abovethesink
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abovethesink last won the day on November 16 2023
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Hersheypark (HP) Discussion Thread
abovethesink replied to robbalvey's topic in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
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Haha yeah, I was being facetious. Obviously it is a stylized, cartoony Bobcat. They just don't have stripes like that all the way through their outside of their fur. Just hints of them as you can see from your picture. They also aren't orange. They basically hybridized a Bobcat and an exotic cat like a Leopard/Jaguar/Tiger/whatever for effect.
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My view on this has evolved to basically one smaller concern that impacts manufactures and by extension mostly us coaster nerds. Think about the last decade or so, (not going to worry about an exact window) and compare what coasters Six Flags and Cedar Fair have purchased for their parks. Cedar Fair has, for the most part, gone with the tried and true big manufacturers and their established, proven models. Six Flags has been much more willing, for the most part, to play around with the cheaper and more experimental upstarts. Six Flags may have been moving away from this anyway prior to the merger, but whether they have or not we have lost the reality of two different companies having the potential of having two different minds as to what type of attractions that they want to build. The big example is RMC. They probably never get off the ground without the penny pinching Six Flags we have known. The chain also tossed up 4D Free Spins, brought back the compressed air launch, worked with Premier Rides, the new Vekoma boomerang model, etc. How much we like these things individually aside, they were decisions Cedar Fair has been much less likely to make. By extension they are decisions that the new combined company would be unlikely to make had they not already happened. Of course, you can easily flip this too. Six Flags wouldn't have done all these Gigas or worked with the more expensive Mack Rides as obvious examples. The loss isn't specifically the chances that Six Flags has taken, but that we will have lost an entire independent way of thinking about these decisions. Where there were two corporate minds, there is now one. The coasters going into all our regional parks going forward are going to be much more homogenous in nature. Maybe better overall, maybe worse overall, maybe there will be no overall quality change. Either way, there is likely to be less variety. That is a bummer to me.
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There is no ground for the FTC to block the merger. There has to be a legal argument that the chain would be anti-competitive and there isn't one like there is with the big tech companies that the FTC is going after. Whether those arguments against the tech companies are strong enough to be legally valid is beyond the purview of a forum like this, but they are easy to understand and follow with a couple minutes research. What argument could they put forth about this being anti-competitive? There are the three well documented markets with arguable competitive crossover, but those markets are still saturated with other competitors. No argument there to block the whole merge. Maybe to divest one of the properties, but with all the other nearby competition that would be a tough argument to make. I think the "nightmare" scenario for the new chain is that they have to pick one each of SFMM/Knotts, SFA/KD, and SFGA/Dorney and sell off the other and I would call even that unlikely. There is nothing to work with in terms of blocking the whole merger.
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They have competed because they had different ownership. Parks next to each other don't necessarily have to compete. They can use a synergy based strategy instead. The main example of this in the US right now is all the sister parks in Orlando. If there is a market big enough to replicate that in, I would say LA fits the bill. Sell two day passes with a day at each park, offer a shuttle if it makes sense, offer a cheaper season pass option that includes those two parks and excludes the rest of the chain, etc. There is a small change regulators make them divest one of the properties but I doubt it.
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Ya'll ready for Six Flags Cedar Point? Joking (hopefully, I don't think they would mess with that branding) aside, this leaves me with a sick feeling in my gut. If we get an elevation of the Six Flags parks towards previous Cedar Fair standards, I will be the first in here and everywhere I post to praise the new mega-chain. That just isn't what my gut is telling me to expect. When corporate power consolidates in a well developed industry, consumers suffer more often than not. Here is to hoping this is an exception, I guess. There certainly is a world in which the mega-chain maintains the Cedar Fair standards and slowly elevates the key Six Flags parks up to say a King's Island or Cedar Point quality experience. It isn't like the elite Six Flags parks are THAT far behind, I guess. I just don't feel good about any of this. Maybe it is just the Six Flags branding sticking around that is getting to me. Maybe that is a meaningless distinction. In one sense it was probably a no brainer to go with it from a marketing perspective. Six Flags is a nationally known brand while Cedar Fair isn't. I just don't want one national brand. I want unique regional experiences.
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Yes, my dream would be to get hand me down family coasters from the chain when they close and replace Steamin Demon with some sort of small but real thrill coaster. An original raptor clone would be a dream, but it could be something as simple as a Euro-fighter. I would be less thrilled with say a 4D Free Spin or a Sky Rocket II, but beggars and choosers. Any of that would be a huge upgrade. As for the hand me downs, a wild mouse and a family spinner would be great when other parks need the room. Re-using the old building, as you suggested, would be the cherry on top. I'd say none of that will actually happen unfortunately, but I would have said the same about The Bobcat. Pretty hilarious that The Great Escape will have Six Flags first Gravity Group.
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I did not expect them to actually replace the Bobsled maybe ever and they are doing it immediately with a perfect fit for the park! This is 100% a family park and adding good family coasters is the absolute ideal. Amazing news. Anyone know if this is a clone of an existing GG Family Woodie or is it a unique layout?
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I am very happy to see this, don't get me wrong, but I am a little surprised to see all the "perfect fit" comments. Of course I do get that literally any new coaster is basically a great fit because the park has been so starved for one. However, I wouldn't have chosen this model even though I expect to like it fine. Yeah, it has the beyond vertical drop, but otherwise it is a B&M sit down steel looper not too dissimilar to Hyrda and at least in the same realm as Talon. There are tons of models that would have been a better fit in my opinion. A modern woodie, any RMC, a B&M surf coaster, any flyer, anything that spins, a launched coaster with an actual layout, etc. I could keep going. Beggars and choosers, I know. To be clear I am not remotely upset about this. I am thrilled, actually. I haven't been back to Dorney in close a decade even though I live in NY and visit PA parks almost annually. There just has been no reason to go back so I always skip it. Now there is a great reason and I look forward to not only checking this out but also re-experiencing the rest of the lineup. It is just that my reaction to this has been "wow, that's amazing that Dorney is getting this, but also kind of a weird choice" and everyone else seems to be thinking "great choice!" so I couldn't help but comment on that.
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Cedar Point (CP) Discussion Thread
abovethesink replied to robbalvey's topic in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
Honestly I think this is a bit of a push in terms of ride quality. Lose the great launch, add a fun, 300+ foot backwards vertical incline and vertical drop, and end up with a more full length coaster. I don't think this is any better or worse. It is just a different ride. And if the ride quality is a wash, then the added up time should make it a win if it actually delivers on that promise. Seems like it should. -
Why hasn't this thread been renamed yet? Anyway, we took our first trip to Niagara Amusement Park on 7/1 to hop on Silver Comet. I'll keep this brief as we didn't do much. First, the open areas of the park look nice with well kept landscaping. There are lots of kids rides when you first walk in running now. The other side of the park past the Old West area where the coaster is remains sparse, but they seem to be working on it. You can't see The Serpent from inside the park except from Silver Comet as far as I could tell, but you could see it from the road and it looks fully constructed from that angle. It is next to the ferris wheel which I thought was supposed to be open but I didn't see a path too. Not that we looked hard as we were just there for the coaster. Silver Comet is fine. It runs pretty well but those CCI twister layouts just aren't my thing. The operations were more notable than the ride itself. Swarms of kids were just overrunning the thing and crossing into any row they felt like with no awareness of whether people were in line for those rows or not. The ride ops only tried to keep minimal control so it was certainly a different sort of chaos. A couple other notes: Bathrooms? As far as we could tell the only bathroom was near the entrance which is pretty awkward. I am assuming there must be another one in the still seemingly closed off area because otherwise this park requires strange backtracking just to pee. Not that it is big, but still. If there is another bathroom anywhere open right now, two different employees didn't know about it when we asked. Or maybe they want to keep it to themselves. We ate in the Wild West area BBQ spot which brought on two different shows. First were the show of the disgruntled employees. I felt for them as an off the clock employee and the two working the little restaurant ranted back and forth about a lack of hours. We were the only ones in there and they went on and on in full rant mode. One of the employees working also kept coming out and trying to give us more food for free. Boredom? Kindness? Trying to avoid throwing out sides as they aged? I have no idea, but I can definitely say I had never experienced that before. The second show was the planned one. Well planned by the park. We just happened to still be there eating ice cream when it started so we watched the Old West Shootout story before we left. It was fun and I am glad we did. That's really it. We will probably be back when or maybe if they get the Zyklon up and running and add the shuttle loop. I am glad to see investment happening in the park and I am definitely curious to see it return to full power in the future.