knaiwear

Who said there was an announcement coming on the 16th?

Mickey & Friends is a bit longer at around 2/3 of a mile. The new one will be just under half a mile.

This is great analysis, DirkFunk. I really appreciate the amount of thought you've put into your posts.

While I agree that the common thread is Snoopy and that was a giveaway as to the content of the announcement... ...You don't think that a picture of Snoopy "snooping" around the site of a closed roller coaster points to an announcement about what they plan to do with that roller coaster? Especially when they've already made comments in the media about "our plan is to reopen it for the 2017 season" and yet they have not yet made any followup about that? And in a recent video they talked about green track versus red track, etc., fanning the flames even more. Obviously this is not a promise or a guarantee. But in my book that's clearly misleading.

The one thing that I would say crosses the line of "misleading" is the pic of Snoopy poking around at the Hurler site. I can't really think of any other examples of a park graphically suggesting that an announcement would pertain to a coaster when it ended up being the exact opposite. That's a clear troll in my book. The continued delay of answering "will it / won't it" for Hurler to even operate again has got to be a little maddening too. Beyond that, it's a business and they know their needs better than we do, so all of the other hype points directly back to us...

The ride is designed with a maximum speed in mind(at various points on course). If it's exceeding that speed the brakes will engage. The trim after the sixth drop usually only kicks in on really warm (fast) days. Never heard of the one at the top of the lift being used but I would guess that the sensors registered abnormally fast speeds on hills one and two.

^^You're definitely right that many people don't notice or care. But if I was in the park's position, I think that it would be risky to assume that NOBODY knows better. I would hope that the park is considering all their angles. How do we KNOW that the decision to install the BTR clone at SFFT was a good one? Every time I've been, it was a walkon when other rides had decent lines, but that's anecdotal. Are we 100% sure that SFFT got the same ROI on that as they would have for a totally new experience for the San Antonio market? It's actually a good comparison since that was a relocation, considerably cheaper than a new ride. The vortex conversion is obviously a lower cost move too, and I suspect it will work out fine for them, but the analyst in me is a little skeptical. As for the quality of the ride, I'm still not convinced that the comparisons to Rougarou are going to hold up here. Mantis was a good ride layout that's visually enticing. Vortex is less than impressive, even in GP terms. I just hope this gives CGA the boost they're looking for. The park has a lot of potential that hasn't been realized in a long time.

The same way they marketed a wood coaster effectively when one has already operated in the same damn park for almost 30 years. If you can't market a new or dramatically improved coaster then you suck at marketing. Sorry bill - I meant I was actually legitimately curious about HOW (specifically) they were going to market. I didn't accuse them of being unable to do it or anything like that. I just believe that it's going to take a different approach than a ride that's never been seen before in the area. It's quite common for parks to have multiple wood coasters, and certainly for parks in the same region to have similar wood coasters. Not nearly as common for a park to tackle the same "gimmick" as a competitor did a long time ago. If I was in their shoes I'd look to Dorney as an example, since they put in Hydra after Medusa. And Dorney has a long history of installing the same type of ride that their nearby competitors do

I'm curious how the park plans to market a floorless coaster effectively when one has already operated in the same region for 17 years. A much bigger, statistically impressive one at that. I'm also concerned about the roughness. The second half of the ride has some of the worst tracking of any B&M out there, and I'm not sure I would attribute that to the standup trains. I hope they're going to address that because currently it won't be comfortable even in floorless trains. Rougarou seemed only moderately well received by crowds, and that layout translates better to a marketable floorless concept than Vortex. Not to mention it's the only one in a 6 hour radius (ignoring the former BKF/Dominator) so it fills a gap that Patriot does not. I have to assume they've done their post-Rougarou research and think that this is worth it, but I am very interested to see how this plays out.

Curious how you're able to accurately tell whether attendance was down on the summer days you were there versus the same days last summer, the summer before, etc.

Lord, you guys are seriously overthinking this. This is the park that gave us the Adventure Express ending. Yeah yeah, different owners and all, but damn...

Since 8 July.

The problem last week was the trains, not the launch. Dunno if that's still the case.

Heard Lightning Rod won't be back open until at least mid next week. If that's the case then I definitely think the "technical rehearsals" sign is misleading at best.

Do you think they're going to put a giant tarp over it every night after it's built?

Only ones I'm missing are Joker, Storm Chaser, and Wildfire, all of which I'll get to in the next year. Always playing catch-up with those pesky new rides. 8) Goliath - It's ok, smooth, and has the best stall of the ones I've ridden. Not much else to say though. 7) Outlaw Run - I liked a lot of what this ride did, but I found it pretty rough in spots (not laterally, just hard positive-G bounces that are the kind of thing that give me headaches in my advanced age). The sideways hill headed down into the valley is killer. Don't care for the barrel rolls which really weaken the ending. 6) New Texas Giant - This was the first one I rode and I was a little underwhelmed. What it does is very good, but it's a little bit too "perfect" for me - lacks a little personality, if you will. But a solid ride and very long, which I appreciate. 5) Twisted Colossus - My first time was dueling and it definitely made the ride more "fun". I've ridden it probably a dozen times since and never even come close to a duel. I really like the sections along the "back" half of the ride, on both sides. But if it's not going to duel, then the second lift is really a buzzkill, and pacing is pretty important to me. 4) Wicked Cyclone - Great ride, really like everything about it until the very end when it kinda crapped out (at least on the one day I went - I know it's temperamental). The wrong-way-banked turn about halfway through the ride is sick. A lot of times those are just annoying to me but that one in particular gets me. 3) Medusa Steel Coaster - Really intense and fast, and a gorgeous setting. Someone mentioned that it was on "fast forward" and I totally agree. Personally, I like my rides to have a little ebb and flow to the intensity rather than just being balls-out, so that probably keeps the ranking down a bit for me. The heartline first drop didn't do much for me and I would prefer a good, steep, ejector first drop instead. And the third inversion barrel roll was ok (while better than Outlaw Run's, probably because it's downhill instead of uphill) but I would have preferred another drop to the ground like the original Medusa. But overall an excellent ride. 2) Lightning Rod - BY FAR the most intense RMC I've ridden. As I said for Medusa, I prefer some breather moments in pacing, so that keeps me from putting this at #1. It's also not as rerideable. But this is seriously one of the best rides in the world, especially if you like them all-out intense. 1) Iron Rattler - Perhaps unpopular opinion, but this one has what I'm looking for today - intense yet comfortable, and something I could ride all day long. I strongly prefer the open-sided Gerstlauer trains on this to the enclosed RMC trains. I'm pretty tall so the leg restraints don't bother me as much, and I love feeling like I'm not sitting in a box. The setting is exceptional, the ride is smooth as glass and I could ride it all day. And it's just DIFFERENT - I thought I would hate the slower section at the top of the cliff, but it turned out to be really fun and a great buildup to that killer plunge back down to the ground. I do wish it kept the old helix at the end and went on just a bit longer, but honestly, this is the ride that I dream about when I wish I was on an RMC. Riding it makes me really happy.

This is not really true. Engineers working on the ride told me that the design of this system uses significantly less power than other linear motor launches. That's an important consideration for parks and I'm certain it's part of the reason DW and RMC selected this provider. LInear motor launches are obviously not as simple as slapping magnetic coils on a track and launching a train, so I would not presume to know anything about the underlying technology and what may be causing these issues. But that's me...

For those who don't want to sit through a painful video, the relevant time is at 1:15. " so, Hurler is going to be closed for the season. With those older wooden roller coasters sometimes they just require a little bit of extra maintenance. So it's hurlers turn to get that extra maintenance. We'll be doing extensive rehab on that, and our plan is to reopen it for the 2017 season."

^man it's funny how opinions work. I agree with many of these listed but I thought Regina had no redeeming qualities whatsoever.

Do you really think it's unreasonable that people on a roller coaster forum would be discussing whether a major new roller coaster (and one of the best in the world) is running reliably or not so they can try and ride it this summer?

I think this is a unique case, because the site is so complex and compact, it was tough to get a sense of the true layout/elements unless you really studied it. I didn't, and I was under the impression it had more twisting airtime hills when it really had more flowing turns. That style of ride won't appeal to everyone. I do like that the second half appears more intense than the first. That should help the pacing. Like I said, looking forward to it, but just surprised by how the ride style ended up when compared to the construction pics and hype.

No. Obviously not everyone was saying that, but some people were. Others said it was their most anticipated ride of 2016. I just got a disconnect between what people were saying and what the video is showing, that's all. For what it's worth I actually prefer this style of ride to something like maverick so I'm looking forward to riding next year.

I have to say... I watched the POV and i don't understand all of the hype here. It looks fun, and the twists and turns are pretty unique and awesome. And the setting is spectacular. But weren't people expecting this to be crazy intense maverick killer style? I'm not seeing that at all. Planning on riding it next year and I'm sure it'll be fun but just not connecting the dots on what we see in the video versus what people have been saying for the last few months...

^all the more reason to avoid making a public statement until the ride is actually open.

Who on earth tells the media that the ride is open when it's not open?! smh