bill_s

Three days ago I just asked about what this upcoming weekend and no one said anything. Reservations made already. (Re; Saturday, you know the answer. Actually, I may have broken my own rule. Think of when you want to go, then you know the worst time to go.)

The main thing would be to take some of the brakes off the "bridge" so it hits the finale harder. Lame effect.

Thinking of going to the park Sunday 9/11. Only open 'til 9:00 that night and may be a bit hot, but I'm presuming less crowds than Sunday 9/18, first weekend of Fright Fest. Am I overlooking anything? Toro and Ka been running well? One chance to go, reasonably. Also might go Saturday night if I get into town early enough, don't know if that would be worth the energy if the crowds are bad though.

Considering that Cedar Fair has built 2 gigas since I305, I don't think you can say they're against the concept of big "statement" rides. That B&M could build them may be all it took to get them away from Intamin. With them owning 4 out of the 5 gigas in the whole world, yeah they might wait a while and see if anyone else starts catching up ... and that would probably be true no matter how successful they consider them.

Signs said closed Saturday, but I didn't verify. Running today, all rows open, although my fully loaded ride was the slowest ever, hangtime coming out the volcano in the 3rd row.

I've disagreed that the coaster is not successful before. After 6 years, the park still has noticably better attendance than it did in 2009, to my eyes. Unless you think that's due to something else they added, heh. It's a people eater and people spend more time at the park because of it than they spend actually riding it (the first year, I think more came to look at it than ride it). There's actually times the line is much longer than FoF or Volcano, rides with famously low capacity, and a really long line last few nights of the year, even with temps going below 40 degrees. And it will continue to draw people to the park for a long time to come. There's coasters they could have put in instead that would have had a better immediate reaction, but I can't think of any that would have given the park more respect. Plus, how long a line do you want? Sure the parks would love for people to spend their hard earned money to stand in line 95% of the time, but I won't, and rides like Dominator and Intimidator are evidence CF/KD have realized that capacity appropriate to the park is a good thing (vs. Hypersonic).

Who's upset? Mystified and curious, sure, or simply want want wanting, yes. How many years of relative calm before the storm? The detractors of this thread totally misread its tone. Enthusiasts are going to be enthusiastic.

I think if I saw a 400 foot one, I'd vomit on the spot. I really don't ever want see or hear one again after my one ride.

I don't think the Really More Coming thing was an accident. Unfortunately the most likely thing is it's a tease in the fullest meaning of the word. Or they want one but don't know when or if. Maybe they're fanning the flames of the fanboys because CF corporate doesn't want RMC. Personally, I think RMC steel/TRex is at least as likely as RMC Hurler. As to the park's having a lot more space, I305 is already too close to the smelly industry to the south. Plus they're getting away with no in-park transportation systems or even trams for the parking lot. I think they'd expand the park if the customer base was larger, say if the population here keeps growing for 20 more years, or if more people suddenly start going to amusement parks (this could also be a matter of time, for example if personal thrill machines such as boats and fast cars become restricted or more impractical). Right now, they have space they can't make use of (Hurler), and more coasters will be reaching their end soon enough. There could be a real flurry of coaster replacement. I don't know anything big that would bring in the people like a coaster, except maybe something like bringing the animal safari back, not gonna happen. As to "credit park", I think BGW has more that would be worth traveling a long distance for (although nothing a match to I305), but I'd rather be a local to KD than anywhere else, better variety (though many rides are ordinary and BGW is gaining ground)), less overcrowding than any place substantially better (northern parks).

Their last addition was useless for those who tend towards motion sickness, so a 4D would be the worst possible choice. I'd just like to see one more ride I can actually enjoy before I'm too old to ride any more (or walk around the place, at least).

Hurler will be converted to the world's largest spinning coaster, finally living up to its name. No track work, trim brakes everywhere. (maybe I shouldn't give them ideas) Didn't know this before. So CF does do new trains .. sometimes ..

Planet Snoopy is used well past age 5. Seems a good investment to take a slight loss to make a customer for another 5-7 years of Planet Snoopy and the park long after. It may not be doing as well as hoped but they're not giving away the whole thing. I agree that families spend more, but unless they can find a way to really crank up the families business at the expense of other segments, they need everybody. As to Hurler, I think the park maintenance can do some good trackwork, but the improvement will be short lived with the same trains. So even that route may need to wait. Or just wait another year if that has possibilities. It just sitting there is not entirely negative.

I'm glad I didn't go because I'm not ready to be banned from the park for life. Was there anything at the announcement event said that anyone actually there was interested in, except for the "whatever's best for the park" types? Should have just been announced online, or maybe in the Burger King parking lot or something. I agree the park's still great, best coaster on the planet goes a long way with me. I'm now predicting new coasters in 2020, 2030, and 2040 .

That last twitter tease looks like one of the BGW ones. And there is a park that usually does announcements on Saturday: BGW. Don't know what that would mean, though, except sort of poking at them. What is happening on 8/20 anyway, though? The only thing I've seen on it was the Chatting with Chad thing. Anywhere else? Maybe they don't want it to become another Dorney? Although I said inverted, because their current inverted is already pretty old, a B&M would last 20 years past Volcano.

^^-- I've considered never recommending anything to anyone -- books, movies, TV shows, you name it -- as they never listen to me. I recently read that almost everyone is a geek about something -- defined as knowing more than most and more than really needed about some subject.

Hersheypark plus Knoebels sounds like 2 day trip. Made me look it up, I may have to make that trip myself some day, it does work just not in that little time. There's the nearly 3 more hours of driving (KD adds 2 minutes), plus BGW can be done faster than Hershey and KD is a better highlights-only park. It would also be good just to stay 'til close at BGW, but I would find the entire daytime more than enough time and moving on to KD puts you towards DC. Shade by day, asphalt by night ... of course even that could be taxing of your companions and even yourself.

The Hurler decision could have been made only recently and they're using that as a feature. Back in April they didn't want us to get our hopes up but what they'll have should be at least as good as what was proposed. To me that would mean a coaster of some kind running there, but we'll see.

^^-- I'm sure they're looking at each other! But yeah... I had to go and check the "white paint dot" myself. It's way back there in the dead end behind the Zombie High building, they had to work a bit so you don't see the fence curves just beyond in the Snoopy picture. There's nothing much else back there but Hypersonic ruins. Could be anything or nothing, but if they were to put in a new coaster it would be good to reuse some space there! I'll put in a guess for B&M inverted. Flat ride is certainly possible, not sure the exact location makes sense. The clues show Snoopy in 3 different spots, is this all one thing? Edit: looking at maps, the dot makes more sense as a flat ride than part of a coaster. The easier space to reclaim is mostly asphalt between Grizzly and Hurler. Unless they take out trees too. https://www.google.com/maps/@37.8368539,-77.4467618,149m/data=!3m1!1e3

As soon as I saw that "bad experience" I knew where that was going. That was my first thought about Superman VR: not for those without experience in the ride. At least the headset cushioned your collision .

For shows, I saw an amazing one at Hershey although a Christmas show at BGW was close. Both are very nice parks just to be in though the Gardens is still appropriate where Hershey is more traditional. Both can be a lot of walking especially BGW but they have transpo systems that offset it. Hershey definitely tends to be more crowded; also waterpark is within the same park. Both have animal attractions. I don't know of anything near any of them to do at night at except the parks themselves, best time to ride though. Or leave BGW at dinnertime and hit KD on the way back (kind of expensive for a short time but easily could be worth it). P.S. so much of it boils down to the people, if you're going to split up or whatever. BG is tops for "extreme family rides" if they'll do that, but Hershey has more dynamic range. BG is better for them if they tag along with you but don't ride, Hershey better for you when with them.

In 2010, I said they ought to rope off the wheel seats, take off the trims and run Hurler to death. By 2015, they needed to rope off the wheel seats with the trims.

Oh the original SLC trains definitely had huge shock absorbers, the black "V" shapes here; I hadn't noticed before the new trains have different structure: (from leeds-list.com/out-and-about/fantastic-family-days-out-in-yorkshire/, more: Kumali)

Way I see it, there's a lot of living that happens in parks, unfortunately that means some dying. They sometimes seem like fantasy worlds where people adventure but nothing bad ever happens, and that would be great if true. Especially since much of what happens simulates extreme danger. Of course some causes of death are more regrettable than others. Imagine how many deaths would occur from people seeking even a tenth the thrills by other methods. I can remember a time wishing rides were more extreme and they'd just say "ride at your own risk" ... of course thinking about accidents seriously will cure you of that delusion, and the operators and park itself are always at risk.

^^-- that would be a carryover of the SLC design then, although maybe that's more a patent avoidance because those do little or nothing at all.

I like the idea of feet dangling, but with some of the quick turns that are fun on swinging suspended coasters, I could see that being quite painful if your feet aren't against anything to keep your legs from snapping out. With suspended coasters it should be the whole car that snaps out. Your legs should swing almost precisely in tandem. There are almost no lateral forces on the rider. Only one I rode was BBW and, even with the pacing issue of having a huge lift right in the middle of the ride, it was a great ride. Thing is, the track layout itself would have been a total snooze without the swinging except for the main drop. It is in one way a gimmick, or at least a trick, to make coasters more exciting. It was a natural progression to move away from it as more coaster styles appeared and design progressed. We may be running out of other possibilities so it could come back. Plus the old ones are going away. One thing that could be done now is computer aided design that results in a conventional coaster car making very similar motions as a suspended ride. Actually, what inspired this thought was looking at Dominator's first overbanked turn, it takes the path of a suspended car 10-15' tall going around a flat turn and swinging out a little past 90 degrees. Further thinking came up with a wave turn similar to what RMC is doing now. I don't know if anyone's done anything where it would immediately obvious to riders that one is swinging around a virtual track. There are of course some big differences, but still seems a useful design technique. The advantage over actual suspension, as well as mechanical simplicity, is the whole coaster wouldn't have to emulate swinging, and it avoids the damping issue. The biggest limitation with actual swinging back and forth is once that starts, it doesn't want to damp out and can get more and more uncontrolled.