#delayed broadcast

Graduation Day

Well, it's finally here. The end of college. It's definitely been a ride and did not pan out the way I expected it to, but I've reached the end.

More talk about my college experience in general below the cut.

Photo Sources: All photos are mine

Snoopy's Soap Box Racers at Kings Island!

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Opened: 2024 Manufacturer: Vekoma Height: 75.5 ft (23 m) Speed: 37.3 mph (60 kph) Length: 672.6 ft (205 m) Place in my rankings: #121 (landing between Pandemonium at Six Flags Fiesta Texas and Cedar Creek Mine Ride at Cedar Point)

It's that time again! I rode two new coasters at Kings Island about a week and a half ago, so that means you guys get two new coaster posts! I think going forward, TTC posts will be listed in the order I get new credits, rather than ranking them in batches. That way, the number at the top matches the number in my progression of credits haha. I'll still have where they fall in my rankings listed above of course (though the rankings listed on the posts I have linked - Pandemonium and CCMR in this case - won't be up to date with my current rankings since I move things around a lot lol)

Anyways, with that out of the way, let's talk about Snoopy's Soap Box Racers! This was my first time riding one of Vekoma's Family Boomerang coasters. I'd heard good things about them for awhile now, so I was definitely looking forward to getting to try one, and it didn't disappoint! It wasn't the most mind blowing thing ever of course, it is still meant to appeal to all ages, but I thought it was super fun! It makes a great stepping stone coaster in the park for kids who are ready to move on from the park's smaller rides like the Great Pumpkin Coaster or Woodstock Express, but aren't quite ready to tackle the more intermediate rides like Queen City Stunt Coaster or Adventure Express.

In terms of thrill, I'd put it about on par with the neighboring Woodstock's Air Rail, since they both offer something new for kids while not being too much. Woodstock's Air Rail hangs below the track and has a bit more forces, where as this goes both forwards and backwards with more banked turns and a bit more speed. The fact that Soap Box Racers is right next to Woodstock's Air Rail also makes for a great showcase in how much Vekoma has evolved over the years. Air Rail, built in 2001, is one of Vekoma's old Suspended Family Coasters, commonly nicknamed Hang and Bangs, due to their roughness. Snoopy's Soap Box Racers, by comparison, is absolutely glass smooth. These Family Boomerangs, along with all the other newer high thrill coasters Vekoma has put out over the last decade or so really goes to show how much they've reinvented themselves.

As for the ride experience itself, there's not too much going on here but it really doesn't need to be overly complicated for what it is. You go up a backwards lift before it releases the train, sending you back through the station and through the course going forward. You then wind through a figure eight shaped course of banked turns right up along the ground before rising up an inclined spike towards the front side of the ride. This then sends the train backwards through the course and returning to the station. Again, not a whole lot to the ride but still a lot of fun for what it is ^^

So yeah, I'd say a very solid family coaster, bordering on family-thrill. I also thought the theming of the ride was very cute and super well done. You guys know me, I'm a big Peanuts fan, so I found the whole thing to be super charming. I liked getting to ride the Esnupi Coaster :3

Photo Sources: All photos are mine

Steel Vengeance at Cedar Point!

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Opened: 2018 Manufacturer: Rocky Mountain Construction Height: 205 ft (62 m) Speed: 74 mph (119 kph) Length: 5,740 ft (1,750 m) My most recent ride: 2022

Well guys, we finally made it. Since starting this in mid April and detailing 169 other roller coasters, we have finally reached the crown jewel. Was this a predictable number one? Yeah, there's no denying that lol. But so many people have Steel Vengeance as their number one for good reason. Frankly, this ride is nearly unbelievable. It's like two coasters combined into one, with the first half having these huge elements and the second half being composed of much smaller and tighter maneuvers. Calling the difference between the ride's original form of Mean Streak compared to what it is now "night and day difference" doesn't even begin to asses the magnitude of difference between the two.

When Cedar Point called in RMC to work their magic on this ride, they set out to build the greatest roller coaster in the world, and for my money, they achieved that goal. Every good thing you've heard people say about Steel Vengeance is true. It was advertised as having more airtime than any other coaster in the world, at nearly 30 full seconds of out-of-your-seat weightlessness and I believe that statistic. The airtime on this ride is unreal, in terms of both quantity and quality. Every element on this ride is near perfect or better. There are zero dead spots and the ride hauls through its layout from beginning to end. The pacing of all of it is basically flawless.

You start getting airtime before you even go up the lift hill, as there's a small pre-lift section with two little bunny hills. They don't really give traditional airtime but more so lurch you forward in a fun way that gives you a taste of what's to come. You then start up the ride's massive (and incredibly loud) lift hill. Climbing up, you get a fantastic view of the park to the right and Lake Erie to the left and straight ahead. Then you crest the top and get flung over the ride's massive vertical drop. Since it hits that 90 degree angle, you get some awesome ejector airtime all the way down. It may not be my all time favorite first drop, as it's not quite as good as some others like Fury 325, El Toro or Iron Rattler, but it's still amazing. The drop also goes basically all the way to ground level, so it feels super sustained as well.

Coming out of the drop, you fly over this little itty bitty speed hill. Because you're going forward at such a high rate of speed, this hill is kinda similar to those in the pre-lift section in that it throws you forwards more than it throws you straight up. But then you rise up into the absolutely enormous camelback hill. It's so big that people have nicknamed it the "top hat", although officially, a true top hat (like the one found on Top Thrill Dragster for example) have both a vertical ascent and decent, which this one doesn't. Even though it's not really a top hat, it still has some absolutely astounding airtime. Through the whole crest of the element, you get amazing, sustained ejector airtime. Though not to be outdone, as you dive out of that and into the next hill, which is also gigantic and banks outward at the apex. So you're banked to the left as you're turning right, making for another 5+ second long blast of sustained ejector airtime. These first two hills rival the first two camelbacks on El Toro in terms of how long the airtime lasts and how powerful it is.

Coming off the outer banked hill, you dive back down and go into a step up over the ride's entrance, giving another great airtime moment and then rise up again into the first inversion. This zero-G roll feels very similar to the one on Iron Rattler, since you go through it as you're rising up. But on Steel Vengeance, as you go through the roll, getting some great weightlessness, it continues rotating super smoothly in a clockwise direction into a banked turn to the right. It almost feels like you rotate one and a half times going through it and it feels so seamless. You then navigate a wave turn (a hill that banks 90 degrees to the side at the apex) super high off the ground, getting a quick pop of sideways airtime, before unbanking and whipping into the ride's second inversion. This is a zero-g stall, but it's very different from any of the other ones I've done on rides like Goliath or Wildcat's Revenge. Rather than being shaped parabolically, this one is angled down and you whip in and out of this thing so fast. It's so snappy, but even with how fast you go through it, you still get some brief hang time. You then come down from where the inversions are, high off the ground and hit a double down getting some more airtime as you make your way to the ground. That's then immediately followed by another airtime filled step up, a quick turn to the left and another airtime pop as you go into the mid-course brake run.

On most coasters, this is where the ride would end. But Steel Vengeance is not "most coasters". This is only the halfway point of the ride and it's the only moment between the first drop and final brakes where you have any kind of a chance to catch your breath. You then come down off the mid-course brakes through another great, airtime filled drop, hit another double up with two more airtime pops, and hit another off-axis airtime hill. This one isn't nearly as big as the one earlier in the ride but this might be my favorite airtime moment on Steel Vengeance. You're banked outwardly to the right as you're turning slightly to the left, giving some crazy ejector airtime. Then, as a bonus, as you drop down this hill, you dive into the ride's structure, making for fantastic headchoppers. Almost the entire second half of Steel Vengeance takes place within the ride's wooden structure, making for an amazing visual experience, tons of head/handchoppers and an amazing feeling of speed. So keep the fact that you're surrounded by wood on all sides for pretty much all of the rest of this layout breakdown lol.

Flying through the structure, you go through an overbanked turn, followed by a zero-G roll. You whip through this one super fast as well, getting great laterals and still some weightless hang time. You pop out of the structure briefly for two smaller airtime hills that give even more awesome ejector before flying back into the sea of wooden supports. You then hit another wave turn with a very pronounced airtime hill that's banked completely on it's side. This gives you some more crazy sideways airtime which again is accentuated by being surrounded by the structure. That wave turn is immediately followed by the final inversion, another zero-g roll. This one isn't taken quite as fast as the previous one, offering even better hang time, but it still has great whip in and out of it. You then hit one more overbanked turn before coming out of the structure for the last time for Steel Vengeance's grand finale.

This finale is SIX back to back airtime packed bunny hills. Each one of them throws you out of your seat so strongly that your butt barely has time to return to your seat before the next one launches you back up. These hills may be small, but do not underestimate them. The last of the airtime hills hits as you go into the final brake run, ending your near minute and a half long ride on Steel Vengeance.

Unlike the coasters I've talked about for the last few days, I initially wasn't sure if Steel Vengeance was my new number one upon getting off for my first time. This was one I had to give some thought to, deciding whether I liked this more than Fury 325. But when it came down to it, I'm an airtime guy, and while Fury does have some awesome airtime moments, it's air is nothing compared to what Steel Vengeance has. While Steel Vengeance isn't quite as long as Fury, it's still a VERY long ride and never leaves me unsatisfied with its experience.

So there we have it. All 170 roller coasters that I've ridden as of this past April. We have covered some truly exceptional rides as well as some exceptionally BAD ones haha. But through all of it, as cliche as it may be at this point, Steel Vengeance at Cedar Point comes out on top. Will it ever be exceeded in my rankings? I won't say it's impossible, but it will take something REALLY incredible to do that. Some that I could see beating Steel Vengeance for me could be Eejanaika at Fuji-Q Highland in Japan, Tatsu and X2, both at Six Flags Magic Mountain, T-Express at Everland in South Korea, or a few other rides here and there. But for now, Steel Vengeance holds the crown as the best roller coaster I have ever ridden.

Thanks for checking out today's coaster post! Keep an eye out for tomorrow's coaster!

Photo Sources: x / x

The Beast at Kings Island!

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Opened: 1979 Manufacturer: Built in-house by Kings Island Height: 110 ft (34 m) Drop: 141 ft (43 m) Speed: 64.78 mph (104.25 kph) Length: 7,361 ft (2,244 m) My most recent ride: 2019

In the world of roller coasters, there are very few rides out there that are more legendary than The Beast. Built in-house by Kings Island with the help of designer Charles Dinn, the ride sprawls over 35 acres (14 hectares) of land with nearly 7,400 feet of track. It opened in 1979 with the records for the tallest, longest and fastest roller coaster in the world, and still far and away retains its record for the world's longest wooden roller coaster.

The Beast has been described as the world's largest "backyard roller coaster" because that's basically what it was. Like I said, it was built in-house by the park, not by a larger roller coaster manufacturing company, in an era without computer aided design or even more advanced scientific calculators, so all of the calculations for the ride's construction were done by hand. This is what leads to the ride's quirky, unconventional layout of wide, sprawling turns, long straightaways and massive helices. It may not be as thrilling a layout as more modern coasters, but it's part of what gives the ride it's character.

Like a lot of other coasters at Kings Island, like Adventure Express and the Bat, Beast makes great use of the park's hilly and heavily wooded terrain. Almost the whole ride takes place near ground level, racing through the trees, which adds to one of the ride's most famous attributes: it's night ride. People praise night rides on rides like the Voyage at Holiday World or Boulder Dash at Lake Compounce, but no other ride has night rides as highly regarded as the Beast. I unfortunately have never had the chance to experience the Beast at night, but I seriously hope to one day. The ride is so far out in the woods away from the park that it's completely dark with the only light being from the moon if you're lucky.

In my experience from the one ride I've had on the Beast (it was closed all day when I went back to the park in 2024 </3), I thought it was a riot. Again, not the most thrilling, but easily one of the most unique rides I've ever done. Flying through the woods on such a long ride was great, and the final huge double helix was fantastic. I don't remember it being particularly rough either. Like all of the other wooden coasters at the park, Kings Island takes fantastic care of this ride. I haven't had the chance to ride it since it got some substantial re-tracking and re-profiling from the Gravity Group a few years ago, but I've heard it's a great update.

And one additional sidenote, The Beast is one of the best fitting names for a roller coaster I have ever seen. There really is no other way to describe this ride. Apparently, it got it's name from the people building it referring to it as "a beast of a project" and that is just so perfect.

Reach for the Stars!

Photo Sources: All photos are mine

Nighthawk at Carowinds!

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Opened: 2000 (Relocated to Carowinds in 2004) Closed: 2024 Manufacturer: Vekoma Height: 115 ft (35 m) Speed: 51 mph (82 kph) Length: 2,766 ft (843 m) My most recent ride: 2019

Starting off this whole thing is a ride that unfortunately closed pretty recently as part of the new Six Flags cleaning house. Nighthawk was a ride I was never very fond of. I always found it to be uncomfortable, rough, with bad transitions and even worse restraints. The main things I remember about it are the painfully slow operations and by extension, the really long and slow moving line you always had to wait in if you ever wanted to ride it.

Usually I enjoy flying coasters (or at least I've enjoyed the one B&M flyer I've ridden) but I don't think Vekoma really nailed it with this one. It was their first, and from what I've heard, their two others that came after, Firehawk and Batwing, do ride better than Nighthawk did. I never got the chance to ride Firehawk and have yet to get to Batwing though, so I can't speak for those.

The main reason Nighthawk comes up at the bottom of my list is that most coasters, even other bad ones, have something you can do to make the ride experience even slightly more comfortable if you brace yourself a certain way or something like that. You couldn't do that with Nighthawk, at least not in my experience. The restraints were basically light a straitjacket and if you were flying facing down and the train went up, you'd just get thrown into them in a really uncomfortable way. And if you're on your back, you feel the forces of the ride a bit more comfortably, but you're rattling against the seat back from the roughness.

A few pros for Nighthawk, because like I said in the intro post, every ride has at least something positive about it: Firstly, it pulled some strong forces. Especially in the loop you took on your back, the ride had a good variety of forces to offer. And secondly, visually the ride looked great. That bright yellow track and blue supports really looked nice and the ride's placement over the water right as you walked into the park made for a solid entrance plaza. But with it now gone, I'm sure Carowinds will do something great with that space.

Photo Sources: All photos are mine

Kingda Ka at Six Flags Great Adventure!

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Opened: 2005 Closed: 2024 Manufacturer: Intamin Height: 456 ft (139 m) Speed: 128 mph (206 kph) Length: 3,118 ft (950 m) My most recent ride: 2017

Well, this day had to come eventually. I'm gonna be honest with you guys, this will probably be the hardest of these posts for me to write aha. Both because there's not a whole lot to the ride itself, but also because (as I'm sure you can all agree with) this is still a very hard removal to deal with.

There are very few coasters that were as famous across the world as Kingda Ka. Other than like, maybe the Coney Island Cyclone, there are no other coasters I can think of that were as well known as Ka was. Yeah there are a lot of famous rides in coaster enthusiast circles, like Millennium Force, Fury 325, X2, Formula Rossa, etc., but Ka seemed to break through and be just as famous to the general public as it was to enthusiasts. I think that was mainly because when people want to learn about roller coasters, the natural first question will be "well, which one's the tallest?". Since Kingda Ka held that record for it's entire lifespan, as well as the record for the fastest coaster in the world until Formula Rossa opened in 2010, it had the time to really build up that reputation as The Tallest One.

From a layout standpoint, there really wasn't a whole lot to Ka. It was a launch, a 456 foot tall top hat tower, a large airtime hill and then you hit the brake run. Over 3,100 ft of track covered in less than 30 seconds at 128 mph. As my dad put it when talking about Ka's sister coaster, the original Top Thrill Dragster at Cedar Point: "It's roller coasters boiled down to it's key components: heights, speed, and falling". That really is the best way to describe these stratacoasters. Even though they didn't have a lot to offer in terms of elements, the ones they did have were some of the best of their kind.

Easily the standout part of both Ka and Dragster was the launch. These were hydraulic launches, meaning they were some of the most powerful feeling out there. They were so fast and the feeling of acceleration and power on them was just like nothing else I've ever done. Even the compressed air launch on Maxx Force at Six Flags Great America, even though that one had a faster acceleration, didn't feel quite like these hydraulic launches did. Now, to be fair, I don't remember Ka's launch being quite as punchy as Dragster's, but it still was absolutely no slouch. These hydraulic launches seem to be a dying breed with how many coasters using them seem to be either getting retrofitted with other launch systems (Top Thrill 2, ThunderVolt at PNE Playland in Vancouver, etc.) or getting taken out altogether like Ka, so if your local park has one, get on it while you can.

For two rides that are on the surface so similar to each other, you might wonder why I rank Ka so far behind Dragster (which we well get to towards the end of TTC), and that really comes down to two factors: the smoothness and the restraints. The launch on Kingda Ka, although awesome and super powerful, did have a noticeable downside and that was that the whole track kind of shuffled from side to side as you went hurtling along. This was even visible from off-ride as you watched the train launch. The launch was the shakiest part of the ride, but even outside of that, the ride didn't track perfectly smoothly. It wasn't anything super bad by any means, but when you're going that fast, any roughness is gonna come through. Then the restraints were the hard plastic over-the-shoulder restraints that you could get some head- or neckbanging from at times. Compared to how open and free Dragster's T-bar restraints felt, these restraints were not quite as good.

Another thing I loved about Ka, especially in hindsight, was its theme. It was themed to a mythical Bengal Tiger and anchored its own area of the park called the Golden Kingdom. It was such a neat atmosphere back there and after going to the park earlier this year after Ka was removed and that whole area was closed off, it really is a huge hole in the park's layout now. But as I'm sure you guys know, it was this ride and it's theme that really supercharged my love for tigers over the last few months, which by extension, led me to create my character Sitka <33

But of course, nothing lasts forever, and in summer of 2024, rumors began circulating about Ka being removed at the end of the year. At first, I did not even give these rumors any consideration. Why would Great Adventure remove their most well-known and arguably signature coaster? But as the season went on, more and more rumors came up and things started sounding increasingly worrying. Then, after the park and the ride closed for the 2024 season, Six Flags broke the news that no one wanted to hear. Kingda Ka is closed permanently and will be removed for future expansion. It was a devastating loss for the coaster world, on top of the fact that the ride was not given any kind of official, proper send-off, or even an official forewarning to its closure, by the park. It was by no means the only coaster removed with no prior warning across the Six Flags chain last year. Or even at just Great Adventure, which lost seven other rides in addition to Ka. But this was easily the removal from the chain that far and away hut the most.

I'm so grateful I got the chance to experience this ride and I so wish I got to ride it again more recently than 2017, but I will miss it so dearly. It's my second highest ranked defunct credit and god I hope things stay that way. I don't know if I can stand to lose another coaster out of my top 25 like this.

Forever and always, long like the King.

Photo Sources: All photos are mine

Swamp Fox at Family Kingdom!

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Opened: 1966 Manufacturer: Philadelphia Toboggan Company Height: 75 ft (23 m) Speed: 50 mph (80 kph) Length: 2,400 ft (730 m) My most recent ride: 2019

From what I see online at least, not a whole lot of people talk about this ride. That's understandable, as Family Kingdom is kind of out there down in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, away from most major parks people hit on road trips. I believe Carowinds would be the closest major park, and that's still about 3 and a half hours away.

But maybe it's for the better that not too many people have experienced Swamp Fox though, because based on my rides from my visits to this park in 2019, this thing was BRUTALLY rough. There was jack-hammering (bouncing up and down in your seat) through pretty much the entire layout to the point that I got off the ride with a killer headache that lasted me a good half hour afterwards. This was easily the roughest coaster I've ever ridden. It goes above Corkscrew and Nighthawk because those rides beat you up in a number of different ways (mainly due to the restraints on both), where as Swamp Fox just bounces your brains out, but it's not a lot keeping this one above those two.

From reviews I've seen online that have come out more recently than when I rode Swamp Fox, it's running better now, so hopefully that means the park is taking care of it or even did some re-tracking. I sincerely hope it's running better because it's a classic beachside wooden coaster and it's always sad to lose one of those. I'd be interested to try the ride again to see if it's running better now, because those reviews also said the ride had strong airtime pops, which I do remember, but not very clearly because I was focused on not getting rattled to death.

I do really hope the best for Swamp Fox, because it's clear the ride has good bones. It's just a matter of maintaining the ride properly, as is the case with all wooden coasters really. It looks fantastic in its park with it's classic white and red color scheme and just captures that classic boardwalk feel. So I do hope it sticks around and that it's running better now for more people to experience in the future.