Kenban

The best part of Nighthawk is the silent lift hill.

It's not like the park would not want to pave the parking lot. The parking lot is massive and it would cost around 7 or 8 million dollars to repave the entire lot. Considering Mystic Timbers was likely around $10 million, I think the park is better off putting in a coaster instead.

I could see antique cars making a return and tower gardens makes sense. Except the area on its own is too small. It would have to expand into adjacent areas. It would not be difficult to wrap around the Carousel. Having a ramp up to a covered bridge over one of the paths to prevent the Carousel from becoming a dead end. The station would likely not be in the gardens and instead over by the dining patio. It would not surprise me to see the dining patio closed or used by the attraction. There are currently 3 paths leading to the Carousel, I would build the covered bridge over the path next to the store, and close the path leading towards the floral clock. Gives the ride plenty of room to work with and all we would lose is a little used path and the dining patio. This could be done in time for Winterfest and would be able to run during Winterfest. I doubt we will see any cars moved from Cedar Point. The cars are pretty reasonable in cost and would not free up much space at the park. This actually sounds very reasonable and likely.

My understanding is that Arrow considered it unsafe. You have to consider the worst case, what happens in the event that the ride stalls while upside down. The likelihood of damage to the train or track and possibly injuries to the passengers is too high if that occurs.

I need to point out the article does not state the issues but the video embedded in the page does. The ride also passed inspection and operated in North Carolina after these issues were addressed. Here are the issues as listed in the video. These all sound minor to me. 1. Repair damaged junction box 2. Secure all sweep components and hardware. 3. Eliminate the trip hazards from the decking 4. Properly secure wiring entering the deadmans switch 5. Properly install/secure controller cover

^ It is difficult to tell from the video but I do not believe it did. My guess is that the row itself did not strike anything including another row of seats until it hit the ground. It just looks like it is too far out ahead which from a physics standpoint makes sense. Until the break occurs everything is traveling the same speed in the same direction. The other rows are still attached to the arms which will pull the rest upward in an arc and by the time the opposite side gets to where the row broke off I believe it has already cleared the area. But there were two people ejected from the ride. I think both came from the row which detracted from the ride. Those individuals appear to have been thrown into one of the other rows. The restraints likely failed when the hydraulic lines were severed by the row detached from the ride.

My issue is that you keep talking in absolutes about things that we cannot know for certain. For instance from this message you stated that it crashed into the railing. But if you slow down the video and watch it frame by frame I believe that the row clears the fence. A leg or foot might have impacted the fence as it went over but I am just not sure. It is also possible I am wrong and it hit the fence, it is hard to tell distances from the video. But I have seen pictures of the fence from after the accident occurred and it does not appear to be damaged. Same thing about impacting the floor. The more pictures I see of the ride after the accident occurred I am not certain anything struck the floor. Pictures show the floor appears to be intact and undamaged. This leaves me to think that the noise we hear is actually the arm failing and not the row striking the floor. How is it possible that it did not strike the floor or the fence? You have to understand when the arm failed the entire structure was swinging upward which would be the point of greatest stress on the arm which makes sense as to why I think it failed at the time it did. When the arm fails if the row is already traveling upward then it would continue until gravity pulls it down. It would also have considerable sideways momentum. This might allow it to clear the floor and the side rail. The rotation could be a by product of the failure as well. The row is being pulled into the air from that one single point when the arm failed it should impart a rotation in the direction seen in the video. If the rotation is just natural due to how it was being moved before the failure, or if it is from striking something possibly another row on the ride I cannot tell from the video. I am doing a lot of speculating about what occurred and I think that is natural and understandable. I just would like to see people not state things like they are facts until it is certain they are correct.

When did it hit the side of the platform? Second how do we know it was hanging lower than it should have? From what I can tell it did not hit anything until after it had already broken off the arm.

I am not certain of the exact date but Don's 10 year anniversary as the head of PR for the park was about a month ago. Any word of who is replacing him?

For those wondering about inspections 10 TV has posted a copy of the paperwork filed with the state. The ride was inspected by the state prior to operation. Also you will find copies of the NDT reports but these do not include inspections of the arms. A few states list inspection requirements by ride and I cannot find any testing requirement for the arms. The ride in question is serial number 6. It looks like a case of metal fatigue which KMG appears to not have expected so no one is looking for it during inspections.

It is not extremely graphic so I will post this. It is a photo from a dutch forum which shows the broken arm. I am pretty confident that the row did not strike the floor until after it had already detached from the arm. This impact appears to release at least two of the restraints which allowed two individuals to come loose. Which is why the video shows two individuals flying through the air. Accidents like this are not acceptable. Either there needs to be more inspections or this ride needs redesigned. But it should never occur again.

Tony Clark has tweeted more than one to do list. Here are two, take your pick. The problem is that you are remembering bits and pieces and acting like when Tony gets one or two items from a list correct, years later that he somehow knows more than he really does. Nothing about these lists look like a 5 year plan.

Both coasters still run extremely well and from an outsider's perspective should easily be in good enough condition to be moved. The two coasters share a lift hill so for them to be separated the purchaser would need new supports manufactured but that should be easily done. But if both are moved and installed together then that should not be a problem. Either way new stations will have to be designed and built. Having said that, I doubt Universal has any desire to even attempt to sell the coasters. It will be very obvious quickly if they are going to try, just watch how the ride is taken down, if it is done in the same way Hulk was by cutting the ride apart then it will obviously be scrapped. The lack of line for Dragon Challenge was largely due to the massive capacity of the ride. With the same number of seats per a train as Banshee, separate load and unload area, and two completely independent tracks the ride has a massive capacity. They only have to dispatch a train every 75 seconds from each track for the ride to carry over 3000 people an hour.

I decided to take a 3 day weekend trip down to Orlando and wanted to ride as many of the new 2017 attractions and with the announcement of several Disney rides I also wanted one last ride to remember them by. Expect spoilers about the rides. Fun Spot First I went to Fun Spot Kissimmee to ride Mine Blower. I rode Mine Blower several times, except for one really abrupt transition the layout is frantastic. The Gravity Group did a great job with design, it has good pacing and is a fun compact coaster. The issue I have with the ride is that the trains shuffle through the entire course. I suspect the problem is caused by differences in how different wooden coaster manufacturers build the track. The coaster is still brand new and very smooth but I worry how it will age. Universal Orlando Then off to Universal Orlando to ride Race through New York starring Jimmy Fallon. This is Universal's first queueless ride. They have already announced that they plan on making all future rides queueless as well. While plans change I expect to see it on the Fast and Furious ride opening next year. In some ways this ride reminds me of King Kong. Both look spectacular and have very intricate lines. The exterior of the building looks very good, but the lobby and holding area are very good recreations of the style of Rockefeller Center. Universal used real stone and Marble and it shows. How the queueless system works is that you are required to get a ticket with a return time at which point you are given a colored card. You can spend as much time as you want in the Lobby which has displays showing all of the Tonight Show hosts and has a period accurate TV showing clips for each host. After you are done here you walk up the stairs to the actual waiting room. This room has a stage with frequent live entertainment based on skits done on the Tonight Show, it also has seating and a number of large touch screen TV's you can play games on. Every few minutes the lights change color and if they match your card you can go and finally ride the ride. Actual wait times once I was upstairs was around 10-20 minutes but I have heard it can take 45. Finally the ride itself, you wear 3D glasses which while they look the same as the glasses for Gringotts they seem larger and I had trouble keeping them on my face, they just wanted to fall off, and it seemed to be a common problem with the people who were on the ride with me. It is basically a large motion platform staring at a projection screen. Which I am really starting to not like about Universal, I want physical props and sets when possible. This brings me back to King Kong, both rides are basically just a 3D movie with a ride system. On both rides I love everything that is actually real and while I enjoy the projections I just feel little desire to ride either attraction more than a few times. While the ride is brand new it just feels like something I have already done many times before. Also the ride is called Race through New York, and yet only the first part of the movie occurs in New York City, I think I would have prefered more actual video of New York and less CG. I do wish this ride system was used on Minions because that ride is a little too jumpy I think I would like it more if it was smoother like Race through New York. While I was at Universal I made sure to ride Dueling Dragons (Dragon Challenge). There are a huge number of rumors the ride is going to be closing soon and it feels like this is the end for the ride. Both sides still run extremely well and it feels like it is in good enough shape Universal could sell them if they wanted. Assuming there is a park which wants to purchase the ride. At present the ride has metal detectors in the line and you are required to place everything in lockers including your wallet, cellphone, keys, etc. At least the lockers are free but I still hate this. The fact that they no longer duel still bugs me and while I understand why they stopped dueling it makes me question why they have the metal detectors. It feels like it should be one or the other not both. I am going to miss this ride. Even without the dueling they are still both good coasters, but riding them is annoying, I hate leaving my cell phone, keys, and wallet in a locker and from personal experience I know the fingerprint scanners can screw up and open the wrong locker. A few years ago I forgot my locker number, luckily they have a forgot locker number option but as I found out my fingerprint was a close enough match it opened the wrong locker at which point I had to find an employee to lock that locker again so that the items could not be stolen, but this also disables the fingerprint so the true owner cannot open it without an employee. Walt Disney World I started my second day with a quick visit to Hollywood Studios primarily for The Great Movie Ride which is closing August 13th. The Great Movie Ride was the only ride in the park when it opened and with its closing I do not believe a single attraction from opening day will remain. Star Tours and the Indiana Jones stunt show both opened the first year but did not open with the park. The ride is slow but enjoyable. Disney has already announced they are keeping the exterior of the building. Which makes me hope the queue will remain largely intact. I feel like I might miss this ride a little. But with how dated the ride is maybe it is time to move on. I spent the rest of the day at Epcot. First up was Universe of Energy the other ride confirmed to close on August 13th. It has been a long time since I rode the ride and I now remember why I almost always skipped the attraction. The preshow is 8 minutes and the ride is 37 minutes so you spend a minimum of 45 minutes assuming you arrive just as everything starts. It is classic Epcot, an attempt at making an entertaining and educational ride. Today I find it boring and I do not feel like I learned anything. There are rides that I wish were still around, but at the moment I doubt this will be one of them. I like the idea of the educational aspect of Epcot, but I am not sure it has ever been very successful. Maybe it is time to move towards a more entertainment oriented view. The movie for Soarin has been replaced so instead of just using video of California it now showcases sites from around the world. I really was looking forward to this because I enjoyed the original and found myself wanting more. The problem is that I found myself preferring the original ride. There is one major scene at the end which features the Eiffel Tower but the problem is that the curved screen makes it look more like a C shape if you are off to the side. But because it is the end it just sticks in my head and is what I remember of the ride. Also the designers really overused the whole object flying at the screen to change to the next scene. The original movie only had one transition and that was a cloud. Stop the CG garbage and just show the natural beauty of the planet. My last day was Animal Kingdom. A park that is trying to become a full day or more park. I have been to the park several times since Pandora started being built and this was what I was looking forward to the most. Disney did not let me down. The land itself is amazing, during the day it looks impressive and otherworldly. The floating island just seems to hang in the sky and while you can tell it is supported by the tethers it is still very impressive. At night you realize the ground is covered in UV paint. I remember early previews where it was claimed you would be able to see the ground light up as you walk and if this exists anywhere I never saw it. But the trees, plants, etc do light up. If possible visit during both the day and at night. Na'vi River journey is basically the same ride system as small world and other slow boat rides. I think it is important to point out as far as I can tell there is no story or plot of any kind on this ride, it is purely a slow boat ride through an incredible looking landscape, with one animatronic. I thought it was a very good merger of practical effects and projection. The biggest problem is that nothing really happens, it looks amazing but that is it. Once you have been on the ride it is likely not worth a long wait but it is a good ride. Before I went on Flight of Passage I figured it would be an upgraded version of Soarin and I was not disappointed. It is an upgrade but it feels like it is so much more. The screen is larger so that you are much more surrounded, you have to look for the edges of the screen. The ride vehicles are much more personal since they are individual seats. The attention to detail is amazing for example there are air bladders which inflate/deflate during the ride next to your legs to simulate the Banshee moving and breathing. This is a must see ride and is worthy of a long wait. This ride and the land surrounding it needs to be cloned at other Disney parks, it is that good. I enjoyed the ride so much I waited through the 2 hour line twice. One of the new to me experiences is Kilimanjaro Safari at night. Frankly I expected more, more lights and more animals. I had seen a lot of advertising but frankly once it gets really dark out the lights are just not bright enough. I would go at Dusk while it is still bright enough out to see. Disney called it an eternal sunset but I really disagree. Finally at the end of the night, Rivers of Light, the new show which is supposed to make people want to stay at the park until 9 or 10 PM. Because of the animals the park is not able to use fireworks so they are stuck with light, fire, and water. Which having been to California Adventure and seeing World of Color several times I felt that Disney would put on a great show. If you are expecting a huge spectacle you might as well skip this show and see something else. From a technical standpoint the show is impressive. But at the sametime the show is much like most of the original park, devoid of DIsney IP, it is a radical departure from modern Disney parks. The show is good but I feel many children will not enjoy it. There was a boy near me who every time the fountains would turn off or the lighting dimmed would ask his parents if it was over. I had a great three days and had a chance to experience most of the new or at least new to me rides in Orlando. Flight of Passage is an incredible experience which has left me with a new favorite ride. I cannot wait to see what Universal or Disney will come up with to top the experience.

I will just add this, there is almost no chance Tony Clark knows what is coming past 2018. He is in a position where he does not need to know anything about new attractions until the last minute. Any teasers he might make about the anniversary would be from a position where he actually knows little to nothing.

I am pretty confident he only said that it would be a very large celebration. That they knew that the 150th only happens once and would make a huge deal out of it. But I do not remember him ever saying that the park was getting a coaster or other large attraction in 2020.

Who from Cedar Point or Cedar Fair has said that Cedar Point is getting a large attraction in 2020? It is nothing more than wishful thinking from fans who do not seem to understand the business. Cedar Point will get a bigger ROI by building a huge attraction in 2021 because fans will flock to the park in 2020 for the 150th even without a new attraction. Then the park opens a large coaster the following year to cause people to return. Purely from a business perspective the most likely year Kings Island will be getting a new roller coaster is 2020. Why? 2019 is too soon, 2021 is most likely the next big coaster at CP, 2022 is the anniversary, which leaves 2023 which is likely too far.

I thought the event was well organized. They understood the fact that you can ride just about everything in an hour or two and filled the schedule with a tour, games, etc. The park has a decent collection of flat rides and short lines. The ERT was interesting because they had a couple of employees who are trained to run everything in the park. So while ERT was listed as being three rides you really could have ridden almost anything. I really want the park to get another coaster. I think it would help bring new customers and increase overall attendance. I think it is the prefect park for a Raptor coaster from RMC. But a gravity group coaster feels more likely.

I really do feel the pass was too cheap at many of the parks. $499 feels right for a larger park like Canada's Wonderland. I do understand the season started some time ago but I also feel there is enough time left to make it worth purchasing. I believe this leaves Knott's, Kings Island, and Cedar Point without a season long Fast Lane. I cannot see it being offered at CP unless it is an expensive chain wide option. I suspect Kings Island will see this at some point and it will likely be $499+. Which I might hold off this year if it does occur since so much of the season has passed but I would pay $499 for a season long Fast Lane plus to Kings Island. I only have time to visit on Saturday and Sunday so I am stuck with long lines typically.

I believe there are 5 Six Flags parks without Larson loops. I see no issues installing a Skywarp in those parks.

It lists capacity at 800 an hour so slightly higher than a boomerang. Jeff Pike actually mentioned this at Coasterstock, he announced it was sold but provided no clues as to where it was going. I am leaning towards Six Flags. Assuming the art and model are accurate this might actually be classified as a coaster unlike a Larson Loop. On a Larson loop the train is continuous around the entire loop, this appears to not be continuous. The only question mark might be is the train coasting at some point? Which is what prevents a ride like Surf Dog from being a coaster.

I would vote for this. You want to ride up the elevator about an hour early because they limit the number of people at the top.

To my knowledge Cedar Fair has not, they have only been purchasing the trains for Boomerang coasters and only when they move them to a new location. There was a rumor over the winter that Cedar Fair purchased another MK 1212 train but after it was announced the boomerang at Knott's was closing it makes sense that train is for when the ride is moved. Vekoma openly advertises these trains as upgrades for old Arrow trains at events such as IAAPA. Vekoma got into the roller coaster business by partnering with Arrow and the early Vekoma coasters use Arrow trains and the track is directly from the Arrow blueprints. The same company manufactured track for both companies.

To anyone wanting a new train or restraint. Vekoma already makes it, you want the MK 1212 trains. They use a vest instead if the OTSR currently on Vortex. Old Vekoma coasters and Arrow coasters use the same size track so the train is designed as an upgrade to either. Cedar Fair has already purchased at least one because when Flying Cobras the boomerang at Carowinds was moved from Geauga Lake they replaced the train with a MK 1212.

One possibility is to replace the trains on Vortex with Vekoma MK 1212 trains. They use a vest restraint instead of the current OTSR restraints. Most of the roughness people complain about on Vortex is due to the headbanging so if you remove the solid object for your head to hit I suspect people will find it more comfortable. If anyone is wondering Vekoma and Arrow used the same track design so the Vekoma trains will just work on the ride without modifications. Is the steel on the ride in good enough condition to justify the cost of new trains? Arrow is known to have used low quality steel and Vortex is 30 years old. I remember a few years ago park maintenance having to replace some rails. If the park is going to spend 3-4 million on new trains I suspect they would also want to spend money on painting it. It would be an expensive upgrade.