Danrarbc

Boss' queue is definitely the same still. Having the high turn at the far end of the Rookie Racer's layout go over the railroad tracks means they can fit it in without touching that queue. This is going to give Racer a pretty long queue too.

No pics of the trains but I noticed some looked way better. The bright blue trains on Freeze really accentuate how faded the track is though. I didn't really think Ninja looked bad last year though so I didn't really notice a new finish. Mine Train definitely looks fresher and some of the tunnel has been redone (some of that in a photo). American Thunder's ramp is gone and it's a Log Flume log with flowers in it now. Anyone notice Empire Theater now has Ninja's colors?

Well I guess the photos I took today are redundant. I'll leave them below in no particular order. I will also note though. The entire entrance does have new concrete and the entrance bathrooms are being remodeled. Also the old game in front of Ninja has been turned in to a seating area. Also all of the basketball games have been replaced. Oh - and at least one section of Thunder River's trough has been redone.

Groups that want to pay for an area to gather want easy access to the park to be included - having to cross the parking lot wouldn't really provide that amenity. Modernizing the traffic flow in to the lot and providing a real drop off loop would actually probably require eating in to that green area more so that they could have a drop off exit road basically where the current entry road is now and the entrance road would move slightly south, the toll plaza could be rotated 90 degrees and be near the kennel.* *I don't expect any of this to happen. This is just how something like this could work. ~14 gates, 8 of them self-service terminals and 6 manned gates. Some number of the self-service gates would be dedicated to preferred parking and have the easiest access to it.

You're correct. That area was maintained and was a nice picnic area. I believe all 3 original Six Flags parks featured this but I don't know where Over Georgia's is/was (my guess might be the area that Goliath's turnaround now occupies) - the only one with a functional picnic area now is Over Texas.

Well. Facially Busch Stadium isn't considered to be run-down (downtown itself is a different discussion entirely of course) and has a generally good guest experience. Despite the fact that it is actually more expensive than Six Flags people don't notice because they view it as a good experience. Six Flags just isn't viewed as positively. I have a feeling I'm making the same point you are here.

Log Flume better not go anywhere. They've been renovating the flumes themselves recently. That stretch at the front is a bit challenged though thanks to the dark ride building backing almost all the way up to the midway.

I wondered if the rest of the entry plaza would get love after the new entrance went in and apparently it is.

Goodnight sweet catapult-themed prince.

With all of this talk of Xcalibur was it the Skycoaster than came down first?

Yes it is going on the roof and according to it showing up on a attractions list it does appear they'll be operating it. As far as swinging ship rides go it really isn't that old. Joker (Buccaneer) is 16 years older.

No photo?

Maintenance is not the issue. Eventually parts fail. And when they are large parts that can't be sourced from another copy of the ride, the company has long since gone under and their designs and IP were never sold to another the ONLY way to replace them is with expensive custom-machined parts that have to be copied from the originals. Up until its recent rash of failures Xcalibur ran significantly more reliably in SFStL than it did the last few years in Great Adventure. I'm not about to claim that this is because STL is better at maintenance - it likely received a full refurb during the move. And back then they probably actually could cannibalize its recently deceased sibling(s). Silverwood isn't keeping Aftershock running all on their own. They worked closely with Vekoma when they moved and installed it - making sure to incorporate anything new Vekoma had to say to improve the install and operations of the ride. Vekoma has been providing spare parts throughout Silverwood's time with the ride. And they will for the foreseeable future. These are entirely different situations.

At this point I'm just admiring this author's work. Well aware life is different than an unlimited digital sandbox I could load the original save (honestly the work he put in to Ninja was super impressive - custom supports).

I'd rather Six Flags let RMC build what they already maybe had a deal for. The train is back there the hill kind of blends in with the trees in Planet Coaster.

Aiming for opening day. Man this really is a good recreation. Too bad the author's PC can't handle adding more to it.

For all we know work has already begun. Man I wish I had a good drone that had a good zoom (that way I could get shots without flying over the park's land).

Vekoma certainly could - and would if the park wanted it. Look at Great Nor'easter - SLC completely re-tracked with modern software doing the profiling of the transitions and modern manufacturing. Turns a normally painful experience in to a ride that can rival a B&M invert. Vekoma can do the same for their other rides.

No the (incomplete at the time) SFStL park is in the Workshop and I just used it to play with the idea. This would track between the railroad tracks and the waterpark for that leg headed to the entrance.

Y'all already know my vote for the Ninja spot. The station for a hyper

The parts issue is more likely due to temporary supply chain struggles. Premier is still alive and there are still 7 operational coasters using the exact same LIM setup (and the Backlot Stunt Coaster set is super similar too). There's a good amount of train part commonality. I just can't see it being possible that Premier isn't supporting this very reasonable number of operating coasters well - S&S still keeps Arrow suspended coasters running and there are way fewer of those remaining.

The LIMs definitely aren't being manufactured the same way they were in the 90s even if they have to keep the same form factor for compatibility. It's hard to know the real service life of a Premier LIM coaster because they've either been removed early or they're still operating after being built in the 90s with no in between. And I'd bet Freeze is still one of the 2-3 most popular coasters in the park. That said when the time comes a new ride is probably a better investment than trying to Top Thrill Dragster/Nemesis/Hulk/Great Nor'easter-ify (full steel re-track with modern components) it. The SFOT one is probably significantly more likely to be removed given the quantity of good coasters in that park - would it even be top 5 in ridership there?

Call it Mr Freeze Remix [Mr Freeze-mix?] and have one side forward and the other backward. At least if the programing can handle it. Honestly though if what SFoT was doing with theirs mattered to SFStL they'd have already announced the change is happening here. I wouldn't really expect any change unless they were convinced of it internally.

Just an idea of any potential "new area" plan they could possible undertake over a few year period that'd work without doing anything besides removing Dragon Swing. Edit: I'd like to clarify that I don't expect something like this to happen. But with capital expenditures back on the table and this particular addition only needing about half the space the go karts sat on (AND Dragon Swing also potentially out) there is certainly some room here to do a little something new for the park. And these smaller flats are quite cheap especially when bought as a package.

It's a much bigger job than some other queue mods though. If they do I do wonder if they'd just delete the long elevated queue entirely. Can't be easy to work on. They'd have to move the queue a lot to fit it on that side. There's still room on Dragon Swing's plot of land for 2 flats IF they were interested in a building a sort of intermediate family area. The extremely popular NebulaZ so many parks are getting are quite small.