Ride Removal at SFGAm?
I was kidding about Phantom, Chris. :O)
I've been here far too long to get away with not knowing what that was. The fact that Thunderbolt and Exterminator are going to be down pretty much guarantees that we'll be at PR mostly the whole night! :oÞ
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Getting a B&M will always beat out having to take a BM.
Hey, you said it was a long week... :)
Chris, hoping for some lots of PR rides in about a week!
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'Let's fly close to the sun. Let's do it just 'cause it's fun.' - The Wedding Present '2,3, Go'
Homey G. said:I'm not an enthusiast, I just play one on message board.
OK, I relent....with the shiny new sig, and this quotable quote, I hereby grant you permission to attend PPP without 'Da Gata'. However, you are still sentenced to one shotglass of Moxie, non-negotiable....(does 'Moosh really LIKE that stuff?)...I am gonna miss you guys...*sniff*
Bill, I'm not going!! It's too far out of the way, and I've just gotta get my first ride on a floorless!!
Brian, who is musing about sooo many new coaster experiences next weekend... hmmm.. Intamin giga...mmm...S:UE... WT....PR.... Woodcock express.... ahhhh... Blue Steak...
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Getting a B&M will always beat out having to take a BM.
Bah, Out of the way! Knoebel's is so much more than SFWoA could ever dream of being.
Chris, who really enjoyed his day at SFWoA a whole bunch. For Real.
We really wanted to hit PPP, but it's just too far out of the way this year. I'm going to try to do a REAL trip to PA next year. :O)
Heck, I need to start figuring out what I want my hundredth coaster to be! I'm gonna be awfully close after this trip.
Bill, you're more than welcome to snag that as a sig for yourself, as long as I get credit for it on your works cited page! :oD
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Getting a B&M will always beat out having to take a BM.
*** This post was edited by Homey G. on 9/26/2002. ***
Kings Island is at the top for ride removal. Since its opening, Barvarian Beetle, Bat, Screamin Demon, Gullivers Rub A Dub, Turnpike, Keelboat Canal, Tumble Bug, Halleys Comet, Zodiac, Wheel of Fortune, Cuddle Up, Bayern Kurve, Rotor, Monorail, Flying Dutchman, Spinnen Kegger, Ferris Wheel, Auto Livery, Flight Commander, Witches Cauldrons, King Kobra, Sky Lab. Sky ride....all removed. I am sure i missed a few. Thats about 1/2 of their total current ride count. The only expansion of this park was the safari area, now action zone, the water park and the second half of the coney section.
It seems that Great America has removed a lot of rides since its opening also. Only expansion was Southwest Territory.
Some rides do see their time and need to go. But for these corporate parks, bottom line is GREED. They do not want to spend the money to maintain the rides or pay the personnel to operate them, so they simply remove them.
Great America is in a huge metro area. This park has terrible crowds and lines because of it and is not nearly the size it should be to handle them. Elimination of rides does nothing to help that problem.
Case in point--Hershey. This park is operated by a trust, and while profit is a concern, absolute greed does not seem to be. Their pricing compared to other parks proves this.
Looking at a map from 1988 for Hershey, there are only 6 rides that have been removed. Rotor, Himalya (they now have a musik express), Skyride (which seems to be common in all them parks), a kiddie ride, and rides called Coal Shaker and Frontier Meeting House. In the meantime, they have added something like 15 rides to the park, and an expansion to the frontier area and the new midway america area. This is how parks should operate. Maintain the rides instead of elimination. Growth of the park to handle the growing crowds. Its why we go there among many other reasons.
Paramount, Six Flags are only concerned about their bottom line IMO, not the guest experience.
Great America has so far removed: Shockwave, Rolling Thunder, Z Force, Tidal Wave, The edge, Sky Whirl, Cajun Cliffhanger, Industrial Revolution, Power Dive, Delta flyer(sky ride), Yukon Yahoo, HTS kiddie rides, Ferris wheel, Davie Jones Dingees, Southern Cross, and hay baler.
Bottom line, this park is horrible with taking out rides!
HG - I was just kidding around about Knoebel's being 'out of the way,' as it's notorious for being a pain in the azz to get to.
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'Let's fly close to the sun. Let's do it just 'cause it's fun.' - The Wedding Present '2,3, Go'
SFGAMNUT9302 said:
Great America has so far removed: Shockwave, Rolling Thunder, Z Force, Tidal Wave, The edge, Sky Whirl, Cajun Cliffhanger, Industrial Revolution, Power Dive, Delta flyer(sky ride), Yukon Yahoo, HTS kiddie rides, Ferris wheel, Davie Jones Dingees, Southern Cross, and hay baler.
Bottom line, this park is horrible with taking out rides!
O.K. Now lets look at all the rides that are ..*still* operational from the Marriott era.
1. Columbia , Sky Trek Tower, Triple Play, Whizzer, Orbit, Demon, Ricochet, American Eagle, Great American Speedway, Hometown Fun Machine, A-Merri-Go-Round, Fiddler's Fling, Logger's Run, Ice Mountain Splash(Yankee Clipper, Roaring Rapids, Whirligig, East River Crawler(hopefully), Rue Le Dodge, Great America Railroad..
Not to mention most of the architecture from Marriott is still in tact unlike the other Great America in California.
Yes, its sad to see some rides go, but most corporate parks do this.
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2 superheroes in Gurnee next season? Oh the humanity. :)
'Yes, its sad to see some rides go, but most corporate parks do this.'
As do many 'traditional' parks. It's just the way it goes.
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'Let's fly close to the sun. Let's do it just 'cause it's fun.' - The Wedding Present '2,3, Go'
True enough chris, KG is "off the beaten path"....then again, so are HW, IB, Silverwood......notice a trend. Parks close to major cities may have more rides, but quantity can't supplant quality...(it CAN enhance it, however)....
As for SW (remember: the topic, lol)....SFAW does seem like the *logical* place....hey, it's SF's logic, not mine. Jazzland is already getting a looping coaster (granted it's an invert, but still)....Since I'm going with SF *logic* here, why don't I suggest that SFMM should get it to keep pace with CP...;)....and THAT, my friends, is why I won't do two shows a night anymore....
Tchnoguy:
The Eagle did indeed run one side backwards in 1991. I remember, because the very first memory I have of the Eagle is of seeming the helix from the parking lot, and squinting to make sure that I was actually seeing a train going backwards. My young mind was very confused.
super7, you say that the park is too small? Where, I might ask, would you expand? southwest Teritory might have been the only expansion, but is was a huge one, pretty much taking up all the land they have. there is no where for them to expand the midway. While there are interesting places they could squeeze some rides in, they can't actually expand the park. And, please, don't talk about the land across the highway. As far as the main park is concerned, that land might as well be on Mars. I agree that taking out rides isn'ta good idea, but let's look at their recent removals:
Cajun Cliffhager-Yeah, if you had seen the news reports on TV when the accident happened, you knew it was as good as gone right then and there. For all intents and purposes, it hasn't really been at the park since then.
Power Dive-Unpopular. Of all the times I've been to Great America, no one I've been with has ever even suggested we go on it. It doesn't look to me like it had great capacity, either. And chances are good, I think, that we'll see a ferris wheel here in the near future. People will want to ride that, and it will fill the gap that Sky Whirl (sniff) left.
Shock Wave-Look up unpopular in the dictionary, and you just might see a little sketch of this ride. This ride was so unpopular that during the last three years or so, they almost never unleashed its considerable capacity, and contented themselves with running only two trains. The result was a fairly low-capacity ride that was still unpopular. They are defineitly replacing this ride. superman has all the capacity Shock Wave was supposed to have, and you can bet they'll run it that way, at least for a while. If they keep up generally runing Raging Bull with three trains, this move will effectively increase capacity in the park by a lot. And everyone, repeat, everyone, who goes to the park next year is going to want to ride it, so it will get a lot of people in its line.
East River Crawler-This was a popular ride. It always looked to me like it had a line. The people I've talked to who've been on it say it's a lot of fun. I really can't believe that this ride is going. It's just too good. I have no idea why they took it out. But I believe we'll see it somewhere else in the park next season. If we don't, then this, at least, was a terrible mistake.
I still mantain that while Shock Wave's removal doesn't hurt anything, it would have been better if they had made a custom design that would have allowed Shock Wave to stay.
*** This post was edited by (SF)Great American on 9/26/2002. ***
RE: Shockwave - This ride has for quite some time had the reputation of being busy between 10-11 and emptying out to a walk on for most of the rest of the day. Man, it was like that when I worked there and that was like 8 years ago!! I remember riding it after work - you could ride it repeatedly because there was no line!! (of course, it wasn't as rough back then... nowadays, I can't handle more than once!!).
RE: Power Dive - Sad... I remember waiting over an hour for that thing back in the day. This one held on longer than ShockWave, but over the last 4-5 years, just went way downhill. One thing I won't miss - those restraints. Damn, that lap bar thing - talk about crushing your...well, we won't go there!!
RE: East River Crawler - I was thinking about this the other day... I think this is/was the most popular flat ride in the park. There was always a line!! I don't remember hearing about an accident, so unless the thing is broken beyond repair, I think it's just being moved to Orleans to help make up for the severe lack of rides.
They need to completely rework the front of the park. For almost a decade, they have put so much effort into the back of the park that's there's no reason to come to the front. People may be angry about Shock Wave's departure, but one thing's for certain... something needs to be done up there, because all the crowds are balanced on one side of the park!! The front is dead!!! Let just hope they take this opportunity and run with it - I'm not expecting anything on the scale of SW Territory, but some sort of renovation is needed badly.
Instead of new coasters, I'd like to see some new, modern flats at SFGAm, like a Huss Frisbee, a Huss Top Spin, etc. Of course, I'd want a Mondial Top Scan over all else, but I really don't see that happening. :-)
-Nate
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-Bob (formerly Coaster Jedi)
Do any of you know how to build a sundial out of a pen and a donut?
uh oh, sounds like someone has a case of the mondays.
To us *old school* SFGAm peeps, the East River Crawler will always be referred to as the.. *Lobster*.
Great flat ride. I hope it isnt removed.
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2 superheroes in Gurnee next season? Oh the humanity. :)
tchnoguy said:
They need to completely rework the front of the park. For almost a decade, they have put so much effort into the back of the park that's there's no reason to come to the front.
Well, you're getting your wish. Wherever that actual footprint is, the que for Superman will almost certainly be in Orleans Place. It's hard to develop the front, though. Orleans Place didn't have much room to put things (they do now, with Shock wave gone), and you can't put much of anything in Carousel Plaza without ruining the feel of the place (not that there's any room to put anything there, either).
Chitown, that's what I always called it before I started loving it, then I bothered to learn its name.
JoNoJ27 I don't think that would be a good place for a waterpark. there isn't too much room and it would mean less parking space since you would not only take out some parking space, but not provide another lot for the waterpark. besides, popular rumor says it will go across the highway with the hotel/confrence hall thingy.
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-Bob (formerly Coaster Jedi)
Do any of you know how to build a sundial out of a pen and a donut?
uh oh, sounds like someone has a case of the mondays.
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