Goooose

I'm going to need to experience it first (next Wednesday for Media Day) but NTaG has the best first drop I've ever experienced, and this comes from a guy whose favorite roller coaster is Outlaw Run. In all honesty a super steep drop doesn't necessarily make the best drop. At the Great Am my favorite drop is the first drop on the Eagle. However, I think Goliath will take the winners spot. I think the back seat will feel like the back seat on Xcelerator after you crest the top hat at Knotts, just absolute destruction on whatever part of your body happens to be touching the lap restraint. Also, as far as the dive loop goes, look here. Now this just marketing material but the original graphic is not just a dive drop. It's very clearly a 180 degree roll (as they show) followed by an inverted drop. Typically the twist should smoothly transition into drop to make a dive drop but the original graphic shows it as two separate elements separated by a stall. From photos we've seen of the actual built installation it really is a dive drop, but I think it's interesting to discuss this. I disagree about it being different than the concept art which defines it as two seperate elements. Look at this photo from last week. It ascends wayyy up the hill before it starts to twist.

I meaaannn Sorry about that!

Found this on instagram. Ohhh man that looks wicked!

I went to CGA back when it was Paramount's Great America, and it was faar more well-kept than SFGAm, which I would frequent almost daily as a teenager around the same time. Our coasters were better, but their pavement, landscaping, characters, paint jobs and color breadth of buildings, cleanliness, everything was better. We had/have way better coasters, but their park was cleaner and better looking. It amazed me to see the same exact buildings but to not be able to SMELL the heat radiating off the midway or see piles of gum stepped over everywhere or paint chipping. The buildings didn't look old, they looked vibrant (Orleans Place and Yankee Harbor, for example). They'd taken out the railroad and its station and there was one long linear midway going all the way to county fair, which I liked in some respects but also appreciated that it hasn't been done to our park (and we still have wizzer). And they still had the vine tunnel over the midway in front of Demon. This was back when they still had Stealth. Demon was much smoother than our's. Then, they got ridd of stealth for a water park. Where we have Superman: UF and Shockwave before, paramount had a massive amphitheater and boring stunt show. Maybe today, following Six Flags change in direction shortly thereafter, our park has improved in all categories and is now returning to the thrill ride issue/investments with X-Flight and Goliath. If there has been a dip at CGA since being bought by paramount, I wouldnt' know, because I haven't been, and they haven't given me any reason to. My observations are from 2004/2005 and a lot ohas changed since then. But cleanliness and aesthetics aside, SFGAM won then and still today in its stock of coasters and attractions. It is and was at the time a better full-day park and one with rides worth visiting for. PGA was super clean and pretty but dead at the time and there were only 4 rides you actually needed to go on.

I spotted it testing last night after 9:30! Only 5 days away for most of us here, and some lucky people will get to ride it tomorrow for the commercial shoot!! As for pictorium, I love it dearly, but i bet the electrical bill for the A/C is a bit of a pain. They could put a scooby doo haunted mansion dark ride in Its place, and take great advantage of that location and queue as it winds up the hill and is framed by mature trees!

Yes! It looks certain now that it'll deliver airtime with a full train. Makes sense, considering how much shorter the hill is than the zero g stall! Another thing to celebrate, what is arguably the weakest part of the ride, or at least the most confusing in terms of what it will deliver, is the last two overbanks before that airtime-brake run. But I am optimistic now that it'll be a cool series of elements, because in the video, you can hear the riders hollering/screaming just as loud as during any other part of the ride!

Wow, everyone who has seen footage of the first test run or the POV needs to check out how fast it goes now with the lift at full speed and a few riders on board!

Catwalk lanterns, elevaed above the height of the railings on poles, they are aimed at the track/west/southwest so you can see them in the park but they do not create light pollution to the east. Because I drove past and ended up east of the park where they are invisible, there wasnt anything to show.

There are lights along Goliath's lift now! Similar to Bull, nothing decorative but still exciting! Almost ready.

Hold on.., don't mean to sound stupid, but have you already ridden Goliath? You made some good points there, but if you haven't ridden it already it's a bit early to know exactly how good the drop will be. Edit: don't get me wrong, I agree I think it will it prides good variety and probably will be good, but you can't say for sure until you ride it. Having been on NTAG and El Toro i can imagine how it will be (and I know el toro was intamin... But steep on a mew woodie and yes I know el toro's train gains speed and isnt being held back by the last cars hanging down the lift.) given that itll be steeper and straighter than new texas giants drop I am guessing I will like it more, and it will (at worst) be in my top 4 and at best, surpass bull. I have not been on it, nor do I claim to. And my point still stands that it will be excellent to have a variety of drop types so close- one with bull's dip, and this one, without. I will let you know how it ranks for sure next week though!

Those pictures are perfect. Secondly, so glad as well to have raging bull's drop and now Goliath's steep, uninterrupted drop! Good variety and both are incredible. Raging bull's drop with the dip first makes the drop so much faster amd more intense, with stronger ejector air than if that dip wasnt there. Ive been on diamondback and nitro many many times and those rides have great zero g floater hills that bull lacks but Bull's first drop is 1000 times better. Those rides dont seem to start until after the drop whereas with bull, it hits you roght away. Bull and El Toro are my two favorite first drops, and I prefer Bull over Millenium Force's pr New Texas Giant's drops! So excited now to have Goliath at great america!

This train looks red to me. Also, looks like lift hill is faster than last week or the pov! Drop looks quicker!

Im hoping there is hangtime on the exit to thefirst overbank. And that there is enough speed to creAte side airtime on the entrance to the third overbank. That would be a prime location for a lateral float but it is hard to tell if itll provide, since it transitions so quickly into that right turn where itll pull positives. Given that it isnt labeled as such on te concept art, whereas outlaw run and wildfire both have them labeled, I am not holding my breath. I do think that in response to any cocerns that its "too slow"... Its the fastest wooden roller coaster on the planet. The elements are just massive so they look slow but they arent. It is going really fast! And the pov was shaking a lot. Vibrations may be worse than on an ibox, which would add to the rides insanity at high speeds.

Well, I guess we will get the roof re-shingled, as we all wanted!

BREAKING NEWS. Media day has been rescheduled for June 18, wednesday, and moments after this stroy started to spread, THE ROOF OF GOLIATH's STATION CAUGHT FIRE. News crews and fire fighters are rushing to the scene.

Aand another! From Washington street.

Those were all of te same test run. These new videos are of later runs and demonstrate progress in the construction project. This video from a NEW perspective, at/after sunset from the employee parking lot. Its sooo stuning everyone needs ro see it its sooo fast! That overbank and airtime hill! Its going to be NUTS

Aluminum Colossus- new in 2016

You're looking at it through a trained eye. The average non enthusiast will have a hard time seeing that. I probably wouldn't have noticed it if it weren't posted on the forums, but I pay less attention to detail when it comes to coasters, as opposed to a lot of enthusiasts. I'm more concerned with the long-term durability of it than its aesthetics.

One red, one blue!

Let's hope that if they were doing more structural/clearance work today, that we will see more test runs tomorrow! Can't wait to get this show on the road.

I knew it! You look at that thing and you wonder how on earth a train will clear the zero g stall support structure or the exit of the dive loop! I am surprised that they had a problem up there though. There ought to be a CAD program for coasters that has clearance tests built in, turning anything within the zone red. Maybe it already exists; just crazy to me that they would just no be running into this problem! That overbank is quite symmetrical, so maybe they will need to do a similar fix on the ascending side as well. Looking at that photo, heck, ALL of those steel supports might have to get that treatment at a rate of 1 or two a day. For the sake of getting the ride open, I hope that is a permanent solution... But, look at it... its begging for some TLC. And it doesn't look reliable. There were cranes around the dive loop too. Could be a similar situation on that end.

If everyone for the past year had been saying "They're going to give the iron horse treatment to Colossus in 2015/16!" and then 2015 comes along and they start clearing land behind Riddler's Revenge, it would be obvious we were wrong. Oh what do you know, they are closing Colossus! Drops mic. Walks off stage.

A new entrance would be amazing over there, and an integration with the coaster's structure would be even more spectacular, a la Gatekeeper, but with a big, white wooden structure . I dig your ideas, but for me, it doesn't change the probability of what the make and model will be and the land use they are planning. New coasters, and steel coasters, are more expensive. Longer steel coasters with three train operation require mid course break runs usually and the projects are very expensive overall just to build short rides. Colossus was built at a time that, while it was a huge and expensive investment, it was easier to make. Commodities are so much more expensive now due to global demand for fewer resources, and money has lost its value/purchasing power. They would be smart to keep the structure and Ibox the whole thing. They would have two coasters with three-train operation on each, and a track length over 5000 feet on each, and the project is basically half finished because its already there! Remove the whole thing and replace it with two coasters and you are spending upwards of 40 million dollars.

I honestly think the audience that MM targets will eat wing coasters up. Remember, most of their customers are not coaster enthusiasts and are not aware of any potential this project can unleash. In fact, I'm willing to bet most of them don't even know what a Rocky Mountain conversion is. That's fine. The general public in no market is more informed than another about ride types or manufacturers, but there is an enthusiast population that speaks on behalf of them, and whose voices are heard loud and clear by park planners, ride designers, etc. Look at all the FREE consulting advice we give parks on these message boards and other similar websites on a daily basis. Parks can look at this form of public opinion as well as toward previous cases to inform decision-making. The park knows that they can knock the ball out of the park with an RMC based on the success stories so far in Texas.