netdvn
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Posts posted by netdvn
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I'm not really a huge fan of the "park bought out by Six Flags" storyline since it's been done to death before. I was hoping you'd have some more original ideas, especially considering the park was pretty fun and interesting to follow before the "takeover".
Hopefully you'll add your own little twists to make this park stand out over the thousands of other Six Flags buyout storylines.
- This is gonna be a bit nitpicky, but Six Flags didn't use that red logo until 1999. During the 90s, the logo had a blue background and white flags. It looked a bit more bland back then.
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As neat as Superman: Ultimate Flight is, it doesn't match up with Busch's catalog of previous coaster installments, and that that makes me, along with many of you guys -- think Sea World is going to cheapen up on future investments. For example, what's next? A brand new Vekoma Boomerang?
Two of the three San Antonio coasters are clones and one of them is a common Batman clone. It's not like the Busch parks haven't built clones in the past. Clones are common for a reason. They're cheap, easy to install, and they provide bang for your buck - even a boomerang or an SLC.
Also..... why does Mach Tower have such a bad reputation? I understand it's apparently always down, and never operating. Why? What is the newer technology that led to the current situation, and such a bad word of mouth? What's the difference in Mach Tower, vs. a ride such as Drop Zone at Kings island?The ride has tons of moving parts which means it's more prone to shutdowns. Combine that with a spotty track record (including crashing to the ground during testing) and you've got a bad reputation.
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I've been planning a trip out to Great Adventure sometime in late summer for a while now (around mid-August - I'll start throwing around specific dates once it gets closer to the trip). I need a good attack plan to tackle the park. I'll most likely be visiting on a Sunday - are crowds on Sundays pretty reasonable?
Priority rides: KK, Toro, Nitro, Batman, Sky Screamer, Houdini's Great Escape, and the safari if lines aren't too bad for that. Do any of these rides have single rider lines? Any other rides I should bump up to priority? Anyone have a good attack plan for hitting all the signature attractions and majors? I'm gonna be working with a very limited budget so I won't be able to spend money on Fastpasses.
If I skip the safari, I considered rushing to Toro, Ka first thing and getting those out of the way and working my way toward the Nitro side. I can skip Superman and Green Lantern if the lines are insane for those.
With the limited budget in mind, does the park hold parking discounts during summer?
- And as always, I'm always looking to meet up with other members.
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Since everyone's knocking the ride, I'm gonna go out on a limb and play devil's advocate.
1. We still don't know if this is gonna be a common clone or a custom layout. That design model looks like it can easily be customized to the park's wishes. All we know is a coaster is going on that spot similar to Superman/Sky Scream. Another case of I'm gonna wait and see what the park has in store before knocking anyone/anything.
2. The Busch chain is no stranger to common clones. Scorpion, Wild Maus, and two of the three Texas coasters are clones. If the cloned coaster is good enough, I could care less about what goes in that spot. I don't care what everyone thinks.
3. It's low capacity. While I would rather vouch for a higher capacity ride, plenty of major parks have added low capacity rides in the past. Hypersonic, Firehawk, Daredevil Dive, Green Lantern First Flight, Mystery Mine, Stunt Coaster, Volcano, etc... All low capacity rides. If you visit at the right times, you won't even have to worry about lines to begin with.
4. OK fine, it's up against another coaster. Knowing the park, they'll theme it up and make it look nice. Not a huge deal. Plus the roller coaster crossing has three coasters literally on top of each other, yet people like that. Having another coaster in Festa should hopefully push crowds out of Germany and distribute them around the park a little better.
5. Splashus Maximus was rarely ever used when I'd walk by it. Even during the hot season. Plus the balloons end up all over the place, are a pain to clean, and they're terrible for the environment. I'm surprised the park hasn't removed that thing earlier.
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I promised myself I'd get caught up on more movies and TV shows in the past few weeks. Here's quick rundown of what I watched.
- Ghostbusters (5/5) - What a fun movie. Great cast, great special effects, fun story. I'll definitely be watching this again.
- Robocop (5/5) - Another fun movie. Has plenty of over the top violence, 80s cheese, and tons of funny moments. The special effects are fantastic too.
- Robocop reboot (3/5) - Yeah after watching the original, this wasn't as good. I felt the movie tried taking itself too seriously. I like how they developed the main character a bit more in this one, but I feel the original did everything else better.
- Nightmare Before Christmas (5/5) - A tad short, but a definite holiday classic. The musical numbers alone are to die for.
- District 9 (5/5) - Wow! Best movie I've seen in a while. Great characters, engaging story, tons of action and mindless violence. Special effects were amazing too.
I have a few more movies to check out in the pipeline. Plus I need to get out and see Muppets and Captain America 2.
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The WDW resort complex is four parks, not just the one. That's not counting the two water parks on property either. If you're planning to do all four parks in two days, you'll have to skip out on a lot of stuff and rush between the parks not to mention ticket prices are incredibly expensive. If you're really that strapped for time and don't wanna rush things, I'd save WDW for another trip and do Busch/Sea World instead. Both can be easily cleared in under a day, plus both have fantastic rides/shows. Or you could spend the extra time getting rerides in at both Universal parks instead. Most of the Orlando parks offer special packages that give good gate discounts if you buy over multiple days and/or stay on property.
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All theme parks are pretty much daily operations from the last weekend of May to the first weekend of September (Memorial through Labor Weekend). Because schools reopen from mid-August to the day after Labor Day, crowds shouldn't be awful outside of the So Cal/Central Florida parks. Avoid weekends if possible. Weekdays at the parks should be ideal since crowds tend to die down somewhat. Just be sure to avoid Labor Day weekend and you should be good.
If you plan to visit in September/October, just realize most parks outside of the SoCal/Central Florida market will either be closed or operate on a weekend only basis. If you're into Halloween events, this is an ideal time to come however, parks will also be very crowded around this time if they do pull a haunt event.
I know the So Cal/Central Florida parks sell fastpasses in advance based on historic crowd levels. I'd check those or look at a crowd calendar (there are websites dedicated to that kind of stuff) to make plans. Just realize Florida Studios will be slammed because of the new DIagon Alley area.
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I've been working on and off on this project for quite some time now. Finally got this small segment of water park done. The main section of park is still underway
The RMC coaster has a reverse high five element (toward the left side). Still trying to decide names of the Aqualoop and body slide.
Side project for Mark's Postcard Paradise. Dare to challenge the Loop of Faith
Lemme know your thoughts.
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You may want to fit more days at WDW. Two days seems like a really short amount of time to experience the four theme parks, especially if it's your first time. Unless you have a good attack plan or you plan to cut stuff out, I'd recommend 3-4 days instead of the two. That should give you time to at least hit the signature stuff. Uni Orlando has a few rides that Hollywood doesn't have, plus if you're a huge Harry Potter fan, I'd recommend just skipping Hollywood and doing both Islands and Studios in Florida. That way you get to do both Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley.
Throw Hersheypark into your NYC itinerary. It's a lot closer there than it is to Ohio. The closest major PA park to CP is Kennywood. I don't think you can go wrong with either park.
If you plan to rent a car and drive to parks, I'd recommend sticking with parks in a certain region of the country. Central Florida and So Cal both have a huge cluster of parks, but outside of those two areas, parks are scattered all over the place. The Northeast has a higher concentration of parks compared to most places so I'd use NYC, Boston, DC, and Philly as base camps and travel to parks between those cities. That way you have less driving days and more park days.
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I had a bit of spare time on my hands and decided to put together a crowd calendar for BGW (and KD) since a lot of people tend to ask about that. The crowd levels are based on personal experience and park operating hours. The crowds themselves are subject to change based on weather, special events, concerts, and other situations. Minor special events (NASA Day, Breast Cancer Awareness Day, etc) weren't included. I did add some events like KD's birthday bash, but that's about it. Major events like HOS/Haunt, Christmas Town, Bloom Festival, and Food and Wine are included.
The KD crowd levels won't be as accurate as the BGW once since I haven't visited the park in a while. Anyone with more accurate info can message me.
I did include a quick color guide.
- Green - Low crowds. Park is mostly deserted. Perfect for park visiting- Yellow - Moderate crowds. Some lines but mostly reasonable
- Orange - Average crowds. Typical summer crowds here. Crowds will be hit-miss
- Red - Heavy crowds. Park is busy. If you don't stay away, plan ahead or vouch for a line cutting pass.
- Black - Blackout crowds. Park is slammed. Expect long lines everywhere. Vouch for a line cutting pass or enter at your own risk.
I will edit the calendar as the season progresses.
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Since I finished the Firefly series not too long ago, I picked up Serenity. It's a great movie.
The characters were well-written. The action scenes were fantastically done. The ending was great. The CG was incredible - plenty of amazing scenes to look at. The story started off okay, but the payoff was fully worth it. Half the movie was just setup for the action at the end.
I'd say it's on par with some of the better Firefly episodes if not better than those. 4.5/5 only for the movie taking a while to set up the action. Once the story gets going, it really sucks you in.
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- Apollo is arguably the best coaster at BGW. It's long, has nice air, and a fireworks ride at night is unforgettable on that thing.
- Alpengeist is a great ride. It's not as smooth as some B&M's but it still delivers.
- Verbolten is a great family coaster. The crowds tend to eat it up like candy. It's got a cool gimmick and it's pretty forceful. Don't ride expecting something extreme like Maverick though.
- Loch Ness is a classic, but that's about it. Other than the setting, nothing really stands out about this ride.
- Griffon is meh. The 90 degree drop is a cool gimmick, but when you've got enough coasters that can go past that, the gimmick loses its luster. It's pretty tame compared to the other two B&Ms.
Other than the coasters, there's plenty of shows and animal exhibits to check out, plus a few water rides and Darkastle. Nothing else really stands out.
KD has plenty of other coasters/rides if you're into that kind of stuff. Plus the park is really pulling out the stops for the 40th.
Are you really stuck with only one option? Both parks are great in their own right. If you're visiting DC, KD is about halfway between your home base and Williamsburg. If you're into history or beaches, there's plenty of that around the Williamsburg area.
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How have the lines for Volcano been so far? Is capacity improved with the new entrance? Are the old Lost World rides still visible inside the mountain or has that been covered up/removed?
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Leverage is officially my new addiction. Such a great show, not to mention the show's creators are huge Doctor Who fans. It's a shame most episodes follow the same formula and the show run is done. I'd love for them to have another season or movie.
Shows I'm watching at the moment
- Walking Dead (season 2 right now. I've got a lot of catching up to do)
- Futurama
- Big Bang Theory
- Firefly (just finished it. Can't wait to watch Serenity)
- One Piece
- My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
- Sherlock (finished)
- Doctor Who 2005 (finished)
- Legend of Korra (finished)
Shows I catch whenever I can
- Modern Family
- Family Guy
- American Dad
- Bleach
I know there's a LOT of TV shows I'm leaving out and a LOT of shows I need to follow.
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Simple, I see people ragging on Six Flags and I figured the chain has enough rides with cool and original names, why not defend them? Especially when Cedar Fair is just as big of a victim of sharing ride names and ride logos with other rides and coming up with completely uninsipired, soulless names.
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^Medusa, Superman Ultimate Flight, Green Lantern: First Flight, Bizzarro, etc.
Alright let's get the superhero thing out of the way first. Superheroes can fit just about anywhere and still work. You could easily change Storm Runner or Top Thrill Dragster to Incredible Hulk, Flash, or Avengers and with a few props and signs, it would still fit. Same with villians. It doesn't matter where they're placed or if they follow any theme at a Six Flags park. Kings Dominion has a bobsled and a NASCAR themed ride in the safari area for crying out loud. Most of the other Cedar Fair parks are a mishmash of random theming too. Even CGA has a jet-themed ride in the Orleans area of the park.
As for Medusa, I personally love the Medusa name. Plenty of rides are named after Roman/Greek mythology. You've got Hades, Zeus, Apollo, Hydra, plus plenty of others. I don't see how it can't fit on any other ride.
Deja Vu is a weird one, but I actually like that name. It's original enough, even if GAdv did stick it on a random flat. Since none of the Deja Vu clones exist as Deja Vu, I'll say it's original.
I actually like Mind Eraser as a name. It's just too bad there's too many coasters with that name out there.
I like the Zumanjaro name. I could care less about the Drop of Doom tagline, but it's really growing on me.
And that brings us back to this.
Still have yet to hear an example as gratuitous as that lovely unique coaster in Illinois being named Goliath.Great America's Goliath is the biggest of its kind. It breaks a few records. I think it fits. I actually dig the Goliath name anyway. As with Mind Eraser, I wish there weren't as many coasters with that name.
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like someone has already pointed out, theres a difference between naming two indoor roller coasters themed to space flight "Space Mountain" and having a massive wooden roller coaster and Giant Inverted Boomerang share the name "Goliath". While the other chains have SIMILAR rides share names as a way of being indentifiable to people going to different sets of parks, Six Flags has completely unrelated rides share names due to lack of creativity. To me thats not the biggest deal in the world, but it goes to show how much Six Flags actually cares about making a unique amusement park experience which is evidently very little.
Goliath pretty much seems to be the only name that the chain likes to throw around for random rides. While I agree it doesn't fit on an inverted boomerang or a mid-sized B&M invert, it pretty much fits every other coaster with that name. I can't think of any other name off the top of my head that's shared with completely unrelated rides. The superhero names maybe? But those can fit just about anywhere.
Cedar Fair likes to throw the Hawk suffix around a lot on the most random rides. Thunderhawk, Firehawk, Skyhawk, Steelhawk. Not to mention the whole Drop Tower, Flight Deck, Boo Blasters (which is a hilariously bad name IMO) thing. Those are about as generic and uncreative as it gets when it comes to naming rides.
Even then SF still has some pretty creative names. Tatsu, Kingda Ka, El Toro, Raging Bull, X-Flight, etc. They even have some pretty creative renames too (Apocalypse, American Thunder, etc). I'd say they're on par with some of the more creative CF names.
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Ok you can hate on Six Flags for a lot of things, but hating on them for reusing names when practically every other chain does it is NOT a good reason to hate on them.
Disney does it. Uni does it. Cedar Fair does it and they do it for their major attractions too.
Transformers, Revenge of the Mummy, Drop Tower, Flight Deck, Windcrapper Somethinghawk, Space Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, etc.
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I've found out that using the chatroom in Firefox causes the entire site to crash after 10-20 minutes. Have you tried using other browsers?
Also I've noticed that when my wifi connection cuts out in mobile, it has the same effect in the chat room. My guess is it's a chat room bug more than anything.
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^Even more of a joke is when you read the troll comments under the article. Just reading those alone and you can see why people look to cash in on their own stupidity.
I'm pretty sure when anyone mentions New York, people automatically think city first. I guess that's how big of an influence it has on the average person.
Then again, to be fair, the trolls are defending the park and calling out the couple - even if they don't know their geography or are making assumptions you have to admit this lawsuit is silly and could easily be avoided if they simply watched where they were going.
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Cheetah Hunt concept art! Click here! This site did a bunch of design projects for Busch. Check em out. They're all awesome.
I'm glad the park didn't go for this one. It looks awful.
I guess the ride was gonna be more Egyptian themed than cheetah themed.
My favorite of the four designs.
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Apollo's Chariot concept art. Click here
Imagine if the trains looked like these. How awesome would that be.
Then again, I really like this decal a lot.
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Instagram fun!
Florida Aquarium
Vintage
Sunshine Skyway!
Urbex paradise
Typical touristy stuff
Park's closed. Giant Snoopy should've told you.
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Of course CW isn't gonna touch Disney and Uni in attendance, but it beats out practically every other regional park in the country. I think CP managed to nudge it out of the top spot last year because of Gatekeeper and Knotts operates year round in the middle of a major city near a resort area so attendance is naturally gonna be higher over there.
Well, the same can go for Darien Lake when it comes to coasters. Darien Lake has a Mind Eraser (Vekoma SLC), a Boomerang coaster, and the first of two Superman: Ride of Steel clones. The Superman branding has been removed from Darien Lake's Ride of Steel since 2007 and I think Motocoaster has a few clones as well!Darien Lake still doesn't have CW's attendance though. Even with the campground, concert hall and lake.
Six Flags Great Adventure (SFGAdv) Discussion Thread
in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
Posted
It sounds like you guys definitely need a second entrance, especially for busy days. That's how Busch did it.
One person would deal with disability passes, and fastpasses while the other dealt with bags and height check. Your chances of having bags and small children slip through are lower and you have someone to keep you company. If any bags slip through, explaining policy shouldn't take long either. Just tell them to stick it in a l0cker next time and set the bag off to the side. If you can't leave bags on the platform, just have a position at the station choke point telling people to put bags away.
Is the bag policy a new one? Seems like the park isn't ready for something like this yet.