Lareson

Actually, Vampire at Walibi Belgium currently has the red track and black support paint scheme. At least that no longer has the standard red track and teal supports many Six Flags SLCs have been painted. I'd like to see something other than red track though. I think a majority of the SLCs are painted with red track. I've looked at some older pictures on Flickr (actually some of Midgetman82's) to see if it was just a leftover from Six Flags, possibly going to be repainted before they backed out of the park, but that looks like it's been painted fairly recently. I'm sure they're starting with the lift as I can imagine that there will be some track work done. Wouldn't doubt if we would seem them working on it during the summer. That track is in need of some desperate work...

The new seat arrangement is much wider than it is currently on the older B&M invert trains. There's probably a good 3-4 inches in between the seats now. New Inverted Trains Here's a good shot of the current trains that show there's maybe not even an inch of space between the seats. Seems like when I ride one of these, I'm always bumping elbows with the person next to me. Unfortunately, don't think we'll see these new style of trains being retrofitted on the old B&M inverts, mainly because of clearance. Adding what could very well be a good 2 feet in width to the trains would cause a few clearances, mainly on lifts.

Did you know Intamin has a patent for a ski brake? https://www.google.com/patents/US4033602?pg=PA1&dq=intamin+ag&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Ih3PUtKxCqXt2wXgmoHYDw&ved=0CHQQ6AEwCA This was filed long before they ever built their first roller coaster. Jr. Gemini was built in 1979, this was filed in 1976, given to them in 1977.

That is weird. From what I read, it looks like Big One had a track replacement around the same time as Valhalla was built and the park decided to cheap out and use the old pieces as part of the support structure. Since the track replacement happened in the late 90's, not many people knew about it except for the track pieces used on Valhalla. The big reason of the refurbishment on Valhalla was to replace those old track pieces as they were starting to become a problem.

Valleyfair has received quite a few additions over the years. It is the 2nd smallest park in the chain ahead of Michigan's Adventure, but with them hopefully expanding the water park in 2015, there might be more things coming in the years after that. They have a very good selection of coasters at Valleyfair, combining a few classics (Corkscrew, Excalibur, and High Roller) with a few moderns (Renegade, Steel Venom, and Wild Thing.) Sure they're missing a major inversion-filled coaster, but they have other priorities, like expanding the tiny water park since it is the smallest in the chain. The family friendly rides that are being added/refurbished for Route 76 is a perfect fit for this park. Sure a lot of enthusiasts don't care for those kind of rides, but we're only a tiny fraction of their attendance. Families with children are what make up a majority of guests. Valleyfair is a pretty good park for Cedar Fair, considering it was the 1st park purchased by the company. In the past 10 years, they've spent quite a bit of money adding several attractions and even bringing back and revamping the failed Halloweekends into the ValleySCARE Halloween Haunt in in 2006. I'd say out of the small to medium sized parks the company owned before the Paramount acquisition, this one has been treated the best. I'm pretty sure Valleyfair has something major coming down the pipeline in 2016, so we'll have to wait and see.

Hm... Had an interesting look at the satellite view of Kingda Ka. Noticed there's not much room there between the tower and the hydraulic motor room. From what it looks, it's kind of cramped unless they're planning on flipping the hydraulic motor room around for some more space, hence the removal of Rolling Thunder. If there "wasn't enough room" as SF states, then how were they able to install Kingda Ka in the first place, and why would they need to remove it now if the drop towers are going inside of Kingda Ka. I don't know, something about the way they worded the Rolling Thunder removal seems like a PR reason to remove it, versus the real reason of them poorly taking care of it.

I know your pain Tony. Want to shoot outside for a photography project, but all I'm seeing is rain in the forecast for the rest of the week. Hoping with the couple more weeks I have before its due, the weather will clear up! Man, a little over a month before the park opens. Can't believe it's almost time for the season to start back up yet! Looking forward to quite a few things this summer, with Gatekeeper being the big one!

Eh, it varies like exposure and weather, but If I remember correctly, I believe they powdercoat their track and supports at the factory. The stuff they use must not be very UV resistant as it does have tendency to fade and break down after a few seasons, especially when exposed like Wicked Twister and Top Thrill Dragster. Comes off as a powdery substance if touched. Also could be a factor is that they only coat the track in a thin coat with an air gun, whereas using a paint roller, it goes on thicker. The heavy duty paint that they painted Raptor and Mantis back in 2005 has held up pretty well. Usually repaints last much longer than the original factory paint. I do like the fact that they went with white supports on Gatekeeper. Makes the coaster look much nicer on the beach and the paint fade won't be noticeable.

Well, can take off another go-carts attraction in the Cedar Fair chain. Heard that all references to Thunder Creek Speedway has been removed from Dorney's website and saw that someone who stopped by the park saw that the signs for it are taken down. That so far is 3 go-carts being removed this year: Kings Island, Michigan's Adventure and now Dorney Park. Starting to wonder if this is an on-coming trend in the Cedar Fair chain. With gas prices rising and the high maintenance requirements for these, I can see more and more of them being removed from amusement parks in the future.

Great report! Maybe we'll see Sally Corp in the near future working with a certain chain looking to add dark rides to their parks. Vine videos are working fine for me with Google Chrome on Windows 8! I actually really like that you added the ability to embed Vine videos on the forum! Kind of like that they're playing on a loop so no clicking to start playing a video like YouTube.

Don't worry folks, hopefully these will be open by the end of the month. The one at Knott's is probably going to be the first one to open up, then Carowinds and Kings Dominion, with Kings Island, Cedar Point, Canada's Wonderland hopefully opening along with the parks. I know they've been getting the one at Cedar Point ready to go for opening day, but unsure if it will open by then. There's quite a bit they have to go through before it opens back up to guests, mainly state inspections, then the employee training. I'm assuming they're doing the maintenance training for the evac platform at this point. Letting these $6mil rides go to waste would be very, very bad for Cedar Fair. With 6 of them across the chain, that's $36mil spent on these. Those that are thinking these are going to get taken out because of a small fault, nope, these 301ft towers will be staying in those park's skylines for a long time. It's not like anyone was physically injured or property was damaged. It was just a small fault that caused the ride to be "locked" at the top of the tower for an extended amount of time. You can say the media inflated the incident more than what it actually was. I really do like the Windseekers, dangling up that high in the air, spinning at a nice pace, being able to get a nice view of the surrounding area. They're a nice break from riding coasters and high thrill rides.

That was bought when Dominator was moved to Kings Dominion. I remember seeing it on a TV special I think the year after it was built. Don't remember what show it was, but I think it was on one of the DIY channels.

And oddly, most of the flat rides that they took out that they didn't relocate are sitting out in a boneyard if they haven't been scrapped yet. SFGrAd was almost part of a trip I'm planning this summer out east, but then I started to realize that it maybe isn't worth it yet. Decided to do Hershey instead as it's not out of the way driving and the atmosphere is much better.

I think it's a structural thing too, since it's now part of the support system for the coaster. Easiest way I can describe it is if you had 2 blocks of wood right next to each other, not secured together, and you try and push one of the blocks to one side without trying to lift it up off of the table. You'll see that the middle seam stays parallel, but the top completely gets skewed with one higher than another. That's why there's also nothing at the top of the keyholes securing them. Also with it being part of the coaster now, it has to be part of the bolt inspection so the gaps have to be left there so they can easily inspect them. All I can say is, get used to it cause the gaps are not going anywhere! Personally, I like them, adds a bit of an industrial modern look to the entrance.

Yeah, that's way too high for safety reasons. Manufacturers don't want to hit any more than 5Gs for a specific amount of time (think it's only for a few seconds.) They try to shoot anywhere from 3G to 4.5G for their maximum. Negative though, they try to get it anywhere in between .5G and -2G. Anything greater than those numbers, they consider too dangerous.

I think this is a Six Flags thing with the chain lifts slowing at the top of the lift hills. Noticed that American Eagle and Viper at SF Great America also do that. I don't know why they do, seems to kill the pacing as I like going over the top of lifts at their normal speed. Haven't noticed any other park outside of the Six Flags chain that does this.

^ I helped him earlier today off TPR and come to find out, the screenshots aren't saved in the normal screenshot location in the NoLimits folder in Program Files. For some reason, don't know if it's a Windows 8 thing or not, NoLimits stores the screenshots in a completely different location, actually not even visible under normal circumstances. If you have upgraded or purchased a computer with Windows 8 and also wondering the same question, here's the steps to get to the location: - On your keyboard, press Windows key and R to pull up the "Run" window. - Type in "appdata" without the quotation marks and hit enter - Go to Local -> VirtualStore -> Program Files (x86) and in there should be your NoLimits folder I have no idea why it's creating the directory in there for saved files such as screenshots and tracks. All of them should be there and hopefully that helps for those wondering where the heck did they go!

I don't think we've heard the height requirements yet, but here's some comparable ones: Enterprise: 42" (this is what it was at Six Flags Over Georgia) Rip Curl: 48" (I believe this is the what it is for this Wisdom Rides model) White Lightning: 48" (common requirement for Millennium Flyers) Freedom Flyer: 44" (not 100% sure, but that's what it is on Kvasten at Gröna Lund) SkyCoaster: 48" (that's if this one doesn't offer the pink flight suits or not, although I'm doubting it will due to the height) I'm still not sure what other rides are going to be included. According to the rendering these are the other rides still not confirmed: Scrambler: 48", 36-48" and accompanied by a responsible person Tilt-a-Whirl: 46" or accompanied by a responsible person Screaming Swing (I think, but unsure about the manufacturer) These are not accurate, only my own guesses, not meant to throw anyone off.

Great to see KidTums having fun on her first SkyCoaster! Possibly one of my favorite things about being able to be a Site Controller is seeing kids who are riding it for the first time. They're all nervous and not too sure about it. I usually encourage them and tell them almost like what Ellissa did, comparing it to a coaster in the park. Then once the ripcord is pulled, it's first screams, then all smiles the way down, usually with them asking their parents or whoever is with them to do it again once they're getting out of their flight suits! One of the reasons why I like working on a SkyCoaster, much more face-to-face and conversation time with guests, usually you can't get when you're working on a coaster or a flat ride.

I haven't yet been to Indiana Beach yet, even though it's the 2nd closest park to me. I've heard stories though about the place, mainly was things like maintenance and operations being terrible. Basically got the feeling everything was going downhill at the park and that Steel Hawg was the only highlights of the park. Hoping I do get to go this year now that there are some decent improvements going into this year.

Still surprised that Cedar Fair hasn't ordered new trains, cause even Six Flags phased out all of their Morgan trains, with Monstre at La Ronde being the last one in the chain. Their now being replaced with 4 brand new PTC trains. I can see it coming in the future though. I don't think they want to take out another coaster for a while so Grizzly will be staying and can't imagine those Morgan trains are going to last much longer. Not to mention Summers' coasters work well with PTC trains.

Any newer tech for these is greatly appreciated whether it's RFID or a your own passkey. Keys can only go so far and they can be easy to lose. Still not a fan of the receipt barcode "keys" either as it's a piece of paper, why I started taking a picture of these on my phone so that I have a digital copy that still works if the off chance the receipt is lost. I'm one of those people that would love to have a MyMagic+ system at all parks. Being able to have your season pass, fast pass, locker key, credit/debt card, and hotel key in 1 RFID card, bracelet, or your phone is perfect. Means that I can leave the wallet locked in the car or wherever. And if it gets lost, stolen or damaged, just have to have get a new one and everything is put back on it. I still don't understand those that complain about a system that is meant to make your trip more about the experience. Really glad Holiday World is going in this direction and looking forward to what else is in store for the future!

The owners of this park must be thinking that they're going to get it opened cause they haven't even done anything to try and get it back open in the past 3 years. Letting everything sit dormant, with no word whether they're going to sell the property or any of the assets really. I see they already tried getting somethings taken care of by auctioning the property that was going to have the planned hotel. All I've been hearing is that they're at least keeping some kind of maintenance done in the park to keep it at a somewhat decent level so in the event they get it back open, it's ready to go. I'm sure the city appreciates everything just sitting there, attracting nothing besides weeds and rust. In the Cedar Fair relocation scenario, think Time Machine should go to Valleyfair. Would fit the park well, not too big, can be acquired fairly cheap compared to new. Not to mention, be the first new coaster to have inversions in several years. Kings Island needs something bigger than a 150ft tall looping sit down to replace Son of Beast. They in a sense already have one of these with Vortex. I can see Iron Horse moved to one of the smaller parks, like Michigan's Adventure. Perfect little family fun mine ride. Hang Ten, I'd move it to Cedar Point in Planet Snoopy. They could always use another kiddie coaster in the front of the park since they really have a lot of kid areas here and another kid friendly coaster would help push the family aspect of the park. That seems to be the direction Ouimet would like to push the parks more towards versus the high thrill that Kinzel was doing. Soak'd would be tough one since these kind of coasters are falling out of style, although since Premier did build this one, it could survive at another park. Where though would be a roulette as it doesn't fit anywhere. Round About, that's another tough one. Mainly because it's quite a complicated setup Premier did with the wheel lift. Worlds of Fun, Dorney or CA's Great America with this one. Don't know if it'd fit in with any bigger parks, mainly because of the Backlot Stunt coasters at a couple of the former Paramount parks and the capacity on it is not that great.

Hm... Now that you say that, don't think so. Millennium Force I think just finished its paint job last year, or maybe was finishing it this year, can't remember. I think at this point, Top Thrill Dragster and Wicked Twister are the coasters that haven't had a paint job yet. Everything else has been painted in the last few years. I don't know if any of the flats that have been painted lately, besides the major rehab going on at Cedar Downs. I'm assuming TTD and WT are next on the painting list, although I thought they would give WT a fresh coat since they're sprucing that whole area up with Gatekeeper. Would be a cheap one to paint too.

Whoa, think I got slightly dizzy trying to watch the fixed POV of Joker. Still haven't gone on a spinning coaster yet, but these ones look pretty decent. Six Flags did a great job theming that coaster as well! Also the fact that Superman is still running well since it was basically built after its original manufacturer went out of business. Looks like they're either in a middle of cleaning the coaster or repainting. Mexico hasn't been kind to the red/yellow/blue paint on it. These POVs make me excited to know that I have about a month and a half before my next coaster ride!