The Boardwalk - New for 2023

Yep. The "spokes" that meet in downtown Detroit are Fort St., Michigan Ave., Woodward Ave., Grand River Ave., Jefferson Ave., and Gratiot Ave. These radiate outward, in some cases quite a ways, with Gratiot going all the way to Port Huron 60 miles to the NE, and Woodward going up to Pontiac 50 miles to the NW.

Going back to the Matterhorn question...

Neither Cedar Point's Mack Matterhorn nor the one at Geauga Lake (which I knew as Yukon Yahoos) was designed to run in reverse. Remember both rides have non-latching lap bars which means if you don't want your passengers flying down the midway, it's best to keep the ride forces pushing them backward into the seat...which means forward operation.

Now the Allan Herschell/Chance Flying Bobs/Rock & Roll/Thunderbolt is an entirely different ride altogether.

[everyone replies: "It's an entirely different ride."]

That ride has a latching lap bar and can, and usually does, run in reverse. The Allan Herschell one at Coney Island park switched directions on every cycle (they did the same thing with their Trabant). That ride is now at Indiana Beach and last time I was there was running in the same way, switching directions on each cycle.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

There is a lot of construction activity to be seen on the webcam. They poured the pad for Matterhorn, in process of pouring Scrambler. I see some has been poured around the Troika side of Giant Wheel, perhaps that is why they attached the cabins last week not wanting heavy vehicle traffic on the freshly/not yet set cement.

There is a smaller circle poured near Troika entrance, any opinions of what that is for? Don't say a base for New Space Spiral.

When you look at the concept art, the circle is between the mouse and grand pavilion....

Maybe the one we see is the base for the new Space Spiral - JK! ;-)

It’s an off and on misty day, but from what I can tell it seems as if the Tiki Twirl marquee sign is gone, perhaps meaning Calypso isn’t far behind. Fingers crossed for the old electric sign and a retro look.

Maybe Tiki Twirl will be preserved and appear at Melt or Keat’s. (It sure won’t be the museum…)

If by "old electric sign and a retro look" you mean incandescent, I wouldn't hold my breath. Aside from nostalgia, LEDs are the superior choice.

It looks like Tik... er, Calypso may have received a new operator booth?

Ive been slow to get excited about this years additions, especially with dragster work, but I’m starting to get excited about this years additions.

djDaemon:

Aside from nostalgia, LEDs are the superior choice.

Ah yes, but it all still runs on electricity. As opposed to a flat painted sign without nary a spotlight, even…

I’m not a fan of LED on rides (Kings Island ruined there Scrambler and Troika, IMO) but Matterhorn got the treatment and I’ll assume Calypso and Scrambler will as well.

On classic rides, LEDs used to replicate the old incandescent light patterns, as we see on Matterhorn, or even LEDs used for classic-style (dare I use the word "tasteful"?) light patterns are a big WIN so far as I'm concerned.

I'm less excited by the constant color-changing "hey look what cool tricks I can do!" LED lighting we see so much of these days.

Says the guy with the year-round RGB LEDs on the front of his house.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

djDaemon:

If by "old electric sign and a retro look" you mean incandescent, I wouldn't hold my breath. Aside from nostalgia, LEDs are the superior choice.

You can purchase LED's that are warm instead of super bright and cold to get the incandescent look, but I am willing to bet that will not be the case.

I love the lights on Giant Wheel.

I wish there were more LEDs that had programs where the default mode was a warm, incandescent look, sprinkled with a flashy, color-changing “show” every or often. Best of both worlds. Such a thing has to be easy to program. Wish we saw that more.

In TV/film lighting that is LED-based, you generally need to have bi-color LED's, which cost generally about 15% more, to range the color temperature between 2700K and 6500K. I imagine the cost is less for display lighting, but I'm not a fan of the practically-blue 2700K end of the range.

Say, whatever happened to the museum, anyway? Is it ever going to open??

The park stated that the museum is perpetually on hold, which is a damn shame.

Guess you could say the museum is......history.

I wonder if they will get some artifacts from Town Hall into the new Grand Pavilion. Would make sense - considering this whole project is a nod to CP's history, and the building itself is sitting on a very important piece of real estate.

It really is a shame to see that building closed and locked every time I walk by it. I hope they can pick back up with it in a couple of years after the Dragster reimagining.

I wonder if they had to put it on hold due to COVID and the expedited funding for the Dragster project (assuming Dragster 2024 was never in their 5 year plan), or if they just scrapped the idea altogether for whatever reason.

I don't know about other artifacts from Town Hall (or elsewhere in the park) but at Winter Chill-Out it was revealed that some of the stained glass windows in the original Grand Pavilion (the Convention Center) had not been removed when the drywall was put up and the HVAC was installed. So they removed one or more of them for installation in the new Pavilion.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

I know everything costs money and Covid was a big issue. Wondering the WHY behind them canceling the town hall revamp, because if they had plans to do it already, you would think the money and plan was already in place.