neil009

WHO. CARES. It's a freaking family spinning coaster, you go up, you go around some curves, you spin around a lot. It's never going to make the Mitch Hawker top ten no matter how custom the design is. FoF is at a major theme park and it's a great ride. The coaster will do its job, the theming will do its job, Hershey will have a solid new attraction, and we'll all have an awesome new custom to look forward to in 2016/17. Period.

Lots of people have said this already but I would like to echo: GREAT ride, TERRIBLE name. I think this is a perfect addition for them. Exterminator was a ton of fun and I expect this ride to be as well; I just hope the scenery is as plentiful as it looks in the video. Other than the name I have literally nothing negative to say. This wasn't Holiday World with their GREATEST COASTER EVER build-up, I knew exactly what to expect with this capaign and that's what we got. You can't expect them to do a prototype with every single coaster they build. The name does suck though, like hardcore. Even beyond the spelling, every time I say it I'm gonna think of bad sitcoms. EDIT: Gotta say I'm also a little tired of all the "expecting more for $14 million" comments when we have no idea what specific needs or circumstances went into that cost. Buildings themselves aren't that cheap to build.

The main problem with the restraints seemed to be the distance between the bar and the floor, which seemed strange to me, it should be the distance between the bar and the seat that matters. It seemed like if you've got legs that are long between your knee and your foot, that's what would get most people in trouble. My brother is almost exactly my height, but his feet were basically glued to the floor, he couldn't move his legs at all (whereas I could). Certainly the most restrictive lap bar I've seen, I'm just lucky to be rather small.

I totally understand where other people are coming from now when non-locals come to SFGAdv and can't understand why the locals complain about it so much. I found SFNE to be a very pleasant park overall, much easier on the eyes than SFGAdv. Not as wide a selection of coasters, but Cyclone > Rolling Thunder, Bizarro > Nitro, Batman (NE) > Bizarro (GAdv), and Thunderbolt > SFGAdv's classic woodie which doesn't exist. Operations were not great but nothing terrible either. I mean I get that locals have a lot to complain about, but it's still easily the best Six Flags that I personally have ever attended.

^That was done to both mid-season in 2012.

It's not just that the trains are heavier, they track terribly. It's like riding in a shopping cart, extremely rough (not uncomfortably rough, but a very high-frequency vibration the entire ride), and makes it feel a lot slower than it obviously should be. The whole ride feels like there's an open parachute tied to the back of the train, creating drag. When I rode it I loved the ride, but was very disappointed at how terrible the trains were (the restraints didn't bother me). Couldn't it be that it's not that the trains are heavier, but it's all those (unused) speakers on the headrests putting so much of the weight so high up off the track? People say higher center of gravity is what makes Kingda Ka's trains so rough.

Skyrush in 2013 was not particularly different from Skyrush in 2012. They were virtually the same ride, except for the first drop in the first few rows.

I agree, people complaining about bumpiness on Nitro has nothing to do with them being wussies. I got a bad ride last year in the fall that I attributed to being all the way in the back, now it seems I may have gotten the bad train, but either way it felt like a totally different ride. Tons of vibration through every valley, and it felt slower too. It isn't that it was uncomfortable, it's that Nitro isn't a woodie, it's supposed to be smooth and fast, it doesn't have the extreme forces of a ride like Skyrush to excuse a little rattling. The vibration just makes it feel old and worn-out. I got a ride later in the day towards the front, and then it was the Nitro I remembered, fast and perfectly smooth.

And "strong floater" is a far cry from "nothing", which is the first thing we heard. I will refrain from further comment till I get on it and see for myself, which I obviously have to do ASAP. I emailed the nice lady at Hershey that responds to the address on their website, I know it's not the best way to get info on stuff like this but I figured it couldn't hurt since they're really good about answering promptly. This was my message and her same-day reply: If she'd just said "no modifications have been made", I'd be more likely to believe her, but her not acknowledging the trims that have been there since day 1 leads me to suspect this is just a stock answer, no actual knowledge behind it.

It did in May as well. This would have to be something that happened very recently.

Do you mean this hill?? [attachment=0]SkyrushK.jpg[/attachment] Because if this doesn't give some air now then something terrible happened? Or did you mean the small climb into the brakes? It would take a TON of trimming to turn one of the strongest airtime moments in the country into a less-than-floater hill. This is why I was trying to be clear, we're talking about one of the worst ride neuters of all time.

^^The trims have been there since day 1. Are you saying they've been turned up? Did you feel the train slow down going over them? I just want to be clear on this, I'm going to have to head back again before the end of the season to see if they've been monkeying with my favorite ride.

^^Does anybody who got a bad ride have any guesses as to the cause? What was the weather like?

Why would they demolish the break run? Of all the parts of the structure to keep....

Are you talking about KD? Because Hurler was just recently retracked and I thought Grizzly was running great when I went this year.

I for one would love to see Busch turn African culture into a terrifying, mysterious thing to be feared and possibly shot at with laser guns.

I guess they figured out there isn't much point in having a rule that's literally impossible to enforce.

^^My only experience with wing coasters was Gatekeeper, back when the vests were still miserable (literally one of the worst rides I've ever had), though now they're supposed to be better. I thought on the other wing coasters, the vests weren't as big a problem, but are the ones on X-Flight pretty bad?

So all new B&Ms in the US are monotonous or forceless? Banshee called, she wants to say something. You could also make an arguement that wing coasters have weird layouts, "trying new things." No I don't believe I ever used the words "monotonous" or "forceless". I find Banshee's layout very uninteresting, though I can believe it's a great ride.

Yeah, maybe by helicopter. Hershey and Kennywood don't service the same markets at all, a lot of people on this side of the state have never even heard of Kennywood. Gotta remember, PA has lots of people on one side and lots on the other and a whole lotta nothing in the middle. Not many people live equally close to the two parks, each draw from different population centers. Exterminator is an excellent attraction and I think it's about time another park gets something on the same level. That's really what I'm hoping for. It doesn't even need Disney-level theming or anything, just spinning around in the dark is lots of fun.

^I thought that might be the case. Still, it's very interesting to me that they'd throw in that little sideways banking out of nowhere. Back when B&Ms made in the US occasionally tried interesting things.

I have a question about the Georgia Scorcher. I've yet to go to SFOG, but assuming I do get to go, this will actually be one of the rides I look forward to the most. Call me weird, but I'm a pretty big fan of B&M stand-ups and this one looks like it's a got a few unique, extra-snappy transitions. But my question specifically is about the little hill right before before the corkscrew. Much has been said about Outlaw Run's "sideways bunny hop", but here it looks like B&M was trying the same thing over a decade earlier, and standing up no less. I was wondering how this element actually rides and if it gives any unique sideways airtime sensations.

^But who's worse? Seriously, who? Ok, I guess there's always good ol' Mt. O...

Absolutely not. Six Flags sucks at a lot of things but they do seem to take decent care (for a corporate chain) of their classic wood coasters. The wood coasters that have received the the Iron Horse treatment have all been mediocre to flat out awful rides that enthusiasts only pretended to like after it was announced that they were closing but before that the rides always had short lines and very few people liked them (though I can't speak for Medusa as I don't know much about it). I nearly spit out my coffee when I read this. Of all the nice things you can say about Six Flags, taking care of their woodies is absolutely not one of them, in this or any parallel reality. I stand by what I said. They take good care of their CLASSIC wood coasters. Thunderbolt at SFNE has been maintained incredibly well and has given very smooth rides ever since Six Flags took over. A few years ago they re-painted the entire thing and did a huge re-tracking project even though the ride experience was fine before they did it. Wild One also runs very well even though the coaster originally opened in 1917. Newer, larger wood coasters that probably require more maintenance due to their layouts, height and speed aren't maintained as well. I'm talking about anything from the 70's on... there are some exceptions but I actually think they take better care of their really old wood coasters than Cedar Fair does (Thunderhawk). I understand you're making a distinction between classic and more modern/larger wooden coasters. But Cedar Fair does a pretty good job of taking care of their classic wooden coasters as well (Blue Streak), Thunderhawk being an exception, although even that coaster's biggest crime is excessive trimming, not roughness. Classic coasters are easier to maintain, but I will given them a little credit for not allowing every single wooden coaster of theirs to suffer the same fate. I do agree that rides like Wild One will never get iron horsed, I'm just saying your prior statement "for a corporate chain" implies there are other corporate chains even worse at taking care of their wooden coasters than Six Flags, and I don't believe that's true. And you also can't ignore the fact that rides like Rolling Thunder and Texas Giant would have been perfectly fun, enjoyable rides still running today if Six Flags hadn't let them rot in the first place. Those are my only two points. I think Wild One is overrated, but it's hard not to overrate it when it's sitting in a park where it feels like, if there were a coaster Heaven and a coaster Hell, it's the only one of the bunch that would go to the former.

I'm sure someone could explain how incorrect this is (and why), but it's not me. (I just re-read what I wrote and it sounds abrasive. My apologies. I'm sure someone can explain the YOLOish guest phenomenon.) Yeah I don't buy the "trashy policies attract trashy people" argument, pretty sure that's just blatant classism. Go ahead and dump out all the anecdotal evidence you want, I still won't believe it. It's like reading a horoscope, people take all the myriad of amusement park experiences and pick out the ones that correspond to their worldview and ignore everything else. You'll always see what you want/expect to see.