Samuel

For relatively low cost and travel weariness in the US, I always recommend grouping Cedar Point + Waldameer/Presque Isle + Kennywood together in doable weekends that I have done and not regretted one bit! The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland can also be easily incorporated; it's memorable and unique if you enjoy music. I think Kennywood can be appreciated much more in this arrangement when compared to "credit rushing" the park during an Eastern PA/NJ trip. Also, RFII is not a coaster to be overlooked, and Presque Isle is beautiful. Other nice combos include: - Great Adventure/Dorney/Hershey/Knoebels - Great Adventure & NYC - Holiday World/KK/KI - KD & BGW - Dollywood & Carowinds - Orlando and California (tons of options)

Looks like Cedar Point is getting more publicity by losing the friendly baseball bet than Great America is getting by winning it!

"TTC" in all of its signage glory.

Looks like someone saw a picture of Parrot Coaster and asked to borrow the paint!

^^ I have family in Buffalo, and there's never been any big traffic potatoes during my trips to Darien Lake. I'm sorry if you had a couple of rude or unsettling experiences on the road, but that's most everywhere you drive. I've seen middle fingers and heard horns in Buffalo rush hour traffic, but you gotta shrug it off and enjoy life, no matter where you live. And I know what you mean about the DL lot funneling cars to the back near the concert venue, but it's really just a large park/concert parking lot like any other. I don't think there's anything particularly off-putting about it that should ward off anyone from going to the park. I enjoy my trips there just for the Sling Shot (my favorite sling model) & Ride of Steel, which I informally think is in the top-half among US hypers.

^ Lol, what an all-of-the-sudden nice day!

Best part of the story is the catastrophizing coverage. Thank God for those brave first responders who were live and on the scene, heroically standing around and just looking at the ride, while stranded victims continued to fight valiantly against their own boredom.

I waited about five or six hours for TTD during its volatile first season. It was down for each of the first two days of my three-day trip, but showed signs of life during the third day. Because of TTD's "wait if you want; it might not open at all" policy during its early years, the line was entirely outside of the actual queue, which allowed for merciful food deliveries and bathroom breaks. And because this was before smart phones, I got to meet and chat with everyone in my vicinity to pass the time. All in all, it wasn't so bad, and the ride blew me away. I've also waited in the full Millennium Force queue for a couple of hours, and likewise for Kennywood's Exterminator. Opening year excitement + mouse capacity = looonnnnggg lines.

Grease: Greece: I particularly enjoyed the shots at the museum -- one of the non-park things I try to experience when I travel. Looks like you hit up a nice blend of city/culture/artifacts, never a bad decision in London!

In regard to the previous pages, remember this site's motto..."We love theme parks and roller coasters...we just have a funny way of showing it!" There's a boatload of variety to this community's members. We're not going to adore everybody's opinions or style, but we all came to enjoy discussing parks and coasters and to be ourselves. Debating topics is one thing, but detouring off-topic to stifle someone else's enjoyment or making us feel like it's not okay to be ourselves just isn't humorous or cool. It's mean-spirited. It might score a few toxic laughs, but that toxicity can stink up the whole joint for everybody in no time.

Amen! Gets my stomach and somehow catches me off guard every time. You really do feel catapulted over the hill in the back. The incredible view of Lake Erie and awesome airtime don't hurt, either. I actually logged in to post about RFII in this thread, but I'm glad someone else has mentioned it.

What's the most recent B&M that has that signature roar? Scream at Magic Mountain is the latest example that comes to my mind. And related to this, does anyone know if the newer B&Ms still use Talon's sand-filling approach, or has there been some other modification that allows them to behave quietly? Now that I think of it, the loud "nyuck-nyuck-nyuck" of the anti-rollbacks on B&Ms has also been swapped out for a subdued, business-like hum in recent years. Everything became quieter just as I was starting to appreciate sheer noisiness.

As a classic, Magnum is one of the few coaster exceptions where I not only tolerate some of the clunkiness, but I actually consider said clunkiness to be part of the charm. That wonky angling out of the pretzel turn and into the second tunnel always makes me giggle and think, "Oh goodness, Ron Toomer was just eyeballing it here." You change the trains or bring in Chance to make new bunny hills or do anything else that walks off with parts of the set, and suddenly the whole production & legacy of that coaster would fall apart. It needs to stay imperfect. I've had plenty of bad rides on Magnum, but I've also had "OMG-best-ride-in-the-park-today" rides on Magnum. The middle row of the last car has always, always delivered at least a good ride for me. That row delivers a comparatively smooth experience, you get the fun yank over the first hill, and fewer people usually line up for it compared to the back row. It's been my go-to row for a couple of seasons, and I haven't had a bad ride on it since.

Looks like a nice family coaster! I can't tell ya how many times I've gone with that color scheme in RCT 2.

As I've written in other posts before, there's something about Millennium Force that's greater than the sum of its parts. The flagship coaster of the flagship amusement park on the planet will always carry a lot of clout. The coaster's history, location, drop, scale, the fact that it's a beloved Intamin, etc. etc. pads a legacy that goes beyond any one element. I always thought of it as the Tyrannosaurus Rex of the coaster world: bigger, faster, &/or more agile creatures have been discovered since, but it's the T-Rex that features in movies, kids draw in the margins of their homework papers, and everybody knows. I enjoyed Fury a lot, but still prefer coasters like the Ride of Steel cousins just a bit more. To me, Fury is a really good, complete ride with a superb drop & more airtime than most mega coasters, but there's something in the *feel* of the B&M style that always makes me think "that was high quality and exceedingly pleasant" rather than "Fun!" (Millennium), or "Crazy!" (Maverick), or "OMG!" (TTD).

I'm going to spare myself and not click that...whatever makes people curious about watching people die in accidents, I don't have it. I mean to throw no shade on the people who want to see it, but no thanks.

Has there been a picture or rendering that shows the full layout? The initial announcement post includes the press release and dirt clearing time-lapse video, and I've been sifting through a lot of pages that show track closeups and the first couple of elements, but I haven't seen the whole enchilada revealed anywhere so far. *EDIT: OK, this is helpful: Looks good! Compact and fun, I hope the airtime hills deliver.

^^ The industry term is "fudging it."

The is a global hobby that crosses many ages, education levels, demographics, and cultures, & it draws people in from wherever there are coasters on planet earth. That's one of the things I love about the community, but it's also more difficult to expect that many people will neatly fit into our own singles scene and social mold, so-to-speak. Sometimes you're an 18-year-old from Kentucky getting ready for college and your riding partner is a 64-year-old Korean woman and new grandmother. You just have to challenge yourself to be open to others and give them space to be themselves. I've met a lot of interesting and fantastic people over the years by just listening to their stories and what compelled them to fly halfway around the world to ride Phoenix, for example. Now, with that said... There's (1) a "weird" that means we're self-aware of having a nerdy amount of knowledge about parks and coasters. There's also (2) a "weird" that means some of us are a work-in-progress with social skills, whether that's being overbearing or a little bit shy. The former is annoying, but neither is unusual at all when strangers meet. But, there's also (3) a warning "weird" that's code for saying someone you would not allow near your children. Plain and simple, some people raise all kinds of flags. I've ridden with adults who've smelled so badly of B.O. that I've had to lean away from them while trying not to gag. Worse, and seriously, I've seen one or two loners over the years (still a huge outlier) who've given off genuinely creepy vibes. As an adult who's helping to raise kids, I intuitively watch for yikes-vibes being given off by others. I'm in no way paranoid, but you have to be vigilant on that front in a hobby that welcomes all ages. Good news/bad news is that if you take a general swath of the public at a typical mid-level restaurant, shopping mall, bowling alley, Comic-Con, or dare I say WalMart, you'll definitely see a lot of people with whom you wouldn't want to spend time -- and some you wouldn't let anywhere near your kids. In most of these places, however, the protocol is to just give mutual strangers common courtesies that seldom veer away from pleasantries and excuse mes. At coaster events, you're spending hours or sometimes days with strangers, so conversations are inevitable. In most cases, just be open to getting to know new people and you'll realize that most simply do what we all purport to do -- love coasters and parks! For the few people who love the Tin Man, be nice but don't feel obligated or committed to them.

^^^ The hump in the middle of the brake run looks like quite a pop. That tiny adjustment hill is a dark horse for packing a lot of punch, & it might be more impactful than Ka's sprawling camelback.

Nuts! I saw Visionland & got my hopes up that the Alabama park might have changed names again and invested in a Mega Lite that totally flew under my radar. No such luck.

Good job and good luck! Breaking in the ride and taking in that new wood smell will be a treat. Don't forget to hang out near the Dippin' Dots stand so that you can tell us when the Grandson of Beast RCCA giga will finally arrive.

Good launch, great back spike, and some strong forces...I know it isn't as complete as other coasters, but I'd never consider WT mediocre.

I'm really looking forward to this! I have no problem with parks reinforcing their wooden coaster collections -- no one says "meh, too many woodies" about Holiday World or Kennywood. I'm glad that KI is adding to its legacy in that department without feeling like it must retry out-Beasting Beast.

It's one of those things I've never mentioned because I don't get a peek at anyone else while riding a flying coaster, but I see from recent reports that I'm not the only one who instinctively closes his eyes during unusual flying coaster elements. Can I get an amen here? Simply stated, they're weird. There's something about pretzel and vertical loops on flyers that make me go, "WOW - this is incredi...get it over with! Get it over with! Dear lord! Okay, I'm good..." Every time. These are the only coaster elements that I don't seem to get used to, and the only ones that make my body tighten in protest to let me know that what I'm doing just isn't right. Unlike "natural" elements and maneuvers, these seem to be as unnatural as it gets. If a bird or plane performs a head-first pretzel loop, that bird or plane is probably experiencing technical difficulties. Personally, I think they're a bit of a Pyrrhic experience in that I appreciate the extreme wildness, but they can zap my stamina and dampen my re-riding spirit. I also think it's interesting that despite talk of trims and uninspired layouts nibbling around the edges of B&M sentiment, the company has produced some flat-out insane elements on its flyers. Robb's report showing off some of the craziness of Flying Dinosaur at USJ is another one to appreciate. I really don't know whether I love or loath these elements, but they stand out so much in terms of intensity that I'm interested to see what TPR feels about them. I see them listed frequently, but without much elaboration, in both "favorite elements" and "least favorite elements" threads, and I'd love to read some fleshed-out opinions.