Skittles

Currently in my second day at Cedar Point, the final park of the trip, so here are my new and updated RMC rankings! Yes, it's kind of going to give away my new rankings post-trip, but whatever. 1. Steel Vengeance - This lived up to the hype. Yes, I'm not a fan of the operations, but man, does the coaster itself more than make up for it. So much airtime, fantastic pacing, an amazing first drop, nice theming in the queue line, long ride... this ride really has something for everyone. IT'S SO GOOD!! I know because I'm here right now! 2. Storm Chaser - Possibly the most underrated Hybrid there is. I'd actually say it's more intense than Steel Vengeance; yes, it's not as good, but the way Kentucky Kingdom runs it? It has some of the greatest pacing ever! That really helps all the airtime and elements be absolutely amazing. This is just another reason why I wish KK had better operations; so I could marathon this thing. 3. Twisted Timbers - Basically everything I said with Storm Chaser applies here; except the annoying operations kind of made me a little mad, and I didn't have to worry about this with Storm Chaser. 4. Twisted Colossus - I haven't ridden this in almost a year in a half, but I remember it being awesome. Full of airtime everywhere, great inversions and dueling moments, a pair of great first drops, but yeah, it's not the most aggressive and as I said, I haven't ridden it as recently. 5. RailBlazer - Love this coaster a lot. At first, I wasn't a big fan because of the restraints, but after this trip, I think that I underrated it. I now know that my favorite kind of ride is an aggressive one, regardless of how the restraints are. This is what RailBlazer is to me. 6. Goliath - Yeah, it is a short ride, but every element totally makes up for it. There was a surprising amount of airtime, great inversions, my favorite RMC drop (I like it slightly more than Steel Vengeance's for some reason) and was just something that I really came to love. 7. Joker - Usually is a pretty awesome ride, but after my most recent to SFDK where it was crawling most of the way through, I can't rank it as high anymore. Which is disappointing. It can be so amazing.

Hi Robb, So today I was browsing Theme Park Review and some forum posts, and I came across this cool list you made quite a while back. http://themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=36887&p=466836#p466836 Looking back from about 1996-2001, it seems you rode a lot of the new coasters each year in the United States. Back in those days, were your trips planned with these parks getting new coasters in mind and adding other parks around them? I'm asking as kind of a trip planning question, because you've visited every big park in the United States imaginable, so I thought it would be interesting to hear how you planned trips in that time period I mentioned. Thanks!

Glad to hear you had a good time at my home park. Yeah, even though I'm almost done with my trip, Flight Deck is still my favorite B&M Invert over rides like Afterburn and Banshee. I'll be riding Raptor in a couple days, however, so we'll see then.

I personally would chose Kings Dominion. They might have the locker policy, but the operations are fast enough, it didn't bother me too much. Also, their top two is

Nice first trip report! That little Hi-Miler looks great. Dammit, you reminded me I need to work on my trip report. But thanks for the reminder.

Welcome to the dark side. and thanks! Thank you! It really is! I might've just caught Grizzly on a bad day. It is a traditional woodie, after all. I'm sorry about this being a couple days late, but I made a bad choice on my hotel in Charlotte; I stayed in a Country Inn near the Charlotte Airport, and it was hard for me to fall asleep both nights there, and so I was pretty tired and not in the mood to write up reports. Anyways, Busch Gardens Williamsburg!! Even though I only stayed for half a day in order to get down to Charlotte, I really had a great time here. It really is an incredibly beautiful and "put together" park. The lunch food was amazing (I had a burger at because I was getting hungry and didn't want to decide on some special meal), and the operations were fast, and that just added to visiting on a Wednesday. SeaWorld knows what they're doing. On to the coasters, I'm not gonna lie. I was kinda disappointed with their collection. I started out with Griffon (my first B&M Dive Coaster) and I thought it was pretty good at best. The drop wasn't as intense as some made it out to be, but still was a ton of fun. It was also possibly the smoothest coaster I've ever ridden, just with kind of a repetitive layout. This is an unpopular opinion, but InvadR was my favorite coaster at the park. It had real nice theming, and it was smooth and full of airtime, especially for having a smaller layout. I was seriously surprised with how much I enjoyed it. Alpengeist was disappointing; not a fan. It could have been an amazing Invert if it wasn't for an awfully consistent rattle which almost gave me a headache, when you combine that with inversion whip. Verbolten was a good family coaster with amazing theming, not much else to say. Apollo was my first B&M Hyper, and yeah, not gonna lie. It felt lacking, especially compared to the Intamin monsters of the past couple days and Phantom's Revenge. The airtime wasn't anything to shout at, and the layout seemed to be more designed with caution. It wasn't disappointing per se, but I'm in the club that doesn't prefer B&M Hypers to most other coaster types. Tempesto was fun; I really didn't think the comfort collars were that bad. I thought it ran just fine like Superman. Then finally I rode Loch Ness Monster, which is a nice classic Arrow Looper and way better than the horrible Arrow trash from Kings Dominion the day before. Busch Gardens doesn't have any bad coasters, but nothing that blows away the competition either. Onward to the photos! I'm not going to lie; I forgot to take some photos from inside the park because of how immersed I was. The most beautiful park in the world! Does it live up to the awards? First coaster of the day! First B&M Dive! What a fun ride! Nothing amazing, but extremely smooth and good hangtime. Unfortunately, I realize this is the only photo I took of InvadR. But I was very surprised by how great of a ride it was! Lots of airtime and a great pace like all GCIs! Again, unfortunately the only photo I took of a coaster, but Alpengeist was a disappointment. So, so rattly. Gave me a huge headache. Not quite my least favorite Invert because it actually has a really good layout, but wasn't something that I'd ride a second time. Don't get me wrong; I liked it, a LOT despite the roughness because it is a very intense ride, but I wish it was smoother. One of my favorite photos I've ever taken of a really good ride. I seriously enjoyed Verbolten for it's great theming and final drop! A lot of people complain about the comfort collars... I really didn't notice any difference in ride quality between this and Superman back home at SFDK. I didn't really like how any of my photos from inside the park turned out, so here's the only decent photo I got of Apollo. It was my first B&M Hyper, and while it was a very good ride, I can see why some people aren't huge fans of them. The airtime was slightly disappointing, and the layout didn't really do anything for me. But it was extremely comfortable and I loved the sensation of speed in the ravine drops! Time to ride a true classic! By far the smoothest Arrow I've ridden. Very fun too! Now that we've gone through all the big coasters, let's take a look at the world's most beautiful park. I don't think I've ever felt more relaxed at a theme park. Here's one last photo of the Mach Tower before finishing the update. Up next - Carowinds! Where I hit my 100th coaster! (My signature isn't my current count because I want to keep up with the updates. The count currently in my signature was my count after BGW) EDIT - Some of the photos are out of order. Sorry about that. Oh yeah, and Griffon has to have one of my all time favorite color schemes. It's BEAUTIFUL!!

Interesting! I have ridden a Vekoma Flying Dutchman, but that was Stealth way back before it was moved to Carowinds. At least I get to reunite with an old friend in a couple days! Thank you! I think that since I'm traveling more, I'm learning more about myself as a coaster enthusiast, and classic woodies might be one of my favorite types of coasters now. Thanks! You won't be disappointed! Today was the third day of the trip, and at what was arguably the first truly great park. Kings Dominion. I like to talk about the park as a whole, but I have to get this out of the way... Twisted Timbers and Intimidator 305!!! The first coaster I rode that day was Twisted Timbers, and as we slid into the brake run, I proclaimed it better than any RMC and arguably my new favorite coaster! I was absolutely blown away! Then my next coaster was i305? I've never been so blown away by a coaster!! Holy sh t those two coasters are possibly my new Top 2 favorites! Kings Dominion SERIOUSLY has to have one of the best one-two punches in the world! Anyways, how about the rest of the park? I think it's a great place to spend a day! Beyond it's great coaster collection, it has a nice collection of rides for the whole family, I was surprised by how pretty the scenery looked and how it blended in with the whole park, and I haven't been used to fast operations on this trip, (cough Kennywood cough Six Flags America) but Kings Dominion's ride ops did very well while I was here. The longest I waited might've only been 10 minutes and that was for Twisted Timbers. The place is run great and I'd say among the best Cedar Fair parks. Let's talk about the coaster collection beyond the top 2. Volcano was unfortunately closed, making for one large steel coaster missed at every park I've visited so far. First Sky Rocket at Kennywood, then Batwing, and Volcano today. While that was a loss, Dominator was my third favorite coaster in the park. It's a long, powerful B&M that always kept the pace. It roars like an old school B&M too, and I'd call it my second favorite B&M coaster just behind Flight Deck at CGA. Racer 75 would be my 4th favorite, keeping a streak of classic wooden coasters running nicely, full of airtime and a smooth, out-and-back layout. My fifth favorite was Flight of Fear, and while a good ride, I wasn't a fan of the coaster being indoors. It made me dizzy enough outside yesterday at Six Flags America, I felt almost nauseous here. I might think twice before riding the one at Kings Island in a few days. After that, it's all pretty standard fare. Apple Zapple was a Wild Mouse, but I can easily have fun on any of them. Backlot Stunt Coaster was a well-themed family coaster, but it's getting pretty rough. Avalanche was an ok family coaster, but a good one for all audiences. I was disappointed by Grizzly; I was hoping for a massive improvement over the sorry CGA version, and while it's actually got some airtime and is in a better location, I'd argue it was running just as rough. However, speaking of CGA's Grizzly, that seemed pretty light compared to Anaconda. I said yesterday that my #1 least favorite coaster was Grizzly at CGA, but it's now #2. Anaconda was truly terrible. Even in the sections that it shouldn't have done so, I was getting kicked around a lot, and I'm a bit of a taller guy, so it got my knees pretty bad too. It was awful, and I don't understand how Demon, another Arrow Looper, can run just fine at another Cedar Fair park but this one doesn't. Demon is a lot smaller, however... Enough talking. I know everyone's been looking forward to seeing my photos! Please note that some of the pictures are filtered, because the original picture didn't look as great with the weather today. Also, some photos have a lot of clouds, some don't, because it was pretty cloudy in the morning. One of my most anticipated parks on the trip! Let's see what kind of day we'll have! YAY! New RMC time!! How will it stack up against the California RMCs? Holy sh*t!! It might have a lap bar that actually touches your body, but there's airtime EVERYWHERE and it feels exactly like Phantom's Revenge! Just WOW! What an insane design with some of the strongest airtime over every little bump! And what a first drop! The front has a slow rollover which is awesome, but the whip of the back seriously gets you yelling! It's a great way to start off a nearly perfectly paced ride. What happens after you ride what might be your new #1? Go to the next ride that becomes your new #1! Oh... my... gosh... this was my first giga, and my heart was pumping from the first moment I saw it's colossal lift hill over the trees, but I didn't think this could possibly blow me away more than Twisted Timbers did. But it did! Words cannot describe all the mindf*cks that i305 throws at you, other than they made i305 my all-time favorite coaster!!! One of the best B&M Floorless coasters. Very forceful, smooth, and full of fun through every inversion! Even though i305 was my new favorite coaster, (and still is) after I got all the credits I possibly could have, Twisted Timbers is the coaster I ran right back to for re-rides. By the end of the day, I had a total of 6 laps on this monster because the line was always so bearable thanks to Kings Dominion's fast operations! Although I was walking on air most of the day, this was a definite disappointment. Hopefully it can get back up and running soon. I can't complete this trip report without mentioning this wonder of an Intamin Drop Tower. I'm pretty used to the 2nd Gen drop tower back home at CGA, but this one has a way better sensation of speed. Intamin might be my new favorite manufacturer for how well they do everything! Remember how I said I got 6 rides on Twisted Timbers? Despite running right back to Twisted Timbers for more before i305, I got the most rides on my favorite coaster, totalling out at 8. I just couldn't to more; during the evening, I tried to marathon it, but after just 3 laps back to back, my throat was already sore from how intense this coaster is. Probably the best sore throat one can possibly get! I can't get over how incredibly awesome i305 is. The first drop, the Gs, the direction changes, the speed, the smoothness... everything. Everyone needs to get out to Kings Dominion to get their fill on i305 and TwiT. (damn support got in the way, haha) Between i305 and TwiT, I had one of the greatest nights of my life. Goodbye Kings Dominion; I look forward to returning ASAP! Do you share my crazy Kings Dominion praise? Leave your comment below and look forward to Busch Gardens Williamsburg tomorrow!

Thanks! Hopefully with their 2019 addition they can keep a lot of their charm. The first half of the day was actually spent in Washington D.C. at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum and the National Mall to see the memorials, which was my favorite part of the day, though I'm low on space on my phone so I wanted to save space for Six Flags America photos. I'm working on it; don't worry. Anyways, onto Six Flags America. I'm not going to lie; I didn't have a very good time here. It was really hot, and the security guy that checked my backpack didn't let me bring in my Ibuprofen, so I wasted 10 minutes walking back to my car and put it back and come back to get it checked again. I really didn't understand that at all; I had just entered the park and already had a sour taste in my mouth. Beyond that, a lot of the operations were actually a good bit slower than those at Kennywood, and a few of the ops yelled at me because I had buckled my seatbelt. Something I thought that was very bizarre is that at some rides, I could buckle my seatbelt on my own, and on others I got yelled at for ops to do it for me. Finally, the park didn't look very great, and with minimal shade, I had an increasing headache, so combine that with the slower operations, that limits any re-rides at all. For that reason, I only got one ride on every coaster (except Batwing, because that was closed all day) but I would have liked to re-ride Superman and Wild One. Hopefully Six Flags America will clean up their act a bit, but I've been hearing these reports from years back until now, so who knows? Talking about the coasters, they have a promising collection. Wild One was actually my favorite coaster at the park; it's a classic woodie, and it packs a ton of airtime all the way through. I was very surprised by it. Superman was a very close second, I just prefer rides that pack the airtime through the entire ride, whereas Superman didn't pack a lot of airtime until the second half. My third favorite was Joker's Jinx; that was a great ride, but it made me pretty dizzy. Beyond those three, the rest of the coasters were okay. Roar was actually a really good ride, Ragin' Cajun was fun, and Great Chase was another credit for my count. Though I most point out Apocalypse and Mind Eraser for being exceptionally bad. Apocalypse was rougher than Vortex at CGA ever was, and Mind Eraser was arguably worse than Kong because of how hot it was at the park, which gave me a bigger headache. I'm going to try something, and see how it compares to others. I'm going to rank the big coasters of the trip so far. 1. Phantom's Revenge 2. Jack Rabbit 3. Racer (am I crazy? Probably. It just really blew me away) 4. Wild One 5. Superman - Ride of Steel 6. Joker's Jinx 7. Thunderbolt 8. Roar 9. Wild West Express 10. Ragin' Cajun 11. Wildcat 12. Exterminator 13. Apocalypse 14. Mind Eraser Anyways, enough ranting. Here are the photos I took. I didn't take as many pictures, purely because I wanted to keep moving due to my headache. First Six Flags park of the trip! Hopefully I can have a decent time! My first Intamin Mega Coaster! Will it be the star attraction? It was definitely a great ride. I wish it had more airtime in the first half, but the second half is packed with great ejector! (I'm not sure why this photo looks like it was taken at sunset) If anything, I wish I got more rides on it, but Six Flags America doesn't have a great park layout, and I wasn't enthused with staying at the park any longer than I needed. It's hard to get photos from most areas in the park; I didn't really feel like venturing out to Batwing to get more photos as I had open credits to get. But despite that, it's still a very pretty ride for sure. Joker's Jinx was next. It was great; surprisingly intense and smooth for the most part, but it made me pretty dizzy so I wouldn't re-ride it even if I was able to re-ride the coasters. Something I have to give it credit for, however, is that it has one of my favorite coaster signs. It's awesome! After this, I can now say that I've ridden B&M's first two coasters. It was really bad though; it definitely looks better than Vortex ever was and better than Patriot is now, but the ride is rougher than either ever was. Speaking of terrible rides... this was actually worse than Kong. I called it my new least favorite steel coaster after I got off the ride, and I still believe that to be true. It's not quite as bad as Grizzly at CGA (my current bottom ranked coaster), but it's very close as my #2 bottom ranked coaster. My personal favorite coaster in the park. Airtime over every hill, all the way through. I've had amazing luck with classic woodies so far this trip! After the few hours and having gotten every credit, I just decided to leave for Doswell early. Hopefully the park can clean up their act a bit in the future, because it wasn't a very good park today. Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for Kings Dominion tomorrow!

Mind Eraser was open today. Batwing is the only thing closed

That yellow "Mega Coaster" track, if it's in North America, would be for California's Great America (just a guess at this point, obv.) Assuming that all the other rumors I've heard are true about one coming in 2020.

Here's the photo I took of Wild West Express.

Thanks a million Robb! Nice to hear from a professional trip report writer

Here it is everyone! My first ever trip report. This is actually from Kennywood and Adventure Park USA, because I got to the park within the last 45 minutes or so of closing time, after leaving Kennywood a bit earlier than I intended because a thunderstorm was coming in to Pittsburgh. So how was Kennywood? It's a decent park. It doesn't have very good operations, but it has a lot of charm and a good coaster collection. Phantom's Revenge is awesome and better than any coaster in NorCal (sorry RMCs and Gold Striker); great airtime, second drop, and location. I really enjoyed it. Jack Rabbit was my second favorite for sure. That double down really did it for me; it actually did so much for me that I now call Jack Rabbit my favorite wooden coaster! (Sorry again, Gold Striker) Racer was my third favorite, as it was just full of nice classic fun, then Thunderbolt at fourth because while it was still very good, it just didn't impress me as much as the other three mentioned. Exterminator was just okay, and Sky Rocket was down. Adventure Park USA was a nice little credit whoring stop. Sure, it's not a place you can spend more than about 45 minutes at, but they keep all three coasters in good shape. I thought Wild West Express was pretty good and Wildcat was ok. And yes, I did ride Tumbleweed. No shame! Here are the photos! Please note they aren't in 100% chronological order because I wanted to keep it in order of which coasters I rode. So a couple coaster photos were taken at different times than others. It's finally time for my first coaster trip! Starting at Kennywood; which is actually my first park outside of California. This was my first coaster of the day. It was my first Spinning Mouse, and I thought it was okay. The theming was good, but I didn't find the coaster very comfortable. After the low capacity coaster, it was time to get one of my most anticipated coasters of the trip out of the way! PHANTOM'S REVENGE!! At first, I thought Phantom's Revenge was great but a bit overrated because I rode in Row 4, but my next ride was in the back and WOW it delivered! I don't think I've experienced true ejector airtime until now! All over the ride, you get ejected into the loose restraints. There's just nothing like this in California. Beyond that, it has great terrain usage, one of the best drops in existence, and makes you want to jump back in line and ride 10 more times when you slam into the brake run. Oh yeah, and I love how Kennywood is on the side of a hill that overlooks urban Pittsburgh. (The background looks different from the past few photos because storms were rolling in and this was in the queue line for my last ride) Just across from Phantom's Revenge was the first wooden coaster of the day. It was a very unique ride. It was full of brutal laterals which aren't always my cup of tea, but I thought the drops were great. Really good ride nonetheless! I wasn't expecting too much from Racer, but ended up seriously enjoying it! It's so much fun to race, (I've never done this before; I live in NorCal) and there was a lot of good floater airtime. Very impressed with this classic! Jack Rabbit was such a joy to ride! Even beyond the double down, which I can now say the stories I've heard about it are NOT exaggerated, I couldn't help but smile whenever we dipped into the Kennywood terrain. Because of the double down and short(ish) lines, I ended up calling this my new favorite wooden coaster! (That'll probably change soon) Here's the last photo of the park before I left. I started the drive to D.C. a bit early because there wasn't a whole lot else to do, and a thunderstorm was coming. Despite the operations, I hope to return soon. Next stop, after a three hour drive down into the Mid-Atlantic, Adventure Park USA! First up was Wild West Express. It was a fun ride for sure. Was a bit shaky, but it's a traveler, so that's okay. I loved the little dips and turns! Unfortunately, I realized now that I have no photos of anything else at Adventure Park USA. But that's alright, I guess. That's all from this update! Six Flags America tomorrow!

So I've been reading the past page, and just to confirm, is Batwing down because it's getting new trains? Does that mean I should expect it to be down tomorrow?

Brief update from the park. It's been open for a few hours, and I'm not too terribly impressed. Most of the rides didn't even open until 20 minutes after the posted opening time, and the ride ops I felt were pretty slow and some aren't terribly nice. Has a good collection of coasters however; a bit bummed that Sky Rocket is still down, but I have every other cred and rode the flat rides that I was told are some of the better ones. Not sure how much more time I'll spend here. I'm not trying to sound like I'm complaining too much here; it's not a bad park, just needs some operations improvement. Phantom's Revenge kicks ass and is easily in my Top 5. Jack Rabbit is a very close second however; that double down makes it a favorite of mine. Thunderbolt and Racer are good too.

Depends. If you don't mind uncomfortable restraints and love copious amounts of forces, go towards the back. If you prefer the views the coaster provides and a "smoother" ride, go to the front.

While I'm on my trip, I'll take some photos of Wild West Express and Top Spin at Coney Island!

Hi everyone! This is the first trip report I have ever done, so it might not be up to the standards you'd expect, but I hope you still enjoy it! I'm not big on photo taking, so you won't see many photos, but I'll try to sneak one in here and there. Anyways, this is my 2018 USA trip! I'd rather not write it all out, so I'll just copy and paste the schedule below. Day 0 - Flying out to Cleveland and trip introduction Day 1 - Kennywood and Adventure Park USA Day 2 - Six Flags America Day 3 - Kings Dominion Day 4 - Busch Gardens Williamsburg Day 5 - Carowinds Day 6 - Driving day Day 7 - Kings Island Day 8 - Coney Island Cincinnati Day 9 - Kentucky Kingdom and Holiday World Day 10 - Indiana Beach Day 11 - Chicago Culture Day 12 - Six Flags Great America Day 13 - Michigan's Adventure Day 14 - Cedar Point Day 1 Day 15 - Cedar Point Day 2 As of right now, I'm waiting at Salt Lake City airport briefly before flying out to Cleveland. (the Salt Lake City bit was just a quick hour long layover) I don't feel much of a need to take any photos at an airport, so I won't do so for now. But I look forward to updating this thread! Thanks! -Skittles

That's awesome! How are rides like Twisted Colossus, X2, etc. running? We are just covering the media event at the moment as that is the focus of today. And with an absolutely CraZy amount of confetti, CraZanity is officially OPEN! According to Evan, the ride is fantastic! We highly recommend coming to the park and taking a spin on it! All good! Nice photos!

That's awesome! How are rides like Twisted Colossus, X2, etc. running?

Kennywood, the first park on my trip is next! I fly out to Cleveland 3 days from now!

Using the rank method, based on what I've been to... X2 (1) + Twisted Colossus (2) = 3 Xcelerator (4) + GhostRider (5) = 9 Gold Striker (3) + RailBlazer (7) = 10 Joker (6) + Medusa (10) = 16

Not to sound whiny, but does Joker have nylon wheels again? I rode it yesterday evening with some colleagues who wanted to visit the park with me, and it felt slower, and some of the airtime moments weren't very powerful at all. I actually dropped it down a whole spot. Again, this is not to sound like I'm complaining or annoying, I'm just wondering if anyone else thinks it's been running slower. ^ And yes, to confirm, V2 was still closed yesterday.

Did you forget to add the new coasters in California?