Twisterfan1995

Not bad. Theming looks a bit simple but nice. Only wish would be that they made it more Bavarian/Alpine themed - but it should fit into the area reasonably well.

I'm not gonna hold my breath for anything dramatic either. Think it will really come down to if Six Flags ever decides that its worthwhile to substantially commit/invest in the park (and given a lot of nearby development/noise restrictions the town has placed on it, along with that supposed agreement where Six Flags would be on the hook for new road infrastructure if attendance/traffic ever gets to a certain point - I don't know if that would be soon). Good news is that the park seems to do alright financially on its own from what I can tell (having an onsite indoor waterpark resort helps) and Lake George is always a popular tri-state vacation destination, so I wouldn't be terribly surprised if it ever gets to a point of penciling out, especially if Bobcat does well, and essentially follow the same blueprint again and gradually replace the older coasters with modern upgrades. Great Escape is an underrated park IMO - it actually feels more like an independent family-focused park than a six flags park with solid atmosphere and theming. Now it just needs a couple actually decent coasters/thrill rides in order to fulfill its potential. Edit: my master plan for the park if I were GM: 1) Replace Canyon Blaster with one of: Modern Vekoma/S&S Mine Train Zierer Force Coaster Gerstlauer/Mauer Sohne Spinning Coaster Zamperla Family Thrill Launch Coaster RMC Family Coaster Vekoma New Family Boomerang 2) Fill in the "Nightmare at Crackaxle Canyon" building with either: RMC Wild Moose (with some dark ride elements if possible depending on how RMC's remodel of Fire In The Hole at SDC goes) Sally Corp Dark Ride - maybe themed to a Western Style shooting Gallery? 3) Put Steamin Demon out to pasture, replace with one of: Gerstlaurer Eurofighter or Infinity Coaster/Zierer Tower Coaster RMC Raptor Vekoma STC or Western-themed MotoCoaster slightly extended/scaled up B&M Family-Wing coaster (i.e. Maximus at Legoland DE, or Mandril Mayhem at Chessington) If on a budget, can replace any of the above with a relocated/refurbished T3 (Vekoma SLC) or Speed: The Ride (Premier Launch Shuttle Coaster) - both listed for sale on a couple industry sites.

Not gonna lie, when I first read that the Bobsled coaster was being closed, something like this was my very first thought as to what would be the best thing to replace it. Glad to see the park getting a significant new ride investment like this, Bobcat seems like a perfect addition considering the space and the park itself since its moreso geared towards families and smaller children. I hope they try to leverage the "Alpine" theme of the area around it more too, seems like it could be a good thematic fit! Honestly, after Bobcat, if Great Escape added a dark ride or Wild Moose-type indoor coaster to the old Nightmare at Crackaxle Canyon building, and replaced Steamin' Demon with literally any decent modern thrill coaster, I think it could seriously shift the perception of the place.

Love it! Glad to see one of my home parks finally get some love again from the Cedar Fair HQ. One of the things that also seems interesting about this addition is that park management said they wanted to emphasize theming with the ride, and giving it a decent backstory that both is locally relatable (Steelmaking being a major industry in the Lehigh Valley at one point) and also ties into their Halloween events definitely help. A lot of the articles/videos also seem to be painting a picture that the park wants to go in a more theme-heavy direction moving forward as well, which I am excited to see.

Obviously we can't be sure of the actual layout, but they and others do seem to be pretty confident on it being B&M dive machine based on the footer layout and placement being consistent with other B&M dive coasters. I'm definitely skeptical as well, but as someone who calls Dorney one of their "home" parks, I'd be over the moon if they actually got it.

Parkfans.net forums may have cracked it. Apparently it’s a small scale B&M Dive Machine w 6-across seat trains: http://Post in thread 'Dorney Park Project 2024: 162ft B&M Dive Coaster?' Someone already recreated an approximation of it on NoLimits and posted a preview/POv video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/DqozKlYfUck

Part of me has wondered if Gaylord would consider building a smaller indoor park onsite as a compliment/extension of the Opry Mills mall complex to help drive traffic to it considering the challenging retail landscape. Call it "Opry Landing" or something like that as an homage to the original and help fill the gap in the Nashville metro area entertainment market.

Sad to see a park go. But if the park was in fact missing its financial targets for years and had ongoing auxiliary issues (i.e. Parking with 49ers, Height/Construction requirements with Santa Clara), I could see Cedar Fair getting frustrated by holding onto an underperforming park and with more restrictions around their ability to invest and transform the park over time, and deciding to cut bait in a post-Covid environment to free money/capital for other parks. If nothing else, it looks like at least Flight Deck, Patriot, Railblazer, and Gold Striker, along with some flats, could be nice prizes to some of the other Cedar Fair parks if relocated. Hopefully they preserve Berserker as well.

Water coaster maybe? That was mentioned as a potential future attraction option (along with a Kentucky Flyer-esque Gravity Group Woodie, and a Gerstlauer Eurofighter ala Tantrum or Iron Shark) back at an ACE event they did in 2019.

Not to mention the potential for more group sales from families/groups for birthday parties at the park from the synergy for having a birthday themed land there.

Indeed it is the coaster fka "Kanonen" from Liseberg!. The SLC w/ extended Helix is also from the now defunct Ratanga Junction in South Africa. the S&S Tower is from the Buffalo Bill's Casino (home of Desparado coaster) in Nevada.

Fair enough, I took "thrift store" to mean that they cheaped out.

Tbh going by this analogy: getting an Intamin launch coaster, a multi-inversion inverted coaster, an S&S drop tower, and a decent sized Ferris wheel is a pretty good haul for a thrift shopping trip. Especially for a new park in its first year not bankrolled by multibillion dollar industrial conglomerate. plus the park is spending money to refurbish all of them and buy new trains for the SLC, so they aren't being completely cheap or neglectful with their ride choices.

Major updates on the Park from the ParkPros youtube channel last week: Along with an article in a regional newspaper from September: https://www.thegazette.com/travel/behind-the-scenes-at-iowas-lost-island-theme-park-in-waterloo/

Could be. I believe they also own a nearby KOA campground "resort" site too. I wouldn't be surprised if they toyed with offering multi-day packages including an overnight stay at their campground, maybe partner with local hotels or even the nearby casino if they have unfilled rooms. They may also be able to boost attendance numbers after labor day if they market to UNI football/sports fans travelling to Waterloo for games and convince them to spend an afternoon/extra day in the area or make a full family day/weekend out of it.

It helps that people in the region are already familiar with travelling to the area for a successful and high-quality waterpark there now so its a nice logical extension. The Bertch family, who own the Lost Island park/s are apparently a prominant family in the area, and also ran a successful kitchen cabinet manufacturing business in the area that they sold earlier this year to focus on the theme/water parks. So in theory, between having a successful local brand and (assuming) adequate capital and resources after selling their cabinet business, they should be in a good position to capitalize on a (hopefully) post-COVID opening season in 2022.

Looks like it sadly. Screamscape's follow up report also seems to suggest the same: http://screamscape.com/html/smaller_parks.htm#Conneaut At this point the best hope is probably just the Blue Streak can be relocated/revived somewhere else .

I posted the below to r/rollercoasters yesterday, figured I'd share here: Screamscape just posted an update about Conneaut Lake Park , and its not exactly good news. Highlights of the post include: Ride cars from the park's now defunct Tumble Bug ride may have been posted on ebay for an auction price of $5,000 Older rides at the park (Music Express, Witch’s Stew and the park’s train ride ) may have been sold off, and 4 of the rides brought in to replace them, including an octopus ride, swings, a slide, and dizzy dragons may have been listed for sale online ( all four rides are still listed on the parks website though) Conneaut apparently cancelled many concerts and events that were scheduled in July, claiming it was due to staffing issues, with some speculating a potential cash flow problem as another possible cause. Unverified reports/rumors of park staff having issues meeting payroll on time, pairing with rumored reports of many employees quitting in large numbers. Several announced improvements, including waterpark expansion/updates, the old bumper car building's arcade conversion, and evaluations/repairs to the Blue Streak have still not taken place. Screamscape also speculates that since the new owner is private real estate developer instead of the local public government/nonprofit trust board who previously operated it, that a longer term vision of the owner may be to eventually develop the lakefront property the park lies on into condos. (Side note, an article originally posted last month on a Cleveland newspaper's website also mentions that the new owner, Philadelphia real estate developer Todd Joseph, found the lakefront view of the park quite appealing when he purchased it. It doesn't seem like he's made a long term decision on the Blue Streak, mentioning it would cost upwards of six figures just to restore individual cars on the coaster's train too.) With all of of that in mind, it might be worth it for someone to send copies of any remaining Blue Streak blueprints or information over to Knoebel's as a precaution.....

In related news: Looks like Staples and local leaders are ironing out terms and incentives now, with a goal to to get a portion of the water park reopened by Fourth of July.

Looks like it based on the article. Though I doubt the Avatar/Korra franchise itself was a huge inspiration for the park owners as much as "elements" are an easy way to differentiate themed areas while continuing the Polynesian motif. Kind of wish they had found some "element" for the kids area, but it looks like 'Tamariki' is a Maori word that roughly translates to youth/juvenile so it at least makes sense. So glad to see a new independent park go up in an unexpected area, especially by owners who seem to want to do more than just put up a bunch of rides in a field and start selling tickets. It's clear a lot of thought went into this place.

A new article and aerial photos of the park's construction were posted on the Des Moines Register's website (courtesy of Reddit): Source Compared to the original site plan from the groundbreaking press conference, it looks like the log flume and Kanonen have switched site locations, which might be to add the ability for the park path to go under the coaster track. The full article also has more details about the park's background and theming: Owners seem to think the waterpark maxed out its growth potential and were looking for ways to drive more traffic to the area Heavy emphasis on theming and lore within the park and continuing the waterpark's polynesian/island theming, with area/land names corresponding to the concept art and having element/tribe theme in each: Mura Fire Clan (Volcano theme) - dark ride and disko, top spin-like, and pendulum rides) Yuta Earth Tribe (Temple theme )- Kanonen coaster , log flume Awa Water Nomads (Water/Boat theme) - swinging ship, Ferris wheel, carousel, flying carousel-type ride Udara Air Kingdom (Air/wind theme) - Ratanga Junction SLC, drop tower, sky-fly type ride Tamariki Kids Area (fantasy/garden theme) - kiddie rides, samba balloon type ride, kiddie ferris wheel, kiddie coaster, playground Adventureland (2hrs away in Des Moines) is taking the "rising tide lifts all boats" take on the park's construction, but it appears both they and Lost Island's waterpark have been collegial in the past and Lost Island thinks its offering a different enough experience from Adventureland Bertch family (Lost Island owners) considered pulling the plug due to pandemic, but are optimistic 2022 will be post-covid enough Waterloo-area tourism board estimates the park will generate $32-67 million annual economic impact depending on season length.

One alternative might be to build on some of the eastern part of the parking lot by Hellcat's station. There already appears to be a train crossing/service entrance there as well: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Clementon+Park+%26+Splash+World/@39.8032264,-74.9843532,128m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x89c6d2bbe6322dc5:0xbb7aa27b33febce4!8m2!3d39.803597!4d-74.98531

Only used coaster I could think of that I actually could see going here would be Crossbow (Zierer family coaster) at the former Bowcraft park in Scotch Plains, NJ which is listed for sale online: Listing Link