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California Great America (CGA) Discussion Thread


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They caved...to coal miners?

Hi guys. Long time coal miner and lurker here. I felt compelled to make my first post after more than six years of just reading to say coal miners are nearly impossible to offend. We are aware of the jokes and stereo types. Hell, we make them ourselves. Anyway, I'll be at Kings Island Saturday with my 9 year old son, enjoying the crap out of the offensive haunts. Now back to my hole in the ground.

 

Best. First post. Ever!

 

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Looks like Insanitarium has been pulled from the website...

Isn't all this crap covered under the freedom of speech and expression?

I hate to get political, but yes, all this crap is covered under the First Amendment: the right of parks to provide entertainment in the form of haunted houses, the right of advocacy groups to complain about it, and my right to call them asshats for complaining about it. It covers us all equally. The First Amendment only prevents government from censoring speech, and since government isn't involved in any way in this scenario, it's really a moot point. What's happening is that a company is making changes to the services they provide in response to a complaint from a non-profit organization. This is all being done completely in the private sector, and completely on a voluntary basis. So although we have right to complain, Cedar Fair has the right to run their business how they wish. The Bill of Rights only guarantees no government interference; it doesn't guarantee that things will be how you want them to be.

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Just sucks that they're doing the PC thing. An ideal situation for the business & both parties would include a clever and quick makeover for the tainted attractions. These things take brain power and resources to create so in a short haloween season that's a challenging task. CF is in the business of making money so likely they're trying to do some kind of alternative at Knott's. Crap thing is that CGA is like a red headed step child when it comes to these things. Solution? Move/Go where the haunts are better?

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^ I agree. I think NAMI is being irresponsible by pushing this agenda. And I say this as one who has neurological conditions and as the father of a son with neurological conditions as well. So I'm not against NAMI per se. I think they do some great work educating people about mental health issues. But I don't think that shutting down haunts is productive toward their mission in any way. It won't help people to understand, and it will just prevent people from having fun.

 

Cedar Fair is really put in a bind here. As you say, they don't have enough time to put together a good alternative this year. I'm sure they weighed their options and felt it wasn't in their best interests to fight it, and I can totally understand why. No company wants to be perceived as being against the disabled, and that's exactly where NAMI has put them. Unfortunate, too, since in my experience with Cedar Fair, I've found them to be incredibly sensitive and accommodating to the needs of people with disabilities. They simply didn't deserve this attack.

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I've kept quiet on this whole topic, since I don't really know the full story, or the full details of the Haunts in question. However, as a Mental Health Worker, and somebody who has worked with Adults with Mental Illness for over 10 years, I have a qualified perspective on the matter, from somebody who works closely with the population, and against stigma.

 

There is no doubt a lot of stigma about Mental Illness from outsiders, and the general public. Heck, I've run into it within the Community Mental Health agency I work in, when talking to those working with other populations. I think one example is that people with Mental Illness are inherently dangerous, which is patently untrue. I experienced much more violence and danger back when I was working with the Developmentally Disabled population. Another common misconception is in regard to Schizophrenia, which is often confused by the general populace as being something closer to Multiple Personality Disorder, which is untrue. Not having any experience with FEARVR, or the other Haunts in question, I don't know if they perpetuated either of these myths about mental illness, but if so, I could see there being some reason for concern from those trying to promote understanding, and the removal of stigma about conditions that affect a huge segment of the population (much more than most people in the general populace realize, since privacy is of paramount concern when dealing with these matters).

 

Having said all that, however, and again, not knowing precisely what the removed Haunts entailed, I must agree that I feel that this is likely an overreaction by NAMI, and Mental Health Advocates. Simply depicting an assylum in a Haunt, in the particular context and setting that it is in (celebrating things scary and Halloween related), is a fairly common, and to me, fairly innocuous attraction. It's a tough call, because of the things I mentioned before, and the fact that presenting people with mental illness as inherently dangerous is a direct contradiction to what is actually true. Still, I am disappointed that NAMI "went there" regarding these Haunts, and I'm disappointed Cedar Fair relented, though I understand from their perspective, because we are dealing with sensitive issues here. I agree that there is too much pandering in our culture today to PC interests, and while I understand, and respect the work NAMI typically does, and believe in promoting the tearing down of stigma regarding mental illness on a larger scale, I think this is an overreaction, and an overstep on their part.

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Wow, just getting caught up on this thread, but first wanted to start out by thanking Joey for his TR - I know I can always count on you posting food pics, Joey!

 

Secondly, I can't say that in this day and age that I am overly surprised that some parks are pulling out haunts because of people getting offended. It also doesn't surprise me that a turd like Rick Warren and his wife are behind this, but we know that if it wasn't them that it would be someone else eventually.

 

I don't know much about the mental health industry, but when I think asylum or mental health hospitals at a haunt event, I think of old school hospitals where they used to do lobotomies and other crazy sh%t. I don't think about an asylum haunt as a dig at someone with a disability.

 

People need to stop being a bunch of p%ssies in this country and grow the f%ck up. I'm really getting tired of reading all of this crap...really. I can't look online or read the paper where there isn't someone that is suing or protesting over being offended by something that they really shouldn't be getting offended about.

 

And 5150? I only thought of that as a Van Halen album and would have probably been confused because anything on that album wouldn't fit well into a haunt theme.

Edited by Philrad71
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^ Please...I know what schizophrenia is and I made the goofy comment that way purposely to make it look like I had no idea what I was talking about. Kinda of like people complaining about a maze/haunt that they probably haven't even gone in. Please lighten up!

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^Yeah, sorry man. I didn't get offended, but just found it rather wry. Important distinction, but it's not a problem regardless.

 

I just wish this whole controversy with respect to the Haunt attractions were less polarizing. In my opinion, this execution of power coming from advocates that has resulted in dampening these Halloween events has simply worsened the stigma that they are so desperately trying to mitigate. It's just an unfortunate situation.

 

I side with the parks in this instance for all intents and purposes and for anyone curious, but again, this whole situation is painful to watch personally.

 

 

--ABW, Hey I may be stupid, but not that stupid.

Edited by ABW
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I side with the parks in this instance for all intents and purposes and for anyone curious, but again, this whole situation painful to watch personally.

 

 

--ABW, Hey I may be stupid, but not that stupid.

 

Fixed that for you!

 

Honestly, while I agree that making a stink over this doesn't reflect the best on the Mental Health Organizations like NAMI, I don't see how it should worsen stigma of mental illness. Those two things are clearly separate issues, like I outlined in my above post. You can be against the stigmatization of mental illness, without siding completely with NAMI.

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^Ah, yes. After all these years I still neglect to expunge "for all intensive purpose" to "for all intents and purposes" in my proofreading. Thank you

 

I know it's a very controversial statement I made in that post, but I'd rather not elaborate and turn this thread into an argument on merely whether it is changing the stigma, and if so, how. That's something for more another conversation. Although we may disagree, I still enjoyed and agreed with the points made in your original post. Notwithstanding, I definitely agree that you can can be against the stigmatization as well as NAMI.

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I had friends who went last night and the maze is still there. I heard they are going to redo the maze a little over the week and reopen with a new name on friday. Hope this is true!

 

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

 

I hope that is true, but I find that very hard to believe. It wasn't a maze...it was a VR experience. It would be quite the undertaking to re-shoot it, post production, re-programming the FX to match, etc. It ain't happening this year.

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I had friends who went last night and the maze is still there. I heard they are going to redo the maze a little over the week and reopen with a new name on friday. Hope this is true!

 

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

 

I hope that is true, but I find that very hard to believe. It wasn't a maze...it was a VR experience. It would be quite the undertaking to re-shoot it, post production, re-programming the FX to match, etc. It ain't happening this year.

There's also a maze at cga called 'insanitarium' that they took off the website and evidently kept, but are now reworking and renaming cause of these assholehats

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There's also a maze at cga called 'insanitarium' that they took off the website and evidently kept, but are now reworking and renaming cause of these assholehats

Okay, you must not remember the 90s. It's "asshat," that is to say, one who has their head up their ass. It comes from comedy legend Fred Willard's character Red Foreman in the 90s sitcom "That 70s Show":

 

21326336.jpg

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I had friends who went last night and the maze is still there. I heard they are going to redo the maze a little over the week and reopen with a new name on friday. Hope this is true!

 

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

 

I hope that is true, but I find that very hard to believe. It wasn't a maze...it was a VR experience. It would be quite the undertaking to re-shoot it, post production, re-programming the FX to match, etc. It ain't happening this year.

Oh I'm sorry, I was talking about the maze!

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  • 4 weeks later...

We have some more information on Winterfest!

 

First of all, despite what the initial announcement implied, Flight Deck will be running. The ride lineup will consist of Carousel Columbia, Gold Striker, Flight Deck, Rue Le Dodge, Star Tower/North Pole, Flying Eagles, Celebration Swings, Xtreme Skyflyer and Planet Snoopy. It sounds like the path will be cut off at the bridge over the access road and at the big theater.

 

Aside from that the information on the shows, themed areas and special holiday activities has been added also. It looks like a fun event.

 

Renderings:

ga_winterfest_rotator1.jpg

 

ga_winterfestart_rotator3.jpg

 

ga_winterfestart_rotator1.jpg

 

WinterFest Information

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