Leaderboard

^ you shouldn't be excited. i've heard whispers that "Corporate HATES your park"

I said what I said I’m not trying to be different just to be edgy or anything, I just absolutely believe that. As far as theming goes, I don’t think the other parks even come close and I doubt that’s even really a hot take. In terms of attractions, we probably like it so much because we also love animals and animal exhibits. It’s a very chill park. It’s gorgeous. Flight of Passage *might* be my favorite ride at WDW, Everest is awesome, Safari is great, I love Dinosaur and River Journey. The shows are fun and we love the animals. They don’t have a ton of rides but the ones they do have are bangers. Also, Yak and Yeti … and naked mole rats … and green beer … and that delicious blue shit … and the best bathroom on property that’s not Tangled per Brit’s official rankings

People crap on it because it’s the same ride system as Indiana Jones and Indiana Jones is a better ride. That’s true, but it’s also like saying “I’ve been on Rise of the Resistance so now I refuse to enjoy any other trackless dark rides”. I’m not saying it’s the best ride in the park or anything but it’s good and I would argue very underrated.

I have to agree with Bert, American Thunder was the best coaster when I was there this summer.

Amidst all the CP/rain closing reports, thought I'd drop in to share a quick story. Back in 92/93 I worked on the near-perfect out and back Blue Streak. All manual operation and we were expected to do 1,250 riders and hour (they do 700-800 per hour now, on a good day I'm told.) If the rain was past a drizzle, we would go down to one train. Pretty good for a ride with manual skid brakes. We would run that until the train started shooting the station; if we couldn't stop it IN the station we had to close. At least twice we couldn't stop a train and unloaded everyone from the base of the lift. I always say this, cuz well... it's true. People were more practical then, respectful and not as wimpy. Anyway, things are different now. What was once a perfect ride that really sailed over the hills has become a chunky bumpy mess due to the extra weight added to the trains (restraint gear, including under the train and heavier brakes). All these changes that happened to wooden coaster trains in the 90s wiped out many of the best - and classic - coasters ever. The track and structures weren't meant to take that much weight. Ok, enough of that. Ride the handful of classics while you still can (extending to Schwarzkopf coasters and their trains <RIP Mind Bender>). And the one time I fell through the Blue Streak brake run in the rain. Ouch! We had privelege, sometimes had minor bumps and bruises, but stayed on our shifts.

Sorry it took me awhile to get around to this, but I have my new goals! 1)Reach below 200lbs at least once by 4/8/22, otherwise be 202.8lbs or less 2) Close all my apple watch rings for 365 straight days! 3) Average 9,642 steps through March (this will put me at an average of 9,500 since Aug 2019) 4) Average 52 exercise minutes per day through March (this will put me at an average of 60 since June 2020) 5) Average 750 active calories burned through March (this will put me at an average of 1,000 since June 2020). So far in October, I've been doing okay. My weight isnt really dropping but I'm averaging 9,422 steps, 59 minutes and 983 calories. I'm set to get my cast off in 2-5 weeks, so I am close to getting back to higher intensity exercise (mostloy basketball for me). My VO2 max is increasing, which I am happy about!

Does anyone know where the block button is on this new forum? I’m still learning my way around the new interface.

But I still have a soft spot for Epcot...

You definitely lucked out with Beast. When I got to it at 9:30ish last Saturday, the FL line was all the way back onto the exit ramp before the split. The line crawled too (probably due to a bit more priority being put into moving the ~3 hr standby line) and took 35 minutes or so. But then again, I got walk ons for Banshee, Windseeker, and Mystic Timbers right before and after that so guess you just have to hit it right (and hope the grouper is moving the FL line along if you don't). I'm glad dealing with the mask BS is over in the parks (except in California maybe? lol) and was happy to have mine put away the whole trip to Ohio minus the airport/flight. I keep one in my pocket as I usually put it on out of respect if someone wants to speak to me and they have one on, but didn't have to worry about that in Ohio like I occasionally do here in MA. I did get pissed off at one security guy at Hershey last year. Was sitting on a bench by myself with a drink next to me and he went out of his way to come yell at me because I wasn't putting it up between sips. Meanwhile hordes of people were walking by with theirs down. Definitely don't miss the 2020 hysteria.

I haven't been since the latest round of clear-cutting but when we went last year when I walked into "Wildwood Grove" for the first time all I could think was "Wow, this looks like absolute shit". I honestly don't like most of what this park has done lately and find myself going there much less often.

With all those new resorts on the way plus their current rate of explosive growth, they need to figure something out with staffing quick or they are going to slam into a wall. Both DW and SDC are at their breaking points with staffing. Talking to people working there is disheartening. If this stuff goes on into next year I don't know what will happen, but like others have said it's unlikely people will continue to pay to come to these parks to have these experiences. The new developments are exciting, but I still don't understand why they clear cut so much just to leave it barren for years. That is so much the opposite of how these parks used to be run. I know they will fill in some of it eventually, but some areas such as the void space right next to Thunderhead didn't even need to be cleared, they just kind of blanket cleared everything just because. In the old days they would go through and carefully select the trees that simply HAD to be cleared and then only cut them. The cut trees were then replaced by new plantings in other areas. Lightning Rod is depressing. I still haven't ridden it. It's hard to get motivated to go all the way out there when it is NEVER working reliably. Maybe next year... maybe.

We were also at the park on Saturday. I've never been to any park that crowded, before. This is a long disorganized TR. The whole day was kind of a blur. We got to the park at 1230. Which were about consistent with a nice weather summer Saturday. -We hit Diamondback first, after about a 15-20 minute somewhat crowded FL queue. Middle of the train/outer car. Phenomenal. I don't think I've ever had that much floater before, to the point where I prefer the middle row, now. There's no shaking there, either. -Row 2 on Mystic Timbers was next. FL was bottom of the stairs. 10 minute wait. MT is consistently great. The radio in the station is working again. -We were the only people in Beast FL line. We were assigned the middle row of the back car. The Beast rode pretty rough for us in the summer, but this time we had one of the smoothest rides we'd ever had on it. -We walked around for about an hour looking for some hot cider Emily got on our last Haunt visit, to no avail. We went to Orion, and had a about a 15 minute wait. The ride host accommodated our front-row request, and it hauled ass from start to finish. 10/10 for the front row. -We were actually on the winning train for Racer, which never happens. The retracked portions were smoother than I ever remember any wooden coaster being. I felt like we were gliding over the repaired areas. Did I hear this is a pre-fab track? Here's where things went to shit: We left the park and got our re-entry ticket, with re-entry after 7pm not allowed. It was only about 3:30, so we checked into our hotel. I took my 30 minutes necessary mid-park day powernap, and we left for BC Roosters. It's a tradition for us, but despite getting there before 5, there was a 45 minute wait. WTF staffing. We were really bummed, but we went to Frickers nearby. ehhh... It was kind of acceptable, but Roosters is seriously always one of the highlights of the trip. To put it in terms we can all understand; it's the Thirsty-Pony of KI. When we got back to Kings Island, I was one of those cars 240 was talking about. We entered the parking booth line at 6pm, and it was backed out onto the roadway. By the time we got in, parked, and got to the front gates, it was after our 7pm re-entry time by a few minutes. But, despite the tension, we had no issues getting in. We claimed our Fright Lane passes, hit the walkways, and realized the place was FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFking packed. Like... Mardi Gras crowd level packed. It took us a half hour to get two beers at the Bier Garden. Emily forgot her ID, or we would have gotten two each, and sipped them slowly, to avoid another wait. Everything was a wait. Wait to get beer. Wait to go to the bathroom. Wait to get a beer again. Walk around elbow-elbow. Smell peoples' vapes and cigarettes. Have kids, patrons, and even an unapologetic scare actor bump into you and spill your beer here, there, everywhere, all throughout the night. It was hard to enjoy the atmosphere when you can't see anything past the crowd. Eventually, we realized the beer venders near the back of the park had no waits. However, the problem was we'd had several beers and no additional food. We circled the park, only to find that every food line looked 45 minutes to an hour, with many places closed. There were only 3-4 food trucks this time around, to help with the chaos. However, after waiting in line for one that had a noticeably short line, I saw a small sign that said "cash only" in a cashless park............... So much for that. By the grace of God, after lapping the park, La Rosa's had zero line. The haunted houses were OK. It was kind of a blur by that point. But, seeing how every haunted house probably had at least over an hour wait, the Fright Lane paid off huge. I was surprised to see there was no line to even redeem ours, so I guess it must not be very popular. The passes allowed us zero wait for the houses. We used our extra pass on Slaughterhouse. We usually love Kill Mart, but for some reason it seemed really underwhelming this year. Did they change anything up, or get rid of props? Anyway... the actors consistently scared the shit out of my 34-year-old wife, who is a mother, and and an administrator in her company... It pleases me to finally see some vulnerability in something so trivial... We took advantage of night rides, but we didn't have a chance to do that much, since despite the FL lanes not being terrible, you had to wait for everything else and walk at a snail's pace moving around the park. Walking the pathways was like moving through jello. -We got another ride on Diamondback, magic row 2. It was another great lap, but not as good as our first. I swear, this is now a middle-train ride for me. I didn't even know there was such a thing. -We got another row 2 ride on Mystic Timbers, which is an excellent night ride. -We managed to get our obligatory lameness antique car ride in. It's harder to appreciate it at night, when you can't see anything. -Our Orion experience was kind of frustrating, after a 20-30 minute FL wait. The grouper really sucked at her job. The two people in front of us, and Emily and I, asked for the front. She said that would be OK, but we would have to hold up for a few minutes. No big deal. However, apparently this threw a huge wrench in her thought process, combined with some priority riders boarding at the exit. The grouper was trying to scramble to fill the rows and left several rows empty on two trains, despite an hour plus standby queue line, and probably 30 minute FL queue. After waiting for several minutes, she told us we'd have to go in row two... Why not just tell us this from the start? The people in front of us were pretty butt hurt. I was only mildly irritated she told us we could have it, then after waiting awkwardly through several cycles and watching her fall apart, she told us no... It's hard to put the awkwardness into text, but more or less, just tell us no right away, next time. I'm always fine with that. She made it weird... Regardless, I can't understand how vastly different the ride feels in row 2 than it does row 1. It goes from being the absolute clear winner, and probably top 10 material (If I had one), to maybe top 3 or 4 at the park. I don't get it. For us, it's equivalent to the difference between a front row ride vs a row 2 ride on Banshee. Oddly enough, I didn't feel that way last time. -It was about 11:40 when we went to get our night ride on The Beast to close out our kinda fun day. We were the only people in the FL queue and we were directed to the only available row, which happened to be a wheel seat in one of the last cars. It beat the absolute ever living shit out of us, start to finish, and was the most miserable ride on any coaster I can remember having since T3. All of the day's frustrations culminated with that ride to completely demoralize us. As a non-enthusiast, Emily was done..... BUT, as much as I wanted to walk all the way to the car bitching about how f***ed everything had been, and how it all came to a head on the ride that just tried to kill us, I couldn't do it. We entered an empty FL queue, and got assigned row 1 on Emily's favorite coaster at the park: Mystic Timbers. We had a dynamite ride to help us not let the dumpster fire ride on The Beast completely shit on our day. MT definitely ended up being the favorite throughout the day. I'm really not kidding when I say our ride on The Beast was so bad, Emily feels sore today. I think I covered most everything, as far as what we did/rode. The night kind of all blended together, because of the insanity of the crowds, having a few beers, and not being able to find food. Because of time, we missed our obligatory rides on Adventure Express, Bumper Cars, Backlot Stunt Coaster (noooo!), Boo Blasters, the train, and even Banshee (WTF!!). Other fun, but lesser valued rides like Delirium, The Bat, Drop Zone, and Boo Blasters weren't even a consideration. That's quite a void from what we're used to, Haunt or no Haunt. (honorable mention: Race for Your Life Charlie Brown: closed for the season) Other notes: It's important for newcomers to know consistent thing about the Haunt is your FL+ is garbage from about 4-7pm. However, once it gets dark, The Haunt kicks in full swing and the lines die down, because people go to the haunted houses. One thing I noticed this trip was for most of our rides, there was at least one delay for ride operators having to try to force the restraints down on overweight riders, sometimes resulting in walks-of-shame. This would cause stacking every time. It gets worse every year, and I could hear other people getting frustrated with it, as well. The weather was great for a Haunt. At night it was in the mid-low 40's. Despite seeing people in sweaters and shorts, I was rocking a North Face jacket, three thermal tops, a thermal bottom, tennis shoes with thick wool boot socks, gloves, and a winter skull cap... I like heat. I don't like cold. I came to play. All-in-all, I honestly can't say for certain I wouldn't have done something else this weekend. I don't dig those kinds of crowds, anymore. What we experienced is exactly what I interpreted as hearing in the CP thread for years, which is why I never considered a CP halloween event. I overheard groups of guests talking on the way out about how crowded the park was, how they weren't able to get food, how they were only able to do a couple things, etc. There were a lot of conversations like this throughout the night. I really hope this isn't the permanent standard, or we'll likely dip out on park Halloween events indefinitely.

There are also people, not many, but some, who will go day one and deliberately look for anything they can complain about because they know that will probably get them more clicks than praising the system.

Yeah from what I'm seeing online it looks fine! I'm not going to judge ANYTHING from today though as it's the first day and a lot of bloggers went out to try and test the system. Let's see how it works this weekend and into next week. And funny enough, that's when we'll be trying out the new system!

Just a quick update from today's tour to Holiday Park: All major rides were open. Some rides at Majaland were not and seem down for the season. Expresspass is available again with the usual perks (nine points for 30,-- €). Expedition GeForce was running great. For the fellow who visits on thursday: I don't see anything preventing you from having a great day. You wont need Expresspass. Expedition GeForce was a maximum wait of two trains for any given row all day. All other major rides were merely walk-ons.

American Thunder is the best coaster in the park tho. . so it's worth the trip just for that.

Don’t forget about the clearing by The Boss where part of the go karts were/where Catwoman was originally intended to go.

Yeah, they actually got rid of it years ago when the area around Time Traveler was rebuilt, or maybe it was a year or two before that even... They also got rid of theming for the "shower" on the roof that appeared to pipe down to a water fountain across from the kettlecorn stand. Lol, yeah. My old account was from back in like 2005 and I tried many times to get the password reset but I don't think I even have the email for it anymore.

I wouldn't be surprised if its closed the rest of the year. Was told unofficially that they were going to finish the IBox conversion this off season. Last time I rode it, you could definitely tell the wood sections were getting pretty rough. As for Wildwood Grove, a coaster proposal has been leaked on reddit. It looks to be a family coaster about 4000' long.

^ yah . . Zach sent me a link to the Wiki page to read up on em!

one of my favorite Disney Rides. I absolutely prefer it to Indiana Jones. . . which is odd, as Bill says, it's the same ride system. I think it gets crapped on because it's located in the "crappiest" area of Animal Kingdom: the cheapie Dynotiopia area. . but now that Primeval Whirl is gone, maybe the area will get a refresh and not look like carnival rides in a Disney Park.

This is from the Peter Pumpkin Eater scare zone. Like PKIJizzman said they should really think about making it a haunt. It would easily be the longest haunt. Cover the area in fog and make it a werewolf forest. It definitely has the howling vibe

.... you mean this? Yeah, my wife was not a fan lol ... but she also likes Olive Garden, so there's that.... PS: Oh, and flight of passage is just mediocre. That's something we both can agree upon. Then again that might be because we rode Rise of the Resistance the day before. I know, completely different, but still...

Yeah, the stacking is pretty bad. I think back to Scarowinds during Fury's first year. 3 trains. No stacking. That just wasn't the case, anywhere. We really did see several instances where it was due to an overweight rider, and the crew would spend several minutes between trying to jam the restraints, and eventually releasing the restraints for that car, then securing them again. I guess the FL was hit or miss. We luck out with MT, where we've never been past the bottom of the stairs. We also managed to time The Beast just right, where we were the only ones in FL. As far as the employee telling you no, there really is a power trip for a very few amount of people. We've all seen them. "I NEED to see your ID." "No running!" The new: "Put your mask back on!" There really are some people who just enjoy telling people what to do, or telling people no, even when it doesn't make sense.

Age is just a number, even with theme park rides. If you keep them in shape they will essentially last forever. You could have said FITH was too old 20 years ago and been "right" in the eyes of most casual observers. FITH remains a popular ride though, even with it's bumpiness and lack of true care into it's appearance and ride experience. If it's track was replaced and the building was patched up, it would remain a popular ride for decades to come. FITH hit a spot that few rides do, and replacing it will be a tall order. Undoubtedly they'll try to do something flashy with the new ride that will look great in advertisements but cause it to break down constantly or restrict who can ride it. There are some major issues to address with the FITH structure though, including the mold and water rot issues that come from it's 1960's era water brake system. It would take a few million at least to upgrade it properly, and the ROI would not be immediately evident. I think focusing on immediate ROI is a terrible idea though, and it is part of what has led the park down it's current path. The park used to be viewed as a total experience from the second you stepped in to the second you stepped out. Now it's one flashy ride after another, many of which have constant technical problems, and even when they do work right it's a two hour wait. That wasn't supposed to be the SDC experience. There's nothing wrong with the occasional line, but now it's almost all you do. I wish SDC focused more on non-festival experiences and in keeping what they have going strong. Too many things in the park are falling apart. So many of the cute themed areas have been cleared out. I look back on photos from twenty or more years ago and the park was so much more full of life. It's not just the rides that are getting thrown away now when they get old - it's everything. There used to be a big Hatfield and McCoy water fountain with a big fake sock filter that looked hilarious and had a million photos taken of it back in the day. Just an example of things that disappear without a thought anymore. Don't get me started on the signage and stuff that used to be tacked to the walls everywhere. Anyway, enough griping. I am excited to see a potential new indoor coaster. The area they are working in is pretty small. By the time you factor in the train tracks and what I assume will be a necessary service/emergency road, there's not much more room than the current location. Will be interesting to see how they could squeeze a new modern coaster into a building with effects and everything. My hope is that it will start a trend, both within HFEC and parks at large and focusing on indoor attractions again.

^I believe you, and it's not just Dollywood. The parks have to get it together again by next summer. I think everyone gave them a pass this year cause we were all just so happy to have things open and get back to a little normalcy but people aren't going to keep putting up with these operations everywhere.

We had a week in the Smokies last week, and I was so excited to get back to Dollywood, it has been 4 years since I last went. Now, I hate to be one to complain, but Dollywood needs to get it together. We bought tickets on Tuesday and went on Wednesday. Now, I know its busy for the fall fest, I've done it before, but I did not expect what happened next. We arrived at 10:30 to the parking lot, it was already parking in the back, so we got preferred/ premier. We then went to metal detection and waited 20 minutes to get in, Now its 11AM. We had the app and saw that 5 rides were closed, including LR which I expected, but not 4 more. We also saw on the website that select food locations may be affected. Anyway, we did a lap around the park since my girlfriend had never been before. As we walked and she looked around at what she wanted to eat (we skipped breakfast to eat at the park), we were shocked to see that at least 2/3 of the parks food locations/ stands were closed!!! Now don't get me wrong, I completely understand the ongoing work crisis/ Covid crisis and all, but man Dollywood couldn't accommodate at all. We ended up going to Red's Drive-In and waited 95minutes to order and they only had burgers, wow. Then after you order, 10 minutes to wait in line for soda. By the time we were done eating, it was 1:50PM. While we waited in line, people were very impatient, numerous times we saw and heard guests voicing their unhappiness with staff. Now, I know its not the staff's fault, they're getting slammed... It's Dollywood's fault, they can not handle the amount of people they are letting in. So we went to guest relations and voice our concerns and see if their was the slim chance on getting a refund. Well, guest relations had a 45 minute wait, the majority in line for the same thing we were. I was talking to the man in front of us, he said he was a pass holder for 8 years and this would be his last. Anyway, I finally got waited on at GR and explained the situation.... they didn't even hesitate and gave us a full refund!! Dollywood is just going for a money grab at this point and its a shame to see that.

Behind these two license plates in line to get in. They claim to not work for the company, but fingers crossed, right? Just not for Beast!

I mean, they have free courtesy cups... I can't complain that much, we just wanted a bottle since we were heading into a queue and knew we'd want to sip it for awhile. I just picked it up without a posted price and laughed when I realized that Harry Potter water was like twice the price of all of the other water bottles in the park for no reason. It's dumb.

Yeah, that's been gone for a while now Another little thing: The ghost trap hasn't worked in ages