TheAmazingCP

Star Flyer- Star City, Manilla, Philippines? (The Pinfari invert)

Oh this sounds like an awesome thread. Great Bear (Hershey)- Make the ride a flyer. Change vertical loop to a 540 fly-to-lie like on Sky Scrapper, change trains to flyer trains. Morgan Hypers- B&M trains like the ones on Steel Dragon. Minus the leg restraints, though. Skyrush (Hershey)- Engineer something so that the bar sits on your waist like it should and would prevent the bar from tightening on ride. Mean Streak (CP)- RMC that evil thing! Maverick (CP)- I305 shoulder belts, like someone else mentioned.

As much as I enjoy how much effort you put into your videos and how creative they are, a honest POV of the ride would greatly help. I feel like you can't get a full idea of the layout from looking at the different, disjointed parts.

After my visit to Hershey yesterday, I have to say all of Great Bear after the zero g roll. From that diving turn to the straightaway along the creek and finishing off with those weird, barely banked turns, it's just different from any other B&M. I305 comes to my mind too. I love it to death, but whose idea was it to make a giga coaster with a first half of almost nothing but low-to-ground turns? I think it's awesome, but it's still so strange.

I really like the SLC and the themeing surrounding it. The red-and-white checkered building I'm not so sure about. It seems out of place.

After today, I have to say StratosFear at Knoebel's. I've never been on an ARM drop tower before, but I'd read about them on here. I wasn't prepared for the freefall though. There's a slight slow at the top before you just drop. I've been on several S&S towers and this was far more intense. It really was just a dead weight drop. The brakes catch so late that you think you'll hit the ground, too.

Spoke to a worker at the park today. He said Phoenix was struck by lightning last Sunday and has been down all week. They've been waiting for an electrician to come, but the company hadn't shown up yet. There was no activity in the station and an employee was sitting at the entrance. Besides that, StratosFear is freakin terrifying. It was my first ARM tower experience and easily the best drop tower I've been on.

(Just a quick note: This is my first attempt at finishing a complete, landscaped, actual park. As such, I'm not being entirely realistic with how a small, family-owned park can have some of the rides they do. Well, mainly the last coaster, but that's for a later update. Enjoy!) Continuing out of the main plaza, we reach Thrilltown USA. This was the second area of our park to open. Many of the rides in here are over 50 years old. Our classic Rotor, for example, was bought when my father was a teenager. The Scrambler is also getting up there in years. Shot0000.bmp Welcome to Thrilltown USA! Shot0001.bmp The Rotor has served us for many years and won't be leaving any time soon. Shot0002.bmp The Bumper Cars. Nothing like some whiplash for the whole family! Shot0003.bmp Loop-de-Loop is an old carnival ride that we gave a home. Shot0004.bmp And our Scrambler. This ride finishes out the main Thrilltown strip Shot0005.bmp Around the bend in Thrilltown, Mountain Viewpoint offers our guests a breathtaking view. Shot0006.bmp You can see all of Thrilltown from up here!

As a local resident of the area, I've been hoping for Dorney to get a new wooden coaster for a long time. Thunderhawk's a classic, but it's 80 years old now and seems neglected by the park. The only problem is that I don't know where they could fit another coaster in. A GCI running through the woods would be amazing, but that area is taken by Dinosaurs Alive. Even if Dinosaurs is removed (which I sincerely hope happens soon), there's still not much room back there for a station, queue, and lift hill.

Hydra has a rattle if the train is mostly empty. If the train's full or close to full, it's almost unnoticeable. However, there aren't many occasions where Hydra has a full train, or a decent sized line.

Backseat of El Toro. Pure, Intamin ejector bliss

Okay, what happened to Kingda Ka? I had one of the roughest rides on any coaster on Ka today. We rode early in the morning (about 11:30) and there was a noticeable rattle. By the time we got back at around 3:30, it was full on vibration. The whole train shook violently at the pull-up before the top hat and the transition down from the top-hat. It was terrible, and I walked off with a headache. I remember it rattling a little bit a couple years ago, but nothing like today. And while I'm at it, Nitro and El Toro both had some roughness too. Toro had a rough patch at the bottom of the first turnaround, but everything else was smooth. Nitro had a rattle on the bottom of the drops before the hammerhead. It wasn't bad or painful, but it was definitely noticable. Also, the El Toro and Nitro ops were slooooooow. Nitro was stacking three trains and El Toro took about 3-4 minutes to dispatch one.

Welcome to Hallaway Amusement Park! My name is Adam Hallaway, current manager of the park. My grandfather founded Hallaway Park and my father is the current owner. We're located outside of Greensboro, North Carolina. Right now, we're prepping for the season opening. (Note: This park is already about halfway done. I've gone back and redone some of the mistakes in the first set of photos. Also note, how do you remove the icons on the side of the screen? Thanks!) Shot0003.bmp Our newish front entrance! The ticket booths up top will be very busy soon! Shot0002.bmp The entry plaza. Not much has changed here in about 50 years. Shot0000.bmp Our kiddie area. The first section of the park to open, almost everything here is original. Shot0001.bmp Rockin' Tug is our newest child ride. It replaced the old Whip Shot0004.bmp Heading into the park, the Garden Carousel is one of our pride and joys. A true classic. Shot0005.bmp The Tilt-a-Whirl is also located in the garden. It's a very popular ride with younger kids.

I'm liking the floorless coaster, but the cut-out ditch that it dips into is pretty obvious (in the last picture). You might to slope down the surrounding ground or put some walls up inside of it.

In my experience (which as a young, not very well traveled enthusiast isn't much), most people in a park don't care about forces. Airtime means nothing to them. What they look for is loops and the "cool" factor. Why would John and Jane Doe want to ride a small ride that just has hills when they could ride the roller coaster that goes upside down and has seats to the side? They don't think like we do. If it has loops and looks cool, they'll ride it. We're also not really the target audience for an amusement park. Two enthusiasts coming to visit is good, but a family of 5 is even better. That family probably goes to one park a year. They don't travel to visit coasters like we do. They just know what's at the park, and if there's a multi-looper that has a gimmick going for it, then they'll eat it up.Would I rather ride an Intamin airtime machine? Hell yeah. But does the average park goer even know what the ride type is called? Probably not. Also, as Robb has mentioned before, Americans nowadays are kind of sissies. Airtime? Trying to throw them out and its unsafe. Forces in inversions? It's uncomfortable and not fun. Americans want to feel as comfortable on a roller coaster as they do on a couch. TL;DR- The GP will ride whatever looks the coolest, and if a mediocre wingrider will draw crowds, then that's what the park will install.

In a similar vein to the poster above, I have a class trip on Wednesday June 5. I've been to the park several times, so I know my way around and which rides to avoid at what times. I am wondering how bad crowds would be, since knowing Six Flags, they'll pack the place to capacity with other school groups.

Ah, yes, good ol' Chickie's and Pete's. If you're anyway with a location nearby, definitely go. I never realized how lucky I was to have them around where I live. Anyway, with the addition of Stinger, do you think they'll be anything new besides maintenance stuff this year? I haven't seen or heard anything except a new advertisement on TV. I've been debating whether or not to renew my season pass.

The question is whether this is because of the forces and pressure that the wheels and axles were put under. If they slowed it down so there wouldn't be as much stress on the train... well, I can see that as a good reason for a slow down. But if it was changed because of complaints, then that's ridiculous. It was built to be a ridiculous, airtime-filled experience that kicked the crap out of you. I guess that we enthusiasts forget that we're in the minority. John and Jane G.P. go to an amusement park to have a fun day with the family. When they get on a ride, they expect it to be fun, fast, and comfortable. They won't be expecting a ride that throws you around, catapults you out of your seat, and in their mind, "hurts". Would the G.P. rather ride Great Bear or Skyrush after that experience? If I was them, I'd probably choose Great Bear. Ideally (and in my mind), I seriously hope that Hershey and Intamin work together to get some better restraints for the ride. While I didn't really experience pain, I can't deny that they're not the greatest or most comfortable bars possible. They DO tighten down during the ride and really dig into your thighs. If better restraints are designed and put on the ride that solve the "pain" problem, then maybe it could go back to full speed. Who knows, though. I'm still hoping that the slow down at the top is just for the beginning of the season.

Really, one of the only places I could see a Mega-Lite in the US would be at Knoebel's. They're lacking a major steel rollercoaster, so a Mega-Lite could easily be advertised there as opposed to a Six Flags park. The park's size also helps, since they don't need a B&M people eater, but they're still big enough to afford a Mega-Lite (I think, correct me if I'm wrong on this). The only problem would be where to put it. Knoebel's is pretty much surrounded by woods, and though a Mega-Lite through the trees could possibly be the world's best coaster, all of the tree removal costs would drive up the price tag even more.

Downloaded the version on the Game Exchange and I got an empty park.

I've never blacked out before, but I've grayed out on Nitro's helix, especially when you first enter it. I've also semi-grayed out on I305's first turn- my vision got blurry and my ears popped, but that was it. I'm no doctor, but I can't imagine a grayout is too serious. If you keep blackouts, though, I'd imagine that something's wrong.

I'm surprised they weren't closed sooner. I live twenty minutes from Dorney, been going there my whole life and I've NEVER been on the go karts. They're tucked pretty far back in the park, down a rather quiet path. I honestly forget that they're there, honestly. Of course, gas prices and environmental concerns could be a major concern too.

Sorry for reviving an old thread, but... I was thinking recently, how awesome would it be if Great Bear at Hershey was a flyer? You'd keep the pre-drop helix and steep drop, then change the loop to a 540 lie-to-fly, like on Sky Scrapper. Then, the Immelmen is entered on your back and feeds into the zero-g roll over the Hollow. You'd dive down and skim across the creek face down before entering another zero-g roll, since I don't know how the forces would be on a corkscrew taken while flying. You'd end the same way, meandering to the brakes, except it'd probably be fun since you'd been in the flying position.

I wonder how these would do on the other Morgan hypers? I'm sure it'd be interesting experience to ride Steel Force and such with B&M trains.

Why is there a B&M Sitdown, Floorless, and Wing Coaster in the same park? It's your park and all, but it seems a little excessive. Throw a little variety into the mix.