Great Escape General Discussion

So Great escape was at The Great Nor’easter yesterday and we got this:

“Coming 2019 is Hurricane Harbor a retheming to the parks’ water park. The new addition will be Bucket Blaster a Zamperla water tea cup ride that will operated the water park. Water slides will be repainted and get new names. New signage in the water park. They will add a giant shark Photo op and a scaled boat. Tidal wave café is the new name for the lumberjack and offer cafeteria style dining. Comet will get work form the station to the lift hill. Bobsled will get new axles and run more cars. Canyon blaster will add new frames to the train. Condor will replace get a new drive. The park is doing some restoration work to the stream. The Rt 9 fence will be replaced.

Adding park wide free Wifi.

The Zoom jets will not be its own dry park area but incorporated into the water park. Tidal wave is still on site.”

(full credit to mrceagle for reporting all of this)

This sounds like we’re gonna see Alpine Bobsled and Condor operating more often this season, as well as a better experience on Canyon Blaster. Comet is getting some work which is always great, and I’m really happy about the free wifi. I’ll wait and see how well the slides are rethemed before I comment on that. The only thing I don’t understand is how they’re incorporating ZoomJets in the water park.

Not sure if when they say more trains on bobsled if they mean more frequently running 4 trains or if they are bringing old trains out of storage. I don't remember them ever having more than 4 on the track at once but wikipedia says the park owns 6 and keeps 2 in storage. In theory it should be able to run 6 with the load/unload station, hold out of the station, two block lift hill, 3 mid courses, and the several holds on the back brakes.

I seriously can’t wait for Bobsled to actually operate, it’s like a whole new ride. Last year my day consisted of Comet, Sasquatch, Greezed Lightning, Screamin’ Eagles, Blizzard, Pandemonium, Supernova, Raging River and Desperado on repeat, and if Bobsled and Condor start running again it’ll be amazing!!

2 season back when I visited they had only 2 or 3 cars on the track. when I was visiting in the early 200's they have 5 on. As for how many I'm not sure. But anything that gets it up and running and ups capacity I'll take.

Even if it’s running one car with one row open I just really want it running, and I’m really happy they are doing this.

I’m sorry I’m not super educated on this (feel pretty stupid asking too), and while I know that it’s gonna help the ride run, what exactly is an axle?

Definition from Wikipedia
An axle is a central shaft for a rotating wheel or gear. On wheeled vehicles, the axle may be fixed to the wheels, rotating with them, or fixed to the vehicle, with the wheels rotating around the axle.

I still feel really stupid for not knowing that, but thanks.

I doubt it’s gonna be fully operational, but this looks like we’re gonna see Bobsled going a lot more often than before.

Fingers crossed.

It will be nice to have the added capacity.

It’ll be really awesome for the park to have a second good coaster going after The Comet. Like I said earlier, it’s like we got a whole new coaster.

Bad news is all the work going into this coaster is starting to really throw off my Go-Karts and Bobsled becoming a new coaster theory.

It’s literally going to be closed just as much as it was before, excluding last season. Last season can’t even be used for comparison because the ride had legitimate issues that had to be corrected. But it’s still not going to be able to run in any weather that makes the trough damp or wet which is a lot.

Yeah I know, but it’s gonna be a huge improvement over last year, which has me really excited.

Agreed. Obviously it will have its limitation with the rain and early closing but its better then having it it SBNO.

Exactly I’ll just be happy I can do it a few times this year.

Also, I have friends trying to buy passes and the website is so confusing. I got two different prices for the same thing twice, and the customer service rep just left me and never answered.

I went to the lodge to get my pass processed today. There were still Christmas lights up on the drive to the park, and the signs still said Splashwater Kingdom and New for 2018: Pandemonium. It doesn’t seem like much work has been done at the park, or at least everything in Hot Rod USA looks untouched and from what I could see of Storytown and Fest Area, they weren’t either. Actually the only thing that was remotely different was that Screamin’ Eagles had no cars on it.

I would assume they’ve at least gutted Kidzopolis at this point right?

The attraction won;t open till summer and I doubt they will do much in the winter. this is not a complex change over. they are building a fence. removing a ride that has a station and group level guide rail. and they need to build a stair case. The ride won't take much to install.