Most anticipated ride for 2013

The nice thing about SFMM is that the weather is pretty reasonable year round, so unless SFMM is just dragging their feet really badly, I would bet it will be open. A lot of the coasters around here have significant delays because of weather getting snowy/icy for months where they could be doing building.

The funny thing is, SFMM's rides are consistently the last ones to open :)

bunky666 said:

The nice thing about SFMM is that the weather is pretty reasonable year round, so unless SFMM is just dragging their feet really badly, I would bet it will be open. A lot of the coasters around here have significant delays because of weather getting snowy/icy for months where they could be doing building.

Bunky, then answer me this - Why has all the track been laid for Gatekeeper in less favorable weather conditions, why Full Throttle has barely seen any track work at all ? Im still gonna go to SFMM either way just because Ive been dying to ride Riddlers Revenge, Scream, Viper, and X again. But the fact that I might be traveling from Houston to Los Angeles and missing Full Throttle will be a major disappointment. Almost as big a disappointment as Six Flags Over Texas wasting their empty space on that giant swing as opposed to a new coaster (Did I say that out loud?). Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Coasterhound, I don't know why that is. But enjoy your trip either way!

Because adding a sky screamer means they'll never be able to ADD ANYTHING EVER AGAIN!!!!!

bunky666 said:

I never found the benefit of getting in early to be that great. They had early opening for Maverick, and I still waited for a totally full queue. Same with Millie.

Always interesting to see such different perspectives from mine here. I'm going to guess your experience comes down to you visiting CP during peak season / high traffic days, or going close to the opening years of these coasters?

If you happen to go to CP during a lower-traffic time (May weekday), it's totally worth it (to me). I'm very used to early morning walk-on's on all of CP's majors. The debate is always like, "Should I relax and grab a bunch of quick laps on (Maverick), or waste the bonus time walking to the other majors?" I usually end up settling for 2-3 each of Maverick and MF.

As for the topic, I'm definitely most excited about GateKeeper, with CP being my home park. But, I can't wait to see how Outlaw Run turns out; it looks so fresh and fun.

Up until this year if you had early entry and went to another gate other then the main one, and arrived 15+ min before opening and went directly to Maverick you would have a <15 min wait, you could then stroll down the Frontiertrail, hit MF with a <30 min wait and then line up for TTD to open at 10:00 with a less then <30 min wait. Using this method allowed you to hit 3 of the 4 major waits of the day in the first 90 min. If you waited until 2-3 you could then hit Raptor with about a 30 min wait. This worked even on really crowded days.

Gatekeeper is going to be a big game changer though. I suspect the days of Raptor consistently getting to >60 min waits are at an end now that it is not the first big ride people see (much like those days ended for Magnum once MF was built.) I suspect that the new way to go is doing Gatekeeper first, MF next, Maverick then TTD.

I'm not so sure. Raptor will still be the first big ride entrance you'll encounter.

Well, here's the latest. Because Six Flags Fiesta is in the dark, I decided to email Rocky Mountain Construction. After all, they're building Iron Rattler so they probably have a better grasp on the situation than anyone else. Anyway, here's what they said:

"It should be soon, we are getting close to being ready."

That's encouraging but how soon is soon? As far as I'm concerned, it can't be soon enough!

I often wonder why some parks seem to get their new major rides open by the park's opening day, and other parks are still in the construction phase well into the season. Does a park get better attendance when they open their new rides later? Do more people who visit before the new ride opens visit a second time because they missed riding the new ride? Is it cheaper to build a ride slowly and not open it at the beginning of the season, or quickly and open it by opening day?

Travis, I have always wondered about that too.

It's going to be exciting to figure out the new traffic flow patterns with the addition of GateKeeper. It was all getting far too routine.

I think the mornings will be pretty unbearable up front, while Frontier Town & the Gemini Midway will be deader than ever.

By 3PM, the park should be much more balanced everywhere than it previously was. It'll be particularly interesting if GateKeeper breathes life into the Oceana midway, where people are sparse even with Wicked Twister and WindSeeker.

From late evening to close, there will be an even greater shift of people from the back of the park to the front. There will likely be some short waits for Maverick in the first and last hours of the day in 2013. Oh, and poor Mean Streak...

bunky666 said:

Travis, I have always wondered about that too.

I've noticed that the So-Cal parks tend to open their new rides late spring/early summer. I'm not sure why, but since they have access to numbers we don't, I can only assume that there is a financial benefit in there somewhere, or they wouldn't do it.

I assume there's no huge benefit to opening anything much before school gets out, as the vacation season really doesn't start until then.

But what doesn't make sense to me is that they have time to start ride builds so the rides are finished by the summer season, but they don't seem to care about getting done by that time. You would think that they'd want that stuff open as close to the start of the season to ensure they make the money for it. What I mean is if people are going to a park in California or a southern state where the weather is pretty nice year round, I would think they would expect a ride to be open in June and not...August. Maybe I don't get it at ALL, but I would think most people would think that is kind of...not a great business practice.

Like Universal Studios Florida with the new Transformers ride. They're saying July for it to open. Why?? U.S. already built one of these. They're already familiar with the tech. The building is basically done. Kids get off school in May or June. Why would you not have this ride ready?

Of course in this case, I may be grumpy because I was gonna go to Florida in May.

The Orlando parks are different. Being open every day already makes construction harder, and these themed rides don't go up in a few months like roller coasters. You have all of the elements of a computerized ride combined with aspects of theater and film. They deserve a lot more credit.

In response to Bobbie1951 contacting RMC...

They may be finished with their part of the ride hardware long before SF is able to open the ride. Computer controls, station touch-ups, theming...lots of things can require more effort after the physical ride track/train have been completed as far as ride installation (RMC) is concerned.

Yeah. I never understood what the benefit of waiting until Memorial Day or whatever was. Is it cheaper if the construction schedule is planned to be longer? Do you get to avoid certain weather?

I can see unexpected delays, but why schedule a ride to open memorial day instead of opening day?

Jeff said:

The Orlando parks are different. Being open every day already makes construction harder, and these themed rides don't go up in a few months like roller coasters. You have all of the elements of a computerized ride combined with aspects of theater and film. They deserve a lot more credit.

Huh...never thought of it that way. Yeah, thinking about Spider-Man, all that extra building, syncing it with the ride, making the movie itself...that IS a lot.

I always thought along the lines of what Andy said. I figured a larger crew working over a short time (especially during the winter months) was more costly than a leaner crew working when conditions were ideal over a longer time period. For example, think about a Knoebels' project vs one of Cedar Point's.

But, as Jeff stated, another major factor is how complex the project is. Obviously a major themed attraction at Universal or Disney is going to consume much more time than a roller coaster at CP. Considering many of the warm-climate parks are open year round, the precise opening date doesn't seem as critical.