SFOG1991

Wow that's actually a really impressive area. The theme is great. Also, those are two of Vekoma's best designs. I want to do a T-Rex meet and great now...

I haven't been on Zumanjaro (I was there when it was delayed and supposed to be open) but I agree Acrophobia is surprisingly intense with the standing position, tilt, and the stop at the bottom always feels like it engages too late. Scares the hell out of me every time and none of the other Intamin drop rides scare me (except the first gen, RIP to the one at SFOG, but Demon Drop is alive and well anyways). The Larson ones are great too for smaller drop towers.

I really hope this happens. I ate there a few years ago and it was a wonderful experience. Definitely a stand out theme park meal experience.

I'm just imagining how awesome this ride would be if it were fully enclosed. Such a good theme for that. Anyways, looks pretty awesome! I already know when I go to Orlando to ride Mako I am going to want to make a side trip for this and Falcon's Fury (which suffered a delayed opening when I last visited and hoped to ride it).

^ The last two months of posts in this thread will be an interesting and slightly concerning read when we all look back a few years from now. Lightning Rod better open soon for the sake of our sanity (or what little we all have left of it).

^Jealous!!! I'm considering going to HoliWood Nights again this year. It was amazing and the park exceeded my expectations.

I'm still so pumped for this ride! That pacing is everything I hoped it would be.

^I know Six Flags probably doesn't invest heavily in the animals because they aren't the main draw of the park anymore, but while I was overall very impressed by this park and the animals, I have to admit I was disappointed by the lack of knowledge from animal exhibit employees and even more disappointed they only do one of each show each day (probably because they use the same trainer/performers) and if you want to see animal shows you have to follow the schedule as you only have one chance with each (at least when I last visited).

I honestly just think it is a combination of the oversized structure, giant wide trains, vertical drop, and the hold at the edge of the drop. That mix of size and anticipation really amazes the general public and I'm honestly surprised we don't see even more dive coasters in the U.S. The general public eats them up.

I've given fairly extensive advice to a few people over the last 20 pages or so if you have time to dig and find them. I am working now but if I get a chance to find them I'd love to help.

It appears to be an actual derailment of car 4 and it looks like it impacted the alignment of car 3 as well, but I did suggest the brake fin impact just because that seems like the most obvious thing that would experience a sudden impact. I do believe that is enough to derail the car since those fins are made to be strong and handle a lot of force during braking. I am not a Vekoma expert so it is just speculation but that seems like the most sensible explanation. I mean there is a chance it was a more significant issue, in which case they are lucky it occurred like this and didn't end up being an Edmonton Mall Mindbender type incident.

The beautiful view of Screaming Eagle will return!

Agreed, I live 15 min from Six Flags Over Texas and the dispatching is atrocious at my park. I enjoy the rides here, I really do, but I'm flying up for 3 days next weekend simply because I always have more fun at Cedar Fair parks, especially CP. I appreciate the little things, and watching dispatchers hauling to try and get people on and off is enough to make me fly on a plane so they can have my money. SFOG and SFOT have very similar awful ops. I mean as a whole Six Flags is pretty bad while Cedar Fair is generally better (this is coming from someone who actually prefers Six Flags parks in many ways). All Cedar Fair parks have decent ops but Cedar Point has crazy ops that are far superior to the other parks in the chain. It really is nice to go to CP and not have to get frustrated by the operations constantly. My only beef with Cedar Fair is that they often assign rows, they hold people outside the station and rows end up going out empty, they run three trains even when they are consistently double stacking, and some of the parks don't allow re-rides. In terms of the actually dispatching, they are amazing though!

It definitely goes a lot faster through the turn than the other dive machines. I'm enjoying watching everyones legs fly forwards when they hit the first set of brakes after the turn. Sound ridicilous I know, but I just found it amusing to watch... Not going to lie, I find it amusing if not oddly pleasing too.

Wow I stand corrected. I guess this isn't just a normal abrupt E stop between the loop and spike. Could the brake fin have impacted the brake system out of line? Like what happened on the halfpipe coaster at Elitch Gardens?

... probably shouldn't watch cam 3 then. Dispatch something... anything It's opening day though. Totally understandable. ^ Just clicked that and watched Maverick go over the first drop. The cams make the day go by so quickly. Valravn is averaging 90 second intervals, and the train is in view for about 30 seconds. I watch a few rounds and before I know it 30 minutes have flown by. It's sad that I am so excited that I am timing the ride but it really is making the time pass. Checking out cam 3 now.

^Lots of empty seats on that last row. Can I have one please instead of being stuck at work?

^I always find it interesting that Nashville doesn't have a local park but it has three major parks and one small park well outside of the city all competing for the local market share. Not a bad place to live at all for an enthusiast!

^I'm going to guess it tripped a sensor or something, the brakes at the halfway point stopped the train hard, and a few people experienced minor whiplash. Then again, this is a boomerang... the minor injuries were probably suffered before the ride stopped while traversing the course as normal. Anyways, hopefully everyone is ok. Doesn't sound like anything that out of the ordinary.

It's 3 hours from where I live in mid-Michigan to Cedar Point, but I still consider it my "local" park, and go semi-frequently! When it's all (or mostly) highway driving, it's not a bad trip at all! I wish Holiday World was only 3 hours away from me! My point is 3 hours is not local for most people and most people don't travel that long for an amusement park, especially when living in a city that has an amusement park already. I live in Atlanta, we have Six Flags Over Georgia, and Carowinds is just over 3 hours away. I've never heard of any Atlanta local going to Carowinds and I doubt many have ever even heard of the park. Dollywood is also just over 3 hours and while it gets some attention from Atlanta, most people here would never go to Dollywood. I do think Holiday World can make it work though just because of the quality and value they offer compared to the local option.

Absolutely. Once they hear that it takes one highway and a rural route to get there, it's an easy sell. The billboard advertising all of the freebies is the winner to me. It probably goes without saying that our city feels a bit 'nickel and dimed' by our local park. This is so true. I haven't seen the billboards for context but if they are promoting the true value of Holiday World and the free offerings that should go over VERY well with the people of St. Louis that are tired of being nickel and dimed.

^Thank you for the insight. I'm sure y'all know what you are doing! While it is 3 hours, it is very direct (I went to Six Flags St. Louis before HoliWood Nights last summer so I did the drive) so I agree on that point. I am excited to see Holiday World expanding into the St. Louis market. The distance may seem like a stretch but HW is the closest major park aside from their local Six Flags, and HW and Six Flags are night and day in terms of experience. I'm sure there are people in St. Louis that would love Holiday World as a weekend trip as well as people that would choose Holiday World over the local option in a quick second!

^That's a 3 hour drive from St. Louis to Holiday World. I'm surprised but I hope it works for them. It is definitely a completely unique experience from Six Flags St. Louis.

^I saw a 75 second dispatch interval on Valravn. Seriously impressive. One thing I do love about Cedar Point is their operations are usually on point compared to almost every other park.

You can contact the owners of the park (they also own the Williams Grove Speedway across the street I believe) and they may allow you access. If not, you can get a really good view of the lift hill and first drop of Cyclone from across the creek at the corner of Park Pl. and Millers Rd. There is a small business on that corner like a mechanics shop or something. I am not sure if they are operating but that may prevent you slightly if they are open. I visited the park at night last summer and it was really sad and eerie seeing Cyclone there rotting away. I wish the park was still open. The park is heavily surrounded on almost all sides by Yellow Breeches Creek so it is very hard to access the park without using the small bridge directly across from the speedway entrance. It isn't an easy park to sneak into casually and you could easily get charged for trespassing as I believe it has been an issue there in the past. Too bad the flea market no longer runs in the park or that would be an easy way in.