Shavethewhales

Very cool, those towers are supposed to be the best. This will really make the place worth a stop if any enthusiasts are anywhere nearby.

Man, opening day is sneaking up really quickly. Just two weeks. I plan to be there as well to get a big photo update of the new area. If I see any TPR shirts I'll be sure to introduce myself. By the way, the colors and theming of Fireman's Landing are turning out really, really good. It's this excellent blend of fresh and exciting while still being maintaining an authentic-ish feel. I really like the colors on the refurbed balloon ride. I'm still wondering if the new play area will be as neat as the old one since they have so many issues to work around regarding ADA and such, but I think the little kids in my family will still have a blast.

Here is an update: http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2015/02/24/motorsports-complex-at-grand-texas-to-break-ground.html?ana=e_du_pub&s=article_du&ed=2015-02-24&u=WjoHmd3JJZYW1RpKX8uFUg0bf0bf3e&t=1424889313&page=2 In summary, Grand Texas Operating Co. sold off a piece of the land (as planned) to Speedsportz, who is building the kart racing track. Not a huge development, but it means another piece of this huge project is moving forward. I know we're only really interested in the theme and water park, but all this stuff is tied together and with two parts of the project firmly off the ground and rolling it means the other plans are still alive and moving forward, however slowly. No sign of that February update though... could come out tomorrow, but at this point it seems like they might just gloss over it. I'm a little worried that theme park piece of all of this will take forever to actually get off the ground and might end up being replaced with something like an outlet mall, but I think the water park will definitely get built at some point soon. It seems like they're waiting for more people to buy into the project by buying the hotel and retail plots and getting started on those, but that takes momentum from the other pieces of the project... Seems like a chicken and egg situation, but the RV park/Speedsportz combo will give them something to work with.

It's just more red-tape. A typical knee-jerk reaction from local planning boards when something they don't expect gets proposed. I've seen it happen over and over. I'm not sure how tough it is to work around in Sweden though. It sounds like some locals are complaining and using the "nature" excuse. I'm sure Kolmården will be able to make a more detailed proposal outlining all the environmental impacts, or lack thereof, and get this moved forward again. I'd expect a 2-3 year delay though, just based on the position the park is in and how slow things like this seem to move in Sweden.

We'll see what happens. The weather has been so up and down this year, and any forecast more than 24 hours in advance can't be trusted. Could be 20 degrees and snowing, could be sunny and 70. I wouldn't make any set plans for spring break until we know for sure if spring has arrived or not. Regardless though, I'm coming for opening day.

It's being placed between mindbender and the prairie schooner, apparently in that little nook of the park that is filled with games. Taking out more game stalls is always an improvement in my book in any case. I'd really appreciate a technical explanation for why these rides very suddenly seem to be such good deals for parks. I'm guessing Larson has some sort of stream-lined production process that churns them out for a low unit cost, so the more purchases that are made this year the cheaper they get or something. It's not like super loops are new or highly lauded rides that everyone would suddenly see them and just have to have them in their park. There's got to be some sort of killer deal going on behind the scenes here.

^They did mention that in the presentation, but how much do you want to bet that Thomas Kinkade's company/trust/whatever has not even been contacted and their name is just being used to bolster the image of this proposal. I think they just reached for whatever brands/entities are recognizable in china and could be associated with the development without them being sued over it.

I'd love to see someone try an amusement property here, but given the area and the competition, they should start small with something more like Fun Spot Orlando and build out as warranted. Every time a big property like this comes out on the market everyone's dreams and ideas outrun the actual $$$ and demand available. It doesn't sound like they have any money at the moment anyway. This seems to be a publicity stunt to attract potential investment.

CNL/Premier has done a fantastic job of revitalizing this park and making it relevant again, and I am very excited to see the park get it's first new thrill ride in something like a decade. Even though none of us are going to be impressed by yet another so-so super loop, anything new is a big win for this park after so many years of neglect and then re-building. The only fault I have with it is that they are starting to completely ignore the western theme, which everyone around here seems to enjoy about the park. It's like they got a last minute deal on a second super loop and just copied everything over from DL. I hope they update it to fit into the park next season, similar to how they got the flyers at the last minute last year and didn't "theme" it until this year. Just to recap about what's gone on at FC over the last few years, since we don't have an official thread: Six Flags pretty more or less ignored the park leading up to its sale in 2007 to CNL/PARC (this despite SF being headquartered in OKC until 2006 ). PARC completely re-built the park's dark ride in it's first year and started the long process of making general repairs to the entire park. In 2007, they built a Vekoma family invert, FC's first new coaster since 1991 and its biggest investment in about as long. PARC ended up defaulting in 2010 and Premier came onto the scene. Premier has finished up fixing up the park, which has included a ton of major infrastructure including new roofs and bathrooms. Premier also intensified the focus on the summer concert series, which has been very successful and has probably done the most to secure the park's financial footing and relevancy. The addition of a large water play structure in 2012 has also helped secure the park's popularity. Last year Premier added a set of flyers and fixed the classic rotor ride that had been dormant for years. So after all that rebuilding, refocusing, and making the park functional and relevant for families again, it's fantastic to see them go back to adding thrill rides. If this ride is a hit, and I really think it will be, something much bigger should be around the corner...

SDC's facebook feed has been abuzz with a lot of FL updates recently. I think the dalmatian ride looks a bit jarring and out of place considering the historic standards of the park, but that's something that can be gotten over. At least it's dalmatians and not more random elephants. I didn't realize that it's the same ride as the happy frogs, which is the most popular ride in the park for tiny kids. This is definitely an excellent addition for young families that I am appreciating more and more as my toddler nephew starts to enjoy stuff like this. FireFall is also testing, and there's a video of the new play area. It's climate controlled and controlled access, which is nice, but it looks a bit sterile at the moment. They're not done yet though, but it is certainly a lot more flat platform area compared to the crazy layout of the old Geyser Gulch.

The growing popular theory is that this whole thing is a scam on Asian investors. DreamVision sounds and looks like DreamWorks, which asian investors obviously know well. I mean, it only takes a tiny bit of sleuthing on the part of any potential investor to unveil what a sham this company is, but I guess they think they can get a few lazy Chinese billionaires to fork over millions, then they can disappear off the grid. It looks like it's very quickly turning from another laughable concept pitch to a potentially serious case of fraud. Edit - Yet another tidbit: Provident Globals headquarters is a condo address. I guess they got $7 billion to spare by being thrifty.

But at least it's a unique layout, not an attempt at a 100% carbon copy of a western coaster. It's not a good coaster, but whatever, smaller kids will enjoy it. I can get over them "copying" popular design elements like the seating configuration, that's pretty much normal in any industry, but it's the lousy attempts at simply carbon-copying the complete package based on pictures with no thought process behind it that drives me nuts. There is a fairly new knock-off of a Mack water coaster prototype out there somewhere in china that looks so dumb because they tried to simply copy Mack's layout but did a crappy job at it so it's weirdly elongated and pointless looking. They obviously didn't care about figuring out why Mack designed it that way, they just made a poor attempt to reproduce what they saw in a picture. So all that to say: it could be worse.

Anyone close by that can give us an update on the clearing/site work? I'm thinking there must be a good bit of movement out there by now.

I know I said there's too much bizzareness to even bother starting a list, but I can't help it: The announcement made a big freaking deal about how the Alabama Music Hall of Fame would be moved into the park as part of the giant 'Music Mountain' thing, but they haven't even talked to the museum about it yet. So this supposed major partner of the project heard about this apparent plan today for the first time from the announcement. These people can't be serious... http://www.waaytv.com/appnews/dreamvision-the-new-home-to-alabama-music-hall-of-fame/article_2b1a91c0-b21b-11e4-bc1e-ef4a7c040793.html

Anyone want to bet money that isn't true? There is literally nothing about this company that is realistic or trustworthy. My feelings toward them are shifting from bemusement to anger as they pollute more and more press with their supposed grand schemes. We don't need anymore giant boondoggles in this industry.

This has to be a joke.... These guys have their heads so far in the clouds that it seriously isn't funny any more. Seeing all these crazy outlandish plans presented in such a crappy and unpolished manner is driving me nuts. They're going to waste a whole lot of someone's money and muddy up the reputation of the industry. I mean, there are so many bizarre things big and small to point out that I'm not even going to start. Let's hope they encounter reality sooner rather than later and give it up.

Just tuned in... It's already so cringeworthy... The guy is speaking currently is obviously not a public speaker. He keeps talking about reputations and keeps making assurances that they have it figured out, despite not having any details other than "important people are involved". I've seen high-schoolers give more convincing presentations. Oh, and now another speaker is coming on, and he's already talking about Disney again.

LOL They sure do know how to throw around some industry names though. I mean, if it weren't for the $3.5 Billion price tag I'd have a little faith that this could be a possibility. So their "investment firm" is what's based out of Muscle Sholes? Are they really going to propose a second $3.5 billion park over there, or will it be something like studios?

Huh? Where is this expectation for covered footers coming from? I didn't think Knoebels had that kind of theming/landscape standard. Even SDC doesn't do that.

Yeah right, here we go again. I guess it's been a few months since the last multi-billion dollar theme park proposition. They always make a bunch of headlines, then suddenly disappear and we never hear from them again. Why do these flash-in-the-pan "investors" always use such unrealistic locations and numbers? Who really thinks that anyone with $3.5 BILLION dollars is going to hedge it on a massive amusement park in northern Alabama. There's probably room for another small-medium size park in that appoximate area between Huntsville, Memphis, and Nashville, but why go stupid with it? If they had said a $100 million park, I'd be excited because that would actually be a realistic proposition.

This looks like one of those coasters where the designers didn't really get the point of what a roller coaster is supposed to do and just followed conventions while keeping everything as cheap as possible. It looks like a coaster, but what's the real point if it clearly sucks? Still, as someone else from a city without any coasters, I'd be excited for anything too.

I'll second the Cyclone Sam's recommendation. Somehow being enclosed makes that ride 1000x better. They also have an old Eli wheel on a hill next to Patriot that I thought was really cool. Timber Wolf was pretty much unbearable in October. It was so rough I was surprised it was still open for fear of lawsuits. I'm sure it will be better in May, especially since I'm pretty sure they said they would be working on it, but if you are worried about upsetting an injury or something you won't miss much by skipping it.

http://www.joplinglobe.com/news/local_news/historic-bell-rings-in-silver-dollar-city-expansion/article_69de68cf-111f-5f5e-b10a-ba4e9a0c5bea.html It turns out the bell is in fact from the 1890's. It was forged in 1895, but I still haven't heard where it came from yet. Weird how the details on this are so scattered. Usually these types of details are emphasized much more in these articles.

Fireman's Landing has been topped off with it's iconic bell topper. There are pictures and audio here: http://www.hometowndailynews.com/2015/01/22/firemans-landing-on-schedule-to-open-in-march/ More pictures: http://www.ky3.com/news/local/slideshow-silver-dollar-city-shows-off-construction-update-for-firemans-landing/21048998_30846442 Video interview with Brad Thomas: http://www.kspr.com/news/local/video-silver-dollar-city-chief-discusses-new-attraction-coming-in-march/21051620_30834118 As a fairly hardcore fan of this park, I really really really love how they are tying this area into the storyline behind the park itself. In almost every interview about the new area, Brad Thomas and the rest of the park's spokespeople have made a specific effort to point out that this is Firestation #3 for the park, and show how it ties into the theme of the entire park. For those who aren't aware, Silver Dollar City is supposed to be a recreation of the town of Marmaros, a mining town that actually sat on the same spot above Marvel Cave, which was then used for mining bat guano and other things. The town burned to the ground eventually, rumored to be caused by an arson attack staged by the baldknobbers, a group of local vigilantes. This story is told through a lot of the theming details in the park and the Fire-in-the-hole ride. Powderkeg and some other rides also allude to some of it. It really makes the place special to have a cool historical back story to the entire theme that ties everything together. It's a big part of what makes the place special and sets it apart. This area is such a massive improvement over Geyser Gulch in terms of how it fits into the park. Also, I am positive that there are some cool details about that bell, but I haven't been able to dig anything up yet. HDN refers to it as being from 1890, but I'm not sure if that's accurate or not since they're the only source that says that. Usually things like this are crafted by the park or have something unique and special about them.

For $3 million this property could be a steal for someone with a legitimate vision. I could see it becoming a great retreat/summer camp, or some type of resort. I'm glad the Resurrection Mountain idea died early. While it would have been mildly entertaining to see that crash and burn, it's better this way for everyone.