The Spirited Seventh Heaven ...

[Cesar R M]

Well the entire first car is dangling in mid-air and came off the track. I have no idea how that could happen.

must have been a really strong hit, or the branch fell right in the tire/suspension system.

*edit*
I finally seen the final page.. scary thing!

Could the vibration of the attraction plus the rains had weakened the tree roots?

 

[bhg469]

Yeah, there is a large mountain that sits in the middle of the park. Several rides including a flying coaster hug the mountain whizzing past old growth trees. It's great when the trees stay put. I see some logging in the future.

KCal reports the tree on the track was 18-20 inches in diameter and completely derailed the front car. It was holding on by the 2nd car that was attached to it.

Yup, there would have been some puckering for sure. I don't even want to pretend that l would be able to handle even seeing that in person !

 

[TP2000]

I get the feeling they'll be checking every other tree around the ride now and I wouldn't blame them. Are there other rides out there that are surrounded by trees?

Magic Mountain is 45 years old and has lots of very mature trees all over the park. It's built in the hills of north Los Angeles County. It's a park that has seen better decades, and is falling off the radar of SoCal audiences beyond teenagers.

Last time I went to Magic Mountain about five years ago, the place looked and felt decrepit and decayed. Never mind the trash on the ground, surly employees, and low-lifes who inhabit an average Six Flags park, I was most shocked by the state of disrepair and patina of deferred maintenance on nearly everything. The rides and facilities didn't look good, they didn't feel safe, and it all made you want to take a shower as soon as you got home.

That tree in the photo looks old and very dry, with pineless, dead looking branches. A good horticultural review probably could have spotted it as a dead and/or dying specimen a year or two ago and had it removed. But from all the things that I can tell Magic Mountain isn't doing to maintain their park, a horticultural review of the giant trees surrounding many of their coasters probably is very low on the priority list. If such a thing even exists at all at Magic Mountain.

 

[PhotoDave219]

Since I took us off onto a safety tangent tonight.... (again, Cudos to LA County Fire Technical Rescue for some supurb work tonight) Here's some fun documents to look through.

http://documents.latimes.com/amusement-park-rides/

Since in California, accidents (including a boo-boo) have to be reported to the California Dept. of Industrial Relations Division of Occupational Saftey and Health Amusement Ride Unit. Its interesting to look through the reports. You want item 6 - Accident Description - and the first paragraph on page 2, whether or not they should investigate. Florida has "self-reporting".... or something to that effect.

After a quick glance, Its overwhelmingly dominated by pre-existing conditions or medical problems. My personal favorite? The person who rode Space Mountain after three heart attacks and back problems (pg 29) and got ill after riding.

My thoughts? Overwhelmingly, people need to take personal responsibility about whether they can or should ride an attraction.

 

[TP2000]

Could the vibration of the attraction plus the rains had weakened the tree roots?

It hasn't rained in Santa Clarita since March, and it won't rain there again until December or January. It's Southern California, it only rains here in old 1970's pop songs.

 

[71jason]

Yeah, I noticed they designed some of the shops to have Q's and some of them are hidden into the scenery. However, they forgot to create one for the ice cream parlor. There is consistently a line out on the street. The great thing is that half the land is either covered or in AC. Brilliant design for Florida weather.

No question they underestimated the ice cream shop--although it too has an indoor queue, just not one nearly long enough. They've started selling Butterbeer ice cream at the Fountain of Fair Fortune next door to alleviate the line somewhat but it's still the first misstep (well, besides Gringotts vehicles that crash into things).

 

[lazyboy97o]

KCal reports the tree on the track was 18-20 inches in diameter and completely derailed the front car. It was holding on by the 2nd car that was attached to it.

That sort of makes it sound a bit worse as it suggests that cars could operate independently on the track and that only a [small] linkage kept the car attached to the train. Like most steel coasters, the Ninja trains utilize a Jacobs bogie, where one bogie is used for two cars instead of each car having its own independent bogies. The images show the first bogie being derailed. If the first two bogies had derailed both the first car and the second car would be hanging.

The images that I have seen do not show any additional bracing or support. This means the fire department and probably Six Flags' engineering department were confident that the bogie between the first and second car was strong enough to hold the weight of the car alone. I would guess that as a worst case scenario, the bogies were designed to handle such weight.

 

[Cody5242]

I just have a feeling that Universal Studios will be no where as crowded as it was when Hogsmede opened. I think it will be open to all by late afternoon

 

[PhotoDave219]

That sort of makes it sound a bit worse as it suggests that cars could operate independently on the track and that only a [small] linkage kept the car attached to the train. Like most steel coasters, the Ninja trains utilize a Jacobs bogie, where one bogie is used for two cars instead of each car having its own independent bogies. The images show the first bogie being derailed. If the first two bogies had derailed both the first car and the second car would be hanging.

The images that I have seen do not show any additional bracing or support. This means the fire department and probably Six Flags' engineering department were confident that the bogie between the first and second car was strong enough to hold the weight of the car alone. I would guess that as a worst case scenario, the bogies were designed to handle such weight.

No, they went up with chains and secured the cars before extraction of the guests. Thanks NBC LA!

 

[JenniferS]

Sounds horrifying...
I guess disney is being proactive by taking out all the trees.

Not funny I know..

Kinda funny ....

 

[homerdance]

Not sure what your point is. I didn't say it would win a Pulitzer Prize or anything. It's still relevant to what we are talking about here.

I think your response gets the point I was making.

 

[5thGenTexan]

I never used to charge to my room until magic bands
I know others who feel the same way they didn't trust the old system but they do now.

Those of us who have a propensity to cruising, DCL or any line for that matter, have no other option than to use a card of some sort. No serious trust issues. You get a card at check-in and its used to board the ship. Its used to purchase alcohol, anything from the shops on the ship, check your kid out of the clubs, embark and disembark in port. In the case of Castaway Cay it is used for everything there as well. Money and credit cards are of zero use once you are on the ship or at Castaway Cay. It works flawlessly for 2000+ people on the classic ships and over 4000 on the newer ships. I have no issues boarding the ship and throwing my cell phone, keys, wallet, etc in the cabin safe and not touching that stuff again till the end of the cruise. I have my card and I am good to go.

 

[ChrisFL]

Yep.
It's an Arrow suspended coaster. Swings in the turns, but I don't think the swinging was a factor in this incident. Looks like the tree's fault...
View attachment 58442

Sad too, that is one of the few remaining suspended coasters...they're a lot of fun when not being hit by trees.

 

[5thGenTexan]

"Chief Financial Officer Jay Rasulo said that by getting guests to plan ahead, they're less likely to be enticed by other parks and tourist offerings when they set foot in Orlando, Fla., where the park is located.

We have known for a really long time that getting our visitors to Walt Disney World to make decisions about where they spend their time before they leave home is a powerful driver of visits per guest. When they get into the Orlando market and their time isn't yet planned, they can be subject to everything you see down there, which is a lot of in-city marketing for all the many products that people have put there to basically bleed off the feed that we fundamentally motivate.

So if we can get people to plan their vacation before they leave home, we know that we get more time with them."

Well if that was the goal all along, Universal is going to make sure that doesn't happen, at least this summer!
Quite a few guest booking those 4 night minimum WWoHP packages!

Well, Mr Rasulo... that is the kind of thing that makes me tend to not want to give you ANY money at all in Orlando. I have no desire to plan what I want to eat before I know what I feel like eating on a particular day. I have no desire to pick my rides before I know what the weather will be like on a particular day, what my mood might be on that day. That sort of OCD planning may set well with some people, but I have little to no desire to spend my vacation that way.

 

[wdisney9000]

Well, Mr Rasulo... that is the kind of thing that makes me tend to not want to give you ANY money at all in Orlando. I have no desire to plan what I want to eat before I know what I feel like eating on a particular day. I have no desire to pick my rides before I know what the weather will be like on a particular day, what my mood might be on that day. That sort of OCD planning may set well with some people, but I have little to no desire to spend my vacation that way.

Yeah,...up yours, Rasulo!

 

[AEfx]

You mean it's not an E-ticket?! I'm kidding!

But it's the best non E-ticket ride I've ever ridden!

Oh, absolutely. It's a great little attraction. Not quite the replacement for SWSA that I had hoped for - not enough indoor scenes - but for what it is, it's definitely well-done. But...an E-ticket, it is not. LOL.

 

[flynnibus]

The strongest sign for a major increase is the increase in park hours for the rest of the year. This is something disney has never done this far in advance.

If I cut your working hours from 40 to 30... and then later increase your hours to 32... did I really increase your hours?

 

[Sped2424]

I expect diagon alley to be manageable next week.

 

[AEfx]

I don't think it's been brought up in these threads, despite it going on for a month, but Tokyo's Once Upon a Time is pretty nifty, the Gaston sequence for the climax in particular standing out. Give it a lot of extra pyro and it'd be a great replacement for both Wishes and Celebrate the Magic. Would mesh pretty nicely with Festival of Fantasy and that whole "We finally finished the damn Fantasyland expansion, let's celebrate" angle they had with it and it pretty much covers the MK Fantasyland bases.

Wow. Usually when I see the word "projection" I tend to cringe, but those are amazing. The buildings that pop up in the Pan segment are awesome.

Now that's a show I'd love to see!


BTW, since we are on the topic (sort of) - anyone else just kind of shake their heads at local fireworks now? Folks spend hours waiting, and then hours trying to get away from the beach where I live just to view 10-15 minutes of OK fireworks, and I can't imagine it. I've been spoiled by Disney - if it doesn't at least have musical accompaniment/choreography I just am not interested in the least, LOL.

 

[AEfx]

If I cut your working hours from 40 to 30... and then later increase your hours to 32... did I really increase your hours?

Yeah, that irks me more than anything at WDW. Stuff closes wayyyy too early, period. Some times of the year nothing is open past 9PM, with some parks closing as early as 7 or 8PM. I get Animal Kingdom (though at those times of the year it closes at 5PM - should be open at least an hour or two more), but geesh...I hate being wide awake and no where near ready to end the day but having nothing to do park wise. At least now that I don't stay on property and have my own car when I visit there is other stuff to go out and do - but then again, I try to get to bed early so I can get up and be there at opening since the later hours aren't there to enjoy since it's the only option.

That said, Universal has always had terrible hours as well - I'm shocked they are staying open until 10PM this summer over at the Studios.

But Disney didn't used to be so cut down, the nighttime is the most magical times in the parks for me, there should at least be one park open late every night for all guests, IMO. At the prices they charge for admission these days, having everything rolled up and closed so early is irritating.