silver2005

Pictures from Riverfest The UC Band had a gig at about 4:15, about the time I arrived. They played a few songs and left. I wish they did a little more to get a little excitement going, like have an announcer or something. There were about a dozen DeLoreans on display as part of the 80s theme. The one seen here was the only one in the BTTF gear. Who else would you call? The spot my friends and I stayed. The way to orient yourself around Sawyer Point is with the flag poles. Each one has a different number of stripes, from 1 to 4. The one with 3 is the center most to help view the fireworks, and we were all the way back in the grass to not have to look straight up too much. Rozzi's did use practically the entire sky between the bridges. The weather this year was significantly cooler than years past. The rain in the morning helped that a lot. Though there was some good cloud cover most of the day, it was crystal clear by 9:05 with a nice crescent moon towards the west. The many sponsors of Riverfest and the fireworks. For those wondering, the beverages on hand were RC products. The food was pretty decent this year as well. I had a nice pulled pork sandwich for $6. The Serpentine Wall. Much easier to negotiate than the huge steep, grass flood wall in Newport. During the last flood we had a few years ago, the water was up to the top. I know many a UC student initially from out of town that willingly went down to see the high waters here. A view of the P&G twin towers HQ from Sawyer Point. It isn't the best place to get views of downtown. That might be one of the advantages of watching from Newport, with downtown as a nice huge backdrop. One Lytle Place, a huge very expensive apartment building. Tenants will rent the rooms out for the fireworks. Another great place to view them if you have the money. This is the room our group took up. Barges arrive at T-minus 1 hour. Normally there are 6 barge containers filled with TNT. In recent years its been down to 4. They also put up a display with WEBN in green and red fireworks, sometimes right at the beginning, sometimes right at the end. As said before, both the barges and the 2 bridges all have stuff launching, and they have sequences that utilize all 3 launching areas. Its amazing to see them all launch everything at the end.

Trip Report 8/31- Riverfest, WEBN Fireworks This was my 20th Riverfest I've been to. This is something I always look forward to to end the summer each year. Its simply a wonderful event, a true celebration of the riverfronts of Cincinnati, Newport and Covington. I got there at around 4 to try and avoid the rain. I saw in the morning coverage of Riverfest by many of the news stations that downtown Cincy was soaked. It starting clearing up by 3-ish by me (I live 30 minutes west of downtown), so I left at 3:30, got there about quarter after 4. As I got in, the UC band gig was going on, which I didn't take part of as I needed a break from band for the weekend. After that, I checked out the 80's car show going on, mainly DeLoreans, one of which was souped up Back to the Future style, and Ecto 1 from Ghostbusters was also present. I then went out to find my group. We usually get a spot in the grass as we don't feel like getting up at 4 am to stake out a spot on the Serpentine Wall. I would love to go back on the wall sometime in the future, though that is, without question, the best place to see the fireworks. I also like watching the river as well being there. Back in the grass, the benefit is you don't have to look straight up and you don't have to deal with falling debris. But, we had a big group and needed the space. About 40 people showed up by 9:05 when the fireworks began. Usually the bulk of those attending show up after 6. Getting there between 2 and 5 is usually ideal, between 6 and 9 am to get a spot on the wall. I have to say, they were really into the 80's theme today. Most of the music played towards the final hours were 80s stuff. I kind of didn't like it, as I'm a sucker for the type of rock WEBN plays like ACDC, Led Zeppelin, etc, which was mostly absent. I'll give them a pass with the theme though. They did do a tribute to the troops with a medley of the service songs, but I have to slap them on the wrist for skipping the Coast Guard's song. Now the fireworks themselves. I consider this year not as good as previous years. One thing unique about this show compared to other Rozzi's shows is that they have half an hour to fill. They usually use a wide variety of music and really use it to dramatic affect, the fireworks following suit. They have a great style for their finale where they pretty much launch half the barges' load of fireworks in the span of 40 minutes. However, they usually build to that with a few slower songs in the soundtrack. They kind of ruined it this year. A majority from the show, even from the get-go, was all just balls to the wall fast music. They were firing the shells at a faster pace too, which you really couldn't appreciate or hear the music that well. Part of the aura is the soundtrack. The only real slow part was about 20 seconds of the ET theme. They really spoiled their show by the way they handled the pacing. It was all just underwhelming, especially knowing Rozzi's and WEBN have done much, much better. Despite those pet peves, I had a good time. Good friends, good music, good food. Will be posting photos later.

I'd take Herschend by a mile.

If you want to see an existing coaster with the same layout concept, see Alton Towers' Smiler.

Go look at any of the Facebook pages of the Six Flags parks that are getting the looping rides, even the GP is privy to knowing they're not roller coasters.

I just re-watched the video- did Six Flags honestly just call one of their looping rides a 'hangover coaster'?

In reference to the possibility Colossus won't be timed like that, RMC could tinker with the sensors to make it work. For instance, have it where the chain motor on the 2nd lift slows until the train on the first lift gets to a certain point then gets back up to speed in order to coordinate the dueling moments. Dueling Dragons at IOA had a similar system in place where it weighed the trains and set the chain speeds accordingly. There are ways to work around the inconsistent crews.

I think its very clever what they did with Colossus. Its basically like how Smiler was designed, where its all a mobius track and the ride is still a racing coaster, and you only need one crew at the station vs 2 to operate it. I'm also glad they put in the double downs and double ups that Colossus used to be famous for. Also, at least with Colossus and Wicked Cyclone, they are using the Iron Horse track, so there is no question they are steel coasters now. Speaking of Wicked Cyclone, I am dissapointed I never got to ride it when it was still a woodie. I was rather intrigued by its layout. I'm seeing a lot of outside banked curves on the steel version. Batman: The Ride turned out different than I thought. I expected S&S's Free Fly design to have an actual layout, not what is essentially a clone of an Intamin Ball Coaster. This is yet another example of a company taking an Intamin design and, hopefully, making it better. I might be paying a bit more attention to this just to see how S&S coasters fare over time. For the rest, I really didn't think SFGAm was going to get anything seeing that they recieved 2 major roller coasters over the past few years. They could use a year to just work on the little things, especially for their big 4-0. Can't really say much about the rest. The dark rides might turn out well, though I don't know how well Six Flags has pulled off dark rides. The Giant Loops are starting to grow on me, and Six Flags can have their 'Giant Loops are roller coasters' advertising all they want, I think even the GP realizes they're not coasters, but I think they'll make decent additions none-the-less.

I don't know how consistent this is, but I've always seen Firehawk open a little bit later than the rest of the park on about every visit. WindSeeker might be another.

I'll give you that one, especially since SFGAdv's flat collection is lacking. The Giant Loop is 7 stories tall, taller than what you would find elsewhere, so I guess it could work out. I recall they tried to install a few flats around the time when Medusa was built which didn't work out so well.

^That is a website I just left, for that and many reasons. I wouldn't go about using Coaster-Net as a resource. I'm also curious (if this is true) as to why Six Flags is putting in looping carnival rides at their major theme parks. They can't be out of ideas that quickly to resort to that. I'm also reading some likely legitimate rumors that Colossus will go down to a single track instead of remaining a racing coaster, though from what I hear about ride operations at the Mountain, they never run both sides together anymore anyways. I also figured NJFTP would be getting a coaster next year considering they just lost Rolling Thunder and I feel they're due for a decent coaster.

You also might want to see Cedar Point on that issue. Both Millennium Force and Magnum get hefty lines through coexisting.

I'm not familiar with Carowinds, so what is that structure Fury 325 dives under near the far end of the course? I rather like the colors. It looks like the colors of a coaster that should be slapped somewhere in Florida rather than Carowinds, and at 325 ft, it'll be quite the eye catcher with that bit of neon green towering above the park.

^Banshee looks like its made of licorice in that picture.

I have a running theory that SFMM is just in a location not conducive for running wooden coasters. Its practically in the middle of a desert. I would imagine air that dry plus the heat must be torture for wooden coaster track. I do agree that most of Six Flags' GCI collection isn't that great. The Roar duo are earlier models, plus the SFA one runs with PTC trains, which, as we've seen on early GCI's, aren't a good combination. Although, I preferred PTC's on Wildcat at HP, but that's just me. After that its Apocalypse which I believe suffers from being in a desert, and American Thunder at SFStL which is decent.

What's worse is that Six Flags and RMC market the Topper Track model as wooden coasters, which they clearly aren't if you study the track design closely. I kind of fear for actual wooden coaster producers like Gravity Group and GCI having to compete with a wooden coaster knock off which it spreading like wildfire in Six Flags.

WindSeeker but only because of the prospect of being stuck for hours and hours a la Knott's Berry Farm.

Well, if Kings Island were bought by today's Cedar Fair, that means Paramount would have owned the park in the intermediate time. I for one wouldn't have liked to see how the park turned out especially the way they handled their last few ride installments. More so, the rides we could have potentially lost. Makes me shudder thinking about it.

I was hoping for something cool to be done with Mission: Impossible. There's a ton of stuff you could pull off with that theme, especially pulling inspiration from the recent movies. I'm also very surprised more wasn't done with Star Trek. Other possible movies of interest- - Beverly Hills Cop (the first 2 at least) - Friday the 13th for Fear Fest - Grease (possible show) - Godfather themed restaurant? - Indiana Jones (I know AE kind of counted, but I mean among the chain)- - Braveheart

The way Kentucky Kingdom has been handling their business reminds me of this.

Wow, I was expecting something along the lines of Dollywood's Firechaser Express. This looks incredible. Bravo Herschend and SDC.

Where in the park are they placing it? EDIT: Nevermind. I found it'll be located at the far end of the park by their Whip ride in the Midway America section.

I had a rather annoying encounter with the Banshee crew last Saturday night. If I didn't know better, I'd of guessed they ingested a lot of Red Bull and caffeine before their night shift. The person on the microphone was talking way, way too fast and the crew was just annoying. They stood right by the cars as they unloaded and loaded, rushing guests to get on and off. I felt they were breathing down my neck as soon as the gates or restraints opened. Some of the crew gave creepy responses, either being dead silent and giving awkward stares or giving off these weird squeals like they were a 10 year old that had too much Mt Dew. It was almost robotic how they were acting.

Yeah, I didn't like the overcast. I thought some of these pictures wouldn't turn out as well as they looked really bright at the top of the picture. They turned out darker than I would have liked, even after I tried to get the settings to get brighter shots. I like how the sun peeked out in that one photo I posted of Racer from Oktoberfest.

What kind of omen is it when you hear "NOW YOU WILL PAY" after your proposal?