Genx24

The Thunderbolt at Coney Island. It's brand new, has a solid layout, yet beats the crap out of you. I don't know how it could be tweaked, but the potential for it to be a solid ride is evident.

The yellow loop is actually an attempt at theming. At the bottom of the loop, (right before you climb into the inversion) there used to be a head of that creature they reference on one of the signs in the queue (something with a P, the name escapes me) Although the last time I was at the park, the head was lying in pieces in the boneyard (visible from Nitro's lift)

Great pics, as always. I love getting a look at GAdv through the eyes of someone who doesn't visit quite often.

^^ If Knotts got something akin to Lightning Run, I'd be on the first flight to LAX and headed straight down to Buena Park.

I have a question about their haunt. How bad/graphic is the scene with the spiders? I'm most likely visiting LC this weekend, and am debating whether or not I want to pay the extra for the haunt. I'm arachnaphobic, so the severity of that scene is make or break as to deciding to pay for the package ticket as opposed to just the rides.

one coaster at each park i've been to this year (i love finding a loop hole ) SFGAdv- The Dark Knight SFNE- Mind Eraser SFMM- Riddler's Revenge Dorney- Steel Force KBF- Boomerang

Absolutely: SFGAdv Dorney Park Coney Island Probably: Hersheypark Knoebels Lake Compounce SFNE SFA Maybe: BGT BGW WDW Resort

updated top 10 after my recent West Coast trip: 1. El Toro (SFGAdv) 2. Bizarro (SFNE) 3. Full Throttle (SFMM) 4. Xcelerator (KBF) 5. Nitro (SFGAdv) 6. Batman: The Ride (SFGAdv/SFMM) 7. Silver Bullet (KBF) 8. Talon (Dorney) 9. Expedition Everest (WDW- Animal Kingdom) 10. Coney Island Cyclone (Coney Island, Brooklyn, NY)

Wicked Cyclone and Laff Trakk (the only 2 new rides I have a legitimate shot at getting on next year)

^ Yea, the more I think about it, the more I'm kicking myself for skipping one of the "can't miss" coasters there. But part of the reason was also time. We needed to get back down to Anaheim, and being stuck for a half hour threw us off schedule.

^ Thats exactly it. I knew nothing was unsafe, I just felt unnerved and didn't wish to continue. Like I said, in hindsight I should have kept going because I only had two more credits to go.

^ I understand where you're coming from. I personally just didn't find the valleying all that "cool", and just felt a little off after the experience. In hindsight I probably should have sucked it up and continued riding, but my dad and I just felt disenchanted, and we also needed to get back down to Anaheim for our dinner plans at Disneyland. But like I said, it just give me reason to make a return visit some day.

Ok, so as is now common knowledge, I visited the park yesterday for the first time. My thoughts on the coasters I actually got to ride. Full Throttle: Holy hell, what a ride. The hangtime going through the loop was incredible, as was the airtime on the top hat. Most likely entered my top 10. 10/10 Goliath: Much better than I was expecting. The drop was great, and the twists and turns were a lot of fun, but a true hyper needs air time hills. 7/10 Scream: Its twin in New Jersey runs so much better. My head banged around quite a bit, even with my head firmly against the headrest. 5/10 Batman: Just as great and intense as the one at GAdv. I love this ride no matter what park it's in. 8/10 Green Lantern: First ever zacspin. I had no idea what was going on, and it seemed like it ended as soon as it started. Luckily, my car didn't spin (I don't handle spinning well) All in all, a fun ride, but I understand why the model isn't very prevalent. 7/10 Riddler's Revenge: I hate stand-ups. Rode it just to credit whore. No part of this ride was memorable to me. 4/10 Gold Rusher: Fun little mine train. Once again, I rode it just to earn the credit, and to give my dad something to do, as he doesn't ride the big coasters and I felt bad that he was sitting around. 5/10 Ninja: First ever suspended credit. My dad and I both enjoyed it. Was expecting the cars to swing, but alas, there wasn't much of that happening. After riding this, I wish I had a chance to ride Big Bad Wolf. 6/10 Revolution: Had to pay tribute to Anton. Much more fun than I was expecting, but Christ was it rough. And not to beat the dead horse, but man are those OTSRs unnecessary. 5/10 Viper: So happy I got another spin on an Arrow mega looper, as I'm still reeling from GAdv's decision to rip out GASM. Didn't even mind the roughness because the entire ride I was having a nostalgia trip. Bonus points for this ride allowing me to relive the glory days of GASM. 8/10 Tatsu: Jesus Christ what a ride. My second B&M flyer after the god awful S:UF clone at GAdv. I came staggering off the exit after this one because it really shook me senseless for a few minutes. Guess I don't handle flyers well, but I'm glad I got a spin on one of the best. 8/10 From Tatsu I went to Apocalypse, which has been well documented in this thread already. After the incident, I was discouraged to keep riding, and as such, did not get to ride Superman or X2. But that's just cause for me to visit the park again, right? Despite that final hiccup, I had a great day. The park wasn't very crowded, the single rider lines were a great time saver, and the area surrounding the park is beautiful. I had a nice time drinking in the scenery from most of the lift hills.

Only an hour away from Great Adventure is a place called New York City. 4 boroughs of all the touristy stuff you can imagine, plus Staten Island.

^Unfortunately, no. Staff made sure no one had their phones out.

^ I wanted to take one, but the staff made sure no one had their phones out.

^Some other people in the train said they smelled "burning wood", and when I got off of the train I noticed I had some wood shavings in my lap, so perhaps some track started ripping up and slowed the train down. I really don't know. I'm just grateful it happened at a low point on the track and that the staff got us out rather quickly.

To everyone asking, it did indeed valley in the turn after the first drop. I really don't know how it happened but the train didn't make it up the second hill and we rocked back and forth about 10 times before coming to a stop. Thankfully where the train stopped was only about 8 feet off the ground.

At the park now Apocolypse just valleyed while I was on it. Thankfully the staff was on the ball and evacuated us very quickly. Some way to end my first ever visit to MM. I'll post a TR later.

I just visited Knotts today for the first time. I absolutely loved it. The park was a ghost town, which meant walk-ons or station waits for each coaster. A brief run down of the coasters (in order of riding): Silver Bullet- Much better than I was expecting, given what some people on here say about it. It's not in the category of B:TR (still my favourite invert) but I prefered this one to Talon at Dorney Park. Nicely paced, good inversions, and the helix over the water was nice and tight. 8/10 Sierra Sidewinder- Nice fun family spinning coaster. My dad rode with me and he had the time of his life. It was much faster than I expected, too. 7/10 Montezooma's Revenge- Long live Anton! My first ever shuttle loop, and it did not disappoint. A little rough, but that's to be expected from a Schwarzkopf. Going through the loop backwards was nice and intense. 7/10 Jaguar!- Nice family ride. Nothing special. I really enjoyed the themed queue line (although it was pretty dark in there) 5/10 Xcelerator- Best coaster in the park. Best Intamin launch I've ridden (yea, it's better than Kingda Ka.) The only ride I rode more than once because it was so worthy. It's probably in my top 10. 10/10 Boomerang- Ouch. 3/10 Pony Express- Decent family coaster, but too short. Steeplechase at Coney Island has a better layout. 4/10 Ghostrider- A lot of fun, with some great drops, but very painful. My dad enjoyed it more than I did. 5/10 For flats, I rode Supreme Scream (S&S Towers scare me far more than Zumanjaro does), Timber Mountain, Calico Mine, Bigfoot Rapids, and the stagecoach. I really loved this park. I hope one day I make it back out there.

^^ Actually, I should re-phrase. It's not so much the waiting for the drop on Zum, as it is the moment when I realized "oh sh--, this thing is still going up!"

^ Agreed that Demon Drop has a great "Oh sh--!" moment, but for me, in terms of drop towers, nothing comes close to the "Oh sh--!!" moment that waiting for the drop on Zumanjaro provides.

Well, there goes my lunch plan for next Wednesday.

^ Thankfully we already have. The original plan was to do both parks on back to back days (Tue-Wed), but DL is closing at 6 for the party on Wednesday. So instead that Wed we're hitting Knott's, and will visit DL on Thursday bc it will be open until 11. Ample time to see everything the original Magic Kingdom has to offer, hopefully.

I'm coming to DLR next week. First time visiting the original park (plus DCA) after 20+ visits to WDW, so needless to say, I'm through the roof in terms of excitement. How are crowds at the two parks this time of year? My assumption is that they'll be light, am I correct?