Sir Clinksalot

Great stuff Chad. One day if I find myself driving across the country and somehow in Iowa I hope to check this place out. As for my favorite TR this year, gotta be WCB ... because we got to hang out and stuff. Then again, hearing about your Taco was pretty badass too.

I haven't ridden Maverick but have ridden a few rides with the same restraints as it. I think they would all benefit from the I305 restraints as I found them very comfortable. As for graying out, I had no such issues on I305. The only ride I consistently have that issue with is Goliath.

^^ I've also felt that Johnny Rockets and Coasters was a bit repetitive. Honestly, I'd MUCH rather them take out the Johnny Rockets, but since that building isn't going anywhere I'd say just get rid of Johnny Rockets and make that "Coasters". I don't see it going anywhere though if I'm being honest.

I won't ride Montezooma's Revenge until they put OTSR's on. It's just not safe any other way.

I'll be there Me too - did you guys get the Trapped add-on for the end of the night? I am. My son won't be doing Trapped. Also, if you guys want to do the Trapped Add-On, better get your tickets soon. That option is about 1/2 sold out already. There are of course plenty of tickets still if you aren't doing Trapped. Going to be a fun event as always!! As for the new ride, I'm fine with it just taking up the PP space. That's not really a small footprint if you look at it.

Nope. Same rule still applies. Just read the Disney specific forums. They're crazier than coaster enthusiasts. This.

I'm going to come right out and say it ... if this new ride is just the gimmick of the full loop and the top-hate element using the same loop structure I'm going to be pretty pissed they removed Log Jammer for that. Now if it's that gimmick along with a nice long ride then I may be ok with it. Enough with the Gimmicks, just give us a good coaster for a change.

Colossus is "better" than it has been in the past, but is by no means "good" or "great". They did some nice retracking so it doesn't kill you, but the ride is still painfully slow and the 2nd half needs some major track work. Still, it's probably the 3rd best woodie in CA (Behind Apocalypse and Giant Dipper (SCBB)). Not like that's really saying much though.

Cliff, you had me convinced at "Fresno".

I'm trying to figure out what this even means. Can you clarify? Maybe it's because we are in CA and there aren't really any other close Six Flags parks with a "Batman" or "Superman" but I don't see any kind of confusion. All anybody has to really do is LOOK at a ride to see it's the same or different. Not sure how that's demeaning.

From what I understand though, using only 1 station on Kingda Ka has actually HELPED that ride.

2 train ops on X2 is just fine. Having the 3rd train won't make a difference unless they were going to use the unload station. And even then I don't think it would really make that much of a difference. As for Tatsu, there is absolutely no excuse for the way the park runs that ride.

^^^ I didn't mind The Dark Knight pre-show either. But there is also another difference between that and Terminator. Dark Knight: Low capacity mouse coaster Terminator: Relatively high capacity wooden coaster I think the problem most people had with Terminator was that it wasn't just 1 pre-show, but 3. And by the time you'd get to the station they would be sending out 1/2 empty trains which greatly reduced capacity. I'm sure this happens on The Dark Knight as well though. If they had just utilized the indoor queue and had that be part of the "line" it wouldn't have been an issue.

^ Totally agreed. "Themed Decorations" work for Six Flags/Cedar Fair. Unless you are building a fully themed attraction from start to finish then a forced pre-show is a waste. And let's face it, even the Tower of Terror pre show get's old sometimes. Again, I thought the re-do of Gotham at SFMM was actually done really nice. You don't really get the feeling you are in Metropolis, etc (like you do in say Frontierland) but it's nice for fans to see all the different references in the decorations.

^ Pandemonium would be easy to retheme. Could even be a "Random DC Universe Villian's Pandemonium".

The DC Universe re-do at SFMM was done really well, and yes, to me, it does matter. If SFOT's area does get re-themed I could totally see a re-name for Mr. Freeze. Wonder if the themeing would stretch all the way to Aquaman.

I'm pretty sure it's still the Knott's recipe, well with HFCS instead of Sugar. Still sad.

Sad. I've been buying the Knott's brand exclusively for years and had absolutely no idea. Guess I need to start reading labels better.

I'll be there.

This. Again, until you've traveled a bit to ride coasters outside of CA you probably won't realize that there are SO many better "Amusement" parks than the ones we've got out here (Disney/Universal not being part of this particular equation). I certainly thought CA was the mecca for coasters before I started travelling out of state. Even my 14 year-old son has absolutely no desire to go to SFMM anymore. He's been totally spoiled. On our recent East Coast trip we visited 8 parks. Only one of those parks didn't have a hyper coaster. And every single one of the hyper coasters there I would place above California's only hyper coaster (yes, even Steel Force is better IMO). I've lived in CA my whole life but if you look at my list of top 20 coasters, only 1 is in CA (Xcelerator). People need to travel around a bit and then come back and tell me how spoiled we are in CA. I'd trade 1/2 of Magic Mountain for Intimidator 305 and the other half for El Toro in a heartbeat.

Disneyland chicken is "decent", but it's no Mrs. Knott's. Damn, now I want chicken.

Brilliant!!! Also fitting that there were 420 views when I was reading it. I think it made it a little easier. Such an awesomely fun day. We should do it again next year!!!

^^ 5th in 3 years? Where do you get that? In the last 10 years 2003 - Scream (wasn't even supposed to go to SFMM in the first place) 2004 - Nothing 2005 - Nothing 2006 - Tatsu - Removal of Psyclone 2007 - Removal of Flashback 2008 - Nothing 2009 - Apocalypse 2010 - Nothing 2011 - S:EFK (doesn't count) - Road Runner Express - Green Lantern - Removal of Deja Vu 2012 - No Coaster So in 10 years that's a total addition of 5 coasters and the removal of 3 coasters (Deja Vu, Psyclone, Flashback). So that's a net gain of 2 coasters. 3 I guess since Flashback shouldn't really count. But Green Lantern is just as crappy as that ride was. You also have to factor in they've removed 2 water rides, at least 1 flat (Tilt a Whirl that I can think of off the top of my head). SFMM is also a park that doesn't add non-coaster rides, well at least not until this year. Before LL:DOD I guess the last non-coaster ride was the relocated Scrambler?

I don't know if you guys also saw, but included in that email was a blurb that tomorrow is a "Bring a Friend Free" day. I don't think it was in the book, but if people actually look at the email it could make for a busy day.

^ I think the rumor has always been "Tallest Vertical Loop". I'm guessing (hoping) that will be the only inversion on the ride and not just constant inversions making the coaster actually do "something" other than flip you around 7 times.