USA 2016 - Robb & Elissa Traveling Around Riding Stuff

[robbalvey]

I am surprised Intamin didn't plop similar pre-fab clones of El Toro, all over America at various Six Flags.

It's not up to Intamin to build a ride at the parks, it's up to Six Flags to build a ride at their parks. Intamin just can't go in and build a ride when they want to, you know!

 

True, I apologize for wording that wrong. I should have stated that I was surprised various North American parks didn't hire Intamin to build more pre-fabs, due to the success of El-Toro.

Yes. THIS I don't quite understand either. You would think that parks would go "Wow, they just built one of the greatest ranked roller coasters of all-time...we want one, too!" But that oddly enough didn't happen at all.

 

It was like when Great Adventure went "Wow, Cedar Point just built the tallest/fastest roller coaster in the world...we want one, too!"

 

So maybe the lesson learned here is that the buck stops with Great Adventure?

[cfc]

^Neither do I. I was hoping to see a slew of Intamin wooden coasters after the success of El Toro and Balder, but it never happened. It worked out for RMC, though.

Edited August 14, 2016 by cfc

[Alice Kane]

 

KT had a nice time on the trip, to answer some random questions I saw:

 

- She doesn't like parks and coasters as much as we do.

 

 

Bet I'm stating the obvious here ...but alas, I think I may see part of the dilemma. Going back into the Dark Ages of my own childhood at KT's age, "fun" was very much determined by having a friend 'my age' along with me. Arrrgggghhh...I know I know.....I'm sure I'm hitting a sore spot now. I totally 'get' that unless it was a blood relative (and maybe even THEN), Ma & Pa Alvey would no doubt be spending the entire year proceeding the event, signing legal responsibility waivers handed to you by lawyers of "Party hereto known as: 'Friend and her Parental Units.'"

 

(Of course, if you're lucky enough, you can get "Said 'FRIEND's'" entire family to join you, hence freeing you two up to actually ENJOY the trip! ) You'll always be a 'hero' to KT, her King & Queen of Coasters, but alas by ages 9, 10, on up, a girlfriend to giggle and go wild with, is a price above rubies! Girls just wanna have fun! (But you all know this stuff, so my apologies if I'm stating the obvious!)

 

Alice

 

P.S. It was so cool seeing your SFGA pix, especially the exquisite El Toro!

[viking86]

^Neither do I. I was hoping to a slew of Intamin wooden coasters after the success of El Toro and Balder, but it never happened. It worked out for RMC, though.

 

I'm surprised we never saw any clones of Balder being built, considering the small footprint combined with a good ride experience.

[Jcoaster]

I know Intamin pre-fabs are a bit more on the expensive side, but that still shouldn't deter an entire continent from building another one.

[Philrad71]

^Neither do I. I was hoping to a slew of Intamin wooden coasters after the success of El Toro and Balder, but it never happened. It worked out for RMC, though.

 

I'm surprised we never saw any clones of Balder being built, considering the small footprint combined with a good ride experience.

 

I always wondered that myself as well given that it's not El Toro-sized.

[robbalvey]

^Neither do I. I was hoping to a slew of Intamin wooden coasters after the success of El Toro and Balder, but it never happened. It worked out for RMC, though.

 

I'm surprised we never saw any clones of Balder being built, considering the small footprint combined with a good ride experience.

If you look at the POV of T-Express you can see that the ride starts out like El Toro and goes into what basically is a Balder clone. When we talked with the project managers at the park they told me "We went and ride El Toro and Balder. We told Intamin we liked them both and we want our ride to be a combination of the two and that's exactly what they gave us!"

 

It's a shame that Everland hasn't built another major coaster since as that's sort of what we were waiting for to go back to that park. It's a great park and my memory of that ride is it's the best wooden coaster I've ever been on. Considering that El Toro and Balder haven't changed that much over the years I can't imagine that T Express wouldn't be any less amazing then it was when i rode it in 2008.

[Jcoaster]

^Neither do I. I was hoping to a slew of Intamin wooden coasters after the success of El Toro and Balder, but it never happened. It worked out for RMC, though.

 

I'm surprised we never saw any clones of Balder being built, considering the small footprint combined with a good ride experience.

If you look at the POV of T-Express you can see that the ride starts out like El Toro and goes into what basically is a Balder clone. When we talked with the project managers at the park they told me "We went and ride El Toro and Balder. We told Intamin we liked them both and we want our ride to be a combination of the two and that's exactly what they gave us!"

 

It's a shame that Everland hasn't built another major coaster since as that's sort of what we were waiting for to go back to that park. It's a great park and my memory of that ride is it's the best wooden coaster I've ever been on. Considering that El Toro and Balder haven't changed that much over the years I can't imagine that T Express wouldn't be any less amazing then it was when i rode it in 2008.

 

Wow. I can see it being the best considering that it combines Balder and Toro. The best of both worlds.

[Pear]

^Neither do I. I was hoping to a slew of Intamin wooden coasters after the success of El Toro and Balder, but it never happened. It worked out for RMC, though.

 

I'm surprised we never saw any clones of Balder being built, considering the small footprint combined with a good ride experience.

If you look at the POV of T-Express you can see that the ride starts out like El Toro and goes into what basically is a Balder clone. When we talked with the project managers at the park they told me "We went and ride El Toro and Balder. We told Intamin we liked them both and we want our ride to be a combination of the two and that's exactly what they gave us!"

 

It's a shame that Everland hasn't built another major coaster since as that's sort of what we were waiting for to go back to that park. It's a great park and my memory of that ride is it's the best wooden coaster I've ever been on. Considering that El Toro and Balder haven't changed that much over the years I can't imagine that T Express wouldn't be any less amazing then it was when i rode it in 2008.

 

Wow. I can see it being the best considering that it combines Balder and Toro. The best of both worlds.

 

T Express looks amazing, but I think that Eagle's Fortress was even more insane. Too bad it got torn down, I really wish I could have ridden it.

[williamj2543]

I know Intamin pre-fabs are a bit more on the expensive side, but that still shouldn't deter an entire continent from building another one.

Didn't el toro only cost 12 million? Getting a coaster that holds the top 2 best wooden coasters in the world for over 5 years for only 12 million dollars sounds like a great deal for me.

 

If we got an Intamin Prefab at Canada's Wonderland I would be much happier than if we got another Wing Coaster...

[Password121]

I know Intamin pre-fabs are a bit more on the expensive side, but that still shouldn't deter an entire continent from building another one.

Didn't el toro only cost 12 million? Getting a coaster that holds the top 2 best wooden coasters in the world for over 5 years for only 12 million dollars sounds like a great deal for me.

 

If we got an Intamin Prefab at Canada's Wonderland I would be much happier than if we got another Wing Coaster...

I don't have a source so take it with a grain of salt but I've heard the actual figure is around $25 million (or a "package deal" with Kingda Ka just added $12 million, but again this could be entirely false so grain of salt).

[Jcoaster]

^ No I think you are correct. If I remember correcty there was a package deal going on for those two. And it still bankrupt Premier.

[Garet]

It's a shame that Everland hasn't built another major coaster since as that's sort of what we were waiting for to go back to that park. It's a great park and my memory of that ride is it's the best wooden coaster I've ever been on. Considering that El Toro and Balder haven't changed that much over the years I can't imagine that T Express wouldn't be any less amazing then it was when i rode it in 2008.

 

Sadly, the whole county hasn't had a major coaster since T Express unless you count the Vekoma Suspended Family Coaster that came to Children's Grand Park and even that renewal was at the expense of a looping coaster and an Intamin Gyro Swing. I think the only thrill ride that the country has seen that was aimed at thrill seekers, until this year's very recent Air Race and Discovery 360 at E Land, was Lotte World's Disko.

 

I bring this up because I have had one or two rides where T Express has felt very, very, slightly rougher. I'm not sure if it's because I was using the single rider line or because of the reservation system that used to be in place led to half empty trains which they would dump said isngle riders on, but I've also had rides which have been as great as when I first arrived in Korea. Even the "rough" rides are probably better than 98% of the other coasters I've been on.

 

That's pretty impressive for a coaster that not only runs almost 300 days a year (a month for rehab and then maybe another 30 days or so where the weather goes outside the operating requirements), but does so in one of the busiest parks in the world, where the only other coaster is an arrow looper that mostly runs just 1 train (R.I.P. Eagle's Fortress) so taking the brunt of the crowds with extreme 35C heat in summer and -20C in the winter. Then throw in the fact like I said above there has been nothing new in the 8 years meaning it's still the "signature ride" for the country for people to travel to ride and it's an incredible testament to Intamin that it runs as well as it does.

[Nitro1118]

Thanks so much for the super high quality El Toro POV, Robb! It is one of the most filmed coasters on Youtube but lacked a POV quite like that one.

[Brent York]

We love the new safari attraction @SFGrAdventure! Was so happy they made this change a couple of years ago!

Why is that? I haven't been on the new version. Cars blocking the road maybe?

[coasterbill]

I can't speak for Robb but in my opinion Safari Off Road Adventure is honestly one of the best (if not the best, and yes I know El Toro exists) attraction the park has ever added.

 

They always had the safari but few people really drove through it unless they hated their cars. Just from the Medusa / Bizarro lift hill you could always see animals sitting on cars, ripping out windshield wipers, sh*tting on cars... it never appealed to a lot of people for that reason. We'd had passes for years and never once did the safari. Now it's a must-ride every single time we visit the park. They have an amazing collection of animals, it's a really long ride and (by Six Flags standards) the new Camp Aventura area they added is great.

 

I think I could say pretty confidently that aside from Disney / Universal it's probably the best non-coaster (or log flume because I'm entirely biased towards log flumes) ride at any theme park in America. The ride also appeals to absolutely every demographic and age group. I can't possibly say enough about how great of an addition Safari Off Road Adventure was.

[Nitro1118]

I can't speak for Robb but in my opinion Safari Off Road Adventure is honestly one of the best (if not the best, and yes I know El Toro exists) attraction the park has ever added.

 

They always had the safari but few people really drove through it unless they hated their cars. Just from the Medusa / Bizarro lift hill you could always see animals sitting on cars, ripping out windshield wipers, sh*tting on cars... it never appealed to a lot of people for that reason. We'd had passes for years and never once did the safari. Now it's a must-ride every single time we visit the park. They have an amazing collection of animals, it's a really long ride and (by Six Flags standards) the new Camp Aventura area they added is great.

 

I think I could say pretty confidently that aside from Disney / Universal it's probably the best non-coaster (or log flume because I'm entirely biased towards log flumes) ride at any theme park in America. The ride also appeals to absolutely every demographic and age group. I can't possibly say enough about how great of an addition Safari Off Road Adventure was.

 

Took the words out of my mouth. The safari is so far beyond typical SF standards it's ridiculous. Besides the whole issue of not getting your car ripped to shreds by the baboons (which was a highlight if you weren't taking your own car), the old safari was boring. The new ride is so much better with the neat ride vehicles, excellent tour guides that actually explain what the hell you are looking at, and Camp Aventura is a great way to break up things up and has some cool interactive features.

[michaellynn4]

In addition to the previously mentioned improvements to the Safari, the new version is a lot better / safer for the animals. Even though rules told them otherwise, people used to feed the animals all sorts of crap through their windows, including many items that clearly shouldn't be part of their diets. The park is now able to better control the guests' interactions with the animals and keep the animals on the appropriate diets, providing an overall better environment for them as a result.

 

It's really win-win all around.

[SharkTums]

Love the Safari attraction. They did an excellent job with the conversion. KT wanted to ride it more than once. I only hope they find a way to incorporate the monkeys some day.

[coasterkid124]

^Safari Off-Road VR Adventure

[boldikus]

Just popping in to say GREAT footage of El Toro, as always Robb love your colorful running commentary. And nice report from my home away from home.

[scbt]

Feel free to call me crazy, but I think SORA definitely superior Kilimanjaro @ Animal Kingdom, there's just so much more to it than Kilimanjaro.

[Brent York]

I can't speak for Robb but in my opinion Safari Off Road Adventure is honestly one of the best (if not the best, and yes I know El Toro exists) attraction the park has ever added.

 

They always had the safari but few people really drove through it unless they hated their cars. Just from the Medusa / Bizarro lift hill you could always see animals sitting on cars, ripping out windshield wipers, sh*tting on cars... it never appealed to a lot of people for that reason. We'd had passes for years and never once did the safari. Now it's a must-ride every single time we visit the park. They have an amazing collection of animals, it's a really long ride and (by Six Flags standards) the new Camp Aventura area they added is great.

 

I think I could say pretty confidently that aside from Disney / Universal it's probably the best non-coaster (or log flume because I'm entirely biased towards log flumes) ride at any theme park in America. The ride also appeals to absolutely every demographic and age group. I can't possibly say enough about how great of an addition Safari Off Road Adventure was.

Thanks. It was fun having the giraffe's lick the moonroof, but I didn't know at the time that we were at risk of having our car torn apart.

[robbalvey]

Here's a new POV of Nitro we posted:

[GCI Wooden]

Wow, that POV looked like it could've been mounted it was so smooth. Great video as always.