where to travel next year (help me out)?

I've only been to Great Adventure once, on PPP Friday, and my only complaint was the dispatch times. Since the crowd was minimal it wasn't a big issue, but all the more reason it shouldn't take that long to check restraints. The crew moved... so... slow..............ly. Superman was the worst, because after an already painful ride, I had to hang there for a few minutes with the 'seat' pressing on my jewels while they loaded the next train (at least Vekoma is nice enough to let you lie on your back, albeit downhill).

The Nitro staff was the only one that moved quickly, which is somewhat ironic considering that coaster takes the least amount of time to load anyway.

You're not allowed to complain about Superman, and a couple of minute delay. :)

I was at a Coasterbuzz event the year the one in Chicago opened, and we broke down in flying position for close to an hour. That SUCKED.

OK, you win this round. Have your shins recovered yet?

Heh. Almost. I'm still having trouble with all the blood that rushed to my head, though.

GAdv. since Chiller went away does seem to have a whole lot of "used to be" areas.

Andy, you gonna meet up with Matt and me Memorial Day weekend? :)

Powder Keg is a fun ride and Silver Dollar City is a very nice THEME park, but given the choice between which one to visit first, Dollywood wins for overall coaster quality alone since they are otherwise VERY similar, and both deserve patronage.

If coasters are your most important requirement, get thyself to Six Flags Over Georgia and Six Flags Over Texas ASAP! Both parks have fantastic coaster collections, as well as some old park charm thrown in for free. ;)

Bad food won't keep me from going to a park, but great food definitely factors into me wanting to revisit a park I already like. Can't wait for DollyFood this weekend!

SFOG, Alabama Adventure, Lake Winnie, Dollywood, Carowinds. I've done this trip, except for Carowinds.......I hit that this past summer, along with Kings Dominion(On the same day!).

Tekwardo said:
Andy, you gonna meet up with Matt and me Memorial Day weekend? :)

Sure. PM me closer to the day.

I've said this to Gator also, but I just don't get the love for SFoT's coasters (at least pre-TG retrofit). Almost all of them make me gray out and/or get queasy.

Titan is the only ride there that fits your description in my eyes. Some of the others are very intense, but extremely fun! Mr. Freeze is awesome. Texas Giant was awesome at times. La Vibora is loads of fun. The mine trains are rather fun IMO. Batman is always fun. Ok the Judge is nothing to write home about (and it was my first woodie almost 30 years ago), and who cares about a Boomerang. But they have a spinner too! And I know you don't get it, but most people seem to agree at how awesome Shock Wave is! Multiple moments of unstapled, ejector airtime on a looping coaster with lapbars... hard to come by.

ShockWave, Vibora, and Runaway Mountain, and Freeze... just by themselves, are more than sufficient steel to entertain me for a good long time. Adding in Titan, Batman, the mine rides, and the rest just means that SFoT was really the park with a steel lineup that rivals (if not exceeds) CP's in my opinion. I think Tony Hawk may have just put SFoT over the top in that race. If it didn't, then TG most certainly did. ;)

:P
Titan, Shockwave, and B:TR all make me grey out. Freeze makes me nauseous for some reason. I do love me some Tony Hawk...errrrr....Big Spin and Mine Train, but Vibora and Runaway Mountain? Don't do a thing for me.

I mostly agree with gator's assessment of SFoT's steel coasters (and I always dug Texas Giant as well). At the same time, Titan and Shockwave make me grey out, but I still enjoy them. BTR is fun, but it's my least favorite B&M invert due to its intensity. Freeze is amazing (sucks that it makes you nauseous, Andy), and Vibora is just quirky fun. I like it more than Avalanche at KD simply because it has single cars, not trains. It has a sort of marble in a trough effect.

I always forget about the Windstorm in a Box. Yeah, that's another fun one.

Thanks for all the suggestions. Right now with the time we would have it looks like it would be Carowinds and SFOG but still keeping an open mind about it.

DantheCoasterman said:
Branson is home to Powder Keg.

Pigeon Forge...isn't.

This about sums it up for me. Powder Keg is a gem that doesn't seem to get much attention. I'm kind of surprised S&S hasn't been asked to build more of these. Would be a great idea for Holiday World whenever they get around to a steel addition.

I think despite the fact that food and theme aren't in the original poster's criteria, both Dollywood and Silver Dollar City are *such* quality parks experience-wise that I would still suggest them. I last visited Silver Dollar City while OzCat was still operating and Dollywood pre-Mystery Mine. I visited both parks because they weren't too far out of the way while driving elsewhere, and thought it would be nice to stop in and ride a few new-to-me coasters that I normally wouldn't get to try. After those visits I'd gladly drive out of my way for either park.

Raven-Phile said:
Have you been to a Six Flags park recently?

I returned to Great Adventure for my first time in 9 years over PPP weekend, and I was amazed. There was tons of new theming, and the park was nice and clean.

I agree. The roping together of SF parks as all bad is so...2003.lol

Most of the parks now function quite a bit better now, with just a few exceptions. Shapiro really did a great job of cleaning up the parks.

John Knotts said:
I agree. The roping together of SF parks as all bad is so...2003.lol

Most of the parks now function quite a bit better now, with just a few exceptions. Shapiro really did a great job of cleaning up the parks.

Indeed. Hopefully things stay the same now that he's gone.

But yeah, SF is light years beyond where it was 5 or 10 years ago, but you still have people saying things like, "I went to SF in the late 70's and they sent out trains with empty seats, so they lost me as a customer. I'm never going back."

It gets laughable at some point.

If you've stomached a CF park in the past two or three years, you'll be just fine at SF.

Bull Guy, there is a new S&S coaster like powderkeg opened in China this year.

Yeah, saw that. What *isn't* China building nowadays? RCDB has them getting a new B&M standup for 2011. Thrilled to see another one of these built.