Dr. M

Funny, hearing you guys talk about it almost makes me want to trek out to the park next year just to ride it. Whodathunk?

They could replace Stinger with this: http://www.guenter-engelhardt.de/entertainment/en/sale/second-hand-looping-coaster-schwarzkopf-germany.php Man, don't even joke.

SkySaunter? ...yeah I'm sorry, I lose.

^Dude, where ya been? It was already open for like four weekends in October! I and others have already ridden it. It's a lot of fun.

There's something curious about dismissing a ride that you've never ridden in favor of a ride that no one has yet ridden (and in fact, currently exists in the form of some footers and sticks sticking out of the ground). In all liklihood, Goliath will be a great ride, and it's no secret that Stand-Ups don't have a sparkling reputation among many coaster people- but I can think of a few coasters that I like, but might have never bothered riding if I just went by what people said. If I had never ridden a B&M stand-up, and if this was RMC's first coaster, I might agree with you. However, I feel I have enough information to make that determination without having ridden either of the coasters involved. Kind of like how we've determined that the Earth revolves around the sun even though we've never, you know, been to the sun.

Stinger at Dorney. Get it the hell out of there, it has absolutely no reason for still existing. I don't even care if nothing takes its place, I just hate looking at it.

Actually, Batman and Raptor (and all inverts really) are positive G machines, they pretty much never pull negative Gs. I would also argue that those rides don't have short periods of high positive Gs, they have prolonged periods of high positive Gs - on the Batman rides as an example, the first time you stop pulling high positive Gs on the ride comes after the second loop is over. That was a typo, I can assure you I know the difference between positive and negative Gs. To me the variations in intensity feel short and fast, though you are pulling some amount pretty much the whole time. I can't remember any moment on an invert that feels like a long single moment of positive Gs like Nitro's death helix. While I agree to an extent here, you have to remember that this is a little taller meaning that the elements will come quicker, and that Banshee is not using a midcourse break, so where Montu wastes let's call is 100 feet on going straight, Banshee doesn't bother doing that. I don't think it will be very forceful, but I think it will definitely be a decent ride. And, while I like walking off Batman with tingly feet like a lot of people on here do, I don't think that the general public is wanting that out of a ride. Comfort is a much higher priority then for King's Island. What makes you say the general public doesn't want that? Have any of the Batman clones been closed down due to declining ridership?

What a great article! Thanks so much for posting it! It really is a great ride, I enjoyed it a lot. Everyone should go visit next year.

Honestly, why is that? Lots of adults enjoy riding kiddie coasters. Is it to keep the line down, so kids don't have to compete with pushy adults to ride?

The roughness on Kingda Ka definitely makes it more intense. My first time on TTD I was perfectly aware of everything going on around me the whole time, on KK I had one of those weird out-of-body experiences where if I tried to remember what happened it was all just a shaky blur, like being in a building that was exploding. I also rode towards the back if that clears things up a bit. So, in terms of view, placement in the park, and restraints, I'd go with TTD. For a pure visceral experience, I have to go with KK.

I agree, a giant mowed lawn looks so much more natural than trenches.

How much of a competitor are they really though? It's been a number of years and it still seems like not many parks want their pre-fabs.

Why can't RMC sell their own coasters in Europe?

Ka just knows... it KNOWS what park it's at, and it behaves accordingly. It's the only explanation. Personally I haven't really decided if I like KK or TTD more... but if anything KK's roughness is actually to its credit. Makes it feel that much more intense.

^I've never been to the park but I imagine anyone who would feel a sense of loss over the absence of a notoriously rough B&M stand-up when potentially one of the greatest wooden coasters ever built is being put in its place probably has a concussion.

"To ensure a safe ride, and to avoid decapitation, please keep your head back and you legs curled underneath the chair at all times."

If it does turn out that the only good part of the ride is the first drop, then you'll basically be getting the dive machine experience anyway.

If it's anything like the chocolate factory I work in, it's definitely not a world of pure imagination. More like a world of pure irritation. And hair nets.

Last I heard they'd modernized the plant and layed off a lot of workers, and sent a lot of manufacturing over seas, but they still produce a lot of candy in Hershey itself. Is this no longer the case? Anyway to answer part of your question, they purchased part of the neighboring golf course and are moving the highway in order to expand. EDIT: I looked it up and as far as I can tell a lot of Hershey's manufacturing still takes place in Hershey PA. I guess most of the old building isn't used anymore though? As of right now, the cocoa bean silos, smokestacks, bushes out front, and original portion of the factory is being kept. The building is currently being renovated into office space and it looks like they kept some of the old machinery inside the building. The factory moved its operations down the road to a larger location and still produces products. As for moving much of their manufacturing to Mexico, I really don't find that completely true as they do have quite a few production plants in eastern Pa (I know they have a factory in Hazleton). If you are talking about the golf course in front of the factory, that is not true as it is still operating and there would be no place for a four-lane highway to go that way (plus it would cut through the front yard of Milton Hershey's High Point mansion near the creek). I think you are talking about the golf course near the park, which is owned by Hershey Entertainment. As of right now, the park is not involved in this project and I really don't expect them to expand this way. They would be better off going over to the golf course by Chocolate World and deal with that road instead of Rt. 743. We produce some Hershey products at the chocolate factory I work at here in Wyomissing PA. I didn't make up the thing about the golf course, it's already been officially announced. I read about it here.

Ok, yes, the first drop looks pretty sick. That's as far as I'll go. It's difficult to compare Raptor and Banshee based off of off ride shots since the shaping is so utterly different. So many more flater, straighter sections of track on Raptor, where as Banshee is basically always curving. But if you look at the inversions themselves, like the zero G roll, you can see Banshee's are larger and more drawn-out.

Which airtime hill are we talking about? The one in the middle of the ride or the one at the end, which is really only half a hill, with the brake run down the other side? I've been looking at the pictures assuming it was the one in the middle.

Last I heard they'd modernized the plant and layed off a lot of workers, and sent a lot of manufacturing over seas, but they still produce a lot of candy in Hershey itself. Is this no longer the case? Anyway to answer part of your question, they purchased part of the neighboring golf course and are moving the highway in order to expand. EDIT: I looked it up and as far as I can tell a lot of Hershey's manufacturing still takes place in Hershey PA. I guess most of the old building isn't used anymore though?

Oooooooo! I want a commercial stimulator. Depending on your partner, and the way you like it, it could be very forceful. I LOL'd. Am I the only one who's imagined a coaster with vibrators in the seats that changed intensity depending on the speed of the ride? With the tallest, fastest drop saved for the very end? Probably. I do have a very, very filthy mind.

This. Judging the roughness of a wooden coaster depends on how good the POV is. I feel TPR went out of their way to capture the roughness of Hades 360 with their ten minute long video full of shots of people going "Oof! Ow!". Some comments say it looks awesome, but a lot of comments picked up on how rough it looks as well. On one of the Wildcat POVs the rider keeps referring to it as "death cat". So while it's hard to judge roughness just from the POV itself, external factors can help. So I guess the take-away is if you want a good idea of how a ride is, watch as many different POVs as possible. Also read reviews on sites like TPR. I still say you can tell a lot from POVs though, especially on steel coasters where roughness isn't as much a factor.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who's gone into a park after having seen POVs of all the coasters, with an idea of how each one will ride. How accurate are POVs at depicting how the ride actually feels? In my experience they're generally pretty accurate. Every ride feels more intense in person, but you can compensate for that. And you can also judge a lot from comparing new POVs to ones of rides you've already been on, the timing between elements and so forth. You start to figure out the relationship between how something looks and how something feels. For instance, if there's a point in an inversion where the rotation of the camera suddenly changes all at once, then the inversion has a "snap" to it, like old B&M cobra rolls, as opposed to modern ones where the rotation is more fluid. Maverick's inversions have this bizarre "up, and then over" rhythm, which felt to me exactly how it looks in the POV. There are exceptions of course. Skyrush, I have no explanation for that, the POVs make it look like a total snooze fest. And I can't really imagine how X2 rides due to its uniqueness, and how hard it is to tell the rotation of the seats relative to the track in the videos. Also, obviously there are some things POVs can't predict, like uncomfortable restraints... unless you happened to watch one of the Skyrush POVs where you can actually hear people shouting "My thighs!" on the brake run.