dnn2031

I like the inversion and shoulder restraints on the "Ride of Steel" footage.

Sounds like don't expect second trains on Pred or Viper this year. Some of the first parts for SkyScreamer have been sneaking in, though. Also Rolling Thunder should look a little different in its carriage as it's getting repartitioned into three sections instead of two.

Okay, technically it's been water more on the outgoing side of things. Remember they have to maintain their own water treatment and power substation.

RoS already has a second gen train. Its sibling still uses the original style. ME has two trains but IIRC the second needed some frame replacement and sounds like they're treading light on the notion of doing so near term for holding out to get two updated trains. A lot gets thrown around about the place needing repairs or more trains, but there's actually serious money going into the utilities infrastructure the past few years. Not glamorous or what GP would notice, but power and water gets into megabucks fast and a lot is 20-30+ years old. Their campgrounds has also been getting emphasis with more and more cabins which must be returning on investment pretty well given how hard they've been pursuing it. Given SF's new ride every year initiative that doesn't leave a lot left on the table for big overhauls of existing rides. And something is gonna be on the chopping block for every new ride in. (Coasters are sort of the exception; RoS is getting some rain and other reliability mods as the 'headline coaster')

Also prepare yourselves for another year of whining about RoS only having one train and probably ME until they spring for two updated ones on it as well.

This was on the track so didn't make an inversion somewhere. Ride was closed for the day and they had an extendable forklift lifting it off in the afternoon.

Oops. Looks like they stuck a Tantrum train during preopening due to the cold.

IIRC they had a group from the Carolinas do most of Camp Scumshine and the jungle haunted house and a local group for the hotel to the tune of a $million+. Don't think it was necessarily corporate directed, though, other than the branding and stuff like the coffin contest.

They slowed it down a few years ago. Found that too fast caused the control system to throw a fault semi-frequently.

Spending close to a million replacing a flat ride with the same thing but newer is pretty far down the list. You aren't really going to get much new attendance on it and that's at least the cost of adding say a second RoS train. Six Flags orders their rides in multiples so if Darien gets another flat announced next year it'll probably be something a few other parks are getting (look at how many pendulums their installing next year). If it's similar to something they already have to replace that's probably more serendipitous than for the sake of updating an old favorite.

The Pirate may be sailing once again this evening/weekend.

Surprised they didn't. Enclosing bumper cars is one of the things they do for winter storage anyways.

I would guess Guest Services is the place to go. Kind of a convoluted bunch of prices for the haunted houses: $10 for each once, $5 for one if you have a Gold Plus, Plat, Diamond, or Diamond Elite SF card (not season pass). Diamond also get access to one free per visit. $25 for the Fear Pass wristband, all three unlimited one night. Diamond Elite member card gets one of these free per visit. $35 All Season Fear Pass. Requires Season Pass, Gold+, Plat, Diamond, Diamond Elite member. Sticker on card that gives unlimited access to all. $50 Fear Pass Express. All three houses once through Fast Pass lane.

I imagine makes the shift scheduling for ride ops simpler. 11-7 is 8 hours. Also a number of rides have to finish operation before the laser show so riders aren't getting beamed by it. AFAIK running 2 trains on Viper was pretty likely. Blue train was just about ready to rock at opening. Guess they didn't hit whatever numbers they wanted to see to actually put both on.

Tantrum parking in the station. If it's raining they sometimes switch to only loading one row per train.

The waiting track is up near the ceiling and in the corner of the building so only barely visible looking across from Mind Eraser's bridge. It'd be more a mark against Gerstlauer than anything if a new coaster breaks down that completely in only 5 months. Other than rain causing park issues most of the time it goes down is people jumping the fences to grab dropped items.

Anything that was branded distinctively a DC or Looney Tunes property had to be returned to SF or destroyed when they sold the park last time. There were some props like the Kryptonite crystals still kicking around that popped up in BBB and for Fright Fest.

Hotel Terror in the picnic area, Camp Scumshine beneath the Viper, and the Jungle Apocalypse is in the Galaxy. Also looks like there will be a hay ride, but sounds like in previous years where it might not be a big to-do like the Field Trip was. A number of the areas are being set up by contracted third-party companies rather than in-park entertainment just throwing props together like past years. Also get your last rides on Twister if you're particularly attached to it; it's on the short list to get axed for the new ride.

All rides need to replace parts, but it's like all cars need to replace parts except some are in a salt slingin rust belt state like NY and another might be in Texas. Constant exposure to chlorinated water devours pumps and structure. Oh, and don't forget thousands of dollars in all of those pool chemicals. Log flumes and the like are less stringently regulated on water quality than 'pool' attractions like Hooks, but they still guzzle gallons of chlorine alone.

'Flat area.' The whole GP track is on a stretch of hill that runs up to the bathrooms in the campground there. They just tend to get more gun shy about running GP on days there's a possibility of rain in the fall because their number of operators available becomes threadbare once colleges/school start. If they aren't operating they're just parked at the top of said hill where they do maintenance for them are which is why you don't see them from below.

More likely they don't want to put time on it unless necessary which would require annual inspection teardown. Same reason Viper's second train didn't go on despite being ready to do so. And on that matter only the fiberglass body was swapped presumably because the proper one needed repair which isn't a small task.

I think more likely they would leave Darien Square open and use the gates already in place last time SF ran metal detectors by the General Store and behind Anchor Bar. All they would have to do is close off the Square entrance/exit to Moto. Moto is anchored semi-permanently because there was some slightly fanciful notions when PARC installed it of having it for a few years and rotating to a different park.

The idea is more stringent security with all guests going through metal detectors. The Boomerang/Motocoaster area is much more open to passage between the campground and the park so they want to control access through the area.

The park owns the old railroad stretch from Allegheny/Rt77 west to Fargo road pretty much. A good chunk of that western property is dedicated to the water treatment plant (the holding ponds visible.) The field further west of that has sprayheads where the resultant processed water is dispersed. I don't know if they still do but they also owned a parcel in Darien proper.

They hosted all of the SF park managers and CEO a month back. So I guess no excuses on if top eyes got to take a gander at the state of the park if you're expecting a big makeover. Don't know why people continue to be mystified about 'is it Six Flags or not?' FWIW it presently seems to be billed as 'Darien Lake: A Six Flags Theme Park.' If they shuffle it around to Six Flags Darien Lake they might just be waiting until next season simply for the logistics of changing the logo/branding on the merchandise and promotional material. I did notice the staff are transitioning to explicitly Six Flags IDs. Also previously mentioned the electronic contacts switching to SFTP domains and some job postings are being hosted under Six Flags Great Escape.