pianojohn

Just saw a blog post from Holiday World about their new tshirt design. Anyone see a problem with this?

Thinking of taking a quick trip there this spring/summer. How far is it from the airport? And what's the safest way to get there? I see taxis available but not sure how reliable. Also, is there a decent hotel nearby? And finally, what are the crowds like? Any need for FlashPass? Thanks to anyone who's been to this park!

This was my 1st mountain coaster so I really cannot compare it to others. I do know it was LONG with 4 lift hills. And the scenery was great. You can even see Wild Eagle from the top of one of the highest points.

I just got back from four days in Tennessee, and it was amazing. Since my husband and I both have off for Christmas, we decided to get away for the holidays. We stayed at Dolly's Dream More resort, and it was great. The park is beautiful at Christmas, there are a ton of shows, and the food is awesome. We got to ride everything we wanted, including Lightning Rod three times. Even got a ride on the new Rocky Mountain Coaster in Pigeon Forge. It is located less than a mile from Dollywood! Enjoy the pictures! The view from our hotel room The trains with no front on them. Amazing ride! Yes! And two trains running as well! The highlight: they now bake and sell the Cinnamon Bread IN THE HOTEL!

The new no front for Lightning Rod.

If you ever come to Hoop on a Thursday, Friday, or Saturday, yours truly will be at the piano!

Heading to Dollywood for Christmas this year! Any can't miss things in Pigeon Forge? We are spending 2 days at the park and 3 nights at Dreammore. The park is closed Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, so looking for things to do on the 24th. Thanks!

Totally agree! And they need to turn off the video feature at night since it never works when viewing. SV Video Day.mp4 Daytime video works great! SV Video Night.mp4 Nighttime? Not so much

Finally got my Steel Vengeance credits! Just returned from a quick trip home to Ohio for my 35th high school reunion! I was able to squeeze in a few days at Cedar Point, my home park and where I played piano for 5 seasons! Some quick points: Stayed at the Express Hotel which was recently updated. Nice room, close to the park, and relatively affordable. When I come back in September, I will stay at the Breakers. I bought FastLane Plus for Thursday since I wasn't arriving until after 4pm that day. If you're a Platinum Pass holder, you can buy FastLane Plus for the price of a regular FastLane! Saved me $20 AND hours of waiting in line! Did the Snoopy breakfast the 2nd day. Good food, fun characters, AND (the best part), I was able to park in the Breakers parking lot and use the Gemini/Magnum/Resort gate for early admission. This meant I was able to run to Steel Vengeance and be on the 2nd train of the day. If you're a regular park guest, you have to use the main entrance, and that is a LONG way back to the back of the park. Steel Vengeance. WOW. My first ride was very disorienting. Unless you ride in the front, you really cannot see what is coming up. For our 2nd ride, we opted for the back row. And we rode it at night. In my opinion, the absolute BEST night ride on a coaster and my new #1. It was just mind blowing! On to the pics! The obligatory front gate pic Finally here! Wow Wow again My first ride Hotel guests Breakers 2nd ride at night Food More lobby photos Rotunda Breakfast. And all you can eat! AND it was Snoopy's birthday! My front seat ride the 2nd day Photos you can only get when driving around the point So, when I rode Twisted Timbers in April, I wore a Steel Vengeance t-shirt. It was only appropriate to wear a Twisted Timbers t-shirt when riding Steel Vengeance!

Have fun everyone who is going! I have gone and it was a blast! And BE NICE to Robb! He doesn't have to do these bashes (and I am sure they are a pain in the....ashes!) so be cool!

Question: What's the easiest way to get from NYC to Rye? I am staying with friends in Woodside, so I can get to any subway train. Thanks!

Just got back from a quick trip to Worlds of Fun for my first time ever! Got there about 9:30 so was able to get in for the early season pass admission at 9:45. Thanks to the helpful advice received here, I was able to do Spinning Dragons with no wait, Patriot front row (no wait), Timber Wolf (the only person on the ride!), Mamba, and Boomerang. Prowler. OUCH. I mean seriously?? It felt like they forgot to tighten every bolt and screw on the track, so running over them was like being jack hammered at 40 mph. Has it always been this awful? Literally got to ride every coaster in about an hour and still had time for the log ride and train. Nice entrance though the walk from the parking lot seems long The carousel See? I am the only one on Timber Wolf! Yes. I rode this. Eh. Not impressed OK ride No. NO. NO. Painful from the first drop to the end. Thanks to FunPix and my Platinum Pass add on, these were all included!

Thanks for the advice! I was going to pre-purchase FastLane, but they charge a $5.95 convenience charge in the app that they don't charge in person. No thanks!

Some advice for a first time visitor! Coming to WOF next Saturday June 30th. I plan to arrive by 9:15 to use the early admission for Platinum Passholders. 1) What coaster should I ride first? Which one has the longest/slowest moving line? 2) I can only stay til early afternoon. Is it worth it to get FastLane for the day? 3) Any must do/must EATS in the park? Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Yes. I played piano at Cedar Point from 1986-1990. We did 6 25 minute shows a day, 6 days a week. Once you get into the groove of doing it, it's not that bad. I still play piano professionally (Walt Disney World for 19 years) and when the kids I am working with complain about having to do 5 20 minute shows a day, I just laugh.

If you want to lose all faith in humanity, read some of the "expert" responses to this incident on Twitter. Literally had to stop myself from calling out every idiot who seems to know better than the people who built the coaster. Some of my favorites: "Glad everybody is ok on #SteelVengeance collision, but @cedarpoint is easily the worst operated amusement park I’ve been to. " Translation: I didn't get to ride it, so the whole park sucks. " While I do feel for the people involved in the accident on the new ride #SteelVengeance, I do find the "compensation" for the people who had been waiting since early entry (5+ hours) to ride absolutely unacceptable. You can do better than that.." Hey....ever hear of a ride called Test Track? It didn't run properly for almost 2 FULL YEARS. "Breaking news! #SteelVengeance was working but down again! Another #CedarPoint #fail day. Seriously @cedarpoint a second day of this? Time for new engineers!" Because hiring a new engineer will magically fix every problem out there! And the best one of all: "Didn’t go in with Universal expectations, but Six Flags/Cedar Fair expectations. Embarrassingly below that. This makes Knott’s and Six Flags look like Disneyland." Replying to @***** @cedarpoint I've never been to those two, but I definitely agree." Sooooooooooo...you've never been to those two park but you agree. Hmm...I've never been to Paris or Germany, but using your rationale, they both suck. People

Just got back from a quick 3 day trip to VA. Was able to do Kings Dominion on Wednesday and Friday with minimal crowds and many rides on Twisted Timbers. Did Busch on Thursday and the park was PACKED which makes no sense. It was freezing cold (38 at the start of the day) and only got into the upper 50s that day. I know it was spring break week but I was still shocked. My thoughts: Rode Loch Ness with the new trains. Same experience and probably rougher. New trains not that much of an improvement. And since they were only running two trains, wait time was 30-60 minutes all day. Did Invadr again. Still pretty underwhelming ride. And with the shorter than normal trains, the wait times are always long. Saw 1/3 of the OktoberZest show. Since I worked in live entertainment at the park from 1994-97, I am VERY familiar with all of the shows. This was a disaster in my opinion. The lack of the iconic round stage (not thanks to ex VP of Ent) has been gone for years and with it the magic. The cast of 10 dancers worked hard, but using only 4 live musicians and a WAY TOO LOUD backing track was distracting. And the "featured" moment with the violinist doing a Cirque type rip-off solo was horrible. I don't even think she was in tune. Battle of Eire was not open. Again, WHY hold a press event a week prior where stories, videos, and pictures are published on the internet but your ride isn't ready to open? By comparison, Kings Dominion held their Twisted Timbers press event and then opened the coaster the next day. Now the biggest WTF for the day was the park's app. I downloaded it and tried to get it to work. However, it only works when on a wifi network. When I tweeted to the park to point this out, they wrote back " @BuschGardensVA Apr 5 Sorry for the confusion. We do not have park-wide WiFi. We only have WiFi at the front gate." So essentially, the app (which they encourage you to use) is totally worthless. UGH!!

They are SO close: $904 of $20.0M goal Raised by 50 people in 9 days At this rate, it will only take 60+ years to reach their goal!

Of course, they deleted my comment from the GoFundMe page since I wasn't blowing smoke up their ass! $20 million? Why not ask for $500 trillion! Either way, it's NOT ever going to happen! Oh, and the "brains" behind this scheme didn't even graduate from CCC, a local community college. Yeah. It'll work!

Since you mentioned airfare: If you're looking for cheap airfare, you don't mind driving a few hours and you're near southern California drive to Vegas and fly Frontier to Cleveland. Just check the site every day and sign up for their email list and you'll be able to fly for like $30 each way per person if you're patient and slightly flexible. From my experience, Frontier is hit or miss. Sometimes flights leave on time, other times they leave late. Once I had a 10 am flight. When I called to check the status the night before, I was informed it had changed to 7am. No email, no text. LOTS of pissed off passengers. By the time you add all of the extra costs (carry on, check bag, seat assignment, all of which cost extra), it usually ends up costing about the same to fly with a more reputable airline.

Hmmm...good question! Here's hoping for the following: King's Dominion and Busch Gardens VA in April during Spring Break week (April 2-8) Cedar Point in June for Coastermania (my 4th or 5th year in a row!) Worlds of Fun and possibly Silver Dollar City in late June. I am in Nebraska for a theater conference and these two parks are within a 3 hour drive. Hoping to finally visit these two! Possibly: Dollywood. I have a friend doing a show there, and I have not been there in many years. Hoping to make the trip AND really hoping Lightning Rod is running! Fall/Winter possibly back to CA. Although I live in Orlando and work for WDW, I have been to Disneyland and Knotts almost yearly for the past few years. Free admission into Disneyland with my cast ID and Platinum Cedar Fair pass makes it all worthwhile! That's it for now!

Ditto I have tweeted BGW twice with no response. I'd really like to know their April hours since Easter in on April 1st and King's Dominion is open that entire next week. I am hoping to fly up and marathon ride Twisted Timbers but also bop down to BGW if they're open as well.

I've been going to Coastermania for a few years now. We always end up going to Cameos for pizza following our Thursday night at the Point. If Coastermania is June 1st, then the park closes at 8pm on Thursday. Even if it's a week later, the park still closes at 8. I think Cameos is open until 10pm. And since you're already downtown, a trip to Tofts Ice Cream is a must! http://www.cameopizza.com/

Although I don't think I will step foot inside the attraction, I wonder what the reaction will be? I imagine it will be strong on both sides and nothing in the middle. Either lots of boos or cheers. Or both. And then fights breaking out. Any bets on how long before they close it to revamp?

Just got back from a weekend at Disneyland and Knotts. Question: anyone going to Knotts Merry Farm after the 17th or so? They have an awesome tshirt that was sold out, but they are supposed to get more in. They sell them in a booth in Ghost Town. The price is $9.99 and it has Snoopy on the front. I would LOVE one in size large. Just message me if this is possible! And if you need anything from the Florida Disney parks, let me know!