EricGarbo

I just signed up. I'll see you all there!

I would agree with you on Shivering Timbers. Nothing too steep or tall but man do you feel like a runaway rocket when you hit the bottom.

Clearly you hangout with Cedar Point fanboys. I haven't heard anyone say Gatekeeper is better than X-Flight. Kind of excited about this addition, but to be honest, the layout doesn't look all that exciting. Even with the Dive loop/immelman whatchamahoosie. Granted we know nothing about the rest of the ride....so pontificating about how awesome, or not awesome it will be is silly. I've ridden both Gatekeeper and X-Flight several times. In my opinion X-Flight is a much better ride.

The light is green! Get the contractors out there and start pouring concrete tomorrow!

They were basically saying that if they lowered the ground so that the height of the ride was below 125 feet of the original land elevation that wouldn't matter. The height is measured from ground level, so the new ground height is y = 0 ft.

I should have gone to the meeting. I want to see the diagrams!

So does Incredible Hulk and Maverick.

As I watch Ig Night I can't help but feel so sad for Hometown Square being desicrated by whatever this is.

Currently at SFMM. Full Throttle, Tatsu, and X2 are all broken down and it's not looking good. Update: Oriental Express and Lex Luthor are also broken down, but with people stuck inside. This park really kind of sucks.

I know this is off of the Full Throttle topic but today was my first day at MM and I had to say this. The tunnel (or as I'm calling it, The Oven) in the queue for Superman is horribly hot. None of the vents on the wall were blowing any air and this Wisconsin boy was cooking like a chicken. This was the worst part of my experience today, aside from the most terrific amount of line jumping I've seen at any park.

Coasting For Kids at Michigan's Adventure was insane. My body was destroyed by the afternoon due to 50 rides on Thunderhawk (I dare you to ride a Vekoma SLC 50 times in a row ). The only crappy part of the morning was that none of us could really talk to each other because when you're in those suspended seats you can't really see the other rides. The afternoon was much better for that, sitting in the PTC trains on Shivering Timbers. Everyone had a sweet time, and I will definitely be doing it again next year at the same park. I haven't seen the result on how much money we raised, though; I only had enough time to log in and give the "I survived" post. I hope the weather held out and everyone else who participated at other Cedar Fair parks had equally as much fun.

The train on Cyclops is absolutely mutilated. The second to last row on the train's lap bar was actually sawed off because it wasn't working. The train is old and beat up, and the track is in horrible shape. I think Cyclops is the worst maintained roller coaster I've ever seen. Since I agree with you and would love to see an old PTC train still used on Cyclops, why not just use the old Hades train? Edit: Herp derp I can't type

Any chance you could send me that same response?

The track they did replace was incredibly good, though. Coming out of the tunnel past the station the second time used to be so brutal and is much improved. At least we got something.

Wasn't the line about the water dummies mine?

They are much more comfortable then the PTC trains! The individual lapbars are a huge improvement in safety, too, over the seat belt and that lap bar that never did anything.

Comparing Hades 360 to The Voyage, why is a ride only allowed one key maneuver? The overbanked turn rides so beautifully and does nothing to overshadow the 90 degree turn, it adds to the overall experience of the ride. The overbanked turn is actually my favorite part of the new addition. It was such an incredible way of changing directions when at high speed. It doesn't simply point you to the ground and turn; the ride starts at an upward angle, begins the turn, and the rotation happens about a fixed point with an invisible line being drawn about the riders spines to that fixed point for the entire maneuver. It's so beautiful I can't even comprehend what this will do for roller coasters of the future. Think of any huge B&M with a hammerhead turn where the riders bank towards the ground versus the air. This is the real beauty of Gravity Group's design. CORRECTION: I just remembered Leviathan as well as Diamondback does in fact have a downward facing hammerhead turn. I do agree with you on most of the rest of what you said; Zeus needs an overhaul and so does Cyclops. The old Hades train is nowhere to be found and the Zeus backseat was out of commission today. The first drop on Pegasus was rebuilt, however.

I'm not sure that anyone would object to you having an opinion. I'm just not sure what this link is supposed to prove. So RMC considers some of their builds wood/hybrid/steel. What does that have to do with Gravity Group and Hades 360? And not to try to be mean about your opinion, but I have to disagree. Hades is very much a wooden roller coaster; it meets all of the basic criteria for a wooden roller coaster, the least of which being a completely wooden track. I don't want to dig really deeply into this, but I am curious as to why you developed an opinion that Hades 360 is a hybrid wooden/steel roller coaster.

I'm in the Chicago area and will be riding Hades 360 tomorrow. I'll be sure to fill you all in on my thoughts about the smoothness of the new track versus the old track (Wait, it's all new track. How about the traditional track versus the new style track? ). I'll also observe how fast the ride operators are moving people through, especially since there's only one train. It really makes me sad that so much emphasis was put on bringing Hades up to speed but Cyclops is continually pushed to the wayside. If anything needs some serious TLC it's Cyclops. Zeus has been getting to that point, too.

http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/ChadHoelzel/MichigansAdventure2013 Linked is my FirstGiving page. Thank you for your kind works, Robb, and thanks for supporting this great cause.

Hi Robb & Elissa, Many years ago (2004) I fell in love with your website and developed a lifelong interest in theme parks and roller coasters. Through college I lost my interest due to heavy depression and completely forgot about my love of roller coasters. Last year I finally graduated from college and started living my dream of riding all of the rides I always watched your POV's of many years ago. When I saw Coasting for Kids I thought that many people would have no problem signing up for that and didn't even think that there was space left, so I never looked into it. Tonight I looked and saw that only five people had signed up for Michigan's Adventure total and I was heartbroken. Where were all of my fellow coaster fanatics who I grew up envying? These people MUST be able to support a cause like this and would love pay to marathon coasters like this! I put $300 down to this cause and will be perhaps the sole supporter of team TPR on that day for Michigan's Adventure. I'm almost ashamed that it's such a small amount compared to what Theme Park Review has provided me with over these many years but I want to start doing my part in giving back. Thank you Robb and Elissa, if either of you want to ride in Michigan with me I would be honored to put the money together and support you. -Chad Hoelzel