opening day in 2007. Imagine my disappointment.

Visited the park on a whim today (thanks in part to $10[!] tickets from Kroger), and I stumbled upon a very long and straight construction zone on the walk to Storm Chaser. On the way out, I noticed a blast from the past laying in wait. Welcome back, old friend. Tentatively.

Plus GG is local! Headquarters is on Vine Street in Cincinnati, just 30 minutes from the park. Think of all the spin they could put on that. That said, the curved drop is a major weakness in any argument against it being a GCI.

Noticed this support slacking on the job while in line for The Legend yesterday. The only reason I saw it was because The Legend was at one point the only coaster operating and I had been stuck in line for quite some time, but that's a different story and it's over now. Anyway, hope this isn't a big deal.

Banshee continues to baffle me. On opening day last year, the line was over 8 hours long, but otherwise I've never waited more than 30 minutes for it. Usually it's a walk-on, 15 minutes at most. The thing's a capacity monster.

My backyard coaster would be a 100' GCI woodie, nothing special, a few drops, a couple crossovers, maybe some airtime. I just love the ride experience on GCI coasters in general. As far as flat rides go, I'm fairly inexperienced, but I think I'd go with a HUSS Giant Frisbee.

I'm curious as to why you hated Firehawk so much! It's by no means the best ride in the park, but it has never caused me any Vortex-grade pain, and the GP seems to love it.

I'm not a fan of the Lazy Name Plus Height habit that Cedar Fair has developed when naming coasters lately, but apart from the name, this ride looks incredible.

I'm curious about this pass situation. Do gold/platinum passes not work for Haunt dates at Knott's? Because as far as I know, pass holders can get into Haunt at any of the other Cedar Fair parks without having to buy a special ticket.

Alas, this hint seems to bash us over the head with disappointment while screaming "Wing rider, wing rider, wing rider!"

The Storm is such a lazy name, though. It sounds like something I would have built in Roller Coaster Tycoon in fifth grade. Sure, it works, but I hope the park is more creative than that.

I like this idea, but I kind of hope they move Cavern of Terror to this new spot so they can get rid of the eyesore that is the old Tomb Raider building and put a new flat there. I've spent the last few days at the park and I've come to realize that, while it's still lacking a few types of coasters, it's pretty barren in terms of good flat rides. There's Delirium and there's Drop Tower, but other than that, everything is 40+ years old, for little kids, or a Windseeker. Surely the park could afford to give HUSS a little love in the next few years. (I've also noticed that they seem to be taking Shake, Rattle & Roll apart-- is this purely for maintenance or might the ride be a goner? If so, that's even more of a reason to get some HUSS love.)

An announcement on August 1st? That's one of the best birthday presents I could ever think of.

For the past few days, I've been working and reworking the layout until I had something I was happy with. Now I've started mapping! Here's a look at what is to come (please excuse the iPhone pictures, my scanner recently bit the dust): So far I've only made progress mapping the water park. I've used the same colors as will be used in the kiddie section, however those will be much more vibrant shades. So far I've only made progress mapping the water park. I've used the same colors as will be used in the kiddie section, however those will be much more vibrant shades. Here is a general look at the park layout. The final version has been slightly altered. Color blocks indicate color schemes-- notice that rides in each land have fairly similar paint jobs. This is to convey a mood.

I was also at the park on Thursday, and I have to say that it was absolutely ridiculous how long they waited to reopen Banshee. The rain had stopped by 3:00 and we waited until almost 5 before finally getting out of line and searching for rides that were actually open (The Bat and Invertigo were also down, so we weren't sure if anything was running at all). After rides on Adventure Express and Firehawk, we saw Banshee testing and the group I was with wanted to get back in line. We waited another thirty minutes with no luck. When asked why the ride was down, the operators told us (this is verbatim): "Something to do with the rain, I don't really know." Usually I'm very patient when it comes to coasters (I waited seven hours for Firehawk on opening day thanks to technical problems that delayed the opening until 1:30pm) but this seemed ridiculous. Usually a coaster is down for 30 minutes after the most recent clap of thunder or strike of lightning, but for it to be down for over three hours after a pretty small storm was obnoxious.

Hey, guys. I have a quick inquiry about the resort as a whole. How long would you say a trip needs to be in order to truly experience both parks? One day each? Two days? I've been tasked with creating an itinerary for a proposed field trip next spring and I want to make sure everyone going would be able to be completely immersed in both Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. Additionally, do you have any tips for a large group visiting the parks? Any hidden gems in the park, restaurants where we might like to sit down and eat dinner, etc? Thank you in advance for any and all answers!

I've done a little work on Aftermath, including revising the layout by adding a 270* helix and a 540* helix and changing the second drop into an over-banked curve. I've also done a major overhaul on some parts of the ride to ensure clearance and comfortable forces. I'm happy with what I have, and I believe that this will be the ride's final layout. Aftermath Statistics Track length: 3,848ft Top speed: 55 mph G-Forces: +4.5 G's/-1.0 G Dimensions (length x width x height): 548ft x 459ft x 121ft The bi-level turnaround has been slightly modified, and the lower level is no longer banked at 90* (it's now 70*). I have been reworking the park layout, and I have decided that this turnaround will no pass through the wreckage of the plane. However, the wreckage will still interact with the element. The improved second drop, now including an exciting overbank. Behind it, you can sort of see the 270* helix that has been added. Here's the new finale, a 540* helix after a small pop of airtime.

If the park closed in 1994, how does it have a Mondial Windseeker? Or a Giga, for that matter? Or even a Raptor clone?

This project is extremely impressive, but I can't help but be underwhelmed by the POV you've posted. The first half of the ride seems entirely unnecessary, like it's only there to make the ride longer. It doesn't contribute to the plot and it's not particularly helpful with world-building, so I don't understand why it's there. The only scenes I genuinely enjoyed were the window looking over the valley from which you could see the ghosts of the children rising and the scene where Ms. Sally kills the expedition leader. I honestly think that you should move that fairly close to the beginning of the ride, so that the rider feels a sense of panic throughout, adding to the experience. If the riders are lost in this haunted orphanage without a guide, that's immediately a lot scarier than if they are just being walked through it. And just think-- the ride could have multiple run-ins with Ms. Sally after that first scene, where she tries to eliminate the riders like she did their guide. That gives you a chance to add jump scares, which you had absolutely none of. As for the rest of the scenes, they seemed very run-of-the-mill haunted house attraction to me. It's nothing cutting-edge. It isn't any scarier than anything else out there, which is the what you were going for. The first scene is especially boring to me; it's literally just a single portrait. If you're going to have portraits, have a hall of portraits of all of the past headmistresses, with Sally Maple's large, front and center. That would introduce both the setting and Ms. Sally's character very well. I also don't think the voice-overs you have are effective. You're on the right track with them, but there aren't enough. If this were an exploration happening in real life, there would constantly be action on the walkie-talkie feed, even if it was just breathing. One way I think you could enhance the ride experience would be to rework the voice-overs and have one for every scene, ensuring that action is actually happening in every scene (and i mean action that benefits the plot, not a random ghost gliding through the hall). I know I'm being nitpicky and I apologize for that, but it's only because I think this project has potential. Clearly what you have is impressive in that you've spent the time creating it from scratch, but I think you have a long way to go before this project is great. I'm fascinated by the idea, and the exposition you've created really could be something, but that's just the thing-- it could be something. You have you're work cut out for you. However, were you to work all of the kinks out, I could see you proposing it to a real park, maybe even getting it sponsored by a real ghost hunting show and have the cast do the voice acting. I know Kings Island was on the show once, and the park is lacking a good dark ride-- think about how awesome that could be! Keep working hard, I'm looking forward to seeing where this goes.

The ride is looking great! Maybe I was wrong and they will have it open by Memorial Day. I really hope this ride delivers more than the Volare models did, because I have yet to experience a Eurofighter and I'm hoping Thunderbolt will hold me over until I get around to it.

Backlot's effects baffle me. They drained the water years ago, took away the fire and turned off the onboard audio when the park switched hands in 2007, but have since reinstated the fire and replaced the onboard audio. Still, it seems that the fire is only active on a handful of days (it was last Friday), and it has nothing to to with weather (I've had fire on a 95 degree day). I remain upset and confused that the "splashdown" element is gone, but I can get over that. I just wish the ride were more consistent.