coasterkid124

My friends dragged me into Midway Market last year. It all looked good when I walked in, but most of the food ended up being dry and average. Not to mention I'm kind of a picky eater when it comes to the international stuff, and watching the salty foods. I ended up scouring the kiddie section and the desert bar

Same rating here. I thought it would be lower considering I still have a few major parks to hit.

Viper has a second train it was used in the 2015 and 16 season It wasn't used last year. It was supposed to be put on in July, but they never went through with the plans.

Mike Ilitch has died at 87. He may not go down as a "celebrity", but he is known for owning the Detroit Red Wings, Detroit Tigers, and Little Caesars chain. This man completely turned around the Red Wings franchise from an era where they were consistently bottom of the standings, to a team that has made the playoffs 25 straight years. Plus he began construction of a new arena that unfortunately he will not be able to see completed. RIP.

It's cool and all, but it's probably a couple of years too late. Too many companies are trying to bank on the success of the Larson Loop, but too many parks have similar attractions like it now. Six Flags probably isn't interested, and unless they change their business style, Cedar Fair/Herschend usually don't go for clones. I would be surprised to see a handful of these built. Now if S&S went for a full size wing coaster that is cheaper than B&M (and can have decent reliability), I think more parks jump on it.

^Most likely, yes. Going forward, it may change now that Premier has more budget control. But this year will be status quo until everyone gets settled in. Viper is the best chance to see a second train.

1. What is the farthest distance you've traveled to specifically visit a theme park? California (from New York) for SFMM and KBF 2. Your favorite coaster in the state you live in? Ride of Steel- Darien Lake 3. Would you rather wait in line for a boomerang (at any park) or a VR coaster @ a Six Flags? Boomerang, line's shorter and a better experience 4. Have u ever been the only person in a train during a coaster ride? Close, but never alone during normal park hours. Only when I was in maintenance back in the day. 5. What is your favorite thing to do at your home park that does not involve riding something? Arcade games 6. Better time for ERT: Early morning or late night? Late night. Not only is the atmosphere better, but the ride is better from having been run all day. 7. Name some theme park food that *sounds* gross, yet is oh-so-delicious? Not sure about this one 8. Name your top three "bucketlist" coasters you have yet to ride. Fury 325, Lightning Rod, and Twisted Colossus 9. Have you ever been E-Vac'd? Did you receive anything if you did? I've gotten stuck on lifts, but never evac 10. What is the longest length of time you've waited for a coaster? 90 mins - 2 hours. I refuse to wait longer than 60 unless it's new. 11. Worst flat ride ever. Name it. Swings. They're so common and have boring cycles. 12. Your favorite SWEET treat at a park that is NOT your home park. Cinnamon Bread 13. Congratulations! After aggressively gambling on the Plinko game you finally won a front of the line pass. Which ride do you use it on? Maverick 14. If you could have a lifetime fast pass to ONE attraction what would it be? Probably Maverick again, based on average wait time 15. Have you ever been next to someone that puked on a coaster? No 16. Your home park is getting a new B&M and YOU get to pick what type. Do you want an invert/hyper/dive/floorless/flyer/wing/standup? All of the above is not an option. Invert or Hyper would give the best chance of an intense ride 17. Name your favorite Vekoma. Idk, Boomerang 18. What water ride delivers the most unacceptable amount of wetness? Rapids Rides 19. If you were able to help design a coaster would you want it to focus on airtime or inversions/positive G's? Skyrush style airtime 20. Most comfortable trains/seats for a coaster are... Intamin T-bar 21. Choose one: Unlimited front-of-the-line access to your favorite coaster at your home park for one season OR $1,000 cash? Home park? I would take the cash 22. You just got drowned by a flume/rapids/chute-the-chutes. Do you pay the $$ for the dryer machine or do you continue on with your day trudging around like soggy dog? I would save the money and air dry. Most of those dryers suck. 23. What is the worst food you've had at your home park? At Darien Lake, they advertised a roast beef sandwich with chips. I thought they were using chips in the fancy sense for fries, but they literally gave me greasy potato chips with the sandwich. 24. You're at Cedar Point. You have a one hour ERT session on ONE coaster of your choice. You choose... Maverick (again lol). It has a little bit of everything 25. Favorite (non-clone) dark ride? Noah's Ark 26. What was your favorite park you visited in 2016? Cedar Point 27. What's your current credit count? Don't be shy. I stopped counting a while ago after I hit around 100. This was a few years ago 28. Winner winner chicken dinner! You just won a trip with hotel and airfare included. The catch is its only good for Six Flags America or Mt Olympus. Which do you choose? SFA has better rides, and is in a better area, so that's my choice. 29. What is the best Intamin coaster you have ridden? Skyrush 30. Your home park has to remove one coaster and one flat for an expansion. Which two rides would you be OK with losing? Coaster- Mind Eraser Flat- Do go-karts count, if not, probably Lasso (swings) or Pirate 31. Song/music you've heard playing at a park that absolutely has not business being played in a theme park? Closest thing is KC and the Sunshine Band- Get Down Tonight. It was blasting in the water park, and I'm sure that kids could figure out the meaning, 32. There's 5 minutes before the park closes. You choose to: Reride your favorite coaster in the park, OR get the new kiddie/junior coaster credit? Re-ride the better coaster 33. Do you visit the waterpark if it's connected to the amusement park? If it's good, yes 34. What 2017 addition are you most looking forward to? Mystic Timbers? It's not a good year 35. What was the most disappointing addition to your home park in the past 10 years? A Nik Wallenda Show, or as in the case of this year, nothing at all 36. The most overrated coaster ever is... To an extent, Millennium Force. (I still love the ride) 37. What ride makes you wanna vomit? Carnival Frisbees 38. What is the best consolation prize you've won at a games booth? Nothing 39. And the worst? Nothing 40. End this questionnaire by posting a picture of your favorite light package (coaster/flat). I'll edit my post and put up a pic later.

I'm on my phone and that mask almost gave me a heart attack when I scrolled past it. Very cool report, though. Chernobyl has always astonished me, with how large the impact of the accident had become. It also makes me hope I never get put on any nuclear related projects at work.

I don't know how you calculated that, but I'm afraid to tell you that you're at least half a million dollars off what it would actually cost. You're forgetting labor, marine grade paint, and the equipment needed to do the job. It's not as simple as going to your local Sherwin Williams and picking up some brushes and paint cans. X2 cost around 700,000 to paint, and that was almost 10 years ago.

I have a feeling that something is coming here that we haven't ever seen on an RMC. Not just a new element, but something major that they don't want other parks seeing just yet. I don't recall them being this secretive before, but they were probably pretty upset with Valravn being leaked prematurely.

^Plus he's the one who first mentioned it. Judging by his posts, I think Darienlaker is out of the doghouse for now.

I'm going out on a limb, but if that's the building I think it is, it still holds locker and tube rentals. Quite honestly if you hadn't caught that I would have never noticed it was new.

Not this again. Every year around this time someone comes around asking about that pile of crap. The ride was not torch cut, what you see in the video is them torching apart some bolts that have seized from years of sitting. I believe that Six Flags at one point really was going to build the ride as it would be a cheap way to add another coaster to the park. If not, it would have likely been shipped to Great Escape or La Ronde (for spares). There was a rumor that the ride was damaged during removal, but I'm sure they would have just scrapped it right away if that were the case. Obviously by now, the track is very corroded and water has seeped into the rails and supports being outside in all conditions. The trains may have been the only salvageable parts, and they used to be Halloween decorations. The ride merely sits as an "asset" for now, as it adds a little value to the property, something investment firms love. It would cost more to ship all of it than they would likely return in scrap. For a ton, steel generally gets around $60. Darien Lake has a tendency to store all of their defunct rides rather than scrap them. But as I mentioned, Six Flags likely wanted to reuse the ride like with Big Kahuna. Seeing that the coaster was consistently a bottom ranker, it wouldn't have made much sense. By the time any operator spent the money to rehab/rebuild it, they could just buy a brand new coaster. (Which PARC ended up doing with Motocoaster)

If they removed the go karts, that would get rid of an eyesore and open up some massive expansion space for that plaza. I can't imagine that they profit too much off of it anymore. Personally, I think that Hook's Lagoon and Big Kahuna should be replaced in the future. This way that entire end of the waterpark can be fixed up. I know that Premier was really high on the White Water West structure that they added at Frontier City a few years ago.

I'd rather get general improvements than a crappy addition like that. I just hope that the park is fixing some stuff up if that's the case. Viper's station really sticks out. I think that it might be a possibility seeing that they did a test paint on the shack underneath the corkscrew.

80 Doubtful, they would probably keep it and re-use it just like they did with El Toro. They're cheap, and in this case that could be a good thing. That popped in my mind earlier, but if SF is really thinking about a Dive coaster for its place, there could be a problem size-wise and fitting in the new equipment. I would be ecstatic if they found a way to reuse it. The old school stations from the 80s and 90s are some of my favorites because they look more cartoony and better for a theme park.

I thought for sure that the Mack Power Splash would be the next cookie cutter. Or it could be the Proslide water coasters if it works out for SFFT. I just really hope to see some larger coasters at some point in the future, even if it's just for the flagship parks. I can't imagine that 5-10 years in the future, people will continue flocking to these parks for the same ride collections. Even Cedar Fair isn't THAT conservative with additions.

As much of a fan as I am of older Arrow coasters, the biggest loss if Viper were to go would probably be the queue/station. Six Flags would probably just replace it with a large metallic box with Snickers logos, blaring dubstep, and the most generic paint job ever.

It's a nice option to have. Most of the times that I've visited on a peak summer weekend, the line can easily get to be 45-60+ minutes. Same can be said for Viper and Predator. Those are the three coasters that should really have their second train for those days. Plus going forward, just because they have two working trains, doesn't mean that they need to run both every day. I really just think that Premier wouldn't want the park's main attraction not to have a spare if something happened mid-season. Viper was scheduled to run two trains again this season, but for whatever reason, those plans never came to fruition.

Planning Board website was just updated. No mention of Darien Lake, meaning no sizeable addition is likely. It makes me wonder how big something has to be to qualify for a hearing. Was something like the Scrambler subject to a hearing a few years ago? If they do not affect the skyline or environment they may not need to file all of the paperwork. Two years ago, Rolling Thunder and Brain Drain were split up for Jan and Feb, but traditionally, the park has liked to begin everything by this month. It's probably likely that nothing at all comes for this season, or some very minor changes. All I can say if that's so is prepare for a year like 2014, where the park didn't grow attendance (and might have lost). They need to continue to add to have people come back. At this point, I would be happy just to hear that Twister will be open this season, and RoS will get a second train, but who knows with this park.

1. What is the name of your home park? Darien Lake 2. Do you own a coaster related T-shirt? Yep, I own a few 3. Do you enjoy Vekoma SLCs? Not really, more of a Boomerang fan 4. Name the first 3 coasters that come to mind. Maverick, El Toro, Kingda Ka (Idk why) 5. One park you would definitely never go back to is... I wouldn't say there are any parks that I am firm on not returning to, but there are a few that I won't be revisiting unless they add something major. 6. Have you ever ridden a drop tower taller than 200 feet? Yes, Zumanjaro, SkyScreamer, and Power Tower are the first to come to mind. 7. What is your favorite roller coaster? Skyrush 8. When you go to a park three things you must have with you are... Phone, Wallet, Keys. These are the three things I do not leave the house without to go anywhere. 9. How many times did you visit your home park last season? Geez, probably near 20 times. 10. The first Intamin coaster you rode is... Ride of Steel @ Darien Lake 11. Have you ever spent an entire day at a park alone? Close to a whole day a few times, usually a few hours short of it. 12. The independent park you go to the most is... Hershey 13. Does B&M or Intamin make better hyper coasters? Intamin. Read it and weep. 14. If it was free, what upcharge ride what you jump on right now? Probably a Skycoaster. Slingshots aren't that costly. 15. What is the best food at your home park? Yuck, fries maybe?? And Darien Lake even got rid of the seasoned version. 16. The name of the worst GCI you've ridden is... Wildcat @ Hershey (For being utterly boring) 17. When you're not riding something at your home park where are you? Walking around the lake, or around the camping area. 18. Favorite water ride in a dry park (flume, rapids, etc) I'm a big river rapids fan. 19. Do you get your photo taken with park mascots? Nope, I'd rather spend my time riding things. 20. Name one personal item you've lost at a park. A season pass on a Boomerang. Luckily it was one of the last weekends of operation. 21. Name of the worst B&M invert you're ridden is... I don't think there is a bad one, Great Bear to me is the tamest. 22. Name your favorite steel coaster under 125 feet tall. Maverick 23. Name your favorite coaster/ride manufacturer? Intamin 24. What waterpark have you visited most often? Splashtown @ Darien Lake 25. The name of the fastest wooden coaster you have ridden is... El Toro (I think) 26. What is the name of the flat ride you've ridden the most? Maybe Silver Bullet?? (Enterprise) 27. Name a ride-related injury you have suffered. I think the closest thing is a brush burn on Martin's Fantasy Island's giant slide. That thing sucks. 28. Favorite Halloween event at a park? Cedar Point's Haunt (I usually don't travel to these events) 29. Name the most recent Arrow ride or coaster you've been on... Viper @ Darien Lake 30. Name of your favorite ride that never leaves the ground (safari, train, bumper cars, etc) Umm, bumper cars probably 31. What ride makes you laugh the most? River Rapids 32. How many RMC's have you ridden? 3 (Goliath, NTAG, and Cyclone) 33. Best flat that goes over 100 feet is... Giant Frisbee 34. When you are on your way to your home park what is one worry that you might have? Long lines/multiple break downs 35. Favorite park that is NOT your home park is ___________. Cedar Point 36. How many different parks did you go to last season? 4 (Darien Lake, Cedar Point, Martin's Fantasy Island, SFGADV). It was a slow year, but 2017 is much busier. Plans were shifted a few times last minute in 2016. 37. The indoor coaster/dark ride you ride most often is... Probably Skull Mountain. I'm not a big fan of these rides for some reason. 38. When you spend the day at the park what do you drink all day? Water 39. The name of the best B&M you've ridden is? That's tough. Nitro, Apollo's, and Raptor are high on my list. When I get on Fury within the next two years, that probably takes the cake. 40. Name three other forum members that will fill this out... No idea

Since Premier is now in charge of everything finance-wise, I don't think that they will be taking the year off. The sale has been in the works for a few years now, and it should be completely done well before opening day. Premier's formula is to add something every year, which is vital to attendance and revenue at the park. Look back at 2014, when only the Nik Wallenda show was "new". The park got hit hard that year and lost both attendance and profit. After adding attractions in 2015 and 2016, they worked their way back up and improved. People aren't going to visit the park yearly if there aren't new things to enjoy. I've noticed that the park is busier in years that there is investment. Improving the Rowdy's Ridge and Boardwalk areas has worked wonders. I think that fixing up Twister is fine; as long as it can be a reliable attraction for years to come. With Ranger and Twister down the last couple of years, there is not much to do thrill-wise. Even if Premier goes into this year fixing up Twister, and filling in another hole with a new ride, that is probably enough to generate interest.

I feel like RCT is too big of a game to play on a phone. There's just a lot going on and it can be time consuming. Plus I can imagine what a battery killer it would be. I wouldve been thrilled if they re-released it on PC with updated rides, maps, and some new features.

The way you put that makes it seem like you only want them to do good this season. Considering how long it's taken for them to get to this point, wouldn't you want to see them do good for a few years? This is the first year that I've ever seen the Red Wings be a bottom feeder team so this feeling is new to me.

I'm no business expert, but the thing that would worry me is that since Premier is leasing and now sporting the bill for new attractions, that they would technically own any attractions that they built. They are just "renting" the land and current attractions that the park has. Not saying that Premier would ever want to leave, but if they did, they could fight for things that are "theirs" Six Flags took a couple of salvageable rides with them when they left their lease in New Orleans via negotiation of terminating the contract. Maybe there is a clause in the lease that would prevent this from happening, but it's just a thought. I'm very excited that one single company will control the finances, as this will help the park grow without negotiation between owners and management.