Would you be proud to have your coaster photographed in a state like this?

Last week in People Magazine, there was a nice photo of Chris Rock and his wife about to ride El Toro.

Well, this week in People it's Leonardo DiCaprio with his girlfriend on Xcelerator at Knott's Berry Farm. I know I had said that the seats on S:ROS at SFA needed replacing last week, but the lapbars on Xcelerator actually look in worse shape, and some of the side bars clearly need some new paint. The front of the train (from what I can see) however, looks great.

I'm pretty sure the management at Knott's could give a rat's ass about how Xcelerator's lapbars look in a tabloid-type magazine.

But they should care about what they look like to their paying guests. My friend and I were appalled at the condition of the trains on Xcelerator in March. They looked like they were 20 years old or something. Most of the foam had worn away, the majority of each seat was black instead of their normal colors and paint was peeling on the metal parts of the seats. Show the coaster some love - geesh!!

Kraxelridah, see that's a problem. Clearly, anytime a major celebrity winds up on your coaster at your park, it's major publicity for you if it makes it to a widely-read publication like People. Photographers don't take pictures of the celebrities for their health.

The ride was never named, it was just a coaster at Knott's Berry Farm. I'm sure the readership of People is huge. There are probably a lot of people reading at home going "Boy, if all their rides look like that, we'll go somewhere else." *** Edited 8/23/2007 8:30:43 PM UTC by Intamin Fan***

I don't think it looks so bad. This article even talks about how much they enjoyed the ride. If anything, this would be positive PR.
http://justjared.buzznet.com/2007/08/17/leonardo-dicaprio-roller-coaster/

That picture looks better than the one in People. The one you referenced looks like their ride photo and I'm assuming People cropped out the lightning bolts.

If you look at the larger images, you can see how horrible the ride looks. I'm not sure anyone would even notice this in People magazine. But, in person, the ride is awful looking. Xcelerator has been around longer than TTD, yet TTD has had its trains "spruced up" already, right? I thought I heard somewhere they were painted and received new foam already. Yet, Xcelerator's are still nasty.

My sister watches Disney channel and they are doing some get fit show or something where this one girl has to go to SFGAd and ride 10 coasters, in like 5 hours or something, just to let you guys know, I havent been to SFGAd but it might be something to check out.

How does riding coasters get you fit?! The opposite is actually true for SFGAdv! You must be fit *first* before riding ET!!

Doesn't look to bad to me. Thanks to SFGAd for colored lap bars.... c 1988.

You wanna see bad, go ride Thunder Run.

Doesn't look too bad to me?

R.

I don't think the people reading about a Leo riding a coaster even see the lab bar.

I would imagine the year round operations has a lot to do with them not being able to refurb the train. They would have to pull down the ride for a couple months.

For reference, here is how a non-coaster geek reacts. This is my girlfriend talking, so she knows about coasters and has been on just as many as me.

eightdotthree
11:29
http://justjared.buzznet.com/2007/08/17/leonardo-dicaprio-roller-coaster/

mo
11:31
i wonder if tehy got the VIP treatment

31:20
was that their ride photo?

31:21
haha

Ryan Sprake
11:31
yeah

31:26
we will be on that

31:32
thats at knotts

mo
11:31
haha

The bigger point though, is what do people experience when they go there? I'm SURE people notice the train is in poor shape when they get on.

Just because the park is open year-round is no excuse for lack of maintenance and upkeep. Knott's has a slow season just like any other park. Xcelerator has two trains. Pull one train off, rehab it, put it back on, pull the other train off, rehab it, and have the coaster back to full capacity in the busy season. During the rehab time, the coaster would just operate with one train. We were there in April/May and there was no need to have two trains running. We never waited for a train the entire time we were there since the queue never even reached outside the station. See, no excuse!

I think to really see the bad state of the lap-bar you need to look closely at Leos crotch region. And who would do that?

All it looks like is color wear, I don't see any lack of maintenance. The shape and integrity of the lapbars and rest of the train appear to be just fine. They looked similar while I was there just recently, but no one in the station or on the ride seemed to notice.

Knott's do take each coaster down for a period of time to do a yearly refurb.

IMO Chris Rock has better taste than Leo does in what coaster he chose to ride.lol

^^That's an understatement! So does anyone have a link to that Chris Rock pic??

GoliathKills, I wasn't implying that they're not taking care of the trains, it just looks bad. It's kind of unexpected out of Cedar Fair.

As for the Chris Rock photo, it looks like either I'll have to scan it and post it (I'm not sure that's legal), or you'll have to wait until People posts it. It looks like they're a few weeks behind in what they put up on the website.

Your other option is to go to your local library which should have current issues of the magazine. The photo shows a happy couple, but her smile is clearly wider than his.

He has this half-smile that has the look of nervousness to it. I would love to have been the people who rode behind him to hear what he said afterwards.

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Audioslaved said:
My sister watches Disney channel and they are doing some get fit show or something where this one girl has to go to SFGAd and ride 10 coasters, in like 5 hours or something, just to let you guys know, I havent been to SFGAd but it might be something to check out.

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Why would the Disney channel even mention a Six Flags park?

If you don't like having your coaster photographed in a that state, there's 49 more to choose from. Ba-Da-Bump-- ching! :)