CoasterEricHP

I'm bored waiting for class so here's a quick rendering of what I think we'll see. This is loosely based off the Eurofighter "Speed: No Limits". It starts by the waterslides, heads to the Playdome Arcade which is in desperate need of being ripped out and back. It doesnt require any backstage buildings to be torn down and doesnt go over any pathways. What do you think? EDIT: After doing some more research the Euro Fighter going in at the Mall of America is only like $3 million! It's only a couple hundred feet shorter than Mystery Mine, so for a $12 million dollar Euro Fighter it'd be a lot more than what my picture has.. probably a second lift and some other elements elsewhere.

If all of the information that is "leaked" is true then it all points to a Eurofighter. Just slap on some light blue/dark blue paint and you have a surf theme... although if the station is by the current waterslides it's not really in the Boardwalk area of the park. 95 degree drop and a vertical lift is all Eurofighter, and 12.1 million (listed on the nantimi page) is a relatively low price tag considering Maverick cost 21 million, and Mystery Mine cost 17.5. Take out Mystery Mine's extensive theming and you're probably looking at 13 million? Plus, these coasters take up a relatively small footprint. I havent been to Hershey since they started putting marks on the ground, but I really DOUBT anything is going to go all over the park like the one map on here. I dont really believe in the dippin dots person but Oct 2nd is so far away!! Eric

That parking lot has been rumored to go for a few years so maybe. Now that I look at it I think they could build a Maverick type ride and either take out Canyon River Rapids or build over it.. Here's a quick map of where the ride might go. Purple = waterslides being demolished Blue = Parking lot Red = Canyon River Rapids Or maybe it could be both areas!

I can see something like Maverick but they're really going to have to make this thing go over pathways and around other rides. It's definately going to be interesting. I'd put money down on a Eurofighter. Eric

I worked at both Disney and Universal. Honestly the biggest difference between the two places are Unions. I did the Walt Disney College Program as Bell Services and Front Desk at the Grand Floridian. After that I went to Universal and was a trainer at Dueling Dragons. I moved back and went to school here in PA for another year and went back down to FL and worked at Everest, and then I went back to Universal and worked at Sky Trolley and then was a lead at Dragons. Disney has unions and you'll either love them or hate them. I personally hated them. The Bell Service union at the Grand Floridian made the bell men and valets complete greedy babies.. and I mean BABIES. It was the same thing in attractions... it's all seniority based, which means if John Smith has been there 10 years and does squat and you work your ass off everyday, he'll always be considered first before you are. In fact, your first day of work at Disney you go through a class called "traditions". BUT, before you can even learn about Disney you are talked to by a union representative and pressured to join the union and pay dues. When I went back to Disney for the second time I was sitting there with this nastily overweight union rep (who probably expects everything handed to him on a silver platter) and I'm listening to him tell me that its not fair that the hard workers should get paid more or move up faster than the lazy ones, I was really uncomfortable listening to that and realized that Universal is the better company! That's why I only stayed at Everest a month before heading back to Universal. Universal on the other hand is a Union Free workplace. From my experience the company treats you a lot better, you get rewarded for working hard and can move up faster, you don't have to deal with HUGE amounts of red tape, you get paid more, you get just as many perks as Disney (admission to IOA, USF, BGT, and Sea World) and the benefits for full time/part time are just as good if not better than Disney. Don't get me wrong, I had good friends who worked at Disney and loved it. I just don't agree with the Union mindset. Disney is Disney, and you'll sit through Traditions and I'm sure you're instructor will get teary eyed and tell you a story about how they were able to touch someone's life by working there, and that's great! Disney has a great product, but also I feel a lot of it is a huge facade Also, if you're looking at hotels you might want to check out Loew's hotels like the Hard Rock, Portofino Bay, and Royal Pacific. They pay wayyy more than Disney. Let me know if you have any questions! Edit -- As far as positions and advancement at Universal here's how it goes for most attractions: Attendant (lowest)- where you do the loading/unloading button pushing. Controls - Dragons CB booth, JP's video screens and such. Trainer- training attendants and controls people. Also you take new team members out into the parks during orientation and do nice things for guests (like get them on a ride, buy drinks for them, or other cool things.. I loved doing that) Relief Lead- thats what I was at Dragons. You are like a shift manager and deal with team members, supervisors, rotations, budgets, angry guests, and my favorite.. evacs Status Lead- does the same thing as a relief lead but is considered the main lead of that attraction. Supervisor- Each ride at Universal has a supervisor.

Good luck! My friend and I drove from Tucson, AZ to York, PA a few years back. I drove nights, usually from 10am to 11pm, and she drove during the day. We only stopped for food (McDonalds in Amarillo, TX, Cracker Barrel by SFStL, and then a rest stop by Pittsburgh) and gas! We left Tuscon around 10pm and made to York 36 hours later and then I took the best shower of my life! I definately don't reccomend that though. We were moving to Florida later that week so we didnt want to waste any more time than neccesary, especially time spent crammed in a car. So, take your time and hit up some parks on the way! Some tips: Cracker Barrel's rock! When you get tired of CDs/Radio you can "rent" books on CD at Cracker Barrels. You pay the full price there but then you can return them at any Cracker Barrel and get all but like.. $5 a week back. Kansas is possibly the most boring place in the world in a car. Kansas City is nice though.

Haha.. I like how they put the sign directly on the slides!! Im still all about a hyper. I can completely agree that Hershey needs something that will make people look up and go "woah".. they definately don't need any more inversions! Except.. they have to be getting close to the world record for that too. I just pray its not a water coaster. Eric

Didnt the GM of Hersheypark say in an interview a few months ago that Hershey isnt looking to build any massive crazy coasters that wouldnt be for the whole family!? Sounds like that was to throw us all off because this sounds pretty massive! I can see it being an 11th coaster for the park, or a 10 + inversion coaster.. I have no idea how they are going to fit either one of them in there. I'm still hoping for a hyper

LOL!! Good lord man!! Great TR!! You pretty much share my opinion on everything, especially saying that Steel Force is amazing at night. Can't wait to read more! Eric

Knoebels is owned by the Knoebels family! At least I think. I dont think there's any corporate involvement. There must be a company that a lot of the regional parks use for making their maps. A lot of the smaller parks in the state have the same style. I never liked those maps though. Too much clutter and they just arent much fun to look at.

Thanks for the Flying Turns update! It looks awesome. I was trying to hold off heading up there this year until it's done but it looks like it might be pretty late into the season if at all this year. If the weather is anything like it normally is for PPP, Flying Turns will be better suited for a water slide! The cars look weird! Is it going to be like any other bobsled type coaster where its sort of "log flume" style? It still looks wayyy bigger than I thought it was going to be and the logo is so cool looking! Too bad Pysclone wasn't running when you were there.. I heard its pretty good! Maybe if you're lucky it'll be relocated right next to Twister!

Woohoo!! I wonder if they will try some new lightning scheme at night when this is all over. Hopefully it won't involve "Siemens" all over it but I guess that is who is mainly responsible for getting the wand out of here!

I dont know.. it looks a lot like Sea Serpent at Morey's..

...... and the fact that no one wants to ride the Villian, Double Loop, their boomerang, and Big Dipper more than once every 10 years because they are like being in a car wreck. Dominator, X-Flight, and Steel Venom (which ran awful last year in May) were really the only reasons to go there and now all but one of them are gone! 700k is probably wishful thinking this year. edit - That separate huge waterpark/lake front resort idea sounds pretty cool. I don't know how popular bussing Cedar Point guests would be (an hour and a half bus ride.. blah), but if they expanded the waterpark and made it Schlitterbahn quality you would see a huge backing by locals and tourists. I don't see much of a future for Cedar Points waterpark.

I'm trying to hold off on visiting Knoebels this year until Flying Turns is complete so today my friends and I decided to change things up and go to Dorney Park! I havent been there since the Hercule's days and my g/f and friends have never been there.. so on to the rides! Dorney is 1:40 Mapquest minutes away so we left York, PA around 3:15 to get there for the sunset plan. Well, the clock struck 5:45 when we got there because Mapquest sucks and we got stuck in awful traffic in the small towns and in construction by the park. Luckily though it was raining pretty good on the way, but when we pulled in the parking lot at Dorney the rain stopped and the sun came out! First ride was Hydra, my first time on it. We waited 2 trains for the front row. I wasn't blown away by the ride, but I was far from dissapointed! The jojo roll was interesting, and I really liked the layout of the coaster. It did take the elements very slowly, but it had a few moments of floater air and it's unique. Thunderhawk- One train wait for the front row. WOW! This was the hidden gem of Dorney. I must have been still scared of how bad Hercule's was and forgot all about this coaster. In the front we had some MAJOR air time. I'm talking, Phoenix quality "knee on lapbar" airtime. Thunderhawk had a cool layout too. If it wasn't for the brake on the bunny hills towards the end this would be a top 10 coaster! Great great ride. Steel Force- Let me just say that Magnum only wishes it could come close to Steel Force! We waited 2 trains for a middle train ride. The out and back layout is perfect with some straight drops, and then the turn around was intense and way better than Maggies. Also, the brakes only touched the train which made for some decent air on the return run. Plus the ride was smooth and the trains were comfortable and not painful like Magnum. IMO Steel Force in the back row at night is the best steel in PA. Laser- Intense portable Schwarzkopf'age (sp?). Nothing too great though. Talon- Talon has a great layout and it packs a punch! Smooth and doesn't let up until the brake run. The final helix is insane and you're almost scraping your face against the dirt its that low to the ground! I'm not sure what to think about the onride video though... Hmmm.. By 7:30.. Talon, and the whole park was a walk on. Other rides we rode were, Dominator up and down, the Zephyr train thing, Pirate Ship, Ferris Wheel, the flume ride, and Revolution. All with little or no wait. Overall, everyone had a great time today! The rain and heat chased everyone away, the operations were great, (they must have a HUGE international program there since everyone was from Columbia or some other country) and every ride/coaster exceeded everyone's expectations! I can see where some people complain about the park being concrete and steel.. but that's only up by Talon. The rest of the park, especially down by Steel Force and Thunderhawk is beautiful by any standards. I wish Cedar Fair would put a little more $$$ into this park and add one or two more big coasters (Steel Venom will fit in perfect and a nice GCI wooden coaster) and a Maxair'ish ride and it'd be a park that would make me forget about Hersheypark really quick! I have some pictures but they are on my g/fs camera so I'll have them up in a few days. Thanks for reading! Here are the overall "ranks": Hydra - 7/10 - 2 rides (front and back) Thunderhawk - 8/10 - 3 rides (front, middle, front) Steel Force - 9/10 - 2 rides (middle, back) Talon - 7/10 - 1 ride (front) Lazer - 5/10 - 1 ride (middle)

Bottom line is that even if they do sell or even go 50/50 with a company like Blackstone, you won't see any parks being flattened and becomming condo's.. unless your name is Geauga Lake.. however, I wouldn't worry about Cedar Fair closing down shop and even if something does happen, i doubt anyone visiting the parks would even know.

Stupid Rendell. Republicans showed up today to negotiate their side of the budget issue and Democrat's didn't even show up. I love how our state legislators act like 3 year olds. I typically dont agree with Republicans (or Democrats for that matter), but a $650 million dollar surplus sounds way better than Ed Rendell's unproven programs that are going to put the state into debt which will equal higher taxes. It would be really nice if Rendell and Democrats would actually try to work toward a compromise and get these people their jobs back instead of sitting at home. Hey kids.. dont forget that you can't go to the state run parks or museums, but you can still go to the state store and buy beer and liquor. Ahh.. the essential govt jobs..

That was a strange picture of Batman without the wheel cover on the front row! I like how they post the capacity goals.. we would have never done that at Dragons! It would be embarrassing.. but then again, people can throw bags anywhere at Six Flags. The park looks very nice! Hopefully I'll get out to Chicago one of these days. Great pics.

Whats even more flooring is that WWE.com is now saying that their deaths was the result of a double murder suicide. Apparently Benoit did not appear to a Pay Per View show sunday night for "family reasons" and investigators think he may have killed his wife and kid and then himself a day later. That'd be ridiculously awful..

Haha.. I love the SLC suckiness pictures. The best way to experience Six Flags America is this: Park car Buy a cheap season pass Get all credits as quickly as possible (if needed) Run to exit If car is not stolen, use cheap season pass at other Six Flags Parks Return to Six Flags America next year and repeat.

Nice that looks awesome. I was working at Seuss Trolley at IOA last year and I was talking to this guy and his son and wife who were waiting to get on the ride. I was joking with them acting like they were scared of the ride and the 0-8 mph "launch" and they played right along with me. The guy even said something about only doing left hand turns. After they got on I was told I was talking to Richard Petty. I felt like an ass.

Great shots! So do you just set the camera on a slower shutter speed and hope you get a decent shot? Or is there a different more effective way? I was at the Oriole's game last night and there was lightning everywhere! Would've made for some cool shots if I had a decent camera.

Whorabunny, you're not saying B114 would be leveled I hope! It would suck for any IOA supervisors to be positioned anywhere else. I agree with the rest of what you said though. Anything else in the area could be moved relatively easily. I also agree with not touching the Alchemy Bar!! But I think a bar that has the dark wizarding feel to it would be an amazing place to get a few drinks during happy hour and stumble over to Dumbledore's Dragons!

I agree with you Jack. Theming doesnt really bother me too much in a traditional park like Hersheypark, but I have definately noticed that the whole park is starting to blend together. Operations when I was there were pretty good. The Great Bear and the Comet were the only two rides that had Six Flags quality ride ops. Everyone else seemed to be moving at a decent pace for a crazy Saturday. Well usually after a few days I feel like going back up there to ride some coasters and what not, but for some reason Im not feeling any rush to go back up to Hersheypark. I think I'm just really turned off by how corporate and how stale the park is nowadays.. any other local Hershey people feel that way?

I love the idea. Having worked at Dragons and Unicorn the last few months (and no longer working there) I can say that there's been a lot of activity in the area between Unicorn and River over the past couple of months. (aka people with blue prints and surveying). Also, the parking lot in question was shut down several months ago as well.. which for some reason never clicked in my head why that would be until this annoucement. Duh. And finally, I remember reading an article on Jim Hill Media (not the *most* reliable source but still a decent one) about Universal signing exclusive rights to Kuka ride technology through 2017. So.. it's obvious of what the new ride system will be.. plus with its adjustable intensity settings it'd be a perfect fit for EVERYONE. Im going to beat a dead horse now : The thing labeled number 4 looks like Dragons. It's right where the observation area on the exit ramp is. It also looks like they are moving the entrance to Dragons (bye bye Fire and Ice statues) up closer to the castle and putting a path where the current outdoor extended queue line is that leads back to a building behind Unicorn. Anyways it looks awesome. I guess we can assume they are going to start breaking ground for this in the near future. Dont touch the Alchemy Bar!!