bkroz

They should put a Progressive Snapshot device in the Backlot Stunt Coaster cars and then allow visitors to see how their insurance rate changes as the Snapshot device sends the car's data to Progressive. Could be a fun stunt to market how "wild" the ride is. Not nearly as edgy as bleeding midgets but...

Last year, the top 10 contenders for 'best park in the world' included 3 Disney Parks and 1 Universal Park. Those four COMBINED had the same percentage of "votes" as Cedar Point. Put another way, if 100 people voted in 2013, 23 of them thought Cedar Point is the best park on Earth. Disneyland Park, Magic Kingdom, Tokyo DisneySea, and Universal's Islands of Adventure would've had 23 votes COMBINED. C'mon. Cedar Point is a fine park and a great destination, and every year it's becoming a nicer place for a family to visit. But c'mon. Best kid's area. Kings Island's Planet Snoopy. Really? I mean, it's great! But Seuss Landing? Fantasyland? Idlewild's Fantasy Forest? "A bug's land"? Mermaid Lagoon at DisneySea? Kings Island's is the best in the world? Really? Most telling (and I've said this a hundred times on here) is that Cedar Point is crowned the overall best park in the world without even making the top contenders for friendliest park, best food, best funhouse, best Christmas event, best dark ride, best landscaping, cleanest park, etc... Wouldn't you expect the "best park in the world" to sweep ALL of those categories, or at least place in them? Cedar Point doesn't even come close in most of those. So how can it be the best overall? And again: better than Disneyland? Better than DisneySea? Better than Islands of Adventure? Knott's Berry Farm? Kings Island?

Okay. Ready for the most brilliant idea ever imagined? Backlot Stunt Coaster - Presented by SafeAuto. A new billboard wrap: OR On-board sound system brought back to life to play the SafeAuto jingle on loop throughout the ride. (Can someone edit up a video overlaying this song over the ride experience?) And the disembarking spiel: "Annnnd cut! Great job, stunt team! Your wild driving still qualifies you for SafeAuto's state minimum coverage. Exit to the left, and remember to Play It Safe™ - SafeAuto."

Possibly to direct guests away from the Wizarding World of Harry Potter as much as possible since it's closed. Also, most of the park's vacant soundstages are near the entrance, between Studios and Islands. The only haunted house location they ever used over on the lagoon side of the park was the Jaws queue which is... well... you know...

The following post is my opinion only: Honestly, I think they just chose the wrong style and stuck with it. I'll blame much of it on B&M. First, because all remaining stand-up coasters today are B&M, so I think it's fair to make them central in the discussion. Secondly, since historically they're the ones who invent (or in this case, invest in) a gimmick and run with it to make it their own and mass produce it to a high-quality degree, I think the direction stand-up coasters went (or would've gone) is thanks to B&M. I bet part of B&M's reliability is thanks to their repetition. That's not a slight. Basically, their inverts all have a common ancestor, you know? Different layouts, different statistics, but most B&M inverts have a certain look, a certain feel, a certain style, and a certain roster of elements that you expect to appear... A cobra roll, a wing-over, a helix, a first drop into a loop into a barrel roll, etc. They didn't reinvent the wheel with each one, and that's good! Same can be said of their Dive Machines, all sharing a common ancestor (vertical drop, dive loop, drop, splash, etc. shuffled around and played with, but with a more or less consistent style and feel). Same of hyper-coasters. They developed a style and of course it's evolved and grown and shifted, but in general you know what to expect when B&M is opening a 200-ish-foot roller coaster in terms of what it'll feel like, what elements it'll feature, what it'll look like, etc. They did the same for stand-up coasters. They developed a style that they more or less kept. It just so happens that the list of elements and the style and the feel they invented for stand-ups is... chaos. Stand-ups probably shouldn't have been built with each taller and faster and steeper than the one before. One gimmick at a time, please. And the style they developed and then expanded on for each subsequent addition was just of jumbled, tilted inversions, odd turnarounds, slanted loops, knotted track, etc. Again, like inverts, they kept it consistent and you more or less have a picture in your mind when you think of a B&M stand-up. But this... Why why why?! They look like bad doodles more than super-smooth, perfectly-paced, well-laid-out B&M masterpieces. It was just an odd decision that they said, "For our stand-up coaster line, let's build super-huge vertical loop that leads into an inclined helix which itself goes into a giant inclined loop that lead into really small tight corkscrews then helix around for a bit then slam side to side as they roll into a dive loop and then twist back through themselves and then leap into a big corkscrew and then a hammerhead turnaround that tilts the wrong way... Or some variation thereof." If B&M had build their stand-ups like they build their floorless coasters, I think they'd still be more happily received. But even then, I think the awful truth is - whether it's a gimmick or not aside - standing on roller coasters doesn't make them any more fun. Diamondback standing would probably not be as good as Diamondback sitting. Now, on a small one-trick pony like King Cobra or Shockwave? Sure. If the point of the ride is to stand, then have that be the point, not that it's also tall and fast and goes upside down 6 times. If B&M had made little, 80 foot tall standing coasters that looped once, had a few airtime hills, helixed, then came back home, I think they'd make for fun family coasters and probably still be around. Ah well. [/opinion]

Exactly. And you're right about fear of the unknown. Used to be that studios knew to hide the creature / bad guy / violence until the end... if they ever showed it at all. Truth be told, nothing can be as frightening as what your mind can imagine. 2008's Cloverfield was essentially a big-budget found-footage creature film whose viral marketing RELIED on audiences not seeing the creature until the film premiered in theaters. Even then, it's only really seen in tiny increments and snippets, one limb at a time, throughout the film. It WORKED. Cloverfield and the first Paranormal Activity had the same budget ($25 million) and both approached $200 million in box office receipts, faring even better on home release). Just the other day, I watched a movie with one of those scenes where, on a dark and stormy night, a person creeps into a room and toward an armchair with someone - or something - sitting in the armchair facing away from the camera "watching" a static TV. My mind had about a million horrific and nightmare-inducing things that could've been sitting in that chair staring at the static on the TV. What they ended up showing was, of course, a little gross and kind of scary, but it's NOTHING compared to the impression that might've been left if they hadn't shown anything but a horrified character's reaction. It was all about subtlety. That changed with the slasher films of the 80s / 90s, came to a head with the unrated "torture-porn" sub-genre of the 2000s (Saw, Hostel, Devil's Rejects, Hills Have Eyes, I Spit On Your Grave, Human Centipede), followed by a period of remaking old classics but with the gore and mutilation being shown instead of implied (Crazies, Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, House of Wax, My Bloody Valentine) and now studios are returning to the low-budget, low-SFX, indie-style horror. Even if it's not for the same reasons, at least we're getting back to it.

If Mr. Kinzel were still in charge, I bet Mantis would soldier on as is. I bet Wildcat would be SBNO if that's what it took.

Just like I never suggest someone purposefully skip a ride just because I don't enjoy it, I wouldn't wish demolition on many coasters*. I don't enjoy Mantis very much, but I would be very sad to see it go. I think you would, too, once its full queue is redistributed throughout the park. Here's hoping they make use of a very impressive B&M concoction and twist it into something else. * unless they presented a danger to the public or an undue burden on the park's finances and operations, which may or may not have been the case with at least a few of Kings Island's lost rides.

You can't really blame them. Horror films, especially in the last 5 - 10 years, have had a crazy resurgence. The whole "found footage" genre has become a sure-fire way for studios to make money. Paranormal Activity IV (which is actually a Latin-American-targeted spin-off of the core series) made a modest $90 million. But its cost? $5 million. Even factoring in the [minimal] advertising needed since the brand is already recognized, that's HUGE profit. Obviously Saw left its mark and started this new thing where a series releases one movie around Halloween every year without fail - no marketing required. Insidious, Sinister, Possession... Like rapid fire. People expect it, and they see it. A tradition. Then, it spread to TV. American Horror Story, True Blood, Vampire Diaries, Teen Wolf, Walking Dead, From Dawn Till Dusk... Like it or not, horror is in and basing attractions (permanent or temporary) on already-proven hits is easy for guests to digest. I LOVED the viral build-up and gradual release of the mythical Terra Cruentus from HHN 15: Tales of Terror when Islands of Adventure was entirely re-cast as an ancient Dungeons-and-Dragons type world where the islands were interconnected. Guess how many visitors understood that story, much less knew it existed at all? I'd wager: very few. Made worse by the fact that the event is regularly hosted at Universal Studios Florida and NOT Islands of Adventure where - let's face it - there isn't as much raw material to use for immersive themed lands. The New York and Hollywood theming does SOME good, but only for bringing to life modern-set horror stories like - you guessed it - Walking Dead or Halloween. Ah well. The event still does what it does best by scaring the pants off of people. As a theme park fan and a story person, I miss the old days. But they may be in the past. HHNXX might've been the way of the future - an event icon that drew on the legacy and history (which delighted fans like us) but with recognizable houses and scare zones that didn't require or benefit from some in-depth study of a backstory.

Driven by SafeAuto. NOT Kmart or Walmart.

Coincidence, I'm sure.

Preview Day! Woohoo! A great perk AND a much-needed training opportunity. Is this the first year in a while they've had one, or am I just not remembering correctly?

What a great opportunity this is to flash back to ten years ago. 2004. While we might've seen upheaval or changes, who would've assumed Cedar Fair would own Paramount Parks, that Universal would be a contender in Orlando and globally, that Disney would be adding a land based on James Cameron's Avatar, that Disney['s] California Adventure stood a chance, that Geauga Lake would be closed (okay, a few might've seen that coming in 2004), that SIX would be operating its parks so differently than it did a decade ago, that Busch Entertainment would have a new name and be falling so far... etc. etc. A lot of changes! A lot of underdogs becoming victors and shoe-ins falling behind. You probably would never have guessed that Paramount's Kings Island would belong to Cedar Fair ten years ago. It would've sounded preposterous. ... What will the landscape look like in 2024?

I should also report that I've begun Level 2 of Adventure. Supposedly it'll take between 15 and 20 hours of decoding. So far, I'm learning the history of the Observatory's creation, and I'm looking to break a curse over the Temple of Inspiration. I won't give too much away in case people want to try it out for themselves, but so far this is genuinely tricky and there have been times where the answers suddenly strike and it's like "OH MY GOD THAT'S GENIUS HOW DID THEY THINK OF THAT?" hahah. If you're local, give it a try.

It is! The Space tunnel is not. Space used to have its own giant, dark, themed atrium like Ocean or Adventure. After financial struggles, half the building was shuttered and Space was relocated. Today its contents are out on the Mezzanine. So no more starry skies or tunnel or any of that. At least, not right now!

Intellectual properties cost money, even SIX got rid of some not to long ago. Also they don't necessarily equate to a decent ride experience, see Garfield's Nightmare. True! But which brought more families with 3-to-10 year old boys to Kennywood: The Old Mill or Garfield's Nightmare? I think what Six Flags learned is that with IPs, the trick is quality over quantity. Evel Knievel. The Wiggles. Thomas the Tank Engine. Looney Tunes. DC Heroes. Tony Hawk. Terminator. Scooby Doo. Snickers. M&Ms. Stride Gum. Coldstone Creamery. Johnny Rockets. Skittles. That's a whole different kind of giving away the gate. What is presence in a Six Flags park worth? How exclusive is it? At some point, Six Flags leadership must've realized that while they struggled financially, their strategy of letting in anyone who was interested was not helping. Likewise, maybe those partners started to see that Six Flags wasn't exactly being exclusive or thoughtful about their partnerships. If twenty people are drinking from the same bottle, they each get 5% of its contents. Cedar Fair has a few strategic partnerships. They found it worthwhile to license Dale Earnhardt Jr. in some of their parks in the Southeast. One could imagine that whatever the Charlotte Hornets were asking for was too much. Lebron James? Tomb Raider? Nickelodeon? Scooby Doo? Cedar Fair is very precise about their partnerships, and maybe that's a good thing. Would Carowinds' 2015 coaster be a better ride experience if it were an "official" ride of the Charlotte Hornets? Probably not. But did Cedar Fair miss out on potential marketing? Maybe. I don't know. It's an art, not a science. But simply paying big bucks to have lots of brands in your park isn't the answer. As for Cedar Fair selling Kings Island, as I said in the other topic, it's unlikely. Why would they? What incentive do they have to hand a competitor their #3 best performing park and the park closest to their own flagship? If Cedar Fair finds it prudent to create more partnerships, they will. But at the end of the day they answer to shareholders. Sometimes being forced into originality can be best best. Mystic Manor. Haunted Mansion. Pirates of the Caribbean. Jungle Cruise. Walt Disney and his Imagineering successors weren't bringing movies or athletes or sports teams to life. They were creating from scratch.

By the way, for a glimpse at what this ride may or may not entail, check out the Justice League: Alien Invasion 3D dark ride that Sally installed at Warner Bros. Movie World in Australia's Gold Coast. Looks really well-done, and many of the folks behind Six Flags' upcoming installations worked on the Australian ride. You're right that it'll appeal to families and that sought-after demographic of pre-teen boys. It seems that this is the perfect way to capture the best of all demographics. Because I'm used to their Scooby Doo rides and Boo Blasters rides (all of which were done on a budget at the former Paramount Parks), I equate Sally Corp. with the sort of "cheap" looking blacklight 2-D cutout dayglo interactive shooters like those (also also the turkey-themed one at Holiday World is the very distinct style I equate with Sally). The company, though, is truly a powerhouse and can produce INCREDIBLE attractions when given the budget and time. There's a post about two such examples of their stellar dark rides.

Cedar Fair DID work with Sally Corp. The company was brought in to un-do their Doo booboo (not to be confused with Boo-Boo) and re-do as Boo, based on their Ghost Blasters II dark ride. Why not Great Pumpkin? Probably because Cedar Fair, at the time, was under the leadership of a dinosaur who saw an opportunity to save Beagle Bucks by contracting Sally to turn five Scooby Doo rides into five identical dark rides. Our dark ride happens to be in Planet Snoopy. The same isn't true of all the other old Scooby rides. So ours could logically have become a Peanuts ride, but that would've cost a little extra. Much cheaper to install the same thing across the chain, so Boo Blasters on Boo Hill it is. What a name. Flight Deck. Boo Blasters on Boo Hill. Drop Tower. Back Lot Stunt Coaster. Truly abysmal. ... on Boo Hill. WHY?!

Oddest experience I've had so far is the ride being closed for "weather" when it misted for 15 or 20 seconds. Immediately thereafter, the sun came out BLAZING. I mean, we were absolutely BAKING on the stairs up to the station. Ride ops were telling us (yes, I heard with my own two ears) that the ride would be closed for "about an hour" due to weather. Of course, the ride opened about 8 minutes later... RIGHT AS IT STARTED DRIZZLING. I'm sure they were following instructions, but it was the oddest thing. The ride ran in light rain, closed for the sun, the started up again a few minutes after the light rain returned. Is this kind of thing Cedar Fair policy? One particular day at Cedar Point, we were told that everything was closed. Everything. Because of weather. We literally squinted and could not see a single drop of rain on the ground. Was there lightning in the distance? I don't know. Didn't see any storm clouds or anything, but I trust the park's weather resources more than my eyes. Still, EVERY COASTER closed, and it hadn't even sprinkled. We ended up leaving early in the afternoon because every single coaster was closed on a generally misty day with light clouds and a couple sprinkles here and there. I'll never forget.

You'd say that, even with Six Flags Great America? Great Adventure? I can agree with you in a sense, given that Twisted Colossus is getting its own new themed area: Back Alley. Not kidding. They're bothering to create a new, original land for the ride. Called Back Alley. EDIT: You can expect the unexpected in a Back Alley. Wowzers.

I haven't seen a rendering either, but this video cleared up a lot for me. Actually, neither "side" is exceptionally long. It's an out-and-back track, not even a figure-8 or anything. So it literally goes out, then comes back. Haha. Basically halfway through, the train on the green track dives off and exits. Immediately thereafter, the train on the blue track suddenly turns green and meets a new blue track train that's emerging from the station. I'm assuming they'll have the two sync up (otherwise, what's the point? But I ask that of Kings Island, too). As far as the Super Loop thing, if you like them then that's totally cool. But don't act like it's so weird and elitist that enthusiasts are questioning it. It's comparable to flashy, carnival-sized HUSS Top Spins suddenly popping up in parks. At first, that was probably very striking to fans. Why would a very obvious carnival ride belong here? Obviously, the concept grew and they became better themed and less gaudy and were re-defined by fans as something that COULD fit in a theme park given just a few little tweaks. But that comes with time and with growth. Super Loops haven't had that time. It's still very striking to consider them in a theme park. Maybe 10 years from now, it'll be the norm and they'll have evolved "into" the parks like Top Spins have, but for now it's not outrageous or unbelievable that fans are questioning the move.

Wow. No spin can explain that. I am actually surprised, though. I would've thought that people would come out for Kentucky Kingdom with or without bad weather. Very strange, wow.

And again, Cedar Point's Gemini midway was a GREAT little refurb / rebuild of a small section of midway. We have an entire historic family midway themed LAND that deserves that overlay. All of Coney Mall should be strung up with popcorn lights and trees and new, matching classic white lighting packages on ALL the flats and Racer, new "retro" signs and shades and marquees like Gemini midway, etc. Sure, having a little section near SR&R given that style would be nice. But all of Coney Mall deserves it, and it would be CRAZY cool for them to do that.

Whoa, yeah, wait... I just now read the whole mobius Twisted Colossus. Do we have more information on this? A racing coaster that you go through twice, once on each side? Mobius coasters are a thing, but they don't go through twice... What's the point? And oh my, capacity.

Something about an Addam's Family dark ride / coaster that evolved into Italian Job? And something about the Krusty Krab? I sincerely don't know the details but maybe that'll trigger something in someone who does. Meanwhile there was the MTV Soundwave that was supposed to be a relocated re-theme of Kings Dominion's Flight of Fear. It never materialized, but concept art that closely matches it was released for one of those overseas Paramount Parks that never got past the land-clearing stage.