Hurricane Harbor was announced in 2004 & built early 2005 before Katrina hit. Hurricanes happen all the time but yes the worst one happened to hit the same year we built the water park & as mentioned, it's an already branded name that's been out for a while even at that time. However I don't understand why you see any confusion on them pulling a hurricane named attraction in the Mardi Gras/NO influenced section of the park. It's not tasteful cause even 14yrs later it's still being discussed. That's how bad we knew it was. There's a hurricane happening in FL right now. No one is not going to hurricane harbor cause of it. It's all about timing & placement.
DejaVu2001 wrote:And there's tornadoes every year too. Is Tornado an inappropriate name for any ride? Rename everything, everything is offensive to everyone.
That's my point. IF Hurricane is offensive as a ride name, it's definitely offensive as a waterpark name! Especially since 2004 was a deadly and brutal year of hurricanes with over 3200 people dying.
I can answer that with ease - from then (2004?) until now, the world/this country has become much more sensitive to PC issues. The sensitivity to PC issues is directly increased (maybe exponentially lol) with each year that passed from 2000-2019. Look at sitcoms alone. You think The Office would fly even now if it was 'new'? They'd have to apologize after each episode.
Note, I'm saying this tongue-in-cheek (not really). It certainly wouldn't surprise me that it would have been easier to give the name Hurricane in a name circa a devastating event back then vs now, there is no doubt in my mind.
I think everyone is missing the main point. At the time that Hurricane Force 5 would have been announced Texas and Louisiana was being ravaged by the rains of Harvey. Why would the anounce a ride named after a hurricane DURING a major storm.
I'm really not sure why we're reliving things from two years ago. But whatever.
1. Nobody usually has any problems with any natural disaster themed names (Hurricane, Tornado, Tsunami, Fire, Water, Earthquake, etc). Yes, they can sometimes kill people, but it's usually fine as long as it's not too specific or the victim of bad timing.
2. Problem number one that some people had with Hurricane Force 5 was specifically because it was in a New Orleans themed section, and the combination of New Orleans and Hurricanes brings up bad images for a lot of people. Many people wouldn't care, YOU might not care, but that doesn't mean that NOBODY cares.
3. That said, they probably still would have gone with it if it wasn't for reason #2, the timing. But as stated, there was a big Hurricane happening in the New Orleans area at exactly that time.
So probably because of #3, they held off on the name and when they finally did name it, they went with a different name (I'm guessing because once it leaked out that they were planning on Hurricane Force 5 they heard some feedback about #2 and decided it wasn't worth getting anybody upset, but I guess we'll never know).
Hurricane Harbor needed a star attraction. This will definitely fill that void! I can't wait to see the concept art and if Six Flags will finally make a new Hurricane Harbor entrance at the front of the park.
JackGlass wrote:Hurricane Harbor needed a star attraction. This will definitely fill that void! I can't wait to see the concept art and if Six Flags will finally make a new Hurricane Harbor entrance at the front of the park.
I thought Tornado was the star. And they are too cheap to move the entrance.
JackGlass wrote:Hurricane Harbor needed a star attraction. This will definitely fill that void! I can't wait to see the concept art and if Six Flags will finally make a new Hurricane Harbor entrance at the front of the park.
I thought Tornado was the star. And they are too cheap to move the entrance.
They aren’t too cheap to move the entrance as they had a member entrance at front. The whole goal of where the entrance is it to get you to walk through the park. Even if you are coming just for the water park, they now have you in the dry park as well, to potentially buy things, eat food, etc etc. (And it use to be free for everyone). It makes perfect business sense and is unlikely to change. They have the entrance for members/pass holders which likely make up the majority of the water park attendance so no real incentive to change it.
Only time they would change it is if they allowed a non member/pass holder to buy a water park ticket without needing a ticket to dry park.
When we were at the exit of Maxx noticing all the undeveloped land of where this water coaster could go, we were thinking how perfect that pathway between Maxx & STT is for a front of the park HH entrance. My only hopes is that they would move the current one. I'm sure we'd lose the fountain which would actually suck but in so many ways, it just makes more sense to be placed in the front than the trek it is now.
Being at Holiday World today made me really wish we had Wildebeest & Mammoth! Makes me really hope ours is even half as good. Can't wait to see more develop on Tsunami Surge!
gottastrata33 wrote:When we were at the exit of Maxx noticing all the undeveloped land of where this water coaster could go, we were thinking how perfect that pathway between Maxx & STT is for a front of the park HH entrance. My only hopes is that they would move the current one. I'm sure we'd lose the fountain which would actually suck but in so many ways, it just makes more sense to be placed in the front than the trek it is now.
Maybe that’s the plan. Looking at where he train tracks are going to go now they are way to close to the pathway into HH. THERES NO WAY they let it be that way. People would actually be able to touch the train as it went by. Or they simply raise the fence.
I'm happy with this addition. The watercoasters I've been on have all been enjoyable experiences. My favorite being Black Anaconda. The one at Universal's Volcano Bay was pretty nice too though. It's been 9 years since an attraction was added to this side of the park. It was only a matter of time. People need to grow up. Lol. We could have gotten a kiddie splash pad or something ridiculous. We should be grateful for this. It's the world's tallest water coaster for crying out loud. You don't see that everyday. We have been getting spoiled with coasters (even though they are short). We're good. We'll probably get another coaster within the next 3 years.
IssaCoaster wrote:I'm happy with this addition. The watercoasters I've been on have all been enjoyable experiences. My favorite being Black Anaconda. The one at Universal's Volcano Bay was pretty nice too though. It's been 9 years since an attraction was added to this side of the park. It was only a matter of time. People need to grow up. Lol. We could have gotten a kiddie splash pad or something ridiculous. We should be grateful for this. It's the world's tallest water coaster for crying out loud. You don't see that everyday. We have been getting spoiled with coasters (even though they are short). We're good. We'll probably get another coaster within the next 3 years.
A water coaster is a great addition. Those things are very popular with the General Public and according to Six Flags conference calls, have a good ROI.
With that tax incentive that the Village of Gurnee is offering. Don't expect to see many down years for Great America.
Lol yep! So that def confirms (we already knew) this is our first whitewater slide. I'll forever be bitter it's not proslide but it wouldn't have broke the height record & we know we NEEDED that haha
Still looks great though. A much needed addition to the water park. She's really gonna be squeezed in there by Maxx for sure.
gottastrata33 wrote:Lol yep! So that def confirms (we already knew) this is our first whitewater slide. I'll forever be bitter it's not proslide but it wouldn't have broke the height record & we know we NEEDED that haha
Still looks great though. A much needed addition to the water park. She's really gonna be squeezed in there by Maxx for sure.
Maybe some of the water runoff and splash will land on people in the Maxx queue, eh?? Perhaps that's why they didn't install more shade and fans ??
Lol hush they spent so much time making a nice station that they literally blocked out of view with a terrible shade structure. I have A feeling Tsumani is gonna look so damn weird there. It's just such a huge structure.