bill_s
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Posts posted by bill_s
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The family coaster might have a lower cost of ownership than a comparable woodie. Therefore it makes sense in view of the chain putting in wood coasters. They also seem to want just a little more than what the usual wood coaster can deliver, and can probably make it more visible from the road than Six Flags.
The Raptor may seem to make sense as its weakness is low capacity, but with only a couple of coasters that could be a problem. I would think they would want a gentler one, more a floater air machine.
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The mine train is popular and low capacity enough I'm sure it can get a wait. Don't skip it though, I find it only halfway down that cliff -- while not on the scale of the top 4 it's a good ride on its own terms. It's also right in the middle of the park, essential to get the lay of the land and implying a certain history. It would be in the way of new additions except everything else is already around it. When they're ready for a new coaster they'll probably remove Nighthawk and Vortex next door. (I'd love Nighthawk if it went straight into a brake run after swooping over the water but the rest is trash, or makes me feel like I am. Could be great for a laugh with friends.)
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Of course they prefer single day ticket sales. That's reservations 101. Hint: these are not 2020 level restrictions most places, if you can't get a reservation, probably dodged a bullet.
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It's a beautiful and amazing place with many wonderful things accumulated over the many years, not just coasters. It has some rough spots and is definitely overcrowded though.
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1 hour ago, tndank said:
It's exactly what it says. 'Recommended' and 'Required' are very different. Six Flags used specific words for specific parks with specific rules.
TRUE, but hope you have a strong bladder if you don't bring a mask.
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^- yes, even if the advantages of TRex were clearer, it might never really be the best thing for the company, much less now. They are surely aware of the role of huge projects in the demise of Arrow.
I doubt the Trex track that the test track section has been shown takes any more steel than B&M spine track, but contrary to claims the narrow track is less suitable for inverts or 4-wide seating due to the twisting stresses of that weight distribution. If scaled up even larger, comparably to B&M wing coaster track, it would use more steel. In either case it could have a greater span between supports but this is essentially due to the relative limitations on the trains. Even with 2-wide seating it doesn't have the track-straddling, closer center of gravity to the track advantage of Raptor.
I don't think a website is for selling to TRex-sized customers. It is as much for increasing public interest in their creations -- indirect selling -- as directly selling coasters. And T-shirts.
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I strongly expect the full existing coaster lineup to be open. Maybe not all rides and operations. Regular operations, almost surely not until June 15 and who knows after that. Pantheon is unknown, I'm thinking opening and promotion could be reversed. Covid trend looks great, don't catch it before it's gone.
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I see wood ledgers on the 208 Retrak instead of the steel of IBox. Topper track looks to be gone.
IBox may be smoother than any tubular track. It could be time to push its inherent advantage seperate from crazy designs.
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It's now at least 7500 with speculations of higher, or maybe I'm behind too. Reports are that you can usually get in without a reservation. Whatever, it is possible for it to become crowded at their current staffing and opening level, especially to get food.; Spring Break was bad. Don't buy a huge tasting plan in advance you might spend all day in line.
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Like the case of Busch Gardens, I can't imagine they'd want to change the name unless they had to, even if everything beyond that is debranded. There are some disadvantages though of the association,, not everyone likes country music or Dolly, and she's not becoming more popular.
Hershend is expanding though, so it could become "Silver Dollar City's Dollywood" or "... a Hershend Park"
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Negative: new ride not open
Positive: less chance of overcrowded hell.
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^^-- By quality, Supes and Wild One are the stars. Your personal choice for #3. I might take Roar but Jinx is more popular and good. Batwing for somebody. I enjoy Firebird sometimes but started riding it for shorter lines first.
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^^-- That's definitely not SFA's top 3 even by line length on average, but going by lines, I'd say Nighthawk might be the most popular ride at Carowinds. Throughput is poor on the awful, but funny, things though. Anyway, due to SFA being SFA, they'll run Batwing until it dies or they close the place. It may even outlast Mind Eraser as it's a few years younger.
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The actual space occupied by rides is piddly. Of course, some of those many buildings might have something of interest if I'd ever been there. But from maps view, the infield of Hellcat is large enough for a standard Raptor. And, to complete my fantasy, the whole purpose of a custom launched Golden Horse mine train is to wind around everywhere.
Fitting in an existing coaster with a distinctive shape could be a problem though.
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I was there too! Definitely got some Wild One rides once it finally (re)opened, 2nd best ride in the park. I hadn't ridden Mind Eraser for a while, actually enjoyed it more than Firebird this time! Got a couple pops of inverted air in the back row and my ears weren't cold anymore
. 2 train ops on Superman was so welcome.
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Park looked pretty good to me last year and they have months to work on it before opening every day. It's so much better than 10-15-20 years ago.
SFA was my temporary home park for a while last year and it really is decent when you don't have 2 better parks closer by.
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It does look likely it won't be "The Best Coaster in the World" after all, but that still leaves some room before it sucks.
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^^-- unless the rest of the coaster is also mostly underground, everything after the first drop would be rather lackluster.
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Back in December, Firebird was missing from the newly upgraded SFA website. They eventually caught the problem.
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The Rocket at Ocean View Amusement Park. I recall passing it several times (mid-70s) and parents would never stop.
I had chances to ride Hercules at Dorney and Rolling Thunder at GrAdv but for others disinterest. Lesser loss there though.
Steel Vengeance. Not sure when it went down but it was possible for me to ride it, or I could have stayed another day sort of on speculation, which just sounded frustrating (it did reopen sometime the next afternoon). 1000 mile trip with no specific plan to revisit. CP was good and I made a point to just enjoy it but that burns a bit at every mention of the thing.
Disneyland. I was in LA a week on business and just didn't care at the time.
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deleted, wrong tab
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14 hours ago, sdcfan88 said:
It will be interesting to see how this develops. Being a regular SDC passholder (being my home park) it will be neat if HFEC will soon offer a Platinum Pass like Cedar Fair to visit all the Herschend owned parks. Right now it's just 50 percent off admission to Dollywood and Wild Adventures.
That deal makes a lot of sense and typically would work better for me than Platinum. Not as good as giving away the whole thing like SF, but that makes little sense.
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I considered some criticism and then noticed ...
Best Parks by Top 25 Overall Coasters:
1. Cedar Point (3)
2. Kings Dominion (2)
3. Liseberg (2)
and all the others in order of their one coaster on the list
And tomorrow someone else will claim BGW>KD for coasters again.
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13 hours ago, Zand said:
I feel like Kings Island circa 2007 is the poster child for this thread. [...]
If we're going to open the past, Carowinds 1998, first time I went. Hurler was the best ride in the park -- running great, but still... what is now a top-heavy park before all its top.
13 hours ago, DBru said:I agree that while my feelings about Kings Dominion have deflated more than expected after the removal of Volcano, it still has a relatively solid lineup. Of course, I'm a Grizzly (at night) and Flight of Fear stan, and I think the Italian Job/Backlot coasters are underrated, so my opinion may not be the majority.
With that said, as the wonderful Busch Gardens Williamsburg continues to expand with unique and exciting additions, I'm a bit worried about whether KD will be able to keep up. And I do not think the weakest-looking-B&M-wing-coaster-ever would do it.
If any park in this area might be mentioned in this thread, it would be SFA.
I still can't figure out why anyone would say BG has a better lineup than KD. It may actually come true with Pantheon ... Incidentally, don't judge KD if you haven't ridden Racer with the new lift synchronizer, a good race on it is amazing.
Yes. Yes, you should plan on purchasing Flash Pass/FastLane+/Timesaver/Skip the Line etc, if you are going to a Park in 2021
in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
Posted
I'm mostly enjoying my closest park being open again, riding more and driving less. While it has been worse than normal for sure, last Sunday rope dropping it for a couple of hours was both effective enough for riding and about the only thing that could be done for the heat. Might just have to take a break if it gets even more mobbed, after all been riding almost continuously since 7/6/20 with the BGW "year round".
KD just opened 5/16 so of course is mobbed. BGW has been crowded/understaffed since Spring Break but I haven't been for a month, don't know if the masking changes have affected it much. These crowds could continue or normalize later in the year.
So I'll take the advice as a warning if I travel, but don't necessarily stay home if you don't have the extra bucks.