TR:PKI 4/7/02 - (CAUTION CONTAINS TR:TR SPOILERS)
Associated parks:
None
April 7, 2002
Kings Mills, OH
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"Where is everybody?
Trumpets Sound, playing a regal sounding royal fanfare
Life returns to the land of Coasterville, as the 2002 Coaster Season
has officially begun.
We'll skip the getting there is half the fun part. Suffice to say that
as we pulled off of I-71 at the PKI exit, the generosity of the car
was overflowing as no less than 3 people were willing to cover the $8
parking fee. Oh, wait, no less than 3 people in the car had PKI
parking permits. We pulled into the lot and realized that we were
lucky enough to be able to grab one of the very few remaining
non-wheelchair, non-preffered parking spaces in the front section of
the parking lot. Even better than the Gold Pass Parking lot, for
which at least 2 people had passes for. Besides which, unless they
made some traffic flow improvements from last season getting out of
the the Gold Pass Parking is anything but a perk.
We then swiftly made our way to the front gate while reading the note
we got from the parking plaza stating that due to the cold weather,
the park would be running limited operations today. Perhaps the
passing out of these notices contributed to the near non-existant
crowd today, as it was chilly in the morning, but it was feeling nice
by the afternoon, and the vast majority of the parks's attractions did
eventually open. We then saw the ride closings board which showed that
the Beast and the Reptar would be closed today, and then the a-frame
sign that caused a bit of uneasiness. "Tomb Raider MAY operate
today......" (Then something about please accept our apologies for the
inconveniece as we tweak the attraction). Well MAY is better than the
WIll NOT that was made famous two seasons ago. Marching onward, we
came across the front gate turnstiles, where we noted a new admissions
system has been installed, one with full color display screens for the
operator, and barcode scanners and not barcade swipes. This should
help things out, we noted even the re-entry people got computer
screens. One comical note, when a ticket/pass is accepted, the color
readout shows a green arrow icon, but the arrow is pointing back
towards the parking lot. I know overanalyzing, but then part of
being a park nut is noticing and analyzing small details that most
people don't think twice about. Speaking of analyzing things, I note
that the big airport style security checkpoint at the front gate has
been eliminated, and judging from remarks of those that have been to
other seasonal parks this spring, is in tune with what other seasonal
parks have been doing. Grab a park map out of the brocuhre rack and
then head to the ACE brick. "Would you stop and take a quick survey?",
OK, now we head to the ACE brick, "Would you stop for a picture?", and
now he head the the ACE brick. Wheew.
A lot of time was spent re-introducing and all. It's sort of like
that first week back to school "How was your summer vacation?", except
for us its "How was your off-season?" Socializing took place and then
we were met by a park GR person who informed us that today's walk back
would be to Flight Of Fear. The walkback is a nice courtesy and
tradition that PKI offers, kudos again to the park.
Flight of Fear is of course totally different from Outer Limits. On
our way back there I noticed that there seemed to be a lot more flags
in the park than in years past. They may have always been there, they
just seemed to be more noticeable, and I noted a couple patrotic
tracks have been added to the background music. Anyway, we entered
the Flight of Fear building through the hangar, into the UFO, onto the
train, and with a WOOOOSSSHHHH. Coaster season 2002 had begun. Some
of our group expressed that they were unable to ride FoF this year,
though they could last year, and others indicated that the seats on
the right side of the train are more accomodating than the left. I
didn't notice much change, I'm just retelling the tale. FoF ran
brakless and the ride chamber was sufficiently dark, that the multi
colored spotlights were very effective. I'm not kidding when I say
that FoF is a very fun coaster now. We exited FoF and waited for our
group to reassemble. We considered anotother FoF ride, then opted to
instead head for the REAL flight of fear. It's FLYERS time, don't you
know.
Flyer Season 2002 has begun! Where can I join AFE (American Flyer
Enthusiasts) or is it APE (American Phlyer Enthusiasts). We entered
the line for the Flying Skooters. Who writes the verbage for the ride
safety signs. Someone wrote, for the Flying Skooters "2-3 Per Seat"
When someone shows me three people who can ride safely together in a
Flyer seat! That and PKI has adopted the CP ride intensity ratings.
(1=Mild Ride, up to 5=Extreme thrill ride) (Yes 5 is a double black
diamond) So onto the ride, where they were very accomdating of
offering solo rides. The PKI Flyers are still excellent, although
they cycle now ends just as the action starts getting good, much like
it did at the end of last season. The experts of the group were
snapping like crazy, and the rest of us like me, had some good rides,
even if we didn't hear two many groans of the cables. We then had an
ITOT on the Flying Eagles and rode for quite a while.
Watch your electronic newsfeed for the foundation of the "American
Flying Skooter League", we haven't quite come up with the rules and
regs for Official Tournament Flyer Flying, but we made progress at our
first meet yesterday. Of course we couldn't resist taking a walk over
to Tomb Raider much longer. So we headed down the path, confirmed
that Beast was closed today, and on around to Tomb Raider. Wow this
whole section of midway has changed. Everything from the Beast
entrance to the Potato Works stand is all part of the TR plaza.
Attention Potential TR:TR spoiler infomration, please scroll quickly
down to the second field of stars if you would rather not know anymore
about TR:TR than it exists.
SPOILER ALERT ****************************************
********************************** TOMB RAIDER: THE RIDE
****************************************
As I was saying, lets first discuss the non TR:TR side of the Tomb
Raider Plaza (Last change to bypass the TR stuff)
The gift shop for the area has of course been rethemed to TR. (This is
the one that started out as the Red's Dugout Shop, and has had many
themes throughout the recent years), to the right of the gift shop a
Nacho and ICEE stand has been added, to the left of the gift shop, the
peach basket game (named Basket Case) has been relocated from its
former position in front of KCKC. The basket game is well done with a
lot of baskets up on the rood and signage, as well as huge sacks of
potatos on top of the redecorated Rivertown Potato Works where popcorn
chicken and beer have been added to the menu. The train station Ice
Cream stand is now a Gourmet Dippin Dots stand (!) with Dippin Dots
Sundaes, and Floats. As well the train exit has been reconfigured.
Instead of two entrances to the train ride, there is now one entrance,
the former entrance on the Potato Works side is now an exit, with an
obnoxiously long exit ramp so as to not have people exiting through
the new dining patio area. Okay I think I have talked enough about
the surroundings to safely protect anybody who does not want the
spoiler.
The TR:TR plaza, starting at the Beast Entrance is roughly set up as
follows, the whole thing looks like an African wildlife exhibit from
the outside (Cambodia is the actual setting for TR, right), shame the
park did away with Adventure Village, the theming would have fit
together perfectly. Anyway at the Beast end of the TR plaza is a tent
covering a Land Rover (actually used in the filimg of TR, according to
the signboard). Obligatory movie prop. (Look closely at the tire
treads in the ground under the Land Rover, clearly some other vehicle
has been here as the LR did not make those tracks.) To the right the
Land Rover tent is the mouth of the cave/tomb/temple, its never made
quite clear, but if this were a Tolkien-esque adventure this would
clearly be a 'back door' entrance. A large forboding arch shaped
entranceway leads to mysteries unknown. The arch way itself is covered
in runes or picture writing. The actual ride entrance is to the right
of the cave entrance to allow access to the outdoor queues located
alongside the buidling. A sign above the ride entrance proclaims that
"No carry in gear allowed". to the immediate left of the entrance are
the test seats. Next to the test seats is a short term locker
facility. Approximately 120 electronic SmartLocke lockers are
available to hold the carry on items you aren't allowed to take with
you. This is very similar to the setup for the rollercoasters at IOA,
with the lockers situated right between the ride entrance and exit.
Unlike IOA, however, there is no free grace period while you wait.
What they do is give you 90 minutes for 50 cents, payable at the time
the locker is rented, woe be the person who overstays their welcome,
as each additional 30 minutes or fraction thereof is $1.00 extra,
payable when you go to retrieve your goods. (The locker door won't
unlock till the penalty is paid). There is a $6.00 maximum limit on
the fee, however. To the right of the locker rental is the ride exit
ramp, and then on to Potato Works.
When we first approached TR:TR it had not started operation for today
yet, but under other suggestions, I tried the test seat to avoid any
embarassing situations later. I noted that I fit into the test seat
alright, and had to struggle with the seatbelt, similar to my
experience on B&M coasters. But at least I learned I could ride. Since
not much was open yet, we waited around,, had some Potato Works fries,
and saw the ride open. Being good reide enthusiasts, we headed
directly to the ride, not fast enough to beat those who were camped
out in front of the ride, but we wound up in the first aisle of the
outdoor queue area. the first section of queue is a normal queue
maze, no shading as yet, though I hear that will be adressed before
summer season. The queue is ADA complaint in width, and leads to a
curved path that takes you from the overflow area to the attraction
entrance. For this section the queue rails are genuine simulated
bamboo. There is a short section where the queue is missing and a
rope was being used today, I suspect that will be adressed as there
are plugs in the ground that look like they pull out to expose holes
to mount speed rail type product.
SERIOUS SPOILERS AHEAD, LAST CHANCE TO EXIT WITHOUT RIDING!!!
Then you enter the temple/tomb/cave/whatever (hey I haven't seen the
movie nor played the game). The area resembles the site of an
archeological dig with bamboo poles helping to brace the supports and
to hold a canvas cover over the heads of the archeologists.
Interesting that this particualr temple came with a modern state of
the art fire safety system AND an overhead garage door at its mouth.
Through the opening and immediately you are walking along a bridge,
the bridge cleverly keeps the guests from getting too close to the
props along either side wall. Props? Temple ruins, broken columns,
and other stuff that are surely archeological finds. The whole area
is lit merely by work lamps. After a few twists and turns in the
temple your path is blocked by a staff member. At the appropriate
time this staff member admits 77 people into the next room. (Which is
around a corner so you can't see it until the staff person admits
you). To borrow from the Disney philosophy if running an attraction,
this staff member is where the turnstiles would be to a holding pen.
The next room serves as a holding pen, a room where not much happens,
but it gets people grouped into 77 people, AND divides the group into
three, each group corresponding to a row on the ride. The front row is
to the left, and the back row is to the right, however they seem to
assign rows, so choice is by lottery. In other words a lot of
housekeeping gets done here to prepare the group logistically for the
attraction. In this room the rows are seperated out only by temporary
looking tensa-barriers. Possibly they hadn't planned to split the
group this soon originally, or there are some details that still need
to be worked out. This is the moneky room, as it is lines by statues
of monkeys. Some say they can see their eyes and noses move. The
ornamental cieling suggests a temple chamber, though clearly an
antechamber or hallway. Blocking your progress forwards is a rather
substantial looking portal of stone. RIght on cue the music begins,
then a light projection is shown on the stone door, and it seems to
keep moving until it lines up with the pattern inscribed on the door,
at which time the massive door slides open to the left.
At this point everybody walks forward, anxiously into the next, room
where again the room is split into three sections, this time by more
substantial railings. This room is supposedly the tomb, or some inner
sanctum, along one wall you see a glowing greeb orb and a statue, the
other walls are themed, but not as much. Then all of a sudden the
door through which you entered noisly slides shut, all the lights go
out, and a voiceover comes on about being inside a tomb. When the
lights come on, a magic mirror is seen floating where the green orb
was, and a strange magenta mist/smoke coming out the top. The magic
mirror is, as you probably guessed, merely a projection screen for the
preshow video. The preshow video seems to little more than a movie
trailer for Tomb Raider, and seemed to do nothing to set the scene.
Oh it introduces people like me who are unfamiliar with the Tomb
Raider franchise to the settings, people and all, but it really
doesn't do much. I suppose the ride vehicle is supposed to be that
big brown steel beam she rides in the preshow. Usual theme park
simulator plot line: "The hero got in, nabed the treasure, then all
hell broke loose during the escpae". At the end of the video "FAMOUS
LAST WORDS!" the screen shows some fire imagery, the room glows red,
and a curtain rises to reveal access to the ride chamber. Perhaps
there is both an overhead door and a curtain. I definetely recall
looking up while walking under a curtain, and perhaps that is substial
barrier from the ride area. Just before going under the curtain,
there is a door located to the right hand side of the hall. This is
the Chicken Chute, the last bail out, "LAST CHANCE TO EXIT WITHOUT
RIDING", the door that seperates the men from the crybabies, etc. The
room it leads to is also the child swap facility, and somehow it makes
provision to reclaim articles lost on the ride, I'm not sure how this
works out. I suppose if there is enough of a pit under the ride,
someone can sweep for loose articles while the tub is being
loaded/unloaded. I only mention it becuase there is signage about
reclaiming lost articles. (And why weren't they in a locker). A cast
member quipped about 20 cell phones being lost on the ride the
previous operating day. Riders beware. (I wonder how a cell phone
holds up to an 80' drop onto hard cement?) (Or is their cushioning
underneath, hmm questions to be answered).
If you continue under the curtain, you see what looks like some evil
pendulum machinery in front of you, and three ramps with drawbridges
heading to the ride. One ramp for each row. You enter the ride
gondola from the side, and soom find yourself looking at a row of
seats. As if you were in a theater you move down to the end of the
row, filling in all available seats. Once you find yours, you have
one last chance to secure small loose items before sitting down. In
back of the seat in front of you near the floor is a clear plastic
pouch, the pouch closes will a velcro closure, and two snaps, much
like the straps on a camera bag. It's not much but it may help, I
don't know how much weight or value I would trust it for. It should
be noted that the operators do NOT point these pouches out to people,
and that a people will tend to put their feet in the exact same spot
for bracing. Keep those caveats in mind. Use at your own risk, that
type of deal. The ride gondola itself is very plasticy, and looks
almost like a motion base found on numerous motion sim rides located
around the world, except this one has shoulder bars. The riders sit
down, pull the shoulder harness down, then fasten a seatbelt between
the legs to the front of the shoulder bar. I found that getting the
harness down, locked, and belted in the actual ride to be a lot easier
than the test seat, Again, your mileage may very. Then again the test
seat may be calibrated for the fact that just before the ride starts
the ride automatically tightens the shoulder bars some. If you can't
fit the test seat, you probably won't be comfortable in the ride.
This ride does not have the battling rams to push down on the shoulder
bar, instead it appears to be in the shoulder bar mechanism itself.
The seatbelt being a redundant safety check. The operators do come
around to check bars and belts, then the lights go out, the doors
close, and the bridges go up. Then the ride vehicle moves forward
while remaining upright headed to the control booth, (at the top of
the wood and bamboo ladder) Of course you anger some temple god, the
ride vehicle turns some more, still upright, much like a ferris wheel,
then one more time, and by this time the god is really angered, you
get sprayed with water, the ride vehicle reclines backwardso you are
looking at the stalactites on the ceiling while getting misted, then
the lights go out, the gondola does one tumble while strobe lights go
off, then the ride does one revolution with the lights off,until it
finally stops with the gondola locked in what appears to be the prone
flying postion,with your head slightly lower than your chest, looking
stright down into the lava volcano, and bubbling lava, and fountains
that just miss drenching the riders in the gondola. Then it holds you
upside down for an eternity, then another eternity, then anothher
eternity, you feel the blood rushing to your head, another eternity,
then it finally releases, then the ride speeds up and does a real fast
spin of the room, tumbling I think twice along the way. Then is comes
to a stop about halfway up, on the back, rightside up, where some
voice over occurs. (Voice overs are barely audible), You can clearly
see by the framework of the ride that this is a Top Spin (Giant Sized
of course). The ride is slowly lowered back to the base of the ride
and then.
Pause
Pause
Pause
Fianlly the lights start to come up, you sit anxiously awaiting the
ride to restrart
Pause
Pause
You feel the shoulder bars release.
You unceremoniously find that the exit doors have been opened and you
can exit the ride, feeling cheated out of the climax, cheated out of
the grand finale. Its like the ride stopped in the middle of the show.
You exit the ride vehicle expecting something more, you cross the exit
drawbrige, go down a ramp into a darkend small room, you turn right
and realize that you ARE being unceremoniously being dumped out onto a
rather ordinary boring unthemed exit pathway. You make your way along
the long walk from the very back of the building to the front of the
building. At least you can wave to the train riders if they happen to
be coming though at about that time. You see the door to the
Rendevous Point if doing the child swap, and a promise of "Recalmim
Lost Articles". Otherwise you continue down the exit path to a future
on-ride photo booth. (I would bet right when they spin you and the
strobes flash), after the on-ride photo booth, you come to the locker
area, then out onto the midway. The gift shop is located directly
across the midway from you and the exit points you right at it.
Q: How did you like your ride on Tomb Raider
A: It's fine, just fine, I think it will get a lot of attention.
Nothing stellar, nothing earth shattering. The theming is excellent
for a Paramount Park, the ride entryway is great. The preshow rooms
looked great and convinving. However I was expecting more out of, "an
interactive queue experience" than just a pre show movie. I was
thinking more along the lines of Poseidon's Phury (IOA). Again,
though I would be remiss not to tout how well the theming works, and
how it raises the bar for a themed attraction at this type of
amusement park. The ride itself while not bad, should be treated more
like a show. Its a novel idea, using a Top Spin as a dark ride
system, and it is unique, (nearest TS is over 225 miles at Geauga
Lake), and it is pleasing the crowds. It just seems to a)be a bit on
the short side, b) be skimpy on the thrills side (unless being held
upside down is a thrill for you), and c)seems to be missing a climax
or grand finale. Something to say "THIS WAS TOMB RAIDER!" So I have
trouble giving an opinion of the ride. As a theme park attraction it
is excellent, as an imsersive experience it is great, as a unique and
novel ride experience for PKI it comes through, as a action packed
maniacal thrill ride, it falls short, as a Top Spin, it disapoints.
When they said people were wrong in predicting its a Top Spin, they
were correct but with the qualifier (*It looks like a Top Spin, it may
bear the Top Spin nameplate, but it doesn't behave like one) Best
suggestion I have is to try to forget the fact that it IS a Top Spin.
It's an experience I would do once a visit, maybe twice, but not
something that I would repeat over and over. It's a Oncer. We'll see
how it does, I predict the GP will eat it up, and I predict the
enthusiasts will be less than enthused about it. As a business
decision, however it is clearly a great success as it does provide
something entirely different, entirely novel and for 95% of the park
guests, something the likes of which they have never seen before. A
rather fine addition for the park. Ride it for yurself and see what
you think.
**********************************
IT IS NOW SAFE TO CONTINUE READING
**********************************
After riding Tomb Raider, we collected our party, and noted that
Vortex was open. We proceeded towards Vortex, but were stopped by a
sight that needed immediate attention: An open Flying Skooters ride
sitting with no riders and nobody in the queue. We just had to take a
couple Flyers rides.
After the Flyers we headed over to Vortex, we noted a case of Vortex
Shedding, then proceeded to board the ride. Vortex has a fine new
paint job and looks fantastic. The ride even rides pretty good. More
noteworthy it was hinted that we ride on the left. Due to the walk on
conditions, the back few cars of Vortex went out with only the left
seats filled. We looked down at the Beast as we were climbing the
lift, a lot of new wood, which is not to be unexpected, but there in
brake run. It's true, the Beast is getting Fin Brakes. Its not
evident whether these will be conventional or magnetic brakes but the
fact is the Beast is getting new brakes. The entire floor of the
brake runs looks to be boarded in, similar to several section on
Legend at HW.
After Vortex, a few people purhased cold drinks, then we headed down
Coney Mall. 7th Portal is the only motion sim movie right now.
(Meteor Attack opens later on), but it was noted that 7th Portal did
not have a ride intensity rating, which is odd becuase Eiffel Tower
does. We headeddown Coney, noted that they are apprarently in the
middle of renovating the Skeeball building. At least we hope it is
just a renovation or that building is going to look butt ugly. A
pulled taffy stand has popped up next to Dodgems, the Antique Cars
arenow simply known as "The Antique Cars - By John Nolan Ford" (And
has allegedly been outiftted with John Nolan Ford billboards). The
Voyager motion simulator next to the Zephyr is gone, and the rest of
Coney looks pretty much the same. We passed FoF and Racer and went
into Oktoberfest where we caught a ride on Adventure Express. AdEx
iswas running great, the drummers were drumming, the eyes were glowing
but I don't think the big guy said his lines. From the Adventure
Express you can see the remnants of King Cobra. Ya know, they are
taking these new extreme coasters a bit too far". I mean the train
reaches the top of the lift, then the track ends. Oht here are some
other track sections remaining but not much. In the area that used to
be the picture spot for taking photos of the loop of King Cobra, a
Slingshot is being erected. It isn't done yet, so be patient. Prices
and ride experience have not yeat been determined. We contined on
around into the Action Zone, though we did not enter the Action Zone,
we instead headed to the PAramount Theater which is being used as the
pass proceccing center for now to pick up the Gold Pass calendar, a
premium item for Gold Pass hodlers, though its in a standard newspaper
rack, unsupervised, so its not like Joe Q Park Guest could not get
one. (Not that I encourage dishonest behavior, nor do I agree with
the one per family rule, if its a Gold Pass perk, every goldpass
holder is entitled to one)
The main reason the calendar is worth getting is that the picture for
April is a 1972 PARK MAP! This is the 30th aniversary season
afterall. A fine premium item that may help answer some historical
questions. We then got our hands stamped, took premiums and coats to
cars, and collected video equipment. Had some interesting
conversations, including one with a guest pulling into the parking lot
who was obviously concerned about the fler he got at the toll plaza
talking about limited operation, when in fact everything except
Reptar, Beast, King Cobra and the waterpark were open. But hey maybe
that scared a lot fo people off. The park may have to reevaluate when
to stop passing those out. We then re-entered the park. A couple
changes to International Street, the pizza joint has grown to take
over the Virtual Reality arcade, and, get ready for this, the Bakery
is now selling Krispy Kreme donuts (for $1 each). Funny, I thought
LegoLand had an exclusive on that. Other than that things look pretty
normal on International Street. We took a ride up to the top of
tower, where by way of the 100X zoom lens I was able to get the fin
brakes on Beast, a lot of video was taken, things were looked at,
discussed, we got pretty darn cold, we rode back down and just so
happens the food crew was back from lunch. We then headed to Hana
Barbera land so the Food Crew could have desert (Blue Smurfcones!).
We took the chance to ride Beastie. For one we had to refute that
ridiculous rumour about individual ratcheting lap bars on Beastie, two
it was there. Beastie was only running one train, but it rode
decently. We looked at the wait for Ghoster Coaster and decided it
was too long, Reptar was closed, and we are ineligible for Taxi Jam.
We then headed into Rivertown, observed that the elephant on Wild
thornberries was turned off. We walked past but declined to ride
White Water Canyon, and headed to Tomb Raider, where we videoed the
area, and then had a time out while waiting for some in our group to
take a ride. (it will only be 20 minutes! Famous last words.......)
Anyay we overanalzed the whole TR plaza, overanalayzed the Outfitters
gift shop, overanalyzed the train ride. Took the train ride. Went
over by Beast plaza, went into Beast Arcade. Noted that they have a
DDR 3rd Mix, did not play DDR 3rd Mix but noted that the park chose
probably the worst place in the whole arcade to put it. I have still
never played DDR, and after looking at the machine, I truly fail to
see the point of it.
Some time later, our group is reassembled, and we head to Vortex.
Seems there was something interesting about Vortex that we needed to
photograph, and of course take a ride while we are there. We then
headed down to Racer. Only forwards side was running. Running very
smooth as a matter of fact. Running nicely, then right after the last
dip before the turnaround I head loud remarks indicative of rider
doscomfort coming from Rideman. Get back to the station, yep, Dave
Althoff's first case of torque lock for the season!
Nice to know some things never change. We then headed to the action
zone, took some photos of the slingshot area, took some video of the
King Cobra demolition project (*sniff*), walked around into the Action
Zone, and noticed that they are recycling the same "Coming Soon"
fencing from last year! We then rode Top Gun and had a pleasant ride,
then rode Son of Beast. The seats may have more padding now, but the
ride still rides like a washboard. Ack, does the phrase "ride with no
redeaming qualities" have any meaning to you??? We went over to
Face/Off and got a rare near walk on wait. Of course we all wanted an
end seat, which took a bit longer. Fast, intensive, smoooth. Face/Off
is not a bad ride at all.
We then headed back to the Flyers where most of the group camped out
until park closing. I mean you can't beat no-wait Flyer rides. I took
a walk over to Tomb Raider, where I found the wait to be just 15
minutes, and noted one other problem. The overflow queue, the last
turn before the station you head down the trail to the cave does NOT
have a rotary gate. This means that when the line is incredibly
short, like it was now you still have to walk all the way to the back
of the queue house and back. That is if not every single rider I
spied was jumping the fence. They need to consider a gate or something
there, or someone is going to get hurt.
After my Tomb Raider ride, I headed back to the party on the Flyers.
And we Flew, and we Flew, and we Flew some more. We then headed up
towards the park exit, said our goodbyes, and headed to Waffle House.
Oh, and as a diplomatic gesture, the mayor of Coasterville gave the
Columbus delgation a bottle of Moxie Cola!
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David Bowers
Mayor, Coasterville
[wild format-smashing asterisks removed, un-bolded -J]
*** This post was edited by Jeff on 4/9/2002. ***
Great TR about TR:TR! ;) That's the most detail I've seen yet on the ride.
Being upside down for more than three or four seconds is generally not comfortable, and I hope they tweak the program enough to realize this. I haven't been on it yet, but two and a half minutes is still a pretty long ride I would think. Perhaps what they need to add are a few wild, totally dark Top Spin moments in there. That would be some nutty sensations.
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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com, Sillynonsense.com
"As far as I can tell it doesn't matter who you are. If you can believe, there's something worth fighting for..." - Garbage, "Parade"
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He let the contents of the bottle do the thinking; can't shake the devil's hand and say you're only kidding.
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So what is better? SFMM or CP? I don't care! They both have 29 coasters between them that they build so we can have a good time!
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The word "definitely" is definitely the most misspelled word on the buzz.
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Does CCI know how to make a bad coaster?
The way Dave (Rideman) described it your head was even slightly lower than the rest of your body, which quite frankly is just as bad. Same position on X-Flight in the station. Not comfortable.
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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com, Sillynonsense.com
"As far as I can tell it doesn't matter who you are. If you can believe, there's something worth fighting for..." - Garbage, "Parade"
-l(eating a krispy kreme right now, infact)
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And all the sea around Kraken darkened.
SFEG awaits The Flying Coaster-coming in 2002!
MagnumForce,
I agree with you. I didn't find anything uncomfortable with the hanging in Tomb Raider either. I have noticed that larger guests seem to have more trouble with that feature than smaller guest. Given that my shoulders were sore the morning after I rode it 7 times, I still love that feature of the ride and it seems to be one of the favorite parts of the ride from non-enthusiasts guests.
Nice TR Dave. I may disagree with a couple things in it, but it's always nice to see a different view of things. After all, if we all thought the same about everything, we wouldn't talk about things as much.
Sean (who still likes riding Son of Beast for the loop alone) F.
The hanging position was in fact slightly head down but not uncomfortable, and nothing like the feeling you get riding the complete circle swinging ships. I am rather large and found the restrainst to be very roomy and comfortable.
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Whats life if you never get to the Po!nt?
Me too....I'm a larger person and I find the restraints as being highly comfortable, even in the hanging positions.
My guess is the people who have the most trouble with the restraints are the people who don't 'fill them out' as it were. The smaller you are, the more you probably 'flop' around in them, thus falling around in them when upside down.
Personally I enjoy the hanging much more than the flipping. This might be the first ride I can think of that is more accomodating to bigger people than people of average height/weight.
Chris
My wife and I were there this past Saturday and I'm 6'3", 240, and I had no problems with fitting in the ride whatsoever. My wife is 5'3", 110, and she said that it was very comfortable. She told me that the Texas Twister (SFWoA) was very uncomfortable for her, but this restraint design was very well done.-- I only wish I could say the same for the Son of Beast (which I will NEVER ride again).
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