Capitalize

^ Different manufacturer, so no. Possibly/likely same theme, though.

I think my main gripe at this point is the only reason this ride would require restraints like those is because some of the transitions look very sharp, I found similar transitions on Maverick to be my least favorite aspect of that ride, now you take a great idea like a 300 foot coaster with an awesome looking first drop and a couple nice looking airtime hills and you tack on a few rough transitions and the painful restraints to go along with them. Just seems like wasted potential for nothing.

Apparently, even though they're wrong. Can't wait to get a nice chop to the shoulder through some of those transitions. Should make for some interesting bruises. I'd say so. You pull the restraint down over your head, and there is a bar on your lap. Enough said. Small problem, there are those two pesky blunt rubber objects positioned over my shoulders. Not sure how anyone could call those anything other then what they are, over the shoulder restraints.

Wow, so I guess Intamin/KD thinks those restraints are "...overhead lap bars but no over-the-shoulder harnesses"? That is both stupid and incredibly wrong. Oh well, at least now with those lousy restraints I won't be freaking out all winter about this ride opening.

Exactly, the specs sheet says "no OTSR" though. So I can keep a faint glimmer of hope that in reality the ride will not have those OTSR's...

I wouldn't get too excited about the logo revealing anything factual about the ride; if Millennium Force's logo was any indicator of the ride it would have the steepest drop in the world...

Low to the ground turn of some kind!!!!! I can't wait for tomorrow!

One more day until people complain about how it's not tall, long, or fast enough. I'm betting that not enough airtime will be the #1 complaint.

I'd prefer if they went back to the RCT 1/2 look and feel. RCT 3 looked awful... I have it but have only played it a couple times because the game play is lousy and it looks terrible. But I'll still play RCT 2 frequently.

Only if you completely ignore Intamin and their pre-fab woodies.

Sigh, that ride was sweet.

Actually I don't think that would quite work. A balloon high up against the sky wouldn't really give an effective sense of scale because it wouldn't be next to anything. I think anything over a certain altitude would just look "really high" but I don't really think the human eye can really eyeball that effectively without something to compare it to. I guess they could do the balloon next to the park's Eiffel Tower but then they might as well just say "almost as tall as the Eiffel Tower" or "taller than the Eiffel Tower" or however tall it's going to be. Lots of parks when building big rides have done a chart saying what other recognizable structures the ride is bigger than. In 1999, the year before SFA built SROS, they had two red balloons depicting the height of the lift hill as SFA tried to get approval for the coaster. If it was during the approval process it may have possibly been for research purposes to see how it would effect the area's skyline?

I think coastercrew will be tweeting/streaming/etc. something that day.

So then we will have to including some time to debate beginning with loving or hating too...

I didn't mean that either was rough, but rather that I found Nitro to have more of a rattle to it then El Toro, but both are smooth.

The Haunted Mansion and ski lift are awesome, I recommend them. For food I really liked the internation food court by the log flume/Phoenix.

Very true, its gonna be a long week waiting for the announcement.

^^ I'm not saying NO ONE extends their trip beyond the weekend. But what I am saying is the vast majority do not. Whatever jump in attendance is achieved by parks around tracks with races is likely very small. The point is obviously to make money for the area, and of course the races make their areas money. But how do the races make small towns money? Hotels, camping, parking, gas stations, grocery stores. Why do so many of the areas around race tracks stay such small towns? For one or two weekends a year people go there to watch races. They might buy food or beer if they run out or forgot it. They'll probably need to buy some gas. Maybe they'll stay in a hotel if they don't have a camper or don't want to go tent camping. Based on the traffic going in and out of towns and based on the nature of the majority of towns that have races I'd say your estimate isn't correct, but thats just based on my own guesses and observations so it really doesn't matter. Bigger towns that happen to have tracks around them I could definitely see more people staying a bit longer for a full on vacation such as Charlotte or Daytona. But I still think those people are in the minority. Based on going to Kings Dominion and RIR I really don't see the race tracks providing a particularly large boast to their attendance. But w/e if you choose to disagree with that I can't provide any statistics to back that up so think whatever you want about it. Your last point doesn't even make sense, why did Cedar Point theme Top Thrill Dragster the way they did? Because its an interesting theme that people can relate to probably. (I see this has now been edited and does not exist any more...) Do you talk to the people around you about their plans? We do. We say "Where are you from? When did you get into town? Where are you staying? Do you have any plans after the races?" and so on and so forth. edit:"DBru is right, though. 150,000+ (sometimes 200,000) people attend these races. How could you possibly say that NO ONE is going to go to Kings Dominion when referring to that magnitude of people." When did I say NO ONE is going to Kings Dominion? I said the VAST MAJORITY do not. Which is true as far as I'm concerned. I'll go with my observations based on years of being a pass holder there and having season tickets at RIR over your observations and whatever they're based on.

I find Nitro in the back to be more rough then El Toro in the back. Nitro has a pretty battle rattle, especially at the bottom of the first drop. El Toro has a couple spots that give a bit of roughness but like was already said its smoother then a lot of steel coasters of the same size. In any case I still love it after my 3 backseat rides yesterday. Just phenomenal airtime. ^ In the morning? I was there yesterday and loved getting two rides in real fast with no wait in the back just around 11 o clock.

I've never had problems with line jumping at SFA really, (when the line is only a train or two waiting for your row its hard to get cut ) The only bad ride for line jumping is Batwing. They have a ramp on the side of the station designed for Fast Pass users but the gate is easy to open/jump over and is in a spot where a ride op normally isn't standing or looking at so I'll see kids cut through there sometimes. Most the time with the kids at SFA if they cut in front of you if you simply yell "HEY" angrily at them they'll stop right away and even apologize... SFGAdv line jumpers are normally older and in bigger groups so yelling at them directly might not be the best plan...

Because you asked every person at the race if they would be attending Carowinds the next morning, right? Or did you follow each person home to make sure that they weren't going to the park? Don't you just love when people post their assumptions as facts? Its far from scientific or a total consensus but I would say talking to the people around me in the stands and the people in hotels/campgrounds I'm staying at about their plans while on race weekends gives me a pretty decent idea as I've only sat around ONE family who had any plans to go to an amusement park on the same trip, and that was going to Orlando to see Disney World for a few days after attending the Daytona 500. And I have been attending race weekends at several tracks for more then a decade now just to clarify. So did you have anything worth while to add or just trying to be snide little creep about nothing?

I would almost root for the music to be broken during my ride... I really am not a fan of music while on rides for the most park.

Race weekends wouldn't attract people to the park, though. People traveling to the RIR race weekends looks something like this: - Arrive Thursday/Friday - set up camp near track - grill/drink/hoot and holler all day and night. Go to qualifying and first race Friday starting early evening. - Saturday - grill and drink all afternoon in preparation for the race that night. Attend race that evening. - Sunday - leave or if it rained Friday/Saturday attend the re-scheduled race then leave. The track is 30/40 minutes from the park without traffic. If you throw in the race weekend traffic to and from the track its much longer. In my experiences the majority of the people who travel to race weekends will normally just plan on the races. Speak for yourself. People could easily make a long weekend out of it. I went to a Nationwide race in summer of 2008 at Kentucky Speedway and stayed a couple extra days to go to Kings Island. Same concept/idea. When I used to see the Coke 600 at Lowe's I would always go to Carowinds on Saturday and the race Sunday; but was that the norm? Far from it. Most people would go to the races Saturday as well and leave Monday morning for home. As a coaster enthusiast I will normally try to combine amusement parks with a trip to a NASCAR race just to kind of kill two birds with one stone. But I know that the majority of the people traveling to Richmond from out of VA to see a race are not going to stop by the park because the agenda for the weekend is tailgate and see races. For the vast majority of race fans coming into town for a race weekend the races are the sole destination of the trip, that is all I'm saying. Between arriving Friday night and leaving Sunday/Monday morning you are spending the vast majority or all of your time on the track premises before during and after races or in traffic driving to it. Races are a full day event. Between arriving in the early morning, grilling food, shopping for souvenirs/driver merchandise, getting autographs, and checking out the various displays set up by different companies, watching the actual race, and finally making your way back to your vehicle/campsite you are literally busy for at least two days out of a weekend on a typical race weekend just with these activities. Do some people extend their trips or substitute a day at the track for other activities like an amusement park? Yes I'm sure some do. But that group is likely in the minority, and many if not most people going to the race are FROM VA or surrounding states and could make a day trip to Kings Dominion any time they wanted. Hence, any attendance boast from the race weekends at RIR is more then likely very small.

I've been to the park a few times this season and have been very pleased with the staff, much nicer and efficient then in the past. Maintenance has also been much better in my experience, much less ride closures. I wouldn't worry about the crowds. Thats pretty late in the summer, the only rides you'll have to wait for will be Batwing and Superman more then likely, and that shouldn't be too bad. I'm willing to bet you'll get everything you want done, and then some. Thats what always happens with me, at least. I'll normally only be able to get to the park after work on Fridays and can get every single coaster done in under two hours including a re-ride or two... In the front its still great but further back it has pretty bad rattle. Nothing too bad, I still love it in any row, but definitely not as smooth as it was. Only way flash passes would be worth it is on one of the few REALLY crowded days, July 4th and the days they have Latino day/Christian Day/etc. (can't recall actual names unfortunately. Well said, I totally agree. Thats the reason if all things were the same I'd rather have SFA as my local park rather then SFGAdv at this point. I love being able to just show up any day at any time and walk right on Wild One/SROS/Roar/Etc. As opposed to SFGAdv where I find myself waiting 30 minutes for a ride like Rolling Thunder...

Race weekends wouldn't attract people to the park, though. People traveling to the RIR race weekends looks something like this: - Arrive Thursday/Friday - set up camp near track - grill/drink/hoot and holler all day and night. Go to qualifying and first race Friday starting early evening. - Saturday - grill and drink all afternoon in preparation for the race that night. Attend race that evening. - Sunday - leave or if it rained Friday/Saturday attend the re-scheduled race then leave. The track is 30/40 minutes from the park without traffic. If you throw in the race weekend traffic to and from the track its much longer. In my experiences the majority of the people who travel to race weekends will normally just plan on the races.