Silverwood Discussion Thread

[CP_RULES]

On 6/5/2021 at 1:31 PM, swfan1988 said:

That's, great news! They did say that they extinguished it with a fire extinguisher so it doesn't sound like it got very far. Thanks for the update!

Given the wood is more than likely treated I would hope it didn't gain much ground!

On 6/19/2021 at 8:55 PM, swfan1988 said:

Do I wish it had lap bars? Sure. Do the OTS restrains ruin the ride for me? NO!!! I actually really like these restraints, and (for better or worse...) they might be the best restraints in the park. You don't have to battle them coming down during the ride, they're not uncomfortable (at least to me), and they don't hurt! (Gee, imagine that, a steel coaster that doesn't hurt in some way...what a great idea Silverwood! )

I enjoy this perspective, does Stunt Pilot have the same restraints as the original raptors? I felt like the restraints were quite... constraining... and that they were made out of an uncomfortable rubber that "burnt" my shoulders.

[CP_RULES]

Double post... cannot figure out how to delete.

[swfan1988]

4 hours ago, dankeykang said:

Caselli's is actually where I chose to eat, since it had a very small line when I was passing by.  I was not aware that it was new; my meal was pretty good!  Definitely superior to most theme park pizza I've had elsewhere. 

It used to be called Cold Springs Pizzeria, and it was located across the midway where the seating area is now. Sold the same items minus the beer I think. I haven't had the smaller personal pizzas there, but this last time I tried the larger 16" pizza at the Theater of Illusion (which used to be called Caselli's before they built this new stand) and agree that it was pretty good for the price and superior to most theme park pizza, but not the best pizza I've ever had. I think that goes for a lot of SW's food, it's good by theme parks standards, but not particularly stand out amongst other restaurants. Except maybe Chuckwagon John's, now that food is SO GOOD!!

21 minutes ago, CP_RULES said:

I enjoy this perspective, does Stunt Pilot have the same restraints as the original raptors? I felt like the restraints were quite... constraining... and that they were made out of an uncomfortable rubber that "burnt" my shoulders.

Were your shoulders burned on Stunt Pilot or one of the other Raptors?

I don't know how different they are since I haven't ridden the other raptors, but I did here somewhere that they had been redesigned a little. They were not too restricting to me, although I'm only 5'11" and on the thinner side with wide shoulders. However, I can see how the restraint, especially the straps, could be on the uncomfortable side for larger riders.

 One trick I figured out was once the ride op lowers the restraint (which as a side note, they are super good at NOT stapling you. I had plenty of room on all of my rides on Stunt Pilot. Kudos to the park and the ops for that!), to kinda "shrug" your shoulder a bit. I found that this makes the rubber strap kinda stretch out a little and helps it settle in a more comfortable part of your shoulder. I don't know if this works on the other Raptors, but it definitely helped on Stunt Pilot.

[CP_RULES]

^My experience is only on Wonder Woman at SFFT, but I am 5’10” and 160, pretty average I think. I can see how shrugging would help while loading. The straps on WW just felt too tight and too sticky/rubbery for such an intense ride. 

[swfan1988]

EDIT: The park said that the fire is contained and the park will be open!

Original Post:

PSA for everyone in regards to Silverwood. There is apparently a wildfire burning about 1.5 miles west of the park along Brunner Road (the road at the  south end of the park). The park was evacuated yesterday around 5, although they say that they are planning to be open today assuming they are not told to be closed by fire authorities. I would expect that the park will say whether they will be open in the next hour or so. Reportedly, the fire is about 87 acres and 30% contained. So far no injuries, deaths, or damage to homes has been reported. The fire wasn't on InciWeb (the online map of fires in the west) yet, but I'll keep checking to see if it appears.

Photos courtesy of the local news:

That's a little to close to comfort, if you ask me...

Hoping everyone who lives, works, or visits in that area stays safe!

Edited July 24, 2021 by swfan1988
Updated with new information

[swfan1988]

Great news everybody! The fire near Silverwood is 90% contained and...it looks like Scraywood is back!

The landing page on Scarywood's website has been changed from the "Sorry but no event in 2020" to this...

It's hard to discern anything from the image but it's very encouraging that they seem to be planning to host the event. I would expect more details later in August.

I'm really curious to see what they are going to do with the Pharaoh's Curse stuff, since its been sitting out on the end of the old runway since the end of last summer. I'm also curious since Stunt Pilot took one of the maze locations (that's why Pharaoh's Curse was moved in the first place), where they will choose to put the maze, weather it's Pharaoh's Curse or it's replacement.

2019 was reportedly Scarywood's best year yet, so here's to hoping that that trend continues in 2021!

[IronWolfman]

This is good news, as I just had to reschedule my trip from tomorrow to Oct 10, and was wondering when they were gonna officially announce that they'll be open in October. I know Aftershock doesn't usually run that late in the year, right? Definitely bummed if so, as I haven't been back since 2013, but will at least get to try Timber Terror Backwards and Stunt Pilot. 

[swfan1988]

5 hours ago, IronWolfman said:

This is good news, as I just had to reschedule my trip from tomorrow to Oct 10, and was wondering when they were gonna officially announce that they'll be open in October. I know Aftershock doesn't usually run that late in the year, right? Definitely bummed if so, as I haven't been back since 2013, but will at least get to try Timber Terror Backwards and Stunt Pilot. 

Yeah, Aftershock will more than likely be closed. I think the temperature and winds above 150' are what do it in, and north Idaho octobers army necessarily known for being sunny and 70 degrees unfortunately...

You never know and the park may try, but I don't think I've even ever seen it listed as being a ride during Scarywood.

I'm hoping Stunt Pilot isn't as finaky because an RMC raptor in near pitch darkness sounds incredible! Plus TT Backwards is always a good time!

[OrbitalObject]

In other news, I visited the park a couple of days ago to find a new net on the dive loop for Stunt Pilot. I would assume to keep any loose items from flying onto the adjacent path. Doesn't detract too much from the aesthetics of the ride...

 

Edited July 31, 2021 by OrbitalObject
Picture wasn't loading. Fixed (hopefully)

[swfan1988]

Uuuuhhhh...Stunt Pilot is listed as "Temporarily Closed" on the park's website, which is something I've NEVER seen before for any ride at Silverwood. In addition they seem to have removed almost all other references to the ride on their website, including reverting back to the 2019 park map, and replacing the Stunt Pilot video on the main page with the old "Plan your trip to Silverwood" video. It it still referenced on the park's Facebook page though, but outside of that it just vanished.

It must be pretty recent that the ride "temporality closed" because I saw someone post somewhere that it was open this last weekend. I saw a rumor on twitter that a wheel fell off, but that's twitter for you (IMO )... Anyone know more?

Edited August 5, 2021 by swfan1988
Added additional information

[tndank]

Wheel fell off from everything I've seen. It appears they have also grounded Jersey Devil for now, too.  Hope they aren't down long.

[dankeykang]

Not a great look considering both of those coasters just went through full inspections fairly recently...

[ytterbiumanalyst]

17 hours ago, swfan1988 said:

Uuuuhhhh...Stunt Pilot is listed as "Temporarily Closed" on the park's website, which is something I've NEVER seen before for any ride at Silverwood.

Huh, a brand-new RMC is having some issues. That's something I've NEVER seen before at any park.

[coasterbill]

Unpopular opinion: I know everyone criticizes Intamin but RMC is just as screwed up and seems to get a pass just because we all love their rides and it seems like at some point we have to acknowledge what a clusterfuck they are.

Like Intamin, plenty of their rides are reasonably reliable-ish but they have some total messes too. Lightning Rod has never worked, Steel Vengeance crashed on its opening day, threw a drive tire and needs so much structural work that it can’t even open for early entry on weekdays, Stunt Pilot and Jersey Devil are getting shut down constantly by the manufacturer and now this ride totally chucked a wheel towards a guest area and people (not so much here but everywhere) are acting like “yeah... that’s normal” . Nah, that shouldn’t just happen. Wasn’t Steel Dragon 2000 closed for like a year because it did that?  

[dankeykang]

^According to Wiki, it was actually a closure of nearly three years...although that incident did have two injuries.   

But yeah, if Intamin is one end of the reliability spectrum and B&M is the other, it's pretty clear which side RMC is trending towards.  Although to be fair, Lightning Rod's uptime seems to be drastically improved this year.   

[swfan1988]

1 hour ago, coasterbill said:

Unpopular opinion: I know everyone criticizes Intamin but RMC is just as screwed up and seems to get a pass just because we all love their rides and it seems like at some point we have to acknowledge what a clusterfuck they are.

Like Intamin, plenty of their rides are reasonably reliable-ish but they have some total messes too. Lightning Rod has never worked, Steel Vengeance crashed on its opening day, threw a drive tire and needs so much structural work that it can’t even open for early entry on weekdays, Stunt Pilot and Jersey Devil are getting shut down constantly by the manufacturer and now this ride totally chucked a wheel towards a guest area and people (not so much here but everywhere) are acting like “yeah... that’s normal” . Nah, that shouldn’t just happen. Wasn’t Steel Dragon 2000 closed for like a year because it did that?  

I can agree with this. This is at least the second time that RMC has shut down both Jersey Devil and Stunt Pilot, both times relating to the wheel assemblies (I think?). People always talk about Intamin rides having issues, but people don't make as much of deal about RMC. It could be that Intamin had been around longer, or that more rides have had issues but that doesn't justify giving RMC a pass either. I think the only true pass might be Lightning Rod, since I think every steel manufacture has (or has had) at least one problem coaster (Drachen Fyre, Windjammer Surf Racers, Son of Beast, Harley Quinn, Galeforce, TMNT Shellraiser, Steel Dragon, take your pick for Intamin..., etc.), except maybe B&M, but even calling Lightning Rod a "problem coaster" might be being too generous.

Saw this on Twitter (take it with a grain of salt!)...looks like a wheel did fall off, but haven't seen any other evidence of what happened. I hope no one was injured, as that could cause some serious damage to anyone or anything. Luckily it looks like it happened at the beginning of the ride, since that looks like the concrete footer for the lift motor to me.

[thrillseeker4552]

2 hours ago, coasterbill said:

Unpopular opinion: I know everyone criticizes Intamin but RMC is just as screwed up and seems to get a pass just because we all love their rides and it seems like at some point we have to acknowledge what a clusterfuck they are.

Like Intamin, plenty of their rides are reasonably reliable-ish but they have some total messes too. Lightning Rod has never worked, Steel Vengeance crashed on its opening day, threw a drive tire and needs so much structural work that it can’t even open for early entry on weekdays, Stunt Pilot and Jersey Devil are getting shut down constantly by the manufacturer and now this ride totally chucked a wheel towards a guest area and people (not so much here but everywhere) are acting like “yeah... that’s normal” . Nah, that shouldn’t just happen. Wasn’t Steel Dragon 2000 closed for like a year because it did that?  

Not to stray too far off topic, but this is 1000% true. Everyone gives RMC (and even Mack, Premier Rides, etc.) a pass but always craps on Intamin for being unreliable. Meanwhile Velocicoaster has been running absolutely flawlessly and had one of the smoothest and most reliable openings ever for such a hyped coaster. And that coaster has cycled a TON already and recently hit a million riders after just a couple months of operation. I would argue that most modern Intamin coasters built in the last 10-ish years are equally as reliable as any other new coaster, expect for maybe B&M rides.

Hopefully the issues with these new generation single rails gets worked out. I guess it's a good thing RMC is just down the road from Silverwood.

[ytterbiumanalyst]

On 8/5/2021 at 10:13 PM, thrillseeker4552 said:

Hopefully the issues with these new generation single rails gets worked out. I guess it's a good thing RMC is just down the road from Silverwood.

They can just park an RMC engineer there full time like Action Park used to park an ambulance.

[IronWolfman]

After seeing that post in the Carowinds thread about how they're not going to run Fury for Scarowinds (Their website has since been updated to include Fury), it reminded me that I didn't post in here after the Scarywood website got posted. It appears that Stunt Pilot, in addition to the expected Aftershock, will not be open for this event. With arguably the two best coasters in the park closed, as well as no Sunday dates, i think I'm going to skip out on the park when I visit Spokane in October. 

[swfan1988]

On 8/20/2021 at 11:33 AM, IronWolfman said:

After seeing that post in the Carowinds thread about how they're not going to run Fury for Scarowinds (Their website has since been updated to include Fury), it reminded me that I didn't post in here after the Scarywood website got posted. It appears that Stunt Pilot, in addition to the expected Aftershock, will not be open for this event. With arguably the two best coasters in the park closed, as well as no Sunday dates, i think I'm going to skip out on the park when I visit Spokane in October. 

Yeah...that's a tough one...

Timber Terror Backwards is something to experience, I've done it during the day and I can only imagine it's better at night. I've also heard that Scarywood is a pretty solid haunt event, although it is hard to argue with the reduced ride offerings. I don't think Aftershock has ever opened for Scarywood cause of the weather, but I was surprised that Stunt Pilot won't open either. So unless they are going with a "under promise, over deliver" strategy then I could see how you'd want to skip out.

Speaking of Scarywood...

The park has confirmed that all 5 mazes from 2019 will return: Blood Bayou, Planet Zombie, Dr. Delirium, Pharaoh's Curse, and Total Darkness. On the website they say that both Pharaoh's Curse and Total Darkness have been "updated" for 2021. It says that PC has moved to "Across from Thunder Canyon", but everything else is in the same spot. So while there's no new mazes this year, it looked like they switched up a few of the scare zones although I'm don't know which ones are new or not. Also there's no log flume this year...so that idea didn't last long for them.

I'm mostly just grateful that the park is able to have the event, and I hope that it works out for them!

[Comeagain?]

For those of you who were concerned about it, Stunt Pilot is open during Scarywood. 

[swfan1988]

Dead Rumor Alert!

Apparently someone somewhere (obviously not here) started a rumor that Silverwood could possibly be sold to Herschend. I hadn't heard about this until I saw this article by pure chance : https://bonnercountydailybee.com/news/2021/oct/30/silverwood-staying-norton-family-snp/

According to the article it sounds like the Norton family (or at least Gary) was approached by Herschend about a potential sale of the park. However, Gary is quoted as saying "I told them we’re not for sale and had no intention of selling,” Norton said. “We enjoy what we do and want to keep doing it.”

He also mentioned that Herschend was interested in collaborating on projects that could benefit both parks internally, which the article makes it sound like he was open to that kind of partnership. (Cinnamon Bread, Cinnamon Bread, Cinnamon Bread...) He uses the example of software (something Silverwood is known for), and other internal things that apparently Herschend likes how Silverwood does things. He clarifies pretty clearly though "that continued talks will include 'nothing in terms of any ownership changes whatsoever."

Personally, I'm think it's neat that such a big player in the industry was interested in the park. I'm also REALLY glad that the Norton family (or at the very least Gary) are still active and committed to the park and it's future under their ownership. I think one of the biggest challenges any business faces is what happens after the founder steps away or passes away, and it's been something that I've thought about with the park before. I'm grateful that both Gary, and hopefully, the rest of the family is confident in the the park and interested in continuing the great run the park has had over the last 33 years. While I'm glad that it was Herschend who expressed interest in the park, and not Cedar Fair or heaven-forbid Six Flags, I'm even gladder that the family has decided to keep the park and it makes me even more excited for the park's future. Three or four years ago I would have been more excited for this dead rumor, but after Stunt Pilot and the progress the park has made recently, I'm glad that it's dead in the water.

It does beg the question though, if Herschend is on the move and is interested in parks like Silverwood, who else have they approached, or would be interested in approaching, about a potential acquisition or collaboration?

[SharkTums]

Seems like a weird interest. Just so far away from Herschend geographically!

[Comeagain?]

Hershend knows how to develop, build, and operate major attractions that don't have major population centers nearby or need to all more people from outside the immediate area. Looking at what Dollywood's recently completed and what they've got planned, Hershend has plenty of money to spend on new attractions, lodging, that sort of thing. Major expansion is expensive and risky, and Hershend is large enough to take on a lot more of that risk than a single owner. And they have a lot more experience in some of those things that Silverwood needs to do to really expand (winter/holiday events, lodging/hotels, large new areas). Could've been interesting to see what would happen.

[Nrthwnd]

On 6/21/2021 at 4:05 PM, CP_RULES said:

Double post... cannot figure out how to delete.

You used to be able to do that. But not anymore. Except still showing that you deleted "something."