Shavethewhales

^^The official line is something along the lines of going back to what the ride was originally designed for. Apparently it opened with only forward facing cars, and even though it operated for well over a decade with the backwards cars somebody looked at it last year and decided it wasn't acceptable anymore. Must have been somebody trying to sue over neck injury or an insurance company being pissy or something. It really sucks because they truly added to the ride and made it more unique.

Part 2. Grandfather's mansion, one of the last of the old-fashioned walkthrough attractions left in the world. One of the new LED trees. My camera isn't terribly good with low light levels, so bear with me a little on some of these. It gets pretty crowded on this street at night. This is the way to go if you don't want to battle the big hill on the other side. With the parade and the tree lighting show, there's always a ton of people trying to move through here. It got so crowded they started funneling people through this back entrance way because they were overflowing the turnstiles I assume. Did you know SDC sits on land that is leased for 99-years at a time from a church in Branson? Gotta love the christmas shops The christmas parade is always a cute touch. It's quite small so it can fit SDC's tiny streets, but the kids love it. Like everything else it ends with a nativity scene. This didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped, but I was trying to show how the city transforms into a forest of lights. All you can see is trees and lights at night. The crowds definitely taper off quickly when the temperature drops. A lot of SDC's visitors are still old people and young families. Moving on to the next day: here you can see how much Wildfire sticks out these days. It used to be hard to see until they built the new parking lots. It was colder and wet today so the crowds just did not show up again. Most of what you can see of ThuNderaTion. No backwards cars on this thing anymore Marathon riding Wildfire again made me realize the winning formula they have with these things and why Wild Eagle is designed the way it is. They hit a good place between fun and thrilling and the scenery ain't bad either. There is still an awesome view from the top. It being wet meant that Powderkeg kept having to close constantly. Apparently the transfer table can't lift when it's wet. Just a little engineering oversight. Yet another attempt to capture PK's fireball. The inside of the saloon before the show starts. Like I said, it was quite enjoyable. God I love the trees here I think this is where I'll stop. Thanks for reading!

This PTR is over a month late because my life has been ridiculously busy lately, but I figure better late than never since SDC is a little bit under-represented in the community considering how big and awesome the park is. I've got a ton of photos, so I don't know if I'll end up posting every single one here, but if you're pining for more I've got a ton on the SDCFans fansite: http://sdcfans.com/photos/feat/21 Onto the review: Black Friday is typically one of those days you're warned against hitting up SDC as it tends to be one of if not the most crowded day of the season. However, even if that's so there's still a lot to enjoy about the park even with crowds, so our family always makes the 4 hour trek to the park no matter what. As it turned out, the weather was very good and the park was offering a discount admission promotion that day, so crowds were indeed pretty large. Luckily, SDC is a diverse park with diverse visitors, so I enjoyed myself just the same catching a few rides, looking at lights, watching craftsmen, seeing the parade, eating awesome food, etc. The next day was cold and wet, so all of those crowds suddenly disappeared! I was able to almost walk onto Powderkeg most of the morning, and Wildfire and TGS were walk ons as well. Here are the important points that I can remember: The Mine Restaurant is the best restaurant on the park these days, IMO. It's a great all you can eat buffet with salad, drink, and desert included for $15. It's good food too, see my pic below. Wildfire's queue line is perpetually flowing out of the station these days because they refuse to open the queue lines inside the station any more. Maybe out of fear of vandalism or something? If you see a huge line stretching out the doors, it might only be 15 mins wait or less. I got to see a few markers for SDC's 2013 addition along the train route. At this point, construction has actually started with earth moving equipment spotted doing work this weekend. 2012 will be a year of festivals and shows similar to what Dollywood did when Adventure mountain was delayed, but 2013 is pretty much bound to be a huge coaster by the looks of it. Go see the shows, especially at Christmas! I didn't get into the Christmas Carol this year, but I did enjoy Frontier Fa-la-la-la Follies. SDC's shows are much better than most other parks. New light additions this year included more LED replacements of older lights, including a neat blue tree with white flashing icicles that was a really neat effect in person. Obligatory entrance shot so you know where we are. I believe this one is 5 stories tall. Tried to get a unique shot of TGS while looking for construction markers nearby. I'm no good a framing apparently. Wildfire looked like this or worse most of the day, but it actually wasn't a terrible wait. It was much worse during Moonlight madness when the line stretched back to AP's queue entrance. It's no wonder Wildfire made a million riders this year with all the promotions. Crowded city streets. Here's this year's new addition, Half Dollar Hollar, a large play area for very young kids that also includes a refurbished carousel and a kiddie swing ride from CC, among other things. The train is still probably the top ride here at SDC. Right now the train cars are in the process of being completely rebuilt. Here you can see one of the new train cars (the one with the curved black roof) next to the older style. It's got a bit more head room, but is otherwise pretty similar. The old body from that car ended up on the train route at the "crash site". I love how SDC uses pieces of their old attractions as theming. If you look close around the park, you'll see a number of old rides being re used as one thing or another. Here's grandpa on the train route to tell us the nativity story. Almost every show at SDC during Christmas involves telling the nativity story in some way. Be sure to support SDC's craftsmen and women, they produce some awesome stuff and are always really interesting and informative to watch. This guy uses a small spinning saw to cut intricate designs into glass. Here's one of his designs. Keep in mind this is all done with a little spinning saw that's stuck on a table. He has to move the glass around on this wheel to cut the design. More glass items in the glass shop. Just a guy sticking his rod in a glory hole. And now for the best craft of all: the FOOD I think most of these are still made on site, hard to say anymore. I highly recommend the apple dumpling in cinnamon-vanilla ice cream. Fresh cinammon bread right out of the oven. ooooooh yeah Close up action. Here was my best meal at the park. Like I said, this is in the mine restaurant where you get a full buffet for $15, drink included I think. The sign for more information. Now onto the lights I guess I'd better break this up into two posts so it doesn't get too long. More photos coming in a minute!

^^ Anyone know what that could mean? I know some have said they might get some kind of water park addition, but that seems nonsensical to me since they don't have that much land there and they have a complete water park down the road. I could see them putting in a little splash pad/water fortress play area like some parks have done, but I expect they're more likely to just add a water ride like a splash battle. They could also be rebuilding their aging log flume. It's getting pretty late for it to be something very sizeable though... ^Can't tell if sarcasm, but isn't GL still rusting in place at the moment?

An update on the Frontier City situation: soil testing drills have been spotted in the old Six Flags HQ parking lot on the very south end of the park outside Wildcat's first drop. There are markers all over the parking lot including a stake that is on the other side of the lot by the roadway. This is a prime piece of land for a showy attraction being right next to the roadway and in front of everything, and it's large enough yet out of the way enough that they're either going to put a coaster here or they're making new area of the park. There's a photo here (I don't have permission to repost yet): http://sdcfans.com/forums/index.php?topic=1380.msg36423#msg36423 This actually has me excited. If they were going to go with a basic flat, there are other areas in the park I think they'd put it. This piece of land seems like it would be reserved for a coaster, especially with Burke and Story behind the scenes now. I could see an euro fighter 420 working perfectly here.

Frontier city just posted this on their facebook: http://www.facebook.com/frontiercitythemepark Sounds like something good will be coming to the park. I fully expect a thrill ride at this point given their current market, but a water ride would certainly not be out of the question if they can find a place to fit it. I doubt they're getting a coaster yet though. My hopes are for a Zamperla discovery or a similar frissbee ride, but I wouldn't mind a starflyer, power surge, or, well, really anything at this point

Hmm, maybe they bought the old ARM drop tower from Bell's Amusement Park. It was a park model, and I know it was repossessed by the manufacturer after Bell's closed down, but I haven't seen it pop up anywhere else. I don't know that it was 140ft though... Either way, this is going to be a killer addition to a park that is steadily growing more awesome all the time.

Like I said earlier in this thread, officials at SDC have already come out and said that for 2012 they will focus on general improvements and festivals. However, 2013 is a definitely looking like a coaster year. I was at the park this weekend (photo TR coming tomorrow) and got to finally see the construction markings myself. There's not much, and you have to be really quick while riding the train to look back after the tunnel and spot them in the trees, but they are definitely there, and it looks like they may get started moving some water lines and the like around this off-season in preparation. We'll see what happens, but all my money is on a custom GCII with the station located where the old train robbery cabin and the first drop down into the valley on the other side of the train tracks. There's a lot of great terrain there to work with. I'm surprised so many of the workers are specifically talking about next year though - makes me wonder if this project was originally planned for next year but got pushed back a year when the 2011 season ended up being so sluggish.

Ugh, I was hoping they'd settle down and actual focus on improving the properties they've already got (namely Frontier City). At this rate they're just going to end up with a bunch of crappy properties that they neglect until their empire crumbles again.

I'm surprised Zamperla doesn't have a bigger presence this year, or have you just not made it over there yet? They have such a huge catalog, I'm sure they've got at least a couple of new additions as well.

Did GCII reveal the coaster that they teased on their Facebook page yet? I couldn't tell if that was an older model, or if it was something new.

Do you think they bought Celebration City's old Revechon portable flume? It's not listed on ITAL anymore, but it is on Rides4U: http://rides4u.com/index.php/rides/detail/1262 They've been trying to get rid of it for 3 years now, so I'd imagine it's the best deal on the market for a semi-portable flume.

It sounded like GCII might have some projects to announce or hint at this year judging from their last facebook post. I'm hoping they at least hint at something in the U.S., because I'm dieing to see the rumor that SDC is getting a woodie in 2013 come true.

^Dippin Dots doesn't actually have employees on the ground, IIRCC. They license their product out to various parks/malls/concessionaires and individual licensees actually sell the product. For all the assumptions people are making about the company based off this news, they were actually fairly successful, they just put their debt into the wrong hands apparently. Sounds like the bank may just be being ridiculous and trying to make a quick buck here. I'm sure the company will be able to work itself out of bankruptcy if they are allowed to.

Damn, this park has really grown in the 6 or so years it's been since I've been there. Looks like they've got at least 3 major flats now, which is great. I don't remember them having any to speak of when I was there, save for an enterprise or something that wasn't even open. Why did they get another swinging ship 50 meters away from the old one? Was old-one too worn out or something? Also, what happened to that bear coaster? It was there for like 1 season, but it looked like they put so much work into it.

There is a strong rumor going around that SDC will get a woodie in 2013. Multiple people on SDCFans have reported being told by various park workers that a wooden coaster is coming to the area by The Giant Swing. This matches up with one of the recent concept surveys the park passed out, where one of the concept pitches was a wooden coaster by Wilson's Barn. Apparently markers have already started showing up in the area. In 2012, however, the park will only work on general improvements and festival additions, as has been confirmed by management.

Bumping this thread to bring this to attention: http://www.engineeringexcitement.com/rides/kiddie-rides/monkey-madness Looks like the new kiddie flat ride that S&S will premier at IAAPA this year, unless this has been around and I've just never seen it before. I'm not quite sure I get how it works, but I guess it involves the gondolas rising in the air and spinning around the y-axis like a teacup in the air... sort of.

Thanks for grabbing the pics. It's right on my route through Tulsa but I haven't stopped by yet since it didn't seem like they were going to get much running before winter. I wonder how many rides he'll get for the next few months with snow and cold weather on the way... It will be interesting to see if he can cram another couple of kiddie rides and maybe the scrambler or octopus in there, then maybe he can make a little money. Does this flea market actually attract many people? It looks extremely ghetto from the aerials.

If the Gyrocoaster is indeed S&S's new idea, then I'd be a bit disappointed. It just seems like too much. With so much movement going on in the gyroscope, what's the point of having it move along a track as well? It just seems like it'd give most people a massive headache and be a maintenance nightmare. I'd rather them focus on what has made PK great and follow other's examples in developing drop tracks and other truly ride-enhancing effects.

^ Maybe you should look at an aerial of AT... http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Alton+Towers%4052.989203,-1.885014&t=h&z=17&vpsrc=0 IIRC, Oblivion is able to rise above the tree line in it's specific location because there are other trees which block the line of site between it and the neighbors. Anyway, as far as a B&M launch goes, I think too many people underestimate the progression of technology and engineering in this field. I do not think it will be hard for B&M to come up with a reliable launch system at all. Rather, the difficulty probably lies in making one that is ALSO cost effective, easily maintainable, is energy efficient, and maintains a high factor of safety. It has always been a question of whether it was worth it for the company to pursue such a design with limited reception and numerous technological issues to work out, not whether or not it was possible for B&M to do a launch system. Balancing all the factors at once is what makes real engineering so difficult. Until now, I can definitely see why it would have been counter productive for them to enter the launch field when their other products are still doing so well and their competitors are having to spear-head all the issues that launch systems have thrown. Now B&M can march into the field with high expectations from their customers their name unmarred by the issues caused by some of the early prototypes. The same goes for the 4d concept.

Good grief... Not sure what to think about this. One one hand, I'm happy to see part of Bell's come back and Robby working again, but on the other, I can't help but think this looks crazy desperate. How much cash is he expecting to get from operating a couple kiddie rides on the odd weekend? Meh, at least he's working again, and it seems like he won't give up till Bell's is truly rebuilt. This is the area btw: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=51st+St.+and+57th+West+Avenue+tulsa+ok&hl=en&ll=36.088991,-96.0566&spn=0.004396,0.014656&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=35.273162,86.572266&vpsrc=6&t=h&z=17 Not exactly prime real estate, but it should get consistent business for the kiddie rides I guess.

Nice job. I only live like 30mins away from FC, but I probably won't go this year. There's just nothing to draw me in anymore - after spending an hour in the park riding the coasters a couple of times I get bored pretty quick. It's worth noting that while the park didn't necessarily improve that much between last year and this one, the two years before last have been phenomenal for the park. Everything is clean, repainted, and operational (well, mostly). Do you have any shots of the opera house or general street shots of the park? I know they refurbished the outside of a number of the old facades this year. It sucks about the slow operations though. They've always been slow, but then again they've never had so many people in the park before. I couldn't believe how many people were in that video. It used to be that the trains on the coasters were never even full most of the time. From what I've heard this has been an extremely successful year for them. Burke and Co. have done a great job advertising the park, which is really the only think PARC didn't do well. It sounds like we might actually get something good for next year, with the park this successful and the way Burke operates.

Holy crap, the park really got it. I've gotten used to seeing Knoebel's flooded, but this one really did some damage to the park. It actually tore out a lot of the pavement in several areas of the park and washed it downstream! It looks like some of the rides like the smaller carousel are damaged so badly that at the very least they will need extensive repairs. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if they stayed closed for the rest of the season, but they'll probably have the park open again in time for the halloween events. It's a good thing Knoebels is good at flood repairs. This does probably mean that any work on Black Diamond and Flying Turns will be postponed - probably for the rest of the season.

Unless I'm mistaken, that notice has been on their site since before they even put out that POV a few months ago. I expect they're going to get Black Diamond open first, hopefully in time for the October Events. It doesn't seem like there's enough time to get it working for this year, but if they're this confident now, then with a full off-season of work there's no reason why it won't be open for next summer.

Are there any "classic" train rides around anymore that involve stopping for a skit or having live actors interact with the train in any way? I know Silver Dollar City's train ride still has it's skit, but it seems like most parks just operate their trains like they're some kind of kiddie ride these days. Maybe I'm imagining it, but it seems like back in the old days a lot more train rides had skits intertwined with them or something else happen along the way... but maybe I'm spoiled because I grew up with SDC and Dry Gulch (which used to have a kick-ass train ride).