Solid Gold

Thanks everyone for all the replies! I see that Whit Monday is on the 24th. Why do parks become crowded on that day, is it like July 4th in the states? Unfortunately I don't think I'll be able to do car rental unless I can rope a friend or two from the states to go with me on the trip, since spending 400 on the rental and a hundred plus more for gas money would be out of budget for me. If I go that route I'll definitely have to get someone to go with, and I don't think I have any buddies who would come. I'd love love love to see if I can partner up with any locals, if it can't be done, I'll probably have to cut down my trip to a train ride down for two days at Europa and maybe one or two other parks the same way. Anyone know anyone?

Guten Tag! I just purchased my ticket to go to Germany this summer to visit my sister in Siegen, and I will be arriving on May 21st in Frankfurt and will be staying until June 5th. The second week of my trip (approx May 29th- June 5th) will be devoted to culture and family fun in and around the area, but in the first week I am hoping to visit some wonderful German theme parks. This is a preliminary thread asking for advice on how to travel, and for people to travel with. I would love to do a semi-rigorous trip to 6 or 7 of the big hitters of the area, hopefully meeting with some locals with a car. I'm college-aged, doesn't really matter to me who I'm traveling with, I don't drink or smoke but can tolerate either. Parks I want to visit for sure: Europa Park, Holiday Park, Phantasialand. Other potentials: Nurburgring, Tripsdrill, Klotten and I'd absolutely be open to heading further north towards Toverland, Bobbejaanland, Walibi World, Efteling and others in the area (A dream trip would be the first three and the last four listed). Thanks for any and all help, I hope that I can find someone to make this happen! If you have any questions or advice I will be on here quite a bit in the coming days, I'm very excited!

No I read in the last 20 pages about the lease disagreement, but I think the fact that this park has been so incapable of improvement in Six Flag's tenure says quite a bit about why they're willing to let it die.

You know one good reason that this park might have closed? My only visit was in 2003, and I didn't miss out on ANY credits since then.

I did a few cliff jumps last summer. Ranging anywhere from 25-52ish feet Definitely entertaining. My take: Shorter jumps are more fun because at any height over 40ft. it starts to hurt however you land. Also, rope swings aren't as cool as cliffs and are way more dangerous anyway. The highest I'd be willing to do is about 70 feet, anything higher and you can break yourself just by landing on water incorrectly.

Unless you have reservations against it, the perfect final January update has got to be Ober Gatlinburg skiing. And if you aren't skiers, you can always do some tubing. You could also do some side trips, like Asheville or Cherokee, NC I love this thread, hope you guys make another for Orlando.

You have to pay the PR people. It is likely that parks have made cutbacks in their PR departments and existing PR employees are overwhelmed. Just wondering, how much effort goes into a press release? Let's go bare bones and say...text and a ride logo, nothing like Intimidator's website.

You can partly blame me for the Beast's low ranking. I had it last on my ballot. The one ride I had on it I smacked my elbow hard enough on the side of the train that it began to bleed. It's the only coaster I've been on that caused that particular sensation. Epic double helix though, I'd give it a second chance.

Question to all: Is the yearly last place finish of PGA Grizzly an unwritten enthusiast collusion or do people consistently find it worse than any other wooden coaster out there?

^Holiday World is like, 60 bucks away from Cincinnati. Go for it. Hooray for Rampage moving upward in the poll! Chalk it up as another example of the influence TPR trips have on the polls.

Epic Pothole on third hill ftw.

1. Voyage 2. Fav Steel (6 of which are above next woodie overall) 3. Lightning Racer-T 4. El Toro 5. Son of Beast (with loop) 6. Thunder Run 7. Rampage 8. Raven 9. Thunderhead 10. Legend I'd love to have Rampage higher, but SOB sure was fun back in 03. Also, Lightning Racer is one of the most FUN coasters I've ever been on. Bottom Five (more interesting, IMO) 29. The Beast 28. Rolling Thunder 27. Grizzly KD 26. Wildcat HP 25. Thunderhawk Dorney Would have Raging Wolf Bobs in there, but it's not included in the list.

I love it when people pose a serious question (I.E. Why does the ride manufacturer keep having this problem on their rides ?) and people jump all over them about how they aren't engineers and hey don't know anything, completely ignoring the fact that Intamin has a terrible track record of rides that work very poorly in their first year, and sometimes the first several. In light of how this keeps happening, I think Intamin has to release some sort of new regulation on how many times a ride can cycle on one cable, or what quality must be used, something to curtail the issue. It's not a fact of life that this problem should happen sometimes. Figure it out now before a snapping cable contacts a human body again.

Chattanooga Woo Woo! I still don't have the Sir Gooney's Credit...full TR coming when that happens!

While I've never seen the water high enough to cover the actual track of Scream Machine or over Half of Mindbender's loop, this is at least the third time I've seen SFOG flooded. I could see this weekend if they don't get more rain, but several attractions there will have to be closed: Wheelie, Thomas Town, and Mindbender definitely look like they won't happen, as well as several restaurants in the Lickskillet section. GASM, Ninja, and Batman don't look too bad.

Are they going to transport SFOT's Oil Derrick?

Definitely looks more like Nightmareland!

Fixed.

I would not be surprised a bit if Eagle's Fortress nearly Doubled the listed speed on RCDB. It has to be going at least 60 Minimum in Robb's video.

PP was 4.3 Million, and that got them the world's tallest water ride, and 1480 feet of total length. CP is getting a ride with 620 more feet and 3 boats and adds 6.2 million to the ride cost. I'm with you, I cannot comprehend this price at all. I need to see a breakdown to get it.

I would love to know what makes a generic flume ride worth 10.5 million dollars. Correct type of addition, correct placement in the park, but honestly, I'd need to see a cost sheet to understand that much cash for this.

The strong airtime argument may be a factor, but I think it's a very weak one. Bizarro just got some new sneakers, and The rest of the ROS's still operate as usual along with El Toro, Voyage, Boulderdash and other extreme-air coasters. I think better arguments could be made for: -No more T-Bar restraints will be used in the US. -A mega-lite is 105-108 Feet tall, with an average angle of first drop, Short length, and unimposing speed. Not Record-Breaking. -LOW capacity. Two very, very short trains. Listed capacity is not much more than the average wild mouse. Where a big park could build one of these is something themed in the vein of Evil Knievel, Terminator, or Tony Hawk (but then I would ask, why spend the money for the Intamin Steelie when you can just buy something cheaper, such as the GCI?) Don't give up hope for a mega-lite, but I don't expect one from Cedar Fair, and probably not Six Flags. I think these fit in the smaller parks of Europe and Asia well and that's why they have them (My two most likely for the US would be Lagoon or Silverwood, if I had to make a prediction). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About this ride, well, if there was a Sportsnation Poll asking us "Which 2009 Dale Earnhardt-themed Roller Coaster are you most excited for?" I would vote for this version. Sorry PKD.

I visited Alabama Adventure twoish weeks after TPR did, and have been waiting for this update. Quick Question: Anyone remember specifically the super painful pothole going up the third hill/turn? Worst/most entertaining pothole ever! I thought this park was pretty alright, especially since we got in for 21 dollars. Rampage is definitely a top ten woodie in the Rough as hell but also fun as hell category. And the boomerang plays super loud rock songs in the station (we also heard Bohemian Rhapsody). Big problem the park has is their weak selection of flat rides. The breakdance was running really slow, the enterprise ran a shorter program than SFOG's Wheelie does, the pirate ship was closed, etc. Meaning that the Music Express was really the only good one they had. Log flume was short too. Hope the park can expand and play its market well. Lots and lots and lots of room for expansion, Growing Waterpark, and a Good Woodie. Sounds like an RCT scenario.

Has anyone seen the new rumor on Screamscape? Basically, 2011 will bring a waterpark doubling in size. Sounds to me like an integration of Blizzard River and Mile High Falls into the existing waterpark, plus the removal of Twisted Twins and most other things in its area for several new waterslides.

Kiddie Coasters are often the roughest rides in any given park if you ask me. I've held a contention that the Dragon at Dorney Park is the most forceful ride there, and that's admitting that Talon is as intense as Raptor!