downunder

They have announced the new coaster for Carowinds, more simply called Intimidator: http://intimidator.carowinds.com/ Pretty much the standard B & M hyper with a few variations, I prefer the Intamin hypers personally but the beemers are still fun. Having visited the park in July, it is a nice park but I thought they only had one coaster worth riding more than once (Afterburn), so it will be a good addition just like I305 will be at Kings Dominion.

I've actually seen Amish people at Cedar Point so maybe they wouldn't be that scared, I saw Amish people on the Greyhound from Cleveland to New York too. Those blackout dates are possibly a blessing in disguise, Movie World (or any other GC park) sounds like hell on earth for crowds during the school holidays.

All has been revealed: http://www.intimidator305.com/ It's 305 feet tall with a 300 foot 85 degree drop, 5 airtime hills after the drop, and some of angle changes like Maverick (which I liked personally). Biggest disappointment, no inversions but it has over the shoulder restraints - that seriously sucks but at least they won't be able staple you like El Toro. I think they could have had a few more airtime hills in the layout. I never thought I go back to KD after going last year, but now, hmmmm.

^ I was thinking/hoping the same thing.

^Wow, Scream must have deteriorated since I was there in 2007 - it wasn't that bad then, and it only opened in 2003 too. There seems to be the odd B & M that can be really punishing, Iron wolf at SF Great America in Chicago (which I believe was their first coaster) is absolutely horrible - definitely in the "please make it stop" category of coasters. The West Coast tour sounds like fun but I never could have fit it in even if I hadn't done other TPR tours this year, I'd love to go back in October and do the Halloween stuff but I don't think I will have time. Token back to topic line - I don't think that petition will have any influence on Dreamworld, it's all balance sheets and marketing stats.

An Intamin Megalite would be realistic to acquire and great addition to any park in Australia, imagine flying throught the trees out the back of Dreamworld with all that ejector airtime. T-bone, did Knott's give you any ERT? It's funny how things have flipped around, Knott's used to be really nice and SFMM used to excerable.

^I think one of the constraints with a TPR tour is that they can't go to all the parks at an optimal time during the trip. Some park days will have to fall on a weekends, also I think they have to balance out the dates of the tour with the longer park hours - travelling by myself I've chosen to go late in the season but then the parks close a lot earlier, so no night rides. Most of the time ERT and fast passes can compensate for going on a bad day, I don't know if you got ERT at Knott's but I know they don't have fast passes. The flip side is if you go on a deserted Knott's gets boring real fast, nobody wins, we'll all be in the same spinal ward after riding Ghostrider.

^The last time I went to Knott's it was a friday in late August 2007 and it was deserted, even with that experience I still wouldn't go back unless they added something special with the exception of Knott's Scary Farm which is supposed to be a very good Halloween event. I could imagine Knott's being terrible on a busy day, and they don't have q-bots to boot. Waiting in a slow moving, long line for a great coaster is bad enough let alone for the coasters at Knotts.

RCDB has got Turbo Mountain down as having operated to 2009. Anyone know more about this? Is it being scrapped or has it been sold to another park?

I've been lucky with Knotts, every visit I have had has been when the park is deserted and all the rides have been operating so I haven't been able to experience their terrible operations. Silver Bullet and Xcelerator are not bad, Ghostrider has gone from a very good woodie to horrible, Sidewinder was OK. Knott's could really do with a couple of top quality coasters (like the never get bored of riding quality) and maybe a decent dark ride. I personally don't think Dreamworld would be prepared or probably able to fork out for a flyer of Tatsu or Manta quality even without theming, I'm not sure if a Superman flyer would in their range either. They may also feel that the public may percieve an invert as being the same as something at movie world (we know better but most might not).

I probably should have reworded my statement on Tatsu, it has a level of intensity but relative to other coasters I have ridden I didn't think it was as intense. The coasters I've been on that I think are really intense - Balder, Phoenix, Boulder Dash, El Toro, Piraten, Bizarro (SFNE), X2, Raptor, Maverick, Top Thrill Dragster, Millennium Force to name a few. I've clocked up over 400 coasters now (pretty sad) so I'm a bit harder to please, actually I'm very jaded at the moment, I'm in coaster de-tox. I rode Tatsu 7 times on a visit the year it opened and I was bored with it after that. Like I said before it all comes down to personal preference, I'd rather ride X2, Batman, Deja Vu, & Goliath over Tatsu (and probably Terminator Salvation, which I've not ridden, if it's as good as people were telling me it is) at SFMM but that's just doing what I like. I think a B & M invert would be realistic for an Australian park from an affordability perspective. Perhaps a second hand Batman or Orichi from Japan would have been a nice purchase when they were available. I wish Dreamworld would get an Intamin Megalite and a Balder clone - I'd never leave the country to ride coasters again.

I wonder if the guy has actually ridden a flyer, not a coaster type that impresses me that much other than pretzel loop which is the only place that a flyer gets forceful. What people like in a coaster is subjective for sure but the prone position you are in on a flyer really limits the force that can be exerted and the overall intensity of the ride. I've ridden Tatsu, all 3 Superman flyers, all 3 Vekoma flyers, & unfortunately 3 Zamperla Volares and I'm still not that impressed with flyers. I think an Intamin megalite ould be a great addition for any Australian park and something that would be realistic to acquire, based on my rides on Piraten megalites seriously kick butt. If they were to add a B & M I would prefer a forceful invert over a dive machine, stand up, flyer or looper models. I excluded the B & M hyper from consideration because they are probably way too pricey for an Australian park.

This is the project I'm most interested in for next year, I'm just dying to know what the layout is going to be like - I guess we're all hoping it will have more airtime than Millennium Force. It's about time we had another Intamin hyper/giga, the B & M's are fun (I went on Goliath at Six Flags Over Georgia last week which was nice) but I much prefer the more aggressive Intamins. I went to KD last year and I think this will be a great addition because the park really needs a centrepiece. Dominator is one of the better floorless coasters, I really like Flight Of Fear, and Volcano was good until comes out of the Volcano and then it becomes very tame. The 3 woodies are absolutely abominable, Italian Job is fun without being spectacular and the rest of the coasters are mediocre. I would have never considered going back to this park but the Intamin changes all that.

Robb Alvey is looking for a POV Video of Bush Beast, I presume to include on one of his future DVD's, has anyone got one? Here is the TPR link: http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=50434 I found one here which was good but I believe Robb would be after the source video as it has to be good enough quality to be on a DVD: http://www.----URL removed for non-compliance with Community Guidelines----/video/bushbeast1.html

I'm going to Hansa in June and definitely Fluch Von Nogood (I know I misspelled it, more like Fluch Von Bloodybrilliant) is definitely one of the 3 most anticipated coasters of the trip along with Balder and Piraten. I think Wicked at Lagoon has a launch and a Eurofighter style drop but I haven't heard much about what it's like. Hitting a greater than 90 degrees drop at a good speed was sensational on Maverick especially at the back.

There's so much they could do with Luna Park without giving the residents legal recourse to shut new rides down. Dark rides, indoor coasters, outdoor sub 100 foot coasters (GCI woodie, Eurofighter and so on - these can be made with a narrow footprint to fit the site). I honestly don't think there is there is any corporate will to invest in the site. Sure they won that court case but I think they had to win that to keep the existing operation going and there are no serious plans for significant expansion. Indiana Beach is a good example of the possibilities for a site like Luna Park - that was a fantastic place.

The problem would be that a lot of that $100 million would be eaten up just acquiring the land unless they leased from the government some of that land that was allegedly earmarked for some kind of amusement complex, was it at Prospect? I don't think there is any possibility of a new amusement park in Sydney of any significant size, does Sydney even have any waterparks? I wish they would add something of substance to Luna Park but I don't think that will happen.

Ed, I just realised that there is a type of B & M I haven't been on and that's the sit down looper, I have to admit Wildfire looks very good. Ditto on Knoebels, I went there last year, it was excellent. One big thing Cedar Point does have over SFMM is that it can offer a complete resort experience, staying onsite is brilliant.

If those 100,000 people all put $100,0 there's your $100 million to build a theme park. Didn't the fans of one soccer club in England pool together and buy the club.

^Hey Jacob - I'm insane that is two coasters with inversions, I've fixed that. Now I'm off to give myself a triple uppercut. BTW which one do you prefer, you've been to both?

I didn't mind Scream, it was fun, though I do note that floorless coasters are ten times better in the front row. I've become a bit blase about B & M looping coasters because they are so ubiquitous, and they often have very similiar layouts - first drop, vertical loop, and so on. Also I prefer airtime coasters over loopers, my top ten really shows my hand: 1. Phoenix 2. Boulder Dash 3. El Toro 4. Superman Ride OF Steel (SFNE) 5. Maverick 6. Top Thrill Dragster 7. X 8. Millennium Force 9. Behemoth 10. Ravine Flyer II Wow, that's only two coasters with inversions.

^I used to think SFMM was the ants pants until I went to Cedar Point, then I thought CP was the ants pants for coasters until I rode Superman Ride of Steel at SF New England and El Toro, and last year I added Phoenix and Boulder Dash to that pantheon.

For me Cedar Point - I love the location and Maverick, Millennium Force, and Top Thrill Dragster are all in my top ten. I also really like Raptor, Magnum, Gemini, and Wicked Twister. I think SFMM has the best Flyer and Stand Up in the world but they are coaster types I'm not personally a big fan of, only X (haven't done X2) is in my top 10 from SFMM. I really like hypers, Goliath is very good but I have it way behind most hypers I have been on - 4 Intamins, 4 B & M's & 3 Arrows, but still the preference thing comes in, Goliath is more about helixes than airtime. I think if you were grading all the coasters and came up with an average SFMM would be slighly ahead, but they are two parks where coaster preferences and how much you value park atmosphere come into it and that's what puts CP firmly ahead for me. I agree with Nev CP is much more of a pain in the butt to get to.

Indiana Jones for me, with California Screaming, Space Mountain, and Matterhorn bring up the rear. A little fave of mine is Mr Toad's Wild Ride, also I haven't been on Tower of Terror so I can't consider that one.

I that park (Everland?) that has T-Express and Eagle's Fortress easy to get to while in Seoul?