southpuddle

I always assumed it was to prevent as much sagging of the track between vertical supports as possible. The sagging is what creates a lot of the roughness in a wooden coaster, and when there is less space between supports, there's less space for the track to sag.

First drop deconstruction. Photo courtesy the Cedar Point Rundown Facebook page.

Really? Have you been like... 90 minutes West on I-4? I mean, to each his own, I liked Mean Streak but... really? I'm curious to know if he's even been on every coaster at SWO I joke, I joke

Apparently that pic of the deconstruction was from the Joker site at SFDK: http://www.themeparkoverload.net/2015/12/six-flags-discovery-kingdom-photo-trip-report-the-joker-construction-update-photos-new-hybrid-roller-coaster-2016-rmc-holiday-in-the-park-christmas-event-dazzle-december-2015.html?m=1

Because it won't be for next year. There is no way there is enough time to get it open by May. For anyone holding onto hope, if RMC Mean Streak was happening for 2017, the park would have wasted no time in starting construction. The fact that there is literally nothing happening at the site this weekend should be enough to convince those in denial.

DoubleDown, that's one of the most memorable commercials from my childhood. Viper was always just the most intimidating coaster for me when I was a little kid. My first visit to SFMM was in 1994, and it was the biggest thing there. I'll be super sad when it does eventually leave. I still love it, but I'm sure much of that is for sentimental reasons.

A lot of wood would indeed come down, even for an RMC conversion.

I'm hoping for the same thing. It would be totally doable to capture records for tallest, fastest (possibly most inverting) wooden coaster using Mean Streak's old footprint. Having not done a topper track redo before, that may explain the possible two year construction timeline. Time will tell!

^^^^I think he said 2008 because that was the first full year CF took over the old Paramount parks, but yes, still a manipulative way to present data. All I can do is LOL at the kids who are crying like little babies. One day when you're an adult you can move and make whichever park you desire be your home park. Just make it be the one that CF "likes" the most!

I hope they'll take this opportunity to add the station house that was never built when the ride was new!

^So Ripcord is gone, with additional parking in its place. Wonder if it will be moved to a new location within the park?

I for one hope that the new name doesn't have "Streak" in it, because every guess that has been thrown out has been God-awful.

I hear ya, but who's to say that you've dodged items that people had out or that flew out of a pocket. Listen, I get why parks do what they do. They can't come right out and tell you to hold onto your phone. Ideally no one would have any items in their pockets OR their hands, but that's unrealistic short of pulling a Universal and making riders submit to a full body cavity search and metal detector. Rides like El Toro and Magnum (airtime machines) are the problematic rides when it comes to items flying out of peoples' pockets. Most guests' line of reasoning is that it doesn't go upside down, so it'll be fine in my pocket. It's the airtime that makes them fly out - inversions for the most part will keep a phone secured by positive g-forces. Funny thing is that on Mean Streak, the phone could probably have sat in an empty seat and be just fine since the ride is so slow and boring

What a waste of time. As a former Cedar Point ride host for 5 years, I can assure you that damn near every train on any coaster that gets dispatched has at least one passenger holding onto their phone. Most riders are smart enough to pull it out after they've cleared the station - this person wasn't. And you know what? That phone is safer in a person's hand than it is in some loose-fitting pocket where it isn't being held onto. Out of the hundreds of people I have told to come back to the ride at the end of the night to see if we found their phone, damn near all of them say it flew right out of their pocket. Cedar Point ride hosts just think it's fun to go up and confiscate a person's phone.

I work at a large outdoor sportsplex here in central Florida, and we have a system that detects the likelihood of lightning within a certain radius of the park. I think that ours is set to 5 miles. I'd imagine that theme parks have similar systems. Ours will signal a loud siren when the threat is great enough (parks I'm sure forego the siren and just radio or call attractions to tell them to close). It's a good system most of the time, but it can be frustrating when the weather immediately over the park is seemingly clear.

People don't want to be disappointed. I fact, they want to avoid disappointment whenever possible. So if it takes asking on a theme park forum if the ride is open to find out, that's what people are going to do. It's more annoying, to me, to have people keep saying that Dollywood is amazing yada yada even without Lightning Rod yada yada so just go... Uh, no, you better believe that people are going to do their damnedest to try to be at the park - when the headlining new ride that everyone who has ridden said it was amazeballs - is open.

It's been said many times already, but I just wanted to reiterate: putting VR on the best coaster in the park, and on what is considered the best coaster in the world by many, was an idiot's decision. Batman would have been the perfect coaster to put the VR on. I'll just be glad when 2017 rolls around and the VR is gone from all the parks.

If you've never been to California before, I wouldn't bother waiting for what is probably going to be a crappy Justice League dark ride that will pale in comparison to every dark ride that Disney, Knott's and Universal have, all of which will be new to you when you go.

Anyone at the park today that can confirm whether or not they're doing a soft open again?

Kid, there are LIM/LSM launched coasters out there that have been operating since before you were born, and it is a proven technology. Besides, TTD's launch technology is nothing like Lightning Rod's.

Also, stay away from the third row of the cars. Sit in the middle row of any car for a much smoother ride.

Finally, after countless time lapse videos, the one worth watching has come! Kidding, of course. Thanks for taking the time to do this!

There must have been some tweaking going on early in the season with Fury, because I am normally a staunch B&M-hyper-hater, and I also thought Fury was without a doubt the best coaster experience of my life. There were points on the ride that legitimately felt out of control, and the airtime was phenomenal. The very same day I could have fallen asleep on Intimidator. Nothing like creeping over airtime hills at 5mph. I'm hoping that Mako's 4-across trains bring out a little bit of that new B&M intensity.

I think it looks awesome. The colors are super sharp and I love the way it has a sort of pixelated fade.

I just can't see any of the VR coasters lasting more than one season, so no one should have to worry about long lines at Revolution for too long.