Canobie Coaster

^ It's not just the B&M hypers. The crew at SFNE's Superman often has the train ready to go before the previous one hits the brakes.

I know people like Thunderhawk at Michigan's Adventure (also one of the newer ones I believe), but I still found it impossible to enjoy with those oversized OSTRs.

Does their SLC still have the original trains or was it upgraded with the vest restraints? Nice report!

Great report! Sounds like you guys had a big feast. This is the motto of all the credit whores out there, so what does it matter if it's a slide?

I really need to make it to Phunfest one of these years.

Definitely say hi if you see me. I'm wearing the sky blue Yankee Cannonball hoodie and I'm probably not leaving Boulder Dash all night.

^ I think I may have just ridden next to you.

The park website listed Boulder Dash as closed tonight. Does anyone know if it was weather (temperature was in the 40s) or something else? I know it has valleyed before on cold morning test runs, but I've ridden it in temperatures like this in past years at Graveyard. Edit- Boulder Dash valleyed during testing. The park has a post on Facebook to come out and ride Boulder Dash tonight so I'll assume it will reopen.

I'm glad to hear the deal was turned down so we can continue to have debates about whose food is better.

From my experiences, the park is poorly run. I'd be excited to see what a new operator could do considering the park is in the heart of a super populated city.

Great report! That's odd they reserve seats specifically for single rider lines. The intent is to fill all available seats and not necessarily to get people on faster (although it usually has that benefit).

Zoomarine Full disclosure, Zoomarine wasn't supposed to be my first park in Italy. I had much dirtier plans. Just 5 minutes down the road was a little park with a wacky worm. But this was no ordinary wacky worm. This was a wacky worm themed to a wiener dog. I had to ride it. In what was probably a good thing, Fantasiland Luna Park was closed. The place looked like a dump. If you remember TPR's 2012 Italy trip, this was the closed park where they bribed an operator to let them on a galaxi coaster. No really, that's what they did. Link to TPR's 2012 Report So instead my first park was Zoomarine, which is basically SeaWorld on a super budget. It doesn't do any one thing well, but it dips its toes in animal exhibits, amusement rides, and water slides. See that Arrow/Vekoma coaster in the logo? That doesn't exist here. And according to RCDB, it never has. Saddened how I missed the dachshund themed wacky worm down the road, I consoled myself with the wacky worm themed to a shark. It's called Squalotto, but just call it the Baby Shark (you're welcome for getting that stuck in your head). Wacky worms will never be confused with Steel Vengeance, but this one was exceptionally bad. I think baby shark needed some lube since it was screeching along and almost stalled on the top section. 1 out of 10 I was also reminded that operators in Europe place way more trust in riders than they do in America. Squalotto was the first of many coasters on the trip where the ops didn't physically check the restraints. I think Rome has a thing for wacky worms. The star coaster at the park is Vertigo, a Schwarzkopf looping star. Despite being a portable model, Vertigo has several adult trees in the middle of the layout. It was surprising for a coaster that was relocated there less than a decade ago. Vertigo also seemed to be running slow like the Baby Shark Coaster. The loop started with the positive Gs you'd expect from a Schwarzkopf, but the second half of the loop felt floaty. I can't think of any other Schwarzkopf loop that feels quite like it. Then the speed hill at the end lacked any air while I got some on the clone at Nagashima Spa Land. The rest of the ride had the usual Schwarzkopf goodness- some nice laterals and a very smooth ride. It's quite remarkable how well Schwarzkopf coasters have aged. 7 out of 10 Fortunately this Vertigo ran better than the one at Walibi Belgium. Schwarzkopf loops are always awesome. The park's flume is the other notable ride. To start, it has not one, not two, but three drops. I can count on one hand how many flumes I've ridden with at least three drops. The first and third drops were just ok, but the second drop was something else. It was a double down with an very surprising and abrupt pop of air. Needless to say, I wasn't expecting this little Italian park to have such an active flume. Unfortunately, the rest of the course wasn't anything to write home about since it was just a wide open plot of land baking in the sun. That being said, it's still a solid flume mostly because of that double down. Just hold your nose since the water reeks. 7 out of 10 That double down in the background was a nice surprise. By contrast, the water on Hirakiri (wet/dry water slide) may have been too clean. The water looked soapy. With 4 lanes, Hirakiri emphasizes the racing element. The actual slide portion is basically the water slide version of your carnival fun slide. 6 out of 10 I chose the dry water slide. But if you want to get soaked, go for it. Last but not least, I did the park's haunt, Galeone Maledetto. If I remember correctly it was an upcharge like most haunts in Europe. If so, save your money for the one at Rainbow MagicLand. My favorite type of haunt is one that focuses on the atmosphere and theming more than the scares themselves. That being said, I can appreciate a haunt that tries to make people crap their pants. The one at Zoomarine did neither...unless you're scared of the dark. The haunt was so dark I couldn't see anything including the path. I think the park is aware of this issue since the op follows people inside and barks directions (right, left, not there, etc). Beyond him, I think there was only one other scare actor who did nothing more than yell boo. If I want to hear boos, I'll go to the Celtics game when Kyrie Irving returns to Boston. 2 out of 10 It took me a long time to find the entrance to the haunt because it was unmarked and literally next to the bathroom. My tummy was rumbling so I grabbed a pizza. Unless you're in central PA, theme park pizza can be hot, greasy garbage. But since Zoomarine is in Italy, it guaranteed the pizza would be amazing. The margarita pizza was as good as the best wood fired places back home. This was the worst pizza I had in Italy. And it was still great. My visit was short and it didn't coincide with any of the animal shows, so my visit didn't extend beyond the amusement rides. I don't think it's a full day park, but it's close enough to Rome's best parks that you can shoehorn in this Schwarzkopf. One last note, the park really pushes their Fast Pass when you purchase an online ticket. Having visited the park, it seems laughable anyone would need it. I visited on a sunny, summer Saturday and everything was a walk-on. Even Dorney gets worse lines.

I completely understand their plight. Winters are brutal. It's just like how I saw Busch Gardens Tampa selling handwarmers when temperatures hit 60 degrees a few years ago.

This is one example where Six Flags buying Cedar Fair would be a positive.

Looking back at my photos, the blue train was the faster train. That was the one without the logo.

^ I think the good thing about Cedar Fair is that they do pull in some local places and chains. Like the Melt at Cedar Point is fantastic and I do like Auntie Anne's. But as a whole the generic food places are as good (or bad) as Six Flags.

It looks like a completely full queue holds about 90 minutes worth of people assuming (big assumption) there are no breakdowns. I'm guessing they're trying to spin the closures as capacity since that looks a heck of a lot better than saying we screwed up and rushed the ride open. Oh it was. It was also stunning to hear the amount of pre-recorded messages they had for delays. We counted at least 5 different ones- bikes need more tuning, class is delayed, Hagrid is caring for creatures, etc. I'm sure it'll improve eventually (I mean it can't get worse), but I have no clue how long that will take. I also think I was higher on the coaster than most enthusiasts. I think most people will still prefer Dueling Dragons.

Silverwood Sky Diver and Trabant have been removed. Here is SpinCycle's sign. The Tilt-a-Whirl was upgraded to the new generation, open vehicles. Here are some missing rides. Barnstormer Carousel Carousel Krazy Koaster

What if this isn't a full merger? Cedar Fair has invested heavily in a select few parks. Maybe Six Flags is inquiring about some of the smaller ones like Michigan's Adventure that haven't seen the big investments. I could see that being a win for everyone since this would actually guarantee they get a new addition.

Great report! Acrophobia may not tilt as much as Falcon's Fury, but I find the drop way more intense in that standing position. Plus it seems like that gondola has a longer drop with less resistance.

Also about Hagrid's, I hate myself. I feel dirty saying it, but I liked it more than Dueling Dragons. It's not perfect (mainly because of how fast you blow by the detailed animatronics), but we were smiling ear-to-ear and it was our favorite ride at the resort. That being said, I wish they found a way to keep both Dueling Dragons (or even the non-dueling Dragon Challenge) and Hagrid's. I made sure to wear my Dueling Dragons shirt to the park and even the employees shared the same sentiments. Where to begin with the line for Hagrid's? The park map now has a warning that the queue for Hagrid's will close at 3 pm. Normally, I'd rope drop the brand new ride. However, I wasn't willing to waste walk-ons at other rides for a coaster that I noticed didn't always open with the park. That being said, it did appear that Hagrid's opened with the park both days per the app. We ended up entering the queue around 1 pm on Monday. It was almost entirely filled. There is a single rider line approximately 1/4 of the way through the queue. It was tempting, but we decided to skip it for two reasons. One, there is no way to tell how long the single rider line is. Two, you're pretty much guaranteed to get the side car (more on that later). The queue moved quite fast and there was a good amount to look at (not as much as Dragons though). After an hour, we had reached the second to last room. Then Hagrid's went down for a "short delay". That short delay then turned into an "extended delay". We stuck it out for an additional two hours. People were asking the employees what was wrong and they said this happens every day. I feel sorry for the employees because it's not their fault the ride basically skipped the testing phase. It's also worth noting that Universal was giving out bathroom passes for anyone that needed to leave and re-enter. To re-enter the queue, at least one person in your party had to remain in line. We weren't going to leave that line. Since it was now 4 pm, it was entirely possible Universal wouldn't reopen the queue. And we didn't want to wait until our last day to ride it. But then Universal announced the ride was closed indefinitely. To say the crowd was pissed was an understatement. However, Universal did compensate everyone in line with 2 free express passes. One was valid for Hagrid's. One was valid for everything else. Now here's the odd part. Hagrid's was testing while they cleared out the queue. We decided to stick it out and sure enough, Hagrid's reopened a mere 15 minutes later. And then the masses flooded back in. It would have been smart to use standby, but we weren't chancing the ride going down again. So we booked it through the Express line. We beat everyone in standby, but had a few Express people ahead of us. And since there was no one immediately behind us, Universal allowed us to wait an extra train for the front. This is something they said isn't possible if there's any sort of queue. After we got off, we immediately got back in the standby queue. That way, both Emily and myself could try the motorbike. Our wait started in the room after the preshow (which is pretty far back I might add) and we were boarding in about 30-40 minutes. We contemplated going again, but they had already closed off the queue by the time we exited. If you're keeping score back home, they only kept the queue open for about 45 minutes after it was reopened. We also speculated that only having one motorbike would cause some frustration among guests. I saw in at least two instances guests asking the greeter if they could ride in separate rows so they could both get motorbikes. Universal said no. I found the higher elevation of the motorbike to be really unique and I think 90% of guests would prefer the motorbike if you asked them. Thankfully Tron is coming in 2 years. The ride's current operating state is embarrassing. I'd almost say they should take the ride down to get these issues sorted out, but they really can't with all the advertising they've done for Hagrid's. It really is a no-win situation right now for both guests and the park.

This is different. Hagrid is a caretaker for creatures. He should be able to keep the bees under control. He teaches care of MAGICAL creatures. This type of muggle bullshit is not a part of his job description. Silly me.

This is different. Hagrid is a caretaker for creatures. He should be able to keep the bees under control.

I'd also wonder what the pricing impact would be. Would Six Flags lower the price of Cedar Fair passes or up the cost of their own passes. I'm leaning towards the latter if a big rival is out of the picture. I'm hoping this doesn't happen, but we'll see.

The new orange looks fantastic! But I agree I'm sort of surprised by their timing to paint these rides.