The Year of 100 Roller Coasters - The Summer Tour Highlights

^ So I've been on three, and I didn't enjoy any of them (although as noted, I thought Super Flight was at least tolerable.) But that's a worse batting average than Jason Bay's.

Flyers kind of suck?

Flyers are the new Stand-Up

Stand-Ups are gimmicky and Flyers are just Stand-Ups to the Nth degree

And your ol' buddy Gonch was telling you this 9 years ago. :)

All hail Gonch! :)

Yeah, I'm waaaaaay jealous. Like mega jealous. Giga jealous even.

But are you Strata jealous?

Gonch...nah. This trip was many airplane flights, and that is way too much alcohol drinking for me (the requirement for me to fly is extreme drunkenness). That makes the jealousy stop at Giga levels.

Sorry for the bump, but 1) I have a response to bunky, and 2) the list has been updated to include the rest of the year.

Anyways, bunky, I can totally understand your reservations toward flying. Even my coworkers think my ability to handle extreme amounts of flying borders on insanity. Flying to Europe and staying for less than 24 hours before flying back is not something I really have any concerns about. I honestly prefer longer flights to shorter ones. For me, I just find air travel FAR more relaxing (save for a few situations where I wasn't sure how I'd get to or from my destination on space-available tickets), and I guess I haven't lost that appreciation for just how quickly it can get somebody somewhere.

- Diamondback is a great ride, but it suffers from Incredible Hulk syndrome. The second half was seriously lacking. I know that's often the case with a number of rides, but it was VERY noticeable on this one. Silver Star is perhaps one of the few exceptions (the second half has some of the ride's best maneuvers).

I read this all the time, so maybe I should go back out to KI and ride it again, but one of the things I took away from Diamondback is that the ride post-MCBR was pretty good. I've not ridden Silverstar or Carowinds' Intimidator, but I have ridden Behemoth- and not much happens once you clear that brake section. I won't say for certain the other two feel similarly, but based on what there is on Youtube, they don't appear to do much (Carowinds' ride moreso than Europa's). The best of them IMO are the first two. You spend a good chunk of the ride going through the second halves of Apollo and Raging Bull, giving them a well-rounded feel. Better yet is OG's Goliath, which doesn't have a MCBR defining a 1st half/2nd half and doesn't let up until it's stopped in front of the station.

- I LOVE what SFA did with Apocalypse. The theme work seemed uncharacteristically good. Also, I found by sticking my head forward, I was able to actually really enjoy the ride. It's actually pretty good, and I like how its corkscrew had the same snap as the inverted coaster corkscrews. I rode it as Iron Wolf, but I didn't remember much about it except major headbanging (I hadn't developed my trick at that time).

Stick to the front and ride them accordingly, and B&M standups are the most intense steel roller coasters around. The Apocalypse addition to SFA is great, because things like that aren't being built anymore- So while there was the typical wailing and threats of boycotting the park from SFA locals around park message boards, a lot of the reaction from riders has been good.

- Batman - The Ride may be my absolute favorite roller coaster. It's just crazy good. The blistering intensity of it is almost unparalleled.

This is the truth. Sometimes, when I walk by Superman: Ultimate Fluff at Great America, I think that I'd much rather see another Batman: The Ride there instead. When I eventually get out to California, CGA's Top Gun is what ultimately draws me out there (even with X, Riddler, Vortex, Monte, Viper, etc. also calling my name). It looks like Batman: The Ride Jr. (Robin?).