Danrarbc

More thinking aloud on the Shazam transplant rumor. The queue isn't going to be sufficient for a new ride I don't think - the Fling queue building is far nicer and I'm pretty sure it is bigger. If you put a new ride in to the Shazam slot, even a Troika transplant, then that old rotting wooden framework is going to look bad and the queue may be too small for year one attendance. Shazam was backing up in to the midway last year. It's probably quite a bit more expensive to do an upgrade than to just install the incoming ride in Britannia. Then there's the negative attention of leaving the shell of the ride up for a whole season when if you're just going to move it you could dismantle it and let a sign do the talking. Speaking of signs you already have one up at the Fling site saying that it will be the home of future innovation. Now the switcheroo even after posting a sign would not be that big a deal but there already seems to be a general feeling that the current park management doesn't know what they're doing when it comes to rides and that could just feed in to that even more. For the record I am of the opinion that the management of the rides has been abysmal this season. You're down 6 at the moment - in mid-July. There is no meaningful communication as to why for half of them. No timetable for the return of any of them aside from rumors. You open your new attraction what most people would probably consider a month late - it may not be a common slide but it isn't unique. I understand that two rides are down because of major part failures and those kinds of things aren't always predictable. And another for legal reasons. But Colossus and Shazam are closed because of decisions the park made - and Fireball already opened late because it was late returning from offseason work and even if this down time isn't related that creates the appearance of a relationship. All of these things happening simultaneously makes it a bit hard to believe it is just coincidence and they're solely the victim of bad luck.

Fireball in St Louis is also closed (our train or whatever you want to call it has even been removed). Not sure if there's any link between the two being closed at the same time though. It doesn't look like the other parks have closed their loops.

Moving an existing ride to just put in a new one in that spot doesn't make a ton of sense. Britannia isn't exactly hopping either. But hey maybe the old name for our Scrambler returns? El Toro Bravo might fit Britannia better (or Highland Fling actually - decent name for a Scrambler). And yes 2018 has been rough. Some things not exactly in the park's control (Xcalibur/staffing), but others very much so (Shazam, Colossus and not having the slide ready).

Tsunami Soaker is just down for staffing reasons as far as I know. Obviously Fireball is getting work done - wonder if something broke or if there was a change made for the larger model in Chicago that they've decided to pull in and use on ours.

I can't see this closing the slide for good. As you say people lose grip of tubes every day. Six Flags is just facing a PR issue because this happened to be day one.

Yes you can use both on the same day. They are two separate offers that are redeemed independently.

Shouldn't be too hard to get everything in on a Thursday without a Flash Pass. Start with Goliath and work either clockwise or counter-clockwise. Whizzer can actually have one of the longer lines so I'd say try working counter-clockwise and make Whizzer your final credit. Great at night. If the lines are short enough it won't be dark yet by the time you hit Whizzer though. Many flats are on that side of the park so you could mix those in on that leg of your route.

I'd definitely recommend binning them on Joker though. Strap or not, and whether they allow it or not. You will lose them if you get one of the more wild spins.

Not that I can tell. I wish that there'd be more. Actually, with Colossus down for its upgrade, the ride hasn't had the lighting package on at all either. Dark for basically two months at this point. So if anything the lighting is worse at the moment.

Yes there have been plenty of areas where worn wood has been replaced on fences and railings. The midways have been mostly resealed. New coats of paint in plenty of places. HVAC work seems to have been done in some public spaces (but sadly none of the ride queues that have it - Mr Freeze is still hot as heck and Eagle still has trees growing out of its system). Nothing of note in the water park that I can tell. Several of the permanent snack stands have received railing to control the lines that can develop.

The problem is fixing it is as expensive as a new coaster. And it isn't the roughest woodie out there, not by a mile. But yeah we'd all love to see what GCI or RMC could do with it.

The rider has decided to speak. As someone who has ridden it the story is just so implausible.

Heck I'm not even sure how you could fall out if you didn't hold on on this ride. The forces really are much weaker than something like Tornado. I watched three kids go down Big Kahuna without holding on Saturday so I'm not sure the staff is doing a great job of policing this right now. Kinda hard to enforce that once the raft leaves their immediate control. Sure the lifeguards can yell at them, but the people that aren't holding on are going to let go again as soon as they think they can't be seen. The only logical solution is to send a lifeguard with a squirt bottle down with each group, they let go the lifeguard uses the squirt bottle. Guest:*lets go of hand holds* Lifeguard: "No, bad." *uses squirt bottle* Guest: "hisss" *grabs hand holds* I volunteer. Sounds fun.

Heck I'm not even sure how you could fall out if you didn't hold on on this ride. The forces really are much weaker than something like Tornado. I watched three kids go down Big Kahuna without holding on Saturday so I'm not sure the staff is doing a great job of policing this right now.

TT is pretty good. Quite a bit different and less physically demanding than Tornado (there's quite a bit of force as you bottom out in the funnel on Tornado the first time or two out of the drop, so you have to hold tighter).

I'll be there tomorrow for the season pass ride time. Hope the weather holds.

The (Android) app has been very spotty for me this season as well. You often just get a black screen when trying to load the pass/membership benefits screen - you can get it to work by retrying a bunch but it isn't stable. Ride status isn't great either.

I am a turtle. Any progress reports on the slide this week?

That would be my guess. It's right next to the water park, and from what I can tell that site seems to be about the right size to fit one of those water coasters. It looks bigger than what you would need to fit something like what Six Flags St Louis has received. Plus I'm figuring Great America is a higher-tier park than St Louis.

While I don't know what kind of pump house work is needed that queue definitely isn't two+ weeks of work if they don't want it to be.

Kings Island has always been my idea of what SFSL could be with a real budget. Similar natural setting and feel so it is a really nice place just to walk around in. A decent connection to its past with a good number of old rides and buildings still around. But way more money going in to new rides.

Back when there was a McDonald's in the park how did the pay in that compare to one on the outside? Or was theme park pay just more competitive in general?

They are switching between opening at 11 and 12 depending on day.

They put those signs up pre-emptivly. Was there a line?

I could be wrong. As I said before some communication from the park would be nice. AFAIK they haven't acknowledged missing the date yet.