AmyUD06

Haha....$299 is for the Kings Dominion-only all-season Fast Lane. The all-park is $875. I added it to my Platinum as soon as they offered it last year after two kinda miserable trips to both CP and KI without it, and then got 3 days at each park with it. For me, that paid for itself. The fact that its valid all this year too is just icing on the cake. If you go to the parks enough it's doesn't work out that bad math-wise. Figure $150 a day at CP, $75-95 a day at KI or KD...you really only need like 7 days (or 5 to CP) to make it worthwhile. I've reached the point in my life where waiting with the public more than 15 minutes makes me want to blow my brains out, so it's completely invaluable to me.

I second this notion.

KI's Fast Lane has said "on sale soon" pretty much since they closed last season. The only guaranteed way to get it right now is to add the All-Season, All-Park Fast Lane Plus to a Platinum Pass using one of the sites that's offering it (such as KD).

Everyone in SoCal (and the rest of the country) had the same opportunity to travel to parks that weren't shutdown as anyone else. I don't think Newsom was exiling those who left the state (but it wouldn't surprise me if he was). Skimming back through the past few pages here didn't give me the impression that there were "serious doubts"...Six Flags is owning pandemic operations everywhere else, there's no reason to imagine it would be different there. The only doom and gloom came from Californians, who, pardon my stereotyping, tend to have somewhat of a "we're special compared to everyone else" attitude. EDIT: Look, I'm not trying to be argumentative. I just think that Californians are making a much bigger deal out of this than they should. The companies figured out how to operate in a pandemic last summer, there's no new special magic that needed to be applied here.

I guess you're right, but I tend to think those are BS too. Not sure if this is the same thing, since these are occurring on days the park would normally be closed (Thursdays, 2 Fridays) or are closing stupidly early at 5PM (Fridays). Rather than just add them as operating days to the calendar, giving the SP/Membership more value, they're choosing to run it as a "limited" event with an upcharge. And I shouldn't be surprised, this the Six Flags that charges extra for Halloween walk-throughs.

LOL $5 EXTRA for Season Pass or Membership holders, to only ride the coasters and probably even more limited food options than normal. Wonder how they explain that one.

If you're going to be spending 3 or more days total combined between Kings Dominion and Cedar Point, buying the Platinum Pass makes sense. By purchasing that, it opens up the option of the "All-Season, All-Park Fast Lane Plus" add-on. It's pricey ($875, on top of the $202 for the Platinum Pass), but if you're going to do the trip this year that's the only way to go. If you're coming all this way, you might as well add in a day at Kings Island (about 3.5 hours drive south of Cedar Point, in Ohio near Cincinnati). It may not show on the main web page, but if you go into Kings Dominion's ticket-purchasing page, it'll show up under "2021 Add-Ons." Note that it does NOT show up on Cedar Point's site, but that doesn't mean anything. EDIT: Yeah, there's Dorney Park too, which is about a hour away from PHL. With the Platinum Pass, you could drop in and knock out their major dry park rides in like 2 hours. EDIT 2: You say the "last weekend of operation" for Cedar Point in August...that means Friday the 27th through Sunday the 29th. Note that Kings Dominion and Kings Island are currently scheduled to be closed the Monday-Thursday before and after that weekend. That may change, since Dorney is showing weekday operations (except Tuesdays) during the same time frame, but who knows. Note that you'd also likely save a little bit of money (and a whole bunch of time) flying from Virginia to Ohio rather than driving all the way back up to Philly Airport. There are a buttload of tolls in Maryland, and the saved gas/tolls will probably be more than the service fee for returning the rental car somewhere other than where you picked it up. EDIT 3: Since you didn't lay out your itinerary, here's how I would tackle all of the parks you mentioned given their operating calendars, plus Dorney and Kings Island, and Knoebels...which the fact that it hasn't been brought up yet is criminal. -Thursday, 8/19: Fly into Columbus, OH and get a hotel centrally located between KI and CP. -Friday, 8/20 and Saturday, 8/21: Two Full Days at Cedar Point -Sunday, 8/22: Full day at Kings Island -Monday, 8/23: Fly into the Philadelphia Region, hitting Dorney Park quickly after you land. Get a hotel centrally between Hershey and SFGAdv -Tuesday, 8/24: Full day at Hershey -Wednesday, 8/25: Full day at SFGAdv -Thursday, 8/26: Half-day at Knoebels, then drive to Virginia. This will be a 5-6 hour drive with stops for bathroom breaks. Get a hotel centrally located between Kings Dominion and Busch gardens -Friday, 8/27: Full day at Busch Gardens. -Saturday, 8/28: Full day at Kings Dominion. -Sunday, 8/29: Fly home.

So, basically SFMM is currently like CP/KI/Hershey/SFGAdv/<insert major US park of your choice> last summer. Why are people surprised?

You know these are designed to be assembled in a matter of days, right?

Last year, front row for me was the least brutal. It was still pretty bad though, to the point where unless your daughter is concerned about building her credit list, it would probably be in her best interest to skip it. Then again, kids have more resilient bodies than us adults LOL.

Keep the dream alive LOL.

Maybe I've missed some sort of official announcement, but is it safe to assume that the full park won't be open (meaning everything currently marked "Temporarily Closed" will be running) until May after the Food & Wine festival?

Not without removing something else, or putting it entirely over the lake. The park is incredibly landlocked and surrounded by residential and retail on all sides.

Yeah, you do not want to be at the park while that group is there.

Some chains do things better than others. For Six Flags, it's operating calendars, disregarding manufacturer operating temperature recommendations, and staffing each ride with as few people as possible to maximize amount of rides open. For Cedar Fair, it's maintaining rides, offering a drink plan that doesn't mandate comically sized bottles, a vastly superior skip-the-line program that is available on an all-park basis, and arguably water parks.

It's not necessary to ensure that riders are secure in their vehicles and won't go flying out? In 2021 America where companies get sued for everything? What are you smoking man?

SWO and BGT were still doing that (scan the barcode) thing for QQ when I was there in the middle of February. I used a printed piece of paper but if I had it on my phone that would've been good too.

It wasn't too bad last year, when all they had done was the turnaround on the right side. The trick is sitting in a non-wheel-seat (middle row of a car).

Actually, aside from the disaster that was their July opening last year Post-COVID, rides were pretty well staffed for my August and October trips. Mind you, they had employees from other, non-open parks, then, which they likely won't have this year...so yeah it's a crap shoot.

The new ride is Snake River Expedition. "Golden Entry" is only 30 minutes before opening while the Platinum/Guest Early Entry is a full hour. Every ride on the Golden list is also on the Platinum List (it's inclusive). I'm also not sure how you consider every one of the park's top coasters except Dragster an "uninspiring list," but to each their own.

Nothing has been announced. Probably won't be known until(/if) they put it live on the website's shop. For me, personally, as someone who dropped the grand for the All-Season, All-Park FL+ last year, I hope not.

Great Adventure and America also had those plexiglass dividers in stations when I was at each park in December.

True park capacity is often a lot more than you might imagine. SFGADv in NJ has a absolutely maximum capacity of around 30,000. In the six years I worked there we hit it twice. 50% of that is still 15,000 people...that was an average Friday in the summer. It's going to be busy.

Possibly not. It was originally designed with 3 trains in mind, so if there's already enough blocks built into the system (and they haven't substantially modified since), it won't need a complete rework.

Maybe nitpicking, but I'm pretty sure that RMC didn't have anything to do with the launch and that it was all Velocity Magnetics out of PA who are responsible for that. I could be wrong. Maybe they could bring Intamin in to convert it to a high-speed cable lift like El Toro?