Kenban

The more I think about this coaster the more I love it. It just fits the park. While I am sure Top Thrill 2 will be the better coaster. I think Holiday World had the better announcement. It also definitely has the better name. Good Gravy is going to produce some some good merch.

All of these numbers are theoretical assuming zero friction. 74 MPH should get the train around 180 feet off the ground. You should be vertical but that leaves a lot of tower left. 101 MPH is roughly 340 feet. There needs to be extra track beyond where the train is expected to reach, likely the tower would need at a minimum to be like 370+ feet tall anyways. So while the tower is likely a little taller than necessary, I don’t think it’s as much as some people think. It’s been reported that the trains used to launch only around 112 MPH most of the time. But do the math and It shows the train should only reach 419 feet and that is assuming zero friction. So how was it possible to make it over the top hat? Because the speed measurement was taken at the end of the launch and your already a decent distance off the ground. The whole launch is angled upward.

Yup, the land was already cleared earlier this year except for the station.

I was pretty confident that the specifications which had been listed on Zamperla’s website were correct, and they are. But had a hard time believing the name would be this terrible. Really the biggest surprise to me is it looks like they are not even moving the queue. The concept arts shows it in the in field and they just put a cover over it.

From what I have heard is there is no formal announcement. Not sure if its when the parking lot opens or when they will be allowed into the park but I heard the media will be given the information starting at 5:00 AM. Interviews with the park representatives and manufacturer happen at 8:30 AM. My understanding is there is no embargo and media can go live with the information as soon as they want.

It was live on their website for a while. Long enough the internet web archive captured a copy of the page. https://web.archive.org/web/20230730151056/https://www.zamperla.com/top-thrill-2/ EDIT: The name is likely a placeholder or the project name, I really don't think that will be the actual coaster name.

Personally I think people looking at the SOB station are looking at the wrong side of the park. I took a stroll through Planet Snoopy and noticed a man lift in the theatre. It appears to be directly under the rail in the rafters holding the lighting, and all of the lights to the right of the lift appear to have been removed. Stripping the building as preparation for demolition? Maybe it will be reused? Either way I think something is going on.

I would keep trying from what I can tell the website and that webpage is still up. I just think it’s getting hugged to death by a large group of enthusiasts. All I mean is the launch is 120 MPH, the same as the original.

The parks official announcement is the 1st so I have marked this as spoilers. It was found by someone on Reddit.

While that last custom coaster opened in 2005. Those years before it were crazy. Currently at Dorney every coaster except for one classic woodie opened between 1997 and 2008. That’s six coasters which included two B&M’s, and a Morgan Hyper in only twelve years. So what changed? The Paramount Parks were purchased in 2006.

Construction walls have started going up around the location where Stinger was located. No signs of any work beyond building walls so far, but I expect land clearing to start soon.

Basically no one builds their own LSM launches. This fin configuration largely does not narrow it down much. There are two primary LSM providers. InDriveTec who uses a single row, and InTraSys which uses two rows. The two rows means it’s likely InTraSys. Almost every company except for Intamin uses InTraSys. Intamin exclusively uses InDriveTec. So really the only thing two rows gives us is it’s likely not Intamin.

If you’re asking about that offset support, it’s original and has been like that since Diamondback was built. It was done this way so it clears the queue for The Crypt.

Passport does not change the tier of your pass, it only makes it possible to use at other parks in the chain. If early entry works the same way next year it does this year at CP, it would be Prestige only. A gold pass with passport would not be good enough.

I read the page while it was live, and still have a copy open. It was available at https://www.cedarpoint.com/blog/2023/introducing-the-all-park-passport Most guests are still going to get gold passes and if they want access to other parks just add on the all parks passport. With a Prestige pass and that add-on your prestige benefits do work at other parks, it does warn the extra benefits are only valid at parks with a Prestige pass but that is also expanding to six parks. It listed Canada’s Wonderland, Carowinds, Cedar Point, Kings Dominion, Kings Island, and Knott’s Berry Farm as all having prestige passes. Do pass add-ons still work chain wide, only some add-ons? Makes me wonder about season long Fast Lane. The platinum pass was the same price chain wide to combat people just getting a pass from the cheapest park in the chain. Basically what else is changing, and do those changes make it easier or harder to abuse the system? There are a lot of unknowns here. My biggest take away is confirmation that Prestige benefits will be chain wide. Which is the way it should have been, and it’s time to change it so it works that way this year.

The RMC hints are likely for the replacement Fire in the hole ride at Silver Dollar City. The park sent out a tweet yesterday that was a single word “Tomorrow”. Plus that RMC is doing it has been one of the worst kept secrets in the industry.

That picture is from Kings Island. That’s a leg from the Eiffel Tower on the right.

I thought the same thing at first about Kingswood. I changed my mind though. I bet it’s International Showplace. That puts both the first and second concept possibilities at the same location. I suspect the project itself or location has already been decided and I bet it’s the launched wing coaster. The first art piece shows an invert but the description still says launched wing. My gut says they know what they are building and where and want feedback on theming. To add some fuel to this fire, there are reports that survey markers have show up in the area near the mountain including around International Showplace.

I cannot see Disney or Universal touching it. Six Flags is not in a financial position to do so. That leaves 3, Cedar Fair, Herschend, and Sea World. I could make an argument for why it could make sense for any of those 3. But would management at any of them consider it, I have my doubts. Also I really believe no one would want Fun Spot Atlanta, it has plenty of protentional but almost no one wants to deal with the expense of building a park from almost nothing.

Snoopy’s Racing Railway has a realistic capacity of 300 something riders an hour. It has to run a single train, since it takes two laps around the track, and only seats 14 riders. It’s a low capacity kids ride, having the child requirement makes sense. Personally I prefer it not get cloned. I would prefer that Kings Island get rides with better capacity.

The statement from Clermont was published Wednesday but I suspect it was made on Tuesday. An employee from B&M did not arrive on site to inspect the damage in person until Wednesday. The announcement that a replacement support would be manufactured was made on Thursday. Likely the support was ordered either late Wednesday or on Thursday before the park announcement. Which would have been after Clermont stated they were not involved. It was likely true that at the time they were not involved but I suspect they are now.

As far as I can tell there is no official black list but the relationship between Cedar Fair and Intamin is not really improving. Cedar Fair moved away from Intamin for a lot of reasons and it was more than just a few problematic rides that people keep bringing up. The poor service and replacement part availability continues to be a problem and continues to create friction between the companies. Intamin likes custom proprietary parts and it has caused a lot of downtime. Here is a video from a ride mechanic that discusses a few manufacturers, and discusses how they are to work with. He talks about B&M at 1:50 and Intamin at 8:12. If you have a chance go do Winter Chill Out and talk with the mechanics at Cedar Point. I have discussed similar issues with them before. It’s just really hard to get parts from Intamin. When the unexpected happens you’re stuck with months of downtime, and in the worst cases it can take more than a year to get the items. Xcelerator at Knott’s closed in March of 2022, they just announced last week the parts to fix it arrived from Intamin, and expect it to open later this summer, it’s already been closed 16 months. This is not the first time Xcelerator has had extended downtime due to part availability. Falcons Fury at BGT, closed for around a year with a sign out front that said they were waiting for parts from the manufacturer, it just reopened maybe two months ago. Kings Island had this happen with the Drop Tower, it went down last year, and the park was still waiting for replacement parts at the start of this season. Intamin needs to figure out how to provide support in a reasonable period of time, even if the ride is 20 years old, discontinued, low volume, or maybe a prototype. Changing how they design rides and placing a focus on using quality off the shelf components and reusing as much as possible between models so they can stock items for faster service would be a good start. B&M earned its reputation for quality, reliability, and service though a lot of hard work. I cannot imagine they will not provide superior service in this instance.

I suspect the Peanuts sale is a sign, not that they are being removed, but that the kids area is being overhauled into Camp Snoopy. Try to find any merchandise that says Planet Snoopy that is not included in the sale. Plenty of generic Kings Island Peanuts merchandise that is not on sale. The survey at Carowinds which became Aeronautica Landing occurred in 2020. 2021 they did a survey at Kings Island asking about the kids area and a lot of questions about dining. To add a new coaster I would remove the old theatre and barn yard area. I think a Mack spinner like Sierra Sidewinder at Knott’s would be a great fit. While I am certain a clone would fit, a custom layout to better utilize the space would likely be better. Based on the survey and construction at other parks a large new restaurant with indoor seating, maybe even a stage for live entertainment, maybe character dining. I would put it on the path leading to the picnic grove and the water park. Across from the picnic area is a small strip of grass with some trees, and a large employee parking lot on the other side of the fence. It’s not really usable for expanding the kids area with rides, but a large restaurant would be perfect just don’t put windows on the backside of the building. The employee parking can easily be shifted and it’s unlikely the restaurant would take the whole lot. There is enough room here for a clone of Harmony Hall, it feels unlikely something that big would get built but a food court would be nice. Although a Lazy Bear Lodge style restaurant would look good in a Camp Snoopy area. I would love to see boo blasters replaced as well but this feels like too much for one year. I would like to think that they would demolish the majority of the land and rebuild it, similar to what has been done at other parks when they receive a camp Snoopy retheme.

I keep seeing people assuming B&M or Clermont had to have made a mistake. If a footer moved, especially if it’s the one supporting the diagonal, the forces imparted to the support would be increased and I believe the failure would look exactly like what we have seen. The top of the support appears to be pushed outward away from the support, which is the direction it broke in. My theory is they do a survey and find the diagonals footer sunk into the ground more than expected.

I am concerned that Carowinds maintenance missed it for what now appears to be a week. They should be doing a visual inspection of the entire ride daily and we have people going back through their pictures from the last week and you can see it progress from the top of the weld to slowly tear the support apart. I understand how it got missed the first day or two. But I saw a picture from Thursday the day before it was closed and it’s very obvious.