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Damn. For a minute there, I really thought the steel vs wood argument was going to kick back into action. There's still a chance we can get a mask argument and LR track type argument going at the exact same time, since this thread has been notorious for both. It would be... the perfect storm. Imagine standing in line next to someone wearing an RMC shirt, while they talk shit on all the vaxxed people outdoors not wearing their masks, and tell you you're stupid for not thinking LR is steel. I'd leave the queue, get in my car, and drive it to another planet.

Thunderation at SDC is everything Adventure Express wants to be, but I do still enjoy Adventure Express.

So despite the weather forecasts suggesting a 50/50 chance of thunderstorms, I still decided to make the 2-hr trek to Knoebel's today. I was pretty close to calling it off and going to Great Adventure instead since Jersey had less of a storm risk, and the plus of possibly seeing Jersey Devil test runs. But knowing that Knoebel's runs most stuff in the rain barring lightning, I figured I would have better luck with them regarding weather policy than risking SF closing down a park at the sight of a raindrop. It was a typical early June light weekday crowd, but with less school kids since most schools aren't doing year-end field trips this year. Definitely campers being the main source of guests today. Even with a chunk of attractions not operating, the park still felt more than open and waiting to provide customer service, with most of the major food stands and shops open and ready for business; even little kiosks like the Dippin' Dots near Haunted Mansion were open, which you know would be shuttered on a weekday at a big chain park. Best of all was the sight of the familiar friendly long-time staff that you always see doing their designated roles. I feel bad because I'm horrible at remembering names but you always know the Knoebel's season is well underway when you see the familiar faces. I opted to not get a wristband out of fear the day would be rained out at any instance, but sure enough other than one 30-minute pour it just ended up being a cloudy day and I exceeded the wristband cost in tickets. Oh well. Got 6 rides on Phoenix, and it was hauling ass the whole time. I'm used to it slowly making the first turn-around but right from the get-go it was ripping around that turn; it's as if it got a little magic from Twister in regards to aggressiveness. I remember previously being underwhelmed until the final bunny hills and now the airtime is popping from (almost) start to finish. 4 rides on Twister and it's treating riders even more so like a rag doll, but in a good way (except for one teen boy who hurled afterwards at the exit gate on one ride). Got a ride each on Impulse (still underrated) and Kozmo's Kurves (I'd enjoy the airtime more if it didn't whack my knees into the bars when trying to eject me). Flying Turns still shuttered but the track work looks finished and the trains look ready to go, and Black Diamond was also closed too. As for non-coasters, while I was saddened I couldn't experience the Flyers I was happy to see the maintenance crew putting the pieces back together, a sign that it'll hopefully re-open soon. Fandango is still waiting for parts, and the Wipeout is still visible in pieces. Got a couple rides on the Grand Carousel and one each on Haunted Mansion and Skooters, because of course a trip isn't complete without them. Also got a surprisingly long ride on the Paratrooper, and hit up the Pioneer Train too. Skipped the log flume this time around (Skloosh is still closed) and the Skyway was also closed; not one for drop towers but Stratos-fear was open for anyone who loves that Larson tower. Also the Tornado being installed has an extremely sharp dark blue and green scheme which I totally prefer over the standard carnival ones. Didn't go as crazy on food as I thought I would but got some Loaded Tri-tators and Sicilian and White Broccoli slices from Cesari's. All hit the spot as usual. And when it did rain for 30 minutes, it was perfect timing for enjoying several rounds of Fascination. All in all for a day that could've very well been a bust I'd say it went about as well as could be expected. Everything was a walk-on and while not everything is open just yet there's still plenty to do to keep one occupied for several hours. Between Fascination and the museums and covered attractions like the Carousel, there's plenty of options to stay dry, more so than your average park. And of course it's still the same charm and awesome service you would expect from Knoebel's.

Forget throwing a guitar off the ride, judging by the musical style, it seems he got to ride Voyage in 2003!

1:20, did the ride just, you know...ejaculate on her? Edit - 1:33 - More licking of fluids. Then she's got more of it on her face. This belongs on pornhub. Edit 2 - "If you get really wet you know he might get rusty, right?" OMFG

^ You may have hit the nail on the head. They can use that for rigging purposes (hanging a chain hoist, etc) but it certainly doesn't seem to serve any purpose aside from just existing. I can't see any moving parts or anything that would suggest it's anything other than a rigid structure. Using beam clamps paired with rigging hardware makes the most sense.

Well Timber Terror and Tremors are both open right now, so there must not be much damage.

Voyage is open today and running WONDERFULLY. The turnaround has zero potholes for the first time in many years.

I visited Disneyland (I skipped California Adventure) for Sunday and Monday of this past long Memorial day weekend. Although I did take photos, I don't think that my coverage is really appropriate for a photo trip report, so I'll just do a written summary. Travelling to Disneyland on a long holiday weekend is usually a massive no-no, and themepark operations under California COVID restrictions were always going to be a bit weird. So this probably not the most well thought out plan, but I think I was hoping that the two would cancel each other out. And I figured visiting right now might be an interesting experience. At the very least, I think Disneyland wasn't the worst case scenario. In spite of Covid restrictions hurting their ability to efficiently group parties together, almost all lines remained sub-hour throughout the entre day (as always, mornings around park opening were nice) The grouping policy does mean that rides that usually rely on multiple long benches of seats were hurt the most - so It's a Small World, Pirates, and the Disneyland Railroad took massive hits to wait times with the former two really only being able to take at most two parties at a time per boat. I think the implementation of the social distancing policy in regards to lines was not necessarily intuitive to most guests. Although the queues did have markers, they were placed seemingly inconstantly to try to compensate for how some of the permanent ride queues fold back on themselves. Between this and the pressure to not keep guests indoors meant that most of the queues spilled out into the walkways away from the ride entrances. This was most pronounced near the New Orleans waterfront where the much of the walkways was dominated by the Pirates queue. However, most of these massive lines went faster than expected given that these temporary queues were very sparse due to the social distancing markers. In general, I think the majority of guests were trying on some level to observe social distancing when inside the park. On a lighter note, this was my first time visiting since they added Starwars: Galaxy's Edge. I was pleasantly surprised by both attractions there. Smuggler Run's simulators are higher quality than I had expected and I quite enjoyed seeing if I could accrue as much damage as possible during the ride (I was piloting by myself). And I was also impressed by how nimble the trackless vehicles on Rise of the Resistance were and how well the digital screens coordinated with the vehicle movement. The other ride that was new to me was the redesigned Snow White. They made minor changes up through the dungeons scenes, but everything after that has been massively revamped. It is undeniably more coherent now and a much better fit for Disney's target demographics, but I think it is less interesting than the old version. My dumb hot take is that I think that it is probably my least favorite of the Fantasyland dark rides now. Anyhow, sorry for the wall of text. I might add pictures for this post later.

Another successful coastermania but holy hot damn and I beat. I almost feel like I need to skip morning ERT or take a looong like 6 hour break bc damn... that said what a day. I still love MForce, I forgot how much I love Magnum (I was informed of the magical row 3 and it WAS pretty amazing). Had an epic Gemini experience with both trains continually slapping high fives while racing and of course....SV is just, I can’t... esp by night once it’s ran all day. My god that thing is not right. I KNOW it's crazy and still catches me off guard, especially the "inside" part...thus far it still gives me that out of control I dont know what's happening feeling. FL+ was worth it esp for TTD, Maverick, MForce though I will say while obviously helpful for SV it did seem the line was a few times not much shorter than regular, and yeah there was some weirdness w storage and moving one side a lot then not the other etc but IDK wasnt a huge problem, but still. Worth it though, 2 TTD walk ons, shaved an hour off the Maverick wait and got to semi Marathon MForce (10-15 mins when at times line was 45-75). But yeah damn, other parks may be nicer, have a better vibe, better customer service, better food all of which is true but this lineup it truly can't be topped, hell even matched. Also at least today.....it didn't seem they were doing horribly early line closures. In fact Millie was running a decent bit past 8

You know a park has a good lineup, when it doesn't get shitty until #12 out of 13 coasters.

Is this a Halloween event or a drag show?

Agreed, I loved Orion but it definitely left me wanting more. You come out of that helix at the end into a great airtime hill and then right into the brake run. It would've been great to have 2 or 3 of those final airtime hills before the brake run. As for Mystic Timbers, you could make an argument for it being the best coaster in the park. It has so much airtime and is just relentless from start to finish. It's not often that a coaster surprises me like that, but it easily surpassed any expectations I had.

Sounds like they've got a test train/dummies out on Storm Runner and have been rolling it through the launch track.

I can't wait to check out this event from the top of Rip Ride Rockit ... in all seriousness, this is exciting. I feel like it has high suck-potential because they're clearly positioning it as the cheap option and selling the combo ticket for this and BGT for the same price as one night at HHN but more competition has to be a good thing for HHN and every time I've gone to the BGT event I've really enjoyed it. I think there's a chance that every animal thing will be closed and it will just be rides, pop up bars, mazes and scare zones but please make Clyde & Seamore's high school slaughterhouse of death (or something like that) happen. Then I would buy a ticket immediately.

It seems to me that the company is being slow and cautious on purpose. I would guess they likely don't want to have to roll back to be more restrictive, so if they go slow on the reopening, that is less likely to happen.

The parks aren't dead, but in 2019 if I would have told you that Magic Kingdom was at capacity you probably wouldn't have expected to wait only 35 minutes for Peter Pan, 25 minutes for Haunted Mansion, 40 minutes for Space Mountain and less than an hour for Mine Train (the current wait times with the park at capacity). I know fastpass isn't a thing, but there's no way that these parks are anywhere near their real capacity. I'm not saying that this is even bad, I'm just saying that it's weird.

Ahh gotcha. Yeah there were a few brief weather delays today but the radar guy did a really good job clearing rides to reopen as soon as things started to lighten up. Getting on all the major coasters plus the drop tower only took about 3 hours (no Fast Lane). Operations today were some of the best I've ever seen, even by Kings Island's lofty standards. All the praise this place has gotten recently is 100% warranted.

... and everyone in the parade will be making $20 an hour so I expect about 2 floats.

If I ran a park that operated for 9 1/2 months out of the year in a place where it snows and I was adding another hotel but a lot of the draw is already indoor shows I would just go on an indoor-ride-building-binge and then go year-round like BGW.

Wow the coaster gods took mercy on me today! When I left it was like 75-80+% chance of rain and thunderstorms. I arrived at KW at noon and it was light drizzle on and off, eventually stopping. Got the perfect combo of dry AND crowds kept away! Went to Steel Curtain first, (since I was there an hour in figured the Exterminator line was already screwed) and the line wasn't that bad physically but took about 30 mins due to the 1 train ops. It was not the crew, they seemed to be moving and were quite efficient. It was simply the 1 train. Did 2 rides, once 2nd row once towards to rear, fun ride but weirdly underwhelming. It has it all: speed, elements, a unique layout, airtime but it was just a bit...well I guess forceless. Air was good. Guess I thought it'd have a little more oomph esp the 2nd half. Over the Phantom's which was a walk on, literally. Forgot how sick that ride is, especially in back! Knocked out Sky Rocket which was better than expected (granted expectations were low). Honestly I really liked the first half, I got back row and those drops had some (brief) pops of pretty nasty air and it was a speedy little ride. It did peter out hard after the 2nd barrel roll, the twisty part and final hills etc were pretty lame. That said running 2 trains and ops were fast, so this was also a walk on. Jack Rabbit I lucked out hard and got cut off next to board. This was great as naturally I took back row, and it also had 2 trains so the wait was like a minute. This was better than expected. I had the vibe its "eh" with the sick double down but I got some pretty good air on a couple other drops! Also by a year this now takes record for oldest coaster I have ridden. Racer was also better than expected, which again wasn't much but it wasn't too bad in back. Line was again short, only 2 cycles ahead of me, though it did move pretty slow. IDK if this is common but ONE person was doing both trains, felt bad for that woman. But yeah solid little ride. Perhaps unpopular opinion(?) but I like Thunderbolt least of the 3 classic woodies there. Exterminator's line was indeed looooooong and I know how slow it goes, by this point I was getting tired and Phantom's again was empty. I count creds but not a cred whore, so I made the choice to not wait. I love a spinner too but long wait for that or 3 rides in less time on Phantom's? Which I did, it was wild 3 walk ons, right to the train in one case it timed perfectly that I barely broke stride and jumped onto the loading train. Maybe it warmed up by this point but felt even wilder. What a ride truly. All in all this experience was the polar opposite of my last (hot as hell, crowded as hell, few rides closed/down) and in a better mood, it wasn't a bad park. I did kinda like the more forested parts and the whole fountain area by the splash boats was wonderful. Now that redemption has been had not sure I'll make a case to stop here at least for a while but considering I got near all I wanted done, (even snuck a ride on Swingshot) in 3 hours and it was not the total washout I feared, not too shabby!

but Dolly's selling the park to her partners and wants nothing to do it anymore. the dippin dots guy told a facilities/cleaning guy, who told the clerk at the stand selling the airbrushed t-shirts - and someone overheard while walking by on the way to buy Cinnamon Bread. so this CAN'T be true !!!

I wish other Six Flags GMs gave half the effort that Jeffrey Siebert gives to SFFT.

Remember when we all thought theme parks might be doomed by COVID? It is fantastic to see all the people flocking back to parks like Kings Island. Great reports all, thank you!

Add me to the list of people that think KI is the real star of Ohio. Yes I love CP too, but so much of that park is just a bland concrete jungle it feels like. Plus the crowds have always been more manageable at KI compared to CP and my days at KI in 2011 had the best operations I have EVER seen at a park. Here's a pic from that trip of Diamondback where one train is heading into the splashdown and the train behind it is cresting the lift. Sad is seems like recent CF training will prevent this from happening again.

Line for Flight of Fear ended up being 10 minutes (including a quick breakdown that involved sending a test train) and typical good but slightly rough ride. Had lunch at the Brewhaus which, to be objective, isn't nearly as good as the one at BGW but still nice to get out of the rain and grab some beers. Had the Blue Ice Cream beer which was very sweet but pretty good. Spent the next 45 minutes in Action Zone. Delirium was coming to a stop as I walked by so I hopped on. Giant frisbees are always excellent, but getting a rare ride with no wait is even better. Went over to Banshee next and the gates were open when I got to the station, so hopped in back. Ride back there didn't feel quite as powerful, kinda felt Alpengeist-esque. More graceful through the elements. Still amazing. Headed back to the Bat, which unfortunately was pulling away and only running 1 train, so I had to wait a WHOLE THREE MINUTES for a back seat ride. Oh the horror! It seemed even wilder in back, especially having to ride with eyes closed because the rain was dropping off the wheel assemblies right into my face. As I walked back up, Drop Tower was on its way up so I got right on the next load. Restraints locked, all clear, hold, "Drop Tower is currently down for technical reasons." Kind of a bummer, but instead got another front seat ride on Banshee which WAS as great as last night. What a masterpiece. Headed up the Eiffel Tower which had a nice breeze and rain in the face at the top. Quickly took some pics and headed back down. After a 3 train wait (my 2nd longest wait of the day) I hit Stunt Coaster which is always a good time. Made my way back to the Beast and first rode in row 17. Pretty wild and man is that helix crazy. Went back around and got a walk on SOLO front row ride. On the Beast of all rides, what a zenful moment. What wasn't zenful was that the rain picked back up, so had to get a "night ride" with my eyes closed the whole way! Empty train kinda meandered but still a lot of fun. Hit 2 walk on rides on Mystic Timbers. This thing just blows me away. This may be a sin on this site, but I think it's better and has more airtime than Phoenix. Don't @ me. Currently at Miami River Brewhouse enjoying a Giga Coaster beer and a giant pretzel. Unfortunately down to the last few hours of the trip.

Source: Looopings.nl There is news about the expansion. The Dutch High Court has given the final verdict today and approved the plans, this means the Efteling is now officially allowed to expand it's borders. After the local government approved the expansion in September 2018 there are now no further obstacles for the park to expand, the park is now allowed to expand both east and west borders with the rumored Intamin family launch coaster with Circus theme coming in the east expansion first. Last year the park chairman announced that due to Covid there was no money to rush the expansion however after the news he has said that next year they want to start depending on how the pandemic continues. So this is some good news. I'm excited to see this rumored coaster as we've been talking about it sins 2018. Looking forward to see how the park will fill in the expansions as it will be be quite a big area.

In some random park related news legendary professional wrestler/aspiring Rockstar Chris Jericho's band Fozzy just released a new music video that was filmed at Holiday world. Probably not a lot of professional wrestling fans here but the video is pretty cool . Shout out to Holiday World for letting them throw a guitar off of the lift hill of The Voyage lol.

Unfortunately, it looks like Waldameer may not be safe this year, lot of fights! I really thought we locked the bad guys up on Jan. 6. looks like we missed a few.