coasterbill

Okay, brace yourselves. Here it comes... I would skip the New England portion of this trip entirely. Hang out around New York City, reduce the driving and then go to Dorney on the 14th, Knoebels on the 15th and Hershey on the 16th. I'm not just saying this because I find a way to fit Knoebels into every itinerary (which I do), I'm saying it because the thought of going to Six Flags New England on a Saturday during Fright Fest and Hershey the next day sounds awful and entirely not worth it when Knoebels is better anyway.

The only coaster that ever gets anything that even sort of resembles a line is the Wild Mouse because of its horrific capacity and operating procedure but even that line is usually a non issue. "Ride order" really isn't a thing unless you count "Ride Stinger first so you get on it before it has another spectacular failure that makes the news and closes the ride down for the remainder of the season" as advice on "ride order".

If I visited a park for 5 days out of a week I would expect to witness downtime on most of their coasters at some point or another, especially when more than half of their adult coasters are modern B&M and Intamin rides that all run anywhere from 3 and 6 trains simultaneously with the exception of Wicked Twister which has its own problems in the reliability department for obvious reasons. Regarding the rain policy, yeah that's horrid. We've known that for years and I won't argue with you on that one. But it seems like a strange time to complain about their maintenance because of something that seems pretty typical of basically any park when a week ago everyone was singing their praises for replacing a cable snap and working through the night on back to back nights to get Dragster operational less than 48 hours after a major mechanical failure.

I disagree, ride Impulse first since it's had this issue where it needs to run 1 train. Then Flying turns and then whatever you want. If rain is a threat though ride Flying Turns first.

This post really didn't get as much sh*t as it deserved. I'm glad it's not just me that looked at that in disbelief.

Not completely. It's still very possible but considering they have been working on it this season, It would be very impractical for them to do that just to have it close and be converted. I am literally SO TIRED of people who say this without doing their research. Remember Medusa at Six Flags Mexico? Remember how Rocky Mountain came in and put topper track on it for the 2012 season? Remember how the very next year Six Flags announced that it would be closed to be converted? No? Shocker. Seriously. There's absolutely precedent for doing work on a ride before you convert it. Just because it could get RMC'ed in 2017 doesn't mean that they're going to let it fall to pieces up until then. You all know literally nothing about what Six Flags is planning, stop pretending like you're wiretapping eight conference calls a day. Now, back to ignoring the forums until speculation season is over... To piggyback a little, Cyclone at SFNE had a ton of topper track installed before the conversion also. Almost the entire first half was topper track by the time it was finally converted.

It is. But Impulse is having mechanical issues that keep causing it to go down when it runs more than 1 train. Phoenix and Twister frequently run 1 train on weekdays but they load it and dispatch it in about 30 seconds.

I mean it looks nice but I can go to all the other Six Flags parks and find a bar. That's not what I'm paying Six Flags for. This was the first Six Flags Park, it set the bar. It deserves something better. There's over 5 million people within 50 miles and we've gained as many bar stools as we've lost in the last half decade. Cedar Fair is building amazing bars everywhere and we just have this mediocre one. We deserve better. We were the first! The first!

Oh yeah I bet the corporate higher-ups are literally sh*tting their pants just thinking about the prospect of having to compete with a new free spin at a power house destination park like Six Flags America. One of those could really improve the park and it'll be unique in SFA's market unless you include great adventure as part of their market. It's about the same distance as BGW is actually, but that's besides the point. I don't disagree that it would be a great addition. I personally don't see them investing that type of money into SFA but I won't argue that it would be a solid move that would draw some gate. My comment was in reference to the claim that it would help them compete with KD, BGW and Hershey. Those parks are lightyears ahead of SFA and a Free Spin wouldn't change that. And to put some icing on the cake, BGW is getting a new coaster of their own next year.

Oh yeah I bet the corporate higher-ups are literally sh*tting their pants just thinking about the prospect of having to compete with a new free spin at a power house destination park like Six Flags America.

This piece of sh*t is open again as of about 5 minutes ago. First train in over 2 months... (From the SF New England Connoisseurs page). Hurry up and ride it before the next catastrophic failure. Time is ticking.

Worlds of Fun started teasing in April and all they're probably getting is some used flats, a new front gate, and Winterfest. I don't get why people downplay winter events. The ability to ride major coasters in the winter without traveling is seriously awesome. Holiday in the Park at Great Adventure is my favorite addition at that park since El Toro (and it's up against stiff competition with Safari Off Road Adventure and Zumanjaro). I'm not downplaying it. I'm very excited. It's just not as exciting as a new, shiny steel coaster. And with Kansas City's climate, you'll be lucky to get on most of the flats, let alone the coasters. You never know. New Jersey is even further north and we power rode Nitro for an hour and a half at night in January with Boldikus. Batman ran like an absolute dream in the winter with a faster set of wheels even when it got down into the 20's so Patriot could probably run and run well.

You poor thing...

Worlds of Fun started teasing in April and all they're probably getting is some used flats, a new front gate, and Winterfest. I don't get why people downplay winter events. The ability to ride major coasters in the winter without traveling is seriously awesome. Holiday in the Park at Great Adventure is my favorite addition at that park since El Toro (and it's up against stiff competition with Safari Off Road Adventure and Zumanjaro).

For what it's worth I thought Joker at Great Adventure was going to suck but it's actually really awesome. Sure it's not a hyper but they're very enjoyable rides.

Yeah Phoenix is the only standup coaster I actually enjoy. That return run of bunny hills might be my favorite thing on any coaster ever. I see DirkFunk's point though even though I don't entirely agree with it. Phoenix does provide a different type of airtime than say El Toro or Maverick does.

Okay that looks amazing.

Agreed on Impulse, I like it but it's not amazing. It's running 1 car because of a mechanical issue. That's not typical but it's been doing that quite a bit this year. They're working on correcting that. Believe me, since it's a pay per ride park they're not happy about it either. It's a shame you didn't really get the full Knoebels experience. I also entirely disagree with your opinion of Twister but to each his own.

The sh*t that seriously comes out of people's mouths absolutely blows my mind. You'd think eventually I'd get used to it and the shock would wear off but nope. It never does...

Yup. Regardless of where you sit Fury will blow your mind right in front of your face. It's science.

Alright fine but I'm going to need to budget an excessive amount of money for alcohol that weekend. I've only been to one enthusiast event ever and it scarred me for life. If another guy grabs my face to take a picture because there's a pretty reflection of a coaster in my sunglasses or I have to watch a guy in a patch jacket demand free sh*t from the park because he walked into a plastic garbage can and acted like he lost a leg in Vietnam like the last time (and the only time) I went to an enthusiast event I'm going to be personally responsible for a historic alcohol shortage in the state of New Jersey. Like they're gonna need to call FEMA to send an emergency shipment of alcohol via an oil tanker. Oh and somebody should start squeezing oranges, like now.

Yeah but there'll be coaster enthusiasts there...

Wait... so there's ERT on Zoom Phloom, SkyCoaster amd SkyScraper? Damn... I need this event in my life. The only problem is I'm not sure if I could deal with coaster enthusiasts for an extended period of time. They need to have Orange Crush ERT at the rooftop bar at Surfside Pier. PS: I see the Zoom Phloom love in this thread and I like what I see. Morey's has a lot of great rides but that's absolutely the best ride on any of the 3 piers.

Great report! Looking forward to seeing more.