SeattleJosh

Can anyone give a brief explanation about the type of collaboration that's involved between a chain's corporate headquarters and an individual park's management staff in regards to new attractions? For example every Six Flags park obviously has its own staff of employees in charge of spearheading park development. I'd image they're largely responsible for determining all the attractions, as well as marketing campaigns for that individual park. Is it just a process where the park has to seek permission from the powers-that-be for approval and funding? Or does corporate leadership have much more of an influence about what each of it's parks get (Batman clones anyone)? I've used Six Flags here as an example, however I'm interested in the structure of the industry as a whole. Thanks!!

I don't know how Crazy's day was but I was there today and it was pretty crowded again. By mid-afternoon the third section of the parking lot was about a quarter full. Tatsu's queue was completely full for a good amount of the afternoon. Ninja's line went up the stairs... Superman's line was to the building entrance. I saw Lex Luthor get up to 45 minutes. The line for Colossus went out the entrance at one point... Scream's was about halfway up the stairs. I don't know how long Riddler has been running one train, but I never saw it running more than one today. Around 3pm it had a 90 minute wait. In short, for anyone thinking Black Friday would make it a light day.. au contraire, mon frère.

You get the free fall feeling the first half of the drop, then the second half you're just thinking, "when is this thing going to hit the brakes!?" It seems like you're falling forever. Before I blab on about the specifics, here are the main observations: 1. The ride experienced mechanical issues quite a bit. Pretty much every time I was in line there was an issue at some point. Luckily most of them were minor 10-15 minute delays. 2. The most frequent problem was the catch cars not returning to the station after dropping the gondolas. (Happened four times at least) 3. There was one major two hour delay during mid-afternoon. (the one JJ referenced above) 4. The crew they have working there does a great job. 5. According to Neal Thurman, there is no plans to take out the SR line for Lex Luthor. The reason I asked him is because the main SR sign said something like, "This attraction has a single rider line today." The word, "today" got me a little curious if they only plan on doing it during the busy parts of the season or something. 6. The average wait time for the SR line was around 20-30 minutes (including the mechanical delays). 7. Some of the general public need to take a lesson on what the SR line is. I managed to get on Lex Luthor nine times total. We got to the park early, jogged to the ride, and got on about the 5th cycle. By the time we got off the ride, the line was at about to the front door of the main queue building. We went on some other rides and then came back for another trip on Lex about a hour-and-a-half later. This time we went straight to the SR line, which had NOBODY waiting in it. I got on the ride within about five minutes. We went on some more rides, then the rest of my group had to head home. I decided to stay and get some more rides in through the SR line. I got to the line (which had about five people in it) and that's when the major delay happened. I still don't know what happened exactly, but one of the ride operators was holding about a foot-long piece of severed cable. The cable was very thin, probably about a quarter inch in diameter. One-by-one mechanics filtered into the station area until there were about eight of them all looking around at the ride. They seemed particularly focused on the back of the catch cars. They brought a ladder out and had one of the mechanics climb up in the little cage and go up both sides of the tower slowly to inspect the ride (this was the reason Superman was delayed.) Overall this delay lasted around two hours or so. The most frequent delay that happened (four times that I witnessed) was the catch cars not returning to the station after it dropped the gondolas. The good news is these delays only lasted about 10-15 minutes. They would call in a mechanic and lower the catch cars at a relatively slow pace. When the catch cars reached the bottom, they would run one test cycle and reopen the ride again. One thing that I thought was pathetic was some people's behavior in the SR line. As LaMapa said earlier, the way they have it set up is people in the main queue go through the building, get stopped, and released outside in clusters. The outside portion of the main line usually had about 25-35 people waiting at a given time. Right next to the main line, there is an area where a ride assistant in charge of the final groupings walks up and down looking for groups of 2,3, (etc) to fill the car. Every time I waited in the SR line, there was usually at least one douche bag who would repeatedly yell to the ride assistant something along the lines of, "Come on! That's what we're here for! Use us to fill the seats!" It even got to a point where I apologized to the kid on behalf of the SR line who was just trying to do his job and keep the main line flowing as best he could. I guess some people have a hard time grasping the idea that single rider line is for when a SINGLE seat becomes available. Overall, there were a lot of mechanical issues, but most of them were minor and dealt with swiftly. The loading crew does a fantastic job and works very fast. As for the ride itself, I don't want to over-hype it too much, but get to SFMM and ride this thing!

How long did the breakdown last while you were in the SR line?

Anyone hear how long the Lex Luthor wait times have been so far?

I talked to the director and he said a few things that may, or may not be new. - The ride will definitely run with Superman roaring up the track. - Flash Pass will work for Lex Luthor. - The ride will have a single riders line. - The cars have been dropping around 80mph in the testing phase rather than the 85mph that is being advertised. - He also reaffirmed that the actual drop is 400ft. - I asked him if he knew the specific reason why the ride was delayed and all he gave me was, "we just needed more time to test it." - For anyone that recently bought their season pass (such as myself), you should get an email at some point this week to schedule a ride time between July 9th - 13th. Here is some footage I got: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20qWP8khF8A

I understand the frustration with Six Flags, but it's always dangerous to tailor your whole trip around one attraction whether its a new ride or not. There's always a chance a ride is going to be closed for maintenance and you don't realize it until you get to the entrance and are welcomed by a park employee telling you its going to be down the entire day. As far as Lex Luthor is concerned, it's no different than any other construction project in the world. Unforeseen circumstances always seem to pop up and delay projects on a routine basis.

Hi guys, I started making this park in 2003 and put about seven months of work into it. The goal of this project was to build a realistic Six Flags/Cedar Fair-style park with a water park, Mario kiddie area, hotel resort, RV campground, and rental cabins. The most notable thing about the park is its map size is 256x256 and is almost completely full with rides & scenery. It's not the best park out there or anything, but people seemed to like it eight years ago when I originally uploaded it so I figured it'd be worth posting on here if anyone wants to check it out. A lot of the awesome modern custom scenery people use today wasn't invented yet when this park was being created so there are some objects that look a bit tacky. I think Toon's supports came out shortly after I finished this park. You can download the park HERE. EDIT: Link changed Overall shot of the entire map. (Click here for bigger version) Cars in line to pay for parking. Hotel resort Park entrance (inspired by Cedar Point) Cyclone and some flats The park's icon observation tower and GCI woody. Station and queue line for the park's intamin hyper. Show theater RV Campground Petting farm B&M inverted, obviously inspired by Batman The Ride. Your typical B&M floorless. Station and surrounding area for the park's 4D coaster, "2 Xtreme" S&S Screamin' Squirrel coaster under construction. Intamin inverted impulse coaster, the gift shop, and more flats. Wild mouse coaster, S&S drop towers, and buildings. GCI woody (again) and surrounding area. Area with a sky coaster, double carosel, S&S drop towers, Arrow corkscrew coaster, etc. Super Mario kiddie area and the Intamin hyper. Rental cabins and the beach. Entrance to the water park. The main slide complex. The wave pool and speed slides. Thanks for looking everyone. - Josh

The Wonder Years

Thanks for the video pechoolo. Hopefully more videos start popping up on YouTube with the full drop!

I am flying down for the Washington @ USC game and am also planning on hitting up SFMM the following Sunday (October 3rd). I was just curious how the crowds usually are during the fall weekends (assuming the weather is normal). Will most of the coasters have really short lines or will it be one of those days where the lines are long and every 3 minutes people will be coming from behind saying "excuse me" and cutting me (which SFMM has a bad problem with BTW) Thanks for your help. - Josh