99er

I'm curious as to how they came about following Herschend and not another company. Why not Merlin, Parc or even Six Flags since its well known. I wonder if most of these companies were approached by CBS of if there was any time where a company could have went to them. More than likely all the companies were asked by CBS but I would still like to know if they had other theme park companies on their mind first.

Not too many from me, I think around 38. Obviously adding more to my list every summer and hopefully a few good ones this year. It's hard for me to add parks (while they are open) because of my job. I work while 98% of the parks in the U.S. are open for their seasons. I won't count parks that I have been to while they were closed My list: Adventure City Alabama Adventure American Adventures Astroland (Coney Island) Beech Bend Belmont Park San Diego Buffalo Bill's Resort & Casino Busch Gardens Tampa Busch Gardens Williamsburg Castle Amusement Park Cedar Point Disneyland Disney’s California Adventure Dorney Park Family Kingdom Amusement Park Freestyle Music Park Geauga Lake Great Escape Holiday World Kennywood Kings Dominion Kings Island Knott's Berry Farm Jungle Jacks Landing Legoland California LeSourdsville Lake New York, New York Casino Old Town Pacific Park (Santa Monica Pier) Scandia Amusement Park Ontario, California Sea World Orlando Six Flags Great Adventure Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom Six Flags Magic Mountain Six Flags Over Georgia Stratosphere Tower Universal Studios Florida Universal Studios Islands of Adventure Orlando Waldameer

Glad I got the credit last year. It was a nice little area in the woods but if their operating season looked anything like it did the day we were there, no wonder they closed. It was pretty much a ghost town when we visited.

Because of my job I have been lucky to meet a lot of great people in the industry, take home some cool coaster parts, blueprints, etc and end up in the coolest of locations (tops of lifts, bottoms of drops). But my biggest geek out would actually be 1) Meeting Marty Sklar at IAAPA and 2) Meeting Ron Toomer and discussing of all things, roller coasters!

They are going to be adding a lot this season as far as little things here and there. The park is really on its way to becoming a great little place to visit.

I too have been stuck up there (30 minutes at the longest) and I loved it. So many people I know are afraid of heights but love roller coasters. I have always thought this was sort of weird but then again, I am not afraid of heights. I actually love being high (height) and feel vary comfortable at high heights when doing work. I have found that after about 180 feet, anything further up is the same and there is no difference. Unless of course you are talking 600 feet but I don't think we need to worry about a coaster that high for awhile.

^Good point, never thought about just doing a few different departments at one park. I hope they would at least visit more than one property though. It will certainly be interesting to see what positions they cover.

This would make sense seeing as how the show seems to highlight three different locations that the CEO visits. As for filming, my guess would be last year at the latest.

I didn't know that the Busch parks had a deal like that too. I have heard that Sesame has/had a deal similar. I would call just to double check unless someone else here knows for sure. I have only heard about it there but do know that Legoland does it for sure.

I don't know why but Scandia Screamer is one of the most fun coasters I have been on. That thing ranks high for me. I think a lot of it was the fact that you are in a pretty small and very open car. I visited the park for the first time this past November and I loved it. Its a great little park that I will definitely visit the next time I am in the area.

Last November while we were out west for IAAPA we thought it would be a good idea to spend some time in LA to visit some parks. We stopped by Legoland on our way to Belmont Park just to see if they were even open. We got there around 3:45 and they closed at 5. We didn't want to pay the full price for that short of time so my friend stopped at the Guest Relations window to the right of the Front Gate. The guy in there said that if we just wanted to "see" the park, we could get a 'Shoppers Ticket'. You basically give them your credit card to scan, they do not charge it though. They print you a receipt and you have one (1) hour from the time on the receipt to go in and "shop". As long as you are out within the hour and return to the window, they do not charge your credit card. Don't return and you get charged the full ticket price. Since we didn't know about this, we really didn't plan it right. We just went in and started looking for coasters not realizing there was a coaster right inside the front gate and to the left. We just ran to the right, straight to the back of the park. We figured we could still get 3 coasters in with the park clearing out. Well we were wrong, the place was packed right up till 5pm. I could not believe how busy it was for the last hour on a Monday. We only got one coaster but now that we know about this option, we will return. Hope that helps for anyone that wants to just grab the 3 coasters. I still want to go back though and spend some time at the park just to look around. It was a very beautiful park from the little bit I saw.

You are going to love it, Skycoasters are fun to work. Rip Cord always has an awesome crew and working in Challenge Park is a good choice.

^Nice. That trip in the Northeast might be a little hard in July but I am sure you will do your best;-)

Actually, people do it all of the time. I have had people do it about 15 feet of the ground....and they were FINE with that being the ride. It all depends on where you ride at and their policy on this. I know my Skycoaster would only do it if we were really slow (had only a few guests waiting) and it would depend on how high up the guests were when they pulled it. Its a waste of time to re-fly when someone does this, especially if you told them "Don't touch it till you get to the top and don't pull it till you hear Fly".

Indeed. But anyone that has flown on a Skycoaster knows you can clearly see your path and if its clear. If you are working on the crew, you know darn well that even if the flight line is NOT clear, there isn't a thing you can do to keep a guest from pulling their cord. And in the 5 years I spent overseeing the operation of a Skycoaster, not once was the flight line "not clear"

Yourself? You know, since you pull your own cord, you decide how long you hang up at the top. Just saying

Agreed but in this scenario, it would be hard to "not know" when a train is being launched. Especially when his purpose for being up there (as far as we know) was to aim the radar. He basically HAS to be watching the train as its launched in order to do that. Not exactly like walking under Dueling Dragons and not paying attention to the track above you

He appears to be standing next to the Radar. Could he have been adjusting (aiming) it at the trains? I would assume you would have to have the trains flying by to ensure that the radar is pointed in the right direction.

Well I ran the one at Cedar Point for 3 years, so that helped

The only exciting part of that one is the initial pull up. Most people who have done a lot of Sky Coasters (including the 300 footer) prefer the smaller models like a 150 footer because of the longer flying time. Even some of those who work for the company that builds Sky Coasters (can't remember the name) prefer smaller ones. Out of all of the ones I have done, I enjoy the standard model over any other.

I stopped counting my Sky Coaster flights when I reached 500. That said, they still freak me out when I ride one. It is definitely worth the money. And as someone else pointed out, $15 is not that much compared to most. So go for it. You will not regret forking over the cash for the experience.

Its funny you say that because the guys who designed the signs, wrote the code of conduct, and made the smoking areas are from a Cedar Fair park.