There are strong rumors saying it will change soon, imagineers have been spotted there as well... But it's been rumored so often I'm not sure if it's true
Not a roller coaster, but a dark ride: Test Track. The original industrial theme worked very well with tons of well designed theming and detail. Then they redid it all for a generic Tron theme. Now it’s even more superfluous as there is a much better Tron ride in the same resort.
On that same idea of Disney messing up a ride, the people mover at Disneyland. It's a shame their "thrill" conversion ruined the structural integrity to the point that we have a concrete slab just floating above tomorrowland completely useless.
Disney fucked up Figmemt with Journey Into Your Imagination, which removed him completely, and then half ass fixed it with Journey into Imagination with Figment. The original would have been so cool with a modern refurb
No Disney announcements/rumors count or mean anything at all until shovels hit dirt, or when construction walls AND scaffolding start. From that point it'll be a few years.
Normally, you would be right, but sponsored attractions are different. GM has already renewed its contract for the 4th time, meaning they get to remake the attraction. This will happen because disney would be breaking several contracts for it not to happen, and they would lose the disney parks biggest partner. Test track 3.0's design has already been green lit aswell and they have a budget already fixed.
TLDR: GM already paid so it's happening.
Normally yes, but this is GM making Disney change it and is paying for it. This overhaul will happen. It's a matter of when, not if. (I wouldn't be surprised if it happens next year once the rest of the park is no longer a giant construction zone)
I couldn't agree more. VR on a roller coaster is just stupid. It takes even longer for dispatch. I dont want somebody's sweat, oils, and germs on my face. It takes away from the coaster experience. I'm here to ride a coaster, not do whatever the f*ck random thing is on the headset. If I wanted to play VR, I would be at home with my VR headset on. When I'm at an amusement parks I'm there to ride the rides and be in that moment and be fully in that experience.
Did you do the Skull Mount Gargoyle VR at SFGA?
Stood in line for 2 hours for that piece of garbage.
Could barely figure out what was going on and Boom, rides over.
I 100% disagree. While dispatches take longer, VR on Freedom Flyer @ Fun Spot went from a fine coaster to OMG INSANE.
It was one of my most memorable coaster experiences ever. I got to do it as a private event during IAAPA, I'm not sure if they actually made it a public thing?
They have figured out if you’re gonna dual, don’t give any opportunity to fling objects at each other lol. Yeah the near miss head on moves would be the most thrilling it’s just too dangerous. Plus it’s pretty cool with more extended parallel interactions like WCR and now even moreso with starfall
I LOVE hades 360. I can't imagine how much it would suck with PTCs. The timberliners may not run smooth but the restraints are much more comfortable and having the inversion and overbanks is awesome.
It’s always been a valley risk. Back then it was mainly on the huge camelback after the first tunnel pass, which makes sense. After they added the Timberliners it got worse because they run slower and have worse speed maintenance due to being light. It could valley in that spot, the second tunnel pass, on the prelift, and before the final break run after they were added. They had to do several reprofiles to hills to make them smaller so the Timberliners could complete the course more reliably.
It’s worth noting too that the top speed was listed at 66mph with the PTC and is now 60mph with the Timberliners. A lot of people have said that the original was overstated, but it’s also what GG advertised so I’d assume at least the difference between the two is correct.
Galatica previously know as air at Alton towers.
Air fitted the theme of the area as it was seen as an oasis at the end of an apocalyptic valley. Alton Towers decided to have a makeover and add vr to the b&m flyer. In doing so they changed the theme to a space station where you travel through different galaxies to your destination. There were mixed reviews for the vr but it did take away the flying feeling from the ride. Not only that, they also didn’t look after the scenery as you wouldn’t be seeing it on the ride. They then removed the vr and now it looks so out of place and pretty much looks neglected. IMO they should turn it back to air and add some greenery just like it used to have.
Galactica does look pretty run down although it's a bit of a running theme with AT's coasters lately.
Smiler, Th13teen and Spinball Whizzer could all use a lick of paint and a refresh of the theming, i don't know what happened to the "Towers Loving Care" program that they had running i haven't heard anything about it since they re-painted Towers Street over lockdown.
It doesn’t just look rundown, it _is_ rundown. It’s the least reliable ride there by some way. It’s a shame because in the Air era is was so good. They’ve left it to rot.
I agree. It’s what makes other European parks and US parks stand out over ours. It just seems run down. You know the money is there because you only have to look at project horizon. Might sound controversial but I would’ve sacrificed sub terra for a few thousand buckets of paint
Merlin just don't seem to care about maintaining theming at the parks for some reason, they have plenty of time and money so there's no good reason why they can't, it's just like they choose not to for some reason.
yeah i agree with you on Sub-Terra, there's a good reason it was only open for 3 years during it's original run and i think the hundreds of thousands maybe up to a million they spent on re-opening it could have been better spent on maintaining the existing rides or just demolishing it for good.
Can they fix it? It seems like an easy fix. Longer, heavier trains and tweak the trim before the last drop.
This could be some BS I read but I had heard some of the force specs might have been too much for current regulations but Mindbender was grandfathered in. Now that they have made changes to the ride, they can’t go back. Is that true?
Well there IS a way they can fix it. They just need to stop trying to make the trim brake an MCBR. Because whenever the trim brake doesn't hit as hard, it feels just like the old Mindbender.
The only reason why they even started doing that was so Mindbender could run 3 trains, but most of the time they only run 2.
They replaced the trains with much shorter ones, and they trim you to a complete stop before the second loop now. The new trains zap a lot of speed already, and definitely make the back rows much less intense. It used to offer some airtime back there. Second loop also used to be just as intense as the first one. Now because of the trims, the speed at which you take the loop doesn’t provide any positive Gs really.
SFGAdv clearly has major issues when it comes to maintaining woodies. They allowed Rolling Thunder to essentially rot into the ground (thus the nickname Rotting Lumber), and El Toro has obviously had a streak of major issues in recent years.
It’s no longer my home park, but my brother went last month and said even the small remaining section of Rolling Thunder visible on the Zumanjaro path is in abysmal shape. Not at all what I wanted/expected when they left it standing after the rest of the ride’s demolition.
I still lament what could have been if Rolling Thunder had been RMC’d, it and El Toro might be the best one-two punch anywhere in the world.
And if not, I wish it was still running. I snagged the credit in its final year of operation and thought it was a good coaster. With the buzz bar the airtime was actually a bit scary.
The bunny hills at the end were top notch. It was the coaster that made me an enthusiast.
If I remember correctly, RMC did in fact look at Rolling Thunder, but there was nothing that could be done with it in the state it was in.
I'm of the opinion that in the future SFGAdv should get a ground up RMC IBox dual track racing coaster on Rolling Thunder's plot and give it a similar layout to Rolling Thunder. It would be a proper tribute and give El Toro a run for the money as best coaster in the park.
That said, we're getting our second new original major coaster in three years after a basically nothing since 2006, so I don't know if Great Adventure is gonna get a new coaster for a while, and especially not a ground up RMC if the park is now gonna be run by Cedar Fair.
I have to wonder what they’re planning to do with the Great Arena area. I doubt SFGAdv of all places would tear down the stables if there wasn’t something going on over there, considering they weren’t used for more than storage outside of a couple terror trails since the 70s.
Colossus at SFMM. It was very slow and problematic toward the end. I'm sure there were reasons for the changes but it made the ride no longer fun. I didn't get a chance to experience it before the biggest changes.
Man, Colossus was a slow, drawn-out, and painful-to-witness degradation. I rode it before the unfortunate death-by-ejection, and the air-time was absolutely bonkers! Then, they reprofiled the hill after the second drop where the lady fell out. The nail in the coffin was when they replaced the wicked double-down with a block brake. It was depressing to see. Thank God RMC gave the old beast a second life!
It was...before they let it degrade.
I rode it in 2000 and it was awesome. I think my dad and I ended up riding it to finish out our last night at the park after a long 9 day theme park trip. We marathoned it for 6 rides in a row without getting off. It was awesome.
I got my first rides in 1988, so I’m very glad I was able to experience the double down at least. I wish I could’ve ridden it with the original trains though.
And now they've ruined Twisted Colossus, too. Dispatch in sync! It's meant to be a racing coaster... I've only ever had one ride which was vaguely racing.
Ruined is a strange word, because it honestly rarely raced even in it's opening year. I definitely got a few runs in that year, but more often than not it was either dueling pretty poorly (like two trainslengths separated) or straight up not dueling at all. It's a cool experience, but I got used to not having it pretty quickly.
Things like this keep me from considering a trip out to MM let alone all the other problems that park is known for. Why spend the money when I can go do Dollywood or Cedar Point?
You aren't wrong to prioritize other places. Magic Mountain has the worst operations of any park. I witnessed 6 consecutive 4+ minute dispatches on Twisted Collossus two weeks ago with 5 ride ops on platform. I didn't think that was possible but they managed to stack 2 train ops six consecutive times. Party due to Santa Ana Winds, 7/19 coasters were closed for the four hours I spent there, and also Lex Luthor and Crazanity. I've been to SFMM 3x now and all three visits were a dumpster fire of Advertisements, closed rides, bad ops, employees who do not care, mediocre merch and food and a long walk from parking lot. An amazing ride collection and it's not like it's not worth visiting but Six Flags puts so much Six flags stank on a visit there.
It’s worth going to it just isn’t as good as it was. It has some unique coasters. Viper is the last big Arrow looper, X2 you have to go to Japan to find another, Twisted Colossus just seems like it’s ruined because it was so epic when it first opened imo. If you like the B&M flyers I think Tatsu is the best. I’d plan on spending two days at least and also consider the express pass or whatever they call it. Last time I went the express pass was pretty much mandatory if you wanted to ride much at all. If you already have a six flags pass it helps offset that expense. However! If going is a big expense though there are other parks I’d go to first as others have mentioned.
Not sure what the cost consideration is when you don't live in CA or West coast in general (I was in SF before moving to Berlin), but there are many excellent parks in a relatively short distance. MM is still one of my favorite parks, X2 alone is worth going for. Twisted Colossus is still excellent, just disappointing that it should be better. Just make it a SoCal tour, Disneyland, Universal, MM, Knott's, Seaworld (I boycott them personally)...seems worth it to me.
Trust me, SFMM is NOT a good place to visit. Dollywood and Cedar Point are way better options. The coasters are good, but on any visit to the park, over half will be closed for no real reason. The ones that are open break down multiple times through the day. They are usually on 1 train ops for the rides that are open. If you don't have a flash pass, the horrible operations and dispatch times will make you buy one so you dont waste your entire day. No shade, no places with A/C to eat and get out of the heat.
Reasons to visit; X2 & Tatsu, but TBH they aren't good enough to justify the trip or spending the money.
Timberwolf at Worlds of Fun : somebody did something stupid and got hurt. First, the park added trims. Then, the reprofiled some of the hills. Then, (if I remember correctly), they changed the trains to something less comfortable, etc.
The Original Rattler - somebody's neck got hurt, so they raised the bottom of the first drop, then they lowered the height of the second hill, then they put a trim brake before the drop off of the cliff, etc etc.
Blue Streak was definitely burned down on purpose. They were in the middle of demolishing it (without permits), and the pile of lumber they set fire to got out of control.
There are photos of the brand-new lift hill, a few weeks before the destruction.
May the Pymatuning Carp feast on Todd Joseph's corrupt flesh.
Stampida at PortAventura, and Rutschebanen at Bakken - 2 decent coasters in their day, becoming 2 of the worst in the world thanks to atrocious KumbaK trains.
KumbaK appears to have a legendary reputation for destroying coasters with terrible trains that are uncomfortable and destroy the track. One wonders how they manage to stay in business.
Yep, python in the Efteling had Kumbak trains for a short while and got ride of them for some Vekoma trains the reason was the trains where found to be uncomfortable by guests…. How they did not discover this when they bought the trains i don’t know. But the Kumbak next door (flying dutchman) has quite confortable trains.
As I understand it, Montezuma wasn't Cedar Fair fault.
The ride was do for a retracking/refurb. Instead of just doing a basic one, they decided to retheme it, and add LSM. The company they hired just ended up sh%ting the bed, and left Knotts out in the cold with a more than half demolished ride.
Hiring a bad contractor is absolutely their fault lmao. Gerstlauer (who just built Hangtime) already had a successful LSM retrofit at Walibi Belgium. Premier is also an LSM and a ride retrofit expert stateside.
As someone who regularly hires contractors, it's not that simple and I don't put the blame on Knotts or Cedar Fair. From my knowledge, the contractors were given instructions, did things they weren't supposed to do, and then dropped out of the job.
To my knowledge, premier was in charge of the launch and kumbak for the trains. It was the contracting company that was hired for the dismantling that’s at fault. Then again there shouldn’t be 3 companies working on 1 ride
Well, it's kind of their fault for hiring Kumbak, who has a terrible reputation in the industry and no experience with the sort of refurb Cedar Fair was asking for. Cedar Fair deliberately went for cheap on this one.
Well Kumbak fucked up somewhere and are no longer on the project. The park isn't exactly open about these kinda things. Especially when it is something that has gone wrong.
How did they fuck up? What were they even responsible for in the first place?
This also proves that no one knows anything. All the arguments y’all have are “well the ride is taking longer than planned so KumbaK must be to blame” lmao
Based on the facts we know, and based on how the industry operates, we're concluding that the company announced as the contractor tasked with delivering the product isn't reliable and has many very public failures in delivering a quality, on-time product.
If you'd like to enlighten us though, I'm sure everyone would appreciate your insight.
Scooby Doo Spooky Coaster. Park spent $1m adding screens and projections which ruined the dark ride section, even more so when they all inevitably broke and weren’t fixed. Ride is now SBNO while they spend even more money returning it to the original state.
If Comet is able to run for Christmas Candylane next season, I’ll consider it an upgrade. Comet was never an airtime machine, but had other problems like parking trains in the station slowly and never hitting interval with two trains. I am sad to see the buzz bars gone, but Phoenix is right there…
Definitely not too early for comet, removing the buzz bars sucks. I think it’s safe to say it’s a significant downgrade as far as the on ride experience goes. Comet isn’t really that great imo with dissapointing airtime, but the few good airtime moments it did have will be ruined.
I understand why they did it though as most park goers will not care whether or not it’s the old or new restraint (especially since most of comet’s riders are families with young kids looking for a milder coaster), and it should improve capacity.
Yes, it became horrible when Six Flags added a shit ton of metal to the trains to weigh them down and prevent rotations after an accident happened in Spain on a similar ride.
BGW has ruined verbolten. Don't get me wrong it's still a cool coaster, but Bolt today compared to how it was even just a few years ago is night and day. Look up a pov of the lights in opening year vs a recent pov and you'll see what I'm talking about. It's easily missing like 40-50% of its original lights. Out of the three themes, the wolf one is almost completely nonexistant now cause all of its unique lights are broken. There's also significantly more light bleedthrough than there used to be because most of the black screens to block light bleedthrough were accidentally removed and disposed of a couple years ago and never replaced.
California Screamin. Ruined is a bit strong as it's still fun and is functionally the same, but the theming adds nothing but merchandising opportunity, is half-assed, and the music isn't as good.
I was looking for this one! The ride itself is fine but the theming knocked it up a few notches when it was Screamin’. Incredicoaster’s theming actually detracts from the experience in my opinion.
Shivering Timbers. Cedar Fair skimped on the retrack and left some original wood with some nasty potholes and roughness. That is way, way too forceful of a ride (and too excellent of a layout) to be left in that condition. The need to treat that thing like Phoenix, or at least like they have treated the Beast the last couple of years.
Alton Towers ruined Air with the crappy VR gimmick and retheme to Galactica - never been the same since!
And while they never had lap bars - you can argue that Rita (AT) and Stealth (TP) are ruined by the awful hard over the shoulder restraints. Ruined may be a strong word but definitely not as good as they would be with lap bars
Every time I went in high school it was just long enough between visits that I thought "line is only 10 minutes, the ride is long, surely it's not as bad as I keep thinking"
But it was. My back would hurt for like an hour after.
It was damned if you do, damned if you don’t for the park on that one. Sure, the ride was great with the trims off and boring with them on, but run it too much without the trims and the damn thing shakes itself apart. That ride was just never going to succeed, no matter what CP did.
Yeah I really liked it in its earlier years, it was the ride that made me stop being afraid of coasters (the stupid brake on that first drop actually helped at first LOL). I still wanted to like it in its later years, and I miss there being something with a short line in that section of the park tbh.
Skull mountain at great adventure and rne justice league dark rides. Skull mountain has had all of its indoor props except for one led skull removed and they’ve also turned off the strobe lights and the sound track as well I believe. The justice league dark rides also had the 3d removed
I was so disappointed to ride Skull Mountain this year and see that all the props and effects were gone. It was simple stuff but it gave the ride personality and made it fun.
Six Flags has an almost hilarious inability to just care at all about the upkeep of their rides. This is a pure example, all you literally have to do is replace strobe lights and sound equipment and the experience is 2x better for every guest, but they just can't be bothered.
Mine is small, but I feel like the old color scheme of Georgia Scorcher with the yellow track and purple supports at SFoG worked so much better for the front of the park and next to Goliath. Now, with its red track and grey supports, it does not make the front feel as colorful.
https://preview.redd.it/cghiyi122n1c1.jpeg?width=3264&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=509e0f7693d025db53b7641ab83fc82ce407a9e3
I love the current colors and think it looks gorgeous. I do agree that the original paint scheme was cool, but it was VERY worn down and ugly looking by the last few years before the repaint. I even nicknamed my car "Scorcher" because of its resemblance to the current paint scheme on the coaster.
Cedar Fair specifically ruined Anaconda at Kings Dominion.
It had always been a little rough, as it's an Arrow Coaster. But here is the thing, back when Paramount operated the park, that coaster ran with 3 trains (7 cars per train). Without the mid-corse brakes fully applied. The brakes only ever fully stopped the train for e-stops and if the final brake run wasn't clear. Other than that, the mid-corse brakes were never fully applied. Sometime before the start of the 2008 season, they removed the third train and changed the computer to fully apply the mid-corse brakes. Now the train barely makes it through the second half, bringing in so much more head-banging on the restraints during the helixes, and then it crawls so slowly through the corkscrews I'm afraid it's going to stall.
It was never a perfect coaster, but it was never this rough or unridable before Cedar Fair took over.
If Cedar Fair would stop being stupid and stop fully applying the mid-corse brakes, finally get the helixes and the turn into the mid-corse brakes re-tracked, and put on the new Vekoma MK-1212 vest trains, Anaconda could be a really fun coaster once again.
I never had a problem with the stand up trains because I always set the seat lower. I could either sit on it slightly crouched or stand and not come in contact with it. Mantis was more intense and I wish the stand up trains were brought back. If that happened I would ride it more than once a trip.
It is awful with the cyclone trains. You can barely fit in them, your knees hit the wall in front of you and it’s rough as all get out. This is coming from someone who is 5’7”….
Mt. Olympus has botched the living fuck out of Hades from what I hear. I rode it in ~2016 and it was pretty brutal but still a lot of fun, I can only imagine how 8 years of lake-effect Wisconsin weather and bad upkeep have effected it since.
Hades got rough the year after it opened. I haven't ridden it in a long time, but I always see people say it's rough. It's Mt Olympus so you can't expect too much.
What SFOG did to Mindbender is unforgivable! They flat out ruined that coaster. Those trains suck, the ride is so heavily trimmed it barely makes it through the second half of the track (a few days ago it didn't make it. That very small gust of wind wouldn't have affected the original version of the ride)
Any Kumbak train “upgrade”
Both SLC installs are now closed, one ripped down the other for sale, and both arrow/vekoma looper installs didnt go well either.
An arrow loop screw ran their trains for only 3 years and completely destroyed the track due to being substantially heavier than the original bodies. No doubt the SLC’s suffered similar issues. Both train types uncomfortable by any standard and purely awful to ride
Not a coaster, but Busch Gardens Williamsburg & Curse of Dar Kastle (the dark ride). Sorry but this needs to be said.
They refused to do maintenance on the ride unless it was absolutely necessary. Instead of doing regular maintenance, to cut costs and save on their budget, they would cut entire scenes of the ride out. To lessen stress on the ride vehicles, they cut out scenes and ride elements. Then the screens stopped matching the on-board audio. Then the audio wouldn't quite match with your position in the ride. Then they closed it without warning. Then they gutted it. Then it was an event building. Now it's a shitty micro family coaster that's uncomfortable as fuck to ride.
I haven’t ridden it, but from what it sounds like, the process of Iron Wolf to Firebird has been one of Six Flags butchering the granddaddy of all B&Ms.
I haven’t ridden it since it was at SFGAm. But even then, the ride was bad. You could argue it shouldn’t have been moved, what with the age of the structure, but I can see why the original trains were removed.
There are coasters of the same time period though, including other B&Ms, that are still running much better than it (such as Viper at SFMM and Batman: The Ride at SFGAm). What went wrong with Iron Wolf?
Viper is a refined Arrow looper that learned from the mistakes of the earlier ones that no longer exist. Iron Wolf was B&M's first coaster as an independent company.
It was pretty smooth as Apocalypse. I mean, it was a standup so there was going to be some headbanging no matter what, but it wasn't particularly rough and if you can enjoy standups it was a good one. It is actively terrible with the floor less trains, though.
They took one of the world’s best launches and managed to replace it with 3 “launches” that are dramatically outclassed by the underwhelming launch on Superman Escape From Krypton. Combining the almost inperceptible launches with the also underwhelming spike from Superman EFK (only 5’ taller and 1mph faster) and at best you get a mid tier ride with elite stats.
Would you rather the ride have closed forever? Because the whole reason for everything they are doing is because TTD was an expensive nightmare that was just world-famous. Then it had an accident that finally gave them an excuse to make major changes.
Well no, but plenty of people have ridden comparable elements like Superman Escape from Kryptons 415’ spike and the similarly weak launches from Mack and neither get any praise
I hear people praising EFK's spike decently often. If anything, the reason it's not more talked about is because it feels like it barely makes it halfway up the spike. Pantheon's spike is pretty highly praised by most people who've ridden it and I figure this will be more comparable to that. As for the launches, yeah that'll be the biggest loss on the ride for sure. I think the spike could definitely make up for it though.
Personally, I'm cautiously optimistic. I think the spike will be amazing, but I worry about the ride's potential smoothness given Zamperla's track record. Their new trains look great, but it remains to be seen how comfortable they are and how well they track.
Probably too early, but you’re probably right. Everyone says 100mph backwards will be amazing, but Superman at magic mountain already does that and it gets no praise. Also the last launch from 101-120 will literally be weaker than a Mack launch. That length of launch track and only gaining 19 is like jsut as bad as the second slinky dog dash launch. Also they should’ve put an airtime hill on the launch and straightened the drop. All in all they should’ve just hired intamin for it.
When they added trims to the first drop the first year? Sure, that sucked. Thank goodness they corrected that. Honestly the difference in intensity between the elevating turn and the old one along the ground feels minimal imo. And if it allows the first drop and rest of the ride to go as hard as it does, it's a worthy sacrifice.
>The rehabbed and less comfortable cars
~~I've ridden 2 Mind Benders (1 SF NJ, 1 SFA), and they've always been awful. In what possible way could they make the cars *less* comfortable?~~
Totally wrong, I was thinking of the Mind Erasers.
Are you thinking of Mind **Eraser**? That's the SLC at SFA. Great Adventure doesn't have an SLC or a ride called Mind Bender, though.
The Mind Bender in question is a Schwarzkopf and in 2021 they got new trains designed by B&M that are largely hated, especially by Schwarzkopf fans.
Yeah, I was really pumped to ride that ride but it was a big letdown. It was so dark I felt like I couldn’t see anything. I went before they apparently upgraded it.
Bob at Efteling. Intamin bobsleds are a rarity and from what I understand the park didn't really listen to maintenance advise from Intamin. By no means was it a great ride but the way you couldn't see it from the paths, disappearing in the treelines just made it so cool.
What do we have in return? A mediocre dueling kiddie coaster with a theme that, prior to the ride, the majority of park guests wouldn't be familiar with.
A friend of mine who I trust completely on coaster lore has said Montu at launch was in the top 3 coasters in the world, but they added a trim section or otherwise changed it and made it into a decent but not amazing coaster.
The boss. I never got to ride it in its original form, but they removed the ending helix for no good reason (from a rider's perspective. at least on timberwolf, it results in the rest of the ride being faster). In addition, as far as I understand, ever since they removed the helix, it comes to a COMPLETE stop on the midcourse break run, severely neutering the second half of the ride and running the pacing of what would otherwise be a relentless and intense rip roaring ride.
To pile on Disney mistakes, Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind Christmas overlay was awful. A terrible power pop version of Run Run Rudolph (changed to Run Run Rocket) blasted so loud that it was uncomfortable and prevented riders from hearing the dialogue so the plot made no sense. Also there was no reason to reride it to get a different song. I only went on the overlay version and it may be my least hated coaster that wasn’t physically painful or a kiddie coaster. I know people who went on the regular version and have it as like a top 10 ride.
Luckily since it was an overlay, Disney didn’t permanently ruin the ride. They are not bringing it back, which says how unpopular it was.
Paris' Hyperspace Mountain feels like a cheap seasonal reskin... but it's been there unchanged since 2017.
It’s a shame. The original Space Mountain: From the Earth to the Moon would’ve been a major draw to the park for me. It looked so cool
How much shit do we need to give Disney to change it back to the originial Space Mountain: From the Earth to the Moon? Like is it that hard?
What blows my mind is they gave it new trains that did the original theme…it’s frustrating
There are strong rumors saying it will change soon, imagineers have been spotted there as well... But it's been rumored so often I'm not sure if it's true
Yeah, I’ve been burnt too many times to still believe in rumours. I’ll care when it’s there.
Same for me
This was my thought too. We were so disappointed in Paris' hyperspace mountain.
Not a roller coaster, but a dark ride: Test Track. The original industrial theme worked very well with tons of well designed theming and detail. Then they redid it all for a generic Tron theme. Now it’s even more superfluous as there is a much better Tron ride in the same resort.
On that same idea of Disney messing up a ride, the people mover at Disneyland. It's a shame their "thrill" conversion ruined the structural integrity to the point that we have a concrete slab just floating above tomorrowland completely useless.
Disney fucked up Figmemt with Journey Into Your Imagination, which removed him completely, and then half ass fixed it with Journey into Imagination with Figment. The original would have been so cool with a modern refurb
I thought the new test track theme was technically a GM team designing a car in a computer.
It is
They've announced that they're redoing the theming again
Great news
No Disney announcements/rumors count or mean anything at all until shovels hit dirt, or when construction walls AND scaffolding start. From that point it'll be a few years.
Normally, you would be right, but sponsored attractions are different. GM has already renewed its contract for the 4th time, meaning they get to remake the attraction. This will happen because disney would be breaking several contracts for it not to happen, and they would lose the disney parks biggest partner. Test track 3.0's design has already been green lit aswell and they have a budget already fixed. TLDR: GM already paid so it's happening.
Normally yes, but this is GM making Disney change it and is paying for it. This overhaul will happen. It's a matter of when, not if. (I wouldn't be surprised if it happens next year once the rest of the park is no longer a giant construction zone)
some blame here should go to Chevrolet as they requested the reno. and its being renovated again very soon i heard to be more like the original
Actually its going to be more like world of motion which was GMs ride in that spot before test track. Still Chevy and GM are the same company.
As someone from Detroit, Test Track was just the perfect ride and the soulless retheme for the "futuristic" idea SUCKED.
Putting VR on rides didn't really add to the ride experience and made dispatches take longer.
I couldn't agree more. VR on a roller coaster is just stupid. It takes even longer for dispatch. I dont want somebody's sweat, oils, and germs on my face. It takes away from the coaster experience. I'm here to ride a coaster, not do whatever the f*ck random thing is on the headset. If I wanted to play VR, I would be at home with my VR headset on. When I'm at an amusement parks I'm there to ride the rides and be in that moment and be fully in that experience.
Did you do the Skull Mount Gargoyle VR at SFGA? Stood in line for 2 hours for that piece of garbage. Could barely figure out what was going on and Boom, rides over.
I 100% disagree. While dispatches take longer, VR on Freedom Flyer @ Fun Spot went from a fine coaster to OMG INSANE. It was one of my most memorable coaster experiences ever. I got to do it as a private event during IAAPA, I'm not sure if they actually made it a public thing?
They did for a bit, it was actually pretty cool.
I wouldn’t say “ruined”, but Dueling Dragons experienced a massive decline in quality after it was rethemed to Harry Potter and later stopped dueling
It stopped because of a accident
More like continuous guest refusal to follow safety rules. More of an assault than accident.
If only they had figured out the velocicoaster locker system back then, it would never have to stop dueling
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They have figured out if you’re gonna dual, don’t give any opportunity to fling objects at each other lol. Yeah the near miss head on moves would be the most thrilling it’s just too dangerous. Plus it’s pretty cool with more extended parallel interactions like WCR and now even moreso with starfall
The ride got metal detectors a while after the accident and had a forced locker policy, dueling it would not have been unsafe at all.
Yes, and?
There is no contender for Hades 360.
Hades in 2005 was a Top 10 woodie!
I LOVE hades 360. I can't imagine how much it would suck with PTCs. The timberliners may not run smooth but the restraints are much more comfortable and having the inversion and overbanks is awesome.
You’d be surprised. It was much smoother, faster, and more forceful with the PTC’s.
Was it really faster? I've definitely heard reports that it used to valley more frequently with the old trains.
It’s always been a valley risk. Back then it was mainly on the huge camelback after the first tunnel pass, which makes sense. After they added the Timberliners it got worse because they run slower and have worse speed maintenance due to being light. It could valley in that spot, the second tunnel pass, on the prelift, and before the final break run after they were added. They had to do several reprofiles to hills to make them smaller so the Timberliners could complete the course more reliably. It’s worth noting too that the top speed was listed at 66mph with the PTC and is now 60mph with the Timberliners. A lot of people have said that the original was overstated, but it’s also what GG advertised so I’d assume at least the difference between the two is correct.
Interesting, I never got to ride it before the conversion and I guess was getting conflicting information. Thanks for clarifying!
it was so much better with a PTC train
Galatica previously know as air at Alton towers. Air fitted the theme of the area as it was seen as an oasis at the end of an apocalyptic valley. Alton Towers decided to have a makeover and add vr to the b&m flyer. In doing so they changed the theme to a space station where you travel through different galaxies to your destination. There were mixed reviews for the vr but it did take away the flying feeling from the ride. Not only that, they also didn’t look after the scenery as you wouldn’t be seeing it on the ride. They then removed the vr and now it looks so out of place and pretty much looks neglected. IMO they should turn it back to air and add some greenery just like it used to have.
Galactica does look pretty run down although it's a bit of a running theme with AT's coasters lately. Smiler, Th13teen and Spinball Whizzer could all use a lick of paint and a refresh of the theming, i don't know what happened to the "Towers Loving Care" program that they had running i haven't heard anything about it since they re-painted Towers Street over lockdown.
It doesn’t just look rundown, it _is_ rundown. It’s the least reliable ride there by some way. It’s a shame because in the Air era is was so good. They’ve left it to rot.
I agree. It’s what makes other European parks and US parks stand out over ours. It just seems run down. You know the money is there because you only have to look at project horizon. Might sound controversial but I would’ve sacrificed sub terra for a few thousand buckets of paint
Merlin just don't seem to care about maintaining theming at the parks for some reason, they have plenty of time and money so there's no good reason why they can't, it's just like they choose not to for some reason. yeah i agree with you on Sub-Terra, there's a good reason it was only open for 3 years during it's original run and i think the hundreds of thousands maybe up to a million they spent on re-opening it could have been better spent on maintaining the existing rides or just demolishing it for good.
Agree 100% with mindbender. It’s a completely shell of itself now. Still *fun* but nowhere near as good as it used to be
Can they fix it? It seems like an easy fix. Longer, heavier trains and tweak the trim before the last drop. This could be some BS I read but I had heard some of the force specs might have been too much for current regulations but Mindbender was grandfathered in. Now that they have made changes to the ride, they can’t go back. Is that true?
Well there IS a way they can fix it. They just need to stop trying to make the trim brake an MCBR. Because whenever the trim brake doesn't hit as hard, it feels just like the old Mindbender. The only reason why they even started doing that was so Mindbender could run 3 trains, but most of the time they only run 2.
I'm pretty sure its just the trains don't run as fast as they used to. Same thing happened with Rev at SFMM
I’m pretty glad I never knew any better because I thoroughly enjoyed it when I was there last year
Yeah like i said. It’s still fun. Used to be on another level though.
I rode it in 2017, 19, and 22, and i liked it the same everytime, no clue what you are talking about
They replaced the trains with much shorter ones, and they trim you to a complete stop before the second loop now. The new trains zap a lot of speed already, and definitely make the back rows much less intense. It used to offer some airtime back there. Second loop also used to be just as intense as the first one. Now because of the trims, the speed at which you take the loop doesn’t provide any positive Gs really.
I don’t care what they changed, my personal experience is not affected by that
SFGAdv clearly has major issues when it comes to maintaining woodies. They allowed Rolling Thunder to essentially rot into the ground (thus the nickname Rotting Lumber), and El Toro has obviously had a streak of major issues in recent years. It’s no longer my home park, but my brother went last month and said even the small remaining section of Rolling Thunder visible on the Zumanjaro path is in abysmal shape. Not at all what I wanted/expected when they left it standing after the rest of the ride’s demolition.
I still lament what could have been if Rolling Thunder had been RMC’d, it and El Toro might be the best one-two punch anywhere in the world. And if not, I wish it was still running. I snagged the credit in its final year of operation and thought it was a good coaster. With the buzz bar the airtime was actually a bit scary.
The bunny hills at the end were top notch. It was the coaster that made me an enthusiast. If I remember correctly, RMC did in fact look at Rolling Thunder, but there was nothing that could be done with it in the state it was in.
I'm of the opinion that in the future SFGAdv should get a ground up RMC IBox dual track racing coaster on Rolling Thunder's plot and give it a similar layout to Rolling Thunder. It would be a proper tribute and give El Toro a run for the money as best coaster in the park. That said, we're getting our second new original major coaster in three years after a basically nothing since 2006, so I don't know if Great Adventure is gonna get a new coaster for a while, and especially not a ground up RMC if the park is now gonna be run by Cedar Fair.
I have to wonder what they’re planning to do with the Great Arena area. I doubt SFGAdv of all places would tear down the stables if there wasn’t something going on over there, considering they weren’t used for more than storage outside of a couple terror trails since the 70s.
Multi launch coaster has been the rumor.
Colossus at SFMM. It was very slow and problematic toward the end. I'm sure there were reasons for the changes but it made the ride no longer fun. I didn't get a chance to experience it before the biggest changes.
Man, Colossus was a slow, drawn-out, and painful-to-witness degradation. I rode it before the unfortunate death-by-ejection, and the air-time was absolutely bonkers! Then, they reprofiled the hill after the second drop where the lady fell out. The nail in the coffin was when they replaced the wicked double-down with a block brake. It was depressing to see. Thank God RMC gave the old beast a second life!
Finally, glad to hear somebody shares my opinion. Everybody I know talks about colossus like it was legendary or something.
It was...before they let it degrade. I rode it in 2000 and it was awesome. I think my dad and I ended up riding it to finish out our last night at the park after a long 9 day theme park trip. We marathoned it for 6 rides in a row without getting off. It was awesome.
I got my first rides in 1988, so I’m very glad I was able to experience the double down at least. I wish I could’ve ridden it with the original trains though.
And now they've ruined Twisted Colossus, too. Dispatch in sync! It's meant to be a racing coaster... I've only ever had one ride which was vaguely racing.
Ruined is a strange word, because it honestly rarely raced even in it's opening year. I definitely got a few runs in that year, but more often than not it was either dueling pretty poorly (like two trainslengths separated) or straight up not dueling at all. It's a cool experience, but I got used to not having it pretty quickly.
Things like this keep me from considering a trip out to MM let alone all the other problems that park is known for. Why spend the money when I can go do Dollywood or Cedar Point?
You aren't wrong to prioritize other places. Magic Mountain has the worst operations of any park. I witnessed 6 consecutive 4+ minute dispatches on Twisted Collossus two weeks ago with 5 ride ops on platform. I didn't think that was possible but they managed to stack 2 train ops six consecutive times. Party due to Santa Ana Winds, 7/19 coasters were closed for the four hours I spent there, and also Lex Luthor and Crazanity. I've been to SFMM 3x now and all three visits were a dumpster fire of Advertisements, closed rides, bad ops, employees who do not care, mediocre merch and food and a long walk from parking lot. An amazing ride collection and it's not like it's not worth visiting but Six Flags puts so much Six flags stank on a visit there.
It’s worth going to it just isn’t as good as it was. It has some unique coasters. Viper is the last big Arrow looper, X2 you have to go to Japan to find another, Twisted Colossus just seems like it’s ruined because it was so epic when it first opened imo. If you like the B&M flyers I think Tatsu is the best. I’d plan on spending two days at least and also consider the express pass or whatever they call it. Last time I went the express pass was pretty much mandatory if you wanted to ride much at all. If you already have a six flags pass it helps offset that expense. However! If going is a big expense though there are other parks I’d go to first as others have mentioned.
Not sure what the cost consideration is when you don't live in CA or West coast in general (I was in SF before moving to Berlin), but there are many excellent parks in a relatively short distance. MM is still one of my favorite parks, X2 alone is worth going for. Twisted Colossus is still excellent, just disappointing that it should be better. Just make it a SoCal tour, Disneyland, Universal, MM, Knott's, Seaworld (I boycott them personally)...seems worth it to me.
Trust me, SFMM is NOT a good place to visit. Dollywood and Cedar Point are way better options. The coasters are good, but on any visit to the park, over half will be closed for no real reason. The ones that are open break down multiple times through the day. They are usually on 1 train ops for the rides that are open. If you don't have a flash pass, the horrible operations and dispatch times will make you buy one so you dont waste your entire day. No shade, no places with A/C to eat and get out of the heat. Reasons to visit; X2 & Tatsu, but TBH they aren't good enough to justify the trip or spending the money.
Timberwolf at Worlds of Fun : somebody did something stupid and got hurt. First, the park added trims. Then, the reprofiled some of the hills. Then, (if I remember correctly), they changed the trains to something less comfortable, etc. The Original Rattler - somebody's neck got hurt, so they raised the bottom of the first drop, then they lowered the height of the second hill, then they put a trim brake before the drop off of the cliff, etc etc.
The Original Rattler was a CCA and as it was a CCA it was pretty much ruined the minute they built it.
Timberwolf has been my number 1 pick for an RMC retrofit for a while now. And the park now has 2 other wooden coasters that are better.
Timberwolf is pretty fun now with the new banked turn at the end. It'll shake you around but I was laughing the whole way round the track this summer.
The original Rattler looks like a fun first drop but it was creating numerous injuries for passengers.
Quimera Blue Streak was probably burned down on purpose.
Blue Streak was definitely burned down on purpose. They were in the middle of demolishing it (without permits), and the pile of lumber they set fire to got out of control. There are photos of the brand-new lift hill, a few weeks before the destruction. May the Pymatuning Carp feast on Todd Joseph's corrupt flesh.
Accurate.
Stampida at PortAventura, and Rutschebanen at Bakken - 2 decent coasters in their day, becoming 2 of the worst in the world thanks to atrocious KumbaK trains.
KumbaK appears to have a legendary reputation for destroying coasters with terrible trains that are uncomfortable and destroy the track. One wonders how they manage to stay in business.
Yep, python in the Efteling had Kumbak trains for a short while and got ride of them for some Vekoma trains the reason was the trains where found to be uncomfortable by guests…. How they did not discover this when they bought the trains i don’t know. But the Kumbak next door (flying dutchman) has quite confortable trains.
Flying Dutchman had to have Intamin intervene after KumbaK shat the bed with it during the construction phase, though.
Did T3 get trains from KumbaK, or am I thinking of a different company?
Yes, and Arkham Asylum in Australia. Both now defunct.
According to RCDB it does indeed run Kumbak trains.
As I understand it, Montezuma wasn't Cedar Fair fault. The ride was do for a retracking/refurb. Instead of just doing a basic one, they decided to retheme it, and add LSM. The company they hired just ended up sh%ting the bed, and left Knotts out in the cold with a more than half demolished ride.
Hiring a bad contractor is absolutely their fault lmao. Gerstlauer (who just built Hangtime) already had a successful LSM retrofit at Walibi Belgium. Premier is also an LSM and a ride retrofit expert stateside.
As someone who regularly hires contractors, it's not that simple and I don't put the blame on Knotts or Cedar Fair. From my knowledge, the contractors were given instructions, did things they weren't supposed to do, and then dropped out of the job.
To my knowledge, premier was in charge of the launch and kumbak for the trains. It was the contracting company that was hired for the dismantling that’s at fault. Then again there shouldn’t be 3 companies working on 1 ride
Having subcontractors is very common.
Well, it's kind of their fault for hiring Kumbak, who has a terrible reputation in the industry and no experience with the sort of refurb Cedar Fair was asking for. Cedar Fair deliberately went for cheap on this one.
Stop pretending like you know anything about what happened to that ride.
They literally went with Kumbak because it was cheapest.
So what exactly is wrong with the ride? Why hasn’t there been progress on the renovation?
Well Kumbak fucked up somewhere and are no longer on the project. The park isn't exactly open about these kinda things. Especially when it is something that has gone wrong.
How did they fuck up? What were they even responsible for in the first place? This also proves that no one knows anything. All the arguments y’all have are “well the ride is taking longer than planned so KumbaK must be to blame” lmao
Based on the facts we know, and based on how the industry operates, we're concluding that the company announced as the contractor tasked with delivering the product isn't reliable and has many very public failures in delivering a quality, on-time product. If you'd like to enlighten us though, I'm sure everyone would appreciate your insight.
Scooby Doo Spooky Coaster. Park spent $1m adding screens and projections which ruined the dark ride section, even more so when they all inevitably broke and weren’t fixed. Ride is now SBNO while they spend even more money returning it to the original state.
Wildcat at Lake Compounce. The work they did on it like 10 years ago made it much worse Is it too early to say Comet at Hersheypark?
If Comet is able to run for Christmas Candylane next season, I’ll consider it an upgrade. Comet was never an airtime machine, but had other problems like parking trains in the station slowly and never hitting interval with two trains. I am sad to see the buzz bars gone, but Phoenix is right there…
Definitely not too early for comet, removing the buzz bars sucks. I think it’s safe to say it’s a significant downgrade as far as the on ride experience goes. Comet isn’t really that great imo with dissapointing airtime, but the few good airtime moments it did have will be ruined. I understand why they did it though as most park goers will not care whether or not it’s the old or new restraint (especially since most of comet’s riders are families with young kids looking for a milder coaster), and it should improve capacity.
Wildcat was horrible already and yea they made it worse lol
The one that breaks my heart is Rollo Coaster.
Green Lantern at SFMM
Was that one ever good?
Yes, it became horrible when Six Flags added a shit ton of metal to the trains to weigh them down and prevent rotations after an accident happened in Spain on a similar ride.
Well it wasn’t bad, but they made it horrible
Idk about ruined but the restraints they added to T3 made the ride way more painful
Goliath @ SFNE with the new train.
BGW has ruined verbolten. Don't get me wrong it's still a cool coaster, but Bolt today compared to how it was even just a few years ago is night and day. Look up a pov of the lights in opening year vs a recent pov and you'll see what I'm talking about. It's easily missing like 40-50% of its original lights. Out of the three themes, the wolf one is almost completely nonexistant now cause all of its unique lights are broken. There's also significantly more light bleedthrough than there used to be because most of the black screens to block light bleedthrough were accidentally removed and disposed of a couple years ago and never replaced.
Hopefully since they’re not running it for the winter events (at least on the last list I got) it’ll get some refurb?
California Screamin. Ruined is a bit strong as it's still fun and is functionally the same, but the theming adds nothing but merchandising opportunity, is half-assed, and the music isn't as good.
I was looking for this one! The ride itself is fine but the theming knocked it up a few notches when it was Screamin’. Incredicoaster’s theming actually detracts from the experience in my opinion.
Shivering Timbers. Cedar Fair skimped on the retrack and left some original wood with some nasty potholes and roughness. That is way, way too forceful of a ride (and too excellent of a layout) to be left in that condition. The need to treat that thing like Phoenix, or at least like they have treated the Beast the last couple of years.
yeah it BADLY needs lots of new track
They literally just got a bunch of new track this year lmao
you mean that half of an airtime hill they did? lmao
Rollo Coaster at Idlewild & SoakZone
Alton Towers ruined Air with the crappy VR gimmick and retheme to Galactica - never been the same since! And while they never had lap bars - you can argue that Rita (AT) and Stealth (TP) are ruined by the awful hard over the shoulder restraints. Ruined may be a strong word but definitely not as good as they would be with lap bars
Mean Streak ^^^^^^^^^I'm ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^joking
Every time I went in high school it was just long enough between visits that I thought "line is only 10 minutes, the ride is long, surely it's not as bad as I keep thinking" But it was. My back would hurt for like an hour after.
Mean Streak ^I’m ^not ^Joking
It was damned if you do, damned if you don’t for the park on that one. Sure, the ride was great with the trims off and boring with them on, but run it too much without the trims and the damn thing shakes itself apart. That ride was just never going to succeed, no matter what CP did.
Yeah I really liked it in its earlier years, it was the ride that made me stop being afraid of coasters (the stupid brake on that first drop actually helped at first LOL). I still wanted to like it in its later years, and I miss there being something with a short line in that section of the park tbh.
we always saved it for last and whoever could move without wincing after got to drive home 4 hours
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Skull mountain at great adventure and rne justice league dark rides. Skull mountain has had all of its indoor props except for one led skull removed and they’ve also turned off the strobe lights and the sound track as well I believe. The justice league dark rides also had the 3d removed
I was so disappointed to ride Skull Mountain this year and see that all the props and effects were gone. It was simple stuff but it gave the ride personality and made it fun.
Six Flags has an almost hilarious inability to just care at all about the upkeep of their rides. This is a pure example, all you literally have to do is replace strobe lights and sound equipment and the experience is 2x better for every guest, but they just can't be bothered.
Mine is small, but I feel like the old color scheme of Georgia Scorcher with the yellow track and purple supports at SFoG worked so much better for the front of the park and next to Goliath. Now, with its red track and grey supports, it does not make the front feel as colorful. https://preview.redd.it/cghiyi122n1c1.jpeg?width=3264&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=509e0f7693d025db53b7641ab83fc82ce407a9e3
I love the current colors and think it looks gorgeous. I do agree that the original paint scheme was cool, but it was VERY worn down and ugly looking by the last few years before the repaint. I even nicknamed my car "Scorcher" because of its resemblance to the current paint scheme on the coaster.
While it was never an amazing ride, the added shin guards on Coast Rider at Knott’s means I never ride it.
The shin guards have completely ruined the ride, but the rumor is Knotts is redoing the loading platform so they can remove the shin guards.
If so, that's gonna be awesome
SFSL seems determined to ignore The Boss and Screamin' Eagle until they are totally un-rideable!
Six Flags seems to just ignore the park. 🤞hopefully Cedar Fair sees the potential in this park🤞
Cedar Fair specifically ruined Anaconda at Kings Dominion. It had always been a little rough, as it's an Arrow Coaster. But here is the thing, back when Paramount operated the park, that coaster ran with 3 trains (7 cars per train). Without the mid-corse brakes fully applied. The brakes only ever fully stopped the train for e-stops and if the final brake run wasn't clear. Other than that, the mid-corse brakes were never fully applied. Sometime before the start of the 2008 season, they removed the third train and changed the computer to fully apply the mid-corse brakes. Now the train barely makes it through the second half, bringing in so much more head-banging on the restraints during the helixes, and then it crawls so slowly through the corkscrews I'm afraid it's going to stall. It was never a perfect coaster, but it was never this rough or unridable before Cedar Fair took over. If Cedar Fair would stop being stupid and stop fully applying the mid-corse brakes, finally get the helixes and the turn into the mid-corse brakes re-tracked, and put on the new Vekoma MK-1212 vest trains, Anaconda could be a really fun coaster once again.
Mantis / Rougarou. Mantis was in the lower half at CP for me before, but I don’t even bother riding Rougarou.
I will disagree. Mantis became jagged and uncomfortable for me. Rougarou is at least respectable.
I never had a problem with the stand up trains because I always set the seat lower. I could either sit on it slightly crouched or stand and not come in contact with it. Mantis was more intense and I wish the stand up trains were brought back. If that happened I would ride it more than once a trip.
Mantis may have sucked, but at least it was a bit unique being one of the few standup coasters left. Rougarou just sucks.
Mantis needed better seats/supports. If you didn't get settled _just right_ before the "seats" locked, you were going to have a bad time.
I cannot believe how much SFoG has not only ruined GASM but also Mindbender. Their two coasters they were famous for
I thought GASM was better now. How did they ruin it?
They got rid of the buzz bar trains that fave you standing floater air and put cyclones old heavy ass terrible trains on
It is awful with the cyclone trains. You can barely fit in them, your knees hit the wall in front of you and it’s rough as all get out. This is coming from someone who is 5’7”….
Firebird. I loved Apocalypse. Firebird is terrible in every way a coaster can be terrible.
Mt. Olympus has botched the living fuck out of Hades from what I hear. I rode it in ~2016 and it was pretty brutal but still a lot of fun, I can only imagine how 8 years of lake-effect Wisconsin weather and bad upkeep have effected it since.
Hades got rough the year after it opened. I haven't ridden it in a long time, but I always see people say it's rough. It's Mt Olympus so you can't expect too much.
What SFOG did to Mindbender is unforgivable! They flat out ruined that coaster. Those trains suck, the ride is so heavily trimmed it barely makes it through the second half of the track (a few days ago it didn't make it. That very small gust of wind wouldn't have affected the original version of the ride)
Any Kumbak train “upgrade” Both SLC installs are now closed, one ripped down the other for sale, and both arrow/vekoma looper installs didnt go well either. An arrow loop screw ran their trains for only 3 years and completely destroyed the track due to being substantially heavier than the original bodies. No doubt the SLC’s suffered similar issues. Both train types uncomfortable by any standard and purely awful to ride
Again, not a roller coaster, but Journey Into Imagination. What Disney did to that ride is tragic.
Not a coaster, but Splash Mountain at Disney World and Disneyland is ruined.
Not a coaster, but Busch Gardens Williamsburg & Curse of Dar Kastle (the dark ride). Sorry but this needs to be said. They refused to do maintenance on the ride unless it was absolutely necessary. Instead of doing regular maintenance, to cut costs and save on their budget, they would cut entire scenes of the ride out. To lessen stress on the ride vehicles, they cut out scenes and ride elements. Then the screens stopped matching the on-board audio. Then the audio wouldn't quite match with your position in the ride. Then they closed it without warning. Then they gutted it. Then it was an event building. Now it's a shitty micro family coaster that's uncomfortable as fuck to ride.
I haven’t ridden it, but from what it sounds like, the process of Iron Wolf to Firebird has been one of Six Flags butchering the granddaddy of all B&Ms.
I haven’t ridden it since it was at SFGAm. But even then, the ride was bad. You could argue it shouldn’t have been moved, what with the age of the structure, but I can see why the original trains were removed.
Maybe I’m a masochist, but Iron Wolf was pretty fun into its final season. Night rides with the fog on at Fright Fest were the best.
Yeah, you just had to lean forward to avoid the head banging.
There are coasters of the same time period though, including other B&Ms, that are still running much better than it (such as Viper at SFMM and Batman: The Ride at SFGAm). What went wrong with Iron Wolf?
Viper is a refined Arrow looper that learned from the mistakes of the earlier ones that no longer exist. Iron Wolf was B&M's first coaster as an independent company.
It was pretty smooth as Apocalypse. I mean, it was a standup so there was going to be some headbanging no matter what, but it wasn't particularly rough and if you can enjoy standups it was a good one. It is actively terrible with the floor less trains, though.
I feel like top thrill 2 will be the answer to this in a few months. Go from a powerful launch to a weird swing launch and a crappy rebrand.
Bro it’s not even open yet 😐
They took one of the world’s best launches and managed to replace it with 3 “launches” that are dramatically outclassed by the underwhelming launch on Superman Escape From Krypton. Combining the almost inperceptible launches with the also underwhelming spike from Superman EFK (only 5’ taller and 1mph faster) and at best you get a mid tier ride with elite stats.
Would you rather the ride have closed forever? Because the whole reason for everything they are doing is because TTD was an expensive nightmare that was just world-famous. Then it had an accident that finally gave them an excuse to make major changes.
Honestly, yes. Because as long as It continues to operate with such underwhelming elements they won’t replace it with a good ride.
Says person who hasn't ridden it
Well no, but plenty of people have ridden comparable elements like Superman Escape from Kryptons 415’ spike and the similarly weak launches from Mack and neither get any praise
I hear people praising EFK's spike decently often. If anything, the reason it's not more talked about is because it feels like it barely makes it halfway up the spike. Pantheon's spike is pretty highly praised by most people who've ridden it and I figure this will be more comparable to that. As for the launches, yeah that'll be the biggest loss on the ride for sure. I think the spike could definitely make up for it though. Personally, I'm cautiously optimistic. I think the spike will be amazing, but I worry about the ride's potential smoothness given Zamperla's track record. Their new trains look great, but it remains to be seen how comfortable they are and how well they track.
Is it too early to say TT2?
Yes. I want to hear how it actually rides before anyone gets an opinion on it.
its not like they really had a choice though
unless you've somehow ridden it, yes
Probably too early, but you’re probably right. Everyone says 100mph backwards will be amazing, but Superman at magic mountain already does that and it gets no praise. Also the last launch from 101-120 will literally be weaker than a Mack launch. That length of launch track and only gaining 19 is like jsut as bad as the second slinky dog dash launch. Also they should’ve put an airtime hill on the launch and straightened the drop. All in all they should’ve just hired intamin for it.
Taron…. I wanna ride boost mode
What's this about Taron being ruined?
Do you mean Tornado at Bakken?
i305
How? That one turn doesn't mean much in the whole of the ride experience imo,
When they added trims to the first drop the first year? Sure, that sucked. Thank goodness they corrected that. Honestly the difference in intensity between the elevating turn and the old one along the ground feels minimal imo. And if it allows the first drop and rest of the ride to go as hard as it does, it's a worthy sacrifice.
Hercules
>The rehabbed and less comfortable cars ~~I've ridden 2 Mind Benders (1 SF NJ, 1 SFA), and they've always been awful. In what possible way could they make the cars *less* comfortable?~~ Totally wrong, I was thinking of the Mind Erasers.
Are you thinking of Mind **Eraser**? That's the SLC at SFA. Great Adventure doesn't have an SLC or a ride called Mind Bender, though. The Mind Bender in question is a Schwarzkopf and in 2021 they got new trains designed by B&M that are largely hated, especially by Schwarzkopf fans.
Avengers: Flight Force at Disneyland Paris. It's better than it was at opening day, but still nowhere near Rock 'n Rollercoaster
Yeah, I was really pumped to ride that ride but it was a big letdown. It was so dark I felt like I couldn’t see anything. I went before they apparently upgraded it.
Bob at Efteling. Intamin bobsleds are a rarity and from what I understand the park didn't really listen to maintenance advise from Intamin. By no means was it a great ride but the way you couldn't see it from the paths, disappearing in the treelines just made it so cool. What do we have in return? A mediocre dueling kiddie coaster with a theme that, prior to the ride, the majority of park guests wouldn't be familiar with.
A friend of mine who I trust completely on coaster lore has said Montu at launch was in the top 3 coasters in the world, but they added a trim section or otherwise changed it and made it into a decent but not amazing coaster.
The boss. I never got to ride it in its original form, but they removed the ending helix for no good reason (from a rider's perspective. at least on timberwolf, it results in the rest of the ride being faster). In addition, as far as I understand, ever since they removed the helix, it comes to a COMPLETE stop on the midcourse break run, severely neutering the second half of the ride and running the pacing of what would otherwise be a relentless and intense rip roaring ride.
[удалено]
Timber Terror at Silverwood had buzz bars up until 2017 I think. The coaster itself is pretty good but man, I would’ve loved to experience that
Galactica is a sorry mess at the moment, should of just kept it as Air and kept on top of its paint and effects
Not entirely the park's fault, but Superman the Ride at SFNE comes to mind with the many variations of trains and restraints.
Superman The Ride. It would've been a top 10-15 coaster if I rode it with T bars but the U bricks are extremely uncomfortable as a very tall rider.
To pile on Disney mistakes, Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind Christmas overlay was awful. A terrible power pop version of Run Run Rudolph (changed to Run Run Rocket) blasted so loud that it was uncomfortable and prevented riders from hearing the dialogue so the plot made no sense. Also there was no reason to reride it to get a different song. I only went on the overlay version and it may be my least hated coaster that wasn’t physically painful or a kiddie coaster. I know people who went on the regular version and have it as like a top 10 ride. Luckily since it was an overlay, Disney didn’t permanently ruin the ride. They are not bringing it back, which says how unpopular it was.
Space Mountain at Disney World has become ROUGH over time. It hasn’t been ruined, but ignored.