Cypress Gardens announces improvements, including Starliner

Great news! The future for the wood coaster is certainly looking pretty good nowadays!

So I wonder if that means that Flying Turns is near completion. I know they were originally waiting on both the financial ability, as well as the availability of John Fetterman to rebuild this classic ride. I am excited, since this will give me one more reason to visit central FL.

Finally the news that I have been waiting for! Can't wait to ride this classic coaster and add it to my track record.

I don't think the availability of Fetterman had much to do with it. The park wasn't in a position to build the ride, and I think a lot of that had to do with the fact that Cypress didn't need the boost in attendance at the time. I get the impression they wanted to wait until a new attraction was deemed necessary to keep the turnstiles spinning.

Absolutely reliable will not succeed in destroying all parks and coasters, Zippin Pippin, now Starliner :)

WOOHOO!

Chuck

^^ While I agree Kent B. wanted to wait until they could get the most "bang for the buck" out of Starliner,, I think Bud Adams might be even more integral to getting it up and running. Fetterman, without a doubt, is an exceptional design engineer...but *someone* needs to lay track-bed/rails....

Couple notes: 1) The new passes for 2007 will allow admission and free parking at both parks. Last time I checked ('05), parking-included passes, which *might* have included tube rentals, were considerably more expensive...over $100, IIRC....

2) 20 minutes? Really? Must have been an exceptionally busy day, with one of those *awesome* country music concerts... ;)

3) According to this: http://tinyurl.com/yapnd8 Passholders to ANY park in the US can get in free....I'll try and report back on this...I still need that spinning coaster...

4) Totally not sure about this....but my thoughts (having SEEN Meteor in person) is that the Schmeck at L-A-M-A is more *on deck* than Starliner...there's only one Fetterman-Adams to go around....and I kinda had some info on that even before going to PPP...

Meteor has a number of bents up now, Check the website.

Chuck

gator, honoring the season pass for any park was mentioned in the original linked article too.

So when's the Bobby Vinton concert?

"She wore bluuuuuuuuue vellllllll-vet..."

I took secret satisfaction in the fact that after months and months of debating park business practices and personally denouncing the 'Wal-Mart' approach to business when running a park that the guy who had to file Chapter 11 for his amusement park business refers to his park as, "Wal-Mart of the theme park industry."

Sounds about right ;)

(seriously though - looking forward to visiting this park next summer)

Problem is, The wall mart philosopy works. Make little profit and sell more (Get more guest and keep them comming back) than high priced one time visitors that feel ripped off.

The guys park in Valdosta does a BANG of a BUISNESS, No reason he won't make this work and he has the capital to do it as long as the customers keep comming.

The whole damage/hurricane deal was sad and why you get insurance in the first place. The old, we aren't paying what we don't have to, By the inssurance is in full effect in this case and he has to fight to get it.

Chuck

Yay for the best tunnel hop ever getting rebuilt (at least I hope they keep the tunnel part of it).

• So what is riding Starliner like? I'm sure it is not an extreme ride but how much floater airtime does it really contain? Robb Alvey from Theme Park Review said that the ride was so lame that he didn't film it.

I thought the ride was VERY much *signature* John Allen, nice floats and a very smooth ride, family-friendly but not overly-tame...

Comparable rides, IMO, are Swamp Fox and Lake Winnie's Cannonball...

Glad to hear it's being saved! Now if someone would only do someting about the Screechin' Eagle at LeSourdsville. :(

-Tina

Let's not get me started on Wal-Mart!

I've heard some people complain the Starliner was a tame ride but there are others that really enjoyed the ride. I'm holding off on forming an opinion until I actually ride it after it's had a chance to break-in. As gator said, it's a typical John Allen ride- out-and-back with hills shaped for floating air. I can't seem to find anything wrong with that kind of design.

Pink Floyd, IMO if you ride it yourself I think you can be the judge on whether or not Starliner is lame, which it is NOT:). Starliner is very much one of Allen's better out and back roller coasters. But this is only based on the opinions of other ppl I still have to ride it myself! Which is why I'm hoping that I get to ride it before I move to Houston. I love Cypress Gardens so much and I wish it the best sucess ever. Starliner is very much one giant leap for the park.

Starliner is the headlining attraction that the park needs, at least as far as rides go. This will make a nice park even better.

They've now pushed the opening back to Summer of 2007. I wonder what's taking them so long construction wise?

For everyones info on the ride at Cypress Gardens (The Starliner) the two men responsible for reasemble of the ride are John Fetterman and Leonard F. Adams Jr. of Structural Technologies Inc. Not Bud Adams or who ever else people are saying.