TR: ACE No Coaster Con 2009
Harry Face
Coaster Con this past Saturday in Illinois.
Sellers for today were Derek Gee & Ralph Lopez with their Riverview Park
Chicago sales table and Nancy Stillwagon of Gunther Hall was there as
well. ACE had their sales tabel set up outside the room.
The buffet lunch, consisted of salad, rice, green beans, chicken and
roasted beef. There were assorted cakes for desert. The buffet was very
good.
Everything moved along very well, time wise. There were a few glitches
with the computer and DVD's trying to be played - but nothing major went
wrong. Holiday Worlds Door Prizes didn't show up but their DVD
presentation did.
Mid-way through the afternoon a moment of silence was administered for
ACE members who had passed away in 2008. Their names flashed overhead on
the screen in front of the room.
It had warmed up to 24 degrees that day.
Jeff Seibert of Schlitterbahn (TX.) hosted an after Con Party from 8 to
11 pm complete with complimentary drinks, hors d' oeuvre's and a live
band for our entertainment.
A good time was had by all........
h
steelforce
> The buffet lunch, consisted of salad, rice, green beans, chicken and
> roasted beef. There were assorted cakes for desert. The buffet was very
> good.
any gravy??
> Everything moved along very well, time wise. There were a few glitches
> with the computer and DVD's trying to be played - but nothing major went
> wrong. Holiday Worlds Door Prizes didn't show up but their DVD
> presentation did.
Could that mean more goodies at eastcoaster? ;^)
> Jeff Seibert of Schlitterbahn (TX.) hosted an after Con Party from 8 to
> 11 pm complete with complimentary drinks, hors d' oeuvre's and a live
> band for our entertainment.
Jeff is one of the best friends ACE Has, he so enthusiastic about our
hobby.
>
> A good time was had by all........
cool!
thanks for the report
Harry Face
The roast beef was swimmin' in gravy.
I don't know if there will be mo prizes for Eastcoaster - I haven't even
gotten the flyer for that event either!! LOL!!
Yeah, Jeff is something else..
Have Fun in PA.
h
Bob O
So was anything usefull mentioned at the event???
Rastus O'Ginga
>
> - Show quoted text -
Yeah, this is about the most worthless TR I've ever read. It's like
going to IOA and writing:
Went to IOA yesterday.
Green Eggs and Ham was closed, so we ate a plain hamburger at Circus
McGurkis'. I also had a medium sized Coke with ice, and a brownie for
desert. I didn't eat the fries, so I threw them away.
Crowds were light, even with all the signs all over the Orlando area.
I rode a dark ride and a couple of coasters.
They had some shops open, selling trinkets and novelties.
There were lots of restaurants on the way out, so we stopped at one
for dinner.
-RO
Mike Parker
important points. No park gave out any useful information. Basically
stuff we all already know. But if you want a full overview....
First presenter was Stan Checketts. Basically he thanked us all in ACE
for being so enthusiastic about the hobby and he went on to show an
animation of the new coaster in Germany, what he showed appears on the
S&S website. Overall his presentation was pretty entertaining as Stan
is a very good speaker, but he really didn't say anything really
groundbreaking. He mentioned having to close his park in Utah as he
overestimated the market and it was costing him tens of thousands of
dollars a year to keep it open and he just couldn't keep doing that, and
all the rides there are up for sale.
After that was a regional update by Scott Heck regarding all the coaster
happenings in the local region, no body is adding anything and he showed
video of the ACE coaster classic plaque presentation at Little Amerricka
last year and that was it for that.
Then there was Worlds of Fun, they spoke a little about Prowler and
showed some construction photos. The PR person also mentioned they are
expanding their entertainment lineup but I forget the details. As usual
WOF brought enough WOF poster calendars for everyone, which every Cedar
Fair park has, they are pretty nice, this year they are for Prowler,
with a large logo taking up about a third of the poster with an edited
GCI train rounding a bend on some coaster with the prowler logo imposed
on the front of the train, and as always this giveaway is appreciated.
After that was a member presentation regarding his kids and how's he's
getting them into coastering, it's an annual presentation he does, it's
pretty cool, but really for most people besides seeing cute kids there
is not much of interest.
After that was Waldameer, probably one of the better presentations of
the day. He spoke alittle about Ravine Flyer 2 and the incredible
success that it has brought the park. There is some trackwork happening
at the bottom of the first drop and somewhere else on the ride, though
it is pretty minor. New for next year is a Zamperla Mega DiskO along
with an expanded parking lot and new picnic shelters. Also they have
completely repainted their Maurer Soehne spinner.
After that was Robin Innes from Cedar Point, seeing as Cedar Point along
with most of the Cedar Fair chain isn't getting anything next year he
touched on a whole bunch of ride anniversary's at Cedar Point and around
the chain, he also mentioned the relocated Geauga Lake rides with PKD
getting the ferris wheel and ElDorado, and the Boomerang going to
Carowinds with new trains. Really Robin Innis was a lackluster speaker,
and also he was probably doing the best he could with whatever he could
talk about. Was pretty much a bust.
Then there was lunch which I thought was ok at best, but it has been
sufficiently covered. And for the beef in gravy, Gravy to chicagoians
is what most other people would call Aus Jus, or however it's spelled,
if that's gravy enough for most, then good, else there was no gravy :)
After lunch Great America showed up late so Kings Island took their spot
in the itteniary. Again, it was mostly Diamondback animation and
construction pictures, no real new info was given out. Kings Island
will also expand their entertainment offerings for 2009, though I dont
remember the details. Overall it was a pretty decent presentation only
because Kings Island is actually getting something.
Then Six Flags Great America showed up, though I don't know why.
SFGAm's presentation was one of the worst and most absolutely pathetic
presentations of the day. Their entire multimedia presentation consisted
of slides of what has hanging on the wall of the season pass office back
in Oct, and what is on the website, then they stated the facts word for
word from their press release. After that they talked for a few mins
about the entertainment lineup intentionally leaving out the Pictorium
show. Some other wasteful bullshit was spewed from them and then it went
to Q&A. Where the pictorium show was dragged out of her, to resounding
disapproval (Dick Clark blooper reels on their 78 foot tall by 96 foot
wide IMAX screen). After it was asked of her about the locker policy in
the park she came clean on that to resounding disapproval(lockers being
added to every coaster in the park basically). When asked about the Mr 6
rumor she stated that she was debating saying anything about it to us
during the presentation, and seeing as it was down to Q&A she obviously
wasn't going to, though asked she gave us the lowdown on that, with that
being that Mr 6 will return in 2009 replacing Flag Man, and he will now
speak. Also the parks will have a Mr Six character that will roam the
park very slowly and old man like, and whenever the song plays he will
break out into his dance. It was just awful.
After that was Dwane Marden from RCDB who went over what new coaster
additions there are in the US for 2009 and how many are being lost. It
was 2 to 1 coasters being lost to new coasters opening, so overall it
was depressing.
Next up was Kennywood, who ditched us, nobody showed up, we were
promised a DVD and door prizes, neither of which showed up. It think it
was at this point they did a memorial to ACER's who have died in the
past year, though I'm not sure, I was dozing off by this point.
After a break, Rom Rebbie was there from PTC and pretty much gave a
rundown of what they are up to in 2009, which as of right now isnt much.
The Happy Valley trains have been shipped out, they are currently
refurbing the Legend and Raven trains from Holiday World along with the
Roar and Wild One trains from SFA. After that he has nothing and may
end up having to lay off some people. Then he showed us some pictures
for some historical stuff regarding PTC, told some jokes and was
entertaining as usual. in Q&A he mentioned that there is little
interest in his new single bench trains, and he isn't able to give a
train away for free. He's offering parks the chance to, at no cost to
them, get one of the new single bench trains to try out on a trial
basis, and all parks refused, citing legal and maintenance issues that
the parks don't want to potentially deal with if the trains don't work
out as advertised. As always though it was a good time with Tom Rebbie.
After that was Holiday World which also ditched us, though after being
told otherwise, they did recieve a DVD and door prizes from them. They
showed the DVD which was basically just animation of the new splash ride.
Then there was a Geauga Lake presentation by a not in attendance Howard
Gillooly. Was a nice 5 min vid, though I personally hated the park.
And then for what we all went there to see. The Jeff Siebert
Expierience. He of course works for Schlitterbahn in Texas now and he
gave us the lowdown on everything and anything on Schlitterbahn, telling
us about the hurricane damage suffered, their bad ass new slide last
year, their new Kansas City Waterpark, and all sorts of fun stuff. He
showed us a bunch of videos some of which were made up specifically for
No Coaster Con. Of course Jeff gave away anything he could get his hands
on, including a free admission ticket to any Schlitterbahn property for
next year, magnets, lots of door prizes.
That was the end of No Coaster Con, it ended on time at 6pm, and at 8 pm
Jeff Siebert hosted a Schlitterbahn 30'th anniversary party which had
another buffet and all the booze you could down in 4 hours (there were 2
drinks included for free with coupons on the invitation, though Jeff
would freely hand out more drink coupons to whoever asked, or whoever he
felt like forcing them upon. Fun was had by all.
So there you have it. I got tired of all the bullshit going on in ACE
years ago and I dropped out of the club, so I paid the non member rate
of $47 to go, and if it wasn't for Siebert saving the day, I would have
been pretty pissed off with what I paid vs. what was provided, not that
it's necessarily ACE's fault or the fault of the event organizers, it's
just no parks are getting anything this year.
steelforce
so basically you had a good time? Geeeze Louissseee why did you even
bother going? I haven't read a TR this depressing and negative since
the war on lines at GrAdv lol!
Rollermonkey
>
> After that was Dwane Marden from RCDB who went over what new coaster
> additions there are in the US for 2009 and how many are being lost. It
> was 2 to 1 coasters being lost to new coasters opening, so overall it
> was depressing.
>
> Next up was Kennywood, who ditched us, nobody showed up, we were
> promised a DVD and door prizes, neither of which showed up. It think it
> was at this point they did a memorial to ACER's who have died in the
> past year, though I'm not sure, I was dozing off by this point.
>
actually relocations, and a couple (Flyying Turns, Hornet) are
holdovers that didn't actually open last year.
As for Kennywood, Parque Reunidos wouldn't let, oh, geez, I forget her
name. Anyways, they wouldn't let the park send the PR rep out this
year, so, after something like 14 consecutive NoCoasters, no Kennywood
at the 2009 NoCoaster.
Chris
Rastus O'Ginga
Thanks for that rundown!
Interesting about PTC. I can't see how it's insurance, but I can see
parks goin "meh" about the trains. Somebody had to be the first to
use a G-train, or a GCI train. No huge loss, since they aren't a huge
improvement, it seems
Seibert is something else, for sure. I'm amazed he would go all the
way up there. Even teh KC park isn't all that close. His free
admission coupons are always great. Hell, it's worth going to a
winter event solely for the Schlitterbahn tickets, especially since
they usually come with a first ride on Master Blaster.
-RO
M_force_4_ever
I can't lie I was pretty embarrassed that SFGAm is my home park,
they're presentation was terrible, as was Cedar Point's but was still
a fun time.
Wolf
"Rollermonkey" <christoph...@navy.mil> wrote in message
news:2f742802-4421-42eb...@o4g2000pra.googlegroups.com...
------------------
Not exactly a promising omen.
--
|\-/|
<0 0>
=(o)=
-Wolf
Mike Parker
really my only reason for going this year. The after party was a lot of
fun though and in the end did make it worth it. I recouped my losses
and then some :)
Derek Gee
news:28534-497...@storefull-3313.bay.webtv.net...
> Despite the fact no event flyer went out, 180 people attended ACE's No
> Coaster Con this past Saturday in Illinois.
>
> Sellers for today were Derek Gee & Ralph Lopez with their Riverview Park
> Chicago sales table and Nancy Stillwagon of Gunther Hall was there as
> well. ACE had their sales tabel set up outside the room.
Hey, our table had the latest "Parks From The Past Volume 2" DVD at it, as
well as some of the last copies of Volume One! (available at
www.riverviewparkchicago.com) Thanks to everybody who came by to say hello.
Nancy Stillwagon attended NoCoasterCon for the first time since 1994! She
had a great assortment of amusement park merchandise, and I was happy to see
her back again. (Last year, Ralph and I were the only vendor other than the
ACE General Store.)
Derek
Rollermonkey
There were, as usual, a lot of video presentations from the various
parks in attendance. The assembled group of 180 people were quite
appreciative of these contributions and applauded loudly at the end of
each one.
Well, there was one exception.
Strangely enough, when one video ended, the crowd was silent. There
may have been a little grumbling, but aside from that it was very
strange!
I mean, this was footage of new wooden coaster, well liked and loved
by many in attendance, at a park that has been excellent to
enthusiasts for years, and was lauded by respected organizations for
their tireless efforts for bringing this coaster to reality!
Why would it be greeted with such a stoic response?
Oh, I get it. It was Waldameer's Ravine Flyer, and the video was
produced by TPR.
I guess nobody told the PR guy that he'd been banned from ACE years
ago.
(But I bet he heard about it later!)
Now THAT's what I call ROTFLMAO.
Chris
(I think I could see smoke pouring out of certain ACE EC member's
ears)
See, now THIS is injecting drama where there is none.
:P
M_force_4_ever
That was some LOLz
steelforce
> There were, as usual, a lot of video presentations from the various
> parks in attendance. The assembled group of 180 people were quite
> appreciative of these contributions and applauded loudly at the end of
> each one.
>
> Well, there was one exception.
>
> Strangely enough, when one video ended, the crowd was silent. There
> may have been a little grumbling, but aside from that it was very
> strange!
>
> I mean, this was footage of new wooden coaster, well liked and loved
> by many in attendance, at a park that has been excellent to
> enthusiasts for years, and was lauded by respected organizations for
> their tireless efforts for bringing this coaster to reality!
>
> Why would it be greeted with such a stoic response?
>
> Oh, I get it. It was Waldameer's Ravine Flyer, and the video was
> produced by TPR.
When it was shown at Eastcoaster the beginning of the video was BOOed
loudly, the end was DEAD SILENT.
Rastus O'Ginga
>
> - Show quoted text -
That's pretty sad. Must have been a bunch of angry queens upset that
Robb has made the coaster club they took over pretty much obsolete.
Not to mention it is RUDE AS FUCK to WAldameer, an awesome park.
Imagine, working for years to build this coaster, then the largest
official coaster club booing the video.
Now, really, I can't imagine the whole crowd booed. Probably just a
few very vocal people. I hope others went to Waldameer afterwards and
apologized for the behaivior. If anything should get you off the
media invite list, booing at a presentation should do it.
How many videos were produced by ACE? They probably did produce one
hell of a series of black and white photos of El Toro for this years
event.
'nuff said
-RO
Sandy A. Nicolaysen
Wow, for once I agree 100% with Jason Burkett. If Sam's account of
the event is accurate, I would be ashamed to be associated with ACE.
- Sandy (visited Waldameer for 1st time in '08)
steelforce
>
> - Show quoted text -
it was completely obvious to everyone in attendance that Waldamere was
not being booed or disrespected in anyway, in fact they got one of
the loudest "welcome" rounds of applause of the day with many
interruptions by applause during the speaking portion of the
presentation.
BaSSiStiSt
"steelforce" <steel...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:0da85241-f073-4564...@v38g2000yqb.googlegroups.com...
>it was completely obvious to everyone in attendance that Waldamere was
>not being booed or disrespected in anyway, in fact they got one of
>the loudest "welcome" rounds of applause of the day with many
>interruptions by applause during the speaking portion of the
>presentation.
I think that most of us showed our appreciation for Waldameer in 2008 the
proper way...by going there and spending money. Didn't they have a record
year?
mamoosh
> Didn't they have a record year?
Yup.
BaSSiStiSt
"mamoosh" <msul...@ntmllc.com> wrote in message
news:894f9797-f10c-4925...@h20g2000yqn.googlegroups.com...
>Yup.
Hopefully someone explained to them what the booing was for. :-)
Wolf
> the event is accurate, I would be ashamed to be associated with ACE.
>
> - Sandy (visited Waldameer for 1st time in '08)
2008 was your first year?
Wow. It wasn't *that* far away. =)
Sandy A. Nicolaysen
wrote:
>> Wow, for once I agree 100% with Jason Burkett. If Sam's account of
>> the event is accurate, I would be ashamed to be associated with ACE.
>>
>> - Sandy (visited Waldameer for 1st time in '08)
>
>2008 was your first year?
>
>Wow. It wasn't *that* far away. =)
Yeah, guilty as charged. Actually wanted to visit when the wild mouse
opened. I'll probably visit Waldameer again in '09. Maybe Kennywood
too.
Sandy
steelforce
> "mamoosh" <msulli...@ntmllc.com> wrote in message
>
> news:894f9797-f10c-4925...@h20g2000yqn.googlegroups.com...
>
> >Yup.
>
> Hopefully someone explained to them what the booing was for. � :-)
they definately knew
Wolf
>>> the event is accurate, I would be ashamed to be associated with ACE.
>>>
>>> - Sandy (visited Waldameer for 1st time in '08)
>>
>>2008 was your first year?
>>
>>Wow. It wasn't *that* far away. =)
> Yeah, guilty as charged. Actually wanted to visit when the wild mouse
> opened. I'll probably visit Waldameer again in '09. Maybe Kennywood
> too.
>
> Sandy
I made it there for my only time in 2006, in a crazy day that involved
leaving from Pittsburgh, hitting Conneaut, (then a torential rain storm),
Erieview, and Waldameer (then a torrential rain storm), watching their
fireworks, and driving back to Pittsburgh.
I meant to go last year, but never got a weekend that worked.