Golddisk

The 60" requirement for UFO was so that the restraints would still work properly and hold the rider in if there was ever a loss of power while the ride was running which would cause a loss of the centrifugal force while the ride was still in the air.

Although not theme parks, the national parks are pretty large tourist attractions. They offer educational services, recreation, and most have campgrounds. The parks draw over 300 million visitors yearly. With the government shut down, each of these national parks are now closed. Has this affected anyone's vacation plans? Luckily, this isn't a peak time for vacations so I assume not as many are affected as if this would have happened in the summer.

All of the Fright Night events have been listed now: http://www.darienlake.com/fall-fright-nights There will be 3 haunted houses this year. CarniVile and DC East's boat house will be returning. New this year will be The Haunted Mine. There will also be several activities for families.

The park is still going to have haunted houses this year. The only part that was cancelled was Dark Waters, which, although may have been one of the more advertised parts, wasn't the only part.

Doesn't matter, building permits are still needed and possibly even an environmental study if not other things. Everything moves pretty slowly in NY.

That's sounds like speculation at best. The page was littered with "Rumored this..." and "Rumor is...". Some of the "rumors" sounded pretty similar to what one poster here has suggested several times before (a dark ride in galaxy), which Darien Lake has not hinted at in any way, shape or form so I wouldn't rely on that as a reliable resource.

^ Didn't UFO have some type of major mechanical problem at the end of last season? I remember it closed sometime towards the end of August and didn't reopen for the rest of the season. That could be the cause of the delay on the refurb especially considering it's a older ride and I'm sure it's harder to find parts for it.

Not sure on the dimensions of the area and if it would fit or not, but if they do add the coaster, could it go in the area where Cuda falls currently is? Cuda falls was closed most of last year and all of this year. Plus, it's also separated from the rest of the main water park.

Blast off opened on Monday to guests for the first time. It will be running this weekend!

I agree. But looking at pictures of the ride of Alabama Adventures, it didn't have a cap there either.

They do but a park can pick there own minimum height if they want with manufacturer's approval. S&S's towers are also all different heights, so I'm assuming it's not a one size fits all type of thing. I looked up some of the towers and the only ones I could find with 48" as the minimum were the 85 ft towers (specifically the one at Wild Adventures).

Will the spinning coaster thing ever end? We get it... You want a spinning coaster. Galaxy is SBNO again this season.

I'm not sure a pre-fab model will be enough of a draw as a custom model might be depending on how it's designed. Half of DL's current coaster collection are already clones. I can tell you now that expanding into the parking lot at this time has almost zero chance of happening unless they find another area to add more. This is simply because they need all of the parking for concerts with the new policy on that. But what about the campgrounds instead? I don't know if that's a possibility at all. I don't think they would put it by ROS. I think if they were to add a ride over there it would probably be a flat. The other two are a possibility, I guess.

I wish ,but there is no way Cedar Point is going to sell Mean Streak to Darien Lake. Frankly I think that Darien Lake is better off getting a Big Spin coaster clone (Gerstlauer 380/4 spinning coaster)! Is putting in one of these spinning coasters really worth it though? I personally think I would prefer a euro-fighter although I do know that they are more expensive. Either way, whatever Darien Lake chooses to add I'm hoping that it's a custom layout.

I found this map of the area where Thrillbilly was. I would say this is from the late 1980's. Not much is around the ride except picnic pavilions and the theater, so I would say that the fire didn't have anything to do with it.

That could be very well possible since a break room was destroyed in the fire and the current one is near Predator. So if the old one was in the same location that the current one is in, it would have been near Thrillbilly.

The article says the fire destroyed a maintenance building, a break room and a couple of other buildings. Not sure if any rides were damaged or destroyed. Also, turns out the giant wheel will be running all of it's gondolas this year!

This is a bit off the current topic, but a local town newspaper (Which has a historical archives section for 5 yrs ago, 10 yrs, etc.) reports that there was a fire that caused $750,000 - $1 million worth of damage to Darien Lake 25 years ago. I did a quick google such but nothing came up (probably due to the fact the internet didn't exist back then), but this is the first I've ever heard of this. Does anyone know anything about this?

I think the idea of naming it Bizarro was intended a joke and not a reference to the DC Comic character.

Seeing abandoned amusement parks pictures is sad yet interesting at the same time. These pictures aren't mine (I've never been to SFNO) but found them on a site a few days ago and thought some of you might enjoy them as well: All of SFNO's original rides are still SBNO. Many of them will never operate again because they were destroyed when the park was flooded by Katrina and left like that for several weeks. What a shame. MOD EDIT: link deleted, trespassing is an illegal activity that TPR does not condone.

The queue line for Viper at Darien Lake is very long and hasn't been filled in years (maybe even decades). There's also that old stand in the middle of it.

^ I think it's unlikely the wheel will have all of it's gondolas this year either. I worked it last year and we were all told that once the 10 that were being refurbished returned, another 10 would go out to be refurbished. I agree with Doug, it was strange at first but then I got used to it and it looked fine. I do miss the lights on it though. It would be really awesome to see it lit up again!