Lareson

If I remember correctly, that was nothing official. Was a fanboy that was ambitious during TTD’s construction.

That would be it. Expect Whitehall Rd to be shut down probably near the end of the season (don’t really want to cut off traffic to the main non-public entrance to the park) to hook it up. Think the plan is to also slowly phase out one of the septic ponds in the back. They said they’re going to use the old system as backup. I mean, they could try to make it an overnight shut down, but with our US construction tactics and laws, chances are it’ll take at least a week, if not more. Gotta have 5 guys supervising 1 that’s doing the work.

---

Lots of reasons: cost as it required a complete re-tracking, prototyping never worked out with that train, losing Will Koch and the whole turmoil that fell over the ownership of Holiday World which led them to drop the purchase of Kentucky Kingdom and Will's daughters booting out half of the Koch family from the park. Essentially a lot of really bad stuff was happening and unfortunately the Timberliner conversion fell into the middle of it. I think we'll eventually see something happen to Voyage to improve its comfort, but it'll probably be a while thanks to its giant expensive steel counterpart known as Thunderbird.

When GCI re-profiled the helix in 2015, it was no longer needed so it was disabled. Even before then, it was just being trimmed just ever so slightly to help make the helix more comfortable and less wear and tear on it. Well, before those new trains on the SFNE Mind Eraser, it was known as the smoothest SLC, so it's pretty high up there. I wouldn't say it's butter smooth, but it's certainly way better than your standard Six Flags SLC, that's for sure.

I was thinking Zamperla myself as a lot of the Planet Snoppy rides and Disk-Os are from them and they do make coasters that are not Volares such as Thunderbolt at Coney Island. That was really the manufacturer that came to mind instantly when they said they bought from them before and wanted to add them to their coaster manufacturer list. Unless Larson or Mondial has started making coasters, Zamperla seems to be my main choice.

Yes it was. Still unfortunate that there's still no proper replacement for it yet.

The trabant was just sent to Chance a couple years ago and got a complete refurb. The Chance refurb was actually I think was in 2005/06 if I remember correctly. Was when quite a few of the Chance rides had full refurbs. Even though this was one of the two rides from Bob-lo Island when it closed, these Trabants are pretty hardy. And it's all pretty common parts that run it so it's not like it's a rare custom job, like other rides from other companies. I really hope Cedar Fair picks up other classic rides. I'd love to have a Enterprise and/or a Troika here. Heck, even bring back back the old Monster that's still part of a traveling fair in California.

Speaking of compensation, I wonder if Vortex and/or current Bat (Kings Island) was compensation for the issues with the original Bat. I think that was the case if I remember from reading up the history on The Bat. I know it happened to Cedar Point when VertiGo collapsed. Essentially is the reason why they got Skyhawk as that was their "trade-in" value under the warranty for losing VertiGo after 1 season.

I don't think so, this is the tires which bend them. During the course, they are only stretched between there two anchor points and thus have no reason to move (maybe they wiggle, tho, I don't know how tense it is). As for the Chance one, it seems that the outer tire is spring-loaded and can move. He doesn't mention it, but Brian from IOE did a cool video where you can see the hardware up close. Having worked on a Chance Big Dipper (which is the same train/propulsion system as the Arizona coaster) the whole wheel assembly is on a pivot and the smaller wheel has a spring clamp so it can freely move. I was always fascinated by the fact that the Big Dipper models have a curved lift. It also kind of terrifies me that the Arizon coaster uses the same train and restraint system as a Big Dipper.

Nice pics. Judging from the track and support work, that's definitely GCI's handiwork. I can see a bit of the top layer of track in your second pic and that's definitely the new laminate layer GCI is using now with that different kind of wood for the 2 track layers. Looks like everything leading to and from the former trick track has been redone. Sort of sad that the trick track is gone, but really glad that the pothole at the end of the trick track is finally gone. That would mean the turn around, helix and now the new airtime hill is all GCI's work. I don't think I'd want any other company to work on this beast outside of Gravity Group, but I don't see the parks working with them anytime soon since GCI has been doing a great job with all of their wooden coasters in the chain.

It would be interesting to know if RMC could have even salvaged Son of Beast, since I believe it had some pretty severe structural issues. Yeah, that was never going to happen with that crappy RCCA support structure and the crappy lumber Paramount used to cut costs. I always knew Son of Beast was trouble from the start when a section of the lift collapsed when they were building it. And of course their reasoning was "insufficient support" even though that certainly wasn't the case. But yeah, think we're for sure seeing the first hybrid hyper coaster! Just going off of the steepness of the lift alone and how much of the original hill they're keeping shows that this is easily going to peak 200ft, if not more. That would be 6 coasters over the 200ft mark, which that in itself is an impressive stat.

The brand study was done at Carowinds a few years ago and what came out of it was Carolina Harbor and them bringing the park into the area's demographic instead of a corporate copycat feel. They essentially take a look at the area, see what the area's interests and themes are, market the park towards those interests, and rebrand if needed, such as the Carolina Harbor expansion. With Valleyfair, I can see them pushing more towards the family friendly aspect and modernizing the park. Who knows what that can entail.

I haven't noticed any work in the waterpark. The new maintenance building is coming along nicely. I am still banking on the fact that the old maintenance building is being tore down and that is where the water park will be expanded. I would guess Thunder Falls from GL? Don't expect any of the Geauga Lake attractions to be relocated. Because water park attractions can be bought rather cheap, it's not worth the move, better off for scrap and buying new for the parks. The old building will be staying for now, just put into another use. Also don't forget the employee lot that can be used for future waterpark expansion. There's still plenty of new property behind the the maintenance building that can be used for a new lot. Do expect more painting being done in the spring for the water park. Heard that Cyclone Zone will be the next set of slides to gain some new colors.

I'm not surprised... It was brutal on the trains and track, especially the transition before the next hill. Adding another airtime hill though, a very short one at that, means that it's going to be a great pop of air. Better than a straight section I guess.