If you're here at About.com's Theme Parks site, chances are you enjoy roller coasters. Or maybe you are a fan who really loves coasters. Or perhaps you are coaster crazy and have a true passion for riding the rails. If you fall into the latter category, you owe it to yourself to check out American Coaster Enthusiasts. By joining ACE, you could mingle with like-minded coaster aficionados at special park events.

For example, the organization is holding its spring conference this weekend at Cedar Point, one of the most celebrated coaster havens in the world. In addition to presentations and group meals, attendees will have exclusive ride time, or ERT, on all 17 of the park's coasters. Before and after Cedar Point opens to the general public, ACE members will be able to ride and re-ride coasters such as Maverick and Magnum XL-200 with almost no wait. To learn more about the organization, go to the ACE Website.

• The Top 10 Best Roller Coasters

I had a chance to motor west last week and made it over to Disneyland for a behind-the-construction-walls preview of Cars Land, one of the final -- and most anticipated -- pieces of the five-year, $1.1-billion expansion of Disney California Adventure. Until I ventured behind the wall, I had only seen the huge Ornament Valley mountain range during its early construction and in Disney-provided photos and videos. I have to admit that despite all of the hype, this sometimes-jaded journalist was nonetheless wowed by the sheer scale and majesty of the nearly done land. (It opens on June 15, along with the grand reopening of the entire refreshed park.) Read more in my Cars Land preview as well as my revised Disney California Adventure expansion overview.

Photo: Disney 2012. Used with permission.

It's the most wonderful time of the year -- for park fans anyhoo. Nearly every park is now open for the season (at least on weekends), new rides are debuting, and all is once again well with the world. In celebration of the exciting 2012 season, I joined Mike Collins and E.B. on their CoasterRadio.com podcast to deconstruct many of the latest, greatest coasters and attractions rolling out at parks, including Skyrush at Hersheypark, X-Flight at Six Flags Great America, and the reconfigured Spider-Man ride at Islands of Adventure.

Fresh off their appearance on "How I Met Your Mother," featuring their close, personal friend and CoasterRadio.com announcer Neil Patrick Harris, I guess my guest slot on Mike and E.B.'s podcast grants me one degree of separation with NPH. Wow! Listen to the 2012 season preview episode of CoasterRadio.com. If you want to delve into more details about the latest park goodies, click over to my Ride Guide 2012.

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Photo: Six Flags, 2011. Used with permission.

Roller coasters, which pretty much used to simply get pulled up lift hills and careen around tracks as gravity took over, continue to evolve. Newfangled elements, effects, and features are helping to create hybrid rides that defy categorization. Case in point: Verbolten, the new coaster at Busch Gardens Williamsburg in Virginia. It will incorporate a magnetic launch system and some impressive-sounding technology to help tell a story -- actually multiple stories, a world's-first for a coaster -- as it delivers its thrills. Read more about Verbolten.

• Roller Coaster Ride Guide 2012

Photo: Busch Gardens. Used with permission.