TombRaiderFTW

^ I agree wholeheartedly. I've never seen a show there I was particularly excited about there (How I wish I'd seen the Midnight Syndicate show there when I had the opportunity!) but loved the appearance of it being partially underground and somewhat engulfed by the surrounding scenery. Another piece of (what I consider) classic Cedar Point is gone. I'll miss it.

^ Do you mean HUSS, or am I forgetting something?

^ I have. They're fun but very dizzying. The one I rode had a somewhat short ride cycle, and I was glad.

That animatronic is almost creepy with how realistic and fluid the motion is. Wow. High-quality physical sets combined with 3D effects and (what I am selfishly, desperately praying will be) a ride system like Curse of DarKastle? Sign me up right now. As much as I want to like the idea behind Wonder Mountain's Guardian, this seems like a much more impressive step forward in seasonal parks' dark rides. I am dying to get to St. Louis next year...

Is the forum being somewhat slow tonight for anyone else? It's taking a good 15-30 seconds to respond on my end. EDIT: Aaaaand now it's fine. Nevermind!

There are those of us who DID read the Indiana court decision who think Dan loves Alabama Splash Adventure the same way he loved Holiday World, if you catch my drift.

This sounds... yeesh. Part of me is morbidly interested to know what this will turn into. Part of me is cringing when imagining what this could turn into. "Adjusting the attraction and marketing plans to address our immediate top-line concerns" sounds like it could mean, among other things, "We may not actually build a new coaster at BGW next year after all." I've been wondering why ride announcement season has come and gone and there hasn't been so much as a teaser out of that park... Or am I misreading that? It just seems strange that they've been so quiet about it, and I've read similar reactions elsewhere online.

^ Is there a reason the admission is less on Thursday and Friday, apart from it just being the end of the week? I'm just curious because I didn't know they did discount admission towards the end of the week.

It's IAAPA... Isn't one of the bigger points of the thing to be the biggest diversion of the show?

I can't find the link for the life of me, but it was mentioned somewhere online that Cedar Fair and Triotech (may be? are?) making an announcement towards the beginning of the week of IAAPA. Hmm...

Battle for Metropolis at Six Flags St. Louis. Kings Dominion. Great Adventure.

^ Especially at Six Flags St. Louis. I like Haunt, but leaving the arcade set up for Haunt is excessive. Unfortunately, I think they're going to leave it that way, as I'm pretty sure they repainted the actual front of the building. Better add the Action Theater to that list, too. I don't think it shows anything during the regular season anymore. I used to look down on Kings Island in 2008 for not being the same as it was during the Paramount years, but at least Action Theater showed Spongebob 3D, The Crypt existed, Son of Beast's station served an actual purpose, the arcade was an arcade, etc. I realize that there are reasons that those things aren't around anymore, but there are now more and more buildings in plain sight that are empty and not accessible by guests for all but the last five or six weeks of the season. I agree--it looks tacky at best. It didn't bother me as much at first, but I don't think I like the level it's at now.

I'm not pretending to know better when it comes to operating an amusement park, but isn't the weather a risk every park takes when operating a Christmas event? It just doesn't seem like a realistic reason not to when places like Kennywood and Hersheypark operate in December every year.

This is probably the attraction at any park that I'm most excited for in 2015 (which isn't to say that the rest are bad--I just really liked Cirque Imagine!) Will it be the same show, or will it be different? As far as I'm concerned, there is no wrong answer to that question.

I had forgotten/hadn't really paid attention to the fact that the park had double decker buses in its early days. I realize there are reasons the park probably wouldn't be able to use them these days (gasoline prices and handicap accessibility come to mind), but that is such a neat, unique touch. It really accentuates the international feel the park had in those days. If I had the money, I'd be tempted to buy one of them and restore it for fun. It would be even more neat to see the park buy/restore one and find some use for it within the park (or even just park it inside Tower Gardens for people to see and reminisce about.) Between the buses and Queen City Discovery's piece about the Kings Island Inn, the more I'm convinced that I would have really, really liked Kings Island in the 1970's. It truly was a unique place. What I've seen of it in pictures almost reminds me of a more majestic take on Busch Gardens Williamsburg, except Kings Island came first and seemed to more draw from the history of the area than strictly from various areas in Europe. I'm very glad I finally got the chance to stay at the Inn the night before Banshee's media day. The QCD article makes me wish I'd looked around the property a bit more. It's one of only a few parts of Kings Island that looks similar to the way it did when the park opened.

I can't choose between Verbolten and Curse of DarKastle. My first visit to Busch Gardens Williamsburg forever changed my perception and expectations of so much in the industry. It's an absolutely amazing place. Honorable mention goes to Banshee (and Cirque Imagine, if I can toss that in, too) for strongly changing my opinion and expectations of Cedar Fair. The future is indeed bright. Also, I have to give a shout-out to Timber Wolf at Worlds of Fun for being the first-ever Dinn that I can truthfully say I enjoyed from start to finish. What a great ride!

How about Skeleton Crew? Are they doing any shows today? They weren't on Friday, which is why I ask.

A guess: Flying Scooters. This short of a notice before an announcement screams "small flat ride." WindSeeker had only a week or so between the announcement of the announcement and the announcement itself. Not that I'm getting my hopes up, but wouldn't it be neat to see the original Eagles return to KI? Or perhaps they'll just cover additions that don't warrant a large announcement on their own. Fountain upgrades like at KD or Wonderland, the "sequel" to Cirque Imagine, and/or another equally significant feature could, all together, be a decent announcement for tomorrow. Whatever it is, I'm definitely interested!

And then there's Knoebels's set, which, regardless of what Terp thinks of them ( ), snap so easily that they can and do snap themselves when no one's riding in the tub. If I didn't still like their set so much, here I would say, tongue-in-cheek, "Carowinds, Schmarowinds." I personally find Cedar Point's set of Flying Scooters the clunkiest and least snappable set I've ever ridden. Holiday World's set of scooters look like Carowinds' compared to those things. Even Conneaut's were better.

At this point, I've realized that getting a new Cirque Imagine-esque show for next year is more than enough of an addition for me. FTW, hoping Cedar Fair and Les Productions Haut-Vol do lots of business for many years to come.

At least SFA's response could, theoretically, be chalked up to issuing a response before all the facts were reviewed. They denied the rumors, then retracted the statement and acknowledged that the incident(s) had occurred. And then they responded by allegedly increasing security. Canada's Wonderland is saying, "Yeah, it happened. That's life: sometimes you get stabbed in an amusement park parking lot." What? No.

Uh... did he just insinuate that Canada's Wonderland can't control and isn't responsible for controlling what goes on in Canada's Wonderland's parking lot? Isn't the whole point of park security to prevent things that "could happen anywhere" from happening wherever they are? Does Wonderland not patrol their parking lots the way Kings Island does?

^ That's actually the most logical reasoning I've ever heard for why parks like Canada's Wonderland and Cedar Point don't offer a mid-level Gold pass. They're pricing pass holder access to Haunt sky-high to keep undesirables out. I'd never thought of it that way before. That's pretty effective, too, based on the crowds at Halloweekends last weekend. I wonder why Kings Island doesn't adopt a similar system.

If they remove "great" and "to have fun," then yeah, I totally agree.

That's a neat idea. I like it. Just don't get rid of the paper maps, okay, Kings Island?