asimowalk

^ 10 points! I didn't think about it, but I realized I didn't have any fall trips last season... I didn't know there was a scare zone there last year.

^ B&Ms are more reliable, and Knott's loves that of course, and I'm sure there may be other internal reasons to favor B&M. I think that saying it will 'fail' in a region is pretty harsh considering that the first giga hasn't even opened yet but it's still guaranteed to be a quality coaster.

I wish I had a better camera on my phone but this'll have to do for now... Ride Count Behemoth - 16 Sledge Hammer - 2 Minebuster - 1 Windseeker - 1 Dragon Fire - 1 There were a few people re-riding Behemoth along with me... "It's kind of like looking for last minute seats on a flight." I was able to get 11 rides without leaving the station, but the line up grew enough that I wouldn't be able to keep doing that. I was still able to slip in a couple more consecutively though since I was a single rider. Gotta give my kudos to the park and to all of the employees that were still around. They were all doing great, even at the very end of the season. After weeks of putting off a trip to the park, I finally got myself there at the very end of the season. The last time I went to Haunt was when it was still Fearfest back in 2005, but I've seen the decorations in the fall over the years and it looks like it's improved significantly. Behemoth didn't open with the park today. I'm guessing it was because of the cold temps. (Just below freezing.) I took a ride on Sledge Hammer in hopes that it would open by the time I got off. Not the case. Took a ride on Minebuster (and blinded my camera while I was there). Windseeker was down in the morning as well. 10 points to whoever knows where these lions were used before! This little scare zone by the mountain washrooms was kind of weird. They looked less like tombstones and more like random walls everywhere. I didn't recognize any of the names either. If they used different names, I'm sure they could have come up with some more clever graffiti. (Unless I'm just too young too understand any of them.) These skeletons at Riptide are definitely nicer than just making the fountain lights red. Guess no one can be bothered actually carving the pumpkins... This was the first time I've seen the new buffers on Windseeker. The seats still sway a bit, but it seems more sturdy. Random picture of the Starlight projectors. Now begins all of the Leviathan pictures... The first bunch are of the fenced off area by the front gate. One of the footers in the middle of the pathway. Next bunch of pictures are of the staging area along the side of the parking lot where all of the pieces sit. A couple of footers at the top of the hill along the path to the bus stops. Track... Part of the lift hill... More track! I think this staircase is for one of the trims. It's really cool walking alongside this giant column. In the background is the bottom of the first drop. Trims... OR MORE BRAKE RUN?! A few shots of the lift hill from the parking lot... Finally, from inside the park... Thanks for a great season Wonderland! See you next year! (Random last photo)

In all industries, there is a separation between the 'general public' and industry enthusiasts. The general public accounts for the majority, while the enthusiasts is the percentage that is more knowledgeable than the average person. If you look from the park employee perspective, everyone including you and I are part of the general public. Again, it's the separation between the majority and those with more inside knowledge. Parks cater more to what their majority wants, which happens to be the GP. That's where the majority of open wallets are.

I thought it would be interesting to point out a change at the bottom of the lift hill for Leviathan... The chain actually begins earlier at the drive tires as opposed to starting right at the incline. I think that this is a modification because of the incident a few years back at Behemoth where the lift hill motor broke. Having the chain starting horizontally would remove the initial shock/tug the chain gets. PS. Wonderland probably found out about the Dino leak because someone just had to post it on Facebook.

I was doing a random Google search for Dino Alive for CW and found something interesting that was on this site: http://www.net-electric.com/current-estimates.php In the Google search snippets from the page, this is what it said: Judging by what they do, I'm going to guess that they've been contracted to do an electrical room or something for the attraction.

Ooo, my picture made the front page. Do I automatically get a Bag of Crap?

^Yes, they can be seen in this video:

Two words: ANGRY BIRDS!

I'm having such a hard time wrapping my head around how the Drop Tower plaza will look, assuming that's where the entrance will be. I'm guessing that there will be a great reduction of the Drop Tower queue, perhaps even bringing the queue around the tower on the other side. I'm also going to guess that that large planter and the nearby game stall will be removed and replaced with something smaller (perhaps that Dragon Fire-esque statue I'm dreaming about) to ease the congestion around the area. As you can tell, I'm very interested to see how they planned this out.

A friend of mine was at the park today. He texted me saying that Behemoth had vallied, and that they were in the process of removing the train with a crane. Seems like a likely story. Remember that Behemoth vallied the day before season pass preview day in 2008 and they still got it going for that night.

Great pictures! Thanks for sharing. Looks like they've really upped their game. I'm both surprised and impressed that they would hand out return passes for the early closing, considering the rest of the Haunt season after opening day weekend is usually insane in terms of crowds. They used to close early for Fearfest when attendance was low, but I can't recall any time the park closing early since CF took over.

I find that kind of weird, unless there's no trash can at Knott's that ever gets full. The trash can count increased when Raffi was at Wonderland... but that was probably make it obvious that it was now a CF park.

^ Who knows, maybe the wind limit for the StarFlyers are even lower. There's still other positives for the Windseekers. Better capacity, a company they've already have connections to (because of Wonderland), taller, etc. As for Behemoth, from what I remember hearing a couple years ago, it apparently refuses to dispatch (in auto mode) once the wind speeds at the top of the lift past a certain point. They probably had a train going up the lift as the wind was gusting so it stopped in fears of valleying. In other news, it looks like they're using the Starlight projectors for the entire night. From what I can tell from the following video, there's different scenes like a thunderstorm (similar to the beginning of the dragon scene), a spotlight, and some worms or something crawling around. Skip to around 1:57... Ignore the winner. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6GXCHtPY8Y For anyone going to Haunt, please get a better video of the mountain!

^ I'm kind of expecting something to be up for Haunt since they could put something on the mountain for the duration of the night. It's about time they did something different from that random spotlight anyway. Speaking of Haunt now, I just noticed they're trying out the Fright Lane thing. Judging by the size and types of crowds, I can't really see this system going very well unless they have security operating it. I won't be attending Haunt (I'll be lucky to get a regular visit in before the season's over) but I'm interested to hear if their line organization has improved. Without the fastpass system, it was already a disaster.

Definitely! As mentioned, it gets people staying until the end of the day. There's also the fact that there's so many people involved, it would be a shame to throw out all of that hard work after just one season. I find it kind of funny that the show was pulled off much better than what Paramount did with Stunt Spectacular that cost 6 times more, if I remember correctly... While we're talking about Starlight, I was thinking the other day about how they could use some of those lasers and lights from Haunt to add even more to the show. My favourite part of the show was the ending with all of the trees flashing, it would be cool to have lasers and spotlights flying all around you too.

Anyone know where the entrance will be? I think it'll be kind of weird with the station right next to the path, unless it's themed to some extent. It would be pretty awesome if they could find the guy that did the sculptures for Wild Beast and Dragon Fire and get him to make one for Leviathan. That's just wishful thinking though.

Does anyone know how the dinosaur movie is doing at KI? I was thinking if the movie was successful, maybe they could make a sort of DA midway in place of the queue to Action Theatre. They've already got the vendor facilities for Launch Pad, a small addition to that building could make it double for both attractions which would make it easier for staff to handle. I'm a bit confused though, will DA sneak it's way into CW for next season or later on? I know Dorney has an unannounced DA going into their park.

Thank you, Mr. Engineer/Land Surveyor. Any other could-have designs you'd like to share? I think the fact that the brake run is slightly taller than Dragon Fire (according to the rendering) is supposed to give a visual effect as you end the ride. We've got a fantastic new coaster here. If you're that crazy about having extra hills, just ride it again.

So... was this already in the works when they decided to move Invertigo? I'm interested to see how things go on at CGA with JMA Ventures. Their expertise seems to be in ski resorts and and restaurants. Is the park president and the rest of management staying or will someone from JMA move in?

Can it only run one train? All that water MUST make the brakes fail.

Not sure if it's already been mentioned, but the Haunt site is now up: http://haunt.canadaswonderland.com It's kind of interesting how boring it is without the background music and other features from the flash site. Another thing to note is they have a discounted ticket for Friday and Sunday nights which is a very good idea with my past experiences with overcrowded Haunts. Does anyone have any information on The Hanging show? It would be cool if it's something like Knott's, but it doesn't look that way from the description:

I think it'll only be for the Boomerang Bays out there... Splashworks and Waterworks are generic enough.

Have they really cut down a lot of trees over the years? I've always considered KD as the park buried in a forest. And I figure the animation has so many trees just so they wouldn't take time to model any more of the rides. It's probably to give the height of the ride more definition.

Well, many were less than impressed up north at CW with Windseeker as our 30th anniversary attraction. Just look at what we're getting for our 31st... Anniversaries really mean nothing in terms of major new attractions. I think if the waterpark needed improving then there's no stopping them. There's no point waiting another year so something better can come at a certain time when things need fixing now.