DirkFunk

I think this is optimistic given the amount of traffic in the DC area that you'd be able to get from Six Flags to a parking lot near the Nats stadium and inside before first pitch if you stay that long. Luckily, SFA sucks so you can leave earlier. Don't double back like that. It is an hour of driving each way, probably using toll roads or Route 2. You'd be better off going to Waldameer or something like that during the day for a couple hours before heading to Cleveland for the game. Otherwise, you're looking at 8 1/2 hours of driving that day with an amusement park stop somewhere in there for only a couple hours. Make the following day a full day. Consider staying at Breakers Express for early entry. Some of these drives are pretty aggressive. To drive to Atlanta after fan fest means 6 1/2 hours minimum on the road after a day of activity. If you don't stop to eat, pee, or for gas (basically impossible) you won't get to the friends house until somewhere between 10:30-11:30PM depending on their location in the area.

It is never too late for almost anything. Except sleeping with individuals who fall under the age of consent. That you might get away with as long as you too are under it, but after that you go to prison and get put on a national registry. Seriously though, never become the person who thinks you can't grow or change. Those are the worst people. The. Worst.

Very much a matter of opinion. Personally, I can't imagine it ever being worth it. You're kidding, right? I get that the cost might be a bit much, but I visited on a Wednesday (granted it was in July), and every major ride had at least an hour wait, many had more than that. We only stopped to hit up Goliath and RB, but if we would've stayed the whole day we would've felt the need to get a FP. SFGAm has some of the longest lines of any park I've been to. Chicago could use another amusement park. Great America once had solid operations up until a short few years ago. I think they've gotten to the point where you "need to get a FP" because they've cut their operating budget and reduced their efficiency to near nonexistence. You know, to match how most of the chain runs. Chicago also had other amusement parks that the people there travelled to, the issue is that they have gone to the dogs (Mount O and Indiana Beach).

I think Outlaw Run, Goliath, and the early design that we know for Wildfire establish pretty clearly that RMC rides are doing things the Intamin rides (themselves a small sample set) aren't doing. I can't prove to you that a ride with Balder's trains and track can't do a dive loop, if that's what you're saying. But based on what actually exists and what's selling, I feel pretty comfortable in my position that they probably were not designed to do that. Probably expense vs. return. Same reason other ride systems don't sell like hot cakes. Theme parks are in the business of making money, and if something clearly is a money making draw, parks will buy it. Maybe the answer is that they didn't justify their cost? Maybe? Sometimes innovation costs a lot of money too. Six Flags got a ride that does stuff only dreamed of previously on a wood coaster instead of something with a more traditional layout. Assume you're right and I'm wrong then and the cost is equivalent. RMC has shown the ability to redo existing wood coasters and turn them into top rated steel rides. Intamin either hasn't sold themselves well enough to do that or hasn't shown capability/interest to do so. RMC has shown the ability to build wood coasters that are clearly at the cutting edge and more innovative in design than the preceeding 85-100 years of wood coaster building before it. Laser cut wood is nice, but it isn't as mind blowing as an inverted stall on a wood coaster. Why pay the same for a ride that can't do what the RMC does then?

RMCs also offer more things the rides can do. In pretty much every respect, it is a superior product and from everything I've heard, cheaper. And that's why no one is even rumored to be looking at that Plug N Play track tech.

Guys, if someone is at the point where a dive machine is too gimmicky and not interesting enough for them in the hobby, you're not going to change their minds. It's OK. They can have opinions and so can you. Personally, I'm pretty stoked about a giant new coaster next year that will work, have a line that moves, and not hurt. If you need some solace about this, you can be sure a Six Flags park or two will build something a little more "innovative" that'll push 500 people an hour in the ones that it works (which will be 60-70% of them) after opening in late June/early July.

For what it is that management seems to desire most, throughput and reliability are very high on that scale. A dive machine gives them something different plus those two things in spades. There's a bunch of rides the park could get - they could get a spinning coaster, for instance - that would be new and different. But being conservative after repeatedly buying clunkers and maintenance nightmares year after year after year is the smartest thing for them to do right now.

The advantages dive machines have over the competition is obvious; capacity, reliability, safety record. I think the arguments being put forth about them being rendered obsolete are applicable to Oblivion (which is, frankly, not that good a ride) but much less applicable to all the recent-ish installs in Italy, Germany, and the US. For what they're looking to build (full circuit multi inversion vertical drop coaster) this is an exceptionally solid, if not straight up best choice.

It expires never. Everything I've heard targets Nintendo for a massive overhaul of the current Kidzone and everything there disappearing into the cold, dark night.

No. No. Yes. Not to my knowledge, sorry.

Probably the first listed, from what I've heard.

I've heard some chatter to that extent. Which is fine. Scrapping them all would be foolhardy. Also selling them might not be wise either. Cedar Fair inadvertently created their competition in Kansas City when they decided to start Geagua's water park from scratch. I still haven't been. I guess next year is a good time to put it on the schedule.

We can stop pretending now that Wet N' Wild is gonna live. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10153370563004089

I guess my question is "Would they be significantly more crowded than the Magic class ships?" I also want to clarify that I don't care that much.

I think it all looks fake and I'm not "wow'ed" by any of it. But that's me. Heavy use of projected image is going to be at the center of everything these parks do from here until infinity. Frozen is (I'm told) going to heavily use them, and obviously expansions to Toy Story Mania and Soarin' are going to be projector based. I think it's a preference a group of people who grew up in this previous eras will have that future people probably won't, kinda like wood coaster enthusiasts to steel. Animatronics can't jump around or run, and those that might be able to cost astronomical sums.

I'd love to see an assessment of public space per passenger, but my guess is that they're comparable to what's already out there for their fleet. I doubt it'll matter for something like AIDA where the cruises are super port intensive and (I understand) people only eat at buffets.

Parque Reunidos (parent of Palace, who own a ton of parks in the US) is consistently being targeted for sale. It is possible, however, that they'd be interested if the price was right, and CNL is looking to liquidate, so perhaps it is?

-Pretty much all of the US Intamin hypers. The trains have all developed some degree of rattle and "PTC shuffle" to them. The restraint change I find total garbage; they're now very uncomfortable for me to ride. The helixes, in truth, were never very powerful in terms of positive Gs. B&Ms are more extreme subjecting people to positive G loads. And in truth, Darien and SFA's Supermen have lousy, awful layouts. Complete crap pacing that looks like they were developed by a 6 year old kid and RCT. Amazing at the time before other rides duplicated the negative g loads, but since that's been equaled or surpassed, they simply don't match up any more. I find them all middling. The best is Millennium Force to me, and that's also the ride that presents by far and away the least amount of negative G-forces. There isn't a B&M that doesn't blow it away in airtime, but the speed and positive Gs there are really solid IMO. -Edmonton Mindbender. I'm convinced the people who ride this and proclaim it top 5 do so because they know the expense involved to get to Edmonton to ride this dumb thing and attempt to justify it. Awful restraints, ho-hum layout, absolute trash operations, but the real problem is that the OMG FORCEZ~! are a total lie. Arrow loopers present similar or equivalent positive G loads. The most overhyped and overrated coaster in the entirety of the hobby. I'd go so far as to say that Magnum Force when at Flamingoland was better since it didn't beat the hell out of your shoulders with the accordions. Also for the people who've been in this hobby awhile; remember when certain enthusiasts used to claim that Taz's Texas Tornado had something done to the restraints because they kept coming down and the others' didn't do that? Just think of that complete lie next time they tell you some far off ride is super superior to whatever you're riding.

Probably June for crowds. Weather has a tendency to be worse then though also, but screw it, who knows. Climate change is real and the world is screwed, so don't go expecting torrential downpours in Texas in summer every year. Answer you don't want: depends. Depends on the dates, events in the locality, holidays, etc. There isn't any obvious reason why hotels would be expensive on a June weekend in San Antonio, but then if some massive convention of cardiologists is in town, all of a sudden things change. Is this standard travel insurance? I would say "absolutely not" unless there are certain factors (medical history and age being primary among them). The insurance is worth nothing unless you can provide documentation showing medical/family emergency related reasons for the cancellation of your $50 Best Western hotel room. Is that really worth it to you?

Yeah but we don't know if it's going to be an RMC because it could also be a Premier rides launch coaster because six flags has been working a lot with those two companies but I would prefer to see an RMC there. Honestly, an empty space is an upgrade. That's like 60-90 minutes of my life back if I ever return to La Ronde that would be spent waiting for that crap.

If I'm dropping a park from the list, I probably would choose Delgrosso's simply because it is likely to live awhile. Lakemont and Conneaut look like they're both on death's door and ride wristbands at both are disgustingly cheap. One park I'd mention because they run a number of different deals (including pay-per-ride schemes) that you could visit that also could be on the verge of rather significant changes is Rye Playland. The two dark rides there are real classics. Even if you chose to get wristbands, the price per person is probably comparable to a after 4pm ticket to Compounce. If you've been before and been on everything, obviously that might be a skip, but their Derby Racer is by far the best existing version of the ride, and they have a really solid Whip too in addition to the coasters.

Le Cobra being demolished for a RMC would seriously be one of the greatest upgrades in history. I 100% approve if that's the situation.

They had already tried to compensate by launching the coaster pretty much directly into trim brakes. Still, someone's math wasn't very good.

The giant seatbacks are parachutes too. I'm not some patch jacket ACEr and I also am not a giant, but the redone restraints pin my legs in such an uncomfortable position that , when combined with the ops pushing down, leads to me being super uncomfortable and disliking my ride. Classic case of increasing the forces on rides and needing to them force people to stay in their seats with increasing restraints commensurate to the newly applied force. Except in this case, they screwed up badly the first time and had to come back with this jerry-rigged system that blows goats. It isn't my preference.

The top picture has everything from the top of the bunny hop on obscured, but shows how the track curves leading up to it. The bottom picture shows it from a straight on angle, and you can see how the layout has a little kink there.