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Had another great visit to the park yesterday evening, and earlier today, and once again lived the "no FL, no problem life" to perfection! On our way back from our trip to Pittsburgh, my kids and I stopped for a two partial day trip to CP, and our first time staying on-site at a CP resort, as we utilized the Lighthouse Point Cabins. Let me just say first off, I think paying what the Breakers charges is absurd, and there isn't any justification for it in my mind. They are basic rooms, and staying on site, in basic rooms, just isn't worth it in my mind. Period. However, Lighthouse Point proved to be a different matter, as the price, which is actually lower than Breakers, while still high, was much more justifiable to me, for the great location on the water, and the unique experience. We loved staying the night there, and I definitely will do it again sometime, when I have the funds to do so! The great view of Steel Vengeance right next to it was an added bonus! So, if you haven't had a chance to check it out yet, I definitely recommend it! As for the park last night, we didn't show up to LP until 4:00, which was check-in time, and then it was storming and raining off and on then, so there was a mass exodus from the park around that time. We ordered some pizza, picked it up, brought it back to the cabin, and enjoyed it while the waves lapped at the front porch, and the coasters started testing again in the park. We finally entered the park around 7:00, and went straight to Steel Vengeance. My 8 year old just now hit 52 inches (with shoes), so he was able to ride it this year, and was super excited! With the cleared out park, we only waited around 20 minutes, maybe, and we were off on my personal favorite coaster, out of now 300! My 8 year old loved it, and his mind was definitely blown! I think it's now HIS favorite coaster as well! Next up, we hit Maverick, with about a 15 minute wait, and it was my 8 year old's first ride on that as well. He loved that one too, particularly the fact that I hadn't told him anything about it, and he was totally surprised by it! After a quick spin on the Wave Swinger (just because it's there, relaxing, and fun), we went down Frontier Trail, and got in a couple night rides on Millennium Force. It was all of my kids' first time getting night rides on it, and we waited for the front on one of the rides as well. It was walk on without the wait for the front, which added 15 minutes to that wait. To close the night down, we returned to Steel Vengeance, and after an even shorter wait this time around, probably 15 minutes, tops, we were on board. SV is a whole different beast at night, as it's even more wild, and disorienting than it is during the daytime! So I was glad my youngest got to experience that for the first time as well (my oldest three kids got to before.) We decided to directly go around and re-ride, and not having any cell phones or watches on us, had no idea what time it was. The line was open, however, so we got in it. It was apparently closing time though, as we ended up basically being at the back of the line. Consequently, we got on the last Steel Vengeance train of the night, and not just that, they sent us around again for an encore ride, which was totally awesome! My kids were stoked, and my youngest was amazed, and getting three consecutive rides (essentially) on SV to close out the day on the best coaster on the planet (in our opinions), was the best way possible to end it! Getting four rides total on SV for a combined wait of less than 45 minutes, without FL+, three of which were at night, was just icing on the cake! We were all very hyped off that experience as we walked back out of the park, and returned to our nearby cabin, to fall asleep to the sounds of the waves... Today (Monday) was another short day, as we were only in the park from 10:00 to 2:30. But we got to ride GateKeeper, Valravn, Blue Streak, Magnum, Gemini, and Skyhawk, all with minimal wait time. Plus, we tried out the new Farmhouse Kitchen and Grill, and all came away very satisfied with the food! It was very good, and filling, and fed my big brood well! All in all, it was a very nice visit to the park, and in some ways, one of the best I've ever had!

^ Now that's the Six Flags we all know and love tolerate.

They're fixing it up in-house. It's going to be a full refurbishment after being sadly neglected over the years. It's all being done by hand. There's a display off to the side of the ride entrance with several informational boards explaining the history behind the Batmobile and the extensive process to restore it to its original glory.

Not like Knott’s. More like the other Winterfest events. Maybe Gold striker and Railblazer open only coaster wise and lots of kiddie rides and a Planet Snoopy.

The key is, you can’t just make the investment once and call it a day. We’ve already seen that song and dance when Dan Synder did his takeover of the company. When they made their big push to make things more “family friendly,” they made investments like the ones you mentioned and then never maintained any improvements. You can only squeeze so much out of the consumer (especially with six flags clientele), but the shareholders will still want you to squeeze more out of somewhere…

Because after the lockers, there is no "FL queue" You're still a hundred people back from the station (when you count both stairwells). At the merge point, which is about 50-75 people before the lockers, they do typically let a decent group of FL-ers through.

Early report: Breakfast at Pink Cadillac was excellent as always, our traditional opening of Capt'n Jack's at 11 went off without a hitch, rode the world's greatest Boomerang which was great, and now sitting at Capt'n Jacks drinking Pina Coladas again watching them test Zoom Phloom so I won't be getting burned by a closed Flume today. Surfside opens in 10 mins. PigDog in a couple hours. Great White and Screamin Swing laps tonight. I sure wish I lived here!

I think the only ride that has ever happened to us on was Goliath when it first opened. I don't remember it ever happening on Whizzer. Not a normal thing at SFGAM. It is my home park, and we are there quite a bit.

Ha there is a huge groundhog, to me, (woodchuck to you) colony around Screaming Eagle at SFSTL too. I too often get partially undressed by Mystic Timbers and a few other coasters. Iron Gwazi is the worst for that in recent memory.

Yeah but have you ever walked around Des Moines?

The poverty rate in Des Moines is higher than the poverty rate in Kansas City, according to the US Census Bureau. If you compare the entire metro areas, the poverty rate in Des Moines metro (16.8%) is nearly twice as high as the poverty rate of the KC metro area (9.6%).

I get all that. But disparaging KC as impoverished or whatever is laughably ignorant. SDC is a destination park 3 hours away, they seem to do OK. There are a lot of people in this region that drive for vacations and do it with families. KC is getting a freaking World Cup game. I know that's not the end all-be all but it's not a backwater like, idk, Des Moines.

Also Disney Ducks < Beastly Woodchuck

And Cleveland is basically Dubai on steroids, thus CP gets all the attention. This is an ignorant comment.

Stopped in Ocean City on my way into Wildwood tonight. Since I still hadn't been to Gillians, we headed there first. I knew there were no new coasters for me to ride (I'm not enough of a whore to pay $7 to ride a Wacky Worm or a powered Dragon Coaster) but figured I could check out the Ferris Wheel and Log Flume and walk around a bit. Upon arrival, the first thing I see is a giant sign on the ticket booth saying "Log Flume closed." Well...balls. We ended up getting $20 worth of tickets so we could both ride the Ferris Wheel and then I could ride something else. When we walked out back the first thing my wife said was "it looks like a permanent carnival." We got on the Ferris Wheel which might be the slowest moving one I've ever ridden. It only goes around 3 times since it takes about a minute to go around. The prison bars make it very difficult to get pictures, and the slowness of the thing just made me way more nervous than I usually be on one of these. Used the rest of my credits on the Frisbee which didn't swing much and took a while to get going. Just felt real janky and also had Jesus quotes written all over it for added effect. This whole place was so f*cking weird. Headed down the boardwalk to Castaway Cove which felt like Islands of Adventure in comparison. Been here a few times and there was nothing new, so just got a Gale Force pass as there's no way I can drive past it on the way to Wildwood without stopping to ride it. Unlike last year when the queue house was totally full and I waited 45 minutes, there was only a 2 cycle wait this time. Ended up with the front row, and as usual this wacky thing totally delivered. Although I have a soft spot for Nitro (especially in January), this very well may be the best steel coaster in New Jersey. The insane ejector, fun positives, whippy twists, wacky transitions, and glass smooth experience make for an A+ ride and I still can't believe a tiny seaside park has a ride like this. Grabbed a slice from Manco & Manco on the way out (make sure you get a slice there when in Ocean City) and completed the trip down the Parkway. I know Wildwood is the big star on the shore for adrenaline junkies, but don't ever drive through without stopping to ride Gale Force.

Man, I loved the original Zambezi Zinger, and this new coaster looks like so much fun! This is exactly what they needed, and we are definitely making plans for Worlds of Fun next year.

Trackpieces has arrived and it is now confirmed it will be a Gerstlauer

Capacity on this looks pretty low. Excited to see how Chessington makes it worse.

This will be a fantastic addition to the park, filling the much needed stepping stone between the ho-hum Spinning Dragons and the more intense coasters and it will also be great for anyone's first wooden coaster experience. As much as I love white knuckle, super intense coasters, I also love a low to mid intensity coaster that is just a lot of fun, which this would seem to be. CF/WoF was very smart, in my opinion, to recognize that they needed a family coaster, make the effort to design a custom layout instead of another off the shelf model, and tie in enough similar elements of a much loved and lost coaster that it would appeal to the nostalgic fascination of the predecessor's devotees. I would bet that it will be enough to entice many in the KC metro area who haven't visited in years to make the trip at least once next season. Also, GCI is an amazing manufacturer of high quality woodies that introduced the world to butter smooth twister elements and I would love it if they continued adding more of their products! This would seem to be a project where CF is testing the Titan Track product for viability/reliability in a few different sections, so they can compare how it fairs versus standard woody track. I have high hopes that it will prove highly successful and it will give CF the confidence to green light full, ground up TT coasters. How awesome would it be to get a full TT re-creation or extended version of Orient Express?? Imagining the first ever woody/hybrid interlocking loops has me salivating...

Last I heard the middle finger statue was 28% finished, same as the carousel.

But they were forced to try it this way. TTD is closed.

I think it's pretty clever and cool idea to pay tribute to the ride, but also do something totally unique. So many people complain about cookie cutter Six Flags coasters: and here we have something original AND it looks like fun, with airtime

Man, I actually think this coaster look really fun, and cool, and look forward to hopefully getting to ride it next year when I finally take my kids on a Missouri coaster trip! I don't get the negativity about it at all! Regulars at my closest amusement park Michigan's Adventure would kill for something like this to be added there! lol

No hate from this guy. Also I would have taken Wicked Twister in a heartbeat had they relocated it. This reimagining of Zambezi Zinger is original and not a cloned coaster such as a raptor. Not throwing shade on a raptor either. I just think you gotta be excited when something original comes to your park that hasn’t ever been done before.

I’m going to count this as a success The afternoon had its moments of sadness (especially on the carousel when I realized that right at that moment I would have been texting Nick the picture of me on the white rabbit. But thank goodness for Sean who distracted me by talking about how awesome cedar downs was during his trip to cedar point) Big thanks to Sean for driving, Amy for encouraging me to try, Juan for meeting up with us as well. . . and especially Park President Jeffrey Siebert - who made a special effort to meet up with us so he could give me a hug and his condolences Other than the carousel only rode Dr Diabolicals Cliffhanger (3 times). But was good to get out of the house. my take on Dr. D? it's a really good dive coaster for the park, and not as extreme as it looks. It falls somewhere in the middle of the park's coaster lineup - not as good as Poltergeist, Wonder Woman, or Iron Rattler - about the same level as Superman & Goliath - better than Roadrunner Express, Batman, Pandemonium, and Boomerang. what elevates it higher than the "same level" coasters tho, is the theming in the queue - an excellent indoor preshow with two air-conditioned rooms, animatroncs, hidden doors, and some great special effects. The free locker system is great too, although zippered pockets seemed to work just fine without needing to use the lockers on my 2nd and 3rd rides. unlike most dive coasters? back row is THE place to ride this coaster. The back row gives an amazing pop of air on the 1st and midcourse drop (that you just don't get on the front or middle row), and makes the pops of air in the helixes that much stronger. so yeah. . ride back row. . right hand side of the train. . you're welcome. and again, thanks to Jeffrey for stopping by for a hug. . it really made my afternoon, and I really can't express how much it meant to me.

I can’t even make sense of what’s going on here, but everyone chill out. It’s not that serious.

Best compliment ever. The Boss is the Timber Wolf of this side of Missouri. Love it or hate it, The Boss still sucks. I'll repeat my strategy: (1) Butt back (2)Lean Forward (3) Grab the bar in front of you (4) Two beers in. Enjoy! (Kind of)

Went to the park today, first visit with American Thunder running. Still a great coaster, best in the park! On the flipside, it's been a few years since I have ridden the Boss. I decided to give it a ride today. Mistake! This coaster should be sold for kindling wood now. The absolute worst ride ever on a coaster, and I have been on plenty. Nothing remotely enjoyable about it. We left early due to the headache I got from it. POS!

^^Would you have preferred if they'd moved it to Nashville? /Sorry... couldn't resist.