DirkFunk

RIP Norway of 1990. Someone somewhere will miss you. Probably more in 20 years than now when people who didn't ride Maelstrom when it operated can pretend that Youtube POVs are the same as an actual experience in riding, and make judgment calls off that. To continue what Robb said - If you want to defend what EPCOT was in those early years, you're defending what is really some reprehensible stuff. Some of the messages pushed by corporations as education are embarrassing in retrospect, even with beloved attractions like World of Motion. I don't get angry much, but I *do* get angry at the few Disney fans out there putting blame on the nation of Norway for not paying huge sums of money to Disney to keep Maelstrom and "protect Norwegian identity". Norway isn't some weird fake entity. It is a real place filled with millions of real people, and that money comes from real tax dollars. Don't tell someone else's government about how they should spend their tax money, especially if it is merely to keep a mediocre themed ride in its place at a for-profit, publicly traded theme park.

Rides like Witch's Brew (Hustlers and Tempests) are pretty common still on the fair circuit. I don't know why anyone would rush to buy these when there's better attractions sitting in winter quarters of most every company.

St. Croix's shore excursions are all completely overpriced. Don't bother with them. Option 1) get off the ship, walk down the pier, go to the fort. Fort Frederik was originally built roughly 250 years ago by the Danish and costs some hilariously nominal amount to enter and tour on your own - its like $3. We self toured it and spent about an hour reading all the signage, taking pictures, stuff like that. I actually found it informative and discovered how shockingly little I knew about the USVI's history. You can then walk along the water front, get some drinks which will be cheaper/stronger than on the ship and return. Option 2) Get a taxi and take it to a local beach. I'm told Rainbow Beach is nice and I plan on doing that when I go in about 4 weeks time. Taxi ride is less than $30 RT and you can get a couple loungers and an umbrella for something like $25 once you arrive.

This article is so money - easily the best thing I can ever remember being written about not only the water park industry, but the theme park/amusement world in eons. Of course, its A) not about Mickey B) it's on a "sports site" (lolololol theme park nerds) C) its more than 400 words so no one is going to pay attention to it.

I'm sure Kings Dominion will get something eventually, but wasn't the whole situation with Carowinds being expanded out partially related to Kings Dominion? My recollection was that Cedar Fair couldn't get the tax breaks it wanted in VA to do the job there, but found willing partners in the Carolinas to cut them the deal that they wanted.

Dal Freeman is Lagoon's version of John Fetterman. Yeah, a lot of parks just pick up the phone and buy something, we all know that. Lagoon doesn't necessarily and this looks freakin' awesome as a result. THIS is the most interesting ride of 2015 IMO. Has been since I saw the early construction.

Oooh, creativity! I like imagining names. Steel Gunt The Kinzel Experience Hookers on Meth King Jason (Lebron's image cost too much, so they settled for Cleveland Indian/BALCO client Jason Giambi. Much cheaper.) FUPAhawk The Fappening Patriotic Snoopy Coaster Presented by Swisher Sweets

I always thought the barrier to floorless trains on Mantis was that it was money being spent on a ride that couldn't be marketed as new. This actually makes me really happy - creates another high capacity, fun ride in the park where there was a slow loading rough one before. Also allows them the chance to have a "new" sit down looping coaster. This is good, even if it won't help my "coaster count".

I can't imagine complaining about Skyway going away. Yeah, it was a kinda interesting Von Roll that barely worked. They've been running it with horrible capacity for the last 15 years, and it frankly didn't go far enough across to the park to feel that substantive. The Great Adventure skyride I'd be angry about. Cedar Point's might lead to some nerd rage. New England's? Nah.

We both know the actual number of people that Michigan's Adventure serves is far greater than the population of Muskegon proper, or even that of the Michigan Lakeshore combined with West Michigan's cities. At least, we should, given the number of resort towns up and down the shore. If the argument is "they shouldn't because they don't have serious competition," then you should probably consider application of that beyond West Michigan before relying on it too heavily. What expansion is happening? I like Matt Ouimet, but I disagree with him about Michigan's Adventure. I would also like to respectfully point out that saying "senior management says so" in an industry where literally any of us couldn't have done a worse job than Gary Story (IAAPA Chairman of the Board Gary Story!) did operating Six Flags is a tenuous argument. Reading in between the lines, I see that he's probably worried about cannibalizing attendance from Cedar Point in making any improvements at Michigan's Adventure. Which is supposedly something that Kinzel was of the opinion of, and why the chain bought the park to begin with. At least, so the legends go. The theme park industry in the US and Canada is mature and still in a period of consolidation. Do any parks "need" anything? Most don't because the majority of them don't have any serious competition. The problem for me isn't that Michigan's Adventure lacks a solid coaster lineup - there's three wood coasters and a significant steel coaster in Thunderhawk. Adding a steel coaster for me doesn't fix the greater issues, like how 3/4 of the buildings are made of plain painted cinder block.It doesn't have a single indoor attraction of any kind at all. The park has huge swaths of unshaded midway. It looks like a permanent fair with a water park. Personally, I liked the new beer garden area more than I liked the glacially loading flyers, but I'd like to see that kind of attention, you know, elsewhere in the park. Michigan is filled with haunted attractions of all sorts: probably more than any other state I've ever been in. They have the option of using the picnic pavilions for haunted houses just like every other regional themer to keep tougher weather out. I know plenty of other groups have run haunted houses out west (Double JJ had one last year) and up north. I think pointing at weather as a significant concern when the blueprints on how to expand business into the fall season exist is more about making excuses than being really honest as to what the motivations are. I just think Cedar Fair doesn't want to risk cannibalizing any of the business they get for Cedar Point's Halloweekends because they know the people who would be drawn to Michigan's Adventure would almost entirely be Michigan residents who might otherwise have traveled to Sandusky.

I know I'm not the only person being responded to in this, but one of the tough parts with discussing Michigan's Adventure online is that it turns into a never ending volley of strawmen. "The park is at market capacity" is known how? How do we come to the arbitrary $15-20-25 million dollar price tag for attractions? Frankly, Michigan's Adventure should make a substantial profit margin. It doesn't have shows and performers to pay. Existing infrastructure like buildings are often spartan in adornment and design, requiring a minimum of maintenance. They don't keep animals beyond some carp in the pond. Food options are limited, so they order lots of the same few items rather than a variety of things, simplifying the process. Most of the undeveloped land is left to grow wild, and where they are isn't exactly expensive land to begin with for the purpose of taxation. They've removed costly to maintain attractions and taken over a year to replace them. They should make money hand over fist, especially since there isn't a substantive competitor in the state. None of this goes against the subjective opinions about the park.

I can't argue that it is making money and not dying. Yet is it really maximizing what money it could make? Being "good enough" for many current visitors does not necessarily make render criticism of the park invalid, nor wash away any questions about whether or not improvements could increase its attendance. Referencing that it is profitable is a pretty tired tactic when discussing theme parks, actually, and I'm probably as guilty of it as anyone.

There's a big difference between "survive" and "be good". One is objective - a park either is turning a profit and/or keeping the doors open or it isn't. The other is a subjective statement. Michigan's Adventure no doubt makes money, but is it a "good" park? Maybe if you're a shareholder. I'm not.

They're clearly building some sort of new structure for the train. Aside from that, there's not any earth being moved. Yeah, basically. Or you treat parks that are further away as de facto home parks - Great America, Indiana Beach, Cedar Point, etc. WYSIWYG - I think it sucks, but at least for me the difference in driving between my home and Cedar Point and my home and Michigans Adventure is negligible enough that I still see value in a Platinum Pass. If I lived in Grand Rapids, Traverse City, or Kalamazoo, I'd probably not be as heavily invested in the hobby because, seriously, why bother?

If you've ventured over to the Magic Mountain thread, you can see that someone found a series of redirects for non authorized webpages. Six Flags New England's site is framed much the same way: https://www.sixflags.com/newengland/wicked-cyclone/overview

It's possible. I'd suggest I-94 to I-275 to I-75 South. Someone else mentioned using Route 2 - that has been pretty well rebuilt and I think it offers a far, far more interesting drive to the park than the deathly boring ride through the cornfields on the Expressway. You also don't lose much time since it runs so far south of Sandusky. If the weather is nice, it will be absolutely slammed on Saturdays. But we're talking about the Great Lakes too, and it could be raining and 50 degrees out. I wouldn't buy bands until 10:30-11AM that day. There will also be Fast Lane bands specific to the haunts as well - keep that in mind if they're important to you.

El Locos are alright, but my experience with the one at Indiana Beach is that it has laughably low capacity and breaks down frequently. As unpopular an opinion as it might be, what they're tearing out at Fiesta Texas is some of the best existing infrastructure from the park's construction back in the 1990s, and replacing it with a production model coaster doesn't appeal to me and makes me less likely to go back. Hopefully this is just them trying to throw people off.

Is it true that Zumanjaro has a sign about track lubricant soiling your clothes?

Dude, if you're amped for the ride, that's cool. I think it'll be fun. Maybe I'll be horribly off base and this thing will push people through like its Space Mountain or something like that. I doubt either of us will remember this convo in a few months any how when we see it in action.

Well, its a good thing its going to operate in Pennsylvania at a chocolate themed amusement park then. I'm sure that will cut down on the fatties.

Those are maximum theoretical capacities assuming all the cars are on track and minimal stacking occurs. I'd be shocked if under any conditions Steel Dragon at Seabreeze has ever put through 900 people in one hour ever during its 10 years there.

Its probably off the shelf except the black light bits, but it'll be fun as a ride. My concern is the queue line - yet another attraction at Hersheypark that cycles way, way under 1000PPH. Hell, if it does 500PPH that would be impressive.

The mystery ride you were wondering about is a Hrubetz Tip Top. Hrubetz built some big 'ol carnival type rides in the 60s, and this is a rare surviving example. I rode a portable 7-8 years ago at the Upper Peninsula State Fair in MI, and there's been one at the IX Indoor Amusement Park carnival set up in Cleveland as recently as two years ago owned by Bates Bros. They built versions of fairly common rides like the Paratrooper, and there's some other stuff they came up with like the Meteor that hasn't had the same kind of lasting success.

Guys, don't you know that you need to align your expectations with bathrooms with reality? You can't expect to spend $40 to enter a theme park and $25 to park a vehicle and expect to not be infected with an STD from the toilet seat. A Chlamydia diagnosis is just part of what you should expect when you go to ride the awesome new thrill machine. Hell, I consider rounds of antibiotics and angry questions from my wife just part of the overall experience. Get with the program. (srsly doe ive heard that great adventure on muslim day was (is?) supposed to be the ultimate wtf bathroom experience in america, with people plugging up stuff intentionally to create foot washing opportunities. the worst bathroom i ever saw at a park: williams grove (lolololol) where instead of hand soap I saw COMET sitting on the sink.)

If I was interested in operating rides at Conneaut, I'd actually want it to go to sale assuming the tax debt is erased by the auction. You could walk away with the place for a song and no weighty debt in that instance. Does anyone know if that's the situation?