Canobie Coaster

^ I saw Steel Force run three trains on my first visit to the park back in 2005 and even with that Steel Force had a 15-20 minute wait, which is insane for Dorney. I think I've only seen any of the Cedar Fair Morgans run two trains recently.

Awesome to see more night closings this year so night rides won't be as hard to come by!

One of the good things (for attendees of Holiwood Nights) is that CoasterMania is the same weekend so that may help keep crowds down at Holiday World. Last year, Holiday World set a record for the most people at the event and it caused Voyage to have 45 minute lines during ERT between the crowds and distancing.

I'll be really interested to hear how much they retracked Predator.

I'm glad they got a reopening date. It's nice being able to pop into this park to ride Comet when I'm up in Lake George for a weekend.

Prowler was running much rougher in 2018, but it had a little more airtime. In 2020, it was smoother but lacking in the airtime department.

My favorite invert overall and for airtime is OzIris. That one had a half dozen airtime moments plus forceful inversions and great theming. I wish Cedar Fair ran all their Morgan hypers like Steel Force.

Thanks!

I give my nod to Wonderland Eurasia/Ankapark. 17 coasters and wow.

Worlds of Fun I wasn't originally planning on visiting Worlds of Fun this past summer, but it became a necessity if I wanted to make Orion my 1000th coaster. After Diamond Back was closed at Frontier City, I'd be short one coaster. So I squeezed Worlds of Fun into the trip to shamelessly get the Cosmic Coaster kiddie credit I missed in 2018. I had heard this coaster was off-limits for adults back then, but I knew several people who recently got the credit with no issue. But I made sure to hit all my other favorites at Worlds of Fun as well. My favorite coaster there is still Prowler, even if I think it's overrated. The ride was running smoother than it was in 2017, but the airtime was lacking, particularly on the outward leg. The second half was the only place I consistently got pops of airtime throughout the train. I still love this coaster's setting and it's clear this was the inspiration for Mystic Timbers. 7 out of 10 I have no 2020 photos of Prowler, so here's one from 2018. Patriot is probably my least favorite invert, but it's still a fun ride. Most of the inversions aren't all that powerful, but the zero-G roll is floaty and the ride is glass smooth. I also love the candy cane paint scheme. 7 out of 10 Timber Wolf had a lot of retracking before my 2018 visit and the ride is still running similarly. The ride is pretty bumpy towards the back, but it's fairly smooth up front. The ride is trimmed quite a bit, but there are a few pops of airtime scattered about. 6 out of 10 Mamba dominates the park's skyline. Of the trio of Cedar Fair hypers, I think Steel Force is head and shoulders better than the other two. Mamba has the same issue as Wild Thing. The mid-course trim saps the ride of all its speed for the return run, killing the airtime. The ride is very smooth and the first two hills do give some great floater airtime at least. 6 out of 10 Unfortunately, a lot of the non-coasters were closed. That included the water rides and the two best flat rides in Detonator and Cyclone Sam's. Boomerang was also closed. That in itself wasn't an issue for me, but the path past Boomerang was closed. So Mamba was at a dead end that required you to navigate around the entire park. Since I ended up walking onto all the coasters, I ended up leaving early and starting the drive to Holiday World. Worlds of Fun isn't my favorite Cedar Fair park, but it's similar to Dorney in that you can come here and ride some solid coasters without any waits.

I agree the employees at Busch/SeaWorld are super friendly, but I had a lot of trouble reaching someone over the phone at the San Antonio park when I tried calling them in December to ask a question the day of my visit.

I rode it over 100 times in 2020. It rode just like it did in 2018. If you ride on a wheel seat, you feel a few bumps, but it's still smoother than most wood coasters out there. It's on par with El Toro.

^ They most likely will move the Quick Queue date if you talk to Guest Relations. I purchased Quick Queue at the gate after being told every coaster was operating, but Steel Eel never opened so they were able to switch it to a different day when the ride was open.

Was there anything wrong with Ozark Wildcat? I was always under the impression the issue was the park not the ride.

I have to think any park that was allowed to open in 2020 shouldn't have any issue. With the vaccines and warmer weather sending people outdoors, the cases and (more importantly) hospitalizations should keep decreasing. The big question mark are the parks that couldn't open in 2020. Six Flags New England hasn't even offered an opening date yet.

^ When I was there in December, Texas Stingray closed when the temperature dropped below 50 degrees at night. I am unclear if that was temperature or mechanical (the park wasn't clear). I left at that point, but Steel Eel, Great White, and Wave Breaker were all still cycling. When I bought QQ at the park in December, Texas Stingray was still one ride at most even on the highest level.

Keep in mind, they did consider RMCing Predator in the time they were involved with Darien Lake. Granted, that was before the Lightning Rod fiasco, but I have to think a steel I-box conversion is a much less risky addition from a technology standpoint.

Looks like you got the same reply at the same time.

Out of curiosity I emailed the park asking about the status of Cheetah. The email I got back said the ride was being retired to make way for future expansion. That's a bummer the park is losing their one custom coaster.

Who ever would have thought that would be the most terrifying part of the ride?

Worlds of Fun decided to troll Valleyfair on their social media about never getting new coasters. Bold move since Valleyfair has actually gotten a new coaster more recently in the Cosmic Coaster.

Looks like they got the Big Apple Coaster fixed faster than expected and it is actually reopening later today. So get your twenty dollar bills and advil out.

Six Flags St. Louis Six Flags St. Louis is one of the less talked about parks in the Six Flags chain. But that isn't really fair to the park. Sure it's coaster lineup isn't in the upper echelon of the chain, but it's among the chain's prettier parks with all the trees. Plus, the park received a brand new sign in 2020 that looks awesome. My visits to Six Flags St. Louis took place in late June, shortly after the park reopened. This was back when there were still a lot of unknowns with the virus, so the park took an extremely cautious approach. During my visits, they were skipping every other row and cleaning trains after each cycle. And all of the indoor rides were closed. I noticed Six Flags parks stopped doing these three things as the season progressed and I imagine it was similar at the St. Louis park. But when people talk about Six Flags St. Louis, usually it's when locals talk about the hyper coaster they feel that they deserve. But news flash, there already is a hyper at this park in Mr. Freeze. And honestly, it's better than some of the hypers out there. The ride may be short, but it's intense. The inverted top hat is one of the most disorienting and oddly forceful elements in the world. It will mess up your equilibirum, give bizarre hangtime, and crush you with positive Gs all at once. I also love the LIM boost on the spike and the insane weightlessness it offers as you seemingly defy gravity. 8.5 out of 10 Unfortunately, Mr. Freeze was a capacity nightmare in 2020. When I saw the queue line starting at the building, I figured it would go quickly. An employee estimated it would take just 15 minutes. It took four times that. The ride was running just one train. They were skipping every other row, but because the back row had an issue with one of the seatbelts, they decided to operate the ride with just 4 rows rather than shift the available rows forward one. And often times one or two of those rows would be occupied by a Flash Pass user. Add in cleaning after each cycle and a few breakdowns and this ride probably had an hourly capacity of 70-80 riders per hour. American Thunder was running much slower in 2020 than it was during my 2018 visit. I'm not sure if it was the half-filled trains or something else, but it felt rather tame for a GCI. The pacing felt off and the airtime was weak pops for the most part, but it was smooth and still a fun ride overall. 7 out of 10 Screamin' Eagle was another one that let me down in 2020. This was actually my favorite ride in the park in 2018. I got some awesome front row rides with some great airtime. Plus I loved the ride's setting among the trees. That part didn't change, but the quantity of airtime did. Only a few of the hills offered airtime this year. The ride felt just as fast though, so I'm not sure if the ride wasn't fully warmed up or something. 6 out of 10 Surprisingly, my favorite wood coaster on this visit was actually the Boss. It was the opposite back in 2018. The Boss had some good airtime on the larger drops and several instances of good laterals. I didn't find the ride overly rough and I love the ride's setting in the woods. I was also secretly hoping the mid-course would be turned off so the return run would absolutely haul, but it was still active. That being said, the final bunny hills still deliver abrupt pops of airtime once the ride regains its speed. 7.5 out of 10 One of the other big surprises on my visit was the fact that Xcalibur was actually open. In 2018, the ride was in pieces and I doubted it would ever reopen. But the park actually gave this rare ride a full refurbishment. I had previously ridden an Endeavor on the fair circuit, but I had forgotten what types of sensations this ride offers. The ride is short, but that's probably deliberate because this has the potential to be an extremely nauseating ride. The most intense part of the ride was actually at the start as the ride gets up to speed and you rotate on your back. While the full rotation was cool, the way the vehicles rock prevents you from inverting as you'd expect. It's still a unique ride though and one I hope sticks around. 6 out of 10 My favorite flat ride at the park is still Superman Tower of Power. I love this drop tower's placement atop the hill and the drop packs a wallop. You drop like a rock and float the whole way down. 8.5 out of 10 Since it was quite hot, I also made sure to ride the park's two water rides. The Log Flume was one of the earlier Arrow ones, so it wasn't overly exciting. The drops were small and shallow, but you could tell this was previously the park's star attraction considering it had two troughs side by side if needed. 4 out of 10 Thunder River was a game of Russian Roulette that I lost. I really wanted to get soaked. But I came off bone dry. Meanwhile the group I was with got hit by every single rapid and came off soaked head to toe. I was envious. 5 out of 10 B Because of the miserable throughputs of their attractions, I barely had time to hit Ninja and Batman before closing, so I don't have photos of them from 2020. So I'll show my 2018 ones instead. Ninja was a complete walk-on, probably because of its reputation. I don't hate the ride since my head clears the top of the OSTR, but it definitely has some bad transitions. But I do enjoy the pop of air on the drop and the insane headchopper with the chain return. 5 out of 10 I deliberately saved Batman for the end of the day since I suspected it would have a putrid capacity. And I was right. This one was about on par with Mr. Freeze. Batman was also running just one train and skipping between rows. This turned a wildly efficient B&M into one of the most inefficient rides from a capacity standpoint and it took about a half hour with just 40 people ahead of me. However, this is one of the best Batman clones. I love how this one still has the black paint scheme and this one felt like it was running quite fast. I was greyout out during the first half and my legs were tingly in the second half. 8.5 out of 10 Six Flags St. Louis was my first Six Flags park after covid in 2020 and it was interesting to see how the chain's operating policies evolved from this point. I completely understand why the park did what they did at the time, but I'm glad Six Flags adapted as they learned more information about the virus and how it hasn't seemed to transmit in outdoor amusement park setting such as this.

The apocalypse has happened. Mission Ferrari is finally testing! I'm not sure if we can link the video I'm seeing going around Instagram, but it's there if you search for it.

That first ride is a blur because of how quick you tear through that layout. It seems like the structure was the big issue lately, which likely got worse with time. My August visit missed the ride by a week. Dollywood's rides felt normal during the pandemic, but choosing to skip the shows felt wrong given their quality. Unfortunately, it had no narration but it was still cute. I can't wait until the trees grow in Wildwood Grove so it's actually a grove like the name suggests.