KDCOASTERFAN

I read the entire thread again and have yet to find anyone who said SFWOA didn't have an animal side. What I did read, however, is that a couple of folks mentioned Sea World selling off the animal side to SF. Just wondering where you got that. It was sold prior to the 01 season hence the name change that year from SFO to SFWOA.

Hurler is a POS from start to finish...give me the good wood that is Grizzly right next door any time.

If you plan on riding Dominator go to it first thing as the queue fills up fast & moves slowly even with three trains going.I would AVOID Hurler like the plauge,it's unbearably rough & just not worth standing in line for even if it's a walk on. Avalanche seems to be running only one train lately from what I heard,I didn't ride it on last month's trip but if things go according to plan I may make it to the park again with my sister & her kids on tuesday so I'll take a spin & see if they've gotten the other trains running yet.

Yeah & that spiral is extremely intense. I ohh so hate the way CF continues the PP tradition of using the "parking brake" mode on their steel rides,at least Dominator however doesn't seem to be run that way.

At least the park lives on in the form of some rides continuing to operate at other locations.

The launch is pretty much the same on both rides but I actually found BS:SC's launch to be more extreme.The only difference is the rate of acceleration on FOF is higher.

Looking back at the way SFI ran the park when they were in charge it is clear to see that,had they remained in charge they wouldv'e shut it down just as they did SFAW.It's a safe bet that this is what they outcome would've been,of course we'll never know one way or the other as SFI washed their hands of the park the minute they sold it to CF. What's done is done & there's simply no going back. Crying about it on a messageboard won't change it.You still have CP & KI to go to,and I'm sure that you will once you get over your anger at the situation. I can remember how EVERYONE said they'd forever boycott SF parks after SFAW's closure & yet in three years how many of those people who swore they'd never return to another SF park have gone to one?Quite a lot,that's how many.

And it looks cool, too. See also Anaconda at Kings Dominion with its water cannons, which do absolutely no slowing down! Anaconda's water cannons on the tunnel entrance & exit are simply a show effect & have no braking effect on the ride itself.

Yeah but just think of the bottleknecks that it would cause on the exit ramp with onlookers trying to get splashed while people are exiting the station.When it comes to adding spectator bridges on boat chutes like diamond falls(defunct) it kinda defeats the whole purpose of going on the ride to begin with don't you think?

Interpreter,and many others have said it right....it was SFI's over building & overestimation of their market base that ruined the park & sealed it's fate not CF.Had CF not stepped in to purchase it(at a loss no less) then SF would've closed it & redistributed the assets among their other parks simple as that. As is CF is on a good strategy of NOT overbuilding the former paramount parks too quickly & carefully evaluating the response to new attractions prior to planning future installations unlike SFI in the Premiere parks era when they were throwing tons of cap ex into rides without waiting to see the public's response to them first. Back on topic: It's a general consensus that El Dorado will be located on HS:XLC's general footprint,which is fitting since the jukebox diner is right there.As for Americana & Black Squid I'd much prefer to see them added somewhere along the grove's main midway but I guess we'll soon find out when construction begins.

Actually that total comes to four,Dominator,Americana,El Dorado & Black Squid. I wouldn't complain too much since KI is getting a huge B&M hyper in 09 while KD has to wait til 2010 at the earliest for their hyper installation to take place.

Yeah,I've never heard of two face stalling in the cobra roll either....sure it's stalled between the loop & second lift on one occasion & has parked itself on the first lift three times so far but never in the cobra roll.

The western theme is just a guess based on other stuff they've done. It sort of mixes with the Rivertown theme, but a little different. I would hope that they'd keep it "local" if they choose an animal name, and the ones that have been mentioned are intimidating enough! Well keep in mind that CF runs amusement parks,not theme parks so just because a ride is built in a specific section of the park doesn't necessarily mean it will follow that area's theme.

Well,since the building is a total loss it now leaves them with enough space for a flat ride or two but knowing SFI they're just gonna leave that area empty.

Red and yellow? Like Invertigo... TTD Mantis Iron Dragon Talon Volcano: The Blast Coaster Silver? Bullet I'm sure there's a few more at Cedar Fair parks. Talon doesn't have any red in it's track scheme,it's similar to Dominator & Behemoth's colors although Dominator used a darker shade of orange.The new KI coaster looks to have a similar shade of red/maroon as Firehawk.

I don't know how it works for KI but for KD we have pre paid tickets/gift cards that you can get from local retailers so you can bypass the ticket window & go straight to the gate

KD's experiencing the same sort of thing when it comes to flats so the rumors of Americana,spider & el dorado coming in 09 sound great to me.I was looking at the pics of the track on site & does anyone notice that it's the same shade of red/maroon as Firehawk?

a. Park chains sign such deals, not individual parks that are part of a chain. There would be no advantage for them to do so. b. If a contract had been signed with B & M, Firehawk would certainly have nothing to do with it, being neither B & M nor new.... It doesn't exactly work that way mainly because the park's interest in a specific ride concept can change,as well as the pricing for materials/fabrication etc.Only in rare instances,such as the deal Paramount had,then broke with vekoma for the flying dutchman rides after stealth was such a disaster. Case in point:SFA had planned a standup for 01 but when KD opted out at the last minute for the flyer SFA took it & the plans for the standup were scrapped alltogether.In the process vekoma lost a lot of money thanks to Paramount's last minute decision to cancel the contract.One more thing,it takes years to design just one ride,let alone three.The 09 project has probably been in development for far longer than CF has had ownership of the Paramount chain.

Last season I was riding yellow train,back row with some random kid next to me(it was near closing so we were allowed to re ride in empty seats) when I nearly ended up going over the seat divider & landing square in the kid's seat even with the retractable belt & the lap bar down pretty tight.They changed the bars last season on their woodies so they lock down much tighter now. As for the flight trainer(Sky pilot) I absolutely HATED that thing after only riding it twice,I can see how someone could slide out from that lap bar...it is an Intamin after all.

Yeah but the Expoland coaster was never inspected...not even once in the 15 years since it was built so the park was at fault for that.

No, the person that died on that coaster was called Daniel Watkins. The coaster was, and is, called Shockwave. IIRC it was an Asian guy who was thrown from Shockwave just as the ride was going into it's final curve before heading to the brakerun,he was showing off & had somehow gotten out of his restraint hence the reason for the belts being added when the ride was cleared to re-open. Interestingly enough the coaster that Shockwave replaced,Galaxi also had a fatality when a 13 year old was thrown from the ride which is why it was removed...I guess that site is cursed or something for two deaths to occur on coasters built on the same footprint.

So what exactly happened here? I tried to check out the link but unfortunately it says that the article is no longer available. This wouldn't be the first time something like this has happened at VF,anyone remember that woman who was beaten in the SV queue for supposedly ratting out a line jumper back in I believe 2003?

They did try with the removal of 2 coasters prior to the 2007 season. But even with that, the cost of maintaining and staffing the park were too high vs. the amount of people that actually came to the park. Too little, too late. Well when SF stopped investing in new rides for the park I think it sort of turned the locals off even more to see CF come in there & remove rides that were already there thus giving people less to do than before & even less of a reason to return. Of course what's done is done & we can't change it...it's sad that CF didn't try harder by giving the guests what they wanted instead of taking even more away.

Dominator officially opens today!! KD did a great job of putting this ride in so you wouldn't know that the location was once a part of the parking lot.

You know,why use the red color if it's themed around a manta ray? of course they already used a blue shade on krakken but they could always go with a much darker color than the light blue they've already done. This should hopefully prove to be an interesting layout & hopefully something original unlike all the S:UF clones that are out there & yet not all stretched out like tatsu at SFMM is.