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the amount of people in a line that would cause it to be 2 hours is MINISCULE compared to to the overall people in the park. most of whom are not in line for the coasters, but are seeing shows, eating, and just enjoying the atmosphere. "blogs" are run by enthusiasts. . not the families that go to enjoy the atmosphere, food, and shows. The "blogs" complaining, don't mean shit. you don't have to agree with me, but whatever. . .

Day 2: A full day on a Saturday! I was there for early entry, but not before the gates opened like usual, so upon making my way in, I saw both the generic redemption line on the left and the dedicated Fast Lane booth on the right had huge lines, so instead ducked into the shop right behind Ocean Potion and redeemed my all-season Fast Lane Plus there. Did I say Ocean Potion? Yes, I did: Corny, but cute. So, I had sort of a B-side goal today of riding all of the flats at CP that I hadn't ridden before, a task which I mostly accomplished. But first, I started the day with a lap on lap on Valravn (half-train wait for the front row, left edge). I gotta say, most B&Ms are better on the left side, but this one I feel almost like the right is the better choice. I then grabbed a go on Cedar Downs (one cycle wait), and a tour on Cadillac Cars (1 minute wait), a walk-on to the Midway Carousel (new ride for me!). Next on the "new rides" list was Tiki Twirl, during which I snapped these pics of Wicked Twister's entrance as well as the kiddie hay maze in the background. But then it was time for Tiki Twirl proper. Figure I gotta ride the OG before the new one opens at Kings Dominion (yes I'm still calling it that). What did I think? Awesome. I've never been on one of these types of ride period before, and this one did not disappoint. Very fast and forceful. One cycle wait. I then tried to grab a ride on the Ferris Wheel, but it was not to be: No single riders allowed. Instead, it was off to nearby Troika. I've been on several of these before (I think every CF park has one), but I think this is the oldest one I've been on. Seemed slower than most, but it does get right up and going when it starts, so that was kinda nice. One cycle wait. I then hopped on Windseeker for a one-cycle wait, and ducked out the gate for a quick smoke break. Next up was Boo Streak. Did I say Boo Streak? Yes, I did. As with Ocean Potion, cute but corny. My question is - why only rename these two rides? 9 minutes for row two, and I have thoroughly revoked its previous "can go die in a fire" status. Not a horrible ride. Next up was Matterhorn (another new ride for me), possibly the oldest of this style of ride I've been on. 20 minutes for a two-cycle wait, definitely NOT because the cycle was long. Really I have no idea why it took so long. It didn't go backwards at all, either. Is that standard for this one? Next up was a walk-on to Scrambler, then a one cycle wait for Super Himalaya (amusingly no backwards cycle here either). Corkscrew was a train-and-a-half wait for front row, and has also lost its "can go die in a fire" status. In the front, the ride isn't half bad. Still in the bottom tier of coasters here at Cedar Point, though. Next on the list was a half-train wait for Gemini, red side, row two. Actually won this race! I can't remember the last time I was in the winning train. I then partook in the Fortune Tellers they had set up for Halloweekends. About a 10 minute wait. I don't put any stock in these sorts of things at all, but it was entertaining (and free!). Not quite Tarot cards but very similar. I then did a lap on Maverick (15 minutes for back row, including getting stuck on the brake run for like 5 while they hosed off a train in the station from a protein spill). Man, still such a great ride. Gettin' a little light on pictures here, aren't we? Here's a few of my all-time #1, and even two videos! VID_20210918_145759466.mp4 VID_20210918_145834058.mp4 I then made my way back towards the front of the park, stopping at Melt along the way, for Ocean Motion, the last of the new-to-me rides here. 10 minute wait; it's a swinging ship...not sure what else to say. I find it cool that they died the pool green for Halloweekends though. I then camped out for the Midnight Syndicate show, which as discussed in above posts blew me away. Very cool show, and I won't spoil it...but if you go to CP for Halloweekends, you have to see it! I then sat through the musical show on the stage across from the food truck court, Monster Mash-Up featuring the Shrieks Band. About 25 minutes long, every song was a mash-up of two or more other songs, and featured a live backing band on top of the singers/dancers. No cohesive plot, but most characters got at least one song, and surprisingly there was only about a 15 second clip of Michael Jackson's Thriller involved, which most Halloween shows at parks can't seem to avoid using. Also had a VERY impressive mash-up of Bonnie Tyler's "Holding Out for a Hero" and Ariana Grande's "Break Free," even if the singer couldn't possibly match Ariana's insane pipes. At this point, I was feeling pretty tired, so I just did like four laps on the train waiting for it get dark toget some more night rides in. After the sun had suitbaly set, I headed to Maverick for a dusk ride. Front row in 11 minutes. Awesome at dusk, especially with all of the fog bleeding up from the pirate walk-through. I did another tour of Fearground Freakshow (since they never punched my Fright Lane card from the night before), and it was just as entertaining as the first time through. Hopped on Millie once again (33 minutes for front row). This is such an insane ride at night, and seemed to be just flying through the course. Then decided to get on Rougarou, 11 minutes for front row left...man does this ride just suck. I think it's now easily at the bottom of my CP coaster rankings. Can we please get the stand-up trains back? At this point, it was right around 10:30, and I made my way back to the front of the park and took another walk through Hexed (since I hadn't used my Fight Lane on it the previous night), and wrapped out the night with a front-row, left side night ride on Raptor (11 minutes). A great way to close out both my night, my weekend, and my year at Cedar Point. Got back to my hotel and in bed at a decent hour for my 8-hour drive back to Delaware the next day. All in all, I was quite impressed with CP's Haunt at Halloweekends (it's full formal name). Staffing was a non-issue on Saturday with every ride and every food stand I could find open, and without any crazy waits. I'll almost definitely be back next year. I'll leave you with a quick video of that insane helix at the end of Raptor. It looks slow here, but I promise you it's not! VID_20210918_222456331.mp4 And that's all. Next trip? Dorney Park on October 1st. Thanks for reading everyone!

I have not visited Dollywood since LR has been so unreliable and I will not revisit until I'm confident I can go and know it's going to be open. I haven't visited since 2014. Hope an act of god or engineering or Dolly can sing to it and get it fixed. I'm not paying full price for any park that doesn't have their star coaster running. (Except for BGT but that's different and I did it to get to Velocicoaster )

So as we were saying this morning…

KI haunt is sooooo good didn't you see they won BEST HALLOWEEN EVENT in America (thanks USA Today, you ) before the event even started? Honestly it's a good time, KI actually puts time and effort into make up instead of masks which is great, but the houses are usually on the short side. For a Saturday, the park is open so long, it's easy to justify a FL+. It's barely $10 an hour to ride whatever you want when you want. Even as a local I'd never go without it on a Saturday.

Awful. What's especially wild to me is that during all that time that no one else riding with her noticed either. its clearly operator error, but her parent/guardian/whoever was sitting next to her didn't notice either?

This is tragic and this is going to be a problem for the park now. I'm not going to put any on the parents or whoever the little girl was riding with, but when I rode rides with my kids I never did mine until I made sure their belts were buckled. It all comes back on the 2 operators though, they could have kept her alive.

Why? why do they need to do anything with it other than operate it when they feel like operating it? it's not affecting their crowds (like much at all), since majority of the crowd tends to be less "thrill ride" oriented and more "show/food" oriented. once some enthusiasts think that it's a "huge black eye" - and it's not even all. For example, weather or not LR is working, won't change my plans for when I finally get to go to the park, and it doesn't change my opinion of the park at all. it's a THEME park, not a thrill park. seriously, this would be like me bitching that my one time (so far) at Tokyo DisneySea was ruined because Journey was down on my visit. There's SO much other stuff to do and experience in the park, that one ride - even the star attraction in the park - not being avail doesn't change that. tho I'd bet if Dollywood changed the recipe for Cinnamon Bread, or stopped carrying it? THAT would be a "huge black eye" to many of the guests.

So weird that we could have such different experiences on that ride in the front row, only two days apart. I found it quite tolerable and even enjoyable!

SFOG continued. . . after my ride on Justice League, I decided I'd head over towards Pandemonium. . as noted, the paths around Carousel Hill really are quite lovely: (I see you, and will get to you later!) but what's this? Blue Hawk/Ninja has no line. . like at all? sigh.. ok, might as well, it's not the worst coaster in the park. how the park is handling Covid restrictions. . tho this wasn't consistent across all coasters. But here in the Blue Hawk station, the plexiglass really cuts the airflow, and made it a bit stifling. it's actually riding better than I remembered, and not too much head bang. Still 1 and done tho. leaving the queue tho, I saw that GASM was truly a walk on. I KNOW better. . but sometimes I make really bad decisions. . . Even in the front row, it jackhammered the hell out of me.. not a pleasant experience (and there was crying from kids on the train in the brake run. . so yeah. . hands down still the worst coaster in the park). oh. . but while on GASM, I noticed that Blue Hawk had gotten stuck on the lift hill. . . really moments after I had just ridden! It was like this for a good 15 minutes. Continuing my treck around this part of the park to Pandemonium. . it really is lovely back here, but I miss the Skybuckets bypassed Skyscreamer since just wasn't in the mood for it.. besides, I was headed to the giant swing. hmmm. . I don't seem to have taken any pics of it other than the sign tho. . LOL. . but it was a 1 cycle wait (so yeah. . the park was still dead) see? note that Thunder River was closed as well.. so both water rides (the flume was closed too) were closed on Labor Day. It's the last "daily" operating day of summer.. so not surprised, but it seemed to have more to do with staffing - as many food places were shuttered too. But for the most part, all the "big" rides were open today, which was a nice surprise. since no skybuckets to save my feet/calves, I headed up the long winding walkway, intending to grab something to eat as i was hungry. as mentioned, many food places were closed, but Macho Nacho was open - with the line out the door.. . . so nope, kept walking and peeked around into the Goliath queue: Station wait. yup. .this is Exactly why I typically blow off last day of Con to do Six Flags: Interesting view of the Monster Mansion show building from the Goliath exit ramp. I had planned to buy water, to keep from getting dehydrated, but the Cashier in the exit gift shop warned me the coolers weren't working (and hadn't been all summer, so the water was warm). Six Flags hint, by the way. . if you buy water/soda in a shop, you can usually get a 2 for $ price that is cheaper from the machines. but I wasn't gonna get from the machine no matter how thirsty I was. . so instead headed over to Gotham expecting to get something to eat/drink. passing by DareDevil Dive. . which had a short-ish line, but as I'm not a fan, I decided to skip this today. Still snapped some pics of it tho: and then it was down into the New Gotham area. . advertised all over the park as new for 2021.. I was excited to check it out. if you're not familiar with this park, the Gotham area is down a steep hill, under the train tracks, then in it's own area - with basically one way in/one way out. the area has 7 rides (2 coasters, 5 flats), and one food stand (Birds of Prey Cafe) - that had a fairly long line, that I waited in, only to be told at the counter there's no way to order from the counter, you MUST use the Mobile App - which *of course* wouldn't work for me while in Gotham area. . . yeah, I was hungry and annoyed at this point - and made sure to comment on this when they sent me the survey to see how my day went. at least ONE window at the only food stand in Gotham should have walk up to order option. . sheesh. but I'm getting a head of myself. back to the pics, going into Gotham: ah.. HERE were the crowds today. (makes sense.. they are advertising it all over the park - even over the urinals in the Men's rooms): and it's a cul-de-sac area. . so once in, traffic flow can get cramped. let's check out the 7 rides here: Closed: Closed (AND they renamed it from the *brilliant* Crime Wave to Supervillains Swing?) closed (tho it had soft opened for rehearsals the day before, and is open now, I understand) one of the new rides, so was pulling a line, as I'd expect. . especially since 3 of the 4 rides passed already were closed. Closed (you gotta be f-ing kidding me) the other new ride.. and one of only two flats (and one coaster, Batman - running 1 train - open in this section of the park). by far, longest line I waited in all day. . . .about 35 minutes for Catwoman. (and it didnt' help that line jumping was RAMPANT - a group of 4, turned into a group of 7, then a group of 11. .and staffing did nothing to stop it, despite seeing the teenagers climbing the queue to join their friends in line. but I love these rides, so waited for it, and it was great as usual: and you get REALLY close to the Batman track while in the Catwoman queue (which has no awnings. . I guess to keep the sightlines open.. . glad it wasn't too sunny of a day) actually, you would get pretty close to Mindbender track in the Harley Quinn queue, had that been open: getting dehydrated, but as I said, I love these rides, and it runs a pretty decent cycle. . . so thumbs up on this, even if the park should be ASHAMED to have 4 of the 7 rides here closed, when this section is being promoted all over the park. realizing I really needed some water, I went to the Batman giftshop (which is currently also the entrance to the ride, apparently) to get some water (along the way snapping a better pic of the new Poison Ivy scrambler, that was running a great cycle): and while cooling down, noticed the Mindbender train was sitting on the break run. Since I was sitting drinking my water on the Mindbender Photo Counter (closed up), I was right near the exit. . and when one of the park's "Safety" guys came by to check the area (I guess?). .I asked him would it be ok if I went up the exit ramp towards the station to take some pics of the new trains. so with permission. . here's the new Mindbender trains: by now it was after 2pm, and I *really* needed to eat something. . so I headed back to Macho Nacho (which would have been my choice in the park anyways, even if it wasnt' one of the food venues that were actually open today). . and found a very short line. . off lunch hours now. . and easily a nice place to sit and enjoy my Taco Salad (which had maybe 5 pieces of lettuce in it. .but so much other good stuff. . it was wonderful) didnt' think to take a pic before I ate most of it. . LOL Sadly, no train today. .but at least the photo op had no line: and yeah. .this park is hilly: so having finally eaten something. . do I let the food settle? while Goliath is still kinda a walk on, and I'm right near Monster Mansion? You crazy? sad little one skybucket pole left in the center of the park, over the Monster Mansion roof.. . not sure why they left one. Maybe planning on using it for lights for Holiday in the Park? I'd held it off long enough tho - and had made my way almost completely around the park in a full loop.. . but it was (finally) time for Carousel hill. yes.. I always make myself wait for the enjoyment of the Carousel. .. .to be concluded. . .

Another classic coaster gone

Forum member ElToroRyan has an excellent and super interesting (read: nerdy) video about Knoebels amazing operations on their two big woodies.

https://www.denverpost.com/2021/09/24/glenwood-caverns-death-child-ride-operator-error/ Well investigators know exactly what happened and how it happened. The ride worked as designed and it was not an issue with the design. Reading this felt like reading the report after the accident on Smiler. The operators failed to unbuckle seatbelts from seats which were not occupied during the previous ride cycle. The girl sat on the belts and when the operators checked the belts they did not notice she was sitting on it. Then the ride generated an error and would not start the cycle. A second operator arrived and unlocked the belts, removed and reinserted the locking rods, without fixing the fact that one of the guests was sitting on the belts. Then they reset the rides system to reset the alarm and dispatched the ride.