ytterbiumanalyst

What would serve the park best would be to have a unique signature coaster out in that field next to the highway behind Timberwolf. So really it would do them a lot of good to remove Timberwolf and expand the park into that space. The park has two woodies; one is by far their best coaster and the other is by far their worst. I rode Timberwolf this past summer when we were up there, and it was still fun, but my back was sore afterward and I had to sit down. It's a well-designed, fun coaster, but it has most definitely seen better days, and it needs to go. With Prowler filling its spot and doing it better in every conceivable way, I think WoF's clientele will not be disappointed if it is replaced.

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I totally disagree. Southern Illinois has a very small population, and Six Flags is sufficient for St. Louis. I don't think St. Louis could support two theme parks. I will also say no to Hawaii. The typical Hawaii vacationer isn't going to want to go to a theme park, and low wages combined with high cost of living means a lot of Hawaii residents don't have a lot of discretionary income for something like theme park tickets. Vegas might actually pull it off if they can find the right concept. Vegas is kind of a playground for adults anyway, and several hotels have built rides. None have had more than limited success, though. I wouldn't bet on Vegas theme park, but I would be happy if it did succeed. Now, that said, Caesar's Palace's new Ferris wheel looks totally awesome. Cities that do need a park are Houston and New Orleans. Both were screwed over by Six Flags and really deserve to get what they had back again or something even better.

YES! My home park is Silver Dollar City, and it is the best park in the Midwest, bar none. The only one that would come close would be SF Great America, and although it has great rides, nobody outside of Disney does the theming and overall park experience quite like SDC.

Outlaw Run, when it has been working, is a truly incredible experience. The planned maintenance this off-season is much needed, as OR's unreliability has really been a damper on an otherwise remarkable achievement. Also, not a coaster but a new addition nonetheless--We went up to Dinos Alive at Worlds of Fun this year and were really impressed. I'm sure it's exactly like the other Dinos Alive exhibits, but we haven't been to any others (heretofore King's Island has been the closest park to us with a Dinos Alive). Big hit with the kids. We went in June, and my five-year-old is still talking about it.

ACME Gravity Powered Roller Coaster - Six Flags St. Louis Buzzsaw Falls - Silver Dollar City Jack Rabbit - Celebration City Orient Express - Worlds of Fun Ozark Wildcat - Celebration City Rattler - Six Flags Fiesta Texas Runaway Ore Cart - Silver Dollar City Thunderbolt - Celebration City Zambezi Zinger - Worlds of Fun Zyklon - Celebration City

The only season passes we have are to Silver Dollar City. We don't go more than once a year to any other park, so there's not a need for any others.

Well, when I hear "roller coaster fail," the first thing that comes to mind is Buzzsaw Falls. Built in 1999, it lasted for 4 1/2 seasons before being shut down in 2003. During that time, it was constantly breaking down, and cost the park so much to keep it open that they felt the better option was to replace it entirely. Of course, when S&S stepped in, they created a truly awesome work in Powder Keg, so this one has a happy ending. But as for Buzzsaw Falls itself, I say good riddance. It was truly a disaster for the park.

Come on down! Crowds really aren't too bad for the Harvest Festival. Saturdays are busy, but Sundays are not at all. We were down there last Sunday, and literally every ride except Outlaw Run and the Grand Expo Coaster we were on in 2 cycles or less. Outlaw Run was only 20 minutes, lowest I've seen it all year, not counting the season pass holders ERT event last summer. The focus of the Harvest Festival is really on the crafts, so there's a lot to see and most things are for sale. Some of the craftspeople will actually be working in their booths, so you can watch and talk to them. It's worth taking some time between rides for the crafts booths.

By Robb's request, and I quite agree.

Overheard at SDC today: "Will you kids quit trying to take my cigarettes?" 'Tis a privilege to live in the Ozarks.

Outlaw Run, back row.

Mamba and Prowler are two of the best coasters anywhere, and they're totally unique. You don't need a new coaster every year, and Prowler is only four years old at this point. There are other rides too, and actually that's one of the great things about Worlds of Fun, is that there is so much more to the park than the coasters. How many parks can boast about their rapids ride? Fury of the Nile is top-notch, and very fun. WoF even has a dark ride, and you just don't see a lot of those anymore. Not everyone who goes to a park likes coasters, and you need to have something for everybody. Worlds of Fun is the sort of place you can take the whole family, and everyone will have a good time, from the smallest kids to the coaster fan. I think the amusement industry would be far better if the focus was not more rides but good and different rides, in which each park would take more time, save up more money, and build something that wows people. Spend more on maintenance too. Maintenance doesn't sell tickets like a new ride does, and that's part of the problem America has. It's why our roads and bridges crumble. We build new and shiny, and we don't take care of what we already have. But a park that maintains what it has will sell me a ticket over a park that has something new. That's why we have season tickets to SDC, and why we went to WoF this year as well, and we haven't been to Six Flags in years. Well-maintained rides are more fun, and more consistently fun. We had a blast at WoF this summer, and I tell you Mamba is just as fun now as it was in 1998 when I was a teenager. So let's not complain about the lack of new and shiny, when the park puts this much care into keeping what it has. WoF was not always like this, and the park totally deserves the level of care it's getting right now.

Agreed. CF has been great to WoF. I went there pre-Cedar Fair, and that place was a dump. The first thing CF did when they bought the park in 1996 was to add Detonator, the first of its kind in the US. They followed that up in 1998 with Mamba, which is still the tallest and fastest full-circuit coaster in Missouri (Mr. Freeze edges it out on both counts), and it remains the longest coaster in the state. Really, back then we were floored that Worlds of Fun would put in things like that. The fact that now the patrons expect big things is a testament to how well CF has run the park. In the 90s, we were impressed if not one of the rides rotted out over the winter.

1. Best addition I've seen so far is the Simpsons section at Universal. Just looks like an all-around fun place to be. 2. Goliath and Medusa at Six Flags. These coasters will be doing things that a couple of weeks ago we would have said were impossible. 3. Seven Dwarves Mine Train at Disney. The swinging cars really breathe new life into an old coaster type.

Not at all. There are a lot of great things that could be done, especially since the ride has a rather odd T shape to it. After seeing Goliath and Medusa, I see so much creativity coming from RMC right now. Everything else just seems tame in comparison.

I'm going to guess SF Great America: X-Flight is the red one, Vertical Velocity the yellow, and Raging Bull the orange. In which case, good taste.

The old ones had a sort of metal band that was curved around your shins, and otherwise straight across. Sort of like eyeglass frames. The new ones have a padded bar straight across. Big improvement.

First off, Silver Dollar City has ALWAYS had a lot of ride ops on their loading docks. Not sure I've ever seen a ride with less than four. I actually doubt their operations had anything to do with the accident. SDC goes above and beyond in a lot of ways, and safety is one of them. They want to be absolutely sure nothing will happen to their guests--and it's not a kneejerk reaction to Texas Giant, either. Really, it goes back to the Fire in the Hole accident in 1980, when a ride operator accidentally switched the train onto a maintenance track and killed a guest. That was really a wakeup call to them, and from then on, they have been super cautious with all of their rides. Despite this insistence on double-checking everything, they still manage to have some of the most consistently fast operations I've seen. I've been going to SDC for about 25 years now, and it's always been like this. I was there the weekend before the NTAG accident, and I was there a couple weeks later. Nothing changed. Oh, and I find Outlaw Run's new restraints actually more comfortable than the original ones. Good move there.

You're implying that the majority of eastern Pennsylvania has any idea of what or where Worlds of Fun is. Exactly. Conversely, I hadn't heard of Dorney Park before joining this forum. I'm not a stickler for rides having to be original, either; some rides are just amusement park staples that you expect to see everywhere. It seems like drop capsule slides are becoming a waterpark staple, and I couldn't be happier.

Absolutely amazing. We've been meaning to get up to Chicago for a couple of years now. Check this as one more reason.

Outlaw Run has the best first drop of any coaster I've been on, bar none. Not only is it ridiculously steep, the top of the lift hill gets you going at an amazing horizontal speed, and there's a quick change of direction at the top. Outlaw Run's first drop is actually disorienting--and first drops are never disorienting.

This looks great! I especially like the jagged yellow bits on the blue slide, very cool look. This looks to be very similar to the new complex at Oceans of Fun. Sounds like Dorney is pretty similar to WoF in that the waterpark is often much more popular than the theme park is, and if so, this should be a big hit.

Runaway Ore Cart at Silver Dollar City. It was dangerously close to the trees. They actually told all the kids, "You can put your arms up, but don't put them out to the side, you'll hit the trees!" Ah, the eighties.