aCoasterStory

I downloaded the Busch Gardens app when I was down in Tampa a couple weekends ago, and while there were things that looked good, the big thing I was looking for was accurate wait times. But the park couldn't keep their wait times consistent: For instance, the app said the wait for Montu was 40 minutes; the big digital marquee signs said 25 minutes; the little clock thing right outside said 45 minutes; but then the wait was only actually 5-10 minutes. Also, the wait times on the app never seemed to update throughout the day.

I love this idea. But of course they'd never do it. Especially if they could make the two sides of Colossus different so they could call them 2 different coasters and hit 20. (It would totally be a great opportunity, though, to do something about the parking lot under Scream.)

Skyrush.

Not to poo-poo on this too much, but IMHO the *last* thing KD needs is another launched or wooden coaster. They already have Flight of Fear AND Volcano AND Backlot Stunt Coaster (not to mention they used to have XLC), and then for woodies Grizzly AND Hurler AND Rebel Yell. Is there any other park with 4 launched or 4 wooden coasters? Kings Dominion needs another A-list attraction to go with i305, but I think there are many other directions they could go first. Which one makes the most sense, I don't know, but I'd rather see them do something else first. I agree completely. Don't forget that wooden family coaster (can't remember the name at the moment) which would make 4 already. An extreme wooden coaster replacing Hurler/Grizzly/both would be smarter, IMO. SFGam has a bunch of wooden coasters- including the family one, I believe they have 4 now as well. Whoops...totally forgot about Woodstock Express.

Not to poo-poo on this too much, but IMHO the *last* thing KD needs is another launched or wooden coaster. They already have Flight of Fear AND Volcano AND Backlot Stunt Coaster (not to mention they used to have XLC), and then for woodies Grizzly AND Hurler AND Rebel Yell. Is there any other park with 4 launched or 4 wooden coasters? Kings Dominion needs another A-list attraction to go with i305, but I think there are many other directions they could go first. Which one makes the most sense, I don't know, but I'd rather see them do something else first.

This. Such a great, fun woodie.

It would still have the tallest drop

The exception to that, for me at least, is SheiKra. I love that it has a dual loading station, especially because all the GP wants to ride in the front. Makes it much quicker and easier for me to ride where I want, which is the back, far right seat.

Georgia Scorcher @ SFOG

SheiKra 6 times in an hour on Memorial Day.

I've only been to the park once, but I was really surprised there wasn't a more direct route to get to/from the park...and then I got stuck in night tunnel construction traffic for an hour on my way to my hotel. BUT, I really enjoyed the park. I wish I had allotted more than the 3 or so hours I spent there to really get to experience everything more thoroughly, but I do definitely want to go back someday. Oddly enough, when I was standing in line for Sky Rocket, I met some of the family that owns Beech Bend park in Kentucky. Nice people.

One of the Cheetah Hunt ride ops told me they were waiting on a part from Intamin to ship from Switzerland and weren't expecting it to re-open until sometime next week (not sure if she meant the end of this coming week or the following week). I was also told (don't remember by who, so take this with a grain of salt) that Rhino Rally was just coming back for Summer Nights and then it was going to close permanently. That didn't sound like it made the most sense in the world, but who knows? Nobody seemed to know anything about when Falcon's Fury was going to open, but it looks like they've got the whole queue area ready to go, so I don't know what else they still need to do before they can open it. Didn't see it testing yesterday or today while I was in the park.

The thing I don't like about the launch is that the train doesn't track very well and the back of it shimmies back and forth as it accelerates. IMHO, the only decent seat on Ka is in the front row. I don't know what they did different than TTD, but I've never experienced that issue on Dragster--every seat is a good seat.

I was ready to comment something along the lines of how it's not abnormal for coasters to sway & that I'd even observed the whole MCBR tower for SheiKra shaking this morning... ...and then I watched the video. There's no way that's normal. I'd be willing to bet that they do something to improve the rigidity of those supports in the not terribly distant future.

Cheetah Hunt went down yesterday afternoon and was down all day today. Not a single test run all day. No one is saying what's wrong with it. Hopefully it's back up soon. I took some pictures of Falcons Fury that I'll post later. Looks like it should be about ready to open, but they weren't doing any test drops today that I saw. Rhino Rally is still boarded off, but it looked like they were in the process of getting ready for a test run this morning. No idea if they did or not. The new Busch Gardens app isn't quite ready for prime-time yet. The ride wait times never updated all day. Not that the park had an accurate handle on wait times anyways... At one point this morning the big marquee said Montu was a 25-min wait. The app said 45, and the little dial sign right in front of the ride said 40. I was able to ride it 3x in less than 30min. The thing that really shocked me was that the crowd wasn't insane. My longest wait was 30min for SheiKra. Even with it being a Saturday, on a holiday weekend, with their flagship coaster down (which I would have expected to have 90-120+min wait times), it really wasn't bad at all. Go figure, eh?

Premier Spaghetti Bowl!!! (except for the height restriction, that is)

SFOT was at the top of my list for SF parks I wanted to go back and revisit after my 2012 trip. Now I won't even consider going back until they get rid of this asinine policy (and the no-single riders in the back row policy too), which is disappointing bc I really would love to ride NTaG again.

Looks like 2014 is shaping up to be a pretty great year for new rides. First Banshee, now Lightning Run. Goliath should be open soon, and I'm guessing it's going to be similarly crazy. Now I just have to figure out how I can manage to take 2 weeks off work to do a proper road trip to hit them all..

While we were there, Powder Keg was pretty reliable, at least i didn't know it broke down. But whenever it rains, SDC will shut down the ride because I've heard it's sensitive to rain. The crew worked very hard and they ran three trains very smoothly. Not sure how reliable the info was, but I had a conversation with a guy at Wild Adventures who said he used to work at SDC back when Powder Keg was first installed, and he said the reason it can't run in the rain is because the weird sloped transfer track from the station to the launch rides on steel wheels on train rails and they slip when they're wet. Seemed semi-plausible to me.

I found it to be one of the more violent and painful wooden coasters I've ever ridden and couldn't believe it was a top-rated coaster. Maybe it was having a bad couple of days, and maybe some of the sections have been re-tracked since, but there are very few rides I've been on where I was only halfway through and wished it would be over and Voyage was one of them. I had no problems with Raven or Legend, but Voyage was not at all fun for me. I think a huge chunk of it is that those PTC trains are just not designed for that extreme of a coaster. I would totally welcome some kind of modification to Voyage to make it actually enjoyable, whether a GCI retracking (and some new trains) or an RMC makeover (I think just topper track would be sufficient, but again with new trains as well).

Iron Voyage!

I was thinking of driving down to Tampa next weekend since I have Monday off. I don't know how far I'll be able to drive Friday night, so I'm not sure if I'll have a full day Sat or just the afternoon/evening, but I'll be there all day Sunday and at least till 1 or 2 on Monday before I have to head back to Atlanta. I imagine it'll be pretty busy at both BGT and AI. I was just at the park a couple months ago & it wasn't crowded then at all, but I have a feeling I'll want to spring for the Quick Queue Unlimited this time around. I'm also open any other suggestions/tips anyone may have. And I doubt it'll happen, but I'm also going to cross my fingers for FF to be open by then.

I actually found it to be not at all painful the last time I rode (several weeks ago). It was the first time I had ever tried riding in the magic seat, and it was also the first time I actually enjoyed the ride.

This coaster just looks so wrong on so many levels. Everything we thought we knew about how supports should look...out the window. I can't wait to hear the reviews of this thing...and then maybe make a trek up to Chicago to ride it...

Historically, I've found that the seatbelts vary in length from seat to seat. You may find better success in different seats. I had stopped riding Wicked Twister a few years ago due to this. I thought I was getting too big for the ride until I went to SFGAm and had no problems with V2's belts. I have lost some weight this year and will try it again when I head back up to the Point. The belts should be consistent throughout the train, not various lengths in different seats. I've been before and fit easily into one seat with some slack, then come back through the line and almost not fit into a different seat. The seatbelts *shouldn't* be different lengths, but I've found that in some cases they are...