Top Thrill's brother

I live in New York so Great Adventure is my home park. Kingda Ka is very much "hit or miss." It is broken down one day and open the next. Before you go definitely check the website. You'll see if it's not going to be open. Kingda Ka will not be the highpoint of your day, at least it isn't in my situation. It has OTS bars and it makes you feel more contained. The ride really has little difference with TTD when it comes to the experience except that Kingda Ka has that bunny hill which provides "SOME" airtime. The restraints kinda counter the airtime. The rides you should really look forward to are El Toro and Nitro. I suggest riding Kingda Ka first. Kingda Ka's lap bars are a little tight. Not that I'm really complaining but it gets a little uncomfortable but when you've just finished going 128mph and 456ft high I doubt you'll even notice it. Especially if its your first time riding it. As, for sudden bursts of acceleration... You'll barely notice. Use these tips and you'll have a great day. The park isn't dirty from what I see when I go. They are a little advertisement crazy but what do you expect from a Six Flags park. :)

Dennis Urban said:

Green Lantern is a mirror image of Mantis

While Green Lantern and Mantis share similar layouts, there are more differences than simply being mirror images. Green Lantern is taller and faster and includes a 5th inversion (a flat spin). While the beginnings of each ride are very similar, they diverge quite a bit after the mid course brakes. You can see the differences in the POV's.

Green Lantern: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60zrnOyBo3U

Mantis: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcXPyAWe2Ig

Justin K said:

While Green Lantern and Mantis share similar layouts, there are more differences than simply being mirror images. Green Lantern is taller and faster and includes a 5th inversion (a flat spin). While the beginnings of each ride are very similar, they diverge quite a bit after the mid course brakes. You can see the differences in the POV's.

Green Lantern: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60zrnOyBo3U

Mantis: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcXPyAWe2Ig

Namely, at this point in time, Green Lantern doesn't beat the tar out of you after the MCBR tho I expect that will change after SF has had it a few more years.

I personally prefer Top Thrill Dragster over Kingda Ka. Mainly because of the restraint system. More freedom with TTD! :)

I rode Ka my first time last August, expecting it to be less intense, rough, plagued with downtime, and to have a worthless hill. Maybe I hit it on a good day, or maybe I wasn't in a critical enough mood, but I didn't think any of these qualities were true.

Ka was blasting consistently every time I looked over to see it all day, and the crew was pushing through riders as fast as I've ever seen on Dragster.

I felt the launch was very comparable to Dragster, I thought the ride tracked as smooth as every other Intamin, and I actually enjoyed the hill. It provided an unexpected pop of airtime.

I do like Dragster better because I much prefer the lap bar, but I honestly left the park a bit confused. Why was Dragster rated so highly on top coaster lists while Kingda Ka was rarely even mentioned?

Why? Because it's at Cefar Point. ;)

^I wonder how true that actually is. Cedar Point defiantly does have bias opinion in its favor. Well deserved though I would have to say.

They were probably trying hard to push through guests to make up for days of downtime.

Most people in general think that Dragster is better. Now I hate to say but most people do agree that Intmidator 305 is better than Millennium.

I've been to SFGrAdv only one day in my life. Kingda Ka was operating consistently all day, no down time, and there wasn't much of a line. I rode it once. I didn't care for the restraint, I thought it was extremely shaky with a bad rattle, there was a noticeable brake at the top and the extra hill added nothing. The view was to the parking lot and there was nowhere to watch the ride from the ground.
I much prefer the ride at Cedar Point. Not because it's at Cedar Point, but because it's better.

Very interesting. I thought Kingda Ka was basically Dragster with a Maverick restraint (a notable negative) and a bonus hop. If you've ridden either of them, you have a very good idea what the other will feel like.

For all those saying Ka rode much rougher, maybe it was a worn set of wheels or the Maverick-style restraint having more contact points with the body. Like I said though, roughness never entered my mind when riding...I thought it was fun and predictably quite a bit like Dragster.

Millenium Force and I-305 are not very comparable. I rode I-305 in its best form, after the modifications and soft straps. I-305 was much more intense, with a focus on snappy Maverick-style turns. Millenium Force is a very smooth mix of hills and turns where you feel like you're going on an adventure.

They're both great rides, but I prefer Millenium Force. Mainly because the plot of land that I-305 was on was just so incredibly boring. It basically felt like a totally-exposed giga coaster on a flat, barren piece of farm land. With MF, you start out feeling like you're in a lake, and then you go on an adventure through tunnels and trees, on islands, and back home.

I like your MF analogy to going on an adventure, Ffej. Insightful.

Maverick00 said:
Now I hate to say but most people do agree that Intmidator 305 is better than Millennium.

We must know different people. 305 is like the child of Millennium Force and Maverick, but not better than either one of them.

I analyzed the data of the launch tracks of TTD and Kingda Ka recently and found some interesting statistics. While measuring the length of track in the launch sections by using satellite images, TTD's track came out to about 492 feet, and Kingda Ka's launch section was 636 feet long, give or take a few feet on the measurements. I also timed the launch times for each coaster, TTD is around 3.8 seconds, while Kingda Ka is around 4.9 seconds. I find it interesting that while Kingda Ka is only 6.6% faster than TTD, the launch track is 29.2% longer and the launch takes 31.6% longer. Not sure why the acceleration is significantly slower.