thisdougsforu

One would think that if it was a Free Spin they've would've already announced the closure of something else to make room for it. I've come around on the water coaster. It will actually get me to do Hurricane Harbor at least once and I'm sure it'll be a draw.

As for reports of the Fling's demise, I can't imagine that whatever is broke on it is so complicated that either a one off or multiple parts couldn't be run. I work in a specialty machine shop (race car/aircraft parts & equipment) and seeing some of the stuff we do and knowing what it costs, I just can't imagine there is something so complex on that decades old machine that it would be cheaper to junk and replace the entire thing vs. fixing it. Not that I know the first thing about Enterprises, mind you, but it just seems a bit of a reach....unless they are actually planning to retire and replace it soon anyways. If that is the case, then I would get not spending the money to fix it.

One of my best friends was at the water park on Saturday with his family and said that he saw a large area marked, that must be what he meant.

Seeing as how they were surveying for a water coaster I'll be surprised if it's anything but. I'd love a Discovery, though.

Hey, on the plus side, at least Silver Dollar City is relatively short drive away!

Hey TNT, are the haunts set up by park staff primarily or do you contract someone like HPI to build them? I've heard they work with theme parks around the country to set up their Halloween stuff and given they are based out of STL, I was curious.

Using the whole area as a Fright Fest Haunt sounds like a great idea to me.

Yeah I took that tweet as just a "get a ride before the season ends!" type of post. That scrambler is a work horse ride for the youngsters. It's a great "middle ground" ride for those too big for Bugs Bunny Park, but too small for the big thrill rides.

Spring Break is huge down in that area of Texas, correct? Makes sense as to why they'd want it up and running then. As for Thunder River, the forecast for the next 10 days is high 70s and low 80s. MO weather is nuts, but there is a good chance that with the weather breaking like that for song that the 100 degree days are done for the year. If they are gonna be doing some kind of work/update, may as well just do it now I guess.

2018 sure looks like a banner year for roller coasters. That's a whole lotta kickass wood and steel.

Yep, it's probably the time traveler theme.

As long as they figure out the capacity issue, these things could be a home run. Fitting that kind of crazy coaster in that small of a footprint with what appears to be a very simple design could be massively popular with smaller parks. I'd imagine those are significantly cheaper than a standard steel coaster while still providing the punch of a bigger one.

Seeing that Six Flags Fiesta is getting the first RMC Raptor and the fact it's going to be replacing a Tidal Wave like "Shoot the Chutes" ride gives me great hope we will land one of those clones eventually. That thing looks sick (holy shit that first drop will be airtime city) and given the footprint, if successful I bet they will be making their way into all the parks eventually. Batman 2.0.

That TR is pretty much how I feel about everything, although I like Eagle a little more. The back of Thunder is the best ride in the park. Ninja is completely tolerable in a park where the Boss exists. I've been in hockey fights where I felt better afterwords than riding Boss, and that's no exaggeration. After the ride I took early summer where it felt like my cranium was trying to detach from my neck, I've finally submitted and won't be on it again barring some kind of overhaul. The terrain is so great that I really want to love it, but yeesh.

Well, I guess that's the proof.

The break in that picture doesn't suggest a bad weld, it looks like a straight up snap of the material.

What a horrific incident. Others have alluded to it, but that's almost definitely metal fatigue. I've worked in machine shops all my adult life (around 17 years now) and while that doesn't make me an expert in metallurgy by any metric, that sure looks like material failure on a large scale. For it to not have any signs previously and then wham, that's bum steel. After the investigation is complete (if anything is released to public) I'm going to guess they find the batch used for production turns out to be the culprit. Just awful, regardless.

Zamperla Discoverys are badass rides but given that Xcalibur is there, I don't see them adding something that similar. Sign me up for a new enterprise though.

Is there a manufacturer that still does Monster type rides? I never got to ride Momo but bringing a newer version of that back would be really cool. While we are discussing flats, what does a Mega-Disko like spinsanity cost, ballpark?

Not really a surprise on the Fling as it seems like it's constantly down. I'd say Six Flags got their money's worth on that ol' girl. Hopefully we eventually get one of those flat packages (endeavor, tilt o' whirl, etc). The park definitely needs more. My wife and I love coasters, but our 3 young kids do not. Next year we aren't renewing their season passes as right now there just isn't a ton for them to do (they are too old for Looney Tunes town, too young for the bigger thrill rides with tall height restrictions). In a couple years when they are older and taller we will get them passes, but it doesn't make sense right now. I know other young families in the same boat as ours. Hell, I'd argue that from a cost perspective the park would be a lot better off putting in another junior coaster in the vein of the Mine Train versus some kind of hyper, given their plan to just focus on local season passes. My oldest daughter freaking loves MT, but it seems like anymore it's always down for maintenance and then there is no coaster for her to ride. Anyways, sucks about Fling but I do hope we get more flats in the near future, a mix of thrill and family oriented ones.

It is pretty crazy how much Holiday World has been pushing into the market this year with their advertising. Billboards everywhere and lots of radio ads. Looking forward to making my first trip there this fall, actually! As for the water coaster, seems to me that with the park now being open through the new year thanks to Holiday in the Park, there'd be a lot more mileage out of a Freespin, assuming it runs in colder temperatures. That cool new water coaster will only run what, 3 months out of a 9 month operating year? Holiday in the Park is great, but with Boss, Eagle and a few other attractions closing down for maintenance it sure would be nice to have another big draw. And yes, I'm counting a freespin as a big draw. Maybe not for coaster nuts, but it would be a big thing for the GP I think.

I never go to the waterpark and have no interest in that, so that's a big bummer for me.

No, but there have been rumors of it being taken down for awhile now. Given the footprint of that ride, the Freespin size, previous rumors of its demise and the fact that it occupies a corner of the park that ain't exactly jumpin' with life....I like the educated guess. If it doesn't go there, where could they put it? I see no way they tear down the Ninja. It may be a bit rough and not that popular, but it's still a functional steel coaster. The real question is how do they theme it? I suppose it wouldn't take much effort to rebrand the swinging ship to something else and giving it the Joker motif, but I think it would be cool to at least get some kind of original theming.

I'm cool with a Joker clone and realize we'd be fortunate to get one, but in reading through all the excitement around Georgia RMC'ing the Cyclone, it sure would be nice to get a notice that the Boss is closing down sometime around mid July one year!

The FreeFly really will fit perfect in the park, wishes for a hyper be damned. RIP Tidal Wave. Each section of the park will then have a nice marquee attraction to anchor it.