CoasterLover

Getting back on topic... Over at SFAFans, we've posted a few more pics that the park has put on display including schematics for the Cranky themed kids freefall tower, the large play structure, and the window display the park has... enjoy! http://www.sfafans.com/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=663

Based off the rumors floating around, I'm about 90% certain that SFA will be receiving a major steel coaster next year... though if it will be Chang or something else, I'm not sure...

Thomas Town has been in the works for several years and is certainly NOT being built "as a response to" Planet Snoopy. Thomas Town was informally announced opening day this year at SFA, Planet Snoopy was just announced a couple weeks ago. Thomas Town will be a completely new area of the park, Planet Snoopy is a necessary re-theme so the park can get rid of the Nick characters. If anything, Planet Snoopy was a response to Thomas Town.

It does? Care to show me where? It's right in the writing on the right-hand side bar on that page he linked to...

SFAFans.com has posted some images of the concept art for Thomas Town in their Gallery. This concept art is currently displayed inside the Loony Tunes Emporium on the park's main street. The concept art shows two new concepts never seen before in a Thomas themed area of a park: a ferris wheel (possibly a re-theme of a current SFA attraction) and a convoy type ride (also possibly a re-theme of a current SFA attraction). The gallery can be located at the below link: http://www.sfafans.com/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=663

ACTUALLY, for a VERY brief time, SFA actually was running Batwing with the trains reclining on the lift. Technically, there was a sensor right before the lift and as each car past the sensor, the car individually began to recline. I had the unique opportunity to ride it just once when it reclined on the lift. It was a very unique experience and increased dispatch time considerably. Unfortunately, the following season, they removed the hardware that allows the trains to recline as they begin their assent up the lift hill (as well as the hardware to allow the trains to begin to incline before they were fully in the station). Apparently, it was causing a lot of electronic problems that were shutting down the ride because since they removed the hardware, the reliability has increased significantly. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe SFA's Vekoma Flyer is the ONLY one to ever successfully recline on the lift... even if it was for just a VERY short time...

Not to mention, path-wise, the two coasters will be about as far away from each other as you can get at La Ronde... I remember how long of a walk it was to get from Vampire to Goliath. It looks like a short walk, but it's really round-about.

...and the ride's official page: http://www.laronde.com/larondeen/2010/ And for your convienence, I have also shown where the new ride will be on the park map (below) for those unfamiliar with the area shown in the rendering. Approximate location of attraction.

Link to Article: Six Flags to discount season passes in 2010 All I can say is... it's about time! Almost surprised that it took this long, but this will certainly add some new life to NJ's SFHH!

Personally, I think just the fact that you can get a 2010 SFKK Play Pass for $29.99 (granted, that's just for a Play Pass which doesn't include Free Friend Tickets, Value Book or in-park discounts) speakes volumes. I mean, that's 40% cheeper than the next lowest price SF is offering a Season Pass/Play Pass for at any other park... most of the rest of the chain is offering $49.99 Play Passes... (usually about $10-$15 more for a Season Pass, which is the same thing, just includes Free Friend Tickets, Value Book and in-park discounts).

Wouldn't surprise me to see Sally Dark Rides involved after their work on Phantom Manor. Sally seems to have a pretty good nack for bringing life back to old dark rides.

Does SFGAm have room for Chang? Would make more sense to see it come to SFA... SFA has the room for it, SFA was previously approved for a B&M stand-up (before Batwing was built in its place), SFA hasn't had a new coaster since 2001, and the rumors are flying that a new steel coaster is heading to SFA for 2011...

^ 11:00 am EST

Lol... (that was a joke right?) Let's not forget the track record Disney has had with movies based off of rides... Pirates Trilogy: $1,038,150,155 (Domestic) (ya, that's good) The Haunted Mansion: $75,847,266 (Domestic) (38th best movie of 2003!) The Country Bears: $16,990,825 (Domestic) (lest we forget) All I can say is I hope it fairs more like Pirates and less like the Country Bears!

"Gnu" (procounced like "new") is another name for a Wildebeest... ~ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildebeest

http://www.holidayworld.com/rides/wildebeest Type: HydroMagnetic Rocket Height: 64 feet Length: 1/3 mile (1,710 feet) Highest Drop: 38 feet at 45-degree angle Drops: 7 drops, totaling 178 feet Linear Induction Motors: 8 Top Speed: 36 feet/second Average Speed: 20 feet/second Tunnels: 3 (2 underground) Ride Time: 2 minutes, 30 seconds World Record: World’s Longest Water Coaster Rafts: Four-person toboggan-style with seatbacks Theme: Wildebeest is a swift-moving safari animal Designer: ProSlide Technology Inc., Ontario, Canada. POV POV/Off-Ride

There's a TON to do in and around the Washington DC area (depending on what you're into), but if you're going to be in the area, and you're also going to SFGAdv and SFGAm (so I'm assuming you'de have/get a SF season pass), might as well go to SFA as well on one of those two days. If it's a summer weekday, you could probably get on everything in about half a day and still have time to continue sight-seeing. Alternatively, many of the museums in DC close around 6pm, so you could always head to the park in the evenings (just check to see how late the park is open til). As far as what to see in DC... National Harbor is pretty cool, but that's not really in DC. Natural History and American History are great (but quite large). Holocaust Museum is very touching and emotional. National Zoo is pleasantly nice, though a lot of hills and not very fun on a hot day.

As far as "EBCLAKF" goes, if you assign each letter a number (i.e. A=1, B=2, C=3, etc) you get... 5 2 3 12 1 11 6 And with a bit of stratigic splicing, you get 5231 211 16 The 5231 could easily be the length in ft as could the 211 be the height in ft. That leaves the 16 as the curious number and what I would assume to be the "record breaking" number... my thoughts are that 16 is either the number of drops that the coaster will have (and could be the coaster with the greatest combined drop length... a record BGE once held (still holds?) for Apollo's Chariot) or that 16 could be the number of inversions... though that seems less likely especially considering everyone is calling it a hyper coaster...

Batman and Robin: the Chiller....???

As the saying goes, those who know don't tell and those who tell don't know...

Actually, I'm pretty sure they have a bike that they can use to create "Street View" as well... In fact...

And I agree with you there, but you cannot expect the park to become Cedar Point/BGE/Disney-esque overnight... I'm just saying they are heading in the right direction... I guess I'm just trying to be the "glass half full" guy as opposed to the "glass half empty" type.

^Actually, a LOT of reports seem to be coming in through TRs across the net that the park is running noticably better than in previous years... mind you, still not to the level of some of the compitition, but noticably better. Add in the fact that the park is still lined up to build the biggest Thomas Town in the chain and I'd say it's anything BUT buisness as usual.

http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2009/03/30/story4.html This came out over two months ago, but the information is still pretty good... I'm surprised the article had any info at all about Thomas Town, let alone that Thomas Town would be getting 10 new attractions (mind you this article came out about a week or two before the park opened for the 2009 season), but more interestingly, the following two quotes... Based on the paragraph that precedes this sentence, I'm assuming the attendance comment is in regard to 2008... pretty good considering the park only added a waterslide in 2008 and still saw reasonably good increases in both attendance and revenue. A good quote for anyone still doubting the future of the park...

The log flume is surprisingly good and the Wilderness Train (the mile long one that goes out into the woods) is a must. The Ski Lift provides beautiful views if you're into that... if you're into the flats, Knoebel's has a very unique line up featuring a lot of flats that you more commonly see at carnivals...