The Interpreter

To my knowledge, the ONLY thing PKD has confirmed is that the ride will not be operating this year. Nothing has been said of its future, if any. People have speculated it's being rethemed, it's being moved, it's being sold . . .But the park has confirmed only that it is not operating this year.

If there is always an interested buyer, someone forgot to tell a Mr. Burke that at Six Flags. Ah, the price. That's the rub. Mr. Sumner Redstone controls Vicaom and CBS Corporation through his controlling interest in National Amusements. He will either get his price, or he will be keeping the parks. . . Sumner's like that. . .

I have in fact been to Florida several times when the only theme park I visited was BGT. Kumba alone is enough to draw me there, not to mention the other wonderful things in that park. If you haven't been since before Montu was installed, you've got a lot to look forward to! I hope you get to go soon. The only real complaint I have about BGT is that it is often very crowded now, since Florida residents can in effect go the entire year for the cost of a single visit. I usually go through the week in winter (NOT during spring break) and avoid the summer and weekends. The only problem with that approach is that the park typically closes at 6 during those times.

I think what do with Son of Beast is a real quandary for the park. More than perhaps anything else, this may be affected by who the new owner, if there is one, is. And I am not brilliant enough, nor stupid enough, to predict what will happen with Son of Beast. There are many more factors in this decision than the average park visitor will ever know. . .

Yes, they do take incredible care of their rides (though those who have ridden Gwazi at BGT may not think so). I was more talking about the parks' general appearance, the way they keep up their theming, the way they only put in attractions when they have the money to do things right...including building an exterior facade that looks as if it was meant to endure for the ages....

Reminds me of when Drachen Fire sat unused for years at BGW. Not on the map, not mentioned on the train ride even as you rode past it, and if you asked an employee where it was, they looked at you (as instructed, I suspect), and said "Excuse me, what did you ask?" When you repeated yourself, you were told, "I am sorry, we have no ride called Drachen Fire." It was a headshaker. We know how that ended. . .

Carowinds has been doing this on Top Gun for quite some time. I think they are concerned that the rider exhibit signs of being able to cope with life after two rides. And I suspect the someone with lots of time was an insurance company, perhaps after paying a claim. The rule is not all that unusual. At Morey's Piers, for example, if the Great White is empty and you are the only person riding, you still must get out after EVERY ride, walk out the exit and up the entrance (a not short journey) in order to reride. Just one of many reasons that though I love the rides and atmosphere there, I despise that park.

It should be: Mission Impossible: Son of Beast. My Sob for short...

And it looks like it was designed to last forever. I still remember seeing the front of Tomb Raider: The Ride at PKI. I immediately wondered how long it would last, it just looked....temporary. Busch builds stuff as if it they expect to own the parks forever. They also keep their theming "as new" for years and years and years. I have never seen anything look shabby in any Busch park. Even at Geauga Lake, you can now see the deterioration on the old Sea World side, from years of neglect by Six Flags and now, sad to say, by Cedar Fair. Sad.

I've been to a few parks that the map not only didn't make sense, it was just plain wrong! Rides not where the map said they were, paths that were blocked in reality but showed all clear on the map. Six Flags America a few years back comes to mind. I actually had to get security to help me find the exit! I was never so glad to leave a park. Bad maps make for an overall bad experience. Like outrageous parking fees, they can start guests off with a bad impression before anything else even can happen, good or bad. . .

Yes, Carowinds uses finger scans now...they told buyers of their season passes that all Paramount Parks were going to be doing this for 2006. Interesting that apparently this may be another area where investment was deferred (trying to put this nicely) until after the expected change of ownership. . . YET, if PKI is using the finger scanners for twickets, then they must have bought at least SOME for PKI. I wonder what's going on at Dominion and Great America with this? I guess we will know soon. . . Anyone have an 06 PGA or PKD pass? Does it have a photo?

from: http://money.cnn.com/2006/02/17/news/companies/cbs/ Under the "Old" media out of favor section of the article.... Shopping, by the way, means taking bids from suitors, then deciding on the best (normally, but not always the highest) one...

Actually, season pass holders are a large source of revenue, but the average season pass holder doesn't spend anything close to what the average day ticket user does... And even season pass holders can need directions. That pass holder you speak of could be from another Paramount Park, you know...

You people need to remember WHO pays the bills. The average visitor isn't in the park every day for hours on end. That being said, the question that cracks me up the most at Paramount's Kings Island: "Where's Magnum?" And at Cedar Point: "Can you tell me where The Beast is, please?" Honest to goodness, I've been asked for directions to The Beast at Six Flags Over Georgia. More than once. For whatever reason, people often seem to think I am a park employee. Maybe cause I wear long pants and polo shirts to parks, sometimes with dress shoes! Hey, it's what I am comfortable with...Still, you'd think people would know a bright green polo shirt with khaki pants is NOT a Six Flags Over Georgia uniform!

Oooh, that's cold!

Nope, as I said before, it was touted as the only wooden looping coaster on the planet. (Actually the press release headline used: "tallest, fastest and only looping wooden roller coaster in the world,"...the planet language was used more extensively later on, and is in the very first paragraph: "...contains the only Earth-flipping wooden roller coaster loop on the planet." They never said anything about there having been previous wooden loopers. Why would they? First of all, the first ones had not been comfortable or all that successful (and in fact had had some pretty serious injuries). Second, virtually no one was alive who had ridden them or remembered them. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, by not saying certain things, one can carefully leave the impressions one wants, and many would ASSUME it was the first, though they never, ever said that it was. But some newspaper somewhere may have headlined it as the first. If they did, they were wrong. Press releases are just that, releases to the press. The headlines frequently get rewritten. They get edited by papers to fit their audience and size of news hole available. Sometimes the editing is right and proper. Sometimes wrong things get put in...Sometimes they get totally rewritten by a staffer (who may as much about whatever the release is about as I do about the Mongolian use and sales of toilet paper in 1906, and with similar results). http://www.rcdb.com/document30.htm

Nope. Jeff made quite clear in his releases that it was the only looping wooden coaster on the planet. And that's true!

Hmmmm. That's Fairly Odd...(too bad they didn't start this before they built Son of Beast--that IS a Fairly Odd Coaster!)

Did you also think that Son of Beast was the first looping wooden coaster?

It's 181 feet high, with a 176 foot first drop that goes down at a 76 degree angle (steepest wood coaster). It has only four hills, though, and they are 112', 100' and 82' respectively. Top speed is an estimated 70 mph, and the length is 4400 feet...

I didn't say the last of big coasters...I said the last of THOSE KIND of big coasters. I don't think any park in the US will be buying a 400 foot plus rocket coaster from INTAMIN for a very, very long time.... Roller Coaster Corporation of America had similar problems with their big wood coasters, and no one in the US ever bought another after Son of Beast... (Well, you opened the door! )

I imagine, given the headaches the 400 footer pluses have caused, and the imminent sale of Paramount Parks, the primary thing you can call that 600 foot plus thing is: Somewhere else. (if anywhere)

El Toro was never planned to open with the park...which opens two weeks before Paramount's Kings Island this year, by the way....

Wow. I wonder what changed their minds? PKI is normally dead as all get out on Easter...

Is PKI even still taking pictures for its passes? Paramount's Carowinds passes for 2006 do NOT have pictures...