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No random regional park in Pennsylvania is going to put a bunch of different size drop towers right next to eachother, that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard of. Please don't be ridiculous.

Primo's North Pizza was turned into a second employee dining facility. This makes it much nicer for team members in north park as they don't have to use up 10 minutes of their 30 minute break walking to and from their location.

I just saw that they cleared a ton of trees around Tennessee Tornado too. Man, I normally love this place but WTF are they doing lately?

I think Dorney should buy it, put it right next to Demon Drop, and open some kind of f*cked up living Intamin Tower museum. That would get me to visit Dorney like once a week.

Six Flags Over Texas Six Flags Over Texas is the original Six Flags park and it's also one of the best parks in the chain. Not only does it have a strong ride lineup, but I think it's among the prettier parks with its abundance of trees and better than usual theming. The park also tends to run their rides at their maximum capacities. My one issue with the park in the past has been the rule banning single riders from the back row. There haven't been many good things caused by covid, but one silver lining is that Over Texas suspended this rule and I hope it never returns. It was great being able to ride New Texas Giant and Shock Wave to my heart's content in the back row. Typically, I get a large chunk of my photos at Over Texas from atop the Oil Derrick observation tower. When I approached the ride it was closed. An employee informed me someone jumped off the top (no seriously, the employee actually said that as a joke) before saying it was closed due to it being converted into a Christmas Tree for Holiday in the Park. So most of my photos came from the hotels I visited around the park. I got some really neat angles of Titan and New Texas Giant. Great Escape dictated my first stop at Over Texas. I have visited Great Escape almost a dozen times over the past two decades. And I have only been able to ride Alpine Bobsled on three visits. The ride is usually closed due to rain (either that day or the days prior), mechanical issues, or noise and if by some miracle it opens, it's a ticking time bomb until it breaks down. It's at the point Great Escape lists the ride as closed by default on the app and at the main entrance even if it actually is open. Meanwhile, I have never seen La Vibora closed in any of my visits to Great Escape. Not even for a brief breakdown. I do prefer Alpine Bobsled for a few reasons. That one feels wilder because of the heavier bobsleds and I prefer the two abreast seating. If you aren't careful on La Vibora, your legs can get smacked by the side of the train. I found a way to ride this comfortably by jamming my feet into the side of the bobsled. While this one isn't as fast as Alpine Bobsled, it's still cool riding in a trough that large. Especially since it's a rare thing for me. 5 out of 10 I also got to see an operational ABC Tourbillon. Cyborg at Great Adventure was closed for almost the entire year. It finally opened towards the end of the year and unceremoniously broke again almost immediately. I actually enjoy these rides if they never stop flipping, and the one at Over Texas did just that. The most problematic ride to experience at Six Flags Over Texas in all my visits has been Mr. Freeze. And it was no different in 2020. The ride had some minor hiccups throughout the day, but I was able to get three consecutive rides at night before it closed again. The ride is short, but intense. I think the launch is actually the tamest part of the ride, but it's still pretty good. My favorite part is the mindbending inverted top hat. That element starts with crushing positive Gs, switches to giving an upside-down pop of airtime, and then lays on even more positive Gs. The pullouts and overbank deliver even more Gs and the vertical spike delivers some great weightlessness. 8.5 out of 10 I also never noticed the dilapidated Mr. Freeze statue adjacent to the operating booth until my most recent visit. That statue looks like it was hit with Joker gas. New Texas Giant may have been the original RMC, but it's still a very good roller coaster. It has a few extremely strong ejector airtime hills mixed in with some overbanks and floater airtime hills. It may be the tamest RMC, but its length and abundance of airtime still makes it the best ride in the park. It's really impressive this was a prototype and it's impact on the industry and the top 10 lists of enthusiasts cannot be overstated. 8.5 out of 10 Shock Wave is a close second. This is my favorite Schwarzkopf in America (until Indiana Beach opens Quimera). The drops deliver some shocking ejector airtime in the back row and the vertical loops deliver the powerful positive Gs you'd expect from a Schwarzkopf. And this coaster still runs like a dream after all these years. 9 out of 10 Sorry for the blurry windows, but I don't think the hotel cleans the hallway windows as frequently as the rooms. I made the foolish decision to wait until after dark to ride Judge Roy Scream. The coaster is a pain to find by day and near impossible at night. You have to go up a hill around the backside of Sky Screamer and go under the road. All that for an old wooden coaster! Judge Roy Scream is mostly uneventful, but the first camelback and final speed hill deliver shockingly strong pops of airtime. I don't remember the ride giving airtime like that in my prior rides. The coaster is definitely bumpy on wheel seats, but it's very ridable if you avoid those. 6 out of 10 Runaway Mountain had a Christmas overlay, but I honestly wasn't a fan of it. The overlay caused the show building to be illuminated just enough that it spoiled the layout. The coaster was still fun though as it was very smooth and I love the demonically twisted fourth drop. 6 out of 10 Runaway Mine Train is the original Arrow mine train. The ride has a great setting in the woods. The first 2/3 is sort of jerky, but the ride travels so slowly you can properly brace yourself. And I love this coaster's finale. You travel up a lift hill in a saloon and the final drop delivers some surprising ejector airtime if you're in the back car. 6 out of 10 I also made sure to ride Batman. Yes it's a clone, but it's a great clone. This one rattled pretty badly in 2018, but it was running much more smoothly in 2020 with all the usual forces. 8 out of 10 Titan is the tallest and fastest coaster in Texas. While it doesn't provide the airtime I typically expect from a hypercoaster, Titan does deliver strong positive Gs and have a good sense of speed until you come to a full stop on the mid-course brake run. 6 out of 10 Beyond the coasters, Over Texas has a strong non-coaster lineup. I skipped most of them this visit in favor of re-rides on the coasters, especially since they often had longer lines. Six Flags Over Texas is a great park. While it's only the second best Six Flags park in Texas, that's not fault of Over Texas. That's more a testament to how amazing Fiesta Texas is, but I'll go into more in my next report.

The pizza place did indeed close. I am guessing that back half of the park will be quiet for a year or two until they recoup some of the losses from the Covid shutdown. Maybe at some point this year some of the games will reopen just to have some activity, who knows, just speculating. I understand that everyone hates Boomerang and Fireball but at least they bring a little life to the area. I can confirm that neither Superman or Moon Cars are on the ride ops certification badge for this year. There is a tall skinny ride op at Skyscreamer and Eagle this year that will keep me apprised of whatever info he hears about

I would have expected The Joker to get the chop before Superman

I didn't know you could check into rides either. lol And yup, we had the best day we've ever had at SFA outside of HITP. It's still easily the worst Six Flags park where they don't speak French but I feel like they know they suck and they're trying. They actually paint rides which I guess is more than I can say for Great Adventure, Superman ran 2 trains which I've never seen before and since our last visit they added a bathroom near Superman and turned Apocalypse from "f*cking atrocious" to just "really bad" so things are looking up!

Going backwards in time, before my stop over at Islands of Adventure to check out the Jurassic World VelociCoaster I made my way through CityWalk and went to Universal Studios Florida to experience Mardis Gras: International Flavors of Carnaval. On the CityWalk front, it has been a time of change as all signs of Blue Man Group's presence at Universal Orlando are quickly being removed, while work starts to wind down on the construction of the giant, new Universal Studios Store location and the existing store begins to transition into a new legacy content theme. Mardi Gras 2021 looks very different than previous years because this year there are no concerts and no parade. Building off of the approach of November/December's take on Universal Holidays, Universal has adapted the popular event to shift the focus to food and beverages while enabling a more stationary version of the Mardi Gras parade. Similarly, a new Mardi Gras Tribute Store has opened where the Halloween and Holiday tribute stores opened before. Entertainment and decor can be found at key locations throughout the park, adding a little bit of Mardi Gras flair to the event. Major credit is due to the Universal culinary team for blowing out their menus to add a bunch of new F&B tents and booths to the park--only a few of which were offered in previous years, so many of these culinary experiences are new. The best part is, with thirteen countries' worth of food and drinks to enjoy (check out the full menu here), you can buy a sampler lanyard with 10 items for $55 plus tax, or if you're an Annual Passholder, 15 items for $65 plus tax. Basically, that equates to $6 per item for the base lanyard or around $4.70 per item for passholders. Almost all items are eligible to use the lanyard on and with generous portions, a lanyard could easily be shared between two people (or could really fill up someone visiting on their own like me). Honestly, the food quality was pretty exceptional... Quite possibly my favorite seasonal food offerings I've experienced at Universal Orlando to date. While I look forward to the return of the standard concerts and parades that make Mardi Gras even more memorable in normal years, I really do hope that this food & wine festival-style experience carries over into future years' events. This has been a top notch event! On the way into CityWalk some Blue Man Group advertisements could still be seen. The new Universal Studio Store in the former PiQ/Fossil/Island Traders space has really taken shape! The concept art looks really nice! The space is going to be huge compared to the current store. Some interesting concept art from the inside of the new store. I've arrived! Plenty of new Mardi Gras merchandise can be found in the Universal Studios Store inside of Universal Studios Florida. The Blue Man Group sign has been removed and the side entrance/exit to the park leading to the former Sharp Aquos Theater has been closed. Over near the Music Plaza Stage you start to see themed food and beverage booths themed to different countries and cuisines. In case you're in the market for a Bloody Mary... Two sizes available. Floats from the Universal Mardi Gras Parade are parked strategically to allow for photo ops and entertainment interactions. Hashtag the Panda waves at guests from above... Credit given for putting some cleverly themed booths together! Despite the floats not moving, the combined energy of bead throwers and authentic jazz bands brings an energy to the park that is reminiscent of what you'd find during a normal year's Mardi Gras. A few of the existing food trucks are being used for the event. The Brazil booth proved to be one of the most popular during my visit. Tasting lanyard front... And back. I was excited to the find that the arepas from the previous food truck menu were brought back for this event and this picadillo arepa was delicious as ever! Added a few weeks into the event, a tent offering some of the more popular drinks from across the event can be found opposite Race Through New York starring Jimmy Fallon. I really appreciate the fact that they've put out entertainers as opposed to just parking the floats. It makes this a much more high energy experience when walking by. Even more floats to see... More details on the Tasting Lanyards... I appreciate that they can be used beyond the event for select snacks and bottled water. The Pineapple Trini Chow had been offered at last year's event and I loved it then. This year's version is a more substantial serving with two skewers, well charred and seasoned. This was the the one item I went back for seconds on later in the day. I had heard good things about the Italy booth's Arancini and I was not disappointed! Some more fun photo ops with entertainers can be found throughout the park. Some of the booths leverage existing F&B locations during this temporary event. Fast & Furious Supercharged has reopened for anyone that's interested... Fresh meat over at the Cuba booth! I was truly excited to see the Germany have such an extensive menu. Beers and brats for the win! There are no special Mardi Gras offerings in Diagon Alley, but there are plenty of delicious options to enjoy here year round! The Jerk Chicken and the Goombay Smash were both great surprises at the Bahamas booth! Doc Brown was out and about for socially distanced photo ops! A dance party was going on in front of this float! Belgium had fresh waffles in case you were wondering. Canada gets its own quick service venue! Beef poutine and a maple sugar doughnut that looks suspiciously like a Beaver Tail... Both delicious! A It was quietly confirmed a few weeks ago that "A Day in the Park with Barney" had permanently closed after a 25 year run. It closed when the parks shut down and never reopened. Signage and the Barney fountain were both removed around the same time the permanent closure was confirmed. No replacement for this show has been announced at this time. The Spain booth makes really clever use of a quiet corner of the park. This delicious paella is served in a themed disposable paella pan! Central Park Crepes offers the event's sole French-themed food item, a Poached Pear Crème Brulee Crepe. This pavilion near the park's lagoon has been turned into one of the New Orleans-themed booths, this one offering seafood boils and beignets. I forgot just how many floats the Mardi Gras parade normally has! Pretty neat to see during the day! Drinks and coasters... Always a fine pairing. You can still get your beads tossing fix in! Time to head into the Mardi Gras Tribute Store! The theming in these stores continues to be on par with the interior of a Halloween Horror Nights house. Lots to see and potentially buy inside. A clever way to mask the Made to Order system... Very Horror Nights-esque. Fans of the classic Mold-a-Rama machines will be happy to know that Universal continues to update theirs for the rotating Tribute Stores. Pirates are a prominent theme at this year's Mardi Gras and thus an entire section of the Tribute Store carries that theme. A pirate-themed Mold-a-Rama... My favorite part of each Tribute Store is the food section! Lots to choose from! This event's unique gummy is a moving sour gummy skull. The jaw moves while at rest here! The Vegan Skull brownie makes a return from the Halloween Tribute Store, albeit with Mardi Gras touches... It is still an absolute knockout! One more Trini Chow for good measure! Stuffed to the brim, I finished my culinary journey with a strawberry & pineapple caipirinha and a bag of beignets. I was covered with powered sugar when finished, but the end result was well worth it! One last look at the former Universal Studios Store before the new location opens up!

What a way to celebrate the 50th anniversary. The Superman tower was a nice complement to the other rides. I'm with Zach and much rather rip out the Boomerang and keep Superman. Heck the bumper cars were better than a Boomerang. Yes, I grew up at SFoMA and rode Jet Scream 5 times on opening day. I did get to ride both the drop tower and Jet Scream/Viper at Six Flags Astroworld. Both great rides there too! The Old Chicago games area is going to be a ghost town. The walk back to the Screamin Eagle will be very creepy. Did they close the pizza place there too?

I'm now 34, but back in the day those rides were critical to the middle school field trip with your crush! Castaway Kids you two HAD to get a boat alone and hold hands. And then on the Rush Street, how great was it to have your crush smash into you when you sat on the outside

I miss Castaway Kids & Rush Street Flyer. Still remember the music to Castaway Kids.

They're not going to replace it with another drop tower. Not enough people would notice the difference. Ridership was already low, because "drop tower 1 is too intense for me." Financially, it was probably a good move, but I see this as one more step back on the roller coaster front. That area is already a dead spot, so a replacement flat would make more sense. I'm mostly glad our Log Flume didn't make the chopping block. We could have lost a true classic. The Moon Cars had already gone missing from its former appeal, so the nostalgia was long gone. Still, I'd rather have kept a one carriage Superman than our Boomerang being a boomerang, and tainting the once beautiful view of Screamin' Eagle. I guess I just miss the days of Castaway Kids, Rush Street Flyer, bumper cars, Tidal Wave, and especially Mr. Freeze v1. I didn't give a crap about half those rides then, but I probably would now, minus Tidal Wave of course. Those were my favorite times. I sound like the people who puzzled me ten years ago. Although... we do have JB's bar, so maybe that makes up for it all? #bringbackmule-go-round

I wonder if some of the tree-chopping is to make sure there's a wide enough berth around the park in case they end up with bad wildfires again. Also, Herschend is well known for its conservation efforts, particularly when it comes to replanting trees. Mary Herschend was very adamant that no trees be harmed, and if they needed to be taken down, then two trees for every one cut down had to be planted somewhere else to make up for it. As such, her son Jack Herschend was raised to cherish trees and in 1992 created the Gift of Green tree farm which grows and donates trees. Also, a funny anecdote: Jack was actually fired by his mother several times because of trees cut down that she felt didn't need to be touched. Here's an article from 2003 talking about the stats from the program's first ten years: https://www.ksmu.org/post/gift-green-program-provides-free-trees#stream/0 And here's an article from 2011 talking about how the program was going to be closed, but the Joplin tornado prompted them to keep it open and help plant new trees in the city: https://www.bransontrilakesnews.com/news_free/article_b4215d94-f137-11e0-b4a6-001cc4c002e0.html

Wonderland's location and limited operating hours make it a challenging park to fit on a road trip. But since I had already hit all the other major parks in Texas, I thought it was worth the sidetrip.

Possibly not. It was originally designed with 3 trains in mind, so if there's already enough blocks built into the system (and they haven't substantially modified since), it won't need a complete rework.

Wonderland Wonderland in Amarillo, Texas was a park that had always been on my radar. While the park didn't have any award-winning coasters, the park did win the prestigious Golden Ticket Award Park of the Year in 2009. Wait...what? I'm not kidding. It actually won that award. All kidding aside, I genuinely wanted to visit Wonderland since the park had a very weird collection of rides. This park should be called Hopkins-Land. The park owners installed a Hopkins Sky Ride in the 1970s and it was the beginning of a mutually beneficial relationship for both sides. When Wonderland wanted to install a log flume a few years later, they wanted a more affordable option than the Arrow models. So they approached Hopkins, who agreed to build the park a log flume. The Big Splash Log Flume was the prototype log flume for Hopkins and it would go on to be the company's most successful model. Big Splash has a relatively simple layout, but without this ride, the log flumes I grew up riding in Northern New England may not exist. This flume also has a weird quirk. The logs often stall out on the elevated section leading up to the final drop, so the employee monitoring the drop had to manually pull every other drop along. 5 out of 10 Hopkins also delivered the park's signature attraction in 1985, Texas Tornado. The story is that the park approached Hopkins at an industry event to build them a roller coaster. Hopkins sketched the initial design on a cocktail napkin and the company's prototype coaster required some onsite modifications. This is why the loops have such a bizarre appearance. It's important to visit Wonderland on a busy day. I intentionally visited on a weekend. Texas Tornado requires at least half the train to be filled, which can be problematic if you visit on a weekday. Wonderland is open just 7-10 pm most weekdays, which makes it challenging to ride Texas Tornado between the short hours and reduced crowds. Texas Tornado has PTC trains for a steel coaster, which is odd, but this ride tracks much better than you'd expect. This coaster has no airtime, but it has some intense positive Gs. Hopkins designed the drops on this coaster backwards. Most drops have tight starts and more gradual pullouts. Hopkins reversed this. So you get slammed with heavy Gs on every pullout. You also get some crazy Gs on the vertical loops as well. The coaster does crawl atop most of the hills, but if you love positive Gs, this ride is for you. 8 out of 10 Hopkins also provided the Pipeline Plunge water slide you can see in the above image. This was their prototype water slide. The slide itself is just ok. My favorite part of the slide was the views it offered of Texas Tornado and the back half of the park. 5 out of 10 The park also has three other Hopkins prototype water rides. You have the first shoot the chute with two across seating. This made the ride more compact. You also have the Rattlesnake River Rapids, the company's first river rapids ride. Unfortunately, both these attractions were closed. It was a bummer on a day when the temperature approached 100 degrees. Thunder Jet Racers was open, but I skipped this one. It's an Aqua Drag attraction targeted towards kids. A jet of water shoots dinghies down a straightaway. I grew up riding the one at Santa's Village, so I knew what the ride experience was like. The last Hopkins prototype is Skyrider, not to be confused with Sky Ride. Skyrider is a monorail that circles around the front half of the park. It gives some great views of the log flume and Cyclone wild mouse. Speaking of Cyclone, it was a really neat and rare Miler wild mouse. This ride has no restraints. It feels like you're riding in a padded bath tub. This means you really get thrown around on the ride's hairpin turns, especially since the wheels are set quite a bit back from the front of the cars. The ride doesn't really offer any airtime, but the laterals are great and the ride is smoother than you'd expect. It's just a bummer more Miler wild mice weren't built since they're among the best of the genre. Cyclone should not be confused with Mouse Trap, the park's Pinfari Zyklon. I originally wasn't too excited for Moues Trap, but this ride had some crazy airtime on the first two drops if you rode in the back car. This Zyklon has 3 car trains and loose lap bars, so it generates a lot of power on those first two drops. The rest of the ride is uneventful, but I kept riding it for those two drops. 6.5 out of 10 The last operating coaster was Hornet, an odd Vekoma coaster that previously operated indoors at Boblo Island and Mayan Mindbender. Wonderland put the ride outdoors, so the slow twisted layout is quite odd. The ride was smooth; it was just dull, as it never built up any speed. 3 out of 10 The park also had a SBF Visa spinner called Spin-O-Saurus. These rides are everywhere now and they're extremely reliable from what I've seen. However, this one has yet to operate since it has been waiting for a part per the park. Maybe it will finally open in 2021? Beyond the coasters and Hopkins prototypes, you had a really interesting dark ride in Fantastic Journey. Unfortunately, this ride was restricted to just one ride even with the highest tier wristband, which is a shame since it's a great ride. It feels similar to Waldameer's Wacky Shack in terms of the ride system and aesthetic. And there were one or two very effective jump scares. 8 out of 10 The park's best non-coaster was Drop of Fear, one of the most intense drop towers I've ridden. This one is a rare adult Moser tower and you drop like a rock. It's just a hair less intense than an ARM/Larson tower. The drop is gut-wrenching and delivers some great floater airtime the whole way down, especially since the OSTRs were rather loose. 9 out of 10 This tower also felt a bit sketchy between those OSTRs and this odd operational policy. After each cycle, the operator would unload the carriage and lock the restraints before loading guests. The operator would then climb atop the seat and yank the ride's cables and catch car with their bare hands. They would then unlock the restraints and load guests. Has anyone ever seen a ride operated like this before? I included a video of this since I couldn't believe it Drop of Fear Check.MP4 Texas Intimidator was another rare flat. This is a Moser Action Flipping Arm and it is a very disorienting ride. The ride had a lot of downtime; it kept getting stuck when it tried to lower. But I was able to ride it once and it offered a mix of fast flips and drawn out flips with hangtime. 9 out of 10 The park also had a rare Huss Rainbow. I loved the one at Great Escape when I was younger. And the one at Lake Winnepesaukah was great too. Both those ones delivered incredible sustained airtime. The one at Wonderland was run slower, so while there was no airtime, the ride still delivered some nice laterals. 6 out of 10 One of the other underrated attractions at Wonderland is the park's classic miniature golf course. This one is loaded with obstacles and this is the type of course I enjoy. It's not only the best mini golf course I've found inside a theme park, but it's one of the best mini golf courses I have done anywhere. The final odd thing about this park is when the 10 pm closing time hit, the park immediately cut out the music and turned off most of the lights in the park. It transformed the park from a lively place to feeling like a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Wonderland is off the beaten path for most coaster trips. It required a 4 hour sidetrip each way to visit after Frontier City. And I think it's 5.5-7 hours from the major parks in Texas, but I'm glad I visited this park since it has such a weird ride lineup.

Well folks we got quite the update! The park has not received any more approvals for their permits, but hopefully they'll have some progress on that next week. Construction is still ongoing as track piece number 3 was in a couple of days ago. I do like how they are incorporating some of the terain there, which should make Stunt Pilot stand out from the other raptors. It also looks like the park is really getting ready to ramp it up on construction and marketing, based on the following social media bits... I'm really excited that the park looks to be producing some behind the scenes content, and it seems RMC is making their way home to speed up construction! I expect that we'll have more construction updates coming soon! As a bonus, they had this in the park newsletter! I'm excited that they confirmed that the station, entrance/exit building (whatever that's for...please no fluffy fluffy bunnies filled with medicine and glue!!!), and the storage building are going to be themed as hangers with nods to the park's airshow history!! (Plus I'm hoping for a few general Silverwood references as well...) I'm super excited for what the park's planning, and I'm hoping they'll share some of it with us before it opens! Oh...and Tremors is getting some off season track work too! Looks like its in the warped helix in that I always thought was the roughest part... Maybe some of that old Lightning Rod Topper Track needs a new home....thanks in advance Dollywood! (On second thought...maybe not...) So...quite a bit is going on, like the park said, so its looking 2021 is a year of change for Silverwood! Here's to it all being good changes! No matter what, we only have to wait 50 DAYS till opening day to see some of them in person!!