Canobie Coaster

Nope. Same issue at Kings Dominion surprisingly; the nearest bathrooms to their FoF/i305 area is buried up in the middle of Safari Village. Ok thanks. Honestly Kings Island has improved so much my only issue with that park is a lack of bathrooms.

Was there ever a bathroom back by Flight of Fear/Firehawk before they made it Area 72? I was surprised how there was no bathroom back there in my recent visit and I think the closest ones were over by Windseeker or Adventure Express.

^ The worst snack I've ever had at Knoebels were the pizza rolls, but even they were just ok and ridiculously cheap so it wasn't a real loss.

Invertigo is decent and that's puzzling to me. It was built during a time when SLCs and Boomerangs were rough, so I have no idea why marrying the two ride systems would make the experience smoother.

^ From my visits, I thought they enforced face coverings well but they did nothing to enforce social distancing. In general, I thought most people at Pennsylvania parks were good with face coverings but not giving space.

I'm not sure. Usually when the ride is closed, it has been completely missing in my past visits. Thanks! Yes I did and it was fantastic.

Nice report! Orion felt like a better version of Leviathan to me which is not a problem for me since I really like Leviathan.

Before every ride, Dollywood is pumping hand sanitizer into riders' hands. If you do want to ride a lot and keep your distance, Timesaver works out well since I was usually the only person in that line.

Knoebels I was a bit nervous to visit Knoebels in 2020. One of the best aspects of this park has always been their lightning fast operations and I feared those would suffer significantly. Thankfully that wasn't the case. The cleaning policies were fairly inconsistent ride-to-ride. Some flats like the StratosFear drop tower seemed to wipe seats down between every cycle. Others like the Skooters were periodically shut down for cleaning. Others like the Phoenix and Twister did not go down as far as I could tell. The park was skipping rows between parties on Twister and Phoenix, and unfortunately you could not wait for or request a specific row, but the park was still dispatching these rides in less than 30 seconds. Still one of the best parks in the world for how unique it is. Knoebels was very forthcoming on their website which rides would be closed in advance of my visits. This included several flats plus two of their coasters. Impulse was awaiting a new train and I did see it testing on my third visit. And Flying Turns was in the midst of retracking the end of the ride. Italian Trapeze was closed, but that seems to be the norm in past years too. KSA sounds more pleasant than TSA. Flying Turns wasn't the least bit rough, but in typical Knoebels fashion they pre-emptively started retracking it anyway. I missed Impulse by a week, but I have ridden it in past visits. It's a fun ride, but I far prefer the park's woodies. Kozmo's Kurves was open for all those kiddie coaster fans out there. Most of my visits were spent riding Phoenix. This is still one of my favorite coasters anywhere. The restraints (or lack thereof) completely make the experience. There's something magical having no seatbelt and being launched into the buzz bars. The airtime on the finale looks cartoonish as you see basically everyone on the train being forced to stand up from the strength of the airtime. The first three hills don't do too much if you aren't in the front or back car, but the airtime is truly world-class from the 4th hill onwards. And it's extremely reridable because of how crazy the airtime is and how smooth the coaster rides. And for 2020, Phoenix got some pluses in a brand new station and an extended queue line. 10 out of 10 I love the new station! And with the extended queue, the line spilling out onto the midway should be a thing of the past. If you want the best pictures of Phoenix, I strongly recommend the Gasoline Alley antique cars. And if there's no one behind you, they let you stop on the track to wait for Phoenix. Just look at that airtime! Twister is the perfect compliment to Phoenix. Twister has a few airtime pops, particularly on the first turnaround and finale, but the coaster really is about the laterals. And Twister delivers those in droves. And the ride is running as smooth as ever this year, which is a testament to how well Knoebels maintains this woodie. Twister has a GCI-like layout with the PTC trains and we saw how well the early GCIs aged that ran the PTCs. 8 out of 10 You can get some excellent angles of Twister from the campground. I prefer airtime, but I still love Twister for how well it does laterals. Take the tunnel! One of the biggest changes for me in 2020 was only riding the Flyer once or twice per visit, as I've stopped snapping them to respect the park's tightened stance against snapping. In my first visit, I noticed the ride operator chiding anyone who snapped. And on my second visit, a fellow enthusiast working Phoenix warned me the park's official stance is that snapping is not allowed. I have fond memories hurtling uncontrollably towards the trees and scaring onlookers, but even when I use all my willpower to resist snapping, these are still some of the best flying skooters out there because of the long cycle and the fast speed they're operated. 9 out of 10 Even off-duty operators at Knoebels enjoy watching the aerobatics display on the Flyer. But I could go all-out on the Skooter bumper cars though. I think I slightly prefer the ones at Coney Island for the dance club atmosphere and overpowered employee car, but the ones at Knoebels are undoubtedly the hardest hitting bumper cars I've ever experienced. And the locals take no mercy on this ride. 10 out of 10 After working from home a lot over the past few months, it felt nice to get behind the wheel again. I was unsure if Knoebels would have the rings going on the Grand Carousel, but the ride still had its signature feature. One plus for 2020 was that there is now a separate queue for the outside horses, which I hope they keep for future years since it was nice not getting into a mad dash for the outside horses. 10 out of 10 The rings were as plentiful as the hand sanitizer stands around the park. I also made sure to ride the Scenic Skyway a few times. While I lost the Compounce Mountain Sky Ride at one of my home parks, Knoebels offers a very similar sky ride that also travels up a heavily wooded mountain. And the views of the park coming back down are spectacular. If only more parks had sky rides up a mountain. The proper sequel to Mr. Twister. The Giant Flume was like playing Russian Roulette. In my first visit, I got drenched. Since Fascination opened late, I think the locals decided to drop their coins on the geysers at the Flume. I got hit by three geysers. On my second visit, I came off bone dry. But in general, this is one of the best traditional flumes thanks to its wooded setting and nice drops. 9 out of 10 The geyser of doom. There were also several other flats I rode in the course of my visits. One of my favorites is Power Surge because the one at Knoebels is one of the few I've seen that still has a rotating base. I also enjoy how Satellite since it's the only roll-o-plane I've ridden that spins horizontally, offering some crazy laterals. While I prefer Chance Zippers, it's nice not having to find a partner to ride this. This section of Satellite is wild. If you ride alone, you're tossed side to side like a ragdoll. The Northeast has a ton of indoor scramblers, so Knoebels does something different by putting a himalaya indoors. It also wouldn't be a Knoebels visit without awesome fair food. I was only able to have the legendary Roast Beef Stand pierogies once since it was closed on my later visits, but I was able to have Cesari's pizza in every visit. And I finally tried deep fried alligator, which tasted sort of like chicken nuggets with a bit of a spicy kick. Glad I tried them, but I'll probably stick to pierogis and pizza. 2020 may be the first year I visited Knoebels more than Six Flags New England. The circumstances why that happened are less than ideal, but I definitely consider myself lucky to have Knoebels within driving distance. I love this park... But not as much as someone loves this ride.

Those look like a worse version of the scream shields Maliboomer used to have at California Adventure.

^ I've never seen Silver Bullet run anything other than 2 trains, but Xcelerator is always on one for me.

My thought is that it may be a while if they've never gone to the effort to update the site, but that's 100% a guess.

Here's a screenshot from today showing Lightning Rod's page listing the ride as temporarily closed again.

^ After Lightning Rod was closed all day Friday-Sunday, the Lightning Rod page on the website was updated to list the ride as temporarily closed starting on the Monday.

I was at Dollywood two weeks ago and Lightning Rod was down all weekend for trackwork on the final turn. It was definitely annoying if Dollywood knew the coaster would be closed for the trackwork and they finally updated their website to reflect the closure on the Monday. Last weekend, the coaster had two days where it ran for about an hour before closing for the rest of the day per Queue-Times (including the last operating day on Monday).

I'm really excited to hear how this coaster rides. Hopefully I can ride it and return to this park next year.

But the real question, will those WTF inverting bumper cars finally reopen?

Honestly, Avatar Airbender or Sandy's Blasting Bronco may now have the highest capacity for a coaster in that park considering Slime Streak takes forever to load and the other two will have one party per car. Before the shutdown, I thought the rumor was Sandy's Blasting Bronco was ready to go so we'll see if that opens. I want to go there for the two coasters I missed, but I'm going to wait for some reports showing how well people are actually social distancing considering this is indoors unlike the other parks I've visited.

^ I think the biggest issue with Cedar Fair this year is their stubbornness to run any attraction with anything less than a full crew, so they've had an issue with staffing. Six Flags doesn't mind running rides with bare-bone ride crews and having a bazillion food locations closed. That being said, I'm excited to see Holiday in the Park return and will definitely make it down there unless they have to close for some reason.

Out of curiosity, did any Cedar Fair park ever sell out of Fast Lane pre-covid? I know they always had the disclaimer it was limited, but I never heard of anyone being unable to purchase it.

^ Interesting that Steel Vengeance's wait was the worst for you when it was the fastest for me. Guess it just shows how random it is!

Thanks! I specifically visited on a Friday over a Saturday hoping it would help with access passes and it seems like it did. Thanks! My goal was at least one ride on each of my favorites so the bonus Steel Vengeance rides were gravy. Thanks! Based on the expectations I entered with, I was content with the rides I experienced. As i mentioned, Cedar Point is probably not the place for a first timer in 2020, but it's not bad if you're content with one lap on your favorites as part of another trip. The original plan was to visit on a Wednesday and Thursday until Cedar Point changed their hours. So Friday was picked as the lesser of evils. You were at Hershey the same day I was (I also went back the next day) and I thought it went really well. Candymonium got the Epcot effect early and late but had no line midday. Never waited more than 15-20 minutes for anything else (didn't bother with Laff Trakk or Cupfusion though) and never had to deal with fastpasses or return lines or any of that craziness. I mean why wait 30 minutes for a return pass to wait 90 minutes for Steel Vengeance when you can wait 5 minutes for Skyrush? Glad you got to CP on some good days though. If I thought I had a chance at a good day I'd go but based on this TR plus the many TRs recently in the CP thread it sounds like absolute hell. Gonna try GADV in October and that will probably totally suck too, but its a much shorter trip and I go there enough anyway. At least Great Adventure offers Flash Pass if you want to avoid the queues. One of the worst parts about Cedar Point this year is that there is zero way to avoid the queues unless you pre-bought Fast Lane.

Cedar Point Cedar Point was a fundamentally different park for me to visit in 2020. Whenever I've visited Cedar Point in the past, I've always had Fast Lane and I've always made sure to avoid it on a weekend. But this year, I could do neither of those things. Fast Lane was not being sold and the park had switched to weekend only operation by the time I visited the park. So I went into this visit knowing I wouldn't get a large quantity of rides. I just wanted high quality rides. An entrance fit for a thrill park. Cedar Point's skyline is so incredible that even a small subsection of it looks impressive on its own. I arrived the night before and stayed at Hotel Breakers. Since I woke up well before the park opened at 11, I watched the sunset on the boardwalk and walked along the perimeter of the park. One area I didn't realize was public access before this visit was the road that went back to Magnum's turnaround, so I definitely made sure to take a stroll back there. No better way to start a visit to Cedar Point! I don't usually wake up for sunrise, but it worked out on this trip. I never knew this was a public access road. The time was 7:30 am. This was 3.5 hours before opening. Wicked Twister was already testing. GateKeeper looks absolutely massive from the front of the park even though it's not even one of the park's 5-6 tallest coasters. Check out that clearance! I was on the fence whether or not to stay at Breakers. It seemed as pricey as usual, but in 2020 there was no early entry. However, there was one major benefit for resort guests; they were the only ones who could use the Magnum gate this year. This gave me a major advantage to ride Steel Vengeance. Before my visit, I was on the fence whether it made sense to get all the access passes first or to guarantee a ride on Steel Vengeance. I went with the latter and it worked out incredibly well. The gates opened around 10:30, roughly a half hour before opening, and I was among the first riders on Steel Vengeance since it opened shortly before the posted opening time. I don't miss Mean Streak one bit. Steel Vengeance is still my favorite steel coaster. The ride is relentless and seemingly never-ending. It starts with one of the more underrated drops out there and ever subsequent hill gives some incredible ejector airtime and all four inversions give wonderful hangtime. The sheer length of this coaster and the power of the airtime makes it one of the most enjoyable endurance tests in the world. 10 out of 10 You could say this coaster has a mean streak. After my ride on Steel Vengeance, I made a loop to get the access passes. I decided to forego the Steel Vengeance one initially since the queue for the access pass stretched back to the Gemini midway. Instead, I got ones for Maverick (12-1), Millennium Force (1-2), and Top Thrill Dragster (2-3) with hardly any wait. I then doubled back to Steel Vengeance and there were still a few access passes left, so I got one for 3-4. I figured the standby queue wouldn't possibly be open for Steel Vengeance, but much to my amazement it was. So I got two additional rides on this monstrous steel coaster before the access passes started, waiting no more than 15 minutes for either ride. I know the access passes are a bit controversial, but if I can ride Steel Vengeance in a standby line 3 times in an hour, sign me up! A lot of people seem to brush over Vengeance's drop, but that really is an amazing drop. I then redeemed my Maverick access pass and had to wait just over an hour. I got hit by two length cleaning cycles on Maverick combined with the ride's woefully low capacity. But at least I had the first group of access passes. When I waited, the queue started in the enclosed portion. Later in the day, the queue spilled out onto the midway and was estimated to be in excess of 2 hours! I don't seem to love Maverick as much as most enthusiasts, but I still really love this coaster. It's a fast-paced jack-of-all-trades with an amazing first drop, some awesome ejector airtime, some snappy Stengel dives, some decent inversions, and an awesome launch. 9 out of 10 The corkscrews are arguably the worst part of the ride and they're still decent. Up next was Millennium Force, which also had a return line that took roughly an hour. This was another return line that reached 2 hours later in the day. While most rides at Cedar Point were doing first-come, first-served seating, Millennium Force was allowing up to three groups to wait for the front row. So I made darn sure to take advantage of the shortest station wait I've ever seen for the original giga coaster's front row. Millennium Force is unequivocally a front row ride for me. That is where you need to sit to fully appreciate this coaster's speed. Outside of the epic first drop and extremely forceful overbank, no one element on Millennium Force stands out. Rather, it just feels like one continuous element as your rocket around Millennium Island, through the tunnels, and past the queue line. 10 out of 10 I know people jokingly call this coaster Millennium Forceless, but that first overbank causes me to greyout like the first turn on Intimidator 305. Millennium may not have the airtime of Expedition GeForce or SFNE's Superman, but it does offer some solid airtime. Top Thrill Dragster had a very short return time, as I got on the ride in less than 10 minutes. And I know I got very lucky. The ride had lots of fits later in the day and a much longer return time, presumably when everyone flooded the ride to redeem their access passes after it had been closed during their windows. I was unable to get the front row which was a bummer, but I gained a new appreciation for Top Thrill Dragster's drop in the back row. I don't remember it having the airtime that it provided on past visits. And per usual, the launch took my breath away. There's something about staring at a 420 foot tower that always gets me amped up. 9 out of 10 Still haven't gotten a rollback. Maybe one day. I then redeemed my Steel Vengeance access pass and had another modest wait that took roughly 20-30 minutes. Meanwhile, the access pass line for the 3:30 distribution was again stretched back to the Gemini midway. I was ever so grateful I didn't have to wait in that line since I suspect not everyone would get one. 4 rides on Steel Vengeance without Fast Lane alone made the day a success. At this point, you may be wondering about the rides that weren't on access passes. Well, most of those rides had insane queue lines. All the B&Ms had waits in the 90-120 minute range. And even rides that I've never seen with a queue had crazy waits. Pipe Scream, Gemini, Blue Streak, and Cedar Creek Mine Ride also had hour waits. But the one non-access pass ride I could not skip was Magnum XL-200. I rode this one in the late afternoon and only had to wait 45 minutes, which I thought was more than fair. I ended up with the back row and Magnum did its usual. The first half had some breathtaking views; the turnaround tried to kill me; and the return leg offered some of the strongest ejector airtime of any coaster. Magnum may not be a glass smooth experience like most hyper coasters, but the ride's unrefined nature gives it character. 8.5 out of 10 Magnum's start looks profiled correctly. But the triangular airtime hills look like engineering mistakes and I love them for that. By the end of the day, I realized I had never set foot in the front half of the park. And that didn't really bother me given the circumstances. I got at least one ride on the major Intamins plus multiple rides on Steel Vengeance. However, I made sure to exit out the front of the park and return to Breakers via the Midway so I could at least see the front half of the park on my way out. Millennium Force is such an icon. I love the solid colored LED lights Cedar Fair puts on a lot of their coasters. I actually enjoy Valravn, but not enough to wait 2 hours for it. I can't really recommend Cedar Point for newcomers in 2020. There is absolutely no way to do everything in one day unless you were lucky enough to buy Fast Lane before the pandemic. However, if you want to marathon one ride, it's very possible to get at least one guaranteed ride with the access passes and ride it before the first return time.

that it felt like it was trying to throw me out to my death. This is exactly why I love Skyrush.

Two Fridays ago, I was able to hit Steel Vengeance at 11, get a Maverick access pass, get a Millennium access pass, get a Dragster access pass, get a Steel Vengeance access pass (one of the last ones), and ride Steel Vengeance two more times with standby in the first hour. I was at Breakers, which allowed me to use the resort gate and be on one of the first Vengeance trains. The return line for Maverick took us an hour at 12:15 and it only got longer. For us, the wait started at the enclosed part of the queue. Later in the day, I saw the queue spilled into the midway and the return wait time was listed at 2 hours. Millennium's return line reached 90 minutes by the end of the day so that queue didn't reopen at 7. But on the bright side, they will still let 3 groups wait for the front so that was the shortest wait I've ever had for the front row midday upon reaching the station. Steel Vengeance's return line was only 20-30 minutes from what I saw.