speedracer

Nope, the entire reason for DCA and it's standard thrill rides was as a cheaper alternative to this: http://blueskydisney.blogspot.com/2006/12/westcot-original-disneyland-second.html http://blueskydisney.blogspot.com/2006/12/westcot-sequel.html

Me too, you can easily see how small and rounded off the airtime hills were, introduced me to the joyous bliss that is ejector air! This is the coaster that 31yrs ago turned me into the coaster dork I still am today!: Wasn't just SFMM, all parks of the 70's were modeled after and tried to be local versions of the family friendly DL. It wasn't until the steel loop craze changed everything with parks dropping the focus on "theme park" and redirected instead on trying to outdo each other with the biggest steel looper and such. Out went the family friendly approach and in with the extreme thrill rides. It's just unfortunate that SFMM is the most glaring example of what went wrong with this approach, really used to be such a different place with a charm all it's own that's long been stripped away.

^^^ Glad he was caught, and only glad he didn't get hit for the parks sake, since they'd no doubt have to pay out millions in the lawsuit. Hopefully natural selection will indeed eventually remove this f#%@ idiot from the gene pool without involving innocent people and property in the process, dumbass.

Remember what happened on DL's BTMRR when the train separated? This easily could have ended up a lot more serious, and scary that what is most likely a major mechanical failure is being treated so casually. Makes you wonder what other mechanical stress and/or fatigue issues are being casually brushed aside. Or if human error, how this was even allowed to occur in the first place (maybe the mechanic was hung over from NYE!).

^^ Very cool vid, shocking that an e-stop would allow stopping it on the loop. Why??? Better to just let it valley inbetween like they just ended up doing later anyway, less jarring than slamming to a stop nearly upside down. Actually, Intamin custom built it based on the design of Schwarzkopf. Major misconception: http://schwarzkopf.coaster.net/unternehmenGF.htm Schwarzkopf had been building their own coasters since the early 60's, long before Intamin the ride broker was ever conceived. Intamin the coaster builder didn't even build their own coasters until 1979's Jr Gemini.

^ Totally agree, unfortunately the park, ride manufacturer and school district did all end up having to pay out multi millions in settlements: http://www.rideaccidents.com/1999.html#nov11 Can only imagine how much more they had to pay out for the rest of the "victims". I actually felt most sorry for Premier when this all happened since they had just barely aquired Water World, then this all went down.

Nice pics/report, especially love all the park shots of Hopi Hari, does indeed look like a really nicely themed park. I remember looking up Montezum before after seeing some pics, thought the layout looked amazing with some impressively steep drops. Until I saw this POV, ouch! Get a headache just imagining the brutal jackhammering and shuffling! Even worse, some sadist came up with the evil idea to turn the cars backwards, yikes!

Some here had asked about this before and few details were still around, interesting report on exactly what happened:

Top 5 Amusement parks maybe, it doesn't even come close as a theme park to being in the top 5 IMO I agree, in actuality it's only because of it's proximity to DL that the park is still operating today. The high yearly attendance includes multi-day park hoppers that are there on vacation for DL, very few of the reported attendance numbers actually come from single day tickets sales for DCA only. Look at it this way, just imagine if this full priced park was built as a stand alone anywhere else in the US. Eisner might have suckered people into forking over their $60 once for his half day park, but who in their right mind would come back again and again paying the over-inflated full price for 1 big coaster, a good Imax simulator and rapids ride (the only worthy rides the park opened with). When they could instead enjoy a full days worth of fun driving out to any SF, CF or Busch park instead with 5 times the number of rides and attractions for a lot cheaper. Granted they've added a lot to DCA since opening (thanks to DL's numbers), but without the overflow from DL next to it to provide bodies in the gate, as a stand alone expensive half day park, would surely have gone bankrupt years ago.

I give it a year. ACErs/enthusiasses love to yammer about coasters that are gone and people cannot ride any more, and especially love to talk about how amazing they were. Just another form of immature bragging. The yammering will last a lot longer than a year. How long has Drachen Fire been gone yet you still hear constant bemoaning about it's demise like it had been the second coming of coasters? I agree it's more about bragging rights, both these rides were obviously crap and destroyed for good reasons. Had they actually been any good, the parks would have easily found a sucker to unload these piles on when they were for sale, and they'd still be operating somewhere. The fact that both weren't worth anything more than scrap metal to anyone speaks volumes.

Vekoma has been offering their "Suspended Coaster" and "Swinging Suspended Coaster" with only a few sales, parks just don't seem as interested anymore in the concept as we are: http://www.vekoma.com/rides_fam_coasters/swinging_suspended_coaster.htm

^ In other words, just an attention whore. Mamma must not have given him enough when he was growing up.

Does this qualify as Carowinds first GCI? http://www.amusementtoday.com/index.html

^^ Exactly, from what I heard, as bad as the present day CA themed park in CA idea was, had they gone with what all was originally planned, it would have been so much more impressive than what we ended up with. Golden Dreams was originally designed to be a huge major animatronic filled dark ride spectacular on the scale of POC. GRR was suppose to be AA filled, and we were suppose to have our own version of The Great Movie Ride. But the Eisners/Presslers kept slashing and slashing away, ditching all the expensive AA's and dark rides, figuring movies and standard SF type rides was more than good enough for the clueless Disney park fans. These egomaniacs were so convinced their stripped down DCA would be such a home run, they planned on using DL as the overflow park to deal with the capacity crowds they expected to flood the park. DCA's enormous failure is a tribute to how clueless Eisner was when it came to the Disney park side of the business.

Always love looking at Disney concept art, Disneyandmore posted these early DCA concept artworks, bummer they didn't follow through with some: Just LOVE this Disney style facade and surrounding theming instead of the flat bland one we ended up with. WOW, so they were indeed planning a Shoot-the-Chutes! A carnival vomitron double ferris wheel, wtf were they thinking??? Check out all the concept art here, thanks disneyandmore! http://disneyandmore.blogspot.com/2007/12/disney-california-adventure-original.html

Compare this more complete account of events from another news source posted 4 days before Fauxs purposely abbreviated version: http://www.wftv.com/news/14858405/detail.html Just another example of Faux telling the story the way they want you to hear it.

Without going too far off subject I'd doubt illegal immigration has much to do with the economy. Most illegal immigrants are getting jobs that most people DON'T want. I believe the reality of tougher immigration laws is higher prices for products because you'll have to pay those people working in kitchens, landscaping and on farms the minimum wage instead of "under the table". Even the percentage of illegals getting healthcare is small compared to people legally in the country and citizens unable to afford insurance. Immigration is just another hot topic to get people to vote for politicians in election years. Outsourcing jobs to other countries has more effect on the economy. Those are the jobs people do want and companies outsource so they can save money. With the cost of living going up and companies paying people less for more work, parents has less time to spend with their kids and give them the guidance they need. So that ties in with other things "babysitting" kids instead of the parents--videogames, internet, TV, etc. Even though times are harder for parents, it's even more important for them to give their kids guidance and make time for them. Parents have to be the ones to set a the example for kids... sit them in front of a TV without guidance, then Jamie Lynn, Britney, Paris, and all sorts of ex-con rappers will be their example. Videogames without guidances becomes some kid's reality. And so on. Very well said Terry, so tired of the conservative bandwagon blame game to distract from the actual issues and causes. Outsourcing equates to higher profits for big corporations, so you won't ever see any politicians going after that hand that feeds them. Much easier create a divisive issue by blaming hard working minorities that'll do the jobs lazy Americans won't do for pennies on the dollar. The Bushies have everyone believing illegal immigrants are the absolute cause of all the problems in this country. Just like they did before with the gays, liberals, conservationist, human rights advocates, the list goes could go on and on. Since accountability is no longer required of our leaders and politicians, they have to distract and divert the blame somewhere else. As far as this topic goes, consider the "news" source. Want to bet as many details as possible were left out to make this all sound as much as possible like some liberal nutjob of a teacher going overboard? Possible there may have been more details and a justifiable reason for her to call the cops, but Faux News won't report any of that since it wouldn't be the story THEY want to report (just ask Robb).

^ I'll second that, yeah keep a POS nobody wanted to ride and rip out one of the GP's most favorite rides in the park .

Video posted on RCPro: http://www.rollercoasterpro.com/ryan/stingray.wmv SOO not digging that all-the-blood-slamming-into-your-skull abrupt ending! I guess it sorta depends on your definition. To me a 2nd generation would be like the Schwarzkopf flywheel launch was to the counterweight launch. Or TTD was to Xcel, the same basic concept, just taken the next level up. Every aspect of Stingray is completely different from their flying dutchman, the only commonality being that they're both flyers. For the record, I also consider the GIB a prototype rather than a 2nd generation since all aspects were also so completely different from their Invertigos. Again, the only commonality was that they were both suspended shuttles.

Very cool, some great shots in there and love the promo exaggerations, thanks for sharing.

^

Ain't nothing better than bat suit nipples! I agree with the documentary shaky camera style, absolutely hate it! Bad enough when they do it on TV, on a movie screen, makes me want to hurl. Love me a good giant lizard flick, but I'll probably pass on this one just because I know the extreme shaky cam work will ruin any fun for me.

Jahan's my hero too! Great pics and update, always appreciate your reports since I also don't get to visit as much as I'd like to. And they're fun to read too, keep em coming guy, thanks!

This is the main reason for my comments. I'll agree the layout looks cool, but we're talking Vekoma prototype here, two words that in the past have proven to be reliability nightmares. Vertical lift, tilting seats on the lift, and most likely new restraints, all potential prototype issues that I personally have no faith Vekoma will get right without major tweaking and modifications. Combine the already low capacity with all the down time due to reliability issues and I agree any park would be insane to buy this prototype.

After the fiasco with Vekomas first go at a flyer, can't believe they suckered anyone into buying another one: http://www.rcdb.com/id4124.htm Capacity is even worse than a Volare, good luck Suzhou Giant Wheel Park, gonna need it.