rcdude

Actually, Colossus at Six Flags Magic Mountain still runs Morgan trains. However, if the rumors of it getting a Rocky Mountain makeover are true, those will only be around for another year or two. I might be completely wrong, but I've got a feeling once Gold Striker opens Grizzly's popularity will drop significantly (even though it is more of a family coaster and Gold Striker is more of a thrill ride). I could definitely see Cedar Fair keeping the current trains for a while, and then once it is time to retire the trains they just tear down the ride and put something new in. I doubt new trains would really improve the coaster, and Grizzly just doesn't seem like the right type of ride for a Rocky Mountain treatment.

So Six Flags Mexico has a decent SLC, a decent Boomerang, and the craziest spinner I've seen in addition to a great Morgan and a good CCI? Sounds like Mexico does have some quality coasters that aren't old Schwarzkopfs. And that pregnant lady walk-through? That has to be the strangest attraction I've seen in any of TPR's videos.

Knott's could definitely use a second dark ride. If this project does end up happening, I hope they go with something unique and not just another Boo Blasters ride, but anything to fill the empty space would be nice. I have no idea what will end up happening, but this would be my personal five year plan for the park: 2014: Calico Mine Ride refurbishment & New Soak City attraction 2015: Topper Track makeover of GhostRider (at least replace the rougher sections, but don't change the layout) 2016: New dark ride in the Kingdom of the Dinosaurs building 2017: B&M or Intamin Mega Coaster (not Giga) 2018: Camp Snoopy refurbishment (replace Timberline Twister and add a few new rides where Peanuts Playhouse used to be)

I don't keep track of laps on rides, so I have no idea what I've actually ridden the most. However, I can make a few educated guesses. Coaster: I'm pretty sure it's either Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Jaguar!, GhostRider, or Matterhorn Bobsleds, as I've been going to Disneyland and Knott's frequently for pretty much my entire life. I remember sometimes visiting Knott's when I was younger and riding Jaguar over and over, but I also can't remember the last time I visited and didn't ride GhostRider (unless it was down for refurbishment). It could also be Timberline Twister at Knott's or Freeway Coaster at Adventure City, but I don't remember riding these as much. Water Ride: Almost certainly Timber Mountain Log Ride at Knott's Berry Farm. I've always liked that ride. Other candidates would be Bigfoot Rapids and Splash Mountain, but as I don't remember riding Bigfoot Rapids regularly and was scared of Splash Mountain until I was about 8, I'm pretty sure I rode Timber Mountain Log Ride more. Dark Ride: Something at Disneyland for sure. Probably it's a small world, but it could also be any of the Fantasyland dark rides, Pirates of the Caribbean, or Haunted Mansion.

My personal ranking of the S&S towers I've been on is as follows (key: SS=Space Shot, TD=Turbo Drop, DS=Double Shot, CT=Combo Tower): Sky Screamer at Marineland Theme Park (CT) Scream at Six Flags New England (CT) Dragon's Tower at Castle Amusement Park (DS) Starblaster at Canobie Lake Park (DS) Dragon's Descent at Funtown Splashtown USA (TD) Sasquatch at Great Escape (SS/TD) Downtime at Lake Compounce (TD) Liberty Launch at Holiday World (DS) Supreme Scream at Knott's Berry Farm (TD) Turbo Drop at Buffalo Bill's Resort & Casino (TD) Orbite at La Ronde (SS) Power Tower at Cedar Point (SS/TD) Maliboomer (formerly) at Disney's California Adventure (SS) In general, my order of preference goes Combo Tower, Double Shot, Turbo Drop, Space Shot. However, there are a few exceptions (namely Sasquatch being significantly better than most Space Shots and Liberty Launch being a bit weaker than the other Double Shots). When it comes to S&S towers, height rarely makes a significant difference in my enjoyment of them. I personally prefer the Combo Towers and Double Shots to Intamin towers (Lex Luthor excluded), but would take an equivalent sized Intamin drop tower (2nd or 3rd generation) over any Space Shot or Turbo Drop.

Great to see coverage of parks I haven't seen much of. Six Flags Mexico looks like a pretty good park, and it sounds like Superman could be the best coaster in the country. La Feria looks alright, although it certainly looks like more of a credit run type of park and sounds like it's got some of the worst operations outside of Fuji-Q. I'm really interested to see what the remaining parks on the trip are like, as the Mexico City parks are the only ones I know anything about (other than what's on RCDB).

Coast Rider looks great, and it certainly went up fast. Two weeks ago it was nothing but footers. I'm sure once everything is done this section of the park is going to look really nice. I probably won't be visiting again until mid-April, but it will be interesting to see what the state of construction is at that time. I'm guessing work will have begun on the two flats and they'll be getting ready to begin testing Coast Rider.

I generally prefer theme parks, but that does come with a disclaimer: I would rather visit a high quality theme park than a high quality amusement park, as long as the theme park has a decent selection of attractions. However, I would rather visit an average quality amusement park than an average quality theme park or one that doesn't have enough to occupy a full day. For example, using the Southern California parks, my visit preference would be (independent of price or travel distance): 1. Disneyland 2. Disney California Adventure Park 3. Six Flags Magic Mountain 4. Knott's Berry Farm 5. Universal Studios Hollywood 6. Legoland California 7. SeaWorld San Diego

For steel coasters, my favorites are those that are a hybrid of both out and back and twister elements. If it is a choice between a pure out and back layout and a pure twister layout, however, I'd pick the twister. I generally find a single out and back somewhat boring, but multiple out and back rides can make good layouts. Terrain steel coasters tend to be hit or miss with me. For a small family coaster, I have yet to find something better than a standard wild mouse. For wood coasters, I actually prefer the standard out and back layouts, specifically rides that are just a continuous series of hills (straight layouts are generally better for this than bent ones). Hybrid layouts work well on wooden coasters as well, but I'm not a huge fan of pure twisters for woodies as they tend to get rough the quickest and often aren't as exciting as they appear. Terrain woodies are also great, and they usually give the best night rides.

When it was announced, Iron Rattler became my pick for best new for 2013 coaster. I have yet to see anything that convinces me to change my opinion, even the Outlaw Run videos. Unfortunately, I won't get to ride either this year, so I'll be relying on the reports of others to see if my guess was correct.

Disneyland (and possibly DCA) on Sunday. Only going because my sister wanted to go on her actual birthday. It's going to be packed.

It's tough to say. I do think GateKeeper looks like the better ride in a lot of ways, as it is longer and taller (although not faster) and has a much nicer setting. The coaster also looks like it's got an excellent layout, possibly the best of the three B&Ms at Cedar Point, and it is being built by my favorite steel coaster maunfacturer. However, it is really just a supersized wing coaster, a design which seems to have gotten a lukewarm reception in the enthusiast community despite being a hit with the general public, and on occasion B&M have been known to disappoint (there aren't many, but B&M has built a couple duds). Full Throttle, on the other hand, is a completely unique design that is unlike anything else currently operating at the park. It is also built by my second favorite steel coaster maunfacturer, and I have yet to ride a Premier coaster that disappointed me. The main issues with it are the length, pacing, and sudden ending. While I'm sure the ride will be really good, it does seem more like a proof of concept for the dual-tracked loop with a little added on to make it a legitimate ride. It would have been nice to see the park extend the attraction into a sprawling terrain coaster that dominated the hillside, but unfortunately that isn't what we get (and given that Full Throttle's price tag is probably already $10-15 million, I'm not surprised it isn't larger). Unlike GateKeeper, however, I'll actually be riding Full Throttle this year. When it comes down to it, I guess I'll go with GateKeeper, as I see that as the type of ride that I'd want an ERT session on. Full Throttle seems cool, and I could be totally wrong about it, but as of now I see it as the ride that during an ERT session I'd ride once or twice then go do something else.

Boomerang's new train colors look really good. In fact, the whole refurbishment looks great, and if I didn't know better I'd think it was a new train. Also glad to see that they didn't add the redundant safety belts Cedar Fair seems to have added to every other Arrow/Vekoma in the chain. Coast Rider looks great as well, and it is going up fast. I initially figured vertical construction would take a month or so, but at this rate I could see it being done in just a couple weeks. Perhaps we'll end up having a soft opening of this new area (although given that Knott's is a Cedar Fair park, I highly doubt it).

Since they have finished construction in that area of the park, I'm guessing Superman will be running regularly from now on. Note that it is one of the more operationally inconsistent coasters at the park, however, so it tends to be closed at random with no warning. While the ride is certainly unique, it's not a huge loss if you miss it. Full Throttle's backwards launch is one of those things that I think will be pretty fun, but I wouldn't mind if it was absent. The reality is that the backwards launch probably only adds 10 seconds to the ride time and they could only do maybe one more train per hour without it as the coaster couldn't launch the next train until the previous train reached the station (pretty much like Xcelerator). If the second launch was just a boost, it likely couldn't act as a block as the track doesn't appear long enough to accelerate the train to the required speed without the backwards launch. Besides, having the longer ride time due to the backward launch will hopefully mean no stacking will occur on the ride and the park will be able to get close to the theoretical 800 riders per hour.

^ & ^^ Thanks for the replies. I thought that was still the case, but wanted to double check. I'm thinking I'll probably see what my sister's friends are doing, as if they aren't buying tickets until they get there buying it online won't save me any time and I'll need to visit the ticket booths during the day anyway.

I've got a question for anyone that might know... I'm planning to get an annual pass again (the cheap So Cal Select pass) since my school schedule will now permit regular visits, but due to scheduling I'm going to be visiting on Sunday, March 24th as my sister wants to go on her birthday, which is a day the So Cal Select pass is blocked out. My question is this: Do blockout dates apply on the date of your first visit, and are the rules different depending on whether you buy your pass online or at the resort? I know blockout dates didn't used to apply on the date of your first visit (at least if you bought your pass at the resort), but as I could find no mention of this on the website I wanted to make sure this was still the case. As for the age policy, I think this is a good thing for the resort. On my visits to Knott's, unaccompanied middle schoolers, especially when not part of a school trip, are by far the worst group of park guests I have encountered and a restriction of 14 would keep these groups out. Additionally, theme parks are not a day care service, so hopefully parents will stop using Disneyland as one and there won't be any more late afternoon crowd explosions.

I'm pretty sure the Windseeker evacuation contraption is designed to evacuate the ride within an hour if the ride can't be lowered manually. From videos I've seen, it moves up and down the tower at approximately the same speed as a standard observation tower, so figure about five minutes per trip with four riders per side...8 trips total, about 45 minutes or so. It looks like it folds up for storage and bolts together similar to a carnival ride, so I doubt it would take more than ten minutes to assemble (I'm sure whoever would be in charge of an evacuation would be given proper training in contraption assembly). I guess we'll either have to ask about this at WCB, or see if one of the Windseekers gets stuck before then.

On my desktop (PC), I use Internet Explorer. I've never had any serious problems with it and I'm just so used to it that I don't see a need to learn a new browser. I have Google Chrome installed for the rare occasion that a site doesn't work properly in Internet Explorer or doesn't have an English version available, but it rarely gets used and I actually have more problems with it than I do with Internet Explorer. On my laptop (Mac), as well as my iTouch, I use Safari. It works well enough that I've never felt the need to install an additional browser.

For inversion elements, any multiplied element (double corkscrew, double in-line twist, etc) and sidewinders (including any element that incorporates a sidewinder). I've found that the multiplied elements tend to be the only ones that make me dizzy (although the effect is short lasting and usually goes away once the ride ends), and sidewinders tend to produce the most headbanging due to the abrupt transition from a loop to a corkscrew. For non-inversion elements, my least favorite is a helix because I find them boring and slightly dizzying as well.

It's funny how the general consensus seems to have gone from "most disappointing coaster of 2013" to "this actually looks decent" once the ride started coming together. Yes, it's short, but plenty of highly rated launch coasters have track lengths less than 3000 ft. No, I don't think it will be the best coaster at SFMM, but in my experience Premier has yet to disappoint and I don't see this being the ride to do it. The new themed area, however, is a different story. I have to wonder if this will have any appeal given the crowd that typically visits SFMM. I could see it going over well, but I could also see it being completely ignored. Either way, I think it's a bit of a stretch to call one ride, a shop, and a couple of food stands a themed area, but then again that's all Rapids Camp Crossing is.

I've been on three Dinn Corporation coasters, and Predator is the best of the three. That being said, Predator is still just an okay ride (I wouldn't wait more than a couple trains for it), but it is better than Mean Streak and much better than Psyclone was. If you count any coaster that Summers or Dinn worked on, then it would be Mighty Canadian Minebuster (which I think is a decent coaster).

Some rides may be a tight fit, but the only two I know of that have a maximum are Riptide and Xcelerator. I'm pretty sure Riptide's is 76" like others are saying. Xcelerator doesn't have a strict maximum height restriction, but it does have a rule that your neck cannot exceed the top of the headrest. I'd recommend trying the test seat, and if you can reach around and touch the base of your skull above the headrest you might have an issue. Other than that, as long as the restraint locks you should be able to ride just about everything else outside of Camp Snoopy.

Yellow/orange and white should look pretty good with what's already there. I'm guessing we'll see Coast Rider go vertical and the foundations poured for the flats within the next week or so. This area is going to look really nice when it opens in 2 1/2 months, and will liven up the dullest section of the park. Now all we need is an Xcelerator repaint.

1. Based on my recent rides on GhostRider, it's running good but not great. I'd say if the wait is 15 minutes or less, go for it, and if it is longer come back once you've done the other major attractions. I'd also recommend waiting for the front seat if the line is only a train or two longer as that is the best seat on the ride (in my opinion). 2. As long as you don't go into areas you're not supposed to be in or take your camera on rides where it is forbidden you're not breaking any park rules. There are viewing windows in the fence and there aren't any "no photography" signs around, so it's not like they're trying to keep it a secret. 3. Some colleges begin spring break next week, but most schools are the two weeks after (the week before and after Easter). It might be a little more crowded than usual, but it probably won't be packed. I'd plan for 15-30 minute waits for the major attractions (especially if one train is running), and less on other rides. It's unlikely the park would be more crowded than that, and there's a decent chance it will be less. 4. I don't care for Dippin' Dots so I've never spoken to the Dippin' Dots guy. Perhaps you could report back to us. Ricochet is listed as 960 riders per hour on RCDB, so I'd assume Coast Rider will have a similar theoretical capacity. As for actual capacity, finding it for a wild mouse is easy: hourly capacity=(3600/dispatch interval (seconds)) x 4. For example, if the ride has a 20 second dispatch interval (probably pretty accurate for a wild mouse), the hourly capacity would be (3600/20) x 4, or 720 riders per hour.

Xcelerator at Knott's Berry Farm last Thursday. Still the best roller coaster at Knott's.