rcdude

The worst line I have waited in was for X in 2003. We got in line about 15 minutes after opening (we had to get a locker first) and it was already a two hour wait. At about 1, the ride broke down and everyone else was about three trains from getting on. I decided to wait off with my sister (back then I was afraid of breakdowns and my sister didn't want to ride anyway). At about 1:30 the ride re-opened and everyone else rode. The worst line for a roller coaster I actually rode was for Ghostrider during Veteran's Day 2000. I waited over two hours to ride, but it was worth it.

When I was at Cedar Point last month, I saw both Wicked Twister and Raptor broken down at some point in the day. I wasn't in line for either at the time, but I was at Demon Drop when Raptor reopened so there wasn't much of a wait. Top Thrill Dragster didn't break down, but it rolled back four times while I was in line. I think it was because of the wind, but it may have been something else. Either way, it combined with them shutting the ride down to put a fifth train on the track led to a two hour wait.

I have only been on roller coasters in California (outside of Cedar Point). I'll do the top five wood and top five steel. Wood: 1. Ghostrider 2. Mean Streak 3. Colossus 4. Roar 5. Tie: Psyclone & Grizzly Steel: 1. Maverick 2. Tatsu 3. Silver Bullet 4. Top Thrill Dragster 5. Scream!

Part 3-Niagara Falls Day 5 Continued After leaving the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, we arrived at the border around 6 p.m. It took about a half hour to get into Canada. Once there, we went to the hotel we were staying at (Howard Johnsons) and dropped off our luggage in the hotel room. We then went over to Clifton Hill, which my dad said was like Las Vegas. After looking in a couple of the arcades (we only played games in the Great Canadian Midway) we went down to the falls. We walked up and down the river until it got dark and they turned the lights on. Niagara falls looks more impressive during the daytime. After we left the falls, we got dinner at the Pizza Hut in our hotel and went back to our rooms. Day 6: Thursday 8/28/2008 We got up in the morning and went to Denny's for breakfast. Afterwards, we packed up and left the hotel. We went down to the falls to do the Maid of the Mist tour. It was pretty good but you could hardly see anything once you got under the falls. It felt like a heavy downpour for the five minutes or so you are under the falls. After this, we went and did the behind the falls tour. It wasn't nearly as good as the Maid of the Mist. We then got in line to go back to the United States side. Once back in the U.S., we stopped for lunch and then went out onto goat island. While here, we looked at the falls from the American side. My dad said that he liked the American side better. At around 2 p.m., we left to go to Buffalo Niagara Airport, since our flight left at 4 p.m. When we got to the airport, there was a problem with trying to return the rental car. Once it was resolved, they decided to only charge my dad for one day. We then went to wait for our plane. Once we got to Chicago, we went and got dinner in the airport, then waited for our 8 p.m. flight back to John Wayne Airport. When we got on the plane, everyone was tired. We landed at John Wayne Airport a little after 10 p.m. We took a shuttle back to the parking lot and drove home. Well, that is the whole trip. I hope you enjoy it, and if you have any questions or comments feel free to reply.

Disneyland 1. Space Mountain (Original) Knott's Berry Farm 1. Wacky Soap Box Racers 2. Windjammer Surf Racers Legoland California 1. Spellbreaker California's Great America 1. Stealth Six Flags Magic Mountain 1. Psyclone Castle Amusement Park 1. Tornado Other 1. High Roller at Stratosphere Tower 2. Lightning Bolt at MGM Grand Adventures

Now for the big amusement park section of the trip. Part 2-Sandusky Day 3 Continued After a five hour drive including a stop at Dairy Queen for a snack, we arrived in Sandusky around 8:00 p.m. We stopped at Taco Bell for dinner then went to our hotel, Castaway Bay. We checked in, then went to the room, changed, and went to the waterpark. The waterpark's attractions are as follows. Rendezvous Run-This was the best ride in the waterpark. It is a waterslide with hills that use water to shoot you up. The ride was fun, and is probably my second favorite type of waterslide (after the giant funnel). However, it was short and had the longest wait. We still managed to get on it four times during our stay. Tropical Tube Slides-These three body slides are fully enclosed. They are all fairly short, but are still fun. I went on each one twice during the stay, since it rarely had a wait. There were a couple times when I was the only one other than the operator on the tower. Lookout Lagoon Family Fun House-This was one of those water funhouses with the giant tipping bucket. It had four various slides, but two were for kids and one was closed so I only went on one. Paradise Plunge-This was the slide in the water funhouse. It was short and fairly boring. I probably wouldn't have done it if there was much of a wait, but at least it was partially enclosed. The park also had a wave pool, hot tub, and lilypad walk type thing. The hot tub was huge and was both indoor and outdoor, but the wave pool and lilypad walk were both pretty small. We were at the waterpark for about an hour and fifteen minutes and all of us had decided that we had done everything we wanted to, so we left. It was closing in a few minutes anyway. Once we got back to our room, we all showered and then went to bed to be ready for Cedar Point tomorrow. Day 4: Tuesday 8/26/2008 We all got up in the morning at about 8:00 a.m. to head to Cedar Point. Since we were staying at a Cedar Point hotel, we got in at 9:00 a.m., an hour before the general public. Once we got to the Magnum entrance at about 8:30 or so, we saw a line of people backed up to where you buy tickets. My brother was complaining that we wouldn't get on more than ten rides and that it would be crowded, but this wasn't the case. I think he is just used to the way lineups are done in Southern California (a mob of people). We got into the park when they opened to hotel guestes, and what we did during the day follows. Maverick-We went to this ride first thing in the morning. It was a good call, since the line was looking like about 55 minutes when we got off. I don't remember for sure how long we waited, but I think it was only about 10 minutes. This ended up being my favorite ride at the park, and it is also my favorite roller coaster. No one else liked it quite as much as I did, but they all thought it was pretty good. Millennium Force-After Maverick, we went on this during the early entry period. We only had about a 20 minute wait. Later in the day, it looked like it got up to about 40 minutes. I really enjoyed this ride, and it is one of my top three favorites at the park, but I do not think it is the park's best ride. It may be because my favorite coasters are twisters, but I thought this ride just had too much straight, flat track to make it the best ride at the park. I know that is about all they can do at that speed, but it made the ride slightly boring towards the end. Everyone else I went with, however, said that this was the best ride in the park. Top Thrill Dragster-Shortly after the park opened to the general public, we headed over to this ride. When we got there, it looked to be about an 80 minute wait. I was personally hoping for more like a 55 minute wait but we decided to do it anyway. As we found out, we should have come back later. They were only loading cars one through three when we got in line. About ten minutes later, they started loading car four. Another ten minutes later, they were fully loading the trains. It was a fairly windy day, so I don't know if that contributed, but once they were loading the trains to capacity they started to have problems. During what ended up being about a two hour wait we saw four loaded rollbacks. I don't think it usually rolls back this much, but I could be wrong. There was also a delay while they put a fifth train on the track, which then rolled back on its first launch. Luckily, at least for me, the ride ended up being worth the wait, and was my second favorite ride of the day. I think we should have waited until later as the wind died down and there weren't any rollbacks, but oh well. My brother, for some reason, was the only one who wasn't impressed and said that he preferred the Xcelerator at Knott's Berry Farm. Disaster Transport-Since my brother really wanted to do this and we had spent so much time in line for Top Thrill Dragster, I agreed to do this next after we had lunch. We got to the ride and found only a 15 minute wait. Not bad at all based on what I have heard. The ride turned out to be good but not great. I am glad that I did it as I really didn't realize that it would be as good as it was. My brother is a little too excited by bobsled-type rides and said it was better than Space Mountain, which I think is way better than Disaster Transport. Troika-We decided to do this ride simply because it looked different and had a 5 minute wait. It was a fun little spinning ride, but not one I would necessarily ride if the line was much longer. Chaos-I didn't actually ride this, but my brother wanted to because he had never been on one and it had no wait. He got off feeling unimpressed and thought the Zipper was better. Demon Drop-Unlike the late Freefall, this ride actually ran to capacity, cycling six cars with no delays. Only me and my brother went on this ride, and thought it was fun. I really hope they keep this as it is a classic drop ride and provides a completely different experience than the Power Tower. We had practically a walk on so it wasn't a bad wait at all. Raptor-When we got to this we found out that it had only been open for three minutes due to a recent breakdown. We got in line and only waited 15 minutes. I am very glad we didn't spend more than that in line. I was disappointed by Raptor, finding it to be too rough for a B&M inverted. I like Silver Bullet better, but even though Raptor is rough it is still my second favorite inverted coaster. Blue Streak-This ride was a walk on, and our train was dispatched about half full. The ride was fun, but nothing special. I personally found the layout a tad boring, but at least it had good airtime. Cedar Downs Racing Derby-This ride had no wait so we decided to ride it. It was fun and quite different from a normal merry-go-round. All of us thought it was worth taking the time to ride. Iron Dragon-We waited about 15 minutes for this ride. I like Ninja at Six Flags Magic Mountain better, as Iron Dragon doesn't get you swinging at very many points during the ride. It is about twice as long as Ninja where you are actually coasting, but other than that it has no pluses. Wildcat-My brother was reluctant to wait 25 minutes for what looked like a carnival coaster. He actually enjoyed the ride. I personally thought this was a bit too basic for anyone but families, but am glad that I tried it anyway. My dad said it looked just like the former Mountain Express, but said that it was smoother. Mantis-Once again, we did this ride because my brother wouldn't let us do anything else until we rode it(standup twisters are one of his favorite types). After waiting about 30 minutes, we got on. I thought it was not as good as Riddler's Revenge but better than Vortex. I honestly liked Mantis better than Raptor, which is strange since I am not a big standup coaster fan. Snake River Falls-This was a walk on, so we decided to get soaked. I liked the ride, but my brother said that it was too wet for him. He said the drop on Jurassic Park is pretty much the same but is drier and he would rather do that. Skyhawk-This is a Screaming Swing. It was fun but nothing special, and not really worth much more than the 20 minutes we waited for it. Cedar Creek Mine Ride-This ride had a 15 minute wait, so we almost decided to skip it. I wouldn't have minded, as it became my least favorite coaster of the day. There is only one good hill and the rest is all slow turns. In addition, I sat with my dad and we could barely fit in the car. I think Gold Rusher is a lot better. Mean Streak-This was a 20 minute wait. I liked this ride, but it did have one major minus...the roughness. I thought this thing was rougher than Ghostrider. It was three minutes of getting thrown around. If it was smoother, it may have been my favorite wooden coaster, but the roughness killed it. At least it is better than the Blue Streak for length alone. By the way, the brake on the drop sucked. It didn't feel like you were accelerating at all. Gemini-I forget how long we waited for this ride, but only one track was running. It was a fun and smooth ride, at least until the spiral. I probably would have liked it better if it was racing but it was still okay. Corkscrew-I'm glad this was a walk-on as it was the worst custom looping coaster I have ever been on. The ride was rough and caused headbanging as well as surprise airtime, neither of which is good with a shoulder harness. At least it only lasted about 30 seconds. I'm guessing it was because of crowds but cars four and five were closed off. Power Tower-Since there was almost no wait for the space shot and a bit of a wait for the turbo drop, we did the space shot. It was fun but not very thrilling. I think I like turbo drops better. Wicked Twister-We walked all the way back over here because the ride was broken earlier. I forget how long the wait was, but the ride was worth it. I think this is probably the best shuttle coaster I have ever been on. It is thrilling, unique, and not very nauseating. I would have done it more if we had more time, but it was late by the time we got off. Max Air-I was not impressed by Max Air. It looked great but felt slow when you were on it. Also, it spun fast enough to make me dizzy when combined with the swinging motion. I should have stayed off and watched the kiddie boat ride thingy next door. Magnum XL-200-Finally, the last ride of the day. This was one I was looking forward to, and would have waited in the lines earlier that looked like 50 minutes for. Luckily, when we went on it was a station wait. This ride was a lot of fun, but I think it is seriously overrated. I like the Desperado better, but it might be because of my twister preference. Either way, the ride was good and was not really a disappointment. We left the park after closing due to Magnum. I think Cedar Point is the best amusement park overall that I have been to, but for just roller coasters I would rather go to Six Flags Magic Mountain. Cedar Point only has about four roller coasters that really impressed me, and the rest I have been on something better elsewhere. However, Cedar Point is deserving of the title best amusement park in the world. We went to T.G.I. Fridays for dinner, then returned to the hotel and went to bed. It was a long day, and we were all tired. Day 5: Wednesday 8/27/2008 We all got up early and packed. We then left the hotel to drive to Niagara Falls, but stopped to get donuts before leaving town. On our way to Niagara Falls, we decided to stop at the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame. It was an interesting museum, but I had never heard of a lot of bands in there. After going to the museum, we went to Mcdonalds for lunch (because my brother refused to eat at the White Castle we saw) and continued on to Niagara Falls. Niagara Falls will be covered in part 3, which will be up tomorrow sometime.

I used to be scared of any slide that was fully enclosed and you went single. I would only do those rides with a double tube but now I like them. Usually, if I go on a slide that is unlike anything else I have been on, I am somewhat scared. I don't get too scared by new slides that are similar to ones I have done previously.

From August 23 to August 28 I was on a trip to the midwestern part of the United States. During the trip, I spent a couple nights in Chicago, then went to Sandusky and spent a couple of nights there. We also spent a night at Niagara Falls. I went on this trip with my brother, sister, and dad. I will be posting this in three parts. Part one is Chicago, part two is Sandusky, and part three is Niagara Falls. Part 1-Chicago Day 1: Saturday 8/23/2008 On Saturday we got up at five thirty in the morning to catch an 8:00 a.m. flight out of John Wayne Airport to O'Hare Airport in Chicago. The flight was about four hours and was delayed due to mechanical difficulties. We ended up landing at about 3:00 p.m. After getting our luggage, we went to the subway station to get on a train to our hotel. Unfortunately, due to construction a portion of the line was closed so we had to take a bus as well. We arrived at the hotel we were staying at, the Sheraton, at about 4:30 p.m. After dropping off our bags we went to go walk around the loop (Chicago's downtown area). We had dinner at a Subway and then walked over to Sears Tower. We went up to the observation deck. Luckily it was clear so we had a pretty good view. Afterwards we went back down and took a train back to our hotel room. Since everyone was tired, we went to bed fairly early. Day 2: Sunday 8/24/2008 Sunday was our big day to see Chicago. We got up at about 10 a.m. and decided what we wanted to do. My dad had already bought tickets for a Cubs game that afternoon, and we had bought city passes for the museums. We decided to go do those in the afternoon and to go to Navy Pier in the morning. Navy Pier is what I would call a family entertainment center as opposed to an amusement park. It has a few standard rides, but also has mini-golf, a funhouse, and several other things to look at. We went and walked out to the end of the pier, where it was very windy. Afterwards, we went on the Ferris Wheel which is sponsered by Mcdonalds (for some weird reason). It gave a good view from the top but was a bit disappointing for the $6 it costs. After Navy Pier we took the train to Wrigley Field for the baseball game. Since my brother hates baseball and since we had museums to do, we decided to stay for only 2 innings. Inning 1 was uneventful. So was the top half of inning 2. However, in the bottom of inning 2 the Cubs hit two home runs and scored a grand total of three runs, giving them a lead over the nationals. I was slightly disappointed that we had to leave when it was getting exciting but at least we had other stuff to do. We took the train from Wrigley Field to the museum district of Chicago. Once there, we decided to visit the Alder Planetarium first. It was pretty interesting, and had several hands-on displays, but wasn't anything I hadn't seen before. They did have one very neat scale model of the solar system, however. The sun was big enough that it took up both floors. After the planetarium, we went to the Shedd Aquarium. All of us were kinda disappointed by this as it seemed like a bunch of fish tanks. The only interesting thing was the dolphin show and the shows at Sea World are much better. We left after only about a half-hour. We were planning on going to the Fields Museum that day as well, but when we got there it was already closed so we decided to come back tomorrow. We got on the train and took it to a pizza place we had heard about called Giordiano's. They had something called stuffed pizza where the cheese and toppings are inside the crust and it has sauce on top. It was pretty good but extremely cheesy. I think I prefer regular pizza, however. Aftereward we took the train back to the hotel and went to bed. Day 3: Monday 8/25/2008 On Monday we got up at 8:30 a.m. to go get breakfast. We went to the hotel buffet which was overpriced and not that great. Afterwards, we packed while my dad went to go get the rental car. We left the hotel at 9:30 a.m. and headed back to the Fields Museum. The Fields Museum is a museum of natural history. It has various exhibits and displays like dinosaur skeletons and Native American artifacts. It also had a pretty good Egyptian section. We didn't really see the rest of the museum since we didn't have a ton of time here. Before leaving Chicago, we stopped at one more museum. This was the Museum of Science and Industry, and was probably the best one we went too. It had many displays of mechanical parts, as well as several other unique displays. One thing all of us liked alot was the coal mine. This is an attraction where you take a working coal mine elevator into a model mine and look at different pieces of mining machinery. It is all in working condition and the guides turn it on to display how it works. There is also a train to transport you around (kind of like a dark ride). The tour was fun but it also had a bit of a wait. After leaving the museum we stopped at Mcdonalds for lunch and then drove to Sandusky, which will be posted either tonight or tomorrow.

I go back to school on September 2nd. I am going to be in 12th grade and my schedule is: 0-American Government 1-String Orchestra 2-Web Design 3-Intermediate Composition 4-AP Physics C 5-Nothing 6-AP Calculus

I am 17 and can handle inversions well on most roller coasters, but longer spirals (more than 360 degrees) tend to give me tunnel vision. This has occurred on at least three of my rides on Goliath (very similar to Titan) and at least twice on Silver Bullet. I believe it is not the strengh of the g-force, but the duration of it that causes these effects (I'm fine with boomerangs and they pull 5.2 g's). Also, I cannot tolerate anything which stops in an inverted position. It doesn't cause blackouts or anything like that, but makes me feel very sick afterward. I would recommend being healty and well hydrated when riding rides, and not going on intense rides continuously to avoid any kind of problems.

Outside of my home parks, I've been on: Tony Hawk's Big Spin-Six Flags Discovery Kingdom Scream and Tatsu-Six Flags Magic Mountain Journey To Atlantis-Sea World San Diego Revenge Of The Mummy-Universal Studios Hollywood All roller coasters (past and present) at Legoland California Merlin's Revenge at Castle Amusement Park Tree Top Racers at Adventure City At my home parks, I've been on: Space Mountain (new)-Disneyland Both coasters at Disney's California Adventure Jaguar and Sierra Sidewinder-Knott's Berry Farm

The most inversions I have been on is 7 on Viper and Scream at Six Flags Magic Mountain as well as Medusa at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom.

Yesterday, I went to Knott's Soak City in Buena Park. It is the waterpark across the street from Knott's Berry Farm, and has a separate admission charge. While it isn't the greatest waterpark, and is one of the smaller stand alone waterparks, it does have some pretty good slides and is usually not extremely crowded. I went with my brother, sister, aunt and uncle, everyone of which does all the slides. Even though the park was only open from 10 to 6, we still got on everything, and even two or three rides on various rides. I will review each of the rides individually. Pacific Spin-This is one of the funnel slides, and is the only slide that had a long wait. It is also the only slide that I have seen where your picture is taken. On this ride, you get in a tube that holds 2-4 people and go through an enclosed tube which drops into a funnel. You then go back and forth several times before going out the end of the funnel and into a pool. This is my favorite ride at the park, but I chose not to go on a second time since the wait looked like it was close to 45 minutes. Banzai Falls-This is a racing slide where everyone goes down headfirst on mats. It is like a waterpark version of the sack slide found at fairs and carnivals. The ride has six lanes and three drops. I rode twice since the line was only about 15-20 minutes. Malibu Run-This is a slide complex with four different slides. You ride on a single innertube down a flume with twists and turns, and even a couple drops. Rincon is a completely enclosed flume, and is probably the least popular. It consists of mostly zig-zag turns. Dropoff is my personal favorite. The top half of the ride is enclosed and the bottom half is open. It has spirals and zig-zag turns and ends with a drop. Wave Chaser is my least favorite because it is open the whole way down. It seems to be the most popular, even though it is fairly slow until the drop at the end. Heavy Swell is another popular flume, and is completely enclosed the whole way down. It spirals down to the splash pool. The Malibu Run tends to have the fastest moving line in the park, and is the only tube ride in the park where you don't usually have to wait for a tube. Since the line was at most 15 minutes when I went, I ended up going on each flume once or twice. Old Man Falls-This is the extreme bodyslide tower. It has three different rides. There are two red slides, one which starts off enclosed and then opens up when it goes down a large drop, and the other one which is open the whole way down and consists of three drops. There is also a yellow slide that is enclosed and spirals down to the bottom. I prefer the two red slides, since they have a faster moving line and are more thrilling. I ended up going on the yellow slide once and the two red slides twice each. Laguna Storm Watch Tower-This is a single and double innertube slide tower with three completely enclosed flumes. They are called Typhoon, Tornado, and Cyclone. All three are fairly similar, with turns but no drops, but I think Cyclone has tighter turns since only single rides can ride it. I like Cyclone best, but I still went on each slide once. Sunset River-This is a lazy river. It takes 10-15 minutes to complete one lap since it is so long. Also, everyone must ride in a tube on this ride, which I don't really like. For some reason the ride didn't open until the afternoon, so we didn't end up riding it until after three. We got in and decided to do two laps before leaving, but everyone else got out after one lap to do Pacific Spin a second time. The river gives a great view of Ghostrider across the street. Toyota Beach House-This is a water funhouse, with many levers and switches to pull and cause water to spray everywere. It also has a tipping bucket, but it is on the small side. There are two waterslides in the funhouse, both of which have extremely slow moving lines. The slides are nothing special, but I still did them once each while everyone else did Pacific Spin again. The waterpark also has a wavepool, which was closed in the afternoon, and a kids area. Overall, it was a fun day. I would recommend anyone in Orange County to visit it, since it is cheaper than Wild Rivers and has better rides, although it is smaller. However, make sure to eat lunch really early (before 11). When we got in line for lunch, there were about five to eight groups of people ahead of us and it took us twenty minutes to get served. I could easily see people waiting an hour and a half in lunch lines at this place. It is almost better to leave to eat lunch since the food isn't very good anyway. Other than that, the park is good, and I recommend it.

Keep in mind that all but two small parks I have been to so far are in California. 1. Six Flags Magic Mountain 2. California's Great America 3. Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk 4. Knott's Berry Farm 5. Six Flags Discovery Kingdom 6. Disneyland 7. Legoland California 8. Castle Amusement Park 9. Disney's California Adventure 10. Sea World San Diego

Parks visited so far: Knott's Berry Farm Pacific Park Six Flags Magic Mountain California's Great America Six Flags Discovery Kingdom Gilroy Gardens Family Theme Park Parks planned for this year: Cedar Point Knott's Berry Farm again Disneyland Castle Amusement Park (Possibly early 2009)

Although it isn't really a theme park, I would say that Scandia in Ontario, CA is probably the worst amusement park I've been to. With the exception of the Screamer, everything else is basically a carnival ride or something found at a family fun center. For a theme park, I would say Sea World San Diego, since it is more of an aquarium with a few rides thrown in.

Disney's California Adventure has twenty-something rides but the only ones worth more than a ten minute wait at any time are California Screamin', Tower of Terror, Soarin' Over California and Grizzly River Run in the summer.

Thanks for the info. I've decided that we will probably have lunch after Max Air if it isn't right around noon and go to Mantis and Thunder Canyon before doing the rides in the front of the park. I have one more question: Is there a specific entrance to go to for early entry? If not, which entrance is best if we are going to Maverick first? Also, is there a shuttle from Castaway Bay to the park, or do you have to drive yourself? If there is a shuttle, does it operate for early entry and run until after park closing?

Weirdest roller coaster I've seen in pictures: http://www.rcdb.com/id2709.htm Weirdest roller coaster I've actually been on: http://www.rcdb.com/id1143.htm

Space Mountain at Disneyland is the best Vekoma roller coaster that I have been on.

For me it is probably Knott's Berry Farm. I have averaged three visits a year for the past ten years. I'm surprised that we haven't ever gotten passes.

I will be going to Cedar Point for the first time on Tuesday, August 26. I will most likely have only one day at the park since we are doing this as part of a trip and have to be at Niagara Falls by 7:00 p.m. the next night. I would like to maximize the number of rides that we can get on. I have also asked my brother and sister for what they most want to do at the park, and have arranged the rides into the following priority levels. Level 1 (Must Ride): Millennium Force Maverick Raptor Cedar Downs Racing Derby Top Thrill Dragster Magnum XL-200 Power Tower Gemini Level 2 (Would like to ride unless line is 1 hour or more): Snake River Falls Skyhawk Demon Drop Wicked Twister Max Air Level 3 (Would like to ride, but will not sacrifice above attractions or wait more then 30 minutes): Mantis Thunder Canyon Blue Streak Super Himilaya Corkscrew Paddlewheel Excursions Troika Chaos Level 4 (Would like to ride if time allows and wait is below 15 minutes): Wave Swinger Mean Streak Cedar Creek Mine Ride Iron Dragon Scrambler Matterhorn Witches Wheel Space Spiral Level 5 (Will only ride if line is 5 minutes or less): Wildcat Turnpike Cars Calypso Monster Giant Wheel Disaster Transport All other rides can be skipped. However, how many of the above rides can we realistically get on in one day (How many complete levels)? Are there any rides that should be added, moved up or down in the levels, or simply deleted? I have a few questions about the order of rides and other things as well. 1. We will be staying at Castaway Bay hotel, so we get in an hour early. I was thinking of trying to do Millennium Force and Maverick during that hour, than waiting by Top Thrill Dragster for the park to open. Once the park is open, we would follow this order: Top Thrill Dragster Magnum XL-200 Power Tower Gemini Wicked Twister Max Air Raptor Cedar Downs Racing Derby Demon Drop Snake River Falls Skyhawk After these, we would just go around and do the other rides on the list. How likely is this plan to work? Is there a better order than this? 2. What are the crowds like on a weekday in August. From what I have heard, Top Thrill Dragster, Millennium Force, and Maverick usually have more than an hour line while all the other coasters are usually less than an hour. Is this accurate? How are the lines on non-coaster rides? 3. What is the weather like this time of year? Is it usually sunny, cloudy, raining, or what? I would appreciate any help or suggestions about this park. I don't know which of the rides on the list are really not worth the time. Also, this is not all about credits, I would like to do more than just roller coasters all day.

The worst (or at least the scariest) coaster experience I've had was on the Screamer at Scandia Amusement Park. The operator went and checked everyone's seatbelts, then hit the start button without locking the lap bars. Of course, he realized it about five seconds later and the ride stopped at the bottom of the lift. He then came out and locked all the lapbars (the ride is a Miler with lapbars the operator has to lock down individually). The ride then started back up. I don't think anyone would have fallen out since it has seatbelts, but it was still pretty scary. Needless to say, I didn't ride it again until they switched operators.

Yesterday, Wednesday the 30th, I went to the Orange County Fair. I went with my grandparents as well as my brother and sister. My grandparents had gotten free tickets since they were doing a cattle drive behind their house, so we only had to pay for rides. It was wristband day so we bought wristbands for $20 each that were good for unlimited rides until 8:00 p.m. We also got 40 tickets for games to split between my brother and my sister (I don't usually play carnival games). We ended up staying until about 4:30 because it got crowded and we had done all the unique rides already. I will give a review and summary of each ride we went on. Euroslide-This is a large sack slide. It is a lot of fun, and has six or seven humps. The worst part about it is the walk up to the top, which is a sixty foot ramp while you're carrying a sack. If you lay back going over the humps, you can get airtime and make it down in about ten seconds. If you're going fast enough, you will fall off the end of the slide and land on a pad. Surf Shack-I think this is a new funhouse for this year. It is all ocean and surf themed. The funhouse is two stories and takes about three minutes to walk through. It has moving steps, moving floors, rollers, spinners, and a walk through barrel. It's fun if there isn't a wait. Sky Flyer-The only way I can describe this ride is a swingride on a stick. You sit in a two person swing that goes up a 115 ft. pole. This was RCS's new ride for this year, and it was one of the best rides there. The ride moved up and down on the pole during the swinging, which was a pleasant surprise. I enjoyed this ride, and would have gone a second time if the line wasn't so long. Even though I don't have a problem with heights, I was a little scared up on top of this thing, and don't know if I'd do the one in Florida that is twice as tall. Crazy Coaster-This is a Zamperla Spinning Wild Mouse. I don't know if it is the braking on this ride or what, but it barely spun during the spinning section. They were running seven cars, so we stopped mid-ride, which practically killed the spinning. Maybe it was the way we were sitting, but the ride seemed pretty tame, and definitely not crazy. It's still the best of the three roller coasters, but just barely. Re-Mix-I didn't go on this ride as it looked like too much spinning for me, but my brother and sister did. They both liked it, and wished the cycle was longer. The ride is basically an inverted scrambler but the arms tilt out to ninety degrees from the ground, so you are sideways. Creep Show-The better of the two dark rides at the fair. This ride is pretty cheesy, but it is still worth a go if there isn't a line. Don't expect to be impressed, however. The most unique part of this ride is the spiral at the beginning. After this point, the ride is pretty boring. Hydro Slide-This was the only water ride at the fair. It is a small log flume which features a small doubledrop and a larger, steeper drop. The ride lasts all of about two minutes, unless you have to stop. We stopped on the second lifthill because the boats were getting backed up. I think that they were having problems getting the station pickup to work, and the boats were sitting outside it. Given that this ride didn't open until about two, I'm surprised that it wasn't working better. Either way, it's a fun ride, but it doesn't get you very wet. Haunted Mansion-This is the other dark ride. It is even more cheesy than Creep Show. The cars are small so tall people might not be able to fit two to a seat. The ride takes about a minute to go past a few figures accompanied by noises. Not very haunted, but still worth it if there isn't a wait. Evolution-Another ride I didn't ride, but this one was because I don't like stopping upside down. My brother rode and said it was fun. This is a long arm with a spinning disk on one end, where the people sit. The arm does 360's while the disk spins. The cars alternate between upright and reclined during the ride. Mardi-Gras-This is the mirror maze. It takes me about two minutes to complete, but I saw some people in here for close to five. The whole thing takes about four minutes because you go upstairs after completing the maze and ride down a spiral slide. Fun but not a must-do. Starship 2000-This is a gravitron ride, where you go in and it spins, sticking you to the wall. As the ride accelerates and decelerates, the wall panels slide up and down. I assume the g-force causes them to slide, but I don't know for sure. The ride lasts about a minute, and doesn't feel like it's spinning at all. Speed-This is one of the best flipping rides at the fair. It is a long arm with four seats at each end. The arm rotates and the seats are free to rotate. You go both directions during the 50-second ride cycle. I convinced my sister to ride this and she enjoyed it. Hi-Miler-This ride was not operating when we got there, but it opened up eventually. It is the other big roller coaster at the fair. This ride has a multiple out and back design, with either one or two hills before a wild mouse like turn. If you ride in the back, you get thrown around during the ride, especially if you are singe. For some reason, my brother doesn't like this ride very much. I think it is good for a portable coaster, but if it was at a permanent amusement park it would be nothing more than a family ride. Moscow Circus-This is the big fun house. It is four stories tall and takes about five minutes to get through. It is also the best fun house I have seen, anywhere. This fun house has moving floors, moving stairs, spinning platforms, conveyor belts, punching bags, a spiral slide that spins around four or five times, a spinning tunnel and rollers. It didn't open until late so we didn't have time to do it twice because of crowds. There is an alternate route down if you don't want to take the slide that just involves a vibrating floor. For some reason, it was roped off when we did this ride. Mega Drop-This ride is one of the most intense drops of any drop ride I've been on. It is only a 115 ft. tall tower but it launches you downward pretty forcefully. You go up the tower, sit there for about five seconds, then drop. The whole thing is over in about 40 seconds. I convinced my sister to try it, and she wasn't sure whether she liked it or hated it. Zipper-My brother talked me into riding this as we were leaving. I decided to try it as I had never done it before. It was fun but left me slightly dizzy. It also beat me up. For anyone who doesn't know what a zipper is, it's a ride where you are locked in a freely rotating cage attatched to an arm that rotates while a chain runs around it. You are whipped over the ends, causing several flips in a row. The ride goes both directions during the minute or so cycle. The rides are about all we did at the fair, because of the crowds. It was a fun day, but not the best we've had at the fair. It seemed to be smaller this year, but it might just be my imagination. There were at least two rides that we didn't see running at all during our day, so they were either broken or just closed for some reason. If you're interested in visiting the fair, you only have until Sunday before it moves out for Los Angeles (I think that is RCS's next fair).

Thanks for all your feedback. I'll try to answer all the questions as well as I can. I have only been on three B&M Inverted roller coasters (Flight Deck, Batman The Ride, and Silver Bullet), and all of them are extremely fun. The only reason I pick Flight Deck as the worst is because it is extremely short and is the only one I have experienced any headbanging on. Even though it was only at one point, I thought it was pretty unusual for a B&M to have headbanging. Also, I have been on Flight Deck the least out of the three (4 rides, compared to at least 5 on Batman and at least 12 on Silver Bullet). Either way, its just my opinion. As for the Grizzly Vs. Giant Dipper debate, I have only been on the Giant Dipper twice. They were both on the same day, but the two rides were very different. On the first ride, I really enjoyed it and that time it was better than Grizzly. The second ride is the one that I really didn't like. On that ride, I decided to ride with my hands up (something I no longer do on wooden coasters) and on one of the turns I got thrown against the side of the train so hard I thought I had broken something. It ended up that I just got a pretty good bruise to one of my shoulders because of how I was sitting, but it is mostly that ride that I remember. If that hadn't happened, I would probably like the Giant Dipper better. Either way, it's just a matter of opinion like the Flight Deck thing. As far as the parks go, I like California's Great America better in every way except for the roller coasters, because Six Flags Discovery Kingdom has way better coasters than anything at California's Great America (except possibly Flight Deck). California's Great America has some rides I haven't seen anywhere else I've been, such as the Centrifuge, Survivor: The Ride, The Berserker, The Orbit, and Flying Eagles. It also has an included waterpark, which is a relief in the middle of the day. The theming is also way better and you can't beat the walk-ons. Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, on the other hand, has great roller coasters (for Northern California) like Medusa, Roar, V2: Vertical Velocity, Tony Hawk's Big Spin, and also has non-ride attractions like the animal exhibits. It probably has better food as well. Although I liked Gilroy Gardens, it is in a completely different league than the other parks. It is not so much a ride park as it is a look at the scenery park. If I had to pick one roller coaster as my favorite, it would probably be Medusa. It is the longest roller coaster at either park, probably the most intense, and is also the smoothest. Although it is a great ride, it is nothing in comparision to some of Six Flags Magic Mountain's and Knott's Berry Farm's roller coasters. Overall, this trip was fun, but I don't have a huge desire to go back to any of the parks anytime soon, especially with Six Flags Magic Mountain only an hour and a half from where I live. However, next time I go up to visit my cousins, I will probably stop by California's Great America again to check out their new wooden roller coaster.