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Not sure if you stayed till closing, but I guess the day ended in the most unsurprising way possible. I was watching someone's live stream and they showed the last rides on Roar, the SLC, Ragin Cajun, and Joker. They walked up to Wild One and it still had a sizeable line so they filmed themselves walking out. Was sad to watch. Then not too long after, reports started hitting Twitter about Superman getting stuck on the lift and evac'd, and they just dumped the entire 2 hour line and that would be the final curtain call for SFA. No surprises here. I would've easily gone to Wild One for last ride if I were there tonight.

Queue Times was showing some pretty insane lines tonight. Superman upwards of 2 hours. Wild One well over an hour. Doesn't help that everything is on one train. Glad I went last weekend when it was still manageable crowd wise. Guessing tomorrow will be even more busy.

Tough to say with Superman considering its size and it's only 1 year younger than Jokers Jinx. Agreed that it would be a great add for Michigan's Adventure if that were to happen. Not sure if that land behind the lake is buildable but if it is then they have more than enough room. If they don't move it, the question becomes where do the new trains go? SFDL also just got new trains. If the state would pull it's head out of its ass with the T-Bar situation, I would like to see them addressed to 1623 Main St, Agawam MA 01001. I know LIM launchers are kind of being phased out slowly but I would love to see Jokers Jinx live on somewhere. My home park of SFNE could use it as we've always needed a launcher (and when Quantum Accelerator finally opens technically we'll have one but just a family coaster). It still runs great, but with LIMs becoming less common they may just use it for parts for the FOFs and Mr Freezes. The track on the SLC is beat to shit. The new trains will end up somewhere I'm sure, there must be an SLC somewhere in the chain that needs them. But I don't see them relocating the ride itself. Sadly I agree the woodies are done. Roar is whatever, but very sad about Wild One. Batwing is another sad one to lose with the Flying Dutchmans officially becoming extinct, but that death has already happened. Also while it has some historical significance, good riddance to Firebird. Ragin Cajun may move (again). Someone may be able to use a spinning mouse. Didn't seem to have anything particularly wrong with it so I'm sure it would be no issue moving if needed. Same with the kiddie coaster. The Intamin 2nd Gen drop tower will be gone I'm sure, maybe some parts will get sent to Gurnee. Starflyer and Endeavor may find a new home, they're pretty new. Otherwise not sure what else would be relocated for flats. The NebulaZ is new, I'm sure someone will see that pop up in April. Everything else is pretty generic and also rather aged flat-wise.

3 more operating days left, has anyone made their way down for their last trips? I stopped in this evening for a few hours. I was surprised to see that other than Batwing (which we knew about), all major rides were operating. A few smaller flats closed, and I'd say food was operating somewhere around 30-50%. Decent crowd but the lines weren't bad and I had season Flashpass to get by some of the slower lines. Every coaster was running 1 train except Skywinder which was running 2 for some reason. Merch stores were mobbed as all items are now 85% off (we contributed quite a bit ourselves). I actually started the afternoon with Rajin Cajun which has always been an elusive credit for me. In my 3 previous visits, Two Face was closed the first time and this was closed the two most recent trips. I wish I sat on the right instead of the left as it felt that I was actually counter acting the spinning and got a mundane ride, but I saw some other folks spin like crazy. The coaster I'm most torn up about with this closure is Wild One. It first opened in MA 108 years ago and while I know almost none of the original coaster survived the relocation, it's still a really cool piece of history and it's also just a really fun coaster. Good airtime, fast turns, and reasonably smooth. Rode once in front and once in back, both were very fun. Big crowd at this ride all afternoon. Voodoo Drop was fun. But I rode Demon Drop yesterday so also kind of overshadowed in the past 24 hours for me. Jokers Jinx running great as always. The 2nd half of this kicks so much ass without having a midcourse. Intense whippy turns and good positives. Wish I got a second ride on it but when I only had time for one more I decided on Wild One instead. Superman was a bit of a painful wait, with 1 train ops and rather slow dispatches a 4 train wait (thanks to Flashpass) was 30 minutes and I'm guessing the regular line had to be an hour. I felt bad for the folks in the front row like, almost every other train got filled with exit pass people. Anyway, I rode in row 2 and it was my first ride with the new trains. They shuffled quite a bit and seemed to run noticably slower in the 2nd half, but still a fun ride. I never noticed how well you can see DC from the top. Wonder Woman ran a very long, almost dizzying cycle. It spins very fast during the second half of the ride. Rode Firebird for my second time ever. My first ride in 2020 was awful in the front row, I think I had my worst coaster headache ever after that ride. I rode in back this time. The shuffling is still noticable and definitely a couple jarring transitions but not nearly as bad as last time I route. But this thing is definitely a turd. Sorry B&M I know it's your first but it's time for this thing to be put out of its misery. Rode Roar in back, it's definitely borderline violent but I think the layout is actually pretty fun with a few air pops and some intense laterals. It's an overhated ride IMO. Lastly, Skywinder in back with the new trains still shuffled a lot but I actually enjoyed my ride on it. Amazing how different an SLC is when you're not getting your head pounded in. Definitely a sad vibe in the park. It's certainly a neglected park and has always been a dump, but it has always had this weird gritty charm to it for me and I always enjoyed half the coaster lineup. It's too bad it never got properly taken care of. Glad to have gotten there once more before it closes forever next weekend.

Great evening at Dorney's haunt tonight. Only had about 3 hours in the park but got a lot done. Hit 6 out of 7 mazes plus plenty of must rides. I've always heard great things about Dorney's haunt and I have to say they do a very impressive job for a small regional park. Favorite haunts were Ghost in the Machine, Stop & Chop, and Blood on the Bayou. Tourist Trap is the only one I missed. The haunts were very well staffed and most of them sent folks through in very small groups since the lines weren't all that long. I actually preferred a night like tonight to the night I spent at HHN last year. The sets that Universal does are crazy good, but the conga lines in all the houses completely ruins the "scare factor" in any of them. Outside of the haunts, the coaster lines were a bit long around 8:30 (and by long I mean ~30 minutes, which is an eternity at Dorney lol) so I didn't hit everything, but hit the essentials. Row 3 ride on Steel Force was excellent. After my shit-tastic rides on Wild Thing this summer this thing felt even better. Demon Drop is the star of the park and fun as always. Hydra in front and Talon in back their usual fun selves. Iron Menace line was too long for me tonight, decided to hop out due to time constraints. I will absolutely return for Haunt here next year and hopefully arrive early enough to ride more rides. We had a great time tonight, I know everyone loves to shit on this park but I don't think it deserves to be shit on at all. Decent coaster lineup, terrific flat package, never crowded, and an awesome Haunt experience. It's a much better park than people give it credit for.

The latest demise at Great Adventure: Jersey Devil's dispatch times! Anyone who's been to the park this year knows they never run more than two trains on it anymore, which really wasn't going too badly with how dead the park was. But according to Eltororyan's new video, just in time for Frightfest the 2nd train now has to park outside the station until the first train is all the way out onto the lift! Due to the ride time, that means every train sent out now has to sit on the brakes for a good 30 seconds. The minimum dispatch time is 2 mins 15 seconds, rendering a throughout of just over 300 people per hour. The ops on this thing used to be a work of art when it opened and it ran 4 trains. Most days 2 trains were fine and 3 was good enough on busy days. But with this change, forget it. I really have never seen a park doing more bad for itself than this place has since Cedar Fair's management took charge 14 months ago. Not sure if it's an IROC thing, a New Jersey regulation thing, or just an excuse to make the lines longer and sell more Flashpass. Also if you're going to Frightfest, keep in mind Nitro has been down for almost a month and is potentially down for the rest of the season due to a lift motor issue. Wonder Woman has been down for almost two months. And Flash has been up and down a lot also.

I was there on a Saturday night during a concert many years ago and they actually ended up keeping the stuff close to the center of the park open at least an extra hour. Fahrenheit, Storm Runner, Skyrush, etc were all walk ons because they didn't really tell anyone they were staying open late. Most of the lot had cleared out by the time they finally closed. Last year I went on a concert day to use my preview night and it took almost 2 hours to get to Troegs from the highway. That was miserable.

I'm telling you guys. Dueling Superman.

Not sure if it has been officially confirmed by the park yet but RIP Stanley Falls. Next weekend is the final weekend.

I was originally going to stop on my way down Sunday, but when I saw they run specials on Tuesday and Thursday it was an easy choice to stop on the way back instead. They wouldn't let me ride solo (and there was no one else around at the time I was trying to ride it) so my wife reluctantly came with me so luckily for her it was a very benign ride lol. The op said 2 people minimum, and like I said he forced us to sit in the middle and balanced the car out. My ride was lame speed wise, and then I was taking a video of a car that had 2 small kids in it...once it got to the lower hairpins the first brakes engaged so I thought there's no way the 2nd set was gonna engage, but sure enough they did and I literally thought the thing was gonna valley before the end lol.

I figured I'd use this thread to recap my annual Jersey Jaunt last week. I almost didn't go after my car troubles on my way home from the Midwest and my bank account hates me for actually going, but it was a great time with excellent weather. Sunday 8/10: Six Flags Great Adventure and Gale Force On the way down I couldn't resist the magnetic pull of a quick ride on Toro and a few other things on my way to the shore. Started with Superman on the way in to check out the new footers being dug up and the absolute shithole that is the current Great Adventure boardwalk. I never ride this thing. Other than the pretzel loop it's a waste of time. Even with Flashpass it was a 20 minute process. It's making a weird metal on metal sound in the barrel roll, not sure why but I've never heard it before. After getting off Superman I made my way down the Boardwalk, past Green Lantern and the Parachutes before turning left towards the world's tallest coa....oh wait nevermind. I actually headed back to the other total disaster in the park which is Frontier Adventures. Log Flume closed, Mine Train closed, wanted to eat at Best of the West but closed. Absolutely nothing going on back there other than Medusa. And I really don't understand the rumors around it that have been coming up occasionally. Even with nothing else open within 1000 feet of this thing it had a big line. Glad I had Flashpass for this one. Back seat ride was excellent as always. I've ridden every Floorless east of the Mississippi and this is my favorite one, it just runs flawlessly with pretty good forces and is always a good time. Tackled the Bull next which was a walk on so no Flashpass needed here. Rode in the very back and it was running much better than when I rode in March. The track work in the turns has helped tremendously. I didn't even get a headache. The pacing feels better like the old days also. Rode this twice, why not when it's running so well. Had dinner at Yum Yum. Chicken was good, but if I didn't have my dining pass and bottle it would've been over $60 for two small plates of chicken fingers, a side, and a drink. Insane. Had to hit the road but a quick check of the Flash Flashpass line looked good so I hopped on real quick. Rode in back, it's good fun but after riding Sirens Curse it definitely feels a bit lackluster. Headed out for Ocean City and walked around on the boardwalk for a bit and also stopped into Castaway Cove for my annual Gale Force ride. The queue house was full and it was a good 30 minute line but this ride is so kick ass. I had just ridden El Toro 3 or 4 hours prior and you know...I think Gale Force is a better coaster. The ejector over every hill is insane, then there's bone crushing positives, and meanwhile it is glass smooth. I know it was a shitshow when it opened but it's really too bad that more of these were never built. Even though they removed the unique Squadron 33, I liked how they moved things around inside the park and it feels less crowded in now. The Bumper Cars are right next to the Gale Force queue which adds some entertainment. Monday 8/11: Watch the Tramcar Please After a day of bar hopping (Stubborn Bros might be my new favorite place in Wildwood), swimming, and indulging in lots of pizza, I ended up getting a wristband for $34 that was valid from 9:30-11:30. While it was a bit of a rush for those two hours, I rode most of what I wanted to. I started on Surfside which unfortunately had a closed Noreaster and a broken down Atmosfear. Rode Zoom Phloom which was excellent as always. Also rode It which is kind of overrated IMO but still a lot of fun with the lapbars. While I was waiting for Atmosfear to open I rode Doo Wopper to kill time. This thing sucks. It's slow and it has no airtime hills that its cousins have. I sat on a bench by the exit of the flume and watched Atmosfear test over and over. It's my favorite drop tower and if it was gonna open then I wanted to wait for it. Apparently I was within view of the guest service window and a guy, totally unsolicited, walked out and was like "I saw your Velocicoaster shirt...I'm sorry about the maintenance issues we're having tonight!" and handed me a coupon for a free wristband. I didn't have to sit around waiting for one ride, there was plenty else to do, but it was really awesome of the guest service guy to just come out and do that. Definitely will use it next summer! Anyway, after probably 15-20 tests the tower finally opened and I got my excellent ride! Unfortunately by then the clock was working against me as it was almost 11:00. Had to walk by Mariner's Pier and the world's best boomerang and went to ride my favorite Screaming Swing. Got a zen ride on it, excellent ride as always. It's not that big compared to some parks, but it's location flying out over the pier and the beach is really awesome. Finished up with 4 Great White rides which they kept running 15 minutes past closing, sweet! The millennium flyers feel like they don't pace quite as well as the old PTCs but it's still a really good ride and always fun to get night rides on this thing. Tuesday 8/12: Steel Pier and a mall Ferris Wheel on the ride home. After poking around Wildwood a little more in the AM, we started our way back up the Parkway, stopping into Atlantic City as I became aware that Steel Pier has a new credit and one of those insane Tropical Storm rides. First off, this city feels absolutely f*cking depressing after being in the much more lively shore towns to its south. Anyway, it was $4 ride day at Steel Pier (as opposed to the usual $16 per ride). Rode the new spinning mouse which is very similar to the old one except it absolutely sucks. It's trimmed to death and they also insist that you sit in the middle to balance the cars, so it doesn't really spin. What a shitty coaster. Tropical Storm though...insane. It spins almost uncomfortably fast, though thankfully it does it in spurts. I'm glad I got to ride one, I don't think there has been another one in America since Castaway Cove got rid of theirs 6 or 7 years ago. Not as insane as Scat at Bay Beach, but still a good time. On the way home, after driving past Palisades Park Mall hundreds of times in my life, we finally stopped in to ride the Ferris Wheel and check out the mall. The wheel was cool but weird for sure. Basically they meant to order their food court Carousel and f*cked up and ended up ordering a Ferris Wheel instead. It gets super hot up near the ceiling. The rest of the mall is huge, definitely a nice place. I didn't do anything else but they have Go Karts and even one store is just Bumper Cars.

Would be a nice landing spot for Rajun Cajun from SFA. I generally don't crap over Mine Trains and I enjoy quite a few of them, but good lord is Canyon Blaster one of the biggest pieces of shit I've ever ridden. Steamin Demon could always go too, but at least it looks pretty on the hill when you're walking into the park. Great Escape isn't due for a new coaster for another 23 years but when the day comes a nice Intamin family launcher would go great in that spot.

Whatever it is that happened, happened in the afternoon on the day in question (it was either the Friday or Saturday of Juneteenth weekend). When it happened they shut down Bugs Bunny National Park and then for a few days after they shut down that part of Frontier Adventures so you had to go under El Toro to get to Medusa and Mine Train. While none of this is proven fact, multiple sources from multiple sites said the same thing about the day in question and the days following. Whatever happened has been kept hush hush because of where it is in the park. Besides the part that goes by the kiddie area (which was evacuated right after the incident happened) the rest of the ride is mostly out of view from inside the park until the final hill. The rumor (and I want to be clear this is just a rumor as obviously nothing official has ever come out) is that a log got stuck just after the top of the first lift (where it cuts over the corner of the kiddie area) and then another log came up from behind and knocked it out of place and nearly over the edge of the trough. If this is indeed what happened, it would literally be the 2nd time in 4 years that this flume has had a log get stuck and then another log come up and knock it out of place. Rides that "open the same year as an accident or death" are often opened quickly because the cause of the vast majority of ride accidents is human error, but otherwise the ride did not malfunction. In this case, when a ride gets stuck in areas where it shouldn't twice in a very short period of time (a period made even shorter by the fact it was barely open in the past 4 years) it's not just going to test for a week and then they reopen it. Obviously there is something major wrong with it. Whether or not the park has actually given up on opening it ever again remains to be seen. Again, I know my post is based on total rumors but a fairly sizeable amount of people thought the Kingda Ka rumors were total bullshit and we saw how that worked out. With the condition the park is in (and has been for quite a while), I think the Flume rumors have some truth to them.

Having it closed since June 21st, during the hottest months of the year, is more than just "moving up the closing by a couple weeks"... Considering all the work and fanfare over the 50th anniversary restoration, something obviously happened that caused it to be closed the entire summer.

I mean, if the rumors of what happened last month are true, then they've managed to crash the Log Flume twice in the past 4 years (2 of those years it was closed for refurb so it hasn't exactly been open a lot of days to have crashed twice!) and the most recent one involved them having to pluck people out of the section over Bugs Bunny National Park just past the top of the lift hill with a cherry picker. Again, just a rumor so take it with a grain of salt. But it wouldn't just shut down for the hell of it so obviously something rather nefarious happened. Also as far as the Round Up goes, it was old (like...45 years old) and has been moved several times within the park. It was one of the slowest round ups I've ever seen and barely raised off the ground. It should be easily replaceable by a new round up but that's probably too much to ask for. Losing the flume would suck for sure. And I doubt they'd ever replace it. Sucks that flumes are going by the wayside.

The park updated the hours and it looks like closing day will be November 30 (Thanksgiving weekend) so I guess I can give them kudos on letting us keep November. I figured at best we were getting through Veterans Day weekend. I enjoy visiting the park in November, usually in the 50s or 60s and there's still some late foliage left by then. Frightfest crowds gone. It's a nice time to go.

One more thing I want to do now that I've ridden every American B&M Hyper is rank them and also rank them based on what my wife calls them 1. Raging Bull, 2. Goliath, 3. Diamondback, 4. Nitro, 5. Thunder Striker, 6. Apollo's Chariot, 7. Mako, 8. Candymonium (if we're including gigas, Fury 325 would rank under Raging Bull and Orion would rank under Nitro for me). My wife is Nitro's #1 fan, so she calls each B&M Hyper the following: Bovine Nitro, Y'all Nitro, Snake Nitro, Nitro, Earnhardt Nitro (guess that needs a new one lol), Mythological Nitro, Shark Nitro, and Chocolate Nitro.

Thanks, and yes other than Cedar Point and the ride home everything else went great! I don't totally blame Cedar Point for my bad days, I was getting tired and after being spoiled by all the wonderful little parks in the Midwest it was a bit of a harsh reality. Obviously I'll be back there sooner than later. But they definitely need to get their shit together on the maintenance end of things. Also thanks for the fun house recommendations, especially the one at Indiana Beach which I probably would not have even looked into. Don't really have the energy and patience to update my top lists anymore, but I decided to look back and categorize how some of the coasters on this trip feel to me. Wildly exceeded expectations: All American Triple Loop, Raging Bull, Hades, Zippin Pippin, Sirens Curse Met my pretty high expectations: Ravine Flyer, Shivering Timbers, Lost Coaster, Cornball Express, Wrath of Rakshasa, Viper, Cyclops, Renegade Disappointing compared to expectations: Goliath, X-Flight, Wild Thing, TT2 Flats/other things that were memorable: Flume, Fun Houses, and Larson tower at Waldameer; Frankenstein's Castle and the waterfront flats at Indiana Beach; Flumes and Sky Striker at SFGAm; Eli Bridge wheels at Little Amerricka and Bay Beach; Flume at MOA; and Scat at Bay Beach.

Day 12: Six Flags Darien Lake and then my ride home turned to shit The day started well enough, the weather turned to showery and cool which was a welcome change from the ridiculous heat and humidity of the past 7 days. Arrived at the park to a slowly building crowd due to an incoming Kesha concert. It was my first time at the park since 2003 when I was 12 and we did a CP trip when TTD opened. First stop was Tantrum which was about a 20 minute wait running 1 car (everything here only runs 1 train). Much smoother than Rock Bottom Plunge which I rode on Saturday, but the layout was extremely short and sort of meh. Lots of positive G's to start but that may be the shortest coaster I can think of. Moved over to Mind Eraser which was a station wait. Happy to see the new SLC trains. It tracked okay, some slight jackhammering but not terrible. Good enough ride. Next was Viper which was another station wait but it's a large, deep station that was pretty full, so about a 20 minute wait. Rode in row 2 and it's still a fun ride with a cool layout, but the entry to the boomerang and the corkscrews offered a few clocks to the jaw. Far from the worst Arrow I've ridden this trip! Continued along to the Motocoaster. About a 25 minute wait. Got the front row. This has a surprisingly punchy launch, TT2 would be jealous. The layout is lame and the bikes aren't the most comfortable things, but the kids must love this thing. Did the bizarre act of exiting the park through Darien Square just to re-enter a few hundred feet away, but headed over to Predator next, about 15 mins for back seat. This thing used to get lots of hate but they titan tracked the living crap out of it. Most of the ride is glass smooth now. The layout has a lot of fun drops and turns but I hate that the last leg before the turn into the station offers no good airtime hills, mostly just straight track. Final ride of the day and trip was Superman...err...Ride of Steel. 10 minute wait for row 2. Was nice to ride this with comfortable lapbars. Awesome ride to end the trip! Very enjoyable day. Between the weather, relatively uncrowded park, and the relaxed atmosphere (and the fact that NOTHING BROKE DOWN) it was a nice rebound from the Cedar Point shitshow. Shortly after leaving my battery light came on in my car. Took it to AutoZone in Rochester and it's the alternator. I need to be at work at 6:45am, so I had to rent a car at Rochester Airport and had my car towed to a garage which I then have to pick up when it's ready (likely after work tomorrow) so that's a fun added expense and a huge hit to getting a good night's sleep at home tonight before returning to work, should be home by 2:30. If this happened any other day on the trip it wouldn't have been a big deal at all. Might have put the nail in the coffin on my Wildwood trip in August.

Day 11: Cedar Point Today was somehow much, much worse than yesterday. Maybe part of it was bad luck. Some of it is just me getting tired after a long trip and the awful humidity. But I can assure you none of what I'm about to post is hyperbole, but rather exactly how my day went. I arrived a little before noon (despite wanting to be there early I just couldn't will myself out of bed after a late night last night, and I know it cost me a few rides this morning) really just with the goal of riding Gemini, Millennium Force, Steel Vengeance, and Sirens Curse and anything else would be a bonus. As posted earlier, all of those except Sirens Curse were closed when I parked. As I walked in, I figured I would start the day with something up front. However, Gatekeeper and Blue Streak both ended up going down right at that moment and Raptor and Valravn ended up with big lines. I checked the app again and noted that Gemini had opened, soni went over there. Just as I got to the station the ride went down. They sent a few test trains but then announced it might be a more significant delay, so after about 30 minutes I gave up. Another challenge on the way in was finding a place to get a drink. Every restaurant and refresh station on the Main Midway had a massive line. Finally came up on the Pretzel place near Magnum which has 4 machines and each one was out of any type of Powerade or Hi-C and only had soda which I didn't really want on a hot day. So after the failed Gemini attempt my Sprite and I went to Frontier Town which was much quieter and finally found Powerade at the refresh station back there. With Steel Vengeance still down for the count I hopped on the incoming train and set off for Millennium Force which had reopened by that point. App was showing a 40 minute wait, however I could tell upon arrival that it looked a good deal longer. Part of that was because Sirens Curse and TT2 had just gone down and an influx of folks hit the MF line. Luckily there would be no breakdowns here, but 3 minute dispatches and lots of Fastlane meant that posted 40 minute time ended up being 1:10. Rode in Row 2 and the ride was great as always. While in line, Sirens Curse came back up so I headed over there next. After about 15 minutes the ride went down. They sent a test train or two but then nothing for a bit and then they announced it could be over an hour before it reopened, so I got out of line after 45 minutes. I watched TT2 running from the line (however at that time, Gemini, Iron Dragon, Raptor, AND Valravn were all listed as down) and saw the app was posting a 40 minute wait so I headed there next. I got in line for about 30 minutes (and was still nowhere near the frontt of the line) and...you guessed it...the damn thing went down. I was getting pretty tired of it and got right out of line. Gemini was finally showing as back open but with a 30 minute line, which seemed like a lot but I wanted to make sure to ride it in case it's my last time on it. Figured out quickly why it had a 30 minute line...only running the left side. I think this was the first time I've ever waited more than a train or two for this thing. Anyway, I rode in back and had a fun time as usual. By then it was about 5:00 and I had accomplished riding 2 coasters all day! Had dinner in Frontier Town and noticed Steel Vengeance managed to get a train out to the midcourse but it was stuck there for a while, so I took the train again to the front afterwards. Longing for something more reliable, I got in line for Iron Dragon and was on in about 15 minutes. Another fun ride that I wanted to hit just in case. I was exhausted and wanted to get out of dodge at that point, but figured I could hit something up front on the way out. I headed down the boardwalk figuring I could finish up on Gatekeeper aaaand...stuck on the lift. So, I just gave up and headed out after that. Grand total of 3 coasters in 7 hours today. Between the horrible ride uptime and the awful humidity, it really was a terrible day. I had heard CP has been slipping in ride maintenance but I had no idea how bad it could be. I wanted to do so much more these past 2 days but it just wasn't meant to be. Three things are apparent to me after this stop at Cedar Point. First is not to put it into a long park trip. The park is way too big and tiring and after stopping by a ton of small uncrowded parks, it just feels that much bigger. 2nd is not to go during the summer. I've had great days there in May in the past and I think I want to return next spring to hopefully get some better days in. Even on weekdays the park is mobbed like most other parks only see on the weekend. It's Orlando park level crowds. The 3rd is that this park really sucks in the heat (more reason to go in May) as they just can't keep up with the crowds looking for drinks and A/C. Lots of unshaded areas and some of the longer lines under tarps are almost worse than standing in the sun. I actually thought Gemini has a nice line under some natural tree cover and it was much cooler over there than say Millennium Force and TT2 where they have covers but it just seems to hold the heat in. It's a brutal park when the sun is beating down and the humidity is sky high, more so than most other parks. Losing indoor restaurants like Melt and Chickie's & Pete's and not replacing them really hurts. They have multiple restaurants that could have indoor seating but instead just have massive mazes inside and then force you to outdoor tables. Just be forewarned if you're planning on going to CP this year that they're not close to firing on all cylinders. As for me, this trip wraps up with a quick pit stop at SFDL tomorrow. The Motocoaster and Eurofighter (and the SLC since it was closed last time I was there) will be new to me. It will be nice to ride Ride it Steel, Predator, and Viper for the first time in over 20 years.

Me yesterday: All I want to be sure to ride tomorrow are Millennium Force, Steel Vengeance, and Gemini. Cedar Point today: Lol no you don't.

Day 10: Cedar Point I can say without any doubt that today was the worst day of this trip so far. So much stuff down either for the entire night or off and on all night. Ops hit and miss. Bad Cedar Fair groupers. Something just feels off about the place. I don't know if I'm just jaded from going to Universal so often lately, but the park just doesn't seem to have its fastball anymore. Arrived at 4 after finally getting through the usual 53 construction zones in Indiana and Ohio on the way in. Queue times showed Blue Streak, Sirens Curse, Millennium Force, and Steel Vengeance all down. Many others had 90+ min waits. But luckily one coaster was showing a reasonable 15 minute wait right at the front of the park and therefore I got my day started right with Raptor. Rode in back and was treated to a great ride like always. Took the Skyride up to the middle of the park. Siren's was still down and I knew I wanted to get one of the new to me coasters, so I decided to bite the bullet and get into the posted 2 hour line for TT2. The line was a straight shot from the tunnel all the way up to the station which didn't seem so bad and it really ended up being about 1:20. But it does move incredibly slow compared to TTD. The two train ops didn't help as often times loading was delayed by a train that took a while to leave the unload station. Also not helping was the fact that the fans in line weren't turned on...like wtf? I got a seat in the middle of the train and my first impression of the ride is the new station is totally soulless. The old open air station blasting Ready to Go had a lot of energy. This one just blurts the loading spiel over and over with no music, and the whole right side of the station is a big empty wall that separated the station from the spike (couldn't they have gone with a fence or a window instead?) so a lot of energy is lost with the new station. The pre launch sequence is a lot quieter than the old one as well. As for the ride, obviously the first launch is slow which takes away from my favorite thing about the old coaster and Kingda Ka which was the intensity of the launch. But the backwards launch is quite fun and then the view from the spike watching the earth grow smaller below you is pretty wild. The floater is decent too. Then the 3rd launch is fun just for the crazy speed at which you bolt down the entire launch. The experience from there out is pretty much the same, I didn't notice any shaking and no issues with the trains or restraints. Overall it's still a fun coaster but the kinetic energy of TTD just feels totally missing, which is too bad. Moved over to Magnum next and got 2 rides in about 20 minutes as it was a walk on...or nearly a walk on if it weren't for the Fast Lane merge. The first time these people tried bringing kids that were way too small up to the station and the attendant held up the entire line while they stood there and argued, so a train went out about 2/3rds empty. The second time, someone came up in with a wristband that wouldn't scan, so instead of just waving them through since there was absolutely no line anyway, the attendant kept trying for over 45 seconds while holding everyone else up and once again half a train went empty. Not that this was a big deal at Magnum, but these things also happen at rides with longer lines and some of these employees just get in their own way. Anyway, rode once in back and once in row 3 and both were bonkers as always. After Wild Thing this weekend, this thing felt like it was gonna launch you to the moon. Wanted to hit Gemini next but this was yet another breakdown while I was in the area. So headed back to Frontier Town. Steel Vengeance was still down and totally deserted, so hit Maverick which was about a 50 minute wait. They were stacking all 6 trains quite often which was a bit disconcerting to see. More often than not it was a guest causing the issues. Rode in back and had an excellent ride. Headed back up towards the front, passing up MF for now and also passing a once again broken down Sirens Curse (which operated most of my time in the TT2 line). Made my way over for my first time on the Crazy Mouse. Most of the cars I watched didn't spin much, but I ended up in the far seat in the car with 3 small girls to my right and we spun like a top for the 2nd half of the ride, and even on the brakes it spun wildly for a solid 15 seconds before finally stopping. Pretty wild. Quick line here, 10-15 mins. Whole Boardwalk area is pretty nice but not many people over there when I was in the area. Hopped on the Skyride again as it was getting late and I wanted to get a MF night ride. Got in line for that around 9:30, and after 15 minutes or so they announced that the ride was down. Meanwhile I watched Sirens Curse reopen from line. At 9:55 I finally gave up and headed to Sirens Curse before closing. The line moved fast and they really cranked trains through. Got to the station in about 35 minutes. A group of 5 in front of me asked for the back rows and the grouper allowed them to wait 2 trains back there. He directed me as a single rider to row 7 to join a group of 3 for the next train. I asked if I could go with the group of 5 to one of the back rows and he said I couldn't because they needed to fill as many seats as possible on the next train. WTF?!? For one thing, who cares if it goes empty on this train or the next train (the next one was the last of the night and half of it went empty anyway). Also, why should I be treated differently than another group just because I'm 1 instead of 5? Either let anyone request a row or don't allow it at all. And if you're going to treat single riders this way, open up some single rider lines. Picking and choosing who to allow to do it sucks to be honest. This shit only happens at Cedar Fair parks. Again I don't know if I'm just jaded by Universal or if this is just the road everyone else is going down at this point. Anyway, this ride is phenomenal even in the middle, and I can only imagine how great it is in the front or back but only certain people are allowed to be able to know what that's like. The hold on the tilt tracks feels way higher than it really is, the drop is awesome, and the ride is full of ejector air and intense barrel rolls that are almost (but not quite) reminiscent of Velocicoaster. This is one of the best coasters in the park, bar none. I looked into how much Fastlane Plus costs for tomorrow and...$199?!?!? Good lord. I will try to get on what I can but between the lines and the breakdowns it's pretty rough. I paid $299 for unlimited nationwide Flash Pass for Six Flags parks that was good for 17 months, I can't believe it costs 2/3rds that for one day at Cedar Point. Another thing that rubbed me the wrong way is literally every time I went to scan my drink bottle, they would also try to sell one to me... "Do you want to purchase another bottle?" I know they are being told to do this, but I've never seen another park do it and it's patronizing and greedy. And then after trying to sell you a second $40 dollar bottle the machines often didn't have ice. I thought going from Indiana Beach to Six Flags Great America in one day last week was going to suck going from a small park atmosphere to the corporate bullshit, but it turns out SFGAm was a great day. But going from lots of nice parks recently to Cedar Point, which has long been the best park in the country, really was a huge wake up call in how far south a day can go compared to a day in a small park. Back again tomorrow. Hopefully MF and SV won't throw fits and I can ride them finally. Other than those and Gemini (which I wanted to ride simply because I like it and I think its time is getting short) I hit what I wanted to. The rest I can live without. Will also try to get a couple more Sirens Curse rides and hopefully in a better row. I feel like this ride isn't being talked about enough. Even if it had a conventional drop, the layout itself is enough to make it a top tier coaster.

Day 9: Bay Beach and lots of driving Drove about 5 hours from Shakopee to Green Bay and spent a little over an hour at Bay Beach. This park was pretty cool and the rides are insanely cheap. Between my wife and I we rode 10 rides for $9.50. The food was also reasonably priced and it's really neat that the city owns and runs the park. As for the star attraction... Rode Zippin Pippin in Row 3 for my first ride and it was sort of uneventful up there. Some floater on the camelbacks. But then...that f*cking triangle hill. Good lord. I thought I threw my back out the first time over it. I don't know how much ejector air I was expecting to get, but it's more like one big jackhammer directly into the restraint and nothing can prepare you for how strong that one moment of airtime is. I don't understand how it why they built this hill, but it is very insane. Rode again in back and this is where it's at. The first drop has solid ejector, every bunny hill launches you pretty good when you go over them, and then that triangle hill still hits like crazy in back. This is an elite wooden coaster in the back row. And that's with 3-5 people in the train. Can't imagine how good it would be with a full train. And you can ride it for the low, low price of $1.50. 100% worth driving out of your way to go ride it. As for the rest of the park, it's mostly kids rides but they have an insane flat called Scat that is basically a roundup on crack, and they run it for a solid two minutes. One of the more dizzying experiences of my life. They also have an old school Eli Bridge Ferris Wheel which is the 2nd I have ridden in the past 4 days after not riding one for the last 25 years since Whalom Park closed in Lunenburg MA. They also have a regular Ferris Wheel. We rode both. Otherwise, they have a weird slide with very steep bumps but also long flat sections. I feel like you would get scary airtime on this on a cooler day but it was a little sticky today. They also have a Moser tower that they brought in from Fantasy Island that was okay but not as good at the one at MOA. I think that covers what I hit. Like I said, check this place out. It's absolutely worth going to Green Bay for. Staying in South Bend tonight after a miracle 4.5 hour ride from Green Bay to South Bend not hitting a lick of traffic in Chicago. Heading to Cedar Point tomorrow and Wednesday and then wrapping up the trip with a quick pit stop at SFDL on Thursday.

Day 8: Today was supposed to be a rest day but I took the 5 minute ride over to Valleyfair to ride Excalibur real quick since I missed it on Friday. The park was pretty dead because it is f*cking disgusting out today and the longest thing I did was the walk from the gate to Excalibur which took 12 minutes. No wonder they want to get rid of this thing. Anyway, after Cedar Fair being ridiculous by chaining off the station in order to pulse in Fast Lane people that didn't exist, I was one of 3 people allowed into the station after the non existent Fast Lane people were done filing in. I rode in row 3 first which had a huge pop of air over that small bunny hill, and then hopped in the back for a ride that had a fun pop on the first drop but not as good on the other hills. The transitions on this ride are terrifying arrow goodness but it doesn't get too rough. Such a weird ride, glad to have checked it out before it checks out. Since I was all the way back there I figured I might as well ride Renegade and got a front ride and back ride. The front shines in the second half on the smaller hills, but the back excels in the first half with some pretty wild intensity on the drops out of the turns. The first drop is excellent in back as well, almost a double ejector moment thanks to the twist. On the way out I rode Wild Thing in back real quick to see if it sucked any less back there. It didn't. Luckily Minnesotans have an elite hyper coaster 6 hours away in Chicago, because damn is this thing lame. Beginning the drive back tomorrow, with a quick stop at Bay Beach to check out Zippin Pippin. Considered stopping into SFGAm to grab a couple Bull rides but it's going to stay disgustingly hot tomorrow so i probably won't want to do that. Maybe will do a quick stop or two in the city and be a tourist for a couple hours on my way through.

Day 7: Mall of America Doing this on a very hot Saturday was kind of a terrible idea so this report will be rather brief. The park and mall were absolutely packed. Started off with a few kids rides with my friend's 4 year old, including getting the Hayride credit (still no idea how I got the lapbar to come down far enough to click, but that was a painful ride ) and a couple other tight squeezes. Afterwards I started my own lap of the park but unfortunately by then the influx was on. First thing I came to was Orange Streak which was on two trains and was only a 5-10 minute wait. This was a neat ride, almost more of a sightseeing monorail than a real coaster layout but it had a nice long layout. Next was Rock Bottom Plunge which was a 25 minute wait. Rode in front and got a rather shaky ride with a few jostles thrown in for good measure. Definitely one of the worst Eurofighters I've ridden. Contained on to Avatar next which was a pretty quick 15 minute wait. This was my 2nd halfpipe coaster and I actually really enjoy these. I got a lot of spinning on my ride and the floater is a lot of fun on the spikes. Last coaster was Fairly Oddparents which had a 30 minute wait. Fun ride with a lot of spinning in the 2nd half. Cool to see one of these in the landscape the coaster was designed for. With the credits acquired I next went to Log Chute which has a line out the entrance. This took an hour but was a really good Flume. Got much better than expected and it was weird walking around the mall soaked for the next hour. Also WTF is up with the unload procedure? Instead of getting out on the right side, you get out on the left, go up and over the platform, then come down the right side right next to where you could just hop out of the log in the first place. WTF? After that long, hot wait (the sun was brutal through the glass and the A/C couldn't keep up) I finished with a ride on the drop tower which, while small, give you 5 or 6 drops with a nice pop of air on each one. I thought it was fun. I was getting tired of the heat and crowds so called it a day at that point even though there were a few more flats I wanted to hit. I had a nice day but not going there on a Saturday after again. Tomorrow is mostly a rest day but I will be going to Valleyfair midday to give Excalibur one more try and get a couple more Renegade rides. Awesome view from the living room window!