rcdude

2

These are easy to make so I did a few (not sure how they are since I've never done these before).

It's definitely possible to get bored at an amusement park. There are a number of factors, such as park size, attraction variety, stamina, etc. that determine how long is an appropriate time to spend at a park. I've found that the following tend to be about right for me: Major Parks (Six Flags parks, Cedar Fair parks, Busch Gardens, etc.): 6 hours to a full day Mid-size Parks (Lake Compouce, Great Escape, Darien Lake, and similar sized parks): 4-6 hours (mainly attraction dependent) Small Parks (Funtown Splashtown, Canobie Lake, Waldameer, Martin's Fantasy Island, and similar): 2-6 hours (mainly size dependent) Credit Stops (Quassy, Palace Playland, and other tiny parks like that): An hour Theme Park Resorts (WDW, etc.): 2-5 days depending on number and size of parks Local Parks (the Southern California parks): Depends on park and visit frequency, but between 4 hours and a full day Personally, I couldn't see ever spending more than 5 days at any one resort or more than two days at any single park. In fact, of all the parks I've visited, only Disneyland and Cedar Point are places where I think multiple days would be necessary (or one day per park in the case of Disneyland Paris). I've also found that the number of coasters a park has is not a significant factor in how long I want to spend there, but more the overall quality of rides. If the park has a dozen coasters but everything else is a generic carnival ride, I'm likely to spend less time there than at a park with one coaster and a bunch of unique non-coaster rides. Finally, the above apply to parks that are visited at most once per year, or four times per year for local parks. The more frequently I visit a park, the less time I'm willing to spend there (example...I visit Knott's on average about once per month and I haven't felt like spending a full day there in three years...even during WCB).

My prediction ended up being correct. It was Sierra Sidewinder at Knott's Berry Farm around 12:30 P.M. on Thursday, Jaunary 17th.

I don't hate Six Flags, but it is probably my least favorite of the major chains. I've been to SFMM, SFDK, SFStL, SFNE, SFGAdv, La Ronde, and Great Escape, mostly within the past couple years (SFDK is the only one it's been more than three years since my last visit), and I've found the following to be some of the major issues with the chain: -Lack of variety: This is not an issue with all of their parks, but it is with many. Few of the parks offer a complete selection of attractions. For example, SFMM and SFGAdv have very little to do other than roller coasters, which I enjoy but don't want to spend all day riding. SFStL has a good selection of non-coaster rides, but none of their coasters are particularly great (American Thunder, Batman, and Mr. Freeze are good but not great and I found the rest to be underwhelming compared to others of their type). SFNE and SFDK are good examples of balanced Six Flags parks. -Operational Inconsistencies: Most of the parks in the chain have significant operational issues, either due to slow employees in general or other things (such as running one train on coasters). I've experienced subpar operations at Great Escape, SFMM, SFDK, and especially La Ronde, with all parks exceeding two minute dispatch times on coasters. It also isn't consistent across the parks (for example, SFMM often dispatches trains on Goliath within 60 seconds and X2 before the countdown clock runs out, but Tatsu can take up to 4 minutes), and I've seem some oddities as well (at SFDK, Medusa's second train would stack behind the first before the loading gates have even opened except when Flash Pass users were riding, in which case the train would be dispatched with no stacking whatsoever). The only park in the Six Flags chain that I've seen great operations at was SFGAdv, and if they can run all their rides with maximum trains and minimal stacking why can't other parks with similar/identical rides do the same? -Price Gouging: Six Flags parks often have the cheapest admission prices of any major parks, but everything else is a total ripoff. On my last visit to SFMM, we paid $17 for parking and $32 for lunch for two people. $17 for parking is higher than any other major park in Southern California, even ones with a parking garage, yet SFMM just has a standard lot that is in decent but not great shape. I've also heard they're on the low end as far as the chain is concerned. $32 for two people for lunch is just too much, and as I put on the SFMM survey I filled out after my last visit, "$32 for two people is just way too much to charge for a fast food quality meal." -Platinum Flash Pass: I like the Flash Pass system as well as other skip the line systems provided they are fair. Allowing people to remain in their seats for two consecutive rides forces those behind them to wait longer and can throw off groups riding together and is definitely not fair to others. I'm not the only one, as I've heard other guests complain verbally to ride operators, especially when the double ride occurs in a high demand seat. I'd rather this pass be an instant access pass than a double ride pass. -Advertisements: Six Flags puts way too many advertisements all over their parks. Billboards and signs? Those are fine. Commercials over the PA system? Okay. Painting the ground/stairs as a giant advertisement? I guess. Commercials in line for rides? We're getting over the top now. Wrapping ride vehicles so El Toro looks like a giant packet of gum rocketing over those airtime hills? Now you've gone too far. -General Niceness: Not all of the parks are like this, but I've noticed that in general Six Flags parks seem to be more trashy and ill-maintained than other major parks. If I walk into a park in the morning and see trash on the ground, it's not going to leave a very good impression. When the paint is peeling on buildings, lights are out, weeds grow through cracks in pathways, and signs are faded, you also have to wonder if the park cuts corners on more essential maintenance as well. Now, I am not a Six Flags hater and I still visit the parks regularly (I get a pass to SFMM every other year and visit it several times per season), the parks have major issues that render them the worst major parks in the industry. If I'm looking for a coaster fix, Six Flags is the place to go, but otherwise I generally enjoy visiting other parks more.

I was at the park yesterday and the ride was just as inert as it was on my previous visit in November. Nothing appears to have changed and no work being done. Perhaps it will be reopening soon, but I also wouldn't be surprised if they just removed it from the site list because they have no idea when it will reopen.

I honestly think Six Flags purchasing SeaWorld has only three reasonably likely outcomes: 1. The parks all become something like Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, where there is an animal component but the focus is still on thrill rides. 2. Six Flags opts to remove the animal attractions, rebrands the parks, and invests heavily in new rides for them, either oversaturating the thrill park market in that region (mainly in California and Texas), or creating an new market that attracts a different crowd from the other attractions in the area (mainly in Florida). 3. Six Flags goes bankrupt again as a result of the purchase and has to sell off some of their properties and/or undergo another corporate overhaul. I don't think it is possible to Six Flags to purchase the SeaWorld parks and keep them running as they are now, and I also don't think it is possible for them to avoid shifting the focus of the parks toward thrill rides, as that is what the chain does best. I do think Six Flags would probably be a better choice than Apollo, but both of them sound like they would likely end badly for all parties involved. Of the major theme park chains, I think Merlin would probably be the best fit for SeaWorld, but I'd rather the chain go public than be sold to anyone who's not going to maintain the current level of quality.

Raven Turns are unique to the Arrow/S&S 4D coasters. While they are pretty much just a half loop, the experience you get going through them is very different due to the seat rotation. Space Mountain: Mission 2's uphill launch is also unique. There are a few other coasters that have uphill launches, but all use different technologies. In addition, this ride is the only coaster to have a Tongue inversion, although I think it's just a slightly modified cutback (at least that's what it felt like).

It would absolutely be a good event to attend as part of your first visit. With the likely low crowds in September and the amount of ERT the event typically has, you'll have no problem getting on all the major rides at either park, even without a Flash Pass/Fast Lane. I've made my first visit to several other parks as part of a TPR bash event, and at each one I think I probably rode more than I would have just visiting on my own, and at no point did I feel like I wouldn't finish everything I wanted to do. If you're really concerned about rides, you can always buy a skip the line pass or skip any part of the event that doesn't interest you (I've skipped a couple photo walkbacks in the past, for example), but there shouldn't be any issues in September.

All lists are in no particular order. Will Definitely See in Theaters: Iron Man 3 Star Trek Into Darkness The Wolverine Thor: The Dark World The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (probably my most anticipated if I had to pick one) Might See in Theaters, will likely see on DVD: A Good Day to Die Hard Oz the Great and Powerful Jurassic Park 3D (this one would be theaters only as I've seen it already) The Great Gatsby Man of Steel Monsters University Despicable Me 2 (most likely DVD) Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (most likely will see this in theaters) No Interest at All: Top Gun 3D Scary Movie 5 The Hangover Part III The Lone Ranger The Smurfs 2 300: Rise of an Empire Planes Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones 3D Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith 3D Anchorman: The Legend Continues

Given that both Knott's and SFMM have major new additions opening this year and nothing had been announced about the event, I figured something like this would happen. Much better timing than last year's February event for me (I'm still off school in early September), and since it's not a holiday weekend crowds should be low. It also helps that SFMM will probably close around 6 P.M. so even with night ERT and an early morning at Knott's it will be possible to get a good night's sleep. Unless something significant happens, I'm planning to attend for both days of the event once again. For anyone planning to attend from out of state and considering extending their visit into a mini-trip, I can tell you that this is one of the best times to visit So Cal's parks because schools are back in session, making weekday crowds non-existant, but it will still be good weather-wise and most parks won't have started their off-season maintenance yet.

It's always interesting to see how rides change from year to year, even if the majority of changes are small. I also like to compare each year's rankings with my personal rankings to see which rides I like significantly better than the majority of enthusiasts. This year the results are pretty close, with Wooden Warrior being the only highly ranked coaster I've been on that isn't in my top ten (although I've always felt that particularly ride to be overrated by enthusiasts). If you count only the coasters I've been on, the only other ones that were more than five spots off my personal rankings are Cedar Point's Blue Streak (I rank that one a bit lower), Kings Dominion's Grizzly, Mighty Canadian Minebuster, and Thunder Road (all of which I rank a bit higher). Finally, I've been on 5 of the top twenty and 2 of the bottom ten. Glad to see El Toro win again, as well as the high placement of some very out of the way woodies. This poll gives every ride a fair chance at getting a good ranking, even if only a relatively small number of voters have experienced it. That's why it's the best and most accurate coaster poll out there. Hopefully the steel poll is available soon, as I'm quite interested to see where some of the new steel coasters of the past couple years end up.

I learned how to ski about 15 years ago and almost every season since then I've gone for at least a couple days. In recent years, my dad and I have often done one long trip per season, one or two weekend trips, and depending on snow conditions a handful of days at the local ski areas. I generally ski blue runs and groomed black runs, and enjoy skiing in a majority of conditions. So far, I've been to every major ski area in California and Utah, as well as the six Southern California ski areas (Bear Mountain Resort, Mountain High Resort, Mt. Baldy, Mt. Waterman Ski Area, Snow Summit Mountain Resort, and Snow Valley Ski Resort), Las Vegas Ski and Snowboard Resort, Brian Head Resort, Eagle Point Ski Area, and Sundance Resort. For this year's big ski trip, we spent a week in Utah from December 30th to Jaunary 5th. During this time, we skied six days at six different ski areas (Powder Mountain, Snowbasin, Canyons Resort, Park City Mountain Resort, Snowbird Ski and Summer Resort, and Eagle Point Ski Area). It was a great trip, tiring but much better conditions than our previous Utah trips. I plan to post a trip report in the near future of our trip (probably the week after next).

If I were to guess at a timeline, I'd guess that the park will keep Colossus open through the end of Fright Fest and promote "last time ever" for backwards Colossus like crazy. They would then either close the ride right after, or run it through winter break before closing it. Given the size of the attraction, I'm thinking it will take 12-16 months to rebuild, so I wouldn't expect the refurbishment to be complete until Spring/Summer 2015. With Full Throttle opening this year, I wouldn't be surprised if the park gets little to nothing for 2014. Perhaps Hurricane Harbor could finally get a major new attraction next year instead.

I'm still undecided on whether I like or dislike the idea of Colossus receiving the Rocky Mountain treatment. On one hand, the coaster is a classic even though it is only a shadow of its former self, but on the other, the ride is definitely in the lower half of the park's coasters (I rank it 12th out of 17) and this upgrade could make it one of their best. If the Rocky Mountain treatment does happen, I'd like to see the following: -Double out and back layout with two similar independent racing (not dueling) tracks -Similar length, height, and first drop statistics (although the drop can be steeper) -No inversions added -Two trains per track run regularly -Both tracks raced except during low season -At least the same amount of airtime the coaster originally had, if not more One other thing that I think would be somewhat neat (although very unlikely) would be if one track used Iron Horse track and the other used Topper track. Then it would give riders the opportunity to try both styles back to back, an opportunity I doubt will ever be available elsewhere.

I saw The Guilt Trip last week while on a ski trip to Utah. It was entertaining and better than I expected it to be, but it's still a fairly generic comedy movie. I'd say it's worthy of a DVD rental and was certainly better than sitting in a hotel room all night, but I wouldn't pay to see it in a theater unless you really have nothing better to do (we were going to see This is 40, but didn't want to wait around for an hour due to a later start time).

It will almost certainly be something at Knott's Berry Farm since I'll be going next week to get my 2013 pass processed. Knowing my usual habits, it will most likely end up being Sierra Sidewinder.

Perfect score! On almost every question, I knew at least one for sure so I was able to identify the park. I think I might spend a little too much time on RCDB.

I would say my top three manufacturers are as follows. 1. Bolliger & Mabillard: I have yet to ride a bad B&M, and all but one are rides I'd wait at least fifteen minutes for (even the stand-ups). To me, their designs are not necessarily the most intense or the most innovative, but they are just pure fun, and that is what I look for in a coaster. As far as I'm concerned, if it's a ride that I'll enjoy just as much after an hour of ERT as I did on my first ride, it's a good coaster. 2. Premier Rides: The main reason this isn't my favorite manufacturer is because while all their coasters are good, none of them are outstanding. My favorite Premier coaster is Mr. Freeze, but it's still a ride I'd only ride once or twice during a visit and I wouldn't invest more than an hour for it. 3. Intamin AG: I generally like Intamin's coasters, and I acknowlege that they have the most innovative and most intense rides in the industry. However, the two reasons they are ranked third are that their rides tend to be tempermental and I just don't care for some of their designs at all. My favorite coaster is an Intamin, but there are also some Intamin's that I wouldn't mind never riding again (namely their Swiss Bobs and smaller coasters, as well as La Ronde's Cobra). A vast majority of their coasters that don't fall into this category, however, place somewhere in my top fifty.

Knott's Berry Farm sometime in January. I've got a feeling I'll be visiting it a lot over the next few months since I've got an 8 hour gap between classes one day per week and it's only a half-hour away from school (and I no longer have a Disneyland pass so that option is out).

This year was really good. Probably the best in the past three. -2 Video Games: Pokemon Black 2 and Lego Lord of the Rings -2 DVDs: Roller Coasters in the RAW 7 and The Dark Knight (need to exchange this for Dark Knight Rises as I already have it) -3 Books: Coasters 101: An Engineer's Guide to Roller Coaster Design by Nick Weisenberger, Theme Park Design: Behind the Scenes with an Engineer by Steve Alcorn, and Holiday with a Vampire 4 by Susan Krinard (this one was a joke gift) -5 Movie Scores: The Amazing Spider-Man, The Bourne Legacy, Skyfall, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn-Part 2, and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey -Skiing Gear: New gloves, goggles, and ski socks, a balaclava, and a glove warmer -2013 Knott's Berry Farm Season Pass -Techvac keyboard duster -Digital coin bank -Sorry! Revenge card game -Toy Weapons: NERF Revolver and plastic grenade (joke gifts) -$645 in cash -Candy: 1 giant Santa, two marshmallow trees, a Bordeaux treat (all this from See's), 2 York Peppermint Patties, a king size Sarburst, a king size Skittles, a canister of Life Savers, and a small box of Hershey's Kisses. This includes everything from my mother, father, both sets of grandparents, and my siblings. For the record, the DVDs, Video Games, and Movie Scores were on my list (along with money in general), and everything else was a surprise. Also somewhat amusing is that due to a running joke my mom and siblings have (they like to address presents using various historical and fictional people to hint at what is inside), I recieved gifts from Abe Lincoln, Bilbo, Cheren, Edward Cullen, Helen Keller, Katniss Everdeen, Ronald Reagan, and Sad-Eye Joe.

That looks like the same snow tubing place I visited last year. To date, that's the best place I've been snow tubing, partly because the chutes are long and partly because they were fast (it helped that I went at night and everything was covered in a thin layer of ice). Only downside is taking two lifts to get to the top. It appears that you're having a great time on the homemade backyard snowcoaster. It's nice to see plenty of snow on the ground since I'm leaving for a ski trip to Utah on Sunday. Fortunately, this trip won't have poor conditions like last year's did. Enjoy your trip and I'll keep watching for updates.

List A: Busch Gardens Williamsburg Disneyland Dollywood Holiday World List B: Cedar Point Kings Dominion Six Flags Magic Mountain Six Flags New England Combine any two of the list A parks and you'll get one of the country's top theme parks, as all four of these are already highly regarded. Combine any list A park with any list B park and you'll get a good mix of themed attractions and thrill rides, as well as a diverse attraction set that will appeal to all members of the family. Combine any two list B parks and you get the ultimate thrill park, but you'll still have the flaws that generally come with coaster parks.

I consider Raptor to be the fourth best coaster at Cedar Point (after Maverick, Top Thrill Dragster, and Millennium Force), and at the time I rode it I thought it was by far the best inverted coaster. However, since I hadn't been to any other parks outside of California at that time, I didn't have much to compare it to. Now, I think of Raptor like this: If I were to split the B&M Inverted Coasters into three groups, Raptor would be the worst coaster in the top group. I'd probably place it third after Afterburn and Alpengeist, with Silver Bullet, the Batman clones, and Flight Deck falling below it. It's a great ride and a must ride when visiting Cedar Point, and it would be the best coaster at many other parks. It's just not as good as the custom Inverted Coasters of the mid to late 90s.

Yes. When almost everything is a two train wait at most (unless you want the front or back seat), and most of the rides were sending out empty rows, it seems like a poor business decision to run two trains as they're not necessary and it will only mean maintenance is required sooner. On Tatsu, they had the second train ready to go so once the demand for it arrived, they just sent a couple test cycles and began loading it, then just parked it once it was no longer necessary (interestingly, I heard people saying that they preferred one train on Tatsu even if the line is longer since you're not left hanging on the brakes...sounds like it's not just enthusiasts who hate Tatsu's operations). The only thing that I don't quite get is why both trains were being run on Batman, but only one was being loaded. I've seen this at Knott's as well, and to me it doesn't make sense to run a train and not load it (although I'm sure there's some reason for it that isn't apparent). For the type of day the park had, they were running well enough (although as usual the employees could be more efficient on some of their rides...namely Tatsu and Scream). If there were 20+ minute waits for everything due to one train operations, then it would be a problem, but on a low crowd day running only a single train on all but the most popular rides is something I find perfectly acceptable.