Swimace

I just don't see it happening on a ride like this. First of all, a beyond 90* would probably require B&M to put in OTSR's instead of their awesome "clamshell" restraints. Also, a drop that steep requires a really short train, so we would now be looking at a train that fits *maybe* 16 people instead of one that fits 36. Short trains work well on more compact coasters because the block segments are really close together, but a large scale hyper with short trains would be a capacity nightmare. They could use wider trains, but I think that's unlikely since the water brake area looks to be fitted for standard B&M track.

I don't see why not? If you can do it with Dudly DoRight Ripsaw Falls, you can to evlove it for circular raft. Almost has a shoot-the-chutes aspect, if it truly is intentional. Props for creativity there. I sort of pictured a hill more like the ones you would find on a launched water slide, since I think it would be really hard to have spinning rafts attach to coaster track without being brought to a complete stop in the middle of the ride. Plus, this ride is sort of a hybrid between a rapids ride a water slide anyways, so that makes more sense to me. I'm just speculating of course, so I guess we may find out in time.

Wow, what a solid lineup of bands! When you said Phantom Limb I immediately thought of The Shins and my heart skipped a beat, only to realize you were talking about an entirely different band. I really like Vampire Weekend though, they're so dorky and cool at the same time. This thing looks awesome, I'm pretty jealous! p.s. Kate Nash is all kinds of amazing. I saw her in Atlanta and was REALLY close

Whirlpools like the one in this concept art have been done before on more traditional rapids rides. I know that Wild Adventure's raft ride has one and I'm sure there's more out there (I think Phantasialand's rapids ride has one as well). What stuck out to me in the concept art is what appears to be a small uphill section prior to the whirlpool. Do you think that the concept artist may have just gotten carried away, or will there actually be a quick uphill section?

The camps I run don't have sessions this week because of July 4th, so I'm lifeguarding all day at one of our sketchier public pools. I mean if people on my staff don't want to work on the 4th then I'll gladly whore their shifts to fatten my paycheck.

Well we've seen this coming for a while now. Pleasure Island just isn't very exciting, especially when you compare it to CityWalk. Every time I've been to Pleasure Island it just seemed kind of tired and outdated, so I think this is pretty good news. The area was pretty much this dead spot wedged between the other two sections. It's always sad to see Disney take something out, but I think that Downtown Disney needs more restaurants and this is an overall good move. Just as long as they never touch The House of Blues I'll be fine.

A TR of one of the best shows I've ever seen. After an hour and a half set, it was time to head back to Gainesville so I could go to work in the morning. LAME!! But seriously, go see Modest Mouse if you get the chance. This show more than made up for the painfully average Alkaline Trio show I posted on the last page, Modest Mouse put on the highlight of my summer. This was one of those shows that I bought a ticket to with the expectation of having a fun time and hearing some good music, but this turned out to be one of the best shows I've ever seen. Once it got dark Modest Mouse came on and put on an unbelievably good show. The sound system was having problems and getting some feedback at really unfortunate times, but the show really didn't suffer much from it. Some of this group of women managed to stumble out of the venue once this band finished their set, and my eyes still burn from seeing them dance. The Dirty Dozen had drunk middle-aged women flocking to them like people with mullets flocking to Dollywood. The Dirty Dozen Brass Band opened up the show. I really have no idea how these guys got paired up with Modest Mouse, since they were a jazz band playing at a rock show. I got off work and drove to the St. Augustine Amphitheatre for a Modest Mouse show. The venue was really nice, and the open design kept the place really cool and comfortable.

Awesome TR! What exactly did GCI do to the ride? Did they simply re-track it, or did they actually change the layout? You mentioned that one section was completely redesigned, but how extensive was the change?

hahaha, this is great! Band: Bank of Korea Album: Dreams of thy Youth Album Cover:

I think this whole situation was handled poorly on both ends. The Norton people really shouldn't have brought ACE up, especially in a way that stresses how "gracious" Cedar Fair has been. Cedar Fair has been far from gracious when it comes to GL, and I think the way the Norton people brought up the Big Dipper was just rubbing it in ACE's face. On the other hand, the ACEr should have just kept quiet, because yelling just made ACE look the bad guy. If I were an ACEr I would have been upset about the way the Norton people were talking, but yelling about it will just make everybody involved look that much worse.

Awesome TR, it sounds like Raptor, MF, and Maverick really delivered for you! CP gets such mixed reviews, it seems like it's getting harder and harder to find someone to write a positive review of the place nowadays.

A quick Photo TR of what I did last night I had a fun time, but it's a shame the venue sucked so much. Alkaline Trio has some really good songs and they played well, but I think the show would have been a lot better in other places. They really did have a sweet lighting package though. The venue really killed Alkaline Trio; the place has an awesome location, an amazing lighting package, and AWFUL sound quality. Unless you already knew the songs word for word, there would be no way for you to tell what they were saying. Whenever they would tell a joke between songs you'd hear the very front portion of the venue start laughing while the rest of venue looked around in confusion. Bayside played really well, but everyone in our group was in agreement that their set was WAY too short. I think they played for like 20 minutes. The bottom portion of the venue was kind of annoying. There were these awkward columns that supported the top section, and these really made it difficult for people to crowd around the stage and get a good view. We ended up shoving our way into a center position towards the back of the venue, which was fine because it's a really small place. There's an upstairs section that is really open, you can chill up here and see the ocean while viewing the show. The venue was Freebird Live and it's on the left side of the street in this photo. The general area was pretty sweet. p.s., sorry for a couple of blurry pictures, I just got a new camera for my b-day and this was my first time using it. The second I got off work I drove to Jacksonville Beach with some friends to go see Alkaline Trio, Bayside, and The Fashion. We had no idea the venue was literally right next to the beach, which was pretty sweet.

Wow, those mindbender trains are intense. Hey, if SF needs to make money then I guess that's a good way to do it. It doesn't hurt the quality of the ride so more power to them.

That sucks that Led Zeppelin is so rough! I guess it's a good thing that the park has room for expansion, because it sounds like it really needs it. Yup, It was before a Vampire weekend concert at the Variety Playhouse. I have seen two shows there and Its honestly my favorite concert venue. Its so small and so narrow that no matter where you are you're extremely close to the stage. When it comes to Atlanta I think I'm more of a Masquerade fan because that venue gets a little crazier. Variety Playhouse is really nice though for smaller indie shows that are more chill, and the place is set up really well so that you can always get a good view.

This TR kind of makes me sad, HRP looks like it has so much work that needs to be done. I can't believe that the food at the park is so bad, you'd think that a park that is based on a restaurant would have better food options. I love Little Five Points, it's so different from what you would usually expect to find in Atlanta. Were you going to The Variety Playhouse? That place is awesome.

I just saw The Happening, and it was pretty average. I went in with low expectations, and so I guess I was pleased when there wasn't some horrible alien plot twist at the end. There was a lot of environmentalist bias moments that that kept coming up, and that was kind of annoying (i.e., a shot that contrasts a greenhouse and a nuclear power plant, even though nuclear power plants are generally thought of as clean energy). Meh, overall it kept me entertained, so I guess it was an ok film. 5/10

Wow, that sucks that the park wasn't operating well when you went. Well by reading your TR it sounds like you didn't really have to wait in any serious lines despite the poor operations, which is good. p.s. Wile E. Coyote is a one train coaster.

^I've mainly used mac laptops, so I should rephrase my previous statement to "double tapping does not equal right clicking". None of the macs I've ever used have had standard windows mice on them, so I've never tried that. Macs are great computers, but honest to God that's the thing that just gets under my skin!! I know it's stupid, but it just drives me crazy. I started out school as a graphics major, so I'm good on a mac, I just have a ton of pet peeves on them. On a second Rant note, I'm about to go work from 7:30-4:30 on two hours of sleep. It hurts.

I know this sounds OCD, but you can't right click on macs!!! It just drives me crazy!!! This is the one issue I have with macs, I just can't stand it!! CTRL+click does NOT equal right clicking. sorry mac fans.

...and yet oddly enough he's on TPR. That's strange.... Just because it's you disagree with his opinion doesn't mean it was a stupid thing to say. I personally think your post was way more worthy of being mentioned in this topic than someone who feels like Schwarzkopf is overrated. Have you been on every single Schwarzkopf? Have you asked every single member of the site for their opinion on Schwarzkopf coasters? If not then your argument is pretty weak to say the least.

They still use cables, it's not like a big gust of air just blows the car up and down the tower. The compressed air is what powers the launch, but they still need something that attaches to the car.

Oh, good call, that ride pretty much sucked. The huge helixes were so boring and long, and the random straight track was just as boring. There were a couple of good moments of airtime, but the ride as a whole was pretty bland.

Alpengeist. Out of the 7 custom B&M inverts I've been on it was by far the worst. The cobra roll was rough as hell and the ride as a whole just wasn't very enjoyable. Since Busch has such a good track record when it comes to their B&M's, I was really disappointed with how bad of a ride Alpengeist was, especially when you take into account its huge size. I think on the day I visited BGE I rode Apollo's Chariot 8 times, and only gave Alpengeist 2 rides (one of which was a front row ride).

Wait a second.... am I to understand you passed up Alabama Adventures for Dollywood?!?! haha, your Photo TR's are awesome Scott.

Manchester Orchestra- "Wolves at Night"