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Geez... this place sounds kind of terrible. I'm going to be in the area at the end of May, but it's sounding like the Sandy launched coaster isn't going to really"fix" the park. It sucks because I want to theme park when I'm vacationing, but none of the parks in the NYC area are great, and I'm not the type of person that visits a park just because there are credits. Do you guys think Nickelodeon Universe is worth going to just because it is new? The other options for me are Rye Playland and Coney Island.

I'm not exactly sure how they plan to ride-ify stuff like Monopoly, but I get the feeling that the Hasbro brand is way more evergreen than some of the franchises that other parks have gone with recently... This is probably a good change for Galaxyland.

Jeez, 80 dollars sounds like way too much given the attraction lineup. Do you guys think that the prices might get adjusted downwards? Or maybe they'll just do aggressive "discounting" to put it in line with something more reasonable? I have no idea how parks in New Jersey remain competitive if this is _normal_ for that area.

Honestly, the main advice that I can give you is to be careful not to overload on Texas History for your filler attractions. They are pretty proud of the whole Mexican revolution thing, and by the end of my trip this past November I was super tired of hearing about the Alamo. Riverwalk is beautiful, but I found the boat tour both frustrating to find the loading to, and the particular guide my group had was pretty bad. For attractions suggestions: I actually quite liked the rodeo at the Cowtown Coliseum in Fort Worth, but I realize that it won't be for everyone.

Got back from Six Flags Great Adventure a few days ago, and I figure that I should put some thoughts down. I really liked El Toro, and it was my favorite ride in the park. It was a shame that it was only running one train as that did put a damper on my opinion on the ride. If I ignore the operational issues, then El Toro is easily in my top 10 coasters. I am surprised about how many rides were running three trains. Like, I can’t imagine that Kingda Ka particularly benefited from three trains. The Safari Ride was pretty great. It must be pretty expensive to staff and maintain, so I’m glad that it is so popular. Runaway Mine Train and Green Lantern were pretty bad. I generally love Arrow Mine Trains, and I figure that I should try to ride a stand up B+M coaster before all of them are converted to floorless coasters. What a fool I was... Overall, a pretty decent day, I think.

Just got back from Hersheypark. I’m only going to put a few short thoughts here since I suck a phone texting. I’m glad this forum encouraged me to take advantage of preview nights. From what I can tell, today was super crowded and I don’t think I would have gotten much done if I hadn’t kicked out some of the low capacity attractions yesterday night. There is obviously a great, forceful ride somewhere in Skyrush, but the restraints were too painful on my thighs after the first drop to enjoy the ride. I think that a B+M hyper will be a great addition to the park. Many of the existing coasters have middling to poor capacities for various reasons, so having a people-eater at Hersheypark will probably be a good thing. I have weird tastes, so my favorite rides would be the Hershey Chocolate Tour if that counts, and Super Dooper Looper if it doesn’t.

I'm actually surprised that they are updating Spaceship Earth again. I figure it's probably going to be mostly minor changes (probably to the descent), but I'm not sure how easy it will be to shift the themes from "information / communication" to "storytelling" without more drastic changes to many of the existing show scenes.

Yikes, I didn't realize that they were proposal separating out the tram tour from general park admission entirely. I hope that Screamescape is right about the study being geared towards something not as clear cut as that. The WB tour is much more expensive, longer, and handles smaller, more intimate groups. At points, the WB tour leaves the shuttles and continues on foot into the studio buildings themselves (which obviously the Universal version does not do). It is more informative and also feels more "authentic" in a way. They are entirely different beasts, and Universal Studios would need to make major changes to their tour in order to make it even close to being equitable to the other studio tours in the area as a "standalone" offering. It would be crazy for Universal Studios to treat the tour as an extra upcharge. It's not like they have enough room to replace it with anything worthwhile (especially at the capacity that the trams pull). Without the tram tours, Universal Studios Hollywood is easily the worst park in the area (and even with the tram tours, the park is rather small).

I can't be the only person that thought of that second-rate animated film when they announced that the name was "Epic..." Anyhow, not much to go off of. Based on the (early) concept art, it looks a little lean as far as the park itself goes. However, as long as they stuff it with popular IPs, I'm sure it will be a success.

I went to the Pittsburgh area last year with my (somewhat willing) family. I don't know if this is too late to get reservations, but I thought that the Bayernhof museum was shockingly good. The house was cool, and the tour guide was amazing. And if you are the slightest into architecture, Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater is super famous.

Going off of the early videos, I think that I may have been overly, cautiously optimistic. I'm glad that they added some new animatronics to the last third of the attraction, but they totally screwed up the pacing of the rest of the ride. The opening underwater screen tunnel goes on for way too long for what it is, and it isn't nearly as good as the dramatic intro that it replaced. The containment scene into the lift also goes on for way longer than it should given that it looks like most of the cool effects and dinos were removed. They clearly spent money on the overlay to make all of these changes... so I guess I can't fault them for trying.

Lakeside is depressing more than anything. It's definitely seen better days (prices are stupidly cheap as well). You've probably already looked into this, but Lakeside's hours can be pretty weird, and its rides open slowly, so you might want to double check the calendar. A bit off topic, and I don't know whether this is something that you have considered, but I feel like Waterworld might be a better option than the local amusement parks. Some of the raft rides there are really something special.

From the sounds of it, Hagrid's seems a bit disappointing (theming wise) and not that much better than other regional park family coasters in recent memory. ...and ten hours is crazy. I'm assuming that this is mostly locals? I can't imagine traveling all the way to Orlando and spending almost a full day in a line for any single ride. Hell, even being a local and doing that sounds crazy.

I didn't realize that Knoebels didn't offer passes during the weekends, and I'm thinking that I need to reverse some of the days due to the weird opening times that some of my target museums have, which would push Knoebels to Sunday. Luckily I'm not really a marathon rider, and the rides at Knoebels look surprisingly cheap, so I don't think that will cause problems for me. If I go with this plan, I'll be able to take advantage of Extra Hours at Hersheypark (which unfortunately means I'll get hit by parking fees twice. Decisions, decisions...). I'm not particularly a fan of history, so I'm kindof 50/50 on Liberty Bell / Independence Hall stuff. Yes, I realize that they are basically mandatory for tourists visiting Philadelphia.

Thanks for all the replies guys! Unfortunately, I let my Busch Platinum Pass expire already, so I don't think Sesame Place will be worth the stop, and I'm don't think that Dorney has enough of the variety that I look for in parks. I didn't know about the Free Extra Hours at Hersheypark. I might try to flip around my vacation to take advantage of it. However, this would mean that the Great Adventure visit would get moved from Thursday to Sunday, and I am most worried about crowds at that park: Thursday : American Treasure Tour, Julius Sturgis Pretzel Bakery, National Watch and Clock Museum, Hersheypark Friday : Hersheypark Saturday : Knoebels Sunday : Six Flags Great Adventure I'll take a look at the museums mentioned. I looked at the Ben Franklin Institute briefly, but I had figured it was a science museum and might skew a bit young for me. I'll definitely check out the other museum recommendations though. Yeah, I know that I am kind of stiffing my time with Six Flags Great Adventure, but I tend to get a little frustrated with Six Flags parks pretty quickly, which is why I wasn't going to give it a full day. Moving Mummers to Monday is definitely an option, though. Usually when I have a 3-hour distance between attractions, I stop somewhere in the middle at a hotel for the (late) night before waking up early to continue driving. I'll admit that it is not the most relaxing way to vacation, but so far it has worked. Is Philadelphia's downtown car friendly? I figured that taking public transit during my city day(s) would be preferable due to traffic and parking irritations. I'll definitely take a look at those sandwich places once I lock down plans further.

I am going to try to do the trip report thing again at the end of the summer in August / September. The idea is that I will take advantage of Labor Day (I need the extra day due to not having accrued much vacation time at my new job) and visit Philadelphia and the nearby major theme parks and other weird attractions that week. I figure that I am probably going to travel alone which will be lame as always, so it will make it more interesting if I put my planning process / progress here for feedback. Right now I just have plane tickets and a general outline of my plans: August 28, Wednesday : Fly into Philadelphia August 29, Thursday : Mummer's Museum, Car Rental, Six Flags Great Adventure August 30, Friday : Knoebels August 31, Saturday : Hersheypark September 1, Sunday : National Watch and Clock Museum, Julius Sturgis Pretzel Bakery, American Treasure Tour Museum, Return Car Rental September 2, Monday : Philadelphia's Magic Gardens, , Fly out of Philadelphia Is there anything obviously wrong with my outline so far? Are there any obvious attractions in the area that I am missing? I'll post major planning updates as I go along, and I will eventually put my trip report on this topic at the end of summer.

Oh man, I just saw the video attached to that article. That is WAY better than a ride in a park like Elitch Gardens has any right to be. I hope that they can keep the effects running.

Yeah, all of my plans are super tentative right now, but I think that I am going to try traveling less this year. Universal Studios Singapore 20th Century Fox World (or whatever they end up calling it [assuming it opens this year and isn't garbage ]) Lagoon Amusement Park Enchanted Forest

I think that the last coaster I rode was Rode Runner Express in Fiesta Texas in November. The coaster was fine, but it probably wasn't what I look for in Arrow Mine Trains.

I guess that makes sense, and Pandemonium was closed on my visit as well. That isn't to say that Road Runner Express was an insanely long line on Sunday, but it was the only one that really had more than a station wait.

I got back earlier this week from a trip through Texas. I ended up visiting SeaWorld San Antonio, Six Flags over Texas, and Six Flags Fiesta Texas. General Thoughts: I visited Six Flags Fiesta Texas on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, and despite the long weekend it wasn't crowded at all. I mostly rode coasters this time as none of the other rides seemed to be that interesting. However, I did see The Heart of the Holidays music show, which was better than anyone could reasonably expect a Six Flags park show to be. In fact, that made me curious about their other shows, but I left early before I could find out. A couple of the rides that I was interested in were closed for weather (I think), so unfortunately I did not get the Premier spaghetti bowl credit or the log flume credit. And their new dark ride looks interesting, so I am disappointed that it is still under construction. Select Ride Thoughts: Wonder Woman - getting this credit was one of my main objectives as otherwise I would have to revisit California's Great America to ride a similar model (and I hate my home park). There wasn't much of a line when the park opened in the afternoon, and the operations seem pretty great for an attraction that assuredly has mediocre capacity; I got to ride twice in quick succession. I think that this is probably the most aggressive coaster that I've ridden just due to how quick the elements are. Iron Rattler - rode this twice. Last ride was near the back, and one of the riders in the last row was ridiculously obnoxious and kept shouting throughout the entire ride and down the exit ramp. The intensity of the airtime was great, but Iron Rattler feels a little bit short, even for a Six Flags RMC conversion. Road Runner Express - hilariously, this was the longest line that I waited in due to the single train operations. I know that people tend to be favorable to this Arrow mine train due to its relative intensity, but I think that I prefer the quirkiness of some of the older Arrow mine trains.

Got back from touristing around Texas earlier this week, and I visited Six Flags Over Texas, Six Flags Fiesta Texas, and Seaworld San Antonio. I visited Six Flags Over Texas on Saturday which may have been a mistake. There were massive crowds for the holiday weekend, and I don't know if it would have been better if I had visited on Sunday instead. By midday even family coasters had long lines. Moreover, I had to leave a bit early as I wanted to visit the Rodeo in Stockyards while I was in the Fort Worth area. General thoughts: I didn't go in with a strong plan, and I hadn't planned my visit in advance so I was relying on signage for most everything. The park layout seemed rather confusing to me, and it was difficult finding some of the coasters (and I missed Shockwave entirely. Oops!). I also vaguely regret not doing the flash pass since I probably am not going to get to revisit the park anytime soon. I had heard bad things about this park from this forum and in other places, but the operations seemed good. All of the major rides were running two train operations (including the short indoor one). One caveat is that they were only opening the airgates for a few seconds. I assumed that this was a company wide policy (they started doing that this past year at my home park), but Fiesta Texas doesn't do that, so I guess this depends on the park? I can kind of get why some of the Six Flags are doing this, but I doubt that it helps throughput. The clientele skewed heavily towards families (potentially due to the holidays) which made the visit much more pleasant. Theming seems shockingly good for a Six Flags park. Especially on the west end of the park. Holiday theming was only okay, but I specifically want to point out that the park placed a set of three fire pits in a narrow corridor so that they could sell S'mores. This area got ridiculously smokey. Half of the water fountains were broken. This is probably not a big deal for most people, but I like to travel light at amusement parks which is why I got pretty dehydrated at points at this park. Some Ride Thoughts: La Vibora : the park probably needs to better advertise that there is a single rider line as only one of the FlashPass signs indicates that there is a single rider entrance through the back. But I can see why single rider for that ride is fraught due to the non constant nature of the vehicle seating; on my first ride, I got stuck in the single rider line behind a foreign family who kept trying to pair together in the single seats. It is cool that you can feel that the vehicle is directly on the tube, but it is kind of painful on the rear when the ride bottoms out at the end of drops. Still, this was too interesting not to ride twice. New Texas Giant : this was down earlier in the day, and I figured that I would get back to it later, but at that point in the afternoon it had a 1.5+ hour line, which was way too long given the nature of the visit. This was a big miss as I had been looking forwards to this one. Runaway Mine Train : Yeah, I am a weirdo who actually likes family coasters. I love how funky and quirky old Arrow Mine trains can be (even though few of them have aged well), and I think this is my favorite one due to its length, layout, and its theming. I am also surprised that this pulled a line, but I guess I visited on a very crowded day.

Geez. From what you guys have been saying, sounds like I should really temper my expectations on this park...

Yeah, I saw the news yesterday. I guess I shouldn't be surprised if the Disney / Fox merger is putting a wrench in these Fox World theme parks. I'm hoping this park turns out alright given the legal / licensing issues. The plans for this park and the construction photos make it look super interesting, and I was planning to visit at the end of next year after it (hopefully) opens.

I had to check Wikipedia to confirm, since I was thinking there is no way that San Antonio is the largest. Orlando is much more of a chore to walk around (although that may have just been the heat and humidity being unbearable in Florida). I did _like_ Steel Eel. It’s nice get rides from less prolific manufacturers. It’s very likely that Steel Eel wasn’t running well. Since it the park was uncrowded, they were sending out trains that were half empty (if that). Yeah, I get that it was supposed to be a family coaster. But I’m the type of weirdo that likes mild coasters. I’m not quite sure why I was unimpressed by Wave Breaker. Anyhow, I’ll upload pictures later. It is pretty painful for me to forum on a cell phone.