Lareson

Disney didn't buy just the rights, they outright bought Marvel as a whole. There's a difference on what you're thinking, which is licencing. Six Flags has the licence rights to use DC characters for their attractions. Disney owns Marvel, so they just didn't get the rights to use them, they own everything. Virtually impossible for any company outside of Disney in terms of amusement parks in the US to use the rights to Marvel, although Universal is the only except due to the previous existing contract before Disney bough Marvel. Personally, Peanuts are the only licensed character for Cedar Fair and I think it should stay that way. Snoopy, Charlie Brown and the gang are such timeless characters that anyone living right now knows who they are, everyone from grandparents all the way down to toddlers. Not to mention, there's hopefully going to be more of a resurgence with the new Peanuts movie coming out next year. Just too bad it falls right at the end of the 2015 season so I don't see Cedar Fair doing anything to help promote the movie in the parks.

That's really odd for that to happen. I personally have never heard of it happening on any of the modern GCIs as I believe most of them are designed to ever prevent that from happening under normal operations. If it took a while for it to stop, at least that's a fairly good sign. Means nothing was stuck in the wheels, as it would of only went back and forth a couple times. Only thing I can think of is high winds, but even then, it'd have to be a combination of factors such as wind and cold temperatures. Maybe over-greased wheels with a couple other factors? Just puzzles me that this happened on a GCI with those heavy Millennium Flyers.

This was only SBNO for maybe a maximum of 2 years before re-track work started, so really a light re-tracking was all that was needed. Most wooden coasters sit for 6-8 months without a train running its tracks and without daily maintenance on them so I can imagine that 2 years really would of been nothing for the coaster. It's when it goes 5, 10, 20 years without maintenance and that's when things can start deteriorating. It also helps that the coaster is in Alabama, with its fairly warm winters. Doesn't have to deal with the harsh winter stress most northern wooden coasters go through during the winter. In reality, Dan came in at the right time cause given it a couple more years of just standing and things probably would of reached a point where a more expensive re-tracking would of been needed, and probably new trains since the old owners just left them sitting out on the track. There's still a lot the Koch family has to do to clean this park up. Really hoping they can revive the Wild River Gorge and Woodchuck Run as I believe those are still standing on the property. Both of those rides should still be in fairly decent condition and as far as I'm aware, no one bought the parts for those two rides either. Just too bad that Buzzsaw Falls never went past a year of operation. I don't remember exactly what happened to that, but did someone end up buying it after it went waterpark only?

Huh, no date on that image though, so kind of hard to reference when the 3rd one was removed. That one almost looks like it was a fixed trim as there's no air line leading from it like the other 2 are. That could be why I only heard a "clap" instead of the usual constant contact you hear on most trim brakes.

If I remember correctly, the trim was added in 1997 to lessen the positive g-forces so it could become more comfortable to ride. Although when I rode it in July of 2013, it felt like the trim was hardly working, think I only heard it touch the train for only a quick "clap." That ride did feel quite uncomfortable on my legs. Snapshot of the trim brakes taken on Opening Day 2013 You can see that there was a 3rd trim on it at one point as there are mounting points just above the two there now. Anyone have any pictures of it from a few years back that still had that 3rd one? It seems that was removed fairly recently as the mounting holes are not covered by the 2005 paint job. Really do hope that maybe this will be removed, due to it not being in the render, and the fact that the forces will be applied to a completely different area versus being on someone's legs.

Track modifications? Only thing that's changing are the trains and paint scheme. While the orange track and teal green supports may look dull on the rendering, it is a rendering. I'd imagine that the colors will be a lot more vibrant (and shiny!) when the coaster gets painted. Train colors look interesting. Lime green for the restrains and paneling with a bit darker green for accent, then an orange and yellow-orange for the seat backing. Color scheme looks similar to Medusa, minus the purple and adding another darker green. I'm actually wondering if we'll see a few more of the support ball joints getting replaced. Those are all of the weak points on the older B&M coasters and I know at least of one that was replaced last off season. I'm sure some will ask, but it'll be impractical to replace them with ridged connections. Would probably screw up a few things structurally too.

Well, the GM did mention that there's new "capital" on the way, but left no details. http://www.mlive.com/news/muskegon/index.ssf/2014/08/michigans_adventure_festivals.html#incart_related_stories I'd imagine the announcement will be sometime in the late November/December time frame like it has in the past.

Has anyone had this problem pop up before? It seems that the pipes and footers are not rendering properly, leaving a rather ugly connection. This is happening to a few footers that I have that are a bit closer to the ground, but not so close that it should cause this. Currently running the latest version 2.0.5.2. It seems to only happen when the footer and support meet at what looks like less than 45 degree angle as it goes away as I move the footer closer to the vertical support and increasing the angle. I don't ever remember having this issue before, even though it's been a few months since I've used NL2.

All the water tower did was provide the park with a more constant supply of water, had nothing to do with the drainage field. All it did was prevent the park from taking a majority of the area's water pressure when they needed to fill the pools and water rides. They unfortunately were denied an expanded sewer line so the park still has to deal with a septic lift system and a drainage field. Seems a bit behind on the times, but it's what they have to use for the time being. If you were at the park for some of the hotter days this year, you'd smell the drainage field pretty bad. The light lingering sewer smell was not pleasant. If you also took the train at all this year, you'd see that it's still swampy out there, although there are a lot more bushes and trees starting to fill it in so it's been harder to tell. I know that there are some areas that are dry, mainly because those are a bit higher up, but most of the lower-lying areas on the property are still swampy.

Well, the construction has to get moving pretty quickly so that they can get a good chunk of it done before the snow starts flying. Cause we know once that happens, construction will start to slow down and go back to the usual Six Flags pace.

I can tell you there's absolutely no room for a nearly 270ft long Disk'O Coaster next to Lakeside Gliders. There's not enough room in that patch of grass next to the beer garden, they'd have to move Gliders and the beer garden to fit it in there. Unless it was one of the smaller U-shaped Disk'Os, then it's a possibility as those are around 80ft long. I was really hoping that the next Hyper-GT coaster would make its way to Michigan's Adventure. The park has had a pretty good relationship with Chance (8 rides here came from Chance) and have been due for a new coaster for a while now. I think if a new flat ride happens next year and then a coaster the following year, it'll help bring a bit more draw to the park. There are reasons why the property on the east-side hasn't been developed. For one, it's a completely different township on that side that has some more stricter rulings than the other township, hence why a majority of the rides are built on that side of the park and only 3 are in the other township. The land is also not very suitable for construction. Most of it is swampy, sandy wetlands that's only a few feet about the water table, and also that's where the drainage field for the park is located, so that makes it even more difficult to build anything out there. I'd imagine that they're planning on putting the new coaster (if it's indeed on the way) on that side of the property as it'll help direct guests to stay on that side of the park, otherwise they'd have to remove something to make room on the other side.

No, I don't think any lights are on the ride itself. If they went with the Larson LED package that Michigan's Adventure and Knott's received, it would of came pre-installed from the factory. Unless a custom lighting package gets installed by the end of the week, I'm not expecting it to receive any, which is rather unfortunate.

No prob Brian! Figured no one posted that you were heading down there, so I figured I'd share the news that IOE was heading to the park. Just means Lightning Run is getting that much closer to completion! The 2 upstop wheels are inline with the road wheels, like most 6-wheeled bogies, but probably just looks weird because of the smaller wheels since others use a slightly bigger wheel. This is a completely brand new train and bogie design, but from what I've seen, it's a heck of a lot better than the older designs from Morgan. After seeing how skinny the wheels are on the Morgan trains, it's no wonder why there's been issues with them. Glad Chance decided to have the trains completely redesigned.

As a reminder, Morgan no longer exists and the name of the company is only Chance Rides. Yes, Chance absorbed all of Morgan's assets, but with the recent re-structuring of the company, they completely dropped the "Morgan" name from the company and are now Chance Rides as a whole. Moving on past my OCD.... Lightning Run has certainly gone past my expectations from what I've seen so far. For those that don't follow their Facebook page, IOE is heading down to Kentucky Kingdom now to get the ride ready to go for testing. Not sure if this is to get the PLC and wiring installed, or to run through the system for testing. I'm assuming at this point in the game they'd be getting ready to start testing.

The curves in the concrete underneath the shade structures? Those are just pavers. It's just curved since the park is trying to avoid doing straight lines and adding a bit of character to the area. I really like it and looks very modern, doesn't look like the "old amusement park" style that has been around CP since the 60's.

Think he means FunTV, not "FunTime TV." It's similar to what Six Flags has, but going to be MUCH better as in it won't run ads every 5 minutes and it'll actually tell you useful information, like the weather and from what I heard, also the potential to add wait times. If they manage to add the wait time to the FunTV system, it'll be much better than any queue TV system at amusement parks right now. The TVs are not exclusive to queue lines either, they're being installed at various locations around the parks too. Been hearing very good things coming from Carowinds, Kings Dominion, and Kings Island. It has quite a lot of potential that I'm pretty sure will be expanded in the coming seasons. I can imagine a lot of new POVs and b-roll footage of rides and coasters will be filmed around the chain this year.

The Arrow seats and restraints were designed for the average height person nearly 40 years ago (wow, realized that the former Knott's Corkscrew will be 40 in 2015) and they stuck with the same design until the end. Think the only time they changed it was for Drachen Fire and that was a one-off design, reverted back to the original design for their last looping coasters. Being 6' 4" I can squeeze into an Arrow restraint if I'm in the front of a car because of the extra leg room. Doesn't pinch down on my shoulder too much, but if I don't slouch a bit, it can hurt. I'll ride them for the nostalgia factor, but won't do multiple rides in a row.

Yeah, I'm expecting just a water park expansion next year. That's really the only part of the park that hasn't been updated since Cedar Fair took over (2007 expansion was planned by the park before CF bought them,) expecting at least 2016 or 2017 before they receive a major coaster. I understand that CF is spending well around $145mil across the chain this year, including the FunTV addition, but don't see them adding another $25mil coaster along with Carowinds next year. While I don't think they'll be spending $145mil again next year, it'll probably around $100-120 million next year, so really not much wiggle room for another major coaster addition. Now I can see them adding one or two less than $15mil coasters next year in the chain, but not at KD.

Actually you can kind of see the floral clock in the Diamondback image, it's the black mulch square near Backlot. Usually doesn't get planted until a couple weeks into the season once the weather stays fairly warm. Once again, that image is of Diamondback's opening day in 2009. The line for that today is probably near empty because everyone is in line for Banshee. FastLane should be completely fine besides for Banshee, but I'm even hearing not many people are buying FL+ today so it's not very long.

That's Diamondback's opening day line from 2009. Banshee's line, from the last images I saw, stretched to the floral clock next to the Eiffel Tower. Still very long, but that image is old.

More than likely at Chance's manufacturing plant in Kansas. They're more than capable of making it there since they manufactured a few of the Vekoma coasters during the partnership they had a couple years ago. You can actually check out this satellite view of their factory and see familiar yellow track and a big blue support waiting on a flatbed if you go south a bit on the map. More than likely that's track for Freedom Flyer. https://www.google.com/maps/place/Chance+Rides+Manufacturing+Inc/@37.6721305,-97.3934716,212m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!1m2!2m1!1schance+rides!3m1!1s0x87bae1287bfdde7d:0x6a56fab94e114714 I didn't realize how many parts and pieces they keep on site for their rides. Looks like they have quite the property there and from what I can spot, parts for a gondola wheel.

As far as I'm aware, it's a chain-wide addition so I'm assuming they'll be adding FunTV this year. No idea what rides will be adding it since not many have a decent queue to put TVs in every so often. Timbers, Thunderhawk, Mad Mouse, Loggers Run and possibly Corkscrew are the ones that come to mind with queue space to add them and can have long lines. Wildcat just doesn't have anywhere to attach them with the way the entrance ramp is designed, although it's not completely ruled out. Also makes sense to add it now since they have to tear up some of the midway anyways to add the new fiber optic line for the in-park network. All I'm aware for construction in the park is Timber's turn around being completely re-tracked. Other than that, I have no idea right now.

You need to upload the picture using the image upload below when you make a new post. What you tried to do is post the location link of it on your computer. Here's some instructions from when Robb was testing out the multi-image uploader. http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=66018&hilit=image+upload

Holy crap! I'm impressed with the changes going on with the park. To me, it finally no longer feels like a former Six Flags park, which a few of my friends over in NL have said it still felt like. Heck, I'm even a fan of El Condor's new color scheme. The coral orange color looks a lot better than what I was expecting.

It's just a rumor that's been flying around, and it started at Carowinds. I'd like to mention that Intimidator never received seat belts even after someone said they did, although I heard they're being a bit more strict on the locking position of the restraint.