TombRaiderFTW

Lately, I've been on a big baking kick thanks to The Great British Bake Off. I recently tried my hand at knitting, but I'm not sure it's the thing for me. In previous off-seasons, I've tried skiing. In general, winter tends to be the time when I try new things. Over the last handful of years, I've gotten back into video games after a decade-plus long hiatus. I'm wanting to finish playing through Undertale, Final Fantasy IX, Super Mario Sunshine, and Horizon Zero Dawn, but mostly I tend to play whatever I feel like playing at the time. And, of course, I wouldn't be a true coaster nerd if there wasn't some nerdy Youtube watching and article reading being done, too. Not to overshare, but this particular off-season, the previous one, and the one before that have been big ones for working on my mental and emotional health. I've finally confronted some generational trauma that landed in my lap with increasing intensity over the last several years, and I've decided the cycle ends with me. It's been incredibly hard work, but so worth it. I'm happier than I've been in a decade. Different things work for different people, but if anyone is struggling with their mental health and has the means to see a therapist who they trust and learn from, I can't recommend it enough. Therapy (and you) are worth the effort. Apologies for taking this on a bit of an unrelated tangent, but since we're here: During my times of mental health work, I also came to the realization that it was time for me to accept myself and come out as gay. I've since met someone, and we got engaged in December. So, I'm also trying out being a fiance for the first time.

I'd contest this a bit. Yes, it's one of two major chain parks in Canada, and of the two, I'm under the impression that Wonderland is considerably better. However, I think Cedar Fair recognizes that people have options for entertainment, and roller coasters don't have to be part of it. If I remember correctly, that was mentioned several times during the Ouimet years. I don't remember if this was explicitly said or if it was just implied, but the sentiment was, "We're not competing against other parks, we're competing against other things people do for fun." I could be misremembering this, but I feel like that idea was mentioned a lot in reference to Cedar Fair exploring other entertainment options (like cirque shows) and the (former?) Amusement Dark initiative. I'd also add that I think considering parks too big/centrally located to fail is a dangerous fallacy for any park owner to believe. I'd argue that that kind of thinking is part of what enabled Six Flags to do what it did to Geauga Lake in the late 1990's and early 2000's. I think it's also part of what contributed to Hard Rock Park's failure, and I think it's part of the path that Mt. Olympus in Wisconsin Dells and Buffalo Bill's in Las Vegas have been heading down for some years now. Consider Dollywood as a counterexample: it COULD be just another shticky sideshow attraction like everything else in Pigeon Forge and coast by, but it's lovingly cared for and expanded by park management, even though gazillions of people travel through the area year after year. It's got longevity because of that care.

$5 says Kentucky Kingdom. Between things that have popped up on Facebook and things that have been said here...

Wait! Wait! I need stories!

You know how seeing your Facebook memories can be cringey? We don't speak of 2008 TombRaiderFTW.

I wouldn't say it's a thing for me of, like, "I could enjoy this story if it weren't for the visible track!" It's a necessary evil for what's available in the amusement industry right now, and consequently, I don't pay it much attention. Especially for Space Mountain and Mummy, there weren't that many/any other options available at the time. I do think that, if there was some way of getting a coaster experience without seeing track, it would enhance the magic of it all much more, though. Going back to the example of Hagrid: if there WAS some way of experiencing being on a flying motorcycle without clearly seeing the path you're about to take, it would add so much to the experience. I don't know that anything exists like that at the moment, though. The best example I can think of is the KUKA arm system used for Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, but that's not a coaster. It's just a good way of telling a story without showing riders where they're going. Even GPS-tracked dark rides eventually wear on the floor and give you a hint about where you're going. I think that's a possible opportunity for growth within the industry. Maybe in 50 years, drone technology will have come so far that we'll have silent, trackless, hovering dark ride cars that can give the kinds of experiences we're talking about.

You mean EVERY Cedar Fair park, including Michigan's Adventure, is getting a Mack looper?! What a time to be alive!

I'd take a first generation Intamin Drop Tower.

Excellent photos! I'm not gonna lie, this made me want to try exploring 35mm photography myself. It's been too long since my last foray into photography, and I've only ever used digital point-and-shoots or DSLRs. Any particular feelings one way or another on the Pentax K1000?

It's a bit presumptuous to assume that it being delayed to 2022 is because of a failing on Six Flags's part. It might be, or it might not be. There's a pandemic going on that has affected many things, for example.

Are you kidding? It's a piece of roller coaster track that traveled BACKWARDS in time! Not only is it valuable from a coaster enthusiasts standpoint, it's important to the study of time travel! Nah, I think an increase in value is dependent on how many were done like that. If it's all of them, then no change. If that's the only one like that, then that might change things.

If it's Cascabel 2.0, I'm not renewing my KI season pass and am instead becoming an Indiana Beach stan. Seriously, the idea of having ONE Schwarzkopf 3-4 hours from my house makes me so happy, let alone two--especially if one of them is a Schwarzkopf shuttle loop.

I haven't been to Holiday World since maybe 2016, but before then there were years where I went multiple times per year. IF the park takes care of its coasters like it did back then, the wooden ones run night-and-day better in the spring and fall. They aren't good rides in summer--they'll all jackhammer in many places. I've never noticed such a polarity at other parks, but then again, KI is the only other wood coaster-heavy park I've been to many times per year.

If you were going to advise a new enthusiast on what parks they should hit up first, which ones would you recommend and why? Let's assume travel expenses aren't an issue. Feel free to consider price of admission, food prices, merchandise prices, etc. in your recommendations, if you feel "bang for your buck" is an important factor. You can get as specific as you'd like. Heck, feel free to write out a whole itinerary if you want! I'll start. Admittedly, I'm leaning more towards the history side of things. In no particular order: Knoebels. It's the best operating glimpse into the history of amusement parks, in my opinion. It's also just incredibly fun and charming. From trying to get the brass ring on the carousel to the existence of Flying Turns to the Traver bumper cars, it's like getting a glimpse into the original heyday of the amusement park world before the 1930's. Also, everyone should ride Phoenix in 1-3 before they die. Disneyland. It's beautiful, and it revolutionized how amusement and theme parks were designed. From Main Street to Haunted Mansion to Pirates of the Caribbean to it's a small world, despite being 50+ years old, it still feels like an earnest attempt at something new and amazing, and you can't help but love it for that. No, Magic Kingdom in Florida is NOT the same thing. Disneyland, in my opinion, is THE quintessential theme park. Busch Gardens Williamsburg, Kings Island, or Six Flags over Texas. All three are charming and top-tier examples of how the Disneyland idea was propagated to seasonal parks, and each of them has managed to keep (or regain) a lot of their original charm despite several changes in management over the years. Each also has stand-out rides that every enthusiast should try.

Oooh! That's really exciting. Will you post a side-by-side video of a POV with old track versus a POV with the new track once the ride starts testing in the spring? Something similar was done with the Coney Island Cyclone a few years ago: I'm honestly curious if retracking that much of the ride will cause it to run faster.

They're not retracking the whole ride, if I remember the original post correctly. It's just getting IBox track in certain areas.

It seems like cloned rides get talked about a lot when it comes to predicting park plans, but the rides themselves are rarely discussed. What's your favorite ride that has a clone or near clone? It can come from Kings Island, or it can come from any other park. The world is your oyster! Remember, it doesn't have to have an exact replica. For instance, I'd consider Hurler at Carowinds to be a clone of Thunder Run at Kentucky Kingdom, even though the layouts aren't exactly the same. I'll start: I love the Coney Island Cyclone and the near-clones I've ridden. Viper at Six Flags Great America is a good ride, and Georgia Cyclone was one of my favorite coasters. They're fun, extremely compact layouts that often contain more airtime than what they look like they'd have from the ground.

Yo dawg, I heard you like RMC, so we put an RMC in our RMC so you can RMC while you RMC. Anyway, that's really interesting. It's odd to me that an RMC-designed ride would need to have its track replaced when Tremors, a CCI, has had Topper Track for close to a decade without issue. I've read reports in enthusiast circles that rides that were partially retracked with Topper Track don't hold up particularly well over time (Georgia Cyclone seemed like the most frequent culprit, if I remember correctly), but I guess I'd assumed that was because of the PTCs they often run. I wonder what this means for the future of launched RMCs, if launched RMCs even have a future after the issues with Lightning Rod.

Kangaroo, Bayurn Kurve, Volcano, and Paratrooper. I'm floored. https://www.instagram.com/p/CHI7m1SF9Y6/?igshid=kxfjoeb6d0to

My Eleventh Commandment senses are tingling.

It's been a couple years since I was last in it, but the Rivertown arcade near Beast had skeeball.

This is purely conjecture and is completely unsubstantiated: In retrospect, I feel like the ride's shaping looks kiiinda like CCI designed a layout and then RCCA got their hands on it and "dumbed it down" for their manufacturing capability and/or to remove laterals and airtime. Like, the post-lift swoop looks like a positive g-heavy version of that of Legend, the turn after the big drop looks like the second turn after Boss's first drop if a bunch of banking was clumsily added to remove laterals, the last turn does that CCI thing of banking during airtime, but it's like they went out of their way to remove the airtime or used the wrong friction factors or something. Y'know? Kinda in the same vein as Arrow Arrow-fying a B&M layout with Drachen Fire? Anyway, as someone who didn't ride Son of Beast till 2008, I only recently realized that the original trains had Flight of Fear-style lapbars. Y'know, ones that ratchet downward but have no upwards movement once they do. Pretty sure riding Son of Beast with those should have qualified as cruel and unusual punishment, because oh man. Kinda glad I missed that. Coincidentally, had CCI designed Son of Beast, it possibly would have opened with Gerstlauer trains, which is what it switched to later in life. Unless parks bought trains straight from PTC (or another manufacturer), CCIs in 2000 opened with Gerstlauer trains.

Like I said, it's because I'm assuming MFs are lighter than PTCs. If they weigh less, they're not going to cause as much stress.

^ Because I'm assuming they're lighter than Racer's PTCs.

Here's what I'm in favor of. Beast: Either a GCI retrack or a selective RMC Topper Track retracking in certain high-stress areas. Gently reprofile the ride to remove the trim brakes. The point isn't to turn the ride into something else; it's to make it so it doesn't keep stomping on the brakes around every turn. (And yes, I know, it's had trim brakes since opening. That doesn't mean I have to like them. ) I assume doing that would require the track to bank more quickly, so I therefore assume it'd need new trains (as it's my understanding/assumption that Beast's trains don't have an articulating axle at all.) I'd vote for new 3-bench PTCs. Racer: A GCI retrack and Millennium Flyers. I'm going to commit heresy by saying this, but I'd have GCI gently reprofile the hills to provide more airtime (and possibly provide more hills on the return run.) Racer is a great ride as-is, but I feel like, based on people's reports, that ride (and others) had more airtime before the trains were switched to individual ratcheting lapbars. Based on what enthusiasts claim, that change made the trains heavier, which both made the ride rougher and cut down on airtime. Woodstock Express: It's fine as-is? I don't feel like there's a pressing need to do anything to it. Mystic Timbers: Same as Woodstock Express. It's a basically brand-new GCI. It'd be weird and (in my opinion) unnecessary to RMC it.