The Interpreter

I've been to a few parks that the map not only didn't make sense, it was just plain wrong! Rides not where the map said they were, paths that were blocked in reality but showed all clear on the map. Six Flags America a few years back comes to mind. I actually had to get security to help me find the exit! I was never so glad to leave a park. Bad maps make for an overall bad experience. Like outrageous parking fees, they can start guests off with a bad impression before anything else even can happen, good or bad. . .

Yes, Carowinds uses finger scans now...they told buyers of their season passes that all Paramount Parks were going to be doing this for 2006. Interesting that apparently this may be another area where investment was deferred (trying to put this nicely) until after the expected change of ownership. . . YET, if PKI is using the finger scanners for twickets, then they must have bought at least SOME for PKI. I wonder what's going on at Dominion and Great America with this? I guess we will know soon. . . Anyone have an 06 PGA or PKD pass? Does it have a photo?

from: http://money.cnn.com/2006/02/17/news/companies/cbs/ Under the "Old" media out of favor section of the article.... Shopping, by the way, means taking bids from suitors, then deciding on the best (normally, but not always the highest) one...

Actually, season pass holders are a large source of revenue, but the average season pass holder doesn't spend anything close to what the average day ticket user does... And even season pass holders can need directions. That pass holder you speak of could be from another Paramount Park, you know...

You people need to remember WHO pays the bills. The average visitor isn't in the park every day for hours on end. That being said, the question that cracks me up the most at Paramount's Kings Island: "Where's Magnum?" And at Cedar Point: "Can you tell me where The Beast is, please?" Honest to goodness, I've been asked for directions to The Beast at Six Flags Over Georgia. More than once. For whatever reason, people often seem to think I am a park employee. Maybe cause I wear long pants and polo shirts to parks, sometimes with dress shoes! Hey, it's what I am comfortable with...Still, you'd think people would know a bright green polo shirt with khaki pants is NOT a Six Flags Over Georgia uniform!

Oooh, that's cold!

Nope, as I said before, it was touted as the only wooden looping coaster on the planet. (Actually the press release headline used: "tallest, fastest and only looping wooden roller coaster in the world,"...the planet language was used more extensively later on, and is in the very first paragraph: "...contains the only Earth-flipping wooden roller coaster loop on the planet." They never said anything about there having been previous wooden loopers. Why would they? First of all, the first ones had not been comfortable or all that successful (and in fact had had some pretty serious injuries). Second, virtually no one was alive who had ridden them or remembered them. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, by not saying certain things, one can carefully leave the impressions one wants, and many would ASSUME it was the first, though they never, ever said that it was. But some newspaper somewhere may have headlined it as the first. If they did, they were wrong. Press releases are just that, releases to the press. The headlines frequently get rewritten. They get edited by papers to fit their audience and size of news hole available. Sometimes the editing is right and proper. Sometimes wrong things get put in...Sometimes they get totally rewritten by a staffer (who may as much about whatever the release is about as I do about the Mongolian use and sales of toilet paper in 1906, and with similar results). http://www.rcdb.com/document30.htm

Nope. Jeff made quite clear in his releases that it was the only looping wooden coaster on the planet. And that's true!

Hmmmm. That's Fairly Odd...(too bad they didn't start this before they built Son of Beast--that IS a Fairly Odd Coaster!)

Did you also think that Son of Beast was the first looping wooden coaster?

It's 181 feet high, with a 176 foot first drop that goes down at a 76 degree angle (steepest wood coaster). It has only four hills, though, and they are 112', 100' and 82' respectively. Top speed is an estimated 70 mph, and the length is 4400 feet...

I didn't say the last of big coasters...I said the last of THOSE KIND of big coasters. I don't think any park in the US will be buying a 400 foot plus rocket coaster from INTAMIN for a very, very long time.... Roller Coaster Corporation of America had similar problems with their big wood coasters, and no one in the US ever bought another after Son of Beast... (Well, you opened the door! )

I imagine, given the headaches the 400 footer pluses have caused, and the imminent sale of Paramount Parks, the primary thing you can call that 600 foot plus thing is: Somewhere else. (if anywhere)

El Toro was never planned to open with the park...which opens two weeks before Paramount's Kings Island this year, by the way....

Wow. I wonder what changed their minds? PKI is normally dead as all get out on Easter...

Is PKI even still taking pictures for its passes? Paramount's Carowinds passes for 2006 do NOT have pictures...

Ha! They aren't mine, I just posted the link!

Be sure to use the next keys, there are a lot more than four pictures here: http://www.flyinphilsphotos.com/sfga-update/album0

And, for you doubters, go here: http://groups.google.com/groups?q=chains+r...gs+island&hl=en Dave Althoff certainly knows what he is talking about and is NARSO certified. Or course I could instead doubt my own experiences, my own knowledge and that of the esteemed Mr. Althoff, but I won't....

Uh huh. They are chains, and are used only in the first few weeks of the season. I know full well what they are, and watched them being installed. Go ahead, think they are whatever you like..but it reminds me of a story Abraham Lincoln told: If you call a sheep's tail a leg, how many legs does a sheep have, he would ask? The listener would answer five, every time. His response would be four...you can call it whatever you like, but it is what it is.... (And Thunder Road DOES have anti-rollbacks where Racer and recaR (or North and South) have chains....and anti-rollbacks)

Amazing: Unexpected...astounding...causing one to lose one's breath. Perhaps NU will be amazing. Just in a somewhat different way. I was amazed when I first rode Scooby and the Haunted Castle. I've been to PKD and ridden their Scooby attraction, also to Carowinds. I was amazed at what Kings Island did. Still am. Not impressed, but definitely amazed.

Okay, I see hands, too. Where's the coaster? (just kiddin, folks!)

You asked. It's been said before. I would put a set of Flying Scooters (the old ones, not the newer models) by Tucker's. Honestly.

With all due respect, the parks care only about what the public who pays the bills thinks of their rides. They see boards' opinions as mildly amusing, if they pay any attention to them at all. Those who post there are no more than 0.0001% of the parks' patronage...

Those are NOT just antirollbacks. They are chains. They are used only early in the season. There are also anti-rollbacks, but those are NOT what I am talking about. And John Allen didn't design them, didn't put them there and the coaster(s) didn't need them when it/they ran as he designed it/them.... It's also NOT a Nick joke. The new season means my favourite wood in that park is now called The Fairly Odd Coaster. Deal with it. It's reality.