Cedar Point 80's drought?

See, the internet theory isn't a bad one!

I'm in a similar boat as the rest of you. As a kid, my family rarely traveled and when we did it was rarely a theme park.

They took me to Kennywood when I was 4 (I'm told). My grandmother took me on her company trip to CP when I was 5, 6, and 8. My family visited Conneaut when I was 9. I made a handful of school trips to Kennwood for various reasons/events in my teen years.

I never really knew I was an 'enthusiast' and certainly didn't know of the various organizations or exactly how many parks there were. I remember the Iron Dragon commercials - one of my first memories as being directly interested in a ride and wanting to ride it. I'd have been 13 or 14 at the time. One neighbor of mine went to CP that year and told it it wasn't that great...I didn't believe him.

My next moment was in 1991 when I got a CP getaway guide. I must have read that thing 100 times and tried to get a few frieds to take a road trip but it never materialized. That summer a few of us went to Conneaut.

Back at this time our local yellow pages had a 1-800 number you could call. You'd punch in a 4 digit code and a recording would give you info on a business or company or whatever. One of the codes listed was for Cedar Point. I'd listen once a week for new info.

In 1993 we started making yearly trips to KW and in 1995 followed that up with yearly trips to CP (see a pattern forming here?) At this point I was still unaware of how many parks there really were out there outside of what I'd seen on TV or places friends and family members had visited. At this point I still used 1-800-best-fun for weather updates as our trips to Sandusky got closer.

In 1997 I finally got online. Cedarpoint.com was one of my regular visits and the hype on the site about Power Tower was enough to get 6 of use to make a 4 day visit to the Point that year.

From there I casually surfed about for park/coaster info for a few years. The big kicker was in 1999.

Believe it or not RCT was released and I was hooked. This is what made me realize I really enjoyed the parks and rides more than the average person.

Around that same time my wife was promoted and we were headed for Jacksonville. Simultaneously I was reading about this awesome new park about to open in Orlando - Islands Of Adventure. We made our first theme park trip to Orlando in June of 1999 and that set me off. I actively searched for info on the net and learned of this whole "community". By 2000 we were actively looking for more parks to visit and planning "amusement park" vacations all over the place.

If it wasn't for the internet I'd still be making yearly trips to KW and CP and maybe visiting one or two of the other parks I had heard about once. I honestly never knew there were so many parks and coaster scattered across the country until that point.

I always had an interest in coasters and parks whether I realized it or not at the time, but without the internet I wouldn't have pursued it on nearly the level I have. I think a lot of current enthusiasts fall into that boat.

It's not a coincidence that the coaster boom took off and followed roughly the same growth curve as the internet boom.

While I had "the sickness" from early on, my interest/trips for coasters waned when I got out of college (1993). Why did it pick back up again? It was the 1-2 punch of internet access and the arrival of RCT.

I can honestly say that playing RCT has given me a much broader appreciation for all of the aspects of a park, as opposed to my teen years when my focus was just, "coasters, Coasters, COASTERS".:)

Later,
EV

Interesting. I'd have to say, from an early age, I was more aware of the fact that there were roller coaster parks around the country. The reason? SFGAm always has ads for the rest of the Six Flags chain somewhere in their brochures and guides. While that didn't key me in to the existence of most of the coaster world, it did hint at it more than the stories I'm hearing hear. It gave me names of distant places to hope for, and made me wonder if there were others. Which, of course, prompted me to discover that there actualy were/are. Doe this ring a bell to anyone else who's first coaster was in the late eighties/early nineties at a Six Flags park?

Tekno,

Like you, I knew Carowinds pre-Paramount. I experienced their drought (to relate this to the original topic) from 1980 until 1992 with NO new coasters, plus the loss of White Lightnin' and only about 3 major rides added during that time - with several flat rides removed as well.

SFOG went through a similar drought, with no coasters from 1978's Mindbender until 1990's Georgia Cyclone. Other parks didn't go for 12 years without a coaster, but they didn't add nearly as much as they did in the '90s.

I started going to Carowinds in 1973 when the park opened, and the family would take a trip or two out there every year. At about age 10 I finally got on Goldrusher and rode my first coaster, soon moving on to Thunder Road and White Lightnin'. I was a bit odd in that I had no problem going upside down on WL, but didn't ride Carolina Cyclone until it's 2nd or 3rd year. I think the corkscrews looked easier to fall out of or something. It was also about that time that I got my first Scooby rides, as by the time I started riding the other coasters I figured that one was a kids ride and I was "too big". Of course now I know better. I also went to BGT, BGW, and Disney back in the 80's but the only coaster I remember riding at any of those was Space Mountain.

I didn't even go to PC for about 8 years so I missed out on many of the additions for quite some time. Imagine my surprise on my first ride back - a front seat ride on Top Gun. A B&M invert is a bit freaky when you haven't been on a coaster in 8 years! After that I was hooked, and since that was 2001 it was quite easy to start reading up on my new hobby on the 'net - and an enthusiast was born, complete with an off-season trip to Florida to satisfy my coaster jonesing.

I do find it odd that so many of the Carowinds faithful don't realize what they have. Now, I would LIKE a hyper, mainly because it would fit the park so well and I do like them. Still, they have the chain's only large flyer, 3 good woodies, one of the smoothest Arrow's around, a good mine train and mouse, one of only two Setpoint water coasters and last but not least - arguably the best coaster in the entire Paramount chain in Top Gun. For my tastes at least it beats everything I've ridden at PKI or PKD, not that I don't like many of their rides, just none that I like anywhere near as much as TG. The park has 12 coasters, which is only outright beaten in North America by Cedar Point, SFMM, and PCW - and tied by a handful of other parks.

I find it hard to sympathize with some of the "Carowinds doesn't get anything" crowd when I know all too well what not getting anything REALLY means. I'm sure 2 years after getting a hyper they'll be screaming "what next?" - we see that far too often with all the parks these days.

KenB