whootah.com

You need to ride the Phoenix at Knoebels. You would absolutely love it.

Good luck to those guys trying to save the coaster. I'm sure Cedar Fair really gives a damn.

This will do about as much good as "Save the Pavilion".

My 1 ride on it was rather painful in June.

I sat in the back and it bottomed out every valley and beat me to death.

Maybe it's better towards the front, but based on that ride I had no desire to ever ride it again!

bgwfreak777 wrote:This will do about as much good as "Save the Pavilion".

My 1 ride on it was rather painful in June.

I sat in the back and it bottomed out every valley and beat me to death.

Maybe it's better towards the front, but based on that ride I had no desire to ever ride it again!

This is not just about the coaster as a ride... this is about a physical representation of our history and culture as America. The Big Dipper is a manifestation of Americana, of our history and place in the world. It also stands as a monument to the history of coaster design and engineering. If anyone tried to argue the importance of such ideas in America's history then I would have to ask where that leaves us when we know these places were precursors to Disney. Clearly, Disney has impacted American culture on a broad and profound level that cannot be denied and without such concepts as Luna Park, Coney and Cedar Point, Disney may not have found it's way as an amusement empire. If anything, coasters like The Big Dipper should be federally recognized as National Historic Landmarks (such as Cedar Downs at CP) when placed within the context of American history. I tend to agree with Jonathan that Cedar Fair probably doesn't see this from any side other than the bottom line but CP itself represents a place in history and culture that exists to this day... as it should. Surely, not everyone in the top brass level of CF is ignorant to this. It's simply the all-mighty dollar rearing it's head in an ugly way.

This instance differs from The Pavillion in some ways but is no less important. Simply tearing something down to build something new is not in and of itself progress. I understand that, as a business, CF is responsible to do what is best for it's bottom line. But, I also feel that as an American business, CF has a responsibility to do what is best for American history preservation and heritage. It is absolutely the responsibility of all American companies to weigh profits against their role and responsibilities as a part of our culture. Preserving our culture is just important to our success as a nation as our continued progress in economic endeavors. In short, America without its history is not America.

This is why we should fight to preserve coasters such as The Big Dipper. The care needed to keep it running well is simply a reflection of respect, or the lack thereof, for that history. As far as i'm concerned, Cedar Fair and indeed all of us, are responsible for both.

How dare I have an opinion.

And if you reread my post, I never said I wanted it torn down.

bgwfreak777 wrote:How dare I have an opinion.

And if you reread my post, I never said I wanted it torn down.

Not at all... not attacking you at all Wes. I really shouldn't have addressed the post with your name as the opener because it's really directed at Cedar Fair. A poor choice of words on my part and I appologize. I certainly didn't mean any offense to you specifically because I know you understand why preservation is important and I agree that this issue will get about the same result as the "Save the Pavillion" issue. I was really just venting a little about the whole thing because so many other people fail to think these things through. I think that Cedar Fair is probably just going to trash The Dipper without putting any thought into preservation. I hope that i'm wrong.

I posted this also on themeparkreview.com but I guess censorship abounds and the thread including the about 10 replies it received in a couple hours time while there was magically deleted within a few hours of my posting.

http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/vi ... hp?t=38921

lol.

Hey at least you got 10 replies. You must be in the in-crowd.

Is what I said that controversial?

no, it had its own set of replies at TPR, i Posted it yesterday evening, before I went to bed it had numerous replies, when waking up this morning to check for more replies the thread was deleted.

Oh, you posted the link to "Save the Dipper" not my post.

AMartin777 wrote:Oh, you posted the link to "Save the Dipper" not my post.

correct

shocker....don't want to divert attention to others.

You can post it on my site also if you like, or get Jonathan to.

You have a site?

j/k