Dr. M

Alpengeist pretty much singlehandedly killed my day at BGW. It was second, after Griffon. The whole rest of the day I had such a bad headache I couldn't even enjoy Apollo's Chariot... the only other rides I really liked were Loch Ness Monster and DarKastle since it was inside, away from the bright sunlight. Hopefully I can get back next year to give it a second opinion.

It happens that El Toro is my #1 ride overall, if there was somewhere else I could go to ride it, trust me, I would. Nitro and Batman also make it worth the trip. But I have no problem with their clientele, read through my posts and you'll find I never even made a sarcastic crack about it being located in Jersey. The problem isn't the people that go there, the problem is the behemoth corporation that takes their money for granted and repeatedly reinforces the idea that the park means nothing more to them than a giant dirt field upon which to place rides and queue lines. The only reason I have such resentment towards Six Flags is I LOVE Great Adventure, or at least I did, some of my happiest childhood memories belong there. I care about it much more than Six Flags ever could, and they treat it like crap. When I go to Knoebels, I can feel that these people understand that this stuff matters, that classic coaster design matters, that dark rides matter, that carousel organs matter, that a theme park is much more than the sum of its parts, that when I think of my best friend from when I was a kid, I remember us at amusement parks, that these things become a part of you. When I go to SFGA, well, let's just say I don't. Ok, enough ranting for now.

How about taking a hard look at literally ANYTHING. I mean, I rode Iron Shark this year. A compact, tiny little Gerstlauer that packed WAAAAAAY more forces, fun and excitement than just about anything B&M has done in the last 10 years. I *get* B&M Fanboys for what they did from 1992 - 2000. They had almost a perfect track record of hits during those years. Made some of (still) the best coasters out there. Then from 2001 - 2006, it was hit and miss, with nothing in that time frame being anywhere as good as the earlier years, and then 2007 onwards, c'mon... they are just phoning it in. The last six years have been a snoozefest of "trying to like" a bunch of forceless coasters because they *used* to make the most badass OMFG BLOW YOUR MIND AWAY coasters 20 years ago. I just simply cannot get excited about a new B&M anymore because they don't make exciting rides anymore. --Robb "There. I said it." Alvey Have I mentioned how much I'm looking forward to all the Kings Island fans getting so stoked for Banshee and then having you, and others, tear it apart? I'm practically bouncing with anticipation.

I'm looking forward to it, but will there really be much to tour at that point?

Great Bear has kept its smoothness much better than Alpengeist, no?

The only fair I go to every summer doesn't have too much in the way of rides, but I am particularly fond of the Matterhorn ride they have. It's way bumpier, more rickety, and even feels faster than the ones I've been on at major amusement parks. It's like the wooden coaster version. I wonder if there's any park that has one like that permanently... I'd assume not since most people probably prefer the smoother version. I don't think any self-respecting park, even Knoebels, would have a Zipper, seeing as they were basically designed with the sole intent of fitting on the back of a truck.

^Everybody complains about that but honestly, all it's doing is taking you back to the station, it's a single turn and it lasts maybe 2.5 seconds. Everyone talks about the ending to Great Bear, but really I disagree. Here's how I see the coaster (this is assuming you're riding in the back, which is pretty much required for any invert IMO): First after the lift, you slowly accelerate into the helix. In addition to getting a great view, you're already pulling some heavy negative Gs, and the ride hasn't even started yet. Then you dive down across the creek and you're smacked with three great inversions right in a row. This section has all the pacing and intensity one would expect from any great B&M invert. Then you hit the next turnaround, and the much maligned straightaway, but to me this actually adds to the ride's character. You know that second barrel roll is coming but from the back you can't even see it. It builds anticipation. Or, of you're new to the ride, a false sense of security. Suddenly it hits and it's the most intense element on the ride. A perfectly serviceable climax. There's even a little dive in the opposite direction right before it, to keep you guessing. Then, that's it, the ride's over, and in a matter of seconds you're hitting the brakes. Is it too short? Yes, but it's got enough unusual terrain elements and pacing surprises that it's my second favorite invert behind Talon. People talk about it "meandering around", but those parts are so very, very short, and I have to wonder if those people have ever ridden, you know, Mean Streak, or the Beast, or, like, any mine train ride ever.

Let's just talk layout and atmosphere for a moment. We've got the games midway, the area around Dark Knight, abandoned Old Country, the devided Golden Kingdom, the way the new queue line for the Safari is smushed right up against the Best of the West restaurant, the two mediocre B&Ms dropped in a field between the park and the parking lot and the amount of wasted space their ridiculously shaped queues take up, the depressing state of Skull Mountain's facade and how it totally dominates that side of the park... I'm pretty sure the only area of the park I don't hate is the area right around Bizarro. That area is so quiet and wooded, once I'm there I never want to leave.

YES! This is what I've done the past three times and it worked perfectly. Multiple rides on storm runner nearby before anyone fills in. Haha...I did find out to skip Great Bear if the queue is busy. Just not forceful and makes me fall asleep after so many times on Raptor, Montu, Alpengeist... The inversions on Great Bear are basically just as forceful as Raptor and Alpengeist. It's just shorter.

That's no excuse, Busch Gardens Williamsburg competes with DC and yet somehow they find it within their budget to keep their park pristine and beautiful every year. There's no reason SFGA can't build big new rides AND work to improve infrastructure. They're just cheap bastards who don't care about the customer experience. Seriously, the layout of the park as it is now is one of the worst of any park I've ever been to. The clientele is those two areas are totally different. Great Adventure attracts those who do not care as much about a pristine atmosphere. Busch Gardens attracts families that are typically on a vacation to the Colonial Williamsburg area, and some nicer suburbs of the DC area so they are looking for that kind of experience. I am not saying it is an excuse, but calling Six Flags a bunch of cheap bastards is not correct in this situation. They are making multi-million dollar additions and improvements during the off season, they are just different than what Busch Gardens makes. Sorry, I don't buy it. BGW caters to a wide variety of clientele, including thrill seekers, seeing as they have two B&M's that are both the tallest and fastest of their type. SFGA also caters to a wide variety including families. They don't mainly attract people who don't care about atmosphere, why would that be true? They're cheap bastards when it comes to doing anything to the park other than building new rides. BGW is simply a nicer, better-run park, as is Hershey, as is King's Dominion, as is most of their major competition. No excuses, Six Flags sucks plain and simple. That is fine. Six Flags sucking is your opinion. I personally don't enjoy the atmosphere at most of their parks either. And sure, you are going to get a mix of people at parks (families, teens, twenty-somethings, thrill seekers, grandma's etc.) I"m just saying that Six Flags chooses to spend their money in a certain way, and that is usually on rides, and it is kind of tough to change that now. In order to make the improvements you would be looking for at Great Adventure I would venture to say it would take 3 years worth of off season improvement expenses and all of that time in order to make the park full of nice surroundings. 3 years of no ride or thrill improvements/upgrades to the ride lineup. They are were they are right now, so they almost kind of have to keep running the course with it. And I am not making excuses for them, I am just being a realist here. It's true that it's taken years of neglect and bad decisions for the park to become the disjointed mess it is now, and it would take years to do a full turnaround. But it can happen in small chunks. There's no reason they have to "stay the course" and continue screwing stuff up, it's just not in their business model to have a nice park, apparently. But they have a chance here to really fix the Golden Kingdom, make it more cohesive and clear up some of the congestion in that main midway. That would be a start. Let's hope they don't f*ck it up.

I've always had a hard time enjoying rides with a second lift hill, the only possible exception I can think of being Loch Ness Monster. Just totally kills the pace.

That's no excuse, Busch Gardens Williamsburg competes with DC and yet somehow they find it within their budget to keep their park pristine and beautiful every year. There's no reason SFGA can't build big new rides AND work to improve infrastructure. They're just cheap bastards who don't care about the customer experience. Seriously, the layout of the park as it is now is one of the worst of any park I've ever been to. The clientele is those two areas are totally different. Great Adventure attracts those who do not care as much about a pristine atmosphere. Busch Gardens attracts families that are typically on a vacation to the Colonial Williamsburg area, and some nicer suburbs of the DC area so they are looking for that kind of experience. I am not saying it is an excuse, but calling Six Flags a bunch of cheap bastards is not correct in this situation. They are making multi-million dollar additions and improvements during the off season, they are just different than what Busch Gardens makes. Sorry, I don't buy it. BGW caters to a wide variety of clientele, including thrill seekers, seeing as they have two B&M's that are both the tallest and fastest of their type. SFGA also caters to a wide variety including families. They don't mainly attract people who don't care about atmosphere, why would that be true? They're cheap bastards when it comes to doing anything to the park other than building new rides. BGW is simply a nicer, better-run park, as is Hershey, as is King's Dominion, as is most of their major competition. No excuses, Six Flags sucks plain and simple.

^I was making it sound easy for humorous effect, but I know it's not as simple as just copying the restraints wholesale. My main point was that those restraints come over your shoulders and meet you at your waist where they're supposed to, proving that it's possible to do. I know it would take time and money to implement, especially considering SkyRush's trains are one of a kind, but I think it would be nothing compared to the total cost of the ride, plus the cost of all the space it's taking up. From the visits I've had it's hard for me to believe it's seeing the kind of ridership Hershey was expecting. The lines for that should not be consistently as long as for their B&M invert from 1998 (at any point after 1 in the afternoon).

^And King's Dominion.....? SFGA's competition is Dorney amd Hershey, so yeah, same situation.

Winged seat versus non-winged seat makes a BIG difference, me and my brother have pretty much sworn off the winged seats (though that'll probably only last until my second ride next year and I'll regret it). I also hated the ride when I first rode it, but now it's in my top 3, so go figure. The ride will never be PERFECTLY comfortable, no, but it could be much better. When I ride El Toro, I don't feel the intensity of the airtime at the place where the restraint meets my body, I feel it as pressure in my face, as the blood rushes to my head. That's how it's supposed to feel. The lap bar is stapling me hard, but it's just a dull pressure that I know is keeping me secure. Yes it's tight, but it doesn't hurt. On Skyrush, all of the intensity of the airtime is translated as pain at my thighs. I ignore it and enjoy the ride anyway, but it's a physical conflict between my body and my brain that keeps the ride from being as purely, joyously pleasurable as El Toro is. It also makes the ride that much more intense and frightening, so yes something might be "lost" if they fix the restraints, but I believe it would be worth the trade-off, and I also believe it would get Hershey that Golden Ticket award they were clearly going for with the ride.

I'm as curmudgeonly as they come and even I get slightly irritated when I hear people complaining about Christmas music. Yes it's the same year after year, but c'moooooon... it's Christmas! Lighten up!

Not to mention just finding the right path that takes you to Kingda Ka is a headache and a half. Maybe that's a problem only I have, but I don't have trouble navigating at any other park I've been to, usually I don't even need a map.

As much as I love the ride, the restraints will continue to be an issue that gets raised until, well, it's no longer an issue. You can assume every other new trip report will include somewhere in it "Awesome coaster but holy crap, my thighs" and here we'll go all over again. It's because they're terribly designed. Or because everybody is a snively whiner, take your pick. I still hold out hope that Hershey will get new restraints for it at some point. Here's what you do Intamin: Step 1) Take the restraint from Fahrenheit and Stormrunner, Step 2) remove the OTSR, Step 3) stick them on Skyrush, Step 4) there is no step 4.

That's no excuse, Busch Gardens Williamsburg competes with DC and yet somehow they find it within their budget to keep their park pristine and beautiful every year. There's no reason SFGA can't build big new rides AND work to improve infrastructure. They're just cheap bastards who don't care about the customer experience. Seriously, the layout of the park as it is now is one of the worst of any park I've ever been to.

They're both boomerangs. An RMC would ride really different from El Toro, it would still be redundant.

Apparently Rolling Thunder was a very thrilling coaster when it opened. As for what would replace Rolling Thunder, I absolutely do not think it will be something from Rocky Mountain because the experience would be too much like El Toro. In all of my knowledge I do not know of any Six Flags park that has put two similar coasters right next to each other except possibly Dark Knight being placed right next to Skull Mountain. But that's a stretch as they're two different kinds of coasters. In fact, the only park that I can think of off the top of my head that has two similar coasters that don't race is Canada's Wonderland. What about SFNE with Flashback and Goliath? And outside Six Flags, Hershey with Wildcat and Lightning Racer?

An RMC right next to El Toro WOULD be redundant, it would be like putting a Bizarro (SFNE) clone right next to Nitro. Sure, to enthusiasts the rides are very different, but at the end of the day they're both hyper coasters that focus on airtime. It'd make no gosh-durned sense. Wait, what am I saying, OF COURSE Six Flags would do this. They'll probably name it something DC-related too, since that would look great jammed in between Little Mexico and Jungle Land. That's it, my official prediction: an RMC called the Riddler's Revenge with a 90° drop and three inversions on a flat grassy field and a couple 2D pictures of giant question marks put next to the track.

This is something I've never been clear on with prefabricated wooden coasters. Are all the pieces including the supports laser-cut at a factory, or just the pieces for the track itself?

This is SFGA so no matter what they do, we can be rest assured the money won't go where it needs to. But hey, tallest drop tower in the world.

The fact is that no matter what they do to the lift, a few miles per hour one way or another will not significantly affect the intensity of the ride. Plummeting 200 feet in those gigantic trains is always going to produce approximately the same result. So everyone can stop worrying. We're all standing around on pins and needles waiting for the day they pussify Skyrush, but I really don't think it's going to happen. The only thing they could do is turn the trims up, which I guess they might do if they think it would make the ride more comfortable and result in significantly increased ridership... but the ride is so short, and the first drop/turn are so intense just on their own, one has to wonder what the point would be. I think they're going to leave it just the way it is. We know now they specifically asked Intamin for a more intense ride, and that's what they got.