Eastcoaster news...

Any buzzers attend (Matt, anyone, Bueller?) - I am slowly coming into not too much news. All I have so far is a little bit on the Flying Turns trains (coming along with the latest in-car-nation) and now I see the (weird?) news the Boardwalk Bullet is getting a third train from PTC.

Green Lantern from GAdv is sort of old news, obviously, and I'm happy if Chang means shorter lines for Toro. ;)

Is there some way we could get a quick blast of info on anything else EastCoaster-ish? TiA!

Yeah, I was there. Here is what I remember...

Great Adventure:
* Houdini will be open all season and Tango (Rock 'N Tug) is returning.
* Some safari animals and sea lions will be moved to the Golden Kingdom for educational and petting zoo attractions.

Knoebels:
*Dick Knoebel made his first ever visit to Eastcoaster and received a standing ovation when he was called up to the stage.
* Black Diamond is coming along nicely. The original five trains were not enough capacity for Knoebels, so they are building an extra three trains (note they are re-building the original five from scratch as well). Dick couldn't acquire any 9" steel wheels, so he had to invest in having a dye made so they could be manufactured. Much to Dick's chagrin, the trains will utilize a single seatbelt per row in order to appease the insurers.
* The remainder of the Geauga Lake campground cabins are now operational (I believe 15 in total).

Quassy:
* Nothing new to report unless you didn't know they are getting a new Gravity Group woodie called Wooden Warrior and there will be an enthusiast event with ERT in May.

GCII:
* Mountain Flyer is the official name of the new woodie in China.
* Chris Grey said it's like "Thunderhead and Prowler had a red-headed stepchild. And it's MAD!" Wildest wooden coaster he has ever experienced.
* China is the strangest place he's ever been to in his life. Getting a project signed off on over there is more difficult than getting it done in New Jersey. (Tom Rebbie of PTC agreed).

National Roller Coaster Museum and Archive:
* Larson is being extremely generous with resources for storing all of the artifacts.
* The immediate focus is going to be an on-line digital museum instead of a physical location to reach more people around the world. This will be supplemented with real traveling exhibits at special park events. They are hoping to someday have a real physical museum, but it's not their focus at this time.

Kennywood:
* Lots of landscaping under Skyrocket for 2011 as well as a new permanent maintenance area.
* The fries at Small Fries are identical to the ones at the Potato Patch (other than Bacon isn't available at Small Fries), but no one believes them.
* Kiddieland is being completely redone.
* No mention of new rides/expansion plans.

Leonard Adams III
* Talk about his father's history in the business.
* Shared a story about when he was a kid and Texas Giant was being built, he drove his remote control car into one of the footer holes. So somewhere in one of the footers still today lies his toy car.

DollyWood:
* 30% off DollyWood accommodations for enthusiasts attending this year's enthusiast events.
* Morning ERT for passholders this season! One major ride will be open an hour early each day.
* Working on a spectacular new show for 2013.
* DollyWood Nights were a big success last year (rare 10am to 10pm hours). Returning this year with the potential for expansion in the future.
* Couldn't go into detail, but 2012 will see the largest investment in the history of the park (including more than the original cost of the waterpark) and coaster enthusiasts are going to like it.
* No plans for Celebration City. Ozark Wildcat unlikely to be relocated to Silver Dollar City due to lack of a flat piece of land there. (I don't buy that).
* Newly acquired parks (Darien Lake and Elitch's) will be "managed" HFE style, but not necessarily transformed into the quality of park such as DollyWood and Silver Dollar City.

Schlitterbahn:
* Add-on day for CoasterCon will only be $10. Jeffrey made a hilarious "The Office" parody promotional video. Hopefully we can get this online, as it was hysterical.
* Kansas City park is doubling in size.

Dorney:
* New Haunts. Trying to bring the weak links up to the standards of the new for 2010 haunted hotel.
* They are prepared to reserve all three of Steel Force's trains for Coasting For Kids day. Carrie got a shout-out as the top fundraiser for Dorney.
* Mentioned the Geauga Lake carousel is getting set up at Worlds of Fun.
* Demon Drop was well-received.
* Didn't take any public questions (to dodge the Invertigo rumors I'm sure), but offered to take questions privately.

PTC/Tom Rebbie:
* Last year was really tough on the company, but Tom didn't want to lose any of his employees, so he had them paint the building and then "pimp his pony's ride" as he put it. He bought a horse and a beat-up trailer and had the guys fix it up.
* This year, they are busy and he hired several new people.
* Third train for Boardwalk Bullet per new GM's request. He said he didn't want to get caught on a busy day with only one operational train.
* Refurb'd the Raven trains. He said one showed normal signs of wear and tear and the other one was a little more beat up for some reason. ;). Haha.
* Refurb'd the Great White trains.
* Refurb'd the SFA Roar trains.
* Drunk driver drove across a field and two parking lots before crashing through the block wall of the PTC building.
* At the end he mentioned that Holiday World asked for a new set of cars for Voyage and he didn't want to know why, but was happy to do it naturally.

Door prizes:
I won two tickets to Holiday World! Thanks to Paula and the Koch's!

Jeff already posted the Office parody... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8PlkMl_BMk

I'm not surprised that PTC is having a tough go of it, not because of the economy or anything, but they've completely failed to evolve while the industry changed around them. I remember years ago seeing what GCI was doing and thinking, "PTC is screwed, and if CCI (at the time) follows suit, they're done."

Acoustic Viscosity said:

Kennywood:
* Kiddieland is being completely redone.

Just to clarify, the Kiddieland bathroom is being completely redone. The rides, midways, games, etc. aren't being changed.

^As long as Auto Race stays intact, we're all good... :)

Thanks Matt - interesting about the BB third train, I was thinking about capacity when I said it was a "weird" decision - making certain there are always 2 trains "at the ready", though...that's just plain old customer service. Kemah FTW!

KG: Liked the phrase "much to Dick's chagrin"...I know it was. ;)

GAdv: Hooray for Houdini - glad I got to ride last season....watching the noobs on that ride is always a blast..."hands up!"... :)

HFEC/DW nights - they just borrowed Matt's name for the HWN event. I do kinda buy the argument of the SDC land being unsuitable for OzCat...but then again, maybe I'm biased since I see so much flat land at WA. ;)

Schlitternews: Siebert is still the bomb (no news there). The KC park is ideally located and can certainly use the expansion...that place is going to be HUGE in 5 years.

PTC: I can't for the life of me figure out why one of the Raven trains showed unusual wear-and-tear. ;) :)

Lastly - hooray for Roar East getting those trains refurbed... :)

I'd love to see a B&M invert at Dollywood that used it's terrain. Just as long as they leave my favorite Arrow looper intact.

B&M doesn't seem like Dollywood's style, but then again, they only have a handful of coasters in the first place, so maybe it could become their style.

Well, Herchend went with B&M for Wildfire so...

Although if they went with an s&S/Larson launch like what is going into China these days, I'd be really happy to FINALLY have a launch less than 4 hours from me.

* Black Diamond is coming along nicely. The original five trains were enough capacity for Knoebels, so they are building an extra three trains (note they are re-building the original five from scratch as well). Dick couldn't acquire any 9" steel wheels, so he had to invest in having a dye made so they could be manufactured. Much to Dick's chagrin, the trains will utilize a single seatbelt per row in order to appease the insurers.

You're saying that the original 5 trains were not enough capacity for KG so they built 3 more and are using the original 5 also?

Did Dick say when Black Diamond would be open? Coming along nicely is too vague as we have been hearing that about flying turns for 6years now!

Sorry, pretty sure it will be ready for opening day. I forget if he said that the other day or not, but it sure appears to be the case. And DAFE will be sponsoring an event for opening day.

Pardon the typo. I believe he said the ride originally had five 2-car trains (4 people per car). All of the trains had to be rebuilt, but some of the original mechanical components were salvaged. Dick felt the five trains weren't enough capacity, so they built three more trains completely from scratch. The new trains are made to look just like the originals, except with the single seatbelt per row.

He mentioned a few sections of track had to be built from scratch as well, but otherwise it's the original track from the Golden Nugget. The mechanicals for the spinning barrel are also the original components.

Dick also talked about the long process it was to acquire the ride from Morey's. He had been trying to get it from them ever since it closed. He said he always felt, "the Golden Nugget is the greatest family ride since sliced bread." Finally once Morey's decided to demolish it, they were able to make a deal.

My thinking is they'll probably open Black Diamond as soon as possible even if it means a delay in presenting the "full theming package." The park isn't any happier about the Turns train situation than anyone else, and they'll probably want to get credir for "the new coaster" running. They are also adamant about having exceptional theming for Black Diamond (although it may prove to be a work-in-progress during the '11 season).

Don't forget they also had to replace HSTC in the interim, and have added other attractions in the duration while trying to get Turns running for the public. Fandango is as forceful as any ride of its type... :)

The website says 2011, so probably sometime around then.

We've heard that before. ;)

That's why the 'probably' is important. ;)

Acoustic Viscosity said:
"the Golden Nugget is the greatest family ride since sliced bread."

While I'm looking forward to Black Diamond, I'm rather interested in this Sliced Bread ride. What's the capacity? Will it open before Flying Turns? And what happens when the mechanism jams?

Everyone point and laugh at the guy who doesn't know how to use the quote feature. (HAHAHAHAHA!)

I wonder how many people will hold off on going to Knoebel's until Flying Turns is opened? I know that I will wait, but that's because I moved further from the park, and haven't been there in a few years, so I want to make it count when I go.

Every visit to Knoebels COUNTS.

LostKause said:
I wonder how many people will hold off on going to Knoebel's until Flying Turns is opened?

Including you...one. :)

LostKause said:
Everyone point and laugh at the guy who doesn't know how to use the quote feature. (HAHAHAHAHA!)

I know how to use the quote feature.. I was just respecting the thread where it says not to abuse the quote feature.

Thanks for the clarification Acoustic

I'm going to hit Knoebels twice this year, usually only go once.