Password121

Not to fanboy it up here, but Cedar Point's system really is the best. Closing the lines at (or even after) closing and eating through the group of die-hards waiting for one last night ride is the way to go.

The guys at coaster-net made a recent video mentioning that at last year's tour, Tony Clark hinted about a big announcement of sorts (or maybe just teasers) for 2015's winter chill out. Very intriguing considering all the recent developments at Cedar Point. If you could get any info on this, that would be awesome. Thanks!

I've found myself wondering the same thing. If you look at the old POVs, Twisted Twins just isn't all that fast or exciting. It's going to take a lot of modification to get a real thrill machine. I have full faith in RMC. They have created some of the best steel and wood coasters in the world from some really far-gone rides. Look at the Six Flags hybrids this year- Colossus had one of the least imaginative layouts for a racing coaster with a terribly slow pace, and Cyclone topped out around 40 mph with all the modifications that had been made through the years. There's not a doubt in my mind that if Alan Schilke does get a hold of this layout, he could make something spectacular out of it. And you can always add on to the lift, you do know that, right? 80 feet now could become 100 when it's all said and done.

On the two original hypers B&M used pre-drops, for me it just doesn't look very good. Look at the iconic, beautifully shaped hyper/giga coaster drops. They are very fluent and flow very nicely to the max descent angle. I'm looking at Millennium Force, namely.

^The pre-drop isn't the section of track before the drop (Great Bear's helix, Mantis/Green Lantern turnaround, etc), it's the little five foot dip that retracts the lift chain, as seen on the inverts pre-2010ish, all standups, all floorless, sit down, etc. Great Bear's helix comes after the pre-drop, it's just an element before the drop.

Nobody was talking about a giga coaster at Valleyfair. They were comparing project costs of past giga coasters from B&M and Intamin.

B&M hasn't done a pre-drop on a hyper since 1999. I don't think its the park that decides on mechanical design of the ride.

Those trains are so sleek. Some of the nicest hyper trains out there, IMO.

^Ive thought about the same thing, and while none of this is confirmed, I think I have a good idea as to why... Six Flags was undergoing major changes in management around the time El Toro was installed. Shapiro was taking over at the time, and he wanted to emphasize families over thrill-seekers, meaning themed family attractions over multi million dollar coasters. I've heard he even tried to cancel the project before it was built, but the contracts were already signed, so El Toro was built. With El Toro built right off the heels of Kingda Ka, Premier had planned to make Great Adventure a destination park with even more new themed areas and multi-million dollar coasters. I can only imagin what the park would be if this plan had lasted even one year longer. Much of this information I learned from GreatAdventureHistory.com (although I think you're already on that site, haha).

I'm not a Valleyfair local, but I can understand how you feel about the park (home park is Six Flags America). What you have to remember about thrilling coasters is speed=/= thrill. With a higher speed, the elements are much larger, which often means they aren't as intense. This also allows for fewer elements in the allotted space, making the coaster short. Often times, too short to be a complete ride (see Goliath at SFGam). A B&M invert seems very likely to me. Of all the inverts, Batamn clones are some of the beset, most intense coasters. That's of all coasters, too, not just inverts. I'm not saying Valleyfair is getting a Batman clone, but bigger is not always better.

It is just primer. I think the real color looks pretty nice, certainly miles better than the nasty faded purple-like supports it has/had. It's like crayola took a sick day and threw up all over Scream.

Does anyone know where exactly this ride is placed? I'm thinking next to the Falling Star in front of Wild One. Hopefully they can continue to revamp sections of the park after this. Gotham City could certainly use more rides to fill in the holes.

Im sure its the Color Me Rad 5k. Dont get too excited. Are you kidding? Don't get excited over running?!?

To be fair this wasn't completely Six Flags' fault. Yes, they absolutely should have gotten proper permits and such to run the rides simultaneously an on time, but there was the deal with the state inspector not showing up to the park multiple times. On the few exceptions of Kingda Ka (due to state regulations) and inconsistencies in operations for Bizarro and Nitro(which I have no idea how you operate this ride inefficiently), Gadv does a decent job with ride operations. They are always running every train when it isn't being serviced. Shout out to El Toro Ryan- you guys were always hustling at El Toro and always beat the posted wait times.

I made multiple visits to two SF parks this year- my home park, SFA, and Great Adventure. I visited SFA all throughout the season- opening day, closing day, and a few visits mid-summer. I've never had a problem with cleanliness or sub-par park appearance at the park, but I don't think the park has really *improved* in those categories. Theyve slowly been repainting some of the coasters and retracking Roar, so that has been a positive. The operations have always been *meh* for me at this park, especially with one train on almost every coaster. However, I'll give them a pass on that, as the crowds generally only justify one train. The new stuff this year (Ragin Cajun and the flyers) were fantastic. Yes, the coaster opened late as I've come to expect, but it seem to be a huge hit, along with the rest of the Mardi Gras area. The park lacked a true family coaster beforehand. I hope they continue to improve the rides side of things, as they seem to be finishing off this section with the Super Loop this year. Maybe Gotham City is next. Overall, this park is definitely headed in the right direction. The other park was Great Adventure. I can't get enough of this park and what is offers- El Toro is my number one overall coaster. That said, this year wasn't much of an improvement to me. Nitro and Bizarro ops were fairly slow, and Kingda Ka's capacity was destroyed. I understand losing Rolling Thunder, but they should attempt to replace it soon. one particular Saturday was very dissapointing for me, which is why I voted neutral for the poll. They announced Ka would be operating summer weekends, so I booked it to Ka first thing. It was closed for Zumanjaro testing. On a busy Saturday. Over two weeks before opening. Why would they choose to test before they had permits when they had the weekdays to do the same thing? To boot, I had some truly pathetic food service at Great Acventure, but I won't get in to that. Zumanjaro was a great ride, however, and I'm glad they're filling in holes in their ride collection. They created one along the way with the loss of RT. I'm looking forward to the next few years at these parks. Although they're both getting super loops this year, I think big things are in the horizon.

I'm sure the ride is/will be going through a rehab of sorts... and it will be inspected/tested to ensure it is 100% safe, as all coasters are. If it was a wooden coaster, then sure, re-tracking would be a good bet (ex. Thunder Run last year), but this is a steel coaster than ran safely for over a decade. I don't think sitting SBNO would necessarily damage steel track like that. The new trains should be a great improvement over the usual garbage SLC's are known to be.

Umm... So it isn't your favorite?

^Id bet on a mid-late June opening. The rest of the ride is very low to the ground and it looks like there's less than 2,000 feet of track remaining. The weather should let up come mid-March, so I'm not too worried about a late summer opening.

I'll toss Intimidator 305 into the mix. That said, I have yet to ride Skyrush. Dragster is close behind, along with Kingda Ka.

There are two Vekoma Flying Dutchmen in the chain. Firehawk at KI is from Geaugua Lake, well before Cedar Fair ownership, and Nighthawk at Carowinds, which is from the Paramount days. There are only three Vekoma flyers in the country (the other is Batwing at SFA), and they are all around 15 years old. I don't know that Vekoma still produces them, and I doubt Cedar Fair would purchase one. B&M is probably the only choice, but the aren't the most popular among the GP and are very low capacity for the cost. An invert is definitely the better choice for Valleyfair, IMO.

Absolutely agree. RMC isn't going to simply underestimate how long it will take to complete a project- they have a timeline.

I will say this... If Gatekeeper was at a different park, the enthusiast opinion of it would be infinitely better. Same could be said with Mean Streak. It doesn't quite reach the level of CO's flagship rides, but is a very solid coaster. Personally, I rank it just a hair below Raptor, and well above Mantis (I'll have to ride Rougarou to re-check).

If the reason you know about the new ride/park is through a local tv/radio ad, you're not an enthusiast (for these purposes IMO). Sure, they were all coaster lovers to go opening day, but how many of them would be there were it not for that ride? Waiting in line at opening =/= enthusiast

Just found out I might make it up to SFNE this July, and I couldn't be more excited at the prospect to ride Wicked Cyclone. Is it safe to assume this ride will only be on Platinum flash pass? If so, that's dissapointing, but it makes sense.

All... 300 of them? I'm sure (with some decent weather) this opening will be busier than most, but not because of enthusiasts. Enthusiasts make up such a small percentage of park visitors. I'd bet that if not one enthusiast went opening day, the average wait for Fury would be less than one train shorter. You're underestimating the excitement this coaster will bring to non coaster enthusiasts. If I'm not mistaken, Kings Island was ridiculously busy early in the season because of Banshee. Yeah, that's exactly what I said. I said I'm sure it will be busier than most, but not because of enthusiasts. For those in Banshee's supposed four hour line at opening, how many were enthusiasts? Probably very few.