Quote:
Originally Posted by dave8721
Disney World is less than 2 hours from the northern parts of Miami's metro but the northern part of Miami's metro is 2 hours from the southern part of the metro (Homestead to Jupiter is a nice 122 mile drive in one Metro). From Miami itself to Disney is about 3.5 hours, a little less if you make no stops and push 100 mph through the nothingness between Fort Peirce and Orlando.
Its impossible for any theme park to really thrive in the shadow of the Disney/Universal/Legoland/Busch Gardens...Central Florida monstrosity but a 20th Century Fox theme park is planned next door to Zoo Miami.
|
FL has an interesting dynamic in this regard, but as a relative coaster enthusiast, I find the parks lacking on "big stuff". The theming and exhilaration found as a little kid from the Incredible Hulk had me loving that ride from the month IoA opened (my first time going) til about the 9th grade of high school. Went back about 2-3 years ago, and found the ride had aged, and not so well, and moreover perhaps as an indication of the popularity of FL theme parks and lawsuits over time and increased security concerns, what I knew of Fast Pass was no longer, the park felt way too crowded, you really can only ride select rides once in a day and that's all you get, and at one point a kid pulled out a GoPro on the Hulk as we were getting set to crawl up the launch tunnel and they shut the ride down and ordered everyone off. I almost didn't get to ride my old haunt at all, but I acted like a child and waited for them to reopen the ride, and I ran in, waited in line again, forcing my waiting family to continue waiting, and I did ride it. Glad they are redoing it, I'm anxious to see what they do. Hopefully they make it bigger and faster and smooth out the steel once more. The free fall launches at Dr Doom seemed big as a small child, but pushing 30, at only 150 ft, seem like carnival rides now. It's their queue theming that gets you, but they've slacked on keeping the theming together for these rides.
Busch Gardens seems to have really invested in new and interesting rides. That was my first roller coaster theme park and always holds a special place in my heart. Multiple smaller coasters there when I first went in 1999 (I believe that was the year) are now replaced with bigger, newer, faster. But the really solid legacies (B&W sit downs) are not going anywhere.
I'd say the Bay Area is not lacking in theme parks, but it IS lacking in quality theme parks. I would never expect a Six Flags to invest in non-ride infrastructure, programming, and theming to the extent the Disney, Universal, SeaWorld (Orlando at least), and Busch parks do, but the closest thing the Bay Area has to a quality park is north of LA in Six Flags Magic Mtn, which serves as the or maybe one of two or three at most "flagship" Six Flags parks. On occasion I buy a Six Flags annual pass for the next year for the price of admission once (obviously if you think you're going to go to a Six Flags theme park, you should do that). But I have to be dragged to Great America (not Six Flags but at one point might have been) or to Discovery Kingdom (was once a Marineland and that aquatic animal zoo aspect and infrastructure is still there with NO investment since the early 2000s or 90s, quite sad and offensive).
True to the nature of the Bay Area, we are psycho about heights, and Discovery Kingdom has a community imposed 150 ft height limit. The effect that has on rides is clear and obvious. One launch ride that is normally ~200 ft at other parks and goes straight up on both ends is built to accommodate this height limit here. It looks ridiculous. None of the rides are good IMO except for the old legacy B&M floor less coaster called Medusa that maximizes height potential and has a decent first drop.
Thus I would say Bay Area doesn't count as a metro in close proximity to "major" coasters. Doesn't count if they were "major" for 1990s. As evidenced by the rides at Magic Mountain, "major" generally requires significant height in the 200-400+ ft range.
Jacksonville FL is to Orlando what Sacramento is to San Francisco. In fact, growing up there, I had a couple of Disney executives as neighbors. They didn't need to be on site, even if they headed up Imagineering or something like that. Sally Industries is a or maybe the lead in robotics for theme park theming and it is right near downtown Jacksonville.
Also, that same dynamic exists with the airports. It is cheaper for me (often) to fly into OIA and rent a car to go up to Jax. And it's a 2 hour process at worst, so it's actually quite convenient and because of lower costs and more destinations, a lot of would be JIA flyers use Orlando's airport. The theme parks were just as convenient growing up.
Sorry for lengthy reply. I don't post much anymore but get a lot out when I do.
Prev
I didn't even think that nightmare was even possible 
Linear Mode
