Mike240SX

You can try leaving the question in a comment on one of their FB posts; they seem to be pretty responsive to those. Or try calling them first thing in the morning when they open. Use this number: (847) 249-1776.

Great report man. I hope to one day get to this park.

Maybe you jammed up the system, because I'm able to buy every level for Wednesday the 11th and the rest of this coming week. Anyway, I recommend at least the Gold level...Bronze never made much sense to me. If Jersey Devil isn't running, or if you go there right at opening if it is, Platinum is probably not worth it.

Six Flags' Flash Pass system works like this: 1. You get an electronic device (either a wristband, or it's being offered on your phone at some parks). 2. On the device, you choose which Flash Pass-enabled ride you want to go on next. 3. The device then waits a specified time, and tells you to the ride. This is where the levels vary, explained below. 4. Once at the ride, you are scanned in at a separate entrance, and then may have a short wait of other Flash Pass users before being able to ride at most rides. At some rides, there is a "merge point" before the station where the regular and Flash Pass users join together. Where the pricing structure comes in to play is this: 1. Bronze level, your wait time will be roughly equal to the standby queue. 2. Gold level, your wait time will be roughly 40-50% of the standby queue. 3. Platinum level, your wait time will be roughly 10% of the standby queue. Platinum also occasionally includes rides that are not offered on the Bronze/Gold levels. At Great Adventure, the only Platinum-only ride is Jersey Devil (when it's running).

Honestly I didn't even realize that there was already an Impulse coaster there.

Photo TR: Wildwood, July 28th In the aftermath of the failed co-worker trip to Wildwood that resulted instead in going to the Delaware State Fair (TR here), I made a solo excursion there on Wednesday the 28th into Thursday the 29th. Upon arrival, after check in, I headed straight to the Ocean Oasis water park at the end of Surfside Pier. While I think Raging Waters on Mariner's definitely has the better slide collection, this water park has one distinct advantage: Swim-up Hot Tub Bar. I'm sure plenty of you at skeezed out by such a concept, but I love it...guess it's the Jersey in me. My standard operating procedure here is get a drink, chill in the hot tub and finish it, then to a lap on the lazy river, and repeat. That held true on this day, with me swapping out one of the laps for trips down their tube slides, which are awesome since they were designed in the 80s...super fast, tight turns, overall great experience. After three hours at the water park, I stopped by Macks on my way back to the hotel for a delicious slice... ...and then took a shower and relaxed at the hotel for a while. Around 8:00, I decided to venture back to the boardwalk and check out the piers for some rides. I marveled at how busy the boardwalk was for a Wednesday. The only adult coaster I've never been on here is Doo Wopper, and figured I'd try to hit that, but upon arrival, I found THIS.... Yes, that is the queue spilling out on to the pier from the designated queue area. No thank you, sir. Reminder, this is a Wednesday. Anyway, I decided to wander the pier, and saw that Zoom Phloom was cycling empty logs, but had a sign at the entrance that said it it was closed. Operator training maybe? Great Nor'Easter also had the longest line I've ever seen... ...as did Atmosphere. I stood at the end of line when I took this picture. Even the Tilt-a-Whirl was overflowing the designated queue area... ...as was Kanga-feakin-Bounce. Wild. At least It's line was reasonable, unless it has some serpentine back behind the ride that I don't know about. I realized that I didn't have a hoodie from Morey's Piers (something I collect from every park I go to), so I stopped in the store underneath Kong to check out the offerings. While I didn't find any hoodies that I liked, I did notice that they had a few retro-ride shirts, which was a nice touch. Venturing back to the Boardwalk, I found a new business in the little cut-out set of shops just north of Surfside Pier: It's Fascination without being called Fascination! Complete with a "game master" calling out what shape you have to make next. I checked out the prizes and saw a horrible ticket-to-value ratio, so didn't play, but it's good to see this kind of attraction still alive. Walking along the boardwalk, I also found a semi-new stand that I first noticed last year that may be appealing to some... Not being a pierogie fan myself (sacrilege, I know), I didn't sample their fare, but figured I'd offer this up for those who are. I made my way back to Mariner's Peir, and also found some ridiculous waits. Rollie's Coaster... ...and the Ferris Wheel (again, photo taken from where the line ended). Every other ride here also had substantial queues, even if I didn't capture it in photos. Hard pass here as well. Continuing down to Adventure Pier, my mind was blown as I saw not only a line down the ramp for the 22-ticket ($25!) Skyscraper... ...But also an absolutely massive line for the 30 ticket ($33!) Slingshot. Insanity. Great White and the Go-Karts also has massive lines, so I decided to just call it a night and head back to my hotel, which was only a block away from Adventure Pier after grabbing another slice of Mack's. After hanging out there for a while, I decided to go back to the pier to try to get a ride on Great White, hoping the lines had died down, and they did. Two-train wait for row 4 (the front, where I usually ride this, was a 10-train wait). Whatever track work they did in the closed-for-2020 triple-long off-season helped, but yeah it's still kinda a rough ride, particular around some of the turn-arounds and at the valleys of the hills. Whatever they did to the braking system to not jar you to an immediate halt right before the station was a big improvement, too. I think with some Millennium Flyers this could be an awesome ride like it used to be, but as it stands now it's solidly in the middle of Morey's lineup (behind Nor'Easter and Sea Serpent, and ahead of all the others). 5/10. And that was pretty much it for Wildwood. On the way home, I of course stopped by Atlantic City for a cheesesteak from White House Sub Shop, which IMHO blows any of the legit Philly options out of the water. As my conversation with @boldikus indicated, I guess this is the busiest time of the year for Wildwood, but I cannot recall the lines for rides ever being this bad, including multiple trips on Memorial Day Weekend, Labor Day Weekend, and the 4th of July in past years. Sorry for the delay with getting these reports up, but I finally had some time to sit down and write them out. Next major trip planned is next week, a ten-day trek out to Indiana for a work conference, with planned stops at Lakemont (to try to get on Leap the Dips), Kings Island, Indiana Beach (new to me!), Cedar Point, and Waldameer. Thanks for reading!

Disclaimer: I promise I'm not @LeJebba in disguise. His fascination with Wade Shows defies all comprehension, and his posts including the stock photos of the rides are legendary. Here, you will find actual photos of the rides! So, my group of co-workers (6 in total) were trying to plan some sort of "camaraderie-building" activity, and me being the trip expert that I am, had initially suggested everyone going to Wildwood. For various reasons, that plan fell apart, so we settled on the Delaware State Fair, which was conveniently occurring around the time we were trying to plan for the trip. With my newfound lack of tolerance for alcohol, I go to to play the role of sober-guy on this trip, which was quite a change. After the hour drive to get there, during which my co-workers were already drinking, we arrived. Various people wanted to check out the pig races and petting zoo for some reason, but I wandered the grounds, checking out the variety of food carts/trucks and the rides, of which there were plenty. Most was your standard carnival fare, but they did have some rarer rides, such as an Enterprise and Zipper. I did grab an awesome mac-and-cheese-grilled-cheese from one of the food trucks, sadly of which I did not take a picture nor remember the name. Sadly, most of the group had zero interest in any going on any rides, so while they drank and did whatever, myself and one other guy decided to hit a few of them. First up was "The Haunted" (according to the sign) or "Zombie Apocalypse" (according to their website) their two-trailer dark ride. It contained neither Haunted things nor Zombies. Nothing could compare us for the hilarity that would ensue. Not only were the cars SO incredibly small (us two adults had to wedge ourselves into a car), 90% of the "scares" didn't light up or move, and the rest were pitiful. A Bill Tracy dark ride this was not. 2/10, solely for the comedy factor. Next up was the Pinfari Zyklon, "Super Cyclone," which was the only adult coaster they brought. Notably, none of the trim/block brakes were activating on our ride, so we got a nice quick trip through the course giving some positive Gs on the helices. It also had the most hilariously pointless seat belt arrangement I'd ever seen on a coaster, where they went from the floor to the lap bar on the same exact axis, making them do absolutely nothing. Coaster #174 under my belt. 5/10. We then moved on to the Enterprise. In the back drop, you may notice a close approximation of the space station from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, as pointed out to me by my riding buddy, who is a huge Star Trek fan. Other graphics on the backdrop were literal screen captures from other Star Trek shows, I'm told. I guess copyrights don't exist in the carny world? On this ride, they were enforcing two odd rules: One, no single riders...which meant that us two full-grown male-presenting adults were crammed into one car. Two, there was a minimum of 4 riders total (two cars) for them to operate the ride. While you might think this has to do with balancing the wheel, as I did, it clearly was not the case as they loaded us two and the other group into cars with only two empties between us. The cycle was super-short, too - basically as soon as it got to the top angle, it started going back down. Either way, it ran at a good speed, so....6/10? At this point, the rest of the group was drunk/exhausted and wanted to go home, so we called it a night. But, being the good TPRer that I am, I of course snapped pictures of all of the remaining adult rides. Enjoy. And that's all from the fair.

Maybe it'll go to Valleyfair? After all, if you read that thread recently, they are totally deserving of a new major attraction despite record-setting crowd levels this year.

That theater has been gone for like 3-4 years now, you know, right?

They do limit the amount sold. What that amount is, is anyone's guess. CF parks issue you a wristband that you show at the FL entry at each ride. At Kings Island, there is a little booth to the left after entry where you redeem your voucher (scanned from phone or paper) for the wristband, or you can do it at any retail establishment that sells Fast Lane (there are several throughout the park). You should be fine buying a week in advance, at which point you should have a pretty good idea of what the weather is going to be like on your park day.

In theory, yes it takes that irrelevant record from the previous irrelevant record holder at the same park.

From the article,

HAHAHAHA. Too much. Here's the whole article. Hey, at least they were truthful when they said "unique and challenging location." Edit: Oh, and the world record? "Western US's steepest freefall drop without a holding brake." Really grasping straws here...

Queue Times crowd calendar for the month of July looks pretty good for mid-week days. Next week's daily operation was a late addition to the calendar, so they don't have predictions yet. EDIT: In other KD news, Haunt has been announced and the calendar updated - Friday/Saturday/Sunday in October, 7-Midnight on Fridays, 2-Midnight on Saturdays, and 2-10 on Sundays.

Yes to both questions.

If CF was trying to turn VF into a destination park, sure, that might hold true. But for a regional-draw park like VF, if their established crowd is enough to consistently earn the company a substantial enough profit margin, there is nothing really to be gained from investing $10+ million in a major attraction. I've never been to VF, but I do have Dorney, another low-tier CF park, quite local and go quite frequently, so I have some experience on this topic - Their dry park crowds are steady, even with no major new addition since 2012 (Stinger, which is now gone). Their water park is the money maker - it consistently is *slammed* during the summer months, and they haven't added anything substantial to that side since 2014, and their only "modern-style" slide complex are those drop-capsules. None of this has negatively affected their crowd draw, and Dorney has some major competition in a two-hour-drive radius (SFGAdv, Hershey, Knoebel's, Morey's, even Nick Universe). If VF, Dorney, or WoF, were to add a major coaster that would draw enthusiasts, it might increase crowds for a year or two while enthusiasts travel there to experience it. But that's it. Would that be enough to justify the expense? Probably not. The local crowd will continue to go even with only minor additions or no additions at all. Listen, I get it...we all want our "home parks" to get the biggest and best, or even anything new every now and then. But from a business standpoint, it makes no sense if the park continues to make enough to sustain it and appease the local "GP" crowd without one. All of this is doubly-true this year, where we see crowd levels at parks that have never been seen before, to the point where SEAS parks don't even see a point in opening their major additions - it would do nothing to draw additional crowds in when the parks are already packed. I fail to see how local parks care more about the "customer experience" than Cedar Fair, especially in the context of major ride additions. Knoebels, widely regarded as the one of the best parks in the country, hasn't had a "major addition" since 2015, and that ride (Impulse) wouldn't even be considered a "major" addition at a CF or SF park. Yet, they continue to draw crowds to an extent that sustains their business model. Of course CF cares about the customer experience...if they didn't they wouldn't have skyrocketed their pay rates to try to eliminate the staffing issues they've had this year. Sure, they cut back their hours to minimize the cut to the profit margin from that salary increase, but even Knoebels closed 50-60% of their rides mid-week. Look at SEAS, which has made massive improvements in "customer experience" at BGW recently by moving to a year-round operation. Yes, smaller, independent parks have their charm, but to say that they universally care more about the "customer experience" than major chains is over simplifying the issue. Like who, Palace/Parques Reunidos? We see how well they do managing their existing parks.

And sadly the fact that it continues to draw crowds actually hurts your chances of getting a new major ride. Simple fact is, Valleyfair is not a "destination" park. Very few people, other than hardcore enthusiasts, make it a specific point of going there or have even heard of it. Compare to Cedar Point, the Kings pair, Carowinds, and even Knotts....these are all places that people have heard of and will go out of their way to book vacations around. Cedar Fair's lower tier (Dorney, Michigan's Adventure, Worlds of Fun, CGA, and yes even Valleyfair) simply don't attract "destination" travelers like the top-tier parks do, thus they get minimal investment. Now sure, that's some self-fufilling-prophecy, because without major additions, they will never be destination parks, but I think that CF is okay with that.

Pushaw I say. The only thing I want them to do Beast is restore the skid brakes and replace the individual ratcheting lap bars with the original buzz-bars and lose the headrests. You can keep the seat dividers and seat belts if you want. It's already my #1 wooden coaster, restoring it to its original glory would only solidify that further. (Edit) As an additional thought, there are dozens of wooden coasters out there that are older than Beast, some nearing or exceeding a hundred years old, that have not had recent substantial changes to their layout - Beast can run correctly as intended, it doesn't need to be modified any further.

@budtbum Glad to hear you enojyed the Grand Carinvale stuff. I did too when it was at Kings Dominion in 2019. You're always going to get limited buy in from crowd participation, especially with the teen and young-20s crowd, but it's not really for them. I hope you guys do get a Halloween event, even if it's just a Tricks & Treats Fest like everywhere had last year. As far as I'm aware, Cedar Point is the only park in the chain to have announced a proper Haunt so far. The fact that you have October hours announced already is a good start (many parks in the chain haven't posted their post-Labor-Day schedule yet). As for a new major ride for VF.....keep the dream alive, man LOL.

I'm not sure if it's supposed to be this Dr. Diabolical, but yeah if it is, definitely a deep dive...the character has only had one comic appearance, in 1968. Either way, while I'm not a huge fan of dive coasters (they never seem to do very much and this does not appear to be an exception), great addition to a park that I one day hope to get to. Though I am confused as to the 7-across seating...why not just go with the standard 6 or 8?

Really? I booked this room like 2 weeks ago and plenty of places have their vacancy signs lit. I have no doubt about the weekends being booked up, but there's definitely space to be had on this Wednesday. Either way, in all my years of coming down here I've never seen it this bad, even on a weekend, except for like 4th of July or Memorial/Labor Day weekends. On a side note, as my hotel is literally one block away from Adventure Pier, I decided to go back right at closing to see if the line for Great White had died down. It had... I had a two train wait for row 4 (front would have been like 10 trains). Eh...it's better, but still quite headache inducing. Those Millennium Flyers or Timberliners can't come soon enough.

Apparently even Morey's isn't immune from the "everywhere is packed every day of the week" that is affecting all parks this summer. Despite pretty much every ride running (notable exceptions being Ghost Ship, Zoom Flume, and the Graviton) without any capacity restrictions, almost every single one of them had lines spilling out of the established queues, on a *Wednesday* night. Thus, no rides for me tonight. Full "report" and plenty of pictures of the massive lines when I get back to a computer.

Just makes my thousand dollar all season platinum FL+ all that more valuable. No complaints from me.

I got my voucher but I can't remember the last time I actually spent a cent in the park oh well

Is Flash Pass out of the question? You really should get a Flash Pass, at least Gold level if not Platinum.