If you had to remove one ride from your home park-- Which one would it be?

The 'upcharge' rides. If you cannot include it in the admission, don't have it.

Okay, i'll go with that. If that was the case, I'd be on the go-karts all day long!

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Swoosh said:
The 'upcharge' rides. If you cannot include it in the admission, don't have it.

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Best answer (IMO). I hadn't even thought of that.

CP had a solution to that problem. They keep the upcharge attractions in a separate area outside the gate called Challenge Park. That's where the Skycoaster, Go Karts, Miniature Golf etc. are located.

On the other hand, I really don't see any problem with having upcharge attractions in a free gate park such as DelGrossos.

(insert ride name here) at (Insert park name here) because I don't like it. I have no clue why it has a 2 hour wait every single day of the summer. - note the sarcasm

friggin spinning dragons. not even one tenth as fun as orient

I'll even go so far as to say I can understand why a ride like a Slingshot or Skycoaster *has* to be an upcharge in a megapark. The capacity of the ride, simply put, is SO low that a line of a hundred patrons could easily take HOURS to clear the queue...

Of course, by having those rides located OUTSIDE of the main gate, theoretically you might have people paying to ride upcharge attractions and NOT paying the POP for the gate....not that that is necessarily a bad thing.

Maxx options? ;)

You've got a point.

Swoosh, that's wishful thinking, but at a park like Knoebels, that would elminate the minature golf course, the Haunted Mansion, the Scenic Chairlift ride, bumper-boats etc.

Hell, while your'e at it, you might as well eliminate Phoenix, Twister, and The Flying Turns since they're not included in the basic admission. For those who haven't been to the park, to get those into your ride-all-day wristband means you have to buy the wood-coasters option, which is extra.

There's many a small park that have Skycoasters including Kennywood. I'm sure it is a substantial part of any small park's daily revenue. Having worked a Skycoaster at SFA, I can tell you that it's very time consuming to get people ready to fly. It's not a sit-down, lower-the-restraint, hit-the-button kind of ride.

Your method would require some kind of sign-up sheet every morning with the spaces gone in a matter of minutes. This would take away the people who would fly a Skycoaster after looking at one for a while, or maybe coaxed into by their friends so they could lower their price to fly.

It's really nice that you're so charitable, but unfortunately, it just isn't realistic. No one is forcing anyone to pay for an upcharge attraction, just like no one forced them to buy the t-shirt, hat, rain-poncho (or whatever) with the free advertising for the park.

[the following should be read with the voice of the crazy guy who does the late-night info-commercial for government programs that you don't know about and they're all FREE!]

Hey, while you're at it, you should make the arcades FREE, the food to feed the animals FREE, the water cannons to soak log-flume/white-water rapids people FREE, Paddleboats FREE, ride photos FREE, pictures taken when you enter the park FREE, waterpark lockers FREE (heck, why not all lockers?), all parking lots FREE. Come on Swoosh, I'm sure there's a lot more revenue you could give away:)

SFOT: Flashback

SFStL-Ninja for flats, Boss for B&M coaster
SFOG-Ninja for flats
CP-Mean Streak, Cedar Creek Mine Train, Iron Dragon
SFKK-T2 for Batman the Ride, Twisted Twins for something better, move Chang to SFGAdv and move Medusa to SFKK

Free parking would be nice, but definitely not as beneficial for the park. They do need to be able to maintain their lots (though some parks do a better job at it than others).

Also, I don't know how it is in other states, but in MD, there is a yearly tax for each parking space--it's between $100 & $200 for EACH SPACE. Imagine how much money that could cost a park each year, especially if they are seasonal and don't usually fill all the spaces.

Free lockers would be nice IF a park requires you to secure your loose articles in a locker before riding certain rides, like IOA, BGA, and SWO. At IOA, the lockers near Dueling Dragons and Hulk give you the first hour for free, which is a pretty cool idea. The lockers at IOA were the most technologically-advanced lockers that I've ever seen!

^^BTW, we don't want Chang at SFGAdv. Why don't you trade it with a park that actually wants a standup coaster :)

People don't like standups as much as other roller coasters (It seems.), and a bigger park like yours has more options for rides compared to SFKK. That's my theory on that one. You have 13, SFKK has 7. If you are fed with 2 of them or it's not your size (kids coaster) at SFKK, than you have 5 left. SFGAdv still has 11.

Rides that aren't that great deserve parks that have a lot of rides like CP, SFMM, SFGAdv, and so on. I don't think that Chang is that horrible, but it's kind of bad. SFFT is lucky to have a floorless as there B&M.

Techinically, it's the money issue. SFKK doesn't make enough money, and thus give that park junk. I will never agree with this statement. Why, you ask? SFMM has tons of nice rides over there. It didn't start with having tons of nice rides over there. They put them in year after year. SFKK could make more money if it had better rides.

Yes, they are expanding there waterpark, but look what happened to GL? They aren't getting more people. Are they going to take out Chang, T2, and so on because of that (like GL)? I don't think they should have ever put in a waterpark. That waterpark takes up space, and that place is small. Without the waterpark, they could have easily put in 2 more roller coasters, and a bunch more flats.

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sws said:
For ValleyFair! it would be Corkscrew. Nothing but a migraine waiting to happen.

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I disagree. VF needs to add another looper instead of replacing one of the smoothest Arrows I know. Not to complain about what we're getting, but I would have been equally happy about a B&M invert.

I know the topic asked for "adult" rides, but what REALY needs to go is the Supercat. It was never the same after removal of the canopy that went over your head.

That and the old waterpark could be completely replaced. With all of the resort/hotel waterparks poping up in the Twin Cities, VF can do without to make room for something else.

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Acoustic Viscosity said:
Adventureland's Dragon.

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That has to go. Is there a way they could put new trains on it at least like they did with NY-NY? I know it's a Hopkins but Dragon rides like it has square wheels. *** Edited 3/12/2007 9:27:11 PM UTC by WildThingNative***

Personally, SFA is my home SF park, but I like SFGAdv more.

Anyway, SFA hasn't gotten much lately other than waterpark stuff. At least SFKK has a B&M coaster, as well as a higher capacity Intamin drop tower, plus a better shoot-the-chutes and a better rapids ride. And, call me weird, but I actually like T2 better than Mind Eraser.

And yes, it is a money issue, although in the case of SFMM, it seemed to be a favoritism issue or something. It's also the markets that certain parks are in, although this doesn't explain the lack of care at SFA. The 4 biggest metropolitan areas in the US, in terms of population, are:

New York City
Los Angeles
Chicago
Baltimore/Washington D.C.

This can help explain why SFGAdv, SFGAm, and SFMM have historically gotten better treatment than the other SF parks, though we can't always use this argument, as SFA doesn't get the best treatment, and SFAW was closed (Houston is one of the biggest cities in the US).

Though it doesn't surprise me too much that SFKK doesn't get preferential treatment much. Louisville isn't a huge city, Cinncinatti has Kings Island, SFKK doesn't have much expansion room, SFKK doesn't have high attendance figures, and SFKK doesn't get revenue from parking.

Be thankful for what you do have, including one of the world's greatest coasters not far away (referring to Voyage, of course).

*** Edited 3/12/2007 9:33:25 PM UTC by rablat5***

I'd get rid of the "humped" Chiller at Great Adventure myself. Without the zero g its really nothing to rave about.

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Intamin Fan said:
Swoosh, that's wishful thinking, but blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, Come on Swoosh, I'm sure there's a lot more revenue you could give away

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Holiday World does "free" soda, why couldn't you up the admission price a little and give "free" food as well?

Also not every park 'upcharges' for their go-carts, mini-golf, etc. Celebration City has those included -- so DON'T EVEN SAY IT CAN'T BE DONE, because it can, it has, and is working.

As far as the reservation thing for RipOff...RipCord, have it where they can sign up in the morning for some many slots, then reopen it for the afternoon at a certain period -- has to be before 4pm as that is when the cheap seats come in for the night.

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Swoosh said:

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Intamin Fan said:

Also not every park 'upcharges' for their go-carts, mini-golf, etc. Celebration City has those included -- .

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But of course! For the 12 people that go there everyday, it works for them.

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At Knoebels, everything is an upcharge on summer weekends but the gate is always free. The only problem with upcharge attractions is whan a park starts to have too many of them to the point that they start removing "free" (read POP) attractions. This complaint was leveled at SFGAdv by many of us over the years.

KW has two upcharge attractions, the Skycoaster and the Paddle boats. The Skycoaster platform used to be used for a show but watching the riders take flight is a show in itself. The paddle boats use the lake which adds atmosphere to the park. KW could actually squeeze a lot more rides into the park by removing the gardens and the lake and cramming rides closer together but that special atmosphere would be lost as the park started to look like a carnival midway.

I am glad that the park didn't take a regular ride out to put in pay per ride Go Karts or something like that. To the parks credit, the park took the miniature golf out around the time when it did away with general admission. Minigolf takes too much time from your time spent on the rides so it really doesn't belong in a POP only park such as KW is today. On the contrary, a Skycoaster flight only takes a few minutes to do and you get a reservation so you don't even have to wait in line.