GCS

Love the skyride at BGW. I miss the old days where you could stay on the ride from station to station if you wanted (i.e. they attended asked if you were getting off or going to the next station). It also used to run in both directions a long time ago. BGW is a beautiful park no doubt. Their ride line up is solid. I wish they had about 2 more coasters but hey I'll take what I can get. I think Tempesto and Mach Tower were wasted money though. Mach Tower is always down and is just an OK drop tower. Tempesto while a neat ride is too short and a nightmare capacity wise. I think the funds spent on these 2 rides should have been invested in one main coaster instead. Would love to see something come back to the old Drachen Fire spot but realize that may never happen. Still a great park! Nice TR.

Shaping up nicely. Just seems so weird to see that area so "uncovered" now.

I definitely agree about the water parks, they really boost business. I have a client who is a vendor at KD and has been for some 15-16 years now. Just about a year ago he was finally allowed to expand into the water park side of KD for his business and all I can tell you is that his business tripled by adding a location in the water park. Over the summer that's where the people are, outside of the summer they come back into the ride side of the park.

It would be great if they got a nice B&M people mover. I think a wing coaster would be cool to add to the line up at KD. I hope its not a flying coaster (not a fan even though I thought Manta was great). A launched flyer .. please no thanks. Would love something like Fury 325! I do believe they handled this announcement very poorly (i.e. the Snoopy expansion). I feel like they really led people on that it was going to be something major and well this was a huge let down. Happy for the little kids and Snoopy area but seriously KD should have gotten a new coaster for next year (a good sized one). My guess is KD will not get anything major for a few more years. CF seems content to constantly add to CP, KI, CW, Canada's Wonderland but not KD. Yes it got Maxair this year but it lost Shockwave to do it. It got i305 some time ago which I was shocked about but not thrilled about either, not a big fan of the ride to be honest. However it did get a big coaster. KI has gotten what 3 in that same time frame? Anyway just have to wait and see what happens and just be happy with what we have for now. Hell at least VA has two pretty damn good parks within hour and half of each other. I am thankful for that!

Agreed on the assigned seating crap that is going on now. I hadn't experienced this before until I went to Carrowinds on vacation. Luckily since the day I went it wasn't super busy and they were relatively lax about enforcing it when you asked to sit in a specific "area" of the train i.e. the back etc. If you asked for a specific row they said no. Honestly assigning seats does not move people through any faster from what I have seen. Besides most of the time the people who were told to go to row X never went there anyway. So why bother with it.

Maverick and Magnum both. Incredibly rough and painful for me and I won't ride them.

Hate to pile on here but I will! Went to Carrowinds for the first time last Friday. We were 4 hours behind schedule last week due to the storms that hit VA and we had trouble getting out of town due to all the damages. Anyway we finally got there around 3:30ish I believe and I hit Fury first and let me say it deserves all the accolades it gets. I got 2 rides in about 15 mins and then moved on to the rest of the park. Finished up my night with 2 more rides in the front row and I must admit this is the one coaster I actually prefer the front on. Normally I am back row rider. While it did not overtake MF as my #1 (it probably should have) I would take this ride over ANY ride (or more than 1 of the rides) in my home parks (KD & BGW) right now. Loved EVERYTHING about it except the brakes on that one hill in the second half of the ride. Yeah I know if they weren't on the train would get launch off the track - I get it. Simply a fantastic ride from top to bottom and I hope B&M makes more like it because "clones" of this one would be a good thing IMHO. I should mention I am not an I305 fan. I think its a good ride but nowhere near MF or Fury level - not even close. Overall the park was fantastic. Its a smaller park which makes it much easier to walk and do everything. The park was clean, everything running well, staff was great. I just can't complain about anything. There was one minor incident on the Carolina Cyclone (I think is the name) where a lady got into a huge argument with the OPs. She had a purse strapped across her should (diagonally) and insisted on riding with it. She showed it was clipped to her belt loop but they said no repeatedly. This went on for about 10 mins and they kept telling her no - lose the purse or get off the ride. The lady eventually gave in and took the purse off and gave it to her husband. She was being kind of an a$$. If anyone has any doubts about going to CW don't. Get in the car and head down there you will have a good time.

Awesome. Thanks!

Can anyone give me feedback on how busy things "might" be next Friday? We are driving down from Richmond on our way to Atlanta and are making a stop here for one day only. We probably won't get there until 12/12:30 and will stay til close (8pm from what I see). Hoping to hit all the coasters but naturally want as many laps on Fury as I can get. Don't want to spend the $$ on fast pass unless I have to but with our time being limited I may not have a choice if its busy.

Essentially I expect any park I go to regularly to get nothing until it is officially announced. Easier that way.

I'm not thinking they will get anything at all to be honest. Eventually yes they will get a new coaster but it will again be something smaller. I don't CF will be putting anything like any of those coasters at KD. I get the vibe they don't want to make the "coaster investment" there but instead are doing many other things. Not complaining as all the things they have gotten KD needed just saying a nice main event coaster would be great to have is all.

My issue with KD is that with the exception of Volcano and Avalanche none of the coasters there make me want to come back and ride over and over. Hurler - much too rough and usually only ride once or none at all RY - not bad will usually ride it 1-2 times Grizzly - too rough IMHO and once is enough IJ - boring I305 - good ride but a little rougher (the whips left and right are painful for me) than I would like 1-2 rides maybe Dominator - its ok but it rattles and bangs around more than any other B&M I have been on 1-2 rides max Ricochet - only fun to ride with my kid so we can squish each other! KD is missing that big people eating coaster aka B&M hyper, giga, wing rider etc. The kind you can ride over and over and over again. It can be Intamin I don't care. While I305 is fun its just not something I can do 10 times a visit. With the exception of Alpengeist I could ride all of the coasters at BGW over and over again for the entire day. While I do not feel the park has been "stiffed" or "ignored" because they have gotten a lot of other great park investments as has already been mentioned I do feel like coaster wise they have been ignored. CP and CW have both gotten MASSIVE statement piece coasters. KI has gotten Diamondback and Banshee also very good rides for the park. Canada's Wonderland has gotten Leviathan and Behemoth two massive rides as well. Yes I know many other CF parks have gotten little over the same time but I do feel like KD is good sized park with good attendance and deserves a big stmt ride. A large wingrider or Fury 325 clone near the front gate or visible from I-95 would be great but it needs to be a people eater for sure.

I can see them getting a giga but it won't be "bigger" than MF. Meaning it will be shorter in height, slightly slower in speed, and shorter in length. I am just tired of KD getting left behind in the big ride dept. Granted they got a giga a while ago but Carrowinds got a B&M hyper and then a giga 5 years later. KD got a giga and then uhh oh yeah Maxair but lost a coaster too (not that losing SW bothers me at all). KI got a B&M hyper and then a nice invert 6 years later and now probably a giga. Wonderland has gotten 3 new coasters in 6 years. I guess since KD got Dominator from GL they held off on anything else. Rumor mill suggests all they are getting is Hurler retracked (not redone) and nothing else. I shouldn't complain to be honest since I do have both KD and BG to go to within an hour from my home. EDIT - I may be in the minority here but if I am making a trip to CP then I am definitely going to add an extra day to go to KI as well. Both parks are so worth the visit. I enjoyed both them a lot when we went about 4 years ago

Anyone know the best discount tickets for CW? We will be going for one day in June after the kids get out of school.

I must be the only person on the planet that hates Maverick. It is way too rough for me.

Sadly Magnum is painful enough for me that I won't ride it now. It is a great ride with fantastic placement in the park. It is an iconic coaster for sure but it just hurts to ride it which is a shame. I will say I am intrigued by the rumors of flipping Mantis into a sit down traditional coaster or floorless coaster.

My son and I are headed to SFA this week while on vacation are there any better ticket deals than the $39.99 online price right now?

Well we are pulling out tomorrow at 8am to make our trek to OH. We will be hitting up KI on Sun and then head to Sandusky on Mon for the rest of the week. We will be hitting CP on T, W, or R - basically some variation of 2 days. It all depends on the weather. I'll be doing Fast Lane at both parks for myself only. My son rides some coasters (he is 9) but not all so whatever ones he wants to do we will just wait in the regular line for vs. paying another $50 for him only (wife and daughter don't do coasters). Looking forward to the parks as I have never been to KI and its been about 8 or 9 years since I went to CP. Greg

Well we went about 10 days ago and chose to pay the $5 to go through it and I can tell you I thought it was quite well done. The area was constructed very well the dinos looked great and my kids really enjoyed it. It sucked paying $20 for the 4 of us but I did think it was worth it to do ONCE. However I would NOT pay to do it again. Greg

With kids still in school and you going on a Wed you should have pretty light crowds and be able to do most anything you want with little wait or trouble. Have fun.

Let me show you my "O" face!

Hmm interesting. Would LAX still be the best airport for us to come into then? We are also tossing around the idea of moving SFMM to the end of our trip so we would drive up from SD on Thursday night and go to SFMM on Friday and then fly back to Richmond, VA on Sat (I guess from LAX) Greg

Well we will be there 2 nights I am sure. The day we arrive (Fri) and then Sat night after we are done at the park as I see no way in the world we will want to Drive 3+ hours to SD late Sat night. Greg

Shark can I ask the reason for this ... is cost, bad area of town, or traffic? Thanks Greg

Did they leave the light on for ya? (sorry couldn't resist) Thanks for the input folks. I'll start checking those places out. Greg