Ccron10

^ The track styles look horrible, the attractions look so cartoonish that it isn't even funny, and the structures in the park look so horrible. If it would've been close to what RCT3 was, I would be interested, but what it looks like they did was take the coasters and pretty much generalize them. The game had so much potential when RCT2 came out and it pretty much took a nose-dive from then by failing to keep what features they had and learning to implement new ones in along with them. Willing to bet that the way the coasters calculate G-forces will be either non existent or pretty far off compared to what they did on the second or third one. But until the game comes out and some people to demonstrate that it a little more realism can be accomplished with this game (which I am kind of doubtful), I have more hope on TPS being better.

On the lift, the black bar near the center (the one that looks like an E) is the system that provides a magnetic current that keeps the anti-roll back up. On the test car there are two small wheels that roll on it and at normal lift speed, it will keep it raised. If it moves slower than that, it will lower, catch on the teeth going up the tower and make a sound similar to normal coasters and prevent it from moving back. To evacuate, it wouldn't shock me if there is a second back up motor to be used for emergencies (there is what looks to be one attached under the track near the base). I'm not too worried about it as there almost always is usually a back-up system when it comes to rides that have difficult evacuating points to them, such as how sky rides usually have a back-up power source.

It will have three cars that can seat up to 8 people (4 per a row). I'm thinking there will be a station block, a transfer block, and a waiting block at the end of the brake run judging from what the brake run looks like. I don't see them needing a separate unload and loading block, but I could be wrong. Wouldn't shock me if there is another at the base of the lift on those drive tires, but I could be wrong on that as well.

I stopped by again to watch it be topped off. That first drop looks like it is going to be a lot of fun! I have returned and much of the lift is up except... ... this piece. As always, they have more pieces ready for after they install the lift piece. Up it goes. Just need to lower it into place. Lining up the connections. And its in. Even though it isn't past vertical, a vertical drop will still probably be pretty stunning. From the main entrance path. Control panel for the transfer track, which will be right behind the loading station. The station is on the left and I have no idea what they are building in the tent, if anything. The ferris wheel is in pieces and will get a LED package this year. The midway feels much different during this time of the year. I am impressed by this photo. Work continues as normal. I took a peek under the test car in the parking lot. Interesting!

On Tuesday I went with a friend of mine up to Konebels to check out Impulse. The ride is more than halfway together and word was that they hope to have the track complete and ready for pull through testing in a several weeks at the earliest. The first impression I got when I started walking around was that it kind of reminded me of Fahrenheit at Hersheypark a little. I'm pretty sure the ride experience will be much different though. As for what's let, they still need to finish the lift and the two turns from the loop to the in-line twist. It looks great looks to be a perfect for the park. Can't wait for spring to ride it! Welcome to the arctic tundra of Knoebels! Just picture looking straight down once this is in place. Well hello Mr. top piece. The test car was also present as well. Give how heavy-duty it looks, it wouldn't shock me if it eventually becomes a ride vehicle. Side view shot. Sorry, no up-skirt shots! lol Walking into the park is going to be really different for this coming season. That's going to be one intense helix. Brake run is in. The fins are in. You won't be able to miss seeing this while coming to the park (unless you take the super secret back road that I discovered last summer). This will make a great photo spot for this year. This was the lift as of Tuesday. As you can see from the above post, it is nearly close to being topped off. Between this section and the cobra roll, it really kind of reminds me of Fahrenheit for some reason. So many drive tires. The workers were out to lunch when we first got there. Looks to be a pretty unique cobra roll. Cabana Roll maybe (a cross between a cobra and banana roll)? I love the design of the loop as well. More drive tires to be installed. Maybe for the station? Closer view of the lift track. They were pouring concrete for the station while we were there. While waiting for them to start work again, I started getting artsy. They came back from lunch and literally got right to putting pieces up. Up it goes. It's in... ...and here comes the next piece to take its place in the assembly line. Piece number two. It really took them about 10 minutes to put in each piece. Not bad at all!

They are really fun and intense rides. Judging from the number of parks buying them it also sounds like they are a big hit. You do experience a lot of hang time if your car slows down quite a bit while upside down and you feel a lot of positive g-forces when the cars keep swinging. I also love the lighting package of the one I saw at the Bloomsburg Fair this past year as it really stood out on the midway:

It really depends on which day you go. Saturdays are pretty packed and throw in if it is a nice warm day and that even can bring more people out. Start out with Fahrenheit, go back to Midway America and then work your way forward. Don't worry about Skyrush as it usually will have a shorter line later in the day.

Hersheypark's twitter page just posted some photos from inside Laff Trakk's building. Looks like the theming and track are starting to go in.

^^Yes! lol I have very little doubt with this park or the other coming to fruition and it is pretty much laughable (especially when they go and say, "oh, we are going to move The Alabama Music Hall of Fame to the park as well." Then you hear the owners of it go, "what??? This is news to me!"). After spending about an hour or two trying to find more about DreamVision, all I could find was that they made a short animated Hooked video, the CEO has a pretty strange past, and its hard to nail down when the company was founded as the BBB lists it as 1985 and Bloomberg Business lists it as 2011. These are some of my favorites from the linked article from above: http://www.timesdaily.com/news/local/shoals-theme-park-vision-shared-but-details-scarce/article_dfe140ce-b273-11e4-997d-b748a8e89b29.html Just about every park I've visited (minus Knoebels) has at least one major highway or interstate to bring people efficiently to the park. I doubt a basic roadway or maybe even a four-lane highway would be able to support enough people for a $3.5 Billion-dollar theme park. Yeah, this is sketchy. I can't even make heads or tails of the history of the company and they want to go all-out and build a massive theme park? Relating this to Disney, it would be like Walt going out and creating Disneyland just after opening his animation company, but before he came up with Mickey Mouse and have only done several Oswald Rabbit cartoons.

Looks like some new food items will be available at the park this summer such as a Moe's Southwest, create-your-own whoopie pies, more allergy friendly items and some others. http://www.hersheypark.com/general_info/new_2015.php

When you go to upload the photos, click "choose file" and select the photo in your library, then add a caption (if you want to), then hit "Add the file" to add it to your post. Once you upload them all and then hit "Submit", they should be posted to the topic.

A quote from the blog post talking about track types: If I were to bet, the track style will change depending on what car you select. So if you want to build a hyper coaster, the track style will change to the style needed to use that vehicle. It sounds like it streamlines the process a little. It honestly confused me as well for a second, but I hope I am interpreting this correctly.

Probably, but they likely want to get the building up first so that they can work inside the heat and out of the snow, which can easily cause delays. There is an opening that they would be able to fit a small crane in. I'm not 100% sure, someone told me that when Flight of Fear was being built at KI, they did the same thing.

I'll keep it short for now and post a photo trip report once it's over in a day or so, but today was the first day of ACE's East Coaster at the park and it included a tour of the service center and a brief construction tour of Laff Trakk. Tomorrow is going to be the main event where quite a few parks might be presenting. Here are some observations and Q&A of the construction tour: -They seemed to be working on some crazy new animated LED lighting for Wave Swinger as they had the top piece lit up and going through a cool light sequence. Laff Trakk: -As of right now, there is nothing certain yet on if Laff Trakk will be running for Christmas Candylane as they are trying to aim to open the ride for Memorial Day Weekend. -Upon entering the queue, which will be on or near where that path to the Midway Tent was, guests will enter into the indoor queue area (with the red roof) or to the right to the outdoor queue area in front of the building. There will be a few fun house elements in the indoor queue area and possibly Laughing Sal. -The station will be something unique to the park as it will feature a separate unload area, a loading area as well as a second loading area specifically for ADA guests and it will be wheelchair accessible to the station. -The ride will operate 5 to 6 cars at a time and feature only a lapbar (no seatbelts). -The cars will be limited in how much they will spin (I think 30 rpm was said to be the max). -The test seat and control system arrived just the other day. Cars may arrive later in February. -The outside of the building will be painted, so don’t expect it to remain the current white color for long.

Yep, still there. I don't think it operated at all last season as they were doing a lot of work to it.

I remember getting a walk on for Mean Streak a couple years ago, and it ran okay. Not the worst coaster I went on, but then again, I don't think Grizzly at CGA is that bad. No it wasn't rough at all, I enjoyed the ride. But MS just isn't as good as the other coasters at the park. I agree. It wasn't a generally very rough ride, even in the back, but it does have some spots which could use some work. Compared to the others in the park, it just doesn't have the same amount of excitement. As for the video, it looks nice, fits the existing layout well, but I really don't see it being something the park would do. Too many inversions and doesn't stay true to it's former layout. Plus I would think the park would want to keep the block brake where it is so they wouldn't have much stacking.

Emergency lighting and sprinkler systems look like they were recently installed as well when I drove by. I'm going to the coaster enthusiast event next weekend and there seems to be a possible construction tour. Should be interesting to see what the building will look like from the park-side.

I think the only reason why the one at SFNE is being removed is to give WC's queue more room. I heard they plan to re-use it at another park, but I'll believe it when I see it. As for SFGAdv's I don't see it going anywhere given that it is still pretty popular, the frontier station houses Runaway Mine Train's station and is pretty iconic, the other station is at a location that is kind of harmless, and the ride was used at a pretty iconic event (64 World's Fair). I do think they could take better care of it though as I saw quite a few gondolas looking pretty beat up with dents and duct-tape on them the other season.

Randall Duell designed the park as a wheel so guests can work their way around it and have the ability to take a mode of transportation to skip over the massive loop you would need to walk. Back in the 70's and 80's the park had the railroad and two skyrides making an "X" over the park. While one didn't act as a mode of transportation, it was supposed to once the Southwest Territory was built (but that didn't happen until many years after that skyride was removed). Having visited last year, it was annoying going from V2 over to around Demon but the railroad being closed didn't help either.

They did try it in the early 2000's, but the type of event was much different compared to what is being done at the other Six Flags parks right now. According to what was documented, Winter Lights was basically a drive-through attraction with a few small shops, displays, and a kiddie train ride at the end. I was recently talking to a friend about the idea of them being able to do something like what SFOG is doing for Holiday in the Park. It kind of is possible to do as they do have quite a few attractions that could possibly run in low temperatures. I would bet the main part of Golden Kingdom, part of the Boardwalk, the back part of Frontier Adventures (Bizarro) would remain closed and the rest might be able to run. Don't know about Nitro though, but Black Beard, Skull Mountain, and Dark Knight would be decent coasters to run if this event could happen.

From the looks of it today, much of the track seems to be there. As for the building, the roof is up and walls are starting to go up. http://wp.me/p1sPRq-is

Kings Dominion had a Gondola Cableway. Hersheypark did until the end of 1991 and was presumed to be relocated to Dream World Park in Thailand where it still operates with a more generic theme than it used to have. SFMM also had two that had gondolas made by a different company. The final one was built for Parque de la Ciudad in Argentina, which has three stations and is sitting abandoned. A little historical background from what I could find is that Giovanola used to manufacture gondola lifts for ski resorts, but I think they ran into some financial problems and eventually began to partner with Intamin to build and sell them. Giovanola owns the patent to the cable grips that the gondolas used and according to KD fan-site Facebook page, they were pretty complicated as far as the number of pieces in each one.

Laff Trakk ride pieces have arrived at the park the last two days and parts of the siding for the building is starting to go up. The track and supports are both black in color. I'll probably take a walk tomorrow and snap a few photos for you guys.

Too late.

Exactly. What this says is that they still don't know what they plan on building for 2016, but a dive machine is one of the options. But depending on how far they are with the proposals, it could give us an idea on what they are looking for in a new ride. Right now it sounds like they are going to numerous companies and seeing what they can come up with.