robbalvey

Well, that's a bummer. I knew this was coming, just wasn't sure when. If you would like to re-live Boulder Dash in it's not trimmed form, watch this: [coastertube]http://www.themeparkreview.com/coastertube/play.php?vid=boulderdash_mcrh[/coastertube]

I had no idea you were near Hansa! Next time we are in Germany, you will know! --Robb

I have been on every Morgan except for Superman in Mexico. I find them all to be very similar - big and fast and a lot of "fun" but not many forces. I actually think Steel Eel is my favorite of all the Morgan "hypers" with the helix of Mamba probably having the best "moment" of them all (the headchoppers.) Although Phantom's Revenge is a bit different because of it's history, so if I included that one it would be my favorite of them all. Oddly enough I find Steel Dragon 2000 to be my least favorite Morgan. --Robb ps. Be on the look out for Robb's Steel Dragon 2000 footage to be featured in an upcoming TV show!

Another idiot kid banned! Yay! I just love how they seem to weed themselves out. --Robb "I love natural selection..." Alvey

^ To be honest, I wasn't looking for an argument nor was I trying to compete with anyone. I was just trying to look at things from a different perspective and offer that view to others who have blinders on about BBW right now. For example, BBW being taken out is very minor compared to ASTROWORLD BEING BULLDOZED!!!! I'm just trying to remind everyone to look at things from a different view or even the 'bigger picture" sometimes. It's fine if people want to dis-agree with me and post their views, but I'm not going to tolerate being told I'm "obviously wrong." (Not saying you said that, but I just wanted to clarify) --Robb

Pointless, dumb, stupid thread. Try again....actually, please don't. --Robb "Thread Closed." Alvey

I have only seen documents refering to a time period, like the following taken from a press release I got in April: So yeah, they are behind. BIG. FUCKING. DEAL! Did Test Track being a year late affect it's operations today? No. Stop whining and complaining. The ride will be open when it's open. And then you all will have even more to whine and complain about. --Robb

^ Yes please!

Exactly. And for me, it's still the same Busch Gardens Europe we know and love, just without Big Bad Wolf, and I can cope with that. Thank you for posting out of your own personal opnions and feelings and sharing them, and not telling other people that their opinions are "obviously" wrong. --Robb

Eh...no, that's a matter of opinion really. He's saying that the retheming of an area of a theme park is more devastating than losing a classic coaster... Obviously people have personal connections with Big Bad Wolf Eh...no, that's a matter of opinion really. So you're saying that people DON'T have personal connections with Lost Continent? So you're saying that the opinions of someone who likes coasters outweighs the opinions of someone who likes theatrical theming? Do you have any data to back that up? Of course, not. Your letting your sphincter do the thinking instead of your brain. "Obviously." Here is more of my opinion - you have no clue what you are talking about and I think your post sucks. --Robb "Yup! That's my opinion! And I'm entitled to it!" Alvey

So I had a thought today. I'm actually not upset by Big Bad Wolf leaving at all. Not when you put things into a different perspective. Sure, I like the ride and everything, but when you think about the impact on the industry versus something like... Islands of Adventure's Lost Continent being destroyed. Big Bad Wolf leaving seems kind of trivial. Think about it. Big Bad Wolf has been around for 25 years. And sure, it's a great ride, some may argue the best in the park, but it's not a unanimous opinion. 25 years worth of riders, probably millions that have walked through the turnstiles for more than two decades have been able to experience this "better than average" coaster. Now let's have a look at Lost Continent, shall we? This remarkable land, arguabley one of the most fantastical, beautiful peices of theming ever designed in a theme park BULLDOZED in just less than a decade. Some of the best creative work ever put into a park, and it didn't even last 10 years. An area of a park, that in my opinion, should have NEVER BEEN TOUCHED, should have been "sacred ground" as far as themed areas goes, had some of the most iconic theme park landmarks litterally "thrown in a dumpster."' That's a travesty. Big Bad Wolf leaving, yeah, it's a bummer. But is that really sadder than the Dueling Dragons statues sitting in the green dumpster waiting for the trash pickup on Monday morning? I don't think so. And now only to walk through the area and see "Dragon Challenge", a name that sounds like it came out of the Cedar Fair book of ride re-naming, where "Dueling Dragons" used to be. So yes, it's sad that Big Bad Wolf is leaving us, but I gotta be honest, it's time has come and there are a lot worse things out there to get bent out of shape over. And here's one more thought...we better get used to some of these older coaster from the 1970s and 1980s being "retired" because I can't imagine that a 25 year old steel coaster isn't expesive to keep in operation. So unless it's one of the top ten coasters in the world, my guess is that we're going to see this happen more and more over the next 5 to 10 years. --Robb "Just some late night ramblings..." Alvey

...oops...

It's near impossible to police all videos using this. They'd have to get a pov of all the rides in the chain, and even if they put this system in they couldn't have it catch all lighting possibilities, all the cars it could be filmed in, etc. They could catch the majority through a search though. You don't quite get how the "Content Verification Program" works. In my YouTube window (since I'm a registered content provider who owns the rights to all our footage) I have an extra option under "flag video" whereas I can flag a video that contains my copyrighted material. That video is then removed from the system and the owner of the video needs to contact YouTube to dispute my claim. The same thing can be done for any illegal POVs where the park did not authorize the video to be taken. They can flag the videos and have them removed. It's actually quite simple. In one afternoon I'm sure someone at Six Flags Corporate could easily go flag a huge percentage of all the onride videos taken at various Six Flags parks if they so wanted to. --Robb

I have merged the Carowinds 2010 coaster and the Carowinds Fan Thread to create the "Carowinds Discussion Thread." --Robb

11/20

Heh, check the links of the original pictures - I actually did that for you already! --Robb "But it's always nice to see the photos again!" Alvey

At least it's better than Air! --Robb

I'm a little surprised at how quiet this thread has been since the ride opened. Not many reviews or anything of it. Has anyone been out to ride it lately? How are operations? How are the crowds? Any news? --Robb

^ Exactly. Each lap around the track actually costs money. When you break down the maintenance cost on the trains, the track, etc, each run adds up. I know many parks do have a "cost per cycle" added into their budgets when they do spreadsheets. This is how some parks calculate if they will be running one or two trains on some days. This is also why some parks, like Indiana Beach used to (not sure if they still do) will only send out a train once every 10 minutes when the park is empty, or another reason why some parks wait until a train as "x amount of riders" until they will send it. Remember that 99.99999% of the people who come through the turnstiles are NOT marathon-hungry coaster geeks, so getting 5 rides on a coaster one day is probably enough for most people. So if it costs a park $3 every time they send a train and there's only one person riding it for 40 laps and he's only paying 50 cents per lap once you average out his ticket, there's a loss of $125 right there. Not saying I agree with this, just letting you all know this is one of the reasons why it happens. --Robb "I'm sure someone who works in park operations can speak better about this." Alvey

Your DVDs went out yesterday. Just 4 business days after you ordered them! --Robb

None of those attractions are in any way competition for Knott's. In fact, I can tell you that members of the parks senior management have told me they "Love it when Disneyland gets a new attraction! Our attendance goes up! If Disneyland builds a ride that brings people in from out of town, we benefit from that increase as well." So Disneyland building lots of new attractions is actually GOOD for Knott's, not competition. --Robb

Yup, they sure are! It still frustrates me just a bit that Six Flags makes us sign paperwork and reads us the riot act about our members not bringing cameras on board any rides during our events or ERT sessions, yet there are a bazillion illegal POVs posted to YouTube that Six Flags hasn't bothered to remove. It's VERY easy for someone to sign up for YouTube's "Content Verification Program" and have un-authorized videos removed (we do it for people who steal TPR videos and post them) so I don't see why Six Flags doesn't do this also if they are really that concerned about cameras on rides. --Robb

No, not even Draky was THIS whorish! --Robb

First I've heard of this! If that's the case, it's kind of a bummer. --Robb "50% of all S&S woodies are called Hellcat." Alvey

^ All in due time...