Leaderboard

@hoppedup, the only problem with waiting until getting to the park to make the decision on Fast Lane/skip the line pass is that many parks are selling out on a regular basis. Personally that's not a risk I'm willing to take.

not only new paint on the coaster itself tho . . just wait until you see the new Queue/showbuilding. . it looks AMAZING. (and they have enclosed part of the "porch" giving an indoor section) some pics Park President Jeffrey Siebert has posted on his twitter:

I'm a big planner so I'll do a ton of research, buy whatever fast pass tickets they have, and hit up the rides that are most important to me first followed by low capacity rides I'm interested in. I also try to look if they have any signature food item to try.

Unfortunately that CEO is gone. I too loved those videos.

The announcement vids were the best, just give it to me all at once!

It is National Roller Coaster day and track/supports are already on site, but then again it's Six Flags were talking about. I do miss the videos where they announced all of the parks' new rides at once. I'd watch it with my kids and we'd make plans on what SF parks we were going to hit the next year.

I'm on my desktop with really good internet and it's slooooowwww for me. I feel like it really started tanking with the new forum software, which I love, but the speed is painful. Edit - It took six seconds to add that text only comment.

Yes, and has been like this for me for a while, whether I'm logged in on mobile, at home (desktop) or work (also desktop).

It’s been very slow on my iPhone for a few weeks now.

New board has always been slow loading. Sometimes it seem to keep the session open and fetch topics quickly, but generally there's a few second pause before it seems to kick into gear and load something. Similar to a lot of Wordpress sites. Seems like it might be bit worse the last few days and taking longer to load. Wonder if the increased delay is associated with the icons on the avatars. Seems like those were added in the last week or two, I think.

it's been slow for a while now for me.

Your slower than normal ride on American Thunder surprises me. I rode it as my first coaster in the morning when we got there and it was moving pretty good so maybe just a time of the day thing maybe? I totally agree about Boss, it was painful and not fun at all I couldn't wait to get back to the station and be off of it, probably the worse coaster I've ever been on. I didn't get a chance to ride Screamin Eagle because I got there later in the afternoon and that whole back section was closed even though it was running in the morning so I'm guessing staffing issues. The train was shut down to so missed that as well. I did like the mine train coaster, not fast but was fun. I didn't get to Ninja because I was too worried about cracking my head on the restraint and having a headache.

I did actually get on the mine train, it just didn't make too much of an impression. Having been on Thunderation the day before, it really didn't have much of a chance. An RMC Boss could be pretty fantastic; that would definitely get me back to the park! I really wanted to love the other wooden coasters. One just managed to mess my back up (it wasn't even a rough ride, it just caught me juuuust right...) and the other...well, I don't know what happened with American Thunder, but I do hope I can get on it again when it's running better sometime!

nice report .. yeah, Excalibur was down on my 1 visit too. we have a follow-up trip planned in 2022, so I can see the updated Carousel, and ride Excalibur. too bad you didnt' do the mine train, I actually quite enjoyed it. (and as a lover of Ferris Wheels, a spin on Colossus was a great way to see the park). by the way, from what TeacherKim has told me, Boss had been scheduled for RMC conversion. . .but then: Covid/park closures/plans scuttled.. etc. . ). hopefully that plan will come back around again, as I hated it too. (tho LOVED American Thunder and Screamin Eagle)

Day three was an early start and off to Six Flags St Louis. This was not among my must-do parks, but not only was I driving through the area but I have a couple local friends there, one of whom hasn't had a chance to get to an amusement park in many years, so I arranged to meet up with them and head for the park. Neither really wanted to spend a full day at a park, but I was generally fine with that; I could hit the important stuff here and then rest up a bit since SDC had been so tiring, and I still had most of a week of walking left. There was at least one thing I was looking forward to there, though not one of the coasters at all. When I was much younger, in my high school junior year, my school took us to Six Flags Great Adventure, where I really wanted to get on their giant Evolution. Of course, I walked up to the ride, took one look at it, and decided that maaaaaybe I'd try it later on after I worked up some nerve. Unfortunately, when I came back later, the ride was broken down for the day...as, apparently, was frequently the case. Two years later I returned to the park, and...it was down all day again. Shortly after that it was removed from the park, but was moved to Six Flags St Louis and renamed Excalibur, where it's now the only Bussink giant Evolution running anywhere in the world. I'd chased it halfway across the country and now I really wanted to finally get on it. Of course there was a lot of park between the gates and that ride. The entrance area is cute enough; pretty typical Six Flags but not bad! It quickly starts to look...a bit more early 2000s Six Flags again though. ...alright, not ever Six Flags is doing great with the landscaping, I guess. We skipped past American Thunder and the flume since everyone else was heading that way, and planned to start right at the back, but turned the corner to find Justice League open with absolutely no one in the queue. ...which...was good because the queue was not a particularly attractive place to hang out in the direct sunlight. A little nicer indoors, but still empty. Six Flags actually made some effort with theming on Justice League. Disney it's not, but not bad! The ride itself is definitely a budget version of some of the bigger interactive dark rides; the vast majority of the action takes place on screens with only limited physical sets, and only the screens are interactive. Two of the guns in our car didn't seem to work either. Still, it's worth a ride through, and it does make good use of the cars' movement. Not Spider-Man or even DarKastle (RIP) but amusing, especially with no wait. Heading out of that ride left me with a towering blue spire right in front of me. Well, I wasn't missing this one! Both of my friends were...not up to starting out with that kind of coaster, but there was nearly no line, so I let them find some shade while I headed over to Mr Freeze. Six Flags really could do something with the central area here and make the ride look a bit more attractive though. ...and...they could do a LOT with the area closer to the station building. Noooot the chain's best effort here. Inside, though, the station looks pretty good. It's a pretty nice setup two, with two loading areas to load and unload one train while the other is carried to the center on a transfer track and launched...backwards...out to the spire. It rides pretty much like the other older Premier launch coasters I've been on, Flight of Fear, Poltergeist etc, which is to say it's not the smoothest ride out there, but not too unbearable. The launch, especially backwards, is pretty intense. After that you've got a reasonably tall top hat, a fast overbanked turn, and then a climb up the spire before doing it all backwards. Er, front-wards. It could be a better ride with some attention to theming instead of just plopping it in a messy field, but still a fun coaster. There was absolutely no one in the station except waiting for the front row when my train returned, so I got another ride out of it, and could have stayed for more but felt a bit bad leaving my friends, so headed back to meet them, so we could finish heading to the back of the park. About the greenest part of the park... REALLY? Halfway across the country, and for the third time... I was not thrilled...but not particularly surprised either. Didn't see much need to prioritize this after just riding Spinning Dragons the other day. Supergirl...great ride, still not as good as a classic Enterprise. One of my friends said they were at least up to doing a classic wood coaster, so we both looked up at the treeline behind Supergirl and I tried not to cringe. I'd heard enough about the Boss... I was nice enough to warn my friend, but...they were not dissuaded and I was going to want to get on it eventually anyway. It...looks pretty good! I love the layout. The BANG THUNK BANG noises the train made tearing past were not promising though. There used to be a helix back there. It was apparently removed because it was too rough? ...What about the rest of the coaster? When the train comes back into the station, the op asks how the ride was, and everyone on it groans, you know what you're in for. The Boss was not the worst coaster I've ever ridden. Hercules at Dorney still takes that spot, especially the last year before it was torn down. The most painful that's still standing though? Easily. I really wish this wasn't the case; the coaster's size, speed, and layout really should make it a great one, but I barely remember what it actually did after the first drop; I was trying to brace myself to avoid major trauma, and trying to reassure my friend that no, coasters aren't usually like this. I'd love to know what The Boss is like when it's running well, if it ever runs well, but what a disaster. Needing something less likely to result in spinal fractures, and wanting to let my second friend who was not feeling up to major rides come along, we decided it was worth waiting a bit for the River King mine train. For a family coaster, it's...fine. It's not even in the same league as Thunderation, or any of the major Cedar Fair parks' mine trains, and it seems to spend more time on lift hills than actual track, but...it's fine. That's about all I can say for it. I remember seeing in Bert's report from a couple years ago that the carousel was in absolutely tragic shape. Fortunately they seem to be doing something about that. The carousel looks a little sad just sitting there without horses, but I'm not going to knock any points off the park for that if it was in such desperate need of restoration; at least they'd doing what they need to do. No one was particularly inclined to do this "coaster" either. And I didn't really need to go out of my way for another Boomerang...but Screamin' Eagle looked more tempting. According to the park map, and the app, there was a shoot-the-chute ride here. They might want to double check that, or consider some serious changes to their theft prevention strategies.. The artwork here is starting to look a bit sad. Some pretty solid floater air on the first hill here. Screamin' Eagle was not bad, certainly better than The Boss. Unfortunately it hit one serious pothole coming off of the second airtime hill, and I hit the seat just wrong and wrenched something in my back very painfully. The rest of the ride was mostly spent trying in vain to keep any more pressure off my back, so I didn't get to enjoy it much. I got off the coaster seriously concerned about my back for the rest of the trip. Definitely time for something calmer for a bit to rest after that anyway, so I gathered my friends for a circuit about the park on the train. It's a full size train, at least; somewhat more than I expected here. River King from the back side. Not exactly a monster of a coaster there. I didn't think any bandits were going to be jumping the train from this one. Scenic rusted shipping containers. Really, Six Flags. Yet Another Batman...Both of my friends were absolutely terrified of this one. Yes, I know. Hello GCI curves! Now we're talking...maybe this park had something worthwhile after all. Cute little switching engine...not sure what a small park railroad really needs one for but still... One more try for Excalibur, aaaand nope. Still closed. Ffffffff... Apparently this is a show venue, in Better Days, but just background scenery now. It was well past lunch time, and we all decided on Chop Six, which was, of course, now at the opposite end of the park, but everyone was feeling like chinese food. Well...everyone except the park. Hungry as we were, we settled for burgers and bbq at Mooseburgers Lodge. This was a nightmare. The staff in that restaurant had no idea what they were doing and wanted to be anywhere but there. I tried to buy lunch for everyone, attempting to use my meal plan for myself and the 50% off from my membership for the other two lunches, but the woman at the register could not make this happen. First it was one lunch at half off, then everything half off, then one free meal from the meal plan but the rest full price. Eventually I gave in and paid full price for my friends' meals, because we were getting nowhere. At that point we were just sort of waved off to go wait with the horde of people also waiting for their meal. No one was calling numbers; we were left to figure out on our own to bring our receipt up to the window to the kitchen area and ask the staff there for what we'd ordered. That was when I figured out that the woman on the register had rung up the wrong meal for me, because the woman who checked my receipt decided the proper response was to scream at me that I'd ordered something different than I said I had. She also would not hear it that they'd rung it up wrong, insisted I had ordered the wrong meal, and would not hear otherwise. (The two meals were, also, exactly the same price...) I understand that, especially this year, park food staff is stressed, and I try to give them a lot of extra room, but this was the single most miserable person I have ever dealt with at an amusement park. We finally managed to get three pulled pork sandwiches...not what I'd ordered but food all the same...and asked for the bottles of water we'd ordered to go with them, at which point we were told the register girl was supposed to give them to us and we had to go back through that line. For what it's worth, the BBQ was not actually bad for Six Flags food. I think it was more sauce than pork, but with how hungry we were, it tasted good. Actually getting our hands on it was a ridiculous process though. By time we managed to deal with lunch, we all figured it was time for some water rides to cool down. Six Flags St Louis has a pretty decent looking raft ride with huge twelve person rafts, and people getting off of it ranged from soaked to half-drowned. We were up for that. The queue for the raft ride there also offers some good views of Mr Freeze from the back side. We managed to get to share a raft with a guy who spent the entire time in line talking about how masks and vaccines are a hoax, there's no covid in florida, it's all just politics, etc etc, which was...quite a delight... The actual raft ride is fairly simple, just a big square loop, without much in the line of effects, waterfalls, etc, but the back stretch has a series of increasingly fast and rough rapids that, at least on our ride, the raft spun at a perfect speed to subject a new pair of seats to each one. One of my friends and I were just barely spared by the first wave, which pretty well soaked the people next to us, but they just kept getting bigger, and of course heading into the last rapids, we were riiiiight there for it. I've gotten wet on raft rides before; I have never had a wave come up over head height. Absolute drenched...a good thing in the day's heat though! Given how wet we already were, there wasn't much reason not to do the flume now. ' SFStL's flume is actually two different flumes, not mirrors of each other, but only one was running with the moderate crowds. Neither flume is particularly big, but...I'm not sure there's a such thing as a bad flume? My friends had to find somewhere to sit again though, because I was not going to a park with a GCI and skipping it. The line for American Thunder didn't look long, but it was absolutely crawling, and by time I was halfway through I was getting texts asking where I was. Ah yes. Crew of the week. Two of the crew of the week were spending quite a bit of time in the station with their heads down looking barely conscious. Again...I know staffing is hard at parks this year, but...operations were abysmal. On one hand, American Thunder is by far the smoothest of the wood coasters at this park. On the other...I don't think I've ever ridden a GCI coaster that crawled over the track like this. It barely felt like it had the momentum to get over most of the hills. I've read good things about this one in other reports, and it seemed like it should have been as good as I'd heard, if it just carried any speed...and looking up POVs on it, it definitely used to...but this year or at least when I was there, it just was not that coaster. Maybe it's just desperately in need of maintenance right now, but this was the only time I'd ever been badly disappointed in a GCI coaster. Unfortunately wrapping it in American Flags and putting up signs about how great the staff are do not replace actually taking care of the ride. As is it makes a better metaphor than a coaster... I was running out of major coasters and the only one I'd really enjoyed so far had been Mr Freeze...but I still had Ninja, which I'd been warned about as well. Still, it was a classic Arrow, I wasn't going to skip it. Not the biggest of the old arrow multi element coasters, but I rather like the layout. I was expecting a beating though. An exciting (**TURBULENT**) ride. Yeah... Gotta say though, maybe it was just a low bar with how bad I expected it to be, and how much The Boss and Screamin' Eagle had beat me up, but I didn't think it was all that bad? Certainly smoother than Vortex at KI had been (and I very much enjoyed Voxtex anyway). Much to my surprise...this ended up being one of the two coasters there that I actually liked. The half cobra roll into the helix felt pretty unique, especially on a coaster of Ninja's age. Solid ride and I'm glad to see that despite everything else Six Flags seems to be generally taking care of it. After the long wait for American Thunder, I felt a bit bad about making my friends wait any more, so I decided to pass on Batman. I'd been on plenty of those clones before and I'd get another chance at one later in the week...a somewhat more "special" one at that. My back was extremely unhappy with me, too, so we decided to make it an early day so I could rest up and hopefully not be in pain for Holiday World the next day. ...but not without a funnel cake sundae first. Six Flags' funnel cakes are generally the best but one of my friends had never had one, so... Overall...there were a couple reasonably decent rides, but Six Flags St Louis definitely does not come across as the high point of the chain. A lot of it feels badly neglected, many of the rides are in rough shape, and the staff was absolutely awful. This was, fortunately, the low point of my week and the only park I was unhappy with for the most part. If I do this trip again next year to bring others with me like I want to, I'll be skipping this one and doing the St Louis City Museum instead, I think Unless Excalibur is actually open, but I'm not getting my hopes up. Required photo of course. For anyone else coming out this way, I stayed overnight at the Baymont by Wyndham Evansville North/Haubstadt. It felt like a much more expensive hotel than the $65 or so I paid for the night, was very clean and comfortable, and offered what looked like a quite decent breakfast (that I didn't stay for, because I was headed to Holiday World).

^Good a reason as any.

generally? I go into a park blind, and don't do much research other than reading a few Trip Reports to familiarize myself with opening times, and/or what rides might have the lowest capacity (so look for advice when to go to them). I really like the "discovery" aspect.. so what I tend to do is to just wander the park, stopping at attractions/rides, as I pass them and if interested hop on. Then I move on to the next thing (tho if something is really good, I'll ride it twice while there). . .otherwise, I move on, and try to go back later to ride it again. I did that in Japan really, but I admit I also benefited greatly by being there WITH a group of folks from TPR, several of whom had been to the parks before, and could point me in the direction of things not to miss. Tho still, for most part experienced the parks as I wandered thru them. (tho I did know about the El Dorado Carousel and it's great historical value at Toshimaen well before I got to that park, so made sure I got to ride it - even tho I was the only one in the group I was hanging with wanted to ride it.. so I went off solo to get a couple of rides on it) hope this helps?

Before going to a new park, I make a list on my phone of any ride I'd like to experience. I then figure out where they are in the park and figure out a plan for opening. Typically, I go for the signature rides first in the event weather or maintenance becomes an issue. If there's a super low capacity ride on the way and I can walk onto it, I'll knock that out on the way.

Thank you so much for this answer. This helped out a ton!! and yes, parks in europe, especially germany, are really top tier, especially Europe Park and the Expedition GeForce in HolidayPark, cant talk about all other countries in europe, need to visit their parks all step by step now.

Welcome! I'm still fairly new here myself, but I've found these boards to be a great source of information before visiting a new park. It looks like you may be based in Germany; unfortunately I haven't been to any parks in Europe, but I think the experiences I've had in America should be pretty applicable to Europe as well. When looking for new parks, I use sites like coast2coaster or RCDB to help find new locations. Before visiting a new park for the first time, personally I like to inform myself of the attractions and read some past trip reports from other users. There's a thread for pretty much every park on this forum, check out the index here I always like getting to the park early (30-45 minutes before opening), you can knock out a lot of rides fairly quickly during the first few hours of the day before crowds pick up. The first attraction I'll ride at any new park really depends on what's there. If there's a world-class attraction, I'll usually cave and go ride that first in case it breaks down or closes unexpectedly. If there are no standout coasters, usually I'll hit rides with lower capacity first (like a Gerstlauer spinner or a wild mouse) as lines for these rides can get pretty slow later in the day. Yes, I would absolutely encourage rerides on your favorite attractions. Definitely try out different rows/seats, certain coasters can offer very different experiences in the front vs. in the back. Hope that helps

Looks like it was open most of the day. Down for an hour around 2, then an hour for weather later. https://www.dollywoodwaittimes.com/ride.php?ride=Lightning+Rod&day=2021-08-15

Photo TR: August 14th, 2021 Well, if you recall, I'm in the middle of a road trip to Indianapolis for a work conference, so I decided to stop by Indiana Beach. I knew full well that Triple Loop would not be open (or even constructed), but I figured I might as well since who knows the next time I'll be back in the area, and the park never really seemed like a "destination" park to me. That was thoroughly confirmed. First things first, apparently there is an absolutely MASSIVE wind farm south of the park. I had never seen so many windmills in one place in my life...by rough estimates from driving through, I'd have to guess it was 3-400. Here's the best picture I could get while driving: I arrived to the park right around 11, when the rides are scheduled to start running. Any recent visitor to the website will see this note that ride operating schedules rotate around based on staffing, but today I only saw that apply to the kiddie rides. Note that Falling Star, Alpine Bobs, and the Skycoaster did not operate at all during my trip and were noted on the sign at entry as non-operating. Anyway, I made my way across the very scenic (and unsettingly moving) bridge to the park. I got a lot of Knoebels-esque vibes from this place, which would sadly not translate to the quality of the rides. Water swings looked cool with the waterfall effect, but didn't really appear to do anything special, so were skipped. Lost Coaster of Superstition Mountain was my first ride of the day. First, that name is ridiculous. I get that it was rebuilt from a dark ride called "Superstition Mountain," but adding "Lost Coaster of" at the beginning just sounds corny. Second, I absolutely appreciate the effort that went in to designing and building this ride. As everyone knows, everything at IB is kinda intertwined and overlayed on top of eachother, and the extremely tight turns and sharp inclines/declines featured on LCoSM are no exception. The elevator lift was cool, too. And I understand the need for the wonky net/cages around the cars, because otherwise everyone and their mother would be sticking their arms out and getting their hands ripped off by the scenery. What I do not get is the need for backwards-facing seats. I got stuck in one of them, and out of a need to see what was coming on a coaster with as tight turns as this one, I ended up with a wicked crink in my neck from turning halfway around the whole ride. Also, capacity was horrible...I didn't see any other trains, but they were only running one. This would become a pattern throughout the day. Wait and ride time was 25 minutes. Overall, yeah it's a cool concept, but the roughness and backwards ride just weren't for me. 4/10. Next up was the awesome dark ride, Den of Lost Thieves. Complete with a hilarious limit of only one rider over 54" regardless of weight per car, maybe viewable in this picture if you zoom enough. What did I think? Great classic. Great effects. Simple and well-executed shooting mechanism, with accurate guns. What more can be said? Wait and ride time of 19 minutes. 8/10. Paratrooper seemed to be running a stupidly slow cycle, so was skipped, especially given I have Knoebels awesomely-run one so close to home. While walking down the midway, I came across their pinball arcade, which also features some old-school Sega and Nintendo consoles set up for play. Pinball fans rejoice, since I took pictures of all of them! I continued to wonder, and just kinda took in the scenery. I imagine that much of the park looks like it did 30-40 years ago, which is great. Grabbed a pretzel and bottle of water from a stand, went outside and took a smoke break, and came back in and decided to hit some more coasters. They also had a Fascination parlor, for those many of you here who dig it. Next up was Tig'rr. Pronounced like the Pooh charcacter, or Tiger? The world may never know. Ether way, old-school Schwarzkopf Jet Star 1? Hell yes! They were only running two cars (out of three visible), which meant I had a total wait-and-ride time of 25 minutes, but it also meant that none of the block/trim brakes activated, resulting in an absolutely FLYING ride through the course. I hadn't ridden one of these since the one at Casino Pier in Seaside Heights was replaced in the late '90s, and it was just as good as I remember from my teen years. 9/10. I also had to laugh at the old-school transfer track "mechanism," which I use the term lightly, since it's just "move a lever and push the track that way." Next up was Cornball Express (sorry I didn't grab a pic of the sign, so this one of the train pulling into the station is all you get. No grouper? Yay! PTC Buzz-bar trains? Double Yay! Super-lackadasical enforcement of seatbelt tightness? Triple Yay! CCI hybrid typical roughness? Boo. That said, this was a decent enough ride for one lap (I don't think my brain could take a second), in the front row. Got plenty of air, but some of the laterals were just too much with the shuffling along the track. Also, this was only running one train and I didn't see a parking track anywhere for a second, which makes no sense. 13 minute wait-and-ride time for the front row. Now that I look back at it, I should have gone around for another lap in the back, but that'll have to wait for the next trip. 7/10. The most hilariously poorly-housed Musik Express ever was skipped due to a WAY too long line, and much better examples being located closer to me. Next ride for me was Steel Hawg. First thing that jumped out at me were that the restraints reminded me a lot of the failed Togo from SFGADv, Viper, in the way the shoulder restraints weren't hinged but instead lowered onto your shoulders. See video: VID_20210814_132339997.mp4 What did I think? Well first off, my concerns regarding the shoulder restraints held true. While being loaded in, I did sit up perfectly straight, and then slouched a little bit for the ride, and attempted to hold myself off the restraints, but that didn't completely work, resulting in the "hooks" jabbing into my shoulders a few times throughout the ride. That said, this thing is insane. It's like a combination of a Wild Mouse with the flat turns and compact layout and an RMC with the outer-banked turns and inverted hangtime. Honestly I'm surprised so few of these were built and think it would be a great fit for a real boardwalk park like Morey's or one of the ones in Ocean City, MD, and Kings Dominion should've gone with this instead of the S&S Free Spin. Running two out four available cars, for a wait-and-ride time of 13 minutes. 7/10 Oh, and in the background of this picture, you can see the progress (or rather, lack thereof) on Triple Loop. I'm definitely digging the new paint scheme though, and hopefully it'll be open the next time I'm passing through the area in like 5 years. Next up was Hoosier Hurricane. Once again, I forgot to grab a picture of the sign, but here's the train leaving the station. While waiting in line, I heard a dad tell his young daughter that this wasn't as rough as Cornball Express, so I had high hopes here. The layout also looked conducive to some great airtime. After a 26 minute wait-and-ride time (only running one train here, though they have two, and wasting 30 seconds stopped in the final block brake before the transfer block per lap). for the front row, I was sadly disappointed on both accounts. While it did carry some good speed and provide a couple of nice pops of air, I still found it way too rough. Maybe I'm just getting old? 5/10 After Hoosier Hurricane, and taking some more pictures (the park really is very scenic!), I figured I was done here and started to make my way back to the entrance that I came in (of the three that I found). But alas, what is this? Only the absolutely best walk-through non-staffed haunted house I have ever seen. This was a mild upcharge ($3.50), but was easily worth four times that amount. A large part of it was in near total darkness, and the parts that were lit up were wonderfully done. So disorienting, I felt like it was 5 stories tall (but in reality was probably only two), with some massive vertical scenes. I don't want to spoil anything, but there were some awesome mechanical "scares" based around floor movement, and a room with 10 doors in it, only one of which was the right way out, and a group of 5 in front of me couldn't figure it out. No wait. 11/10. Ending the trip on a high note, I made my way out about 3 hours after I had arrived. Oh, and there was an old school Volkswagen show in a parking lot, for those into that sort of thing. Anyway, a decent enough trip (made solely so due to Frankenstein's Castle). Not a park I'd ever go to if I wasn't already in the area, and it really makes me sad for locals for whom this is the only park they'll ever know. A few other observations: -The only coaster where the ride ops made any sort of "All clear, dispatch!" announcement was Hoosier Hurricane. On all of the others, once you loaded in and they checked the restraints (maybe), you just silently rolled away. Oh, the ride op did give me a thumbs up before pressing the button on Tig'rr LOL. -The water park here has the stupidest lazy river I've ever seen. It's literally two straight lines, about 50 yards long, with 180 degree turns at either end. No fountains, no waterfalls, no nothing (that I could see anyway)...just float in a tube in a long rectangle. -I have never noticed so many guests wearing ankle monitors at a park in my life. I took a TON of pictures at this place, and will do a massive photo-dump in another post if there's demand. Tomorrow morning I'm off to Indianapolis for a week-long work conference, and then it's Cedar Point on Friday and Saturday. EDIT: My count now stands at 30 parks and 179 coasters; nothing compared to some of you but something I'm still proud of. Thanks for reading.

Iron Gwazi opening date may be announced soon. Rumors say it'll be running during the Halloween event. Q&A event with staff on video floating around where they suggest it's coming soon and keep an eye on social media.

Day 2 - Silver Dollar City While I ended up enjoying Worlds of Fun so much more than I expected, it hadn't been one of the parks that I'd desperately wanted to get to from the start. Silver Dollar City was; it was Time Traveler that really started me thinking about this trip. I really could not wait to get here, though if anything I was a little worried that putting it so early in the trip might ruin the rest of it, setting too high a bar for other parks to live up to. Part of me was a little worried, too, that after WoF subverted my expectations, SDC might too, in a less positive direction. This....did not turn out to be the case. Silver Dollar City is incredible. Starting from the beginning though... SDC is a sizeable park, with a lot of parking, way out behind the park. Just look at Wildfire way out there on the horizon. Fortunately they do have trams to bring you to the park entrance. I hadn't particularly cared enough about Wildfire to be all that excited to see it from back here; that would change enough later on. Right from the entrance, Silver Dollar City is a beautiful park. You can tell what sort of place you've found right from the start. If you haven't been here, Silver Dollar City is sort of a Busch Gardens part, with the very heavy theming and equal focus on shops and food, not just rides, only themed to America, so with a much less "fake" atmosphere. It's sort of what would happen if Knoebels had a Disney budget. It also has an amazing, if tiring, setting up on the mountainside. I've never been to another park quite like it (I assume Dollywood is close, but that's on my list for next year.) With the number of pictures I took here I'm going to run out of captions quickly. There's only so many ways I can say "Silver Dollar City is beautiful." Silver Dollar City IS beautiful though. I stopped on my way in to get a Trailblazer pass; I'd been given the suggestion not to get one ahead of time but to consider it if the weather was nice and I expected crowds. The weather was absolutely perfect and there seemed to be quite a bit of traffic following me into the park, so it seemed wise to pick one up. I didn't regret buying it, though I probably could have made do without it as most of the lines never got too bad. It did turn out to be convenient a couple times though, especially later on. The implementation of the Trailblazer pass is a little bit frustrating though, one of the few things that SDC that seemed anything less than perfect. To start with, instead of getting a wristband, or the fastpass watch type device, or anything along those lines, you get a literal pass card on a lanyard; one you're expected to wear and hold on to at all times, that can not be replaced. This is not the greatest of all solutions when you're doing to be riding things like Outlaw Run. I can only imagine how many of the expensive, non-replaceable passes get lost. I ended up tying mine around my wrist for most of the day but it was not the most comfortable solution. It's clear that the Trailblazer passes are a newer system as well, too; only the newest few rides look to have been designed to support them. Almost everything else just has Trailblazer entrances going in the exit, or what looks like an emergency exit, or just entirely out of the way. They're generally marked by very small signs as well and some are not at all easy to find. Scavenger hunts are fun and all but the pass is supposed to save time. Relatively minor nitpick but definitely something I think the park could improve on. Pass in hand, I headed straight for Time Traveler. This was why I was here, at Silver Dollar City, in the midwest to start with, and I was not giving it a chance to break down or anything before I got on it. One thing that very quickly became clear; Silver Dollar City does not hold back or spare a cent when it comes to their stations and the staff in them. There isn't a plain looking ride anywhere and every ride crew has their own uniform. Staff was almost universally great too, as friendly and helpful as I've seen anywhere, and all very efficient. After I got off Time Traveler the first time, this guy took a look at my Kings Island shirt and pulled me aside to tell me that since I was obviously an enthusiast, I had to go back around and try row 7 this time. Sound advice; Row 7 gets you hauled backwards over the first drop in spectacular fashion and is definitely the row of choice for TT. You don't get to see much of the ride from within the park, buried in a valley as it is, but this window from the queue does give you a look at the tangled mess of track here. Promising! One more look at the impressive cars. Not a missed detail on them. The actual ride starts with a vertical drop straight into the canyon, and after that it's hard to even keep up what happens. There's not much more disorienting than a good spin right through a corkscrew. There are a couple of brief moments to catch your breath before the two launches, the first of which brings the train to a complete stop before sending you back into the tangles of track, but beyond that it's just craziness. Not one I'd recommend for anyone who suffers from motion sickness though... Between the ride itself and the theming, Time Traveler absolutely lives up to all I'd heard. I went around for a few rides hers, but there was a lot more of SDC to see. Thunderation next, since it was right there, and a good park can do a lot with a mine train! Not sure if the 1880s Steam Train was supposed to be this one or the actual train nearby in the park, but no matter. Like a lot of coasters here, it's hard to get a lot of pictures of Thunderation, since it drops over the side of the valley and disappears from the park for most of the ride. It's quite big for a family mine train though, and gets moving faster than I'd expected through some respectable drops and tight helixes. It might not have the theming of Thunder Mountain for just the ride itself it might be the best mine train out there. It does feature a slightly odd, almost Adventure Express ending, where it climbs up a long lift hill far above the start, then dives down a sharp drop and picks up a ton of speed, only to immediately slam into the brakes and return to the station. Felt like there should have been more at that point...but still a good ride! Christmas Hollow, in August? They were already putting up Christmas lights elsewhere in the park though. Silver Dollar City does not skip a chance to theme anything. It's 2021 and even a rural park is providing charging stations, which is pretty great...but even better that they're doing it in style. SDC also had a food festival of sorts going on. This was unfortunately let down by their staffing issues meaning a significant number of their food stands weren't actually open. You really can't go to SDC and not ride the train. I just missed one leaving the station though, and with only one train running it was going to be a half hour before it returned. The station here also revealed one other minor possible issue with the trailblazer pass; with my "badge" on my lanyard here, I was stopped by three different groups of people asking questions about the train and the park, all assuming I was a park employee. Of course I'd done my research on the park, so I was able to help all of them! Not sure how well that usually works out though... Since I had time to kill I diverted over to the Flooded Mine. This is a somewhat unusual, almost Old Mill ish floating dark ride. I don't know if it's an older ride that was refitted as a shooting ride, or originally conceived that way, but it does feature guns now. I didn't have too much idea of what to expect here but it turned out to be pretty solid. The theming starts even on the bridge to the ride. Like every station in SDC, this one was entirely in theme for the ride, and the staff as well. The ride op in his "cell" was having a lot of fun playing in character and taunting riders, especially the younger ones. And here we go. I got a boat to myself; one of the ride ops suggested that I grab as many guns as I could and go at the ride with all of them at once. I did try at first, but amusing as it was it's too hard to hit anything that way. The old school dark ride type scenes do suggest that this ride existed long before shooting gallery rides were a thing. There are targets everywhere though. All of them seem to work as far as racking up score but not many seem to actually do anything in the ride scenes, which was a little bit disappointing. Toward the end we get an outdoor scene before heading back to the station. It's a reasonably lengthy ride and by time I was done and back to the train station it was almost time for the next train to arrive. And here it comes, right on time. The very charismatic conductor seemed to love his role. Definitely one of those rides that needs someone with personality for it to work well, and this guy delivered. The train almost immediately heads out into the woods behind the park, skirting the back of it to give some behind-the-scenes views. Including some great views of Outlaw Run. Sadly the coaster didn't want to oblige me with a train actually running through any of the elements while we passed them. A bit later you pass a wrecked train that supposedly flew off a curve; they do have an actual old engine just rusting in the woods for this scene. Soon after though it turns into a much more theatrical ride. As the train pulls to a stop here, it's obvious something is going to happen. Bandits, of course! The pair trick the conductor into going off into the woods to look for "yankees" and then attempt to hold the train up in cartoonishly clueless fashion, before the conductor returns to save the day. We got a bit of a special version of the show on this ride, as the conductor messed up one line and forgot what day it was, which led to everyone dropping character entirely to roast him for it. It was an amusing enough scene to start but that definitely had everyone in the train laughing. A bit predicable otherwise but quite a lot of fun and well acted. Getting off the train, I headed a little further into the park... Making a note for something I definitely was going to want to try later. Which one though? SDC is a little bit confusingly laid out, but the park helps with signs like this right on the pathways. Why don't more parks do this? Towards the back corner is a tall observation tower. It was closed off at the time but it looked like guest might be allowed in it at other times, or perhaps previous years? Firefall, the park's drop tower is small but exceptionally themed, like everything else here, built into a rustic fire station. I skipped this one though; themed or not an 80 foot drop tower didn't hold my interest all that much. Mystic River Falls though...that had my attention. Unfortunately, while it had been running for an hour or two at the start of the day, it apparently broke down just as I approached it. That doesn't seem unusual for this ride, from what I've heard. Across the path...the legend. I figured I'd save that for later though; I was going to want lunch soon and real food sounded like a good plan before treats. Christmas lights going up in August. Tom and Huck's Riverblast sits around the corner from the cinnamon bread here. This seemed to be getting completely ignored by most of the guests, but it looked fun to me! Groups of 3 or more? Groups of 1 or 2? Groups of...anyone at all? Given how warm it was, I really don't know how this ride was so overlooked. Riverblast sits you in ten person ish boats (or, in my case, one person boats) with big water cannons powered by hand cranks. These will give you a bit of a workout keeping them firing for the entire ride...but the manual power almost means you can take some people by surprise with them if you put a little more effort into cranking them! "You can't hit me up here!" Wrrrrroooooong! There are all sorts of targets through the course, and while there are no electronic score keepers on this ride, a lot of them do trigger effects; some just cute props, some that will soak spectators, other riders on your boat, or yourself! Of course, the most fun targets are the people lining up to shoot back at you from the sidelines! It's a fairly lengthy course too and densely packed with things to see, shoot, and soak. Really great water ride and I wish more parks had these! More people seemed to be interested in blasting the riders from the stationary cannons than riding it, so I got off absolutely soaked, but I'd like to think I gave better than I got! Mystic River Falls...still closed with the elevator stuck up at the top. The Great Barn Swing is an S&S screamin' swing with far better theming than the usual ones. ...is it though? Unfortunately, despite the lovely scenery, the flats at this park, even the big ones, are a tiny bit of a letdown. They all seem to run very short cycles; the screamin swing barely got up to full height before it was done. These never run long cycles but this was definitely the shortest I've seen. Outlaw Run though is not a flat ride, and I expected a bit more there... Not sure how many times I can say that SDC goes all out with their stations. If there's a bare spot they find something to put there. That's a decent sized lift hill. Outlaw Run roars back into the station sideways. So...Outlaw run was one of the coasters I was most excited for on this trip. I've never been on an RMC I didn't love. I actually got off this one a bit underwhelmed though at first. Part of that was my expectations; somehow I missed that this was not an i-box track but an older one and it definitely did not give the same sort of ride. It was actually fairly rough though with serious bumps in places I didn't expect them. It does have some great, intense elements but it didn't seem to flow all that well compared to others I've been on, and it's painfully short. I went around for a second try in the back to give it another shot, but got off that thinking that it was just something of an overrated ride. Not bad, but not so good as I'd heard. (Before anyone even says anything, let me jump ahead and spoil things a bit. I did go back on it later after dark, and...yeah. We'll get to THAT.) Lets take another look at Mystic Riv...nope. Still stuck. Not looking great here. Bitter butter sounds pretty awful to me. Muddy butter sounds worse. Silver Dollar City is pretty. I may have mentioned that. As I'd mentioned earlier, a lot of the food stands were closed due to staffing. This one was really disappointing. I'd been so looking forward to this. I wasn't sure if getting a burger at a park renowned for unique food was a good plan, but I'd passed a lot of closed places, I was getting very hungry and the Wildfire burger did look good. The outdoor seating area was really pleasant too. The burger was not bad by park food standards but maybe not up to a lot of the other food at this particular park. A bit skimpy on the toppings and the portion of fries was a little sad, but the burger itself was still very good. I didn't mind the smaller portions too much either since it meant I'd more likely have room to try other things later. That's...uplifting? No, wait, that's the opposite. I'd been waiting a long time to get on Fire in the Hole. I love unique dark rides and this was definitely that. SDC Station Porn. I didn't take any pictures in the ride itself, since apart from it being dark and them being unlikely to come out well, I knew the ride had surprise drops and I really didn't want to lose my phone in there. I'm not actually sure if the rules allowed it or not on that ride anyway; I didn't even care to look. This would not have been a good week to spend the rest of with no phone. It's a great ride though with a lot of fun scenes (and a couple good drops) but it did seem like a number of props and scenes weren't working. Maybe they were just meant to be static, but I've heard others say it needs some work too. Nothing that made it really less worth riding though. The bridge drop really is great for a dark ride. The first time through, I got very wet on the drop into the water break, too. Oddly I went back for more, got put in the exact same seat, with the same fully loaded train, and got almost no splash at all. Really though...what is it about rural american parks and dark rides about fires that burned the towns around them down? SDC has history too, not just rides. On my way to Expedition Ever...oh, nope, this is Powder Keg. Powder Keg is a very strange ride. It opened more than twenty years ago as a Premier water coaster named Buzzsaw Falls. From what I've heard, it was great if you got a chance to ride it, but it suffered absolutely constant technical issues. Only a few years later the park gave up on it in that form and called S&S in to rebuild it into a launched coaster. This resulted in a bizarre hybrid franken-ride that absolutely looks like nothing else out there. It has a very cobbled-together-from-mismatched-bits look to it, and features a bizarre station that leads into a transfer track that lifts the train diagonally up into the launch platform. From there, you get a solid launch, into an average track with some decent floater air but not a lot of real action, and then a long lift hill back up to the station area, from which you can see the troughs that used to carry the water part of the ride. It's not bad by any means, just very unusual, and definitely worth a ride, but personally I'd call it the weakest of the park's coasters, though the launch is decent. The launch section, at the top of the transfer track. From here I headed on up to Wildfire. Welllll, sort of. The Wildfire sign is about a quarter mile from the actual ride and it's not even the first ride you get to up this way! SDC is a very pretty...you know what, nevermind, just look. On the way to Wildfire I found myself at American Plunge, the park's very nice flume ride. Themed to Great American Feats of the 1880s, apparently. Outside the queue...yeah, I don't actually know what this is about. Probably best to keep it away from the Ozarks Voltage Tree though. aaaaand... Skloosh! I made my way around to the ride entrance, looking for the Trailblazer pass entrance, but I absolutely could not find it here. Not by the entrance or the exit! After getting a bit frustrated, I reasoned that the regular line wasn't really even that long and I still had a ton of time in the day, so instead of worrying about it I'd just get in the regular line. After waiting in that line for about ten minutes I looked further up the path and realized that if you ignored the signs for American Plunge, left that area and followed the signs for WIldfire...then you would find yourself at the flume's Trailblazer pass entrance. Right then. The flume itself starts by heading into a long dark tunnel that meanders about a bit... Before emptying you into a very nice little glade out here, hidden from the rest of the park! ...before it returns into a shorter tunnel...and then there's the Skloosh! GREAT flume overall though. Now I could actually head up to Wildfire. You can't see much of the ride from out here; you have to head around to the observation platform behind the park for that. Wildfire's station. Wildfire was not one of the coasters I'd heard much about. From the numbers it would make sense that it's not a standout coaster; it's very much on the smaller end for a B&M coaster, just a "plain" old sit down coaster, not particular fast. Far more than its numbers would suggest though, Wildfire is elevated by its...well, elevation. Built right on the side of the mountain, it offers incredible views out over the valley. The first immelman off of the lift hill dives down to the valley's edge, and even though it's only a 120' coaster, when the ground drops away in front of you as you twist back up into the sky, it feels hundreds of feet taller. The same in the cobra roll, if you look to the side and see Branson stretched out beneath you and the horizon so far off in the distance. It's a small coaster that gives an unlikely illusion of flight because of those views, aided by being one of the smoothest B&Ms I've been on in years. The layout isn't incredibly intense but it has a nice flow to it too, perhaps less forceful but more graceful, that works well with the scenic location. I don't think it's an incredibly well loved coaster but I have to call it one of the most underrated in my opinion. I kinda fell in love with this one and the views off of it, and went back for I don't even know how many rides...which was easy to do with no lines and the exit opening right into the empty trailblazer entrance for the front car. Wildfire goes down as one of my favorite pleasant surprises of the trip. Sure, why not. ...well. I at least hoped for something silly. That's just kinda sappy. Very...Missouri though. This is an actual functioning church and they do hold services here if you're interested in that sort of thing. Funnel cakes! These looked great but with cinnamon bread in my future, I passed. I've been trying to get in shape lately and this trip was already not going to help that. There's so much more to Silver Dollar City than rides. Like I said before it's very reminiscent of Busch Gardens with tons of shopping, shows, and demonstrations; something for everyone, definitely. Silver Dollar city is an ____________ ________ ______. You can finish on your own now! Right, that grilled cheese! I went with the brisket one in the end. Lots of cheese, plenty of brisket, tasty sourdough bread, absolutely recommended. Good sized sandwich too. Heading out towards the "expo" at the back of the park. Even the kids area here is themed to...the science of insects, okay. Multiple rides back here fit into that nicely though. The "Magnificent Wave Carousel!" Pretty but actually a little disappointing. I feel like this could have had some really spectacular views if it was positioned just a little closer to the mountainside, but as is it's mostly just trees. It also runs a very short cycle, on top of having the hard plastic seats that are anything but comfortable compared to the Zierer wave swingers. I...have no idea about these. They look tasty but very awkward to eat? Mystic River Falls...still closed but the op told me she thought they'd be open in 30-60 minutes. The elevator was moving and testing at least. Just one more shot of the park being forest-y and lovely. I had some time to kill before my scheduled lantern light cave tour...so probably to the surprise and disappointment of some on these boards, instead of Time Traveler or Outlaw Run, I spent it on Wildfire. This is, apparently, the fantasticflying machine that you are theoretically riding on Wildfire. I wonder why they call this Hill Street? SDC is wonderful, but exhausting. Some of these are perhaps a bit wiser than others. Getting closer to cave tour time, but a quick stop in the Apple Butter Store first. All kinds of sauces, jams and such here. Incredibly tempting but I had to fly home after this week, so lots of "stuff" was not a good idea. Also, I'd just visited Vermont a couple month's ago and still have a year's supply of jellies and jams (which would probably be a ten year supply for anyone else...) I did get a bit of a weird experience here though. The back of the shop has a counter selling apple turnovers and such, but the gentleman running it seemed very distracted with something and I just could not get his attention. Not wanting to yell and feel rude, I decided to just wait for him to finish, and went to look for other things. Nearby was a barrel of cold sodas, one of which had a different cap on it so I reached in for it to see what it was (it turned out to be sarsaparilla) and the man behind the counter immediately whirled around to ask what I was looking for with what felt like a very accusing tone. I asked if I could get one of the apple fritters and he told me he'd just sold out for the day, rather snappy about it too...that sounded odd with as few people in the park as there were this early, but not something I felt the need to make a big deal about. Just a very strange interaction when all the rest of the park staff was amazing. I also did make time for Grandpa's Mansion here, which is a small but fun little fun house full of optical illusions. Most of them are pretty standard park fun house stuff but some of them are quite effective. I don't want to ruin the fun too much for anyone who gets there but the final room definitely will make you question what you're looking at and feeling a bit! It was time for the cave tour then. For those that don't know the story, the tour of Marvel Cave was the original attraction for Silver Dollar City. Only when it started to get particularly popular and they had people actively waiting for tours did they start adding amusement rides to give them something else to do. As the cave tour guide put it, Silver Dollar City is just the waiting area for Marvel Cave. I've done a few good cave tours before, so I'd opted for the (very modestly priced at an extra $15) upcharge lantern light tour to make this one more interesting. Little did I know that that would not have been needed anyway... Even the map in the waiting room has a story to it; this is an original map created by one of the cave's explorers, who you'll hear about if you ever do this tour. From outside, it just looks like a big sinkhole here. Heading down into the cave entrance. The first room in the cave in incredible. Absolutely enormous; the guide pointed out that you could fit a New York city block in here with room to spare. Easily believable. Also rather terrifying for someone who doesn't love heights, coming down that tower into it. Sadly this is the only picture I got inside the cave. I'm not certain whether or not they were actually allowed further in, but I'll tell you this much...when you're navigating a cave by lanternlight, climbing a slick, wet, rough cut two foot wide staircase, hunched over with less than four feet of headroom, and a hundred and fifty foot drop into sheer blackness on the other side of the slippery handrail...well, I was not letting go of either rail nor lantern for a moment. I've been through cave tours that were giant open cavern filled with easy walking platforms for the whole family. I've been to underground boat tours. I have definitely never been to any that involved tiny passages, incredible drop offs, treacherous stairs, anything like this, nevermind doing it in the dark. The lantern night version of the tour is also extended, apart from being in the dark, and goes into parts of the cave the other tours don't. I have no idea how their insurance company allowed this. This is not in any way meant to be a complaint, just a comment on how few places would offer a tour like this; I'm glad they're able to, I absolutely loved it, though I'm never going to say I wasn't utterly terrified on some of those stairways and passages. It's beautiful too though, and definitely a notch more authentic an adventure than most of the other tours I've done. Our guide (I wish I could remember her name, I'm sorry that I can't!) was great, and a fantastic storyteller as well...and this was a place for stories. Other cave tours I've been in have guides that talk about the difference between stalactites and stalagmites, how long it takes rocks to form, and how we should never touch walls. The Marvel Cave lanternlight tour featured stories about Spanish conquistadors and native American explorers, guardian cave spirits and elves, Baldknobber bandits and underground cabins, stories about stories and the consequences of telling them. There's something to be said for geological education but I loved every minute of this...even while I was clinging white knuckled to slippery guide rails. This was an experience like nothing I'd ever done before, and I'd call it once-in-a-lifetime if I wasn't determined to get back and take friends with me. If you get get to Silver Dollar City, Absolutely Do not skip this tour. Be aware that it's going to be difficult if you don't like heights or caves, but if at all possible do it anyway. At the end you're treated to an inclined railway to get back out so you don't have to climb the whole way up again...at least when it works. I was lucky. I'd think that the staff was just playfully hyping up how unreliable it is but I've seen comments from others on TPR about people having to walk back out, so it seems it's not all exaggeration there. When I got back to the surface it was getting late in the day and the lights were just starting to come on. I still had a few things I wanted to do though. Like... Yessss, it's open! And it's popular. As soon as it opened everyone flocked to it. That Trailblazer pass finally seemed useful! It was only good for one time for Mystic River Falls but that would do. Mystic River Falls might be a bit troublesome, it might not have all the kinks worked out, but when it's working, it will ruin other raft rides for you. Even without the elevator and drop it's a very good one, with a very fast, aggressive and lengthy course that doesn't need to rely on lots of waterfalls and such to get you wet, just well designed and fast rapids, and lots of gorgeous scenery as well. The elevator and drop add so much to it too though. The elevator is a bit crazy; when you see how many moving parts it has it's easy to understand why it's down so often. Riding it up while on that big raft is exciting though, and the slide portion is far more intense that it looks from the ground. The size of the rafts makes it look deceptively slow when you're looking up at it. It is not slow. The raft barrels down the raceway and careens down that final drop into a massive splash at the end. Absolutely fantastic. Aaaand wet. I thought it might be time for some cinnamon bread, but peeking into the shop I realized they only had one size loaf and it would be too much for me to eat all at once. I didn't want to carry half of one around the park so I planned on coming back later for it. SDC gets even prettier as night falls. Especially the area around Mystic River Falls, which turns absolutely magical. I was headed for Outlaw Run though. I hadn't been impressed before but I'd still been encouraged to ride it at night. It was actually darker than it looks here; my phone likes to make night shots look bright, but by time I got on this it was almost pitch black. I would guess that more people know of the Beast's legendary difference between day and night than Outlaw Run's. Outlaw Run's is even more intense. Not only is it pitch black, but it also is apparently an entirely different coaster. During the day it ran rougher than I expected, fast but shaking its way around the course. At night it doesn't feel like it actually touches the track. It doesn't even sound the same. The wheels scream as they fly over the course. It moves like its being driven, like gravity alone doesn't seem like it should be able to explain. It seems to pick up more speed on every drop and never lose any. It takes corners and inversions and the double down like it wants you out, wants to throw you, and all while you can barely see a hint of the track ahead. The final heartline rolls before the station don't even make sense, they're too fast to keep up with, the darkness around you just goes into an impossible spin. Outlaw Run during the day was decent, but I really thought overrated, clearly RMC's freshman effort and not up to the standards of the later ones. Outlaw Run at night is indescribable. The guy riding behind me looked at my King's Island shirt and asked if I thought this was as good as The Beast at night. I'm honestly not sure. Apart from being wood (sort of) coasters that disappear into the woods, and transform at night, they're such different experiences...I can definitely say I've never been on anything that feels like Outlaw Run after dark. The Beast has something with disappearing into the woods, into a different place for a few minutes...but Outlaw Run skips anything so cutesy and just tries to show you what it can do to you in the dark. Yes please. I planned on getting to Time Traveler after dark too, but I failed that and just stayed at Outlaw Run until it was time to head out. By time I left the park looked deserted. The remaining guests were up here at a dance party; noooot what I expected but it seemed fun! I had places to be though and another drive ahead of me. I passed on taking the tram out to my car though and chose to walk out, to give myself a few more minutes at the park and to look back at its lights. Silver Dollar City is...a complete experience in a way most parks can't be. It has some top tier coasters, certainly, but there's so much more to it than that. Closer to Busch Gardens, yes, but with an authenticity that they lack in trying to set bits of other countries in themselves, while Silver Dollar City only has to be itself. It might be a cutesy idealized version of America, sure, but it's one that it makes feel real enough around you. From the settings and the food to the virtually unmatched park staff and experiences like the cave, from rides like Outlaw Run and Time Traveler (and Wildfire!) to the appealing silliness of the train ride and the River Battle, it really is a park for anyone, and I just can't imagine any way anyone could fail to have an incredible day there. Most of the small complaints I have are just 2021 being what it is, and I'm sure the park will be even better in the future when we get past these times. It was only day two of the trip but I was already certain I was going to have to do this again next year or as soon as possible to take friends alone, if only for Silver Dollar City. In all the fun and adrenaline right after a park, it's easy to say that it's my favorite and forget how much other parks were every bit as good...but even without having the absolute most rides or biggest coasters, SDC is just bigger in its own way than anywhere else I can think of, and it's somewhere I already desperately want to get back to. Oh...and in case anyone was concerned, I did remember to go back for the cinnamon bread on the way out, and made an incredible sticky mess all over my poor rental car with it. It is every bit as good as everyone says it is. I almost hate to leave off a report on such an incredible park with something so anticlimactic, but in the interests of being helpful for anyone planning their own trips, after an hour and a half ish drive I stopped at the Baymont in Ft. Leonard/Saint Robert for the night, and can easily give it a recommendation for anyone else coming through. Cozy, clean, friendly, reasonably cheap, comfy bed, easily good for more than just crashing for a night but certainly did the job for that too. That said, I don't think I've ever spent less time conscious in a hotel room than this one. I barely remember it...after a day of climbing up and down the hills of SDC and getting in at midnight, I barely made it to the bed. Day Three will be Six Flags St Louis, and a much shorter report as I didn't spend nearly as much time there.

They haven’t hinted or teased an announcement at all yet. So unless they drop it out of nowhere, I guess today is not the day and that rumor was false.

If it is a big park or a park I may never visit again, I'll do some research and figure out a plan of action. This forum is a great resource for that. On my Cedar Point visits I knew to go to the Magnum gate and run back to Maverick and Steel Vengeance at early entry. I also knew that as a platinum passholder I could get FL+ for the FL rate. When I rediscovered my love for coasters in 2017 after a 22 year hiatus, I went to KD and BGW with no research whatsoever. That made Volcano a huge surprise because I had never heard of a launch coaster. Verbolten was also a big surprise. Had no clue about the drop track. We were lucky that we went on a Tuesday and Wednesday and a plan of action wasn't necessary. In general, I would definitely recommend doing research here for new parks. If it is a smaller park or one that would be easy for me to visit in the future, I like to go in blind. I recently went to Seabreeze and had only ever heard of Jack Rabbit and it was the reason for my visit. That made Bobsleds a pleasant surprise. Same with Knoebels. Phoenix was a revelation and is in my top 5 coasters. I knew nothing about it going in. I find most of the parks I visit here on TPR. I get comments on park t-shirts all the time. Twice in the last two weeks I had someone comment on KI shirts. They were Ohio natives who couldn't believe I had been there and asked how I'd heard of it. I almost exclusively ride coasters. So for new parks I like to go in and ride all the coasters once and then do re-rides based on my favorites. I like to try out front, middle, and back seats and both sides of a train. You didn't ask but I usually wait until I'm in the park and after I've gauged the crowd to buy fast lane passes. I have no qualms dropping $100+ to get more rides, especially at far away parks and those I may never visit again. I went to Kennywood and the line for Steel Curtain was 2h 15m. I walked straight back to the front of the park and plunked down $123. I lapped the folks in line about 8 times before moving on to another coaster. They had a sign-in sheet for the fast passes and I was only the third name on the list.

Yikes, still relatively recent but this sounds bad. Hoping for the best. As if Cedar Point's relationship with Intamin wasn't already sour enough after Shoot the Rapids... Edit: The park has confirmed that it was a part from the ride itself which struck the guest: https://sanduskyregister.com/news/337270/roller-coaster-part-falls-hits-guest/