GLund

Have you SEEN the ride ops at SFMM? It's pretty much self explanatory.

I don't mind going to shows in fact I enjoy them - when they're good. The shows at Magic Mountain the past couple years have been just plain sad.

^Probably because it's easier to inspect. Especially considering this is a new style track they have, they probably want to keep their eyes out for anything abnormal that they wouldn't see on a tried and true style track.

Wow. Hate to be negative but even through the photos I understand the "not finished" feeling you're talking about at Ferrari World. Looks like they had a lot of great ideas that started up, then lost funding or interest and just completely stopped! Its kinda sad to be honest with a project scope as large as this. You didn't sound too bummed to miss Formula Rosa. I don't really blame you! Thanks for the PTR though, it's nice to see how things are going there!

I believe that red circle is an elevation marker that's used as a "control point" to map out the hight of the land in different areas surrounding the rides location. It helps to measure and level the land to the ride specifications where Green Lantern will be built. Nice update, kinda ended ubruptly though...

Ugh, one of my issues with the Flash Pass type systems is how much it substantially effects the GP line - especially on rides with such low capacity. I probably won't be waiting in line to ride this when it first opens anyway, so I won't have to worry about it. But I still have sympathy for my fellow coaster enthusiasts who have to wait in line.

Yeah, whenever anyone used to say there's no ejector air in Southern California, I'd bring up sitting in the very backseat of Ghostrider. That drop right after the turnaround above Ghostriders station is ridiculous. It is one of the ONLY drops I've been on where its hard for me to keep my hands up because of how forcefully the you'd lift up against the restraint.

I apologize for the double post but does anyone know if Ghostrider is still down? My friends are going to the park tomorrow and want me to go, but I made previous plans and I'm not going to break them if I can't go on my favorite woodie. Thanks in advance!

^Hence why its best to walk across then use Taxi's. But I wouldn't even do that anymore.

Hmmm...very true. But I have a feeling Deja Vu will still take the edge for overall ride experience in my book. The issues surrounding the ride operators and management are complicated, and the issues we see has to do with the relationship between them. First, the ride operators need to feel a sense of motivation to operate the rides efficiently, which is something they don't have right now because it doesn't matter if they send out 20 trains or 40 trains in an hour, they're still getting paid the same and they're still going to keep their job. Ride operators see each other all day long and most prefer to get along rather than fight, so instead of telling a fellow ride operator to pick up the pace and move fast, nothing is said when a fellow employee is slacking off. This perpetuates an attitude of "if he's slacking off and I don't get on his ass about it, then I can slack off too," and the result is a whole bunch of employees with no motivation to push each other. Second, management needs to feel an obligation to keep ride ops operating efficiently without worrying about the residual effects of "cracking down on slackers" or "firing employees with no sense of urgency." The way the park works now, management and ride ops are "friends" and don't want to ruin that relationship by stressing one another to get the job done quicker. Many of these managers have been ride ops for many years and know the people below them. They were lazy when they were ops, why would they start forcing ops to work faster now? Last, and this is the sad part: I have seen a perfectly new motivated model employee turn to mush in days by a long term ride op firsthand, because of the ripple effect attitude of "don't work too hard its not worth it" "this job sucks" and "the only reason we have to move is because guests keep getting in line." It really is a cancerous attitude that is way too deep to counteract with traditional motivation methods or rewards (which I assure you the park has spent time and money to try and fix these issues in the past. I have been to the classes/meetings in person). The only solution I've come to think of is a flush-out of all current management in ride operations. A new leader with authority to lay down rules and stick to them is essential, and managers beneath him that are willing to tell an employee to go home when they look miserable or are moving inefficiently slow. This is how Disney does it -- if you don't want to do your job well and with a smile, you'll get sent home because there are plenty of people that will. When people are afraid of under-performing because they will lose pay as a result, you'd be amazed how it lights a fire under their ass. I apologize for the lengthy post but I just wanted to give a 1st person perspective of the issues regarding bad operations at the park. It really is a terrible situation that has grown larger due to long term mismanagement and little accountability. I don't think the issue will ever be fixed, and my hope is perhaps management will read this and understand how both guests and a minority of hard-working employees feel about the lackluster operations at the park.

^Thanks for the link! I'm excited to see how this "parking lot" coaster fits in there between Superman and Ka!

I would not recommend crossing the border into Tijuana. If you take your car, its a good chance you won't have it when you come back. If you walk across and take a taxi, you can get kidnapped. It's bad enough for natives of TJ, but you'd have to be insane to be American and even step foot over there right now.

^It'll be quick. Electrics and computers are one thing, but I'd say the track structure could be done in one to two weeks if they hustle. I still can't imagine how long the lines are going to be for this ride when it opens. Capacity is going to hurt so bad, and the ride experience doesn't justify that kind of wait.

I believe Riddlers other train is being rehabbed and should be back this Spring or sooner. No confirmation on a new train to get the total up to 3, and I suspect we won't get one anytime soon. They're expensive! But what they could do is take a train off Scream and bring it to Riddler for a combo floorless/standup coaster. Of course that wouldn't work, but it'd be sweet if it could! Seriously, what took them so long? I imagine what'll end up happening is the rides will go back to 2 train operation and the sign won't be removed, so it'll just end up confusing everyone.

Pics or it didn't happen. Of course I'm kidding. Thanks for the update!

Liking the technical discussion guys! Learning a lot from y'all. I'm not quite sure what you mean by "sets up," but I'm assuming that means the chain stops and has to be reset if the train is dispatched to lift before it clears the safety brake block (or block brakes if you're talking about a ride like Raptor). To the best of my knowledge that's not how Batman at Magic Mountain works. It does the same thing as Silver Bullet, it will advance to lift once the train ahead of it clears the lift block, but if train 1 has not cleared the first set of safety brakes while train 2 approaches the top of the lift it will come to a slow or stop until the block ahead of it is clear.There's no reset, the chain starts up again and the train is sent off the lift to the circuit. Of course the only realistic time this would happen on Batman is during testing at the beginning of the day, its practically impossible to dispatch trains that fast on Batman with guests. I'm not doubting your facts and I believe you about Raptor, it just seems a bit of a pain in the ass to have an employee walk up the lift to reset the chain with guests on board if your timing is off. The only reason this would happen is if the operators aren't pushing the dispatch/advance button as the train approaches the station. So in that respect it is for safety reasons because it ensures the train doesn't come into the station without the approval of the operators to advance the train. However, it doesn't mean the train is required to come to a stop every single time before the train comes into the station. I wasn't certified for all the rides at both parks so I can't say ALL of them are the same, but at Knott's and Magic Mountain, if operators are running the ride well and are holding the dispatch button as the train comes into the transfers/waiting, the train can go right from the transfer/waiting to the station without stopping. Basically if they're doing their job well, once the ride starts and the train gets moving up the lift, you shouldn't come to a complete stop the entire ride until you're all the way back in the station. As we know at parks like Magic Mountain, this rarely happens due to operators talking/picking their noses.

^It's funny how that happens to us enthusiasts, ain't it? I get the same way when I've been away from coasters for too long.

^lol. But we do know the answer. There's just one guy that doesn't know what he's talking about and he's confusing everyone for no reason. Exactly. On a ride like Batman, it is pretty rare to get a train dispatched to lift before the other train hits the first set of brakes, but on rides like Silver Bullet because of its length and ride duration its a lot easier. Once dispatched from the station, the train will go up the lift until it gets close to the top, then the chain will slow (sometimes even stop) until the train ahead of it on the circuit clears the first set of block brakes. After clear, the chain starts up again and the train is sent off the lift.

^I believe the boys from Jackass did something like that on an episode of WildBoyz. Pretty freakin' scary and hilarious! But you're right, with how this is being installed in Fiesta Village that would be a good way to tie in the ride with the area.

In the photos you can see how much wider the seats are compared to the old trains due to the over the shoulder restraints. I'm guessing that's why there's been a clearance issue with the sides of the tunnel (which may result in those arm protectors seen on ToT2), and why there's only 2 seats in the back.

How high up the tower was the old car going?

Still after all this time its unfortunate to hear of the long/slow lines for X2. I have a question, did it seem like the crew wasn't working as fast as they could? Were they stacking? Or were there so many people in line it just took time to get through all of them? Really wish when they updated the ride they would have found a more efficient way to load/unload those trains. Because even sometimes when you walk right up to the station, you end up waiting 20 minutes just to get on. Really depends on the mood of the ride operators. Sad to say, but I usually just skip X2 now because I don't want to stand in that slow line, and I can't stand when they employees are dragging their feet or stacking trains.

Lets not start making Six Flags the standard of the amusement industry. Once you start doing that pretty much anything can be looked at as above average! But 2,000 PPH is a very good number. Too bad people can't behave themselves. I thought this would have happened sooner to be honest.

I know this is a couple pages late, but I think the reason you barely see the red in the POV is because of the angle of the camera and the design of the car. If you're looking over the nose of the car when you're riding, it blocks a section to a section and a half of the track in front of you, so it may appear like you're just barely in the red even though the nose of the car is clearing it by more if you're on the ground watching. Also, the camera isn't pointed down to the nose of the train either, and if it was I have a feeling you'd see a lot more red. The E-Brakes at the top have no moving parts, they're more like magnets you see on B&M's and Intamins to slow the train down just in case. There's nothing mechanical up there that needs to work, so if they decided to launch the car to pass the magnetic brakes every time, it wouldn't be an issue and wouldn't cause any damage. Not sure what you mean by this. Back in 96 Superman had problems with electricity because the wire gauge was too small to withstand the power the ride was taking but that was fixed long ago. The ride takes the same amount of power for each launch regardless of the launch speed. That's LSM's for ya. The problem with launching the ride at 100 is and has always been the computers that identify the location of the car on the track to fire the magnets sequentially. This timing is exceptionally fast. The computers they used to have had problems with such excessive speeds and would shut down the ride every couple cycles at the 100 MPH speed. This is why the ride ran at about 85 for the past decade - it was the fastest speed the computers could keep up with to keep downtime a minimum. It appears this issue has been fixed, especially if they are consistently launching trains at this new speed. I think these videos of the ride going to the top of the tower show the park has done A LOT to the ride that maybe we aren't aware of, as there has not been any kind of technology leak to the public regarding the computer system, magnets or cooling system. Perhaps we will have to wait until WCB Q&A to get an answer from those in the know. But as Robb mentioned, I for one am very happy to see this ride get some TLC it so desperately needed, and the ride not making it up to the very top by a couple feet is not going to make or break my appreciation for its refurbishment, or my excitement for the rides opening day.

Robb, why do you even bother wasting your time on these people that think it's too expensive? They're not going to change their mind anyway. Didn't the event at MM sell out last year? Don't worry about convincing the naysayers, there are plenty of people who think a day full of events at MM filled with ERT and a bunch of extras is MORE THAN WORTH the price of admission, including me!