Leaderboard

Did the quick trip and this is what I have. 1. Roughly the line where the site office is and the temp fence finishes. 2. Nothing has happened in this area. (this includes no pegs sighted). 3. This is the hot zone of construction and all the footers are going in. 4. Pegs in this area but nothing else has happened. 5. Land has been screeded and some reo cages laying on their sides. Took some super doggy iphone photos from the car park. A. Metal formwork B. Footer poured with formwork still attached C. Cage with bolts attached waiting on the formwork D. Completed footer waiting for the poles to arrive on site. A1. Shows this footer is only 1 meter from the road. You can also see the tie-down rods which will attach the main structure of the coaster to the footer.

A little birdie told me that @reanimated35 was still up at 1am as well, currently functioning through his marathon MW day on a mere 4 hours of sleep. Hope you guys have your caffeine supplies ready, you're both gonna be absolutely wrecked by 10pm tonight ??

Here's a question, if a 3rd of the train is paying $5 for VR, would a second train now pay for itself?

From Dusk till Dawn has been done before. At Halloween Horror Nights so I believe they were referring to The Conjuring 2. on another note : I'm going to miss The Evil Within and Wolf Creek 2 Mazes.

I think this was a pretty good confirmation it is a Mack coaster:

RIP Gravity Homestead

And here we are paying to walk to the top of AA. These guys do it for free AND get their face in the paper?!

So, another year, another pilgrimage to the US to visit family, visit theme parks, and visit cities I haven’t been to. The past couple of years were about visiting a few big parks that are in locations difficult to access without a hire car (Which is expensive up until you turn 25, hence I had been to other places like the parks in SoCal and Orlando in visits prior. This year was all about picking off the last few major parks in the US that I still had ambitions to visit....At this point now I’d say I’ve done all the ones I’m really interested in. I think its only really Lagoon and Kennywood that im somewhat interested in visiting, but I’m not falling over myself, and I think I want to start chipping away at parks in Europe and Japan next The first park however of the trip was Six Flags Magic Mountain. It was a bit of a crazy mission...My flight landed at 7am, and the park opened 10:30. I didn’t have any intention to do a full day since I figured I’d tire out (Which turned out to be true since I didn’t sleep on the plane) and I really just wanted to go in to ride Twisted Colossus and New Revolution. SFMM I’ve done a few times and I’m a bit lazy when I go (I think the last time I rode X2 was about 3 visits ago lol)...I should really pencil in a proper full day at some point. Ended up staying till about 4pm.I had to get a sim card and shops only open at 10 in the US, which meant I couldn’t get to the park early and do a dash for the first couple of rides to avoid the queues. I headed straight to Twisted Colossus. http://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/ride-2444-Twisted_Colossus Only a short wait. The queue is full of fanciful steam punk contraptions, faux steam pipework (In other words Home Depot PVC pipe painted bronze) etc. The duelling of the ride depends on how well guests load in, and operators will say “If you want to race the other train, you have 30 seconds to board”. From the station to the lift you go over a trick track with several small humps and twists. The long train carries a bit of momentum and doesn’t lose speed, so you get bucked around a bit, and it sets the tone for the ride. Pulling onto the lift the other train completing its lap on the other track pulls in parallel, and the lifts adjust speed so you go over the top of the hill together. The first drop is crazy in true RMC style, very steep, and keeps getting steeper so feels very out of control and you are flung out of your seat. From there is a low to the ground “speed hill” with a quick moment of airtime, and then you go uphill to the turnaround (more air again...a recurring theme basicaly at the top of any hill or drop or incline...they squeeze in moments of air wherever they can it seems) The high 5 that follows (the two track bank 90 degrees in towards each other) is pretty cool, but not that close together. The track drops again, into a great visual moment where you go over an airtime hill, with the other track travelling upside down overhead...Sure beats the dueling moments they had on Dragon Challenge at IOA! You then head into a zero g roll, with the other track underneath...again, another great dueling moment, with only a bit of low clearance netting separating the upside down and right way up tracks. You then cruise up a double-up, and are flung around a wild outward banked turn that flings you out of your set. Awesome because its actually done at full speed, so completley different feeling to an El Loco. The track drops around and changes colour from blue to green as you line up for the 2nd lift and round too. Drop and hill are just as good the 2nd time around. The high 5 is even crazier because the track has to reverse bank back and forth to get itself lined up to be banking towards the other one, so heaps of twisting the train negotiates effortlessly. After this is the top gun stall, which is probably my new favourite inversion, similar to a zero g roll, basically you twist over, and the track follows a long inverted arc that is just enough to hold you in your seat, before twisting back upright from the way you came. One last airtime hill under the other track, the double up,and then you turn down into a 2 part brake run a bit like the one on jet rescue. Wow, its easily one of the worlds best coaster, perfect mix of airtime, speed, inversions, and I really think racing coasters are great fun and there should be more of them. I immediately went for another lap. After that I did a quick single rider queue lap on Green Lantern . Just as limit pushingly intense as I remembered, with unusual forces because of the way it goes backwards, then immediately forwards down the drops. On the final hill I got a double flip too! I then stuck out the 90 minute queue for New Revolution, to see what the fuss was all about with VR. The wait sucked balls, a major humanitarian disaster with limited shelter and no water. SFMM were missing out on free money by not having a roving vendor selling cold drinks to people waiting, so they have no right to complain if their per cap figures are deficient. If you want to ride it without VR the quickest way would be via the single rider queue. The trains are basically very patriotic. SF seem to be really playing to their local market with this sort of theming on a few recent additions. But dispatches are still very slow, and they give too much capacity over to Platinum flashpass users. Once you are onboard, you loop a lanyard around your neck, rotate a click ring on the back of the plastic head strap to tighten, then tighten a cord under you chin. Each seat has a QR code in front of it, and you look down at your feet then bring your head up gradually till the camera on the samsung spots the QR code, and cues the correct footage for your seat (Since obviously the back seat will go over the top of drops faster than the front seat, so the footage compensates for that. The graphics itself were pretty PS2, but the concept itself wasn't bad. It was basically an independence day knock off, flying around a city fighting alien spacecraft, dodging falling skyscrapers, diving under freeways. In a nod/knock off of the original movie, when you do the vertical loop, you do it under the primary weapon of the mother ship, so have a chance to deliver a shot straight up when the track goes vertical. VR is a cool concept, but i think they really need to work on a better way of doing operations, say with multiple preshow rooms where they can get guests sorted, rather than handing out headsets as you walk into the station and explaining individually in an ad-hoc manner. Even TVs in the queue with instructional videos to hammer in the process over the 90 minute wait would help right? I think VR could work on a purpose built coaster better too...You could basically build a kiddy coaster but make it feel like you are going 100km/h. I was getting a bit tired and hot, so did one last lap on Twisted Collosus for the day, and got a perfect duel with both trains neck and neck. The only dampener was that the ride broke down whilst i was in the queue, and when it was up and running again they kept letting flashpass people through, rather than halting that temporarily (or at least holding them for a few minutes), they should have focused on clearing the people towards the front of the standby queue who had waited patiently through the breakdown. Overall, both solid experiences (Though Twisted Collosus way ahead!). In future I'll have to make sure im well and truly early at SFMM to have a better day.

here's a quick look of this years Park Map

I finally got the chance to check out TI today, it's looks fantastic, the view from the new upwards sitting pit is awesome Oh it's not a update without a picture of the Cannonball Express passing by!

The conjuring maze looks absolutely amazing!

so who got the text about the tour? when I got the message I was wondering why I got a message from WNW Sydney then I read the message... not long now!! ?

Yes others have posted, I was mistaken and was thrown by the fact some had concrete inside. They are indeed formwork.

Wait, did I hear that right? You were up at 1:13am and you had to be up for the Star Tour today? You must be very strong-willed to be able to do that...

LOL. If you had made the attempt to try and report at least mildly factually, you'd probably have been allowed to stay. This isn't the first ridiculous reporting from @SamCucchiara9 (i think his report on the GL incident comes to mind). He shits me to tears... and this is why he's stuck in a regional bureau. #whatacockhead #SamCucchiara9

Better than it running up the hill, I guess.

God bless this man... Video embed from article: This is an article from 1 month ago and coincidentally, donations close in 3 hours. Hopefully they can one day expand from ghost trains/dark rides and do general theme park rides on the verge of closure... Too bad the technology wasn't as advance to get dark rides like Eureka Mountain Mine Ride & Bermuda Triangle captured before closure...

I'm a backer and I've used my own Google Cardboard VR to view some of the content. Whether you support it or not, it's still great to collect as much material as possible while it's still available.

It looks like the UTT Lounge will be in the the Legends Dining Room this time round. The room itself has been fully decorated in halloween props. The courtyard has a little grave in it and they are currently installing more decorations as we speak. Also has the UTT hearse outside. And also just a few more photos as well. They are also using the Boot Hill sign. Assuming they are putting a UTT Lounge sign on it. The queue line for C2 has been put up. The car in the Halloween precinct has changed and themed. And a few shots inside the room opposite.

Lol, bet he wouldn't last long with a theme park job with that attitude!

After another day in Atlanta I took the drive about 3.5 north into Tennessee, through Knoxville and up into Pigeon Forge for Dollywood http://www.parkz.com.au/parks/US/Pigeon_Forge/Dollywood Theres heaps of photos beyond that link. Dont forget you can also search for specific phrases like "dollywood food" etc for specific photo filtering. This is the sort of park that speaks to me, it is a high quality park with a pleasant natural setting, good thrills, good theming and good secondary attractions (Much like places such as Alton Towers, Busch Gardens Williamsburg etc) It's basically mostly an old time 1880s theme, with lots of craftsman displays and old buildings, as you'd see in a historical park like sovereign hill, but there is a 50s themed area and a country fair zone at the bottom of the park too. Quite hilly and leafy, with lots of modern rides mixed in too. In the lead up to my trip their newest coaster, Lighting Rod had been having persistent reliability issues, with many enthusiasts who planned trips being spited by the ride and missing out. I’d resigned myself to the ride being closed, but looked at the upside of it being a good park with or without the ride, and one that had been on my hit list probably since they built Thunderhead. The ride had been closed for close to a month in the lead up to the start of my trip. However, upon checking the website on the morning of the drive it had gone into technical rehearsal again! OMG please don’t break, please don’t break! So things were looking up! The park has a great deal where if you have a one day ticket, you use it from 4pm on the day prior. I got there around 5pm and was able to stick around till 10pm. A thunderstorm had just blown through so most rides were shut, including lightning rod. But they had staff on, and were allowing guests to wait in the bottom of the queue. I stuck around for about 15 mins before deciding to seek alternative activities, starting with some food. First thing I tried were tater twists...Basically natural cut curly fries. They were ok, maybe could have had a bit more crunch. Continuing further up into the park I stopped off at the Grist Mill for some cinnamon bread. It basically tastes like the best churro ever...Fresh bread so a bit of stretch and very soft, the outside was crusty and covered in cinnamon and sugar. Very rich but very nice. I finished maybe 1/3 of it, so it’s better to share. Turns out Blazing Fury operates in all weather (well, it is indoors) so that was my first ride. Basically you leave a fire station themed loading area, and it’s a powered coaster at the start, going uphill at a steady speed through dark ride scenes of a burning mountain village (With the typical fire effects where they have sheer cloth with lights and air being blown in the windows) There’s the odd bit of amusing hillbilly dialogue (“put your damn pants back on Chester” etc). Towards the end there are three big dips, including one where the bottom falls out of a covered bridge, and another where a “train” is coming towards you at a crossing. It is an older ride, so I’m not allowed to be too harsh, but this really does seem like something the park could/should be plussing to bring up to the standard of the rest of the park. Basically, the burning village part was just way too quiet, apart from the occasional bit of dialogue so you’re riding in silence so there’s no atmosphere. Where’s the burning/crackling fire sounds? Dramatic music? Fire wagon sirens? Some of the scenics seemed a bit half hearted, e.g. the “train” you collide with is a single spotlight shined at you, with no train body. They should look at relaunching this with some better SFX (e.g. fire projection mapping, smoke, heat etc....maybe even pyro if the building is suitable for it?) Basically, it’s a cool concept for a theme, but misses the mark a bit. Just further up is Tennessee Tornado, an Arrow looper, which was the last one they ever built, so the track is different, and the supports look like what S&S build. It was just re-opening as I got up there. It was good, ran pretty smoothly and made good use of the terrain, with a lot of the ride back from the main park. The queue building is a big wooden structure with random bits of olden paraphernalia smashed into/ through the walls. Does the job. The lift hill runs up a hillside, and a u turn leads into a steep straight drop that goes through a tunnel through the hillside. When you reach the bottom there’s a large loop, which has had the entrance and exit stretched quite far apart (much more and you could probably call it a corkscrew) From there, it’s an overbanked turn, a loop, then a sidewinder (imagine the last bit of cyclone in reverse) You rise up into a high banked turn, and then hit the brakes. It’s a fairly short ride, but lots of action and does the job well. If only Arrow had started building better engineered coasters a few years earlier, the company might have survived a bit longer. Night and day in terms of quality between this (1999) and say Big Dipper/Cyclone/Hot Wheels (Originally 1995) Next up I hit Wild Eagle, a B&M wing rider built on a hillside. Like a lot of Dollywoods coasters, it’s in a bugger of a location to get photos, which is great for creating surprise, but a bugger for the photographer. This was another reason to be happy with Dollywood had Lighting Rod not opened....I love wing riders, and Gatekeeper is one of my favourites. The theme is a bit looser, but the ride is very attractive, with an elaborate contemporary mountain building as the station, with detailed stonework at cut metal screens etc. There’s also an enormous eagle sculpture built of stainless and corten steel. Herschend is a Christian company, so there are a couple of bible verses on plaques in the queue too. The trains are of course themed like eagles in a sort of avian version of the human centipede. From the station you make a turn and head up the lift hill to the top of the mountain, part of which has to cut through the hillside. It’s great they have used the terrain, but unfortunately they’ve had to strip the mountain bare a bit to allow construction, and it hasn’t revegetated. I’d love to see some fast growing trees and plants on the hillside to get it back to how it was / to match the surrounding countryside. The first drop is straight, followed by a fun loop, and a zero g roll which generates all sorts of strange feelings due to hanging off the sides so far. There’s an immellman, but the best part IMO was the corkscrew, which came very close to some tree branches. The ride finishes off with a floater hill and a figure 8 helix. It’s a solid, and very enjoyable ride. I reckon every park should have an “enjoyable” thrill coaster like this (or a flyer or something) in conjunction with your extreme forceful rides (Like your RMCs, Intamins, Mack loopers etc) The only faults I could find were the aforementioned lack of trees, and the fact that the vest tightening cylinder seemed a bit overactive in its calibration, so it was pulling very tight on your collarbones by the end of the ride and stacked on the brake run. I also would have liked to have seen the trademark wing coaster “inline twist through obstacles” on this ride (maybe could have been in the middle of the figure 8)...Would have been cool to fly between two trees or something. The next ride up was the excellent FireChaser Express. Now while Disney probably wouldn't build a ride like this with standard track and exposed supports, the rest of the ride felt quite Disney to me in feel. You head into a wilderness fire station with lovely ornate Timber detailing and plenty of other fire fighting theming like hoses, smoky bear posters, an old fire truck etc. Checking the train is quick and you are on your way, launching out of the station around a few turns, before joining the lift hill and getting up quite high. You a few back to back turns in the air (one of which is unbanked, wild mouse style) A drop leads into a few more hills with a moderate amount of airtime (it is a family coaster after all) before you head back around through a fireworks testing range with random fireworks stuck in targets at odd angles. Eventually you reach a dead end in a sketchy looking "gas/propane station" which sells fireworks (a surprisingly common sight in some southern US states actually!) The place is burning, you feel the heat, and the flames spread along to the pride of the store, a huge "big Bertha" firework, which tips over and points towards the train. With sparks and smoke the cracker goes off and you are launched backwards through a shroud of smoke, and a few more turns and hills to around to the front of the station. A track switch allows the train to move onto the intital lauch track to reverse into the station (so you get the realism of driving out of, and backing back into the station)... didn't seem to harm capacity, because the trains seem easy to check quickly. Basically as a family coaster its difficult to fault. Of course you could always add more theming along the main track to make it feel less like an exposed coaster, but that would be unnecessary....its a great ride...more parks need high quality family coasters like this, beyond your standard rollerskaters. The one thing I think they should do is open up the old elevated ropes course starting platform....its there, and would make a great observation deck for the ride, and the top of the park in general. Checking the wait time app, Lightning Rod still wasn’t open, so i continued around the main loop of the park to Mystery mine. This is an indoor/outdoor/indoor/outdoor eurofighter with a spooky mine theme. The station seems set up for huge crowds, with about 4 load points from memory (So maybe a bit longer than GLs station) This is one of the older eurofighters. The older ones basically are like wild mouses with loops and odd turns, while the newer ones are basically scaled down versions of full sized looping coasters, so this had a very different feel to dare devil dive from a couple of days earlier. From the station its a small steep drop into the mine, with an odd outward banked turn past some equipment. A few more turns in the dark and theres another drop under a rock crusher. You are brought around to the base of a mine shaft, where some untrustworthy crows sit on one of the levers and send you up a 90 degree lift. When you get to the top I was semi expecting a beyond vertical drop, but it’s just a small dip and turn, and a couple of humps as you go through a wooden bridge structure. On the other side the wild mouse feels continue, with what i called in my head a “skateboard u turn” and a couple of tiny helices. The big 8 person car takes these quite slowly. You then cross back over the bridge with a couple of weird mini Stengel dive type thingys and re enter the mine. From there the music becomes dramatic as you are hauled up another 90 degree lift. There appeared there should have been a projection at the top, but all there was, was a blue screen. At the top theres a ledge with boxes of explosives. As you can predict it all goes up in flames right in front of you, with heat on your forehead, you start to drop, but rather than going straight down into it, it’s like the one on Takabisha with a short 45 degree section with mag brakes, but then you finally drop and at the bottom emerge from the building. For the end of the ride you go all green lantern, with a fast barrel roll, and a dive loop before you hit the brakes. Overall, quite good. I found the back seats smoother than the front, and you get thrown around a bit in the outside seats. Euro fighters are definitely more comfortable with lap bars! It’s a strange one, with lots of time at low speed doing odd manoeuvres, and only really is fast for a few seconds right at the end where the drop and inversions are. They need that projector working too, was broken both days I was there. Heading back down hill was Thunderhead, the parks GCI with an utterly confusing layout that looks like it was designed by a drunk. It’s a typical GCI, so fast pacing and nonstop turning, and deafeningly loud, but for this reason they all feel quite similar once you’ve done a few. They’re also best ridden in their first or 2nd season, beyond that they settle into a certain level of roughness that never seems to be shaken despite the efforts of the various parks maintenance crews. So solid, and I did about 2 or 3 laps during my total stay. Passing back around to the front of the park Lighting Rod was still not up, so it must’ve broken down during the rain. So I ambled back up the hill to do some more rides on Wild Eagle and Firechaser Express. Heading back downhill I paused to take this photo, but saw a train run, so instantaneously stopped what I was doing and headed for the entrance of Lightning Rod, the worlds fastest woodie, and the only one with a launch. This is the world’s best coaster. I mean that. It gets everything perfect. The initial 30 minute queue wound through a glass garage door fronted mechanics workshop, with a hot rod on a hoist, before heading out back into a four storey factory built of brick. The queue loops up and back along each floor, past typical workshop theming like oil drums, tool chests, workbenches with car parts etc etc. Anticipation grew because out the windows you have a clear view of the launch, and the final quad down and turnaround. Lots of excited faces as each train hit the brakes, and the whole time I was just hoping it wouldn’t break down! Finally I was in the station and was allocated 2nd back row. RMCs are great, and the trains are very comfortable, but they have that issue of the hydraulic harnesses being difficult to open and close (Like how GL was when it first opened), so a lot of station time is chewed up with staff and guests straining to get the harnesses open at the end of the ride. From the station you turn, and accelerate quite briskly uphill , with the forces amplified because you are on an incline. Strong airtime on the first hump, which makes you realise what you are in for, and the another strong dose at the top of the huge first drop. In RMC style its stupidly steep, and holds you out of your seat, triggering that real primal “I’m gonna die” reflex as you drop off the steep hillside. From here on, you are in a valley hidden from the rest of the park. You turn and bank up into this giant sideways hill that bulges out, so you are being thrown out sideways and upwards. Train then drops down and into a reverse banking stall turn (like on the Twisted colossus high 5), where you bank right-left-right...really powerful twisting! A couple more crazy airtime hills follow that are much smaller than the proceeding elements, so heaps of negative gs, before you turn to head up hill again through a double up. Heaps of air at the apex before things get even more crazy on the quad down. Basically it’s like one of those humpy playground slippery dips or those wavy slides you see at shows/aussie world. So as you can imagine with each progressive dip it gets faster and with stronger air, almost to that point where it’s hurting your thighs! You’re blazing along at this point, as you pass the station building, bank up through a climbing u turn and drop again into the brake run with heaps of speed...No sense of slowing down at any point of the ride! Back seats are best for sure. Basically, it’s got all the thrills, power and intensity of something like Skyrush, but in a far more comfortable package. Couple that with a rugged terrain setting, hidden from view, plenty of trees, and a nicely themed queue and cool looking train, and you have a recipe for the perfect coaster. Things become even better at night, because the back part of the ride is very very dark...no bloody spot lights spoiling it like the beast at Kings Island, so this ride takes the crown for the best night time coaster too I reckon. My strategy for Lighting rod was to keep riding it till it broke down (though this meant foregoing night rides on the other coasters), since there was no guarantee for its reliability for the length of my stay, so I stuck on it till closing time, with the queue progressively getting shorter and shorter with each lap, till it was a walk on and I was on the last train of the night. Wandering out of the park you can appreciate the nice lighting on the buildings. It was 10pm, but I wasn't done yet. About 15 minutes away are two alpine coasters. There are four all up in the Pigeon Forge area, but I stuck with these two given the time I had, Goat Coaster and the Smoky Mountain Alpine Coaster are literally 1.5km apart, on the same road on the same hillside. Goat Coaster shut at 11, And the Smoky Mountain one at 12. A Wiegand alpine coaster is like those sled runs at Jamberoo, Magic Mountain, Thredbo, Big Banana etc, except its locked on a stainless steel track, and the carts have a backrest, and there is a control handle for each hand. (goat coaster) Both rides were fairly similar, the goat one a bit faster, and the smoky one much longer. These rides were in darkness too, other than a bit of LED strip lighting at points. (Smoky mountain alpine coaster) They are pretty fun, but the backrest does actually dig into your back a bit (especially on the turns) because its just a U shaped pipe with shadecloth on it, with no padding. Also,the cars have a centrifugal brake, so once you hit top speed the car feels like its catching on something, and brakes slightly. Hitting top speed is no effort, especially because I gave the cars in front a bit of extra time so I could do an unrestricted run. The rides are lengthy, with a lift hill that takes several minutes. On the way down you do multiple helices, little bumps and lots of turns. On the balance, I prefer the normal Weigand bobsleds...more control, a bit more fear of crashing, and more comfortable. So that was day 1. Day 2 had the park open till 7, but I started off with brekky at DreamMore resorts buffet, where the best feature was an ommelette bar where you could pick various veges and bits of ham, cheeses etc to mix in. So I took the day at quite a relaxed pace, doing all the coasters a few times again, and picking up a lap on the diminutive Sideshow Spin Coaster (whose claim to fame is that it used to be themed to the religious cartoon VeggieTales) I tried Daredevil Falls...same boats as wild west falls, but fairly conventional, with none of the backwards drops or turntables or airtime hills etc that MWs has. The top bit had a giant moving buzzsaw however, but otherwhise the theming was more just nice stuff to look at rather than story driven. Mountain slidewinder was awesome...Basically a water slide, but you ride in your street clothes in this 5 person inline boat that is made out of moulded foam rubber rather than the typical inflatables you might see. This allows it to twist and flex a bit, and pick up a fair bit of speed, so you bank high on the walls, and cop some decent splashes, and fear the whole time that you are going to tip over. A great gem. The Dollywood Express takes you up to the back end of the park, but there's not a lot to see in terms of unique views of the rides, other than the back of Thunderhead. They do some fun stuff like make jokes about the various bits of scenery and theming on the way out, like the "lemonade stand they made us shut down" (spoiler: it's a moonshine still) Some more from the rest of the park. This rapids looked a bit too wet for my mood at the time. Likewise, splash battles are cool, but very wet so nobody seems to ride them at any theme park. I had one of the fried chicken sandwiches. It's just a fillet like in a KFC burger, and bread, nothing else. Would have liked pickles at least, like the chicken sandwiches you get at Chick-Fil-A in the US. The skillet steak sandwich was nice too, but southern food is very heavy going considering how hot it is...While I'm here, and interesting fact about the park is the average staff age is over 60, and you see plenty of seniors working away dilligently...a contrast to the teenagers that staff most theme parks. I was two minds about this, on one hand its great they aren't discriminatory in their hiring. On the other hand its a bit of a reflection on the US that many older people cannot enjoy a relaxed retirement after a lifetime of working. The park is very pretty. I rounded out my 2nd day at the park with one last lap each on Wild Eagle, Mystery Mine, and closed out in the front row of Thunderhead. Overall, its an excellent park all around, with great theming, great rides, immaculate upkeep and a pleasant atmosphere. The coaster collection is pretty well rounded, and they have built a few in recent years....I'd love to see a major dark ride as their next addition. Everyone should try to visit this place if doing a US theme park trip!

Safe to say its a Mack Coaster. Got this tweet from Michael Mack, a member of the executive board of Mack Rides.

Current construction Photos of the new Food and Retail outlet at Sea World!

Anyone got update pics?