ginzo

That would make a lot of sense. The place was pretty darn crowded when I went. The waterpark looked like it was in dire need of an expansion.

At least he picked a good ride to be obsessed with.

I can't see this going very far. If the zoning was wrong, then how did Beech Bend get a building permit for Rumbler? Furthermore, I'd imagine the parcel can be rezoned if necessary. Oh well, there's always some doofus who wants to spoil the fun.

Those dang Alveys. They're like the paparazzi of roller coasters! I heard that the SOB crash was due to the Alveys distracting the ride ops with their cameras, like the Princess Di tragedy only with a coaster.

I was queing for Tornado at Stricker's Grove back in July, very shortly after the SOB accident. I remember overhearing some teenaged kid in line claim that "SOB jumped the track" and "a bunch of people died". Why bother to correct someone that dense? The concept of underfriction wheels is completely lost on the GP. They seem to think that "jumping the track" is a common occurence, failing to realize that John Miller solved that problem in 1919.

And a credit is all that you missed. There's a lot better kiddie woodies out there, the Beastie (Fairly Odd Coaster) for example. I found the seats to be very uncomfortable, and the ride just creeps along. Wyandot was pretty silly anyway. They charged you to park on a bunch of dusty rocks. It's not even a real parking lot. I don't understand why they're closing it down. It was pretty darn busy on the day that I went, busy enough to justify keeping the park open. Columbus is actually a pretty big city. Why not have a park?

I'm going down around Thanksgiving. If it does get removed, I hope they remove it after that. I need a few more trips to the chiropractor.

You missed nothing. The Sea Dragon is anemically slow, and the bars hurt taller riders. The ride ops also lie about it being the oldest coaster in Ohio. Wyandot was a great place to buy a Six Flags season pass though, very cheap. I vote for the chainsaws!

I wound up going there 3 times this year, for a total of 5 days. (It's only 3 hours away.) This turned out to be too much, as the coasters are really all that's there. Splashin' Safari was always far too crowded for my tastes, but at least that lessens the coaster waiting. One interesting thing about HW is that I think their woodies are all very close to one another in quality. The Raven is always consistently awesome, but on some days/rides the Voyage really shames it. The last time I went, however, the Voyage was running kinda slow. I'm not sure if this was because I had just ridden the Avalanche a week earlier, but it seemed to just creep down the first hill. Oh well... I wonder if you'll ever see HW install any really good flat rides. The really high end ones don't make economic sense for the park. Dollywood claims that their relatively lame-o Timber Tower costed the same that the Voyage did, $6.5 million. Now, let's see here. Should we build a major, top 10 woodie, or a flat ride? Which is going to create a real surge in attendance? Is there even any decision here at all?

I suppose it depends on whom you ask. They are still woodies built in the traditional way. The MF trains help a lot, but I think GCI does push the extremes of design a bit. I found Thunderhead to be a bit rough this year after 10 consecutive rides. I felt that Kentucky Rumbler was smoother and more enjoyable. You're definitely not going to find B&M smoothness in a GCI. Some of the older ones are known to be quite rough, but this is likely just an artifact of the complete lack of woodie maintenance that prevails in most parks.

Normally, I'd ask you how you could know which park you prefer having not been to both parks. Having seen Robb's video, however, of the WG Cyclone and having been to Hershey, I think it's safe to say Hershey is a better park.

I wonder what the 35 acres is worth. That might be a sizeable chunk of the 3 mil, depending on whatever property is going for in that region.

Kentucky Rumbler really is a great ride. I wound up liking it more than Thunderhead, because Rumbler tracked far better in my experience. I think it's easily the best coaster in the state. That, of course, doesn't say much. The only aspect I didn't like was the absurd exit ramp you have to go down. They need to clean up Beech Bend a bit. The petting zoo was pretty gross. The flume had really disgusting looking water. And the whole place just felt more like a fair than an amusement park. Rumbler definitely is a step in the right direction.

That name reminds me of an old Beavis and Butthead episode where Beavis assumed the name Rod Munch so he can scam free medical care at a hospital. This strategy, of course, backfires on him. Munch actually did a good job with that book. The old photos are excellent. It's too bad it sells for fricken' $100. My local library is going to want it back sooner or later.

I've been reading this pretty good book called "Harry G. Traver Legends of Terror" by an ACE founding member named Richard Munch. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0935408029?v=glance Does anyone know if Richard Munch is really his name? Who would name their son Dick Munch?

I agree with Robb. It's pretty darn hard to compare anyone else's theming to Disney's. Expedition Everest costed $100 million to build! That's more than the cost of all the B&M hypers in the US combined.

Cedar Fair is using very misleading language on their site. http://maverick.cedarpoint.com/facts/news/ http://maverick.cedarpoint.com/ride/stats/ It sounds to me like Cedar Fair is trying to pass off a lift hill as a "launch". Apparently, the ACE lady didn't bother to read through the lines of the marketing BS.

You really have it in for ACErs. I don't have a lot of experience with those guys, as I'm pretty much a n00b to this. Did an ACEr eat your dog or something?

He's from out there in the suburbs, and is probably scared of the city proper. North Avondale is actually a wealthy neighborhood, with some of the nicest homes in the city. The rest of Avondale isn't so nice, but it's not what you'd call dangerous. OTR and the West End are the only two areas in Cincy that I go out of my way to avoid.

I guess I'll find out for myself next year when I go out there. Voyage has three trains. So, all things being equal, the capacity should be higher. In fact, I was out there today, and never had to wait more than 20 minutes to get on. The longest wait I've ever had on it was a little under an hour, and most have been in the 10-30 minute range for a total of maybe 20 rides total. I haven't been to SFGAdv in 10 years. They've added so much in that time!

Are we talking about the same ride here? Isn't Toro the super low capacity, one train running, 10 minute dispatching by lazy Six Flags hoodrat ride ops, never open before noon ride? I'm sure it's a great ride, but nobody has ever called it high capacity before you.

No problem! I'll just have to plan the trip myself if you guys won't do the work for me! Though, it's really nice to palm the work off on someone else

Well, the midwest trip doesn't interest me, because those are all local parks. And if I'm going to spend the money to go to Europe, Spain isn't on the agenda for me. At least not before I've ridden Expedition GeForce, Balder, and Colossus. I'm going to spend 2007 going on my own trip to east coast parks. I don't see anything wrong with thinking 2 years ahead, but I'm not 16. FYI- life seems to go by a lot more quickly when you get older.

Ha. They already said that they are considering 2008 options. I'm just expressing an interest in a certain trip, which I'm sure plenty of others would be interested in as well. It can't hurt to ask whether they would consider this as a possibility.

Is a Europe trip being considered for 2008? I'd be highly interested in any tour that involved Holiday Park, Heide Park, and Liseberg all in the same trip.