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Fu11 Thr0tt1e by the Superman entrance has a nice section. *photocredit Pinterest>Natalie Giller, because I can't find my own pics.

Regarding the parking lot, there are so many ways they could turn this negative, into a positive. Take the vertical faces of the potholes and convert them into rockclimbing attractions. Charge an extra $20 for admission and bill it as the "Grand Canyon of the East". Tie a tightrope from one side of a pothole to the other and have a Wallenda walk across before a paying crowd of thousands. Add some pyrite to the rubble and open a pan-for-gold attraction. The opportunites are truly endless.... Hold up now, that last one could actually work.

I just picked up a stylish polo shirt from the latest Uniqlo/Michael Bastian collection for 76 Malaysian ringgits, or about 20 bucks US.

I used successive searches on RCDB to analyze each of your questions. I suspect you've already done the same. I highly doubt that anyone on this forum will have relevant, reliable info that is not contained in RCDB, because they would have likely already submitted the info there. RCDB suggests: No If by this you mean, "What coaster built before 1896 lasted the longest?", then RCDB would suggest this information is probably lost to history. The previous verifiable contender would be an 1895 L.A. Thompson Scenic Railway that lasted only until 1917 at Ludlow Lagoon, Kentucky, USA. RCDB suggests: No. Here's the nearest, also at Willow Grove, and it was completely rebuilt. RCDB suggest: No RCDB suggests: No It may be helpful to understand the nature of the earliest true roller coasters: They were simply replaced more frequently than ones built in the mid-1910's and beyond. This is because, as with any emergent technology that gains widespread popularity, the earliest period of development features some of the most rapid evolution. For coasters, this is side-friction era. Switchback railways with gentle, slow undulations quickly became surpassed by "dips" style drops, which became increasingly steep and fast. Each time the boundary got pushed, earlier designs became passé to the public and non-profitable to the operators. This is one reason good 'ol LeMarcus was so successful through this period: He was happy to see his creations demolished so he could provide something newer and better. Only when the up-stop wheel was finally invented did coasters of sufficient intensity to have any staying power become possible. This line of reasoning does leave two open questions: Why were any side-friction coasters build after the up-stop revolution? And why weren't more side-friction coasters converted to up-stop coasters? My thoughts on these points enter the area of pure speculation, so I leave them as exercises for the historically-enthused reader. You may also get more interesting (perhaps first-hand ) feedback if you pursue the knowledge of your local ACE chapter.

Air Asia needs mention here, and I expect to be a repeat customer. I'm in northern Malaysia for work and didn't think I'd get a chance to get on any coasters, IE Kuala Lumpur or Singapore. On a whim I just checked, and the flights were so reasonable that I booked one, even knowing there's a good chance I'll have to miss it and eat the cost. I'm talking $30-100 options, direct round trip. Of course, I haven't actually experienced the flight yet. But reviews are fine. Meanwhile, Singapore Air (one of the best for trans-continental Asian flights) - I'm looking at $1000+ for the KL route .... with a layover .... tripling the total flight time each way. LOL!! Related: Among the discount travel sites, Kayak is winning my appreciation lately. No affiliation.

Fury 325 *photocredit Jakizle Not a "path" but still...

Cool thread. My CF parkredits are a bit weak, next year should be my big platinum-pass road trip. 1. King's Dominion 2. Cedar Point 3. KBF 4(tie). CGA 4(tie). Dorney I truly understand the unanimous love for CP but it's just not my favorite collection of rides, what can I say? I like Millennium Force, don't love it (gasp!). I like Maverick, don't love it. (double gasp! heresy!!) I really like Raptor and Dragster and Mean Streak, in fact I almost love Mean Streak (dubya-tee-eff is this guy ON?). I totally dig drop rides and KD's is hands-down the best I've ridden - Luthor and 'Jaro included. I totally dig flat rides and they have a great collection. I305 is just magical lunacy. Volcano is hugely underrated and is the last coaster that actually put a nice knot in my stomach first ride. Just awesome. Rebel Yell has a top-five airtime moment. It's a beautiful park and easy to navigate. Add in the fact that I had two absolutely perfect visits to this park last year, and it just happens to be my favorite at the moment. Barely missed a chance to visit Gilroy by a few days. If it counts, and if I'd gone, it very well may have been my #1. I'm different, OK?

I figured. And great idea, thanks, will definitely look into that alternate possibility!

I have a 4.5h layover in Hong Kong on Sunday April 26, arriving around noon. Ocean Park is open. I hear the city has a pretty kick-butt public transport system. Ignoring flight delay possibilities, Is it remotely possible to get there, ride Hair Raiser, and get back for my flight? Do any locals have an idea of potential crowdedness? I'm figuring "no" and "not really"/"very", respectively, but I gotta ask. Hair Raiser is strangely high up on my bucket list. Like.... wayyyy up there. I may consider trying even if there's a good chance I don't get one ride in. Would love to just see the park.

SFNE does a lot of things wrong. Like, a LOT. And any coaster that "ranks" as well, and as consistently as Bizarro is almost certifiably "overrated". All of which is of vastly trivial importance to me. As of this summer this park will have likely put, arguably, one of the greatest "one-two punches" in the theme park world two hours from my backyard. Hell-freakin'-yeah! As for the shortcomings of the park, they can make for reasonably humorous entertainment.

I can confirm that operations on Toro were frighteningly bad yesterday - four to ten minute dispatch intervals with one train running. Some sort of supervisor-ish lady was behind the mic for the better part of the afternoon. Earlier she'd been running around yelling (literally) at the new employees about where they should be going and what they should be doing. I know it's opening day, but they really need to train these guys/gals better, sooner; it was embarrassing for the riders and employees. Most other rides were literally 95% empty all day long but there was a 40min wait at 2pm for Toro. Front seat wait had to be 90min+ at that point. At one point the supervisor lady says, into the mic, at the new employees: "What did send this hour, fifteen?" I honestly couldn't tell if the tone was "hey, good job" or "are you freaking kidding me?" Why was a supervisor behind the mic? It may have had something to do with this gem, from a new employee, earlier: "Visual scan...... awlllll clear... NO WAIT! CANCEL!! Hey, ladies! If you're not riding, you have to stand behind the gate..." Nitro ops improved throughout the day Sat. At the end they were running two trains with ... woah.. no stacking! For all 6 laps of my mini-marathon. C train is butter smooth. A is decent but gives a few shakes here and there. C has blue wheels (polyurethane?) and A has white wheels (nylon?). Or vice versa, lol. Skyride crew was on the ball and the cable was FULL of cabins, just like the famous Cedar Point pic that floats around here. Well done. They added drainage to the walkway part of the BTR queue, so you don't have to step through or around 6" of water on really wet day. (Confirmed working; it was raining. Congrats Six Flags engineering team, job well done. I'm not being sarcastic, it was nice to see this effort.) Ka ran in the afternoon. It even started to sprinkle lightly and they kept going, fortunately that mist stopped. Green train was very close to rolling back for most of the launches I saw. Front seat was a 1/2h wait and well worth it. It was fairly cold but this is still a strip-down-to-a-tanktop-and-put-your-arms-up-the-whole-ride for me. Not ashamed to really enjoy it. Superman was down most of the day until the late afternoon and I got one ride in. OMG I have forgotten my love for pretzel loops, now I remember why I rank Tatsu so abnormally high.

The Mondial version I believe, yes.

While dejectedly looking at a sign proclaiming Thunderbolt's closure yesterday, a park worker approached me and "promised" it would be be open on Friday. You can take that for what it's worth, as another park worker told me Cyclone would likely be opening "in about an hour" when I asked at the ticket booth around 2pm (it didn't). The weather is the biggest factor - at least for the steel rides - the warmer it is, the better chance you'll have.

A few pages late, but so be it. I rode this and remember it being a snoozefest, even as a relatively small child. While impressive-looking to spectators, it got solidly underwhelming reviews from riders. Wiki says it was at BGW 88-93. The model is Canyon Trip, Vekoma brought it to the market in '87 and only sold four of them to BGW, Morey's, Nagashima, and a now-defunct park in the UK called American Adventure. Interestingly, I've heard multiple times that it was designed to invert and that BGW tested theirs with an inverting program before settling on a tamer one for guests. It did sport OTSRs. I suspect they didn't wish to experiment with wilder programs for fears of escalating maintenance costs, but that is pure speculation. I'm sure the maintenance was neither cheap nor fun to begin with. Vekoma went on to slightly modify the design to create the Waikiki Wave (non-inverting, introduced 1991 and sold to Lotte World, Kentucky Kingdom, Formosan Village Taiwan) and Wakiki Wave Super Flip (inverting, introduced 1993 and sold to Dreamworld, SFMexico). I believe those last two still operate and, with the inversions, are apparently quite intense and popular. There may be a few more installations, either original or relocated. On the Waikikis, one of the arms is bendable/articulated, instead of the gondola sliding apart/together. And the seating orientation is like that of a Top Spin. A few other companies have made versions of these "screwed up Top Spins", none particularly common: Moser (Maverick), Zamperla (Windshear), KMG (Discovery), Mondial (Supernova).

So we went today and had a great time. It was sunny and brisk, at least for the big rides. To summarize the visit: not many coaster rides, but Luna Park and Deno's still turn out to be good fun without them. No rides had waits but the parks were reasonably populated. Perfect. I actually loved the bright, clear 40F weather. Read ajfelice's description of early season operations, it is spot on. We appreciated the effort to get the park running at whatever capacity was possible. Arrived about 12:15 to see people walking around on Cyclone's lift hill as we drove by. I was hopeful it would get running during the day but it wasn't to be. Thunderbolt was shut down and gated up. I overheard that testing went really badly yesterday in the cold. Soarin Eagle was thankfully shut down, I had no plans to ride and this undoubtedly saved plenty of people some pain. Onto Steeplechase where engineers were playing with prox sensors. We stopped back a bit later to watch a test or warm-up launch roll back. The flats were fun. I'm always game for multiple re-rides on a Disk-o. The small 360 frisbee ride is just phenomenal. Excited for Quassy's. Air Race was good enough for another 'spin'. Did the little red coaster for the credit. I need to build something that size in my backyard someday. After a walk out on the pier we ate at the boardwalk Nathan's. It surprised us for reasonable prices and a decent chili dog with bacon cheese fries. And a nice crisp orangeade with a touch of rind bitter, strangely delicious and refreshing. We saw riders on Steeplechase as we were eating, so headed over for two quick rides. There was actually a 1-2 train wait. Got lucky to get full seat choice both times (all rides at Coney are fill-all-seats policy). Front and back were equally enjoyable to me. Great little launch - 'adorable' I'd even say - awesome, forceful first turn/bank. Shortly after our rides it again appeared down. The Wonder Wheel is an experience that MUST be had, it is unique and strangely disorienting and altogether outstanding. This is referring to the rolling/sliding/screetching cars. Onto el pics!! This is Thunderbolt. Hibernating. I know you know what Thunderbolt looks like, but did you notice that the Brooklyn Cyclone's outfield lighting within the vertical loop... sorta looks like a nipple? Try un-seeing THAT! Opening day woes. We were wondering what the news trucks were doing all around. Didn't even make the connection. :/ There was Cyclone Harley parked by the gift shop and it seems like maybe the same guy has a dune buggy that hangs around? New track! Lot's of it, much more than this. Oh, and let me say. This is a beautiful coaster. It's old and raw and steep and it oozes history. You can just see how being crammed into a tiny block generates it's tight curves and legendary forcefulness. It's been prized and maintained, then neglected, then re-prized in much it's original form as an unlikely survivor among so many . It's been copied and mirrored and re-imagined and has given so much inspiration to new designs through the decades. I felt humbled in it's presence. We.. we didn't! I swear it didn't even cross our minds! Pretty turns. Thunderbolt is eye-candy too. And nothing more, today.

Enough of this off-season! My partner and I will be at Luna for opening today. Say hi if you see us, I'll have a grey sweater and red Six Flags Discovery Kingdom cinch bag.

Does I-X still have a ride similar to, and made by the same company as, the Scrambler? It may have gone by any or all of the following: Cycloid, FireStorm, Outer Limits ... and was owned by Bates. I checked out this years ride list and nothing stands out. It's similar to a Scrambler but with the seat oriented such that instead of lateral forces you're pushed into the seat. And with much greater angular acceleration. Does anyone know its fate if it no longer appears at I-X?

Rebel Yell backseat deserves a more recent mention in this thread. It yanked my thigh out from between the seat divider and ratcheting lap bar.

Orlando Eye

Raging Bull. Pre-enthusiast days. When I looked up at the lift and first drop from the ground, my knees would instantly start shaking. I was incredibly terrified.

It's me, in front of a Wicked Cyclone sign at SFNE late last season. Wearing Cedar Point glasses straps because I was spending much of the day riding roller coasters. It may or may not look like I have earring(s); I don't.

Opinions vary pretty greatly here as you see but here's my take. KK is simply a different animal. There is a relentless rattle @ about 5Hz for the entire ride after the launch. Sure the back is worse, but it's everywhere. Rode both TTD and KK as a first time rider from their front seats this past season, within a month or two. I was skeptical about really enjoying either. During my TTD ride I could not stop thinking: "Wow, this is actually a really fun ride." Came back with a huge smile on my face. KK ride went something like this: "Wow, that launch" .... <> ..."What the *bleep* is all this *bleep*..." .... <> ... "...-ING RATTLING??!" Came back rolling my eyes. It's not a painful or an even particularly uncomfortable rattle in the front, whatsoever. But it detracts enough from my experience that I walk away feeling very "meh". This style ride just needs to be glass smooth to "work" for me, like TTD is and does.

^ The peeing issues are the other factor holding me back, aside from my boys Michael and Joey collectively freaking out when I brought it up. I've read repeatedly that there is generally some extra leakage after finishing up, even in the small gauges. The other typical piercing geometries don't have that issue, but they just don't appeal to me as strikingly as the PA does.

Ahhh, was just about to post an "R" that I believe has been unmentioned so far. Anyway, let's see.... Sidewinder at Hershey

Just had my left nipple pierced last night -- my first piercing -- and absolutely love it: how it looks, how it feels, and the taboo itself. I'm a clean cut, nerdy engineer and it's just not the kind of thing anyone I know would expect me to do. Keeping it hidden and maintaining that innocent facade is a big part of the fun, for me. Genuinely want to get a Prince Albert now and stretch to 8g or 6g but my partners did not respond positively to that idea. I'll only have been healing for about a month when my coaster season starts, and am a little concerned about the ride forces and restraints impacting the healing. Can anyone with experience comment?