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Pardon the double post here, but I've had a few days to process things and wanted to follow up with additional thoughts on Orion, because good grief do I love that roller coaster. Orion is a great example of how location/theming matters so much. The fact that it's sitting all by itself in the back of the park, above the woods, really lends to the terror/adrenaline of the lift hill and sense of speed. Before Orion, Fury 325 has been my favorite coaster and while I think Fury 325 is probably a better overall ride, I think I enjoy Orion more due to the sense of speed and isolation of where it's located versus Fury being basically in a parking lot setting. Being on that lift hill on Orion and having to look in the distance to see Diamondback, it aids to the scale of the hill. And then yeah, that first drop and soaring over treetops immediately after is insane. You feel like you are going to be shot off into the woods. Anyways, Orion rules. For a musical analogy, I view Orion as a band playing an absolutely killer short set. Yeah, it may not be a longer 2 hourish show thats totally comprehensive like a lot of bands play, but it rocks your face and kicks yours ass in the time it has with you.

The building looks pretty impressive. Here is the most recent update that was posted to reddit: I guess it's harder to get excited because not only is it hidden inside a building but it's also a replacement ride for a long standing favorite classic attraction. It's a tough gamble by the park because everyone will be comparing it to the old ride rather than allowing it to be a brand new experience, but I applaud them for trying and not just junking FITH for another random coaster. As far as updates on here goes... a lot of us who still use forums are simply too old to deal with it anymore. I used to have a lot of fun with the speculation, keeping an eye out for markers, and going to the parks sometimes just to see construction progress. These days though I just don't have the time/energy/money and would rather spend what I have on other things - even though I still enjoy aspects of amusement park fandom occasionally. The kids who are coming up into the fandom who care about that kind of stuff are all on instagram/tiktok/youtube. Forums like this one aren't as appealing because it's a different type of interaction and quite frankly can be a little insular and hostile as KBrylczyk's comment displays, lol.

Knott's is adding a new chaperone policy. I think this is a good reaction to the fights that happen often there. The final straw, but much too late, imo, was the closure last week.

Every single post by @JT325:

Well a looping star is an entire product line, not just one individual ride. I didn’t think I needed to list out every looping star I have been on… But in general, as others have mentioned, no inversion has really yet to match the near perfection of a Swartzkoph loop.

^Yeah but Mach tower is a dumb ride and no one really cares if it's down. FF is actually a really awesome ride that's sad to see closed!!!

Man what??!? Nostalgia for old people?!? Most of their rides are terrible among today's coasters?!? Some of today's coasters cannot hold a candle to some schwarzkopf coasters. How many "todays" coasters have been torn down while parks opt to keep their coasters for "old people" lol? It's not our fault we appreciate and cherish good engineering and well thought out layouts.

Sounds like the new coaster is Big Bear.

As seen on Facebook earlier today! Looks like we have our first official attraction teaser for 2023.

Agreed. Universal Japan had a temporary Wizard of Oz-themed area years ago. I'm curious to see what Movie World really does with theirs.

Was at the park Saturday. Saturday. I rode El Toro 10 times in a row to start the day then at 2pm I rode Jersey Devil Coaster 10 times in a row (and other rides less than 10 times in a row) It was absolutely mind boggling how dead the park was.

Went yesterday for the first time. As others had said it was dead! Basically every ride we did was a walk on. Did Green Lantern, Superman, Kingda Ka, El Toro (4 times without getting off!), the Mine Train, Medusa, Log Flume, Swinging Ship, Jersey Devil (2 times), Nitro (2 times, not sure if this was its first time reopening), Batman, Skull Mountain, Dark Knight, the Houdini House and El Toro once more all in about 5 hours. Crazy amount of rides for one day. Loved our experience.

I think she'd like feeding the fish at the Shepherd of the Hills fish hatchery. 9-5 but closed Sun & Mon, and need to bring your own quarters for fish food; we havent been in a few years but afaik they don't have change machines on site.

That building adds a lot of charm.

Rawr, kitty's got claws. Sorry for the butthurt.

The amount of times that I've seen them fix Nitro by banging on the transfer track with a wrench and leaving is impressive. Maybe it's the coaster version of unplugging a router and plugging it back in.

They were very accommodating when I was there, they did make me wait a little bit off to the side one time so as to avoid having too many people in the station, but other than that they were great about it.

Headed out yesterday for the passholder preview and... woof. I don't want to sound bitchy but I was really disappointed. SFMM decided that functional is the same as finished and we got a pretty terrible overall experience. Coaster - A solid 7/10. Less insane than the 1st-gen single rails, but I think that's a good thing. Easing up on the aggression makes it really re-rideable and I think it will be a huge hit with enthusiasts and GP. My one ride was in row 10, but I heard folks saying that the front was crazier. The new trains do make you sit with your feet unnaturally far apart, and it's kind of uncomfortable. Could be a more significant problem for folks who have shorter legs or narrow hips. Ops - I wasn't able to figure out what caused this but trains were regularly being sent out with only 4-6 passengers. Quite a few trains had only 2 or 3. This happened over and over again during my 3 hour long wait and it was maddening. The handful of times that they did send multiple full trains in a row, I noticed that the line actually does move, so that's a plus. I happened to be in one of the full trains, so I didn't get to see what the problem was they were experiencing. And I'm sure the employees were doing their best, no shade to them, but management forced them to open when they were very clearly not ready. Presentation - Lots of construction stuff still up around the area, a big dirt hole to the right of the switchbacks, confetti still all over the place from media day. The inside part of the queue had no working A/C, so it was hot and very humid from all the sweaty bodies standing inside. The floor inside the building is also a mess. It's like they told the construction crew: "don't worry about spilling paint on the floor because we're gonna do a finish coat on it"... and then they just didn't. Also, the paint on the coaster supports looks SUPER patchy and weird, especially near the ride entrance. Like they got scuffed up and someone fixed them with red spray paint. Extra weird thing - The entrance and exit of Batman have switched so that Batman and WW can share one exit path. Except there was no sign, so we walked off WW directly into the Batman queue and kept going onto the ride. Wasn't a big issue in the moment since there was virtually no line, but that better get fixed quickly before fights start about people cutting the line. -- The whole experience gave me the mental scenario of the construction project manager sending an email update saying "Hey everyone, we're almost to the end. We'll be ready to open in 3-4 weeks." And then someone from marketing replying "We just announced the opening day, so actually you have 2 weeks. Figure it out."

I would ride a looping star over most more modern coasters with inversions, since those with OTSR’s beat you up in some way. Olympia Looping is a legitimate top 25 coaster. Mindbender is the second most intense coaster I’ve ever been on (#1 is the original dodonpa). Lisebergbanan is a top tier mine train/non inverting style coaster.

It’s a nostalgia thing for old people, most of their rides are terrible among today’s coasters.

What's weird about Great Adventure is that it's probably the only park that really did improve the experience this year. They added that, painted 2 coasters (they never even paint one) and didn't get rid of Holiday in the Park. Most parks got a price increase, an operating season that's 2 months shorter and maybe a single rider line that's never used. ... it still couldn't be less of a premium experience if it tried.

Dueling Dragons vibes from that hack job.

That’s where they’re going to start laying out pieces of Dragster and let the dump trucks take it away for scrap.