GAcoaster

Over on Twitter/X, Eddie Sotto who did a lot of the design work for the Power Plant has been posting fantastic concept art and info about it: His account is amazing with lot of great background info on the Power Plant and many other projects he worked on. He was a big part of the Euro Disney design team and has been posting tons of stuff about that park in celebration of it's 30th anniversary.

Seems to be a trend--

Yep-- apparently Photopass and food prices went up as well. They keep raising prices, then selling discounted tickets to try and get people to come to the parks.

I think we'll have a definitive answer on the swinging in a couple of weeks when B&M sets up at the IAAPA convention. I assume they'll have ride vehicles for the BGT and SWO coasters on display there.

Made to Thrill has teamed up with Six Flags for a new line of merchandise! His work is AMAZING, and I can't wait to see what he did for each park. I'm going to go broke... If you're not familiar, check out his website: https://madetothrill.com/ I have several of the prints, and a few pins and patches from MTT already, and the official line he did for Cedar Fair Parks is amazing. Lot's of retro/past attraction stuff and logos! This will be awesome for the 50th!

A few people from Great Adventure left the park to open and run this when it was built in the 80's.

Family only refers to the height requirement. The contingent of kids 42"+ and under 54" is pretty sizable.

There is a mention of the cars "Swinging"-- hopefully it's a new ride style rather than just referring to the banked track sections...

Busch Gardens announced their new coaster for 2024 today: This family coaster will have on-board audio and a 42" height requirement, and a top speed of 44MPH as it traverses 1,831 feet of track. Apparently SeaWorld and B&M made a deal for multiple new rides!

This look like it will be fun! B&M launched family sit down coaster with a small indoor section:

The Jamaica bobsled car is being auctioned for charity (Give Kids The World): https://www.ebay.com/itm/225787896477?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=Qpi2xxagTGu&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=ggSscQ_4TWy&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY It's not one of the originals from Great Adventure, but a great souvenir nonetheless!

That ride had the distinct issue of a "no single riders" policy due to the restraints. Also, retired rides aren't likely to come back-- they've already been "written off" by Six Flags due to cost to maintain. I'd rather see a Hully Gully or Trabant ride which is similar, but overall better, unfortunately I don't think they make them anymore. I always liked our old Schwabinchen/Sombrero ride.

Is that their version of the spider of doom?

A big part of that issue is inconsistency of park level and corporate level management. Each time new leadership comes in they change direction and priorities.

Oh yeah-- film would have sold well there too!

I think I remember there were two stands that were identical-- this one and one directly across from the Emporium (about where the statue is now) on the edge of a planter. The one near the Emporium probably sold more poster maps than any other store in the park since it was right at the front gate. If it wasn't exactly the same, it was really similar with 3 sides having counters and just enough room for one person inside.

After years of Lightning Rod having lots of downtime due to problems with the launch, the lift is being replaced with a fast lift hill and new trains for next year!

I saw this in a Cedar Point group just before writing up this spotlight: It's interesting to see the footers filled with plantings like that but without all the stuff that GA put around it. I wonder if those were designed to be water tanks like the Schwarzkopf coasters had too? That makes it more portable and adds a lot of weight to the base to keep it stable. In the catalog it says they are four forty foot containers-- basically just placed on a reinforced concrete pad.

I talked to my co-worker who is a coaster nerd and asked him about the Flying Turns since I don't know much about it. He said they reduced the train length to 3 cars long because it has never run as expected. Apparently to ride they have to weigh each rider then assign which car they can ride based on their weight. Because of this the ride seems to rarely open. The only modern bobsled ride in the US I've heard of is Kings Dominion's Mack Bobsled, now known as Reptillian. It seems to have fixed capacity with a full train, and the wet track situation (and noise issue) with a track made of metal tubes bound together (sort of woven). It's run for 35 years now, but despite being a favorite "family" coaster no others have been built in the US with only 6 built world wide. The Intamin version only had 5 built.

https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/capital-region/human-interest/2023/09/04/rollercoaster-loving-thrill-seekers-bid-farewell-to-great-escape-mainstay

I forgot, they went bankrupt, but they're not completely out of business. Their rides do seem to be falling out of favor aside from their Troika rides. At this point ours seems like the last Top Spin, all the Jumps (aside from Canada Wonderland's Super Jump) seem to have been retired, their Condors are almost all retired. The European parks and fairs seem to have a few more of their rides still operating, but here in the US the Topple Tower seems to have pretty much done them in.

As much as I love the Bobsled, it was problematic (and Knoebel's is as well). Between low capacity and the fact the track has to be bone dry to run it's not a particularly practical ride. Cedar Point solved one issue by enclosing it, but it still lacked capacity which is why they removed theirs.

It's a nice thought, but the manufacturer Huss is out of business and Six Flags is cutting expenses by eliminating older rides that parts are no longer made for.

It makes sense-- so much of Six Flags in that time frame was last minute changes and swaps.

Maybe the Safari will be a hybrid, with days the theme park is closed being drive through?