Jim S.

I'm still unclear, having not seen the finished train close-up yet, whether they've gone from two-person to one-person cars, or from five-car to less trains. Anybody care to enlighten me?

The Flyer is from a defunct manufacturer whose name I can't remember. I don't know if the engine is original, although the conversion to propane was probably done by Knoebels.

I know that they were supposed to be in-line, but I can't picture it with those cars. I don't see a front seat back, and people say that tandem seating is illegal. (Although that doesn't explain log flumes.)

When I saw on another board this evening that Phoenix was down, I had assumed it was the chain. I was there last Wednesday night and the chain was making a terrible noise slapping against the guide trough somewhere near the flywheel. It always bounces a little, but it was really banging. I'm surprised they left it run that way. Now I'm really confused about the Flying Turns vehicles. Aside from the issue of whether they're going with the 5-car trains they intended to, the new cars look like they're single-seat. I had always thought that there were supposed to be two seats per car, for 10 riders per train. I wonder if that got changed too. This is the first time I've seen the particular car bodies that were posted here. Other years, they were testing wooden ones that were really odd-looking. This year, both times I've been at the park, I saw a body that was painted battleship gray with a white star on it, like an old military plane. The fact that they're finally running multiple complete cars, whatever they look like, is certainly a good sign!

I was there this weekend. Stratosfear is amazing! Such freedom in the restraints (for 5'10" 140# me anyway), and such a long fall before you hit the brakes! I only saw one car on the track in the Flying Turns station, but the interesting thing was, it was a complete car. It had the whole body on it, complete with paint. (It did not have a wing, but we don't know for sure if they're actually going to have wings.) This could be a good sign, as I don't know why they would order bodies, and paint them, if they're not sure that they have the final chassis design. (On the other hand, I don't know why they wouldn't have a whole train in place. I can't see how they could do accurate testing with one car -- although I've never seen them test with more than 2 cars at a time actually, but that doesn't mean that they haven't done it.)

There's actually an advantage to tickets-only days, in that they're more motivated to run all the trains on the coasters, leading to shorter wait times. (Knoebels NEVER slacks off on operations, but if you want to ride the front seat, there will still be a line.)

The local newspaper reported that the drop tower will be a $2 ride. They didn't say whether it would be included in the handstamp plans. The Knoebels website says it won't be included in the Bargain Night handstamp, but it doesn't say anything about the regular one.

This is a family ride for smaller kids, 1001 Nachts is not. The Nachts hardly seems like a thrill ride (although I never rode it.) Is the difference, then, that a sufficiently small child wouldn't be properly restrained on the Nachts?

A Zamperla Crazy Sub, by the looks of it. Wonder where this will go. I had to look that one up -- I was assuming that it was a clone of the Rockin' Tug, which didn't make any sense (although the Rockin' Tug was down the last few times I was there.) But now I see that it looks like a smaller version of 1001 Nacht, which still doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

Imagine my surprise at seeing this rotting pile of crap tonight on the rotting pile of crap that is "Revolution". I wonder how much they had to pay for it, and to whom.

Yeah, there was a huge difference in the trains on Twister, although I don't remember which was which. One of them flew almost halfway up the lifts before catching the chain, the other one was more reserved and also rattled a lot more -- other than that train at PPP, this has been the least-rattling year I've had on Twister since I started riding about 2006.

The only thing wrong with PPP last night was the Flyer ops. The previous two years had been pretty good, so I was surprised in a bad way. This is twice now that I've seen people say that they thought there was new stuff in Black Diamond. I'm disappointed in myself for not using my free ticket now. I'd like to check it out, but I don't know if I want to pay $2.50. I wonder if it was really new stuff, or if they just changed the lighting. Last year, I thought that the lighting didn't do justice to a lot of the scenes. Anybody who thought they saw something new, I'd like to hear what it was so I can see if I remember it. When I rode it last year for the second time, the last day of the season before the snowstorm, I saw things that I didn't notice at last year's PPP.

^I already answered this in too much detail on the other board, but, during the daytime most of the rides (except water rides) are open; at night, only what's listed on the PPP brochure.

I heard something like that a few years ago too, but, two years ago, I heard that they actually announced at the beginning of the night session that snapping was allowed. Last year I phlew a few times during PPP and nobody had any problem with it. I don't recommend trying it during the day session though, unless you know the operator is cool with it. Re: losing stuff on the Lusses, it's not the kids that cause the biggest problem with that. (The kids just can't drive, at least not the ones that barely make it over the height limit.) One year, one of the best drivers I've ever seen had his keys get out of his pocket and get into the works, then, Bill Galvin, in a rare appearance somewhere other than Phoenix row 12, went on the Lusses with his PPP costume and had his wig fly off and get stuck. (You know you're at a good bumper car session when they have to stop to fix the cars between rides!)

I don't know if PPP was ever exclusive because I wasn't even into coasters when it started, but if it was, it ended a long time before Club TPR came about. I've been going for 6 years, and I've never been a member of any group. (Don't really have the time or money to go on long trips, no matter how good the perks are, and besides, every group of any kind I've ever joined folded in short order. I'm not joking. Multiple computer clubs, an amateur astronomy club, a spelunking club, all gone now, no matter how active or how old they were when I joined.) The only thing I really object to about PPP is that they still let people ride with tickets. The 6-10 period should be exclusive to those who bought a handstamp, regardless of whether they belong to a club or not. And oh, besides that, they need to have an adults-only bumper car session. But I say that almost every time I visit the park now, not just at PPP.

Since they list Black Diamond as being open during PPP, is it safe to assume that it will be free with the PPP handstamp? That's how it's been with the Haunted Mansion, which is an upcharge every other day of the year.

PPP gets crowded, but it's still a lot of fun. You have lots of hardcore bumper car drivers, lots of hardcore Flyer pilots, and people in costume. (Although the costumes haven't been as good or as numerous lately as they used to be.) Most of the park's rides (except water rides) are open during the daytime. The massive craft show, in the picnic area and the front edge of the park behind it, is also open. The lines for food at lunchtime are ridiculous, even though there are lots of food vendors set up in the craft show area. (Unfortunately, many of the park's restaurants are closed, and some of the little food stands moved out to the craft show.) For supper, PPP attendees take advantage of their free pizza tickets, while the rides close down to give the staff time to eat too. Then everyone gravitates to the Haunted House for a few rides, since it's the only time the whole year that it's not an upcharge. When the limited list of rides reopen for PPP, there will be a huge line for Phoenix, but they'll switch to double train operation and the line will fly. (They usually put their best operators on the ride for PPP.) The antique cars get decorated and haunted, and so does the train. The line for the cars will be the longest in the park due to the low capacity, so try to get them out of the way early to avoid cutting into your time for the other rides. (I just skip them most of the time since I've done them once -- the decorations don't change much from year to year, just get rearranged. You can also see some of the decorations on the car track from Phoenix, which adds a lot to the ambiance of riding the coaster in the dark!) Twister's queue gets haunted sometimes. When the rides close down at 10, people gather at the Phoenix food stand to hear the costume contest winners, and Dick's state-of-the-park speech. Then there's a bonfire and hot dog roast in the campground.

I don't know where you got the idea that it was ever going to have single cars, it was always going to be trains. But like you, I'm hoping it doesn't get slowed down so much that it sucks.

Sadly, that's all too often lately. I've never seen the ops not give an extended ride if they have to stop it to clear out a jam, but it still makes it suck for the people in line. (Sometimes they've had to stop it multiple times.) I have nothing against novices (we've all been there, and I'm still not as good as the greats), but the kids are a whole different class of bring-down because some of the youngest ones will freak out and freeze in the middle of the course. One season recently, it seemed like there was an injury every day I was there. I wish they'd have adult sessions and kids sessions, for the sake of both the ride and the riders.

I'm glad I went last night for my last Phoenix ride of the year. And my second-ever Black Diamond ride, on the train after Mick Foley. I saw things I didn't see the first time through, and the timing of the stunts seemed a little better than before. I prefer the left side of the train, which is where I made a point to ride last night after getting the right side the first time. Phoenix was running fast and very smooth, Twister was also running fast and fairly smooth, unlike my rides in the summer. The haunted antique cars were great, the haunted train not so much. About as much scenery as usual, but nobody hiding anywhere. Overall they did a great job with the Halloween weekends this year, many more food stands open than before and lots of rides. If only they would run the bumper cars...

Last night at Dorney, in line for a haunt set up on the go-cart track: "This is where Hercules used to be." "Oh, they took that out? Why'd they take it out?" "Do you know how old that thing was? It was the oldest in America!"

I'd be VERY surprised if there were actually any car-car or car-ground collisions -- it just sounds like that when you bounce on the cables. Now on the other hand, hitting a tree is definitely possible. PPP is always the best time for flyer airtime. It's always a good day for bumper car airtime too, though I see a good batch of bumper car drivers more often than I see a good batch of flyer drivers. Did Dick say anything after the event about Flying Turns, other than that they're still hoping to get it open next year? He said that pretty close to the beginning, and I didn't stick around through all the contest winners and stuff to see if he elaborated on it later.

http://www.knoebels.com/pdfs/HalloFunWeb.pdf If it's not listed, it's probably not open. (And strike the kiddie cars and kiddie carousel from the list, as they were too damaged to be repaired in time.)

I'm not saying it's a bad ride, but for the price (and the wait), there are a few things I wish they'd have done differently. First, even though I have excellent night vision, I felt that I was missing a LOT in each scene due to the VERY dim lighting. Their original haunted house lets you take in most of the scenes in much greater detail, and I KNOW from Robb's pictures and others that there's lots of detail in Black Diamond. Second, all the tricks were triggering for the first car, which makes sense of course, but by the time the last row of the last car got around to where they were in full view (the track is very twisty), most of them were already resetting for the next train, even though the next train was nowhere in sight behind us. (I'm curious to see how they're going to handle requests for the front seat in the future -- obviously nobody was going to ask for it today.)