homestar92

In today's age of Giga and Strata coasters, it's easy to forget that the vast majority of coasters out there travel well below highway speeds. And this is purely anecdotal and I haven't done the research to get a solid number, but it seems in my experience that a height in the 100-150 foot range is pretty average for major coasters anymore, especially wooden ones. With that in mind, I don't think height or speed on this are really that far below what you'd see on a wooden coaster being built anywhere else. The two GCIs that I've most recently ridden (Renegade and Thunderhead) are right at the 100 foot mark and are two of my absolute favorites. 74 feet isn't really that much different. Plus, BGW is not a flat park at all. Depending on how the new coaster uses the terrain, the difference between its high and low points could be much more than that 74 foot initial drop.

How is the concept of a launched wooden coaster even relevant to anything at Dollywood when they are currently building a launched coaster with steel track?

Did somebody imply a moose-themed ride might be coming? Sorry, but the bar's been set pretty high. There's another park up in New York with a Moose-themed ride which is simply top-notch, and for reasons that I can't fully explain, is among my favorite rides: - homestar92, who you probably think is kidding...

Obviously it never happened at KI, but if one wanted to ride a Spongebob-themed coaster, there is one at the Mall of America in Minnesota.

An SLC from 1998 is a very different animal than a TOGO stand up that is a good 12 years older. The SLC is from the same manufacturer and was manufactured within a few years of what is now Firehawk. So comparing the two is pretty fair, I think.

The manufacturer calls it wood. But all solid material between the main wheels and the upstop wheels is steel. As far as I'm concerned, that makes it steel. Same for Goliath. What the manufacturers and parks claim means nothing to me. They can call it whatever they want. If Kings Island's marketing department decided to start referring to Diamondback as a wooden coaster, that wouldn't make it so. EDIT: Wow, great minds think alike. And nearly simultaneously, too!

I had originally used "they" in reference to Vortex and Firehawk. However, in doing so, my intent was somewhat ambiguous. So because I chose to use a pronoun instead of actually specifying "Vortex and Firehawk", it left the meaning of my original post open for interpretation (or misinterpretation).

^ I believe that is a linguistic nitpick. I hate pronouns sometimes[emoji14] I had started a new paragraph and returned to the original subjects of comparison, Firehawk and Vortex. Nice try though

But Outlaw Run is a steel coaster.

And anything that might have been salvageable and was left on the property almost certainly isn't any longer, considering that it's been over ten years with presumably no maintenance.

Vortex's line could be backed up clear to Juke Box Diner and you'd barely be waiting a half hour.

To my knowledge, Thunder Run has not ever had more than one train. I know with certainty that it doesn't have a transfer track. With that in mind, I don't see how they COULD run it with more than one train. Not to mention, the train is often halfway into the station by the time the brakes bring it to a stop. Luckily, it's a short enough ride with a long enough train that one train operation isn't the end of the world. I've only ever been to KK on weekends and I have never waited more than 30 minutes for Thunder Run.

Definitely Firehawk first, then Flight of Fear. Everything else is a lot less important for what order you hit it, but those are low capacity and quite popular, so you want to do them before lines have time to develop. As for which is better, that is an absolutely impossible question to answer objectively. They are my two favorite coasters at the park personally, but they each have a very unique set of forces compared to one another and which you'll enjoy more greatly depends on what you look for in a ride.

VR is a very cool technology that I enjoy tremendously. In my home. Sitting in my chair. Doing a minimal amount of moving. I ride coasters because I love coasters. But I don't enjoy disease. And yes, I realize that lap bars are tremendously unsanitary. But lap bars don't touch my face, and neither do my hands after touching a lap bar.

A Mouse... a modern, twisty woodie... any coasters from Chance/Morgan... a HUSS Condor... Just to name a few of my favorites that are missing from KI's lineup.

And perhaps soon, Conneaut Lake Park.That's why I went last year. And as sad as the state of the park was, I had a blast on Devil's Den and Blue Streak.

The next day, I rode Flight Deck at Canada's Wonderland. At that moment, I gained an appreciation for Mind Eraser.In my uncommon opinion, Flight Deck was even worse than Time Warp, which is an achievement, l guess...

My first SLC was Mind Eraser at Darien Lake. Trust me when I say that you're much more likely to want to ride a second SLC if your first is not a traditional one.

We almost lost Thunder Run forever once. I would be absolutely devastated if it happened again. If the park fails now, I think that it's done for good, with zero chance of returning again. There are a lot of things about Kentucky Kingdom that I don't care for, but darn it, they have one of my favorite coaster collections among any parks I've been to.

I was going to ask a question here about a particular part of your post, but instead, I will re-word it as a statement, so as to not pry into personal matters. You are going with a girl you say, and you say that she is a very close friend. If it happens that she might perhaps be a little more than a friend (or if there is a potential opportunity for her to become more than a friend), I can assure you that it helps a lot with ride anxiety. In spring of 2010, I had a pathological fear of roller coasters. Even something as small as Adventure Express gave me the jibblies. I managed to convince myself to ride The Beast once, and it took everything I had to work up the courage to ride it. I wouldn't do anything that went upside-down, and I didn't like riding anything higher than 50 feet or so. Then a girl who I had recently started dating, who loved roller coasters dragged me, practically kicking and screaming, onto Flight of Fear. The rest, as they say, is history. There is one ride at Kings Island that still scares me, and that's Drop Tower. I simply will not ride it under normal circumstances, even with my best friends. I have ridden it twice. Both times it was a girl who I was dating that convinced me to ride it with them. I don't know if your situation is similar to mine or not, but if it is, you might find yourself getting a sudden, inexplicable boost in courage and find yourself riding in no time. And if you decide that the major coasters aren't for you, that's fine too. There's still no shortage of fun to be had at Kings Island.

From my own experience, and commentary from others who I've asked for opinions, Wolf Pack wouldn't be tremendously missed if it didn't return.

Oh, man, I don't remember that particular detail, and I don't have any photos of that ride from my visit. My recollection leads me to believe that they were three benchers. Someone who I follow on Twitter who is a Valleyfair regular has a lot of photos from the park, though. Digging through those, it was definitely a three-bencher in 2014. So unless my recollection is wrong and the change was very recent, they are still three-bench. Here's the photo in question. The author gives permission on her blog to post these elsewhere as long as you credit her by linking to her blog, which is found here: https://livelaughlovee13.wordpress.com/

The coaster to which I was referring is High Roller at Valleyfair, which does have buzz bars, but does not have PTC trains. If you want coasters that are a little more modern and have PTC trains with buzz bars, two of the woodies at Indiana Beach fit that bill, as do both coasters at Stricker's Grove.

Excluding the Junior Coasters, there is still one Cedar Fair coaster that comes to mind with buzz bars. And it's at probably my favorite park in the chain.

I'm OK with Carowinds getting five of their rides. Carowinds has felt too much like what I call a "coaster park" the last couple of times I've been there. Some mid-to-high thrill flats are precisely what they needed to fill the gaps in their ride lineup, in my opinion. Interesting that Carowinds would get the Wave Swinger. I had never heard of any issues with their Yo-Yo, and the rides are VERY similar. Though a Wave Swinger is higher capacity to my knowledge, and perhaps that has a lot to do with it.