Zand

From what I've seen the Nintendo stuff gets long lines first but folks tend to move along by 2 or 3 and the lines for down a bit. Honestly a lot of the time I'm seeing lines under 30 mins for every ride once 3 or 4pm hits. Honestly I do want to do the Nintendo stuff but it's probably my least must do of everything. Getting a VQ for Potter, getting on Monsters, and getting on Stardust are the big 3, then Hiccups. But based on the lines as long as everything is open I'm fairly confident I will get to do everything the first day, which sets up a more relaxing day the 2nd time around when the park is fully "open".

I've been kind of keeping an eye on the reported queue times on the Universal app since they started doing passholder previews on Friday. The biggest surprise to me is Stardust Racers never seems to get a long line. Must be a people eater and very reliable already. Usually in the 20-30 minute range. Also trying to figure out how the Potter virtual queue works but hopefully I will be able to get on when I'm there next week. Monsters and Hiccups seem to be down a lot. Not very unlike Forbidden Journey and Hagrid lol. Longest lines by far have been the Nintendo attractions. Mine Cart Madness and Mario Kart often around a 2 hour wait. But other than those things have been less busy than I expected so hopefully that means that they're really limiting the amount of people in there. Cautiously optimistic about my day there next week. As long as there's no significant breakdowns I think I can get through the things I want to in one day.

I'm planning a similar upper-midwest trip this summer with a lot of new-to-me parks. Michigan's Adventure, Indiana Beach, Great America, Mt Olympus, Valleyfair, MOA all for the first time. And then Cedar Point (not the first time lol). Never been to CW either but will save that for another Toronto/Buffalo based trip.

I know it's nothing to do with the jungle theme but KD should retheme BSC to I-95 in Virginia and have it stop for 25 minutes when it gets to the helicopter scene for added effect, and then add a Sheetz to the end of the ride with someone getting arrested in the parking lot.

Have tickets for June 2nd (my birthday lol I guess that's a common theme) but I decided that I don't have the patience to wait till then and I have a lot of flight and hotel points, so...April 29th it is! In all honesty I felt nervous about how little I'd actually get done in one day so now I feel like I can hopefully get enough rides in on my first trip that I can slow down and enjoy everything else the park has to offer on my 2nd trip.

Stopped by opening day for a couple hours this morning. Rain had just ended but clouds and temps in the upper 40s kept the crowds mostly at bay. Started at about 11:30 with a Wicked Cyclone ride which had just added a 2nd train, but was glad to have Flashpass as the line was back to the overhang. Apparently literally everyone went here first? Today was a great day to ride it as we all know Wicked Cyclone seems to run faster in cold weather. Checked out Quantum Accelerator progress (station is starting to go up), Tomahawk deconstruction (it is completely gone), and Rivi's progress (not done yet and tarped off) before grabbing a walk on ride on Scream, which was only running space shot mode for some reason. Superman had still not opened at this point so headed into Gotham and eventually walked onto the back row of Batman. Saw Superman starting to test while I was over there. Fun ride on Batman as always and running 2 trains. Riddler was closed and Harley Quinn was down when I went by so I figured I'd head down to Superman and I got into the station just as the first loaded train of the season was being sent. Ended up on the 3rd train of the day in row 2. Good news was the ride was great as always. Bad news is both seats in row 2 had a nice pile of bird shit that they apparently couldn't be bothered to clean in the past 5 months. Ride opened with one train ops and the line filled almost the entire canopied section, but I read on Facebook that they added the second train after I left. Grabbed a quick walk on ride on Supergirl and then I had to head out. Kind of a quick stop-in, but nice to be back. A few notes... As I said above the only coaster that was closed was Riddler (other than Blizzard River, it might've been the only closed ride period... every flat was operational that I saw including Houdini and that other thing in Crackaxle which hasn't always been the case). Games well staffed but food not so much. Lots of closed food stands (although I was there early so not sure if they opened more in the afternoon). Main Street seemed to have had some sprucing up over the winter. Looked nicer than it has in years. Four trams running from the parking lot...will keep that in mind when they're inevitably running one on a busy day in July. With Tomahawk now gone (as well as the pad where Fireball sat) hopefully they fill these with new flat rides sooner than later. Also Typhoon and whatever the drop-capsule slides were called have been removed from the waterpark. I think that's all for now! Edit: According to Queue Times, Blizzard River did open! So if you enjoy rapids rides with temps in the 40s and 50s, come on out!

I enjoy the long, well written TRs loaded with pics that many used to post and a select few still post. But I don't have the time and patience to do all that myself lol. I do take pics sometimes!

A couple years ago I went to SFOG for the first time (and it's not a place I'll probably get to very often)...I waited over an hour for Superman just to get the credit because they were running 1 train with terrible dispatch times. I could've ridden Twisted Cyclone or Goliath 6 or 7 more times during that timeframe, but I waited an hour for a credit that I can ride at Great Adventure whenever I want (and never do when I'm actually there because it sucks). Ever since then I decided riding anything just for the sake of a credit will never be worth waiting an hour for, especially in parks that I'm making a special trip to get to that I might not get to again. I like trying to ride everything once if I can, but if it's going to be an obvious waste of time then it's not worth it that much to me. As for kiddie coasters...there have been times when I decided to be an idiot and whore them for no reason other than the credit. Hell I just rode Lil Devil at Great Adventure last year lol. But again, not doing it for the sake of a credit at a park I might never get back to that has awesome coasters that I want rerides on.

Flash is good! Rode twice today, once in front and once in back. Floater on the launch side of the tower is nice. The hangtime on the stall is excellent and the restraints are extremely comfortable and perfect for this ride (after experiencing some squishing in the nether-regions on Copperhead Strike yesterday, this was a welcome relief). Nice air on the double up, borderline ejector in front. Barrel roll is a nice tribute to Chiller. Still trying to understand how they're applying Flash Pass to this ride. When I first arrived (I have all season Platinum FP) it said I could not reserve Flash. I went and rode El Toro and then headed back over, and by then I could reserve a ride so I did. After a couple hours I went to get another ride and once again it would not let me. This time I settled for the one time use FP for $11 (seriously...if you see how slow the regular line moves, it will be the best $11 you'll ever spend). Was on within 5 minutes through the FP line, but the regular line had to be well over an hour. It's a great ride but that line is going to get very ugly on all but the deadest of days. Hit a few other favorites. Toro running the same as last year. Wheel seats will give you a headache. I'm excited to see how nice the retrack makes the ride. Hope it gets restored to its former glory. The first half of the ride is still bonkers, but the second half is pretty brutal at this point and makes it tough to reride. Nitro and Batman both running fantastic even in the cold cloudy weather. Didn't get over to Devil but I could see it crawling through the course. Didn't get on anything else, was in the middle of a 14 hour ride home from Carowinds so really just wanted to hit Flash and anything else was a bonus today. Lots of food stands still closed. Even with the dining plan in hand I still just settled for Wawa. Also, I don't believe Superman opened at all today. Harley Quinn has not run since it's derailment last fall. I think everything else I noticed looked operational.

I finally was able to scratch off a major piece of my bucket list today with a somewhat whirlwind unplanned trip to Carowinds. My plan was to spend the weekend at King's Dominion, but with Pantherian suddenly not opening I had the crazy idea to drive 5 hours to Charlotte this morning, spend 6 hours at the park, and start driving the 13 hours back home tonight. My wife was surprisingly on board and replied with "well you've been talking about that place for 10 years" so we decided to do it. Arrived around noon and headed straight to Fury. This was the main reason for the trip and why would I start anywhere else. After waiting in line for about 20 minutes (and opening queue times to discover that this would be the shortest line in the park for some reason) I decided to purchase Fastlane because who knows when I'll ever be back here. Anyway, of course I built this thing up a little too much in my head. I know it's a lot of people's #1 steel and I get it. But I crave intensity and airtime, and while this has a little bit of both, it's not as in your face as Pantherian, Steel Vengeance, etc. I look at it as B&M's Millennium Force...another ride I absolutely love, but barely cracks my top 10 while being a lot of people's #1. I rode 5 times, lucking out with the front or back each time. Not sure which I preferred...the airtime and speed were great up front but a couple of the elements definitely hit better in the back. On one ride I didn't feel the trims engage at all and we f*cking SAILED through the speed hills at the end. As for the rest of the park: The Top Scan (whatever it's called): Glad to finally ride one here after getting teased by the one at Lagoon which decided to break down just before I went to ride it. I guess it's one of those rides that looks cooler than it is. The cycle just kind of sucks. It spins once or twice and then stops for 10 seconds and you just hang there. Then rinse and repeat a few times. Copperhead Strike: I loved this ride but wasn't a big fan of the restraints which I felt were a little male unfriendly. But the hang time filled inversions were a blast and the pops of ejector were crazy. Very slow moving Fastlane line (regular line pushed 2 hours) or I would've rerode for sure. Wish there were more of these Macks in America. Afterburn: Basically Montu's little brother. Nice intense old school B&M Invert just the way I like it. The tunnels and trenches went a long way to enhance the Montu vibes. Thunder Striker: This is heavily bitched about among coaster enthusiasts and after riding it I have no idea why. Sure, the layout isn't very inspiring but even with the trims every hill absolutely launches you out of your seat. The airtime is just as good as Diamondback. Why is this ride bitched about so much?!? Goldrusher: Basically a couple long helices and that's all. More interesting than Cedar Creek Mine Ride and Trailblazer but not sure how many other mine trains it can compare to. Vortex: Not awful but not my favorite ride by any means. I miss Green Lantern it didn't deserve the hate or the fate. Cyclone: Almost avoided it as it broke down but was open when I was about to leave the park after reriding Fury a few more times. I wish it stayed broken down for my own sake. It's not THE worst Arrow corkscrew coaster I've ridden, but...just...no. Hurler: It's really not that bad. First half is fun with some good airtime pops and fast turns. Second half jackhammered a bit. But I couldn't help but imagine Twisted Timbers elements coming up at me as we rattled through the course. Flying Cobras was down most of the day...no big loss. Ricochet not on Fastlane and I didn't feel like waiting an hour for a basic mouse, no big loss there either. Didn't feel like whoring the Hang'n'bang or the kiddie coasters. This park is obviously very top heavy with a terrific top 4 and then a bunch of crap after that, but that top 4 is among the best in the country. Not sure if I'll make it back in the next several years, but damn am I happy to have finally made it. Do have to mention one of the major cons of this park and that is the groupers. I've never liked not having a choice of seat (luckily as a single rider with Fastlane I pretty much mostly got front or back on everything anyway) but it's even worse when they're terrible at their job. Entire rows going empty on Thunder Striker every ride. Groupers on Fury and Afterburn not putting groups of 2 with other groups of 2 and causing 6-8 seats to go empty every ride. Sometimes they were so slow that the last 2 or 3 rows would go unfilled. This park was by far the strictest about no choice of seats. Parks like Universal, Disney, and Cedar Point scratch the happy medium of having groupers make sure they fill the train as best as possible but also almost always accommodating requests. Or better yet...just let people into the station until every row fills up like Six Flags parks do and call it a day. I noticed this at Kings Island a little bit a few years ago but Carowinds was the absolute worst with this. Kings Dominion doesn't group at all. It annoys the crap out of me seeing 1/4 of the train go out empty when there's a 2 hour line. Sorry for the rant Overall though I am glad I followed through with my insane idea and made the spur of the moment trip to the park. It's hard to know when I'll ever get back since it's just not near much else, but hopefully it's in the cards someday.

Thankfully no...but it's just a damn good coaster and waiting until 4 hours before opening day to announce that their star coaster won't open till this summer is a...choice. Park was rather busy tonight. It's usually pretty dead when I've been here midsummer. Weather was beautiful in the 70s, had to keep reminding myself it's still March. Most coasters were running at full capacity except for Timbers which was running with one train and probably the slowest ops in the park. Glad I got to it early. Station wait (which still took 30 mins) when I arrived was down past the lockers by the time I got off. Lot of flats closed and some others only open briefly. Guess that should be expected on preview night, but I expect they should be 100% tomorrow outside of Pantherian and Rapids. Glad I got to Drop Tower early. Love that thing. Made my rounds to Apple Zapple, Racer, Boo Blasters, Dominator, and Grizzly. Fun rides to be had on all. My first foray into Jungle X, the line for Rapterra was out past Tumbili, around the Dippin Dots stand, and starting to stretch to the entry sign into the Jungle. Reports were the wait was 2.5 hrs. I got in line at 9:20 which at that point was maybe 15 mins outside the regular line entrance. Ended up waiting 1:25 although I got sent to the left side which definitely takes longer than the line for the right side. So a full queue is 1 hour to 1:15 or so, and if it's beyond that good luck! It's a fun ride and much needed for KD, but realistically probably only the 5th best coaster in the park. My time would have been better spent reriding Timbers, Dominator, Grizzly, and that big orange lawn ornament in the back of the park, but glad to have gotten a ride on the new hotness. The whole jungle area is pretty well done now. The music bed really fits in and the theming is mostly cohesive. I honestly walked out of the bathroom and forgot I wasn't at Animal Kingdom for a second or two. I was gonna spend tomorrow at KD again, but with Pantherian closed I have no reason to go back. Therefore, I have the really dumb idea of finally knocking off a bucket list park and driving 5 hours down to Carowinds and then probably 13 hours back home between tomorrow night and Sunday with a quick stop at Great Adventure for Flash.

I just drove 10 hours to get here so I'm glad they waited till today to announce that Pantherian isn't opening till summer.

Wut

Totally weather dependant. More often than not when I've gone during that week it's dead mainly because it's usually in the 40s or 50s and grey and dreary. If there's a chance of rain at all make sure you keep an eye on socials to make sure they're not closed because they know the park will be dead. There are the occasional days that get sunny and shoot into the 70s and it is usually a mobscene, and with college and high school workers not really available yet a busy day during spring break can really get ugly with lots of rides at minimal capacity and lots of food places closed. I love the dead dreary days but you need to go in with the expectation that they will close a few hours early on those days.

That's my impression too is that the new management believes they can make Great Adventure into a park with the quality of KI, CW, and Carowinds but it will take some work (and removing half the park). If that is a case then a B&M Giga would surely be in the plans I would think. This park has plenty of room to build a great one like Fury (then again so did KI...) so fingers crossed that we're headed down that road in the next 5-10 years. This park may take a few years longer to clean up at first than KI, etc did, so there will be growing pains. Especially considering a lot of the maintenance in this park has been jaw droppingly bad. Literally.

Well considering their brand new coaster will probably have an hourly capacity of 300 knowing them, a dip this year may not be a bad thing.

That view is going to take some getting used to Photo from GADV Connoisseurs

If this hill is taken with at least a decent amount of speed, this will be a fun element! Picture from SFNE Facebook page.

I won't lie... it is a little sad seeing it laying there in pieces. But yes, glad we can finally move on from this debacle of a year and see what the future has in store.

I'm sure McDonalds and KFC will be happy to not have a hundred coaster enthusiasts sitting in their parking lot flying drones anymore. Lol

They just blew it up about 10 minutes ago.

Make it EIGHT rides...Dare Devil Dive will be torn down this off-season as well according to new demo permits. I can't help but wonder if they have a plan for Superman. It is one of the more popular coasters in the park from a GP perspective (it's been there for 22 years but people are still mesmerized by the fact it DAGUM FLIES!!!) but the throughput sucks and it isn't the most reliable coaster in the park. Plus it is really out on an island surrounded by many vacant plots of land. The Boardwalk section of the park is a little worn out at this point. I wonder if they build a new section around Superman (including whatever Kingda Ka's replacement is), or if Superman will also take a hike.

Based on the latest Coliwood Studios post... Green Lantern is just a lift hill at this point. And the first track removal of the Kingda Ka airtime hill has taken place. I believe the top hat detonation is scheduled for 2-3 weeks from now. Also the demo on the Lakefront Skyway Station is beginning. Oh and Cyborg is gone if anyone cares.

Officially announced? No(t yet). But instead it's just hiding in social media replies where they hope as few people will see it as possible because that's that the new Cedar Fair-led Six Flags chain does. I guess at least they didn't flat out deny it this time, maybe that's a start towards actually communicating with customers? Edit: According to comments on Facebook the park is giving people refunds on season passes. I'll give them kudos for doing the right thing as far as that goes.

Kings Dominion has officially cut WinterFest starting this year. Of course they've been selling season passes for months with "includes Haunt and WinterFest" listed right at the top, but hey... I'm sure once they decide they haven't already taken enough away from Great Adventure then HITP will probably go away there too.