singemfrc

Yeah with most rides you can reserve as much as you want, but for a few rides you can only reserve once - X2, Superman, TC, YOLO, and Revolution. For Twisted Colossus and Revolution it's because of popularity; the newest ride or two are always limited. X2 and YOLO have always been limited because of station design and ride capacity. I doubt YOLO will ever change and I'm sure X2 never will since it's been that way since 2002. Superman used to be unlimited until about a year ago, they finally (correctly) realized that the Flash Pass setup was really throwing a wrench into the queue. I do agree with the single reservation limit but I dont think they should require platinum on that. Revolution and Superman require platinum, but X2, YOLO, and TC only require gold. X2 is the only one that costs extra to reserve, $10. Personally I recommend going with gold because in my experience the difference in wait time between gold and platinum ranges from negligible to nonexistent. You can start your day with Revolution (since that line builds up fast and never really dies) and then go to Superman after that and get both of those out of the way fast, and then flash pass around the rest of your day. It usually takes at least an hour for most people to find their way to Superman, so if you get there fast you can even get several walk-ons. Once it builds up a queue though it moves very slowly. Bonus tip: if you aren't a VR fan, you can sometimes skip some or all of Revolution's line to ride without VR. Sometimes they run a "single rider line" which doesn't use VR (and mostly uses the front row when available since they cant use VR in the front row) and sometimes they just randomly pull out non-VR riders when you near the loading platform.

Hey just now got around to reading this, what a great TR. Glad I got to live some of it along side you. I used to take Amtrak a lot when I was younger, I havent done it it years but this TR makes me want to do it again. I have nothing but fond memories of it. It takes longer than flying, sure, but I always found it far more relaxing. Weird about your Dole Whip. Sounds like they were buying them from Magic Mountain temporarily or something, as that's how I've heard the cheap ones MM serves to be described. When I was at DLR last year my Dole Whip was like the good ones you described, it was creamy pineapple with little chunks of pineapple in it and everything, it was amazing. Wonder if they were out of supplies and were substituting or something.

Well, if you think its odd that people refer to it as YOLOCoaster, you obviously don't frequent this thread much. It usually takes me a second before I realize what someone is talking about when they call it by its real name. Like someone just said earlier the best thing to do is budget the money for a flash pass, but don't prepay. Get there and see how busy it is and then buy one if the lines are longer than you like. I have a feeling that after your first ride on X2 you won't be so enthusiastic about repeat rides (It's a lot of fun, but can be very painful on the legs) - but if you want to ride it alot, hit it right when the park opens and then come back in the evening when the crowd usually dies down. Be aware that to use flash pass on it you must pay $10 per reservation (ordered at the FP office). I think they used to limit it to one per day, not sure if they still do.

It is a Four Dimensional coaster as the seat spinning accounts for the 4th Dimension. The "5th Dimension" thing is a Six Flags marketing gimmick, they are referring to the fire and audio, somehow they consider that a dimension. ZacSpins like Green Lantern or Insane and FreeSpin coasters like Batman at SFFT are also technically 4 dimension coasters, but the original Arrow/S&S coasters X/X2, Eejanaika, and Dinoconda are the ones that are most commonly referred to as such - because they were the first, but also and perhaps more because they're the only ones where the seat spinning is predetermined and controlled by the track.

Well to their credit they have been running both stations a lot more lately than they used to. It does help.

SFDK already shut it down in response to KBF and CGA shutting theirs down. They renamed it and turned it into a generic zombie maze removing all asylum references.

Actually that sounds a lot like the end of YOLOCoaster.

That would be pretty pointless.

They caved...to coal miners?

And in case that worries people, I'll quote this:

He posted that in multiple threads. Someone in the SFMM thread pointed out there's a new LSM Premier in Qatar that it is likely headed for.

Yeah, I noticed that on my last visit too. With as much crap as the crews at MM (deservedly) get elsewhere, the TC crew should be loudly applauded. They literally sprint to try and make the trains duel, they hustle - and it's very much appreciated. The X2 crews remain solid, too. Before TC came along they were usually the best, now they are a solid 2nd place, still doing a great job every time I see them. Pretty much every other crew in the park looks like they could care less. Yeah thats another thing I noticed. I had never ridden it either for the exact same reason but happened by it right when they were about to open it so I thought what the heck. Same experience - light misting of the face but the cuffs of my pants legs were soaking wet. Probably gets worse as the day goes on. From now on I remember to roll up my pants before riding...or just not ride.

Just head straight for Joker when the park opens and you should accomplish that no problem.

Also Cedar Fair CEO Matt Ouimet has said that they want to always keep GhostRider as original as possible due to it being one of the last rides Walter Knott helped design. Boy am I glad they did. I think it's perfect the way it is right now. I never got a chance to ride it when it was originally great, so I always imagined how great it used to be, but I had no idea until I got on it this month. Also, isn't Jeff Gahagan fascinating to listen to? He is very tight lipped during group Q&A's, but if you get him one on one or in a small group he is just a wealth of fascinating stories and details. No thank you. See above paragraph. You really should try Ghost Rider. I don't know how many parks would be willing to invest the time and money like KBF did to really overhaul the whole ride like that but GCI sure proved they can do it and do it right.

So the day ended up not so bad. Despite Intel having a pretty large group with morning ERT on V2/Joker/Superman, I was still able to sneak over and grab a quick walkon of Joker right at rope drop before heading over to Kong. Kong ERT was not only for Season Pass Holders, but also anyone with a Samsung phone and anyone with an Intel ERT wristband - so quite a few people. Despite that, however, they were limiting the ride to about 160 PPH by using kind of a poor man's (old style) Disney Fast Pass system. They handed out about 40 of these tickets for each 15 minute period: Only the orange train was running. Yellow train still presumably in pieces. My first lap was with the VR headset. The VR program is actually kind of fun for the portion that takes place during the lift hill. You can move your head to aim and tap on the right side of the gear headset to fire, and there are a lot of available targets. Once the ride crests the hill, however, the game changes to "missles" mode and you're supposed to just look at a monster and the software will automatically fire missles at it. Realistically though, once this happens not too many people were even worrying about playing the game anymore..for me it was kind of like just riding with my eyes closed. In row 4 it wasn't terribly painful, but it was uncomfortable..the headset was repeatedly slamming into the restraints. Unlike the smooth ride on Revolution down at SFMM, these phones are taking a serious beating. A manager who was supervising the ERT claimed that the park actually paid full retail price for each of the Galaxy S7 phones. If that's true, ouch. They were asking everyone whether they preferred the VR version or the regular Kong, I voted for regular Kong. I went around for another lap however, to ride without the VR, and ended up in the last row. Full on Vekoma mode, that last row was all kinds of pain. Amazing that you can have such a varying experience just a few rows away on the same train. Also - I don't usually take the parking lot bus, but I was tired today and it was hot so I figured the A/C would be nice but big disappointment that there was no A/C on the bus on this hot day.

So much for sneaking in at Park opening, Intel has a huge group here for morning ERT in Sea and their group has access to the Kong ERT all day too

Not really, but it's sort of on the way there. The quickest path to Superman is to take the funicular railway next to the fountain, but heading left toward X2 and Viper, following the path under Revolution, going up the stairs behind Tatsu will get you there. It's probably the hardest ride in the park to get to. Having selected coasters available for ERT on WCB and needing to get between them as quickly as possible before ERT ends has made me pretty good at basically mapping my way through SFMM. The fastest way to get from Superman to X2 is walk straight back towards Ninja and take the Orient (Helpful Honda) Express down to the main plaza, and then head over to your right on the path towards Viper. Before you reach Viper you'll see an X2 sign on your right pointing towards the Chop Sixx and then another X2 sign pointing you across the bridge towards X2's entrance. X2 is one of the rides that is popular to run to when the park opens (Along with Füll Throttle and Twisted Colossus), so doing Superman 1st and X2 2nd is not recommended, you'll get long lines for X2. if Superman is a priority and you cant get platinum flash pass, then do Superman first and then hit X2 in the evening when the lines are shorter (Not applicable to Fright Fest days - X2 line stays long in the evening for those!). If X2 is your main priority, or it's Fright Fest, then go to X2 first when gates open to get at least one fast ride.

Not sure exactly what time I'll get there. Hopefully at opening, likely a little later. I won't be doing any mazes and I'll likely avoid any VR rides due to the slow loading process. Flash pass sadly won't happen, either. Thanks for the quick response and advice! Wish I had more time at the park. Actually if you ride Kong (The VR ride) but ride without VR, you'll be loaded quicker.

For Fright Fest, it gets busier the later in the day it gets and the closer to Halloween it gets. Friday the 28th will be a busy day, but probably a lot less busy than Saturday the 29th which will probably be the busiest. If you're just concerned with coasters, make sure to get there at park opening and you should be able to get them done by 8pm. Head straight for Joker first, then do Superman, V2, Kong, Medusa. If you're doing them at all for the credits, leave Cobra and Boomerang till last. Keep your mind (and wallet) open to the possibility of buying a Flash Pass. That will be a pretty busy weekend, so it might come in handy.

I heard the opposite for X2, that its nicer in the morning, and when I was there for west coast bash a few weeks ago I found that to be true, it did feel a little less rough in the morning. Its not really your head that gets hurt on that anyway, its your legs (specifically your calves as they slam into the seat on the last raven turn). Riding in the inside on the back row also helps. For Viper, ride in the first row of the last car in the train, it's the "magic seat" and smoother than all the rest. My recommendation nowadays for first ride of the day is Superman. Since they almost never run both sides, the line is among the slowest in the park, and Flash Pass is limited to Platinum, going there first works great for me. Most people don't go to that area in the morning, so if you head right to Orient (Helpful Honda) Express when the park opens, you should get at least 1-3 walkon rides on Superman.

This is interesting. From a distance the restraints don't look modified at all, I'll be interested to try it out tomorrow and see if they really are different at all.

This reminds me of the old days in AOL chat rooms when people would say stuff like "For free ______ press ALT+F4"

I'm a huge fan of the fourth one.

The reason I think someone might get hurt is because with their eyes covered, they won't have any way of seeing when a turn or inversion is coming or be able to brace themselves. You get hurt much easier when you're "rag dolling" instead of bracing. I don't think EVERYONE is going to get hurt, but I think it will inevitably happen to someone. I'm probably going on Sunday for the ERT, and I think I will brave it with the VR at least once and report back.

If that is indeed true, then I can see the ride becoming even less popular with the general public, who for some reason think it's worth waiting 80 minutes for. Yeah SFDK just confirmed it on their Facebook page showing video of riders in the original cars/restraints with the headset. This is going to be terrible. The silver lining I guess is that I think you're right that the popularity will fade even further, which may bring about Kong's imminent removal for something better. I also really wouldn't be surprised if someone really did get hurt (concussion, whiplash, etc) and go after the park. Even Vekoma has to be shaking their heads at this one (no pun intended lol). I wonder if part of the VR experience will be getting hit in the head so it will seem super realistic.