Worst year ever for enthusiast community?

Anyone who was at SRM in 2003 knows what the worst year to be an enthusiast was.

Even as someone who truly liked and enjoyed GL, I have to say the only great loss this year was Chiller, but that happened before the end of the season with the removal of the Zero G rolls. The only thing that would come close is losing Big Dipper but I guess it still remains to be seen what will happen with it.

Deja Vu was crap pure and simple, it was an operational and maintainence nightmare and the ride frankly sucked. For all intents and purpose we are losing a couple damn boomerangs that sucked even worse then boomerangs. Big Whoop

We are trimming the fat pure and simple, things are maintaining a balance that with all the entertainment options right now needs to be done.

I maintain that this was a great year for parks that have been able to find a niche in the current entertainment landscape, and looking at additions for next year things look very very good.

I think this year is awesome and I still have another trip to SFDK and possibly another trip back to BGA, but the off season always brings the blues, but I think there are going to be some tight new roller coasters being added this off season.

Best year for me too.

Renegade at my home park.

Trip to KI, SFKK, Strickers, HW, BB, and IB. Which included my frist credits on a flying dutchman, first credits for The Voyage, and alot of others.

Looking forward to next season.

This year has been great. Over the last couple of years I've really lost touch with the industry but a lot of things have happened to spark my interest again. I went to Holiday World for the first time this year, too.

2007 saw the good, the bad, and the tragic. Everybody knows how I feel about CF closing Geauga Lake, but I wouldn't want that to overshadow what looks to be the just-about end of Conneaut Lake Park. Every year in recent memory has brought its list of parks that fell by the wayside. And as Dave indicated, they ain't been offset by all that many new ones. I say, enjoy this hobby while we still have all these wonderful places. I shudder to see which ones won't make it out of 2008.

For various reasons, my traveling was limited this year. I had a lot of park visits, but to only two different parks, then again they were two great parks.

Regionally, the downer is that PA lost one park for sure, with two more still up in the air (barely). The good news is, even with those losses, we'll have a net increase of (non-kiddie) coasters in the state with 5 announcements for '08 openings.

We also shouldn't forget the numerous accidents we heard about and discussed this year. All the various park closings should give us pause and remind us not to get too complacent. There is no guarantee this joyride will go on forever.

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RideMan said:
You talk about the loss of Geauga Lake this year...well, first off, the park isn't gone. The scary thing about it is that it's doing the same thing that Conneaut Lake did about ten years ago, but Geauga Lake isn't actually closing, something Cedar Fair wishes people would actually notice.

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What does this even mean? The Geauga Lake I grew up with over the past 30 years is closed, gone, never coming back...

What people are going to notice is that the rides are gone and the park they once knew is no longer there.

What does Cedar Fair exactly wish that people would notice? That a half-finished waterpark is still operating next summer?

By the way, when do they plan on finishing phase 2? Anyone? The place is dead to me (and many others as far as I can tell).

^Join the crowd, you can also thank that mentality for killing GL in the first place. I really dont understand the backlash, bellyaching and whining that this subject has brought and maintained for so long. Things were bad and not likely to get better anytime soon, it was time to cut their losses. Just be happy you have a boat load of parks near by that you can continue to go to, it could be worse, imagine if you were a Coaster Enthusiast living in a Western State not named California and be 4-5 hrs away from any park and more then a days drive away from any major park.

Sorry for the rant but Im tired about talking about GL. Its time to accept it and move on.

I don't think it was a bad year at all, relatively. We got Griffon at BGE, so those of us who live in the midatlantic region of the East coast didn't have to wonder what Sheikra was like. They apparently pulled in four-million visitors this year, and I'm sure it's due to the installation of Griffon.

You also had Mystery Mine at DW, the two Tony Hawk's Big Spins at SFSTL and SFFT respecitively, Sierra Sidewinder at KBF, Boardwalk Bullet, Renegade, the relocated and rethemed Firehawk, Wicked at Lagoon, and the reopening of Son of Beast. For us Marylanders, we finally got to see The Wildcat being given permission to open, and what a smooth ride it is.

And that was just in the States. I think if you look overseas, you'll see some innovative stuff that'll make it our way eventually.

Hands down for me though, was the little coaster that packed a mean punch, and that was Maverick. Congratulations to Cedar Point for picking out a ride that wasn't 500 ft. tall to try and take back a stupid record.

I'm also thankful for Maverick in another way; I was the only one out of our crew who still needed a Maxx Pass, and Geauga Lake was on the way. Would we have even gone on this trip and spent a full day at GL if it hadn't been for Maverick? I highly doubt it.

The big shocker of the year though for me was watching Wild West World flounder after two-months of operation. Would I have ever visited Kansas? It's hard to say, but it's always interesting to watch the creation of an amusement park, which is why next year I'm hoping to get to the Hard Rock Park. *** Edited 10/31/2007 4:15:39 AM UTC by Intamin Fan***

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Touchdown said:

Sorry for the rant but Im tired about talking about GL. Its time to accept it and move on.

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Sums up how I feel about it.

As for this year, I didn't have a great year in terms of coasters and parks, but it wasn't all that bad either.

We had some great new ride additions balanced out with the removal of a few that were just a pain in the ass to operate or maintain. You gain some, you lose some.

The climate is changing radically in the industry and with change, there will always be people that won't like it.

We had a pretty good year. The removal of Chiller is sad, but not surprising. The new version was a step down anyhow and the effort and money needed to keep it running probably doomed it.

Still we got to travel quite a bit and got to 18 new parks and added 53 new coasters. We spent 30 days at parks this year and pretty much enjoyed them all.

Maybe not our best year but certainly not a bad year.

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Paul Blackstone said:
The Geauga Lake I grew up with over the past 30 years is closed, gone, never coming back...

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The GL you grew up with has been gone for several years. Sure there was a park there, but it hasn't been the same since Premier Parks purchased the place.

This is my worst year since 1997. I went to SFGadv twice and one FEC, which translates to ONE new coaster for me. I'll try to bounce back next year, with scheduled trips to Canada and MN.

I think the problem with making claims as a whole about the "enthusiast community" is that there really is no such thing.

Best year for me...

I visited 4 Disney resorts out of 5, discovered amazing parks in South Korea and just had a good time.

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Kevin Max said:
Seahawk, by your logic impulses and invertigos, as well as drop rides, have no places in major theme parks?

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not Seahawk, it's The Wave, Seahawk's not home now. It's not my logic, it's my opinion, and it's a yes-and-no. Some parks can handle a capacity dog, and some shouldn't try. Like, when Cedar Point built Wicked Twister, I kinda thought it was OK because they had lots of other big rides to eat up the crowds. But I think Kings Island and PGA(CGA) were off their rockers to put in Invertigo & Face/Off, and same with Great Adventure when they built Chiller - and even as a two-train ride, even if it worked on both sides regularly - NO, not for a crowded park that at the time had only Batman and Scream Machine as headliners. If they built something like that NOW, 4 or 5 major coasters later, it might make better sense. Drop rides? well, every big park needs one, and some fit better than others. SF Great America's with 24 seats is a no. Kings Dominions with 56 seats is a yes. But Magic Mountain and Great Adventure are the biggest losers, with ZERO!

Raging Cow - wow, that's funny. And I love that coaster.

^I too thought Raging Cow was appropriate, because it was so sedate. It definitely got a chuckle out of me. When compared to how out of control Nitro is, it was like being on a really big family coaster--not that there's anything wrong with that--but it's supposed to be a hyper coaster and it just didn't meet expectations due to over-braking.

And I totally agree that Chiller would work better introduced today, than it did back in the day when there were fewer big-name attractions in the park.

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matt. said:
I think the problem with making claims as a whole about the "enthusiast community" is that there really is no such thing.

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Aside from people making known their personal park experiences, there are very few claims. The closing of Geauga Lake, the issue with Rye Playland's darkrides, new wood coaster construction... those are all completely factual.

I think you're missing my point. It's hard to make generalizations about the "enthusiast community" because I don't think a group of people who share a hobby really makes a "community." I don't think anyone can ever agree on "this was a bad year for us" or "this was a good year for us" because the group, the "us," is too loosely affiliated. *** Edited 10/31/2007 7:01:48 PM UTC by matt.***

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RatherGoodBear said:

Regionally, the downer is that PA lost one park for sure, with two more still up in the air (barely). The good news is, even with those losses, we'll have a net increase of (non-kiddie) coasters in the state with 5 announcements for '08 openings.

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Which parks are the three that might be closing?