2012jarrett

You'll have MORE than enough time. I swung through the park yesterday afternoon and was in and out (mid-afternoon) with a ride on all the major coasters in about 2 hours. 1.5 days is MORE than enough. I would pencil the .5 day to something else if you can - some cool brewery tours in the area. As for private events I don't remember the park ever being closed for a private event (during a normal operating day - they host plenty of events post-closing) so you'll be fine there. First off, I'm just 19...no brewery for me! XD Second off, thanks! Time is no longer a concern! Now my biggest worries are hurricanes, fitting into Cheetah Hunt, and private events. (which is very minimal, I'll probably nix this one if I call the park tomorrow and ask)

So here's the first shots of my new currently unthemed CoasterDynamix B&M invert. This is my first time working with the one Scorpion set I got for Christmas last year that I've decided to pull out and make something with. Then this happened. And so it begins... Train is on the track... And here's what I'm currently dealing with. So the wheel assembly fell off and tonight I took it off the track. How do I put it back together? Nothing's broken, I'm just confused.

I would have to say Nighthawk at Carowinds. I had my knees bent slightly and was leaning forward a bit when they locked the restraints into place. Never in my LIFE did I expect to fall out of a ride as much as I did there. As an added bonus, my dad just about dropped his iPhone and only saved it by catching it. Son of Beast at sunset on a hot day was a close second, though, just because the track was hot and made it tear up the layout even faster. I had bruises the next day. Another great one I want to bring up is Ninja at SFOG. Nothing special about the ride, just good ol' Vekoma. An honorable mention goes to the time I got nailed in the eye with a grain of sand on Millennium Force at the bottom of the drop. Luckily the awesome ride made up for it.

Not to sound rude, but I think you are over-thinking this. I've lived in Florida for over 6 years and I can count on one hand the number of times hurricanes have impacted operations to the point parks had to close early. Most people outside Florida think hurricanes = Florida, but in reality they don't hit as often as most believe, especially in the Tampa area. Cheetah Hunt is reliable from what I've seen in my visits - like any other complex coaster that has multi-launches it will experience some issues here or there but long breakdowns aren't the norm. There is no need to run - anytime this time of year, save for a holiday or during HoS, lines will be more than manageable. I rarely have seen Cheetah Hunt over a hour wait - and that has been on some pretty busy days. Hope that helps! Let me know if you have any other questions. Thanks! I'm just flying there from Ohio and want to make sure that nothing ruins the trip. So of we go for 1.5 days in late November and one of them is a weekday, we should be fine? And one last concern; private events. How early will we be able to tell if a day is going to be unavailable due to a private event?

Just noticed that that was posted at 3:05 pm... But yay! And by the tone of that Facebook post, in the traditional passive-aggressive Cedar Fair style they used talking about B&M and Banshee, it sounds confirmed they'll never work with Intamin again.

A few things about those pictures: *The track is actually burgandy if I have my shades correct. *Thanks for pointing out that one of those track pieces was actually a human, it was hard to tell. *You forgot to mention all those concrete blocks in the ground. I'm an engineering student and I just wanted to throw out that the correct term for those blocks is "doohickies." They hold the noodle things in the ground while the noodle things hold up the track parts that look suspiciously like humans *When I read that, I suddenly got the impulse to make macaroni noodles in the shapes of coaster support pieces and put blue dye in the pasta dough and sell it as "Bansheeroni." Thanks for the pics, though! I'm so excited for this! This'll be the first coaster I drive to ride all by myself! Though I hope to meet up with one of the online coaster groups I'm part of, so I won't go it entirely alone. GAH I'm flipping out!

The seats on Screamin' Swings are vile (seriously, the one at Dollywood hurts your back SO much!) but I could see one being a good addition to Carowinds. It would probably fit in that grassy plot across from Intimidator.

I would say the drop after the second high turn on Thunderhead that takes you over the queue entrance. 1:17 in this video That drop really throws you out of your seat and you're already flying when you head into it.

Glad they're doing this! That water park sucks! It's a concrete jungle filled with boring slides (honestly, that big raft slide is the best) and you can do everything worthwhile in under an hour. Not to mention it gets so hot that it hurt my feet to walk on the concrete last time I was there, even after they had hosed down the path to prevent this. That park either needs shade or misters along the pathways or something to keep the paths cool, and maybe decorate it a bit more. I feel like the reason this wasn't Soak Citied was because of Ouimett. Soak Cities are pretty generic and the Boomerang Bays should be themed but aren't. I feel like Ouimett wants to potentially make these nicer in the future. Boomerang Bay was cool when Paramount owned the parks but now it's dreadful. Maybe we could see the return of these? Ouimett seems to be trying to bring theming back to Cedar Fair with GateKeeper and Banshee, maybe we see that for the Boomerang Bays that still have yet to become Soak City? But the park needed this so yay!

I went to Kings Island on Labor Day weekend last year and saw British Invasion too, and this reminded me of that show. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and this is coming from a guy who doesn't like the shows at theme parks. If we go next year I can't wait to see it!

You can look at the leaked prints and see exactly where SoB was in relation to Banshee. As stated previously, the batwing is right where the loop was. There's a little dotted mass on the overhead of the print showing where the footers for the structure were.

Steel: Ninja at SFOG Wood: SoB at Kings Island (the rougher of the two)

Just so I'm sure I understand, the train goes over and rolls the drive tire, which triggers the magnetic brakes to clamp over the train? Sorry if I sound stupid, I'm just a tad confused.

I've seen then shut Maverick down in the rain. It was drizzling lightly and they shut it down while we were queuing. And later it started raining while we were on the ride and it was SICK!!! Now wind, on the other hand, I know causes trouble. Though I am curious as to whether or not they operate Millennium in the rain, since I've seen posts saying they both do and don't here. It has magnetic brakes; those aren't affected by rain are they? This should include Maverick too, it has magnetic brakes and I've seen it go down in a drizzle. Why? I know it isn't adding much to the conversation and I bet nobody cares, but I thought it was worth mentioning. Cedar Point's online store is having a sale on Coasterdynamix Statix. I was looking for one of those GateKeeper trains mentioned a page or two back and while I didn't find it, I did find that they're selling Maverick, Dragster, and Millennium train models for 14.99. I just bought a blue Milennium train that I never bought before since it was overpriced, but now it's a steal. Again, I don't expect four pages about this but I know we've talked about those models here before and I found it worth mentioning.

I'm pretty sure every park with a red coaster gets that claim by the GP. Anaconda isn't red, but they think it's the one from FD3 because of the loop and double corkscrews. The funny thing to me is that the one used in FD3 is a Vekoma and many coasters that fall under the FD3 category are Arrow rides. Anaconda is red ad has green trains, so I could see a misunderstanding there. I've only seen the one scene so corrected if I'm wrong, but I always assumed there was just one coaster used for Final Destination; Viper at SFMM. It's used a lot for movies and such (I remember that at least Glee used it for an episode, and I feel like other shows have as well) and I know that the park is used a lot fr movies; I know National Lampoon's Family Vacation or whatever it's called filmed there and used both Colossus and Revolution) so if I ever see a coaster in a movie or something, I always assume SFMM. It's not always the case (Zombieland wasn't filmed there) but it's very common to film at SFMM, and Viper gets used a lot as a filming coaster. I'm surprised it hasn't gotten any Hollywood recognition. Man I'm getting off topic. I also love how the GP tries to call some rides roller coasters that aren't. Himalayas and drop towers get this a lot. I also love hanging around Dragster at CP just to see some members of the GP shaking in their boots when it rolls back. And when I was there with my dad, he said "I bet most people won't want to ride Maverick since it's not tall." -_- I laughed at him SO hard when we got there to a 1-hour wait!

This. I rode it twice in 2011 on a humid day when it rained as in 2013 at night. It was a forceful airtime machine in 2013, but MAN it was running better in 2011. 73 credits and it's my number one. I'll admit, however, that my taste in coasters differs vastly from other enthusiasts. The biggest factor in how I rate rides is whether or not it's fun. I'm going to BGT this November and fully expect Cheetah Hunt to take my number two spot from Maverick. Millennium has just the right balance of fun and scary (I don't care how many times I ride, the station and the lift never fail to freak me out!) to be the perfect coaster in my book. Scary enough to notice but not enough to ruin your fun. Plus, that airtime hop towards the end in the back. <3

My most impressive hasn't been topped since I rode Afterburn 5 times in a row when I was in middle school.

*Carolina Cobra, Carowinds *Griffon, BGW *Goliath, SFOG *I-305, Kings Dominion *Wild Eagle, Dollywood *GateKeeper, Cedar Point

Millennium Force. That thing is so smooth but can have drastic intensity changes depending on where you sit.

Kings Island's The Racer has a whole building bigger than a restaurant for cattlepens that don't get used. At least it looks nice. Flight Deck has a long queue too that I never have to wait in.

Steel: Millennium Force (#1 overall) Winged: GateKeeper (#5 overall) Wooden: Thunderhead (#9 overall) Invert: Alpengeist (#11 overall)

Has anything bad/unfortunate/annoying/painful ever happened to you while queuing for a ride? I have a few good ones and I thought I'd share them here. *In Raptor's queue, we spent a 45 minute wait in a crammed, sweaty cattlepen on a humid day before it stormed (so it was already uncomfortable) and ended up getting stuck behind this couple that would NOT stop making out. *That same day, Maverick went down a total of three times in the one-hour wait we had. *At Kings Island, there were these five boys that cut us in line for The Beast at night this one time and my dad made such a big stink about it and called them names to the point that an employee came over to see what was wrong and kicked all of them out of the park. *At Carowinds my dad and I were waiting in line for Nighthawk when it went down and my dad went up the stairs to the station and lectured the ride op about how they're doing such a horrible job of keeping us informed. *I was at Cedar Point with my cousin and this lady in line for Dragster with us (who had already yelled at numerous kids that weren't hers and was getting on our nerves) and just outside of the station, she caught this ride op who was leaving and started yelling at her for letting people jump line. She explained the Fast Lane thing to her and then my cousin stepped in, trying to keep the lady from ripping the ride op's head off. My cousin politely told her that people can win Plinko passes or can sometimes get queue jump passes if they're on a ride evac, and this woman just turned around and snapped "excuse me, I wasn't talking to you!" and proceeded to scream at the ride op. That was just one incident in a queue line but we got more than our fair share of Ohio rudeness that day... *I was at Dollywood a few days after the NTG accident and there were SO MANY people in line for Wild Eagle asking ride ops if it was safe and it made the line move at a snail's pace. *THIS is my best queue story yet. I was in line for BTMRR with my parents at Magic Kingdom when I was 8, and after we had waited an hour, the ride malfunctioned and got stuck on the lift. And during the evac, a Florida rainstorm hit and the Disney employees closed down the ride and its queue, which resulted in just about all the people in all the cattlepens trying to shove their way out and I couldn't find my parents, I was SO terrified. So what kind of crazy stuff has happened to you in a queue line?

The Beast's helix, while I know it's perfectly safe, is absolutely terrifying. It feels like the train's going to just shake the structure down. Jr. Gemini/Wilderness Run, while I didn't feel like I would be necessarily killed if anything went wrong, was pretty unnerving because the train actually jerks to the side when the chain lift engages and back when it disengages, and the structure doesn't feel too safe. I doubt CF would allow kids to ride anything where it could even possibly cause an injury, but it sure felt like it! Or maybe it's perfectly fine for kids because it was designed for them and that's just what I get for being a credit whore. I've only ridden one wild mouse (ricochet at Carowinds) but when I first rode it when I was younger, that illusion the trains have where it looks like it'll run off the hairpin got me and I panicked...my mom grabbed my sister by the hair! However, the most danger I've ever felt on a coaster would have to be Son of Beast. That dip at the top of the lift really reminds you of the fact that you're on nothing but a big pile of wood nailed together, and the drop, while it was one of the two good parts of the ride, was absolutely terrifying. An honorable mention would have to be GateKeeper's Thorpe Park inversion if you ride on the left. I know I'm safe, but whoever decided to put hang time that high up in the air has a sick mind! I love it!

This one's kind of an inside joke but it was REALLY funny. I have a friend who has a lazy eye that points in instead of out, so he's fond of referring to himself as Derpy Hooves from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. One prank he likes to do is whenever he's ordering food or buying something is that he'll lean on the counter and stare the employee right in the face and say "Look into my eyes...you have been DERPED!!!" and just run away. A lot of people get confused, a lot of people laugh. So we're at Kings Island and we're riding Boo Blasters. Our buggy passed a suit of armor and he leaned forward and said "Look into my eyes..." as a joke but before he could say "you have been derped," the animatronic piece of theming fell forward, as if it was looking into his eyes. Not another target was hit that ride because we were too busy laughing, it was SO funny!

Not everybody that goes to Cedar Point is dumb, but ALL dumb people like Cedar Point! *In the Dragster queue, there was a woman yelling at a ride op (who was walking by, going somewhere else) about how they did nothing about all the "line jumping"...from people that had fast lane passes. *"The Millennium FALCON is my favorite ride ever!" *My sister will do any amusement ride but REFUSES to ride GateKeeper because she's absolutely certain that the keyhole element is unsafe and will chop your limbs off. *I posted a comment on the GateKeeper announcement video on YouTube about my sister's phobia of GateKeeper and I had someone say they agreed with her. *My cousin isn't necessarily GP nor is she stupid, but this comment really ground my gears. "Isn't the Wicked Twister an out and back coaster?" This was after I explained to her that GateKeeper and X2 weren't the same type of ride. And he single best thing I've ever heard out of a Cedar Point-er's mouth: "Mean Streak...that's my favorite ride!" (I apologize, but you have to say something bad about Mean Streak in every Cedar Point-related post; it's tradition.)