Lareson
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Posts posted by Lareson
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Well, the contract for the Red Gold ketchup has expired and Cedar Fair is back with Heinz once again. Just noticed the Heinz logo has appeared on all of the websites.
Sad part is, French's mustard is out now since Heinz is going to cover all condiments: ketchup, mustard, relish, and mayo.
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This more than likely could become the site for the dark ride in 2016. The ride was rumored to go inside of the Coliseum, but I think due to the history and that it's still a major part of the park infrastructure, they opted not to use it and decided to build a new building where Good Time Theatre stands.
I believe Tony mentioned on his Twitter, it's going to be replaced by grass this year. So if the GTT site becomes the new dark ride, construction more than likely won't start on it until late this year. I can understand why they want to use that space though, it's on a rather large piece of land and the building wasn't in that great of shape since it was built with mid 70's building standards, which weren't that great.
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So, I'm seriously considering buying Nolimits 2, and I installed the demo to try it out. On the demo, there are three coasters that you can play with, and when I was playing with them, it was running at 2-25 FPS. Is there a way to make it run at a higher FPS?
Simple answer: buy a new computer.
If it's a fairly cheap laptop that's more than a couple years old, you're not going to be getting any better graphics out of it. If you have a desktop, you can install a new graphics card, but that's a whole different thing. Because NoLimits 2 runs on a graphics engine on par with most modern video games, you'll need a pretty good computer with a good graphics card.
If you cannot do any of that, you'll have to adjust the graphics and screen resolution to a lower quality. It may improve performance, but it won't look very good.
Even though you might be covered by the minimum specs, here's what I recommend:
- At a minimum, an Intel Core i3 processor will run the game fine, but at least a quad-core i5 is recommended, especially if you plan on recording video.
- At least 4GB of RAM, 8GB is recommended.
- Graphics must be desktop-grade, meaning a Nvidia GeForce 750 w/ 2GB of GDDR5 RAM (or higher) or AMD Radeon R7 250 w/ 2GB GDDR5 RAM (or higher) graphics card. An integrated Intel graphics chip will run the game, but performance will be at a loss. The laptop versions of the graphic cards must be higher than a Nvidia GeForce 750M or an AMD Radeon R9 M265X.
This is coming from years of experience with building several gaming and workstation computers myself. These specs are pretty much what I'd give to someone that would be looking to buy a decent gaming computer, but might not be able to spend $1500+ on a high-end gaming computer. Can easily build a computer with the specs I listed for around $800 and it would for sure be able to run NoLimits 2 without any issues.
- At a minimum, an Intel Core i3 processor will run the game fine, but at least a quad-core i5 is recommended, especially if you plan on recording video.
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Yeah, that's a good point. New trains on Wild Thing are of course not on the priority list, but it's not out of the realm of possibility. Considering that Morgan no longer exists, it's really hard to say what could happen. If parts become scarce, that could give a good reason to get new rolling stock. If Chance is still making some of the parts for the Morgan coasters, that could give a reason to not replace them. Not everything lasts forever and we've already seen several coasters and rides from closed manufacturers, especially ones that made proprietary parts, that have been taken down because of that reason.
About budgets, they're set years in advance. If the park is looking to purchase a new set of trains, the budged has more than likely been approved for it for at least a year, if not more. The capital expenditure budget is way more flexible than it was in the past, where I think it was set to something like 9% of profits or something. If the park needs to purchase new trains because they found that they were starting to become mechanically unsound, then yes, Cedar Fair will indeed replace them, whether or not it's fits into the budget. They would actually be a rather cheap investment too, considering that it would more than likely come well under $2mil to replace all 3 trains on Wild Thing so the "sacrifice" to the budget would actually be of little impact.
A lot of the major improvements have already been made, especially in the markets that are growing quickly. Valleyfair is one of them, but also one of the toughest parks to work with since it's pretty much boxed in by the flood line. Pretty much where the developed park boundaries are right now, that's about as big as it can get without having to deal with the flooding issues and the high cost of trying to build on it. Yes, there are attractions that can be taken out and replaced with new ones, but in the long run, I really don't see Valleyfair's midways expanding. It's why we've seen things like the catering area being pushed out towards the edge of the park to make room for Route 76. It's also why we've seen most of CF's Go-Kart attractions removed, they take up too much room and the high cost of operations and the profit made by those, if any, has now been replaced by things like FastLane.
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That was their Intamin Looping Starship. Well, guess the rumor about it being relocated turned out to be false. That's being cut into pieces for scrap. It wasn't even that old, being built in 2006. I'm not familiar with the ride, so was it that unreliable that SF decided it was better to scrap it?
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The B&M trains would put a serious hamper on Wild Thing. For one, Steel Dragon and Wild Thing uses 2 different track styles. Wild Thing uses inner rails and Steel Dragon uses outer rails, like what Intamin and B&M uses. It was easy for B&M to make those trains because it used an outer rail and all they had to do was adjust the width of the bogies to accommodate the track. The issue with the inner rails is that it requires a completely different bogie configuration that B&M doesn't have designed. There's also a serious height restriction because of the raised heartline and clearance issues. Steel Dragon has a 6' 1" height limit, which is VERY low compared to some other companies that has height limits. That would put a big hamper on the park because most of the adult male US population is around that height and would no longer be able to ride a coaster they previous could. In Japan, that's alright because they're average height is much lower than the US.
I think those trains were a 1-off design that Nagashima Spa Land had to do because those Morgan trains were seriously flawed and with how strict Japan is with their coasters, they were probably past their expected lifetime. I wouldn't mind seeing the trains used on Lightning Run as a good replacement to some of the aging chassis on the inner rail hyper coasters. I wouldn't mind the Arrow hypers to get new trains, or at least new lap bars that conform to your hips, instead of being a thinly padded steel tube holding you in.
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That just seems like a waste of time. Unless the spot is used for some other purpose like storage, then I can see, but taking them down, storing the parts and having it reassembled in the spring just feels like a waste of time. They just seemed like normal aluminum bleachers used at many sports stadiums that are outside in all sorts of weather environments.
Just checked on the webcam and it seems like they've moved it back towards the main midway. Guess the Theatre isn't coming down yet, but I wouldn't doubt if it'll start sometime after the New Year.
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Yep, looks like they're starting to do the prep work to take down Good Time Theatre. The trees were cut down in front of the building as I thought last night. I'm assuming they're using the Luminosity bleacher area as sort of a staging area for the demolition crew. That whole entire area looks like they've been taking it apart.
Taken at 10:45a on 12/18/14
I believe someone asked this earlier, and no, they usually don't take down those bleachers. That area must be getting used for something else then while they tear down GTT.
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From what I can tell since it's already dark out, it looks like they're already starting the prep work to take it down.
Taken from Bing Maps Birds Eye view, from 2009-ish.
A few of the surrounding trees look like they've been taken down in front of the building. Also it looks like the power was cut to the area too, as there were lamp posts that were in front of the building too that should be on.
Will have to see tomorrow whether or not there's been work done.
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Oy... The wheel squeaking in that video. But really though, I wouldn't mind seeing a couple of these pop up in the Cedar Fair chain, of course with different layouts that fit with each park. I did hear that the coaster budget for 2016 was going to be split between a couple of the smaller parks and we really haven't heard anything solid for 2016 besides a couple wishful thoughts. At least the Michigan's Adventure rumor has something behind it, while the other big parks really don't have much since there's usually rumbling around this time about planning and such. I guess with Banshee and Fury, they sort of pre-announced those with the tearing down of Son of Beast and Cedar Fair putting in a massive amount of money into Carowinds.
Chance did have a couple layouts drawn up when they were marketing this as a "Hyper Lite," although this one particularly was drawn up like a compact version of the old Morgan hyper coasters.
This video is a really old one from 2008, which they apparently tried to market this as a "Mega-Lite" but well, Chance never went through with marketing these. This one is particularly a very strange layout.
Going back into Chance's YouTube page bring a whole treasure trove of videos, including when they attempted to get into the wind turbine market.
Nothing really has been floating around for Valleyfair though. If CF is indeed splitting up the coaster budget for 2016 for a couple of the smaller parks, then I can see something coming in for Valleyfair. What it could be though, that's the thing that will make it hard to determine. I know for sure what a few things it won't be (as much as I know you guys want one, I REALLY doubt a B&M Invert will be heading here) but any coaster that can fit into a $8-10mil budget would work well here. And a Chance Hyper-GTX would be one that would work well, as well as a Vekoma SLC.
Yes, yes, yes, I know that as coaster enthusiasts you guys hate that idea, but well, gotta look at it from the market and GP perspective. It'll cover a giant coaster hole that hasn't been filled here at this park. I'm sure you guys will also say that there were other B&M inverts that were around $14mil like Patriot, but you gotta remember that price was from 2006, which would be around $16.5mil if they were to rebuild Patriot today. OzIris was around $15mil for just the coaster and that was a fairly small invert and from the reviews, was rather lack-luster. Sure Cedar Fair said Valleyfair was one of the parks that they said was going to be one of the ones that was a key expansion market, but I can't see them spending $16.5mil on a single coaster for the 2nd smallest park in the chain. Something more reasonable, like a SLC, would fit well with the park. Now what SLC it could be though, they could decide to go with one of the non-standard layouts and throw on the new train design. We've all seen what CF can do with a freshly built SLC (it has been stated by several people that Thunderhawk is one of the best and smoothest SLCs) so it's not out of the question.
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I'm really glad photo-eyes are not used on coasters that much anymore. Like what Brian said, other rides like log flumes have to use photo-eyes because you can't really use a proxy switch to detect a boat floating in water and expecting it to trigger the sensor. Usually is one of the reasons why a log flume can sometimes go down after a big rain storm as the water on the photo-eyes causes them to not work properly. I don't miss the days working on an old Arrow log flume and having to deal with those photo-eyes triggering when they're not suppose to and causing issues. To this day, I can still hear that Arrow fault buzzer going off...
They're also usually the reason why a "ghost train" can suddenly appear in the computer and causing a train to stop at the top of the lift or out on a mid-course brake run. Coasters that operate with 2 trains require in general 3 blocks. Well if one of the blocks don't clear properly, like on the brakes, the computer will still think there's a train there, even though the computer knows there's a train in the station and on the lift, so it'll stop the one on the lift, usually at the very top. So if you ever wonder the reason why a coaster has stopped at the top of the lift for no apparent reason, that's usually the issue.
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The California sun eats away at the paint very quickly, especially when it's still the manufacturer paint still on there. Look at the difference between what the paint job on Scream used to look like and what it looks like now.
From construction
To today, with the photoshop job on it posted a couple pages back.
I knew the paint was about shot, but I didn't think that it had gotten bad where it was at the point where it almost lost all color. So apparently about 12 years is what it takes for SFMM to finally realize their coasters need paint. I know Dragster looks just as bad, but at least that has a 420ft tall reason as to why it hasn't been painted. Guess we can expect Tatsu to be painted sometime in 2018.
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Yes, both Pony Express and Montezooma's are flywheel launches. I know Pony Express has the launch lined with brakes that are suppose to activate in the event of a roll back. I believe that was the cause of the accident as the brakes didn't activate properly, or something along those lines. Monte can roll back as much as it wants, because, well, that's how that coaster is designed and it can't run into anything else.
Since Thunderbird is a 100% LSM launch, it'll work the same exact way that Maverick does. If there's any sort of power loss or the train doesn't make it through the Immelmann for some strange reason, the LSM fins will act the same way as eddy brakes, slowing the train down very quickly.
All the flywheel does is power a generator to get power to the LSM fins more efficiently. If a flywheel wasn't installed, the power draw would probably be too much for the electric grid for the park. It's the same premise as overloading a breaker at your house. If there's too much power draw, the breaker will trip to prevent it from causing damage. It was probably cheaper to do a flywheel than having a larger power line installed for the park. Use a little power to turn a motor, which then turns a giant wheel that can produce the electrical power requirements needed.
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Yeah, Great Bears' supports are like that because of a building restriction. Baron's are in a whole different league because they're going to be themed to late 19th century steel lattice work, which is a major step for B&M since they not only have to make it look authentic, but also keeping it a solid structural component to the coaster. Gatekeeper's keyholes was B&M's first support structure that was a designer piece, rather than a simple pipe support. Still think to this day that it was an excellent decision by B&M to offer to do that instead of what the alternative was, which was to encase support pieces inside of a concrete and plaster keyhole.
I think Baron is going to be a great addition to the park for what I consider is the Netherlands' own Disneyland. I mean, the theming they put into their rides is unbelievable. Joris en de Draak looks great with its dragon and medieval theming, Vliegende Hollander's theming is astonishing, even giving Python's new Vekoma trains a great paint job on what I consider the most generic ride in their park. And the entrance to the park, holy crap! It's why I'm really hoping that 2016 might be the year I get to head over to Europe.
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The station track was one of the first things that went in the building, so I guess technically, track has been installed already. You can see them installing it in the video below:
I can imagine that the base of the lift hill was installed as well. The contractors wouldn't be stupid enough to not install that first before any of the brick facade and roof went in as it'll make installing that pretty difficult with it being inside of a building.
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It's probably the year-end GM meeting. I have a feeling the GMs discuss how the parks did for the season, what's going on for 2015, possible future plans, etc. It's really nothing major, just boring corporate stuff.
The parks are pretty much getting plans rolling for the 2015 season as I've heard applications have started to go out to potential returning seasonal employees for the parks. Once January hits, it'll be almost 4-5 months for most parks before opening day arrives, which really isn't that big of a time frame now that 2014 is almost done.
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Yeah, Morgan was suppose to be the one to build the hypercoaster and it was basically all ready to start construction before Cedar Fair bought the park, but not entirely sure the location though. It also didn't help that it was right at the time that Dana Morgan, the founder and owner of Morgan, decided to just up and retire and sell the company. Chance bought all of the assets, which did cause trouble at the park since Be-Bop Blvd, the Morgan electric car ride there, was only partially built as it was suppose to be a 2001 attraction but that whole Morgan to Chance transition kind of threw the plans for that out of whack and at the end result, CF opened it for the 2002 season after completing it.
The drainage field still exists, I've said this previously, all the water tower did was allow water storage on property and lighten the load off of the area water line when pools and water rides had to be filled. What happens to the stuff leaving the park, let's just say that it's still a basic drainage system with lift pumps and septic tanks. It can be a problem during the more busier time of the year because the system can't handle all of it and gets a bit *ahem* backed up. If I remember correctly, I believe the park attempted to get a sewer line attached to the park, but I think the city voted against it, which to me doesn't seem fair to the park as they can't add any additional bathrooms.
Most of the land on the east side of the property where it's not developed and around Timbertown Railway, the water table line is only a foot or two right below ground level. I had found some of the water table maps when the area was doing a resource study and most of the property is either 5 to zero feet above the water table. That's why I think they raised the area where Thunderhawk is as it's not that great of ground to sink footers into. Mainly sandy ground because of the close proximity to Lake Michigan.
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I believe most of the issues the WindSeekers had are gone now. Mondial and Cedar Fair worked on getting the problems fixed, and most of the WindSeekers operated quite flawless this year, although minus the Kings Dominion one since I heard that one had some long downtime. Even SteelHawk ran well after being moved to Worlds of Fun. The Adventureland Windseeker model would work well for Valleyfair since they really don't need a giant 64-person gondola. I'm all for parks adding these to their lineups. I know I feel much more secure on them than the SkyScreamers and they offer a much higher capacity. It all depends on the park if they want to purchase one or not, although I've heard there is another park or two that are looking to order a WindSeeker.
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That's why I'm kind of glad the hyper coaster plans were put on hold because it would of been the attraction that might of been too over the top. What the park added instead in 2002 and the following years helped round out the park more. Rodger Jourden was always know as an over the top person and it might of lead to some potential issues down the road. I mean, he was taking a huge risk buying a $1 million Arrow Corkscrew back in 1979, which back then was completely unheard of for a small petting zoo to buy their first roller coaster from such a huge manufacturer. Cedar Point had just opened their Corkscrew not even 3 years prior.
His plans for the park were very ambitious after Shivering Timbers was built. Not only did he want a $7mil hypercoaster, but he also wanted to build a campground, a 300-room hotel, a new parking lot, and a convenience store/gas station all within a 5 year period after Timbers was built. The Jourden family did at least end up building the Duck Creek RV resort across the street in 2010, so at least that part is completed. I think the area is still missing a good hotel nearby, as it's a good 10-20min drive to the nearest hotels near the park.
A lot can happen in the next 5 years, but I'll bet that a new coaster, a major kid's area, a new water park attraction, and at least 1 or 2 new flat rides will be added at any point in time in those 5 years, since it's really what the park is missing. Of course I do imagine them taking a year or two off and just work on infrastructure improvements.
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The POS upgrade wasn't exactly cheap because there was nothing to begin with. There was no in-park network or anything to improve upon. It was a major expense and why it was the last park to receive the POS upgrade. I could of thrown the FUNtv additions in there, but that was a chain-wide cost and probably one of the single most expensive additions added to the chain. It would be why 2014 was the highest capital investment year because, let's just say those TVs they used weren't exactly cheap being 47" weather-proof 1080p outdoor TVs.
In reality though, this park is fairly young, even though it started in 1956 as a petting zoo, it didn't really become a full fledged amusement park until Rodger Jourden purchased it in 1968 and added Corkscrew in 1979. It didn't really start to become the park it is today until Wolverine Wildcat was built in 1988. The park always had large gaps in between coaster additions and there were big plans for this park in the early 2000's before Cedar Fair bought the park, but it would of made this park feel quite odd if some of those things came to fruition and I think those would of hurt the park more than it benefited.
I appreciate MiAd being my home park because it still feels like a family-ran park, even though it's ran by the second largest amusement park chain in North America. Sure it's not a Holiday World, but it doesn't need to be. Holiday World has an excellent market where it's located, since it's not very far from major cities such as Louisville, Indianapolis, St. Louis, and Nashville. The market for MiAd puts a rather hard damper on its draw because of where it's located. Now if it was closer to Grand Rapids, I can see it being the size of Valleyfair or CA Great America, but because its located north of Muskegon in a rather rural area, it's why we don't see it pulling more people in and in essence, more additions.
I do need to remind you guys that 2016 is the park's 60th anniversary year, which they usually add a major attraction, and I don't mean a small flat ride either. The park's 50th anniversary brought in Grand Rapids, a rather large Intamin raft ride, which was one of the most expensive projects at the park before Thunderhawk. I think we'll be seeing something big added to the park then, whether it's the rumored Hyper-GTX, a relocated and converted floorless Vortex, or some other multi-million dollar project.
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I can see that English isn't your first language livai, but I think you mention something about it being most profitable compared to Dorney or Worlds of Fun. Well, yeah, it is. Combined with a lower operational cost across the whole board (games, merch, food, rides) and the fact that it brings in roughly over 600,000 guests annually (just a guess, think this was the last ballpark number the park released a couple years ago, we all know CF's stance on releasing attendance numbers) means that this park really does bring in higher profit margins. Even with a comparable size park like Valleyfair and CA Great America, they don't have the big attractions or any of the major costs that those other parks have.
I know many locals visit the park and have season passes, but the park also pull people from across the midwest, even many from the Chicago, Indiana, and Detroit areas where you could consider that market already "taken" by bigger parks. Slowly but surely, I can see this park expanding very well over the next 5 years. I mean, ever since Cedar Fair has bought the park, they've been adding more attractions than they've been removing, and I consider this list pretty impressive, even if some rides are relocated.
2002 - Ripcord, Hydroblaster, Timbertown Railway, Jr. Go-Karts, Go-Karts, Dodgem, Be Bop Blvd (Yes, they really did add all these rides in 2002.)
2004 - Swan Boats
2005 - Funnel of Fear
2006 - Grand Rapids, Coasters
2008 - Thunderhawk
2010 - Bumper Boats (even though some of the boats came from Valleyfair, those have now been replaced by new boats as of 2013)
2011 - Beach Party - Removed Jolly Rodger and Treehouse Harbor for Beach Party
2012 - Removed Falling Star
2013 - Lakeside Gliders - Removed Go-Karts
2014 - New POS system with a fiber optic network
I mean, I know Cedar Fair has only added 1 coaster since they've owned the park, but they already have a world-class wooden roller coaster so there's really no need to add another one of those. All they need is a couple more modern flats, an upgraded kid's ride area like a Camp or Planet Snoopy, and a really good steel coaster and this park really is a perfect family destination. Throw in another restaurant and maybe a new water slide to replace a couple of the dated tube slides and I'd consider this park very well rounded.
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Cedar Fair also has quite a few Arrow trains floating around the chain as well for parts. The Orient Express and Double Loop trains were parted out and distributed around the chain. You are correct though, S&S still has a warehouse full of Arrow looping train parts and I've heard they still make some of the "disposable" parts like the wheels. Not entirely sure if they make parts though for Arrow's other coasters and rides, like the Mad Mouse coasters, mine train coasters, and the trains used on Gemini and Excalibur.
But anyway, parts won't be an issue for any of the Arrow coasters. Between S&S and I've also heard that Vekoma has also been making a few parts as well. Of anything that'll be the demise of the Arrow coasters are the tracks. A lot of their coasters built between the mid 70's and up until the early 90's, did not exactly have great building standards. Seam welds weren't placed in ideal places because it was built in one continuous piece of track and no flanges that could hold together much better than a weld, supports were placed in areas along the track that could support the structure with some excess stress, but I don't think they took into account lateral forces until CAD came around. It wasn't until the late 90's when Arrow started building track in a factory and using CAD to design their coasters, and unfortunately came at their worst time with the rise of Intamin and B&M.
It's why I see so many pictures of Arrow's coasters from around the time they were built and then comparing them to pictures of how they look now, there's so many additions to the track and supports because they didn't account for the stress placed on the structure. If anything, it's why I see some of their more tame coasters, like Gemini, Excalibur, and the mine coasters with wooden supports outliving their all-steel counterparts is because they were designed with wooden roller coaster supports that can flex and damper the forces better. Arrow was for sure ahead of their time creating those hybrid coasters and why I see RMC as taking the technology that Arrow started years ago and bringing it into the modern era.
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Heh, track will rise eventually. I think they had to wait at the Clermont plant for some of the other projects to finish up. Probably once Thunderbird's track was finished being manufactured, they're probably working on the track for this now. I have a feeling there will be a lot more work on this due to custom supports that'll have to be built for the lift hill and drop. Outside of the keyholes for Gatekeeper, Baron will for sure have the most unique support structure B&M has ever built for one of their coasters.
No recent images have shown what's going on at the plant, although I can imagine there's quite a lot of Fury track waiting to be shipped to Carowinds. I can imagine that the track for Baron is now being made. Interesting to note that every single piece of steel that's going into the ride building has been pained that green color. They're really going all out for this since this is going to be themed on par with what Disney and Universal could do.
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Hm... I wonder if Larson could sell them a drop tower. I mean, Cedar Fair has bought 5 sets of gliders from them, so I wouldn't doubt that they could purchase one for here. I don't really see an S&S drop tower coming here because they're fairly maintenance intensive due to the pneumatic systems, at least that's what I've heard about them, and also the height requirement is a bit high, 52" is high for this park when most of the attractions average out to 48". Also just because CF has bought one certain kind of ride in the past, doesn't mean that's who they stick with.
That's really the big major ride they're missing in their lineup and hopefully some form of a drop tower is on the way. A Larson Super Shot tower would work perfect, 140ft tall (well under the 215ft height limit for the park,) 48" height requirement (much more family friendly,) and maintenance on it is fairly light; no complicated system to run it. And also its a true free-fall, unlike the S&S towers which are all pneumatically controlled.
Valleyfair (VF) Discussion Thread
in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
Posted
There was never a specific number given for Valleyfair, although I think why Carowinds announced that was in part that the city of Charlotte invested a bit into the park. I can imagine the number would be around $20-30mil if a new coaster is included with that.
I can see a lot of infrastructure improvements coming with that, like replacing the remaining blacktop with pavers or concrete and also taking down the old amphitheater and replacing it with a new ride. Can also see a new entrance area being built as well. Taking out the ticket booths, installing open turnstiles, and widening the entrance area by taking out the two merchandise buildings on both sides. It's already one of the more nicer entrance areas in the chain, but from what I can tell, it looks like it's a bit of a choke point on busy days.
I think that's just a temporary cover while they work on the landings. The sides of it remind me of temporary scaffolding so I'm pretty sure that's all it is. Should be gone when the concrete work is done.