netdvn

I'm not sure why people keep trying to compare BBW to rides like the Coney Island Cyclone or the Matterhorn. Those rides have national, and even international popularity where, unless you're an enthusiast, I'm not sure many people outside of a 500 mile radius will even know what BBW is. Granted you could argue that Williamsburg has national appeal as well, but it's not on par with New York City or Disneyland. Rides like Matterhorn and Cyclone are much easier to point to because of their large appeal ... But on a more regional level, Whizzer at SFGAm had this exact same thing happen (as did plenty of other defunct coasters for regional parks like KI"s King Cobra, SFGAm's Shockwave, and Steel Phantom). I've seen people praise all kinds of defunct generic coasters like they were the best coaster ever plenty of times. In contrast, coasters that don't last like SFGAdv's Shockwave are forgotten because, chances are it wasn't there long enough to warrant appeal/nostalgia like BBW did (two seasons I believe). The same goes for TV shows, movies, and plenty of other things we grew up with.

This is the biggest snow I've ever seen in person! o_O BGW might not repopen tomorrow as planned because the snow's still falling like crazy. *Doesn't wanna miss out on Christmas Town * ** This thread is now 1337 pages long **

People get gifts for Christmas? I got to babysit my sister's 5 year-old.

I personally thought BBW was the best Arrow at BGW and would've totally traded LNM or heck even Griffon for it. LNM is has terrible pacing and Griffon wasn't really that impressive aside from the airtime on the drops. BBW was my first real coaster and it was a really fun ride. It may not be as big or exciting as the B&Ms but it's still a great ride nevertheless (plus as it's been said before, it's a perfect transition between Grover and Loch Ness). After riding it, I was kicking myself for chickening out of riding CW's Vortex. So let's go back to Robb's point... The ride isn't that amazing compared to rides like MF, SROS, EF, and perhaps even lesser rides like Alpengeist and Volcano, but I can say the exact same thing about plenty of other coasters. Yes people would be bummed out to see a lesser coaster go (Whizzer is a perfect example). Add a little uniqueness, history, and nostalgia and you've got an outcry on your hands. As an extreme example, suppose Disney decides to get rid of Matterhorn due to rising maintenance/insurance costs and a decline in popularity. You bet people will be complaining and praising the ride to high heaven. Because the ride has a history, has lots of nostalgia, and is definitely a unique ride. And you can say the same about a lot of rides (KI's King Cobra and SFGAm's Shockwave comes to mind).

Seems that Opera 10 is the world's most overrated browser. It tends to run a lot slower than FF 3.6.13 and Chrome and the add ons are nonexistent until the next version.

Motor World used to have a spinning mouse IIRC, which according to RCDB, was bought by a traveling fair. Aside from that, the area across from the VA Beach Amusement Park seems large enough to hold a small coaster (maybe something Kanonen-sized at best, but even that's pushing it). If you remove the parking lot, you could definitely put a decent woodie or steel coaster on that spot, although knowing the beach and parking, they probably won't do it. It occasionally holds a small traveling fair that stays for a few months, but the last time I've been there, the area was empty. Looking at Google Maps, the park is at 15th and Atlantic. The oceanfront is largely built up though. I'm pretty sure the surrounding hotels wouldn't want a coaster unless the sounds coming from the ride were blocked somehow.

This is a pretty comprehensive website about SF Atlantis. This page is one of if not the best SF Autoworld resources on the internet... Basically a giant photo-tour of the facility and the memories people shared about Autoworld. Click the green link and enjoy. Power Plant info is harder to come by though.

^ It's a log flume... What do you expect? Anyway, the name is actually decent. Even though it shares the same name as the former Buzzsaw Falls at SDC, making it slightly less original, it's still a solid name nevertheless. Birthday - It's a step above Blackstone's new trend in naming rides (Mach Tower, Dragon Challenge, Cheetah Hunt) - Boy

Aside from Ferrari World (which isn't in Dubai) there aren't very many theme park projects going around in Dubai. Chinese and Japanese parks have money so they can build bigger. I'm pretty sure enthusiasts in China/Japan would've been jealous of all the American coaster projects that were going on in the late 90s/early 00s. US parks in general don't really go for theming outside of the obvious Disney/Universal/Busch/Herschend group. But we still manage to pull off a handful of awesome looking rides (305, Texas Giant 2) every year.

Today's my birthday! BOLOGNA AND CHEESE

Religious bashing aside, this looks reminds me of that Holy Land theme park in Orlando, which doesn't seem to be doing too poorly (at least compared to other non-Disney/Busch/Universal theme parks in the area). As long as this ark can get enough people through the gate to keep a profit, it may be successful. But compared to the Holy Land (which is in a major tourist destination), this park is located outside of Cincinnati, which isn't really America's biggest tourist market and already has a major theme park in the area. The park seems to be doing well through viral marketing and generating buzz and they've gotten over $100K in donations so far, so who knows? This park could have a chance to become successful.

China is experiencing a park-building boom similar to the one that the US had in the 70s, which doesn't really surprise me because the country has such a high population and a large amount of money in circulation. It's only a matter of time before the number of new parks stabilizes or the market becomes saturated from too many parks being built. Personally I see the number stabilizing. China will probably take a few records and prototypes with their new parks, but Chinese parks have the money to build them. US parks don't seem to unfortunately. Since the economy is still in the tank, I don't see very many huge, record-breaking rides coming to the US, but I do see the US getting more unique, smaller rides (like Zac Spins and Eurofighters).

I love the new names so far... American Thunder is probably one of the better name changes of any ride in recent years. It's actually interesting that SF picked up the old Hanna-Barbara licenses that were dropped by the former Paramount Parks. I can’t wait to see how that turns out. The Whistle Stop retheme doesn’t sound too bad, but I kinda wish SFA was allowed to keep their Thomas Town for an extended period of time because the area is brand new to begin with. The Terminator license is bound to run out sometime, so it’ll be interesting to see how Terminator Salvation is rethemed.

Visiting relatives tomorrow... Looking forward to next year's Eurocruise

I had the same problem with my FF browser, but I realized it was because I was running Flash player in the background a lot (primarily mp3s and videos). So I switched to Chrome (which tends to run more stable when it comes to Flash), installed Flashblock, and limited any Flash use on FF. As for IE, IE has a habit of freezing when I log onto some websites and the add ons provided don't seem as versatile as the ones for FF/Chrome (at least the last time I checked). My mom's been having some speed troubles with her IE8 as well. IE9 and FF4 look promising though...

WOW I remember Coasterbuzz as being one of the first enthusiast-based websites I frequented in 2003...

If IE is giving you problems, I’d recommend switching to Firefox or Chrome. I quit using IE after IE7 because it would unleash virus after virus on my machine, the program would crash/freeze every 20 seconds, and I wasn’t able to install Flash on my machine through IE. I’ve been an avid Firefox/Google Chrome user ever since. Both browsers run fast, are very secure, are stable, and can be customized to your liking (FF more than Chrome).

From what I see so far, the park looks good! The coasters have awesome layouts, the buildings and architecture look nice. Overall, I'd say you have a great park!

I actually had my first cruise aboard the Carnival Fantasy over the summer and had an excellent time! The only major gripes I had were that 1) I had a hard time navigating the ship... I got lost on a number of occasions, 2) The stuff onboard is way overpriced compared to the stuff on shore, and 3) The ship felt kinda dated.. sorta like a throwback to the 90s with all the decor. The ports of call were really fun (although my parents opted to stay in the jewelery stores over other stuff) and I had a wonderful time. Because the trip was a little bit last minute and my parents had a bit of trouble booking the cruise, we didn't get to do any of the really cool stuff like snorkeling or checking out some of the tours. The service onboard went above my expectations and the ship was pretty clean... All the drunk people seemed to hang by the pool a bit much though.

The coaster looks a bit too big... It would look a bit better with terrain, although even with terrain, it would still be oversized. Of course you're not finished yet, so I'll leave it at that. Layout-wise, the ride is great. Definitely something I would ride.

These are amazing... I'm so jealous of your collection I'm actually glad to see a couple brochures that I actually have in this thread (although they're buried somewhere). I don't seem to remember Hurricane Harbor having a separate brochure from MM though. I always recalled MM and HH sharing the same brochure and then they had a coupon brochure to go with it.

You're missing the animated .gifs and the sign my guestbook button. Welcome back CD5! SROS looks awesome!

When you compare a park like KD to a park like Carowinds, you'll see that KD recevied far more major additions on average of every other year while Carowinds hasn't received any really big attractions (at least before 232) since BORG and before that, Top Gun. Same goes for Canada's Wonderland, which got many major investments in the early 2000s but Paramount decided to build larger rides at KD and KI instead of investing in its most popular park. As for attendance, there's no telling that people will flock to the park, but will there be a high enough attendance of people willing to spend money? Teenagers don't spend their money and enthusiasts make up a small portion of the people visiting theme parks in the first place. The mistake that SF made in the early 2000s was that SF kept investing too much on buying parks and building capital investments in hopes of getting a return. That of course didn't work... Especially with smaller parks like EG and Darien Lake. What park has been removing tons of flat rides because they built too much in the early 2000s? And is in dire need of some flat rides? Yeah they're getting coasters, but they're also losing rides. Lastly since when did the investments stop coming to SFA again???? They still receive investments on a regular basis, but their investments tend to focus on families (with money) and not on big bad thrills...

^ Tell that to SFFT... What did they get this year? Tell that to California's Great America... At least SFA still has their signature attraction. CGA's was removed over a decade ago and they haven't gotten anything significant since. And don't pull that stadium controversy either... CGA's been the red-headed stepchild ever since Marriott owned the park. I'm pretty sure all the SF parks will receive at least one thing during the two anniversary years. Most of the additons haven't really been the biggest (at least compared to the early 2000s). The majority of the rides being added are Starfliers and the only exceptions to the rule are the ride upgrades, Green Lantern west, SFGAm's water park ,and DDD. There's the problem with maintenance... I remember reading that SFA had a problem hiring mechanics to run the rides and keep them in top condition. That's probably why they're losing attractions. If they can't hire enough mechanics to keep the park running, how are they supposed to run any new rides? Then there's money. Can a brand new thrill ride attract enough people to SFA to pay it off? It didn't really work chainwide in the early 2000s. It may work now though because the thrill rides are smaller. Bigger parks (like KD) get bigger rides on a regular basis because they have a high enough attendance to do so and it would be easier for the park to pay off the ride. And even then... I still don't know where this "lack of investments" is coming from... Yes Thomas Town is only three rides, but its three new rides. Regardless of size, three new rides is still an investment. Whether its a good investment is a different story.

Its been a while since I've posted anything here! Apocalypse... Inspired by Lagoon's Wicked Riders are sent hurtling through the ruins of a city, abandoned many decades after an apocalypse wiped out the world's population. Launched from an outpost amidst the ruins, guests are launched up a 150 foot tower at 50 mph and sent plummeting into a 98 degree drop. The track twists and turns through the ruins as riders are sent upside down 7 times. Only the bravest of riders can truly uncover the secrets of this post-apocalyptic world. Become a fan for constant updates as well as other works of art!. Higher quality image right here. Early progress shots The finished product