ericthewanderer

From my understanding Magic Mountain's original mascots were a wizard and his pet trolls;the wizard was a Merlin-looking guy and the trolls were these "furball" characters.I wish that parks like that had kept more of their uniqueness!

Maybe they're going to build a taller/longer/steeper version of El Toro and it's themed after Thor(which is why the hammer was lying out)and it will anchor a new Scandinavian section of the park.

Maybe they're getting rid of B:TR so they could replace it with a a pair of dueling inverts that interlock loops themed after the upcoming Superman Vs. Batman movie .

Ultra-Twister was sent to SFA to literally rust in pieces....what a shame ...

Wasn't there a wooden coaster in the U.S that for a short while was named "Michael Jackson's Thriller" in the early 80s when Thriller was released? Yes there was-it was the wooden coaster at Circus World before it became Boardwalk And Baseball;the management at the time thought it was a good idea .

It's usually not the employees:most of the times I've been Batwing was only running one side/train(and is only able to run 2 train maximum from my understanding).

Now this really sucks.....I never got to see David Bowie,but I got to see Glen Frey on the Hell Freezes Over tour and Iron Mike Sharp a few times in the 1980's....hopefully Heaven has made their quota for the year .....

If Vekoma could build rides like Expedition Everest and Rock-N-Roller Coaster that everyone loves I'm sure they could rebuild an old Arrow coaster.And the reason I would rebuild an Arrow coaster is-because I could !!

If I were to buy a park,I would buy Great Adventure.I would then tear down GL and rebuild GASM (but done by Vekoma),rebuild Rolling Thunder with Topper Track and then have Intamin rebuild The Chiller.And as far as rebuilding GASM,I would try to get Vekoma to have the first loop be a wraparound corkscrew like on Drachen Fire.

The parks suffers from a combination of poor management, a lack of true capital investment to generate interest in the park and the perception alot of black people that go to that park which I think creates an extra layer or unfair racial stereotypes about the park and the people that attend the park. This pretty much touches all the most significant bases. If you wanted to add one in, it was that the infrastructure of the park was built poorly intentionally to save money, and it results in all sorts of problems that should have been obvious long term concerns but that was considered unnecessary to address. I agree.Having gone back when the place was first The Wildlife Preserve and then Wild World,there have been multiple owners with no long term master plan.Hopefully the Six Flags hierarchy will continue to believe in it and remedy the festering problems.At least SFA live shows have been winning the IAAPA awards 3 years running-now let's see them win for something else.

I would rather start from scratch.I would start small and slow:first getting a large amount of land and building my own power generator and water treatment center specifically for park usage.The first rides and attractions would be basics like a sky tower,ferris wheel,a new handcarved carousel and a mid-sized woodie(around 100-120 feet tall).Later on I would add a lot more coasters,a couple of shoot-em-up dark rides and eventually a hotel.

My guilty pleasure rides are mostly transportation type rides like skyrides and trains.But I especially love antique carousels with working band organs. And my favorite defunct guilty pleasure ride is WDW's If You Had Wings.I know some people consider it a "nothing" ride,but it was almost always a walk-on and it was a 5-minute ride in air-conditioned darkness(if you've ever been to Orlando in August you know what I'm talking about ).

I try to marathon as much as I can,though I still haven't gone for any in the double digits YET. Some various memories: -At some of my first events at Great Adv.(back around 1999/2000) the park had a rule that each coaster had to have at least 2 riders to dispatch.Since Medusa was still new everyone was there,and I had to pull my mini-marathons of GASM,Viper,and Chiller(with OTSRs!)with one of the ride ops! -A few years later at another event Great Adv. dropped the 2-rider rule and I got to ride Rolling Thunder about 5/6 by myself;it was pretty freaky having nighttime ERT with literally no-one else on the ride . -Since SFA is my home park I can go whenever I can/want,and have gotten several marathons of various lengths over the years,my favorite being back in 2004 when I got about 7 rides on Roar. -Another memorable marathon was during a rare ERT at Conneaut Lake back in 2011.I managed about 4 rides on the Blue Streak that time;what was so memoarable is that that ride still uses the old "handbrake" to stop it-and since it was an after hours ERT they kept it off and the train just cruised thru the station!!

As far as coasters go my favorite defunct ones are Great Adv.'s GASM and Chiller and BGW's BBW;despite the rave reviews for Verbolton and GL,I still miss those old rides. And as for other defunct rides I miss is Mr. Toad's Wild Ride and KD's Haunted River.

Even though most of the revenue comes from the GPs paying full-price for every thing,I think enthusiast opinions do matter since they're the ones who buy season passes and make multiple visits to 2 or more parks every year.It's like a casino-they have to consider both the free-wheeling high roller and the cheap low rollers and try to appeal to everyone in some way.

Kings Dominion:Grizzly,Shockwave,and Dominator Great Adventure:El Toro and The Dark Knight.

I totally agree-Blue Streak is one of the few rides where I prefer the back seat over the front.And when I went a few years ago the "oh crap" moments where due partially because the ride itself looked like it could fall apart as it ran it's course;I can only imagine how well it could run if rehabbed properly.....

I am really missing Shockwave, but we all know where it is now... It's making out with King Cobra in Togo heaven. They're both making out with Great. Adv.'s Viper !!!!

Technically they did have a holiday event about 10 years ago-but rides weren't included.The closest thing to a ride was driving past light displays in the parking lot and the safari area.....I think this was called "Holiday Lights" ....

SFA definitely needs a new NEW coaster-not another relocated one.I also think Roar is fine the way it is;if any track work is done,it should be topper track,not a RMC conversion. And how about Intamin coming in and reprofiling S:ROS-namely the long flat section between the second and third hills?

My home park is SFA and for a good 6/7 years it had THREE VEKOMAS(ME,Two-Face & Batwing).Mind Eraser-being one of the original SLCs-I could understand the disdain,but Two-Face had none of the headbanging.And as crazy as it sounds,when Batwing is actually running I think it's as good as the B&M flyers.

Favorite Arrow still standing:LNM at BGW Favorite Arrow torn down:Great Adv.'s GASM(BBW a close second). Hopefully any park that still has an Arrow keeps them running!

Personally I would like to use my back yard to build mostly "lost rides":as far as coasters go it would be Great Adv.'s GASM,Chiller,and Rolling Thunder,plus BGW's BBW and the Crystal Beach Cyclone. As far as "lost flats" I would build Great Adv.'s Freefall,KD's Haunted River and WDW's Mr. Toad's Wild Ride and Snow White's Scary Adventures.

I think SFA would be better if they sold Apocalypse for scrap and used the money to buy new trains for Mind Eraser and reprofiling S:ROS's mid-section;I myself have always loved the ride,but if they replaced the first helix and that pointless straightaway,it could out-do Apollo's Chariot.

Some of those rides look like they COULD be good rides IF they had been maintained-like that Vekoma-style flyer/invert and that indoor freefall/drop tower especially.