rcdude

Since Matterhorn is too rough to run backwards maybe it could be done on California Screamin? Seriously? Disney doesn't buy into gimmicks of this sort, and based on the design of the California Screamin' trains I doubt they could run backwards anyway. No existing Disney coaster that wasn't designed to go backwards is ever going to do so.

I find it really amusing that people are still upset about Twisted Colossus. Yes it could have been taller, longer, faster, etc. but the coaster as it is will still likely be the new best coaster at SFMM and will probably make it into the top 25 of most enthusiasts. The dynamics of a steel coaster are different from that of a wood coaster, so I honestly don't think we would have gotten the full layout without a significantly taller lift hill (which would be an expensive modification in California). I also feel that SFMM did as much as they could with the money they were given...Twisted Colossus as it is was probably a $10 million project (or possibly a bit more) and we all know Six Flags is unwilling to shell out much more than that on a single park in a year. For those saying the ride is repetitive, that may be true to a degree, but about half the RMC coasters are somewhat repetitive and if the overall ride experience is outstanding does it really matter that much? In the end, Twisted Colossus is an excellent addition to SFMM and is unlike anything else in the park. It will probably please almost everyone who rides it, and if it isn't your thing there are 18 other coasters for you to choose from (almost all of which will have a shorter line). Actually, this is reminding me a lot of Full Throttle a couple years ago. When the ride was announced and all the way until opening, there was little but disappointment. After it opened? Most considered it a great ride. I'm betting the same thing will happen in a month or so, we'll just have to wait and see. Awesome! I'm planning to go to the park next week and I'm almost more excited about just seeing this ride complete than what I'll actually be riding (the keyword here being almost). Last time I visited, only the first drop was up. Assuming everything goes well with testing, I would be quite surprised if they can't make a Memorial Day opening for the ride.

In regards to Colossus racing, I have been visiting SFMM regularly since 2000. In that time, I have seen Colossus racing one time: WCB 2010 during night ERT. Honestly, I can't recall ever seeing the ride running both tracks during normal operation other than Fright Fest, and even though both were running at the time no attempt was typically made to race the trains. From what my parents have said, it sounds like intentional racing has never been too common on Colossus, which made it really special when two trains happened to line up perfectly.

Rougarou is one of the few coasters where I feel the new credit question is actually legitimate. On one hand, the actual ride itself is the same and only the trains are changing. On the other hand, due to the train changes the entire ride experience will be different, as riders are now sitting instead of standing. I'd probably lean toward the no side, though that may change after I ride it (whenever that ends up being). Unlike some coasters that are debated, however, either way is completely justified with this ride.

There is a small dip between the top of the hill and the start of the brakes. There's no additional outside bank on the green side.

Looks like parts to the rumored Canada's Wonderland wing coaster to me. Given that it will probably have more components than the rumored Cedar Point dive coaster, it makes sense that fabrication would start sooner for the wing coaster (plus this doesn't look like dive coaster track).

From what I've heard, the plan for Twisted Colossus is to run all four trains during the opening summer, then run three with the fourth only used during the busiest times. While the ride can operate with four trains, it doesn't seem like there will be too much of a capacity advantage (probably less than 200 riders per hour) by using four instead of three and the main motivation was to prevent two train operation as much as possible.

^ & ^^ Don't worry, it's in there. Look closely at the picture of the turnaround (the one above the Mmm...Chain picture) and you can see a steel beam that is tilted for a reverse bank. The drop afterward will be much smaller (probably about ten feet), but the outward bank is going to be kept. I don't know why this one particular element is so anticipated compared to what else will be on the ride, but fear no longer. Great update, berryfarm! I really cannot wait to ride this thing. I'm planning to visit the park in a couple weeks once spring break crowds die off and I'm really hoping I'll get to see this beautiful ride fully assembled.

Personally I like the SFMM Batman a little more than the SFGAm Batman, but it's up to you. Green Lantern and Viper both have single rider so even if the line is long you can usually get on them very quickly (5-10 minutes). Green Lantern isn't rough, it is just uncomfortable due to the forces involved and their angle of application. It's worth riding only because it is such a unique experience. Viper is an above average Arrow looper that is a little rough but not too bad. I wouldn't consider it a must ride, but if you've got the time it is absolutely worth doing. When Apocalypse opened, I thought it was one of the best GCIs. The ride has become a bit rough, though not nearly as bad as some wooden coasters. However, if you've never been on a GCI or any other modern wooden coaster, it is absolutely worth a ride. Lex Luthor is the best basic drop tower I've been on, and the ride offers single rider as well so unless it's closed you should definitely ride it. As I said before, with Twisted Colossus things may change, but Full Throttle is always going to be a poor capacity coaster and is located right at the entrance, thus drawing a crowd it tends to maintain. Unless the queue is already overflowing when you arrive or you see tons of people running past it toward Goliath, I'd stop there first before proceeding to Twisted Colossus. I don't recommend going to X2 first anymore as the ride is delayed more often than not and the line does drop mid-afternoon (I'm guessing most visitors don't ride this one more than once).

WARNING! Engineering post incoming! For a basic approximation of the speed of a roller coaster at the bottom of a drop, the energy equation can be used. In it's basic form, the equation is PE + KEt = KEb, where PE represents the potential energy at the top of the hill, KEt represents the kinetic energy at the top of the hill, and KEb represents the kinetic energy at the bottom of the drop. Since PE = mgh and KE = (1/2)mV^2, the equation can be represented as: mgh + (1/2)mVt^2 = (1/2)mVb^2 m = mass of the train g = acceleration due to gravity (32.2 ft/s^2) h = height of the hill Vt = speed at top of the hill Vb = speed at bottom of the hill Since mass is present in every expression, it cancels out. Therefore, the actual mass of the train is not important in determining it's speed. You'll also notice that the actual path of the track is not important for this calculation, so a vertical drop would produce the same speed as a long ramp with the save elevation change. The only important variables for a first approximation are the height of the hill and the speed at the crest. To find the speed at the base of the hill knowing these values, the equation can be rewritten as: Vb = sqrt(2gh + Vt^2) Since the value will be in ft/s, multiply by (60 s/min)*(60 min/hr)*(0.0001894 mi/ft) = 0.682 to get MPH. Using this equation, and assuming the speed of the lift is negligible, a 128 ft drop (the size of Twisted Colossus) would yield a speed of 61.9 MPH. However, this is only the theoretical speed, and a real roller coaster will always run slower. Other factors that will slow the ride include rolling resistance (which is affected by the wheel compound and the number of wheels on the track), friction (which is primarily where train mass and track length come into play), vibration (which is primarily due to the roughness of the ride) and air resistance (which is a more significant factor at higher speeds or on trains with a large frontal area). These values are very difficult to calculate without knowing the exact parameters of the train, so I will not go into more detail here. In the case of Twisted Colossus, I am guessing the reduced speed is primarily due to the first two factors, as nylon/polyurethane wheels deform significantly more than steel wheels do (hence why wooden coasters often seem to maintain speed better) and the RMC train design has more wheel assemblies than the previous Morgan trains had, thus increasing the quantity of moving parts and the amount of work done by friction. Also worth noting is that the speed statistic of the original Colossus (as well as statistics in general for older coasters) may not be 100% accurate due to less advanced measurement equipment. We now return to your regularly scheduled discussion on Twisted Colossus's upgrades from the original concept art.

There was a rumor last summer that SFGAdv would be receiving an S&S Free Spin similar to the one at SFFT for 2015. From what I've heard since, due to all the delays involved with Zumanjaro Six Flags chose to move El Diablo (which was originally scheduled for Great Escape) to SFGAdv for 2015 and delay the Free Spin by a year. I don't know how true this is, but it does seem to make sense as SFGAdv is due for a new coaster and El Diablo was a bit of a strange choice for the park.

For the ones I've been to... 1. Cedar Point 2. Kings Island 3. Kings Dominion 4. Canada's Wonderland 5. Knott's Berry Farm (note: local park...would likely rank higher otherwise) 6. Gilroy Gardens Family Theme Park (note: primarily due to non-ride elements...would rank last for rides) 7. California's Great America 8. Carowinds (note: based on 2010 visit) 9. Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom Of the three Cedar Fair parks I haven't been to, Worlds of Fun looks like the best and Michigan's Adventure looks the least interesting. My guess is all three of them would rank in the bottom third of this list anyway.

Let's see... This is a really difficult question to answer at this time because the draw of Twisted Colossus is not yet known. It will definitely be a popular ride, but if run as well as SFMM is predicting it will have higher capacity than two of the other three you mentioned. At the moment, I would probably say Full Throttle, then Twisted Colossus, as I'm not confident that Twisted Colossus will create a sprinting match, but we'll have to wait until it opens to know for sure. Tatsu has the highest capacity of these coasters but it will still have a lengthy line all day. X2 is best mid-afternoon as it isn't uncommon for it to have a delayed opening. It would probably be good to post this question again in the SFMM thread around late June when the effects of Twisted Colossus are better understood. Six Flags isn't known for their food, so no matter where you go don't expect anything noteworthy. Inside the park, the best options are those around Full Throttle Plaza. Loaded Dogs is probably my favorite quick service location in the park, and while I haven't tried the Full Throttle Sports Bar I've heard good things about it. Toward the back of the park, I usually stop at Johnny Rockets, which is better than the Six Flags counter service locations. Everywhere else is about the same. Outside the park, there are a few restaurants right down the street, a bunch of fast food a couple exits up the freeway (Lyons Ave.), and the Valencia Town Center a couple miles down the street. If you will be leaving the park at a reasonable time, I highly suggest eating dinner outside. As for seating, there's plenty of benches and tables around the park. For a first time visitor I would use the following list: Must Ride: X2, Goliath, Apocalypse the Ride, Lex Luthor: Drop of Doom, Tatsu, Full Throttle, Twisted Colossus, Riddler's Revenge Second Tier: Batman The Ride, Roaring Rapids (if you're up for getting soaked), Superman: Escape from Krypton Time Permitting: Everything else On a typical July weekday, you will usually have enough time to do everything in the must ride list and second tier list once each if you don't do any other attractions. Expect lines for Full Throttle, Goliath, Superman: Escape from Krypton, Tatsu, Twisted Colossus, and X2 to be around 90 minutes in the middle of the day, with other major rides in the 30-60 minute range. If the day is really hot (over 100 degrees), lines may be a little shorter (except at water rides). Given that you are traveling all the way from the UK to visit the park and probably won't be returning for at least five years, I highly recommend investing in a Gold Flash Pass unless money is an issue. If you are forced to visit on a weekend, a Flash Pass may be mandatory in order to do all of the park's headliners. It may have slightly longer lines, but not enough to cause a significant impact. Twisted Colossus will definitely increase crowds at Scream, but probably won't affect Goliath too much as it's a bit of a walk to go back there.

It's hard to tell from the pictures whether this accident is the fault of incorrect assembly or bad engineering. If it's the latter, the incident is much, much worse. Either way, it's terrible that this occurred, but fortunately it doesn't sound as bad as it could have been. Hopefully steps will be taken to prevent another similar incident from happening. I have no problem riding US carnival rides, but after this I'll be sure to double check that everything looks secure before riding.

^^Unless X2 becomes impossible to maintain I don't see it ever leaving the park. The ride is over ten years old, and even with several impressive coasters built in that time span it is still the most popular ride in the park. As for Twisted Colossus, that's a pretty surprising change. Although the stall originally looked more like an elongated Zero-G Roll, the twist direction made sense to have as little between the trains as possible. I'm interested to see if they still cross the tracks in the same manner (at the apex) or have the green track unroll before curving over the blue track (which seems more likely with this roll direction change). I guess it's also possible there's no crossing here, but as that would require some pretty significant changes in the remainder of the layout I doubt that's the case.

^^Even though there are a lot of complaints about the park on here, try to visit with an open mind. If all you care about is riding roller coasters, you'll probably love the park. I would never say SFMM is the prefect park, but I do think it is above average compared to all parks I've visited and have plenty of friends who were surprised by it after what they had heard. In response to your questions: 1. X2 is delayed with some frequency, but it is uncommon for the others to not be ready at opening. As it is generally best to ride X2 mid-afternoon, it's not a big deal if the coaster isn't ready at opening. You will absolutely want to ride Full Throttle first thing as that ride will likely have at least a 30 minute wait for a good part of the day. After that, I'd either go counter-clockwise around the park, hitting all the major coasters as you come to them, or take the Orient Express up the hill, do Superman, Ninja, and Tatsu, then continue clockwise from there. 2. Probably not. I wouldn't expect the park to be dead, but I wouldn't expect lines to be too bad. Expect waits of up to 30 minutes for headliners, possibly more if only one train is being used. If it is bad, you can buy a Flash Pass to guarantee you'll ride anything, but you probably won't need one. Also, arriving at 9:15 A.M. for a 10:30 A.M. opening is a bit extreme...30-45 minutes before opening is plenty. 3. If the lines are short, there is no need for single rider. If lines are long, however (30 minutes or more), single rider is definitely recommended at Riddler's Revenge, Green Lantern, and Lex Luthor. You and your friend will likely end up either on the same train or within a few vehicles of each other. In regards to the Goliath chain break, it's unfortunate that it happened but the timing could have been worse. Hopefully the ride will be repaired and ready to go again by the time the summer crowds arrive.

Santa's Lodge is just okay. The rooms are basic hotel rooms and I don't remember anything that interesting about the hotel itself. Depending on when you're going a basic room will run you $100-150 per night. Breakfast is not included, but there is a restaurant. The hotel does have a discount on Holiday World tickets, but it's not as good as the coaster club discount you can get at the park (I think it was comparable to the online rate). Parking won't matter because Holiday World offers free parking (as well as free soft drinks, free sunscreen, free inner tubes, and free Wi-Fi). If you want to stay close to the park it is probably the best option (it's the only hotel right near the park), but if you're willing to drive a little in the morning (30-45 minutes) you'll find some potentially better options at a lower price.

If at all possible, avoid going to a park on a Saturday. However, if you must, I'd do Kings Island if you're purchasing a Fast Lane and Holiday World if you're not. Expect waits of at least an hour for major attractions at either park on a summer Saturday (more for the headliners, especially at Kings Island). In terms of general crowds, Kings Island is more crowded as Holiday World rarely gets lines above 30 minutes on weekdays (except for the biggest attractions in Splashin' Safari and possibly Thunderbird due to newness). Kings Island will likely have waits in the 45-60 minute range for headliners on summer weekdays assuming efficient operations. While I haven't been to Six Flags Over Georgia, I personally found Carowinds to be the least interesting of the major Cedar Fair parks when I visited several years ago. Meanwhile, Kings Island is the best Cedar Fair park I've visited (other than Cedar Point), and Holiday World is one of the best parks of its size in the country. In addition, you're leaving out Dollywood, which isn't all that much further from Atlanta or Charlotte and is generally considered the best Deep South park. I could see a Carowinds/Dollywood trip or a Dollywood/SFOG trip, but unless I was going just for roller coasters I'd opt for Holiday World/Kings Island over Carowinds/SFOG.

That picture is great! The double-down on the green side is going to be a lot of fun, but the blue track diving through the structure will also be excellent. It really reminds me of the mid-course drop on GhostRider.

Great to see progress on this ride. It looks like it could be ready to open in just a couple weeks. I'll need to stop by this park on one of my Knott's visits to ride Rewind Racers, possibly when I go to check out Voyage to the Iron Reef next month.

The way I understand it, the ride had Fast Lane up until the accident last year. Following that, the ride went to one train for a period of time and was removed from Fast Lane. It is now being added back on, but only for Fast Lane Plus due to the lower capacity. I know for a fact that even though the ride had returned to two train operation, there was no Fast Lane access at all during Banshee Bash last year, and that made the ride my longest wait of the day (45 minutes). It also seemed like the operators were being very careful not to overheat the LIMs as they were waiting two minutes between dispatches, so the train was often ready to go but they'd stand around for 30-45 seconds before the panel operator called for an all clear. If they're still doing 2 minute dispatches this year, that caps the capacity at about 600 per hour and necessitates the Fast Lane Plus restriction.

For anyone who is worried about Premier, I'll just say this: I visited Darien Lake in 2012, under the management of Herschend, and I visited Elitch Gardens in 2014, under the management of Premier. Of the two, Elitch Gardens seemed like the better run park. I've got a feeling the Darien Lake locals are going to see some positive changes this year, and if you still think Premier is bad after the season, so be it. The current Premier Parks group is not the same as the one that owned the park in the 1990s and, at the moment, they're probably the best hope for the park.

I've only visited the park in the summer, but I've never seen it crowded enough to make a Flash Pass mandatory. Like others have said, I wouldn't purchase it early as you'll be wasting your money if it isn't too busy. When the park opens, go straight to Superman Ultimate Flight, then work your way around the park from there (I usually proceed counter-clockwise). If you run into a line of 30 minutes or more before lunch, consider purchasing a Flash Pass, but otherwise you probably don't need one. If you do buy one, Gold will give you the best value. In regards to V2, it's a pretty good ride but not the best coaster in the park. I wouldn't cancel your trip if you can't ride it, but it's definitely a reason to make a return visit in the future. Lastly, I'd advise against hanging out in Vallejo, as it's not a very nice area.

I'm just curious...why fly to St. Louis if you don't plan to visit Six Flags St. Louis? You're putting yourself about three hours from Holiday World and making the trip one way, which could significantly increase car rental fees. If you want to do Holiday World and Kings Island, I'd probably fly into Cincinnati Tuesday, do Kings Island Wednesday, drive to Holiday World Thursday (with a possible half-day stop at Kentucky Kingdom on the way), do Holiday World Friday, and then drive back to Cincinnati on Saturday and fly out in the evening. You picked two good parks if you don't mind a bit of driving. If you'd rather have less driving, consider a Virginia trip, with stops at Busch Gardens Williamsburg and Kings Dominion. A Carowinds/Dollywood trip would also be worth considering (especially if Fury 325 looks appealing to you), and although I haven't visited the parks a trip to San Antonio, Texas would get you SeaWorld San Antonio and Six Flags Fiesta Texas. Any of those would probably make a pretty good two park trip. While you could also do California, I'd hold off on that if you'll only be visiting two parks as Southern California has a half-dozen parks that are worth visiting and there are better places than the Northern California parks (they're not bad, they're just not the best).

A traveling carnival is not an amusement park. A permanent carnival is an amusement park. A fair is not an amusement park unless the rides are permanent...otherwise it is an event that has a traveling carnival as one of it's attractions. My general rule of thumb is that if a collection of rides can be experienced at multiple locations on a regular basis, it is a traveling carnival and not an amusement park. Also, for something to be considered an amusement park it must be a space primary used to host rides and other amusement attractions, not an area repurposed temporarily for that use. The individual rides at a carnival are just as valid for consideration as those at a permanent amusement park, but comparing a carnival to a permanent park doesn't make a whole lot of sense.