Zand

You should've taken video so you can show this to the groupers at Carowinds when they send trains out with 4 empty rows because they can't keep up for some reason.

I usually grab food from Green Eggs & Ham when in IOA. Usually a nice pick-me-up. Otherwise yes I agree with just going to City Walk for food, most of the stuff in the parks is garbage. Single rider lines for Forbidden Journey and Hulk are worth it, but otherwise I can't think of any others that are. And definitely don't use them for Velocicoaster and Hagrid. Single rider is a little better in Studios, Rockit is hit or miss but the rest are usually pretty good. Hogwarts Express has different videos, but is it worthwhile riding it both ways? Not really. At least going from Studios to IOA you get to see Kings Cross. If the line is short it's worth it but it can balloon to an hour at times. I kind of have a limited experience of City Walk restaurants, but NBC Grill and Toothsomes are good. Hard Rock and Margaritaville are the same as elsewhere. I need to try new places sometime lol.

Breaking news: Cedar Point is the devil.

Dueling Superman doesn't exist. You don't have to be scared of it. Six Flags: Yet.

No lies detected here. I had some great rides on Wild One in 2020 but for some reason when I rode it in 2023 it was absolutely awful. It is very sad to lose something so historical though. It has a fun layout. The first B&M will officially bite the dust and good riddance. Might be the worst looping coaster I've ever ridden. The SLC just got overhauled but I'm not sure there's really any place sensible to relocate it to. Maybe some independent park will pick it up like Trimpers. Joker's Jinx would be great in a new home but is also pretty old at this point and there aren't a lot of LIM coasters around these days. Would be sad to see this scrapped but I can't imagine it getting relocated at its age. I have to imagine Superman will get relocated to a park that needs a hyper but that's a pretty small list. Maybe Michigan's Adventure? If not RIP I guess although Darien Lake is still a thing. Also RIP to the last remaining Vekoma Flying Dutchman. Won't miss the restraints but the layout is so superior to the B&M Supermans. I have to imagine this will be scrapped. Good riddance to Roar. There's a few flats that may get a new home. Also the spinning mouse could move again. I still don't have that credit, it's closed every time I go. I will try to get down there one more time this summer but we'll see. Considering the price of real estate and how much of a dump this park is, it's definitely not surprising news.

Sooo....why new trains for Superman? Oh if you're not really gonna use them, feel free to ship them to 1623 Main St Agawam MA 01001

I guess I should rephrase... I'm not upset that the ride is unreliable and that may be the reason for me not riding it. I'm more upset that the virtual queue seemingly works for some people, but not others at the exact same time. And then will shut you out for not being in the park while you're waiting in line for a ride in the park (I was on data, not wifi). Some people are able to get multiple reservations in the same day while others can't get one. It's just a terrible system.

Alright here's my attempt at a full trip report from my first visit to Epic Universe. Scroll past to avoid spoilers! Arrived around 10:40 with an 11am official opening, although hotel guests had early entry into Celestial Park and Nintendo World. They were already letting non-hotel guests in at that point and you were able to go pretty much anywhere. No wait at all to get in although we got the usual ambush from the survey takers. The entry plaza has a gorgeous view into the center of the park and back to Helios. The app showed that Stardust Racers would be delayed to start the day so we headed back to Dark Universe to begin the day at Monsters Unchained. They were just opening the line, so we were sent around to the left past Curse of the Werewolf to access the line. While waiting for them to open, 11:00 came and literally everybody was staring at their phones for the same reason. At 11 on the dot, Battle at the Ministry virtual queue went live and 3 separate times I clicked on a time only to get to the next screen and be told that "that time is no longer available" each time. Meanwhile a lot of the people around me were celebrating getting a time, which was a little dejecting. Anyway, we eventually made our way into the queue for Monsters Unchained which is absolutely stunning. Room after room with crazy good theming made the ~45 minute wait go by seemingly in no time. The pre-shows were very good as well although tough to hear because as usual no one shuts up. The ride itself was a bit of a letdown to be honest. I don't think using the Forbidden Journey ride system here was the right play. It serves a purpose on that ride. But here, the point of the ride is to see the incredible animatronics but all the ride vehicles do is point you at them for a second or two before being swiftly pulled away. This would've been much better suited for slow moving vehicles ala Haunted Mansion. The animatronics are indeed amazing, I just wish you were able to see them for a little longer. Between the queue and the animatronics this is absolutely a must-do for anyone visiting but I just wish they went down a different path with the ride system. Grabbed a beer from the Burning Blade tavern and caught a fire show (I think every 15 minutes?) which was neat and I would love to see at night. The tavern was a little empty on the inside, kind of expected more theming in there but I'm sure they will add to it. Also grabbed a Frankenstein pretzel from the stand by Monsters which was pretty good. Curse of the Werewolf was posting a 25 minute wait so I hit that real quick on the way out of the area. This is a very short spinning coaster but also spins a lot more than I expected it to. Fun enough coaster when it has a short line but wouldn't want to wait much longer than I did. On the way back through Celestial Park I intended on heading over to Berk, but noticed Stardust Racers running with riders so I ran over and I'm glad I did. They only opened up the yellow side so this had a 60+ minute wait shortly after I got to it. Luckily I only had to wait 30. Sat in row 8 and simply put this thing is an airtime machine. There is awesome ejector all over the course. I saw a lot of folks reporting that they like it more than Velocicoaster and without the dueling element I can't say I agree, but this thing is definitely a home run. I was a little apprehensive about the seating after finding Copperhead Strike uncomfortable, but the trains on this are very nice and look great. Hopefully next time I can experience some dueling and see this thing at its full potential. Continued over to Berk which is stunning. One of the most colorful and well themed lands I've ever seen. Got into a 45 minute wait for Hiccups Wing Gliders which turned into about 1:15 because it is an Intamin and broke down multiple times. This is a very fun ride with very uncomfortable seats. The back support protrudes into your lower back and the lapbar tightens continuously during the ride and staples the crap out of your legs. It's a terrific family coaster with fun swoopy turns and great scenery but I was also kind of happy when it was over so I could stand up. Don't miss this, but also be forewarned that it's not a comfortable train. When we got off it was just about 3:00 but when 3:00 came and went the Battle of the Ministry times never came up on my phone. My wife tried 45 seconds later and they popped up on her phone but then got the same "this time is no longer available" message. Maybe this system works better on iPhone? Not sure but either way it's super annoying. We ended up walking over to Paris just to check out the area and it was really nice looking, but at the same time it's not the same feeling as walking into Hogsmeade or Diagon Alley and feeling like you just walked into the movies. Went over to the ride to see if I could use the single rider line and the attendant was like "you need a return time to access this attraction" so why even advertise the single rider line at all? There were numerous people standing around arguing with her so I just walked away and left the area. The roll out of this thing is a disaster. Either do it like Disney where you assign all the slots at once in the morning or just let people wait in line. Stopped in for a brisket sandwich at Oak and Star tavern which was very good. I like the full service seating at this park's restaurants where you just sit where you want and order on the app. Nice not standing in a long line to order. Made our way into Nintendo World next which is absolutely amazing. I've never seen HTTYD so Berk didn't give me that walking into a movie vibe as I didn't know what it is supposed to look like (although I've heard it is similar and that area is absolutely stunning). But this was just a total nostalgia trip into the video games of my youth. Started with Mario Kart which had no line before the preshow, and the queue for this is incredible. Literally felt like walking through the Bowser's Castle track on Mario Kart. After the preshow you need to wait another 20 minutes on like 528 flights of stairs before you finally get down to the station. The ride itself was pretty cool although my neck hurt from the weight of the goggles by the time it was over. I think using a Men in Black type car would've worked better for this but it was a lot of fun overall. Wife didn't want barbeque earlier so we stopped at Toadstool Cafe where she had a Mario Burger and Tiramisu and I had some garlic knots. The burger was good but the bread almost tasted stale. Tiramisu and garlic knots were very good. Made our way to the Yoshi ride which to me was amazing as Yoshi's Island was my favorite game when I was a kid. Heading the music and seeing things from the game was just a huge nostalgia blast. The ride itself is very short but has some good views and it had a short line so overall very enjoyable. It was pushing 6:00 and we had to leave for the airport by 7, so upon arriving in Donkey Kong country I saw Mine Cart Madness was posting a 90 minute line. I lucked out though as they had just reopened the single rider line and I was on in 20 minutes. While I was waiting the 6:00 Potter drop came up and the times finally came up on my phone! But then I clicked a time and it says "looks like you're not in Epic Universe"...WTF?!? This system is atrocious! Anyway...after heading the same 3 lines being spoken over and over about the golden banana, I got on an interesting ride. It has a fun layout and some neat visual tricks, but I can't believe how jerky and tough almost every transition on this ride is. Felt like an arrow mine train which is surprising for a brand new coaster. Overall though DK country is really awesome looking...all of Nintendo World really blew me away. Did a little gift shopping before heading out to the airport. Overall this is a really nice park and it looks amazing. It almost doesn't feel like a Universal park. When you walk into IOA the grand reveal of all the huge rides around the lagoon is one of my favorite things in the world. When you walk into this place it feels like Disney built a park in front of the Bellagio. You can't really see much from the entrance except a little bit of Stardust and the mountain in Berk. I think when they fully open on May 22nd the park is going to feel like it needs more in it. There's 11 total rides in the park, many of them with kind of low capacity, and a couple shows. Doesn't really feel like enough to handle the crowds they're going to get. It will be interesting to see how quick they add to it. I will be back on June 2nd (my birthday) and I will be pretty pissed if I don't get on Battle at the Ministry for a second time in a row. Thankfully I hit everything else I wanted to yesterday so won't have to worry about dealing with crazy lines. I plan on spending more time seeing shows and just enjoying the ambience of the park more. I'm not sure this beats out IOA as their best park until they add to it, but still very worth checking out.

I'm sure this will surprise nobody but the virtual queue for Potter is an unmitigated shit show. I was in line for Monsters Unchained at 11 when the first drop happened, people around me were celebrating that they got a spot but every time I clicked on a time it would say "no longer available" after I tried pushing through. Then at the 3pm drop the virtual queue didn't pop up on my phone at all. My wife tried like 45 seconds later and got the times to pop up (and then got the same message about no longer being available) but not once did the times pop up on my phone. It feels like shit traveling all this way for the virtual queue to just totally shit itself on me.

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.