Samuel

With the third inversion in place, I hope the final stretch is simply 1000+ ft. of buck-nutty airtime hops and crazy turns. I'd also love for it to stay inside the structure on the far side (under the MCBR & 2nd/3rd hills). I hope that that path still exists after the modifications. I've seen a few "dream" POVs imagine a double barrel roll somewhere near the end like on Outlaw Run, but I'd prefer insane bunnies. There's potential for the finale to be one of the greatest airtime onslaughts of all time.

I love the Primanti burger on a regular buns, but the classic thick slices of bread between a mountain of foods really does call for the shaved meats.

Nice report! I'm looking forward to your impressions of Phantom & the rides in Lost Kennywood. I saw Bob Saget in Pittsburgh years ago, and when he innocently called Sheetz a "gas station" he got boos rained down upon him, as the Western PA crowd did not appreciate Sheetz being called a mere gas station (it was all in good fun). I have a spot in my heart for Sheetz that I don't have for Wawa, even if Wawa has pretty good hoagies. I'm sure that goes in the other direction if you have a local Wawa that feels like home to you. It's hundreds of miles of road between Ontario & Virginia, but when I drive between the two a few times every year, I know where my Tim Hortons and Sheetz stops are.

Screaming is usually a symptom of a ride doing its job, so I think it's a good thing. I actually get a little bit puzzled when people are riding a kick-ass coaster and the train is totally silent before, during, and after the ride. One of my nieces had a mini growth spurt this year, so she now just makes the 48" cut, which has opened up a lot of new rides for her. I've come to discover that she screams authentically and adorably while having a good time on practically everything, and it makes rides even better just to watch her reactions. Put me down with the pro-screamers.

Cedar Fair and Six Flags often take the cake when it comes to straight-up coaster parks, but if you were to consider only parks that have 10 coasters or fewer, which do you think have the best collections? The Busch Gardens parks and Kennywood immediately come to my mind, but I'm sure a case could be made for a whole bunch of parks around the world. This thread isn't meant to be too serious, but hopefully will fuel some "shower thoughts" and discussion.

The Melvins, oh man. You aren't kidding. I've seen them about five times, and the most recent one was the first time I've ever left my spot during a set to buy earplugs. You can feel your organs vibrating inside of you when they play.

I'm curious to see what becomes of Maverick's normally long line with NMS debuting next year. It could go one of two ways: Mav will have no line because everyone is flocking over to NMS... or, NMS has such a long line that people don't want to wait and so they go to Maverick next door which means Mav's line won't really change. Either way, Millennium Force will continue to crank out trains of happy riders. We're getting a freaking kick A$$ RMC next to an amazing Blitz so it's all good! When Gatekeeper opened I felt like that drew a lot of people into a pretty dead section of the park and everything over there started seeing increased wait times because of it. I feel like the exact same thing is going to happen here. Yeah, Mean streak should only add traffic to the back of the park; the GP tends to understand what the New Hotness is in a debut year. Maverick will also remain hugely popular on its own, not to mention that it can break down several times a day in short intervals, like a pop-up Florida thunderstorm. I've never seen Maverick with a shorter wait than Millennium Force, & MF is supremely popular. It wouldn't surprise me if Valravn joins Gatekeeper, Magnum, Raptor, Rougarou, & Wicked Twister as pretty good coasters that you can sometimes catch with little-to-no waits, but Maverick will remain a compelling argument for Fast Lane Plus.

Dude who are you people and why do you exist and what exactly is the point of your post. It was pretty obvious to anyone not under a rock that the ride wasn't going to open in 2017 due to it not being hyped or announced by the park. Some people screw around just to razz people exactly like you, hell I even joked about 2017 because it was funny. How many more months of "where are all the people that blah blah blah" are we going to have to endure? Move on already. Sheesh. I'm gonna back DirkFunk here, because it wasn't my imagination that the spirited opening year debate rolled on long after when 2018 should have been obvious. More than a few people were speculating that the whole no-announcement deal could have meant a late summer '17 or Halloweekends soft opening, depending on how construction moved along during the winter. I even remembered seeing a few marketing theories about what Cedar Point is thinking strategy-wise, all designed to keep dimming 2017 hope alive. It's all just funny now that the debate is over and I think we'll all agree this will be worth the wait. DirkFunk's post made me laugh; I'm not sure why you're ripping it to shreds.

Like a lot of people, I really want the old Old Mill back, but the best thing about Garfield right now is that it's not everyday you can get on a ride that was first built 116 years ago, and kept its current layout for nearly 100 years. For out-of-towners, yep, Garfield is currently ugh, but it's as historical as it gets ride-wise.

Not really, unless the trains would benefit from a little push-off boost (seen on Twisted Colossus) if they were to e-stop in the MCBR. There's now also a fairly gentle quarter-turn before the drop out of the MCBR, so I can't see trains launching straight into that. The layout has so far followed the path of the original Mean Streak faithfully, except it's much more action-packed and exaggerated.

It sounds strange and possibly like BS, but Knoebel's and Kennywood (and Waldameer, too) are truly all "stop and smell the roses" parks. To really feel the charm and not just pass by nice ambiance as you head to the next thing on the to-do list, you need to toss that list in the trash and forget about the bigger chain parks. Feed birds and relax in gardens and wooded areas, do all of the dark rides, flat rides, water rides, eat tons of food, play games, win prizes, take in the Wurlitzer music on the merry-go-rounds, see the lights come on at night, and then go enjoy unforgettable night rides. It's also helpful, I think, to be at these traditional parks with your family or significant other, rather than on your own or with enthusiasts who just want to grab credits. Last season, I spent more than an hour at Kennywood just taking my niece for some ice cream at the Pagoda, talking and relaxing with her by the garden clock, and then taking a ride on the train. It was great. Then she had her first ride on the Log Jammer, a personal favorite of mine (and now her's). This might not seem eventful or special, but the traditional parks encourage a slower pace that can create these awesome memories & quirky fun that far outweighs large coaster lineups. When you try to "accomplish" a traditional park, a feeling of "that's it?" and eventual disappointment is sure to set in in no time.

Having never been there, this is one of the parks that I fantasy GM'ed in RCT2 back in the day. It's odd that I generally know the layout of the park & where these new additions will be based on my familiarity with the in-game scenario, rather than with the park itself. That said, it's great that the park's in a confident spending-and-refreshing mode. It'd be nice if new Vekoma trains went in for Cobra & Vampire as part of the revamps of their respective areas. The mega coaster artwork suggests Mack to my eyes, which is in keeping with other Mack purchases by the park, but I know you can't always go by the sketch. I'm happy to see this plan; a nice surprise today!

I agree with you full-heartedly. And that's because the fact that it most intense ride but it feels crazy fast on the low-to-the-ground segments and so graceful. If there were a time it didn't have a line, I could marathon it and never get too worn out or bored. I can see myself enjoying it forever. It's a timeless coaster masterpiece, imo. I'll also join the party for Millennium Force. I think it's one of the few really thrilling coasters that I could ride all day and all life, even as an old man, and not feel bummed if I couldn't ride anything else. Phoenix would be on my short list, as well.

On Twitter, I've noticed that the park's PR account is responsive to Qs like "Hey, why is this ride closed?", "Hey, the line isn't moving here what's going on?", etc. Some parks don't regularly respond to comments and tweets, but Kennywood isn't shy about it. The social media person recently made a call to maintenance to check on Exterminator's status because of Twitter comments. It looks like the preference is just to be as responsive/forthcoming as possible.

Good advice here about SFMM & LA in general. Last time I went was a dreaded Saturday (it was Saturday or nothing) in early fall, and even with the Gold Flash Pass & staying until close, I simply ran out of time & missed Revolution, Viper, Lex Luthor, etc. I got off the highway exit around 10:30 a.m. and no-joke didn't get into the park until after 1 p.m. I had to park well beyond Scream in the nosebleeds, and once inside, the whole place continued to be a traffic jam. To the traveler from Chicago: Please choose a weekday for your own good, & check out other stuff in L.A.! SFMM is iconic for coaster fans, but I enjoyed checking out Hollywood, the Getty Museum, Disneyland, & just relaxing in Santa Monica for a few days even more.

X/X2, the car crash simulator. Hideously jerky and thwacky. I love the ambitious concept, but I don't think it was ready to roll out the door on such a steroidal scale. I can't find fun anywhere throughout the ride experience, and it hits the brakes with me exhausted and somehow mad at the coaster every time. Vortex at King's Island. Yikes, it shows its age. The banking and transitions look and feel like wild guesstimating, and they hurt. Even the benign parts of the layout, like the relatively straight first drop, have jolting potholes for some reason. And that fast turn-and-slam into the MCBR is just vicious. I enjoy the clickety-clack of a signature Arrow lift, but I wouldn't mind seeing the station get reused for the third time on a new coaster.

All part of the Abyss theme!

This goes to show how far the RMC designs have progressed. When NTG was under construction, I remember everybody's jaw being on the floor, given how dynamic and wild its layout was shaping up to be. Now, it's still a pretty nuts ride, but it almost seems conservative compared to the stalls, directional changes, and onslaught pacing featured on some of the company's newer coasters.

Spinning coasters, especially the newer custom ones, are essentially good family coasters with a vehicular gimmick. As I wrote before, if you make the spinning gimmick optional, you get broader appeal while still preserving the marketability of the gimmick. Many parks need modern family coaster updates, and these are just what the doctor ordered, but the spinning mandate can narrow their appeal. This has nothing to do with me "so badly wanting to ride a spinning coaster"; it's about discussing an idea that doesn't seem impractical and could enhance ridership for these coasters. There are enough coasters that have offered different trains on the same track -- this isn't uncharted territory. And there are plenty of unique and fun layouts on newer spinning coasters that you don't find everywhere, and certainly not in the same park: Tarantula, Spider-Man Doc Ock's Revenge, Twist, Dwervelwind, Vicky, Han-Katten, etc.

We see coasters in Japan that offer stand-up and normal trains; why not offer a choice with the spinning coasters? I think you can market the option to spin and thereby not disqualify riders who would prefer not to spin.

I changed the title. I hope it's more clear for you and others.

According to my RCDB addition skills, 92 new spinning coasters have opened since 2015. Yes, that list includes the Golden Horse hoard, but there are also some very fun-looking, original layouts from Mack, Gerstlauer, and Maurer included. As coasters move from "taller and faster" to more originality and better engineering, some of these spinners look like kick-butt family coasters, but I just can't get with the spinning. Now, at least in my family, no adult (myself included) wants to spin anymore. I have park-going adult friends who also feel the same way. A few years ago, I saw a mom ask, "Does it have to spin?" about Steel Dragon at Waldameer, and when spinning was confirmed, she just let her daughter ride and went over to the exit ramp to wait. I know I've read about ridership numbers dropping for coasters that have inversions (which may be true, but I don't have sources), but I wonder about spinning. It might be a hassle or tougher whenever the whole coaster gimmick is spinning (Cobra's Curse), or maybe it's not a big issue at all, but is it possible to just intentionally run a fixed/locked car for people who don't want to spin? I know I've had non-spinning rides on Exterminator at Kennywood, and I've seen Maurer models spin throughout or unlock at a certain segment of track.

Sure, why not? It's a coaster.

A total stranger tweeted out that his buddy is on Intagram and this buddy well he kinda knows someone who he says wrote on LinkedIn that Cedar Point's going to smash the old Mean Streak's "world's strongest trims" record on the first drop, which is such a cool reveal that they're saving it for last, and that it'll be an even harder-hitting set of trims this time around. #MorePlausibleThanTwoDuelingCoasters #NotHappening The ride looks great. My thanks to everybody who took & shared awesome pictures from this past week.

What are your thoughts on short tunnels, such as those on Roar-O-Saurus, Apocalypse, Ravine Flyer II, Mystic Timbers, or even Millennium Force? They're certainly not detracting from coasters, but sometimes they are so brief that I wonder how much they're adding to the experience.