A.J.

I've been had! No, seriously, while I may have a slight ulterior motive, that's not it, even though I used Knoebels as my own example. I was a cast member a few years ago, when Toy Story 3 was still popular a couple of us would get together during slower periods with a few Lotso-Huggin' Bear plush toys and a basket and we would play basket toss with children outside on the street. We didn't have any prizes to give, it was stupid-warm outside, but everyone had so much fun.

While I'm not a fan of the monumental scale and I'm not sure that the PolerCoaster / SkySpire / etc is the absolute future of thrills and entertainment, it is certainly nice to see something different pop up in an area dominated by gated resorts. I'm a bit skeptical and / or curious as to how one of these would work in an area that isn't as much of an entertainment mecha. That Atlantic City one is just the coaster, right? That's not a whole lot for potential guests to do...

Hey everyone! I've been keeping up with Theme Park Review's recent romp through Europe, and I've noticed there have been so many "little things" that have made each day's visit enjoyable. Things like Toverland letting you get close to the log flume, or Europa Park's bumper cars having a gigantic football / soccer ball thrown into the mix. That raises a fun discussion - what "little things" make you fall in love with a park? A "little thing" can be anything that isn't right in your face - your favorite food item, a fun variation on a ride, a certain way a ride is operated, some thoughtful thematic detail, accessibility for your younger family members... The list goes on. One thing that makes me enjoy Knoebels so much is the fact that I can go back and forth through the open areas near Phoenix, Twister, Impulse etc and the secluded, more quiet areas where the children's rides are. I can take my visit as slow or as fast as I want!

It's pretty complicated. I doubt it actually runs at 1,440 because of every real-world factor known to man, but I don't believe Disney would willingly plonk one of their most popular IPs of the decade onto a low-capacity attraction. From what I understand, the new configuration of the station definitely helps to keep things moving.

That's fair then. In hindsight I probably should have thought to do some snooping myself since I, well, live down here now.

Kind of like pre-fabricating a wooden coaster. Got it, makes sense.

What's a Blitz coaster?

Apparently "checking it out" is going to be near-impossible for a while. From Screamscape: CLICK Obviously this is only based on reports, but if this is actually what's going on, it's pretty brutal. This may be one instance where FastPass Plus has turned out to be a bad idea.

That would fit with that one person's observation then. Perhaps it emergency stopped on the lift and then kept going again, derailing at the bottom of the drop.

I'd like Tennessee Tornado a whole lot more if the seats were actually designed for human beings.

That's not even close to a fact. Merlin owns both Alton Towers and Gardaland so they can use whichever park I.P. they want in either - just like Nemesis and Nemesis Inferno. Also, the black hole theme is literally stuff getting sucked into a black hole at the bottom of the drop, and doesn't have anything to do with the Jet-Star-in-a-box that used to be at Alton Towers.

Find a Weis Markets in the area, they offer a $20 book of tickets for $16.

To land all the way over there the cars would have had to derail either at the bottom of the first drop, or on the sweeping curve before the brake run. Those are the only two places that (I think) the coaster would have had enough speed / inertia / momentum / forces / whatever in that direction to end up outside the ride boundary there.

Forgive my ignorance, but how can you patent bending and twisting what amounts to a variation of a simple I-beam?

I'm more surprised, but you probably have a different taste in parks than I do. My bias I am showing you it because I have a severe sense of place attachment to Knoebels, mainly because it's one of the closest parks to meaningful public space I'll ever experience my life. Since you're willing to go for Phoenix and Twister anyway, I'd highly suggest giving it another full day the next time you're in central Pennsylvania. Part of its appeal is that it's so different. People have picnics, they go camping, families with children hang out in the back with the kids' rides as if the rest of the park doesn't exist. I will agree that the back of the park certainly looks a lot "older" than the rest of it, but I still think that you did a disservice by skipping attractions like the Flyer, Looper, Skooters, StratosFear, Flying Turns, and Pioneer Train.

Go sit in the corner and think about what you just said. I haven't been in years (it hits too close to home for me nowadays) but the sort of "family-owned", "let's just build a nice amusement park" feel is part of its appeal. If you just went there for the coasters and only checked out the surroundings / other attractions in passing you did the park a huge disservice.

Oh, they certainly do. Though, it's what Silver Dollar City (and Dollywood by consequence) does with those "cookie-cutter" attractions that sets them apart. Sometimes, a good ride wrapped around a easy-to-understand story in a well-themed environment is all you need for a cohesive experience. Pretty much everything can be dumbed down to a basic ride system - at its core, Efteling's Baron 1898 is "just another B&M dive coaster" but the story and surroundings are so immersive that even we would likely forget about that until we sat down in the seat. The theme park industry is actually in a boom right now, though more so overseas. Even when you consider the year of the recession, the TEA puts the growth of the North American market at 22 percent above what it was in 2006. I don't think parks are in any hurry to try and break records, but they're definitely adding big things as far as the parks are concerned. Herschend has invested a whole lot into both of their parks over that period - though most of Dollywood's have been big single marquee attractions while Silver Dollar City has invested into big themed lands with a bunch of smaller attractions within them.

For a big "celebration", the Ice Palace scenes seem so lonely. Other than that, I generally like how the ride turned out (putting aside my indifference towards Frozen itself).

Mystery Mine Version 2 anyone?

I wasn't "impressed" the last time I rode it but it sure was fun.

I can't tell if Disco H2O is included in the mix but I definitely picked out Brain Wash (Puihi), Aqua Drag Racer (Punga Racers) and Black Hole (Taniwha Tubes). In addition, it looks like Volcano Bay will be getting the US's first ProSlide Flying Saucer installation as well as a double Tornado Wave.

I am a firm believer of the idea that a localized amusement or theme park can exist alongside the big regional parks so long as it does something differently than the others. There's so much opportunity for communities to adopt a smaller entertaining space as their own - like a gigantic local playground, but for all ages instead of just children. I feel like modern design and planning processes can help accommodate for this, but at the same time a park doesn't have to have some new "whizz-bang" attraction or expansion be built every season to be successful. At the local level, I believe that people would keep coming back just because they enjoy going there. It's why I love Knoebels so much - it's just a darned good place to spend my time.

Apologies, poor choice of words. It's probably not ASTM or the state of PA but I'm still willing to bet that it's an outside source "politely suggesting" that changes be made. You're likely on the right track, if not completely correct. I doubt that they themselves actually wanted to do this.

Yeah, that's why I'm okay with it. They've basically made a name for themselves in restoring and maintaining classic attractions to modern standards.