coasterbill

Wow, of all the coasters I expected to open today I never would have guessed Gatekeeper. I guess the wind must have died way down because it's running with riders.

Wow, I thought I was the only one that still used Coaster Grotto... 1) Millennium Force 2) El Toro 3) Phoenix 4) Maverick 5) Fury 325 6) Kumba 7) Raptor 8) Tatsu 9) Intimidator 305 10) Wicked Cyclone

They should integrate them into a steel melting facility.

For their sake I hope they can get it open today. It would be one of the only rides that could operate. Oh well... hope everybody likes Corkscrew and Mine Ride.

They kept both towers, it looks ridiculous.

How is Wildcat running? When we rode it last year it was running great, it was the first time I'd ever actually enjoyed it.

Okay, but one of them is complete crap and the other is a relocated portable spinning mouse.

^^ Great report and pictures! It's funny... we have exactly the same opinion of every ride in the park except for Wicked Cyclone which I loved but ranked a bit lower than you. It's insane but it's no El Toro.

There's no such thing as having "enough time" at Knoebels, it's one of those places where there's so much to see and do that you could spend a few days there and still miss things (I just found out they have an Eagle sanctuary). That being said, if you have 4,5,6 hours there you'll manage to get a lot of the top tier rides in. Besides the coasters, the rides you absolutely 100% have to do are the Scooters (Bumper Cars), Flyers and maybe the Carousel just because the brass ring aspect is really cool. They have a ton of other awesome rides / flats like the Flume, Downdraft, Stratosfear and the Chairlift but those 2 are the ones you should make sure you get on first, especially because the Bumper Cars always have a line.

I feel like at this point people are playing some kind of drinking game where they all start threads about road trips through Pennsylvania that don't include Knoebels and then ask for advice on those trips just to see how many times they can make me say the word Knoebels in a single day. Seriously though, if you're going to Dorney and not Knoebels then you're doing it wrong. You should go to Knoebels.

Okay well have fun at Six Flags America. We tried to help. At Cedar Point they have a wheel set up called the rain policy wheel. Every time it gets cloudy they bring out a blindfolded trained monkey to spin the wheel for each ride and that determines if the ride can operate in the rain. Then every few minutes they have the monkey spin it again (even if the rain hasn't changed at all in intensity) and that determines the new rain policy for each ride. This continues until the rain stops or until every ride in the park closes due to a light breeze. In all seriousness, that might as well really be how they come up with the rain policy. As a general rule, Dragster closes in any rain and for every other coaster just flip a coin. Rougarou, Gatekeeper, Wicked Twister and Millennium Force are usually open, Raptor and Magnum are usually closed but these things are subject to change with no regard for logic or how hard it's raining so be prepared for that.

Don't forget Batman. It makes sense on Thunderbolt because the station is old and tiny and will bottleneck if someone chooses to wait for the back. It doesn't make sense anywhere else except on Batman sort of but I refuse to give them a pass because they had a ton of room to build a normal sized station for that ride and just chose not to.

Knoebels doesn't look exciting on paper, but if you go there you'll understand. Just trust me on this. When either of those companies builds a coaster that's as good as Phoenix, you let me know... I'm still waiting

I just edited my post. It's better now.

Driving from Kings Dominion to SFA on the 4th / 5th of July with the express lanes closed to all traffic in your direction (probably) just sounds like the absolute worst thing ever. If I were you I'd try to get as far as possible after KD closes, like... try to get to Maryland. lol By the way do you have an EZ Pass? If not get one immediately and if by some miracle the HOV lane gods smile upon you that day and open the restricted lanes in your direction use them no matter how expensive they are. EDIT: Also, let me fix July 7th... right now it's broken. Why get up early so you can catch a 7:10 game? If you left at noon you'd still be there by game time. Allow me to help... Tuesday July 7th- Get up early and go to Knoebels, the best amusement park in the world. Eat everything. Then stop in Cleveland and catch an Indians game at 7:10 or just be like "screw it we're having way too much fun at Knoebels to leave and go to an Indians game". Then drive to Sandusky after and find a cheap hotel.

Because I'm amazing. lol

I love every one of your posts.

How far away from the parks are you staying?

Yeah but the coaster manufacturers have absolutely nothing to do with the lift chains. There are companies that specialize in roller chains and they supply the chains.

Interesting review, I didn't find the airtime on Wicked Cyclone to be anywhere near the level of the airtime on El Toro (or even Bizarro). I guess this ride is just very temperamental, but the good news is even when it runs slow it's still amazing.

I'm so excited to see how fast they fix this so we can all laugh at Magic Mountain. Are we comparing apples to oranges in regard to ride type and size? Maybe... but it doesn't make it any less funny. Plus they did get Gatekeeper a new chain last year in less than 3 days which is a much more substantial ride.

Oh yeah... forget those. The ones by the Alamao are the ones you want.

We went a few years ago and it was great, lines were surprisingly short and they put on a solid fireworks show. The low crowds may have been a fluke but we had a great time.

I think Talon opens early but I'm prepared to be wrong. We don't ever rush to Dorney all that early in the morning since it's basically ERT on every coaster all day, every day, all season long at Dorney.