JT325

I just tried out GG's work at Kings Island last week. Since the layers are on their side, it's a stiffer track.. and it feels as such. It's not like brand new wood coaster track, it's got a hardness to it. Not sure how that will go over on already steel-framed rides ... too much stiffness leads to worse rougness later. But hey, maybe GG has that all figured out.

Rumor is Cornball and Hurricane (in dire need) are slated for Gravity Group work. Long overdo, hope it happens. The current owners inherited a mess, they're working on getting everything together. Let's give em props.

Great pictures! The park looks fantastic and clean.

^Noted. Bummer. Anytime we get a lot of high up hijinks (hello Gerstlauer and your shaky one-car rides) we get lots of vibration. No ball joints or hinge points, it's gotta shake. Like an Arrow.

The S&S coasters have operational/sensitivity issues... as with Maxx Force at Great America. But here's a couple AWESOME things I also noticed: 1 - the seats are the most comfortable *new* coaster seats from anyone in a LONG time. They don't cut off circulation, and they don't rack my boy parts. You have room to move, opposite, say rmc, and it doesn't constrain my shoulders like Mack. They don't ratchet down tighter either, all an important enjoyment factor for me. 2 - Maxx Force, at least, is a VERY smooth ride. It doesn't have the Intamin GRIND found on rides such as Millenium Force, has no shaking or heavy vibration found on Hang Time at Knott's, and no noticeable rattling. To pull of the relative smoothness of a Schwarzkopf, oh yeah... Way to go S&S. So many have tried. Maxx Force only runs one train now, they put the other one away (in the Dark Knight building). Lemon chilld kid said it just sets up too much with 2 trains. But look at your clearance coming out of a huge inversion into brakes and the immediate station - of course it will be sensitive. Gotta stay in the SF budget I guess.

The CP Blue Streak original trains (when I worked on it 92-93 before all the "gear" on them now) was said to be "6 tons empty" by the maintenance guys. That seems about right ... on the 2 bench buzz bars on Hoosier Hurricane at Indiana Beach, the fact plate on the train says 1,900 lbs per car, all this seems about right. Throw on ratchet bars and their heavy associated under-train-gear, a few 40lb steel core headrests (seat dividers are only like 5 lbs) and you have a train that is too heavy to run on the standard wood coaster track that was used into the 90s, and it's structure. Rumor was those changes added 200lbs to each car. Putting in those heavy steel brake fin brackets didn't help... most woodies had smooth skid brakes. Surely, skid brakes aren't great in the rain, but new mag brakes are so much nicer than the metal clamp/fin brakes. (NOTE: Waldameer did the smartest thing ever by adding mag brakes - in a curved station no less - to a classic woodie. It's a super smooth and reliable stop, and the trains can stack in the station one right behind the other, so smart. It would be nice to see more conversions like this.) The 90s brought an onslaught of those PTC changes (the parks as for it; PTC gives them what they ask for), and so many great wooden coasters dropped off the community radar. They got bumpy and rough; they ALL had to have extra "mini-bents" built between standard bents on all the pull-out and steep slopes. Add to that the awkwardness of those ratchet bars againts the legs, no fun. I believe some states (Maryland) have a rule against head rests on wooden coasters as they cause more injuries. I'll never forget how those wood coasters sailed over speed bumps with the trains as they were meant to run; effortlessly flying airborne over the hills and down the drops. Now, it's all a fight with lots of slamming and grinding. These rides ran virtually perfectly for years and decades in some cases. It was a case of liability... due to people doing stupid things, getting hurt and the park getting sued; it was big at the corporate parks, naturally. Ironically, I think there have been more injuries with ratchet bars. I've gotten away from myself a bit, but had to run with it. Damn those rides were good. So many awesome woodies in top 20s didn't mean anything anymore.

One guess I heard is the CP might take this chance to "take back the record" from Kingda Ka. Really? Why bother. Cedar Point cares about a quality experience. I *LOVE* TTD. Rode Ka once in 2006 and I'll be fine never riding it again. It was enlightening to see how much different such similar coasters can be. Presentation, station, operation, maintenace (and restraints!) mean a lot with this sort of ride.

They're hard at work, it's looking great!

I'll piggy back on what bert425 and Pedrinho said; it's good stuff, you're gonna need time. I went there for like 8 PPPs in a row, and I would always get there Thursday (Covered Bridge festival + some rides + carousel!), stay Friday (not sure if coasters are usually open, but most everything is), and then Saturday and all day Sunday. Still go home wanting more! Of course, we do have variation in opinion, a good thing!

It's knee was sprained from too much jerk, so it's been given a time out. It's on it's last leg, sorta speak. Check out the fabulous Demon, right up the street!

^Add smooth-flexing, jointed-track. Even B&M hasn't been able to do that. Giavanola came close, but those trains are rattly. Perfect trains - you can move around (feel real-air-time, where applicable) and perfectly safe; you're in a position where you aren't going anywhere (even in the case of a slow or stopped inversion), but can still move your legs with plenty of wiggle room (note the smart ankle bar). They were basically designed like super-smooth woodies with loops; you can even experience true laterals where applicable - but only in the original or duplicate original trains - as opposed to the new messes Six Flags is building. Hersheypark had 2 sets of duplicate originals built by Gerstlauer; even the slightly altered new orange trains are still much better than those being built by SF. If you do enjoy the classic Schwarzkopf feel, get to Shock Wave in Texas while you can. Just a matter of time before it has the SF-designed bucket, grippy seats with strange reclined-vibration prone headrest. Whatever Knott's does, I'm confident it will be well thought out.

I'm hoping they keep everything as original as possible. If the launch changes, the dynamic of the ride will likely change. Different launch types feel different; faster or more intense isn't always better. The weight drop model shuttle loop (Intamin, version 1) gives a great tummy drop tickle that these version 2's don't have. However, these were less maintenance and more reliable, and have other changes that makes it easier for them to climb all the way up the back spike (where the version 1s were usually braked first). Tradeoffs. Many of us are aware of what changing the seats/headrests can do to the quality of a ride (hi, Mind Bender)... Huge props to Knott's for keeping those train details intact; the park LOVES this ride, everyone there loves it. It's a huge, expensive deal for them to take it apart carefully, inspect, check all parts/replace/remanufacture, sandblast/prime/paint (as opposed to slapping on a cheap coat of paint, hello SF). Kudos to Knott's! Cedar Fair knows they sold off a valuable "old Schwarzkopf" at Worlds of Fun. They really lost a world class ride, nothing there can fill those shoes. Schwarzkopfs are special! Whizzer at SF Great America runs likes new and is more popular than ever (and luckily Great America takes good care of that ride.)

^I'm not sure if that's sarcasm or not, but either way it works for me. Add Cesari's to the top of the "Pizza that is clearly no where near good enough to be in a park of this high calibur" list. Knoebel's and Holiday World at the top of my list. But man, dat pizzas baad!!

SAVE TEH DEMON! But really, I do love the Demon. Ours in Chicagoland, anyway. It's the better of the 2 - recording and eyes in lift tunnel, 1980 snap drop intact, disco tunnel, Demon caves, fog in mouth. And no friggin seatbelt things. I guess California will lose it's 3D logos on the train fronts, we lost ours decades ago. Such a shame about Great America... makes me more grateful for ours and that we have many of our classics such as 2 flumes, a Whizzer. I know CF runs the park so well, I wonder what the public will say.

^Makes sense, thanks for the explanation.

Any news on the woman who was hurt from the Dragster part last year?

^The Joker queue is just another cherry on top. This is all decades of poor design, sometimes on purpose; from my one summer as a Six Flags intern "it's good to make them work for it. Then they will work up an appetite and thirst. We have a captive audience." I always go back to what Will Koch used to say (paraphrasing): 'If you treat your guests and their time with respect, they will come back. They are the best advertising and they will want to spend money at your park because the product is good.' Speaking of Joker, I was there Sunday and a friend and I decided to jump on the ride through the single queue. We stood there for 5 minutes.. on one train I saw 3 empty single seats (in an 8 person train). They kept holding the singles and letting one go in each opposite queue every few minutues (making the single rider line longer than the regular line). He had my friend go right, I was asked to go left. They didn't make sense. Sometimes they paired friends who were obviously friends, sometimes not. Pairing single riders is the job of the loader, not someone standing far from the loading area (and can't see who needs to go where.). After that, I Just kept walking and waited for my friend. The level of stupidity is tough to stomach sometimes.

^I think they are doing a great job on the park this year, much better than the past few. And I typically think Six Flags' parks do everything wrong, so it feels good to say the opposite. Plus, Great America continues to take immaculate care of our classic coasters and rides, leaps and bounds over the other SF parks. Down to Whizzer's perfectly upholstered green seats and padding, awesome to see. A park cannot control all guest behavior. If they hadn't designed their queues and stations overwhelmingly frustrating*, these things would happen less. Personally, I'm fine with paying more for a nicer experience. *Single turnstyle on the exit side of stations - turnstyles belong at station fronts, and there should be multiple station exits. Six Flags loves super-long exit pathways (keep the guests busy, work up appetite and thirst; this also extends the ride experience (not in a good way). There are a few things they can do about all that poor design now, but going forward it would be nice to design stuff for crowd flow (see most other parks, including other large non-SF coaster parks). The Joker coaster was designed with a HUGE back-and-forth queue. When there is no line, you still are required to walk back and forth a bunch of times; there are no open/close pass-through gates (those typically found at every other amusement park). This sets up a situation where teenage employees have to stand there annoyingly (including to themselves) and repeat "go around/walk all the way around/don't jump over/don't jump the rails." Of course people will try to jump over or under, it's absurd to walk back and forth through and empty queue that many times. Design a system where you don't have to constantly correct your guests. Six Flags just doesn't have the good daily-working relationship with guests that many other places have. Hopefully stuff continues to change. I got a bit away from your question, but anyway think I made some good points.

^Thanks for the explanation! That is trying to look patina? Maybe they should see where other parks get their patina shade haha. Couldn't be difficult.

Just dropping in... and curious to what the red smears around the new coaster support joints is. It... looks like they were sly by decorating for Fright Fest early. But man, that looks real. On top of already questionable paint scheme.

A friend once twisted my arm "come on, you gotta get back to Coastermania! It will be better this time I swear!" That was 2000, and I haven't been back. I think Holiday World is getting it right (they always do) by limiting their event. Maybe they could split up Coastermania between 2 different weekends, and hike up the price. Gotta pay to maintain the quality! What's the lowdown on Dragster?

^^Great review, you remind me of some things that make Holiday World one of my favorites (but Legend is my supersweet spot, personally!) Hope you can go back for the waterpark; no joke those watercoasters are more fun and exciting than some of my favorite roller coasters. Plus, the operations cannot be beat.

^Sure thing. Driving into the park when I was little... couldn't contain myself in the car! Rides zipping everywhere (now we play the "is the park open?" game when driving up to any Six Flags; you can often go for what seems like a long time and see NO coasters moving). I don't think there were many fights when I was little (early 80s). I so remember people being helpful and friendly, and having fun. But lines moved FAST, plus it was long before social media and pay-to-cut. Hope you guys enjoy Santa's Villiage! I'm bound to get out there this summer - even us big kids love it! Don't miss the tree house slide. YOU can go down it too!

Little Dipper has been open! I'm not sure about the other kiddie rides, but these folks at Six Flags Great America Junkies on facebook might be your best source https://www.facebook.com/groups/2328379897405728 This past Tuesday, lots of everything was closed, including 4 coasters. Staffing is low because high school is still in. Upon exiting the Raging Bull queue, there was a group of young people starting in with eachother, and then it got LOUD and physical. They were blocking the exit of RB near the on-ride photo booth. I was there with 2 friends and it took us a bit of hanging back and strategy just to get out of the mess. Then it nearly followed us, bad times. I'm a 6-1 grown adult man, and I was scared. On a side note, everything has a fresh coat of paint, and is running like new, tight and in top condition. Have you considered Santa's Villiage? It's VERY clean, safe, pretty and fun... they have lots of great rides (including a terrifying drop tower that puts the BIG corporate park towers to shame - not that your daughter would be ready for that.) Also, Little Amerricka in Marshall, Wisconsin (about another hour north, then west) is a hidden gem. It's a showcase of 50's rides that all run like new, with a 20 or 30 minute long miniature train ride through the farms - with animals, including a zebra. Frankly, I often have more fun there than at Great America. Their Little Dipper called "Meteor" runs all-manual, and you "go round" anywhere from 2-5 times. Just thought I'd through that in, but if your daugher has her heart set on Great America... then it's gotta be Great America. I remember waiting to go for the first time as a kid, and it meant everything. Hope it all works out in your favor and congrats on your daughter's graduation!

So great to hear the news! In my book, Waldameer is one of the best parks, period. So much goodness, so well taken care of. No hassle and nice people. 4 long years since my last visit, too long! I can't stop geeking out over the beautiful curved classic Comet station with mag brakes (best of old and new meet, wish other parks noticed!)