RollerManic

“Objectively rough” does not apply to Vortex. I swear, if you were me when I rode you, you too would swear it was just as smooth as the other three B&M’s in the park. I mean that wholly. But see, I do believe you when you say that you had a ride on it as bad as SOB. But how can this be? I think with stand-ups, it’s a serious matter of how you set yourself up in the seats and your body type. I got myself perfectly tight, and my body style just worked, but I’m not claiming that’s perfectly repeatable or applicable to everyone. I wasn’t able to get it to work on Green Lantern (unlike you), so there’s an example of it not being ”repeatable” even for me. Furthermore, as I mentioned, I’m certain there are some people out there for whom the trick will never work. Re - knee pain: I can’t relate as I’m young with healthy joints, but if that’s your case against Vortex/Stand-ups, I 100% understand it. There definitely is such thing as “objectively rough” in coasters, but I find stand-ups are “completely subjective” because of the dynamics of different body types and fitting into the restraints and not something you can agree are “objectively rough”. SoB? Yeah, objectively rough. EDIT: This is the “trick” I keep referring to:

^The area with the large show building appears to be the Nintendo Land and faintly matches some leaked models. Someone suggested that the large building could be an indoor section, but I think it's the show building for the Donkey Kong ride. What we are assuming is the Fantastic Beasts land is the New-York looking area right next to the hotel. Classic Monsters is the purple area up top. I'm surprised too at the supposed inclusion of a Fantastic Beasts land, as it's is still in its infancy. It seems way too early to build a theme park land around it IMO, but honestly, I've been foreseeing it coming since the first movie released just knowing Universal. I'm a casual Potter fan: I like the movies, and the theme park lands, but even I've had enough. Two areas is good - I swear, 20 years later they're going to have to rename the resort "Universal's Harry Potter Orlando" if the keep going at this pace. When is enough enough?

IDK about you, but I had the opposite experience on Copperhead Strike, where I felt I couldn't get it sufficiently tight and wasn't able to staple myself with the lap bar if I wanted. It seemed to be designed with a limit where the lap bar couldn't be pushed down too hard. I would try to push it down mid-ride, and it would just ... rise back up to where it initially was set (they're hydraulic restraints, fyi).

We got a real snazzy path to our world record drop ride in Guam. I love the way you put that, but it could've just as well been made with Rolling Thunder still there ....

I don't ever see this park getting a T-Rex on the scale enthusiasts want to see - 200+ft tall. It's just not in Six Flag's interest to invest that much into single attractions anymore. I would absolutely love they got a new new Premier launch coaster since they took out their first, but I don't care when it happens, honestly. Toro/Ka/Nitro/Bizzaro/the Safari are going to have me coming back to this park for years to come regardless. I do hope whatever comes goes into Rolling Thunder's spot, though. I'm in the boat that keeping Rolling Thunder around, even in it's crappy state, still would have been a better solution than tearing it out to leave a gigantic hole in the park and not replacing it with anything.

I think it’s more than fair since their first model (Air) did more with the style than the next four that followed (all the Superman clones). Plus, I said at the get-go I’m only comparing to the US ones and that I think the newer models are indeed better rides. I can embrace some of the sentiments here a little: they’re definitely way better than the SUF clones, and the difference may not be as big as I’m making it between them and Tastu/Manta, but I know I still prefer the Dutchman models before any of the US B&M flyer installations. It’s been too long, admittingly, since I’ve ridden Tatsu, but I’ve had multiple experiences on each all the SUF clones and Manta individually over the years so I’m confident in my opinions of them.

So much hate for Vekoma Dutchmans, and I’ve never understood where it comes from. You people are relentless ... but I get it. Vekoma has a bad rap and enthusiasts are babies. They’re not rough. If B&M made more flyers like Sky Scrapper, Air, and Flying Dinosaur I’d be more interested, but all the B&M flyers in the United States at least don’t take full advantage of the system. That’s why I said the Vekomas rock the socks off the US B&M flyers at least. 3/5 are complete snoozefests, and the other two are actually pretty awesome, but they’re not as impressive as the Vekoma’s with all the lie-fly transitions. Oh, and Vortex is not bad at all. Ride it defensively (the same way you should approach any standup) and you’ll be fine. I got a perfectly smooth ride on it using the usual standup-riding technique, which came even to my surprise. Prozach supposedly got a perfectly smooth ride of Green Lantern using the same technique, something even I wasn’t able to pull off, so maybe it’s not so crazy after all. However, it’s layout is rather unexciting, so I wouldn’t defend it like I would the other stand-ups. Green Lantern might be rough, but forces considered, it’s at least got an interesting ride experience to tout, and Georgia Schorcher and Riddler are meanwhile in their own league as rides I thoroughly enjoy and find interesting. TLDR; maybe skip Vortex, but don’t be scared of it. Don’t miss Nighthawk. Or, don't listen to me at all because maybe I’m a masochist.

I'm 90% sure their weren't ticket booths at the Beach entrance during my visit this summer. I recall them being pretty bare, just there to let people in and out. I'm not even sure if there was someone consistently there to stamp hands in all my trips through it.

Hit Nighthawk and Vortex first in that order and you'll be good.

USO is definitely getting an Intamin multi-launch (track is already on site) and it's presumably going to be on the level of this and/or Taron, but I believe the rumor was the SWO ride is supposed to be coming from Premier? Either company makes sense given Seaworld's recent involvement with both, but the scale of the Seaworld ride makes the Premier rumor more believable to me. Oddly enough, looking at this ride now and back to the rumored SWO layout, the SWO ride looks a lot like a scaled-down version of this. But it does feel like SWO has added a considerable amount of the new multi-launchers that have come to the US in the last decade. I love how they're kind of stuck in this phase with all their parks: I really like the name (isn't that a rarity these days?), and I'm actually happy that the Madrid villa rumor doesn't seem to be coming true. That whole San Marco/Italy/Fiesta Italia area mushes together thematically as is (I didn't notice during my visit that they were supposed to be seperate themed areas) and I feel that adding a Spain section would have been too much going on without enough contrast. Extending the those sections instead is a nice welcome. I've come to believe "getting worse" isn't in their vocabulary.

Fury 325, front row at night.

You wanted your silly teasers, there you have them. Not like we don’t already know exactly what’s coming.

The height of this thing really shows.

It’s not about the Drachen Fire plot per se, but the animal enclosures that used to be on this land that I enjoyed. You could only see them from the train. The Drachen Fire part is only that they have that land they could’ve used instead.

[youtu_be] [/youtu_be] This video gives a pretty good analysis of the track that’s been on site for a while now and what to expect for the new Jurassic Park/World coaster.

I was told by the rides department manager years ago that it was originally going to SFNE. This was at an ACE event.

Visited the park for the first time on Wednesday, July 2nd with my two brothers. I'm not usually the one to do this, and I shouldn't because I still haven't gotten that Cedar Point TR up yet, but I had a lot I really wanted to share. This was my first time in Charlotte. Jumping right in, my expectations about the park itself were exactly met. I didn't expect to leave thinking it was the best Cedar Fair park I have been to. It's a nice park but it lacks a lot charm; if any Cedar Fair park I've been to has felt "generic" to me, it's this one. In contrast, I went into Kings Island with the exact same expectations last year but was blown away. There's also a great lack of shade, which would have been really nice on a hot, 100* and humid day like the day we went. In the least, it's a better park than 90% of Six Flags and the same can be said about even the worst of Cedar Fair's properties. On employees - I just visited Cedar Point two weeks ago and unfortunately Carowinds lets down in comparison. One of my biggest surprises from Cedar Point and that I didn't recall from my first visit many years ago was just how friendly the employees are there. The employees you see there are extremely energetic and talk to you sincerely like they really do care about your adventures. Carowinds' service was pedestrian: the employees seemed to be your average, "counting the clock", "it's too hot for this shit", kind of people. And perhaps nothing that would be a real concern at all if I had not just been exposed to the exceptional customer service at Cedar Point as honestly if I worked a day like the one I visited I would be the same. However, not all of Charlotte is a lost (we can't judge an entire city on an amusement park, right?*). I did find the exact same kind of excellent service as Cedar Point at the US National Whitewater Center, which was probably my favorite thing of the whole week. We had an EXCEPTIONAL day there Friday, and I was really blown away by the people and attractions. *Except Sandusky: Sandusky f**king rocks bc Cedar Point Anyway, onto the rides, in the order we rode them: Nighthawk - I'm a real sucker for these things and I don't care if this was the first - it still rocks the socks off every B&M flyer in the US. I will never understand why people call these things rough because they're not. This was the last of the Vekoma Dutchmans in the United States I hadn't ridden and there were only two things I didn't like about this one: the restraints, and the corkscrew ending. I could've sworn up and down that Firehawk's and Batwing's restraints were different, but looking at pictures I turned out to be incorrect. I must not have noticed how sketchy the restraints appear, but now that it's caught my attention, I do not like the way almost all of your weight lies on the buckle connecting the vest together. Also, because of my long legs, the lap bar wouldn't go down properly and left a gap at my waist and ankles (this wasn't remediable because these lap bars lock into a fixed position). Without what I thought was much security, the ride truly felt as If I was flying. It was extremely unnerving, but also incredibly exhilarating. The corkscrew ending was the only part of the ride where I experienced any discomfort, but it was to do the heartlining and resulting laterals, not roughness. I much prefer the inline rolls on the other models as I found corkscrews in the lying position pretty uncomfortable. This was of course our first coaster of the day, heeding advice I have gotten from here. My brothers all agreed on the same token about the restraints and the experience. That drop and vertical loop are just killer. I ended up riding once again later in the day after I had gotten all my credits. Copperhead Strike - I hated Copperhead Strike after my first ride on it early in the morning. My brothers wanted to sit in the front (they're pretty adamant about that on any coaster we ride, which is frustrating) and so I sat in row two. The whole ride was sluggish - not like how it's supposed to be "sugglish", but extra sluggish, making the ride pretty lackluster. What made it terrible, however, was the awful rattle through the whole course that gave me motion sickness for the next couple hours. My brothers also suffered the same problem, forcing us to ride the smaller coasters and postpone Fury to the afternoon. By now, I can see the pitchforks rising in response to all this hearsay I've babled - "who is this person who loves Nighthawk and hates Copperhead Strike?" - but read on ... However, I knew that it was supposed to be an excellent coaster, so I gave it a benefit of the doubt and returned to it later in the day. I hopped on the second row to the back (non wheel seat) and fell in love with it! Something had drastically changed from the morning. The ride had warmed up a lot and the second half was excellent. There was a minor vibration (still more than what there should be for a brand new coaster IMO), but no headache-inducing rattle. Beautiful transitions and a few airtime moments that absolutely ragdoll (that last hill is some serious WTF stuff). There was still the slightest rattle, but nothing that gave kept me from riding three more times in a row without problem, including another lap in the front. I seriously could not get enough of this ride - it's probably a top 20 steel coaster for me if I counted that sort of stuff. I always wished SDC would have gone with a ride like this instead of Time Traveler so that I could have one of these in my backyard. Believe everything you hear about this ride - it definitely has some the best hangtime ever. In fact, I'll just say it now - it has the best hangtime on any coaster I've ridden. Cons: this was my first experience on Mack trains, which was actually a bucket-list item for me (I don't count Time Traveler's as they are unconventional) and I'm not a fan of the restraints. I see why everyone likes them, as they're extremely free, but they don't feel secure and that's a con for me on a ride with as much hangtime as this. Me being a lean guy, they sit way up on thighs instead of close to my waist, but what's really concerning is that they have some give during the ride, so in the hangtime moments you can actually feel them decompress and recompress through the element. I'm sure this is mostly me, however, though my brothers thought the same thing and were equally unamused. Also, the launches are weak: really, really weak. I think an electric scooter could accelerate faster than this ride. For me, this and the fact the transitions still aren't in that Maverick category are what make this ride "fun" and not "world class" ride. The second launch has no hit at all; I didn't feel a thing going through that second launch. The biggest con of this coaster: how long you have to walk to re-ride it. Despite its flaws, it's a really fun ride, and it's only a shame that you have to walk so far around to get another lap on it. None of the countless switchbacks have shortcuts and it's a very long queue. Flying Cobras - after our motionsick first ride on Copperhead Strike, we took a 15 minute break to use the restrooms and sit down, then proceeded on with the park's boomerang. This one was alight - it's saving grace was the new trains - but it had an odd back and forthness to it where you would rest your head on the headrest, it would be repeatedly slammed into it. It reminded me of a lot of the issue with T3. Not the best, not the worst, but if you keep your head forward it's one of the more tolerable boomerangs. Carolina Goldrusher - still a little motionsick, we took a longer break to ride the park's mine train and rehydrate at the nearby Chickie and Pete's. This is one of the smoothest mine trains I have ridden. I know a lot of enthusiasts would probably rather see these kind of rides leave parks but they serve a purpose and even for the more mature crowd, they are useful break from the extreme rides. I rode this three times in total during our break. Intimidator - what an excellent B&M hyper! Until Hershey opens theirs in 2020, I will have now ridden every single B&M hyper in the US, and I think this is one of the best despite it's "Intrimidator" nickname. It has the absolute best floater of all of them - in the backseat you're out of your seat from halfway up the hill all the way to the very bottom - and in the front seat you'll be out of your seat through the crest of every hill and all the way down as well. But my favorite part of the ride where not the airtime hills but the transitions in the first hill and the turnaround - they were quite surprising! Overall, I prefer Nitro and Mako more for the stronger airtime, but this falls just behind as the next best in the country. The ride experience is a lot like Diamondback, but with the extra transitions that give it the edge. I got around five rides on this, mostly in the back. Fury 325 - after heading out to the car for lunch and rehydrating, we returned to the main attraction of the park. This thing is SOO fast. Want to experience Fury 325 at home? Hold a leaf blower to your face - that's pretty much the equivalent. The first hill does nothing for me, but I appreciate what it is for not killing speed. After the first hill, if you're riding in the front, the ride will seem to just get faster and faster even though you know that's impossible because it should've already hit it's top speed at the bottom of the first drop. From there, you'll head up through the incredible treble clef hill for some fantastic positive gs and sideways airtime. After the drop through the tunnel, the next hill is the one that disappoints a little - it doesn't really do anything, and if I had to nitpick, this would be the one part of the ride that I would change - not the helix. Next, you'll hit the trim a little bit, but not enough to prevent some great ejector airtime through the hill before heading into the helix for an insane head-chopper moment. The final hills end the ride with fantastic, uninterrupted ejector airtime back into the break run. While the transitions were gentle and not i305-like as I hope (makes sense though since the clamshells and seats offer no upper body support), I could not have fathomed just how fast the ride would feel. I still, today, cannot get over how the ride seems to deny physics in the first half and get faster and faster up until the turnaround hill. We all agreed that in one ride, we had just gotten our $40 worth in admission. We took two laps on it in the afternoon: our first in the front (all things proper in this world), and the second in the back. Later, I spent the last hour and a half marathoning it for 9 more rides all across the board, from the very front to the back and nearly every row in between. Golden seating guide for Fury 325: front seat for speed and transitions, back seat for ejector airtime. Hurler: Not as bad as everyone makes it out to be, but I'm told it recently had a trim installed mid-season and it's apparently a lot smoother and more mediocre. I confirm. I didn't experience any discomfort during my ride, and neither did my brothers, but we all agreed it's a boring ride experience. Overall, a lot better than the King's Dominion version ever was. I wouldn't be disappointed if this version stays a wooden coaster, at least until this park gets a new one. Also, who the F**K designed the stations for these things? What the hell were they going for? Afterwards, we tried to get one the drop tower but it broke down in line and parked it's cars at the top the rest of the day. No loss here: it looked like a very short one, and one of my favorites ones is Superman: Tower of Power at my home park SFStL anyway for it's position at the highest elevation in the park atop a hill. Ricochet: a fun wild mouse, pretty much your standard. I really enjoy these rides so I made sure to get in a lap. Carolina Cyclone: the small scale of this ride is so small it's disorienting. It It feels like you are upside down the whole ride with all the tiny inversions being so packed together, a difference to today's coasters with lengthy pullouts between elements and everything being so massive. Old trains, too: probably the oldest Arrow looper trains I can recall riding. This ride is ugly and misplaced as sin and needs to go, but I know it is a good stepping stone for younger riders. Vortex: finally got to this abomination, only to find it's also not as bad as everyone says. This was my last stand up in the United States to ride, but only because I missed out on CGA's Vortex (I did ride Shockwave). Sure, it's lame, and the loading is very slow, but it's pretty smooth. It's not amongst the ranks of Green Lantern and Mantis as the worst, though, as those are real , but it's also not interesting like Georgia Scorcher and Riddler's Revenge. Being pretty experienced riding stand ups, I knew to get my shoulders stiffly pressing up against the restraint by bending at the knee before locking my seat into height, and it worked successfully for a headbanging-free ride. Not one single time did my head smash the side of the restraint. Afterburn: a good invert, but not my favorite. The mist on my feet in the tunnel was a nice surprise. I often forget this ride exists. Raptor and Montu are still my favorites. One and done for me. Plants vs. Zombies - pretty fun ride. It's a really odd IP for an amusement park ride, but it works well. We sat on plants side in a full theater. I managed to finagle the second highest score in the whole lobby of 33000 (a 2x margin from the next highest) by only shooting Golden Gnomes the entire ride. Yeah, our side won. We attempted at this point to ride Boo-Blasters on Boo Hill since it's a knockoff of our beloved Scooby Doo ride at SFStL (RIP) and I missed the one at KI, but it broke down while we were in queue. The one at KD was pretty good, and I imagine this one is the same. At this point, my brothers left the park to return later for some night rides on Fury. I went to the water park since it was blazing hot outside and I had been planning on going all afternoon, but it was already 4:00. Overall, the water park was pretty good. The tornado/wave complex was closed, so I started in the back. Later, at closing, I headed for the box drop slides. I'm not a drop-box slide person, both for the part that it freaks me out and that I feel like I'm suffocating inside those hot tubes with water spraying up from my feet, so I skipped on them, but I did REALLY enjoy the tube slides on that same tower complex. Both had drops at the end with some nice airtime and lots of speed. I managed four rides on them before the line closed off. Immediately after the water park closed, I headed to the Top Scan ride. I'm really glad this park has one of these because I've always wanted to try one, but never was willing to wait in the massive line for one that came to the local fair every year. What I was worried might be a disorienting ride became one of my favorite flat rides. I rode this two times - the first cycle felt like our seats just would not flip all the way; instead, it toyed with us, nearly inverting us, and then quickly reversing rotation. On the second cycle, we inverted endlessly in both directions. Woodstock Express - rode this in the back. Every bit as good as the other two US ones. The drop off the first turnaround has some extreme air for a family wooden coaster. Flying Ace Aerial Chase - just as painful as the Kings Island one. Why are these so seemingly harmless yet so bad? ... AND finally: Windseeker. Offered some good views of the park, preferable to KI's and KD's, but not on the level of Cedar Point's on the beach. The lighting package is awesome, just like the rest of them. The time after the waterpark closed is where I got my Copperhead Strike and the extra Nighthawk laps, plus an extra Intimidator lap before beginning my Fury 325 marathon.The temperature cooled off significantly in the last hours and made life a whole lot easier. It was a great way to end the day at the park.

That's an odd thought, I would think there are more animals with claws that like water then don't. But I'm no zoologist. I think most people are thinking waterpark due to an animal tease. Animals live in the jungle or you can see them on a "safari." Also tigers which are big cats and have claws love the water! Now obviously any dry ride or coaster can be themed to an animal as well so it's not a lock to be in the waterpark. But I think it's a safe assumption. I think the idea is coming from the water park being named “Splashing Safari”.

Sorry about that. I naively looked back a page and saw someone mention it, and thought word was around by now. Someone on the SFOG page was actually the one who brought it to my attention first.

Wait, you prefer Ka over Dragster too? Ka’s launch is definitely more intense, and the airtime hill is a bonus, but no, I don’t also think peeling blue and green paint looks better than fresh red, yellow, and white paint. I might have to try Steel Vengeance on a hot day next time, but for now I think #3 is a respectable spot. As for Toro in the summer, I can’t even imagine ... it’s about time I should go back there, so maybe I’ll work that in.

I full on agree with you about Steel Vengeance. I’m also a huge El Toro fan and since my first ride 5 years ago I have been searching for anything that comes even remotely close to it’s awesomeness, but instead El Toro has been sitting very firmly at my number 1 overall spot for years. Element for element, Storm Chaser is the best RMC out of the bunch I’ve ridden (NTaG, OR, Goliath, SC, SV), BUT I still give Steel Vengeance the preference just because it has the most substance of any ride I can possibly think of on the planet and I can’t deny that to a short ride like Storm Chaser. Maybe it’s just me too: I got off a little confused. It’s a really great ride (maybe even my number 3), but it was not immediately obvious to me that it’s undeniably the world’s best coaster, unlike when I stepped of my first Toro ride. I rode it twice in the morning on a rainy day, at twice more at closing that same day, and finally again in the morning the next day, a perfect, clear day. The only thing I’m missing is to have ridden it in the evening on a hot day, so I’m actually really looking forward to your verdict. The airtime did warm up for me by those evening rides, but it’s still not just the Intamin kind of airtime, and judging by my experience with Alan Schlike’s portfolio (including Lightning Run), I don’t think RMC ever intends on it. All his creations have a different kind of airtime that feels quick and is abundant, but contrasts even the first airtime hill on Maverick next door. Storm Chaser has been the only exception to this, and I think that’s why I like it so much. The first airtime hill is just like a mini El Toro camelback. Maverick’s first airtime hill is also very comparable to El Toro and again, I’m a big fan. But that said, my only experience on Toro was a cool fall weekend in October and it was still immediately my #1 ride, so step it up Steel Vengeance. As for Maverick, it wedges into my number 2 overall spot for the same reasons you mentioned. For me too, the second launch just does me in like gravy. I could possibly go back and forth between it and Vengeance as the best ride in the park if it weren't for the second launch. I think Maverick has the world’s best launch that isn’t on a 400ft coaster. Sure, Xcelerator has a faster accelerating launch that’s very impressive, but it kind of feels like it reaches it’s speed immediately and cruises the rest of the way down the launch. The reports I’m hearing so far of Maxx Force too are saying the same thing. I find Mavericks so satisfying in how in accelerates very quickly but also never stops accelerating, and then blasts into that stupid tight turn is just ... ugh ... orgasm.

Don't get yourself too excited. Ultimately may lead to more disappointment. I'm really going to laugh if this just ends up being a kids area expansion. (Not that that's a bad thing.) Take a look at this shipping detail.

It’a pretty awesome that this will actually be happen. I was really holding out hope on the rumor that the second MACK Power Splash would be coming to the US of all places. It’s also great to see a park replace an aging water ride with another water ride instead of just ripping them out until they have none left (*cough* Carowinds). Aquaman was hideous and I was very pleased to see it go. I hope this attraction will look a lot better in the area but I can only still hope on that, depending on how Six Flags wants to go with theming and colors.

Am I the only one who’s upset that Drachen Fire’s plot still stands empty? I always imagined the next expansion would take over back there; I never could have foreseen it going where it is. I took the train on my visit in 2015 and really actually enjoyed the animal enclosures in the area where the new coaster is going.

There’s honestly something about Kingda Ka’s roughness that I like ... it feels a lot more aggressive than Dragster and thus I prefer it more.