rcdude

You've picked a good week since it's before schools start getting out. In general, the parks will be light on weekdays and moderate to heavy on weekends. However, due to grad night events hours may be shorter and if a bunch of school groups happen to show up at a park it could be unexpectedly busy. A few notes for the specific parks: Disneyland Resort: Crowd levels can vary for these parks, but expect low to moderate crowds Monday to Thursday. Disneyland is rarely empty, so expect 30 minute waits for headliners (more for Radiator Springs Racers, Toy Story Midway Mania, and anything with reduced capacity). Although you could probably do both parks in a day, I highly recommend allowing 2-3 days if this is your first visit to the resort. Avoid Grad Night days if you can, but other than that specific days of the week won't matter much. The Disneyland Resort would be a last choice for a weekend visit, but if you must visit during a weekend go on Saturday, as the park is often packed with passholders on Friday and Sunday. Universal Studios Hollywood: This park is pretty small, so if you go on a weekday you'll probably be done with everything by mid-afternoon. Lines shouldn't be more than 15 minutes for any of the park's rides, and if it is unusually busy all Lower Lot attractions offer Single Rider lines. If your trip requires a weekend visit, I would do this park on the weekend simply because it is the smallest, but hour lines are not uncommon on weekends here. Knott's Berry Farm: As long as there aren't too many school groups visiting, this park will be dead during the week (aka max 3 train wait). Even on a weekend, Knott's usually isn't too crowded (expect 30 minute waits for headliners on weekends). Do not purchase Fast Lane at Knott's...it isn't worth it except on the most crowded days. Six Flags Magic Mountain: Like Knott's, it's unlikely you'll see waits longer than 3-4 trains here on a weekday. However, SFMM has a tendency to run only one train on coasters during low crowd days, so a station wait may still take 15 minutes or so on some rides. For weekends, Sundays are usually okay but Saturdays are often packed. You most likely will not need a Flash Pass for this park unless forced to visit on a Saturday.

I really liked Magnum when I first rode it in 2008. I rode it a couple times last summer and while I didn't enjoy it quite as much it was still a pretty good ride (top five at Cedar Point). Even though the ride is a bit rough and uncomfortable, I somewhat hope it never changes simply because it shows how far roller coasters have come in less than thirty years. Besides, there are way worse coasters out there (even a few at Cedar Point).

Great report! I've visited Gilroy Gardens a couple times and it's one of my favorite small parks. Even though the park is all family rides, I've managed to spend 4-5 hours here on my visits simply by walking around the park and just enjoying the outstanding landscaping. It is a bit pricey for what the park offers, but the park is well worth a visit if you've never been, especially if you can find a discount or have a Cedar Fair pass.

I watched this video earlier today. It was pretty good, and I'd love to see more installments featuring rides that haven't been showcased on the RAW DVDs. One suggestion for future installments would be to have a title screen before each ride so there is a bit more separation between segments. It doesn't need to be anything fancy, just a simple text screen with the ride name, park name, and maybe the location.

THIS! TC or Colossus (and if you absolutely must, TCol, but even that is dumb) works just fine, we don't need stuff like "TwiCo", that just sounds stupid. I totally agree with this. It has always annoyed me when people make up nicknames for rides. You can call it by its full name (Twisted Colossus), you can call it by a portion of its full name (Colossus), or you can abbreviate it to initials (TC). Anything else just doesn't work. Although it's a few pages back now, I'd also like to say that Twisted Colossus is simply looking amazing. That's one of the best looking rides I've seen in some time, and it's absolutely stunning in person. I can't wait to see what it looks like when it's done and I'm interested to see how different Scream will appear by the time I next visit the park (possibly not until Twisted Colossus opens, but I may get up there before then).

When I rode it last month it was fairly rough. It's not so bad that the ride is painful, but it will shake you up. I'd probably say it's on par with Wildcat and Roar (aka about as rough as GCIs get), and believe it or not I think my recent ride on GhostRider was a tad smoother.

Relocations indicated by an asterisk. Colossus, Deja Vu* and Psyclone at Six Flags Magic Mountain Cyclone at Six Flags New England Disaster Transport and Wildcat at Cedar Point High Roller at Stratosphere Tower Hurricane* at Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk Invertigo* and Stealth* at California's Great America Lightning Bolt at MGM Grand Adventures Pandemonium* at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom Screaming Mummy* at Splash Kingdom Waterpark SkyRider at Canada's Wonderland Space Mountain at Disneyland (original version) Speed-The Ride at Nascar Cafe Spellbreaker at LEGOLAND California Tornado at Castle Amusement Park Tree Top Racers at Adventure City Wacky Soap Box Racers and Windjammer Surf Racers at Knott's Berry Farm Windstorm* at Fun Forest Amusement Park

I've been on a few alpine coasters, and to me they do not count as credits for two reasons: 1. You are in direct control of the ride and can go down the track as fast or slow as you want. 2. Although the track and ride system is similar to a roller coaster, the ride experience feels more like an alpine slide as it is all downhill. It is true that an alpine coaster with no brakes is quite intense, but it doesn't really feel like a roller coaster. I do feel they are a gray area and wouldn't criticize someone for counting them, but If I were to categorize them, I'd put them in the same category as alpine slides and water slides. They are all high speed attractions that are powered by gravity, but they lack the coasting aspect of a true roller coaster (i.e. the ride never experiences a natural deceleration due to gravity). As for what I'd consider a credit, I do count rides such as powered coasters and water coasters (the Mack variety, not the ProSlide Rockets) because they are at least influenced by gravity and contain similar elements to a traditional roller coaster. A dark ride, log flume, etc. does not count because having a simple dip is not enough to consider it a coaster. On the topic of kiddie coasters, if I'm at a park with a kiddie coaster, the line is relatively short, and there are no restrictions against adults riding, I'll ride them, but I would never go out of my way to a park just to ride a kiddie coaster. Counting them is perfectly legitimate, but I'd find someone who's been on 100 coasters in the Mitch Hawker steel poll to have a more impressive count than someone who's been on 500 coasters that are mostly of the kiddie/family variety.

Let's put it this way: I'd ride it again, but I wouldn't pay to ride it again. I've ridden the coaster at least a half-dozen times on various trips and have found it to be comparable to the average boomerang...rough, but not intolerable. The biggest problem is the restraints give neck chops instead of headbanging, which is way more painful. It is my favorite Togo (not that there's much competition outside of Japan), but is still just an okay ride (probably the worst Nevada coaster) and not worth $14 if you have the credit.

Trust me, you don't want Viper backwards. I rode Batman backwards twice and then said never again. Batman is a smooth coaster (arguably the smoothest of SFMM's B&Ms), but while riding backwards I experienced more headbanging than I ever have on Scream and the ride was very nauseating. Viper is not too bad by Arrow standards, but it cannot be called a smooth coaster, and I have a feeling it would feel like a Vekoma Boomerang if run in reverse. Based on how much I disliked Batman backwards (I personally thought it was the worst major coaster in the park, except possibly Revolution) I will definitely be passing on any other backwards gimmicks for more intense coasters. In any case, I would be willing to bet it will never happen. No Arrow looper has been turned around backwards before and as Arrow is no longer in business it would be tricky to work it out. Backwards works for shuttle coasters because they are designed for it. Backwards works for coasters designed for it because...well, they are designed for it. Backwards works for out-and-back woodies because while they aren't designed for it, there are no sudden forces on the ride that require bracing (mainly lateral forces). Intense coasters don't work so well when you can't see where you're going, so turning them backwards is going to be detrimental for the ride experience.

I highly doubt that we will see Twisted Colossus run backward, at least at any point in the near future. I'm not even sure that RMC's trains can run backward, and in my opinion it would ruin the appeal of many elements of the coaster. In regards to the discussion on the GP reception of Twisted Colossus, I stand by what I said before: Most visitors will probably consider it one of the park's top coasters, but X2 will remain the favorite. Unlike most of the parks with an RMC, Twisted Colossus isn't going to be one of the biggest coasters at SFMM so I have a feeling a lot of the public will perceive it as inferior. The racing aspect is definitely unique for California and is probably going to be the biggest draw among the public, but the coaster won't have the extreme "WTF?" factor that X2 does or the unusual riding position of Tatsu and therefore will probably drop to the popularity level of Full Throttle and Goliath after a year or two.

My top 10 longest coasters: 1. Beast 2. Millennium Force 3. Voyage 4. California Screamin' 5. Desperado 6. Steel Force 7. Dragon Mountain 8. Leviathan 9. Mean Streak 10. Ride of Steel/Bizarro (SFNE) (tie)

For me, coasters are usually the first thing I'll go for at a park, but are not the only thing I will do during a visit. I'm not a huge fan of credit runs as riding nothing but coasters gets boring after a few hours and you don't get to fully experience the park. When I visit a park, I usually will take a lap and ride every coaster, dark ride, and flume ride in the park, then go around the park to re-ride my favorites and do anything else that looks interesting. As far as what makes a good coaster, everyone is a little different on what they prefer. For me, I like rides that are intense but not overly demanding to ride, hence why I generally prefer B&M and Premier coasters to Intamins. I'd take a ride that is simply fun over the world's most extreme coaster almost any day. When it comes to theming, I think it's presence can improve a ride but it's absence can't hurt it, and the more intense a ride is the less I care about the theming. I'm willing to give any roller coaster a try, and when it comes to rating them I prefer assigning a grade to a group vs. the "x is better than y but not as good as z" method, as a lot of rides are difficult to compare directly. I do rank them in order, but the difference between two coasters in an A group is much less significant than that between an A coaster and a B coaster. As far as parks go, the first time I visit a park is due to coasters or other significant attractions. When determining whether a park is worth visiting, it either needs to have a coaster that qualifies for the Mitch Hawker poll or some other significant attraction to be worth a stop. Once I've visited, however, the park as a whole needs to be worth returning to. I definitely prefer parks with a mix of theming and thrills to an iron ride park or a heavily themed park with only family rides, but as long as the park provides an enjoyable day I still consider it worth a visit.

The southernmost section of US-395 has an undulating stretch that can give you a little bit of a floating feeling if you travel fast enough, though that route has gotten pretty heavy with traffic and the hills have been flattened somewhat. Further north, it is possible to detour to CA-120, which has been referred to as a roller coaster road due to a series of small hills. I've taken this road once or twice on trips to Mammoth Mountain and at the speed limit (45 MPH) you definitely feel like you're getting airtime. If you went double the limit you could probably jump your car. Obviously you shouldn't go twice the speed limit (I certainly never would), but the highway is often empty .

In my experience it's usually better to start with Full Throttle and go counter-clockwise around the park. Full Throttle's capacity is pretty bad, but if you can get on it before the lines build you'll beat the crowd to Goliath and can take out everything from there to Apocalypse with minimal waiting (assuming you do coasters and do not stop). The downside to this is that you'll have to wait in the long line for Tatsu (X2's line gets short mid-afternoon after everyone's done it). The one exception is if X2 and Tatsu are both higher priority than Full Throttle for you AND you see X2 testing before opening. If X2 actually opens on time (uncommon in my experience) and you can get on and off in 15 minutes, you may be able to beat the crowd to Tatsu. If you go to X2 and it is not yet open, however, you need to proceed immediately to Tatsu or you will miss your window of opportunity for light crowds. Superman is often dead in the morning (assuming the big coasters all open on time), but a line will build around an hour after opening and it likely won't go away. If Superman is a priority I recommend riding Full Throttle first then taking the Orient Express to the top of the hill and riding Superman.

Apocalypse at SFMM last Sunday. My last coaster of 2014.

Missed it by a bit, but here we go. Trip 2, Part 12: New York City-August 4th-6th, 2014 Although the big TPR tour was over, I still had several days left before returning home. My Dad has wanted to visit New York City for some time, so since the trip ended up here it gave us the perfect opportunity for a family trip. My Dad, brother, and sister all arrived in New York City on Saturday (August 2nd), and spent a couple days exploring the city before I arrived. I joined them upon arriving in the city after Six Flags Great Adventure. Monday, August 4th was a late morning for everyone. Eventually, however, we all got up and out to start with some sightseeing. First stop of the day: The National September 11th Memorial. Due to construction, it was a little tricky to find the memorial. I thought the memorial was pretty neat to see, though I was a little too young when the event happened to fully get the impact of it. I was disappointed to find that the memorial has essentially been turned into a tourist attraction and plenty of visitors did not appear to be giving it the respect deserved of such a place. Due to lines and the price, we opted not to go inside the museum. Once we were done at the Memorial, we headed over the Brooklyn Bridge and walked across to the far side. We walked around Brooklyn for a short while before locating a subway station to head back. After returning to Manhattan we wandered around the city for a bit, then headed back to the hotel for a mid-afternoon break. My sister opted to remain at the hotel for the evening while my Dad, brother, and I headed over to the Roosevelt Island Tramway. The tramway, a Leitner-Poma aerial tram, was of particular interest to me simply because I like aerial ropeways. After a bit of time exploring Roosevelt Island my brother headed back to the hotel while my Dad and I headed to Yankee Stadium for the baseball game. Baseball is my favorite of the major team sports and I always enjoy visiting the local stadium, but this particular one was somewhat underwhelming. The Yankees have a very nice stadium, but it just felt really sterile and generic with a lack of uniqueness. In any event, the game was decent and it was still an enjoyable evening. Tuesday, August 5th was our busiest day in New York City. The day began with a ride out to Liberty Island to tour the Statue of Liberty. While we could not access the crown, our tickets still got us to the top of the pedestal, which provided a good view of New York Harbor and the city skyline. Once done here, we headed over to Ellis Island, which I found more interesting and more relevant to American history than the Statue of Liberty. It was neat to see the old buildings that many European immigrants were forced to pass through in order to reach America. Following Ellis Island, we headed back to the city, where we boarded a subway bound for Brooklyn, as Tuesday was the final park day of this trip. The line ended at Coney Island, one of the most famous sites in the world of amusement parks. After waving to the departing TPR group (those doing the New York add-on visited in the morning on this day), we headed to the original Nathan's for lunch, then made our way to the park. Coney Island Depending on how you count, Coney Island is one, two, or three parks located right next to each other. Luna Park is the main ride park, and this is where you will find the famous Cyclone roller coaster. Scream Zone is located at the other end of the boardwalk and contains mostly upcharge attractions, including the brand new Thunderbolt. In the middle is Deno's Wonder Wheel Amusement Park, a completely separate property featuring the Wonder Wheel and a selection of carnival rides. Every area of Coney Island is priced separately, so a day at the park can get quite expensive. Fortunately, we were able to get a good deal on Luna Park wristbands and Cyclone tickets with a ClubTPR discount. We started our day with rides in Luna Park, then moved to the Scream Zone, and ended with a ride on the famous Wonder Wheel. In total, we spent about three hours at the park as lines were fairly short. Coaster Reviews: Coney Island is not a place you visit for roller coasters. While Cyclone is a legendary ride and is actually a lot of fun, the rest of the park's coasters are all below average. However, if you enjoy Zamperla creations you will find a couple interesting ones here. Tickler: Tickler is a standard Zamperla spinning wild mouse, though it has one noteworthy difference: The cars spin during the entire course. In addition, this particular model seemed to spin a bit more than similar models, though still nowhere as intense as some other spinning coasters. Due to these factors, Tickler is my favorite of the Zamperla spinning mice, though it's still just an okay ride. C- Cyclone: There are a handful of coasters that have gained historical significance outside of the coaster enthusiast community, and Cyclone is one of those coasters. The Coney Island Cyclone is arguably the most iconic wooden coaster ever built, and even though the ride is nearly 90 years old it still gives many modern woodies a run for their money. The ride is thrilling, though not overly intense, and while it is a bit rough at parts the huge pads on the ride minimize discomfort. If it wasn't for the $9 price per ride, I would have definitely given Cyclone a re-ride or two, but I'm glad I got to ride this classic and it conveniently ended up as credit #350. B+ Soarin' Eagle: I previously rode a Volare when I visited Canada's Wonderland a couple years ago and discovered the truth...they suck. I'm happy to report that Soarin' Eagle wasn't quite as bad as Time Warp. As this is the original Volare, I'm assuming Zamperla gave it a good refurbishment during the relocation. It wasn't a good ride by any means, it just sucked less than the others. D+ Steeplechase: Steeplechase is a Zamperla MotoCoaster, in my opinion the best coaster design the company has produced. While it is identical to Darien Lake's MotoCoaster, Steeplechase felt a little slower and less intense. It wasn't a bad ride, just not a particularly notable one. C Thunderbolt: When Thunderbolt was announced, I thought it looked like a pretty good ride. It's a little short, but it's got a vertical lift and drop, several inversions, and hills that appear to deliver significant airtime. Sure, it was Zamperla's first big coaster, but that didn't really concern me. While I never expected it to be top ten material, I did expect it to be on par with rides such as the Gerstlauer Euro-Fighters. Never have I been so wrong about a coaster. Thunderbolt was absolutely horrid. Okay, I'll revise my statement...Thunderbolt has a good drop, a decent loop, and a downright terrible remainder. I don't know what causes it, but the cars shake and jostle around for the entire ride as if running on square wheels despite the coaster only running for a few months. The lapbar looks like it would be comfortable, but it isn't and any time you get airtime the straps dig into your shoulders. There is airtime on this ride, but it is violent ejector airtime and is more unpleasant than fun. Need more evidence that the coaster has serious issues? A kid in the front row of our car came back with a bloody nose due to bashing their face into the restraint. No joke...the ride is that brutal. I'll be honest...if Thunderbolt was a Gerstlauer Euro-Fighter with the exact same layout, it would be worth the $10 that is charged for the ride and would be a solid B coaster. However, the actual ride deserves about a C- (that's even a bit generous) and I wouldn't ride again unless the trains are modified and it is no longer an upcharge. Overall, Thunderbolt is a good concept that was poorly executed and I hope Zamperla never tries to build a large coaster again. Non-Coaster Summary: Coney Island has a large number of non-coaster attractions, ranging from standard carnival rides to prototype or one-of-a-kind attractions. The most famous non-coaster attraction in Coney Island is the Wonder Wheel, the centerpiece of Deno's Wonder Wheel Amusement Park. While the ride is similar to the Fun Wheel at Disney California Adventure Park, the Wonder Wheel is the original and is well worth a ride. Coney Island's other top flat rides are located inside Luna Park. Air Race is a prototype Zamperla thrill ride that is quite fun, though I wouldn't recommend it for everyone. Brooklyn Flyer was my personal favorite flat of Luna Park, as although it's a shorter swing on a stick it does give a good view of the area (not as good as the Wonder Wheel). Luna Park's other flat rides are all common Zamperla attractions, mostly of the kiddie ride variety. Outside of the parks, Coney Island also has a collection of carnival rides run by an independent operator. For those looking for a dark ride, Coney Island has two. Spook-A-Rama, located under the Wonder Wheel, is a historic dark ride that is surprisingly good, though a tad expensive at $7 per ride. I did not ride Ghost Hole, an independently operated dark ride nearby, but it looked like a standard carnival ride. For water rides, Coney Island is lacking, with only a mediocre carnival log flume, but there's the beach nearby if you want to get wet. Overall Thoughts: I was excited to visit Coney Island, but unfortunately I was a bit disappointed by the place. Although a historical amusement park, it felt as if a lot of the history is gone. Cyclone and the Wonder Wheel still stand and independent operators are present, but Luna Park felt like little more than a Zamperla showcase and their big new coaster was a major letdown. However, you get the good with the bad...Luna Park was decent while Deno's was a bit dumpy (I imagine all of Coney Island used to be more like that). Across all three parks, operations were decent and the staff members were friendly so I can't complain about those areas. I did enjoy the few hours I spent there, it just wasn't quite what I expected. After leaving Coney Island we headed back to Manhattan and over to Little Italy in order to have dinner at Lombardi's, the first pizzeria in North America. I really liked this restaurant and was surprised at how big it was. The pizza itself was a little different from what I'm used to, but it was really good and quite reasonably priced. After dinner, my brother and sister headed back to the hotel while I went to the Empire State Building with my Dad. Even at 10 P.M. on a weeknight there was still an hour wait to get to the top, and judging by the queue I imagine there can be lines that put Disneyland to shame. Anyway, the view from the observation deck was pretty good, it's just a hassle getting up there due to the lines and the need to take two separate elevators to reach the deck. Wednesday, August 6th, was our last day in New York City, as we would be taking a train to Boston that afternoon. However, we had enough time to go explore Central Park in the morning. While we didn't get to see the whole thing, we did see a decent portion of it. I knew it was big, but it was larger than I thought. If I go back to New York City, I'd definitely like to spend a couple hours just wandering around Central Park. After the park we returned to the hotel to retrieve our luggage, got lunch, and then headed to the station to wait for our train. Overall, I enjoyed New York City and wish I had another day or two to explore it a bit more. While some of the stops weren't all that interesting to me, I'm still glad I got to see what I did and would definitely consider making a return visit to the city. It's not somewhere I'd like to live, but it is a fun spot for a vacation. First up on the New York Trip, the 9/11 Memorial. One World Trade Center was under construction at the time of my visit, but I believe it is now open. At 1,776 ft, this is the tallest structure in New York City. This hole is the size of the South Tower's footprint, with the center representing the elevator column. Another hole represents the North Tower. Time to head out onto the Brooklyn Bridge. It's a mile to the other side. A view down the East River from the bridge. And one in the other direction. It was at this point that I discovered how to take panoramic photos with my iPhone, so you'll be seeing a few in this update. The Brooklyn Bridge is an engineering marvel and is one of the oldest suspension bridges in the world. A look back toward the city. The skyline of Manhattan from the Brooklyn Bridge. Next stop, the Roosevelt Island Tramway. Leitner-Poma is the Intamin of the skilift world. Unlike most aerial trams, this one is not a jigback system and each tram car operates independently. Only one car was in use at the time of my visit. We never crossed this bridge on our trip. The tram ends right below the Queensboro Bridge on Roosevelt Island. I'm not sure what this it. Since it's on the river, I'm guessing it's some type of power plant. On Monday evening we went to a ball game at Yankee Stadium. Inside the stadium. Stadium panorama. It's a nice stadium, it's just sterile and generic. Tuesday began with a visit to the Statue of Liberty. We were only able to access the pedestal, but that got us right to the feet of the statue. A look out at the New York Harbor. The entrance area to the statue. A view of Ellis Island. For some reason, I didn't take any pictures on that island. Looking back towards Manhattan. The corner stone of the pedestal. It has sat here since 1884. One last look up at the statue. A panorama from the pedestal. We spent the afternoon at the beach. However, it's not just any beach. We're at Coney Island, one of the legendary amusement parks of the golden age. Cyclone is one of the world's most historic roller coasters. The whole place is situated right on the beach. While not as nice as the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, the setting definitely adds to the park. My brother talked me into doing the slingshot with him. For both of us, this was our first time on this particular ride. The initial launch was insane, but the rest of the ride was a little dull. Fun, but not worth $22. Believe it or not, the Steeplechase is the second best coaster at Coney Island. Still, it's just an okay ride. Tickler is a fun ride, better than many of Zamperla's spinning mice. The best coaster at Coney Island, however, remains the legendary Cyclone. For it's age, this ride is running great and still delivers a thrilling ride (heck, I liked Cyclone better than SFGAm's Viper). After the Cyclone, the Wonder Wheel is the most important of Coney Island's rides. While similar to the DCA Fun Wheel, I enjoyed the Wonder Wheel more due to it's history and semi-sketchiness. The ride looks so good, but it is just so, so bad. Please fix this ride Zamperla! New for 2014 is Thunderbolt, Zamperla's first big coaster and their take on the Euro-Fighter idea. Despite the roughness and high level of suck that Thunderbolt has, I still prefer it to Soarin' Eagle, the park's Volare. At least Thunderbolt is unique and does have one or two redeeming features. Before rides, however, it's time for lunch at the original Nathan's location. Time for dinner at Lombardi's, North America's first pizzeria. Don't believe me? This plaque confirms it. After dinner it was up to the top of the Empire State Building for some great views of the city. It's a long way down from up here. We didn't have access to the very top of the tower, but I doubt a couple hundred feet would make much difference in the views. A view toward the Chrysler Building. Another view from the observation deck. The city really is primarily composed of skyscrapers. Looking out toward the river. One final view before moving on. Time for our last day in New York. This was either our hotel or a building right near it. I hear this is a lively place at night. Central Park. This is a great city park and covers a huge amount of area. When you're in the park, it's possible to forget that a city full of skyscrapers surrounds you on all sides. Our time was a bit limited, so I only got to see a portion of the park, but I would definitely spend a couple hours here on a future New York visit. And I'll end this update with a shot of the Central Park Carousel. While there is one more update to come, this will be the last theme park related thing you see. Boston will be up at some point in the next few days.

^Yes, Sundays are usually a little less busy but since this is a holiday period I would still expect the park to be pretty crowded. Expect 60+ minute waits for headliners if you go tomorrow, assuming operations are reasonable. As for wind, I use the Weather Channel. At the moment it doesn't look like wind will be an issue tomorrow and I'm guessing the park would do everything they can to keep X2 open as it is the GP favorite at the park. That is really odd. I know Riddler's seats tend to be somewhat stiff but if they don't unlock at all something is wrong. If it was a one-time thing it could have been an operator error, but if the seat locking mechanism on one of the trains isn't working probably I'd be surprised if the train is still in use tomorrow, as I have to assume that it is a violation of the operating procedure to not adjust seats to the appropriate height for riders to stand erect (not to mention sitting on the ride is terribly uncomfortable).

Back in the 1990s, B&M was the premier coaster manufacturer. Up until about 2000, B&M was the most innovative company with the most creative designs. Then Intamin took over in the enthusiast world because they were willing to continue pushing the envelope while B&M continued to do more of the same. In recent years, the negatives of Intamin's designs seem to be catching up to them, and since fewer and fewer Intamin coasters are being built (at least in North America and Europe) they are slowly being replaced by Rocky Mountain as the enthusiast favorite. However, although B&M has fallen out of favor with enthusiasts, they remain the most popular manufacturer among the GP. I cannot think of a single park that has an unpopular B&M (relative to the park's other coasters), but I can definitely think of major coasters by other manufacturers that don't seem to have caught on as well with the GP. In addition, most major parks seem to prefer B&M to other steel coaster manufacturers when it comes to larger rides. Finally, in the past few years B&M has started to experiment a bit more with their designs, and a couple of their most recent coasters rival those built by the company in the 1990s in terms of enthusiast opinions. Will B&M ever top the charts? Possibly. It depends on what the company has coming. Inverted coasters are not as popular now as they once were, but if B&M can build a truly unique ride they would have a chance. I could also see a hyper doing it, especially if the airtime and forces are comparable to what Intamin's mega coasters deliver. I'm really curious to see where Banshee places in the next Mitch Hawker poll, as well as the enthusiast reception of Thunderbird and Fury 325, as those will likely be good indicators as to whether B&M is experiencing a resurgence in the enthusiast community or not.

When I left the park on Sunday around 2 P.M. they didn't appear to be doing anything to compensate guests. I understand a park not doing anything when one or two rides are down, but when several headliner attractions are all closed and those closures were not posted in advance (Riddler's Revenge was the only coaster listed as closed at the entrance), it would be nice if the park were to offer a 1/2 price coupon for a return visit or something. I definitely heard plenty of other guests complaining about the number of closed rides on Sunday, so even the SFMM regulars knew it was abnormal. If I were a GP first time visitor and experienced the park like that, then the park didn't offer any compensation, it would probably be several years before I'd consider giving them another chance.

The gold pass guard wasn't working so well yesterday. The park had 30 minutes of early entry for all passholders and used the gold pass area as the queue, but the guard at the front wasn't permitting regular passholders to enter the line and was telling them to use the regular lines. I saw a number of guests with regular passes get turned away. I'm guessing someone found a supervisor since one showed up about five minutes before early entry and told the guy to let all passholders in. Having a guard is a good idea, but they need to be informed when something special is going on. The guy at the entrance yesterday seemed to have no clue there was any kind of early entry and that it was for all passholders.

Response time. I was a little nervous the first time I rode Lex Luthor, but after riding it and Zumanjaro I think these newer drop rides look scarier than they are. Nitro seems to be a love it or hate it ride...I consider it the best B&M Hyper and I've met people who consider it one of the worst, but very few seem to rank it in the middle. I remember seeing you marathon Batman toward the end of the night. If you like intensity a Batman is about as good as it gets. Six Flags Great Adventure just has a ton of good rides, and other than Dark Knight I'd consider every coaster at the park at least "decent." Have you ever been on the CGA Vortex? In my opinion, that is by far the worst B&M and is significantly more painful than any of the other stand-ups (note: I've ridden all except Apocalypse and Georgia Scorcher). As far as Batman coasters goes, I'd rank the ones I've ridden (strongest to weakest) as La Ronde, SFGAm, SFStL, SFMM, SFGAdv, but they're all pretty similar. Both of SFGAdv's big steel coasters seem to get mixed results on the enthusiast front...some love them, others hate them. As for El Toro, I have yet to ride Outlaw Run so I can't say whether I'll prefer that or not. I will say that SFGAm's Goliath ranks fourth on my wood list and as that's generally considered the worst RMC it's possible Outlaw Run could beat El Toro, but knowing my preferences I'm guessing it won't. In addition to theme parks and coasters, I'm also a chairlift/aerial ropeway enthusiast. When I go skiing, I keep track of chairlift credits when I visit a new ski resort (riding the beginner lifts is the equivalent of credit whoring). At any park with a skyride, I consider it a must ride, and I was particularly disappointed to miss out on the Lake Compounce Skyride as it was closed when I visited. Off hand, I don't know of another double Von Roll skyride like SFGAdv's so that one is particularly unique. As for Batman, I'm just not a huge fan of rides that are non-stop intensity. In general, I prefer moderately intense rides with high intensity moments to rides that are high intensity throughout. It's still a pretty good ride, it's just not my thing. At Six Flags Great Adventure, I've found that Kingda Ka usually has the longest line, followed by Superman, Green Lantern, and El Toro (in that order). Unlike a lot of parks, SFGAdv doesn't have any coasters that seem to never get waits, but the others have usually been reasonable. A local may have a better answer for you, as I've only visited the park twice and am basing this solely off my experience. I'm planning to get the next update posted sometime tomorrow afternoon. It will be mostly about New York city, but will have amusement park content due to Coney Island.

Yeah, I gave up on it too after spending 45 minutes in the Superman line, having it go down, being told that it would be an extended delay, then watching the ride running ten minutes later while checking the wait at Goliath. Fortunately I got some rides in before noon, but when you visit the park several times in a year it just isn't worth staying when half the major coasters are down and the rest have 90 minute waits. If it wasn't for the wind it would have been a decent day, and I can't blame the park for a lot of it, but yeah...worst day I've had there in a few years. It's going to be packed. I went on the Monday before Christmas last year and it was so busy the park had to extend hours. All the major coasters were 60+ minute waits, and even the second tier coasters had mostly full queues (that's the only time I've ever seen the lower area in use on Gold Rusher). In the whole day we only managed to do six coasters (Full Throttle, Batman, Apocalypse, Tatsu, Riddler, and Goliath) plus Lex Luthor. If you want to go one of those days, a Flash Pass will be required in order to do everything.

Both drops are complete as of today. The steepness is exactly the same for both, but there's an offset due to the slight twist. At the park now. If you were thinking of coming today I recommend staying away. Very windy here and X2, Riddler, Scream, Ninja, Lex Luthor closed. Only moderate crowds but 90 minute waits for headliners due to the amount of closed rides. I was going to stay for Holiday in the Park but given the conditions I'm not sure if it's worth it.

I went to see The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies tonight. I'm honestly somewhat split on the movie. The first half was pretty good, with a lot of character moments, and other than the Legolas/Tauriel storyline actually stuck pretty close to the book. Once the battle began, however, the movie just fell apart. It seemed almost like Peter Jackson tried to out-epic the Battle of the Pelennor Fields from Return of the King and it didn't really work. Some parts of the battle were good, but there were at least half a dozen cringe-worthy moments in there as well (including a Legolas moment that defies several laws of physics). I'm guessing this was originally going to be the last hour or so of a two part movie and ended up getting blown up into a 2.5 hour third movie, so if a lot of the filler was added in the battle sequences that could explain it. One more thing that irked me (minor spoilers): Some characters in the book had their role minimized, with their important actions given to characters not present in the book. I'm not a purist or someone who thinks an adaptation needs to follow the book perfectly (it is an adaptation after all), but the significant events should at least be done right. Overall, I think I'll say this: It wasn't a terrible movie, but it wasn't up to par compared to every other Middle-Earth movie. Now that the trilogy is over, I really think the Hobbit should have been two films instead of three. 6.5/10 Although it's possible I may see another movie in the remaining two weeks of 2014, it seems somewhat unlikely at the moment, so at this point I think I'll say that Guardians of the Galaxy was my favorite movie of 2014.