The Master

According to Dorney's website, they plan to have fireworks every night starting June 29th this summer. The park will also have extended hours this year, already open till 10 on weekends this spring, and open to midnight on Saturday nights this summer. Chickie and Pete's has taken over the former Sport Day Grill, which itself used to be the Red Garter Saloon. l  

Despite my belly aching about the recent bad weather I decided to go to GADV anyway since the snow seemed to be all gone. There was some scattered rain on the drive there but it did't rain at the park. The parking lot was pretty empty, saw the fleet of the A2 military surplus trucks, I counted 8 which is not a large fleet for so many guests. Rode Sky Screamer first we no wait, it was really cold. Rode the Skyway over to the fort where Mine Train was broken down. Then I went over to Bizarro and rode it twice, the audio system has been removed and the two missing rear seats have been reinstalled. Next I rode El Toro twice and saw KK was also down with a worker on KK's tracks. After El Toro I took the Skyride back to Skull Mt, rode that twice, some of the lights for the props weren't on. Lastly I rode Nitro twice and went back to Skull Mt. There was some salt arount the fort and Eltoro, at ET's exit still had a little sulsh off to the side. It was very cold and I couldn't stand to ride the outdoor coasters much. While I still did have a good trip, the weather was too cold to be at the park for very long. It was probably the coldest time I was ever at GADV. I have a feeling Wensday will also be pretty empty, but Thrusday will likely still be crowded with the large group.

In recent years once rare early snowfalls have become commonplace. With reports of the northeast's climate cooling down over this past decade, do you think that in the future GADV and other local parks may be forced to run shorter seasons. From what I have read, the solar cycles of the sun control the climate much more than we can no matter how much CO2 we can pump out. Right now we are in the deepest solar minimum of the entire Space Age. In fact, this is the quietest (fewest sunspots) Sun we have had in almost a century. The surface movement on the Sun has slowed to record rates and according to NASA’s previous announcements is ‘off the bottom of the charts. We may be entering a solar hibernation’ that could last several decades delivering the coldest weather in over two centuries.

According to Screamscape there is a rumor about Smarte Cart who installed the mandatory lockers at SF park wants more money and SF of course doesn't want to. Hopefuly this may mean no more locker nazis in SF parks next season.

EDIT: Screamscape:

Six Flags - (10/29/12) An interesting rumor from the Six Flags campground make it to my ears this weekend. Sounds like there may be some kind of contract dispute between Six Flags and SmarteCart, the 3rd party vendor who supplied Six Flags with all those walls of extra lockers at the major attractions several years ago. I believe the basis for the first deal was some kind of profit revenue sharing plan between the two if SmarteCart would install the lockers into the park on their own dime. Rumor has it SmarteCart wants more money and Six Flags is telling them to go pound sand.

The management at Six Flags now is entirely different from the the group who negotiated the original deal, and could be that they are ready to part ways with SmarteCart, which could mean that the mandatory locker system could be on the way out before the parks reopen in 2013. Stay tuned!

According to Screamscape, CF will be switching from Pepsi to Coke this coming Jan. It will be funny to see Coke at Dorney since Pepsi was the soda they served since the pre CF days. I remember Pepsi even used to sponsor Aquablast at WWK.

EDIT: Screamscape

(10/26/12) Cedar Fair announced late on Thursday that starting in January 2013, the company will switch over from Pepsi to Coke as the “Official Refreshment Beverage” of the entire chain of parks. It’s interesting to note that Disney and Universal have been featuring Coke products in their parks for decades, Coke has been at the Six Flags parks since Six Flags over Texas opened over 50 years ago, and at the start of 2012 the SeaWorld/Busch Gardens parks all switched over from Pepsi to Coke products as well. It’s also worth mentioning that Herschend Family Entertainment (Dollywood/Silver Dollar City) are also Coke parks throughout their chain, which has pretty much solidified Coke as the beverage provider of virtually all the major theme parks in North America.