Arthur_Seaton

TC did take its toll on us. I've ridden it 5 times in a day before, but I think today's gross weather wore us out. When we went back for final rides, we were going to marathon it, but after the first time round the circuit, we both felt beat up and called it a day at that point. It was the perfect day for marathons, but not the best weather. I rode Scream three weeks ago and it seemed relatively okay to me. The corkscrews have always been a bit bumpy, and the bottom of the first drop had some rattle, but I've never experienced this much before. It wasn't head-banging into the restraints kind of rough, but it was more like skull rattling. Really unpleasant stuff.

My guess is that they knew this week would be dead and wanted to at least try and bring in some money? We used the $35 friend deal today, but free would have certainly been better.

Also took a drive out the mountain today as I suspected it would be quiet. Every ride we went on was a walk-on with several rides dispatching trains half empty. I had no idea it would be this quiet. TC had all three trains running with no line whatsoever, so we got a bunch of rides in. The dueling was hit or miss for the usual reasons: guests faffing around. We rode in the back the most, but my friend wanted to try the front seat. Two guys who had to do the walk of shame from other parts of the train were moved to the seat behind us (second seat on the train) and several of the staff spent a few minutes stapling them both in. I don’t usually rate the front of that ride too highly, and I don’t know if the extra weight caused it, but the train flew through the bottom of the first drop, hitting the second hill much faster than what I remember from past front seat rides. Anyhow, the staff were as great as ever and the ride was its usual fun self. With that said, TC still isn’t my favorite ride in the park, but I look forward to checking out some other RMCs in the future. Full Throttle had a 2-train wait from about 1pm onwards. Tatsu took about 10 mins to board. Apocalypse was only running one train, and they had a small crowd penned off in the switchbacks (I assume the inner building was too muggy as the weather was gross today). Also rode Goliath again for the first time since it reopened. As fun as ever, but that first drop really is a snoozer now. The station was empty, so the staff just let us go through again a few times. Superman was running the left side all day (and could have used a hit of WD-40 as it was screeching pretty loudly). We skipped the whole X2, Viper, and Revolution corner of the park as neither one of us likes those rides very much. Something was up with Scream, though. I’ve always preferred Scream to the park’s other B&Ms, but today it was terrible. They were only running one train, and ride was beyond rough — borderline jackhammering around much of the circuit. I’ve experienced a few rough spots here and there in the past, but we got off the ride today kind of shaken up. Some little kid on Twisted Colossus also said Scream was too rough for him today. I wonder if they have the regular trains in rehab and this one is some old junker they keep around as a backup? It really was atrocious and I’ll probably add it to the growing “skip it” list at SFMM. Anyhow, a great day for riding the great coasters the park has. The staff were excellent as ever — especially the TC crew who always seem to be upbeat and especially friendly. Here's a pic of the TC station from the front row: TC Station on 8/25/15

Spent a few hours at the park today. The crowds were reasonable, and the operations were very good overall. Gold pass gate opened around 10:10am, and Twisted Colossus had already cycled a few trains, so it was ready to go. Got a couple of rides in before the main gates opened and the crowds descended upon it. First ride was on the first dispatch of the day, and the trains were slightly out of sync for both duels. However, the next ride dueled on both sides, and both times we rode it later in the day, it also dueled on both sides. Despite the GP’s best efforts to slow things down, the ride ops were doing great — even when the ride got busy later in the day. Apocalypse didn’t seem as bad today as it was two or three weeks ago, so I’m guessing we just happened to get a better train. Still brutal and a shadow of its former self, but a moderate improvement. Next time you’re on it, look backwards from the brake run and you can see just how jacked up parts of the track are. Jumped on FT (still my favorite ride there), Superman (running both sides), Jet Stream (it was hot!), Scream, and then bailed. And yes, we saw the chain installation underway on Goliath as well. The crane was up, and there were a couple of workers up there fiddling around with stuff. Should be back soon, hopefully.

Took a quick drive up to the mountain this morning. I figured since not all schools are out and it was slated to rain that it'd be somewhat quiet. It was actually pretty busy. I only planned on staying a couple of hours to ride Colossus two or three times then bail, but I ended up just riding once and then leaving right after. The park was struggling to handle the size of the crowd at the entrance, and the pass member line was moving really kind of slow despite being fully staffed. By the time I got to the gate, the regular gates had opened. When I left around 11:30, the entrance plaza was an absolute zoo. As soon as I got in, I hoofed it over to TC which already had a long line before the station itself opened. They didn't start cycling empty trains until 10:45 and the first passengers rode around 11:10. Lots of staff present and three train-operation, but they were really struggling to keep things moving. All kinds of mechanical dispatch delays, meandering guests, guests who brought elaborate baggage, strollers etc. They were also experiencing problems with the trains themselves — having to move people in and out of different seats and running trains half empty because of what appeared to be problems with the restraints. I planned on using the single rider line, but the guy running it said it would be about the same wait as the regular line, if not longer. There were about 50 people in the single rider pen, and yet trains were leaving the station with plenty of empty seats. It seems to me that the station is poorly designed in that guests can jump from one gate to another too easily, they get confused about where they're supposed to be standing, and the single rider pen is too far away from the person who allocates gates. Employees seemed to be struggling to communicate with one another, and at one point, they cleared the train for dispatch only to find that it wouldn't move because a woman's restraint was left fully open. No racing that I saw, stacking three trains with 3-4 minute dispatches. I was only there for an hour, but hopefully they were able to get a groove going after I left. It's still a fun ride although it's not my personal favorite in the park, but the combination of a messy loading, lobotomized and barely functioning guests, and a general lack of efficient organization is going to be a nightmare for that thing when the place gets really busy. Mandatory lockers, and perhaps a prerecorded schpiel over the station music about getting on and off fast seems like it might help. The employees were fine, but the system itself seemed much messier than when I was there for the gold pass preview. I ended up leaving after that one ride due to how long the single rider line was, and Yolo's line (my favorite ride there), had spilled well out into the plaza. Being a pass holder and going off-season kind of spoils you as I rarely wait more than 20 mins for anything there! I'm wondering if late evenings might be a better time to swoop through during the busy season? If not, I'll just sit the summer out and head back around October-ish.

First post from a longtime lurker here, and thanks for the great videos! I saw a ton of TPR logos today, so nicely done I went today as well and got five rides in. I could have ridden more as the line was so short (15 minute waits), but I only stayed for a few hours. Kudos to the ops who did a *fantastic* job overall; it's very clear that they're working hard to sync the trains. Only the first out of my five rides failed to duel (the second train couldn't catch up on the lift hill), and the other four rides were perfectly synced for one of the two laps. With three trains, dueling should be fine, but it is going to require a lot of the ops as the GP isn't the smartest bunch. (One couple had an armful of infants and a stroller with them all the way through the line up to the station, at which point they got stuck and delayed everyone while the staff tried to figure out how to remove the stroller.) Overall, it's a fun ride; intense and forceful. I personally prefer Full Throttle still because of the way the elements are sequenced on that ride, for me, is just perfect. TC is fairly disorienting in that it hammers you with one element after the next at such a pace that it's hard to fully appreciate them; I found that I had to try and pay attention to each element individually or I'd miss it. I can't help but wish that the overall size of the ride was increased just a tad — not to make it higher or faster, but to spread out and sustain the elements just a little more. My first ride was out of sync, and it was in the front. Frankly, I was underwhelmed: the first drop didn't feel especially high when dangling over it, and the moments of air weren't sustained for long. I enjoyed it, but I wasn't as blown away as I'd hoped. I jumped back in line and this time got the backseat with a dueling ride and it made all the difference. The first drop in the back of the train is something else entirely. Although I personally find El Toro to be overrated, the enormity of that first drop is part of what makes it stand out. TC's first drop feels comparatively tiny, but the force and experience is (I find) far better than El Toro's. I was never quite convinced that dueling would make a difference, but it really ramps up the fun as you feel close to the other riders for the first part, and then the interaction in the second half is excellent. Really well done throughout. As far as the elements go, I found the bunny hops at the start to be pointless as well, but I get why they're there — a sort of ironic "twisted" effect that anticipates what's to come. They're pointless, but they hardly detract. The lift hill felt like being on Colossus again — which was strange! The left side can be very slow with the timing mechanism adjusting whether there's train next to you or not, but when the trains meet on the lift, it's fun to scope out who you're racing against. People seemed cordial, and no shots were fired. As mentioned, the first drop is intense — one of the best first drops I've experienced (and I've traveled). In the front, it doesn't feel very high, but you feel the angle more than anything. In the back, it feels like you're being thrown out, but not in a violent way (like, say, Skyrush). The bunny hill at the bottom of the drop did very little for me, and the subsequent bunny hills (the one after the second blue drop, and the double-up type parts) were similar — okay, but they felt like filler when compared to the rest. The elevation into the hill that holds the hi-five is excellent, though. It feels steep as you climb it, and obviously, as you crest it, that's the ride's big airtime moment. It's way shorter than the airtime on El Toro, but it's fun—especially as it yanks you to the side. The Hi-Five was much better than expected. Weird on the blue side, and "holy crap" weird on the green side. The green side is very disorienting and unnatural feeling, but it's not unpleasant or jarring in any way — it's just a sudden, unusual movement. When it duels, this part is excellent as you really experience the close proximity of the other riders. It's the strangest of elements, but it works so much better than I thought it would. The two drops out of the hi-five, I'm sad to say, didn't do that much for me. The head-choppers on the blue side didn't feel that close, and the drop was more about regaining speed than getting air. The green side is just weird and shuffly more than anything. It bounces you a little, but I wouldn't really call that air either — more like awkward lateral movement. The top gun stall is fantastic from both tracks. The blue certainly throws you up, but I found myself too distracted by the train overhead to enjoy the air. The hang time on the green side is exactly what it looks like in the video — sustained far more than gravity should allow. The subsequent flip provides another great moment of interaction, but it's not quite as fun as the top-gun, and then the double-ups were just sort of filler for me. They felt like the bunny hops throughout and reminded me of hitting bumps on the freeway. The outward bank hill feels more intense, but that's mainly because it's made to make you feel like you're going to slam into the supports. Even though, to me, TC really has just five notable moments of intense airtime (the main drop in the back, the hill before the high-five, and the blue track under the top-gun stall), it didn't need any more than that. Rides like Skyrush, I find, are kind of the equivalent of a Transformers movie — all flashy explosions and very little thought. TC is a kind of an ADHD coaster in that respect as well — one intense move slammed up against the other — but it maintains the right degree of fun through the dueling and the interaction. There's so much going on all at once, I think you have to ride it several times to really experience it completely. Overall, it's a great ride and it'll be a huge hit with fans of extreme, non-stop, blistering action. Although it's not my personal favorite at the park, it's definitely in my top 3 there. Again, kudos to the exceptional crew who did a fantastic job throughout the day. They've got their work cut out for them with TC, so fingers crossed they'll be able to get a good system down and keep it going strong.