Double0Kevin

I'm sure it's configured to allow better flow for the crowds leaving the stadium all at once, helps make them walk down rows rather than through the cars creating more safety issues. Plus this set up will still work fine for the park too.

^ HA, yeah I saw about 10 of those last week. And I love Speed, I just don't think Adventuredome is the place for it. I would love to see it get developed down by Mandalay Bay like they had announced. There aren't really any rides at that end of the strip after Luxor got ride of their stuff. Also, I rode Manhattan Express (yeah, I still call it that) last week and it was so much worse than I remember.

^ They could just adjust the design of the footers to compensate for the height difference if there is one. I personally don't think Speed would be a smart choice for the Adventuredome. It's hard to excite people about a ride that has already operated for 12 years right across the street. I think their choice to go with a more unique style ride in El Loco was much smarter.

There are also the Vegas attractions as well as Mall of America that stay open year-round (Though I doubt anyone would come from Australia to visit Minnesota). It seems like more and more there are parks staying open for most of the year. The off season is shrinking! Things like Holiday in the Park keep SFDK, SFFT, and SFoT open most the year with their off seasons being just barely 2 months. But like has been said, for travelers coming from afar (like Australia) the best spots are SoCal and Florida. And I would put SFMM and Knott's at the low end of the SoCal parks. Disney and Universal are more fun in my opinion, so if you haven't checked those out, you should. And it saves you 5 more hours of flying time.

I have to wonder if this thing will have LSMs part way up the loop (similar to how Superman has LSMs part way up the tower), and if so how far. The launch seems so short that it might need a little extra to get all the way over the loop. I hate to say it, but it looks like SFMM is building a pretty decent ride. I just hope they don't find a way to screw it up like most the other rides they have.

Ugh, My excitement for Gold Striker has turned into major disappointment. Not in the ride, but in the fact that I'm moving out of state right before it opens and have no idea when I'll be back to ride it. It looks like so much fun and even the tunnel is growing on me.

Looks like no Alpine Coaster for California. Oh well, I moving out of the state in a couple weeks anyways. www.sfgate.com/news/science/article/Lake-Tahoe-area-resort-drops-roller-coaster-plans-4360514.php#ixzz2NoJ2gzO5

Loving this. I just found out I'm moving to Vegas in a few weeks, and it's likely I'll end up close to the park. You know I'll be stopping in on some of those hot summer days.

^ Pretty sure they are laying new asphalt. They were ripping a bunch of the existing lot out last when I was there a few weeks ago, definitely more than slurry.

I found Griffon to be underwhelming. I thought it would blow my socks off and it just ended up be OK. Nothing wrong with it, and a hell of a great drop, but it just never really resonated with me. SheiKra on the other hand blew me away. Not sure if it was me expecting it to the same as Griffon and setting expectations low, but it kicked major ass. And after riding it a few times i was still loving it more and more each time. I don't real rank my rides but SheiKra I would definitely say is top 10 for me where Griffon is the low end of top 25.

^ Fluffy Bunny, cal1br3tto found that out the hard way back in December when they denied her at one of the rides. And S:UF is NOT YOLOcoaster Jr.! First, Junior can't come before Senior, second... Superman was and never should be dumbed down to YOLO standards.

^ No offense, but you can't come in and on your second post ever tell us to retire a term the has bonded us all so well. I mean, everyone only lives once... except James Bond, he lives twice.

I can't look at this thread at work anymore, I just start laughing hysterically when I see that gif.

I'm looking forward to it. The one in Orlando was definitely one of the more enjoyable simulators I've been on. It will be cool to see what the differences will be, and the look of the exterior (I hope it has a Pyramid painted like the sky!). I wonder when in 2014 it will be, I assume it will be early in the year since they are well on their way with the construction, and if they can do Transformers as quick as they did, this should be easy. BTW, how nice is it to have Universal announce something!? Since they are building a on of stuff that still has yet to be announced.

Awesome stuff! I love the funky support structures for the Vekoma, especially the figure 8 thingy. White Lighting is looking great as well, can't wait to see how these rides turn out.

^ Very true, but for me it was that her transformation wasn't believable at all. One second she's this naive girl that falls in love with James Franco over the course of 5 minutes (which is tough because James Franco played a very unlikable character, I'm sorry, but I hated him) and then suddenly she is heartbroken because he left the palace for a day. And she just didn't give off a believable level of wickedness since you never really believed she had a reason to be wicked. I think had Mila Kunis and Rachel Weiss swapped roles, it would have been MUCH better. I can see Mila being great as a manipulative and seductive witch and Rachel would have done much better as the Wicked Witch of the West.

^ I mentioned that a page or 2 back. It does seem like T2 is way bigger than Despicable Me in Orlando. A dark ride would be awesome, I was also thinking of the possibility of splitting the building to 2 theaters to help with long lines.

An unconfirmed ride has been confirmed to be opening on a different date than the one that was never confirmed?

If they are basically just restarting where they left off, the construction should seem really quick since the ground work and utilities are basically done, its just a matter of installing the structures now (which is obviously not a small task but gives them a one up). It said that the last company already spent over a billion on construction so they have obviously done a lot.

Saw Oz today. It was ok. I don't think James Franco was a good choice for the roll. He was cheesy and unbelievable (even in a fantasy movie). Also, as much as this pains me to say, Mila Kunis was a major weak point in the film. She was very robotic in her delivery and her storyline was seriously forced. She went from one end of the spectrum to the other with little reason behind it. And *spoiler alert* her whole falling in love with James Franco over the course of one night and then getting so upset she allows herself to become the iconic Wicked Witch of the West just seems like such a weak back story. They should have played out the her falling in love throughout the movie and save her becoming the Wicked Witch for the big finale. It would have made for a better overall film. That said, Michelle Williams and Rachel Weiss were awesome, as well as the China Girl and the monkey (forget the name). The finale that did happen was pretty satisfying. 3D was pretty good too, it's one of the films worth seeing in it; especially for the beginning when the frame was smaller than the screen so the effect was allowed to come out of the frame. It looked cool. I would see it again, but not in theaters.

Nice! Ziplines are fairly cool, but are mostly about your surroundings. The Boardwalk is an awesome surrounding to have for one, that's for sure. I did the one on Fremont Street a couple years ago, the ride was just OK, but the views were awesome.

^ I take it you haven't been following the thread. They are fixing up deteriorating buildings, bringing entertainment back into the park, investing in large rides to fill gaps that have been created with removals, updating sound systems, improving food options, etc... Re-theming a kids area probably isn't a priority since it works fine how it is for now. With parks like KD, they have seen some huge installations with Dominator, I305, and even Windseeker. They can now look to those rides to entertain adults for a couple years and focus on the kids. With CGA, they are already incredibly kid friendly, they need to focus on other things like infrastructure and adult attractions.

I never thought about that before, but yeah. I can see people throwing basketballs back and forth over that. I wonder if they will need to post a guard up there or what. Maybe they'll build a tunnel to protect it... Ugh, SFMM.

^ I was being sarcastic. Making a joke about the amount of golds they are using.

Soo... what you are saying is that it will have some gold on it? Love the look of the trains. 2013 is the year of the tongues it seems with 2 new coaster getting trains that are sticking them out.