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CF To Ever Work With Intamin Again?


CoasterDirected
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So we all know how buddy-buddy Intamin and Cedar Fair were until 09-10, but that obviously fell apart. With things such as low reliability and the whole "Shoot The Rapids incident", how long do you believe that CF will go without doing large business deals with Intamin? What do they need to change to have CF hire them for manufacturing for their parks?

 

My opinion, if the whole PolerCoaster idea becomes an actual success (both functional and popular), Cedar Fair may have a change of heart. (Yes, I know S and S makes the roller coaster part) 

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Sorry for the double post.

 

I'm not sure who has more of a black eye in the industry, though.  Intamin had trouble with its accelerator model in the initial years but has worked out a lot of those bugs.

 

S&S had its chance to beat Intamin at claiming the fastest coaster title from Kingda Ka.  ring•racer was supposed to open at 135mph before Formula Rossa at 149.1 mph..  Well, a long series of accidents that included blowing out the windows of the pneumatics room led to five years of delays, opening at a reduced speed of 99.4 mph.  It was then decommissioned after four days but that says more about the state of Nürburgring than the ride.

 

Then again, Intamin has been having its struggles lately as well.  See also: Falcon's Fury, Zumanjaro not able to run concurrently with Kingda Ka, etc.

 

No matter what, it'll be interesting to see who current management goes to for its next non-B&M major coaster (not a "family coaster").

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Well, thinking about this really long and hard- it all depends on what Cedar Fair wants to add, and if they really wanted something no one BUT Intamin could offer, they might do it. But what does Intamin offer that other companies can't? All I can think of they really have are the Rocket Coasters like TTD, Polercoasters, Impulse Coasters, and the 10+ Inversion coasters as nearly everything else coaster-wise Intamin makes, B&M or Mack Rides offers a rival version boasting better reliability. Cedar Fair sure isn't buying any more Shoot-the-Rapids boat rides after what happened with that one either. A Drop Tower could be possible but I think most of the parks already have one. Unless Polercoaster takes off and is a success or some Cedar Fair park decides it wants a Strata for some reason, Intamin just doesn't seem to have an opening without someone else rushing in to make a better offer.

 

Intamin's only real option with Cedar Fair right now would probably be to offer a large discount, and hope Cedar Fair can't resist it (like Arrow did with Kings Island for Vortex in 1987). They might lose some money short-term this way, but if they don't screw up the "apology" install and it actually runs well, then Cedar Fair may start working with them again. But I don't know if Intamin will be willing to do this, or just work with foreign parks and hope they can repair their image with those. If Intamin can get their reliability and safety up, and keep it up, their odds of getting back in the coaster wars increase. If they stay the same and keep giving parks major problems, then they will go the same way Arrow did and be a famous coaster company from the past.

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 Zumanjaro not able to run concurrently with Kingda Ka, etc.

 

That's not really Intamin's fault.  New Jersey's laws and regulations prevent that from happening.  

 

I wouldn't be so sure.  Perhaps they could have (should have?) worked closer with the regulators to determine if the ride would be operable as designed.

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Six Flags isn't a stranger to that.  They had plans for one of the Dark Knight mouse-in-a-boxes at SFNE and had to scratch it due to not filing the proper paperwork, no fault of Mack that it wasn't built.  Intamin had to re-design V2 at SFDK because it was initially too tall for the city's height restrictions.  New Jersey is one of the strictest states in terms of amusement park regulations.  Its kind of a miracle that rides like Nitro and Kingda Ka were built at all.  I'm 99.9% positive it was more on NJ's laws than Intamin's designs that Kingda Ka and Big Droppy Thing operate the way they do.  Intamin got it right across the states at SFMM with Superman and Lex Luthor, so its not like it hasn't been done right by Intamin.  

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At this point I don't care who installs a coaster at Kings Island as long as it's not a B&M coaster. Diversity would be nice. That's one thing that's great about SIX past 5 years (2010 - 2015) they have used multiple manufactures for rollercoasters. Rocky Mountain Construction, Premier Rides, S&S worldwide, B&M, Intamin, Vekoma, and Zamperla. You take a look at Cedar Fair (2010 - 2015) Intamin, B&M, Mack, Art Engineering and GCI.

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At this point I don't care who installs a coaster at Kings Island as long as it's not a B&M coaster. Diversity would be nice. That's one thing that's great about SIX past 5 years (2010 - 2015) they have used multiple manufactures for rollercoasters. Rocky Mountain Construction, Premier Rides, S&S worldwide, B&M, Intamin, Vekoma, and Zamperla. You take a look at Cedar Fair (2010 - 2015) Intamin, B&M, Mack, Art Engineering and GCI.

Of course, the fact SIX has had nearly that many managements had something to do with that.

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Ever is a long time, and if you assume that both parties continue to exist in more or less their similar state for "ever" then naturally the two sides will come together again.  A change in leadership in either party could ultimately lead to a melting of the minds and a happy collaboration.  Mr. O will not lead CF forever, neither will the people currently running Intamin AG.  Many changes in leadership often comes with prior relationships formed that carry thru to the next company.

 

However, it is likely that neither business continues to operate in more or less a similar state for "ever" much less the next couple of decades.  There is always a possibility that Cedar Fair is bought our or merges with another operator.  Perhaps Disney or Universal decides that they want to expand into the seasonal markets (perhaps they do and I'm not aware of it).  On the Intamin side, I'd be concerned about having any presence in the US given the past 4 years.  Obviously things can change, and perhaps there are things in the works that I'm not aware of, but since 2011 and the debut of Skyhawk at Hershey park, there have been no coaster installations in the US (according to wikie & RCDB anyways).  Outside of coasters, there has been an observation tower built at the Texas State Fair, and 3 Drop Towers, Falcon's Fury as listed above, the big droppy thing at NJFTP and Lex Luther: Drop of Doom at SFMM.  There were multiple delays with Falcon's Fury and while perhaps not their fault, Zumanjaro runs at less capacity than I'm sure was originally planned.  I'm certainly no insider; perhaps Intamin AG makes significant amounts of money consulting parks on installations or design, while receiving little to no credit and does a wonderful job at.  However, based on a quick, short scan of Wiki & RCDB (obviously not a in depth search) it appears that after a period of great involvement in the US in the mid 90s thru mid 2000s, that their work load in the US has been minimal at best.  They appear to still be involved pretty well in Europe and Asia, and those markets may well offer more bang for the buck, especially the Asia market which is seemingly building large amusement parks out of nothing, so as a company, they may be doing as well or better than they ever have, but their US presence has certainly been on the decline.

 

Then again, ever certainly is a long time to consider.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Be careful.

FUN has told investors several times lately that it intends to greatly increase corporate sponsors/advertising in the parks. SafeAuto, Chevrolets and FUN TV are trailblazers.

 

Hopefully it won't be as prominent at the "sponsorships" that are over at Flags.

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I don't mind the ads so much on the midways, it's the train wraps I can't stand. For a ride like Kingda Ka in the Golden Kingdom that is arguably the best themed section of Great Adventure, having Smurf or Karate Kid ads in the queue and banners in the station and Karate Kid train wraps felt out of place. It was the same with Runaway Mine Train. The station is in the giant fort along with the Skyway station and they put huge Polly O ads all over the outside of the fort, took down historical pictures with captions about the West and covered them with ads and put ads on the trains.

As much as people are tired of Super Hero themed rides, at least they can't put ads on those coaster trains.

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I personally would hate to see sf work with Cedar Fair mainly because adverisements! Next thing you know, Invertigos trains are sponsored by a gum company! And there is a new "coaster" at Kings Island called Giga Looper! Or known as the hang over coaster lol

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