Canobie Coaster

One positive of the reservation system is that Canobie called to let anyone with a reservation for tomorrow know that they are closing the park due to the bad weather forecast. That makes my life a lot easier since I was going to have to keep an eye on the website to see if they even opened or closed early.

Orion, number 1000!

Does anyone know what the last access pass window Cedar Point distributes is? At Kings Island, the final Orion boarding pass window stops an hour before close.

The baby panda looks like a naked mole rat!

I personally did not feel comfortable in Mr. Freeze's queue line (an enclosed hallway where everyone was crowding and removing their mask since it was out-of-sight from employees). If that scenario makes you uncomfortable, I would recommend the Flash Pass based on that alone.

Nice report! Is this one of those rapids rides where you're guaranteed to come of soaked (like Popeye or Infinity Falls) or is it luck of the draw who gets drenched?

^ I just looked up a YouTube video of it. Wow that elephant soaked people!

^ Wait, Snoopy used to get riders even wetter than it already does?

Canobie Lake Park opened for the 2020 season last week. Canobie is taking many of the similar precautions we've seen of other parks. That includes: - Reservations with a timed entry. - Rows skipped on attractions. - Periodic cleaning of the ride vehicles. - Health screening questionnaire and temperature screenings. - Masks required in the park. - Social distancing in the queue lines. Canobie's gorgeous entrance is blocked for 2020, but it's all in the name of safety. The water park has a separate capacity cap from the rest of the park, so you may have to wait in line to enter on a hot day. Canobie is going beyond other parks on the last 3 items. The health screening questionnaire is similar to the ones at the Herschend and Cedar Fair parks, except there is also a question if you've been on public transportation recently. That includes planes (hence why I had to wait a few days to visit) and Boston's subway system. To enforce mask wearing and social distancing, all of the popular rides (coasters and water rides) have an employee roaming the queue line telling people to put their masks on/pull them above their noses or to step back to give groups 6 feet of space. In general, mask and social distancing compliance at Canobie far exceeded most of the parks I visited in the midwest. Roughly 1/3 of the park's rides were closed. All of the indoor attractions were closed, although I did see an employee atop the Turkish Twist presumably being trained. And several other rides hadn't been assembled yet for the season. That included favorites like Star Blaster, Caterpillar, and the Rowdy Roosters. The Xtreme Frisbee was also closed, but that very well could have been for mechanical reasons knowing how unreliable it has become. Canobie has a status page on their website they plan to update daily, so definitely check back if there's a specific ride you want to see open. https://www.canobie.com/updates/ Those seats look comfy. Hopefully the Roosters will fly at some point in 2020. Dodgem had some plastic tarps added around the arena. One of the park's planned projects for 2020 was a new shaded queue line for the Yankee Cannonball. Unfortunately, this queue was not finished for the start of the season. The framework was set-up, but the coverings were not added. On the bright side, this allowed Canobie to create a custom, temporary queue for the season that accounted for social distancing. And those familiar with the park may notice the fountain in front of the Yankee Cannonball is not present this year, presumably so they had more space to route the coaster's queue line. This should look a lot better next year. No fountain in 2020, but there's a cool aerial shot of the park hanging on the wall instead. I believe the building to the left of the Yankee Cannonball is where they will sell the on-ride photos they planned to install on Yankee Cannonball for the 2020 season. With social distancing, it was hard to gauge the queue lines for some of the more popular rides. Obviously this could change based on dispatch speed/when the cleanings occur, but in general here are the wait times for the marquee attractions if you see a full queue. Yankee Cannonball- 40 minutes (every other row) Untamed- 20 minutes (queue consists of only 1 switchback, one party per car) Canobie Corkscrew- 15 minutes (entire queue used, but it's spaced out more) Boston Tea Party- 40 minutes (only front and back row of boat being loaded, one boat in use) I recognized the Yankee Cannonball staff from last year, so they were quickly dispatching trains. The queue just moved slowly due to the reduced capacity and one train operations. Untamed rarely stacks, which was much appreciated with the reduced capacities. Watch your head on the cutback. I love the birch bark themed supports. The Boston Tea Party gets people soaked. It gets phones even wetter if you break park rules and lose your phone in the water. Hopefully Canobie can reopen a few more rides in the coming weeks, but I'm just thankful they reopened. And with the precautions they have taken, they are among the best parks I've seen for enforcing safety among guests. Say hello to the safety squad. They roam down the midway blasting music from the Antique Car while also spraying disinfectant.

I love how your priorities are the old log flume and not the new giga. I'm probably going back there again next month for the same reason as you.

^ Race for Your Life (and White Water Canyon) opened late when I was there on the 4th of July, but both opened.

Great report! From the pictures, it looks like Zadra's area looks a bit better than the others, but I agree in general the theming looks like an incoherent mash-up.

^ Thanks! It'll be interesting to see if Kings Island does what they did on the 4th of July where they closed the queue for Orion and the Beast before closing to ensure no trains were sent after the posted close.

Great report Zach! I agree Silver Dollar City did an excellent job balancing safety and efficiency. It was quite shocking to go from high mask compliance at Silver Dollar City to zero masks anywhere on the strip. Every ride except Thunderation allowed you to request/wait for a specific row. The crew at Thunderation was loading front to back, no exceptions.

Their website seems to be missing several rides on the two piers that are open (ex. Zoom Phloom and the dark rides), so I presume those ones are closed.

When I was there the week after the 4th they were doing every row, one party per row, same for Great Bear. Most others were seating every other row like Comet, Lightning Racer etc. Cupfusion was doing one party per car as well. Ok thanks!

I recently came across an old photo of the Yankee Cannonball in its former location at Lakewood Park in Waterbury, Connecticut. I knew Canobie had to modify the ride when they relocated it, but I didn't realize they had to remove (at least) the small bunny hill after the first drop. And I also didn't realize the ride was on a hill in its old location. On the bright side, the pullout from the first drop is much smoother now. It looks like it'd be a back breaker in its old location. I found the photo at the following website: freepages.rootsweb.com/~shepaug/history/amusement/lakewood.html

Just curious, how are they handling seating on Skyrush this year? Are they skipping rows between parties or are they loading every row like Candymonium?

Ironically SFMM was one of the only parks to open a new-for-2020 ride, although that was just because of how delayed West Coast Racers was.

Definitely hit Lightning Run first since it's by the entrance and the line will only go up. If you can get on and off before the line forms it's worth reriding. You should then hit T3 if you plan to ride it since that ride has a putrid capacity. From there, it depends how many Storm Chaser rides you want. If you want several, I'd go there next. If you don't want many laps, I'd get a quick ride on Kentucky Flyer and Thunder Run before going back to Storm Chaser.

^ While I know RMC would have a field day with a layout like the Voyage, I'd rather see Holiday World continue to retrack the Voyage in pieces and invest in newer attractions. Even when I've ridden Voyage in September, I've never found it rough.

You're welcome!

This is one clone I don't mind seeing spread. I enjoy the free spins. And from a park's perspective, it's a highly marketable addition.

Voyage was running fantastic, especially since the MCBR brake was barely on. That may have been since Voyage was cycling trains that were mostly empty.

Honestly there were shorter waits on this day than at HoliWood Nights! The water park wasn't open yet when I was there, so I'm unclear how swamped that side will be this year. I do want to check out Cheetah Chase at some point!