Arrow

Now I don't know about all of you but I am pretty dang content hearing Rush and The Eagles in Action Zone now lol. Also a strong supporter of I-Street's music too. Never thought I'd hear orchestral Muse, Green Day, David Bowie and some Meme songs all play on International street yet here we are and I'm all for it.

I was floored when I recognized Muse being played. They're my favorite band, and I never thought I'd hear an orchestral version of Knights of Cydonia being played on International street. Now if only they played them in Action Zone... or just, any other bands. It's Action Zone, there should be exciting songs!

This video is very insightful, but I would really like to know where Ryan got his info on Vortex being completely free.

I'm happy Vortex got a pin again, but man I wish it were in color. I lost my 30th anniversary one and have been looking for another for a long time. Adventure Express getting merchandise is also a biiig welcome.

Had some noodles today, I got pretty sad for some reason.

I've thought about this for a while so here's my two cents: I quite like the idea of turning Action Zone into Oktoberfest, as that area doesn't really exist anymore. I've also seen a few people suggest turning AZ into somewhat of a "Monster" themed area, so I'll build off of that a bit. I'd keep the name Bat, however I'd update it a bit. Although I appreciate KI's idea to update Flight Deck to The Bat, in doing so they really gutted out everything from the queue line and station. To update Bat, I think it would be pretty neat to add loose theming to the line such as props, fog, and sound effects. The tunnel could be transformed into a small cave with lights acting as bat eyes peering down at guests. The station could also be updated to a cave, with the queue line under the exit path turning into a tunnel until you reach inside the station. Along with renaming the flat rides, updating AZ's to be more green would also be nice. More trees and foliage would make all the difference to change it from the generic Cedar Fair concrete area to a nice looking themed area.

Bat isn't going to leave any time soon. It's not like it's Eagle's Fortress, where that ride was pretty intense, and nearing the end of it's operations it became a huge maintenance problem. Bat's one of the tamer suspendeds and is pretty low to the ground and doesn't really have that many issues. Really just comes down to if they feel like it absolutely needs to go, which again, I don't think they feel the need to. It's also actually still fairly popular. Of course it's not on the levels of Diamondback or Beast, but overall it still draws in people. Lines aren't a good way to determine popularity. And removing a third coaster after you just closed two back-to-back? Yikes.

Going off their tweet, I really don't think anything from Vortex will be kept, which honestly kind of confuses me. For such an iconic and notable ride, why wouldn't the park want to keep something? Not even a car? It's weird.

I can usually take a pretty good beating and still enjoy a ride, but yeah for me personally Red Racer this year was horrible. Which is funny, cuz last year I considered Red to be the better of the two. Blue side this year was actually quite fun, even on wheel seats. (For me at least.)

I wonder where those trains will go. It'd be neat if they put them on Corkscrew, as Corkscrew's current trains can be suuper cramped for some. Probably won't happen though. (It would've been great to keep at least the front car of one of the trains in the park. Have it placed in a store or some good location so that people can get in it and take pictures, like the Gemini car in Cedar Point's museum.)

You know what would be absolutely great? A test seat. Many wait forever in line only to be smushed and told they can't ride. Also for the height requirement signs to be in the front of the line, not in the middle.

Booo

This is all in the heat of the moment for me so my view may change later, but as of now, all the hype for Orion for me died. I absolutely loved Vortex, and entering the park next year and not seeing it there anymore is going to hit hard. Really hard. For me next year isn't about the addition of Orion but the removal of Vortex. Last year when Firehawk went, I thought it would be safe for a while. Guess they'll be removing two coasters back to back instead. It sucks. It really sucks. I really thought next year was going to be amazing.

I guess I don't see that as a great example of poor arrow transitions. Has always felt like a normal, janky mine train transition. Nothing bad, really. I'd say Express really isn't at all near the end of it's service life. Parts aren't an issue, maintenance isn't an issue, and ridership really isn't an issue at all, so unless KI absolutely HAS to remove it, I don't think we'll be seeing it go anytime soon.

I personally don't think the track needs touched at all. I've never personally have ever had a truly bad ride on it. However, return of the Station Master audio would be great, and making the "Now you will pay!" audio louder so you can actually hear it would also be neat. Just a full revamp would be nice. More props, better audio, keeping the effects running, more fleshed out tunnels. Would be really, really cool. Here's some of the audio, btw (found on KIExtreme.com) Adventure Express Station Master.mp3 Adventure Express Final Tunnel Mono.mp3 Adventure Express Rainforest.mp3

Not gonna lie I'm digging the looks of the teasers. I'd gladly buy a Vortex teaser poster

This has happened before. I know for a fact it happened last year and took about 2 weeks to get it back open. Dont really know how long it'll be this time

I love how they're making I-Street more International, but I think they may want to fix this

Isn't really about operations, but something that would that we would really, REALLY appreciate. The Bat has a lot of wildlife around it, with a family of groundhogs being the most present. (The mom in the family is named Tom Cruise btw.) We absolutely love having these groundhogs out and about near the queue line. So please, please don't throw rocks/glass or jump the fence and try to chase them. It happened a lot today for some reason. Not only are you endangering the animals, but you're potentially endangering yourself. If you want to SEE the wildlife, don't MESS with the wildlife. And now something to contribute for operations: Drop Tower has really weird, complex, and at times frustrating seat belts. Once the ride is over and people try to get it, many get stuck and can't unbuckle. To make everything go faster, all you need to do is pull down on the restraint and bring it to you as close as you can, and THEN unbuckle. Bringing the restraint down just makes unbuckling a LOT easier. If you can't do it, just sit back and let the associate coming around help you out.

Watched Coaster Studio's video on RMC Gwazi, already enthusiasts making a big deal about how it's not dueling. One comment goes off on the ride complaining about how "RMC is stagnating" and that a Hyper RMC that goes beyond vertical is completely boring. Yikes.

This article honestly resonated pretty well with me. From people lashing out at others just because they like a ride they thought was horrible to talking about how "I have more credits than you, therefore I'm more of an enthusiast." Something I kinda wish the article talked about was how the hate for GP has risen drastically. I'll go into YouTube comments of a video and just see an abundance of enthusiasts chewing out someone just for being GP. Just because they didn't know everything there is to know about coasters and parks. I'll go into a "GP" YouTube video talking about Ohio coasters and the comment sections will just go all out on them because they put "The" in front of a coaster name or get some small facts wrong. Comments will be nothing but Enthusiasts complaining about GP and make fun of them. The term "GP" has just been so degraded to the point where if you just mention it among enthusiast communities, it's more than often meant as a negative connotation.

Announcement video

It's not older than 2000 but I can see Wicked Twister going at some point in the near future. I've always heard about maintenance problems with it and it going down.

Thing about Arrows: Arrow ride attendance is really often not bad as they may seem. Pretty sure we've already established a bunch of time that Arrows often get shorter lines because of capacity and operations. Just take our own good ol' Arrows here as an example. Consistently on the higher side of ridership yet short lines. Even better example: Anaconda. Anaconda gets practically no lines and is pretty unpopular among enthusiasts. However it's consistently the fifth most ridden at the park, with 554k riders in 2017 and 541k in 2016. I just see Cedar Fair focusing on removing "trouble making" rides. Rides that break down a bunch, expensive to maintain, and don't have many parts around. I'm going to predict we're going to see some more Intamins and maybe Vekomas leave as well.

lol Carolina Cyclone is my 4th favorite coaster Carowinds. Worst coaster either has to be Green Lantern at Great Adventure or the Carowinds Vortex. Both bashed my head in reeaaall good and were super uncomfortable. The corkscrew on Vortex really messed me up, and Green Lantern was just overall a really bad experience all around.