chadster

^^That made me sick when I first saw it on their FB page... Anyway, big changes to their policies this year. Re-Rides are now allowed on many rides as long as no one is waiting for your row or in line. And even if people are in line for say Fjord as long as their are enough empty seats you can stay on if you wish. Starting about 30 minutes before park opening they are shuttling people in the park gates to allow you to purchase a locker, buy crap, etc and then allow SP holders into the rides portion of the park 15 minutes early. Sadly on Saturday many rides were not open until after 10am with some not opening until closer to 10:30 Adults are now allowed on Cosmic Coaster, no max height limits without an adult are listed on the new signage. Having said that they are still suffering operationally with their food and beverage staffs having no clue how to run a register or fill a fry order, I suspect they received no training and were receiving on the job training, not a pretty thing on a busy Saturday. Very few returning rides staff that I could tell resulting in slower operations not to mention many I found to be unfriendly. Fortunately that improved with a staff swap for evening ops but certainly needs to be worked on along with employee level of park knowledge. Asked some very basic questions like where is the new coffee shop, no one could tell me (Pro tip: It's next to Front Street Gifts) The crews at Prowler and Mamba seemed to be the friendliest. So lets take a quick tour and see what's new. The gift shop is new. Fast Lane is new and advertised very heavily throughout the park. It also appears to be ran well with Patriot, Mamba, and Prowler basically having been pre-equipped for it and merging at the platform, they did a nice job incorporating it into the other rides merging into the main line for most as I recall. You can come in and walk around the plaza area now prior to park opening. Some of the ADA improvements in Ouch Wolf. The moved and revamped cosmic coaster. and the redone train. No height max listed. Noted. Choo Choo for David. Thunderhawk is up and running well....finally, I'm sure the park is glad the nightmare with this ride is behind them. This year they have microphones for prizes. and miniature dongs. The new coffee shop looks much like a Starbucks With Starbucks pricing. And finally this year the Pagoda decided to serve nachos over Chicago dogs.

You sir have far too much time on your hands

^ Yeah, you almost got your ass kicked by that kids dad until he found out his little angel stole YOUR seat and not the other way around, LMAO!

I'm sponsoring a Castle Park Ticket Giveaway for GKTW, click here for details!

This weeks adventure comes via Castle Park, a park that Bud Hurlbut built in 1976. Some of the same touches and even attractions that you might have found at Knotts can be found at Castle Park. For instance the Tilt-A-Whirl and Taxi Cabs both originated at Knotts and some of the rides area bears similar architecture. The golf course looks amazing and carries tremendous themeing and was something I didn't have time to experience on my visit, likewise with the arcade. Unfortunately under Palace management the park appears to be suffering from a few maintenance issues. The park itself was clean but it just seems to be missing the details that you can tell once existed. Nevertheless I do plan to return to the park as I still need the Demon credit and I want to try out the golf course. And guess what, you can visit too as I'm giving away 2 FREE ride wristbands! All you have to do is donate to my Coasting For Kids page to receive your chance to win! Here are the details: $5 - 1 entry $20 - 5 entries Contest entry ends Monday May 7, 2012 at Noon CST Winner chosen via random drawing and will be announced during the May 7th edition of Chadster's Vacation Adventures Easy right? Not only do you help a great cause, but you could get $50 (at current retail price) worth of tickets! Now on to the photos, but before we do, a HUGE shout out to Ice Bat for being the first to correctly answer the question posed for last weeks edition, Does Bubba Gumps serve fresh fish? That would be a huge no. Welcome to Castle Park, where the gate attendants sweep when bored. First up, Screamin' Demon. Errrrm, or maybe not... I'm guessing those cables might be needed for something... True Story - I've attempted to gain this credit in Jan, Feb, and March of 2012 to no avail. So since that's not working, lets fly on over to a different coaster Hi Disneyland! I thought this was an awesome shot, see, it is possible to put lipstick on a pig. So ChrisRad, Fatdaddy, and myself all assumed the position. As you can tell Caesar likes his roller skaters. And we rode, as you can tell, the wizard has seen better days. Everyone likes a good pus every now and again, well, most everyone. The falling star would do no falling on this day. Here you can see some of the touches Bud added to the park Same over here by the scrambled eggs. As well as here. I would have walked right past this replica of the liberty bell that Bud commissioned, one of two made, had it not been for Caesar. The other is at the Hall at Knotts. They also have a rare 1905 Dentzel Carousel, all hand carved. Horseys! I couldn't fit it all in Licensed from Disney I'm sure. This tilt came to the park via Knotts. And of course we can't forget about the parks train. Caesar says the old carny running the ride has been at the park forever. Also from Knotts are the Taxis Fire fire fire fire Can anyone tell what's strange about the Sea Dragon? Hey look, the YoYo has themeing! "How the hell DOES this thing work?" A normally strong running ride, their S&S has some major issues, so much so they only load two sides, the sides with the fewest seats despite a rather long line. BIG SQUIRT! Even though their flume is more or less a standard model, they did a nice job incorporating it into the parks theme So back to the Sea Dragon....the sign is on the wrong side! and here we come to the last ride of the night. In fact, it's Chris' number 1 coaster of all time Caesar on the other hand, doesn't rank it very high... So that's it, hope you enjoyed a quick look at Castle Park, be sure to post your comments and don't forget to enter the ticket giveaway contest!! Next week: Credit Whore Park, also known as All Star Adventures in Wichita Kansas!

Not sure why I'm reviving it, but I am... Six Flags.... Cedar Fair Silver Dollar City

According to the court documents, Swank replaced a few hundred feet of track wood at his own expense, not quite sure why he would do that if he didn't have something to gain from it other than possibly bringing in more people to the park or if he was the one to foot the operational costs for the Blue Streak and then gains from the revenue received from it(I do not know the answer to that one). That being said, I'm not saying he was the one to maintain the ride as we know Adams did the rework on it, but it's quite obvious it's going to get ugly, quick. Something else hit on in the e-mail exchange dealt with price, which has been discussed in this thread and the fact that it's a little overpriced for what it is which translates into the lower attendance figures.

According to E-Mails filed as part of a lawsuit by the former rides manager of the park, the Blue Streak, in his opinion, remains a public safety hazard to this date. Honestly, just the reading of the e-mails, this park is doomed probably more so than ever. The Board of Trustees appears to be using it as their personal play ground with little to no motivation to get things done properly and in a timely fashion. Almost as if they are managing by hoping the problems will fix themselves. Again, just judging solely based on the evidence in the lawsuit, they need to make some serious changes for long term viability. If they would have just given him back his french fry fryer...

^From the air, it looks mostly out and back which matches what was posted recently to screamscape.

I think now on the top of my list is the kiddie woodie at Rye Playland.

^Overbanked turns is about it.

This is the first time I think I have ever seen Snoopy Nekid! The ride looks amazing, great job guys, can't wait to ride on the Leviathon trip and coupled with ERT and front of line passes, yeah, I might find a nice home on this after completing a credit run.

Looks like it's sitting on top of laminate from the bottom angle, like beam laminate and not in the traditional sense seen on traditional woodies. The employees are the ones putting up with the headache as I'm told from the several I talked to they get asked constantly about what it's going to be and they are left telling them, "I don't know" A big sign that says opening in 2013 should cure a few issues.

I'd say right now close to 75feet with at least another 25, maybe 50 to go. As promised here are photos from today of the non-coaster. Gee, I wonder what they are building back here... It must be some sort of drive-in movie theatre, because they aren't building a coaster. No sir, park employees know of no coaster being installed, in fact, you don't see that construction going on back there. It's purely your imagination. In fact this here is a land mine training facility and not to be used as footers for a coaster that might possibly swing around behind say an opera house. And just to re-enforce the fact that we are not building anything at all, we are putting up this fence so you can't see what's not going on. And here is more of that drive-in movie screen structure, as you can see from the angle, part of your movie might be cut off. Maybe they just haven't put up the other half of the triangle yet. It's gonna be a tall whatever, maybe its for training of fireman, I mean, they need training on rescues from tall heights, say 10 stories and more. They are still working on that tornado shelter thats located somewhat close to the movie screen, but totally possible that the distance between the two is far enough that if Mr. Tornado hit, he'd miss one or the other. Perhaps this is where you will purchase your movie tickets. It appears to be large enough to accommodate about a hundred people, maybe more if you squish. So yeah, hmmm, I know, maybe its a ski slope! I'd say it's plausible that it could be a ski slope. But not likely. Because I saw Rocky Mountain stamped on one of those And Rocky Mountain designs and builds wooden roller coasters with a state of art track system... and this is topper track, therefore this MUST be a wooden coaster. If it looks like a duck.... Even the GP knows they are building a wooden coaster, it's slightly obvious, but the staff is still supposed to ignore that little project back there, it doesn't exist. Word on the street is the park might not make an announcement until September/October. By then you'll probably see a train running around on it! I'd say they might ought to think about making that announcement soon, doubtful it can be hidden too much longer...

At the park now, topper track is being installed on the lift as I write. Will have pictures late tonight or early morning.

Pricing announced, still no official opening date, according to the newscast they are saying mid-summer, the actual news report says start of summer but then again, its the local news... abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news%2Flocal&id=8636224

I usually check out the "scenery"

Excellent TR, very impressive, thanks for sharing!

^Tune in next week for an opportunity to win a couple of park tickets!

We'll let you pass on this one, but please, back to our regularly scheduled updates

Thanks for the compliments guys! If anyone would like to show even more appreciation, you can always donate to my coasting for kids page I'll be at the shoot for session one as well

I don't recall any of this...

Awesome!

Noted! This. In my little town in central Oklahoma we have two fish markets that fly fresh fish in twice daily. Both have their own restaurants attached and both supply that fish to various sit-down restaurants in town, so it's not hard to get fresh fish, but it requires a chef to design his or her menu around what they can get. My guess with Gumps being a chain, they have a corporate chef to set the menu which requires them to produce/purchase pre-battered shrimp, fish, etc. IMO fresh is better and when I go to a fish/shrimp restaurant I expect fresh, or maybe I'm just a snob

Here is a little something something from the park this weekend... Hello Flashback, here's to hoping you leave soon Superman is looking all sexy tonight And now we visit Anton's Holy Shrine. Night rides are the best on Shockwave So much forceful than daytime It's a shame someone broke it last year during NTAG bash... Judge received some new wood this year, top layer in some places, two layers in others. Running much much better than last year. Hello NTAG, you too are running just as you did on opening day. Woooosh Yuuup! Life is good. Goodnight SFOT, see you sooner than you think!