GL's Park Map now posted

Cedar Fair's maps are all done by a little design/illustration studio in Ohio called Top Dog Studio. They do a nice job, IMHO, much better than the crap crapped out of the crappy artists that Six Flags uses. shudder.
What I especially like is that they are very stylized yet generally manage to capture the ride layouts with some accuracy. The folks who do IB/Knoebels/etc (amusement media) are very accurate and clear, but pretty boring. Then there's maps like Kennywood's which just creep me out entirely.

For those who enjoy park maps this site may be of interest:

http://www.citigraph.com/

I've never met a park map that I couldn't use. Really. Who cares what they look like if they tell you the general direction to get where you're going? Is it really that important to use the precise pantone match to the ride paint?

The maps aren't meant to give you warm fuzzies, they're meant to show you how to get around. This map does just that.

I prefer the Six Flags map. Some of this looks pretty silly. Thumbs down on layouts and colors. People will figure out how to get around obviously, but just what I think about the park map art form. ;)

Better names can be more marketable on that topic. If someone has a negative opinion about something, it doesn't mean its totally bad and it doesn't change other factors. Some parks with sucktacular maps are wonderful parks. Some rides with cool and unique names are fairly horrible. The rides are still just as fun (usually), but something like Dueling Dragons does more for me than if you called them Feet Danglers or Aunt Sue's Fruit Cake Coasters. Bad names are less attractive to me for something I'm going to ride the first time. Badass names get me pumped up. They add another dimension and character to the ride for me. CF names generally flatline on character and personality, so I'm not a huge fan of any of the new ones.

YMMV.

+Danny *** Edited 4/20/2004 11:12:51 PM UTC by +Danny***

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ThemeDesigner said:
...much better than the crap crapped out of the crappy artists that Six Flags uses. shudder...

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Is it JUST because it's got the name "Six Flags" in it? Because that'd be pretty pathetic if it was. What, is anything that deals with Six Flags meant to be pure crap? Six Flags doesn't equal crap quality, just because a few "enthusiasts" don't like how some things are ran.

What's so wrong with their [Six Flags] maps? They're very clean, the drawings are pretty detailed, can make out a little more detail than other chains, and are probably more to scale than most other park maps. I'd say that whoever does Six Flags Maps (Citigraph, is it?), does a much better job than Cedar Fair or Paramount, from the maps that I've seen. In other words... if I were to buy a souvineer map of Six Flags America, Geauga Lake, or Paramount Kings Island based upon looks alone (not what the park offers)... I'd choose SFA because it's a little more "fun" to look at... although Paramount falls in a close 2nd.

*** Edited 4/20/2004 11:13:52 PM UTC by DawgByte II***

Add another one in favor of SF maps. Warm and fuzzies? Hardly necessary, but considering that the GL map tried to accentuate the best parts (or most visible) of the coasters, why on earth would they not make BKF's vertical loop and cobra stand out?

I've been to the park several times and still had to look for a while to see if I could figure out which was a crappy SLC and which was a Floorless masterpiece.

People will argue about anything ...

The only thing I see from that is that the park feels X-Flight, Villain, Wolf Bobs and Steel Venom are it's star attractions. No other reason to distort the real height relationships (cause if you look at a CP map, all the coasters are very close in their height relationships).

they have an observation tower!?

.... i swear the 3 or 4 times i've been to the park i've never noticed it, lol...

-- alan "i think i've lost my mind" J

Well something I don't get is that Mission Bermuda Triangle is On there as well, with the midway extending up to that barracks. But Mission Bermuda Triangle is definately not listed on the Rides List, which in order to reach that would you not have to pass up Shark Expedition and 3D-Pirates Theater?

I really like the new map more than the old one, just my $0.02. Alos, the Six Flags site is updated and SFWoA and the sold European parks are now off of the site. *** Edited 4/21/2004 1:47:16 AM UTC by Goliath Freak***

I don't really see too much of a difference between SF and CF maps (yes, I see the difference. It just doen't make me say "Wow. That's quite a different map!") The only one I don't like is the Paramount one. It's too...boring?...old-fashioned?...something. I can't quite put my finger on it

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SFDL_Dude said:
they have an observation tower!?

.... i swear the 3 or 4 times i've been to the park i've never noticed it, lol...

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Maybe that's because it's never open!

I didn't think anyone actually wanted to ride it either. I've seen it operating several times but it scares me to ride things when *no one* else is in line or even in that area besides the ride ops. I would be lonely over there.

+Danny

The only time I tried to ride it, I was told I wasn't allowed to take photos while on it.

Kind of funny since the small sign in front said it was 'sponsored' by Kodak.

Misinformed employees and security then? Plus, it was the day after they had that employee die in the heat - so I'm sure they were a bit defensive of guys with really long camera lenses trying to take pics of everything.

I guess I have to cut them some slack as the day before that a CP employee working the height stick at Mantis told me that photographing the rides wasn't allowed...

...from the midway...

...on that bench by the vertical loop...

...when the people beside me were too...

...yet he didn't make them stop...

...

Ahem. At least CP didn't take my film. Two years later and I'm still bitter over that trip. Never had anything even close to as big a situation since then at any park - let alone on back to back days.

Sorry for the re-rant (that's like a rerun on TV)

CB Visitor #1: "Didn't we see this post like two years ago?"
His Buddy: "Yeah, dude, let's go read sumpin' else"

On the birght side, maybe I can get to Geauga Lake this year and get some of those photos :)

Thanks for the info, Jes.

Well, the observation tower at SFWoA was open during my trip in 2002.

Got on, went up, rotated once, started to come down.

Wow, that was great. :)

Might as well not even be there.

They wouldn't let you take pictures at SFWOA? I have video and over 200 pictures from the park. That's really weird as no one has ever said anything to us. I definitely believe it, but it's so strange how experiences at the same park can be polar opposites from one person to the next.

+Danny, probably the lucky one at unlucky parks

There was some fiasco a few seasons ago about somebody on the boards getting yelled at for video taping the monorail or something.

Does anyone recall that stuff?

The Obeservation Tower sounds just like the one in RCT! They get riders at first then no one rides them!

Sounds like it time to add an Enterprise in it's place! ;)