imbordisux

My thoughts exactly. I love airtime as much as the next person, but IMO, what makes a coaster - especially a wooden coaster - great is that violent, out-of-control feeling of being thrown wildly in all directions.

Red Hot Chili Peppers

I have a couple different ways of answering the question. Hulk Hogan is, without question, the biggest star of all time, and Steve Austin was the biggest draw of all time. I consider Shawn Michaels to be the greatest in-ring performer of all time, and one of greatest mic-workers ever, as well. However, his homo-erotic looks and mannerisms made it very difficult for casual fans (especially males) to fully get behind him, and, thus, his runs on top of the company completely bombed. Overall, though, Mr. Perfect was my absolute favorite; he was great in the ring, on the mic, and was lucky enough to get handed an incredible gimmick.

I always loved the commercials for Viper at "SFGAdv". Those heart-line rolls looked so awesome... too bad the ride sucked so hard...

Can I request a little "Red Hot Chili Peppers"? Seriously, what would be more appropriate for one of your videos than Around the World, or their remake of Love Rollercoaster? Funk, Punk, Rap, Rock, Ballads, 60's, 70's, Latin, Ska, Pop... they do it all. Yes, I'm a fan.

To anybody who has never been to "Rye Playland", GO!!!

That's part of the ride, isn't it? You know, as a little extra "surprise" built into the cycle?

"Astroland", definitely, and I've mentioned "Rye Playland" several times as a park that runs their rides at 110%.

Oh, you are f'ing KIDDING me - they actually closed an entire PARK because of a chance of rain? What, do they actually believe the common misconception that if it rains, the trains will somehow "slip" off the track and plummet to the ground? Jeez, sorry for the piss-poor management; if it means anything to you, it really is a fun park, even if the people running it have proven themselves to be so stupid as hell. I don't know if it's "ten-hour drive" good, but if you're ever in the area again - and the weather holds up - you should check it out. Damn... that really does suck.

We were waiting for you to post the "SFNE" installment before we replied - we really love that park, and, seeing as we seem to have similar taste (we agree that "Knoebel's" sucks), we were curious as to what you thought. Nice to know you had a good time. Quick q, though, did you hit Catapult at all? I prefer some of S&S's other flats more, but it's a unique ride, and I like it a lot (Monica won't go near it, though). And how did you like Pandemonium? We just hit "Lake Compounce" for the first time a few weeks ago, we liked it a lot; Boulderdash was great, we love the "Screaming Swings", and Wildcat, while disliked by most, quickly shot itself up my list with its ridiculous stand-up air-time. Can't wait to hear your thoughts. As always, awesome TR, great photos and captions.

Completely agreed, the 1st-gen Intamins were the only ones that felt like you were actually "falling freely", letting gravity do all the work - every other "tower"-type ride just doesn't feel right, like you're either going too fast or too slow, like you're being pushed or pulled, even when you're not. Sure, you can be rocketed down, but that's not as scary as the feeling of going to sit down, and falling because the chair isn't there, ya know?

Glengarry GlenRoss

Maybe I'm an insensitive a-hole, but that's hysterical.

I was thinking of Superman: The Escape. Guess it depends on how powerful they want it to be, though it seems kinda pointless to use the system if they don't use it to its fullest potential.

Just gonna throw my opinion in here: Upon seeing the conceptual art, I wasn't all that thrilled about this coaster; call me crazy, but the lay-out just doesn't "wow" me (aside from the beyond-vertical drop), and upon hearing that it would feature two launches and short trains, I started thinking of The Italian Job, and how disappointed I was with it. However, the more I think about it, the more I think this will be a really enjoyable ride; while the launch-mechanism and trains might be different, the twisted track reminds me of Storm Runner, and I think we can all agree that, if it's like Storm Runner, that would be a very, very good thing. And that beyond-vertical drop after the upwards launch? That's gonna be a hell of a sensation - you're going to be THROWN out of your seat like a baseball out of a pitcher's hand. Overall, I don't have the very highest of high expectations, as I'm still not completely sold on the lay-out, but there's enough there to keep me interested.

Ok, this is NOT CONFIRMED, but here is a bit of speculation that was posted at "Screamscape": If that's true... I dunno, doesn't really peak my interest too much at this point. It's like The Italian Job with a "Eurofighter"-esque drop. Guess we'll find out soon how accurate this is.

We're going to be doing a bunch of Cedar Fair and Paramount parks next year, and I just wanted to double-check something: a 2007 season-pass bought at a Cedar Fair park will be valid for all Paramount parks, correct? And vice-versa? Just want to make sure that, with the merger, this will hold true, and that they won't be treated as separate entities, or have any stupid rules like the CP/GL combo-pass which costs more when bought at CP or GL.

I love Hydra - talk about absolutely HANGING out of your seat on inversions.

No, they're pretty bad. The worst we've ever felt, though, was The Voyage; not just uncomfortable, but on a few rides, legitimately agonizing.

Here's what's bothering me about the woodie result: of the ten rides listed, only TWO are more than ten years old (well, ok, Raven is actually *eleven*, but it's far closer to the next youngest than the next oldest), and only TWO were built by a company other than GCI or CCI/GG. Think about that, of ALL the wooden coasters in the United States, it's only been the work of two companies in the last ten years that have been able to make great wooden coasters? As for TPR holding it's own voting, it really wouldn't work: you'd still end-up with people only voting for what they've ridden, as opposed to voting for what they've ridden versus everything else they've ridden. I mean, if I voted for "best wooden coaster", I couldn't very well vote for something I've never ridden, you know? And unless you've ridden every single ride on the planet, it wouldn't work; it's probably best to just endorse Mitch's poll, which eliminates the "popularity contest" flaw inherent to AT's voting and actually compiles the Win/Loss record instead.

Well, now that we have most of the detailed explanations out of the way, let's make this discussion what it was originally meant to be: a simple poll to see which one people prefer. Our vote is split, as I prefer Voyage, and Monica prefers Toro.

We love CCI/Gravity Group, and were wondering what parks have more than one. Off the top of my head: - Holiday World - Mt. Olympus - Indiana Beach - Michigan's Adventure Also GL and SFSL have one each. We're gonna do another mid-west trip next year, and want to hit a bunch of them. Are any of them disappointing at all? We found Twisted Twins at SFKK really boring, are there any others that are really bad?

Different strokes for different folks, I know many people provide smoother rides, hence why I've kinda come up with my own intensity-based definitions.

Bingo. See, that's exactly what I prefer - IMO, it seems much more "out of control" to be bouncing in all directions for the entire duration of the ride than it is to be launched out of the seat at certain designated times.

I know that MY definitions of "floater" and "ejector" are not the accepted norm, but I'll try to describe it: - If you spend three seconds pinned to the lap-bar, that's floater. You are literally "floating" above the seat. - If you get THROWN into the lap-bar several times over three seconds, that's ejector. You are being "ejected" out of the seat over and over. I haven't ridden either of the other two Intamin "Plug 'n Plays", so I can't vouch for other attempts with this technology or design, but, IMO, El Toro really DOES feel smoother than Nitro or SROS.