Jew

What I am getting at is that your attitude of "Big business is as big business does, but I agree with you" does not hold true for Cedar Fair IMO. Regional theme parks are essentially giant "Mom and Pop" stores. Layoffs hit close to home in towns that basically rely on that park to keep them afloat. Think about it...What would Sandusky be besides a small lakeside town if it wasn't for Cedar Point? But more to the point of what it means to the people who are concerned in this thread...layoffs could also mean even more declines in operations. Layoff the guy who has been the mechanic for a certain ride since it opened, and you can see a huge increase in downtime. Layoff the manager who motivated the crew of your favorite coaster to work hard, and suddenly your wait time has doubled. And so on and so forth.

^However, they are not the same event. The shows are different, and I don't believe IoA offers the snow play area. Also, the new backlot was open to trams today!

^Mechanics have to make that walk every day as part of their inspections.

Cedar Fair is not "big business." They are a regional theme park operator. Theme parks cannot be successfully operated with a "big business" mentality. It didn't work for Disney under Eisner, it didn't work for the former management team @ Six Flags, and it's not working for Cedar Fair now.

I would venture to say that having that attitude towards employees is a big part of why the quality (and finances) of Cedar Fair parks has gone down the drain over the last few years.

Hooray for a tantrum coming to so cal! I've always been impressed by the tantrum concept, and to add themeing? Sweet!

It's awesome to see rides at SFMM getting painted! As Robb pointed out, the color matches the comic book version of Batman. So it's not terribly out of place by any means. I would have preferred they kept the old color scheme, since now the ride will be the comic book colors while the rest of Gotham is based on Tim Burton's movie. But that's just nitpicking on my part...not a huge deal.

You might as well call Six Flags re-organization plan a sale...

Met up with John and Amanda for Aria's grand opening...pictures to come soon. My first impressions are the property is HUGE. The casino floor has a great layout and I like the interior design. However, the second floor where all the restaurants are seems out of place with the rest of the property. I'll be staying in a standard room tomorrow night, so I'll have more to say then.

I'm glad this thread was bumped! I almost forgot!

"Next time" better be in the near future, or you are going to miss Backdraft. It will be closing to make room for the Transformers ride.

^Playhouse Disney only appeals to a certain age group too. Doesn't stop them from filling up the theater show after show! Parks need something for everyone. I think Yo Gabba Gabba would be great for little kids and dorky adults!

^It really depends on what they replace it with. Hard to judge the decision at this point.

Perhaps they did...and used the negative PR to get corporate management to change their mind....

It is open to the public, but it looks like it is now also completely sold out.

I would do larger photos if the upload feature didn't specifically say photos should be 800x600 and a maximum of 150k. Being elevated is great, but trust me...the experience of getting to see a 95mph fastball up close, hear the players talking, and being that close to the action is also a great perspective. I would highly recommend saving your money and splurging once on Dugout club seats.

Got my wood poll in just in time... Top 10: 1.My Favorite Steel 2.T Express 3.Balder 4.El Toro 5.Colossos 6.Thunderhead 7.Tonnerre de Zeus 8.Fireball 9.Thundercoaster 10.Loup Garou Bottom: 43.White Canyon 44.Jupiter 45.Texas Giant 46.The Grizzly 47.Gwazi-Lion 48.Gwazi-Tiger 49.Anaconda 50.The Bandit 51.GhostRider 52.The Beast 53.Boardwalk Bullet

I still don't understand the point of "broadway" style shows in theme parks. They're too long, and who exactly are they targeting? I can't imagine most kids want to sit in a theater for 30+ minutes without any real excitement (no singing along, action, etc.).

Blackstone only owns 50% of Universal Orlando.

It's way too early to speculate at this point. For all we know, Comcast could have no interest in the parks and sell them off. Or stay completely hands off and let the theme park people do their own thing, which could lead to the parks improving. Or change the parks over to the "comcast culture" and make them worse.

^Those projections were probably done by the same people who set such lofty goals for DCA: "Oh, it's right next to Disneyland...we'll just assume all visitors will go there too!" The same logic probably applies: "Oh, it's near a famous tourist spot. They'll obviously want to visit a theme park too!"

Considering the fact Ron Toomer was famous for designing rides by bending the wire found on coat hangers you get from dry cleaners...I highly doubt that much thought went into Viper.

You can expect moderate crowds. 30-45 minute waits at worst, with an average in the 15-20 minute range. T2 and Waterworld shows will probably fill up in the middle of the day.

Bringing this thread back from the dead to finally finish the Texas portion with Rangers Ballpark. One word sums up the stadium: bland. Which isn't bad, since it is bland because they obviously chose functionality over trying to be the next "OMG wow" stadium. It has good sightlines, and it is a lot smaller than it looks on TV. Coming from Dodger Stadium, I appreciated the nice wide open main concourse, but I also wish there was more stuff in the concourse to eat/drink/waste time. The stadium just feels like it is there. That's dedication. Andruw Jones whiffing. That never happens. Bastard. On the bright side, we did have great seats I don't want to live in a world where those are the only beers available One complaint: the food options were awful. This was the most exciting one. There was your typical ballpark food and absolutely nothing else. No famous signature item or anything. The signature feature of the stadium. That's the teams offices and a bunch of suites. The club level concourse that wasn't really a club level because it was open to everybody. It was the only place you could buy hard liquor though! It's actually a very bland stadium, but it does have one of those outfield pavilion section with activities for kids. It's also located just down the street from SFoT. They must have done that just for me and Dan. Here's the exterior. A pretty bland take on the "classic" ballpark design every new stadium in the last 15 years has followed. Meh. At least it's an upgrade over the cookie cutter stadiums...