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I will put the # of choices I had for each letter, and bold the ones that have not yet appeared in thread. A (4) - Apocalypse, SFMM B (14) - Blue Streak, CLP C (9) - Cyclone, SFNE D (5) - Dominator, KD E (1) - El Toro, SFGAd F (5) - Fahrenheit, HP G (12) - Goliath, SFMM H (2) - Hydra: The Revenge, DP I (2) - Intimidator 305, KD J (1) - Joker's Jinx, SFA K (1) - Kingda Ka, SFGAd L (1) - Lightning Racer, HP M (8) - Mean Streak, CP (Yes, I rode Maverick...) N (2) - Nitro, SFGAd O (0) - P (3) - Phoenix, KAR Q (0) - R (3) - Raging Bull, SFGAm S (13) - Skyrush, HP T (6) - Tatsu, SFMM U (0) - V (4) - Volcano: Blast Coaster, KD W (8) - Whizzer, SFGAm X (3) - X2, SFMM Y (0) - Z (1) - Zoomerang, LC

I'm completely torn whether this DreamVision fellow is a delusional visionary or someone who's spent the better part of his adult life planning a single massive scam, and finally making his move. For an extra helping of weirdness, definitely check out the Rick Silanskas CD on Amazon if Monday's Dallas Morning News story didn't already bring you there. You might think someone capable of all those glowing reviews would have progressed a little further in his music career, eh? This moves me in the "scam" direction. And then there's the strangely positive one-star review that begins: "Voila! Romance at its maximum expression. This masterpiece is better than a roller-coaster ride! ..." Perhaps a coincidence, or a personal acquaintance with tongue firmly in cheek....? This moves me in the "delusional visionary" direction.

There is an upside to the labyrinthine layout: Most guests never even find Lightning Racer, so there's never a line! Let me echo a tremendous excitement for my 2015 Hershey visit. It too is one of my favorite parks, maybe my #1, and Laff Trakk looks absolutely fantastic. Great concept: an immersive, unique experience on a budget. I was immediately captivated, and expect it will be a great value for the park.

A lot of the secondary schools around Richmond seem to have break April 6-10, which appears to be reflected in the operating schedule. I was at the park for the April 12-13 weekend last season and crowds were pretty light. Only Volcano and Backlot built up any real queues.

Had a great day at the park for my first visit. Clear, sunny day; chilly in the morning but nice in the afternoon. Crowds were light and lines were basically non-existant on any rides. Park was clean, nicely themed, good attention to detail (mostly), employees were generally upbeat and positive. A Six Flags outlier. Roar I found surprisingly addictive. After riding the SFA version, I'd had no desire to reride, and didn't. This one I did not want to get off. The retracking must have made a major difference. There were still many piles of wood sitting within the ride footprint. Cannot believe I'm saying this, but I may have enjoyed it more than Apocalypse or Gold Striker. Strangely, the cooler morning rides seemed a bit wilder than the warmer afternoon rides. Hammerhead and Thrilla Gorilla were the real surprise flats for me, both outstanding. TG is like a Matterhorn/Musik Express but with a lot more Tumble Bug-ness to it, and much more thrilling than a Matterhorn. Hammerhead is Zamperla's (prototype) version of the more common Fabbri Kamikaze. It was a MUCH more enjoyable ride than the Kamikaze I've ridden. Voodoo (TopSpin) ran a better program than I remember at Great Adventure, starting with a triple backflip right out the gate. I still need to ride one of these on the Euro fair circuit where they go nuts with them. Their scrambler is called Scat-a-bout. I feel like this is a subtle but apropros double-entendre, considering the massive dump the elephant next door had just taken. Thoughts? SFDK V2 > Wicked Twister / SFGAm V2. Flattening the spike out gives this a whole new personality. If this ride were to twist another 180 degrees before coming to the pause on the twisted spike, it would be NUTS. That would just be a sick amount of intense hangtime. Coaster Tally: Medusa: 3 - Kong: 2 - Cobra: 1 - Roar: 5 - V2: 2 - Boomerang: 1 Flats (one ride on each): Wave Swinger, Hammerhead Shark, Scat-a-bout, Thrilla Gorilla, Voodoo, The Ark The Skyline. Getting very excited right about now! . I tilted the camera. So this is.... artistic. . Ever notice how distinctly Foghorn's waddle resembles.... well.... balls? . Slowly.... backing ... away. . Getting out of the Scrambler is the WRONG way to ride the Scrambler! This warning sign has its own warning sign on it. So meta! . Roar's sign is literally a 3/4" piece of plywood onto which someone went a little crazy with a circular saw. Then painted and let to fade for a decade and a half, it appears. Most of the other signage in the park was outstanding. .

Aww man, I'm disappointed to miss Superman too. I have a meeting in San Jose Monday and flew out early to check out the park tomorrow. Still very excited.

This is looking like it will overtake X-Flight's air traffic tower for my favorite keyhole element. Awesome pictures. My partner is 6'5" so we're very happy to hear the ride is a go for him.

A set of permanent magnets in front of the actuated ones certainly does eliminate my concerns. Now I see the rationale behind each element of the system and I do like the actuated magnets and drive tire braking here. Thanks. Okay new weird fact. Not sure about now, but as of five years ago or so, the first drop trim calipers on Hellcat at Clementon were programmed to adjust their clamping force based on how fast the previous run went thru. Too fast => more clamp. Too slow => less clamp. It would start the day with an untrimmed run and then would alternate: extremely trimmed, almost untrimmed, extremely trimmed, almost untrimmed..... all day long.

^^^ I don't understand why they have to be actuated. I think the magnets should be fixed in place. Since the magnet brake can't bring the train to a full stop on it's own*, I don't understand why they're placed anywhere where it would ever need to be turned off. Seems backwards to take a mechanism whose arguably greatest design feature is its inherent lack of moving parts, and attach it to a moving mechanism with many modes of failure, thereby nullifying that advantage. This is exactly why SFNE Superman crashed in 2001. In that case, the failure mode when pressure in the system was lost was the "brake-off" state. D'oh!! Now, I'm sure much has gone into ensuring that the failure mode of these systems is the "brake-on" state, but it is still, in my mind, a higher-risk design than could otherwise easily be achieved. * = Braking force goes to 0 as train velocity goes to 0 as per Lenz's law. This makes me question the original fact as stated. What brings the train to a complete stop in the station?

I believe that when the magnets are aligned, the magnetic field between them will be strong and the brake will be "on". When the upper magnet slides back the field strength is diminished and there is minimal braking force applied when a train rolls through, i.e. the brakes are "off". In the bottom animation, you can see a wheel cluster pulling forward just before the magnets re-align, presumably meaning the brake had just previously turned "off" to let the train through. I find it a poorly-considered implementation of eddy current braking, but as of yet B&M is yet to solicit my opinion - and their safety record's pretty good - so I'll just keep the details of that to myself.

Someone mentioned Whizzer toward the beginning of the thread ..... it's actually in my top-10. I don't really view it or Skull Mountain as guilty pleasures. Typically no one protests riding those next in my group, unlike the following: Wild Mice, vintage Whips (Dorney, Knoebels, Rye...), SF's various Pandemonia, and Tumblebugs (Conneaut, Kennywood...) are the real candidates in this category for me. I could ride a Pandemonium all day, and get WAY too excited for them.

I can watch The Hair Raiser on-ride POV at Ocean Park quite a few times. I avoid (over)watching videos of coasters I'm more likely to ride for the first time in the next few years, so that the experience is fresher when the time comes.

You're going to have an incredibly fun summer! If you're into the historical aspect of coaster enthusiasm, a stop at Lakemont between Hershey and Kennywood for the world's oldest operating coaster might be a must-do. It does require a longer route, and there may be some issues riding if you're alone and the park is dead, which it often is, as I don't believe they are able to send solo riders. I also think you're already on the verge of trying to pack too much in, so if this wasn't already on your radar, may be best to drive straight thru. The only part of the schedule I'd be a little weary of is in the day 13-17 segment. You'll be hitting up some excellent, major, full-day parks with four to five+ hour drives in between each one. I've tried this kind of aggressive schedule a couple times, and personally always take issue with: rushed-ness/deciding between park time and "better get on the road", more stressful/difficult finding reasonable places to eat, getting up reaalllly early (not a morning person), basically just being really exhausted after a few days and not enjoying the experiences as much as possible. In regards to preferences for driving between parks at night or in the morning, I've always tried to break up the longest drives by finding a hotel somewhat in between the two parks, but directly en route. Couple hours on the road at night, couple more in the morning. Of course the biggest determining factor would be personal preference and tolerance for early morning and late night activity. Traffic can get very bad at times and places on the east coast. Particularly I-95 near the Baltimore/Washington DC, and I-84 east of and up to Hartford, Connecticut. And of course NYC. We avoided a 15 MILE traffic jam on I-95 our way to King's Dominion by being eligible for the "HOV lane" (you must have 2 or 3 people in the car to use). Would have missed 2hrs park time if I was alone. Now that Google Maps has real time traffic delay reporting, it may be worth it as the trip approaches to log on at the times you're expecting to drive and see how changed routes and delays factor into things. The exception to what follows is: You must eat at Knoebels (from experience). You must eat cinnamon bread, and probably more, at Dollywood (from reading). We always found that the food budget turns unreasonable on longer trips, quickly, if eating most meals in parks. We prefer to take a big cooler, find a supermarket (grocery/food) the night before, and stock up on prepared sandwiches, potato/pasta salads, drinks, and lots of ice. Then we spend a nice relaxed hour sitting at picnic tables or on a blanket in the parking lot. Delicious, cheap(er), a good break from the commotion of a busy park, and I can enjoy a couple microbrews without double digit pricetags. Time-wise, I prefer a walk back to the car over standing in food lines any day. Many parks have at least picnic tables, some even have nice little shade pavilions with tables near the parking lot. A quick rundown of how convenient I've found picnicking SFNE - couldn't find tables, ate on picnic blanket in parking lot. Also: preferred parking saves a big walk at this park, but is full price, $25, even if you have a Six Flags gold pass, and not good for picnicking. If you park in the non-preferred lot across the street, there is a little strip of grass in the middle that is convenient for sitting to eat. Dorney - couldn't find tables, ate on a picnic blanket in the parking lot. I *may* have spotted tables on the drive out, but can't remember for sure. Knoebels - see exception above!! Eat here!! Hershey - they can be a little hard to find, but there are tables with some shade trees (IIRC) in a nice little area near one of the tram stops. Cedar Point - not sure, ate in the park due to intermittent showers all day, don't remember seeing tables King's Dominion - awesome shaded picnic pavilion right smack in the middle of the parking lot Six Flags America - picnic tables way off to the side at the very edge of the lot. Not well kept, but convenient Six Flags Great Adventure - there is a nice open picnic grove to the side of the parking on the entrance side, but it's always been packed with a tour group whenever we've tried to use it If you do the Safari at Great Adventure, remember: outside/edge seats if it's a clear day, inside/middle seats if it happens to be raining. Let me repeat that: USE THE INSIDE SEATS IF IT'S RAINING. Shouting here for a reason. Finally, a one-day visit won't do justice to Washington DC, but it will be a GREAT day if you read up on the attractions and choose wisely. The Smithsonian is multi-day-worthy on it's own if you're a museum person. Take lots of pictures and post them! (edits: added forgotten info)

Apocalypse SFA. First mention in here I believe. Woohoo!

Great trip reports and pictures of everywhere! I visited CLP this fall and fell in love with both Tumble Bug and Blue Streak, but especially the latter. Got in 22 rides including 3 consecutive without station brakes, and one very late at night in the pitch black. Wish I'd gotten more, and really hope to be able to be back someday. It fell solidly in my top-5 woodies and even moved ahead of Boulder Dash after my Halloween trip to Lake Compounce. The NAD trains may be my favorite rolling stock of any kind. All that said, there are definitely a few painful seats on 'Streak. My day at Conneaut was one of oddest, most surreal, and most strangely enjoyable days I've ever spent at a theme park. I rode flats by myself that, 30 seconds previous, I'd assumed had been abandoned for years. Darn near fell out of Tumble Bugs back car. No, seriously. I watched a lone flyers enthusiast get a 10+ minute program, snapping the heck out of the one good vehicle (#5). Also met some really cool, passionate locals and enthusiasts. The Toboggan had been disassembled and moved to a field behind the parking. Also, their haunt even kicks major butt! Because the place already looks haunted as it is.

^^^^ Good plan, it will likely be a much better visit than one this week. I was there the second Sunday of this January, it was a beautiful day with light crowds. Only Tatsu and YOLO consistently had any significant wait. (this was during X2s extended downtime). Got in an 8-consecutive-lap mini-marathon on Apocalypse in the early evening before I had to give up my row. Incidentally, that marathon ruptured the screen on my Kindle e-reader which was in my pocket. Guess I should have left it in the bins.

Gran Canyon - Luna Park Beirut E&F Miler - Hi-Miler

Conneaut - "Connie - ott" Thus the mascot, Connie the Otter. I'd been mistakenly saying "Coney-ought" :/ How do you say Dania? Danny-uh, Donnie-uh, Don-ya, Dan-ya, Dah-knee-ah ?

Rode my first coaster when I was 8, my second when I was 20, and my third when I was 28. Since then well over a hundred more so I guess it's safe to say I fell in love with coasters at 28. Interestingly, my second ride was Phoenix at Knoebels, you'd think that'd be the one to get me hooked.

Mine are fully deducible via signature.

I took a swig from a warm, flat 2L of Orange Crush on my way out the door this morning. Sounds gross but it was delightful. I mean it was just sitting there and I'm all like "ermahgerd, soda".

I've been in a closeted relationship for a year and came out to my mom this week in hopes of having a Thanksgiving together with my partners and family. It didn't go badly, exactly, but it wasn't what I had in mind either. She just turned away, grunted "when did that happen?" and fired up a cigarette (closeted "ex"-smoker lol). Then we awkwardly planned a Thanksgiving menu and I left feeling kind of sad and empty. And ashamed for expecting and wanting some eye contact and a hug, when others have much worse situations. I just don't know how to feel.

Loco Motion - Steel Pier

Digging this up instead of starting a new one. ^Maurer Söhne. Söhne, tranlated = "Sons". First word is very close to "Mauer" - like "Mao-er" (like Chinese dude) - except with a slight "rr" at the end of first syllable, so more like "Mao®-er". And then something like "sone-ah" but really more like "zone-ah" and actually with a bit of "T" in there, so like "tzone-ah". And really the "o" is a little funny too, more like "ooh" or "ooh®" If you screw your throat all up and stick it forward it helps a lot. This is just coming from high school German and a couple years in Austria, I never actually heard anyone pronounce it as the company name. Canobie - Just like canopy, but the p becomes a b. CAN-uh-bee. Not Kah-no-bee like Obi-Wan Kenobi. Del Grosso's - Gross is said just like "gross" - starting with emphasized GROW, not GRAH Kemah Boardwalk - Key-muh Liseberg - Liss-ah-berg Krake - krah-kah, vagely like cracker but far more European. Again, screw up the throat. Tusenfryd - little help here? Toosen-fried? Tussen-freed? Toosen-freed? Tussen-fried? Tuh-senfree-d? I vote #3.

Haven't been, but I've seen it in TRs, so if that counts... Wodan ... wow! photo credit: rctneil