tkkyj

I would also settle for Santa Clara getting their heads out of their asses and saying those exact words to Prudential themselves.

Given the predictable summer weather in Santa Clara, the show probably doesn't need to fit indoors at all. I haven't checked out the show at Cedar Point... but isn't it at the old Oceana... which is basically an outdoor venue? Do they just cancel shows when it rains?

if it was downtown San Francisco, that kind of act would be just about normal... especially if I smelled like urine and asked for spare change. wait.... ahhhh.... ok 1 out of 2.

I'm getting the urge to go pay Prudential a little visit... just run through their lobby screaming my head off about "how cool roller coasters are" and then out the door.... maybe bring an air horn along and wait for the elevator door to open.

I was surprised by all the advertising at SFDK when I went... There are movie ads on most of the trashcans, the P.A. system is barking out offers at you wherever you go, and even the wildlife areas have Toyota vehicles parked up on the grass. It seemed extra extra blatant this year when I went. CGA seems like more of an escape from that... so far.

I have this memory of something that may not have existed... for some reason, I remember a coaster at Opryland that had its main drop right out of the station. Not that it should be trusted, but my memory is that the lift hill was the last element of the ride and took you back up to the station. Looking at the coasters on RCDB and other sites, it looks as though Opryland never had something like that. Anyone know of a ride like that in the midwest or south in the 80s? I was very young and could be merging some memories together

I'm hopeful because I think CF's experience with Knott's should serve them well in managing Great America. Both are using up their somewhat diminuitive real estate already, and CF has managed to keep Knott's pretty fresh... earning them both acclaim and criticism. I look at Knott's and I can see why people are upset about losing irreplaceable pieces. But for CGA, it seems like Paramount already DID that Though I hope it doesn't come down to replacing American Cafe with Johnny Rockets, Maggie Brown's > Chick-fil-A.... It wouldn't be a disaster.... other than the funnel cakes, none of the food seems like "oh that great thing I get at CGA". And oh, I do want an Elephant Ear and some Frozen Custard...

Yeah... if CF wanted to really excite me, they would announce that some Intamin steel will be taking the place of The Grizzly soon Can't wait for the GCI....

Knott's "Camp Snoopy" is the best Snoopy area I've seen at any of CF's parks. I wonder.. Cedar Point's Planet Snoopy seems like an awkward cousin of the other Camp Snoopy area at Cedar Point... I wonder if the older Camp Snoopy stuff will somehow merge with the newer Planet Snoopy, possibly giving CF a few rides to send out to its other parks to refresh their kiddie areas, while opening up another area of Cedar Point for some future attraction. Or they can reopen the Pictorium and expose more kids to that mindf%*@ of a movie, Snoopy Come Home, which I still refer to as the saddest movie in American cinema. "yay, a Snoopy movie! wha-?" {sniffle}

Screamscape reported a rumor about the Nick characters: I think that is a bit strange, because every article I read about the Paramount aquisition seemed to suggest that CF was actually interested in the Nick characters anyway... though perhaps something happened with the MoA deal to spoil it a bit. Nothing against Spongebob, but I love Snoopy... so I hope it is true and that they try to work with the Charles Shulz museum or Snoopy Home Ice in Santa Rosa for some cross-promotion...

Hmmm.... if I was a lawmaker of a state (or country) with budget woes, I might propose an "amusement park attendee license" [and quickly lose my election, I'm sure]... People who want to visit amusement parks would have to file for this license... renewable every 5 years... and pass a simple test about park safety at the DMV to prove you are not an idiot AND to limit the liability of parks that operate in the state. The $10 per license would be yet another revenue stream into the state. eviiiiiiiiiiiill.... take it away, democrats....

I am impressed that something so big is able to stand on its own. That is pretty good engineering itself. I can't believe a bunch of people registered here just to point out bumps in the track from photos shot just as it was assembled for the first time! This thing is giant, and most people are only going to see it in pictures from afar. I think it is awesome. How much did it cost to build? How did you get a firetruck? ADMIN EDIT: REMOVED QUOTE. ALL OF YOU STOP NOW!!!!!

I feel bad: Stock Symol: SIX

heh... reminds me of my all-time favorite line I've ever read on this site... it was in response to somebody jumping out their window to their death (suicide) at some park hotel. laqueefa: "...but imagine the airtime"

I'd rather not die then save 20 minutes while reentering the park personally... Hear, hear. Maybe he was supposed to meet some hot girl in 10 minutes, though. The brain tends to lose those battles..

Well, for all we know he actually WAS trying to grab someone's feet.. but to give him a little benefit of the doubt, perhaps he thought the area WAS clear... maybe he didn't realize the ride may run more than one train and made his move once the train passed by. Then, hearing it coming, mistakenly jumped to an area directly in its path. His biggest mistake, after deciding to enter the area in the first place, may have actually been an attempt to think about the timing in the first place and getting a false sense of security by thinking the whole area would be clear between dispatches, rather than always assuming the entire area was dangerous at all times.

Seeing those pictures of the ride and the overheads of the park, I can totally see the desire to find a shortcut. Like i said earlier, I am unfamiliar with SFoG, but it appears as though they were coming from the overflow lot, and that there is no entrance gate near that side of the park. If they missed the tram, they might look for a way to avoid waiting for the next one (is there a tram?). And that one part of the coaster looks like it would be confusing to tell where the train would go next if you were underneath it and heard it coming. It seems like he may have been thrown from the inside curve toward one of the supports of the outer curve?

X. I was so excited for this ride and followed its construction closely online. Then I rode it... what? That's it? It's that slow? This is the ride that closed up a great coaster company? Disaster Transport. OK, this doesn't get rated or overrated these days, but if you'll follow me back a couple decades..... have you ever watched a friend enjoy doing something so stupid and humiliating in public that it is apparent he or she is completely oblivious to how stupid and pathetic it looks to the people around them? And it's so embarrassing that you are actually embarrassed yourself because of the likelihood--no matter how slight--of someone else knowing that you are friends with The Idiot? Well, that friend is Cedar Point and that stupid thing is Disaster Transport. When I was growing up in Michigan, I would always take a friend with my family to Cedar Point... any time it was someone new that I hadn't been to the park with before, I would have to pretend that I didn't know what Disaster Transport was. "What? When did they get this? I was here last year and didn't even see it! I wonder if it is a test version of something they want to build later..."

I'm not familiar with SFOG... so for curiosity's sake... Is there only one entrance to the park? Or is there another near Batman? is the parking lot by Batman an overflow lot? What is the normal way to get to the entrance from this lot--by tram? So are parks with multiple entrances inherently safer? Maybe the park will add a new entrance in the back of the park. "Keep aHEAD of the rush by using the Ferguson Entrance Gate"

Yeah, it does seem like Six Flags is a bit of a house of cards right now. They seem to have gone "all in" in the past couple years (with great results, IMO) and may not have the capital to endure a backlash... if there ends up being one.

^^ i was thinking the cause was either video games, popular music, movies, maybe a dare on MySpace, a posting on Craigslist, a pregancy pact, pressure from his overbearing sports dad, or one of the other usual network news favorites. It is a bizarre and unfortunately entertaining story, but I don't think it will have as much negative impact as the SFKK incident. The park's preventative measures and the ride operated flawlessly... the only malfunctioning part here was the brain inside this kid's head. More groups should arrange their trips on Physics Day...?

Awesome TR. Love the bag-cam! Wow! I missed out on CGA's shuttle altogether... I wish the park had some kind of museum for past attractions and stuff.. that model would be perfect.

S&S has contributed a lot... I think "setting the Turbo Drop towers on their side" and making the first full-circuit 100MPH coaster was a great achievement that Intamin had to catch up to. The Thrust Air coaster seems pretty intense. I like the looks of the Eagle. Kind of a pipeline / suspended / 4D combo... actually, it would be interesting if the rotation could be controlled like 4D. I wonder if they could fix the suspended coaster with an air bag suspension? It would be great if they could make a suspended floorless that actually swings around a lot.

Thanks! I don't think it is anything special... it is a Ricoh Caplio R4 that I've had for a few years. I always thought it had great optics, but I'm not really a camera guy so I wouldn't know. I wanted something that I could fit into a pocket and take just about anywhere... the lens retracts fully into the body, so it does that easily. Its lens is a great wide-angle and has a 7.1X zoom. At the time, it had a pretty wicked response time.. not sure how it holds up against new cams. http://www.dpreview.com/news/0602/06022302ricohr4.asp I think the line is still going... I think they are up to an R8 now, maybe with an R9 on the way...

Ah... I went on a weekend day and the lines were a little long early in the afternoon, but were really reasonable. I wonder if a bunch of schools all went on Monday, then... seems odd that a Monday would be so busy, but I'm not too familiar with the crowd patterns here either. I think Survivor becomes fun when the line is 10 - 15 minutes