Most anticipated ride for 2013

After the pictures that I recently saw of a nearly finished Rattler, nothing else comes close in anticipation!

RCMAC, a fellow Buzzer turned me on to the Soak City gate for excellent parking. Great advice, but don't they only open the front gate for early admission?

Ive got my eyes set on Gatekeeper and Full Throttle. Im heading to Magic Mountain during Gay Pride weekend in early June so I hope Full Throttle will be up and running by then. Im going to Cedar Point for my birthday in August so Im quite sure Gatekeeper will be operational this year. I might even get to check out the Iron Rattler in May if time permits. Its gonna be a great year for coaster riding!!!

^^ Lucky devil.

Oh no, bunk, (may I call you bunk?), all gates open the hour early. Makes sense as resort guests are the biggest users of those back gates and they get in early, too. You have to have your platinum pass or a hotel voucher/ticket thingy to get thru the turnstiles though.
At the front gate all guests get in, but only have access to the side of the midway where Donut Time and the games are, and are stopped around Johnny Rockets unless they show their pass.
I can only imagine what the stampede will be like this year...

I really wish I could get to Six Flags Fiesta Texas to ride Iron Rattler and also Outlaw Run at SDC. I plan on getting to Gatekeeper though. There are some good looking new coasters coming out this year that's for sure.

RCMAC, you may certainly call me Bunk. I'm not touchy about it. *laugh*

I never found the benefit of getting in early to be that great. They had early opening for Maverick, and I still waited for a totally full queue. Same with Millie. On the off chance that I actually get out there soon, I will just go for more days and sleep later. Not worth the ungodly hour to get up and get ready. Islands of Adventure and Harry Potter? Yes, worth it. Walk-on or near walk on rides back to back in that case. Cedar Point? Not so much.

I would say my most anticipated would have to be Outlaw Run, although I am entirely too curious how Hades 360 is going to turn out. I am planning on visiting both Silver Dollar City and Mt. Olympus to check those out. I may also make it to Cedar Point for Gatekeeper, as I LOVE X-Flight.

My most anticipated ride is definitely Outlaw Run. I'm going to Silver Dollar City on June 6 and the following day to Cedar Point (for Coaster Mania), where I will certainly check out Gatekeeper. I also have a trip to Wisconsin Dells booked for July 4, as I too am interested to see what kind of a ride Hades 360 will be. Like several others, I very much want to ride Iron Rattler but things are not looking so good at the moment. I have a non-refundable airfare to San Antonio for the end of April and it does not appear that Iron Rattler will be up and running by then. Damn that website! The Six Flags Fiesta website has been saying all along that IR would open in the spring but now the park president is saying that it will open in the summer. I certainly wouldn't have booked the trip when I did. had that information been known earlier. It would cost me at least $150 to change my itinerary b/c it was booked through US Airways (Southwest is actually the only airline I know of that doesn't charge a change fee) and further complicating matters is the fact that San Antonio is just a stop on the way to Phoenix to visit my mother, so I would have to change all three flights. I may just have to go to Six Flags Fiesta and ride whatever crap rides are open at the end of April. Oh, and at the suggestion of someone who follows my blog, I'm going to Lake Compounce at the end of May to ride Boulder Dash. I don't expect it to be a high thrill ride but I do expect it to be a good one.

"Boulder Dash not a high thrill ride?" Boy, are YOU in for a nice surprise...

Bobbie, that's why I never plan a trip for when the parks say something is going to be open, especially Six Flags and Busch Gardens. The estimates are almost never right. CP seems like they're making fantastic progress on Gatekeeper (they just laid the last piece of track!), but it seems as though most places do not plan effectively for a hard opening of a ride.

I don't know if IR is close to NTG though. I've heard absolutely wonderful things about NTG!

I agree with whoever said that Hades 360 seems like a bad idea since Mt. Olympus isn't turning Hades into a hybrid and they're adding the inversions. Sounds very unsafe, and Mt. O is kinda known for poor maintenance and management. Be mindful of that!

Anyone planning a trip around the opening of a coaster is setting them self up for disappointment.

I would amend that somewhat, to read:

"Anyone planning a trip around the opening of a *non-B&M* coaster is setting them self up for disappointment."

I doubt anyone going to CP expecting to ride Gatekeeper will find the ride closed with the park trying to work out bugs...knock on, ummm, steel?

Spoken like someone who wasn't around for the opening of Raptor, or Mantis.. :)

To Bill's point, I think that's more an exception than a rule.

Good point. Never again will I plan a trip expecting a coaster to open on schedule. (Have communicated with Six Flags Fiesta several times and each time the person with whom I spoke hadn't a clue as to when IR would open.) At least I'm safe for Outlaw Run, as that will definitely be open when I get to Silver Dollar city. Mt. Olympus isn't known for safety and good maintenance? Yikes! Well, the airfare is non-refundable so I'll take my chances. Because the coaster is new - sort of - it might be OK. I'm sure that the park doesn't want to get sued, so presumably they are taking some precautions.

Oh I'm sure they are doing what they can at Mt. O. I'm not saying that anything there is THAT bad. I have never been there, so I can only relay secondhand info, to be fair.

The people you speak to on the phone DON'T seem to ever have a good idea of when those things open. You would think that the ride openings would be such a big deal that they would at least have a "tentative" date that they could tell people as per the park's direction.

I called Hershey about Skyrush and got a really nice gentleman who although no one else seemed to know about when it was opening last year, he had some insider info and was able to tell me when it was opening. I got to ride opening weekend (I think), and I kept looking for an older employee riding it (I wish I could remember his name, but he said he was in his 70's and he still loved riding some of the coasters and had been thinking about trying Thighcrush. But everyone else was useless.

Most parks have learned the hard way that you do not start giving out tentative opening dates until the ride has finished construction and has begun testing. So many things can happen to delay the opening of a ride, and once that opening date is set in stone, you risk a lot of unhappy guests if there are further adjustments to be made after something is discovered during testing.

Timberliners anyone...

True, and no matter how many times one says "tentative", most people take that as "definitely".

Bobbie1951 said:

Good point. Never again will I plan a trip expecting a coaster to open on schedule. (Have communicated with Six Flags Fiesta several times and each time the person with whom I spoke hadn't a clue as to when IR would open.) At least I'm safe for Outlaw Run, as that will definitely be open when I get to Silver Dollar city. Mt. Olympus isn't known for safety and good maintenance? Yikes! Well, the airfare is non-refundable so I'll take my chances. Because the coaster is new - sort of - it might be OK. I'm sure that the park doesn't want to get sued, so presumably they are taking some precautions.

Bobbie,

I know what you mean. Im taking a big risk heading to SFMM in hopes of Full Throttle being finished by June, but its bout the only time my buddy and I had to take off. Ill just have to sit back and see if Full Throttle is up and ready by the time we arrive.