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Everything posted by coasterbill
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Canada's Wonderland Discussion Thread
coasterbill replied to BDG's topic in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
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If you would have told me a few years ago that a park would open an hour from my house that was indoors, open every day of the year, had an Intamin multi launch, an air race, a drop tower, a record-breaking Gerstlauer, an Intamin half-pipe, a legitimately-kick-ass frisbee and a bunch of other kick-ass rides and I would never go there I would have never believed you. If this park was even operated moderately-well, I would spend $500-$600 a year on a season pass and not bat an eye. It's stunning how terrible this park is, and I want to love it. Sandy's Blasting Bronco operates less frequently than any other coaster in the region... even the ones at parks like Rye Playland that open in May, close in September and are often closed weekdays. And like, if I'm begging for your operations to be on the level of Rye Playland then you really, really, really suck.
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If you guys are wondering when peak season is because you think that if you go then, they'll make some effort to have Sandy's, Shellraiser and the other major rides open then you don't understand how this park works. They scheduled the start of a multi-month long planned closure for Sandy's at the beginning of December. They're a mall. December is sort-of busy at malls. Sandy's finally reopened like 5 days ago... everyone was excited. It's already closed again.
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Wow... that's a lot. Counterpoint: the reason that nobody goes to this place is that it sucks, there's no need to over-analyze it or make it a microcosm of anything greater than that. The Garden State Plaza mall is less than 15 miles away and every time I drive by it it's packed beyond packed (and often traffic spills out onto 17 and brings everything to a standstill). The major rides weren't closed because you were unlucky or because it was the offseason, the major rides were closed because you went to the American Dream mall and major rides are closed on any day of the week that ends with the letter y. They're also severely lacking in shops, they occasionally have shootings, the water park has theming elements that fall from the sky and try to kill you, their ferris wheel offers sweeping views of the Jersey Turnpike and the world's worst NFL stadium, but the promised "sweeping NYC views" can be better experienced from one of the 758 observation decks that are actually in NYC. Oh... and their ski slope catches on fire. It's the worst-run park in America by a lot and season passes (if you were to purchase one for each "season" are more expensive than they would be for any park or even chain of theme parks anywhere in America except for Disney...
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Adventureland Long Island!
coasterbill replied to milst1's topic in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
Well well well... I bet nobody expected to see this thread bumped today. Just two years after rocking the coaster world to sleep with the addition of Fireball, this park is actually up to something big. Disclaimer: by "big" I mean "really really small" but big for Adventureland because the park is the size of a postage stamp. A few days ago they announced the closure of their log flume: And today, they announced the closure of their pirate ship. In that post they teased a "MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT" </caps lock>. Now... Dorney just announced a gift shop and called it major. I get that "major" means nothing but I actually think that this might be kind-of big. Now I know what you're thinking... "But Bill. I don't give a sh*t" "These two rides are old, of course they're removing them" "There's a park called Adventureland on Long Island?" ... Two things. A) You clicked on this thread, not me. Did you expect a Millennium Force clone? B) Okay so hear me out: Again... when I say that this is a "big" space I mean the size of the Dollar Tree next to the park but in Adventureland terms they are freeing up enough space for what COULD be their biggest ride ever. I kind-of hate this because if I never have to experience the Long Island Expressway again as long as I live that would be great but I also love this because this park is super cute and I kind of like it. My prediction based on literally nothing is one of those ultra-compact Zamperla family coaster /flume combos that Coney Island the the lesser Adventureland just got. -
Universal's hours are awful. We were just down in Orlando for 2 weeks and spent almost all of our time at Disney instead specifically for that reason. We'd finish working at 5 and the parks would close at 6. We could go to Universal on weekends of course, but the parks are mobbed on the weekends and Express passes are expensive. We usually picked Disney on weekends too since you can spend like $25 at Disney and never wait in a single line all day no matter how busy it is. There was one random Friday night when studios closed at 6 and Islands closed at 9 and it was awesome! We got to the park like 20 minutes before 6, got in line for Rockit at park close and didn't wait long at all, then went to Islands and had a great time. It's a beautiful park at night and the coasters are all great night rides. I really, really wish they would stay open late more often.
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Legoland New York Discussion Thread
coasterbill replied to jedimaster1227's topic in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
Despite the bunched up cabins in the concept art, I'd imagine this is most similar to the Disney Skyliner on a tiny scale? Either way, this seems like a smart move. -
I've thought about this way too much because we love Coco. I feel like the problem with that would be that there would be absolutely nowhere to put the queue. Right now, the pavilion can barely handle the queue for that dumb boat ride. My dream scenario that will never happen is a Coco ride show building behind the Anna and Elsa meet and greet with an entrance near Plaza de los Amigos but this will absolutely never happen ever.
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Cedar Point (CP) Discussion Thread
coasterbill replied to robbalvey's topic in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
I feel like Cedar Fair is one of the only American chains that doesn't typically limit rides on their newest ride with the skip-the-line system anyway. This makes sense. -
Alton Towers Discussion Thread
coasterbill replied to Ed's topic in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
I'll just keep saying what I've been saying this whole time. This ride is perfect, don't screw it up. -
Cedar Point (CP) Discussion Thread
coasterbill replied to robbalvey's topic in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
People under-estimate how cheap this park is. People put them up on a pedestal, but at the end of the day they're a regional park in Ohio that sells day tickets for $49.99. All we heard about at IAAPA was about how cheap the train was and how cheap it would be to maintain. It's proof-of-concept for Zamperla so they probably got a good deal, but I feel like people focus too much on the up-front cost and not the continuous costs of ownership. Intamin's spare parts are expensive. Zamperla is... Zamperla. Intamin could have built an insanely kick-ass ride but it would have cost more money up-front and probably more money every year going forward. Cedar Point is cheaper than most enthusiasts want to believe that they are. The entire motivation behind removing an Intamin multi-launch and replacing it with a Zamperla Wild Mouse was cutting costs without acting like they were cutting costs. It cost them money up-front, but think about the change in power consumption and staffing / maintenance costs every year forever. The entire motivation behind Top Thrill 2 is... exactly the same thing. Less staff positions, less maintenance, cheaper parts... etc. I'm not even upset about either of those things, but let's call this what it is. -
I heard rumors that Sandy's was actually open last week for a few days, but it looks like it's already closed again. I hate this place. I want to love it... I really, really, really do and on the 6 days per year where most of the good rides are open it's actually fun but I've never ever seen such a dumpster fire.
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Knoebels Discussion Thread
coasterbill replied to robbalvey's topic in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
As one matures in life they graduate from team Sheetz to team Wawa. Sure, you look back fondly at your party days of getting blackout drunk and then going "YEAH MAN PUT MOZZARELLA STICKS ALL OVER THAT BURGER AND SPELL IT WITH A Z" but there's no shame in not being about that life anymore. Also, I'm sad about that Super 8. I used to stay at shit hotels all the time and now that I've grown up a bit and become a fancy-ass Wawa person my tastes have changed and I'm more of like a Marriot / Hilton / Choice but Comfort Inn / Suites or above person. That Super 8 was always WAY too good to be a Super 8 though and I feel like even now I'd consider staying there if it were still like it used to be. I'm sad to hear that they checked the sign, saw that it said "Super 8" on it and realized that they were supposed to suck. That's a bummer. -
Knoebels Discussion Thread
coasterbill replied to robbalvey's topic in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
This made me LOL. Two of these suggestions are actually great though. I'll let everyone decide which two. -
Cedar Point (CP) Discussion Thread
coasterbill replied to robbalvey's topic in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
Don't forget that they just closed Wicked Twister and replaced it with a small Wild Mouse with a lift hill. I don't know the answer to this question, but I'd imagine that replacing Top Thrill Dragster and Wicked Twister with Top Thrill 2 and Wild Mouse is probably not an insane jump in power usage in either direction. I'm prepared to be very wrong on this though. -
The Great Escape (TGE) Discussion Thread
coasterbill replied to Red Benny's topic in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
It's insane to me that it took this long. -
Cedar Point (CP) Discussion Thread
coasterbill replied to robbalvey's topic in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
I honestly feel like the capacity will be fine. It sort-of looks like they can park a train out right before the switch. Sure, the old ride had six trains but usually 1 was in transfer, 4 of them were busy doing f*ck all and 1 was actually launching every minute or so. ... or all 6 of them were doing f*ck all and maintenance was there wondering if they should put in their 2 weeks or actually go and fix Dragster for the 3,786th time that week. As for the ride, it looks cool. Hopefully Zamperla impresses everyone. -
Cedar Point (CP) Discussion Thread
coasterbill replied to robbalvey's topic in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
That was never the norm. There were rare days like that, but they were also balanced out by breakdowns that lasted for weeks / months at a time that seemed to be becoming more and more frequent. In 3 of it's last 5 seasons it ended up on the news because of a major breakdown and one of the 2 years where that didn't happen was 2020 when the park opened for the season 2 months late and the park closed at like 7PM every day. It barely had the opportunity. ... remember this in 2019? ... or this in 2017?