If you were able to run your home park, and you had complete control, what would you add or change?

I'd immediately hire people who knew what they were doing and let them make most of the decisions!

For Universal Studios, I'd refurbish Men in Black make it a hybrid shooting ride / spinning coaster like Winjas at Phantasialand. I'd also refurbish ET, the animatronics are showing their age. I'd remove HRRR (sorry Gator, I know you sing its praises) . . . Replace it with a compact Intamin hypercoaster. For Islands, that park is close to perfection - I'd just add a wing coaster in Jurassic park.

I know the enthusiast community sings praises for IoA, and don't get me wrong, it's a great park that I enjoy visiting (and can see out of my apartment window as I type this...) But to me it just isn't worthy of being a top 5 park. It has some stellar attractions, don't get me wrong, but I feel like there is much wasted potential in many of the lands and especially pre-Potter, it was a half day park at best. The theming is fantastic and immersive in many areas of the park, but I feel like with the size of the place you could double the number of experiences and have better upkeep of what is there.

Color me green with envy: apartment with amusement park view.

I do love IoA. Harry Potter is a masterpiece of immersive theming. But parts of Toon Lagoon and Marvel Super Hero Island make me feel like I'm walking down a hallway, so to speak. And Jurassic Park, the movies, have never interested me, so that area of the park is, for me, just the way one gets to the good part of the park.

I like IoA. It's probably one of my favorite parks to just walk around enjoying the sights and themeing. The one problem with the place, in my opinion, is that about half of the good attractions are water rides. This is fine in summer, but in winter it is often too cold to enjoy half the park. The whole Toon Lagoon section was pretty much deserted during my visit last January.

I've never ridden any of IoA's water rides; not much of a fan of getting wet, and completely not a fan of getting drenched. The only water ride I've ridden in probably the last 15 years is WDW's Splash Mountain.

Digression. Back in the early 90s. A trip to Cedar Point. My mother, me and several friends. Everyone but my mother, gay. Everyone but my mother rode Thunder Canyon.

We exited the ride. Walked over to my mother. "Hope you weren't bored waiting so long." "No," she said, "I've been watching. You can tell which guys are wearing underwear and which aren't when they get off the ride."

delan said:

I'd remove HRRR (sorry Gator, I know you sing its praises) . . . Replace it with a compact Intamin hypercoaster. For Islands, that park is close to perfection - I'd just add a wing coaster in Jurassic park.

HRRR is no Mummy. The lead car makes for good rides, back car can be pretty brutal.. Playing with the secret song codes is kinda cool...way too much blocking does interrupt the ride flow. For an Intamin hyper, I'd sacrifice anything except maybe Fire Dragon...

Personally, what Jurassic Park *needs*...Roarasaurus...

slithernoggin said:
"You can tell which guys are wearing underwear and which aren't when they get off the ride."

Proof once again the apple never falls far from the tree.

Hell, not only did the acorn not fall very from the tree, it hit most the branches on the way down :-)

Rollergator: For me? I was underwhelmed by Mummy. I'd rather ride HRRR than Mummy. And I've already ridden HRRR as much as I want to.

slithernoggin said: And Jurassic Park, the movies, have never interested me, so that area of the park is, for me, just the way one gets to the good part of the park.

The original, and Jurassic World, are two of my favorite movies. And while I do like the Jurasssic Park area of the park, it's a perfect example of a "good" but not "great" land. River Adventure is fun, but nothing happens in the first 2/3 of the ride. Imagine a jeep ride with vehicles similar to Dinosaur/Indiana Jones at the Disney parks, but with visuals and a fear level to match being in the thunderstorm scenes in the first movie. And if you want to get creative, even an omni mover type ride like the tour in the first movie that everyone could ride. In addition to River Adventure and the Discovery Center they already have - that would be a great Jurassic Park land.

Another struggle the Universal parks have are "for the whole family" rides. They have shows, but even rides like ET have a height requirement.

I would expand Pioneer Waterland's dry rides, begin to add new water attractions to the waterpark, and improve the advertising for the park significantly.

• The current signage to the park's entrance is terrible. There is a lack of advertising for this park. It is considered a waterpark technically, however there are also pay-to-ride dry attractions as well.
  • Advertise on billboards
  • Ask the city of Chardon to improve the overall infrastructure of the area.
  • Give locals incentives for 'word of mouth' advertising.
  • Advertise heavily to company's and schools who host yearly outings/graduations.
• 5 Year Plan
• Year 1
  • Create an expandable waterslide structure with 2 levels, 90ft (for body slides) and 60ft (for tube slides) big enough to be able to have 4 slides per level (8 for the structure)
    • On the upper level for Year 1 include 2 looping pod slides unlike any other in the state of Ohio.
    • On the middle level for Year 1 include 1 family raft ride.
  • Repaint all current slides their original blue color
  • Add second permanent snack stand
  • Add Cabanas to the park's existing Olympic sized pool
  • Add a new go Kart Track, the only multilevel in Ohio (similar to the ones found at Fun Spot America)
• Year 2
  • Add Twin Bowl Slides to the new waterslide structure.
  • Improve the picnic areas further.
  • Add portable snack carts throughout the park
  • Add a Merry-Go-Round
• Year 3
• Add 1 new enclosed Speed Body Slides that will wrap around the new waterslide structure from year 1
• Dry Ride Package
• Add a mid-sized ferris wheel
• Add a Spider thrill ride
• Add a swinging ship thrill ride
• Add 3 small kid friendly roundabout rides
• Year 4
  • Add a small family roller coaster (will acquire from some where who is selling a used family coaster that is in good condition) because of low budget.
  • Add a new drop pod style speed slide (but where it simply drops straight down)
• Year 5
  • Finish the new waterslide structure with the addition of some kind of unique ProSlide tube slide attraction unlike any other in Ohio.
  • Add another go-kart multilevel structure

Second 5-Year Phase coming soon.

I'ma have to vote you up. Brought out the bulleted points and all.

BrettV said:

Another struggle the Universal parks have are "for the whole family" rides. They have shows, but even rides like ET have a height requirement.

I think that Universal Florida has a good mix of "family" rides and more intense rides (that are not for young kids). Too many "whole family rides" tend to bore teenage kids and non-grandparent adults.

I'm waiting for Jeff to post his Charmland ideas.

You are probably going to have to wait about a month and a half.

Six flags Great Adventure

• Demolishing-The Dark Knight
• Sending Green Lantern to Six Flags St Louis
• Getting rid of uncharge stir the boats near Skull Mountain
• Move splash water oasis Frontier Adventures Area. New path connecting to El Toro where this was so people don’t have to cut through the seal show/ zoo type area

Rehabs/ Maintenance

• Paint Nitro
• A new Lost and Found Service dedicated to looking for lost items for Ex. a phone that was pinned next to King Da Ka with the find my iPhone app. Instead of only mechanics can find it when there starting the ride if they see it
• redo The Log Flumes queue- It gets extremely hot in there and also it feels like its falling apart IMO
• Place shade covers over King Da Ka queue (Like Gatekeepers)
• Redo walkway so you can get to King Da Ka and Zumanjaro from Plaza Del Carnival and demo the walkway to boardwalk
• Repave Parking lot

General adds

• In Green Lanterns Place- B&M Winged coaster- X Flight
• In The Dark Knights Place- New Justice League Dark ride
• Add S&S Swing (ala Swing Shot at Kennywood) near Bizzaro
• Add Huss Swing (ala Delirium at KI) Where The Splash Water Oasis, just where the path is now, Ill photoshop some stuff to show
• Add a new compact Intamin rollercoaster (like Fahrenheit/ Storm Runner) with a launch Named “Firestorm” DC Comics
• Add a car ride somewhere in that area for kids

Movie town area renamed to (?????) Maybe Hero town Idk on this

What do you think, I know someones probably gonna say wheres my giga or RMC T-rex , but boo hoo, maybe in several years. Also obviously these addition/renovation/movements will be spread out over a couple years

I'd have to take a look at my park's books before making any sound expansion decisions.

It sounds like Phillies2 should just visit Cedar Point and be done with it.
:)

^He had me at 'Zumingaro'

RCMAC said:

It sounds like Phillies2 should just visit Cedar Point and be done with it.
:)

First he should proofread his posts and run spellcheck. Then he should visit Cedar Point.