Theme Park Review
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Gotta agree with @bert425 on this one. A closed park is better than a park where many major rides are not running - this way you know not to go. At least Knoebels has the courtesy to keep their website updated so people know not to go. Of course, that leads to a self-fulfilling prophecy - with enough rides closed, people won't go, decreasing their revenue, making those days less profitable to open at all, leading to them not opening at all. -
By Arthur_Seaton · Posted
It's always been kind of the opposite for me. As someone who lived in the area for a couple of decades, I always loved SFMM and never understood the criticism it'd get. I currently living close(ish) to one of the most celebrated (SFFT) and I just don't get the appeal of that one at all. Don't get me wrong, I still visit now and again to marathon iRat and Superman, but different strokes I guess. I've only been to about five or six or the chain's parks, but SFMM is way, way at the top of the list for me. Fantastic report, Condor — particularly your writing style! I love Goliath and Füll Thröttle — always have, and Ninja is one of the park's standouts IMO. Conversely, I dislike X2 (very obviously a prototype!) and I'm not a fan of Tatsu either (the flying position feels awkward to me). I think West Coasters Racers is kind of terrible, but I also don't think I'm really the target audience for that one. Keep these reports coming as they're top-shelf and a blast to read! -
look, I LOVE, Knoebel's. . but you might want to rethink your comparison here: they had over 25 rides closed yesterday, many due to . . . yup, staffing. so is a park being "open" but with half the attractions shut down (including Twister!) better than a park shutting down on some days? -
By wildcattb5 · Posted
Also gotta love that a park in the literal middle of nowhere (Knoebel's) can manage to operate a daily schedule even though the labor market in "middle of Pennsyltucky" is considerably more sparse than the Lehigh Valley. Now granted they haven't been immune (as seen with the numerous ride closures during the week that are not mechanically related) and it also helps being a family-run organization that retains staff with literal decades of experience, but still, literally every other park in the area is showing how to properly handle this labor challenge. Yes it sucks to not have as many night opportunities as in the past, but most people will take the early closures over not being open at all during a hot summer day. -
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Agreed and that is a sensible, logical thing to say but ya know, enthusiasts get a little....tooo enthusiastic sometimes lol At Dollywood I found one guy who was saying LRod is "OK" basically because it wasn't Steel Vengeance lol But yeah I'm stoked. Also we can pile onto the meme of "Opened before Iron Gwazi" XD -
By mtavenger55 · Posted
Oscar’s Wacky Taxi at Sesame Place with my daughter! -
I don't think "lesser RMC" is meant as a slight against the coaster, because there really isn't a bad RMC in the bunch. I've been on Steel Vengeance, Lightning Rod, Twisted Timbers, Wicked Cyclone, and this and I feel like out of those I would only put it above Wicked Cyclone. But all 5 of them are excellent coasters, so it's not a slight to consider it a "lesser RMC". -
One, superb photos! Two, glad to hear it's living up to the hype. Yeah we sure have become spoiled, "lesser RMCs" or "not as good as other raptors" still better than 80% of rides lol Thanks for the tips, depending on plans I will be going either tomm or Friday (finally) to ride this beast, and El Toro ❤️
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By xVicesAndVirtues · Posted
Ugh. I got the email today too including an "update your reservation" email, as we were planning on going Monday as part of a Philly-centric trip next week. I think we're going to take a ride up the good ol' turnpike and check out American Dream instead. Last August we had to entirely re-plan our Cedar Point and Kings Island trip because both parks stopped being open on weekdays, so we just went to Cedar Point on the weekend instead and omitted KI, which may have been a bad choice as we only got one ride each on most of the major coasters due to the access pass debacle, but weirdly got to ride Dragster 3 times. I do understand why these things are happening and I sympathize with the labor shortage issue. But I do wish they could give more notice with scheduling changes. We were just looking at Airbnbs and hotels near Cedar Point to go in August again, and we decided to hold off another month or so before booking anything to see how the season plays out. But other parks in the chain still following this pattern of "oh, by the way we're now going to be closed half of next week" makes us less likely to book a trip to any Cedar Fair park. -
By Lightnin Loops · Posted
Buy a runners belt. Its great for hiding loose articles. The enployees are looking at bulging pockets. -
Stopped in for a few hours today. Noticed that the area with Houdini, Tomahawk, and Rodeo has been blocked off. This must’ve happened recently considering I had just ridden Houdini over Memorial Day weekend. -
By wildcattb5 · Posted
So I could only be at the park until 3 due to evening commitments and they opened Jersey Devil at... Of course, 3. So being the good boyfriend I am I decided to hold off this trip and... Oh, who am I kidding, of course I had to stay and get at least one ride in, plans be damned! I won't go into detail because I don't think I'd be adding anything that hasn't already been said, but yes it is worth the hype. Don't listen to anyone who negatively overreacts because it "isn't the best RMC", or Raptor for that matter. Because if you come from a park that doesn't have an RMC, you would want this ride at your park, and wouldn't be nit-picking. My one word of advice (and I apologize if it's already been mentioned) is to remember it has the same loose article policy as El Toro and Kingda Ka, but the lockers are quite separated from the entrance, they're back next to the funnel cake stand. Quite a few riders got turned away after waiting in line not realizing this. Photos below of test runs, apologies for the sun glare. This is a ride best photographed in the morning for sun angles, but didn't have that luxury today. Also one of the early tests stalled entering the MCBR (pic attached), and barely made the inversions. On a side note, there was a security guard turning people away today from Nitro's entrance if they had loose articles, a-la El Toro style. This is my first time seeing this, and some guests were argumentative (presumably because they know this is a ride that doesn't usually do that). Anyone else know if they've done this before from time to time? My thinking is maybe they had an issue with an on-board rider taking out a phone previously today, but who knows. -
KI is probably the best CF park for FL+, you never wait more than 5-10 minutes and the lines drop you right into the stations. We had a similar experience back in October, and that was with the park still doing social distancing on the coasters. -
After spending two days at CP (Sunday and Monday of this week... with Monday being HORRID with crowds and rides not operating, and staffing issues), we drove to Mason for a Tuesday visit to K.I. our first ever. Having PTSD from previous days, seeing amazing forecast, and seeing early car lines trying to get in before opening... we panicked and purchased FL+. BEST DECISION EVER. We've never been "pay extra to skip the line people" but outside of drop tower, we NEVER waited more than 10 minutes. Got 24 coaster rides in. Never checked online for times. Grabbed our funpix after every ride. Ate a nice off-peak lunch at Miami River by diamond back. Had some nice beer. And closed down the park. The ops were SPECTACULAR. The rides were consistently running. The crowd was fun and engaged. It was our family's best amusement park experience of all time. We'll be back!
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