Casting my obligatory two cents as the homeparker.
Good to see this happening, Grande World Expo is something they've taken a gradual renewed interest in re-establishing but has been criminally underutilized as an area brand until now. It's good to see they'll start tying rides into what right now is a very small photo op area, once they're ready to redevelop Time Warp and Kingswood's sites it'll probably eat more into Action Zone. Flight Deck retheme was always the logical first step.
The SLC is horrible and should have been torn out. They put their worst ride op crews on it, everything it touches is super ugly, the queue takes up such a needless amount of space behind Time Warp, and the past few seasons it's been mechanically problematic. But the coaster is cheap to maintain and was a more useful asset than Time Warp, so it stays. Vekoma rail re-allighments have a spotty track record for making a difference, I wouldn't expect it to track any better.
Outside of those new trains I want to see new paint on the coaster and surrounding area, CW repainted Vortex twice in five years to keep it fresh and then Super Soaker 1.0's surviving sections after it was rebuilt from the fire (can't let your riders tell what part was replaced!), so I'd be shocked if they didn't extend the same care here. The park map has been showing a dark green layout so there is hope. The coaster has retained most of the old Top Gun theming but again everything is so faded and ugly so I'd expect lots of sprucing up.
I don't know if they'll do anything about the current queue, it's nice to have trees and not some crammed concrete cattlepen but it's also extremely spread out and right up against an upcoming area redevelopment. There's switchbacks that I have never ever seen used in my years going to the park. There are buildings in the queue that the park can add AI generated posters and props to if they choose.
Overall, mildly excited, bring on the refresh, do this to The Fly next please because it also looks deplorable and doesn't fit any area anymore.
Good to see this happening, Grande World Expo is something they've taken a gradual renewed interest in re-establishing but has been criminally underutilized as an area brand until now. It's good to see they'll start tying rides into what right now is a very small photo op area, once they're ready to redevelop Time Warp and Kingswood's sites it'll probably eat more into Action Zone. Flight Deck retheme was always the logical first step.
The SLC is horrible and should have been torn out. They put their worst ride op crews on it, everything it touches is super ugly, the queue takes up such a needless amount of space behind Time Warp, and the past few seasons it's been mechanically problematic. But the coaster is cheap to maintain and was a more useful asset than Time Warp, so it stays. Vekoma rail re-allighments have a spotty track record for making a difference, I wouldn't expect it to track any better.
Outside of those new trains I want to see new paint on the coaster and surrounding area, CW repainted Vortex twice in five years to keep it fresh and then Super Soaker 1.0's surviving sections after it was rebuilt from the fire (can't let your riders tell what part was replaced!), so I'd be shocked if they didn't extend the same care here. The park map has been showing a dark green layout so there is hope. The coaster has retained most of the old Top Gun theming but again everything is so faded and ugly so I'd expect lots of sprucing up.
I don't know if they'll do anything about the current queue, it's nice to have trees and not some crammed concrete cattlepen but it's also extremely spread out and right up against an upcoming area redevelopment. There's switchbacks that I have never ever seen used in my years going to the park. There are buildings in the queue that the park can add AI generated posters and props to if they choose.
Overall, mildly excited, bring on the refresh, do this to The Fly next please because it also looks deplorable and doesn't fit any area anymore.
