rcdude

Unfortunately, as this was the first year I got a chance to visit Busch Gardens Williamsburg, I never got a chance to ride Big Bad Wolf. I have been on both Ninja and Iron Dragon, so I have a general idea for the feel of a suspended roller coaster. Based on those rides and the videos I've seen of Big Bad Wolf, it looks like the type of ride that I would probably ride once and then not bother with again unless it had a 15 minute wait or less. It looks like a good ride, but nothing special. As for the replacement coaster, if it is anything like Cheetah Hunt I'll definitely be looking forward to it next time I visit the park. I don't mind rides being torn down when an equal or better ride replaces it, and any custom multi-launch coaster will probably be better than an old Arrow suspended coaster. I just hope that if the new launch coaster is not family friendly, the next one will be, as that is one type of coaster BGW currently lacks.

1. First TPR Trip (IntimidaTour) 2. Both Intimidators 3. Finally getting to visit Busch Gardens Williamsburg and Dollywood 4. West Coast Bash 5. SFMM 2011 Announcement

I don't have too many, but here are a few (in no particular order). 1. The lack of any major new attraction at any park in California. Okay, Legoland California got a waterpark, but as that is an upcharge that doesn't count. Disney, Knott's, Universal, SeaWorld, Magic Mountain, Nor Cal...nothing. 2. Not being able to ride Nighthawk when I visited Carowinds as I hardly remember my ride on it from when it was Stealth. It was due to a breakdown and I knew it wouldn't be running, but still...I would like to have rode it again. 3. Kings Dominion's Grizzly. I had heard it was a good ride but after riding it once I decided it was the worst wooden coaster I've been on. Maybe I need to try it in a non-wheel seat. 4. The loss of some of the best people in the industry, most notably Jay Thomas at SFMM and Will Koch at Holiday World. Additionally, the confirmation that Dick Kinzel will be head of Cedar Fair for another year. 5. Finally, Six Flags is getting a number of different rides at its various parks, but all Cedar Fair parks are getting the same ride, nothing but kids rides, or nothing at all.

I've never had a problem with this policy, but that's probably because I never bring in objects that I can't fit in my pockets and have therefore never needed to rent one of these. When I visited SFDK with my aunt, however, she stuck her backpack in one, and we just left it there while we did everything in the area rather than retrieving it and moving it to a different ride. If you max out the time you get with a dollar, you could get through the whole day using these lockers for less than it costs to rent an all-day locker. You only have the slight inconvenience of some extra backtracking. If they don't make these mandatory anymore, a lot of people will probably be happy, but there will also be a lot of unhappy people due to a slower loading cycle. I don't really mind the bins in the station as long as it doesn't lead to excessive stacking and they have attentative ride operators who can stop people from sneaking in an extra ride. I also hope that people will have enough sense to only send one member of their party to the bins as opposed to all four of them going.

Now that the year is pretty much over, here are my final totals: California (local parks): Boomers Fountain Valley-2 visits (February and July) (note: this is a family entertainment center) Six Flags Magic Mountain-2 visits (March and July) Knott's Berry Farm-6 visits (March, May, July, August, November, and December) (note: visit number is due to having a season pass) Boomers Irvine-2 visits (March and November) (note: this is a family entertainment center) Knott's Soak City USA Buena Park-1 visit (June) (note: this is a waterpark) Raging Waters San Dimas-1 visit (July) (note: this is a waterpark) Disneyland Resort-1 visit (November) (note: both parks on one day) IntimidaTour: Carowinds Dollywood Ober Gatlinburg (ski area) NASCAR SpeedPark (family entertainment center) Go-Karts Plus (family entertainment center) Busch Gardens Williamsburg Kings Dominion Planned, but cancelled: Universal Studios Hollywood

I don't know if there are any parks that do this, but here is what I think would be a good system for people that can't wait in the regular line. First, the party needs to get a pass from guest relations or some other general information center that clearly states the number of people in the party and the reason why someone in the party is unable to wait in line. When they get to the ride, a member of the party goes to either the greeter or (if there is no greeter) goes up the exit and gets a pass from one of the operators. This pass has a return time that is roughly equivalent to the current wait in line. When this time is reached, the party goes up the exit to the station. The disabled person and one or two helpers wait to one side of the station while the remainder of the party goes across and merges in at the row selection point of the line. When they board the train, the disabled person and their helper(s) enter and board on the same train in the available seats in selected rows. In the event that a party only has one or two members, they just tell the operator what row they want and after the appropriate number of cycles the operator blocks that row and allows them to board.

^Night ERT was two hours last year, and every coaster in the park except Deja Vu (breakdown) and Ninja (scheduled maintenance) was operating. In addition, they were running both tracks on Colossus and were racing the trains. I would assume that this year will be pretty similar, although the park has tried to improve it each year so we'll have to wait (most likely until the day of the event) to find out for sure.

For me, it depends on the ride. If it is an attraction that I will likely be going on in the near future, or that I will never or most likely not get a chance to ride (such as a past coaster or random coaster in the middle of nowhere) I like to see a POV just so I can know what to prepare for and/or get excited about the ride, or find out what I missed. However, if it is a ride I could potentially get to, but won't likely get to for some time, I won't watch a POV as it will just make me want to ride the attraction in real life.

In my experience, Knott's is very rarely crowded enough to the point where a front of the line pass is necessary. With the exception of rides running one train, Sierra Sidewinder, and Pony Express, I've rarely seen more than a half-hour wait for anything in the park except on a summer weekend or holiday period. If the pass doesn't include Xcelerator it's value drops, and if it is only good for one ride each it loses value as well. Given how few rides actually get long lines at Knott's, I think it would be better for them to go with a ticket approach. For $5, you get a ticket that lets you skip the line on any one attraction from a list (say GhostRider, Silver Bullet, Xcelerator, Supreme Scream, Perilous Plunge, Montezooma's Revenge, Sierra Sidewinder, Pony Express, Boomerang, or the Log Ride). This way, people could decide how many tickets they want to buy and use them in whatever way they wanted.

Awesome. I'll definitely be at the SFMM day this year. Not sure about KBF yet since I'll have a class I likely can't miss on Monday morning, but depending on what's offered this year I may just do that day as well.

This looks like a great coaster for a smaller park. The only Eurofighrer I've been on is Mystery Mine, and while this looks very different it also looks like a good ride. Purely as a coaster, it is probably a better ride, so I can't wait to try it next year.

From what I've heard at several different places, Green Lantern will open Memorial Day weekend. I have also heard that Superman will be ready by Spring Break. I don't know if it is true or not, but the expected date one site gave (can't remember which unfortunately) was the weekend WCB will most likely be on, so if that ends up being true that will be a real treat. If you want to ride Superman and don't mind dealing with crowds, your best shot would probably be last week of March or first week of April. If you want to ride Green Lantern, you are best off waiting until Summer. Little Flash, if you care, is supposed to open early May. This makes me think first weekend of May, but I don't know for sure.

Having visited Universal Studios Hollywood a couple times in the summer, both on weekdays and weekends, I would say that you don't need it unless you are going on a Saturday. The park only has four or five rides, and everything else is a show. In my experience, none of the lines have ever exceeded 45 minutes, and as long as you get to a show before they start letting people in (most important for Terminator and Waterworld) you'll be able to get seats, so you should be okay without it as long as you have a full day, or at least three quarters of a full day.

I figured this would happen eventually. Other than having to get used to new names for rides, I don't think the removal of the ride licenses will have much of an impact. The theming is generally minimal, and in the case of a ride like Terminator it will actually be a good thing as the preshows probably cut the actual capacity down to around two-thirds of the theoretical capacity. The food licenses...I'm not so sure how that will end up. Like a lot of people are saying, Six Flags had some pretty horrible food before they were brought in. Hopefully the loss of brand names doesn't equal a decrease in quality.

It is great that this sale was extended through the weekend as I was busy all day on Black Friday. I ordered Roller Coasters in the Raw 5 and Coaster Expedition 14, and can't wait to add these DVDs (which I know will be outstanding) to my collection. It also gave me a chance to use the Club TPR DVD coupon as I already have all the previous volumes of each series.

I'm gonna have to say the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk Giant Dipper. That ride has a decent amount of airtime, is very smooth for a wooden coaster, and has one of, if not the best, tunnels on any ride I've been on.

My opinion may change in the future (especially if I ride Texas Giant), but I don't think there are a lot of wooden coasters that would benefit hugely from this. Regardless of what a park may claim, replacing all the track with steel makes it a steel coaster. It is no longer comparable to wood coasters because it will give a different ride. Even if you compare only similar designs, how many steel out-and-backs feel the same as a wood out-and-back? The only rides that I think could benefit from this are rides that were once great but are now either so rough that they are unrideable or have been trimmed to death to keep from tearing themselves apart. A ride like Mean Streak, which has never ranked in the top 25 in a poll such as the Mitch Hawker poll, is probably a bad choice because it was never too highly rated compared to wooden coasters and likely won't fare as well agains steel rides. GhostRider, which is a name that seems to appear a lot in this thread, at one point ranked among the top ten wooden coasters in the world. This means it is a good ride that has deteriorated and could likely be revived with this conversion. In fact, this is my short list of rides that could probably benefit from this (based mostly on what I have heard, as I haven't been on many of these. The ones I have been on are marked with an asterisk). The more pressing the need is, the further down the list it is: The Beast at Kings Island GhostRider at Knott's Berry Farm* Wild One at Six Flags America Wildcat at Hersheypark Blue Streak at Cedar Point* The Grizzly & Hurler at Kings Dominion* Georgia Cyclone at Six Flags Over Georgia Cheetah at Wild Adventures Stampida at PortAventura Timber Wolf at Worlds of Fun

Thanks for all the advice. Despite the general consensus that the parks would be packed, my cousins insisted on going so we went anyway. We went to both parks. I found it to be empty for about the first two and a half hours, then very crowded between 11 and 9, and empty again after the fireworks ended. Managed to do 25 rides including all the majors except Grizzly River Run (broke down, but it was cold anyway), a handful of minors (Small World, a couple Fantasyland dark rides, Autopia, and a lap on the Disneyland Railroad), Captain EO (which I hadn't seen before...it was weird), and saw Murphy the Fantasmic Dragon for the first time. Longest line was about an hour and a half for Toy Story Midway Mania, and used fastpass on Indiana Jones, California Screamin', and Soarin'. Rode Indiana Jones, Haunted Mansion, Splash Mountain, Space Mountain, and Buzz Lightyear twice, everything else we did once. Overall, a really good day given the crowds. Based on my experience, if there is anyone out there considering going on this particular day in the future, I would say you should go if you are willing to spend the whole day there or go early, leave around noon, and come back around eight. If you are only able to come in the middle of the day, or have less than 8 hours, stay away.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 Saw this tonight and I thought it was very good. Not only is it a good movie, but it is also a very accurate adaptation as well. From the beginning, it is obvious that this is going to be a very different experience from the previous installments, and it is so different someone who doesn't know better probably wouldn't realize it was a Harry Potter movie. Best movie of the series? Most likely. Best movie of the year? I don't think so, but I'd say it is in the top five and would recommend it for anyone who is familiar with the series. If you aren't, about half of it won't make much sense. Rating: 8.5/10

Today, I recieved a call from some relatives who are going to be visiting me over Thanksgiving. Knowing that I am the most knowledgeable one in the family about theme parks, they asked if it would be a good idea to go to Disneyland on the day after Thanksgiving since that is the only day they would be able to go and it has been quite some time since they last visited the park (I don't remeber how long, but between 2 and 5 years). I told them the following: 1. It is Black Friday, so there will probably be people everywhere. Since I have never gone to a theme park on Black Friday before, I don't know whether or not it affects crowd levels and if so, in what way. 2. Three of the four AP levels are blocked out for this day, so it is unlikely that the park will be flooded with AP holders as it is on many Fridays. 3. All schools that I know of in this area have that day off school, so it may increase crowds. I told them that, by my best guess, it would probably be about the same crowd level as a normal weekend: crowded, but bearable. I told them that the park is open from 8 A.M. until 12 P.M., and that if they went for the entire time they would definitely be able to do everything major. However, they aren't sure if they want to go for more than twelve hours, or whether or not they'll go to both parks. My question is this: Is my prediction accurate, slightly off, or way off, based on experience at other parks open on Black Friday, and if it is incorrect, how crowded or empty is the park usually on this day? Also, is it feasible to do both parks in one day, or should we stick with one?

Where I live, I don't have to deal with the off-season. Unfortunately, I have to deal with something else...school. With the exception of my family's annual trip to Knott's for Veteran's Day (which is tomorrow this year ) a park over winter break, and WCB, I really don't spend much time at parks between September and April. More often than not, I choose to do something else in the winter anyway. I can visit a park any time of the year, but I can only go skiing in the winter, so that is what I do instead. During the typical off-season, my days skiing is usually at least twice the number of days I spend in parks, and is sometimes as high as three to four times that amount. Example: during last year's off-season, I spent five days at actual amusement parks (two visits each to Knott's and SFMM, plus one to the Disneyland Resort). During that same time, I spent at least ten-twelve days skiing. I also do all the typical enthusiast stuff (play RCT, watch TPR videos, track new rides, plan trips, etc.).

The first roller coaster video I remember watching was an old children's video called "There Goes a Roller Coaster." This video showcased the eight roller coasters Six Flags Magic Mountain had at the time (Colossus, Gold Rusher, Flashback, Revolution, Psyclone, Ninja, Viper, and Batman the Ride). The whole reason I started watching this was because I wanted to see what rides I could look forward to when I visited Six Flags Magic Mountain for the first time (which was around two to three years after I first got this video). I also used to enjoy a couple videos from the "America's Greatest Roller Coaster Thrills" series, although I found them to overall be fairly uninteresting. Up until about 2004 or so, I used to watch an annual three-hour program the Discovery Channel did on roller coasters. Every year, the program was similar: there was always a show about the top ten coasters in the US, as well as a show about the latest innovations in the amusement industry, and finally a third feature that varied every year and always seemed to be California based. One year, it was a show about the construction of Goliath. Another year, a group of enthusiasts decided to ride over 30 coasters in 24 hours, and visited Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, California's Great America (Paramount's at the time), Six Flags Discovery Kingdom (Marine World at the time), Scandia Amusement Park, Boomers Family Fun Center (which used to have a coaster), Adventure City, Knott's Berry Farm, and Six Flags Magic Mountain. They ended up getting 38 or 39 coasters by counting each track of Superman The Escape and Colossus separately, plus getting on all the kids coasters that don't usually allow adults to ride. The other special show I remember well was a competition at Six Flags Magic Mountain which features five teams of two attempting challenges on the park's rides. If I remember correctly, they were: 1. Do as many flips on the trampoline as possible, 2. Drop water balloons onto targets while on Dive Devil, 3. Ride Spin Out for three cycles straight, then walk across a balance beam without falling, 4. Keep a ball in a cup while on X, 5. Get as many passes as possible with a soccer ball during one ride on Superman The Escape, 6. Eat a three course meal then ride Goliath without getting sick for as long as you can. I liked these shows at the time, but now, when I look back on them, they don't seem all that great. Recently, I've watched the vacation videos Disney World makes, as well as the various TV shows put out by different channels. However, ever since I started watching the TPR DVDs about three years ago I really haven't gotten much enjoyment out of any other amusement park related show or video.

I have been on a total of two Dinn corporation coasters. Mean Streak at Cedar Point-I thought this ride was okay. Not good or bad, but very in the middle. I may have just gotten lucky, but I didn't find it to be rough at all. Granted, I only rode once and in the front row of the second car, so that may have had an effect on it. My problem with the ride is that it wasn't a very exciting or intense coaster, and the entire ride was killed by the trim on the first drop and the heavy midcourse brakes. I'd like to try this again next time I go to the park to see if I can see why everyone says the ride is horribly rough. Psyclone at Six Flags Magic Mountain-This ride was probably the worst wooden coaster I've ever been on. It was very rough, slow, and didn't have any airtime at all. No wonder the ride never had more than a two train wait anytime I rode it. The only reason I rode it more than once was because it was at least moderately exciting and other people in my party always wanted to ride it for some reason. During the ride's lifetime, I think I rode it a grand total of six or seven times. I really wouldn't care to ever ride it again, and don't miss it one bit. Ironically, the spot once occupied by one of my least favorite wooden coasters is now home to my favorite wooden coaster. Additionally, I have also been on Thunder Road at Carowinds, which Summers was involved in (but Dinn was not). That ride was actually really good (6th out of the 20 wood coasters I've been on). Unfortunately, it wasn't racing when I rode it, or it would have been a better ride. I will also be riding Wildcat at Lake Compounce next summer, which Summers was involved in as well (but once again, Dinn was not).

Out of all the B&M coasters I've been on, these are the ones I consider the most intense of their type. Inverted: Tie: Batman The Ride at Six Flags Magic Mountain and Flight Deck at California's Great America Floorless: Medusa at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom Flying: Tatsu at Six Flags Magic Mountain Stand-Up: All stand-ups seem to be about equal Mega: Apollo's Chariot at Busch Gardens Williamsburg Diving Machine: I've only been on Griffon, but it wasn't very intense

The only Fabbri Spinning Mouse I've been on is Screamin' Demon at Castle Amusement Park. I don't remember much about it, but I think it was pretty unimpressive. In general, I'm not a huge fan of spinning mouse coasters. I find them to be just okay, and usually prefer a regular wild mouse to one of the spinning variety. My favorite spinning coaster is not a mouse, but is instead Sierra Sidewinder at Knott's Berry Farm. Too bad there aren't more like that around.