March Poll Results

My question for the March poll was what was the best Time Warner Era, Highly Themed Six Flags roller coaster. We had 375 votes, and while the winner wasn't a big surprise, I do feel it is quite deserving.

The Batman The Ride coasters came in number uno in this poll with 30% of the total vote. The reason I think this one deserved to win is that it's such a solid ride with some nice theming as well.

And to be clear, I'm not comparing the theming aspects of any of the rides in this poll to Disney or Universal stuff, so for these rides "great theming" would not equal Big Thunder Mountain Railroad theming, but probably more like Batman The Ride theming.

Next, in 2nd place with 25% of the vote we have Superman The Escape at Six Flags Magic Mountain.

This one was surprising to me, I did not see this ride coming in second place when all was said and done. I've never been on it so I can't comment on the ride or it's theming, but aside from height and speed the ride doesn't seem to offer much. Is the theming in the queue and station cool?

In third place, R.I.P., we have Batman and Robin: The Chiller formerly at Six Flags Great Adventure with 17% of the vote.

Chiller was an awesome ride, I think anyway, but it was hard to visit the park and find both sides open. The theming was pretty good as well. It's nice that some of it will remain and be used in Great Adventure's new Dark Knight coaster this coming season.

The Mr. Freeze coasters at Six Flags St. Louis and Six Flags over Texas came in 4th with a respectable 14% of the vote.

After that the remaining rides all had significantly lower numbers of votes. All are, or were for those that have been removed, pretty interesting or unique rides with some decent theming as well.

The new poll is up, so think it over and decide your favorite operating custom Schwarzkopf ride!

Hong Kong Disneyland Small World Photos

© 2008 Disney

The Disney and More blog has the first look at the inside of the Hong Kong version of It's A Small World, which is going to open later this month at Hong Kong Disneyland.

Honestly, the Disney characters that were added to the ride are in the style of the Small World characters and not even totally obvious, to me at least. Like in the photo above, Woody and Jessie from Toy Story fit in with the ride's 'look' really well, at least IMO.

Still, while the addition of the characters to the Disneyland version causes continued debate, go check out Disney And More's photos.

New Dorney 2008 Ad

Here's a new ad I found for Dorney Park for the 2008 season. Thank goodness they used the logo with Snoopy back in it. I hope that one ends up on the website again as well.

I'm surprised they used a less digitally altered photo of Steel Venom at Valleyfair! for the Voodoo shot - that one they have used before has all the train colors changed and looked good, this one isn't that great. And the close up shot of the riders isn't altered at all!

Eagle Fortress Video

Holy Moly - suddenly I see why Eagle Fortress at Everland in Korea ranked 3rd in this year's Steel Coaster Poll.



That looks like an intense ride! I would love to take a spin. After you are off the lift the thing doesn't let up.

Compare to Iron Dragon at Cedar Point and you'll really see how intense Eagle looks...

Weekly Topic #1

NewsPlusNotes will now be participating in a Weekly Topic discussion that involves several prominent Coaster/Amusement Park websites and blogs. One site will post a topic each week, the participating sites will then post a reply, and there will be a central place for discussion. It's a great idea and it's wonderful to have several sites/blogs come together like this!

This weeks topic was posted by Coasterdom and is titled "Cedar Fair, the New Company to Hate." You can read that article here.


My thoughts?

Well, Cedar Fair certainly isn't looked at by the fan community the way it was in the past. Sure, die-hard fans are still around, but there's been a general waning of support for the operator in the past year or so.

I think Cedar Fair started as such a fan favorite because of the obvious: they own Cedar Point - which has legions of fanatics that will defend the park till the end of time. The massive new coasters and exciting attractions Cedar Point added translated into popularity for the operating company, at least in a general sense. Past park purchases, such as Dorney Park, Worlds of Fun, and even Michigan's Adventure have led to new exciting rides at those properties, further enhancing the perception of Cedar Fair.

But then they purchased the Paramount Parks. Everyone wondered how they would handle the purchase, and what the former Paramount Parks would end up like. Well, it's human nature to resist change, and when these parks started to see name changes, reduced theming, lame ride names like "Flight Deck," etc. - the enthusiast community wasn't happy.

That said, it's also worth pointing out that like with any fan group - opinions tend to be pretty severe and criticisms rather harsh. I tend to take a lot of what I read with a grain of salt, however the overall 'vibe' toward Cedar Fair has turned sour.

Maybe it's their somewhat generic approach to the looks and feel of their parks? Is it really that there's too many trashcans? (joking) Is it just that Six Flags is finally picking up the pace after years of bad operations, horrid customer service, dirty parks, lazy employees, and even their own reduction in theming? Perhaps.

Whether a fan of comic books, stamps, movies, bugs, theme parks, or whatever, fans always have a favorite and least favorite - perhaps some of Cedar Fair's recent moves have made some of the amusement die-hards switch sides for a while?

Share you opinion on the matter here.

Read other site's replies to the topic:
A Walk In The Park Podcast
Theme Park Village

Flying Phil's Voodoo Photos

Flying Phil has once again taken some awesome aerial photos of Voodoo at Dorney Park. Here is a link to his latest photo gallery for Voodoo.

It looks like they are getting ready to start paving some of the area on the midway side of Voodoo, you can see that the moved basketball game where Laser's sign was is all ready to go, and they have a structure up for the queue line to pass directly under the holding-brake tower.

Things are really coming together at the construction site!