AmyUD06

Don't be skeptical...it is scary smooth now.

Probably anything ridden prior to the early 2000s when I really started to get into this hobby. Back in the days of dialup, downloading a POV was virtually impossible. Damn young'uns.

My guess is that it's similar to the situation with Revel/TEN in AC compared to all of the other recent ownership changes in that town (namely Blastien's moves) - the right person isn't greasing the right palms. This is NJ, afterall.

I'm calling Photoshop. "Comming" is spelled wrong, and their website just shows "Aqua Trax / Desert Trax" underneath the ride title. Add in the fact that the spacing is off, and that they almost never refer to specific parks in their ride descriptions, I'm highly suspicious.

Not on El Toro/Kingda Ka. Not anymore. Went on both just a few weeks ago with all of the following on my person: 2 wallets Plenty of keys 2 mobiles phones Pack of smokes 2 lighters Pair of glasses Bunch of coins Some things were in zippered/buttoned jacket pockets, but most were just in un-fastened jeans pockets. Don't give the kids working the entrance gate reason to pay attention and they won't stop you. SFGAdv hasn't instituted metal detectors like Universal or Morey's (yet).

Did you completely miss the past few pages of the thread that basically summed it up as "you cannot predict the weather at Cedar Point"?

No park needs fewer smoking sections.

No, because the wind would push it back down once it reached horizontal, barring any sort of crazy wind event with alternating direction of gust in the exact right pattern. Also, if that video was indication of the amount of sway in a 60 mph wind gust, you'd need winds well over 150 mph to even get it horizontal. On other words, a Category 4 or Category 5 hurricane. Also consider that the cars are not clamped to the cables in any way, so that as they approached 200 degree rotation the cars would fall off the cable to their doom.

Quick trip report from this last Sunday (July 3rd). Not going to mention everything I did, just the highlights: Nor'Easter: Still good with the vest-style restraints, can't wait to see what the retracking will bring. Cygnus X1 (aka Gravitron): The no-fun-police need to lighten up here. Let people get sideways and upside down if they can. Musik Express: Thank you for not converting this to a programmed-speed control system, and to the operators who listen when I ask them to turn it up to 11. New Go-Kart Course on Adventure Pier: Meh, not bad but I liked the old one better. And please update the cars with the newer ones used at the Go-Karts on Mariner's Pier. Great White: The retracking has taken this from a "must skip" to a "must ride." It's like it was new again. Ghost Ship: Gonna catch a lot of flak for this, but I seriously didn't see what the big deal was. Not a lot of actors, and the ones that were there I could see coming from a mile away. Got a bigger scare out of the one actor inside Dante's Inferno. I miss the mini-golf course. Swim-Up Bar at Ocean Oasis Waterpark: Okay, maybe someone can explain what's with their "we're not allowed to deviate from the menu at all" policy is when it comes to making mixed drinks? I understanding having a limited selection of liquors due to space, but you should at least allow your bartenders to make what they can from the available supplies. Guest Services couldn't explain it either. Not Morey's, but Flow House Bar at Splash Zone Waterpark: Keep awesome, staying open late, and having reasonable drink prices. Best place to drink on the boardwalk by far, and top 3 in the Wildwoods all together.

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know why they call Joker-style coasters "4D" coasters? Though you gain spinning, you're losing lateral movement, so really the car still just moves in 3 directions.

Don't take this the wrong way, but if you're that concerned about the additional tenant fee, you might not really be grasping how expensive the basics in Vegas can be.

In the good ol' days, waiting in line was cigarette time. Now I need to take time out of my itinerary for breaks in the designated zones for second-class citizens.

The cars on Arrow/Vekoma trains have the wheel bogies attached at the front end of the car; the wheels of the 2nd car back serve as the "rear" wheels of the first car, and so on, except the last car, which has a "dummy bogie" attached to the rear coupling so it doesn't drag. In the Morey's Piers incident, it was that "dummy bogie" that separated while the train was making it's 1st/forward run, causing the last car to drag and basically tear the back part of the frame/fiberglass off and drag the rest of the train to a halt. And yes, the couplings between the cars see unequal force (successively greater the farther back) while the car is being pulled/held backwards up the initial spike. On the 2nd spike, there's a chain lift that "drops out" to release the train, but I don't know which car(s) have the catch pawl. Logically, it would be the "front" car, to try to equalize the total stress each coupling experiences during a full cycle....but this is a company that ripped off the basic designs of another company that didn't have the grasp of physics that we do now.

For me, it's a combination of growing up going to SFGAdv and watching it slowly decline in every possible area except for coaster quality/quantity. The service, pricing, food, non-coaster rides, arcades, scenery, parking situation....everything is worse now than it was 10, 15, 20 years ago. Working there for 6 years didn't help.

Water Bolliger (B) and Claude Mabillard (M) were employees of Giovanola when Shockwave was developed; Intamin only built the ride based on Giovanola's designs, which was somewhat common back then. Did they design/invent this track style themselves? I don't know, but I'd think it's likely since Giovanola or Intamin haven't used it since they left. What is obvious is that they liked it enough to keep using it when they left to form their own company in 1987/88. I

I'd say it's better that SFGAdv in terms of crowd quality. Dorney really only gets Philly and Trenton "thugs." SFGA gets NYC, Philly, Camden, Trenton, and Asbury/Neptune. Not to mention the juicehead crowd, which often can be worse. And metal detectors or not, I still feel safer in Dorney with their actually-trained-to-get-involved, Act 235-certified, security guys.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who had this thought. Initially, as seen, the staffing levels probably won't change much...but once they get the kinks worked out of the system there will be a lot of positions that no longer have a use. Plus, I know the technology has gotten a lot cheaper, but there is no way that RFIDs are cheaper than paper or plastic cardstock. Guess Disney isn't feeling the crunch like almost every other player in the industry, or they're counting on the offset from decreased labor costs.

Should be glad you got this trip in...should be interesting to see what remains after this weekend.

What's with the "Safari Audio Tour: Play Track 4" sign? Don't tell me they stopped broadcasting the audio tour on AM radio and instead are charging people for CDs? Though it is SF, so it certainly wouldn't surprise me.

Man that brings me back to the late-80s/early-90s and my youthful summers at Action Park in NJ. I miss everything about that place...the danger made it fun. On another note, the Olympic Park website says this about their Alpine Slide: "This European-style alpine slide is the first of its kind in North America." Maybe it's the first metal one, but they're about 30 years late to the game here.

http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20100725/NEWS01/7250333/Three-kids-injured-on-Ocean-City--Md.--ride Sounds like the initial lift cable snapped and two kids on the ride got whiplash from the train hitting the brakes in the station, while a third in line was struck with Debris. No one seriously hurt. Nowhere near as bad as when the one in Wildwood dropped the truck off the last car.

I'm guessing this Ghost Ship business completely removed the mini-golf course that was in that building? If so, that's a shame.

Given that just about every CF park has at least one GoKart track, I don't think the argument of "not liking rides that guests can control" holds up. As for Dorney's last bumper cars, yeah they had traditional ones located in the building that was also The Coaster's (aka Thunderhawk) original station. They were removed when that insanely awesome yet fire-tragedy-waiting-to-happen building was taken down. IIRC that was near the beginning of the Cedar Fair Era.

There are (were, at least) go-karts under the Pier right where those boardwalk construction pictures showed. And it looks like they sealed up the steps. And that was, IMHO, the best go-kart track layout in Wildwood too.

+1 to Demon Drop going to Dorney. -50 to removing the only remaining gas-powered, tank-control bumper cars in a 250 mile radius, when they've got plenty of open space in the old Laser footprint. Plus I'm trying to envision what else is going to have to come out to put DD in that area. Maybe a few restaurants, or table area, but also maybe the century-old duck/fish pond.