RideOfSteel

Just got home from the park today!

Rides:

 

El Toro - Only running one train. In the morning they wouldn't dispatch until the train was mostly full...But because of the cold it wasn't running up to its usual craziness. The line got very long, very fast.

 

Kingda Ka (2) - Kingda Ka ran two trains. The third was sitting in the other side of the station. The ride ops were fantastic and pushed the trains out like crazy! The ride was also very smooth, both in the front and the back of the train.

 

Rolling Thunder Right - Only the right side was running, but with both trains. In the shed it looked like the other two trains were still not complete. The ride was running very well...Much better than last year.

 

Bizarro - Bizarro was running alll three trains...But double stacking every single time! That being said they only had about ten riders per train.

 

Runaway Mine Train - 2 trains...Fun as usual. The ride ops were also really good and didn't stack at all. But, the fort really could use some TLC.

 

Skull Mtn. (2) - 2 trains. The building was very dark today. But the new ads completely ruin the experience. The station was absolutely covered in them. Again the ride ops here were fantastic, dispatching the train far before the previous one came back.

 

Nitro (2) - 2 trains. Nitro was rattling a lot more than usual. The attendants were also very slow. There was no reason for stacking the trains every single ride.

 

Batman had a lot of downtime throughout the day, and the Cable Cars never opened (due to wind).

Well according to RCDB and The Funplex's website, the Mount Laurel location will be getting a SBF Visa Group spinning coaster.

Apparently it is already being built according to reports I have been getting.


I am very interested to see how this turns out.... Especially since it is less then 15 minutes from where I live.

Part One: Lagoon Amusement Park, Utah
Lagoon really surprised me. They had a great selection of family rides and the park was clean and well kept. Most of the rides looked like they had recently been repainted.

Ride operations were stellar at Lagoon. On the rides with two trains running (Roller Coaster and Bombora) there was absolutely no stacking. I don't think I saw a train take more then a minute to be unloaded and reloaded all day. On the rides with single cars (Jet Star 2, Wild Mouse, the Spider) cars were going out as fast as the system would allow them to. Lines were no longer then 20 minutes all day.

Ride Opinions:
-Bombora- Coaster #34- Bombora is a great family ride. Although it was short, it was smooth and fun. Bombora really reminded me of an outdoor Skull Mountain.

-The Bat- Coaster #35- Ouch Ouch Ouch. How could such a little ride be so rough? I got headbanging around every turn, after every drop, and even the turn after the brakes into the station.

-Jet Star 2- Coaster #36- What a fun little coaster!! Seriously, Jet Star 2 was a blast. It was smooth and very forceful. I do wish you could sit alone, because it did get a little uncomfortable when the person in front of you was bigger then you are.

-The Roller Coaster- Coaster #37- The retracked ares of this ride were very smooth and delivered airtime. The second half though, which was not retracked, was pretty rough. The operators were fantastic. The second train was always a good portion of the way up the lift when the first train hit the brakes.

-Wild Mouse- Coaster #38- Nothing special. The top switchbacks were not braked, but the rest of the ride was braked too much.

-The Spider- Coaster #39- I really liked The Spider, my first spinning roller coaster.

-Colossus- Coaster #40- I wasn't expecting Colossus to be near as forceful or fun as it was. The trains were very comfortable too. Gotta love lap bars only!

-Wicked- Coaster #41- Wicked is a weird ride. It is a Zierer Tower Lauched coaster that uses little 8 person trains (2 rows of 4 people). The launch was surprisingly zippy and the top hat was awesome. Unfortunately, the lap bar tightened during the ride which was pretty uncomfortable. The train also shuffled ALOT going through the banked turns, expecially the ones after the MCBR. I wish I could have rode it again later, but it soon broke after we rode it.

Pictures: Sorry for the size. Somehow they all got messed up on my phone. Also, there's not too many, because when we were at Lagoon, the temperature was 102 degrees. I really didn't feel like stopping to take pictures too much.



Bombora's many curves






The Rocket is now my favorite drop tower. I really regret not riding Scream at SFNE, which is the same type of ride as this.







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Lagoon-a-beach was filled to capacity the day of our visit, The slides all had half an hour waits.



Hooray for Asian themed rides!











ELITCH GARDENS COMING UP NEXT

Seeing that it was supposed to rain, I went down to the park today for opening. When I got there, the parking lot was almost empty.


We first went to El Toro. We ended up staying on the ride 11 times, switching rows just one time. Those rides brought my season long El Toro count to 25 times.

By the time we finished our marathon on El Toro, it was 11:30, and we decided to check out Kingda Ka. We waited about twenty minutes for back row. Our ride was absolutely horrible. I was slammed side to side, and front to back over and over the entire way up and down. The operators also managed to double stack the trains every time.

Since it was really hot, our last rides of the day were Nitro front and back row. There was about a two train wait for each. I ended up blacking out for the entire helix both times and at the bottom of the first few drops in the back......I guess I should have drank more. We left by one.

Overall, I had an awesome morning!


Does anyone know when the flying dumbos will reopen? I find it really weird that most of a new ride has been removed.

After seeing that we had free bring a friend tickets we decided to visit yesterday planning to ride as much as we could with a friend who had never been there. But, we didn't realize that it was also a firefighter appreciation day.  The park was absolutely packed.

When we first got there at 10:40 we went to Nitro. We waited 3 or so trains for front row then walked around to ride again in the middle of the train. By the time we left Nitro, the line was already to the switchbacks. We then went over to Congo Rapids. There was no wait at all and after barely getting wet the first ride, we stayed on again. We got completely soaked! Would have rode it again, except a line was already forming.

After seeing the skyride had a a large line, we walked across the park to Bizarro. Luckily, it was a station wait. Operations were typical to Bizarro...Terrible.

We then walked to El Toro but seeing the line was already to the entrance we went to Kingda Ka, which ran without a major breakdown all day. We were able to get a front row ride in about an hour. By this time it was 2:00, so we decided to go out to the car and eat lunch.

When we returned, we didn't know what to ride. Everything had such huge lines. (If I wasn't with a friend who had never been, I would have left). Frustrated, we decided we were going to ride El Toro no matter what. But, when we got over there, we saw then cycling empty trains. Luckily, after 10 minutes in the line they started running with people again. The operators were awesome they rarely stacked the trains; and it took us less then an hour to ride even though the line was to the entrance. Afterwards, we planned on riding the log flume, but it was down with the water drained, and three logs on the lift. Looking towards the fort, we saw that the Runaway Mine Train and Skyride's lines were both almost to the entrance. I was not going to wait for either.

We walked to The Dark Knight which had a 30 minute wait. The trims BARELY were on, (it seemed like they weren't on in the top part at all) and there were some nice forces.

We then made the mistake of choosing Green Lantern. We got into the line at about 5:40 expecting the line to move quick. That was not the case. The 6 attendants checking still managed to double stack EVERY SINGLE TIME WE WERE IN LINE. But, as soon as we got into the station we realized it wasn't their fault at all. It was a mix of the guests and the lead's...The lead was terrible. He should have been announcing to stand up straight and move quickly, but the only time he talked into the mic was when he cleared a train, or when a train returned. At one point, he even cleared to train only to be greeted with a screaming station telling him not to...There were still people loading. Don't you look around when you visual scan? Personally, I think he should have been fired or retrained to the policies.

After the hour and a half it took us to get on, we decided to go home.


Just a few notes.....Actually just one.
-Line jumping was a major problem. Whole families just walked in front of other people. When security was alerted, they simply replied, since they didn't see it, they couldn't do anything.