David H

Honestly, there aren't many first drops on woodies that really impress me all that much these days. If we were going with past coasters, or versions of coasters, I'd probably go with the original first drop combo on the Riverside Cyclone, before they reprofiled the hell out of it. That thing was INSANE. The sad part is that they left the track there, so you get to look at the track that you can no longer ride! (I've heard that it's part of the support structure of the ride, so they can't remove it well, though I'm not sure if that's true.) If we were going to count a coaster at its very best with proper maintenance, then the Coney Cyclone's first drop is definitely a contender. Or maybe even Timbers in its heyday. But for currently running coasters that are actually currently running at their best, El Toro might just take the prize. I can't think of anything offhand that would beat it, although I haven't given it too much thought.

It will be interesting to see if the Harry Potter franchise remains popular for years and decades now that both the books and the movies ore completed, with no more forthcoming. All signs point to it becoming a children's classic (and one for many adults, too), with longevity. but in today's world, where people have such short attention spans and desires for NEW entertainment, it will be interesting to see if they remain as huge as they are now, or at least still huge. I'd imagine that Warner's decision to stop selling the DVD's and Blu-Rays at the end of the year will NOT help it's longevity. While it will obviously spur sales now, it may hurt its long term longevity, as the next generation of kids growing up has less access to the movies. That said, Harry Potter is HUGE overseas, even bigger in Europe than it is in the US. I was in Finland when the last one came out, and there were posters for it everywhere. They didn't even have to put the name of the movie, franchise or character. The posters merely said HP7 part 2. And everyone know what that was. Look on boxofficemojo, and you'll see that unlike many successful movie franchises, all eight of the movies made more than 2/3 of their box office total overseas. The finale made nearly a billion dollars outside of the US. Compare that to many of the other biggest blockbusters in the US, such as most super-hero movies, DIsney/Pixar movies and the Star Wars movies, almost all of which routinely take in only 40-60% of their total gross overseas. Of course, building further Harry Potter parks or sections of parks would probably be most successful ASAP. After all, why not strike while the iron is hot? That could only further build the franchise, encouraging more visitors in the future and return visitors. But no matter when they build them, I'm sure they'll be wildly successful. The only real question is HOW wildly successful.

It's called Natural Selection. The way life should be run. And I would much rather be the center of attention at Seaworld than be out in the open waters trying to survive. --James Considering how much damage we've done to the planet in so short a time, you may come to regret those first words if you manage to live a long lifetime. And perhaps YOU would choose to live in captivity (and yet, you haven't), but is that OUR choice to make for the orcas and dolphins? After all, when humans hunt them, they DO try to escape. So, they have made their choice, even if they don't fully understand the options. And I do specify orcas and dolphins, because I do recognize the difference between the more intelligent animals (those, apes, chimps and maybe a very few others) and those who aren't so intelligent. Again, I'm not talking here as some sort of expert, or some kind of higher morality. I'm actively asking these questions of myself, as well as the community.

^ So do people in jail. (Well, sometimes, they do run afoul of predators, but it's not for meat....) And if you were 5-10 tons and your home is the Atlantic Ocean, I doubt you'd call a small tank at Sea World, huge or luxurious. Would you choose to spend the rest of your life eating free food in a jail cell, if you couldn't get out?

Am I the only one here who actually has given any thought to PETA's point here? Sure, PETA always takes their views to the extreme, and cases like this are obviously designed to get free publicity. And I don't agree with at least half, if not much more, of what they do and say. But are they automatically wrong, just because they're fanatics? And, as fanatics who take their issues to the extreme, they invite ridicule, as seen in this thread. But do they ever actually have a valid point, among all of their theatrics? No, obviously, orcas aren't the same as human beings. But if they are actually as intelligent and aware as at least a young human child -- and evidence is pointing to that being the case -- do we actually have the right to capture them, keep them in small tanks and then force them to do tricks for our amusement and the parks' profit? I'm hardly an animal rights activist. I eat meat and love steak. I work in a seafood restaurant and feed dozens of dead animals to people each day. I have a ton of fish as pets in my house. (Yes, those two last statements coexist in an interesting irony.) I enjoy zoos and aquariums and marine life parks. And yes, I watch the orca and dolphin shows and the rest. But I also sometimes ask myself if what we do and if what *I* do is actually right. And despite my always enjoying Sea World parks (I visited the San Antonio park this year, and for many years had a season pass to the Orlando park, despite living in Boston), I do ask sometimes myself if everything they're doing is right. The regular fish exhibits are obviously fine. Trust me on this one. As a fish owner, I can tell you that fish are stupid as hell! But dolphins and orcas are not. I mean it's one thing when parks like Sea World rescue injured manatees and house them and take care of them. That's obviously a good thing. And there's no questioning that zoos, aquariums and marine life parks bring attention to and respect for wildlife. But did that intelligent dolphin who was captured from its home and taken away with dozens of its family and others, many of whom died from fright and their poor conditions in captivity, agree to be an ambassador for the animal kingdom? And while Sea World parks (unlike many marine parks in other countries, especially in Asia) don't torture the animals to make them do tricks, should intelligent animals actually have to literally jump through hoops to get fed? But at the same time, I admit that I enjoy watching those shows. And by doing so, I'm contributing (both financially and with my presence) to the treatment of those animals. And I try to assuage my mixed feelings of potential guilt by buying a few dead fish and feeding them to the dolphins and sea lions. It's probably a big part of why I overfeed my own fish, too, convincing myself that my fish (and the sea lions and dolphins) are better off and happier because of my presence. Do people out here actually think that it's wrong to sometimes ask ourselves these questions? Do we, as human beings, automatically have the right to do anything to any animal on the planet -- no matter how intelligent? Or should there be some limits? And if so, how do we define those limits, if not by asking these kinds of questions in public forums? Or is this kind of discussion unwanted, in favor of funny, snarky comments?

If it's even remotely as good as the original park or even half as good as the one in Galveston, then this is great news for water park fans and residents of the area. And no one does better enthusiast events than the Schlitterbahn company!

I got hailed on during a freak patch of hail (in the middle of the summer!) while riding a small coaster in Skegness, UK quite a few years ago. It was far from the best coaster experience of my life, but it was bizarre. If Robb, Elissa, Jeff and company had been a bit earlier, they could have gotten hailed on on a coaster too, but they showed up an hour or two later.

Not sure if you still need posts here, but just in case you do, I see it.

I'm with you, Laura. I enjoy all forms of airtime, but absolutely prefer extreme, ejector airtime. In fact, I tend to prefer more extreme forces on coasters in general. But for some reason, when I'm stapled in, ejector airtime hurts my thighs a lot more than it does when I have room to move. It seems counter-intuitive, since you'd think that being slammed into a lapbar would hurt more. But For some reason, I don't fully understand, it always hurts more when I don't have room to move. Perhaps it's something to do with the ride trying too hard to push me in that direction, but the restraint not letting me go, so the force goes into crushing me against the bar, rather than just stopping me when I hit it when the bar is looser? As for the question of the thread, I guess the answer will very much depend on how you define "best airtime". Are we talking about the most extreme moment of airtime? Do you prefer floater or ejector? Are we talking about one long floater (or ejector) or lots of pops of it? The most moments of air on one coaster, no matter how forceful? Each of us has our preferences, which will cause us to define "best airtime" differently. For best single moment of extreme ejector airtime, there are a handful of contenders for me, in no particular order: -- Kennywood's Jack Rabbit double down -- Expedition GeForce's twisting first drop -- Hypersonic and Dodonpa, in the obvious places -- Cyclops' last drop -- Raven's 4th (or is it fifth?) drop, before they somewhat tamed it down -- El Toro's mid-course airtime hill, as the whole ride goes into overdrive -- about 2/3 of the hills on New Texas Giant As for airtime machines that give a ton of airtime all over the ride, though most of it is floater air: -- Balder -- Phoenix (though a lot of those drops are close to -- but not quite -- ejector when Phoenix is running at its best) -- several of the B&M hypers For coasters that give a great mix of more sustained moments of ejector airtime, plus a lot of pops of air as well: -- Tremors -- Boulder Dash -- Superman ROS at SFA and Ride of Steel at Darien Lake -- Magnum XL-200 (especially in row 3) -- Coney Cyclone when it's been maintained well -- Aska (SBNO -- sob!) -- Rampage -- Megafobia -- Expedition GeForce -- Playland/PNE's Coaster For coasters that give sustained ejector airtime all over the course: -- Shivering Timbers (the first highly acclaimed airtime machine of the internet era) -- El Toro (though there aren't as many spots of airtime as on others on this list, but they're all pretty ejector) -- SFNE's Bizarro, the fairly indisputed steel airtime king, until NTaG came alone -- Voyage, although it's doesn't have any signature moment of air and is always doing so much else that you don't always notice the air. But if you actually measured the amount of air across the ride (in seconds, numbers of moments, and in numbers of G's), I'm pretty sure it would beat any other woodie out there. But for the most extreme non-stop airtime machine of hill after hill of extreme ejector air, any one hill of which could make the first category on its own, nothing can compare to New Texas Giant. After 2 hours of ERT on it in June, my thighs were sore for literally days afterwards! Luckily for the park, few riders get that many rides in one day, or they might have a lot of complaints on their hands. In many ways, New Texas Giant is a lot like Voyage in that I doubt that they'll ever build anything that extreme again. Enjoy it while you can! I wouldn't be at all surprised to see it braked or reprofiled in the future, though I'd certainly be disappointed!

It was discussed for Stealth to be a Mission Impossible theme. As a matter of fact "Stealth" was the name given to the project while negotiating was done to get the license. Tom Cruise is a major partner in that franchise and he is the one that killed the deal not Paramount. So it WAS Cruise all along... what a party-pooper. An M:I theme would have been SO GOOD for that attraction. I blame Scientology. ALL HAIL XENU!!!!!! Maybe they should have inserted Xenu into the Mission Impossible theming somehow to get it approved? What's amazing to me is how much the Scientologists still deny Xenu and all of the sci-fi stuff that scientology is based on.

So, with a new train AND a new location, who's gonna be the first credit whore to count it twice? Not me! (And, no I didn't count Flashback again either after riding it at SFKK.)

I'm gay. Anyone who's seen Robb's early (pre-TPR) videos, when I was always the token funny gay guy at the beginning of the credits knows this. For those who are wondering why there are so many gays on TPR or in coaster enthusiasm in general, I think it's that way for many hobbies and online groups. And there are a lot of reasons for this. I've been involved with online fandom and some in person clubs over the years for various things (coasters, Doctor Who, comics, etc.) And there always seem to be more gays involved than there are in the general population. I think that there are several factors for this. And it absolutely seems to be more true for gay men than for women, for some reason. Note that everything I'm saying here is overly generalized and obviously doens't apply to everyone. And, as things have gotten better over the years, it probably applies a lot less to the younger generations than it does to us older farts! First off, I find that the people who get heavily involved with most hobbies -- especially online -- tend to be a lot more tolerant than the population at large. That tends to make gay people want to become more involved, because we can be ourselves with less fear. Look at this board and club as a great example. Gay people can be themselves without taking much crap. People also tend to be less racist, anti-semitic, etc. And if some people here are bigoted, they tend to keep it to themselves. That's certainly going to be appealing to a closeted kid from a small town, who doesn't know other gay people! Or anyone, actually! And certainly Robb and Elissa have created and maintain TPR that way. So, you'll find a lot more people wanting to spend more time here than in their real lives. But more importantly, I think that gay people tend to throw themselves into their hobbies a lot more. I know I sure do. I don't just watch Doctor Who, I have ALL of the books, and the DVD's, and the audios, etc. I used to not just read comics, but I had tens of thousands of them and read news about them online a lot. (I've since kind of dropped out of that hobby, as others have taken precedence.) I got a fish tank a few years ago, and now have nearly 200 fish in 6 tanks, going to a monthly meeting at the local Aquarium of other people who raise fish, and occasionally getting rare fish shipped to me. i used to not just follow radical politics, but I organized demonstrations and got arrested nine times, and still get involved from time to time, and always read about politics online. I don't just love dance music, but I go clubbing at least once a week (at 43 years old!), I'll go to NYC to see a favorite DJ or go to a dance festival, and I've taken time off from coaster trips to hit the local clubs and visit the clubbing island of Ibiza, Spain. It's safe to say that I throw myself into my hobbies! Coastering is the same. My count may not be as high as Robb's Elissa's or Richard's, but it's a pretty respectable 861. I think there are a lot of factors for that, many of which are becoming less common as society becomes more open. For one thing, American society's biggest hobby is sports, and a lot of us aren't into sports. Most straight men in society tend to channel most of their hobby energy towards sports. And more and more straight women are starting to. Fewer gay guys do. So we're more likely to jump into what other things we're interested in. For another thing, we're less likely to be raising a family. That takes up enormous amounts of time, energy, money and other resources. If you're not raising a family, it's certainly easier to spend hours online talking about coasters. And it's a hell of a lot easier to take a few big, expensive coaster trips each year! Most of the families that I know in this hobby spend a lot less time online talking coasters and maybe take one big coaster trip per year, if that. The same goes for other hobbies, like going to comic or sci-fi conventions. Sure, all of this is changing, slowly. Certainly, there are plenty of gay sports fans, and plenty of gay couples raising kids. But, overall, they're still a small, but growing percentage. Maybe there's something about coastering that brings out more gays into this hobby and this board. And we should remember that the poll at the beginning of this thread is not a random sampling -- I imagine that gays are more likely to read this thread and participate in the poll. As such, it's probably not a totally accurate representation of the group as a whole, though it shows trends. But I think it's more a factor of all the things I talked about above that brings so man of us into the hobby and onto TPR.

I got really lucky on my quick visit this year. And by quick, I mean just over an hour, although that wasn't the intention. I planned a nice layover in Montreal on the way back from Europe at the end of July. I should have gotten there early in the afternoon, had most of the day to spend at La Ronde, and still had time for dinner and some clubbing before heading home to Boston the next morning for work. But then Air Canada canceled the only direct flight to Montreal that day (and rebooked me for a flight the next day that would have actually arrived an hour AFTER my connecting flight home!) So, I had to decide whether it was still worth it to stop in Montreal, if I was going to lose about 4 hours, since I'd have to connect in Toronto (flying right over Montreal on the way!) But once I have something in my head, I make it happen, so I stuck with it. That was gonna leave me like 2-3 hours tops for La Ronde. But luckily, I'd already been there several times, and Goliath was my main reason for going. Then of course, my flight was late, AND I JUST missed the bus from the airport AND the subway AND the bus to La Ronde from my hotel -- all of them by a minute or two! The good news was that I was able to check my suitcase at the airport, so I could make do with a backpack and not have to lug the suitcase around the city! The bad news was that I only ended up with around 80 minutes at La Ronde. All I could hope was that they were dead and that I might be able to get 2-3 rides on Goliath for my troubles. Luckily, the park was DEAD. And by dead, I mean maybe a 1-2 train wait tops for Goliath. 10-15 minutes for Le Monstre, but only because they were only running one train on one side -- and loading it slowly, at that. Even with only only 80 minutes at the park, I still managed around 6 rides on Goliath (and that's with having to walk all the way around every time, even when the station was empty!) and a ride on Le Monster. And that was on a Friday at the end of July! If I'd gotten there maybe 2 hours earlier, I could have most likely ridden all the coasters in the park!

Well, it's at Cedar Point, which automatically gives it a huge advantage in this poll, as you can see from the rest of the results, for reasons I've already stated several times, as have others. That said, I personally rank Magnum at #33 higher than three of those 5 (all, but the Rides of Steel.) And not just because it's at Cedar Point. And I rank Raptor and Maverick higher, but only because I feel that they deserve it. LOL! And agreed. Exactly. Anything at CP has an automatic advantage in a popularity poll just by the fact that just about everyone on the panel has eben there, unlike just about any other park. Plus, like a handful of other parks (Holiday World, Knoebels, Kennywood and Schlitterbahn), they're particularly beloved among enthusiasts, particularly the old-school enthusiasts who make up a large percentage of this panel. Not only are they more likely to have been to those parks to ride their rides and events, but they're already predisposed to liking anything there. See my above answer to the last quote. Kennywood and Knoebels could probably put up a Vekoma Boomerang, and a certain number of the people on the panel would probably vote for it! But the absence of Universal Hollywood's Horror Nights is a bit surprising. I'd imagine that many of the people who prefer a more high-tech halloween event are already voting for Orlando's Universal or Knott's. Personally, i think it's a great coaster, but nowhere near top 10. it's not even in my top 60. I'm a big fan of B&M's old-school forceful looping coasters, but none of their hyper coasters are forceful enough to be in even my top 50. Intamin has spoiled me with their hypers. Basically, AT invites people they know that are well-travelled. A lot of the panel comes from people who have been on the ACE overseas tours, as well as some of the ECC trips. Robb has mentioned here that he submits a list of people who have been on some of TPR's trips who he knows are well-travelled. Otherwise, anyone can e-mail Tim and ask to be on the panel. I know that they go out of their way to try to pick people who haven't just been to Cedar Point, Kings Island, Kennywood, etc. and their home parks. As to what they consider "well-travelled", I know that they want people who have been to other regions besides their own and the popular Ohio/Pennsylvania region. And they prefer people who have been abroad at least one time. Seriously? I mean, I find MF to be mostly forceless. But it's still a fun ride and my #71 steel. I'm happy to ride it when I'm at the park, though I'd never plan a trip there just for it, and I won't queue for over an hour for it. But Bizarro/New England?!? Not forceful? HUH! It killed someone from its literally ejector airtime! And it's precisely it's combination of ejector airtime, laterals and positive G's that puts it so high on my personal list, where I'm not a huge fan of hyper-coasters. You may not like it. Which is obviously your perogative. And it's not perfect. But you absolutely cannot truthfully say that it's not forceful!

I don't know enough about the business or the politics of the park to say what would be best for them. But I hope that the park can survive and even thrive. Rampage is one of my top 5 woodies, and all of the events I've been to at the park have been great. If the park survives next year, perhaps TPR could consider adding an Alabama Adventure day to make a weekend out of Deep South Bash, to give the park some needed attention? I'd bet that they could get some nice local media out of such an event. And it could help highlight a great woodie to other enthusiasts, too.

A bunch of random replies: As mentioned in this thread already, AT actively encourages people to vote based on what they've seen and heard from others. Which I think is kind of ridiculous, to be honest. That said, I imagine that actually very few people vote in this category, even though it's one of the most important to the parks (they love to tout their new ride as best of the year! Plus, it gives them a one-time chance to promote their new ride as voted as the best, even if isn't actually the best ride overall.) And given that the ballots are due in early August, it's unlikely that man of the people on the panel have been more than one or two of the new rides anyways. (Ironically, I haven't actually been on the closest one to my home at Quassy yet, but I've been on the new coasters in Texas and Sweden!) So, I'd never put to much stock into these two categories anyways, particularly the water park ride. You can pretty much assume that if Schlitterbahn or Holiday World adds a new ride, that it will win easily -- unless they both do in that year. Yeah, witch brings me to this comment. Millennium Force is not even half the ride New Texas Giant is. Why the hell is it #1. I don't think that there was ever any question about NTaG. The only ones questioning it were SFoT themselves. And I can bet you'll see them promoting its rankings on the STEEL coaster poll, even though they were claiming that it was a wooden coaster a few months ago. As to MF's popularity, it's because a hell of a lot of people love it. And it's at the absolute most popular amusement park in the world among coaster enthusiasts. It's probably been ridden by more people on their panel than almost any other coaster on the poll. And the ride is still tremendously popular, even among many well-travelled enthusiasts, but even more so among moderately traveled enthusiasts. I don't understand it either. I imagine that it's because it's very bog and very fast. That impresses a lot of people. Not me. Like I mentioned earlier, it's not even in my top 5 coasters AT CEDAR POINT! Personally, I think it is, even though it needs a ton of trackwork at this point. But I also have a lot more tolerance for rough rides if they're worth it than most people do. And even on Mitch's poll, they're pretty close at #19 and #12, respectively. But, also remember that Hades has been around a lot longer, so in a popularity poll, it will have a big advantage, since more people are likely to have ridden it. Plus a lot of people have only ridden it before it got rough. And were any of them notable? I didn't even hear about them. Did they add anything that's not been done dozens of times? I think so. It's my number one out of 163 woodies. And also my number one coaster overall out of 861. Apparently a lot of people agree with me , judging from the poll results. But a lot of people apparently disagree with me, too, as evidenced all over this forum, and with Mitch's awards. That's just one person's opinion. And certainly a lot of people agree with you. But most people who agree with you would name 5 different parks than you would. There is simply no other park in the world with the kind of consensus in this category than Cedar Point. It's unstoppable. A quick side note. I'm a waiter in a restaurant with a lot of tourist customers. I'll often ask where they're from and tell them that I've been there to ride coasters. If the conversation goes much further, they almost always ask me if I've been to Cedar Point. Whether they've been there or not. It's a legend, at least partly because it's mentioned on EVERY Travel Channel and Discovery Channel coaster special! Why? If the panel is most of the same people and if the parks remain equally friendly and clean, then why should it change? Huh? I don't even remember their kiddie area. What's so special about it? That said, they could give out gold ingots to everyone who walks in, and most enthusiasts would still never vote for that park for just about anything. It's seriously one of the most hated parks in the hobby, for a whole bunch of reasons, not the least of which is their clientele. Obviously, some voters are talking the term "Halloween EVENT" more literally. Obviously, this is because of the Phoenix Phall Phunfest, which is easily the second most attended enthusiast event year in and year out (behind only Cedar Point's Coaster Mania.) Personally, I think it's stretching the definition of Halloween event. And certainly, both Universal parks and Knott's do a WAY better Halloween event than Knoebels. LOL. Good point! It should be Children's PARK. You won't get any argument from me. Apparently, you WOULD get argument from a lot of others. Then again, I'd imagine that quite a few of those who voted for MF have never even been on Bizarro. but even then, both CP and MF have enough fanboys that it's not surprising that it wins now every year. Have you been there? Because none of those parks are even remotely in Grona Lund's ballpark. Not even close. Indiana Beach would be the best of those you mentioned, but Grona Lund has it beat by a mile in just about every category (Including both dark ride and haunted walkthrough!) The only thing it was missing was a great woodie, which they've rectified this year. Which I imagine had a lot to do with it's being chosen this year. And Twister is miles ahead of anything at Indiana Beach. Seriously, Grona Lund has a huge, rich history that they're VERY proud of. During the recent ACE trip, they treated us to a big slideshow presentation of that history, which includes visits by the Beatles, Louis Armstrong, the Who, ABBA, Jimi Hendrix and more in its nearly 130 years. As for packing coasters and rides into a small space, not even Blackpool Pleasure Beach can pack the coasters in like they did on that small corner of land with the AMAZINGLY compact (and amazingly intense for such a small ride!) Twister interacting with three other coasters and sitting over a dark ride, in the shadow of the nearby Insane coaster, two drop towers, a funhouse and a ton more. In just that small corner! Casino Pier? Funtown Pier? LOL! I've been to both and barely remember either of them. That's how memorable they were. Sorry. Says you. But not me. And not most of those in the AT panel. But apparently more of those who fill out Mitch's poll agree with you. But even then, of those who ranked both of them on Mitch's poll, it was still a pretty close 70-57 battle. not exactly a clear overwhelming victory. Others have pointed out that it did win ONCE. But it still did amazingly well, considering it's extreme disadvantage with 19% of the vote, compared to Dudley Do-Right's 26%. And when you consider that probably 1/3 to 1/2 of the people on the panel have ridden Valhalla, compared to probably 95%+ of those on the panel who've ridden Dudley, that's quite a feat. I'm a huge Dudley fan. It's one of my favorite rides anywhere and will ALWAYS put a smile on my face. It does so many things right. But I'll agree that Valhalla does even more things more right! One year, before they had nominees, I forgot about Valhalla and voted for Dudley. But every other year, I've voted for Valhalla. I actually believe that MF is the most popular coaster on the planet, at least among enthusiasts. (If we're talking about most popular coaster among the general population, then that's probably one of the SPace Mountains, just for sheer attendance and ridership!) I don't agree with it any more than you do. But you can't force others to agree with you! I305 is actually very polarizing. Some love it. Others hate it. Others are disappointed by it, for various reasons. Count me among the latter category, despite WANTING to love it. (It was actually the main reason I extended my Summer vacation last year to Virginia.) And the original restraints and the trim brakes haven't helped its cause. That said, it's also brand new, and a whole lot of people on the panel haven't even ridden it. So it's not getting ANY points from any of them. And probably 95% of those on the panel have ridden MF. Even if we take it as a given that EGF is the best steel coaster in the world among those who've ridden it (and Mitch poll says that that title actually belongs to Bizarro), there still aren't enough people on the poll who've ridden it for it to rank at #1. Again, probably something like only 1/3 to 1/2 of those on the poll have ever ridden it (if that many!) The fact that it makes it all the way up to #7 despite such a huge disadvantage is a testament to how great it is. Honestly, I've been to ALL of the other water parks in the top 5. And nothing comes even close to Schlitterbahn, in my mind. They're all great parks (including Hyland Hills Water World, which was on the ballot, but didn't make the top 5.) But Schlitterbahn is in a league of its own. The biggest thing that sets it apart is the tube chutes, which don't really exist in this form at any other non-Schlitterbahn park I've ever been to. They combine the best aspects of water park lazy rivers and regular park rapids rides in one amazing experience. Those well-themed Florida parks can't even hold a candle to Schlitterbahn, in my opinion. Honestly, Noah's Ark is probably the only park I've been to that comes close, or maybe Hyland Hills Water World. If you'd asked me a few years ago, I'd have said that Splashin' Safari wasn't even deserving of being in the top 5, but they're really added a whole ton of new stuff to the water park in the past few years, which finally enables them to fairly compete in this category and actually earn their spot. And it certainly helps that they put on THE single best enthusiast even in the industry, with nothing else even coming close. Who else gives you THREE hot meals (with REALLY good food, not just burgers and hot dogs!), morning, mid-day and evening ERT in three different sections of the park, a late night tube chute run, and even free booze at a beach party? And then tells you to come back any day of the weekend FOR FREE? And all of this for TEN DOLLARS -- which they then donate to a coaster preservation cause?!? I mean, even if there was any doubt that Schlitterbahn was the best water park in the world, this is gonna grab some attention. And I hear that their whole weekend Schlitter-Con is even better! And because of these events, and Holi-Wood Knights (and the various ACE conventions that have been there), Schlitterbahn and Holiday World are for many enthusiasts then ONLY water parks they'll ever go to. So, is it any wonder that they are the only parks to get more than 6% of the vote? While a lot of us here on TPR love water parks, a lot of old school enthusiasts HATE them. After ACE's convention this year, they held a "Tour of Texas that started at Schlitterbahn, before heading to San Antonio and Galveston. A lot of people who are not water park fans decided to give it a shot, mainly because a) it was only $10, and came with THREE meals and a ton of ERT b) it was on the way, and they didn't have anything else to do with that day anyways c) Jeffrey Siebert, the park's PR guy,. who organizes the event is a legend among enthusiasts, known for throwing the best events in the industry d) Schlitterbahn is widely considered the best water park in the world. So, if you're ever going to visit one, this is the one to visit. I heard a lot of people saying that they were wondering if Schlitterbahn would turn them into water park fans. Almost all of them later said that it did. That says something, when you're talking about people NOT predisposed to like water parks. And these are a lot of the people on the Golden Tickets panel. Well, I highly doubt that much more than 10% of the people who returned ballots even voted in that category. I certainly didn't. So, if 5-6% of them actually rode the Falls, then it would make cense that it won, since I doubt that any of the other rides were ridden by more than 2-3% of the people on the panel, and likely far fewer! Despite our history, I'm genuinely curious as to why you think it's crappy. And what indoor water parks you've been to that you think are better. I've got to say that I've been to very few indoor water parks, so I can't really fairly judge. And it did seem a bit sparse on actual slides, especially if you only count the indoor section. But even then, the wavy Torrent River is cool enough to give it a likely win for me, even if I'd been to many other indoor water parks. I love those things, and there are very few of them anywhere in the world, indoors or outdoors. But let's be honest here. Schlitterbahn Galveston's win here is a bit of a cheat. I'm sure most people are voting for it for the overall park, over 2/3 of which is outdoors. And when you consider that, it easily wins. Especially with the three connecting rivers, which creates a great overall experience. And again, it's Schlitterbahn. And they throw great enthusiast events. Run by Jeffrey Siebert, a legend among park PR people. That gives them a huge leg up on anyone else in the industry in any poll among enthusiasts. And again, how many other people on the poll have been to ANY other indoor water park? I'm pretty well travelled, and I haven't. Or maybe, perhaps it was because you were at the time in an ongoing online feud with the partner of the person who organizes the poll, attacking him and/or the organization they were officers for (not to mention a bunch of other club officers) on a daily basis? Do you think that might have had SOMETHING to do with him not going out of his way to invite you onto the panel for the prestigious poll he organizes? That said, did you even ask? Ever?

^ You've got a point here. But let's also remember that popularity polls often don't have much to do with actual quality. Sure, most popular things have SOME quality. But purists in any field would argue about the quality of most popular things. You know, the funny thing is that Magnum is the one coaster at Cedar Point that I agree with the poll on! Well, at least in the top 10. I put it at #33, but that's much higher than I put MF (71) or Dragster (59). MF doesn't even make my top 5 coasters AT CEDAR POINT list! ^^ Sorry, Larry, but despite the amount of thought and text I've given to the subject, my actual knowledge of the poll is about what yours is. They mentioned in the AT GTA supplement that they had added a bunch of new people, but didn't specify how many. I suspect that they don't want it known how many people take the poll because they dohn't want people to know how few people actually vote in some of the categories. That's obviously why all of the non-coaster categories are listed by percentage, rather than points or votes.

Thanks! those who know me (both online and offline) know that I'm never short of words! But since I was on your first major coaster trip (and to think, that was what, 1500+ coasters ago for you?), you already know this! But the thing that you're missing here is that these are also the most popular rides among enthusiats in the world. Like it or not, there's little in terms of organized coaster enthusiast groups outside of the US and the UK based ECC. Even when you looks at TPR, how many members do we actually have from each country, other than the UK? There are a handful of people from each country, for sure, but nothing compared to the literally tens of thousands of members from the US. I'm confident that if you took a similar poll here on TPR the results would actually be pretty similar to the results in the Golden Tickets, at least in terms of international coverage of coasters. In fact, I bet that the international coasters would actually fare worse because there are so many more enthusiasts her in the US who have never been abroad. Yes, TPR has had organized trips to Germany. And how many people went? 50? In terms of the overall hobby, that's only a tiny drop in the bucket. Certainly, I think that the results of a TPR poll would be different because it gets a different demographic of US coaster enthusiasts than I think is on the Golden Tickets panel. But of the 10,000 people who read TPR, how many have actually ridden Nemesis or Balder or Expedition GeForce. I think that you'll find that it's a TINY percentage. Probably less so with Nemesis, but it still ranked #12 on the Golden Tickets, which is pretty damn good. And Expedition GeForce, generally considered the best coaster in Europe, ranked at #6. I'd be wiling to bet that less than 5% (and probably less than 2%) of those who read TPR have ridden EGF. There are lots of people around the world who love coasters. But there aren't actually that many who actually love them enough to sit online and rank them and more importantly to take lots of vacations revolving around coasters. Outside of the US and the ECC in Europe, it's pretty unheard of. I mean, Mexico may have a tiny coaster group, but have they ever actually hosted an event at any park? What about Japan? They have tons of coasters, but when ACE and the ECC contacted them about our first trip there, the parks had no idea what they were talking about when they talked about a coaster group organizing a tour there. (They're more used to the idea now, with the ECC and TPR having organized multiple trips there, but all of those trips involved foreigners visiting their country, not locals. Italy may have a small group of readers here on TPR (and I actually ran into a handful of them at Mirabilandia in July, which was pretty cool!), but how many are we actually talking about? Hell, has there ever actually been a coaster event in Germany that didn't involve a group trip to the country by ACE, the ECC or TPR? To be honest, I think that AT goes out of their way to try to get well-traveled enthusiasts both from the UK and elsewhere on their panel. If anything, they're stacking the results to try to help the international parks. And they go out of their way to mention and highlight EVERY international coaster that makes the top 50 lists. Understand that I'm not knocking foreign coasters. On my personal wood and steel top 10 lists, there are 2 from Japan, 2 from Sweden, one from Spain and one from the UK, which makes nearly 1/3 of them. (And the new ones on my list this year from Sweden knocked out another Spanish coaster from my top 10.) And if you add the next 10 on each list, that adds another 5 European coasters and one from BC, Canada, keeping the ratio the same. But I also know that I'm much more well-travelled than the typical enthusiast. First off, I'm not gonna argue with you on Nemesis. It's in MY top 10. (I was just there in July for the second time!) But remember that it's also the highest ranking looping coaster on the entire steel poll. So you're dealing with multiple biases there. A lot of coaster enthusiasts prefer hyper-coasters and aren't fans of positive G's like we are! Because I'd make the exact same comment about Montu, Pyrenees, Katun, Kumba, Alpengeist, Dragon Khan and X/X2, all of which I think belong in the top 10. Hell, Montu's my #1 steel, and it only ranks at #14, but I don't complain that they should call this the hyper-coasters steel poll. i just have to understand that not everyone is as wise as me! Like I mentioned above, it's not that the fans in Germany don't read Amusement Today. It's that there aren't all that many WELL-TRAVELLED coaster fans there. That's the one and only requirement to be on the AT panel. And there's a reason for that. The poll is not meant to be a big rooting session for your local park (as some have suggested here.) They specifically have sought out well-travelled enthusiasts who have been to lots of other areas to have a better sense of exactly where their local parks and rides actually stack up. After all, someone who's been to only German parks and maybe a couple of others and thinks that Bandit is a top 10 woodie may be right from his experience. But it's 5th from the bottom placing on Mitch's list would say otherwise. That makes his vote unhelpful in the poll overall. Adding someone to the panel whose list consists of all German coasters, plus maybe Nemesis or Balder isn't going to give us a more accurate list. It would end up weighing those coasters unfairly. Now, if there are German enthusiasts who are fairly well-travelled, then all they have to do to get on the panel is to send an e-mail to Tim. It's that simple. And if they're at all connected with the coaster hobby, they surely know about the Golden Ticket Awards, the most prestigious awards in the industry. But I'll bet that there's a good chance that Tim has already added them to the panel. He is, after all, a member of the ECC and just came back from the ECC trip to Germany. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that there are more Germans on the panel than you realize. But ultimately, is it AT's job to go out and track down dozens of enthusiasts from other countries? Or should they contact AT if they want to be on the poll? Well, both are what actually happen. And for all those on here who are well-travelled and are complaining about the poll not being international enough, e-mail the magazine and ask to be added to the panel. And then take the time to vote. It's really that simple. Take this from someone who IS on the panel and DID include those 6 international coasters on my ballot, (not to mention international parks and rides in several of the other categories on my ballot.)

Well, that reply ended up being more of a discussion of the awards itself, rather than the actual awards that won. Here are some random thoughts on the actual winners: First off, It's completely understandable that certain awards are pretty much a lock for the same parks year in and year out. It's not like those parks are usually dramatically improving or failing at things. If most enthusiasts think that Cedar Point is the best amusement park and Schlitterbahn is the best water park in the world, what's really going to change those opinions? Anyone who's bet against either park winning this poll (or just about any poll for best overall parks) is a fool. With the exception of IOA when it was fresh and new, there's never been any competition in either category, and it's fair to say that the VAST majority of enthusiasts would agree with them. Even if Schlitterbahn didn't put together probably the most incredible events in the industry! It's also interesting to see that a bunch more people filled out the ballots this year. I know that hey added a bunch of new people to the panel. And maybe more people bothered to fill it out this year? While it didn't seem to change most of the categories, it definitely affected the coaster categories. Interestingly, in the other categories, it seemed to mostly solidify the positions of the top two vote-getters, as most of them gained anywhere from 2-20%, while the lower ranked parks and rides seemed to drop even lower in percentages this year. However, they also had a few more nominees preselected in most categories, which did spread out some of the percentages. Best new rides weren't even close, as expected. Even if enthusiasts were stupid enough to go to Florida in the Summer, Cheetah Hunt was never gonna have a chance against the amazing new Texas Giant. The only new coaster even coming close in quality was Grona Lund's Twister, but not enough enthusiasts have eben to Sweden to give it a fighting chance. (I'd imagine that most of the 5% of the votes it got were people on the ACE Scandinavia trip.) And can anyone even think about competing with Schlitterbahn, besides Holiday World and Splashin' Safari? (Mainly because Splashin' Safari is one of the only water parks that many enthusiasts have been to, thanks to Holi-Wood Nights and other events there!) I just wish that The Falls had opened in tome for my visit in June! I'm still amazed that Idlewild wins every year for best kid's park. Sure it's nice, but nice enough to get 2 out of every 5 votes? Here's where you're seeing heavy old-school ACEr influence in this poll. While Sea World in Orlando has always been a lock for the best marine life park Can anyone out there think of any better place?), I was surprised to see Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk just squeak out a win after years of dominating the category. it lost 8% this year, which put it only 1% above Blackpool Pleasure Beach (which I honestly think deserves it.) Knoebels for best food again? They probably should name this "best traditional park food", which I'd agree with. But can anyone even think about competing with Tivoli Gardens for best gourmet (and super expensive!) food? I mean, many people actually pay the huge park admission charge just to eat at their restaurants! Then again, since the restaurants are outside vendors, maybe that's not a fair comparison. (Then again, you could also say the same thing for Epcot, which is another contender for truly great food.) My vote perrennially goes to Busch Gardens Williamsburg, who still have some of my favorite ribs anywhere! Will anyone ever beat Dudley Do-Right? It's just such a perfect combination of silly whimsey and solid overall ride. The only current ride that is better will never win, since it's in the UK. it's testament to Valhalla's quality that it comes as close as it does, given its huge handicap. After all, probably just about everyone on the panel has been on Dudley at least once. Wildebeest has established itself as the best water park ride just in time to probably be unseated by its newer brother next year! Or will they split the vote, allowing Master Blaster to regain the title? Which is what happens now, with Schlitterbahn's three rides combined getting nearly half of the votes overall. And the only park to beat IOA for best dark ride is... IOA! Even splitting the IOA vote, no one else even comes close. It will be interesting to see if Spidey's hi-def overhaul allows it to reclaim the top spot for Harry Potter next year. Illuminations is untouchable, even if World of Color has dramatically increased the park's attendance. Poor Fiesta got hit with a fireworks ban, during ACE's convention add-on day, which surely would have otherwise gotten them a bunch more votes! I really wish that they'd split the walk-through attraction into haunted and funhouse categories. They're so very, very different. Either way, all of the contenders in my mind are in Europe and Japan. Not even the excellent Frankenstein's Castle comes close. I voted for Grona Lund's amazing Lustiga Huset. As for the coasters, it's interesting to see how the influence of the new people they've added to the poll has altered the top coasters. I'd imagine that a lot of them are old-school ACEr types, considering how the rankings changed. Not that that's a bad thing, but they have certain biases, which can been seen in the results. As always, the major ACE events and overseas trips by both ACE and the ECC will also affect the rankings, especially for overseas rides. It's pretty clear that Six Flags really messed up with their remake of Superman into Bizarro. A lot of enthuisaists I know feel that it's really lost its charm, either due to the blasting soundtrack or the restrictive restraints. (And I'm sure that it doesn't help that taller people can't ride at all, either!) It has always been neck and neck with Millennium Force, swapping first place rankings. That a coaster in Massachusetts can even compete with the top coaster at the most popular coaster park in the world is testament to an incredible coaster design. But now, as more enthusiasts get back to the park and experience the new trains, it's not even close, with MF getting over 25% more points. Then again, Bizarro is really handicapped, when you consider that it had less than 2/3 of the riders as MF did on Mitch's poll. Interestingly, those two coasters and Expedition GeForce are the only coasters in the top 10 on both the Golden Tickets and Mitch's poll. Could someone please explain the appeal of Nitro to me? Sure, it's fast and fun. And it certainly has more forces than MF, which I'll never understand either. But surely there are at least a half dozen hypercoasters (and I'd argue more than a dozen) that are better than it. Maybe it's just that none of them have had as many riders as the older Nitro at a well-attended park in a coaster-rich area? I figures that New Texas Giant was a lock for best new coaster, but to make #6 in it's debut year? Surely, this was helped by both a TPR event there AND the ACE Convention this year. But it's still damn impressive. Imagine once the masses have all ridden it? This could be a contender for #1 in a few years. It will be interesting to see where it ranks on Mitch's poll, which doesn't require a lot of riders to win. I'm sure that some will complain about Intimidator 305 only ranking at #13. But that makes a lot of sense to me. For one thing, a lot of people haven't ridden it yet. For another thing, a lot of people rode it with painful restraints or with brakes or both (as I did.) Even without that, it's certainly a polarizing coaster. I really wanted to like it, but I only ranked it #42. (And it should drop a few more notches as a few new to me coasters knock it down.) And Phantom's Revenge is a great coaster, but if it were anywhere but Kennywood, would it even rank in the top 20? You can see the effect of the ACE Convention in Texas, their trip to Scandinavia and the ECC trip to Germany in a bunch of the results on both the steel and wood lists with big jumps for Titan, Piraten, Blue Fire, Superman Krypton Coaster, Olympia Looping, Lisebergbanan, Balder, Boardwalk Bullet (which jumped from 38 to 17, with nearly 5 times as many points as last year!), Troy, and Rutschebanen, many of which actually debuted in the top 50 this year. Strangely, despite the ECC Germany trip, Heide Park's Colossos - the world's first Intamin plug and play -- dropped from 18 to 29 and even lose a handful of points, despite there being more voters this year. What happened? Is it running badly now? Admittedly, you can't take much form the lower ends of the poll, where it can take only a few votes to dramatically move a coaster. But still, it's one of the few coasters on the poll to lose points. On another international note, T Express finally joined the top 50 woodies at #39. Nothing like it's tied for #1 showing on Mitch's poll, but quite good for a coaster in North Korea, where so few enthusiasts have visited. As for wood, Voyage dominates, as expected, with nearly 20% more votes than either Phoenix or El Toro, which had a very tight fight for second. (So tight that one more #1 vote and a #4 vote for El Toro would have put it ahead of Phoenix.) In fact, the wood poll is where I think that the old-school enthusiast influence of a lot of the new voters on the panel shows. Both Phoenix and Twister got a ton of new votes, enough to push Phoenix just above El Toro and to propel Twister up from #32 to #20 with over two and a half times as many points as last year! As much as I love Phoenix, it will never be a top 20 coaster for me. but old school fans absolutely LOVE it. It's probably the ultimate classic coaster. I suspect that El Toro's drop isn't to be attributed to any drop to it's quality as to a slight shift in the poll panel's demographic. Beast used to be great. ut since the brakes, and since they've built so many more great woodies, is it even remotely a top 10 coaster any more? Apparently a ton of people still think so. I don't think is just nostalgia. So many enthusiasts simply love it. Ask them, not me, why! Raven and Lightning Racer finally drop out of the top 10. Raven hasn't run as well as it used to in years. And it's still a short ride. And let's be honest, it's been completely overshadowed by Voyage. And I've never understood LIghtning Racer's perennial place in the top 10 here. Sure, like Phoenix, it's probably one of the most purely FUN coasters out there. (Or should I say TWO of them?) But top 10? Hardly! Their drop allows Shivering TImbers and Prowler to jump back into the top 10. Is Timbers running better, or is it just that many of the new people on the panel remember it from when it was great? But Prowler may not be in my top 20 (just), but it's my favorite GCI. Apparently, I'm not the only one who thinks that Hellcat in the Dells hasn't aged well, since it dropped from #19 to #30 and is another one of the few coasters to lose points with more voters in this year's panel. Could someone please do a major event at Alabama Adventure? Robb, are you listening? Maybe along with next year's Deep South Bash? Rampage may not be a #1 coaster, but it's far better than #32. At least on Mitch's poll it's #15, which is better, but nowhere near as good as my personal ranking of #5.

A few random thoughts on the poll both this year, and in relation to Mitch's poll and the industry and fanbase in general: First off, no poll is going to accurately show anything. Why? Because we all disagree. So, there's no way to accurately state what is the BEST park or coaster because each of us defines that differently. That said, I think there are two ways to look at what's considered the "top" coasters and parks. What Mitch's poll tries to do is to accurately rank coasters by only counting them among those who've ridden them. That gives international coasters a much bigger chance to shine. The downside of his poll is that for coasters with very few riders, there is a MUCH greater variance and uncertainty in their listing because there are so few riders ranking them. If those riders have tastes that are different from the norm, then they can greatly affect those coasters' rankings. And more importantly, they can also greatly affect the rankings of other more popular coasters because it can often take only one or two ballots to make any coaster pair win. But in general, it's probably the most accurate poll at showing how coasters rank overall in what enthusiasts think of as quality. However, the Golden Tickets doesn't really do that, and honestly, doesn't even try to do that. They are a popularity poll, first and foremost. Give them credit for going out of their way to try to give a better balance by putting mostly very well-travelled enthusiasts on their panel. But, even then, with the exception of maybe 10-20 enthusiasts in the world (and Robb, Elissa and Richard are certainly foremost among them!), very few of us have gotten to nearly EVERY major coaster and park in the world. I've been in the hobby for nearly two decades. And I just got to Scandinavia for the first time this year, and I still haven't gotten to South Korea or China. (Probably next year for one or both.) Hell, even Robb and Elissa just went to Australia for the first time this year! And how many people have been on EVERY one of TPR's international tours? Not many, I'd imagine. So, how can you really design a poll that takes all of that into account? Mitch's poll is probably the best attempt. What AT does do is present the most popular parks and coasters and rides in the hobby. And whether or not you actually love Cedar Point, Holiday World, Kennywood, Knoebels and Schlitterbahn and their rides, it's pretty much indisputable that these are the most popular parks among those of us in the hobby. As such, it makes sense that on such a poll that they and their rides are going to do very well. While many of us have been to the various parks around the country and the world, these five parks are worldwide destination parks among enthusaists. If you've been in the hobby for any length of time, you've been to Cedar Point. And you'll probably get to the others before too much longer, too. These are destination parks in ways that Kings Dominion, or pretty much ANY of the Six Flags parks with that they could be. So, it's going to make sense in this kind of poll that those parks are going to do very well. And to be honest, they'll probably rank higher than they might actually deserve, by the sheer fact that the vast majority of the people on the panel have actually been there. Mitch's poll shows that Millennium Force is definitely not the BEST steel coaster out there, at least in terms of overall opinions of quality. But I think that it's pretty indisputable that it's the MOST POPULAR steel coaster out there. At least since Six Flags changed the trains on Superman/Bizarro. Tons and tons of people absolutely love it, even though I really don't understand why! (It's not even in my top 40!) But it's the most popular coaster at the most popular amusement park in the world among enthsuaists. As for the international rankings, see what I wrote above. No matter how well-travelled the panel may be, the odds are that most of us have only been to a few other countries, and haven't sampled most of the top coasters and rides in terms of quality. Some of us have been to Germany and the UK, but not Japan or South Korea. Or to Italy and Spain and South Korea, but not to Scandinavia and China. So, even if every one of those who've been to Scandinavia (for example) loves Twister and Piraten, they're still going to get a whole lot fewer votes than Top Thrill Dragster and Beast, even if they're better rides. (And that's not necessarily the case. A lot of us on the ACE trip thought that Piraten was great, but overrated on Mitch's poll. In fact, no one I talked to thought it was a top 10. I expect that it will drop quite a bit in this year's Mitch poll.) It's not that the Golden Tickets "pretends" to be an international award list and fails. It DOES try to be so. But it's still a popularity poll. And unless someone really rich decides to send all of us on round-the-world trips, there's never going to be any sort of consensus among coasters fans about the rides at foreign parks. Remember that international travel is very expensive and inconvenient. Think about it this way. There have only ever been two major coaster trips to South Korea. One by TPR. And one by the ECC. That's still less than 100 people total. There are well over 10,000 coaster fans on this site alone. And 6,000 members of ACE, obviously with some overlap. There have been what three trips to Italy total? Two by TPR (as park of larger trips) and one by the ECC. That's maybe 150 people total. Germany's had a few more visits, with several trips by each group. But it's still well under 1000 people total, among a fanbase in the tens of thousands. And look at Mitch's poll results. Sure, T-Express ranked at tied for #1. But it had 21 riders on the poll, compared with 221 for El Toro. It's fair to say that they're both equally good coasters, but let's be honest here, which one is "more popular" among coaster enthusiasts? If it only got mentioned on 21 out of 489 ballots, is it really any surprise that it only got 101 points (and a #1 vote is worth 10 points) in the Golden tickets with AT's much smaller panel? In fact, it's only because of groups like TPR, ACE and ECC that most of us have even done as much international travel as we have. It's possible to organize travel on our own. But it's a hell of a lot easier when Robb and Elissa or people at the other clubs do it for us! You pay for that by staying at perhaps nicer hotels than you might have and spending more than you might have on your own. And you also pay by being stuck to someone else's schedule, which will obviously be different than what you would have planned. But you get a ton of other benefits, not the least of which are the ERT and other perks and the camaraderie of being with a group of coasters freaks on a coaster trip! But I think that overall, it's very very much worth it. But one other thing that's indisputable: among the industry, these are the biggest and most important awards. We may not always agree with them. But the parks consider them very, very important. They're pretty much the only awards that the parks regularly promote in their advertising and in-park signs. Just look at all of the advertising in the supplement itself. That's because everyone wants to brag among their peers about how well they did there. The Golden Tickets are the Academy Awards or Emmy's of the industry. And just like those awards, they have their biases.

Well, I've already been saving for China, and the big trip I have been thinking of doing afterwards. I just wish China was earlier in the year (even by a few weeks). My vacation pay resets at the beginning of September. And as of now, I don't have any other plans for next year. And I was hoping for an around the world trip early the following year that was gonna be 5-6 weeks. Now, I might have to push that back a year so that I can don't lose out on 3 weeks of vacation pay! Now I gotta figure out what to do with the three weeks of vacation that will expire in September, a few weeks before the Cina trip! I could tro to see of they'd consider letting me have them late for China, but I doubt that they will. Other than that, I've recently done most of the major coastering I plan to do in the US for the next few years, to allow for some overseas trips. I'd still consider the Pacific Northwest trip. Silverwood and PLayland are two great parks with amazing woodies! It might be fun to get up a carpool to go up to West Edmonton to hit Mindbender too. If I hadn't done Italy twice recently, I'd consider that too, although I'd want much more time for sightseeing. For those who do go, hop a train down to Naples before or after Rome (depending on how the trip is laid out) and be sure to see Pompeii. Naples is a dirty city, but Pompeii is amazing! And do either Venice or Milan or both before (or after) Gardaland. I LOVE Venice, and Milan isn't my favorite city, but it's worth going for their amazing Duomo and to see The Last Supper.

I've done most of those parks, though on different trips over the years. I've never actually managed to be in the area when both coasters at Steel Pier are operating. And yes, in the northeast "sprinkles" are almost always called "jimmies". Just one of those regional things.

One other thing. Don't consider the park to not have any major coasters. It may not have MANY major coasters, but it's currently the only park in the world with two top 10 steel coasters on Mitch's poll. In fact, it's the only park to have two top 10 coasters on both polls combined. That should make the park a major coaster destination. And while I wouldn't quite put iSpeed in my top 10, it's in my top 20. And Katun definitely deserves its top 10 status, IMHO.

YES! Been there a couple of times now, and Q-Bot really saved us during our last visit. I've seen hour+ waits for the major coasters, and even some of the smaller rides like the mouse, dark rides, log flume, etc.... I think it depends on when you go. I went on Monday, July 25, exepcting it to be busy, and it wasn't at all. The lines for both iSpeed and Katun were under 30 minutes (and closer to 15 minutes for large parts of the day) until I left the park at around 5PM. The mouse queue was probably just over 30 minutes due to the low capacity. The S&S towers were maybe 10-15 minutes tops. And the shooting dark ride was literally walk-on. The new upcharge haunted walkthrough was only open for specific time frames starting at 3 PM, which led to somewhat long lines, but nothing too bad. I would have been able to get everything I wanted in, but still went with the Q-Bot because of my limited time there. Even if I'd had the whole day there, it would have been totally worth it, since it gave me basically walk-on rides on most everything. I was literally getting on every third iSpeed train! I ran into a group from TPR (mostly lurkers, though they were friends with Matteo), who didn't get Q-Bots and seemed to be having fun. Two years ago, I went with the ECC on basically the Tuesday before this visit, and the park was much more busy. The lines, especially for the then new iSPeed were much longer, hitting over an hour for iSpeed. Katun was probably 30-45 minutes. (Again, I used a Q-Bot, so I'm not sure.)

Well, the more important question is "WHY have a giga"? Seriously, if it's attendance is already so high, and with very little competition in the surrounding area (unless you count Darien Lake, which is hardly competition for them), then why invest tens of millions of dollars on a major new coaster so soon after you've already just done so? Hell, with very little major added for so many years, attendance remained one of the highest in North America. Then they just added a major new attraction to raise and maintain that attendance. How much would a new major attraction right now actually help the park, financially? Sure, as an enthusiast, I'd totally agree that the park needs another great coaster. (Which would give it two!) But if I were a shareholder, I'd question the use of so many of my funds for a park that's already performing very well.