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If they tear down Son Of Beast...


Cortney
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Just because Cedar Point is changing their stand up coaster DOESN'T mean stand ups are done. Carowinds and Great America's stand ups are doing fine. Plus Six Flags stand ups are doing fine so it's a matter of what the park wants so I could see KI in a few years deciding to add a stand up coaster. Plus Cedar Point is one park, it's not like just because they do something that everybody will do it.

True, but if we've learned one thing over the past 10 years or so, we've learned that this industry works very much off of precedents.
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Face it man, stand ups are done. Nobody has said that they are just going to automatically start converting all stand ups to floorless. You have to consider that some of these parks that have stand ups also have floorless, so there would be no need for a conversion. Now, it's just time to wait for them to get to the end of their useful life. Standing up on a coaster was a novelty and it's just not an interesting concept. You can't really compare the time between last invert installed and last stand up installed because you are talking about 2 very different reasons. Most parks that wanted inverts had them, so no new installations for a while. On the other hand, no stand ups are being installed because the re-rideability sucks quite frankly. Inverts aren't losing popularity. Stand ups are.

Carowinds doesn't have a Floorless and California's Great America doesn't have a Floorless. Plus it's my personal opinion on KI getting a stand up.
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Plus it's my personal opinion on KI getting a stand up.

Opinions are typically based upon something, I am wondering what you are basing yours on?

Or is it just wishful thinking?

Just wishful thinking. I spoke to a bunch of employees and guests who have all said that it would be amazing if KI got a stand up coaster.
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At this point, I've realized that getting a new Cirque Imagine-esque show for next year is more than enough of an addition for me.

FTW, hoping Cedar Fair and Les Productions Haut-Vol do lots of business for many years to come.

They've made no attempt to hide the fact that Cirque Imagine is coming back next year. I doubt it'll be the exact same show, but in a similar spirit.

I imagine capex improvements for next year will be improvements around the park - some that will be VERY obvious, some not as much. Maybe it's not as exciting as a new ride, but it will make the park a better place.

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I get it KIFan, you want a stand up. The other point I made wasn't that every one of the parks that have stand ups also have a floorless. I was saying that some do. I wouldn't expect a stand up from any manufacturer.

Homestar92, that was hilarious!

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Hey, Darien Lake has an awesome INTAMIN standup coaster. And you can get a fantastic view of it from the road next to the park!

Oh... wait...

(Somehow I get a feeling that one will go over the heads of a lot of people here...)

I give up.

Elaborate... :)

During Six Flags' tenure at Darien Lake, they had closed Six Flags Astroworld. Many rides were dispersed through the chain including a few coasters. One of which was an Intamin stand up coaster, known there as Batman: The Escape, which has made its way through the chain including Magic Mountain and NJFTP. I believe it, along with the Togo made Ultra Twister which went to SFA, were damaged while they were moved. Six Flags never got around to building it, and ever since, its been in a field by Darien Lake.

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Darien Lake has a storage facility (well, to be more accurate, a field...) across the street from their park. In it, among other things, is the INTAMIN standup once known as Batman: The Escape. Six Flags relocated the ride to Darien Lake shortly before their ownership of the park came to an end. Presumably, the intention was to install the ride there, but I can't find anything to confirm that. It would seem, though, that the future owners had no desire to install the coaster that is readily available and sitting on property that they own, as it is still sitting, in pieces, in that field nearly a decade later. It is extremely visible from the road. You could theoretically drive up to it and take a closer look, but I can only imagine that would constitute trespassing. Regardless, even sticking to the public road, the track is very visible and you can still see it fairly close-up. When I saw it, I had to do a double-take, because it's one of the INTAMINs that used B&M-style box track, and I didn't know of any dismantled B&Ms.

The fact that the park has plenty of open land in which that coaster could fit, and has the coaster itself on their property, but they choose not to install it, speaks volumes about the desirability of standup coaster.

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Or...Six Flags Darien Lake opened an awesome new ride called Superman: Ride of Steel. The riders were meant to be restrained such that they could not stand up, nor prematurely exit the trains while the ride was in motion. There were, however, no seat belts, and the T-bar restraint system was notable for its minimalist design.

Media Day came, the coaster opened. The next operating day came and

went. On the next day, early in the day, a rather large guest rode the ride without being completely restrained for at least the last third of the ride cycle, if not all of it. The ride became, at least for that rider, a stand up. And he exited on a bunny hop. In front of his small daughter. He was injured, but survived.

Seat belts were rapidly installed.

Sadly, it was not to be the last of similar incidents. Some of the unrestrained guests did not survive. There have been major train modifications several times since Superman: Ride of Steel opened that fateful week.

(Note that B&M has not had similar restraint issues. Note also we are not only talking about INTAMIN here. See Texas...)

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And that reason right there, no matter what happens to capacity or ride experience, no matter the safety devices the ride may or may not have, and no matter what some on here may or may not believe is why I am glad that a ride like Diamondback has seatbelts.

Is it redundant? Yes.

Would it be the best situation? No

Would it at just a little bit of peace of mind if something were to fail and you have a belt around you? Yrs

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Remember that a ride can always be theoretically safer. Riding an amusement ride entails a very, very small risk. Ride experience, capacity and financial concerns do play a role in safety system design, let's not kid ourselves, and that's how it should be as long as safety remains paramount and is not compromised in any way. I could install over the shoulder harnesses on Diamondback, put a padded safety cage over that and just to be safe install safety nets below the entire course of the track just in case of an ejection. However, this is not necessary as riders and the park are more than willing to assume the tiny, tiny inherent risks of a world class roller coaster.

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