jzarley

For what it's worth...the post headline was changed from "China" to "Japan" after my original post... (Hmmm...'Terpie--don't you usually call out other people for changing the content of a post after the fact and not mentioning it? ) XGatorHead-- I'm with you on that one! Although, a friend of mine just got back from a long term work assignment in Tokyo, and he said he was amazed at how Hello Kitty was everywhere in Japan. Not just with little girls...but adult men carrying Hello Kitty backpacks! (Yeah, I know...hard for me to believe too )

The headline reads like the park is in China, but the article reads like it is in Japan (as reported by the Chinese news agency...) Hopefully, it is located in Japan since a few parks in China have shown little regard for appropriate licensing & the IP of other companies... http://www.cartoonbrew.com/disney/chinas-unlicensed-knock-off-of-disneyland.html <EDIT> ...yeah, looks like Odaiba is an area in Tokyo: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odaiba

Me too! I was a journalism major and the AP Style Guide is the college book I kept--and still used years after college. I recently made the move to the iPhone app version...it's searchable and easier to lug around. (Not to mention, my 1988 edition was getting a little out of date! )

So, I'm a little confused...does the elimination of the GM role mean there will no longer be a single person with overall responsibility for each park? (Or, does SF handle that with a different title...i.e, "VP, Six Flags Over Texas" or something like that?) If the former is correct, I have to question the wisdom of not having a local "the buck stops here" at each park...by and large, decentralized management tends to work best (from my experience, anyway), especially when you're talking about geographically diverse and customer service-centric operations. Al Weber has a Ph.D.? I wonder what subject his doctorate is in?

Agreed...it's all about your frame of reference. That's why in my mind, the Kings Island of the mid 70s-early 80s will always be the "best." (It's also why I still think the old COSI out on Broad St is better than the new COSI--even though the new one is vastly superior in about every way imaginable )

^ and, personally, I consider the days of Lindner's ownership to be darker than the Paramount/Viacom (but not CBS) eras. (Although, ironically--two of my favorite rides came out of that time--AE and PT...) I agree with 'Terp...the early days of Paramount's ownership held great promise, and I think could have been much better than they ended up. In theory, there should have been a lot of great synergies between Viacom's other media properties and the parks, but for some reason they could just never seem to make them happen. (I never will forget the year when they were doing tryouts for "Survivor" @ Geauga Lake instead of at PKI--and PKI and "Survivor" were both Viacom-owned properties!) And, the fact that a Hollywood entertainment company (the OLDEST studio company in Hollywood in fact) couldn't provide better live entertainment at the parks was practically criminal. The parks also got bounced around organizationally with Viacom...going from Paramount Studios control, to Blockbuster "retail & recreation", to MTV Networks, and finally to CBS. It seemed sometimes that the parks were the "booby prize" that some poor corporate division had to take with each re-org. I think ultimately that speaks volumes about Sumner Redstone's true opinion of the parks...they simply weren't a "core" business in the overall enterprise. (Contrast that to Disney, where the parks & resorts division is always a major player--and consideration--within that huge media empire.) And, while it's easy to cast blame at the big, corporate owner, I also think there were some lessons to be learned at the local level as well. For instance, the constant overhyping of each new year's attraction--inevitably comparing each new ride to something Disney-caliber, did nothing for their credibility. (I mean, I understand that a seasonal park can't have the attraction budget of a year-round park that does 4x the attendance, so why didn't the marketing dept. figure this out?) Each year the pre-season hyped promised the "most fantabulous, incredible, Hollywood-ized (<seriously--their word), special-effects laden attraction ever!"--and each year they couldn't even come close. Obviously, budget constraints were the biggest hurdle here (and obviously so), but why knowingly over promise what you know can't be delivered? (BTW...I'm still waiting for all that "lush, tropical vegetation" that was going to make Boomerang Bay look & feel like a "tropical paradise." )

^ yeah, the "no longer with the company" line is the most terse and is usually used when they're *really* PO'd at the recently ousted exec (A certain COO who recently--and suddenly--departed a major theme park company comes to mind...) The funny thing is about the "leaving to spend more time with his/her family" line is usually that same exec lands at a new company a few months later...guess they figure out that *too* much time with the family isn't a good thing either

^ same here...I see absolutely no reason to trek (pun intended) all the way out to the Hilton anymore...even with the monorail! ST:TE was a fantastic attraction...it really showed what Paramount Parks creative unit could do when given a non-seasonal park budget. The "Klingon Encounter" simulator was probably the best ride of that type in the country, and the "beam-up sequence" as you began the ride was amazing. It was the only thing (IMHO, anyway) that not only lived up to--but surpassed--PP's marketing hype! I had always hoped that PP would introduce the simulator at some of the "standard" Par parks, but it never happened for some reason. I can understand why it wasn't a good business model for CF to keep operating, but I really wished it could have worked out for ST:TE to continue on...either via a 3rd party (Blackstone, maybe?) or even by Viacom itself.

I was never a big fan of Days of Thunder. I actually found it a huge disappointment at the time, because I was expecting a pretty high-end simulator experience (similar to BTTF at Universal, or even "Questor" at BGT) and it just couldn't quite deliver. Instead of shooting all new POV footage for the ride, they reused a lot of footage from the actual film. The switches between the custom POV film for the simulator and the shots from the actual movie could really take away from the experience (for instance, I remember one sequence where it was a POV shot from the windshield of the car, then immediately cut to a shot taken from stands looking out as the cars sped by...any illusion of motion was immediately killed.) I will agree that the custom shots developed for the ride weren't bad for the time...the aforementioned "rocking" of the car at the end was an effect that worked well. Of course, I'm sure part of my disappointment resulted from the pre-opening marketing for the ride where the hype could never even come close to reality. (You know, another one of those "most fantabulous incredible Hollywoodized experiences ever!!" )

I think it's impossible to judge how exciting a ride will be before anyone actually rides it. For instance, I thought SkyHawk wouldn't be that all that different of an experience from MaxAir/Delirium since the concepts were similar. (Basically, a big pendulum swinging back & forth...albet MaxAir/Delirium at least spun at the same time.) Yet, those rides are completely different experiences, and I enjoy both of them on their own merits. (I don't think you'd hear very many people say "I'm not going to ride Skyhawk because I've already ridden MaXair") Another example is Maverick. Remember all the complaining & attacks about Maverick when it was announced? People were screaming about it not breaking any records--not the highest, tallest, fastest, anything! Yet, Maverick is a fantastic ride, and was an outstanding addition to CP. (In fact, I'd say that the front seat on Maverick is right up there as one of my absolute favorite rides...) Again, my only complaint about WindSeeker is that it's going to be the exact same ride launching the exact same year at the two parks I frequent most often. Of course, I completely understand the synergistic/cost savings reasons behind this. (And, I'll still ride them both...the visuals should be dramatically different between them!)

I answered "no" to the 2nd question, but that's only because it's very unlikely I'll be at the park opening day... Now, if the question was "Is WindSeeker one of the first rides you'll ride next season", the answer would be yes.

All, in all--I think it sounds like a pretty fun ride. Like someone else who posted earlier, I have also recently rediscovered the simple joys of the Zephyr. So, I think this should be pretty enjoyable. (Plus, I think anything is thrilling when done at 300' feet in the air--including looking out the window of the conference room on the 30th floor of my office building ) Selfishly, I'm a little disappointed that CP and KI are getting the exact same ride...it doesn't give much variety for those of us who visit both parks frequently. (Although, I have to admire their dedication to economies of scale...think how this will cut down on marketing costs with so many versions of the same ride being installed in the same season...)

Not just "mad"...Funtime is claiming Mondial (and by association, Cedar Fair) have infringed on their patent.

This is great news! I purposely skipped this attraction the last few times at IOA specifically because of the lack of the water Vortex.

Have they named Weber the permanent CEO yet, or is he still the "interim"?

And, what's ironic is that increasing per cap spending at the former Paramount Parks was how CF management said they would pay for the acquisition...

wow...reading this thread I thought I'd gone back to the 90s and was reading rec.roller-coaster again Purplehaze...how long ago were you a performer at KI? A friend of mine from high school was a performer for a few Summers. (But, that was like '87 or '88...a VERY long time ago <G>)

That was quite interesting (and sad). That place looks like it must be crawling with snakes now!! There have been some rumored plans for the old Discovery Island site (including the rumored "Disney's Night Kingdom") that was supposed to house the anticipated "premium" attraction (ala Discovery Cove) that has been speculated about for the past few years...

^ The Santa Maria does serve one purpose...it's my department's meet-up place in case of an emergency which causes a full building evacuation

There are actually some elements reminiscent (ripped off ) from Chicago's Millennium Park coming to another new Columbus park under construction--the Scioto Mile project: http://www.sciotomile.com/ This park will include interactive fountains, performance space, and a glass-walled cafe that looks a lot to me like a scaled down Millennium Park.

I had forgotten about the "Skate on State" experiment...of course, it was a kind of crappy temporary rink too. (It looked like someone froze over their above ground pool ) I also fondly remember the grand opening of the City Center. In it's time, the City Center was considered one of the most successful examples of urban retail in the country...many similar shopping centers were built around the world using it as the model. You're right about the design though...the City Center was developed just a few years before the concept of the mega indoor mall was dying. The mall was a stand-alone island in the middle of downtown, and urban renewal that was supposed to happen around it never did. In retrospect, a "lifestyle center" (like Easton, The Greens, etc.) would have been a much better model for that downtown location. (Of course, that would have put it about 15 years ahead of the times...)

That's a nice touch for this new park. I was hoping for an outdoor skating rink (anyone remember the Centrum from the 1980s? <g>), but this is pretty cool. That site looks so odd now with the City Center gone!

^^ If building a structure to withstand the weather as a boardwalk is daunting, imagine what it would take to build a coaster that actually sat in the lake. Not to mention the fact that Cedar Fair doesn't actually own Lake Erie

^ I thought the same thing about Hulk when I've ridden it recently. I remember how smooth it was in its first few years, and was surprised at how rough it seems now. (But, to be honest--I thought it was just ME getting old--not the coaster!! ) Dueling Dragons (or "Harry Potter's Pet Dragon" or whatever they call it now ) has seemed to retain its smoothness...at least so far.

hmmm...missed that part on my first read-through. Ok...that doesn't provide quite as much breathing room as I was thinking Let's hope someone doesn't offer them a 12.5 rate for the remainder <G>. (Maybe they should try Beneficial )