ZeroGravity55

^ Park President Matt Eckert did an interview with the coaster crew on their podcast and he said the target date for completion on everything is February. At last check, I believe it was quoted or said somewhere that they were two weeks ahead of schedule. Found these photos on Thunderbird's microsite:

^^ It goes over the first set of tunnels on The Voyage with the inline twist.

^ I was getting ready to post the same thing. That was my first thought too. That Immelmann is huge! The topography at Holiday World is pretty crazy. The placement of Thunderbird is really allowing it to tower over the park.

^^ No beer or alcohol at Holiday World. Remember, it's a family park.

Holiday World. About 1 hour and 40 mins away for me.

fixed

^^ I believe you're right. I actually found this really cool article about the park, Thunderbird and the theming of the ride, and about where they wanna go in terms of the future. http://www.blooloop.com/features/holiday-world-small-park-atmosphere-big-park-vis/30162#.VEsrnvnF-Sq Here's some quotes I pulled from it:

I missed this for some reason, but great finds! I actually do think they're following this concept in someway. Notice how the pathways start to break off to the right, I still think the Thanksgiving section will end up wrapping around the Hyena Falls complex and connect back to Thunderbird plaza. Obviously the changed waterpark boundaries weren't in the plans back in 2005, so part of me wonders if whatever uses up the PP area in the future will be for Splashin' Safari or Holiday World. They have the pathways to make either work, or both for that matter. To much of our disappointment, I think adding another big water park attraction in that area wouldn't be a bad idea and might actually be the right investment following a major roller coaster installment. It would help hold and sustain attendance and would allow them to build up the money needed to finish off the Thanksgiving section. Looking at how much land would needed to be developed to get them from The Mayflower, around Hyena Falls, and up to Thunderbird, they could take several years to develop it, which would allow them to market something new every year. Honestly, I kind of like that Thunderbird is sort of on it's own. It's so different from everything else and has it's own story to tell. Definitely a ride that is deserving of it's own plaza right now.

This is totally biased on my part, but Holiday World wins:

I think the first weekend is going to be a tricky one to predict in 2015, because this is the first time they're opening in April. I'd expect the park to be packed on Saturday, especially for a day where the waterpark isn't open. If they hold media day Friday before the park opens, and they invite a lot of people, like parks have been doing with their media days the past few years, I would expect some of those people to stay over and visit the park next day. That would only add to the crowds, but I would expect the crowds to die off by mid-day on Saturday. They're might be a morning rush on Sunday, but I'd expect it to be pretty light overall. Really, if you're going to visit the park and wanna do both HW&SS, I recommend getting to the park in May when both are open or early in June. If the weather next summer is in any way slightly warmer than it was this summer, the park will be absolutely packed from mid-June to when daily operation ends.

Hard to believe he's been gone four years now. I'm sure he would be very proud of everything his wife, kids, and President Matt have accomplished. I go back and think about all the stuff that was said when his wife and kids got control of the park. It was never about the money, it was always about carrying out Will's vision and dream. Now that this vision and dream is being carried out, you wish he could be here to see it. If he was here, he'd probably sit back and smile, but I think we all know he'd already be planning the parks next big project that would turn the industry on it's head once again.

As am I, but I agree with you, everything about Thunderbird is being done the right way. I'm really starting to get this feeling that the park is going to take on a new element of awesome if they start putting this much detail into every single project like they have the last two years. I kind of feel like they're trying to align themselves at a level where they can start competing with Dollywood. Sounds crazy, I know, but they're really pushing their marketing further south and the amount of detail in last years projects and this years project is somewhat on a Dollywood level.

Definitely Holiday World. At least 2x a years for as far back as I can remember, which would be 1997-1998. I do have pictures proving I've been going every year since 1995 (I was born in 1994) but I don't count the years I can't remember.

Well Kings Island has a suspended coaster, a family inverted coaster and Vekoma Invertigo and that didn't stop Cedar Fair from putting in a B&M invert this year.

The Chance Falling Stars:

^ Yeah it was that, and I think the launch also feels so powerful, that you don't necessarily feel how good the drop from the top is either.

ahh my bad, I felt like all I was seeing was wing rider, wing rider, B&M flyer, launched B&M, and wing rider. I'll be sure to to not skim the posts next time.

I agree. My first ever ride was on Millie in the back row. It felt like it was never going to end. It definitely gives a sense of how far you're dropping if that makes any sense. That something that I felt was lacking, on TTD. The launch was great, but I never got the sense that I was actually dropping from 400 feet in the air.

Don't get me wrong, I like the red, but after being spoiled with how well Thunderbird's colors look, especially with how they're popping in the fall setting right now, the all red just seems a little bland to me.

If everybody is convinced CW is getting a coaster in 2016, I'm actually surprised that nobody has mentioned a B&M invert as a possibility.

Rampage will take it's first outside riders this Saturday, as they're holding a special ACE event... It will open to the general public next Spring. The park is not open in the fall as Dan as said he can't compete with Football on the weekends in Alabama.

Those metal pieces you're seeing is more than likely stuff the park is adding to reinforce the ride and help the track hold up for a longer period of time. They're more than likely connected to the bottom of the ledgers (the part that actually supports the track) and are common place on most wooden coasters now days. The tell, tell sign for Iron Boss will be when you start seeing orange marks pop up all over the structure as that will indicate where they will be cutting the structure down to redo the profile of the layout. Edit: Something like this

While I do like speculating about what might happen with PP's former area, I do think it's unrealistic to think that the tower or any form of the original ride is going to be brought back to life other than the station. From my understanding, the problems ride had weren't necessarily mechanical, but more or less the rides senors very over-sensitive, which led the ride getting shut down for basically no reason most of the time. I think if they had plans to reopen the original ride or revamp it into something like Divertical, the tower would have stayed, since there was nothing wrong with it mechanically. I think a big question the park needs to answer is if they want PP's area to be in the water park, or if they want it to go in Thanksgiving. They already have the sidewalks to make that area work for both parks. They could certainly do something like a Mack Splash Battle and have a dual entrance like they used to do for PP before they switched it to the water park only. Speaking of PP, I found this video on Youtube, and at one time, it appears the splashdown actually delivered as promised during it's first season. I'm wondering what happened? I'd never seen it deliver a splashdown this big before this video.

^ Lol yes, I'm just trolling a troll. It's all in fun.

SFMM fanboy. That all you need to know. lol, at least this adorable little coaster will operate the way it's supposed to after media day