jab123

Judging from the crowds last night on a Thursday, I would say prepare for massive crowds. We were amazed how busy it was. Both Fast Lane and Fright Lane allowed us to do everything in the 6 hours we wanted to. Without it, I would imagine it would be extremely difficult even to do all of the mazes without the coasters. Most of the maze lines were at least 30-45 minutes with Infected around 2.5 hours at one point. All of the coasters and mazes had lines right up until closing.

When was this? We only went for Scary Farm last night (Thursday)and since we didn't go during the day, we got both Fast and Fright Lane. Ghostrider was running two trains and even with Fast Lane, we waited about 20 minutes for the front and about 10 for the 4th or 5th row for our first ride. I did notice quite a bit of disability passes on both Ghostrider and Silver Bullet, however, that seemed to cause some delays. Silver Bullet was especially bad. We were waiting for the front and were probably 3 trains away but they kept letting disability passes ride in the front so we got fed up and jumped to the 2nd row. I'm not sure what the disability pass policy is but last night it seemed to cause issues on both of those coasters. The station was a confusing mess of people as well. The dispatches were worse than I remember and trains were stacking consistently. Most of the mazes looked like they had at least 30-45 minute waits so we were happy to get Fright Lane. The Skeleton key rooms were interesting and given they are lower capacity only 6-8 people at a time, so the waits were anywhere from 10-20 minutes. This was our first time doing Knott's Scary Farm and we really enjoyed it. We were glad the park was busy as it makes it more fun and the park really does a good job with the atmosphere.

We're going to Knott's this Thursday the 6th. Since it's a Thursday, does anyone recommend getting the Fast and/or Fright pass? I know with the Fright Pass you get the extra skeleton room keys but I'm also wondering if Fast Lane for the coasters is recommended as well. We're not going to the park during the day as we've already been and want to experience the park at night.

I guess I have to count ghetto park extraordinaire Castles and Coasters as my home park since I live in Phoenix. BARF.

Hunger Games Prometheus Dark Knight Rises

The new SFS recording of Harmonielehre by John Adams and the new Bruce Springsteen song Jack of All Trades from his new album.

I have to agree that SFMM was disappointing compared to last year. No tours, below mediocre food, and only 4 coasters for nighttime ERT. I certainly understand not having everything open like last year but at least having the larger rides like Apocalypse in addition to the others not offered in the morning would have been a nice touch. The event just seemed to lack energy and enthusiasm from the park this year and as a result, even the Q&A was not the least bit interesting other than the information on LL construction and the Tatsu train info. I know it does cost them money to put on this event for us but hopefully they realize that an enjoyable enthusiast event means that we are more likely to recommend the park to family and friends and that we are more likely to come back as normal guests. I can't speak for everyone but I would be more than willing to pay a little more for this event if it meant we got more perks. On the plus side, they did extend ERT on X2 until 10:15 to make up for the lines and morning ERT was great as well. Don't get my wrong, I had a very fun time but last year was much better in terms of tours and ERT. Knotts on the other hand was a blast. My group including jakeryan9, highroller, lilkingjr1, Josh and 3 others essentially took over Monte for the last hour and had a blast. The only way they got us to leave was to turn off the station lights! Dare I say that Ghostrider was actually enjoyable this year? My 3 rides in the morning can't compare to the night ride I took in the very last row. It made the 1.5 hr wait worth every minute! The tours were great, especially Monte and Silver Bullet. I'm already looking forward to next year's event. Thanks to Robb and Elissa for planning this event. It must be more difficult for you two now that you're in Orlando. BTW Robb, thanks for the hilarious donkey conversation on Tatsu. That's by far the weirdest and funniest thing I've ever discussed on a coaster.

I rode this at the AZ State fair about 4 or 5 years ago. I don't remember what the restraints are like other than a lap bar. Does it even have seat dividers? I just remember how much fun it was to get ripped around those tight turns, especially in the back. I do remember that while there is an out of control feeling, that I never felt that I would some how get ejected. RCS seems to be a pretty good operator. Their ride ops seemed ok and not at all "carny" like. It will be interesting to see how this happened.

My faves in Atlanta are Brick Store and the Porter. I live closer to TAP and Cypress P&P, so I'm more often at one of those two. Some fantastic beer bars for sure, but there really isn't a good brewpub anywhere in Georgia (with the possible exception of 5 Seasons, but I'm not a big fan of their beers). Does Mellow Mushroom in Atlanta have any of the Rouge beers on tap? The two here in Phoenix and Tempe have both the Rogue Shakespeare and Rogue Chocolate Stouts on tap and then some of their other like Hazelnut Brown Ale, Dead Guy, etc. Their stouts are definitely the best I've either had. Their Imperial Stout will knock your socks off. I'm just curious because Mellow Mushroom is about the only place here to find any of the Rogue Stouts on tap. if they do have them on tap and you haven't had either one, you should definitely give them a try.

Just ran across this. Looks like it may have been the Hi Miler that RCS owns. Their calendar shows them in Houston for the Livestock Show. www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2011/03/21/20110321houston-roller-coaster-death.html

My worst coaster experience has to be Desperado in June 2002. We stopped on the way into Vegas from Palm Springs. It looks nice but my god it was the roughest coaster I've ever been on including Psyclone, Hurler, and Thunder Road. I thought my spine was going to snap it was so bad.

^ The single rider line for Griffon wasn't open on the weekdays last June when i went even though the line exceeded 45 minutes on a Wed in early June. I asked the ops about this and they said they only use it on weekends when the line exceed 2 hours or so. I don't know how long the lines will be in April but if you go on a weekday the single rider line will may not be used even it the wait is longer than 30 minutes or so.

Does Spiderman still have its single rider line? I was at IOA in Feb. '03 with a companion and we used the single rider line since the regular line was 45 minutes and we didn't care where we sat and whether we sat together. We got on it with no wait.

Hello all. I will probably visiting Chicago during the middle of May and was thinking about taking a midweek trip to Great America. I'm thinking about going around 5/14 and/or 5/15. My question is when do schools in this area typically plan their field trips? The SF site shows that Great Am. has Physics day on 5/8 and the park is not open to the public then. I don't mind crowds at all but I want to try to avoid days when there might be any type of organized outing for schools. Any advice on the best times to visit would be greatly appreciated.

My defunct coaster list is: White Lightnin' (Carowinds) Flying Super Saturator (Carowinds) Orient Express (WoF) Psyclone (MM) Python (BGA) High Roller (Stratosphere Tower)

Back in Feb. '03 I rode Kumba 12 times, and Montu 10 in 1 day at BGA. I remember getting 9 rides on Tatsu in one day back in '06. It was the Wed. after Labor Day and the park was dead. The only wait was for the front and that was only 1-2 trains. Good times!