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^I'd guess it's more likely that KK & RMC quickly came to the mutual conclusion that a high-quality, dual-track makeover was not within a viable budget for the park, or that dual-track was never in the talks ... rather than RMC submitting an uninspired proposal that the park rejected.

What's the exact schedule ... is the trip for the 30th - 2nd? Are you fitting flights in that window as well, IE your 29th and 3rd are full days? BDL, EWR, BWI, DCA, PHL all give you the same exact round trip driving route to/from the parks and have direct flights from LAX. There may be others. RIC adds 45m drive time. JFK and LGA will be much more costly to rent a car. You'll probably run into a couple hours of traffic delays in total, depending on when you're in the NYC area and/or on I95. I'd say about 18-19h total driving time including to/from hotels. Cheapest car rental in order looks to be: BWI, PHL, BDL, DCA, EWR.

Buzzsaw is a really solid ride, I'd always skipped it, and when I finally rode it, really wished I'd done so sooner! Very forceful.

With a little understanding of perspective and foreshortening, and careful selection of views, it's quite easy to pull meaningful dimensional ratios off photographs. Not an uncommon technique at all for rough 3D modeling, and one I use professionally here and there.

Okay, this makes no sense to me. (Or maybe I am just reading it wrong.) You are trying to rule out this being a Dive Machine by saying "the frame spine height is about 3.5x the rail diameter. In the picture directly above, that height is about 5x the rail diameter." ... But you then compare this to a Dive Machine that "appears to vary from about 5x rail diameter to about 3.5x rail diameter?" Do we think that MAYBE B&M knows what they are doing when it comes to fabricating track, and maybe there is a reason the spine is not the same size throughout the track? Maybe the spine is thickest at the bottom of the drops where g-forces are highest, and the spine is thinner in places the g-forces are lower? ... I mean... that makes sense to me, and that is clearly what they did on Baron 1898. Where you bolded text, I accidentally omitted the word "not" that should have gone between "does" and "rule". I think that clears up the confusion. Apologies for the error. My intended point was that this does indeed appear to be dive coaster track with characteristics similar to Baron, and likely not wingrider track. I understand the concepts behind variation in spine thickness. As an engineer myself, I run stress analysis simulations quite often. I do think B&M knows what they are doing; if I implied otherwise, it was not my intent.

In my view, (a) the two tracks have very different spine proportions, and (b) one photo with similar spine heights does not rule out a dive machine Compare that section of brown/silver track to this one: In the quoted picture, the frame spine height is about 3.5x the rail diameter. In the picture directly above, that height is about 5x the rail diameter. Since the rail diameter is a constant, this implies the spine is much thicker in some areas of the ride than in others. Wing rider coasters have generally had more consistent spine thicknesses. Incidentally, the spine height of Baron 1898 appears to vary from about 5x rail diameter to about 3.5x rail diameter, with the thicker rail at the first drop. Pics from vijfzintuigen.nl edit: see here.

^^Probably, I don't think it's publicly known if they are pursuing something like that. It's not entirely clear what the competing claim is. ^ Right, as long as they don't infringe on someone else's trademark. They're mainly protecting their ability to market merchandise and brand exclusivity when they TM.

Their Centurion trademark was suspended.

The Today show clip was definitely disappointing as the reporter did get stuck a few times on her way down. On the other hand, a few rider-POV's from park employee runs have been posted showing them maintaining a good pace. I think rider technique comes into play strongly on something this long - stay streamlined and rigid and you'll go well - get all loosey-goosey and react to splashes, accelerations... maybe get stuck ? It's also interesting that in the Travel Channel episode about the construction of the slide, they portray one of the testing days as: slide not working at all all morning, people getting stuck, etc. Then in the afternoon it suddenly starts working great and everyone gets good runs. So it might be very sensitive to who-knows-what variables, that are not yet well quantified. Temperature, humidity, exact inflation level... Since there is naturally not a clear plot this long within the waterpark, they have this set up off to the side under a ski lift. I didn't notice it until the end of my visit on Sunday. It was deflated and vacant by the time I walked over to check it out. They have it routed over a jump that would definitely give nice air at 35 or 40mph (claimed max speeds). Overall I'm excited to give this a shot if they get it open. Next year, I'm thinking. __________________________________________ Going to put a quick TR and some impressions of the park here while I'm at it. We had an absolute blast. And I even have a huge bruise on my back, just like I'm supposed to! : P The day started off with a little hiccup. I'd pre-purchased tickets online and printed them out. Arriving at the park, there was a huge line queued out front of the ski lodge waiting on windows marked "Tickets". Typically one of the perks of having pre-paid tickets is bypassing these types of lines, so we happily walked past and got in the bag check line. After a 25min wait, we get to the bag checkers and he goes, "Sorry man, you need wristbands past this point," and motioned me to turn around. I asked where I was supposed to have gotten a wrist band and he told me at the lodge. Thankfully, he was very kind and let my partner wait by him with our bags while I went back for wristbands, so that we wouldn't have to wait in the whole bag check queue again. I went inside the lodge, found a guest relations booth with a small line, and asked the lady where I could pickup wristbands for my printed tickets. She told me I was supposed to have waited in the ticket line (!) but that she could go ahead and print them out for me. We just found it a very odd process with signage completely lacking. But no matter, we were in, and excited to ride! I feared that fluffy bunnies would be sold out, but it was no problem getting one, not even a wait. After a quick blast down Surf Hill to get things going with some competitive spirit (I won yay!), we headed up the hill (and holy crap - you get a real workout here!) to the H2-Oh-no! / Zero-G tower. Whenever a trap-door slide is the tamer of the choices in front of you, it's probably going to be a fun day. Passing a sizeable queue on the stairs for that one, we found ourselves the only guests willing to tackle the speed slide at that moment - a true walk on! This slide is very thrilling and introduced water into previously unknown depths of my nasal cavity. After another round we hit up the trap door slide which was a much better experience than my go at SFNE. Very smooth yet forceful. Overheard a local talking about the speed slides there in the heydays. He claimed one was far steeper - virtually vertical - than the current one and actually had a net over the top that you would distinctly brush against on your way down (while touching no part of the slide itself)! It was already lunchtime and we were hungry so started checking out food options. Settled on a sit-down BBQ deal right in the middle of the park with a deck that overlooked the High Tide wave pool. It was totally empty, the service was outstanding, prices only moderately jacked up, and food was quite good. Wave pool was putting out the biggest waves we'd ever seen at such an attraction ... they would fully break, still a foot and a half high, at the very back of the pool. Meant to get in there but ended up not getting around to it. After stuffing our faces we of course immediately headed to the most gut-wrenching ride in the park - Cannonball Falls. After a short, fast, twisty run through a tight, small diameter, pitch-black slide, you empty into a very deep, very cold pool by means of a ten foot plunge! It is incredibly nerve-wracking as you begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel, knowing what awaits you. Really, really exhilarating, and a definite reride. Three riders after us, an obvious non-swimmer plunged in, shot a terrified look at the lifeguard, and got rescued. The exit of this slide takes you by the Tarzan Swings viewing gallery, where we spent a few entertaining minutes watching some very skilled and very unskilled jumpers. A few guys were doing crazy aerobatic flips off the rope. One guy's grip slipped and he fell straight in immediately, to a huge round of audience laughter. Another totally butchered a flip and belly-flopped from 10' in the air to a huge collective groan/"oooohhhh" from the crowd. Granted: this place is highly neutered compared to its original incarnation. And yet we still felt some jubilant awe at the fact it exists, in 2015, in the United States. With a little effort, you can definitely still get yourself hurt here. Once dried off a bit, headed down to the entrance area for their Alpine Mountain Coaster. It was much cheaper than most of them: $5 for a ride and $8 for two rides. We did two rides and had the good fortune to go brake-less both times. Certainly not the longest, steepest, fastest, or most thrilling mountain coaster, but a great time nonetheless. You can ride in your swim suit. High Anxiety is one of the original ProSlide Tornados and had a serious line. We did wait it out, and it was fun but of course nothing earth shattering. Alpine Pipeline next door also had a big wait. It is an excellent, moderately thrilling, partially closed/partially open two-person raft slide. Would have been happy to reride this all day long had the wait been short, but alas, had to be a one-n-done for the day. We then headed over to the Wild River Canyon part of the park, expecting the best rides to be behind us. Oh how wrong we were! I'm guessing that much of this section is retained from the original Action Park. A short, straight, concrete body slide drops you 18' into a pool. There are man-made cliffs directly adjacent where you can jump 18' and 23' into the same pool. Passing on these and making our way down to the pool level, we grabbed tubes for what would be three really terrific whitewater tube rides. These are completely home-brewed, and completely off-the-chain. The Gauley is single-person only and was my favorite, with a seriously steep drop at the end that I took backwards, MAJOR surprise factor. And yet the best ride of the day was still to come. After climbing back up out of the canyon and sitting for a beer at the highly popular Tiki bar, we shuffled over to the Colorado River raft ride which had an overflowing queue. It looked like an 1hr+ kind of line, but in about half that we were rolling our massive raft up to the entrance and in the water. This was basically the home-brewed tube rides previously described... on steroids, in a 4-person raft. It is white-water rafting, and you get drenched, unlike the lame-o corporate dry park raft rides. I started getting the giggles immediately and by halfway thru was laughing completely uncontrollably. We absolutely HAD to do it again, despite the line. With that, it was closing time, and we went home still smiling and laughing. I'd intended to put some time aside to take pictures, but was having so much fun it never materialized. And I have no clue what the big bruise was from. It has a mesh pattern imprinted in it. . World's longest slide, direct from New Zealand. They had it set up across from the waterpark under a ski lift - this jump could make for some nice airtime! The slide viewed from across the road, headed back to parking lot

Did you sit near the back on Goliath? It's pretty brutal back there, but I've found the front few rows to be much better.

^^ And my fingertips caught a branch on SooperDooperLooper without being drastically extended a few weeks ago. But I love the woods around all these old Schwarzkopfs. 150 coasters in and there's still one among my very favorite rides. Trees swallowed Revolution too in a beautiful way, pretty sure I could have grabbed a branch there. It's like their natural setting. The tunnel entrance on Wooden Warrior is tight. I wonder if a really tall guy couldn't connect with arms way up.

It's been reported by an announcment attendee that Kennywood is getting the Enterprise as a source for spare parts.

Where is that abomination? It is in Mexico. Sadly it's not running as of earlier this year, I'd totally ride it. Sorry a bit OT but I just have to leave this one here....

Well that's awesome. I'll be here Sunday for my first ever visit, will try to grab some pictures of this. Sounds like it won't be open though.

Oh how I love the "random rollercoaster" function of RCDB! Have we seen this one? "Questionable"....yes, we'll go with that!

SNFE is about the most booze-friendly park in the region. There have got to be at least ten places throughout the park to get your buzz on. A nice Boston lager to wash down some pulled pork-topped fries at JB's across from Goliath is my fave. Not much in the 'good food near parks' thread for here. The only local restaurant I've hit up was Parthenon a couple miles away which was a perfectly average Italian place with big portions, decent prices, but nothing to write home about.

Am I the only one? (photocredit CP's official youtube channel)

Notice row 2 from WC's first public lap. And yes, he posts here/ watches this thread. ^I asked really nicely for a preferred seat on a slow day (queue was to mid-staircase) and was told (a) no and (b) no, I couldn't wait another train for it. In 10+ laps I've had the misfortune of never getting anywhere near the front or back row.

Blue train = blue seats, orange train = orange seats. The side panels are the same on both, mostly blue with orange accents.

If you consider suspendeds inverts, then Canada's Wonderland, King's Island, and Universal Singapore satisfy three types of inverted coasters, though not those particular mfrs. Dorney also satisfies three types of inverted coasters. Plenty of parks have three types of B&Ms and Great Adventure literally has those same exact types.

^^ Most of the coasters on that list are Intamin-headed projects whose entire manufacture was fully subcontracted to Giovanola.

I rode it in the middle of last summer and at the very end of last year. The midsummer rides were great but my October rides on a wheel seat mid-train (yeah...:/) were incredibly painful. My back hurt for over a week. I figured the cold weather was the main factor but now I'm not so sure. The funky "triple-up" toward the end of the return leg was the worst part. Had to move it out of my top 10 for the time being. I'm pretty tolerant of roughness on wooden coasters too; I can reride Ghost Rider and Mean Streak many many times from most seats and be completely comfortable. I mean, they're "rough", but simply not painful at all like this was. At the same time, agreed, Wildcat was running awesome in October!

Removed my answer, forgot what forum section I was in.

There is a twisty wood coaster called Twister that I like better than any of the GCI's I've ridden. Phoenix has the best airtime in the world. Not the most forceful, but the best. An opinion, obviously. More opinions: They have one of the best flat ride collections in the world, some of the best theme park food in the world, and an comfortable, friendly atmosphere that I'd not characterize as like a carnival. Unlimited ride wristbands are $46 on July 7th, so you don't have to (but still could) use individual ride tickets. But if you're strongly focused on big steel coasters, you're right, it may not be your cup of tea.

Two years ago I was absolutely terrified of coasters and couldn't imagine ever going on something like a drop ride. Just looking up at a lift hill would induce a strong vertigo and literally make my knees shake. But I finally got over that to find I really, really like them. Now I've been on 138 different coasters in 25 different parks in ten different states, and ride anything without any much apprehension. Trying new things keeps life fun. It sounds like you wouldn't really have any problem conquering any coaster- Excelerator, Montezooma, and Silver Bullet included. Go for it and enjoy that excited nervousness.