eltororider

Well I was a late bloomer when it came to coasters. My dad convinced me to go on them for a few reasons. My sister loved them and he showed me that, he pointed out kids younger than me going on coasters and he used the "trust" card. Basically that means he promised me he wouldn't take me on anything that wasn't safe or anything he didn't think I'd like. I think the trust card is very effective if you have a good relationship with your kids especially if they have an older sibling who loves coasters.

Most of mine are sports related: Go to Super Bowl, World Cup, Olympics, World Series, NBA Finals and to visit every baseball stadium are a few of them.

It's Cedar Point man. No question about it. It's their main park and biggest park.

Trip Report for Today: Second visit to the park this year. Lines were very tolerable. Park was empty until about 1 and even then it wasn't too bad. I didn't wait longer than 45 minutes for any ride which I consider pretty good on a nice Saturday. I love going in April because the park really isn't too crouded. This is the second time I went this year and really got a decent amount of runs both times. Just have a few comments about some changes. 1. I love that they seperated the season pass entrance. They let us go in a few minutes earlier and they make everybody else wait outside until 10:30 now. Great considering that could be the difference for how long you wait in line or how many re-rides you can get. 2. I'm going to miss the Bizarro audio at least on the lift and end of the ride. It's too quiet on both parts without it but I support cutting it during the ride. 3. Rolling Thunder seems to be running A LOT better this year. I can actually tolerate it now and probably had the best run on it in my life last week. It really has incredible airtime if you find the sweet spot. Alright now onto my day at the park today: Picked a number to decide between El Toro and Nitro to start off the day. Ended up being Nitro and me and my friend got a re-ride on it. Very empty over there in the opening. We went on Nitro 1 more time and then both decided to move on. Batman wasn't open yet so we felt like riding everything else in that area so we stayed there the rest of the morning. We rode Sky Screamer and I love that Six Flags put this in here. Such a nice flat ride that eats up some people and offers great views of the park. After that we hit the Bumper Cars which I also love that Great Adventure put back in last year which I wish I actually would've noticed they were there last year, then Dark Knight for the first time this year and then another ride on Nitro before lunch. All of these were walk-ons by the way. We then took the Skyway to the other side of the park and rode Runaway Mine Train (another walk-on) before heading to the luxurious El Toro. This was our first line of the day a little after 1. It was a 40 minute wait for us but it only took so long because it had 1 train operation half the time and had a 5 minute delay adding a second train. I have to say though El Toro ran A LOT better than it has recently for me. I really thought I got too use to the ride for a second. This run re-assured me that will NEVER happen. It was pretty exhilerating. Back row is so much better than any other row it's amazing. People really have to learn to go to the back though. I hate this queue because people don't know how to get themselves to the back because most are either waiting for the front or can't see how empty the back is WHEN THE BACK IS A LOT BETTER! I usually just try to slide my way through people in the front and end up saving myself a decent amount of time doing so. We then headed to Superman which was also a 40 minute wait. I'm convinced that ride has no sweet spot except opening where you can have a tolerable wait when there's actually people in the park. I figured the park had a decent amount of people now (still pretty tolerable compared to busier days though). Then we headed to Green Lantern and waited maybe 15 minutes. We got lucky though because the line doubled in size when we got off. Still hate that ride though and miss GASM. We waited maybe 25 minutes for another ride on El Toro which was awesome again, went on the Skyway to ride Skull Mountain which was also closed earlier. We waited about 10 minutes for Skull Mountain and I have to say, it's a solid indoor coaster. I'm personally a fan of it for what it is. We then concluded our day with how we began by riding Nitro again which was about a 20 minute wait. Overall it was a pretty nice way to spend our Saturday and killed 7 hours of our day. Ride runs: Nitro 5x El Toro 2x Skyway 2x Superman 1x Green Lantern 1x Skull Mountain 1x Dark Knight 1x Runaway Mine Train 1x Sky Screamer 1x Bumper Cars 1x

I probably have a top 10 in terms of individual elements. 10. Semi-Loop on Hollywood Rip-Ride Rockit 9. Last Floater Airtime Hill on Maverick 8. Final Hill and Turn on Millennium Force 7. First Drop on Maverick 6. Launch on Incredible Hulk 5. Quadruple-Down on Magnum XL 200 4. Rolling Thunder Hill on El Toro 3. Double-Down on El Toro 2. First Drop on El Toro 1. Pretzel Loop on Superman: Ultimate Flight If I called any of these the wrong thing (which I think I did on a few of them) let me know. I swear if S:UF had 2 pretzel looops, it would be near the top of my list in favorite coasters.

Personally I'd go the end of August if you want weekdays. If you don't mind weekends only, I'd go the week after Labor Day in September. I agree with Richmond and Quakertown being an adamant base for Virginia and Pennsylvania if you only want to stay in 1 hotel there. Where you're flying into would be good to know as well. If it's Newark or JFK, I'd probably just go to Dorney Park on the first day if you get there in the morning, then drive to your hotel that night. I'd definitely than look for a hotel between that and Hershey. I feel like you're gonna have a problem with Hershey when it comes to driving. You're adding a lot of driving between there and Virginia. It's not a short drive no matter where you stay though. I would personally consider getting a seperate hotel for Heshey since it's in the middle of no where and has the most driving. Quakertown is fine to use for Dorney and SFGAdv though. I don't know how long you have to go on a vacation here but you can visit NYC, Philadelphia or DC. All are great cities to be a tourist in, particularly NYC. If you decide to go to parks with weekends only, get to the US on a Friday, go to Dorney, SFGAdv and Hershey first weekend and then Kings Dominion and Busch the next weekend. Good luck man.

Is it just me or is Rolling Thunder running A LOT better this year? I just rode it Tuesday and I swear I got the best airtime and smoothest ride I ever had on it. It was pretty intense and not very bumpy at all. I use to hate it but my ride on it a few days ago has greatly changed my opinion on it. I'm just curious if anybody else feels like it's running better this year. I literally felt like I was going to fall out of the seat in a good way.

I would LOVE if there was a coaster like Maverick that came to SFGAdv. I feel like if they put another giant coaster in there, theyll take 1 down. The only places left I could see them fitting one without tearing another down are where Chiller use to be, part of the old Wild Safari or chopping down a lot of trees to put it by Nitro.

Im actually gonna miss the audio at least on the lift and the end of the ride. I agree the coaster is too loud to hear the audio during the ride but I actually liked the story they played on the lift. A personal memory is that 1 of my friends use to sing the Bizarro chant at the end of the ride and I thought it was funny. I really thought it added to the ride experience.

My votes: 1) El Toro 2) Intimidator 305 3) Bizarro 4) Skyrush 5) Phoenix 6) Nitro 7) Apollo's Chariot 9) Storm Runner Voting is open by the way! Then next region will be open to vote Sunday!

My vote goes to Iron Rattler. I personally prefer airtime over twisty plus the layout looks a lot better especially with the tunnel

I'm gonna try this topic out and hope it doesn't get locked. In honor of March Madness, I figure we should do our own little bracket for fun in order to find out themeparkreview's favorite roller coaster in America. I will divide the coasters up into 4 regions: North, South, East and West. Some coasters are in the middle of the country so they may end up in a bracket that might not make geographical sense. The roller coasters I put in this tournament are what I think are themeparkreview's most popular. By the way, Outlaw Run and Iron Rattler WILL NOT be in this tournament. They're too new and Iron Rattler isn't even open yet. So without further or do, I will present the Eastern Region matchups. East Region: 1) El Toro (Six Flags Great Adventure) vs. 16) Steel Force (Dorney Park) 2) Intimidator 305 (Kings Dominion) vs. 15) Superman: Ride of Steel (Six Flags America) 3) Bizarro (Six Flags New England) vs. 14) Lightning Racer (Hersheypark) 4) Skyrush (Hersheypark) vs. 13) Wooden Warrior (Quassy) 5) Phoenix (Knoebels) vs. 12) Verbolten (Busch Gardens Williamsburg) 6) Nitro (Six Flags Great Adventure) vs. 11) Griffon (Busch Gardens Williamsburg) 7) Apollo's Chariot (Busch Gardens Williamsburg) vs. 10) Kingda Ka (Six Flags Great Adventure) 8) Boulder Dash (Lake Compounce) vs. 9) Storm Runner (Hersheypark) I'll reveal the other regions later. Voting will last for 2 days per region per round so make sure to vote to get your favorite coasters to the next round! Have fun!

I was having an interesting discussion on a non-coaster website about the state of Disney World vs. Universal Orlando so I thought I'd bring that discussion here because I'm curious to see how strongly people feel on 1 side or the other. I don't consider myself bias towards either park since I love both. I went to Universal in 2011 and the last time I've been to Disney World was 2001 but I'm going back there in May for the first time in 12 years and I'm very excited about that. It seems to be that WDW is on the decline since Universal struck gold with Harry Potter and have several plans for expansion. Universal I believe is stealing a lot of teenagers and international travelers since A LOT of people came from England when I was at Universal along with other European countries and Canada. Plus, WDW really doesn't have any major expansion plans despite Fantasyland which most people consider a refurbishment of a section already in the park. With this said, I believe Universal is on the rise mostly due to Harry Potter BUT I think Harry Potter made people more aware of Universal overall because that park has so many great things about it BESIDES Harry Potter. Universal to me attracts a wider variety of people since they have thrill rides for teenagers and young adults, several different themed sections and rides for people who like different things and have probably the best diversity of quality rides in a park. They have room for more potential and can still steal A LOT more people from Disney. With that said, I think Disney is still ahead of them and I think most people feel this way. Disney just has this "magic" type of atmosphere that has allowed them to build-up a loyal fanbase that will keep coming back. Disney also has a HUGE advantage when it comes to land considering they have several acres unused, have 2 more theme parks and 1 more waterpark than Universal and have simply been around longer so Universal hasn't had the same opportunity to build that fanbase quite yet. Disney to me is a place where you can take a week vacation and feel like it's not enough time. Universal may be a 3-day vacation. Trust me, you DON'T want to stay at Universal for 8 days. I've done it and got tired of it after day 3 even though I love it. I think in order for Universal to even have a chance at passing Disney, they need to continue to expand and not rely solely on Harry Potter. If they do that, people will get tired of it eventually and the guests that chose them over Disney will go back to Disney. Universal would probably have to build a 3rd park eventually if they want to get more people to stay at their hotels since right now, they're not a park that you can really stay a week in. I think a 3rd theme park on their land would help them get towards that. By the way, I'm not talking as if Universal is in trouble or NEEDS a lot more people, I'm just talking as if they want to pass Disney. As for Disney, I think they will need a response to Universal once they expand because I would consider them a serious threat. I've heard some die-hard Disney fans say they should build a 5th theme park. While that would be nice, I don't believe it's a necessary answer to Universal. I just think they need another major ride or 2. A thrill ride would be good to possibly steal back some teenagers from Universal. I realize they have Hollywood Studios for that but I don't think Rock'n Rollercoaster and Tower of Terror are enough to keep teenagers away from Universal which has 3 high quality roller coasters plus the Lex Luther Drop of Doom to answer Tower of Terror. If they added another big ride to Animal Kingdom, I think that would be a TREMENDOUS help since almost nobody likes that park nearly as much as the others. I just want to see what you guys think of this. Comment on what side you're on, if you agree with me and suggestions to keep Disney above Universal or to get Universal eventually above Disney. I think Universal has potential to pass Disney but it will be almost impossible in my opinion without some MAJOR expansion.

Ok so you guys figure why is this topic being started just to debate 2 individual coasters? Well it's because I feel like Millennium Force is extremely overrated and Magnum XL 200 doesn't get enough love because of that. This is strictly my opinion but I'm just telling you guys how I feel. Anybody that knows me knows I love Magnum but almost hate Millennium Force. Let me tell you guys why I feel this way. Millennium Force to me is nothing but speed. You might wonder why I would complain about speed but it's not always a good thing to me when that's all the ride is. The speed leads to annoying wind in your face and you can't enjoy any of the good elements of the ride if there are any. The ride goes by too fast and there's really nothing it can offer. As for Magnum, this ride has AIRTIME! It has a lot of it too. I feel like it has mostly ejector airtime but does have some floater. It even has surprise elements and can really scare the crap out of you. Plus it has a nice view too. So what if it's only 200 feet? Definitely doesn't feel like it. I have to wonder why Millennium Force is number 1 in the world with all of their crap elements when Magnum isn't talked about as much when meanwhile the ride should be an absolute legend in my opinion. Comment to discuss!

As somebody who has ridden El Toro probably more than most of the people commenting, I can say the RT hill is INSANE! BUT, I think that hill is really overshadowing the first airtime hill right after the big drop. That hill has awesome momentum carrying from the drop and to be honest, I like it just as much, if not more, than the RT hill. I just felt like I should give that hill its respect. I absolutely love both though and they're probably my 2 favorites. I love a lot of airtime hills so if I had to do a top 5 this would probably be it. 5. Drop on Maverick (really feel like you're falling out of the seat) 4. Last tunnell hill on Magnum XL 200 (Surprise airtime that I love) 3. 1st hill on Nitro (best floater airtime by far) 2. 1st hill on El Toro (awesome momentum from the drop) 1. RT hill on El Toro (way more ejector airtime than you would expect for that part of the ride)