DirkFunk

They're just in a tough spot because of the competition. They're pretty much the Six Flags America of Cedar Fair. Better than Great Escape I guess. Do you think it would be considered a stronger park if it wasn't surrounded by quality parks? If it were in a metro area like Omaha or Tulsa, it would be another Worlds of Fun or Valleyfair on the global scene. Like those parks, it really doesn't have anything specific that makes it stand out beyond the local market now that hypers are basically a dime-a-dozen.

Intamin's steel coaster track and vehicles are made by Stakotra, a Slovakian company. My understanding (which may be missing some elements) is that they acquired a portion of Intamin quite some time ago and thus have operated as Intamin's sole supplier for those fields. Zierer, Gerstlauer, Huss (prior to the bankruptcy) and Maurer Sohne also have rides fabricated by Stakotra, though not necessarily exclusively as I understand it. Intermountain Lift in Utah does the fabrication for Premier and a few of the other US firms. Think of it like this from now on: If you go to a big condo development, do you think the developer designs the building? Nah, he pays architects for that. Does he construct the building? Nah, he pays a construction company for that. The developer doesn't source the materials himself, they don't build the appliances inside the condos, they probably don't pay to have custom handles and switches and stuff and instead someone goes through catalogs and on searches to find materials. Theme park rides are no different at any - and I mean ANY - park. Even the almighty Disney had to outsource the actual design and fabrication of all their rides, mostly to Arrow (though most "disney historians" give Arrow zero credit), and they still do even now.

They probably did buy it from Intamin. In this case, someone probably made note that it wasn't actually an Intamin built ride (hell, practically nothing in this era was) and who actually built it and it got recorded. But all those Intamin towers? Yeah. They were all built by Willy Bühler Space Towers/Von Roll.

July or August: very. In truth, you don't even need it to be that busy to cause huge waits. My recollection is gates open about an hour before rides do, so the line for low capacity stuff will be nuts. Go to the mouse first, IMO; the PLCs basically limit that ride to running 3-4 4 person cars, so waits are interminably bad. Timbers and Thunderhawk should be last concerns as they have two trains.

Intamin's primary purpose in the industry (historically) is that of a broker. They had sales staff active in the US who could sell for European firms for whom it would have been cost prohibitive to sell stuff outside the immediate geographical area. They did it for lots of companies - Schwarzkopf, Von Roll, Willy Bühler - and that was still a part of their business model years later. As such, they didn't necessarily own any of these technologies, and when those companies would split or go off on their own to sell them, that was that.

Fun fact: If you look at the website of the company who Intamin brokered for and actually manufactured the track, one company is mentioned as being responsible for creating the ride systems, trains, etc. And that company isn't Intamin. My sense is that if you want to buy a new Plug-N-Play for the US, you might need to call Ride Entertainment Group....

Not any less possible than new parks filled with modern rides surviving. Novelty sells, bro. If anything, I think it is a disruptive (douchechills saying that word, but applies) strategy in a market space where regional theme parks are pretty much totally matured.

Why assume that? It's a readily marketable attraction, Six Flags doesn't need any additional justification to add this and attract customers. For Six Flags? No, this doesn't add to their customer base really. But for Samsung, it puts their product in front of 1 million people instead of say 450-500k if this was installed on Demon. That is the factor that is driving this. It's a collaboration between Samsung AND Six Flags. Both sides want to benefit. This is where Samsung is getting their benefit. Samsung is the one who pushed for this to be used on marquee attractions like Bull and Superman in all likelihood. This is a product that Six Flags purchased from "VR Coaster". I know that samsung has some level of involvement, including supplying the phones and Gear VR's, but as far as I know, you're peddling a conspiracy theory here. The initial batch of VR coasters was put on a wide range of rides, ranging from the highest to lowest profile coasters in each park. They've most likely determined based on their collected customer data that Raging Bull is the best candidate for attracting guests to the park. Everyone here seems to be under the impression that the only case for this tech is to rejuvenate low profile or low ridership rides, but there's no reason to think Six Flags thinks that. To them, putting VR on a major ride is a recipe for a low cost marquee attraction. The reason people think that using VR on lower profile rides is what Six Flags would want to do is because it is what makes sense from a capacity (and thus guest satisfaction) standpoint. People are trying really hard to justify their actions as being in the best interests of business and overall guest service.

Kung Fu Panda has a long wait because of A) families B) new C) horrid capacity. Maybe in a decade it won't be so bad.... Your thoughts on the rides basically echo mine. I ended up with just one on Raptor and found it fun in the back row right side. Airtime on the first drop I didn't expect and a ton of foot choppers. I think I like XFlight more at Great America, but Raptor has so much more in terms of theming that it actually brings it up a few notches. Very solid ride. The water rides look so good and then...no. Not quite as great as you'd hope.

I could cope with Mine Train or the Bumper Cars going. I'd be ticked if it was the antiques, sky ride, or flume. I'd seriously never go again if it's Monster Mansion.

Woah, a wood coaster? Sweet! Definitely very amped for that next year.

ITT: People pretend they're slamming dime pieces.

Robb has a POV of Hades that looks pretty solid. As always: riding a ride and watching someone's POV footage are two totally different things. I'll wait to hear actual reports before I high five everyone.

Wild idea for the group: Stop thinking about whether each ride you're on is a "top ten ride" or "elite" or "world class" or whatever other term you have for a coaster that's at what you imagine the pinnacle of coaster riding is. In the case of steel coasters, almost anything you ride is not simply by virtue of the vast number of rides that exist. Just enjoy the damn thing.

My working theory: Rafts are a bad way to see theming, and usually theming doesn't do well with water, so if you do have a lot of theming, it can't be that wet. Bluto's has a lot *and* is super crazy wet, so as a result, you get the raft ride you always wanted.

Paris, but they're overpriced garbage that only seems to appeal to Americans on the autism spectrum w/Mickey hugboxes and lower middle class British families. Yeah, seriously. They're pretty bad. On the other end of the spectrum, the Sequoia Lodge is considered a full on resort and supposed to be France's version of Florida's Wilderness Lodge, but it's anything but. Sure the color palette was correct but the rooms I saw were comparable to a Quality Inn. Also if you're not a born and bred Parisian don't expect to get a second look by the bartender. All those hotel rooms are such a money sink that they bring down the entire resort financially. At least they're bothering now to put in flat screens in their "deluxe" hotels only a decade after they became generally standard in Red Roofs and Motel 6s and similar overseas. Not that it'll save them. Also like with Paris: Might as well just stay at the "good neighbor" hotels with the free bus service a 20 minute walk away. They aren't perfect, but you'll save a bunch of money and lose none of the charm since the official hotels all repeat the same billiards tables and coin operated nonsense everywhere thing in them.

Paris, but they're overpriced garbage that only seems to appeal to Americans on the autism spectrum w/Mickey hugboxes and lower middle class British families.

Reasonable point. I actually stayed at the Fairfield Inn last time and was pretty OK with that (and closer than the HoJo). Probably would do the same again. Unless Disney magic starts involving sex, it generally isn't worth what they charge. Even then, Backpage would probably be cheaper.

Oh, it's most certainly being dissed. But I think we have all been on enough Rapids rides, especially two others that are nearly identical, to pass at least a preliminary judgement. I mean, I've been on both Grizzly and Kali *ONE* time each in all my visits to those parks. This doesn't look like will appeal to my any more than those rides did. I want to like Rapids rides. I do. The truth is I like basically Bluto's and most all of the others I've ever been on (and they're myriad) leave me wanting. There's nothing in this video that suggests to me that my world view on rapids rides would change after this. And really, this was a ride that the wild and crazy Disnerds were putting their hopes and dreams into for this park along with Tron Coaster (lolololol) and the new Pirates.

You can find my white ass at the HoJo for like $100 with a shorter walk to the gate.

Technically back-to-back-to-back then in this case: Rougarou, Valravn, RMC Mean Streak. The thing you really see is the Cedar Fair going to their parks and correcting a lot of the mistakes made over the course of the Kinsel regime, and that's pretty great.

It's been a relevant IP since the original film over 80 years ago and a new movie coming out next year. Considering that the park already has Potter and Marvel in it (among others) yeah, it isn't as strong as those, but it's probably a stronger long term IP than, say, Avatar.

I'm probably the first American in the coaster scene to get over to Gardaland and hit up the new, uhh, "Panda Land" - overall the decor it certainly nice. That they did a good job of. The problem is the coaster is ridiculously low on capacity. The loading procedures there with only allowing as many people into the station as fit on the car via the turnstiles is technologically very impressive, but also makes quick loading tough. Even with a 2 hour line (when nothing else exceeded 30 minutes!) the ride couldn't be loaded fast enough to have all 6 cars on. Also: "Dynamic" openings are a trend in the industry now as a cost saver and I get that, but really, you don't open the new area of the park (and roughly 1/3 of the rides in the vicinity, including Raptor/Magic Mountain/Colorado Boat/Sequoia/both dark rides) until an hour after opening? Serious?

"Minilands" are the new hotness in this industry, and Kong is another example of one.

Yes. There's also a new memorial fountain by Power Tower's exit.