Again, I can totally understand how many would disagree with me about counting relocations... I get it. Where I do have an issue is that if you don't count relocations, then how can you count clones? It should be either you count
both or you count
neither.
To me, if you count clones but not relocations, it sounds like you're saying, "If a coaster is relocated, it's the same track. But if it's a clone it's new track that does the exact same thing, has the exact same layout, and offers the same experience as a relocated coaster." So it's just the fact that it's
new that makes all the difference here, even though every other single aspect is the same? What if a coaster was relocated but refurbished, like the Phoenix at Knobels? Is that a different credit than when it was The Rocket at Playland Park?
Examine these two hypothetical situations:
- In scenario one, say park #1 has a Boomerang. It was old and getting difficult to maintain, so they get rid it of it and send it to park #2. But then park #1 decides to purchase a new Boomerang and put it in the same spot as the old one.
- In scenario two, park #1 has a Boomerang, and then park #2 gets their own new Boomerang.
In both scenarios, you have two parks and two Boomerangs. But in the first scenario, one Boomerang doesn't count just because it was relocated? Yet somehow in the second scenario, they both count as a credit because clones are okay if they're new. It just sounds strange and inconsistent to me. As far as I'm concered, 2 parks > 2 Boomerangs > 2 credits. I don't care where they've been before, they're new to me.
Case and point, I rode Batman the Escape at Astroworld (well before it closed). It took me a good year or so to realize that it was formerly Shockwave at Six Flags Magic Mountain... the coaster had really transformed from black track to white, and a totally differently enclosed and themed station. I didn't even recognize it (from the enclosed station, you couldn't see the layout), and would have never known if someone hadn't told me later. Granted, it left SFMM in 1988, and I rode Batman the Escape in the early 2000s, so there was a 10+ year gap there for my memory to forget the layout. So this may explain why I'm partial to relocations.
In the end, how you count is a subjective thing. I think we're just going to have to agree to disagree here, and that's okay. We can all count in our own way. Just stating my point of view.