Yamez

I was personally hoping for a contained burn...but alas it was not to be.

I would agree to all of this, except for one problem: The owners are trying to cut current contracts by 25%. Contracts that were negotiated in good faith, and are legally binding. Now the owners want to throw all of that out the window without at LEAST grandfathering in the current signed contracts. No matter which way you cut it, its fucked up. In the end, yes, its millionaires arguing with billionaires. But when one side pulls a stunt like that, I have a difficult time supporting the owners - regardless of the rest of the issues. In my book that makes the owners no better than thieves right now. The players should drop to 50% share on hockey related revenue with the owners, that way its fair all around. But its not that simple, and its always going to be something they fight about in CBAs. As to those who say Bettman is just the mouthpiece, I disagree. That means that he has control over the meetings, where they are, what they talk about, etc. He has to sell the owners on network deals, revenue sharing, and other money related items while dealing with any major disciplinary problems or scheduling issues. The man controls the league. Of course the owners get some say, but that's like saying the Speaker of the House has no authority other than to call meetings. Bettman is, and forever will be crap. The owners keep him around because he tells them what they want to hear, and forces the policies he feels will get the league to where he wants it to be down everyone else's throats. The owners need to wake up and realize that every time a CBA has come up they have locked the players out. The person in charge of negotiating these contracts is Bettman, he talks to both the NHLPA and the Board of Governors. If he can't do his job and keep the game moving forward, then why is he still around?

Well, if they make enough money off of them to pay it off in the first year and then some, I'm sure the maintenance costs can't be terribly high. I wouldn't be surprised to see these stick around until they're falling apart.

If they could make it not a dead end, then more people would head in that direction I'm sure. Perhaps another themed land of sorts; a few flats and a coaster would fit in the space between Batwing and Superman and re-energize the park itself. But they probably can't/won't afford that right now, so we'll just have to wait and see. I've been waiting for a good reason to head back to the park and a transplanted standup coaster wasn't gonna do it for me.

Gemini! Best headchopper ever, and the drops are awesome. Honorable mention to Lightning Racer though, I love both sides.

I was a bit disappointed that we couldn't do Verbolten in the evening, the fog was completely covering the drop over the river. As for AC, I prefer rides that are far more intense, but I had a lot of fun on it and for some odd reason we seemed to be getting small pops of ejector air toward the front row. Without those pops of air I would rank it just ahead of Diamondback at KI, and overall I wouldn't have enjoyed it as much. Full disclosure - Magnum XL200 is my favorite hyper

Unfortunately my dad has most of the pictures from my visit this past weekend, but here are a few that I managed to grab from my mother's facebook page: Jack Hannah and the two Tiger cubs he brought with him to the lunch. Aren't they adorable? This was the show is Festhaus, it was mildly entertaining and full of corny/crude jokes. My parents loved it. Some of the lights they had strung up over the paths and midways. Really cool effect at night. We didn't do any of the Haunts as we were more focused on enjoying the park. That said, we did run into the moving horde of folks, and frankly it was never impressive. The only part that seemed to work well for it was at the end of the night when everyone was exiting and the horde followed everyone to the gate. This however also sort of backfired as it made a lot of people angry and frustrated trying to exit, in addition to the park probably losing some revenue from their gift shops (parents wanting to leave asap because of kids, etc.) In the end we saw all the shows and got on all the coasters, DarKastle, and a few flats. The first thing we got on was Verbolten, expecting major lines later in the evening (this proved to be accurate). It was actually quite a bit more intense than I had anticipated, even knowing what was inside the event building. The launches were powerful, and the midcourse drop was pretty much exactly what I anticipated. It still hit me by surprise though, and that was nice. The bridge creaking and groaning as the train drops off of it over the river was a nice touch, and the airtime hill at the end was pretty good. My dad was not a fan of the pitch black (even with the lighting), although he thought the drop was cool - he thought it was gonna shoot sideways somehow! Overall fun coaster, but not top 10 for me. Rating: 7/10 After Verbolten my family and I hit up the bumper cars and the Wave Swinger, which was fun. After that my parents decided we needed a park map so once we found one we headed up toward DarKastle. This was my first time on the ride, so it was an entirely new experience for me. Needless to say if the lines hadn't gotten atrocious later in the evening I would have totally hit this up again. The 'vertical' drop near the end of the ride felt awesome, and the special effects took my entire family by surprise. I can't wait to try some newer dark rides at other parks to see how everything has changed since this was even built. I'm also extremely hopeful that more parks will add rides like this, because it was probably my family's favorite ride as a group. Rating: 9/10 After that we decided to head back toward the front of the park as it was time for our lunch with Jack Hannah! Since we arrived a bit early to the venue we decided to take a small detour towards the animal exhibits. The wolves were very active, as was the Serval they had back by the lorikeet aviary. After killing some time we headed back over to Castle O'Sullivan and checked in for lunch. The buffet was VERY kids friendly, with chicken nuggets, macaroni and cheese, cheese sticks, hot dogs, etc. There were a few 'grown up' choices such as a delicious pork roast and stew. He brought out a bunch of animals, including the tiger cubs pictured above. Overall it was very informative and kid oriented, but he was very friendly to the adults in the audience and had to be dragged away at the end of the event for his next show by the Busch staff (he just couldn't stop talking to people, it was awesome!). We got autographed pictures of him and an African Serval, and my little sister and mother took a picture with him (on my Dad's camera). Great experience, great food, awesome animals. After lunch we headed back up toward the animals to let lunch settle and kill some time before our Wolf Training Tour. We ended up watching the pet show which was cute, but overall boring. After the show we went to our tour meet up spot. The tour ended up being just the four of us and was extremely informative. They explained all the concepts behind their training, let us ask any questions we had during the information part of the tour, and we got to see the wolves relatively up close (as close as a guest can anyways). At the end of the demonstration part, we were asked to tell the wolves to do a behavior for us. Each of us got something different, and the wolves all responded very quickly and correctly. Beautiful animals, and definitely worth the money if you have a family member who is really into wolves or animals in general. This concluded the birthday part of the trip for my little sister, so me and my mother were ready to ride all the things! We headed toward Alpengeist first, but we ended up riding the log flume (minus my little sister because she is pretty much scared of anything that doesn't move in a circle) and got soaked. Once done with that we headed up to Alpengeist, while my dad stayed with my little sister (he's not a fan of B&M over head restraints, they hurt his shoulders) and rode some random rides. The wait wasn't long, about 10 minutes, and we hopped on. My mother is a huge fan of Raptor, but to both of our surprise even though this ride was taller and longer, it was relatively forceless. We had both expected more from the ride, but I assume the trims have taken a lot of the punch that used to exist out of it. Fun, but kind of boring for us. Rating: 5/10 It was getting close to dinner time and my mother wanted to take in a show, so we headed back up to Germany and hit up Festhaus where we saw Nightbeats. It was really nice to have dinner and a show, plus the show did a lot of 80s references and popular 70s songs which made a lot of folks chuckle. Overall amusing show, well worth a stop if you are in the mood for a break. Rating: 8/10 At this point it was finally starting to get dark, and as we were walking out of Festhaus the horde of clowns/zombies/tree people were coming out from backstage. It was actually rather impressive the amount of actors they had, but execution wise they just didn't seem to be anywhere we were. It needs some work and fine tuning, they seem to have the people and the talent for it though. We headed over toward Rome as I mentioned that we should hit up Apollo's Chariot, and got in line. 10 minute wait, and boy was it flying! Barely any trims, solid floater and ejector toward the front row, but not super intense. Great fun, my second favorite coaster at the park. Rating: 8/10 After me and my mother rode, my mom dragged my dad on it so I took my little sister on the Battering Ram while we waited for them to get their ride in. Once they returned we headed back through Rome toward France and caught Dig It Up, which was almost entirely a lyricless show. Awesome live band, fun tunes, and the actors seemed really into it. Didn't really have much of a plot line, but played crowd favorites stylized to a marching band esque horn and percussion ensemble. Great for band geeks. Rating: 4/10 With only two real coasters left, we headed toward France and Griffon. This had the longest wait of the night at about 20 minutes. Again, just me and my mother, but this was totally worth the wait. The brake on the top of the hill was AMAZING, as was the first drop and both immelans. Got some great hang time at the top of the inversions, and a solid pop of air coming off the MCBR and just before the final brake run. Hands down the best coaster at the park, and clearly a crowd favorite. The only downside was that it was a short ride, something both my mom and I lamented to one another after riding. We tried to get my dad to ride, but the restraints once again won over and he passed. Rating: 9.5/10 It was getting later, so we had one last coaster and show to catch. We walked back up toward Ireland and caught Fiends which was easily the best show of the day (outside of the animal attractions, obviously). On the sign outside it says that parental guidance is STRONGLY advised, and I cannot agree more. This show is NOT for families that can't handle some very raunchy humor, sex jokes, and puns. The singing was decent, the plot line was hilarious, and the ending was the best homage to Rocky Horror I've ever seen at a live show. No complaints from me or my family, but if you're sensitive to a lot of skin showing (and I do mean A LOT), sex jokes, sex puns, and raunchy/corny humor don't bother with this show. From top to bottom, it is easily the best show they have at the park this year. The only thing I can't figure out is how it got approved! Rating: 8/10 We walked outside, and discovered that they were selling shots just outside the theatre. Regretfully we moved past those (though my wallet is glad we didn't stop) and headed towards Lochness Monster for the last ride of the day. We walked right on to the ride, and were thoroughly surprised. I had never ridden a smoother arrow coaster in my entire life, though admittedly my arrow experience is mostly limited to Cedar Point and Kings Island. Still though, one of the better Arrows I have been on, and definitely re-rideable. I was sad that I couldn't convince my little sister to even try this one, but at least it gives me an excuse to come back to the park! In general, we had a great day. The staff was extremely friendly and courteous, the lines weren't bad at all, and the food was great - seriously have you had their chocolate cake? They serve it at Festhaus and had it in our Brunch, sooooo good. Anyways, point being I cannot wait to return to this park and enjoy it more. I may have to buy a season pass next year, and my family will most likely be returning for Christmas Town. I personally am trying to attend once more with some friends to hit up the coasters a bit more later in October and ride some rides. I can happily say that this was one of the best theme park experiences I have ever had, outclassing even Disney in my book. I cannot say enough good things about this park right now, and if you're on the fence about going to it over Kings Dominion - go to BGW. Its worth the extra drive. The only reason I would go to KD over this park now is I305 and their haunt stuff. Once again, mad props to this park, we had a wonderful time.

I'll do my best to do a photo TR when we go tomorrow, but I don't know how many pictures I'll actually be taking. My father might be taking more than me! Full write up though, I can promise that much.

^Thanks for those!

Thats plenty good, just let me know or post 'em here when you can. It'll be appreciated! As for Mantis, when I worked the ride I learned how to ride it, and when the trims are off and the MCBR isn't grabbing its actually quite spectacular. Unfortunately that rarely ever happens, so If it helps any the ride is at its best usually toward the end of the day, it can haul a$$ through the first half and get quite whippy through the corkscrew after the MCBR.

Thanks guys! I actually had no idea that HOS was starting this weekend. Honestly we were only going for the Jack Hannah lunch, so finding this out is SUPER helpful! I don't know if we'll be doing any of the mazes or not, but either way its going to be fun.

I'm taking my family to the park this Saturday for the lunch with Jack Hannah and the wolves experience for my little sister's birthday. Any tips on the park for those more familiar with it than I? My mom and I would like to hit all of the coasters and DarKastle, we're hoping crowds will be light.

I would love that! What size are they normally? I'd love to snatch a few for my personal wall paper collection.

They make me miss the lake and Ohio...beautiful shots. Now I really want to go back for Halloweekends.

Out of curiosity, what do you feel like they could do going any higher on these types of coasters? They're all about speed, and showing that off. All making them higher does is make them slightly faster at a higher cost (I would think). Its probably just not beneficial enough to build anything taller. And we've yet to see Six Flags build a Giga for some unknown reason. If the two major chains aren't building them, and no one overseas is doing it, there is probably a solid reason for NOT building it. Just sayin'

Well, considering the press release said they evaluated all other alternatives. I think its safe to say that they at least looked at it. Then they decided they could do so much more with that section of land.

These are beautiful. Thank you for sharing. The panorama of Magnum is my favorite

That is a seriously awesome effect.

Thats all fine and dandy, but you need to remember that station design, guests, and crew size all factor into how quickly you can load and dispatch a train. I would ballpark that the 700ish number thrown around is probably going to be the most accurate. Does anyone else feel like the backwards launch is kind of unnecessary? I saw this coaster and said cool, but the backwards launch seems...like a waste and unnecessary. I'm sure its a cool effect, but as others have noted its probably going to absolutely wreck the capacity potential of a ride like this. I could see them cutting the backwards launch part of the ride's program several years down the road if it stays popular enough and capacity is an issue. Assuming that's possible, of course. It looks neat, and basically is an overgrown Skyloop coaster in my opinion. I'm not impressed, but its definitely a cool attraction.

Someone tried to recreate the park several years ago, ended up splitting it in two. http://www.ataricommunity.com/forums/showthread.php?t=510136 Might help if you're looking for some ideas/inspiration.

I would suggest moving Magnum back a bit more from where you have it. There is a food stand between Magnum and Corkscrew as well as plenty of trees. Not to mention Magnum's queue. Looks nice so far!

That makes sense. Troika almost constantly has riders, and rarely breaks down. No reason to remove something reasonably popular and reliable. I'm also super happy to see that ugly building disappear, it was an eyesore.

Fact: 99.12353% of all statistics on the internet are made up on the spot. It looks fine, and people will always complain. That's just human nature.

Its nice to see something new at the Point. I doubt it'll be one of my favorites, but I'm sure its going to be worth a ride or two every time you visit. Not to mention its highly photogenic, and the color choices are absolutely beautiful!

Every time I see someone type barrel roll I have this weird urge to go play Starfox... That aside, I'm really excited to see how this turns out.