Arthur_Seaton

i've stopped by twice this week. it's been crazy busy. when i drove up beach monday and saw people walking from the dirt lot on la palma, i knew it was going to be packed. Yeah, I wouldn't go near the place for the next couple of weeks. It should be quiet(ish) around mid-April or so.

Glad to hear this! I personally didn't like Storm Chaser that much, mainly due to the second half's series of awkward bucking moves. It looks like this one falls back on that in the "trick track" section a bit, but there's enough (to use your words) "straightforward" track to balance that out. My favorite RMC so far is still NTAG for this exact reason, but this one really is looking great.

Yeah, that's one that I was thinking might be an exception. I'd probably wait an hour to try that one, and I'm not the biggest fan of drop towers. The face-down position looks more exhilarating than terrifying to me. The King's Island one seemed very popular when I visited the park as well. I've ridden it many times — and will often marathon it if the place is quiet. But the height combined with seating and restraint system still freaks me out to this day (even though the actual drop is fairly tame). That, and the fact that the tower's wobble is very noticeable. I can only imagine that obscured vision will make it more intimidating.

On busy days, LL's queue room will fill up a bit, but on regular days, there's nobody in there — not even staff. My unscientific analysis (which may or may not be rooted to my own anxiety) is that the ride's high-intimidation factor outweighs its fun, keeping people from riding it as consistently as they would ride something like Goliath. I've overheard several people mention that they've ridden everything except that one, and I also know several SFMM fans who have never ridden it — and probably never will. I think there are folks around here who don't go near drop towers too, right? Are there any drop towers in the US that do consistently draw a crowd (aside from stuff like Tower of Terror — or whatever it's called these days). As the result, I'm not sure that "further intensifying" the ride and advertising it as a new experience will bring more people in, but time will tell.

I think that with Flight of Fear, some familiarity with the layout helps. I've found the transitions on Premier spaghetti launchers to be quite sharp — smooth, but still jarring. I went into it with a good sense of what it was going to do, but still got flung around pretty bad. It's an intense layout, and it's hard to prepare for the twists, but thank dog that it's a lapbar ride. And yeah, when I rode Racer, it wasn't that bad. Typical old woodie roughness on the bottom of the dips, but nothing overly painful. I'd say the roughness was on par with The Beast, only on The Beast it's more sustained. I was in such a bad state that day, though, that I think even the slightest jolt was amplified. I kept taking breaks by riding Windseeker and Delirium — two rides that I find relaxing.

There are rougher rides in the park than The Beast. My best advice would be to have some Tylenol on hand with you. I visited on a humid, muggy day, and, after getting bashed around on Flight of Fear (snappy transitions, taken in the dark = ragdoll effect) and then staring into the sun on Firehawk, I was pretty nauseous and had a headache for most of my visit. YMMV, but Invertigo, Vortex, Flight of Fear, and Racer are all rough rides, and Firehawk is somewhat unpleasant as much of it is backwards / upsidedown / facing the sun. The Beast, although fairly rough, is far more rideable I think — and it deserves multiple rides based on its history alone. Diamondback, however, is incredible. I personally prefer the back seat, but it's great everywhere. Although I'm not one for ranking, I think that's my favorite coaster, period. It's a great park with unique must-rides, but I'd plan for roughness.

Yeah, Spring Break just started for a number of schools, so I wouldn't go anywhere near the place for the next couple of weeks.

Well, I was thinking while it's out of service. Putting VR on a non-functioning attraction seems far more favorable than ruining a functioning one But no, Green Lantern is so atrocious that it couldn't possibly be made any worse by adding a pink-eye delivery system.

Well, Revolution's single-ride line became increasingly popular soon after VR was introduced, so SFMM shut it down seemingly in response. I'm guessing they'll do the same with LL. A packed queue connotes "success" — even at the expense of guest satisfaction. The LL queue building is often empty, and I think there are some comic book characters or robots inside there that are being overlooked.

I'm not nearly as enamored with RMC as most are around these parts, but this one looks great — especially those back-to-back airtime hills. It seems like RMC has gone with a design that leans more toward a traditional coaster design rather than a bucking-bronco twisted-track kind of thing. It looks like the queue gets up close to the track as well.

Don't go giving them any ideas! I still think the best place for "a hi-tech, thrilling, VR experience" is on the ground (restrooms, parking lot etc.) If it must go on a ride, stick it on Green Lantern or the Go-Karts or something.

I could be totally off on this, but I'm guessing the actual assembly and testing of the new ride won't take long at all.

On the one hand, I'm glad they're taking VR off Revolution. On the other, what on earth are these people thinking? One of Lex Luthor's key features is the view and the elevation. I mean, I get it from a marketing perspective and all, but whoever's making these decisions should be forced to wear those stupid headsets M-F, 9-5 as punishment. I hope it's just on one side, but you know it'll be both and will most likely decimate operations.

Well, in their defense, when the ride first opened with VR they were pretty accommodating to those who wanted to ride without the headset. They even had a single-rider option where you could just walk up to the entrance under the lift and jump straight onto the front seat. The park discontinued this option soon after, resulting in 8-minute train dispatches with multiple empty seats. My only guess as to why they discontinued it is because too many people preferred to ride without a janky cell phone on their face which let the air out of their "new hi-tech attraction" a bit too much.

I think you have to really love Schwarzkopf to dig this one, though. It's built into a weird hilly section of the park, so it's as if the designer had to take some liberties to make it fit. As the result, it's a fairly meandering ride after the loop. They're awful. They're just on the side seats, but they restrain one of your arms completely. There must be some clearance issue at some point in the ride. I'd say Lex Luthor, but I seem to recall the shells being there before that ride showed up.

Very nice overview; it sounds like you had a good visit! We certainly share some opinions (love of the older, more vintage style rides — especially anything Schwarzkopf) I do like Twisted Colossus, although I wish they'd done more with the layout. I'm also not a huge fan of some of RMC's attempts to out-extreme their designs with back-to-back assaults (careful pacing is a thing!). They're a fascinating company to watch right now, but I'd love to see them diversify a bit more in terms of what they can offer (more floater air, for example). If, given the choice between TC and preserving the original, I'd probably opt for preserving the original — even though a racing ride on TC is a fantastic experience.

I did hear a Revolution op tell a guest that VR will be used in the summer months (which doesn't make sense since, thankfully, it seems to break in the heat). Having said that, if parks are still enamored with this "tech" and insist upon using it, perhaps they could repurpose it into a different kind of experience? Maybe there could be a space set aside in the park where all the headsets are gathered in a pile and guests have the opportunity to pelt them with rocks and old vegetables? That would make more sense than sticking them on rides.

Is it even possible for that ride to have a "giant section of track"?

Really looking forward to trying one of these as well. Twisted airtime hills can be awkward, flinging you around uncomfortably (I'm thinking of Skyrush here). But the fact that you'll be right in the middle of the track should this one much more appealing — especially given the speed it seems to be going.

I've stayed in some crappy motels, but that place was truly shocking. I seriously considered just sleeping in the car in the parking lot, but there were parties going on out there for much of the night. I'm amazed they haven't been shut down.

I took a peek at the cam last night at about 11 pm and saw that Hang Time was testing repeatedly (more than five times). It looks like it flies through the course surprisingly fast.

Yeah, something's changed. I've had tons of good luck getting races on this ride, but I do recall that when the trains crested the lift together, they'd end next to each other as well. That doesn't seem to be the case anymore. On my second ride the other day, we were perfectly synced at the top of the lift hill, but our train went speeding on ahead so that all the interaction was missed. The dueling track is a great concept, but I'd be surprised if RMC tried to do something like this again.

That's one thing that really surprised me about SFOT — that there was really nothing at all that vegetarians could eat. Granted, theme park food isn't exactly known for its nutritious value or healthy options, but this is probably the only park I've visited where I struggled to find anything.

These kind of quick, packed trips are the best! I did Indiana Beach and Cedar Point on the same day not too long ago, followed by Cedar Point and Kings Island (same day again), then Kentucky Kingdom and Holiday World. It was pretty manic, but I covered a lot of ground. I think if I were to describe Ghost Rider to someone, I'd tell them that it's not particularly extreme or intense, but it's really just a lot of fun. It has a very classic feel to the design, but the second half feels more modern and relentless. To me, it's a ride that I enjoy without having to brace myself in any way. I do think the back seat is the place to be though. Xcelerator is the really intense ride in the park — one that, no matter how many times I've ridden it, still makes me tense up. It's a shame you didn't get to ride it as I find it more forceful than Dragster, but it's the same principle really. And I'm with you on Silver Bullet. I don't particularly like B&M inverts (wasn't that enamored with either Raptor or Banshee), but I love this one. I think contention about the drop colors perspectives of the rest of the ride. To me, it's perfectly sequenced and forceful. Anyhow, cool report! And what did you think of Joshua Tree, by the way? It's a surreal place, and there's a cool little coaster on the way from LA called the Scandia Screamer that's way more intense than it should be.

I spent a few hours at the park today, capitalizing on February's notoriously slow days. This one didn't disappoint in that, not only were all rides a walk-on, most were a stay-on. At one point or another, I even managed to be the sole rider on Füll Throttle, Lex Luther, Apocalypse, Ninja, and Viper. In the 3 hours that I was there, I got a ridiculous number of rides in, mostly due to staying on the train when it rolled back into the station. A few notes from the day: Apocalypse is jackhammering and screeching like crazy, but it's really only the final series of turns that border on unbearable. I can't imagine that any trackwork was done in its recent downtime, so perhaps it was structural? Much of the ride is violent and rough, but it is somewhat tolerable. Even when Ghost Rider was at its worst, it was hard to deny that it was a fantastic design. The same is true for Apocalypse, only Apocalypse's design is such that the ride remains relentless from the first drop onward. As the result, it just seems to be tearing itself apart. One of the Ninja trains was running with its front car missing. Also, one of Lex's individual seats was broken and roped off. And, because it came up recently in this thread, the "effects" in Füll Throttle's tunnel are still working well (it's just lights and a short music clip), but Revolution's LEDs on the loop are half blown out. Hideous VR is still down, so enjoy Revolution while it's still rideable. Nothing to report on the new ride construction - it's a just a pile of dirt with zero activity around that area at all. The construction behind Apocalypse is full-speed ahead, though. I can't imagine how a residential area that close to the park is going to work. I assume they're going to be McMansions of some kind, but they'll need some serious sound-proofing if they're expected to sell. TC's ops were as great as ever, but they were running two trains and so dueling was trickier. I rode twice, and the trains were perfectly synced to race on two of the four laps (impressive for two-train ops). However, the ride itself doesn't seem to allow for decent racing anymore. When the ride opened, the racing was pretty consistent and the trains stayed close together as long as they left the chain lift at the same time. That seems to have changed, and even the lift hill sensors/chain speeds seem a bit off. Saw some douche-bro try to humiliate a female op in front of a bunch of young boys because he screwed up and took his party up the wrong ramp for fast-pass on Goliath. He started recording her with his cell phone, held it up to her face, and tried to force her to say her name and state on camera that she was not going to give him and his party preferential treatment. Given how quiet the place was, the guy was most likely feeling miffed about shelling out big money for fast-passes, and what better way to assuage your own idiocy than to try and humiliate a woman half your age and capture it on video. Props to the young woman for standing her ground and not letting them pass, but it was clear that being filmed against her will got to her. For science, I took two rides on Scream. They were only running a single train, and the train seemed to be in pretty good shape. The front gave a smooth ride with just a bit of rattle on the first drop and loop. The back seat, however, had its square wheels on. While it's not as rough as it has been as of late, the first drop, loop, and dive loop caused some serious bone shaking. It's very temperamental these days, but I still think it's the best B&M in the park (an unpopular opinion, I know). Anyhow, now's a good time to capitalize on slow days - at least during the week. Füll Throttle around 3pm Apocalypse around 5pm Viper around 5:30pm