Arthur_Seaton

Walk up the exit ramp, go under the lift hill straight to the station (or down the steps from that pathway close to Viper), and somebody will open the gate and let you onto the front seat. The walk up the station is more thrilling than the VR headset IMO

Even though the TC line can get packed, it moves fast because the ops need keep the trains cycling at a good pace. The NR line is atrocious due to the VR. You'd think strapping a cellphone to your face wouldn't be that hard, but it seems that for every dispatch there's at least one or two devices that are broken and need to be replaced before the ride can start. Unless the line is unusually short (or you happen to be a fan of video games) I'd ride without the VR device and skip the line altogether. Worth doing once if you've never seen it before, but it's a cheap gimmick and not worth an extensive wait.

I just took a quick glance to check out your approach, but if you're interested in spatial movement, you might take a look at the work of William H. Whyte — specifically the "Street Life Project." Michel de Certeau's The Practice of Everyday Life would probably be interesting to think about in terms of parks, too. Also, the Situationists might be helpful in thinking about crowd patterns — specifically the dérive etc. Last, if you haven't read it already, you should certainly take a look at what Baudrillard has to say about Disneyland in "The Precession of Simulacra."

Oh, that would make sense. I'm usually pretty good at picking the quiet days but not this time.

Went for a couple of hours tonight hoping that it'd be somewhat quiet. It wasn't. While the park itself didn't seem that packed at the time I arrived (6:30pm), all of the major rides had hefty lines. Tatsu, Twisted Colossus, and Füll Thröttle queues were all maxed out with TC spilling out down toward Scream. Goliath was well into the switchbacks (which makes it a no-go for me), and even Scream had a line down the steps and past the löckers — which is the first time I've ever seen a line for that. Revolution's line was down by the carousel but the single rider line was empty so I jumped on there (by the end of the night, the single rider line was pretty long as well). Apocalypse had a line when I first approached it, but I went back later and walked right on. They were definitely running the trains with the square wheels on tonight — mega rough. Rode Ninja (no line around 8pm), Viper (despite my dislike of it), Apocalypse (brutal tonight), and Revolution (used to love it — but now I find it lame and I can't figure out why). Although I usually skip the park's B&Ms and Arrows, I rarely visit without at least one ride on TC, FT, and Goliath. Perhaps tonight was an anomaly, but maybe it's time to go into hibernation and return to the park once schools are back in session.

Yeah, the MCBR was clearly ramped up to minimize the speed that the train went through the second part of the ride — especially that first turn following the hidden drop. Maybe some of the intensity of those turns was lost, but taking that drop at a decent speed would be worth it. That, and not having to dismantle the ride a few years from now.

That's the one part of the ride I thought needed re-profiling the most as that particular turn always felt like it was going to tear the train apart. I'm surprised that this part saw so much re-profiling though — it never seemed quite that bad at that spot. Original: Original New: New

It really was a great ride in its time. It has more classical allegiance than an RMC, but it was always far more intense and relentless than your standard woodie. Even at its roughest it was a must-ride largely because the layout was so good. The only point where I can visibly see reprofiling is on the turn before the climb up to where the MCBR used to be. I'm guessing that the turn after the "hidden" drop got tweaked as well as the ride looks far more smooth now though. That was the section that really felt like the structure was shaking apart. Looking forward to riding it again soon!

There are summer schools at local colleges and whatnot, but no, school's aren't in session during the summer so the park will most likely be very busy. You might have better luck going on a Monday or a Tuesday, but from now until about September, it'll most likely be the opposite of "ghost town." 35 degrees is about 95 degrees, right? For a summer day in Valencia, 95 degrees would be about average, but I'd count on experiencing temperatures even higher than that. That area hits triple digits quite easily and it's one of the hottest areas around LA. If you get a platinum pass, I doubt you'd need 2 days there. If you really struggle with the the heat, you might be better off spending two half days there though. As far as "sitting somewhere air conditioned" goes, I can't think of many places in the park that have air conditioned seating aside from the handful of sit-down eating places — which are usually packed with people eating. There are shaded areas and plenty of misting zones, but the truth is that the Cali heat is very dry and it's not that hard to handle once you get used to it. I'm not a fan of summer weather myself, but I don't find the dry heat to be that bad. Just make sure you're doused in plenty of sunblock.

Really? I rode it when it first opened and it was atrocious then. I won't go on it anymore, but I see it spin like crazy these days.

I actually quite liked Flashback — even though the train design made it painful to ride. Green Lantern though is absolute garbage. Worst coaster I've ever ridden as well — by a long shot.

Yeah, that pretzel loop is huge. It's also placed well so you can stand close to it and watch the trains dive. It's pretty rattly at the bottom of that loop and super forceful going up the other side of it, but it's the ride's big show piece. My favorite part though is the lift hill which catches first time rides off guard. Because the mountain is dropping beneath you while the ride's elevating, by the time you get to the top of of the lift, you really get a sense of how high up you are — which is unnerving in those restraints. That's the best part for me. TC doesn't feel particularly fast to me, but I don't think it really should. It takes the elements faster than it feels like it should, but I never really get the feeling that I'm really hauling on it. It's more intense than the other RMC I've been on (NTAG), but that felt like a faster ride in general. X2 is one ride that feels considerably faster than it looks — especially when it's climbing and dropping out of that first loop. EDIT: That is weird. I just watched what I presume to the be the TC video you're referring to (albeit without the headset) and it does look like it's flying through the track there. For some reason it doesn't quite feel that relentless to me.

i find it hard to believe anyone has zero interest in the food... i mean i can understand JUST for the food. but dollyoods food is amazing tbh I'm insufferable when it comes to food choices! Trust me, I'm not Dollywood's target audience when it comes to dining haha!

Good to hear your thoughts, GoBears! I'm surprised by how many people find the launch to be tame. While I didn't expect anything overly extreme, with the speed and angle, I thought it would have more of an impact. Interesting to hear that the first drop wasn't that intense for a few riders so far as well. My experience with RMCs is that the front seat and back seat are very different on the first drops, and both RMCs I've ridden are backseat rides for me as the result. Nonetheless, Lightning Rod looks great — the perfect fit for the space. And although I have zero interest in shows / food, Dollywood is high up on my list of parks to visit.

I like some ejector — the kind that feels like you're falling out of the seat while dropping (RMC first drops) as opposed to the violent, smashed-thighs ejector that comes from taking a too-sharp element too fast. I guess the kind of ejector I like is when it's more sustained. Overall though, floater is my preference — significant enough to lift you from the seat for a couple of seconds.

Wildcat, to me, looks pretty but the ride was pretty terrible. The roughness is definitely a problem, but unless swooping drops are your thing, the layout's not that impressive either. I don't mind woodie roughness (I actually liked Colossus and Psyclone at SFMM and the Blackpool Wild Mouse is a personal favorite), but when a ride jackhammers its way around the track, much of the fun is stripped away by what it does to your body.

You're talking about Great Bear right? To me, the second half of that ride felt like someone hit "autocomplete" in Roller Coaster Tycoon and some wacky-ass filler track appeared to connect it back to the station. I'm not a huge fan of B&M inverts, but I did like that initial pre-drop spin. The second half was a bit of a head scratcher though. I loved Fahrenheit — I think it and Lightning Racer were my two favorite rides there. I liked Comet a lot too, even though it's pretty tame.

Wow, great reports! Your writing's fantastic!

I'm not quite sure how, but I did get it to play on my computer. Damn, that thing launches FAST.

I've found the opposite to be true as of late. Scream has been hit or miss — sometime it's surprisingly rough, and other times it's not bad. I usually skip Riddler because I'm not a fan overall (prefer Scream), but the last two or three times I've ridden it (within the past couple of months), it's felt far more rough than I recall. A friend and I got our ears majorly boxed by it.

Looks like "bring a friend for half price" throughout May and June and "bring a friend for free" on mother's and father's day.

Talking about bruise-inducing airtime, what do you think of the type offered by Euro fighters like Speed and Saw? Is that more your type of airtime thet you like? To be honest I have never been bruised by airtime I've yet to ride a Euro fighter, so I don't know. I have ridden Fahrenheit, which has a similar beyond-vertical drop to the Euro fighters, but surprisingly I didn't find it to be that aggressive — even in the back seat. There's a little airtime hill at the end of that ride that's more intense than the first drop. I will say that the ejector air on the RMCs I've ridden (Twisted Colossus and NTAG) has the capacity to bruise (especially Twisted Colossus which is quite aggressive in a couple of spots), but the rides are so much more balanced in that the focus isn't simply on throwing you around or up into the restraints as hard as they can. El Toro sits more in that category in that it's fun as well as being intense. I find Skyrush to be far too intense to be fun (even thought I rode it a grip of times).

They're similar, but I'd harbor that Skyrush is a tad more aggressive whereas El Toro is a bit more sustained because the airtime hills are somewhat similar. To be honest, I was a bit let down by both rides, but Skyrush feels more like an endurance test than an enjoyable coaster (for the reasons Boldikus presented). From riding both, I learned that I'm not a huge fan of aggressive, bruise-inducing ejector air.

It didn't feel sluggish at all to you? I can't quite put my finger on what's different but when I rode it a few weeks ago it was *crawling* around the track. I honestly thought it was going to roll back on that little hill before the final helix. I haven't tried the VR on Revolution because it was drizzly when I was there, and when they did have it working, the slow dispatches produced an insane line. I tried it in Texas and frankly have no interest in riding any coaster with a VR phone again, so I'm glad they've opened up the ride to a non-VR line.

I've ridden both the Texas and the New Jersey star flyers and found both utterly terrifying. I still rode them over and over though Even though safety is never a question, it's absolutely unnerving to be spun at that height on those chains. Once the seats start to spin a bit, it gets worse. Very few super tall rides have this effect on me, so it really does come down to a feeling of insecurity, I guess. Lex Luthor produces a similar feeling because the openness of the restraint adds to the insecure feeling.