SKYPLEX + World's Tallest Coaster Announced for Orlando!

[Mikey]

Paradox wrote:

Has anybody thought about how Six Flags will come back at this? I mean KK has held the record for the past 9 years and we all know Six Flags cannot live with someone else having the record.

It is unlikely that we will ever again see the coaster wars of the 90's. A time when Morgan was king, Arrow Dynamics still built roller coasters, and Intiman was a one hit wonder in the over 200 club with with Superman: Escape from Krypton. Giovanola entered the game and promptly went bankrupt and S & S was still trying to make the whole air coaster thing happen. Reckless spending, bad management, and an unexpected downturn in the travel economy after 9/11 drove Six Flags into bankruptcy. Cedar Fair trying to engage in this war also took a huge hit but were able to restructure the debt and avoid a bankruptcy.

In order for Six Flags to comfortably be afford to be able to do anything they need their stock price to be over $75 a share. Until it's there I don't think we are going to see much capex expenditures out of the them aside from a few < $1M projects at parks.

^Don't forget that B&M absolutely killed it with the inverted coaster!

Also, if Six Flags' stock needs to be at $75 dollars a share for a record breaker, I think it's safe to say that will never happen haha. When I had it many months back in a virtual stock game for a school project it stayed in the $50's then rapidly decreased.

How are Skyplex and the Skyscraper Coaster going?

^I went by today where the site is for the SkyPlex no signs of construction at all the 7/11 may be closed and not operating but still there with the Perkins but that's still operational.

I still don't get peoples hate on Intamin. So what, your prototype 500+ foot tall hyper beyond vertical drop inverting cable lift experimental coaster doesn't open flawlessly. Honestly the reason they're perceived as so unreliable isn't because they're just worse than any other company, its that they're the ones willing to do what no one else would because they know it will probably have issues. Compare the innovations intamin as made to what B&M has.
Launched coaster
Intamin: 2001(2002 with they're own protype launch system) B&M: 2015(With a luanch system thats been tested on other rides for years, and delivers a sub par ride experience)
Giga
Intamin: 2000( First ever) B&M: 2012 (with a less advanced lift and brake system)
Strata
Intamin 1997(First Ever) B&M: Never
standup
Intamin: 1986 B&M: 1990
Wing Coaster
Intamin: 2007 (with a launch) B&M: 2011(2015 for a launch)
On top of things like that Intamin builds rides that B&M would never be willing to design. Rides like Maverick, Flying aces, Gringotts, Taron, Thirteen, their half pipe coasters, and Skyscrapper. On top of that they build Top of the line flat rides, drop towers, sky rides, and observation towers.

If you look at their accident record, theres no denying that its much larger than many other companies. But that's because of a bunch of things beyond their control. Some big ones are that they're still the biggest amusement ride company open today and are building more coasters per year than B&M currently is. (B&M appears to be building more but thats because they're going to bigger, more well known parks.)They're rides are also cheaper, therefore they end up in smaller parks with less of an emphasis on safety. Besides, nearly all if not every single accident was due to rider or operator error.

-The giga coaster is kinda not B&M's fault as CF just went back to Intamin for I305.

-As for the strata, the only practical way to get past 400 feet is with a launch; specifically a hydraulic launch because of space and acceleration, which is Intamin's invention (though Vekoma did use it on the Motorbike Coasters). B&M doesn't have a powerful enough launch system to do it, so it's never going to happen. There are other reasons, but that's one of the bigger ones.

-One of the more substantial reasons Intamin coasters are so unreliable is that they're extremely complex machines. Thousands of things need to go right on hydraulic coasters for example. U.S. Maintenance teams aren't experienced enough to keep these things up and running consistently. As evidence, Intamins in Europe don't have nearly as much downtime as ours.

- Yes, Intamins tend to be a couple million dollars cheaper than B&M's. But both are pretty expensive though.

Also, you forgot the cable lifts (which are 1000x better than any chain lift IMO)

^ Cable lifts, I mean, Intamin, took me to the deep world of coasters!

[Paradox]

Zacspin

Horrible ride style that deserves to rot in hell and never be built again. Seriously these things are terrible

lol240 wrote:

^ Cable lifts, I mean, Intamin, took me to the deep world of coasters!

True that.

My first cable lift was on El Toro, it took my breath away on how fast the lift picked up, I never knew it was a cable lift before riding it!

Paradox wrote:

Zacspin

Horrible ride style that deserves to rot in hell and never be built again. Seriously these things are terrible

From what I've heard Green lantern is the only horrible one. The other ones aren't trimmed to death and perfectly balanced.

^Yeah I've heard Insane at Grona Lund is lightyears better than GL and that it's actually really fun

[Paradox]

It wasn't GL's trimming that made it bad it was the constant back and forth motion that slammed your head into the hard backboard and the horrid shoulder straps.

[TTD03]

And it looks like this project is on hold or canceled.

Following months of debate, including Universal officials speaking against the development, the Orange County Planning and Zoning Commission voted 4-3 Thursday against rezoning requested for the Skyplex project on International Drive near Orlando.

Plans for an entertainment complex on the land, developed by managing principal Joshua Wallack, have drawn a lot of fire since it was first announced last year.

The proposal will still go before county commissioners for a final decision.

John McReynolds, Universal's head of external communications, said Thursday the company's issue is not the complex, but the height of the roller coaster.

???This is not a competitive issue,??? he said. McReynolds urged county officials to approve the project, but to impose a height limit, saying the project needs to fit in with the community and could impact life of neighborhoods around the district. Universal, located near residential neighborhoods, is only allowed to build up to 200 feet.

Skyscraper at SKYPLEX track design
Skyplex developer Wallack Holdings unveiled Skyscraper's track design at 2014 IAAPA trade show at the Orange County Convention Center.
Wallack, whose site is at the intersection of I-Drive and Sand Lake Road, fired back and said Universal officials were trying to delay his $500 million project. A rebuttal from Skyplex included a slide labeling Universal as a ???bully??? and accusing the theme-park company of ???hypocrisy.??? Wallack and his attorney Hal Kantor argue that the appeal of the project lies in its height ??? the world's tallest roller coaster.

???This is a sneaky way of saying, ???We oppose the project,?????? Kantor said.

A local traffic engineer also spoke against the project, citing concerns about traffic impact on the region. Six people spoke during public comment, half of them from Universal.

The rezoning proposal has sought a change from C-2 to planned development.

By the numbers: Taking on Orlando's Skyscraper roller coaster
By the numbers: Taking on Orlando's Skyscraper roller coaster
At the center of the battle is the 570-foot Skyscraper roller coaster as part of a 700-foot structure, which the Federal Aviation Authority in July said posed no threat to air navigation. A week earlier, Orange County???s Development Review Committee had recommended the project go forward.

Skyplex plans also call for a 350-room hotel, more than 333,000 square feet of entertainment retail, more than 95,000 square feet of general retail, nearly 40,000 square feet of restaurant space and the construction of a zip line, a drop ride and a surf park.

In May, some I-Drive stakeholders said the project???s height could lead to even bigger, taller projects in the district ??? where the 400-foot-tall Orlando Eye opened earlier this year.

Source: Orlando Sentinel

[Paradox]

Knew it would never happen hahaha rip

[Dirk_Ermen]

So from what I understand from the article Universal is trying to stop this project? I guess they are scared for competition on their CityWalk.

^^^ This news did destroy my day. They thought that the "Heavy Spaghetti Bowl" metal track that wraps around a tower would put a lot of, or way too much strain on the tall structure.

[Coasterkidmwm]

I'm honestly not surprised this happened, but I am surprised noise complaints weren't the #1 concern.

Real "Poler Coaster" now failed...

The meeting that will determine the fate of Skyplex is going on right now. So far, most of the people seem to be in support of the project.

Live stream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fH5ytDw ... e=youtu.be

Edit: Skyplex has been unanimously approved!

I'm not surprised at all. Though Personally like a mountain coaster I see this as a one and done. But I look forward to seeing the project advance.

[Paradox]

Ew this is going to look horrible in Orlando. I agree it would probably be a "one and done" thing for me too. Well if the project gets abandoned halfway through because of insufficient funds I will die laughing lol.

Part of me is happy that we're finally getting something taller then KK, but the other part of me is disappointed that it's not in a true amusement park. It's just kinda 'out there'.

Y'know, whatever did happen to the one in Georgia?

[Blase Rhine]

Her0ofLime wrote:

Y'know, whatever did happen to the one in Georgia?

I was thinking the exact same thing... Hoping they will still build it that way ill have one near me (and you)

[Mr. Freeze]

It just fell off, like Dreamvision did for us. You'll get used to it happening.