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Wait... you met him in a queue for a ride that has been closed for over a month now? If that's the case, I think all of the SF parks are in deep trouble with that guy. No way I am waiting in line for a closed ride!

OMG! An actual smile from a moody teenager when he was in the station on the whirlygig thing, I had no idea this existed, I was down on the ground getting pics from there. I'm sure it was because I wasn't there to witness it It's a Coasterstock miracle. The dark ride is actually Boo Blasters on Boo Hill. I know. Rolls right off your tongue.

Ok. .day 1 of Coasterstock! lots and lots of pics, so will post in two parts. part 1: we were up and out of the hotel by 8am, as gates open early for this incredible event. ERT this morning went from 8:30am-10am with available options staggered for: Great Pumpkin Coaster (kiddie, so I didnt' bother), Woodstock Express (which was supposed to be one of the 1st open, but was delayed and did open closer to 10), Diamondback, Mystic Timbers, and Flying Ace Ariel Chase (which I rode last year, and had zero interest in repeating the headbang this Jr. suspended Vekoma offers). someone was taking pics of the Tie Dyed shirts, so here I am in the line waiting to get into the park, with a Joel photobomb we were deep in conversation with the wonderful lady on the right, wearing a dress that she handmade featuring the classic Flyers on the skirt. so I'm a huge Carousel nerd (for those that don't know me from here), and so is Don Helbig from KI. . and we had been excitedly chatting on the KI Coasterstock page about the Anniversary of the Carousel and the refurb work they had been doing on it for said Anniversary. Also in this conversation online, was Danielle. So we had interacted online, but I had not met her or knew what she looked like. . . and the universe stepped in and we ended up walking next to each other from the parking lot to the front gate. and within moments, realized that we were the two who had been chatting about Carousels online. so yes, we ended up hanging out most of the two days, also meeting another wonderful attendee named Jan (appropriate, since Jan lost Mike's plans on the KI Canoes way back in the 70's. . . .oh, Jan!!!). anyways, so we ended up with a core group of 5-6 of us each day that hung out thruout the day, occasionally meeting up with PianoJohn and Shawn, and Stacy Gretchen, and a few other folks from here at TPR Forums. Once we got in the gates, we made our way over towards Diamondback since that's where they gave us juice, donuts, and we could pick up our FunPix cards, and drink bands. Oh, and ride Diamondback a few times, before going next door to ride Mystic Timbers a few times as well, before heading over towards Woodstock Express. but first? gotta stop for a pic. The fountains weren't on yet, but the front was quiet enough to get one without tons of people around. as noted, multiple rides on Diamondback, Mystic Timbers (Kim kept getting Bats in the shed, LOL) and then we discussed what to do next. At 10am was a photo and video Q&A with the Train Engineers, and the 1st ride of the day on the train. But we had done that last year, so we skipped it and instead we headed over to Woodstock Express, where we got a private ride (seriously, the park had just opened but no one was over here yet). it's riding much smoother than it was last year, so I'm wondering if perhaps they did some off year trackwork on it? no idea what's up with the date on this. . 4/12/22 ? LOL. . was 5/20/22 and then the crowds started to show. . but we were right next to Woodstock's Whirlybirds. which really didn't have any line at all yet (tho it would later, as they only run a few at a time) I hadn't even noticed them last year, and have NO idea how I missed them.. but once I saw them online, I was determined to squeeze my butt into them for a ride. It turns out, the insides are VERY roomy, no issue there, and they encourage adults to ride. it's a slow moving powered (and breezy, since the sides are open) loop around the Peanuts area. *but* it's powered and has a slight lift-hill and drop, so does it count as a coaster? such a pretty area. we got Joel to ride! so that implies it must count as a coaster, as he was willing to get on see how roomy? Danielle and I easily fit, and tho there were pedals you could work, and a joystick that moved? really it was a sit back and enjoy the ride type of thing. see behind that orange one? a lift hill! oh, and Orion. Red Racer was starting to test. Blue wouldn't open until later in the day, and then broke down while we were waiting for it. so never actually got to ride Blue, but got 3 rides on Red. as much as I love Carousels? yeah, this one didn't look like it could support me, so I didn't even try. Besides, I knew the Bigger Carousel was in my near future, as we had to head over the Eiffel Tower for the group photo at 11. here's the Group Photo taken by Kyle. . . they never reveal numbers, but assuming most everyone showed up? I'd guess it's capped at somewhere around 1200 ? and since the ERT always has multiple "big" things open at the same time, it splits the crowd really well, and the ERT really is not much of a wait ever. SUCH a good event. Lunch wasn't for an hour yet, and we were sorta closeby, so we swung over to the Beast for a ride (waiting only about 20 minutes). the retracking is amazing, and it's running SO smooth. I was iffy about it, but I went ahead and rode Row 17 on this 1st ride, and it was AMAZING. yes the brakes are still hitting hard - mainly at the end of the "bridge" before the turn into the woods, and slightly on the drop into the Helix.. but wow, it picks up speed so quickly again, and this sucker is just flying. and as noted. . smoooooooth. LOVED it and rode it several times during the two days at the park. It doesn't unseat my #1 - Mystic Timbers - but Beast is easily my #3 now (just behind Phoenix) in terms of my favorite wooden coasters. sadly tho, the Beast onride camera was down, so no onride pic today, so settled for the "photo spot" which I remembered from last year is off by about 3 feet. So giggling, i posed for it anyways : we still had time, and Danielle and I were antsy about it. . so on the way to go get lunch, it was Carousel time. sorry in advance, but lots of Carousel pics upcoming: the special Anniversary Horse it *stunning* Joel and Kim behind me Danielle in front of me the colors are so bright and vibrant. .they put so much love into this! and then we noticed Jan (tho we hadn't actually MET her yet) waiting for the next cycle - she waved, so we waved back. . and we got a great onride pic that she took. Lunch was chilidogs, burgers, chicken fingers, Potato Salad, and a few other things that I didn't try. KI has really stepped up their food game, as even this (what appears to be "basic" food) was so damn good. tho the chili had beans in it. .what's up with that??? it was still really good tho. Everything I tried was good! after lunch, Kyle took a pic of the "tie Dye" people... love this too, tho it was post lunch, so feeling rather "large". . LOL on the way back into the park, we noticed some "theming" peeking over the fence from the Waterpark area (wasn't open yet for the season) it was a little confusing, but highly amusing even tho we had ERT on it later that night? we hadn't been over to the left side of the park at all today yet.. so we headed over to Orion, and waited ~25 minutes for it. Not bad at all, considering we did NOT have FastLane + until the next day, so this was general queue. Orion is all about the speed. And for me, that first wave turn after the drop. I like it a lot, but I think my favorite (non wood) coaster in the park is still Diamondback. we still rode the crap out of Orion on these two days tho. after meeting up with another of Kim's friends Tom and getting a ride on Adventure Express and Racer, Kim wanted a sit/chat break so they hung out while Joel and I headed to the flats on the midway that I had missed last year, and was determined to ride this year. 1st up? Monster! which I learned from this ride op: "Monster goes "Rrawrrrrr" something I'm still doing, much to my spouse's annoyance every few hours - complete with Lady Gaga "raise your paws" gesture, and lisp while saying it. by it's nature, it takes a while to load, so Joel and I were facing Orion & Racer for a good bit while they loaded the other arms. So with permission of the ride op, I pulled out my camera (I had promised to put it back in my zippered pocket when the cycle was to start), and snapped some pics of Orion: us and Racer after Monster, next up was Scrambler - which also was running a great program. I think we took another lap on Adventure Express here - but first stopping for one of the photo ops spread all over the park. this one is out near Racer, and was my favorite. tho even the basic ones were nice backdrops for selfies. and then we all decided that it had been long enough after lunch, that we really needed some Blue in our lives: it didn't' taste as "blue" as it was last year, so not quite as sweet, but man, was it good. Drop Tower was down due to wind, so we just enjoyed the shade spot, and watched Delirium and Banshee cycle. that's Tom on his phone there in the center Kim doesn't do well with "swinging" or "spinning" rides, but we convinced her to make the long trek back to "the Bat" (me hobbling, as sitting was helping me rest my bad ankle, but man, the Bat queue has a LOT of steps, an walking). but she rode it. . even in front row with Joel. we had skipped the behind the scenes tour of Beast (it had POURED the day before all day, and the idea of it being muddy back there. . along with my worry about not walking on flat ground cinched that I was gonna skip it, tho Danielle had gone and said it was great), as well as the Diamondback behind the scenes, since had done it last year. So really we had nothing on the schedule until 10:30 pm Nighttime ERT. and I think it was around 6pm now? so we just wandered around, taking pics, riding things as we got to them, and enjoying the park. Ok, I lied. .this backdrop MIGHT be my favorite but the Racer one is close! we took a spin on Phantom Manor (I think that's what it's called). . the targets/shooting could use an update, but the Omnimover ride vehicles are great, and it's a nice, long, airconditioned, dark ride. to bad we were a few weeks too early for shows tho, as would have loved to see the show they put together based on this attraction. another photo spot, near the French Bakery on main street. we decided to take another ride on Diamondback or Mystic Timbers, but the lines had actually gotten a bit long, so we instead headed to the train to take a ride. you can get some great views from the train, and if your timing is good? some decent pictures too: Mystic Timbers Diamondback this ride is just so damn lovely. . and very little light makes it back here, making it a fantastic night ride (the back half of the coaster is so dark). . not sure why more don't rave about night rides on Diamondback! theming from the train! to be continued with evening/night pictures in Part II and more onride pics, which I just decided to put in part II, as we rode Diamondback and Mystic Timbers SO much, I have no idea which pics are from which ride. . LOL.. but you can tell they are different since moving form seat to seat between photos

I would do Spinning Dragons first, personally, because it has bad capacity and usually a super long line. Patriot and TW are then the next two you'll encounter as you continue through the park. I mean, every coaster there has crap capacity because the staff is sloooooow but Mamba and Prowler theoretically have good capacity so those can wait. Cyclone Sam's is the GOAT flat ride.

If you rate them on a hot sauce scale, they would be room temperature mild sauce packets at Taco Bell.

Continuing on Day one, as dusk started to fall. We made a stop back towards the front gate (to window shop for some T-shirts to buy the next day) and to grab some sweets from the Bakery (omg, the Peanut Butter bon bons were so rich!) as well as for Danielle, Joel and Kim to get Skyline Chili - of which I tried a bit, but focused more on the desert stuff. I think the Tower always does do the color changing in the evening, but it sure was lovely with the 50th decorations on it. we were right there, so I think we rode "something" and then I think it might have been close to 9pm or so. And the park closed at 10 pm. we had evening ERT this first night on; Beast, Racer, Orion, Flight of Fear (lights on), Backlot Stunt Coaster, the Autos and Zephyr. So we decided - having learned from last year's rainout of the 2nd night of ERT (and this year's 2nd night including Mystic Timbers & Diamondback) not to wait. . . so for the last hour, we headed over to DiamondBack and Mystic Timbers to get in some night rides, before the park closed, even tho we knew there would be lines. tho to be honest? they weren't too bad, although Mystic Timbers did take about 25 minutes I think, and we went there 1st. here's myself, Joel, Kim, and Danielle sending hello to my Austin friend Sean - whom Kim and Joel had met a couple of weeks prior at an event at BGT. yes, without Fastlane+, we got to "experience" the back part of the queue. . an area that was new to me. where one gets a view of the shed! speaking of the shed, Kim *again* got Bats. . LOL. she got Bats on every single ride, until the last ride she took on it the next night (with myself and Danielle) where she got TREES!!! So it took riding in a train with myself and Danielle to break the "curse of Kim and the Bats" we then headed over to Diamondback, figuring, if we got in line before closing at 10, we'd get to ride, and by the time we got off, it would be almost time for 10:30 ERT to start, and we'd be right near the Beast. which ended up working out perfectly. it wasn't QUITE dark yet when we got in line, but it got dark really quickly by the time we got to the station, where I waited for front row. this ride really is amazing at night, as noted in part 1. The only lights are on the front end for the most part, so once you drop? it is zooming thru the dark.. so, so good! by the time we exited, and made it over to Beast, ERT was just starting. But I stopped for a 2nd try at the picture (remember, onride camera for Beast was down, and I wanted a pic). .this time moving ~3 feet to the right of the pawprints telling one where to stand. perfect: we got two fantastic night rides on Beast (or maybe it was 3, can't recall), and when we exited our last ride, Joel was antsy to hit Orion. I had found out from Danielle while riding, that she'd never been on Backlot Stunt Coaster, so Joel and Kim headed to Orion and we detoured to take a ride on Backlot. .. were there were literally more staff hanging around than folks waiting to ride. They were excited to see us come up, and we got stellar service - 4 ride ops made sure we were secure in the front row of the red cars. almost all the effects were working (do the helicopter blades spin? if they are supposed to, then that's the one effect that wasn't working). And it's super intense at night with that completely dark underground portion, and that great fire effect. I mean, it's a dumb family, coaster, but it's a fun, dumb coaster. She liked it, I think, and then we headed towards Orion. . where we made the *huge* mistake of stopping to ride Flight of Fear. now, this was horrifically awful last year - but we had been directed to back seat. So I figured: 1) it's Lights on, we can brace for transitions, 2) it's ERT and there's no line, we can likely sit wherever we want, and 3) I LOVE Poltergeist at SFFT, and this is the same model, albeit indoors and with mid course brakes. so we hopped in line. Front Row. OMG. . .SO. AWFUL. the transitions were terrible, snapping our backs from side to side, and it had jackhammering. . . yes! in the front row! on a steel coaster! OMG.. terrible. at least it gave Kim, Joel, Tom, and Jan something to make fun of us over - why did you ride that. never again, even if I go back next year.. . it's nuts, since Poltergiest runs so smooth. . what the heck happened to this ride here??? they take such loving care of all the other coasters, but something has gone horribly wrong on Flight of Fear (needless to say, we did NOT ride it the next night when it was standard "lights off" ops). tho I will find a positive here - the queue is really great, and it's a lot of fun to go inside the spaceship to get to the coaster. at least right next door (tho we were both walking crooked from the thrashing we had just gotten) was this lovely palate cleanser. we closed out the night with multiple rides on this (I think I was 3 and done, but the others rode it a few more times than that).. .very fun and so fast, but it's pretty brightly lit up, so no "dark" rides, unfortunately. Still good tho. and with that, it was Midnight, and time to make our way out to the parking and back to the hotel.. we had another full day of Coasterstock to get to in the morning. and Kudos to the park, that they keep the fountains and all the lights on until everyone is out of the park, as it was well over 2 hours after official park close, so I appreciated how lovely the area still looked for us while exiting: exhausted, and my ankle was throbbing pretty good, but you can tell I had a great day. exiting the gates, I remembered to turn around to snap a pic of the huge mural they have over the entrance. I hope they sell this as a poster, or as a series of posters, as this is lovely. and here's a bunch of the onride photos from the 1st day. . no idea what order they are in. . . and sometimes didnt' get the pics, but mostly did and if you're wondering: "Why do they look happy if it sucked that bad??" well, it's because the photo snaps in the launch tunnel. ie: the smooth part of the ride. (the only part slightly smoother is the mid course brake.. which we were thankful for the moments of no pain there). closing out day one with a picture featuring myself & Danielle in row 2, and TPR forum member Piano John, and his hubby Sean in the front row. day 2 coming up in the next few days. think I have less pics on day 2, as there was some heavy rain that impacted the day, and the evening ERT. . but still, had a great time! hope y'all enjoy the pics.

Maybe it was the Carousel queue ? or having a Smoke at the Go Fresh Cafe ??

I made my first ever visit to Michigan's Adventure on Saturday and I thought the park was ok. It certainly wasn't worth the 6 hour drive from Cleveland to Muskegon, but I did have fun in my brief 2.5 hours there. Good: - Shivering Timbers. What an incredible ride. Just seeing it tower over the parking lot when you arrive makes for a great first impression. The ride itself though was far better than I anticipated. Tons of airtime, crazy laterals (the final helix really plasters you into the side of the train), and a whopping 2:30 ride duration made for a great experience. Only one train was being used and with the long ride time, that made for a slow moving line, but having FastLane, my wait was only about 6-8 minutes. There were a few rough pothole sections, but overall this was a fantastic addition to my coaster credit list. - Employees. Another surprise were the employees. Almost every one I came in contact with was friendly and seemed genuinely happy to be there. The girls at Public Relations were very helpful and the girl that rang up my Shivering Timbers t-shirt asked how I was enjoying my day and if I had been there before. It was nice to see that they had some pride in their jobs, which is sorely lacking in todays workforce. - Camp Snoopy. While nowhere near as scenic as Knott's or Carowinds, MiAdv's Snoopy area was bright and cheerful and featured a nice selection of rides for little ones and their families. I rode Zach's Zoomer and loved it. Really reminded me of Waldameer's Comet and the Sea Dragon at the Columbus Zoo. Fun stuff! Mid: - Park Layout. While the park is far from huge, having the SLC, rapids ride (down), and Chutes ride (also down) set apart from the rest of the rides makes for a lot of unnecessary walking. Of course, you could always take the... - Timbertown Train. For some reason I was expecting a scenic trip alongside Shivering Timbers. Unfortunately, the view is mostly obstructed by trees and there isn't much to see along the brief course. Since the park wasn't crazy busy, I was able to take the train from Shivering Timbers to the Thunderhawk area, got off there to do some filming, and hopped back on the same train I had just gotten off. - Ride Cycles. If you like long ride cycles, you won't like Michigan's Adventure. Most of the flats run both short and rather slow cycles. The park's Scrambler seemed to run at half speed, and same goes for the Trabant (which also only tilted about halfway up). Trabant's cycle lasted all of one minute. I will give credit to the Lakeside Gliders though. I was bouncing around in my tub like a pinball (wasn't true "snapping", but I would stall out and then get flung back up) and no one complained. Bad: - Wolverine Wildcat. Ugh. Even with a retracked first drop (GCI Titan Track even!), the ride is just a horrid trip on square wheels that follows the same layout as Knoebels Phoenix right down to the tunnel before the lift. The jackhammering was brutal as the train just bounced around the rest of the course. Wolverine Wildcat may try to be Phoenix, but it most certainly is NOT Phoenix. Not by a long shot! Perhaps if they retrack more of the ride it will rank higher. - Lack of shade. The main part of the amusement park is simply a concrete pad. While there are trees, there doesn't seem to be any shade. Thankfully it was only 66 on Saturday so it wasn't something that really bothered me, but for guests visiting on a hot day, I could see it being an issue. - Mad Mouse was down. I only put this in the Bad list because I was hoping to snag 5 new credits on my visit and only ended up with 4. I had to complain about it somewhere since that is what I seem to do best Overall, Michigan's Adventure has an odd feel to it. It's a small carnival-style park built around a man-made pond (Lake?) with some large roller coasters, the buildings near the front of the park look like they were once a strip mall, and then you have the Cedar Fair signage that reminds you this is still a corporate park. I'd give the park a 6 out of 10. Unless they build something groundbreaking in the next few years, I'll probably pass on returning anytime soon as it's a rather long haul just to ride a handful of decent rides. Thanks for reading.

I've been waiting to go to this place until they actually had all of their coasters open at the same time so long-story-short I've been waiting for like 3 years. I understand that they're Parques Reunidos so there's a 75% chance they'll break one by then and not fix it until Summer 2023, but we're planning on heading out there in two weeks otherwise. Has everything seriously been running aside from the frisbee? That doesn't seem possible.

My brother-in-law had trouble getting on Millennium Force, because he wasn't prepared. He had to put some effort in on Steel Vengeance, too. He's never had any trouble fitting on anything at Six Flags Saint Louis, Six Flags Great America, and Kings Island. I'm a male, so I don't know anything about female clothing sizes in order to help you there. This may help:

Visited the park for the first time with my wife this past Friday 6/3, had a great time! Biggest negative was that the park stated upon entry that the park was in "limited operating mode" due to "staffing issues". Due to this about half the dining locations were closed around lunch time, leading to some lines for food. Additionally, Flight of Fear was closed all day along with the Rapids and some kiddie rides. We stayed in the park until 5 pm, we got the fast lane plus prior to our visit (figured on a Friday after memorial day with only 2/3 of the day at the park), but we didn't need it at all! Lines were no more than 5-10 minutes on all the coaster all day long. Here's what we got done: Dominator (1), Tumbili (2), I-305 (10), Anaconda (1), Backlot (1), Reptilian (1), Woodstock Express (1), Racer 75 (1), Grizzly (1), Apple Zapple (2), Twisted Timbers (5) Obviously we prioritized getting a lot of rides on I-305 & Twisted Timbers. Also did a ride on the antique cars and the log flume, which happened to be the biggest lines of the day and the only ones we benefited from Fast Lane Plus on. A few thoughts on the park/rides: 1) The park is very pretty! I was impressed with the landscaping and theming, specifically in Candy Apple Grove and Jungle Xpedition. 2) The park has great merchandise! Really had to avoid the temptation of buying a bunch of stuff. 3) Staffing was overall very friendly and helpful throughout the day. 4) Operations weren't the best, but were alright and not too noticeable especially given the short wait times. Most rides were running multiple trains, the 3 wooden coasters only had one train. I agree that the ops for Twisted Timbers are great and it seemed like the staff for that ride was well trained. 5) I-305 and Twisted Timbers alone are worth a visit! I had wanted to go on I-305 ever since it opened and it was always a top-5 bucket list coaster for me, and it didn't disappoint! I had heard a bunch about the intensity and it's definitely true! I enjoy intense rides so it wasn't a problem for me, although I was only able to ride 3 times in a row before my body started telling me I needed to take a break. I had also heard about the relentless airtime on Twisted Timbers, but man that thing still caught me off-guard! Probably the most laughs I've had on a ride on a long time! That ride definitely exceeded my expectations.

Funny that the timers stop at 299 seconds. They could use more digits here. 40 minute line for 3 switchbacks. Anyway, got that coveted back seat ride that was the reason I travelled all the way back here. No doubt a better ride than the front with a few spectacular airtime moments. But I still can't help but feel a bit underwhelmed still, especially when people were putting it ahead of Steel Vengeance. I'm still not sure it's even the best coaster in the park. The death roll is incredibly overrated...basically just a high speed barrel roll and Kumba just laughs at it. Best moments are the last two airtime hills before the brake run. Park seems reasonably dead so should get a few rides on all the other essentials plus a few more here. Was going to stay till closing but I'm staying at the "Hotel Breakers of Old Town" (aka the Comfort Suites right next to Mine Blower) and I need to go get a few rides on the 2nd best coaster in Florida tonight.

I bet that never gets irritating.

Wait. What is Tom's Twister? ...do you mean Cyclone Sams? Because if so, I totally agree.

Dark Raver at Fort Fun would like a word.