Dr. M

Say what you will about Dorney, but that image of the lift hill of Thunderhawk dwarfed by the lift hill of Steel Force, that juxtaposition of old versus new, 80 feet versus 200 feet, is iconic and yes, to me, awe-inspiring.

Explain to me why this hasn't been done yet: A first drop of something like 170°, but hit at a pretty decent clip like the first drop on El Toro. So it's shaped kind of like an S (going right to left), with maybe a third of it being the initial "plunge/turnaround" and two thirds being the pullout. First you get huge negative Gs all around the initial drop, then huge positive Gs during the pullout. In my mind at least, this would make for the greatest first drop in history. Sounds like you're talking about an unbanked turn, on it's side, going downhill, meaning the back of the train (at least, if not the whole thing) would get some bad lateral forces.

Rather than make all three from Cedar Point, I'll go with: 1. Magnum XL-200 2. El Toro (got on it five times in one day, more than I usually manage with the lines) 3. Twister (Knoebels) (first ride after dark, in the rain -AMAZING)

Definitely any Vekoma boomerang that got the new trains. Also, somehow SFGA's extreme cheapness actually made the Dark Knight a better coaster. When I rode last fall many of the effects were turned off, making the ride much darker; some stretches were in total darkness. A huge improvement over my first ride, where you could see every turn coming. Yes it's just a wild mouse in a box, but as wild mice go it's actually fairly intense (unbraked and in the dark), I enjoyed my ride pretty well and will definitely make a point of getting on it when there's no line (as long as they keep those lame effects turned off). (Keep in mind that by "effects" I just mean "colored spot lights on flat, toy store window display-quality scenery. Let's not give them too much credit here.)

The world's largest baboon habitat. It will be a baboon city, with a little baboon church, a little baboon schoolhouse, even a little racing coaster for the baboons to ride.

Yeah the ride was violent with 1920s technology. But when you Topper Track it/GCI it with Modern technology, The ride can be more exciting and less violent. Look at Rattler/ Iron Rattler for a comparison. I'm no expert, but my impression is that the violence was due to the tightness of the turns, the speed they were taken at, and the way the banking and transitions were shaped. All topper track alone can do is make it smoother, which might help (though I imagine the ride was pretty smooth when it opened, like any wood coaster), but they'd still have to make a ton of changes to the profiling of the ride, and at that point you're really not reviving the ride anymore. That's my argument. How about Knoebels revives another Traver coaster, the Cyclone Racer at Long Beach? That was supposed to be one of the best coasters ever built, and Knoebels should totally have a racing coaster, that would really fit their business model. I mean really, there's no end to the old, great rides they have to choose from.

^WHY??? The rides were supposed to be awful! I will never understand this. I suspect people's fascination with them has more to do with their reputation for "intensity" than the layout itself. "I'm hardcore man, I love extreme rides! Make the GP flee in terror!" But this isn't smooth, controlled I305 intense, this is "whips your neck around and gives you a bloody nose intense". And if you're thinking a modern coaster company could change the layout to avoid all that, then what's the point exactly? Why take a bad layout and put all that work into fixing it when they could just make a great new coaster from scratch? It's not like you'd be getting the full, genuine Crystal Beach Cyclone experience anyway. Which you don't want anyway, hence the reason none of them still exist. It's a historical oddity that belongs in the past.

If it was like Possessed's holding brake, it was a lot of fun and scary the first few times to be stopped facing down for a second or two. It's too bad they removed it, maybe one day they can add it back? I also really enjoy Possessed's holding break. It almost adds enough to the ride to make it better than Wicked Twister.

As great as it would be for Knoebels to get a Boulder Dash style ride, unfortunately I don't think it's reasonable to expect them to do anything different from what they've been doing, same with any park, and thus far they've never built a coaster that wasn't a relocation or recreation. That's why I love the wooden wild mouse idea, it could be fun and intense and totally unique on this continent.

They may look like fun rides, but by all accounts they were not, unless you enjoy whiplash. I don't see the appeal.

I don't know why everyone is so obsessed with those cyclone coasters. They were notorious because they were poorly designed and very painful to ride. If anyone actually tried to recreate them you'd all just whine about how rough it is.

Does everyone agree that Magnum's changed that much? I loved it when I rode it last spring, enough to make it pretty much my favorite coaster. Hard for me to imagine it's been neutered particularly.

^And that's good enough, honestly. The Knoebels skyline consists of mostly trees, not too much to look at.

It would take a very dedicated person(s) to keep a big collection of old games like that running.

I still think they should build an old-fashioned wooden wild mouse. In addition to the whole Schwarzkopf thing. Put Laser right near the entrance. KA-BLAM!

Oh come on, just because the ride is located next to El Toro does not make that an "ejector" air time hill. That's abother word we need to ban from the lexicon, clearly. Nobody knows when to use it. Still, that is a fun hill, and it's a fun ride. For me I like that and CCMR about the same, I'm big fans of both. Trail Blazer is awful.

That's just what I was thinking. Since when is building a little coaster like this during the off-season and having it ready for opening day "unrealistic"?

That's actually part of the theming. It's the bottom of a punji pit that'll go right underneath where you fall. Goes with the whole tribal "drop of doom" scenerio.

I actually do kind of "get" stand ups. I hated my ride on Mantis (head banging, leg pain), but I actually enjoyed Green Lantern pretty well. I need to not press so hard against the floor with my legs, and also not ride it right after Superman (which always makes me feel kind of crappy, lying on my stomach for that long), and I think I'll like it even more. Definitely a more intense layout than Bizarro, and the standing up bit makes it even more intense. Feels more precarious, inversions feel stronger. I don't think it's any more a "gimmick" than inverted, wing, etc.

What exactly do you want? Either the restraint sits at your waist or it sits on your thighs. Those are your options. On rides with airtime as strong as these two, the restraints will never feel 100% comfortable. Personally I'd take El Toro's any day.

It would be great if Knoebels built their next coaster. I know they just opened FT, but honestly that ride was "mostly finished" for so long, and it's not like it delayed the opening of other big attractions like Black Diamond and Stratosfear. If you pretend FT opened when it was supposed to, then it wouldn't be totally unreasonable to expect the next big coaster that soon. They seriously need to build an old-fashioned wooden wild mouse, like the crazy intense ones they have overseas.

No, but Fahrenheit does. The Norwegian loop is graceful but I would definitely consider everything after that to have pretty aggressive transitions. Sorry, but apart from the first drop I have never found anything aggressive about Fahrenheit. Did you know Shoot the Rapids originally had a heartline roll in it? It put too much stress on the boats and was removed before the ride opened.

At Dorney... a GCI woodie would make sense, but honestly, any coaster with an original layout will do. ANY coaster. I'd even take a wing coaster.

Roller coasters don't snuggles. Doing anything to "while the remainder of the day away" does not sound like a recipe for a happy holiday... =(