Review: Talon at Dorney Park
Dorney Park is a smallish theme park located in Dorney, Pennsylvania. If you’re not from Eastern PA or New Jersey, you may not have heard of it. Part of the Cedar Fair chain of parks, it currently has a roster of 7 roller coasters with three real eye-catching standouts: a Morgan hyper coaster (Steel Force), a floorless B&M looper (Hydra: The Revenge), and a B&M inverted coaster (Talo...[Read More]
Review: Superman: Ultimate Flight at Six Flags Great Adventure
Overview Superman: Ultimate Flight is a B&M (Bolliger & Mabillard) flying coaster located at Six Flags Over Georgia, Six Flags Great Adventure and Six Flags Great America. The first installation was at Six Flags Over Georgia in 2002; installations at the other two parks followed in 2003. This was the second flying coaster model designed by B&M, preceded by Air (now known as Galactic...[Read More]
Review: Leviathan at Canada’s Wonderland
Overview As of 2018 there are only six giga coasters (height between 300 and 399 feet) in operation: Millennium Force at Cedar Point, Steel Dragon at Nagashima Spa Land, Intimidator 305 at Kings Dominion, Leviathan at Canada’s Wonderland, Fury 325 at Carowinds and Red Force at PortAventura. (Red Force qualifies only because of its height; otherwise it’s divergent from the others in this group beca...[Read More]
Review: Mako at SeaWorld Orlando
Happy Holidays! For the second year in a row, we are running our 12 Days of Coasters special! Every day from Christmas until January 5th, we will be giving away a roller coaster review for you to enjoy. We thank you for reading, and wish you a merry holidays and happy New Year! A few weeks back, I traveled to Orlando to experience its collection of world-class theme parks. In addition to Disney an...[Read More]
B&M Dive Machine coming to Canada’s Wonderland in 2019
Following on the heels of posts from Joel about speculation regarding Carowinds’ 2019 mystery project (as well as the recent announcement of Steel Curtain posted by Jon), I decided to write up some interesting facts about what’s coming to the Cedar Fair park north of the border. (photo courtesy of Eric S) Dark brown track was spotted nearly 6 months ago that’s almost identical in...[Read More]
Showdown: Superman Krypton Coaster vs. Dominator
Overview The common denominator is that Superman Krypton Coaster and Dominator are B&M (Bolliger & Mabillard) floorless coasters. Superman, operating since 2000, makes its home at Six Flags Fiesta Texas while Dominator, operating since 2008, is located at Kings Dominion. (Dominator actually opened in 2000 as Batman:Knight Flight and has a rather complicated history, in that it first ope...[Read More]
Showdown: Batman:The Ride vs. Raptor
Overview What these two have in common is that they’re B&M (Bolliger & Mabillard) inverted coasters. Batman has been cloned numerous times, with installations at half a dozen Six Flags parks. I’ve ridden the original at Six Flags Great America and a clone at Six Flags Great Adventure so am basing my observations on those experiences and more specifically, the installation at Great Advent...[Read More]
Review: Banshee at Kings Island
Overview The longest inverted coaster in existence and the last one to be built in the USA, Banshee at Kings Island in Mason, OH opened in 2014 to critical acclaim. Built by B&M (Bolliger & Mabillard), it boasts 4,124 feet of track, operating with three trains seating four across in 8 rows for a total capacity of 32 riders. The restraint is an over- the- shoulder harness. Layout, Theme a...[Read More]
Review: Hydra the Revenge at Dorney Park
In May of 2016 I visited New York with my parents for the purposes of seeing the Yankees take on my Chicago White Sox in the Bronx. I insisted that on this visit, we make the 2-hour drive west to Allentown, Pennsylvania and log some coaster credits at Dorney, another Cedar Fair property. Though it was a wet and rainy morning, by afternoon the skies cleared and I was able to nab multiple rides on a...[Read More]
Showdown: Kumba vs. Bizarro
Overview Although I hesitate to compare a traditional “sitting coaster” to a floorless coaster, in this case the reason for doing so is a compelling one. After riding Kumba at Busch Gardens Tampa within the past several months, I tried to think of a coaster I’d ridden which was the most similar in design and the one that immediately came to mind is Bizarro at Six Flags Great Adventure. (Other po...[Read More]
Why Not Go Big?
Banshee at Mason, Ohio’s Kings Island was introduced as the world’s longest inverted coaster. Aside from any record-breaking facts toted at its introduction, in person, this new-for-2014 B&M beaut is huge and moves an impressive amount of people through its queues every day the park is open. So Why Not Get Inverted? Have you ridden Banshee? Which inverted B&M coaster is your f...[Read More]
Defunct Coasters We Wish We Could Have Ridden
Defunct Roller Coasters That Were Gone Too Soon Over the years there have been some great-looking roller coasters that we just never got a chance to ride. Some of them have become legendary within the coaster enthusiast community. Some had record-setting or one-of-a-kind elements. And some were just roller coasters that we kick ourselves for not riding, because they’re gone and now we’...[Read More]