Canobie Coaster

^^ Thankfully they're really quick to update the park alerts page. So I'm pretty sure they'll just quietly remove it from broken and leave those flipping bumper cars in the under maintenance until the end of time. I did try messaging them last month, but it took like 5 weeks to respond. I got this message back on Monday.

I think this is great for people planning trips in advance, but I agree it will probably make it less common to get great 4th or 5th fastpasses.

Smuggler's Run is getting FastPass starting on February 19. It also rearranges the tiers at Hollywood Studios. Now only Smuggler's Run and Slinky Dog will be in Tier 1. That beats the current set-up where every ride except Star Tours is Tier 1.

I always wondered if Disney or Universal even had temperature limits. And now we know.

Great seeing you too! It was nice to see how the big parks celebrate Halloween.

Great report! Six Flags has done wonders shrinking the offseason, but it's awesome to have a large indoor park like this in the Northeast. It's definitely encouraging they're adding more trees. I thought it felt a bit like a warehouse during the day when I visited since it was super rainy and cloudy outside, but it really came alive at night with all the lighting. I get that some parks aren't super quick to respond. A lot give the generic 3-7 business days. American Dream finally got back to me today on a message from December. That comes out to 6 weeks. I'm stunned they even responded at that point.

Why do I feel like this is going to be like the Behemoth-Leviathan and Intimidator-Fury. Enthusiasts will complain the rides for being too similar while they're under construction, but they will wholeheartedly praise the new ride once it actually opens.

^ The one thing to note about Dollywood's TimeSavers is that they will run out on a busy day since they cap the amount of unlimited ones.

This is unbelievable that the SeaWorld/Busch parks could all get new coasters again in 2021, but I'm certainly not complaining! Between Busch Gardens Tampa and SeaWorld Orlando, they have most of the B&M catalog covered except for a stand-up and a wing coaster. If the wing coaster is true, it'll be a nice fit to compliment the area's other rides.

Great reports! I agree Orlando's Small World should get the characters sometime in the future. Trying to find them hidden in the scenes is my favorite part of the ride. Tokyo has the best merchandise by far. However, the one thing I found was lacking was Shiriki merchandise. In 2018, I think I just found a keychain.

Great report! The exterior wasn't what I expected when I saw castle. The interior architecture reminds me of the replica Japanese house at Boston's Children's Museum. That replica also has the no shoes rule.

Universal Studios Florida After a successful Hollywood Horror Nights, we had 2 additional days at Islands of Adventure. Most of that full day was spent at Islands of Adventure. Hagrid’s Line from Hell was the main culprit. But another culprit was how early the Studios side closed. We visited on two non-HHN days, but the park still closed at 6 pm. Crowds were super light, so it wasn’t too big of an issue. No mouse ears on this day. We started with Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit. I know this coaster is often maligned. And congratulations, the haters now have a new member. Emily hated it. After one ride, she swore never to ride it again. Meanwhile I enjoyed it. I’ve always enjoyed the Rockit, so it was business as usual for me. The only shaky spot I noticed was the bottom of the first drop. The drops give some surprising airtime, but I forgot about all the sustained airtime on the non-inverting loop. Plus, the helices at both ends of the ride pull some surprising Gs due to the compactness. And who doesn’t like riding a roller coaster to the music of Kayne West? 8.5 out of 10 I know people always wish Florida got Hollywood Dream, but I actually prefer Rip Ride Rockit. What other coaster can you get airtime while listening to Rainbow Connection? But in all seriousness, Kanye is the way to go for this ride. That was followed by one of Emily's favorite rides, Jimmy Fallon. You can probably guess she's a fan of his. For that reason, she loved the queue (aka the shrine to Jimmy Fallon). She liked the queue so much we actually missed our original return time. In terms of the ride, it’s a complete WTF. But I do enjoy it. The movement is well synched and the visuals (while dumb) are clear and crisp. The biggest advice I can give you is to not ask questions. Just go with it. 7 out of 10 Feel free to call this ride dumb, but it has a seriously awesome queue. We then walked onto Revenge of the Mummy for back-to-back rides. I do think I’m in the minority that I may prefer Hollywood’s Mummy, but both are great rides. The launches and theming are quite good. Orlando’s has better airtime, but the backwards bit feels like it’s there just for the sake of going backwards. Compare that to Hollywood where the backwards bit is arguably the highlight. 8 out of 10 In here is an essential part of your Universal experience...lockers! Transformers was next. I’m still not a fan of the IP because I struggle to differentiate the robots from each other. However, I’ve now ridden the Transformers ride enough to know what’s going on. I think this is the Dinosaur of Universal Orlando. If we didn’t know Spiderman (Universal’s Indiana Jones Adventure) existed, we’d love Transformers more. 8 out of 10 Men in Black Alien Attack was next. Emily should have beaten me both times, but I got the 100,000 point bonus for pressing the red button first. She was pissed. As far as shooting dark rides go, this is arguably the best. The large physical sets are stunning and I love how you can shoot the aliens anywhere rather than an itty-bitty target fixed onto them. That makes the ride way more immersive. 10 out of 10 I hope Universal never gives this ride an extensive rehab because if they do, I fear they'll replace it all with screens. Up next was the Simpsons Ride, one of the funniest amusement rides out there. But beyond that, it also has some fantastic motion, particularly during the simulated inversion. Emily really enjoyed it until she realized what the Simpsons Ride replaced. 8 out of 10 Krustyland is a lot of fun. But Emily wanted to take the Delorean back to 2007 to ride Back to the Future. Last but not least, we made sure to ride E.T. Adventure. I think Emily had the quote of the day at this one. “I’m glad everyone gets to ride a bike on this one.” While the animatronics are definitely dated, I like E.T. Adventure. In a park littered with screen-based attractions, it’s refreshing to experience a ride with grand physical sets. 8 out of 10 If E.T. came out in 1982, why is the 2002 re-release poster celebrating the ride's 30th anniversary? For a split second, I contemplated riding Fast and Furious Supercharged. I hated the section on the Hollywood Studio Tour and I was morbidly curious to see if this was any worse, but it somehow had a longer queue than Hagrid’s. WTF?!? I don't have words to explain this. I prefer Islands of Adventure to Universal Studios Florida, but I still enjoy the Studios park. The dark ride collection is top notch. I just wish it had another 1-2 non-simulator rides to really complete the park. And while this isn’t related to the park, we also tried the Hollywood Drive-In mini golf. I have always eyed this mini golf course, but have never played it. I guess I figured it closed with the park, but much to my shock, it opens with the parks and stays open 6 hours later. That’s crazy! The course was pricey, but it had an electric atmosphere. The lighting was incredible. And all the obstacles and theming really made the course standout. I came *this* close to winning, but I blew it on the last hole so Emily got a Voodoo donut on me. The lighting was super cool at night. I'd say maybe a third of the holes had obstacles. The best was this robot themed Archimedes screw. Emily got the cock n balls doughnut (yes it's actually called that). I forgot to take a picture of it in Florida, so here's the same doughnut in Portland a few months later.

1. How many parks did you visit in 2019? 96. Thank you work trips. 2. Best new-for-2019 (or new-to-you-in-2019) ride? Untamed at Walibi Holland 3. Name the first 3 coasters that come to mind. Untamed (Walibi Holland), Untamed (Canobie Lake Park), Wildfire (Kolmarden) 4. What was the best flat ride you rode in 2019? Big Shot at the Stratosphere Tower 5. What is your favorite RMC under 130 feet? (cheat sheet) Untamed 6. What was the last Premier coaster that you rode? Full Throttle 7. Name a park you've been to that you're already planning to revisit. PortAventura 8. What is your home park and how many times did you visit in 2019? Six Flags New England- 6 Canobie Lake Park- 5 9. What park are you most looking forward to visiting in 2020? Phantasialand 10. Kennywood or Dollywood? Pick one Dollywood 11. What ride/coaster disappointed you the most in 2019? West Coast Racers because it wasn't open for me in December. In terms of how a coaster rode, I guess I'll say Tonnerre de Zeus. I did still like it, but it was disappointing. That coaster has always been atop my bucket list because of my love of CCIs, but it sounded like death and really crawled through the second half of the layout. 12. You're at Great Adventure. You play that racist-ish gong game and win a one hour ERT session for you and your friends on ONE coaster of your choice. But damn! El Toro, Kingda Ka and Nitro are all down! So you ride... Does Nitro ever go down? I'll pick Joker. I actually prefer Green Lantern and Batman, but my legs couldn't take those rides for an hour straight. 13. What is the last coaster that changed your top 10? Coaster at PNE Playland 14. Most recent park food you ate. Fried chicken bowl at Six Flags Great Adventure 15. What park do you wish was your home park? I'd want a park with great food and minimal lines. Knoebels would be perfect except it doesn't have a season pass. So instead I'll say Silver Dollar City. 16. What 2020 attraction do you have the biggest boner for? West Coast Racers Star Wars Rise of the Resistance 17. What park will you visit next? Disney's Hollywood Studios 18. Favorite breakfast before a day at a park? Waffles 19. Cedar Fair park you visited most recently? Knott's Berry Farm 20. Was it awesome? It was until I learned how bad the rain policy is at Knott's on the 5 days a year it rains in Southern California. 21. Skyrush or Candymonium? Most likely Skyrush, but I won't rule Candymonium out if it has a better finale than Mako. 22. What 2 overseas parks do you want to visit the most? Hong Kong Disneyland and Shanghai Disneyland 23. The best B&M coaster you rode in 2019 was? Fury 325 24. What is the saddest/dirtiest credit whore thing you've ever done? Getting the Orient Express credit from Rockwell Shows. The operator wouldn't let me ride it at one location, but a different operator let me ride it at another location. 25. Last time you bought fast pass? If MaxPass counts, early December. Otherwise, it was at Dollywood during Smoky Mountain Christmas in November. 26. What was the longest you waited for a ride/coaster in 2019? For one ride- 3 hours (including breakdowns) for Hagrid's. For multiple rides- 7 hours for 5 rides on PNE Playland's Coaster in that unshaded hellhole of a queue 27. What season passes/membership do you currently have? Six Flags, Cedar Fair, Canobie Lake Park, Fun Spot 28. If you could go to a park with anyone on this forum for a day who would it be and to what park? Robb because it probably means we have an awesome ERT session somewhere. I'll go with Cedar Point because of how rare it is to actually be able to marathon Steel Vengeance. 29. Battle of the Busch 2020: Iron Gwazi or Pantheon - which would you rather ride? Iron Gwazi 30. Most times you've ridden one coaster (rough estimate or exact if you're a super nerd) Superman at Six Flags New England 129 times (I'm a nerd) 31. Congrats! You just won passes to spend A WEEK at the park of your choice! Dorney Park or Valley Fair? Pick one and why. Dorney Park. I'm close enough to Knoebels, Hersheypark, and Six Flags Great Adventure. 32. Talk about a park food that knocked your socks off The Knoebels pierogis. I got the wrong ones at the Round Stand and thought they were just ok, so I never understood the hype. A few years later, I tried the incredible buttery ones from the Roast Beef Stand thanks to coasterbill's pierogi map. And my life was changed. 33. Pick one: Kumba or Montu Montu 34. What are your three least favorite woodies? 150) Coaster Express, 149) Wildcat (Lake Compounce), 148) Leap the Dips 35. Best sweet snack at a park (degree of difficulty: not Dollywoods cinnamon bread) I hate sweets. So I'm going to cheat and say the bacon pretzel fury from Busch Gardens Tampa. 36. Kings Island is on the phone and they want you to decide what is going in the old Vortex spot. What do you add? An actual giga* 37. What roller coaster currently sits at the top of your bucketlist? (degree of difficulty: NOT a new-for-2020 ride) T-Express 38. Name 3 parks you want to visit in the next 3 years. Everland, Shanghai Disneyland, Hong Kong Disneyland 39. Name 3 other forum members you hope fill this out. The first 3 people who browse this topic and walk away without posting. 40. Show us how cool you are by posting a picture of yourself on a coaster or in front of coaster. Bonus points if you're holding a sign with a number on it like the nerd you are. * Orion is going to be awesome. And honestly, I don't care what we call it. But I wouldn't mind if the park added another giga. The land is way too compact for a traditional giga, so let's build I305 the sequel.

^ The other thing is that Mall of America has the glass roof to let light in. Only part of this park has a glass roof.

It's pricey, but I highly recommend the brunch at Storyteller's Cafe. It's a character meal so you get to see the characters and it's a buffet too. They had Mickey waffles and prime rib so I left very happy. Based on what happened today, make sure you are ready to reserve Rise of the Resistance when the boarding goes live at park open. As for touring the park, you have an advantage staying on-site with the early morning hours. Will you have MaxPass? I highly recommend it. You will get way more fastpasses and free photos. The most important thing for me is to get a Radiator Springs fastpass for the earliest return time. If you're in the park for Early Magic Hours, you should have no problem doing this. It'll allow you to get ahead of the FastPass curve since that's the first FastPass many pick no matter the return time. You can then start getting rides like Toy Story with instant return times before their reservation windows increase later in the day. Of the rides not on FastPass, Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, and Smuggler's Run get the longest queues from my experience. I recommend hitting them towards the end of the night if you aren't going there at rope drop.

It looks like all the regular boarding groups disappeared in less than a minute and the backup boarding groups lasted just under 10 minutes.

Universal Studios Florida- Halloween Horror Nights I’ve always been a fan of Halloween and Christmas events. But it’s not for the haunts and shows. Rather, it’s usually for the extension of the park’s operating season. I support any event that extends the season and gives me more coaster rides. That being said, I usually do participate in some of the seasonal festivities…unless I’m at Fright Fest because the Six Flags haunts are an embarrassment. Universal was different. The haunts were the main course. In fact, the Ghostbusters and Stranger Things haunts were the catalysts for our trip taking place in the fall. Happy (very belated) Halloween! The logical thing would have been to start with a haunt, but Emily is a die-hard Harry Potter fan. So Escape from Gringotts couldn't wait. Gringotts ended up being the only attraction we rode at Horror Nights. I think we waited about a half hour, but we didn’t mind since there’s a ton to look at in that queue. As for the ride, it’s quite good. I don’t want to spoil anything, but I will say the brief coaster sections are thrilling and the projection quality on the dark ride bits is top notch. 8 out of 10 I love this land, but I feel claustrophobic just looking at it. Two tellers? You don't get this type of service at Bank of America. We then made a lap around the park soaking up the scare zones. There was a creepy arcade, an effed up fashion show of hospital patients, and (most importantly) a Zombieland area. The scare actors weren't as awkward as the usual arcade patrons. The scare actors could actually talk to girls. Zombieland was particularly great since I am a big fan of that film. The best touches were the miniature S&S tower and the porta potties. Trust me, you want to go in these porta potties. This looked like the drop towers I'd build in Roller Coaster Tycoon (aka the ones that are way too short and blast riders to their doom). If you ever wanted to get peed one, Halloween Horror Nights is for you. We met up with 805Andrew (who was very easy to find thanks to his glowing green mug) to experience Ghostbusters. For those unaware, the original Ghostbusters is one of my favorite films. And I do enjoy the all-female one as well. Just don’t bring up the second one… After about an hour, we entered a retelling of the first film. And that’s exactly what I wanted! I was interested how scary they’d make Ghostbusters since the film was always more of a comedy than a horror film, but they had a few very sudden jump scares. But it was more about the set design for me. The sets brought me through the most iconic scenes in the film. The effects (mix of physical and projections) did a fantastic job bringing the story to life. And the actors portraying characters from the film were very convincing. Ghostbusters was exactly what I wanted in a haunt. 10 out of 10 Who you gonna call? Ghostbusters! The Ghostbusters queue gives you some unique angles on the Rockit. Stranger Things was Emily's Ghostbusters. She loves Stranger Things. And most people did as well, as evidenced by the 80-100 minute wait all night. For that reason, we saved it for the end of the night. I had a major issue with this haunt. And that was the excessive amount of strobe lights. While I understand why they're there from a scare perspective and storytelling perspective, they made it near impossible to appreciate all the details in the sets. This was surprisingly my least favorite haunt for that reason, but it still far exceeded most haunts at regional parks. 7.5 out of 10 This way to the Upside-Down. The other standout haunt for me was Universal’s Classic Monsters. And in my opinion, this was easily the scariest haunt. I think my ears are still ringing from Emily’s screams. This one had the most jump scares and the most aggressive scare actors. And the sets were great too. It’s honestly a toss-up if I preferred this one or Ghostbusters. 10 out of 10 Universal’s Classic Monsters also had the best queue. It brought us past the Shrine of the Purple Dinosaur, aka A Day in the Park with Barney. The area was creepy. But it was less creepy than an adult going there during normal operating hours. Praying to the purple god. Halloween Horror Nights is the best scary Halloween event I’ve ever experienced. Top to bottom, the electric atmosphere combined with the great haunts made it a real winner. I know we didn’t have enough time to see it all, but it’s an event I definitely want to return to someday.

I have full confidence Knoebels will have this thing running as best as it possibly can considering their track record.

The one at Lake Compounce is hard to spin unless you have a fully loaded car with four people contributing, but they're super dizzying if you get it going.

If Quimera operates again, I doubt it would be at La Feria. Not only would it need new trains, but I imagine they'd want to re-add the brakes that were originally designed into the ride that La Feria removed.

Maybe they can get Pipe Scream open because that's totally a coaster according to Cedar Fair.

^ The ride's placement is really weird. I only found it because of Roller Coaster Tycoon 2. As for how it rides, Judge Roy Scream is just ok. It wasn't too rough, but it was pretty slow and maybe only had a moment or two of airtime.

Great report! I'll be sure to check back once the captions are added. It looks like quite a few rides in this park have low capacities and maybe that price-point (which is similar to a lot of the mountain/adventure parks in the Northeast) keeps the crowds manageable.

Disney's Hollywood Studios American Idol, Great Movie Ride, Honey I Shrunk the Kids, Journey Into Narnia, Lights Motors Action, Magic of Disney Animation, Sounds Dangerous, and Studio Backlot Tour closed. Here's two photos of Millennium Falcon: Smuggler's Run. Here's Toy Story Mania's new entrance. Epcot Club Cool, Innoventions, Universe of Energy closed. Magic Kingdom The Enchanted Tiki Room dropped the "Under New Management" moniker. Snow White's Scary Adventures closed.

Disney’s Hollywood Studios I’m a nerd. And like any good nerd. I love Star Wars. But I’m sort of a bad nerd since I don’t hate the prequel trilogies or new films. As a result, I was really looking forward to Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge. And the reveal of Batuu was nothing short of breathtaking. Star Wars fans can rejoice. This land had no Jar Jar. My visit took place before Rise of the Resistance opened, but I was still impressed with the land as a whole. Disney did an incredible job building a unique land capturing the feel of a planet from Star Wars. It’s so immersive, you forget you’re even in Hollywood Studios. I'm guessing Disney will pay for this land 10 times over in merchandise sales alone. And the current anchor is Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run. We contemplated using the speedy single rider queue, but our friends encouraged us to do the 70 minute standby queue so we could request pilot. If you read my Epcot report, you know I have a gripe with Mission Space. It’s the fact that I can’t influence the ride. Well that has been corrected on Smuggler’s Run. We only got one ride, but it was clear riders influenced the outcome. I may or may not have clipped a wall… While I wish each position had more responsibility, the interactivity was cool nonetheless. Smuggler’s Run is good, but I’m guessing the real star of Galaxy’s Edge will be Rise of the Resistance. 8 out of 10 Our Millennium Falcon had a bit more damage than this one. It was time to check into the Hollywood Tower Hotel. With the lack of attractions at Hollywood Studios, we struggled to get Fastpasses. Tower of Terror was the only major ride with any Fastpass availability. And per usual, the mix of theming, gut-wrenching drops, and airtime delivered an incredible ride. 10 out of 10 OG Tower of Terror is the best Tower of Terror. Rock “n” Roller Coaster’s single rider queue didn’t look too bad, so we hopped in line. However, it slowed to a crawl after the preshow. Disney was still dispatching trains lightning fast, but there simply weren’t many of them. Ultimately, we ended up waiting almost an hour. That’s probably too long for Rock “n” Roller Coaster, but Emily didn’t really remember it. The launch is fantastic and I love the force on the first inversions, but the rest of the ride isn’t all that eventful. But at least the darkness and soundtrack helps mask that. 7 out of 10 This coaster...wait for it...rocks. We then made our way to Toy Story Land and I locked eyes with this beauty. Disney tries to sell you that Woody and Buzz are the stars of Toy Story. But don’t buy that propaganda. Clearly Slinky is the star. Do Woody and Buzz have their own roller coasters? I don’t think so. I’d do anything for Slinky. I buy his hats. I buy his toys. And I waited 90 minutes (thankfully shaded this time) for his ride. Emily was not amused. I don’t know why. Slinky Dog has launches as powerful as Helix or Copperhead Strike*. * This isn’t a wiener dog fan spewing BS. Slinky’s launches really are as strong as these rides. You can interpret what that means about Mack launches. Ok real talk, Slinky Dog is not worth a 90 minute wait. But it is fun. The back row is way better than the front. The visual of Slinky weaving through the course is way better than staring at the back of an oversized head. Plus, there was some whip on the double downs and bunny hills. 7 out of 10 I get so happy just looking at this ride. I mean, just look at it! I love accelerating to one third the speed of Top Thrill Dragster in three times the time. But in all honesty, the top dog in Toy Story Land is Toy Story Mania. This is one of the most addicting rides out there. The wait was posted at 50 minutes, but I don’t even think we waited half of that. So of course we rode twice! Usually I prefer detailed practical sets to screen based attractions, but Toy Story Mania is so well executed that I don’t care. The pop guns have a really unique feel to them. If your arm isn’t as sore as a teenager who discovers masturbation for the first time, you’re doing it wrong. 10 out of 10 Hollywood Studios has really upped its game with the recent additions of Galaxy’s Edge and Toy Story Land. And it’s only going to improve when I get to ride Rise of the Resistance. But there is one downside to Hollywood Studios. And that’s the amount of shows. The shows are good, don’t get me wrong. But if you want to spend a full day here, you really need to plan in advance around showtimes.