bill_s

I think it's more likely to become Intimidator Jr. than Hurler anything. Or something else to do with racing -- that definitely would have fit the original layout. I don't think they're removing that much of it (yet?), maybe by length yes but not by weight, but they are taking more of it down all the way to the ground (and back) because it hits that threshold that's easier; the layout doesn't offer much for partial cutdown done on most of the others. In return, most of the more different stuff will almost certainly be concentrated there in the bits that really are "from the ground up". How do you really change Hurler's layout much otherwise? There is a new video by Joe K. that shows it from the other side (hardest to see from Grizzly and Ricochet), I noticed the stretch of removed supports between the end of the first curve and the remaining part of the first hill after is longer than I thought, basically the whole section hidden behind the station, they have a lot there to work with. The other recent pic shows that temporary fencing is up slightly outside where the original first curve fence was. Thing I keep noticing is the backstretch and the missing part between the 2 last curves are extremely close together, but I can't figure out how they could use that to change the layout, maybe they won't but it looks significant.

It's not predictable, but generally Sunday is better by a long shot, Saturday is the only really bad day of the week, any park, any weekend. Last week at KD, Monday was more crowded than Sunday. I also think SFA is affected worse when crowded.

Necessities for an amusement park is at least one non-kiddie coaster. That is all. Even bathrooms are optional (especially if they only have one coaster). But without a coaster it's either less than a real amusement park, or more than an amusement park such as a theme park, or something else.

^^-- Good point on Medusa, that reinforces my point (LR joke deleted). TL:DR : There is no evidence a RMC rebuild makes for a less good ride, why spend the extra money? Keep in mind the largest piece of equipment they've used so far is a bucket truck... BTW, you know, seeing some of the steel out behind the park I was thinking it looked like I-beams not track to me -- it just hit me maybe some of it is.

I mentioned the main structure, but also: footers. Also I don't know if they would remove footers to build an entire new coaster, but I think they would, which would probably cost more than putting them in did. There's hundreds of them; for the curves they were in a sense half of the structure, since the wood supports weren't impressive. If a few footers become unused, that's different than all of them mismatching a new ride. And the space they have to fill here is the same size and shape as the old ride. Of the RMCs, it's fairly agreed on that the weakest RMC is Goliath, which wasn't a rebuild, and the strongest is Lightning Rod, also not a rebuild, but also probably twice the cost of what they're spending here. The rebuilds are very competitive, and while they started with more on some of them, others weren't any bigger coasters than Hurler. The redesign process maybe even inspires by challenge a bit, the only coaster they designed from a truly clean slate is Goliath because all their other originals use the terrain and are better for it. Also it just seems wrong, environmentally, to tear down one wood coaster just to build another wood coaster, and perceptions can matter more than physical reality. And doesn't everybody love it when they can turn around a mistake back into the right thing?

^^-- the main lift hill and curve through it is quite a structure, even though the rest of the ride is constructed simplistically.

Has anyone been to the park this week (or Saturdays previous) and seen them working? Maybe they don't plan to do anything all summer. As of last weekend, Hurler deconstruction had proceeded to all the following taken down to the footers: the station exit and curve, the first curve after the drop, the 2 spots between the hills on the backstretch, and the entire descent from the curve through the structure (track cut off) to the final curve (track removed from supports). In addition to the previous track removal and 1st curve fence. A simple idea is the backstretch will go higher the first removal section and lower the second. Or maybe the structure exit turn could connect to the backstretch or 2nd hill of it. There are some rerouting options here, and maybe they're not done yet. It's crazy, abrupt looking. This is mainly as seen from Grizzly lift and high turn.

My sort-of rule #1 is don't go to amusement parks on Saturdays. Going to Knoebels on Saturday and doing pay per ride would be a decent compromise between nothing and more than you bargained for, I would think. Similar the guy who was asking about Great Adventure on a Friday and Sat. -- if Friday is really good, on Saturday will probably be ready to run out of the place screaming by 1 PM. First and last hour on Saturdays can still be worth it if that works out (I may go on a Saturday tonight, but late night in April's not so bad). P.S. the schedule in the first post is mixed up? Shouldn't SFNE be Thurs.?

For Great Adventure, I enjoyed Pasquale's 3 Brothers pizza, just a couple miles south on Monmouth Rd. Have by the slice although I got a small and enjoyed the leftovers the next day too. Unfortunately I don't know of anything near other parks because I rarely spend more than $5 on a meal (Applebee's is definitely no problem if someone else is paying!). For King's Dominion, there is a Guiseppe's 11 miles north at exit 110, OK, and the Rusty Beaver Brewery (haven't tried it, also not open late) in the next shopping center and a Mexican place (smelled good) and chains at exit 104, plus of course Ashland to the south. A useful thing to know about may be the commuter lot at exit 104, 5 miles north of the park, since I'd be wary of parking anywhere near the park. Head west over Rt. 1 and make an immediate right in front of the auto parts store.

Maybe the craziest thing of all with Hypersonic was sitting there waiting to launch and it just looking impossible, the top of the spike was at over a 45 degree angle up from where you were sitting, that extra acceleration really shortens the launch length. It also was one of (?) the first coasters with extreme ejector air and lap bars ... the thing weighed the train to decide how much power to use! I got a good number of rides on it, some with extreme waits, many with early entry (try that first thing in the morning), but the overall experience is more pleasant with Dominator.

I rode the hell out of Galaxi and even remember noticing a low bar at one spot over the track, at the time it was a lot of back and forth between it and Rebel Yell as the 2 "major" coasters -- Scooby was farther away and I can't remember ever riding it back then. I rode King Kobra but probably was only once. I loved my one ride on Time Shaft although my parents didn't (this was my first visit after the "soft opening") or maybe I did feel sick after. I liked Cinema 180 -- only wraparound theater I didn't feel sick on, you layed down on the floor. I'm sure there's a lot flat rides I never rode and I know I had no interest in riding anything Smurf themed back in that day. As to Hurler and Shockwave, somehow I think someone who liked the rides would know a lot more about them than those who rode once or twice and decided they didn't like them. Especially with Hurler, if I305 was in the park at the time the thing had a huge wopping trim brake on it and was basically abandoned by CF and it doesn't count. If you rode wheel seat, you're a newb and it doesn't count. If you rode at that time and didn't even notice the trim brake ... I'd better quit there.

^^-- I hope neither of you were replying to me, because I certainly wasn't complaining. I do think the park could have some more spectacular appearing coasters, I mean by some weird math some people say BGW's coaster line up is better even now after I305 ... but I realize it doesn't work that way and actually if you look farther future it's going to cost them to stay where they're at and change is inevitable. If anything I was explaining that what's happening is great and makes sense.

Grizzly and RY have profited from Hurler's abandonment since, really, CF took over. Hurler really wanted more maintenance than the others combined to ride as it should, the new ride will be more like a steelie in that respect. There's a good number of coasters they could replace with something better, or expand the park if the future actually warrants it, but at this time it would be diminishing returns. OTOH a good number of coasters will actually need to be replaced before RY and Grizzly.

I've never been damaged as bad by Hurler or Shockwave as I have been on Anaconda (or Grizzly, RY or the flume or, really, Dominator or I305). But they did something (?!?) that made "the Spot" on the old snake a lot better 3-4 years ago and I'll have to check out if they've worked some more sledgehammer magic. As to Rebel Yell, I rode the South side and it's very smooth, but seemed slow. To my surprise they were racing it, or running both sides anyway.

Bruh Okay maybe I was wrong but I could have sworn a week ago the supports were still there. You gotta be fast to keep up! Actually the drone shot looks to me to still have the fence, the later shot does not, so they took down the supports first and the fence removal was their progress later this last week.

^^-- another significant item is the FENCE around the turn has also been completely removed. Must need more room (if they dig up the footers then they maybe needed room to do that, but so far a hole in the fence would have done it). I didn't notice in the picture and it took me a few in person. Didn't see any other changes. In this case, the footers are the larger half of the supports. The wood didn't look like much.

Most of the structure is 2-wide or even 3 (partially inside the structure), but at different levels so the dueling idea does make some sense. But it all has to be one coaster to be the greatest and I would hope there won't be a second, pacing-killing lift hill. Perhaps interaction between trains where they just happen to come together (e.g. Olympia Looping vs. Twisted Colossus). I heard a name on TV last night .. Bad Hombres

Bad pizza is just food, with a few worse exceptions. But really good pizza is so divine it makes bad and so-so pizza blasphemous. I had the experience of asking for least undercooked piece and being told "OK you can have the burnt piece". Alchemy happens in cooking. Toppings, although certainly can be delicious, are overrated in importance and if they interfere in any way with the primary 3 ingredients should not be used (e.g. wet veggies). Really good pizza is worth passing by Panda Express or good BBQ, while even merely OK pizza is not even close. As to Wildwood pizza, I did enjoy it the last time I had it, probably Mack's. But it is still strange, and the way every pizza on the boardwalk looks identical (at least compared to everywhere else) is bizarre.

Kings Dominion has had great pizza the last 2 Aprils on Int'l Street. Unfortunately the same place by May was overstacked, undercooked garbage and later was generic at best. Hopefully I haven't jinxed it for this year by saying that. My guess is the cooks get free rein at first, then a manager gets involved and makes them make the pieces bigger because someone complains about the cost-quantity ratio. Look at it and you can tell, but by then if it's not good you get to slink out.

Those used to theme parks make fewer purchases, but excluding food and drink I'd still call them impulsive. Someone who is more accustomed to shopping places, that's not impulsive it's what they do. But either way, you're going to have to drag them by shops to keep them going.

Um, how about "better than InvadR" ?? (apparently someone in this state thinks a brand new woodie is in itself a marketable feature.)

Cedar Fair could have a completely different approach to design than Six Flags did. They may just be trying to make these coasters all they were intended to be, with less maintenance. RMC would benefit from an example of Iron Horse being used for a less extravagant, costly process. As to Hurler specifically, exactly it's not going to be something where it would be better just to start over. At the least, it will remain a coaster that tends to stay closer to the ground to maintain speed, it will not become all about height. The one tall, complex portion of the coaster will not somehow be rebuilt a lot taller, it would be easier to leave that unchanged and tear down all the low parts, unless the extra height is steel going all the way down to the ground. Maybe some spots will come down lower to the ground, the cut-out section at the bottom of the drop could be that (although if I didn't know better I'd say they're putting in a loop). As to the timing, neither of the coasters in progress have contributed significantly to their parks for years. I thought RMC said they were getting away from conversions a couple years ago, at least for a while. I haven't heard of them doing anything else right now, maybe they have something planned already next winter, or they just know they can do it now. And it is 2 coasters and Mean Streak is huge.

I missed the beginning or most of the presentation, although I'd think Hurler would be at the end if anything. As well as the missing track and structure section at the bottom of the drop -- which looks like they could go higher, they were limited by the bucket truck -- the track has been removed from after the missing section through the second curve and to the top of the next hill. Looks really different from Grizzly. I didn't make a beeline back there but did ride Ricochet twice to look. There's also a truck hidden behind the coaster, best I can tell the RMC bucket truck. The pile of old track in the boneyard is impressive. Word elsewhere is some new track is onsite.

Good. I was feeling like if they were going to sell a lot of them, maybe I should get one after all (Now I'm hoping to use not getting one to help justify starting up a BGW pass or something later on this year). I'm wondering if I'm geeky enough to walk down to see Hurler before even riding anything.

Is there some kind of announcement event during the preview? I haven't seen anything and haven't been to a preview night before. I know BGW usually does one on preview day...