A.J.

That happened to me when I went to Six Flags Great Adventure six (!!!) years ago. I was afraid that the phone of the woman who rode next to me on El Toro would come out and smack me in the face Fabio-style.

Hey Larry, you won that time! I like the International Food Court and I know you can basically take your food anywhere but I prefer some of the places in the forested / seculded middle of the park like Cesari's, the round stand and The Old Mill.

That would mean an 11.4% increase in attendance if the 300,000 number is accurate. Fascinating. They should submit that info, the TEA makes a few revisions to the Theme Index over the course of the year.

Well Larry, you tried. I appreciate it. Where do you live in Maryland? As long as you don't live all the way down near Washington or over near Cumberland, you can get to the park in three hours. Leave your house at 8 AM, be there from 11 AM to 6 PM, be home at 9 PM. Super-easy, and that's the worst-case scenario in my opinion. You can push your hours at Knoebels from like... 1 PM to 8 PM if you want to ride the rides in the dark and you don't mind staying up late.

Giant supermarkets. Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia.

When you go back to including the 2013 season, you would appear to be on the right track. According to the Theme Index, both Cedar Point and Canada's Wonderland were actually down in attendance in 2014 compared to 2013, -4% and -1% respectively. Kings Island was up 1% and Knott's Berry Farm broke even.

The Valravn rattle is EXACTLY the problem. No theorizing needed. It IS fascinating that even though less people are going to the parks, those same people are actually spending more money throughout their day. I'm going through the TEA Theme Index right now. Interesting (estimated / approximated) attendance trends from 2014 to 2017... Knott's Berry Farm had a 5% increase, then a 3.8% increase, then only a 0.5% increase. Canada's Wonderland had a 2% increase, then a 2.9% increase, then only a 1% increase. Cedar Point had an 8% increase, then a 2.8% increase, then stayed even. Kings Island had a 3% increase, then a 1.5% increase, then a 2.5% increase. Across the top performers of chain you can see that the increases in attendance year over year are kind of shrinking. But that's happening with other coaster parks too. The top-performing Six Flags parks are going through those same sort of "increase decreases". Hersheypark is experiencing the same sort of stuff too, but they're just one park. EDIT: Based on those trends I don't think that a "travel anywhere but the United States" mentality is what's going on here...yet.

Add me to the "dark ride re-theme" camp as well, the focus on a "mission" in the marketing immediately makes me think of "shooting dark ride". Also, if that gigantic coaster is coming for 2020, why would they spend all the money on another gigantic coaster for 2019? As for that layout, perhaps it's a different kind of out-and-back mega coaster like a Mack looping coaster a la Flash or DC Rivals Hypercoaster.

That's what they all say! Don't listen to them!!! You're gonna drown! Slightly related story - I met some friends at Disney's California Adventure and they insisted that they ride Grizzly River Run in the evening. I had driven myself, and I knew that the ride would get you completely drenched, and I didn't want to drive home in soggy shorts. I tried to talk them out of it yet they persisted, saying "oh, you don't get THAT wet", so I stayed behind as the bag lady. They got off the ride totally soaked, and one of them came up to me and said, "wow, you were right". Moral of the story: If a ride says "you may get wet", you will. If a ride says, "you will get wet", bring a change of clothes.

I've lost too many well-intentioned posts to thread purges lately.

Technically they are both in the same competitive space, in the sense that they are selling inclusive resort experiences. They want you to stay in "the bubble". Go to the park(s) for multiple days, stay at the onsite resort, you know how it goes. Both developments (Walt Disney World too) want you to make your vacation focused on their offerings and their offerings only. That being said, I highly doubt that anything that Cedar Point or Universal Orlando would do would cause some seismic shift in attendance from one to the other. I'd be very surprised if more than a select few "normal" vacation-goers cancelled their Cedar Point trip just because Steel Vengeance had an oopsie, and I would be even more surprised if even a few of THOSE people made plans to go to Universal instead as a result.

From my experience, there is very little overlap between Cedar Point / Kings Island guests and Walt Disney World / Universal Orlando guests.

The Jokers have the three fins along the top like Arashi, I think that Batman at Fiesta Texas is the only one now that has just the one fin at the beginning. But, I'd bet that the pushes forward from the fins are electric / electronic and the park can control how much a car should be flipped as it goes over them. S&S even says that a park can make the experience more or less extreme if they so choose and that the change can be made easily. Obviously, Nagashima Spa Land went for the more extreme route. I think I'll be staying away from that one.

Just an FYI, we have somewhat definitive answers for this now (unless I screwed something up): Australia - Superman Escape Belgium - Pulsar Canada - Coaster China Hong Kong - Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars China Mainland - Mega-Lite / Fly Over Mediterranean Denmark - Piraten Germany - Expedition GeForce Finland - Tornado France - Monster Italy - iSpeed Japan - Kawasemi Mexico - Medusa Steel Coaster Netherlands - Goliath Norway - Speed Monster Singapore - Revenge of the Mummy Spain - Shambhala Sweden - Wildfire Traveling - Olympia Looping United Arab Emirates - Formula Rossa United Kingdom - Nemesis USA, Arkansas - X Coaster USA, California - Twisted Colossus USA, Colorado - Twister II USA, Connecticut - Boulder Dash USA, Florida - Montu USA, Georgia - Goliath USA, Idaho - Tremors USA, Illinois - Goliath USA, Iowa - Monster USA, Indiana - Voyage USA, Kentucky - Storm Chaser USA, Maine - Excalibur USA, Maryland - Superman Ride of Steel USA, Massachusetts - Superman The Ride USA, Michigan - Shivering Timbers USA, Minnesota - Renegade USA, Missouri - Outlaw Run USA, Nevada - El Loco USA, New Hampshire - Yankee Cannonball USA, New Jersey - El Toro USA, New York - Ride of Steel USA, North Carolina - Fury 325 USA, Ohio - Maverick USA, Pennsylvania - Phoenix USA, South Carolina - Swamp Fox USA, Tennessee - Lightning Rod USA, Texas - New Texas Giant USA, Utah - Cannibal USA, Virginia - Intimidator 305 USA, Washington - Timberhawk Ride of Prey USA, Wisconsin - Avalanche (now defunct)

I'd be willing to bet that the fourth car is on the track right now, but scattered throughout cars 1, 2, and 3...

Beautiful-looking coaster. The setting alone makes it worth a ride, even if it's a typical "tame"-looking B&M Wing Coaster.

My house. ZING! An actual serious answer is...based on your trip itinerary. If you're doing a multi-park Pennsylvania trip, you might as well stay at whichever hotel you're staying at for the park before. Hershey (Hersheypark) and Allentown (Dorney Park) are within spitting distance of the park, you can easily do a drive from either of those cities to Knoebels in less than two hours. Some closer surrounding large towns / small cities are Bloomsburg (historical college town) and Danville (convenient Interstate overnight stop). You could also stop in Reading which is kind of in the middle of all three parks.

Yeah, it's interesting how often that attraction type has been used in such a short time. This will be the third one. Mater's Junkyard Jamboree was the first, Woody's Roundup at Shanghai Disneyland is the second, this will be the third. If concept art is any indication, the system will be showing up at Tokyo Disneyland and Walt Disney Studios Paris in a few years, making five total. It's basically the next Dumbo The Flying Elephant.

It's the new hotness with one of the most recognizable, popular I.P.s, that's just what happens. I think Canada Bill (Nrthwnd) posted a photo of Tokyo DisneySea's Toy Story Mania with a 400 (!!) minute standby time, while it absolutely sucks beyond all manner of comprehension it's not exactly unprecedented. People (especially fans) will do anything to get the imaginary "I was first" medallion. I'll bet that some families even planned their vacation around being there at Toy Story Land's opening. I'm certainly a little disappointed that they didn't do an early passholder preview but it's really no big deal. In my opinion the people who might not get to experience the park ever are just a little bit more important than I am, considering I can go whenever I want 48 weeks out of the year...

I was going to go yesterday, but... 270 minutes for Slinky Dog Dash. That wasn't happening. Glad you had fun.

Designer representing, though I'm not speaking on behalf of who I work for... From an accessibility and experience standpoint, the suspended coaster type already exists today - it's the Vekoma suspended family coaster. Low height restriction, fast sections, high-speed back-to-back turns... At least on the 453 m / Orkanen model, the formula is already there. In my opinion, what made Big Bad Wolf (and I'm assuming Eagle Fortress) so good wasn't necessarily the swinging. It was the close calls with its surroundings. Because the trains had a fixed floor, narrow profile, and closed-in seats, the clearance envelope was ridiculously small. If I owned a park and really wanted a retro-modern suspended coaster a la Knoebels' Flying Turns, I'd request a something along the lines of a more intense Vekoma or Intamin suspended family coaster with a custom train design that would prevent outward reaching and allow for a tighter envelope, and have it designed with terrain interaction and close calls in mind. The whole swinging aspect seems like it would be a problem item in the long run or something that would shorten the ride's effective service life.

Djurs is really turning into Intamin Land, isn't it?

The Game Exchange as an entity was taken down a long while ago. When you post your park just attach it the old way or link it from an external website. You must not have posted it in this particular forum, otherwise I would have gotten an alert that the post was pending approval. Try it again.

Not going to take a particular side here, but you know you can embed YouTube videos in your posts. Use tags with the full URL (less timecode).

Fair argument, but most working people only take a vacation for a single week, meaning five days (MAYBE six or seven) for parks. It's something I'm dealing with in regard to my own trip planning for next year. This isn't only Disney's problem - because destination theme parks are so huge and expensive now, it's less about -wanting- to stay an extra day to get more out of the park, and more about being forced to stay an extra day so you don't miss anything, because you might not get another chance to go later in your life.