Rustbucket

One of the ride-op on The Beast said the train will be launched at 5 MPH. It must be true...

The lines were quite long two years ago in April. When I was there in 2004, I was able to ride Montu 15 times and Kumba 8 times in 3 hours. Sheikra is a must for pure drop coaster experience. Also, ride the skyride and see animals. This was quite a treat. One thing that I was not happy with the park was that they were not doing much about line jumping.

I agree with Terpy on Tatsu. Tatsu is my favorite flying coaster. However, I prefer Firehawk over SUF rides. For some reason I did not like Nighthawk as much as Firehawk. I also did not like the one train operation. I really liked the Borg theme previously.

Like Terpy said, not enough.... I am at 206 and counting. I have Teddy Bear and Tornado credit. I love that ejector air on Tornado.

I was there for the announcement also. I posted the name confirmation here using my Blackberry.

During Winterfest!! Grand Prix on ice. That would be a good one.

Now I have finally ridden SkyRider, King Cobra and SkyRider had nearly identical layout. I believe Shockwave had one less element (Helix?). Frankly, I am not a fan of Togo standup or any standup coasters.

Sorry. Shooting Star is what I meant about The Beast. Thank you for the Grizzly info. I did not realize that since the coaster being in a heavily wooden area. Too bad that they cut down many of the trees. Grizzly was my first wooden coaster way back in 1982. About the food prices, they were somewhat higher than in the US although I did not eat there. In fact, the food prices were higher in Toronto in general than in Cincinnati area.

Shivering Timbers is a good wooden coaster but nothing special. I know there are some fans out there swear that ST is one of the top wooden coaster but not me. Decent air time in the back. Some ejector in the front. Also, the helix is nowhere near as intense as Ghostrider. Maybe, I expected too much after hearing so much good things from people. I have been on ST about 15 times in three separate trips.

Good TR. You have really been going to many different parks this year. Cornball Express was my favorite there. Your comment about Steel Hawg is interesting. I may visit there when I go to SFGAm in September.

Our vacation spot chosen for this year was Toronto, Ontario. Since we had CF passes, one of the spot visited was the Canada's Wonderland. I chose July 31 as the date to visit the park since this was the Action Zone early ride day. My main target was to ride Behemoth. I drove north on Jane Street to CW around 9:15 am. The most visible ride was Behemoth. The coaster really stood out. As I entered the parking lot, the attendant told me that she has never seen a platinum pass before. I thought that was an odd comment since I know many coaster people who have visited the park since Behemoth opened. We headed straight toward Behemoth after parking. At the entrance, the park people stamped the hands with Dora the Explorer. This was needed to ride the Action Zone rides. #193 Behemoth - This B&M coaster has been compared to Diamondback for obvious reasons. I entered the que and took 8-1. The trains were nearly identical to Diamondback trains. The track made a 90 degree turn out of the station and over the chain lift we went. The first drop was not as intense as Diamondback. The second hill floater air time was quite nice. It was very comparable to Diamondback second hill air. The third hill was really a tight hammerhead turnaround. The fourth hill was the most intense air time hill of the entire ride. I wish there was not a trim there. The fifth and sixth hills had trims as well, and then the MCBR. After that, there was a clockwise 720 degree helix, camera station, a 270 dgree banked turn and two bunny hills to a blocked break. My impressions on 8-1 and 8-2 were that Behemoth air time was quite similar to Diamondbackbut somewhat less. On 1-1 and 1-2, however, the ejection air time was more intense than those on Diamondback. I actually prefered the front on this ride where as I prefer the back on Diamondback. Overall, Diamondback feels slightly faster. The lateral on Behemoth was better. I think that the splashdown on Diamondback makes it a more interesting ride. During the early ride time, we rode this 10 times. (10/10) #194 Back Lot Stunt Coaster - Hmmm... Italian Jobs? Frankly, this was a same ride without the explosion in the middle. (7/10) #195 Mighty Canadian Minebuster - I understand that this is a replica of "Shooting Star" which was located at Coney Island but destroyed in 1971. I can see The Racer in this ride was well as The Beast. This wooden coaster was an out and back design with a helix ending. The enclosed helix at the end of this ride was undoubtedly the inspiration for The Beast. I rode this 3 times. (8/10) #196 SkyRider - King Cobra anyone? Quite rough now. (6/10) #197 Silver Streak - It felt like Runaway Reptar for some reason (6/10) #198 Scooby's Gasping Ghoster Coaster - Well, Beastie and Scooby Doo's Coaster Coaster combined. Or should I say it was Fairly Odd. (6/10) #199 Fly - My.... This felt like Ricochet at KD. The color was the same as well. (6/10) #200 Vortex - Wow... This suspended coaster felt like Top Gun/Flightdeck. One BIG difference was no head banging as the train comes back to the station. I guess the second hill is slightly different. The ride was on a mountain top which basically had two coasters. The mountain reminded me somewhat of the mountain on Volcano at KD. (7/10) #201 Thunder Road - This was an interesting enclosed coaster. The train went around twice but themed inside of the mountain mentioned on Vortex. The ride was a figure 8 layout. (7/10) #202 Bat - I swear I was on this ride before. Zoomerang? Boomerang? (6/10) #203 Wild Beast - This was another replica, I believe, from old Coney Island: The Wildcat. This wooden coaster had a figure 8 design in the middle. The coaster needs some re-tracking! Otherwise, this was a quite an enjoyable coaster. (7/10) #204 Dragon Fire - These Arrow coasters sure were popular some years ago. Corkscrew, Carolina Cyclone and Demon (SFGAm) type of ride. I "browned out" briefly during a helix. Maybe, I am getting too old to ride this. (6/10) #205 Flight Deck - This was a Vekoma Invert. I believe this was an identically ride to Thunderhawk at GL (relocated to Michigan Adventure). I like these except for some head banging. There was a long line for this ride when I got off. (8/10) #206 Time Warp - All I can say about this ride is FLYING WILD MOUSE coaster. The main elements were zero G rolls. There were several of these. Another long wait! (7/10). I have to say that Behemoth was by far and away the best ride in the park. There were many riding coaster said that they have never seen anything like Behemoth. People were extremely excited about this coaster. All other coasters except for Minebuster and Wildcat were clones of some kind. I guess these wooden coasters were technically clones as well. The park was not exceptionally busy so that we were able to ride all coasters except for Taxi Jam. The ride operators were somewhat of a mix bag. Behemoth ride ops were quite interactive, but some others were indifferent. The park was very clean though. I am not sure if I will go out of my way to return to this park since only Behemoth stood out but it is a top notch coaster. Next stop - return to Six Flags New England to ride Bizarro.

I found it interesting that Dick mentioned (TWICE) KI as the bright spot even during this market condition. It is also interesting that he outlined Dorney and Cedar Point as lower than expected results. Carowinds and Kings Dominion are getting new coasters next year with Great America not getting a coaster that was in the plan for this year. I assume this was due to 49ers stadium issue. I guess the plan was to put a hyper coasters in all of former Paramount Parks.

I have been on Raptor over 500 times. Obviously, I like it. I do not know if I like it more than Alpengeist or Talon. Alpengeist seemed so much faster than Raptor. I thought Talon was more compact and much more intense than Raptor. Keep in mind that I am a back seat rider for these. I hate that banging at the end of Raptor. Bizarro was from SFNE. I rode that this year. I will say that was a near perfect coaster for speed, air time and lateral.

Hard topic. I will break mine down. Favorites 1 Bizarro 2 Diamondback 3 Voyage 4 Magnum XL200 5 Renegade 6 T-Express 7 Boulder Dash 8 Ghostrider 9 X 10 Millenium Force Wooden 1 Voyage 2 Renegade 3 T-Express 4 Boulder Dash 5 Ghostrider 6 The Beast 7 Hades 8 Shivering Timbers 9 Viper 10 Cornball Express Steel 1 Bizarro 2 Diamondback 3 Magnum XL200 4 X 5 Millenium Force 6 Tatsu 7 Raging Bull 8 Talon 9 Alpengeist 10 Apollo's Chariot Suspended 1 Eagle Fortress 2 Big Bad Wolf 3 Top Gun (Flightdeck) 4 Ninja 5 Iron Dragon Flying 1 Tatsu 2 Firehawk 3 Borg 4 Superman Ultimate Flight (SFoG) 5 Superman Ultimate Flight (SFGAm) Inverted 1 Talon 2 Alpengeist 3 Volcano 4 Montu 5 Afterburn (Topgun) Floorless 1 Scream! 2 Dominator 3 Batman the Dark Knight 4 Hydra Stand Up 1 Riddler's Revenge 2 Iron Wolf 3 Georgia Scorcher 4 Vortex (Carowinds) 5 King Cobra

My guess is that you liked Drachen Fire as well as Magnum XL-200. BTW, one thing I did not like about GC was bouncing or Jack hammering effect. I need to get back to SFOG to ride Goliath.

So would you say Georgia Cyclone, is the best ride at SFOG? I'm personally looking forward to their four B&M coasters the most. Well, I did not like Georgia Cyclone at all. I know Terpy and I had some disagreement on this a few years back. Out of all CCI coasters, I like Boulder Dash the most. Ghostrider was an exceptional coaster, but it has gotten quite rough over the years. Shivering Timbers did not do much for me. I was really expecting very strong air time, but Boulder Dash, T-Express and Renegade really blew Shivering Timbers away when I rode them last year.

I agree. Bizarro at SFNE is so much better than Millennium Force. The airtime, lateral, and overall ride experiences are so much more better than MF. Having said that I like Magnum more so than MF.

I have not used their water park, but the entire park is quite small. I believe the park is smaller than Geauga Lake used to be (without the Sea World part). The parking two years ago was $6. With Platinum pass, there should not be a parking fee. The best coaster is Shivering Timbers. This is an out and back wooden coaster with decent airtime and a helix ending. Good CCI coaster, but not great. Wolverine Wildcat is also a good wooden coaster. Back seat ride. Zach's Zoomer is a CCI version of "Beastie". Corkscrew is very much like the one at Cedar Point but has a helix. Mad Mouse is a wild mouse ride. Thunderhawk is an inverted coaster from Vekoma. This was relocated from Geauga Lake.

I am very sorry to hear this. Big Bad Wolf is my second favorite suspended coaster after Eagle Fortress. That drop from the second lift hill is quite good. It is probably the best element of all suspended coasters I have ridden. The article was worng. The Bat was the first suspended coaster. I believe Top Gun/Flightdeck was the last suspended coaster built by Arrow.

My latest business trip took me to Madison, Wisconsin. Of course, I had to take an advantage of this and visit Wisconsin Dells. Unfortunately, I had less than 3 hours to spend at the park. Mt. Olympus is the park I chose because of coasters. I wanted to ride 5 coasters including Opa which is a spinning wild mouse ride. I got to the park rather late but the parking lot was not very crowded so that I was quite hopeful. No parking fee? Great! I purchased online ticket for $30.00 but without any parking charge, it felt better for my 150 minutes of coaster rides. As I entered the park, it was quite nice to see 3 wooden coasters right next to each other. Another interesting thing was that everyone had to go through a gift shop to go to the rides. The park was slightly hilly. 3 of the coasters were located on the slopes and made a full use of the terrain. The first coaster was the nearest to the entrance. #187 ZEUS - This CCI coaster reminded me of Boulder Dash except it was not as intense. Basically, there were two decent size hills and many bunny hills. There were some intense air time on some of the bunny hills. The third hill had a rather rough spot. This coaster was quite enjoyable but seemed to be getting rough. I rode this five times. (8/10) #188 Hades - I believe this was the first TGG coaster ever built. My favorite wooden coaster is the Voyage, and this one had some similarities to the Voyage. The drop out of the station was somewhat like Son of Beast. This coaster had three small but enjoyable drops before the lift hill. After the hill, there was a large stretch of twisting track including 90 degree turn through a tunnel. After emerging from the tunnel, a hill caused the train to come to near stop. This hill is the turn around and back to the tunnel. The track was parallel to oncoming side. Again, the track was quite twisting and turning. There was no 90 degree turn coming back. After coming out of the tunnel, there was another hill that brought the train to near stop before dropping below the loading station. At this point, there was a banked turn that caused the train to jack knife. This was a very rough spot. The rest of the ride was a semihelix and the drop to the station. I will say that I was somewhat disappointed with Hades. Maybe, I was expecting another Voyage. Frankly, I think Ghostrider or Boulder Dash was far better than this coaster. I hope that the rough spot can be fixed. Still, this was a good ride. I rode this 4 times including a night ride. (9/10) #189 Cyclops - This CCI surprised me for the air time. This looked more like a junior coaster and did not expect this much of a air time. Again, this coaster is getting rougher. (7/10) #190 Pegasus - This wooden coaster was another junior looking coaster but had some decent airtime. Cyclops was definitely more intense and had more airtime. Still, this was a decent coaster. (6/10) #191 Opa - I went to indoor part of the park and rode this one. A spinning wild mouse seems to be getting more popular. I will say this. This one did not impress me. (4/10). Overall, the park was clean and quite enjoyable. I am not sure if I will go out of my way to visit here though. All four coasters were very good, however. To my surprise, 2 hours were plenty of time to enjoy all the the coasters. All the wooden coasters were one train operations. Also, all the coaster operators were quite slow in checking seat belts and lap bars. I wanted to ride Hades some more but the park closed down the ride queue at 9:45 pm for some reason. There were not many people waiting for the ride. I decided to call it a day and headed back to my hotel in Madison, Wisconsin. Next stop is Canada's Wonderland.

Thank you for the feedbacks. I will write more of these. I have written more through the years on various websites. As for the safety video, T-Express is the first ever wooden coaster built in the country. The video showed how to put on seat belts, what not to do during the ride, and who should not ride the coaster. It was about 2 minutes long like a commercial airline video. As for the crowds, I have never been to a busier park in April including Disney. T-Express had about 60 to 90 minute waits. Eagle Fortress had about 40 minutes wait. My guess is that summer vacation time for the kids (Mid July to late August) will be much busier. I have not been to a park that had more friendly staff. Like I wrote on the report, one major negative was the line jumping. Dave, I do not have any plan to go there any time soon. I work in Dublin. I wish I could go there more. 14 hours from Chicago and 13 hour difference!

Rustbelt, have you ever been to Wonderland? We just got back. Assuming that you get to the park for opening. They will have 2 lines that go back toward the Action Zone area. One is for Behemoth the other is for everything else. Resist the urge to hit Behemoth first. This like Diamond back handles the crowds very well. Get in the other line and ride Flight Deck and Time Warp which are both slow loaders. When you are done with these you should still only have a 20 minute wait for Behemoth. BTW I love Canada's Wonderland. Just one more point, make sure you have a passport for adults and birth certificates for kids under 16. Thank you for the tip. I have not been there before. There is an early ride time for Goldpass members for Behemoth on 7/30/09 at 9 am. I will try to go for that. I assume my Platinum Pass gets me to that.

I never posted this trip report from last year (4/17/08). I was visiting my family in South Korea and decided to go to Everland for a quick coaster break. My brother is a coaster fan but does not have a passion like I do. He has been to Hershey Park, SFA, KD, and BGW (Europe). He is now living in Korea. He has been telling me how he misses Grizzly and Rebel Yell. We were at Everland in 1978 before our family moved to the US. My second coaster was located here although it had been torn down. What I remember mostly about this park was that it was located in a valley. After 30 years, I did not expect to remember much and I did not. We drove down to Everland from Seoul. Sure enough, the park was located in a valley. We could see rides from far. There was a large Ferris wheel. This looked quite similar to the one at Cedar Point. No parking fees here and the entry fee was about $35 although we were able to get discounts. We entered the park and headed straight to T-Express. The park was large and very hilly. It was much hillier than SFMM. Some parts were so steep that I had to balance myself to walk. Going up hills were challenge too. I guess we were getting some great exercises. With animal areas and jungle areas, it was quite comparable to Busch Garden parks. T-Express (#163): The Park was touting T-Express as the first wooden coaster in Korea. They spelled out all the details about the coaster including 77 degree drop which is the steepest angle of all wooden coaster in the world. The coaster was located on a steep part of a slope on the hill with the station being higher than some of the tracks. The lift hill is slightly angle toward the hill but not toward the hill itself. The ride was almost triple out and back with about ½ of the ride contained within the wooden structure. A long stretch of the ride was under another track. It was basically parallel to the top track. The ride was two train operation although it could have easily been 3 car operation. The train had 6 cars with 3 rows of seats. When we got to the ride, there was a long line OUTSIDE of the entrance of the ride. Once we got inside of the entrance, they showed us a 2 minute safety video for the ride. After the video, we were allowed to the ride. It was interesting how people were responding to the ride. They were asking to themselves if the ride was actually made out of wood. Another person was asking what happened if it rained. Many thought the ride structure looked awesome. It was quite obvious that just about all of them had never seen wooden coasters before. After a short wait, we got to the station. There were two plaques of feedback letters from other US visitors who rode this coaster on the wall. The station had several TVs showing the video of the making of this ride. We got on 6-2. The seat belts and the lap bars were identical to the ones on Millennium Force and Top Thrill Dragster except this seat belt was considerably longer. I usually have 3 to 4 inches left over on MF seat belts. On this one, I had about 1 foot to spare. The train started off and another MF comparison appeared. The lift hill was cable lift just like MF with characteristic slow down near the top. At the top there was a turn around which showed a great view of the entire park and then the first drop. Again, I was reminded of the MF with comfortable floater air time about ½ way down the ride. At the top of the second hill, there was nearly an ejector air followed by another drop. A double turn around later, the ride reminded me of Cyclone coasters. There were many head choppers which many people ducked their heads. Some people thought I was crazy to leave my arms up throughout the ride. Without a doubt, this coaster had the most air time and the smoothest out of all the wooden coasters I have ever been on. In fact, the ride may be TOO SMOOTH which may have reduced intensity of the ride. Overall, this was a great ride. I still rate Voyage and Renegade above this one but this ride topped Ghostrider, Beast and Shivering Timbers. We rode this five times and moved on. (10/10) Eagle Fortress (#164): After a long hike, we finally got to Eagle Fortress. I really like these Arrow suspended coasters. I wish they built more of them since only handful of these coasters is now in existence. This ride was also built on a side of hill. As we entered the station, there was an information board about American Bald Eagle. Also, there was a photo shoot picture of Hines Ward on one of the walls. Hines Ward is one of the most popular athletes in Korea since he is ½ Korean. The trains were shaped like eagles but typical Arrow suspended coaster trains. We got on the last seat. The lift hill was considerably faster than other suspended coasters I had been on. Also, this was the most intense suspended coaster out of 5 that I have ridden so far. The coaster used the train very well with heavy forest surrounding the track. There were strong air times on certain parts of the ride. One draw back was that the ride was somewhat on the short side although it was longer than Top Gun (PKI). This one had only one lift hill which might be the reason it felt short. This ride definitely became my favorite suspended coaster. After 5 rides, we moved on. (9/10) Rolling X Train (#165): This coaster was a typical Arrow looper with two loops and two corkscrews including head banging on OTSR. This ride was plenty popular though. Racing Coaster (#166): This coaster reminded me of Jaguar to a certain degree. This was a good little coaster with one train (?????). Dragon Coaster (#167): We decided to ride this. This one was very much like Boa Squeeze at Wonder Park in Cincinnati Mills. For the park itself, I will give it a high mark for staff friendliness and getting involved with the rides. It was very impressive that just about all of them looked like they were having good times. Also, food costs were quite reasonable. No obvious hike in food prices like the parks in the US. One major drawback was rampant line jumping and the staff not doing anything about it. It was a source of irritation. One minor note was lack of water fountain. They were few and far between. The highlights were T-Express and Eagle Fortress. These coasters were quite the novelties here and were outstanding in their own right.

T-Express is very, very good. The train looks almost identical to Millennium Force including seat belts except much longer. The lift is the same with cable lift. This is the first coaster I have seen that has a safety video. Actually, it was quite funny and entertaining. Eagle Fortress is better than advertised. I never thought that a suspended coaster can be that intense. I rate Eagle Fortress higher than Maverick. I agree about the travel. It was 15 1/2 hours from Atlanta and 14 hours from Chicago O'Hare to Seoul. I have many family members there so I have an excuse to go there. 13 and 14 hour time difference is also a harsh adjustment as well as the language.

#1 Behemoth - will be there in 3 weeks! #2 Steel Dragon - Still need to go to Japan #3 Screechin' Eagle - Closest coaster to my house but cannot ride it. #4 El Toro - How does this compare to T-Express? #5 Shooting Star - RIP My coaster count is at 186. I am hoping to get to 200 by the end of July.