David H

The re-tracking will definitely help. Smoothing out the transitions and crests would throw riders around less, and not be as, umm, painful (I don't know, like I said, I still need to get out and ride the blasted thing). Isn't the padding just some foam duct-taped to the safety bar, anyway? But here's where we get confused between ROUGH and WILD in coasters. A WILD coaster throws you around -- in a GOOD way. Even in its best days with perfect maintenance, the Coney Island Cyclone would be a wild coaster! A ROUGH coaster hurts you in a BAD way. Usually it's the jackhammering feeling like being run over a washboard that comes with poor maintenance. Or that rough BANG when you hit a "pothole" at the bottom of one of the drops. Usually maintenance can fix a rough coaster. What I'm concerned about is whether Zamperla and the city (who own the Cyclone) want to just get rid of the rough parts, or if they want to tame down the wild elements as well. I want the coaster to be less painful (with less jackhammering and fewer potholes), but I absolutely do NOT want it to throw me around less! That's part of what makes it the Cyclone! And what makes it such a great coaster. In other words, I want them to make it smoother, but keep it as wild as possible. Hopefully, GCI can accomplish this, but ultimately it's their job to do whatever the people who hired them want them to do. As for ACE Coaster Classic status, I'd imagine that it would depend on what they do with new trains. If they get ratcheting lapbars, then it will lose its status, since fixed position lapbars are one of the primary criteria for a coaster being run in a "classic" fashion. Since the lawyers and insurance companies tend to like ratcheting lapbars, I imagine that there's a good chance it will lose this status. If so, I can't imagine that ACE wouldn't then award it its newer "landmark coaster" status, since the Cyclone is probably the most notable landmark coaster still standing, with only the possible exception of Leap the Dips.

Some general observations about this year’s results. I think the biggest thing I noticed this year is how much more consistent the results were this year over past years. I think that they're settling in to more of a regular panel now, although the number of replies was way up over last year, probably due to the poll being done so late last year. I think that some people have dropped out of taking the poll, and more newer voices are in. While I wish everyone would stay in to give a broader cross-section of the enthusiast community, having more new people taking the poll is always a good thing. Towards the top of the poll, there weren't many coasters that moved much more than 10-15 notches, and those were very much the exception. Towards the bottom of the poll, not too many coasters moved more than 20-30 notches, and even then, Mitch's decision to separate out the SBNO coasters accounts for up to 14 of those notches. As more riders get out to some of the lesser ridden coasters, we're also starting to see a stabilization of the rankings. Because of the way that Mitch's methodology works, the lesser ridden coasters can have a major impact on the entire poll. Last year, with significantly fewer people taking the poll, and fewer valid matchups for each coaster pair, a lot of the matchups in the top 12 or were very close, within 2-3 votes. And you can't really say which coaster in any pair is better when the winner wins 3-2. But this uncertainly ends up affecting the entire set of results, because it gives higher ranking coasters blemished that they probably don't deserve. That ends up making the entire set of results a lot more volatile. Last year, about 1/3 of each of the matchups in the top 12 coasters were decided by a 1-3 vote difference. As such, they were less reliable. This year, the only coasters in the top 50 with fewer than 20 riders were China's Fireball and the new Zippin Pippin, which is somewhat off the beaten coaster path in northern Wisconsin. As a result, there were very few close decisions in the top coaster matchups, which makes the results more stable and less volatile. We're probably seeing a much closer approximation of what most enthusiasts truly believe this year than in the past. This is obviously greatly helped by clubs like TPR, ECC and ACE bringing people out to some of the overseas coasters that few had previously ridden. And the fact that nearly half of Fireball's and Zippin Pippin's coasters matchups with the rest of the coasters in the top of the list were decided by 2 votes or less makes those results very unreliable. We will probably get a much better view of where Fireball stands next year, after TPR brings another 30+ people out to ride it. Is its drop out of the top 10 this year just a sign of how unreliable its ranking is with so few riders? Or has it dropped in quality? We'll find out next year! As for Zippin Pippin, I think that's the best example of how few riders really makes the results unreliable. Does it really belong at #38 when the previous version of the coaster only made the top 100 once in its last 9 years? I'd tend to doubt it, even if it's significantly better that the previous version. But with only 12 riders, most of which were probably very much old school coaster fans who are likely to rank it higher than the rest of us might, we get unreliable results, especially with the majority of its matchups being very close -- and as a result, unreliable. In fact, Zippin Pippin provided one of T Express' three blemishes, with a 2-2 tie. While I can see T Express losing to #1 El Toro, and maybe even see it tying with #5 Phoenix, I think that it's safe to say that it's a better coaster than Zippin Pippin, which ranked at #38, which is probably much higher than it deserves! This is the best example of how a few riders with unusual opinions can affect much higher ranked coasters on the list. That's why Mitch doesn't count coasters with fewer than 10 riders. Luckily, there were few such coasters ranking highly this year. When looking at the results overall, I think it's always best to actually look at the results table for the history of the poll. That way you can more easily spot anomalies and trends. As I mentioned earlier, there are actually many fewer anomalies this year, and most fo them can be attributed to one or more coaster group's overseas trips or other events. TPR didn't have too much of an effect on the wooden coaster poll this year, since it's overseas trips were to Japan and Australia, neither of which is exactly known for their great wooden coasters (except for the sadly long closed Aska in Japan!) I expect we'll see the affects of these TPR trips more strongly in the steel poll. Regina, however did get somewhat of a boost this year up to its highest ranking since the ECC/ACE Japan trip 4 years ago. TPR's biggest trip influence on the woodie poll this year would probably have to be on Yankee Cannonball, which jumped nearly 20 notches to #55 after this Summer's Northeast Tour. The Hershey Comet also got a bit of a boost from the TPR East Coast Bash. Probably the biggest WTF ranking is the German El Toro jumping into the top 10 to #7, after having previously ranked at #13 and #20. I'm guessing that the ECC got some really great rides during ERT on their German trip this year. Still, that seems quite high for that coaster. Future years' polls will show if that was an anomaly or not. Mammut also got a decent jump this year from the ECC trip. ACE's Scandinavia trip also helped a handful of woodies on the trip in the poll this year, particularly the two Danish Rutschebanen's and Vuoristorata, the first coaster of the trip, which jumped over 30 notches to its highest ever ranking. Interestingly, the ACE Coaster Con add-on day at Kemah Boardwalk probably actually hurt the Boardwalk Bullet, since it was on the Sunday following the trip, with ERT in the morning. I skipped the morning ERT session, choosing to sleep late and hit the nearby Space Center during the day, knowing that a good Gravity Group woodie would ran better at the end of the day anyways. The very few ACErs there at closing said that it was running very significantly faster and better at night. So all of those who only rode in the morning weren't getting an accurate sense of the coaster, which might be part of why it dropped a bit this year, despite running quite a bit better than it has in the past two years. While I'm somewhat of a Gravity Group fanboy, I still had it ranked much higher at 22 than its poll ranking of 51, based on those excellent night rides. The other well, traveled enthusiasts who were there at the end of the night agreed that it is very much under-ranked, based on those rides. A few other notable ranking moves from various coasters: -- Cheetah jumped back into the top 100 way up at #80 for the first time in 5 years. Any idea if it got better, or was this just an anomaly this year? -- After all the work enthusiasts did helping raise funds to get the Conneaut Blue Streak back open and the park stable (including helping the park get Pepsi Challenge grants), it's ironic that the coaster dropped 15 notches this year! -- I'm guessing that Hullamvasut's big jump from #126 to #88 -- it's highest ranking in SEVENTEEN YEARS, and the highest jump of any coaster this year -- is due to the uncertainly of so few riders. Hungary isn't exactly a major stop on most coaster enthusiasts' must-visit lists! -- I was wondering if maybe the ECC Germany trip had stopped in Austria, since Prater Park's Hochschaubahn similarly jumped 26 notches to its highest ranking in 16 years, but they didn't. And with 39 riders, its results shouldn't be THAT volatile. Did it get some major retracking or anything this year? -- Great American Scream Machine, Arkansas Twister, Skyliner, and Twister II all got some decent boosts this year of around 20 notches each. Not sure why, although some of the missing SBNO's that aren't on the list this year helped them somewhat.

^ In my opinion, that's fair, even though I completely disagree with her opinion. I don't honestly see how this is any different from the people who rank Gouderix or the SLC's (or even the Boomerangs) towards the bottom of their poll. Obviously, both Voyage and El Toro are better coasters then those. But, if you honestly get off a ride and hated it so much you would never ride it again, even with no wait, then isn't that the worst coaster on the planet for you? Or at least down among the worst? I mean, if you think it's horrible, then you think it's horrible. Personally, I completely disagree. While, as I get older, I'm becoming more sensitive to rough rides than I used to be, I can still get some decent enjoyment out of even the roughest rides, provided that they're at least somewhat fun and interesting. I'd much rather ride a good coaster that's rough than a boring coaster that's smooth. But that's me. But with the SLC's and Boomerangs, the category is supposed to be for your FAVORITE one of the rides. And even if the majority of them are rough as hell, have those of you who rank them very lowly NEVER ridden a good one? If so, then that's the one you should be ranking, fair or not. Both of them are decent designs. In fact, I think that the SLC is quite an excellent one. Unfortunately, they build them badly and parks don't maintain them well. But when they're on the smoother side, they're both quite fun rides, which is why I rank them much higher than most enthusiasts seem to. And while Gouderix is as rough as the lengends say, it was still fairly interesting and fun of a ride, I thought. There are certainly a bunch of steel coasters that were more boring and which I'd rather ride Gouderix than. As for the question of how I rank coasters, I tend to rank based on the BEST rides I got on my last visit -- with an asterisk. I don't care what they were like early in the day when they were slower. I don't care if 90% of the seats aren't nearly as good as in the front or back (or seat 2 or 3 or second from the back.) Because when and where it's the best is when and where I'll be doing the vast majority of my riding. Who cares if it's boring in the middle of the day or in the middle of the train, if I don't ride then or there? If a ride has gone downhill, but used to be better, I'll consider that. Especially if it's a situation that is likely to be fixed with maintenance. Or if I rode under bad conditions. But I'll take each one on a case by case basis, based on what I think it's likely to run like, based on the extremes of my own personal experiences. For instance, if on my first visit to a park a coaster wasn't that impressive, but on my next visit, it was much better for whatever reason (i.e. it had been new and is now broken in, the weather was better, it was better at night, the trains were more full, etc.), then I'll rank it based on the best rides I had on it on my last visit. If a coaster has gone downhill due to lack of maintenance, but I know they're working on it soon (or have done so since my last visit), I'll take that into consideration and sort of average my best visit with the latest one. If it's gone downhill due to lack of maintenance it's not likely to get much of or especially due to a reprofile, then I will base my ranking on the best rides on my LAST visit. If a coaster didn't deliver as good of rides as it had on my last visit, due to some situation that wasn't the coaster's fault, then I'll take that into consideration, and weigh the older visit more heavily, but still penalize it somewhat for not delivering this time. A good example would be on my big US trip in 2009, which was early in the June. Not only had some of the woodies not fully broken in, but later in the trip (particularly at Hershey and Kings Dominion), the parks were absolutely dead, so the woodies were running very slowly, due to nearly empty trains. That's certainly not the coaster's fault. It's mine for planning my trip that way. (On the plus side, I got a TON more rides at every park than I'd dared to hope for, so it was a good balance overall, even if some woodies had to be sacrificed for this trip.) So for the woodies particularly at those two parks, I did dock them a few notches, but not as much as they might have deserved based on the rides I actually got on this trip. BUt I think it's fair since I've definitely gotten much better rides in the not too distant past.

I know the enthusiast in question. Not only is she local to me, but I've been on quite a few trips with her. And knowing her, I can easily see this being her honest ballot. She is older and has very little tolerance for rough rides, and genuinely hates Voyage. She and her husband are VERY well traveled enthusiasts who take several international trips per year. So, it's very possible that she went back to the park, felt that White Canyon was way too rough, and dropped it way down as a result. If there is one thing that all of those low coasters on her ballot share in common it's that they are all rough (at least at times.) In fact, I was with her at Park Asterix when we rode Tonerre, and it was running quite rough then. I didn't mind it as much as many, but a lot of people did. Knowing her, I honestly believe that these are her actual opinions. Also, as to the person noted above who ranked El Toro that low, knowing him, I could see that as well. He's a larger guy who hates being stapled. (I wouldn't even be surprised if he wasn't allowed to ride, and is punishing it that way.) And he is somewhat of a purist, so maybe that hurt his opinion, too. I'll admit that the stapling cost it a dozen or more notches on my first visit, when it was especially bad. But again, I don't think he's trying to deliberately throw the poll. I think we should be careful about calling out individual ballots, especially when we don't know the people in question. There are a lot of enthusiasts in the hobby with vastly different opinions than ours (or even than most others in the hobby.) Their opinions are just as valid as ours. Well, no one's opinion is as valid as mine, but that goes without saying! That said, there was some talk of deliberately throwing the poll this year by stuffing the ballot box by some people with an axe to grind against Robb and TPR. They apparently think that Robb tries to "fix" the poll to somehow get more people to go on the TPR trips (despite the fact that next year's overseas trips are pretty much sold out already!) But it was quickly shot down after some people (myself probably most vocal among them) spoke out against the idea, and the group organizers chastised them. Most of them limit their protest to just not participating in Mitch's poll any more, which is fine, if childish.

Remember that the poll also takes into account whether or not you rode the coaster this year that you're voting for. I don't think a lot of the voters rode Balder this year, so that hurts it. I'm sure you'll see it go back up when a group trip takes a decent amount of people there to ride it. Actually, Mitch's main poll doesn't take that into account at all. He used to do a separate ranking just counting this year's riders, to get a sense of how the ride might be ranking based on just this year's rides. But it was never terribly accurate because there were so few valid ride comparisons. But you could at least get some sense if a ride was running much better or worse than it used to. One of the problems with any coaster poll is that I think that people tend to rank coasters more highly when they first ride them and experience something new for the first time. After a few visits, the sheen wears off somewhat, and we tend to drop most rides at least a bit on our lists. While I tend to be somewhat like that, in the short terms, I'm actually the opposite. Almost any coaster will benefit on my list from multiple rides on the same visit. It's usually only after 5+ rides that I really "get" a coaster and appreciate what it does. The problem with wooden coasters is that when you ride them on slower days to get more rides, then the trains are likely more empty, which produces bad rides. (Heavier trains run faster, thanks to having more momentum.) So, going on a trip or on a tour will usually give the highest rankings for me, especially if there is nighttime ERT. Which is why I probably ranked Balder slightly higher than I might have otherwise. As to Balder, ACE was there this year with over 100 people. And we had a great nighttime ERT session on it. People seemed to be having a great time on it, although there were some comments about it being quite repetitive. I'm not sure how many of the ACE crowd participate in Mitch's poll these days, though.

I have! Although I last rode Voyage in 2010. And they're not even close, in my book. I think the thing with Balder is that it's very repetitive. It's just airtime hill after airtime hill, with not much else going on at all. And most of it is floater air, rather than real ejector air (or somewhere in between.) While I know that that's coaster nirvana for many people, that's not normally my thing, to be honest. That said, I liked it a LOT more than I expected to. It does what it does VERY well. In fact, it was easily my favorite ride session of the ACE Scandinavia trip, thanks to nighttime ERT, and en enthusiastic group and ride ops. (Although I'll say that I think that Twister was the better ride overall, IMHO, mainly because of the variation.) I'd expected/guessed that I would place Balder somewhere in the 20's on my list, based on my usual tastes. But it impressed me enough to rank it at 12. Admittedly, the whole experience probably biases it slightly in its favor, giving it a notch or three that it wouldn't have otherwise gotten. But I only rank coasters based on my enjoyment and experiences on them. Whatever you think of of Voyage and its roughness, it's a very diverse ride, trying to do a whole lot of things over its long course. And few coasters even come close to the out-of-control feeling that Voyage creates. And that is exactly what I love in a great coaster. Nothing even comes close for me.

There are very few highly traveled enthusiasts who keep lap counts. I know of only one. I can barely be bothered to keep my track listing up to date, never mind keep track of how many times I ride each coaster. And I wouldn't want to count track, because I find that people who do so often spend more time worrying about counting rides than actually enjoying them! In fact, I still haven't updated my list since just before my big Scandinavia (etc) trip this Summer. And before that I finally updated my list for the first time in two years. I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't a coaster somewhere on my list that I didn't actually ride, because it was closed or broken down or moved, and I forgot about it! Updating the list after the China trip should be fun, especially if I end up adding all the side trips I'm considering (South Korea, Taiwan and Japan highlights.) The good news (or bad, depending on how you look at it) is that that trip will probably be the last one I ever take that gives me anything close to 100 credits. Unless I strike it rich and do some crazy credit whoring. So updating the list in the future should be much easier.

Unfortunately, a lot of hackers and the like are putting viruses and worms in ads that attempt to install themselves onto your computer via flash or java or other systems. It's mainly a problem on pirate sites, but just about no site or ad server is immune these days. If you haven't already done so, be sure to ALWAYS have a virus scanner and a malware program running when you're on the net -- and to not forget to regularly update them (if you don't have them set to automatically do so.) You can find most anti-virus software for cheap or free after rebates if you search around. Everyone has a different favorite anti-virus program, and most of them work well these days. For malware detection, the one most experts agree is the best is Malwarebytes, which has a free scanner. The Pro version which regularly watches and blocks websites is often on sale and includes lifetime updates. Both versions have found and cleaned several problems on my system that no other scanner found. And be smart when you're online. Also, pay attention to what you're doing online. If you get a popup asking you if you want to download or install something don't do so, unless you're absolutely sure that you trust it. Hackers often give use fake warnings to try to trick people into installing their malware!

When dealing with Hollywood and the tv and film industry, I think the thing to understand with television is that unfortunately, they most often worry about the bottom line: the dollar. If they don't think that shows will attract viewers and advertisers, they're not going to show it. I've honestly paid very little attention to Logo, mainly because very little that they show interests me. I do think that ideally they should show a diverse segment of our communities. I'm not sure what they've experimented with and what kind of ratings those shows have gotten, but understand that that will be their primary consideration. We can make the argument that they have a responsibility to show diversity -- and lord knows I've made that argument for decades to the media! -- but ultimately, their bottom line will be their bottom line. Mind you, that doesn't mean that we have to accept it or expect it. But, understand that change does take time. And it will always be a few brave individuals with vision who take risks and make change happen. Unfortunately, the current climate in the industry ironically stifles vision, rather than encouraging it. (What can we remake this week?) After all, this is an industry where things happen like the SciFi channel recently taking the SciFi out of their name to focus more on programming like wrestling! As such, they don't get any kind of loyalty from me as a science fiction viewer. But I'll still watch something if it's good, like the wonderful Being Human which is back in two weels! (Although the original British version is SO much better, as is usually the case.) If you'd have told me years ago that we'd be complaining that the gay network channel doesn't have enough bears, I'd have told you that you were crazy!

Having just read this thread from the beginning, most of the advice posted here is pretty good. As much as you'll want to visit Cedar Point, it doesn't really make sense to pair it with the northeast, unless you're stopping at lots of parks on the way. Besides, there are a ton of parks from Western PA through the midwest to pair up on a future trip that includes Cedar Point. For instance you could do something like Kennywood-Waldameer-Cedar Point-Kings Island-Holiday World. And if you have more time, you could extend that either west to Six Flags St Louis, Silver Dollar City, and/or Worlds of Fun. Or you could extend a Cedar Point trip northwest and hit parks like Michigan's Adventure, Indiana Beach, Six Flags Great America, the WIsconsin Dells parks, the newly rebuilt Zippin Pippin in Green Bay, WI, and/or even Valleyfair and the Mall of America/Nickelodeon Universe. There are tons of great parks near Cedar Point, so don't try to add it to an East Coast trip unless you have lots of time AND love long drives! Unless, of course, you can catch a cheap flight between cities.... (I managed to include parks in the UK, Scandinavia and Italy, plus a stop in Ibiza for some world class clubbing into one trip this year, thanks to Easyjet and low cost airlines!) Feel ok about skipping Cedar Point this time with the understanding that the next trip there will be better as a result, and this trip will be MUCH better without those ridiculously long drives! That said, a lot will depend on what kind of trips you like. If you're looking to spend most of your days at the parks, and do most of your driving later at night, then traffic will be much less of an issue for you -- although bad traffic can pop up at any time on trips! I did a similar trip in a strange pseudo-S-shape formation from Chicago through the midwest through PA and ending in VA last year, driving almost exclusively at night and didn't really run into any bad traffic. But I'm a night owl. And I'd also been to almost all of those parks, so missing the occasional ride wouldn't have been that bad of a thing. Your girlfriend might not appreciate such a trip and may be much LESS understanding if you try to put her through that! One nice thing about your timing is that most of the parks should not be too busy, since school may still be in in most areas. In fact, you might want to look into this, because schools in the northeast tend to stay open the latest, so it might make more sense to save the New England parks for near the end of the trip. Also, understand that going so early in the season may present you with some other challenges. Many parks will close much earlier than in the peak of the season. But they may also be significantly slower. The one down side of a slower day is that there may not be many people on some of the coasters, which means you'll be getting less than optimum rides. (There were almost no people on any of the woodies at Hersheypark or KIngs Dominion on my trip last year, but along with short lines, that also means very slow woodies!) But the most important thing you should look at is which parks you're going to be at one which days. And if possible, arrange for as many of your culture days on weekends as possible. You absolutely do not want to be at just about any Six Flags park, particularly SFGAdv, on a weekend, unless you love waiting in long lines. And if you can't arrange it any other way, know that all three Six Flags parks have some sort of Flashpass system, with both SFNE and SFGAdv having fairly expensive Q-Bots that are absolutely worth it on a busy day! Also, speaking of Culture days, while parking in DC might be easier on a weekday, are the museums and other sites you want to visits going to be open on the days you may be visiting? You might want to look into that before you're already further along the planning stages.

^ Let me echo all that you just said there. Growing up in the 70's and early 80's, I'd have killed to see a bitchy, queeny gay person on TV or in the movies. That would have been one more gay person than was on there at the time! By the time I was out in the late 80's, gays had started to be shown in the media, but primarily in the stereotypes of the time: gay male victims (of AIDS, bashing or suicide) and lesbian/bi female phycho killers. I came out with a vengeance, as a radical activist involved with Queer Nation (helping to found the Boston chapter), ACT UP and others. My first National Coming Out Day, I personally was on ABC, NBC, CBS and CNN NATIONAL news broadcasts, among ACT UP members demanding treatments for our friends with HIV/AIDS. I was on the front page of the Boston Herald in the 80's in an unprecedented photo of me kissing a man in a New England Press Association news photo of the year. I gave away the ending of Basic Instinct on a major Boston talk show hosted by Tom Bergeron, who's now huge for hosting Dancing with the Stars. What I remember most of that era was all the flack we got from the "good gays" who thought that we were taking things too far and being "too in-your face" and "too militant". People didn't understand that our motto/chant of "We're Here. We're queer. Get used to it!" wasn't a temper tantrum or a silly game; it was a recipe for political and social change. People didn't understand why we focused more on visibility and getting positive views of gays in the media than in politicians and laws. But we understood that politics always FOLLOWS social awareness, not the other way around. (And we worked with established groups on political issues when it would be effective, like in getting increased AIDS/HIV finding and in getting the gay civil rights bill passed in states like MA.) We focused on Hollywood and the media, shaming the bigots and closet cases (often one and the same) there to do more to promote positive images of gays in the media for the next generation of gay kids to have as role models in ways we'd never had, to aid in their own coming out process. People didn't understand why we were putting out an aggressive in-your-face stereotype out there, rather than relying on the sympathy of being seen as victims, not understanding that we were reacting to a nationwide wave of bashings that was partially because we were seen as victims that wouldn't fight back if you took your frustrations out on us or robbed us. Well, it all worked. In short, they GOT USED TO IT. The wave of bashings quickly ended. Hollywood gave in and started showing more positive images, pushed by closet cases shamed into doing the right thing and guilt-ridden liberals, with Ellen and Will and Grace opening up the floodgates. We're all over reality shows, thanks to the pioneering efforts of the openly gay producer of the original Real World and Road Rules reality shows on MTV, followed by Survivor, Amazing Race, the original Big Brother in the UK, Queer Eye and so many others. We got a wave of gay rights laws passed nationwide, starting with MA. We stopped the utter decimation of the gay male community to AIDS by forcing the government to change the way it tests drugs and forcing the government and the drug companies to try new kinds of anti-HIV drugs, which actually WORKED (saving millions of lives in the process!) While growing up gay is still tough, it's miles easier than it was when I was a kid. There are support groups and internet forums and gay/straight alliances down to middle school (unlike just in select colleges in the 80's). There's the Trevor Project and It Gets Better, and most gay kids know other gay kids, either personally, or at least on tv or the net. Almost everyone in the country knows at least one gay person, and many are friends or family with us. Hell, we even have discussions like this on internet forums like this. You don't have to go to parks where you might get killed to get laid when you can just go on your phone or computer and log on to Manhunt or Grindr. And all of this is paying off both socially and politically. When I was getting arrested in 1987 at the MA state house trying to get a law passed that simply made it illegal to fire someone for being gay, we could have never imagined that just 20 years later, we'd be demanding -- and WINNING -- gay marriage here! Or that at this point, gay marriage nationwide -- and in much of the world (well, at least the Americas and Europe) -- seems pretty inevitable, even if it will take time. Think about this. When I was in high school, the idea of saying that you shouldn't be able to fire someone for being gay was pretty controversial. Now, only 25 years later, the majority of Americans actually supports making gay marriage legal. Only two states had gay rights laws then. Now gay MARRIAGE is legal in ten countries and six US states (plus DC and Mexico City)! That's unprecedented national social change for such a short period of time. So, yeah, I'm ok with a bunch of bitchy queens on Logo! Not that I actually watch it. But I'm glad it's there.

I've never understood why Shockwave fares so badly on Mitch's poll. It's just outside the top 100, which I think is a shame, since it's a much better coaster to me than that. Not a top 10 or anything, but a definite top 40. And I think it's also better than Mindbender, which ranks way higher at 53. Those of you who are Shockwave fans, be sure to vote this year when the steel poll opens! I know that a lot of old school enthusiasts prefer SFoG overall, which helps Mindbender a lot. But what do people out here think about the two? Ironically, NTag hurt my enjoyment of Shockwave on my return visit tot he park this year. I was there for the ACE Con, and we'd had hours of ERT on NTag the night before. So, my thighs were still VERY sore the next morning for rides on Shockwave. I was actually dreading the moments of ejector airtime on it, since they caused me quite a bit of pain on my still sore thighs! But it was way more NTag's fault than Shockwave's. The only problem was that the ride was strangely inconsistent. On one ride we'd get ejector airtime. Then on the next time, we'd get a few little pops. And it didn't seem to be related to which train we were on or how full the ride was. Still, even it's mediocre rides were far better than most other coasters' best rides. Is this normal for the coaster?

I joke that I'm a coaster Bulemic. Basically, I binge and purge. I do almost all of my coastering in big trips, with very little coastering otherwise. That's mostly due to a combination of factors including living in a big city, having no car, having friends who go to parks on weekends, and working in a restaurant on weekends (when the money is too good to give up for just the local parks.) Two years ago, I only rode one coaster in the US! So, my first trip this year was to Texas in June for ACE Con and related activities: Six Flags Over Texas Six Flags Hurricane Harbor Sandy Lake Park Schlitterbahn Six Flags Fiesta Texas SeaWorld San Antonio Space Center Houston (kind of like an amusement park!) Gay Pride Houston (even more like an amusement park!) Kemah Boardwalk Schlitterbahn Galveston Island Then, but 9 days later, I headed to Europe for the ACE Scandinavia Soujourn, plus side trips beforehand in the UK and in Italy and Montreal (yes, Montreal!) afterwards: Thorpe Park Legoland Windsor Alton Towers Various tourist traps owned by Merlin Parks (Madame Tousauds, The London Eye, The London Dungeons, Sea Life Aquarium), thanks to the MErlin Pass, plus the Doctor Who Exhibition, which is like a theme park! Linnanmaeki Powerland Särkänniemi Gröna Lund TusenFryd Liseberg Fårup Sommerland Djurs Sommerland Tivoli Friheden BonBon-Land Bakken Tivoli Gardens Mirabilandia Can I count Gardaland, if I bought and paid for a ticket online, but overslept and missed my train and had to skip it? Ibiza (trust me: Ibiza is wilder than any amusement park, especially if I'm there!) La Ronde Then I did a weekend in NYC for the Electric Zoo electronic dance music festival. I left early the first night to head to see Cirque du Soleil (with a quick stop at Victorian Gardens beforehand for a credit!), then to Coney Island. On Labor Day, I headed out to SFGAdv, for an especially dead day, with LOTS of riding!: Victorian Gardens Luna Park (Does walking through Deno's count?) Scream Zone (sort of part of Luna Park) (RCDB lists Astroland as operating the Cyclone, but the Cyclone is now part of Luna Park, isn't it?) Six Flags Great Adventure. So, all 30 (or more, depending on how your count them) of those parks are in three spurts, with no other coasters all year. I never even got to ride the new Wooden Warrior, even though I'm a a HUGE Gravity Group nerd, and it's around 2 hours from my house. (That happens when you don't own a car!) Speaking of which, I managed to get to all of these parks without owning a car, and only renting one in Texas this year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-rJUwBiJ9c Robb, Miguel Brown's original version of that song is so much better than Me & My's knockoff nearly two decades later. But any chance to show a video with hot guys semi-naked is always a good thing! (And you know that was from Europe, since it shows a naked ass.) Although Me & My did have a ridiculously catchy (and stupid) song in the 90's called Dub I Dub, which came out like 5 years before this remake. Both songs were used in various DDR games, which helped their popularity.

I could've written that myself. I don't generally downgrade rides based on roughness. Most of my low rankings are for rides that did little or nothing for me. Honestly, the Coney Cyclone is a GREAT coaster. But it needs constant maintenance, which is doesn't alway get. And it will always be a rough and tumble ride, even at its best, but that's what it's designed to be. And a lot of people don't like rough and tumble coasters. But it's what I love in a great coaster. But the roughness can vary from very worth it because it's also so very GOOD rough to barely rideable rough. I don't think I've ever ridden it without it moving up or down in my rankings by at least 5 points from year to year! This year, for instance, it moves down a relative 9 spots (not counting new coasters added since last year). It's been everywhere from top 5 to 20-ish in my rankings over the years. As for downgrading rides due to the poor maintenance kind of roughness, I definitely do, but not nearly as much as many folks do. I can certainly tolerate more roughness than most in an otherwise good coaster. But poor maintenance will affect my enjoyment of a coaster, sometimes only slightly and sometimes more so. There are probably 50+ rides on my list that would rank 10-30 spots higher if they got better maintenance. But none that would go from top 40 to the very bottom of my rankings. In fact, there's nothing actually in my bottom 20 woodies that I'd consider terribly rough. The bottom 20 are mainly boring coasters and kiddie coasters. Speaking of roughness, all the hate for Coaster Express makes me feel less bad about it not being open during my visit in 2009! Still, it would have been nice to judge for myself, even if my spine is grateful for the break it got! (Or should I say the potential break it didn't get?)

Sounds like you remember it perfectly! That's Balder in a nutshell!

Just sent mine in. It's always interesting to see what other people like and don't. For instance, Vuurvogel ranking Jupiter as is #1, when it ranked in the bottom 20 last year. But that just goes to show you that all in all, the polls only show what many others think. Everyone has their own tastes. And none of us are really wrong. Although I'm obviously more right than the rest of you! My top 10: 1. The Voyage Holiday World 2. Tremors Silverwood 3. Aska (S) Nara Dreamland 3.5. (My Favorite Steel: Montu) 4. El Toro SFGAd 5. Rampage Alabama Adventure 6. The Legend Holiday World 7. Twister Grona Lund 8. Shivering Timbers Michigan's Adventure 9. Ravine Flyer II Waldameer 10. Tonnerre de Zeus Parc Asterix It should be noted that I haven't ridden several of these (2, 3, 8, 10) in the past three years, so these rankings may not reflect current operating conditions. And Legend probably should rank slightly lower, based on my last rides on it, but it fluctuates over the years, depending on maintenance, which I took into account. (It's been as high as #3 on my list in the past.) My bottom rankings aren't generally there for roughness, but for being boring. I can tolerate roughness in an interesting ride, but not a ride that's boring. And why has MItch added Turolean Tubtwist to the rankings? It's powered! I guess technically it's wooden-tracked, if you count the side rails as the tracks. It sits in a concrete trough. The steel poll only lists one generic "favorite powered coaster" on the ballot. One suggestion for a correction I made to Mitch was to change the park for the Coney Cyclone to Luna Park, since Astroland was forced out of business. And I'll add my name to the chorus of those strongly recommending that everyone vote, whether you have 2 or 200 woodies to rank. The nice thing about this poll is that you'll only affect the rankings of those coasters you've actually ridden, and your opinion on those is just as valid as anyone's. And you can't complain about the results if you don't participate. (Well, you can, but then you're a hypocrite!)

I think the thing with Speed was that there weren't many directional changes. That's what usually causes the headbanging. There was pretty much just one turn, if I'm recalling correctly. So, there were fewer chances to bang your head. All of the other Premier rides, particularly the spaghetti bowls had tons of directional changes -- and tons of chances to bang your head around!

Remember, folks, even if you don't like water rides, and/or even if it's not open in time for the TPR Italy tour, Mirabilandia is an amazing park. And it's the only park in the world with TWO top 10 coasters. So, if Divertical is open and you like that kind of coaster/ride, then it's an extra bonus. Even if Divertical isn't be the reason to go to Mirabilandia, Katun and iSpeed are!

It's a shame that Busch has allowed Gwazi to fall into such disrepair. When it was new, it was quite good. The two tracks debuted on Mitch's poll at 30 and 32, but have since fallen below 100. (They actually jumped up slightly this year, and that was before the new trains.) Sure, there have been many new coasters since then, but that only accounts for about 25 of those notches they lost. So, they've still dropped a relative 50 notches. But I also bet it ranks higher than it probably should because of people like me who haven't ridden it in the past 5 years or so and still rank it based on our older rides. I wonder if Fun Spot even knew about the Dania Beach Hurricane when they were planning this. Or if it was even closed at the time they were planning this. Even if they didn't, it's probably too late to change plans now, since they've probably already contracted with GCI, who has probably already done preliminary plans for it. But even if they knew about the Hurricane, I wonder if it would fit in the small space they have. If the new coaster is going where we think it is, it doesn't look like it will actually take up much space, thanks to the L-shape design hugging the sides and corner of the land. Ah, the things we learned from RCT! Well, this is one more reason to try to get back to Orlando in the next few years, after a long hiatus away.

As of July, they had the Q-Bots available at Legoland, but used tickets at Thorpe and Alton Towers. The advantage for those parks of using the ticket system is that they can sell tickets for individual rides or groups of rides for much less than the total cost of a Q-Bot. Since my visit to Thorpe was short (I hit both Thorpe and Legoland in one day!), I didn't get the all day pass, but did make use of the ones for Stealth and the Saw package (the coaster and walkthrough). At Alton, I'd planned to get the tickets if I needed them, but thanks to good planning (and the park's early entry for passholders, internet ticket holders and hotel guests), I did well enough that I didn't need them. But since the Q-Bot was cheap at Legoland (and even cheaper with a passholder discount), I did make use of it there, despite not having much time there to use it. It enabled me to ride everything I wanted to in a very limited time.

The back seat of the Georgia Cyclone. (When it was rideable, and much less rough than it is today.) I had the lapbar up relatively high and the seatbelt fairly loose. The first couple of drops scared me. But what scared me most was knowing the CRAZY drop was coming up. I actually tried to lower the lapbar mid-ride -- something I've NEVER done before! Both rides on the Kissimme Skycoaster. And both SCAD tower rides I've had. If you check out Robb's video from IAAPA that year (I forget which volume that was - maybe the same video as the wedding?), I'm the one saying that I was pretty horrified! Several rides on some of the most head-banging machines (like the Premier launched coasters before the lapbars) made me feel like I'd died! If they get those restraints on Goliath at SFNE, I won't be in any hurry to get on it! And I fully expect several more on the China trip!

What I found most funny about these latest developments is the completely different tones of the Cedar Fair press release and the article in the San Jose Mercury News. The Cedar Fair press release basically says that the buyer didn't want it, so we're stuck with it. But since the 49ers decided to build a parking garage that both their game goers and our park goers can use, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. The Mercury News article doesn't even mention that the buyers had chosen not to buy it and actually states that Cedar Fair backed out of the deal (which their own press release specifically does NOT say!) They also make it seem like Cedar Fair is much more excited about keeping the park than their own press release makes it seem. Basically, it seems that they've been ambivalent about the park for a while. The main problem has always been the uncertainty of the park's future because of the 49ers. It's pretty clear that they didn't think that the park had one. Hence them slowly removing rides and not adding new ones. They clearly were trying to unload the park for a while now, since they couldn't do anything with it, hoping that some other sap would get stuck with the park when it was forced to shut down by the city and the 49ers. But with the 49ers parking situation taken care of and with the only real potential buyer backing out, they're stuck with it now. But now that they know it won't be shut down at any time, they can actually invest in the park and maybe even benefit from being close to the stadium, and all of the other businesses that will likely be built in the area. So, while this probably wasn't what Cedar Fair expected for an outcome, they can certainly live with it. Especially when a very likely alternative would have been for them to have to keep the park and then close it down.

I'll absolutely confirm this. The Georgia Cyclone was easily a top 10 woodie. Especially in the back seats! It's the only time in my life I've tried to pull a lapbar further down during a ride! And Tremors was even better! Neither coaster was ever smooth or gentle. But that's just because they're crazy rides. SImilar to the way in which New Texas Giant isn't smooth, but it's not rough. None of these are rides for the timid! But there seems to be a big misunderstanding in here that the Rocky Mountain treatment is necessary to make older coasters rideable. And that's 100% not true. There are only two things needed to make virtually any wooden coaster rideable and keep it that way: 1) Regular maintenance, including replacing sections of wood regularly. 2) The money to pay for it. It's really that simple. The problem is that parks are tight for cash, and spending money for an old woodie is usually one of the first things they cut out of the budget. But it's definitely a case of penny wise pound foolish. Think about it this way. Wood is a natural substance. It breathes and gives. And it's sitting outside in all sorts of weather conditions. Now take several TONS of train filled with several more TONS of people and send it over that wood several hundred times per day -- that's tens of thousands of times per operating season! Is it any wonder the wood gets warped? (As a side note, this is why parks often run only one train when it's not so busy, frustrating many of us who have to wait longer in line.) I have a wooden plank under one side of my biggest fish tank because the floor isn't level. After only a few months, it started to warp from the weight on it. And that's not even half a ton of water. And it's just sitting there, not moving over it at 60 mph over it tens of thousands of times per season! In the rain and snow and heat and cold and sometimes flooding. All it takes to fix most wooden coasters (assuming they're designed well) is to regularly maintain the wood all season, walking the tracks and fixing problems as they arise, and doing major refurbishments in the off-season. But that costs money. And it certainly doesn't help when the coasters are built with cheaper wood and other materials. As much as I love CCI's coasters, they had a bad business strategy. They sold their coasters for far cheaper than the equivalent GCI coasters to undercut their price and get more business. They cut costs by using cheaper wood and materials. Parks soon discovered that their cheaper up-front investments came with much greater maintenance costs down the line. But even the best built woodies still need regular investments and maintenance over time, for all of the reasons above. It remains to be seen how much this is true for the Intamin pre-fab woodies. Park have been altering woodies for years now to try to keep maintenance costs down, reprofiling some of the best parts of rides to reduce stress on the coaster, adding trim brakes all over the place, and now adding the topper track. At least this method doesn't actually tame the ride, unlike the others. But it should be understood that in almost all cases, none of this would actually be necessary if the parks would invest in the maintenance that is necessary with a wood coaster.

My guess is that they'll use most of the space for an expansion of Harry Potter stuff in IOA. Aren't those spaces relatively adjacent? They've been saying that they're going to expand that area, but there aren't many other options, besides losing what's left of Lost Continent or cutting further into Jurassic Park. The best thing about expanding the whole area is that it will be easier to get into the whole land if they have a greater capacity. So, if you want to get back there to ride the Dragons while everyone else is waiting for the newer rides, it will be easier. Maybe they'll also put something smaller in Universal Studios itself to partially make up for the loss. Jaws was always a fun ride, but it's a really old ride based on a really old movie that few kids today have seen, so it makes sense that they'd want to get rid of it, even if the rest of us don't agree. Especially if the space can be better used for something more modern and current to bring and keep the crowds these days. Is this the last of the original rides at the park to close? Or was ET there at opening?