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Everything posted by CedarFlags
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Indiana Beach (IB) Discussion Thread
CedarFlags replied to robbalvey's topic in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
So like... Summer 2023 is rapidly coming to an end. Did anyone hear about what the problem is with Triple Loop? -
Cedar Point (CP) Discussion Thread
CedarFlags replied to robbalvey's topic in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
I think the backward spike will be dope. Superman at SFMM also has a "stare down at the ground from 400 ft up" moment, and it's VERY cool. Even though the first launch is very toned down, I'm interested in the 3rd launch. You don't gain a lot of extra speed, BUT... you'll spend the entire length of the launch track traveling over 100 mph. That feeling of sustained speed is probably gonna be incredible. I'm not as down on Zamperla as most. The company has been aggressivley working to improve its product in order to become a major player in the coaster market. This isn't just "Cedar Fair went with Zamperla because they're cheap" situation. Zamperla has got something to prove and this project will be getting the royal treatment. -
Carowinds Discussion Thread
CedarFlags replied to robbalvey's topic in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
I'm honestly SHOCKED at how quickly is moving. I expected the ride the be down for the rest of the season, but at this rate we'll probably get it back by early August. -
Okay, I have to say it... what the eff is going on with Knott's Rides and PR? Crickets for a whole year about Xcelerator being down (after the ridiculous decision to close it for a paint job during Merry Farm). Montezooma closed and then re-opened, and then re-closed, and has sat untouched for a year after the loop was removed. Crickets on that. Now they're closing and removing rides in Camp Snoopy and... crickets once again. I used to think it was just a Cedar Fair thing to stone wall all the time, but Carowinds is handling the Fury situation so brilliantly and I can't believe these two parks are part of the same company.
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Carowinds Discussion Thread
CedarFlags replied to robbalvey's topic in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
Not to be an armchair engineer here, but the more I've looked at this, it strikes me as odd... The supports of that turn aren't braced against the force of the vehicle, they're parallel to the force. You would expect the supported to be in opposition to the direction of the force to brace against it. Compare it to the turn going into the Treble Clef. But instead, they're positioned in a way where the force of the vehicle creates tensile force right at that joint area, where we would normally expect to see compression. Obviously, a real engineer checked this and it passed the calculations, but clearly something about this element didn't work out correctly. -
Carowinds Discussion Thread
CedarFlags replied to robbalvey's topic in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
One more coaster question. Are there any rides that are significantly better at night that I should prioritize? -
Worlds of Fun (WOF) Discussion Thread
CedarFlags replied to OzCatter's topic in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
I still think it was total BS that the park waited until the day before passholder preview to announce the delay. If the ride needed 3 more weeks to be ready, I'm sure that management was aware of that fact WELL ahead of time and could have given everyone a reasonable amount of notice to modify their plans. And add on top of that the whole raffle winners vs soft-open nonsense. Really a huge L for their PR team. -
Dollywood Discussion Thread
CedarFlags replied to crispy's topic in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
Thanks y'all. -
Carowinds Discussion Thread
CedarFlags replied to robbalvey's topic in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
Hey all. Visiting for the first time at the end of June. Any rookie mistakes to avoid? I'm planning to buy Fastlane, but I don't know a ton about this park other than the attraction lineup. Cheers! -
One thing I notice is that there are a lot of "advice for first time visitor" posts in the various park threads, because this is the best place on the internet to get park info. Is there a function on the forum that could tag and index these kinds of posts so users could search them by park rather than making a new post in a park's thread? Just something I thought about while asking folks about parks I'm visiting this year.
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Dollywood Discussion Thread
CedarFlags replied to crispy's topic in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
First visit to Dollywood is coming up at the end of the month. I'm planning on two days in the park and buying Timesaver for at least one. I know to run to LR as soon as possible and to pay the extra for preferred parking. What are some other basic tips? Sorry if I'm the millionth person to ask the same question, but read back 10 pages in the thread and didn't see another one. I'm also planning to check out the various attractions in Piegon Forge & Gatlinburg. What tourist trap stuff in the area is fun and tacky vs lame? Which is the better of the multiple alpine coasters? -
Cedar Point (CP) Discussion Thread
CedarFlags replied to robbalvey's topic in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
You obviously didn't try Googling "iroc" before you said this because the ride training is the THIRTHY SIXTH result. -
Cedar Point (CP) Discussion Thread
CedarFlags replied to robbalvey's topic in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
By "infuritating" I do mean "moderately annoying". -
I just don't understand why coasters from the same manufacturer, with the same trains and restraints, have different requirements. And different by such a miniscule amount. As a tall rider, it's incredibly frustrating to sit in the test seat and fit with plenty of room to spare, but still be unable to ride. Worse than that it when rides with no maximum height get one added later on. Other thing: What's with the 12 passenger trains? That's insane to me for an attraction of this magnitude to have such limited capacity. Unless the park is aiming for 60 second dispatches or something.
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Cedar Point (CP) Discussion Thread
CedarFlags replied to robbalvey's topic in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
Ya, the merge-point for Millennium Force is kind of infuriating. I get it that FL doesn't promise no-wait, but it's expensive and you want to see the value. I've been there twice where FL didn't save any time at all on MF because the merge point is so far back. ElToroRyan did a whole video about how the capacity on MF specifically has gone down the tubes and it's also a hardware issue that the park appears to be unwilling to fix. It's a damn shame. -
Yes and no. They were the last one do to a true "pay to skip", but... I'm also considering the decision to let resort hotel guests book their FastPasses before other guests as a type of monetizing. Original FP was truly free and equally available to everyone who paid for a park entry. That also started the snowball effect of FP being a de facto requirement when visiting WDW because they had to add so many things to FP in order to even have enough reservations to give out.
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This was written years before the Orlando accident. And also the author was in Hollywood, not Orlando. I think there's a reasonable conversation to be had that "the size of an average person is not the same as it was 50 years ago, so designers of public accommodations should be considering this as part of their designs." But this was not that conversation. She's talking about the issue as some vast societal force to exclude fat people from public life and it's beyond hyperbole.
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^^ Ignoring the HUGE cultural conversation of capitalism, the politics of class, who *deserves* to have recreation, and the implications of importing real world class divisions into recreational entertainment... the upcharge priority programs at theme parks are a business decision that comes with pros and cons. When you created a two-tiered guest experience with these priority passes, you have to do a careful balancing act. They can generate a good amount of extra revenue, and they're super valuable for guests who are on once-in-a-lifetime trips and trying to maximize how much they can do. But... If higher tier guests get SO much priority that it detracts from the experience of the lower tier guests, the lower tier guests will eventually stop coming. Disney (particularly Orlando) has been dealing with this problem for years. The original FastPass™ was brilliant because it gave you the chance to skip lines, but it was equally available to all guests so nobody really felt like they were being cheated. The problems started when Disney tried to monetize the program in various ways and now it's this whole monster.
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I'm kind of obsessed with this one aspect of the Disney v DeSantis lawsuit... Disney never expressed concern over 1st Amendment protection, so DeSantis and his collaborators never thought to censor themselves. Normally in this kind of case, the Plaintiff would have the difficult task of proving to the court what the motive behind the Governor's actions was. And it would be easy for the Governor to say that it was purely financial and administrative. But because Disney stayed quiet, the prosecution now has dozens of pieces of evidence of defendants very explicitly saying: "the government of Florida is retaliating against The Walt Disney Company for engaging in political speech."