imdrunk

Thanks for the walk back in time. My first job was at Opryland USA when I was 15. I worked the games in the State Fair section of the park back in about 1995. One day I was working the electronic 'hit the silver stump to send the light to the top of the tower' thing (forgive me for not knowing what the heck this thing was called). This large man reminiscent of 'Bald Bull' from the PunchOut video game hit the stump thing and the hammer bounced back and busted his head open. I flagged down my supervisor and the bloody guy was rushed away. A crew of people came to spray bleach water on everything and I was up and operating an hour later. Crazy! I think most Nashvillians did not want to see the park dismantled - especially knowing a mall was going to take its place. By the way, the sign with the Hangman logo that sat above the Hangman entrance is now sitting over the door of a bar along US Hwy 41 around the Smyrna / LaVergne, TN area. Next time I'm down there, I'll take a picture and post it.

That sign and ramp behind the sign did lead from the employee uniform building (which is still there as it serves the hotel) to the park's rear entrance near Chaos. I walked it many times, but I don't remember what it said years ago.

I lived in Nashville toward the end of Opryland's tenure. My first job was there. I worked in the games in the State Fair area. I can remember spending many afternoons at Opryland. It wasn't the best park, but it was still very special to most Nashvillians. I know that the locals were very upset to learn they were plowing down the park to put up a mall. As a side note, my high school is located about five minutes away from the Opryland complex (McGavock HS).

^My experience this season spanned three different days (two of which involved me bringing out of town guests to the park). Each of my three visits were marred with crap from guests mostly, but definitely slow ride operations. It was embarrassing that I brought visitors there and we had such a bad experience. I haven't been to the water park there yet, though. Perhaps things there are toned down.

I just had to send my Wii to Nintendo to fix. I was having these vertical static crackly lines in all of my games and in the background of some Wii channels. The Nintendo tech on the phone hadn't heard of this problem and didn't know what to tell me, so he is having me send it in (for free) for them to look at it. We'll see what happens.

Exactly. I wonder how the higher ups at these places allow this to be okay. This is a service industry and they should run it as such. Maybe if an unofficial group posed "Anti Golden Ticket" awards where people could vote on the worst that parks offer, it would embarrass them to the point of actually doing something about it. They wouldn't want to be part of this list. It is too bad that some parks might need this kick in the pants to improve guest experience. Perhaps implementing a camera system for the queue lines and busting each and every person who cuts a line will be the only solution to line cutting. If someone cuts a line, it can be proven with video, and the person can be shown the door. It is as simple as that. If I ran a park, I'd want it to be known that the park inforces the rules and visitors are just about ensured of a positive, fun experience. This isn't brain surgery. After a short time of earning a reputation for the balls-to-the-walls approach to line cutting, the number if idiots trying to cut will drop dramatically. Okay, I'm done complaining. I need to visit a different park . . . .soon.

First, cool pictures. SFNE is my home park as of last season. My wife and I went toward the end of their 2006 season when the temperature was cool and we loved the park. This is marks our second that we have purchased season passes and I can tell you I regret it. I've been three times this season and each time I've left completely disappointed. The staff (except for Tim at the Thunderbolt) couldn't care less if you were in line for five minutes or five hours. I was in a "1 hour" line for S:ROS and it took over two hours. During those two hours, I witnessed two different fights in the queue line. Ironically, the 'lifeguard chair' they put in the queue was empty even though the queue was really busy. The patrons really were very rude. Besides the two fights (one involved a stolen wallet), a group of unruly teens heckled the ride op. to her face at the Houdini ride (they made fun of her hair and her makeup), line cutting was rampant, and the foul language was everywhere. SFNE is NOT a place I would bring my kid. My wife was with me on one of my trips there and a ride op. pissed her off so bad she filled out an incident report on her behavior. It is such a shame that with a such a nice park with an awesome coaster that the atmosphere would easily garner an R rating. It is time that these parks ENFORCE rules on unruly behavior (bad language, fights, line cutting, smoking) and not be apologetic about sticking to the rules they make. Does anyone want to buy my SF season pass? -Dean PS - just kidding about selling the pass. PSS - Thunderbolt rocks!

Cool. I'll have to watch. Is it just me or did they add trim brakes in two sections of Cyclone? I don't remember them last year for some reason.

Any drop tower (completely unrelated to the SFKK incident).

Wow. This thread took a quick turn in a different direction. Back to the real point of this thread. . . . I never liked drop towers. I rode the one at SFNO - once shooting up and once dropping down. They do nothing for me. Really.

I can't wait to go! (dripping with sarcasm)

I'm about to leave to go to CP. It is a 10-hour trip from here. I'll be sure to take as many pictures as possible of any construction activities around Mav. I'll report back next week.

I personally prefer Superman.

Great pictures. How in the world did that chick get stuck in the Maverick test seat? Some people never cease to amaze me. I'll be at CP on Friday and Saturday of this week. Thanks for the pictures to get me excited all over again!

The system on TTD is fail safe. The default position is up, they need to apply force to pull the brakes down. So if the ride loses power, the brake fins will always return to the up position. Yep . . . true. Did anyone make it over to Cp for opening weekend? If so, how was it? I'm headed there later this week for my second ever CP trip. I will be going Thursday and Friday, when are you going? I'll be getting into Sandusky on Thursday and will be at the park on Friday and Saturday.