CoasterGuy06

You could always "catch" the animals instead of shooting them.

Got to experience it for the first time on Thursday. Six Flags did a nice job preserving the Plantation while updating the ride.

SFOG tomorrow!

There might be some other examples, but the only park I can think of to draw 1million more visitors in one year was SFFT in 1999, and that came with them almost doubling the number of rides in the park. It's HARD to raise attendance 5%, let alone 50%. On the BBW topic, I enjoyed the coaster. Count me in with the crowd that thinks they need a smaller height restriction coaster to replace it with.

S&S still provide Arrow parts/service for rides, IIRC.

Just to second what Steve said, it was a blast hosting you guys! TPR is by far the most fun group I have had to chance to operate for. Hopefully I will see you guys again as a trip participant in the coming years. Even more really cool and fun people! Thanks TPR from everyone at Alabama Adventure! Some really cool and fun people! Rampage ERT, blue train style. One of the prizes given out.

There are a bunch of Six Flags and Cedar Fair veterans at the park now.

You could easily do all that. The only "iffy" one would be UpSurge. Even on weekdays the line is usually all the way down the tower since it's the new attraction and has been really popular with guests.

As many of you know Alabama Adventure, home of the CCI creation Rampage, was purchased by new owners mid way through last season. You probably also know the park has not always received the greatest reviews from coaster enthusiasts (see here) for many different reason, many because of things the park did to itself. Well 2009 has brought many changes to the park! Some will be viewed as good, some might consider the changes bad. Place me in the former category. IMO, the park looks and is being run as best as it ever has. Lots of things have been done this season and I would like to document some of these changes for you, as well as giving you TPRers that might be visiting the park for the first time on the Deep South Trip a little preview if you will. Please note these photos have been taken over the course of the entire season, some during the day, some at night, and some in between. I am going to try and post them in an order that will make sense of it so they won't exactly be in chronological order. Enjoy! If you have ever visited the park before you know there is a large rock by Marvel Mania. The story goes when they were building the park they were having lots of trouble removing it so they decided to leave it as landscaping. Well this yer the park gave it a "story" so to speak. Meet the "Weather Rock." Well that does it for major updates so far. I'll post some general park photos from this year later! Thanks for reading! All of the rides also received new height sticks at their entrances/lines. Here is the one for Rampage. The blue train also had all of its lapbars recovered orange (last year half were black and half were orange). And yes, the park does run both trains when needed! The chasis of the red train was painted gray this year...and all lap bars were recovered with orange foam (they ere all black last year). And finally, here are some of the changes at Rampage, starting with one of its new safety signs. This change actually happened last year, but the park added higher seats and thicker lap foam on the harnesses. This allowed the park to drop the height restriction from 52" to 48". I hear there could be another change to the ride soon though...we'll see The logs on Cahaba Falls also were repainted (again) this year and had hand rails added "Auburn" boat in action. "Alabama" boat in action. ...the other half feature an "Auburn" paint scheme (PS...36-0...) The boats on Wild River Gorge also received a new paint scheme. Half feature an "Alabama" scheme... ...and new number decals! It also has new logo decals... Scrambler also received a new paint scheme! The park almost doubled the smoking areas in the park. They are clearly marked with red lines and red benches. Here is the one by Rampage. There were 8 areas on opening day. Just realized I forgot to post a pic of the new guest conduct signs... Unfortunately, the park also had to add a TON of these signs as well after last summer's events at SFOG. All of the rides also received new safety signs. Here is the one for Zoomerang. The train also received some new safety signs (so did many other rider including the Mind SpinNer. Yes, the park renamed Mind Spinder Mind Spinner!) ...and yes even more park logo decals! It also has a new ride logo on the front... Zoomerang's train also received a new paint job! ...as well as park logos on the train. ...numbered ride units... The train received a logo... Marvel Mania also received a new paint scheme! Another thing the park did was repaint many of the trash cans (teal, orange, green, etc.) and add park logos to them to help the park look cleaner. UpSurge! THROUGH THE TREES! Then over a small hill and through a water curtain into the splash pool. After some turns you drop down then up into a partial half pipe... UpSurge! is a Boomerango from White Water West. One change some might view as "bad" was the removal of the sand beach at the wave pool. This was done because you have to walk through that area to get to UpSurge! This is all that remains of the beach. The big change this season is the new water slide UpSurge! Here is the "new" fountain testing after close one night. The park is continuing to fine tune things so it might be a little while before it looks "perfect." What's this? It appears the park has replaced it's interactive fountain with a "new" fountain (seen here simply testing the pump) ...and two were painted green with purple trim. Some nice new signs like this one here for The Veronicas have been placed throughout the park advertising the concert series Two of the ticket booths were painted purple with green trim.... The front gate area has received some fresh paint this season and some nice new signs informing guests of the park's rules.

Part of Georgia Cyclone's problem is the "padding" on the trains. It's HARD foam when it really needs to be a soft cushion.

I have never had a problem with the employees. Last season most of the rides had great dispatches and the rides that were stacking were the ones you would expect it on (Georgia Scorcher, S:UF) but even those were really because of problems with guests not the employees.

The park was purchased during the 2008 season so this is the first year for the new owners to really leave their mark on the park and it really shows. There were a ton of park improvements already, with even more coming soon. I have a bunch of pictures showing off the changes but have been waiting for one certain improvement to be finished and it should be done this week. When it is done I plan on posting a "Photo TR" of sorts to show the Deep South participants what the park looks like this year.

Holy crap! That S:UF crew video was awesome to see.

I assume the reporter in the video in the first post of this thread made a mistake because he said the city was going to sue Six Flags to force them to remove the rides, but now they file an injunction to prevent that?

Cedar Point- "E Ticket" -$3 fee Universal Orlando- taxes and "fees" are added to your purchase price (the fee comes to to the $2-$3 range) Dollywood- $1.10 processing fee per ticket There's three I found in just a few minutes. Sure they charge less than Six Flags, but they also charge you full price for the tickets where Six Flags everyone pays kids price when you but online.

Two points to consider: 1.) They have been charging this for years, and so do most parks. 2.) Most parks that offer this pay an outside company to run the thing, which is why they charge the fee. Most, if not all, of that money probably goes to that company, not Six Flags.

I visited New Orleans for the first time back in January for the Sugar Bowl, and I agree there is no way they could support a park that size (heck, they couldn't support it pre-Katrina). I mean the east side of the city still looks like Katrina just came through for the most part, and even downtown and in the French Quarter there are still a bunch of empty buildings where places closed. It's still a cool city though, but SFNO's (or whatever other name it might have if it were to reopen) days are over, IMO.

I have been hearing about Six Flags not owning the rides ever since it closed, and nobody has ever offered any proof. Several times (including today) I have gone back to re-read articles from when Six Flags took over and everything leads me to believe Six Flags bought ALL of the rides while NO bought the land and signed a 75 year lease with Six Flags. In fact, one article said SF was paying somewhere between $20-60 million dollars. Sounds pretty steep to only operate the park and not buy any rides no? Heck, the video even says they are suing to FORCE Six Flags to REMOVE the rides. If New Orleans ows the rides why do they want Six Flags to remove them? Regarding the S&S towers, I did find multiple articles that said when Six Flags took over the park in bankruptcy they had to pay $2.4 million to buy out a ride lease. S&S towers were running about 1.2 million each at the time, IIRC, so it makes sense that Six Flags DID actually purchase those towers even if there was some clause in the lease the NO owned the existing rides. The same thing happened when Visionland was in bankruptcy. Alfa Smart Parks also leased twin S&S towers for the park and when Southland Entertainment took over VL they had to decide if they wanted to but both towers, one tower, or let S&S take both back. They chose to purchase the Space Shot tower and S&S took the Turbo Drop back and resold it.

Millennium Force does have a problem if you are really tall and put your hands up, they even have had to cut parts out of at least one support because of it. I guess Cedar Fair doesn't think it's that big of an issue and Six Flags does maybe?

Having worked at a park for 5+ years now I can tell you that while this does not happen often, it is a normal occurrence. Now for us it was very rare to close on a summer day, but when we were only open on weekends it was much more common. In fact, my very first weekend we closed two hours early on Saturday and closed after only 2 hours of operation on Sunday. But the decision to close was always the last option. If we could stay open with a bare bones crew (which would include rotating smaller rides, closing the smaller food stands, games, and stores) we would, but if the majority of people were season pass holders we might close. (Of course this park did offer rain checks, while Six Flags does not).

^^Georgia Cyclone was running well last summer, although it would have been much better if the trains had softer padding instead of the hard foam they currently have.

One of the things they probably took into account was how many of those people were season pass holders. If most were the park was really not making any money, and regardless of what any business says that is priority #1. You can treat your customers like royalty all day long but if you are not making money you will not be in business. Six Flags will save more money by closing early today even if those 80 people never come back.

^ I've seen similar statistics and I believe it. I know I'm guilty of it when I visit parks.

You are also assuming they are telling the truth about the price tag. I know of a park the announced a 5 million dollar new ride, when in reality it cost much less. That park *might* have spent 5 million dollars on total improvements that year, not just that one ride.

Look at it this way: management decided the ride needed new trains. You can't really advertise new trains and expect to get a return on your investment, but spend a little more money to re-theme it, and new trains, special effects, etc. and you have a marketable attraction and a chance to make ROI.