LiftThrill

Really? I have had trouble with Gatekeeper, Wild Eagle and Thunderbird. It ruined what could of been a great coaster in Thunderbird. Im skinny and its brutal I found Wild Eagle the worst as all of the other coasters with the vest restraints were at parks with amazing operations, while Dollywood's ops were really slow the day I was there, so I ended up sitting on the brake fun with the restraint locked for at least a full minute whereas T-bird, Banshee, Gatekeeper, and Valravn the ops had an awesome rhythm going and I only sat on the brake run for 10 seconds or less any given time.

I have really bony hips so that affects it a ton. The B&M vest restraints in general kind of suck because they get tighter during the ride and end up crushing your chest and hips if you had any room before. Definitely not designed with really skinny people like me in mind.

^ I saw one of those in a TR once. I think I'd prefer the Premier Sky Rocket II. Models like the one you showed seem fun but definitely awkward coming off the lift. in a seated position or standing position, a beyond vertical launch would create G-forces sending blood into the brain, similar to negative G's. this is dangerous over about 2 Gs, and can cause aneurysms or death. (the human body is much better at withstanding positive Gs, that is, forces that push blood away from the brain). a greater than 90 degree launch would be cool for a flying coaster, though. Ah yeah you're right. Either way a beyond vertical incline sounds ridiculously uncomfortable.

A super tall S&S combo like STOP @ SFOT would be awesome but I'm all for something more unique as well.

It's possible but it would be uncomfortable as hell. Maybe a beyond vertical launch? I dont want to go up a slow lift having all the blood flow to my head.

Tbh if Mean Streak was RMCed it would totally have the potential to be the best coaster in the park. I doubt it'll be a 2017 thing but I think it will happen eventually, or some other extreme rehab.

I'll be honest, Thunderbird was way more painful for me than Voyage. Voyage was honestly one of the smoothest woodies I've been on and T-bird has the hip crushing vest restraints. Seriously, those things hurt. T-bird wasn't nearly as bad about it than Wild Eagle, though. (probably because HW's operations are infinitely faster than those at Dollywood so I could get out before the pain started getting worse)

What trick? Tell me, I'm going soon and I NEED this! I think it's pulling the seatbelt as tight as possible. Yup. Doing that stops you from slamming into the lap bar and makes for a very enjoyable ride. I can't take credit for it. "smartestcoasterkidever!" turned us on to this awesome trick. Another thing if you're afraid of thigh pain and roughness- the second row of the first car rides about like a B&M only with more abrupt airtime. I think other cars' second rows are like this too but can't confirm as I only rode in the front car. The seatbelts in the very front row suck and wouldn't get very tight at all.

That I've been on? Probably Mystery Mine or Blazing Fury.

If I end up getting up to the park this week I'll see if there's any time of day that's better to ride it- it's one of my favorite coasters. I love the classic intensity and the ridiculous whip over the drops in the back. The airtime is great with the minimal lapbars and the whole ride is butter smooth.

Was there any hours where they didn't run it with VR? I know Superman @ SFFT runs without it from 3:30-5:30 and I find that the best time to ride.

^Raven has an amazing layout and really good airtime, but it was way too rough to appreciate. It's very similar to The Boss @ SFStL. If they put the Vekoma trains on it it would -feel- a lot better, but it's certainly the most well-engineered Arrow I've ridden. It definitely had alot going for it. Very fast paced and intense. If the restraints were softer or if they weren't so tight maybe it would be one of my favorites, but instead it landed barely above rock bottom. No other coaster has hurt my neck but the jerk midway through the loop really gave it a nice chop.

Here are some that come to mind for me: Banshee - it's forceful but I found it slow paced and a little bit of a headache machine. Not a bad ride by any means but definitely the weakest of the "big three" at KI. The Raven - the layout is great but it's easily one of the roughest coasters I've been on. Thunderhead - ditto Raven except less rough and more twisty stuff. Tennessee Tornado - how is this considered the best Arrow looper? I had more headbanging in the twenty seconds of actual layout on this ride than any other coaster's minute+

They were doing really well at all the busy rides, doing a countdown and taking loose articles instead of letting guests put them away which made operations (especially at Diamondback) incredible and even cooler to watch.

Eh. If Georgia and Alabama can be called the "Deep South" when Texas is a thing, then Ohio can be called the midwest.

^I'm the other way around. Airtime machines are back row rides and most loopers are front row. Boomerangs are back row rides and Arrow loopers are 5th car 1st row. Actually, no. Old school woodies are front row rides. RMCs, Intamins, and most top tier coasters are back row rides for me. B&Ms are all front row rides except maybe the hypers.

I only recently noticed Phantom's restraints while watching an off-ride video, but holy crap those things put this up there with El Toro and Fury for my bucket list (OK maybe not quite as high as El Toro or Fury). I saw some ridiculously high locking positions and I absolutely love minimal restraints where strong airtime is involved. Can't wait to see more of the TR!

I don't know if anyone has seen this but I found a ton of aspects of this video hilarious.

^It's SFA and it's VR. What else would you expect? (yes, 21 minute dispatches are completely awful and it's terrible that anyone has to deal with it.) As for good operations I'm going to play the "underrated" card on Six Flags Over Texas. I was scared of 5-10 minute dispatches from what people had sai, but the longest dispatch we dealt with was somewere between 90 seconds and 2 minutes. The park definitely isn't perfect but the operations are nowhere near as bad as people say.

Enjoy your visit to the park! I'm jealous.

I couldn't agree more. What's more fun than going to a place to ride roller coasters? (besides SDC because it does literally everything well, especially the roller coasters)

I think I've seen this Matt Soto guy giving negative reviews to amusement parks before.

that sucks. Maybe it'll go away at some point. I had generally good luck with weather on my trip but my luck ended with our day at Dollywood being the first day after the RMC part recall. Should've gone to Carowinds instead

I do agree it is intense, but that's not why I don't like it. The first drop is awesome, the following a.t. hills are decent and smooth, but the second those horridly cramped and uncomfortable trains go thru a turn, it was just painful, awful, jerky nonsense. There wasn't a smooth, comfortable moment going through any turn. The triple down even with MCBR slowing it down is great, but those turns are the worst. I would've loved to ride this thing back in the day. I could see the potential if it had good trains, but it doesn't and if I never ride it again it would be fine with me. The Legends retracking made a huge difference to that ride, maybe Voyage could benefit from the same in those twisty bits. My last ride on the Voyage, I asked the ops in the station where to sit for a more comfortable ride, this was literally the response: OP 1: gave me a blank stare and asked "are you serious?" Op 2: just laughed and in between laughs cried "no!" So again to sum up my thoughts, intensity=awesome, it has great positive and negative G's, but the awful trains and non smooth twisty bits, which make up a majority of the ride, make it too rough to enjoy it's potential epicness. I like PTC trains tbh. Nice and cushioned and the lap bar locks a nice amount above my lap. I think Voyage also runs smoother earlier in the season as I found it way smoother than Legend and especially Raven.

Cedar Point and Kings Island are both amazing. I also noticed that dispatches at Holiday World are above average.