Rustbucket

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.

I asked her this past Sunday if Diamondback was her favorite coaster. She said yes. She was also proud of her ACE membership. I'm confused. She told me that Millie was her favorite coaster. Unless you mean her favorite coaster at KI? She told me that last week. I will ask her again this weekend.

Green is tracks the best by far thus smoother and faster than others.

I asked her this past Sunday if Diamondback was her favorite coaster. She said yes. She was also proud of her ACE membership.

Although I am not a fan of Legend, Raven and Voyage are certainly on my top ten wooden coaster list. I picked HW. My wooden coaster list: 1 Voyage 2 Renegade 3 T-Express 4 Boulder Dash 5 Ghostrider 6 The Beast 7 Shivering Timbers 8 Viper (SFGAm) 9 Cornball Express 10 Raven How could you forget Fairly Odd Coaster????

Beastie!!!!

Not quite. He admits DT was the biggest mistake ..... until TTD.

One of the first guy who rode Disaster Transport said to Dick Kinzel said, "It was a disaster." It was not a favorable statement.

DB > Magnum >> MF I rode MF four weeks ago and was quite disappointed. I thought the ride was rather tame. I still like the first drop, but the rest of the ride was not as good as I remembered. Maybe, DB air time spoiled me. MF was my third favorite steel coaster before this year. (DB and Bizzaro rank ahead for me.) Magnum was quite good as always. Magnum was my favorite coaster from 1989 to 2006. Magnum is my favorite at CP. I have been on Magnum over 1000 times, over 500 on MF and over 200 DB. I have been on every row of seats on all these coasters. I prefer 6-2 on Magnum and the last row on both MF and DB. See my signature for the steel coaster ranking. I guess I like B&M coasters.

After my son and I rode with her 7 times yesterday, we rode again with her this morning. She was up to 515 when we left. I hit my 200 and my son hit 150. She was riding right behind us on 12. Darlene and other ride ops gave me high fives.

Fixed. along with Flying Eagle! Added

The best floaing air is the row 15 and 16. The best ejection air is 1 and 2. For some reason, 13 and 15 seems the smoothest. The odd rows are smoother than the even ones. The Green train is the fastest and smoothest. The Red train shakes the most. My preference is 16 on green train on the left side.

I rode with Darlene on her 500th. Don Helbig took a sign of her #500 and took a picture. The sign is being displayed on the window of a control room. That ride was my 193rd. I got to 202 today. A long way to go!!!

Agreed!!!!!!

It was not the tallest. The first coaster to break 100 feet was Serpent of Fire in Mexico in 1964.

I rode the Bizzaro for the first time. It was an amazing coaster. The air time and the lateral were much, much better than Millennium Force although the trains were quite similar. I find it hard to believe that the ride was better. I rode 10 times including once on a front and 5 times in the back. (I prefer back.) The ride was much more dynamic than Diamondback although Diamondback had much more air time. I will be at CW this July. I will ride Behemoth. There are a few people like Diamondback better and some like Behemoth better. I will finally get to ride that. The train modification was done possibly due to an accident a few years ago. From what I heard, the ride itself was not modified.