RAWKIN_coaster38

Yes! I have established some yearly "traditions" parks, but besides that, I am starting to formulate plans and ideas of places I want to hit next year. That might change depending on what gets announced in the upcoming weeks. I'm graduating with my Masters next year as well, so my "pie in the sky" would be to go to Germany and Europe as a graduation trip, and my significant other is committed to actually making that happen for me. Is your home park rumored (or confirmed) to be getting a new coaster next year?

We had early entry (and also got FL+) last Tuesday. Steel Vengeance and the other early entry coasters already had decently-long lines by the time park opened. Since you have FL+, I don't think there's necessarily a "better" or "worse" way of approaching the park. I would say that from our experience, SV gets better (faster) later in the day after it's warmed up more, so it wouldn't be terrible to wait on riding it (unless you're concerned about afternoon/evening bad weather). I will say it seems like Dragster always breaks down or closes for wind/weather, and both days we went, it went down and never came back up. For that reason, I'd say ride Dragster first if it's running at park opening.

The announcement is in 2 days? I'm definitely interested to see what's going to happen in the chain next year. After the amazing additions in the CF chain this year, if I were Six Flags, I'd want to draw back attention with some truly impressive additions. However, I'm certainly ill-equipped to say what's "best" for them, and it seems like they've done pretty well with the moderate-"mediocre," but consistent, additions. In my mind, I see this going one of two ways: jaw-dropping "buy flights to LA ASAP" new coaster, or massive letdown. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if these teasers were for another (larger) Skywarp marketed as a dueling coaster.

Do you remember if any of the sandwiches can be a kids meal? That's great to know if that's true! Both times I've been to Melt I was super hungry and still couldn't finish my whole sandwich!

If you consider Knott's a theme park, then definitely! Also, speaking of Haunt because I've been thinking about it a lot lately and it's coming up soon.... Just noticed the Haunt site is up and it looks like there is one new maze, two new scare zones, and one new show. Looks like CarnEvil is gone, so I'm not sure if the new maze (Chaos) is replacing it in location or if Chaos will be somewhere else. We actually liked CarnEvil, but I guess it was one of the oldest mazes? Sad that the vampire show is going away, hoping that the new show (Haunted Homecoming) will be just as great.

^^Funny, we were doing our backwards ABCs last night to test our sobriety. My significant other decided to sing the ABCs forwards and walk a straight line backwards. Needless to say, he did not pass the sobriety test. ^Yes! Do you like watching game shows?

First time riding GhostRider since the refurb. It definitely went from being one of the worst wooden coasters I’ve been on to one of the best! Biggest complaint was the retardedly slow-moving queue. I was so convinced they were only running one train because I could not fathom the line moving as slow as it was and still being two train op. Yes, there are two trains running. How in the heck is it so slow? Is it always like this? Even Hangtime line was shorter and faster. GhostRider was more like 1 hour but felt like 2!

I wonder if this late opening will affect the timeline of possible future attractions next year. We've gotten thrill rides the last three years so I'd be surprised if they got another one next year. Even a family ride could take some time to plan and build. Maybe they'll opt for a show next year? Or a waterpark addition and market it as a park addition. I'd love to see more animal exhibits especially since many of the park's animals are starting to die from old age, but I would be surprised if they did with the continuing scrutiny of aquatic parks and zoos. I guess we'll see. Isn't the Six Flags announcement usually in August?

I have multiple hidden talents that few know about. I need to brush up, but I can recite a stupid number of digits of pi. There is a Bible verse I can recite forward and backward (literally). I know a few roller skate tricks from when I played derby. I play the violin. I can paint well. I'm good at crocheting. There are others that even I forget. I so rarely do these talents or talk about them, most people don't know I can do them. Were you born with any deformities or uniquely shaped body parts?

^Don't forget cheese pizza (La Rosas), veggie sub (Subway), and veggie grilled cheese (grilled cheese place by Diamondback). So, mostly sandwiches (or foods similar to sandwiches), and I work for a sandwich place and make myself free sandwiches all the time.

Question about the waterpark: do they have showers? CP did, but when we went to KI waterpark, we couldn't find any. Since I'm posting anyway, I might as well share our experience at the water park a few weeks ago. I've lived near KI since Fall, 2016 and had never visited the water park. My friend hadn't either. She and I feel similarly about water parks. Standing in long lines in bathing suits is uncomfortable for us and nearly negates any thrill we derive from the slide experience. Plus, I'd just rather ride coasters. It was a Monday, but still pretty busy. We managed to ride 2 slides and crowd into the lazy river before heading over to the dry park. One of the two slides we did was the drop slide, can't remember what they're called. I had experienced my first drop slide at CP during CoasterMania this year, and while it was completely terrifying, I still loved it! I was disappointed to find that the KI drop slides are SUPER strict when it comes to jewelry, so my friend had to skip out of line to take our rings, earrings, and necklaces and hide them in the grass. At CP, there are 4 drop slides and 4 people can all drop at the same time. At KI, only one person could go at a time, which meant the second person to slide would basically be alone on the slide tower. The slide was still a lot of fun, but I'm not sure if I'd do it often because of these inconveniences. I have to say that the lazy river is probably the funnest and most wet lazy river I have ever seen. We went to the dry park after that. My friend has been afraid of coasters, but I somehow managed to get her on Diamondback, Mystic Timbers, Adventure Express, Bat, and Beast at night. We were in the second to the front row, and she LOVED it! Overall successful day! Oh, on the topic of park food, I have a mini rant. I've been vegetarian for about 12 years now and I seriously have been disappointed with the number of vegetarian options at theme parks in the Midwest. We wanted to go to Red's, but I found there were no vegetarian entreés on the menu! I've basically eaten at Subway the last few times I decided to eat in the park. Even Six Flags has locations that serve veggie burgers. Unless I'm missing something... WTF KI? It's not like I'm the only vegetarian on earth. I feel even worse for my vegan counterparts. By the time we got to Beast, she was feeling a bit more confident about riding coasters! My second time eating blue ice cream, and still as amazing as the first!

Rarely, but sometimes! With the college party atmosphere out here, the last few "card games" I've played involved lots of drinking. If you drink, do you like to play drinking games?

I can certainly testify for the cheaper cost of living in Ohio! I moved from the bay area where I was paying $1250 for a studio loft. Now, outside of Cincinnati I pay $525 for a one-bedroom. People from Ohio always ask me, "Why would you want to leave CA and come here?" Well, for one, I like the coasters out here better. But mostly, I can actually afford to live out here and go to grad school without taking out exorbitant student loans just to cover the cost of living. Gas is also a whole $1 cheaper than CA. I think lots of food is cheaper here too, besides wine. Biggest benefit of living in CA is the weather, and now with SFMM running year-round, someone can conceivably work a minimum-wage rides job full-time year-round. I've thought about my chances of securing a full-time job at KI or CP out here, but I imagine there are very few positions that actually hold employment year-round. If anything, I'd be better set teaching during the school-year and working at a theme park over the summer.

^Yay NorCal parks! Always great to see your guys' Seaworld TRs! The beluga experience is something I've always wanted to do. One of these days... Also, whenever I visit this thread I'm constantly reminded of my failure to post what could be great TRs from my summer trips. Maybe I'll get to it later this year. And a wedding at an aquarium? That sounds amazing! Didn't know they did that. I've always wanted to get married (or have a reception) at SFDK, even though any Six Flags wedding would be ghetto as f*ck. If my boyfriend and I reach that stage in our relationship, maybe we'd try for something at Cedar Point, since that's where we met.

Maybe it's the California in me but I sense a connection here...

How soon do these tickets usually sell out? I would need to save for flights and think it out a bit, but WCB has always been amazingly fun and I would love to go and take my bf with me!

Add me too! 5991 0066 0140 . Name is similar to my TPR name as well. I still play every day to some extent, but sometimes it's no more than spinning a few Pokéstops and catching a few Pokémon to keep my streaks going. Now that I joined a local Discord group, I finally have other people I can meet up with for raids so I FINALLY was able to catch some legendaries. Also met someone who plays and we've met up for two community days now, which has yielded my first shinies (still have yet to encounter or hatch shinies on non-Community Days). I still feel like I'm behind from people who started playing the first summer and continued, but thanks to the Kanto event (and multiple other events) I finally have all of Kanto but 5 (3 of which I just need a few more candies of their respective Pokémon and I can get, other two I probably need to trade), and I'm pretty far on Johto as well.

Update: I've lost almost 24 pounds since I started doing this at the end of January. I haven't been counting calories over the summer but I've still kept in mind what a good day of food for me looks like and have been keeping that goal really well (except when I was at Epcot, LOL, but I also walked 10k steps every day!). Thank you for the support on this thread and recommendation of MyFitnessPal! I'm close to my "goal" pre-grad school weight, but I'd like to keep going if I can! Me at Holiday World last Memorial Day, vs. last Saturday. I'm wearing a somewhat baggy shirt in the recent picture but you can still see the difference. I also made a drastic hair change (long and natural color --> short and purple/orange) and got more tan!

LOVE this! Cats and coasters trip reports? PLEASE make your own thread for this! 10/10 would read and would go gaga over cat photos!

The shed was a brilliant marketing strategy for the ride and still is incredibly effective with the GP. It was a relatively simple add-on the park made and it generated a ton of discussion. I'll always remember all the hype for the shed on opening day of the ride. Lots of people (GP and enthusiasts) still complain about how cheesy it is, but the fact that it's still a large topic of conversation just attests even more to it's effectiveness. Seriously, what other coaster do people talk about the brake run more than the coaster itself?

^IDK, honestly Busch Gardens' skyride kicks Cedar Point's a$$. Maybe we should make skyride ranking a thing. Great to hear the rave reviews about Railblazer. Can't wait until I can get back and try it, maybe later this year?

^&^^ Since it's your first time at the park, getting a Flash Pass is not a bad idea at all. You can wait until you get to the park to decide, if you'd like. There aren't many coasters, but because of that, on hot busy days they can accumulate decent lines. The good thing about SFDK is that there are other non-ride things to do during the busiest times (midday, mostly) that you definitely shouldn't miss. As a local, oftentimes I would kill time midday by going to see the shows and look at the animals while I waited for the majority of guests to leave the park. Since you aren't locals, I'd say opt for the Flash Pass. Also, V2 and Medusa are definitely worth doing. I've been on a fair amount of floorless coasters and Medusa is still my favorite.

Am I missing something or are the flyers gone gone? If so this is probably super old news (hey, I don’t check every thread on here that often), but I thought they had mentioned moving it when they talked about their plans for Camp Snoopy. What happened to it?

Anyone going to be at the park on Tuesday? Send me a message if you are and would like to get in some Fury rides with me!

I also want to point out that the drive can take significantly longer than 5 hours. Google says it's a 5 hour drive, but I can't recall a time I was ever able to drive from the Bay Area to LA in that amount of time. There was always traffic either in the Bay or in LA or both. Do the math, it's almost impossible to find that perfect window during the day where you're not hitting rush hour somewhere. Granted, it depends on where you're leaving from. SFMM is on the northern end of the LA area, so it's possible to skip a lot of LA traffic if you're leaving from there. Also, I highly recommend the other parks mentioned (especially SFDK). In fact, if you can only go to one Bay Area park, I'd definitely recommend SFDK or SCBB over CGA. Besides Railblazer (which isn't open to the public yet, so we shall see), I really don't think CGA is anything special. SFDK has a great B&M, most unique Impulse coaster, original Sky Rocket II, Joker RMC coaster, and the animals (dolphins!!). SCBB has been voted best seaside amusement park multiple times, and for good reason. But really, it's completely up to you depending on your time and resources. Despite living in Northern California for most of my life, I never made the trip down to the SoCal parks and back in one or even two days. I pretty much devoted two whole days outside of my planned park days to just driving. Those are extra days you could be spending at Disney, the other parks, or just exploring LA. Bay Area is a whole different experience with a ton to offer that you could totally plan a different trip for. Just things to consider.