jonskinny12

Having that maze open makes a small difference, but night rides on Apocalypse are great either way! I'm glad to hear that you had such a great time on it. I'm excited to try it next week for the first time since the major retracking!

Those Raptor sunset pictures are fantastic.

I had a regular membership for a few years at $7/month. Was planning to cancel that to upgrade to gold with the current flash sale. On the second "special offer" they gave me while cancelling, they upgraded my pass to gold and lowered it to $4/month. For $48/year I can visit any Six Flags park in the world (including free parking now), and that now includes SFMM every day of the year. I'm not going to complain at the value I'm getting for that. Lol

This is about how it is for me also. I know what to expect and I know that I'm just going for some great rides, nothing more. And with the current cost of the Six Flags membership, I'm ok with that. I'm interested to see how my girlfriend reacts on her first visit to the park next month.

Storm Chaser is awesome. It's better and more intense than I expected it to be. The bunny hops towards the end can be pretty uncomfortable but the rest of the ride is just fantastic. I think I preferred the back to the front because of how it pulls you through the drop. The zero g rolls are absolutely perfect, especially near the middle of the train. I've only ridden two RMCs - Storm Chaser and Twisted Colossus, since Lightning Rod was down when I went to Dollywood in June. Comparing Storm Chaser to Twisted Colossus is tough because they're pretty different. I'd prefer Twisted Colossus simply because you get the drop twice but they're both excellent coaster.

They said they're announcing a new ride on 8/31. So it's something in addition to the schedule, which has already been announced anyway.

Awesome report and photos! Thanks for sharing. Too bad the weather didn't work out for you, but sounds like you had a good time anyway. This part of what you said about Millennium Force is why I think it's the best roller coaster ever built:

I don't buy this argument when Kings Island is closer to Cedar Point than Michigan's Adventure is and they regularly invest in that park.

When Apocalypse is rideable (last time I really enjoyed it was 2014, but haven't yet been since the latest work), it's in the top 5 in the park for me.

This was a couple pages back, but I'm curious about this. I've visited Kings Island twice in the last three years and really loved Flight of Fear there. I thought it was really smooth and a blast, especially riding in the front. It has been probably 17 years since my last visit to Kings Dominion but I want to make a trip out to it in the next few years, timing probably depends on what that tall thing is that BGW is building.

I get the nostalgia thing (I feel the same for some rides at my local park), but since I have no emotional attachment to anything at Carowinds, I will say that I would be very happy if both rides were replaced with almost anything. Vortex is one of the worst coasters I've ever ridden anywhere, and Hurler was just boring. Any coaster that has trims at the bottom of the first drop needs help. Converting Vortex to a floorless would be a good move but it wouldn't interest me much, but if RMC converted Hurler into something like Twister Timbers that would be an astronomical improvement. You ask how it would work with Fury 325 right next to it? Both rides would kick ass. They're completely different experiences, there's no issue putting them next to each other. The only reason I'd leave that corner of the park would be to get some awesome rides on Afterburn. As for the Vortex image from Snapchat, I wouldn't look into it at all... They're simply saying that it's still a standup coaster. I don't think it means anything beyond that.

Yes, the dispatches on Fire Dragon are very fast. It could be the nostalgia since I grew up 15 minutes away from Lagoon but that's probably my 2nd favorite ride in the entire park, with the 1st being Cannibal. It rarely holds much of a line due to the fast dispatches, even on busier days. Now if they'd just bring the old sign back... I haven't seen Samurai open at all this season, which is really a shame because it's popular and fun. At the beginning of the season it wasn't even put back together. It looks to be rebuilt now but I still haven't seen it open. Catapult has also been closed for a really long time. I'm not sure it has opened at all since the accident a year or two ago. If it has opened since then, I don't recall seeing it running.

Again? They just closed it for like 8 months for some retracking... any idea what they're doing now?

I'm really hopeful this will work out for them. It's great news for me as now I can make weekday trips in the offseason when it's going to be even less crowded. I know the park's history of maintenance and operations but I imagine they've thought some of those things through so hopefully this really works for both the park and the customers.

I'm with both of you, I really like PTC trains. I can see why a lot of people don't though. To each their own.

I think I missed something here. Are 5 SF parks getting first of its kind/record breaking rides within some specific time frame?

^^ Great review! Glad to see someone who shares my love for MF. (Although I may not quite agree about Fury...) I also had the same reaction to Maverick this year. This was my third year in a row visiting CP and my fourth time ever since Maverick was built. The last two years it blew me away with the new restraints. But this year, it just didn't get me like it has in years past and I'm not sure why. I think it's running as great as always, I just didn't like it quite as much for some reason.

^ Where did you sit on The Voyage? Just like any wooden coaster with PTC trains, the even rows are quite a bit rougher than the odd rows. This seems especially bad in the very back row of The Voyage. I've also heard that it runs worse this time of year. My only visits to the park have been in the spring and I can re-ride it numerous times.

I rode SoB in its first couple years (I think it was May/June 2002?) and while it was rough, I didn't think it was bad at all. I know it got much worse later on its life and Banshee is a huge improvement over what SoB became, but early on I really enjoyed it. As for the report, nice pictures! I like that SoB tombstone and I love the Diamondback splashdown. When I was there a couple months ago I rode back left wing and ended up soaking my entire arm on it.

VR costs a bit more than just buying the devices that are strapped to people's heads.

I didn't watch the video but from reading the description on that site, sounds like they're building a launch pad to finally send T3 directly into the sun where it belongs.

I can only imagine the nightmare of having people want to ride train A over train B... Stations can be a cluster as it currently is Maybe they'll have 3 separate queues/stations, one for each train.

I really hope it's not one. Medusa Steel might have been my favorite RMC if it wasn't for the first drop, which is the only 'mehh' part of that whole ride, to me. Storm Chaser's drop also underwhelmed me the same way. They look cool, but they're pretty forceless in reality, especially in the front. Straight, simple, super steep drops are far superior. Ah, so this is why enthusiasts like to talk sh*t on the barrel roll drops? Figures. I couldn't care less if these drops are forceless, the drop on Storm Chaser is different and a ton of fun. And every RMC is so packed with better airtime that it doesn't really matter that the first drop is forceless and doesn't have airtime. The pics look great! Thanks for posting, I'm excited to see the layout of this one. Hopefully I'll make it out to VA in the next few years to ride this and I-305.

^ Lol glad I'm not the only one.

I looked at that picture of the third inversion for a good 20-30 seconds before I actually saw it inside all the supports. That's going to be fun.