Sk610

I do agree 100% with that, but CF and SF are nlt the answer to that. If either of those were to purchase the park it would be run like Michigan's Adventure or Great Escape. When was the last time either of those parks saw a major new coaster? I truly think HFE has the best opportunity for DL actually becoming more of a player in the NE theme parks. Unfortunately it all comes down to attendance and how much the park as a whole generates in profits. Less people means less overall cash flow, hence less investments. I think HFE has the ability to do the most with less. DL would not be the forgotten about park under HFE like it was under SF management. The cost of Fury 325 is going to be almost 30 million. how long do you think it takes to pay that investment off for a park that draws around 1 million guests a year? Even at the best attendance year in 1999 after the first SF branding and ROS as the major addition attendance was only at 1.5 million or so. Those larger parks draw 2-3 times that much, hence the ability to pay off those large investments much faster. I will stand by my statement that the best thing is HFE management for DL.

I really think you will see HFE purchase this park from CNL when it comes up for sale. If they didn't have that interest, as stated above, they would have pulled out like they did at Elitch Gardens. I also think that HFE is the best option for DL's overall future. Just look at what they did with Rowdy's Ridge and Boardwalk. Show me to places in a CF park that look that good that was not there before CF took over. CF would add coasters, yes. They probably would not invest in the oveall good of the park as much though. SF will not purchase the park either. They sold it for a reason, and i am pretty sure that they are trying to focus on the major markets like NYC, chicago, LA, Dallas, Atlanta etc. Buffaol/Rochester does not fit into that category. The other problem I see with SF or CF owning the park is that it would be at the bottom of the pecking order in each of the chains. Most of us remember the SF days when we went years with little or no additions to the park. With HFE DL would be middle of the pack for size and attendance and have a much greater opportunity to get a better addition. HFE may not add major coasters like SF or CF would, but under HFE ownership, the overall park experience will be much better. Just picture an entire park that looks like Rowdy's Ridge and tell met that isnt a great thing.

I really hope that if HFE evertakes full control of the park that they sell that coaster off as scrap metal. It would definately stop people from asking what it is all about. I can also imagine that the GP also probably sees coaster track sitting there when the drive in on rte 77 and thinks DL is putting in a new coaster next year as well. It just needs to disappear to stop any questions.

I would be terribly surprised if CP chose to fully remove mantis. I would expect some new trains along with some new elements possibly and maybe a reprofile of the first drop to fit the typical B&M drop. could they add a zero-g roll somewher to the ride? Definate posibility. Could they add something different sure. Maybe they add something like an old arrow batwing type of inversion somewhere. I would be very surprisedmif CP left the coaster as is and only changed the trains and name...unless they are building something else rather large and this is just a side project, which i highly doubt

That area behind ROS plaza would make agreat spot for a small expansion, and would make sense for not using it for fright fest. On the other hand, there is plenty of room inside the existing park to put three flat rides. Also, i dont expect it to be three flats. I expect it to be one thrilling flat, one family flat and one waterslide

So i went to the park today and wanted to post a small trip report. Before i do, you must know a few things...first,i. Went with my 4 year old son, so i only rode one coaster. Second, i have a 4 year old son, so i have not been to the park in about 5 years. With all of that being said, i was so pleasantly surprised with the park. Rowdy's Ridge and Boardwalk look fantastic! If that is what HFE wants the entire park to look like, then i am in! I would give them the money to revamp one section of the park in the same fashion in each of the next few years right now. The landscaping just about everywhere looks vey nice. They could use someine to pull weeds, but that is minor. I thought moose on the loose was pretty cool, and something the park was severly lacking. It reminds of something Disney would do, just on a much smaller and less animatronic scale. All rides were up and running with the exception of ranger. boomerang was struggling to pull the car up the initial lift. It did run for my entire visit though. Scrambler looks very good, but the pavement around it was put in very quicly and isnt very level and could easily lead to a twisted ankle for those not watching where they are walking. I am wondering if that is the next area of the park to theme and re-pave with a new ride or two. The space is definately there. Viper was a three train wait and was still pretty smooth. One train operation on all coasters with what appeared to be little wait on those i could see...never got over by ROS. The kids section was extremely nice with lots for my son to do, and he loved everything in there. I have a few dissapointments...lack of service staff was very evident. We went over to the boardwalk for lunch, my son wanted pizza logs, and they had none made and would be 5 minutes. Only one cashier working at 12:30 and had a line at least 10 deep at a prime lunch time. Load time on just about every ride was very long. We waited at least 5 minutes on the scrambler while the attendant checked everything. The same thing happened on haymaker. For some reason moose on the loose would only send three moose onto the course at any given time, even though they had six in the station, and you had to sit and wait for the others to get back in. That made the wait on that ride pretty bad. iI had ten people in front of me, and it took at least twenty minutes to get onto a ride that could have taken ten. The abandoned mini golf inside viper looks terrible from the que. Please just tear it out and put in grass or add some flat ride or something in there. Almost all of the buildings look very freshly painted and the entire park really looks very good. I do like that when the put in Rowdy's Ridge, they added and kept some mature trees, henc providing shade and making it look like it had been there for a long time. I did not see any signs of construction, even from the ferris wheel, so its hard to say what if anything is happening for next year at this point. As mentioned previously, I don't care what they put in next year, as long as they contiue the current plan and make the remainder of the park look like Rowdy's Ridge and Boardwalk. If that were to continue, we will have a very nice park in a few years. I am hoping the poor service was due to the fact it was a sunday and not busy. The ride operation is inexcuseable in my book though. That needs to get faster!

I cant beleive that CP would actually remove mantis. i think they may reprofile the drop and maybe try to add an extra inversion or three. i easily see a cobra roll back by the creek and if they can figure out a way to get a zero-g roll in as well, that may go a long way to building a great coaster. It would also make for the first floorless coaster with the inclined loop, which would be something new on the standard 7 inversion B&M layouts

Yes today was the first day of weekend only operation for the park, and the opportunity for the park to get work done without having to work around guests. i am going this weekend and will be sure to take a look around as much as i can

I qould like to get the discussion back towards DL and tell anyone who is going to the park in the fall to take a look around the park for any signs of construction.. With the park being closed all week and only open on the weekends with good weather, the fall is a prime time to start any construction or ride removals. The maintenance staff will have unlimited time with no park guests to get things done. I would think if ranger is going to be removed this offseason, it would probably happen in the next couple of weeks. So if you are going one of these weekends, take a close look at the park and see if things are being removed, or possibly even some site clearing if they are going to put in a new flat ride or two. i also would think that one addition will be in the waterpark, so look over that way for any site work as well I am going next weekend, and will post a trip report, along with keeping my eyes open for anything new and different happening

Yes i totally agree that viper and boomerang are rather good for their types of coasters. I think the issue with some arrow coasters was height. It seemed like the trains couldn't handle the higher speeds that went with the added height on coasters like steel phantom, great american scream machine, drachen fire and shockwave. The smaller drops seem to stay good for a long time. And yes they did put up the billboards early, but they almost had to since they removed a ride and everyone knew something was going to take it's place. At this point, there isnt anything like that in the park as of yet, unless they remove ranger anytime soon

I am kinda happy to see the trip report and kinda sad as well. How can someone say that the park is terrible because they have an arrow looper and they hate them. Viper is a surprisingly smooth ride compared to other arrows, and after 30+ years is still very rideable. Yes the park does need some things and some touches, which we all know about. The issues with boomerang are a bit concerning. Hopefully they get that fixed without having to eat up a significant portion of next years budget doing so. On the topic of announcements, I think the last few for boardwalk and rowdy's ridge came in the late winter, like february or so. If they were early, it sure wasnt this early. I think a significant portion of the timing of the announcements has to do with the amount of time construction will take. If they are planning on new flats next year, those could easily be installed in a month or so. If they choose to rebuild a new area of the park, that may take longer, but not alot longer.

I do like the idea of putting in a few zamperla rides. The discovery looks very nice and similar to a frisbee, but probably cheaper.The hawk looks like a fantastic alternative to ranger. and any of those water rides like watermania and the water battle look awesome. I personally would welcome that trio of rides as the would be new and very different from anything at any of the local parks

That actually is a very good pun/idea. i hope the markwting team for the park reads this and uses it. On the flip side rhe discussion was moving pretry quickly with the speculation of three new rides...lets pick that up again... I would fully expect little to no work for prep to be done before the park closes for the season, other than the possible removal of the ranger. and that i wouldntexpect until september when they can work durring the week without being interrupted.

My first thing would be how do you know that we are geting three flat rides? Also, if that is the case and you are leaking information that is classified from the park, that could jeopardize your job as well. Now if these reports are true, i would expect something to replace ranger like a hawk. The second flat i would expect would be something families could ride that is thrilling, but mildly thrilling. My third would be for a new waterslide. HFE seems to like to add a waterslide often when they add multiple flat rides. They did that exact thing at dollywood a few years ago. It covers all their bases. Also, i fully expect the flats to be used. As long as they are in good mechanical order, who cares! The waterslide may have to be new, but if they can find what they want used, so be it. I would love to see the old el dorado drive in from Geauga Lake at DL as i have seen it for sale as used recently and it was a very cool ride that i think HFE could actually do something really cool with

At this point, ROS must have two train operation. If viper's line is an hour, then that needs two trains as well. On the flip side, 45 minutes is not that long to wait for a major thrill ride in a major theme park today. if you go to CP i bet all the major coaster waits are 2 hours + and even the older rides are in the 15-45 minute waits. botom line is that we are spoiled with relatively short waits across the park

What i hears was that when SF rmoved it they didnt do it carefully enough and brought it to DL to try to add value to the park before selling it with no intention of ever putting it up here. i dont think they labeled any of the peices to be able to put ti together again, plus i heard some of the pieces were torch cut to be removed as opposed to actually removed properly, hence rendering it as virtually useless. Even if it was in good condition,do we really want a 20 year old stand up coaster that has been in three other parks that consistently got poor reviews? i am actually very surprised they have not sold it off for scrap money yet? scrapmetal is worth alot right now, and they cou.d use that money to make improvements...unless CNL is doing what SF did in trying to say the park is worth more with it on the property as they try to sell the park as well

What map did you use to get the imagae from? My samsung tablet with ggogle maps doesnt evem show rowdys ridge in the park yet, let alone something that new. And bing maps is even worse, viper is still green on theirs...

Maybe they are trying to emulate what Islands of Adventure does with very loud themed type of music in each section of the park. i would expect that may be the case, and in the main gate area it may be the crescendo leading up to the actual park experience. The fact that they are doing this as they expand tells me that future expansions should see simlar treatments. With that being said, i was looking at a park map last night and came up with what sounded like a good idea for a small expansion area. If they were to repaint ME, they could retheme it to whatever they want and make that area their new themed area upgrade this year. I envision moving the walking path over toward grizzly run with a building right in front of the ride walls itself where grizzly makes the turn. I also see a flat that may extend a bit out over the lake directly across from it. This could be sidewinder or something else. I also envision another flat, the used magic carpet from celebration city next to ME's break run with some more buildings and food shops over that way as well. If done right, there may even be room for a third flat ride in that area as well. The beauty of this idea, is that it is small, and wouldnt require a ton of work (money) to make happen. It also includes the repainting of ME as it desperately needs it

Park music would be very cool, but would also cost alot as well. The cost to run wire throughout the entire park for music plus bury it and go under the concrete would cost a fortune. On a similar note, as they add new themed areas, they could easily add music to the certain areas. With that being said, did they do that when they added rowdy's ridge and boardwalk?

I think scrambler looks fantastic! The paint definately makes it look like a new ride,and it didalways deliver a good punch. If there is a problem with boomerang, they cannot afford to have it down too long. they just dont have enough coadters in thepark to have one down. Also, with ranger being down, and from the sounds of it, being down for a while, it's probably time to remove it and replace it with something newer but similar. I am sure that a number of manufacturers make something like ranger, just a newer version.

Yes primer on MEnespecially so the red does not come back and so that it lasts longer as well. i am sure that the cost obviously goes up, but in all reality, ME sits right next to the main gate and other than ROS gives people a first impression of the park. With that in mind, shouldn't that coaster be in better shape than some of the others that you dont see so prominently?

So basically due to the very unique and cool placement of both ME and ROS over the lakes, painting them is very costly. That is very said to hear, but paintmis a necessity to the ride so rust ans corrosion doesnt render the entire ride useless. The only suggestion i would make to the park would be to pick a color that is more fade resistent in the sun. Maybe a blue or green or gray may hold up better in the sun. unfortunately red fades terribly hence looking terrible. I would expect if they do repaint they may retheme one of the coasters and possibly add a flat ride to that area to start a newarea of the park

I have not been to the park in a few years, but i do plan on going either near the end of august or early september. with that being said, i rely on the pictures that people post to tell me what is going on at the park. All of the pictures i have seen look very impressive. HFE looks like they hzve invested as much as they could with what they were given. It appears that a significant number of rides were painted, and rhe majority of the buildings have been painted as well. As a matter of fact, the only things that have not been painted as i can see are ROS and Mind Eraser. My guessmis that they will paint Mind Eraser this offseason, and the olor scheme will totally change, as may the name. ROS is also due, but due to its extreme height, the cost has to very high, so that may continue to get done in parts as it sounds like they are doing now. I still say HFE looks to be doing impressive stuff at the park. unfortunately, their overall master plan cannot be fulfilled until they fully purchase the park from CNL and can invest as they want, and not how CNL wants

I have to believe that there are some very large metal gears and cogs that help those rides move much like what is visible on twister. those gears can get stripped and may need replacing. if the original manufacturer no longer makes them, then getting one specially made may prove costly

Yes hard and very costly if huss is no longer making those rides for standard production. I am sure that huss can make parts, but the time will be significantly longer, and the price would probably be double or more than when it was standard production. It really has to do with total cost of ownership over time, and with those older huss rides, it is way too expensive overall. with ranger, they could easily get something just about the same and much newer. to be honest, the only original huss ride that is still made is the pirate. In the coming years, i would expect to see most of those either refurbished or totally replaced with something newer if they are having current issues