Holiday World 2015

When you already have a coaster with so much air time as The Voyage, why waste your money on a mega-lite? It doesn't do anything that The Voyage doesn't already do.

The public has been asking for loop-d-loops. Pretty sure that's what they are gonna get. And I really, really hope it's a Mack launched coaster at least as good as Blue Fire, but hopefully more of a layout like Helix's in Sweden with no mid-course brake and non-stop action.

That said though, as much as I dislike Intamin rides in general, even I wouldn't mind a clone of Expedition Ge-Force. It is THAT good. Mega-lites on the other hand, not so much in my opinion.

Apparently, mega-lite is this year's "aqua trax".

Inverted.

Oh, here we gooooooo again...

I love when people argue that you can't have two of the same type of roller coaster in the same park. Because, you know, having two roller coasters sucks.

Like you would never put two water slides of the same type in a park in an effort to increase capacity, not to mention to go with a proven crowd pleaser, right?

Why would you put more than one wood coaster in one park? Crazy!

I get what you are saying, Jeff, however, why would a park build two of the same kind when they can build something unique instead? That people sometimes comment about the two B&Ms at Canada's Wonderland is a great example.

I understand what both sides of the argument are trying to get at. I think it's less of a overreaching rule for all parks and is better to be looked at as what the needs of the particular park in question are.

And by "people" you mean enthusiasts. I rest my case.

I think a mega-lite is likely off the table not because it's similar to Voyage, but because Intamin delivered a flaky ride in the form of Pilgrim's Plunge/Giraffica.

There will be those that speculate that the park could be getting a discount on an Intamin coaster as recompense, but I don't really buy into that being a thing.

On another note, have you guys seen this yet?

Credit goes to http://blog.coasterradio.com/2014/05/this-post-is-not-about-kentucky-kingdom.html

They took the time to painstakingly assemble the shredded paper packing material from the press kit they received. Perhaps it's real, perhaps a clever misdirection, but interesting nonetheless.

Someone at another forum pointed out that those squares look awfully similar to B&M markers for Footings...

The letter/number combinations on those presumed footings are exactly what I've seen on every B&M support (C71L across from C71R, for example). I don't know whether other companies do things similarly, but I do know how B&M marks their supports...living here in FL and all... ;~P

Dive machine.

The nomenclature is what B&M uses, sure. I couldn't say if others use the same thing because I don't pay much attention.

I threw my shredded packing stuff away. I can't believe anyone spent that time. Wait, yes I can.

While I enjoy trying to solve a mystery, my initial thought on seeing the reconstructed paper shards is, wow, someone has too much time on their hands.

My second thought is to the dimensions of the footers. The largest is 20x20, in what I am going to assume is feet. I have never gone out with a tape measure and measured how big your typical steel coaster footer, but that just strikes me as huge. Perhaps that is an indication that is above a body of water or marshy ground.

If those are B&M footers, could an LSM launch coaster be out of the question? I feel like I remember hearing that they were just waiting for a park to ask for one. I agree with Acoustic Viscosity in that a ride like Blue Fire or Helix would be great and I think that B&M could certainly emulate a ride like that.

Here's the Gatekeeper blueprint that showed up prior to the announcement for comparison:

http://i.imgur.com/heARd.jpg

The labeling and symbols do look remarkably similar. Just wanted to give a visual on what others are describing as possibly being B&M.

When Gravity Group announced the Timberliners, they were touting features including the ability to launch, and the ability to have inversions. I don't know how strained the Gravity Group / Holiday World relationship is after the Voyage Timberliner issue, but a launched wood coaster with inversions could be very interesting.

Remember that the reference to size is to the big block of concrete that's mostly buried.

note the helix at the end of gatekeeper, then compare to the shredded blueprint (if rotated about 150 degrees).

Not implying that its a similar ride type, but the markings look amazingly similar.