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Everything posted by MagicMountainMan
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These are questions we all have... The running joke is that every time they put in a new area they cut down all of the trees and replace them with concrete. This go around was no exception: they ripped out the trees in front of Scrambler, the trees at Waterfront, and the HUGE tree in front of Goldrusher all in the name of sight lines...
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That is definitely the one thing you can't knock Goliath for, it's still incredibly smooth. It chucks wheels like no other, or at least it used to, but man is it ever smooth. Last summer I went back to Cedar Point and rode everything there and even TTD/Millennium weren't "opening day smooth". Not saying they aren't smooth, great rides, because they are, but I recall them riding differently years back. And to me, Goliath hasn't aged a day which is wild. That's the on thing that Giovanola nailed, that's for sure. Tangent over. In other news, it's not going to be too much longer before we all get to enjoy Justice League. They're really starting to accelerate the outside Metropolis area (finally) and the ride is basically done and has been handed over to Six Flags. About time.
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The 4th train on Twisted Colossus is not a parts donor but is used when one train goes down for annual refurbishment so they can still run 3 trains. Yeah maybe parts donor isn't specifically the term I'm looking for... Let me explain. Maintenance routinely pulls plenty of crap off of whatever train is not in service at the time to support the other three that are. Twisted Colossus just happens to be lucky that yes, with a little work, they can pull one train off and have another ready to go and maintain three train ops. I just hope that Twisted Colossus doesn't end up like X2 eventually where you have three trains 'technically' but the 'third' train is really all of the parts that have been Frankensteined out of the other two trains to support them, aka the 'third' train will never be operational because it's just a bucket of whatever is left after the first two trains have eaten. That's why early last year X2 was down to single train operation; the second train had to be taken off and refurbished as it had hit its hard cycle limit and the 'third' train was and continues to be non operational.
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So the Disney Parks Blog confirmed here that the island is opening on Friday (June 16th), Fantasmic is opening July 17th, and the train/boats are opening July 29th. It's going to be nice to have the island open again as it's always a nice spot to go to get away from the massive overcrowding of the rest of the park. And of course it will be lovely to have the train back in operation again as that also sucks people off the midway. Definitely looking forward to the changes they have made to Fantasmic and here's to hoping that the Adventureland modification helps with the flow of human cattle that always results from the show.
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I was also puzzled by the color choice when I first saw what they had decided on, but I think in reality it differentiates it from Green Lantern which is probably what the park wanted. As to why it's not green and purple, I would assume it's due to that color scheme being more closely associated with the Joker. Who knows, maybe this is a precursor to a new color scheme for the Riddler in the DC comics or cinematic universe...
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Take this for a grain of salt, but I've heard that the park had some permitting issues which was why they started going vertical so late so the construction schedule was always going to be tight. So with the rain they might have been thrown off as well. They do have people working inside the ride pretty much 24/7 right now though to get it done.
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As per the last half decade or so, every addition has come with a refreshed area around it. Whether a good refresh or not *cough*FTPlaza*cough*, the park has been updating areas as rides get put in. We've gotten DC Universe, Full Throttle Plaza, Screampunk, Revolution Plaza, and now Metropolis. So they've basically been going around and doing nice things to the areas where the new attractions are which is a solid, yet completely un-extraordinary business model. Us as enthusiasts expect the park to be wonderful and sparkly overnight, but that just isn't how Six Flags rolls. If there is one thing I've learned from Six Flags, it's that they do not do much in the way of preventative maintenance or upkeep. They also don't staff anything properly (yes, the janitors are always wayyyyy understaffed). However what we might call understaffed, the park considered normal. Having one person at the register and one person prepping food in the back of a food location at any given time? Yeah, it's understaffed a lot of the time relative to how many people are in the park, but the park sees it as a labor savings. At the end of the day I think we always need to keep in mind how Six Flags as a whole runs their parks: Low barrier to entry (cheap season passes and incentives) which drive turnstile clicks and then in turn upsell everything else to maximize profit margins. Six Flags is basically like the budget airlines, initially they are really cheap and it feels like you're going to get a lot of value for your money, but then, once they're done nickel and diming you, the company has turned a profit (and in the case of Six Flags right now, a pretty decent one). So are there always going to be areas of the park and aspects of the theme park experience that will get overlooked by Six Flags? Absolutely! The return on investment on making the grounds or facilities look amazing just isn't there for a park like Six Flags. Their business model and the clientele don't demand it, so they aren't going to invest in it. They aren't Disney or Universal. Those guys dump millions and even billions into selling you an experience that keeps paying customers coming back for more. That's just not the Six Flags way.
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This weekend is full of cheerleading events, so be prepared... Also, the original schedule for Apocalypse was to have it open by the end of April which I thought was pretty optimistic, but it does seem that they are pretty far along. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that it will be open before Memorial Day and Justice League though.
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For me, it's always been the bottom of the first drop on Scream that's been the killer. It gets some nice vibration down there which always gives me an instant headache. I don't mind rough rides at all, it's just those rides that have heavy vibration that you can't brace for that really kills the fun for me. The worst B&M in this respect that I've ridden was Silver Star in 2015; that was really jackhammer-y. With that said, I too prefer Bizarro over Scream, and by a wide margin. Granted it's been a while since I've been on Bizarro but now I avoid Scream when I choose to actually ride some coasters at the park.