Rai Fox

Morey's SLC was a very extensive refurb. They had entirely new track made using CAD techniques that weren't available when the ride was first built. It's almost an entirely new ride, and yes, it is fantastic. It rides closer to a B&M invert than what you think of from a stereotypical SLC. On top of the way it's entwined with the water park, it's a legitimately fantastic coaster now.

Well, if they're going with Zamperla, this would make an interesting replacement for the Spider, hm? https://www.zamperla.com/product/zarantula

Pretty amazing how they only figured out it would be down for the whole year 3 days before opening, after plenty of people had paid for their season passes. Coincidences all around, I guess.

RIP six flags legacy memberships.

How far away do you consider "nearby?" Knoebels is kiiiiind of in the middle of nowhere. Bloomsburg is the nearest "city" but it's definitely not a tourist town. If you're an outdoorsy type, you're in the middle of the mountains and there's plenty of hiking, riding, canoeing and such around, but other than that you're probably looking at an hour and a half to any other real "entertainment", places like Dorney Park or Penn's Caves.

Power Surge is gone, apparently, and the Rock-O-Plane is going in. Power Surge was one of my favorite flats, and it's not one I've seen many other places, but even after all the money and time the park's spent trying to get it working properly, it seems like it's down more than it's up, so this isn't really much of a surprise. Kinda thought the Bayern Kurve would be in before the Rock-O-Plane, but cool to see either way! Power Surge apparently is sitting in the parking lot no, so no official word on its final fate yet, but I don't expect much but the scrapheap with how rarely it's run lately...

Kinda disappointed that they're sticking to early closings again. Not going to be getting in any Phoenix or Twister night rides until Halloween like that. In potentially better news though... It's pretty clear from the images, but this is the same type of ride as the Kangaroo at Kennywood. Interesting that they would be trying to restore one now. I wonder if this decision was made before Kennywood actually brought theirs back? It would have made a little more sense to go out of their way for one then, but even with the only surviving two in the same state, it's a great fit for Knoebels.

Bonsai Pipelines is made by Splashtacular. https://splashtacular.com/hotera_project/downunder-1/ I can't find any mention of them having any kind of financial issues, they're still posting actively on social media and were apparently showing off products at an industry show last month. Doesn't seem like that's the reason. They were closed last time I was at the park though, sometime in mid august I believe.

I'm not against the extra security and police, though it's unfortunate since I'm sure it's both a significant expense for the park and another thing the local police probably didn't plan on having to deal with. But the bag policies and chaperones? Like Amy said earlier, either someone got a weapon through the scanners that already existed or (more likely if even a few of the people who were claiming to have been there on social media actually were) got it through or over the fence. I don't see how banning bags helps if someone can just bypass security entirely like that. Even single bag they see gets checked anyway, so no one is sneaking a weapon in inside one unless they're somehow sneaking the entire bag in anyway. It's just a pain for the 50% of the population whose clothing designers haven't heard of pockets. I'm usually the "group mom" when I do parks with friends and try to remember to bring along things like advil, dramamine, extra sunscreen etc etc to make sure no one's day ends up miserable. It's much nicer when I have a place to put things like that. As far as chaperones..I'm pretty fine with that just to stop the petty trouble kids get up to, but for preventing shootings, how many serious incidents are really caused by people under 17, who don't know anyone over 21 to get them in? I don't know how the park should handle it, since this is a problem going far outside of any one park now, I just don't like seeing them making a big deal about how they're going to make it safer with policies that realistically aren't.

And there it is, the bag policies and chaperones, just as predicted. Wouldn't have done anything to stop what happened, and going to be an absolute pain in the ass for half the guests. Great decisions being made.

That's pretty much where Six Flags was under their previous leadership though, offering very cheap admission, memberships, etc, and while in general it seemed to work better than anything else in the last couple decades (comparing to the current situation, or the Snyder/Shapiro era...), that was where people started complaining about the crowds, six flags daycare, etc. The new CEO had the brilliant idea of raising prices to bring in a "classier" crowd. Results as seen.

Shots fired at Kennywood earlier tonight. Not a lot of information yet. https://www.wtae.com/article/emergency-response-ascends-upon-kennywood-park/41371801 Not a whole hell of a lot to say except how damn depressing this crap is.

IIRC, didn't Colossos need major work because of a termite infestation? I'm pretty sure I've heard that several places. If that's the case, it's not really on the designer or manufacturer there.

I can't imagine those people have actually been to and seen the park in the last few years, unless they think Intamin is also responsible for all of the other broken rides, not to mention paint, pavement, etc.

Not currently sounding particularly great for El Toro. https://nj1015.com/el-toro-wooden-coaster-structurally-compromised-six-flags-great-adventure-nj/ Knowing how much inspection and maintenance wooden coasters generally get, I'm not sure how significant structural damage to "multiple columns" goes entirely unnoticed. Apart from this park being a dumpster fire, anyway.