Mid-summer Reflections

Hey gang, haven't started a new thread lately, so here goes.

Now that half the summer has passed us by, what are some of your highlights so far, and what have been some disappointments?

For me:

*Getting to take pictures on top of the rock quarry at SFFT, only inches away from screaming riders on Superman Krypton Coaster.

*Honestly saying that a Morgan coaster ranks up there with my all-time favorites...Phantom's Revenge is no joke, folks.

*Stark Raven Mad '01. So many friends, so many memories, so many *insane* Legend night rides. This is one event I will never ever miss.

*Leaving work at SFGAm at 4pm and arriving at SFoT the next morning at 9am. I thought the drive would kill me, but we did it with only two drivers!

*Falling in love with Fiesta Texas and the entire staff that treated us so well at the Fiesta Fest event.

*Riding Superman at SFNE one night, and riding Millennium Force the next night. My (old) #1 and #2 steel coasters.

*Taking week long road trips to amusement parks with people who share the same love for coasters as I do.

*Going into a CP employees dorm room and seeing how "good" they have it in there. ;) Wow, I wonder when the last time they ever cleaned that place was...

*Talon blowing me away after I had thought it'd be a pretty mediocre ride. Never underestimate B&M, I guess.

*Night rides on my new #2 coaster, Nitro. And I thought MF was dark (when lights are off).

*Hitting my 300th coaster on a totally unplanned side "trip" to Steel Pier in Atlantic City, NJ. Looking up at the stars while being right on the Atlantic Ocean, spinning on a Crazy Mouse, hitting a major milestone coaster. Priceless.


"Disappointments"

*Realizing Apollo's Chariot doesn't "run out the front row" at the end of the night, so no rerides in the back for me (unlike 1999).

*Texas Giant. I went in expecting the best, and came out with one of the worst coaster disappointments ever. So sad.

*Wildfire not blowing me away like I thought it would. I guess I hit it on a cold day?

*SFWoA opening day. Things seemed very mishmash and I was thinking this park was in for a very dismal year. (Thankfully, after a few return visits, I can say things are picking up).

*Deja Vu not opening yet. :(

*Vekoma products in general not running to specs

*Jerk-off punk kids throwing stuff at our car at 3am on a highway in Connecticut for *no reason at all* and the police did nothing about it. Damn delinquents.

*Six Flags DisastroWorld. The only park I truly dislike. Went on Memorial Day and just didn't have much fun at all.

That's about it for now. So far I'm having a fantastic summer! I just hate how it's going to end so soon. :(

See ya all at the parks!

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"No listenin', you hear me?"

my hilights

Being blown away by Apollo's Chairiot, and Alphengiest

Getting on Hpersonic XLC and Volcano The Blast Coaster

Outer Limits with only lap bars

After thinking nothing can beat Apollo's Chairiot, rding Phantom's Revenge and just being plain amazed

Looking forward to my trip to Cedar Piont and SFWoA

dislikes

really only one, seeing Drachen Fire siting very lonely in the back of BGW

Legendary, I suggest you RERIDE the "Great Nor'Easter". It was worth every penny of its $7,000,000. And it is still great. And Smooth, and at 115' tall, still cranks it out at 62mph.....

Agent Johnson, whoa, where did that come from? :) I rode Great Nor'Easter for the very first time like two weeks ago (6/28/01). I rode front row twice, and totally loved it! My two friends complained of headbanging and wouldn't ride it again (wusses) but I thought the footchoppers and location couldn't be beat. I was looking for ya, but based on nothing, I couldn't find you. :) Ah well, maybe the next time I'm out there!

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"No listenin', you hear me?"

Let me start off on going the opposite way:

Dissapointments: SFKK not getting anything to speak of this year.
Not getting to go to SFSTL as much as I'd like to.
Waiting WAY too long for King Cobra at PKI.
The idiots wiaiting in line in front of me for X-Flight for nearly 3 hours. (three teenagers with their parents and one of the teen boys kept ON saying, "I'm INBRED" what a bunch of losers they were)

Highlights: Going to SFWOA for the first time and getting 10 coasters in my track record.
S:UE my first impulse coaster
X-Flight my first and probably last flying coaster.
SOB night ride at PKI..front seat all the way.
MF night ride at CP...any seat all the way.
and the number one highlight for me this summer so far is.....

asking my girlfriend to marry my and presenting her with the engagement ring on MF. She said yes and the rest was a great big roller coaster ride.

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God please let SFKK get something this year. ANYTHING!!

I'm going to hold off on this one until KennyKon's over, for so many reasons... ;)

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Matt Lynch
Co-Webmaster, Kennywood Boulevard
http://kennywood.coasterbuzz.com

Surprises: ummm.....hmmmm.....grrrr....Well, I suppose I should have probably visited a park this year before posting this.
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"We are no longer the knights who say Ni! We are now the knights who say eckyeckyeckyeckypakungloopoingengzourjin." "Ni"

Congrats Joey Stewart! Nothing can beat that except getting married on the same coaster.

Actually these are my mid-winter reflections!

Disappointments:

*Not going to the US of A this year. :(:(

*My home park Wonderland Sydney putting off the new ride to next year.

*The Big Dipper @ Luna Park moving to Dreamworld.

*Missing the opening of Shaft of Terror by just three weeks.

*Anaconda @ Luna Park Israel not working when I was there. No big deal as it's a Vekoma Boomer.

*Was meant to go to Superland Israel & found out later that they were building a Vekoma SLC. Again no big deal.


Highlights:

*Riding Anaconda, the only Giovanola Inverted in the world @ Gold Reef City, South Africa.

*Discovering the Shaft of Terror, the only Giovanola Mine Diver in the world at the same park above.

*Taking heaps of photos of the above.

*Following the progress of X, DJV, EGF, Titan & all of the new coasters on the 'net.

*Buzzing with you guys & girls!

I'm going to say the best for last and start with my disappointments:

Getting back from my trip to find out that we just missed the Thunderbolt reopening by a few days.

Nitro. I hope I'm not offending anyone here. That is not my intention at all. IMO, it just doesn't compare to Phantom's Revenge or S:ROS at SFNE. It's still a good ride though.

Finding out that there is a big difference between the S:ROS at SFDL and SFNE. After having ridden the one at SFNE, I expected so much more.

Being all set in line to ride Laser in the front car when it starts to rain and they shut it down. Especially considering we should've been in the previous train, since about 10 people cut in line in front of us. The ride didn't reopen.

Lack of money and time to go to more parks and ride more rollercoasters.

The Chiller (Batman) and GASM. My neck didn't like these two at all.

Highlights:

Having a new #2 ride (#1 wood) which is the Phoenix and riding it 8 times.

Realizing that I liked the S:ROS at SFNE better than the one at SFDL. This is on the disappointments and highlights because at the time I rode it I was disappointed, but in retrospect I like that I enjoy the one closest to me better.

Short lines on most of our coaster trip.

3 rides in front on Phantom's Revenge.

Riding Medusa in the front with my hands in the air comfortably (I can't do that with most OTSR's).

Riding in the front on Steel Force in the pouring rain 3 times with no lines.

Getting some new (to me) coasters on my top 10 list. Phoenix, Talon, Steel Force, and Phantom's Revenge.

Being chosen to go on a business trip to Las Vegas in September and realizing that we'll be staying at the Venetian.

How smooth B:TR was as compared to previous years.

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64 coasters ridden (so far)of which 21 are wood and 43 are steel.
*** This post was edited by Lisa Marie on 7/13/2001. ***

The highlight of my summer was definately X-Flight, it is one of the best coasters around. Also, so far I have ridden Milennium Force 63 times, hopefully i can get in 100 rides before the seasons end.
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I'd walk through hell in a gasoline suit to keep riding roller coasters

Highlight:

-Riding the Raven more than 25 times, with rerides, at dusk, and discovering that for the first time since Raptor opened, I have a new #1 coaster.

Disappointment:

-Overall bad experiences at three Six Flags parks this year (SFMM, SFKK, SFWoA), including Deja Vu being closed, bad service, bad food, overcrowding, unruly crowds, disgusting sights, and most of all, Goliath being closed, which was the reason for my 2,500-mile trip. I am crossing my fingers for SFGAm this Thursday.

Highlights:

- Rides on Shivering Timbers with one click on my lap bar.

- Cornball Express!

- Phantom's Revenge!

- Family reunions at Kennywood.

- Getting to spend real quality time with family and friends at the parks.

- $85 round trip tickets from Chicago to Pittsburgh.


Disappointment

- Two planned trips to Knoebel's being cancelled this year. (There's always next year.)

Highlights:

- Going to Cedar Point for the 1st time
- Millennium Force 1st ride
- Cornball Express and its one click lapbars
- Indiana Beach's short lines
- 76 rides on Raging Bull so far this year
- B:KF in the front row
- Viper with my lap bar a foot off my lap
- B:TR 20 times in a row
- A very unlikely California trip worked out and I am going Sunday

Disappointments:

-Not being able to go to BGT
-Not being able to get to SRM
-Not having time to go to SFStL or SFKK
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Bull rides:76
Batman rides:42 *** This post was edited by SFGA2001 on 7/13/2001. ***

Highlights:
Batwing opens
Phantom's Revenge
S:ROS at SFA in its 2nd season (You New England people may find your S:ROS "better", but, SFDL's started the Intamin hyper revolution, and I'm glad to have it's mirrored clone)

Dissapointments:
Thrillride.com stops providing us with all those crazy rumors:(

It's still kine of early for me though as I'm starting the bulk of my traveling on Monday


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Batwing-Bow Down

Highlights:Back row on the first drop of Raging Bull, that is the best drop ever, hitting 50 Bull rides, Back row on Nitro, trying V2 out, and liking it alot. Dissapointments: Delayja-Vu, observing that X will probably be open by October, no earlier, summer being halfway over, the biggest dissapointment of them all.

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"Thank you for challenging the Raging Bull. We hope you enjoy the rest of you're day, here at Six Flags Great America"

Here are mine

-Highlights-

-Being able to WALK on Son of Beast
-Riding The Hulk at IOA 23 times in 4 days.
-Riding Fire, Ice, and Hulk in the front row.
-TR:TR announced
-Ordering MM tickets (today! woohoo)
-Scoring 400,000+ on MIB: Alien Attack w/out getting the 100,000 point bonus at the end.

-Disappointments-

-The lines at FantasyLand at Magic Kingdom WDW, especially the ones that take fastpass.
-The Keelboats at PKI being torn down, always loved that ride.
-The Beast wasn't oiled when I went last. Talk about pain on my ears.