Samuel

My dark horse prediction for the future: The next time Medusa is due for a new paint job, Batman Knight Flight will "swoop in" to save the park from the Joker.

There's an empty lot just a few miles down the road from my place that once had a small strip mall, a couple of gas stations, and a few fast food restaurants. A real estate investor bought out every business, tore everything down, and wrote in the local paper that he was negotiating to flip the whole site to Walmart. Walmart eventually backed out of a deal, it never materialized, and the lot now only sees life with pop-up farmers' markets each fall. The buyer took some risk that turned out to be tough luck for him, but the premise of investments wouldn't be possible if the certain fate of every piece of real estate was known. I'm with you on wise investments, and I don't feel bad for the lot buyer in my example, but no one sat him down, showed him mock-up artwork of Walmart's alleged plans, and said that the lot had to be purchased before Walmart would move in. For Lucas to do that with the Disney plans is despicable, and then to do it for four years is something else. I know that investors with $ aren't the most sympathetic characters given their apparent good financial standing, but they were illegally presented with 100% fiction here, so I feel for their being deceived.

No, the fault is clearly on Lucas, who attempted to defraud investors and did defraud investors. Even if it seems laughable, the gullibility of the land buyers isn't a punishable offense, nor is it a determining factor in whether or not this guy acted fraudulently.

There are a number of parks that have on-site or adjacent amphitheaters that share the parking lot. The Darien Lake Performing Arts Center, for instance, attracts plenty of big-time summer concerts. I attended one a few years ago, and while attendees could enter the amphitheater from the lot, I waited in a huge line to enter from inside Darien Lake. The place was packed, the venue was fine, and the overall arrangement seemed to cross-pollinate the park & entire grounds in a positive, complementary way. Master of extra service fees, Live Nation, isn't going to win humanitarian awards as the venue operator, but I'll hand it to them -- large shows come to town. While Darien Lake is pulling it off, other parks have dated amphitheaters and poor booking prowess, seemingly stuck with county fair classic rock or local acts. Some theaters occasionally see life with entertainment shows, but are still underutilized. Worse yet, some just sit in dormant limbo altogether. I’m impressed by the size of the outdoor amphitheaters at the former Paramount parks, for example, but “going to waste” is the phrase that next comes to mind. A venue look-up on Setlist.fm shows that Carowind’s Paladium is far past its concert-hosting heyday. Although it’s a separate business, I wonder if some parks wish that they had sought more collaborative involvement with concert venue managers and planners in the 90s. Instead, lots of new venues popped up in other locations, while some park amphitheaters that can seat thousands stand like ghost towns. Does anyone have any good concert memories at amusement parks? How can parks attract better shows? Would you like to see some of the older park amphitheaters get refurbished or torn down? A fun night at Darien Lake

Case in point, a season pass to the 750-acre Six Flags Worlds of Adventure cost the same as a few chicken tenders baskets once in the park.

Unless we're including Castles n' Coasters & the Galveston Pier, Phoenix and post-Astroworld Houston are two large metro areas without all-day parks. We'll see if the Grand Texas Theme Park can take off. I have doubts about that project, but there's precedent for nice surprises: KK came back with some statement-making moves, and it looks like it'll be better than ever real soon (if it isn't already). When starting from scratch and intending to be an overnight industry player, it's tough sledding without having Disney/Universal-level know-how and Ferrari World deep pockets, and even some of those parks have had to face and respond to underperformance. The Parque Warner Madrid project, a noble new park in 2002, fumbled between Six Flags and in-house ownership before finally being turned over to Parques Reunidos. We saw what happened with Freestyle. It's not impossible, but it's a much more difficult proposition than RCT would like us to believe!

I'm heading to Southern California in a few days for a couple of occasions and to see friends and relatives. Of course, I do what I can to squeeze in some parks. Although my temptation to ride Twisted Colossus is huge, I visited Magic Mountain only a few years ago and the park geographically stretches my itinerary a bit too thin. USH is the only LA-area park I haven't visited yet, so I've made it my choice for the trip. I'll be going before Horror Nights kicks in, which I'd love to take in for the atmosphere, but hopefully I'll be able to dodge those crowds while still getting the chance to enjoy the primary attractions. In addition, I'll be revisiting Belmont and Sea World for the first time in years, which should be good fun. I'll leaf through the thread for tips instead of pouncing with the usual Qs, but if someone has important advice, I'm happy to listen. I'm not sure what kind of picture-taking opportunities I'll have, but I look forward to letting everyone in on my review/report when I get back in a few weeks!

I see a lot of wonky stuff, although this may simply be the result of someone getting his or her hands on the demo and going hog wild for some casual fun. If the coaster editor has such an "anything goes" policy, the apparent flexibility with a dash of added focus might be a good recipe. Coaster Works on Dreamcast had a free-form editor that was an absolute beaut. The game allowed for totally goofy designs, but if you took a realistic approach, it proved to be an an incredible editor for its day & perhaps the RCTW editor will pan out similarly. I still have hope that the game will find the Goldilocks zone between realism and accessibility. For me, that balance isn't about serious textures on otherwise silly rides, but means delivering fun for mainstream players while serving up plenty of extra nuance and realism for the coaster fans who want to indulge a bit more. The Sawyer games did this well. Heck, plenty of games across genres have satisfied simulation fans while maintaining a pick-up-and-play quality, and I think that balance will be RCTW's ticket to success.

Although defunct, Pitt Fall continues to be my favorite drop ride. When it first opened, it was seriously intimidating. In 1997, when Intamin first gens were still the norm, 251 feet was unthinkable. "How long do you stay up there?" was a real game people would play in line, staring straight up and counting seconds out loud. The drop was surprising and gut-tickling fun, but some people thought it was just unnerving. From my observation, the popularity of it really died down over the years. On busy days with queue lines spilling onto the midways, Pitt Fall would seem oddly deserted. Whoever mentioned maintenance issues is right, too. With only two sides operating, five-minute waits ballooned to 30-40 minutes, with the ride sometimes dispatching with only five people on it. Black Widow is not my thing, but it's a tremendous and forceful ride. The long cycles and spinning, which are virtues to many, make me "RCT-green-face" in a hurry (same for the Huss versions), but I've ridden it multiple times with Dramamine. Fast, disorienting, and absolutely wild. Several of my friends who were scared off by Pitt Fall think that Black Widow is the best ride in the park. I concur that the loading/unloading is slow and can play out like musical chairs. I've seen people get assigned correctly, only to watch them get split up by joggers who stampede around the ring and go into the seat-picking business for themselves. If everyone is orderly, it's not so bad. Although I've already called an early retirement from it, it's a real solid thrill ride - maybe Zamperla's best creation?

- There's a big pack of middle-aged woodies like Screamin' Eagle, Georgia Cyclone, Great American Scream Machine, Outlaw, Grizzly, etc. that aren't new, but also aren't really considered classics. A lot of them are photogenic and some are still fun to ride, but I don't think about them much in the lead-up to visiting their parks. In addition, this group has been largely been pushed out of ERT consideration, so I often just get one forgettable ride on them during regular park hours. - Grizzly at KD first came to mind -- being tucked away in the trees, having a hard-to-find entrance, its visible structure looking a bit like an extension of Hurler, plus the overall Wayne's World area looking like Carowinds - where I don't expect to see it, etc. - "Oh yeah, that exists" comes to mind whenever I see a Hopkins coaster - The locations of one- or two-loop model Shwarzkopf coasters aren't etched in my head and are a nice surprise to find. - I'm not suggesting that the following aren't nice parks or worth visiting, but sometimes I totally forget about the rides of Alabama Splash Adventure, Adventureland, Wild Adventures, Frontier City, & Magic Springs. On paper, the coaster lineups are a real hodge-podge of rare oddities, wonky loopers, kiddie coasters, and woodies few people ever mention, all occasionally mixed in with moderate new additions.

The first time I saw the track I thought, "Hey, a real coaster that's actually going with that color between orange and light brown on RCT 2."

I’ve made no comments about this game until now, but I have a bit to share based on what I've seen so far. I loved RCT 1 & 2 – they did a great job being accessible and well-done for popular appeal, while still implementing tons of love through nuance that made hardcore coaster fans geek out. I don’t even want to admit the extent to which I went bananas when I realized that they added a B&M roar in RCT2. It’s this kind of stuff that would drive my excitement for the new game. No doubt, the visual cartoon-feel had to go, but the pendulum seems to have swung the other way and the new focus on prettiness was never what made the original games so addictive in the first place. From the most recent blog: "And to reassure you of the game’s visual quality, here are two new screenshots taken today on a powerhouse computer with a high-end graphics card at 4K resolution." The pics look great, but also suggest a specs-heavy game that may leave owners of average computers in the dust. Furthermore, I think the backlash over the original graphics was wrongly interpreted by Atari, and the response seems to now be a new misunderstanding about what “more realism, please” meant. I want to see some of the thoughtfulness that made the first two games so special. I want manufacturers to be well-represented. Make a wooden coaster's wheels squeak and have it get slightly more intense as it ages. Show me decent-looking S&S towers that I can connect together with a crowning marquee, and then let me set each leg to be a turbo drop, space shot, or combo drop with multiple bounces. These are the types of details that should be included, which would naturally improve the graphical realism. Instead, we're getting updates about visually-stunning, high-res benches and station wood. Does anyone remember It’s the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown, where Marcie kept comically misinterpreting Peppermint Patty's instructions on how to prepare the eggs? I feel like this is what's happening. With respect to the developer's effort, I have been wrong before and I AM looking forward to how the game turns out. Want a great game? Spread enthusiast-considerate nuance throughout, look to the first two RCTs for a solid gameplay foundation, and find a visual middle ground that strikes a balance between aestetic and fluid playability.

One of the earliest symptoms of my coaster love was riding the Carolina Goldrusher at Carowinds about 8 consecutive times on my own volition, until my parents finally were able to interrupt my pattern by manipulatively saying, "Fine then, we'll go to Smurf Island without you..." Those were the days! I believe the Goldrusher was my first Arrow.

I'm not sure if you intended the excellent dry humor, but the park could really use a year-round, people-munching attraction that can operate in the rain, given how much precipitation the park gets and its propensity to close rides in even the briefest of sprinkles. Rain, and not the sun, is the subtext that justifies the need for something like a dark ride. I'd imagine that what sun the park does get would be an asset that encourages patronage of the water rides, water park, and overall beach setting. "What can guests ride when it rains?" is the question that needs to be addressed, but I ultimately arrive in agreement with you that a dark ride should be at the top of the wishlist.

My dark horse projection is that Slash will show up at the announcement and perform a few VR licks.

The written review sometimes feels like an endangered species, but I'll tell you that I enjoy reading these as much as I do looking through pictures. Although I don't like to see rides get retired, Vortex is the "living" example I offer whenever someone romanticizes the good ol' days of Arrow mega loopers. Steel Phantom, Great American Scream Machine, Shockwave, etc. were impressive in their time, but they're plain-to-see awkward at best, and riders are very lucky to even get the at-best scenario. Vortex still has its fans -- those who can defensively ride, know exactly where to sit, and have specific bodily dimensions that are somehow Arrow-friendly, but as I don't possess these qualities, I had a good laugh at your description & share your opinion.

If this gets built & RMC one day gets its hands on Mean Streak, there may be so many turnaround dive loops that the park has to move to a shoe. Although not a confirmed layout, I'm all for B&M rolling out more Flug der Damonen-style funky rolls and inversions. Although technically solid and coming in a good variety of styles (and I enjoy dive coasters, too), the ride-feel of many newer B&Ms is homogenized and humdrum. By contorting familiar elements and building the Family Inverted Coaster, I hope these are budding signs that B&M is willing to fart around in some new design territory.

Nice trip report! I like your shot of the Patriot entrance area...I never realized how nice it looks, kind of Dollywood-esque. With those Timberwolf signs about roughness, I wonder how much longer parks will be able to get away with spinning bad woodies, SLCs, etc. as something to be endured rather than enjoyed. We're chuckling because there's an admission of guilt lurking between the lines when parks come out and mention jostling, aggressiveness, and extremeness, but it's embarrassing, too. The park is saying, "yeah, we know." I don't think this should be acceptable at major parks anymore. I used to regularly pass a highway rest stop sign that for years had a second sign attached to it that read, "Sorry, no brochures or information at this time." It seems like it would have made more sense to order brochures instead of creating an elaborate sign that pointed out, but didn't resolve, the issue. I know it must be easier said than done with coasters, but there have been plenty of successful rehabilitative efforts that didn't require full RMC cyborg surgery. Cedar Fair isn't the only culprit, but its inaction through the years to improve its festering woodies creates an impression of futile stubbornness that I don't fully understand when it does so many other things well.

I'd choose Maverick for a quick ride during the day, but Millennium wins at night AND overall in my books. Once the sun sets, "that was only good" Millennium Force walks into a phone booth and becomes "Holy $%#&!" Millennium Force. On the experience front, I'm amazed that for the entire ride duration there is usually consistent clapping, hooting, hollering, and hands-up camaraderie shared by every trainload of riders. A coaster that inspires even the most indifferent people to embrace strangers, scream, laugh, and let go of all self-consciousness in the name of fun? That's the magic of the ride, and I feel like some people miss that aspect and instead judge it in the same way that a kid might look at a majestic lion at a zoo and flippantly conclude, "I don't see it doing a lot of tricks or tearing apart gazelles, so it's totally overrated." Millennium Force is the king of the coaster jungle, the iconic attraction of an iconic amusement park, the symbol of the 2K coaster wars, a huge win for Intamin, a milestone in the industry...as a total package, the legacy is unmatched. The variety and aggressiveness in Maverick's layout is impressive, but Millennium cut down trees and paved roads in the industry, still delivers after 15 years, and is #1 for me.

I'm not sure how the park handles incidents like this. Maybe someone who visits the park more has insight of this. I know Disney/Universal give out exit passes but i'm not sure about CF. Perhaps it's changed this season, but I was stuck on Raptor's MCBR for over one hour during HalloWeekends last year. The issue was explained as being related to a sensor along the brake run. My train of returning riders, along with the few people who remained waiting in the station, received a real exit pass (not Fast Lane merge point) for anything in the park, & Raptor closed for the night. I picked Millennium Force and showed my pass at the exit. I expected the operator to tell me where to sit, but after examining it closely he declared, "Ah, yes...okay...with that pass, you can ride anywhere," and I rode in the front. While my train was moving toward the load station, I could hear the operator say to another member of the crew something to the effect of, "Yeah, he had one of those passes...so-and-so signed it, it's fine." I don't know if they have a policy to scale-up the "sorry!" perks after multiple hours, but that was my experience last year.

There is a pretty positive review a few posts above this one, but in my trips to every iteration, the Sea World & Geauga Lake days were the peak, and the Six Flags days were below-average. The whole "largest amusement park" and "greatest theme park on earth" claims are examples of the aggressive marketing propaganda that made the integrated park out to be much more than it was. The integration of the parks felt slapped together. The “three parks, one ticket” approach didn’t point out that everything else – parking, merch, food, fluffy, fluffy bunnies filled with medicine and goo, etc. were incredibly overpriced for those days. The park also didn’t have the infrastructure, roads, hotels, or operations to accommodate the crowd sizes that it was trying to attract. The former Sea World side was very nice, as most of the aesthetics had been preserved by Six Flags, but the Wild Rides side was cramped and felt cheap in many ways. That area became littered with sponsorship signage on everything, and the charm of Geauga Lake had been zapped. The only ride to really miss there is the Big Dipper, which truly was an awesome classic coaster. It’s also a shame that Villain didn’t last long, but it was already starting to age in its latter years and would have needed lots of rehab to keep it running well. There will always be an allure of curiosity about the place for those who didn’t get to go there, but believe me – the park, at its biggest & boldest, was still several notches in quality beneath Cedar Point, King’s Island, and Kennywood. As for me, I wish I could have had the chance to go to West View Park. In Pittsburgh, my parents actually had different allegiances growing up between Kennywood and West View, and for a short while I lived only a few miles from the former park's grounds. I have lots of videos and family photos that were taken at the park, and I would have loved to go for a ride on the Racing Whippet.

Off topic, but Sander never said no, he was simply expressing their opinion on it, and that they believed it took away from the traditional feel of a wooden coaster. If someone approached them and wanted it they would deliver it like they always do! I should have clarified that it wasn't a hard no in regard to capability, but a decline to the question from the standpoint of then-2012 personal philosophy. Thanks for cleaning up my post there . I am surprised that no one has attempted a hyper woodie in recent years. There's been lots of flirtation with impressive heights, but 200 ft. has remained taboo -- fear of a SOB curse? With improved technology and Sonny gone, it seems like exclusive status and an easy world record are just there for the taking. With the defense of categorical rigidity going out-of-style, a likely candidate would be a RMC hybrid. A 185 ft. height + a tunnel could do it, not too far off in scope from Goliath. Although a long-shot for sure, I'd be interested to see GCI or Gravity Group swing for the fences with a big terrain drop.

Hebei Zhongye Metallurgical Equipment Manufacturing Co., Ltd, baby! In seriousness, what I've gleaned from watching many interviews that Robb has conducted at IAAPA is that chief designers and engineers often have a stance of, "Sure, if someone approaches us and wants to do something new, we could do it." The only time I can think of a manufacturer's stance being "no way, Jose" was Sandor Kernacs being asked if the prefab woodies would go upside-down. It seems like a lot of firsts come from desire-fulfilling conversations between manufacturers and parks, and then a proven reputation over time will cause other parks to come knocking on the manufacturers' doors. In other instances, the manufacturers develop new types of coasters and push them (like S&S's recent 4-D spinner vs. the ZacSpin, B&M flyers vs. Vekoma Dutchmen, etc.). - I think it's refreshing to see Mack's "we can do just about anything" attitude. I'd love to see them, along with Chance, pumping out full-fledged hypers. - Many of those Gerstlauer layouts show ambition and a willingness to compete with unconventional designs. I like some of the funk in Gerstlauer layouts (some Stengel collaborations there), but I don't know that they mesh well with the graceful thrills expected from a traditional hyper. With Karnan and Cannibal, I can see a small market for a few more short, funky hypers, though. I think the reported jerkiness of some models, Smiler's issues, and the small trains/lower capacity will need to be overcome if high attendance parks are going to take a bite on a massive investment from them. - I don't see any evidence that Vekoma is offering hyper coasters...they have a comprehensive online portfolio, & it looks like they're still going the boomerang/loopy/someone-take-a-flyer-on-our-flyer route. Still, ride quality has improved immensely with Vekoma's newer stuff, and I'd definitely be intrigued by what they could do. - I'm sure we're all salivating at the thought of RMC going 200+ ft. with original designs.

I would personally like to see them get rid of the lift hill supports, and do a truss style support system like they did with Goliath. That would really open up views to the water like the park did when they got rid of Disaster transport and put in Gatekeeper. Reasoning behind this, in a documentary I recently watched "From Dreams To Screams" about Gatekeeper they talked about opening up the views of the beach, and water (Granted Mean Streak is not near the beach) It would still be nice to see them use a truss style support system to open up the views to the water. One of the best parts of Cedar Point is the location, and Mean Streak really obstructs the views of the water. I could see this happening, but I kindly disagree with you and also with the "Dreams to Screams" commentary about visually opening up the park. The lake is a gorgeous contour for the peninsula, but there's been so much shifting of the in-park environment in order to make for better sight-lines that I believe areas of the park have have lost their charm and sense of immersion. More often now, I notice in these open areas that my attention gets drawn not to the lovely lake, but to the sprawling pavement, sea of trash cans, and empty spaces in the midways. Coasters are looking more exposed. Iron Dragon's lagoon woods have largely vanished...Millennium island used to be a secluded area that was fun & dark during night rides. The trees that have been removed over the years for rides are enough of a sacrifice; further deliberate attempts on top of that to turn the park into an open lot just doesn't make sense to me. Disney and Universal create excellent environmental immersion. Dense cities, too, offer blocks that act as vibrant underbrush to complement the business & residential skyscrapers. While I'm not suggesting that Disney-style theming is appropriate for Cedar Point, the Frontier Trail and back area of the park near Mean Streak have managed to keep a sense of in-park immersion, and I pray that that doesn't change. I don't want everything to just be a view of Perimeter Road, parking lots, the on-site properties, and behind-the-scenes maintenance areas.

I think the Wild Mouse at Blackpool has a few of those "never in America" moments of tiny clearances and low-hanging supports. In fact, a lot of the footage I've seen of old wooden mice includes plenty of tight situations where I think people must have been much smaller back in the day!