It was a beautiful day at SFMM, lots of cool whispy clouds. 

Two drops, double the fun. 

They've started removing pieces from the last turnaround. They won't be putting track in this area for awhile but it's nice to see them getting ahead of the game. 

Looks like this side is ready for some track very soon. 

You can see where the green track has ended. The bottom of the first drop is pretty much the end of "phase 1". 

Can you say Airtime?!?! 

From what we understand, certain portions of the old track will be staying as support. Makes sense. 

Green and Blue track ... it's ready for you!! 

More Airtime!!! 

Moving inside the park, we won't be able to get too many more pictures from this angle since the area is going to be closing after January 4th. 

Nothing really new in the station

I still say they could make an awesome Flat Ride here to really complete the area. 

They were busy removing pieces of Colossus. 

By the time we left about 30 minutes after this, they had already removed 2 additional pieces. 

We have video of them removing this piece of track on our Instagram page if you haven't seen it yet. 

Just a couple of random notes for the rest of the park. 

We hadn't been to the park for opening in a few months. We had to process our 2015 passes (nothing like waiting until the last minute) so made it a point to get there early. We were the first in line and we were in and out of pass processing due to a kick-ass employee. Don't worry, we let the park know who gets the praise. =)

After seeing and hearing about some of the Gold Pass headaches over the past few weeks, we were kind of surprised when they started letting Gold Passholders in at about 10:10. They held us here until 10:20 and then we were free to go into the park. This works MUCH better vs just opening the gates at 10:20. 

Last but not least, this is the last week for Holiday in the Park, so if you haven't checked out the lights yet, you'd better do it before January 4th. Click to see our full Holiday In The Park coverage. 

Not sure if we'll be back at the park at all next week, but if we aren't we'll certainly be back the week after. 

Have a great New Years!!! 

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Flashback 1995:

I decided to take a break from OpEd this week, and instead reflect on a trip that changed me quite a bit in terms of my theme-park visiting self. 

Back in late 1995, my family decided that rather than spend another year coming together on the east coast, we would instead travel to Las Vegas. I had just turned 21, and the mysteries of Las Vegas were something I'd been curious about for years. The sheer size of the properties, and the growth of the city had been exponential since the Mirage opened a few years earlier; in fact, it was kind of a theme-park on steroids. Our trip began late on the 26th of December, flying across country on another 'new' airline of the era- Western Pacific. First class it was not, and with odd departure times even worse. Arriving at Colorado Springs, we changed to what would be my first glimpse of the 'new' Las Vegas - the Stardust theme jet - which would transport us to this adult fantasyland.

Arriving in Las Vegas is something pretty unusual during the day, but at night it is even more spectacular. Nothing but darkness greeted our late arrival in, until we turned - and next to McCarran field was a festival of spectacular lights - the MGM Grand, the light from LUXOR, the castle of Excalibur, and many others. Vegas had just blown my mind, and her allure drew me in. 

The rest of the family arrived the next day, and while my older relatives were in charge of depositing the life savings into the slots, I took the time to explore Las Vegas 1995. With my nephews in tow, we headed to ride EVERYTHING in Las Vegas - and I do mean everything. Our first encounter with the family friendly Sin City was the Grand Slam Canyon - now known as The Adventuredome at Circus Circus.

In the late 80s, Circus Circus had begun a master plan of building theme resorts to match or beat what The Mirage had done for the middle strip area. In this included the Excalibur, the Luxor and other projects, but for me and others this meant: GRAND SLAM CANYON! An indoor paradise of what was an odd melding of faux rockwork, assorted rides of all sizes, and the Canyon Blaster. Canyon Blaster is an Arrow four-inversion coaster, and admittedly one of their finest. Back then the dome was packed (It was, after all, New Year's week) and two train operations were taking place. To see how efficiently they loaded those trains was a miracle. They never stacked up, they never slowed down, and the lines were always moving. Motion Theaters showed different RideWorks films, and the Rim Runner offered to soak anybody who wanted to. It was incredible - and all in the air-conditioned comfort of a bright purple & pink dome. Wonderous in all dimensions, and a world of fun for all. I also recall the 'Adult's Only' section... a hidden bar atop the midway area where one could find some semolence of quiet, and beer. 

The next day brought forth a now-lost Vegas wonderland: MGM Grand Adventures. In the early 90s, the MGM was to be reborn after a disasterous 80s, but this time larger, grander & more elaborate. The original MGM had been named Bally's years ago after the dreadful fire that made worldwide headlines; the new project would only share a name with it. The MGM Grand itself was a show UNTO itself, featuring a Wizard of Oz theme, and shows to match. One could see the Wicked Witch flying over the heads of gamblers at the tables & slots, and a yellow brick carpet led younger guests behind the hotel - and to MGM Grand Adventures.

Grand Adventures in itself was a true theme-park in every sense of the word. Rides, shows & attractions would have fit in perfectly into any park in the country, though scaled down a bit due to the size of the location. Their primary coaster was the Lightning Bolt - and despite the compact size... it packed a PUNCH. 

This first incarnation of it (Lightning Bolt went through three during its lifespan) was not only enclosed - but completely dark; a Space Mountain but without the space! The train was exceptionally long - 12 cars - and was an early Intamin ride. If you were sitting in the front or rear of the train, you got totally different ride experiences; in the front you got catapulted around the course as the train accelerated off the lift and around the swoop turns; in the rear you got dragged down HARD off the top of the lift and into the course. Those of us who had a chance to ride this there got a real treat; a ride that for its size was amazing on all accounts. 

In addition to the Lightning Bolt, other attractions included an Intamin Log Flume & River Rapids, a Pirate's show theater, the typical bumper cars, and two notable 'oddities' of rides/shows. 

The first was the Deep Space Exploration ride, occupying the show building next to Lightning Bolt. This was a simulator mixed with a moving ride-through. Campy, cheesy & odd, the 'sides' of the vehicles would rise up during the show scenes, and a projected film would play during the ride portions. 

The second was the Backlot River Tour - a very odd and weird Jungle Cruise meets Backlot Studio tour ride that had puke-worthy jokes & scenes from old MGM films narrated by a skipper on a guided course. It was for such as small park a valiant attempt to capitalize on Disney's attractions, but done in a way to make it unique. The scale & class of the park was very well done, here in the middle of the Las Vegas desert was an oasis away from the gambling & the lurid side of the city. MGM Grand Adventures was a place where one could really see the attempt to 'family' the Las Vegas experience. 

And what better way to get from the MGM to the middle of the strip? Why, of course, take a MONORAIL! Now I know what you're thinking: There's been a monorail there for years... and you'd be right. But back in 1995, it was a single segment system, linking the MGM Grand with Bally's - but what made it that much more amazing is that the two trains operating on it were from Walt Disney World's inventory. Yes, here in Las Vegas 1995, you could experience the same fun of whooshing from fantasy to fantasy on a Disney Monorail. When these beauties arrived from Florida, they were painted with the 'new' owners logos on them - one for the MGM Lion, the other for Bally's, and placed onto the beams. What they didn't do was cover over or remove the original Walt Disney World logos - some of which could be viewed inside the cars on the doors, and if you looked closely enough, also under the paint. Sadly, these original monorail cars now languish in the desert, a sad site as of late. 

Las Vegas 1995 was a true wonderland, but sadly most of it is gone now. MGM Grand Adventures shrank, then disappeared as the owners decided to remove the 'family' aspect of the resort; most of what was the park is now a pool area & parts of the expanded facilities around the resort. The Lighting Bolt came out of it's building and was then later extended; when MGM finally closed the doors on the park it was sold to a small park in Fresno, and sat in the lands around there for years. It has not been heard from since. The Log flume & River Rapids both found new owners, with their useful lives continue on elsewhere. 

 As for Grand Slam Canyon, it has succeeded and still lives on, though with a different array of attractions. The Rim Runner closed down in 2013 for good, and has since been replaced by the El Loco coaster. Other attractions have been added as well, adding more of a 'thrill' aspect to the park than previously envisioned. 

The Monorail itself went through massive changes. First, the Disney vehicles were removed and replaced with Bombardier trains, and the system extended up the strip. For now, this is still a work in progress, as plans to extend the monorail to the airport have been proposed, as well as potentially forming a loop around the outside of the Strip area. Time will tell if these come true.

And of the Stardust - both the hotel & the plane? Stardust closed in the mid 2000's, and was imploded to make way for a new project; as of this writing, the site is currently awaiting the construction of a new hotel/casino in the future. As for Western Pacific & the Stardjust jet, both did not see long into the future: Western Pacific closed their doors in 1997, a victim of the era, with the Stardust jet finding her way to other owners.

Las Vegas is still my second home in a lot of ways. Though she has changed & grown over the past 20 years, she still is a place I love, and a place I frequent often. The future will see more change & growth, and that alone makes it the ultimate fantasyland.

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Nice looking drop with just a little bit of a twist, just like the original Colossus drop. 

AIRTIME!! 

They are quickly making their way over to the first turn around and high-five element. 

An overview of the rides progress, lots of coasters in this picture. 

That's about it for this update, we should have another update after the holidays. 

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Fast Forward to 2014 and you'll see a VERY different type of event, one that the park management and staff is very proud of (as they should be). 

For the most part, we're going to allow the pictures below to speak for themselves. We'll start at the front of the park and work our way back. 

This was the best shot we got of the "Holiday Fountain", which is a great concept. 

Full Throttle Christmas

They even updated some of the Full Throttle video. I would seriously love that persons job. 

These trees are seriously cool

Ricky Rocks rockin' out on the Full Throttle stage ... 

Even the Full Throttle Sports Bar got some nice lights

DC's "Rockin Universe" is probably the most popular area of Holiday In The Park, and for good reason. 

A look at the "Tree of Heroes" which has some names of local heroes, very nice touch. 

There are three different "Rockin' Universe" shows and they run every 15 minutes. They are all pretty great. 

Video of one of the shows

Between the shows a lot of great lights. Still haven't seen the Pegasus though, I think the park was messing with us. =)

Rapids Camp's "Winter Wonderland" is probably the most traditional of the area's. 

Santa's got a tall guard

One of the big things the park did this year for both Fright Fest, but more for Holiday In The Park was to introduce some great new food that is exclusive to the event. 

It's not any big secret that SFMM isn't really known for it's food, but with Full Throttle last year, the new Sports Bar this year and the great holiday food they've recently introduced we can definitely see an improvement in this area that we hope will continue. 

The park invited us up last Saturday to try some of the great Holiday In The Park food, and we have to admit that we were very impressed with all of it. 

Our first stop was to Katy's Kettle, which has a special menu just for the holidays. We were able to try most of what you see here. 

Robert and Brandon who are the masterminds behind all of the Holiday Food. It was great talking with both of them throughout the evening and I really do think the future of food inside the park is in good hands. 

The team has been making small tweaks each week based on guest feedback, remember, this is all new to them. So if you do try stuff, be sure to head to Guest Relations and give some (constructive) feedback. They do look at it. 

Refillable Hot Chocolate FTW!!! 

Steak Sandwich. I'll be the first to admit I'm not a huge fan of peppers on sandwich's, but this one was so well prepared that it would have been weird to eat it without them. 

If you didn't grow up or live in a Hispanic community (as I did) then you probably don't know the sacred place that Holiday Tamale's have in the hearts of so many people. So when I heard that SFMM was making Holiday Tamale's I was concerned, and in talking to Robert and Brandon, they were too. It's a BIG DEAL and it's something that if they didn't do right, they'd hear about it. 

I'm SO happy to say they did a bang up job on these Tamale's, so much so that I really wish they'd put these on the regular menu somewhere in the park. Maybe Baja Ridge or even Katy's Kettle. 

We tried at least 15-20 different food items, and two of the three in this picture were great. Like, I want the recipe great. 

The ONLY miss of the entire night was probably the mashed potatoes. Admittedly, they were kind of cold by the time we got through everything else and dug in, but they seemed instant or frozen to me. 

The Ham was also really great, but those mashed potatoes ... 

Peppermint Bark and Candied Apples. There is a Peppermint and Gingerbread apple. I prefer the Gingerbread, my wife preferred the peppermint ... so everybody wins!! 

After we left Katy's Kettle, we headed over to the patio behind the Cyber Cafe and tried all of the rest of the sweets like Funnel Cake, Ice Cream, Cheesecake, Rice Krispy Treats and Fried Oreo's. 

I even suggested to Robert that they use Holiday Oreo's and he loved the suggestion, so look for them on the menu this week and tell them Gregg from Park Journey sent you. It won't do you any good to name drop, but tell them anyway. =)

Ok, story about the hot dog below. If you are a fan of the show Friends, remember the episode where Ross makes his ultimate Thanksgiving sandwich with the turkey and all the stuff on top of it? Well, this is pretty much the Hot Dog version of that. 

It's a Turkey Dog with Cranberry Sauce, Stuffing and Mayonnaise. Now before you think ewww, you've gotta try it. I don't think there was one person in the blogger group who didn't like this. It was REALLY great and you should definitely try it. 

This is available at Full Throttle Dogs. 

Also near Full Throttle are these amazing Sweet Cranberry Wings. The sauce is just the right bit of sweet and spicy, and I could have eaten 20 of them. 

Before y'all hang me in effigy, this isn't meant to trash Cedar Point - or the very hard working employees & people who make up the park. Instead, I'd like to focus a bit on the park itself - and some of the decisions made over the past 15 years that I feel are a mistake. 

My last visit to the Point was in 2004 - at the dawn of the Top Thrill Dragster. And I will admit, the trip was a bust for me. Why? Not for the rides being broken - in fact, everything (even TTD) was operating at capacity, and efficiently. Or for the staff - many of whom were some of the friendliest I've met outside of Disney. But rather: I ran out of things I wanted to ride - or for that matter - things I felt comfortable riding. I found that I was out-sized for the park. 

Everything had to be BIGGER! TALLER! FASTER! than anybody else - an ego complex of size & scale. And that's where I found that I was missing out. 

And the trend has continued there unabated. Family coasters such as Wildcat, Disaster Transport & White Water landing have been removed; other family rides have been relocated or removed as well, and the focus has been almost entirely on larger attractions. 

While this gives media draw to a park as well as patronage, it does start to remove the charm of a park, especially from a family perspective. 

And this is where the park has lost its way. Seeing these attractions go by the wayside in favor of larger rides is not necessarily a good thing. I am all in favor of parks adding big attractions; it is a necessary thing to do in order to keep the turnstiles going. At the same time, it is also a bad thing not to keep a park in balance for what they should be. 

To me, Cedar Point has lost its point. 

As I grow older, as all of us do or will do, the market for the uber-coaster du jour is not as appealing as it once was. The 'WOW' factor is gone. So is the want to visit a park which does not have a balance of mega-coasters of note along with good, well-developed family coasters. Cedar Point's last major family coaster was nearly 15 years go - and that in the form of a Vekoma Roller-skater coaster. Since then, it has been all about size, height & speed. Millennium Force cracked the 300 foot level. Top Thrill Dragster elevated to the 400 foot level. Other coasters aimed square at the 'big' crowd followed : Wicked Twister, Maverick, and their latest creation, Gatekeeper. All of whom are aimed at the latest thrillseeking crowd to attend. 

It is this move that has left me (and others) behind. It has alienated growing segments of the audience - the adult & family crowds. And in this lies a conundrum, of rather important proportions: Money. 

In theme park attendance, your largest segment is also your least spending segment: Your season-pass holding people, aged 13-29. On average, they spend far less per head than do your family segment and your older crowds who are more likely to spend more at dining, shopping & other activities than anybody else. A pass-holder will often eat at home, go to the park for a few hours, ride things & leave; a family of four will make a day of it, eat meals & snacks in the park, buy souvenirs & other items, and will then leave at the end of a day, wallets lighter than when they entered earlier. Older guests will also tend to do more shopping - as well as eat more sit-down meals - than passholders do. While this is of course an average, it is one that has been well documented by many park management companies. 

As an example of this 'size is better' mentality, let's look at Knott's Berry Farm. From 1995-2010, the park's focus was on larger & more thrill-seeking rides & attractions, aiming at an ill-fated attempt to take on the LA region's thrill park at Six Flags Magic Mountain. Additions such as Xcelerator, Ghost Rider, Supreme Scream & Perilous Plunge were aimed at the middle of the thrill-seeking crowd's attendance. And guess what?

It was a bust. 

Perilous Plunge suffered from low ridership & infrequent operations. Xcelerator is popular - but suffers at the hands of frequent downtime & single train operations. Ghost Rider has had numerous repairs & adjustments to make the ride smoother & better for guest comfort. And the worst part of all of this, the crowds didn't budge - and instead were still going to the larger SFMM. Families left and headed to Disneyland, preferring the balance of family rides & thrills that those parks offered. 

And Knott's responded by changing: More family friendly attractions opened, such as Coast Rider & Pony Express, family rides such as Calico Mine Ride & the Log Flume were overhauled & renovated, and the focus has been on returning Knott's focus on the family. And attendance has risen on this, as has revenues. 

And in this is a lesson for Cedar Point. Building mega-attractions turns the gates, but it does not grow the spending audience. Attendance grows - but of the wrong crowds to make good money. While Cedar Point is profitable, it could learn a bit from its sister park in Orange County, in that investment in the family is a key to a well rounded and very profitable park. 

Cedar Point needs to learn this: Invest in the family, in the older crowd, and the money will come in. A good family coaster will keep the turnstiles spinning, and at the same time add in guests who have little interest in the larger rides. Add more shade, more park to the rides, and see the families come in droves. Guests want a balanced experience, one that gives them thrills for Mom, Dad & the 2.7 kids, as well as places for them to eat, rest & enjoy the park. And sadly, it is in that where Cedar Point has failed the most. 

As I write this, it has been confirmed that a theater in the park (The former Good Time Theater/Cedar Point Cinema) is being razed for 'future park growth.' While it is WAY too early to speculate on what is coming to the park in the future, it hasn't stopped the rumor mill from circulating rapidly. 

If Cedar Point is wise, now is the time to begin re-investing in the family audience, by adding attractions that will draw this group back to the park. Building another mega-monstrosity will be a huge draw, and will further push away the family crowds. And the higher per-capita spending they bring to a park. 

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The original teaser from August courtesy of Sally Corp and Six Flags. A bit of the story of the ride is revealed here, so if you don't want any spoilers, don't click it. =)

A look at a couple of the animatronics for the ride, video of them in action is below. 

The Joker, not voiced by Mark Hamill as originally thought, but by the amazing Troy Baker. 

Great video of the unveiling of the Animatronics and the ride vehicles. 

Oceaneering will be providing the ride vehicles for both attractions. 

At Six Flags St Louis the ride will be located directly across from Mr. Freeze where the Scooby Doo dark ride was. This area is already themed to the DC Universe and the new ride should only enhance the area and the theme. 

Other parks have changed names of flat rides to fit new themes (such as Flash and Wonder Woman at Magic Mountain) so it certainly wouldn't be unheard of. If you've seen the Joker theme "Pandemonium" received at Six Flags Mexico (click the link to see Cliff and Steve's report from earlier this year) then you should want to see that theme brought over to Texas. 

So what do you think about Battle for Metropolis? Are you excited to see Six Flags stepping up their Dark Ride game? Would you like to see this ride rolled out at other parks in the years to come? We know of quite a few parks that could use a great dark ride. 

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