LiftThrill

One of the inside jokes my buddies and I made constantly all weekend was how MF is a magical drug, so not far off…

Steel Vengeance is insane. RMC pulled out so many stops for that thing. It really is New Texas Giant but on unnecessarily copious amounts of crack. Got a once-in-a-lifetime front row Millennium Force ride on Saturday night. Some idiot kids kept on delaying the ride by messing with the gate, so a normal dusk ride became a pitch black, post-park-closing ride. Lake Erie transforms into the abyss. During the first overbank, we saw lightning in the distance, so me and my buddy ended up getting the last front row ride of the night. On a regular ride, Millennium Force has mystical healing properties for the heart and soul. During a night ride like that, it transcends that and brings you to another plane of existence where worries don’t exist. Just euphoria, ecstasy, and Lake Erie air blasting you in the face at 100mph in the dark. I haven’t had the energy to update my dumb coaster enthusiast bs ranking spreadsheet since then but there is absolutely no way that any other ride could provide that experience. MF #1, GOATed. What else can I say? I love going fast.

Millennium Force!! She’s running like a dream this year.

1. Time Traveler - Silver Dollar City 2. ShockWave - Six Flags Over Texas 3. Mr. Freeze Reverse Blast - SFOT/SFStL 4. Powder Keg - Silver Dollar City 5. Screamin’ Eagle - Six Flags St Louis 6. The Beast - Kings Island 7. Cannibal - Lagoon 8. Blue Streak - Cedar Point 9. Magnum XL-200 - Cedar Point 10. Roller Coaster - Lagoon

Sounds like you’re burned out from how much coaster stuff you did this year. Take a break and do other stuff, if you feel the need to come back to parks then go ahead and if you don’t then you don’t.

Mr. Freeze is something else. I think the SFOT one is the superior of the two from my experience, but both of them rock. The best coaster I've ridden this month is hands down Fury 325.

Recent trip that didn't include a TON of coasters, but definitely included some REALLY REALLY good ones. Bold is new, italics is stuff that used to be in there. 1. Fury 325 (Carowinds) 2. Millennium Force (Cedar Point) 3. New Texas Giant (Six Flags Over Texas) 4. Outlaw Run (Silver Dollar City) 5. Maverick (Cedar Point) 6. Twisted Cyclone (Six Flags Over Georgia) 7. Iron Rattler (Six Flags Fiesta Texas) 8. The Voyage (Holiday World) 9. Goliath (Six Flags Great America) 10. Time Traveler (Silver Dollar City) --- 11. Intimidator (Carowinds) 12. Raging Bull (Six Flags Great America) 13. Diamondback (Kings Island)

Stopped at the park a little before closing last Saturday on the way home from a NC trip that involved a certain giga coaster (and some more important stuff, but a giga coaster too). Ended up only having time for one coaster, but I think I chose wisely. Twisted Cyclone (x1): I love RMC. This thing is hilariously fun, smooth, and comfortable with crazy airtime and other weird sensations that don't make total sense. On paper it looks short but it kinda just kept going with absolutely flawless pacing. No dead space at all. Great ride here.

Spent last Saturday primarily at Carowinds since I was in the area. Sadly, Afterburn was closed all day (was really looking forward to it, but at least it wasn't Fury). Expected it to be pretty busy and was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't SUPER slammed (definitely nowhere near empty or even super great, I still skipped some rides like Flying Cobras and Nighthawk, but I never waited more than an hour for anything). Fury 325 (x3): This thing kicks every other coaster ever's A$$ up and down its 325 feet of height. The first drop is the best on any coaster I've been on by far and it absolutely powers through everything with a crazy relentless speed that puts a huge grin on your face every second of the ride. The airtime in the ending run is also superb, but I live for speed and every ride on this felt like it got even faster. I can't decide if my favorite part of the ride is the first drop or that sweeping turn before the treble clef, but both of those parts are absolutely breathtaking and are just so much fun in every way that even among the other parts of the ride they manage to be ridiculously awesome in comparison. This thing is king. Sorry MF, but Fury is you but better. Also shoutout to the crew who made a super long line into a half hour wait. Hurler (x1): Perfectly average coaster. Not rough at all (for a woodie of this type), and a decent time. I'd imagine riding in the wheel seats would give a less enjoyable experience, but it was pretty fun. Carolina Cyclone (x1): Kinda sucked? Not as bad as Demon or Corkscrew, just kinda meh. The crew on this ride was horrendous and with 2 trains averaged 2-3 minute dispatches or something like that. Vortex (x1): My first standup coaster. Sitting waiting for it to dispatch is the worst part. The ride was actually really enjoyable except for the headbangy corkscrew thing near the end of the ride. Carolina Goldrusher (x1): Fun mine train. One of my favorites, after Thunderation and Road Runner Express. The crew for this was equal to or worse than Carolina Cyclone's. Intimidator (x1): People complain about the trims a lot, but my one ride seemed like they were turned all the way off. Probably my favorite B&M hyper, but they're all pretty similar. Intimidator seemed like it had a little more sensation of speed to it going over the hills as opposed to Diamondback or Raging Bull. These 6 were the only coasters I managed to get on, as I didn't feel like riding a worse version of Firehawk or waiting an hour for a Boomerang so I decided to make a pit stop at SFOG afterwards to try out one or two of their big 3.

The Fury crew is otherworldly. They've just eaten through an entire set of switchbacks in like 15 minutes (full queue minus the extra far-end cattle pens). Too bad almost every other crew has kinda sucked. Better rides = better crews here, Afterburn has been closed all day, hoping it opens before we bail but I'm guessing it probably won't.

Looking pretty cool so far. I'm interested to see how it turns out. Good to know, thanks.

Hang on, is Oct 12 the Friday? I meant Oct 13.

Might have a chance to spend Oct 12 at Carowinds. Not super interested in Scarowinds (and I kinda have to leave in the afternoon anyway). Are there any seasonal ride closures or the like that might affect the visit? From queue-times it looks like the park still operates fairly normally during its non-Haunt times in the fall. Any kind of coupon or discount advice is also greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance

I've gone from ops talking to kids instead of checking restraints to CP tier ops in the same day before. SFOT is weird.

Yeah I've dealt with some really bad employees at SFOT before. Like, 5 minute dispatches combined with one train ops on NTaG, and not cleaning up obvious messes. I've also dealt with the best and worst in the same day, in 2016. The morning/afternoon was awful and when we came back in the evening it was like a completely different park for the better. I still love SFOT, it has the best heat management I've seen at maybe any non-water park ever.

In my experience, the 3 bench trains generally have the middle and front rows as the smoothest (which one is smoother depends on which coaster). I only ever rode The Beast in the front while I was there so I'm not really sure, but I found it to be way smoother than I was expecting. Like, steel coaster smooth.

I forget, does The Beast run the 2 or 3 bench trains?

First we complained that SV was running only one train, then when it started running two, we complained that it wasn't running three, and now that it's running three, we're complaining that it's running three?

YES! I love these things and am really excited to be getting one. I wonder if it's a different model than a Giant Discovery since Jeffrey said it wouldn't be a Giant Discovery? Or was he just trolling?

Illinois - Goliath Indiana - The Voyage Missouri - Outlaw Run Ohio - Millennium Force Tennessee - Wild Eagle Texas - New Texas Giant Utah - Cannibal

When I was at CP we basically headed for Dragster any time it was open, which happened to be twice over the two days we were there. It went down for rain the second time before we could get on it.

Thats honestly surprising to me to see a picture of it operating. I'm used to it kinda being a set piece that doesn't actually do anything, lol

That Top Spin never ran anyway. Last time I saw it operate was in 2015. As much as I want a Giant Discovery it'll probably be something else, but we'll see.

I dunno why people would be against a B&M hyper. All the intensity junkies already have 3 big Intamins, including one that's even too intense for some people. A B&M hyper + Skyrush create a really cool good cop/bad cop dynamic of hypers.

They keep all their woodies maintained, just at weird intervals. Depending when you ride them, any of the three may be unbearably rough or super smooth. Voyage was the smoothest when I was there, then Legend (which had just been reprofiled, but I'm not a fan of its layout at all), then Raven (which was ridiculously rough despite having an awesome layout). Some people have had opposite findings. Traditional wooden coasters are weird that way (disclaimer: this probably only applies outside of Elysburg, PA, but as I have never been to Elysburg, PA, I can't confirm firsthand)