TurnOfTheCentury

I would love an Intamin, but wouldn't probably make sense given their line-up. Not sure a B&M hyper makes sense in light of Skyrush, but maybe a different coaster type? Praying for an RMC.

I have a very specific memory of this (growing up in the Bay Area). It was Marine World (then Marine World/Africa USA) originally. I went once as a kid and remember it as sort of like an old Sea World kind of park: animal focused, but then added a couple additional things, like a waterslides themed to a mountain (tiger mountain slides, I think?) and a few more rides (I can't recall exactly). No coasters ever, I believe. I remember the waterski women, and for some reason I was mesmerized by being able to jump into the "pools" filled with colored plastic balls. With silicon valley slowly expanding in the mid-1980's, the land was sold and marine world moved to Vallejo under a similar model. Eventually, migrated over to what we have now.

If their goal was a more direct path to the water park, they already could have easily done that without removing anything by using the area by Sky Trek Tower (and didn't they actually have an alternate entrance down that way already at one point for 'early access' or something? Sorry, I don't know if they ever had a path (I've only gone to the waterpark a couple of times). I thought the Pictorium was basically "the area by Sky Trek Tower," but I get your point: the path did not require them to tear down anything, could have just circumvented it. I still wonder if they will do both in that area.

Nice report. I actually really came to enjoy Valravyn last trip. I mean, I always liked it, but for some reason I really enjoyed the drop in the back row this time and found the airtime hill and inversions to be a little more interesting. Who knows why. It's funny how some rides can be experienced a little differently from time to time, maybe depending on expectations and mood. As I get older, rides don't necessarily need to be so bat shit crazy to be enjoyable. I will say, however, that although Valravyn's layout is better than Sheikra and Griffon, I think the second drops on those rides are better experiences. Specifically, dropping into a tunnel and into a ravine, respectively, makes the drops feel a little more intense, to me at least. I like all three of them for different reasons. I actually don't get the criticism of the MCBR and what follows. It's not a "mid-course" anything --- it's basically an almost-end-of-the-course brake. The vast majority (what, 80%?) of the ride happens before the MCBR, and it's lots of cool stuff over thousands of feet of track. There is only a little turn /helix and then a little bump hill into the final brake. To me, the "MCBR" on Gatekeeper is almost (but not quite) like the brake on the final tunnel exit from Magnum. So, if you didn't like what preceded the MCBR on Gatekeeper, so be it, but that's where the ride is actually located. I love Gatekeeper as a change of pace, re-rideable, just "fun" ride. The right front outboard seat is cool, with that insane hanging upside down first drop and soaring over the airtime hill, with those views. Must be a sign of old age.

That is the biggest nonsense award ever given to them. I have visited 8 CF parks of the 11 and all were cleaner than SFGAm. Then there are places like Dollywood and BGW, etc.. I thought the original post was a sarcastic comment. SFGAm is my "home" park, and, although I think the ride collection is pretty decent, the cleanliness is not so good, although I think SFMM and SFNE were worse (but I am not a regular at those two, so who knows).

Preach! It's not "fat shaming": roller coaster manufacturers have to work within certain parameters to make sure the seats/ restraints work for a certain range of body types (including super small people) and if you cannot fit it speaks to perhaps needing some dietary (or other) changes IF riding in these coasters is a goal. Too many times I have seen "larger sized guests" (or, more likely, their companion) really lash out at the ride attendants and the park when a restraint doesn't fit, and I can't help but think (1) "well, there is a test seat in front that should have given a pretty good sense that this would be a tight fit" and (2) "no offense, but your body proportions are outside a reasonable standard deviation for the design of this ride -- it fits the VAST majority of people, which is perfectly acceptable for roller coaster designs."

Interesting. Aside from the fact that being pelted by rain at 120mph can't feel good (and be reason enough to close the ride), are there mechanical /operational reasons why Dragster cannot run in rain? Are there issues of traction with the wheels on the track given the acceleration and the very steep vertical incline? Or braking? -- I don't think the magnetic brakes would be affected, but possibly the mechanical ones at the end of the (uncovered) run might be the issue as well? Or is it the millions of sensors that might affected by the rain (even though they probably aren't optical and so shouldn't be affected by rain?) Answer is probably a bit of all of the above....

super cool looking, but it's a pretty radical transformation from a space theme to a can-can coaster.

Oh, I only go to CP maybe once a year, so is it the case that Raptor doesn't run in the rain, or only in limited rain? On the occasion I was referencing, it wasn't light rain: it was a thunderstorm-like pouring (but no lightning).

I'm ashamed that even living in Chicago, I have not yet made it to Holiday World. It's on the list. I thought they generally did a good job keeping their wooden coasters running relatively well -- sounds like Voyage may need some work (probably gets some work every off-season anyway).

Cedar Point is so great about handling weather and keeping open. I still remember driving from Chicago to attend Raptor's opening day and there was a TORRENTIAL rain storm in the evening that cleared out the great majority of guests, but they still ran Raptor right into the teeth of the storm for another hour, despite there being literally no line. Amazing experience to ride that thing soaking wet with the rain in your face -- sounds unpleasant, but it was actually super cool.

I don't know what the work culture is currently anymore but I worked at the park about 10 years ago, and when I tried to do ANYTHING to make the park a bit more pleasant for the guests (sweep under parts of the station that were visibly dirty, scrape gum off things, take care of an overflowed trash can, etc.) I was repeatedly told "that's not your job, we don't do those types of things, don't spend time doing that." It was infuriating especially the fact that most of these things take less than 5 minutes, and they make a HUGE impact on a guests experience. I'd see employees and even "management" walk past trash without even a second thought. Meanwhile at Great Adventure, even security has to walk around with trash-pickers. Must be an entitled Californian thing. Yeah because Disneyland, Knott's, Universal, Sea World etc; are just filthy right? It's mostly a Six Flags thing (although parks vary).

Yeah, I figured it would be pretty unusual to buy an "excess" train -- I don't think they have ever done it, although they figured out on a ride like TTD running 5 trains is (apparently) as efficient as 6. It's just confusing why that third train has never come on board with passengers 3 months down the line . . . .

I think I might have actually drooled on my keyboard staring at those Hyperion pics and description. Looks like a more intense Skyrush (is that possible?) I will always remain a sucker for Intamin hypers -- I wish more parks in the US went that route.

I can't make heads or tails out of these teasers. I thought for sure that the tearing down of the Pictorium meant that they were going to open up a direct path to the water park right from near the Sky Trek tower, which would make a lot of sense, as opposed to needing to walk all the way back to Viper. Perhaps they are doing both: opening a direct path and having a coaster that using some of that land and perhaps the "old" water park entrance pathway. In any event, it's fun that we don't know about SFMM and SFGAm's plans this late in the game.

On a different SV note, I am (somewhat) surprised that we haven't seen 3-train operation on SV with passengers this season? I know some have seen them testing with 3-train operation, and so I assume (but don't know) that it was engineered to run with 3 trains? Is the guess that the opening day "bump" threw off the programming plan -- hard to imagine a software fix would take this long, but it's possible? I just found it odd that CP would run the ride at such comparatively low capacity (looks to be about 720pph) throughout the summer (although Maverick and TTD don't really beat that too often....) IF the intent was to run 3 trains from the get-go.

I loved El Toro but I liked SV far more. I was also impressed how much that turn around section sways, viewable especially from the Fast Pass line. The end of that turn around into the second inversion felt like a right left right zig zag, but upside down. Brilliant! Yeah, SV is certainly a more substantial ride and does a lot more than El Toro. It's hard to believe any ride could diminish El Toro for me because I love it's 1-2-3 ejector air hills/drop beginning, and then the low-to-the-ground turns are a fantastic ending. But, truth be told, as much as I try to avoid comparisons and enjoy each ride for its own merits, SV does, unfortunately, make it El Toro feel a bit like half a ride, just because of the sheer volume of experiences that SV throws at you (which is ridiculous because El Toro is a substantial ride in itself). But, there is room for lots of different types of rides.

I am intrigued by the VR line concept. I can't help but think people will walk into walls, but it looks like they have it well mapped out, even to the tune of stairs. Too bad about Europa's other recent troubles. I went there for the first time last year and thought it was an amazing park. Wodan was great -- it blew my expectations away.

Longtime lurker here .... Just wanted to briefly chime in on the Steel Vengeance praises here. I finally got to ride it last weekend, and, holy crap, I thought it was an amazing ride. For me, almost a perfect blend of airtime and steep drops, coupled with twister type runs through the structure, with interesting inversions, and completely re-rideable and perfectly engineered(for me at least -- I got 8 rides on it in one day). It just sort of did it all for me. I'm not huge into ranking but it's up there with El Toro and Superman SFNE in terms "my kind" of rides. Outstanding. So cool to see big chains like Cedar Fair willing to put in something this aggressive -- and the crowds loved it. Hard to pick a favorite moment, but it probably is that high first inversion coupled with the turnaround into the second inversion. That entire high-turnaround moment just feels insane in terms of speed and movement: at times at night it felt like the train was literally jumping into the right-hand turn out of that first inversion. You can really see the stress it puts on the track up there by watching the structure sway (which it is designed to do). Interestingly, I saw a crew welding something up there with cherry picker last Monday morning -- no big deal, but I'm sure they need to keep an eye on that section. Schilke really went for it!

I was there last weekend and left on Monday by mid-day, but it was already looking (somewhat) surprisingly crowded relatively early on Monday. Like others have chimed in, I think each Monday decreases as we get closer to school getting back in. (I am increasingly cranky with waiting in lines, so I buy a FastPass plus whenever I suspect lines in general will be longer than 30-ish minutes, which is almost all summer. Given that I am not local, it makes all the economic sense in the world (to me) to spend that money to maximize number of rides. Plus, Steel Vengeance is absolutely worth it on that basis alone.)