arson
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Posts posted by arson
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Here is my first video TR, of SFA. I've never been to SFA before, despite living a few hours away.
http://photos.tideblue.com/ryan/sfa_apr06.zip
By the way, I'm the one behind the camera, so I'm actually not in it at all. My friends Kevin ("red shirt guy"), Tim ("hat guy"), and Dennis ("Other Guy in the Movie") are mostly featured. Also, this was a last minute thing, so there's not a single shot of SRoS (we had already ridden it at that point, and I didn't want to walk a half-mile to get some shots of a coaster with a layout that is hard to see) in the movie, and some of the shots I took didn't come out too well. This was done with my digital camera, and the majority of it was usable. Any comments or criticisms would be appreciated. Also, keep in mind I'm new to editing, and I did this all in two and a half hours.
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I went on the ride today (it opened on Friday the 31st, but I was going on my SFOG/PCar trip that weekend). Some of the scenes didn't change, save for loads of paint and better lighting. Flatscreen TV's everywhere, and singing cows, lots of movement. I think it's a positive change. The video on-ride speaks for itself:
http://photos.tideblue.com/ryan/themeparks/hersheypark06/cw/hcwdarkride.mov
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Let's see... for me, probably Storm Runner or Lightning Racer depending on the way I travel.
Of course, it depends on the direction...
West: Hersheypark 15-20 minutes depending on traffic
North: Knoebels, fourty-five minutes, relative
East: Dorney Park, hour and 45 minutes
South: PA Turnpike to Six Flags Great Adventure, two and a half hours
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Storm Runner has zip ties on the lower portion of the track at it's brake run holding up a cable that was added after installation.
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Sports Plus:
Driving home though Manhattan
Ride overview
Dips
The blacklight effects were pretty cool...
Tornado, a good flat
Very thrilling, actually
Thriller!
Welcome to Sports Plus!
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More Pics:
We also went to Knotts...
Tim stalks the Lego Raptor
Ferris Wheel
the Carousel
I love the Lego store
Tim loves the Lego store
Kevin loves the Lego store
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Once again, Kevin, Tim, and myself set out to get some indoor kiddy credits. This time, we went to New York. But first, we had to stop at Dorney Park for some off-season pics. We also stopped off at a close Burger King (but not just any Burger King, a Burger King that has a view of Talon through the drive-through window).
Leaving Allentown, we headed to West Nyack, New York. The Palisades Center is a huge, huge mall (said to be the third largest in the US). It also has a Jeepers in it, which is what brought us there. Another Python Pit credit down (a good one, too). The we walked around the mall.
With four stories, and a ton of retailers, it took us four and a half hours to leave the mall. Highlights for us included Circuit City, Best Buy, Target, an Imax theater and 21-screen movie theaters, an Ice rink, an antique carousel, and a ferris wheel. They also have a Disney store, Lego store, Apple store, Sharper Image store, and a Post Office. I hadn't really heard too much about this mall before, and everything seemed new, and there didn't seem to be many vacancies in the mall.
After escaping the clutches of technology from the mall (and myself purchasing an iBook from the Apple Store), we headed very close through NYC's five boroughs to Sports Plus.
I was really suprised with the little FEC. It offered an ice rink, bowling, paint ball, lazer tag, a few smaller rides (Frog Hopper, kiddie whip, bumper cars), plus the Tornado and the Thriller Coaster.
The Tornado is a cool Wisdom Rides creation that's a combination of a Wave Swinger and a teacup ride. The base of the ride would spin and tilt, while the individual cars have a disk in the center that you can turn.
The Thriller Coaster was also suprising. There was a lot to the layout of the ride, which was built in what used to be a motion sim theater. The nice part is that you got two rides on the coaster, which was twice as long as I expected. There were a decent ammount of force to the ride, and it looked well-maintained.
Pictures:
Kevin and Tim find the coaster
a PTC Carousel!
What a cool mall!
Kevin shares the mall map with TPR readers.. "But where's the coaster?"
We arrive at Palisasdes Center
Talon from Burger King!
Laser and Steel Force
Talon
Hyrdra
Steel Force in the off-season
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So after hitting two Jeepers parks, we planned on driving by Six Flags America, to see what we could see. But since the park owns a lot of “buffer land” around it, we couldn’t go very far or see very much. No Ultra Twister parts on-site that I saw, but like I said, the park was set so far back from local roads, that all I could spot were Superman and a little bit of Mind Eraser on the horizon. We even drove around the park, hoping to get a cool glimpse of Superman, but after 15 minutes of driving, we realized that we had already come as close to the park as we were going to get.
We then proceeded to get lost, but we got ourselves back on the right way to Jeepers Parkville. This was by far the most crowded of the three Jeepers, and the worst. The building looked like it was an old grocery store (I wouldn’t be surprised if it was). We got on the Python Pit for the third time today, but this one was a lot smaller than the other two, and is missing the helix in the center to become a pretty lame oval coaster. Honestly, if I had ridden this one first, I wouldn’t have been so willing to do two more Python Pits. We ended this day trip the way every day trip should end, at the Cocoa Grill in Hershey.
SFA in the off-season
The closest we came to SFA
For the squirrel lovers
So my love of coasters has come to this?
This Python Pit was missing a helix
Jeepers again! See, we have this theme going...
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^ Jeepers NY and Sports Plus are what we're doing on March 4th...
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What’s pack of three credit whores who live in Pennsylvania supposed to do on a lazy Saturday in February? Drive to Maryland for the three Jeepers kiddie credits, of course (and drive-bys of Hersheypark, Williams Grove, and Six Flags America). To describe Jeepers, I would draw comparison to Chuck E Cheese or any mall arcade, but with rides. The locations we visited had a Miller kiddie coaster. Now normally, the three of us could care less about these FECs. But we were desperate. Now, about the credits...
To get to the first Jeepers, we drove to Rockville, MD. This looked like it could have been a former gym, or maybe a car dealership with all the parking spaces for it. For a little more than $9, I bought 10 ride tickets (the coasters at all locations required three tickets). Then, we waited in line for a surprisingly good coaster. Yes, it’s a kiddie credit, and we’re talking about three grown men, but I was personally surprised.
The Python Pit coaster itself at the first two Jeepers locations was a simple lift, turn, drop, helix, bunny hop, and “tunnel” turnaround (a room painted black with blacklight and neon-painted shapes on the walls). It’s more than I expected, at least. After three cycles, the ride was over. After spending less than twenty minutes at Jeepers Rockville, we left, headed for...
Jeepers Greenbelt! This one was actually in a nice mall that seemed to be recently remodeled. Being the dorks we are, we parked on top of a parking structure just for the heck of it. Once we went inside, we noticed this location seemed to be crowded (we had to wait in line for the coaster, and we let kids go in front of us). This ride seemed a lot faster (granted, there was more weight on the train). Once done with our ride, we needed to get out of there.
Next, Six Flags America and Jeepers Parkville...
We found out the hard way that Jeepers has CARTOON monkeys, and not REAL monkeys.
We're cool because we ride kiddie credits
We're cool because we park next to an Escalade
A Vekoma staircase
Greenbelt construction
Jeepers Greenbelt Python Pit
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Here's an odd thought. What if he were to sell off his two highest tier parks. He would get premium dollar return. And not have to worry about re-habbing them. I don't know about Gadv. But, MM is going to take a lot of work and money to get it to his standards of a family park. IMHO if he were to dump these parks, CF would probably snatch them up pretty quick as they are thrill parks and thats what CF sells. He could then use the S***load of cash to buy down debt as well as influx all the rest of the chain.
Guy "But what do I know?" Koepp
I don't think Cedar Fair has the money or time to take SFMM under it's crowded wing with Geauga Lake (a park which will take at least 10 to 15 years or more to start making a profit). Cedar Fair doesn't move fast enough, and is very conservative with it's aquisitions.
That, and I don't see SFI selling off the four parks getting new coasters. I could see them selling off:
Six Flags Darien Lake
Six Flags St. Louis (I'm on the fence about this)
Six Flags Eltich
Six Flags Waterworld
Six Flags Mexico
Frontier City
White Water Bay
Wyandot Lake
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A few months ago, I read in the Harrisburg Patriot News (local paper) that the park would be going up for sale. It did not mention closing, but it didn't deny it, either. I remeber someone higher-up saying something to the effect of "I hope Cedar Fair comes and buys the park out." Wether it was just wishful thinking on his end, I do not know.
It's a shame, but Williams Grove is so far off the beaten torust path in PA, away from Philly, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, Hershey, Lancaster, State College, ect. It's a shame... well, maybe someone can work on putting together a foundation, and get a loan or something to save the park. I'd be for that.
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Odd, a friend and I were having a conversation about this the other day...
You know, I could see Herschend Family Entertainment (who operates Dollywood, Silver Dollar City, ect) come in and swoop up SF Fiesta Texas for the right price. Yeah, SF would loose another Texas park, but it might do them well to sell that, especially since Herschend seems to be down with the whole family entertainment thing.
I could see, at the end of the 2006 season, the removal of Scream and Poltergiest, headed for other parks (SFEG or MV, maybe?), and then the sale of the park to Herschend.
I could also see Six Flags Mexico go, one of the smaller parks, or even some of the water park operations being outsourced like the food operations, but I think they'd be wise to hang on to La Ronde, just because they're pouring money into it. If you look at Astroworld, I think it's clear that the least-desired parks feed from the bottom, and La Ronde seems to be working it's way up the chain with Goliath, the way SFNE did a few years ago with Superman: RoS.
But I think Great Adventure and all the other top-tier parks are OK. Family friendly or not, these parks make money for them.
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Excuse me for thinking that a park built by a giant chocolate company would have at least a few candy themed rides.
Hersheypark is owned by Hershey Entertainment and Resorts, not The Hershey Company (formerly Hershey Foods). HE&R (formerly HERCO, Hershey Entertainment and Resorts Company) used to own a lot of stuff... Lake Compounce in the mid-80's, a Pocconos resort complex, and a hotel in Corpus Cristi, Texas. In the late 80's, they consolidated, and after purchasing Dutch Wonderland (and it's Lancaster County History Museum, Wonderland Mini Golf, and Old Mill Stream Campground) a few years ago, now own Hersheypark, The Hershey Hotel, The Hershey Lodge, Hershey Nursery, a laundry and dry-cleaning service, the Herhsey Museum, Hershey Gardens, the Giant Center, Hersheypark Arena, Hersheypark Stadium, the Star Pavilion (at the Hersheypark Stadium), Hershey Highmeadow Campground, Hershey Country Club, and several restaurants. They do NOT own Chocolate World, that IS owned by The Hershey Company.
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I'm eight miles from Hersheypark, and about an hour and a half from Dorneypark.
Six Flags and B&M Inverters
in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
Posted
It's not even that reason. It all comes down to a solid ride, which B:TR is, and the fact these rides hold up well, operation-wise and maintenance-wise. Plus, they're popular with riders, and they don't take up much space (for some reason, that's an issue with most SF parks). SFOG's B:TR has overflow queue underneath it's loading platform. It's an example of "If it isn't broken, don't fix it."