johnjniehaus

I personally counted it because it does have a downhill section. Don't count the diskos but that's just me. Not gonna argue with anyone counting it or not counting it

I personally don't like wild mice that much and hope KI doesn't get one. They are just so unoriginal.

Sounds solid to me

Why does it have Nickelodeon vibes for some reason haha!

Oh I should add this isn't the same as the project purple coaster. This is in addition so we are looking at SFGAv getting two new coasters

https://rcdb.com/23902.htm It appears that Ragin' Cajun has found a new home at Six Flags Great Adventure! https://www.facebook.com/share/p/14VM7GVKSkM/

The bidding has seemed to calm down but yeah I'm kinda at the point I can't justify spending over $250 for any of that stuff. It's cool to have a piece of park history but if I'm going to spend a lot of money, it better be for a ride I REALLY like and boo Blasters was a ride that I thought was just ok

I'm honestly surprised how much some of this stuff is already up to

Don't disagree that the inside counts more than the exterior but still sometimes I feel like what's another $20k or whatever it is? Fixing the exterior of the building is probably minimal cost compared to the rest of the ride. I get tired of parks getting cheap right at the end when they do these refurbishments. I understand being budget conscious but the old school do it right or not at all vibe in me is still strong haha

Not sure what they are doing to the entrance...wish they'd just knock the dang castle down and put up an original facade

Hopefully they go back to the greenish look or just do something very vaudville era looking. And please get rid of the castle pinnacles. Don't want a slapped up new paint castle entrance to an attraction they are paying so close attention to details on the inside

I am also curious how much it's going to go for. I no longer live in the area but I'm wondering if I could arrange with the park for a friend to pick something up for me provided I win?

I've never been to WoF but I was honestly surprised when I heard St Louis labeled as the flagship. I was definitely expecting WoF to take the top spot in the chain just based on what I know about the park. St Louis has a lot of older coasters. While I'm not a believer in EPR, I'm interested to see what direction this new company Enchanted Parks goes in the industry? Can they match the quality coming out of a chain like Herschend? Will they be similar to six flags? They could be horrible like premier parks we just have to wait and see. But they did get some parks with some good bones and if they can entice guests back into the gates and actually run the parks well it could be a really good long term solution for these parks that always got the short end of the stick under CF and SF management

At a minimum they will get long slow painful deaths which is better for us than just shutting them down now. Best case scenario they actually perform better

Agree there. I'm probably just bitter that EPR is closing my home park here in Seattle. Makes the PNW more of a wasteland than it already was.

Interesting take Don. I'm just curious if you really think the parks have a bright future when the other parks owned by EPR are not in great shape...

Not happy about this one considering EPR currently owns my new home park of Wild Waves.... I think the last time WW got a new ride was 2011 and that was a kiddy flat ride. They "can't afford to" fix rides that break and as soon as the light rail moved in now they are shutting down because the property became valuable for condos. EPR is a horrible management company that only looks to extract whatever they can from the parks before running them into the ground and eventually selling the property if/when it becomes profitable to do so

Yeah so definitely not as expensive as a new coaster

Oh I agree on using characters that were already created but how would they truly know if those characters were still relevant or engaging 20 years later if they hadn't done the show? I think it was a great way to honor the history of the park but if that show had bombed do you think we'd be seeing them invest a sizeable amount in a new Phantom Theater ride? I think not. So I agree the motivation behind the show was probably 90% let's pay homage to the history of the park for its 50th anniversary but I do think they always had it in the back of their mind to "test" the audience of how many people remember and still enjoy these characters.

So it was a test all along! Hahaha!

I also saw this and thought it's kinda cool the theater is being used in the office season

I'm curious what this big surprise sequence is in the ride where we're being watched?

I personally would love to see phantom theater characters return considering they did have a maestro character when the original opened. You know people would line up for photos with arpeggio (the cat) and larry

I personally am digging the purple wallpaper. I get the sentiment shared here that the old version of the ride had a dilapidated elegance to it that the new one probably won't have. Is the new one a little more cartoonish? Yes. But I'm approaching it as a new version a new ride entirely not trying to replicate the old one. To me this is a restoration of the theater and won't have that same dilapidated haunted feel. It will pull the nostalgia of the original characters into a more "fun" reopening of the theater that has been fixed up for an opening night performance and isn't sitting in ruin anymore