Summer of 2008

[-LiLDaReDeViL5-]

Well, the summer season is over. So,what were your highlights of the Summer Season '08? What was big and not so big for the industry this summer?

My highlights were:
- Finally riding Sidewinder, Stormrunner, Great Bear at Hersheypark after looking at them for 10 years.
- Fahrenheit. Blew me away. Definently worth the 10 month wait of looking and anticipation. Drop was A-MAZING and there is nothing but air the whole way through.
- I actually was the guest of a park. Fantasy Island on Long Beach Island, New Jersey. Thanks to them! They even let me audio record on the drop ride!
- Thundering Surf waterpark on Long Beach Island, New Jersey. It's small, with only 6 slides, a lazy river, and kid's area, but I always have a blast. The theme is great and it's just fun.

Good for the Industry this year:
- Six Flags had the best year of any non-Florida based chain. They for some reason just did good.
- Bohemoth, Ravine Flyer II, and Fahrenheit were what seemed to be the big new rides this year. They got the most hype.
- Toy Story Mania and Simpsons ride.

Bad for the Industry:
- Two incidents at Six Flags parks that hit the chain hard when it wasn't their fault.
- Dark Knight coasters were big disappointments.
- Golden Tickets brought up controversy.
- Hard Rock Park appeard to be struggling severly in it's first season.

So, 2008 was a fairly good year for myself and the industry. What about you?

I look forward to another great year in '09.

[CedarPointer]

- Golden Tickets brought up controversy.

For you... and, like, five other people.

[-LiLDaReDeViL5-]

For you... and, like, five other people.
Wasn't for you since CP was still numero uno.

I forgot to mention the park at MOA transformation. It looked like an incredible turnaround. Anybody who has been there this year, share your visit stories from Summer '08!

[tycooner55]

For you... and, like, five other people.

....and, like, most of the coaster community :rolleyes:

My season went very well. Got a spin of all the coasters at Hershey. I hadn't been since Stormrunner was built so I had a few coasters to look forward too. Fahrenheit was awesome as everyone has said, especially since I got the front seat ;). Stormrunner also didn't disappoint. I thoroughly enjoyed my four rides on it, and my favorite experience of the whole day was the front seat on SR at dusk.

As usual I visited Kennywood, my home park, several times. Everything was fun as usual, but the park definitely outdid themselves with their sick new interactive dark ride, by far the best themed ride in the park.

I'm not sure if my season is officially over. I might go to Phantom Fright Nights at Kennywood once. Who knows, maybe I'll have a suprise trip like I did last year. Last Nov. I made it to BGA....so awesome. :up:

[Squid2]

Hopefully my season isn't over... I really didn't have a good one, due to the implosion of the economy.

My highlights:

WDW in May with my wife... our first trip as husband and wife. NOT our honeymoon, (that's planned for later,) but we had a good time. My first visit to Blizzard Beach... easily now my favorite waterpark. (Haven't been to many, and never to Schlitterbahn.)

Dollywood finally connecting the two valleys. No more up the Hill of Death, down the Hill of Death, up the Hill of Exhaustion and back down to ride the 4 major coasters. River Battle was a fun, surprising ride... my first on a splash battle ride.

Looking forward to 2009...

Monster Mansion at SFoG. A complete rebuild of a classic darkride and a massive upgrade as well. From what I've heard, the new ride is going to be incredible, easily the best dark ride in the SF chain. Frankly, for me, nothing else is going to matter next year.

Squid2

[Westcot]

Let's see, my park count...

- Epcot (May)
- SeaWorld Orlando (May)
- Aquatica (May)
- Busch Gardens Africa (June)
- Six Flags Over Georgia (July)
- Islands of Adventure (Sept.)
- Universal Studios FL (Sept.)

I'm really looking forward to Manta at SeaWorld and Hollywood Rockit at USF next year. I'm also hoping that they announce an official refurb for Space Mountain at MK... and hopefully it's more than just new cars and in-car audio. ;)

[Squid2]

West, I have it on very, very good authority, (sources other than screamscape, for example,) that SM at WDW/MK will be going down for a major rehab sometime soon. It will be a very long one, probably a year long, because major portions of the ride must be fixed. Unfortunately the date to take SM down isn't fixed... it was supposed to be earlier this year, but obviously that didn't happen.

The new SM will probably not have a new track layout, but it will be a new track, if that makes sense. A lot of things will be added in, including a new way to load and unload disabled guests... one that won't slow down the operations of the coaster. New gates, even a new "mountain."

Squid2

[SnooSnoo]

My summer was rather.. short coaster wise. Only 41 new credits (52 if you count Spring Break when I went to SFoG.)


New credits on my lone trip:

Six Flags New England - Catwoman, Great Chase
Quassy Amusement Park - Mad Mouse
Lake Compounce - Wildcat, Zoomerang, Boulder Dash
Six Flags Great Adventure - Dark Knight, Skull Mountain, Rolling Thunder (track 1)
Great Escape - Canyon Blaster, Steamin' Demon, Boomerang Coast to Coaster, Comet
Adventureland - Ladybug Coaster, Hurricane
Rye Playland - Dragon Coaster
Bowcraft Playland - Crossbow, Dragon Coaster
Keansburg Amusement Park - Wild Cat
Jenkinson's Boardwalk - Flitzer
Casino Pier - Pirate's Hideaway, Jet Star, Wild Mouse
Funtown Pier - Looping Coaster, Mighty Mouse
Steel Pier - Crazy Mouse
Gillian's Wonderland Pier - Runaway Train
Playland's Castaway Cove - Flitzer, Python
Morey's Piers - Great Nor'Easter, Doo Wopper, Flitzer, Rollie's Coaster, Sea Serpent, Great White
Hersheypark - Fahrenheit, Roller Soaker


Close parks:

Waldameer - Ravine Flyer II, Ravine Flyer 3, Steel Dragon, Comet


Revisited:

Cedar Point x6
Six Flags New England x2
Six Flags Great Adventure
Hersheypark


Highlights:
-Boulder freakin Dash
-Waldameer and Ravine Flyer II
-Superman: RoS @ SFNE 16 times, including 6 re-rides, in 1.5 hours - 24 times overall on my trip
-ERT at Hersheypark on Fahrenheit and Storm Runner
-A coaster trip with my best friend, a fellow enthusiast, and had the time of my life.
-Cedar Point.. of course
-El Toro x5
-Somewhere around 70 coasters.. new and old.. in a 2 week span (trip plus CP x2 and Waldameer)
-Met 8 new enthusiasts from Coasterforce.com, 5 of which were from the UK


Most Ridden Rides:

Ravine Flyer II: 34
Superman: Ride of Steel: 24
Magnum XL-200: 19



Anyone want to know anything else?? :)

[BoRJoYZeE]

I didn't do this much this year. 8(

Only parks I went to was Worlds of Fun Kansas City, Mo. I also did Silver Dollar City.

[Harpo]

Didn't add many coasters to my overall list this year, but, so far, I've been on 105 different coasters in 2008. Not great, but not awful. I'm glad to say that new coasters Behemoth, Ravine Flyer II, Pony Express, and Farenheit were among those 105. (Of those three, Ravine Flyer II was my favorite.) I did add a few coasters to my overall list this year, bringing my current total up to 655 coasters, with Behemoth being the most recent addition.

I definitely plan on getting to a Cedar Point HalloWeekend, but that'll be a return trip for 2008, so it won't add to my annual coaster count. I'm not sure if I'll be able to manage it, but I'm hoping I might be able to sneak in a day at Kings Island.

[thetrooper]

^Have you gone to parks in other countries or just the US?

I only went to drayton manor this year...but I rarely go to theme parks at all so it's something to do. I wanted to get to Alton or Blackpool but I just never get around to it...:(

[Harpo]

Over the course of my travels since I started keeping a log in 2000, I've been to most of the parks with at least 1 adult coaster (and some without any adult coasters) in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K.

Prior to keeping a log, I also visited Disneyland Paris, but, since that visit predates my log, it isn't on my official list.

[elljhitch]

My highlights this summer were:
- Getting to go to California.
- Going to DC and DCA.
- Going to SFMM.

[northpaw]

Boulder freakin Dash


YES. One of the most thrilling woodies.

[Timberhawk]

I had a good summer, for me, at least, considering I hadn't been on any coasters for three years. I went to the following parks and got the following new credits:

Playland-Wild Mouse, Corkscrew
Fun Forest-Windstorm (Freakin' awesome), Rainbow Chaser
Wild Waves-Wild Thing
Galaxyland-Autosled, Galaxy Orbiter (Pretty sweet as well)

[TheFreshEffect]

X2

:up:

[SnooSnoo]

^You must have had a horrible summer.

:P

[TheFreshEffect]

X2 is a beast!

[sr3d]

Eh, went alton towers once, got a ticket to go for £13 in october before the 10th but I dunno if I'll manage that =[ other stuff to sort as well really....... going on my birthday though, and possibly blackpool for £5 in november. I think.....

[KingVeveraine]

Thorpe Park x 16, umm... Chessington World of Adventures x 1, SFGADV x 1, a park I can't remember the name of. But it has a side friction coaster which is the oldest coaster in the UK (called Roller Coaster) x 1, Coney Island x 2, Brighton Pier (rubbish and terrible value for money, £8 to ride a Booster :0 ) x2. Thats it... I think.

[elljhitch]

A park I can't remember the name of. But it has a side friction coaster which is the oldest coaster in the UK (called Roller Coaster) x 1.
Would that be Blackpool Pleasure Beach?

[thetrooper]

Thorpe park x 16? :eek:

How are you getting into BPB for £5 Chris?

[CedarPointer]

My only new parks were Adventureland and Kings Island. Beast ftw.

[Garfield 06]

I hit up PCW, Universal, and SFMM this summer. My thoughts...

Good
-Behemoth was my first experience with a B&M hyper. I absolutely loved it!
-The Simpsons ride was WAY better than I was expecting. Laugh-out-loud funniness and great visual and motion effects made this So much better than BTTF!
-Viper became incredibly smoother this year, and rocketed from second to last to #6 on my coaster list!
-X2 Pwns all. The music kicks @$$ and the fire is horrifically sexy. Oh, and its smoother...:D

Bad
-PCW has serious issues, from the maintenance of the rides to the ridiculously brief ride times, the park is sorrowfully worse under Cedar Fair than Paramount. For the record, I think Cedar Fair is killing that park.
-Deja Vu fell off my list of favorites from the #1 spot entirely. The coaster has become ridiculously rough, and now I don't give a rat's (ahem) if they tear it down.

And my season isn't over. I'm hitting Lagoon on Saturday and Disneyland in December (W00T!).

G-06

[SnooSnoo]

-Deja Vu fell off my list of favorites from the #1 spot entirely. The coaster has become ridiculously rough, and now I don't give a rat's (ahem) if they tear it down.

How was it even there in the first place?

[Harpo]

-PCW has serious issues, from the maintenance of the rides to the ridiculously brief ride times, the park is sorrowfully worse under Cedar Fair than Paramount. For the record, I think Cedar Fair is killing that park.

Clearly, you and I have had significantly different experiences. On my most recent trip to Canada's Wonderland, I saw significant improvement, although there's still a long ways to go. While the lines were still not moving as fast as they should, they were moving much faster than they ever did under Paramount. Several of the coasters looked like they had a fresh paint job. Under Paramount, I felt that Great Canadian Minebuster and Wild Beast were becoming nearly unrideable, but I thought they were doing a LOT better this year. Also, while more improvement is still needed, I felt the staff was friendlier this year. And, I don't recall Paramount putting in anything of the magnitude of Behemoth.

[Astros161]

Higlights:
- Front Row, Griffon at night.
- Front Row, Expedition Everest

Kind of a slow summer coaster wise. I'm probably going to go to CP and a couple of Caifornia parks next year so I don't mind really.

[Garfield 06]

How was it even there in the first place?
The first time I rode Deja Vu, It was like nothing else, the two vertical towers especially. The whole ride just was awesome...until, of course, I rode it again, and I found it to be very rough and uneventful. Why?...I really don't know.:weird:

Clearly, you and I have had significantly different experiences. On my most recent trip to Canada's Wonderland, I saw significant improvement, although there's still a long ways to go. While the lines were still not moving as fast as they should, they were moving much faster than they ever did under Paramount. Several of the coasters looked like they had a fresh paint job. Under Paramount, I felt that Great Canadian Minebuster and Wild Beast were becoming nearly unrideable, but I thought they were doing a LOT better this year. Also, while more improvement is still needed, I felt the staff was friendlier this year. And, I don't recall Paramount putting in anything of the magnitude of Behemoth.
Well, I agree with a little bit of that, mostly involving, what else, fresh paint. But here's a sampling of just a few of the things I found wrong...
-95% of the effects on Backlot Stunt Coaster were STILL broken.
-Both Psyclone and Sledgehammer had rediculouly brief ride cycles, something that could quickly be changed.
-I found Wildebeast to be actually less rideable on my most recent visit.
-Behemoth's single rider line made next to no difference at all, because, miracle of miracles, it was placed near the end of the regular line, to the point where it would have made about 2 minutes difference.
-Time Warp, a coaster made to run at least 10 seperate cars, ran a total of 3, on the entire course, during the PEAK hours of the day.
-Vortex has become nearly as rough as its Arrow counterpart Dragon Fyre across the park. As a point of comparison, I find Ninja, a coaster of the exact same style at a Six Flags no less, to be much, much smoother...

...And the rest I cannot presently recall. It's not like it deserves to be burned to the ground (CW), but some of the recent management descisions, save Behemoth, have been not exaclty intelligent.

G-06

[Harpo]

Time Warp was running an appropriate number of cars on my recent visit. (It actually has 7, by the way, not 10. The other four standard installations of Zamperla Volare coasters also have 7 or fewer cars.) A car was always ready to go on the lift as soon as another one exited at the top. However, I feel the ride is getting quite rough.

I didn't find Vortex to be at all rough, and I rode in the back seat. During Paramount's last season running the park, the seat in which I sat didn't exist -- I would have had to hang onto a rope! :D

The effects on Backlot do need work. I rode that coaster as my 600th coaster, close to the end of its first season. At that time, quite a few of the effects were broken. So, effects-wise, Cedar Fair isn't doing better than Paramount, but they're not doing worse, either. What ticked me off with Paramount, however... I wanted a souvenir shirt for the ride that was my 600th coaster. They didn't have a single Italian Job shirt in the whole park. As it turns out, the only Italian Job souvenir I was able to get was my on-ride photo. Considering it was their new attraction that year, the lack of souvenirs was absolutely mind-boggling to me.

The park was quite busy on my visit. I didn't get the chance to hit Psyclone or Sledge Hammer. The park closed at 8:00 that night. I rode every one of the coasters, with Vortex being the last one. I exited the ride at precisely 8:00. It's too bad -- I was hoping to get another ride on Behemoth, but it just wasn't to be. (Fortunately, I got on it right at the park opening, before the line became remarkably long.)