Philrad71

I'm sorry, Bert...but I just had to LOL at your story about the elderly lady on the plane (I KNOW that I heard you speaking English earlier)! Yeah, business class and first class can spoil you in a real hurry once you've done them. I told Michael that I would never want to go back to the "peasant seats" after going business class to South Korea a few years ago! Thanks for posting your memories! I sure wish that Michael and I could have made it there in the RV to meet up with you guys. But who knows....one day we might be able to meet there for Coastermania and spend a day or two with you guys - if you ever do it again?

I don't believe that anyone has ever fallen from this chair lift at Lake Compounce. But yeah...in this day and age, I can see someone eventually falling out of it trying to do something against park rules. Nothing but a metal bar separates you from falling to your hot death on a pile of jagged rocks below. No one's going to be there to break the fall either! To be honest, I can't even recall if the bar even locked - I want to think no? Near vertical descent with just that little grab bar. You can bet your sweet a$$ that I wasn't pulling any shenanigans!

If I see anything besides this dialogue on the forums, it will be removed.

Sounds like it's an issue at some of the CF parks this year too... Is it those damned free refillable soda cups that are screwing everything up? If so, why not just have a separate kiosk or line for those just wanting free refills of high fructose corn syrup? Or even better...a separate line for beer sales. I'd be cool with that.

Sorry about that then...I usually skip over that persons posts for some weird reason.

Nor was CP at fault over the idiot trying to retrieve his phone under Raptor...or SFOG when the kid lost his head (literally) under Batman trying to retrieve his hat...or the kid that stood up and fell out of the log flume at Castles & Coasters. Those families sued and am sure that they got some type of monetary settlement from the parks. I'm sorry, but stupidity and breaking park rules should not result in the family of the deceased/injured getting monetarily rewarded. Yes, it is a horrible thing when it DOES happen and everyone (including the parks) feel bad - but they did something that plain old common sense should have told them not to do. On the other side, when a park's attraction malfunctions or was a major design flaw (IE: Verruckt) results in injury or death, then yes...the family should have every right to sue and be compensated. But with that said...yes, expect a lawsuit.

It's interesting because Vienna is such an amazingly clean and beautiful city, Prater did seem kind of "meh" and a little run down. Sure seems like they could spruce the park up or build a much nicer, bigger theme park just outside of the city. We were there at night and did manage to get an interesting ride on the ferris wheel during a lightning storm though. Once we got off of that, most of the other rides had shut down for the night, so we basically just walked around, took some photos and then took the subway back to our hotel. While those two weird flats looked interesting, the rest of the park just felt like a carnival. I was more impressed with the carnival ride collection at Oktoberfest, tbh. Edit - Congrats to Kristen on her first official TPR POV....great job!!!

^ What do you mean by low tier? Would you consider KD in the same category as Michigan's Adventure, WoF, or Valleyfair? Or in the same category as KI & Carowinds? I would put it in the 2nd category myself meaning that it isn't what I would consider a low tier park. Consider that they have a 300+ foot tall Intamin that is rated one of the best coasters in the country, they have a crap wooden coaster that is getting an RMC makeover and have one of the best floor-less loopers out there. Throw that in with a unique Intamin (Volcano), an indoor launch spaghetti bowl and a few other decent to horrible coasters for good measure, they have a pretty good selection when in comparison to a few other CF parks out there.

Seriously, I have been on several of these types of Skyrides and it seems that they would prove more difficult to get out of than a regular ski lift. I about crapped myself on the chair/ski lift at Lake Compounce because it seemed like it would be all to easy for a little one (or even myself) to slide out of and land on a pile of jagged boulders many feet below. But I made good and sure that I sat in the chair and held on...albeit with white knuckles. In fact, I don't even think that I moved or shifted the entire duration of the ride! But yes, it does appear that she was doing something that was against park rules that led to her dangling like that from the ride before she fell. Of course, I'm sure that there will be a lawsuit against the park from the family because the restraints didn't do enough to protect her.

^ I think that there should be a #4 choice....all of the above.

816 is the area code for Kansas City, so it obviously means that one of KD's coasters is being moved to World's Of Fun.

^ I was thinking that you said that you didn't care for Firehawk, but couldn't remember if that was you or not! We have never had any issue at the beer garden with getting beers either - nor had a problem finding a table to sit at. I will be curious to hear how the op's are at the park after your visit. Same here on the soda. I keep a few of those small cans of Coke, ginger ale and 7-Up in my garage fridge for Michael and any guests that may stop by for a drink, but the only time that I can think of when a Coke tastes good (without alcohol in it) is when we go to the movies and split a bag of popcorn. I don't eat popcorn a lot either, but those two seem to go hand in hand at the movie theater for whatever reason. Although now that I hear that more movie theaters are starting to serve food, beer and mixed drinks, that standard combo could change for me in the future!

^ Good to hear...perhaps they got the feedback and decided that it would be wise to act on it!

Curious to know if your drink refills were soda or water? Sounds to me like you got dehydrated at the park. I have been to parks before when it's that kind of sweltering heat and it can be more of a chore than fun. Our trip to Holiday World was hotter than the sun, but with the awesome water park and ability to get free drinks, I was able to stay plenty hydrated with tons of ice water and a couple of Power Ade's throughout the day. Another time we were at Carowinds and I think it was like 95 with 100% humidity. We did the water park for a while, caught a show and then left for a few hours to go grab a bite to eat, a couple of beers and then headed back to the hotel for a rest. We went back in the park from like 7-10 and it cooled down quite a bit once the sun started to set and everything was pretty much a walk-on because the few people that were there during the day, must have headed out around dinner time. Then one time at Dollywood when it was in the 90's, we did the Splash Battle a couple of times and along with that soaking, their other water rides and cooling down in the shows, we were able to stay cool for most of the day. You really need to have a solid game plan when you visit a park in that kind of heat, or things can turn ugly really quick!

So it sounds as if operations/management have picked up at this park for the better? I remember a year or two ago, TPR's visit did not make me want to rush right out there to check this park off of my bucket list. SFOT seemed like another park that could use a boost in their overall operations and park management. Hopefully both have resolved those issues so that customer visits are more pleasant to these two parks.

My Dad and his wife have been taking Michael to his treatments in Erie every day during the week and they said that it was REALLY pouring down rain to where the streets were getting flooded yesterday morning/afternoon. Glad to hear that you were able to get your rides in - it's great to hear that RF2 was running good as some people have said that it's gotten rough in the past couple of years. I need to get out there soon to ride it again. Having such a great coaster only one hour from me, it seems stupid for me to type that it's been over 3 years since I have ridden it!

^^ Amen, brother! I will sometimes break down and buy a bottle of water for Michael and I to split if the park only hands out the really tiny cups of water...and if the water fountain water is tepid and tastes like it was pumped out of the local stream (usually the norm).

As many have said, if you're going to a new park on what you know is going to be a busy weekend, then buy the passes in advance or once you get in the gate. If you don't mind waiting in long lines, then don't buy one. Or go when you know the lines won't be long (IE: when schools are still in session, or days where rain showers might be in the forecast). And the biggest rule...don't complain about skip the line passes just because you can't afford them. Budget for it well in advance, or simply don't go to the parks on busy days. It's really that simple.

^ Perhaps they should just consider this in order to alleviate the problem?

^ Although I am sure that Firehawk would be the usual slow-loading, super low capacity coaster - even with FL+. You could walk right up to the air gates with FL+ and it'd still be a 15 minute wait! Just wondering about why I am reading how horrendous the food and beer lines are at this particular park this year? Is it the combo of new (slow) staffing, combined with people that think that they have to eat at noon and 6:00 every day? Are there less restaurants now? I don't seem to recall this being an issue when we went a few years ago for the Halloween event when the park was pretty slammed. Heck, we practically had a front seat at the bar (which was where we pretty much spent the afternoon because the lines were so long) and never had to wait for a beer/drink.

I think that a lot of the older folks come for the shows more than anything else, Bert. When we went into the shows (especially during the Christmas event), the majority of the attendees had silver hair. Great report, Andrew...really like the looks of DreamMore and that aquarium!

Good thread, Bill...but then again, any thread about food is good! I admit that I'm not the hugest fan of most BBQ, because like Mexican and Asian food, it has to be done right or it sucks. And living in Western NY ain't exactly, NC, KC, Texas or Memphis. So while there are a couple of places around that are decent, I'm still looking for a place that might be able to stack up with one of the aforementioned barbecue (and that is the proper spelling, Bill!) destinations. Here is a restaurant called Fat Bob's where I ate in Buffalo one late afternoon when Michael was in Buffalo General for nine weeks. The pulled pork was okay, but the brisket was the best that I have ever had! Now if it wouldn't have been for the drunk woman sitting near me that was leading a "friend" of hers on and then telling him what a low-life POS he was, my meal would have been much more fulfilling. It got so uncomfortable that I boxed up half of my meal and took it with me because I thought that a fight was going to break out any minute. Let's hope that her and her "friend" aren't one of the regulars at Fat Bob's. Signage. Everything but the brisket was average. Well, now that I think of it, the beer was really good too. lol

Looks great so far - and (of course) the food looks fantastic! 2017 was supposed to be the year that we did a Rhine river cruise in September, but that's still on the back burner while we try to nurse Michael back to health - hopefully it will happen soon enough though. Glad to hear that the clientele on the tour are well-behaved and nice. I kinda had that thought because when we did the land tour of Prague, Budapest and Vienna, our tour group was very respective of others and followed instructions from our guides. But then again, I was the youngest one out of the group as the tour mostly consisted of older women over the age of 60 - not too many rebel-rousers there!

^ Wow...that thing is hauling some serious a$$!