greenspandan

i remember when anaconda was being built. i went to the park with a friend, and at the time all that was there was the lift hill and the two ensuing loops. we rode Rebel Yell to get a better look, and i can still remember my friend yelling "holy crap, look, it goes UNDER the lake!" i also remember riding it when it first opened. it must have been a saturday, because the line extended all the way through the congo back almost to Avalanche's exit. i also remember the ride being advertised as having "6 loops" and even as a kid, i thought this was BS once i saw that two of the "loops" were that lame butterfly element, and weren't even close to being legit inversions. originally, the MCBR did not slow the train nearly as much as it does today, and i think this actually made the ride a wee bit smoother. don't get me wrong -- it was still a rough Arrow looper, but seems to me like slowing it down to a near-stop causes even more sideways banging around as it navigates those sloppy turns. i've said it before, but if they removed those two crappy turns after the MCBR (and loosened up the brakes on the MCBR as well), anaconda would be one of the best Arrows around.

Big Bad Wolf (BGW) Drachen Fire (BGW) King Kobra (KD) Hypersonic XLC (KD) Screamin' Delta Demon (Opryland) Wabash Canonball (Opryland) Rock n Rollercoaster (Opryland) Flashback (SFMM) Psyclone (SFMM) Two Face: The Flip Side (SFA) Python (SFA) Hurricane (Myrtle Beach Pavillion) (in a fate worse than death, the trains are now used on Son of Beast ) Mad Mouse (Myrtle Beach Pavillion) (the roughest, most painful mouse coaster of all time) eh there are probably tons more but those are the highlights.

a B&M invert would be lovely, but what of B&M's oft-rumored agreement to shun KD at Busch Gardens' behest?

eh, i feel like flyers are basically the standups of the 2000's. a gimmick that will be regretted in retrospect.

remember windjammer @ knott's? ugh.

1. Intimidator 305 2. Apollo's Chariot 3. Millennium Force 4. El Toro 5. Nitro 6. Thunderbolt 7. Griffon 8. Revenge of the Mummy: The Ride 9. Volcano: The Blast Coaster 10. Flight of Fear

Because flying ace isn't marketed as a serious thrill ride whereas a windseeker is....using your logic they never should've installed flying ace because they already have a wave swinger not too far away from it's present location. why'd they build i305? i mean, they already have taxi jam.

Aqua Trax, imo.

encore!

sort of surprised to see so many people listing Volcano -- Hypersonic XLC's launch was far more forceful. higher top speed with a shorter launch (granted it was compressed air, not LIM).

a B&M giga! holy crap! can't wait to ride it next year!

on the subject of flats, i miss Apple Turnover the most. that was the first thrill ride / upside down ride i wasn't too chicken to ride, and i rode it over and over and over and over and over. oh also i noticed on my most recent visit that the kiddie swing ride (shaped like a tree, near the park ranger jeeps that revolve around a giant hat) has been dismantled. that's a shame, i believe it's one of the park's oldest rides. however, i do understand why. my daughter is 3 years old and small for her age, and even she had trouble not dragging her feet on the ground while it was running. i guess it was sagging or the chains were getting stretched out or something, because i don't remember having that problem when i used to ride it so long ago.

obviously not your fault, but you really haven't ridden this ride yet

MagnumXL 200. i found it rough and uncomfortable. simply being slammed into the restraints is not my idea of airtime -- there's utterly no sense of weightlessness or freefall when it's just yanking you around. also, the banking seemed really jerky and forceful and just incorrectly calculated. i know it's an important coaster historically, but it's definitely an Arrow through and through.

on most coasters, you get more airtime in the back because the front of the train pulls the back over the apex of the hills. but i305 is moving so fast that the difference in speed over the apex between the front and back car is pretty negligible. i305 is one of the only coasters i've been on where i couldn't really tell much difference between the front and back cars. the view is different, and there's a bit of a difference in airtime for the first drop, but that's about it.