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Delays on the CF refurbished flat rides have come from the place in Europe who was doing the refurbishment before the ride was shipped to the park, so it's not really CW's fault in this case, but has nothing to do with the Canadian weather. Dorneys ride didn't open on time either

You think it's "perfect" to wait until three days before opening to announce something that's been pretty apparent to anyone watching for a couple weeks? While we all conceded that there was a *possibility* that the ride might make it, all signs pointed toward a slight delay. No testing videos, no reports of endless cycling, not even a second train on the track until yesterday. I have no doubt that they all wanted, hoped and wished that this thing could be up by Friday but that was always the long shot and they should never have planned media days on Thursday, a "grand opening" countdown to the ride on the weekend and even a coaster club event with Lightning Rod ERT on Saturday. That's just crazy for any new ride let alone a prototype trying to open in mid March! (And yes this is a prototype. It's velocity magnets first launch) There's been almost no sign of serious testing. Meanwhile Dollywood got on the news YESTERDAY trying to drum up opening day business by talking about the new ride. Pretty convenient to cancel with under 72 hours to go before pass holder day. I'm sure it's not just a coincidence that the cancellation refund policy at their fancy new resort is 72 hours in advance. No, the "perfect" thing to do would be to set a Grand Opening and media day in mid April and allow for a little bit of buffer. If the ride soft opens, great! That's a bonus perk. Say "lightning rod, coming later this spring" on the news instead of getting the GP excited. They don't follow the construction like us and they wouldn't have any reason to expect it to be closed based on what the park put forth. Pretty shameful. I can't think of a time when a park was so sloppy about handling the delay of a major attraction.

Pretty sure both Goliath and Medusa opened late. (Goliath for sure)

This is great news!!!! The PR rep definitely was positive about the ride opening Saturday! No way would they get up there and say all that without it being close to ready!!! can't wait to ride!!!

I'm mixed... when thinking about the outward banks that are more like 45 degrees instead of 90... the ones on Twisted Colossus don't do anything for me, but the first one on Wicked Cyclone is really intense and cool. But then the second one is wimpy because the ride is so slow by then. We can see they added more flattish banked turn track in the last update so I'm starting to wonder if they left it out entirely, maybe after seeing how slow WC was at that point of the ride??

oh don't get me wrong, I think there's still room for it, but the location has definitely shifted relative to the animation (which may not have been all that accurate to begin with)

like a mushroom?! it's pretty clear looking at the rendering versus the track - the rendering showed about a 90 degree flat curve before the hill, and we already see almost 180 degrees of flat turn. It looks like the design has slightly changed which is typical of RMCs.

Dollywood is posting a countdown on their facebook page... but still not answering questions about whether the ride will be open! What do you guyys think??

I had the same experience last June. I couldn't figure it out at first but once I figured out to sit in the front rows of the cars I was a little better off. OR is a great ride but unfortunately those "potholes" I felt really kept me from riding it a ton :/ I never felt that on any other RMC (ridden all but Medusa).

because I can read blueprints. All other inaccuracies (and there are many) in your post aside, look at the attached image and tell me this: if the queue enters from the green star, follows the yellow path, goes up a flight of stairs, passes through a building, and then on the other side follows the red arrow down an ADA-accessible ramp back to the starting point... ...WHERE else do you suggest that the loading area might be?

the steps were outdoors, the loading zone was not in a 35 foot long building, and the cars were at ground level - clearly not the case here as the queue walkway cuts between the two buildings. if you really think those plans support a le mans revival then I really just don't know what else to say, except that you're wrong.

Are we looking at the same plans? Ive never seen an antique cars ride with a 35 foot long loading station elevated 14 steps off the ground. not to mention the logistics of crossing over the train tracks several times.

just now seeing this, but this is REALLY weird (then again, the whole project is weird) They don't even have the staircase or the catwalks. I've never heard of that being added after-the-fact but I guess anything's possible This coaster really needs the midcourse brake since it doesnt have a traditional lift hill, otherwise it cant really be dispatched until the entire course is completed and first brake run is cleared!

why would the elevator lift be at the end of the ride? plus we already know those two buildings are 23-feet tall

the plans clearly show "layout" shaped clearing on both sides of the train track.

The plans that were released are incredibly detailed sewage/drainage/landscape plans. If they're fake, they took a lot of work, and I'm not sure anyone working in the engineering department of a park has that much time on their hands

I would think it's pretty unlikely you could reuse a height waiver on something that's been vacant for 14 years... especially considering Drachen Fire's proximity to kingsmill was really the first thing that started all the noise issues to begin with, right? More likely in the case of verbolten they got approval before closing BBW, but that's specualation

has BGW gotten approval to build above 60 feet yet? They have to have county approval for that, and plans for all prior coasters (back to Alpengeist at least) had been submitted by this time of year or earlier. (seems like Verbolten was grandfathered since its height and location were the same as BBW)

Finally rode TC yesterday. Lines seemed to hover around 25 minutes all afternoon (queue almost to the entrance). The crew did a pretty good job of dispatching but with the horrible programming on the lift hill it's just almost impossible to get them to duel. We did get lucky once. They really need to get the people who did the Dueling Dragons lift programming which is just brilliant. TC just starts up and slows down and speeds up and slows down. At one point I saw two trains go up at the top perfectly together... And then at the very top, blue side slowed down a bit and was left in the dust! Wtf? This could be a great feature with a little bit of time spent on improving the PLC. The ride itself was good and probably the most fun RMC (I've ridden all but WC and Medusa). It's definitely got some unique pacing ("bigger" half of a ride, long break, "bigger" half again) but I like that it's different. Intensity wise I would say only Goliath is less intense; the two Texas rides are more intense and Outlaw Run is the most. The crowd loved it. One woman got off in hysterics and told the ride op they should rename it "Lauging Colossus". That's pretty high praise in my book even if I might prefer some of the more intense ones. It grew on me as the day went on so I'm looking forward to getting a few more rides.

I like dive machines, just pointing out that it seems silly to say a vertical drop isn't "forceless" when that's the whole point of a vertical drop. Nothing at the bottom of the drop makes me think their forces come anywhere near something like Kumba for example, but perhaps it just goes by too fast to really have time to appreciate?

Umm isn't the point of a vertical drop to have zero gravity, aka no force? Ain't like they pull a ton of Gs at the bottom either

taking it down at 12:15 prevented people from getting over to magnum for a final ride, or for many, getting one more maverick ride. It's obviously not the end of the world but it clearly demonstrates a lack of planning. Ride ops handled it well, management is to blame for not being properly prepared for something they knew was going to happen.

The geniuses here just decided to take two trains off Maverick with 15 minutes of ERT left for "company convenience" - I've never heard of such a thing. The crowd is pissed!! The rides been down for ten minutes already and the trains aren't even off yet! Great going CP

Looks like timber wolf valleyed a train entering the helix. Unless it was intentional, like a pull through...

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