Canobie Coaster

^ Most of Superman's awards came when it had the t-bars and when it switched to the current restraints, B&M started building gigas and RMC came onto the scene.

No, hopefully La Ronde. Makes perfect sense since we already have two boomerangs, two wipeouts, and two frisbees.

Very interesting the Arnolds Park flume was relocated! I'm guessing Wildwood doesn't miss it with Zoom Phloom there.

The only thing I've heard so far is that Six Flags was at a recent Agawam town meeting to have a ride relocated.

Valleyfair! The forecast called for a 100% chance of thunderstorms through the afternoon. As I approached Minneapolis, I saw countless lightning strikes in the fields adjacent to the highway. This is the type of weather that would keep a family park closed. This is the type of weather that would cause a corporate park to close early. Much to my shock, Valleyfair opened. Not only that, but they waited out the storm and stayed open until 11 pm! People may mock Valleyfair’s new additions, but good god is that some great customer service. I met up with RCjunkie. He was a cool guy and shared all sorts of facts and history about Valleyfair as we made our way to the back of the park. If you ever come visit Canobie, I’ll be happy to return the favor! On this day, Snoopy got very wet. Our first stop was Excalibur. Unless a park has a ride whose capacity is so prohibitively bad, I always make it a point to start with the most unique or most anticipated attraction. Since Excalibur is perpetually on the chopping block and Valleyfair closes the back section 2 hours early, I wanted to knock it out ASAP. Calling Excalibur’s layout bizarre is an understatement. In no way should this layout work. It has a bunch of low-to-the-ground, coat-hangery transitions. But somehow they don’t hurt and pull some nice Gs. The only flaw with Excalibur is that it’s short. The first drop may be trimmed, but it still delivers a strong burst of air. And the first S-hill delivers a powerful burst of ejector air. It reminded me of one of the S-hills on SFNE’s Superman. 7 out of 10 Apparently the chain is there because some moron tried to pull the sword from the stone. We then took a spin on Renegade. And I have to applaud the Minnesotans, you guys are pretty hearty. Despite the cruddy weather to start the day, Renegade had a half hour wait (admittedly with one train). Most GCIs blend together for me. They’re a fast paced flurry of turns and quick pops of airtime. Renegade felt distinctly different. Sure it has some instances of both (GCI just can’t help themselves), but there are a lot of straight hills with sustained floater air. The second hill in particular is pure bliss. I’m always a bit nervous to ride an older GCI, but Renegade tracked quite well. It hauled through the course and only had a bit of a rattle to it. I’d say this is my favorite GCI after Mystic Timbers. 8.5 out of 10 Renegade twisted and turned like most GCIs. But these hills with sustained floater differentiated it from other GCIs. RCjunkie needed to leave, so I took a spin on Thunder Canyon. Usually I skip river rapids rides, but it had a short queue. It still ended up taking 20 minutes though since the park only loaded every third raft. Thunder Canyon has a solid layout. It has a nice mix of waterfalls and rapids. Plus the layout alternates between the woods and a field with awesome views of Renegade. But can we talk about those water cannons? The PSI on those things is through the roof! It felt like I was being stung by an army of bees. The force of the water was so strong that it ripped the sunglasses off the face of the woman next to me. It would have done the same to me had I not been wearing a glasses strap. 7 out of 10 These waterfalls were child's play. It was the water guns that were lethal. They were oddly filling every third raft. It had been a while since I had ridden an Arrow mouse, so I was happy to give Mad Mouse a whirl, especially since it was a walk-on. And I have to say, I forgot how good an Arrow mouse is. The first two turns have some powerful laterals. Then the final sequence of drops has some nice pops of airtime, better than anything on a Mack or Maurer mouse. Plus you have all that funky banking too. I wish there were more of these mice around. 6 out of 10 It's my understanding I lucked out that the queue was this short. Now that's some serious stacking. Up next was Wild Thing, one of the least talked about hyper coasters anywhere. I know enthusiasts jokingly call it Mild Thing, but please have respect for the park’s deceased kiddie coaster. The first drop is stellar. The floater air in the back is top notch thanks to the Morgan profiling. But the highlight was the second hill. Instead of a towering camelback, it was more of a speed hill with some serious sustained floater airtime. The turnaround wasn’t particularly forceful, but it was cool to fly above the Route 76 area. Then that led into the moment of truth- the MCBR. This can either make or break a Morgan hyper. *Screech* Well, crud. Needless to say, we were braked hard. As a result, the bunny hills back to the station had barely any airtime. Wild Thing may be the weakest Morgan hyper, but it still has a great first half and is a super smooth and reridable coaster. 7 out of 10 One of the operators was a super friendly enthusiast who joined me for night rides on Renegade later in the day. I guess most guests to Valleyfair don’t wear Copperhead Strike t-shirts. Wild Thing lives up to its name in the first half. This camelback had some incredible sustained airtime. Little do these people know just how bad the trim will hit. Once that trim hit, I totally understand why people call this Mild Thing. Since I was making good time, I decided to start hitting some flats. The first was the Xtreme Swing. By now, I know exactly what to expect from these screamin’ swings. They’re super fun rides but they’re over in a flash. All 3-4 of the max swings had some great floater air. 7 out of 10 S&S land would make Stan Checketts proud. Looks like a car full of happy riders. Next was Power Tower. Since I had yet to see the Minnesota River, I figured this would be my best chance to see the river that is a thorn in the park’s side. Not only did I see the river, but I rode during sunset so the views were fantastic. As for the drop, it was your average S&S turbo drop. 7 out of 10 I'm not used to seeing multiple towers run at once. Thanks SFNE... I love how you have to cross this suspension bridge to reach the ride. Three oddities about the ride. One, was sporting ratcheting restraints. I guess that’s a way to avoid the new S&S lap belts. Two, the ride did this odd thing where it paused about 9/10 of the way up before continuing to the top. Three, the ride is located on an island so you have to cross a rickety bridge to ride. The last flat I hit was Northern Lights. I used to like these Disko/Skater coasters a lot more, but I’ve been riding them a lot recently so they’ve started to lose their uniqueness. I definitely prefer the disko for the seating arrangement, but I did at least get an end seat. 5 out of 10 God, that sunset is gorgeous. It pained me to skip Delirious, but darkness was descending upon the park I wanted to knock out the final four coasters so I could get back to Renegade. I waited two trains for the front and it was well worth it. The visual of careening up the spiral was quite terrifying and the subsequent floater was good too. But the highlight was the holding brake. It’s an absolute mindbender. 7 out of 10 Kings Dominion sure wishes it had a launched Intamin invert. The holding brake makes this ride. Corkscrew was a complete walk-on. I was stunned it was running two trains, but that’s Cedar Fair for you. They do a great job maximizing the capacity of their rides even if they don’t need it. While Excalibur had jerky transitions that weren’t actually bad, Corkscrew had some jerky transitions that were bad. Thankfully my head was above the OSTR. Otherwise this would have been painful. As a result, I was able to enjoy the forceful vertical loop and surprise pop of air on the speed hill. 4 out of 10 Corkscrew certainly did its fair share of screwing. High Roller is a coaster I almost never hear anything about. I figured that was one of two things. Either it was a boring snoozefest or it was a brutally rough ride. It was neither. High Roller wasn’t fast, but it was smooth. And the outward leg actually had 2 surprising pops of airtime in the back. In the front, the ride gave what I like to call bouncy airtime. Then the finale gave strong pops of air throughout the train. 6 out of 10 I love chaser lights. The final coaster, much to the amusement of the operator, was Cosmic Coaster. As far as kids coasters go, it was a comfortable fit for an adult and the helix actually had some decent laterals. 3 out of 10 I'm glad the old Mild Thing kiddie coaster was removed. It was too easy to confuse that ride with their hyper. I had about 45 minutes before closing, so I kicked off the Renegade marathon. I heard Renegade was an excellent night ride and it delivered. There is hardly any light through the first 3/4 of the ride. I can’t decide if I prefer the front or back. The front has the better airtime, but the speed and whip is better towards the back. These night rides are why I place this GCI above the likes of Gold Striker, Prowler, and Wodan. You know a coaster is a great night ride when it's impossible to get a clean photo of it once the sun sets. Valleyfair is definitely one of the weaker Cedar Fair parks, but that doesn’t make it a bad park. I’d still take it over a lot of Six Flags parks. As with most Cedar Fair parks, it’s clean and incredibly well run. Just look at how they stayed open despite a major storm keeping the rides closed for the first third of the day. And it doesn’t hurt that Renegade is great too. I highly recommend planning a visit when they have a late close like I did so you can try it at night. Look at this cute Ferris Wheel behind the sculpture of a Ferris Wheel.

Have any other Macks with the same train design closed since the incident like Manta or the ones in Europe?

^ They've made season passes so cheap that I don't think their attendance has suffered. I got my season pass for $60 on Black Friday. Daily admission is like $45.

I have some updates from Italy. Cinecitta World I believe the Splash Battle has closed. Darkmare has been renamed Inferno. Here's a picture of the sign. Erawan has been renamed Indiana Adventure. Here's a picture of the sign. Splash Boat has been renamed Aktium. Here's a picture of the sign. Aqua Rodeo Aqua Rodeo Assassin's Creed Bici Volanti Cinetour Guerra dei Mondi Horror House Horror House I-Fly In-Cubo Jurassic War Jurassic War Pezzi da Oscar Pompieri Regno del Ghiacci Regno del Ghiacci Rodeo Rodeo Salterello Salterello Tazze Treno del West Treno del West Velocita Luce Volarium Volarium Volarium Zoomarine Drop Zone has closed. Carousel should be renamed as Carosello. I have a photo of the sign. Below are some other ride signs and photos. Blue River Blue River Galeone Maledetto Galeone Maledetto. This is a haunt and this is actually the entrance. Harakiri Harakiri Laguna dei Pirati sign Vertigo sign

Per Amusement Today, Quassy is upgrading their current swinging ship with a better one in 2020. It will be from SBF Visa and be called Tidal Wave.

I've seen some photos online of the lift being erected already. I'm guessing it's Gravity Group judging by the (what I assume is) the straight first drop in that short POV and the metal support structure, but it'll be nice to get some more details from the park. I was thinking this would be more of a smaller wood coaster like InvadR, but if it's the tallest wood coaster in Texas it needs to top Boardwalk Bullet (96 ft).

I didn't see it posted here, but below is the park's announcement for their 2020 addition, Venus Vortex. Link to Ride Page Since this park didn't have one of those tornado/funnel slides already, this looks like a good fit. I do find it odd the slide has three person tubes instead of four person tubes, but the 42" height requirement is lower than expected so that's great for younger riders.

I saw on social media that Wodan's lift chain tore yesterday. In typical Europa fashion, they fixed it overnight.

I think a few other coasters don't have it as well like Thunder Run, Bat, and Fly if you wanted to ride all the credits. But Guardian is certainly the most annoying one not to be on FastLane.

I'm glad they got Coaster up and running but that's unfortunate it's down to one train during the busiest time of the year.

I went to Canada's Wonderland on a very busy day on Memorial Day weekend and I don't remember any of the Fast Lane queues being more than 5-10 minutes. The only time I've ever had to wait a significant time in a Fast Lane queue has been for Steel Vengeance or Copperhead Strike (I think this one was due to the ride being down most of the day). I'd personally recommend maybe trying to knockout some of the park's coasters that don't have Fast Lane. Guardian is the big one.

Great report! I knew Efteling was huge, but I didn't realize just how big it was. There were definitely some things I missed and your report helped fill in the gaps. It's a gorgeous park.

^ I agree the woodies at Kennywood have been well-maintained. My issues there have been ride closures and bad operations. Lake Compounce does replace sections on Boulder Dash, but it usually isn't until that specific section gets pretty bumpy. See the triple up from a few years ago.

^ I'll still take Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi for the best indoor park by far, but I really liked how different Nickelodeon Universe's feel was. While Warner Bros tried to teleport you to different lands, Nickelodeon Universe tried to make you feel like you were outside in an indoor park, which is no small feat.

As much as I want to one day ride Desperado, I'm realistically keeping in mind the place could very well have it closed for no reason and I've only heard reports that it's rough.

When I looked quick, I thought they were making a water coaster. It makes sense to have the two rides intertwined since the park has limited space.

Having just visited like 5 Parques Reunidos parks in the past week, none of these issues surprise me. I take at least 90% of my rides on Boulder Dash in the front. I know it is possible to get a ride on it without airtime, but that hasn't happened in over a decade for me.

Agreed. Been running fairly well this year. It was really hot last week in this area. We were scheduled to take my wife's brother but held off for another weekend. He's never been and LR hadn't run for a few days. Rollbacks on LR...that doesn't happen every day. I'm jealous. And an evac later on? What a day! I think most of us get jealous with launch coaster rollbacks since they're usually no big deal and it means you get to experience the launch a second time. Isn't a "rollback" on Lightning Rod more like it refuses to launch and just sits at the base rather than not having enough steam to make it over?

^ To the chain's credit they did give SFNE a super loop along with the Superman retheme a few years ago. When they turned it into Bizarro I remember they also got their old wipeout reinstalled that was in storage. But then again this is Darien Lake.

^ If a ride is popular enough, it's not a problem to have two of them. Doesn't this park still have two log flumes next to each other? As for RMC Eagle, they could always shorten the track length. Iron Rattler and Twisted Colossus didn't use the whole layout. I know this one is an out-and-back, but there's nothing saying they have to go all the way out.

I'd argue Untamed needs to be mentioned as well. That ride absolutely blew me away last week. But the key thing is if Zadra is anything like these rides, it's one of the best coasters in the world.