KDCOASTERFAN

Back in 05 on SFA's opening day the same thing happened with the park closing around noon or so due to poor turnout & it wasn't even raining...just chilly with high winds.

I believe they're still using the old station area for one of the haunt mazes just like last season.Funny thing is that on opening day I did see a few dump trucks moving around on the service road behind hurler(too bad I didn't get shots from the tower) so I wonder what it is they could be doing back there? The amount of debis left over from the installation of the two new flats this season wouldn't be enough to fill one dump truck & yet I saw at least three of them while I was up there.

You know,with El Dorado's odd placement next to the skycoaster leaving most of that space where HS:XLC's course was open I wonder wether or not a coaster station would fit there?I was reviweing some of the pics I took from the tower on opening day of that general area & it looks like the station/brakerun placement for the rumored hyper might fit easily into that spot....I would see about posting the photo but it's on my camera's memory card & I don't know if,or how I'm able to transfer memory card data from the camera to my PC like I can if photos are stored in the camera's internal memory.

I arrived at the park around 11:15/11:30 AM & got on the tower at around I'd say 2 pm give or take an hour or two since Dominator had a long wait for the front.

They've made quite a bit of progress it seems on Americana since opening day & after seeing the ride in person you gotta admit that it looks very photogenic in it's location & just adds that special something that was lacking for years in that section of the park.

Now let me ask you this question...were operations SUPERB, or SUPERB compared to years past? I ask this, because of all the praise given to MM, I find most of it undeserving. I still go to MM to this day and see employees ignoring people, ride ops screwing around, filthy bathrooms, employees from all departments on phones, and flat out bad operations. The only difference is it's not as bad as it was 3 years ago. So by definiton the park is doing better...but is it at it's BEST? I'd say no. I mean after all, The park has the same corporate model as MM and Gadv, so who can you really blame? The "lazy" employees or the management who neglects to run the park the same way every other park in the chain is being ran? Well one of the major differences is that SFMM & SFGRADV GET new rides every couple of years so that gives the impression that corporate cares about these parks far more than some of the others.

I agree that Americana's placement in the park is an excellent location.Did anyone happen to notice the dump trucks that were going back & forth along the service road behind hurler from the eiffel tower on opening day? I wonder if that could've had something to do with the rumored project for 2010 as they certainly would've cleared out the dirt left over from Americana & El dorado's construction months ago.

It simply loops around from I-street to the other side of kidzville over by ghoster coaster & SD:HM.There's also a path I believe somewhere around there which leads to the safari apitheatre as well,which should be accessible to guests whenever there are shows playing there.

Funny you should mention that because I noticed yesterday that KD's VR attraction over by rebel yell & americana had been changed this season.If you look on the 09 map just under the flag on the eiffel tower there appears to be a building of some sort but darn if I know what it's for & it wasn't there last season.

Hmmm,I recall seeing a couple of people on eiffel tower who were scared crapless just going up the elevator,could that've been you guys? If so I was wearing an outer limits flight of fear sweatshirt & yellow jacket just in case you saw me up there. I thought I'd lost my pics from yesterday's trip after being yelled at by the ops on FOF for taking a pic in the station but fortunately it was just that my memory card popped out of place & the pics are still there.I was suprised at how smooth hurler was but I don't expect that to last & it was unfortunate that Americana wasn't ready yet but it should be by next week according to the ops over at hurler.

El Dorado was running rather well yesterday & while it's a nice addition to the park it could be better if the ride cycle were slightly longer IMO.I heard from an op on hurler(which was running suprisingly smooth BTW) last night that with any luck Americana should be open by this coming weekend.

Well I guess this confirms the rumors for 2010 but how are they gonna fit a new kids area into two face's footprint with the go karts being there?Hopefully they'll recieve a much needed coaster or thrilling ride package to perhaps lure me back in the future but A LOT of issues with park operations & management have gotta change first before that will happen.

Well rumors claim that a thomas town section may be replacing two face at SFA next season but I don't see how they can really develop a decent second kids are within that limited amount of space.

I can't say what the opening day crowds will be like as it'll be a first for me attending KD's opening day on saturday,as for the coasters Dominator's a good one to start off with since it's closest to the gate & if run to capacity can handle the crowds rather well compared to the others in the park. I'd AVOID hurler like the plauge especially if you want to be able to ride the remaining coasters for the rest of the day without being in agony.

OK so why didn't they do this with Poltergeist & JJ back in 02 when new trains were added featuring the lapbars to replace the OTSR's?

Three words.Not Gonna Happen.

The max height restrictions are due to the ride layout,not the restraint system...at least on the NY & MD versions of the ride what with the large helix elements in their respective courses. It seems like there might be a tie in on both rides as the colors on medusa east are the same,just reversed when compared to the SFNE superman colors.

Seems like a repeat of Dominator's media day what with the bad weather but the ride sure looks nice & I actually like how the sign & logo turned out.It looks like the GP who were in attendance for the event certainly enjoyed the ride experience,boomerangs can be quite enjoyable so long as the restraints don't kill your head during the ride.....man we need a new boomerang or invertigo at KD since SFA decided to remove two face because that was actually an enjoyable ride.

It also didn't help that Wild World back in the 80's didn't exactly have a good reputation. Back in 1984 ( give or take a year or two ) a young girl drowned in the Wild World wave pool. If that wasn't bad enough, Washington's channel 5 actually showed the body on their 10:00 News floating in the wave pool ( the girl died wearing a Garfield the cat bathing suit ). Of course Channel 5 got some flap showing that but still it gave the "idea" to many folks that Wild World simply wasn't safe. Come to think of it I believe that was the reason why Splashdown Waterpark in nearby Manassas, Virginia was built. To provide a "safer" waterpark. Even though I am pretty sure that place had a few drowning incidents of their own over the years. Funny you should mention splashdown waterpark CathyJ as it's RIGHT down the street from me & is about a 10 to 20 minute bike ride from home. Still the park's reputation did improve during the premier ownership but once again has since gone downhill thanks to SFI's total mismanagement & lack of expansion at the park.

What on earth does a coaster under construction in Europe have to do with SFI possibly going bankrupt in the USA?

Could it be that they'll actually make a decent controller for the wii that works? sorry but the wii remote & nunchuck controller just DOESN'T cut it for most of the games on that system,although the wii wheel is nice for most racers like MK for instance.

Good point as SF had already built three impulse coasters without the twisted back spike(what's so innovative about that?) before CP built WT & rides like TTD,Raptor,Mantis,MF etc. are just larger versions of existing designs with MF being nothing more than your standard run of the mill intamin mega coaster with an extra 110 feet tacked onto it. As for where this track is going,assuming it's not some photoshopped hack job for our entertainment it's just too early to say so really there's no point in beating a dead horse any further when we should just give it a decent burial already.

Not exactly....as anyone will remember when SFA was known as wild world in the early 80's attendance was dismal for the simple fact that the park's owners were not willing or able to add new rides to the park & with KD 2 hours away constantly adding new attractions it stole what little interest the local market had & the park actually went bankrupt & would've been demolished had premier not purchased it in 91.Premier actually added new rides on an annual basis thus renewing local interest in the park & creating a surge in attendance figures but shortly after changing the park to SFA the influx of new attractions dropped off sharply by 2002/2003 & the ONLY reason they continued to focus on the waterpark on an every two to three year basis was not due to popularity but due to cost.It was more cost effective to add cheap slides rather than adding even a small coaster or flats package & as a result attendance has fallen off sharply in recent years. Not everyone likes waterparks(including me) so that's why I stopped going to SFA when they added t hat lame tony hawk slide last season when they could've done better by adding at least a flat or two to replace the ones the park has lost over the years.

Exactly my point as well because when the park goes year after year with no new rides people in the area(including myself) will lose interest & go elsewhere,especially if there's a competitive market such as the mid atlantic region.

Yeah & watch "new investment" mean another crappy waterslide for SFA when what they need is a new coaster or two & some flats instead of turning the place into another GL's WWK.