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- The Final Project Will Be Launched
in 13 days, 7 hours, 32 minutes
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Manta @ SeaWorld Orlando | Roller Coaster Review
Manta - SeaWorld Orlando's New Signature Attraction After the eight hour drive down to Orlando for the Manta Grand Opening and Media Day, I was hoping to not be disappointed and thankfully I wasn't. It was my first time to SeaWorld, but right away I recognized that I was at a Busch-owned theme park. The park was clean and beautifully-themed. Manta is the much-hyped flying roller coaster that I first blogged about some 13 months ago. Manta's station was integrated with a really cool manta exhibit. The exhibit was accessible guests without having to enter the ride's queue. If you've never seen a ...
The End of the Record Breaking Roller Coaster Era
Have We Seen the Last of the True Record Breaking Roller Coasters? The recent announcement that Ferrari Experience's F1 Coaster will be capable of 150 mph had me thinking. While this would be a record setting roller coaster, officials from the park said that they might actually operate it at lower speeds. This begs the question: Are we reaching the limits of roller coaster thrills? As part of a series of posts over the next week, dubbed "Record Breaking Roller Coasters Week", I want to examine the record breaking coaster era and its possible demise. The human body can only take so ...
Storm Runner @ Hersheypark | Coaster Reviews
Hershey's Launch Coaster, Short but Memorable As a big steel coaster fan, I was curious to see how good Storm Runner really was. Since it wasn't there the last time I went to the park I figured a 2 hour trip to re-visit Hersheypark wouldn't be a bad idea. On this Intamin Accelerator Coaster, riders are launched from 0 to 72 mph in 2 seconds. The launch has a great viewing area where onlookers can wave at their friends and families aboard the ride. Launch coasters have been a great addition to the theme park landscape. They really bring some wonder and ...
Roller Coasters at Ski Resorts
Who says you can't get your roller coaster fix in the winter? Typically, if you live outside of Florida and California you have to wait until at least March for your nearest amusement park to open. In the last few years, German company Wiegand, has installed their Alpine Coasters at many ski resorts throughout the World including four in the States. They're not in the RCDB, so they may technically not be roller coasters, but they sure look like a lot of fun. The sled-like cars fit up to two people (snugly) and allow for the riders to adjust their ...
Spongebob vs Snoopy – What’s Your Take?
Several Cedar Fair Theme Parks Are Switching from Nickelodeon to Peanuts Themed Areas in 2010 In 2010, the former Paramount Parks now run by Cedar Fair, will be getting re-branded kids areas and attractions. California's Great America, Kings Dominion, Kings Island, Carowinds, and Canada's Wonderland will be dropping their Nickelodeon-themed areas for a nod to everyone's favorite animated dog, Snoopy of the Peanuts. A Case of Classic versus Current From a park guest perspective I don't like the move. Of course, I can't speak to the business implications and cost of licensing the Nick characters. While Snoopy is universally recognizable in the general ...
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Demon @ Six Flags Great America | Coaster Reviews
A few years ago I ventured out to Chicago for a Six Flags Great America-Wisconsin Dells trip. The main attraction of the Great America visit was the B&M hyper coaster Raging Bull. But, it was almost overshadowed by my surprisingly fun rides on Demon. Riding decades-old Arrow loopers is generally an unenjoyable, ho-hum kind of experience where you’re happy to come away with a ride credit....
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Six Flags Closes Kentucky Kingdom
Six Flags announced today that they will close their Louisville, Kentucky park known as Kentucky Kingdom due to a disagreement over the lease for the land that the park is located on. Here’s part of the official statement: Six Flags announced today that as it nears the scheduled end of its restructuring process, it has decided to reject its lease with the Kentucky State Fair Board relating t...
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The Final Countdown
So if you’ve been reading the blog for a while you know that I’m not one to shy away from shameless self-promotion. If you’re not going to talk up and promote your work, who will? You may remember the countdown to Eleven 99, the launch of Theme Park Syndicate (the Digg-like version & the current news feed version), mentions of Projects X & Y, the release of Coaster Portal...
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Intimidator Construction Photos & Test Run Video
I went to Plaza Fiesta with my family about a week ago. It’s an indoor shopping mall with a huge kids play area and arcade. It just so happens to be located across the street from Carowinds. So, while we were there I ran across the street and took a few pictures of Intimidator from a far. These aren’t the greatest ‘construction’ photos, but it’s still a look at the ...
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Roller Coasters on the Move in 2010
Everyone does a ‘New Roller Coasters List’ (my official Top 10 of 2010 is coming up), but what about the new-ish roller coasters. Quite often there’s a shell game happening behind the scenes with rides and roller coasters being swapped, recycled, re-themed, and given a new life at a different park. Just like used cars, or should I say ‘pre-owned’, they’re new to...
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Mr. Six’s DanceCoaster Coming to Six Flags Magic Mountain
Just as I was writing a post about relocated roller coasters, Six Flags Magic Mountain finally announced today the name and theme of their 2010 relocated family coaster. Mr. Six’s DanceCoaster was announced as the park’s 17th roller coaster. It will be themed after that creepy old dancing guy that serves as the company’s spokesperson. While I think he’s annoying, the theme ...
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Legoland Florida Announced for 2011
As I mentioned in my 2009 Theme Park Year in Review, Cypress Gardens (Winter Haven, Florida) closed last year. This week, Merlin and Legoland Park executives announced that they will be building Legoland Florida on the site of the old Cypress Gardens. Here are a few notes from the announcement: The park, which is planned for the former site of Cypress Gardens, is expected to include between 40 ...
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Augmented Reality Preview of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter
Augmented Reality Preview of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter USA Today & Universal have teamed up to provide a pretty interesting preview of the highly anticipated Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Set to open in Spring 2010, the multi-million dollar section of Islands of Adventure has Potter fans and theme park fans anxious to see details of this new ‘theme park within a theme park&#...
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Best Wooden Roller Coasters of 2009
The Voyage Reigns Supreme The Voyage (Holiday World, Indiana) reclaimed its spot as the favorite roller coaster in this year’s Internet Coaster Poll. Last year it was dethroned by then newcomer T Express (Everland, South Korea). T Express slipped to third with El Toro and The Voyage battling it out for the top spot. I love both El Toro and The Voyage for different reasons and I have no probl...
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A Coaster Enthusiast’s Resolutions
As represented by the sudden increase in attendance at my gym, January is the month to start New Year’s resolutions. It’s the chosen time to turn over a new leaf, start better habits, and end bad habits. I thought of a few ways that I could be a better roller coaster enthusiast in 2010. Learn About Coasters & Theme Parks of the World Of course many of us know and love our local par...
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Ride Op Tells Amusement Park Tales
If you think you’ve seen or heard some stupid things at theme parks imagine what the employees have witnessed. The Amusement Park Tales is a blog that chronicles a ride operators experiences at an unnamed Ohio amusement park. Under the pen name MAL, the blogger shares her “most ridiculous stories”, from her time working in a park’s kiddie section last summer. Reading her st...
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Best Steel Roller Coasters of 2009
Mitch Hawker has released the results of his annual Internet Coaster Poll. I’ll cover the wooden roller coaster results in another post, for now here’s the top ten steel coasters along with their places in last year’s poll: 1 Bizarro at Six Flags New England Intamin Hyper Coaster (1st) 2 Eagles Fortress at Everland (South Korea) Arrow Suspended Coaster (3rd) 3 Expedition GeForce ...
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The Coaster Critic’s Blog 4.0 Now Live!
Welcome to The Coaster Critic’s Blog 4.0 As the blog enters it’s fourth year, I figured I’d give it a facelift. Welcome to The Coaster Critic’s Blog 4.0! I spend my winters (the theme park off-season) launching new projects like Theme Park Syndicate and on redesigns like this one. The changes to the site aren’t as big as the last redesign a year ago, but there are a ...
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What is a Terrain Roller Coaster?
Terrain roller coasters use the natural layout of the land that they’re built on. Often they use a ravine or cliff for their drops. They can be any type of roller coaster from the steel flying coaster Tatsu to the wooden coaster Boulder Dash. These types of roller coasters have been around for many years and I don’t really know of a defining first terrain roller coaster. While there m...
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Roller Coaster Museum Comes to Texas
Plainview, Texas is Home to the Roller Coaster Museum On a recent edition of the Season Pass Podcast I learned about the new roller coaster museum in Texas. When I heard that it was in Plainview, which is 7 hours from the closest major theme park (Six Flags Over Texas) I was a bit puzzled. I always thought that an amusement park filled state like Pennsylvania would be perfect for the museum. But,...
- Emma on Disaster Transport @ Cedar Point | Coaster Reviews
- Emma on Spongebob vs Snoopy – What’s Your Take?
- Judy_P_in_Pgh on Top 3 Roughest Steel Coasters | Top 3 Thursdays
- Judy_P_in_Pgh on Top 3 Roughest Steel Coasters | Top 3 Thursdays
- Judy_P_in_Pgh on Disaster Transport @ Cedar Point | Coaster Reviews
- Emma on Top 3 Roughest Steel Coasters | Top 3 Thursdays
- Emma on Disaster Transport @ Cedar Point | Coaster Reviews
- Prof. BAM on Afterburn @ Carowinds | Roller Coaster Reviews
- CFC on Afterburn @ Carowinds | Roller Coaster Reviews
- CFC on Demon @ Six Flags Great America | Coaster Reviews
- Demon @ Six Flags Great America | Coaster Reviews
- Six Flags Closes Kentucky Kingdom
- The Final Countdown
- Intimidator Construction Photos & Test Run Video
- Roller Coasters on the Move in 2010
- Mr. Six’s DanceCoaster Coming to Six Flags Magic Mountain
- Legoland Florida Announced for 2011
- Augmented Reality Preview of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter
- Best Wooden Roller Coasters of 2009
- A Coaster Enthusiast’s Resolutions
- Defunct Roller Coasters (12)
- Editorials & Rants (23)
- Exclusive Features! (25)
- Interviews (5)
- Memorable Coaster Moments (7)
- Roller Coaster News (86)
- Roller Coaster Reviews (71)
- Roller Coaster Showdowns (5)
- Theme Park News (149)
- Theme Park Reviews (9)
- Theme Park Tips (7)
- Top 3 Thursdays (30)
- Trip Reports (22)
