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One thing about this park that may play a role is that they're 15-20 minutes from a major competitor that keeps investing heavily in new rides and offerings. They can't really sit back and do nothing the same way they can in a lot of other markets. Even in Southern California, Magic Mountain is a solid hour away from meaningful competition with LA traffic.

People who build back yard coasters are already strange. The guy who has the resources, but still chooses to build something as terrible as a wild mouse is someone you probably want to stay away from. Far away.

What Bill said. I may be personally biased, but if I'm fixing for some amusement park time, I'll drive to Kings Dominion (3.5 hours), Hershey (2 hours), Knoebel's (4 hours), Morey's (2 hours), or even Dorney Park (2 hours) before I'll drive 1.5 hours to Great Adventure. This summer, I've already taken an 1800 mile road trip west for a bunch of parks, am driving 9 hours each way to Cedar Point in 2 weeks, then taking a 1,000 mile road trip to the Northeast states in August (including two Six Flags parks), and two 9 hour each way trips in October for Kings Island's and Cedar Point's Halloween events. I have zero interest in going to Great Adventure.

Weight drop. . . and lap bars only.

^ RMC didn't design the launch motors IIRC. Meanwhile SFOT is closing Mr Freeze every day from 2p to 8p due to Texas' godawful electric grid. Long story short, maybe electromagnetic launches are a bad idea these days? Let's go back to flywheels.

Bonjour! Erik & Smisty here. You may remember us from such trip reports as Erik & Smisty & TPR do Holland, Poland, and Swedeland. Travel has been kind of weird the past 3 years--and still is--but if TPR was ready to give organized trips a go again, we were down. We went to 12 new-to-us theme parks, rode something like 40-45 new roller coasters (I don't really count) and 30-40 new dark rides. There was less sightseeing on our own this trip, both because of timing and the fact that we flew in and out of the same city this time. But we still got in a few extra things. As a reminder, in addition to being overweight, I have scoliosis. And while my condition has never (to my knowledge) been exacerbated by riding roller coasters, and I can generally fit on most everything, how a particular ride's restraints fit me will often greatly affect my opinion of the ride in a way that often won't make a lot of sense to other people. On the other hand, I tend to be pretty forgiving of general roughness or violence as long as it's not specifically targeting me. So, for example, I find Helix (at Liseberg) awful, but I love Desperado (at Buffalo Bill's). So, just because I don't like a particular ride certainly doesn't mean that you won't love it. Everybody good with that? Okay, great! Also, please bear in mind that I am crafting the first part of this trip report whilst under the influence of European Brand COVID™, so my already often strange captions may or may not end up being total gibberish. Off we go...! Part 1: France in Germany Part 2: Germany in Germany Part 3: Exotic Belgium Part 4: America in France Paris! Okay, enough of that. Wait, this is my first coaster of the trip?! I don't even ride s#!t like this! But the park was so nice to us that I didn't want to appear rude. Which, I guess I'm kind of being rude now. Sorry. Let's start again. The first official park of the trip was originally meant to be Europa. But since that's a 10-hour drive from Paris, and European labor laws required a fairly lengthy break in the middle of that for our bus driver (fair enough) it just made sense to stop at Walygator Grand Est. Just one problem: Walygator was closed that day. But Robb somehow convinced them to bring in a few people to walk us around and let us ride a couple of their coasters. So that's kind of amazing. This is Anaconda. A William Cobb woodie with a super-interesting layout and a super-bad reputation. However, the park has recently put quite a bit of work into it, and that reputation needs to be reexamined. Sure, it's not particularly wild, but it's very smooth. How smooth? Well, I started with a front seat ride to get a feel for it, and then happily hopped into a wheel seat towards the back--which was also good. This ride is tons of fun! I mean, it doesn't really have airtime or significant laterals or anything, but it's certainly not the second-worst coaster in Europe or whatever. Great job, Walygator! I skipped this, but Misty loved it! Here you can see her having convinced the poor Walygator PR guy to ride with her. If Anaconda is not intense, it's only because this ride has sucked all the intensity to itself. I'm not sure that makes sense, but basically this is Raptor except somebody forgot to install brakes on the mid-course brake platform, resulting in a first half of Raptor-ish intensity, followed by a second half of holy-crap-Raptor-is-a-kiddie-ride intensity. I respect it, but once was enough for me. It wasn't part of the plan, but Smisty asked Elissa if she could talk the park into letting her by a stuffed Waly Gator. So they opened up a gift shop for us. Now, I had pretty much convinced Misty to buy a gator that would fit into her bag. But then Elissa (who is now dead to me) was all Satanic-influence with, "Hey, they opened this gift shop for, you have to get the big one!" But it gets worse. See, Misty was then talking to one of the park managers and thanked him for opening up the gift shop so she could buy a stuffed alligator, and he responded by gifting her a frigging Monster road wheel. Happily, they also gave 9 other wheels to the group, and I'm pretty sure that everyone who wanted one got one, so I'm not the only one who knows the joy of trying to get what (out of context) looks a bit like part of a nuclear reactor through airport security. But hold on, there's lots more parks before we start worrying about heading home! Our first day at Europa began with ERT on the indoor CanCan Coaster, followed by Silver Star (in the rain). CanCan Coaster (inside the golf ball) was fun and well-themed, though the restraints/seat horns weren't entirely ideal for me. Still, I rode it three times (once with the lights on) so they weren't that bad. I liked Silver Star a lot, despite a bit of rattle. That rattle was a deal-breaker for Misty, though. And yes, the golf ball is rather Epcot-like--except they put a roller coaster in it. Good artists borrow. Great artists steal. Now on our own, we headed for the park's newest dark ride, Arthur. But, really, Arthur is more than a dark ride. It's an indoor/outdoor powered coaster dark ride with a whole indoor area built around it. And it's great. We rode it 3 or 4 times over our 2 days at Europa, which required some effort and commitment considering how popular it is. I honestly had no idea that Europa had a fairy tell walk-through and push-button area! See, after the last trip, I was left with a conundrum: did I prefer Efteling or Gröna Lund? Thankfully, I now have an answer: I prefer Europa. Look, they even have self-operated rides! (Well, one. ) It pretty much rained the entire first day. But that was fine by me! It kept it from getting too hot and scared most of the locals away. No lightning, though. So we rode lots of stuff, including some water rides--including this splash battle, which also had indoor dark ride sections. Because everything at Europa is a dark ride. Of course, the weather wasn't ideal for photography. But that just gives me an excuse for my crappy photos! So, again, a win. This powered coaster intertwines with the log flume and then they both intertwine inside a man-made mountain along with a walk-though attraction about elven slave-labor gem mining. The nice gentleman working the log flume asked if we wanted to stay on and ride again and we did. Is a dive show in the middle of a water ride safer if the guy misses the pool or less safe? There was a small language barrier with the guy in the ice cream shop on account of the fact that I am an American and do not speak any other languages secure in the knowledge that I will never need to understand any other culture and his English was only almost perfect. But it did result in this amazing waffle cone sundae thing and my new motto: "Yes to everything." Actually, this might be the park's newest dark ride: Snorri Touren. It's easy to find as it's located in a basement through a random door in the Scandinavian section of the park. And Misty had a stuffy of Snorri shipped to us in the states months before we visited this park. Josefina's Magical Imperial Journey might be the snootiest name for a ride ever. It also has a fascinating narrative, in that it's utterly unburdened by conflict or adversity. Basically, a princess meets a prince, their respective families approve, everything is what it seems, they get married, and everything is wonderful. See? They don't just rip off Disney. We didn't eat at Food Loop because Elissa said the food was bad. But I don't why I should listen to her "buy the big gator" slander. Oh right, the line was also long. Looks like I'll trust her opinion after all and just take a photo instead. I'm told that folks around these parts like pictures of roller coasters. So here are two in one photo. Can I go back to pictures of foliage now? Wodan is my new favorite GCI, by the way, and probably the best coaster I rode on this trip. For anyone who doesn't know, Europa Park was ostensibly started as a showcase for Mack Rides. But there's clearly more to it then that. Indoor spinning ride? Check. Okay, I do have one minor complaint. This is a Mack water coaster. Essentially, it's the same ride type as Journey to Atlantis at SeaWorld Orlando. Except what's cool about that ride is that it's a log flume and a dark ride and a coaster. This is just out in the open, and mostly unthemed (outside of the station). Which is doubly odd as everything at Europa is a dark ride. Except this, which really should be. It's like, a duck is cool because it can walk and swim and fly. But a duck just walking is kind of lame. Get a goat or a cheetah or something. I insist that this is a perfect analogy and will not hear otherwise. By my count, Europa has 6 proper dark rides. Including this one, Geisterschloss, which roughly translates to "Moist Cattle." I'm sorry, that should've been "Clothed Hassle." Damned auto-correct. This ride is just a bunch of things that Germans think Italians are into, but it ends with a gelato room, so I like it. And also the Russian dark ride is worse because it's so much about snow and ice and cold that penguins actually show up at the end. But those all pale in comparison to this one. As near as I can figure--and I did zero research but don't correct me--there was an existing dinosaur themed ride but they wanted to retheme whatever this section of the park was before to France and this was how they bridged the gap: an old French women collects weird things, including and mostly consisting of live dinosaurs. The best part of this ride was that a live squirrel wandered into it and was just as confused about the whole situation as I was. Ireland is the park's kid section, which seems kind of insulting if you're Irish...? Except that when I say "kid section" I actually mean completely awesome family section filled with more tracked outdoor scenic rides than I can count. I mean, I would give a lot of parks half credit for having a dark ride if they had anything half as good as any one of these indoor/outdoor scenic rides, and this area has like 4 or 5 of them. And also one of those Lindt chocolate stores that Ireland is so famous for. God, I love Europa so much. But mostly because I'm not Irish. This nightmarishly-themed water cups ride is called (and I'm not making this up) "Puppet Boat Ride." Note that the sign in the background reads "CIRCUS MACK'S IMUS" because Mack. Old Mac Donald's Tractor Fun Yes, that's its actual name. Note the observation tower in the background, as we're going there next. I am the master of transitions. You know how people are always like, "They should have benches in the queue." Well, these crazy bastards went and did it. Also, Misty representing. Her favorite ride manufacturer was Mack before we went to Europa. Yes, she likes this park, A view from the observation tower of the 3 coasters we'll have ERT on the following day. Back to our on-site hotel, El Andaluz. A large contingent of the group headed to Europa's new indoor waterpark, Rulantica, for the evening. But we're old and tired and I'm under court order not to be seen in a bathing suit. This tapas at the hotel restaurant was so good we ended up going back and getting it again the next evening. Yes, we got this two nights in a row, also. The big bed is for gauchos and donkeys. The top bunk is for little boys. The bottom bunk is for maracas. Day 2 started with ERT on Euro-Mir. This was Mack's prototype spinning coaster. It's kind of weird, it doesn't free spin, and some of the transitions are a bit...Arrow. But I like weird, the spiral disco lift and the mirrored towers are fun, and it's not overly painful. I rode twice, once experiencing the bulk of the ride forwards, and once experiencing the bulk of the ride backwards. So I figure I pretty much got the full experience. I'd hate for them to get rid of this ride. But I also feel like they could do better now. Maybe like a full-scale revamp/refurb? Make it spin freely and reprofile some of those transitions? I'd say they might just go full Ride to Happiness, but I don't think Mack wants really extreme rides in their park. Still, they have two water coasters, so who knows? Voletarium is their flying theater ride. You know, like Soarin'. But when was the last time you rode Soarin' and there wasn't a seam or a blemish on the screen or a bit of trash at the bottom? Everything at Europa works. Buttons actually activate things, screens are pristine, animatronics move like they're supposed to, operations are top notch, and policies actually make sense. Also, the transitions were really good. (I hate smash cuts.) And the ending? Oh yeah, you end at Europa with fireworks going off. I don't carry a big camera. I just use my phone. Both because I want to travel light, and because I don't want to fall into focusing so much on photography that I miss out on just , you know, experiencing things. But I did want to bip out the front gate for some quick photos of the park entrance and Silver Star. So here's an example of what I was talking about before. If you leave the park, and wish to return that same day, there's an automated system that takes your photo and attaches it to your ticket. Now, obviously, that's to prevent people from giving their tickets to others. But, you just know that if a US park were to do something like this, they'd make everyone attach their photo upon initial entry. But why? Most people don't leave in the middle of the day and come back again. So Europa only does it when it matters. And, yes, I suppose you could go with a traditional handstamp instead, but kids were defeating that when I was a kid, and I'm old as dirt. A small Mack/Europa museum at the front of the park. And a much weirder "Narrenscheune Museum" (whatever that is). Just a weird garden-y section near the front of the park. I imagine that a lot of people miss it. And again, this park is so much more than just a Mack Rides showroom. How am I supposed to drive this thing?! The steering wheel is on the wrong side!? Also, there are no guns on this thing! That's like an America joke, right? I have no idea. I'm way too handsome to be an ugly American. Sex joke...? Wait, maybe this is the park's newest dark ride. Yes, it's a Pirates of the Caribbean rip off. But really, I think of it as more of a companion piece. Like, I honestly think you'd enjoy it more if you were already familiar with PotC. Quality-wise, it's pretty much on par (or maybe just a slight notch below) but has much more of an Asian-vibe. Or, to put it another way, how can you improve Pirates of the Caribbean? If your answer is "add a tiger," then this ride might be for you! Honestly, what kind of lunatic makes an otter in a tiny pirate costume walk the plank? Is this theming Disney quality? I dunno, I'm not that into Disney. This is good enough for me, though. Raclette. The hype is real. Was excited to see this football bumper car thing, but it's apparently been replaced by some kind of virtual garbage. Boo. How about some ERT on my new favorite GCI? It's just so good. Plus, no seat belts, so operations are lightning fast. Speaking of which: This story is second hand, but I don't think anyone would object to my paraphrasing it here. Essentially, the ides is that Europa feels that they have to have excellent operations because they want to sell these rides to other parks, and they don't want those parks to think they make low-capacity rides. Of course, this isn't a Mack ride, so I guess maybe they just want to take care of their guests, as well. Everything is a dark ride. I haven't really talked too much about Blue Fire. I dug it. The restraints were mostly pretty okay for me, but that last hangtime inversion was a little owie, so I stopped after about 3 rides. Still, that's a pretty decent amount for me. In fact, I rode all 5 of their big coasters 2-4 times. There really wasn't one that I rode once and was done with. Which, if you know me, is pretty good. We asked Robb and Elissa if they could just leave us here, but apparently Europa insisted that we go experience some other German parks...? Seems a bit insulting, but I guess we have to respect their wishes. Anyway, is Europa the best park in the world? Well, I haven't been to every park in the world, and we still have 10 more parks to talk about from this trip, so technically it's too early to say. But yes.

Intamin track is now on site at SWSD! According to recent reports land clearing is under way as well. Another family launched ride on the way.

Yes. This and Jeffrey is just pretty damn amazing

Just joshin, but not really. They're still friggin' excellent rides. Edit - So I just watched the JDC pov again with the volume up higher. Did I hear Robb say "O M Wheee!" just after the midcourse heading into the turn? Because I'm stealing that.

Check out a REAL first POV of Wonder Woman Flight of Courage on TPR's YouTube channel! YouTube video link

^What he said. Anything in or near the third trimester in this heat isn't a great idea. Although I like the heat, and I like moving around, SDC really is hot in the summer. Well shaded, but there are definitely blacktop heat islands... I'm no OBGYN, but I recommend making sure she has a A LOT of water and regular shaded rests. I would say next year seems like a better option, but if you're like us, your park visits are going to drastically decrease for a couple years.

We visited the park last week and I wasn't planning to do a TR but after reading these reports about the park's attendance this year, figured I would. We had a great visit and I'd recommend a visit this year to anyone. Operations were crazy good everywhere except Superman Ultimate Flight, where they weren't exactly bad but had the typical Six Flags flying coaster struggles. Seriously, they were flying to dispatch trains at all the coasters in a way I've never seen at a Six Flags park before. Kingda Ka was running 2 trains/one station and they'd have the train out before the other returned. Ditto at El Toro and Medusa. The park was also clean and yes, completely empty. The only thing we were bummed about was Nitro being unavailable, which I hope is back in operation soon. The only "Six Flags hot mess" thing we experienced was slow food service along with some of the food choices unavailable. We tried going to Yum Yum Cafe for lunch but after waiting about 5 minutes with the employees and customers both standing around looking confused with no food being served, we moved on to Garden State Grill. It was a little bit slow to order and receive food but we got our food in the end and the employees were nice about it. Now, some pics. You are legally required to take this photo if you visit this park. As we parked, we saw Kingda Ka launch a train, soon followed by El Toro going up. Things are good. Oof, I will say that both Kingda Ka and El Toro were running kind of brutal on this visit, but I heard from a friend that El Toro got new wheels this week and is back to running great, which I'm super jealous about. I honestly can't remember if this pre-entrance building was here last year, but being able to breeze through security without stopping (they have those wide-range metal detectors set up) was great. It also gives the park entrance a bit of a nicer touch. Toro toro toro. My #1 coaster and there's no denying that first drop and orgasmic airtime. But boy did the turnaround and pullout from the RT hill hit hard that day. The Intamin duo. Later in the day, the park was so empty that El Toro's trains were going out with 10 passengers or less. Riding in an empty train also seems to make for some rougher rides. In total we got about 8-10 rides before we had to tap out. I'm happy they replaced the wheels and maybe we'll make it back up later this year. The Ferris wheel looking interesting with some gondolas missing. Even though you may now purchase your marijuana legally in the state of New Jersey, Six Flags would still prefer if you partake elsewhere. Maybe setting up "designating toking areas" would help with attendance at this point? A Green Lantern pic from the parking lot that I snapped on the way out. In all, we rode El Toro about 8-10 times, Kingda Ka twice, Jersey Devil 4 or 5 times, Batman twice, plus one ride each on Medusa, Superman, Green Lantern, and Skull Mountain. Oh, and we even rode Dark Knight, a coaster I haven't been on since it's opening year. We did all this in about 6 hours and we even left earlier than we'd planned to get some dinner. Check out Great Adventure this year, you might just have an awesome time.

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.

At first I was like, someone finally built a real coaster in their backyard lol. Then I saw rampage. . .

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.

Furuvik has now publicly announced more information about the previously teased attraction. As the name implied – it is indeed a launch coaster! It will be built by Vekoma and feature two launches with a top speed of 75 km/p. It looks like a new kind of Vekoma, reminiscent of their old booster bike coasters and with similarities to Intamins launched family coasters. More details and a first look at the layout and an animated POV can be found here

Simple. Hersheypark is a FAR better park than any Six Flags, especially for families with younger children. Amish country is also a huge tourist attraction so there's a built-in audience. Nobody is driving around Central Jersey for shits and giggles. I lived in Monmouth and the only times I'd go into Jackson were either to go to Great Adventure or I was on my way to Philly. You know what else is in Jackson? Jack shit. Unless you're a rich golfer in which case Metedeconk might interest you, but that $250,000 annual membership might turn some of the Six Flags clientele off. Edit - Speaking of Metedeconk, I used to caddy there while I was in high school and college. I actually caddied for Joe Pesci a couple of weeks prior to him getting expelled from the club for tearing up the greens after getting too drunk. Nice guy, though, and he tipped extremely well.

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.

Those hand crafted, artisanal bulbs really do make all the difference. Glass sourced from genuine Sahara Desert sand, Filaments formed by an obscure order of monks who spend most of their days staring at the sun, worshiping light itself. You can really feel the craftsmanship when the smiley face portion of the routine comes up.

Yes. The lights are currently being refurbished by one in-house maintenance guy with a folding ladder and some 70 watt high efficiency warm-light bulbs. The project started in 2016. Should be done any year now. They are also closing the ride temporarily for a few seasons, because they have to sand and stain the queue deck. The park works slowly with woodwork, but it will be perfect for a month when it's finished.

I can't believe people aren't visiting Six Flags parks in droves right now, with at least three new cardboard signs per park and themed areas including pre-existing rides.

I'm going to visit KI for the first time ever on Friday and I'm excited. From reading through this thread it looks like the ride pass+ is gonna be the absolute way to go. I'd ask for tips, but reading the last few pages and excellent trip reports has given me what I think I need, so thank you all for that.

Glad you guys are getting so stoked for another new turn-around for Timber Wolf.