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  1. Did you ride Mako in the back? Its definitely a back of the seat coaster. And I've been out of the game for several years, so I haven't ridden the new wave of B&M coasters. Maybe if you've ridden a bunch of them, its pretty ordinary for you now. And for Kraken, maybe I just have a lower threshold for my tolerance for roughness. And I thought Manta was great. I respected the ride for sure. But for some reason, I didn't really want to spam re-rides on it with no lines like I did for Mako. I think I just really didn't like when you dangle on the last block on your chest before they let you back in the station.
  2. I think that Kraken was pretty rough though. It'll be interesting to see what you think as you rode it back when it was new. I heard it was great years ago.
  3. Six Flags has already shown they are willing to invest in dark rides with the Justice League attractions they built. As such, they must feel that such attractions are a worthy enough investment, even at a park where the cost of a season pass can be <$100 per year. Further, similar to roller coasters, dark rides can be cloned and designed to fit in a minimal footprint accessible to multiple parks allowing the design costs and production costs to be spread over multiple parks/installations. I'm not expecting/asking for a completely original attraction with a crazy queue to rival Disney/Universal. All I'm saying is that if the Mall of America can build a flying theater type attraction, there's no reason Six Flags couldn't as well (especially if the plan was to put it in multiple parks). That's debatable. I find an attraction like DarKastle at BGE, Spiderman at IOA, or Flight of Passage at DAK to be exceptionally re-ridable. Further, with a screen based attraction, if you do feel there is an issue with attrition, you can simply change up the film/motions and have (essentially) a completely new experience. On top of that, SFA currently has VERY little you can do while it's raining and limited options for when it is cold. Having a dark ride would give guests at least SOMETHING to do under those conditions. Interesting point. I do agree that over time, I've become more appreciative of better theming and more rides with immersive storylines. If SF could figure out how to make them in a cost effective way, they could be great additions to the park.
  4. I'd love to see it replaced by SOME sort of dark ride. A Justice League clone would be welcome, but it seems like they are done with those. I'd love to see Six Flags build a flying theater style attraction (same style of attraction as Soarin' at Disney). There are LOTS of manufacturers now that have developed lots of different types of hardware to provide that sort of experience and I really think it would go over well at Six Flags. Nonetheless, I'm not holding my breath for a new dark ride at SAF anytime soon (though it would be nice if they proved me wrong!) Keep some things in mind: 1. Heavily themed attractions tend to be more expensive than outside thrill rides with "implied" theming. The attential to detail, development, getting everything together is just generally more expenisve than plopping down a flat ride or other basic attraction that's less involved than a roller coaster. When you have the corporate back of Disney, and you're charging a family $500 a day in ticket prices alone, maybe $1,000 a day with a hopper wand and hotel fare, you are going to need to put a lot of money into top attractions. When you're dealing with a park where guests by a $70 season pass, and get 5-6 times a year, you can't be putting that much money into attractions off of $20 a visit from guests. 2. Themed attractions are not as re-ridable, as you understand the plotline early on and get the trick after awhile. In contrast, rides that are based off of a physical experience can be ridden more often potentially, it may depend on the guest. At Disney, probably over half of the guests on a given visit won't come back to the park for 10 years, as they live anywhere in America, or the world really. They can get the gist of the plotlines, be suprised by the twists, and Disney will probably have all new attractions when they come back (while keeping the core rides in tact like Space Mountain). With Six Flags, their guests live within a 30 mile radius, and they'll be back often with their cheap season passes. They better be showing the same crappy looped video to them every time they visit.
  5. I should have said it as I would have no problem with the statement. I find myself asking the same questions often. Although I do feel confidently that Mako is the best "traditional" coaster in at least Florida. Several other themed coasters at Disney and Universal are BETTER rides I think but they are a completely different ride experience so I tend to exclude them. I feel like Disney and Universal are both very fun start to stop experiences throughout the whole day, but they don't exactly have coasters I can point to and say "these are world class great coasters." Disney has a lot of interesting experiences, shows, and interactive attractions that add up to a great day at the park. The rides are enjoyable for most part too. But if you plopped a ride of Thunder Mountain or Rock n' Roller Coaster in the middle of a basic Six Flags park as "Joker: the Jinx of Doom" with a parking lot in the background, you'd be bored pretty easily. I like Space Mountain, but I don't feel comfortable giving it a ranking of any sort. And for Universal, the Hulk is great, as is RRR but besides that, none of the coasters really stand out. But again, with all that there is to do there, I can still have very fun days there.
  6. Mako, yesterday. I had walked over to Antarctica area, and was going to ride Mako again, but then it starting pouring and I decided to head out.
  7. I think that it might depend on where you're going on Monday. Are you flying out for this trip? Are you going home Monday? If so, where do you live? KD, HP, and SFGadv are all great parks, so you won't be too disappointed with any of those choices. A key factor should be geographic convenience. Clearly, if you need to be heading down south anyway, going to KD. If you need to venture up north, SFGadv is the obvious choice. If you're flying out of DC, maybe stay local with HP. SFGadv is a huge park with a lot of marquee attractions, but not much has been added. Maybe a good approach would be to wait it out until they add something new. KD has an elite Giga coaster and an elite RMC. The rest of the park is pretty solid too. If you can make it to KD, I'd see what you could do to make that a reality.
  8. No no no. Not my favorite coaster, probably not top five. Just in Florida. Like you, its very tough to rank coasters. I prefer to rank parks if anything, but even that's tough. It was SROS@SFNE at one point in time, but it hasn't really aged great and the new restraints don't help. Last time I rode it was when it was Bizarro, and hated the VR. Ironically, it may just be Wicked Cyclone now (as they're both in the same, run of the mill park, when I've actually been to tons of parks), as its the only RMC I've been on. I guess until I knock out by big rust belt/Canada trip it stands at MF or WC. I don't like to make expectations before riding a coaster or anything like that... and I'm firm on that. So let's just say that SeVen may just end up giving everything else a run for its money. But who knows, I don't like to speak authoritatively about coasters I've haven't even ridden once. I'm sure that if Florida ever got an RMC, it would would give Mako a run for its money as #1 in Florida.
  9. Admittedly I love Mako to death but you better watch your mouth around here with statements like that. You know, if they had left the trims off the return camelback, I don’t think that would be such a bold statement ... I already love that coaster to death too. The only benefit to that trim brake, is that B&M assumed that it was safe to have a sharp drop after it. So in the back, you get the best airtime of the ride on it, as you're going through the steep drop so fast. But anyways, its bizarre to have it on a two train coaster. Completely unneeded.
  10. Well, I've been out of the game for several years. I was a big enthusiast in my teen years, off and on for about 10 years, and have been getting more recently into it. My coaster is 233, but many of them I haven't ridden in a while. I've only ridden three B&M hypers, and I could see how if you've ridden a lot, you would be a bit de-sensitized by them. I thought that it was just OK as I rode it in the middle first, then the front -- I was getting a little skeptical by that point -- but then I rode it on the back. From that point on, I know every lap was going to have to be in the back. Its an airtime machine back there. Even after the MCBR you get great forces. So maybe when I say "undisputed" its an existential battle within my facilities and mind that I'm referring to. I know that everyone has their own preferences.
  11. No offense, but that's not irony, that's just stupidity. I sound like a broken record by this point about this, but THIS is exactly why you don't buy skip-the-lines in advance. What makes it worse is if you just poked around a bit on this thread most people would have told you that you wouldn't need it @ Seaworld. Admittedly I love Mako to death but you better watch your mouth around here with statements like that. Well, I hurt my knee the other day, and wanted to whatever I could to minimize standing around. This was an extreme case where there NO lines, but usually on dead days, I'll at least wait here and there. I recently moved to Miami from Boston, so I guess that the Orlando parks are kind of my home parks, despite how long it takes to get around Miami traffic, and how long it takes to get there. I appreciate the hell out of the theming of a lot of the Disney rides, but let's face it, from a raw coaster standpoint, there isn't exactly a whole lot of airtime, speed, or intensity. The only coaster that I could see in the argument as a truly great coaster in the same category as Mako may be Cheetah Run, but I haven't been to BGT since it was added. I just love Maverick so much that I want to give any blitz coaster a chance to match its greatness. Unfortunately there aren't a lot of wooden coasters, so there isn't a lot of room from RMC converstion, but I think that with Sea World's light crowds, they would be an excellant candidate for a raptor. I could also see it fitting in well with the marine life theme.
  12. I visited this park yesterday and everything was an absolute walk on. Ironically I brought the quick queue, and it was so worthless that the line attendants stopped even checking. I pretty much only used it so that I walk in through the shorter queue and not walk by unused queue lines. What do you guys think that this mostly attributable to? 1. The fact that it is a Monday (but 71.4% of all days of the week are not on the weekend, so I'm not sure how much weight this holds). 2. The fact that its an inconvenient time of the year for most families... kids are still in school, and finals are coming up, so its not a highly prioritized time of the year to travel. 3. The forecast was for storms... but it always rains in Florida. It'll usually rain for 15-20 minutes and go away, this happens almost daily when the summer starts. 4. The most intriguing option...: has Blackfish and the other smearing against SeaWorld been hurting its imagine and making it less popular? 5. Or.... other? Something I'm not thinking about. It seems a little odd that the park from what I'm reading is usually pretty deserted. The admission price is still somewhat high, so its not like they're slashing prices to get people in. It pretty much as the undisputed best coaster in Florida (Mako). Orlando is a hub for people to visit to go to parks. Which leads to another intriguing option brought up by The Florida Project: 6. Does Disney dominate Central Florida SO MUCH these days that people are more likely to just stay on Disney's campus these days and more or less never leave to explore the rest of the area?
  13. To enthusiasts, maybe. For parks, they're a bargain. Cloning a ride is cheaper and faster, also the GP will most likely adore it, and won't even be aware of the clones. And those who do find out about said clones, mainly through YouTube videos ( ), will then proceed to spam comments like "dIs RiDe Is A cOpY oF *insert SLC here* aT *insert park here* *insert a trillion emojis here*". But the idea is that if we're going to take the time to talk on a message board about coasters, than you're probably an enthusiast. So why should anybody on here be supportive of traveling halfway across the country to ride some basic ride that they could probably ride at their home park? I reserve the right to judge people whose patronization habits have a negative affect on myself and other enthusiasts. And, I'm skeptical that cloning is a great idea for the bottom line. Over time, the industry should progress, technology should get better, designs should get better, etc. If you're paying full freight for a coaster that is basically a mid-90's style and quality design, you've overpaid for a mediocre coaster that isn't going to help deliver a great experience to guests. And, give the GP some credit. They go to parks when they travel sometimes. If they go to a park that has the same coaster that they can ride back home, it rubs off very poorly on the park, and may sour them on the entire industry. It makes going to amusement parks seem cheap and tawdry. So really, it has a regressive effect across the entire industry. And also think about terrain matters. Who are you going to use a cookie cutter design, when you should be making elaborate and specific use of the terrain of the park, forestry, and natural features of the park? These are all questions that contradict that existence of clones if you ask me.
  14. They're just a waste of space. You ride one, you ride them all. Why am I going to get excited about riding a coaster that's at 40 other parks other than to pad the count? Its basically like riding a scrambler or a swinging ship.
  15. I think that if you're going to be at the park for three days, the Front of the Line Pass isn't going to be necessary. 36 hours at the park is plenty of time to ride everything and have re-rides. I'd only recommend the line-cutting add-ons if you have a limited amount of time at the park. And in regards to the atmosphere, I think that you'll be very satisfied. Its a rare park that has big national chain level thrill rides with a small mom and pop style charm and friendliness. You should also stop over to King's Island if you have a chance too. Also, checking out Six Flags Ohio's ruins can be a delightful and exhilarating experience as well. If you're a history buff and love excitement in your life.
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