Author Topic: Amusement/Theme Park, County/State/Country Fair, and Overall Ride thread  (Read 17838 times)

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Offline ReaperKK

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I loved those style of rides, there was one in Busch Gardens Tampa called sand serpant.

Offline TheCountOfNYC

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I played hooky from work on Wednesday to attend season passholder previews of Jersey Devil Coaster. It’s a great ride and definitely helps to round out Six Flags Great Adventure’s coaster lineup. I still think El Toro and Nitro are the king and queen of the park, but Jersey Devil is definitely number three.
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Offline El Barto

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I played hooky from work on Wednesday to attend season passholder previews of Jersey Devil Coaster. It’s a great ride and definitely helps to round out Six Flags Great Adventure’s coaster lineup. I still think El Toro and Nitro are the king and queen of the park, but Jersey Devil is definitely number three.
I rode one of RMC's smaller versions (Golden Lasso at SFFT) and absolutely hated it. I suspect this one is better simply for having more space to spread things out, but honestly it was the restraints that ruined it for me. Fucking barbaric. You had zero movement and it was way too tight over the chest. I was actually sore for the next couple of days because of that thing. Since JD'strack is actually long enough to actually appreciate the various elements I'm sure it'll be an improvement, though. GL all happened so fast you never had any idea what was going on, and combined with being bolted into the seat I couldn't wait to get off of that damn thing and swore to never ride one like it again.
« Last Edit: June 11, 2021, 03:28:31 PM by El Barto »
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Offline Phoenix87x

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Next time I go to great adventure I will check out jersey devil, but I will say that El Toro is my favorite roller coaster that I've ever gotten on. And that is coming from someone who typically isn't really into wooden coasters.

Offline Anguyen92

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Man, I wanted to travel out to the San Diego County Fair, last year.  Mainly, because one of the bands I've followed for a long time, Daughtry, was going to be playing in it and for County Fairs, if you purchase a ticket for a show there, you get a ticket for the fair itself.  Of course, the pandemic happened and so I didn't get that opportunity to go.  I don't mind going to county fairs, especially if there is a concert there.  I went to two concerts at the OC County Fair in 2019 (Lindsey Stirling and Bush/Live) and gorged on the fair food.  My first ever concert was Shinedown in the LA County Fair in 2013 that I was able to get a free ticket to the fair (and a free ticket to the show) due to my community college having free tickets for that day.

Hopefully, in 2022, I get a chance to go to more concerts in County Fairs and get a better chance to do more of the usual fair stuff than I did in 2019.

Offline TheCountOfNYC

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I played hooky from work on Wednesday to attend season passholder previews of Jersey Devil Coaster. It’s a great ride and definitely helps to round out Six Flags Great Adventure’s coaster lineup. I still think El Toro and Nitro are the king and queen of the park, but Jersey Devil is definitely number three.

I rode one of RMC's smaller versions (Golden Lasso at SFFT) and absolutely hated it. I suspect this one is better simply for having more space to spread things out, but honestly it was the restraints that ruined it for me. Fucking barbaric. You had zero movement and it was way too tight over the chest. I was actually sore for the next couple of days because of that thing. Since JD'strack is actually long enough to actually appreciate the various elements I'm sure it'll be an improvement, though. GL all happened so fast you never had any idea what was going on, and combined with being bolted into the seat I couldn't wait to get off of that damn thing and swore to never ride one like it again.

I’ve never been to Fiesta Texas (the furthest west I’ve been is Ohio) but I can confirm that based on what I’ve heard about Wonder Woman: Golden Lasso along with my experience on Jersey Devil, JD’s elements definitely have more room to breathe. It’s honestly the perfect coaster, as it’s intense enough to keep the most hardcore thrill seekers interested while not being so intense that it scares off the majority of riders who are just looking to have fun. The restraints are probably the worst part of the ride, but honestly they aren’t too bad and with the ride’s pacing being a bit less crazy than the other RMC Raptors, the restraints don’t take away from the experience. As I said, I still consider Nitro and El Toro to be the best two coasters in the park, but Jersey Devil is definitely number three, and with Kingda Ka there as the ultimate thrill ride, Great Adventure now has the best top four in the entire Six Flags chain, and I only rank Cedar Point’s top four of Millennium Force, Maverick, Top Thrill Dragster, and Steel Vengeance (which I have not had the privilege of riding yet) ahead of it. With this new addition, Great Adventure just pulled ahead of Great America for the number two spot in the Six Flags hierarchy, although Magic Mountain is still clearly the flagship park.
People figured out that the white thing that comes out of cows' titties could be drunk, and the relation between sweet desires and women's bellies growing up for 9 months. It can't be THAT hard to figure out how a trumpet works.”

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Offline El Barto

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Looks like SFMM is getting a clone of the Jersey Devil, and they're not removing anything to add it. At this point the roster of coasters they have is downright insane.

Apocalypse--Woody
Batman--Standard B&M inverted
Full Throttle--Launches in both directions through big-ass loop
Goliath--Hyper coaster
Ninja--suspended coaster
Revolution--historic looper
Riddler's Revenge--standing coaster
Scream--B&M Floorless
Tatsu--flying coaster
Twisted Collosus--RMC conversion
Viper--Arrow Hyperlooper
West Coast Racers
X2--4d
Unnamed RMC Raptor
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Offline pg1067

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I loved the original Colossus as a kid, and it still held up as of the last time I went there about 10 years ago.  I watched the video for Twisted, and it looks pretty cool.

Best thing about Magic Mountain is that they built it in an area where they had TONS of room to expand.
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Offline El Barto

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I loved the original Colossus as a kid, and it still held up as of the last time I went there about 10 years ago.  I watched the video for Twisted, and it looks pretty cool.

Best thing about Magic Mountain is that they built it in an area where they had TONS of room to expand.
They've pretty much used it up at this point. Looking at the new Raptor they're building, they've actually got 2 coasters and a water ride overlapping in that area now. That's one of the things I've always liked about SFMM. The way the rides will go over, under, around, or through each other.

I didn't much care for Colossus, but that was compared with modern coasters. Way back when I would have loved it. That said, I've been pretty impressed with the RMC conversions, and I'm looking forward to riding the new version.
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Offline pg1067

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I loved the original Colossus as a kid, and it still held up as of the last time I went there about 10 years ago.  I watched the video for Twisted, and it looks pretty cool.

Best thing about Magic Mountain is that they built it in an area where they had TONS of room to expand.
They've pretty much used it up at this point. Looking at the new Raptor they're building, they've actually got 2 coasters and a water ride overlapping in that area now. That's one of the things I've always liked about SFMM. The way the rides will go over, under, around, or through each other.

I didn't much care for Colossus, but that was compared with modern coasters. Way back when I would have loved it. That said, I've been pretty impressed with the RMC conversions, and I'm looking forward to riding the new version.

I don't know who owns the land, but there is enough undeveloped land to the south to build another park of the same size.

I attended a Catholic elementary school, and a good chunk of the boys in my grade served as altar boys.  At the end of every school year (I guess 5th through 8th grade), we got to go to Magic Mountain on a school day in late May or early June.  It was one of the highlights of the year because they basically turned us loose unsupervised, and Magic Mountain was the first of the southern California parks to have all-inclusive passes.  We'd get on the bus at the end of the day and compare how many times we rode each ride.  It was 3-5 times for Revolution and Colossus because we could all but ride and get off and run around and get in "line" again.  Good times.
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Offline El Barto

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Re: Amusement/Theme Park, County/State/Country Fair, and Overall Ride thread
« Reply #115 on: August 25, 2021, 10:31:19 AM »
Man, it's been a bad year for coasters in the Midwest. First El Toro derails and rips up most of the track, and now TFD nearly kills a woman waiting in line. Apparently Nitro had to shut down, as well, due to restraint failure. Suddenly I'm kind of glad I didn't get to make that trip this year.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/woman-injured-by-falling-ohio-rollercoaster-piece-fighting-for-her-life
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Offline Phoenix87x

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Re: Amusement/Theme Park, County/State/Country Fair, and Overall Ride thread
« Reply #116 on: August 26, 2021, 08:34:50 AM »
El toro is my favorite coaster. That sucks

Offline El Barto

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Re: Amusement/Theme Park, County/State/Country Fair, and Overall Ride thread
« Reply #117 on: October 08, 2021, 08:20:41 PM »
I'd suggest that anybody who lives within a reasonable distance, and has an interest in these things check out SFGAd's Wed and Thur night Power Hours. (other parks may be doing it too, I don't know)  It's already a discounted ticket, and there was nobody manning the booths, so parking was free. There were very few people there, and all of the coasters were running the max number of trains. Every ride out there was a walk-on, and if there's nobody in the stall for your car when you return to the station you just sit put and ride it again. You can honestly ride every coaster out there as many times as you want. The only waiting you'll do is after the ride to get back into the station because they're running 3+ trains. SFGAd is not my favorite park, in fact a couple of times I got hopping mad enough at the place to burn it down, but it really was a helluva way to enjoy the park.


I’ve never been to Fiesta Texas (the furthest west I’ve been is Ohio) but I can confirm that based on what I’ve heard about Wonder Woman: Golden Lasso along with my experience on Jersey Devil, JD’s elements definitely have more room to breathe. It’s honestly the perfect coaster, as it’s intense enough to keep the most hardcore thrill seekers interested while not being so intense that it scares off the majority of riders who are just looking to have fun. The restraints are probably the worst part of the ride, but honestly they aren’t too bad and with the ride’s pacing being a bit less crazy than the other RMC Raptors, the restraints don’t take away from the experience. As I said, I still consider Nitro and El Toro to be the best two coasters in the park, but Jersey Devil is definitely number three, and with Kingda Ka there as the ultimate thrill ride, Great Adventure now has the best top four in the entire Six Flags chain, and I only rank Cedar Point’s top four of Millennium Force, Maverick, Top Thrill Dragster, and Steel Vengeance (which I have not had the privilege of riding yet) ahead of it. With this new addition, Great Adventure just pulled ahead of Great America for the number two spot in the Six Flags hierarchy, although Magic Mountain is still clearly the flagship park.
Jersey Devil is much better than the smaller raptors. No comparison. It's still a little rough for my taste, though. The restraints still suck, but not as bad as the ones on WWGL. If they'd just leave them fabric, like a seatbelt, it wouldn't be so bad, but the plastic they put over the shoulder straps is terrible. As for the ride, that breathing room makes all the difference. WWGL is like all of JD packed into a quarter of the space. It's a nightmare.

I thought Nitro was alright, but nothing spectacular. In retrospect I should have ridden it again. Bizzaro is my favorite ride out there, but I'm a sucker for a B&M floorless. My favorite style. I think it's a clone of Scream at SFMM, but with theming rather than just a parking lot coaster. El Toro is still closed. That derailing must have really torn it up something awful. Kingda Ka is certainly an experience. Not much of a coaster, but certainly exhilarating. I think the problem is that you go so fast you can't make out what's going on.

Weather permitting, and it's looking favorable, Canadia's Wonderland is up next.
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Offline TheCountOfNYC

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Re: Amusement/Theme Park, County/State/Country Fair, and Overall Ride thread
« Reply #118 on: October 09, 2021, 09:10:28 AM »
Was at Fright Fest last night, and I got the best ride on Nitro I’ve ever experienced. Front row, outer left seat, dead of night, with a slightly loose lap bar. There was only one other person in the row with me as well, so the whole experience felt so open and free. That ride reminded me of my first time at the park 18 years ago, where my first night ride on Nitro made me the coaster enthusiast I am today. I love this roller coaster so much, and while there may be better rides out there (hell El Toro is in the same park), Nitro is so important and special to me that it will always be my personal number one.
People figured out that the white thing that comes out of cows' titties could be drunk, and the relation between sweet desires and women's bellies growing up for 9 months. It can't be THAT hard to figure out how a trumpet works.”

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Offline Phoenix87x

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Re: Amusement/Theme Park, County/State/Country Fair, and Overall Ride thread
« Reply #119 on: October 09, 2021, 04:37:47 PM »
My favorites there are:

1. El Toro
2. Batman the ride
3. Kingda Ka
4. bizarro

And I truly loved the Great American Scream machine, but its long since gone
« Last Edit: October 09, 2021, 04:47:24 PM by Phoenix87x »

Offline El Barto

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Re: Amusement/Theme Park, County/State/Country Fair, and Overall Ride thread
« Reply #120 on: October 09, 2021, 09:35:56 PM »
It's a shame I didn't get to ride El Toro. People think quite highly of it. The things torn up. What are you gonna do?

TCoNYC: One of the things that pissed me off about SFGAd was forcing you to put your stuff in lockers on half the rides. Have they always done that? I've been to 4 Six Flags parks this year, and they're the only ones that do that. Obviously they're trying to sell single use lockers, which is annoying AF. I'm in cargo shorts, with buttons and velcro on the front pockets, and I'm far more concerned about losing my phone than they are. My stuff isn't going anywhere. "Don't care, give us a dollar."

Was it crowded on a Fri night? Pert near deserted on Thur night.
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Offline Phoenix87x

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Re: Amusement/Theme Park, County/State/Country Fair, and Overall Ride thread
« Reply #121 on: October 10, 2021, 05:59:00 AM »
The locker thing is total BS and they just started doing that a few years ago.

Offline Kotowboy

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Re: Amusement/Theme Park, County/State/Country Fair, and Overall Ride thread
« Reply #122 on: October 10, 2021, 06:02:58 AM »
I love theme parks and I almost never go to any.

Theres one not far form here we used to go to when I was a teen. It had some cool rides including the UK or even Europe's biggest wooden coaster.

It was great. Not too expensive to get in but you had to bring your own food / water if you didnt want to buy fast food / sodas all day.

When I was on my music degree - one day a buddy of mine asked if I wanted to go to a theme park with him as nobody else wanted to go.

He had a members pass to get in when it wasn't open to the public. We had to queue for a while to get in but after that we were off to the races.

I think we went on every ride like three or four times and by the end of the day I was so exhausted I barely managed to get home ( public transport )

and I went straight to bed and didn't wake up for almost 18 hours!!!  :eek

Fun though. The best ride we went on all day was definitely the SAW coaster. It's a vertical ascent and more-than-vertical drop. Such an epic ride.


I've never been worried about a ride breaking as I watched a video once that was like - some of them are filled with gas inside the tubing and like a valve with a needle on it

so if there's any sort of crack anywhere - the needle will obviously drop and you can see that instantly. Stuff like that.


The rides I never go on are the ones that come to your town every year and are set up and gone in a day. When I was in school my friend mentioned

he didn't trust any ride "you can put up and take down in a day" and I always remembered that  ;D

Offline El Barto

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Re: Amusement/Theme Park, County/State/Country Fair, and Overall Ride thread
« Reply #123 on: August 27, 2022, 11:10:26 AM »
So it turns out that the problem with Six Flags is that it's too damn cheap.  :lol

Don't know if anybody's read anything about this, I just heard about it myself, but there's a fascinating transition going on at SIX. They installed a new CEO at the beginning of 2022, and he's absolutely running amok. The game plan at SIX is that it's better to be Target than Walmart. In his words, Six Flags has become cheap daycare for obnoxious teens. He wants to price them out. If anybody here buys season passes, they noticed that this year the price skyrocketed. Gate prices, parking, and food have all increased similarly. At SFMM if you pay at the gate rather than online you'll shell out $120 for an adult ticket. It's $70+tax online. Parking's up to $40. Season passes work for me because I travel enough to hit multiple parks. I'll be at SFMM next month, in fact. This year they changed the tier structure so you have to buy a surprisingly expensive pass to visit more than just your home park. I've visited and parked at two parks so far, and I'm not sure my pass has actually paid for itself yet (it certainly will, though).

I was obviously being a smartass with the beginning of this post, but in fairness this might actually work as a strategy. Honestly, huge crowds are one of the biggest problems with visiting a Six Flags. I've make a point to go on weekdays so it's not terrible, but it can still be damned crowded in the evenings. What I've learned is that it's a helluva lot more fun when you don't have to wait in long lines. And in fairness, there is a good amount of riffraff (myself included). His idea is to decrease attendance and increase per capita spending. If done correctly it could pan out. Or, it might be a disaster. I'm not an economist, so who the hell knows. One thing I can say is that I shop at Target a whole lot more than Walmart for that very reason. 

Problem: I said that it might work as a strategy, but it's an absolute disaster the way it's being implemented. By all accounts, and it certainly looks this way to me, Selim is an absolute loon. All of this came to light in the briefing for their quarterly earnings report. When the sector is absolutely booming SIX tanked something awful. People are itching to get out and do things right now, and attendance at SIX was down 22%. This is actually what he wanted, but spending was way down, too. That could just be growing pains, so we'll see. What is a legit problem is his operation of the company. They've sacked 25% of their fulltime employees. Many of them long-timers who helped build the thing, who were fired for not going along with Selim's approach, or resigned in disgust. This includes 5 park presidents.1 By all accounts they've lost all of their in-house talent. Moreover, his future spending will not be on new rides--the very thing that attracts people to SF. Rides are expensive. Better and more pricier food is not. Proprietary payment apps to better take customers money aren't. Landscaping and upkeep are expensive, and don't matter much, so that'll be ignored.2 For his strategy to work they need to have better offerings to make the higher prices work, and he doesn't seem to understand what that actually entails at a theme park. The stockholders seem to be behind Selim, but by all accounts he might very well sink SIX (and they do have a history of bankruptcies already).


1I actually met the president of Six Flags America. Super-nice guy. I walked up to the first gold badge I saw and his said Park President. When I asked if he'd indulge a petty complaint he said "yes, please, I'd love to." My kind of manager.  :tup  He's "retiring" in 3 days. 

2At SFA, for the first time ever I looked at a coaster and said "no way I'm getting on that thing," and it was entirely because it looked so dilapidated. It was an old, historic coaster, and looked like it hadn't seen a coat of paint in 20 years. I assumed it was SBNO when I got there, and was amazed when I saw trains running.
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Offline Phoenix87x

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Re: Amusement/Theme Park, County/State/Country Fair, and Overall Ride thread
« Reply #124 on: August 27, 2022, 11:54:55 AM »
I would pay a little more if it meant less lines.

Like you Barto, I go on the weekdays. Its such a huge difference.

Offline Cool Chris

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Re: Amusement/Theme Park, County/State/Country Fair, and Overall Ride thread
« Reply #125 on: August 27, 2022, 09:50:55 PM »
What was your "petty complaint?"

Theme parks aren't really a thing around here, and we don't travel to places where they are, so this is out of my wheelhouse. But I found the economic analysis (decrease attendance and increase per capita spending) interesting. My wife goes to Target like it is a bodily function, but I shop at both Target and WalMart occasionally for specific purposes, so I recognize the differences. But I don't understand how it translates to how he views theme parks.

I am also pondering the comment about keeping out the teens. Depending on how riff-raffy they are, I guess, wouldn't you want kids spending their parents' money at your park rather than the mall, movie theater, or wherever else kids go these days?
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Offline El Barto

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Re: Amusement/Theme Park, County/State/Country Fair, and Overall Ride thread
« Reply #126 on: August 27, 2022, 11:40:12 PM »
What was your "petty complaint?"
:lol  Basically they overcharged me for fries and a soda. It only amounted to about $4, but it was so outlandish I wanted somebody competent to explain it to me, and the gal at the counter wasn't qualified. Gold tag means supervisor so when I saw his I went up to him. Like I said he was eager to sort things out, and when I mentioned that I'd be at Great Adventure in a few days he immediately offered up a free meal on them.  :lol  Funny thing is that he found it as outlandish as I did and wanted to figure out if it was a human or a technical problem. I told him it was almost certainly personnel and he pretty much said "yeah, but our software isn't very good either."  :rollin

Quote
Theme parks aren't really a thing around here, and we don't travel to places where they are, so this is out of my wheelhouse. But I found the economic analysis (decrease attendance and increase per capita spending) interesting. My wife goes to Target like it is a bodily function, but I shop at both Target and WalMart occasionally for specific purposes, so I recognize the differences. But I don't understand how it translates to how he views theme parks.

I am also pondering the comment about keeping out the teens. Depending on how riff-raffy they are, I guess, wouldn't you want kids spending their parents' money at your park rather than the mall, movie theater, or wherever else kids go these days?
I found the economics of it fascinating, as well. That's why I brought it up here. I have no idea how it'll work out. What I can tell you is that I'm the same way. I was at Walmart a few hours ago because it had the exact 4 things I was looking for, and I was going to be right in the neighborhood of a nice one. I'll shop at either.  It's just that all things being equal, I'd rather shop at Target. I'd rather shop at a nicer Walmart than a low rent one. Don't know how it is in WA, but I suspect you feel similarly. He wants to attract the Target customers and jettison the bottom rung of the Walmart customers. And if we're being honest, demographics almost certainly does come into play here.

As to the second point, I think you'd rather having the undesirables blowing their money at a movie theater if their presence is detrimental to the product. Let them make the AMC look awful, while at the same time making your own product more desirable to the uppity folk.
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Offline Cool Chris

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Re: Amusement/Theme Park, County/State/Country Fair, and Overall Ride thread
« Reply #127 on: August 28, 2022, 10:27:06 AM »
All agreed on the second part, I just don't know how "undesirable" someone has to be to decide you're better off not taking their money because it is keeping "uppity" money away. But I am in the county/state fair mindset, not the theme park one, which is a different audience.

And to segue... I went to a local county fair recently. Been going to them my whole life; one of the biggest state fairs in the country (at least it was when I was a kid) is about 30 minutes from where I grew up, and that was a staple of my childhood. For most of my life, the fairs had tickets for rides and games. These things:



Easy to keep track of, easy to pay with, and you knew exactly how many you had left. Now you have to buy a card, which is scanned by the ride/game staff. It fits in to your pocket nicely, but how I miss those little tickets. Scanning those cards seem to take longer than handing the carny a few tickets because the damn things are so flukey, and you have to remember (or write down) how many tickets you have left after each transaction.
"Nostalgia is just the ability to forget the things that sucked" - Nelson DeMille, 'Up Country'

Offline El Barto

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Re: Amusement/Theme Park, County/State/Country Fair, and Overall Ride thread
« Reply #128 on: August 29, 2022, 01:02:52 PM »
Also, it seems like we've probably seen the end of El Toro as it has been. It was shut down easily a year after the derailment, and this most recent "pothole" incident will have it down another 6 months. Stands to reason that if they do decide to keep it operating it'll probably get a significant rebuild, possibly along the lines of the RMC treatment. Certainly does seem like it's not tenable in its current form. Glad I got to ride it when I did last year. Good ride.

Also, it doesn't bode real well that this was a known problem with the ride for months and they let it get so bad that it caused injuries. They've had to shut it down a few times this year to try and get it resolved and it keeps reappearing.
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Offline Stadler

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Re: Amusement/Theme Park, County/State/Country Fair, and Overall Ride thread
« Reply #129 on: August 29, 2022, 03:00:55 PM »
What was your "petty complaint?"
:lol  Basically they overcharged me for fries and a soda. It only amounted to about $4, but it was so outlandish I wanted somebody competent to explain it to me, and the gal at the counter wasn't qualified. Gold tag means supervisor so when I saw his I went up to him. Like I said he was eager to sort things out, and when I mentioned that I'd be at Great Adventure in a few days he immediately offered up a free meal on them.  :lol  Funny thing is that he found it as outlandish as I did and wanted to figure out if it was a human or a technical problem. I told him it was almost certainly personnel and he pretty much said "yeah, but our software isn't very good either."  :rollin

Quote
Theme parks aren't really a thing around here, and we don't travel to places where they are, so this is out of my wheelhouse. But I found the economic analysis (decrease attendance and increase per capita spending) interesting. My wife goes to Target like it is a bodily function, but I shop at both Target and WalMart occasionally for specific purposes, so I recognize the differences. But I don't understand how it translates to how he views theme parks.

I am also pondering the comment about keeping out the teens. Depending on how riff-raffy they are, I guess, wouldn't you want kids spending their parents' money at your park rather than the mall, movie theater, or wherever else kids go these days?
I found the economics of it fascinating, as well. That's why I brought it up here. I have no idea how it'll work out. What I can tell you is that I'm the same way. I was at Walmart a few hours ago because it had the exact 4 things I was looking for, and I was going to be right in the neighborhood of a nice one. I'll shop at either.  It's just that all things being equal, I'd rather shop at Target. I'd rather shop at a nicer Walmart than a low rent one. Don't know how it is in WA, but I suspect you feel similarly. He wants to attract the Target customers and jettison the bottom rung of the Walmart customers. And if we're being honest, demographics almost certainly does come into play here.

As to the second point, I think you'd rather having the undesirables blowing their money at a movie theater if their presence is detrimental to the product. Let them make the AMC look awful, while at the same time making your own product more desirable to the uppity folk.

The problem as I see it, though, is that the details matter to a Target buyer in a way that they don't at Walmart.  Not everything, but I imagine that some of the tasks done by that 25% that won't get done MIGHT matter.  I don't care if the flowers are pretty, but I don't want to sit on gum and soda when I take a break from my hard core riding.  :) :)    (Not kidding about the seats, but I'm not a hardcore rider either).

Offline Phoenix87x

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Re: Amusement/Theme Park, County/State/Country Fair, and Overall Ride thread
« Reply #130 on: September 02, 2022, 06:12:53 AM »
My favorite roller coaster again is having issues   :-[

https://www.themeparktourist.com/news/20220902/32935/further-details-revealed-about-el-toro-malfunction-six-flags-great-adventure

almost did a trip there around that day too. yikes

Offline ReaperKK

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Re: Amusement/Theme Park, County/State/Country Fair, and Overall Ride thread
« Reply #131 on: September 02, 2022, 07:08:19 AM »
Not sure if anyone here watches defunctland but a while back I saw a great video talking about the history of the fastpass at Disney. https://youtu.be/9yjZpBq1XBE

Offline El Barto

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Re: Amusement/Theme Park, County/State/Country Fair, and Overall Ride thread
« Reply #132 on: September 02, 2022, 08:15:45 AM »
My favorite roller coaster again is having issues   :-[

https://www.themeparktourist.com/news/20220902/32935/further-details-revealed-about-el-toro-malfunction-six-flags-great-adventure

almost did a trip there around that day too. yikes
The problem with SIX's statement is that there have been posts and tweets about the problem for months. It's also bee shut down for that pothole before, IIRC. However, it's not that maintenance has been ignoring it. Maintenance has dealt with it on several occasions, but did remedial repair work rather than addressing the fundamental problem. As I understand it this was an issue with the subframe. If this is the case an actual repair would be quite a lot harder, and there's a strong likelihood that other supports might also be compromised.

This is just scuttlebutt based on reports from normal people, but it does seem to be panning out.
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Offline Podaar

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Re: Amusement/Theme Park, County/State/Country Fair, and Overall Ride thread
« Reply #133 on: September 02, 2022, 10:20:59 AM »
Not sure if anyone here watches defunctland but a while back I saw a great video talking about the history of the fastpass at Disney. https://youtu.be/9yjZpBq1XBE

Watched the whole thing and enjoyed it.

I've experienced every one of the systems he describes from purchasing lettered tickets individually at Disneyland, all the way through to Genie+ earlier this year at Disney World. By far, my favorite was the original FastPass system--easy to understand for every guest and completely fair, IMO. Genie+ isn't as bad as it's critics make out, but it certainly gives preference to guests with higher disposable income. It had the added benefit of allowing us to experience the new (to us) attractions in one day and not having to spend multiple days at DW...which meant more time riding this.

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Offline Phoenix87x

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Re: Amusement/Theme Park, County/State/Country Fair, and Overall Ride thread
« Reply #134 on: September 03, 2022, 04:45:07 AM »
I love Defunctland. The topics are so interesting.

Offline ReaperKK

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Re: Amusement/Theme Park, County/State/Country Fair, and Overall Ride thread
« Reply #135 on: September 05, 2022, 09:12:52 AM »
I love Defunctland. The topics are so interesting.

Yea I agree, that and Bright Sun Films are some of my favorite youtube channels.


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Re: Amusement/Theme Park, County/State/Country Fair, and Overall Ride thread
« Reply #137 on: September 07, 2022, 05:30:02 AM »
Damn that sucks. My brother and I are planning a trip to Cedar Point and Top Thrill was one of the rides we were looking forward to.

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Re: Amusement/Theme Park, County/State/Country Fair, and Overall Ride thread
« Reply #138 on: September 07, 2022, 06:29:15 AM »
There wasn't another mishap. It was the same mishap from two years ago. Cedar Point is finally just hinting at their plans for it. Most likely (or at least hopefully) they'll convert the hydraulic launch to an LSM launch and reopen it for the 20th anniversary season. Fingers crossed.

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Re: Amusement/Theme Park, County/State/Country Fair, and Overall Ride thread
« Reply #139 on: September 07, 2022, 08:29:10 AM »
There wasn't another mishap. It was the same mishap from two years ago. Cedar Point is finally just hinting at their plans for it. Most likely (or at least hopefully) they'll convert the hydraulic launch to an LSM launch and reopen it for the 20th anniversary season. Fingers crossed.
Doesn't sound like the type of launch is the problem, but rather major stress from years of super-aggressive launches. It'll need more than just a new launch system. Curious to see what they'll do with it.
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