Bolliger&Mabillard

Maybe they took a page from Six Flags' Playbook. If you name your coaster "Monster", Frenchies will think it's either greater or equal to God, and say it rocks and post on facebook that America sucks.

You kind of just killed your own arguement. Yes, to someone who makes a hobby of amusement rides, they'd know that the two rides are clones, and despite the "holier than thou" attitude most enthusiasts tend to have, GP only need to know simple surface things. If this were to be a revamp of sorts, people would notice: A) They both go fast B) They're both indoors For most people, JJ being outside is a distinguishing enough factor to not compare it to an identical ride nearby at another park, something I think Six Flags is fine with. If you follow sports, you would know that no matter how lopsided the score gets, you keep going until the clock reads nothing but zeros. I get what you're saying in the sense that KD has had the upperhand for so long that you might as well rule out SFA, but in the same sense that there's more than one game in a season, you have to keep going at it, even if you come in second, you keep gunning for first.

^Then no pussies with brittle, girlie-man shoulders should ride...

It's merely a slogan that the chain came up with to sound more friendly, though I personally feel telling people to have a "great" day achieves a better effect seeing as how there's no confusion across the board.

Worst: Knott's Berry Farm, was termed in December 2006 because I was "horseplaying" at Xcelerator, despite the fact the operator at Supreme Scream walked by and grabbed my ankle from the midway (I was at acknowledge, the position closest to Dippin' Dots). She was "talked to". I was termed for no other reason than, I didn't stay in my box. Long live Me being an Xcel ride-op. May-December 2006

Name: Eric Bailey Age: 22 What is your roller coaster count? 150(something) What is your home park? So. Cal., so I have four! What is the nearest big city? Los Angeles What is your occupation? Bartender About how many times a year do you visit a park (including your home park)? weekly About how many times a year do you travel to a park that is not your home park? Once (usually during the summer) When you travel do you go primarily to amusement parks or do you also try and hit other sites? If the city it's near has other notable landmarks, yes. What is the farthest you’ve traveled to go to an amusement park? Across the country for Ka and Toro. Ka wasn't running and I'm about 6'2'' so I barely fit in Toro. Does roller coaster time get in the way of family time? (Do you choose to miss your children’s or family’s sporting events, holidays, birthdays, etc…) No. I'm the youngest of the family and don't have any kids of my own, nor do my older sisters, so there isn't much to distract me. Do you have any other major hobbies? I write music and play basketball. Do you get feelings of sadness in the offseason? Do you even have an offseason? Do you travel during the offseason? I live in L.A. None of our parks close! Take that rest of the country! Do you consider yourself friends with someone you met who works at an amusement park? (Or reverse it, if you work or worked and an amusement park have you made friends with enthusiasts?) I actually met most of my friends now from when I worked at Knott's three years ago. Would it bother you to go to an amusement park by yourself? Kinda. I mean thrills are meant to be shared! Have you gone to an amusement park by yourself? If so have you ever ran into another enthusiast and tagged along with them? I once met up with someone, but not at the park. We planned it ahead of time. Do you find it easy to make friends with other enthusiasts? Depends. I'm a park enthusiast. Some are coaster enthusiasts. Others are flats enthusiasts. It all depends on what the preference is and whether you can find a common ground. How do you get your coaster news?In The Loop podcast, Theme Park Review, and a few people I still know that work at parks. How many different forum sites do you regularly post on? Three, This (TPR) being the most frequent If there was a poll that asked a large pool of enthusiasts what their favorite roller coaster is, what do you think would be the top 3 responses be for wood? And for steel? Wood:El Toro, Voyage, Beast. Steel: SROS, Nitro, Xcelerator Same scenario but for amusement parks, what would be the top 3? Pick three Disney parks. Have you ever “stole a kid” to get a credit on a kiddie coaster? No. If a ride was designed for me to ride only as a "chaperone", chances are sitting on a bench would be more thrilling. Do you cut other categories out of your budget to make trips to parks? (Entertainment, fast food, holidays, tobacco or alcohol, etc…) No. My local parks are pretty cheap, and I usually start saving for my summer trips right after I get back from the previous one, so even if an "emergency" pops up I still usually am comfortable. Before you visit a new park do you research the park finding the best way to navigate the park, get the best deals, or what days to go? Not really. I check into prices and what-have-yous, but for the most part I just go with the flow Do you feel the roller coaster enthusiast community is a warm and accepting community, or a negative and discouraging community? That-as all things in life, depends simply on who you ask. Some people like riding coasters, some like talking about them, and some like arguing about them. Just depends on who you run into. Do you like to talk about your hobby with people who are not roller coaster enthusiasts? In a sense. Everyone who knows me knows me as the "coaster guy". If people who know me have a question about a ride, they'll ask me, and I answer to the best of my knowledge, but for the most part I have friends who I talk coasters with, friends I talk music with, and friends I talk ball with.

Come on down-De La Soul

Seems like a Universal Orlando vacation will now take a couple more days...

So hot! So take off all yo' clothes! I am gettin' so hot...I wanna take my clothes off!

I personally don't think Chang is getting new trains. There's no point to. But IF they did wouldn't it just be easier to fabricate the wheel assemblies to accomodate the track than vise versa? Why make it harder than it has to be?*... *...and with that said. Chang will remain a stand-up.

^I think that's an unfair comparison. The Pacific Wharf area of DCA is themed to San Francisco-a communtiy celebrated for it's large Chinese demographic. And Knott's....I mean outside of what Walter Knott put in himself what has Cedar Fair done that could be REMOTELY considered theming? If you want to fully "theme" areas it would be a nice touch to fully emmerse EVERYTHING in that area to that theme. Take for instance Disneyland. Tomorrowland is where you find Buzz toys, Frontierland is where you find Woody plush dolls. I think we're all in agreement that the park has a solid foundation to build upon, yet only goes halfway when it comes to things like theming the scenary and shops around rides, rather than just theming rides.

^Then again, they could just not replace the train and just have purple run all by its lonesome...

Funny how the author used RCDB as a source. Not that there's anything wrong with that, just funny...

^I completely get what you're trying to say, and not that Im trying to prove you wrong. It's just that when on a larger scale of say, public safety, companies are more apt to protect themselves legally and publically. If something were to go wrong with modifications that a park makes, (Think Ca. Screamin') most parks find it saves them a headache of being saved the blame.

^After reading that a second time, I completely had to reword my post....Of course it voids liability. The first thing Intamin (or anyone for that matter) would say is that they are no longer liable for anything. In the same way electronics say "Warranty void if seal is broken", Any modifications, no matter how insignificant they may seem, would still create a conflict should any problems. Say for example the park gets restraints no approved by Intamin. Intamin assumes no liability for the restraints. A year later there is a seat malfunction. Let's say the seat needed to be altered to conform to new, unapproved retraints. Is Intamin still liable? I didn't think so either.

Funny thing about that is...you can't put anything on a ride that the manufacturer doesn't apporve of. And if these new restraints were to be outsourced by a contractor, Intamin wouldn't make any money from that...would they? And as an added bonus, the minute a park uses ANY component that a manufacturer didn't give a personal "thumbs up" on, it washes their hands off any liability. Now folks, keep in mind I don't necessarily think this is the case. Just a possibility. More restrictive procedures have been implemented before and I would not rule this one out.

^^I did. And I stand by that claim. If the train sustained damage that requires it to be replaced, Intamin discontinued the lapbar style rocket trains. I don't know if that will happen. But to not consider it as a possibility would be kinda...

I urge you all to take this with a grain of salt...I'm glad I rode Xcelerator with lapbars...because now...

It's what people who can't dance do when they go to night clubs and still try to look cool. That, or what ^ & ^^ said...

I think it's safe to assume this is the case, seeing how the current steepest banking is at 90.

'm sure it did...just not in the same hour...

No offense taken. It was supposed to represent that engineers make mistakes too, even though they are professinals at what they do, doesn't mean that they won't have mishaps now and then. Albeit it was supposed to be in humorous nature, I think the intent of my post was just, the delivery could have benn better.

Looks like I've opened quite the pandora's box. I think my original (second) point was mis interpreted. I honestly don't care where this coaster goes, I originally wanted to point out that the poster who felt that SFA was neglected, it could be worse. Every subsequet post was intended to back THAT claim and THAT claim alone. Maybe using three-week-old posts were not the best course of action to achieve that, but I still think that SFKK gets the shortest straw in the chain, and that GrAm will NEVER go through the same dry spells as Maryland and Louisville have. Sorry for all the commotion folks.

^^You make some valid points, but this is a borderline contradictory to the claim I made about 8-10 pages ago when everyone decided that major investments would yield better returns if they were made in parks that could use the boost in attendance... Easy 1) They have a bunch of parks to compete with. Within 150 miles you have Disney, Legoland, Knotts, Sea World and Universal. Thus the park has to convince people to go to their park over the other major theme parks. 2) The park is still trying to recover from the bad press over the years. This includes gangs, the park closing rumor and other not PR friendly items. Things of this nature stick in people's heads for years if not decades. 3)They are trying to compete with a park on the other side of the country for who has the most roller coasters. This one is due to a stupid PR/marketing department and the male ego. SF Great America is a park next to the 3rd largest city. The only other parks within 4 hours(driving the speed limit) of the city are Kiddieland (which closes a week from Sunday) and Indiana Beach (which is in the middle of nowhere) and some family fun centers. The park really does have a license to print money if done right. So either my original claim was wrong (which most agreed was wrong) or the claim I'm making now is wrong. Either the park is getting spoiled with this ride, or it should go somewhere else in the chain where the numbers aren't as strong as GrAm's. Nothing "personal"... I just thing that for a park that has been underperforming for years should see growth, not swapping out rides. And if you MUST do so, this ride should go somewhere were the attendance and profit aren't as high, say St. Louis or Maryland, two parks that also have local competitors...

^That's what KK is getting for the Anniversary...be interesting to see what other parks will be getting.