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About The Coaster Critic
I'm a native of Virginia and I got my first taste of roller coasters at Kings Dominion. A few years ago I merged my interests for writing and roller coasters by creating this blog. Read more on the About Page.Latest Posts by The Coaster Critic
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First Look at the GT Coaster at Ferrari World
Here’s a first look at the new GT Coaster opening this year at Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi. The trains are themed after Ferrari F430 Spiders. Fittingly, the roller coaster will be a launch roller coaster. If the Roller Coaster Database listing is correct (it’s listed as “Emotion Coaster”), it’s being built by Maurer Sohne, the same company that built Hollywood: Rip, Ri...
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Texas Giant Goes Steel: Abomination or Giant Improvement?
Six Flags’ Texas Giant Gets a Steel Makeover for 2011 For months we’ve known that Texas Giant was closed and would not be open until the 2011 season. It was pretty clear that Six Flags was going to give the 24 year old woodie some needed rehab and/or re-tracking. But recently it was announced that Rocky Mountain Construction Group is going to give Texas Giant a first-ever upgrade. The ...
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Sky Rocket Construction Photos & Kennywood in the Snow
Longtime reader Judy sent in these great shots of Kennywood. There are a number of cool images of the Pittsburgh area park after a recent snow storm. She also sent a few images that show the construction site for the park’s 2010 roller coaster, Sky Rocket. Although, it doesn’t appear like too much actual construction has taken place. They were taken on 2/27. #gallery-1 { mar...
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Black Mamba | Most Wanted Roller Coasters
This Bolliger & Mabillard low flying inverted coaster looks like a fun ride. Located at Phantasialand in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, the African-themed coaster dives below the ground a number of times. It’s subterranean sections are reminiscent of Montu’s Egyptian-themed trenches and Nemesis’s low flight path. It appears to spend even more time underground than those two...
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Stuff Coaster Enthusiasts Like | Theme Park Website Spotlight
Normally I wouldn’t showcase a defunct website, but the eight posts on this short-lived blog are awesome. Stuff Coaster Enthusiasts Like is based on the popular blog Stuff White People Like that has inspired other sites and even books like Stuff Christians Like. They’re often written from a standpoint akin to a sociologist or someone studying the behavior of a group of people or a spe...
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Gravity Group’s Timberliner Trains Could Be a Game Changer
I’ll start by admitting that this is not a breaking story, but it does deserve a post. The Gravity Group is a wooden roller coaster design company. They’re a fairly young company, but they’ve churned out some amazing coasters in the past five years including Hades, Ravine Flyer II, Fireball (China’s first wooden coaster, and the top rated wooden roller coaster in the World,...
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Kings Dominion’s Intimidator 305 Construction
Intimidator 305: Intimidating Indeed King’s Dominion’s massive Giga coaster is nearing completion. Images on the official mini site (Intimidator 305 Kings Dominion.com) show the red steel track reaching 305 feet into the sky. Even with all of the images in photo gallery, it’s hard to conceive just how tall 300 feet is. I saw Intimidator at Carowinds in person last month and I was...
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Crystal Wings | Most Wanted Roller Coasters
Most Wanted Roller Coasters This week, I’m going to start a new feature called Most Wanted Coasters. I’m going to write about the roller coasters that I ‘d most like to ride one day. There are thousands of roller coasters around the World. While there are a number of rides that are identical to the rides at your local park, there are also quite a few roller coasters out there t...
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Presenting The Roller Coaster Wiki
In a World where roller coaster information was scattered throughout the Web, coaster enthusiasts had to do countless searches in order to do coaster research. Until, one day, a new website rose to the challenge with the help of an excellent group of resources. Now, there was hope. Now, there was the… Roller Coaster Wiki – The Roller Coaster Information Aggregator So what’s in t... -
Nara Dreamland | Abandoned Amusement Parks
Nara Dreamland: Former Disneyland Knock-Off, Now Creepy Abandoned Amusement Park As I was doing research for The Final Project! (insert Europe’s “Final Countdown” music here), I came across the enigma that was Nara Dreamland. It was a Disneyland clone in Japan that closed a few years ago. From looking at a photo trip report from Theme Park Review, I’m not surprised that it ...
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Top Ten List-O-Rama!
It seems like coaster enthusiasts stay sane in the off-season by doing polls, top tens, awards, and coaster/ride tournaments. Even I’m starting to get a little tired of them at this point. But, Brady over at the LA Time Funland Blog has done something a little different. He created his top tens based on a panel of coaster ‘experts’ (including me!). The panel includes such lumin...
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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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- Vince on Spongebob vs Snoopy – What’s Your Take?
- JaMeS on First Look at the GT Coaster at Ferrari World
- Quil on Texas Giant Goes Steel: Abomination or Giant Improvement?
- Quil on Sky Rocket Construction Photos & Kennywood in the Snow
- Quil on First Look at the GT Coaster at Ferrari World
- Judy_P_in_Pgh on Sky Rocket Construction Photos & Kennywood in the Snow
- Tom on Sky Rocket Construction Photos & Kennywood in the Snow
- Tom on First Look at the GT Coaster at Ferrari World
- The Coaster Critic on Texas Giant Goes Steel: Abomination or Giant Improvement?
- Judy_P_in_Pgh on Sky Rocket Construction Photos & Kennywood in the Snow
- First Look at the GT Coaster at Ferrari World
- Texas Giant Goes Steel: Abomination or Giant Improvement?
- Sky Rocket Construction Photos & Kennywood in the Snow
- Black Mamba | Most Wanted Roller Coasters
- Stuff Coaster Enthusiasts Like | Theme Park Website Spotlight
- Gravity Group’s Timberliner Trains Could Be a Game Changer
- Kings Dominion’s Intimidator 305 Construction
- Crystal Wings | Most Wanted Roller Coasters
- Presenting The Roller Coaster Wiki
- Nara Dreamland | Abandoned Amusement Parks
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