Danrarbc

There are some parks still drawing artists to their amphitheaters. But really even before COVID so many of them out there were used far less than in the past, Old Glory was barely used even before COVID - mostly cheer and band stuff for schools. And some parks are eliminating them. Dr. Diabolical’s is being built on a portion of what was essentially Fiesta's amphitheater.

Haven't seen one on the calendar in years.

The location of that queue house combined with Old Glory is pretty big. Like Batman's plot big. Old Glory is only storage now and you can toss up a steel frame storage building nearby for pennies. There's so much potential in all kinds of places. Room has never been the reason new things don't get added. Even within the current kiddie land footprint there's room for addition (a ride or two where the playground is would be a clear case of addition through subtraction).

Spinsanity is tame enough to be a good family flat too. If we were getting packages of 2 or 3 flats like the Over parks the family flat selection would probably look a bit better. But that wasn't in the budget. Joker is also family friendly but it hasn't been opening consistently. It was open on my visit but it sounds like it hasn't been for others this year. I do think a P'Sghetti Bowl would be a good idea to expand the family options. The Model C could fit in the same place the playground is in now and that thing hasn't been open since 2019. If you demolish Go Fresh Cafe instead which has been closed even longer you'd have room for Model D. Not sure how people would react to the first coaster in a decade being a P'Sghetti Bowl though, know what I mean?

You're right - theirs will probably take less time. But there's two reasons for this. The first is they've likely kept up on the maintenance for it and it probably isn't in near as bad shape. Our carousel wasn't just mediocre - it looked bad. And the second reason theirs could take less time is they might be sending the horses over to PTC for renovation. This costs more but there's a whole team over there that does nothing but build and repair horses. To save money our park is doing this in house with one paint artist and 1-3 carpenters depending on labor availability. The horses they have put on display don't seem to be suffering on the quality front even though they aren't being done at PTC.

They'll probably get the first group of blasters going again that section is dry when the pumps are off. It's a simple enough system just needs the pipes repaired.

I noticed more food places open early in the season than the last couple years too. Heck the drink refill station by the front entrance was open on a Sunday in early April. I definitely think something improved in staffing.

Had my first visit of 2022 today, Sunday. The changes this season begin in the parking lot. There are at least 5 security camera masts throughout the lot now. Approaching the entrance the canopy over the ticket takers has been repainted and it's blue and white now. Which if memory serves is more like it was a couple decades ago with the old structure. Catwoman is coming along, though a fair amount is still framing. There are still stairs from Bugs Bunny National Park to the upper bit of Illinois but they're all-new. As for Eagle. The entrance is improved but they aren't done with it. Looks like it'll have full ADA-compliance with a new ramp still going in. It leads to the entrance side of the platform though. Also got a couple shots of the changes to the Palace area. That's about it for my short stop. Never got to see the DC comics and Log Flume/American Thunder loop. Mooseburger being converted to 100% mobile ordering only is pretty nice and the menu has been expanded. But there are still some omissions from this menu (no loaded nacho option, nothing with a hot dog in it). Macho Nacho and World's Fair Hot Dogs are both back this year. I'll leave you with the rest of my Catwoman photos.

It's the corn maze. You can see other Fright Fest items in place around the park. Google's had these images up for at least a few weeks.

Well, mostly. Little bit of faded red poking though.

That's a total of 6 inversions!!!

Actually that part of Gotham sits on land that park didn't originally own. Flashback was closer to where their Skyflyer is.

Flashback opened in 1989. It's nearly Ninja's age.

New trains aren't cheap. The track and support work isn't either.

I mean, yeah but I don't think it's a coincidence the decision came with a year or two of the Hulk rebuild.

You're not wrong but the cycles are going to count for something. A year-round park is going to have far more run time than a park that is seasonal - SFMM's BTR has more cycles on it than any other and I'd expect it to need action taken before the rest. Universal rebuilt Hulk after only 16 years and Dueling Dragons didn't last any longer there. But Iron Wolf's track still lives on even with floorless trains. Though Nemesis is also being retracked and that isn't a year round park. So I guess service life is a fluid thing and it really depends on how comfortable a park is with ongoing maintenance and refurbishment costs. I mean our Mine Train is running on 50 year old rails, and SFOT's is running on 55 year old rails.

Hey if Hersheypark can have two

I mean if want to talk 'complete' Sorry, not sorry. I'm excited for what 2022 will bring though. Now that we've heard a bit more from the new management structure it sounds like effort is being made to elevate the chain - even food.

I don't know what goes in to selecting the cycle but if it's something really simple it'd be really fun to run it (and other flats when possible) on a higher intensity cycle for special events. Kinda like how Kentucky Kingdom does supercharged waves in the wave pool for Keys to the Kingdom. And Holiday World disables trims for some events on Voyage.

Overall the single seaters seem to just make me slightly less queasy - the Gs are pulled on-axis to your center of gravity as opposed to being offset to the left or right. Certainly nothing unique though, I didn't find it that different than SFOT. Outlaw is in fact the same 16 rider model. And I'm trying not to use the word glacial to describe the pace of the line but frankly that's what it is. Even with a short cycle it takes a long time to lock the arm in place, get the seats in the correct position, the lift raised and the restraints unlocked and locked. Unfortunately even if they could run it with twice the riders it'll still be an annoying pace because it's just a long load/unload process no matter what. The ride looks great I'm just not sure it'll ever be truly viable for real amusement parks. I'll still ride it, probably have a blast and maybe even consider it my favorite flat in the park. None of that will change that in operation these don't seem too practical

Actually Great Escape has Adirondack Outlaw. It's the same model as Catwoman. Edit: Also Supergirl isn't unique in the chain.

Still better than Pantheon's theming.

Comes from the Supergirl school of theming.

Real shame that they couldn't have at least done a 6-wide configuration. Videos demonstrate the capacity of the one at Great Escape is atrocious. Six Flags should have never considered this ride model.

If the design is the same as Adirondack with no theming added between the seats there won't be much of anything higher than eye level. A couple inches of the seat itself over your head.