texcoaster

I'll bet if you find a fundamentalist atheist group, they'll have a support group that will try to cure you of it.

This from an article about the evacuation of Coney Island: What an idiot. Maybe he'll drown and remove himself from the gene pool before he breeds.

Went to SFGAm for the first time since BTR was brand new a few weeks ago (8/6). It was insanely crowded. I got there at 2:30pm and didn't find a parking place until nearly 3:30. I found it to be a well-rounded park with a large collection of mostly-average coasters. BTR: didn't ride, since the line was massive, I had done it before and I was short on time (yes, I had a flash pass) Whizzer: still enjoy this ride. Very nice Eagle: I usually don't like backward woodies, but this one was nice. Braked to death, though. Little Dipper: what an absolute treasure. Spacely's Rockets: credit whoring. Longest wait of the day. Dark Knight: enjoyable Ragin Cajun: OMFG. Maybe it was just a good day, but the thing was spinning out of control. Couldn't even raise my head from the seatbacks. Amazing. V2: love these, and this one delivered Raging Bull: I'm sorry to say, but I'm bored with over-engineered B&M big coasters. The sensation of big drops don't thrill me much anymore and B&Ms tend to be very predictable. Going up into an element, you can say "yep, [coaster] also has one of these elements" and it will feel pretty much the same. It's a nice layout, but anywhere other than the front seat is sorta meh. Viper: a family-friendly Cyclone? Really? Having just ridden Coney's Cyclone again in June, it really hit home how rampy and shallow these drops are. There's little or none of the famous cyclone intensity here... but it's fun as all hell. There's airtime to be had in the second half of the ride and it was giving nice, smooth rides each time I rode it. Pleasant surprise. Superman: just rode the SFGAd version in June. This one is pretty much the same. Iron Wolf: Loved it in '92 and was disappointed to be brutalized by it this year. Was almost like a stand-up Goudurix. Demon: didn't ride. Rode it in '92 and not a fan.

Since I strongly suspect that the flying debris was some kind of object either lost or intentionally hurled from a ride on the opposing train, the solution would seem to be making absolutely, positively sure that there are no loose objects on board. This will increase wait times, however, as riders will have to strip down to their underwear before boarding. To alleviate this, the obvious solution would be to place lockable bins big enough for all your clothes at the front of the queue. Now I know what you're thinking: why not just go all the way nude? But then think about sitting your butt on that seat right after sweaty Bertha just got off the ride. Yeah. Undies it is!

Just an FYI: almightyfire is a woman. And having met her, I'm not surprised that she wasn't impressed much with NTG... I'm actually more surprised that she likes El Toro as much as she does! AMF likes her coasters on the rough side and El Toro doesn't deliver that sort of ride. It does, however, give an out-of-control feeling -- something that is also a bit lacking in the ultra-engineered NTG ride experience. So while I disagree with her "meh" review, I'm not surprised by it... but I still think that a couple more rides on it after it has warmed up might change her mind a little; at least about the lack of a "yank" on the first drop! Ride on, Fire!

almightyfire, I hear ya on the one-ride anticipointment. When we went for media day, we were on one of the first trains out and my initial reaction was "too controlled" (I prefer out-of-control sensations), and "slow." Brian, who rode beside me, felt much the same way. It's not that it was a bad ride, it just didn't do much for me. I wanted it to be so much more. After several rides in different parts of the train and allowing myself to forget what I expected from the ride and just appreciate it for what it is, it grew on me. It also didn't hurt that the trains warmed up and got faster and the airtime went from "ok" to "OMFG". By the time I left for home I had around 30 rides on it and it was a serious contender for my #1 steel coaster. As for El Toro, I finally got to ride it this week. I really prefer it when my favorite ride is not the same as nearly everyone else's favorite ride, but there was no denying that ET has the goods. Three rides clenched the #1 spot for me, no question. I'll echo the rest of the group and suggest that you give it another chance, preferably when there's an ERT event that will let you ride it a lot, especially in the evening.

I didn't get to ride I-305 until today, so I don't know about the version 1.0 or the 1.1 with trims on the first drop... but a front seat ride confirmed that there were no brakes at all on the drop. You could see where they used to be bolted down, but the brakes are missing now. Lots of graying-out on the big turn, but not any worse than the upward helix on Titan. The one disappointment was the fairly heavy brake going up into the first bunny hop near the station. They were still fun, but you can just imagine the airtime there would be without the brake there. Volcano had an issue with one of the trains early in the day. They filled one train, then a mechanic worked on the other one every time it came back to the station. It took him about an hour to fix the problem, during which they loaded only one of the two trains. I don't think the queue ever recovered, even after both trains were working.

I went Monday and parking was $20! Also, I am an avowed Voyage fanboy. The only Intamin Plug-n-play I'd ridden was Heide Park's Colossus and I was underwhelmed by it. I very much preferred Voyage to that one and expected the same to be true of El Toro. Not so. El Toro is amazing, intense, fast, and very re-ridable. After three rides on it, I gotta say it's edged out Voyage as my #1 coaster. Voyage was running really well last year when I rode it (even better than my first rides several years ago), but Toro just kept the intensity up like very few rides I've ever experienced. Now we just need a plug-n-play coaster that's really long and has multiple tunnels.

Just went to the park (and going back tonight for the woodie side of the park, fireworks, and SSS) and the crowds weren't too bad. Dominator was a walk-on, other rides were 10min or so.... but I-305 was only running one train. I asked if they would put it on later in the day and the ride op said, "we only run two trains on weekends." WTF? The wait got to nearly 45min while everything else was 15min or less. Seems odd they'd do that for the ride that they still put on the front of their brochures and maps. Great ride, though. Waited an extra 15min for the front seat the second time and it was awesome.

Do the Boardwalk Bullet, and right after your milestone ride you can sit down to a nice steak dinner literally just a few inches from the coaster to celebrate the achievement.

I had the Sky Swat at my home park, rode it once, was completely overwhelmed with meh and never rode it again.

Ditto on the return of the first drop and all of the awesomeness that it was. My one ride on it pre-butchering is mostly a blur, but I remember that at the midpoint of the drop when it twisted slightly and got steeper, the ENTIRE TRAIN started spewing profanities and reaching for the lapbars. Delicious. As for the fan curve, I'd say leave it low like it is. The train crawled over it originally, but the lower version (with the replacement of the original first drop) might just give some floater air. Topper track or extreme makeover? While I would LOVE to see the extreme NTAG style makeover on Rattler (especially doing something radical with the helix), I'm guessing that it will be a topper track project. They've already toppered some of it and it seems odd that they'd go through that trouble this year just to rip it all off next year and do Iron Horse. I'm thinking that the topper this year was a test and if it goes well (as it seems to be), the rest of the ride will get it for next year - with a few modifications to the layout, but not a totally new layout like NTAG. Just speculatin'

Two words: Boardwalk Bullet Can you imagine if that little coaster became consistently smooth and gave "rain ride" quality rides each time? It was running really well the other day when I was there (62 seconds lift-to-brake), but I hate the (very real) possibility each time that I'll drive down there and it will be a crap day at nearly 70 seconds. Low 60's on that ride are top-10 worthy. Low 70's on that ride are brutal, bone-jarring crap.

Actually, it's a play-on-words for Judge Roy Bean, "the law west of the Pecos" Early signage for the coaster read: Judge Roy Scream, the awe west of the Pecos

That's not as bad as SFOG claiming that Mindbender was the first triple-looping coaster!

The thing about Bullet that makes it a bit unusual is that the "park" is mostly a bunch of restaurants with a few flat rides and a badass coaster. Bullet is the only coaster I know of where people stow their doggie bags from the meal they just ate in the cubbies... or wait in the queue while finishing their beer or margarita or whatever. Big meal + alcohol + coaster less than 20 ft from the restaurant exit = somebody is gonna puke on the brake run a few times per day. Since the ride is mostly occupied by ride ticket holders rather than POP wristband wearers, if they shut it down for 30-60 minutes every time it gets messy, they lose revenue. I've seen a LOT of folks stumble out of Salt Grass, hear the coaster running, and say to the rest of their party, "C'mon, it won't take long, let's ride this before we go."

^^I've also ridden the GaClone (many years ago) and it was freaking AWESOME. Topper Track that thing and take the trims off and you've already got a great Cyclone. A good Cyclone (Ga, Tx, or otherwise) is a wicked, intense experience when it's properly maintained and running well. Notice you don't hear anyone wishing for an Iron Horse Coney Cyclone?

Glad to see that Judge wasn't "too rough." You must've ridden near the front. Two weeks ago I rode the back seat and experienced a ride awful enough to end my SFOT day early. Jackhammering almost as bad as SOB on every single drop.

You're totally mistaken. The first tunnel has a few lights between the rails at the bottom of the drop inside. The second tunnel has tracer lights on the ceiling. The third tunnel has no lights, but has in-the-dark airtime. The only difference I noticed between media day and two weeks ago when I went back was that all three tunnels were misty.

There is no way that the B&M coasters should be lumped together. The reason there are "fave X" categories are because of production model coasters that have the same stats and layout. The B&Ms are similar in that they have lots of hills and no loops, but are otherwise very different. If you're going to lump all of them together, you might as well add Magnum, Bizarro, GeForce, etc into that group as well and call it "Fave non-looping steelie" As for me, I know it would be a bit more intimidating, but I'd prefer not to have those groupings at all. Just because a coaster is one of several that share the same stats and layout, it doesn't mean that the ride experience is similar enough to pick just one of them and toss the rest out. A good case in point is Vekoma boomerangss. Just choosing my favorite boomer for the list makes it seem totally skewed in Vekoma's favor. The one at Fiesta Tx is actually a pretty good ride. Headbanging is minimal, the setting is nice, the trains are (somewhat) comfy, and it ranks somewhere in the 50s on my list. Others, however, like the one at SFOT are waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay down on my list. Not only do I not like them enough to hit the top 100, I don't even like them. But when I put out my list for the poll, there's "Fave boomerang" right there in the 50s with no way for me to indicate how much I loathe those rides in general.

I don't think that's it. Top Thrill Dragster has lapbars, and Kingda Ka has over-the-shoulder-restraints. Enough people prefer the lapbars that they chose Dragster over Ka. Yes, that's a big gap. But there are some (including me) to whom restraints are a really big deal. And this probably answers the previously-asked question "Why don't looping coasters rank higher?" There are very few lapbar-only coasters with inversions and many of those are clones. Personally, Mr Freeze and Poltergeist went from near the bottom of my list to the top 25 when they traded out the earbashers for tummycrunchers. Those still aren't great restraints, but they at least allow you to enjoy the ride instead of just enduring the ride. With a similar restraint system and decent trains, even the Arrow mega-loopers could find some love. Goudurix might even move up a few notches.

Anxious to hear all the reviews from TGBash in a few hours!

Not going after all... would only be able to stay a little past the morning ERT and I just can't justify the gas expense for such a short day. Med bills and car payment both due this week. Crap. Those going to CoasterCon in June, I'll see you all there!

Since I'll have to leave during the day to drive back to Houston, I'll pass on the FP... but absolutely, if this is your first time to SFOT and you want to ride everything, then it would be worth it. Some lines (Titan, NTAG, Batman, Shock Wave) can really move well and even long lines don't take forever. Other queues (Freeze, Flashback, La Vibora, Runaway Mtn) take freaking FOREVER even with a short queue.

For me, MF's drop does absolutely nothing for me. At all. I was really looking forward to it, but the lift is too fast to build up anticipation and the breakover angle into the steep part felt over-engineered to me. I get very little sensation of freefall on it. That's why I was so blown away by New Texas Giant's first drop. In fact, I told the prez of the park on media day that Giant's first drop was what MF's wanted to be, but didn't quite achieve. He said, "that's the kind of thing we love to hear!"