Shapiro is shopping low cost and family coasters. Next,,,,,,

,,,,,stop in his shopping for low cost family attractions for 2009 and beyond should be of the Sally Dark Ride kind.

You can't go wrong with these rides as they appeal to every age group and liking of rides.

If Shapiro rode his Scooby ride at SFSTl, hopefully this will be his future plan.

At least I hope. :)

It's interesting that Fiesta Texas (right?) and St. Louis have these but the other Six Flags parks don't. They seems like the ultimate family attraction for these regional parks, even morseo than these Tony Hawk / Dark Knight things they've been poopin' out.

I'm sure we'll see some of these Sally Dark Rides in the near future. Shapiro will bound to have realized its family marketability by then. :)

You can count me as one that doesn't care for a Sally. You spend too much time trying to shoot targets rather thanthe scenery.

Give me a dark ride like Knoebel's Haunted Mansion any day over a Sally.

-Tambo

If Saly did that MIB ride at Universal Studios, then add me to the list of the "not impressed". I was so bored on that ride. Maybe I'm just too old to appreciate it.

I'm not crazy about the shooting element that takes away from the enjoyment of the scenery but they are good family rides, and I'd rather Sally darkrides than no darkrides whatsoever.

SFStL's is different than most (maybe all?) of the other Sally-Brand rides in that it runs on boats...a *huge* improvement, IMO.

Flooded Mine at SDC is in-house, IIRC, and I have no idea whether Sally was invlved in Buffalo Bill's log flume interactive.

Trust me, I know how different (some would say inferior, LOL) the interactives are from the more *traditional* dark rides....but asking for parks to build the old-style dark rides these days is kinda wasting your breath. It may happen, occasionally, but it certainly would be "bucking the trend". I mean, KENNYWOOD is getting rid of theirs....that's pretty convincing evidence in my eyes.

Nahh, I mean putting in something along the lines of Holiday World's. Not the same theming, but just put something in themed. :)

I said a while back that WOODIES would make a huge return as long as their cost don't go sky high.

SFSTL is only the first in this chains way of finding affordable ways to draw and thrill it's customers. Spinny Mouse's, flat packages ect.

I doubt you see many 25 million dollar rides going into this chain anytime soon but you can get those rides mentioned under 10 mill easy.

Chuck

Scooby-Doo at SFSTL absolutely rocked. It was my favorite out of all the Sally darkride shooters that I've been on, and that's quite a few.

The one thing that gives that Sally shooters their edge is the guest wanting to get back in line again to try to up their score against their friends and/or family members. I think not being able to take in all the scenery the first, second time etc. makes it more of a repeat ride as well.

While I admire The Haunted Mansion at Knoebels, it does cost extra to go through everytime, and once you've been through it a couple of times, the effects start to wear-off as you know when everything is going to happen and you memorize the layout.

I think the fun of The Haunted Mansion for those of us who've ridden it "X" amount of times is to take someone new on it and get their reaction. Of course, it doesn't always work that way. My sister who deals with scares better than I do (and I love Horror movies and she doesn't!) wasn't affected one bit by The Haunted Mansion.

I know it's heresy, but I would love to see some areas of The Haunted Mansion renovated and changed out someday.

Scooby at SFSTL rocked, Every target is hittable and hittable more than once, The guns also work. The added feature of being able to steel the top score off a target from your friends that have already hit it twice is a bonus and good way to catch up.

Now I'll say this as not being local to either park. Scooby is good but if I didn't hit it on a visit, I wouldn't feel I'VE MISSED anything.

If you visit Knoebels and don't hit the haunted mansion, Visit IB and don't visit Frankenstiens Castle, Visit Waldameer and don't do the Haunted thing (Name escapes me). YOU'VE MISSED SOMETHING SPECIAL.

Chuck

FWIW, The ride system on SFSTl's Scooby Doo is not Sally, it was from an existing dark ride that they re-themed with the Sally stuff.

Isn't the same true of the darkride at KI?

I like the dark rides, but I think the shopping should be on some flat thrills that don't cost an arm, and a leg. 30 year old flats are outdated by now, and aren't a thrill as they once were. Lines are always walk-ons.

Even the expensive flat rides (These are which I don't think were worth it.) being put in 10 years ago are walk-ons. They should start looking at the whole park instead of just the roller coaster side, and the water park.

Look at SFGAdv. They failed miserably getting all those flats that year. Most of those were horrible flats to get because they were unproven, and some of them were very expensive. They should stick with Flying Bobs, Himilayas, and other exhilirating upside down rides which don't include a Zamperla Hawk, or a Chance Inverter.

There are so many rides that can flip you upside down that are really fun, and that will get a line unlike the Enterprises. I don't think they should add Huss or S&S rides either because they have such a high price.

Again, I think dark rides at more parks would be a great idea as long as they aren't like Six Flags Over Texas. That was just boring, and stupid. If you are going to do a dark ride without lasers, do it like Disney. This is, base it on a movie like Batman, or some other flick. Without lasers, it doesn't matter. You can have a Tom & Jerry laser ride for goodness sakes. I really do like SFStL's though.

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Spinout said:I like the dark rides, but I think the shopping should be on some flat thrills that don't cost an arm, and a leg. 30 year old flats are outdated by now, and aren't a thrill as they once were. Lines are always walk-ons. Even the expensive flat rides (These are which I don't think were worth it.) being put in 10 years ago are walk-ons. They should start looking at the whole park instead of just the roller coaster side, and the water park. Look at SFGAdv. They failed miserably getting all those flats that year. Most of those were horrible flats to get because they were unproven, and some of them were very expensive. They should stick with Flying Bobs, Himilayas, and other exhilirating upside down rides which don't include a Zamperla Hawk, or a Chance Inverter. There are so many rides that can flip you upside down that are really fun, and that will get a line unlike the Enterprises. I don't think they should add Huss or S&S rides either because they have such a high price.Again, I think dark rides at more parks would be a great idea as long as they aren't like Six Flags Over Texas. That was just boring, and stupid. If you are going to do a dark ride without lasers, do it like Disney. This is, base it on a movie like Batman, or some other flick. Without lasers, it doesn't matter. You can have a Tom & Jerry laser ride for goodness sakes. I really do like SFStL's though.

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I totally dissagree with your flatride statments. Look at Hershey, Done right, The right mixture of a bunch of coasters and flats works DAMN WELL. It might not be the thing people go for but when people like me visit Hershey, It's not the coasters that made the impact. It was HOW MUCH THERE WAS TO DO, SHORT LINES AND UNIQUE COLLECTION of EVERYTHING that makes me want to go back.

SF ALREADY HAS COASTERS, COmpliment em.
Chuck

You've been to Hershey's when there are short line? When? :)

I love Hershey's, but I have yet to experience short lines there, except for some unexplainable reason, Lightening Racer.

-Tambo

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tambo said:
You've been to Hershey's when there are short lines? When? :)

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My thoughts exactly.

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I have yet to experience short lines there, except for some unexplainable reason, Lightning Racer.

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My experiences exactly. (except switch Lightning Racers to SuperDooperLooper) :)

Part of the problem with Great Adventure's infamous 1999 "War on Lines" was that there wasn't enough people to staff them, hence the reason many of them didn't operate. Aside from Evolution, I think everything was pretty standard stuff from Zamperla and Huss- stuff that now operates at other Six Flags parks just fine.

As for LR, it's a high-capacity ride and that keeps the lines down. We usually wait 10, 15 minutes max.

The day when the SFNE people came to ride RollerSoaker, the park was EMPTY.... ;)

Actually, other than GB, Comet, and SR, I've never waited more than 15-20 minutes for anything at Hershey. And now, I know not to go with you guys! :)

SFGAdv opinions:

1) Chaos --Good but malfunctions so they took them out.
2) Jump--Junk doesn't work
3) Evolution (relocated to SFSTL as Excalibur)--Didn't work there.
4) Frisbee (relocated to SFGAM as Revolution)--Probably didn't work there.
5) Polyp--It was barely operational is what i heard.
6) Double Inverter--Pain in legs
7) Breakdance --I think these rides are boring.
8) Taz's Twister (Rotor)--They took SFGAm's out so maybe they said to take this out to.
9) a Wipeout-style ride--Took all of them out I believe probably due to stupid injury at SFDK dealing with a little kid who probably slid underneath the bar.
10) Slingshot replaced by ErUption
11) Zamperla Turbo Force (four-seater Skyscraper-like ride)
12) Condor (relocated to SFGAM) as part of the earlier Time Warner
The Top Spin, and the Houdini remain.

That was a pretty bad selection of rides except the Wipeout. Too bad, the Chaos died too. I really like that ride.

IMO, the Houdini is GAdv's gem. When I rode that, I couldn't believe I was at a Six Flags. It seemed like a really old-school Disney ride.

All of the Flags parks should get flying scooters, landboat bumper cars, Houdini's and Scooby Swamp rides. :)