Hilltopper39

Can't wait to see what Holiday World adds. I love Frightful Falls but it is a bit dated, I'd love to see them upgrade that attraction and maybe extend the layout to include some indoor sections, maybe a second lift and series of drops before the final lift and drop. I always thought some kind of indoor/outdoor log flume themed to a playful haunted house could work really well in that section of the park.

A 16oz can of Busch Light, don't judge me.

I've always wondered if it would be possible to run a floorless or a sit down train on a stand up coaster? Yeah I know some of the rider dynamics might be off a little bit but I feel like it could be done and would probably enhance that ride experience quite a bit. Also, with all of the recent B&M's being turned around backwards I wonder how long before some attempts that with a stand-up? That might feel pretty wild.

^That's funny, maybe they'll pay homage to the footers with a gravestone or something.

I worked at Beech Bend for 2 (or was it 3 I don't remember) summers in college and loved every bit of it. It isn't the nicest park in the word by any means but it certainly has a lot of personality and a decent collection of flat rides in addition to a great wooden coaster. I'm glad to see that the place is still drawing decent crowds, there were days I worked when it was virtually empty then other days when the place was just slammed. Glad to see that they have continued to upgrade and add attractions since I was there last.

The layout for this thing looks awesome, I love the airtime hill right after the drop. I wasn't overly impressed with Wild Eagle (my only wing rider) but the near misses and key holes look like they could really add a lot to the experience so hopefully this thing delivers. I'm waiting for someone to stick a wing rider inside a box and add a ton of crazy indoor themeing and lighting.

^^Clearly you've never been to themeparkridenamereview.com ............

This is a bit of an unrelated side note, but I have a good friend who visited Cedar Point this weekend. He is by no means a coaster enthusiasts but I've dragged him to enough parks over the years (Kings Island, Holiday World, Cedar Point, Great America, everything in the Orlando area to name a few) that he's been on some decent rides. I asked him what he thought of Gatekeeper and he said he loved it and that it was probably his new favorite ride at Cedar Point. So keep in mind that as much as we "enthusiasts" may be unimpressed by the forceless wing rider coasters and their bland layouts the GP (who really matter) absolutely love them. Kind of an interesting perspective.

Does each car hold 1 person, 2 people, what? I mean whatever it is this thing will be a capacity nightmare. Still looks like kind of a fun ride though.

^I've never had what I would consider a bad ride or even an average ride on a Batman clone. Every ride I've ever had on a batman clone was fast, intense, forceful and totally awesome.

So this happened in a professional tackle football game last night, pretty nice play (the read and the hit and the fumble). [youtu_be]http://youtu.be/Rwc082M9fds[/youtu_be] Again, you can't put too much stock in the preseason, but I think the Bears will have a nice season this year.

Yeah, it's hard to find a flaw in the (arguably) pre-season favorite but one it's exists that's it. Good point about Harbaugh, if Kaepernick gets hurt Harbaugh might just suit up and played the position himself! Okay that's a bit far fetched but you know the thought would cross his mind.

^The only thing that concerns me about San Francisco is how will Kaepernick perform when the league has half a year of film on him and time to prepare. Last year he kind of took the league by storm when he took over the starting spot half way through the season but I have a feeling defenses might better prepared for him this year. Also with a guy like him your only one bad step or a freak play away from a season ending injury. I know a freak injury can happen to anyone at anytime but a pocket passer tends to be a little bit safer option. (All of the above also applies to RG3, and to Johnny Manziel) Then again San Fran went 13-3 and lost in the NFC championship 2 years ago with Alex Smith so their defense and running game might be good enough to carry the team regardless of who plays QB.

It's still pretty early but I'll throw out some predictions. AFC: North- Somebody has to beat Baltimore but I like what Cincy has, this could be a big year for them South- Houston, clearly the best in this division but Indy isn't far behind. East- Patriots, they might be down a little bit but I don't see anyone else winning this division West- Denver, they're they team to beat and I don't see anyone challenging them NFC: North- Green Bay, South- I like Atlanta but New Orleans should be back to full speed with Peyton on the sidelines again East- Who knows, I could see any of these teams winning the division but I'll go with the Giants,. West- I like San Fran, but as we learned last year don't sleep on Seattle. Sleepers: Chicago won 10 games last year and missed the playoffs, if Cutler isn't terrible I like them to contend for a wild card this year. I don't see Pittsburgh going 8-8 in back to back years and could see them stealing a playoff spot from Cincy or Baltimore. Carolina is a team that I feel like is ready to make a big step in the right direction if Newton can have some consistency, and a weak schedule and off season additions could help Kansas City see some major improvements. Way to early Superbowl Prediction: Green Bay/Atlanta vs Denver/New England

^I'm not sure if they do or not, I don't use Stubhub a whole lot but I do know some of the tickets are instant download, electronic tickets, so that might be your best option to avoid overseas shipping costs. If you buy them through Ticketmaster you might be able to just pick them up at will call on game day, may want to check that as well.

Ticketmaster or Stubhub should be a decent place to start looking for tickets. The Bucs are one of the worst franchises in the league attendance wise so you should be able to find some decent seats for a decent price.

I haven't watched any pre-season football yet either, we even bought season tickets for the Jaguars this year and will be out of town for both of their pre season games. I know I know, season tickets to the Jaguars haha laugh all you want but hey, might as well enjoy having an NFL team in my city while I can before they get moved off to LA/London! I didn't realize it but the new CBA says teams can only have like 16 full pads practices during the regular season which is insane if you think about it. It will be interesting to see if the higher rate of injuries continues as the season plays out.

^I remember staying there when it was the Adams mark as well (I think it's now a Hilton) but yeah there is certainly some contrast on the area. Seems like the past couple of times I was through there the whole area felt a bit cleaner and nicer but who knows if that image was maintained. They're kind of in a tough spot though because no matter how much they try to class it up they're still going to host a NASCAR event twice a year, a bike week at least twice a year, and spring break for the better part of a month. I also remember the waterpark across the street, Daytona Lagoon, was a pretty decent little waterpark that is walking distance from the beach and the new coaster. Between those three things you could easily spend a half day on the way to or from Disney.

Looks awesome, or as awesome as a small Pinfari Zyklon can looks. Seriously though I always did love the boardwalk area of Dayton Beach even when it was a little rough around the edges, and it probably still is. They used to have an awesome arcade full of old school games and a wall full of skee-ball machines. The skee-ball machines alone would keep me occupied for hours on end and now there is a coaster as well. I can see a day at the beach in my near future.

I was thinking about that earlier myself, I don't see why B&M wouldn't use that restrain on everything from now on, sit downs, floorless, flying, inverted, dive machines. I'm not sure about stand ups but I'm also not sure why anyone would build a stand up anymore either.

Wow, this thing has completely slid under my radar, I didn't have nay idea they were building this thing but it looks amazing.

^Yeah, we hit it up pretty early in the day before the races even started but after the first couple of races and the crowds started to arrive the line was easily 20 minutes or longer. Actually, I don't know how long the line was because I was busy sippin bourbon picking horses while the women fetched the burgers for everyone, life was good for a few hours on Saturday haha.

So I might have found my new favorite fast food burger joint this weekend. We made a trip up to Saratoga Race Course for some racing action on Saturday and they had a Shake Shack in the paddock area the it was an unbelievably good burger! My wife ordered for us so I don't even know what she got me but it seemed like just a plain ole cheese burger and it was fantastic. Just the right size, good flavor, and perfect fries to go with it. Someone needs to open one of these closer to me! Down with 5 Guys, Shake Shack to rule the world!

I missed it in the original press release but Screamscape mentioned that the top speed isn't at the bottom of the first drop but instead somewhere in the second half of the layout. This thing will likely still be "less forceful" than some old school B&Ms but if its going to be running close to 70mph through the second half of the ride into the brake run maye there's a slight possibility of it having some old school intensity. Also, on an unrelated note, but why doesn't Raptor ever get mentioned with Montu and Dragons ans Alpengeist or Katun or Nemesis as an old school B&M? I love Raptor, almost prefer it to Dragons and Montu, but seems like everyone always forgets about that one!

"I can do most anything, and I can stand next to you and watch! " Nice report, looks like a nice little resort. I've also often wondered why more ski resorts in America didn't offer more in the summer months but seems like there are a lot of mountain coasters being built here recently so maybe that will change in the future. Speaking if Book of Mormon, it's coming to Orlando in November and tickets go in sale inn2 weeks. I'm getting tickets for a group of 12 and its going to be awesome! Such a great show.