RobWarren

The Hades 360 announcement pretty much confirms the world is ending next month.

As i understand it LSMs function as both launch and brake depending on how/if power is supplied to the motors. If my understanding is correct these could function as blocks if required. That's is correct, Pun_Machine. Linear Synchronous Motors function as magnets when the power not sent to them. Here is a video of Maverick, which also uses LSM, testing where a roll back was simulated. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhDxuKuhL-s Magnetic Brakes, however, cannot actually stop a train, just decelerate it. This is evident on drop towers, or magnetic brake runs on an incline. The train/car will slow, but required another device to stop it completely. That is why magnetic brakes are partnered with another form of braking (usually a fiction brake, hydraulic plunger, or tire drive) to stop the train. I haven't been back to BGW since the Big Bad Wolf closed with finishing college and all. It will be great to visit once again to ride Verbolten.

Well, then they would have to find entirely new station music! Oh noes!!

That's awesome. It really shows they are not in it for the numbers, but for the guest's experience. It's amazing after one visit how much you feel welcomed into the Holiday World family. I had a wonderful time speaking with Paula and Mrs. Koch. Paula even went out of her way to help me with a presentation for my Public Relations course at college at which point I had never even been to Holiday World. Upon my first visit this past spring, I was truly blown away by their hospitality and genuine nature. They really have incredible insight and order their priorities accordingly. -Rob

Great companies don't wait for someone else to steal their title just to work to get it back. Take a look at the last ten years of Apple's history with the iPod. They constantly innovate, just to 'one-up' their products before the competition. Regardless, it will still draw a ton of people, benefit the waterpark capacity, help with wait times in Splashin' Safari, and be tons of fun. Wildebeest is amazing! I can not wait for Holiwood Nights next year. ERT on these bad boys is going to rock.

Hanno, Thanks you for sharing this with us. The entire Raptor area looks impeccable. The story the park developed looks to match the environment and experience they designed very well. I love a well executed story. What's the story about the flat spin being names the "Chris Ghost" inversion? Thanks again! -Rob "So excited to visit Gardaland" Warren

The grandeur of this park is fantastic. It's exciting to see the level of aesthetic design on such a large scale. Hopefully I'll be traveling to Italy on business soon!

Thanks for the update Gary. The park is looking fantastic. I can't wait for pretzels and beer to start showing up future BGW updates. Sounds yummy! I enjoyed my time filming in the park in August 2009, but I think it is time to go back.

I'm moving out of my apartment back to college tomorrow. As I was packing tonight, I picked up my copy of Scott Rutherford's The American Roller Coaster and started flipping through it. I was looking for a picture of Hersheypark's Comet, but what I found was really timely and ironic considering the recent addition of GCI Millennium Flyers to Gwazi. I think Mr. Rutherford may want to pursue a career in predicting the future. together at last

Check out some photo's from today's Bash at SFGAm! It was nice to finally meet Robb and some other great people who have less b's in their name. it was a bashful day! Superman was there! He flys often. layout. Viper is running fantastic. Superb woodie. More people need to talk about this ride. *talk amongst yourselves now* Head choppers are one thing. Head choppers and negative g-forces combined gives quite the freaky effect. please ignore my trim the Cadillac of coasters doing its thing. air molecules beware... you may get smacked by a large orange and wine-colored bull PRIVATE EVENT at SFGAm, wohoo! The rain started to come down very hard after lightning moved in to the area. Oh, and don't forget the wind! and these guys! Our own TRP Jr. Meteorologist would probably call these cloud striation thingies. ie. NOT GOOD! the less-romantic dark void of unacceptable wetness pushed down, yet Dan fought back by accepting the unacceptable amount of wetness to everyone's surprise. "My iPhone says this large green and red thingy is on top of us." Apparently rain and lightning go away if you try to make the ugliest face possible. TPR did get ERT on Raging Bull and Viper thanks to everyone's heroic efforts against the midwest 'typhoon' of 2010. Robb described this moment as pivotal in the history of Theme Park Review. I had a great time meeting up with these people. Go forth and be bashful people. It's a lot of fun! (and check out my documentary "Say Goodbye to the Big Bad Wolf" if you haven't!) -Rob

coasterbill, Yeah, the EZ Pass was very well used. We had to put a bunch of money for tolls on it before we left Virginia. Bizarro made all the extra traveling worth it. the ghost, Thanks! Domo looked a whole lot cooler than he feels. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with all the saw dust I found inside of him jk.

DAY 2________________________________________________ Day 2 began like every day 2 does, jealous. It wants to be like day 1, but it feels overshadowed. Our day two threw me an unexpected curve ball. On our way back to where we were staying in Virginia, I was talking to my friend Carson's older brother Greg who was kindly housing us and driving us all over. I brought up the fact that Bizarro one of the top rated steel coasters was only seven hours from his house and he should go sometime. At that moment, Six Flags America was the game plan for the day since we needed to process our season passes. Greg likes the idea of the challenge, though. No matter how much I wanted to work Bizarro into our trip, I thought the idea of two parks in one day 7 hours apart was insane ...then....we decided to try it! most of our Saturday looked like this the first park of the day Superman is a good intaride! I love the low bank right out of the first drop. It's a good idea to sit in the back just in case the airbags don't deploy the spinny blizzard raft ride almost killed Carson Joker's Jinx has a fake MCBR... it didn't fool us though. It's a good coaster with parents who live just down the road. hello Spideyfreak! After Jinx, we rode Wild one, then said bye to TPR member Spideyfreak and RAN to the car. Time for part two of the trip as well as a ton of state credits along the way. Welcome to New York Welcome to SFNE! We were driving fast, but after traffic we only had 1.5 hours until the park closed. Any suggestions where we should go first? rocking the silhouette The idea of riding this ride after driving 8 hours to turn around and drive back 8 hours made total sense a few minutes after I took this photo. Awesome interactivity in the queue. I love technology installations of all kinds. This one is sweet. Six Flags IT fail... it's a mac, though! This had red flags, not six flags, all over it. Why would they put a 'stair-like' object next to a restricted area with Roller coaster and FIRE? FIRE! FENCE! COASTER! That just happened. Bizarro #1 and it's pretty. Thunderbolt has charm and is better than driving in a civic all day. ... back to Bizarro where it was doing it's 'I'm going to be your favorite' thing. It's very good at that. Zee On Ride photo aka Ecstasy (minus the creepy girl behind us) We were almost too happy about this day. Bizarro is my favorite coaster now thanks to a crazy detour. Check out what the first 8 hours of driving did to us (let alone the other 8 to get back to VA) [coastertube]http://www.themeparkreview.com/coastertube/play.php?vid=MOV00548_sb4b[/coastertube] We turned around and drove back to Virginia after 2 rides on Bizarro and one on Thunderbolt. Turns out that the drive back wasn't as fun as the ride there. One fine thing we learned was Six Flags does activate their passes in the whole system immediately. We were worried that SFA might not pass the pass information to their season pass database in time for us to use the passes at SFNE hours later. The driving to do SFA and SFNE in one day took so much of our time, but it was well worth it. I can't wait to get back to SFNE. It seems like the nicest six flags park I've ever been to. They even had premium pavers in the sections of the park we were in. Classy, Six Flags. No time to stop and smell the roses though. Six Flags Great Adventure next!

Good Day TPR! I recently started tutoring at my college and found out another coaster enthusiast works there. He messaged me on Facebook to find out who I was. After a few days of talking to him online, he told me he was planning an East Coast trip immediately after finals. I replied to his message and invited myself on the trip, even before meeting him in person. At this point in the winter coaster celibacy, I was desperate. Even if Carson ended up being a total idiot, I could put up with him for a few days as long as I got to ride Intimidator 305. We did meet eventually, but to this day we never get scheduled to work together strangely. Beyond the allure of visiting three (but in reality four) East Coast parks, I filmed a documentary entitled "Say Goodbye to the Big Bad Wolf" August of 2009. From that amazing experience, I met many people from the East Coast and around the world. I planned on going back to visit the Virginia area and meet up with some of these great people, but just not this soon. Check out the documentary if you have not seen it. After booking my flight, I actually had to reschedule my last final since it interfered. Some people may think this was a risky move to book my flight as so, me too. I knew that the coasters would be worth missing the final if it came to that (didn't tell the parents this). It was amazing knowing 14 hours after finishing the semester I would be on my way up to the top of Intimidator 305 at 30 feet per second. DAY 1________________________________________________ We flew from Chicago O'Hare to Washington Dulles arriving at 12:30am on 5/14/10. Four hours of sleep then up again for the drive to Doswell, VA. I processed my platinum pass and waited at the gate for the 10am opening. We decided to walk pass the amazing Dominator and wait for the Congo section of the park to open at 10:30am. I really was ready to ride something instead of waiting around for Congo to open, but Carson reminded me why we were there: big timmy. FYI: really tired at this point. Cedar Fair love ropes. This ride was engineered by engineers to save trees... I mean steel. Wow. I like the intimidating structure. This design feature was well implemented given the ride's name. disclaimer: not like Millennium Force This lift is unbelievable fast. Understandably so because Intimidator 305 has this whole intimidating design thing going on. Don't worry, my Virginia friends Katie & Mike survived their crocodile encounter out on the course. One train ops due to Intimidator shaving without using the proper shaving cream. Intamin's I-beam is new technology and again well implemented. Katie took some pictures of Carson and I's first ride!!! First coaster of an amazing trip... going up! "Rob getting Intimidated" -Katie Huge negative Gs even with trims (my legs were sore after 7 laps) I was beside myself and Carson looks like he is in pain? I just want to take this moment to grieve the passing of the red restraints because they are minimalistic in space and red (just kidding). I can't wait to experience the new iteration of the ride with the brake alterations and soft restraints. The new restraints tie into the Nascar theming much more which is great. I'm not sure who made the call to install the red restraints (whether it was Kings Dominion or Intamin), but I thought the ride would have the soft restraints for the themeing reasons as well as the ride experience (ie. see Maverick, chop chop ) I was really surprised it opened with hard OTSRs seeing all the ride artwork and animations with knowing Intamin does makes other restraint options. I will say that I did not mind the hard OTSRs but I also can not wait to try the new ones. Intimidator 305 (version 5/14/2010) is definitely in my top ten. I'm eager to see if it can push its way to the top in its current form. Kings Dominion Family Picture minus Carson who did not want the extra wetness This ride is not safe!!! (ie. giant hole in structure) Winning shot MASSIVE. I'm not kidding. I actually enjoyed my first Togo. It was not as bad as I feared. And then it was time for 'fluffy rainbow bear break with food' Brown monster was thirsty and naked. ... so Katie gave up her shirt for him. This time of the day was devoted to Dominator love. Wonderful coaster. We rode it 8 times without exiting. We returned to Intimidator close to 7pm for our last rides of the day before the park closed at 8pm. We were hoping to get a "night ride" with the exception of the closing time being about dusk. The line was not bad even with just running one train, so we headed into the queue. I rode the silver train with Katie who was at media day and Intimidation. From her experiece with the ride, she noticed it was running rough. Sure enough, after our lap, Timmy went down for mechanical reasons. The mechanics took over the ride and took off our silver train. See the hot transfer track action for yourself: [coastertube]http://www.themeparkreview.com/coastertube/play.php?vid=Intimidator305TransferTrack_qq5t[/coastertube] Intimidator 305: the most intense ride I've even been on as well as the most wheel hungry. motion blur with a hint of depth of field... an accident with a pocket camera. Just kidding: IT"S ART people! Cycling in preparation to switch trains yep... these guys were busy the day we visited "You mister are a very naughty wheel" HUGE: track, supports, curves, amount of wheels they were going through There is lots to be happy about in this picture. Personally, I'm a brake enthusiast. Once Kings Dominion got the ride back up thanks to the red train, we got right back in line as it was close to park closing time. Front row, last ride of the night... I can feel it. We waited a few trains, and were about to get on. Then timmy went down, again. It was 7:45pm, the red train made only a few runs and it had a wheel issue. Two trains down with only a few people in the station! This time the ride ops said "We STRONGLY recomemend visiting another attraction as we are unsure of how long the wait will be." Noted, but I was willing to wait... hours. Thanks to the mechanics they brought the silver train back out for the nine people left in the station. How thoughtful! Hello naughty wheel train. I love this ride. Carson and I scored a front seat ride and then the ride ops let us ride the last two cycles in empty rows!!! This was an incredible end to a great day at Kings Dominion. ...ALMOST *like ripping a candy bar from a child* As we were leaving the park, there was a character show happening in front of the Eiffel Tower. I ran over to look at the show and thought it would be fun to take a photo with a giant Snoopy. As I took this picture, a lady wearing black started yelling at me to not take pictures. I was confused at this point, not sure about why she reacted this way and who she even was. This was about to get worse. The musical number that the characters were preforming to died down and the announcer told everyone who was standing around to come and meet the characters and take pictures. Snoopy looked right at me and waved his paw to come over. There was a rope up and all the people standing around went under the rope and ran to the characters. If the lady in the black shirt was even a park employee, she must not have know the change in plans in the show. I lifted the rope and began to duck under to go see my buddy Snoopy. This is the part in the story where said lady got really mad and started yelling that we needed to leave. She finally explained that this was a dress rehearsal for the show and all the kids and families who ran to the characters were park employees. Ahhhhhh, okay. Talk about mixed messages. Who was I supposed to believe? Snoopy with his kind demeanor and caring heart, or this obviously misinformed lady. Snoopy really just was playing pretend, I guess. >>>stay tuned for Day 2

I love the season long Maverick redesign! Hopefully it will reopen at the, ehemm... scheduled time. I really enjoyed riding Intimidator with the hard restraints and no trims on 5/14. It was a challenge every time for me to learn how to ride the ride. After a couple of laps, I figured out which ways to push my body and counter act the masterful Intamin chopping. I guess now I'll just have to take a more passive role and allow the ride to take me. Take me, Timmy, take me!! Ahhhhahaha!! I might need to use my platinum pass again this year... quite a 14 hour drive from west of Chicago, though (but worth it). -Rob

I'm very excited to see Six Flags cares. I'm also not mad that my home park got a great coaster. The crew did a great job wrapping things up from my visit on 5/21/10 to the opening day a week later. I did not have the chance to ride the Little Dipper when it was at Kiddieland. If you have ridden it at its original location and now at SFGAm, I'd love to hear a comparison! -Rob