My Thoughts and Predictions (and stuff already confirmed) for 2018

So I've had a lot of thoughts lately about all the teasers and everything that have been popping up, and instead of writing separate posts for each new ride/teaser/park, I decided to just condense it all into one big post based upon what we already know and what we think is going to happen.

What We Know / Think We Know:

RMC has 7 confirmed projects for next year. One is in Japan. The rest we are assuming are in the United States. We already know about RMC Mean Streak and Hurler, and considering Georgia Cyclone is closing July 30, that would lead us to believe it too is getting the RMC treatment. That's four of seven.

I'm not sure where the other three are going, but I will say that I think California's Great America might be getting the Raptor track, and that might be where the name "Railblazer" comes into play. Here's my logic: the teaser picture is showing what is basically a trail marker for the "SR1 Summit" with signs that point and generally say "accelerate, intimidate and dominate", which could refer to Xcelerator, Intimidator and Dominator or it could refer to some tagline that they might be using for the new ride, whatever. It could also refer to forward and backward sections of the new ride, since the arrows are pointing in opposite directions. My thought is, since "Railblazer" is singular, this could be where we see the Raptor track concept comes into play. That said, I could also see Silverwood or Knotts possibly getting the Raptor track as well, either instead of CGA or in addition to CGA. To play Devil's Advocate on myself here though, SR1 could stand for a skyrocket model as well. Definitely excited for this announcement to happen in the near future.

(Photo courtesy of the CGA Twitter account)

RMC Hurler

RMC Hurler is coming along, as all the old track and has been removed and some pieces of RMC track have begun to be installed. I think the comparisons people have made to Storm Chaser's layout might turn out to be pretty accurate. Kings Dominion hinted back in October 2016 that Hurler might be given the Iron Horse treatment when they released a teaser video on Facebook which includes some ride footage, followed by a tombstone that reads "Hurler 1994-2015" (don't forget, the ride didn't open at all in 2016). It then transitions to simply saying "Rest in peace"... and then "For now."... and then finally... "2018." I think at this point everyone figured out what was going to happen. See the video for yourself below, as posted originally on the KD facebook page and then uploaded to YouTube by the user KDGoldenYears:

Now, Kings Dominion's teasers this season have been these really cryptic tweets with upside down T's and things like that. After doing some research and watching a lot of videos - I think that there may me much more to this than people think. I'm starting to believe that all of the announcements we are seeing from Cedar Fair are going to eventually tie together into some unified theme. Remember "they're coming" and "they're wild and unruly..." Let's take a look at these in the order they were posted (all photos taken from the Kings Dominion Twitter account):

The first teaser from June 20 simply reads 816 with a picture of the Eiffel Tower on the right and the phrase "things aren't always what they seem" on the tweet itself. Like most people think, this could simply mean that the announcement is going to be made on 8-16 and that things aren't what they seem because Hurler is getting the transformation from wood to steel-tracked hybrid. It is also no coincidence that 8-16 is National Roller Coaster Day. That said, 816 is also the area code for Kansas City, the location of Worlds of Fun. Just like KD, Worlds of Fun is really in need of a new coaster and this would be the perfect time for them to add an RMC to their lineup.

A week later on June 27, the second teaser was released. The only text in the tweet was the same as in the picture. The backwards T is what is throwing people off. I've seen people say it could be a 90 degree drop, which is quite possible. I think that might simply refer to something to do with the name/logo. Now, the phrase "20 is better than 4" is interesting. This could mean airtime moments, seconds of airtime, etc. The picture in the right is Snoopy with an extended arm. The periods in the sentence could be important. This could mean the number of rides added next year, 4 roller coasters plus sixteen other attractions in the chain. Coincidentally, I thought of this, then saw the guys at Coaster-net talking about it on one of their videos, which for me, validates my thinking some.

Teaser #3 appeared on July 4th and says 3. Better than none. with that upside-down T once again. I think this might be also pretty easy to decipher. 3 seems to be a really common number for inversions on RMC coasters as Outlaw Run, Medusa, Wicked Cyclone, Wildfire, Storm Chaser and the Joker all have 3. I'd be willing to bet the ride will have 3 inversions.

Again, one week later on July 11, the next teaser came out and read "28. Makes it Better". The picture to the right this time is a pair of feet. I think its safe to say RMC Hurler will be 28 feet taller, which will bring the new height to 111 feet.

The most-recent teaser came out on July 18 and is by-far the most cryptic as it reads "the force rattled the windows" and has a picture of a window or door with windows on the right hand side. I really wasn't sure where to go with this one. I watched a lot of YouTube videos where people gave their thoughts and the one that stuck with me the most was by the guys as coaster-net. They seem to think that all of the RMCs at Cedar Fair parks next year are going to have some kind of shared theme, probably a western theme, as seen with the RMC Mean Streak teasers. Their video is below (subscribe to their channel--their insight is always fantastic):

Since these teasers seem to be released every Tuesday, I can't wait to see what happens next Tuesday. I might have to go back and edit all of these at that point. We will see.

RMC Mean Streak

On July 18, Tony Clark and his crew led some members of the local media on a tour of the RMC Mean Streak site. We were hoping for some good information and photos, but most of us were sorely disappointed. The one thing that did come out of all of this though was that park officials did confirm a spring 2018 opening. So for all those hoping for an opening during Halloweekends, it is not happening.

We already know that there are two visible inversions and the supports for the drop appear to be 90 degrees or very close to 90 degrees. There's a tiny bunny hill at the bottom of the first drop that should give a quick bump of airtime. There's been track added finally to the MCBR, which seems extensively long. I can't wait to see the overall layout once its released. It seems like there's still some track hidden that we can't see.

I think the most interesting thing are the teaser videos that have popped up over the past few months, as well as the wanted posters.

Last year, the video was released saying "Mean Streak gets the axe" on September 17th, followed by the mock funeral procession and burial of the first car near the front of the park in the "graveyard". The funeral was even hosted by "Richard Michael Crosby" as an obvious RMC reference. When RMC trucks started showing up, many people thought the pictures were Photoshopped or that CP was just trolling everyone. However, track started to show up not too long after and what many enthusiasts have wanted for years since the debut of NTG was finally happening.

Fast forward to Winter Chill Out and the presentation to attendees. While the question was on everybody's mind, it wasn't until the very end of the presentation that a picture was shown from the center of the track. Jason McClure explained "we know that all of you know what's going on" but that "an announcement will be made when it is right for business."

So at this point, everyone was getting antsy for something, and we started to receive these teaser videos (all videos courtesy of Eccentric Gamer on YouTube):

So when people started seeing these teasers, they immediately thought "dueling racing coaster", which right away you can tell isn't true. There's nowhere for a second track to go next to the original. I supposed it could have been something like Dragon Challenge, but still doesn't make much sense. I think the words being plural goes back to some unified theme, as discussed above. It would make a lot of sense for the parks getting the four new coasters in the chain (we know two RMCs, potentially up to four) to work together on a theme and social media teaser package to tie it all together.

RMC Mean Streak itself, whatever the new name ends up being, should set a bunch of actual records and a bunch of made-up-by-CP records. I think we're looking at New Texas Giant with inversions and on steroids. I don't think there's going to be any launches or anything like that, but you never know.

Over the past few weeks, these interesting wanted posters have been showing up as well at Cedar Point. Now I say interesting because it still ties in with the western theme, but if you look specifically at the one picture, the silhouette seems to be kind-of robotic looking. I guess they could go with a steampunk or cowboys vs. aliens theme like I've seen some people suggest. I'm not sure. I still think a unified western theme is where all this is going. (Picture courtesy of CpFoodBlog on their Facebook page).

People seem to think $875 refers to an announcement date of 8-7 at 5PM, which very well could be true. But the third poster (on the right) popped up just the other day with $1000 on it, so I'm not sure what to make of that.

If they could somehow make it like bandits are running from park to park, it could be an interesting way of trying to get people to travel to the other parks. Maybe by expanding the "Battle of Cedar Point" to other parks (we already know about KD), you could have riders "collect" something at each park electronically or physically to help "capture" the bandits.

For those who haven't seen the updated construction photos, check out this gallery from pointbuzz.com - https://pointbuzz.com/Photo/Album/798

Cedar Point is also doing a contest in which you have to give yourself a "cowboy" name and write 4 sentences or less on why FrontierTown would be a great place to live. Not to toot my own horn, but I wrote a phenomenal letter to Tony "Calamity" Clark yesterday and I'm hoping to get chosen very much. See their website or Tony's twitter for details.

My Predictions for Cedar Fair:

RMC Hurler, RMC Mean Streak, Raptor track at CGA, something (probably RMC) at Worlds of Fun.

Flat rides package for some of the other parks.

Possible relocation of Boomerang from Knott's to Michigan's Adventure.

Other Predictions:

If CF gets 4 RMCs and we know one is going to Japan, I expect the two remaining RMCs to be Georgia Cyclone and perhaps another Joker/Batman free-spin type coaster for Six Flags, maybe to SFA? Not sure about that one. Its entirely plausible that the 7th RMC ends up at Silverwood or some other non CF/SF park in the U.S. or aboard.

Hersheypark has also been teasing a new attraction for a few weeks. I'm not going to post all of the teasers, but it was clearly obvious it was something to do with the waterpark. While their waterpark could use an expansion/overhaul, the teasers are pointing to a water coaster, so I'm guessing that what's they are going to get.

I'm not sure exactly what Silver Dollar City will have in terms of this coaster they are building, but I could see a launched Mack spinning coaster. The reason I think its not just a normal spinning coaster is because the station is pretty massive. Due to dynamics, it would make sense regardless however. We'll see if they stick with Time Traveler or use Mountain Wings or one of the other trademarks they've received since the beginning of the year.

Other Comments:

I'm pretty stoked that Disney will be adding the Tron thrill ride to the Magic Kingdom. It's about time MK got an actual thrill ride. In the same breath however, I'm pretty upset they are taking out The Great Movie Ride, as the removal of almost everything nostalgic and complete reboot of Hollywood Studios continues. GMR was bland once you've ridden it a couple times but it was always a huge people-eater, a great way to get out of the sun for a bit and into the AC and thematically, it is what Hollywood Studios was all about, taking you into the movies. I'm truly sad about this and although I wasn't planning on going to Disney at all during my Florida trip in two weeks, I might have to buy a 1-day ticket to go ride it at least one last time.

I don't really care one way or the other that the Ellen ride is going to be replaced by a Guardians of the Galaxy ride at Epcot. What does bother me is that Epcot too has gotten away from its original mission and plan. Although Epcot already wasn't what Walt had in mind, he'd be rolling over in his grave right now if he got to see what it has become.

And my last Disney point... its been rumored for years that Epcot will eventually add one or more pavilions, but does it have to be Brazil? Honestly, I know the tourism from Brazil has slowed down over the past couple years, but while I have nothing against people of Brazilian descent or the country itself, the tour groups from there are some of the most ignorant, annoying people I've ever had to deal with down there (and I'm sure many would agree with me). I get that its one of the biggest countries without a pavilion in Epcot, but there are lots of others I'd rather see there first (Australia or New Zealand anyone?).

#rollercoasters #themeparks #amusementparks