A day at the park is what you make it!
Glad to hear that Mind Eraser's track will be getting a bright orange color as opposed to the shade being used on GL's Thunderhawk although I would've preffered yellow track & orange supports.
That reminds me of a thread I saw on rec.rollercoaster the other day regarding Mind Eraser's 10th season...one of ops being trained to run the ride for the first season recalled a funny incident that took place during testing the day before the ride opened to the public.
He recalls that during load testing on may 19th the park was using innertubes(from the waterpark) loaded with potatoes to simulate passengers & that by the time they were done testing there were potatoes strewn all under the ride & a couple of the potatoes actually went flying across the coyote creek midway,somehow past Renegade rapids & all the way to the employee lot that used to occupy the land that Roar now stands on nearly hitting an employees car in the process.
Does anyone else have any memorable or funny stories to tell about the coaster or park in general over the past 10 years?
BATWING FAN SFA said:He recalls that during load testing on may 19th the park was using innertubes(from the waterpark) loaded with potatoes to simulate passengers & that by the time they were done testing there were potatoes strewn all under the ride & a couple of the potatoes actually went flying across the coyote creek midway,somehow past Renegade rapids & all the way to the employee lot that used to occupy the land that Roar now stands on nearly hitting an employees car in the process.
OK EVERYBODY read the above, then read the below, so you understand exactly why I rag on BATWINGFANSFA all the time. He turns rafts into inner tubes and moves cars that are parked near mind eraser 200 yards away near roar....
This is what the RRC contributor REALLY said:
(May 19th) that testing began with small inflatable rubber "rafts"
filled with potatos to act as weight. I returned very early the next
morning for the grand opening only to find these rubber "rafts" and
potatos strewn all over underneath the coaster since a few were thrown
out during test runs. One or two of them nearly hit a parked car
across the way near the Rapids Ride.
A day at the park is what you make it!
coasterguts said:
Well in defense of BatwingFan, the park doesn't call them rafts either, the park calls them tubes. Check under Additional Season Pass Info on the SFA website. The park calls it "Season Tube Rental".
Did the guy say they got the rafts from the waterpark? follow me on this......
How could a double tube or single tube hold potatoes?
My other question is, did they use the potatoes to make french fries after they were done with them? ;) *** Edited 3/27/2005 2:23:45 AM UTC by coasterguts***
A day at the park is what you make it!
Sam A. Marks said:How could a double tube or single tube hold potatoes?
lol...When I first read his post, that's what I was wondering.
But I could of sworn I saw a flying spud from my backyard that day.
Now of course I wasn't there to witness the potato test runs personally(didn't visit the park until 96 after having visited once in 89)so I just assumed the poster on rec.rollercoaster was talking about the employee lot & picnic grounds that once stood on Roar's current footprint that's all.
Anyhow I & others are waiting to see the latest pics so just keep us informed & post a link for us as soon as they're up.
BATWING FAN SFA said:
Rafts,tubes it's the same thing......after all there's no way a "raft" from Renegade rapids would even fit in the seat.Now of course I wasn't there to witness the potato test runs personally(didn't visit the park until 96 after having visited once in 89)so I just assumed the poster on rec.rollercoaster was talking about the employee lot & picnic grounds that once stood on Roar's current footprint that's all.
there's no need to decide what rafts were used, nor any need to guess where the potatos landed, had you just stuck with what the RRC poster had said, everything would have been cool.
We all know what happens when we "assume".........
I still recall the first time I rode Python(rip) it was in 97 & Wild one was down all morning so my friends wanted to ride Python instead....now I'd never ridden a shuttle looper before so it was a real lesson in terror although I did end up growing somewhat fond of that coaster over time.
Another time in 97 when we went to ride Python it was taking forever to load the train,why is that you ask? well it was because one woman had second thoughts about riding to which the lead op replied"you just walked up 100 steps & now you're gonna have to walk back down another 100 steps without riding the coaster?" it was so funny & of course in the end boasted by encouragement from all of us on the platform she took her seat in the train & ended up enjoying the ride after all.
http://www.geocities.com/terp_fan_4_life/DCP_0728.JPG
Seems they’re painting Reef Runner and Paradise Plunge (the complex formerly known as Tahiti Twister) a nice teal blue and yellow. Seems odd considering that Tornado, which will go right next to it, will essentially be the same colors, just different shades, but it’s still nice to see that the old slides will be getting a nice new look. I’d like to hope that the Deer Park Plunge will also be repainted given it’s very old looking color scheme. Hammerhead (Formerly the Black Hole), the blue one, might also be in the middle of repainting. I thought I saw that the end of it had been primed, and you can see the white in the pic, but it may have just been part of Mako sticking out from behind it.
As for Mind Eraser, it appears that the entire track has been painted. Here are two new pics showing off Mind Erasers sporty new look:
http://www.geocities.com/terp_fan_4_life/DCP_0720.JPG
http://www.geocities.com/terp_fan_4_life/DCP_0719.JPG
Again, sorry for the grainy pictures, but you get the idea. The pictures skews the color a little; it’s more of an orangeish-yell0w, or a golden color than the yellow that appears in the picture. I really couldn’t tell if the red supports had been repainted or not, but to say the least, they haven’t been primed. The hand railing on the steps is still teal. The good news is, with the track done, they can start testing, and the ride should be ready for opening week. Then, if it isn’t done by opening day, they can always paint everything else during the week when the park is closed.
Well, enjoy! I’ll have more pictures either Saturday or Sunday from inside the gate as long as the weather is decent, otherwise, look for more pictures opening weekend.
If the links don't work, I'm sure coasterguts will have the pics posted on his site soon enough... *** Edited 4/1/2005 11:48:58 PM UTC by Coaster Lover***
If you can't stand the heights, get out of the line.
A day at the park is what you make it!
If you can't stand the heights, get out of the line.
A day at the park is what you make it!
http://www.geocities.com/terp_fan_4_life/DCP_0733.JPG
You can see that cement has yet to be poured for this attraction, but I stand by that I saw a foundation pouring truck along with cement trucks yesterday. Possibly they were pouring for Tornado or Buccaneer Beach, neither of which I could get a clear view of. I’m having a really hard time trying to interpret this pic. According to the park map, the splash down pool should be right next to the splashdown pool for Reef Runner and Paradise Plunge, but if you look in the next two pics, there is a building already where the splash down pool should be:
http://www.geocities.com/terp_fan_4_life/DCP_0734.JPG
http://www.geocities.com/terp_fan_4_life/DCP_0732.JPG
My guess is that you are seeing ground work for the main ride tower and the footers for the tube return conveyer belt going from right to left, but you’re guess is as good as mine until construction continues further. You can also better see the yellow and teal paint going on Reef Runner and Paradise Plunge in those last two pics. Paint has also started to be applied to some of the buildings. In this next pic you can see the bright new yellow and green paint job being applied to the back of Coconut Cove Trading Co. (I believe before it was either brown or tan…more of an earth tone color). I think that’s primer on the roof, but I’m really not sure. Maybe it always looked that way, but hopefully the roof will be painted soon enough too:
http://www.geocities.com/terp_fan_4_life/DCP_0739.JPG
Finally, in this last pic, you can also see the back of Coconut Cove Trading Co., but more importantly you get a different view of that pretty new paint job on Mind Eraser:
http://www.geocities.com/terp_fan_4_life/DCP_0736.JPG
I really didn’t notice anything else unusual around Hurricane Harbor. I know the rain this weekend has pretty much stopped all work as right now, all the work is ground work and painting and it’s pretty hard to do either of that in the rain. Not much else from anywhere else in the park that I could see without going through the front gates. One final strange thing I did notice was along the road out of the first parking lot and into the second lot, ALL of the trees have a bright orange band wrapped around them. There were also a few trees in the rest of the first lot with the same orange band wrapped around them. I have two possible explanations for this. The first is that they are precautionary bands. Construction equipment needs to travel this path to go from the second lot where the pieces are stored into the water park. The bands could be wrapped around the trees as a possible way to make the trees more visible so large moving trucks don’t accidentally hit them during construction. I mean, the marked trees are quite big and it would be a shame for them to lose one. My other guess is that they are being marked for removal. The park already was approved to build a tram lane many years ago when it became a Six Flags park. By removing the marked trees, they would widen the roads around the parking lot in all the right places to build a tram lane. Hopefully, if this is the case, they will transplant the trees and not just cut them down. There is the equipment out there to completely remove a tree of their size, intact, and move it elsewhere. It would be wonderful to have trees of these sizes in the Gotham city area of the park.
Well, that’s all the news for now. I know CoasterGuts was planning on going today or tomorrow, so I’m sure he’ll post my pics and/or his pics on his site soon enough if you want some pics with much better zoom or are just having trouble accessing my pics. I’ll be at the park opening day (exactly one week from today) and I’ll be taking more pics from all around the park then. Look for a full trip report with pics next weekend!
If you can't stand the heights, get out of the line.
P.S. I was Mr. Six Critic. I didn't like how yaw bashed me. It was my first time on this website. Some of you were positive, and others were negative. I'm a teenager and I'm still growing if you don't know.
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