singforfood

Well, so much for the work rumor mill.

Just to clarify... It's still speculation at this point, but it makes sense to me that the park would be aiming for a Spring Break opening. They're trying to make Spring another unique season with the Berry Festival, and a new ride would help bring more guests in.

What's wrong with the unload station? Several things that happen all in tandem... 1. The unloading side is very small. About 1/4 the size of the loading side, and just slightly wider than 2-abreast trains themselves. 2. The exit is at the rear of the station 3. The 2 loose article bins (not pictured) run pretty much the whole length of the station (front half for train 1, back half for train 2), and are situated on the floor, narrowing the walking space even more. What happens is... riders get off and those who had no loose article start walking immediately to the back of the station to exit, while those who did are blocking the aisle as they stand at the bin to dig through and find their items. OR... They're actually walking against the flow of people exiting to get to their stuff before turning around and walking back to the exit (at which time, the new set of riders has started entering and heading to the bins themselves). The first time I rode it, I was literally cringing as I watched it unfold in front of me. There's about 6 feet worth of space at the back of the loading side that is almost never used for the queue, while people were constantly bumping each other or being blocked from moving on the unload side because there wasn't enough space.

Rumor around the park is that they're going to be announcing an opening date for Iron Reef in the next 2-3 weeks, and that it will be late March / early April (the goal is to have it operational by Spring Break, though it may be just a soft opening). One of my friends from work is in the hiring office, and she said that Ride Op training for it is most likely going to start in mid-late February.

**Double post**

^^ This. I unbuckle my seatbelt on B&Ms as the train is moving into the station so that the harness can just pop off.

YOLO's capacity is so bad that I can't believe anyone from Six Flags actually greenlit the ride. Also, someone from Premier done goofed big time on the unloading side of the station.

Oh come on, I had erased this from my mind last year, now I have to go through it again. So much for sleeping tonight... Pssst... ....gimmie yer fluids. WHHUUUUUTTTT?????

I'm in the minority, but I thought Book of Mormon was very overrated. Overall it's "good", but I don't think it's 9 Tony Awards and $120 per ticket worth of good. It had moments of brilliance (pretty much all of Nabulungi's scenes are solid gold), but the story telling is very disjointed and the pacing is strange. Also, I hate the character of Elder Cunningham so much. After BoM came to LA at the Pantages, the price of every other touring show shot up to $100+ per seat for anything not completely in the nose bleeds (which are now around $70 per ticket), so there's some resentment there too.

Poor Side Show... can't catch a break =(

My ears were red for an hour after my last ride on Viper and my head was throbbing and I said never again... Granted, that was probably 6 or 8 years ago, but I have no desire to go back. The trim brakes also kill the whole back half of the ride for me.

They used to stay up for about 3 seconds when it first opened.

Yup, the whole park stays open til 1:00. Certain shows adjust their times later for that day, but most will done by 9 or 10.

I do about 50/50 standing and sitting. The positive Gs at the bottoms of drops are really painful on my feet, so I put my weight on my butt.

This is going to sound like trash talking, but I swear it's not. I think B&M has had an incredible impact on the amusement industry. B&M has been responsible for some amazing innovations, but they play safe with track designs to keep their rides VERY GP friendly... and that makes their rides a lot less exciting than they could be. I think it comes down to 2 things that are intertwined... choice of elements / layout, and pacing / forces. #1. Elements/Layout... Loop, diving loop, zero g roll, cobra roll, brakes, 2 corkscrews. Or some slight variation. (exceptions for Flyers, Hypers, and Wing coasters) They are inversion machines, going from one element to the next all the way to the end in a very predictable way and controlled way with little or no transition space. #2. Pacing/Forces - Until Shambhala, I can't think of a single B&M hyper that had a fast airtime hill. B&M's spend so much time traveling upward into hills or inversions that are taken at a fairly gentle speed, you almost never get to experience going fast or being moved around. This is also tied into the layout... without transitions between elements, there are only brief moments of speed at the bottom of the drop before deceleration into the rise of something else. The "out of control" feeling that makes a lot of coasters so exciting isn't present anywhere on B&Ms. They're precise like Swiss watches and ride like German luxury cars. I still make a point to go on Batman at every visit to SFMM though, because that is a masterpiece of a coaster.

They aren't Disneyland, the crowd on Xmas day wouldn't be big enough to pay for the employees needed.

I'm still not sold on the repetitive layout, but that first drop looks SICK and getting to go over it twice will definitely be an awesome feature.

I saw Patrick Page in Spiderman and he totally stole the show

That's.... I mean... oy

Was "Hellfire" as epic as I'm imagining it would be?

To be fair... Goliath was less because of complaints and more because of complaints plus an on-ride fatality.

My old nemesis.... the shin guard. Gonna be an interesting and terrifying ride.

*delete*

I noticed this sign yesterday at the GhostRider photo booth... It made me laugh. The ride is so rough that they just said "screw it, let's work it into the marketing so people think it's intentional."

The time trackers can be off by as much as an hour because it doesn't take into account how many Front of the Line people cut in front of the regular line, thus increasing wait time. When I got in line for AVP this year, the sign said 1 Hr 20 Min. My actual wait time was 2 Hrs 10 Mins. I do agree that having a lot to do was one of Haunt's biggest strengths, but I understand the desire of the park to not kill themselves trying to put up 13 mazes every year. I think 9 plus Trapped would be a good number (one more than this year). Knott's didn't "have to resort" to selling a pass to retain visitors, it was something that fans of the event had been asking for. $75 was a bargain. And, it allowed the park to get more money from people who otherwise would have only come once and paid $40. So, there wasn't a big loss of revenue there, since most of those people wouldn't have purchased another ticket anyways. Most of those things you mentioned (auditions, staggering monster schedules, acting) are things that have been happening for years, without influence from Universal. Having 13 Voodoo quality mazes isn't even remotely practical. Voodoo took over 3 months to build, with a crew working 50 hours per week. The labor needed to build a park full of Voodoo's would be staggering and would kill a huge chunk of the profit of the event (which the park counts on for its yearly budget). I actually MUCH prefer the Knott's style of scare acting, and characterization to Universal's "push button, loud noise, jump out, reset" method (and have since before I worked for Knotts). I think being forced to interact with the monsters and become immersed in the action of the maze ups the fear factor for a lot of people. People miss the shows now that they're gone, but... when was the last time you heard "Hey, we totally need to go to Knott's this year to see the improv show in the Birdcage Theater!" As far as Infected... it was an experiment that had kinks in it. It was a learning experience for the park, and if it comes back next year, things will be different. Tbh, THANK GOD that gone are the days of Scion Night.