DrachenfireOP

Wow you're really on it! Having worked on a B&M myself I was wondering what morning testing would look like for things like block testing on this thing, I keep forgetting it's earlier in the morning over there!

Anyone else watching right now? I think it just had a roll-back, but I didn't quite see. I logged in and a train was out by the immelman, moving very slowly backwards toward the station. Edit - The train crawled backwards very slowly, then came to a stop here where it's been sitting for a few minutes. Wonder if this part of testing or if they're having issues?

I agree, the LEDs are awesome! I wish more coasters did train lights at night. I always loved that about DF. Does anyone know what color they are? I haven't seen a picture/heard a color anywhere, and the webcam is black and white at night.

I wonder if at any time in the process they considered looping Tempesto around AC? That would have been cool. Also I like where the entrance plaza is. I wouldn't have liked having the entrances of AC and Tempesto right next to each other. It is neat that the lines go by each other though.

I'm not saying this is for sure going to be a good ride, and I didn't like it at first either, but: 1) The VERY few people in this thread that have seen it in person from in the park seem to think it fits well in festa. 2) No one has ridden it yet. We have no idea how the third car will change forces, and I have yet to meet anyone who thinks the other clones are tame and boring. I too like BGW theming when they do it, but if you're trying to tell me AC has good themeing, you're smoking rocks. They painted an old midride queue house and put an ugly throne in front of it. So far, with construction not even done yet, Tempesto has more visible theming. Hell there's no real theming for griffon either, though at least the station is nicer than AC. Doesn't mean either are a bad ride.

Yeah! If you get very lucky on the train, you can see Verbilten, Loch Ness, Alpengeist, and Griffon all go over the rhine river at the same time. Then there was Ac, off by it's lonely self. I'm glad theres another coaster over there now. Even if I end up not liking it, seeing different coaster trains go by each other is fun.

^ Definitely agree on Sea Dragon. From what I understand, both Gladiator's and Sea Dragon disappeared because they were a maintenance nightmare. I do recall GG having a LOT of down time, and actually got stuck on it once myself. I don't think Sea Dragon was down a lot, but apparently it had a lot of moving parts for a small flat ride. There's a part of me that always secretly hopes they find a spot to bring it back some day. It was actually a lot of fun/thrills considering it was a grounded flat ride! For the curious, here's the sea dragon:

AC's colors weren't an accident, and they aren't "loud for the sake of loud," they are the colors or Ancient Roman royalty. Also I bet Apollo gets painted soon. It is REALLY faded. Usually the coasters at BGW get painted every few years. I'm shocked it didn't get fresh pain last year for the anniversary. Look at the difference between pre-anniversary LNM and post-anniversary! I bet once Tempesto fades slightly, and AC gets painted, it's going to actually look pretty cool with the two there. I actually don't really mind it now. Theme parks are supposed to be bright and loud!

Hah, the nose cone is... interesting... I would think it would be larger and lower on the train. When I first saw it on the hardhat video, it reminded me of the Drachen Fire trains, and I thought maybe they were going for something similar. But as it is now, it sorta looks weird. Overall the trains look great though, and it's neat seeing a three trained version of these guys! Also yeah the wagon was for the traveling gypsie show back in the days of Hastings.

Thanks for posting! These are cool. I wish I could read the text but I suppose I'll be going there later this year! There's some footage of threadneedle fair in the video I posted earlier of Gladiator's Gauntlet if anyone is curious.

Nevermind, it was there in 1989!

Cool to see! I won't be down until later this summer. It's cool that they're showing off their old rides for the 40th anniversary! I think Gladiators Gauntlet was only in the park for two years! It was definitely gone either in or after 1992, and if I recall, it opened the same year as Questor which was I think in 1990. Hard to say now that it's been 25 years! Speaking of years, it's hard to believe that Drachen Fire has been closed for 17 years now. Did you happen to see if they put up a ride sign for it? I'd be curious what they have to say about a coaster that otherwise they seem to desperately pretend they never had I'd also love to see the ride signs for Questor and the Sea Dragon if they have them, I loved those rides!

^ Agreed, and while we're at it, why did the Sea Dragon go away for good? Bring back the Sea Dragon!

Once while working at the entrance to a coaster, a kid wasn't tall enough to ride. The mom did that annoying "but she's so close" diatribe as if I would risk my job and her daughter's safety and let her go. After seeing I wasn't going to break the rules, she said "great, is this how you treat all little girls on their birthday here?" Without missing a beat, this little girl turns and says "it's not my birthday silly!"

No official announcement or release package until late February, and a typo-ridden third party announcement about a month before pass holder day. I still can't get over what's going on with their marketing over there :/

^ probably how they do all dive machines. When they were building Griffon, they built the lift, then the bottom of the drop. Then they worked up the drop to the crown and the immelman at the same time like a balancing act.

I saw the bump and thought this was a new thread and they finally settled the insurance on this place and were nuking it. I love all the urban explorer photos/videos from this park. Oh, and I totally got all the credits here before Katrina!

This is extremely important advice. I'd recommend Springfield as it's a VERY nice area, but also pretty far away from DC so the prices aren't as bad. If I recall, the parking garage for the Springfield metro is stupidly cheap, maybe $5 a day. You do need to pay for the metro itself, but it's not terrible. Also, while Reagan isn't the nicest airport on the planet, the metro goes through the airport, so you can go straight from the airport to Springfield and vice versa if you're flying into DC. Also, because it's not a super nice airport, the prices are WAY cheaper as they're mid-renovation and trying to get people flying through there.

I know you've been hearing a lot of this opinion in the thread, but VA is almost certainly what you're looking for. I'll try not to re-state the things that have been said over and over again while mentioning this. BGW: The coasters are pretty damn good. Nothing is probably going to be your "new favorite of all time," but nothing is a "meh, that wasn't worth the wait" experience either. LNM is probably the best Arrow that was ever built. Apollo is an air time machine. Alpengeist is a nice bridge between the "super extreme" early da ys of B&M and the more recent builds like wingriders. Griffon is a very fine dive coaster. Tempesto obviously hasn't been finished yet, but I hear those coasters are a blast. Verbolten is a surprising amount of fun. Your partner might even do fine on it, since it's a launch (no lift/heights) but really isn't that fast. The drop track is surprisingly fun! More important, this part is a true park. There's rides of all levels, and they're all fairly high quality. There's also a lot of transportation rides which sound like something you might enjoy. There's both a train and a sky ride that are beautiful tours and save your feet, and there's also a river boat cruise which doesn't really show much of the park, but is relaxing and pretty. They also have a ton of shows, and the food is pretty damn good. Oh, and they have beer EVERYWHERE. Unlike a lot of parks, they let you take beer anywhere that it is legal (no beer on bridges, and other than that, that's about it.) KD: I like KD fine. It's got a larger array of coasters, and things like i305 and Grizzly provide an experience you don't get at BGW. Some of their rides are clones that you may have been on already, but everything is pretty good all around. They do still have some flat rides, but not to the same extent as BGW. It's still a beautiful park, but is a lot closer to the "parking lot" feel than BGW is (as others have said, the BGW terrain is just astounding). I love all the coasters there personally, but some of them you need to know "how to ride." (Anaconda will give you a head ache if you don't hang on, plant your feet firmly, and keep your head pressed back. Also, brace extra hard when the helix changes directions, that part is some terrible Arrow roughness). Your partner might like rides like the Avalanche, which is a ton of fun. Other sites in VA: There's so much touristy stuff to do in VA, I didn't fully appreciate it until after I left the state. All the historic stuff is fantastic. Something I haven't seen mentioned yet is that they have a living museum there that's sort of like a zoo but for local wildlife. It's a fun educational trip, and has a nature walk as part of the experience. There's also an area with nautical history/marine life history if you head the other direction towards the harbor. Some people have mentioned going up to DC. I would actually recommend against this. DC is it's own can of worms, and you should probably spend an entire week just there if you ever want to see the monuments/Smithsonian. My girlfriend had never been, and we just took her for one day this past fall. We only had time to see the Air and Space Museum/Natural History Museum and the White House, pulling a 12 hour day, and we actually skipped some exhibit wings in both museums. There's just an overwhelming amount of stuff to do there. I wouldn't day trip it. CP: CP is an amazing park, and I've enjoyed my time. It is definitely a parking lot with rides though. In the summer, it gets very hot. There are much fewer flat rides than any of the parks mentioned so far. Some of my favorite flat rides there have since vanished or gone to other parks (curse you Demon Drop for leaving me!... yes I know I could go ride it with a trip to PA). What makes CP special is the coasters. However, my first trip there I went with a group, and 2 of the 5 of us were not coaster fans. It made the day suck for everyone. The coaster fans felt held back by the non-coaster fans, and the non-fans felt like they paid a lot of money to not ride many rides. We went on every flat ride they had there and almost all of the coasters, but it was a bit frustrating for all parties involved. I could forsee this happening to your partner. Another thing I would recommend is that when you do go for CP, plan a longer trip and go to KI as well. All around I actually like KI better than CP if I'm not going with a hard core enthusiast. The Beast is my favorite woodie in the world, and The Bat is tied with Vortex (since they're the same thing) up in Canada for the best Arrow suspended coaster around. (Although to be fair, BBW and EF are closed now). Those parks are about 4 hours apart. While the coaster enthusiast in me prefers CP, I actually think the two parks complement the state pretty well the same way BGW/KD do down in VA. Both are DEFINITELY worth going to, but for this year, you might want to tackle the VA trip first. Hope this helps!

Oh, and to the person asking about wing riders:

Hey, neat thread! Here's some BGW controls pics for you guys. Disclaimer: I did not take any of these photos, but they've just been sitting on a hdd so I don't know who to credit for them. Loch Ness Monster Alpengeist Drachen Fire Loch Ness Alpengeist Apollo Griffon Big Bad Wolf Verbolten

Also, lets be real. There's some pretty despicably run zoos in the world that SHOULD be shut down since they abuse animals. But do they go after those? No, they're more content to go after places like Sea World, which is not only really well maintained and provides greatly for their animals, but they do a TON of conservation and environmental work... Don't even get me started on that insanely-bias "Black Fish" movie, which "interviewed" a bunch of trainers, then cut down the interviews in a way that most of the trainers claims makes them look like they're saying the literal opposite of what they actually said. They also conveniently left out all the people they interviewed who ONLY contradicted their agenda, and even the family of the girl killed has distanced themselves from the movie calling it "a non-accurate portrayal of events."

I'm not sure they really notice one way or the other (speaking as someone who's worked in a park and got to know upper management a bit). Mostly I think they don't pay much mind one way or the other. The few times that I heard mention of anything, it was negative, but also very specific instances. One time the issue was an enthusiast who was entering employee-only areas to take pictures, which is an obvious nono that got that individual banned. There's also the issues of fansites that leak information (which obviously they don't tolerate). A manager also once told me to keep an eye on a certain individual who was a repeat offender of sneaking cameras on rides where it wasn't allowed. It's that sort of thing that gets you noticed. As far as their take on enthusiast feedback? Probably mostly ignored. I know that park officials for more than one park look through forums just like this, so they probably are seeing the opinions of enthusiast. However, I believe they are mostly paying attention to legal issues like leaks and pictures taken from areas that shouldn't have been allowed, not necessarily as a "looking for feedback" option.

^ Yeah, even at lowish speeds it might have produced a situation capable of a fatality. I think the likelihood of a fatality was still low all around, but probably in the realm of possibility if it hit the main cars just right (or wrong).

Ok, that is too damn crazy. After watching the video several times, I think what others have said is right. Either the ride or the operator initiated an e-stop for some reason. My guess is it happened right after the train detached from the second spike. Maybe something went wrong during the detachment of the train and the computer initiated an e-stop. So the train is IN the brake run when the e-stop goes, with the back car already clear of the brakes. Those brakes are crazy powerful, and slow the train train way down which makes it through the first part of the loop before rolling back to where we see it stopped. The last car was clear of the brakes and had fatigue on the linkage. Because the brake fins on the other cars are in calipers and the last car is not, the last car breaks free and completes the circuit while the other cars all stopped. If you look very closely, you can see the bulk of the train start to follow into the loop, then slow down and role back as the last car zips up through the loop. Even with the probably damage to the linkage, that's still a 1 in a billion of this exact scenario playing out the way it did. I just can't believe it.