Just got back from Six Flags...great day at the park for my first 06 visit. Upon entering the park, there is a lot more employee activity going on, including characters. Tweety Bird was on metal detector wand duty! Headed straight for Goliath of course, and waited for the front row. The angle of ascent is pretty high, and before you know it...youre off. Ive been on all but a couple of the hypercoasters in the States, and all of the B&Ms. With that said, the first drop is a solid one...not showing off, not falling behind. Its not as tall as Apollo, Nitro, or Raging Bull, but the speed generated by this coaster is better used than any of the others. Second hill: big floater air...third hill: big airtime...fourth hill: another big air hill. Wow, this thing has pop! Its not like S:ROS style ejector air, but so far, better than other B&Ms. Okay, into the helix. WOW!!! POWERFUL Gs throughout the helix which gains in force all the way to the bottom, and then we are hit with a split-second trim that is probably necessary for the last part of the ride. After another airtime filled hill we are hit with the hammerhead maneuver which is loaded with positive Gs, and the final bunny run is just flat-out awesome. This machine is a celebration of airtime!!! We took our second ride in the back, and were assaulted with pull-down air. Typical back-seat ride, and for those that love back-seat rides this one delivers, big time. The ending packs a serious wallop, being thrown down into each valley in back-breaking fashion!
Folks, B&M has hit this one out of the park. Not to take anything away from Nitro and Apollo, but this ride is more intense. I would compare the intensity level to Raging Bull before they braked it to death. This is my favorite B&M hypercoaster now. I am going out to SFGAdv this summer so I will get another look at Nitro, but for now Goliath reigns supreme. Congratulations to SFOG for finally building a ride that is a serious speed and thrill machine. Now I can forget about the mistake that was Superman and have a real reason to visit the park besides Batman and Acrophobia.
One more thing...Goliath is home to probably the most pathetic attempt at a theme ever. I dont know if he was just making this up as he went along, but the ride-op was announcing over the microphone something to the effect of "Welcome to the 1950s...we have created a time machine that will time warp you to the future...somewhere between 2000 and 2010!" I assume this is because it is in the 50s themed area (if you want to call it a themed area), but I mean, wow, it was sad. He said it a few times, so I think someone at SFOG had this idea to come up with some explanation for this futuristic ride plunked down in the 50s section of the park.
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