John Knotts

Wow...basically every ride on the face of the planet needs a makeover. Things really are bad!

Yeah Thrust Air and Stealth...lol Two stellar rides right there (sarcasm). I'm not so sure the park itself went down hill until the last few years under Cedar Fair. It's just the lack of exciting investments made the park a bore to visit. If CF were to suddenly add two modern coasters ( say a GCI and an Intamin launch), the park's stock would pick right back up. This is one of those cases where coasters (or lack there of) really do make the difference.

Haha nice... The park actually seems to be looking rather nice and clean.

I'd have to agree that the evolution of Intamin was the largest achievement of the decade. From the Rocket coaster, to the Pre-fab, Giga, Mega-lite and multi-launch, nothing else really comes close.

The original X. What a mess!

^ yeah I'd be willing to bet that Six Flags wouldn't get a single offer for SFMM, and it has nothing to do with the quality of the park. First, they wouldn't get anything close to what they would want for it, and the city would fight them tooth and nail the whole way. Shipiro already tried it, and got his ass handed to him. His tune change real quick soon after that. At this point both SFMM and SFOG are parks that they should definately want in their line up, along with SFGad, SFGam, SFDK and Texas. I also don't think SF could sell of SFOG even if they wanted to.

^ Very underrated ride that no one talks about beyond the ride's theme. It's my second favorite US GCI behind Thunderhead.

I have a feeling the park will survive. Just not under Cedar Fair.

Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, in Kong's spot. That's my dream anyway.

This was HUGE for me, nothing else even comes close. I had a 30 minute conversation with the guy just a few weeks before he passed. He is almost solely responsible for my mid-life change in career and attitude. But I have a few others: -That so many are disappointed in World Of Color. -That CGA was once again passed over for a major ride, and the trend continues next year! -The loss of Jay Thomas at SFMM. Something tells me this will be felt in 2011.

Really silly debate. Both companies have strengths and weaknesses, and which one you prefer is a simple matter of preference. If I owned a park I wouldn't want one over the other. I would want both, and for completely different reasons, which is why most large parks DO have both.

^ Haha...the last few years the crowds at SFMM have been better behaved than Knotts or Disneyland, at least in my experience. For some reason, the worst offenders often appear in the Tatsu line. It's like they LOVE that ride. Weird.

This is just a guess... and of course always subject to delays. Superman in March, Green Lantern and Little Flash by Memorial Day weekend.

I can't really explain why, but I have a feeling that Mack launched will be going to Sea World, and built at least partially indoors. They have been trying to build a coaster there for over a decade, and 2012 would be the perfect year to finally do it. Sounds unlikely I know, given the struggles with the neighbors. But a "mostly" an indoor launch (like FOF) would solve the problem. I honestly would accept a B&M Mega or Intamin hyper/giga at Knotts with open arms. Both have stregnths that California is currently missing. I'd give the slight edge to the Intamin though, simply because after such a long wait for an airtime machine in California, I'd love for them to go all out and go for height and speed.

^ This could be a good thing if it's done right. Without having to please a studio, they can do more of an in-house job, which hopefully means they can tweak the timing so that the line never stops moving. Just put a fun/campy video on a loop, and allow the line to move through it lol.

Haha...who called it? I can see why the park would want to preserve elements of the pre-show. A lot of extra money was spend to make this ride unique in the park's line up. However, I would hope they have read some of the things posted pro and con, and will make adjustments to keep the ride at full capacity. I like the name Apocalypse, a lot!

^ Wow, I was wondering the same thing. Whether Green Lantern will load like X2, or more like Freefall, where each car is in a different state of "load", until you reach the lift.

Go ahead and let it all out guys. From lockers to bad food to lack of flat rides to slow ride ops. Just let it all out!

^ I 100 percent agree with you. The last thing I would want is a bunch of "use to be wood, now we're steel" coasters. This should be the rare exception, not an easy fix everytime a wooden coaster gets rough. I like the idea of the mega-threesome (Texas Giant, Mean Streak, Rattler) getting the treatment, and perhaps even Colossus. But most other "wooden" coasters? Um...no.

Whatever they do, please drop "The Ride" from the title. Otherwise, I really like Apocalypse.

I hope not, although I guess it doesn't really matter that much. Interesting that within 2 years operation, Terminator lost it's on-board audio and now it's name and theme. All those "but it's a wooden coaster with a Terminator theme" folks should be pleased.

Great topic! - Texas Giant -REALLY steep first drops -Holiday World

The fact is, most parks want revenue from both (teens and parents). The parents have the bigger bank account overall, and the teens and single adults have more "disposable" cash and carefree attitude about spending. I don't think it's an either/or, but rather all.

I'm think the attitude from both Knotts and SFMM towards Disney/Universal 2012 isn't going to be so much about direct competition, but rather, "hey while you're in town, pay us a visit as well and ride our new ---------------".

Never liked all the Mark Shapiro faux-family crap anyway, good riddance if it's true! Whenever he talked about family attractions it always felt so forced and pretentious. I'd like to see Six Flags add some really nice family attractions that the whole family can enjoy together from 2 thru 15 years old. There's a difference between "family" and "kiddie". When these decisions are made more attention should be paid to variety. Six Flags (especially SFMM ) seems to leap from kiddie to thrill seeker, with little in between.