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^ Saturday was awesome. It also came together last minute which made it even better. Like 48 hours prior, my plan was to drop Brit at the airport in NYC and then brave the sea of humanity doing Christmas shopping that day in the rain. The next day, she was flying out of Philly for $300 less and I was totally-not using that as an excuse to swing by Six Flags for a ride or two if the rain held off. The next day Boldy was down, it totally wasn’t going to rain and we had some bangin’ cheesesteaks in Philly and then rode Jersey Devil and Nitro like 800 times each in an empty park. Good times. I love Holiday in the Park. We should cancel Fright Fest and start it in September every year.

Making $70,000/year as a roller coaster painter.

Our Nitro night rides on Saturday were absolutely otherworldly. Since the park was a ghost town there wasn't even more than a train wait for the front so we rode up there a bunch too and those were some of our best laps. Hauling ass. Not only was it f*cking flying, the entire area was shrouded in this grey haze/mist so coming up that first airtime hill after the first turn we were just kind of floating up and over this moonlit cloud that had settled just above the tree line and then back down into it before being whipped through the hammerhead and back up and over the cloud on the next hill. Just simply amazing, some of the best rides we've ever gotten on it. Before Saturday, I'd only managed one single (back seat) ride on The JDC (its a thing) not long after it opened this summer. Any time I've been to the park since its been mobbed or the ride was down. I'd hoped all season that one day during HITP we'd get a weather day like that (mild, kinda rainy) where I could just sit on the the thing all day long and well... we got it. They were running two trains and filling them but we would walk around and right back on, over and over. We rode at least a dozen and a half times, probably more, all over the train. Keep in mind its my only single rail coaster, but I actually find it to be a very intense ride, the best moments being the first drop (especially in the back - ho-lee-shit), the hanging stall thing, and the turnaround right after it. They had the midcourse mostly off all day so the final bunnyhops were all providing ample air, especially the tiny straight pop right before the final brakes. I'd probably say I prefer the back over the front but I think the best rides were in the middle-back-ish part of the train. It's a very intense ride, especially to marathon. I've said it on here before, but we're spoiled AF at this park. We were just down in Orlando two weeks ago so going back to the ol' local SF felt janky as all hell, but we have some absolutely amazing rides and the fact that we're able to ride things like Wonder Woman, Nitro, JDC etc in December when people are out Christmas shopping is something I'm certainly still grateful for. In addition to the extended marathons on Nitro and JDC we managed rides on Wonder Woman, Batman, Justice League, Dark Knight, Skull Mountain, and Superman (wow the suck really shines after riding Manta last week). The Skyway is sadly closed for maintenance, Cyborg is FUBAR'd, Houdini actually had a line when we passed it and neither of us felt up for Joker. All in all one of the best days we've had at the park in quite some time. I guess this is kind of some sort of trip report now so some photos?

as I suspected. . . they are using the Flash Pass lane for those who want to "fly", Bill. the fliers get into the harnesses in the "bullpen" staging area just before the ride loading. here are some pics I took myself today - but no way, no how, was my fat ass getting in this set up. (interestingly, they seem to have blocked off the sets of seats before each "hanging" section. . . I guess so once it's up to speed, there's no chance of "high-fiving" or touching, anyone in the seats in front.

Yeah I'd be willing to be that's not electrical, the middle car in that picture of the train looks to be completely out of alignment. It might be an optical illusion with the angle of the train and where the picture was taken from but pretty sure there was something that when wrong, maybe with one of the bogeys. If you turn up that video it sounds like there is some loud clanging when the train doesn't make it over the hill, then the whole way back down into the valley sounds pretty rough. Hopefully nobody was hurt.

Here's the video of the valley caused by the derailment: If Google Translate is to be trusted, they're saying that the ride did not derail and it was caused by an electrical failure. This could be an interesting story to watch...

Took my 4 year old to the park on Sunday. He's RIGHT at 42", so we can really only do JL, BBNP, and Mine Train-type stuff. Not sure if it's due to the new corporate cuts or what, but after JL I was talking to a ride ops and just saying the Joker wasn't moving, shooting "gas" and the fire didn't explode (all things my kid looks forward to and is "magical" in his eyes). The ride ops apologized and said due to new corporate cost savings at the end of the year, they've turned that down/off - which was really sad to explain to my kiddo. I'm a 35 year old who has lived local to STL all my life. It's really sad to sift thru some of these comments and see the above type of cuts trickling down. I remember the good ole days of the park as a youngster that fueled my passion for coasters, parks and such. My son asks me to watch rollercoaster videos and such, which is so fun. I hope they realize that the little things matter to the next generations. I know they're not CF, Herschend, Disney, or Universal....but if little things were working and in place, it makes a world of difference. Stepping off soap box

Inb4 someone says, "Or better yet, it'd be great if they just replaced Viper with some new bathrooms."

I really wish they were doing this longer. OR....can someone whisper to Jeffrey this would be great for Coaster Rodeo? I hope we see these pop up more places. I'd love to give it a try. Sky Coasters are tons of fun. The new Fun Spot lay down swings were interesting enough. I'm all for it.

Its gotta be better than riding it backwards, which was

So, Liseberg gave us an early christmas present! (and for the 100-year anniversary) Luna Park a new themed land, has been announced for 2023! https://www.liseberg.se/luna-park/ In 2023 Liseberg celebrates its 100-year anniversary. This centennial will be marked by the opening of the LisebergGrand Curiosa Hotel in 2023 and Oceana Water World in 2024. But already next year, the celebration begins with a completely new themed area named Luna Park, as well as two new family rides, Turbo & Tempus. A year later, the Luna family boomerang roller coaster, will be added to the area. Tempus – a Zamperla Nebulaz ride – plays with time and space, and the four axes rotate in perfect harmony, taking you up and down and around with extraordinary precision. Turbo – an interactive Technical Park Sidecar XL carousel – is letting you decide for yourself how fast and high you want the motorcycle and sidecar to go. In time for the centennial in 2023, the last and biggest ride – Luna – will be added. Luna is a Vekoma Family Boomerang coaster, where the train follows a 242 meters long track until a drop at a dead-end spike, and then back again. With its 33.5 meters tall spike Luna becomes the tallest and fastest (68km/h) of its kind in the world.

Visited the park today and had a nice time! Was nice to see Lightning Rod operating and running 2 trains. Sadly, food operations are still struggling. I feel like this year’s Christmas decor was less than previous seasons, though. Looking forward to 2022 and hopeful for a “normal” season next year. I did notice some work being done on River Rampage. Maybe it’s getting a much needed refurb?

if, like me, you dislike the "paper" Season Passes that SWSA typically hands out? they posted this important update to their FB account today: since I was going to be in San Antonio today for a visit to Fiesta Texas anyways, I decided to stop first at SW for a couple of hours and take advantage, since they just started offering this today. it was easy/peasy to swap out my paper pass for this hard plastic card, and the pictures really don't do it justice. it's pretty stunning: so if your pass is from SWSA? you have ~2 weeks to get to the park to update to this for free!

You can see it in the video too in that final swing. It absolutely derailed.

It's because corporate hates our park so much they want to make sure we don't have another HITP event, even if it means canceling them chain-wide.

Small update: they've torn down the old bathrooms by the Flash Pass center towards the front of the park. Hopefully they'll construct some updated ones?

This sounds like a story I heard on the news last night, the employees of the Candlemaker plant in Mayfield are hiring attorneys and are going to sue the company for not allowing them to leave when the storm hit, seriously an EF4 tornado is bearing down on you and you want to go outside, if the company let the employees leave there would have been more than the 8 unfortunate deaths from that company.

certainly. tho 8 across is the "standard" for the big Dive Coasters, in meeting with B&M - SFFT and B&M realized that they could greatly reduce the cost of the coaster by sticking with the "standard" B&M track size (as opposed to the standard B&M Dive Coaster track, that is larger & wider than the standard B&M track). to stick with the standard track tho, they would have to completely redesign the trains - and B&M was up to the challenge. Not only does the 7-across seating mean that there will be 1 seat that rides dead center on the track (a 1st for a dive coaster), but the 7 across seating also has a little bit of "give" that will allow the row of seats to flex as it hits the forces on the track. I'm sure it won't be enough to really be noticeable (that "flex"), but really cool that SFFT is getting the first of it's kind dive coaster: "standard track width" 1st 7 across seating *and* steepest drop on a Dive Coaster. i'm guessing this is the first of many that will get cloned - because the cheaper cost for a B&M Dive Machine? yeah. .that's gonna be attractive to many other parks, I'd guess.

OMG that was so unnecessary. There isn't a hint of a g-force on Thunder Dolphin.

Just adding to the plethora of people who have had tiny attached items removed to be given a larger item for a locker on Dodonpa!