pashacar

One of the rides that I feel most strongly about on there is Pirate's Flight. I think it's exactly the sort of ride that the park needs a bunch more of to succeed in their current family-friendly strategy.

I know that this isn't entirely related, but the Hurricane Harbor theme elements desperately need refurbishment too. Everything from the tiny signs through the lazy river to the wave pool facade (and especially the large theme elements like the Bada Bing Sundial and Music Machine) is faded or otherwise deteriorating.

Splash Water Oasis? I'm also thinking of an area in the Safari, but I assume these are theme park pictures?

Are you sure it's March and not May?

Is it the Temple of the Tiger viewing area?

HBO Backlot Commissary?

Rolling Thunder's Sign?

It's gotta be. Those are the supports for the track between the station and the lift hill, it seems.

Actually the current internet cafe is still there (as part of the relaxation station), but probably won't be next season.

Hahaha, you've got to love the idiots that come to this park. It must feel awful for management to work so hard and just have all the hoodlums run around and ruin the park experience for everyone who actually cares.

They were blocked off? The whole fun of the Epcot ones is that you can walk right underneath the stream of water.

What effects were supposed to be there? I know the "Strobes In Use" sign was there from the beginning, but other than that I thought it was just supposed to be dark. And personally, I think the ridiculous pumpkins and such that they have in there kind of cheapen the ride's theme. As does the fact that you could see the entire track most of the time this season. . . .

Gotham City Crime Wave would be a great new theme for a ride like this, as at SFOG and SFNE:

http://database.thrillnetwork.com/dbgaller...me_wave3572.htm

Wild Thing at Valleyfair. It looks like great fun but the trains are horrible; it's like riding a coaster stuck sitting on the floor of a bumpy SUV. And the track is so long and boring. Honestly, boring. The helix out by the parking lot is pointless, bankless, and just totally devoid of fun. Plus the hills are not curved, so you lock into a set angle when going up or down every hill (this phenomenon can be felt on Magnum and Steel Force, but to a considerably lesser degree) and stay there the whole time, which not only makes the ride less exciting and less fluid, but more painful as well, as the transitions into and out of these hills are brutal. Overall a forceless, drawn out, uncomfortable and boring ride. I honestly couldn't believe how bad it was.

I'm sure nobody who isn't a total nerd who had the game pre-ordered noticed, BUT, in typical Six Flags fashion, that little press release that the DS version has shipped neglects the small fact that the other two editions were supposed to come out last week too. Instead, they're now quietly pushed back to December, meaning that this game is likely to be even more rushed and of poor quality than I anticipated. Yay Six Flags!!

Do we really think that's because of the revamp news? I can't imagine anybody really knows about it beyond us.

My question is, what happened after a decade of running the thing without individually checking that made them start?

Shifting the topic a little, what happened to the park's iwerks theater in the past few years to make it a capacity nightmare? They used to efficiently run the preshow (with a video that was actually relevant to the ride film) and get people in there every 7 minutes or so, assigning rows and all. Ever since Spongebob, they're either repeating some annoying and horrible generic simulator preshow endlessly or playing something that isn't even relevant to what you're about to see in the main theater. Worst of all, they now go around (slowly, no less) and check each seatbelt individually, something that drastically slows down loading time and was never necessary until just a few years ago. Did something happen to cause that change, or is the park just getting lazy as they let the dispatch cycles of this ride increase to 15 minutes, or even beyond that? A line from the start of the hangar building used to be well under an hour, but these days it's almost unbearable to wait for the ride.

And the only one in North America that runs clockwise, no less.

^ That TLC package sounds great. Removing flat rides aside, I don't know how they they can keep a straight face about being a family park when the Carousel is in the condition that it's in.

How were Sunday's crowds? They look much more manageable from the new pictures, including an empty TDK queue (were lines really that short, or was it closed or something?). I'm thinking of going next Sunday or Monday but if Sunday crowds are considerably lighter than Saturday ones, I'll opt to go then rather than miss out on all of the Fright Fest activities that aren't operating on Columbus Day.