speedracer

Naw, boa's are sooooo last year . . . much more flawless in the perfectly accessorized hot pink ensemble .

EL OH EL!!! And LOL to the shim .

It's not what THEY were doing that disturbs me. It's the thousands upon thousands of innocent kittens that have been murdered since this TR was posted! SAVE THE KITTENS!

^ The first drop, two first loops and pull out were all raised 12ft to reduce the infamous 6.7g's to around 5g's. With such drastic modifications, there were now clearance issues where older supports were now way too close and the only way to ensure that no one could simply reach out and injure themselves was to utilize the current tight bulky restrictive harnesses. And IMO, it does make a huge difference. Was always fun to watch people coming off the ride, rubbing their heads and ears complaining of pain from the brutal beatings. Unlike Roar and Medusa, wasn't a ride I saw anyone running back in line to ride again, the general reaction I witnessed was one ride/beating was more than enough for most of the GP. With low ridership, high maintenance and serioius reliability issues, SFMW simply gave up on the mess SF created out of this once great masterpiece and removed it from the park to save face (looks bad for a park to have their newest coaster, which everyone had to pass to get into the park, constantly closed).

The big difference is Bullet can still operate with the more confortable accordian shoulder restraints. Thanks to the significant modifications done to Zonga and the resulting new clearance issues it created, it can never again ever operate without those restrictive bulky brutal shoulder harnesses. Quite a big difference when you compare how one will absolutely generate huge repeat interest, while the other is a "one ride was enough", which Zonga clearly was at SFMW, when it was operational at all.

^ just say no! If this is a legit inquiry, I would seriously reconsider another option besides Zonga (Bullet as someone else mentioned would be a good one!). There are very valid reasons why SFMW hardly operated and prematurely removed this ride, might want to think twice before inheriting all the reliability issues and costly headaches. Was once a great attention grabbing coaster, but those days are long gone.

Already beat ya to it guy: http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=27037&highlight=

Jr. Hyper for the new/renamed SFDK!

I think I still have my Space Warp somewhere in storage. Surprised you can still buy em: http://www.zootoyz.net/home.html?target=p_732.html&lang=en-us

After 24yrs of operation, Paramount removed it in 2000 to make way for Hypersonic. Could never understand why the entire train ride had to be removed because one small section of track in a small corner of the park would have been in the way, and could have easily been re-routed, but that's Paramount for you. PKD was suppose to get their own Flying Dutchman in 2001, but after Stealth turned out to be such a lemon, Paramount cancelled their contract for another FD and shifted Hypersonic over to PKD instead. So after all was said and done, PGA's classic train ride was removed for absolutely no reason whatsover.

I guess this puts to rest any question as to whether SF will bail out of SFMW when the original contact expires next year:

Never taken it myself, but here's all the info on the ferry service to SFMW: http://www.blueandgoldfleet.com/SixFlags.htm If you get to the park at opening and knock out the low capacity Vekomas and V2 first, should be ok even on a holiday weekend.

Regarding Frontierland, there actually was once a small park in NC called Frontierland: http://www.defunctparks.com/parks/NC/indexNC.htm

Yeah, but this was originally Disney's idea for DAK, which would have been so much more submersive and themed, with most of the ride indoors dueling a 30ft fire breathing dragon!: http://www.mouseplanet.com/mark/mg041027.htm While Disney's existing coasters are indeed well themed, I've waiting for them to push the envelope with something other than a sit down mine train type coaster. A invert or flyer flying through a completely themed environment like Dragon Tower or Crystal Wings is something yet to be done stateside. And would be so much more effective and amazing than just another well themed sit down family coaster like EE.

^ Trust me, PGA sucks in that area as well, run very much like a SF park that doesn't give a rats arse about capacity, cleanliness, their customers or their enjoyment. Yet consistantly charges the highest admission price of any Paramount park, higher than most US parks (even more than CP and almost as much as DL), for mediocre at best rides and crappy operations. PKI and PKD are run like a Busch park compared to PGA.

^ I'll be part of a big mall/roadside stop/entertainment center, so I'm pretty sure they'll be open daily. If you'll be hitting SFMW, it's only 20 minutes North, so you can easily just take a quick side trip for the credit. Glad to hear you plan on hitting the small parks when you visit. Too many people come out this way only for PGA (bleh!) and SFMW just for the credits, completely passing up the real jems of the NorCal parks, SCBB and Bonfante Gardens. While neither of these parks have the coaster counts, IMO they're miles above PGA and SFMW and offer a far more enjoyable quality park experience. Here's another small park in the same area if you're just looking to rack up credits: http://www.traintown.com/ with their Dragon Wagon: http://www.rcdb.com/ig2788.htm

That is a great pic! Having actually been on the ride, you never get that close enough to Sups to see how craptacular it really looks. I imagine the effect they were going for was like in theater, where the makeup and features are greatly exaggerated to stand out more from a distance.

^ Yep, the mods were done to reduce the g's, but created new clearance issues, so it now can never be run without those restrictive harnesses. I just can't see anyone willing to dump the millions just to buy it, then millions more it would take to restore it back to the way it was, as well as replace all the mechanics to have it run reliably. The ride was unmarketable at SFMW (world's only 4 loop full tilt super coaster???), any other park would be better off buying a brand new reliable enjoyable marketable coaster rather than spending the millions on the hack job SF made of Thriller/Zonga.

You all forget, it may be a good idea instead for him to visit SFMM while it still exist. At least you all know for certain those other parks will still be there next year.

Just a Zonga update from last Sunday for anyone wondering: Not looking good, I imagine if it had been sold, it'd be shipping off somewhere rather than sitting in SFMW's Schwarzkopf graveyard taking up parking space along with what's left of Tidal Wave. I imagine they're having a hard time finding anyone interested in inheriting all the reliabilty headaches and high maintenance cost for such a lackluster ride.

Vertical construction has begun! Did an construction update over at SFMW Zone (currently the only NorCal coaster site up and running!): http://www.sfmwzone.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=243

Sorry, PGA has held the title of the DisAstroworld of the Paramount chain for years. You think PKI and PKD are bad (yes I've been to both), you all should consider yourselves lucky Parmount didn't get the opportunity to completely strip-mine your parks as thoroughly as they did to PGA.

Not mine personally, but this was no doubt the funniest ride moment ever for these kids riding next to SFOG's infamous Elf Guy:

Vertigo looks like fun and all, but hanging from those long sections of freespan would have me just a little bit anxious : http://www.the365project.co.uk/Galleries/WalibiBelgium/photo31.html Great pix btw guys!

Here's a really cool article with concept art about Disney's abandoned plans for an incredibly themed Freefall ride at DLP: http://jimhillmedia.com/blogs/jim_hill/archive/2006/07/21/4391.aspx