SonofBaconator

Before I'm met with pitchforks and torches. The Beast is over 40 years old now and as the longest wooden roller coaster in the world, (3rd longest coaster in the world), it shows its age at times. Would it be beneficial to close The Beast for a season, (or part of a season), to completely overhaul it? GCI came in and worked on Ghostrider at KBF and I've heard people love it. We also brought in GCI to do some work on The Racer. Maybe some new trains? I'd like to hear some feedback

I feel like the enthusiast community would flood them with so many questions that it might be better for them if they remain quiet.

What's so funny @coaster sally?

I do wish that the ride was somewhat altered when the Paramount team was cut. For example the Cincinnati Billboards would have been a really cool idea and could have been implemented at Kings Dominion and Canada's Wonderland with their respective local cities. I had an idea for a complete retheme that would keep the same layout but change the scenery. Basically I would make Backlot Stunt Coaster themed to fighting fires, I know original, where the trains are emergency vehicles and they're going to stop a fire. During the mid course you would see the helicopter redecorated to look like and EMS or fire department helicopter and you drive straight into the quote on quote burning building. It was something that I would like to create in No Limits 2 but it takes a more creative mind than mine to do that

Earlier, I said that mini dives can do a lot more than your standard dive coaster. Your standard 8 and 10 person seaters require a lighter track which limits how long the ride can truly be if you have to keep something under budget. The 6, and now 7, across seating utilizes standard B&M track so the layout can be more creative. Anymore most people ride dive coaster is for the dive. I think a lot of amusement parks are realizing that they can make a coaster a lot smaller and still be able to market the dive aspect. Basically on standard Dives the height of the dive is the main focus with the rest of the layout being not so original. With mini dives it seems like its the opposite where as long as you have a dive, you're able to cut down on the height allowing for a more unique layout. Also as mentioned earlier by @Shaggy, this coaster looks like it has some moments of intensity.

I couldn't agree more. I'm sure the lawyers see it as a liability at this point. They'll probably get some type of audit. If the que isn't enclosed or more barriers added, I could see the que being relocated.

Its interesting that Canada's Wonderland acknowledged Paramount. Not saying Paramount is something to ignore, but I wouldn't think of adding the "Paramount Ownership Begins" would be something they would have included.

That's sorta what happened with the Superman Drop Tower ride at KK. Our Drop Tower was shut down temporary to ensure we didn't have a similar incident down the road.

I never understood how a ride's popularity trumps the fact that it hurt someone. People will naturally be drawn away from it unless changes are made.

I agree. I know a lot of people will hate me for saying it I also don't envision it coming back.

Back to TTD, I do wonder if it will become the chain's next SOB. Its too early to speculate, and I'm sure the woman's condition will play a role in what happens down the road. The que itself will be modified, I feel like that's a given, but what about long term? Will people still want to ride it if it reopens? Will it be worth it financially to reopen it at all?

Going back to the ride itself, I don't see it reopening for the 2021 season, regardless of this person's outcome, but I'm not a ride operator. I wonder if an incident like this puts TTD as a candidate for removal down the road. It costs the park a ton of money to operate and it might now produce the ROI they want.

From my experience, most intensive care patients end up going to Cleveland.

https://www.coaster101.com/2016/01/12/book-review-dick-kinzel-biography/ I remember being told how much the cost went up to operate TTD, percentage wise, since its debut but I won't because I can't remember the specific number. I don't want to turn this into a "Hate on TTD" thread but I wonder what the current ROI is for the nearly 20 year old stratacoaster

I wouldn't speculate the victim's wellbeing at this point. We can only hope and pray that she pulls through.

Lets hope she's alright. The scary part was it was someone waiting in line who was struck. I wonder what part of the train disengaged and what speed was it going? Not making assumptions but I feel like the ride will be down for the rest of the summer season, if not the 2021 season.

Maybe the park didn't get the ROI they wanted

Boo Blasters was a quick fix when the park stopped using the Scooby Doo IP, much like how Top Gun became Flight Deck, Italian Job became Backlot, and so on. I think public opinion plays a big role in what happens to BBoBH and currently I think the GP are happy with how it is. They could bring back Phantom Theater or do a Peanuts themed dark ride but will it be worth it? The guns have become somewhat of a staple of that building so whatever replaces BBoBH will have to still feature the shooting experience IMO. I think the park could use another dark ride in general. I've suggested in the past that KI could kill two birds with one stone and bring back the 4d theater and have a custom Phantom Theater show.

Fortunately the only way that Kings Dominion would ever be able to get steam locomotives back is if they sent Levi from Worlds of Fun back to Kings Dominion. The park in it of itself it's set up somewhat strange. Rebel Yell and the train were the Park's boundary, so when the park wanted to expand they went beyond the train tracks and Rebel Yell. The only way they can make the train a transport ride is if they went from old Virginia all the way over to the new Xpedition area but even then it would have to find a way back to old virgina and that could really only happen with parallel trackage. From what I was told the train wasn't exactly a popular ride and therefore closed early a lot of days. In my opinion they could have sold off one of the locomotives and just kept going with one train operations like what Six Flags St Louis does. Steam trains bring a certain life to an amusement park and when you get rid of that you get rid of something that families can do together. However the one major flaw that Taft had with the park's trains was that they were never built as transport rides so just riding a train for 8 minutes lost appeal with a lot of people. An argument could be made that we might have lost our train ride if it didn't become a transport ride to Waterworks. At Busch Gardens Williamsburg guests are able to board the train to take them to another section the part which was something that existed since the park's opening. These are some pictures I found online of the final few years of the Old Dominion Line.

Any chance the tall antenna will be making a comeback in the future? What was the reason behind taking it down?

That might have been in response to the leak

In my opinion I think Michigan's Adventure should receive one small scale thrill coaster. On one hand if the coaster does well and increases attendance then they might be invested in more in the future. On the other hand if it doesn't change attendance all that much then the park's got a new coaster that will hold them over for at least two decades Something like Tantrum would be perfect

I believe Six Flags is moving away from joint-announcements. Cedar Fair really only competes with a handful of Six Flags parks so I don't think there's much radar blipping like a lot of people believe there is. Cedar Fair and Six Flags compete in the sense of they both have the largest collections of parks in North America.

Bolliger agreed to do a giga for Canada's Wonderland because he felt like they owed the park in that respect. B&M themselves only make a fraction of what their ride costs since the main price can be attributed to the track and supports. For example, Diamondback cost $22 million but only part of that went to B&M. I'm sure exclusivity clauses are free money to them- getting paid to design less rides.

I talked about this already but all again stress it, Soak City needs a Rebrand. Most water parka pull off that tropical vibe but Soak City is just a plain water park, which was fine for what Cedar Fair was trying to accomplish as they were trying to make a simple transition from Australian themes to a basic water park. However I think that much like how they rethemed Flight Deck to The Bat, I think Soak City is due for an upgrade. If you look at the Walt Disney World Resort they have two water parks that are very uniquely themed and are somewhat synonymous with the resort. I argue we could do something similar. Something themed to the wilderness would look really cool and be a nice transition to the main park with Rivertown; even better if Planet Snoopy became Camp Snoopy. This is Dollywood's water park: Splash Country