Sk610

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

There is one major reason that they are targeting families in their surveys, and it is a very simple one...families spend much more money than the average teenager that goes to the park. families eat at sit down restaurants, and families buy souveniers. its the disney model all over. Disney has some thrilling rides at their parks, but the majority of the cater to the entire family. This is HFE strives to do as well. Just look at their other parks...not one has a hypercoaster, and the majority of the coasters have some sort of heavy theme/story behind them. Think of powder keg, and mystery mine just to name two. this is what DL's coaster future looks like, and not what we see at CP or SFMM

That is a very big IF there. i don't remember hearing anything on a new circus show. Did this come out in one of those customersurveys like lake monster and sidewinder did last year? To be honest, i would be satisfied with sidewinder as next years addition. before blast off last year, the last modern flat we got was twister in 2000, and before that who knows what it was, probably in the 80's

I really don't understand what is taking them so long to put the scrambler back into the park. They announced it a few weeks ago. I know it takes time to get the electricity and overall infrastructure to the site, but in the meantime, couldn't they be pouring concrete and such? I also know that it takes much longer to do these things now while the park is open as the hours of uninterrupted work time is greatly diminished with guests in the park, but this could have easily been done and running by now

I think just about all of us are holding out hope for something great for that spot as well. And yes i have a feeling that there is a "grand plan" for that spot. Exactly what that grand plan is is a mystery to most of us at this point. Based on what HFE has done with the park in the past, i am very optimistic that they will do it correct with a mix of thrills and things for families as well

I would also like to point out that HFE said tha they plan on doinb this as best and economically as they can. with tha said, they currently have a flying carpet ride sitting at celebration city and Ozark Wildcat SBNO down there as well. They could easily move one or both of those here to DL and add thrills to the park father cheaply. And yes i know there is a slight hill tha Ozark Wilcat sits on, but with a little earth moving. It could easily happen

So i would like to point out that even if that was an email that came directly from the park, which is definately a legitimate question, noplace in the body of that states anything about not bulding a new coadter from scratch in the next five years. Matter of fact, there is very little mention of new roller coasters at all. They do however talk about fixing the infrastructure of the park and getting it up to standards. They did say that they are working on the ifrastructure along with the occasional thrill ride and other family oriented attractions. I do think their next coaster will be very heavy on the theme as opposed to the overall thrills

This is the first i have heard about this email stating that no new coasters from scratch in at least five years. do we have a copy of this? also this does not kill lake monster or any flat ride additions. btw, hfe des have a flying carpet used ride sitting at celebration city that could come to Dl rather easily and cheaply. To be honest, i am rather ex tied that they don't want to build a new coaster from scratch in the next few years. That tells me lake monster transformation will most likely happen soon, and also that they plan on upgrading the flats and possibly the waterpark as well. i say a flat and a waterslike this year with lake monster oyster in 2016, followed by a flat and a waterslide each year after that and then and the fifth year, a new big coaster. By that time hfe will have the park to the point where they want it in order to put a new coaster in to bring the crowdsPoint

Well i was reading screamscape and SF Ne is closing cyclone forever as of Sunday. the rumour is that Rmc will be transforming it with the i-box treatment. with that being said, tis the season to start construction projects, especially large construction projects...coasters. If Dl actually is building a new coaster for next year, they will be starting to show signs of construction soon. And if they are making the Predator transformation, they may make announcements to get your last rides in now. For those going to the park in the coming weeks, keep your eyes open for any signs of construction anywhere in the park. Basically ride the giant wheel and lookaround at everything. i am not going to the park until the end of august, but when i go i will definitely look around

Why can't the giant wheel operate in the rain? Is that something Recent? I have been caught on it in a rain storm before.

Yes I agree that removal of the go karts should happen sooner rather than later. The problem is that they cost alot to maintain and run. the batting cages are just the initial investment and electricity to run. My guess is that the batting cages actually make money, where the go karts are probably not all that profitable. With that being said, the batting cages can sure be relocated into another area of the park in order to free up some prime real estate for expansion. I find it very sad to see twister sitting over there kinda away from everything else. if they were to remove the go karts, the could build a new area and expand back that way and be able to tie twister into the rest of the park. Plus they could easily go back a bit and add a bunch without infringing on the campground by too much. A coaster the size of Batman The Dark Night at SFNE will fit in that space going back towards the campground and then give the park a path to put flats and other things on with no problems at all. Just to give you a point of reference, that area behind the go karts is just about the exact same size as the area that cuda falls once occupied, but going all the way back to the main gate. With that said, the park has room for expansion, it's now about CNL forking over the money to do it right...

That may be the most interesting map i have seen in a while. I always wondered where the majority of the parks land is. i know they own a lot but exactly here has always been the question. With that being said, it appears that all of the parks land on the same side of rt 77 is pretty close to fully developed without infringing on the current campground. If they plan on growing the park there are only a few options that i can see. First is the area past predator/Ros out to rt 77 and over towards the hotel. This is a very large area and will definitely take a significant time to expand into. The second idea i have would be to relocate the current parking lot across rt 77 and put the main entrance basically where the current parking toll gatessand and expand into the parking lot creating a main walkway where that street is and a spoke type of area off that going in all directing just about where the current main gate stands

The area around Dl will never turn into what the area around geauga lake did. In wny, urban sprawl will most likely never reach that far out. That is one of the great thingsmabout the park as they have almost unlimited land and almost unlimited height restrictions The downfall is that the park is between two very small cities. if youmadd buffalomand Rochester together, i would bet you still don't get the population of cities such as Cleveland or even Pittsburgh.

Why would Dl want to add a disko? Their two closest competitor parks have one,so how does that bring in crowds? i do think flats are a necessity in the very near future. if they do it right a good flat with a good coaster one year and the next a good flat with a new waterslide. if they add one good flat each year, in 5-10 years they may have one of the best flat ride collections around. i think i may have said this before, but i would take an expansion of three or four new flash instead of a good coaster for Dl at this point.

I love the photo trip report. I think the park looks excellent and can easily see that they invested in the park the best they could with paint and signage and things that look new and fresh. In m mind, that makes the biggest difference to the general public, which are the people we need to come back year after year. Also, that is the first TR that has shown pictures of the boardwalk area. It loss great, especially at night. I hope all future expansions look that good. On the Ros plaza area, it definitely needs something more, and i see that as one of the future areas for expansion moving forward going out towards rte 77. There is lots of space there to build and even going over towards the lodge. Next year i hope they develop the Cuba falls area, then the Ros plaza the year after

Yes my guess is that cost and overall reliability record will be the deciding factors. My guess is that reliability Willie theorem important of those two seeing the situation the park is in now with having to remove unreliable rides and not having enough parts to run two trains on all of their coasters

Don't forget about Mondial as a manufacturer as well. They make the model that Cw got

And just an fyi...the frisbee style ride at Cw would fit in the old Ufo area without too prime such spill over into the walkway. I love the Google maps on android with the scale at the bottom so you can see if a ride from a different park will fit at Dl

Or they could keep the frisbee or giant frisbee idea and just have it spill over into the main walkway. If they did that, they would basically divert the foot traffic towards thunder rapids for those looking to go over by viper and pirate. This plan would use the old .fo area and create one main walkway to get over towards rowdys ridge area. I still do not see DL using the old Cuba falls area as an area for waterway expansion. the current waterway area has more than enough room for expansions and that Cuba falls area is way too prime of a spot for a new coaster/theme area

So i was looking at the park via Google maps and got to thinking. I know that scrambles returning in the area of the three point challenge. With that in mind, could Dl be telling us something about next year already? I know that last year there was a survey sent out talking about a giant frisbee. Could that possibly go next to the scramble along the lake with the proposed bbq restaurant going along the lake to go with the proposed predator Rehab? This idea would add another real theme area to the park, and still give them the Cuba falls open area for a 2016 project.

I have ot be to the park this year yet, but do plan on going in august. My frustation would definately be very high if they promised two train operations or at least short ride lines and cannot deliver on their promises. i do remember seing a show on coasters and they went toSFMM and showed the inside of the,maintenancw barn where they had at least oneof each part for each coaster train, and when they used one would re-order. Why cant this be the case at DL? There really should be very little reason to ot be able torun all of the available trains. At this point the only rides that should have one train operation are boomerang and predator, with boomerang being obvious, and predator only really having one train

I must admit that i am a bit sad that scrambler is going in tne spot between three point challenge and ignite the night. i always saw that as one of the few spots inside the park that would make for a grwat coaster spot. i saw a large coaster going over the lake with a cobra roll out on the point as a nice turn around. on the flip side, that is a spot in the park that is verypretty and also vry needed of something to spruce it up. My only question is why are they doing this mid season? Adding this will not bring in more people and will most likely not increase ridership in anything or a particular area of the park

I do agree that DL does have a great variety of coasters. how many other smaller parks have the variety that they do? i cant think of one they have a hyper, sit down looping, inverted looping, wooden, launched, and the boomerang shuttle. those are variety that you see at major parks. I really think that where DL needs major work is in the flat ride department. To be very honest, if they skipped a new coaster next year and went with a good collection of 3-4 modern flats i would be very happy with that. Yes people come to ride the coasters, but they need other things to ride as well. Thrills come in many shapes and forms, including flats.