Great adv. new ride?

Hmmm.. Rotting lumber takes up a pretty sizable amount of space.

Anyone care to snag an aerial shot and superimpose a hotel in RT's spot? They never did specify what that was going to be used for in the future.

Just sayin'

The hotel was pictured to be located near the water park, if I recall correctly.

I think Rolling Thunder's footprint is a great spot for a new Dragon Wagon.

I don't know that a hotel could fit in the spot, the whole infield is basically taken up by El Toro.

Very disappointing news for my tastes. I won't pretend that Rolling Thunder was in the top half of the woodies I've ridden, but it wasn't at the bottom, either.

As someone admittedly with a STONG bias in favor of woodies, it was my 3rd favorite coaster in the park, behind ONLY Nitro (my #1 steel) and El Toro. And I've been in many parks where it would have been my favorite ride in the park. For example, I liked it better than ANY multilooper I've ever ridden, with the exception of Schwarzkopf's Shockwave and Mindbender, (which I like for their AMAZING airtime, NOT for their inversions or positive g's). As one of the 73 woodies I've ridden, RT was in my Top 100 (out of approx. 330), simply because I cannot think of 27 steel coasters I prefer over my LOWEST rated woodie!

Alleged "roughness" honestly doesn't bother me. Rolling Thunder at least FELT like a woodie, and had a few solid spots of airtime in which a tall (but average weight) rider like me could enjoy without being stapled to the seats, like El Toro. To be honest it's hard for me to think of El Toro as a "woodie" because between the excessive smoothness and tight-fitting restraints, the ride "feels" more to me like an Intamin hyper (albeit more satisfying than an Intamin hyper).

Now, the park will not have a traditional wooden coaster. The industry trend away from classic woodies saddens me, and it seems Six Flags is leading that trend, with the loss of the WOODEN Texas Giant (still a Top 5 ride for me at the time of its demise), the loss of the underrated Rattler (leaving Fiesta Texas without a REAL woodie, and adding inversions to boot, ugh!), and now Rolling Thunder.

I can only hope Great Adventure (and Fiesta) will eventually right these wrongs like Magic Mountain did and contract with Gravity Group or GCI to build a new woodie to make up for the ones they lost.

I also wish they could have kept it open through Fright Fest or at least given a more advanced notice of the closing date, as I'll be in that part of the country in late Sept and thru October - but getting up there from the deep south before September 8 to say goodbye is highly unlikely for me at such short notice.

Bro, do you know Billy?

I don't know, Rolling Thunder really didn't work well with my riding style.

Rolling Thunder is a decidedly average-at-best coaster (and far less according to my rankings).

Wow, I just checked and I have it placed at #40 of 41 wooden coasters (right between Son of Beast and Judge Roy Scream). Yes...I liked Son of Beast better than Rolling Thunder.

Maybe I'm just slow, but...huh?

My thoughts exactly.

Oh. I deleted the post before BJames complaining about the capacity because I didn't realize there were going to be 3 carriages (thought it would just be 1). So, that was what his post was in response to. Sorry!

Ah. And now bjames deleted his comment. So the two of you have succeeded in making me look bat**** crazy, asking myself questions.

I feel your pain, Vater (and I spelt it rite. Yay fore me!)

Raven-Phile said:

Anyone care to snag an aerial shot and superimpose a hotel in RT's spot? They never did specify what that was going to be used for in the future.

I won't superimpose a hotel there, but here is what that area looks like. After RT is removed, there is a lot of space there for more attractions, and it is still a pretty long walk to get to the location of the drop tower from any existing path in the park.

As far as a hotel in that spot, the photo below shows it in a totally different area, near the water park.

...Which to me looks like this area of the parks property.

And here is a wider shot of the property...

Vater said:

Ah. And now bjames deleted his comment. So the two of you have succeeded in making me look bat**** crazy, asking myself questions.

It seemed to be the "in" thing to do, sorry man.

Looking at those pictures, all I keep seeing is a perfect place for the new campground....

With tents because campgrounds have tents. Here's a picture for reference:

Put down the keyboard and get back to your homework.

I already did my homework

Tyler how is it that you've been here for barely a year and you've made 1100 posts, and yet I've been here for 5 and have yet to crack 500?