Leaderboard

The dude in charge knows how to properly budget between departments. It's not a question of getting more or less money but rather how each park's head honcho feels like spending it.

Agreed. As inversions go, I always find normal vertical loops to be some of the least interesting. They're never really a highlight of any ride for me, aside from every single Schwarzkopf loop. They're still the best-designed loops ever. This is concerning.

For me, the appeal has always been the high positive-Gs, particularly in the loops, and minimalist restraints. And that sound....it's hard to explain, but all of the Schwarzkopfs I've been on except the Wildcats have a very distinct sound as the trains proceed through the course that just screams "this is what a roller coaster is." The fact that they've cut away the loop makes me kinda nervous for the future of the ride. I find it very hard to believe they'll install a new loop with the same exact dimensions and profile to keep the 4+ Gs you'd get out of it. Even more glad I was able to get out there last December to ride it in its original form.

Had a great visit to the park this past Friday night (July 8th) and Sunday July 10th. I worked at the park from 1986-1990 playing piano in 5 different shows and then returning in 2000 to music direct a few shows as well. The park was beautiful and clean, and even though it was peak summer time, I still managed to get 2 rides on Steel Vengeance, 2 on Millennium Force, and rides on Gemini, Valravn, and more. But the highlight was re-creating a picture I had taken in 1972 with my brothers and sisters. 50 years later! Enjoy the photos! The original picture taken in 1972. Right on the main midway. You can see the Dodgem behind us. 50 years later, and we were all able to meet up to re-create the shot! Still great as ever. Iron Gwazi is good, but it's not Steel Vengeance! Whee! Where it all began! My first show "Ain't We Got Fun!" in 1986 and 1987. And I just went back to Disney after my 2 1/2 year furlough to continue my 23 years as a professional musician with the company. Come see me play piano at the Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue! The new Farmhouse Restaurant is GREAT! We split the platter both times and it was plenty of food. Highly recommend the steak and potatoes. The chili was also very good. When in Sandusky, eat at Berardis which used to provide Cedar Point french fries for decades. A fun ride with an awesome view especially at night. Hope it comes back next summer.

Dueling Dragons vibes from that hack job.

The phones that go flying out on rides almost exclusively do so out of riders’ pockets. After working at Cedar Point for 5 years (and Magnum for 3 of those, which is the king of lost phones) almost everyone at the end of the night looking for their phone said it flew right out of their pocket. I’ve always contended that one of the safest places for your phone is actually a firm grip in your hand (but not holding it up in their air making a video). I’m not condoning bringing a phone on a ride, because clearly the safest place for your phone and for all riders is not on the ride at all, but demonizing someone for simply having a phone on a ride when it’s just in their pocket, where they think it’s perfectly fine, isn’t fair. Most people don’t have a good understanding of how the physics of airtime on a coaster can literally fling it right out. We’ve all had a phone in our pocket on a ride.

Let's also not pretend that every one of us at least once has taken a phone on a ride. We all could have been that little girl and we all could have been the person whose phone got away from them.

Cool. I fit on TT a few weeks ago but it was tight.

Checking the last couple pages of this thread and I have to say this park seems like the new gold standard for Six Flags. They're really just killing it over there with every decision.

Dude! That recreated family photograph is awesome! Priceless, for sure. I haven't been on IG, but good to know SV is just as good, if not better. I used to have mixed feeling about it, but after our trip a few weeks ago I have a new appreciation. It's not the care-free, hands up kind of ride I usually like. Steel Vengeance is more of an endurance challenge. It's fun just to hold on, brace, and enjoy the ride trying to kick your butt. At the end of our two rides, out of 6-7 from prior trips, I had an appreciation for how relentless and drawn out it was. It definitely gave us a holy crap/WTF expression when we hit the brake run. With a mindset adjustment and knowing what to expect, I can say I really like it. Once or twice per day is enough for me, though. Magnum was also kind of good/tolerable this time around, thanks to the seatbelt trick. I ratcheted that sucker down and leaned forward into a "defensive riding position." It was like the steel version of The Boss at SFSTL... Sorry to hijack your post.

You're not wrong but Hersheypark is located near a bunch of corn and cow shit and they're bursting at the seams so Six Flags does need to come up with a way to spin that one.

Now that is a cool attraction! It really gets all up in Black Mamba's business! When we stayed at Hotel Matamba they had a miniature ropes course for the young'ns by the restaurant. I may have gone through it every chance I got because, c'mon, when there's a mini ropes course that's practically in the lobby it's expected.

Not really but last time I was there they had a brand new Cici's Pizza and it was apparently THE place to be in Branson that week. Every time we passed the place there was a line wrapped around the building. I'm not exaggerating. So, yeah, Branson has tons of things to do like SDC, Cici's, and your pick of the cheapest, most washed-up, has-been entertainment this country has to offer! Edit - I mean seriously, look at this crap - https://www.branson.com/theaters/

Everything Bert said is one hundred percent correct. If you see the park for the first time - and maybe the last time for some years - don't go for one day. It is a two day park at every time of the year, in every weather. We have been there multiple times one day (with the knowledge to be back with a three hour drive evera time we want). But our last visit with 2.5 days onsite was so different. We will never be there for one single day again. An idea for you, if your schedule is tight: Arrive at day one, stay onsite, leave late on day two. This is the only option.

Having just spent 2 days there? I'd say it's a park that CAN be done in 1 day - especially if you have the skip the lines passes. (worth it, buy them, even if they don't work on F.L.Y. and you need the "special upgrade ones" for Black Mamba & Taron). so it's not "pay per ride" but each fast queue ticket is good for two rides on most things in the park - exclusions being F.L.Y. and Black Mamba/Taron. BUT if you get the "special upgrade" ones, those also include Black Mamba/Taron as options, along with the others. . just make sure you don't mix them up and use the more expensive special passes for rides that you can use the "regular" fast queue on. as to F.L.Y.. . the only way to get passes (other than going on a trip there with TPR), is by staying at the Charles Lindbergh Hotel - each night stayed there, gives the guest a pass for F.L.Y. thru the special "hotel entrance" to the ride - opposite the candy store. I'd say go there first (everyone seemed to), and queue for F.L.Y. and ride it. .then just hang around the candy store looking pathetic. . and I'll bet Hotel guests will gift you their cards. I know on the days we were there? I saw several hotel guests giving away the "hotel guest F.L.Y. ride cards" to folks in that area. So you'll need a bit of luck - right place/right time.. but you might luck out. OR later in the day, the lines seemed to die down a bit on both days we were there, with less than 30 minute waits towards the end of the day. but you'll want 2 days for the re-rides. the coasters: only two real "duds" in the line up, and even those are only "duds" because they are competing with Black Mamba (best invert I've ever been on), Taron (imagine Maverick - but high up in the air), Colorado Adventure (a spectacular Mine Train that is mostly hidden, and wraps around the fantastic Chiapas water ride - seriously, two lift hills for the mine train on either side of a log flume lift!), F.L.Y. (simply stunning. . no other way to put it), and Winjas: Fear & Winjas: Force - two indoor, intertwined spinners, that have some "tricks" (tracks) up their sleeves. in any other park? Crazy Bats, and Raik would be decent coasters. . here they are just "meh". . tho Crazy Bats now has V.R. which made it a lot of fun to ride wearing. the water rides are both *incredible* and will both get you incredibly wet. so bring a pair of water shoes, and a change of clothes, as even ponchos don't help too much. While the Chiapas flume will get you wet? it was so good, I ended up riding it 3 times in 2 days. But River Quest - as amazing as it is? is like getting dunked into a bathtub. As much as I loved it? never got on it more than that 1 time. (in two days, I don't think I ever saw the Splash Battle. . so think it might be shut down?). there just really are not a lot of Flats in the park (tho the ones they do have are mostly amazing - Talocan is the BEST top spin I've ever been on. . . be prepared for the # of flips, and the intensity of them. And you'll want to ride Mystery Castle over and over, as the different sides seem to run slightly different programs). there's also a completely WTF dark ride (Geister Rikscha) which kind of is like someone went to Disney, rode Haunted Mansion and Pirates, then mixed the order of the scenes up and added a bunch of racisim (and Japanese ghost spirits to what is supposed to be a Chinese dark ride). . . worth it, and we rode it multiple times, but WTF. A great madhouse, a really good screen shooter ride (Maus au Chocolate), and a "never in America, as the lawsuits would shut the park down" funhouse, that I saw multiple folks take tumbles in. . . LOL. . but there was *always* a walk around for the "trick" areas for those that didn't want to do them.

57 here and definitely still riding coasters as well.

I've heard a lot of chatter recently about how that's one of the best B&M Inverts, which is a little surprising given it is "new age B&M." The layout looks very solid though. For me, it was Velocicoaster a little over a week ago!

I had to read it twice to make sure it didn't say 2023. Color me impressed. I can only imagine the comments full of MAGAts complaining about the "equality" part of the catchphrase LOL.

Honestly this is only a reason to take the bus from Pigeon Forge. It's fifty cents and drops you directly in front of the ticket gates.

I hate that people are now talking about nostalgia with a coaster that opened in 1996. How old am I and when did this happen? Anyway, everyone is entitled to their opinion and we all like different things. It's important to respect that, but my nuanced, measured response to this would be counterpoint: fuck that awful ride .

So the park just did a Facebook Live where they went around the park talking about different projects for 2022 as well as 2023. Here's a few notable updates: Cheddar Chase will be the main new dry ride for the year and they plan to open it up in June, but not this opening weekend. Rampage received over a million dollars in work this offseason. The old water fortress was removed and will be replaced by a brand-new attraction by the end of this season, meaning the park will have made both a major dry park addition, a kiddie ride addition, and a waterpark addition for this year. The park has started construction on a major new addition behind Rocket Racer for the 2023 season. They have equipment onsite and they said you'll be able to watch the construction over the summer. Given most of their construction projects don't start until well into the offseason, I think it is a good sign that it is something major being added, probably for the waterpark since it is behind Rocket Racer. That being said, I'm going to go out on a limb and say it'll be a water coaster. My bet would be that it'll be something like Thunder Rapids at Six Flags Fiesta Texas.