Zand

I'll be there Sunday. Was already planning on it before this hullabaloo came up. I much preferred TTD over Kingda Ka but with that gone, the prospect that we may not have any hydraulic launched stratas left after Sunday is pretty sad. This whole situation is just so bizarre though.

Stopped in for closing day last night. Park was surprisingly busy considering the temperatures. Rode Wicked Cyclone in row 2 and in back. I'm fairly certain that these were my first ever pure "steel wheel" rides. The feel of the ride and the sound it made were unlike anything I've ever experienced before on it, and it literally felt like the train had rocket boosters attached. It almost gave the AF1 airtime a run for its money. Skyscreamer still running backwards which was nice with the cold weather. Such a beautiful view this time of year with the leaves down and the picnic grove all lit up. Batman a hoot in the back row as always. Bit of a headbang in the last corkscrew but that's nothing new. I went down to lap Superman for the last hour but they kind of just roped it off shortly before 8 and closed the ride by 8:20 so for the second year in a row I got shut out on some Superman rides to end the year. Some folks were commenting that they've heard once it dips below 40 the cycle times become concerning and they don't want it to valley. Would be a shame if that was true as I've ridden it well down into the 20s. Finished up with Supergirl and Thunderbolt but definitely disappointed to leave with no Superman. If 40 degrees is the new limit (and there was absolutely no wind last night) then I can't help but think there's some Cedar Fair influence going on there. But the rest of the coasters were still running so who knows. They better not pull this BS with Nitro in December!

If it contains the letters P A N T H E and N and it's located in Virginia, then it's only right to make damn sure you know you're on a random coaster in a field. As long as it's the same great ride they can theme it to Hefty and have it race around a landfill for all I care.

Some notes from a fun week at Universal! Sunday night we rushed over from the airport in order to ride Spiderman before it closes for refurb. Love that ride. Luckily we still had time for one more ride before closing and decided it was as good of a time as any to finally get a night ride on Hagrid! A posted 90 minute line ended up being closer to 50 which was nice. This ride is amazing at night. It almost should've been built as an indoor coaster because I feel like the darkness really accentuates a lot of aspects of the theming. Monday was a pretty typical IOA day for me. It's probably my favorite park I've ever been to and other than Velocicoaster, my other favorite activity is watching people get destroyed by that high pressure waterfall on Popeyes right by the footbridge down to the lagoon. I could stand there for hours. Tuesday at Studios I don't have much to report other than I had a really weird ride on ET. The cars started stacking right at the "Welcome Home You Have Arrived" dude. And the rest of the way the cars would pull forward like 30 feet at a time and then come to a jarring stop. Very strange. Thursday night we had a fun night with @coasterbill at HHN (preceded by a great Velocicoaster night ride). This was the first time I've ever done Halloween mazes outside of SFNE or Lake Compounce, and what a difference. The level of detail put into the sets was just incredible. The thing I didn't like is that they just conga-line everyone through each maze. I can see why, as the lines are insane and I can't imagine how long they would be if everyone went through in small groups. In 5 hours we were able to do 3 houses plus Gringotts, Mummy, and Rockit from the singles lines. Very busy, but overall a really fun event. Also on Thursday I snagged tickets for Epic Universe on my birthday (which will be the 2nd week the park is open). Really excited to see it for the first time.

Continuing on from my Animal Kingdom report... We arrived at Hollywood Studios right at noon with a reservation at 50s Primetime Cafe at 12:05. I also came armed with an 11:30 Star Tours reservation (which I made so that I could hit it ASAP to open up the rest of the A tier rides), 3:30 Tower, 5:10 Rise, and 6:45 Slinky Dog (which I snagged a couple days before after initially being unavailable). We went over and scanned in at Star Tours, but it took a while to get into the ride and we ended up just running across to the exit to make our lunch reservation. However, I was now able to reserve Smugglers Run at 1:15. Lunch at Primetime was delicious and the atmosphere was fun. There were so many things about the rooms that reminded me of how my parents and grandparents would have decorated their kitchens when I was a kid. After lunch we stopped at Star Tours (which was a walk on) to actually ride it and this is still a really fun attraction. Obviously it has been well eclipsed by many newer rides but it is still worth checking out for sure. Continued down into Galaxy's Edge which was my first time there. This area is absolutely massive and it took a while to actually find Smugglers Run but eventually we were in. My wife and I ended up being pilots and were pretty f*cking terrible at our jobs. We loved the ride though and the theming is obviously incredible. After this ride we managed to snag a Toy Story Mania lightning lane at 2:30 despite it not having great times available earlier in the day (I have to say this system sucks in some ways but also was surprising in how much stuff would pop up out of nowhere unexpectedly). We ended up waiting standby for Runaway Railway which was posted at an hour but barely took 30 minutes. My wife was a big Great Movie Ride fan and thought this did not do it justice, but I thought it was cute and fun. Headed back over to Mania which I love. One of my favorite shooting rides (probably because I used to really enjoy Toy Story when I was younger) and it's just a great looking ride. I ended up snagging a Rock 'n Roller Coaster LL that overlapped my Tower LL which was perfect. Speaking of which, Tower of Terror is just a f*cking masterpiece. Despite the insane attractions Disney has built in the past couple decades, this is still my favorite on the property and everything about it has stood the test of time. Unbelievable theming and the ride itself is somehow way more thrilling than most modern freefall towers to me. I wish I had time to lap it over and over. On the opposite end of the spectrum, its neighbor just kinda sucks and I still can't figure out how this fits in a Disney park. There's some intensity, a lot of roughness, and I just think the premise of the ride is meh. I would rate this the worst indoor coaster at Disney by far, and I don't think that is a controversial take. Headed back down to the Galaxy to check out Oga's Cantina. Look, I know that it's a very cozy spot in the movies and they really wanted to go with the "exclusive club" feel and I get it. But having to cram into a booth with 2 other families, one of which had 3 screaming young children (one of which proceeded to dump an entire drink all over a bag of merchandise I had under my seat) kind of ruined the experience. It looks terrific and all, and I get that they want to take in as many people as possible, but that was a miserable experience. The drink was great however. Next was Rise and the theming on this was out of this world. I thought the ride might be a bit over hyped though. After experiencing Flight of Passage a few hours earlier and being blown away, I kind of walked away from this one expecting more. Not sure what else to say. I'm not a huge Star Wars fan and maybe that had something to do with it, but I liked everything else here so I'm not sure why Rise didn't do it for me. I had some time to kill before Slinky, so I reserved Alien Swirling Saucers which I then felt bad walking past a line full of 5 year olds just because I was bored. The ride is not great. We went over and saw the Muppets show afterwards which was a much better way of killing time. That show is adorable. Finally our Slinky Dog time came up and we even scored front row. Admittedly, as a coaster this thing has no forces whatsoever and it really doesn't need them. For the kids it's a home run of a ride and we loved it. After this we had one more park to check off, and hopped on the Skyliner to Epcot. Arrived shortly after 7:30 and headed over for my first Guardians ride. Upon reaching the first room at the top of the line, the thing broke down for probably 30 minutes which became a bit frightening, but thankfully it finally reopened with just one side. An hour later we were zooming around space to the beats of Conga. My thoughts? Don't get me wrong, I loved it. But I think I expected more. The top speed is 60 and it's 5500 feet long yet if you told me Space Mountain was longer and faster I would almost believe it. The visuals are incredible, absolutely amazing. I think I just expected a bit more from the coaster. Unfortunately due to the breakdown it was after 9 when we got off so we were not able to get on Remy or take in some of the amazing Epcot atmosphere and food. Next time. I love this park and only popping in for an hour killed me as much as rushing through Animal Kingdom. It was a long and tiring (and expensive) 14 hour extravaganza of a day, but we had a blast. Once we financially recover from the tickets, lightning lanes, food, and merchandise that we went a little too crazy with, maybe we'll be back sooner than later!

This past Wednesday I did a massive 14-hour park hopper marathon across 3 parks, hitting pretty much everything new to Disney since 2012 (except Magic Kingdom since I was just there in February). I started the day at Animal Kingdom right at 8am and marched right over to Navi River Journey since it was still a walk-on at that point (I had a Lightning Lane for Flight of Passage at 10:45). First off, Pandora looks absolutely amazing and I see what all the commotion is about. I only wish I could have seen it at night. Anyway, Navi is a really well done boat ride with amazing visuals. To quote my wife, it is probably now the best of the Disney boat rides. I wouldn't necessarily jump into a 60+ min wait that this sometimes gets, but otherwise I would easily ride this over and over if I had the time just to try to take it all in. Heading back into the center of the park, I noted that Kilimanjaro Safaris still had a 10 minute line. My only must-dos left were Dinosaur and Tough to Be a Bug, however I only had a limited amount of time in this park as we had to be at DHS for a lunch reservation at 12:05. I knew heading over to Safaris would probably remove the chance of trekking up a particular mountain in this park, but I've made that trek several times before and decided we should see animals while we were at Animal Kingdom. The safari ride was amazing as usual, and on a decently cool morning the animals were very active. When it was over I was happy to have chosen this over Everest. I had never ridden Dinosaur before, so we headed there next and walked right on. I don't know why I haven't heard more positive remarks about this ride in the past (honestly I had no idea what to expect) because this thing blew me away. The vehicle's movements are way more out of control than I expected, the darkness of the ride is pretty crazy, and overall I loved this thing. I hope they do it justice when they retheme it with the new area in a couple years. On the way back over to Pandora, there was a major nostalgia trip that I needed to make before it goes away this winter. I loved It's Tough to be a Bug when I was a kid and I just had to see it one more time. Unfortunately I did not get the full experience, as the water effects did not work in my seat nor did the "bugs leaving the theatre before you" effect. I guess they've already given up maintaining the ride. But it's still a fun show and I'm glad I got to see it one more time. Back into Pandora, I had a few minutes until my Flight of Passage reservation and spent that time at Satu'li Canteen chowing on Burger Pods. These things tasted amazing and that whole restaurant had a really nice atmosphere to it. Absolutely stop here if you're in Pandora. Anyway, 10:45 came up and we headed to Flight of Passage which I'm sure everyone else on this board has probably ridden already, but this thing was amazing in every way possible. The theming both outside and inside the ride, the presentation, and the ride itself. Incredible. After getting off Flight of Passage it was already 11:15 and we had to book it out to the car and head over to Hollywood Studios. I was sad to have had to rush Animal Kingdom, I love the park and definitely look forward to getting more of a full and more relaxed day next time I go. And I absolutely have to see Pandora at night. Sad to see Dinoland USA have to be killed off, but I'm sure they'll do a great job with its replacement.

Unless the crowd levels ever start actually dropping at Disney, hoping for a price reduction is a pipe dream.

For the low, low price of $449 you can skip every line at Magic Kingdom, as long as you've already ponied up $1k+ on a room. That's $150 more than I paid for a national Six Flags Platinum Flash Pass that is good for 17 months

I might stop in tomorrow if it's not too rainy. But tonight?...F that!

It's motorized swan boats that go up and down a small creek. There's a miniature train on the riverbank next to you and the Skyride crosses overhead. It's funny that Great Escape still has a Skyride considering that the incident that led to some other parks closing their Skyrides happened there. But yeah, the place was totally dead so we got a boat to ourselves and it's just a really peaceful experience and it feels like there's no way you're in an actual Six Flags park. Like I said, this park sucks from a thrill standpoint (aside from having two good woodies and an awesome skyscraper ride) but it's a park I would love to have as a home park as it's just a great place to have a relaxing day for a few hours. You almost experience withdrawal not having to deal with roving groups of teenage douchebags acting like idiots everywhere. For example... Fully operational freestyle machines right out in the open with no employees nearby to monitor them. Meanwhile, 200 miles to the south at Great Adventure they took all their freestyle machines and had to move them to where only employees can access them. Because New Jersey. I would love to see this park take out Steamin Dump and replace it with some kind of family launcher like SFNE is getting. But otherwise it doesn't bother me at all that their lineup is what it is. It's a nice family park.

I was at a wedding over the weekend in Albany and figured I should take a ride up to Great Escape today to check out the new hotness. I went into the day with a splitting headache and therefore didn't ride much (it was already building before the wedding and I can assure you the open bar did NOT help cure it ) but we still had a really nice day. Arrived around 1:00 and it was clear that mother nature was going to take Oktoberfest literally. While the forecast for most of the area was mid 60s and sunny, anyone from Northern New England or the Adirondacks knows a sunny but cool day in the fall really means it's probably going to rain anyway, and there were no less than 3 heavy showers that blew through with strong winds and would immediately drop the temp to the low 50s when they hit. So it was pretty much late October feeling in the park today, which to me just added to the festive atmosphere. After hanging out in the shops up front during the first heavy shower of the day, we headed up to Bobcat which was only running 1 train and had about a 15 minute wait at that point (and would grow longer through the day) and rode in the 2nd to last row. Like all family Gravity Groups, this thing is an absolute blast and glass smooth. It's zippy, has a few good ejector hills, and is just a total home run for a park like Great Escape. Kudos to them for being the only Six Flags park that managed to open their 2024 coaster in 2024. The ride and entire area looks great and I can't wait to go back on a random weekday next summer when 4 people are in the park so I can reride it over and over. Dodged the next shower by having lunch in the Festhaus, and then headed back to Comet. Running 1 train here also, but only about a 4 train wait for the front. Last time I was here I think I zen-rode this solo 4 times in a row, so it was weird riding with a full train. It rode a lot faster with some decent airtime and some pretty significant positives in the valleys. Even though the ride is perfectly smooth, it brought my headache back with a vengeance but what a great ride. Not sure why it says "world's best roller coaster" on the front of the train but it is really damn good and it's great that this park has two awesome wooden coasters now. Kind of moseyed around for a while, trying to get my headache to go away. We got some Oktoberfest food offerings and dodged yet another rain shower before walking towards the front. We hopped on the Skyride which was almost a downright cold ride in the whipping wind behind the rain shower, but is a nice ride over the pathways and I really started to appreciate just how much this park oozes charm. We further appreciated the charm by getting a zen ride on the Swan Boats next. This part of the park is absolutely gorgeous and it's such an unreal feeling knowing you're in a Six Flags park. Headed out after this as my head wasn't going to allow me to ride any of the thrill rides and it was hurting just to walk around at that point. Sad I missed ADK outlaw, rerides on Bobcat, and some of the other flats but we had a great day anyway. I would love to have this place as a home park. While there isn't much for thrillseekers and the place has the worst assortment of steel coasters anywhere, it's just such a relaxing and peaceful park and it's the kind of place that nice to just walk around and take in the atmosphere, which is in stark contrast to my home park SFNE and its blacktop pathways and lack of shade.

Today's featured wiki article I'm still sad that I've been to BGT twice and it was closed both times. Definitely the most unique drop tower I've ever seen.

Per the app, Log Flume has reopened. If they're going to debut the Flume the week before Labor Day, perhaps they can give us a sneak preview of the Flash in December?

So Cedar Point can give a months notice to ride a water ride before it closes, but Busch Gardens only gives 9 days for a classic coaster that I'm sure has been in the plans for months. Okay. I really need to ride Shockwave at SFOT, feels like it may be the last Schwartzkopf with intensity left (that hasn't been neutered by Six Flags).

That ballpark will have a roof....I think? I hope?