Holiday World 2015

After getting... What by a bird?
Near-by a bird?
Sung to by a bird?
Crapped on by a bird?
Hit in the face by a bird, Fabio?

Don't keep us in suspense!

I didn't do it.

Fabio??? Is that you?

I actually think it might be possible that it is an Intamin product because of Plunge. Specifically, if Intamin knows they messed up with Plunge, then wouldn't it be possible that they said to HW "Hey, we messed up and we want to make it right.", and then build them some sort of coaster a large discount?

I know in my industry, the occasional "cutting edge" product sometimes fails miserably, and in order to retain possible future sales, the company involved will offer some sort of huge discount on a different product.

I am just wondering if that situation could apply here.

Was thinking the same thing.

RCMAC said:

^^Or for those reasons.

Don't you make similar decisions based on "it happened at my house?" Dissatisfaction with goods, products, or services is the best reason I can think of to shop elsewhere. Returning to the same unsatisfactory product or company is not only a bad business decision but it sends the wrong message.

Try not to but everyone takes things personal quite often. Do you really think another park considering an Intamin woodie will stop based on Pilgrims Plunge? If they would, is that a reasonable decision? If you believe it is reasonable then you made the call in a non personal manor. If you think it is not reasonable for other parks but reasonable for HW that is personal. I think you need to shy away from some Intamin products, but all of them? Not sure we are there yet. And yes a message needs to be communicated, unless you are ending the relationship forever and then none is needed.

If a store has a great benefit, a bad experience won't make me go elsewhere. Walmart is a great example for me. I test their generic brands. Some are the greatest deals on earth like 4 rolls of TP for 0.68 or contact solution for less than 3.00. I tried their hotdogs and nearly puked. They have a frozen pizza that is terrible too. You may find a shirt or two you like and they are fine. Shoes? Terrible. I have had several bad experiences there but I continue to shop there because I don't let the bad experiences make me so mad that I forget there are great deals to be had.

Intamin's steel and wood have staying power at the top of the charts. It is because they are for real, not just hype. MF, XGF, and S:ROS/Bizzaro have been up there for 13 years now? Eventually parks will learn what they need to build.

The only person making this personal is you because you like the rides.

You aren't talking about a loaf of bread, you're talking about a multi million dollar ride.

Heck, all they're building this year in North America are two drop rides, neither of which are open yet and it's JUNE. JUNE! And it's two drop rides! They've been making those for decades!

You can keep saying parks will or won't go whatever based on whatever cockamamy reason you want but let's see how many US Parks build Intamin rides in the next 5 years.

Repeating yourself isn't a valid argument.

Can you possibly be saying that until a park builds an Intamin hyper coaster they don't know what they're doing? Or maybe they don't know what they're missing? (besides a ride from a company who's delivered coasters and water rides with sketchy safety records, design flaws, constant maintenance issues, loads of frustrating down time, and [apparently] has an ass for a rep.)

Sure, every one of us enthusiasts would love to have an Expedition G Force in their home park. But what does the typical park goer know about that? I live in Ohio and to this day I hear people say how they would've loved to have ridden Top Thrill Dragster but the day they were there it was broken. Kingda Ka. I305. Maverick. Accelerator. Millenium Force. Shoot the Rapids. Wicked Twister. Perilous Plunge. Volcano. Hydro. Hellevator. Half Pipe. The list goes on, I'm sure, but what it represents are rides that go anywhere from problem children to killers. Tek makes an excellent point I haven't realized til now, but indeed, Intamin is noticibly absent from the "big new ride" lists over here these days.

And I'm going to go ahead and allow that every park would love to have a "chart topping" ride. But isn't it entirely possible that the same experience everyone desires might be achieved by going with any of the other reliable coaster manufacturers out there, numbering into the dozens? Sure it is, wait and see.

I've never worked for the park and I'm not an "insider". But trust and believe along with me that Holiday World will never. ever. let Intamin set foot in their park again. And if it should happen I'll eat my hat and yours too.

A coaster got at a huge discount that ends up not working as it should is still not a good deal.

RCMAC said:

After getting... What by a bird?
Near-by a bird?
Sung to by a bird?
Crapped on by a bird?
Hit in the face by a bird, Fabio?

Don't keep us in suspense!

Hit. Damn, I hate ADD.

About the discounted Intamin thing, yeah I see where you're coming from. But you have to think, this isn't a generic brand of cereal or box of knock off pop tarts. This is a multi-million dollar piece of machinery. People always say, "You only get one first impression" and it appears that Intamin blew it worse than Tommy Boy with a desktop demo. (Literally that's the first thing I thought of was this ) Sure Holiday World can get a discounted Intamin, but this isn't an overnight change. It's going to take nearly a year to install the ride, test it, and advertise it, and chances are it's going to either:

- Run absolutely beautifully with little to no faults (Then Deteriorate.)

- Be a constant maintenance issue, have outrageous downtime, and end up being a flat mistake.

After working Plunge, I still could never wrap my head around how awful that ride was at functioning. Literally, If a boat sat for a split second more than it should have, it sparked catastrophe. I can't tell you how many evacuations we did. Hell one time, I was told to go talk to a boat waiting on the bottom portion of the elevator because it showed on the screen a boat was stuck there. I grabbed my towel and ran out to the bottom of the elevator and no where was a boat to be found. I even looked up. The whole ride was a dysfunctional, waste of time. I've never been more happy to see it go.

^What he said.

I have trouble with the notion of comparing having sampled assorted Walmart private brand products (a few bucks a pop for the most part) to assorted amusement parks having significant issues with multi-million dollar Intamin installations. I don't see the comparison.

The big difference is in volume. I buy maybe 20 loaves of bread a year so if it takes me 10 to find a good one and then I get to buy another few hundred good loaves of bread (before I move) then that's a huge win. Bread is also not a huge portion of my expense or of my income.

A park like HW buys 1 coaster every 5 years and it HAS to payoff. If they make 1 or 2 major missteps, they're out of business.

Also, being an SFoT homer, you can't imagine how many people around here think Titan is the best coaster on the planet. It's not even in my top 25 steel, but 99.99% of the people who go to Six Flags couldn't tell you the difference between Raging Bull and Bizarro NE.

Likely a huge chunk of those people couldn't tell you the difference between a wood coaster and a steel coaster. A coaster is a coaster is a coaster....

Eh. I think people can tell the difference between wood and steel.

And Andy, Titan is pretty close to being the best coaster on the planet. ;)

Pretty much all coaster enthusiasts know the difference.

But based on conversations I've had or over-heard with the general public, yeah, there are people who don't make that distinction -- to them, steel v wood is a meaningless distinction.

That said -- Titan is an amazing ride.

I could see a park taking a chance on a unique ride from a company that, while they don't always deliver, when they do, it's awesome. Intamin more than occasionally hits 'em out of the park, and I'm sure that to some extent, this will be considered. However, even being as business-sense-impaired as I am, I can't see a park as well-run and somewhat cautious as Holiday World saying, "Thank you sir, may I have another?" I'd put my chips on B&M or Mack for the new build.

The dirt mounds and land clearing have advanced massively. Big holes have been dug out, footers are being set up by the dozens. They have wire frames just laying on the dirt ready to be lowered and others are already poured. It's a sight definitely.

^Has anymore of Pilgrims Plunge been removed? I was there during HoliWood nights and they still had the trough filled with water and the station was still up.

Plunge is still mostly untouched station wise. They have the rear entrance boarded up with a boat hanging out a little bit towards the opening. I have a picture I could share. I took many today. Other than the ride being removed, not much has changed.