Kings Dominion - Awesome Day

In my 35 years of "coastering" and visiting amusement parks I had one of the best days ever at Kings Diminion this past Thursday, May th, 2013. There were only a few people in the park and we could ride anything we wanted without more than a five minute wait at most.

Intimidator was deserted - multiple rides possible on this Beast - which, sorry to say it Cedar Point, kicks some serious coaster butt. I spent many years as a serious aerobatic pilot so I know what G-Forces and snap rolls are all about....bounced my head off the canopy many times with roll rates of 540 degrees per second....this is the first coaster ever to approach what I felt in a Pitts Special. Millennium Force - big - fast - predictible and ...okay yes I know this will sting many....boring (by comparison)!!!

Intimidator made it into my Top 5 list, which also includes El Toro, Montu, any of the B&M inverted Batman clones (but especially riding it backwards at Six Flags Great America with the continual and delightfully terrifying sensation that I was going to be flung out of my seat in every element), and finally Apollo's Chariot, unquestionably the best anti-gravity machine on the planet. Honorable mention to Bizarro - which is really one of the best paced rides out there....

This is why it's absurd to me that I-305 is still at such a low ranking on most coaster sites. It's far and away better than Millennium, and I think better than Leviathan as well. Hopefully KI's 2014 giga will give it a run for it's money. To have Millennium at the spot it's still at is honestly ridiculously considering I-305's intensity.

I think it's a better ride than Millennium Force, too, but not by a ton. But people have different opinions and stuff.

I305 seems like one of the most polarizing rides. So many love it. I didn't.

Not that I thought it was bad, I just didn't "get it." It was a walk on with maybe 3 train wait for the front seat the whole day I was there, and I rode it exactly once.

Checking my track record, I have it at 78 out of the 200+ I've been on, and that seems right to me. Middle of the pack.

Same goes for Maverick.

Other than height and speed, what makes us enthusiasts love Millenium so much? Not a ton of air time or tight turns are involved in it.

You say that as if there's some monolithic "enthusiast" voice. A lot of enthusiasts really don't like it. I like it for the sensation of speed. In front, at night, I swear, I've never felt like I've traveled faster, even on TTD or KK (though clearly, I went fast on the plane trip to get there).

Now the world don't move, to the beat of just one drum.

The ride that might be right for you, might not be a good ride for some?

I love Millennium Force and Beast for very similar reasons. ApolloAndy already explained them. Front seat at night. (Although, MF is much more forgiving in the back seats than Beast is...)

And I've gotten some pretty decent air on MF when it's running fast. (sub 65 sec lift-to-brakes)

big and fast isnt what impresses me...quickness does - the ability of a ride to disorient me which is darned near impossible...i like to be surprised which is why i prefer rides like Outer Limits at KD, all the B&M inverted Batman Clones, and Montu with its surprise roll at the end of the ride. Millenium is just not quick, there is no real airtime, and you see everything well in advance so no surprises at all. I think hidden elements and snappy direction changes are the biggest unexplored opportunities for coaster designers...at least i hope

It's only possible to disorient me on a ride if I'm already feeling dizzy or tired. After a dozen rides on Talon in 100 degree August really did me in. But even FoF in the dark doesn't really disorient me. I enjoy quick rides as well, but I like different rides for different reasons.

Last time I went to KD, Grizzly was the best ride there, followed by Volcano.

I love the Wooden Warrior at Quassy better!

I like cheeseburgers better than tacos. What's your point, Grant?

Mike Sites said:

Millenium is just not quick, there is no airtime...

I must ride a different Millennium Force than you.

He may mean quick as in quick transitions rather than quick speed. MF is definitely has high velocity but lower forces (if you want to get super technical, he's probably actually referring to jerk, the third derivative of position).

I've never understood the "Millennium Force has no airtime" argument either. 1st drop, 186' hill, 100' hill, bunny hop before last overbanked turn. It may not be ejector air, but to say it has no airtime is false.

Also, coasters that have quick, snappy back-and-forth elements don't necessarily have the broad appeal that predictable, boring rides like MF do. The goal isn't always to try to impress ex aerobatic pilots. I rode Intimidator the year it opened, and it was a walk-on. I was shocked that a brand-spanking new giga coaster could be a walk-on, but twas the case.

Air time is any time when the vertical g's on a roller coaster are lower than 0.25. If it is 0, it's exactly 0 gravity like space. That's floater air time. I consider floater air time between -.25 and .25. Ejecter is lower than -.25. Phoenix at Knoebels probably gets to -1.5. -2 would mean that double the force normally pushing down on you is pushing up on you. -2 can get dangerous. Millenium is close to 0 on its hills. Most hypers are. Magnum is probably around 1, though.

You're cute, Tyler.

You did make a small error, even though I understood what you meant: a negative G doesn't push up on you, it's the force generated by the lap bar that pushes you down. Without the lap bar, you wouldn't feel any force at all; you would notice the reaction force of your butt against the seat get taken away, you would float for a few seconds and feel weightless, and then you'd feel a tremendous impulse force as you smacked the ground.

I've been noticing over the last few years that I enjoy predictable, boring rides like Millennium Force a lot better than snappy, quick rides like Skyrush. I hope to get to Cedar point and Kings Dominion sometime this year to finally ride Maverick and I-305 so I can test this.

Didn't someone from Cedar Fair recently say that their parks were looking to build more accessible rides, like Diamondback, in the near future?

IDK. I like unpredictableness and air time and not feeling sick. That's why I love the Beast, the Voyage, and for some reason I like Gatekeeper even though it broke all three of those rules.