Kenban

I was not at the park but the rain on Saturday was extremely heavy at times in the region. This would not be the first coaster to have two trains bump each other due to rain reducing the stopping power of the brakes. I am sure there will be an investigation, but personally my guess is just too much water on the brakes. If I remember right, around 20 years ago Magnum slipped through the brakes hitting the train in front of it at Cedar Point. Some parks have a policy to remove a train from the track if possible, when it is raining. Coasters that typically run 3 trains drop to 2, and coasters that run 2 go to a single train. If there had only been two trains, I suspect this would not have occurred. We might see some policy changes come out of this.

That’s not the way I read this. I think this is a single new position, and I do not believe the individual parks staffing will be directly impacted. Cedar Fair had regional manager positions as well, not sure about specifically over the marketing, but regional managers were allowed to be based at any park in the chain they oversaw. Which is why it lists the parks in the region, they can have their office at their choice of parks. The one regional manager that I am familiar with was Greg Scheid. He was the old regional VP until he retired from Cedar Fair, and he worked out of Kings Island. When your on international street and look up at the international restaurant, his office was the last few windows on the left. It has a fantastic view.

Space constraints, the rides still have to fit around existing infrastructure. Rob Decker literally discussed trying to fit in a bigger ride, and they could not make it work. Yukon Striker was designed for that drop through Vortex, and everything has to line up to make that possible. Doing the design of YS is what made them realize they could cram a dive coaster at Cedar Point in a difficult to fill space they had been trying to use for years. The high water table due to the lake means tunnels are out at Cedar Point, and Valravn is stuck between the road and the midway, anything bigger and it would stick out into the midway.

What matters is the engineering done by B&M, and the financial analysis by Six Flags. Both of which appears to have been done and at this point Six Flags appears to be trying to figure out where to build it. So far this year before the merger, Cedar Fair, and now after the merger, Six Flags, have included a giga dive coaster on 3 separate coaster surveys, maybe more that I am not aware of. The three that I know of are Kings Island, Carowinds, and more recently Magic Mountain, all had pass holders asked their feelings about building a giga dive. The fact that corporate keeps asking, suggests they know how much it will cost and are comfortable paying for it. Obviously the rides in a survey may never be built, but it’s also not common for the same ride to be asked about over and over again like this. The merged company is largely run by the old Cedar Fair management and a giga dive is basically the exact type of ride the pre merger Cedar Fair would build.

Realistically only the lift hill, and maybe the first element or two will come close to that height. The extra cost is likely not as much as you might think. The track length on dive coasters is typically much shorter, the longest dive is only 3625 feet long. Rumor was Valravn was only around $20 million total. It would be an expensive coaster but a giga dive would likely not be any more expensive than Orion, or plenty of other coasters that Cedar Fair has built and I am betting cheaper than many. My guess is a giga dive, with the world’s largest vertical loop, worlds longest dive (track length), etc, would only be between $25 and 30 million. Likely a cheap way to build a massive signature ride. I am positive the new Six Flags will build one, the question is where.

I really think people are over thinking the reasons. It’s likely similar to why and how Valravn was built. The ride fit a difficult to fill space at Cedar Point. Years ago back when Rob Decker still worked at Cedar Fair, he was asked during a Q&A session about Valravn and why the design code for Yukon Striker is before Valravn, showing that while Valravn was built first, Yukon Striker was designed first. He explained that during the design for Yukon Striker, someone from Planning and Design overlayed the ride on a space at Cedar Point that they were uncertain how to use and realized with some design changes it would fit. Yukon Striker ended up getting delayed and Valravn was suddenly designed and built. For anyone interested some information about the B&M design codes. B&M uses typically 3 letters to signify the layout, the first two letters are the model, in this case DM for Dive Machine, then a single letter signifying the layout which are assigned in order, Yukon Striker is DMG, but Valravn which was built first is DMH. Which is how enthusiasts knew Yukon Striker was designed first. Orion is MCT, while Candymonium is MCR, meaning there is a missing layout. MCS, likely the hyper for California’s Great America, designed but likely never to be built. Cedar Point removed the dorms some time ago, and has likely been trying to find the right project to fill the space. This coaster became available and it’s a good fit for the space. It does feel like Cedar Point is chasing the title of most coasters in a park again. Between this and top thrill reopening, the park will be at 18, or in the view of their marketing department, 19, since they count pipe scream.

The park already has a coaster with onboard lighting, GateKeeper. There are lights on both sides of every row, and the eyes on the front of the train.

Crazy question, if that is Fast Lane, where is the exit? Because the renderings show low to the ground track directly behind the station. With the parking lot, road, and Valravn, would it even be possible to exit anywhere but back to the midway? I might be wrong but I think that second concrete path is the rides exit, and there is no Fast Lane.

A water coaster, but not a clone is possible. Kings Island has said it will be the first and only dual water coaster in the state. If Cedar Point gets one that is a single slide and it opens after the one at Kings Island, then the marketing is still accurate.

Likely just a new attraction for the water park. I know some slides were removed earlier this year. If I remember correctly the last time something was added to the water park was when it was renamed in 2016 or 2017?

27th the spot behind Diamondback. I never really spent much time looking at the top 50 in the past, but there is a lot of weird groupings. Diamondback/Orion 26/27, Alpengeist/Pantheon 48/49, Beast/Mystic Timbers 6/7, and Boss/Screaming Eagle 39/40. It feels like there is something wrong in the methodology.

On many flat rides the estop is a power disconnect. The ride just starts coasting, but with it likely requiring a motor to stay in the air the ride likely just kept spinning only slowing due to friction and lowering to the ground. To me it seems very weird that anything would be in the way of the ride vehicles even spinning at ground level. If the chairs swing out that far, it seems to me that area should be clear. I should point out I watched a news video on this accident last night, and they claimed the reason the ride op hit the e-stop was the ride was spinning too quickly. Which caused the chairs to go out farther than they should have. I don’t know the cause, but something definitely went wrong. Thinking about it, I wonder if the kid wanted off because it was “too fast” and nothing on the ride actually malfunctioned, and they tried raising their restraint so the ride op hit the e-stop and it started coasting. Did the ride or riders actually hit the railing? In my view if this happened, the fence needs moved. But based on the news reporting 3 people had minor injuries, my guess is they hit the ride ops umbrella, not the fence. Maybe the ride op should be in a different position or move the umbrella at least, but the riders should not be at risk of hitting something just because the e-stop was hit.

There have never been separate all park, and home park only drink plans. They have just always been chain wide and it’s unlikely anything is changing.

https://www.schlitterbahn.com/new-braunfels/season-passes/all-park-passport Well the first park (that I am aware of) in the combined chain has announced 2025 annual passes, including an all park passport add on good for the entire chain. So when is the switch over to a true chain wide product? January 6th. So starting January 6th, 2025, passes with the all park add on are truly chain wide, valid at both legacy Six Flags and Cedar Fair parks. Pricing, this is only valid at Schlitterbahn, but should give you an idea of other parks prices. Pass $115 All Park Add on $75 Dining plan $155 Drink plan $35/50 (regular/premium) Grand total feels about the same as last year. I am unsure what the prices were at Schlitterbahn last year for a 2024 pass, but the concerns about pricing, and not being able to use the pass at the entire chain feel unwarranted. Schlitterbahn did not have a prestige pass or season long Fast Lane products available this year and that appears to continue to be true.

Considering how early passes go on sale traditionally, there is a lot of wiggle room for when a merged pass system could work chain wide, and cause minimal problems. Everything from January 1st, to before the majority of the Cedar Fair parks open for 2025 seems fine to me. Obviously Knott’s is open year round so having everything ready January 1st would be for the best. This is the problem with reports like this. Even if the information they received was real, it might actually mean very little. I am reminded of when Disney made a nationwide annual pass good at both Disney World and Disneyland. It was so expensive that effectively there was no savings, you could have just purchased two passes, one to each resort for the price. The resorts systems were developed separately and were not compatible, so how did they make a pass good on both coasts? They cheated and just made a plastic card that had two passes on a single crowded card. Customers with the pass still had to have an account with both Disneyland and Disney World. The reality was guests actually had two annual passes just with a fancy exclusive plastic card. Selling a merged annual pass is honestly not the hard part. Making all the systems work together is difficult. I am wondering how they will handle the legacy products like the old Six Flags memberships, a lot of promises surrounding those had been made. 50% off of all merchandise, meal plans with no time limits, that include a snack, free drink bottles, and a lot more. Plus free months which start at cancellation, combined with the months due to charging while parks were closed due to COVID, I am betting there are members with more than a year of free membership they are owed. The top tier memberships costs less than a prestige pass and has better benefits.