Rustbucket

My favorite of all stand up is Riddler's Revenge. Worst probably was Iron Wolf. I do miss Shockwave which was my first stand up. RIP Togo. Whenever I ride stand up coasters, I squad down so much to "preserve" my knees and crotch.

Nice write ups. Sadly, we will not be going to KI much anymore since we moved to another state last week. I am relatively close to Carowinds now. I will post a WInterfest report from Carowinds in a next few weeks.

One factor is KD Drop Tower does not spin around where as KI one does. How one defines gyro drop is open to interpretation, however. I do love Falcon's Fury.

Mystic Timbers is the best new ride for this year. Congratulations. Having said that I always think that GTA is nothing but a popularity contest. Fury 325 beating Millennium Force (or is it Forceless) does some justice. Superman being so close all these years also showed me how much superior Superman or Bizarro was. Even Cedar Point employees were celebrating Fury beat out MF last year. That says a lot. Then again, how did Lightning Rod beat out Storm Chaser when Lightning Rod barely operated last year? GTA really does not have much credibility when things like this happens.

My son and I visited KK on 9/10. Lightning Run was a nice surprise. With good airtime and pretty strong lateral, this coaster proved that height is not everything. Thunder Run reminded me of Hurler except a slight curves after the second turn. Still, this coaster was not tracking very well. Now, Storm Chaser was an absolute gem. I have to say this was the best coaster that made debut in 2016. This was better that Lightning Rod or Valravn. That barrel roll first drop was quite a surprise. This had some of the most extreme air time I have ever been on. What a great coaster this was. Only big issue with this coaster was the train. Can RMC make their trains any more uncomfortable? T3 with new train was much more tolerable but there were some jackknifing going on with the coaster. Overall, this park was quite enjoyable. We were there for 3 hours and got 13 rides on Storm Chaser. With out of state pricing, it was $20 per person and free drinks. I will definitely return here just for Storm Chaser alone.

Rivertownstill closed.

Roar, Gwazi and Wild Cat at Hershey did not age well either. Thunderhead, Renegade and Lightning Racer aged really well though.

Much faster in the shed yesterday.

4 hour wait today at 4:10

Not just Hall & Oates. I heard at least 4 separate songs and 3 animations.

Beast versus Mystic Timbers... They are very different coasters. For me, Mystic Timbers just knock out The Beast from my top 10 favorite wooden coasters.

I am hesitant to say this but Mystic Timbers is one of my top 3 favorite wooden coaster. This ride reminds me so much of El Toro second 1/2. This coaster will definitely be in top 5. I rate this as the best GCI has ever created. It is a masterpiece.

My son's spring break is the time when we start the coaster season although I stopped at Carowinds for 3 ride on Fury a week prior. This year, we wanted to ride InvadR at Busch Garden Williamsburg. Therefore, we headed to BGW then KD. Every time we visit BGW, I am always reminded how lovely this park is. Along with Dollywood, BGW gives me such a glorious and relaxed feeling every time we come here. Another great park I visited was Silver Dollar City but we visited there only once. Also, BGW has such a nice collection of coasters. I always wonder why I do not come here more often. I guess it is somewhat hard for me to get here. We headed directly to InvadR since the coaster is only 1 day old! This coaster is located next to Griffon which is in France area. The park was supposed to open at 10 am but we got to the coaster at 9:50 am. The ride was already in operation. We waited 5 minutes to get the back seat. I just love the smell of these new wooden coasters. Hmmm. No seat belt. The ride operator was asking if this is anyone's first wooden coaster. The first drop is by far the biggest drop (technically second since there is a little dip after the lift hill). This is more of a twisty coaster more so than airtime coaster such as Prawler although I like Prawler better. The fourth hill did give a great airtime. This was an ejector air unlike other floating airtime I experienced on other hills. Overall, I liked the ride but this is not one of the better GCI effort. I will say this is a great addition to the park, however. We rode this twice. After the second ride, we noticed the line was about 2 hours long so that we moved on to Griffon. Griffon is probably my favorite Dive coaster. Making this as a floorless was a brilliant idea. And the splash down... Also, I felt that Griffon had more G force than Valravn or Sheikra. To Alpengeist... We rode Alpengeist twice. This only had 5 minute waits. I always loved Alpengeist. Before Banshee came along, Alpengeist and Talon at DP were my two favorite B&M inverts. To Verbolten... Before we rode Verbolten, Mach Tower was mocking me. Considering I am a Drop Tower junky, I had to ride this. Ah. The free falling... Only a week to go before riding Drop Tower again. I wonder if I should continue to count my Drop Tower rides. Verbolten is a coaster that gave me a lasting impression from 4 years ago. This is not a particularly a fast or intense coaster but highly themed indoor coaster. And that drop.... The last and the biggest hill is so close to Big Bad Wolf so that I was reminded of that coaster all over again. After lunch, we went over to Apollo's Chariot. This coaster is my favorite at BGW. I love these airtime filled, traditional coasters. I wonder if they somehow use Diamondback style train on this coaster..... We rode it twice and went over to Tempesto. i completely missed this coaster was built here. And I really liked this little gem. Slow inline twist was a real treat. The launch reminded me somewhat of Wicked Twister but the rest is so much more enjoyable. I wish the ride was longer. Loch Ness Monster is arguably the best Arrow Looper left. After this, we decided to go to King Dominion. Overall, BGW has a great collection of coasters and a great atmosphere. Only downside is that this park can and do get really busy. Then again, that is same for all the parks. I definitely recommend this park to anyone who has not been here before.

We visited Darken Lake when they added Moto Coaster about 6 years ago. I agree with you that the park was not memorable enough to go back unless they add some major attractions or combine with other trips such as Canada's Wonderland.

Enjoy. I always love the atmosphere of this park. One of my favorite. Don't forget to ride Apollo's Chariot in the back.

No seat belt!! This GCI is not very intense though. As always, we rode the back seat. Unlike most GCI coasters I have been on, this coater does small drop first before a big drop in a structure followed by two head choppers. It is a windy day so that the coaster did not feel very fast. More later.

Yes. Yes. Yes. I grew up going to KD. This park has a special place in my heart. Somewhat smaller than KI but has many more traditional rides such as Antique and Flying Eagle. My first coaster in the US was Grizzly on the opening day. Rebel Yell is what The Racer used to be before the removal of the last hill for Flight of Fear. Dominator is probably the best floorless coaster I have been on. Also, give a Avalanche s spin. There are not many bobsled coasters left. The best coaster in the park is Intimidator 305 for me. This is arguably the most intense coaster in the world even after the second hill was tamed down. Just think of Maverick on steroid. As someone said, go to Volcano first. This is the slowest loading even after they reconfigured queue. I love the back seat on this. This is the most unique inverted coaster out there. I wish Intamin makes more of these full circuit inverts. Enjoy your trip. Most of kids in VA and MD still go to school during the first week of June so the park should not be busy.

I just donated to this for the family who lost homes from this tragedy. http://dollywoodfoundation.org/ This was sent out to season pass holders via email.

Initial report from Weather Channel which is nearby said there was a tornado near SFOG with possible damage to the park. Can someone confirm this?

I still wonder if others who bid on the job such as Intamin and CCI could have done better. I spoke to Premier engineer about the train and SOB coaster in general in 2008. She admitted that train was developed to withstand the force of rose bowl and loop but caused the train to be much heavier than regular wooden coasters during that time. It seemed that the structure may have been fine in the beginning but fatique caused repeated failure of the structure from lateral forces, particularly on rose bowl. These were the exact findings from Failure Analysis that was done by SEA. This was the 2006 accident. - The pattern of broken wood components in the area of the failure indicated that the structure had failed to restrain an outward lateral load, relative to the center of a double helix. - The cause of the failure could be due to excessive stress imposed on the structure, or deficiency in the wood structural materials. In other words, this coaster was not designed withstand the forces and stress on the rose bowl. I understand what PKI was trying to do but the technologies were not available to do what they wanted. BTW, I did not know prefab was developed after SOB. Thanks.

I was just there 3 days ago. I actually saw a wild fire near KY an TN border when we were driving down. I am hopeful that recent rain will help although the heavy wind is very concerning. I hope everyone is safe.

I finally got to ride Lightning Rod on the back seat. It was a night ride as well. I will need to ride a few more times to get a ranking of this coaster. It will be very high. Positives: tremendous airtime. I loved the launch into first small drop. The laterals were really good too. For RMC, this also had a good length. I will say this will end up being in my top 3 if not at the top. Negatives: seats are not very forgiving. Reliability has been an issue. I hope this improves in the future.

I rode the loop version over 500 times. I am not tall but I had to cross my leg to ride it. The first drop was quite good but the second hill had some airtime with rather noticeable shake. The rose bowl helix felt like I was experiencing severe earthquake. The loop was the most peaceful part of the ride. The biggest problem with the ride was the jackknifing. The train was too heavy for the structure. It was tolerable when you ride on the middle seat of the car. Too bad Intamin did not win the bid for Son of Beast.

My top count on a single ride is Drop Tower. I am at 9992 and counting. I started in 2000.

Nice, Brendan. I am only half way there.