CoasterLover

Yup... the antique cars were open for 2017 HITP.

I was under the impression that the Ministry of Magic expansion would be on the USO side of the property as an extension off of London/Diagon Alley in the plot currently occupied by the Fear Factor Live Stage. That actually makes a lot of sense, as the Ministry of Magic is in London (like all the other UK ministries are). I really hate to be this pedantic, and I never am normally, but Rowling is particular and has some creative control over what Universal does, so she will insist that things be as close to the books as possible. Plus, I'd have to imagine a lot of their creative work is going to developing a large new Harry Potter section to anchor their new Orlando park (though not that they may not also have Harry Potter related expansions in mind for both IOA and USO).

Well, there really aren't many good options for converting other Six Flags B&M Stand-Ups. Riddler's Revenge is still running pretty well, and even if it wasn't, SFMM already has another floorless so doing the floorless conversion would likely not happen. Green Lantern would be a good choice, but again, SFGAd already has a floorless coaster. GA Scorcher doesn't have a floorless coaster to compete against, but it's running pretty well and not as in need of the conversion unless they felt the conversion would really drive up attendance. I guess the best "other" options they would have for converting Stand-Ups would be to convert LaRonde's Cobra or possibly rebuild Batman the Escape in storage at Darien Lake as a floorless. My biggest concern with the floorless option is return on investment. Rougarou was converted in 2015 then Cedar Point turned around and built Valravn the following season. Patriot was converted in 2017 then Great America turned around and built RailBlazer the following season. In both cases, I don't know how much attendance the conversion actually brought, but in both cases it doesn't seem that the attendance was sustained (or anticipated to be sustained) as both parks built pretty major coasters the year immediately following. Coaster trains aren't cheep, new paint isn't cheep, and the station conversion wouldn't be insignificant. The conversion project alone could easily be in the range of $4-$5 million and given that cost, my personal opinion would be that it would simply be a wiser return on investment to just demo the attraction in favor of something like a Raptor (which are said to be relatively inexpensive). The floorless conversion is my least favorite option right now, but as a long time follower of SFA, I've grown accustomed to accepting that the park won't always get my more preferred options. If it is a floorless, even if it is just as rough, I think the fact that you are seated will make it a bit more re-ridable, but again, I'm just concerned that the ride has such a bad reputation as it is that unless they did MAJOR work to make the ride butter smooth, it will never get lines that justify the cost of the renovations. Maybe they struck up some sort of deal with B&M... Six Flags has only added one B&M coaster to a Six Flags park since they built three for Six Flags in 2006. Maybe doing some big overhaul to keep Apocalypse running was rolled up as part of a larger contract to add some new B&Ms at various SF parks over the next couple of years?

I was under the impression that the Ministry of Magic expansion would be on the USO side of the property as an extension off of London/Diagon Alley in the plot currently occupied by the Fear Factor Live Stage.

From SFA Fans Facebook page... That is Apocalypse behind the fence... looks like it's either Floorless Apocalypse or they are getting rid of Apocalypse altogether (RMC Raptor... please? Could probably reuse the same station!)

Previous post (by the park) indicated a Firebird name/theme. Current addition of tombstones in the park seems to suggest a ride may be leaving... Firebird can represent the 1960s car or maybe even the mythical phoenix... but the fire bird is also a prominent figure in Mardi Gras culture... I know no one "likes" this idea, but what if the clues are point to RMC Wild One to be renamed "Fire Bird"? I mean, they've done significantly less repair work on Wild One as they did on ROAR and the ride has been dying for a paint job (which id didn't even get for it's 100th anniversary)... you can't argue that if they did RMC Wild One (as tragic as that would be), the new ride would likely be the best coaster in the park...

If they didn't already have a mat-reacer type slide, I would think that would be the obvious answer, but since they already have one of those, I'm stumped... seems like some sort of water slide with either a racing theme or racing element...

Nope, Iron Eagle was where "Celebration Stage" is/was (that pad to the east of Pirates Flight, South of the train station, west of the WB Theater, North of the Grand Theater... I believe they did "The Awakening" for Fright Fest in that area a few times). The actual stage for the "Celebration Stage" was mostly made up of the large footer for Iroln Eagle that was never removed. I believe Zydeco Zinger (as it's currently called) has always been in the location where it is now (next to Wild One) and there was nothing in that spot prior to it's addition.

From what I have been hearing, you may be out of luck... it should reopen this year, just not by end of August.

Knoebel's will be re-openning today. Tickets only and some shops/rides may be closed, but the park will be open!

If the intent is to keep Batwing at SFA long term (which I hope it is) I wonder if Vekoma could/would make trains for a Flying Dutchman model using the same restraint system they have on the Stingray model. On the Stingray model, the restraints are much more similar to the restraints on a B&M where the vest and lap bar are incorporated together and pulling down the lap bar also closes the leg restraints. I feel like that would REALLY help with load times, but given that the only real issue with the trains currently is that they are difficult/cumbersome to load (they still seem pretty reliable and they still seem to be providing reasonably smooth rides), I doubt that there would be any incentive to replace the trains anytime soon.

The whole "love of chocolate and peanut butter" part made me think the same thing. On the other hand, the last 5 major coasters came in 1996, 1998 (2 years later), 2000 (2 years later), 2012 (2 years later), 2015 (3 years later), so, if history is any indications (which it isn't necessarily), they are certainly "due" for a new coaster soon.

Anyone know if Sky Rocket is still closed? I know they had some sort of issue that closed it for some time but I haven't heard any news with regards to it reopening.

Slinky Dog looks like a lot of fun! Lots of little details too (like the sound of Slinky's spring expanding and collapsing and how on the second launch, the train stops and does a bit of a pull back as if Slinky is being pulled to create the launch...). Looks like a nice addition! Excited to see what was done in the revised queue for TSM.

You can get a ride all day pass (which includes the coasters) online for $44. If you plan to ride the Haunted Mansion (which I recommend), this is NOT included in the ride-all-day pass and will cost you an extra $2.50. Alternatively, you can buy a $20 book of tickets at a nearby Weis grocery store for $16 per book (so basically, you could get $60 worth of tickets for $48 (these tickets CAN be used on the Haunted Mansion so no need to get additional tickets). All of the major coasters (except Black Diamond) are $3 to ride and most of the other major flat rides are in the ball park of $2 to 2.50 to ride. As such, you need to ride ~25 rides in a given day to break even using a ride all day pass (compared to buying the discounted tickets at Weis). If you plan on staying (more or less) all day and you are going on a slower day and you intend to have (lots of) re-rides on the coasters, this is pretty easy to accomplish. If you only plan on hitting the coasters one or two times each and/or you only plan on being there for a limited number of hours, it's much harder to do. We go so frequently that the tickets are the best option... tickets allow us to leisurely walk around and ride what we want and not feel like we are pushing to get our money's worth from a ride-all-day pass. If we have extra tickets at the end of the day (which we frequently do), we just bring them with us for our next trip so there's never a loss. We've been so many times though that one ride on each of the coasters per visit is typically enough, so if you think this will be your only time going, the pass may be better for you.

That's an interesting thought... the new plot of land is about 1.87 million sq ft of new land where as Zoo America is currently only amount 0.29 million sq f so there is certainly plenty of room to relocate and expand. However, if the new land was to be used only for Zoo America, I don't think they would have gone through the efforts to move the road (you already have to cross a road to get into the current zoo) and then if you did move the zoo, what would happen with the old plot the zoo is currently on? You still have the issue that the plot is separated from the rest of the park by a road. I feel that the new plot of land will really make for an awkward expansion of the current park. I feel like the smart move would have been to make this change 15 years ago and use this plot to build the water park, but with the current water park as developed as it currently is, I don't see them moving the water park to this plot anytime in the next several decades (if ever). I personally feel like the best option would be to use this plot to aid in the relocation of some current features (the Hersheypark Stadium, Parking, backstage facilities, etc) to allow them to expand the current park to the west of Wildcat and Fahrenheit. You probably couldn't build the stadium specifically in this area, but you could build the stadium in the current parking lot (much closer to Giant Center) then use the new plot for the displaced parking.

^That's really helpful! Thanks!

From what I am hearing, the attraction will not involve spinning at all (at least not in the same regards as Primeval Whirl or even Time Traveler). The rotation will be 100% pre-programmed into the attraction so that they can point you in the direction that they want to exactly when they want you pointed in that direction (not dissimilar to Escape from Gringots). I guess we'll just have to wait and see...

I dunno, that might not be so bad... the coasters Kentucky Kingdom has added over the past 5 years would have made SFA substantially better...

Wasn't at the park personally, but I'm hearing that Wahoo River is not yet open. I believe they are shooting to have it open by Coaster Con 41 (June 17th).

Looks like a lot of fun! Hoping one of these comes to one of the east coast SF parks (preferably SFNE, SFA, or SFGAdv) next year so I can get a chance to try one of these out!

I hope your right. Though I'd imagine that if/when they ever replace Earthquake on the Studio Tour in Hollywood that they likely would try and port something similar to Orlando (similar to what they did with Kong and FatF). Hopefully that won't be for a while because it's nice having the practical effect heavy Earthquake on the Hollywood tour...

I tried to look up the footprint on one of these rides and saw a figure of 250' x 75'... does anyone know if that is true? A Vekoma SLC has a footprint of about 360' x 154' and a Vekoma Boomerang has a footprint of 288' x 98 '. If the 250' x 75' figure is correct, this means these attractions have a smaller footprint than a Vekoma Boomerang... would seem a smart idea for Six Flags to just go around replacing their SLCs and/or boomerangs with these rides!

Dutch Wonderland has posted a POV of Merlin's Mayhem on their FaceBook page: https://www.facebook.com/DutchWonderlandPA/ Seems like a fun little family/junior coaster (and a decent size coaster for a relatively small park!)

Hooray! My kids were pretty bummed when they didn't get to ride last year. Hoping to hit up this quaint little park once again later this summer (hopefully after the initial buzz dies down)... plus, they have Dole Whip there, so there's that too...