BRTeller

I don't want them to remove any history, but every ride in it's current location has been moved from another location after Wicked Twister was built. I have no clue what they're going to do, but I do see the ferris wheel being relocated freeing up a ton of potential space. I don't really see the dodgem moving, but who knows, Cedar Point has a way of relocating rides around that park that I've never seen before from another park. I don't see them touching the frontier trail, I think the park is self aware enough to realize it's a necessity to have these calm and shaded areas. The area around Wicked Twister as it is, is not one of these areas as it's essentially surrounded by Gatekeeper anyways and concrete paths. I'm all for a nice proper beach restaurant though! I also wouldn't mind a launch coaster of some sort around that area. Time will tell what happens, Cedar Point has always been one of those parks I'd swear one thing would happen (like demolishing Mean Streak) and then the thing gets the craziest RMC makeover I could of ever imagined. Cedar Point is interesting because it's the only park that I've been to that every employee, visitor, etc is a self proclaimed "Coaster Enthusiast", and I hear everyone complaining about the "GP" obnoxiously by every other person in line... and they don't see the irony which is quite funny if you ask me. It's kind of turned into this weird atmosphere that I haven't experienced anywhere else. Not sure if that's a good or bad thing honestly, but the point is the park knows it's audience well.

Just to add a bit more speculation to what could be replacing it, someone in another group pointed out the past attractions book showed MaxAir in one of the photos as a defunct ride. So there is some speculation it was quietly snuck in as being removed as well. Now I do know they've been working on it on and off this year, so who knows. Maybe they're cutting their losses at this point or it'll be fixed. Leaves a lot of room for potential expansion if that goes and they relocate the ridea around that area as they've done before.

Yeah, this is not advice I'd give to someone with or without FL. Hopefully people are weary of listening to going to SV first and we're not just outliers. Get there early, absolutely! Use this time wisely though, SV as you stated doesn't open until 10:15, with crowds flocking to it. Completely skip it during early entry, it's a waste of time. Instead, get on Raptor, Magnum or MF (You decide which) and Maverick (in that order). You should be done around 11 or 11:30, maybe get a few rides on SkyHawk and CCMR while no one's bothering with them yet. Then head to SV around noon to 1pm when all those early riders have gotten their ride and the line will likely be about half of whatever it was earlier. Or stand around waiting and miss out on rides to be the first on. Which if that's important to you, go right ahead, haha. For anyone reading this though looking to get more than a couple of rides in a day and the ability to ride everything at some point, this works with the current schedule very well. Also, never listen to the parks estimated waits for SV! I've seen it at most 2 and half hours opening weekend. It absolutely gets busy, but I've seen 45 minute waits listed as 2 hours more often than not.

Here's a few of my favorites: Impulse at Knoebels, my fiancee and I ended up riding with another group. The one girl obviously terrified grabbed her hand as we all had them in the air. So we were all holding hands unintentionally straight up for the ride photo, we most certainly bought the photo. Over the weekend a guy that was extremely confused on how SV could go upside down and be safe as a wooden coaster. After talking him into riding it and explaining it's perfectly safe, explaining he'll have the time of his life and getting him to work up the courage. Afterwards he gave me the biggest bro hug when he saw me in the park thanking me up and down for talking him into it. A few wardrobe malfunctions always make for a good laugh, a bit embarrassing, but funny none the less. The most recent was a girl freaking out behind us on The Voyage and having a good laugh about it with us. Explaining the second half she couldn't get it under control since, well, it's the Voyage's second half. Plenty of stories of catching hats (since we typically ride in the back) and being the hero for ten minutes giving it back to the person that thought it would be lost forever. We've developed a skill for catching loose articles from other riders. I'm sure there's a million more stories I can't think of, the Impulse one was pretty hilarious to us at the time though. It's kind of crazy how quickly you can make friends with complete strangers at amusement parks and those are always the best (and funniest) moments.

Not entirely true, the first few weeks had about half the staff at almost every attraction. Some rides were closed due to staffing. The melt also had major staffing issues as well. The poor waitress we had was one of two managing half the tables. She was really good and overwhelmed, but she was on the brink of quitting. Luckily morale is way up and doing much better overall everywhere around the park. The first few weekends we went was entirely different though.

They’ve been over compensating wait times. Even today Steel Vengeance was 45 minutes and listed it as 2 and half hours. Many rides were walk ons and shorter waits. It was busy today, but CP is getting back to normal. Some hiccups and reduced hours still, but staffing is much less of an issue. EDIT: Also, do NOT go to Maverick or SV first. I know it’s tempting, but you and everyone else has the same idea. I would highly recommend Raptor, MF then Maverick and finally SV since it’ll be open and the crowd will have moved on. Noon to 1pm are really good times for it every day we’ve been there. Follow the same strategy with FL and hit Iron Dragon if you have FL on the way and CCMR earlier on. They tend to get lines later and don’t offer FL. Early entry does nothing for FL so Raptor is a nice easy walk on.

We had this exact concern with SWO back in October and it ended up being dead, they refunded our Quick Queue before we even had to ask and told us to just come back if it gets busier. I'm imagining they should handle it similarly at BGW if it's dead. I would expect for the park to be packed though regardless and they do occasionally sell out.

Hate to burst your bubble on that one, but even Dorney has been horrible the days I've gone.

The Pub is very nice and during the crazy lines of Covid provided a nice break to sit at and get some quick bar food and to cool off. Bartenders were good and clearly had tons of experience handling a lot of people at once. Highly recommend it when the restaurant is closed and you're looking for a similar dining experience (just with a lot less food options).

From what I remember they do comp tickets when they close early. Likewise, if the park is particularly crowded, they will also extend their hours. One of the only parks I've been to that I've seen extend hours beyond posted closing. I haven't been post Covid though, so policy might be slightly different.

Wow, they actually pulled off making the situation WORSE than opening day/weekend. So they were separating the lines after the lockers and the FL line was typically shorter opening weekend. Still highly inefficient, but not as bad as what you described. I saw many many people screaming at the ops when we were there. I just truly don't understand why CP is putting their employees in this situation. Employees lie and say the lines are "2 hours standby" when they're actually 20 to 30 minutes and it just creates this distrust. I hope they go back to just closing the lines with the park. I do get why so many are upset, people wait an hour for a corn dog so they don't pass out then get turned down 2 hours early for two of the most popular attractions next door on already reduced days and hours. If the park closes at 6 or 7, just close the park then. My favorite quote I heard from a SV employee was "don't put your bags behind the railings, this isn't six flags". Well SFGAdv and SFSTL both had awesome operations, staff, cleanliness and so on. We put off using our season long fast pass at any Cedar Fair park because it's still miserable compared to Universal, Herschend, Six Flags and every other park we've gone too this year and last year.

Sorry for the delay, just saw you asked this question. I would not go again on a Saturday under the same circumstances, Friday and Sunday were still hectic but manageable. We're going again in a couple of weeks and hope to see how and if they've improved.

So to answer your question, they closed SV about 2 hours before closing on Saturday. They closed Maverick around 1 hour and I believe the same went for MF. Now, for those wondering, did these lines finish out before the park closed? Yes, they did and yes they did open them back up since they extremely over estimated the wait times to push guests to the front of the park. When they opened back up for Maverick they did not reopen FL (many people with it just jumped over to it anyways and they let them on). SV is easier to open FL so it did open back with the line. This resulted in essentially no waits for both so if you were patient and risked it, you did get to ride. They would close the lines back off about 15 minutes before so they would have a strict 8pm closing on both rides. It was a rocky start and as usual rides weren't open, some were broken and they had typical opening day issues. The biggest frustrations I saw from employees and park goers were these new ride line closures and guests becoming extremely upset especially with FL. The persistent ones got to ride though and if you were reasonable the employees gave a "non answer" of sorts if it would open and appreciated reasonable guests just looking to get a few last rides in. Hopefully the park changes this policy since this was definitely the straw that broke the camels back for many people. Customer Service lines were insane with FL Saturday, haha.

Lines were bad, but FastLane made it bearable. Every coaster that I saw for the day for standby had an hour plus wait though. As we were leaving people were planning their days for the rest of the weekend so they could ride 3 coasters in one day. Fast Lane kept lines to about 15 to 20 minutes on most major coasters. Most rides listed wait times for longer, but many times we got on in five minutes with it. I would not plan a day without it and on days like today. They do tend to sell out later on. Operations were good though, some slow areas. For opening day though they got through the lines fairly well. Rides were down though. TTD ran but never opened to the public, appeared it was under going an inspection of sorts since they kept cycling trains. Rougarou didn’t have a train on the track, MaxAir was torn apart, Windseeker appeared to be going through inspections as well. A lot of the rides were slow to open with the park as well. if you want to ride any of the big four, do it early! The park closes both fast lane and the stand by line an hour before park closing. Millennium had an estimated 45 minute wait at 7 and they closed it regardless. I don’t think this is going to last though, a lot of people were upset including employees over it. Guest relations said that they weren’t supposed to close FL and are working to get all lines open to park close. Not in the generic Covid sense, but that they have a meeting setup this weekend to hopefully lift the restrictions. (Be polite and don’t be a Karen, but if you’re at the park try giving your feedback on the early closures!) The ride attendants pretty much said the same thing, that they don’t agree with it but it’s the rule for now and they asked us to leave a comment to guest relations. It’s interesting and kind of cool how the employees themselves at CP stand behind tradition within the park. They gave us passes for another day though so we definitely appreciated it and didn’t expect it. Hopefully this is a very short lived change to park operations especially when it’s so difficult to ride many of the coasters already. Covid doesn’t exist really at CP. I was shocked the vast difference in procedure closing day to opening day. Masks are not required in the park or on rides, only in buildings. Even in buildings it’s very loosely enforced as many people weren’t wearing masks. Social distancing is also non existent. For us, it’s not a huge deal, but if this does concern you just be aware when visiting the park. Ride operations also do not have Covid procedures or cleaning anymore. This was also a big reason people weren’t okay with the policy change on the major coasters early closing since operations are all normal and all rows are also open and they do seat separate groups together as well. The last note, SV lockers! So the new system is strange. I’m not sure why they wouldn’t repurpose snd add to the existing lockers due to the extreme operational increase, but here’s how it works. FL and stand by go through as normal, before the SV structure now they merge both lines similar to MF. You get placed into a short line for just the lockers and metal detectors, you put your items in the locker then they rejoin and separate you out based on FL or stand by again. When you exit the ride you have to go back to the entrance and walk back to the lockers on the opposite side it’s strange to say the least and slow, we saw rows go out empty at times as they filled the lines back up. Growing pains Im sure and I doubt this will last. From what I saw this required 4 extra team members for this system. I’ll say this though, having your phone with you is nice. I personally need it for my diabetes since it operates as my monitor. Today in particular I didn’t realize I was going low and had to leave the line and wouldn’t of known otherwise. While my situation is a bit unique, people do rely on their phone for more than social media and I do appreciate this system allows me to keep it on me.

They were giving out Quick Queue as a pass incentive at the end of 2019, we still have a couple. Curious if it'll be honored this year. Other than that, both Busch parks typically don't included their new coasters on Quick Queue initially.

Fortunately it doesn't matter all that much since Dollywood gave us a refund for this exact situation no questions asked (we opted for a transfer). We admitted it was our fault and they actually let us apply it to the next day which was much busier. SWO is another park that's also been really good about this kind of thing as well. I don't have it in my anymore to wait hours on end, so it's not a risk I take anymore when planning trips especially over 5 hours away. Dollywood can easily be a park that it's needed for when it is busy.

I think what I like about this overall is that it will be a completely different experience than traditional sky coasters. While certain aspects might not be as tension building. I still think this is going to give a very different type of ride then we've ever seen before. Hopefully a park takes a chance with this and it works as advertised. This reminds me a bit of the Terror Dactyl in Colorado. It's still hands down the scariest (and one of the best rides) I've ever done and I feel this could mimic that feeling.

It's definitely been over a decade, but early on they used to do two train operation with one station and I distinctly remember it only due to the glaring sun on the brake run and sitting for what felt as an eternity with their operations. Also, these comment on Adventure Park USA have me cracking up. The owner is, well, interesting of that place. He used to run "Put Put Golf" in Frederick MD before opening the park and he's had a reputation for decades on not paying contractors. They also attempted to crowd fund a water park awhile back by pre selling season passes. I rode Wildcat when it first opened and even then they had to manually release the brakes and push the cart to the chain lift. While asking each other if something was fixed on it yet, I honestly don't know how it made it back to the station from that ride. It's always been one of those parks that when I see a "only in Europe, never in USA" type of trip report I always think "well you've never been to Adventure Park USA", haha. It really was and I feel still is a nice facility for what it is visually, but I have zero faith in their safety and maintenance of the rides. The only reason a major accident hasn't been reported is likely due to it's small size and that the rollercoasters are down a lot of the times and don't see too many riders.

So I'm not crazy in my feelings on this. I didn't even realize Discovery Point was anything but the dolphin experience until we decided to wander over on our way out, it's weird it's not attached to the main park since it's what I expected similar to SWO. I liked SWSA but it really felt like it was missing something the entire time.

Agreed, Cedar Fair had the best practices out of every park. Sea World San Antonio was pretty good, but it was also extremely dead. Cedar Point in particular was extremely annoying on their policies, to the point that a lot just didn't make sense, but they kept the park extremely well distanced and safe even though it was packed. Kings Island was very good, but not as strict as Cedar Point. The worst park I would say was Silver Dollar City honestly, after you got through the screening process, rules weren't consistent and people crammed into lines while they overly distanced ride vehicles. This was very early on in their operations, but I'd imagine it's very similar to Dollywood in terms of clientele and everyone found every reason to not wear a mask. So I'd expect Dollywood to have a very similar experience. Sea World and Busch parks were okay from my experience. Smaller Florida parks such as Fun Spot had zero mask or social distancing enforcement. I asked an employee about it and they weren't thrilled either, but they said they pretty much gave up trying to enforce it. It was the only park I saw employees not wearing masks as well.

We were in the same boat in October at CP (It turned out to be absolutely necessary with 2 plus hours on most rides) and when they were extending it for all of 2021 it was a no brainer. I highly recommend it, even at the high price. It kind of incentivizes us to go to more parks since after the initial price it makes it quite affordable to go to any Cedar Fair park without much waiting. I have a feeling that we won't be seeing daily fast passes next year or at least for most of it.

This makes a ton of sense with reduced capacity. Normally the park wouldn't be able to operate profitably with all rides open, but since most people accept now that the entire park doesn't need to be open. It's much easier to fill events like these on the weekend all year long. As long as they come up with activities such as the lights and things to do around the park when it's too cold to operate the coasters, I don't really see how this wouldn't do well. Something good has finally come from this Covid mess.

Adventure Express at Kings Island... All kidding aside, Phantoms Revenge has to be it for me. It's so drastically more insane the second half than the first half. I'd also say Magnum is another great example of an amazing second half ride. There are some other great 2nd half rides, but the first half of these are so good that I just consider them overall really good, but here are some other ones that arguably would make my personal list: El Toro Phoenix Steel Vengeance Voyage Maverick Batman The Ride Clones Premier Spaghetti Bowls All of the SROS's

Did this pull the boat back up on a winch in reverse? There was a similar ride I rode years ago on a school day trip to a little backwoods amusement park (Either in Maryland or Virginia) that was a private event type of place for larger gatherings. Anyways, this ride looked very similar to this one but without the tunnel. Except this one was a bit steeper/longer shoot, you would start from the top and it would shoot you into the Potomac river. The winch would then pull you backwards up the shoot and it would drop you again. The motor was rigged to some kind of old tractor. Definitely the sketchiest thing I've ever been on in terms of rides. It made every shoot the shoot ride, even the one with the little jump look so mild in comparison. Not sure if the place still exists, it was probably 15 years ago or so now. They also had a swing ride that you'd put a harness on and it would swing you in a circle from the harness. Then the more usual things such as ziplines and kayaking. Curious if anyone here has been to the place, I've tried a few times to find info on it but haven't been able too.

I agree, friendly competition is fine and all. These parks and companies are hurting though across the board, attacking neighboring parks in social media posts isn't tasteful right now. Ice Breaker was supposed to open sooner and had to push back for circumstances out of their control. Universal keeps building this reputation that they don't play nice with others, which is ironic since they're number two in Orlando anyways. It's like second place making fun of third place and acting like their first. It would take one post by Sea World addressing the pandemic and not being able to open on time and Universals witty comment could backfire. I love both parks, and in a normal climate I'd find it funny. However, I really would just like to see parks stay open and keep adding new rides. Just my two cents on the whole thing.