FeelTheFORCE

Had a great day at the park yesterday, despite the sudden closure of TT2. Everything, except Gemini and Windseeker, seemed to be open and ran reliably all day. Guest services also gave us rain check Fast Lane+ passes that can be used for TT2 on any other day for the rest of the season. Not sure if that was only this past weekend, or if they’ll distribute those the entire duration of the closure for those with FL+, but kudos to them for that. I’m also digging the different vibe in the TT2 area now, and excited to get back and ride it!

One plus is they do keep the line open until park closing. After using the single-use Quick Queue during the day on Friday, we were able to hop in the 30 min standby line about 5-10 min before closing to grab a second ride.

^ Hopefully they've figured it out, because it was nearly June before they had the 2nd train put together and running, and one-train ops in May were pretty painful.

More photos are surfacing, and it looks as if they're removing the brake fins on the launch track. The entrance sign is also gone. I definitely didn't expect to be as interested in this project as I am.

I get it from a marketing and PR standpoint. This says to me that they still want to keep the ride which generates so much hype, and no doubt had people coming from all over just to experience, but also don't want it to have the stigma of being associated with a horrible accident. The "as you know it" could mean something simple or drastic. I'm leaning more towards simple, but who knows.

Something to also consider is how many skilled carpenters, maintenance workers, etc. have retired or were let go from their respective industries because of the pandemic, and as a result have also taken decades worth of institutional knowledge with them. Knowledge that will take the less-experienced workers who are now in these roles years or even decades to gain and build back up. That's also in addition to however many smaller companies who are now out of business that previously manufactured highly-specialized replacement parts for these rides. While those are no excuses to operate rides anyway if they are deemed unsafe, I'd speculate that keeping these rides running in the shape they once were is probably the most difficult it's been in a long time.

Looks like Valravn reopened today.

The park tweeted several days ago regarding Valravn's status. I typically get FL+ every visit, but I do feel as if CP's isn't the best "bang for your buck" in comparison to some other parks. It is what it is, but I do wish they had more FL lines that dumped into stations.

I was meh at first, but the more this sinks in, I'm really liking everything. Especially after looking at some renders of the wild mouse layout, it does look fairly unique, pretty fun, and not very stereotypical wild mouse.

The trains weren't there in May either. As others have said, there's no need to bring them out only to just put them back in storage without running it all year. Or they're in the process of being taken to the great Breakers Express field in the sky.

Ha, I noticed the same a few weeks back. I wouldn't say it was alarming, but it was definitely something I didn't expect. It didn't affect the ride experience either way, just a minor quirk I suppose.

^ I was there Wednesday as well! This was my first visit since 2008, and first time experiencing their waterpark as well. I forgot how great of a park this is, and the water coasters are pretty phenomenal. We didn't get to do Wildebeest, but Cheetah Chase and Mammoth are a blast. Thunderbird was also new since I was there last, and was awesome. The barn owls in the station are also a cool touch! The Voyage is also running so incredibly well this year. After the rougher rides I had on El Toro a few weeks back, it's safe to say I definitely hold Voyage a bit higher now. Also, major kudos for HW leaving it open until 8:30, even though park closing was at 8pm. I assume that was so people had something to do while they waited for the night show? Either way, it was a walk-on, and I'm certainly not complaining. The show was really nice also, and I already can't wait to go back!

Made a trip out to the park on Friday and yesterday, and FL+ was a definitely life saver. Yesterday was packed, and I was expecting to even have some waits even in the FL line, but I don't think there were any instances of more than 10 or so people in front of us, despite the amount of people in the park. Most of the time we either walked right up to the station or were only behind 2 or 3 others. It even came in handy in the waterpark on the handful of slides you can use it. Speaking of the waterpark though, they desperately need to expand Soak City, even if that meant doing a fairly large expansion and making it separately-ticketed like Cedar Point. That park wasn't large enough for the amount of people in it yesterday, and I imagine most weekends in the summer are similar. But that's really the only concern from this trip, as KI is an awesome park that definitely takes pride in providing their guests with a great experience overall, and they definitely went way above and beyond with all the 50th touches and offerings. I just would hate to be a ride op for the Beast around when they suspend operations for the fireworks. There was some hostility going on both nights, and I imagine a lot of other nights too, when the grouper pulls from one line and not the other for the last ride before stopping operations for an hour.

Thursday was a similarly light day! The park was overall pretty dead, even the water park. Storm Chaser is awesome, and its location allows for many rerides. I can honestly say that I wasn't expecting Lightning Run to have more intense airtime than any RMC I've been on though. That thing is bonkers! Their water park was also a pleasant surprise, and better than I had expected. We didn't anticipate staying until close, but we did because we spent so much time in the water park. We also picked up some cinnamon bread on the way out to eat in the car. I really enjoyed this park more than I thought I would!

If this is indeed a RMC, I'll be curious to see how they approach the redesign. Would it generally follow Wildcat's same layout like Joker at SFDK, or be largely rebuilt from the ground up like Gwazi? Should be an interesting project to follow.