LiftThrill

So, that was a fun day! It was my first time at Swamp Park and I had some fun with the few coasters they had. Hyperdive was the weirdest dive coaster I've ever been on, Swamp Mine was a fun mine train, and there was also a Boomerang I rode for the credit. An aerial photo of Swamp Park. It's very small but at least it has two decent coasters. Good afternoon, Swamp Park! We arrived just in time for Amusement Park Critique's Afternoon Bash. There's a Boomerang here, but other than that it looks promising. We started off with a ride on Hyperdive. It's weird in general, but the ride elements are just flat out ridiculous, in a good way. One of the weird things about Hyperdive is that it uses standard floorless trains rather than dive trains. That's nice because the back seat actually has a different experience as opposed to the front and there are some middle trains. The right-hand side of this hill is going up. Major ejector airtime here. What even is this thing? I'd wager a guess at some sort of inverted cobra roll. It goes through a half-loop, banks 180 degrees outward and ends up on top, goes around an elevated curve, then falls while banking 180 degrees outward down a sort of dive loop. Overbanked turn Another 180-degree turnaround, but not overbanked. This is the weirdest zero-g roll ever. Instead of being a smooth transition, it sort of clicks into three different positions that are each 60 degrees further banked than the last. Credit #250!!! I've heard good things about the mine train, but let's get this over with first. Ouuch!!! Headbanging!!! Oh, and this thing. It makes it different from other Boomerangs, apparently. I'm quite glad this is over with. The mine train lived up to my high expectations. Very twirly, as Bobb Astley would say. We got to ride on the same train as Bobb and it was awesome. Great little mine train. A good mine train can't forget some airtime! Oh, and since we got to spend some time with Bobb on Swamp Mine, we were pumped to ride Hyperdive again... also with Bobb. Around 6:30 we hit up Swamp Mine a last time and headed out. Afternoon Bash was super fun. We had fun with Bobb. This brings my coaster count up to 252. #250 was Hyperdive.

Goliath at SFFT yesterday.

A B&M giga like F325 but with more focus on airtime would be cool, and so would a floorless coaster. I think that a 180ft floorless would be awesome, personally.

I'm just going to make a mental note to hit GAdv on a weekday when I end up going there.

Built by S&S Max speed 38mph Has 7 inversions under normal operations Next up: Stealth

I've been seeing this a lot so far this year...3rd season's a charm? I think it's just awesome overall

1st: Spider at Lagoon 5th: Goliath at Six Flags Fiesta Texas 10th: Iron Rattler at Six Flags Fiesta Texas

I went today and everything except Batman was a walk-on. Iron Rattler was hauling bigtime, SKC was as forceful and fun as ever, Road Runner finally opened back up and was a little bit smoother than in the past but still a bit rough. I sat in the 1st car, 2nd row, right side. My restraint wouldn't lock as far down as I wanted it to but all the other lapbars in the train worked fine. Pandemonium ran pretty well too. Batman was a nice adrenaline rush, but the biggest surprise of the day was how forceful Goliath was running. I was in the 4th row, far left car and hoooly crap it felt way faster than I remember. Even the back seat didn't compare to this. Wow. Everything felt so much faster. 1st off, we headed to Road Runner to see if it was open since the sign at the front is pretty much a hit or miss and today it said that nothing was closed. Road Runner had a ~5 minute wait as they were only running one train. Would've been a walk-on if the previous ride had been sooner. The ride was pretty rough and the lap bar got stuck one click higher than I'd have liked, but it's still a fun ride and pretty long too. After that we headed to Superman because we felt like it. They were running two trains, and it was a walk-on everywhere but the first, second, and last rows. We took the third row. A very fun and forceful coaster that's also really long. After getting off Superman we checked to see if Batman was open, but they were only running empty trains so we headed to the Boardwalk. Pandemonium was pretty much a walk-on as well (we waited less than 5 minutes). Sure, it's cloned to an insane degree. Sure, it's tiny. Sure, it's in the back of the park like it's not supposed to be there. All this aside, Pandemonium is a great family coaster with some nice floater airtime here and there. Very fun ride. After Pandemonium we noticed that Batman was open, so we headed over there. This was the longest wait of the day, and it only took 15-20 minutes. Batman is incredibly smooth, really fun, and overall a great addition to the park. After that we realized that we hadn't ridden the best coaster in the park yet, so we headed back to Crackaxle Canyon to ride Iron Rattler. This was the first time I've ridden it since they started applying the brakes at the top (the last two times it just went over the top). They were just loading as we get to the station so we grabbed the first row we saw, the 5th row. The back had a line and we were running out of time so we hopped right in. The 5th row is awesome with the brakes at the top. The brakes kick in right when you're at the peak of the drop, so you get a nice pop of airtime once it finally starts moving although I'm sure the back is better at this. It was running super well today. Lots of overbanked fun and not-quite-ejector airtime. Definitely my favorite ride at SFFT. After that we headed to the front and saw that Goliath was also a literal walk-on so we climbed the stairs and hit the fourth row. Man, I haven't ridden this in the back but the fourth row on the coaster felt waaay faster than the front (where we usually sit). Incredibly forceful and very whippy inversions. A great way to end the trip. I also wish I could've stayed longer but I had commitments at 4:30. Great park, great visit.

Words cannot express how jealous I am

It's funny that this happened right after I read the comments section of a Stealth POV where GP Brits were bragging or something about having "safer" coasters. Something about "I'd rather ride this and be safe than step foot near one of those American death traps" Something to do with Europe having less theme parks total so less chances for an accident? I don't like how the media makes roller coasters look so dangerous when it's more risky to drive to a park than ride a roller coaster.

I can support that Batman is super smooth and not rough or painful. The seats are also super comfy in the leaning positions once they unlock.

This would be awesome, or a unique 4D similar to the SFFT Batman (but not a clone)

Any park with no Vekoma boomerangs or SLCs is good enough in my book.

...if you see the chain moving in your garage door and think about chain lift hills.

Looks promising!

I agree. With SFFT as my homepark, I've found that the only part of Poltergeist I dislike is riding in the back half of the train (headbangfest). The restraints are also not the best thing ever. I'm not a big fan of ratcheting lap bars

One of my all-coaster "parks" that I made. I had fun with the photo-TR-styled showcase. ~~~~ Our crew of six headed out to FunWorld this past Tuesday to check out their new strata coaster, Stratosphere. The old Moon Landing woodie was becoming a rougher ride than Ghostrider, and even locals who agreed it had some nice history said that it was in dire need of fixing. The park always listens to its customers, and by popular demand Moon Landing was demolished. With the extra space and station available, FunWorld called up Intamin and the result is easily the best of the holy trinity of strata beasts. We took a big van to check it out, and it definitely lives up to the expectations set by its raw height and speed. It's still not the best coaster in the park, though, because Draco is the best coaster ever, let alone in FunWorld. Firebird is an awesome woodie, and Loopin' Leopard is a (relatively) smooth Arrow looper that packs a serious punch for its size. This is the aerial on the park's website. The four coasters are Firebird, Loopin' Leopard, Draco, and Stratosphere. Stratosphere's layout. As you can see here, it has some promising-looking airtime hills, a straight vertical drop as opposed to the twisty spirals you get on Dragster and Kingda Ka, and some huge G-pulling turns. It was almost a walk-on today, since the park was closed other than ERT for all rides for us and some school groups that could afford to book the park. The launch is amazing. The best shot I could get of the people in front of us. Good thing my camera has great optical zoom. I was incredibly giddy at this point. This thing really does stand out with its height alone, although I was soon to find out that the rest of the ride is insane... ...especially THIS AIRTIME HILL. Holy crap, this thing has the best ejector air I've ever experienced; better than all of El Toro (which is saying something) and totally blows Millennium Force out of the water, sky, and space (not saying quite as much). The speed of the ride shoots you into the stratosphere on this hill. If the OTSR's (which weren't a big deal like they are on Kingda Ka; these ones just attached the lap bar to the seat for extra measure) hadn't been there, I probably wouldn't have stopped accelerating until I hit Neptune. Holy crap. This hill is amazing. Stratosphere is fun, but FunWorld isn't all about Stratosphere. There's something better than an Intamin accelerator at this park, even one with an airtime hill that makes El Toro look like a kiddie credit. The best ride of all time, Draco. Some people say most B&M hypers are overrated. That's true. However, Draco isn't most B&M hypers. It's super long and has a varied layout. Tons of airtime hills don't stop B&M from adding a few helices and double helices. There's also an amazing mid-course drop that's almost (but not quite) as good as the first drop. Here's a group of people that I'm very jealous of as I wait in the queue line. I'd also like to mention that this lift hill is super fast for a chain hill. The pre-drop on this ride is the best pre-drop. Ever. It's like they took the classic turnaround at the top of a classic woodie and put it on some major, major steroids. Draco has the best pre-drop ever. The real first drop doesn't disappoint either. This tiny double helix pulls some serious g-force. After those airtime hills, some powerful positive g's should balance things out. But wait, this is a roller coaster! If things balance out, it'll roll back! Don't roll back, Draco! You still have the awesome mid-course drop! (and yes, I know that's not even close to how rollback & airtime/g-force work, haha) The mid-course drop comes after another bigger and less forceful double helix. This part serves as a mid-course brake run as well, since going up that double helix uses up alot of kinetic energy for potential... and this drop pulls it back into full force. More fun twisty helices. I love this g-force as much as the next guy, but g-force alone doesn't make a coaster (no offense, Batman The Ride fans!).... ....AIRTIME, AIRTIME, AIRTIME, AIRTIME, FEAST UPON THE AIRTIME!!!! WE'VE GOT IT ALL!!!!! EJECTOR, FLOATER, STRONG, AND STRONGER, LONG, AND LONGER, AAAIIIRRRTTTIIIMMMEEE buffet!!!! The airtime buffet can't last forever, we thought as we headed to the next coaster, the Loopin' Leopard. Last time we were here, this ride was conveniently closed so we had an excuse not to ride an Arrow looper, but this time it was open so we figured credit and pain was better than no credit and no pain. We were sure in for a surprise... Let's climb the lift hill. Brace yourselves... ...for some smooth inline twists??? I thought this was an Arrow..? ...serious hangtime in the loops. Especially the second one, that also has a bonus of a double up and a double down on the way in and out of it. Way better airtime than I expected. ...and just as you thought it was good, we hit the final brake run. Short and sweet (for an Arrow). So far, everything here has been awesome. Let's head over to one of my favorite woodies, the Firebird! Here's a shot of Firebird from the park entrance. It's a great-looking coaster. RMC recently gave it topper track so now it rides as good as it looks. Shame they couldn't smooth out the Moon Landing. More Firebird. It has a double out-and-back layout that has only a few moments of headchopper. There's quite a bit of decent airtime on this ride, especially in the back. The main drawback to it is that the bottom of the first drop transitions rather quick and it's pretty neckbreaking in the back if you don't brace yourself for that one moment. This shot also captures the mini double down and mini double up. They aren't super noticeable on-ride unless you're in the back seat. They still provide some great floater in the front if you're looking for it. Having fun? A really awesome first drop for a woodie. Very smooth thanks to the topper as well. Let's go back and reride Draco with the remaining time we have. It's just a few hours before we have to head out for the Swamp Park Afternoon Bash event with Amusement Park Critique. And let's reride Stratosphere while we're at it. That is why we came here anyhow. Another Draco reride, anybody? Firebird isn't to be left out with our reride party. We had about 30 minutes left, and since everything was still a walk-on, we decided that we had time for two more rerides. A run on Loopin' Leopard while we're at it... Firebird is close to the entrance, let's hit that up one last time before we hit the van and prepare for another hour of driving. We clocked out at 2:46PM, just the perfect time to be ready for the Swamp Park Afternoon Bash at 4 o'clock. We'll update with pictures from Swamp Park tomorrow. By the way, this trip brings my credit count to 249 with Stratosphere and Loopin' Leopard. Swamp Park should push it up past 250 since I've never been there before!

Reading the story and history of your park was the best way I could have possibly spent this last hour. Amazing job!

...you recognize the unique sound that each lift hill makes at your homepark. Bonus points if you can identify them at other parks too. ...you spend 10 minutes riding longboard down (or up) the same 27° ramp off the patio in your backyard in different ways to experience airtime and g-force. ...you have a 20 minute argument with your GP friend over the quality of a Vekoma boomerang and give up because they argue "but some people like it!!" ...you know the difference between an inline twist and a heartline roll. ...you create Photo TRs for parks you make in RCT/TPS/NL. ...you dislike this article because it features Boomerang instead of Iron Rattler (even though it was probably written before 2013 anyway, Poltergeist is a better ride in every way). ...you tell a kid who's on his first (big) roller coaster that the scary part is over because you're at the top of the lift hill (on a 1997 Arrow). ...if you know which coaster I'm talking about. ...if people have to constantly remind you to talk about something besides roller coasters. ...if you have trouble doing that.

Probably get there before the park opens, but no flashpass.

I wish I could have gotten more out of my trip yesterday. I couldn't go until 1PM so all I got was a Superman ride but hey, I was one of the only two people of our group who got to ride anything at all. Hopefully I can skip the last day of school on Thursday to have an emptier park day. Maybe Road Runner will finally open back up. Last time I rode it was a few months ago and it was definitely riding rougher than I remember.

Unpleasant: Vekoma Boomerang. All my GP friends were saying "oh yeah the Boomerang is awwweeeesome" and so I finally got on it. Worst restraints I've ever worn (I'm skinny) and the entire first lift hill is the single most uncomfortable element on any coaster I've been on (a whopping 12).

SFOT in just a few weeks. Super hyped to ride my first hypercoaster (Titan), first woodie (Judge Roy Scream), and another RMC masterpiece (New Texas Giant) along with the other awesome coasters there. (and yeah I'm new to the coaster enthusiast thing haha)

Thanks for the advice! I'll make sure to hit up La Vibora first.

I'm going to Dallas with my family early in June and we all have season passes (and I have a free parking pass) and lodging isn't a problem because we're staying with a friend. We have one full day and one partial day available. Partial day is a Saturday afternoon from what I know and the full day is Monday. I want to get multiple rides on whatever I end up liking enough, but I also want to ride every open coaster that day. I'll probably ride Batman and Pandemonium last if at all since we have Goliath and Pandemonium at Fiesta (my home park). Any advice on what to hit up first, etc?