IBEW_Sparky

I want to first say that my Heart goes out to the Family of this poor, innocent child who 's Life was lost, and also to the slide workers and everyone else who witnessed this tragedy. I can't even begin to express how they all must be feeling, Im in tears right now just attempting to write this post (Yes, me, Mr. blunt "Love me or hate me" Sparky). I also have to take this time to get something off my chest about these types of "extreme" attractions. You know, I really try to not be one of those "restrictions in innovation for reasons of over protection" types but, COME ON MAN!!!! I don't know about the rest of you, but if Im attempting to design/build a ride or attraction and my rafts continually do their Steppenwolf Magic Carpet Ride imitation, I believe I would say to myself "Self, are you being intentionally STUPID or is your ego just tripping beyond the realm of intelligence?". It took me 8 years to be able to strap myself into Top Thrill Dragster, even with my rational and science/engineering/logic based mind convincing me that I am countless times safer on it than in the vehicle that brought me to the park. While I know that tragedies can happen at any time on any of these rides (I.e. Smiler incident and the cable snapping incident on Xcelerator some years back), there comes a time when it must be said "How much is enough? How much is TOO much?" BEFORE going forth with a project simply to get a precious "est" record. Especially in the case of a ride that has no way of securing the ride vehicle to the track. Wildebeast/Mammoth "airtime" (all 3 inches of it) is one thing, but putting a Kingda Ka style airtime hill on a raft ride is another, much more ridiculous thing altogether. Im sorry, and I may be off base or out of line here, but a 10 YEAR OLD just died on something that was supposed to be nothing but fun.

This looks really cool, a bunch of things for me to do there that are right up my alley. Thank you for posting this, I had no idea it even existed.

Yes, it does. I utilized those two perks at CP in October of 2013.

@Magenta Lizard The rectangular objects you are wondering about are columns of rebar, which will be lowered into the holes being drilled for footings. The concrete is poured into the hole after the rebar column is placed, and it gives the concrete both structural rigidity as it is curing, and improves the strength of the finished footing.

It looks like Im going to be making two trips up there in the near future... Thursday/Friday Sep 1st and 2nd, and one final trip the 16th for a last ride and the Ceremony. Its not a bad ride, its a rough ride, and that is because of their ludicrous MCBR that slows it down to such an asinine pace that it shuffles horribly in the last half, which makes it seem "bad" to some who expect all coasters to ride like B&Ms. I have zero doubt its getting renovated/converted, and i have almost zero doubt it will be done by RMC. They can do this, and still say "Mean Streak is closing forever", because in Marketing/PR speak/spin it is. I honestly was expecting a late August closure, but I see why they are doing it this way, in order to tie it into Halloweekends.

Go back much further than that.... Mott the Hoople!

This is precisely what I am contemplating, and honestly counting on. It will be some form of interactive, augmented reality with possibly even a laser image or hologram projector that shows a sawblade slicing the center of the train between the left and right side riders. I know that last bit is more of a thing a Disney park would do and its not a high-odds proposal for a CF park, but it would be pretty sweet. The chances of a launch of any sort in that distance are less than nil, and the structure very clearly shows there is no option for any form of drop/raise track with the open construction of the support beams for the shed. Edit: Furthermore, there was a statement made in the live interview about the experience being different every time. The only people I know that make a drop with variances in drop cycle programming are the Mouse Brigade, and I dont see CF adopting that tech in any form.

For those without (guessing) $12 million to build your own version of what KI "should" have gotten, and who feel they deserved "more"...

HAHA! That is definitely in the top 5 images you have made, TB!!

I know they are big time money, but are e talking Lamborghini Gallardo money, or Bugatti Veyron money??

That sounds like something one would find at a Chinese Buffet.

I know...and have known... that, which is why I DIDNT say NOTHING works in DC.

I have only ridden it once, in 2011, and I honestly cant remember the ride. What happened to the airtime, did it get Cedar Fair-ed to Death? Now, so as not to be seen by the CF apologists as being unfair, lets hope that whoever decided to do the repairs in-house (if that happens to be the case) learned something from Paramount in what NOT to do when doing one's own construction work on a roller coaster. Edited for side note: Seeing the ride from Ricochet and Grizzly, I wish I COULD remember the ride experience, as the high speed, high banked corners looked to be a lot of fun.

Something not working in DC is about as surprising as the Sun rising in the East.

In other words, will the excitement be rekindled, or relegated to kindling?

I really, really hope not. Sparky, who saw what you did there.

If the park was Brand S, they could name it Chicken Hawk!

AHA! They wooed Miss Lillian the Chicken Lady away from Dollywood, and they are building her a new house back in the woods. Chicken Blessings for all train riders in 2017!

Now that i know that, I could see it being a positive thing for the park, with the public saying "Right on, good move Dolly, if it doesnt work right away, lose it." instead of trying time and time again, modification after modification, removing the lo.... never mind.

Oh absolutely, its definitely premature to lean towards either direction as of yet, I was just curious as to what your thoughts were concerning possible public perception, be it positive or negative.

Being someone who has been around the industry much longer than I, do you think that removing the ride would ultimately A) help or B ) harm Dollywood from a PR standpoint?

Not to mention, producing the card equals less $$$$ for the parks, which is totally counter productive to the concept of removing bins from ride platforms and adding rows of lockers. Have the computer that prints passes also print a barcode that matches the one on a person's pass, and have said passholder place the sticker on their drink cup if they choose to buy one. The sticker MUST be attached to a cup to be valid, to eliminate passing of the sticker to others. Scan pass, scan drink cup, the computer will block if codes dont match.

In regards to FoF, this is the first year since Ive been going to this place (2006, 2008-14, 2016) that they have been doing the seat assigning garbage. When, and why, did this all of a sudden become a thing?

I certainly hope so, and by that I mean, I hope it is proven that the rides and ride owners had no liability what-so-ever, and that it was 100% the fault of the guests in both incidents. I dont want to see these wonderful rides turned into automatic trim-brake filled, 5 point harness required piles of garbage. And before I hear the "They already have trims"... just stop before you start. I know they have trims, I am talking of MORE trims. That is what makes these rides fun, the speed.