coasterbill

To each his own. Six Flags has "experience and atmosphere" too, but they also have coasters. Obviously there's a market for this kind of event. I don't believe that Six Flags would purposely damage their rides though. I believe that the issue with running them in the cold is just that they can run way under-speed early in the day and they can go down mechanical more often (all of which is true, but maintenance just doesn't take no for an answer). They're incompetent in many ways but give them some credit. Yes. We probably go to Great Adventure more in November and December than the entire rest of the year combined. It's like a completely different place during Holiday in the Park. The same goes for Six Flags New England and they even sort of polish the turd that is Six Flags America enough that I even like their holiday event (and all of those parks run between 5-10 adult coasters). Anyway, I can't believe I'm actually saying nice things about Six Flags. I'll give them credit for their holiday events though, they're fantastic. Too bad I don't feel the same way about their parks the rest of the year or for their atrocious Halloween events when Cedar Fair puts them to shame. lol

I have no idea, but what I do know is that Six Flags does not care. It's not that they just don't care, they don't care on an unimaginable, hilarious and spectacular level. We rode Nitro when it was 19 degrees 2 years ago. Raging Bull runs in the snow frequently. Great America runs 8 coasters in the winter in Chicago on the lake (including every single one of their B&Ms). Raging Bull frequently runs when it's actively snowing and has run with temperatures down into the teens. Our home park is Great Adventure and there is no minimum temperature for anything. This was a few years ago, it was 22 degrees. Remember that this is a hypothetical discussion about if Six Flags were to buy the park (which it's since become clear will not be happening as news broke about that in the middle of the discussion). I don't expect Cedar Fair to run those rides but Six Flags wouldn't care about this at all. Closing rides "due to temperature" is not a thing at any northern Six Flags park (aside from that hunk of junk giant Boomerang in New England).

If by "Mess it all up", you mean open Diamondback, Banshee and a ton of other coasters and make it much better then okay. Honestly Six Flags taking over these Cedar Fair holiday events would probably be the one actual positive to come from this potential, probably nonexistent deal. Six Flags actually does a very nice job with their lights and decorations too because they don't actually do anything and contract Oak Island Creative to do it for them. lol

Well this is the 2020 Platinum Pass promotional image so I guess it's like the Sports Illustrated cover curse...

It's being replaced by nothing right now. I don't think anyone expects that plot of land to remain empty forever.

Maintenance costs are always going to be weighed against ridership and popularity. Again, it's a capacity monster so I assume that the numbers are decent but if the ride was more popular they would be willing to dump more money into it so it's clearly not at the level where they want it to be to justify doing that. Parks always say that rides are "at the end of their service lives" but in reality that's a pretty meaningless statement and it's not really a thing in 99% of cases. If it made financial sense for them to keep a ride running based on it's popularity they would spend the money to do it (see Python at Eftling as an example or even how much money Cedar Point dumps into Top Thrill Dragster on a regular basis).

I don't believe that an enthusiast message board is even slightly representative of how beloved a ride is. I believe that it's ridership numbers are and (while they were probably decent given it's capacity) they likely weren't where the park wanted them either or they would probably be willing to invest some money into it.

I didn't say that. I said that the park will be better next year than it was this year in the eyes of 99% of park guests since they're removing an old rough Arrow but building a huge giga coaster. I understand that people are upset about this but... perspective.

How dare an amusement park have fun and make people laugh...

I hated this ride so this thread has been endlessly entertaining today (people are really laying on the dramatics. I get that people are nostalgic but the fact is the park will be better next year than it was this year in the eyes of 99% of park guests). That said, I've always laughed at the enthusiast fallacy that parks spend money recklessly for anniversary years but now that their sister park decided to celebrate their 150th anniversary with literally nothing after years of enthusiast-fueled hype I was sort of hoping that people would come to their senses and realize that they don't care. They'll put something there when it makes sense to put something there, not to give themselves an expensive anniversary present.

Mystic Timbers just valleyed. I can't believe they even tried. lol (Note the train: It didn't valley there, it almost made it to the final brakes. I would think they could winch it out easily as it's in that last dip before the shed, though I wouldn't be shocked if they give up on it for tonight). I got lucky and flipped the webcam on and watched it happen in real time. The train valleyed in the final section right before the shed. The screenshot I shared was of the train that eventually valleyed. I figured it was worth taking a screenshot regardless of the outcome since it was amazing that they were even testing it with snow on the tracks (and it was throwing a TON of snow as it rounded that curve which was impressive to see). I switched to the other camera and saw it rocking back in fourth in the final valley. I'd imagine you might be able to see it from the train if anyone's crazy enough to go today. lol

Given the temperature, the crowd looks solid. Also, it's 24 degrees and Mystic Timbers is open. Awesome!

Cedar Point invented the hyper. It does say quite a bit about their coaster collection that it's possible to forget that Magnum exists. Lol

Regarding the train bridge, is it in the same general line? If so a slight difference in where it splits could be caused by scaling. My scaling method of putting the station over another station would lead to a realistic size but it's hardly exact. Over the length of the layout even being slightly off could make a big difference.

Hey guys. I'm a bit of a lurker (if anyone's over at TPR they may know me) but I threw this together, making the station about the same size as Diamondback's (just a little smaller as Diamondback has incredibly long trains) and came up with this. I scaled the station before I put the drop where it is, its not shoehorned to fit. It just fits... and it splits perfectly to get under Diamondback's supports with an empty field waiting on the other side. I hate this scenario because I think removing the flume is a terrible idea, but it fits too well and puts the drop in a great visual area for me to believe it's not what they have in mind. Hopefully someone can convince me that I'm wrong though. lol