CoasterBuzz Podcast #102 posted

Posted | Contributed by Jeff

Jeff and Mike review this week's news in the amusement industry.

More details come out of depositions on the Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom accident. Mike talks about the operating procedures at the similar ride at Six Flags Great America.
Santa Clara's city council wants to move forward with the 49ers stadium, but no word yet on how they plan to pacify Cedar Fair and California's Great America.
New Kings Island sign is installed, and they warn of new ride names coming with lapsing licenses. We gasp in horror at some of the names they've already come up with for other former Paramount Parks, like "Flight Deck." And by the way, Cedar Fair is still not a brand.
New Cypress Gardens owners interviewed, balance tradition and business. Ski shows rule.
The Six Flags Magic Mountain vs. Cedar Point debate is very much over. At least we had some interesting years during the peak of the coaster count debate.
Six Flags intends to cut expenses drastically, especially in terms of marketing. Sounds like they didn't get a lot for their dollar.
Disaster! A Major Something or Other With The Rock and You, or something like that, now new and refurbished at Universal Studios Florida!
Disneyland wins their battle in the resort district as plot intended for low-income housing sold to a hotel developer.
Can't convince people to deny the alcohol permit at Six Flags Over Texas? Do a bleeding heart kids story! Manipulate your children to advance your agenda.

The new names for the KI rides were put out at No Coaster Con the other night, and are online now: http://www2.cedarfair.com/kingsisland/attractions/category.cfm?ac_id=18

Italian Job: Backlot Stunt Coaster
Days of Thunder: Thunder Alley
Face/Off: Invertigo
Tomb Raider: The Crypt
Top Gun: Flight Deck

I miss Gonch!

PS. Maybe I, too, have a super secret project that I'm not going to tell YOU about. How about that?!? ;)

Ugh. Flight Deck. Seriously, someone should be fired. A flight deck is the thing at the front of a 747, and hardly representative of a coaster experience. Fighter jets have cockpits.

Cockpit, there's a name coaster enthusiasts can get behind! :)

LOL! Wow! I've got to admit that was a good one! :)

Tomb Raider becoming The Crypt?

What in the heck do they plan on doing with the theming of this ride?

I agree. Flight Deck is about as retarded as it gets for a coaster name that has to do with fighter jets. Heck, call it Cedar Flight. That way you can abbreviate it to CF and secretly insert your company name into the coaster. :)

When I thought of flight deck, I thought of the area where the fighter jet takes off from. Maybe that's called something totally different.

^^ Someone correct me if I'm wrong, I thought I remember someone telling me that most or all of that themeing was on the ride before they ever decided to name it Tomb Raider?

I can't see that being the case, Jason.

Seeing as how the props in two of the pre-show rooms are right out of the movie.

There's an interesting question... what happens to those? While not an Oscar winning movie, those props are rarely preserved pieces from a popular movie. I'd hate to see those just disappear.

For the SFKK thing, it had to happen when it was going up. It wouldn't make a difference to E-Stop the ride. It still would have done the same thing. When it's going down, it's completely away from the cable. Right when the cable snapped, it's too late already to do anything. So, it doesn't matter if Intamin says that the cable breaks, and you immediately have to shut the ride down. It's not going to help.

I believe it had to happen when those cars are going up. The cars are very close to each other, and it could have just snapped from another car, and swung over. That's not really that reasonable though as that cable would have injured more people, and another car of people would be complaning about it. You would hear there reports of the accident unless the car next to that car was empty.

However, I think it snapped on that car they were on. While going up, the cable is always attached to the car. So, if it breaks in half (the cable) it might land on that car below it. You wonder how did it make it up the entire tower if the cable snapped. Only one cable snapped, and not both! One part of the cable might go in the tower, but the other half is still attached to the car.

_________________________________________________
Mike, you are talking about Astroworld's problem. They had problems with the Houston Astro's (Astrodome) stadium parking. They decided to close the park (Six Flags Astroworld) partly because of it.

The Texas Rangers are near Six Flags Over Texas, and what was the problem? The parking now for the regular park is farther away. The waterpark also has it's own lot. *** This post was edited by Spinout 1/22/2008 2:44:14 PM ***

Seeing as how the props in two of the pre-show rooms are right out of the movie.There's an interesting question... what happens to those? While not an Oscar winning movie, those props are rarely preserved pieces from a popular movie. I'd hate to see those just disappear.

Those props are the property of Paramount Pictures and will likely have to be returned to the studio.The Crypt isn't a bad name for it, just replace the movie props with some generic ones, and it'll be a somewhat decent theme.
*** This post was edited by pkidelirium 1/22/2008 6:52:47 PM ***

I am curious to see if they will replace the movie in the pre-show, or just get rid of it completely.

I think that the pre-show for that ride was the best in that park.

I'm thinking this was the thinking behind renaming Top Gun to Flight Deck - makes more sense...

http://www.stuffwelove.co.uk/superflightdeck.htm

I was given it for Christmas one year - it sucked lol ;)

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