josephcissell

^ That's right. I thought I was missing an important one. Yeah, Afterburn is quite good too.

Pretty self explanatory topic. I'm curious what people consider to be the overall best year for B&M coasters in terms of the number of top quality rides they produced. For me it's probably 1999 because we got: -Apollo's Chariot at BGW, the first B&M hyper. -Bizarro (Originally Medusa) at SFGAdv, the first floorless. -Georgia Scorcher at SFOG, the last and perhaps most enjoyable stand up. -Incredible Hulk at IOA, one of the most iconic B&Ms in my opinion with an awesome, admittedly non-B&M, launch and a fantastic layout. What do you guys think?

Yeah, the crew was great and handled it well. I waited 45 minutes or so from about where the 60 minute mark would be with two trains according to the signs. They really do run Mindbender exceedingly well.

Despite the fact that we would love to see Six Flags drop lots of money on massive coasters like the supposed "6000' terrain coaster" that YOLOCoaster could have been, I just see this as Six Flags doing business. If I'm not mistaken, a huge part of what drove them into bankruptcy before was debt from building massive rides that proved lethal when market conditions went south. As an enthusiast, of course I would love to see the next I305 built in a Six Flags park, but realistically they're trying to move their bottom line meaningfully with a minimal amount of investment. I tend to think that the Six Flags board doesn't sit around thinking, "How can we screw the enthusiasts out of their dream ride? More YOLO!" If they can invest $6 million in a ride like YC and get the return on investment that they're looking for (which I don't doubt they have), they'll keep doing that until the chain is financially more comfortable dropping $20 million on a B&m or Intamin. Just my two cents.

Scorcher is quite underrated, and goodness does it need a new coat of point. She looks rough right now. On the subject of Mindbender, I was at the park yesterday and to my surprise found that Mindbender was only running one train. Apparently the second train is receiving some serious maintenance or had an issue, because it was sitting in pieces behind the maintenance shed. All of the wheel assemblies were removed from the cars. Nothing else to report really other than the addition of lots of Fright Fest promotional material and themeing just inside the front gate in the Promenade area, as well as some banners for Holiday in the Park.

It's so quick and snappy you don't really feel anything. It is by far the smoothest standup coaster I have ever been on. It does give a little jolt and you do get a second of airtime but nothing note worthey. Nothing close to the air time on Goliath. I agree and it's a shame that little jolt couldn't have been more note worthy. It's wonderfully smooth for a stand up though, and I love how much of a punch they packed into such a small space.

Seatbelts maybe, but the bars work fine on Shock Wave, Mind Bender, sooperdooperLooper, Montezooma's and Scorpion. Yeah unfortunately it's Six Flags policy now that any inverting coaster without OTSRs must have a seat belt, thats why they were added to YOLO, and apparently they consider the MCBR tilt on Goliath close enough to an inversion. I'd GLADLY trade those awful OTSRs for any seat belts they want to put in. DDD @ SFOG doesn't have seat belts to my knowledge. That is correct. Mindbender at SFOG lacks seat belts as well.

I'm with people on the idea that this won't be another RMC. That seems unlikely and unnecessary to me. This is quite the conundrum though. When I think about what the park needs most, all that comes to mind is a solid but not groundbreaking GCI or an airtime machine. Maybe this could be something like the oft dreamed of US mega lite or something like Lightning Run at KK?

^ Nice job though, that was quite a helpful visual. Even though I probably won't be getting up to Indiana just yet, I am quite excited for this ride and the possibilities it opens up for B&M. Congrats to Holiday World for what looks like a great ride and an excellent park. Next time I'm in the north, Holiday World will be on my list of places to visit. Also, huge thanks to Paula for reaching out to all of us on this forum. I think that speaks volumes to how much this park cares about its fans and guests.

^ and ^^ are pretty much spot on. I will also be at the park this Saturday with some friends. I tend to arrive 20-30 minutes prior to park opening to beat most of the rush to get through the parking gates (I've seen it back up quite seriously past the front gate). In my experience, they do frequently open the front gate early even to non Discover card or Gold season passholders. So being there early usually means a quick ride or two on Scorcher or Cyclone with minimal wait before the rest of the park is opened up. After they open up the rest of the park, I usually head straight to Superman and work my way forward. If you want a ride on SkyScreamer, I would get it immediately after Superman as they are both in the back of the park and SkyScreamer will have a significant (1hr+) wait most of the day. If you got a Scorcher ride on the way in, your longest wait of the day will probably be for Dare Devil Dive. As has been mentioned, operations are usually great on DDD, but it's a very low capacity ride. If you're planning to be there all day, I would just come back to DDD late in the day a couple hours before close. If not, I would hit it on your way to Superman as you first arrive. You will probably encounter some solid 45+ minute waits on the other major coasters like Goliath, Batman, and Mindbender, but those are people eaters and should move fairly well. If you plan to ride Ninja, your best bet is to ride in the front row of the last car. For Scream Machine, non wheel seats (ie middle rows) are the smoothest. Also, Cyclone provides some great airtime in the last car. The bottom line is that if you get in early and knock out the worst capacity rides first (Superman, DDD, SkyScreamer) you can make a peak season Saturday visit work. I hope you enjoy your visit to the park. Feel free to PM me if you have any other questions.

I was at the park yesterday for a quick half day with a friend. The park was pretty empty most of the day and we never waited more than 20-25 minutes for anything, so we hit all the big rides in a few hours pretty easily. A couple quick notes on the day: -A few weeks back I was uncertain if the single rider signage I noticed was new. It definitely is. During my trip yesterday I noticed where several stations' queues have been modified for the single rider line. Somewhat cynically, I would typically assume that such queues wouldn't actually get used because this is Six Flags... But much to my surprise both Dare Devil Dive and Goliath were utilizing their single rider lines at various points during the day. Perhaps this is the start of a push for better operations? *fingers crossed* -Hurricane Harbor seems to be going quite strong. I don't much care for mixing my theme park and water park experiences, but plenty of other people do. Every time I've been to the park this summer, Hurricane Harbor seems to be very busy regardless of the rest of the park. -I'm pleased to say that Georgia Cyclone is still running leaps and bounds better than it has in recent years, as it has been all this season. So that speaks volumes for the RMC topper track they've added over time. In my mind, it has finally made enough of a difference. -Everything was two train ops except for Mind Bender. -Credit where credit is due: All food service employees (5 different stops. I was thirsty!) were courteous and kind with smiles and "Have a Six Flags day!" First time that has happened in a while and it was pleasant. -Also, DDD's crew was kicking butt and regularly stacking two trains just before the lift. Love to see that. Great day at the park, just thought I'd give a little mid-season update. Always glad to see my home park doing pretty well.

Operations were generally awful yesterday for me as well. Really sad to see for my home park. Though Mind Bender’s crew was the exception to that rule. I couldn’t agree more with your critique of that and the loose article policy.

As Screamscape already reported the other day, I didn’t see any markings around Cyclone. I ended up visiting the park yesterday and had a limited time available during the evening, but the crowds were pretty light due to the time and it was manageable. Also, I noticed signage for single rider lines in the stations of Batman, Goliath, Mind Bender, Superman, GA Cyclone, and GA Scorcher. I know at least several of these rides have had single rider lines for a while, but the signage seemed pleasantly new.

^Weather permitting, I'll be at the park on Sunday to check it out. In my opinion though, the retracking done for 2014 brings Cyclone up to a much more rideable status than it has been over the last few years.

Amen!

I was also at the park on Saturday and while there were some down checks, overall I thought the park handled things pretty well. As Krandor mentioned, the new season pass processing was in place and functional, however my experience was a bit more positive. I arrived about 15 minutes before park opening and received a flyer at the parking booth that directed me to head straight to the gate for season pass processing. Additionally, when I entered there were signs out front confirming that season pass processing would occur at the gate. As Krandor mentioned, you scan your voucher, scan your fingerprint, and get your card at the gate. The process worked flawlessly for me. At the end of the day I added my season parking to my pass at the processing center and that worked without issue for me. As has already been mentioned, lines were pretty short early in the day so I was able to hit several rides very quickly. Everything was two train operation for most or all of the day except Ninja and Mindbender. Later in the day Batman went to single train operation as I believe they had some trouble with train 1. Georgia Scorcher and Dare Devil Dive both opened late and suffered intermittent downtime for parts of the morning and early afternoon. As some other quick notes: -DDD in particular went down twice just while I was in line. One of those times appeared to be the result of a patron who tried to pull down on her restraint before it hydraulically lowered. This presumably caused an error and stopped the ride... for the next 15 minutes while it was reset by mechanics and cycled. Gotta love the GP. Additionally, at about 1:30 I was in line for DDD and asked the attendant how many people had ridden for the day as she had a counter in her hand. At that point the count was only 1149, which I find to be pretty disappointing some 3 1/2 hours after park opening. -Georgia Cyclone was definitely smoother than last season, but only marginally so. The turnarounds following the initial turnaround are still pretty jarring compared to the drops, but the drops are fairly smooth and enjoyable. Sitting in the back seat, the ride really does have several surprisingly good pops of airtime. I’m fairly lenient when it comes to roughness on woodies, but for me personally, Georgia Cyclone has finally crossed into possibly re-ridable territory. -Goliath received new foam for its restraints during the off season. The signs of B&M rattle that I experienced last season on the first and second drops appear to have been fully addressed in the off season, as you would expect. Also, there were some issues releasing the restraints after some rides. I saw several instances where attendants had to manually release the restraints for a car or two. Not sure if that was operator error or just freshly tightened and rebuilt parts, but it slowed otherwise great operations down a bit. I happened to catch the last train of the day on Goliath and I must say that a night ride in the front seat on Goliath remains one of my favorite coaster experiences. -GASM received a fairly significant amount of new wood over the off season, and I’m pleased to report that you can definitely feel the difference. It was running better than it has in the past several years IMO. I really enjoyed my ride. Additionally, I noted that GASMs trains received new foam padding on the seats and lab bars. They also appeared to be freshly painted. Overall it was a great day at the park, and the I thought the park handled the crowds pretty well. My only minor complaint is that Mindbender was single train all day. Not bad for my first opening day though. I look forward to getting back this summer.

^ I’ll be there. This will be my first opening day, so I’m very curious what crowds will be like.

^ Agreed. It's great classic woodie fun. Though I haven't had issues with roughness over the last few years either, I appreciate that GASM is getting the TLC it needs as an older ride. Anyone else beside myself planning to be at SFOG on opening day this year? Also, I'm curious if the new season pass processing system is going to be implemented and operational. Perhaps I missed something, but I haven't heard anything about it recently in the context of SFOG.

That’s rather amazing. Regardless of whether he’s bizarre or a jerk or whatever, props to him for dedication to something he loves. Thanks for the update!

Bump. I just read through this thread, and I’m wondering if he’s still going? Does anyone know if this man is still around or did something happen to him?

^ I second that. It would be nice to get anything on rails at SFOG. From the sounds of things though, we're probably looking at updates and expansions to the new water park over the next several years. 2017 is the 50 year anniversary of the park though and my fingers are crossed...

It is interesting that Southern Star is leaving. Given the timing of that and a survey a few months back that talked about a water park expansion, I would say that seems a likely bet. Also, I did notice some drilling happening in between the back of Southern Star and the back of Superman's station about two weeks ago. Personally I think a water park expansion is redundant given the quality and nearness of White Water, but Skull Island always seems busy when I'm there, so perhaps there is demand for it after all.

I will be at the park on Saturday as well with some friends. Does SkyScreamer open to the GP next weekend?

Any idea why Goliath was down for the weekend?

There is at least one out there that fits that description. #1 on my bucket list to ride. One of the most creative unique layouts I've seen on any coaster, not just a flier. I have to say, that looks like the best flier I've seen. I really like that layout. Why can't we get something like this in the U.S.?