TheHalonSystem

So I'm always craving food, usually chocolate. However, recently I started craving roller coasters. No, not eating roller coasters (ew!). But I meant riding them. I will have moods where I really just want to be riding a specific ride, even one I've never been on before. Like, the other day I just really wanted to ride Alpengeist, even though I've never been to BGW. And that's another thing, I rarely get to go to Amusement parks, which makes it even worse. It seems every day now I'm like craving a different roller coaster (today it's Riddler's Revenge, which I've never ridden either). Oh and on top of that, I will crave elements without craving a specific coaster. Like I will crave airtime or going on loops. Anyone else get like this? Oh and feel free to ask me what coaster I'm craving the day you reply.

Um I don't think they have one of those.

Well mine kinda slide off my face easily and also the lens pops out easily (which happened on Disaster Transport when I was 5 and that taught me to not wear my glasses on rides. Unfortunately, this pair of glasses has nowhere to attach a strap. We've tried before.

Yes thank you! I have ridden rides kinda like mini sky screamers at carnivals and I wonder if they're designed the same way because I always thought they were just like regular wave Swinger seats with just seat belts. But I've never tried to undo it mid ride because I'm not stupid.

First off, I want to apologize for admitting to breaking park rules over a park website. However, this was completely unintentional, and I certainly didn't want this to happen. So I will admit that I did do something that sounds really dumb back when I was 8 years old (in June of 2006). I was at Cedar Point with my cousins like I was every summer at the time. One of the first rides we rode was the Wave Swinger (aka the swings over in Frontier town). I decided to remove my glasses and leave them with my Aunt Laura. Turns out, it may have been better to just keep them on! Because, the ride stopped about 6 feet off the ground. I wasn't paying too much attention to the people around me and I thought it was time to get off. Because I am visually impaired, I don't have good depth perception especially without my glasses, and so that's why I thought it was time to get off the ride (I thought it was in the load/unload position). So I got off. I slipped out of the swing, and then I was hanging from the chair. That's when I realized it wasn't time to get out but I had no other choice but to let go. Even then though, I was pretty tall (about 56 inches) so it wasn't a long way down, but it was still very frightening, not to mention I was almost hit in the head by someone's leg. That's when the ride operator called me over. And man he was not happy nor was my family! I tried explaining that it was an accident, but at the time, they did not believe me. I finally did manage to get them to believe me when we brought up this incident about 3 years later and I explained it better. I didn't know the terms that I do now and also I have a bit of trouble talking. I finally rode a ride that was the exact same thing at the Ohio State Fair in 2009. I saw people on the ride wearing their glasses so I thought it'd be okay to finally ride a swing ride again. I was a bit hesitant, but after watching about 3 ride cycles of that thing to make sure it wouldn't stop in the air and then just slowly lower like the one at Cedar Point, I manned up and got on. In fact, I was riding with a friend whom was completely blind and she was perfectly fine. However, when it stopped, I actually sat there for awhile to listen for people getting out. I then actually rode the exact same Wave Swinger ride at Cedar Point again when I was 13 after a long argument with myself about doing that and watching the ride multiple times. I wasn't sure if they would let me keep my glasses on (they're quite strict about that) but they didn't say anything to me about it. And to my surprise, it didn't stop in the air like it used to. So because I go to a school for disabled children, I told this story to my class, and surprisingly, a few of my classmates who also don't see well, said that they had similar incidents happen to them at amusement parks. Granted that this also wasn't my only incident on a ride involving my visual impairment. In fact, that same visit to Cedar Point a day later, I was driving one of the Cadillac cars and passed the stop sign because it was on my right side, where I'm almost totally blind out of that eye, and I don't have good peripheral vision. And I've never driven one of those since (probably not a good idea anyway). And I've come to find out that these kinds of incidents among visually impaired people and swing rides actually aren't that uncommon. Here's my problem today. So I am often still paranoid while on swing rides, even almost 9 years later. However, I may be going to Six Flags New England sometime in the coming years with my brother whom lives in Massachusetts. I've watched POV's of the New England Sky Screamer and it just looks like a recipe for the same incident to happen again. Only this time, the ride is over 400 feet tall, and it stops about 20 feet in the air before lowering OVER BLANK PAVEMENT! Not to mention the seats are pretty far apart so you can't really see or hear the others. My fear is my glasses falling over 400 feet and shattering into a million pieces or even hurting someone. I cannot attach a head strap to them. I have worn them on the wind seeker at Cedar Point before, but that ride is so slow they can't possibly fall off unless you shook your head a bunch. But the NESS looks really fast, so they could blow off easily. And I'm not just concerned about myself, I'm concerned about my brother too because he's also visually impaired. And he's never ridden this because he hasn't been to SFNE in almost 10 years. And if the same incident were to happen on this ride whether to me or my brother, because it's much higher up, we could be seriously hurt. And on another note, my brother doesn't even know I ever did anything like this. And he would likely want to go on this ride and me to go on with him. And this story is so ridiculous, it'd be hard to get him to understand especially since he could easily put me on Bizzaro or Batman with no problem since I go on rides like those all the time and am looking forward to them, but I'd be afraid of a skyscreamer! So can anyone help me with this? Any tips or experiences you can share? I really am sorry this sounds stupid but I figured I could ask some of the experts like that are on this site. I really hope you guys understand.

So yesterday, I was in the car heading to the science museum (which I mentioned in my previous forum), and as we were driving down off a bridge, there was actually quite a dip down, and we were driving at about 50mph. So when we went down that dip, we all actually floated up out of our seats, like a bit of ejector. It wasn't anything like Magnum or El Toro, but my Uncle David said it reminded him of the Blue Streak. So, my question is, have you gotten any airtime, or other feeling of a ride element, somewhere that was NOT an amusement park ride? Also, when we were coming out of the parking garage, we went around a bit of a helix that my Aunt Laura said was like the Iron Dragon, though I didn't think so. Another thing, certain playground equipment I know can do the same thing. Like swings etc can deliver airtime, and if the person pushing the carousel does it hard enough, they can deliver a couple of G's. And I actually mentioned that in my "What is it that I love about going upside down?" forum.

So I was in the car today on my way back from the science museum (I'm visiting my cousin's in Alabama) and we got on the topic of what coasters we could ride over and over again. Someone had mentioned the Top Thrill Dragster. And then my Aunt Laura said "That's not really a roller coaster, that's more like a thrill ride." I then said "Yes it is a roller coaster, just look it up on Intamin's website, and everywhere else." Then I asked about Wicked Twister, and she said the same thing, "That's not really a roller coaster either." I explained to her that a roller coaster is a train on a track, that has at least some thrill element to it, and we're still having this debate! And I'm also curious to know if anyone agrees with her. Now I will admit that I debated with myself on whether Power Tower was a roller coaster, but that was when I was too little to ride the thing (and I was seven when I first rode it). Obviously I know it's not nowadays. I just thought it was because the sides of the towers looks sorta like coaster track.

Okay then. But what's a coaster you love that everyone else hates?

So do any of you have a ride you love but others don't seem too? And is there a ride you hate that others seem to love? I know that we all can be that way about some things. For me, I love Mantis and Mean Streak at Cedar Point. 2 that people seem to find "awful" but to me are sweet rides! My dislikes aren't necessarily ones I plain hate but aren't crazy for, and that is ROTM at Universal Orlando. Not the biggest fan of HRRR either. They're just coasters that have parts I like, parts I don't, and they don't really stand out to me.

Am I the only one that will miss this ride?

When did you ride it? Because it had a refurb in 2012 and it's actually quite enjoyable now.

Having ridden Mantis lots of times I do not find it as bad as most people claim it to be. I personally think it's underrated. Also Mean Streak went through some major retracking and I think it's actually pretty smooth now.

Sorry. I just joined recently and I'm using my phone and not sure how to reply to someone without doing that.

It's very loud too! But the it has a very original and awesome layout! My favorite ride at universal by far!

It's really cool looking!

Well, I don't think B&M was advertising launch coasters until this year but would do them if you requested one and found another company to do the launch.

I think it'd be a too intense ride to be at Disney.

I think it's the only coaster to use that type of launch. And at a park like IOA, you really have high expectations! I still wondered if B&M designed the piece of track the pitch wheels sit on of if that had to be done by another company as well.

Is the blueprint on your page? I really wanna see it.

Clicky I knew about an incident where someone's backpack fell on the track but I forgot about that incident.

This may not be a widely known fact, but both Premier and Intamin buy their launch mechanics from Intrasys to this day. In fact, B&M's Thunderbird is being launched using Intrasys technology: http://www.intrasys-gmbh.com/ So like B&M, Intamin and Premier also had to find another company to do their launch systems. Most people assume that when a park buys a ride from someone like Intamin, B&M, Premier, etc, that the company does EVERYTHING on the ride, which is not the case. To simplify things, the ride manufacturers design and produce the ride, but many components come from several different vendors. There could be as many as 100 different vendors involved with supplying parts to a ride or a ride project, and it's the responsibility of a company like Intamin, B&M, and Premier to manage that process and make it all come together. Sometimes they work closely with the project managers at the park, sometimes they do it turn key. While a lot of companies DO manufacture their own track, trains, parts, etc, it's most certainly a misconception that ride companies do *everything* themselves, like designing or building launch systems. I think the answer to the question (this is my assumption) is that at the time, B&M was a much smaller company, already had a great reputation and product line-up WITHOUT having to add an additional vendor and project management to do a launch into their plans, so if a park wanted to do a launched coaster with them, the park would have to contract with that vendor themselves. IMO, there isn't any reason why a B&M couldn't be launched all these years, but maybe it just was that no other park wanted to take on the additional work of having to project manage the launch system, and it wasn't until recently that became an option that B&M offered in order to expand their product line? --Robb "I hope I've explained that somewhat correctly!" Alvey Well, that makes sense to me. Maybe B&M just wasn't advertising launches but would do them by request.

Sounds like it would've been easier to have at least more than one of the coasters in the park be made by the same company. B&M is quite popular in Florida, and they stay smooth for awhile too. But what happened on California Screamin'?

Well, capacity can be an issue, considering how popular that park is, and how long the line is even with the 32 seater trains. But B&M didn't build the launch. Also, I love how you called HRRR "MCBR, The ride", it's so true!

Hey I was born in 1998. Is that picture real or animated? My vision isn't that great.

Makes sense because there were plans for IOA way back in 1993 and I saw a Behind the scenes" on the designing of Hulk and some of that footage was from 1995 when they got on the test buggy to try to figure out the right accelerations for the launch, which that was 1 year before FOF debuted. I do know that Montezooma's revenge at KBF launches with a flywheel and that thing was built in 1978 but by then Swarkpof (sorry of I spelled that wrong) had gone out of business.