Shavethewhales

I would go for the gerstlauer. The GP want a steel coaster with inversions. While the switchback is cool, it might be seen as just another wooden coaster.

I mentioned a lot of this in the other thread, but Elitch was pretty crowded when I went last summer and that was with several attractions down for the count. While it is true that Denver has a lot of competing attractions including simply being outdoors, it's still an area full of young people and young families and thrill rides can be a huge draw if done correctly. The problem is that Elitch was just a bad park... Just not a great selection of rides, not a lot of space, and obviously they didn't really control the land so there wasn't a whole lot of reason to heavily invest in the place to make it into a destination. A new park done well could be a completely different story. I'm picturing a Toverland type park. Big indoor area for partial year round operations, then some high-profile outdoor coasters and big rides for the main season. Lakeside is it's own can of worms... the park is awesome in it's own right, and it also drew a nice crowd when I was there, but it was definitely a bit rag-tag. Looked like they had a ton of projects going throughout the park to fix things up and add a few rides, but it also seemed that everything was being done with a skeleton crew and a tight budget. I think Lakeside will keep going on it's own momentum into the foreseeable future unless something straight up collapses...

Awesome to hear from you man, sounds like you are living the dream. I'm also a civil engineer and got into the profession dreaming of working for a park in some way some day. Small places like Little Amerricka just absolutely fascinate me. I love seeing cool, heart-felt projects come to fruition. Sounds like you guys are on the right track and thinking things through the right way. A medium sized woodie would be perfect for the place and really help expand the audience.

So they finally can't ignore it anymore, even the local news outlets are paying attention now. The construction site is huge. http://springfieldnewsleader.mo.newsmemory.com/publink.php?shareid=2457d7efe&fbclid=IwAR05LCbBo4MOeJYvtcehsMXx-6UreTVA273j8tbEPpOmo1EFIGnvkGjo-u8 It's going to be transformative just by the shear size of it. I'm just curious how much they'll have finished on the park-facing side by spring. They might be trying to get a lot done before the Christmas rush. SDC has had a knack for getting rides done well in advance of opening just because that is what works best for their scheduling.

Holy crap, I figured it out. After trying every browser and phone and running through all the settings/adblocker options on each to figure out if something was blocking it, you know what the problem was? My internet provider apparently. I turned off wifi on my phone and it went through just fine. I don't know why Cox internet would be blocking part of a six flags application, but there you have it in case anyone else is having a similar issue.

I guess it's a moot point. I've been trying to two days now to get the website to load so I can buy a membership before the new year's deal expires, but nothing is working. I've tried multiple computers and browsers and even called technical support who were no help. Pretty frustrating. I'm inclined to just re-route to a different set of parks for this year since I have so many to get to anyway. Nothing like spending hours just to try to give someone else money.

So I've never really looked into SF memberships before, but next year I plan to hit up several starting with SFOG in April. Would there be any potential complications with buying a membership through SFOG even though I live in Oklahoma? It will be my first stop so I will activate and pick up the passes there. After the initial visit, there's no reason I would have to go back there, right? Doesn't look like you can get a membership through FC, and SFOT is difficult to get to from Tulsa, so I'm hoping I can grab the pass at SFOG and go.

At first I was bummed at this news. Elitch was a very uninspired park with weak rides, but the location was awesome and I always held out hope that it would be revitalized. I love how easy it is to hop on a train from the airport and be at Elitch in an hour or less (assuming you like a bit of walking like me). I had a lot of fun exploring Denver this summer, and Elitch was a highlight even if I was unimpressed in the rides. It was such a whimsical, fun addition to an amazing downtown area. However, the more I think about it, the more I think this COULD be an amazing opportunity for Denver to finally get a decent park (no disrespect to Lakeside). Obviously a lot of flat rides will be transferred, but I imagine the third generation of Elitch will include a new headline roller coaster, presumably Mr. Twister the third. That's all Elitch really needed - a strong headliner, and more room to grow. I just hope they don't drop the ball and let this opportunity slip through the cracks. Elitch seemed to be well attended even though the locals weren't that impressed either. They just need a decent location.

wow, I didn't think the SFStL version was that old. Do/did they all have the funky loading station like Lost River had, where the boats were kind of wedged in place in the channel and people had to climb down into them? I feel like I never notice rapids rides, but there are indeed still a lot of them left.

^Ah, thank you. I know there was some back and forth on whether or not it was a prototype of someone's. Everything I've seen points to it starting construction in 1984, so Astroworld would have it beat. I wonder if there's a list of the Intamin installations and their years? It might have been one of the first three, I would imagine. In any case, it was old... perhaps the oldest surviving installation?

Wow, a Christmas surprise! I'm definitely ready to make the drive back up to Adventureland. I love this park, and with Monster and now this I feel like they are really coming up in the world. Even if it is just a SC2000 standard model, those are very fun rides and one of the few clones I don't mind. Will be interesting to see if they sprung for a custom model though.

^Lost River had a number of issues. It was actually a historical ride as one of the first, maybe THE first modern rapids ride. It was built back in 84/85 and was Intamin's prototype, or so I've been told. Not only was the channel old and leaky, but it lacked certain safety features with the loading setup since you loaded the boats in the water with other boats crashing into the back of the lineup. It was such a popular ride though, there's no way they could just get rid of it. Hopefully they theme the heck out of it and set the standard for any other ride replacements to come.

At the ACE Coaster Christmas event, park manager Brad Thomas stated that they would announce this, and many other interesting things for the 60th anniversary (2020) throughout next year. I think the fact that this is a 60th anniversary addition bodes well. Riverblast was the 50th anniversary addition, and although not many people are in love with the ride itself, you can't deny that they put a lot of detail and care into it.

Oh man, I hope you didn't try to make the trip today DavidB. Sounds like it was a mad-house today. They closed the gates due to crowds. Probably another new attendance record. The park has gotten too popular for it's own good at this point during Christmas. I'm honestly too scared to go unless I know it will be bad weather and the crowds will be lighter. Shows why the are rebuilding whole sections of the park. Also why they are experimenting with different season pass concepts that would exclude Christmas (for a lower price). There are still many parts of the year when the park is a ghost town, but as soon as November hits it's like half the country descends on the place.

Solid additions again. I thought that the freefall slide looked familiar, lol. Makes sense to market it as new for 2019 and get their money out of it since it barely opened in 2018. Every bit helps for both the water park and dry side. A few more years of this and it will feel complete again. The water side already looks pretty decent.

This is it exactly. Parks these days hate anything they have to spend resources maintaining outside of the ride itself. I don't know why they don't see the value in it. Animatronics can be annoyingly finicky, but it's not a huge deal if some of them are occasionally not working. It's clear when they aren't putting much effort at all into it though. They'll probably try to turn it into one of the cheap Sally dark rides with the plastic guns and the cardboard cutouts that barely move. Then they'll let even that get run-down...

I hope that isn't true, but I think we all knew it was a matter of time regardless. It's such a unique, fun ride that tons of people of all ages still enjoyed and had fond memories of. Being inside and climate controlled was also a good thing. I don't understand why there isn't a push for more family friendly dark rides without making it overly complex with guns/3d screens/etc. A few animatronics and some nice sets and you have a fun adventure.

We'll see what actually comes to pass. All that's known now is that things are being moved around, which makes sense with such a large project and the disruption it will cause since it winds close to this area. I am sure some of the area will be re-done just like was done with Time Traveler, but the extent remains to be seen. It is a tough area for bottlenecks, but if they really cared about bottlenecks they would have made the TT area even more open than they did.

Watching them struggle this year has been painful. They came so close to some kind of soft-opening of the water park, even starting to sell season passes, but the hurricane really messed things up and they just couldn't get back on track. The apology video was cringe inducing. Yet another big delay and major broken promise. But now the damn thing is built at least, and the "adventure park" side of it sounds cute and interesting. I'm really looking forward to seeing the water park actually operating. At least they won't have to deal with the awkward season without all the slides built. So FINALLY next year we can begin to look forward to the actual theme park construction, which by my estimation will take until 2030 to open...

This is awesome! With all the classic dark rides and fun houses that have been lost in recent years, it's good to see one make a comeback in such a fashion. This whole park project sounds fantastic and such a great win for those who appreciate amusement history.

That sucks to hear. These types of things are hard to keep going without the driving personality behind them. It was a very cool looking place though, and it's fun to think about what almost was. Maybe someday it will inspire someone else. I know I think about turning my house into a giant dark ride all the time, partially thanks to this thread.

You guys don't think the pumpkin festival will be busy? DW's sounds like it is turning into an event that rivals their Christmas.

I agree I would not like industrial lighting or anything that detracts, but there should be even a temp solution that would look good. maybe even kerosene type lamps retrofitted with LEDs - on the buildings.... it just a shame that you can't see the place in the dark when it is not christmas. they need something [attachment=0]lantern.jpg[/attachment] Oooh, I just came across this on Reddit. Should pass this along to SDC: https://www.reddit.com/r/inTheKnowInnovation/comments/9po8sm/the_latest_innovation_in_led_bulbs/ https://rigalshop.com/products/led-flame-effect-flickering-fire-light-bulb-with-gravity-sensor

I'm honestly almost as excited for all the shows and stuff next year as I was for Time Traveler. This stuff might fly under the radar for most people on this site, but it's these kind of things that help make SDC unique and special. I am really looking forward to the big pirate production this summer. It might sound cheesy, but if they are spending a million bucks on it, it's going to be quite the show. SDC has some amazing shows already, and this is the biggest non-Christmas show they've put together in a long time. The way they are integrating the pumpkin festival sounds perfect. They are carefully introducing it to the park in a thoughtful manner so that it compliments the existing fall stuff instead of just taking DW's concept and splashing it in. I'm also a bluegrass fan, so getting more and better bluegrass is awesome news to me. All-in-all, I'll probably be at SDC a lot more than usual next year.

I've never had a problem with the lighting... but then again I've been going to this park my entire life and could probably get around blindfolded. They used to have a lot of Victorian lighting from back when they were experimenting with moving the theme of the park forward in time slightly. I think they are pretty conservative with lighting because they don't want to ruin the ambiance with harsh lighting or drown out the Christmas lights. I agree there's probably a better middle ground though. As for the announcement, this is pretty interesting and a change of pace for "off years" between major projects. Usually they just do a typical media release in early November when season passes go on sale. In the year following a coaster, they almost always focus on touting their festivals, new food options, and maybe a new show or something during one of the festivals. This could just be them getting in line with standard park social media practices, or it could mean there is something bigger coming. Luminights could be what they are drumming up a big announcement for. DW's has done so well, SDC's version is something I am really looking forward to, even if I do love the usual SDC fall emphasis on crafts and cowboy stuff. This is also the last year for It's a Wonderful Life at SDC - it might be moving to the showboat next year. That leaves a void for another big Christmas production. The other festivals need refreshment too, especially with the competition now mirroring a lot of what made this stuff unique back when SDC started doing it. I'm expecting a ton of festival announcements, basically. I would be very surprised if a new ride announcement sneaks in here, but anything is possible.