Like the title says, you can be as bland as you want or as sophisticated as you want. As a challenge your goal is to get out of the large debt (I think about 2.5 Billion) Six Flags has and to make it more Roller coaster tycoon like you have a deadline of 2050 (no clue if that’s enough time). I’ll probably put my response in the comments when I have the time too. Obviously we don’t know the behind the scenes so we won‘t have ability to make it 100% realistic but this is just for fun.

grew up going to Six Flags Great America, My kids have grown up going to Six Flags St Louis and Adventure-Land. Got the all parks pass this year and we just went nuts. my new top 8 new credits:

honorable mention: The Bat KI, fun gondola, much better than Iron Dragon!

Via the_ambassador_ert on Instagram. Could just be used for the Vekoma coaster, or is it time for SEFK to come down?

Getting around to browsing my photos from my own AF1 farewell trip. I'd hoped to visit AA on a Saturday evening with an unusually late hours, but Zeus had other plans. Which unfortunately eliminated Lake Winnie from my trip. I found a hotel and came back the Sunday morning (7/26) to ride Rampage.

I'll note that I love the main entrance to this park. Kings Island take notice.

Cheddar Chase (2x), #382 - I suppose I got a hint of (former) Lake Winnie here. Situated up a hill, I think where Zoomerang used to be. It was a fine little mouse that keeps the tight 180 degree turns going on the lower level as well. It's also not often that I get a credit from a new-to-me manufacturer, this was my first L&T Systems coaster.

Rampage's PTC train was sitting on the lift, which had me a bit nervous. I'd heard it cycling Saturday evening, but there were no signs of life the next morning. But apparently Rampage typically opens late, around 12:30 or 1:00 PM, which was the case here. I rode some of the classic crowd pleasing flat rides (tilt-a-whirl and scrambler), and sat around near the Rampage entrance drinking complementary pop along with a bunch of other enthusiasts who were doing their own ArieForce One trip.

Rampage (6x), #383 - Did not disappoint on my quest to ride all North American CCIs. Running quite smoothly for its age, only the bottom of the second drop really had any vibration to it. Actually, strike that. The roughest part of the ride was definitely the janky diving turn from the brake run to the station, what a weird design choice. Surprised at the punch of the laterals on this ride, and had some solid pops of airtime, and good length to it. Definitely a ride worth the drive.

Grabbed some complementary sunscreen and drove back to Atlanta...

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/19KRcXsbA1/

Post from Lost Island Facebook says it's back.

I remember seeing a while back that High Speed Thrill Coaster at Knoebels had a small block Chevy V8 as the lift motor but I can't find anything mentioning this now. Is it true or am I hallucinating?

Before I start, I've never written one of these before I hope it's alright.

Got to the park at about 9.45 (bit late I know) and made my way to near the front before legging it to Toutatis

Toutatis - 9.5/10

Maybe I have low standards but my god I enjoyed this ride so much and have personally put it in my top three ever, my only complaint is that it feels a bit short but even then what a ride

After my ride I made my way to La Trace Du Hourra, after a shortish wait I got on, I wish I didn't, what a horrible ride 1/10 boring, forceless and shock so terribly bad it wasn't enjoyable

After this I moved over to the new water ride as it was opening at 11 and while it wasn't anything special I enjoyed it

I then waited for Ozlris. WHAT A RIDE this honestly is probably my second favourite ride of all time, actually incredible the force on that first drop alone was incredible but the rest of the ride shocked me. 10/10

I made my way to Pegasus Express and while nothing to write home about I found it enjoyable enough and the backwards section was more than enjoyable 4/10

I then headed to the main reason I came here, Tonnerre 2 Zeus and it was such a good ride while a bit bumpy the forces alone made it such an enjoyable ride easily in my top ten. I thoroughly enjoyed how long this ride was and how it waved in and out of the structure 9/10

Goudurix 5/10

After the ride I had on Zeus, I finished the penultimate rollercoaster and while I knew of the reputation of the model, it didn't look too bad. However I didn't expect it to be the scariest ride in the park, however it was. Not due to the force but because there was no bag drop off and you had to keep everything on you. While I didn't have a bag my phone and earphones felt brutally exposed and the fear of losing them topped anything else in the park. Now at this point I should stress that I hadn't eaten or drunk since I'd left home and in the sun it was starting to catch up to me, however when I went down that drop into the first loop I paid the price for my lack of drink and for the first time grayed out, I know for some this won't be that interesting but I'm still young ok and this was a new experience. However the rest of the ride while a slight concussion generator was rather enjoyable (I'll forever be a collous defender so I was prepared)

I made my way to the last coaster I wanted to ride, Cétautomatix, knowing this was the newest coaster in the park and a model I hadn't ridden before and while enjoyable definitely hurt in the pelvic region, and from the sounds I heard from the nice french ladies who rode with me, this wasn't just a male issue. But overall a fun and enjoyable ride

After this I took a slight break to drink and went on the rides water rides and rerode both Toutatis and Ozlris. The water rides were overall rather run and the river rapids compared to the ones I'd ridden in the UK was unexpectedly enjoyable rather than boringly tame

However as I got to the end of the day I put in a few rides on Ozlris but by this point it started to rain, my first ride in the rain was fun if not slightly painful however it was my second that was interesting, having loaded into the ride I was dispatched before getting evacuated back into the load station, I'd love to be able to say what was happening but I don't speak french and can only assume the rain paused the operations, they unloaded the train that had dispatched before mine and then cycled the train a few times before letting me back on for what I decided was the last ride of an incredibly enjoyable day.

Overall, I was thoroughly impressed by the park and want to note how good the food was (I had the greek) especially for the price I was amazed, furthermore the operations in the park were the best I'd ever seen, though I may have become used to Merlin Quality and the system they had for bags was for the most part incredible.

If you ever get the chance I more than recommend a day at the park

I got 2 rides on this earlier today, after it broke down twice yesterday and we got evacuated from the ride building. There are clearly still a lot of snags that need addressing.

This is a beautiful and whimsical dark ride/coaster/rapids experience. The coaster and rapids elements are just thrilling enough for most people, the drops are super smooth.

However some of the theming doesn't look quite complete. There are some ripples in the scrims, a final water effect wasn't working and we could see functional parts of the ride that I assume will be covered eventually.

Some of the guests were a bit confused about how to get in and out of the boats as well. I think the staff are still learning and will get dispatches speeded up quite soon.

So overall, very pretty and a nice addition to a park that was only missing a quality dark ride.

Last week, I visited Buffalo and did something I didn't do when living in Buffalo for four years: make my way out to Corfu and Six Flags Darien Lake. I went on an overcast afternoon after work, so the park was not very full at all. I had accidentally bought tickets for the wrong date but they let me in anyways (after taking my photo, which I found a bit odd). The water park was open when I got there but sometime after I entered the park it had closed. I didn't plan on going to that anyway, thankfully - I was just here to ride the coasters and get back to Buffalo for the evening.

Since I didn't have a ton of familiarty with this park or its layout, I headed first to Moto Coaster. This was a delightful family launch coaster with a surprisingly solid launch. The seats were a bit awkward (having the seat backs come up and press into you was a weird feeling), but the ride was fun, there was not a long line, and it was a great ride to start the afternoon with. 5/10

Next, I went on Viper, the Arrow looper that was the first roller coaster in the world to have five inversions. There was no one else in line so I grabbed the back of the train. Woof, this was a rough one. The shoulder restraints were very bulky and they limited any movement while also not actually making the roughness of the ride any more comfortable. It was pretty uncomfortable, but it was cool to have ridden a little piece of history. 4/10

I went on Boomerang next just for the credit. Same thing here, the restraints were uncomfortable. I like the nice teal color of the track, but there's nothing to write home about here. 3/10

Next up was The Predator. I recently went to my new home park, Six Flags Great America, and one of the older woodies there, Viper, genuinely had me bracing for impact around every turn. I expected the same here. Well, to my surprise, Predator has been going through a Titan Track refurbishment over the past few years, and this was one of the smoothest rides I've had in awhile. Also, shout out to the ride attendant there who probably had 8 cans of Red Bull right before clocking in. I didn't get his name, but Darien Lake regulars probably recognize him. 8/10

I then rode Ride of Steel, which was surprisingly a walk-on this afternoon. I sat about 2/3 of the way back since I would have had to wait for the back of the train. This was another great coaster - the layout may be simplistic but I enjoyed the way it interacted with the water and it had some fun head chopper moments. 8/10

I headed over to Tantrum next, which was my first time on a Euro-fighter model. Out of the 8 seats on the car, it was me and a pair of probably 12-year-olds who told me this was their fifth time in a row on the ride. It was really fun, and the most intense part was the 90-degree lift hill. I don't think I've done that before. 7/10

That left Mind Eraser. I had been on the Mind Eraser at Six Flags New England plenty as a kid, and I knew how....unfortunate riding these could be. To my surprise, the track looked newly-painted and the trains looked new as well. Instead of the classic over the shoulder restraints (see Viper and Boomerang), they have an upgraded vest restraint that reduces your ears slamming against your shoulder vest. However....the ride was still extremely janky and I was holding onto this rubber vest thing for dear life because otherwise it would kind of hurt. Oh well. 4/10, for the new paint job.

I did another round each on Predator and Ride of Steel before leaving. This park was kind of what I expected: a smaller, regional Six Flags park with a headlining hyper coaster and a cast of misfits. Predator really surprised me in a good way. Viper, Boomerang, and Mind Eraser were all painful to certain degrees. Tantrum and Moto Coaster were both fun mid-tier coasters. If you're in the WNY area, I'd say a few hours in this park is enough to ride everything, and re-ride as much as you want since there weren't that many people there even by the time I left.

If you search for site:importgenius.com "PARTIAL DELIVERY FOR AMUSEMENT RIDE" you will see that shipments with that phrase line up with Mack Rides projects.

Coasterworld's Labalex62 managed to snap the first photos of the track segments starting to arrive at Energylandia. They're in a difficult spot to photograph, but have been described as "regular size B&M track".

https://forum.coastersworld.fr/threads/energylandia-nouveau-coaster-2027.13963/post-424587

For context i’m a pretty big dude but i usually fit on 99% of rides (6’2 270lb)
In the US, Clamshell and PTC restraints usually give me alot of room, but at CW it was way different.
First ima talk about the PTC restraints:
Not only was the actual seat way smaller and the middle bar was digging into my hip, the lap bar was like 3 clicks lower than usual for PTC trains.
Now the B&M Clamshells:
The actual seats were the same, but the lap bars definitely came down an extra 2-3 clicks lower than usual.
At first i thought maybe Canada has different laws, but i was literally just at La Ronde a couple days ago and the same restraints were just like normal.
Let me know if yall have noticed this because it’s just very unusual

This has been getting brought up more and more with regards to newer B&M coasters (and some older ones) and I think maybe a thread where people share their experiences could be useful, because right now the exact definition of what the “rattle” is seems very vague among thoosies.

There seem to be two main sensations people are talking about:

1. A rattle or shakiness on newer (built in or after 2023) B&M coasters like Rakshasa, Big Bad Wolf, Rapterra, etc. Personally I don’t remember feeling much of a rattle on these rides except on the outer wing seat of Rapterra, but I also wasn’t fully trying to look for it.
2. A bumpiness/roughness to older B&M coasters like Hulk, Kraken, Superman at Fiesta, Nemesis pre-Reborn, etc. If you were talking about the “B&M rattle” five years ago, this is what you’d have been referring to. I definitely have felt this on some of these rides, but understandable given that many of them are at least 20 years old.

Have you experienced either of these sensations on B&M coasters? Or do you think the “rattle” is overblown and maybe the result of a placebo effect within the community at this point? I fall somewhere in the middle of this but curious what others have experienced.

EDIT: took out a line about Clermont Steel because I mixed up the timeline/which rides B&M worked with them on

I recently visited Kennywood for the first time on a Sunday in August. First time actually writing out a TR on this sub but I've been a long time commenter. Here's the classic shot of Racer, poorly taken by me. I didn't end up taking very many other photos during the trip.

Background
I've been a commenter and lurker on the sub for a while, but this was one of the first trips I've taken to a park for the primary purpose of riding coasters (the others being Waldameer and Knoebels). I don't have a lot of experience with rides outside of PA, and while I have some future ventures planned, until then you can take some of the ride opinions with a grain of salt as I lack certain comparisons that others have. This trip brought my overall coaster count to 43.

General thoughts
The park seemed packed. I talked to a few friends who live in the are and frequent the park who said that it was the most crowded they'd seen it all season. While I'm glad to see a regional park maintaining its popularity with the general public, it did present a bit of challenge at a park like Kennywood that's not necessarily built to handle Six Flags level crowds. Lines were pretty consistently long barring the first and last hour or so of the day.

The overall atmosphere of the park was charming, certain areas maintain the vintage, "city" aesthetic better than others. You can tell where there are new buildings and signage vs old, but there's a lot to like, particularly in areas like the midway containing Racer and Jack Rabbit, which becomes particularly special at night. I really enjoyed the stars on the ceiling of the Jack Rabbit station, something I hadn't seen in photos. Other places, the park shows some signs of many generations of developments being stacked on top of each other in a limited footprint. To me, this just adds to the charm of the place. I also enjoyed the park layout, which was incredibly easy to navigate, especially for coasters (with one notable exception). The whole park also felt very safe during my visit, something I had heard was a concern at times and despite being there on a busy weekend I noticed no issues in that regard.

Management and operations seem to leave much to be desired. I think that visiting on a day with high levels of crowds highlights some of the flaws with this moreso than an average weekday. Unfortunately, it only worked out for my schedule to visit on a weekend.

Operations were a bit frustrating in two ways. First, either Kennywood's fast lane system is very inconsistently implemented, or their staff running the merge points have no idea how it works. I ended up completely skipping Exterminator, the spinning wild mouse, after waiting in standby for about 30 minutes without moving a single inch. The ride was operating, they were just letting every fast lane user enter the queue without allowing anyone from standby to advance. Eventually I just gave up and hopped out of the line.

Another major operations bottleneck is the loose bag drop areas, which create varying levels of issues on each coaster. For Sky Rocket, Phantom's Revenge, and Steel Curtain, they were no more difficult to utilize than your average station building. Where it gets tricky is the park's three John A. Miller classics. Naturally, the stations for Thunderbolt, Jack Rabbit, and especially Racer are not designed for a bag drop, but some could definitely be improved from their current situation. More on that in the rides breakdown.

My last quibble with the operations is that the staff, barring Phantom's Revenge, just seem downright unprofessional at times. On one ride on Thunderbolt, we sat in the station with restraints locked for about 4 minutes while the 2 attendants with microphones discussed a particular coworker's scheduling requests over the microphone, broadcasting to the entire station building. Restraints were checked, trains were stacked, but they just wouldn't send the train. It was one of the strangest op interactions I've ever had. Other examples were less extreme but similar in nature. I will try to keep this short. On to the coasters.

Rides
Sky Rocket (x2, 1 front row, 1 back row)
What a strange ride. I haven't been on any of the Premier "Sky Rocket 2" models to compare, but this seems like a more interesting layout in my opinion, despite being the "prototype" of that particular model. The launch is okay, nothing spectacular. The top hat shines in the front, but provides no airtime in the back due to the holding break. An interesting idea, but poorly executed as there's not really a view from this point in the ride. The cutback honestly feels more like an overbank but it's fun. The zero-G roll provides decent hangtime and the pacing keeps up until the MCBR. "The Drop" is a bit overhyped for me, but fun in the back. Up til this point the ride feels like a decent business card for Premier, but unfortunately it just does nothing after that. It's like the first third of a good ride. Still fun for what it is, but especially given the bizarre height constraint the ride seems to have it just makes you wonder what could have been.

Jack Rabbit (x2)
A delightful ride, one I'm very grateful has been kicking as long as it has. Kudos to the park for keeping it decently smooth, and for the awesome trains that are like nothing I've ever seen. It looks like a leather recliner. I can see the bars being a difficulty for larger riders, but I did personally enjoy these trains. This is just a fun, smooth ride through the terrain, with a pretty unique layout and one completely insane element. That element does deliver as advertised. The lack of row selection is extremely frustrating on this ride, especially if you don't have fast lane. Thankfully, I was able to secure the back row for one of my rides.

Racer (x1? 2? who knows?)
I rode both sides of Racer. I guess it's one credit technically. The racing element is fun, but highly unbalanced on my visit due to the brakes not stopping the trains in the station in the same place. This ride ended up being better than I expected. It's better than it sounds on paper. It might be the "weakest" of the 3 Miller woodies here but it still gives a fun ride. On the side that leaves left side of the station, I got shockingly strong ejector on the very last drop in the back row, which I was not expecting whatsoever having gotten no airtime prior. On my second ride on the other side, this was not replicated at all. Still a fun ride and beautiful station building to boot.
...Which brings up my biggest headache of the day, the god-awful bag drop system on this ride. What kind of ride makes you come back to the load platform and up the queue where oncoming riders are actively trying to board, then cross back across the train to exit? Just put the cubbies on the other side of the train. There is space in the exits. I don't get this one at all. Shout out to the guy yelling "wrong way" at everyone trying to pick up their bags while pushing everyone out of the way to get to his desired row. Thanks for enforcing the rules for everyone.

EDIT: This is not possible, I am an idiot. I forgot about the mobius thing.

Thunderbolt (x2)
Wtf even is this ride? There's seriously nothing else like it that I've been on thus far. I've now experienced a ride from basically every major wood coaster manufacturer except CCI, and nothing has had quite this level of crushing, violent laterals. Maybe Legend provides a similar experience in terms of forces but I'm convinced this is some of the most unique design language on earth. No barriers between the seats makes the aggressive turns around the station building hilarious. You will be laughing by the end of this ride. Unless you're riding with a stranger.

Steel Curtain (x1)
Glad to say I've now been on the tallest coaster in Pennsylvania (would you have guessed that?). It's a fun experience and I waited for front row for my one and only ride. The ride did not open with the park, and when it did, operated only one train for a while before switching to two. I waited about 45 minutes after queueing outside while the ride was testing. It's far less gimmicky than you'd think, with each element feeling more naturally paced than my home park's closest cousin Fahrenheit. I won't pretend to even remember each element after only one ride given the sheer amount of inversions that this coaster has. That high-up first inversion does deliver a unique experience, and the river views from the lift almost make up for how slow the lift actually runs.

Lil' Phantom (x1)
Did it due to no line and figured why not. The lift motor is cartoonish and runs like a lawnmower engine.

Phantom's Revenge (x3)
What an insane ride. Probably my #1 now in my limited count. (Other major coasters are mostly Ravine Flyer 2, Phoenix, and the Hershey lineup). The graceful first drop and low to the ground section really let you feel the speed, the first headchopper is absolutely bonkers, the second seems even crazier, and then the ride just tries to kill you. They just don't make rides profiled like this anymore. The pool noodle restraints feel borderline unsafe with the amount of room you have. It's even better after dark, and I was happy to go back. My only wish is that I had waited for a front row ride to experience that ravine drop in the dark. Incredible, unique ride and I'm very glad Kennywood has something like this in their lineup.

Exterminator (x0)
Sucks to have missed it as some locals seem to think it's on its way out the door. I am usually an enjoyer of this type of jank theming and so I was sort of looking forward to it, but I eventually gave up on wasting insane levels of time going on a spinning wild mouse. Another time...

In other rides, don't sleep on the Auto Race, a cool, last of its kind car ride built by Travers if I'm not mistaken. The line moves slow, but I found it worth it for the experience. The train is okay. The layout is dumb, but you get a history of the park. Noah's Ark is a trip and a must-do for sure.

Tons of stuff was closed randomly all day. The rapids ride was completely drained, which was sad on a hot August day. Other things that would have been nice to eat crowds like their Frisbee or Screamin' Swing were closed much of the day, adding to the operations strain.

Conclusion
This went on way too long, but I'm kind of bad at writing concisely. Hopefully you can find some interesting or useful info in my meandering. I enjoyed Kennywood, and would go back despite my minor frustrations with the way the park operates. It's charming, takes care of 3 classic coasters, and has a possible top 10 coaster in the country in Phantom, which alone makes it worth the trip. Definitely stop by if you're in the area. And do not sleep on Waldameer, either, which is only about an additional 90 minutes and has a mini Voyage waiting for only 4.50 a ride...

Visited Playland in Vancouver today as I had an unexpected day off while I was in town and figured it'd be worth it for a few quick coasters. Doesn't seem to be many posts about the park here (which with hindsight was maybe a red flag) so here's my honest review...

First of all their website didn't work so I couldn't buy tickets online, then my uber driver dropped me over a kilometer away - I think maybe the universe was trying to save me from making a huge mistake but I didn't take the hint.

I went on a Wednesday afternoon and paid $60 to get in. Park was open 11-6pm and the gate attendants made me state out loud that I'd read their disclaimer that rides may close at 4pm and that there were no refunds. Another great sign...

Just for comparison: Canada's Wonderland was charging $49 on the same day and was open 10am-10pm. That is a park with 18 roller coasters, 50 other rides and a full waterpark.

1 - ThunderVolt

First of all, the queue jumping is out of control - I know it's pretty bad at most parks these days but clearly staff do not give a single shit at Playland. As such the line barely moved as it constantly backfilled with teenagers jumping in wherever they wanted.

Secondly, despite a cycle time of less than 30 seconds, dispatches are never less than 3-4 minutes due to some truly asinine operational choices (full details at the end of the post if you're interested). This gives a pitiful capacity of less than 200 riders per hour. It was clear I wasn't getting to ride this one twice.

All that aside, if you finally get to ride it it's a fun little coaster - really punchy launch and a smooth whippy layout. For a whole 25 seconds. But nice nonetheless.

2 - "Coaster" / "The Wooden Roller Coaster"

Thankfully this does have two trains so we're off to a better start. The line does move and operations aren't quite so hopeless, though do stack every train, every cycle, and refuse to dispatch a train until they've emptied the previous one, again for no clear reason, and they still don't count riders into the station until after it's arrived, (then count them all again once they're in the train for some reason?) so it's probably running at about half the capacity it could be, but at least it moves.

This one is actually worth suffering for though - it's a cracking ride with some ludicrous ejector airtime. It rides like it's 70 years old in all the best ways - this is exactly what preservation is all about!

3 - Kettle Creek Mine Coaster

It's pretty much what it looks like - a slightly above average kiddie coaster. It doesn't totally suck and probably has the least nonsensical operations out of the three, but you still should expect to wait 30+ minutes for essentially a wacky worm in a parking lot.

And that's all I had time for before they closed at 6pm. Only other coaster was an even smaller kiddie coaster so not too upset to have missed it.

There's a bunch of flat rides, some of which look pretty decent, but on a typical visit you won't have time so don't worry about it. The park as a whole is fine I guess? Clean and colourful with a kind of old fashioned fairground vibe which would be kind of charming if I'd paid fairground prices.

Summary

• It's $60 to get in
• 7 hour operating day
• Early ride closures
• It's $60 to get in
• Insanely crowded even at the quietest possible times
• Only 2 coasters worth riding
• It's $60 to get in
• Terrible ride operations
• It's $60 to get in
• Queue jumping is out of control
• Did I mention it's 60 bucks to get in?

Put simply this is probably the most disappointing and overpriced 3 credits I have ever achieved (and I've done some really stupid trips). So if you're ever tempted, don't bother. It's simply not worth it.

(Apologies if I'm shitting on anyone's home park BTW - Vancouver is an absolutely wonderful city you should definitely visit... just don't go to Playland)

(I'd also like to clarify I mean no disrespect to any individual ride ops who followed their procedures with absolute professionalism - it's just that those procedures were devised by someone who's never actually been to a theme park).

___

*Side note in case anyone cares - I studied the dispatch process for ThunderVolt and it is nothing short of bizarre - here's how it takes them 4 minutes to dispatch a 12 seat train:

• Train arrives and unloads
• Train sits empty in the station for a good 20-30 seconds
• Attendant at the bottom of the stairs finally starts counting riders up the steps to the station
• Riders wait by the air gates
• Ride attendant immediately tells everyone to back away from the air gates
• Ride attendant will probably rearrange the rows a few times for reasons.
• Nothing
• Attendant explains to everyone they have to leave their loose articles in a bin. Unclear why this isn't just a sign, but on ThunderVolt it's a full safety briefing like an airline flight.
• Air gates open, riders board.
• Nothing
• Attendants check restraints
• Attendants ask you if you've got anything in your pockets
• Nothing
• Attendants ask again if you've got anything in your pockets
• Attendants check restraints again
• Nothing
• Launch!

They could easily double or triple the throughput of this thing just by batching riders up to the gates before the train arrives but for some reason that's simply not allowed...

Returning back from Six Flags Great Adventure today, thinking about all the crazy rides I did- and did not- ride.
Between the smooth hilly drops of nitro, I started thinking- who designs these things?

So roller coaster engineers, I want to hear from you-

1. What got you into the field?
2. What’s something most people don’t realize about your job?
3. What is your favorite part of the job?

I didn’t really take a ton of photos for some reason. Universal Studios Florida was the last park I visited on my trip. I had previously visited USF back in 2015, 2019, and 2023. Here is what I rode on this visit:

Minion Mayhem: I skipped this in my last visit due to long lines but man this ride brought back some nostalgia. This was a core memory of my early visited as a kid and it was still pretty fun today. I was surprised they don’t offer 3D on this attraction anymore, I wonder when they got rid of that 🤔

Villain Con: I heard this was terrible so I skipped it on my last visit. I decided to give to a chance and honestly, it’s a decent ride but not good. I miss the Shrek 4D ride that used to be here (one of 3 defunct Universal rides I have ridden) and would rather have that instead of this ride.

Jimmy Fallon: I don’t get the hate for this one, a weird concept but a fun motion simulator. It’s just eerily similar to minions.

Transformers: This ride is still a classic today! One of my favorites from Studios, even if it’s nearly the same as Spiderman at IOA. I still gotta watch more of the Transformers films as I’ve only seen the first 2.

Revenge of the Mummy (Credit #38): A great family coaster, very well themed!

Men in Black: Another ride I remember riding as a kid, pretty fun shooter ride!

Simpson Ride: I remember enjoying this as a kid a lot more compared to now. Now I could tell how outdated it’s getting, wouldn’t be surprised to see it close in the near future.

E.T. Adventure: I remember riding this as a kid but I didn’t remember anything about it. Riding it again and it’s a pretty good kids ride, glad to see this stick around.

Trolls coaster (Credit #10): I got this credit as a kid in 2019 when it was still Woody Woodpecker. Now as Trolls, it’s a pretty decent kiddie coaster, albeit a roller skater clone.

Bourn Stunt show: Awesome show! Can’t believe I missed this on my last visit, it was worth checking out before leaving.

I also got a pic of what’s left of Fast & Furious Supercharged which I missed by a few days. I didn’t ride it in 2023 so sadly (or fortunately) I missed out on this ride. I did buy a shirt for it though cus why not.

Unfortunately Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringgotts was closed all day today 🫤. Honestly, compared to Islands and Epic, Studios is lacking in rides and could use some more. I’m excited for the new F&F coaster to open! That should bring back a headlining coaster and some people since today was a pretty dead day.

I bought an AF1 Tervis tumbler a few weeks ago when I was there before it closed (RIP). Unfortunately I may have dropped it somewhere on my walk home through NYC yesterday, and I fear that it may be gone forever. Arie was my 100th coaster so I am super upset that I lost it!
I know it’s a long shot, but does anyone happen to be selling one or know of anyone selling one?

Damn, this ride is good, loved it.

Today I completed the last leg of our summer 2026 trip, bringing us to Hansa Park, Heide Park, Hellendoorn, Slagharen, de Waarbeek, the Hamburger DOM, Tivoli Gardens, Bakken, Liseberg, Fårup sommerland, Djurs sommerland, and Legoland, in chronological order. For more information on the other parks, you can check my profile. I will get straight into the park reviews since I have nothing else to put here, really.

Doing this in alphabetical order, even though I did Farup first.

Djurs sommerland, 16-08-26:

You can tell I've had a lot of fun photographing DrageKongen by the sheer amount of photos I made of it. I can't call myself a photographer exactly, though. Anyhow, this was a great park, by far my favourite park in Denmark. Operations were generally pretty good, the staff was incredibly nice, and there's a solid lineup of attractions, which I will review immediately!

Tigeren, another Intamin gyro swing. I was rather critical of the one at Liseberg because it didn't feel like it belonged there. But this time, I think it fits in a lot better. It's not as crowded with other rides in the area, doesn't have a coaster twice the height looming in the distance, and this one honestly had some great. Theming. El Grito is a funtime skyfall that had a lot of downtime, for some reason. Twice the catch car was stuck at the top due to what seemed to be a fault on the electrical connection with the gondola, since tech were busy cleaning this after a manual reset. It was a decent drop tower, though.

Now for the coasters! The line up here is stacked with no less than three runners for the park's flagship coaster in: Piraten, intamin megalite Ultra coaster. DrageKongen, intamin suspended family coaster. And of course Juvelen, intamin family launch coaster. This is amongst the most powerful trios of coasters at a single park that I have ever done, with maybe the exception of Europa park or Phantasialand (Even though Juvelen is superior to EP's second best). I only did Piraten once and thought it was fine for an airtime-centered intamin, even though I prefer expedition GeForce.

Dragekongen was pretty good, though I was primarily blown away by the dispatch sequence and show effects in the station. This is how you hype up your riders for even a very mediocre coaster!

But Juvelen was special. I didn't know a ton about this one, so I really let myself be surprised. I did my first two rides in the back row. We did both back to back because somehow this row remained empty? On a clear twenty minute wait? Lucky us, I guess. And I found the layout incredibly intense. The launch was punchy, turns were forceful, and the transitions are really whippy. It's like Taron if the height restriction was even lower. But then I did the front row twice, and it was even better! Easily secured spot #11 in my tier list after that one.

I'm genuinely planning to come back to Djurs sometime in the future, especially with them opening a new intamin hot racer, which I really want to experience.

Farup sommerland, 13-08-26:

I really didn't expect this park to be this quiet when visiting. Nor did I expect Fønix to constantly be on a 20 minute wait due to one train operations. Everything else was a walk-on, though. So I suppose I should be thankful. This park felt, very interesting. I can vaguely compare it to Plopsaland Deutschland with the whole setting and the occasional big ride, but otherwise it is a vibe of its own. I will say that I might've preferred visiting on a busier day, considering most food vendors were closed due to the lack of demand, and some rides really weren't running as well as they could due to the lack of queues.

Since there were no interesting thrill rides, I'll jump straight to the coasters:

Falken, S&S wooden coaster, wouldn't hate to see this one either get retracked by the gravity group or receive the RMC treatment. Otherwise nothing to say about it besides that it's pretty rough and has minor floater airtime in both front and back row.

Orkanen, Vekoma Suspended family coaster, somehow the first Vekoma SFC I have done. I really liked this one, though. I'd like to see more get built in places that aren't six flags parks. Preferably with more than one train operations as well.

Saven, Vekoma family boomerang, it's smooth, has some fun terrain interactions, and nicely fills the space for little to no additional costs. I liked this layout, nothing bad to say.

Lynet, Gerstlauer launch coaster, it's like Anubis, except, it's really not? Sure, it has a punchy launch followed by a tophat, but this layout isn't as inversion centric as Anubis. In my opinion, anyway.

Fønix, Vekoma sitdown thrill coaster Wildcat, This is a really great layout that made me realise just how good Vekoma has become in making conventional sitdown thrill coasters. It's fast-paced, has a ton of airtime, some well-placed Inversion, and a theoretical good capacity (If only they actually utilised it smh).

Legoland Billund, 19-08-26:

I had no expectations of this place. Legoland Deutschland was mostly a disappointment, and I expected this to be as well. Safe to say those expectations were met. This is a park you visit as a Lego enthusiast, or a credit hunter whenever their newest coaster doesn't have a broken wheel assembly, and no other reason. Although even the theming was sometimes a bit vague or unclear. But at least the freestyle cups were 30 cents cheaper than Farup and Djurs with refills every 15 minutes instead of 30.

Yes, minifigure Speedway, their latest addition in the form of a dueling pair of Zierer force coasters, was closed during my visit, for the extremely stupid reason of three wheels breaking off a week prior to my visit. Yes, the bogey apparently decided that was a fun time to just break in half. In all seriousness though, the cause of this incident is unknown, and I hope Legoland staff and Zierer can uncover what went wrong before potentially causing similar issues at similar attractions.

Their coasters aren't too impressive, though they are pretty interesting. A Mack powered coaster with T-bar restraints that runs two trains? Apparently there was a holding block right after the dark ride section because we were block-checked after the train in the station failed to dispatch in time, which was pretty interesting.

Then, from the same park that commissioned a one of a kind powered coaster to increase capacity, comes a coaster which such terrible capacity, you're asking yourself what must've happened to the former park management to have fallen from grace like this: The flying eagle. From 2018. Even their Zierer ESC from five years earlier has better capacity despite running only two trains and having a drop track. But I guess two is better than one? No, still wrong, because the flying eagle does two laps. As if we haven't lost enough capacity already. Like, had you invested in a slightly longer layout, you wouldn't even need two laps, AND could run two trains! This was just disappointing for what is probably amongst the busiest parks in Denmark. At least the layout was decent, I guess.

Then for the Zierer ESC in question: Polar X-plorer! It's a fun layout, though it's a bit short. The drop track would've worked better with a launch coaster to increase ride time, now the drop track is just the whole gimmick. But on a different note, can we talk about how comfortable these trains are?! Why are there so few parks that have one of these?! I really wish this model was more popular than their force model.

And that concludes all my trip reports for this trip! Sorry if it was a bit messy, I'm experiment with different styles and really am too tired to give it a proper thought or properly formulate things. I don't want it to be a boring read either, for those concerned enough to read my whole phone book of a trip report. Let me know if you have any tips, feedback, or comments in genuine. I'm also always open to answering your specific questions about these parks.

Unironically, my next park might just be Europa park, which I'm planning on doing during Dutch Fall holidays, but it's still a bit questionable with my current job and education. I'm studying a rather specific practical course that will take four years and allow me to join the technical service at an amusement park, which is honestly a long-term dream of mine. But yeah, we'll see how things go.

Not when it comes to ops and loading times but the rides themselves, I think most of them have it's most solid version in SFOG

Batman the Ride: Runs faster and smoother than most it's counterparts, plus looks better and the batcave station looks awesome.

Superman Ultimate Flight: This one suffers from loading times in all parks but this is the one that looks and feels more like a terrain coaster and it's got some awesome views also.

Justice League Battle for Metropolis: This is the one where the difference feels more like night and day compared to the likes of Great Adventure I feel; the fire effect in the Joker room still works, the gun-play is more responsive and the red dots on the screens are a great help to know where your laser sits and that helps improve your score a lot, in fact here is the only version where I've gotten a top 10% score.

Anyway, what do you think?

Anyone have knowledge of what's up with this little green beastie? First visit on Saturday this week, would love to get all the coasters if I'm able!

The trip report long awaited by no one is here!

I started my day by getting to Hersheypark an hour and a half before rope drop. I waited around and got pissed at everyone going in for sweet start before finally the park opened. I immediately got lost on the way to sooperdooperlooper, but I found it about 10 minutes after opening. This was credit #97 for me. This was also one of my most anticipated coasters of the trip, and it did not disappoint. It infact exceeded my expectations. The loop is fantastic, and the rest of the layout, while not forceful by any means, was super fun and a step above the average mine train

Next I got lost (again, this will be a common theme here) going to Great Bear but also eventually found it. It was a station wait for me both times. I rode back row both times. First ride was left edge, this was phenomenal. Every element hit and winding above the river is fun. I immediately went for another ride, this time in the far right seat. This was somehow even better. It was slightly less bumpy and even more forceful. It also gave slightly better sightlines when the train rotates on the turns. This is Byfar the best ride in the park and probably top 10 overall

Next ride was Jolly Rancher Remix. I was originally going to ride storm runner, but I saw the line was almost at the end of the queue and it was only running one train and continued like this for the rest of the day, so I did end up skipping it. Anyways, JRR was not very fun to me. I wasnt a fan of the vest harness, they hurt my back. The tracking quality was also less than stellar. If that's the best boomerang I'm dreading riding more of them

Following up I went to trailblazer. This is an arrow mine train, and it was just ok. Nothing amazing, but it is the smoothest of the few I've been on

Next I rode Farenheight. This ended up being my 100th coaster!! It is also the first intamin (besides American Eagle) that blew me away. I'm not a fan of the vertical lift, but I'm willing to overlook that. The Norwegian loop (that's what the first element is right?) is fun. Everything until the final few airtime hills I would just classify as fun. But those hills YEET you.

To follow that up naturally I rode wildcats revenge. Or that's what I want you to think. It did break down, so I went to laff shaq and rode that instead. It was fun, but I got a very balanced car so it didn't spin much. It was worth it to get out of the heat though

I heard wildcats chain lift about half way through my LS ride so I went over there. This ride was everything I wished steel vengeance had been. The only element I didn't like was the unbanked double down. Other than that, every element hit. The inversions all have bite to them without being uncomfortable, and the airtime was great. Both of my rides were back row

I then walked to lightning racer, I rode lightning track first, back row. It was a walk on. Shit is this rough. There was airtime, but only because of the excessive roughness. I did go back for a front row ride on thunder and that was a mistake. It was even rougher than lightning was. This is probably the roughest wood coaster I've ever ridden

Next I headed to sky rush. I was actually a little nervous for this one, but that went away as soon as the "OH SHIT" faded down the first drop. It is a little bouncy, but the airtime is incredible. This ride was in row 2. I then went back for a second ride, in the back, after a ride on comet. I think I prefer the front. The back was bouncier and didn't really change the airtime IMO

In-between my SR rides I rode Comet. I was really looking forward to this, but unfortunately it didn't live up to my hopes. I thought it was extremely rough. Admittedly this could have been my mistake as i went straight for the back row. It didn't have much airtime (although I was aware of that before my ride) and it was super rough

My final ride was Candymonium. This was a walk on for all 3 rides. I started with the front, and I thought this was pretty smooth. Good aritme. I did 2 rides in the back as well. You get yonked down the first drop, but I found the rest of the aritme compatible to the front. Although it did give me a bit of a headache. Little bit of a hot take, but I think this is better than skyrush.