robbalvey

Hey everybody! This thread is simple! Rather than having a million little threads about everything that goes on at Ghost Town in the Sky, this thread is designed to consolidate it all into one user-friendly thread. Feel free to use it to post updates, trip reports, questions, comments, and of course, general discussion. For pictures and videos of the park as well as past updates, see TPR's Park Index Page. Official Park Website Below are some links to past updates from the park, you may be interested in. Enjoy! _____________________________________________________ 2005 March 17th, 2005 - Park closed for three years may have a buyer - SEE BELOW! 2007 February 8th, 2007 - park plans to re-open with two new rides 2009 March 11th, 2009 - Ghostown files for bankruptcy protection June 28th, 2009 - Cliffhanger Testing! June 30th, 2009 - Cliffhanger to open tomorrow, unfortunately it is only for one day 2010 February 17th, 2010 - Creditors vote on future of the park February 25th, 2010 - Mudslide nearby causes more problems for the park March 10th, 2010 - Park has until June to stop foreclosure April 21st, 2010 - Primary Owner wants to purchase park out of bankruptcy May 4th, 2010 - Judge approves company's bid to buy the park July 28th, 2010 - Al Harper takeover deal falls through 2012 February 7th, 2012 - Park gets new owner who helped open it originally February 16th, 2012 - Alaska Presley speaks about plans to revive the park March 9th, 2012 - Park revival plans include new religious aspects March 22nd, 2012 - Dolly Parton's sister recruit to help reopen the park April 11th, 2012 - Park aiming for a tentative June 2012 reopening April 12th, 2012 - Alaska Presley officially holds title for park assets July 9th, 2012 - Park re-opens, sort of. For now it's only the old chair lift and 3 newly installed zip lines 2013 April 25th, 2013 - Projected opening date & Old Western Town news! 2018 December 22nd, 2018 - Latest revival effort on hold as partner disappears 2019 July 11th, 2019 - Park up for sale once again, reopening plans on hold October 14th, 2019 - Park under contract with period of due diligence 2021 November 15th, 2021 - Storyland Studios selected to redesign the park _____________________________________________________ Original post: http://www.smokymountainnews.com/issues ... group.html

LOL! Great pics Evan! --Robb "Good to hang out with you during our weekend." Alvey

Ok, I hate to do this, but I just HAVE to use this post as an example. First of all, if I was a teacher, this post would get a big fat F You can see in my edit above that everything in CYAN had to be edited. I'm not trying to be mean, but if you can't spell, can't use punctuation, can't capitalize appropriate letters, and can't write sentences with good structure that make sense, don't post here. When we have 11 year olds that are perfectly capable of making GREAT trip reports, there is just no excuse for posts like this and these will be deleted. If the user does not improve the quality of their posts, the account will be deleted. In short, you cannot post here if you can't write legibly. It's that plain and simple. --Robb "Thanks for understanding." Alvey ps. Just for a frame of reference, here is the original post below. Please DO NOT post anything that looks like this...EVER!!!!

^ And when you think about it, the inverted coaster was basically a floorless looping version of Arrow's suspended coaster. Obviously they took that idea and made it a *LOT* better, but it wasn't the first time you saw a coaster hanging from the track above. --Robb

^ My vote goes to Intamin also. And agreed with everything Real says. Yes there have been more accidents on Intamin rides lately than B&Ms, but none of them have ever proven to be Intamin's fault. If anything, I think it's coincidence. The only thing Intamin is at fault for is designing rides that push the envelope. And when park staff allows riders who are not recommended to ride in the manufacturers operating manuals, it's not Intamin's fault. That's like saying someone owns a car that needs a certain type of fuel and they put in the wrong type and blame the car manufacturer. --Robb

^ Sorry. My bad. Should be fixed now. --Robb "Bad admin!" Alvey

IMO, anyone that says "Silver Bullet is too intense to marathon" is either: A. An idiot B. Still an idiot C. Is so "California Biased" that they'll eat a pile of sh*t if Knott's tells them to. D. Has only ridden two coasters in their life: Silver Bullet and Jaguar. E. All of the above. Considering the source of that comment, I'd say "A" and "B" and "C" Yes, the ride magically went from being a tame family coaster to "forceful, un re-rideable beast" on Friday night, and only a few select people got to experience that. /sarcasm Seriously, though...it's not a bad ride at all. It's certainly fun, but it's not a coaster worth 'making a trip' for. If you've never been out to CA, then there's enough here to make a trip out of, but if you're coming out JUST for Silver Bullet, then at least wait until there are 2 or 3 "slightly above average" rides to make a trip for! --Robb

Giant Dipper @ Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk - Very good. I think IMO it *might* be a little overrated by the locals, but still, it's probably the best wooden coaster in California. Hurricane @ Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk - Your standard Windstorm model. Nothing spectacular. Top Gun @ Paramount's Great America - One of the best B&M inverts, IMO. It's only fault is that it's REALLY short. The end its great, though. Demon @ Paramount's Great America - Standard Arrow double loop, double corkscrew. IMO, this ride was better when it was Turn of the Century. Vortex @ Paramount's Great America - One of the roughest B&M coasters. You can tell this is an example of thier 'early' work. Quicksilver Express @ Bonfonte Gardens - Fun little family mine train. I really like this ride a lot! --Robb "Hope that helps!" Alvey

See and I kinda think it looks cool. --Robb "Although I agree with my woman about the trains." Alvey

Is it the same model that Worlds of Fun got last year with Spinning Dragons? http://www.rcdb.com/ig2572.htm --Robb

^^ I hope we don't miss you as we'll be in Europe in June & July! How was Tonerre De Zeus running last year? We are looking forward to riding it in July! --Robb

Hey Paul, I'm assuming that since this is one of your first events and you're new the whole coaster thing that this must be one of your first trip reports. It's GREAT!!!!! Keep it up man and thanks for posting this! --Robb "Looking forward to part II" Alvey

^ LMAO!!!!!

I'm always a big supporter of "Don't judge something until you ride it" but I have to agree that what I've seen of Hydra doesn't make me want to rush out and ride. Having said that, though, I of course will wait until I ride to pass any judgement, because who knows, it might turn out to be a real winner! Who would have thought Thunder Dolphin would have been kind of a dud by looking at it? --Robb

^ Dude, that thing is COOL! Have you figured it out yet? I can put food in his dish, but then the cage closes and he just goes into a small box on my screen. Also, it is really small on the screen for you too? --Robb

^ Please do! And if you have any photos, you can post them also. --Robb

^ Actually, I was thinking the same thing. "This kid is only 11???" To be honest, the sarcasm and humor reminded me SO MUCH of Dallas! I was thinking "If Dallas was doing a photo Trip Report, it would sound just like this one!!!" --Robb "Dallas gets it from his dad!" Alvey

I would also have to go with Mindbender. --Robb

Hey there Brent, First off GREAT trip report and photos! This really is a perfect example of how to use these boards to their full potential! As for the multiple posted photos, I fixed that for you. All you need to do next time is hit "Add attachement" at the bottom of the posting window, and that will save your attachement and then let you attach up to 15 photos in total. After you have done that, click on "Submit." Thanks for posting this and good to hear you had a fun day at Disneyland! --Robb

Just in some new photos from PKI's Italian Job. Check them out! It would be the "Italian Job" without some police cars. Look ma! It's a helicoptor! This is the view from the entrance. PKI is still hard at work on the getting the ride ready for opening. This will end up being the "Warehouse" scene. Here is a shot of the train. Here is the "Splashdown" section of the ride. The parking garage houses an insane looking helix!

It seems to download just fine. --Robb

^ Yeah, and that's totally fine too. --Robb "But DV tape is still the preferred method." Alvey

^ But will that play through a DV camera onto a TV? That's how it NEEDS to be. When I export an .avi file out of Premiere at DV quality, it's usually about 600 megs per 4 minute file. A 100-200 meg file for your average submission doesn't sound like that's DV quality. The preferred method of submission is just to send in a DV tape with your movie on it. That way there's no question that we will be able to play it. --Robb

^ Agreed. DaveTh are you around? Aren't you the one that rode it before the brakes were installed when you worked there? --Robb

But Ghostrider isn't an "underrated" woodie. It came in #13 this year on the wood coaster poll. http://www.geocities.com/wcoasterpoll/wcprs04.txt Although appropriately declining over the years in the poll. But still at #13 that places is it in the top ten in the US. If anything, I think Ghostrider is overrated! --Robb