Capitalize

I understand your point, and I like discussing the park's issues when its an honest look at the problems. But I feel like (and said this pages ago) every time this thread gets bumped with anything worth talking about the same few people or a random person will come in just to say "that place should be closed", "that place sucks", "what a dump", etc. If you want to talk about actual problems, then that is great, talk about the issues and have a discussion. I'm glad to see the park getting something. The water park is a big draw for the park, and in these economic times I'd take ANY addition over no addition. As others have said, SF is moving good leadership to the park, so hopefully this will be a good summer for them and will lead to even better things in the future. Also, in reality, as far as the DC area goes SFA I feel like might finally be coming out on top in terms of the KD/SFA draw with new attractions. I think many people are more interested in a neat new water slide then a ferris wheel and flat ride, especially when those hot and humid summer days hit.

Believe me, they will be getting taken care of alot more since Paramount is out of the picture. I dunno, historically Cedar Fair hasn't exactly been known for their wooden coaster maintenance...

Thats wishful thinking for ANY park. However, if they were to announce that the maintenance department was going to be properly funded and could actually make the proper repairs to the rides then I would be very excited.

Front seat on grizzly airtime: The hill before the tunnel, the hill inside the tunnel, and a couple of the final hills give a little bit of airtime. Back seat: The first drop gives good ejector air, and the two hills going into the tunnel and the tunnel hill give good airtime. I've NEVER enjoyed Rebel Yell forwards, now that both sides are forwards I find them to both be terribly rough and awful.

This made me start thinking Ultra Twister but I was also thinking B&M. These are the links to the Ultra Twister cars: premier rides site and rcdb What do you think? Could Ultra Twister finally make its long awaited debut? [/img] When I worked at the park 3 seasons ago (first season it was in storage) all I heard was "Its not going up", the park kept Python around for a decade, so I'm definitely not counting on Ultra Twister being rebuilt. This made me start thinking Ultra Twister but I was also thinking B&M. These are the links to the Ultra Twister cars: premier rides site and rcdb What do you think? Could Ultra Twister finally make its long awaited debut? [/img] I've known for a while that Premier rides makes parts for the togo heartline coaster but if SFA were to try obtaining the needed parts from them then they would've done so by now considering the fact that the ride has been sitting there rusting away for over three years now. Who said that SFA hasnt already gotten all the parts for the ride yet? Ultra Twister has been in storage since 2005. Maybe the park has been secretly getting all the parts together just so that they can re-open the coaster. Based on my understanding some the working parts were put to use on other rides, though. So it seems like a strange idea after all these years to suddenly put it up. I'd like to see it though. It would be cool to have an operating togo heartline coaster in the US, especially since I've never been on one.

Hurler still has the best airtime in the park. That second hill is still awesome and worth the roughness, imho. Two great spots of ejector air... Grizzly is still my favorite ride at the park, though. Well, maybe tied with Dominator now, maybe. I don't find it that rough at all. Front seat is smooth, back seat is rough, but the vicious air time makes it worth a ride or two, especially when there's no wait so you can do re-rides. Hurler and Rebel Yell are both FAAAR worse then their fellow rides at Carowinds. Rebel yell especially now that its all forwards is imho way worse then Thunder Road and Racer. Just a nasty jack hammering ride, no fun at all.

Man KD looked great back then. I remember visiting there with family back in the early 90's thanks to our KI passes as we were living in Ohio. Both parks were so much nicer back before Paramount and now Cedar Fair. I wish they still had King Kobra, Galaxi, and all the Lost World stuff, stupid Anaconda, Shockwave and to a lesser extent Volcano...

-The 200 ft coaster is Superman -The water ride is Penguin's Blizzard River But we still havent received the rest of the approved attractions. I'm hoping that GADV's ferris wheel is not leaving that park and coming to SFA as the approved 120 ft ferris wheel. (if its not 120 ft then whoops lol, dont know how tall that thing is) Here's the link, Washingtonpost.com I think a B&M stand-up is perfect for a HUGE announcement the park has yet to announce. SFA did receive the ferris wheel, its the small balloon one next to the water park at the front of the park. Based on my understanding the stand-up was dropped (as mentioned). But who knows, that could be neat... Although very unlikely, imo.

Say it is a stand-up for Silverwood, to me that makes perfect sense. They already have 3 (adult) sit-down coasters (2 wood and 1 steel) and an inverted. In my opinion, they are "killing 2 birds with one stone" with Aftershock because it is inverted and technically floorless. Building a B&M floorless or sit-down looper would, in a sense, be something they already have. A stand-up would be the first in over 10 years, so they have practically dropped off the face of the Earth. I'm almost positive that most of the people in that area have never seen, or even heard of a coaster you stand-up on (judging from my experience out there during Aftershock's opening...the general public, from what I heard, thought that was the coolest, baddest, and most unique thing they have ever seen). Imagine their reactions to a stand-up. I think a B&M hyper would also make sense, but it would have to be over 200 feet, in my opinion. Those are just my thoughts on if it is a stand-up for Silverwood. Led Zep was mediocre at best, but what about Hulk, Kumba, Dragon Kahn, and Wildfire off the top of my head? Those are all good rides. I'd still take Led Zep over any of the 3 B&M stand-ups I've been on, as well. I just can't imagine a park even wanting to build one of those rides at this point, or B&M building one for anyone. With so many other far superior designs it would certainly seem peculiar to me.

The same reason why a park buy an old SLC like Michigan's Adventure, or a Boomerang like Carowinds. It's all relative to the park's specific needs. Some parks do better with specific types of rides than others. Does that make sense? I agree with you, there are better types of designs out there, but they're not always the best option. Sadly. MA and Carowinds didn't "buy" the rides, they were moved from another Cedar Fair park (GL). Cedar Fair simply wanted to get the most out of the closed property and move the rides that had some appeal as "new" attractions. A stand-up makes no sense to me in a lot of ways. There hasn't been one built in a decade, they are terrible rides (best one I've been on is Georgia Scorcher and it wasn't very good at all), and as far as I know B&M started telling everyone to NOT buy them ages ago... A sit down makes a lot more sense. Carowinds and MA may not have "brought" the ride but someone has to fit the bill for dismantling, relocation, and reconstruction. I imagine when you add that plus paint, and the new train(s), it adds up to only a small discount from what a new one would have costed. Manufacturing and shaping tons of steel for an all new coaster isn't exactly cheap... I'm sure the discount is fairly large, or we wouldn't see so many used rides for sale constantly and so many coaster relocated.

The same reason why a park buy an old SLC like Michigan's Adventure, or a Boomerang like Carowinds. It's all relative to the park's specific needs. Some parks do better with specific types of rides than others. Does that make sense? I agree with you, there are better types of designs out there, but they're not always the best option. Sadly. MA and Carowinds didn't "buy" the rides, they were moved from another Cedar Fair park (GL). Cedar Fair simply wanted to get the most out of the closed property and move the rides that had some appeal as "new" attractions. A stand-up makes no sense to me in a lot of ways. There hasn't been one built in a decade, they are terrible rides (best one I've been on is Georgia Scorcher and it wasn't very good at all), and as far as I know B&M started telling everyone to NOT buy them ages ago... A sit down makes a lot more sense.

It just seems highly likely it will be like SFAW or The Pavilion, shut down and razed just to leave a big, litter-filled field for years... To say the least I'm not optimistic when it comes to these things.

Amusement parks > condos, at least imho. I've never been up there, hopefully this next summer I can make the trip up to NY and get on Cyclone finally.

I miss the old show they had in there where random people wold make the sound effects and all that stuff. If blew the Drew Carey thing away. I was sad to see it go. I disagree, go on the one in Carowinds! KD's is a million times better then that one theming-wise. They actually did a decent job on the line, and the ride itself is good. I say: - Typhoon Sea Coaster: the theming is awful and its a pretty crummy ride to boot. - Primeval Whirl: looks like it belongs in a state fair, not at all up to "Disney standards". - The Italian Job/Backlot Stunt Coasters: I actually always enjoy the coaster, but thats mostly in spite of the poorly done/rarely working theming. - Disaster transport: Just absolutely horrible. Also, totally forgot about Skull Mountain @ SFGAdv, the skeleton and pumpkin fail, I liked it better when it was just dark in there...

Off the top of my head... US: - All the coasters at Holiday World. - All the coasters at Kenywood. - SROS @ SFNE - X2 - Boulder Dash - Ravine Flyer II Around the globe: - Eagle Fortress - Balder - Bandit - Nemesis - Expedition GeForce Unfortunately the only coaster outside the US I've been on is Dragon @ Ocean Park in Hong Kong, so I could make a MUCH longer list for that...

B&M haven't build 6000+ coasters so I don;t think thats how it works... Of course you're probably just kidding around so...

Avoiding both parks on weekends in general is a good bet. Weekdays in the summer (especially early on) are fine. I feel likes it gotten better with Dominator being added, not quite as ridiculous as it used to be at least.

Carowinds is out as they're getting GL's boomerang for 09 & as a result probably won't be seeing a new coaster (or another used one for that matter) for a while & SFA is out simply because corporate simply doesn't give a flying fig about the place so the most likely possibiltiy is KD. Granted CP hasn't added a coaster in three years & VF sure doesn't have anything from B&M so it could very well be a project for either of these two parks as well. KD just got Dominator this season and is receiving the flats for 09, I'm very skeptical that it could be going to KD... Its a big park and receives major additions regularly, but I don't think a hyper could be going there so soon already. I'm fairly certain it isn't going to SFA as well (the optimist in me would love to see that), but I wouldn't say its completely out of the question. The DC area isn't as hurt by the current economic situation as much as some places so maybe they see the potential to bring in crowds with a major addition (finally)...

I like Kumba as a pets name.

Super awesome pictures.

As an employee and regular guest at Six Flags America as a white guy you're normally kind of "out of place". But I never felt bothered by it. Everyone treated everyone else great and its always been a good time.

The best park for re-riding awesome coasters is BGA during the winter. No lines for 3 fantastic B&MS, I spend an entire day, opening to close just re-riding Kumba, Montu and Sheikra. Other notable days of re-riding... Opening day for BGE 4 years ago, absolutely no line for anything all day except a one train wait for the front row. I spent the entire day riding Apollo and Alpie over and over. The only thing that slowed me down was half way through the day the staff started telling me that I could only ride two times in a row before getting off to walk around. Opening day for SFOG 3 years ago I rode Mindbender too many times to keep track, no line except a 2 or so train wait for the front. Great day!

Space Mountain at WDW definitely wins for me. Big Thunder Mountain is very good, too.

Eagles would be a nice small addition to the park.

In general, parks with "great operations" don't have "2 hour waits," unless they're really busy. Could you clarify this statement a bit? A couple parks off the top of my head that have 2 hour waits for major attractions; Cedar Point and Six Flags Great Adventure. I know Cedar Point used to receive accolades for the operations, especially with rides like Raptor and Magnum. SFGAdv, not sure if I'd call it "great", but they aren't terrible either. But their lines are normally 1-2 hours for major attractions in my experiences.