thejoker8388

Am I the only one that isn't all that impressed with this coaster. Don't get me wrong, it looks fun but it also looks terribly short and kind of boring. I mean it goes, drop Immelmann, drop, immelmann, water, turn and done. Just doesn't seem all that great to me and rather repetitive. I was hoping for better from Busch which has some of the most amazing B&M's ever made with Kraken, Kumba, Montu, Apollo's Chariot, and Alpengiest.

Now I don't know what KI has planned but I can say with near certainty that there will be no roller coaster coming next year unless it is something small along a wild mouse type ride. I say this for the same reason I said that a Spongebob coaster wasn't coming last year even though many people claimed "they knew for sure" that a Spongebob coaster was coming. The simple fact is that roller coasters take many many months to plan out. There is surveying and markers placed months before ground work even begins. Unless someone out there has seen markers all over the ground, a coaster will not be coming. It's getting too late in the season to just beginning marking, unless if it's a very small coaster. I hate to be pessimistic but don't get your hopes up for a large coaster; it won't be coming. I also imagine CF wouldn't want one of their parks that is close to compete with CP's mystery coaster for next year. Hopefully, 2008 will be the year for a large coaster.

^That actually brings to mind something I read a little while back. It basically stated that if there was a ride that you could design where 1 in a 1,000,000 would be injured the number of riders would increase. I may have read that here or somewhere else. Lots of the GP seems to ride rides with that fear of how tall or fast a coaster is. If you throw in the fact that the ride had a malfunction recently it adds to that fear. Now I don't know if that is all true or not but I honestly could see people riding SOB just to say they rode the ride that broke.

Combat, I have to agree about Villian. The first time I went last year I expected a great ride but as soon as the ride went over the lift hill I wanted off. I gave it a second chance this year and it was actually better. I kid you not, but by better I mean this time it didn't make me bleed. Last year it somehow managed to bust my elbow and my friends lip during that two minute ride. I remember last year in my TR saying that SOB was smooth as glass compared to Villian and that people should be glad SOB isn't as bad as Villian. I'm glad more and more people are starting to see that SOB isn't the roughest coaster around. For anyone who says SOB is the roughest coaster in the world I again challenge you to go ride Villian before making such a decision.

Oh yea one other thing. I was given a huge collectable map when i paid for parking. I though it was kind of cool I guess and I'm keeping it to remember I went to SFGAm. I was just wondering if all the SF parks were doing this as a 45th anniversary deal or if it's just at SFGAm?

I had to go to Chicago on Monday and knowing how close SFGAm was, I couldn't resist going there on Tuesday. After my buisness was complete in Chicago, I drove up to a motel just minutes from the park; there I met a friend who now lives in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. It was nice seeing him and neither of us had been to the park before so it was a completely new experience for both of us. Tuesday we got up early and headed to the park, the first thing I noticed was the outrageous $15 parking, people complain about PKI's pricing but PKI isn't that bad. I have a Wyndot Lake season pass so I got right in around 9:45 and had to wait in a sea of people for the park to open. The first thing I noticed was how SF is pushing the costume chartacters. While we were waiting, we had to listen to about five Looney Toons characters sing and dance, which while maybe something the young children would enjoy I would rather just have gotten into the park. First up was the Southwest Territory, home to Viper and Raging Bull amoung others. Viper-The first ride of the day on one of the many copies of the famous Coney Island Cyclone. The ride had no wait and we walked right into the station. The ride was great fun, filled with lots of moments of air and twists. I found the ride to be smoother than the only copy of the CIC I've been on, the Georgia Cyclone. All in all it was a wonderful ride and while not my favorite woodie it's definetly higher than most. One thing I must say though was the lack of people SF had working the ride, when I rode it they had a mere two people, one for each side of the train. Then once the one guy finished he had to sprint back to release the train. This ride needed at least one more ride op, but they were running two trains which was nice to see as SF is notourious for only doing one train ops even on busy days. Raging Bull- This was the first B&M speed coaster I've ridden. I've heard many complain that they lack in air time and forces so I didn't know what to expect. The line seemed long but they had all 3 trains running and an abundance of ride ops. At least one should have been transfered over to Viper. The seats were the first thing I noticed and I thought the restraints were really weird looking and thought it odd that your feet didn't touch. I found the ride itself to be really fun. I guess I didn't expect any air time and therefore wasn't disappointed when there was very little. I liked how the ride had alot of twists and turns, it may not have been the most forceful or intense ride but it was still very fun. The drop ride- I don't remember the name but it was being run very efficiently and had no line. It was a fun ride but I still prefer drop zone because it's taller, although I could see the Chicago skyline some 50 miles off which was cool. I noticed this ride had wonderful themeing with fake cliffs all over the que. I've never heard anyone say that SF is good at themeing but I thought that this themeing was much better than just about any thing at Paramount. In fact the whole Southwest Territory was very nice and had the old western feel to it which Rivertown sorely lacks. American Eagle- I consider this thing Racer on steroids, although I'm sure it would deny the accusation even after the B test came back positive. This ride was okay, I prefer Racer more because I found AE to be extremely rough and trimmed to death. The coolest part was the spiral drop turn around. This ride had no wait and in a way seems forgotten in the back of the park. Iron Wolf- I believe this was the first ever B&M. I hate stand ups as it is so I was wary of going on this ride but my friend and I wanted the credit. The line was short but moved slow, not because of the ride ops which were doing a great job and running two trains, but instead because of the nature of stand ups. This ride to quote my friend "sucked it hard". I hated every part of the ride, it had more head banging than any SLC or arrow I've ridden, I thought this was supposed to be a B&M? I don't know they must have improved with time. V2- Just like Steel Venom at Geauga Lake. The Line was again short but moved slow because of the nature of the ride. It's a fun ride just like WT or SV yet I just wish the ride did more, my friend had never been on an impulse before and seemed to enjoy it more than me simply because he'd never experienced the ride before. Batman: The Ride-The only other B:TR I've been on was at SFOG, but in all honesty I don't remember it at all so this was essentially my first experience on B:TR that I remember. The line was long, about 1 hour wait but the ride ops were still going as quick as possible. This was another ride where I was shocked by the level of themeing. The front park section and then entering the sewer and the station were all really well done IMO. The station even had that feel of being in The Bat cave and I thought it was great, really added to the ride experience. This que was themed better than anything at PKI except maybe TR:TR and FOF I'm shocked PKI is supposed to be known for themeing and SF isn't yet SFGAm had better all around themeing IMO. The ride itself was great, I really enjoyed it and actually found it better than Raptor, just because Raptor always leaves me natious whereas B:TR didn't. After B:TR we ate lunch, the food was what I'd expect in an amusement park and was priced accordingly. Superman-Again I've been on Superman before at SFOG but didn't really remember the ride. The line was about 1.5 hours but both of us wanted to ride it so we waited. Unlike the several rides before this ride could have used better themeing. The cut outs of the villians and superheroes just looked cheap and I wish they would have actually had a 3D figure, it would have added a lot. The line moved slow again but this time it was due to the nature of the ride as well as the ride ops. They were simply walking around and didn't even seem to care this was the longest line in the park. The ride itself was fun but short. I originally thought I like the Vekoma fliers better because they did more but now I'm back to thinking the B&M are better because they don't make me feel sick, whereas the Vekoma do because of the laying on your back going through the loop. Whizzer- A creation by the famous Schwarzkopf. This ride had a short line but again moved slow do to the nature of the ride. The ride itself was okay. It had a cool layout in the trees yet evertime it seemed to gain speed it was breaked to death. The kids around me seemed to love it though so that's what matters. The two big rides left were Deja Vu and Demon but as we headed to DV it decided to break down and then as we crossed to Demon it also broke down. We decided we would head to the water park then instead and hit the last coasters later. We grabbed all our swimming gear headed towards the water park and then saw a sign saying that the water park was closed due to huge crowds. Needless to say this was the bad part of the trip. As we were heading back to our locker we saw that DV was operating again so we headed there. Deja Vu-For those who don't know what this is, imagine Face Off, but with vertical spikes and much bigger, also w/o the seats facing each other. Again I think SF is injecting there rides with some special juice when you compare them to similar rides at PKI. The wait was 45 minutes and would have been shorter but the ride "experienced difficulties" twice while we were waiting. Both times it was because they couldn't release the restraints and let the riders go. Seems like a stupid thing to me I thought most trains had a manual release. The ride itself was fun, yet it actually seemed less intense than Face Off to me and it had some more head banging than F/O. All in all out of all 3 boomerang models I enjoy the F/O type the most, althought DV is definetly an amazing ride to look at. Demon-while waiting for DV Demon had opened again. The wait was maybe 10 minutes. Once again this themeing was supurb with the ride going through cliffs and tunnels and such, although the pre-ride story about the Demon they had playing over the speakers was really cheesy. The ride itself was pretty fun and much better than similar coasters like Corkscrew at CP or Double loop at GL. The final ride of the day was Raging Cajun which was a fun spinning mouse ride. It was around 7 when we got off Raging Cajun and desided to hit Raging Bull once more before leaving. All in all this is a wonderful park and would love to go back. It has great staff and was running a minimum of two trains on every ride that could run them. It doesn't seem to suffer from any of the operation problems that many SF parks are notorious for. Everything seem well maintained except AE which could be retracked and only two rides were closed which were Skytower and the Huss frisbee which was missing its entire platform, I'm assuming for maintence. The park was very fun and I would say its ride selection was just as good as PKI's. It did seem to remind me a lot of SFOG as well with many similar rides. If you're ever in the Chicago area make sure not to miss SFGAm.

I hate Texas Twister or any other standard Huss top spin for that matter. They are by far the most painful rides because of the darn bar that pushes down on your shoulder harness and into the genital region. I've been on Texas Twister once and will never go again. I'll be lucky to have kids after what that stupid ride did to me. In my opinion, TR:TR is far superior to any standard Huss top spin for the simple reason that it doesn't crush your nuts (well at least as bad).

Hmm.... In my opinion, great and stand up coaster can't be uttered in the same sentence. I despise all stand up coasters that I've ridden; finding them uncomfortable and painful. Delirium is ten times better than KC or any other stand up in my opinion; although in all fairness I never have ridden Riddler's Revenge which I've heard is the best.

The first time I remember hearing about Holiday World was back in the late 90's because of the Raven. I was intrigued yet one coaster wasn't enough for me to justify a 4.5 hour trip. With the addition of Legend I was even more intrigued, yet it was still not quite enough to get me to the park. This year with the addition of the Voyage plus their great water park I could resist no longer. The thing that first struck me as I was heading to Holiday World is that it's seemingly in the middle of nowhere. I had my dad with me and he kept asking "now how have you heard of this place" and "how did they decide to build this thing out hear". Plus the fact that the name Holiday World seemed to strike him as all too similar to Wally World and was half expecting the park to be closed when we got there. As we pulled into Holiday World I noticed that the parking lot seemed fairly full and was very pleased about the free parking, although I already knew about it. Walking up to the park we immediately saw Raven and I was quite excited to ride the coaster that had been named #1 in the world 3 years straight. Raven-The ride was a walk on and I my dad and I choose the very back. They were running both trains and I instantly noticed the speed with which Raven crashes into the final breaks. My over all feeling about the ride is mixed though. It was a fun ride and I found it very enjoyable, yet it was very short and left me wanting more. As I exited the ride both my dad and I questioned why this was voted the best coaster for three years. Don't get me wrong I enjoyed it, but I guess I was just expecting more and was a tad dissapointed. I rode the Raven several times throughout the day and found the back to be best. Legend-The Legend was also a walk on and my dad and I again snagged the back seat. I found Legend to be much more of a complete ride than Raven. I found the double helix to be quite fun and in a small way it reminded me of The Beast with the covering, although I enjoy The Beast's much more. Legend also had a wonderful pop of air coming off the turn around by the water park that really surprised me. Overall I enjoyed it more than Raven but yet at the same time was still left wondering what all the hype about Holiday World was about. I'd place Legend maybe somewhere around tenth of the wooden coasters I've ridden, but I've only been on 30 some. With the first two coasters being somewhat of a let down I was really beginning to wonder if all the talk about Voyage was just hype as well. Voyage-The first thing I noticed about Voyage was that the station was very nice. The plexi-glass fly through was really neat and the station was well ventilated which was wonderful because it was very hot outside. The themeing of nets and bags was also a nice touch. The wait for Voyage maybe 5-10 minutes and my dad and I took a seat around the middle of the train. As I got strapped in my anticipation built, would this ride live up to its billing or be somewhat of a let down like Raven and Legend? The first drop of the ride is wonderful and so are the tunnels, some of which make it seem like your going to lose your head. The ride never relents until the final breaks. It was a wonderful ride and left me quite stunned as to what had happened. It instantly shot to one of my favorite rides, yet I didn't notice all the air time that the map claims it has. My dad gets nauseous fairly easy and after two rides on the Voyage he needed a break so we did the turkey ride, which for those who don't know what it is it is essentially like Scooby and the Haunted Castle at PKI. The building was nice as it was cool and gave a break from the heat but the ride itself was nothing too amazing. The purpose of these rides is to shoot targets and it just seemed like this one had too many spots without enough targets or any targets at all. Overall, I enjoy Scooby more because it has more targets, yet the ride is still a great family addtion for Holiday World. Next we did Splashing Safari which is a great water park. The two most notible rides in my opinion were Zoombabwe and Jungle racers. The water park had by far the longest lines in the park. Zoombabwe is a large enclosed family tube slide. As you turn the first corner it becomes completely black and you're treated for what is a very long and very fun ride. This instantly became my favorite water slide. Rode this twice despite the 45 minute wait. Jungle Racers- I've been on the dry version of Jungle Racers before but never before a wet version. Jungle Racers for those who don't know are essentially those tall fair slides that have the two humps and you ride down on the sacks. Jungle Racers are the same except they've incorporated water. The ride had the shortest line and the ride was very fun, I even got airborne on the second hump. I rode this twice winning once and losing to my dad the other. After the water park it was getting late but before we went I wanted to snag another ride on Voyage. My dad sat this ride out though due to his nausia problem. This ride I snagged a back seat and oh my lord, what a difference. Coming off the lift hill I was literally ripped out of my seat and didn't return until the bottom. Over every hill I was flying into the lap bar, it seemed as if I was going to get thrown from the ride. I was even catching air on the turns. The ride was furocious. At the end of the ride the man next to me commented "Man, that'll work the **** outta ya". I couldn't agree more. This is where the air was that I hadn't experienced before. Voyage instantly went from one of my favorite rides to my favorite roller coaster, wood or steel that I've ever been on; what a great ride. I snagged a couple more back seat rides and then headed home very happy. My overall impression of Holiday World is that it's a great park and I can't wait to go back. The Raven and Legend may have been a little over hyped in my opinion but Voyage more than made up for it. I also loved the free drinks, it's nice to just walk up and grab something to drink when your thirsty, instead of having to wait in line and then pay an arm and a leg for it. I also noticed how clean the park was and can understand why Holiday World has been voted the cleanest park six years running. The staff was also friendly, although I didn't find them necessarily any nicer than PKI's staff. All and all I left Holiday World with a new favorite coaster and slide and can't wait to go back.

I know it was mentioned a while back on this site that Dollywood was getting a new roller coaster called Mystery Mine, but none of the details had been confirmed. Well on Friday they released the information about the ride. It's a Gerstlauer Eurofighter (the rumored ride that was going to be used for the once hoped for Addams Family ride). It features about 2,000 feet of track, 2.5 minutes of ride time, and four inversions. It's going to cost Dollywood $17.5 million and is supposed to have some amazing themeing, although all the details of the theme have yet to be released, more details can be found at Mystery Mine. This sounds like a really cool ride to me. This is something Paramount should have done because it sounds to have amazing themeing and is a ride that younger people can ride, yet sounds exciting enough for the thrill seeker as well. I think Paramount got too cheap towards the end of their ownership to fork out the money though.

^I agree, I think the layout looks fairly cool, although it's fairly short. I just wonder if it has any of the head banging that Vekoma has become famouse for. I agree with you though and felt when I rode Thunderhawk last year that it was fairly smooth and didn't notice the head banging. Hopefully Jubilee Odyssey doesn't have it either, but I have no idea because I've never read a TR about it.

Essentially every SLC built up to 2002 had the same layout. A few have an extra helix or maybe a slightly different layout, but everyone built up until 2002 had the exact same inversions in the same order. Now they're building a new style SLC that rcdb.com still calls the SLC custom but it appears as if this new design isn't custom and instead just a new cookie cutter layout. There is only one SLC that I know of that has a different layout than any other; that is Jubilee Odyssey at Fantasy Island. I read somewhere that it had trouble valleying so they had to alter the track, maybe there's a reason Vekoma sticks to the same layout over and over again. Here at rcdb.com you can see a listing of all the SLCs. link. It has five different listings for the SLCs, but if you look under each one they are all virtually the same, except for the five of the SLC customs. Even out of those three are identical to each other and the one at Morey's is really the same as all of the other older SLCs. So that leaves one SLC that is actually unique.

I went to Geauga Lake last year and had an amazing time. No waits, a nice collection of fairly unique coasters like the only flying and floorless in Ohio, and generally friendly staff. Last year I left Geauga Lake thinking it was actually the most fun I had had at an Ohio amusement park all year. Like Interpreter said though, I suppose it all depends on how you go into the situation. I didn't expect much and was greatly surprised (in a good way). It is a shame though that Big Dipper wasn't open it's the best ride in the park. I must say though that I thought Thunderhawk was the smoothest SLC I've ever been on, found Steel Venom more exciting than Wicked twister for some odd reason, and found Dominator to be my favorite B&M in Ohio (oddly I'm not a fan of Raptor). Really the only complaint I can remember is that Vilian was terribly rough. Hopefully you'll go back again some time and be treated to the Geauga Lake I experienced.

"Two people was injured when last night on the Volcano: The Blast Coaster." Wow, I thought I was bad with grammar, yet it turns out I could be one of the more grammaticaly correct for WAVY-TV.

^Yeah, Werner Stengel is the essential god of the roller coaster industry. He has designed essentially every coaster for not only B&M, but also Premier, Intamin, Maurer Söhne, and others. Really the only major steel coasters that he hasn't had a part in are most of the arrow and vekoma rides, which maybe explains something. He's also designed the first modern loop. I can't even imagine how cool it would be to be that man.

Most of the trees I see are back by MF to Mean Streak. This picture was taken before the addition of skyhawk so I'll also assume that at the time of this picture WWL was still there. So for CP right now, cut out almost that entire spot of trees for MF to Mean Streak and that would be a more accurate depiction of how many trees CP has right now. With that factored in I'll say it's pretty lacking in trees.

To add what has already been said, you can instantly recognize a B&M due to its unique box track. Now there are a few coasters that have box track that aren't B&M (most notibly Goliath at Six Flags Magic Mountain) but if you see a box track, odds are it's a B&M. Here's a good example of its boxy shape. Also if you'd like to view all of their creations here's the link. Notice all the rides have the distinct box track. Also notice that all B&M coasters seat four across instead of the traditional two, which is another identifying mark of B&M. There are all kinds of other acronyms used for talk about roller coasters that can be confusing at first. Anything that starts SF__ like SFKK is refering to a Six Flags park (SFKK being Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom). I also remember when I first began posting I couldn't figure out what an OTSR was (over the sholder restraint). There are many others as well so if you don't know just ask in the thread, I'm sure someone will help out.

i think the worst part was simply the whole "KI doesn't have classic children's ride thing". I had no idea that "dune buggies, sky fighters, or motorcycles" were considered "classic". These rides may be "classic" to him but you'd be hard pressed to find any knowledgeable enthuisiast who would consider these rides classic. Just becaue they exist at CP doesn't make them classic. Plus the fact I would consider a ride like the kiddie whip (don't remember its new name) an actual classic childrens ride, at least a lot more classic than "dune buggies".

Are we really supposed to believe the guy who said that not only was PCW getting a B&M mega coaster but that you had seen the track hidden at PCW? Didn't you also say that Carowinds was getting an Intamin accelerator for next year? Somehow I'm not very sure I should believe you.

As far as the whole "King's Island is family-oriented" I understood it differently than some people. Dick Kinzel said that Cedar Point is mainly geared towards thrill seekers while Kings Island has a vast array of rides. So I take that to mean that we won't be getting a whole bunch of Italian Job styled rides where most everyone can ride and instead it means we'll get maybe a B&M or hyper and then maybe a new dark ride or something that smaller kids can ride. Also, in a different direction but this seems it seems to me that the Paramount licensing besides Nick won't be around that much longer which makes me think that the Addam's Family idea is dead in the water. Unless the Addam's Family is already planned for next year and then what do you think the chances are that it may be given a more generic name like "Haunt House" or something to avoid licensing issues.

From what I've heard Browntggrr is essentially correct on the different types of track. Along the same stress idea I've also heard that the four rail can span the longest distance without a support while 2 rail is the shortest. That can be kind of be seen looking at these two pics 2 rail and . three rail. It's hard to tell from the pictures but I think the span is further for the 3 rail. I've also heard it's cheaper to build the 2 rail with lots of supports than the three or four rail with fewer supports, although once again I'm don't know that for

I watched it and wow...I had forgotten how completely terrible the acting was in the Brady Bunch. Those people couldn't act to save their lives, oh well getting to see the old Kings Island was still cool.

^I'll bite, your question kind of gives it away but it was The Who. Now I wasn't alive for that concert but I love The Who and have heard about it. Didn't the death of those couple people do away for the most part with the first to come, best seats idea.

^If you go through AAA then you can get the ticket for 21 and I had a free parking ticket last year. It was the cheapest amusement park trip in my life.

I also remember hearing somewhere that it seemed they were shutting down FOF at PKD because of the addition of IJ:TC. From what I heard with the park already having three launched coasters, a forth would have required too much electricity and made for a massive elecricity bill. Also I think I heard mentioned that the park may not have even been able to get the amount of energy to run four launched coasters and that is why they shut down FOF for the new IJ:TC. It seems like a stupid idea to get a fourth launched coaster if you know you can't run it without shuting down another one but that's just what I heard. It may be true or false I don't really know.