WestCoasterKing

Just because you can...

Good point. CF has moved beyond just being CP. They want all of their parks to do well and make money. And parks 600 miles away in North Carolina and Canada or even further away like in California, pose no threat to CP. Most people don't travel very far to visit a park. They prefer to stay close to home. And if they can stay home and essentially still go to CP (albeit under a different name) then that's a win for CF. They are making money on people who would never travel more than a couple hundreds miles let alone three times that.

I've experienced the launch on 'Superman' at SFDK and it was rather lame-o actually. The ride itself was fun, after the launch. But the kick and sudden burst of speed on rides like 'Monty' and 'Xcelerator', and yes even 'Complete Throttle' is part of what makes those rides what they are. Amazing kick-donkey thrill machines. Even 'Manta' and 'Pony Express' have a pretty good little kick to them, and they are around half the speed of 'Superman'. The difference has got to be the sudden acceleration from a dead stop vs the getting up the speed. 'Superman' may be 62 mph, but that's not from a dead stop, but rather a roll-forward after the first backward launch up a hill. I'd never really thought of that before now.

An underwater dive would fit in nicely with the theme of a bird of prey, which dives into the water to hunt, plus the track we've seen appears to be a brownish color, and historically the Ziz is brownish in color, AND the park already has two of the three Biblical beasts. So whether it's a dive or wing or something new, I'm pretty sure the name will be 'Ziz'. But I too think dive coaster. I wasn't convinced at first just based on the one piece of track, but as someone pointed out we can use the 'Vortex' track that is lying right next to it (coincidence?) as a reference point and the B&M track does appear to be wider than your average B&M track.

3-part launch? You mean like 'GaleForce' and 'Sky Rocket 2'? What other rides do this? I personally wouldn't include 'Complete Throttle' at SFMM to be in that group. I consider that to be a multi-launch like 'Manta' or 'Maverick'. But I think hydraulic launches like 'Montezooma's Revenge' and 'Xcelerator' kick ass over LSM/LIM launches. I've never been on an air thrust, but if they are anything like a mechanical launch (and from what I've seen they are even more intense) then I can't wait to try one. Are there any in the U.S.? I don't realistically see myself ever getting to Japan or China. I mean ever in my lifetime.

By the way, Knott's moved the Boardwalk cam again. Now we can all of HangTime except the top of the lift, and even part of Silver Bullet's lift hill. And now we can watch some station construction. EDIT: I replaced the screenshot with an afternoon shot which has more sunlight shining directly on HangTime. So beautiful.

Knott's has among the highest attendance in the chain and they keep putting in low-cap coasters, so I don't know if such things matter to Ouimet. Knotts has barely the highest attendance in the chain compared to wonderland, in fact this was the first year they beat us. NOW with that being said. Wonderland is open for 5.5 months a year and Knotts is open for 12 months. So basically the same attendance numbers in half the time is insane!!! Good point. I didn't think about that. By the way, I had a thought regarding an earlier comment I made. I said if (and we don't know anything, but if) they are going with 'Ziz' then only a wing or flying coaster would fit with the theme of a sky beast. But then I backtracked and said that if that was case then Leviathan should have been a water coaster or something. So I had a thought. What if both 'Behemoth' and 'Leviathan' do fit their their theme even they are both hyper coasters? (Yes, I know I keep calling 'Leviathan' and 'Fury 325' and 'Intimidator 305' hyper-gigas because I consider hyper a style not a height, and I'm not going to stop.) So I went on Google Earth and YouTube and looked at both rides carefully. 'Behemoth', though the shorter of the two is BIG. It is a classic long out and back hyper coaster almost entirely composed of huge airtime hills, with two little helix's at the end. Just what you picture when you think of a huge land beast (some people think Behemoth was a dinosaur). 'Leviathan' is also long and has some big airtime hills, but it is a little more twisty and sinewy, just like a sea serpent. So a dive coaster could easily fit the theme of sky beast, not only because of the dive elements and the loops and twisty inversions, just like a bird of prey performs while flying, but if it in fact does turn out to be a giga, then it would be the tallest ride in the park and would dominate the sky.

Coaster Fanatics seems convinced it's a dive based on the thickness of the spine. I don't see how you can tell though. [youtu_be] [/youtu_be]

Knott's has among the highest attendance in the chain and they keep putting in low-cap coasters, so I don't know if such things matter to Ouimet.

If they do they do go with 'Ziz' then it would only make sense to be a wing or flying coaster. A dive coaster just wouldn't fit the theme of beast of the air and Ouimet is all about the theme. 'Leviathan' and 'Behemoth' fit their themes because they are both so huge. I mean, sure you could make the argument that if they were all about the theme then 'Leviathan' should have been a water coaster or something, but that would have been lame. However, there is one more possibility, though unlikely. A strata hyper. Being super tall could fit with the lord of the air name, if that is indeed what they go with. But three hypers in one park could be seen as overkill. That's why I think wing or flying. Then again 'Centurion' would fit a giga dive. I guess we'll just have to wait and see. Boy, speculation is fun. But I'll be done now. Best not to overdue it. All we seem to know is that it sure seems to be a B&M based on those pics, unless it's a Giovalona or Intamin has returned to their old track style. Nah. It's likely a B&M.

There's nothing wrong with Viper that some new trains can't fix. GL, well... BTW has Viper ever had any track work done? It's nearly 30 years old. At what age do most steelies start track replacements? I mean Hulk was barely 16 years old, but Space Mountain DL was 26.

But mythical isn't exactly Canadian either.

What are the odds this will finally be the coaster they use the name 'Centurion' for? Or maybe 'Ziz'?

Nice little family coaster they got there. Joking. Looks pretty intense actually. I wish we could see more of something like that here.

Morgan came straight out of Arrow, correct? I've always loved that classic Arrow/Vekoma/Morgan track design. But I think Morgan is my favorite simply because the cross ties are so impossibly thin looking which gives it a sleaker profile. I really hope more parks invest in the Chance HyperGTX so this company can better get the exposure it deserves. But back to S&S. I think they should embrace their Arrow roots more and return to the Arrow track design in the future. I know that might not work for a compact ride like Gale force, but I dream of the day S&S starts building real roller coasters again.

^ I can't wait to see the rock work and themeing.

^ Rolling around with a flashlight. Funniest thing thing I've heard in forever.

For me it's the puke factor. I had the same problem with X2. There aren't even many flats I can go on. (It's actually the reason I was given a PDQ from military service). For example, I can't even be a passenger in a car, especially on mountain roads. I have to be the driver or I have to sit in the front passenger seat and stare straight forward with air blowing air on my face. Good thing I'm a coaster enthusiast. Oddly enough spinning coasters such as Sierra Sidewinder don't effect me. Maybe because the spins are so quick and ride is over so fast, as opposed to flats which can go just go on and on for minutes.

^ They need to turn it a little bit to the right so we see more of HangTime and that overbanked turn and less of the street. No one cares about cars on the street do they? Other than that is angle is fine. We can see HangTime's drop from Ghost Town cam.

My list is rather limited because I have yet to go beyond the Rockies. So I will include closed rides (*) and the former name of a relocated ride (**) if I have to. And in some cases my entry may be the only one with that letter that I have been on. Aftershock - Silverwood Big Thunder Mountain - Disneyland Cannibal - Lagoon Deja Vu * - Magic Mountain E Flight Deck - California's Great America GhostRider - Knott's Berry Farm Half Pipe - Elitch Gardens I Jaguar! - Knott's Berry Farm Kong - Discovery Kingdom L Montezooma's Revenge - Knott's Berry Farm Ninja - Magic Mountain O Psyclone (*) - Magic Mountain Q Revolution - Magic Mountain Silver Bullet - Knott's Berry Farm (tie) Sierra Sidewinder - Knott's Berry Farm (tie) Twisted Colossus - Magic Mountain U Viper - Magic Mountain Wicked - Lagoon Xcelerator - Knott's Berry Farm Z-Force aka Flashback (**) - Magic Mountain

Then have I got the Solution for you! Chicken to Go right next door. Same chicken and fixins. And not super expensive either. At least not last time I was there.

Sea World SD and hopefully Knott's.

^ but why wait until now to install those supports?

Are they still installing supports? And on the bottom no less?

Apparently Sol Spin is stuck in the air, according to someone who just posted on Facebook who is actually on the ride. EDIT. Apparently it was last night, but he posted this evening. The wording made it sound current. My bad. But still. Broke down again. I'm convinced that spot is cursed. They could install anything in that area and it would break down. If they were to build a restaurant it burn down. If they made it a planter the flowers would die. Heck even a water fountain would probably break down.