A.J.

As always. No worries, keep the content coming.

Hey friends, Have the end slates on Theme Park Review YouTube videos been really long lately? Like, example, the Zippin Pippin video is almost two minutes long, and that's misleading as the end slate takes up well over thirty seconds of the video! I don't usually complain about the videos but as a viewer I can't help but feel...cheated. It's the same case with the Dominator back seat video, the Colossus video, a little less long in the Ultra Twister video... I understand wanting to have a big notice for people to subscribe, but, couldn't you be a little more subtle about it? Even if it were to be a button or callout on top of more footage of the coaster in the video? I hope I'm not coming across as "mean" or "disrespectful" or "ignorant", but, is this really necessary?

Soarin's posted wait times are inaccurate anyway. From the merge point, which is where standby guests hand over the red card (at least the last time I went), you have to stop and wait in the hallway, then move into the lineup area and wait another entire showing, before you finally board. It adds fifteen to twenty-five minutes to your wait, which is frustrating considering that when you reach the merge point it feels like you're going to be boarding immediately. It's like an actual airport! So realistic!

Yeah, it doesn't help that Disney and Universal very nearly have a duopoly over the theme park resort market in the US. The easiest way for parks in the US to compete is to basically be value propositions, offering a higher quantity of rides and attractions for the money. A new high-profile theme park to be built in the US would have to be different enough so that people don't say, "But I can just go to Disney for that exact same sort of thing." EDIT: Also, we in the US absolutely ADORE identifying with brands and fandoms. It's one of the reasons why you don't see the biggest US theme parks coming up with original attraction stories that often, deciding instead to base them on existing IP because that's what sells tickets. COUGH COUGH STAR FROZEN WARS THE OLAF AWAKENS

^ I guess the outward seats are supposed to be the "wilder" experience.

Hulk's feels about the same as Verbolten's second launch to me, maybe a little bit more intense.

Here's a fun little rotoscoped video showing off the new attraction, Fatamorgana. Opens on the 6th of April. [fbvideonew] [/fbvideonew]

So...how many times has Intamin redesigned their train and restraint system in the past decade or so? Four? Curious, has anyone said anything about the height restriction?

I don't go to Washington DC for Six Flags America, I go for Washington DC. [One of] the [many] problem is the park's location. Everyone goes past it. The Capital Beltway is ridiculous. Washington DC is basically a danger zone for everyone in the Mid-Atlantic traveling south. No one wants to stop there. Example, I drive from my hometown in Pennsylvania to Georgia several times a year. I don't stop in Washington, I stop in York or Frederick. I make it a point to be able to get through the Baltimore-Washington area, and about forty miles south, without stopping. Everything happens on the inside of the Capital Beltway. The Washington metro area, the smaller communities like Bethesda, all the "cool" stuff. Six Flags America is on the wrong side of the highway. There's very little development directly east of the park, and Annapolis is pretty far away. Now, granted, they can't really help their location at this point in their career, but I'd be willing to bet that it's definitely a negative factor.

Eh, I doubt it, considering that there's stuff between the two attractions. They may do a new flat ride package (which is totally possible), but you can't really replace the two of them with one big thing, because, well, there are a few big things in the way.

It needs a slight edge for the appeal? Are you [censored]ing kidding me? The nature of the ride will mean that it has mass appeal already. Isn't that enough, especially considering that Phantasialand doesn't really have a coaster that's marketed as a family experience? They do put Colorado Adventure in the "family" category on their site but the sign at the entrance says "thrill ride". You can't expect every coaster in a park to appeal to you, even in a park like Phantasialand. You need to appreciate it for what it is, because without the families that come in and ride those kinds of rides and attractions on a regular basis, Taron might not have even been built!

SOUNDS GREAT! LOVE IT! My goodness, the audio track is so wonderfully silly.

Ugh. Gentrification. The world needs more play spaces, and less high-rise condominiums that will never get used.

Seriously though...I have always wondered that too. They have netting for just about every coaster where people could come into contact with flying objects...why not here? Aren't the clearances in the "near miss" sections so tight that they can't put anything at all between them? Something being caught by a net would still hit the opposite train's riders' feet.

I'm actually more interested in this than the theme park itself: Have they released any info or new images on this part of the development?

Another thing that crossed my mind - does this mean that Universal Orlando will still be hanging onto their license for Marvel properties for the foreseeable future? You'd think that if the license was about to expire, they would have re-themed the Hulk coaster.

They could do something where they knock X amount of dollars off of an all-day pass or something if you show your parking ticket.

As long as it's optional, I'm good.

Chose this thread because it's the most recent, we might want to make a discussion thread. Dreamworld has re-opened the Cyclone as the "Hot Wheels Sidewinder" alongside a new area. Source - AusParks So, two things from this - first, I -think- that this is the first time we've seen this kind of new Vekoma train on an Arrow coaster (Rolling X-train got a different kind of train); second, this means that Canyon Blaster is now the only coaster left with the 90s-style Arrow train unless you count Tennessee Tornado.

Bingo. Those and the kind of speed hills that Phoenix has. I'm very much a purist in that sense, and it's why I've never gotten into Rocky Mountain's coasters like most other people have. I'll take multiple straight airtime hills in a row over "holy crap I don't know which way I'm going now up down left right twisty twisty" any day of the week - but that's nothing against them. You do you, Rocky Mountain. Keep making people happy. I'll be over there riding my favorite classic.

Stop neglecting Blackbeard's Lost Treasure Train!

^ Throw in some Lake Compounce while you're at it.

It's great that Fun Spot is expanding but still setting itself apart from the other Orlando parks by being "a place you just go to for a few hours because it's fun" instead of being "a place you spend your life savings on". Just the kind of place I like!

I'd build a Scandi-style park somewhere in the mid-Atlantic. Something like Fårup or Djurs. Something the size of Knoebels, maybe a little bit larger. Forested. Lots of playgrounds and physical attractions for children and adults. Family-oriented.

I'm pretty sure that intensity ratings are based on the forces that the attraction exerts on the body. Hersheypark: Cedar Fair: