dippindotsguy8

This park could honestly use the shade canopies though. The Northern lights queue is unbearable on most days. Monster's queue needs it also.

Great photos! I think it's safe to assume this will be the best coaster in the park when it opens.

I think these statements are why people thought you were being serious

Hopefully, those drop slides won't be as wedgie-inducing, scrape your back, or plug your nose full of water like the older drop/speed slides that I have ridden - I have my doubts though. Those things are usually more painful than they are fun. My general experience has been that any speed slides built in the last decade have been far less pain-inducing. Somewhere along the way, they figured out how to have the run-outs not kill you. I'm sure the new slides will be fine. VF's older speed slides are also some of the worst I've experienced.

I think you're obsessing a bit. I just don't think that the need for and timing of a coaster addition can be reduced to any kind of formula or pattern. I believe it really has more to do with what happens in the industry, what the park is lacking, how well the park is attended, and so on. Most of those factors change with the wind. While I can agree that some of the parks listed should really build something big sooner than later, it comes down to the needs of the individual park and it's market at any given time. The amount of years it has been has very little to do with it in my mind. Unless of course all of those years have allowed your competition to get too far ahead, or caused you to lose a substantial part of your target market.

This is what I was talking about with Jew. They drop a vine of the first drop, not even racing, and then let the fan sites do the work tomorrow. Come on, this is Southern California. Hollywood is a few miles away, so how hard is it to strap a handful of cameras to the first train, and film it's first run? ...wait, that'd require money. ...and this is Six Flags. Nevermind. I generally agree with you. At the same time, I'm not going to hold today's lack of a full video against them unless the tour thing happens tomorrow, several days go by, and we still don't see any solid footage (doubtful). It's reasonable to to believe they wanted to run it once or twice before worrying about getting it all on camera.

I'm likely visiting the park the tuesday or wednesday after 4th of July weekend. Any idea what I should expect for crowds? Probably going to be buying flash passes either way.

I'm sorry, but that is such bull$#it... How come SFNE can take and post to the media a video of Wicked Cyclone's first test run [and it was pretty apparent by the applause after it was the FIRST], but there's some sort of super top secret PR blockade that makes SFMM or Twisted Colussus different? Seriously SFMM?..... Maybe because they want to save the first viewable test for all the media people coming tomorrow? Especially if they were told they'd be given first opportunity to publish testing footage.

Poor Carowinds, this park's gonna need to pull a top thrill dragster and have signs in the queue saying, "Occasionally a train may come to a stop on the lift hill..." The unfortunate dark side of social media is that people who don't know anything about a given subject will post about it anyways, because want to get attention or be a hero. Overheard at Valleyfair... "This is stupid. The park should really only close Power Tower for storms, because that will attract the lightning away from everything else."

How about one of these? Gerstlauer offers a 24-seat version, though nobody has built one yet. As a tribute to the old Flight Commander, call it XK2. Someone needs to make a windseeker-sized version of it. Imagine doing those rolls at 300 feet!

Fixed

Exciting! Man it's gonna be cold for the first few riders. Aren't you all still getting random snowfall up in MN? It's supposed to be 70 on Thursday. Also, do they just throw a water dummy down the slide to test it? If not, how do people test a waterslide? Also, I caught Power Tower testing today. I'm guessing that first they'll just be doing mechanical testing of the pumps, drop boxes, etc. Going forward from there, maybe dummies are used.... the only thing that seems weird about that is that they could potentially scrape up the slides. My gut tells me they've done enough calculations and just send a real person down, once they know the mechanical stuff is working properly. I could be completely wrong though.

So you could say its.... MIA

Exciting! Man it's gonna be cold for the first few riders. Aren't you all still getting random snowfall up in MN?

I wasn't suggesting you couldn't handle it, lol. I was trying to explain that I don't enjoy being Debbie Downer.... rather, I'm just making an effort to bring some balance to this thread.

Probably KBF for Iron Reef.

Knotts: Xcelerator/Zoom tie SFMM: X2 on a good day, soon to be ousted by Twisted Colossus Disneyland: Matterhorn, Left side

You won't. Sorry to hear it's potentially down for your one visit though. I know that sucks.

Ooh, looks like it's gonna be an Arrow. Should be fun. Also, going off of that, WOF apparently is adding a B&M-looking hyper, and Dorney's lined up for a GCI. Honestly, I really hate being the negative/pessimistic guy on here... I just can't help but try to shield you all from the disappointment you frequently set yourselves up for. I know how fun it is to speculate, but there's a line somewhere. I mean well - I promise. ..... On an unrelated note, here's a question just for fun, for anyone who wants to play along. If you had control of VF's next three additions/expansions/etc, what would you build? Money is not a primary object, but try to be realistic. What three additions over... let's say the next 10 years... would be the smartest moves for the park in your mind? Try to think as an owner/business person and not primarily as an enthusiast. This is not necessarily what you want, but what you think would best improve the park as a whole. For me, three things that would be important are: 1. A replacement of the Flume, preferably one that pays substantial tribute to the original. It should be scenic, feature some surprises interspersed with relaxing sections (I'm thinking of the tunnel with the mini-drop followed by the waterfall contrasted with the gentle cruise over the pond). As much as I like the heavily themed, semi-enclosed flume rides, that's not what we lost, and I would want a replacement that makes restitution for what happened in 2009. We have the other style down the road at NU. Also, a flume is a true family attraction. Not only are most people able to ride it, but most would also be excited to ride it. Finally, people obviously care about nostalgia. Just look at the response to the initial removal of antique autos, the recent removal of the classic neon "Valleyfair!" sign, every comment on the recent "tell us a memory of the flume" facebook post, and so on. 2. A substantially thrilling coaster. I wouldn't mind an RMC, but I also think we have both the fast-paced and classic versions of wooden coasters taken care of. I'd be particularly interested in either a B&M flyer, full-sized dive coaster, or a Mack/Intamin/Premier launched looping coaster. Any of these would be great for the park, because it would plug something visually intimidating into the coaster lineup. 3. Further development of the water park. Before all is said and done, I'd like to see the following: Tube slides, either a Tornado, bowl, or boomerango/wall slide, and a full-fledged water play-structure. A stretch would be to eventually build a proslide water coaster, which could do really well with almost all of the GP. People don't really get scared of them, but most people find them exciting/intriguing and fun. The old body slides can stay, though the original speed slides are no longer necessary and could be replaced with something. I also hope Raging Rapids never leaves, because it's relatively unique and one of my favorite things at any water park. Of course this is by no means a complete list of what would be cool to build, but I tried to fill what I perceive to be the biggest holes in the park's current offerings. I'd really like to see a dark ride as well, but it didn't quite make my top 3.

X2 is just really inconsistent in terms of roughness/bouncy-ness in my experience. I've had rides that were smooth as glass, and others that were rather violent. Too many variables are involved, from sitting inside vs. outside, whether you're sitting alone or with another person, how full the train is, time of day, etc. It's just a ride that may or may not beat you up. To me (and most guests) it's worth it, but I know Schilke mentioned at IAAPA that he was frustrated with that aspect of the ride.

Pardon me if I misunderstood, but.... are you suggesting that Gemini does nothing for the park and should be removed? I'm just not sure if I read that correctly.

Modern Love, David Bowie

The video is your property to use how you want. That's the only reason I can come up with. Other reasons might include wanting to film a particular row (there's not enough back-seat pov's out there), wanting a particular time of day/lighting, etc. I agree that for the most part, it's pointless, but still. If I had the equipment and had permission, I can think of things I would want to film.

FlyOver America is going in place of the ballroom/great hall/whatever the most recent name was. It's in the southeast corner of the park.

I would think that by definition, if your legs can come and over the divider, that's unsafe. Your friend probably wouldn't have fallen out, but I would be uncomfortable with a small child riding it with that much wiggle room.