Cameraman

The train itself would move down the station while loading. The first row would unlock and the riders would exit, incoming riders would then take their seats simultaneously. And this would go on for each row of the train until the entire train had been loaded. This would take place at the back of the station and once the train was completely loaded it would stop at the front of the station until the ride ops pressed the dispatch button.

There were some parts in the parking lot. I assume it's skyscreamer? Not sure. New Texas Giant was trying out some weird loading scheme. The gates were blocked off and seats were being assigned one row at a time with the train loading while moving similar to Rockit at Universal except without a moving platform obviously. It was very strange.

They're douches for trying to hold them to the lease agreement they signed? Montreal doesn't have a loan to pay back on the park like New Orleans does nor is the park destroyed and Six Flags had been making investments in it even though they may not total what was in the lease agreement. New Orleans on the other hand owed $15.2 million for a federal loan which was supposed to be half paid by Six Flags in payments of around $2.4 million per year. Also Six Flags received $11.5 million in insurance proceeds so far, which they pocketed, they made a revenue of $22 million, $18.1 million, and $15 million over the years they operated the park. Not to mention they used the park as a giant salvage yard over the years and removed Batman: The Ride, which was supposed to become property of the city as per the lease agreement. They're not douches but rather morons because they got royally screwed and Six Flags came out ahead on the deal. Whenever a city government has financial interests in something I as a citizen would expect them to diligently manage their business because it's people's tax dollars that are at stake. They'll be lucky to get the $3 million they are trying to settle for and that will likely be less than the amount of the backed lease payments Six Flags owes. I just hate how people say New Orleans is being greedy when Six Flags is the one who came out ahead. Just because there is so many other pressing issues at hand they should be ripped off by anyone they do business with? Anyway this is going to be really strange to see if they really do end up with an SLC and a BTR. Maybe it will make people appreciate le Vampire more now that they can see how bad the SLC is.

I doubt you have to worry about them they are doing just great. They even have longer hours this season.

Yeah I agree that you cannot compare "turning around" SFMM (which I have my doubts this even happened to any miraculous extent) to rebuilding a struggling park. I think if a rebuilt SFNO would have a waterpark, be appropriately sized, and managed correctly, it would survive. Blue Bayou does fine but it seems they have had a very different strategy on reaching out to guests. Some days when SFNO was very empty Blue Bayou was absolutely packed thanks to that waterpark. I would argue that Blue Bayou has a better location, but if SFNO really tried I think they could have done much better. They had better rides and better capacity to keep lines manageable when a big crowd did come. Just adding one slide or one ride has really kept guests coming and interested in Blue Bayou/Dixie Landin. The investments have been fairly inexpensive but highly effective. Year after year they have been adding something and doing just fine. They also have very aggressive marketing. Jazzland was mismanaged from day one and really after the opening season of Six Flags it was mismanaged again. Management wasn't really shaped up to an extent until 2005 and there were still plenty of issues then (you can ask calcajun about that). And then of course there was that pesky hurricane...

While the website isn't extremely professional looking, I do think it's encouraging that he is looking for input from the community. To me that is the way to succeed, ask what your customers want.

The park needs to be drained? Are you one of those people who think New Orleans is still flooded? lol It's getting close to three years now. The park doesn't look like my avatar anymore. It remains to be seen if Southern Star has the financial backing to convince the city to let them fix the park. If the city thinks they cannot do it they obviously won't work out an agreement. It would be nice if they could though. SFNO was doing "ok" before the hurricane, not great but not struggling as much as Jazzland. I do not believe their attendance was 500,000. In 2003 their attendance was around 1,000,000 and it dropped off a little after that. An ex-Astroworld employee once posted an attendance list for 2005 and I believe it went something like SFKK, SFNO, Great Escape, and Elich Gardens from high to low on the bottom end. This was BEFORE the hurricane happened. Obviously SFNO fell behind after that.

Come on. It's not like the south central region is booming with parks. We have Dixie Landin in LA, Kemah Boardwalk in TX, and Waterville USA in AL. No more Miracle Strip, no More Astroworld, no more SFNO. The region from Florida to Texas is pretty coaster starved and almost anything is an improvement. In fact, there are probably even less things to do (in general for recreation) thanks to the 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons devastating the Gulf coast.

It was unrealistic to ever think New Orleans tourists were ever going to support the park. However, they had great success gaining 1-2 day trip tourists from Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. In fact, sometimes I think those type of people were supporting the park better than locals. A park like that just cannot be a tourist destination especially for a city like New Orleans. Many people also forget though that New Orleans is a big convention town. Although convention season typically starts when the park is winding down for the offseason, that didn't stop them from doing park buyouts and events typically November-December. The not so harsh weather down here also helped that out. Many of you are just dismissing the park was destined to fail without the hurricane even hitting, but I don't think you all really know what you're talking about. It's the hurricane that did it in and the fact that it wasn't the best performing park in the chain.

Well it's a tough situation. It would be ideal to just build the park elsewhere if they actually got the money and wanted to do it. But the city owns the land and the land is part of the lease agreement. There's really not much of any other place a park could be in New Orleans. There's just not that much open land available (in the areas that are less prone to flooding). The park would have to be built outside of the city for that to happen and we all know it's the city that is the only reason there is a faint sense that the park could be rebuilt. As for the future of that region. There are plans in the making for a more comprehensive hurricane protection. But it probably wouldn't be completed until 2020 and I don't think there are any plans to start it before 2011.

The only small glimmer of hope is that Six Flags is suing its insurers for a lot of money. I don't know if they even have a chance of winning, but it would almost be enough money to build a brand new park. Also on the news a while back they said that there were local investors willing to buy out Six Flags' contract and possibly build a waterpark. This is something that would probably not happen anytime soon.

I think it's too late for that. They've already pretty much ruined the loop by clearing it out like that. Kind of makes me sad. But I hope they have something up their sleeve to make it look nice in the future.

If you're going in a car, a nice place to stay is nearby Douglasville. It's about 10 miles away from the park, but the area is nicer and the hotels are cleaner and cheaper. The area around SFoG is pretty much a dump and I would recommend avoiding it like the plague. The walking distance hotels are expensive and in some cases are not good hotels at all.

I think it's more likely that Six Flags would make a settlement out of court in a matter like this. I hope the girl will be ok though. I had heard that it may actually be possible to reattach her feet or use implants. But that must have been horrific.

They could market it as a ride that doesn't suck. LOL