themeparkman25

Hahahahaha. Reliable eh? hahaha. Anyone else find that funny?

There has been rumors of a B&M hyper at BGA for some time now. But I don't know if I would say Busch has anything up there sleeves anymore. With the sale to inbev and the pending sale to Blackstone, I don't know if I see any huge changes any time soon, at least not til both companies get their roots firm in the ground (and for Blackstone, 'til the understand the parks). This should probably be in the rumor thread anyways

^Where is that press release? Or was it on TV or something?

What are the possibilities of touring the Mack factory? I imagine it is in close proximity to Europa Park, and I have never seen coaster being made and would definitely be interested.

^Mack's website has a couple mouses listed, but they all hover around the 1000 pph mark. Not bad! Gerstlauer's website and their spinning coaster say a reasonable 720 pph. Those numbers surprise me a little, they seem high.

Totally. And I figured those extra brakes were part of a trim system, they just seemed very out of place and in the case of the tunnel brakes, very long. Corkscrew wasn't critique either, just personal preference and basing it off of real coasters. By no means it was a negative that you didn't have one. This was a really good coaster for rct.

^Ya, but if you look at those pictures and the blurb on it, the father seems fairly collected after 15+ minutes. I am not saying he wasn't distraught and upset that a cable just snapped in front of him, he just seemed collected (as has been mentioned many times in this thread) which is probably helpful to his sons reaction.

Well it doesn't look like the cable got dragged into or beneath the train, but that could prove to be false. If you look at the front of the train, the decorative car was split down the middle. I imagine that it is made fiberglass, which obviously would take a lot of quick force to break. Interesting seeing those pictures though, those brake fins got rocked! I guess on a slightly positive note, the dad doesn't look too majorly distraught with the incident.

According to GCI's website under their "great trains" tab, GCI will put Millennium Flyers on any wooden coaster so long as the track and structure are in good condition and the forces would be alright with everything. They also said that they would help improve the condition of coasters that are seeking new trains. Check out their website.

^If GCI was doing the retracking and they were getting Millennium Flyers I would be a little more excited. GCI must have been steep or something because they were doing a huge park trip selling their products to parks with wood coasters offering to throw some MF's on the tracks, of course after they retrack it themselves.

Jordan 0 - B&M 1 From the article posted above, here are a couple relevant quotes. With the rest of that article though, Shapiro was very elusive in reveling any details. Almost like he doesn't want to commit to saying something like a new ride when it might not happen. This whole 50th birthday might be somewhat of a gimmick it seems like. @smartestcoasterkid- Vail has one too on top of the mountain, one that is open during the winter too I believe (like Park City's). Between the MTV studio and alpine coaster on top of the mountain, who needs to ski? I want to know why those alpine coasters like the one at glenwood don't count as credits though. @atem- No megalite...I mean I hardly consider that a family attraction anyway. Lets be honest anyways, the list of "needs" for a park though is never ending for a coaster enthusiast.

That is some youtube video with links to the different pov's. Anyways here are my thoughts. It was a very legit coaster for rct3, so good job with that. I liked the layout of the elements, but I also thought it would have used one last corkscrew before the brake run to seal the deal. Also, I don't really know what the brake at 1:29 is, unless that is a trim since you can't put them on hills. Either way it really didn't make sense, and neither did the pseudo brake run at 1:55 that didn't do a thing. Great coaster though, I am highly impressed with your layout and supports and entrance. Very nice piece of coaster you have. Keep it up.

^^Nah. Two brake sections on a kiddie coaster are plenty, especially after a 540 uphill helix. Case and point, look at Hangten at Freestyle, the new Vekoma kid coasters only have a tiny little brake at the end and it works fine.

Wait, I am getting so confused. Is Rockit open at all during HHN? I will be out there the 17th but only during the day, will I get a ride?

^I imagine that the theme park industry walks a fine line trying to balance those out. Between budget and guest satisfaction. I would love to learn how it is done and what parks do and don't do that leads to a guests satisfaction or dissatisfaction of a park. There is so much to learn! ^^The nearest alpine slide is at Heritage Square, which is 15 minutes south of Boulder. It is smaller and tamer though than the one at Winter Park.

^I want an alton towers map!!! Check out my list if you want anything.

^You make valid points, but the world revolves around money. Yes there is probably some underlying reasons why SFMM suffers from poor capacity, but ultimately every single business decision comes down to one question. Will this action make me more money? Obviously a business's goal is to turn a profit, and one of the easiest ways to increase that profit is to decrease costs. No matter how subtle, a reduction in costs is an increase in profits. With that, I agree with you in saying parks know the costs of running a ride, but they also work into a system that decreases costs as much as possible. Additionally, I am sure parks often consider guests happiness as a measure of business success, but a guests happiness goes hand in hand with outcomes like; how much money did they spend? Will they return again in the future? Will they refer us to friends and family? etc. So indirectly, other measures of business success lead to that one noun, money. Will putting extra trains on X2 and Tatsu drive in more revenue? Do the benefits of adding trains out weigh the benefits? To that I say no, they do not. Guests come to parks expecting to have at least some kind of weight in lines, it is just a part of the expecations and the business. At some point though, the weight begins to greatly diminish a guests happiness, which I would assume is when the park adds an additional train and staff. I'm not trying to argue with you because the two times I have been to SFMM I have noticed the lengthy lines, I am just saying what I think. Perhaps it is because I am jealous that the coolest ride I have in my town is the alpine slide down the mountain. Hahahaha.

^Good call. All those Intamin Impulses are brutal. I rode V2 at SFGAm when it was new and I don't ever remember it catching the train on the back spike. Then, when I rode Steel Venom at Valleyfair! I got destroyed! Answer me this, what is the point of catching the train anyways? It doesn't hold long enough to induce that much fear, yet it drops a portion of your body weight onto the spike in the seat. Weak Intamin...weak.

^Ya all those can and should be factored into the master plan, but economic cycles and their intensity level (thrill factor if you will), cannot be. Have Tatsu and X(2) always been removing trains or is this a new occurrence? In regards to X, the only reason I can think of why they don't run all the trains is the same when they use to operate every other day, the stress fractures. No matter how light they make the trains, the fractures are still there, and running full capacity would be a lot of additional stress on the structure. 1600 pph, according to atem, is a lot to throw on a fragile coaster. I am probably wrong though?

^It could be because they were stalking, but I feel like it probably had to deal with the budget and staffing. More trains = more wear and tear = more maintenance costs. Similarly more trains = more staff = higher labor costs.

^SFSTl Discussion Thread? Only because Robb locked Michigans Adventure yesterday for similar reasons would I say that. EDIT: Bingo. Jordan 1. SFSTl thread locked.

Updated List as of 9/28: SFOG 09 map X7 SFSTl 04 guide X2 SFA 04 map X4 SFMM 06 map X6 I am sure I can find a 09 map as well SFOT 04 map X5 SFNE 04 guide X2 04 map X5 SFGAv 04 map X3 SFGAm 04 guide X4 IOA ?? map X6 (I am not sure of the date since I have been so many times and not much as changed, it is post unicorn) (SF)EG 04 map X38 CP 04 map X20 07 map X2 04 guide X4 BGT 08 map X2 05 map X13 03 map X4 09 map X2 WoF 09 map X2 KBF 09 map X2 VF 09 map X7 lagoon 09 map X14 FMP 09 map X8 At this point I am really looking for a Carowinds and Canadas Wonderland map, both from this year. But I am pretty much interested in anything worthwhile. Foreign stuff would be awesome!`

Money (100 million dollars worth) doesn't buy happiness (a ring). Zorn and Snyder are still trying to recover from that hiccup, this one might be harder.

^I am not worried about being alone haha. I did WoF, SFoG and FMP by myself this year, so I am used to it. I just don't really know anyone, that is what will be the most uncomfortable. Though I just bought a couple TPR dvd's and it looks like everyone is friends. Edit: Wow, I forgot to say Thank You!!! When the time draws nearer I would love to work that out. Seriously, thank you! \/ I haven't even hit a year on TPR yet, but I am sure everything will work out in the long run. I am very excited about this trip so far.

Robb- Dueling GCI's vs. Black Mamba? Hmmm, I guess I can handle that. Just playin', I can totally handle that. Maybe I can work in a layover to the nearest closest city so I can check that out (though it looks like there aren't many big cities near there). I am very excited about expedition, blue fire and geforce though! I hope this is one of the trips TPR goes on. Ginzo- Noob moment. What is QFT?