Leaderboard

Oh and I have to add that I soooo regret not being able to record my 76 year old mother yelling at my 77 year old dad (and this is a direct quote) "KEEP PUSHING THE F**KING BUTTON" while they were doing the part of the gunners on Falcon

I'm just going to say Knoebels Fascination before someone else says it

I cleaned this thread up a bit. Chill out. It's not that serious...

Day 2: Knott's Berry Farm So on the advice of many, I hit the road super-early to avoid any major traffic. It mostly worked, resulting in my arrival at KBF at around 8:30 for a 10:00 opening. Oh well, plenty of time for pictures! My parking spot, with a little something in the background. Cool fountain out in the Marketplace area. Main entrance. Historical plaque. And chickens! Yes, these chickens were just wandering around, going into shops...quite amusing. At opening, I made my way inside (grabbing my Fast Lane band from the ticket checker guy? Odd) and bee-lined it for the whole reason this trip existed: Montezooma's Revenge. I wasn't sure what the weather was going to do later in the day, and I had no idea about its downtime record, so I wanted to get it out of the way. On the way, I passed by a cute and very old Ferris wheel (not operating): Finally, I had arrived: Montezooma's Revenge: What did I think of the last operating Schwarzkopf shuttle loop in the US? Honestly a little underwhelming. The launch wasn't as forceful as I thought it would be, but you do pull some serious Gs through the loop, and how can you not love that classic Schwarzkopf sound? My first ride was in the front row, and later in the day I'd grab a ride in row 11 to close out the day. Both were walk-ons with FL. 7/10. I then made my way over to the longest family coaster I've ever been on, Jaguar!. Which you couldn't tell the name from the building aside from that super-tiny sign: But I guess you could from the exit? Jaguar!: Why is there an exclamation point in this ride's name LOL? Fun little ride...no real airtime even in the back, but decent laterals. Two lift hills, super-long ride. Walk-on. 5/10. Continuing my walk around, I came across a big ol' "nope" machine right here: But I am surprised that more parks don't have these; the only other one I've ever seen was at Carowinds. I then grabbed a ride on Silver Bullet, and took a TON of pictures of it. Here are a few: Silver Bullet: Okay, I get the story. But why is the only part of the coaster that's silver the supports? Wouldn't it make more sense for the train, or track, to be silver? Whatever haha. A solid B&M invert with snappy transitions. Walk-on ride for the back row initially, with a two-train wait for the front row later in the day. Unlike most B&Ms, I actually preferred this in the front. 8/10. Next coaster up was Pony Express, with these wonky seats/restraints: Pony Express: This was my first time on one of these, and it was pretty fun! I expected the seats/restraints to be uncomfortable (as most Zamperlas are), but there was no discomfort at all! Way too short, but something like this would be a great fit for smaller parks like Dorney or Morey's. Walk-on for the front row. 7/10. Next up was Knott's Bear-y Tales: Return to the Fair. KBF: RttF: Note that I have obviously never been on the old version of this. I dug the fact that the whole front of the car slides to act as the restraint. I did not dig the inaccurate gun, odd shooting mechanism (pulling on the thing on the back), or heavily screen-based nature of the ride. That said, it was cute and a fun diversion. I scored 138,000, and noted the best all-time score at the end was over 1 million, so yeah. Two car wait. 6/10. Making my way around the boardwalk area, I then came across HangTime. HangTime: It's no secret that I'm not the biggest fan of these Gerstualer coasters. That said, despite some vibration, it was a fun ride. I have to say though, the dive-drop on B&Ms is a lot better than the slanted-hold-drop of these. Walk-on for the back row. 7/10. Sorry, Chance fans, but Wipeout was MIA: I then hopped on Coast Rider: Whatever, it's a mouse. Entertainingly, they actually allow multiple cars out on the track at once - I didn't think Cedar Fair was allowed to do that LOL. Walk-on. 4/10. I then snapped a bunch of pictures of the paint work on Xcelerator, but I guess the recent posts in the KBF thread took care of that, so I'll spare you. After that, I jumped on the Timber Mountain Log Ride: Great long flume with nice scenes, but I did get quite wet, which is never very fun unless it's 80+ degrees out, which it most certainly was not. Walk-on. 7/10. Next up was the Calico Mine Ride. A ride that actually has a true operator! Here's their control station: Calico Mine Ride: This was really, really cool. Nice and long, great animatronics, and the fact that it was a dark ride with an actual driver just blew my mind. About a 10 minute wait (they were only using one train). 9/10. Next up was a lap on the Calico Railroad: This is a full-scale steam train, something you don't see in many parks. Fun fact: When I was a little kid, I was absolutely enamored with steam trains. This was just so cool to me. The actors who interact with the passengers were great too. Only thing that could have made it better was some more scenery/props along the route. 9/10. And some nerd pictures! It was Merry Farm, but you'd generally be hard pressed to tell during the day. Maybe it's just because it wasn't dark, but I didn't notice anywhere near the level of decoration that Kings Dominion does. Some rain had started to come through, which of course closed almost all the major rides. With this downtime, I took a lap on the Grand Sierra Railroad: This is a kiddie-train, smaller in scale, but still a real steam engine, which is always nice. Some cute stationary Snoopy props that told a story, even if the audio came on about 30 seconds after passing the scene it described. 5/10. Once the rain had stopped, I took advantage of my shortness and got a ride on the Timberline Twister: A classic kiddie coaster, but a kiddie coaster none the less. Couple of extremely minor pops of air, but otherwise meh. 15 minute wait for the back row. 4/10. With everything now running again, I made my way over to GhostRider. No pictures, unfortunately (even though it is super-easy to get shots of). WOW! Half-train waits for both front and back row. Insane laterals, smooth ride, nice airtime, tons of speed. I really wasn't expecting this to be as good as it is, but it's a new #4 wooden coaster for me. 11/10. I was still kinda tired, so I grabbed my second rides on Silver Bullet and Montezooma. Here's a video of the entire cycle: VID_20211209_153725592.mp4 To truly close out the day, I grabbed another lap on the Grand Sierra Railroad for the sole purpose of taking some more pictures of Montezooma. Enjoy. Yes, that's the flywheel mechanism behind the fence! So old school cool! And the loop. Something about the way these Schwarzkopf loops look just screams out to me. After that, I headed out and made the drive back to my hotel, took a shower, and then went out for the night in Santa Monica (see above). All in all, Knott's was a very fun park without many standout rides. Aside from GhostRider, nothing really blew me out of the water. The Ghost Town area was cool but not really my scene. None of the typical shows were running (entirely Christmas programming). I am definitely glad I came though, and will be back...I need those credits on Xcelerator and Sierra Sidewinder (which was down for maintenance almost the entire time I was here). Hopefully Montezooma is still around whenever that happens. Now that I've added another CF park to my repertoire, here are my updated rankings (out of the one's I've been to): 1. Kings Island 2. Cedar Point 3. Kings Dominion 4. Carowinds 5. Knott's Berry Farm 6. Dorney Park 7. Michigan's Adventure Next Up: Six Flags Magic Mountain EDIT: Sorry everyone, but I did not try the chicken....it's just not something I regularly eat. I did try the mac & cheese and biscuits from the Chicken-to-Go place, but was rather disappointed in both.

We just got back from spending 2 days at Dollywood and a couple more days in the area for Christmas and honestly it was one of the best park trips we've had in a long time, we really had a great time. Here are few notes from our trip. First off Lightning Rod. I know there's been a ton of talk about that thing here over the past couple of years but for the 2 days we were there it was running consistently with 2 trains both days. On the 22nd it closed at 7:30 along with everything else in the park because it was just under the 34 degree mark (VERY cold night). On the 23rd the park opened at 11 and an operator came out and said there was still frost on the track so it would be opening a bit late. We grabbed some cinnamon bread and headed up toward Firechaser/Wild Eagle and by the time we got halfway up the mountain it was cycling trains and probably opened around 11:45 or so. So anyways 2 days of consistent operations and man that thing is still an absolute beast of a ride. I got a few rides in 3 years ago before the refurb and honestly I don't know if it's slower now or whatever, but it's still a top 5 ride for me. I got 2 rides the 22nd and ended up getting 5 on the 23 in about 1.5 hours, two in standby with my kids and three through the single rider line. Such an awesome ride, so hopefully these operations carry over into next season. Shoutout to Dollywood for running Wild Eagle with a 50 In height requirement instead of 54 like every other B&M in the country. My youngest was able to ride this year and loved it. Thunderhead as running pretty well for it being in the 40s in December. It's wasn't the smoothest GCI I've ever been on but was good enough to knock out 4 rides in a row with no wait. Mystery Mine seemed more temperamental than Lightning Rod while we were there but that's still a really fun ride, and I love the view you get of it from the path to Wildwood Grove (which was new to me). Speaking of Wildwood Grove, I get the complaint about ripping out the trees up there as it does look a little out of place, but it looked great at night with the Christmas lights and the kids had a blast. Can't wait to see what the new coaster for 2023 will be. Is Dropline the best drop tower in the world? No it's not, I know it's not, but man the views on that thing are amazing and there was NEVER a line for it over 2 days which was weird. Thunderhead and Mystery Mine would both have 45 minutes to an hour long que at times and Dropline was still a complete walk on? When all the coasters closed at 7:30 the 22nd, you guessed it, Drop Line still an absolute walk on. So again it's not the best drop tower in the world but that view makes it one of my favorites. All of the Christmas decorations looked great and the fireworks show at the end of the night was a nice close to the day. We also watched the "Twas the Night Before Christmas Show" which was really cute and well done for a 45 minutes theme park stage musical. Wait times and crowd flow at this park are kind of weird. Lightning Rod would have a 2 hour line in the mornings then be down under 30 minutes at mid day. Thunderhead was all over the place all day, from 45 minutes to a complete walk on. Mystery Mine and Firechaser stayed pretty consistent around 45 minutes- 1 hour both days. One thing I really appreciate about Dollywood is that Tennessee Tornado and Wild Eagle were pretty much walk ons all the time. Maybe we got lucky but it's nice to always have a decent coaster available with a short wait. The park was closed on Christmas Eve and Christmas day but we headed over to Dreammore for breakfast at Song and Hearth and had a great meal. That resort is really nice and I'd love to stay there next trip. The breakfast was just a buffet, but a pretty decent one, and for $18.00 I'd go back in a heartbeat. We also grabbed a couple loaves of cinnamon bread at Dreammore with NO WAIT to take back to our cabin, which made for a nice treat on Christmas day. So again overall we had a great trip, the park is as beautiful as it ever was and I found the operations to be pretty good for the 2 days were were there. My only complaint is I wish they could find a way to have the cinnamon bread line move faster. If this park was like 3 hours closer I'd probably go twice a year, but we'll be back in 2023 for the new coaster.

The Dollywood and Silver Dollar City threads are always the biggest shitshows. Not sure why... maybe you people need a drink. Oh, wait...

As some regular Theme Park Review readers might know, I live in Bonn, which is not only the former capital of Germany, but also very close to Phantasialand. The park has a solid reputation for building excellently themed roller coasters like the “Colorado Adventure” Vekoma mine train, the B&M inverter “Black Mamba” and most recently the Intamin multi launch coaster “Taron”, embedded in the genuine world of “Klugheim” that opened in 2016. Phantasialand is a family owned park, so it came quite as a surprise that they announced another world class rollercoaster to open in 2020: F.L.Y., located in the new themed area “Rookburgh” – a steam punk type of land. This flying coaster, build by Dutch manufacturer “Vekoma” features 0.75 miles of track, two LSM launches, a “dark ride” part, two inversions and the most innovative loading system I have ever seen on the flying coaster: to enable riders to board, the track is mounted against the station wall and the seats are rotated 90°. To put passengers into the “flying” position, the seats rotate back seamlessly after the ride has passed the short “dark ride” section. The whole setting of the attraction is amazing: steam emerges from the underground, there are tons of details and the sound design creates a perfect immersion. But it is at night, when “Rookburgh” really shines. A visit during the “Wintertraum” event is greatly recommended, as the park stays open late and there are little to no wait times – even at top attractions like F.L.Y., Taron and Black Mamba. The steam effects and the low winter sun make for some cool "god rays" The coaster interacts with the elaborate themeing. I really love that shot. Speaking of themeing … They use metal detectors and a clever locker system, so F.L.Y. flies literally over the guests heads. Tracks and trains and winter sun and blimps and Vekoma goodness This inversion makes the cars look like a petal. Pier 5 Just one of many "airtime" moments. And yes: that's ice on the top of the backbone. 30°F. A panoramic view of F.L.Y. and the whole "Rookburgh" area. Pretty, uh? To the left you can see the first straight LSM launch segment. For the real enthusiast, there is a capsule style hotel embedded into "Rookburgh": "Charles Lindbergh" gives guests some exclusive views of "F.L.Y." (as the trains literally travel around your rooms) and front of line access. I did mention the excellent themeing, didn't I? It's all about flight. They might not completely follow german mask policies, but at least those girls seem to have fun. They do way better (as most of the guest do) One of the infamous steam effects. This gauges turn red before those effects go off. Did I mention the themeing? I'm pretty sure, I did. And there is lot of it. When the sun sets the whole area becomes even more "magical". After sunset. That's some impressive view, isn't it? They even do a short "light show" when the lighting turns from "day mode" to "night mode". Another panoramic view of "Rookburgh". Track and lights and steam. This is the second launch stretch. It catapults you upward.

My favorite non-ride is Millennium Force because it's really just a tour of Ohio.

^There was, it's the building by Superman. You can actually see the "The Laughing Dragon" name still painted in the pic on this post. One unique piece of trivia about the Sol Spin (Mondial Space Roller) at Knott's... it's the only one to have 6 across seating. They normally only have 5. This is because it sits on the footprint originally used for Windseeker, which got really bad press when it stalled out for like 3 hours at a high spot. It was removed and sent to I believe Worlds of Fun, and Mondial offered to put in the space roller using the old Windseeker footer, but the standard model was too small for the space... so they customized it just for Knotts.

Day 3: Six Flags Magic Mountain Friday morning, I made the drive up to Valencia for my final park of this trip, Six Flags Magic Mountain. I have to say this: Why is there zero radio station reception in between LA and Valencia? It made the car ride quite boring. Anyway, I arrived around 10:00 and was maybe the 20th car in the lot. As with SFoG, you get a nice look at part of the coaster collection from the lot: "Sorry folks, the moose out front shoulda told you." Anyway, I grabbed my Flash Pass and proceeded to X2 at the recommendation of pretty much everyone. Yep, that's one "unit" operating - this would be par for the course today, with almost every coaster only running one train. X2: Listen, I'm proud to say on got on the coaster that put Arrow out of business. Absolutely insane and not in a good way. Rattly, janky, the cars had some free rotation to them which I'm pretty sure they weren't supposed to have. Just bleh. How can this be in some people's top 10 lists, I'll never understand. Walk-on for the front row. 2/10 just for the uniqueness. And how typical Six Flags for them to leave one of the parking tracks painted the old colors: Viper wasn't running yet, or I would have grabbed it while I was in the area, so instead I headed back the way I came to... Full Throttle: (Side note, I seriously miss the word filters the old forum used to have). Anyway, this one was a decent ride. Hang time was nice, the launch was weak, and the brakes on the down side of the camelback grab way too hard. But it wasn't terrible? Two train wait for row 2. 5/10. Next up was the wave of the kiddie coasters. I got on Canyon Blaster, Speedy Gonzales' Hot Rod Racers, and Road Runner Express. Magic Flyer was no dice for me, with it's hard height limit of 54 inches - I'm short but not that short LOL. None of them warrant further mentioning or ratings. Next on the agenda of proper adult rides was Goliath, with its comically large sign and weird-ass trains. Goliath: My first Giovanola, a decent ride with some floater air and great positive Gs in the helix. But WHY does the MCBR bring the train to a complete halt when there's only one train on the track? 22 minute, three train wait, for back row (with Flash Pass!). 6/10. At least here's a picture of the helix, buried behind the mess of supports: Onward to Twisted Colossus: A coaster actually running multiple trains, gasp! And amazingly, I got a race for the first half of the course too (most of the time they were missing the mark). It's a decent RMC, but I'd rank it pretty far down the list of ones I've been on, despite its length. Two train wait for back row. 8/10. Right next door was Scream!: At least the exclamation point makes sense here haha. Entertaining enough, not a lot of rattle, but nothing really notable except that no-longer-the-worlds-biggest loop. Half-train wait for the back row. 7/10. Here's a shot of that giant loop at least: Up next was Riddler's Revenge: Probably the 2nd best B&M stand up I've been on (after Mantis), but that's not saying much. I don't mind these as much as most people, because I know how to ride them, but still not my preferred riding position. One train wait for back row. 6/10. I then grabbed a lap on Goldrusher: Your standard Arrow mine train. Notably, it still had the skid brakes, which was cool to actually see (they were long gone from SFGAdv's mine train by the time I was coaster-riding age). I liked how it interacted with the landscape and the rides around it. One train wait for the front row. 5/10. Working my way around the back half of the park to its corner, I then rode Apocolypse: Easily the worst GCI I've been on. No air, insanely rough...just WTF. As bad as Roar at SFA. Burn it down. That said, the station flyby was cool (which I didn't get a picture of because, y'know, one train). I'd say they should add seats to the old audio equipment car at the back of the train, but that would just permit more people to experience this pile of trash. 10 minute wait for row 7. 0/10. Next up was West Coast Racers: The only thing I recorded in my post-ride notes video was "meh." That should say everything. Comfort collars weren't uncomfortable for me, but they serve no purpose. This ride is the definition of mediocrity. 5/10. Making my way up the hill to Ninja, I spotted this: Sweet, I would get to ride Tatsu today! This trip was prior to the announcement that the painting had been put on pause, so this was a great surprise. Ninja: Pretty good, quite long, lots of cool dives down by the water, and a lift hill at the end of the ride is always entertaining. Walk on for back row. 7/10. I totally love how this interacts with the flume: Does anyone know what this building next to the tower was formerly used for? I couldn't figure it out. And this would be as close as I could get to Superman today, which was quite a bummer: Made my way down the other side of the hill next to Tatsu: Easily the best flyer I've ever been on, and I'm not usually a fan of these. Great forces in the pretzel loop, very unique layout. I even rank it higher than Manta at SWO. Three train way for back row (only one train running). 8/10. Second to last here was Viper, with it's old-school Arrow-ness, awesome station, and super-high-in-the-air loop: Viper: This has held up very well for its age. Slightly headache afterwards, of course, but still a good ride. I like this layout a lot more than Great American Scream Machine had at SFGAdv; not going into the MCBR at a 45 degree angle makes all the difference. And it's certainly better than Anaconda. 15 minute, three-train wait for the front row (again, one train). 6/10. Last up on the agenda here was something I knew would be great, the classic Revolution. Note that every other sign I saw except this one still called it "New Revolution" from the failed VR experiment. Revolution: Such an awesome solid Schwarzkopf. Despite the new trains and being a bit too heavy on the trim brakes, this was great. The gentle slope down to the loop is so unassuming...you don't realize you're picking up speed until the entry to the loop, and then BOOM 4+ Gs. Front row, two train wait. 8/10. Here's a bunch of pictures of this classic ride: After that, I made my way out of the park at around 4:00 to get back to my hotel so I could get to bed for my early flight out. As a whole, this park just screams Six Flags...there's a whole bunch of coasters, a bunch of kids rides, and not much else. Note that I did skip out on the funicular, despite how cool I think they are...looking at one was enough for today. I also skipped the flume, as I didn't want a repeat of the wetness I got on the one at KBF, and Superman and Batman were closed. Is having the record for most coasters in one park really anything if most of them aren't great? My Six Flags park rankings now stand as such: 1. over Georgia 2. Great America 3. New England 4. Great Adventure 5. Magic Mountain 6. America And that about wraps up this trip. My flight home the next day was pretty uneventful, but I do have to say holy hell is the Salt Lake City airport (where I had a 2 hour layover) a horrible design: from my gate to the exit for a smoke break was easily a 30 minute walk each way. It was also pouring when we were pulling in to land at Baltimore, resulting in this awesome out-the-window view: VID_20211211_171458574.mp4 Thanks for reading, everyone!

World's tallest drop tower set to open at 10am today. Wish I was there. Looks fun.

I think you're misreading it, though it is a weird message. The operative word is probably "or" and reaching the maximum number of reservations is just listed as one of the two reasons that the message could be appearing. It's probably not actually the reason and not actually a thing. The first reason listed "There are not any available dates at this time" is probably the reason. Boldy is right though, all we can do is guess. The best option is to call them to be sure. As for complaints about the reservation system existing at all when you have a season pass that promises unlimited visits, that's a separate issue and I'm not commenting on that.

Yeah, I usually get there around 4:00 PM for my weekday visits, which gives me 2 hours to get on a few rides and grab dinner with my dining pass. If the park closes at 5:00, it's not worth the trip. If they want to cut hours, I'd personally rather have them open an hour later and stay open until 6:00.

I just saw on Twitter that the drop tower is $12 and the slingshot is $30. Not as bad as I was expecting for the drop tower honestly. $20 for the drop tower and the StarFlyer is a pretty decent deal, I will be stopping there with the kids next time we're in town for sure. Free Fall: $12 Sling Shot: $30 Combo: $40 Free Fall, Slingshot, & Starflyer: $50 Free Fall & Star Flyer: $20

On a very slight technicality, you'll be going ever so slightly faster if you're further from the center of the ride, so higher = faster.

Nope, you're thinking of the Four Winds/The Laughing Dragon, which was behind it. That particular building was originally a dual station as a terminal point for two different skyway systems (Eagle's Flight) that met there. The building is now used as a haunt space for FF, but they have to build around the enormous concrete footer that's right in the middle of it.

I seem to remember, that the "oriental themed" bldg. you were asking about ...used to be an Asian-style eating spot? Just my memory of .... I'm sure some one more local could tell you.

^ I thought Sierra Sidewinder was one of The Best Spinners I'd ever been on! (Of the spinners I have been on to this date). I think I rode it five times during our last visit in Sept.2019!

worth going back for those two. . Xcellerator is great, and I loved how much spin one gets on Sierra Sidewinder.

I think I would actually like to be 'lost', wandering around that whole area... .... oh yeah right, ride the coaster, too! Gorgeous photos you took, especially those panoramic ones! And the nights shots are really lovely. Thanks for sharing all of the photos you took!

With all the hoopla and stuff in the Disney parks, I love Knott's for (yes) it's GhostTown and general ambiance through-out the park. Much easier to deal with, than Disney, every time. And staying at the Knott's Hotel is an extra plus IMhO. Will always stay there in future trips. Another great TR of your visit!

Well, I finally got around to posting my report from December 9th. Check it out right here.

$40 seems really high for those rides. . . that's crazy. but at least looks like you had some fun.

^ Well, you can always visit W.Hollywood on your next visit, hmmm? Nice TR of the Santa Monica area.

I guess it's about time I posted this report LOL. So here we go, my first time to California, December 8-11, 2021. Day 1: The Flight Out and Santa Monica My flight out was mostly uneventful, but I do have a few notes: -Flying out of BWI (Baltimore/Washington Thurgood Marshall Airport) was quite nice compared to Philadelphia. Might help that I was there super-early in the morning, but I didn't encounter much of any security line and the airport itself is laid out well. Parking was slightly cheaper (but you did have to take a bus to the airport), and plenty of outdoor smoking zones. Unfortunately, for me, there are about $15 dollars in tolls round-trip, so it only makes fiscal sense to fly out of there (compared to PHL) if the trip is 5 days or more. -I had a 45 minute layover in Chicago Midway, which is kinda close to Soldier's Field, for anyone who is really into overhead views of football stadiums: -That 45 minutes was barely enough time to get off the first plane, hit the bathroom, and get in line for the second plane's boarding. I don't know how people make change-plane layovers shorter than that. -Hollywood Burbank Airport was something else. Super-tiny (only one story), and there aren't even any sky-bridges - you have to board/depart the aircraft on an outdoor ramp - and extremely limited food and beverage options. On the plus side, everything in there is "street priced," meaning no typical airport markup. -Hertz left something to be desired. Yeah, I get it, there's a rental car shortage, but that doesn't mean the screen for Gold members has to be down nor that a Gold member should have to wait in a 30-minute line. By the time I was approached by an agent and directed to the cars, I had only one choice: a Ford Fiesta. -The car was nice enough I guess...drove straight and got 35mpg on my trip; a little light on power and the satellite radio wasn't hooked up, though. Anyway, after a quick pit stop at a supermarket for enough Red Bulls to get me through the trip, I began my drive to my hotel. Holy crap is gas expensive out here! I saw everything from $4.25 to $5.25 for regular; back in Delaware it's around $3.30. Good thing I got an economical car, I guess. My hotel was the Sea Shore Motel, around a block and a half off the beach in Santa Monica. Sadly, I neglected to grab any pictures, but the place was decent for what I paid. It reminded me a lot of the beach-town motels from NJ. WiFi was kinda spotty, and the AC unit was super loud, but at least the beds were hard (as I prefer). After getting settled in, I made my way down to the beach. Man, was it pretty. Though it was a bit too cold to actually lay out or go in the water (around 65 degrees), I did of course stick my toes in the Pacific Ocean just to say I did. I continued my walk northbound towards the pier...there it is! Is there where I go up? Apparently not....the only way on to the pier from beach level were the stairs on the south side, about halfway down. I took in the street performers and vendors, and marveled at the amount of homeless people just chilling, and made my way to the official park entrance. I had a good idea of what was here, so I didn't really need to walk around, but here's two pictures of the ride prices, which honestly don't make much sense to me. "I'm not paying that much to go on Scrambler 1!" Anyway, I bought a rides card with $10 of credits, and made my way over to my whole reason for being here: Nerd shots: Seriously though, who makes these trains? They had restraints like Morgans but something about them just felt off. Anyway, what did I think of the smallest, most-boring, Morgan "hyper" layout ever? Surprisingly I had a couple of pops of air in the back row, but yeah, it's a kiddie coaster disguised as an adult ride. Got two laps, at least. Ferris Wheel? Psh, the one in Grand Theft Auto 5 looks better. On that note, I was very much expecting a plethora of shops to line the beach/boardwalk area, as is seen in GTA5's rendition of Santa Monica, and was sorely disappointed. Anyway, I took a walk up to street level to grab a picture of the famous sign... ...and then grabbed some food and made my way back to my hotel via one of those awesome app-rental electric scooters like I had first experienced in Indianapolis. Seriously, every city needs these. Once I got back to my hotel, I pretty much passed right out. I had been awake for something close to 20 hours, and was definitely feeling it. Bonus: 3rd Street Promenade This actually didn't happen until the second night of my trip, but while I'm talking about the city I might as well talk about this here. Thanks to the recommendation of @ryder, I spent some time walking around this open-air shopping plaza. Plenty of street performers here too, including one awesome female vocalist on a guitar that I had to drop $10 into the case for. Surprisingly, a ton of homeless here too - I would've expected the local constabulary to keep the tourist area free of them. Most of the shops were well out of my price range, but it was cool to see. Here's two pictures: I didn't make it up to the West Hollywood area during my trip (sorry @ryderand @Nrthwnd), but did pop in to Rick's Tavern on Main and Circle Bar for some quick adult beverages. Amusingly enough, I didn't have to show my COVax card or wear a mask in any of these places. This really surprised me for the LA-Area of California, especially given that most of my bars in Philly have been requiring vaccination for months now. Do they just assume everyone has gotten the jab? Anyway, that about does it for city exploration. I wish I had more time to explore the area and check things out, but it just wasn't to be on this trip. Next up: Knott's Berry Farm

Gotta say I'm a little nervous about the changes to the big helix, but keeping my fingers crossed.

God, don't give them any ideas. Chapek would just close half of it and cite it as a cost saving measure.

Another great TPR Facebook caption: Edit: image upload isn't working. On the Batman video: "Upside down your wacky pigs"

Ok we just returned from a Florida Christmas trip and having been to Universal many times I have to say that Velocicoaster is amazing! I thought nothing would ever replace SV at CP for my son as his #1 but he is reevaluating that at the moment. It really is the whole package of great coaster and awesome theming.

Being at fault doesn't seem to really matter anymore! Look at all the people suing fast food companies for making them fat and getting settlements! It's not like they were force fed! The only thing I'm hoping that will come out of this lawsuit is finding out what happened to her fiance? He seems to have dropped off the face of the earth...maybe I watch CSI too much, but I have my suspicions! Elissa "hopefully this will go away soon!" Alvey

We haven't seen much from this new leadership yet, but annoying cuts wherever possible seem to be the name-of-the-game thus far.

Beginning in January the park will close at 5pm on weekdays. Lame