cfilkins

For the folks who think fast passes have no impact on other riders, keep in mind that the rides have a fixed capacity... To have no impact, the capacity of the ride would have to be increased by the same number of expected fast pass riders per hour. If a ride has a capacity of 1000 riders per hour, that's 100 riders per 6 minutes. So, say there are 100 fast pass users in an hour...that means only 900 other riders will get on in that same hour. So in effect, it adds 6 minutes to the wait time, or 10%.

Thanks for the feedback I've been visiting CP about once a year for the past ten years, and I try to be careful to make a broad judgement about a park based on a single day's experience. Hopefully next year's visit will yield a much more positive experience

Really quick TR... I went on Sunday, and it was a a warm, sunny day...General observations: -The overall feel of the park wasn't as "nice" as in the past. Maybe it was just the sun getting to me, but I found the lack of shade over many parts of the lines rather absurd, and a few spots where the cooling fans had been removed made me scratch my head. And it looked like just about every coaster could use some fresh paint...everything just looked faded and worn. - Ride ops were definitely not on their game. Other than Maverick, most of the folks working seemed bored and uninterested. Gatekeeper and Millennium Force were both consistently stacking the trains throughout the day. - What happened to the DJs playing music in the queues for Raptor and MF? I recall there being live DJs there last year, and it made the waits slightly more enjoyabe (or at least suck slightly less). - Guests seem to get worse and worse each year that I go I've never seen guests so inconsiderate of others, and thinking that the rules don't apply to them before. This may have contributed to my earlier point, as I watched numerous folks on Gatekeeper seem to think that the ops weren't talking to them about putting hats in the bins, phones away, etc. Seriously, people... Ride observations: -Millennium Force is getting rough (or I'm just getting old). Rode twice, and both rides (one red train, one yellow train) felt like the wheels were square (maybe octagonal, at best) instead of round. But it was definitely not the smooth experience I recall from visits on previous years. -Magnum is still a lot of fun. Maybe I cut it some slack knowing it's an Arrow, but I sat in the front row, and had a really enjoyable ride. I'm a decent sized guy (5'8" 180lbs), and didn't have any of the thigh abuse other people mentioned. -Top Thrill is still a great kick in the pants. Finally snagged a front row ride, which I thought was a whole different experience than anywhere else in the train. - I still like Raptor, but that horrible transition into the brakes always ruins the rest of the experience for me. And I think that it consistently had the longest lines in the park - 2 hours for most of the day. - Gatekeeper - I found this surprisingly rough last year, riding in the middle and back. This year I rode in the front row on both sides, and it was a much smoother ride. I agree that it may not be as "intense" as some of the other coasters, but not every coaster has to be engineered at the limits of what the human body can handle. I think the twist at the top of the drop is a great start, and the overall rhythm of the coaster is enjoyable. - Maverick was being moody, being down a few times over the course of the day. But when it was running, it was definitely running. This is probably one of the most intense coasters I've ever ridden, and I can appreciate it in that way, but I'm not able to ride it more than a couple of times without needing a recovery period. I think this one was designed to push the limits a bit, and I think it would have benefited from a bit more design time, as I find the brake at the top of the hill in the second half (post-launch) to be a bit of a buzzkill, and is indicative that someone didn't do their homework (as originally evidenced by the removal of the barrel roll element between the rocks). - Blue Streak is great, if you like classic woodies. Having been a ride op on The Racer at Kings Island, I do have an appreciation for a good wooden coaster, but I can't say I necessarily enjoy them. In summary, I think CP needs to review the overall guest experience, as I feel it's degraded over the past few years. I won't bore everyone with a tirade against the FastLane system, but I do feel that implementing it may have helped the park bring in quite a bit of extra $, but at the expense of customer satisfaction. Guests who don't get it are penalized for not getting it, and some of the guests who do get it have an entitled attitude that the other rules don't apply. I'd love to see CP work to develop (or at least catch up with) innovative ways to improve the experience for everyone - displays showing wait times for the rides, more shade, fastpass for everyone (a la disney), etc. Or maybe I'm just getting old and grumpy...but as my children are approaching an age where they'll be able to enjoy CP, I just hope that there's an experience there for them to enjoy.

Does anyone know if they're still going to do the Christmas in July promo this year? When I go to the events page, there's no info there at all, but if I pull up a Google cached version of the site from earlier in July, there's a mention of it there. I'm planning a trip in a couple of weeks, and cheap admission would certainly help offset the cost of a fastlane pass And apparently, I need to get some new friends, as everyone I know is not a fan of rollercoasters (including my wife...and my oldest is only 41" tall, so he's got a little growing to do). Chris

Hey, guys, I'd love to make my first visit to meet everyone from TPR...any chance there some other Buffalonians that might be interested in carpooling up?

In the pics showing the differences in the wheel trolleys, I can't help but wonder how the new wheels will articulate with the curvature in the tracks. On the original X trains, you can see that the guide wheels have pivots on all 4 wheels. The new trains use a rigid frame which looks like it keeps all 4 wheels in the same positions relative to each other. I couldn't tell from looking of the whole assembly will then pivot to keep all 4 wheels engaged with the track or not... Sorry if I'm overthinking it, but I think we all know that historically, Arrow designs aren't know for their abilities to handle curves... Ok, looking back at the pic, I can see the pivot point well above the trolley. I wonder if this will make the rack much more sensitive to the track position now...