aCoasterStory
-
Posts
390 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Posts posted by aCoasterStory
-
-
That is interesting, but in can perfectly be done. If you "intercept" an airtime hill with a curve, and take the G forces generated from the turning into account you will end up (assuming you want to maintain the negative Gs) with a sort of outside banked turn/hill.
So I am looking forward to seeing what they can come up with.
Or you could do an overbanked hill and turn those negative G's into positive G's pushing you back down into your seat.
-
^^ anybody else notice that they had the Dueling Dragons actually dueling in the opening shot?
-
The platinum removes 90 percent. But too pricey in my opinion....
Plus the consecutive rides, or doesn't SFMM do that?
I've gotten platinum FP's at parks a few times, but I just can't bring myself to to use the ride-twice feature. I can't help but feeling like a tool anytime I do.
-
As Screamscape already reported the other day, I didn’t see any markings around Cyclone. I ended up visiting the park yesterday and had a limited time available during the evening, but the crowds were pretty light due to the time and it was manageable. Also, I noticed signage for single rider lines in the stations of Batman, Goliath, Mind Bender, Superman, GA Cyclone, and GA Scorcher. I know at least several of these rides have had single rider lines for a while, but the signage seemed pleasantly new.
I was at the park today. All the single-rider signage was there, but all the SR queues were chained off. Didn't see a single person use it. I still don't think it's ever going to be worth anything until you can bypass more than just the station wait for it.
In other news, I was able to get 18 rides in today in about 6 hours:
2x Superman, 2x Scream Machine, 1x Ninja, 1x Monster Mansion, 3x Goliath, 1x Batman, 2x Mindbender, 1x Dare Devil Dive, 1x Canyon Blaster, 1x Mine Train, 1x Acrophobia, 1x Cyclone, and 1x Scorcher
Thoughts:
GASM needs to be reprofiled. There are a few halfway decent bits of air in the front, but it feels like it's going too slow for its course, and I don't see the point of an out-and-back woodie without some good airtime. (Thought I did just learn that GASM was the tallest coaster in the world when it opened, courtesy of ICW.)
Ninja has no redeeming qualities, even in the 'magic seat'. Interestingly enough, the OTSRs in the row I rode in looked like old Arrow OTSRs (really big loops for the hand grips), but most of the rest of the train had the usual OTSRs.
Goliath is awesome. I'm not sure if it or Diamondback is my favorite B&M hyper, but it's definitely in contention. I've concluded that the best seat on Goliath is actually row 5. While the front gives you nice pops of airtime at the top of the hills & the back gives you good airtime going down the drops, the dead middle gives you fantastic sustained floater air over a huge chunk of each hill. My ballpark count was that my butt was out of the seat for around 19-20 solid seconds on this thing. Love it.
Acrophobia is a great drop. Not sure how it ranks in the drop-tower hierarchy, but it's really good fun. The seats are uncomfortable as all get out, but it feels like it's actually allowed to free-fall for most of the height and then decelerates really quickly very near the bottom.
GA Cyclone is running fantastic. There's a TON of new wood all over this thing. I still can't believe that I actually enjoy this coaster now. For years and years it was right up there with Ninja on my hate list, but now I love it.
All the other rides were right about what I expected of them. Nothing significant to report.
All that being said, ride operations on a number of rides were ABYSMAL. There is zero excuse to be consistently dispatching trains at 4+ minute intervals with 2-train operation. I've seen parks cycle trains faster with single-train operation. These ride ops have absolutely no hustle, and they're really inefficient in how they move around checking trains.
The other really annoying thing is how wildly inconsistent their loose article policy is. Some rides you can leave your stuff at the platform. Others, all you can leave are souvenir bottles. Sometimes you have to rent a fluffy, fluffy bunny filled with medicine and goo. Sometimes they tell you to take your stuff with you on the train. Got a hat? Sometimes it has to go in a bin. On Superman it has to go on the ride with you. If you want the GP to be able to move into the trains more quickly (and allow the ops to check the trains more quickly to dispatch more quickly), you need to give them a consistent loose article policy and apply that EXACT SAME POLICY to EVERY coaster. /rant
One more thought: a number of the coasters in the park looked like they were well overdue for a fresh coat of paint. It's just not appealing when all of the coasters are now faded to pastel colors.
-
As Screamscape already reported the other day, I didn’t see any markings around Cyclone. I ended up visiting the park yesterday and had a limited time available during the evening, but the crowds were pretty light due to the time and it was manageable. Also, I noticed signage for single rider lines in the stations of Batman, Goliath, Mind Bender, Superman, GA Cyclone, and GA Scorcher. I know at least several of these rides have had single rider lines for a while, but the signage seemed pleasantly new.
I was at the park today. All the single-rider signage was there, but all the SR queues were chained off. Didn't see a single person use it. I still don't think it's ever going to be worth anything until you can bypass more than just the station wait for it.
In other news, I was able to get 18 rides in today in about 6 hours:
2x Superman, 2x Scream Machine, 1x Ninja, 1x Monster Mansion, 3x Goliath, 1x Batman, 2x Mindbender, 1x Dare Devil Dive, 1x Canyon Blaster, 1x Mine Train, 1x Acrophobia, 1x Cyclone, and 1x Scorcher
Thoughts:
GASM needs to be reprofiled. There are a few halfway decent bits of air in the front, but it feels like it's going too slow for its course, and I don't see the point of an out-and-back woodie without some good airtime. (Thought I did just learn that GASM was the tallest coaster in the world when it opened, courtesy of ICW.)
Ninja has no redeeming qualities, even in the 'magic seat'. Interestingly enough, the OTSRs in the row I rode in looked like old Arrow OTSRs (really big loops for the hand grips), but most of the rest of the train had the usual OTSRs.
Goliath is awesome. I'm not sure if it or Diamondback is my favorite B&M hyper, but it's definitely in contention. I've concluded that the best seat on Goliath is actually row 5. While the front gives you nice pops of airtime at the top of the hills & the back gives you good airtime going down the drops, the dead middle gives you fantastic sustained floater air over a huge chunk of each hill. My ballpark count was that my butt was out of the seat for around 19-20 solid seconds on this thing. Love it.
Acrophobia is a great drop. Not sure how it ranks in the drop-tower hierarchy, but it's really good fun. The seats are uncomfortable as all get out, but it feels like it's actually allowed to free-fall for most of the height and then decelerates really quickly very near the bottom.
GA Cyclone is running fantastic. There's a TON of new wood all over this thing. I still can't believe that I actually enjoy this coaster now. For years and years it was right up there with Ninja on my hate list, but now I love it.
All the other rides were right about what I expected of them. Nothing significant to report.
All that being said, ride operations on a number of rides were ABYSMAL. There is zero excuse to be consistently dispatching trains at 4+ minute intervals with 2-train operation. I've seen parks cycle trains faster with single-train operation. These ride ops have absolutely no hustle, and they're really inefficient in how they move around checking trains.
The other really annoying thing is how wildly inconsistent their loose article policy is. Some rides you can leave your stuff at the platform. Others, all you can leave are souvenir bottles. Sometimes you have to rent a locker. Sometimes they tell you to take your stuff with you on the train. Got a hat? Sometimes it has to go in a bin. On Superman it has to go on the ride with you. If you want the GP to be able to move into the trains more quickly (and allow the ops to check the trains more quickly to dispatch more quickly), you need to give them a consistent loose article policy and apply that EXACT SAME POLICY to EVERY coaster. /rant
-
And while I was over by the station, an employee working there said they will only be running 1 train when they open the ride.
Ouch. The lines for this thing were already going to be absurd. What are the chances they don't include it on the flash passes? Or maybe do like SFMM and make it a $15 or $20 per-ride upcharge on top of a platinum flash pass?
-
As for MF, I rode it last night and while fast, it wasn't really ejector as much as it was long, semi-intense floater. Maverick was running insanely fast last night, however.
I got my first rides ever on MF and Maverick this week. Both are my top two coasters, with MF being #1. Maverick would be #1 if the OTSR's weren't so horrible.
For me, the OTSR's sucked the first couple of times I rode it because I had no idea when twisty bits were coming to brace appropriately. Now that I know the coaster better, it's easy to avoid smacking them. It sucks that you have to know how to ride the coaster to enjoy it, but it is what it is, I suppose.
-
I wonder how much of it had to do with where in the train the people happened to end up sitting...
-
^^^ Holy crap, that looks awesome. I had to skip MiA on my 2012 coastering mega-trip, so I've never had the chance to ride it, but now I really want to find a way to make it up there. It looks like it's fairly smooth (except maybe a bit of shuffling in the turns, but that's to be expected with PTC trains) & has lots of airtime. Has it had track work done recently? I know some of the CCI coasters I've ridden haven't aged well.
-
Is it just me or does "camera facing forward" drop ride POV just not seem to have the same effect as watching a rider cam of it or if the camera was facing up towards the tower or down towards the ground?
After the Falcon's Fury POV, I don't think I can look at any other drop ride POV the same.
-
While watching the Popular Mechanics for Kids video I noticed that they showed footage of Gemini when talking about wooden coasters at 2:08-2:16
Noticed that too! They also claimed she rode Psyclone 45 times in an hour...not really possible given its 1:50 ride duration.
But I do very much distinctly remember watching this episode when I was a kid. I was fascinated by the coasters, and this made me really want to go visit Magic Mountain. Of course, it took me another 15 years before I finally made it out there...
-
-
So I'm going to Vegas for a convention in a little over a week, and I'm going to have a day at the end of the trip to myself to go coastering and whatnot (Saturday 6/21).
(I may also have some time on Monday 6/16. We're scheduled to land around noonish local time & I don't know what all we have planned for the rest of that day)
I know I want to ride all four coasters in the greater Vegas area (Canyon Blaster, El Loco, Manhattan Express/The Roller Coaster/Whatever They're Calling It Now, & Desperado). Is there anything else I need to make sure that I do while I'm there? I've never gambled before, but I figure I'll take $100 or $150 and go try my hand at blackjack or something for a while.
The other big question is what would be the best plan of attack for Saturday as far as where to go when? I won't have a car for the convention, so at some point I'll need to rent one to drive out to Buffalo Bill's for Desperado. It looks like my hotel for Friday night is going to be right near Circus Circus, so I'm thinking of starting at the Adventuredome and then going from there. Thoughts?
-
I can't wait for the POV. Until then, I have absolutely no idea what to expect. You can't really tell much from the renderings since the red and blue tracks look like completely different kinds of structures (and sizes), and it looks like they had some clipping issues as well with it. And the trains look an awful lot like the Mystery Mine trains, which don't seem to navigate their course smoothly, but again, it's only a preliminary rendering.
-
I like to get a feel for rides I haven't ridden (whether I am hoping to ride them soon or never expect to ever be able to ride), but they're also great to show other people something cool about a coaster to try to help them understand why I love them so much.
-
But then it'd have 4 B&M's. How many parks have 4 B&M's?
SFMM, SFGAm, SFOG and then SFGAdv with a record breaking 5!
So yeah, it's not that common, and they're all six flags.
Good call. I totally forgot about several of those coasters, even at my home park! Lol.
But SFMM has 18 (going on 19, and likely 20 next year) coasters. SFGAm has 13 (including Goliath), SFOG has 11, and SFGAdv has 12. BGT right now only has 8.
4/9 would give it the highest percentage of B&M's at any of those parks.
-
Those were all of te same test run. These new videos are of later runs and demonstrate progress in the construction project.
This video from a NEW perspective, at/after sunset from the employee parking lot. Its sooo stuning everyone needs ro see it its sooo fast! That overbank and airtime hill! Its going to be NUTS
Looks like there's going to be some nice hang time in the dive loop as well. Sweetness.
-
^ Flying coaster in my opinion would be awesome, but I think we'd definitely be seeing a hyper beforehand.
Of the 5 US B&M flyers, I actually prefer the S:UF at SFOG because of how well it interacts with the terrain (I know I'm in the minority--Tatsu just didn't do it for me). But Starry Sky Ripper/Sky Scrapper looks like it'd be pretty sweet. I think I'd be open to a newer-style, more epic flying coaster, but it'd still be the 4th B&M, and I don't know how they'd theme it effectively or where they'd be able to put it.
-
Anyone know if there's anything more to the rumor that Universal is only planning to allow guests to ride one time, one way on HE in a single day? Apologies if this was discussed several pages back.
I haven't heard this, but I doubt my random speculation will hurt anyone. I think it sounds fair, as long as they're very clear about it to minimize potential complaints, and are careful that all employees handling it treat everyone politely and the setup isn't confusing or inconvenient. But experimenting with this doesn't seem like a bad idea to me.
I read about it on another forum that I don't normally frequent (and don't recall offhand). Their biggest issue is that because the ride experiences are supposed to be different for each direction, people would necessarily have to buy a 2-day park hopper pass to be able to experience the entire attraction.
-
RMC is like the Pixar of coasters right now. I haven't been let down once and I doubt Goliath or Medusa will be that let down.
So how long will it be till we get their version Brave (not terrible but not as good as what we'd become accustomed to) or Cars 2 (shameless cash grab)?
-
Tear it Down!!!!!! Create something new. A nice new woodie would be nice....but I'd rather have a hyper or giga. Tampa is just really a harsh place for a wooden coaster to keep up to par; especially since it's a year-round park. Perhaps if they use steel supports maybe?
Yeah but if they tear it down we'll probably just get a B&M Hyper. I'd rather have a RMC redo.
I'd like to see an RMC redo and then have the *next* expansion be a B&M hyper. But I have no idea where they'd put a B&M hyper without having it run along the northern or western edges of the park, or go out over the Serengeti plain (which would actually be really awesome).
But then it'd have 4 B&M's. How many parks have 4 B&M's? But then what other type of ride would fit this park well (assuming an RMC makeover of Gwazi)?
Their current park lineup is incredibly impressive:
the "Big 4":
Montu, my #1 invert
SheiKra, my #1 dive coaster (and an incredibly fun and re-rideable ride)
Kumba, many enthusiasts' #1 coaster
Cheetah Hunt, an incredibly fun, long, and popular multi-launched coaster
plus a classic Schwarzkopf in Scorpion, a (slow and honestly not terribly fun) wild mouse in Sand Serpent, and a kiddie coaster in Air Grover
throw in an RMC makeover of Gwazi, and you'd have the "Big 6" (Iron Lion and Steel Tiger, anyone?)
But what then? What kind of coaster would the park still be missing??
Stand-ups are out of vogue. Wing and flying coasters came and went and I don't anticipate seeing too many more of those (at least until B&M tries their hand at a 4D coaster). They don't need a floorless since they have Kumba.
I'm not sure if any of the Intamin offerings would make sense given that they already have Cheetah Hunt. I don't think I could see a giga or megalite or another launched coaster. I can't see them going with a Vekoma, except maybe an SFC (if they did that, i'd hope they'd do a custom terrain version like Orkanen).
I don't know if any of the smaller manufacturers have anything that would work well for BGT, especially as far as capacity is concerned.
Thoughts?
-
Anyone know if there's anything more to the rumor that Universal is only planning to allow guests to ride one time, one way on HE in a single day? Apologies if this was discussed several pages back.
-
How long will it be before the broken track is back in place? I am going to be at the Animal Kingdom on the 11th.
2 Words. Disco Yeti
I really wish people would stop complaining about the yeti. It's really stupid. In fact, I feel that most people who complain about the yeti have never actually seen the original version of it!
IMO the Yeti is not really "broken." What is "broken" about the yeti is that it shouldn't have been a giant, expensive-as-hell AA in the first place since you see if for a total of 1.5 seconds as you fly by it at 30 MPH. It's not like the Lava Monster in Journey where the ride stops, you can look at the character do it's "show" and then you move on.
Even when it worked you wouldn't believe how many people totally missed it. It was one of those "If you blink you miss it" situations. Like I said, I think the real mistake wasn't about if it's working or not working, but the overall design and placement of that scene in the ride. And because of that, I don't think we will ever see the yeti get "fixed."
IMO, the "really awesome expensive yeti animatronic" should have gone in the scene where the yeti rips up the track is. Then you'd REALLY be able to see how awesome that figure is! Realistically, it was just a huge waste of money.
I was fortunate enough to stumble into the soft open for Expedition Everest in Feb 2006 while on my HS senior trip, and I can honestly say I don't remember the original Yeti. All I remember is that it was a ridiculously awesome ride experience like nothing I had ever ridden before. It's impeccably themed, and a fantastic ride to boot. While I would love to experience the original Yeti again, I have no problem with Disco Yeti.
My only wish was that such an expensive AA wasn't being functionally wasted. I agree that it would have been better in the show area. Maybe they'll re-do it all in 10 years when it comes time to do major renovations. Who knows.
-
^I always counted it as 2 But it doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. It seems like most of the parks count their racing/dueling coasters as 1.
My theory was that if they had different layouts (not just a mirror or side-by-side the entire ride) or had one side forwards and the other backwards, then they should count as 2 different coasters. For me, Gwazi would count as 2, but Colossus would only be 1.
This is why I would love to see Iron Colossus, but with 2 different sides. Think about how much Magic Mountain would love to be able to market it as their 19th (again) and 20th coasters! That alone would explain their rush to stuff a kiddie coaster in this year.
Name a Park, What You Think it Needs to Do, and How To Do It
in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
Posted
Totally agree.