texcoaster

I'm still reeling over the "shining star in the chain" remark... I had to go back and double-check that we were still talking about SFGAm. Everyone has an opinion and everyone likes what they like, I suppose, but I visited last year for the first time in awhile and was completely underwhelmed. Wizzer was good as always, Little Dipper was an amazing surprise (at how SF... SF!!!... seemed to really care for it), the spinning mouse was beyond psycho, and I always luvs me some impulse shuttle. The other coasters were just meh, IMHO, and a bit of a disappointment. Even Iron Wolf, which I really liked before, had become nearly unrideable and painful. The one other big surprise was Viper, which offered little airtime, few forces, and shallow grades on the drops, but which I really, really enjoyed anyway. I think of it as a "family-friendly Cyclone" and it would be a good middle coaster for lesser enthusiasts trying to move up to the big stuff. SFGAm has its moments, sure... but I'd hardly call it the shining star of the chain. SFOT has a better collection/variety of coasters, SFGAd could also hold its on in that department, and I also thought that the park layout at SFGAm was pretty terrible in terms of flow. BUT These are only my opinions. Everyone has different things that they look for in a park and a different set of criteria for what makes an enjoyable experience. SFGAm just didn't meet very many of mine. Your milage may vary.

Something in Planet Snoopy is going to "break records"? Maybe a ball pit with old LPs and 45s for the kids to smash?

I'm pretty sure that Arkansas Twister is still the largest wood coaster to be relocated. Not sure about steel.

Please. Read and understand: Giant/New Giant

With iRat going in at SFFT, I just don't see anything huge like a gigacoaster going in another park in the same state in the same year. It will most likely be a StarFlyer and DC theming. Since SFFT and GIHPP both have StarFlyers already, that would be craptastic. Oh, well. We'll find out Thursday. In the meantime, you can read my review (finally!) of TG/NTG on my blog

Not to mention, with the big SF announcement day just a couple days away now, they can get to doing some work that won't give away any secrets, since the rehab will have been announced already.

^^If that were the plan, it would make a lot more sense just to put the station next to JRS's and not bother with crossing the road. I'm just hoping that whatever it is, it's not lame like SFStL's "new" ride. I don't mind a used coaster, but make it a GOOD used coaster.

Of course! After all, SFMM and SCBB are the only two parks in the state.

No, it wasn't. The rides were well-themed, yes... but WTF does Bugs Bunny and the Black Knight have to do with the German heritage in that part of the state... which is the part of the park (Spaßburg) it sits in. And Road Runner/Wile E. Coyote theming was cute, but it sits in Crackaxle Canyon, the Old West section! Don't even get me started on Superman invading the other end of Spaßburg or Poltergeist sitting on the edge of Rockville. Premier didn't do the park any favors on theming, true dat, but Warner was the one who started the character tie-ins that had nothing to do with the original charm and theme of the park.

Yeah, that's bad, but it's no worse than putting Titan, which is a name from Greek Mythology, in the Texas section of SFOT next to the Texas Giant... and painting a big Texas flag on the roof of the station isn't enough to make it fit there.

re: Gotham I think the queue theming for Freeze and Batman are pretty well done at SFOT, but the rest of the area trying desperately to be Gotham-themed is just silly. There's some lame flat spinning thing and a bunch of carnival games. Seriously, did you ever see Whac-a-mole in any Batman movie or comic? WTF? Anyway, YES please theme the queues, especially if it gives us something to look at while we wait in line. And take the money you spent trying to theme the rest of the area and use it to theme the RIDE as well. The Freeze queue is pretty cool (sorry), but as soon as the ride launches out of the building, there's NOTHING to keep you in that mindset. Same for Batman. And here's something off-topic (sorta) that just popped into my head: someone should enclose a Batman coasters zero-G roll in a tunnel. Take it from the base of the first loop to the entrance to the next loop. That would be a truly disorienting feeling in the dark!

Try being in Houston, where the lack of a theme park in the past 7 yrs has created an upcoming generation of kids who know about coasters from the internet - and all of those videos have kinda merged together in their minds. Someone will say, "ooo have you been on that coaster in Ohio?" and then when I ask, "which one? Ohio has a ton of coasters..." and they say, "I don't know, I saw it on TV. I think it was green, or maybe blue."

^ While I agree 100% with Robb (please mark that on your calendars!) that SF should theme their rides, to a point, I'm sick to death of multiple kinds of coasters receiving the same name and logo. When people find out that I'm a coaster nut, they'll invariably ask if I've been on [coaster that they've ridden] and it makes it confusing as hell sometimes, especially if they can't remember which park it was in. If they ask, "have you been on Boulder Dash?" I can easily answer that, but if they ask, "have you been on Viper?" I have no idea whether they mean the wooden family cyclone at SFGAm, the Arrow multi at SFMM, the shuttle loop at SFOG, the TOGO craptastic torture device at SFGAd, the Schwarzkopf looper at SFAW, or some other totally different contraption using the same name, same logo, etc. I understand that it saves SF money on t-shirt designs and souvenirs, but come ON. At least be consistent! Batman: The Ride is a good example. Been on one, you know what people are talking about. The variations on Superman, though... Superman Ultimate Flight, Superman Krypton Coaster, Superman Ultimate Escape, Superman Ride of Steel, Superman Tower of Power, Superman (insert lame-ass name addition here) are one way to differentiate the different coaster types (yay!) but the long names have all the locals shortening them to just "Superman" anyway, and we're right back to the confusion. Bah. Next up: Six Flags is bought out by Chick Fil-A and renames all the coasters "Holy Roller"

OOOOOO, I got it! In order to capitalize on the latest thing, all the restraints will be covered in black leather, the train will be black with silver studs, they'll handcuff your wrists to the grab bar handles, and the ride op will let you know beforehand that it's going to hurt and you're going to like it anyway. The structure and station will be painted in fifty shades of gray.

Yes, we can all give examples of SF theme fail. My question is, if SF were to abandon area theming altogether and just theme the rides individually, would it reduce your enjoyment of the park, or do the themed areas really matter?

A recent post in the SFOT thread suggested that the big announcement for 2013 would be transforming the Gotham area into a DC Comics area, allowing for more characters and theming. That brings me to a question: would anyone care, or would that announcement be seen as craptastic? Some parks like SDC have a basic overall theme for the entire park with minor variations of that theme in certain areas. It seems to work well. Other parks like IOA or Disney have multiple themes carried out with elaborate detail. This seems to work, also. But SF themed areas just seem to fail miserably, IMHO. Ride theming is usually limited to the station and queue line building, park area theming is mostly just the names and logos on the various shops. The question is, do these themed areas make you enjoy the park any more than you would if the park were just a collection of rides? I enjoy themed rides a lot, but I could care less whether the area around it is themed. Even Holiday World, with its definite themed areas, feels pretty homogenous other than the ride names. I wouldn't like it any less if it were not themed at all. Cedar Point seems to have gotten the idea and doesn't seem to be any worse for it.

So this post was meant to calm everyone down and have them considering that the announcement might even be crappier than SFStL's. No real rides or anything, just some crap theming. That possibility planted in everyone's head leads to much less anticipointment later when they announce something other than a badass, one-of-a-kind coaster. Well played.

I'd love to see a massive MaxAir frisbee go in... or maybe even an impulse coaster. I wouldn't even mind a GIB, since they're doing the "go bigger" angle, throw in a StarFlyer and there you go.

Nuttin wrong with getting a woodie... but why would you think Apocalypse rather than Roar?

Well, as long as we're all fantasizing (everyone except SFStL, anyway), let's just cram Expedition GeForce in that space (slightly larger, because Texas). There's even room left over for the giant StarFlyer and a LoCoSuMo style TGG woodie or even a water coaster! In my dreams...

I know Bizarro isn't moving. That's why I said "Bizarro/Scream/Medusa standard SF floorless" I'm thinking that given the odd shape and small footprint of that space, whatever they get might be custom.

That would mean extensive redesign of the trains. If they're doing that anyway, they'd need to remove the OTSRs... I can only imagine hitting the cobra roll first while going backwards with OTSRs. Lawsuits, anyone?

After figuring out how to fit Bizarro/Scream/Medusa standard SF floorless into the SFOT space, I thought I'd see if the Ultimate Flight flyer would fit there. It won't. No matter how I flipped, mirrored, rotated... it either goes out into the street or it runs into Batman. If they do get a flyer, it won't be the standard clone.

Yes, but SF isn't trying to be Dollywood or Busch. Neither is Busch trying to be Dollywood and none of the above are trying to be Disney. If there were any two chains that were truly in the same market for customers, I'd go with SF and Cedar Fair. And while CF generally runs their parks a bit better (IMHO), I think their target market is similar - namely thrillseekers and younger adults. Yes, there are some childrens' areas in the parks, but they're really separated into the main park and the kiddieland. Dollywood, Busch, and especially Disney try to spread out their family-friendly experiences all over the parks and cater more towards families than thrill-seekers. Yes, they have thrill rides too, but they don't seem to be the main focus. I'd bet that even if Dollywood had twice the budget and tons of expansion room, they'd not put 16 coasters in that park. I bet you WOULD see a boatload of flats, interactive rides, water rides, and other stuff (like shows), though.

Sixteen. Had to look some up, as they've changed names since I rode them.