CoasterGuy06

Good thing Miss State cancelled class today! Although I can't say anything, because Alabama didn't have class last year when we had a Thursday night game.

Just bought my ticket! Can't wait til Saturday!

^^If they were first time starts, I agree get them all the reps, but that wasn't the case. My picks: SEC: Alabama over South Carolina Big 10:Nebraska over Wisconsin (but Wisconsin wins the regular season matchup) Big East:South Florida Big 12:Oklahoma (although I would find it funny if A&M wins it in their final year) ACC: Florida State over Virginia Tech Pac 12: Oregon over Arizona State BCS Bowls: Rose- Oregon vs. Nebraska Fiesta- Texas A&M vs. Boise State Sugar- LSU vs. Wisconsin Orange- Florida State vs. South Florida BCS Championship- Alabama vs. Oklahoma National Champion- Alabama

^^ Top Thrill Dragster, Maverick, Wind Seeker, Shoot The Rapids are rides that suffer fairly regular downtime the past few seasons, and that is just Cedar Point. Rides break down. It happens. Throw in the fact that Huss is one of the worst companies to get parts from (it can take MONTHS just to get a part from them), and you easily have extended downtime on a Huss ride.

I can't say I was really surprised by any of the SEC games. I actually expected Utah State to give Auburn a run for their money considering Auburn lost so many player from last years team and USU gave Oklahoma fits last year. South Carolina is always a Jekel and Hyde team, Georgia is 13-13 the past two seasons. I actually thought Boise would beat them worse than they did. Kentucky is another team that lost almost all their playmakers so their game wasn't too shocking. I just have a hard time believing that Stanford will be the same now that Shaw is the coach. I just get the feeling he's going to be more like Larry Coker and ride the success of Harbaugh and then when Luck goes to the NFL they will slide back to the basement of the Pac 12. It also puzzles me that the top 3 QBs in the Big 12 were all still playing in the 4th quarter of blowout games. Oklahoma of all teams would want to pull theirs when you consider how Jason White tore his ACL twice and the Sam Bradford going down with his injury. Protect your stars!

^Yeah, I thought Oregon was overrated at #3. They lost too many key players. I do still expect them to win the Pac 12 almost by default with USC ineligible and with the way many of the other teams performed this weekend. It's also starting to spread that the SEC has voted to admit Texas A&M with an official announcement coming tomorrow, which I believe is the first domino that will change college athletics as we know it.

Baylor/TCU was one of the most entertaining games from the past few seasons. Not surprised by the UGA/Boise game or Oregon/LSU game. I was really pulling for Utah State to pull the upset (Roll Tide). Man someone went crazy with the uniforms this weekend. I thought Boise's were OK, I liked Oregon's, and hated Georgia, Oklahoma State, and Maryland's new uniforms. Overall a decent opening weekend. Looking forward to seeing Bama roll over Penn State

And that bothers me. Last season I visited KD and Carowinds on their opening weekends and this was the case. Hurler and Shockwave closed. One side of Rebel Yell closed. Grizzly, Backlot, and Volcano all running one train. Yet Carowinds had every coaster (including both side of Thunder Road) running and running all trains. Even Kings Island has been running all trains on their rides on all 4 of my visits there even when dead. Believe me, I get the whole staffing thing at the end of the season, but to keep one side of a major attraction closed so often when your sister parks have theirs opens blows my mind.

In the early to mid 2000s Markey commissioned a medical organization to do a study to try and link thrill rides to brain injuries. Six Flags also commissioned their own study with another medical organization and released their findings saying no link was to be found between thrill rides and injuries/deaths Markey was claiming they did. Like a typical politician Markey kept saying how the Six Flags study was biased because it was paid for by a theme park company, was inaccurate, etc. Of course, his study was released a week laster.....and came to the same conclusion the Six Flags study did. Of course he still has not backed down.

IIRC, the height restriction get smaller the closer you get to the lake. It could be that the only place they could place that ride is on the Zonga/Big Spin pad.

Comet, Lincoln Park. Collapse- the lift hill collapsed in 2005 Ivy/Harvard- Ivy League- Lincoln Park was in North Dartmouth, Mass. Darmouth is also an Ivy League school Lincoln/Illinois- Lincoln Park, enough said. Clam- near the coast/New England- clam chowder Desire- Little-A-Merika-A either currently/previously desired to build their own version....and even bought the trains Logs- wood coaster Bolt- Comets bolt across the sky Smell parts of it- Comet the cleaning product has a strong smell

Twister at Knoebels. Has "The Golden BOLT" from the Original Mr. Twister.

Based on the website it appears the Action River is a make over of the current lazy river, not a new "addition."

^They have more than many SF parks do, but I think the complaint about "lack of flats" is due to the fact they added so many in 1999 and then had most of them removed over the years. Heck, SFOG has the Carousel, Wheelie, and Crime Wave as their entire flat collection.

Didn't SFOG get their Scrambler from GAdv? If so, looks like they are getting it back!

^Oh no! Shorter lines for rides! The horror!

Also apparently at the ACE Preservation Con it was confirmed by Rocky Mtn that they will be adding a couple hundred feet of topper track to The Voyage this off season. Does anyone know why The Voyage is only running 6 car trains this season? When they announced they would not have Timberliners this year they said they would be running 2-7 car PTC trains, and I could have sworn I saw PTRs from earlier this year that showed them running 7 car trains, but when I went in mid August they were running 6 car trains and you could see two extra PTC cars on the ground by the ride. Anyone know what's up there?

Parks that don't learn from the past make stupid moves, IMO. Take Disney for example. It seems everytime they build a park (outside of Japan) they wind up slashing budgets, not building up to potential, and then seem shocked attendance/revenues aren't what they expected. Then they spend a ton of money trying to build the parks up after the fact. Rinse and repeat. Six Flags and Astroworld also come to mind. It seems it was such a shortsighted plan to close the place, and they didn't even get as much benefit by moving rides to other parks as they could have because of the damage to rides.

I just can't see this getting over 500pph. A 2 minute cycle (including load/unload time) give you 240 per side and a 3 minute cycle only 160 per side. For comparison a 3 minute cycle on KI's gyro drop would give you about 800pph. This just concerns me at SFMM. Throw in the fact you are now (likely) going to have to shut down one of your "new" coasters you just advertised and I just think they would have been better off getting a normal gyro drop that seats 40-50 people. Obviously this would likely cost more and you probably wouldn't be able to get it at 400 feet, but capacity would be much much better. Now don't get me wrong, it's good they are getting a new non coaster ride.

It's nice to Six Flags building a major NEW B&M after taking several years off.

^It did say Both sides. 2 drop vehicles, 8 passengers each, 16 total.

^as of the announcement it is true. When the ride actually opens, maybe not.

16 people per cycle? That's two "low capacity" rides in a row for such a big park.

^SFOG is the same way. It always has the longest line in the park, even when it has a great crew working.

Luck has nothing to do with it. In 2005 (before they sold DL, EG, closed AW, etc.) Six Flags said SFGAm, SFGAdv, SFOT, and SFMM brought in 25% of all their revenues. That's huge when you consider they were running nearly 30 properties at the time! Putting their capital in those parks wasn't what put Six Flags in bankruptcy. Buying parks like SFA (and overpaying for many of them), and then turning around and dumping 5 coasters in a 3 year span is what ran up their debt.