My understanding is that they decided to keep and refurbish Le Scoot in 2012. I don't think InvadR planning had started yet.
Project 2017: InvadR
- Thread starter Sky
- Start date
Nicole said:
Seeing that the Daily Press put out the video already is there any way you can contact them and make them put a disclaimer that the video was provided by BGWFans.com? They have their logo on it which would make someone think it was theirs to begin with when it isn't!
I loved the video. The reverse POV was a great idea!
We have contacted BGW Marketing. Once we hear back from them, we will weigh our options.
I have to agree that this coaster is such a great addition to our park. I was able to ride it in every row on media day and there isn't a bad seat in the house. Yes, every row has perks over the rest but I wasn't disappointed in a single ride.
My notes:
1. I actually think the front has an edge on the back. I have NEVER felt this way about a coaster but those airtime hills are just fantastic in the front couple of rows, coming out of your seat on every hill. Yes, the first drop is a little lackluster but the rest of the ride packs such a huge punch that I can overlook it.
2. The back row is incredible for the first drop and it feels so much faster than the 48 mph. I was standing next to the coaster near the helix while waiting to "invade" during opening day and it looks so painfully slow that it's incredible that it never once feels slow while riding.
3. I really never waited in a "line", but they're going to need to do something about the stairs/front row line asap. Media day even had the front lined up to the bottom of the steps where if you wanted to ride in a different row it was very tight to try and get up the stairs and around the corner into the station. I hope they start loading like Disney and just tell you which row you're riding in with a small area if you really want to ask to wait for a specific row.
4. Sizing. We had a larger member of our group that was able to ride several times and then not be able to ride several times, it seems like each seat has it's own temperament for now and hopefully will become more uniform as time goes by.
5.During the media day the theme music on/loading this ride was fantastic, really adds to the mood. For some reason when I loaded for the "first ride" they were playing pop music (rhianna) and I was very confused. Hopefully this was just because there was a dj set up for the ribbon cutting and went back to normal later in the day.
Again, I'm very happy with this addition and look forward to riding it over and over! This is exactly the type of ride Busch Gardens needed in their line up.
My notes:
1. I actually think the front has an edge on the back. I have NEVER felt this way about a coaster but those airtime hills are just fantastic in the front couple of rows, coming out of your seat on every hill. Yes, the first drop is a little lackluster but the rest of the ride packs such a huge punch that I can overlook it.
2. The back row is incredible for the first drop and it feels so much faster than the 48 mph. I was standing next to the coaster near the helix while waiting to "invade" during opening day and it looks so painfully slow that it's incredible that it never once feels slow while riding.
3. I really never waited in a "line", but they're going to need to do something about the stairs/front row line asap. Media day even had the front lined up to the bottom of the steps where if you wanted to ride in a different row it was very tight to try and get up the stairs and around the corner into the station. I hope they start loading like Disney and just tell you which row you're riding in with a small area if you really want to ask to wait for a specific row.
4. Sizing. We had a larger member of our group that was able to ride several times and then not be able to ride several times, it seems like each seat has it's own temperament for now and hopefully will become more uniform as time goes by.
5.During the media day the theme music on/loading this ride was fantastic, really adds to the mood. For some reason when I loaded for the "first ride" they were playing pop music (rhianna) and I was very confused. Hopefully this was just because there was a dj set up for the ribbon cutting and went back to normal later in the day.
Again, I'm very happy with this addition and look forward to riding it over and over! This is exactly the type of ride Busch Gardens needed in their line up.
Nicole said:
They should have the Daily Press pull the video and have them post a front-facing POV. I'm sure the GP would be more interested in that. And I bet a lot of them are wondering why they are seeing that view of the ride especially since nobody will be riding it backwards.
My fiancé and I were at the "first rider" event on Friday. And it was a bit of a mess but fun overall.
To start off, we get an email earlier in the week telling us we must be at the Royal Palace Theatre no later than 10 a.m. If we're later than 10 a.m., there is a high likelihood that we cannot ride. Well, we had taken off the day for this, so we do our best to get there on time (we've never been there at park open before). We get to the park and have a mild panic when we don't see the traffic going in around 9:15 a.m. and is instead lined up. We end up deciding "No worries, we have time to make it"
Long story short, we park (though we're not allowed to park in England for some reason, which was also frustrating. We always park in England) and get in - only to see the lines at the front. We start getting nervous, as the email was very clear about being late, and go to guest services up the hill. They tell us to go to "Gate 6" which was the staff opening in the gate behind Castle O'Sullivan (...and would have been even more convenient if we had been allowed to park in England). Once we get over there there is a TON of confusion. This is the media gate - we weren't supposed to be there. We push back, showing them the email that says we're supposed to be at Royal Palace by 10 a.m. and that Guest Services told us to come over here. Apparently the email was wrong - we weren't supposed to be in until after the park opens.
We end up getting an escort over to Royal Palace Theatre before the park opens, which was nice. We check in and then find out that we are "a part of the opening ceremony" and there were "lots of surprises in store." What that ended up being was wearing plastic viking hats and getting viking "makeup" done. They rushed us through the process before making us sit on the RPT stage - for over an hour.
Apparently over 150+ tickets were given out for "first riders". While the Boys and Girls Club were added later (and was a majority of the crowd in the 'Opening Ceremony') I counted probably 20-25 people who were standing around with us for an hour in the first riders group. Apparently a lot of people skipped out.
The most frustrating thing about this was the whole "hurry up and wait" We hurried to get there, hurried to get in makeup and hurried to get ready only to stand around in the cold for over an hour. I understand wanting to make sure that people were there and ready, but it was a gross over-calculation and a waste of a lot of time we could have spent in the park. The Boys and Girls Club didn't show up until closer to 11, which was when the actual "rehearsal" started - and when the rest of the group probably could have showed up, tbh.
There ceremony itself was fun and interesting and went by pretty quick and then there was a mad dash to ride. In the end, I think it was worth it to be the "first riders" (even though there were a lot of people in the group who had rode in the media riding that morning...so kinda defeated the purpose of being the "first riders") - at least we skipped the line and didn't have to wait in it the rest of the day
Would I take time off of work to do something like this again? Absolutely not. But it was worth the experience for this one time - I hope that they work out the kinks for anything like this in the future.
To start off, we get an email earlier in the week telling us we must be at the Royal Palace Theatre no later than 10 a.m. If we're later than 10 a.m., there is a high likelihood that we cannot ride. Well, we had taken off the day for this, so we do our best to get there on time (we've never been there at park open before). We get to the park and have a mild panic when we don't see the traffic going in around 9:15 a.m. and is instead lined up. We end up deciding "No worries, we have time to make it"
Long story short, we park (though we're not allowed to park in England for some reason, which was also frustrating. We always park in England) and get in - only to see the lines at the front. We start getting nervous, as the email was very clear about being late, and go to guest services up the hill. They tell us to go to "Gate 6" which was the staff opening in the gate behind Castle O'Sullivan (...and would have been even more convenient if we had been allowed to park in England). Once we get over there there is a TON of confusion. This is the media gate - we weren't supposed to be there. We push back, showing them the email that says we're supposed to be at Royal Palace by 10 a.m. and that Guest Services told us to come over here. Apparently the email was wrong - we weren't supposed to be in until after the park opens.
We end up getting an escort over to Royal Palace Theatre before the park opens, which was nice. We check in and then find out that we are "a part of the opening ceremony" and there were "lots of surprises in store." What that ended up being was wearing plastic viking hats and getting viking "makeup" done. They rushed us through the process before making us sit on the RPT stage - for over an hour.
Apparently over 150+ tickets were given out for "first riders". While the Boys and Girls Club were added later (and was a majority of the crowd in the 'Opening Ceremony') I counted probably 20-25 people who were standing around with us for an hour in the first riders group. Apparently a lot of people skipped out.
The most frustrating thing about this was the whole "hurry up and wait" We hurried to get there, hurried to get in makeup and hurried to get ready only to stand around in the cold for over an hour. I understand wanting to make sure that people were there and ready, but it was a gross over-calculation and a waste of a lot of time we could have spent in the park. The Boys and Girls Club didn't show up until closer to 11, which was when the actual "rehearsal" started - and when the rest of the group probably could have showed up, tbh.
There ceremony itself was fun and interesting and went by pretty quick and then there was a mad dash to ride. In the end, I think it was worth it to be the "first riders" (even though there were a lot of people in the group who had rode in the media riding that morning...so kinda defeated the purpose of being the "first riders") - at least we skipped the line and didn't have to wait in it the rest of the day
Would I take time off of work to do something like this again? Absolutely not. But it was worth the experience for this one time - I hope that they work out the kinks for anything like this in the future.
Was it just me or did Invadr feel really short? (this is not another crass joke) Maybe it was just because it was new that it felt really brief to me. Good, very good, but over too soon. It's got a lot of character and I'm extremely pleased with its addition to the park.
To clear up any confusion.
Each media outlet was given the opportunity to film a reverse POV on InvadR. Oddly, the park actually double booked most trains. Luckily for us, the random group that should gave ridden with us did not show.
BGW was also using ACE members to fill the trains for the videos.
None of us really wanted to be in a video, especially one posted to the Web, but of course we needed the footage. That gave Zachary a really clever and original idea.
Our readers probably don't want or need to see us riding a coaster. What they more likely would find interesting, however, was a video of the train reacting to the ride. How often do you see a POV in that direction without someone blocking the view?
Clearly, this was a unique concept, especially given the reaction of every marketing person we talked to about it. They let us film our ride with us in the back of an empty train, but they clearly thought is was a very odd request.
We asked for the video immediately after the ride, and then several times throughout the morning. It never materialized.
Then it turned up on the Daily Press site with their watermark, generating ad revenue for them.
So, to summarize, currently the Daily Press is making money off of Zachary's original idea, conceived specifically to benefit our readers.
Each media outlet was given the opportunity to film a reverse POV on InvadR. Oddly, the park actually double booked most trains. Luckily for us, the random group that should gave ridden with us did not show.
BGW was also using ACE members to fill the trains for the videos.
None of us really wanted to be in a video, especially one posted to the Web, but of course we needed the footage. That gave Zachary a really clever and original idea.
Our readers probably don't want or need to see us riding a coaster. What they more likely would find interesting, however, was a video of the train reacting to the ride. How often do you see a POV in that direction without someone blocking the view?
Clearly, this was a unique concept, especially given the reaction of every marketing person we talked to about it. They let us film our ride with us in the back of an empty train, but they clearly thought is was a very odd request.
We asked for the video immediately after the ride, and then several times throughout the morning. It never materialized.
Then it turned up on the Daily Press site with their watermark, generating ad revenue for them.
So, to summarize, currently the Daily Press is making money off of Zachary's original idea, conceived specifically to benefit our readers.
Could've been worse... at least it wasn't Sparks playing "Big Boy."luseendesi said:
I have already expressed my disgust with this video theft, and I do not want to divert focus from this conversation, but we rode the coaster today. I rode with our kindergarten rebel yell lover, and my wife rode in front of us. Rows three and four. First off, I really liked the restraints. We all loved the ride experience. The pacing on this coaster seems to be nothing short of flawless. We waited an hour and ten minutes, which included a six minute shut down for whatever reason. We are all looking forward to riding this throughout the season. Now....back to the debacle at hand...
The kids and I got to ride today. Wait was about an hour, which was better than I was expecting. I'll spare a long winded review and just agree that they managed to do a great job with a ride that, on paper isn't terribly exciting.
I will also agree that having the queue feed right into the first row lines is a TERRIBLE design issue. They're going to have to address that ASAP.
I will also agree that having the queue feed right into the first row lines is a TERRIBLE design issue. They're going to have to address that ASAP.
The station configuration struck me almost immidiately at the soft open. I know they were space-constrained, but honestly it looked as if it had been designed decades ago.
I haven't been to the park since the media event, so I have not actually seen normal ride operations. Is there a grouper at the top or bottom if the stairs? Are they allowing guests to pick their own rows? Has anyone noticed if there are constraints on where RAP/QQ can ride? Presumably, they come up the exit and lead from the opposite side of the platform?
Until the initial rush subsides, I worry that the platform, itself, will back up the queue.
I haven't been to the park since the media event, so I have not actually seen normal ride operations. Is there a grouper at the top or bottom if the stairs? Are they allowing guests to pick their own rows? Has anyone noticed if there are constraints on where RAP/QQ can ride? Presumably, they come up the exit and lead from the opposite side of the platform?
Until the initial rush subsides, I worry that the platform, itself, will back up the queue.
RAP comes up the exit ramp and waits there, and there is no QQ.
I'm sorry, this is the 21st Century. All coasters built in the last 4-5 years should have dedicated QuickQueue, FastLane, FlashPass (whatever you want to call it) queuing areas designed into the rides station from the start. There is no excuse.
It's especially strange to see such an archaically designed station after Tempesto's and Verbolten's. I know space is limited, but there had to be a better way...