Skycoastin Steve

Boy their progress was really stopped cold. Hopefully their assets aren't frozen.

^I suppose I can oblige.

It's been discussed for the better part of the last 5 or 6 pages. http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1169502#p1169502

^We need to take it easy on the cuteness, a picture of me would have made computer screens everywhere explode.

So yesterday I had the privilege to go by BGT and watch Kasi (the park's baby cheetah) get his one-year check up! For those of you that don't remember, Kasi was acquired by BGT from the Jacksonville Zoo last March when his mother surprisingly gave birth to him (she was past birthing age), and would not take care of him. Being the animal care experts they are, and with Cheetah Hunt conveniently opening a couple months later, they took Kasi under their wing and hand raised him. He even got a best friend to grow up with, a female yellow Lab named Mtani that the park rescued from a local shelter! They explained that since cheetahs are very social by nature, many cheetah cubs that are hand raised are brought up with a canine companion (usually one from an equally social breed), since adult cheetahs and cheetah cubs do not socialize until the cub has gotten much older. Fast forward to a year later, Kasi has been growing up quickly (he weighs about 180 pounds), and it was time for him to get his first annual check up! They performed the procedure at the brand new Animal Care Center (amazing place, by the way), and invited whoever was in the park yesterday to come by and watch how they do these annual check ups. Obviously I took plenty of pictures of the check up and many other things around the park, so enjoy! Here is the main "doctor's office" in the Animal Care Center. They have a surgery room to the left where you can watch animals undergoing an operation, and an X-ray room to the right where you can safely watch the procedure on a TV screen. And there he is! The first thing they did was give him a series of X-rays to make sure his bone development is coming along well. Obviously they administered anesthetic to him in order to make it much easier both on him and the doctors. They typically zonk out all the animals that go in there. Sleepy cheetah tail! This is what it looks like when a cheetah has had too much to drink. And not wanting to be left out, Mtani came by to check things out! Along with being a beautiful dog, Mtani was VERY well behaved. And just like any Lab, she soaked up all the attention, petting, and scratching she could get! I petted her for a little bit, and she thanked me by licking my hand. I may or may not have melted. I have said before that I would steal Kasi, and now I'm going to steal Mtani, too. And now back to Kasi, he's been moved into the main room where they'll perform the rest of the procedure. I think they were checking his eyes. I just wanted to go in and hug him and use him as a big cheetah pillow, is that so much to ask? Checking his toes and claws, those are kinda important to a cheetah. They were also doing an ultrasound on his abdominal area, and the neatest thing about this was....... You could watch the ultrasound on the TV! "Soooo......what do I do with this leg?" When animals come in for a check up, they take advantage of the situation to do everything at once, which includes a thorough dental exam and cleaning! Dentist: "Open wide and say ahhhhhhhhh......." Kasi: *snooorrrrreeeeeeee* The last thing they did was scope out Kasi's stomach and digestive tract with a tiny camera on a hose. If you've ever wondered what the inside of a cheetah's stomach looked like, here it is, complete with a blade of grass! They said cheetahs often times have gastrointestinal issues, so this is a very important procedure. Since his stomach lining was bright pink, that was the sign of a healthy kitty. They also took a biopsy of his stomach lining, which they'll analyze to make sure he's as healthy as he looks. "Hey! What are you doing to my friend in there??" He won't remember anything about what happened to him after being zonked out. I wonder if he'll have a cheetah hangover? And now they're pulling the tube out of his esophagus....... Almost done! See you later, and next time you better do more tricks or I want my money back! "Ha, try knocking us out and carrying us into that tiny little room." "Yeah, no joke, stupid little cat." And now we have a few Kumba shots for the dorks....... Coming off the brake run. This ride still kicks so much ass. It's like the Jackie Chan of coasters. And it still has the best zero-g roll ever. Ok enough coaster pictures. You can get enough of those in other trip reports utilizing cell phone cameras. "Try knocking me out and putting me on that table, I would eat your face off." I would hug him, but I value my life. Another sleepy kitty, he doesn't seem to need anesthetic. Sad tiger is sad. Now we move on to the giant, long neck pink chicken. "Psh, we don't need two legs." "I'm WAY more fabulous than that silly spotted kitty." DUCKLINGS!!!! We join this family at a time when the babies are struggling awfully badly trying to get up the curb and into the bushes. "Dude, do you see how HIGH that curb is? How in the world are we supposed to make it up there??" "Come on, kids, that giant man over there is creeping me out." Duckling on right: "I give up, I'm just going to sit here." Duckling on left: "Don't worry, guys, I got this!" Up you go! They made it up shortly after this pic was taken, and my heart melted again. Well hello! Left: "Hey, what's a kangaroo's favorite beer?" Right: "I don't know, but I bet it's something hoppy." And now for the official cuteness OVERLOAD, it's a joey wallaby!!! Peekaboo! Officially the cutest day ever now, thanks for reading!

^From what I've read, the only part that was really smoothed out at all was the first drop and climb into the 2nd hill (basically the rebuilt parts).

And to add on to this point, even if it's a boring/crap/painful coaster you're marathoning for several hours, whatever perceived misery comes from 6 hours on Jaguar or Rebel Yell or whatever the coaster may be, it's nothing compared to what these kids are fighting. It's all worth it!

^^Classic!

^^It'll be interesting to see how this affects the ride experience. And have they had this planned from the beginning?

I just drove by there a few minutes ago, and I didn't see any major collapse on the track. There were some workers with hammers nailing in some boards on one portion of the track, so it seems like just a board or two might have broken. If that was the case, I could understand how the jolt from a go kart hitting that would cause someone to cut their leg. Now that was just what I could view from outside the park (it doesn't open until 2), so something worse might have happened further back, but that's all I could see. Seems like the media is sensationalizing what happened.

^Well that's embarrassing. Hopefully they do rebuild this and get it back open so I can get the credit whenever I finally visit Vegas.

^Yeah I agree that it would look better if they added more to it like the concept art. But that's why concept art is concept art.

I'm wondering, are the sides of the bridge going to be filled in, or is it just going to remain the frame like that?

^It's every ride op's responsibility to make sure the ride area is safe before dispatching the ride. SFGAd is the only park that does the ridiculous "shield the eyes" maneuver. Hell, even the ops at the indoor coasters do it, and there's no sun to shield from your eyes!

Speaking of visual scans...........

^I think I managed something similar to that last year, too. It doesn't happen often, that's for sure.

There was never any validity to start with. Good point.

True but with fastlane it only got worse & about the dual station I can see one side being used for FL & the other being for normal load....perhaps they could add a 4th train to the ride to also improve capacity as well. Having said that it won't do much for the ride layout of course & aside from the wait times it's the layout & lack of traditional inversion elements that really let me down with this ride....I'd rather have an SLC instead as at least the layout is more traditional with a lift & drop followed by more traditional inversions rather than just barrel rolls but of course that's just me. You have literally just invalidated everything you've ever said by saying you'd rather have an SLC over Volcano. And I'm sure part of the redesign of the station will include a more efficient way to integrate the Fast Lane holders into the line. Edit: And they can't just "add a 4th train" without altering the blocking system. Adding a 3rd train isn't a big deal because they're adding the dual station, but if they wanted to add a 4th, an entire new brake run would be needed (which obviously there's no room for).

This should eliminate alot of the incessant bitching!!! It definitely won't, but this is a HUGE step in the right direction by KD. Kudos to them for taking the necessary steps to improve capacity and guest experience for that ride.

Fat Tire is sold at the Outer Hanks restaurant, right across the midway from Carolina Cobra.

^Even better!

^^That might be one of the best collections I've seen yet.

I still think they bring out a real dragon that eats annoying members of the GP while the train is sitting on the world's longest brake run.

^Yeah, cause that line is SO long all the time.

Well, if a park like Holiday World, the Disney parks, Universals, etc. attempt for and hold an overall theme, it's a theme park. If it's a park that has a collection of rides and doesn't really attempt for or hold an overall theme (CP, Kennywood, most SF properties, KD, etc.), then it's an amusement park. Pretty cut and dried to me. An amusement park can have some themed areas, just like a theme park can have amusement rides, but it's all about the overall atmosphere the park is trying to create. That's why I've always thought it was an idiotic complaint when people say CP has no theme. It calls itself an amusement park and makes no real attempt to have a theme, so what's the beef? I could see a complaint if they tried to have a theme and failed miserably, but that's never really been the case there.