Canobie Coaster

^ Yes. The remaining ones are really spread out. 1 in North America, 1 in Brazil, 1 in Europe, 1 in Japan, and 1 in South Africa.

Lake Compounce used to have Garfield as a mascot, which isn't too surprising considering they're owned by the same parent company as Kennywood. He used to be incorporated into the logo of Wildcat, so outside of a coaster t-shirt for that ride, I don't recall there being any Garfield merchandise. Another park with Garfield as a mascot is Silverwood, but I wasn't looking for merchandise related to him. Thanks! I don't recall Old Mill smelling that bad when I rode it.

Meanwhile the truck driver was probably confused why he was being tailed by someone with a camera.

It really is. It's unlike any other coaster out there.

Kennywood Kennywood often receives a lot of flack. Quite a bit of it is warranted, but I do genuinely enjoy this park. It has one of the most unique ride lineups in the world, blending rare classics with modern thrillers. And it is a beautiful looking park with all the trees and location on the ravine. I'll start by burying the hatchet. The park has bad operations. I think that's where a lot of the criticisms originate. A lot of it is warranted. Rides often run just one train. Rides are often closed, sometimes for an entire season (Steel Curtain being the biggest offender in 2020). And the park will close ride lines and/or the park early. However, more often than not, the staff is friendly and they dispatch trains quickly. They're just dealt a poor hand when the coasters are only running one train. It stung to miss out on Steel Curtain. I purposefully delayed my trip to Kennywood towards the end of the 2020 season hoping their newest coaster would open. The most action I saw was a test run one morning about an hour before the park opened, but that was it. Not only was Steel Curtain closed, but the entire Steelers Country area was closed. I guess the park didn't want to get the hopes of Steelers fans up before their blowout playoff loss to the Cleveland Browns. Let's talk about covid-19 precautions for a minute. This had a pretty big impact on Kennywood for several reasons. One, several rides were closed for 2020. I already mentioned Steel Curtain, but several flat rides like Black Widow and Kangaroo were closed for the year as well. I'm not sure if that was due to maintenance, staffing, or distancing concerns. The one that was closed due to distancing concerns was Noah's Ark. I completely understand the park's reasoning, but just know that if you want to distance, Kennywood probably isn't the best park. Several rides had narrow switchbacks that were still packed in with people. Thunderbolt and Old Mill were the two biggest offenders. The lack of distancing in the queue lines was one of the reasons I kept reriding Phantom's Revenge. Not only is that coaster one of my favorites anywhere, but the queue line is a straight shot so it's very easy to distance there. Plus, this was the first time I ever saw the ride running two trains so the line absolutely flew. One of the biggest things that makes Phantom's Revenge special are the trains. I can't think of a hypercoaster with looser restraints. The lap bar rests a few inches above my lap, which is shocking considering how powerful this coaster's airtime is. The ride begins with a painstakingly slow Arrow lift hill that gives great views of the park. That's followed by a twisting first drop that gives some great laterals and the pullout piles on the Gs. That then leads into the signature second drop. This drop is ever bit as good as its reputation suggests. If you're in the back (best place to ride), you get ejected at the start of the drop. But the drop seemingly never ends. So the second half of the drop caused my stomach to drop like a drop tower. I think it's the fact the same angle is maintained for such a long time and because Thunderbolt obscures the bottom. And speaking of that, the headchopper with Thunderbolt has to be one of the best in the world. At the bottom of the drop, you are pummeled with positive Gs and you are hauling. And it makes sense, I think the elevation change on this ride is in the ballpark of 260-270 feet (160 foot lift, 120-130 foot tall second hill, 220 foot second drop). The following overbank often caused me to greyout from the positive Gs and then Phantom flies out of the ravine into an airtime filled finale. Most hypercoasters have giant camelbacks. Phantom forgoes all that and immediately jumps to tiny bunny hills. So you take these hills far faster than you probably should and they all offer powerful ejector airtime no matter where you're sitting. Combine that airtime with the ride's unique setting, open restraints, and a glass smoot ride, and it's not hard to see why this is one of my favorite coasters. 10 out of 10 Phantom's Revenge isn't the only coaster to use the ravine. You also have the aforementioned Thunderbolt. I prefer coasters that focus on airtime. Thunderbolt offers a few moments in both the front and back, particularly on the final two drops, but where this coaster excels is in the lateral department. You are pinned to the side on the completely unbanked bowl section in the middle of the ride. This is why the park forces a two rider requirement on Thunderbolt. 7.5 out of 10 Jack Rabbit is the other coaster that also uses the ravine. And this coaster is a true one trick pony. Thankfully that one trick happens to be one of the best elements on any coaster, the double down. This coaster has a fixed lap bar and relatively loose seatbelts, so you are launched into orbit on the double down. 7 out of 10 Racer is the weakest of the park's three wood coasters, but it's still a solid coaster. The racing element is excellent and if you ride in the back, you have a few pops of airtime and then a surprising ejector moment on the final drop. 7 out of 10 The trickiest ride to experience in 2020 was Sky Rocket. While the other coasters were pretty good about running two trains, Sky Rocket only had one available. And that was a major issue with the park skipping rows due to social distancing. I made sure to hit this ride first in two of my three visits. Because of its location at the front of the park, the line would form immediately after opening and never subside. And that was a shame because Sky Rocket is a fun coaster. The launch is decent, but I love the elements that follow, particularly in the back. The top hat offers two distinct moments of airtime- floater going up and then ejector airtime on the way down. That's followed by a forceful overbank and a hangtime filled zero-G roll. The second half is slower, but it starts with a steep drop off the MCBR and another awesome zero-G roll. The slalom section is pretty dumb, but the final bunny hills gave a few pops of airtime since the MCBR wasn't biting too hard. 8 out of 10 Honestly, Sky Rocket was a bigger pain to ride than Exterminator. Because Exterminator is in the back corner of the park, it was possible to ride that a few times early in the day before the queue built up. The spinning seemed to have a lot more resistance than usual (the cars really groaned when they tried to spin), but if you had an off-balanced car and got it going, the spinning wouldn't stop. Combine that with the sensory deprived darkness and you have a solid ride. 6 out of 10 Also, I both chuckled and cried when I saw Exterminator had a weather delay sign at one point during my visit. I have so many questions. One of the other rides most impacted by covid was Ghostwood Estate, the park's shooting dark ride. For this reason, the park disabled all the guns and targets in 2020. I found this a bit weird. Their sister park in Connecticut, Lake Compounce, had much stricter covid precautions yet they allowed the guns on Ghost Hunt. And it wasn't a state thing since parks like Hersheypark had the guns active on their shooter. Regardless, the ride still works as a standard dark ride because of the detailed sets. This ride doesn't have the usual cardboard cutouts. These are robust, 3D sets with lots of props. The one critique I have was that the audio was low and borderline inaudible at many points. 8 out of 10 2020 brought us a lot of disappointment. But we need to take a moment to relish in one of the few victories. GARFIELD'S NIGHTMARE IS GONE I never rode the original Old Mill, but I knew it had to be better than Garfield's Nightmare. That ride was an acid trip gone wrong. The reimagined Old Mill is definitely tacky at points, but it's decent. This one allows the classic ride system to shine with mostly tasteful sets. 6 out of 10 A few months ago, Kennywood announced they'd be removing four of their classic flats. I already mentioned that Kangaroo was unfortunately closed, but I did unknowingly get my last rides on Bayern Kurve and Volcano. The latter two are fun, but the one I'll miss most is Kangaroo. The lateral and airtime combo was magical. Hopefully the park either reintroduces these rides at a later time (as they have with some of their other flats in the past) or fills their pads with new rides in the future. And I imagine Kennywood will replace these rides sooner rather than later since the park doesn't have much space to work with and the park has been good about replacing removed rides in the past. One classic flat that has survived is the Turtle tumble bug. This is an awkward ride that will have you sliding about due to the lack of restraints, but that brings a smile to my face. Plus, the ride hilariously has the turtle audio from the not-so-hilarious Master of Disguise movie. 6 out of 10 If Steel Curtain is open in 2021, I likely will make a return trip to Kennywood since that ride does look neat. And the park still has those classic woodies and Phantom's Revenge waiting for me.

^ Really the only lines I ever see for Dorney are at the water park. I don't usually go in there for that reason, but it is a very nice water park.

It would be a great home park since you know you'll never have to cope with lines and the ride lineup is solid.

When I rode it a year ago, they actually had multiple trains going. It took 20 minutes to get on, but the bottleneck wasn't loading. It was the long, slow-moving line to buy tickets.

^ If so, I'd love to see what the Fiesta Texas quarry wall looks like with snow.

I think they also said they not only needed to open in 2021, but they needed to have a normal summer. At the rate people are getting vaccinated, I'm not sure if they'll be able to have their full season without some sort of restrictions.

That's really cool they provided a tour for a bunch of enthusiasts. Awesome report! Gravity Group really nails their lead cars. Roar-O-Saurus and Oscar's Wacky Taxi are two of my favorites, but that pirate one looks amazing too.

That rumored Gravity Group shuttle coaster would be a great fit for the park and it would be a unique ride to market.

I visited Dollywood twice in 2020. The dispatches were no different than usual. The coasters had a grouper who would pump hand sanitizer into your hands and then assign you a row. They would take seating requests and allow you to wait off on the side if you wanted a specific row. Wait times were a bit longer than usual in the summer, so I went with Timesaver (especially since it was easier to distance). As for mask compliance, it started strong at the start of the day, but it became worse towards the end of the day probably due to the heat/humidity.

Dorney Park Covid caused something extraordinarily rare at Dorney Park. For the first time in 15 years, I actually had to wait in line for a dry ride at this park. That being said, even with the park loading one party every other row on the B&Ms, they were never more than a 5 minute wait. However, I did have to wait a whopping 10-15 minutes for Steel Force and Thunderhawk because the park was oddly skipping two rows between guests. I am really confused why they spaced guests out that far on those rides, but it absolutely neutered their capacity. Thankfully, Dorney never gets that busy. Speaking of Steel Force, I got some great rides on it in 2020. This is by far the best of the three Cedar Fair Morgan hypers. All of them have solid first halves with solid floater airtime. But unlike Wild Thing and Mamba, Steel Force doesn't come to a grinding halt on the mid-course. This results in a wild return run with some really great airtime. 8.5 out of 10 Thunderhawk ran far better than I remembered. It was still a bit bumpy in the valleys, but it had some strong pops of airtime and laterals on the turnaround section. And then there were 1 or 2 smaller pops on the bunny hills. 6 out of 10 Hydra the Revenge was running really badly in 2020. It was rattling terribly for a majority of the ride. I still love the nice floater airtime on the rare straight drop for a floorless coaster. And the hangtime filled zero-G roll and jojo roll were great, but I came off with a headache. That has never been an issue for me with Hydra in the past. 5 out of 10 Talon was running smoothly thankfully. It has a solid start and unique second half with an airtime filled drop, a snappy corkscrew, and some wild turns. 8 out of 10 Unfortunately, Possessed was closed for the entire 2020 season and there are rumors it may be removed. When I walked by the park's Intamin impulse coaster, it had just a shortened train on the track. I have no clue if they were in the process of adding or removing cars. I also made sure to ride Demon Drop, the rare 1st generation Intamin freefall. While it is certainly cruder than newer drop towers, that's what makes Demon Drop so thrilling. The suspense before the drop is fantastic and that drop gives a great stomach dropping sensation that few of the new towers can match. Just make sure to lean forward when you transition from lying on your back to sitting up again otherwise you will bang your head. 8 out of 10 Thunder Creek Mountain is an underrated log flume. I love the ride's location atop the hill and the drop at the end is really funky with how long and shallow it is. 8 out of 10 Dorney Park's operations usually deserve a lot of credit. Even when the park is dead, they usually run their rides at maximum capacity. That's why lines are usually non-existent. Sure lines were a *bit* longer in 2020 than in the past, but they were still reasonable and it's what the park decided was best to open.

The fact Falcon's Fury will be 5000 feet longer than Steel Dragon 2000 and 100 feet taller than Dragster is mind boggling. I really hope this ride happens because the stats seem too good to be true.

The park is usually good about posting their ride closures a few months in advance. I've gone the weekend before Thanksgiving and crowds were manageable. The B&Ms were walk-ons and the worst line was a half hour for Cheetah Hunt. It's also likely going to be 60-70 degrees that time of year, which sure beats the oppressive summer weather.

Glad they're finding additional revenue sources. I ended up going to the Holiday in the Park Lights event last week. It felt sort of eerie walking around the park with all the rides sitting idle, but it was nice to see all the lights and the park had safety precautions upon safety precautions to make sure it could he done safely. I also made sure to get my Superman and Wicked Cyclone nanocoasters.

That's the first I've heard of SeaWorld having wind issues. I know it can happen at Fiesta Texas due to the quarry setting.

This is great news! I'll happily go there once all the B&Ms open for the year.

Isn't their usual opening day in late March? That's good if they're able to open a little earlier to try and recuperate some of the lost time in 2020.

Sesame Place I made way more visits than I expected in 2020 to Sesame Place. Most of these visits were because the park is just a half hour from Six Flags Great Adventure and Sesame Place tended to open earlier. Therefore, it was a no brainer to pop in to get some more rides on Oscar's Wacky Taxi with my SeaWorld Platinum Pass. However, I often left this park frustrated for a few reasons I'll get into. And it had nothing to do with the park's small size (it's just 14 acres) or the fact that I was not the target demographic. The issues were related to customer service and operations. One thing I do have to praise the park for is how they handled the character meet & greets. These are a major component of Sesame Place and really make the experience magical for kids. What the park did (and I later saw at SeaWorld San Diego) is have the characters on floats, so it was physically impossible to get within 6 feet of them. But you could still get close enough to them for some great photos and the floats were decorated as well. The main reason I visit Sesame Place as a single adult is Oscar's Wacky Taxi. This ride is great! The ride's airtime doesn't have the same power of the other junior Gravity Group wood coasters, but the pacing on this one is top-notch. It just keeps throwing one airtime hill after another at you, constantly bouncing you out of your seat. 7.5 out of 10 However, it was exceedingly difficult to ride Oscar's Wacky Taxi this year. I originally went to Sesame Place in 2018 shortly after Oscar's Wacky Taxi opened and after a few rides, I was evacuated from the ride. This visit was the ride's second week, so I chalked the issue up to the ride's newness. Flash forward to 2020 and the ride opened late on three of my four visits. Oddly enough, the only time it opened on-time with the park was a day when it was raining. In my two visits to the park's Halloween event, The Count's Halloween Spooktacular, Oscar's Wacky Taxi opened late. Both times, it appeared to be due to mechanical issues as I saw maintenance workers walking the track and checking the trains. Both times when Oscar's Wacky Taxi opened, the ride opened with just one train. My most recent visit appears to have been a deliberate staggered opening an hour after park opening, but two of the other times the ride was closed due to technical issues. Have I just gotten unlucky with Oscar's Wacky Taxi or does this ride have its fair share of issues? Roar-O-Saurus and Wooden Warrior are very reliable in my experience. The other issue with Oscar's Wacky Taxi was capacity. With only one train in use, the ride only had 3 rows available. That alone was bad, but there were three other issues. One, those with the Abby's Magic Queue skip-the-line pass were routed up the exit. They had top priority. The issue was that those using the Magic Pass would ride, get back in the exit, and then be allowed back on the same train. If they got on every other train, that would have been understandable since they paid for the skip-the-line pass. But allowing the same people to keep riding back-to-back was a capacity killer. Two, this prevented some larger groups from riding since they wanted to stick together. That was understandable. The problem was that the staff wasn't calling for smaller groups, so Oscar's Wacky Taxi would go out with 1-2 empty rows. Three, the normal merge point was completely unmanned, so both kids and adults were line-jumping. In one of my visits, I joined the queue at the start of the covered section and it took about an hour to board. And the queue only grew by the time I got off. Also, the normal merge point still had the height stick there so kids were picking it up and swinging it like a baseball bat. Below is an example of someone wielding the height stick, albeit peacefully. The employees saw people picking up the stick, but never said anything (something I'll get to later). Vapor Trail's operations were better- sometimes even running two trains- but that coaster seems to be the more popular of the two coasters with the average Sesame Place guest. It wasn't uncommon to see it with a 30-45 minute wait. When I was able to beat the crowds to Vapor Trail, I did enjoy my rides on this Vekoma junior coaster. The ride is three straight helixes, but the first one comes darn close to causing me to greyout, which I find comical at a park like Sesame Place. The other thing I find funny is the ride's placement on a hillside. The ride doesn't use the terrain at all, so the supports are awkwardly tall due to the ride's placement. 5 out of 10 Most of the flat rides were walk-ons, which was good to see considering the lengthy waits for the coasters. I rode a few here and there when I was waiting for Oscar's Wacky Taxi, but most of them are toned down (understandably) for kids. The one notable flat is Honker Dinger Derby, which is quite the dizzying ride. The last odd thing with Sesame Place that I've found is that the employees are oddly quiet for a children's park. When I go to a place like Story Land or Santa's Village, the employees are usually really energetic to get the kids excited. At Sesame Place, the employees don't seem to speak to guests unless you specifically ask them a question. They also won't say anything if you're breaking the rules. Mask compliance was thankfully good the days I visited, but the employees weren't saying anything if masks were below noses or missing. You also had the height stick thing I saw at Oscar's wacky Taxi. And later I saw people pulling phones and selfie sticks out in front of the employees while on the coasters. When I asked if I could use my chest mounted Go Pro (like you can at the other Busch/SeaWorld parks), they said I could not per park policy. It seemed like the employees were trying to avoid all guest interactions of all types. I'm thinking this may be the fallout of the incident this past summer when an employee was punched by a guest telling them to wear a mask (Link). This combined with glacial operations made Sesame Place a frustrating pit stop in 2020. I'm hoping the operations improve in future years because Oscar's Wacky Taxi is a legitimately good ride and the park should be a wonderful place for young kids.

If Great White is to operate, Saturday would be your best bet since that would be the most crowded day. From my visit, Wave Breaker and Texas Stingray had far longer lines than Steel Eel or Great White. The park was only running one train on each coaster, except they did add a second to Texas Stingray after the queue hit an hour. That made Texas Stingray a walk-on by the end of the day.

Journey to Atlantis was closed in December due to cooler temperatures and I imagine that will be the case for your visit. The operations at this park can be really bad. The rides towards the back can sometimes have staggered openings (Wave Breaker and Great White), but they didn't in my most recent visit. All of the coasters outside of Journey to Atlantis were scheduled to be open for me. Steel Eel was closed due to a mechanical issue my first day, so I had to go back for that one. I have seen some reports of Great White being closed on days when the park isn't very crowded, but if that's the case you can drive 20 minutes down the road for the city's other Batman clone. Lastly, just make sure you don't visit on a day with rain or else everything will be closed (happened to me).

^ Thanks for explaining! I was hoping when the concept was unveiled it would be completely free spinning so it would roll more uncontrollably.

Too bad it didn't happen in the station. Maybe the on-ride photo would have captured it.