bkroz

What's the incentive to bring a group if the cost per person goes UP as the group size increases? I get it - you don't want to overwhelm the park with a massive group... But if my group of 150 people was visiting, I'd pay $19.00 per person. If I purchase the tickets as two groups of 75, I'd pay $16.00 per ticket – $450.00 less. Or am I reading this wrong?

Geez, I went on Wednesday and the place was packed. Now Saturday is a station wait for everything?! What in the world?

Can't imagine that too many coasters make it to this landmark!

Hatred? Where do you read that from? I couldn't care less what's fashionable. I've been to Six Flags Magic Mountain. I enjoyed my day. I enjoyed the rides. I also found it dirty, understaffed, full of rude employees, and with large dead end expanses of concrete where rides used to be, practically no flat rides, limited entertainment... All things that the park can control. I don't hate it or even dislike it. I'd go again. I will go again, no doubt. I've often brought up on here the absolute nonsense that is Cedar Point winning Amusement Today's "Best Park in the World" award while mysteriously being unable to win Best Food, Best Entertainment, Friendliest Employees, Best Landscaping, Best Kids Area, Best Dark Ride, Best Water Ride, etc. It seems to me that the "Best Park in the World" should SWEEP those awards, or at least win one or two! Cedar Point is a very long way from winning any. Not one of those categories could be fairly given to Cedar Point, so what exactly makes it the altogether Best? I don't dislike Cedar Point in any way. It's a fair question to ask how it can be the "best" though. Same question would go to Six Flags Magic Mountain. Do I enjoy its rides? Yeah! Do I visit when I'm in the area? Sure. I have no personal vendetta against the park nor do I dislike it period, much less because it's "fashionable" to do so. But the idea of it being named the Best Theme Park in the U.S. does elicit a pretty big eye roll. C'mon. And no, the word "theme" in the award title is not where I'm bothered.

Would it be on the new general manager's list of priorities to export a beloved ride from his own park, back to its park of origin as a gesture of good will? Hmmm... Probably not.

Variety is the spice of life. Easy to advertise, too!

Still cracks me up. One of those stories that'll go down in amusement park history.

Six Flags Magic Mountain: The Best Theme Park in the U.S. Oh my. *Shudder*

"Amusement park" vs. "theme park." It's sort of a useless distinction because where is the line? Kings Island has more theme than Cedar Point, but less than Busch Gardens Tampa, which in turn has less than Disney's Hollywood Studios, which has significantly less than Disney's Animal Kingdom and Universal's Islands of Adventure. It's not a dichotomy. It's a scale. Even then, a lot of it is subjective. Here, we'd probably say that Kings Island has better theming than Six Flags America. Fans of that park would probably disagree. I think a better classification system might be "local" "regional" and "destination" parks. Even "seasonal" vs. "year-round operation." A park like Kennywood would never be recognized fairly alongside Magic Kingdom. It's not a "theme park" vs. "amusement park" problem... It's a status problem. Even those classifications aren't black and white (Cedar Point might be a "destination" park but that doesn't mean it can be compared to Disneyland... It's also "seasonal," but can't be compared to Camden Park). But it's easier than quibbling over which parks have enough theming to be classified as "themed."

Updated with six new articles for your Wednesday reading pleasure. I also went through and marked some of them as COOL! In fact, it's one of those things where the word "cool" now doesn't look like a word to me because I typed it so many times. If you're going to read any, those ones are my favorites. The ones marked (Kings Island!) after the link feature a ride from Kings Island.

Every time this project rears its head, I sort of balk at the idea of such an overtly religious park (never mind that it's asking for public funding). But, lest we forget, before the Tree of Life, the very first proposed icon for Disney's Animal Kingdom was Noah's Ark. Even when that concept was replaced by a two-story carousel, the park's entry land – it's "Main Street" – was to be Genesis Gardens, modeled after the Garden of Eden in the Bible... Neither made the final cut, but you must admit, it's a pretty smart way to begin a story about animals... More here: http://jimhillmedia.com/editor_in_chief1/b/jim_hill/archive/2007/07/04/field-guide-to-disney-s-animal-kingdom-reveals-how-the-imagineers-created-wdw-s-wildest-park.aspx So the four parks of Walt Disney World would've had: Cinderella Castle, Spaceship Earth, the Sorcerer's Hat (?), and Noah's Ark. Imagine those on a mug or sweatshirt together!

Lightning strike twice... Remember when it hit Carowinds the first time? (I don't. Too young. ) And then there was 2009 - 2010 off-season when a really interesting White Lightning viral marketing campaign seemingly centered around Carowinds crescendoed with... ... ... ... Cedar Point's Shoot the Rapids?? It sort of SEEMS like White Lightning might've been the original working name for Carowind's Intimidator, which might've shifted when a deal with Earnhardt was finalized... No doubt we're supposed to think that White Lightning is real this time. EDIT: And if we've learned anything from American Horror Story: Coven, it's that the new twist is not having one. *shrug*

Can lightning strike twice? Hmm...

We'll see. But I can't imagine the park is bleeding money or anything. The last time it got a new attraction was what, 2006? A wave pool? It seems to me that it has a healthy, local season pass holder population that keeps the place inhabited. I would imagine that it's attendance is about what you'd expect for an itty-bitty water park located in the remote farmland of Northeast Ohio. Every time I'm there, half or more of the reclining chairs are full, which seems healthy given the circumstances. If even some of those people are buying snacks, it's probably doing alright. Again, not like the park is investing in huge additions or anything. I bet attendance is a big part of the question, and that another big part is if the park's rides could be of better use elsewhere. The park has one ProSlide Tornado, a water fortress play area, and a giant 7-slide complex. That's literally it in terms of relocatable attractions. If the park closed, they could move those three things and market each as new (like they did with the dry park's coasters). But it's not like Geauga Lake where it was a goldmine of attractions that could be relocated and fuel the other parks for multiple years.

Depends what your thrill tolerance is. Is Race For Your Life Charlie Brown a thrill ride? Or a family ride? Kings Island's flume ride. Cedar Point's flume ride. One of those rides goes significantly faster than the other, altogether...

Tear out trees? Just observationally, doesn't seem that anything of the sort happened at Kings Dominion, which is practically in a forest... I can see why folks wouldn't be on board though. Trees make all the difference in the world. I won't turn this swan of a discussion back into an ugly duckling by bringing up our own park's forested past. The videos I find online of Kings Dominion's new fountains make it look almost the same as what they already had, just with variable height fountains and colored LED lights. Looks great, too. I know Wonderland's sync up to their incredible projection show, but it seems to me (just from YouTube... haven't seen them in person yet) that Dominion's are just what they used to have, but more lively? Nothing wrong with that, I don't think!

True! The are does show the ferries, though... And a water ski show, the old aviary theater, and folks mingling around the former aquarium. A couple of little animal experiences that would've left it a well-rounded park. I'm STILL not sure why they closed down the former "Happy Harbor" area full of climbing nets and brand spanking new family flats (swinging ship, YoYo swings, arcade games, slides, etc) and the simulator / 4D theater. Seems to me that the existing Wildwater Kingdom would be a MUCH stronger park with those half-dozen family rides, climbing nets, a simulator, a 4D movie, and a ski-show. Ah well. I guess that would probably triple the park's current staffing. Instead, the area is fenced off and demolished with a "Little Tykes Town" of hot plastic houses (on gravel... at a water park!) and a "family beach" area (touted as NEW! a few years ago) with an oversized chess board.

One weird thing that I have yet to sit down and really think about is the whole "2 parks for the price of 1" strategy. It works so well for these smaller, more local parks. The drawback is that it seems that the operators have to almost force themselves to maintain the dry side. Water parks are (comparatively) easy and cheap to run (it seems) and generate a lot more return on investment (in my understanding). You have to build less often, and can rely on season passes to generate profit. Just maintain the water park with occasional expansion and your park continues to accumulate season pass holders with far less investment than a new coaster. Visit Worlds of Fun on a summer day and you know where the people will be. Same with Michigan's Adventure. Same at Dorney Park. And since slides are low-cost investments compared to the alternative, it's easy to give Michigan's Adventure new slides every few years and never a flat ride or a coaster. Which is fine. I'm not saying that's wrong. Just that that's the weird thing about the "2 for the price of 1" parks. Given Kentucky Kingdom's promise of $1.5 - 2 million in new investment every season beginning in 2016, it's looking like water park additions will be the law of the land, year after year. Maybe it should be a mostly-water park with a small family amusement park attached. Sort of like the plan they seemed to have for Geauga Lake... Except with capital investment.

Hmm, that's a connection I hadn't made before. After having a haunted house called "Fury" about chemically-strengthened soldiers, I just envisioned any potential coaster called "Fury 325" to have toxic green track and an industrial warehouse station full of pipes and tubes (which would be Cedar Fair's way of carrying on the dark, Haunt storyline). Using the Furies from mythology is a cool alternative. That said, if they're going for the ancient Roman mythology in a new ride's name, Centurion fits the bill in a much bolder and more impressive way to me. Rougarou, I'm not crazy about. Maybe as a Haunt that can appear this year and be gone next year, but as a permanent attraction that's sort of a mouthful, and not in the "at least it rolls off the tongue" kind of way.

I have a ton of memories of Tomb Raider e-stopping after the lava scene and swinging freely for a few minutes, ten feet forward, nine feet back, eight forward, seven back, until it was swinging mere inches back and forth... Still you just sat and waited for it to stop completely so the bridges could come down. Maybe I'm just remembering it wrong. The ride's working homing process was pretty laborious too. Hahah.

So if it had 8 trains when it opened, it would have 24 x 8 = 192 riders "per complete cycle?" Okay... what's a complete cycle exactly? If it had 16 trains, a complete cycle would have 384 riders? That's not a standard measurement... To my knowledge, what's important is (number of available seats) minus (number of empty seats) on each train. After an hour, that equals the ride's hourly throughput. Hopefully it's close to the theoretical hourly capacity. It could run 2 trains. It could run 12 trains (not really). Hourly capacity would still be the number of people who can ride in one hour. Changing the number of available seats on each train definitely makes a difference. Changing the number of trains does, but only to a degree. If trains stacked on the brake run running 3 trains, then running 2 would have little negative impact. In fact, running 2 might be the same as running 3, just with the train able to roll right into the unload station instead of waiting on the final brakes. I don't believe the coaster ever used all four trains. (EDIT: It doesn't have the blocks for it...?) I think it's just a difficult coater to load. It's sunk down into the ground, so riders have to climb in, shimmy through Premier's ankle restraints, and buckle the awkward safety belt. Then, operators have to bend over at each row to check said buried belt and the restraint. It's not like Diamondback where people jump right on and operators run right down the line.

The same can be said of roller coasters, concerts, dark rides, museums, etc. Been to a concert in the last five years? People watch it through their phone screens, trying to take as many pictures and videos as they can... as if they'll ever do anything with those photos or videos! I have seen people stand 10 feet from famous musicians, but only look at them through their camera or phone screen! Same of rides. I'm BAFFLED by the number of folks who take flash photographs on Disneyland's dark rides, apparently completely oblivious to three things: The flash GREATLY disturbs other riders. Photos taken with flash inside dark rides are NOT high-quality photos... The rides aren't meant to be viewed under blinding light. Like seeing a live theatrical performance, camera flash actually harms the final image, which can be recorded just fine under the theatrical lighting already present if you REALLY feel the need to, but... Whatever in the world it is that you're so determined to get a photo or video of, I can almost guarantee that a better photo or video of it already exists online. Of course you try not to let it bother you, but when i think of the many times a ride on Haunted Mansion or Pirates of the Caribbean or Ariel's Undersea Adventure has been ruined by start-to-finish flash photography... Oh man. And what makes it worse is that the fuzzy, dusty, overexposed, blown-out photos are no doubt just sitting on a memory card somewhere serving no purpose! Honestly, I would've thought that availability of those videos and photos online would have cut down on photography and amateur video recording on rides. But now that everyone has a camera in their pocket, it's a thousand times worse. And when the parents hand their children an iPad on Pirates of the Caribbean and tell them to make memories... oh please.

Holiday World has responded to the lingering question of "What does Thunderbird have to do with Thanksgiving? Why does it fit in Holiday World?" with a full blog post. They even explain why the ride's barn station is thoroughly modern and looks nothing like a pilgrim's property. It's still a stretch, but it's cool that the park has heard the confused cries of its fans. In it, Leah Koch says, "When I first heard the name Thunderbird, like some others, I cringed a bit. I didn’t see the fit." Also a rather ill-timed mention of trees that, I'm certain, she didn't mean to tie to the recent Ninja incident... One day, God forbid, it might turn into another "Assassin"-esque comment that media goes nuts for. Whoops. Check it out: http://www.holidayworld.com/holiblog/2014/07/25/legend-thunderbird/

You're right, yep! Surprisngly, it's only from 2011 though! That overblown cartoon style seems distinctly earlier. That park's got a crazy layout, and some of the styles they've tried over the years have only made it worse. The gallery linked to below has many of their park maps, which change style every few years! http://old.towerstimes.co.uk/history/maps/oldmaps.htm The map from 2010 was the best at showing the actual pathways for navigating. But 2007's was REALLY cool. Maps are an art. That's why so many people collect them... A balance between something beautiful and something useful. Sometimes design overwhelms usefulness like in the maps above. Sometimes the opposite is true, and maps sacrifice beauty for practicality. That's not good either. *cough* *cough*

I bet doing so smoothed your transition into participating here. It probably gave you some sense of the style and substance of these parts, which was in turn evident even in your first post. At least, we'd hope so! Any memory of what your first post was about? Or is that a topic best saved for later?