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imbordisux

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  1. I wonder this about many coasters, but wouldn't it be more efficient to have people unload in the brake-run than having them return to the station? Especially since, on most coasters, the brake-run simple extends back from the loading area (as opposed to where the brake-run is curved around the back)? Granted, I'm no engineer, but it would seem that the only problem with that idea is that the little cubby-holes would still be near the loading area. Surely, though, they could just put the cubbies on wheels or on a track (much like sliding glass doors) so that the appropriate cubbies could be repositioned between locations, no?
  2. For what it's worth, I was born with a deformed spine (stenosis), and the "B:TR" clones are the only rides that have ever caused me pain. Or at least, pain due to the intensity of the G-forces, not like a rough wooden coaster or anything. Luckily for me, it's rare that the pain is too intense to enjoy this hobby, but there are definitely times when I'll do one lap on "Batman" and have to call it a day.
  3. I only rode it once (well, several times in one day) in 2006, but I absolutely LOVED "Thunder Run" at SFKK.
  4. Agreed, 100% - I love B&M Hypers, and would love to see HP get one. Then again, I'm also not really a fan of Intamin; I love "Stormrunner", and like "El Toro" a lot (but not as much as "The Voyage"), but don't really care for "Superman: Ride of Steel" (SFNE), "Kingda Ka", "Intimidator 305", "Fahrenheit", or "Possessed" (and I'm sure I'm missing a few). Maybe I'm just weird, but I think there's a certain "majesty" to B&M coasters, a certain beauty and perfection to their rides, and think that a B&M Hyper would be a better fit (both in look and ride-experience) for the park. Your mileage may vary, of course.
  5. Really sad to hear this - all of their flat rides were cranked to 11.
  6. Call me crazy, but a good Mouse can feel a lot more dangerous and out-of-control than the largest, most "extreme" rides on Earth.
  7. The "Rolling Thunder Hill" on El Toro - the train seems to completely disappear from under you.
  8. We were looking towards I305's lift-hill from the Eiffel Tower; we tried to walk directly towards it, thus bringing us into the water-park. When we turned back, we saw the large "Volcano" sign to the right, figured that it was the beginning of Volcano's queue, and - since Volcano was closed that day - figured that there was no point in walking towards what we thought was the queue line. We figured we had gone too far (noting that the entrance on the map and the "entrance" in real life were not matching up), and headed back to make sure we didn't miss something. We were kicking ourselves once we found the correct path next to "Volcano", but it still seemed to be poorly referenced on the signs and maps. Fair enough. Like Robb Alvey, I've never experienced a gray-out on a coaster, and was absolutely shocked that I experienced it twice - were the gray-outs more intense before the trims? While I didn't care for the ride as a whole, that gray-out spot was definitely a very fun "moment". It was running two on Saturday. No clue if that was the exception or the rule, though.
  9. First of all, I want to say "thank you" to everybody that implied I was either stupid or lying; I realize that my review may have sounded harsh, but there was no reason for personal attacks. For instance, I made mention of having trouble finding the station for "Intimidator", which somehow got twisted into "not being able to see the bright red lift-hill". I was wrong about "Hurler" and "Avalanche", I definitely remember them now. "Rebel Yell", however, did not have the sign up; the metal supports on the side were there, but not the Rebel Yell sign itself. I know there was at least another "major" ride or two without a sign at the beginning of the queue (as opposed to on the Station, which is not always visible from the entrance). It's not like we didn't see the coaster, we were just having trouble finding the correct path to get to the station. Actually, no, I didn't know the layout - personally, I try NOT to see much of coasters that I plan to ride. Granted, I saw the promo art and some full-circuit photos, but it's not like I traced them from beginning to end. And since when does "knowing the layout" equate to knowing how good or bad a ride will be? Isn't that one of the things Robb and Elissa always say in "Debut" threads, that we shouldn't judge the ride until we actually ride it? Fifteen years is a long time; I remember bits and pieces (I spent most of the day riding "Anaconda"), but it's not fair to automatically assume what I should and shouldn't remember. I also enjoyed different rides and food at thirteen, and Also, your statement about how everything is "exactly the same since 1994" seems to be in stark contrast to those that say the park has been on a steep decline in that same amount of time. So maybe I'm not the only one who isn't remembering correctly. Thank you for being more civilized than the previous poster. Anyway, I definitely may have been overly negative in my initial post, especially since the entire experience was still fresh in our minds. With two days of rest, however, I realize that some of my frustration with the park was exacerbated by the heat and sardine-like crowds in the water-park; lots of parks have dead-ends, but we happened to be having a bad day, and were running low on patience when it came to getting from Point A to Point B. Honestly, no, we didn't notice it - when we saw it on the horizon, we just assumed it was the start of the queue and headed back. ASS-U-ME, I guess, but I don't think we could have been the only coaster-nerds to make a stupid mistake like that. I was just surprised at some of the insults and disdain from some of the posters for what was an honest mistake. Still, I do think it's stupid to put what is basically a large "Begin Queue Here" sign in the middle of a walkway. See, we're from Long Island, SFGAdv is our home park, and while the NY/NJ/Philly area isn't known for their manners, we've never experienced people (employees AND customers) like we did that day. Again, that was just our impatience over the "perfect storm of negativity" - we wanted to eat indoors, and wanted it NOW (well, "then"), we probably should have just been more patient. It was actually nice to read a polite dissent, thank you for your replies. Just because a place doesn't have the money, themed surroundings, or gigantic rides of a "Disney" or "Universal" park doesn't mean that the staff can't be friendly and efficient - that's like saying that it's acceptable for a waiter to mistreat you at an inexpensive restaurant. I touched on this above, but let me explain: we tried to make a bee-line for the lift-hill, but wound-up stuck in the dead-end that is their water-park, which, due to the crowds (April vs. July), took far more than just five minutes to get through. We began by following the lift-hill, causing us to walk towards the water-park; we pass "Tornado" and reach "Baja Bends". We still see the lift-hill on the horizon, but seeing that we can't cross at this point, we continue right, under "Rebel Yell". From here, we turn left, but just see "Tidal Wave Bay"; this, too, doesn't have a path towards "Intimidator", so we continue following the path up and to the right. We eventually come to the end, so we turn around; after making it out of the virtual sardine-can, we began heading down and to the left, towards "Volcano" - of course, as we round the corner, we see the giant "Volcano" sign, which we took to mean was the beginning of the queue line. We look at the map, and can't figure out why the line for "Volcano" seems to start further back on the map than it does in reality; we figure we headed too far, and try to head back to the right, following the lift-hill, but we end-up in the water-park again. (Mental thought: This sucks!) So we go back down, see what we think is the "Volcano" queue sign again, and head up towards "Backlot" and "Anaconda"; FINALLY, we realize that what we thought was the "Volcano" queue sign wasn't the actual queue, and find our way down and around to "FoF" and "Intimidator". With stops for drinks, a few questions for the (non-helpful) staff, and the crowd, it added up - I don't know the exact over/under, but let's just say it was "roughly" an hour. And the map was of absolutely no help - nowhere else on the map is the walk-way dark gray, why would anyone assume that that was supposed to represent the proper walking-path for the public? Hey, people make mistakes, but the not-so-subtle jab at our intelligence was really uncalled for; you even state in your Policy that "personal attacks will not be tolerated". That's what we did, you end-up in the water-park if you do that.
  10. Hey everyone - been a long time since I've posted anything (mainly because it's been years since we've gotten a chance to venture outside of our general "local park" radius), but I wanted to get something off my chest: "King's Dominion" absolutely SUCKS! Ok, let me back up a bit. Today is my wife's 30th birthday, and to celebrate, we spent the weekend at "King's Dominion" and "Busch Gardens, Williamsburg". Now, granted, the heat got to us rather quickly and made us somewhat irritable, so it's possible that our unhappiness wouldn't have been so extreme on a cooler day, but we both came out of "King's Dominion" feeling like it was the worst park we'd ever been to. I had been to "King's Dominion" about fifteen years ago, and was excited to go back; now I feel like I never want to again. A few of our nits: Poor Layout - Maybe it was just us, but for such a large park, there seemed to be an awful lot of dead-ends and empty space; the lack of "short-cuts" and connecting paths from one section of the park to the other made every walk inordinately long. Poor Map - Upon entering the park, we went straight for "Dominator", since it was the closest to the entrance; after that, we literally spent an HOUR trying to figure out how to get to "Intimidator"! We saw it on the horizon, we knew it was behind "Anaconda", but just could NOT find the proper path over there; only after VERY careful inspection of the map did we notice the narrow passageway needed to get there, hidden behind drawings and text for "Volcano". We've been to a good number of parks, and have never had so much difficulty finding our way around. Lack of Signage - Ok, so we couldn't find the proper paths on the map, we'll just follow the signs in the park, right? Wrong. There was very little signage in the park [nor was the staff too helpful, more on that later], and even once we got the general vicinity of a ride, we couldn't believe how many signs were either misleading, or just outright missing! For instance, we wanted to ride "Avalanche", which is next to "Volcano"; we headed down that path, until it became obvious that we were heading straight into "Volcano". Well, "Volcano" was closed that day, so we weren't going to bother walking towards it, right? Wrong. Turns out that you're supposed to go under the big "Volcano" entrance sign in order to get to "Avalanche". Huh? Why would you have to GO THROUGH ONE RIDE'S ENTRANCE TO GET TO A DIFFERENT RIDE??? Even worse than that, several of the rides had NO sign at the beginning of the queue! Off the top of my head, I believe there were three different coasters ["Avalanche", "Rebel Yell", and "Hurler"?] that had the usual "Warning" signs ("Do not ride if..."), but they didn't even have the name of the ride! And how about, if you're supposed to pick-up your on-ride photos by the Stroller Rental facility, you put a sign up at the Stroller Rental facility? People kept telling us that we were supposed to pick them up "BY" Stroller Rental, not "AT"! Blacktop - Just what you want to be walking around on all day: Hot, reflective blacktop. Rude, Inefficient, and just downright Depressing Staff - Obviously, I can't lump every single person into this group, there are always going to be good and bad employees, but the ratio seemed to be WAY off. We had the same problems with rudeness and inefficiency when we went to "King's Island" four years ago (while it was still a "Paramount" park), so I assume it has something to do with the chain - granted, it's been four years, but old habits die hard, I'm sure many of the same managers are still working there. The biggest shocker of all, though, had to be the complete lack of enthusiasm from the ride-ops. Hey, I understand being depressed about having to work the long-forgotten "Hurler" while others get to work the bright new shiny "Intimidator", but how about a little professionalism? So many of the ride-ops were obviously bored out of their skulls, and made no attempts to hide it; they were slumped over, slow, and having idiotic conversations over the speakers. Their miserable attitudes often created a miserable environment. Rude, SMELLY People - Class is not about color. Hell, class isn't even about money (you can be rich, but still lack class; likewise, you can be poor, but carry yourself well). So when I say that the majority of the clientele was very low-class, please don't think that I'm commenting on anything other than all the loud, obnoxious, pushing, shoving, running, line-cutting, bumping-into-you-or-stepping-on-your-foot-and-running-away-without-apologizing, cursing-in-front-of-little-kids, sh*t-heads that were all over EVERY INCH OF THIS PARK! Also, note to all water-park fans: Water Slides are no substitute for a shower! Chlorine is not an acceptable replacement for soap! Disorganization and Lack of Punctuality - Again with the photo pick-up at the Stroller Rental facility, we made an appointment to pick-up our on-ride photo at 6:00. We happened to get there at about 5:58, and our photos weren't there. 6:00, still not there. 6:05, the woman behind the counter (after some eye-rolling) calls the ride-photo-taker-people; finally, at 6:15, we get our photos. Is it really that hard? No "Fast Pass" - Ok, I can see both sides of the argument on this one; why give somebody special service just because they happen to be able to afford it? However, when you only have a few hours to do a park, or would rather pay for the "Fast Pass" instead of an extra day's admission and night at the hotel, is it really that bad to think that a park should offer that option? Dilapidated Looking - So much of the park is ugly and run-down, that it really made it depressing to be there; you could just see the story in your head, that of a once-thriving business that has fallen on hard times as of late. How about a fresh coat of paint every once in a while? How about restoring some of the busted wood on the ramps? Or how about doing something smart, like tearing down that RIDICULOUSLY long queue line leading to "Rebel Yell"? On a hot day like this past Saturday, my wife and I agreed that we didn't want to do a second lap on "Rebel Yell", just because we didn't feel like walking through that whole queue, and we heard several others say the same. Lack of AC - I may be wrong, but I felt like there was a severe shortage of indoor eateries; a break from the hot weather would have been nice. Lack of Decent Food - Again, maybe I'm an idiot, but it seemed like there was an awfully small selection of food - do they offer anything besides Burgers, Hot Dogs, Pizza, and Chicken Nuggets? And I don't mean "snack" food, I mean stuff that would actually constitute a meal? "Just Not Worth It" - Overall, though, we could have dealt with most of the above, even in the extreme heat, if it had some killer rides. Unfortunately, in both of our opinions, it just didn't deliver. "Intimidator" began well, with a huge drop and the blur-inducing first turn, but after that, it just meandered around; the air hills didn't provide much air, and the "Twists" were about the lamest elements I've ever experienced. Do people really like helices that much, that Intamin felt that just spinning around in circles would be more fun than actually using all that built-up speed to deliver some insane air? "El Toro" is one of the best air-time machines on Earth, why did this feel like such a step backwards? And really, if you're going to be putting OTSRs on your hyper coaster anyway, why not just add some inversions? Yes, yes, I know, it's supposed to be a Hyper, but look at how well "Stormrunner" does at blurring categories, a barrel-roll or two would have been much better than those pain-inducing "Twists". We enjoyed several of the rides ("Intimidator", "Dominator", "Rebel Yell", "Hurler"), but weren't blown away by any; we're both upset that we missed "Volcano" (it was closed that day), but I doubt one ride would have swayed our opinion too much. Honestly, my favorite ride was actually "Avalanche", THAT'S the type of wild, out-of-control ride I love; it always seemed to be going too fast for its own good, like we were about to fall over the side, it was an amazing illusion of danger and chaos. This will probably sound ridiculous, but it actually reminded me of "The Voyage", the type of ride that really felt like a run-away train that was threatening to tip over at any second. Overall, though, for the amount we spent on admission and food, it felt like a huge rip-off. So, all that out off my chest, I have to ask - are we being too hard on the park? Did we happen to catch it on a bad day? Were we just cranky from the heat? Because I gotta be honest, right now, I feel really guilty about taking my wife to such a crap-hole for her 30th birthday. Sure, we did "BGW" the next day (which was AWESOME, even with the same horrible heat), but I think we'd both feel better if someone could relieve our minds of this incredible disappointment that very nearly ruined what should have been a great celebration.
  11. Was browsing around some manufacturers' websites, an stumbled upon this one at the "Huss" site: http://www.hussrides.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=86&Itemid=137 Obviously not meant to be a huge thrill-ride that caters to hardcore nerds like us, but I thought it was a pretty good idea. Could definitely see a lot of young kids being excited by this.
  12. Personally, I think it looks amazing, and would love to ride it when it opens, the fact that it's an Intamin concerns me - it's gonna break down a LOT. Not to mention that they don't exactly have the best track record when it comes to safety, and, as much as I want to think that there's no way the boat could possibly fall off the elevator system ("It has special safety features!", "They would never release a product that could malfunction that badly!", "You just don't understand their engineering!"), it really wouldn't surprise me if, somehow someway, it actually happened. It might be 1 in a million, but say the kicker-wheels or whatever pushed the boat forward while climbing the tower? Hey, a little girl just had her feet cut off on a drop-tower, there's always some convoluted, "impossible" chain of events that could happen that is overlooked during testing. That said, I'd be more than willing to take the chance - that thing looks bad ass!
  13. "You" as in "anyone that posts on this board", or "you" as in me specifically? Cuz then I'd feel extra special. Thanks for the info, everyone.
  14. Wanted to catch you there, I know it's on one of the tours you're doing. Any idea of the exact day?
  15. I'm not the only person to have misread the title, right?
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