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Would it make more sense to build another steel coaster so close to Diamondback? Sometimes you feel like a Terp

It looks like a roof. Isn't a house or something?

Don is clearly trolling this board. If anything makes me think the flume is safe, it's that.

True, but what I'm saying is that while Arrow Dynamics is out of business, and replacement parts need to be fabricated, Hopkins was bought out by WWW, so replacement parts are cheaper. I'm saying it is more relevant to get rid of Congo Falls, then it is to get rid of the log flume. Not if they want to build something where the log flume is.

Exactly. If they wanted to tear Son of Beast down, they never would have spent the money to remove the loop and do the other work they did.... Cedar Fair is not limited to decisions Paramount made,

I agree with the others. I did not like Maverick at all before and never saw the appeal. With the new restraints, it's my second favorite ride at CP.

Thats kinda what I'm starting to think. They could build a chute the chutes/log flume/water coaster/whatever type ride in the woods. Make it bigger and better. They could then remove the log flume to make more room in that area for future expansion. They could also use it as a replacement for Congo Falls, which could be the location of the gate coaster giga. lol

While removing WWC is always a possibility, I'd bet money that the entrance area to the new ride will be where the funnel cake stand/old WWC entrance was. If the entrance is the new WWC entrance, why do all the work they've done so far? But if a water ride is to go, I'd think the log flume would be more likely.

We can still see a great deal of what's going on with the are, especially since we can look at the forest behind the location and keep up with it. If they don't take that line of trees by the train station down, seeing footer layouts and types will be near impossible. Even if they take those down, at this distance, it'll still be tough. Banshee was a much better site to spy on. Hey Don, how about moving the webcam to the top of Diamondback's lift? lol

Is anyone going to archive the webcam images like was done for the Banshee construction. It was a nice resource for those who couldn't watch the cams all day to be able to keep an eye on what was going on. Granted, due to location, I don't know that the webcam shots will be as easy to decode this time.

They could name it Thunderbird...

I think the whole "don't put a giga next to Diamondback" thing is more about distribution of people in the park than it is about having similar rides next to each other. There is more to parks than just amount of people the rides can handle. Theres also infrastructure like food, games, restrooms, etc. A Giga is going to draw people like Diamondback has and like Banshee has, except on a higher scale. Yes you could put it in the area being discussed, but it just taxes everything as a good potion of your crowd will be in that area of the park. Between a giga, Diamondback and Beast, you could be tied up in Rivertown for 3-4 hours on a busy day. That means the drink stands and everything else in that area are going to be busy, but the ones in the other areas of the park will see less traffic. Put it back in the WindSeeker area of the park and you have major draws scattered throughout the park and have a better distribution of guests. Of course, that line of thinking leads me to wonder if its going to be a coaster there are all. Or if it is, maybe a smaller one or less of a major addition.

And Don is definitely the kinda PR guy who would tie ribbons and place stakes randomly throughout the train path just to mess with people.

Falling trees? Timber!!!!! I'm Shivering at the thought.

Honestly, that makes more sense to me than just the work they've done in the area so far. The current changes don't really open up much room. It's a tight space between the path and the tracks, so it would just have to be a small flat, or you'd have to do the WWC method of the path going over the tracks to get to whatever you are building. Neither seems ideal. Now you get rid of the flume, and you have room to do something. It could be a lot of things I guess, but I think it's plenty of room for a station, queue and turnaround for a coaster with the bulk of the ride going in the tree area that the WWC queue vacated. It could also open up a lot of area in the middle of the paths between there and Diamondback if they wanted for a small ride, shops, games or whatever. If they go this route, it definitely isn't the giga. It would have to run out Diamondbacks path into the woods and that just doesn't seem like what they would want to do. So that either leaves a woodie or a blitz type coaster. I guess it could be other types as well, but those seem most likely to me. Not sure if they'd leave some of the trees to interact with or just clearcut the area though. Assuming this is true though, I'm not sure the flume could be open all year if this was for 2017. They started on Banshee dirt work early in the year before it opened. I'd think we'd have to have a similar situation here. So maybe a mid season closure, or we could actually be looking at 2018's ride location.

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too early for that track to be coming to KI. Since no site work has been done, no footers poured, etc. That means they'd be tying up the parking lot for track storage most of the summer. Not happening. But on location, I think the X Base/DA area makes more sense for a giga. You have Banshee in the front left and Diamondback front/middle right as big crowd draws. I think you want to disperse the crowds more and spread them across the park.

Pretty sure we'll see Banshee type restraints on Hulk.

Yeah, Hogsmede was a game changer. It showed what can be done in the parks, and it is still raking the money in. Now with Comcast at the helm we are seeing and will see more of the same. Highly immersive rides and lands will be the norm. Not only at Uni, but it's making Disney up their game as well. The next 10 years in the Orlando parks will be fun. (Not FUN Terpy)

I understand all that. This entire discussion is based around the fact that you challenged my statement that Disney has taken longer to build new attractions and themed lands in their parks than US is recent years. You've since tried to disprove that with incomplete and inaccurate data.Avatar land was announced 5 years ago and won't be ready until next year. New Fantasy Land was completed 5 years after being announced. Universal's major projects are completed in half that time from the time they are announced, yet still produce at a quality that is on par with Disney. Hence my original comment in this thread. And nothing in this post I quoted has relevancy to that discussion. You're going full on straw-man here. If you're trying to argue that Disney doesn't need to change as frequently or drastically, that's fine and I agree. But don't act like Disney takes the same amount of time to produce their new major overhauls in the parks when it simply isn't true. Sent from my SM-G925V using Tapatalk I was trying to bring it all full circle and end in amicably. And also point out that while Universal was upgrading or adding a ride here or there, Disney was upgrading other things. They may not bring people to the park but it makes things slightly more enjoyable.But if you would like some facts about major park expansions. Here we go again. I don't care when something is announced I'm talking about from breaking ground etc. Avatar broke ground on Jan 10, 2014 and is expected to finish in 2017. 3-3.5 years Harry Potter broke ground mid 2007, finished June 18, 2010, 3 years. The second Harry Potter broke ground early to mid 2011, and finished July 8, 2014. 3 years Disney Fantasy Land: started 2011 and finished Nov 2014, 3.5 years. While not officially a rebuild and areas were opened up in stages. Who cares when it's announced. Just because it gets announced or confirmed doesn't mean a thing. I even agreed with you that it's all perception. That it seems to take longer because Disney announced things earlier. But that's hardly Disneys fault if anything they are giving people time to get "last rides". Kong Skull Island a smaller not as involved redo as compared to HP but from what I have seen online ground breaking started around Jan/Feb 2014 and will open mid 2016 so almost 2.5 years. Star Wars is broke ground this year and is expected to open 2018, 3 years. I'm not trying to compare single rides because the Redo of Hulk or Spidey or Transformers is no different than Disney doing the Snow White or KI building Banshee. From broken ground to completion the time lines are almost identical. Disney as a company has historically announced projects early in the design. From the parks to movies to anything. Disney almost enjoys taking the audience on a ride through development. It's almost like they are making money on it. Universal recently has not done it the same way. They make the announcement and then break ground. If I were to take a guess I would think the planning is about the same. So when Disney announces something and then breaks ground 2 years later they probably when through the same process as US. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Jaws was still open in 2012. You'll have to explain again how they broke ground on HP2 in mid 2011.... Diagon is the most immersive land in any theme park in this country. Every inch of it is themed in detail with AA's, fire and water effects. It includes a ride with tech that didn't exist before the ride. Huge themed sets with a lot of rockwork and AA's of better quality than most anything Disney has ever done. It was ground breaking and made Disney go back and change their plans on Avatar and set the bar for what Star Wars much become. They did this in a little over two years. Avatar seems to be detailed, but both rides seem to be using existing tech. and is going to take 3 1/2 years. Fantasy land was, again, nothing new tech wise. A spinner, a coaster, and an omnimover. All things they have done before. 3 1/2 years. Star Wars will not open in 2018. Even with how bad DHS is right now, they are still not going to be able to flip all of the existing buildings and infrastructure into a highly immersive land in less than 3 years. I don't even think Comcast could pull that off. Comcast is faster at getting things done. Period. I like Disney. I'm not knocking the place. But to say they are working on a comparable time schedule for construction as Uni is just ignoring the facts. Survey markers were in the ground in January 2011 as an FYI, official announcement in Dec 11 and Jaws Closes in 12. Other construction can happen that didn't involve the Amity/Jaws area building up to the announcement. I'm not sure how I'm ignoring facts. Please help me out here. As for Avatar and SW... Avatar started construction 14 and state it will be open in 17. I haven't read anything about it being behind schedule so how do you figure it will be open late if all they are doing is nothing new. As for SW I was wrong I gave the time line for the DisneyLand as I was reading the updates there. Toy Story stuff is scheduled for 18 at DHS. Again I'll reiterate my original point, to state that one company is slower than the other when it comes to building something is border line crazy. There are timelines that most people agree upon that it takes to do certain things such as build a building or finish a coaster. One company is not quicker than the other at constructing than the other. From announcement to completion, yes. Avatar was announced much much earlier in the process than say Diagonal Alley expansion. Hence the expansion was finished and opened before (or right at the same time) Construction began on Avatar. Uni from announcement to completion has been between 3.5-4 years while Disney is 5-6 years. Uni from construction starting on major areas they appear to be around 3.5 year on average and the only thing we have seen recently from Disney is Fantasy Land at 3.5. If Avatar Toy Story and SW takes longer then that gives us data points. I'm not attacking Uni in any way. But if we throw out things as fact we need to have some sort of data to back it up. I tried my best to show data (survey markers in 2011, openings dates etc)... But to compare we need to compare apples to apples. Announcement dates to construction dates is not a comparison. Announcement to announcement or construction time line to construction time line is comparable. Just because something is brought up is not meant to be attacked b Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk I didn't say anything about announcements. I'm talking about construction. Survey markers are not construction. Survey markers hit the ground long before any park announces anything. When do you think the first Survey marker went into the ground on Avatar? It would have been when they still had the Lion King in the old building and Camp Minnie Mickey was full of guests. So if you want to stretch out Diagon because of Survey markers, you need to add years to Avatar as well. The facts you are ignoring, is that there was no construction on Diagon, The train, or the hogsmede end of the train station prior to 2012. None. There is a Google earth image dated January 3rd 2012 and there are still boats in the water and no grass disturbed anywhere. It's a fact. To ignore it is delusional. I didn't say Avatar would be late. I used the 3 1/2 year timeline that you used. You must not understand how big projects work. It comes down to how much money you spend and what timeline you tell the contractors when you put out bids. If you pay one guy to paint a house it'll take him longer than is you pay 5 guys. Or if you tell a painter that you'll give him a week to paint the house, he's probably going to take a week. If you tell him he has 2 days, he'll take 2 days. It is also well known that Disney spreads their projects over multiple years for tax and other financial purposes. Comcast is throwing money at these projects to get them done quickly. Transformers may have been a supposedly easy ride to build, but they had guys on it 24 hours a day to get it done quicker. It's not nearly as simple as we want an E-ticket, it costs X dollars and 3.25 years to build.

I understand all that. This entire discussion is based around the fact that you challenged my statement that Disney has taken longer to build new attractions and themed lands in their parks than US is recent years. You've since tried to disprove that with incomplete and inaccurate data.Avatar land was announced 5 years ago and won't be ready until next year. New Fantasy Land was completed 5 years after being announced. Universal's major projects are completed in half that time from the time they are announced, yet still produce at a quality that is on par with Disney. Hence my original comment in this thread. And nothing in this post I quoted has relevancy to that discussion. You're going full on straw-man here. If you're trying to argue that Disney doesn't need to change as frequently or drastically, that's fine and I agree. But don't act like Disney takes the same amount of time to produce their new major overhauls in the parks when it simply isn't true. Sent from my SM-G925V using Tapatalk I was trying to bring it all full circle and end in amicably. And also point out that while Universal was upgrading or adding a ride here or there, Disney was upgrading other things. They may not bring people to the park but it makes things slightly more enjoyable. But if you would like some facts about major park expansions. Here we go again. I don't care when something is announced I'm talking about from breaking ground etc. Avatar broke ground on Jan 10, 2014 and is expected to finish in 2017. 3-3.5 years Harry Potter broke ground mid 2007, finished June 18, 2010, 3 years. The second Harry Potter broke ground early to mid 2011, and finished July 8, 2014. 3 years Disney Fantasy Land: started 2011 and finished Nov 2014, 3.5 years. While not officially a rebuild and areas were opened up in stages. Who cares when it's announced. Just because it gets announced or confirmed doesn't mean a thing. I even agreed with you that it's all perception. That it seems to take longer because Disney announced things earlier. But that's hardly Disneys fault if anything they are giving people time to get "last rides". Kong Skull Island a smaller not as involved redo as compared to HP but from what I have seen online ground breaking started around Jan/Feb 2014 and will open mid 2016 so almost 2.5 years. Star Wars is broke ground this year and is expected to open 2018, 3 years. I'm not trying to compare single rides because the Redo of Hulk or Spidey or Transformers is no different than Disney doing the Snow White or KI building Banshee. From broken ground to completion the time lines are almost identical. Disney as a company has historically announced projects early in the design. From the parks to movies to anything. Disney almost enjoys taking the audience on a ride through development. It's almost like they are making money on it. Universal recently has not done it the same way. They make the announcement and then break ground. If I were to take a guess I would think the planning is about the same. So when Disney announces something and then breaks ground 2 years later they probably when through the same process as US. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Jaws was still open in 2012. You'll have to explain again how they broke ground on HP2 in mid 2011.... Diagon is the most immersive land in any theme park in this country. Every inch of it is themed in detail with AA's, fire and water effects. It includes a ride with tech that didn't exist before the ride. Huge themed sets with a lot of rockwork and AA's of better quality than most anything Disney has ever done. It was ground breaking and made Disney go back and change their plans on Avatar and set the bar for what Star Wars much become. They did this in a little over two years. Avatar seems to be detailed, but both rides seem to be using existing tech. and is going to take 3 1/2 years. Fantasy land was, again, nothing new tech wise. A spinner, a coaster, and an omnimover. All things they have done before. 3 1/2 years. Star Wars will not open in 2018. Even with how bad DHS is right now, they are still not going to be able to flip all of the existing buildings and infrastructure into a highly immersive land in less than 3 years. I don't even think Comcast could pull that off. Comcast is faster at getting things done. Period. I like Disney. I'm not knocking the place. But to say they are working on a comparable time schedule for construction as Uni is just ignoring the facts.

The difference is Disney takes their sweet time to get new lands and attractions up and running, while Universal seems to be on a whole different level of production while still producing at a level on par with Disney (in recent years anyway).Sent from my SM-G925V using Tapatalk I don't want to start an argument but this line always gets bounced around with little to no "facts" to back it up other than assumptions. Harry Potter IOA was announced and construction started in 07 and finished in 2010. Avatar started construction in 14 and assumed completion in 17. 2011-2014 for the Second part of Harry Potter land to open up. 2010-2014 for Fantasy Lands upgrade at magic kingdom. Kong Island from 13-16 To be honest the timelines seem almost similar. Plus Disney for the most part is working with timeless attractions and characters while Universal is working with a limited character audience. The timeless characters means that the change don't have to happen as often. And maybe it's media coverage. Because thugs change a bit faster at Universal it could be that things are not released as early or found out about as they are over at Disney. Star Wars land announced in 15 construction to begin in 16 and most likely finished in 18... Not really different that Harry Potter. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Jaws closed in january 2102. Diagon Opened in 2014. so 2 1/2 years. Kong Started Construction early 2014, and will open soon, so just over 2 years. Transformers was pretty much right at a year. First part of Harry Potter was pre-Comcast. Hell Volcano Bay is a whole new park and it may be done by the time Avatar opens. A lot of the problem is perception. Disney decides to build something, announces it, then starts building it a few years later. Uni, starts building things then announces them about a year or less before they open. It makes a huge difference in perceived time. But even with that, Uni is spending the money to build this stuff quicker and is doing so. It's not really a similar time frame. A 40% difference is not similar. The Star Wars thing is a tricky one. I can't see any way possible it opens in 18 assuming we are talking DHS. Avatar is going to take them at least 3 years from shovels to open. DHS is not even close to shovel ready. They have to tear down half the park, reroute roads, parking, and all kinds of other stuff. If they have it open Holiday 2019, I think they'll be happy.

I count 4(and a half?) wood coasters.

Given my preference in order.. 1. a TTD type ride 2. El Toro or something similar 3. Maverick type as long as it has the new restraints 4. B&M Giga The first three are unlikely. A B&M Giga will be next. Anything else would be a surprise.

Somewhere near dudley, and maybe other places, they have one of those full body family "ovens" for drying off, so if you decide to get wet, you can at least get somewhat dry after.

Yeah, the main reason for the land acquisition would be to expand the resort. More hotels, another citiwalk and the third park. Something to make guests spend more money and extend their vacations. Keeping it completely separate from the other parks has no advantages whatsoever. On bus traffic, they are planning a Kirkman extension that would go right by the new land. That will likely be the busses main route. One thing to consider on the monorail. Universal blvd and Kirkman both have wide medians that you could put monorail supports in. Uni just has to negotiate usage fees from the government for those or whatever legal deal needs to be done. They could very well use busses the first couple years then go to whatever governing body controls that and apply for zoning and usage of the medians for a monorail "to reduce traffic" and it would probably fly through the approval process.