Yoshi

Happy Birthday FlumeOp1974

If you renew for next year, I hope next season is better for you. I did have some minor problems and issues this season like at times slow water park operations, some of the stores not knowing how to redeem an All Season Fast Lane transaction or difficulty riding Aquablast as a single rider multiple times (I thought I would just ride with 2 other people or another single rider) but I run into issues like that at all parks. Last month at Hershey for the 2nd trip in a row I was told single riders weren't allowed on the Whip even though I knew they were wrong (no signs anywhere like at the ferris wheel and nothing mentioned on the ride safety board at the entrance). I e-mailed the park and they told me that the policy is single riders are allowed and would let the ride operators or management know.

I wonder if the timed tickets are just for the preview or will be the standard and if there will be annual passes or the option to pay per ride. If this is how tickets will be sold all the time, $50 for 4 hours on the weekend seems like a lot although I guess it was to be expected with it right next to NYC.

For I think the first time, Dorney was open for Columbus Day. They added it as an operating day around 2 months ago and didn't do much to promote they were open like an e-mail to everyone on their e-mail list. With not many people knowing the park was open and operating hours of 11 - 7 with no Haunt, crowds were low even for Dorney. Steel Force was dispatching trains with as few as 4 - 6 riders. Besides the usual rides, I spent some time at the Monster Jam Thunder Alley temporary attraction. It is in the lower section of the park near Possessed and Cedar Creek Flyers. There are multiple monster trucks on display, some of which you can sit in the driver's seat of, displays on the parts of trucks and how some of the features are built. There is also a kids play area and the most important attraction, the chance to ride in a monster truck. The course is where Stinger was and is 2 laps because the track is shorter than the versions from other Cedar Fair parks. 2 trucks are running, Megalodon and Grave Digger. Each truck seats 10 people plus the driver and usually 1 truck is running while the other is loading riders. It takes a while to load each truck and for everyone to get buckled in. Because of that, the capacity is extremely low, probably around 200 riders an hour at the most. When I was at the park on October 5th, it was an hour wait and I heard waits can get up to 90 minutes (the wait time sign even has a 150 minute marker on it). Since it was a low crowd day, the wait was around 25 minutes. Even going through the course slower than a professional would drive, it was a bumpy ride and you get slightly thrown around. My favorite part of the ride was when the truck goes in a small 360 circle. It almost was like a flat ride. It was more fun than I was expecting a much better use of the space compared to Stinger being there. It's too bad it's only a temporary exhibit and will be leaving at the end of the season with the Stinger ride area empty again. This might have been my last trip to Dorney for the season and if it was, even though I spent less time than ever on the ride side of the park this year, I still thought it was a great season mostly because of the water park and water rides. This game added for Haunt wasn't running today. The skeleton's arms move and you have 15 seconds to get 2 out of 5 foam brains into the baskets to win a prize. How the arms are made. The park added these decorative cakes to the turntables of the Whip for the 100th season.

I saw people post they bought them from the park but I’m not sure what store. It’s open until the final weekend of October, then as an up charge the first weekend of November.

I was looking at Queue Times and it is so awesome the Log Flume is open this late into the season.

Happy Birthday SFGadv123

I was thinking about Six Flags buying Cedar Fair when I was walking around Dorney on Saturday. On other amusement park sites one main complaint I saw mentioned often was how bad operations are at Six Flags parks and that Cedar Fair's operations are better. Maybe it varies a lot from each park but I thought Cedar Fair's operations don't seem so great on a busy Saturday during Haunt where Thunderhawk is running 1 train with a long line (and no one at the Fast Lane merge point). Also at Wild Mouse with 1 person checking restraints and advancing the cars in the station while hearing people say they waited an hour for the coaster with the line not even to the entrance with no switchbacks in use. When I was at Kings Dominion in June, it was taking over 4 minutes to dispatch each Twisted Timbers train. Great Adventure often runs all trains on the coasters even with little to no lines. Another complaint I saw on other sites was Six Flags doesn't care about park history like Cedar Fair does. Cedar Fair tore down the over 100 year old Mansion House Hotel & Restaurant for a Subway and removed many of the rare and classic flats and dark rides from Dorney right after they took over the park.

Happy Birthday GASM

If Kings Island was my home park, I would feel the same way. Just like when Great Adventure was getting a new coaster almost every other year (and sometimes consecutive years like Kingda Ka and El Toro) for a long time and the smaller Six Flags parks were not getting much.

I have heard the Ninjago dark ride is a lot of fun at the other Legoland parks that have it. The other dark ride looks interesting too. RCDB only shows the Dragon Coaster but looking at the map, there might also be a kiddie coaster near the Dragon Coaster. I was hoping there would be a 3rd or 4th coaster as well.

If I wasn't concerned about what might happen to Dorney (would Six Flags want 2 parks so close?) I would think overall it would be good. I like how Six Flags' parks are run much more than Cedar Fair. Cheaper season passes, parks opening earlier in the season, Holiday in the Park has lots of coasters and rides open versus hardly any for Winterfest (Canada's Wonderland only has 5 non kiddie rides open!), better dining pass etc. I can see why fans of Kings Island, Cedar Point and Carowinds would probably be upset. Cedar Fair seems to add major additions to those 3 parks and not much to the others compared to Six Flags that doesn't really add $20+ million coasters anymore and spreads out the additions to almost all parks every year.

It was like the perfect storm of anything that could cause crowds. Excellent weather, bring a friend free, the deadline to process season passes to get the free gold upgrade from the Flash Sale and many schools closed tomorrow so almost like a Saturday for many visitors. I almost went to Hershey, saw 2 1/4 hour waits for Comet and Lightning Racer on the app plus a lot of closed rides and decided against it. It also looks like Friday nights during Fright Fest are no longer low crowd days. It used to be just the last 2 Friday nights in October were bad but Queue Times was showing hour plus waits for some rides this past few Friday nights.

Hopefully that doesn't mean Anaconda will be removed from Kings Dominion in a few years. I thought Vortex, Anaconda and of course Great American Scream Machine were all fun coasters and didn't think they were rough (except Scream Machine in the last few cars). It's good that at least Kings Island gave over a month of notice that the ride is closing. I really don't like when a major ride is removed (if planned) and there isn't a chance for the everyone to get their final rides in.

Thank you Thank you