defrocker

We went and met my in-laws in early May. We stayed at Breakers and I'm really glad that we did. We got to hang out in the room that night overlooking the park and tell them about the rides. It must have been the time of year, because we didn't pay THAT much for the room. Quite a bit more than I'm used to paying for a hotel, but for the experience, I'm glad I did it. Having said that, would I do it again? Yes. Would I do it at the prices y'all are quoting? No.

I believe there were some years, maybe when Superman was #1 that there was some very close margins. However, I'm not sure if it was this close.

Rollercoasters are like movies, if it's named "Green Lantern" it must suck.

One thing that needs to be kept in mind when looking at the top 50 list is how they are calculated. Fun coaster ABC that is in everyone's top 10 will score better than Intense coaster XYZ that is number 1 on 25% of people's lists and not in any one else's top 10. Lists like this reward consistency and widespread appeal. There is no way to get a "perfect" list of this sort. No voting method will result in a picture that people will agree about by the masses. All it comes down to is opinions anyways. Everyone's opinion is unique, and this in a compilation of hundreds of peoples' unique opinions. For me personally, I love the GTA's. I think they're fun, they're a great way to generate publicity, and for my tastes they are pretty accurate. Sure there are some omissions and inclusions that I don't agree with, but I'm ok with that.

Wives are good for that kind of thing...

This is a painful question, but my in-laws expressed interest in going to the park this Saturday (yes, Labor Day weekend.) Anyone have any experience with the crowds on the holiday weekend? I'm not looking forward to the crowd we may be facing.

Sounds like a place to find some brews. Do they have good food?

To be entirely fair, the situation that I spelled out was on the second weekend of operations this year. So on top of the picture you just painted, it was likely his first week, possibly first few days on the job. I agree, I almost never have complaints with ride ops. At Carowinds last weekend my wife spoke to the grouper on Fury and told her thanks for doing a great job and she said how she really appreciated hearing that. Usually the remarks she gets are not of the "kinder variety" and it was nice to hear a thank you. Like you said, at the end of the day, they're doing their job, trying to earn a paycheck while keeping people safe while they are having fun. A thank you here and there could make someone's day.

The standard advice used to be hit X first. However, with the additions of FT and TC I don't know if that is still the case.

Yeah, but don't trains and seats have sensors that will prevent the train from dispatching if the restraint / harness isn't lowered far enough? Let me tell you what, I hate it when someone lowers the restraint for me. I'm a very small guy and I've been stapled on several occasions, it's not fun and it doesn't make me any more safe than if I would have lowered it myself. I had an experience at Carowinds where one of the ride ops got one extra click on my harness on Intimidator. After that extra click he jumped and put all of his weight to get yet another click forcing the seatbelt buckle into my hip bones. I physically winched in pain. His response was a snide "that's better right?" Most miserable ride ever... This is obviously the polar extreme from getting ejected. I don't think you can necessarily trust people in general to put their restraints down enough to be "safe." I know when I was young and dumb some of my friends and I would have a contest to see who could get their restraints the loosest on the woodies at KD. As a teenager, we weren't concerned with safety. Bottom line, I think ride ops should be able to push on restraints but I don't agree with stapling every person with no "reason" to do so.

I don't really know of much local to Sandusky (or Ohio) at all. I get the impression that Sandusky isn't really known for it's cuisine, though I could be way off base there. If you're in Virginia in the future I'd be happy to plug a place or two. Not really, I was joking with Josh (the ride supervisor for MF) about things to do in Sandusky as I was trying to find stuff when not at the park. As far as food, I've gone to that Tap House in downtown, Casa Real for some Mexican food, and this past Saturday night we tried Pizza House which was actually quite good. I'd recommend the pizza place, they were open till 1 am and so it was great after the park closed. I'm sure I'm not the only one, I just enjoy trying local stuff that I can't get unless I'm there when I fly out of town. Generally that's the route I go. I like to try different scenes. Tap Houses are always OK with me. I'm sure my wife would dig a pizza place. So long as there are other options than just pizza (and I's assume that's the case) I'd be all for it as well.

I only rode it the one time and while I thought the concept of it was mind-blowing, the ride was very difficult to enjoy, and I was glad when the ride was over. For the record I rode it when I was 23. We rode it while on my honeymoon and it's probably accurate that that was the first time, while married she was mad at me for something, and it was that she rode this. lol

I mean rollercoasters. We just haven't seen much as of recent. Wasn't really sure why.

OMG, I can't stand these ignorant stupid comments by coaster nerds that know absolutely nothing about what they are talking about. Spare us your idiotic "expert" knowledge and write about something you know about because it clearly isn't about roller coasters or theme park operations. Out of curiosity, why haven't we really seen Intamin installations stateside in the past 5 years or so?

I don't really know of much local to Sandusky (or Ohio) at all. I get the impression that Sandusky isn't really known for it's cuisine, though I could be way off base there. If you're in Virginia in the future I'd be happy to plug a place or two.

You mean a typical BBQ chain like Rudy's?

Great... here come the Texans to make sure we're all aware that anything we can do, they can do better.

The amount of rides that have actually been added to the park in the past 10-15 years is pretty impressive. Drop Tower, Crypt, Hypersonic, Ferris wheel, Windseeker, Ricochet, Dominator, Intimidator, Delirium. You certainly see reason for the crowd to spread out among the rides. Also, the waterpark has been added in this time frame which sucks in people. I've only been to it once and it was a mosh pit, just like Dorney and Carowinds. I swear parks investing in waterparks over the past decade like we've seen is the best decision they can make, even if I don't really care for them.

True, I mean, for years my family took trips to BGW and we always went on a Wednesday. I, personally, have never seen that park crowded. Walk-ons to 5 minutes for everything almost every time I have ever been. By my observation, the park shouldn't be in business anymore. But my observation is skewed to one visit in the middle of the week about every other year...

I don't know that there is any hard evidence. I think it's mainly looking at the patterns. As one of my home parks I have been almost every year since probably 1998 or so. I feel like I haven't seen the days of waiting in long lines for the bigger attractions recently, however, I have tried to time my visits to where I wouldn't be facing the crowds. All of this is just my unofficial observations though. I feel most people just see the recent lack of Corporate Spending at KD as a sign of stagnated or drooping attendance. However, it could be, simply that CF has seen that with or without investment the annual attendance stays consistent, or at other parks new attractions are boosting attendance more and giving greater ROI. TL:DR All "evidence" is Empirical and we don't have hard numbers.

Same here. Also doesn't KD have a train? That would probably be in the top 5-6 there. No train... Sadly.

I'm talking about in the eyes of the GP. It could be debated that Millennium Force is the most popular rollercoaster on the planet and Maverick is universally loved by GP and enthusiasts. When they married the two, they only achieved mass amounts of love from the enthusiasts whereas the GP didn't respond quite like they had hoped. I305 may have brought in more attendance. I'm not going to argue that. What it does not have though is the ridership. What we have seen is CF no longer doing business with Intamin after I305. What we haven't seen is anything like this being built in the years since. And these reasons are why I'm saying it was a miss. Because of these reasons are why I'm almost certain we will not see a ride like this in the US in the foreseeable future. I'd love to be wrong, but currently the signs don't point to that being the case. Like I said, I like the ride. You can love the ride, many of us do. But that doesn't mean it hit the mark like they hoped.

Absolutely. That's where all the grey-outs occur and once someone has that happen at the beginning of the ride, the rest is not as enjoyable to them. It also would have helped to not tear itself apart. lol

It could also be due to an outside factor such as economic recovery. While in a sense this is true, it frequently runs one train. I've only been there twice when it was running 2 trains and every time it is a station wait while running one train. That makes Volcano have essentially the same capacity/hr. Never seen it, personally. I've seen all three have short lines but never has I305 had the longest. Shaky argument, but possibly true. However, respect doesn't pay the bills. Look, I don't want to come across like I dislike the ride. I think it's great and it falls just outside my top 10. The sad reality is this was a flop. We have not, and likely will not see other rides like this in the US, at least not in the near future. Millennium Force hit the mark, Maverick hit the mark, but unfortunately, a love child of the two was a swing and a miss.

What I find very interesting is how both GCI's are going to have to cross train tracks and interact with a water ride.