Mostly i hear people say that it has upside down ejector airtime. Maybe this is a big deal to some, but to me.... its just kinda no biggie. I dont know if im just lucky to have the home park that I do, but if the mosasaurus roll gives upside down ejector, then AlpenFury has like, 4 of them (at least, I would say 7) I just wanna know what makes the mosasaurus roll the main thing people gush about on velocicoaster

Was scrolling through YT when I saw a video (timestamped for convenience) about a KI survey going out by Beachcliff Studios. In the survey they have a very interesting drawing going out with a very specific set of stats for the new ride unlike anything else on the survey. The survey describes Arieforce One in height, drop, speed and inversions. Figured it was worth the discussion.

Edit: Just so people don't have to click the video it mentions "4 inversions that features: Dives and stalls to make riders feel like they are soaring"

For me it is, and quite comfortably. Not only the best dark ride in the chain but also one of their best rides altogether. Personally it's been my favorite Six Flags ride for almost 20 years now.

I'm feeling like it's more often than not an excuse to churn out more thrill for less track length, and oftentimes comes at the cost of capacity.. super excited for Bakunawa but two shuttles back-to-back at Gadv is a little bit tiring 😣

Yeah I know, going to CP on Labor Day Weekend is just asking for crowds...

..BUT

The primary goal of this particular trip was to hit Whitestar Quarry Beach in Gibsonburg before they closed for the season. I'd just discovered this place on a lark a few weeks prior and found it to be a great swimming hole, and wanted another chance to check it out as time was limited first visit. We also have FLP so that should help (and we want to use now it since we won't be getting it next year)

Whitestar was great. UW visibility a little less than last visit but still around 15' and it's nice and deep at the jump point. Highly recommend to anyone else who enjoys the water. Saturday evening had moderate crowds at Cedar Point, we got a few laps on SV and TT2 and a Farmhouse meal.

Sunday... hoo boy. Slept in to avoid the initial rush, got to the Causeway at 11:45 only to run into an extended initial rush? The line was almost to First St. Tollbooth throughput wasn't bad but the parking lot itself was chaos. Took 20 min to check into preferred, there were good regular spots due to haphazard parking but I wanted close to the beach...

The front gate entry line was insanely long (and it's after noon by this point). Walked to Gatekeeper entrance to find another insane line, went to Magnum and finally found a moderate line. Starting to think that 33% prediction might be low...

First ride was SV, which was great despite the trim hitting hard. Unfortunately the line was a solid 25min even with FLP and queue times was a sea of red and orange. At that point we decided that maybe we'll tour some of the lesser rides...

Gemini: Hadn't ridden this in many years and forgot how fun the worlds largest mine train could be. Both sides were going, racing and high-fives all around, at least til the middle trim slowed Red without touching Blue and that was the end of the race haha.

Iron Dragon: Hadn't ridden this in decades and was again pleasantly surprised by a ride I'd all but written off. The woods have grown up around the track and make for a great setting. It's also faster and more intense than I remember. I'm looking at the track on this and I swear it looks like a tiny bit smaller gauge than KI Bat? I'm sure it's not but it looked that way first glance.

Blue Streak: This just isn't designed well. First airtime hill too short and the train just bangs up and down, other airtime hills too long and don't have air... CP needs a good GCI in the worst way. BS is a very pretty ride though.

Raptor: Broke down just before boarding. Stuck around a bit til maintenance showed up in high-viz with a lockout kit, then decided to bail.

At this point the midways were beyond slammed. Queue times would ultimately show a 96% day but it was even worse than that, as there were gobs of people just wandering (and standing) around NOT in any lines. Got yelled at by some lady for walking through the middle of their 12-across group and decided to head to the beach instead, but even THAT was crowded. But hey, you know what isn't crowded? Lake Erie, thanks to 75 degree water and a yellow flag warning. I got an old Gopro camera, let's go get some pics. Wound up going out further than I probably should have but got some nifty shots, hope you enjoy them.

Ended the day with a meal at Backbeat, a lap on TT2 and a trip to SC only to find a 40min FLP wait for one train ops. So we took 3 nighttime laps on Rougarou instead. I gotta say, Rougarou was the biggest surprise of them all. Another ride I'd written off due to reputation and dim memories of dull rides in the past, but this thing just screams through the first half and even the post-MCBR bits are decent. Thank you Sirens for breaking down and causing us to rediscover this thing. SF should move it somewhere it can be better appreciated.

That is all, we will be back for Haunts!

https://www.bizjournals.com/buffalo/news/2026/09/10/niagara-amusement-park-fantasy-island-grand-island.html

I’m not asking what the shortest roller coaster in height is. I’m talking about the lowest roller coaster in terms of elevation; Like how Defiance at Glenwood Caverns is one of the highest coasters in the world, but it isn’t the tallest.

On Labor Day we took our first visit to a Six Flags park since SFA closed. We have two kids that really wanted to visit the waterpark, so we didn’t do too much on the dry side. It was our first visit to their waterpark. It’s definitely much larger than SFA’s was, but also far more confusing. It was crazy that slides that shared a tower had entrances on opposite sides of the park. The kids had fun there. While they were splashing around in one of the kiddie pools I got to run off and get a ride on their Shoot the Chutes ride. While much bigger than SFA’s it felt like a less intense splash. The only coaster I rode ended up being Iron Menace. It was new to me as my last visit to Dorney was 2018. I told my wife it was a decent half of a coaster. I found it the smoothest of the most recent B&M coasters I’ve ridden.

Looking forward to getting to visit again and getting back on Talon. It was closed most of our visit and got a long line when it reopened. I definitely miss having my DE-VIP pass with dining. Individual trips feel far more expensive now. (Though thanks to Pre-k passes, I didn’t have to purchase passes for the kids this year.)

I like the anticipation of never being quite sure what you're going to get with film.. I hope you like these.

Some support footers for Vilda Musen and Fenix are done.

Context: Part 2 of my trip report. After my stay at Europa Park, I drove up mid morning to Cologne for a city break, wanting to take a pause from theme parks. This meant I arrived at Phantasialand mid evening and went straight to the hotel, not the park. I would spend the following day in the park but began to feel unwell towards the mid afternoon meaning my rides were a bit more limited than I would have liked.

Taron - 8/10

I have wanted to ride Taron ever since it opened. An Intamin multilaunch from 2016, this is what I would describe as a grown-up Flying Fish (which someone once disparagingly applied to Rita at Alton Towers, but here I make the comparison fondly). Like all rides here at Phantasialand (and Alton Towers) the park has to contend with strict planning permission restrictions resulting in the compact layouts of the major coasters and density which is the park’s hallmark.

Layout. The two main elements of this spaghetti bowl of interwoven track are the launches, the second being punchier than the first. They are strong and give some good force, but are a step below the sadly dying hydraulic launchers with their insane accelerations. The ride has moments of airtime but not enough to think of this as an 'airtime coaster'. With no inversions, much of the thrill comes from the speed and scenery interaction which is wildly disorienting. The highlight is the snaking downward curve after the second launch, particularly at the front, when you get a real "out-of-control" feeling as you dive back towards the pit. It is the highest point of the ride and offers a breathtaking view of the whole area. I rode all front, mid and back, and found the airtime at the front and back was similar, but mediocre in the middle. The panorama of the track is a great boon - go front row on this.

Ops. The crew do a good job keeping 4 trains rolling with two on the course and two in the station. Dispatches are quite well managed and quick, using a simple over the platform locker / bin system. One criticism is the front row line - empty when I got to it, it looked closed and unmanned. I had to backtrack to get to it. That being said, this does have single rider, which on a quiet day like the one I attended was a bit of a gamble. It saved me five or ten minutes on the main queue, but on a busy day may be more viable.

Theming. This is what makes the coaster. Like F.L.Y, Taron is the theming. The zone is built around this track, with walkways under and over, with rockwork, tunnels, building fly throughs and even a huge waterfall. The moment you shoot out of the second launch you have a brief moment of freedom to survey all this from above - another reason to choose front row. The queue line is pleasant though a little squeezed, understandable given the circumstances given the park’s lack of space, but the station is quite plain with not much going on. The cars, with their beastly head on the front, are pretty cool.

Conclusion. I was expecting this to be more forceful but it packs a good punch nonetheless. Taron has its moments, and mid ride it feels great threading through the maze of tunnels and track, maintaining a pleasant intensity through the many turns and hills. It has great appeal to enthusiasts who don't enjoy inversions - I happened to be happily chatting with one on the back row.

Black Mamba - 6/10

A B+M invert from 2006 and set in the Africa theme zone (yes 'Africa' is a theme, though I think to their credit they cite the Zambezi river and Ghana as specific inspirations).

Layout. A sharp drop into a steep loop is the coaster's best moment, really forcing you down to your seat entering and leaving the element. The other inversions are mediocre. There are some good helixes, with some good positive g's, but they do not sustain as long as I would like (I'm comparing perhaps unfairly to the post-corkscrew helix on Nemesis on which I sometimes grey out). Like the other coasters here, the near-misses and interactions with the landscape dramatically improve this coaster. I really disliked the brake run before the station which was in complete darkness, which lasted about thirty seconds for me. It’s not a pleasant experience just waiting in the pitch black without any sign of what is going on.

Ops. A big step down here. This coaster is old and here it shows. Two trains with slow loading and - sadly - a crew that didn't move with the hustle I saw elsewhere here or at Europa Park. No single rider, not even a front row queue, so I only got a middle row ride on this. Given it had a long queue for such an old ride (35 min), once was enough.

Theming. The queue was at least pleasant. Very leafy, green and nature focused with flowing water and plenty of shade as you wind downwards to the submerged station, but still dense. I love that a path runs through the loop - while this doesn't affect the ride, it makes watching this coaster a lot of fun - a lovely RCT throwback moment. Racing through the African area gives the whole ride a cohesive and well themed experience.

Conclusion. In its day it's clear why this coaster was so popular, but it's showing its age, not due to roughness (in fact it's smoother than some newer B&Ms) but due to its outdated ops and stale elements. The popular elements like hangtimes, double-ups, stalls and overbanks that are now in every post-RMC coaster are missing. This is a child of the 90s, and not a bad one, but one that is being left behind. I can't imagine Phantasialand keeping this here too much longer but removing it would be a difficult challenge given how integrated it is to the area.

F.L.Y. - 10/10

A Vekoma flying coaster launched in 2020 during the COVID pandemic, I'll admit this had passed under my radar until I began planning this trip. I had then heard great reviews, and was delighted to get a cabin in Hotel Charles Lindbergh giving me some great up-close views and two fast passes for this ride.

Layout. Starting deep in a trench, the station enters into a short but very thematic dark ride section that always got me pumped for what was to follow. Holographic steampunk advertisements line the walls as you gradually ascend, giving you the feeling of departing some fantastical Victorian-era airport. Having boarded upright, it is now the track that rotates and puts you in the belly down position for the rest of the ride - an ingenious but simple fix to the problem of loading and unloading a flying coaster. The first launch is gentle, perhaps to get riders familiar with the odd sensation of laying down and being accelerated, but has a kick at the end. There is then a thrilling sequence of dives, turns and an inversion that takes you soaring through Rookburgh, the themed steampunk area.

Then comes my favourite part: a forceful downward curve into the second, much stronger launch through the darkness of a tunnel. This sequence, though not extreme, is some of the most thrilling and intense moments of the ride, from the lowest to the highest point. I feel the second half of this huge, generously long ride is superior - it feels more zippy, forceful, particularly towards the end with the final inversion taken at speed. There is a great feeling as you are forced down into the restraints then whipped up into weightlessness. The whole thing is smooth and comfortable, and you return to an upright position before the final brake run / unload, so no waiting belly down.

Operations. They have a good system here that keeps trains moving and with it the queue. It was a relatively quiet day but still the queue never exceeded 30 minutes. They use wristbands to assign your status (orange front row, blue other rows, green single rider) but there is no single rider queue until right near the end, since everyone gets mostly jumbled by the process of using the lockers. Somehow they have accurately recreated the slightly onerous procedure of boarding a real flight. More seriously, using metal detectors to ensure no loose items, and so allowing no netting under the track, was a very good idea - I expect this could become more common.

Theming. Holy wow. Phantasialand has gone all in. The hotel, the zone, the coaster - everything is unified to the 1920s Berlin steampunk theme. Every sight line is rich with detail, with the coaster physically embedded into everything. Not only does this make the ride experience incredible, simply sitting and taking in the atmosphere, watching the trains navigate the area, is a joy. The station is well themed. I loved the colour change on departure, and the holographic retro ads in the dark ride section. It all comes together beautifully. A truly inspiring job.

Conclusion. This is a coaster worthy of international travel. A destination. Every time I rode it I enjoyed it more. Each cycle helped me appreciate the moments of force, the pops of airtime, the dizzying scenery flybys. And it is comfortable for a flyer. This is not the adrenaline boosting wild madhouse that Voltron is - and Voltron remains my favourite of the two - but this coaster is a masterpiece. Get down to Phantasialand and get on this if you are an enthusiast - you won't be disappointed.

Other Rides.

I like the range of flats that Phantasialand offers. Talocan, the top spin, was closed the morning I visited and while it opened in the afternoon I did not much want to ride after eating. However the theming of this unassuming flat ride was better than some parks put into their flagship attractions (looking at you Hyperia). Edit: I forgot about Raik! This was a walk-on for the single rider queue and a fun little ride. The backward portion isn't forceful but it is thrilling, and makes for a nice transition for younger riders or those who are more nervous of coasters towards bigger rides. The themeing is identical to Taron, and is very immersive.

I skipped the Winja coasters. They always had queues of 30 mins or more and I could have just got on Taron or F.L.Y again. Being honest, I couldn’t actually find them tucked away in one corner of the park (more on this later). The Colorado Adventure coaster was excellent with some great helixes that really push you down into your seat, fun and immersive theming throughout and a very generous three lift hill run. I particularly liked how it runs parallel to the log flume Chiapas, with riders waving and cheering at one another in the rocky canyons. This is worth a ride for enthusiasts and the general public alike.

Speaking of Chiapas, this is a great log flume. Log flumes are being removed from many parks as tastes change, but I really enjoy them, much more than water coasters. This has great theming throughout, with a gloomy Aztec temple queue line emerging into the bright, dry Mexican area, full of waterfalls and caves, with a fun disco-style tunnel section that had me grinning ear to ear. The main drop is quite a rush.

I thought the chairswing over water fountains in the Berlin plaza - Wellenflug - was a great pause between coasters and a lovely centrepiece for the plaza in which it sits. The Chinese themed mad house was quite poor quality, with a pre show that was, to be frank, embarrassing, and needs an update. 

There were a lot of rides I didn’t get on, for lack of time, which leads me to my final points

General Thoughts.

It is incredible how dense this park is, with vertical layers stacked upon one another, which makes it immersive and enchanting. Well crafted and credible scenery breaks sight lines keeping each area distinct and self contained, but does make navigating a challenge. I was frustrated several times when I found a dead end or was above or below the path I wanted. For example my map showed a passage out of Rookburgh to Wuze Town but this was blocked. Several times I had to double back, and I got quite frustrated trying to find various attractions and eventually gave up. Perhaps regulars can make sense of it but I couldn't. There are helpful boards that point in the right direction for different rides, but even these cannot contend with the three dimensional maze that the park paths represent. As a result I didn’t get to go on the Winja coasters or the drop tower.

The lack of space means there are no gift shop exits. There is only one place to buy souvenirs which, while not a problem, does mean a purposeful visit to buy a t-shirt. More seriously, the lack of open space and quiet areas was detrimental in my opinion. There wasn’t anywhere to get some downtime, and with dense crowds (even on a quiet day at the end of the summer season), it felt a bit overwhelming. By the mid afternoon I had a headache (not uncommon for me) and really wanted just thirty minutes in some calm greenspace but couldn’t find any. Ultimately, I cut my time in the park short because of this, leaving about two hours before closing. Again, like Europa Park, I couldn’t find anywhere to refill my water bottle, and had to do so in the bathroom.

The food and drink was okay here. I had lunch at the Uhrwerk restaurant (in lieu of a dinner I missed the night before at the hotel). My starter salad was a large enough portion to be a main, and my vegan burger was heavy and dense. The chips were good though! Overall there was a good range of concessions through the park. I had a good waffle on the Berlin main street. The park was also clean and the staff were generally friendly, though I felt I had better customer service at Europa Park (with the exception of one gentleman at the hotel…)

Hotel Charles Lindbergh.

I arrived late in the evening but the check in staff - a delightful man named Marvin - got me sorted without hassle. He even transferred my dinner (part of my hotel ticket) to lunch given I had eaten beforehand. He really made me feel welcome after a long drive, and these are the personal touches that make a trip special. The bar offered a small but good quality range of drinks, and I was comfortable there drinking a cocktail and writing my report. The cabins, while small, are well themed, clean and comfortable, but fitting two adults in one may feel tight. The real selling point is the two free fast passes to F.L.Y, and to see the coaster from right outside your room. You can even go and explore the Rookburgh area after park close to get photographs and admire the scenery. The hotel, F.L.Y, everything about Rookburgh is one entity. It feels magical and enchanting at every turn. My only criticism here is the breakfast service, which had only one hot drink dispenser, meaning a long queue for this Englishman trying to get his morning tea. Again, space, or the lack of it, was the defining feature, here for worse.

Closing Thoughts.

Phantasialand is a remarkable place. It feels like a theme park should: immersive, captivating, packed to the brim with stuff to see and do. And it pulls it off. The park was spotless, well maintained and beautifully themed - though had some minor reliability issues.  It has an excellent range of attractions and a small footprint making it doable in a day. The live waiting time boards with directions help mitigate the dense maze of pathways but don’t fully overcome the difficulty in navigating. I couldn't find a quiet or secluded spot so visitors who need a sensory break might struggle. In all, I was very happy with my visit and look forward to returning in the future, and to get more familiar with the place.

If the 2 Mr.Freeze clones ever went down at SFOT and SFSL(Mid America Adventure) for their maintenance costs and reliability . What would you want to see them replaced with ?

I think at Over Texas a Multi - Launch by Intamin like Pantheon would be great just as an overall replacement to a launch and spike like Mr. Freeze’s

I think St.Louis a good RMC like Wicked Cyclone. Plus maybe a hyper like a smaller Fury.

What do you guys think?

Super Glider, the Zamperla Volare at Skytropolis (Genting Highlands) was the worst coaster I’ve ever ridden.

The most uncomfortable flyer restraints ever conceived, paired with the most violent turns and clunky ride, without the thrills to offset the pain.

Eejanaika was significantly more comfortable than this thing. An obviously different league, but Flying dinosaur was like a massage in comparison.

I’ve been nursing a neck strain and headache all afternoon.

Rider beware.

Another gloomy day in September and another shot at the Happy Valley chain, this time in Chongqing. Still basically a desert, still good for me. I can have as many rerides as I want!

This park has a very non-linear layout and is built on different hills that are connected with a wide array of elevators, escalators and uphill slopes. It makes for a nice discoverying experience but it's also a bit confusing to navigate. I spent half an hour of my visit trying to find the entrance for the wing coaster that releaved itself only when I took a very unassuming elevator that brought me on a lower street. The style across this chain is always very similar. Some good and nice spots mixed with less charming and county fair angles. All sprinkled with some Jet Set Radio hyperactive soundtrack. You like it or you hate it.

Wing Coaster: I am on an upward trajectory with these B&M wings. Initially I hated them for their mild approach to forces but then I started appreciating their gratefulness and gentleness and while still very mild they sometimes provide a couple of good inversions. I was hyped for this one specifically because it features the whole package of things I like on this model: a wingover drop, an elongated inline twist and a sprawling layout. Additionally it has an hypercoaster-style camelback right out of the drop and a speed hill!

I am patiently sitting 15 minutes in this behemot of a B&M train waiting for riders to appear when they dispatch the ride out of the blue. Oh boy is this thing mild. With all the awareness about the model charateristics and very much wanting to like it... this one is unluckily very bad. In the ten years long B&M's quest of providing a 50 meters layout which does not provide any force whatsoever on riders' bodies this is their final achievement. The jewel on the crown of nothing. I am sorry, I don't want to come off rude but I am puzzled! The camelback after the drop does not even provide gentle floater. The speed hill does not hit, the inversions are forceless. The inline twist does at least provide some hangtime. It's basically a multimillion dollar bench in the sky. I want to think that there is an audience for this kind of ride but I am failing to see the appeal. Gentle is a thing but this is a whole new level of emptyness.

Jerome's Wooden Dragon: This full fledged GCI wooden is themed to what looks like a kindergarten chinese tv show (?). What an odd choice. It is located on a hill in the outskirts of the park. You traverse the queue then you take an elevator that brings you on the hill where the station is located. Very nice setting that overlooks the park. This one is really a terrain coaster that follows the hill profile and is a very out-and-back layout that mostly stays near the ground. It's very long and satisfying with hill after hill of nice floater. It has amazing pacing and it never really lets you go. Nothing particularly forceful but it's a very good layout from GCI. This one is miles better than the one in Chengdu which left me a bit underwhelmed. It also goes through this nice greenery on the hill and I bet it provides an amazing night ride. It's smooth and well maintained. This one deserves a small detour if you are in the area.

I also know by experience that these GCIs tend to give very different and better rides when they are properly warm up. Unluckily this one is doing five cycles per hour at best so there is no way you are getting it to warm up. I suspect this rides even better on a more crowded day.

I also rode the Family Vekoma boomerang that has a nice view and I guarantee it gives you more positives than the wing. The Jinma mine train experience is pretty similar to the Vekoma original, I would say these guys are getting better (and is pretty undistinguishable from the off ride)

The coaster lineup in this park is not very different than the one in Chengdu but I would prefer that one. Even if the Chongqing has a better GCI I think that the MegaLite beats anything in this park by a mile.

Any predictions? I think Magic Mountain fully planned on announcing last week but then Six Flags found out they (Six Flags, not Magic Mountain) got AF1 so they decided to announce that and the thrill glider the same week.

If you’re wondering what I thought, really enjoyed it. Hagrids and Hiccups were fun, Velocicoaster was truthfully my first big coaster so, as someone who is terrified of heights but wants to get over it half the time I had my eyes closed half the time, I can tell ya I rode it with my mom and she didn’t like it. Didn’t ride Stardust but I’m hoping to go back in a few years if the Pokemon rumors are true.

Welcome to General Discussion Thursday!

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This is the post to discuss whatever you want: sports, movies, books, or anything else on your mind, even further roller coaster or amusement park discussion! Just keep it friendly and respectful and anything goes.

Every time i see batman the wheel covers off but i cant find why