DirkFunk

Listen man, that intern from Coastal Carolina's tourism program had to spend like 30 minutes reading animoto FAQs to get the video to this level.

I've never had any experience with pet check. I would probably just call the park directly if I was in your situation. In other news, a ride on the train the other day also brought to my attention to some new theming in Boneville. I'm not sure when it was added, but I noticed something new this time. In other other news, another question mark for the park is what they will do with Challenge Golf. One course on it has been closed down for years now, and the other course got a little bit of attention a few years ago. However, even that side is starting to fall apart a bit. Recently, the water feature has been turned down to a minimum. No longer are there roaring waterfalls next to the greens. Challenge Golf is certainly something I will be keeping an eye on year after year. Same with the arcade. A lot of the old arcade games are no longer operational. I went in there a days ago with my friends and half of the machines weren't working. Challenge Golf and the Arcade are two areas that I think the park should make a decision with. It seems like they are kind of in limbo right now. The Mini Golf going away is, like moving Skycoaster, something you can bet all the money on. The arcade has been downsized a bit in the last couple of years, but I can't see them getting rid of it entirely. If they do, I'll be renting a Ryder truck and headed to Sandusky with a bunch of money in my pocket.

The culture is ingrained going way, way, way back. Also I'm sure whatever year that was had to be the one they had ACE's CoasterCon.

Bet on it. With all the money.

More people died in one day at Kings Island than have all year on rides.

I have two La Ronde experiences: 1) Victoria Day, 2004. The park was slated to be open for the holiday. We arrived at around 1PM. The gates were all closed. The coasters were running empty. The park simply never opened due to occasional rain showers in the area. Other people would occasionally come up in the 10 minutes we were there, look like "Oh, of course, La Ronde isn't open because this place is awful" and then would leave. The staffing was actually there to operate the park; they had to be, the park is fully unionized and they can't be sent home without pay. And yet, they just didn't open FOR NO GOOD REASON. 2) Some time in 2005 or 2006: Went with a friend to Quebec and made the stop in. Waited 90 minutes each for Le Monstre, Vampire, and whatever the standup is called. After being in the park for roughly 4 hours and seeing full queues for every attraction but only one train running on each, we left. I've actually never been back to Montreal simply because I know I will go to La Ronde if I visit and I don't want to go to La Ronde. It is the worst operated amusement park in North America and possibly the world.

So, is the plan with blocking off Harbor Blvd to force those hotels to sell to Disney and let them become halfway houses...I mean, employee housing?

There are people who I've met who don't care about the traditional park vibe. They want big parks with big coasters and lots of 'em. Those people also, in my experience, cycle out of actually participating in the hobby (though they may still comment on message boards, oddly) after they come to the incredible conclusion that most big regional parks have roughly the same rides regardless of where you go in the US. Some transition into Orlando park fandom and happily hand over $300 a night for a motel room because pixie dust, while others move onto Facebook political activism or some nonsense like that.

Man, Dorney pre-fire was another super rad PA traditional park. Compared to now post-Kinzelfying where there's massive concrete walking paths to production model coasters? Take the Impulse, Invertigo, Mouse, hell, take Talon and give me back the wacky rides with impressive facades.

Wild Wonder at Gillian's, Opa at Mt. O (though that was only via crippling) are the only ones I can think of immediately in the US (sonmeone mentioned Expoland already, but Japan is a different universe for this). I'm not sure if the St. Louis Skyway ever ran after the accident there before it was removed. Someone else would know. Old Indiana Fun Park is the classic example where rider death ended up clearly killing the park.

Parks change: even Disney fans demoan change. Closing off a service entrance area a couple of years ago home to some steps at Disneyland was treated by the fanboys as a tragedy. I went to Cedar Point before Dragster a couple of times, and my wife has been going since she was in the single digits - she remembers Jungle Larry, the dolphin show, Pirate Ride, and Mill Race. However, what's there now is pretty freakin' great. I can go to that park and easily find 25-30 rides every time I go that I want to go on. 25-30! Everyone I know wishes Shoot The Rapids wasn't poorly engineered junk and would like Dinosaurs Alive to go away in favor of a Paddlewheel Excursions return. I'm sure that, in time, things will happen. Why? Well, current management has already listened to the customers and built two huge B&Ms, gotten rid of Shoot-The-Rapids, is going to replace Mean Streak, fixed Breakers (lolol jesus christ was this necessary), cleaned up the beach, expanded the water craft options, and is about to make the water park better than the municipal aquatics centers it currently resembles. I'd love 3-4 dark rides at the park too, but right now I can accept getting a big RMC sometime soon instead of another iteration of Ghost Blasters.

I've probably said this before, but I got in an argument once with someone who just raged about how much they hated Cedar Point and how it had nothing but coasters. This was a grown man who derived pleasure from the idea that Canada's Wonderland (under the same umbrella!) briefly had more coasters than CP. I brought up the petting farm, farm museum, city hall, beach, marina, hotels, resort activities, weird old rides it still has, the massive arcade, the ballroom (doors always open!), watercraft rentals, et al. Their response? "I'm not interested in any of that." People find what they want then with it. I'm perfectly OK with the "problem" of it being too big and having too many fun things to do right now. I've been able since moving out to the midwest to go multiple weekends each season and it still feels fresh and fun even when Kinzel was in charge and installing christmas lights as the capex. Now is a whole different universe, practically. I also can't blame a board of people who were largely absent from the decision making processes of the past for what the parks will be tomorrow. Matt Ouimet too was busy fixing up Disneyland to have anything to do with Geauga Lake, the Paramount purchase, or the attempted sale to Apollo. As for overrated parks, I probably responded to this once and after some reflection I can't think of anything glaringly obvious. Parks I used to think might fill this space like Kings Island and Carowinds have seen serious changes in the very recent past to kind of shift things to more of what I like to see. OTOH somewhere like Worlds of Fun or any of the Six Flags parks...no one rates that to begin with. Holiday World comes closest to me because outside of the coasters, it really doesn't have much of serious value in the dry park. Most of the staff service awards from AT were gifts from the enthusiast community to them for the consistent lip service and so on. It's never been the cleanest or friendliest park in the country, much less the world.

Source: http://www.avclub.com/article/what-happens-roller-coaster-once-its-over-hill-239738 Having two large projects in one season is not out of the realm of possibility. This would be the latest that an RMC redo got started for the following year. Not saying it is impossible, just seems highly unlikely.

I hear there's a used one in Kansas City going real cheap right now.

Yeah, I don't know what ride they were on, but it wasn't Storm Chaser. I see what you're saying, but at some point if you keep doing the same thing again and again and again, it doesn't matter what that thing is. It'll become repetitive. I always point to Darien Lake's Ride of Steel - #1 on the charts for Mitch's when it was new, #50 or whatever when Mitch stopped doing the poll. It isn't like the CCIs where they started to track like garbage. The ride is basically the same as opening day, just with restraint changes. Everything else just eclipsed it. (I joked this weekend while riding Lightning Rod that I get to be the a$$hole who says "If you didn't ride opening year, you're wasting your time!" once the launch is changed. 10 years from now when every park has an RMC, we may all be singing a different tune about how much we miss coasters with single lapbars like Cornball or Phoenix. We all tend to grade on a scale, and eventually it'll curve. It always does...and I should take out a copyright on "only the early RMCs were good" before it becomes commonly stated.)

If you look closely, you can see that one of the guide wires (far side) that goes around the center leads to a point between the two cars. If I have to guess (and I do in this instance), it somehow gets unhooked, springs out, and then...I have no idea. I don't know enough about the mechanics and it doesn't make sense to me that it alone doing that would pull the cars up like that. I also don't get how it would hook onto two cars to cause that.

Cedar Point is announcing a water park expansion. Countdown to Geauga closing might as well begin now....

I don't entirely disagree with Seaton. I like RMC/Ride Centerline stuff (Storm Chaser and Lightning Run are great!), but the OMG EJEKTUR is actually predictable at this point. The first couple of times it was jarring and surprising. You build 20-30 rides that are all the same, and it turns into B&M complaints. They can't all be "top 5" rides. They're just amusement rides. There's almost no actual danger involved in this (Verruckt aside).

I'm just agreeing with you on this Tuesday Morning Engineering session.

Same reasons posts holding "catch fences" at automobile race tracks are on the outside - to prevent additional unnecessary shearing of the car. They built the ride, altered it to go faster over the top for this season, and then theres a mix of additional questions in that pile about what prior injuries might have taken place which weren't reported or of sufficient interest to public prior to this. The "A parent should have responsibility..." thing is trashola unless you believe every parent is a amusement park ride safety expert. Years of experience tells me otherwise. That tact leads to industry collapse, basically.

I haven't heard this rumor but Splashwater Falls sucks and I'd be thrilled to see it die. Removing a log flume for that piece of crap was a huge downgrade. I'm sure it saved them a ton on operational costs but the ride has always seemed to be tremendously unpopular. The flume (obviously) was always busy. Is Splashwater Falls relocated from Astroworld, or is that the one at SFA? Astroworld.

Mulligan wheel with two cars tethered together....that's a new one. The wires around the ride should be symmetrical. They aren't. That's interesting.

Awesome, another practice from back before Premier bought the dump returned to life. What's next, they reopen the race track and install a Huss Tristar for 2018?

I haven't heard this rumor but Splashwater Falls sucks and I'd be thrilled to see it die. Removing a log flume for that piece of crap was a huge downgrade. I'm sure it saved them a ton on operational costs but the ride has always seemed to be tremendously unpopular. The flume (obviously) was always busy. Who said it was dying? Nothing dies at Six Flags any more (except maybe the occasional guest LOL). Now if only someone was getting a water park expansion.... And the log flume it replaced was crapola TBH. Most of that end of the park could go back to being parking spaces including the floorless I never remember exists because of the amnesia machine next door, and it would be an improvement to me.

Aside from encasing the front car in lexan? Not really.