Great Escape Expansion Note

Oh yeah...BTW milleniumforcer...did I already start this topic a few hours earlier?
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Phly the Pheonix

PheonixPhan: I sincerly hope you were joking about that! Because the chances of that ever happening are zero to absolute zero!

The Great Escape is in the perfect location. It is located in a tourist spot deemed 9th best family vacation spot in the country [Money Magazine: July 2000]. It is also just a short drive from Albany, so it's not all that far away. They have a decent amount of land, and that park has been there since the 1950's I think.

200 foot height limit is just fine. You don't need a unlimited ceiling to have the one of the best parks around. Take a look at Alton Towers over seas! You can go no higher than tree tops (which is around 100 or so feet max), so they just worked around that and it wound up making the rides more intense & the park is doing just fine!

Although Great Escape may not be able to do just that yet... if they are faced with a few restrictions, they can always go underground!! Imagine a 240' coaster where 40 of those feet drop into a underground tunnel. It CAN happen... question is... WILL it happen?

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Proud to be an American!!

On a 2nd note... did you know that the Alpine Bobsled coasters were actually built in 1984?? I guess that goes to show you just exactly how "new" all of Great Escape's coasters are:

1) Comet- Originally built in 1948 @ Crystal Beach
2) Steamin Deamon- Originally built in 1978 @ Pontchartrain Beach
3) Nightmare Indoor coaster- Originally built in 1981 [est] @ Beech Bend
4) Alpine Bobsled- Originally built in 1984 @ Six Flags Great Adventure
5) Boomerang- Originally built in 1997 @ The Great Escape

Will The Great Escape be getting another "Used" coaster, or will they FINALLY be getting something brand spanking new??

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Proud to be an American!!

*** This post was edited by DawgByte II on 10/28/2001. ***

Dawg Byte - hopefully this is the year that GE gets a Brand New coaster instead of another park reject!

im off to the park in about an hour or so, w/camera in hand :)

Is it really logical for six Flags to expand both SFDL, La Ronde and Great Escape? All three Six Flags parks have slighly similar markets, so why would six flags put lots of money into all three parks? I already have heard about SF putting about 50 million into La Ronde over the next five years and the new beemer a B:TR clone is supposively coming next year. so I really do not expect to see huge expansion from both SFDL and Great Escape,as some buzzers are predicting will happen.

It would be possible to build a SROS at Great Escape within the 200 foot limit. It was done at SFA with the same height limit. It is certainly possible to build a fine park with a 200 foot limit. In fact, only 5 parks in the US have coasters over 220 feet.

DawgByte II said:
1) Comet- Originally built in 1948 @ Crystal Beach

If you want to get technical, wasn't it built by Traver as the CB Cyclone before being turned into the Comet in 1948?

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bigkirby: Technically... no. Only pieces of the originaly wood was used from the old Crystal Beach Cyclone, but no part of the actual track or layout was inspired from the Cyclone. The Crystal Beach Cyclone was a pure wooden twister with just a straight track on the lift hill.

The Crystal Beach Comet is a double out & back. Only some wood from the structure was used from the Cyclone when building the Comet.

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Proud to be an American!!

You guys can keep Alpine Bobsled...

Rolling Thunder was the worst coaster Great America has had since 1990...

read this article from a August...http://albany.bcentral.com/albany/stories/2001/08/20/focus2.html

milleniumforcer said:
They both said that Stemon Demon will be either replaced or moved by Superman or Batman.

I know Superman could probably move a coaster but Batman is kind of a wimp and just has gadgets to work with.

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Save Cheese on a stick!

Notice of Acceptance of Final Generic EIS

Warren County - The Town of Queensbury Planning Board, as lead agency, has accepted a Final Generic EIS on the proposed Great Escape Theme Park LLC Expansion. The action involves the expansion of the existing park through the construction of additional parking, vehicle circulation and pedestrian access facilities including parking lots, a “ring road”, dedicated access lanes, pedestrian bridge and new visitor entrance plaza; construction of a 200 room hotel, possible construction of a convention center/trade show facility. A new tertiary wastewater treatment system, upgrades to the park’s electrical service and stormwater management facilities are also planned. The purpose of the action is to provide support facilities and capacity to allow for planned growth in annual patronage at the park. It is anticipated that rides and attractions in the park will change and/or be constructed to attract such additional visitors. The project is located in the Town of Queensbury.

*** This post was edited by CalvinJ23 on 11/1/2001. ***

CalvinJ23: That link you provided doesn't sound overly optimistic on the future of The Great Escape from a standpoint of the general ride/coaster enthusiast.
Only $30-50 million spread out over 5 years? What in the world can you do with that? By the time you make all the general upgrades mentioned (Hotel, sweage/water treatment, lane fixtures, entrance plaza, bridge, parking lot improvements), what is left for rides & attractions? Not much. I bet that they might have to start buying MORE used rides in order to keep costs down (Drachen Fire, anyone? )!! That can't be cool.

Also, it was mentioned in that link that the new Sky Coaster is like around only 126 feet?!? You saw it... is it honestly any good? I saw the one at Worlds of Adventure's which is a mere 100 feet and it looks like a joke! What's an extra 26 feet? Not much, and it still looks like that the Boomerang is around the same height as that! **sigh**

I sure hope they do get taller rides. I also hope that the money isn't all squandered into just those improvements mentioned. How are they going to nearly double attendance and employees if they don't add any major NEW new rides (ie: built specifically for The Great Escape)?

*** This post was edited by DawgByte II on 11/1/2001. ***

P>eah, hopefully they get something, anything new. By the way, did you know that the Great Escapes coasters were featured on the Statue of Liberty...FONT size=4> "B>Give me your tired, your poor, our huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,/B>/P>
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The Great Escape- Home of the Reject Coasters!

the skycoaster at GE is actually 180feet, that article got it wrong. as for the money to be spent, that $50 million was just an estimate at that time, and should increase dramatically.

Now for alittle bad news...i just spoke w/Chris Round who is the Director of Community Development in Queensbury and it looks as though the great escape has yet to propose any new coasters for the '02 season yet. This is what he had to say when i asked him about it:
None yet. The Town approved a Generic Environmental Impact Statement for Great Escape that will allow the park to expand support facilities (parking, etc.) and established performance standards by which new amusements will be
judged/regulated.

I am surprised that SF is spending so much on expanding La ronde and Grrat Escape. Aren't they realatively close to each other? There markets are different but how much people really live in upstate New york and the border of Canada. I guess maybe SFDL won't see a large expansion since SF is putting so much money into two pretty nclose parks.

I am surprised that SF is spending so much on expanding La ronde and Grrat Escape. Aren't they realatively close to each other? There markets are different but how much people really live in upstate New york and the border of Canada. I guess maybe SFDL won't see a large expansion since SF is putting so much money into two pretty close parks.

Great Escape and La Ronde are about 2.5 hours apart, and really serve two different markets, although the two markets do overlap. On one hand, La Ronde serves an extremely large metropolitan area with a population base of a couple million people. On the other hand, Great Escape serves the greater Albany area which has a population base of several hundred thousand people. SFDL really isn't much of an issue since it's about a 6 hour drive from the Great Escape. Each of these parts are badly crying for expansion, and each of them will most likely benefit from increased patronage.

Not only that. But Montreal is a huge party town, and is within a far driving distance from Toronto, and other large areas...

Plus with the Batman B&M clone coming. It will attract a lot more!!