Bolliger&Mabillard

Perhaps. It's just a shame it's still down. It would be nice to see the Boardwalk full of life again. That area seems so dead without it open.

^Family Ride + Family Target Market - All the families you thought would show up but didn't = Failure. I'm all for appealing to families and what hae yous, but why does everyone seem so heelbent on appealing to solely one group? It's either families or teens? It's either kids or adults? If an attraction appeals to "everyone" then said attraction would hae a little something in it for everyone. Take a movie like Shrek for example. It's great for kids, but has jokes and non sequiters that adults would find funny. Most Chuck E. Cheeses' I've been to serve beer. I know that parks need water rides, and BB fits a nice bill and appeals to a wide range of people, and it's because of that I think it can be a success for a long time. However, I'm not in the mass majority that a kiddie coaster that adults can fit in qualifies it as a "family" coaster. Saying that these type of coasters aren't for the "thrill seekers" or "enthusiasts" is just a cheap cop out. If you use that as a rubric to rate rides, one can never say a ride is "boring", because the counterattack is always going to be "well it wasn't designed for you". I agree that there are other family friendly coasters in the market today than a mouse-in-a-box. Sierra Sidewinder comes to mind. A custom Tony Hawk comes to mind. A Vekoma mine train comes to mind. It's bold for all of us here to speak of the behalf of families who "love the ride" so much. None of us here either have or can disclose ridership numbers. So we're all just assuming it does well. I've been on the one at GAdv. and I could've gone without riding it. There's nothing that's spectaclar about it. And sure, you can say that it wasn't designed for me to like, but if it were a good ride, I'd ride it anyway, would I not?

^To be fair, you can't take pictures of trains in action that don't exist yet, so they had to airbrush pics of the trains at that point did exist.

^The green "?"'s in the bullpins.

I see where you both are coming from and it makes sense. Where I get confused is the validity of the sale. I guess I'm rationalizing it a bit in favor of Cedar Fair solely because I don't want the company to fail. Maybe the company will be fine in the long run. As you both state it's not in horrible shape now. However, with a company that makes minimal payments on its debts [though its better than Six Flags not paying anything on theirs] and only knowing how to strengthen it's product with rides, I'm a bit worried about the long run. With who's running things now, it doesn't look so great. Not in my mind anyway.

^True. But I'd have an extremely hard time believing that long term investors are going to see value in their shares if there is no dividend. Without it, investing in Cedar Fair isn't so lucrative anymore. So the assesment of this sale being a bad thing is on the assumption that the chain can become solvent without selling. Which, if the current management was confident in doing, probably wouldn't have tried to sell in the first place. I'm not saying it's not possible, or even that I believe it's not possible. It just looks to me like anyone who holds stock with this company is going to get effed either way, but selling assures you can get at least some of the money back you invested.

Right now is a gamble. If it were closer to spring break or so, then the park would be more apt to opening in the rain-in which everything remains open save for Superman and Deja Vu (which is only sometimes, depending on the shower). Of cousre if it gets heavy or lightning is spotted it causes more closures but at 30%...I'd take the chance.

^And that's what I mean by "ok" price. Yes, you'd take a loss, but what if you bought your stocks when the price hit $6 around September of 2008 (rough estimate as I remember my semester had just started) then would your perception of the deal vary? The price Apollo is offering sucks for anybody who bought share for more than $12. But nothing this company is doing as of late shows that its going to raise on its own. I could be wrong, and I hope I am, but if this sale doesn't work out, it's going to be a long trek back to solvency.

^I personally think it's just that. 11.50 is an "ok" price. If I held CF shares I'd vote "yes" to the merger because I know the stock price in the amusement industry always fluctuates and 11-12 bucks is a dead-on average overall. I just think that most regular people who hold those shares fear change and like previously mentioned think "this company [Apollo] doesn't know anything about parks! What if they run it into the ground?" I wonder what the people who feel that way think is the next best course of action. The article Jedimaster posted that the company [Cedar Fair] wasn't as close to bankruptcy as we think but they're tight lipped about the scenarios as to what. I personally think if the don't go private, they're going to sell assests. They're going to shrink work force. They're going to cut spending. Whether this deal goes through or not, we are going to see a completely different [and probably much smaller] Cedar Fair with less parks, and less infrastructure in those fewer parks.

^The theorhetical for Deja Vu is 870pph, and the standard GCI hits 850pph. Add 1 less row and half empty trains and the difference between the two rides may not be as great as you think. EDIT:Wait. Deja Vu has 5 minute dispatches, nevermind.

^You know Terminator theorhetically accomodates 20 peolpe an hour less than Deja Vu. Just a thought.

I just finished Ghostbusters for PS3. I liked it. A lot of the game is just tracking ghost through the PKE goggles, but the online multiplayer is pretty cool I also have NBA 2K10 and my PSN name is Eric2005, if anyone would like to play sometime message me.

^I was aware that you were speaking in the hypothetical, but the "track record" of Arrow Suspended coasters seems misleading. I can only think of one (Bat @ King's Island) that ran into excessive problems and had to be removed, but other than that has any of the ASC's have to be removed? Did BBW reach the end of it's service life because it was in bad shape, or because the park just wanted something more up to date?

^True but there are no VISIBLE signs that Ninja, or any coaster coaster at the park is on it's last leg. Rides like Colossus, Viper and Rev may be rough, but there isn't really anything like cracked axels or warped track or faulty brakes. Everything at the park seems to still be in a safe functioning order. So I personally see no plausible reason to remove any ride. Popularity is an issue, but having different rides gives the park diversity and personality and a unique feel that not many parks have.

^Which believe it or not it isn't even close to yet...

I'm a B&M fanboy.

Colossus is fine, and It's stable enough to say there. I also don't get where people are getting the idea "we need another GCI". If we did need another woodie, for the love of God please just clone El Toro...

^Your theory is possible in the sense that I could see it, but heres were it falls apart. If Cedar Fair did this as an attempt to raise the companies value through the winter with no intentions of selling, what were they going to do next winter, or the winter after that? It just doesn't seem realistically possible that they would've done something of that nature. I also agree that most CF parks have a "corporate" feel to them, and it's not just generic naming. Uniforms, scenery, employee morale, nothing about any of their parks that I've been to (Knott's, Cedar Point, Dorney Park, Great America, Geauga Lake and King's Island*) None of them had anything going on for them other than the rides themselves. I know it seems a bit off color, but overall Cedar Fair has created a product that is bland and IMHO has peaked and without this sale going through I can only see it either plateauing or declining. We'll see what happens in about a year or so... *Visited in 2007, so Paramount's contracts/policies were still in effect despite Cedar Fair's ownership

I was wondering what the hell was going on! Looks nice. It'll take some getting used to, but I like change.

WillMontu's was a strong second for me, and would've voted for it, but Smallish's picture was just LMFAO hilarious.

I got that Rolly on my arm and I'm pourin' sean Don and I roll the best w@#d 'cause I got it goin' on...

^Though I doubt it'll happen, it wouldn't be a shocker if it did. I've seen wierder thing happen in sports.

Pretty strong assumption. I mean I agree that Scream isn't a bad ride, but for it's type of coaster, it's just not that great either. I wouldn't go as far as to say it needs to go, but compared to the other 5 floorless coasters I've ridden Scream ranks 10 (I'm well aware of my math in this statement). So I reiterate. If you don't like it, that's fine. You should be able to say that a ride isn't good if you honestly don't care for it. I personally thing that the layout is just blah, and you should not be labeled "spoiled" just because the coaster is lackluster.