Rai Fox

Someone brought this up to the Jerry, LC's GM, recently. I wish I could remember his exact response right now but it was basically a carefully worded "we're not replacing the current trains right at this time" kind of answer, so they idea that they might be exploring it for the future seems pretty plausible. I know the PTCs do really tear the track up. The park had looked into adding magnetic brakes at the turnaround to bleed off some speed before the back stretch a while back, but (fortunately) decided against that; I do like the way the PTCs ride on BD, but if it comes down to adding trims, or replacing the trains, to keep the coaster running in top form, I'd certainly much rather see the latter.

Normal for anything with a train of three-row cars. Any car that long just has to be able to flex to navigate curves properly.

I really didn't expect to see this happen, but sometimes it's quite nice to be wrong. I hope it turns out as exciting as it looks!

Oh, this looks soooo good. I'm going to be there in two weeks, but I had no idea this was even going on. As if I wasn't excited enough to be getting back there already...

I'd love to see an updated park model, but I'm not sure there's anything Chance could really do with the Zipper to give it the kind of capacity most parks want in a thrill ride. It's just too slow to loan and unload by nature. Granted, there are other park rides as bad, or close (Monster/Octopus/Spider for one), but parks aren't really buying them anymore either, at least that I've seen. Capacity is just too big of an issue for most parks now; besides something like a Ferris wheel, I can't think of many rides that can't be loaded/unloaded all at once anymore.

Falcon's Fury is starting to get a bit of mainstream news attention. Gizmodo Unfortunately, of course, that means the usual idiotic comments That bit sound likely to anyone? *sigh* Well, at least he didn't bring up OMG FINAL DESTINATION!!!11

I spent yesterday afternoon at Lake Compounce with a few friends; planned a big photo report but I couldn't get my friends to slow down enough for me to take much in the way of photos, so I'll keep it to a few quick updates. Given how beautiful yesterday turned out to be here, crowds were almost non-existant. There a bit before the gates opened, we were the fifth car in the parking lot. By 3:00 or so, it looked like about 15% of the lot was being used. Almost everything was a walk-on; Boulder Dash was a few rides waiting for front or back seat at peak time. The only real lines were for the flume, since they only appeared to be running four boats, and for Pink's. Everything was up running. Wildcat has been completely transformed with the new trackwork; anyone that remembers it as a painful little deathtrap is going to be very pleasantly surprised. With the new tracking, it's a great little coaster; quick, just wild enough, and not a single moment of pain. Boulder Dash seemed to be a bit sluggish to me, but we did ride it early in the day, and it's still the beginning of the season. It seems to be getting a bit rougher as well, especially on the backstretch, but not painfully so far; I just hope it's not the beginning of any real troubles. Flat rides were all running and running as always (amazingly fast for the Wave Swinger, sluggish for Wipeout, downright sad for the American Flyers...pretty much acceptable for everything else), the flume was...mostly cold. Maybe going on it so early in the season wasn't the best plan. Operations were mostly good, considering that they were clearly training a lot of new staff. A few little hiccups and delays here or there, but nothing I wouldn't expect or could blame a park for at the beginning of the season. Now, I'm sure it's Pink's everyone wants to hear about. Two of the friends that came with me are California transplants and had been talking the place up to me since the first mention of it coming to LC, so I was going in with cautiously high hopes. And...I wasn't disappointed. I'm not sure if I can say it was definitely the best hot dog I've ever had, but it was certainly close. I had a Hollywood Boulevard dog with cheese, mustard, jalapenos, and bacon, and it looked so good that I completely forgot to get a picture before I tore into it. REALLY good park food though. The line for the place did move slowly since the staff was still learning to make all of the food, but it was made well when it did come up, and I'm sure it's going to get much quicker...and it will need to, since it's going to be much busier soon. So, we managed to hit everything in the park except the Thunder Creek raft ride, the important stuff multiple times, try Pink's, and be out of the park by 4:30. Not bad! Boulder Dash queue 45 minutes after opening. Probably a good day to come to the park. This really is a nice looking setup. It's too bad the ride itself isn't a bit more impressive, but it is a family park.

Dorney Park's Hercules. Good riddance. Still a shame about the "could have beens" on that one, though.

I'm sure it depends on the park. I know Lake Compounce does make their own signs for pretty much everything in the park; I've seen their sign show on tours. I imagine some of the big parks where a lot of the rides are licensed, have the signs manufactured for them.

Wow...looking great for an old ride. I still have a soft spot for these old arrows, it's nice to see one so cared for.

In my experience, operations at Dorney at consistently very good, except for the Wild Mouse (miserable) and the Monster, which is horribly slow to load/unload by design. Everything else has been run very well each time I've been in the last few years.

I hope it's not a long term process! I love Power Surge, and would hate to miss out on it when I get there in a couple months.

It pains me to say that the worst park operations I've seen in the last couple years have been my last two trips to Kennywood. I love the park, and always will, but the staff has really let the place down the last couple times I've been there. Horribly slow, entirely disinterested ride ups taking ages to load and run rides, without ever saying a word. Staff watching guests jump lines and actively bully other guests, without making any move to intervene at all. The person working Noah's Ark who just gestured everyone in and pressed the button to start the fake elevator without a word. Then there was the tragicomedy of loading Black Widow; how hard is it to count 40 people to let into the ride area, or to figure out that you've counted too many when there are extra people and no seats left? Every single ride cycle... Really crossing my fingers that it's better when I get back there in a couple months; I hate to see such a wonderful park run so poorly.

Oh, I'm not sure about that. Canobie might edge that one out. I love Canobie but I've just never figured out the purpose of that tiny little skyride. Nice, if brief, view of the lake, I guess...

Boulder Dash. Just can't beat Boulder Dash.

I'd like to see that. Dorney's a great, underrated park that deserves more attention. They've got a couple good steel coasters, but they could really use a world class wooden coaster. Thunderhawk's the best they've had for years now, since Hercules was torn down. ...Actually, Thunderhawk was the best they had even before Hercules was torn down. My head hurts just thinking about that disaster.

Might want to give Wildcat another shot, it's been retracked pretty much start to finish, and reprofiled in a few places. Whole new ride now, and it's gone from a painful mess to a great little coaster.

First park will be Lake Compounce, as always, though it looks like I won't make opening day this year. Shortly thereafter, though! After that, Canobie Lake...maybe Equinox will actually be running! Fourth try's the charm, right? Lots of VA and PA parks afterwards! Knoebels! <3

That was going to be my answer, too. I made my first and last trip to Lakemong last summer with a friend. Our first stop was Leap the Dips, which was a bit worn looking, but...it is ancient, and it ran well, surprisingly fun, too! After that it was all downhill, though. We tried a couple flat rides that felt like they were on the very of falling apart, then made the mistake of giving the toboggan coaster a shot, which left us certain it was going to kill us. Apparently we hadn't had enough, and headed over to Skyliner after, which looked okay from afar. Looking up inside the station proved to be a mistake though; the amount of rot and decay in the roof of the station was...slightly disconcerting, to say the least. Then, of course, the coaster barely even made it around the track. Just not much good to say about the place. It -could- be nice if they took care of it, but that's obviously just not happening.

I was there shortly before the Forth of July. Great day, as always; it rained overnight, but the weather during the day was perfect, crowds were nonexistant, and Knoebels was, as always, wonderful. The staff, the rides, the food, everything held up to the park's high standards. Lots of rides on Phoenix and Twister, and I'm pretty sure we got everything else in the park too. I'll be back next year, of course...finally will be time to try Flying Turns!

Looks like a pretty decent little carnival; where is this?

I would absolutely love to see the Cyclone restored to what it used to be. That would be the first thing to get me back to SFNE in almost a decade.

Looks like I'll be heading to Canobie for Labor Day weekend, taking a bunch of friends who've never been there before. I'm not looking forward to the crowds that weekend, but it's the only time we'll be able to get there. My question is, what does everyone think would be the less crowded day? Usually Sundays are pretty good, but since people have Monday off too, I don't know if that's going to be the case. Anyone know how crowded it will be on Labor Day itself? Not sure if it'll be bad because it's a holiday, or better because people have to work the next day...thoughts? Want to make sure this is as good a day as possible for the people I'm bringing.

Leap the Dips! Hard to beat that one.

I don't suppose it was a 1st generation intamin freefall? http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1011099242/theme-park-studio-create-the-ultimate-theme-park/posts/576809 Yep, that one was mine! I can't wait to see all the others, and ride them in the game!