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"To promote social distancing we've made our event lineup absolutely terrible so nobody wants to go" ... easy, efficient, no need to mess around with reservations, they really are playing chess while the rest of the industry is playing checkers.

Update: The ride has been closed all day and there's a sign out front stating that it will not open today. If it's been testing consistently then that's great news though.

Why would a park thats in the business to make money be attempting to keep the crowd down a bit? God, CF sucks so hard anymore.

Guys, you're all missing the point! We don't want this coaster to have water anywhere around it!!! Remember what their 'water coaster' is like!??!!

They're counting down the years until they get a new coaster.

Photo trip report from Heide-Park, June 1st 2021 We had a long hiatius from theme parks as Germany was completely shut down in the amusement sector from October 2020 to May/June 2021. As we heard that the state of Lower Saxony was opening up a bit we took our kids, booked a hotel and went to Hannover. After having three great days in Hannover, at the Steinhuder Meer and visiting friends we used our last day for Heide-Park. We've been there in 2017, when we had no kids and just started riding coasters. So this time, with two litte kids, our focus was mostly on the kiddie rides and on Colossus, which was closed for renovation four years ago. We would have done more coasters, but sadly express pass, baby switch and single rider lanes were closed due to their COVID protocol. But all in all the park was in a good shape, extremely better then in 2017. Merlin has done some good work here. But to be honest, the coasters could use some mmore love. Krake was more down then open, had a more then 60 minute wait when open because it ran only two trains. Flug der Dämonen ran one train all day with a 90 minute queue in the middle of the day. Same goes for Desert Race. From our view, attendance was perfect and the weather was legit, with a lot of sun and no rain. We came into the park right at opening and headed straight to Colossus to get this thing done. It was our first new coaster since Tripsdrill in August 2020 and the first really big new thing since Walygator Parc two years earlier. As you can imagine, we were a little bit nervous. Even without express pass and single rider lane I waited just 20 minutes for a front row ride, Sarah the same directly afterwards. After that, we went to the Peppa Pig Land to satisfy our little ones. The area was really pretty and both liked all the rides a lot. Same goes for the How to Train Your Dragon area with the exception that both kids were too small to ride some rides. After more than two hours there, we decided to walk back to Colossus and the slide tower, where Paul deperately wanted to challenge himself. On this way we stopped at Grottenblitz, the powered coaster, where Paul was allowed to ride. So he cleared off his second coaster in his life - not bad for a three year old in a pandemic in Germany! After two laps, one with Sarah and one with me each, we checked the app and saw that there was almost no line at Colossus, so Sarah did a second front row ride while the kids and me made a rest at the parks lake watching coasters and ducks befor we switched and Sarah went sliding with Paul while I did a back row ride. As the park was closing around 5:30 p.m., we didn't have much time left, so we went on a walk up the hill with the big rides looking for an evening snack. While eating a truly good pizza, we decided that we adults were almost done for the day. As all major rides had more than a 60 minute wait for each one of us, we decided to go on Flug der Dämonen as our last big ride. I went first on the back right outer seat while Sarah waited with the kids and afterwards we switched and while Sarah rode I went back to the two kids areas to do some rides with them. All in all it was a very satisfying day. It was our first thing we did after an eight month long lockdown in Germany where you could do almost nothing. For the most time, there was no dining option in your home city, only takeaway or delivery. While we were at Heide Park these rules still applied to our home city. Our kids were so happy and even Sarah shared some tears during the day because she was so relieved. Ride reviews: Colossus: It was our first time on any Intamin woodie. For me, it was one of the best coaster experiences I've ever had. We had already awesome airtime in the front in the morning - but after a long, sunny day the airtime in the last row was incredible! And it was butter smooth in all speeds and all rows. We had much bumpier and shakier rides on steel coasters in the last years. We also loved the layout and the wooden fire figure at the end was just more then a scenery object. In total, it's now one of our top wooden coasters and even one of our all time favourites. It reminded us much of a wooden mixture of Expedition GeForce and Millennium Force. And this is just great. Pappas Ballonfahrt: A slow ballon tower ride with a nice view over the kids area. Even one year old Emma enjoyed it. Worth a ride if your kids like it! Schorschs Dino-Abenteuer: A dinosaur ride. It's the same system as the Flip ride at Holiday-Park, if you know that. But different to Holiday-Park, Emma was not allowed to ride it. Pretty dumb, but it is as it is. The ride is nice, long and funny. Paul likes it! Peppas Bootsfahrt: A circular boat ride for pre school kids. Paul loves those rides. You even have some sound interaction. Opa Pigs Zugfahrt: A slow train ride for the whole family with animatronics and sound. Pretty slow, but enjoyable. Huge hit with Peppa Pig Fans. Grobians Wolkenspringer: The same ride as Holiday-Parks Red Baron. Pretty nice, Paul loves those rides where you can do something manually like going up or down. Pretty nicely themed! Drachengrotte: Maybe the biggest surprise in the kiddie areas! It's for all ages and starts slow, but then you enter a cave where the dragons live. You get covered in fog and the dragons roar. It's pretty challenging for small kids. Paul got frightened, but his little sister was pretty amused! Grottenblitz: Pauls second real coaster (okay: powered coaster)! It had no line, so Paul took Sarah for the first lap. He did it with hands up - we were so proud! In the dark indoor part, he got a bit frightened. But when they met with Emma and me again, he insisted to go back on the ride once more with me! Western-Riesenrad: It's basically a cowboy themed kiddie ferris wheel. It was okay. One and done. Even the kids didn't like it. Flug der Dämonen: It was the second "adult only" thing we rode for ourselves - and it was a good choice. After a roughly 40 minute wait I took the last row, right side, outside seat. My favourite place on this beast. And what can I say? The ride was even better then I remembered! No bouncing, fast pace, great inversions! Only bummer was, that there was only one train. I think, a second train would have decreased the waiting time a lot and we could have done more rides. But this one ride was truly amazing. I'm happy we chose this as our last ride! Sarah took the same row, but the inner seat for better comfort and was also amazed. Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed our trip report. Here are some photos of our tour: Hannover City Hall Steinhuder Meer Colossos queue line Colossos station I can hear this photo Mmmmh, humans! The dragons in the circle go up and down, up and down, up and down... Happy waffle photo Captain Paul Peppa Pig Land was really good themed Sarah and Paul: Car three, row two! Mandatory Krake splash pic I'm a real fan of the demonic knot element! COVID correct queue lines One of the best park and coaster views I know... ... can you count all the coasters? Goose family Soon he will be allowed to ride!

Disney has announced that more entertainment offerings will be returning across the Walt Disney World resort, including two big shows at Disney's Hollywood Studios! https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2021/07/more-entertainment-returning-across-walt-disney-world-resort-this-summer/?fbclid=IwAR3YHwcvECghOLwcSxSn3cUuILXCBUZp0ykWcC_tvtArTIVD2E-7tUPlkMw It’s been really great this summer to once again gather in the Harambe Theatre at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park for “A Celebration of Festival of the Lion King” and to feel our hearts soar with the sight of fireworks in the skies over Magic Kingdom Park and EPCOT. We’re continuing to work on bringing even more entertainment experiences back to Walt Disney World Resort, and today I’m thrilled to let you know about four other favorites returning soon. Starting August 1, we’ll be lighting up the night at Disney’s Hollywood Studios with the return of “Wonderful World of Animation.” This cinematic nighttime experience leverages projection mapping technology to transform the park’s iconic Chinese Theater on a magical journey through more than 90 years of Disney animation. On August 15, a tale as old as time will return to Theater of the Stars on Sunset Boulevard with “Beauty and the Beast – Live on Stage.” The heartwarming tale of Belle and Beast will once again swirl to life in this lush stage performance, with colorful costumes, gorgeous scenery and the songs you know and love. We’re also excited to share that you’ll soon be able to visit those monsters of comedy in Monstropolis and chat with a certain sea turtle at The Seas with Nemo & Friends. Mike Wazowski will begin welcoming humans to the Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor at Magic Kingdom Park on August 8. And beginning August 21, you can get your most pressing questions answered during Turtle Talk with Crush at EPCOT. Duuuude! We also recently announced that all-new nighttime spectaculars “Disney Enchantment” and “Harmonious” would be debuting October 1 as part of The World’s Most Magical Celebration. That means this summer is also your last chance to come out and catch the current fireworks shows before they sparkle into Disney history. “EPCOT Forever” will conclude its limited-time run on September 28, and you have until September 29 to take in the spectacle of “Happily Ever After” at Magic Kingdom Park.

If you can make out legs from that far away you're better than me. lol

No more reservations for Carowinds.

It's in the POV at about 30 seconds, but it happens straight after the station at the beginning of the ride. The station is at ground level, and after the short trop track you launch outside through a trench.

if you're a history buff, or love "re-enactments".. we LOVED Colonial Williamsburg. we bought a combo ticket from Colonial Williamsburg online which got us multiple days at both there and at BGW (we ended up spending day and 1/2 at Colonial Williamsburg, and 2 1/2 days at BGW before moving on to King's Dominion & Washington DC to hit the Smithsonians. it was worth it to us, but not everyone's cup of tea, as it's mainly outside, and very "authentic" to the times in terms of food and atmosphere. https://www.colonialwilliamsburg.org/ here's the specific ticket we got: https://www.colonialwilliamsburg.org/tickets/summer-bounce-ticket/ it's a steal at $148 a ticket, that includes parking at BGW & Water Country (that we didn't do, but it's included as well)

I had friends finally get to Lotte World to be disappointed to find the Aquatrax had all its water pipes removed actually a very long time ago and the water drained so maybe this is actually the world's second aquatrax?

Lost Island Theme Park Flythrough - YouTube Look at this! A fun Lost Island update! There is so progress on the park! I think by fall, we will start to see actual pathways and such start to take place. Plus I'll be expecting them to start planting trees so that they can take root before spring! Something you can really see in the video is how much expansion space the park has built into its footprint around the outer edges of the park. I think in the park's future, we will see new areas around the outer edges of the park.

Sounds like a great day. I think my son really started to get into coasters around 6 or 7 as well. It's great seeing his face light up when I ask if he wants to go again. Nothing else quite like it. Keep being a great dad!

Got back a little bit ago from going to GAdv with my kids for their first time to the park, and we all had a great day, on a manageable day crowd-wise! (The same could not be said for Hurricane Harbor, apparently, based on them reaching capacity again, having a security incident that briefly closed the park, and then making the decision to go pass-holders only the rest of the season!) Even my 7 year old rode everything he could, including Zumanjaro, and Jersey Devil! Jersey Devil was my first RMC Single rail coaster, and our first two rides in the morning underwhelmed me, at least based on my expectations for it. I rode first in the front seat, then the back seat, and while the back was definitely better than the front for air, it wasn't as wild as I was expecting. At the end of the day, after dark, and presumably, after the coaster had sufficiently warmed up throughout the day, it was a different story! I rode in the 4th seat from the front, and 3rd from the back (on the last train of the night!), and both were awesome rides, wild, and full of airtime, just like I was anticipating! So clearly this is another coaster that gets better as the day goes on! Waits were manageable all day, with none ever topping a half hour for JD (I hate the "Coaster" part of the name, so I just ignore it, FYI), so that gives an idea of the crowd levels of the day. It broke down a couple of times, just that I saw, but never seemed to stay down long. All in all, it was a great coaster, and a great addition to the park! I love the area around it, and I'd say it settles in nicely as the second best coaster at the park, behind The Bull! I'm not sure what our longest wait of the day was for, but it felt like it was for the parachutes ride! lol Only two chutes were operating, which turned what seemed like a reasonable line, into one that pretty much matched the wait time for Superman nearby (I went on Parachutes with my 7 year old while the older three kids went on Superman, and there wasn't much time difference between our experiences!) The longest wait of the day may have been either Kingda Ka (with a breakdown included), or Green Lantern (for obvious reasons), but even those topped out around 40-45 minutes. Not bad for a Summertime day at GAdv, and we were able to pretty much do the whole park that we wanted to do! We skipped Joker because we're not crazy about it in general, and we preferred to get more rides on JD. I attempted to get on Wonder Woman, which would have been my first Giant Discovery, but as it had been doing all day, it broke down as soon as I entered the line, and it was near the end of the day, so I didn't bother staying in line. I don't think it opened again. It also was pulling a large wait, it appeared. The longest wait time of the day on the app was stunningly Nitro, which was listed as 70 minutes! I couldn't believe it, as B&M Hypers are usually people eaters. We rode it early in the day and it was a walk-on, but we skipped a second ride at night due to the wait. All in all, a great day at GAdv, and I have to say this is definitely my favorite SF park for rides, and thrills! My kids also loved it, and my 7 year old looks forward to coming back when he's over 54", so he can ride everything he missed this time around! I have a few other thoughts about the day, and the park, but I'll have to post them at a later time, as I have to crash right now, as we're hitting the road to make the 12 hour trip back home in about 8 hours.

Wrong. Worlds of Fun is ruled out by default.

I like the discussion here because it shows actual real world examples of how the job situation is much more complex than this whole "people are lazy, cut their employment and they will get back to work" nonsense. Many industries and societal norms were already changing, for better or worse, and the COVID ordeal hastened the change to something faster than many businesses could/can deal with....and it sure seems to me instead of having a conversation about what the real problem may be with certain said businesses, there is just this odd aim to blame "lazy" people which really doesn't accomplish anything. Parks having to combat kids not working because of over-study or too many activities I can see being a real issue. I also do find it to be sad, because so many practical skills are learned at those first jobs. Skills that I'd argue are probably of more value than many of those advanced mathematics or other "impress the college" courses. I'm not sure what the parks are going to do to solve the issue. While Covid may be keeping some of their usual temporary labor at home for this season, I see what Kim says as a trend that isn't going to stop.

YES! I love my parents to death, but they are still in the group of people saying "people are still just sitting at home, making more doing that than actually working." I really just want to bring up that the enhanced unemployment benefits ended a month ago and places are still short-staffed and that if they are still sitting at home making more, then it should be a bigger problem that their job was paying them so little. What the previous user said as well with suburban teens and such, as a college student in Springfield, Missouri, I am seeing fewer and fewer of my classmates working jobs through school. Granted, I go to a private college where most of the families are upper middle class or just rich, but many of them do sports that require training through the summer. This is a bit obscure, but many of these kids train all throughout the summer just to ensure that they get and then maintain sports scholarships that pay more towards their schooling than what they could have earned from a summer job. Through school, I've been working about 35 hours a week, and I am exhausted all the time and it really does detract from some of the quality of my school work. Granted, I am still pulling a 3.8 GPA, but I know that other students struggle a lot more than I do and really do need to spend all the time they have on studying and schoolwork.

I was at KD Sunday. I rode TT 10x and they were allowing re-rides if there was no one waiting in your row. There are no loose items allowed. And the lockers are for small items like cell phones and keys. If you have a bag, you can't even enter the queue. You walk through a metal detector mid-queue and they steer you to a locker if you have any loose articles. The lockers seemed to work fine for me because there was no crowd. It has to be a complete clusterfuck when the ride is crowded. One caveat, when you re-open your locker, it is easy to shut the door by mistake before you grab your stuff. I was able to retrieve my stuff by entering my DOB and symbol again. When I got my locker, it said my number was 36. When I found 36, someone else was putting their stuff in there. The person said they just assumed it was theirs because it popped open when they entered their info. I entered my info on the screen on the far right (there are three) and my locker was pretty far to the left side. The lockers have two doors and you can access the locker from the exit line. On my last ride, there was a logjam at the lockers/metal detectors, so I bailed for a tasty IPA at The Parched Pig afterward. I checked TPR's facebook group to find that Intimidator had started running so I went over for 4x rides with no lines.

Coastersaurus does not belong in any 'worst' list...let alone a list with Bandit and Coaster Express! It's a kiddie woodie. This is why it may be time to take 'kiddie' rides off the poll.

I kind of feel like arcades, FECs, and amusement type places are similar, so I posted this here. The museum of pinball in Banning California has closed and there will be an auction to liquidate the equipment. Banning was near Casino Morongo so nice for gambling and arcade games. Despite the article, you previously were able to play all weekend for $150 or approx. $60 per day. It was a nice family weekend. I am glad the pinball place survived in Vegas. https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2021/07/a-look-back-at-the-museum-of-pinballs-huge-collection-of-games/

I vote for many more aquatrax so Elissa can continue getting soaked by kids who reach their arm out to create a wake