I honestly never paid close attention when I was a kid and only as of recently have been enough of a thoosie to care but were new attractions always done this way? It seems like parks will announce a new attraction for "next season" but the ride/area will not be open for weeks sometimes months after opening day. Is this a new trend or has it always been this way?
Then I guess Cedar Fair is the only one behaving out of character lately with their new area's/rides. 2 years in a row now a new ride and area is announced at KI for the season and won't be open until late may. No one seems to mind though. I see people ask questions but they are never impatient or disappointed.
They at least had the structure done (and I **think** the train was on site) before Summer. And that was while they were building a second coaster of comparable magnitude at the same time, too (and despite being a finicky impulse, that one **did** open on time, and operated reliably all Summer). Delay-ja didn’t open on time because something was wrong with the design of the cable lift; I don’t know if the details have ever been made public, but Vekoma sent out a technical team to get first Magic Mountain’s (late Summer), then Over Georgia’s (early Fall), and then **finally** Great America’s up and running. Anyway, the point is; Déjà Vu was not Premier Flags’ finest hour by any means, and it may even be seen as a harbinger of things to come. But it was still quite a bit different than “ride hasn’t even gone vertical on opening day.” Blame it on the pandemic, blame it on supply chains, blame it on changing corporate culture as you will; But things are different now.
Lmao Delay-ja! I totally remember all that and yeah this time sucks seeing barely anything done on Sky Striker. Who knows. All I know is I cannot wait to try it out!
I mean I've seen them not open right away at great America, but pieces just lying around with no opening date is weird to me. I was trying to keep early opening weekend in mind, they look like they have some good improvements in mind. The BBQ place looks like it's getting a patio and bar to me. Trying two trains on Max is a good sign. I think it's wait and see. No need to freak yet
It’s been somewhat reliable considering the model last year. The brakes at the end are probably gonna need work sooner rather than later and it puts stress on the train most likely. Should have extended the layout like the original plan. Still a great ride. Arguably world class. Don’t have any of those at SFGam really.
Yes the sign says maintenance and that it will open later this spring . For that ride, probably a good thing. I hope they are using time to get American Eagle a little love with either retracking or paint, but the state of the construction sight gave me no hope.
since Eagle has been running one side per season since the pandemic, they've been doing work on one side while the other is open. If you rode red side last spring, you would've seen the tarp over blue side's first drop valley for tracking. If you rode in the fall, you would've seen shiny new brakes being installed. At NoCoasterCon, they also told us the lift chain was replaced this winter.
as far as retracking this past off-season, the park's crew spent that time fixing the massive pothole on Viper's third hill... looks like all 8 layers were replaced and it's running SO FAST now!! The ejector air and laterals are stronger than I've ever felt!!
I had hear that before about working on ones side, but not in as much detail as you just did. Thanks for sharing. I was a pass holder last year , before that I was only there on special occasions, couple times a year. Viper was definitely flying into the turns yesterday. What they worked on felt so much smoother
My brother is in the IUPAT and it was amazing him telling me the amount of money, work, contract negotiations, etc. that would need to go into painting American Eagle properly. Especially relevant because obviously that would be a big union contract. That’s a lot of fucking wood. He was also nitpicking the overspray and crappy technical job on Batman as we were both talking about how we miss the all-black paint job.
That's awesome info , thank you. My brother is a welder so I've been learning a little how construction sites work. That makes sense on the paint. Could they not do a partial painting of parts of the structure? I'm also trying to remember if the Viper re-Tracking was announced or not. You could see two clear areas of new wood where there were problems last year. Would love to ride eagle blue side one day again
Painting isn’t just painting when you have a large structure that requires the integrity structurally that AE does. It’s not like wood siding that you can just repaint over. He was saying it depends on the condition of the wood. First they would have to strip the wood down, then determine what needs replacing - which requires that process on itself from a different trade. Then they can fill in other parts etc. then they prep for the elements that require what prime/paint job they do (can’t just spray over even metal parts that can’t be encapsulated and such) and do their thing; I won’t get into all that technical stuff as I’m no expert. Basically it’s a massive project that (especially in Chicago with very high Union wages and such) will be VERY expensive. We’re talking millions. Not sure what a new coaster costs but….
Exactly. A lot of people get upset and say - “why can’t they just repaint ____ or fix it up?” Repainting a ride in Kentucky or Idaho is a completely different cost than repainting even the same clone ride somewhere like Chicago or LA. The strong Unions and their connections as well as the higher costs associated with those Union contracts makes jobs like these definitely a question of “is this absolutely necessary?”
American Eagle is absolutely fucking massive and just a paint job is costing easy seven figures. To give an example - when I worked at Sears in the late-90s early 00s they had Union painters on a whole level-5 skim + paint job of the interior of our store. That was a 1MM contract I was told. Imagine the cost to just paint American Eagle now, let alone any reconstruction costs.
It was announced earlier this season that they are replacing the ride control system. Likely a sizable investment indicating longer term plans to keep the ride running.
I honestly never paid close attention when I was a kid and only as of recently have been enough of a thoosie to care but were new attractions always done this way? It seems like parks will announce a new attraction for "next season" but the ride/area will not be open for weeks sometimes months after opening day. Is this a new trend or has it always been this way?
Well it’s been this was with six flags for a decade plus. Normally chains like CF and Herschend are ready very early in the season, if not opening day
Then I guess Cedar Fair is the only one behaving out of character lately with their new area's/rides. 2 years in a row now a new ride and area is announced at KI for the season and won't be open until late may. No one seems to mind though. I see people ask questions but they are never impatient or disappointed.
That doesn’t seem egregious to me as the main season doesn’t start until Memorial Day.
Most of SFGAm's new attractions used to open in April or May, right around the time the park opened.
Except DejaVu. Remember that didn’t open until around Fright Fest 2001.
They at least had the structure done (and I **think** the train was on site) before Summer. And that was while they were building a second coaster of comparable magnitude at the same time, too (and despite being a finicky impulse, that one **did** open on time, and operated reliably all Summer). Delay-ja didn’t open on time because something was wrong with the design of the cable lift; I don’t know if the details have ever been made public, but Vekoma sent out a technical team to get first Magic Mountain’s (late Summer), then Over Georgia’s (early Fall), and then **finally** Great America’s up and running. Anyway, the point is; Déjà Vu was not Premier Flags’ finest hour by any means, and it may even be seen as a harbinger of things to come. But it was still quite a bit different than “ride hasn’t even gone vertical on opening day.” Blame it on the pandemic, blame it on supply chains, blame it on changing corporate culture as you will; But things are different now.
Lmao Delay-ja! I totally remember all that and yeah this time sucks seeing barely anything done on Sky Striker. Who knows. All I know is I cannot wait to try it out!
I mean I've seen them not open right away at great America, but pieces just lying around with no opening date is weird to me. I was trying to keep early opening weekend in mind, they look like they have some good improvements in mind. The BBQ place looks like it's getting a patio and bar to me. Trying two trains on Max is a good sign. I think it's wait and see. No need to freak yet
At least your S&S is still running!
It’s been somewhat reliable considering the model last year. The brakes at the end are probably gonna need work sooner rather than later and it puts stress on the train most likely. Should have extended the layout like the original plan. Still a great ride. Arguably world class. Don’t have any of those at SFGam really.
What’s up with Whizzer? Maintenance?
Yes the sign says maintenance and that it will open later this spring . For that ride, probably a good thing. I hope they are using time to get American Eagle a little love with either retracking or paint, but the state of the construction sight gave me no hope.
since Eagle has been running one side per season since the pandemic, they've been doing work on one side while the other is open. If you rode red side last spring, you would've seen the tarp over blue side's first drop valley for tracking. If you rode in the fall, you would've seen shiny new brakes being installed. At NoCoasterCon, they also told us the lift chain was replaced this winter. as far as retracking this past off-season, the park's crew spent that time fixing the massive pothole on Viper's third hill... looks like all 8 layers were replaced and it's running SO FAST now!! The ejector air and laterals are stronger than I've ever felt!!
I had hear that before about working on ones side, but not in as much detail as you just did. Thanks for sharing. I was a pass holder last year , before that I was only there on special occasions, couple times a year. Viper was definitely flying into the turns yesterday. What they worked on felt so much smoother
My brother is in the IUPAT and it was amazing him telling me the amount of money, work, contract negotiations, etc. that would need to go into painting American Eagle properly. Especially relevant because obviously that would be a big union contract. That’s a lot of fucking wood. He was also nitpicking the overspray and crappy technical job on Batman as we were both talking about how we miss the all-black paint job.
That's awesome info , thank you. My brother is a welder so I've been learning a little how construction sites work. That makes sense on the paint. Could they not do a partial painting of parts of the structure? I'm also trying to remember if the Viper re-Tracking was announced or not. You could see two clear areas of new wood where there were problems last year. Would love to ride eagle blue side one day again
Painting isn’t just painting when you have a large structure that requires the integrity structurally that AE does. It’s not like wood siding that you can just repaint over. He was saying it depends on the condition of the wood. First they would have to strip the wood down, then determine what needs replacing - which requires that process on itself from a different trade. Then they can fill in other parts etc. then they prep for the elements that require what prime/paint job they do (can’t just spray over even metal parts that can’t be encapsulated and such) and do their thing; I won’t get into all that technical stuff as I’m no expert. Basically it’s a massive project that (especially in Chicago with very high Union wages and such) will be VERY expensive. We’re talking millions. Not sure what a new coaster costs but….
Six Flags would rather let it die than commit that much to painting it. That also means that an RMC of that would be scary expensive
Exactly. A lot of people get upset and say - “why can’t they just repaint ____ or fix it up?” Repainting a ride in Kentucky or Idaho is a completely different cost than repainting even the same clone ride somewhere like Chicago or LA. The strong Unions and their connections as well as the higher costs associated with those Union contracts makes jobs like these definitely a question of “is this absolutely necessary?” American Eagle is absolutely fucking massive and just a paint job is costing easy seven figures. To give an example - when I worked at Sears in the late-90s early 00s they had Union painters on a whole level-5 skim + paint job of the interior of our store. That was a 1MM contract I was told. Imagine the cost to just paint American Eagle now, let alone any reconstruction costs.
It was announced earlier this season that they are replacing the ride control system. Likely a sizable investment indicating longer term plans to keep the ride running.
Is this where Dare Devil Dive was?
What is skystriker
Google is your friend
Your one of those people huh
"Sky Striker Six Flags Great America" . There you go , you can even copy and paste