dnn2031

The wheels aren't appreciably 'new' in like a design sense. Coaster wheels get changed fairly regular and re-coated. Usually about a set throughout the season and any marginal leftovers are likely to be changed during the rehab as they all get removed then. There has been a changeover the past few years from welded axle assemblies (like Mind Eraser) to machined ones on Boomerang, though. Don't know if the old ones had urethane pucks in them like Viper and ME for cushioning.

It should be repairable. I believe it had a similar failure 4 or 5 years ago near the end of season.

Not staffing. Drive gearbox broke.

Starting July 1 the park is now going to be closing at 9:30 PM with the laser show 10 minutes after.

You didn't specifically but in general it comes up that they need to 'buy' a second train from somewhere like the comment around ME's that got put out in sight must be from another park. The only one they would need to purchase is RoS which at $1 mil is why they haven't been in a hurry. Predator has two blue trains which replaced the red ones like a decade ago. But there are two they have been alternating between. They are heavier so they needed to add an extra pre-station brake a few years ago to reliably have the capability to run both simultaneously. Viper yellow train is in the back of the barn by PAC parking. Tantrum is only running two trains because with the seatbelts they had added the load/unload times aren't fast enough to justify it. Not saying they don't take parts from one train to fix another, but it doesn't render it never to be run again doing so. Again, they get near entirely dismantled annually anyways.

I don't know where you guys get this notion that just because they switch to one train they sell the extras or totally strip them to an irreparable state (heck, they already get stripped to bare frames each year). Predator still has two trains, they just tend to alternate building one during the season while one is in operation. Viper technically has 3 trains on the property, but only two have run for the last 15 years or so as one actually is unusable. Moto still has both of its trains also getting rotated annually. I wouldn't be surprised if they still have the old RoS trains stashed; Predator's old style trains were kicking around for a while, too.

It's just the old second train. Nothing to get excited over.

Tantrum was optioned as a spec-for-spec clone of Iron Shark on a pretty lean budget. Blastoff had a not insubstantial portion thrown into remodeling that area as a whole. It was supposed to be a done deal for Giant Wheel to get a new lighting package 10-ish years ago when they removed the lights on it but the company supplying it backed out. I'd guess then the funds went into PARC's appetite for digging a financial pit for themselves. I'd heard CNL (the actual property owner at the time) had approved them the money for repainting some of the coasters back then and PARC appropriated it elsewhere. Herschend probably might have been a good bet for sprucing up the place (Rowdy's and Blastoff were their handiwork), but they weren't going to splash around a lot of their funds when they didn't own the place and were trying to buy it.

They've been doing the age group color coded employee badges for a long time.

Supposedly Sky Screamer was doing some full up operation today. Just in time to crash course train the ops for the weekend opening.

Skyscreamer's lights are operational. Oh, and some freshly painted stripes in the parking lot which someone may care about more.

"Blew off" is a bit of an exaggeration. It was damaged by the wind and removed to be (not) repaired.

It was all foggy so not much for photo taking. But basically like the one pictured a few posts up with an extra SF flags logo on top of the globe. About two red tower sections, two white, and one blue.

Skyscreamer is up with it's big Six Flags globe on top. Actually doesn't look all that tall completed; think they're cheating 20 feet or so with that topper.

Because they jack the saturation up in promo photos and videos. Compare to the hotel sign photos for more the proper depressing dark green, straw, and hibernating tree grey-brown of WNY in April

Pretty aggressive schedule since the big crane for vertical assembly is only now going up.

All of the tower pieces present and the rotation section pre-assembled. Technically the first part of the tower has been built for a few weeks now integrated with the foundation. (Really there's been parts since January)

DL also just got a new communications rep which probably has something to do with the quiet.

The steel structure isn't designed to have a load bearing roof (supposedly) which is why it just has the tarp when it isn't getting torn up by wind storms.

Allegedly that had been the plan back in the day to install it in the old Cinema 2000 building, but it was too big to fit.

Double post

From what I've heard no plans for characters or bigger area or ride theming. Might see some merchandise. Otherwise the numbers aren't high enough to justify the licensing costs. So BBB/Rocky's Ridge will likely stick around in name. Also since people apparently love signage news the Hotel's sign is down at present for replacement.

And the new water slides.

Twister's been down since around Thanksgiving. Was sitting over by their HR building storage.

From what I've heard the park doesn't have the attendance to justify doing the whole DC/Looney Tunes branding just yet. Six Flags has to pay on the rights for each park apparently.