DILinator

We went to BGT today also and heading to SWO tomorrow. BGT was better than I expected. In my opinion BGT is the best park in Florida. Take your mouse and shove it up your a** Disney. I'll be back with my kids at SWO and even Fun Spot before I'm back at Disney with them, too!

I wouldn't hesitate to take my kids out of school (and have done so) for a trip to Cedar Point! I obviously can't speak to how it works in every school district, but a parent should have the ability to get an excused absence for their kid whenever they want, for whatever reason. If finals are an issue, plan accordingly I guess... My problem is that the way our district describes it is extremely vague. Sometimes they act like you can be ok by going on vacation, and others not. It's about as questionable as the CP rain/wind policy Yeah, I know they (schools) can try to play the heavy sometimes regarding attendance, but as a parent, I've always played the heavier! When it comes to my kids' education, I am the person (along with my wife) who is ultimately in charge of determining what's best for them, regardless of what the school prefers. But I do know about some of that kickback you're talking about... My suggestion is simply to try it next year, and see if you can't make it out in May! I think you'll really enjoy yourself, and save some money doing it as well!

Count me in as somebody who is legit more excited about Vortex now!

I wouldn't hesitate to take my kids out of school (and have done so) for a trip to Cedar Point! I obviously can't speak to how it works in every school district, but a parent should have the ability to get an excused absence for their kid whenever they want, for whatever reason. If finals are an issue, plan accordingly I guess...

I actually get doing it for overseas visitors, especially if your schedule necessitates a trip in the Summer. If I ever manage to get overseas to ride coasters, I will be willing to doing similar systems, due to the likelihood of it being a once in a lifetime opportunity. For CP though, I still recommend, even for overseas guests, if you can plan in advance for a May trip as opposed to a July or August trip, you'll be better off for it!

I literally just got nauseous reading all of the glowing recommendations of the abomination that is FL-anything... I'm going to be the voice for dissent, and a different perspective... For future reference, to all of those who are non-regular CP attenders, who may plan to go in the future, I recommend a better option.... Do whatever you can to get to the park on a weekday in May, or even the last week of August, rather than taking it up the rear by getting FL+. I walked onto just about every ride all day one of the times I went to CP earlier this year during that time (including 3 Valravn rides, 2 of which were 10 minutes or less in the standby line), and only had one wait (our third time on Maverick) over 30 minutes all day. While that level of awesomeness may not be every weekday's experience, I've been going to CP virtually every year since the late 90's, and always get to ride whatever I want, however many times I want, without any ridiculously gratuitous extra costs whenever I go during this time. Rather than forcing yourself to "budget" more money to essentially get exploited by CP, plan ahead, and do what you can to "budget" your time so you can go when the park isn't going to be so crazy crowded, and as an added bonus the weather will be a lot more pleasant as well!

It's going to be called Mantis, obviously!

Seriously... How anybody could find LR "smoother" than Storm Chaser is beyond me! I rode SC 20 times a little over a month ago, and could have ridden it a ton more. 7 rides on LR and I was good for the day! To each their own though!

I haven't been to Dorney, or California's Great America, but I'd rank the remainder of the parks as follows... 1. Cedar Point 2. Kings Island 3. Canada's Wonderland 4. Kings Dominion 5. Worlds of Fun 6. Knott's Berry Farm 7. Carowinds 8. Michigan's Adventure 9. Valleyfair My last visits to many of these parks were years ago, but my rankings are based on my overall experience at the park when I visited, quality of coasters there when I visited, plus factoring in how impressive the additions since I've visited look. I'm sure my high rating of Worlds of Fun surprises people, but I really enjoyed my visit there years ago, and they've added Prowler, Patriot, and Spinning Dragons since then, while only removing a crappy Arrow looper. I have to imagine I'd quite enjoy visiting it again now, with those new coasters there! Fury is the best coaster I've ever been on, no doubt! But other than that, my visit to Carowinds was rather underwhelming. It's not a bad park at all, and I'd love to go again and ride Fury all day with occasional spins on Intimidator and Afterburn. But I was expecting more, I guess... As for Michigan's Adventure, there's probably a little "homerism" in rating it over Valleyfair, and Renegade wasn't there when I last visited. However, Shivering Timbers is a Top 10 coaster for me, and the waterpark is really great at MiA! Wild Thing was fun, and I'm sure Renegade is a blast too, but I'm not sure I'd rather have both of those, than Shivering Timbers... Since this is the KD thread... I haven't been since before I-305, and Dominator arriving. However, I really enjoyed the park my previous visit, and they've added those two coasters, one of which is in the discussion for best in the world, and the other of which I've ridden, and quite enjoyed, in its previous location! Honestly, when I finally make my way back there, hopefully next year, it will likely rise above CW and maybe even KI, especially if they have a kick-butt RMC'd Hurler there as well!

^I've always felt the RMC Streak for 2017 seemed a little soon... And I really believe a Soak City expansion is in the works for next year. But 2018 RMC Streak wouldn't surprise me in the least!

There is a local Craft Brewery/Restaurant in my area that opened up last year which offers Poutine. My goodness, is it ever good!!!

I just watched a POV of KD's Hurler to refresh my memory of its layout, with an RMC conversion in mind... Man, talk about a boring ride! Even getting through the POV of it was tedium I just couldn't wait to end! Bring on CF's first RMC in 2017!!! (And then look for their second at CP in 2018! )

Europa Park's treatment of all its guests is one of the great models that influences my work as I develop as a professional in the themed entertainment industry. Everyone deserves to have a wonderful place to play. Thanks for being awesome, and hopefully I'll get a chance to visit Europa Park and experience it myself some day! Hear! Hear! I like that system as well, since it's still fair, and equitable. Believe it or not, Cedar Point actually had a really nice system years ago that allowed people to get up to two coasters Fast Lane entry a day, provided they get them before they "sold out". It's a shame they decided the allure of more money was more important than treating all guests as equals, when they enter those gates...

Incredibly smooth, disorienting and awesome. Probably my favorite indoor coaster (yes better than Mummy). Criminally underrated. One of the top tier rides in the park. Dang, coasterbill! What has possessed you to be up at this awful hour of night (which is when I'm usually on here)? I'm on vacation so I didn't have to get up early this morning. Alcohol was involved... Flight of Fear is awesome though. So excited for it to come to Dorney. Maybe it can become part of a Cedar Fair traveling coaster system, and MiA can get it in 2025 or something, if CF sees fit to give them an addition that soon!

I had tried to avoid any actual designation as to what kind of launch it was, though I agree with your assessment, because I'm not sure I've seen it described anywhere, and this project still feels SO fluid at this point. ^I'm right there with you! If they can pull this off, it will be pretty awesome! Regarding Wicked at Lagoon, that is an example of a vertical launch, but on a much smaller scale than what it appears will be on this... Still, valid question for our Lagoon aficionados... What is the reliability/downtime like on Wicked?

this must be a typo - that may be #1 in the park (not my #1 btw) but in the world? no For a handful of years, back before it was Bizarro, Superman: Ride of Steel (as it was called then) was considered by many to be the #1 coaster in the world, or at least in the conversation. That was also before the death on it resulted in the change in restraints, which lessened the amount of air-time (presumably) one would get on the ride. Sadly, I haven't ridden it to be able to rank it myself, but I certainly hope to do so someday before long (but long enough away that VR isn't on it anymore.)

As much as I already thought Europa Park looked like an amazing place, that I look forward to finally visiting someday, this response makes me respect the people who run it tremendously, and hold the park in even higher regard! This philosophy is what I hold to as well, and why I dogmatically oppose all forms of Fast Pass, Fast Lane, or other skip-a-line systems that are not equally available to all people, regardless of financial station. I don't say this to spark that argument again (certainly not in Robb's TR thread), but rather to just say that it refreshing to me to see that there is a park out there who hasn't "sold-out" to the allure of making even more money, at the expense of all guests feeling treated equally! Kudos to Europa Park, and you've given me just one more reason to get there, ASAP!

Incredibly smooth, disorienting and awesome. Probably my favorite indoor coaster (yes better than Mummy). Criminally underrated. One of the top tier rides in the park. Dang, coasterbill! What has possessed you to be up at this awful hour of night (which is when I'm usually on here)?

Taron looks great, like a lot of fun, and of course, Phantasialand looks absolutely fabulous! Having said that, while many were stating that this was their #1 anticipated coaster of this year, I must confess that I would put it solidly in third place for me personally, behind Wildfire, and Lightning Rod, after seeing the POVs of all three. I also highly anticipated Storm Chaser, and that certainly lived up to the hype for me, and I don't feel like Taron looks better than that - at least to me. However, I would like to see a POV from the higher, seated position (if one was linked to above, I'll check it out later, as where I'm at right now I can't access anything on Facebook), because I think that might give me a better "feel" for the ride. Don't get me wrong, it looks really fun! And the themeing is a HUGE win! I guess I'm just still more into the look of the RMC wooden coaster experience than an Intamin twisty one... Please spare me your torches and pitchforks!

I really don't get this statement though. . . What makes you think that this launch won't be reliable?? (Aside from the height as you mentioned.) I really don't see how height alone is going to cause the launch to be unreliable. . . And what makes you think this coaster is going to have frequent roll backs?? Aside from the height, and hope?? I'm not 100% sure who they settled on building this thing (or even if they have), but I know at one point Intamin was talked about. If that's still the case, no need to explain further! However, regardless of manufacturer, launched coasters do experience more than typical downtime usually, and as I was watching the POV, I was just struck by the fact that if the ENTIRE launch doesn't go off without a hitch, every time, going completely vertical no less, there's going to be rollbacks - plenty of them! Besides that, there are just other things about this project that seem a little... I don't know... Off? Sketchy? Hard to pin down, but watching that video, the fact that it's a huge vertical launch (has that ever been done, even on a smaller scale), struck me as a definite potential problem spot, right off the bat. Hopefully not, but it's a reasonable thought, at the very least...

I look forward to enjoying it vicariously through you, since that's probably the closest I'll come to actually riding it for years!

Just for arguments sake - going by census results on Wikipedia the combined population in the metro areas of NYC and Philly is 10,110,702 people. That's not including Allentown, the biggest city near Dorney. Grand Rapids metro population is 1,005,648. Adding on other sizable cities nearby doesn't really add anything substantial much to that number. Woah... Nowhere did I say MiA's market was on par with Dorney's! In fact, my specific words were "it is quite small in comparison." What I did say, is that people frequently make comments about MiA having a small market, and that really isn't true, especially in comparison to other small parks that still get large capital investments once in a while. I don't think most people outside of Michigan realize that GR is so large, and when you factor in Kalamazoo, Muskegon, and the epic tourist attraction that is the entire Lake Michigan shoreline, you realize the park actually has a huge market - and that's not even taking into account the fact that for a decent city like Lansing, it's still only a couple of hours away. But no, I was not at all saying their market is as large as Dorney's!

I'll second this!!!

Watching that latest POV was really awesome, and got me psyched for this project! Having said that, however, I am having serious doubts about a vertical launch system of that height being anything remotely resembling reliable! On the plus side though, rollbacks should be much more frequent than on TTD, and would be pretty fun!