coasterbill

I always thought that Banshee rode like absolute ass in the back of the train. I don’t care about “B&M rattle”, this isn’t that, this is like riding on a jackhammer with square wheels and it’s been like that since opening year. I always ride it in the front. Those trains are terrible and that’s weird because old inverts trains were absolute perfection. Why would anyone change them? Other than that I don’t really have strong preferences on anything in that park. Diamondback is great in the back, but it’s fun up front too so try both. Same for Orion and Mystic.

My only advice is to ride the coasters at Dorney once, ride Demon Drop, ride Thunder Creek Mountain and then leave immediately and go to Knoebels / Great Adventure / Hershey... anything.

I still feel like a half-open park is better than a closed park as long as the park is transparent about what will and will not be open. I also wonder if Cedar Fair is missing an opportunity by not copying the Six Flags "Coaster Power Hours" thing on days where they're closed. You only need to open coasters and a few food stands and thousands of people will show up. Then again, it's an easier sell when you never had those days scheduled to begin with and then add them later rather than saying "Okay, we're going to open but only kind-of and it's an upcharge now" so I see how they've screwed themselves at this point.

They say that every day. I would pay zero attention to them.

I know that labor supply is a huge issue for everyone and don’t want to downplay that, but is it crazy to wonder if some of this is just them going “Well, now we have to pay people $15-$20 an hour at a theme park that’s going to be empty-as-empty-can-be on most Mondays and Tuesdays and we’ll probably lose less money if we just don’t open?” I don’t believe that this was a factor for Cedar Point. I think it’s highly conceivable that it was a factor for Dorney. I wonder if that may be why Cedar Point is going to attempt to go back to daily ops in a few weeks and Dorney was happy to slash them from the calendar for the whole year, push demand to some other dead weekdays and call it a day. ...I also wonder how long before someone catches that July 5th thing.

It's a coaster that runs 4 trains and tested for like 3 weeks tops before it opened. It's going to have tons of issues. Be patient, it will probably open eventually.

I'm going to guess that staffing is what's happening there.

Also, when they said that they were closing on all Mondays and Tuesdays they've included the federal holiday for the 4th of July as a day that they'll be closed. Big brain moves...

Laugh reacts only...

The argument about that shouldn't take place on here at all because at the end of the day we know that Cedar Fair is only doing what they're mandated to do. Even Knott's lifted the restrictions ASAP. There's nothing that the park can do about it. Guests should follow the rules even if they're excessive because riding a coaster with a mask on is better than not riding one at all. Nobody's mask is going to fly off though.

Yeah, in-person the ride area looks very nice (by their standards).

The wait times have been incredibly reasonable. Everyone seems to rush it in the morning and then it’s somewhere between 45 and 90 minutes later on. Per Queue Times (which pulls data from the Universal App). Scroll to “Queue times for last week” and ignore the first day which was opening day.

Absolutely. Nobody had a problem on Kingda Ka, Maverick, Orion (which is very similar to Leviathan), Top Thrill Dragster, Formula Rossa, El Toro, Wonder Woman Golden Lasso Coaster and Steel Vengeance for the past 12 months when most of the world has already had their theme parks open and has been doing this without issue but Wonderland’s B&M collection is where they’ll totally meet their match. Wonderland is one of the last major parks in the world to reopen. The rest of the world has been doing this for a year+ in some cases. There have been no issues on any ride anywhere. When I saw this conversation I felt like I stepped into a time machine to last May.

That’s one of the best trip reports I’ve read in awhile, I won’t lie. 10/10

It should be noted that (unless I'm forgetting something) , Six Flags hasn't built a wood coaster in seven years. That doesn't mean they won't build one, but building steel coasters that are easier to maintain seems to be more on-brand for them. Also, lumber prices are falling finally but are coming off of an all-time insane high. If they wanted to build one, this probably wouldn't be the time unless it's already been paid for and planned. As for this new addition, I don't have any guesses. I'll set my expectations for "flat ride" and if it's something cooler then it will be a pleasant surprise. If it is a flat ride, I'm sure it will be something cool with way better theming than you would expect from a Six Flags park because this park is great. PS: I'm sure that the reason more Intamin pre-fab coasters haven't been built is 100% maintenance costs. Intamins are expensive to maintain and parts are always expensive. Six Flags (above all else) is cheap.

Laugh reacts only, please

Honestly they might pull it off but I just don't understand why they would do it this way after screwing it up over and over and over again. Obviously it's a different country with different programs and situations and it's a very densely populated area but why wouldn't they just list early closings and then extend them later once they know that they have the staff? Listing a 7PM closing won't stop anyone from going. If they extend it later they look good and if they don't extend it nobody will care. I feel like they're putting themselves in a position to potentially piss everyone off (again) for no reason.

Wow! Starting on July 24th they plan to be open from 10am to 10pm every day of the week. Does anyone want to do pool to bet on what day the "We want to be sure we're delivering fun and memorable experiences to our guests so we have adjusted our hours to now close super early and also we'll pay you $20 CAD per hour please come and work for us" tweet goes out? Do you guys think it would be better to just pick dates and do the closest without going over or do like a super bowl box type thing where we randomize it to make it more fair? I'm thinking $5 a box (Canadian dollars to be festive) but I'm of course open to suggestions. If we're just openly picking dates I'm going with July 9th. It's a Friday so a great time to bury the story...

Park Update: All 9:00 summer closings have been moved to 7:00. Grand Carnivale is still listed on the website from 5-9 from July 24 to August 8 but the hours have changed on the calendar so I’d assume 7:00 closings now. I have no clue if the event will still happen or not. If you’re looking for something to do instead, Great Adventure just extended all of their summer hours a few days ago due to overwhelming demand and Knoebels closes at 9:00 on summer weekends and not 7:00. lol

I want to believe that the log flume incident was due to them jamming 800 people into each log and maybe they should stop that. I don’t know if that was really the cause but I’m hoping it was. Also, I’m assuming that Jersey Devil never opened today because they dispatched all 4 trains Saturday night and none of them have made it back yet.

I know that the world isn’t exactly clamoring for another Jersey Devil coaster review but I figured I’d do a brief post with my thoughts. We went yesterday and got tons and tons of rides all over the train in the morning and at night (the park stayed open an extra hour since they were so busy). Let’s set some expectations: If you’re expecting Wonder Woman, you’re not going to get it here. I actually feel like the best way to look at this ride is that it’s more similar to the pacing of a regular RMC than one of those old batshit single rails but people positively lose their shit over regular RMCs so that’s not a bad thing. First off: The ride area and queue are very nice. My expectations for this park in that department are always low and none of it will change your life but it’s better than I expected so kudos on that front. As for the ride, it was running all four trains and when it got in a groove it’s capacity was better than you would expect. I’m sure it’s capacity is realistically higher than rides with higher theoretical capacities like El Toro and Bizarro on a lot of cycles since the restraints are very forgiving and the boarding never stops. It’s not like El Toro where the train is loaded and then it’s that “recheck 3,5,6... we got 6, lost 6, now just 3 and 5... we lost 2... now just 6... verified” bullshit. As for the ride itself, I guess let’s just go element by element. - The view from the lift is great. It’s a really nice view of the lakes and of Nitro. At Sunset, it was crazy. This is where Six Flags should take all of it’s Nitro social media / website / marketing photos from. - The first drop delivers insane ejector in the back and even solid ejector in the middle. - The first inversion is nuts everywhere and just an awesome element overall. - The next hill is an ejector hill with insane ejector airtime everywhere in the train. This will probably be a lot of people’s favorite part of the ride. - The stall following it is a blast. If the ride is running fast it’s wild, if it’s running slow then it might even enhance this element. - I thought that the turnaround would be a throwaway element but it’s absolutely not. In the back maybe it is, in the front it made me yell out an involuntary expletive. That’s RMC single rail pacing at it’s finest. - The next inversion is the most underrated thing on the ride. Throw your hands up and just enjoy it. It’s a really cool element where it feels like the world is in slow motion. I guess it’s not that forceful compared to everything that came before it but it’s just as much fun. I’ll admit that from this point forward, the ride definitely chills out a bit. The pop into the midcourse is nice but nothing crazy. The best way thing about the second half is the visuals. The headchoppers are great. My favorite element of the second half is the left turn after the midcourse because it just feels like there’s no clearance there and the turn is very tight. Every airtime hill on the second half provides mild floater air. Think “Nitro’s final camelbacks in December” airtime... maybe. The people complaining about this ride are probably judging the entire ride on this 10 second stretch, which is dumb. I firmly believe that the designers expected this part of the ride to run faster and it’s possible that they can tweak it to get it that way, maybe even just by dialing down the timing and having it sail through the midcourse. Even as-is though, it’s still fun. Despite ending the review on a low note with those last few hills, the ride is insane. The pacing on the first half is awesome and if the midcourse would have been the final brake run everyone would be blowing this ride. It has ejector air, it has “oh shit” moments, it has a forgiving restraint and a low height requirement and it looks great. It fills a nice niche for Great Adventure. Everyone is going to love this ride from the regular day-guests to the extreme thrill seekers (unless they’re just jaded as hell). At most parks in the northeast, this would be the best ride in the park. It would probably be my favorite ride at Lake Compounce, Dorney, Six Flags America, maybe Hershey (or at least top 2), Nick U, La Ronde (except it would run one train), possibly Busch Williamsburg... you get the point. I think most complaints about this ride are due to people being spoiled as hell by the fact that it’s not the most intense ride in the park with the strongest ejector airtime in the park but it’s still super intense and has crazy airtime. The problem is that across the park you have the tallest coaster in the entire world that goes 128 mph and one of the best, if not the best Intamin airtime machines ever built. We walked in with lowered expectations after reading the reviews but after riding it I realize that every enthusiast in New Jersey is just comparing everything to El Toro which means they’ll just end up hating everything forever. Go in expecting regular RMC Ibox pacing but with the unique ride experience of a single rail and you will love it. Ranking isn’t my thing, but I’d say that El Toro is clearly the best ride in the park but after that depending on my mood this might be my second favorite. It could also be Kingda Ka or Nitro at any given time. God, we’re spoiled. Ignore the haters, come out and ride this. It’s wonderful. We love Jersey Devil! A few general park updates: - Great job by the park staying open an extra hour because of crowds. They filled the parking lot which I’ve never seen outside of Fright Fest. How busy were they? Well... (we walked by, it was not a typo). - Now that Kingda Ka can run independently of Zumanjaro, the gloves are off. The crew yesterday was the best I’ve ever seen on that ride. They were practically running. Also: There is no longer a station grouper and you are free to wait for row one no matter what. We did, as we always do. Amazing ride... - I’m so used to riding Nitro in the winter that I forget what this thing can do when it warms up. That hill before the swoopy hill into the helix (I named that element just now) was providing borderline ejector air all day long. - We rode the Flume. We asked if we could not be grouped, we were denied. I should have just jumped in the lake to get less wet. Please stop doing this, nobody likes it. - The new temporary dinosaur thing was cool. After 6:00 you can pay 5 bucks and do it as a walkthrough rather than a drive through. It’s better than Dinosaurs alive was. The animatronics are pretty solid. Overall we had an awesome day (thanks to Flash Pass). Come out and ride this thing, you won’t regret it. Just don’t do it on a Saturday unless you’re getting there at opening, but if you do you should rope drop the Flash Pass building, not Jersey Devil. Flash Pass lines stretched back to the Joker entrance yesterday. They really need to improve that system.

That sounds similar to our experience. We were not fans of that park at all. It seemed like word got out that it was going to close forever and they just figured they’d get a head start and close half of it right now. I’m not sure when you got there but I will say that Sidewinder usually opens super late but there’s no sign anywhere telling you that. Congrats on your degree!

Busch Gardens does a very good job of updating the website with what rides are currently closed for staffing and budget. In short: Finnegan's Flyer and The Flying Machine are closed but I think they're both actually broken / being refurbed, Mäch Tower (lol), Rhine River Cruise, Roman Rapids and Skyride are closed every day for staffing. Battle For Eire is also closed, possibly forever. Escape from Pomeii and Le Scoot are open Friday - Sunday only but this park has a strong under-promise and over-deliver policy with this list so if they opened them on a weekday if they had the staff I wouldn't exactly be shocked. All other rides including all coasters are open daily.

The park quietly updated their summer hours a few days ago. They've extended them! 9:00 closes most nights and 10:00 closes on Saturdays. Awesome to see!

So Six Flags New England’s coaster power hours were awesome. They only advertised the coasters and frisbee being open but as more and more staff became available for an event that they just started advertising a few days ago they opened like half the flat rides in the park for no reason even though nothing was filling trains. It’s really a tale of two companies with them and Cedar Fair right now