Philrad71

^ You should be golden if you wanted to marathon Kumba at the end of the night because it's at the very rear of the park and most people will be headed for the front exit near closing time.

Not sure if the Festhaus is the old Gordon Biersch beer garden, but this is a good place to get beer or a mixed drink. It's right across from the Slingshot ride, so you can chill and watch people ride Slingshot - always entertaining!

And I myself, am not totally "sold" on Currywurst. I'm like others I know, who don't like Poutine. Period. To each their own. And then there's mayonnaise on fries.... Welp, I butchered that spelling, although your photo looks a lot yummier than the "hock" that I had at a restaurant not to far from the grounds, Bill. While the "hock" wasn't that great (very fatty and a little too chewy), the kraut there was amazing (as was the beer, of course)! And yes, I LOVED currywurst (huge curry fan here)...and don't even get me going on delicious Belgian-style fries with mayo!

That is pretty much what we have done for the past 10 or so years. We leave after I get out of work on Friday afternoon and we arrive right around park opening. Normally lines are non-existent so you can ride most everything multiple times with little to no wait (except Maverick, TTD and MF, obviously). On Saturday, we would skip the park and go golfing during the day then we would grab a bite to eat and then head back to the park for a couple of hours at night. We had Platinum Passes most years so we could just come and go as we wanted. If lines were ridiculous (which they usually were), we would catch a show or two, grab a few beers around the park and just people watch. Sometimes we would choose to go wait an hour or two for MF, but I need to be fairly well-oiled in order to stand in line for that long. On Sunday, we would go into the park for a couple of hours as lines were still pretty non-existent. Then we would head home and still arrive at a decent hour in order to rest up for work the next day. Obviously you can substitute golf for the Toledo Zoo or anything else in the general area on Saturday....Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Great Lakes Brewery, Hofbrauhaus, Put-In Bay, Milan (Thomas Edison's birthplace), the Marblehead Lighthouse. And if you ARE into golf, we found a great 36 hole golf course in Huron (right off of Rt. 2) that is phenomenal and it only costs about $25-30 to play!

I think the only somewhat "odd" thing I tried was pork knuckle (essentially, a roasted pig leg). It was OK, but I think I'll stick to schnitzel and beer. I had the best curry wurst ever at Oktoberfest, too. Yeah, I tried that too...wasn't it called Schweinhocks or something like that? I stuck to currywurst and schnitzel after that myself!

Friday nights and Sunday's are always the best time to go (as long as it isn't Columbus Day weekend) to Halloweekends, so I'm surprised to hear that it was that busy on Friday and Sunday. As others have mentioned, avoid Saturday's during Halloweekends like the plague and if it's still that bad with FL+, even more reason to skip it. I recall going in one year (before FL+) and we waited almost two hours for Demon Drop and other than Cedar Downs, the Skyride and Gemini, those were the only rides we got on all day because everything else was sporting 1-3 hour waits. Never again, said I.

Nice report, Michael! I wasn't horribly impressed with Thorpe when we visited several years ago, but they have gotten a lot more coasters since that time. What amazed me was the incredibly early close time of 5:00. We drove up with friends and got there around 1:00 so we really never got a chance to do all of the rides/attractions that we wanted. The park kind of reminded me of Canada's Wonderland in that they had a great flat ride collection, but the coaster selection was rather mehhh. I said that if we ever get back to England that we would make the trek to Alton as well as check out Blackpool, as both look to be better parks than Thorpe.

Great photos - thanks for sharing, Chuck! I absolutely loved Oktoberfest and I am not one that normally likes large crowds. Everyone (for the most part) behaved themselves and as you mentioned, the people of Bavaria are very friendly and accommodating. We never made reservations for a table, but the two times that we managed to get into a tent and get a place to sit, we were sat with extremely friendly Bavarian families that took us in like we were members of their family - it was awesome! This is the last night of Oktoberfest where we drank with a single mother and her son. This was his first Oktoberfest where he could drink...at the age of 16! Believe it or not, this young man handled himself more maturely than a lot of the adults in the beer hall! LOL

Thanks for your quick response! Looks like it it’s better to wait for CP to announce their 2018 schedule before booking this trip, just to be sure. We’re married for 5 years on tuesday the 8th and I am really looking forward surprising my wife with this trip and celebrating the 5 years with a ride on Steal Vengeance. Verzonden vanaf mijn iPhone met Tapatalk Yeah, I would definitely wait for the 2018 season as I don't believe that the park will be open that early. Also note that the weather in Northern Ohio in early May can be a grab bag - meaning it could be raining, snowing or sunny and 80.

Exactly!!!!

It wouldn't surprise me if part of that reason dealt with parents ignoring the warnings to leave the kids at home, and when they got to the park, they complained that the kids areas were closed, the kids could ride nothing, and were getting traumatized by all the scareactors. Bingo. Although I bet that there are a lot of families that buy the Halloweekends package through the resorts where Friday night is included. Of course on the other side of that, you also have the mothers and fathers that are really only there for themselves (and not their kids) dragging the screaming and crying kids through Frontier Town so they can go ride Maverick. We sat at the beer place on the (haunted) Frontier Trail two years ago and witnessed at least two families with crying kids getting pulled through it by Mom and Dad. One of them even said "Stop it and quit acting like a little bitch or we'll go home right now!" Michael and I just looked at each other and said, "What is happening to our society?"

I LOVE Busch Gardens Tampa...with the awesome animal exhibits, great coaster selection and decent food/beer selection, there really isn't another park to compare. We're hoping to maybe get there this December...fingers crossed!

^^ A giant frisbee would be perfect for this park. In fact, a giant frisbee would be perfect for any park that doesn't already have one. Same could be said for a Screaming Swing.

Very immersive trip report, Bill. How you and Bert remember so much detailed sh%t from your trips amazes me. I would need to bring a journal with me if I wanted to remember that much from a trip. In fact, I have a hard time remembering a lot of details anymore. That'll come later when your brain is a haze maze from all the excessive partying over the years...it's all good though.

I was actually going to post the same thing. Personally I am not a fan of those types of rides, but it would fit their description mentioned perfectly. Although I am not sure that a 250' star flyer would provide the greatest of views (other than towering over the park)...unless you like to ogle at corn fields and farms.

That is exactly the reason we hated it too...you definitely need to brace for that because I felt like my neck snapped when we rode it a few years ago. Luckily I was quite buzzed at the time so I didn't feel it until the next day!

Sweeeeeet looking drop - imagine getting whipped over that bad boy in the very last row....damn! 2018 can't get here fast enough!!

So horrible in every way imaginable. Vegas was a 2nd home to me growing up. I remember camping at the old Hacienda campground where Mandalay Bay is now and despite the fact that I feel that it has lost its charm from when it was much smaller, my heart still loves Vegas and all of its people. Thoughts and hugs to all of you in the Vegas area!

Terrible - we lose yet another rock icon.

Woke up with a sore throat yesterday and just feel like total crap today....it's too damned early for flu season!!!

Great news to finally have a new ride announcement waiting in the wings! I'm especially intrigued about this quote: “We believe this ride, and the investment level into its size, scope and family thrill level will entice families from all over the northeast and into southern Ontario and Canada."

Wild West with Edison looks like an interesting combination...and the roller coaster looks just like the one that we have at Midway State Park across the lake from us! And yes, I am with the others that said that Indiana Beach could be a really solid vacation destination if they put more heart and soul into it's upkeep/preservation. I really enjoyed sitting at the Beach Bar having a couple of beers while people watching - and they have a great selection of coasters and flats.

I'm disappointed that we missed Hollenblitz when we were there - that looks like a really fun and bizarre ride!

Great report as always, Bill...I need to check out downtown Chicago and SFGAm one day. Feel the same about MF - real close toss-up between that coaster and Maverick as my favorite. Next year is going to be crazy with the addition of you know who...damn that park just keeps getting more and more kick a$$ every year!

^ I have heard that there were times where it didn't stop at the top, but all of the rides that I got in last year did the same type of stop that the other dive coasters do.