fraroc

Boomerangs with the hard horsecollars found on the Arrow trains or 90s-00s Vekoma trains tend to a bit rougher and painful to ride as compared to Boomerangs with the modern vest restraints. And again, it also depends on the coaster itself, in my experience, Hershey's Sidwewinder has always been a little bit more on the smoother side even when it had the old Arrow train.

This might be a strange question, but for people who have been to Hershey this year, the seatbelt lengths on the coasters are the same as last year, right? I'm asking because I'm going to be going to Hershey about 20lbs lighter than I was last year

ERA 3: The Downfall of Six Flags Over Virginia The year 2005 started off like any other year for Six Flags Over Virginia, with the big coasters attracting massive crowds and the park being filled with families and thrill seekers….However, big trouble was on the horizon for not only SFOV, but the entire Six Flags chain as a whole… For starters, while Six Flags Over Virginia was a loved park, it wasn’t without it’s hitches though. By 2004-2005, complaints about the park’s cleanliness, its overall atmosphere, clientele, and operations started to sprout up. Frequent complaints of one-train operations on major coasters on busy days became common. By the beginning of 2005, parkgoers complained that the seatbelts on Superman-Ride Of Steel had been shortened by at least four inches, meaning that guests of a larger size could no longer fit on the ride, increasing instances of “walks of shame”. In August of 2005, Six Flags New Orleans suffered horrific flooding damage after Hurricane Katrina made landfall in New Orleans. Six Flags deemed SFNO too costly to repair and subsequently sold the abandoned amusement park back to the city of New Orleans where it sits abandoned to this day. Also, Six Flags had started to suffer from serious financial issues due to the rapid development of both Six Flags Worlds Of Adventure in Aurora, Ohio and of course, Six Flags Over Virginia in Burkeville, Virginia. As a result, Six Flags sold Six Flags Worlds Of Adventure to Cedar Fair in 2004. However, the financial problems still persisted…as the company had amassed billions of dollars in debt. Then…it happened….September 12th, 2005…a day that will forever live in infamy in the Six Flags chain. It was announced on that day that Six Flags AstroWorld was to permanently close after the 2005 season and that Six Flags Over Virginia was going to be putting two of their major roller coasters up for sale… The two coasters for sale were Goliath and Superman-Ride Of Steel, two of the biggest fan favorites at SFOV. Fans were shocked, angry, and appalled at this decision. Why would a company sink so many millions into building these huge scream machines within two years of each other just to get rid of them a few years later? The reaction to the removal of these two coasters was so negative that some people even considered boycotting Six Flags for their decision to get rid of these beloved coasters. Goliath was sold to Cedar Fair where it would find a new home in Harmonic Hills, their property in Orting, Washington the following year as “Renegade Run” Meanwhile, Superman-Ride of Steel sat in storage at Six Flags St. Louis in St. Louis, Missouri for three years after its closing before being sold to a company overseas. The future looked bleak for the Intamin hypercoaster, until it finally resurfaced in 2009 at a newer theme park named Prati Mistici in Turin, Italy under the name “Blue Fang hyperrollercoaster” Six Flags Over Virginia was desperate to try and recoup after the loss of two of their major roller coasters. With the loss of their Superman themed coaster, the DC Universe section of the park was rebranded to Gotham City and would only feature rides themed after Batman and the villains in Batman. Superman-Tower Of Power was repainted black and was named Bane: The Ride. The DC Comics Theatre’s name still remained the same, but would only feature Batman movies. However, the loss of Goliath and Superman-Ride Of Steel still left a major hole in the hearts of the people of Burkeville and coaster enthusiasts everywhere, as attendance in 2006 was only half, sometimes not EVEN half of their attendance in 2005. In 2006, Busch Gardens Williamsburg opened Griffon, which was the tallest and fastest B&M Dive coaster at the time, effectively stealing back crowds from Six Flags Over Virginia. There was still more devastating news to come though…Halfway through the 2007 season, it was announced that Joker’s Revenge was put up for sale and was going to be dismantled after the 2007 season. This lead to another very angry reaction by fans of the park, as the park seemed to be erasing all the progress it made from the last few years. Joker’s Revenge had become a fan favorite at the park, as it was not only an outdoor version of the Rock n’ Roller Coaster, but the only launched coaster at the park. Joker’s Revenge was sold to a theme park in Japan known as Midori Gardens where it would remain in storage for several years before opening up in 2012 as a replacement for their aging Meisho jet coaster. Joker’s Revenge still operates at Midori Gardens under the name “Bullet”. By 2008, the future was positively bleak for Six Flags Over Virginia as rumors and predictions started to swirl around the coaster enthusiasts, all saying that the closure of the park was imminent. Citing Geauga Lake as an example of what was happening to Six Flags Over Virginia. The rapid downsizing of the park seemed to only point in the direction of an eventual closure and sale of the property. The Gotham City area had been a particularly dead corner of the park now that two of the three major coasters in the area were now gone, only leaving the DC Comics Theatre, Catwoman’s Whip, Bane-The Ride, and Batman-The Ride as the sole survivors. Six Flags had released an official statement giving their reasoning for downsizing Six Flags Over Virginia, explaining that they had received complaints from Burkeville, VA locals saying that Six Flags made Greenwood Lake “too extreme for families” and that selling off most of their major coasters was Six Flags making SFOV more “family friendly”. Needless to say, coaster enthusiasts were NOT convinced whatsoever. 2009’s attendance was even worse than 2008…With coaster enthusiasts flocking to Busch Gardens (to say goodbye to Big Bad Wolf) or Kings Dominion, Six Flags Over Virginia was a mere afterthought…Halfway through 2009, Lightning Looper inexplicably closed and did not reopen…. And then at the very end of the season, the event that all fans of SFOV feared had come true….Six Flags had made the formal announcement that not only was Batman-The Ride put up for sale, but that the this past season would be Six Flags Over Virginia’s very last. The park would not be opening in 2010. While not surprising news, it was still devastating to the coaster community. With the loss of their major steel coasters, a cult following had surrounded the legendary wood coaster, Virginia Cyclone. The closing of Six Flags Over Virginia would mean the closing of Virginia Cyclone, a coaster that was considered to be superior to all the other Cyclone clones. Labor Day weekend of 2009 saw the end of Six Flags Over Virginia. Crowds on the last day were massive as lines for all the roller coasters got up to three hours. While the rest of the park was closed and cordoned off to the public at 7PM, the Virginia Cyclone remained open until almost midnight, all giving people their final rides on the legendary woodie. Then…it was all over. Six Flags Over Virginia was no more…Six Flags scrubbed any and all references to SFOV on their website…it was like the park never existed. Batman-The Ride was dismantled mere days after the park’s closure. It would later resurface at another Six Flags park in 2010, Six Flags Arizona Adventure in Scottsdale, Arizona under the same name, albeit painted purple, blue, and black as opposed to the old yellow and black color scheme. Strangely enough though, while the former Six Flags Over Virginia laid derelict throughout 2010, it came to light that while the park was permanently closed, Six Flags still owned the property….they never sold it…..

So last year, around this time going to Hersheypark, I was around 285lbs, I'm now 268 and still going down, hopefully by the time my trip comes next month, I'll be 265, a full twenty pounds lighter than last year. And hopefully, even more than that.

ERA 2: The Golden Era (Park Owned By Six Flags) By the time the new millennium rolled along, Premier Parks had bought the world famous Six Flags Entertainment Corporation from Time Warner Cable and started to convert their parks into Six Flags parks….Darien Lake became Six Flags Darien Lake, Kentucky Kingdom became Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom, and so on and so forth. Naturally, in December of 1999, Six Flags announced that they had bought Greenwood Lake Park, which was to be renamed to Six Flags Over Virginia, a name based off of Six Flags’ properties in Arlington, TX and Austell, GA. Alongside the news of the acquisition, Six Flags announced a large park expansion for their new Virginia property which included a total of not one, not two, not three, but TEN new attractions!! Which included THREE new coasters! A Huss Maschinenfabrik Top Spin named Twister was built next to the old Haunted Mansion ride, Twister was an exhilarating X-Treme thrill ride with multiple gut wrenching inversions and quickly became the most popular flat ride at the park. Another Huss built attraction, Vortex was renamed Viper in true Six Flags fashion. A Moser Rides Top Star named Ninja was also constructed near Boomerang. This thrilling and vomit-inducing flat ride features multiple axes of rotation as the claw-shaped spinning gondola flips upside down while the entire structure also slowly rotates, making for a disorienting ride experience! Fun Forest was renamed to Loony Tunes Village and received multiple new rides, including a new roller coaster designed for not just kids, but for the whole family! The new coaster was a custom Vekoma Suspended Family Coaster by the name of Road Runner Express, which features several helices and shallow drops in it’s layout, reaching a top speed of 32mph. The entire western half of the park was expanded behind Wild Dog to make room for DC Universe, a massive themed area featuring several major new attractions. The first of them was a 180 foot tall Intamin second-generation drop tower by the name of Superman- Tower of Power. The second of them was a Chance Rides swinging pendulum ride by the name of Catwoman’s Whip. The third was DC Comics Theatre, an IMAX Dome Screen theatre dedicated to playing movies based on the DC Comics characters! The second of the three new coasters for 2000 was a clone of Batman-The Ride, a small yet intense Bolliger & Mabillard Inverted coaster that can be found at several other Six Flags parks such as Six Flags Great Adventure, Six Flags Magic Mountian, and who can forget the original at Six Flags Great America? Like other Batman clones, this coaster is known for its snappy inversions and high intensity. However, the coup de grace of the new additions was Superman-Ride Of Steel, an absolutely MASSIVE Intamin AG hyper coaster with a height of 220 feet and a drop of 216 feet, making it the tallest attraction at the park! Superman-Ride Of Steel was also the fastest at a top speed of 76MPH and the longest at a length of over 5,000 feet! Superman-Ride Of Steel instantly became known as an airtime machine with a total of nine bunny hills throughout the ride, leading to moments of complete weightlessness. These ten attractions opened up in 2000 to rave success, putting Six Flags Over Virginia on the map for coaster enthusiasts around the world! SFOV’s Superman-Ride Of Steel was deemed to be the best one out of the other Superman-Ride Of Steel mega coasters throughout the Six Flags chain, some even argued it was better than Millennium Force at Cedar Point! However Six Flags was not done yet…not by a long shot… 2001 brought a much more modern sit-down looping coaster to SFOV, Goliath. Goliath is a large Bolliger & Mabillard floorless coaster with a 120 foot tall first hill and a 110 foot tall drop. It also reaches a top speed of 62MPH and features six exhilarating inversions! Goliath opened to rave reviews and positive feedback, all praising its forcefulness and grace. Most considered Goliath to be the second best coaster in the park behind Superman-Ride Of Steel. 2002 saw the removal of an older ride and the addition of two new ones! Over the years, Hurricane, the park’s TOGO Ultra Twister had become extremely costly to maintain. It was plagued with so much downtime in 2001 that it was pretty much considered SBNO, only operating for a few days at a time per month. With TOGO’s bankruptcy in 2001, Six Flags decided it was no longer profitable to try and maintain the ride and they dismantled the attraction before the 2002 season. Sending the salvagable parts to Six Flags AstroWorld for their own Ultra Twister coaster. One of the two new rides for 2002 was a flat ride that took the place of Ultra Twister, a Chance Rides Double Inverter by the name of Insanity. Insanity was an extremely thrilling new attraction for the park, giving riders the sense of being twisted around while also flipping upside down. The second of the new attractions was the one that really got the most attention…Joker’s Revenge, an outdoor version of Disney’s famous Rock n’ Roller Coaster. Joker’s Revenge is a Vekoma-built LSM launch coaster, the very first launch coaster to be built at the park. Like its sister coasters and its Premier Rides-built cousins, it features a 0-57MPH launch into a convoluted mess of inversions and helices. Joker’s Revenge features a large sea serpent roll and a corkscrew traveled a high speeds, making for a forceful ride experience. However, even after all these new additions to the park, Six Flags was STILL not done! After hearing about reports of people complaining that both the Virginia Cyclone and Wild Dog were getting rather rough and uncomfortable, they researched the market demand for a third wooden roller coaster at Six Flags Over Virginia….And as a result, in 2003, Outlaw opened. A medium sized GCI compact wooden coaster jam packed with twists, turns, and airtime hills. Outlaw became known for being uncannily smooth for a wooden coaster and soon became a fan favorite at SFOV. When Joker’s Revenge opened in 2002, it featured two six-car trains built by Vekoma, however the following year, those trains were replaced with two sleeker seven-car KumbaK trains, similar to those that were installed on Python in Efteling. From 2000-2003, Six Flags Over Virginia became known as the fastest growing theme park in the world. In a span of three years, the park had added a multitude of new flat rides, a drop tower, an IMAX movie theatre, a B&M Batman clone, an Intamin Megacoaster, a Vekoma Suspended Family Coaster, a B&M Floorless coaster, a Vekoma LSM launched looping coaster, and a GCI wooden coaster! SFOV seemed to be an unstoppable force of nature, successfully stealing crowds away from both Busch Gardens Williamsburg and Paramount’s Kings Dominion, who simply couldn’t compete with the sheer growth of Six Flags Over Virginia… However, this period was short lived….as just two years after Outlaw was built….everything started to go downhill.... Six Flags Over Virginia 2003.dat

Well I used a combination of Steelworx and Steel Jungle and Vodhin's Girders n' Glass in this iteration of the park.

TBH because I don't overdo it on the custom scenery, the lag is there but it isn't oppressively bad.

Aw crap, sorry. Wasn't thinking.

Okay....so now that my latest Planet Coaster park Whispering Cliffs has reached it's conclusion. I've kinda wanted to go back to my past when it comes to parkmaking and revamp some of my older projects. Initially I wanted to take my sole OpenRCT2 park and reimagine it into a 3D format. At first, I was going to make a rendition of it in Planet Coaster, but I decided against that. The reason being was that even though I LOVE Planet Coaster, one of it's biggest downfalls for me is the lack of third party support for CFR/CTR, and the fact that it's selection of coasters and flat rides does unfortunately have a lot of limits. Some coaster types that are in slightly older style parks aren't in PLC and probably will never be. Because of this, I decided to dust off my old copy of RCT3 Platinum, installed it into my new computer, transferred all my CFR/CTR/CS, and it works like a charm, steady 30FPS, barely any lag, just beautiful! And without further ado....I present to you, the story of Six Flags Over Virginia, retold via RCT3! ========================================================================================================= I’m pretty sure that every single roller coaster and theme park enthusiast out there knows about the thrills that the state of Virginia has to offer. From the beautiful surroundings and exhilarating terrain coasters of Busch Garden’s Williamsburg to the tall, fast, “push-it-to-the-limit” X-Treme thrill rides of Kings Dominion….These two parks have become a pinnacle to coaster fans, with the white-knuckle Intimidator 305 and Twisted Timbers at Kings Dominion, to the beautiful and thrilling Griffon and Apollo’s Chariot at Busch Gardens…. However, there was once was a third park major park in Virginia…one that stood proud amongst its competitors in the same state, and was once considered the best park in Virginia, having some of the biggest, baddest, and most thrilling coasters in the state…. I’m telling you now, this story does not have a happy ending….Not all stories about theme parks do. However, there are so many great memories from coaster enthusiasts and Virginia natives about this place…It’s still a beautiful story… Its name was Six Flags Over Virginia, or as some remember it, Greenwood Lake Park. This is a story not dissimilar to those old Ancient Greek epics about hubris being man’s downfall. That is exactly what happened to Six Flags Over Virginia….the quest to be the best theme park in the world brought about it’s downfall… Let us start at the beginning, shall we? ERA 1: The Bodacious Beginning (Park owned by Walters’ Amusments Inc./Premier Parks) In the mid 1960s, Greenwood lake was a prominent fishing location in Burkeville, a town located in southern Virginia. Featuring landscaped grounds, a beautiful arboretum, and walking trails. However, by 1970, a wealthy entrepreneur by the name of John Walters looked upon the land around the lake and had big plans for a tourist attraction to draw people into Burkeville. Initially, the plan was for an old west themed open air museum around the lake, similar to Colonial Williamsburg or Old Bethpage Villiage Restoration in Bethpage, Long Island. However, plans quickly changed from that, to an amusement park surrounding the lake…. Greenwood Lake Park officially opened in 1973, featuring the Grand Carousel, a giant slide, a Chance Rides Rotor, an Eli Bridge Scrambler, an old west themed comedy show, and Haunted Mansion, a large, extensively themed dark ride, widely considered to be one of the best haunted houses ever built in terms of atmosphere and ride experience. In 1975, Greenwood Lake Park opened their very first roller coaster, Old Shenandoah Mine Coaster, a mine train coaster built by Arrow Dynamics. The Old Shenandoah Mine Coaster was a terrain hugging coaster that had two lift hills and a 42 foot tall drop, going at a top speed of 38MPH, a thrilling, yet family friendly attraction. In 1977, Greenwood Lake Park built their very first wooden roller coaster. John Walters called upon William Cobb, who was known for building the Texas Cyclone at AstroWorld, to build their very own version of the famous Coney Island Cyclone. The result was the Virginia Cyclone, a huge wooden coaster based off of he Coney Island Cyclone, but slightly taller with a height of 95 feet. 1979 brought the very first roller coaster with inversions in the park. John Walters, now head of his own company, Walters’ Amusuments Inc. or WAI for short, called upon Arrow Dynamics to build a new roller coaster at Greenwood Lake Park. The result was the Virginia Tornado, a steel looping coaster with two loops and two corkscrews. This helped bring in a new demographic into the park, thrill seekers. In 1980, WAI had purchased a portable steel looping coaster designed by none other than Anton Schwarzkopf. Initially this coaster was going to debut during Oktoberfest, but instead it was sold to the United States where it was built at Greenwood Lake Park as Lightning Looper. Lightning Looper instantly became a fan favorite with its forceful loop and its intense turns and helices. 1981 saw the opening of Fun Forest, the park’s children’s area, featuring a small E.F Miler kiddie coaster named Mini Tornado, based on the Arrow looper close by. However, after 1981, a five year coaster drought had taken place…The drought ended in 1986 when WAI called upon the Japanese coaster manufacturer TOGO to build one of their Ultra Twister models at their park. TOGO accepted the proposal and in 1986, Hurricane opened to the public. Hurricane was a cutting edge coaster at the time with several moving track sections and stomach-churning heartline twists. By the early 1990s Walters’ Amusements Inc. was bought out by Premier Parks, meaning that Greenwood Lake Park was now a Premier Parks property, alongside parks like Kentucky Kingdom and Darien Lake. The market demand was researched for a second wooden coaster at GLP and in 1992, Premier Parks got into contact with fledgling manufacturer Custom Coasters International to build one of their first major coasters at Greenwood Lake Park. The result was a large out and back wooden coaster similar to Judge Roy Scream at Six Flags Over Texas. The coaster was named Wild Dog and opened to the public in 1992. Wild Dog was known for its extensive amounts of airtime throughout its layout. The following year 1993 had brought two thrilling Huss flat rides to the area. A Enterprise by the name of "Vortex" and a Condor by the name of "Phoenix Flight". After Wild Dog, Greenwood Lake Park experienced another short coaster drought which ended in 1997 when the park opened Boomerang, a compact shuttle roller coaster that inverted riders six times, more than any other coaster at the park. While the Vekoma Boomerang model is not a favorite amongst coaster enthusiasts, the addition of a more “modern” steel coaster at GLP was a small taste of what was to come…. Greenwood Lake Park 1999.dat Greenwood Lake Park: Year 1999

I never knew why Six Flags doesn't just rename La Ronde "Six Flags Over Canada" or something like that.

Personally, I'd think it's plausible that maintenance costs of Volcano had gotten so high that it was seriously cutting into the park's budget. Explaining why KD had such a huge gap between I305 and Twisted Timbers

THE 2010s Venomous was scrapped on the spot at the end of the 2009 season. However, the scrapping of the last Intamin Standup coaster in the United States was the last thing on people’s minds when they realized what was coming to Whispering Cliffs in 2010. In 2010, Kings Dominion opened Intimidator 305, Carowinds opened their Intimidator, and Whispering Cliffs replaced Venomous with Intimidator 255. A massive, leviathanian, airtime filled Intamin hypercoaster! As the name says, this coaster reaches a top height of 255 feet tall, has a drop of 247 feet, and reaches a top speed of a whopping 86mph!! It was the tallest, fastest, and the second longest at the park at 5,032 feet! When Intimidator 255 opened, it took the entire roller coaster enthusiast community by storm. Many consider I255 to be the best out of all the three Intimidators in the Cedar Fair chain, with high speeds, unparalleled ejector and floater airtime, a gigantic stengel dive, and multiple overbanked turns! While the addition of a second hypercoaster in the same park seemed like a strange choice, enthusiasts and thrill seekers had no qualm against the wide variety of coasters at Whispering Cliffs. While Colossus was more of a “family friendly” hyper with its large swooping turns and mild floater airtime, the mighty Intimidator 255 was anything but with its snappy transitions and violent ejector airtime. However, not all was good in 2010…Around August of that year, Sturgis, SD got hit with a massive severe thunderstorm which spawned several small F1 and F2 tornadoes in the region. While the rest of the park didn’t receive major damage, one ride unfortunately did. And it was the oldest roller coaster in the park, Thunderbolt. An uprooted elm tree was flung several yards from its original location and slammed straight into the second turnaround and station of Thunderbolt, causing the entire section to collapse, severely damaging the station, and damaging the two classic four seater trains. The damage to Thunderbolt was extensive, and it was theorized that the then 78 year old roller coaster was going to be torn down entirely and replaced with an exact replica. However….Gravity Group came to the rescue! They agreed to rebuilt the collapsed section of the coaster, and supply Thunderbolt with new trains. However, this was where the controversial part came in….instead of building trains similar to the vintage four seater trains, Gravity Group instead tested out Gravitykraft's brand new Timberliner trains on Thunderbolt. While coaster fans were happy that Thunderbolt was saved, they were also absolutley infuriated at Gravity Group’s decision to give Thunderbolt Timberliner trains, viewing it as an act of shameless self-promotion on Gravity Group and Gravitykraft's part. As a result, Thunderbolt’s status as a ACE Coaster Classic was revoked and was instead labeled as an ACE Coaster Landmark. Thunderbolt reopened in 2011 with three new eight-car Timberliner trains, a new station, and a new computerized braking system that replaced the manual lever brakes, another controversial addition to the ride. However, that same year, another gigantic plot of land was cleared which included the bottom of the plateau! This time, located in the Camelot section of the park! The prospect of a second terrain roller coaster was extremely exciting for fans of Whispering Cliffs, especially when pieces of dark blue B&M style track started appearing on site!! The result was Wyvern, a gigantic B&M flying coaster themed after the ancient dragon in European medieval folklore. Wyvern is currently the fastest flying coaster in the world, reaching a top speed of a 70mph (making Wyvern the new third fastest coaster at the park!) at the middle of the tallest pretzel loop in the world, at a staggering height of 135 feet, one of the largest inversions on record! Numerous special effects were implemented on Wyvern, including flamethrowers at the bottom of the massive pretzel loop, and a burning medieval village around the coaster’s helix. Wyvern was praised for its extensive theming and forceful pretzel loop, but was also criticized for its relatively short length. Also, in 2012, Zoomerang received a much needed rehab from Vekoma. A brand new bright green and pink paintjob to replace the old flaking yellow and indigo paintjob, and on top of that, a brand new comfortable Vekoma built train with vest restraints to replace the old Arrow Dynamics train. Riders much appreciated the comfortable ride experience that the new vest restraints gave! 2013 was another off year as far as upgrades for the park…However, in July of 2013, an incident occurred on King Kobra, the Arrow launched shuttle loop. The front car of the train managed to derail during the backwards launch, careened off the track, and caused the entire train to valley and get stuck. Three passengers suffered non-life threatening injuries, but waited nearly an a hour in and half in a the hot July sun to be rescued from the local Sturgis fire department. King Kobra was subsequently closed and became SBNO for the rest of the season. In 2014, the park attempted to renovate the still SBNO King Kobra in an attempt to reopen it in time for the 2015 season, however it became all too apparent that the damage done to King Kobra and its train was simply too costly to repair. And in mid-2014, it was announced that it was going to be removed from the park. Ultimately, the vintage Arrow launched loop was scrapped unceremoniously. For 2015, King Kobra was replaced with Speed Demon, a Premier Rides Sky Rocket II roller coaster. Speed Demon was a welcome addition the Whispering Cliff’s lineup, as it replaced the defunct launched coaster with a multi-launched coaster that was more modern. While Speed Demon granted riders a thrilling and fast ride experience with three strong launches and a zero-g-roll filled with hangtime, it was criticized for being a cloned coaster. By 2016, Rumbler had become an absolutely unbearably rough ride, even with multiple retrackings by GCI AND Gravity Group, and trim brakes cutting down on the speed, it was still back breakingly rough throughout its entire layout. Some people have even started to call Rumbler the “Spine Snapper” especially after a rider reportedly busted a disc in his vertebrae as a result of riding the coaster. There were many calls by roller coaster enthusiasts for several years for Whispering Cliffs and Cedar Fair to get into contact with Rocky Mountain Construction and famed coaster designer Alan Schilke in order to convert Rumbler into a brand new smooth steel hybrid roller coaster… Then, in mid-2016, it was announced that Rumbler was to permanently close at the end of the year….and roller coaster fans went absolutley nuts, viewing the announcement of Rumbler’s closure as confirmation of an RMC conversion…..Then, around October of 2016, the famous photograph of a steel I-Beam appeared on Whispering Cliffs’ website, with the caption “Time To Give The People What They Want” underneath it….Unsurprisingly, this kicked up an absolute frenzy within enthusiast circles. Finally in 2017, Werewolf, the RMC conversion of Rumbler debuted at Whispering Cliffs and instantaneously reached legendary status. By the time Werewolf opened, it was the very first RMC conversion to feature four inversions! A barrel roll downdrop, two zero-g-rolls and a zero-g-stall! Werewolf was absolutley jam packed with overbanked turns, airtime hills, inversions, tight transitions and turns that it became known as one of the most intense roller coasters of all time in terms of pure G-force, pulling nearly 6Gs at some moments! Werewolf was clearly not a coaster for the faint of heart.... 1972 1987 1995 2006 2010 Whispering Cliffs started off as just a tiny little pleasure park many many moons ago, and througout the decades slowly transformed into one of the most elite coaster havens in all of not only the US, but also the entire WORLD. Many consider Whispering Cliffs to be one of the best Cedar Fair parks (besides Cedar Point). With fourteen already extant roller coasters, how much further can the park go? Only time can tell!

THE 2000s The decision to tear down the only remaining B.A Schiff Wild Mouse angered a lot of people in the coaster community. However, for the new millennium, Cedar Fair tried to get back into the Whispering Cliffs fans’ good graces with not one, but TWO new roller coasters and a new thrill ride for 2000! The first was a MACK Rides Wild Mouse built in the same place where the old Wild Mouse stood, aptly named New Wild Mouse. Fans appreciated the New Wild Mouse’s fun factor and smoothness, however still maintained that a new modern Wild Mouse just did not have the same sort of charm that the vintage one had. The second new coaster was a roller coaster that was long overdue for a park like Whispering Cliffs. Nestled between the Coaster Alley pathway and Colossus was Raven, a brand new Bolliger and Mabillard or B&M Inverted roller coaster. Raven was a medium sized inverted roller coaster with four inversions and several similarities to Great Bear at Hersheypark, such as the first drop being considerably smaller than the second drop, and featuring a loop, a zero-g-roll, an immelmann, and a corkscrew. Raven was praised for its uncanny smoothness, however some enthusiasts have called Raven “forceless” compared to other B&M inverted coasters, such as Great Bear, Afterburn (Then known as Top Gun), and Alpengeist. Also, a new 1950s diner themed restaurant named Coasters Drive-In was placed in the space between the main path and Raven. The new thrill ride was a gigantic Intamin gyro-drop tower named Power Tower! The tallest, and fastest thrill ride in the entire park! Reaching a maximum height of 290 feet and a top speed of 85mph during the freefall! All in all, Power Tower, New Wild Mouse and Raven were a big success for Whispering Cliffs and a great start for a new millenium! With Whispering Cliffs being a park under the Cedar Fair banner that meant that they were allowed to use the IP of Charles Schultz’s Peanuts comic series…and in 2001, a large children’s area called Camp Snoopy was built, linking the northern and southern ends of the park together. This area includes several peanuts themed flat rides such as the Kite Eating Tree and Woodstock’s Whirligig. However, it also contained a Vekoma Family Gravity Coaster named “Woodstock’s Express”, which was very popular amongst the younger coaster fans. 2002 brought a new flat ride to the Coaster Alley section of the park, a hand-me-down HUSS Top Spin ride to Whispering Cliffs, named Element. This exhilarating head-over-heels flat ride included several water jets designed to get riders soaking wet during the ride experience. A fountain was put in place in front of the ride, equipped with three gas burners which ignite, giving riders the feeling of diving headfirst into a pit of fire. Two years later in 2004, a new flat ride was brought to Pirate’s Cove, this time it was a brand new Chance Rides Revolution named….well…Revolution! An exhilarating swinging pendulum ride that swings riders 64 feet in the air while spinning them at the same time. Despite all the new growth going on at the park in the early 2000s, it wasn’t without its hitches though. Complaints started to pop up, especially around 2005 about the way the park was operating, and the way the park was maintaining its rides. One of the more popular complaints was the clientele at the park during the summer months, consisting mostly of rowdy teenagers overcrowding the park, not following park rules, line jumping etc. Slow dispatch times and one-train operations on coasters, leading to excessively long waits for coasters was also a very popular complaint…Also, certain roller coasters, such as Rumbler, Zoomerang, Venomous, and even Rattlesnake have become unbearably rough and uncomfortable. Due to the close proximity of Zoomerang and Venomous. Some park fans have even started to call Pirate’s Cove “Headbangers Cove”. The solution that the current management of Whispering Cliffs had was to get GCI to retrack the rough parts of Rumbler, however this included putting trim brakes on the first drop and some of the airtime hills, severely affecting the coaster’s speed and pacing, reducing the top speed of the coaster from 61mph to 57mph. Cedar Fair saw all these issues with the way Whispering Cliffs was run, and in 2005, the old management was fired, and replaced with a new management team. Almost instantaneously, things started to turn around, guest happiness was increased, operations became way better, the park became cleaner, and overall the park atmosphere was improved in almost every way… Then, in 2006, the park received it’s biggest investment ever since the Cedar Fair takeover, a brand new theme park expansion branching off from Camp Snoopy and Pirates Cove. Camelot, a brand new medieval themed area of the park featuring medieval scenery, medieval themed shops, historical reenactments, a new flatride, and above it all, another major steel roller coaster! The new flat ride was a massive Zierer Star Shape named Trebuchet. Essentially combining a Mondial Top Scan with a HUSS Ranger. The main arm flips 360 degrees, the star shaped gondola spins, and the individual arms also flip and spin riders around all at the same time! The coaster was a brand new Bolliger and Mabillard floorless coaster named Claymore. Themed after smithing, the coaster’s station was excessively and impressively themed to a medieval blacksmith’s workshop. The coaster itself has a very compact and tightly wound layout just jam packed with elements, Very similar to Hydra-The Revenge at Dorney Park! Claymore features a loop, a zero-g-roll, a cobra roll, and two corkscrews in a tight, fast paced, and forceful layout. (with no MCBR, mind you!) Camelot also featured a real jousting arena, which brought a Medieval Times esque show to the park, featuring true full-contact jousting with knights on horseback! The jousting arena was in close contact with the rides, including a B&M floorless coaster, known for their loud roar as the trains traverse the track. Initially there was some concerns that a potential B&M roar could spook the horses, and as a result Claymore’s track was filled with sand, essentially muting the ride. However, another problem arose with a different coaster in close proximity to the jousting arena, Venomous. While Venomous was indeed an Intamin coaster, it uses nearly identical track to B&M coasters and is also known for a very loud roar. Instead of filling Venomous’ track with sand as well, whenever a jousting tournament was taking place, Venomous could not operate. All in all, Camelot was a much needed and much loved attraction to Whispering Cliffs. 2007 had no new major upgrades or attractions, however towards the end of the season, fans noticed a massive plot of land was cleared in the FrontierTown section of the park, spanning all the way down the plateau that Whispering Cliffs was located on. This meant only one thing for sure, a new terrain coaster was coming to Whispering Cliffs in 2008….Speculation was abound on what this new coaster was going to be, a B&M Dive coaster going down the cliff? An Intamin LSM coaster? The question was answered when wooden beams started to show up at the construction site… In 2008, Cliff Diver, an absolutley MASSIVE GCI wooden roller coaster opened at Whispering Cliffs. From the point of view from the park guests, Cliff Diver looks like a standard, medium sized, thrilling but family friendly GCI wooden twisting coaster, but after the initial 85 foot tall first hill and 70 foot tall first drop and first two turnarounds, you find yourself plunging down a massive 130 foot tall drop down the plateau wall! This massive drop makes Cliff Diver the second fastest coaster in the park with trains reaching speeds up to 65mph! The fastest of any GCI wooden coaster! Down at the base of the plateau, the you then go through a series of swift overbanked turns and airtime moments before you go up a massive airtime double-up back to the top and back to the station. Cliff Diver opened to rave reviews from coaster enthusiasts, calling it the best GCI coaster in the world and possibly, one of the best wooden coasters to ever be built. 2009 was another off year for park upgrades….Early on in the 2009 season, Whispering Cliffs’ website was displayed an image in the “Rides” section that said “Take the last stand on Venomous” and just a few days later, park officials confirmed that due to high maintenance costs, complaints from the public about roughness, and the Camelot jousting tournaments causing massive amounts of downtime for the ride, the 2009 season would be Venomous’ last. Reactions to Venomous’ closure was mixed to say the least. It wasn’t a particularly loved attraction at the park, however it was still the only Intamin Standup coaster still operating in the US after the closure of Six Flags AstroWorld in 2005…. However, by the next year…Venomous would have been all but forgotten, especially after the public got a gander at it’s replacement….

THE 1990s 1990 arrived and the park was experiencing a period of unprecedented success, mostly due in part to the addition of Rattlesnake. Although there were no new major upgrades for Whispering Cliffs for 1990, market research was being done for a new “modern” wooden roller coaster for the following year…. Of course, in 1991, Whispering Cliffs opened multiple new attractions. A Bumper Cars ride near Rattlesnake, and FrontierTown, a brand new cowboy/western themed area at the far southeastern end of the park. It’s the smallest out of all the major areas in the park, with only a few pieces of western scenery and western themed shops, however that area was also home to the newest roller coaster at Whispering Cliffs, Rumbler, an absolutely mammoth Charles Dinn built wooden roller coaster. Rumbler was the second tallest coaster in the park when it was built at a maximum height of 138 feet tall and a first drop of 115 feet. It reached the same top speed as Rattlesnake at 61mph. Rumbler became well known for its steep first drop and various moments of airtime throughout its “Quadruple out and back” oval course. By 1992 though, the latest owners of Whispering Cliffs had begun to experience their own financial woes, and soon enough, the park was going to change hands for a third time….Cedar Fair L.P of Sandusky, Ohio bought the park, alongside Dorney Park and Worlds of Fun and slowly grew into a major theme park chain, becoming a major rival of Six Flags. And in 1993, Whispering Cliffs opened it’s doors again as a Cedar Fair property. 1994 brought the very first coaster to Whispering Cliffs under the Cedar Fair banner. It was a cheaper option for a coaster, A Vekoma Boomerang by the name of Zoomerang located in the Pirates Cove area of the park, located adjacent to Venomous. Coaster enthusiasts were rather disappointed to see such a mass produced ride being brought to Whispering Cliffs as opposed to a new custom built ride, however park officials made it clear that bigger and better things were to come to Whispering Cliffs in the following years… By 1996, the plans to build a bigger and better coaster at Whispering Cliffs seemed to have come into fruitition, as a massive plot of land in the Coaster Alley section of the park was cleared, spanning all the way back to FrontierTown. With a plot of land that size, it seemed plainly obvious what kind of coaster was coming to the park…. In 1997, Colossus, an absolutley titanic D.H Morgan hypercoaster debuted. Contrary to popular belief, the name Colossus was NOT a ripoff of the wooden racing coaster at Six Flags Magic Mountain, rather it was named after the original name for Dorney Park’s Lazer. Colossus shattered multiple local records when it opened at Whispering Cliffs. At 205 feet tall, with a 200 foot drop, a top speed of 74mph, and a total length of 5,702 feet, it was the tallest, fastest, longest coaster not only in the park, but in the entire Dakota region. The track layout is similar to it’s cousins at Dorney Park, Valleyfair, and Worlds of Fun, however instead of a single large helix after the second airtime hill, it’s a double helix, making it considerably longer than the other D.H Morgan hypercoasters in the world. When Colossus opened, it became one of the top attractions at Whispering Cliffs, bringing so many new guests from around the country into the small South Dakota town. In 1998, despite not getting any new attractions, two older roller coasters at the park, King Kobra and Venomous received new brightly colored paint jobs. Venomous’ old red and orange colors were replaced with electric blue and white, and King Kobra’s old black and grey color scheme was replaced with a neon green and white color scheme. Also, King Kobra’s red train was painted to yellow and blue to better compliment the new neon colors. 1999 not only brought no new attractions, but also some sad news. It was confirmed on July of 1999 that Wild Mouse was going to be demolished at the end of the 1999 season. This caused an uproar in the coaster enthusiast community, as by 1999, Whispering Cliffs’ Wild Mouse was the absolute last B.A Schiff and Associates Wild Mouse coaster operating in the entire world. Despite being a rough and slightly uncomfortable ride, it was arguably a coaster landmark, being the very last example of the very first Wild Mouse coaster model to ever be built. Several coaster enthusiasts attempted to lobby the local government in order to make Wild Mouse into a state landmark. Unfortunately, the request was denied, and a petition to save Wild Mouse, also fell on deaf ears. As it was entirely demolished after Halloweekends 1999. The 1990s ended with very last B.A Schiff Wild Mouse unceremoniously reduced to a pile of rubble within moments.….

THE 1980s The early 1980s saw a series of small changes throughout Whispering Cliffs. In the premiere year of the Decade Of Decadence, 1980, Roll O Plane was sold and was replaced with Monster, an Anton Schwarzkopf designed Octopus ride. 1981 and 1982 went by without any new major additions to the park. However in 1983, Sky Diver, the Eyerly Rock O Plane shared the same fate as Roll O Plane and it too, was sold. It was then replaced with Muzik Express, a Moser Rides Music Express ride. Both rides proved to be very popular among thrill seekers and families alike! 1984 passed by without any major upgrades….However 1985 was a whole different story. This time, a park expansion was brought near the entrance of the park. The new area was given a Pirate/Swashbuckler theme and was named “Pirates Cove” as a result. The area consisted of new nautical themed resturaunts and facilities, a HUSS Maschinenfabrik Pirate Ship ride named Buccaneer, and the pièce de résistance, a brand new Arrow Dynamics log flume ride named Timber Falls. Timber Falls proved to be an extremely popular attraction at the park, especially during those hot July days! Despite the popularity of the Pirates Cove attraction and the growth of Whispering Cliffs, it still took them nine years to build another roller coaster after King Kobra in ’78. In 1987, it finally happened! Venomous, a new Intamin standing coaster, was built in the Pirates Cove area of the park. While it may appear to be a Bolliger and Mabillard creation from the outside, don’t be fooled. This is most definitley an Intamin/Giovanola built attraction. Venomous gave riders a unique ride experience by having you stand up as opposed to sitting down during the ride, also it was the very first full circuit coaster at the park to have an inversion. The following year, 1988 brought some good news and some sad news to Whispering Cliffs. The sad news was that it was confirmed that Jumbo Jet was put up for sale and was going to be removed from the park by the end of ’88. Coaster fans were saddened to hear about the removal of this popular ride, however, there were plans put in place for Jumbo Jet’s replacement, which is where the good news comes in. The plans were for the biggest investment that the park ever made, to build a steel roller coaster larger than any other coaster in the park. Something that was really going to blow people’s minds…Jumbo Jet was dismantled after the summer of 1988 and construction started on the new coaster shortly thereafter…. The result was Rattlesnake, an absolutley massive Arrow Dynamics custom looping roller coaster. At the time, it was the true coup de grâce of roller coasters at Whispering Cliffs. The tallest, fastest, longest, and loopiest roller coaster in the entire park. A maximum height of 146 feet tall, a 128 foot tall first drop, a top speed of 61mph, a length of 3700 feet, and a total of six inverting elements, two loops, two corkscrews, and a batwing element for good measure! Also, the southernmost part of the park, which encompasses King Kobra, Wave Swinger, and Rattlesnake has broken off from the “Midway Strip” area and is now named “Coaster Alley”. Rattlesnake opened to rave reviews in 1989 and became one of the most loved roller coasters not only in Whispering Cliffs, but the entire United States as a whole! What a way to close out the decade of decadence!

I will say this though, Intimidator is a lot more restrictive on people with big hips than Fury. Fury in my experience, required two clicks, while Intimidator required three for some reason. I always had problems with that coaster, but I was able to squeeze on.

THE 1970s Whispering Cliffs reopened in 1971 following a one year revitalization period to get the abandoned park in working order. Throngs of guests flooded the gates to get the chance to ride Thunderbolt and Wild Mouse once again. The park also opened with two new flat rides from Eyerly Aircraft Company. Sky Diver, and Roll O Plane. The following year 1972, brought Whispering Cliffs a small expansion to the south end of the park and the very first tubular-track steel coaster (Wild Mouse’s steel track is made of flat steel beams.) An Anton Schwarzkopf designed Jumbo Jet model coaster. When Jumbo Jet opened, it received rave reviews for its smoothness and fun factor. After Jumbo Jet opened, the new owners of Whispering Cliffs found themselves in their own financial turmoil, mostly due the mid-70s recession. As a result, It took Whispering Cliffs an entire six years to build another new attraction. However, in 1978, the drought ended with a roller coaster that set the tone for the numerous new rides to come in the following decade. King Kobra, an Arrow Development Shuttle Loop coaster. As the ride’s model plainly says, King Kobra is the first roller coaster in the entirety of the Dakotas to feature an inversion. A single vertical loop, passed forwards and backwards. King Kobra became immensely popular in the late 1970s and put Whispering Cliffs on the map for coaster enthusiasts.

Although I'm losing weight, does anyone know if CS's seats are accomodating, or restrictive to people of a larger size?

Hey guys…Look, I’ve recently had lost interest in doing Cedar Plains….I truly am sorry to people who are fans of my RCT3 and PLC projects….There are times where I try to make this whole big grandiose realistic history behind my parks, and I try to stretch it out as far as I can with this sort of make-believe “Journal of an coaster enthusiast telling about his/her home park” format. The problem with that is…Eventually it gets dreadfully boring to do it that way, and sometimes you just wanna skip the “land clearing” teaser updates and cut right to the chase. That’s why with this park, I’m going to do something differently. I’m not going to do separate updates for every year, I’m not going to make this whole big grandiose backstory, I’m just going to be telling the history of Whispering Cliffs from its beginning to the present without any major fluff. It’s going to be on a decade by decade basis, meaning each post is going to be a decade of the park’s history….Everything has already been written up, so I won't have to make up my own updates as I go and suffer from writers block as a result. All I need to do is take pictures of my park to go with the paragraphs.... And without further adieu…. EARLY HISTORY: 1928-1967 The history of Whispering Cliffs in Sturgis, South Dakota starts around the tail end of the roaring 20s, when Whispering Cliffs Park opened as a nature preserve and a dog walking park with a carousel. It became a popular relaxation spot in the local area. Slowly but surely, the park began to grow, with small amusement rides popping up throughout the park. The economic downturn of the Great Depression didn’t stop the construction of Whispering Cliffs very first roller coaster in 1932, an Ed Vettel designed wooden oval coaster by the name of Thunderbolt. While Thunderbolt wasn’t as large as it’s contemporaries, such as the Coney Island Cyclone, it still was a very fun ride filled with airtime moments which was designed to thrill for generations to come. After the Great Depression came World War II, however that didn’t stop the park from adding new rides and attractions, such as the Philidelphia Toboggan Company designed Thunderbolt Jr. A tiny wooden roller coaster designed for young children either not tall enough, or not brave enough to ride Thunderbolt. Whispering Cliffs, now a fully-fledged amusement park, continued to be a popular spot throughout the 1940s and 1950s, despite its small size. Then, in 1958, the park built its very first steel roller coaster. A B.A Schiff and Associates Wild Mouse coaster simply named Wild Mouse. This proved to be a very popular and well loved attraction in the park, attracting many more guests. The park continued to operate into the 1960s, however…In 1967, everything started to fall apart….The original owners of the park found themselves in a period of financial distress, losing lots of money, and soon enough, being unable to afford to keep Whispering Cliffs open…They were forced to sell the park….By the end of the summer of ’67, Whispering Cliffs closed its doors to the public and became Standing But Not Operating, or SBNO. The future didn’t look good for the park, a new housing project proposed in 1969 threatened the very existence of the derelict park, however…In that same year, another family bought the park…And had big plans for it….

Hey guys, I'm really sorry for the delay in updates. I've been dealing with a lot of IRL stuff since the beginning of 2019 on top of some writers block. I hope to get things under control soon, however in the meantime heres a new update!! 2001 FS2832: This is great news! Oregon looper is a classic and should never ever be taken down! Badjetta: I really wonder what’s going to go in Hurricane’s place? Oregon Looper had a larger footprint than Hurricane…Unless they’re going to expand the park a little bit more northwestern…

Cedar Fair takeover, Six Flags takeover? Vote now on your phones!

2001 FS2832: are you kidding me they can’t get rid of the Oregon looper!! It’s a classic! Its like if hersheypark got rid of sooperdooperlooper or if SFMM got rid of revolution! Badjetta: Although I really want to see Cedar plains get another coaster, tearing down the Oregon looper is such a bad idea. Its still a very popular ride that has a long line every time I’ve been there. cosmozx1fn0q2rc: NO!!!! Get rid of forest flyer instead!! FS2832: cosmo im not happy about losing Oregon looper either but why get rid of Forest Flyer? Its actually a decent woodie with good air. cosmozx1fn0q2rc: Forest flyer got really rough over the years, the turnaround always knocks me around badly and the first drop is really uncomfortable. They should either retrack it or get rid of it.

2001 As it turns out, Steel Phantom at Kennywood didn’t necessarily go on the chopping block, rather only parts of it did and the rest of the coaster was reborn as something different, a non-inverting traditional hypercoaster. Of course, speculation was then abound about Demon Force. However the General Manager of Cedar Plains, Mike Muller had shot down any rumors of this happening to Demon Force any time soon. “For now, we believe that Demon Force is perfect just the way she is.” However, in his statement, Mike Muller did mention that in the next year or so, Cedar Plains could be due to receive a new roller coaster, causing roller coaster enthusiasts everywhere to speculate what could potentially be coming to Cedar Fair’s northwestern property. Especially on the up-and-coming roller coaster/ theme park forum, CoasterInsider. cosmozx1fn0q2rc: I hope it’s an Intamin megacoaster like what SFA, SFNE and SFDL got last year. Badjetta: Cosmo why would they get an intamin hyper? They already have demon force! Im hoping for a GCI wood coaster. cosmozx1fn0q2rc: Yah but demon force is like super rough! You bang your head on the restraints all the time! A new woodie would be cool too. Barrielikescats: I kinda hope its neither. A premier launched shuttle coaster like mr freeze and the chiller at sfgadv would be awesome at Cedar Plains.

1999-2000 When The Weapon opened in May of 2000, it was a rousing success that quickly became one of the most popular flat rides at the park! The faces of the riders say it all! However, despite a successful new millennium season, there was some trouble in paradise...it was recently announced that Demon Force's sister coaster, Steel Phantom at Kennywood was going to be on the chopping block at the end of the season...Many fans have begun to speculate that Demon Force could share a similar fate...However, nothing was announced about the coaster by the end of 2000, so one could naturally come to the conclusion that its not going anywhere any time soon.

In my opinion, Dorney really stopped having a leg to stand on against hershey in 2012, when Skyrush opened and blew everyone's minds. Ranking a coaster that intense, that mind numbingly insane against Steel Force? I don't think so, honey.