AndrewRnR

^ The magnetic trim brakes have nothing to do with preventing a train from stopping at the time. Like others mentioned Kingda Ka has more of an egg-shape design to the top hat that making it harder for the train to balance on.

Why was the Motocoaster closed? Should I just assume all coasters won't be open when I go?

Not sure if I agree with the statements about the turns being drawn out. The photos, especially that latest one from Google Images, make the turns look compact. Those turns scream compact spinning coaster to me.

Heading to Darien Lake for the first time in a few weeks on a Monday. Guessing crowds shouldn't be too bad? What should my game plan be? What rides to knock out first? I'll get there at open but need to leave by 3 to catch my flight.

You're right, it was 2004. It closed I believe the second-ish week of July.

You're comparing a ride that has been open for 13+ seasons to a ride that has been open 1.5. That's a pretty uneven comparison. And let's not forget the park actually shut down TTD in July for the rest of the season the year it opened. So the first year of TTD, you literally had zero chance of riding it 2/3 of the season.

^Curious what is the differences in the track process? The new Iron Wood materials?

^Likely the cost to lease the land. CW is skewed a little bit because of exchange rate. Its a topic they mention on their annual report.

Hotels, hotels, hotels, hotels. The rates they can pull for the lodging is crazy. I just paid over $500 per hotel for a cabin in July. There is a reason they have been invested around $100million in the last few years/next year on lodging at CP.

I see the issues stemming from two things: - Lines are needed. They create a perception of value. In this fast moving world, I think people start to feel bored sitting around on a beach chair or such waiting for their time. Whereas standing in line you literally see progress being made as you get closer, and it gives you a perceived value of the park. I hate lines, but also hate the idea that I basically have to sit around and do nothing for most of the day (lazy rivers/wave pool are only fun for so long). - Length of stay. I feel like the park was designed with capacity and the mindset that it would take 6+ hours to see everything since you can only "Virtually" queue for so many things at once. Even if the lines get down to 30-45 mins it would still take close to that to see the whole park. I'd have to guess the average water park guest, in Florida or wherever, probably only spend 4/5 hours tops in a water park. You can only be in water, half naked, baking in the sun for so long. Heck, that's probably why Disney has after 2 discounts/passes.

To echo Robb's point - a few folks I know who had access to actual numbers always told me the report is in the ballpark but never 100% fact. I recommend listening to the episode of The Season Pass Podcast with Tim O'Brien (formerly of Amusement Business who started the report many years ago). He goes into details about how some numbers were straight from off the record convos with parks, whereas others they had to guess. Here's the link: http://seasonpasspodcast.libsyn.com/tspp-330-the-tim-obrien-interview-71516 Back in the early 2000s when the report came out Six Flags actually issued a press release saying how off the numbers were. I think it looks bad because it is SeaWorld but in reality it isn't as awful it sounds. Mako opened halfway through the year (in the midst of the terrible news cycle for Orlando), which meant soft attendance leading up to it as people held off on trips and Orlando in general was soft last year. They reported that attendance was up for the second half at the park.

Agree completely a new coaster is coming, I'm just saying if people are thinking it is a hyper like Diamondback or Mako they are going to be disappointed.

I think we are overthinking it. Hypers are expensive - and park already has two airtime machines. It needs to balance out a collection of rides to attract families, not just coaster nerds. If you listen to clips from the offseason event Ed hints at family piece being important. I think something like a White Lightning/Mine Blower one year, a CP Huntington train ride another year, and maybe the new Mack water coaster or solid dark ride.

Honestly as much as we'd love to see a hyper I think it would be a bad choice. Just visited this past weekend and the park already has two fantastic steel coasters - what they need IMO is attractions that takes up time. The park is rarely crowded and has decent operations so unless you do the water park the average guest will likely be done in only a few hours. As a park owner I feel like you need the length of stay to be longer to get more off of F&B, merch, etc. Not sure what that attraction/s would be but they have to find a way to extend the length of a visit. I had lunch before the park, ate dinner afterwards - and didn't spend a dime there.

I think you answered you own question - the park does have crazier weather hence the difference from elsewhere which is why the park valleys rides a lot more than most other parks so naturally they are more cautious. And it doesn't have to be dramatic a few mph can matter (heck, in Nagashima's case 5mph is dramatic), especially when you are talking wind-speed on ground vs. 200ft in the air. But really, it is more about the worry of gusts. But again I think its a mitigate risk thing - close during wind or risk having to evac guests, make the news for the wrong reason, and have to remove train.

It actually can get that complex, with wind direction being one of the biggest factors. It's been a few years since I heard the details so it might have changed but for Raptor it is a mix of temps and wind speed. And even then there was threshold - I forget the exact amount- but if wind was greater than say 20mph, so many rows needed to be filled, over 25mph you needed more weight. Temp is layered in on top of that and if it is colder than the weight goes up. The mix in wind direction. If it is coming from one direction it can be really high and it doesn't matter, whereas from another it matters greatly. It is hard to compare to a park like Great Adventure when CP is on a lake where winds can and do change quickly. They need to be more conservative with the cutoffs. There is times wind speeds or direction will quickly change before the park ops can radio it out, rides close down, or whatnot. Valleying a coaster is costly and could cause some negative PR for the park. I don't fault them at all for being conservative. I think trying to figure out if a coaster can run or not based on an app or webcams is different than the park's inhouse weather system they use to make the calls. If you think that is conservative don't ever try to go to Japan... Steel Dragon was closed when I was there due to 5mph winds (though they told us, it can get complicated... it is 5mph from one direction, 10mph from the other, etc.). Then you have Fuji Q where if the weather forecast says it might have wind in a few hours they close down.

Cedar Point used to have several dark rides - with last one closing in the mid 90s. I think they could certainly do it and the top floor of the coliseum would be a great spot. I would guess one of the hold ups for the park with it is the capacity - with the crowds they put through they would need one that can really handle the capacity.

Ha - that's my photo! The funny thing about that ride is when it opened and for the first few years it had a pretty solid theme to it. There was AAs, moving props, sound effects. The ride itself had a "narrator" who spoke to you in station, on lift, block brakes, etc. The employees even had themed uniforms. For a regional park it wasn't too bad. It started to go down hill, then when Halloweekends took over part of the queue some of those old rooms were taken over permanently for haunts.

^ Having a ride close for that length of time isn't going to sell new parks on them. And if you are a park why buy a plug and play when the same company who built the thing (yeah yeah different designer & track manufacturer) can build you a more reliable product at a cheaper cost?

^ The plug and play rides were built in part by RMC. Add in the issues some of them have seen recently, and I think the topper track concept by RMC is as close as you'll get to the old plug-n-play concept.

Gonna to make a bold prediction - because speculation is fun. Has anyone else noticed the whole second lap of track around Mean Streak is gone - supports, ledgers, track etc? Or how after the mid course the ledgers appear to head up a small head then turn under the lift to where the brake run previously was? I'm going to say what we are seeing here is the entire layout.

^ I think that's the debate - everyone has a different opinion of smooth for wooden coasters. I love wooden coasters, just don't think Thunderhead is a top tier coaster anymore. But then again what makes the debate even harder is you have new wooden coasters, heck like LR or the newer GCIs with the Iron Wood track, that are butter smooth. You ride those then walk over to Thunderhead and "smooth" becomes even more relative.

I disagree, I'm not what you would describe and I don't think it was the worst ever (I mean Bandit makes anything seem smooth) but it shuffles like crazy (though better this year than last). When was the first time you rode Thunderhead? I think that is where you are hearing some different opinions. It certainly isn't as smooth as opening year or the first few years. When I compare it to my rides in 2005 or even 2009 or 2011, I can't call it awesome anymore. But some of my friends who rode it for first time last year enjoyed it because they never knew when it was running great for so many years.

The waterpark is owned by EPR - the company that just purchased that and a bunch of other parks (Darien, Elitch, WildWaves) from CNL. In the sale details in November it was stated that Premier parks would acquire the rights to operate Waterworld. Guess that deal fell through?

^ I don't understand why Vietnam has anything to do with this and why it keeps coming up. They been mentioning issues with that park for a while. I agree with you it isn't a issue, but disagree with Bill that it has caused them embarrassment and the reason they are looking to acquire parks. They said they are going to make "several" international announcements "very soon" - I think that will more than make up for the Vietnam contribution to their project 600 EBITDA.