aCoasterStory

The way you get around that is you have the entire group enter the line and take a ticket. Then some of the group leaves the line to go eat/use the bathroom/ride something else/whatever. Then they finish, re-enter the line (maybe even taking new numbers to avoid arousing suspicion), and re-join their original group near the front of the line. They have the valid ticket numbers in order, so there's no reason to think they're doing anything fishy. Watched that happen at X2 at SFMM. And if your 'aha' moment is to have the ticket checker be before the station, that won't stop people from line-jumping *after* the tickets are taken. I witnessed that happen firsthand with Full Throttle at SFMM. There really isn't a great solution. Too many people think it's okay or don't care enough to do anything about it.

I know it's not really practical, and it probably wouldn't do a whole lot, but I spent the day at Busch Gardens today, and I just got tired of people squeezing by to go meet up with their "family" or whatever. When I started this topic, I had just had *another* person do it, and I was quite frustrated. I suppose I could just carry a small pocket-sized megaphone and yell "Line Jumper!" through it over and over...

Unless you have your account set to private, both twitter & instagram posts default to public. Plus, someone could take all those hhashtagged posts & aggregate them to a LineJumperShame account or website or something. One of the major problems with line jumpers is that most people just let them by because they don't want to deal with a confrontation, and if someone tries to block/stop/call them out the people around them usually won't back them up because they don't want to deal with the confrontation. So a solution that isn't directly confrontational might actually be able to work.

Line jumpers are annoying, rude, inconsiderate, and a number of other things I won't say out loud. Many parks tell you to report line jumpers, but when has anyone ever done that (or had security actually do something about it)? I think the solution could be quite simple: Shame them. Simply take a picture of the offender and then tweet/instagram it with the hashtag #LineJumper, preferably also with the park & ride tagged. Maybe park security could use that to do something about it, but even if they don't, maybe enough public shaming of line jumpers will discourage them. Thoughts?

There's still a smaller construction wall up right around the ride itself.

^^ how about a *dueling* motorbike launched coaster??

I'm no engineer, but I think you're right considering that slides of this type and scale have never been done before by any other company, so it would make sense to do a bit of trial-and-error just to see what the outcome would be. Besides, they were working with a strict deadline that kept getting pushed back, so I assume they did not have as much wiggle room to redesign as they wished they could have. I still can't for the life of me figure out how they thought 80ft drop + 50ft hill = crazy ride with airtime, so 168ft drop + 50ft hill = an even better idea. Why did they not scale the hill up at least some with the added height??

There's speculation that the remaining rides from Hard Rock/Freestyle Music Park could be headed that way...

This looks absolutely ridiculous. Sad I'll never get to ride it.

Remember also that the prototype and first full version both had a 50ft 2nd hill, despite the ~85ft difference in height of the initial drops. They caught pretty good air on the prototype. Of course they were going to fly off the full version. Now how/why they didn't realize this remains a complete mystery.

I will say, I don't understand how the prototype had an 80ft initial drop and a 50ft 2nd hill, but they thought a 168ft initial drop with a 50ft hill would work for the real thing... (and how much do they have to be slowing it down so that it can barely make it back up said 50ft hill??) They probably could reduce some of their trimming to make it go a bit faster (looks like there is a black padding at the bottom of the first drop, plus the 'trims' near the top). But the fact that they say it produces 5G's at the bottom makes me think this is unlikely. (How many G's would it have pulled at the original 65mph??) The other thing (which obviously won't change now) is that they could have kept the 2nd hill the same height (but still changed the slope up it) and then also flattened out the top of it going down towards the 2nd drop so it wasn't so steep there. That way you'd still get some air, but the raft wouldn't have as far to fall back to the slide (inches vs feet).

Just finished watching the episode. It was good to see why they reprofiled it, but it looks like it nearly completely stalls out at the top of the 2nd hill now.

Have they relaxed any of their asinine single-rider-in-last-row and NTAG queue policies?

Pleasant: Maverick. First time I rode it, i got neck-chopped pretty bad bc I didn't know anything about it or the transitions. I got off it hating the ride. 2 years later on a re-visit to CP, I decided to ride it and fell in love with the thing. Ergo, pleasant surprise. Insanity @ the Stratosphere. I don't like or do spinning rides generally. But I had the wristband & decided I had to at least try it while I was there. It wasn't the awesomest thing ever, but it was really fun, and looking straight down 900ft is cool.

I never knew they could put trim brakes on a water slide...lol I will also say that my biggest beef with the Master Blaster type of water coasters is that they stall out as they get to the top of the hill. You lose all your momentum and then have to wait for the water pressure to build up behind you to push you over the top. The magnetic ones are better bc they basically deliver a constant upward force. But my favorite are the conveyor belt ones like Black Anaconda at Noah's Ark bc you zip over the top of the hills. I was hoping Verrukt would still have some zip. It also looks like the drop doesn't go all the way to the ground anymore. I'm sure it will still be fun, but I don't know if it'll be epic anymore. I'm certainly doubting whether I'd make the trek out to KC to ride it. The original, I probably would have found a way. This one, it's a solid maaaybe.

Love it.

I was looking at the 3 for $57 package and getting the Adventuredome all day pass, The Roller Coaster all day wristband (even though I'll likely only ride it 1 or 2x), and then something else. Other options are Bodies, Titanic, CSI, Shark Reef, Secret Garden, or SCORE!. If I didn't do the animal attractions, what else (if anything) would you recommend on that list? as for shows, you really can't go wrong with any of the Cirque shows in Vegas (tho the Criss Angel Believe one is boring to me, and we disliked the majority of Zumanity). Mystre is a good "starter" show, as it IS the first Cirque show they brought to Vegas -- and they have updated it within the past few years with a few new acts. for my money tho?. . I'd go for either "O" or "Love". . the two best shows in my opinion. From the seat maps, it looks like you'd want to sit in the lower section for O and a little further back for Mystere. That is a huuuuuge price difference. I can get a seat right near the sound booth for Mystere for $85. The front middle section for O is $198; the section back with the sound booth is $182.

Thanks everybody for all the tips. Right now, here is my preliminary list of the things I would like to see/do while I'm out there, with a few maaaybe's in there. I have no idea if I'll be able to fit them all in, especially since I'll be with my boss for most of the time, but we'll see. Thrills: Stratosphere--Big Shot, X-Scream, and Skyjump (I don't do spinning rides) Adventuredome--Canyon Blaster, El Loco, Sling Shot NYNY--The Roller Coaster/Manhattan Express/The Big Apple Coaster/Whatever they're calling it this week Buffalo Bills--Desperado Wet'n'wild? (someone mentioned this one--is it worth going to? and can I do most of the slides as a single-rider, or is it going to be a waste of money?) (I don't plan to do the High Roller) Shows: I've been told to go see a Cirque show (never seen one before). Looking at Mystere for Saturday night. Fremont Street Viva Vision Light Show Fountains at the Bellagio Dining: Definitely going to Gordon Ramsay Steak on Saturday night Also looking at Lola's, Emeril's restaurants, and Wolfgang Puck's restaurante Need suggestions for non-super-fancy (but still very good) places so I don't blow all my money on food Educational/Informational: Hoover Dam Clark County Museum Neon Museum Mob Museum National Atomic Testing Museum Animal Attractions: Siegfried & Roy's Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Bay Again, I very highly doubt I'll have time to do all that, but what should I kill off? Is there anything that I'm really missing that I should put up there?

^^^ look at the reactions of some of the people when the ride ops push the lapbars down...they make faces like they're getting painfully stapled.

Well, if you only have one day, it's relatively busy and you want to ride ALL the coasters, then yes it is definitely worth it. I would buy a Gold pass with X2 and do YOLOcoaster first, then reserve your way around the park. This question is always asked, but without enough info. The answer can change on your goals, expectations, time and length of visit, personal circumstances, and etc, etc. For example, if you arrive at opening, you can ride X2, Tatsu, and Superman and possibly another ride with little waits. From then on, the waits will increase dramatically as the day goes on, but you will ride most. For some that's a good day, for others who can't wait an hour for a ride, it's terrible. It all depends on a number of factors, but I've managed to ride every adult coaster except Goliath at least once before 2PM on a Saturday just by getting the gold pass early entry & high-tailing it over to FT, then getting over to X2 before the main gates open. If you're getting off X2 and heading up to Tatsu before the main rush is able to make it up that hill, you're golden. By that point, you will have gotten FT, X2, and Tatsu, all on one of the first handful of trains out of the station with basically zero wait. At that point, head up to Ninja and then Superman, then circle back to hit Gold Rusher and Apocalypse. Here's where it gets a little more difficult if you're not a single rider. Both Riddler's Revenge and Green Lantern have single-rider lines that can drastically reduce your wait time. Depending on the length of the main queue and your desire to ride together or not, you may want to utilize the SR lines. Then hit Batman, Scream, and Colossus. LL:DoD is worth doing--same deal as RR & GL with the SR line. Then you can either wait the 60-90 min for Goliath or go hit Viper & Revolution (same deal again with the SR lines). With an aggressive pace and a little bit of luck, it is possible to ride the 15 adult coasters, plus LL:DoD by early/mid-afternoon on a Saturday without a FP. What you do afterwards is up to you.

I don't know how much (if anything) that would fix. Most of the problems are due to the transitions causing headbanging. Both the floorless and normal sit-down trains still have OTSRs like the stand-up trains. The only difference would be that you would lose all of the intensity of riding in the standing position. IMHO, that would take away the only redeeming value of the ride and actually make it a *less* enjoyable ride experience...

Besides Wild One, all of the roller coasters at SFA are clones as well. Other than Batman & Superman, I believe all of SFOG's coasters are unique. 9/11 isn't bad. SFMM only has Batman & Scream!, as far as adult clones go (not sure about the kiddie coasters).

Looked at it from the Superman queue area. The slides look like they'd be fun, and honestly Sunday would have been the perfect day to go try them (good temp, low crowds), but I just cannot get over the sheer inconvenience of a waterpark in the clear back of a theme park. I don't want to walk around wet all day. I don't want to haul a towel/swimwear/etc. around all day. And I don't want to have to rent a locker at one end of the park and then have to go all the way back over to it at the end of the day to get my stuff before I go home. The only way I do water parks & theme parks together is when the entrance to the water park is either just inside the theme park (Dorney and Darien Lake come to mind) or has its own entrance and parking lot (King's Island, Cedar Point, etc.). You can use your car as a locker. (What I'll do is go ride coasters, then come out to the car to grab my towel, leave my shorts and shoes in the car, and then go hit the water park. Then when I'm done, I'll either come back out to my car, grab dry clothes, and then go back to the park to change, or if I'm staying nearby I might just go back to my hotel sitting on a towel.) I did make an exception for Mt. Olympus, but it was pouring that day, so I just wore swim trunks and rode the coasters in the rain. At some point, I may try Hurricane Harbor, but it'd probably be on a trip dedicated just for that purpose.

Totally agree.

Or you could do an overbanked hill and turn those negative G's into positive G's pushing you back down into your seat.