FeelTheFORCE

I've been living for those Insta stories the past few days. Love it! Thanks for sharing!

Hoping they bring back their ticket and FL+ combo deal this black Friday like they were doing every year pre-covid. The $76 they charged for that was an absolute steal. I would still buy it even if they hiked up the price significantly.

This. Even the slightest and shortest of rain showers also mixed with sun during my visit to CP a few weeks ago shut down 90%+ of the park. Then they proceeded to stand around waiting in the sun for however many minutes until the SOP said it's "safe" to resume again.

Honestly, even though Firechaser only goes like 35 mph, I found it to be one of the best rides at Dollywood. Maybe I'm just getting older and my tastes are changing, but I'm becoming more and more a fan of fun "quirky" rides these days. I'm all for something like this if it's true.

Had a pretty decent day at the park yesterday overall, despite the heat. Regular lines were fairly long, but FL+ came in clutch yet again, and I never waited more than 15 minutes for anything. More parks should also implement the "scan yourself and go through" parking booths like Cedar Point has. It's a super quick and easy system, and they can still have all the booths open to keep traffic moving, despite the staffing issues. The SV crew was also really hustling yesterday to keep capacity up and the line moving, so major props to them. It seems like they've also refined that whole locker and line system pretty well now. A minor note is that you can also tell that some ride ops are still newer, and it will still take some time for the more inexperienced ones to get up to speed and in a quicker rhythm. They are definitely on the right track though, and I didn't feel like there were many rides or stands closed at all. Also, I know enthusiasts have been saying this for years, but I do hope Cedar Point re-evaluates their rain policy some day. A week ago at Dollywood I rode Thunderhead in an absolute monsoon, but anything more than 30 seconds of rain yesterday (sometimes mixed in with sun at the same time) shut down 90%+ of the park. This happened a few times, and there was even one instance where they were still in the process of shutting down when the rain had stopped and the sun was shining, yet they proceeded to continue and stand around waiting in the sun for however many minutes the SOP says until resuming again.

What I liked about Aunt Granny's was that, while they changed it from a buffet to a family style dining service, you could still ask for more servings if you wanted. So still sort of a partial buffet. Also it looks like Wild Eagle is back up again.

Mini TR - Had a great couple of days at the park yesterday and today with fairly light crowds. Everything was open, for the most part, even Barnstormer. The only staffing closures I noticed were some food places and kids rides. I'm convinced Dollywood really might be in a non-rain bubble. Over 70% chance of storms all day, both days, and it rained maybe once for 5 minutes, although those 5 minutes just happened to be an absolute monsoon while riding Thunderhead. I've never even came off a water ride that soaked, but kudos to Dollywood for their rain operations. Lightning Rod ran great both days, never went down, and even ran 2 trains parts of both days. I did have a bit of a weird experience on Wild Eagle. Almost at the top of the lift hill, and the train starts shaking violently, and I mean very violent. Throwing us up and down. I'm normally one to be pretty confident in these rides' safety features, but that definitely freaked me out. The ride itself was fine, but they evacuated us on the brake run and shut down the ride for the rest of the day after that. A little later on they also closed some pathways for a bit to bring in a large crane. Not sure what's going on, but it didn't seem good. Still an awesome couple days at the park, and can't wait to see how they continue to make this great park even better.

I think it also has to do with the fact that if they increase capacity, they would also need to decrease the social distancing length simultaneously. Which maybe they're not prepared to do just yet. The line for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train stretches all the way around the mountain as it is with the current capacity and distancing restrictions in place. There just simply isn't enough space to put all those people when they are still being spread apart 6 ft. As an out-of-towner, I am personally okay with the reservations. Being locked into X park on X day when I go later this year takes a little bit of that stress out of the equation when you're there.

That is not true. As recently as 2019 they were open daily from opening day onward. Aside from opening day, May used to be the best time to go, hands down. There were years where I was eerily the only one walking down the midways in 50-degree weather, but all the rides were still operating (weather permitting). They were even so desperate to attract people during these times, that the Breakers + ticket packages they used to offer in the late 00s and early 10s were practically a steal. They eventually ended up making those early season weeks into math and science weeks to fill the park with more people.

Demon at CGA coming in at 2600 mi exactly from western PA.

Who knows! I'm curious to see if any additional conditions will be put on the parks that were not given permission to reopen in 2020. Let's hope it's status quo and does get more lax as the year goes on.

Those are awesome!!

Who knows what their insurance companies and lawyers are going to require. The Miami Heat are using covid-sniffing dogs (or requiring a rapid negative test if you're allergic or afraid of dogs) to screen people entering their games, so I'm not ruling anything out at this point.

The article mentions a vaccine or negative test results within so many hours. Negative test results are already being widely used as an alternative to quarantining for many different things, such as traveling and some events, so it might not really be any different in that aspect, and you still wouldn't necessarily need a vaccine. I hope things do continue to improve as the year goes on. While you never know with insurance and liability these days, I hope something like that isn't necessary.

^ It wouldn't surprise me if at some point when the vaccine is more widely available, parks start requiring something like the vaccine passport that's been tossed around as a possibly.