netdvn

Testing is gonna take as much time as it needs to. I can't tell you how long the testing is gonna last because I was told that was still unknown at the time (remember, the ride needs to pass a battery of tests AND the ride still hasn't been fully inspected yet). Contrary to popular belief, Moser is still working on the tower and it hasn't been given to the park yet. Despite that, training has already started (me and a few coworkers operated the tower a few times on Wednesday). Again, I'll keep you posted on any updates that I get. The tower is scheduled to operate during Christmas Town as an observation tower if the park can get it up and running by then. Construction is moving forward on Verbolten. You can see what looks like concrete footers being placed in the big pit.

Mach Tower update I got a firsthand look at what goes on behind the green walls today and it was definitely really cool to see what went on behind the scenes. I won't go into too much detail since it's unnecessary at this point. So to answer the questions... What's going on with Tower? The ride is in the middle of a major testing phase right now. The ride basically has to pass a series of tests before it can open to the public. Is anything wrong? No. The tower is operating fine. When/Is there a projected opening? At this point, the opening is still unknown. The park is trying really hard to get it open to the public as soon as possible. I'll try to keep you posted when I get a confirmation. I also got to press a few buttons too and see what goes on in DarKastle maintenance. Definitely one of the most interesting days I've had at the park.

^ The 2012 project has already been teased. The signs on the walls read... "Now entering Black Forest" "Danger" "Caution" "Warning" police tape lines the walls. Other signs Image of a car slipping and sliding everywhere. Image of a car falling off a bridge into water Image of falling rocks There may be a few that I missed. There's also a shield with a lightning bolt painted all over the wall, possibly hinting at the name "Verbolten". They're definitely hinting at the various elements that the ride is proposed to have. Power got cut throughout the park today for a few minutes. Surprisingly all the rides were down, except Mach Tower.

The SF plot seems to be thickening. Last year, SF started throwing curveballs left and right with their gifts for the 2011 season. This year seems the same assuming that SF will continue with their "Go Big" additions in 2012.

^ SFGAm hasn't gotten a major coaster since 2003. Hell, SUF was their last major ride addition (outside of the HH expansion for this year).

Mach Tower Ride's been testing on and off all day. A few hours of straight testing, a few hours of brake testing (dropping the car from halfway up), and a few hours of sitting on the ground/something being fixed. Verbolten The waterfall feature around BBW's station has been removed and the actual station has been fully gutted. You can sorta get a look a small portion of the coaster's layout inside the building (the first footers are there it seems).

^ I visited last year (mid-August) and it was hopping with tourists. I guess it depends on when you go. ^^ That motel really DOES look nice. Much better than what they had in the brochure (which literally looks like it hasn't been updated since the 80s). In contrast, the motels across the street were covered with excessive graffiti (kinda weird for a place out in the middle of nowhere like Dillon).

Personally I don't think KD's getting much next year (maybe Dinosaurs if that did pretty well at KI despite the reviews from enthusiasts. I'm pretty sure the attraction is really popular with families). I really think KD should do another major water park expansion and maybe open another entrance into the newer section. A Windseeker tower sounds interesting, but CF is going too crazy on them. I say lay off the Windseekers and start adding other flats for a while. I'd love to see a Tatsu/Manta-style flyer come to the park. Maybe take Hurler out and install one in XLC's old station. A new gen invert sounds nice too, but I'd love to see a flyer instead.

I actually made a thread about South of the Border when I found a retro documentary about it on YouTube. Clicky The billboards are definitely a nice touch on an otherwise desolate interstate. Most of the exits seem to have some abandoned something sitting on the side and it looks depressing. The new billboards are nice and colorful, a great change of pace. The place itself was decent. A little rundown and a little tacky but bright and colorful like the billboards. Compared to the disgusting-looking motels across the highway (and pretty much everywhere else in the Carolinas/VA), I would've spent the night there in a heartbeat. Looking at vintage pictures of the place, it looks like it's seen better days, but it might be coming back.

Mach Tower Update! Nothing much outside of maintenance testing. The area's been pretty quiet outside of lifting and lowering the car and crews standing inside the catch car all day. Verbolten Concrete and that metal rebar stuff is being placed into the big pit. You can see some construction on waveswinger too!

Thanks for the tips everyone! Another random question... does KD have any games with rasta-bananas as prizes? I know BGW has some on whack-a-mole, but I wasn't able to play when I went (I did ring toss and got a regular banana instead). How much are the games in general? Again, does anyone wanna do a meetup? I'm trying to aim for the 21st, but I do have a trip up to NY the day before so it's gonna be hit-miss until Haunt season takes off.

It looks like Intamin took a little inspiration from B&M's 2nd gen hyper trains, but removing the floor for the wing seats. - Layout looks pretty solid! - I feel the trains could've been made completely floorless instead of having just the wing seats, but that's a minor complaint. - Name isn't too bad either considering the backstory of the ride. I'm very sure this will be an awesome ride when it opens.

Speaking of visiting KD... I'm trying to plan a trip to KD sometime later this year (either in late August or during Haunt). Since I have a busy schedule with work (and eventually classes), I'm aiming for an open weekend I have. I already have a general idea of how crowds are, but I just have a few questions. - How are lines for FOF and the woodies throughout the day on a Sunday? - Are crowds for the mazes pretty bad for Haunt like they are at HOS? How are crowds for Haunt during the day on a Sunday? - Should I expect lines for major rides Drop Zone and Crypt on a Sunday? My current attack plan is to start in Congo with Volcano, FOF, 305, and Crypt early on and moving my way toward Grizzly (hitting Dominator, Drop Zone, and a few medium rides in between) as the day progresses and try to throw in some re-rides later Does that sound reasonable? Are there any park discounts I can nab around here? I'm also gonna try to work a meetup when I go. Anybody willing to come? For August, I'm trying to shoot for the 21st, although things can change at the last minute. If that doesn't work out, I'm gonna try to open up a weekend in October. Thanks a lot!

Sandbags have been spotted riding Mach Tower today and the ride's been running smoothly (except for a few hiccups here and there). This is good news for everyone! Hopefully by the time the ride's ready,, breakdowns will be few and far between. People are definitely excited about seeing the ride finally testing on a regular basis with few problems.

^^ Plenty of times. Flight Deck, Thunderhawk, Dominator, Steel Venom, etc. Hell they reused Mean Streak's logo for one of their S&S towers.

Going to a water park on a hot day... especially during a week of 90-100 degree temperatures is bound to bring a ton of people to Water Country. Plus thunderstorms have been pretty bad lately. WCUSA did the proper thing with closing down the slides because the last few thunderstorms had lightning, heavy rain, and high winds. The brochure says "new for 2011" not "now open". Same goes for the advertisement signs hanging in any local hotel lobby. The only thing's that say otherwise are the park planner maps you get in hotels, which I think still say "Opening late Spring". The maps have been updated with "Coming soon" on the map and the height description. Somebody should be standing at the gate to answer questions about the ride as well. Rides break down. You should've gotten out of line and rode the other three coasters/other rides the park had to offer. BGW/WCUSA both have their own Facebook page/website where you can check the status of all the rides before your trip as well as plan your day in advance before you visit. Management can only do so much for you over the phone, after the incident occurred. Did you tell an employee about the incident? Did first aid get in contact with you? Busch actually does have something in place for when you get injured on their rides and first aid medics do patrol the parks.

^ KIngsmill is mostly elderly/retired people, so I'm not surprised. The ride goes into pure freefall for about 40 feet and spends the next 100 feet at 60 mph (it doesn't go any faster than that). Basically you're still dropping at 140 feet, which isn't too bad. Moser's actually been around for a long time. They're just better known for building kiddie rides and family-style attractions. Looking at their website, they have quite a collection of traveling thrill rides in operation, but this is their tallest drop tower and the first in the word with shaking seats and onboard audio. That's why they're having so many problems. A lot of small carnivals carry Moser bounce towers (you can see the manufacturer's name on the bottom of the seats).

Congratulations to all the Bag O Crap winners out there! Looking forward to getting my first one in the future!

The plans depicted look so much bigger than whatever Paramount did to the US parks. Even though a lot of the supposed rides seem like recycled ideas from the US parks (outside of the kiddie land), if Paramount can pull this off better than what they did with the stateside parks, I'll be impressed. I'm kinda surprised that this park isn't using the Nickelodeon/Hanna Barbara licenses that the US parks had for the longest time. In the meantime, with this and the supposed Ferrari World Europe in the works, things are getting interesting for that section of Europe.

The car was finally rotating yesterday, but there was a huge thunderstorm. One of the lightning bolts came close and shut power to a few rides in the area. As long as nothing happened to Mach, I'm fine. The fireworks aren't that loud from Kingsmill. At most, you'll hear a rumbling noise for about five minutes. The train is much louder and lasts all day.

Mach Tower testing's been slowing down. You'll occasionally see testing as well as moving the elevator up and down, but that's about it. Something's going on back there though. I've been seeing people walk in and out of the area on a regular basis now. As for the contracts thing, Universal's been rumored to have a grip on the Kuka patents right now so it could work either way. I don't believe Busch had the money to throw around for a country-wide DM contract (it prolly wouldn't make much sense from a business standpoint for both Busch and B&M - maybe for a localized exclusivity contract, but not a country-wide one). Granted it wouldn't make sense for Ford to bar two neighbors from owning the same car but it does look kinda funny when you see two competing McDonald's stores or Starbucks locations (which actually does exist) across the street that opened within a year or two of each other.

^ Mach Tower's cursed. Most companies have a "zone of exclusivity" type deal which prevents rival parks within a certain distance of said major new ride/attraction from potentially installing rides/attractions from the same company. It exists to prevent other parks from potentially 1-upping said new attraction with an attraction from the same company and drawing people away from the original attraction (which could create tension between park and manufacturer). And it does seem to add a little diversity in the industry as well. ** At least that's how I see it ** Even then, I support Busch in giving smaller companies a chance and taking risks. They *kinda* did it with the B&M sitdown and look at how far they've gone since then. Zierer and Moser seem to be the next step.

SOB is rumored to get some sort of upgrade in the near future... at least that's the rumor. Bad news for Mach Tower, ride wasn't testing yesterday. That doesn't look like a good sign.

I visited BGW for the first time as a guest in about two years yesterday and it was awesome! I fit in all the coasters + rerides and won one of those cool stuffed bananas that I see everyone carrying all over the park. Rode all the major dry rides + swings and bumper cars. This was also my first time riding Europe in the Air! Loch Ness Monster - 2 rides, both middle - Fun ride! I figured out how to keep my head from slamming against the headrest/restraints but that transition into the final lift hill still beats you up regardless of how you ride. Griffon - 2 rides, front and middle - Good as always! I still wish the ride were more intense/better themed Alpengeist - 2 rides, both front - Fun ride, but very shaky in the outer seats. I got tunnel vision from the bottom of the first drop to the first loop. Still fun & intense regardless of how rough it is. Apollo's Chariot - 1 ride, middle - Airtime on all the hills! Definitely a great way to end my coaster riding! I've forgotten how fun this ride was. Europe in the Air - 1 ride - Rode the ride to escape the heat. Story was meh compared to Corkscrew, but what can you expect? The transitions between scenes is way too choppy. I would've preferred the ride a little more if there was a dropping scene or a few more near-misses like DK/Corkscrew and if the transitions were better. I was surprised and kinda saddened to see that Castle O Sullivan left for Dine with Elmo/Celtic Fyre. I was told by an employee that most of the Ireland themed shows/attractions are slowly being phased out for more generic shows/attractions. I've already ridden DarKastle plenty of times before so it wasn't too special, except for seeing a car leaving a maintenance bay, which was really cool! Mach Tower was testing on and off all day long. Not much going on at Verbolten.

I'm impressed! TPR managing two huge trips within a week or two? There's no way I could do that without getting burned out, especially with a full time job and a family to take care of. The photos and prizes are just the icing on the cake! Kudos to Robb and Elissa for giving us an awesome TR! Hope you guys have a great time on the NE trip!