coasterdime Posted May 19, 2004 Share Posted May 19, 2004 I was talking to an enthusiast who swears he knows what PKI is up to for next year. I have several family members that work year-round at PKI, one who actually works with the construction of new attractions...Anyway, the family members AREN'T TALKING. They've always given me the heads up well in advance, but not this year. To get to my point, what do you guys think of getting another Vekoma coaster at the park? Face/Off is obviously excellent, I've given up on seeing a B&M for a while, and Intamin has gotten silly lately with restraint issues. I'm not trying to float a rumor here, I honestly have no clue what they're doing next year....and don't claim to. I just want to know how you feel about PKI considering Vekoma...if they are. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DegenRider Posted May 19, 2004 Share Posted May 19, 2004 I for one would LOVE to see a Vekoma SLC or a Dutchman Here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StXBomber Posted May 19, 2004 Share Posted May 19, 2004 Yeah! I have heard that those kinds of rides are smooth as glass! Better than B&M! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beastfreak Posted May 20, 2004 Share Posted May 20, 2004 Face/Off is the only Vekoma I've ridden that I would enjoy riding again. Even Runaway Reptar wasn't very smooth the times I've ridden. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0-120 Posted May 20, 2004 Share Posted May 20, 2004 I still say Intamin. Smoothness and great rides. Plus the harnesses you can actually fit comfortably in to! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teenageninja Posted May 20, 2004 Share Posted May 20, 2004 And fit comfortably out of obviously. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crosscountry4891 Posted May 20, 2004 Share Posted May 20, 2004 I think it would be cool if PKI got a Vekoma Tilt Coaster. This is what it looks like. It's like a normal coaster except there's a flat section at the top...and when you get there the whole piece of track at the top tilts until it's vertical and then it goes straight down and through the rest of the course. I think it would be awesome...and it would be the first in the US. Could this possibly be the Addams Family Coaster? I mean it could be Uncle Fester's invention like the survey said... Here's where you can see details of it. EDIT: Here's some more really good pics of it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SixFlagsMasta Posted May 20, 2004 Share Posted May 20, 2004 ok whoever said they wanted an SLC obviously hasn't ridden one. first of all PKI would build something that's cloned that much and second THEY ARE ROUGH AS HELL! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Metal Metor 200WP MAN Posted May 20, 2004 Share Posted May 20, 2004 Well, seeing that PKI is keeping the King Cobra trains, who thinks that they will use those again in another stand up coaster or are they just using FOF as a junkyard? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PKICoasterFreek Posted May 20, 2004 Share Posted May 20, 2004 I have ridden Deja Ve at SFGA, its a really fun ride, but not very reliable, which is a problem ina park tha is busy. I know Face/Off has some problems everynow and then, ever ride does. But DeJa Ve is horrible, my cousins live in Chicago and go pretty close to every weekend to SFGA with their friends and stuff and they have only been on it six times out of the last two years. Pretty bad to me..... I don't know whether it is maintance, the design or just pure bad luck but something is wrong nothing is being done about. I would like to see a Verkoma go in but i sure would hope it is a great and reliable design and well maintained. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erniebald57 Posted May 20, 2004 Share Posted May 20, 2004 I've ridden a few Vekomas, mediocre at best. The ones I haven't rode are mediocre according to some peoples opinion. Still others are not reliable...Deja Vu models at various Six Flags parks being the major culprit. There are 3 companies in the industry who are designing sure winners. GCI, B&M, and Intamin. GCI builds woodies (the last thing PKI needs), B&M is still good, but there are a lot of them around. They should go with Intamin. Forget about the restraint thing in Mass. The cause was determined to be operator error, although Mass govt felt that someone needed to be the scapegoat. The TBar is a great restraint... used on MF and TTD at Cedar Point. Intamin is the whip right now as far as design and engineering, and PKI should take advantage of that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterdime Posted May 20, 2004 Author Share Posted May 20, 2004 Although Mass had the most recent Intamin fatality, there have been more. Two people were thrown from Intamin water rides. One was in California, and one last month in Great Britain. Also, Superman at Darien Lake (NY) tossed a rider in its first season. A rider at PGA submarined from a restraint on their Drop Zone stunt tower, in 1999. As far as Intamin accomodating people with restraints....I personally don't think there is a more problematic company for restraint problems. At Cedar Point, they just instituted a new rule with their seatbelts. (MF especially) 20-60% of patrons now cannot ride. I have a 36" waist, and most likely I will be prohibited from riding. B&M has addressed this issue. Americans tend to be larger than their European counterparts. (not just fatter) B&M has introduced "beefier" seats, and even includes special seats for those with unusual body proportions. Intamin really doesn't....yet. I love the coasters that Intamin has introduced in the past few years, but they REALLY have to work on more accommodating, and safer, restraints. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterrz Posted May 20, 2004 Share Posted May 20, 2004 While on the subject of Intamin, they were in part respinsible for the death on Flight Commander at PKI in 1991. The result of the investigation was that they had improperly designed the restraint to allow a single rides to slip under the two person restraint. No, they are not using FoF as a junkyard. King Cobra was/is still for sale. I`m sure that they are keeping the cars in FoF because if they find a buyer for the ride, they want the trains to be protected from the elements. FoF offers a good place to store them as most of the gp won`t even notice they are there. I`ve tried looking for them when I was on FoF, but have never actually spotted them. As far as Vekoma, I don`t think PKI should add another one. I thouroughly enjoy Face Off which is very reliable and offers some of the most intense G-forces of any ride at PKI, with the exception of maybe the final flip on TR:TR. Reptar is a little bumpy. My experience on Serial Thriller and X-Flight wasn`t exactly smooth, although I did enjoy my rides on X-Flight. I would much rather have a smooth ride on an Intamin or B&M coaster than a Vekoma. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PkiJake13 Posted May 20, 2004 Share Posted May 20, 2004 The lady on Flight Commander was drunk, when she fell out of the ride. -Jake Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beastfreak Posted May 20, 2004 Share Posted May 20, 2004 Yet she still fell out cause her body went limp. Now you can't make that same defense if someone were to say... blackout, have a seizure or anything else that would cause them to loose control of their body and become limp. You have to think of anything that can go wrong and make a safety precaution so that it can not happen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterrz Posted May 20, 2004 Share Posted May 20, 2004 I know she was drunk, but like Beastfreak said, a restrain should have been properly designed to prevent her from sliding out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PKI Homey Posted May 20, 2004 Share Posted May 20, 2004 No Vekoma please. Although Face/Off and Rugrats are the only two I've been on, I've heard that the SLC's are very rough. Have you ever noticed that there are no Vekomas at Cedar Point? Not one. This says something about what CP thinks of Vekoma. I don't know...maybe they are inexpensive? Relatively speaking that is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PKI Punk Posted May 20, 2004 Share Posted May 20, 2004 I used to think "no Vekoma" but after recieving last months ACE newsletter, it seems that Vekoma really has some neat, new, innovative rides. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterdime Posted May 20, 2004 Author Share Posted May 20, 2004 On Flight Commander, I believe the intoxicated was helped from her capsule by the lack of a simple seat divider. An over the shoulder restraint is really pretty useless if the lower body is free to move pretty much anywhere. CoasterRZ was correct, the Intamin restraint was very much to blame for her demise. No matter how limp she was, the restraint system should have been designed better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teenageninja Posted May 21, 2004 Share Posted May 21, 2004 I would love to see an Intamin hyper at PKI for 2 reasons... 1) They are simply amazing rides 2) They are smooth as a baby's bottom But the last thing PKI needs is someone to fall out. I'm all for a Vekoma Tilt Coaster IF and only if it has no loops. PKI needs a non looping steel to round off their coaster collection. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fyrfyter Posted May 22, 2004 Share Posted May 22, 2004 To get to my point, what do you guys think of getting another Vekoma coaster at the park? Face/Off is obviously excellent, I've given up on seeing a B&M for a while, and Intamin has gotten silly lately with restraint issues. What makes Face/Off excellent? Isn't it a clone of ride that has been built in numerous parks? Excellence in my mind is not just how a ride fits, but also how truly original it is and one-of-a-kind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SixFlagsMasta Posted May 22, 2004 Share Posted May 22, 2004 /\ well there's only like 3 or 4 other clones of face/off itself. actually they all were cloned from Invertigo (thus being why the ride type is called Invertigo) at PGA. face/off was the second Invertigo ride built. there's TONS of "boomerang" coasters out there but thsoe are above the track which is totally different IMO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matth Posted May 22, 2004 Share Posted May 22, 2004 http://www.rcdb.com/installationdetail1060.htm is the original vekoma Invertigo... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beastdude Posted May 22, 2004 Share Posted May 22, 2004 Off topic but I rode a ride at Cedar Point named vertigo and I know what that means. What does Invertigo mean? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrandPoobah Posted May 23, 2004 Share Posted May 23, 2004 It's a combination of the words "inverted" and "vertigo". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ilovedeliriumdreamer Posted June 1, 2004 Share Posted June 1, 2004 vekoma went bankrupt they are no longer building www.vekoma.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beastfreak Posted June 1, 2004 Share Posted June 1, 2004 While they may have gone bankrupt, they are still building... under new ownership. They are basically no longer doing the off the shelf cookie cutter rides which they pre-manufactured and kept in storage, hence the roughness. 1)WDW is building the vekoma mine train "Expedition Everest" set to open in 2006? 2)Toverland in the Netherlands is building the new "Booster Bike" which is a new concept from Vekoma, set to open this year 3)Bobbejaanland in Belgum is opened a Vekoma Family coaster this year called "Okidoki" 4)Magic Springs in Arkansas is built a SLC this year, yeah a cookie cutter 5)Cypress Gardens in Florida is building a Family Suspended much like Runaway Reptar, as well as building a junior coaster by vekoma 6)The list goes on with already started projects for 2005 and 2006 in other locations. The company is not gone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derbeast Posted June 1, 2004 Share Posted June 1, 2004 Off topic but I rode a ride at Cedar Point named vertigo and I know what that means. What does Invertigo mean? There is no coaster at CP named Vertigo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterdime Posted June 1, 2004 Author Share Posted June 1, 2004 I think he's talking about the upcharge by Soak City, that fell over a couple of years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jesusfreak Posted June 10, 2004 Share Posted June 10, 2004 i know this late but woodstock's express is a vekoma so there is one vekoma coaster at Cedar Point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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