AmyUD06

Not sure how much better of a price than a $70 Basic Season Pass/$80 Gold Plus Season Pass (if you need all parks) you think you're going to get, but I think I bought mine last year for $60 in mid-December. I can't remember if that sale started on Black Friday or not.

Are you trying to say that Spanos' reign saw improvements to customer satisfaction and the guest experience? Could have fooled me...Six Flags in the past few years has been Six Flags as always from the trips I had to their parks.

Same thing across all CF parks, I think. Kings Dominion's Mac Bowl was charging $15 for one scoop of mac & cheese this year when in 2019 it was $12 for two (if not three) scoops.

Juneteenth should not noticeably increase crowds.

Would something like Maverick be out of the question, with a launch-lift and a straight-launch? I'm just looking at those two straight sections in the middle and that's what comes to mind.

Remember that CP still has the vastly superior Cadillac Cars drive-em attraction at the front of the park as well.

In a move that probably surprises no one.... https://fox8.com/news/cedar-point-changes-skyfox-captures-something-missing-from-the-park/ Click the link for flyover video and a still capture. 500 foot coaster that spans the entire park, from the old Wicked Twister spot to Frontier town, all but confirmed.

Knoebel's has neither air gates nor seatbelts on like 99% of their rides. Just sayin'.

*shrug* It made more sense than a comic book character in the Old West section. From the original press release announcing the ride:

Yet another "Riddler Revenge" without the necessary possessive inbound. The re-theme into Bizzaro made no sense either. Man do I miss the days when Six Flags didn't try to be "DC Comics the Amusement Park."

Photo TR: The End of Haunt 2021 After working one of my University's football games, I made the 4 hour drive down to Doswell for my last Halloweeny amusment park trip of the year. But first, a note about my hotel: With the on-property Travelodge being closed for the year, and a disappointing stay at the Days Inn across VA-30 at the beginning of the month, I decided to stay a little farther away this time, and chose the Best Western Plus Thornburg in Woodland, VA. A quick 20-minute drive down I-95 from the park, this hotel was worlds above any of the places right near Kings Dominion. Quality rooms, breakfast buffet (that was actually operating, not "closed due to COVID" still like many other hotels), and there's actually more than a Burger King and 7-11 right near by. Highly recommended. Anyway, I got to the park on Saturday around 8:30, and found the lot more full than I've seen in a long time. Making my way into the park, I found this line for Intimidator 305: Yikes. I'd never seen the line for this ride that far back, even during opening year. Even the Fast Lane line was nuts: It proved to be a 23 minute (wait-and-ride) for a back row experience. Still awesome. I did a lap of the park, coming back to Blue Ridge Tollway for a 3-cycle wait. Unfortunately, not a Haunt this year, but still a bit eerie in the dark woods. I love how this one weaves through the forest, unlike the drive-'em cars at some parks (*coughKingsIslandcough*). I was quite hungry, so I decided to stop in Mac Bowl for some delicious custom mac & cheese (got with shredded cheddar and bread crumbs). Though tasty, this is probably my biggest disappointment about Kings Dominion: in years past, $12 would get you two scoops of mac, three if you weren't getting a protein. Now, $15 gets you one scoop of mac, regardless as to if you're getting protein or not. I get it, budget crunch blah blah blah, but seriously? Next up I decided to take in the Ruckus show, which I had skipped on my last visit due to not recognizing any of the musical acts listed in the show description. Which was probably the right move, as I in fact did not recognize any of the songs in the 3-song, 7-minute long set. Definitely not my preferred genre of music. That said, the dancing was on point, so it was decently entertaining. Here's some photos and videos of the show: VID_20211030_215845820.mp4 VID_20211030_220609374.mp4 Continuing around the park, I decided to hop on Drop Tower (one-cycle wait). It had been a while since I went on this parks drop tower, and it was a lot more intense than I remembered. I then made my way back up to the front of the park, and got a ride on Dominator (20 minutes wait-and-ride for row 2, left edge). Always a solid ride, and probably my favorite floorless that I've been on. This was the standby queue: I also noted that the park was playing a song that sounded a whole lot like the Mystic Timbers queue music in the Dominator area; I'm not 100% sure it was the same song but if it was, nice touch. At this point, it was 11:00, and having been up since around 4:30 AM, I decided it was time to beat the traffic out of the park and make my way back to the hotel for a good night's sleep. The next day, I got to the park at 12:45 (for a 2:00 opening) to be greeted with this sight: Hooray for another busy day. After parking (I was the first car in the season pass lot, at least), I made my way to the designated smoking zone and kill some time (and some more lung cells) and snapped this awesome picture of Dominator testing: Once inside, I noticed the preparations for Winterfest have begun. Planet Snoopy and Candy Apple Grove had many of their lights strung up, and the conversion of the fountain into the ice skating rink has begun: One of my goals for today was to hit all of the adult flat rides. First up on that agenda was Berserker, a walk-on for row 7. Decent cycle with two complete rotations. Next up was another ride on Dominator, a half-train wait for the back row, left edge. Amusingly, this ride was triple-stacking the entire early afternoon. It was clearly the end of the season and employee enthusiasm has dropped off from earlier in the year. Though, I did get to snap a pic of the Tiki Twirl supports and some track in the parking lot: Now that the rest of the park was open, next up was a ride on Woodstock Express, a one-train wait for back row. Chatted with another enthusiast with a Kings Island shirt on, whose first visit to Kings Dominion was today, and then made my way back to Intimidator 305, for a 20 minute wait-and-ride for front row. This is definitively the place to ride this coaster. Made my way down the back half of the park, grabbing an Auntie Anne's pretzel, and then hit Rebel Yell (right side) for a two-train wait for the front row. Next up was Twisted Timbers, with a one-train wait for the back row. I then decided to try Delirium for the first time on my life. I had a bad (read: sickening) experience on a ride that spun me sideways in the past, and have generally avoided anything that does since, but since trying out some spinning coasters earlier in the year, I figured I'd give this a shot. Had a one-cycle wait, and wow this was a lot of fun. The spinning is so slow that I didn't really notice it. I really need to try some of the bigger versions of this style of ride now. Hopped on Bad Apple, their Troika, for a walk-on ride. These are always so much fun. Twisted Timbers was next, a 25 minute entry-of-line-to-retrieval-of-phone-from-the-locker for front row. I really can't decide if front or back is better here, both present such intense rides but in different ways. Then I got on Wave Swinger for a half-cycle wait, and then made my way to Grizzly for the busiest I've ever seen this station in years: This provided a 19 minute wait-and-ride time for the front row. Still not as bad as it used to be in years past. Next up I decided to take in the Blood Reign Haunt opener and the Heads Will Roll Show, honestly my biggest drive for coming back to the park again. This show is just so incredible. I'll spare you more pics and videos of it, since I captured it pretty well in my report from October 3rd, but yeah did not disappoint. Okay I lied, here's a quick clip of their rendition of Roar by R.O.A.R., showing off the female lead's stellar pipes: PA310005.MP4 Now that it was dark and Haunt was in full swing, I took a stroll through the Safari Village scare zone, uprising, and then a quick ride on the Scambler (walk-on) with it's way-out-of-date lighting package. I then took in the 8:30 performance of Heads Will Roll, capturing the entire show on video utilizing an actual camera and mini-tripod clamped to one of the stanchions holding the velvet rope. The video came out incredible, even if the audio wasn't as good as recording on my phone (WTF?). It's a little big to upload here, but if anyone is interested in seeing it, PM me and I'll try to find a way to get it to you. After that, the park was nearing it's 10:00 PM closing, so I decided to try to grab another walk through of the Grim Woods maze, and did so as a walk-on. That said, they weren't really holding people or grouping them, so it ended up being one big conga line through it. Still, lots of actors, and I was pleasantly surprised to see them actually using the oven prop at the end of the Hansel & Gretel section as a hideout for an actor. And that was about it for my trip. I left after that, deciding to head back to my hotel since I needed to be on the road early. Thanks again, Kings Dominion, for the best Halloweeny park experience of the year. Bring back the Skeleton Key rooms, and it'd be a solid 10 out of 10. See you in a few weeks, KD, for Winterfest!

Glad they saw the error of their ways. Now they just need to offer an all-season, all-park Flash Pass.

It's Darien Lake man. Opposite world.

Thanks! Luckily tomorrow is my full day at the park, tonight was just a little bonus after checking in to my hotel. I don't think I've ever seen I305s line that long, even opening year. In the two and a half hours I was there, I managed to get on: -Intimidator 305 (23 minutes including ride time for back row) -Blue Ridge Toll Way (3 cycle wait) -Drop Tower (1 cycle wait) -Dominator (20 minutes for row 2 left wing) I also got a bowl of Mac & Cheese from Mac Bowl, and took in the Ruckus show after skipping it on my last trip here. Not bad, if you think about it. It was busy, but not to the point where you were always shoulder-to-shoulder with people on the midways. Hell, they didn't hit capacity tonight (unlike last Saturday). I took off around 11:00 to beat the crowds out of the park (I've been up since 5 AM and really didn't feel like sitting in an hour of traffic to get out of the park haha).

So I just got to KD...eep. For perspective, here is the line for I305: And the Fast Lane line: Eep indeed

At least it's a quality DJ, as oppose to the most likely candidate for an event at that place, Pauly D.

It'll be interesting to see if they dismantle it with care or just chop it up. For the sake of everyone's brains, I hope its the latter.

Hexed and the Fearground Freakshow were both very very good, and the Eerie Estate wasn't bad either. Cornstalkers and Slaughter House both can be safely skipped unless you're really into the themes. Don't miss the Cut Throat Cove maze-but-not-a-maze between Maverick and the train either.

I get Racer, since it just got all that new wood, but I always found the chipped paint and rust as part of the charm of Adventure Express.

Better throw a </sarcasm> tag on there; in this thread these jokers are likely to take you seriously.

The park HAS gotten major investments recently. Just because you don't see them as such, it doesn't make it less true.

And this is exactly why you don't get a new coaster. You don't need it to draw in crowds. I feel like I'm talking to the walls here.

Photo TR: Friday, 10/15, and Saturday 10/16 This past weekend, as it was my only weekend off from work for the month of October, I decided to make a trek out to Kings Island to take in their Haunt festivities. Typically, their Haunt is one of the best out of the CF chain, and in the past I could definitely see them winning the "Best Haunted Park Attraction" award that they had plastered all over the place this year. But this year's Haunt? Laughable. Read on. I got into town around 4:30 on Friday, got checked in my hotel (the Super 8 across I-71 from the park), and made my way over to the park around 5:15 for opening. I found myself in a substantial line of cars, but it was already moving, and made my way to the main gate. I gotta say, I do appreciate the facade they erect in front of the standard main gate building. At 5:45, they opened the main gates, and in I went. Kinda standard Haunt entry decorations during the day (that turn into quite something else at night). The Squishmallows store is back open, albeit without any noticeable KI-specific ones. I made my way over to the Fast Lane redemption booth to claim my FL+ wirstband, and also buy a Fright Lane, where I was told that you cannot actually buy the Fright Lane in the park; you need to do it online. So I hopped out of line, whipped out my phone, quickly purchased the Fright Lane pass, then was back in line to grab that. As it turns out, I mostly wouldn't need it, but I did utilize it to grab two laps on most mazes (first just waiting in the standby queue and second using the Fright Lane), and as you'll see, I'm glad I did. My goal for Friday was to check out all of the Haunt stuff and get in whatever rides I could. My first stop was Madame Fatale's Cavern of Terror, the wax museum maze. My initial run had around 20 actors, with some well done artistry and some nice visual gags, but it was a little dark. My later lap through this maze, I definitely noticed a lot more. Tons of great actors, many of which were playing the "wax statue" role wonderfully. They had a great "closing spiked wall" effect towards the end that was accentuated by a strobe light, so it was difficult to tell if the wall was actually moving (spoiler alert: it was!). Very nicely done. Next up was Slaugherhouse. As I've said in other reports, this is such a tired theme. But, this was decently done enough I guess...15-20 actors, no complaints. Round two later in the night was much of the same, nothing really worth noting. I then made my way over to what is typically the best of the KI mazes, Killmart. The grouper sent through a group of 25 people, which is way too big. That said, there were easily more actors inside the maze, and though nothing appeared to have changed from my 2019 experience, it was still solid. Maybe having worked at a K-Mart for two winters back in my youth gives me a soft spot for this theme? Round two later in the night was about the same, but I did notice a lot more nice animatronics this time through. Unfortunately, another 30-person conga-line group sent through at once. That said, this one was very well done. Next up was Chaos, supposedly themed to a laboratory. In actuality, it seemed like it couldn't decide whether it wanted to be a science theme, a nightclub, or a mirror maze. Only counted 5 or 6 actors. Rather disappointing. Round two later in the night though was a whole different thing. Many more actors, and I got behind a good group of scaredy 14-15 years olds which were jumping at every little thing, which made the maze much more entertaining. I then made my way up to the Festhaus for the Monster Rock show. Yawn. Horrible acoustics, only decent enough vocalists, and a set list that included a lot more than just rock. I think it was the same show was it was back in 2019, but it was disappointing then and disappointing now. I then took in the You're Too Old to Trick or Treat Game Show at the Bier Garten. This was entertaining enough, I guess. The game I saw just involved dice rolling so not too many opportunities for jokes from the hosts. Maybe the other games are better? Add in the Drums of the Dead, a typical "dummers-playing-over-a-backing-track" show, which I skipped, and this was the entirety of KI's Haunt show offerings. How does KD blow this place out of the water in this department? Oh, remember how I mentioned the International Street area was better at night? Yeah it was. Excuse my phone camera's horrible performance at night with multiple light sources, but yeah those are pyrotechnic towers lining the sides of the fountain. My final new maze of the night was Cornered, a slightly different take on the tired corn-maze theme. This seemed kinda short, but it was long for the space they put it in. Unlikely most corn-mazes at park Halloween events, this was not just a stroll through a narrow corridor of corn, instead featuring some wider open areas which plenty of things for actors to hide behind. Better done than most corn-mazes I've been through this year, but still..,meh. Only one lap through here, as by the time I got to it I needed to use my Fright Lane the first time. And about wrapped up my experience with KI's Haunt attractions. You'll notice I didn't mention anything about the scare zones - that's because there wasn't really very much to mention. Decorations and artistry were meh, presence of actors was meh...that really about sums up the entire event: Meh. How do I rank the Cedar Fair Haunts I've been to this year? 1. Kings Dominion, by far. ... 2. Cedar Point 3. Kings Island, solely because of Killmart and Madame Fatale's. 4. Dorney Park Anyway, now it was time for some rides. I hopped on Bat for a two train wait for the front row. I don't know that I've ever been on this a night, but it was quite dark and summarily impressive. Next up was Banshee, a two train wait for the front row. Definitely another good night ride, but a little too lit up. Finally, it was time for Beast. 18 minutes for front row (the only place to ride this, day or night). This would turn out to be my only night ride on this of the trip, and man was it worth it. Classic. After that, I did another lap of the park, getting in my second rounds at each of the mazes that I hadn't used my Fright Lane on yet, and then left the park around 10:00, since I was pretty tired after my nine-hour drive to get here. On Saturday, with an 11:00 opening, I got to the park at a little after 9:30 and was greeted with this: Yay. Anyway, there's not really much to talk about from my Saturday experience, so I guess I'll just do a bullet list for rides, in order that they occurred (times with FL+): -Diamondback: Walk-on early entry for row 2, left side. -Woodstock Express: Two-train wait for back row. -Mystic Timbers: Two-train wait for front row, Man Eater and snake ending. -Backlot Stunt Coaster: One-train wait for back row. Everything working except the helicopter did not move. -Shake, Rattle, & Roll: One cycle wait -Kings Mill Antique Autos: Two-car wait -Zephyr: Half-cycle wait -Flight of Fear: 15 minute wait for back row. -Orion: 22 minute wait for back row. Yeah, that was with FL, at 1:00 PM. -Racer: One-train wait for row 2, red side. Did not win. -Beast: 15 minute wait for front row. -Racer: Two-train wait for front row, blue side. Did win! -Adventure Express: Two-train wait for front row. Everything working. -Invertigo: 15 minute wait for the "back" row. Honestly wasn't bad, I think that the extra non-seat-having trailing car when riding in the back row helps a lot. -Banshee: One-train wait for back row, left side. -KI & Miami Valley Railroad: Walk-on. -Beast: 22 minutes for front row. Noted that exit-pass use seemed quite excessive on that day. -Mystic Timbers: 14 minutes for back row. Same ending. This was all accomplished by 6 PM, at which point the crowds were getting a bit insane. A bit earlier in the day, I grabbed some garlic-bread grilled cheese from a food truck (one with bacon, one without), which was pretty good (especially for the price - $10 for both), but no Tom + Chee, which was closed all day both days I was there. I took a stroll up to the designated smoking area (actually inside the park, gasp!) and laughed at the group of riders stuck on Invertigo.... ...while I decided what I wanted to do. Really, I had accomplished everything I wanted from the trip, and the way the crowds were growing and reports from previous Saturdays, I decided I just wasn't going to have a good time if I had stayed, so I left. On my way out, I saw hundreds if not thousands of people walking towards the main gate, and on the drive out I was greeted with this sight: Yeah, that's cars backed all the way out to Kings Mills Road. So glad I left. All in all, not a terrible trip. If you're going to KI expecting an awesome Halloween time, prepare to be disappointed. Good thing they've got a ton of awesome rides, haha. I highly recommend going on a Friday or Saturday daytime, when crowds are much more reasonable, but Saturday nights just seem like a fun time for no one. Thanks for reading! I've still got a few more trips planned for this Halloween season, so stay tuned.

Don't worry, I'm sure it'll pop up once or twice a year like the Geuga Lake thread does with some crackpot theories about somehow restoring it.

Dude...just...I can't even.