The Master

I don't like the sound of updated and newly designated parking areas. 

On 2/21/2024 at 3:54 PM, pashacar said:

 

What contractor? Looks from the booking experience like a homespun operation.

Maybe SF spun off a new separate company to operate the the glamping site? 

It crushed my thighs on the airtime hills. I think its worse for smaller riders where the restraints are further closed causing a greater pinching effect. 

Pretty overdue for better seats. 

8 hours ago, Great Adventurer said:

I was still terrified of roller coasters when Chiller was in operation, so I never got to ride it, but I do remember hearing that loud noise from the parking lot and wondering what it was from. As a kid, I thought it might have been a malfunction or something falling apart - perhaps that's what dissuaded me from trying the ride at the time!

 

I also vaguely recall those electrical/cackling sound effects (if I'm not mistaken, they were generated near the queue area of the ride), which can be heard in the last 30 seconds or so of this video:

 

 

Hard to believe Chiller has been gone for 17 years already.

I came upon this by accident, so there were at least two amusement parks along the Delaware river on the Jersey side, this and Burlington Island Park. It reminded me a lot of Dorney in the pictures too. Seems like parks like Riverview and Dorney were in similar niches but Dorney was able to evolve with the times while other small picnic parks faded away. 

Anyone remember the loud roar Chiller used to make when the train launched? 

Riverview Beach Park was a former amusement park on the shore of the Delaware River in Pennsville Township, NJ in Salam county. It lasted from the 1900s to 1967. NJ.com has a pretty good article about the park. https://www.nj.com/salem/2018/07/vintage_photos_of_one_of_njs_most_popular_amusemen.html

The posters should have stylized riders on the trains. They are neat but not $50 neat. 

I didn't know ahouf the defunct Blizzard Beach slide, at least it looked like it was cushioned. Those modern European slides look a lot safer than the old Lake Dolores versions. Much shorter length and curves to keep guest speed down, but those handrails could cause abrasion. 

Found a couple of more scary water rides.

First a video ad from 1985 for a slide called Raging Rapids at Funtown waterpark in Erie, PA. The slide  has bumbs to send inner tubes airborne! 

Second video is for the former Lake Dolores water park in SoCal that featured water slides you slid down while standing up on your feet, possibly outdoing Action Park.

Its nice they aren't using a projection face but the Tiana AA looks a little off model, like she is aged up into her 40's.  

I am not sure if I can call it angry, but walking away from a forum you been a member of for a long time is disenheartening. Two months ago I made the decision to leave a car fourm I have been a member of for 19 years. It was a pretty good place with lots of good info but in recent years that forum has declined. Most of the old guard has left, traffic and new members are drying up, fights ard increasing, and its been taken over by toxic opinion leaders who push weird idealoigies. The main issue is that most of the opinion leaders are race track guys who only want to talk about modifying cars into race track cars while suppressing any discussion of keeping cars street cars. 

Wow, that park must have been really crowded that day. 

I wonder if this will end up as GAdv's version of Disney's failed Starcrusier hotel? There are some bad similarities between the two. 

Resort is a stretch.

Hopefully they were being sarcastic. 

Leaving the tower would at least preserve the park's skyline. Still sad to lose such an iconic as well losing another non coaster ride. 

Hopefully it works out. 

Looks pretty cool, especially the classic monsters section. 

The line for GADV's skyride is often pretty long whenever its open, especially the south station by Skull Mt.

I have ridden both simulators, although when I rode SFOT's they had already changed their film to Starship America.  It is a shame that GADV gutted theirs. 

Looking over this again its funny to see the trains used such tight curves. 4 foot diameter is considered really tight curves by modern standards. These days LGB and other G scale manufacturers  offer straight track sections up to 5 feet long and curves up to 20 foot diameters. Many also sell flex track that can be bent to custom curves and wide switch track. I upgraded my own garden railway to 8 foot diameter curves a couple of years ago. Some of the big locomotives and cars they sell now need at least a 10 foot diameter curve. Shows how standards can rise over time.

One problem with Koala Canyon were the water canons. They often developed long lines as soms guests would hog them for hours. Sometimes fights started over who's turn was next. Once ond did get a turn the water play fights sometimes got really firece. Eventually their range was reduced either toned down by the park or just wear. Either way it also reduced the popularity of the cannons. 

I had a roller racer as a kid, I wanted one after riding the racers at the park. Sort of a kiddie test drive.