Thunder_Run

Judging by the concept art and the fact that Planet Snoopy's ride count is only going up to 20 instead of 21, I'm guessing Snoopy's Bounce House is going to be replaced by Sally's Sea Plane. More of the same, but I can't blame them for removing it for a ride in every other Planet Snoopy. When people get sick from the humidity in those inflatables, the protein spills can be a lot more frustrating to clean up than on regular concrete.

Nah, they aren't closing, they're just re-theming the water park to match the amusement park.

It's surprising to see how many people don't know how dead the place is, then again, I was one of those people before visiting. I mean, I didn't expect it to be Knoebels or anything (especially since we were there the day before), but... I can agree that the flat line-up does have some unusual offerings. Specifically, the Skydiver, Octopus, Twister, and chair swing were the flats that really interested me. Not sure at all who manufactured the chair swing or Octopus, but I can confirm the Twister was manufactured by Allan Herschell. Despite what I have heard, the ride being computerized didn't seem to make a difference in how it operated. From what I experienced, it spun quite a dizzying number of times. Not as intense as other videos of the ride I have seen online, though, so I can see where they may be coming from. I'm still curious about the Octopus though. It was almost like it was a missing-link between an Eyerly Octopus and an Eyerly Spider, with the number of cars it had similar to a Spider, but the structure of the ride itself was moreso akin to a traditional/basic Octopus. Actually, it is under private ownership. The park was privatized when Blair County sold it to the Boyer Candy Company in 1985. I agree on the classic rides thing, but the atmosphere of the park itself didn't feel historic at all, except for being on the lake near the Casino. It felt more akin to a permanent carnival, literally, with how the asphalt paths and gravel were laid out. There is good reason why there is only two Toboggans left.

The main problem with suspended coasters has always been how costly maintaining them is. The more violent/thrilling the experience, it seems, the more often the coaster would require maintenance work. Both the one-of-a-kind Alpenflug and the infamous 1982 Bat at King's Island are primary examples in this. Namely, both suffered from stress inflicting structural damage due to the lack of banked turns, almost little-to-none of it existing on both tracks. No wonder Arrow were extremely cautious with XLR-8's design. It may also explain why Eagle Fortress and Big Bad Wolf were forced into early retirement as well. While definitely significant improvements to previous suspended designs, both were known as the best in their class due to the prevalent violent swinging motion that many other suspended coasters lacked. This same violent swinging could in turn, be possibly the same reason they closed earlier than the more dull examples in the same class. Iron Dragon Don't get me wrong, I'm totally in support of suspended roller coasters making a comeback, they're one of the best family-thrill coasters out there. But I'm guessing if we were to see new ones in the next few years, I wouldn't be surprised if they would be more of the caliber of the existing ones we still have today. I agree with people that terrain is definitely the greatest advantage suspended coasters can utilize to cut on costs during construction, but the operating and upkeep costs I think are the main issue.

Knoebels. You've got a one-of-a-kind flying turns, the legendary Phoenix, and the Twister for lateral fans. Generic summary, but they have the coasters that are the most fun, and easily accessible for the whole family without fatigue between re-rides. Although I have heard someone has a huge collection of Big Dipper coasters.

So, this summer we went to New Jersey with the family on our annual visit for relatives up there. While we did stop at Six Flags Great Adventure, we did not manage to take nearly enough pictures to justify a trip report of the place. We DID, however, manage to take a shitload of pictures and footage of Knoebels and Lakemont when we returned home travelling through Pennsylvania. Both places we managed to take a numerous amount of photos of, but I currently still am sorting what pictures to delete of Knoebels, as I took a substantially greater amount from our trip there than we did at Lakemont Park. Why? Well... the photos probably will speak for themselves. Getting right to it, Lakemont Park did not start off with a good impression. And despite what some people may be thinking, said impression didn't start with finding out Leap-The-Dips was closed, no, actually, it started with the PARKING of all things: The parking for the park is virtually non-existent, in fact I don't even know if they own any parking except for the section at the front gate; we had to park in a place we were not even sure was open to parking outside of people who were visiting/working at the offices next door (said offices being former Boyertown buildings, no less...). In any case, we chose to park there, as it seemed a majority of park goers were as well. As for the place itself, it is not very attractive to the eye of even normal patrons. I knew the Boyertown era cut down a ridiculous amount of trees, but the humidity and heat outside was almost unbearable. Getting it out of the way, we took a spin on the paddleboats. If anyone says Lakemont Park is beautiful, this is probably the only part they are talking about. Aside from the "water park" they have on the small island, the rest of the park can be summed up with gravel, pavement, and empty buildings. Almost every ride has gravel under it, and if there is a ride, you can guarantee they are put side-by-side a la RCT style. Except for the kiddie rides, in their section they're spread all over the place. I've gotta say, the place looked deader than Beech Bend. And I'm talking about BEFORE they had the Kentucky Rumbler or even the Wild Mouse (pre-2005). The part I enjoyed most about Lakemont was buying a book about its history and reading its PAST. But if I had to go with the park as it is now, I'd have to say the train ride at the back of the park, it was a god-send for us when the heat had almost gotten to us. I never thought I'd say this, but... this park makes me LOOK FORWARD to visiting Conneaut Lake Park. It's definitely not the greatest trip report, but for those who expect Lakemont to be chock full of historic stuff, well... prepare to be disappointed. Ex-Boyertown USA buildings. This is a really, really tiny road accessing parking... Ex-Boyertown USA Entrance. Hardly can see the anything due to the trees. If only the rest of the park had trees like that... Did you know you can have a picnic at Lakemont Park and bring your own cloaking device? It's all the rage for company outings these days. Let's play a game of "Find the historic things"! To our immediate right... NOTHING! Standard miniature golf course. Didn't bother due to the humidity. I don't know whether I should be glad or disappointed the Sky-Diver had a 2-rider policy. I've never been on one of those before. More nothing. The midway is hustlin' n' bustlin' No, it wasn't open. I think I've seen pictures of Conneaut Lake Park that look more alive than this. What's a classic, retro, vintage, one-of-a-kind, HISTORIC park without midway games? Here you can watch paint dry! Really odd-shaped food stand. Looking at the water park, and... GASP! That has to be one of the few trees left from the original park! That counts as a historic thing, doesn't it? I'll admit, the paintings on this are kind of nice. Too bad it's obvious to even a kid that something used to be behind those. Leap-the-Dips was still closed and recieving some new wood. Also historic thing #2 Got to love how primitive the rollback and chain system is. The gift shop was open, despite the coaster being closed. It really is a beautiful structure, even if it isn't running. The same can not be said for its neighbor. Historic Thing #3 and Historic Thing #4! The lake itself and the Lakemont Casino... that no longer is owned by the park. And has had significant changes to it. I'm betting its operation doesn't come close to Lakemont Park's dead atmosphere, however. If you told me this was at Lakemont Park, I would not believe you. At all. Low is an understatement. Even the carp are starving with how dead it is... nah, they're just greedy hogs in general. Oh, look! Remnants of a past bridge! That counts as historic too! That makes five historic things, guys! This has got to be the weirdest-looking standard slide complex I have seen. Yes, this is still Lakemont Park. Historic Thing #6! Old train that just sits there doing nothing! Quiet as the off-season for most parks. Looking towards the right half of the park. No shows performing today, obviously. People say parks like Beech Bend or Keansburg look like permanent carnival, but Lakemont takes this to a whole new level with all the gravel. Rare Twister ride. Best way I can describe it is a weird-funky hybrid of a whip and a tilt-a-whirl. Also historic thing #7...? Octospider. A few of the more standard rides. Going up a small hill to the kids area. I think the building behind this is a skating rink. Also not owned by the park of course. Even a path turns into nothing. An accurate view of Lakemont Park. Uh... historic thing #8? It's a little dipper, therefore it MUST be historic! I'm honestly surprised out of all the rides here, the antique cars had a spinning sign. Then again, what other ride can you use to directly get advertising money? Ugly parking structure... check! The views of the Skyliner may be good looking from the bleachers, but from within the park... it's not very pretty surrounded by all this grey. Also it's rough. Really, really rough. Not as bad as the Georgia Cyclone, though. Historic Thing #9 Skid brakes... are historic! So that counts as Historic Thing #10! The closest things you can see of what actual, HISTORIC Lakemont Park was, besides Leap-The-Dips, is actually on their custom chair swing. Each of the panels shows a vintage view of Lakemont Park prior to its conversion into "Boyertown U.S.A Theme Park." So, the park as it is now? It's banking on Leap-The-Dips and cheap admission, it really seems that way. Don't get me wrong, I'd still highly advise going to this park, but only due to the "impending feeling of immenient closure" the park has. If you want to experience Leap-The-Dips and Twister, go there while you still can.

Is it specifically full-length films, or film in general (including short films or reels) ? If film in general, the earliest POV I can think of is dated to around 1904 involving the only known POV I believe of an actual switchback railway, taken at Folkestone. I believe you can easily find it on Youtube. Edit: Looked it up, and the film is still on Youtube it seems, thankfully!

Guest-Related - People who stand in-line for a 1+ Hour line for a water ride, and ask the ride operator when they're about to get on "Do you get wet on this ride?" - When you're a ride operator at a water ride and someone ask you "Can you please make it so we won't get wet on our ride?" - People who try to scare others in line telling bullshit stories about accidents that obviously never occurred. - People who have overly huge expectations for non-Disney parks and constantly mutter "This place sucks, this isn't like Disneyland!" - People who actively try to curse as much as possible because they know children will hear them. - People swatting at bees or wasps in line and getting other people stung. Park-Related - Having a major attraction at a somewhat hidden dead-end where they obviously could put a loop around to make it more accessible (Namely Twisted Sisters/Twins and Mile High Falls. Kentucky Kingdom remedied this recently by making more walkway space and removing a few trees to make Mile High Falls more visible, but it's still not looped around to the Top Eliminator Dragster location.) - Costumed characters dancing to dubstep. Or dubstep in a park in general, it feels ridiculously out of place. - Removing shade trees just to replant baby trees in their place.

I can confirm whole-hardheartedly a Breakdance is vastly different from a scrambler. The key differences, as one pointed out earlier, are the motions experienced due to how the cars are attached. Breakdance rides also can have much more variety in ride programs, some of the weakest of which are on par with a Scrambler, so I can somewhat forgive people for mistaking one for a scrambler. Unfortunately, that can be quite a mistake, as my mother roughly ten years ago took a ride with me on the Breakdance, becoming extremely nauseated when the ride went in reverse/backwards and ended up with a horrible case of vertigo the day after. Thankfully she came out of it relatively A-OK, but it makes it more difficult for her to tag along to parks when she can't end up riding a majority of the rides.

As Shane is still preoccupied with his very successful water parks, I thought I'd put up two retro brochures of my own (which I finally had the time to scan in yesterday) in here to display/serve as filler, both of them being small, charming family-run parks in the Southern US! Here's to hoping for decades more of that wonderful southern hospitality both parks share! At the time this brochure was being printed out (1971), Beech Bend Park was still in its heyday and being proclaimed one of the top ten (!?) amusement parks in the United States. Despite the county fair appearance of the park throughout the years, I don't think any park has had a unique attraction line-up over the years as Beech Bend. Nope, that was not a proofreading mistake you read, the price of admission into the park was 10¢! While the amusement park and camping were definitely (and still are to a degree) attractions in their own right, the real money maker was (and still is to this day) the adjacent raceway and drag strip. The entirety of Beech Bend Park is much larger than it is promoted in advertisements for any of its venues; take a look on Google Earth and you will see what I mean! (Taking the imagery all the way back to 2003 also will show you I was not kidding about the popularity of the motor-sport venues.) Today, with being in close proximity to some of Southern Kentucky's biggest attractions (Mammoth Cave, Horse Cave, Kentucky Down Under, Lost River Cave, GM Corvette Assembly Plant, the National Corvette Museum and NCM Motorsports Park), Beech Bend has began to become more of a regional attraction than a local attraction in the middle-of-nowhere. Although, back then, they didn't have the Kentucky Rumbler and Splash Lagoon. I do not have an exact date for this brochure, but the absence of the Cannonball means this definitely was printed no later than 1966. Here's a treat you don't see often in today's brochures: A full-blown map of the park! Wait, Lake Winnie has the world's oldest mini-what-now? Come again? Little interesting to see this was a selling point for the park! Even back then, they advertised themselves as being within Chattanooga. Probably a good choice in the long run; how many people would have bothered to go out if they heard it was located in Rossville, Georgia?

Every time Screamscape said Geauga Lake's Wildwater Kingdom would close at the end of the season, to the present.

Well, damn. I was looking forward to riding the Tidal Wave while planning multiple times to come out to this park. May not have been very exciting looking from the various shots and videos I have seen of it, but it definitely was one of the most unique and beautiful looking, at least in my opinion. Almost seemed like it was a shoot-the-chute that was originally planned with a log flume/hydro flume layout... Hopefully a substantial addition will be made in its place, or a stellar modern replacement, if only so the lines for Congo Rapids and Stanley Falls won't be longer in the Florida summer heat. If not... Maybe they're figuring the boats would be better chopped up and recycled as additional park benches? Don't just stop with spreading Gwazi's ashes... er, timber around the park.

After seeing Michigan's Adventure's newest addition becoming quite... the sensation, I realized that over time, Michigan's Adventure seems to have finally overcome, for the most part, it's overgrown, marshy appearances from its earlier days (not to mention the lack of trees). Which reminded me a bit of a question that has been plaguing me for the past week... has Cedar Fair literally forgotten it owns Wildwater Kingdom? Because looking at recent pictures of the park, especially in the past two years, even the public sections are starting to become overgrown. The area where the large lakeside stadium used to be located, and the hillside surrounding the wave pool are the two public sections in particular that have got my attention. Aerial of Wildwater Kingdom on September 10th, 2015 I keep expecting them to close the park eventually and divide the assets up to other parks (the Thunder Falls slide complex still would be a stand-out addition at any park it would be relocated to, I believe), a la 2007 amusement section closing, but they keep affirming that it is very popular, despite the fact it's been so long since they have added a new water attraction. (10 years) Even more confusing is that Cedar Fair sold the two standalone Soak Cities, and yet not Wildwater Kingdom. The only theory I can come up with is Cedar Fair cannot make their mind up whether to update Wildwater Kingdom and close down their own Soak City up in Sandusky for more park expansion, or close Wildwater Kingdom down to send the slides to the other parks. But even that is a big stretch, since at least Soak City got a new addition back in 2012.

The thing that really saddens me all about this, is that a majority of the people who I've seen that have complained and bitched to SeaWorld are roughly young adults who just seem to just agree with anything they see online, neglecting to look up anything else on the subject or even SeaWorld's history itself. Some of them aren't even activists, some of them just... are doing it for the sake of wanting to be angry about something. SeaWorld has literally just given in to people who not only can't be pleased at anything, but probably don't even know what they're actually doing or what accomplishment they want out of this...

Judging by the plans, it appears they are taking advantage of the terrain surrounded by Gold Rush Golf, the pool, and the Magnolia Shelter. So it seems they are building over the former Jitterbug site , along with where the Super Slide 2000 is now and a large of the Magnolia Shelter, which pretty much guarantees that structure is going to/has come down for this addition. Not sure if they are keeping the Super Slide still, since it's still listed on the website under the kiddie rides section. I presume the Monster Trucks are going to be relocated somewhere in the park. Either way, this is very exciting news for Beech Bend. Not only a unique slide complex, but being able to boast about opening the first of a new type of waterslide in North America is sure to attract even more people from both Nashville and Louisville. Combining that with the excellent wave pool, two water play structures, the existing 3-slide complex, and the historic leisure pool (I'm pretty sure it is one of the very few water parks that has both a normal pool AND a wave pool, that seems to appeal to people who aren't fond of getting out of the water when the wave machine starts.), and Splash Lagoon is probably going to be one of the best smallest water parks in the country. Funny... now both of Kentucky's amusement parks have something in common in their layouts: a water park that merges with and is surrounded by an amusement park.

What I really dislike about this whole recent turn of events is that a ton of people now are lambasting the park to a ridiculous degree. Honestly, I puzzle why they dislike it so much. What is joking on here about it looking like a permanent carnival is apparently a legitimate complaint to rate it as a bad place, even with the friendly employees, lack of lines. People have literally said in the past they wished it was more like Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom. (Not the reopened one today, they mean the management under Premier back in the early 2000s) So they WANT horridly rude employees, bad food, and a rougher crowd? What? While the press thing was definitely handled badly, I still don't think this park is neglecting it's rides to the degree that people exaggerate it to. If it was, I hardly believe they would have the money to spend on the addition of Air Race and Bluegrass Breeze. And the Kentucky Rumbler would have to be as rough as the Georgia Cyclone by now if they didn't have the money to maintain it properly. Sometimes freak accidents happen even with frequent maintenance checks. If that really isn't the case though... kinda questioning who the inspector is then. It is kinda ironic though this was the only ride I felt a bit unsafe on. Something about the Dragon coaster never has ever settled right with me, and it is moreso from the layout. That lift hill and downward spiral never felt right at all.

Well, this is a bit unexpected. The Jitterbug ride toppled over today. http://www.bgdailynews.com/news/ride-collapses-at-beech-bend/article_34f9f9e8-332a-11e5-8c96-cbca00a573ae.html I figured it was going to be retired at the end of the year since Bluegrass Breeze was finally up, but I guess now it'll finally head into retirement. Or the scrapyard. The latter more than likely.

While I have only been on three CCI coasters (The Boss, The Legend & The Raven), I can safely say I agree with Robb's viewpoint on CCI's layouts versus GCI's. I haven't been on other GCI's besides the Kentucky Rumbler and American Thunder, but looking from layouts I can say that a LOT of them look like they provide similar experiences, just with different layouts (in terms of space, order of elements, and what elements made them up). They compromise mostly of heavily banked turns, bunny hills in between drops, keeping low to the ground to create an emphasis on speed (which really only seemed to work with the Rumbler). With CCI's layouts, that was definitely not the case. The Boss and Legend feature unique elements (Boss's "triple down" and The Legend's first drop and weird helix) that felt truly "out of control" and wanted to push some intense forces on the riders compared to other coasters. It never felt like the intensity was being kept under control, and that's what made them so much more enjoyable. Heck, they even brought back the trick-track element (albit only on two coasters, did not have NEARLY the same intensity/enjoyment, and now only one of those coasters still operates). American Thunder, IMO, was okay, but even though I placed it higher above Boss on my list at the time due to being still sore from the Gerstlauer trains, American Thunder nowadays is my second least favorite woody. It just didn't have that long lasting of an appeal compared to the others in my books. The Boss, on the other hand, is right up there with some of my favorite wooden coasters like Thunder Run, Kentucky Rumbler, El Toro (though El Toro's #1 place on the list will be pretty much concrete until I ride either one of RMC's devil's or T-Express, then it MIGHT move down a bit. Until then though it's still leagues ahead of the other coasters on my list even if they are #2 - #4 ) I'd easily re-ride it over American Thunder any day, even if it meant dealing with crappy Gerstlauer trains bruising my knees and sides. I'm not saying though that they were only good because their layouts were different from GCI's however. Twisted Sisters/Twins wasn't really that well received with it's "dueling" aspect.

A majority of the parks I am intrigued with are the theme parks that first showed up to become the region's "Disneyland", The parks by C.V. Wood, like Pleasure Island and Freedomland, the amazingly long living Legend City (20 years for a type of park similar to the C.V. Wood Parks is pretty shocking, especially when it was in ARIZONA of all states.), and the two Florida parks Pirates World and Marco Polo Park all fit into this. The defunct park I am most interested however, is a tie between Busch Gardens Houston (Themed to a continent just like its sister parks, revolving around Asia) and Six Flags AutoWorld. While there is definitely a tiny bit of info on the latter, the park's concept really is fascinating to me, and I somewhat wish that the National Corvette Museum would attempt, or at least consider the thought of a similar "park" within the area, besides having the race track and the actual corvette assembly plant nearby. Busch Gardens Houston has my attention also because of the many "what ifs" that come into my head if the Asian-themed park stuck around a while longer. Compared to Van Nuys, it looked like from historic aerials it could have expanded more substantially, even if it still would be the smallest in comparison to the Williamsburg and Tampa parks. Unfortunately it is one of the least documented defunct parks out there, and pictures of it are scarce.

Kentucky Kingdom 1. Not installing V2/Superman: Ultimate Escape as originally intended. 2. Not creating a full circle from the Belgian Village to Northwest Territory, all the way around to where Top Eliminator Dragsters still sits, letting Mile High Falls and Twisted Twins sit in an increasingly harder to find area. (Apparently some people couldnt see past the restrooms or the foliage.) 3. Removing the tall trees on the original side that provided shade on scorching hot days.

Visited the park Saturday for opening day. Air Race definitely is a hit with the crowd here, and I found it to be really awesome! Should be attracting more people to the park since it's a ride not too many have encountered around these parts. Bluegrass Breeze isn't set up yet, but the ride pad had already been poured over where the old Tornado ride was (the new Tornado is located over next to the Rockin' Tug), I'm assuming they are assembling it over the week right now.

Definitely the Runaway Mine Train at Six Flags Great Adventure. Being relatively tall, but not exactly intimdating; definitely not too long, it doesn't have too many elements to throw at you, but some of the jerkiness can be somewhat thrilling/fun, and the location helps make it pretty memorable to boot! It's a roller coaster for those who just want to have fun!

Knoebels would have to take the cake.

As long as they aren't getting Gerstlauer to replace the trains, I'm happy. Those take quite a toll on your knees.

If you wanna call it a stretch, Beech Bend could almost have been considered an example that would fit the bill, as long as it was pre-2005. Even though its my home park, it definitely looked like a cross between an old, somewhat worn amusement park (on the side where the Haunted House and Wild Mouse are) , and a permanent carnival (Where Kentucky Rumbler sits today.) 2005 Aerial: Look at all that asphalt and them trailer-mounted rides!