jamesdillaman

This thread offends me. I'm going to boycott TPR until it is removed. You'll hear from my lawyers!

I still think many big corporate parks could use a real good darkride. It seems to be a lost artform in the states.

^ Seems like someone doesn't like clowns...

The dark lord kathulu is not pleased and will strike down the new ark park...

I refuse to think on this any further until I get a clue from Rockapella...

^ Most marketing materials are released before the rides are built. It's hard to have pictures of a ride before it exists.

^ Does that count as a ride accident?

^ It would be easier to see if it were bigger.

HA!!

We all believe you...

Jeff, I would take a page from the Son of Beast playbook and steer clear of any inversions. Silly tricks like that are fun and all, but they seem to take away from the wooden coaster experience as a whole. I really like the idea of dueling tracks with one being more family and one for more thrillseekers. Any time you can involve other rides it makes both of them more exciting. (See: Kennywood's Thunderbolt and Phantom's Revenge). You don't have to race them, but occupying the same footprint would be pretty awesome, and as far as I can tell, truly unique.

Tried to upload it to Coastertube, as I like that better, but a debug message came up and it didn't seem to work, Oh well. YouTube horribleness it needs to be for now...

Finally figured out how to get footage off my digital camcorder into iMovie with iMovie 11, so here's my first attempt ever at creating a movie. I thought I'd choose some theme park footage for my first go around, and I thought Dollywood would be one of the best. Hope you enjoy!

If it means anything to you, I'd travel to Louisiana to ride an Intamin Woodie. There's only one other one in the country, so you would definitely draw most of the south and middle of the country's coaster enthusiasts to your doorstep. One thing I'll add, though, is a great coaster doesn't necessarily make the park. Kentucky Rumbler is a great coaster, for sure, but it doesn't necessarily make Beech Bend Park a destination in and of itself. Many people just stop there to ride rumbler on their way to Holiday World or Kings Island. A great idea in my opinion is to have a solid top ten woodie, (which doesn't need to be the biggest, fastest, longest, etc.) and back it up with some decent flat rides and some atmosphere to the park. A big reason people love Dollywood is they really create an atmosphere to their park. Not a ton of money was spent on theming the general public areas, but enough time and thought were put into it that it really shines through. Good luck with your venture and I hope to visit someday!

^^ Love it. You've already put more thought into this than the planners have. That's the truly sad thing...

Ok. I'll say it. I've been on the ride. It wasn't that good. Sure it was old and a "classic" but no where NEAR my top ten woodies. It just doesn't seem worth it to me...

The Cincinnati Zoo's two manatees, Slip and Lil' Joe, are to be released back into the wild in Florida. Cincinnati has a very strong Manatee exhibit, and received replacements which are there now. Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/09/21/Cincinnati-Zoos-manatees-soon-to-depart/UPI-33991253553117/

My absolute favorite part is neither of them has even been on the coaster! HA!! I'm emailing them to talk to them about saving Son of Beast right now. "It's the tallest and fastest wooden coaster on the planet, and it's just sitting there!!! Can't someone in New Zealand do SOMETHING!!!"

Great job, Rob! (I also from now on will refuse to recognize the false 'b'!!!)

^^ Where's the trip report from SFGAm?

^ Seems like a survival tactic in an economy that is stalled out for the moment. Until there's more growth in the job market and people get more expendable income, Amusement parks will suffer. It isn't that less people are going, but I'm willing to bet that parks made less money on every guest while IN their parks this summer than say the summer of 2000. Every industry has been scaling down and cutting costs. Decreasing overhead is a great way to maintain profit during an economic slowing like we're experiencing. If they have quality people in the positions, hopefully it will buy them the time until growth returns to the job market. On a side note, being a marketer myself, I like the idea of consolidating the sales and communications department under a single director of marketing. It helps if they move and act as one voice in a company. Some of these moves make sense to me, but it is always a danger when you get rid of quality managers... -James Dillaman

EVERYBODY needs to vote. This is gonna happen!

Arizona will never get anything built if they keep trying to push out the mexicans... You ever deal with a white construction workforce? Lazy and never on time. I saw 5 mexicans put up a roof in like 2 hours. Amazing. Stupid Arizona. Their just mad because they're old and will die soon.

If you take the rural roads, it's 3.5 hours, but if you stick to major highways, it's 4 hours. Google Maps says 3 hours 58 minutes, and you have to go through Columbus or Dayton, which both can add a half hour depending on what time of day you go through them...

I get to get on one sooner without you in line... fine by me.