Mt. Olympus Water & Theme Park Discussion Thread

[Jew]

Taking advantage of the situation? Mt. Olympus is definitely not the highest quality theme park, but he's consistently invested in new things and bought out businesses that may have otherwise folded on their own. Or in the one case, the guy used the money to build a brand new resort.

[DirkFunk]

Taking advantage of the situation? Mt. Olympus is definitely not the highest quality theme park, but he's consistently invested in new things and bought out businesses that may have otherwise folded on their own. Or in the one case, the guy used the money to build a brand new resort.

 

If I believed that his plan was really to prevent blight on the strip, I would totally be for it. I don't believe he's positioned himself politically out of an interest to serve the greater public good, or that he's bought all these properties because of some altruistic streak he has. His goal is to be *the* power in Wisconsin Dells, whether by buying the "competition" or preventing them from springing into existence, no matter how small. But I've already spent too much time on this. It's the Dells.

[_koppen]

Well, Nick would do the maintenance on the coasters and upgrade the hotels, but he's busy with other things...

 

Those pants

[GayCoasterGuy]

It's really a shame for us coaster nerds.. that place could really be a destination.

 

I still LOVE Cyclops, even with the potholes. A hardened, intensity loving coaster friend of mine was hurt on Cyclops this past summer. Then, I saw a kid with a bloody elbow after riding Hades.

 

There was a rumor about Cyclops getting the old Hades ratchet-bar train. That will be bad news for us coaster fans, and potentially even something worse... That type of air time and ratchet bars don't always make a good combination. It would also tear up the track much more than it already is. Ride it while you can!

[larrygator]

Well, Nick would do the maintenance on the coasters and upgrade the hotels, but he's busy with other things...

 

Those pants

 

You misspelled the word breasts.

[Koasterking48]

So much class in that picture...

[Ed Farmer]

If he's taking advantage of the system to basically destroy the town's independent operators and put everyone out of business, that's not something I can anything about. But he's also the theme park industry's version of a slum lord. There's nothing to cheer there unless you're part of his family or a sociopath.

 

 

Good thing that this has never ever happened before in the history of business.

[Intaman]

I came across this write-up about Nick Laskaris,

 

 

I would say he has definitely faced (and survived) some tremendous challenges during his life. I'd bet even Hades 360 can't hurt him.

[Intaman]

 

If I believed that his plan was really to prevent blight on the strip, I would totally be for it. I don't believe he's positioned himself politically out of an interest to serve the greater public good, or that he's bought all these properties because of some altruistic streak he has. His goal is to be *the* power in Wisconsin Dells, whether by buying the "competition" or preventing them from springing into existence, no matter how small. But I've already spent too much time on this. It's the Dells.

 

I don't think he is taking advantage of the system by acquiring what some might describe as "dive" motels. There are major hotel chains e.g. Hilton, that acquire properties and rehab/renovate them. They later rebrand them. This reduces development costs. Of course, the Mt. Olympus Village is far from a major hotel chain. However, if the demand is, indeed, there, this likely makes sense. This is a way to expand his business.

 

By the way, the Mt. Olympus Village already has to compete with more inclusive resorts like the Wilderness, Kalahari, Great Wolf, and Chula Vista. I don't think that the Concord Inn was ever competition, especially at the going rate for a Village room (I think their price points were rather far apart). Unlike these resorts, however, the Village does have proximity to the strip and free admission to the park (if that means anything), so, again, its supply and demand.

[Jew]

^Kalahari was also developed by a guy who sold his properties to Nick Laskaris, so if his goal was to force everyone else out of business, he didn't do a very good job by essentially funding the competition.

[Mrlittle]

So I was semi joking with gravity group on their Facebook about retracking Hades 360 and they replied with this..

Ryan Little, yes indeed. The remaining areas of tracking on Hades 360 were completed last week. No kidding!

 

My ribs would like to thank them if this is the case.

[vacoaster09]

Posted today on Gravity Groups facebook wall:

from Gravity Groups facebook

[Hoppy]

^ Woo hoo! I will have to make a trip out and give it another try.

[AndrewRnR]

Maybe I'm jaded but I'm not sure retracking will solve the death-like experience of the ride. I heard rumors saying it was "ok" the first week of operation last year but by late summer when I rode Hades the entire ride was miserable. You can have experts rebuild it but if no one takes care of it...

[Lightning9SX]

I wound it bearable opening weekend. But in August, absolutely terrible.

[CMV]

Anyone wanting to prevent blight on the Dells strip had best take a time machine back to 1965.

[Intaman]

Posted today on Gravity Groups facebook wall:

 

You mean, they finally retracked that section where I temporarily lost feeling in my legs?

[ZeroGravity55]

They were supposed to re-track 90% of the ride last year. After hearing all the reports about how rough it was, I couldn't help but think that there was no way they re-tracked 90% of the ride. Now I'm wondering if the they ran out of time to get it all re-tracked before the season started and decided to finish it after this season was over. If you remember, they didn't finish the new section until about 2 weeks before the park opened up and reports from the opening weekend said that the project seemed to have been rushed to get it opened on time.

[GigaG]

I remember that my mom hated Hades (original) back in 2007-08-ish and I didn't find it horrid. How does it compare to Son of Beast/Ghostrider/other fast, rough woodies?

[ZeroGravity55]

From what I've read, quite a few people said it was one of the worst coasters they've ever rode due to the roughness.

[dippindotsguy8]

I remember that my mom hated Hades (original) back in 2007-08-ish and I didn't find it horrid. How does it compare to Son of Beast/Ghostrider/other fast, rough woodies?

 

Years ago, when it was new, I ranked it extremely high. But in the last few years, my experience has generally been that it is, without contest, the roughest, most painful wooden rollercoaster I've ever been on. Ghostrider, which I rode just a few days ago, was smooth as glass compared to Hades.

 

I haven't been back to the park since they added the inversion, but it sounds like it's pretty much just as bad as usual even with whatever re-tracking they did.

[LoneRider92]

... I just must have one of the highest pain thresholds in human existence. Did I find the ride rough? Of course, it's a wooden coaster; however, even a few people I went on the ride with who had ridden the prior version of Hades several times remarked how much smoother the ride was this past year and how great it was (it honestly was a complete reversal from the past few seasons). A few other wooden coasters I have ridden seemed to be MUCH rougher than Hades (heck, the back seat just down the path on Cyclops is **clavicle-crackling-ly** rough on that drop past the station - it did get some TLC last year though on other sections).

 

Oh well. Now I really look forward to getting more rides this coming year.

 

<----- Hades' one and only fanboy.

[GwaziBSRider1]

<----- Hades' one and only fanboy.

 

Don't feel bad. I'm the same with Mean Streak.

[Schrecken]

I must have caught Hades on a really good day (assuming there are any) when I visited this past July, because I can think of at least a half a dozen woodies I found to be far more rough than Hades was (only rode Hades in the front and 2nd seat, but I also rode those other brutal coasters in the same seats - front or 2nd). SOB still ranks as the worst woodie I ever set foot on, and I found Zeus at the same park to be much worse, as well as my ride earlier this year on Wildcat at HP. Other dis-honorable mentions I found worse than Hades were Hurler (KD, several years ago) and Hoosier Hurricane at IB (three or four years ago). IMO, while I will never be a fan of Hades, it did have a few redeeming features - I liked the first trip thru the tunnel, and though I find inversions on woodies to be unnecessary and pointless gimmicks, I did think it was kind of neat to come right out of the darkness and into the inversion. If only the inversion wasn't sitting smack dab in the end of the parking lot, it would be a nice surprise feature.

[gerstlaueringvar]

I must have caught Hades on a really good day (assuming there are any) when I visited this past July, because I can think of at least a half a dozen woodies I found to be far more rough than Hades was (only rode Hades in the front and 2nd seat, but I also rode those other brutal coasters in the same seats - front or 2nd). SOB still ranks as the worst woodie I ever set foot on, and I found Zeus at the same park to be much worse, as well as my ride earlier this year on Wildcat at HP. Other dis-honorable mentions I found worse than Hades were Hurler (KD, several years ago) and Hoosier Hurricane at IB (three or four years ago). IMO, while I will never be a fan of Hades, it did have a few redeeming features - I liked the first trip thru the tunnel, and though I find inversions on woodies to be unnecessary and pointless gimmicks, I did think it was kind of neat to come right out of the darkness and into the inversion. If only the inversion wasn't sitting smack dab in the end of the parking lot, it would be a nice surprise feature.

You should try the back seat of Hades360. I also found the front seat pretty smooth, but I only tried the 10th row and it was too muh for me to handle, I'm afraid I would get hurt so I didn't ride the back seat.