Holiday World announces Thunderbird, a launched B&M wing roller coaster

From 15 years ago....Frowback Friday quote....

"If I'm buying a ride for me personally to ride, it might be an intamin, but if I'm investing the company's money to try and grow an amusement park, it's B&M. All day, every day..."

Regarding Thunderbird, as well as Impulse at Knoebels: I don't get the whole "it doesn't fit the park" mindset. Is it that people are opposed to steel in general at these places? People seem to forget that Whirlwind existed at Knoebels not all that long ago. Or is it the more recent technology being used that's the problem?

I feel like some people will only be happy if these smaller parks remain pigeonholed in their smallness; as if they can never be larger, or push the envelope with new additions just because they're known for their more classic rides. And I can't even say that with a straight face; other than being wooden, Voyage is anything but "classic" in my eyes. It's a monster.

I was given an opinion from someone in the industry several years ago (this was before Voyage was built) that Holiday World built rides that didn't fit the park. Both Raven and Legend were cited, and the reason given was that they were too extreme for a family-oriented park like Holiday World. I didn't fully agree with that opinion then (though I do think it could benefit from at least one kid-friendly coaster larger than Howler), but I agree with it even less now because, while Raven put the park on the map and Legend cemented it there, these latest additions and the ever-expanding water park have propelled it into a world-class park (or at least soon-to-be so)...and yet it still retains the small, family-oriented feel that enthusiasts dig.

Hershey is a good example of a smaller park that has grown over twice its size and scope during my lifetime. And it's still awesome.

They all have to start somewhere.

Of course my first guess wouldn't precise, I took the clues, and built assumptions out of them on a daily basis, and when they finally announced that "It is ONE.BIG.THING." I cut down my various choices into what I thought it was going to be, which was my first guess, but since it got shot down, I went back to the drawing board, because clearly you guys are incapable of thinking outside the box. "A launched B&M Wing?! That's ludicrous. It doesn't make sense to me so you're opinion is wrong!" There was no way to clearly way to tell after the first few days, you got the clues, you build something out of them. You speculate the possibilities until you have enough evidence to rule out somethings and move forward with others. My God, those users on TPR are brilliant and because they picked the clues apart, they figured out everything down to the name, just from the clues, and research alone. It's funny how not just one member, but several have messaged me saying, "Yeah, this forums not the kind of place you want to be at, the members are too cliquey, and if you don't show the popular opinion, you're mocked." He even encouraged me to sign up for a TPR account, and even the littlest crap they spew out is way more contributing than bashing other members for their opinions, or complaining because they post. Honestly, I know a moderator who posts over 150-300 times daily on another forum and half the time, it's just random crap, but we don't care, because we're tolerant of people. As much disdain you guys show for TPR, I think it's funny also that according to Alexa internet statistics, they're the #14,605 most visited website in the nation, as opposed to CoasterBuzz being the #42,559. While their users and traffic continue to soar it seems that CB's continue to decrease. They're obviously doing something right. I haven't personally tried to offend any of you, or try to show any sort of aggression, or even arrogance. This website has some really cool interesting people, with brilliant minds on how the amusement park industry works, should work, and great behind the scenes experiences, each one of you are intelligent people. This website has a nice simple layout that's easy to use and hardly ever experiences any lagging. The Roller Coaster Database is nicely constructed as well, with the easy search option. But from now on, I'll just browse on the occasion (not through the forums of course.) This is my last post (Rejoice, have a party, dinner's on me.) Since Holiday World finally announced the coaster, I don't have to see if anyone has any new information. I'll still recommend this site for those who love Roller Coasters, because once again, This IS still really, great site for getting information on your favorite topics. But, someone should close my account for me and bring out the confetti and streamers. You got your wishes. Happy Birthday.

No one cares, man.

You can cut the narcissism with a knife...

Even a broken clock is right twice a day...

And Vater, when did (will?) Knoebels get an Impulse?!?

Vater said:

People are still trying to forget that Whirlwind existed at Knoebels not all that long ago.

Fixed it for ya.

But seriously... Whirlwind had a perfect place in the lineup at Knoebels. They already had plenty of flat rides with inversions, so they wanted a coaster with inversions too. Unfortunately, a ride like Whirlwind was probably all they felt they could afford/justify, at the time. The world (and my coaster count) is full of small, Knoebels-sized parks that would have loved a B+M or Intamin, but instead have Boomerangs, SLCs, or (shudder) both.

I love people that have to have attention so much so that they have to make huge "you people suck and I'm leaving" posts instead of just leaving.

I've got news for you... CB traffic is not down, ad revenue is not down and club memberships are not down. I would say stick to what you know, but since you mostly guess, you'll probably get it right eventually.

Good riddance. My condolences to the next site that has to listen to your noise.

Tommytheduck said:

Vater said:

People are still trying to forget that Whirlwind existed at Knoebels not all that long ago.

Fixed it for ya.

But seriously... Whirlwind had a perfect place in the lineup at Knoebels. They already had plenty of flat rides with inversions, so they wanted a coaster with inversions too. Unfortunately, a ride like Whirlwind was probably all they felt they could afford/justify, at the time. The world (and my coaster count) is full of small, Knoebels-sized parks that would have loved a B+M or Intamin, but instead have Boomerangs, SLCs, or (shudder) both.

I remember Whirlwind from my first visit to Knoebels. I don't want to, but I do.

Well. Clearly I've wasted the last fourteen years of my life, hanging out on the 42,559th most popular website when I could have been hanging with all the cool people on the 14,605th most popular website...

...good riddance to bad rubbish, as Great-Aunt Florence would say.

gamerguy said:

I can see it now, you'll be the first one on here whining that you spent all this money to go there and the ride was down!

Ouch! Who pissed in your Cheerios, friend. lol You seem to be the one who is whining here anyways. Holiday World has a pretty good reputation for good operations, as far as I can tell. B&M has a great reputation for reliability and capacity. This new ride at Holiday World will probably be open opening day and will stay open all year. I'd love to know what would YOU have liked to see them build instead.

Rickrollercoaster said:

It's funny how not just one member, but several have messaged me saying, "Yeah, this forums not the kind of place you want to be at, the members are too cliquey, and if you don't show the popular opinion, you're mocked." He even encouraged me to sign up for a TPR account, and even the littlest crap they spew out is way more contributing than bashing other members for their opinions, or complaining because they post.

Had I known it was that easy, I'd have suggested the same a long time ago.

Honestly, I know a moderator who posts over 150-300 times daily on another forum and half the time, it's just random crap, but we don't care, because we're tolerant of people. I think it's funny also that according to Alexa internet statistics, they're the #14,605 most visited website in the nation, as opposed to CoasterBuzz being the #42,559. While their users and traffic continue to soar it seems that CB's continue to decrease. They're obviously doing something right.

This is all the proof I need that you don't get it.

No one here cares what people are doing at other sites, how much they post or what traffic they generate. If that was the point we'd have encouraged you to continue posting your nonsense 300 times a day. Instead we encouraged you to post less, but more meaningfully - which says a lot about what the community here is looking for.

And if protecting that level of quality and camaraderie seems too 'cliquey' then so be it. You're probably not right for this group.

Ah, but gamerguy has told us what he would have liked the park to add: a "kickass coaster like Outlaw Run" and awesome, thrilling flat rides. Apparently the flat rides currently at Holiday World are neither awesome or thrilling.

Weird how Holiday World chose to go with their analysis, research, financial projections, long-term plans and so on when they could have just consulted gamerguy, the launched coaster maintenance nightmare and awesome, thrilling flat ride expert....

I didn't really read his Alexa references. Really? That data is never even close to real site traffic. One job I had showed it was 50% off of real traffic. I don't think anyone actually takes that service seriously. But then, Tyler III probably thinks he's right about this as well.

Rickrollercoaster said:

As much disdain you guys show for TPR, I think it's funny also that according to Alexa internet statistics, they're the #14,605 most visited website in the nation, as opposed to CoasterBuzz being the #42,559.

Well, considering that the first 42,558 consist of nothing but porn and one rollercoaster site, I'd say Coasterbuzz is doing alright for itself.

Anyways.... Thunderbird... How about it?

Oh... and, go easy on Gamerguy. He's simply confused about "maintenance nightmare" Thunderbirds.

Rickrollercoaster said:

This is my last post (Rejoice, have a party, dinner's on me.) ... But, someone should close my account for me and bring out the confetti and streamers. You got your wishes. Happy Birthday.

I am going against the grain and making a post in support of Rickrollercoaster. Typically, I hit CoasterBuzz to keep up with industry news and don't spend much time in the forums, but HW is of special interest to me, so I followed the HW2015 thread pretty closely. Maybe I missed something, but I just don't get the antagonism some of the top posters to these forums had for Rick. He appeared to be a young guy understandably enthusiastic about a major addition coming to his home park. Personally, I found his random guesses far less annoying than the attitude directed at him by the "old-timers".

TL; DR on that rickrollerpost, but I guessed he was going to say that anyway.

Now that he's gone we're down to #42,560. :-(