Jodon

^ I have a feeling that if you go to any park of your choice and say, "I'll give you $25 million as a gift to build a coaster of my choosing," most of them would say yes in a heartbeat depending on the feasability of your request. I.e. SFGAm can't build over 330 ft. so no matter how much money you throw at them, they will not be able to build a strata or poler coaster.

Some really good responses so far! Figured I would answer my own question... I would have a tough time deciding between buying a park or building my own. My homepark is SFGAm and while it should be a great park, there are so many issues with it that I might want to purchase it to help fix the issues. On the other hand, I've thought for a long time that the Chicago market could support two theme parks so I could see myself wanting to build my own park in the western suburbs of Chicago to compete with SFGAm. So, I'll give you my ideas for both. Purchase SFGAm: Phase 1: 1. Remove the trim brake on Raging Bull provided B&M signs off on it. Reinstate the special effects on X-Flight. 2. Change the ticket structure, lowering the daily ticket a little to $60, but increasing the season pass to $175 and lowering parking to $10 the first year and explore the option of free parking. Waterpark goes back to being included in the ticket price. 3. Increase staffing and training at rides and food vendors, then provide an incentive structure to ride operators/vendors based on their capacity compared to the optimal throughput of the ride. 4. Put a S&S Screaming Swings in the vacant Rajun Cajun' lot and a Zamperla Hawk in the vacant Trailblazer spot in Southwest Territory. 5. Refresh 2 themed lands a year and rename all the rides to fit the themed areas and remove licensing brought in by Six Flags. 6. Change up ride cycles for King Chaos, Revolution, and River Rocker. 7. Replace Buccaneer Battle with flyers and a Huss Booster Phase 2: 1. Turn the Dark Knight queue back into a theater and have a high quality musical review or magic show. 2. Remove Loggers Run, Yankee Clipper, and the Wilderness Theater and replace with a new and highly themed flume and an Intamin Blitz that interacts with the new flume ride and Roaring Rapids 3. Build two Proslide water coasters in the waterpark. 4. Remove Gokarts and use that space to make that area the new and improved kiddie land with Little Dipper as the focal point. 5. Move the kids rides from the Kidzopolis to the new kiddie land and build a gigantic play structure similar to Fireman's landing at Silver Dollar City 6. Remove Pictorium and use that land for a station and queue for a new coaster that interacts with the main gate and water park. 7. Remove American Eagle and replace with a giga. 8. Keep Whizzer as long as possible 9. Replace Demon with a similar sized looper ride with a 42" height limit that reuses the tunnel but would use LED lighting. 10. Replace Revolution with a Huss Giant Frisbee or a Zamperla Giant Discovery Build My Own Park: I would build my park in the Chicago suburbs off of 90, 88, or 55, and far enough away from an airport to not have to worry about height restrictions. I think I would like to use a wristband ticketing system like Waldameer where you can either purchase an all day wristband or pay per ride. I wouldn’t charge for parking or soft drinks. All day passes would be about $50-60 and individual rides would cost between $1.50 and $7. I would offer a season pass for $150-175. My park would be a straight up amusement park without any themed areas, but would have fantastic landscaping and tons of trees. Some rides that I would open with: Coasters: Intamin Blitz Classic wooden coaster like the Coney Island Cyclone or Knoebel’s Phoenix Intamin Hyper B&M Giga RMC topper track “woodie” B&M Floorless Looper B&M Inverted Intamin Accelerator similar to Storm Runner but significantly longer B&M Launched Wing Coaster Dueling RMC T-Rex coasters Gravity Group Jr. Woodie S&S Compressed Air Launch Family Coaster or something similar Flat Rides: S&S Screaming Swings Huss Giant Frisbee Side by Side Flyers Side by Side ARM/Larson Drop Towers Classic Flume Ride River Rapids Ride Shoot the Chute ride Classic Carousel with the Brass Ring Game Huss TopSpin Zamperla Air Race Zamperla Hawk Scrambler Troika Zamperla Enterprise Big Kiddie Area with the Jr. Woodie, small steel coaster, gigantic play area, and several other small flats Interactive 3D Shooting Dark Ride similar to Toy Story Midway Mania Zierer Wave Swinger Funtime SkyScreamer I would also have a few shows: Circus Show Magic Show Dive Show I wouldn’t open with a water park, but would put one in within 10 years of opening.

Hypothetical situation: You win the $1.3 Billion Powerball jackpot by yourself and take home over $800 Million and you decide to own and operate a theme park. Would you rather purchase an existing park or build your own park from the ground up? If you want to purchase an existing park, what park would you buy? What operational/fee/ticket changes changes would you make to it? What else would you like to change/add in the first 5 years? If you would want to build a new park, where would you build it? How big of a park will it be? Theme park or amusement park? What would your ticket structure look like, Free entrance/pay per ride or single entrance fee with select up-charge attractions? Would you go the major chain route and charge for parking, everything else and emphasize season passes, or would you take the Holiday World approach and have free parking/soft drinks?

I went to CP twice last year and got a free upgrade from FL to FL+ with my platinum pass. I went on a Thursday at the end of July and Sat. Sept. 18th (early in Halloweekends). I think your question to get a FL+ will largely depend on when you go and what you want to get out of your day. For me, going to CP is a treat and I want to make the most out of my day, so I will typically spring for a FL+ to ensure that I get as many rides/re rides as I want. You very well might be able to ride everything you want without a FL+, but there are so many quality rides at CP that if you aren't going to be back for a while, I say splurge if it's remotely busy and enjoy your favorites again and again with a FL+.

I was surprised how disappointed I was in Kennywood's operations, mainly at the beginning of the day. Kennywood was the last major park in a long road trip through Pennsylvania with stops at MiA, CP, and SFGAdv. There were a couple things that were really odd/puzzling/frustrating for me at the beginning of the day. The first thing that was weird to me was that they opened up the park, but didn't have any of the rides operating until 1/2 hour after the park opened. This may have been mentioned on the website or elsewhere, but I did not see anything about it and is the only park I've been to where they open up the park to the GP and don't have any rides open. The second and most frustrating park procedure is that they opened all of their coasters with one train...including Phantom's Revenge. I went on a gorgeous Friday at the end of July...peak season and they open up their star attraction with one train? Apparently this is normal operating procedure for them, which is mind boggling. What made matters worse was that when they finally put the second train on, the ride went down for over an hour. Overall, I liked the park and their collection of classic woodies, but it was surprising to see these odd procedures at such a major park.

^ That could be a good idea for a new thread on here if there isn't one already.

^You clearly haven't been on the rapids ride at Dorney.

I was really excited to ride Skyrush and Kingda Ka this past summer and both of those rides I found myself enduring rather than enjoying. It could have been that my thighs were destroyed by Maverick and Magnum at Cedar Point the day before, but Skyrush was incredibly painful to me. I see why people like the ride, as its intense and filled with airtime, but the restraints made the ride an un-enjoyable experience for me. I was also excited to ride Kingda Ka and see how it compared to TTD. I much prefer TTD as KK's restraints made the ride more uncomfortable. I also thought that the airtime hill didn't offer any air time and prolonged the positive g's from the pull out for too long. I also don't like the trim break at the top of the hill as it kills any semblance of air on that part of the ride. I rode in the 1st or 2nd rows every time and didn't find it rough, but the pull up and pull out were a bit too intense for my liking.

I've thought for years that a second park in the Joliet area or a little closer to the city would be great for the area. Great America is too small to pull from this large of a market (Chicago, Milwaukee, NW Indiana, Springfield, Iowa, etc). A second park in the area could easily be supported by the tourism and size of the Chicago market. I don't even think the new park would have to start out full size. Something like Holiday World where you have great operations and 3 to 4 marquee attractions could easily attract some good crowds in this market and then be able to grow into a true SFGAm competitor.

Does anyone know how Great America's Parent Swap works?

There was last Saturday when I went. I bought my FL+ online, so I'm not sure if you can get the upgrade if you purchase it in the park. Also, I found this out the hard way, if you do get the FL+ upgrade, you have to redeem it at a ticket booth at a park entrance. The FL kiosks in the park will not redeem the tickets.

Are any of the HalloWeekend shows worth seeing? I'm not a big haunted house person and the group I'm going with definitely isn't either, but is there any HalloWeekend stuff that is can't miss?

One more question: What are the best options for breakfast (buffet or sit down) on the peninsula?

Has anyone here done the Millennium Walkback? It says that they check ID's, but I want to keep my ID in my car when I'm at the park. Do they check ID's for the coaster club stuff, or for season passes? Does anyone know if they still do the walkback during Halloweekends? Thanks!

Not to derail the Valravn talk, I'm thinking about going to CP on Saturday, Sept. 19th. I think it's the first weekend of Halloweekends, I know halloween events can get packed, but how packed should I expect?

I'm going a bit out on a limb and saying the reason there is no tunnel is because of the parks proximity to Lake Erie and the high water table. While a tunnel wouldn't be impossible, it would likely cost too much money to be worthwhile. Plus, I can't think of anything at CP that goes under ground.

The only rides that have single rider lines are Goliath and Superman. Superman's single rider line works great. Goliath's can work well, but the single rider line isn't always open.

Interesting, when we went everyone made an orderly queue (And there wasn't a walk back that day, once you got in the park you could go anywhere in the park.). It was a lot easier to make an orderly queue when they did not do the walk back as the run back would disperse the crowd really well. I despise the walk back, which the park implemented because someone got "trampled", but I think that the walk back is more dangerous and disorderly than the running of the bulls ever was.

I would get to the park as close to 9:30 or before if possible. If you have a Discover Card, you can get early entrance, which doesn't really do much other than bypass a significant portion of the line and get you closer to the front for the walk back to Goliath. If you don't have a Discover Card or a Gold Season Pass, I would get to the park well before 9:30. Once you get next to the carousel, the security guards will hold everyone back until right around 10 am for the walk back. If possible, try to be all the way to the left when everyone starts to gather. Once the group gets to the bridge before Goliath, the security guards will tell everyone to get in a single file line which starts on the left side of the bridge. Also, be prepared to be jostled and cramped on the walk back...there are a lot of people in a small space all trying to be near the front.

Virtually everyone on this board knows that Cedar Point was in no way at fault for the accident. However, imagine Cedar Point went ahead with the announcement on Tuesday, keeping in mind that a lot of the media and GP have no idea what CP is about to announce. This is Wikepedia's definition for Valravn: In Danish folklore, a valravn (Danish "raven of the slain") is a supernatural raven. The ravens appear in traditional Danish folksongs, where they are described as originating from ravens who consume the bodies of the dead on the battlefield, as capable of turning into the form of a knight after consuming the heart of a child, and, alternately, as half-wolf and half-raven creatures. How do you think the media and GP would react to such an announcement days after a fatal tragedy involving a coaster at the park? I think that Cedar Point would look callus, insensitive, cold-hearted, and out of touch to the media and GP if they were to announce this coaster with it's anticipated theme so close to this tragedy. Had the announcement happened before the accident, none of this would be a problem, but unfortunately for CP, that is not the case and I 100% think they are making the correct call in delaying the announcement. In the long run, I doubt delaying the announcement will affect the time table of the coaster significantly, so IMO the likely PR nightmare of announcing the coaster on Tuesday isn't worth adhering to their original date, regardless of how frustrating that may be to enthusiasts.

I would tend to agree with you in that this tease likely points to a Justice League dark ride, however, I wouldn't entirely be surprised if it's a 4D coaster themed to superheroes. Unfortunately, if this is a superhero themed ride in Southwest Territory, I would be disappointed at the placement or theming of the ride. Count me in the crowd that is getting annoyed at the management for completely ignoring the themed areas. What's the point of a THEME park if you don't follow your themes. Southwest Territory was the only area of the park that was still fairly well themed, but now...not as much.

After all this gushing about Skyrush, I have to chime in...I was fortunate enough to take a trip at the end of July to Hersheypark after a day and a half at CP. My first ride on Skyrush was in the "magic" last row, left wing seat. It was easily one of the most intense coaster experiences I have had and had many "OH, WOW!!!" moments. However, I don't know if it was because I was 4 days into an epic road trip and had just killed my thighs on Maverick and Magnum XL 200 at CP the previous day and a half, but Skyrush hurt unlike any coaster I had ever ridden. I rode Skyrush 5 times throughout the preview night and day I was at the park. After my 5th lap on the coaster, I could not ride it any more. I had significant pain on my right thigh. So much so that I could feel the painful remnants of my last Skyrush lap for over 2 hours after I got off the ride. I understand why so many people LOVE the ride. I wanted to like it more than I did, but I didn't put it in my top 10 due to the discomfort I was in whilst riding. To me, Skyrush and Kingda Ka were the biggest endurance tests of my trip. I would ride them and felt like I was enduring every lap instead of being able to enjoy my rides. Perhaps if I'm able to revisit Hersheypark with fresh thighs, I may have a different opinion, but as of now, I want Hersheypark and Intamin to figure out a new restraint system that allows for significantly more contact area between the rider and the padding. Something like B&M's clamshell restraint or Premiers lap bar's connected from above would do this ride wonders, IMO.

^ & ^^ I agree that the only reason to postpone the announcement that makes sense to me is a complete renaming/re-theming of the ride, especially with Raptor opening back up today. That, or waiting a significant amount of time to distance the park/announcement from the tragedy. If the assumed Valravn name and theme is correct, I'm sure a lot of people/media could find CP to be distasteful and unsympathetic to the tragedy that just happened if they announced the new coaster as planned. I doubt the park would delay their announcement if they didn't feel it necessary or a good PR move. Cedar Point's PR department is pretty spot on.

I recently completed an 11 day/12 park solo road trip hitting up Michigan's Adventure, CP, Hersheypark, SFGAdv, Dorney, Knoebels, DelGrosso's, Lakemont Park, Idlewild, Kennywood, Conneaut Lake Park, and Waldameer. In total it was 2,367 miles round trip from my home in the north west suburbs of Chicago.

I think I might be fortunate enough to be in/around Munich in late July next summer...does anyone on here have a good idea where Olympia Looping may be at that time?