josephcissell

It would be a great addition to the park especially during the summer. I got the same survey. I wouldn't hold my breath either, but we could really use more dark stuff. The park could use the variety and the people could use the AC in the summer heat. Sounds like a win win to me.

^ I don't have any personal experience with them but after looking at some footage of Iron Dragon at CP and Eagle's Fortress in South Korea, I see what you mean. I am definitely a fan of great terrain coasters and I like your idea.

I don't know if that's possible since all the the riders' weight is on their chest. Not sure if that is possible either, but I love the idea. A flying coaster with a 90 degree drop in a flying or lying position sounds very exciting to me. I can envision something compact and twisted, like a typical Gerstlauer Euro-Fighter, but with flying coaster trains.

^ That's a good point and I certainly agree that parks will almost always want whats new and exciting when they're shelling out that kind of money. I'd still love to see someone redesign the restraints on these stand up coasters or create a truly unique flying coaster that is more than simply a pretzel loop and an inline twist or two, but perhaps that is just wishful thinking on my part.

While certainly mediocre compared to the other B&M sit downs, I think that if it can happen in the next couple of years, Led Zepplin is bound to be relocated. As several have said, that would be a major ride for many smaller parks that otherwise couldn't afford a B&M or anything that big. That said, the clock is definitely ticking there and a lot of that speculation depends on how much or little the ride has been maintained over the last four years... My money would be on one of the Vortex twins, but even then I could still realistically see either of those ending up in an international park in the near future. They may not be the greatest, but they're still relatively young and still have years of life left for anyone willing to maintain them. I'd be willing to bet several Chinese or South American parks would take up that offer.

Throughout the wonderful TPR community and the world of coaster people It's common to see general complaints made about certain styles of coasters than are no longer "in fashion" so to be speak. Particularly stand up coasters come to mind, but I would also include flying coasters and floorless coasters as styles that, while still popular at their respective parks in some cases (Tatsu at SFMM, Medusa at SFDK, and GA Scorcher at SFOG come to mind) have generally perhaps passed their prime or have gone out of style with coaster enthusiasts for being too gimicky, uncomfortable, or in the case of floorless coasters simply too similar to sit downs. Among most of the GP I know, this isn't so much the case, but often the GP see things very differently. As most everyone on here knows, the wing riders are the hot new thing right now and probably will be for a while, but that will only last for so long. Though I'm sure Intamin, B&M, Premier, and the like certainly have new ideas in the works for the next ten or twenty years, at some point one has to assume that some of these less popular styles are going to be reworked and tried again with a new spin, hopefully with better results. So my two questions are: How could coaster styles like stand up, flying, or floorless coasters that are less in favor be reworked to be more successful in terms of comfort, throughput, and popularity in the future? Alternatively, are any of these ride types inherently flawed and consequently unworthy of a future revisit?

So yesterday I made a trip out to the park with some friends. Given that there have been several great trip reports recently, here are just a few quick and minor notes on the day: -The park definitely had a healthy turnout, though it wasn't crazy. Wait times for Goliath, Superman, and Dare Devil Dive were all in the 80-90 minute range throughout most of the day. The line for Batman was long enough to be out of the tunnels, though I don't recall exactly how long that is in approximate minutes. Great American Scream Machine, Georgia Cyclone, and Georgia Scorcher were in the 50-60 minute range. Mind Bender was 35-45 minutes. -Dare Devil Dive in particular does indeed seem to be the most popular ride in the park as the queue was entirely filled basically all day long. DDD did not open with the park at 10, but rather opened around 11:15. Not sure why there was a late opening, but I seem to recall someone else mentioning DDD opening late in a previous trip report recently. -Mind Bender was running excellently. Props to the ride crew as they were working very efficiently and I didn't see a single train stack all day long. I just wish other rides could be run as well. Ride ops were focused, safe, and efficient, and it made for a great experience. Mind Bender's shorter wait times were largely due to excellent operations, not any lack of queued people. -I definitely noticed some B&M rattle on Goliath on the second drop, particularly at the bottom of the drop and up into the third hill. It wasn't particularly bad, but to anyone paying attention to how the ride feels, it is clearly there. I believe I was on the second train for that particular ride. -GASM and Goliath both broke down during the day. In both instances the rides were stalled on their respective lift hills, but their issues were apparently minor and resolved in 10-15 minutes. -As several have already stated in past reports, they have done a nice job with retracking more of Georgia Cyclone. The retracked sections feel very good, though it is a bit jarring to go from new to old track. The ride has been made reasonably comfortable again, and when lines aren't too long I would reride. -No activity on or around Ninja. I assume they're waiting on parts as the chain is still clearly out of position. -Sky Screamer was testing with empty seats all day. I never saw it spin, but it was consistently going up and down throughout the day. Also, the lighting package looks very nice at night. It's nothing particularly different from what I've seen on other Sky Screamers, but the ride is a nice addition and should be a lot of fun when it opens. That's about it. It was a good day at the park and I look forward to getting back again in a few weeks.

Slow doesn't equal safe. There's is nothing wrong with "racing" while checking lapbars, especially on a Schwarzkopf! We did it at Lagoon ALL the time on Fire Dragon when running 2 Trains. Used to do it on Roller Coaster at Lagoon as well and we used to check em by pushing down AND pulling up. -Sid Actually, there's some of truth to this. On the Scream Machine, one attendant in particular was going very slow, and not checking the seat belts AT ALL. She just checked the lap bar. By contrast, another ride op earlier in the day was doing an excellent job with the seat belts. She was tightening everyone's belt weather it needed to be tightened or not. To add to that, they were pushing all the way down and pulling up. There were times in which one guy had to stop and help someone. They weren't being negligible in the slightest. They were doing an excellent job. I understand what you're saying. In terms of the quicker ops, it seems that they were focused on their job and doing it well, which allowed them move quickly but effectively. Whereas the slower ops just didn't really care. I don't think there's really any disagreement here. Good ride ops can work quickly and safely, that doesn't necessarily mean its a race, but rather that they're paying attention and doing their best to keep the flow of people moving.

^^ Yeah. Unfortunately, though apparently they do use the second station on Superman at SFOG on rare occasions, I've never personally seen it happen, which is a real shame given how long the line can get on even moderately busy days. Obviously its Six Flags, so I don't necessarily assume that they will be operating rides as well as they could be, but It just seems unreasonable to me that they would let a 90+ minute wait develop without using the second station, which I have seen several times.

Slow doesn't equal safe. There's is nothing wrong with "racing" while checking lapbars, especially on a Schwarzkopf! We did it at Lagoon ALL the time on Fire Dragon when running 2 Trains. Used to do it on Roller Coaster at Lagoon as well and we used to check em by pushing down AND pulling up. -Sid You're right, slow doesn't necessarily equal safe. My point though is that checking restraints as quickly as absolutely possible isn't the proper way to do it. When checking restraints, ride ops should be focused on the task at hand and focused on ensuring that the restraint is secured, not on the absolute speed with which they can complete the task. Sure, no one wants slow operations, but when the ride op is doing his/her job as it should be done, they will be reasonably quick but more importantly attentive to each rider and each restraint. Whether its a Schwarzkopf with lap bars that is pretty safe anyway or not, the bottom line is that safety must always take priority over speed. Your point is well taken, however I disagree that there is nothing wrong with racing. I personally would rather see a ride op take the extra few seconds a cycle to do the job right and with excellence, than rush through the job and eventually cause an accident that would ruin the theme park experiences we all enjoy. I agree. Reasonable urgency and the focus to complete the task with both excellence and speed is fine, but I would never want someone racing to check my restraint.

^ I completely agree that ride ops shouldn't be having races or making it a competition to check restraints. That's not safe. Though it was probably too much, at least they showed some initiative to avoid stacking trains and the glacial dispatch pace that many Six Flags ride ops operate by.

The trains look great to me! I really like the open air feeling that they seem to have. The OTSRs really don't look bad, though I wonder how rideable The Smiler will be in the long term with such a twisty layout and thus a major potential for headbanging. In the short term, I'm sure the ride will be wonderfully smooth like other Gerstlauers, but as the ride ages, it seems that could become much more of an issue.

I would generally prefer a longer and better ride. There are some exceptions in cases where a ride is decent and the themeing is done very well. Personally though, I tend to have a considerable appreciation simply for the beauty and fluidity of the rides themselves. So I don't necessarily count a lack of themeing as an inherent flaw in a ride if its a good ride. In some cases excellent themeing can save a sub-par ride, but there is only so much that can be done, and unless its a Disney or a Universal caliber park, the necessary themeing to save such a ride virtually never happens.

Glad to hear about this progress on SkyScreamer. I can't wait to see what that view looks like!

^^ That Friday looks good and compared to the Saturday or Sunday, I expect it to be pretty light. I may actually be at the park that day as well, depending on some other plans.

^ Oh, awesome! Thank you for the heads up. I'll check that out.

That looks wonderfully intense. I love the perspective of shots like that.

Though I really love what Premier is doing with their launched coasters and I think Yolocoaster is going to have some great interactions with the Superman plaza area, I still pick Gatekeeper. Yolocoaster is certainly unique and will probably be a fun ride, but in my opinion I think Yolocoaster is too much of a one trick pony. It will be great the first time and a couple of times after that, but then it will start to fade as it really only has one or two highlight elements. Gatekeeper on the other hand is considerably longer, has wonderful interactions with the new towers and the entrance area, and takes the concept of a wing coaster to new heights, speed, etc as you would expect for a Cedar Point coaster. So for me, the clear winner is Gatekeeper, though I'm sure Yolocoaster will be enjoyable as well.

Batman and Robin: The Chiller formerly at Six Flags Great Adventure is probably my favorite ride that is now gone. I know it suffered from many issues and it never really worked with any consistency, but for whatever reason it is special to me as an interesting ride that I wish was still around. I think I read somewhere that the ride has been sold and is going somewhere else though, so perhaps it isn't gone for good? As to the ride that I am most happy to see gone, I would say Son of Beast. That ride really never amounted to anything good and despite having several world records, the ride just wasn't good.

Amusement parks. As many have said, thematic elements are great and wonderful if done well, but often they are not and at the end of the day I'm paying for quality rides and roller coasters. So while a nicely themed ride is pleasant, I'm not there to examine finely painted plaster trees. I'm there for the rides and that makes amusement parks more enjoyable to me.

^ I think in the case of Ninja, that probably wouldn't be enough to magically make it into a comfortable ride, but I could definitely see that as an improvement. It's an interesting idea and I would like to at least see someone try that.

^ In my experience of four trips last summer, yes. All four trips Ninja was walk-on or at the worst maybe a 10 minute station wait, even with single train operation. In Ninja's defense, I did hit up some fairly light days at the park, but even then most of the other rides had 25-30+ minute waits.

That really is unfortunate isn't it... I wish that the money/hassle of fixing whatever they're fixing would finally put this ride on the chopping block. How many seasons of walk-on-anytime-all-day ridership is it going to take?

For me the most awful element is the butterfly loop. Particularly the butterfly loop in Ninja at SFOG can be very painful. More than any other element, the butterfly loop seems to cause the most pain/headbanging in my experience. Perhaps it would be more bearable on a B&M or a much newer ride, but on a a 20 year-old Vekoma like Ninja its just not pleasant.

^^ I noticed that as well. When I was last at the park in September it seemed to be running very well, certainly better than I've seen it run recently. There was actually a pretty sizable line as well such that I didn't feel like waiting. I haven't noticed though if the ride cycle has been shortened.