Leaderboard

Or, buy the whole lot, build a bridge over the road, fence it in. then i have two words for you... Kickass Dark Ride.

maybe for next year?

So, another year, another pilgrimage to the US to visit family, visit theme parks, and visit cities I haven’t been to. The past couple of years were about visiting a few big parks that are in locations difficult to access without a hire car (Which is expensive up until you turn 25, hence I had been to other places like the parks in SoCal and Orlando in visits prior. This year was all about picking off the last few major parks in the US that I still had ambitions to visit....At this point now I’d say I’ve done all the ones I’m really interested in. I think its only really Lagoon and Kennywood that im somewhat interested in visiting, but I’m not falling over myself, and I think I want to start chipping away at parks in Europe and Japan next The first park however of the trip was Six Flags Magic Mountain. It was a bit of a crazy mission...My flight landed at 7am, and the park opened 10:30. I didn’t have any intention to do a full day since I figured I’d tire out (Which turned out to be true since I didn’t sleep on the plane) and I really just wanted to go in to ride Twisted Colossus and New Revolution. SFMM I’ve done a few times and I’m a bit lazy when I go (I think the last time I rode X2 was about 3 visits ago lol)...I should really pencil in a proper full day at some point. Ended up staying till about 4pm.I had to get a sim card and shops only open at 10 in the US, which meant I couldn’t get to the park early and do a dash for the first couple of rides to avoid the queues. I headed straight to Twisted Colossus. http://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/ride-2444-Twisted_Colossus Only a short wait. The queue is full of fanciful steam punk contraptions, faux steam pipework (In other words Home Depot PVC pipe painted bronze) etc. The duelling of the ride depends on how well guests load in, and operators will say “If you want to race the other train, you have 30 seconds to board”. From the station to the lift you go over a trick track with several small humps and twists. The long train carries a bit of momentum and doesn’t lose speed, so you get bucked around a bit, and it sets the tone for the ride. Pulling onto the lift the other train completing its lap on the other track pulls in parallel, and the lifts adjust speed so you go over the top of the hill together. The first drop is crazy in true RMC style, very steep, and keeps getting steeper so feels very out of control and you are flung out of your seat. From there is a low to the ground “speed hill” with a quick moment of airtime, and then you go uphill to the turnaround (more air again...a recurring theme basicaly at the top of any hill or drop or incline...they squeeze in moments of air wherever they can it seems) The high 5 that follows (the two track bank 90 degrees in towards each other) is pretty cool, but not that close together. The track drops again, into a great visual moment where you go over an airtime hill, with the other track travelling upside down overhead...Sure beats the dueling moments they had on Dragon Challenge at IOA! You then head into a zero g roll, with the other track underneath...again, another great dueling moment, with only a bit of low clearance netting separating the upside down and right way up tracks. You then cruise up a double-up, and are flung around a wild outward banked turn that flings you out of your set. Awesome because its actually done at full speed, so completley different feeling to an El Loco. The track drops around and changes colour from blue to green as you line up for the 2nd lift and round too. Drop and hill are just as good the 2nd time around. The high 5 is even crazier because the track has to reverse bank back and forth to get itself lined up to be banking towards the other one, so heaps of twisting the train negotiates effortlessly. After this is the top gun stall, which is probably my new favourite inversion, similar to a zero g roll, basically you twist over, and the track follows a long inverted arc that is just enough to hold you in your seat, before twisting back upright from the way you came. One last airtime hill under the other track, the double up,and then you turn down into a 2 part brake run a bit like the one on jet rescue. Wow, its easily one of the worlds best coaster, perfect mix of airtime, speed, inversions, and I really think racing coasters are great fun and there should be more of them. I immediately went for another lap. After that I did a quick single rider queue lap on Green Lantern . Just as limit pushingly intense as I remembered, with unusual forces because of the way it goes backwards, then immediately forwards down the drops. On the final hill I got a double flip too! I then stuck out the 90 minute queue for New Revolution, to see what the fuss was all about with VR. The wait sucked balls, a major humanitarian disaster with limited shelter and no water. SFMM were missing out on free money by not having a roving vendor selling cold drinks to people waiting, so they have no right to complain if their per cap figures are deficient. If you want to ride it without VR the quickest way would be via the single rider queue. The trains are basically very patriotic. SF seem to be really playing to their local market with this sort of theming on a few recent additions. But dispatches are still very slow, and they give too much capacity over to Platinum flashpass users. Once you are onboard, you loop a lanyard around your neck, rotate a click ring on the back of the plastic head strap to tighten, then tighten a cord under you chin. Each seat has a QR code in front of it, and you look down at your feet then bring your head up gradually till the camera on the samsung spots the QR code, and cues the correct footage for your seat (Since obviously the back seat will go over the top of drops faster than the front seat, so the footage compensates for that. The graphics itself were pretty PS2, but the concept itself wasn't bad. It was basically an independence day knock off, flying around a city fighting alien spacecraft, dodging falling skyscrapers, diving under freeways. In a nod/knock off of the original movie, when you do the vertical loop, you do it under the primary weapon of the mother ship, so have a chance to deliver a shot straight up when the track goes vertical. VR is a cool concept, but i think they really need to work on a better way of doing operations, say with multiple preshow rooms where they can get guests sorted, rather than handing out headsets as you walk into the station and explaining individually in an ad-hoc manner. Even TVs in the queue with instructional videos to hammer in the process over the 90 minute wait would help right? I think VR could work on a purpose built coaster better too...You could basically build a kiddy coaster but make it feel like you are going 100km/h. I was getting a bit tired and hot, so did one last lap on Twisted Collosus for the day, and got a perfect duel with both trains neck and neck. The only dampener was that the ride broke down whilst i was in the queue, and when it was up and running again they kept letting flashpass people through, rather than halting that temporarily (or at least holding them for a few minutes), they should have focused on clearing the people towards the front of the standby queue who had waited patiently through the breakdown. Overall, both solid experiences (Though Twisted Collosus way ahead!). In future I'll have to make sure im well and truly early at SFMM to have a better day.

The next park for me was on the other side of the country. Six Flags over Georgia in Atlanta….When I get around to it I might put some pics up from the World of Coca Cola too, but for the time being… http://www.parkz.com.au/parks/US/Austell/Six_Flags_Over_Georgia/ Hot Atlanta Weather, combined with being a bit hung over, 4 hours sleep, and lingering jetlag is not necessarily the right conditions to be visiting a theme park, but I had a pretty good day, and stuck around from about 10:30 till 5, getting in everything I wanted to do, plus re-rides. Access to the park is simple, ride a MARTA train to the end of the line, then a bus runs to the park (Frustratingly only every 40 mins though) I got there a bit before 10, so that was enough time for me to wander up the outside of the park and get a few difficult to get shots of rides, and still have enough time to be at the front of the rope drop (Good reason for doing this!) When 10:30 came around I moved briskly to Dare Devil Dive, a eurofighter. They’ve recently put VR on this, and coupled with already low capacity, they’ve ruined their investment and made things unpleasant for guests, which surely offsets any positives of the VR. I knew there was no hope of a re ride, so did a single lap, front row, no VR. In the few minutes during which I’d ridden the queue was already up to a posted 2h wait. Yes, that really takes them 2h to process this number of guests! The ride itself is quite good, very smooth and nimble, though like most eurofighters lacks a bit of spark. But its enjoyable, and the 95 degree drop is as good as you’d imagine. Moving along was Goliath, a B&M hyper coaster. Putting the Giga ones aside, this is one of the better ones, up there with Diamondback. Moderate amounts of air (But not crazy amounts like you get on some of the RMCs and Intamins), and the long spiralling helix is quite intense. But the sleeper hit moment is the tiny dip into the brake run that comes as shock because it passes over at speed so a sudden boost of airtime there! The only thing to take points off for is that it seems quite shaky for a B&M hyper. Straight away I did a second lap. I think front was a bit better than the back. Heading deeper into the park I did a quick lap on Joker Funhouse Coaster with no queue, which was interesting because the station was at the high point, and the track wrapped over./under some existing buildings. It felt like something you’d see in one of those parks where they are really pressed for space. Directly across was Monster Mansion, an extensive dark boat ride of similar scale to the old River Ride. Heaps of characters and things to see, and cool stuff like smoke ring cannons, fountains over the course and just general humour and “cuteness” which made it enjoyable. Very solid. Nearby was Acrophobia, the parks stand up tilting drop tower. People say these are painful to ride, and to an extent it was uncomfortable, but that’s more because for some silly reason the seat horn is a squarish shape rather than rounded, so it digs into your thighs. I should go back…basically you sit on a bicycle seat with your legs hanging down, and the seats tilt before dropping so you feel way more exposed, and get a good view of the ground as you free fall. It’s a brilliant concept and one of the best drop rides I’ve ridden. I’m keen to try the face first versions like Ikarus or Falcons Fury now. Right along from this was the Georgia Cyclone. Was dreading this a bit because it looked a bit ramshackle, and hence I was expecting roughness, but it was really good! Unexpected airtime, well paced. I later discovered that it has had RMC topper track fitted to parts of the ride, so that explains why it ran so well. I headed over to Georgia Scorcher. It broke down for about 20 mins while I was in the queue, but I was actually a bit tired to go off and do anything else, and it was in the shade. As people progressively left I got closer to the front of the queue. B&Ms never break down for long so I was on shortly thereafter. It was a good ride, but felt a bit samey to the other smaller stand ups like the one at Californias Great America (But smoother of course). The ride shines at the end with the corkscrew and a near dizzying sequence of back to back turns. Check out that paint job on the columns though! Looks like an avocado skin! Doubling back, I had a very oily and bland tasting burger from Johnny Rockets, before I jumped on the Skyride to Lickskillet Square and tackled the three coasters down that end of the park. First up was Blue Hawk, a Vekoma looping coaster that was reportedly once very rough, but has since had new trains fitted. They ran reasonably well…not perfect, but enough to enjoy the ride, which had tight inversions and lots of near misses, and felt similar in pacing and layout to SLCs like Arkham Asylum. Next up was Great American Scream Machine…Basically a big long line of airtime hills one way, and then a whole bunch the other way, in an out and back layout. It’s an older woodie, but because it has few turns it has no real chance to get rough. It was a good ride, with moderate airtime you could ride over the top of each hill, bottom slightly off the seat. Superman Ultimate Flight was probably a 20-30 minute wait. These days I reckon those flying coaster pretzel loops get harder to tolerate….Still a really cool element, but for some reason with me they trigger a coughing reflex. The ride is a “standard layout”, but its on a slight hillside, so theres a bit more variation in the terrain, with swoops over the hillside, a short tunnel etc. It’s a well balanced layout that shows off what a flying coaster can do, but nothing quite compares to Tatsu or Manta really Nearby they were clearing land for the now just announced Justice League dark ride. Having two good dark rides is a real rarity for a SF park, and will do especially well in Atlanta, with guests looking for air conditioned rides to escape the heat. If they are smart they’ll put the whole queue indoors too. I ambled around to Dahlonega mine train. Overall, these pervasive arrow mine trains are a bit bleh. Awkward turns and tight transitions that bang you up despite the slow pacing. Lots of lift hills, and they never really “get going”. Though this one had a drop into an underground tunnel at the end that went under another ride, so there’s that. To sit down for a bit and get some photos I did a lap on the Six Flags Railway. If you are short on time, the half of the track from the French section station is probably the most interesting in terms of getting back views of rides. The last two coasters were in Gotham City, which I had walked past repeatedly till now because it’s its own little dead end area off the main “loop” of the park. Batman is the standard layout B&M, so that’s code word for really good and intense (But possibly dangerous territory if you are feeling poorly lol) Waited about 30 mins, which was a bit unpleasant because the queue line is in friggen sheds and metal pipes, which just get hot in the Georgia summer. They had made an effort with fans and misters, but it still wasn’t fun. A bit annoying when there a big section of less claustrophobic shaded queue (with AC???) they could have had open, but instead the queue was spilling out into the sun. Mind bender was the last coaster to do. It had a giant “?” over the queue, which made it seem like they wanted it to be Riddler themed to fit in with the Gotham City area, but they didn’t want to pay the licensing fees. An old Schwarzkopf, so that’s a code word for really good and intense too! Nice lap bars meant a free feeling ride, and the layout was plain good, dropping in and out of a small valley, with intense loops at the bottom. Ride these things soon, because I imagine they will all start reaching the end of their life in the next few years. With all the coasters done, I finished off with a couple more laps on Goliath (Because the queue was short and fast moving) Lots of fun. Overall, SF over Georgia is a well rounded park, but has those rough edges in terms of presentation that SF seem unable to truly get on top of. The new Justice League dark ride should round off the park nicely, and the kids seem well taken care of with the new DC super friends area. I think the one thing lacking at the park is a launch coaster. Also, heres a few more pics from Monster Mansion that were too blurry to upload to the Parkz gallery.

The RMS ride list is now up. The Jungle Kingdom Dark ride is heading to RMS so is Mega Drop, Beast and Python Loop. Fingers crossed Infinity and TPA's Huss pirate ship come to PRS. https://royalshow.com.au/attractions/rides/coca-cola-thrillseekers-carnival/

Dug through my emails to find a higher resolution version of that photo if anyone wants to play CSI with those blueprints...

Looks terrifying @Theme Park Ninja

I mentioned some time ago how I'd love to go through a maze with no lights... so if they took my idea... !

Needs more spears, toilets, RMC and a B&M.

oh true haha would've have been a bad maze anyway

I'm going to take an educated guess and say he made it in Photoshop

FYI i found the image on facebook

Hi just saw this image, is it fake or real? idk