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We had some weirdness not long after I posted that last message where we got up to 7,000 "guests" at once. Still didn't go over the bandwidth limit this month for the first time in awhile.

I worked on a few things last night, but ran into some issues. It's been too long since I was really into web programming and building websites. I'm having to relearn a lot of stuff.

I should be able to get to it this weekend (knock on wood). Should have done it last weekend, but I ended up working through the weekend and didn't feel like coming home to more work.

Oddly, we haven't been getting the massive bandwidth spike this month. I think when the site was knocked offline for a week last month it caused something to reset somewhere...

It seems like the SGP isn't that crowded anymore? The pumpkin fest is what has really taken over fall. SGP is now just a couple weeks long. I'm sure some of the shows are pretty crowded though.

If there were going to be shops or anything else they would have said so. The new area is the pathway connecting Wildfire to PK. It is not a large area, it just ties it all together.

^I would assume they just use the existing auxiliary entrance that they often use during Christmas. The one that goes past the employee lounge and comes into park next to Brown's Candy. Either that or they use the 76 service entrance and have people enter near FITH.

I think AP is safe for awhile. It is both popular, apparently easier (than some rides) to maintain, and they went to a lot of expense to rebuild the channel and tunnel.

FM was heavily rumored to be taken out years ago and is still chugging along, but at some point they are either going to have to do a massive structural refurbishment or take it out just due to age. The wood rot on some parts is very noticeable. It's still a very popular ride though, and the park now realizes the nostalgia value of their old rides. I would assume that when it goes, it will be replaced with another indoor attraction - probably a more typical shooting dark ride like the Justice League rides at SF.

But getting back to the original question, SDC already covers a large land area, and only a few rides get lines on busy days over an hour long, so by most park standards they don't need to add-on to what they have, they just need to keep everything fresh. Most of the ride replacements lately have been due to circumstances out of their control. Lost River had major problems with water quality, FITH apparently had either mold or structural issues that they couldn't keep at bay without a major refurb, and TNT would have needed a major track replacement to keep going.

Miner Mountain and it's area feels like an expansion to me though. Having that connection will be nice. I'm sure the TNT plot will get re-used within the next six years or so.

Was at the park for the past three days, and the heat was absolutely brutal. On one hand, there were no lines anywhere, but on the other it was an endurance test just to walk around the park. By 5pm the parking lot was mostly empty. Branson itself was quieter than I have ever seen. It is back to school season on top of the unbearable heat, so not surprising.

I made it down to Hollister saturday evening to check out the brewery and the old english inn. It's a very neat area, but I can't believe they roll up the town at 9pm!

... Am I looking at the same announcement as everyone else? I really don't get some of these comments.

No signature moment? What about the tunnel? What about the station fly through? What about the rockwork flybys? The final swoop into the valley? There are several big moments on this ride!

It's a family coaster. I know many were thinking it was going to be another big thrill coaster, but reorient yourselves please. This is AMAZING for what it is. Go look at Quantum Accelerator and how it it just built over a bunch of empty gravel on a flat lot - and that is apparently a pretty good ride!

Theming looks light? What? Was that a joke flew over my head? This will be the most themed coaster in the park other than FITH!

So now that we know the 2027 project details, that raises more questions about what they might do to fill the TNT space.

I think they will still go for more of a family angle verses high thrill. Maybe a family invert?

The only thing that seems more certain now is that they probably won't just do a ride intended to be a direct successor to TNT, so no mine train concepts. I was starting to think the 2027 addition would be another high thrill coaster and MME would go where TNT was, but now it seems like the possibilities are wide open.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anJuatOb9aM&t=1s

Here is the POV.

Most of SDC's coasters have been pretty short. I see a lot of substance here. It's not as drawn out as Big Bear, but a lot of people refer to that one as boring and uninspired for all the land it takes up, so in my mind this is what Big Bear should have been. I think they learned their lesson from that one. A few turns flying through highly themed rock work is way better than a mile of track over an empty field. 

I'm probably in the minority, but that looks very underwhelming.  And what was the talk about 1st of it's kind in the States?  Also, another pretty short coaster, just half a mile long.

Well it's finally a coaster that isn't supposed to be high-thrill for once. I have no idea what the "first" is, but its probably once again something the PR department has wildly stretched and will be ignored after the initial marketing is over.

It's definitely not short - most family coasters are far shorter. They could have cut it down to half of this layout and that is what most parks would have done.

Excellent announcement presentation. The best they've ever done. Really shows off why this park is special.

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/silver-dollar-city-unveils-miners-mountain-express-new-family-coaster-based-on-true-ozarks-story-302849851.html

So it was a youngstar after all. The track being themed is awesome - really dresses it up and makes it fit so much better.

It does sound like a TNT replacement after all. I am sure it will be by far the most popular ride in the park for years to come. SDC is going to be asking themselves why they didn't do this twenty years ago. The park has needed an airtime machine for ages. It looks just really fun all around and will be widely appealing. The level of theming is also the best they've ever done for a coaster!

The only thing I don't like is the name.

RMC and HFEC have been on the rocks for awhile. Both Outlaw Run and Lightning Rod had issues, more so LR for sure. It sucks that the new FITH goes down so often, but I wonder how much of that is RMC versus all the bells and whistles and "safety" sensors that are so ubiquitous these days. It seems there is no getting away from it anymore. I can't believe DW's huge new ride hasn't even opened yet.

Once upon a time Mack was trying to sell a "E-motion" coaster concept that involved big springs on the coaster to allow more bouncy movement within the car around tight turns. It didn't sell well because the novelty wasn't worth it. I wonder if they have continued to play with various methods for adding movement to cars though to make rides a little more dynamic. We could have cars that lean around turns, tilt, spin around to reverse at key moments, etc.

Did a little more work on this today, but due to the extent of what I'm doing it will be hard to get much setup until I switch the domain over to the new host. I don't want to mess with much on the current server because we are already pushing it on bandwidth and disk space. The new host should have a much higher ceiling, as well as better tools to diagnose what is going on and potentially block things that are spamming the site.

I am planning on waiting until after the announcement next weekend, then I'll try and pick a night that I can stay up late and switch everything over and get the new forum running. Maybe the 20th or 21st? It'll be a rough transition, but hopefully we'll be able to kick this site into a new gear afterwards.

I'm just now getting back into all this. Not going to dig too far through the nonsense over the last few pages, but I'm surprised we haven't dug in any deeper on analyzing what this could be.

I don't see many obvious signs, and the layout is still fairly small and tight as of the last I have seen, so it's hard to narrow it much other than it won't be a hyper coaster which keeps being mentioned for some reason.

If we have for some reason landed on it being a Mack coaster, I'm not seeing any signs that it could be anything other than a youngstar/family coaster or a Big Dipper/Stryker model. If you had forced me to guess without seeing any speculation beforehand, I would assume it would be a youngstar just because that fits the line up best, even if this was planned before TNT was known to be forced into retirement. A four-across Mack looping coaster next to Wildfire seems odd to me unless they have something really unique they are adding to it such as a switch track.

Anyway, I plan to be there next weekend. Won't be part of the announcement festivities, but I think it will be fun to be there at least when it is announced and see the initial reaction in the park.