rcdude

To be 100% honest, I'm not a huge fan of this new design. Part of a wooden coaster is the appearance, and even though there have been wood coasters with a steel structure they generally look fairly similar to a wood structure until you get close. This just doesn't look like a wood coaster anymore. I know its still going to be a great ride, but I've got no doubt it will end up feeling more like a steel coaster than a wood coaster. It really seems like Goliath being a wood coaster instead of a steel coaster is really more of a gimmick at this point, and if this is to be the future of coasters perhaps it is time to stop differentiating between the two types (or start differentiating between traditional wood and modern wood).

Deep Space looks like another winner from Premier Rides. With the way the industry is going, Premier could probably end up becoming the most popular major steel coaster manufacturer in a few years. I can't think of a single one of their rides that I didn't enjoy and some of their recent efforts have been really good. Although I didn't have time to play this one, I love these Where in the World games. Hopefully there will continue to be more in the future featuring lesser-visited enthusiast destinations.

Did a few of these tonight: Cedar Point-19/25 Disney Theme Parks-25/25 88 Seconds Frenzy-15/40 Club & Parks' Acronyms-25/25 Andy's Picture-25/25 I'll probably try them all at some point but I prefer to just do a few at a time.

And Maverick too, depending on what you consider the lift/launch to be. Then you can add California Screamin', Mummy USO/USS, etc. I mean chain lift(s) plus a LIM/LSM/air compress/hydraulic/fly wheel/weight drop/friction wheels/etc launch. What about Space Mountain: Mission 2? It's got a launch and a lift (though it may be a friction wheel lift and not a chain). Edit (for poster below): I've always thought it was just an electric motor pulling a catch car for the launch (similar to what the Arrow Launched Loops use). I know it is not magnetic, hydraulic, or pneumatic as those technologies didn't exist at the time the ride was built.

I'm excited to see construction of this park as I'll be visiting Vegas in June and this is one of my must-do activities (for reference Wet 'n' Wild is only a maybe). I can't wait to see everything go vertical and hear what everyone thinks when the park opens. I'm sure it will be a great park.

El Loco looks great. Definitely the best coaster in Vegas. I doubt I'll get a chance to visit before my planned trip in June, but I know I'll schedule a third of a day or so for the Adventuredome so I can get several rides on this coaster.

^Jaguar was originally 42", but was changed to 48" when the seatbelts were added. I'll never forget this one because it led to one of the biggest crying sessions I've experienced at a park. On one visit, my sister could ride, but on the next (about a month later) she was suddenly several inches too short and that was her favorite ride in the park. Outside of Jaguar, Cedar Fair is really the only company that seems to have numerous excessive height restrictions. Many of their rides are one or two height categories higher than what most other parks require. I will say that their new attractions don't seem to have this problem (probably due to the new company direction), but almost every coaster that had seatbelts retrofitted got a height restriction increase. Outside of Cedar Fair, I would say any family ride that cannot be ridden by 42" children (if accompanied) is a bit ludicrous as it blocks a significant portion of the target audience of the attraction. Additionally, any height restriction exceeding 54" seems like overkill as there are plenty of intense rides with lower restrictions and restraint systems that can accommodate much smaller riders.

SingleRiderCam, you are correct. Go ahead and post the next coaster at your convenience.

I really wanted to do an out and back, but as that would be somewhat ambiguous here's a better one instead. I'll give a few more hints if nobody guesses correctly within 24 hours, but for now... Blue = Station, Red = Show Building, Green = Storage Building, Arrows = Direction of Travel

Looks very much like the Intamin Swiss Bob model. Based on your location...La Vibora?

I may be incorrect (we'll probably know for sure after tomorrow's chat), but I interpreted "custom soundtrack" as the ride will have a mix of those music types as opposed to just playing a single song. Think like X2 where snippets of several songs are played. I've never heard anything about riders being able to pick a song, and from pictures of the cars it doesn't look like there is any interface for it.

Without knowing the actual speed, I have to guess that some of the early B&M coasters probably had the fastest inversions. The Batman clones, Flight Deck, and the Vortex twins come to mind as having particularly quick corkscrews/zero-g rolls. For loops, old Schwarzkopf loopers like Montezooma's Revenge feel pretty fast, as do coasters with small loops (namely Arrow and Pinfari loopers). If we're talking about roll rate and not linear speed, 1990s B&M coasters and some of the more twisted Intamin maneuvers (such as the twisted horseshoe roll on Maverick) definitely feel the most snappy and seem to twist the quickest.

My top three most missed coasters are either still in operation (just not where they started) or still have a little hope of returning. They are... Stealth (formerly at California's Great America, now Nighthawk at Carowinds) Deja Vu (formerly at Six Flags Magic Mountain, now Goliath at Six Flags New England) Speed-The Ride (formerly at Nascar Café, now sitting in the middle of a desert) For non-coaster rides, I'm not sure which I truly miss the most, but these are definitely my most missed attractions: PeopleMover at Disneyland Kingdom of the Dinosaurs at Knott's Berry Farm Perilous Plunge at Knott's Berry Farm Log Jammer at Six Flags Magic Mountain Freefall at Six Flags Magic Mountain

^Wow, that was quick. You must have just been viewing at the right time. Okay, your turn.

Okay, I apologize for the quality of this sketch but I figured I'd best keep the game moving (it was drawn using my laptop touchpad). If nobody has guessed correctly by the time I get home tomorrow evening I'll replace it with a better drawing. Degree of Difficulty: Moderate. Red represents the lift, blue represents brake runs.

The results this year ended up pretty much as expected (at least in my opinion). El Toro is my favorite wood coaster, so I'm glad to see it win again. Everyone loves Outlaw Run, so I expected it to place in the top ten at least (given that it's ranked as America's 2nd best wood coaster I really hope I get a chance to ride it this year). I do think Gold Striker will drop over the next couple of years, likely settling around the mid-20s (it's good, but certainly not better than Thunderhead). I'm a little surprised to see so many Gravity Group coasters at the top as it seems their rides tend to deteriorate quickly. Voyage is dropping every year, and I'm guessing the Chinese ones will probably take a hit after the next group trip to China. Finally, Hades 360 debuting in the bottom 10? Could this wind up being the biggest failed "improvement" ever? Just for fun, here are a few random notes about my personal statistics: -I have been on 4 of the top 10 coasters (El Toro, Boulder Dash, Ravine Flyer II, and Voyage) and 6 of the top 20 (the previous plus Gold Striker and Thunderhead). Though not in the same order, these 6 coasters make up my top 6 wood coasters. If all goes according to plan, I will be riding two more top 10 woodies this year (Outlaw Run and Phoenix). -The only bottom 10 coaster I've been on is Grizzly (CGA). It is my least favorite coaster. -Comparing the order of coasters in the results to the order they were ranked on my ballot... I ranked 5 coasters significantly higher (Grizzly (KD), Mighty Canadian Minebuster, Rebel Yell, Thunder Road, Woodstock Express (KD)) I ranked 4 coasters significantly lower (Blue Streak (CP), Comet (Waldameer), Giant Dipper (BP), Wooden Warrior) I ranked 6 coasters exactly where they ended up (Boss, Comet (GE), El Toro, Excalibur, Grizzly (CGA), Thunderbolt (SFNE))

I'm pretty sure smallish's coaster is Big Thunder Mountain Railroad at Disneyland.

I definitely have elements of all five, but based on the given descriptions I would say (strongest to weakest): Rider Creator Whore Engineer Designer When it comes to roller coasters, as long as the ride isn't boring or result in pain I usually enjoy it. It doesn't matter so much if the ride has strong forces, extreme amounts of airtime, or fully themed surroundings. In fact, B&M and GCI are my favorite coaster manufacturers and while they rarely come out with anything absolutely amazing I've found all their rides fun and enjoyable over and over again (the only exception is some of B&M's standup coasters). A number of Intamin rides are great, but they just have too many reliability problems and I've been on some truly terrible Intamin coasters as well. Also, as far as credit whoring goes, I do ride kiddie coasters when there are no restrictions and the wait is minimal, but I would never invest more than 10 minutes or borrow a kid just to get a credit.

I got home from school today and there was a TPR Bag-O-Crap waiting for me on my desk. Like any responsible student should do, I got my homework done as fast as I could and then took a look inside. There I found... -A GateKeeper bag -A red TPR bag -A TPR Instant Cooling Towel -A rain poncho -Insane Coaster Wars magnet and lip balm -Team TPR Coasting for Kids button and sticker -A TPR pen -A dozen maps -A Thank You note from Robb HOLY CRAP! I would like to give a huge THANK YOU to Robb, Elissa, and the rest of the people that make TPR wonderful. I know these can't be cheap to mail out and I'm certainly not the only one to receive one, so amazing things like this really say a lot to how much members are valued on here. Picture Time! It's a genuine TPR Bag-O-Crap! I've never received one of these before. Let's see what's inside. Here's the complete collection of maps. Top Row: World Joyland (I think), Silver Dollar City, Djurs Sommerland, Fuji-Q Highland, Janfusun Fancyworld, Holiday World; Bottom Row: Universal Orlando Resort, Epcot, Hong Kong Disneyland, Happy Valley Wuhan, Disneyland Paris Resort, Adventure Island. Here's all the crap inside. A couple bags, a bunch of maps, and random other assorted items.

As far as Iron Colossus goes, I've always thought SFMM needs to go all out or not do it at all. While it may not be that popular of a ride anymore, Colossus is still one of the most famous coasters in the park and a poorly done refurbishment could potentially do a lot of damage. I do think the potential for something as depicted in the video is there simply because SFMM could promote it as a record breaking ride, but if Iron Colossus is indeed expected to be a 2015 attraction the ride would need to close before this summer in order to have any shot at being ready for next summer. As for the idea of converting one track and leaving the other alone, I'm willing to bet that wouldn't happen. I could see making the ride only a single track, but I don't think the structure would be capable of supporting two significantly different tracks without heavy modification. I do think this would be bad for the ride's image, however, as it is known as a racing coaster (although it never races anymore). It is too early to know what is going to happen, but given the way Six Flags is going now and the stated desire of SFMM for a RMC woodie I do think some form of Iron Colossus will appear in the next few years, though what it will be and how soon I have no idea.

Assuming this is legitimate and not just speculation, this is definitely worthy of a stop at the park. Looks like a fun ride, definitely much better than anything I was expecting the park to get. I visit Knott's about once a month, so once the new coaster opens I'll have to add a brief stop here to one of my Knott's visits.

I know this is just a prototype, but it looks better than about 90% of the rides out there now. I also love the fact that the coaster will be able to give anything from family to extreme without much adjustment. If the attraction can be priced at a point parks will buy at, this could become the next big thing in thrill rides. Hoping some parks in need of a thrill ride but with limited space give strong consideration to one of these.

The new Camp Snoopy additions should be great for the park, and it will be much better to have rides that everyone can ride than ones that restrict it to just kids. I am a little surprised that Charlie Brown Speedway is one of the attractions leaving, as that was one of the best rides in Camp Snoopy, but it does make sense as the ride doesn't fit the theme of the area and had a maximum height restriction. The rides themselves may not be particularly impressive, and I doubt I'll ever ride any of them, but this is much better than SFMM's 4th kiddie coaster.

^^Are you under 69"? If not, there is no way you could ride Timberline Twister as the park has been very strict about the height requirement in my experience. The main reason I can see Log Peeler being removed is because Pacific Scrambler has the same minimum height restriction (as long as you're accompanied by an adult). The ride's footprint is probably big enough to accommodate most basic kiddie rides (such as Zamperla's catalogue), but even that would be a bit of a tight fit.

What would you rather see in that spot? That's part of the issue...I don't think the twitter bar fits, but I don't really know what would. The only thing I can really think of would be something for the forums such as a list of that day's most popular topics (not new topics to keep any pointless/spam threads out), or simply a featured thread of the day. I don't know if this would be possible, but if the twitter bar was removed and the picture enlarged slightly (about half way between the two options) and centered I think it would look pretty good. I definitely prefer the image with nothing beside it from option 2, but it's just a little too large.