Canobie Coaster

Great report! To me Fury felt way different than the other B&M mega coasters I've been on which is why it's my top coaster. Meanwhile their other giga (Leviathan) felt like a bigger version of their hypers. Night rides on Fury are amazing. Especially that dive below the walkway.

It was like a Black Friday stampede a couple weeks ago at Cedar Point when TTD finally opened after several days of being down so I know what you mean haha. Assigned seats is fine with me as long as it keeps the line moving. Does DW have loose article bins? I have a very small fanny pack I wear with my phone and eye drops plus contacts case inside but I carry a regular clear water bottle around with me. Are there any rides that require a bunny (or a bush, right Bert and Bill? Ugh.) oe are there bins on the ride platforms that I can set the bottle in? Speaking of water, am I allowed to bring in an unopened bottle of water along with me into the park? After going to the park that many times with the ride closed, you can bet I'd be in that stampede too. Hopefully Mufasa isn't in my way. My friend brought an empty water bottle with him into the park that he refilled throughout the day.

I also remember the front row having less space, which doesn't seem right considering how big the car's nose is.

Those rides are on the Flash Pass. Since I have no clue when I'll ever be back at the park, I definitely plan to get one since I want to maximize rides on the New Texas Giant and not have to worry about all the credits.

A secret to getting good rides on the Bobsled is to ride in the 2nd or 3rd row. I find that the front and back rows take the brunt of the impact when the car gets banged around entering into a brake run. I do enjoy Great Escape quite a bit. I know it's out of the way for most people, but Lake George is a good weekend trip for people up north. After the Comet, I think the Around the World/US mini golf is the second best thing in the town. Lake George is the sleeper mini golf capital since I hear everyone rave about Myrtle Beach or Pigeon Forge, but rarely hear about Lake George.

It's really impressive how well the park maintains the Comet. Six Flags isn't the best at maintaining their woodies, but they often aren't the park's star attraction. In this case, the Comet is easily the park's best ride so I think they do pay closer attention to it. That also may be why El Toro has remained smooth all these yeras as well. I know it's a plug and play woodie, but Heide Park proved that even one of those coasters can get rough without the right TLC.

Guess it does seem like they were trying to get that second train added while the ride was down. If that's the only reason the ride has been down for the past week, that's pretty cruddy they haven't been running it with the one operational train.

Great Escape On the way home from Pennsylvania, I decided to make a pit stop at Great Escape. It was only an hour out of the way and I hadn't been on the Comet in a few years, so I was due for a ride on one of my favorite wooden coasters. Little did I know that I would be attending on one of the most infamous days in the park's history, June 24, 2017. Welcome to the Great Escape, aka a family park trying to resist being transformed by the Six Flags corporate virus. After only having 7 pages of activity in 1.5 years on the Park Discussion page, the park achieved 7 pages in a span of 1.5 weeks. Did the park announce that they would RMC the Comet? Thank god they didn't. Besides the point that the park would never receive a coaster that noteworthy to generate that much discussion, the park unfortunately was the site of one of the oddest and most miraculous accidents ever with their Sky Ride. I left before the accident occurred, but I am still in shock how the girl managed to slide beneath the bar and am very impressed that the parkgoers risked their own safety in order to break the girl's fall and save her life. I'm stiff baffled how someone could be reckless enough to fall from this thing. Props to the people who broke her fall. I rolled into the lot at 11:15. Like my visit to Great Adventure earlier in the trip, I had a short and simple plan for Great Escape. I needed to be back in my car by 12:45 to make it back to Massachusetts in time to return my rental car, so my plan was as follows: Step 1- Ride the kiddie coaster. Step 2- Ride the Comet in the front. Step 3- Ride the Comet in the back. Step 4- Ride the Extreme Supernova (time permitting). Step 5- Avoid the Bobsled at all costs since that ride's putrid capacity would tank Steps 1-4. 11:15- I got out of my car. The walk to the entrance gives a great overview of the park's Great Escape Lodge on the way. I was skeptical how well Six Flags could manage a hotel considering their legendarily bad foray into the barbershop industry (look it up if you don't know what I'm talking about), but the Great Wolf Lodge knockoff was actually quite good. The water park doesn't appear to have expanded at all since then though, but they had 3 slides with some tiny pops of air and the whole resort was well-themed. Only negative was the food. The food was as bad as the park food. Guess that's one constant with Six Flags. Basically a Great Wolf Lodge. Just replace Wolf with Escape. You also get some great views of the Arrow loop-screw, but I try and forget that the Steamin' Demon exists. My head hurts just looking at it. 11:20- Made it past the metal detectors. Wow that was well organized for a Six Flags park. Usually it's a sea of people with a poorly marked line... Oh there's the bad line, it was after the metal detectors at the turnstiles. 11:35- Made it into the park after being line jumped by who knows how many families. The mosh pit to enter the park was like boarding a plane when people refuse to form a coherent line and instead march forward like a pack of zombies. You know why I'm in the kids area. And I can't use Bugs Bunny as an alibi this time. 11:40- Entered the line for the kiddie coaster. It appeared to be a two train wait. It's still weird that the park doesn't have a Looney Tunes area. Instead they have a generic Timbertown area, but it looks really nice. The operator was trying to operate the kiddie coaster at maximum efficiency so he asked for a single rider. I didn't see anyone else throw their hands up, so I figured why not and threw my hand in the air much to the shock of the ride op. I tried to board as quickly and nondescriptly as possible. The kid I was paired with sat on the seat closest to the ride platform and just looked blankly at me. I kindly asked him to move since I sure as heck wasn't going to climb over a kid, but he didn't move a muscle. At this point, I was drawing even more attention but I was committed. The boy's dad noticed what was going on and eventually hollered something over in French and finally I had my throne of shame laid before me on Frankie's Mine Train. 11:50- Credit obtained. Dignity barely in tact. No clue who Frankie is, but he has a mine train. I moved towards the Comet. Along the way I kept telling myself not to get distracted by the Alpine Bobsled. There was no way a coaster with a capacity that low wouldn't already be pulling a 30+ minute wait. But then again, this could be the coaster's last year. The temptation was strong, but the Alpine Bobsled had my back. It was closed. 11:55- Successfully walked past the closed Alpine Bobsled. This ride is just barely open more than Lightning Rod. 12:00- Entered the queue for the Comet. Despite being far and away the park's best attraction, it almost always has the shortest line in the park. Even on a Saturday with clear, sunny skies in June, I figured the ride would have a 10-15 minute wait. I was wrong; I overestimated the wait by 10-15 minutes. That is because it has by far the best capacity of any coaster in the park. The Comet runs two trains and usually dispatched the second train before the previous one hit the brakes (granted they didn't exactly have many restraints to check). I was able to get 2 rides in the very front and 1 ride in the back. Last I rode the Comet in 2013, I remember it being a top 5 wooden coaster for me with fantastic airtime on every hill after the first turnaround and some aggressive laterals on the turns. Having tripled my credit count since then, the Comet wasn't as good as I remembered. It's still a very good wooden coaster, but it's no longer a 10/10 kind of ride for me. The airtime was weaker than I remembered, but it was present on each hill after that first turnaround. The ride is still incredibly smooth which is a borderline miracle to me after seeing the state some of the chain's other wooden coasters. I preferred the front, but the back was really good as well. 8.5 out of 10 The park's star attraction and it isn't even close. Every hill after this turnaround has airtime. Not crazy ejector, but moderate floater. Still smooth despite the ride's age and Six Flags. Not a 10/10 ride like I remembered, but still a very fun wooden coaster from start to finish. 12:15- Stepped off the train after ride number 3. 12:20- Entered the line for the Extreme Supernova. After successfully getting 3 rides in the time I expected to get 1 ride, I had some extra time. With that, I decided to try my first Zamperla frisbee, the Extreme Supernova. I'm glad the park finally added another dry ride near the Comet since that section of the park was pretty lonely outside of the adjacent water park. It's still very weird that you have to walk through the heart of the water park to get to the Comet, but in some ways I think that keeps people getting to it since they are distracted by the brightly colored slides and chlorinated water. Most frisbees only give 4 or so max swings. Extreme Supernova instead has a really strong cycle and has plenty of full swings. The full swings aren't as intense as they are on other models, but they do give nice little pops of air. In a Six Flags park that is oddly lacking in the thrill ride department, the Extreme Supernova is an above average frisbee and one of the park's better rides. 8 out of 10 12:30- Stepped off the Extreme Supernova. This is a new sight. A pretty good frisbee. Long cycle and it gave plenty of full swings unlike most other models. On the left is the park's new for 2017 attraction, the Banzai Pipeline. You can also see just how weird the Comet's placement is. 12:35- Lured into the queue for the Alpine Bobsled. Well wouldn't you know? It actually opened! But why is it so quiet? I started making my way towards the front of the park. I was tempted to hit the Bobsled, but I didn't hear the ride's familiar roar so I figured it was still closed. But as I walked by, something was missing. The "Ride Closed" sign was gone! Maybe the ride just opened and I could sneak on without a wait. As I walked into line, I noticed an already sizable queue. But why is the ride so quiet? Then I saw the orange safety vests of doom and a train stuck on the lift hill. Figures the Bobsled would break down. 12:36- Nope. Not today. But I hope the ride isn't removed since it's seriously the park's second best coaster and the best steel bobsled in the country in my opinion. It would manage to get stuck on the lift immediately after opening. As I made my way towards the gate, I took some photos of the rest of the park. The middle of the park is surprisingly well-shaded for a Six Flags park and has two pretty good flats in Blizzard (among the fastest scramblers out there) and the Screamin' Eagles (not snappable, but great location and fast). The front used to be more charming, but it's now dominated by Sasquatch, Flashback (the renamed Boomerang), and Greezed Lightnin'. Arguably the fastest scrambler out there. I love the location of the flyers. A surprisingly smooth boomerang, but I didn't have time to ride it today. The park's newest "coaster" does look pretty intimidating at the front of the park. 12:45- Pulled out of the lot. Mission complete. Overall, I had a very short visit to the Great Escape, but I did everything I needed to. The Comet wasn't quite as good as I remembered, but it's still a fun classic. I will likely be back sometime in the near future since my girlfriend wants to go on a trip to Lake George in the next year or two and I'm definitely going to pop in again for a visit. Despite being owned by Six Flags, the park feels somewhat different. It doesn't feel entirely like a family park, but it also doesn't feel fully corporate. It's the grey area in between so I hope the park can continue to hang onto the classic parts that it has retained.

Thanks, I will try and get to Runaway Mountain early then. I've never been on one of those Windstorm coasters, so it'll be interesting having the first one enclosed.

It's amazing how Knoebels can have floods like this almost annually and yet they always look better than 99% of the parks out there.

I think that building will lure more than a few unsuspecting riders in.

Nice report. I've only been to SeaWorld San Diego so I definitely need to check out the others. Wave Breaker looks like a nice little coaster.

I usually have a pretty cruddy food experience at Six Flags. The only food item I've found to be pretty good is Macho Nacho outside of Super Pretzels, which you can't screw up. I've noticed Six Flags having much better operations this year on their coaster dispatches, but I haven't seen any improvements on the speed of food service.

Great start of the trip to Universal! That sounds exactly like my experience in the Diagon Alley area and the Gringotts queue minus the breakdown I had to wait through. I have to take a look at Allegiant to see if they fly out from my area to St. Pete. I've been meaning to make a trip sometime in the next year to hit SeaWorld, Fun Spots, and Busch Gardens. They can't be as bad as Delta after my disaster of a flight on Sunday night. 3 hour delay and sat next to a crazy woman.

Nice photos of a new park to me. I'm sure they have the rights to use Mickey Mouse.

Sounds like you'll be familiar with the area around Kennywood then.

I'll be able to check the park out on a Sunday thanks to a work trip. I noticed a few of the coasters (Runaway Mountain, Judge Roy Scream, and Runaway Mine Train) aren't on the Flash Pass. Should I hit those ones early or do they never really generate long lines?

Please do me a favor then and go back on August 7th or 8th. Appreciate it in advance! Yes please do that, I'll be there the 13th and 14th. If you want to cover my trip I'll be more than glad Are they at least running two trains now after they took it down for a week?

Last I heard was that it was the park's decision to delay or cancel the ride over fears of the accident in Dreamworld. I think they pulled it back before the planning meeting even took place.

App says Lightning Rod reopened and is less than a 15 minute wait. That ride really does always reopen a few days after I leave. You're welcome to anyone going in the next few days.

I may be sent down near San Antonio for work and was hoping to hit ZDT, SeaWorld, and Fiesta Texas in the same day. Does SeaWorld typically get long queues for the coasters on a Saturday? I had almost no lines at the San Diego one a few summers back on a Saturday since everyone was at the animal attractions. I'm leaning towards Quick Queue so I can have more time at Fiesta Texas but wanted to make sure I wasn't making a mistake like buying one at a Michigan's Adventure or a Dorney.

I too would love Kanonen but think it would be a pipe dream. Then again the park does seem to like buying used rides as we've found out lately.

Mystery Mine's fire effect seems to have been off for several of my rides this year, but after it goes TC for a few hours, the fire effect seems to be back on. Would that effect being down bring the ride down?

I agree. There is absolutely no way the park made money on the day I was there, but they did earn a repeat customer for sure. I've had few days at a park that were that awesome. That's ironic the flume closed, but really crummy since I haven't found many that are as good as Waldameer's. It's on par with the one at Knoebels.

^ Flashback is no rougher than other boomerangs for me and I usually can get a good ride on Goliath as long as I am not in the rows 3-5. Scream'n Eagle for me at Fun Spot's newest park outside Atlanta.