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Personally, no, I don't want to have to set my alarm for like 6:55 AM on vacation even if I do just get to go right back to bed, no I don't want to only have the option to ride one time and no, I don't want to pay like $130 for a day ticket where I may not get to ride the best ride in the park. I think all of that sucks. Here are the wait times for the last seven days, but people have been reporting that the ACTUAL wait times are always about 1/2 of what they say they are. This is not worth all of those headaches in my mind. They're insane at rope-drop but otherwise very reasonable. Quite a few times since it's opened, there have been longer posted waits for rides like Slinky Dog Dash, Flight of Passage and Jungle Cruise. That old system sucked nuts and I'm glad it's gone and hope it stays gone forever. I get why some early-birds would like it but I am not one of them.

Hey everyone! I had the opportunity to visit CGA before a wedding weekend, and I had a great time with long time coaster friend Andrew! I was supposed to visit during Winterfest in 2019 but the area had historic flooding so this is my first CGA visit. I visited on a Sunday, and everything worked out as I planned. I flew into San Jose (SJC) airport, which is 15 minutes from the park. It's a small airport so I was able to get off the plane, swing by my hotel, and be at the park all in 45 minutes. How awesome is that! Fast lane was pre-purchased since I only had 6 hours at the park, and it definitely saved time allowing me to walk on all coasters. First Impressions: I know of the Marriott background and the similarities with Chicago's Gurnee's Six Flags Great America and it was fun to see the double decker carousel and pool entry with the observation tower again. What I wasn't aware, is that the park shares the parking lot with Levi Stadium where the 49'ers play. It's hilarious how far out this place is from San Francisco, it's about as far away from Chicago as SFGAm is. But man holy shit Levi Stadium is MASSIVE and the park is closed if there's a football game. Thankfully my buddy picked the right wedding weekend to allow me to get to CGA It didn't take long for me to recognize CGA is a beautiful park featuring the PNW/Bay area's stunning redwoods, foliage, and natural beauty. There's really not an ugly spot in this park, other than some of the dated dining options that they seem to be turning around. The new waterpark look fantastic complete with its own set of characters meandering the park for photo ops and interactions. Operations: The day started out fine and the Railblazer ops were very consistent all day, but the crews really faded down the stretch. Gold Striker was the most frustrating as there were supervisors in the station yet they let trains stack for 5 minutes. Flight Deck, Grizzly, Drop Tower, were rivaling BGT for worst ops I've seen this year. Seat selection is usually never an issue in America unless it's Hagrid's Motor Bike Adventure but CGA gave me two wildly different answers: Me: "Hey, I'd love to wait for the front seat, I don't mind an extra cycle." Normal Op: "Sure go for it" That's what I got the first couple hours, then, the final few hours of the visit. Me: "Hey, can I wait for the back/front?" Op: "Oh yeah, no, we don't do that. Some guests have gotten really unruly with us over picking seats." ????????????????????????? The worst example was asking for Flight Deck's back seat and the op wouldn't budge, put me in the front, and then left the back 2 rows empty This also happened on Railblazer once, and it's like, really? There's only 8 seats..... cmon! It's just mind numbing and frustrating at times. Rides/Coasters: Railblazer - How could I not start here? With the issues surrounding the single rail coasters this year I was really wondering if I was going to miss out on one again. Not this time, I finally got to ride! A few things surprised me before I even got on the ride: it really looks like a hotwheels car zipping around the track, it's very raw - it's very bare bones and mechanically loud at times, the lift chain starts on the lift, and the ride itself looks good and fits well. It's just so fast, it reminded me of Arashi. It's a crazy experience that's crazy fun but I didn't come away loving the thing. The airtime is so abrupt and violent, those shoulder straps aren't really necessary right? I enjoyed the front more than the back, the airtime is just as nuts but it felt more comfortable, and the view is pretty awesome. After about 5 or 6 rides, the next day my shoulders were pretty bruised, hah. Demon - Just a classic Arrow that's still in great shape. The corkscrews were really smooth and the first drop always provides a good pop of air. Love the vintage effects/lights just like the sister park! Grizzly - Oh boy, the wooden coaster that consistently was voted one of the worst roller coasters in the world! Now I know why. This might as well be classified as a junior woodie. Anyone over 6' is going to not have a good time getting in these old arrow-mine-train ala CP lap bar things. It wasn't very painful, but the operations were. This coaster just doesn't do anything, it's gotta be the next ride to be taken out. Drop Tower - A great Intamin tower, stellar views of the mountains! Himalaya - Not that great of a cycle but it's one of the last ones out there. Mass Effect - A solid offering for what you are limited with when working with the 4D theaters. I'm not familiar with the game but it's easily understood and there's an actor or two performing with the show. Flight Deck - I wanted to like this invert a bit more, but it only does so much. It does everything very well, though! I wish I could have had that back row ride but I won't complain about 2x in the front. Patriot - Almost forgot about this one! Not much to say here, it's like a shortened Georgia Scorcher layout, it did have a cool little sideways dive into the corkscrew. Gold Striker - Here is the unanimously best coaster at the park and the most well rounded coaster in the park! After all of these other short but sweet coasters, Gold Striker offers a lengthy airtime filled twisted rugged ride up down and all around the front side of the park. From the looks off ride, you'd think the big turnarounds would sap speed and not offer much like some older GCI's but this GCI is an awesome combo of the newfound relentless speed in the newer GCI's. I absolutely loved the unique tunneled drop that sends the train rocketing around the twisted air hills, dives in and out of the structure, and it's so hard to predict what is coming next. Gold Striker, Renegade, and Mystic Timbers are all in an elite GCI tier in my book. Final thoughts: This park really needs Megabyte/Orion. All but Gold Striker are very short coasters, even though they are good coasters, a lengthy re-ridable coaster is just what this park needs. Fast lane wasn't really needed, especially if you have a full day. The park needs to continue updating their food and beverage offerings. There was not a sit down restaurant, it was all quick service and there was not an adult offering like a bar for adults, so I think there's a missed opportunity here. It's hard to beat the setting in San Jose, it's absolutely beautiful. Flying over the Great Salt Lake on the way. Lagoon is somewhere around here! Hey bert! Love this view again, the classic Great America entrance. Railblazer was my first stop, first time on a single rail! The ride is a blur after you're chucked off this steep drop! It's so hard to even register when you're upside-down, you're traveling on the track so fast! Look at how beautiful this park is! The Pacific North West and Bay Area is just so wonderful. New water park expansion and the giant Levi Stadium in the background along with the mountains! I see you, vintage B&M goodness! Palm trees redwoods, B&M's, mountains, ahhhh.. Flight Deck didn't disappoint, it absolutely flies through the inversons. The signature finale! This is Grizzly's train. The lap bars aren't individual, nor are they individual row, they are connected to the row behind/in front of you to your car. So if you have 2 kids behind you and a friend that's 6'3" next to you, that bar is gonna have to be smashed into your groin. Ouch! 3. Three! Seatbelts and this coaster doesn't even need a lap bar. Mass Effect was a good effort for one of those 4D simulators. Almost forgot about this old stand up turned Rougarou-like. Meh. Hey BGT, get your shit together!!! Back over for some more Railblazer fun! Loved this bonkers part! This is probably the main reason why my shoulders were purple the next day. This is at a Cedar Fair park. Yep! The whole park looks like this. Sadly the food and bev is the only ugly part of the park. This 'sports bar' supposedly had staff working but were nowhere to be found, and looks like it hadn't been updated since 1992. Couldn't even get a snack or drink here. Alright let's end the day with some Gold Striker rides! Love how it wraps around the observation tower. This GCI is a tangled mess of head choppers, hand choppers, crazy twists, airtime, and relentless speed and laterals! Even the pre-lift section gives you a taste of the craziness to come. It's tough to get photos of this thing, and it'll take many laps to figure out the layout. The rushhhh of striking gold! Absolutely ripping through the course! This twisted downhill airtime hill was the stand out 'holy shit' moment for me! Gold Striker in the golden hour. Gold Striker is the clear stand out coaster at CGA in my opinion. It's got everything you'd want in a twisted, wild, airtime filled woodie! And for post park fun, there's Bare Bottle Brewing around the corner which boasts some of the best IPA's I've had. Much love for the Bae Area! -Zach

But can any Donkey Kong ride possibly top Cosmoworld's Family Banana Coaster?

Even before my son was born, I would check my own harness when strapping myself into a ride, isn't that what most people do, even with a ride op also checking? The only difference now is I make sure he is fastened in before me.

This is exciting news! Hopefully we'll see both Nintendo-themed lands make their way stateside in the future...

Avoid it. LOL.

Last Sunday (2 days ago) was dead for at least the first few hours. Everything a walk on.

To each their own, but I wouldn't let my 6 year old ride on any big ride without me. I'd rather wait longer and be able to keep a hand on his harness and check and buckle him into the ride personally and be safe than sorry. I've suffered a lot of motion sickness riding with my head sideways checking on him on some rides. Pretty sure even at 8 years old I won't be letting him go into a single-rider line and line up and ride alone either.

So you wait longer in the normal line and then get a single rider placed next to you?

That's the best description of RMC coasters I've ever heard. I'm not optimistic with a description like that. It's like another way to say "tolerable." A burned steak can be tolerable, as long as it's not burned too badly. Why would I drive four hours for a burned steak?

^They're ordered by 2019 attendance numbers. If you rearrange them by 2020 attendance, Magic Kingdom still comes out on top, but Shanghai Disney would then be the 2nd most attended park followed by Universal Japan which overtook both the Tokyo Disney parks this year. Like I said previously, I can believe those numbers. Korean parks were some of the only ones in the world to not close for a single day, Everland which didn't have any closures or corona scares dropped 58% and Lotte World which only closed a handful of times but did have publicized visits from corona patients in the early days when track and trace was able to follow where the cases were coming from had a much bigger drop of 74%. And these are parks that rely on mostly domestic or Chinese tourists, so I can definitely believe some of the Florida parks dropped that much with big closures, especially with the loss of international visitors. It also blows my mind that Woongjin Playdoci Waterdoci, always makes it so high on water park lists for Asia. All the other big Korean parks are huge indoor/outdoor areas with some big raft slides and water coasters etc but Woongjin is almost like a small local indoor park, it has 3 body slides and a body water bowl slide. I don't think I ever want to visit that on any non-pandemic years.

SUPER NINTENDO WORLD™ EXPANSION WORLD’S FIRST DONKEY KONG THEMED AREA SET TO OPEN IN 2024 https://www.usj.co.jp/company/company_e/2021/0928.html?fbclid=IwAR1wtzmcFpXMoLM272yXhOCbnB-wozG0xRysHRpRF1wWoyjcRB8_Ue9JKWc Since its opening, SUPER NINTENDO WORLD at Universal Studios Japan has gained worldwide attention from fans and guests who continue to level up with excitement while experiencing the land’s rides, interactive themed entertainment and game play featuring iconic Nintendo characters. To further immerse guests into Nintendo’s well-known series of games, Universal Studios Japan will expand the land to include a new area themed after Donkey Kong. The new area will bring to life the world of one of Nintendo’s most beloved games and feature a roller coaster, interactive experiences, themed merchandise and food – and all the fun and excitement of SUPER NINTENDO WORLD. Guests will feel like they are playing inside the world of Donkey Kong as they take a walk on the wild side through the lush jungles where Donkey Kong and his friends live. The new area is set to open in 2024. Nintendo’s Donkey Kong franchise started with an arcade game in 1981 and quickly captured the hearts of fans around the world. Since then, the Donkey Kong game series has continually delivered more games on Nintendo video game systems, such as the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Wii, and Nintendo Switch. The series has sold over 65 million units (as of March 2021) worldwide to generations of fans. The Universal creative team and the Nintendo creative team — including Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of Super Mario — will bring the new Donkey Kong themed area to life. The area will be a gamechanger that combines the innovative technology and globally popular approach to theme park entertainment of Universal with the creativity of Nintendo. With the addition of the Donkey Kong area, SUPER NINTENDO WORLD at Universal Studios Japan will increase in size by approximately 70%. J.L. Bonnier, President & CEO, Universal Studios Japan: SUPER NINTENDO WORLD creates a whole new level of theme park entertainment and has quickly become an exciting, must-do experience for our guests. We are thrilled to continue working with Nintendo as we fulfill our vision to bring their characters and stories to life. Our new Donkey Kong themed area will bring even more excitement and fun to the SUPER NINTENDO WORLD experience. Shigeru Miyamoto, Representative Director, Fellow of Nintendo: I am very happy to be able to make the world of Donkey Kong a reality following the world of Mario. I am looking forward to creating a thrilling Donkey Kong experience with the amazing team at Universal. It will take some time until it is completed, but it will be a unique area for not only people who are familiar with Donkey Kong games, but for all guests. -- I got excited that this picture shows a nice patch to the right of Donkey Kong for a future (Zelda?) 3rd expansion, but looking at pictures above it seems that's actually where the Mario Kart building is.

^ Agreed. Not only that, but is popular and caters to the family audience (where the money is)

Neither, the last major investment was in 2015. The Justice League dark ride. You might not consider it major but they were extremely expensive rides to build. Easily several million dollars. Enough to have built a decent affordable coaster.

Not true! You will pass some Waffle Houses on the way! I was excited to visit for FF but I broke my wrist and no casts allowed on Batman or Mr. Freeze, so bummed about that. I've spent 6 days at SFStL and only have two rides on Freeze to show for it. I am not sure if I can add to that upsetting statistic haha

First time I've been back on this thread since my last post. I was happy to see some people take new initiatives, hope yall are doing well and chipping away still! I would like to hear how its going All of my hard work to lose 100 pounds was awarded immensely this summer. I visited Kennywood (2 days), Waldameer, Kings Island (5 days), Hershey (2 days), and Kentucky Kingdom, all while interning at Cedar Point! I also went to a FEC, SFMM, Belmont Park, DCA, Knott's (2 days), and Carowinds (2 days). 102 credits (68 new), 50 days riding at least one coaster, and 430 cumulative rides! I had the summer of my life and it felt so rewarding after EVERYTHING I have gone through! Unfortunately I did not have access to a kitchen while living at Cedar Point. So I put on some weight. And then, to continue the theme in my life that something must always happen, I broke my scaphoid on my first weekend back from this summer. In the short term, I could not cook for a couple weeks after that. So I still have not exactly gotten back to my healthy eating, and I've been hovering around 240 lbs. To make it worse, I still have at least two more months in a cast. Not only does that mean a lot less coasters, but it means I can not do any exercise beyond walking (because cast cant get wet/sweaty). With that said, I have been walking daily. In fact, despite breaking my wrist and driving/flying to all the parks above, I have exercised at least 45 mins and burned at least 750 active calories for 180 STRAIGHT DAYS and counting. That's right, no off days! Since April 1st! October 1st I am going to hit the reset button, mostly pertaining to my eating. But with my injury, I have to make some adjustments to my goals to work towards. I am still finalizing my revised goals, so I will update on what I decide!

It’s exactly as you’d expect. Will take a decade to fully recover, just as it did after 2008 recession. Would not expect to see major spending from parks for the next 5 years or so until profitability has at least stabilized.

^I echo everything from above. Early in the morning, front row, inside seat. It's still not perfect, but more tolerable.

I was about to say, "You drove when you were a kid?" and then I remembered that there is nothing but corn between St. Louis and Sandusky, so you know, have at it.

That was their point; SFStL has continued to receive minor improvements/additions over the past decade while Worlds of Fun has gotten a Windseeker, a mat racer for the water park, and some hand-me-down flats. Hell, in 2012 their big addition was Fast Lane and in 2013 it was combining admission for the rides and water park. Dude, don't even bother. These people are so lost in their "it can't possibly be that the park turns a solid profit with what it is, corporate has to hate us for not giving us that 500 foot launched B&M flyer aquatrax" that any attempt at logic just goes in one ear and out the other.

Tennessee Tornado runs every day, I don’t know what you're talking about.

My son and I took our first visit to Carowinds last Sunday and Monday. The temperature hit 98-100 both days and I was really anticipating having a problem with that, but honestly we didn't, at least not in the way I expected, Here is how it went for us: Sunday - 8/29/21 Presented in the order we experienced them... Nighthawk - We hit this one immediately after rope drop because of having read about its capacity issues. I was expected it to be terribly uncomfortable and didn't expect getting placed in the back row to help all that much. I was very wrong. This is a good ride! I don't get the hate at all. Intimidator - All B&M hypers are very good in my book and this one is no exception, but I would place it pretty low on my rankings of B&M hypers. The trims were pretty ridiculous. Why does it kill off so much of its own speed on purpose? Still an excellent ride though. Harmony Hall - One of our party members wasn't feeling well so we dipped into the AC of Harmony Hall and had lunch. I had a Turkey Burger, which was fine I guess. Nothing special, not terrible. Nice space though and there was live music. Woodstock Express - Charming little family woodie. I did have a weird experience though. I did not fit in the front seat (5'9" 230 lbs) due to the seatbelt, but the seat behind it clearly had an absurdly longer seatbelt so I hopped back to it and was fine by a wide margin. Kinda strange. Afterburn - This is a high quality and intense B&M invert. Very good ride that lived up to its reputation. At this point unfortunately our party member not feeling well was pretty much out of commission. We decided to go grab a ride on Fury so his girlfriend could ride it with us before taking them back to where we were staying. Accordingly, we turned around in that direction. Fury 325 x2 - AMAZING!!! This is now in my elite tier of coasters with El Toro, Voyage, Wicked Cyclone, and Phoenix. These rides were incredible. Powerful, great and interesting airtime, fun twisty sections, incredible first drop that goes forever... It is near perfect. We loved it so much that we hopped back into the relatively short line to grab a second ride before taking the couple out of the park. We were out and back pretty quick, maybe 40 minutes tops. At this point we were down to just me and my 11 year old son and we decided to continue down the direction Fury is in. Vortex - Uh. Not good. Not good at all. I can somewhat tolerate a standup and don't absolutely hate say Green Lantern at Great Adventure, so I thought this little guy would be fine. It isn't. It brings all of the discomfort of a standup without any elements worth experiencing. This is the worst ride in the park. Ricochet - This was a wild mouse. Nothing really notable about it. I did find the swinging turns slightly more painful than I have on other versions, but it was probably just running a little faster due to the heat. This would become a theme in time. Carolina Cyclone - This area of the park needs some help. Prepare for headbanging. Get your credit and get out ASAP. Hurler - Why? This is kind of low key a hilarious ride. It tracks so poorly that it should be extremely rough and painful, but it doesn't actually do anything so it never actually gets rough and painful. That was a lot of pointless meandering. Strange ride. Carolina Goldrusher - This is a nice family coaster for kids stepping up, I guess. It was just a credit for us. Flying Cobras - I was dreading this until we got in line and saw the vest restraints. It doesn't run as well as say the one at Hershey, but it is still night and day thanks to the restraint improvement. They should really all have these. Copperhead Strike - Wow. This is not what I expected. I swear I have read that this is not a super intense ride, but it very much was during our visits. I think that running all day in nearly or exactly 100 degree temperatures had this thing FLYING. I did not get the consistent hangtime I see described and in videos. We FLEW through the inversions and had massive airtimes and extremely whippy turns. Great ride. Kiddy Hawk - Thanks to RCDB we realized this was the only non-kiddie credit missing so we snagged a ride on it. I positioned by hands to stop the headbanging and it turns out there isn't anything else to these family rides! We just wandered around the course for a bit and that was that. Probably a nice ride for kids if they can tolerate the head banging. Harmony Hall 2 - This time I had a turkey leg. Or I tried to, anyway. It was too difficult and messy to eat in that setting so I only had some of it. The mac and cheese I got with it was good at least. Again, this is a nice space, had live music again, and the AC was wonderful on the hot days. Fury 3 - With the park about to close, we darted to our third and final Fury ride of the trip. I gotta say... This was much worse. Still a great ride, but my god was this thing going significantly faster than it was on our early midday rides. We went through the elements so unbelievably fast that it was all sort of a blur and just felt like a little too much instead of perfect. This was probably due to the heat not only in terms of the trains moving faster on the track, but also had me exhausted at the end of the day in it. Monday, 8/30/21 I definitely was not looking forward to this "Bonus Day" and probably would not have gone if my 11 year old would have been fine with laying around all day. But he wasn't, so off we went... Copperhead Strike x6 - We decided to rope drop Copperhead Strike right and noon and that was a good decision. There was nobody back there but us and a couple other people. We would hit the station, get on, go through a cycle, and then be sent around a second time without getting out of the seat. They would only let you ride twice in a row though, so we had to circle back around twice which wasn't a big deal. Our first two rides we slower and more hangtime filled, but the last four were more like the one from Sunday. I like this ride a lot. Flyers - I didn't ride, but my son did and there was a guy snapping the cables nonstop. That was fun to watch. The ride op didn't care. Giant Swings - Not gonna look up what these were called, but they provided a nice view of the park. My kid has been strangely afraid of these even though he will ride any rollercoaster, so it was fun to finally get on one. I had to agree to ride the boomerang during the day to get him on though. Observation Tower - We put our mask on to get photos of the park from the tower. The glass was a little dirty, but it was worth the trip up for the views while being able to take photos. Harmony Hall - I had the Turkey Burger again. This time we missed the live music as they were finishing their last song of the set as we walked in. Intimidator x2 - Intimidator had a minimal line so we hit it twice in a row. It seemed to be trying to run faster than the day before, but that just meant the trims hit even harder to get it down to the speed they want it at. I want to stress that this really still is a great ride though. Night Hawk - Gotta say... This was less good this time. Still loved that first ride, but that was at rope drop and this one was after it had time to really warm up in the heat. It was run much faster and more aggressively and I got thrown around more uncomfortably. I was also in an outside seat instead of an inside seat, so maybe they contributed too. I still liked it though, just not as much. Flying Cobras - I owed the boomerang so we backtracked to it. It is what it is. Intimidator x2 - Again we got two rides on Intimidator, back and front. Again they were fun. I was pretty much tapped out at coasters at this point, so I relaxed outside on a bench after these rides and let my kid cycle a couple more by himself. He got 3 or 4. There were station waits only. All in all, I ended up enjoying the Bonus Day a lot actually. Seems like it is so bad on paper that no one bothered showing up and we got to ride Intimidator and Copperhead Strike as much as we wanted. Can't complain about that. Other Thoughts Just a couple quick things: It was nice being in a Cedar Fair park. Living in the northeast, we don't get that opportunity often and end up at Six Flags all the time. Everything was open and running two trains that could. Fury was running three on Sunday. The food lines were short. There was a lot of shade and the park was clean. In multiple stations ride ops kept talking about their throughput stats which was really awesome to hear. In Copperhead and Intimidator especially, they were clearly trying to run trains as fast as they could. That was really cool. One negative though: PUT BINS ON FURY and CS. Why the hell are people made to hold on to potentially dangerous loose articles on the most aggressive rides in the park? Are they trying to get someone hurt? I mean obviously on paper they are going for increased throughput, but I don't know how much of that is realized because of rider confusion about the policy anyway. On top of that, it is dangerous! It also feels like a likely money grab, but we just left our drinks by the exit in the shade so I never checked if the lockers cost money. They were always there when we came back. I used my zipper and button pockets to hold everything else which was a little uncomfortable but tolerable.

yeah. . . my Brother and I are dealing with Dementia. we had to put Dad into a closed gate community. . but I dont' think he'll be there very long - he needs full time watching/nurse. despite giant signs all over things, he can' remember, and he keeps taking way too much of his meds despite all our efforts to put them in easy to understand pill dispensers (he keeps saying they are vitamins, and so if he takes too many, no big deal). So after the 2nd emergency call to the doctor as he's taken a full weekend supply of blood-thinners with breakfast? yeah. . he's gonna have to be moved somewhere with daily assistance (which he insists he doesnt' need). so I feel for ya.

Alzheimer's can go fuck itself over, sideways, and under. My father, who's barely 60, was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's. It's gotten to the point where he can no longer drive. We took away his keys about a month ago to give you an idea of how far along he is. So last night, my parents went out to a movie with a couple of their friends. About 2/3 of the way, dad went out to use the toilet and didn't come back. Mom sent one of their friends out to look for Dad--make sure he didn't get lost on the way back from the bathroom. They were still looking by the time their movie ended. Theater staff got involved with the search. Turns out, Dad went into a different screen, which was showing a different movie, sat down, and watched that until the end.