Rustbucket

This is the symptom of living so close to KI or CP when people say KI has not had enough big steel coasters. Consider this: Diamondback - 230 feet tall 5282 feet track Top Gun - one of the very few suspended coaster left in the world. Flight of Fear - possibly the most intense coaster at KI Invertigo - 131 feet inverted boomerang Firehawk - my second favorite flying coaster (very few in the world) Adventure Express - One of the best mine ride coaster Vortex - record breaker at the time but aged extremely quickly Italian Jobs - a nice family coaster. Frankly, these are one of the nicest group of coasters that you can find anywhere. NO PARK WILL EVER BUILD COASTERS THAT ARE CATERED TO COASTER ENTHUSIASTS ONLY. I agree that full track invert will add much to the park, but I will not agree that KI needs another BIG STEEL COASTER. They really do have plenty. I really think that wooden coasters are much more enjoyable than one trick pony such as Top Thrill Dragster IMO.

I cannot believe someone said that wooden coasters are boring. I look forward to riding wooden coasters more so than riding a B&M hyper or Inverts. Even though I consider many of the B&M hypers to be great coasters, wooden coasters are quite unique. They also provide very different rides from day to day or hour to hour. Some of my favorite wooden coasters such as Boulder Dash, Hades, and Voyage provide extreme out of control rides with huge air time. El Toro, Renegade, and T-Express provides very smooth yet intensity greater than any B&M hypers I rode so far. My most recent trip to SFStL presented me with 3 very unique wooden coaster experiences: Evel Knievel, Boss, and Screamin' Eagle.

$18.70 may be the new price for their hamburger next year. Seriously, there should be some construction or at least surveying by now if the new ride is a large coaster.

Maybe it will be a hyper woody with a loop..... No wait.....

See my signature for my latest favorite coaster list.

^ "No wonder no one comes here. It is too crowded." Firehawk is my second favorite flying coaster although a distant second. I agree that I will not wait for more than 30 minutes to ride it but will ride it when the waits are not very long. I believe 60 to 70% of KI visitors are non-season pass holders. That is close to 2 million visitors each year who come to the park infrequently. Firehawk ridership will be quite high for at least several more years.

I finally got to 1000th ride on Diamondback on 8/8/2010. I will stop counting since I see no need. Having said that Daimondback is my second most ridden coaster of all time after Magnum XL-200. I am pretty certain that I have been on The Beast, Racer, AE, Top Gun, MF, and Raptor over 500 times.

I am not a fan of stand up coasters. Having said that here are the stand ups I have been on. Riddler's Revenge at SFMM King Cobra at KI Georgia Scorcher at SFOG Sky Rider at Canada's Wonderland Mantis at Cedar Point Vortex at Carowinds Shockwave at Kings Dominion Iron Wolf at SFGAm Riddler's Revenge is my favorite out of these.

Flying Eagle!!!!

Actually, this is very easy. SFMM. This park is open all year! Also, the coaster selections are outstanding.

There was a horrible story in the news after I got back to my hotel concerning SFStL. A high school band members were going to SFStL on 8/5/10 but got into an accident on I-44. Apparently, one of the girls and a driver got killed in a pile up along with dozens of kids being injured. I hope that everyone can pull through. My condolence goes out to the families.

I was visiting St Louis for a business trip. Well, it did not take much convincing for me to go to Six Flags St Louis. This was my first visit to this park. It looked so busy from the parking lot.... I decided to make a clockwise turn and hit the coasters. First up was Evel Knievel. Evel Knievel (#244) - I picked the last row of the train. GCI woodies have been mix bags for me. I love some like Renegade (#3 Woody for me) and Terminator Salvation (#10 Woody for me) but some not so much such as Gwazi or Wild Cat. I was not very impressed with this GCI woody. The ride had some decent air time and lateral but the intensity was not anywhere close to Terminator or Renegade. With Renegade and Terminator, the trains feel very much out of control. This ride certainly felt rather slow. I rode this twice but did not feel that the ride lived up to the hype. (6/10) The Boss (#245) - Again, I picked the last row. I noticed that the train was Gerstlauer trains. I normally like PTC trains better on these CCI woodies, but I did like this one. I normally like CCI woodies so that this was not a surprise. This one reminded me a lot of Ghostrider and Villain combination. The air time was quite nice. (8/10) Screamin' Eagle (#246) - Three woodies in a row.... Very nice. I was pleasantly surprised by this woody. This one definitely reminded me of Great American Scream Machine at SFOG and The Racer. Then again, this is John Allen woody. (7/10) River King Mine Train (#247) - Another mine train by Arrow. I guess they made quite a few of these. This is only the second coaster I have ever been on that had 3 lift hills. Can you guess the other one? (5/10) Ninja (#248) - Another Arrow Looper. Another head banger. Surprise, surprise... (5/10) Batman the Ride (#249) - I really wished that B&M designed these so that there are some different elements in all of these Batman Rides. Correct me if I am worng. Aren't these basically the same rides with mirror images? I still like these inverts though. (7/10) Mr. Freeze (#250) - I somehow missed this one after Evel Knievel. I went back to ride this one as my #250. This was the best coaster in the park (IMO). Obviously, this ride reminded me of Flight of Fear but there was a dual loading station (one from each direction). The launch was LIM just like Flight of Fear. My favorite element was the inverted top hat. That was the sensation that was quite distinct. This was intense enough and quite enjoyable. This was rather similar to Speed the Ride at Nascar Cafe in Las Vegas. (9/10) Big Spin (#251) - Another spinning wild mouse. I guess this is the new thing that Six Flags is installing. Can anyone confirm that this is the same ride as the one at Six Flags Fiesta Texas? It certainly felt like one. (6/10) Overall, this park was enjoyable. The park was NOT as busy as it looked from the parking lot. It may have been that many people were at the water park since it was quite hot. I do not put this as a destination park such as SFGAd or SFMM but it is worth a visit for The Boss and Mr. Freeze.

To be honest, SF has improved greatly over the past five years. I quite enjoy their parks now. I was not impressed with SF employees back in 2004 and 2005. They did not seem to care about helping guests or helping them enjoy the visits. The parks were messy and overly pricy. Now the parks are cleaner and have improved themes and appearances. I still do not like the concept of Flash Pass (pay to skip line if you ask me) and $15 parking, but most of their souvenir shops are reasonably priced. They are struggling like most of the theme park chains. They had to transform their parks to have better services. Otherwise, they were going to be in deeper trouble. Things are looking little better for them with the new management at SF.

Well, Kevin. I do not agree with you on Manhattan Express. I rather ride Mean Streak or Raging Wolf Bobs over Mahattan Express.

Actually, I like Scream! also. I rode that in 2004 and loved the floorless coaster. It has gotten somewhat rougher over the years.

As always since the opening, Magnum XL 200 is my favorite coaster at CP.

Dave, the ride had extremely good audio. It was blasting away throughout the ride. Bizarro... Bizarro... During last year, the audio was only working intermittent on one train but working on other train.

I was in Hartford, CT for a business trip on 7/19/10. The plane arrived in BDL around 7 pm. I had 2 hours to get to SFNE since they close at 9 pm. After picking up a car, I went straight to SFNE. It was around 7:50 pm. No parking fee at this late hour. The only coaster to ride here is Bizarro and what a coaster this is. I picked 9-1 and the train started to go up the hill. As the train started to go down the first hill, I started to see lightning in the distance. Well, this was going to be my only ride of the day. This coaster has air time and the lateral which is probably unmatched. The mid-course fire explosion was not working today. Bizarro was the only coaster I rode but it was worth the trip. This Intamin monster has a perfect blend of air time, lateral, intensity, and speed. I only wish Millenium Force was like Bizarro. Intimidator 305 is more intense but does not have much air time any more with trims. Bizarro is back on my top of the coaster list.

Flying Eagle!!!!!!!!!!!!! (I only hope. )

Frankly, I like KD's coaster selections better than KI's. Diamondback < Intimidator 305 Beast > Grizzly Firehawk < Dominator Flight of Fear = Flight of Fear Invertigo <<<< Volcano Flight Deck > Avalanche Like I said, KD was the park I grew up with. I am somewhat bias in that sense. As for the hotels, there are a few hotels that are walking distance from KD although I usually stay somewhat far away since I have lots of relatives near Washington and Baltimore area.

I love suspended coasters. I have been on 6: Iron Dragon, Top Gun, Big Bad Wolf, Ninja, Eagle Fortress, and Vortex. If anyone has even ridden Eagle Fortress, he or she will never, ever say that a suspended coaster is lame. EF is/was my third favorite arrow coaster after Magnum and X. While Top Gun is short, it is quite a bit more intense than BBW's first half. Vortex is almost a same ride as Top Gun. Overall, I find suspended coasters provides very nice and unique ride experiences.

The most intense coaster without any question is Intimidator 305 without the trim. Even with the trim, Timmy still takes the cake. 6G????? Voyage is the most intense wooden coaster I have been on.

I voted for Diamondback. I have been on DB, Intimidator, AC, Behemoth, and RB. Here are my preference: DB, Timmy, Behemoth, RB and AC. I just do not think 4 seat trains provide as good of airtime as staggered ones. Now, this list changes if no trims were involved.....

I was near Richmond, VA. It was a choice between going to KD or spending the evening in a hotel. After debating for 0.0024 seconds, I decided to head to KD and ride Intimidator 305. I know there have been some changes since our opening weekend trip to KD. Some of them I noticed right away. 1. Water spray on the wheel Some of you may remember that KD was running one train operation soon after the ride opening. This was due to Nylon wheel overheating and making them sticky. This will make them brittle very quickly. The ride ops were saying that the wheel still overheats. 2. OTSR It used to be solid composite. Now the OTSR system resembles Firehawk. The lap bar and the belts are still original. 3. Queue A separate queue for the front seat only. This line was LONGER than the rest of the line. I was able to get 15 rides in 2 and 1/2 hours. Frankly, I was very surprised. Even Flight of Fear had a far longer line. The RIDE: (I rode 6-1, 6-2, 7-1, 7-2, 8-1 and 8-2) 1. The trim on the first drop was MOST DEFINITELY noticeable. The train slightly hesitate about 1/2 down the hill. The turn around was much slow as a result. Some people still said they "grayed out" during this turn. 2. The second hill had NO AIRTIME!!!!!!!!! What a disappointment. This hill used to provide the most intense airtime of any coaster I have been on. In fact, some people got bruises on their shoulders because of the airtime on this hill. This is no longer the case. No airtime..... How sad!!!! 3. The high speed turns were not as intense since the trains were much slower. 4. The third hill was a nice surprise. The trim on this was either off or removed. The airtime on this hill was a major surprise since the trim killed any airtime on this hill during the opening weekend. 5. The high speed turn before the camera was even more intense than opening weekend if you can believe it. The turn before the block brake was rather harsh also. Overall, I was very disappointed that the intense lateral and airtime hill were tamed so greatly. However, I still found the ride to be immensely intense. It is probably more re-ridable now that the intensity is reduced. Do I still find this ride to be the most intense coaster I have been on? Most definitely yes. Is this still my #1 favorite coaster overall? I am not sure. Superman ROS (Bizarro) at SFNE and this will be close. I will have a chance to ride SROS later this month. I will decide then. Is KD a destination park? Most definitely. Volcano, Intimidator 305, Dominator and Grizzly make this park one of my favorites. Then again, this used to be my home park growing up. I guess I am bias. I still remember Grizzly, Shock Wave and Anaconda opening days.

Agreed! Bizarro is an incredible coaster. I rode Diamondback, MF and Bizarro in one week last year. Here is my ranking: Bizarro >>>>> Diamondback > MF. MF is one of my top 10 coaster, but it is still very much overrated compared to Bizarro, Intimidator 305, Diamondback or Magnum (IMO).