Velocicoaster, Best in the world?

[SonofBaconator]

On 3/31/2021 at 3:20 PM, SnakePlissken said:

You could say that one of the reasons why King's Island is considered better than Cedar Point by many is because it doesn't have those Intamin's and RMC's that either break down all the time or  have huge maintenance issues.

I could see an argument for that honestly. The most maintenance stricken coaster we ever had was SOB. I could not imagine what ops would be if we got an Intamin coaster. At Cedar Point it was pretty much a given that Dragster and Maverick would experience downtime with Wicked Twister and Millennium Force always being on the table. Love their rides, hate their downtime.

RMC can be thrown in the same boat. Look how long Steel Vengeance was down to one train ops in 2018, look what's happening to Lightening Rod, I think even Twisted Timbers had some issues. The risk/reward ratio tips towards safety and reliability. Enthusiasts might get underwhelmed by parks that don't have Intamins or RMCs but GP, the people who make the parks the most money, could care less.

Universal most likely went for Intamin because they can afford the downtime. Their parks are open year round so it hurts them less if one of their rides goes down vs if they were seasonal. With a chain like Cedar Fair, they can't really afford to purchase rides that could experience maintenance issues because they're only open few months out of the year. Everytime a ride is down, its hitting their wallet. When it comes to rides that experience downtime, the ROI is much greater for year round parks than it is for seasonal parks. As for Pantheon at BGW, I feel like they're just trying to outcompete with KD.

If Cedar Fair operated a Kings Island sized park in a warm climate year round, I'm sure Cedar Fair would look to Intamin. 

[coaster sally]

15 minutes ago, SonofBaconator said:

I could see an argument for that honestly. The most maintenance stricken coaster we ever had was SOB. I could not imagine what ops would be if we got an Intamin coaster. At Cedar Point it was pretty much a given that Dragster and Maverick would experience downtime with Wicked Twister and Millennium Force always being on the table. Love their rides, hate their downtime.

RMC can be thrown in the same boat. Look how long Steel Vengeance was down to one train ops in 2018, look what's happening to Lightening Rod, I think even Twisted Timbers had some issues. The risk/reward ratio tips towards safety and reliability. Enthusiasts might get underwhelmed by parks that don't have Intamins or RMCs but GP, the people who make the parks the most money, could care less.

Universal most likely went for Intamin because they can afford the downtime. Their parks are open year round so it hurts them less if one of their rides goes down vs if they were seasonal. With a chain like Cedar Fair, they can't really afford to purchase rides that could experience maintenance issues because they're only open few months out of the year. Everytime a ride is down, its hitting their wallet. When it comes to rides that experience downtime, the ROI is much greater for year round parks than it is for seasonal parks. As for Pantheon at BGW, I feel like they're just trying to outcompete with KD.

disagree, universal rushed hadgrids top open since they had multiple resorts being filled up by potterites.  It now runs consistently.  They expect velocicoaster to run consistently from the get go.  Hadgrids is probably the most technological ride in the world.  7 launches, high speed switch track, drop track, lockable restraints via Bluetooth, props, and have to link everything up to all work together.  

Velocicoaster is more of a standard multi launch. 

[IBEW_Sparky]

19 hours ago, SOBwasaSOB said:

I am not a fanboy by any means, they just make my favorite rides.  I would love to have one but I can most definitely see their downsides too.

Exactly this, though with me my favorite coaster is SV, many others in my top 10 are Intamin.  Even I have been calling the company Intamightwork for years, and if I were laying the cash out and looking at it from the corporate side of things, Id be more apt to install a GG, Mack, Gerstlauer, GCI, or begrudgingly a B&M, though with me it would be nothing but a floorless similar to Dominator, an invert similar to Banshee, or a launched wing similar to but longer than Thunderbird.  Now, if I didnt give a rip about the GP (which I absolutely do not as it is) or a lot of money sitting SBNO for 25% of the season, my park would be known as RMC and Intaminville.

[coaster sally]

26 minutes ago, IBEW_Sparky said:

Exactly this, though with me my favorite coaster is SV, many others in my top 10 are Intamin.  Even I have been calling the company Intamightwork for years, and if I were laying the cash out and looking at it from the corporate side of things, Id be more apt to install a GG, Mack, Gerstlauer, GCI, or begrudgingly a B&M, though with me it would be nothing but a floorless similar to Dominator, an invert similar to Banshee, or a launched wing similar to but longer than Thunderbird.  Now, if I didnt give a rip about the GP (which I absolutely do not as it is) or a lot of money sitting SBNO for 25% of the season, my park would be known as RMC and Intaminville.

it's not Intamin's fault their innovations were ahead of the times.  Look at their reliability around the world the last 7 or 8 years.......

[TombRaiderFTW]

New theory: Sally is Sandor Kernacs.

[CoasterJack]

I'll add one thing. Many non-enthusiasts I know book trips to Cedar Point for Top Thrill Dragster, Steel Vengeance, Millennium Force, and Maverick. Rides like GateKeeper, Raptor, and Valraven may be reliable capacity monsters, but it's the Intamin rides and the RMC that people come to the parks for. I understand people might grumble when Top Thrill Dragster goes down every 45 minutes, but it's what attracts people to the park.

[SnakePlissken]

2 hours ago, coaster sally said:

it's not Intamin's fault their innovations were ahead of the times.  Look at their reliability around the world the last 7 or 8 years.......

It's not Arrow's fault they were ahead of their time too and yet most of their coasters and certainly log flumes were much more reliable. ...

[silver2005]

From my encounters with the GP, they adore GateKeeper and Valravn as much as the Intamins, maybe even more so concerning Valravn.  

[IBEW_Sparky]

That is an (unfortunate) fact, although it baffles me how the one-trick pony that is Valravn... or Dive Turkey as I call it... can be such a draw, I just never got the hype.  I do enjoy GK, and I absolutely do agree with your fundamental point, they Love both of those coasters as can clearly be seen by the lines.  Face it, when an Intamin (other than Millie) has a two hour line, we know that is likely due to sometimes multiple ride stoppages.  When a B&M has a two hour line, we know its very likely it's because its a popular ride because even a mediocre ride crew can (usually ram people through on a B&M.

[coaster sally]

12 minutes ago, IBEW_Sparky said:

That is an (unfortunate) fact, although it baffles me how the one-trick pony that is Valravn... or Dive Turkey as I call it... can be such a draw, I just never got the hype.  I do enjoy GK, and I absolutely do agree with your fundamental point, they Love both of those coasters as can clearly be seen by the lines.  Face it, when an Intamin (other than Millie) has a two hour line, we know that is likely due to sometimes multiple ride stoppages.  When a B&M has a two hour line, we know its very likely it's because its a popular ride because even a mediocre ride crew can (usually ram people through on a B&M.

or it's the first rides the gp come to along with raptor......as evidence by the lines in the afternoon/evening.

[SnakePlissken]

34 minutes ago, coaster sally said:

or it's the first rides the gp come to along with raptor......as evidence by the lines in the afternoon/evening.

Lightning Rod is the first ride the GP come across at Dollywood. Does that mean it is only popular because it is in the front as well?

[SonofBaconator]

3 hours ago, CoasterJack said:

I'll add one thing. Many non-enthusiasts I know book trips to Cedar Point for Top Thrill Dragster, Steel Vengeance, Millennium Force, and Maverick. Rides like GateKeeper, Raptor, and Valraven may be reliable capacity monsters, but it's the Intamin rides and the RMC that people come to the parks for. I understand people might grumble when Top Thrill Dragster goes down every 45 minutes, but it's what attracts people to the park.

I mean when you hire a company to build rides that break 300 and 400ft as well as 100mph, you're going to draw in crowds; that's pretty much a given. The issue is when those said rides suffer maintenance wise because of their innovations and people can't always ride them.

[coaster sally]

15 hours ago, SonofBaconator said:

I mean when you hire a company to build rides that break 300 and 400ft as well as 100mph, you're going to draw in crowds; that's pretty much a given. The issue is when those said rides suffer maintenance wise because of their innovations and people can't always ride them.

120mph 18 years ago......  Formula Rossa runs consistently, 149.9mph.

[IndyGuy4KI]

On 4/2/2021 at 1:53 PM, IBEW_Sparky said:

my park would be known as RMC and Intaminville.

Quote of the day winner! I love this. You know per caps spending would be high at this park. Gotta do something while they wait on the Intamins to start working again. 

[IBEW_Sparky]

3 hours ago, IndyGuy4KI said:

Quote of the day winner! I love this. You know per caps spending would be high at this park. Gotta do something while they wait on the Intamins to start working again. 

My advertising catch phrase would be "The only Beemer on this property is my 740il.  If you want to nap, we have a resort on property, if you want to pull Gs, we have the coasters that will do it for you."

 

OH, and EDIT:  My prices for all food and snacks would only be 10% higher than what you would pay for the same thing out of park and my drinks would be free a'la HW, for exactly that reason Brad, Id still make bank!! 

[silver2005]

7 hours ago, coaster sally said:

120mph 18 years ago......  Formula Rossa runs consistently, 149.9mph.

I would love to know how you would even be in the know that Formula Rossa runs consistently unless you somehow live in Abu Dhabi and work at Ferrari World without our knowledge. 

Also, it spends a fraction of a second at 149.9 as it launches into brakes.  Kinda lame (also a problem I have with Maverick, launching to 70 mph right into trims). 

If you're gonna go that fast, let it do something with that speed. 

[SonofBaconator]

3 hours ago, IndyGuy4KI said:

Gotta do something while they wait on the Intamins to start working again. 

Add a few B&Ms 

[IBEW_Sparky]

50 minutes ago, silver2005 said:

I would love to know how you would even be in the know that Formula Rossa runs consistently unless you somehow live in Abu Dhabi and work at Ferrari World without our knowledge. 

Also, it spends a fraction of a second at 149.9 as it launches into brakes.  Kinda lame (also a problem I have with Maverick, launching to 70 mph right into trims). 

If you're gonna go that fast, let it do something with that speed. 

Ive always felt the same way about Maverick, although with the way the track is currently configured, I dont know if I would want to experience the water cannon turn at 70+ as I think that would rival 305's first turn in regards to possible grey/blackout problems.

[SonofBaconator]

An interesting trend- parks with Intamins are getting more B&Ms and parks with B&Ms are getting Intamins. Its a balance of sorts

[coaster sally]

June 10th the start date.

[coaster sally]

I guess this makes it official

https://news.yahoo.com/most-intense-coaster-ever-universal-090000507.html

[SonofBaconator]

23 hours ago, coaster sally said:

I guess this makes it official

https://news.yahoo.com/most-intense-coaster-ever-universal-090000507.html

How does one define intense? I always felt that that honor was given to I-305. If this thing is more intense than a low to the ground giga then wow

[coaster sally]

3 minutes ago, SonofBaconator said:

How does one define intense? I always felt that that honor was given to I-305. If this thing is more intense than a low to the ground giga then wow

it's a joke, that's a GP article.

[SonofBaconator]

This is a general question and not one meant to bash or praise any manufacturer but what is the difference between intense and painful?

For example I personally experience headbanging pain on Raptor and Rougarou but I would consider Maverick intense, which is a coaster I frequently enjoyed.

[coaster sally]

9 minutes ago, SonofBaconator said:

This is a general question and not one meant to bash or praise any manufacturer but what is the difference between intense and painful?

For example I personally experience headbanging pain on Raptor and Rougarou but I would consider Maverick intense, which is a coaster I frequently enjoyed.

Not sure what you are asking.  Intense like I305 is euphoric, pain from being banged in the head is painful and not fun.

[SnakePlissken]

Raptor has got a bit rough near the end. Rougarou has a bit of head banging. For some reason Afterburn is smooth with the same restraints and so was my one ride on Great Bear.

[Maddog]

GP article or not, the "most intense," "best in the world" phrasing and associated discussions get tiresome.  Unless it is something that can be measured, counted, or quantified, it is all subjective.  

[silver2005]

For example, while most of the coaster lovin' world clamors over Skyrush and Mavrick, I find both to be highly overrated. 

[SonofBaconator]

3 hours ago, silver2005 said:

For example, while most of the coaster lovin' world clamors over Skyrush and Mavrick, I find both to be highly overrated. 

I love Maverick honestly. Back row still gets me to this day.

[coaster sally]

first bootleg back row pov