A.J.

They might have ordered two trains, but maybe they want to run the first one to make sure problems are ironed out before ordering the second one.

My goodness, that news anchor was out for blood. What could she have possibly gained from berating an amusement park operator of all people?

Bingo. Hersheypark has several resort hotels to stay at, too.

I would personally sabotage the moving operation.

Here's a dumb question - are Chinese theme parks legally allowed to discriminate and straight-up prevent visitors from outside of China from being admitted? I'm not sure what to think here, honestly. Another dumb question - is it even worth it for Disney to still be involved in this thing at this point?

Eh, don't be so sure that regional parks are staying still, that might not be the case. I'd like to see the top 25 amusement / theme parks in terms of percent attendance growth as opposed to just the attendance number.

...and that's why I'm on Team Tivoli Gardens.

This bit in regards to the long-term challenges of North American parks is really interesting - For a park that's within the limits of or within a short (15-20 minute) drive / ride of a major city, it's really hard to figure out who to target because there's such a huge variation in the net incomes of individuals and families. Do you jack the prices up to get more money from the few people who can (and will) really pay for it, or do you keep the prices lower, risk lower profits, but have the chance to attract more people, local or otherwise, to the gate on a regular basis?

That's totally fair. I also referenced Aska because it was an Intamin wooden coaster built before Balder. So, maybe not Aska / Viper exactly, but a similar "no frills" kind of coaster.

Honestly, if Rocky Mountain and / or Intamin made old-school wooden coaster layouts - those without the ultra-steep drops, surf curves, overbanks and inversions - I'd hop on board the hype train. I understand that these layouts haven't happened yet because the parks haven't asked for them, though. So far, it seems like Balder is the closest Intamin prefab / Rocky Mountain to a "traditional" wooden coaster - it's a little high at 120 feet tall, but it has no frills - just airtime hill after airtime hill. Sometimes I wonder what Aska at Nara Dreamland would feel like if it were built with the prefabricated track system. Even though I've never ridden it I think it's the best interpretation of the classic Cyclone layout. If the next Rocky Mountain wooden coaster were announced to be something like Aska, I'd be just as excited as the majority of us were for Goliath, Outlaw Run and the like.

I call shenanigans.

I wouldn't say that it's just Great Coasters that might have a problem. The death of the "traditional" wooden coaster is imminent, which makes me incredibly sad. I personally do not and likely will never like what Rocky Mountain has done to wooden coasters (even the Intamins might be pushing it), even though Outlaw Run and Goliath are highly-regarded in our community, and though I'd likely still enjoy them if I took a ride. It's very unfortunate that it seems like the only way for a large park to justify building a new wooden coaster now is to make it as daring and acrobatic as possible. Smaller parks can get away with traditional wooden coasters, as evidenced by the runaway successes of Wooden Warrior, Roar-O-Saurus and the European El Toro. But, I can't help but think that once every major new park in China gets their "me too" wooden coaster, both Great Coasters and Gravity Group / Martin & Vleminckx might be in for some trouble, at least in terms of getting new installations. As for Great Coasters themselves, I haven't been on enough of their coasters to know which ones are good and which ones are bad. When it comes to a bad wooden coaster, it's difficult to figure out where the blame lies - either the manufacturer just not doing a good job, or the park just not keeping with regular maintenance, or the park just deciding that a re-tracking isn't worth the money.

Has something happened to Impulse? I just dropped in today for a ride on it and the wooden coasters, and it was vibrating all over the place. If I sat forward, my back would be painfully thrown forward, but if I tried to sit back and keep my body upright I couldn't because I would get a headache from the vibrations on the seat back. It's still pretty fun, but it was butter smooth on opening day. On the bright side, I'm willing to call my previous bad ride on Twister a fluke because it was running very well today.

The car design is what really seems to give it away. I know it's concept art, but they look like Coast Rider cars with headrests.

What makes the SeaWorld and Busch parks so great is that they consistently live up to the concept art.

...and you know this how? Just curious.

The green coaster is a Wild Wind, made by the Italian company Interpark (and Pinfari too, I guess?). There's one traveling the European fair circuit called Xenox, but the ones that have been installed at parks are in really obscure locations.

That last coaster is one of these monstrosities, designed by SBF. RollerCoaster Tycoon fans, does this look familiar?

The gray and blue wild mouse type coaster looks to be a Spinning Madness from Fabbri (the lift, 90 deg turn, lift gives it away). Two spinning mouse coasters in one park?

Standard "I'm probably wrong" disclaimer, but the standard suspended looping coaster layout is designed around the centerline of the old-style trains, so they can't just run the exact same layout with the new track (unless by some circumstances the centerlines are the same), they'd have to re-engineer it and the supports needed to hold it up. Since they're still consistently getting orders for suspended looping coasters and boomerangs as they are, there's no need to re-engineer them because the parks are completely fine with what they're getting. They can re-engineer the trains instead, saving resources, time and money. Because they haven't gotten an order for a custom looping coaster since 1999 (Rock n' Roller Coaster and Xpress don't count) or a custom SLC since 2002 (both at Fantasy Island in the UK), they probably were able to carefully use the time and resources to design the brand-new track, support structure and trains for Battlestar (made from one of each) and the new suspended family coasters. Have you noticed that Battlestar and Vekoma coasters from the late 80s / 90s look like they were made by completely different manufacturers? Short answer: If it isn't broke, don't fix it.

So they did add a single rider line then. Thought that they would.

What thirteenth coaster? The last coaster that they built was in 2011.

I don't know, this seems like more of a "brand new coaster that just happened to be on the same footprint" rather than a "transformation".

So, with this and Wicked Cyclone opening, does this mean that coaster enthusiasts will now anticlimactically have the five steel Rocky Mountain coasters in their top five in some order?

Moved this here, I don't know if this guy got this approved or not. He's been PMed about it.