Hurricane Harbor (SFA) Construction Update

Ahh Sam, it's times like this that I wish what you were saying was actually hinting at what we are getting in 2006 instead of just getting our hopes up.

Personally, I say build a family coaster. It would seem they could put a "Mr. Six's Pandamonium" clone in Southwest Territory between Falling Star and Tower of Doom. Have the part on SFNE's "Mr. Six's Pandemonium" where the ride wraps around Time Warp, wrap around Tower of Doom at SFA instead. Seems it could fit in that area just perfectly. Make it Road Runner/Coyote Themed instead to fit the area. I think it would be a great ride for SFA, especially in that location.

I think a 4D is GREAT ride, I got on it in cali at six flags california. It's the best experience, it would the best thing that SFA could get. A would blow all competition away!!!

That being said, if you compare the noise that a B&M and a 4d coaster makes, the BM makes ALOT of noise going up their lift. (kinda like JJ taking off...) How can BM detain the train/tracks from making noise?

^Sand. That's how they did it with Talon (and I assume Hydra). Talon is so quiet that if you are standing in front of one of the low turnarounds, all you hear is the wind as the train passes by (of course, it's been since 2001, so my memory could be somewhat skewed). Although you are my homey, I got call you out on the B&M reliability comment Go With Gravity. I've experienced plenty of B&M breakdowns. Are they as numerous as say certain Intamin products--No (if they could just fix that damn lifthill problem, they'd run as reliably as my Mazda).

On a different note, what is the transportation problem for you BatwingFanSFA? Listen, I'll be the first one to tell you that owning a car is ridiculously expensive, but without one, I'd probably be in the same boat as you are--wishing that park X would get a certain ride, or feeling envious that another park got ride Z. While it may not make you feel better, consider yourself lucky that you don't live in one of many states that don't have any parks, or in areas that haven't quite caught up (and probably never will) with the sophistication of the better known parks. *** Edited 3/14/2005 1:29:16 AM UTC by Intamin Fan***

Take a look at the past couple of years Coasterlover.This year it's the HH makeover & the long overdue paint jobs then 06 will probably see the park recieve just general improvements with the next major attraction coming in 07.

A MR.Six's pandamonium clone probably wouldn't fit in between falling star & Tower of doom,behind TOD maybe but not on that narrow little strip of land between Wild one's entrance,falling star & the tower.

Sorry for the double post but is it possible that Mind Eraser is actually getting a new color scheme instead of the original teal & red?

Coasterlover did post something on another board about the fact that they're using white primer for the ride & of course SFGRADV & SFGRAM did the same thing when repainting B:TR(new colors) while CP didn't use primer when repainting Raptor(original colors)also Borg was given white primer prior to it's new colors at Carowinds.

Now if a new color is chosen I'm hoping they go for a nice brown shade for the track & maybe white/gray supports which would really help the ride blend into it's themed section a little better because the ride does seem out of place with it's current color scheme.

So my question is do they need to apply the primer if they intend to use the same colors as before?

---

BATWING FAN SFA said:
Sorry for the double post but is it possible that Mind Eraser is actually getting a new color scheme instead of the original teal & red?

---

How does Yellow and Orange sound?

AND DON'T CALL IT BURGER KING : THE RIDE !

How about "The Great Pumpkin"? :)

Well, that would solve Mr. Snyder's complaint about not taking advantage of Marketing Oppurtunities.

Well I guess it'll be the same old teal & red then.I can easily get where that yellow & orange bit is coming from(cough Thunderhawk @ GL cough).

As long as it's getting a fresh coat of paint that's good enough for me.

---

BATWING FAN SFA said:
Well I guess it'll be the same old teal & red then.I can easily get where that yellow & orange bit is coming from(cough Thunderhawk @ GL cough).

---

You wouldn't know the truth if it bit you in the juevos!!

The Mind Eraser colors will be changed to Orange and Yellow!

Six Flags America posted some facts about Bahama Blast I thought I would share.

It's officially listed as a thrill ride on the rides section of the parks website.

Bahama Blast:

Height: 55 feet
Length: 517 feet
Will have a section of closed, dark track before you get to the open track and hit the pool.

Not a lot of info but a little more than we were given in the press release.

^Interesting to hear this because I would've expected Bahama Blast to be given a "WP" for waterpark attraction description instead.

If Mind Eraser is getting repainted orange & yellow then will the track be orange & the structure yellow or the other way around? I take it they'll also have to change the train colors as well right?I'm just hoping they'll spend the extra cash on the newer vekoma trains which feature the improved wheel assembly to improve the overall quality of the ride.

It's the 17th,got any new construction pics for us Coasterlover? Now of course you said last week you'll only take pics if there is any significant progress made in the construction going on in Hurricane Harbor so there's no point in taking pics if no real progress has been made since your last uppdate.

Wow! Talking about holding ones nose to the grind. The guy is volunterily (sp?) putting his season pass on the line to get a few distant pics of what is going on inside SFA and your holding him to his word when he still has more than 10 hours to come through?

Come 'on, it's a jungle over there. It takes time to be a good investigative photographer. He has to dodge mine fields, barbed wire fences and the watchful eye of the SFA Security Zombies. A good investigative photographer such as Coaster Lover uses his stealth abilities to evade detection and must cover his tracks to avoid capture. You never know, he might be the caped crusader himself and have to stop crime in its tracks using his Black ACE Jacket. ;)

In time my BatwingFan Friend, in time.

Don't forget PG county's finest :).

Lol, the new pics have been taken and they'll be available soon. I can tell you this, I didn't take any pics of Hurricane Harbor. There doesn't seem to be any change. I didn't notice any new pieces in the parking lot, I didn't notice any pieces assembled that hadn't been before, and I didn't notice any verticle construction. I did notice the roofs of trucks on the ground inside Hurricane Harbor, so it's safe to assume that ground work is well underway, but it isn't anything that can be seen from Central Ave.

I did head toward the west enterance where I did get some nice shots of Mind Eraser. It appears that ALL of the TRACK has been completly primed. I didn't see ANY of the supports that had been primed which leads me to one of three conclusions: 1) The supports still need to be primed, which wouldn't make much sense as you would think they would do the supports at the same time they are doing the track 2) The supports are just going to be painted over in a darker color, maybe the supports will be a dark orange/orange-red with yellow track, or 3) contradicting what Sam has said, the supports will remain red, just be repainted, and the track will be yellow, like the color scheme on the Millennium Roller Coaster at Fantasy Island (seen here: http://www.rcdb.com/ig843.htm?picture=2) The other thing I noticed was that the walkway on the lift is still teal. Once again this probably means one of three things: 1) The walkway still needs to be primed, but once again that would seem odd as mentioned before, 2) it will stay teal, which would look really odd against the new color scheme, or 3) it will be painted a darker color, possibly black as I'm hoping. A nice yellow and red/orange color with black highlights in places like the walkway lift, I think that would be very nice.

Well, that's about it for the SFA update. Once again, all my pics are taken WELL OUTSIDE park property lines, and I NEVER jump fences or the like, so I'm assuming that all my pics are taken from public property. I'd like to thank SFA (if they have ANYONE reading this thread) for letting me take these pics, and if SFA would like someone to take pics from inside the park, I'd be MORE than happy to oblige! Once Wes (aka coasterguts) get's the pics up, he or I will give you the link. It's not much to see, just a few MUCH better pics of Mind Eraser that you can really see the progress in.

In other SFA news, SFI has posted their 10-K annual report: http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/701374/000110465905011331/a05-1844_110k.htm
Here's what they have to say about SFA:

"Six Flags America, a combination theme and water park located in Largo, Maryland (approximately 15 miles east of Washington, D.C. and 30 miles southwest of Baltimore, Maryland) is the 48th largest theme park in North America. The park’s primary market includes Maryland, northern Virginia, Washington, D.C. and parts of Pennsylvania and Delaware. This market provides the park with a permanent resident population base of approximately 7.4 million people within 50 miles and 12.4 million people within 100 miles. Based on a 2004 survey of television households within designated market areas (“DMAs”) published by A.C. Nielsen Media Research, the Washington, D.C. and Baltimore markets are the number 8 and number 23 DMAs in the United States, respectively.(1)

We own a site of 515 acres, with 131 acres currently used for park operations. The remaining 384 acres, which are zoned for entertainment and recreational uses, provide us with ample expansion opportunity, as well as the potential to develop complementary operations. We may also determine to dispose of some of the additional acreage not necessary for the park’s operations.

Six Flags America’s principal competitors are King’s Dominion Park, located in Doswell, Virginia (near Richmond); Hershey Park, located in Hershey, Pennsylvania; and Busch Gardens, located in Williamsburg, Virginia. These parks are located approximately 120, 125 and 175 miles, respectively, from Six Flags America."

So, what's changed since the last 10-K? Well, we dropped from the 42nd best attendance to the 48th best attendance, the number of people within 50 miles has risen by 100,000 people and the people within 100 miles has risen by 200,000 people. For those wondering, the line about the extra land for "complementary operations" as well as the next sentence about disposing of additional acreage are the EXACT same as in the last 10-K.

Pictures can be found here:

http://snipurl.com/dhx3

They're really making progress on priming the coaster & from what can be seen so far it appears as though the lift,drop & rollover loop are all primed & ready for paint.

I also noticed that the catwalk & top of the lift(motor housing) has yet to be primed but I'm sure they'll get to it in due time because I'm sure they don't want to have it looking like that by opening day if they can avoid it.

Thanks for getting the pics Coasterlover...man I'm more excited about the new paint than the waterpark additions at this point & can hardly wait for opening day in just a little over three short weeks from now :) :).

Like I said, it's possible that the catwalk & top of the lift could be painted a darker color... like Black, which would look really good against the new brighter color scheme. Also, when I was taking the pics, I was moving to look around the trees, and from what I could see, just about ALL of the track has been primed, but NONE of the supports have been primed. Hope that clears things up at least a little. Also, for those who were wondering, Iron Eagle was back in the normal position when I was looking at Hurricane Harbor. (In the last couple pics it was upside down at the top of the cycle).

That's possible but either way it's got to be primed first for the paint to adhere properly.

Also since the motor housing/lift pulley is above the track they're probably waiting for the actual paint to be applied before priming that section...then again they'd just end up spraying more primer over the freshly painted track if they do it that way unless of course they do it by hand with a paint roller.

Well, Its been a while since we, well I've heard of SFA. Is there any vertical construction going on? I dont mean to ask the 'spy-ers' to risk anything, but have you gone and see any changes in the HH or the color of the rides.

I just hope that this year we see some innovations withing the main park, as well as new services.......CANT WAIT.:)