neil009

^Stupid people visit every park in existence equally. They're everywhere.

Personally I'd love to see a mix of airtime and inversions. Given Cyclone's current layout, I can see this being like a mini NTG, starting with tall overbanked turns and ending with a lower airtime-filled run to the station. But so far the remakes have been all about that first drop, and I'm REALLY curious what they'll do about Cyclone's. Does that first drop even go halfway to the ground? OMG suddenly I'm imagining them keeping that first drop how it is, then the long turnaround, then CATAPULTING you into a second crazy near-vertical drop the rest of the way to the ground...

I certainly wasn't suggesting that they literally don't know how to take care of woodies, like they want to but they're too stupid ("Hank! You put the track on upside down again!"). I'm just saying that as far as their track record with maintaining woodies, they're literally the worst. Like, no chain has more examples of rides left to rot then they do. And you can't say it's somehow ok because they're only tearing down rides that are rough and terrible, how do you think they got rough and terrible in the first place?

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 know I'm late to this discussion, and someone may have already pointed this out, but just in case nobody has, there's a lot of strong moral/humanitarian reasons for not doing business in Dubai, or spending your vacation dollars there. This was the story back in 2009, a very worthwhile read: http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/johann-hari/the-dark-side-of-dubai-1664368.html And this suggests to me that things may not have improved much since then: http://m.hrw.org/news/2014/01/24/uae-human-rights-watch-official-refused-entry Maybe someone who knows more can comment further.

Whatever happened would had to have happened after opening weekend, when it was riding as crazy as ever (though I believe they were only running one train, so I can't comment on if one was riding better than the other). I'm hoping what you experienced was a fluke. For that last airtime hill to give literally nothing is shocking, and very strange if you didn't notice any specific points (i.e. trims) along the course where the train lost speed. Did you notice any severe shuffling or bumpiness which would suggest the train wasn't tracking well?

You also must be new at this whole Six Flags thing. Or maybe I'm just thinking of SFMM. I agree with MagnumFreak25. While it is definitely cool to see companies are able to put inversions on wood coasters, I think they should focus on other things otherwise they will end up being just like some steel coasters only wood. As if there was no difference between having a woodie or a steel ride, just the material it is made of. I'm okay with an inversion here and there (and I definitely praise RMC for what they have been doing) but here I'm with intamin's president when he said (during IAAPA 2012, I think) that if they wanted inversions, you had their steel rides because to put one on a wooden coaster you will always have to use some more metal and then it's not as "pure". Now if you ask me: Would you rather have a 7 inversions RMC built near your house or another wood coaster made by a random company (apart from intamin) I probably would go for the RMC but, if it were me, I would focus on other things like airtime, "twistyness", sensation of speed,.... This has nothing to do with the steel/wood dichotomy. Once Cyclone gets remade, assuming it does, it will be a 100% steel roller coaster. 100% steel coaster track, no more wood, bye-bye wood (except for the supports). So who cares how many inversions it has? I haven't heard any complaints about the roll on Rattler and RMC isn't going to give us an airtime-free ride.

Hersheypark? Like, the Hersheypark that's in Hershey Pennsylvania? That Hersheypark? Huh. Knoebels though, that I agree with. Even though I'm sure the median age of its employees is much higher than the average corporate park, even among the younger ops there's a consistent air of professionalism I don't see most other places. I would guess it's not just a matter of training or hiring standards, it's a sense of pride in your workplace and a solid understanding of what's expected of you (and of the consequences for not living up to those expectations) that has to start at the very highest level of management. An atmosphere of not caring is contagious, no matter who you've got working there.

Recently the structure of this ride has looked like it's held together with spit and bailing wire. The idea that they're putting new steel track on top of it, that's probably going to be a fast ride with a lot of forces, boggles my mind. I'm picturing the whole thing just collapsing in a heap the first time they try attaching anything new to it.

I've been on that side of the fence for 13 years now...there's no excuse for bad service. I can understand an operator erring on the side of caution when it's such a close call, because there is a little room for human error when measuring someone so close to the height restriction. However, after she got the wristband, it's an absolute joke she still wasn't allowed to ride without Robb having to press the issue further. There's NO excuse for that. It sucks but I totally get why it happened though. Nobody likes being challenged, or proven that they were wrong, or having your superiors undermine decisions you've made. "Oh I'm sorry sir, it looks like I WAS being overly cautious and made an error in judgment." It takes a mature person to be willing to say that, and most... or I will say... MANY ride ops at corporate parks aren't exactly paragons of maturity.

They should take the "judgement call" aspect out of it altogether by attaching the height stick to the floor and allowing it to swivel in a circle. Have the kid stand next to the stick, swivel it, if the bar touches their head at all, they're allowed to ride. Should be no grey area at all. This is why I should be in charge of everything, I have all the best ideas.

When I was there they were even dispatching the left side first to try and compensate, but the right side would still pass it on the lift. Definitely moving quite a bit faster. Seems to this not-mechanically-inclined person like it'd be an easy thing to fix, if they wanted.

Why is the capacity that big a deal? Fahrenheit has worse, Full Throttle has worse, Backlot Stunt Coaster has about the same, and that's just to name a few.

I actually consider Flight of Fear at KD to be the 3rd or 4th best coaster in the park. No offense to KD, but that's really not saying a whole lot...there's quite a bit of falloff IMHO from i305 to #2 at the park. Everything else is really just kind of meh. In fact, I'm not even sure which coaster I would put at #2. I know Volcano is popular, but other than the launches, it's really not all that impressive to me. Dominator is your standard B&M floorless--nothing really to write home about. What's left? 4 woodies, an old Arrow, a Mack bobsled, a TOGO death machine, a wild mouse, and the 2 Premier launch coasters. Couldn't that be said of most parks in the country though, one or two standouts with some more average coasters? I'd say KD has a very solid lineup.

Maverick. I liked it well enough, but considering what I value most in coasters (unique layouts, low to the ground elements, consistent sensation of speed), it should be my favorite coaster of all time. But the opening switchbacks didn't do anything for me but bang my neck against the restraints, the horseshoe roll was practically the most forceless part of the ride, the trims immediately after the launch breaks the pacing, and the stengel dives, again, just felt like they were there to throw you from left to right. I wanted to like it so much more, but when I really add up the elements in my mind and the only parts I really liked were the airtime hills and opening drop, I have a hard time defending it to myself.

After all the hate that wing coasters get on this forum, I'm just a little surprised everybody is being so overwhelmingly positive about this, for a park that has possibly the greatest wooden coaster line-up of any park on the planet. I can't help but wonder what this thread would look like if more people were willing to speak their mind.

You know it's funny, I actually really like the feeling of being thrown forward into the restraint at the end of the ride when it hits the brakes. I seem to remember TTD being one of the best for this. I even thought it would be cool to have designers start to use this as another color to work with, sudden violent stops in the middle of a ride to break up the pacing, possibly on steep downward slopes so you immediately start accelerating again. Guess this wouldn't be as popular an idea as I thought... That all sounds sarcastic, doesn't it? Well it's not. I can't be the only one who thinks this, can I?

Right now I see this being either a dark ride or 4D theater attraction. As much as an old-school Knoebels-esque dark ride would be awesome, I think Hershey's image is far too clean and sterilized for them to go that route. From the images I'm getting a more surreal Alice in Wonderland type theme.

You piss poor attitude is turning into ignorance. SkyScrapper finished in the Top20 of Mitch's Steel Poll last year for a reason. I do not recall one person on the 2012 TPR China Trip complaining about it; I seem to recall most people raving about it. I don't understand why you think the hype is based solely on POV when 50 members of TPR rode the coaster. The ride was very forceful (or at least it was when we rode it) and enjoyable. You misunderstood me. My point wasn't that Sky Scrapper isn't a good ride, my point is that many of the people who are excited for it are excited not because they've ridden it, but because they've seen the POV, and it's very obvious just from the POV that it's an excellent ride. It maintains a good sense of speed, is paced well all the way to the end, and does things that are unique and different. A "top tier" ride, for those wondering what I meant by that. This is what B&M are capable of, this is what they could do (or at least try to do) every time they sit down to design a ride. And it seems obvious to me from this POV that for some mysterious, frustrating reason, they once again opted for a phoned-in blah layout, and this is Holiday World, and that really stings. Oh, and re: Oceanus, that's exactly what I thought the first time it was mentioned.

You're right. Banshee, Shambhala and Sky Scrapper are all essentially worthless. Be disappointed, but how about you give this ride a spin before projecting generalizations? Ironic, considering not many TPR members have even ridden Sky Scrapper, and most of the hype is based purely off the POV, which is exactly the same kind of determination I'm making. And also, "force" doesn't play into my disappointment nearly as much as the layout itself (I mean seriously, two very tall turnarounds plugged in back-to-back...). Although, if this ride does end up being unexpectedly forceful, it certainly wouldn't hurt.

To hear some people tell it, we can't blame B&M for anything about their designs, it's all what the park asked for. As if Cedar Point said to them, "Oh yeah, and make sure it's got a really weak ending after the MCBR. And don't make the airtime hill very strong, we don't want airtime on this ride." True, somebody at HW could have said "we'd like most of the ride built below the tree line to enhance the feeling of speed and excitement, particularly given the ride's rather modest stats", but I'd say it's more B&M's fault for not suggesting it, they are the ones in charge of designing the ride, after all. But like I said umpteen pages ago, B&M does not seem interested in designing top-tier rides. EDIT: So we're clear on this, I'm happy for Holiday World and I think this will be a "good" addition to the park. I look forward to riding it when I visit next year. My reaction here is based on the cost and the long build-up, and the fact that it was so closely linked (in spirit) to the man that brought us the Voyage.

^Alright, fine, I don't know, I take it back. Yikes.

^^I believe you may have misunderstood that particular Holiblog post. Will had nothing to do with the design of this ride. Knowing that, am I allowed to dislike it now? ^I was hoping for a hyper because from B&M, that's basically the best we can hope for. And I also honestly thought that was looking pretty likely. But I definitely wouldn't have needed a hyper to be happy. I set my expectations for a top-tier ride regardless of type, and I don't, at this exact moment, believe those hopes have been realised.

Ok I lied I do have a nice thing to say. The station and scenery both look absolutely gorgeous, very "rustic", making the coaster not feel so out of place. That part of it I love. As for the coaster running through it, I don't know how to say what I want to say without sounding like I'm trolling, because I'm not. I mean, I'm disappointed, I just am. Severely, severely disappointed, in both Holiday World and B&M. I'm only bothering to say it because I figure maybe there's one or two other people out there who feel the same as I do and are wondering if they're alone. I mean, a launch straight into an immelmann? Seriously B&M? That's the best you could come up with? And then a vertical loop? Like, the same vertical loop you've been putting at the beginning of all of your coasters since Batman the Ride? Such beautiful surroundings and we only get two elements anywhere near the ground (s curve and helix)? Obviously I won't say I dislike the ride until I ride it. I know you can't dismiss a ride purely based on the layout. But again, just giving my honest reaction, take it or leave it. I'll go in with my expectations low and probably be pleasantly surprised. But I'm 99% certain that I won't come out thinking that, given the location and 22 million dollars, a better ride could not have been made. And this being the home of the Voyage, I really was hoping for the best.

If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all, right? I will hold my peace.