Demon Drop To Knott's?

I remember it on TV. Get off my lawn!

Seeing as how the park hasn't made an announcement, I wouldn't automatically assume the name won't change. And if it does, it'll be Flight Deck Backlot Hawk or something equally stupid.

Am I the only person that doesn't find these 1st Generation Freefalls worth riding? They're awfully painful and rather short in height.

The funny thing is, when Knott's built Supreme Scream back in 1998, general public guests would comment on how terrible that "tiny one" at Magic Mountain was by comparison.

While I see a lot of enthusiasts commenting on how much more intense these old 1st Gen. Intamin drops compared to S&S towers, half the experience of a drop ride is the height of a tower and the fear induced from the slow climb up. Knott's existing tower is 181' taller than the 26-year old tower going into the park next year.

Park guests will immediately notice this significant difference in height --- and the fact that Demon Drop doesn't "bounce you back up for a second drop" or doesn't "leave your feet dangling in the air" detracts that much more from its thrill-appeal to the average park-goer. It also doesn't help that you will have an inverted coaster right next to it that is 15' taller.

That, or the locals will assume it was a transplant from Magic Mountain.

It'll be interesting to see how they will market this.

Seems like the perfect "beginner" freefall ride to me. Not every park guest wants the biggest, fastest, mostest.

I'd like to think market exists somewhere between the Frog Hopper crowd and the S&S Tower crowd.

Well, just found out that Knott's has no intention of theming Demon Drop to a mine-shaft, or even anything remotely related to Ghost Town.

Not only are they keeping the name Demon Drop, they are also retaining the blue color scheme --- carried over from Cedar Point.

Dis. a. ppointing.

http://travel.latimes.com/daily-deal-blog/index.php/knotts-berry-farm-to-5666/

Can we look at this way? The winters are hard on Demon Drop, so she is headed to the warm sun of cali to live out her golden years before retirement.

They should have just pulled a plug on her IV drip and respirator. No California for you, DD.

The interesting thing is that I find some of the smaller drop towers to give a better ride. Ever ride one of the ARM drop towers? There is another model out there that is even shorter...Belle City Amusements has one (Drop Zone) that is right around 100 feet and it is easily one of the best drop towers out there.

Demon Drop has a lot of tricks that can make it a more frightening ride than the S&S towers.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

The ARM towers are pretty intense. Morey's Piers has a 140ft model that drops as soon as it hit the top. Anyway, my only question....how long with Demon Drop last on a year round schedule. It has had the benefit of solid down time to rebuild, replace, sand, paint, etc.

I am waiting for the comments this is such a Six Flags (Kieran/Story era) move....4 pages and nothing so far.

It was great that the news article pointed out all the issues Knott's has had with Intamin rides. Park guests (especially parents with children who will want to ride this) will love to hear that news.

Cedar Fair loves Intamin, especially Cedar Point and Kings Dominion. Now, Knott's has many Intamin rides. Not a huge surprise.

What Six Flags comments? They rotate rides. Cedar Point has been doing it since they purchased Valleyfair, when they shipped the Wildcat up there the following summer. There are Cedar Point rides in Knotts, VF. Dorney, etc.

Cedar Point rides are sought out when they go up for sale, as they are well maintained. Demon Drop has not sold as the price of free falls have dropped considerably since Chance, Moser, and especially ARM made models to compete with the overpriced S&S towers.

Agent Johnson said:
And for the record Hammond, Adena does not build the best coasters,

I didn't say they built the best coasters. I just said they were the ones who've built coasters at Cedar Point.

Maybe I am in the minority but I am happy that KBF is getting this ride. A (cloned) ride which I used to like is being "reborn" at a different park which I also visit regularly. I always found Freefall to be more exciting and more scary than Supreme Scream even though it is not as tall.

Agent Johnson said:
Cedar Fair loves Intamin...

No, most of the people in that company don't care much for Intamin. They're just the cheapest. If another company were to step up with solid engineering and could manage costs, I think it would seriously threaten their business.

Well, you may say they don't care, but ever since the Space Spiral arrived, those who sign the checks are Intamin fans. Is there some less than stallar rides in the company from them? Yes? Is there some winners? Yes.

You make a strong arguement that if Arrow was around, or if B&M or Premier took it up a notch, you would see a more diversified package.

Come on, really? Cedar Fair and Intamin aren't even remotely the same companies they were 40+ years ago. You're creating a connection where there isn't one.

Again, if someone can make the same product for less, that's where they'll spend their money.

In the case of Wicked Twister, Intamin is the only game in town for launched inverted coasters. I tend to believe the list of manufacturers able to deliver a product with specs like Dragster was (and probably still is) a pretty small one.

I love all the comments on the Cleveland.com article about this. Especially the one demanding a "high end" indoor ride at Cedar Point. Not like one of those "cheap" ones at Universal Studios.

I've got to wonder how KBF management feels about this move. Did they suddenly one day go, "Say! What do you say we put in a crappy old first generation Intamin freefall? I bet that'll really jack the attendance! Now where in the world could we find one of those......"

robotfactory said:
Especially the one demanding a "high end" indoor ride at Cedar Point. Not like one of those "cheap" ones at Universal Studios.

I cen see why that knucklehead wants a high end indoor ride. Especialli since Disaster Transport is a pile of garbage.

Maybe E-12 on the side stands for "This rides ends and will be gone in 2012."

Agent Johnson said:
Well, you may say they don't care, but ever since the Space Spiral arrived, those who sign the checks are Intamin fans....

Wait a minute.

Did Intamin sell that tower? Was there some connection between Intamin and Von Roll that I didn't know about, in which case did Intamin have anything to do with the Sky Ride? I thought the Space Spiral was always credited to Von Roll and/or CWA, and that the towers Intamin sold were all built by Giovanola. I presume that those were NOT brokered by Hughes since they got to retain their nameplates and serial numbers... :)

I always figured the first Intamin sales at Cedar Point were the Schwarzkopf rides: the Jumbo Jet, the Giant Wheel, the Bayern Kurve, the Wildcat and the second Wildcat, with Avalanche Run, Demon Drop, and Thunder Canyon the first rides with the actual Intamin branding on them.

You make a strong arguement that if Arrow was around, or if B&M or Premier took it up a notch, you would see a more diversified package.

I think this industry needs a company like Arrow. A company that concentrates on good, solid design and engineering to accommodate both the marketing requirements that a ride have a bunch of "-est" words to describe it, but also that it have lasting appeal, a certain simplicity of design and construction, and a speed and simplicity of operation that makes for high reliability and capacity. It seems that Premier Rides is heading down that path, although I would sure like to see them build a coaster that doesn't stop in the middle.

I find that I miss Arrow. They didn't build the finest rides around, but what they did made it possible for everybody who came after them. And when you visit a park that has a mix of rides, the Arrow rides aren't the smoothest or most comfortable, but they are the ones that just plain *work*. When we lost Arrow, it seems we lost a lot of good ride design and engineering philosophy. I know a lot of those people are still around, but those people are not necessarily doing what they did at Arrow, and it shows.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.