Lapbar only on Tantrum, unless something explainable or really strange happened to it in the year of shut down it was perfectly smooth in 2019, a very nice small Euro Fighter. The two really rough coasters at the park are Predator (if you're in the front it really isn't all that bad but anywhere else is unpleasant) and Mind Eraser, but that's to be expected.
Yeah, DL was my "home park" for a lot of my life. I am 33 now, but my family started camping there when in 97 when I was 10 and Mind Eraser was brand new. That three year stretch of Mind Eraser, Nightmare, Boomerang, and Superman is what made me a coaster nerd. I put home park in quotes because it was a four hour drive on a good day, but we went every summer for at least a few days. My parents would relax in the campground and I would usually bring a friend to explore the park with. If not, I'd at least drag my little brother or whatever cousin came with us around. It was ideal for everyone.
My kid is ten now and we have only been once since he was born, and he was pretty small. I don't remember how old he was/what year, exactly, but he was kiddie ride young and I remember having fun on that stupid but charming moose ride they added. It was probably 2013, 2014. We were supposed to go back this year for a day on a road trip but it didn't pan out for obvious reasons.
Predator is still by memory the roughest experience I have ever had on a coaster. I remember at one point getting very bad chest pains on it even though I was probably like... 15? It was an awful ride, but like you said front seat did make it more tolerable. The sad thing is I remember loving it in the very late nineties, very early 00s. I don't know if I just started growing up a little and losing tolerance for the roughness or if it just fell apart. And a SLC is gonna SLC.
I am a proponent of RMC Predator in a big way. I'd like to see the SLC torn down and replaced eventually too, but that won't happen any time soon. As for the rest of the lineup, I don't have complaints. MotoCoaster was cute. Superman will always have a soft spot in my heart and I think at least as of my 2013/14/whenever ride it had become a little underrated. It and its clone are still good rides. Viper low key is one of the better original era Arrow loopers left standing. A Boomerang is obligatory and you probably can't do anything better with that footprint anyway, at least not with a coaster. Tantrum was a great edition on paper to round out the lineup too, though I haven't experienced it yet. Glad to hear it is lapbars only.
So, I assume you have been on Mind Eraser when it was new? What was it like back then? Did it feel the same? Also, did anything else change since it first opened?
