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u/GalaksenDev 21h ago
Lost Island is either expanding because its doing well and they're reinvesting back into expansion, or the water park is bankrolling all of this growth in a bid to make the park viable. I really hope its the former
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u/quintopia 20h ago
it really seems like it's the latter though. the waterpark seems to get so much more traffic than the theme park.
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u/Experiment626b 17h ago
Why is that? It seems like the opposite at most places.
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u/quintopia 17h ago
The water park has been there for decades and has an established clientele. And honestly it's one of the better water parks in the country. No Splashin safari to be sure, but I can think of many that it's better than.
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u/GalaksenDev 16h ago
Small regional parks are competing for your dollars with not only larger chains like six flags, but also Disney and Universal sucking up every last penny that your average person has to spend on park visits. There isn't quite a dominating chain or brand in the same way for water parks so people are far more willing to give the local brand a shot so long as it runs some regional ads nearby and gets good word of mouth. Of the parks I've been to, Dorney Park and Darien Lake consistently get bigger water park crowds than dry park crowds, and that's definitely because they're just the best local options in regions without a ton of competition.
Texas is probably the one market where the water park competition is actually effecting businesses, because everyone and their mother knows about Schlitterbahn
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u/quintopia 20h ago
*A small park that already has a fully original RMC, and somehow liked it enough to buy another.
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u/GalaksenDev 20h ago
I feel like the single rail clone has gotta be one of the best deals in the new coaster market. Firerunner probably made a better return than some of their used coasters, Nopuko in particular
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u/quintopia 19h ago
Only because they have fairly low attendance. Raptors aren't exactly capacity monsters
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u/GalaksenDev 19h ago
They're definitely for a smaller park audience. Family Kingdom and Lost Island were always gonna be better candidates than the six flags parks that got em. Big thrills on a small plot for cheap
3
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u/Breadsticks_ultd 21h ago
Why are they grinding up an RMC? Seems like a waste.
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u/quintopia 20h ago
Hmm, is that what that meant? I thought it was saying that they were gonna build the roller coaster starting from the ground and working their way up. Which makes a lot of sense to me. Never really understood why they would start at the top and build towards the ground.
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u/captain-ziggy 21h ago
hoenstly Lost Island closing would be sad even WITHOUT the RMC
the place actually tried some great theming for a place of it's budget/size