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Knoebels will surprise you. Aside from the big three woodies (Phoenix, Twister, and Flying Turns - which hasn't yet operated this year and possibly won't), there is Impulse, a surprisingly smooth Zierer, and Black Diamond (an incredible rebuild of a historic ride) for coasters, and a ton of awesome historic flats, including: -A whip that runs close to its original speed. -Bumper cars that run at an insane speed -A great Haunted Mansion ride-through haunted house. -Looper, which if you have a partner for this trip, is something to be experienced. -Cosmotron, an indoor Musik Express-style ride with an actual DJ and light show -A great log flume -A classic carosel with the ability to grab brass rings! -A hillarious drive-'em boat ride. -Paratrooper, Roto Jets, Satellite, and Round-Up, four classics that are tougher and tougher to find. -A nutty drop tower that, while not that tall, doesn't brake until like the last 10 feet. It is really not a place to be trifled with, and if you end up there on a Saturday you can easily spend the whole operating day there.

As an Admissions Associate, I can confirm that Steel Vengeance is only open for early access on the weekend.

but Wilderness Run goes around twice! does it therefore count as TWO credits?

This is an uncomfortable amount of kiddie coaster discussion.

It’s expected to open this weekend.

So, I had intended to write up a full report of my public-opening Saturday trip to Kings Island, but life kinda got in the way and put a stop to that. So, instead, here's a brief report with some pictures. I had arrived to the park for a 11:00 opening at around 9:30 and found literally over a hundred cars in front of me behind the locked gates. Lovely. Made my way to the front gate; it was good to be back! As has been discussed, no temperature tent, just a security guard asking the COVID questions. Got inside and grabbed my FL+ wristband, and then made my way over to Flight of Fear, knowing that it was the only coaster with limited capacity still and that the line would get insane later in the day. Passing by, all of the seats have been returned to Wave Swinger. Flight of Fear still wasn't letting anyone into the queue, so I took some pictures of Orion's line 6 minutes prior to opening. Yeesh. So they once again re-routed FoF's FL line - you still enter from the exit side, but instead of heading straight up to the inside of the UFO, you now enter into the warehouse with the general queue and then head up into the space ship where they merge. As you can see, social distancing is a thing of the past. After FOF, I went to Racer (red side, retracked parts were awesome, as I mentioned earlier), then Adventure Express (all effects in tunnel, even the lava-tip, were working). Most ride attendants were super-enthusiastic, interacting with the crowd to a level I haven't seen in...ever, probably. Grabbed some pretzel bites from the bar near Adventure Express, which were delicious. ...and then made my way over to Bat, which was good as always. Does anyone know what these footers to the left of the station were for? After Bat, hopped on Banshee...getting a little bit of that B&M rattle in the back row but still awesome. Rounded back around the front of the park for Diamondback, then Mystic Timbers (snake and "Cars" ending). Definitely flying once again with a full train, I forgot how fast this was despite getting on it a dozen times last year. Here was the queue at 2:00 PM: After that, hopped on Beast, then had my longest wait of the day: 43 minutes for a Classic and Grilled Cheese Donut at Tom+Chee. After that, I left the park to go back to the hotel for a bit, and took a drive around the lot to see how packed it was at 4:30 I've kinda drew it on this map, pretty much everything within the red box was full. Got back to the park and jumped on Orion. Pretty much same as last year, a lot of groups self-imposed distancing on the train so I didn't get to experience it with a truly full train. Then I hopped on Windseeker, and made a lap around the park, hitting Woodstock Express and made my way back to Banshee to find it down. Two maintenance guys on the bottom of the lift, both on cell phones, is never a good sign: Then it was back to Racer, to try for the blue side, but it was closed due to "fireworks setup," so I got another ride on the red side. Back to Mystic Timbers (bat and "Can't Take my Eyes Off of You" ending), and made my way to back to my #1 coaster here, Beast, to round out the night. Once they stopped running for the fireworks, like half of the FL line in front of me exited, telling everyone "the rides closed until 10:30" and the rest of us were like "yeah, no shit." Was able to capture some good video of the fireworks, which have to look awesome from Windseeker. VID_20210515_220035433.mp4 After the awesome Beast night ride (front row of course), I made my way out of the park and back to my hotel. Got a good night's sleep, went back to the park in the morning for a Grilled Mac & Cheese from Tom+Chee for breakfast, then started my drive home. All in all, a great trip....but FL+ really saved me. Without it, I would've had a lot less fun. Most major rides were posting 1-2+ hour waits throughout the day, and the food lines were all around insane. I've said it before, and I'll say it again - Cedar Fair needs to offer a Fast Lane pass for food service. I'd easily drop $100-200 for that. Ride waits, with FL+ (times are from when I enter the queue to getting off the ride): -Flight of Fear, 26 minutes from opening at 11:00, row 6. -Racer, red, 25 minutes, front row -Adventure Express, 16 minutes, front row -Bat, 36 minutes, back row -Banshee, 17 minutes, back row left -Diamondback, 7 minutes, row 2 (outer wing of the front car) -Mystic Timbers, 12 minutes, back row -Cup of water from a Refill Station, 11 minutes -Beast, 27 minutes, front row -Food from Tom+Chee, 43 minutes -Orion, 13 minutes, front row -Windseeker, 15 minutes -Woodstock Express, 32 minutes, back row -Racer, red, 13 minutes, row 5 -Mystic, 17 minutes, front row -Beast, 1 hour 16 minutes (including fireworks shutdown), front row But wait, there's more! On my trip home from KI, I always pass by Adventure Park USA, a small FEC with some rides in Monrovia, MD. They're always closed whenever I happen to pass by. But not this time! I saw the Wildcat running, and made a quick detour in. Notably, there was only one car on the track, and no others were to be seen. Here's some photos of this survivor. Their other adult coaster, a Zamperla Windstorm, wasn't ready for the season yet, ...so I still need to come back here and grab that credit, but the Wildcat was a very nice bonus. Fun Fact: This Wildcat started its life at Busch Gardens Williamsburg way back in 1976, and made its way around including a brief stint at Steel Pier in Atlantic City in the late 90s, before I got into coasters. Anyway, that's all for this report...tomorrow I leave for a rain-filled Memorial Day Weekend at Cedar Point, with another stop back at KI, mostly for their water park, on Tuesday.

With less then a week until opening... here is some footage from the final testing of Monsters two trains.

if you've never been to Knoebels before, I'd strongly suggest you plan for more than just a partial day there. the place really is pretty incredible, and you're going to want multiple rides on both Phoenix and Twister. (and flats you may think you have no interest in? run incredible programs at Knoebels and are worth riding. That's not even mentioning the food, playing a game (or several dozen) of Fascination, or wandering thru the mining museum). if you do end up trying to do Dorney & Knobels on the same day, do Knoebels 1st. . so that way when you decide you want to stay longer, you can just blow off Dorney

Go to Knoebels instead of, or in addition to, Dorney. Unless you're big on water parks, you can bang Dorney Park's unique adult rides out in like 2 hours. Driving from PA down to Carowinds, you will pass right by Kings Dominion, which is a much more time-worthy stop than Dorney.

As much as most people here will harp on the "benefits" of staying at Breakers to get early access, if you only have X dollars to spend, you will undoubtedly get more bang for the buck from the FL+ option.

Ah nah all good I don’t come here too regularly so I machine gun post lol Yeah Phantoms is possibly down (but word is it will be up soon) and I305 was down but those are indeed a different trip. I needed a break between the coastering LOL And yeah I definitely am looking forward to the Kings Island I really wasn’t sure what to expect but I found it a wonderful place and it had some of the best ops I’ve ever seen. I’m banking that the park will again not be too crowded when I go on a weekday.

I think KD has a good line up. To me, the stand outs are stunt track, grizzly and dominator. While I do like 305, it just isn't that stand out to me (unpopular opinion. . . it could have did the exact same thing it does and be 100 ft shorter in height and not need those trims).

While not on the Elitch Gardens level of suck, Kennywood was a letdown for me in 2018, as well. Phantom was awesome, Bayern Kurve (RIP) was a lot of fun, Exterminator had us laughing the whole time, and Jackrabbit was definitely a sleeper hit for me, but.... operations were painfully slow; Sky Rocket was closed; the grumpy-looking ride ops pushing a button that played a recorded, cheerful, "All clear!" was simultaneously depressing and comical; and we only got one ride on Phantom because it kept going down throughout the day. But we had also just come from Cedar Point - which was a stark contrast to Kennywood. I think we might have enjoyed Kennywood more, had we gone there first. All that being said, I would go again if I happen to be in the area - mainly for more Phantom and Jack Rabbit rides, and to ride Sky Rocket and Steel Curtain.

Hey if Cedar Fair has taught us anything...at least they're not closing for the whole day!!!

^Yup! We also booked as KT has become quite the Marvel fan and this was the ONE thing she really wanted to do this summer.

They got rid of all of the dilapidated buildings? Wow, walking through a park with zero buildings is going to be weird.

it's low to the ground, so that was the best I could come up with. hey. . concrete can be a terrain

X2 - Bankrupted Arrow Titan SFoT. - Bankrupted Giovanoli

From the front the wheel cover decals look like eyes, so I think it's just that one of the monsters has green eyes and the other orange. You can see it pretty clearly in FABH Adventures' picture here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CNQDhY_h4-R/

Millennium Force, opening year. First giga and for that brief stint tallest and fastest traditional coaster on Earth. TTD, first "strata" (do we still use that term? lol) and ofc tallest and fastest, no caveats. Kingda Ka, next tallest and fastest. Though ofc no longer fastest Volcano, Magnum, Roller Coaster (woo 100 years!) Hypersonic XLC. Pretty proud of that one esp as not all have experienced it and ofc no one has been able to for a while. That ride IS the shed! It has a roller coaster attached to it But that one may deserve some history tbh "Ride with the most hilariously overhyped element ever in history"

very very few would say the reason to stay at Breakers is to get the early access. but what most all of us WILL say is stay at Breakers for the Convenience - you can walk back to the room to take a break, drop stuff off at the room, get food from the fridge. the early entry is just an added plus, but certainly not the main reason to stay there. hell. . the times I've stayed at Breakers, I've done FL+ on top of it anyways.

Haha don't have the platinum pass, just work at VF and need to finally be able to say I've visited over 50% of the chain

I feel fortunate to have been on a few historic coasters: Corkscrew - Silverwood: The first modern inverting coaster was my first inverting coaster. Batman - SFGAm: First fixed-seat inverted coaster/inverting inverted coaster. Roller Coaster - Lagoon: 100 years old as of this year. Switchback - ZDTs: World's only wooden shuttle coaster. There are, of course, more specific ones (first or last of a manufacturer, first ride of its model type, etc) but I felt these were the most notable.

I've been a couple times before, never without fastlane+, so I'll just stick to the weekday and probably save some money by staying at a crappy place offsight. Going from MN to CP, hitting Mt. Olympus on the way, spending night and going to park early next day, at least 1 full day at cp, maybe 2, but probably just one. Then thinking of going to Kennywood, Hershey, Dorney, KD, Carowinds, and hitting KI on the way back to MN. Free admission/parking at CF parks, anybody else think a different plan might be better? Going to be weird trying to figure out which parks to do on weekend vs weekday with limited days open for a lot of places, might trim a couple parks but probably not.

I'm very lucky to have been on brand new versions of Timberwolf (89), Georgia Cyclone and Texas Giant (1990). And old American Eagle, Texas Cyclone, and countless other classic wood coasters that have had their trains and track retrofitted to serve for lower insurance premiums. An 80's Beast with skid brakes that just did that... as well as 3 coveted "brake-less" Beast rides in 1988/89. I'll never forget those; few rides have scared me since. A 1988 Great America Shockwave running with no trim brake; the corkscrews were like watching cartoons. A 1991 Steel Phantom during after park ride ERT where the loop brake had to be turned off to quiet down for neighbors; we didn't complain! Those 2 were not supposed to run like that, so the flukes/rarities were very special. But my luckiest was working on the Cedar Point Blue Streak for the last 2 seasons (1992/93) we ran fully manual (hand brakes) with classic trains (a big blue bench, a single buzz bar, and a single optional seatbelt). The park worked our teenage butts off minimum 6 days a week and we got 1,200 people per hour on that ride - and darnit we were lucky to do it!

Ah good to know! That said I wish they would just open the rides with gate opening lol Edit: Same Joel, ops were so slow I actually missed Jack Rabbit and Racer by choice. I was in a bad mood and given how slow lines were and the length when I went... would've been brutal. I can't fault them for Skyrocket being down and I knew it would be but also Exterminator went down though I heard rumblings it was bc lack of staff....which I could see bc this one ride had like maintenance/non ride ops doing it. Not kidding. They were clearly not ride ops and had no idea what they were doing. Sad to say but I only did Phantom's and Thunderbolt and left. I was also on my way back from CP, this year I'm stopping before (and on a weekday) so I'm hoping it's better.

Sorry to double post, but since it hasn't yet been mentioned, Disneyland made two changes yesterday: 1) As of June 15th, they will begin to admit out-of-state visitors once again. 2) They have changed the online reservations to allow you to schedule a reservation up to 120 days in advance. Already reserved my three days at the end of August. Really looking forward to finally doing this Disneyland vacation with my son after being in the works for over a year and a half at this point!

Midwest Coaster Fans posted a good update from opening weekend. Skip to the 20 min mark for the Schwarzkopf coaster update.

Millennium Force Magnum - first hyper SFDL Viper - first 5 inversion coaster Ride of Steel - 1st Intamin hyper Loch Ness Monster - interlocking loops Moose on the Loose - self explanatory

Yeah, I think if FoF was just the first of the spaghetti bowls, I wouldn't have listed it. But LIM coasters have become kind of a big deal, and LSM coasters lately have popped up all over the place, and that feels significant. Now that I'm thinking about it, I had originally not included Batman at SF Great America due to it being a clone, but I'm remembering now that it was the first inverted coaster in general, so maybe that's significant enough to add.

The above same as you, plus a few others: Switchback Railway (ZDT's) - First wooden shuttle coaster Outlaw Run (Silver Dollar City) - First wooden coaster with inversions in the modern era Kingda Ka (SF Great Adventure) - World's tallest Monster (Adventureland) - First Gerstlauer Infinity in the U.S. Time Traveler (SDC) - First spinning coaster with inversions in the U.S. Flight of Fear (Kings Island) - First LIM coaster Buzzsaw Falls (SDC) - First Premier water coaster Mystic Timbers (KI) - First coaster where you go in the shed

People were bored middle of the day chatting about dumb sht. Not a big deal. And folks had moved along. But bring it up again. I think the fact a new coaster was coming had been fully covered.

y'all are still having a big of a rough go with Covid and getting everyone vaccinated - so I understand. i have friends coming for Con at end of July, and they aren't sure they'll be able to cross the border, as no announcement on lifting restrictions has happened yet. I feel for y'all in Vancouver (and all across Canada).

I think if we learned anything from 2020 is that politicians never really or hardly ever do what's in the best interest for their constituents, their cities, etc.

Fine... take the

Maybe Fun Spot should just buy Iron Gwazi from Busch Gardens, since those guys seem to have no use for it

Friendly reminder that daily ops start Friday! Daily ops at California's Great America start... never. Was this just a cheap excuse to rip on Cedar Fair some more? The world may never know.

By the way, that "BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!!!!!111!!!!" from the local radio station posted on the last page? Yeah, it's that the station is giving away one of the Ticket of a Lifetime packages. Told you all not to get excited.

More rides for you and others! I will comfortably pass

Same here. We’re going the second week in June and I’m hoping the park gets their maintenance act together before then… They still haven’t posted their VIP tour options either despite having several weekends of operation behind them now.

Now if they could only fix the clock and pumpkin program and drop the slow motion they use today. I much more enjoyed it when it went around 5 times with speed then the turtle slow one time.

Grona Lund has just announced a major new expansion, anticipated to open in 2024! https://www.gronalund.com/2024 The press release is only available in Swedish, but here are the highlights: New amusement area with 25 percent of land and roof surfaces designed with trees and vegetation and a park-like character Potential new attraction with an overall height of 45 meters "Classic amusement romance" with new attractions at ground level Public bridge / beach promenade Architecture borrowing from historic buildings around the area This post will be updated if and when an English press release is published.

Sleighride refurb at night, no more nasty brown Shipwreck Falls water... yet 20210521_203443.mp4

Great report! I agree with your review of Velocicoaster other than the part about getting enough rides to have bruises. I wouldn't know and I'm only moderately jealous. lol I also agree about Bourne. It's hard for me to even express in words how much I didn't care when they announced it. I'd never be bothered to watch the movies and it's just not my kind of thing on paper. The only reason we did it is because @JRice92 wanted to and it blew our minds to the point where we go and see it on every visit now. The tech is just ridiculous.

I saw a couple of YouTubers giving detailed analysis of why the moon landing was faked, or insert your chosen conspiracy theory here. Must be true.

Remember when Six Flags took over and people thought it would be amazing and we all laughed at them for it? How is that going?

They have so many empty areas already. I expect this to be a straight budget cut. Will they replace it some day? Maybe... but I don't think they closed it for any other reason than it's an expensive ride to operate.

I'm always pretty patient about these things. Absolutely better for a coaster to be built right than quickly. But knowing the history of this one, y'all take as long as you need to fix it up safe.