Electerik

That seems like a safe assumption, since Hard Rock itself now regards the park as a black eye on its reputation (to badly mix metaphors). Still, there's no reason new owners couldn't keep a generic musical theme. Hard Rock certainly doesn't hold a copyright on "the 60's" or "Country Music." They'd just have to rename the coasters (assuming they couldn't get permission from the individual artists). /Musicland? Music World? Er...Musicwood?

I've always thought a coaster with free-turning "ferris wheel" type seats would be interesting. The idea is that no matter what the track is doing, the riders would be facing forward. So a 90-degree drop would create a "freefall" ride sensation. But then when you reached the bottom of the drop, you would still be racing "forward." (The one exception being that a loop taken with sufficient speed would still invert the rides, due to centrifugal force.) Obviously, it would require a new kind of track that's clear above and below the riders, but I think it's do-able.

Even leaving Disney in it, for my money, the best/most completely themed ride, from start to finish, is Men In Black: Alien Attack at USF. It has multiple levels of theming--even to the degree of the ride being integrated into the park--and they all work by themselves and with each other. You're in the park, you enter an attraction ("The Universe And You") that you then find out is really just a front for the MiB training facility ("sorry about all the phony theme park nonsense"), you begin training (the first part of the ride, with targets), and are then thrust into "the real thing" due to an emergency (animatronic aliens without cheesy targets on them). At the end, your memory is blanked, and you're dumped back into "The Universe And You" and back into the park. Also, it has the best onride photo set up ever. /Never worked there. Was just always impressed by the theming.

Nice TR. I have to admit that I haven't really been all that interested in "HRRR" before now. But some of those pictures make it look pretty good!

That statement is weird in several ways. Are you suggesting that Six Flags fooled Cedar Fair into thinking that Worlds of Adventure was a huge money maker? Did Six Flags further assure them that it would still be, even without all of the marine animal attractions from the SeaWorld side of the park? CF didn't get burned. They got exactly what they wanted, and they would buy it again knowing what they know now. So, yes, they certainly would buy another park from Six Flags, if they thought it served their interests to do so. /Remember kids: Cedar Point is Cedar Fair, and Cedar Fair would kill your mom if they thought she was a threat to CP.

Yes. And although it could be an optical illusion, that photo really suggests that the train "wings" couldn't possibly be dipping into the trench. So I guess that about solves it: No true "train splash," just an effect.

I still think it's an Intamin.

Because no one offered them (enough) money for it? They sold the ones people wanted. /Didn't really mean that as a diss on SFA. Just the fact.

Those are great! I've never really been into the whole "close up of a train" type of photography. But then, I've never had that good of a camera.

^ Possibly. But it could be just a computer error (in terms of who registered first), rather than something intentional on the part of Universal. But I'm still not sure that there is a problem. Did the contest say anything about "1 per household" or "1 per computer"? If it did, then they might have gone with the last one registered instead of the first (weird, but I suppose it would be their prerogative). Or, people might just have messed it up. (Registering during the commercial instead of after it, or mistyping the captcha, for example.) In any case, I don't think we can say that it was "random." A lot might depend on which commercial one tried to register after (say, if there were lots more people trying after some particular one). So, yes, Universal could have farked this all up (on accident or on purpose). Or it could have been user error. Hard to say. But I suspect that if there's enough uproar, Universal will just give one to everyone--since it seems they're banking on winners bringing other paying customers with them anyway. Guess we'll have to wait and see.

Perhaps it's not odd at all. It was supposed to be the first 100,000 people after each airing. If lots of people did it for early airings, but not many did it after the last one, then it might well play out like that. It was also supposed to be done immediately after the commercial was over. So if you did it when it came on, you might have been disqualified (or put into the previous airing's tally).

Whole Lotta Dance Dance Revolution: The Ride Official Entry

^ Everyone except Big Mike! Cheaters never win...! /Actually, I'm just kidding. I hope Mike (or his dad or bro) gets it, too.

Today's my day, I guess: I got my "bag" and my free universal ticket (from the superbowl promotion)! [EDIT: <--- Heh. Same shirt. ] "Bag O Crap" (aka, park maps from around the world!)

Add me to the winners list. Which is interesting, because I was only half watching the game (with my computer ready to go), but never saw the commercial. And, finally, once the game was over, I just went ahead and submitted anyway.

^ Add one more to the "fanboy" roster. /Fair is fair. //And cedar is cedar...?

So...it's a shooting dark ride where you can shoot stuff without having to ride...? Is that, like, a practice area? /Looks like a beautiful park. //Except for that damned digital clock on the ferris wheel!

^ Flip-Flap?

Well sure, if you're a coaster NERD who talks about mysterious yellow track all day. But if you're really cool, you talk to them online and record it. /"For $200, I'll do anything you want." //"Okay, paint my house."

That was a nice little interview. I was kind of hoping to hear more about the viewing/splashdown area, though. Did we ever get a definitive answer on that? Is it going to be like SheiKra/Griffon, with a very interactive splash area? /Maybe that's been answered and I just missed it.

^ Let me clarify just a bit. The Knott's family had wanted to put a wooden roller coaster into Ghost Town for years, and were in the process when Cedar Fair came in. Cedar Fair hated the idea and wanted to cancel the project, since construction had not yet begun. But since the contracts were already signed, they were going to have to pay CCI whether they built the ride or not. On the plus side, CF did pour more money into the project to get it done more quickly. Of course, there was supposed to be streams and water and (more) landscaping all around the queue area and approach to the lift, too. But CF never quite got around to finishing that. In any case, CF never really loved the project. And now that the ride isn't very worthwhile, it sort of backs up their initial opinion. Which would be fine, if they weren't the ones responsible for it no longer being worthwhile.

I've ridden the Fly-O-Plane at Lake Winnie. And I can see why they're now scarce. It's not very comfortable, and rather difficult to control. My experience was: do nothing and be stuck almost upsidedown, or try to right yourself and end up completely upsidedown. /Maybe I'm just retarded. The Toboggan of flat rides.

Crap. I'm not going back to RRC! You can't make me! /Now where's my patch jacket...?

^ & ^^ Thanks for the responses. I couldn't quite figure it out. Looks pretty cool.

Well, as someone who very much enjoys pretty much all amusement parks, I would say yes. Is it one of the best parks out there? Personally, i would say no. But I'm sure there are plenty of folks who would disagree. As they say, "That's why they make chocolate and vanilla." /Ask a vague question, get a general answer. //Would very much like to see Mitch do a park poll someday. ///Knoebels? BGE? IOA?