Shavethewhales

They really know how to play this. Are they still out to sue for $40 million?

^^^I know, it should have ran better than it did, and if it weren't for the rain, they could have floated along for this year, until they got an actual thriller to draw in crowds next year. The park is nice, in it's own way, but you have to think, would a cautious investor really want to jump in the boat with a park that died in two months, regardless the cause? For a description of a novelty park, think of Frontier City during the big SF days. It was kinda the butt of the chain, never getting any new rides for decades at a time, and it was never even given the six flags branding. I'm not saying the Hershends would orphan it like SF did, but it would hurt their image to have a comparatively-crap park in Kansas in their portfolio, so I don't think they'd show it off or give it that much attention. ^^Yeahhhhh, but that was kinda different, what with it being so close to SDC an all, I think part of the reason they bought it was to stop any competition from coming in. Plus, they thought it would compliment SDC better than it does. ^Exactly

Good grief, I can't honesty see the Hershends ever buying this place. If they did, it would be a novelty park, and probably not associated with the rest of the chain. Come on, that's like Disney buying this park, it's just no where near the likes of the rest of the parks. Maybe if they spent about 40 million on upgrades, it would be OK, but I don't think they're out to spend over $60 million on a puney park in Kansas that went under in the first two months. I kinda expect the park to die forever unless PARC or Great American picks it up... or maybe a private investor.

I dunno, remember how many people bought season passes? It's possible for people to go to both WWW and WOF. I would have gone several times if I were closer. For a park to have crowds, they don't need to be in the heart of tourist country, they just need enough well-off families around, and Wichita surrounding area has enough... it's just that the park wasn't structured right. Anyway, unless the park gets a miraculously stupid buyer to come in, it's doomed. Thomas may start to sell of assets in a last-ditch attempt to pay off enough debts to re-open the park, but we all know what kind of spiral that leads to.

^^That's not a rumor, sadly. Man, I still can't figure out what's going on with Bell's. Last I heard, the search for new land had been narrowed down to three locations, but they said they would have decided by now...

It's not the end of the line, it's just close. They've been having trouble catching up to their starting expenses, but I've no doubt the local councils will come through and WWW will be given some kind of pass, until the crash and burn again. From what I've heard, most of the days that weren't rained out were pretty active, so even as small as it is, the park has some potential. If they could just live long enough to get a couple thrill rides in they might be fine.

^Wow, I've heard that story a few too many times this year. At least they're using the land for homes and not a parking lot in this case. However, doesn't a good water park increase land values? You'd think keeping the water park would be of better benefit to local investors/developers.

So I took another trip around town today, and the flood waters have pretty much completely dissipated. There are a few additional ponds here and there, but for most of it, a stinking layer of gooey mud is all that remains from the flood. Quite a few houses have been flooded, and the stench from the mildew, coupled with the mud and the occasional rotting fish is just unbearable in some areas. Everywhere the floods went, the grass died, so now we'll have loads of muddy fields everywhere for awhile as well. Kiddie Park fared OK, but they'll still be closed for a few days to clean up and repair some extensive external rust damage to most of the rides. The train tracks have a large layer of rust all the way around, I wonder if that'll force them to replace some of them. The little dipper seems to have made it as well, seeing as the track is supported just high enough in most areas to keep out of the water. The train was put at the top of the lift hill, so it didn't get hurt. I just feel sorry for the people down in Coffeyville, not only did they get flooded out, but thousands of gallons of oil leaked out into the floods, so their town is coated in it. I don't know how they'll clean that up.

Perhaps indeed. It's a fun ride, and easily the best Mine Train in the world as far as forces and track work goes, but I wouldn't call it anything close to a top-ten coaster. Why did DW take out their mine train? Looking more closely at the park for the first time, I'm very surprised the park wasn't built in circle fashion in the first place, like SDC was, but then again, craftsman's valley is fairly new.

It looks like an awesome place, why does it have to close?

My thoughts exactly. PK is simply amazing, and the fact that no parks are hounding after S&S to build them a similar coaster surprises and dismays me. Really, I'd rather take a few rides on PK than ride Wildfire all day. Besides, think of what else S&S could do with that model; I'd love to see them getting into the looping coaster market.

Somebody needs to get some close up shots of the utilities going in, it could be a clue, especially if there's a large concentration somewhere.

^Just because the area is large doesn't necessarily mean they'll be filling it all just yet. They've probably cleared so much so they can set up utilities for future purposes.

Good grief, they never even informed those people that they were building a coaster. You would have thought they would have stapled out some kind of agreement to stop lawsuits and/or expensive noise ordinances. Plus it would have just been nice. Oh well, it should be a gimmie that if you live a stones-throw away from an amusement park, that you'll have to live with this kind of thing.

^Have no fear, the Hershends are masters of keeping trees in place, even with new pathways; just look at the Wilson's Farm area of SDC. However, they are clearing out more than normal... or were there just never trees in the areas shown in the pics? Eh, well, loads of rides use gondolas. I'm still putting my bets on them getting a screamin' swing.

Anyone want to bet on when it will re-open? I wouldn't think until next year, or possibly Christmas. Do any of the other Topple Towers have these problems?

I liked it, kinda... It wasn't a total waste of money, but I doubt I'll ever see it again. The plot wasn't very thick, and the story failed all around to draw you in. Also, you could pretty much see everything coming. It did have a few funny moments, but most of it was just meh. I do think people are too negative toward it though. It deserves 3 stars, not 1.

Well, it's not as bad as we expected it to be. The river finally did crest today, but much of town will remain underwater for several days, and there will be a few new ponds around for awhile. Some of the thousands of dis-placed people will be able to return soon. My town was one of the luckier ones though, just north of here, several towns are being evacuated completely, and in Coffeyville, a refinery is leaking a ton of oil everywhere, so when the floods go down, the town will be covered in it. Some of it may end up down here too... fun.

One car? Geez, that hardly makes it worth running. I'm glad to see it open though, as I absolutely love these rides. Has the park been doing very well?

In her defense, the whole yard/feet system is wack, and there's no reason to use it. The world is on the metric system now.

So I've been on a very long bike ride around town, and although quite a few houses and many streets are underwater, it's not as bad as I thought. Many, many houses have been flooded out, and the evacuations are still going on. I couldn't get very close to kiddie park, because it was deep into the floods. I'm guessing all the rides are a few feet underwater right now. What's worse is that we haven't even begun to see the worst of it yet: the river has yet to crest. It'll be tomorrow night or even Wednesday before the floods really hit. Man I wish I had my camera...

So I woke up this morning to reports that half of my home town, Bartlesville OK, is underwater. 3,000 people were displaced just this morning, and because they have to keep letting water out of several local dams, many thousands more are soon to follow. The flood waters won't even begin to go down for another couple days, and the effects will take over a month to get over. One of the sadder things about all of this is the effect the floods will have on Kiddie Park, located just on the river in downtown Bartlesville, where the waters must be 10 feet high. Most of Kiddie Park's rides are classics, that can't be replaced, so this flood might wipe out practically the whole park. The 1946 Hershell little dipper probably isn't faring too well either. Sooo... Look for us on the news and pray for us/ wish us well/ whatever.

Did you see any signs of that Intamin stand up that was piled there? I'm still wondering what happened to it. I hope PARC got it and plans to put it up again.

It's interesting how many different opinions there are on here. I personally like X's colors, as well as several other schemes that people are griping about. However, there's no excuse for when a coaster gets as faded as the Silver Bullet at Frontier City. Hell, even when it was new these colors looked like crap: Yup, faded turquoise and pinkish red.

Ah, I've always wanted to go to a park like that, they're definitely one of the best places you can go to escape from reality. Did they make the Ice Mountain Bobsled in-house, or did they hire some crazy Japanese company to do it? Also, was the challenge of Mondor new this year?