GoBears

Photo from ScreamScape With that banner saying "8th wonder of the world" and Fury 325 indicating it's 325 feet high, it would make more sense for the name to be Centurion. The reason I say this is because I'm assuming (not saying I'm right) that the 8th wonder of the world is a hint towards a world record. It's possible it could be referring to length which in that case, the Fury 325 name could still stand for Carowinds. Let's look at the records if that banner is indeed hinting at a record. I'll just list the coasters around the 8th place mark instead of the top 10 for each record. Current Tallest Coasters 7th Leviathan - 306 feet 8th Intimidator 305 - 305 feet 9th Thunder Dolphin - 262 feet It wouldn't make sense because the ride would either have to be between 305 and 306 feet and doesn't fit with the "Fury 325" name. Current Fastest Coasters 7th Millennium Force - 93 mph 8th Leviathan - 92 mph 9th Intimidator 305 - 90 mph Again, wouldn't make a lot of sense with the "Fury 325" name because if the drop is 325 feet, it would likely go faster than Millennium Force and that's already at #7 for the fastest coaster. Current Longest Coasters 7th Voyage - 6,442 feet 8th California Screamin' - 6,072 feet 9th Desperado 5,843 feet It's possible this coaster could be the 8th longest. It would be about 600 feet longer than Leviathan however. Of course, I could be way off reading this teaser banner and they could be meaning "8th wonder of the world" for something else entirely. This is just my guess.

I'll probably head to the park with my friend on Wednesday. I haven't been on Goliath since it opened June 19th and I only got one ride on it. I'm expecting to only get on it once again, but hopefully the other lines will be shorter.

I wonder how long the queue was when Viper's entrance was in Hometown Square.

American Eagle, The Boss, Dragon Challenge, and Ripsaw Falls all come to mind.

Does all of Hades count as one part? Hmm... I would probably remove the trim on Raging Bull's camelback.

Outlaw Run still beats it out in just about every area in my books. In no one way is that saying Goliath is a bad ride (it's my 3rd favorite coaster I've ridden), it's just that Outlaw Run is that good. I do like the first drop of Goliath a tad more than OR's and the Zero-G stall is very strange but fantastic. I sort of got off your question, or maybe I was never on it... back to the airtime question. Goliath's airtime hill didn't seem to last that much longer than some of Outlaw Run's pops of air throughout the course. Maybe just a second longer. I really only got airtime on the first drop, exiting the first overbank turn, and the airtime hill. Still an incredible ride, but I prefer OR slightly more because it has a more out of control feeling.

I heard it's a power outage so a lot of rides were down. Not sure if it had anything to do with the violent storms yesterday or not.

I'm planning on going to both parks at Universal Orlando in February (2015) and I was curious as to how long the lines will be. I've been to Universal Orlando before and loved it, but it was in June and the lines were quite long so I figured February might be a little better. I saw somewhere that February is a great month to visit Orlando because the lines are slower at the parks and the weather isn't as extreme. The downside is that some rides may be closed for rehab and annual repairs because it's sort of the off season for the parks since it's their slow season. Are there a lot of rides closed at Universal in February for repairs? Thanks!

4 days is ridiculous anyway, but 1983?! That's a long time to be constructed and to never open. Is there a reason given? That is a really long time. I wonder what the park's status is now.

My favorite ToT exterior is the Tokyo one. I've only seen photos and I'm impressed by it.

What about it? If it's running? It's been running since it opened I think. It was running when I was there the 2nd day it was open It was running on opening day last Thursday.

I've been going here ever since I was 1 years old except the last 3 years. It's about 15 minutes from my house if I hop on I-90 and take it down to the State St. exit or down to Harrison by Cherryvale Mall. I used to love this place as a kid but eventually the park district had very little money to spend on surrounding Rockford parks and Magic Waters so it became somewhat run down. Splash Blaster is one of the most challenging water slides I've ever been on and it's really the only reason I would ever bother to go back. That double down first drop sends your butt way off the raft. It's just always so crowded on summer days since it's a small park and there's nothing to do here in Rockford except Magic Waters and 2 nearby movie theaters. Overall, there's some decent water slides including a great water coaster and perhaps one of the best water buckets of all time. You have to hold onto your swimsuits when the bucket tips because I've seen my fair share of bikini tops snapping and swim trunks falling down from it. It's quite amusing if you stand back and watch. Not sure if they've changed it since the last time I've went though. I've witnessed two different cases of kids needing medical attention after the bucket smacked them down to the ground.

Outlaw Run broke down constantly its first couple months as well. This year is significantly better, and its reliability is better than Powder Keg's now. So I wouldn't worry too much; these rides are finicky, and they'll figure out how theirs runs best in time. Outlaw Run broke down 3-4 times total during the 2 days I visited back 2 months ago. Bad timing I guess.

Goliath has been down at least once per day every day since it opened Thursday. That's 4 days or 5 days if you include media day on Wednesday. I realize it's new so hopefully everything gets sorted out soon. As for the tornado situation, this isn't the first time a severe storm has struck SFGAm and the park employees don't know how to react to the situation or the park isn't prepared to deal with the storm. They should have a few areas to house guests during severe storms in addition to different buildings like stores and restaurants in the park. Tornadic weather is frequent in northern Illinois (as is most of the central states) so the park should always be prepared for situations like this. Kind of repeating what "ilrider" said but since there are people who don't know what tornado sirens are, the PA system and all park employees should be prepared to inform guests to take shelter immediately.

Here's one. Very Screamscape worthy. I was waiting in line with a high up member of the maintenance staff yesterday. He did a bunch of the electrical work on Goliath and rode it before everyone else, does ride maintenance, etc. He was talking to his wife and kids about the building of the ride. His (nearly) exact quote was "The Eagle's next. First we got Goliath then we have these guys redo the Eagle. It's a major investment but that was the long term goal." Now, why maintenance personnel would have access to the long term development strategy of the park is beyond me, but within organizations people talk and it's actual conversations with actual employees that can create a change in the organization/give the organization direction. We don't often get the chance to hear the back-door musings of the park personnel and it was funny to hear him say this. I'm one those people who thinks that all American Eagle needs is some re-tracking and new paint. With that said, simply re-tracking the ride and spending a ton of money on new paint won't necessarily draw in more guests to the ride. I have noticed a decline in attendance for the ride since I first started riding it over a decade ago. SFGAm is better off investing in I-Box track for the ride, repainting it, and adding new elements (such as an inversion or two to each side) with the I-box track so they can market it as a new ride instead of just spending millions to re-track it and repaint it only to see a slight increase in attendance if that. I could see an iron horse treatment coming to Eagle for the park's 40th anniversary in 2016 or sometime after that for a few reasons. The first one being what I said in the first paragraph. If they're going to spend millions to redo the ride, they might as well go all out to not only refresh the ride, but breathe new life into it which will attract thousands of people from all over to come ride Goliath and "Iron Eagle". The 2nd reason being marketing which tags along with my first reason. You're not going to bring it many guests to a ride that was re-tracked and repainted. Most of the GP won't care about that or will even notice it. That's a huge investment in itself and probably not worth it. Repainting a roller coaster is very expensive, especially when the coaster has more supports than just about any other wooden coaster in the world. I'm not a finance expert nor do I know how much they've put into X-Flight and Goliath over the last 3 years so I don't even know if they could do something like this. I could be wrong, but I just feel going the I-Box route, while more expensive initially, is far better for the park in the long run then spending millions refreshing the ride and probably not attracting that many more guests to ride it. Either direction they go, I would be happy with it. This has been my favorite coaster at the park for over 10 years now up until yesterday when I rode Goliath, but even I have to admit, it really needs some love. Yesterday was the first time I've ever heard multiple people from different groups mention how bad Eagle has gotten and I have to agree. I love a good classic shaky wooden coaster, but the helixes have been bad for some years and now the bottom of some of the drops are getting a bit too rough for my tastes. Perhaps I'm just being greedy and wanting RMC to do another project at the park, but in all honesty, would this really be a bad direction for the park to go with American Eagle? Again, I'm no finance expert and I understand this isn't some game where they can spend $10+ million every couple years, but I just wanted to share my thoughts. I would love to hear everyone else's thoughts on this too.

The seatbelt on Millennium Force was very tight on me when I went 3 years ago. I think I've actually gained a little more since then (although I've also gotten a tad taller) and made it on both Outlaw Run and Goliath with room to spare this year. I can't make any guarantees, but I saw some very heavy people ride Goliath yesterday.

Here's my review of Goliath from yesterday. Apologies for some grammar errors and run on sentences. I was typing as quickly as I could as a severe storm was hitting. It was a very foggy morning upon entering the park, yet you could see a very faint darkness looming far behind the Columbia Carousel from the parking lot. The giant was finally ready to take on its challengers after almost 10 months of land clearing and construction. They let us into the park around 10:00, which is 30 minutes before the park actually opens, to head into County Fair to the entrance of Goliath. We stood outside the entrance for a little bit, but then they let us in to fill the queue. As we entered, they gave each of us a boarding pass that was required to ride. This is likely to prevent people from sneaking into the queue line further up since most of the queue line is exposed from the main path since the station is almost right off the midway. They sent the first train out right at 10:30 when the park officially opened. I only waited about 15 minutes to get on the ride. The cars were very comfortable and were slightly better than Rocky Mountain Construction's other roller coaster, Outlaw Run, as the lap bars and shin bars were formed to fit better. I chose the 2nd to last car since the back is usually the best for airtime compared to the cars towards the front. They checked all the seat belts first and then came around a 2nd time the other direction to check all the lap bars. We were ready to ride! The ride starts off by making a sharp left turn that gave you a little whip action that reminded me of Raging Bull's turn out of the station when sitting in the back car, just without the slight bank. You immediately ascend the 165 foot lift hill at a steep 45 degree angle after the turn. We reached the top of the ride pretty quickly (you can actually see the Chicago skyline from the top on a clear day, but it's kind of hard to turn around to look behind you) but we were soon heading down. The 180 foot plunge into a 15 foot tunnel was over in a blink of an eye and we sky-rocketed into a 120 foot overbank turn. You get a nice pop of air when exiting the overbank turn and immediately get some more brief seconds of air on the airtime hill that follows. You then ascend into the wooden dive loop that wasn't quite as intense as I imagined it would be. The next element is perhaps the biggest attention grabber of the ride. After exiting the dive loop, you enter the world's first Zero-G stall inversion. It's the strangest feeling inversion you can experience. You would think it would feel like you're going to fall out of your seat, but you sort of just float in the air while suspended completely upside down. There's really no words to describe this element, you just have to ride it for yourself. The ride finishes off with an overbank twist & shout turn and another pop of air while entering the brake run. You can finally breathe and try to get your heart rate back to normal as you enter the station. Overall, it's by far the best roller coaster that has ever come to Six Flags Great America in my opinion. Between the awesome airtime and insane inversions, it has everything you could want on a roller coaster. It cracks my top 5 roller coaster I've ever been on and while not quite as good as its older sister Outlaw Run, it's not far behind. That's a huge compliment considering how amazing Outlaw Run is. For the limited space that the park had to work with, Six Flags Great America and RMC did a fantastic job with Goliath! It's a must ride attraction. Now, here are a few photos I took while in line for the ride... Waiting for them to let us into the queue a few minutes after 10. Got my boarding pass! I'm rider #172. Glad I got here somewhat early and didn't have to wait in this line. Let's play "Who Can Spot Alan Schilke in This Pic?". Nice theming for the entrance... for a Six Flags attraction. Definitely a must ride coaster! My Review and Photos

The weather is looking pretty nice for today in Gurnee! Can't wait to ride Goliath in a few hours!

The more I look at it, that's a pretty weak fog effect if it is indeed fog. Maybe it is smoke. It could be something temporary like what they did to BTR's station with the mist effect in 2012 or 2013 (I forget if it was for its 20th anniversary or BTR Backwards).

There appears to be some fog/mist effect at the bottom of the first drop into the tunnel. Nothing major, but you can see it at the 1:00 minute mark in this video. You can probably feel that mist more coming out of the zero-G stall into the tunnel though.

I saw yesterday that there was some lightning. I'm hoping, as you said, for some dry hours. Even if there's some sprinkles with no lightning for a bit I'll be happy. The construction cam, which has been down for a few weeks, came back online this afternoon.

Here's to hoping that the weather holds out! I don't think there's any day where I've been so afraid of the weather. I have no problem with some rain on Thursday. In fact, I actually prefer it. It's any lightning that I'm concerned about because then they can't operate.

Got a reply back from Katy and it appears it's just a website mistake. Buccaneer Battle is open. In other news, we're only a few days away from the opening of Goliath!

^I considered it might just be an error, but BB has been listed as "Hurricane Harbor" ever since they updated the website to the new design. I believe it was just recently labeled "Closed for the Season" though. It still does seem to just be a mistake on the webpage and I notified Katy from the park so if it is an error, they can fix it.

Gurnee is Chicagoland and there's actually quite a few cities and villages that are more pricey with things than the city itself. Especially nicer areas of Chicagoland like Gurnee. In the case of the parking though, that's just Six Flags milking every cent they can get because they know people will fill up most of the lot whether it was $15, $20, $25, or maybe even $30 to park. I don't think it's right to charge that amount, but people pay it so they don't really care. :/ As for the shuttle, I've heard good things about a couple hotels in the area and their shuttles.