Zand

Holiday in the Park canned AND 2026 coaster will not be happening for at least one more year. Thank you Cedar Fair for officially destroying everything good about this park.

Day 6: Valleyfair Staying with friends for the weekend that live right in Shakopee. They came out for a couple hours this morning. Did a lap of the park, the bad news is Excalibur was down when I was back in that area after seeing it running early (my most anticipated coaster here) and now I decided to come back tonight and it's closed for the night. Will try to stop by real quick on Sunday! Otherwise... Started with Corkscrew which was a walk on and actually a nice smooth ride and very fun. No headbanging in the corkscrews, no neck crushing G's in the loop, just a rare enjoyable ride on an arrow. How did they pull this off?!? Next we came to High Roller and ended up in the middle of the train. This thing is trimmed to death but it's smooth and there's some modest floater on some of the hills. Can't complain too much. Next was Mad Mouse, my second Arrow Mouse this week. This was trimmed way harder than the one at Michigan's Adventure so not nearly as fun of a ride. The ops were slightly less atrocious, but only slightly. Headed back to Renegade next and got a back seat ride. This was a really good ride. I'm not usually huge on GCI's other than Mystic Timbers, but this has a lot of good airtime moments and good turns. Thumbs up for this. Tough to photograph so here's an awkwardly zoomed in photo from the Ferris Wheel. After a failed attempt at Excalibur, headed next to Wild Thing which featured one of the typical terrible Cedar Fair groupers who couldn't figure out how to fill the train despite a 25 minute line. Anyway, rode in row 3. This thing is lame. No airtime to speak of. Kind of bumpy in the turnaround. And then the return run has absolutely no airtime because the midcourse hits so hard. Steel Force blows this to hell. Ended up leaving after that ride, then came back to the park at 8pm. Got a ride on the world's jankiest looking Ferris Wheel and currently in line for Steel Venom which broke down earlier as well. Holding brake on the spike is still going strong! That's all for today. MOA tomorrow!

Day 5: Little Amerricka and Mt Olympus Spent about an hour at Little Amerricka which was more than enough time to ride everything I wanted. It's a really cute roadside park and a blast from the past. Worth stopping in for if you're driving from Chicago to Wisconsin Dells. Upon walking in you come to Mad Mouse, a Herschell mouse from the 1950s. It definitely runs like it was from the 50s as there's some good jolts, but the unique layout (with some very high speed hairpin turns that you won't find on a more modern mouse) was a lot of fun. Right next door is Meteor and I got 3 laps in the back seat as they kept sending it around. Another nice classic junior woodie, a couple of the drops had a slight pop of air. Reasonably smooth. Fun classic! Also grabbed a ride on the Chance Toboggan. You're already ending this paragraph in your head. But it's the last one in operation I believe so I tortured myself one last time. Rode the monorail, Ferris Wheel, and Carousel. Monorail is a nice long ride all the way around the park. Ferris Wheel is one of the old school types that you don't see very often anymore. Also did the Haunted House which looks like it's just a tiny trailer sized house (and it is) but it makes up for it by having the world's narrowest pitch black passageways with the occasional funhouse gag. The entire haunted house! Continued through Wisconsin and finally arrived at Mt Olympus, a park I was simultaneously excited and terrified to finally visit! And it was every bit as much of a shitshow as can be expected! You first come to Zeus so I started there. I walked up and got in line for the front row as the previous train was being checked. The lapbar in row 3 wouldn't stay locked so the ride op (every coaster except Hades only has 1 ride attendant here...strange!) moved that rider to row 5, then shouted over to the Hades station that one of the lapbars wouldn't lock and the attendant at Hades shouted back "Row 3???" So clearly everyone knows this is an issue that works there. So the maintenance guy shows up, sends the train around fully loaded with the loose lapbar being held down by the seatbelt, and then when it came back they locked it down and sent it empty. When it comes back again they locked and unlocked a few times and it worked fine, so they deemed it good for operation! A very warm welcome to Mt Olympus indeed! Anyway, the ride in the front row had a lot of airtime and was decently smooth other than a couple shaky turns. The speed at which this thing hits the brakes and then stops on a dime is crazy. The whole structure shakes a ton and I'm surprised this doesn't cause more problems. Next up was Hades, a bucket list coaster for sure but it wasn't without trepidation as I knew it would be aggressive. Sat in row 2 and after waiting 5 or 6 minutes for them to fill the train (they insist on doing this with every coaster here and will hold up the entire line to get 1 or 2 people to come forward, super annoying) we were off. The prelift section is surprisingly forceful with a couple spots of ejector and some fun and tight but rough turns. The first drop is great and then the tunnel section is just bonkers. There's airtime and turns in there that you don't expect and it lasts way longer than you expect it to. It shuffles like crazy in a couple of the turns and it's super loud, the whole experience is just totally surreal and it literally feels like the ride is taking you to hell. Finally you pop up into the corkscrew and a couple more airtime moments before diving back under, this trip a little quicker and less eventful than the first tunnel. The rest of the ride features some more good air and fast turns with lots of shuffling. I hopped into an empty seat in the back for a 2nd ride and somehow this was even more insane. It does get borderline painful but the intensity and craziness is just something I can't believe exists on a wooden coaster. This lived up to the hype for sure. As I was walking down to Cyclops I noticed a fully loaded train completing its cycle, but also 3 maintenance guys milling around on the ride. Once the train unloaded one of them came into the station and said they had to close the ride. So once again they sent a train knowing there was an issue, so on point for this park! Anyway I headed over and rode Pegasus and got to experience the neck snapping goodness in back. Every turn on this thing is in a ridiculous spot taken at a ridiculous angle. It's like building a coaster on RCT with the tightest turn radius and not banking anything. I was cackling the whole time. Luckily not too fast to really hurt, but just very ridiculous and somehow fun. I sat on a fence and watched a maintenance guy screw around with a drill in the Cyclops station for a while and my patience paid off as I got a back row zen ride. This ride is full of punchy airtime and the big drop has nice ejector. Reride a 2nd time, very fun and underrated coaster. I had to get back on the road so that was it for me. But I survived Mt Olympus even though everything was exactly as advertised! What a shitshow of a park, but a super fun afternoon at the same time. Valleyfair tomorrow!

Day 4: Six Flags Great America Honestly after walking around this park twice on a sunny day with a heat index of 110, I'm way too exhausted to think about doing a full report with pictures. Maybe I'll add them in later. I'm just gonna give my reviews of everything I rode (in order of how I rode them during the day) and add in a few thoughts at the end. Like the other parks in this report so far, this was my first time here. Columbia Carousel: I mean it's so unique and it's right there on the way in so I hopped on for an upper deck ride. Nothing more to say other than it's a really neat looking carousel. With my season Flashpass in hand for some reason I started wandering aimlessly before coming to Little Dipper, which was a walk on so I hopped on. Kind of short and uneventful compared to the other family woodies I've ridden this week, but still really awesome to ride such a historical coaster. I set my sights on the RMC but by the time I got back there it broke down, so I rode Fiddler's Fling while I was waiting. This thing is basically a scrambler on crack. Almost made me legitimately dizzy. Very fun ride and glad I hopped on. Goliath: I'm already not really the biggest RMC fanboy out there and I have to say this might be their worst. I rode in back and the first drop is great as they all are, but the layout just lacked anything interesting at all. The dive loop and stall is done better on almost every other RMC coaster that has them and it has some pretty brutal potholes in spots. The one airtime hill was very good. But that's all the ride has and the brake run comes up faster than I ever would've imagined it would. This was a 1 and done for me. It's the 3rd best wooden coaster at Great America. Sorry, not sorry. Raging Bull: Rode this once in the early afternoon and really liked it. Rode it 4 more times before closing and fell in love with it. This might be my favorite B&M coaster. I just rode Fury earlier this year. I've ridden Goliath at SFOG. I've ridden Diamondback. I think this is legitimately a better coaster than all of those. The airtime in the back not only on the first drop, but off literally every hill on the ride is some of the most insane ejector found on B&Ms. The airtime off the midcourse felt illegal. The twists and turns provided some good positive Gs and it's nice to ride a B&M Hyper that's not the usual slate of boring camelbacks and a lame helix. This is an elite roller coaster and no one gives it the credit it deserves. American Eagle: I liked this a lot, especially the first half. There's some good floater over the hills on the outward leg. The helix is a little rough but not terrible. But the size of this thing is just a lot of fun. I was surprised to see them running both trains on both rides during the afternoon. I rode the right side first and then went back at night to ride the left side but unfortunately they closed it. Credit denied, oh well. X-Flight: I don't like Wing coasters and this is really no different. I actually thought the layout was one of the better of the wing coasters, but it had a very nasty pothole right before the keyhole element and the rest of it was just a rattly mess. Meh. Wrath of Rakshasa: I loved this and wish I got back for a 2nd ride on it. It starts with the usual dive coaster fare, but quickly starts ripping through tight barrel rolls and whippy turns way more than any other dive coaster I've ever ridden. It's nice seeing one of these actually get a fun layout. Thumbs up on this one. Demon: I appreciate the history of it. But it sucks. The coat hanger into the corkscrew section slammed my jaw off the restraint. And the rest wasn't much better. Viper: Great woodie, best in the park. I think this was my first Cyclone based coaster and the back seat especially was full of fun floater moments and surprisingly smooth. Lots of laterals also because not a single turn has any banking. Whizzer: Another historical coaster in a park full of them, this was good fun. Some of the turns are slightly brutal but not really fast enough to hurt. But very fun and unique. Sky Trek Tower: Too hazy to see Chicago, but great views of the park and they keep you up there for a while. Condor: Every time I ride one, I always think it's the last time I'm gonna ride one because they're so rare at this point. So when I see one operating I make sure to ride it. Dark Knight: I like that the whole queue is indoors. I don't like that unlike Great Adventure's version that goes directly up a ramp to the station after the preshow, this one goes down a long tunnel that for some reason added about 30 minutes to the line. Good news is all the effects are working on this one. Aquaman Flume: I got absolutely wrecked by the wave that forms at the bottom of the drop. Never seen this on a flume before. It felt great today but it shocked me to get so wet on a flume. Therefore, next ride was... Loggers Run: I love that the two flumes are so intertwined with each other. This one was a lot less wet but the double down was fun. Batman: Running 1 train and the station was hot as hell. The ride was great, it flies through the course even after 33 years. But that wait sucked even with all the cool effects working. Too bad they couldn't fix the A/C. Joker: I hate the way they load one car at a time now. SFNE does the same thing. Take a train off if you're going to do that. Sitting on the brake run for 6 minutes when you're done sucks. Anyway, I was on the right side and it was one of the more maniacal Joker rides I've ever had. Sky Striker: It felt like this swung higher than other Discoveries I've ridden. Was it just my imagination or does this get up to a higher angle? Giant Drop: Was closed all day but finally saw it operating in the last hour of the day. Rare ride on an Intamin 2nd Gen. I should love it but Larson Towers have spoiled every other free fall ride for me. Credits missed: Obviously Maxx Force was the big one. Could be down for the year? Sucks to miss that one. Superman was down all day I think, not sad about that. Vertical Velocity I saw run one train when I was across the park and I never saw it running other than that one time. Typical Intamin. Would've liked to have gotten this one, but not the worst thing to miss. Aforementioned right side of American Thunder eluded me. Other than the Batman themed coasters having slow, hot lines, ops are great at this park. I found the park to be well kept, employees were much more enthusiastic than most other Six Flags properties. Lots of air conditioned restaurants was nice. This is easily the best Six Flags park from an all around standpoint that I've been to. Will return for sure, especially to ride my new favorite B&M and hopefully ride Maxx Force. On to Wisconsin tomorrow, Little Amerricka and Mt Olympus.

Doing Cedar Point on the ride back. Been there several times so basically saved it for last in case I needed to push things back a day, but as of now planning on being there for most of 2 days. Yeah MA really was a total dud, but I really want to get back to Michigan (especially northern Michigan) so I assume I would stop back in, especially if they continue retracking Shivering Timbers.

Day 3: Indiana Beach Arrived around 1:15 after doing a little antique shopping with the wife this morning. Parked nice and close and was bummed to see the Log Flume on the list of closed rides but everything else seemed good to go. Started off with Lost Coaster after about a 20 minute wait (1 train ops with an 8-person train will do that) and ended up in a backwards seat for my first ride. This thing is a riot. So many weird turns and pops of ejector on unassuming 20 foot drops. I was laughing my ass off at quite a few points. It's aggressive without being rough. One of the most unique but fun coasters I've ever ridden. Moved over to Tig'rr which is another capacity nightmare of a coaster but luckily with the light crowds today it was only about 20 minutes. Never seen too many parks that will only run 1 four-passenger car on a coaster. Anyway, this was fun and reasonably forceful. Fun whippy turns. Grabbed two Cornball Express rides, one in front and one in back which were great rides. Some really good ejector pops in front on a few of the hills and the first drop is great in the back. It's short but it packs a lot into its small course. Grabbed a couple drinks at the bar near Tig'rr before making my way back towards the star of the park, but first stopping to grab a ride on El Loco. I remember liking the one in Vegas better but this is still fun and zippy through the turns with a great stall. Another coaster running one 4-passenger car but a very small line made it moot. Finally made my way back to Triple Loop, my first ride was in the front which in itself was very intense with a few jarring transitions and lots of intensity in the loops. I also grabbed a pair of rides in the backwards car and...good lord. The sheer intensity of this experience is like nothing I've really felt before. The first drop, the loops...unreal. By far one of the best coaster experiences I've ever had. I almost started feeling nauseous which never happens to me. This thing made my entire trip. Made my way back into the park and got a lame front row ride on Hoosier Hurricane. This ride is smooth enough and looks like it should be a good out and back coaster, but the hills are very drawn out, your ass never comes close to leaving the seat, and it's a pure snoozefest. It looks nice though. Last coaster on the credit whore tour was Cyclone, a Zyklon Galaxi. The 3rd coaster in the park that runs one 4-passenger car. Nothing to write home about here, we've all ridden one of these. It really drives home the boardwalk feel of the park though. Kind of cool that it's literally located in a waterslide complex. Experienced several flats and other things while in the park. Frankensteins Castle was amazing. It's incredibly dark and creepy throughout. And I'm not gonna spoil it, but the part where you need to choose your path, so to speak, was kind of a mindf*ck before we finally figured it out. This thing is right up there with Ghost Ship and it doesn't even have scare actors. Den of Lost Thieves was an interesting old shooter. Some neat scenes and some others that have seen better days, but still plenty of working targets. I think they have 3 whole cars on the track so this line moves slow. The location of rides like the Paratrooper and the Swings make them really scenic and awesome. Also rode the Polyp which was a good time. The Chairlift is awesome as it really covers the entire boardwalk. The S&S double shot tower was excellent as they all are. This park has so many unique rides. That brings me to the main point I want to make: this was my first time at Indiana Beach and it is officially one of my favorite parks. It's one part Knoebels, one part Morey's, and one part State Fair. There's a ton of food at this park and it's not all the same chicken fingers and burgers that you find at most parks. Multiple awesome bars and the prices are cheap. Staff is extremely friendly and the vibes are terrific all around. The retro boardwalk buildings look awesome. The ride lineup is excellent. The setting of the park is amazing. There is nothing to dislike about this park other than maybe the capacity of some of the coasters. After being at Michigan's Adventure for 2 hours yesterday and being ready to leave, I was here for 8 hours today and didn't want to leave. Also, the drive across the cornfields of Indiana at dusk is amazingly peaceful. You can go 20 minutes without seeing another car. Off to SFGAm in the morning. As much as I'm looking forward to it and I'm sure it will be one of the best coaster lineups in the country, going from the immaculate vibes of Indiana Beach to the corporate bullshit of a Six Flags park is going to be a huge adjustment and I'm sure will feel like a letdown in comparison.

Day 2: Michigan's Adventure and some other Michigan adventures Arrived at the park around 1 and there was no doubt where I was heading first. Shivering Timbers has been on my bucket list for 25+ years and it was finally time. Was glad to see it running 2 trains and was seated in the front row in about 10 minutes. Front row ride was a bit benign but also seemed pretty smooth. Went around for a ride in the back and this is where it's at...airtime out the wazoo but also quite brutal in spots. I would later return for one more backseat ride and after a little warming up this thing just yeets you out of your seat time after time. The first couple hills were titan tracked (or something like that) and were nice and smooth, airtime like a hyper. But after that it was so bouncy that you would get several jolts of ejector over each hill and then you'd slam down in the valley. A great ride but very tough to reride. Moved on to the Mad Mouse, my first Arrow Mouse. These seem to have better pacing and airtime than other manufacturers mice, but the ops were atrocious here. I started timing dispatches because I was bored and the average was about 1:15 or so, for a 4 person car. And they run 7 cars so you get to sit on the brake run for another 5 minutes when you're done. There couldn't have been more than 40 people in line and it took me 28 minutes from getting in line to getting off the ride. Next door I found the Ferris Wheel to be a walk on so I got a quick ride on that. Nice views of a very pretty park. Next on the credit tour was Corkscrew which had more awful ops. Dispatches were 5+ minutes and there were multiple cases where the whole train disembarked and everyone was all the way down the stairs and halfway to Shivering Timbers before they bothered to open the gates. Ended up being a 35 minute wait for a line that was halfway down the ramp. The ride was typical boring Arrow Corkscrew, but one of the less brutal ones I've ever ridden. Hit up Zach's Zoomer which was fun enough. Not as smooth as Comet yesterday, but still a good family woodie. Walk on which was a nice change. Made my way around the lake to find the SLC closed and the train also closed for some reason, rendering this part of the day a 10 minute walk into a dead end. Very nice looking walk around the lake though. Walked all the way back around to Wolverine Wildcat which I can agree with the general assessment that this does a shitty Phoenix impression. A couple small floater areas but otherwise just kind of meanders. Smooth enough to enjoy though. Credit #300 acquired. That's all I did, was only in the park for about 3 hours. This place kind of sucks on paper and in reality it's even smaller than you expect. Shivering Timbers is worth the drive but at the same time you'd love to ride it 20 times since there's not much else to do in this park, but for me anyway it was tough to ride it more than twice in a row. The park feels like it just kind of exists otherwise. After leaving the park we drive to Silver Lake to check out Mac Wood's Dune Rides. This was a ton of fun and I would highly recommend the 30 minute drive to check this place out. The views are stunning and the ride is a lot of fun. They fly through the hills and you even get a couple airtime pops! The whole area is really nice. I would love to get back to northern Michigan to really explore the area for a whole week. Staying in New Buffalo MI tonight and I didn't expect to suddenly get transported to the Jersey Shore but that's what it felt like. Stopped at the beach to watch the gorgeous sunset at 9:15 and then had dinner at a rooftop bar and no matter how many times I tried to tell myself, I couldn't believe I was in Michigan, much less mere miles from the Indiana suburbs of Chicago. It was a great day exploring Michigan! Tomorrow is Indiana Beach, which might be my most anticipated park on the trip.

Day 1: Waldameer Basically more of a pit stop than anything, but it was my first time here. Arrived shortly before 5 and was pleased to see they offered an after 5pm wristband for $29 (I was prepared to buy $40-50 in tickets) so my day was already off to a good start. Started off with a front row ride on Ravine Flyer II as it was only running 1 train, but ops were decently quick with loading. Front row was pretty good, a few pops of air but nothing to really write home about. But I would return later... Stopped by Pirates Cove which was a walk on and certainly an interesting walk through fun house. Lots of cool gas and a couple dizzying crooked sections. You don't find these too often anymore so it was really awesome checking this out. Intended on riding the Flume next but it was down and drained with maintenance milling about in various areas. So I continued back to get by Steel Dragon credit. Pretty much a walk on, not the greatest spinner but a couple briefly intense sections. Didn't spin a whole lot. Right next door was the awesome Larson drop tower XScream. I would be perfectly happy lapping one of these for hours on end. I was on limited time, or I would've done the same here. I love these things. Wish there were more of them. Noted the Flume was starting to fill back up with water, I quickly detoured over to Comet to get my final credit of the day (with only two hours I wasn't wasting my time with the kiddie coaster and the Visa). This was running 2 trains and was a really fun, perfectly smooth family woodie. Even had a couple quick moments of floater. Too bad these junior woodies are as rare as they are, they almost all run good. Headed back over towards the empty Log Flume which was cycling empty logs. As fate would have it, maintenance shouted down to the greeter to open the ride right when I walked up and I would be the first one in. This is a really awesome Flume. Neat tunnel section at the beginning and two good drops. Nice splash but not totally soaking. Two thumbs up for this flume, which is very popular as the line filled right up behind me so I'm glad I got to it when I did. Unlike Great Adventure, Waldameer knows how to quickly get a Fluke fixed and back running! Was 6:15 by this point and I rode everything I wanted except Whacky Shack which had a long slow line, so I headed back to Ravine Flyer for a 20 minute wait and back row ride. This is absolutely a back row coaster, the first drop is insane back there and the intensity throughout is turned up to 10. While the front felt kind of controlled and graceful, the back felt like a rampage through most of the ride. I thought this coaster felt similar to Excalibur at Funtown, maybe slightly more intense. Hope to get back to it someday. Walking back through the park I noticed the line for Whacky Shack was a lot shorter so I hopped on. Another very fun dark ride. Really enjoyed this just as much as its neighbor. Finished up with one more quick ride on XScream. Had to hit the road to Michigan and was sad to have to leave the park so quick. This is a great little park with a world class woodie, a couple fun support coasters, a great flume, 2 fun dark rides, a Larson Tower, and what looked like a very good package of flats. Not to mention it has a lot of charm and is very family friendly. Felt like a better Canobie. Off to Michigan's Adventure tomorrow and FINALLY riding Shivering Timbers for the first time. Can't wait!

Looking more and more likely that I will be missing out on Maxx Force Out of all the parks on this trip, Great America would probably be the easiest to get back to since it's in a major city with cheap flights. So if it's still closed next week I guess I'll have a reason to go back!

There's a couple reasons I can really adjust the days. For one thing, the Minnesota days fall when they do simply because it's the weekend. My friend that I'm staying with is off from work Fri-Sun so it wouldn't make sense for me to shift that forwards or backwards any. Also, I already have date specific tickets to Indiana Beach for Tuesday 7/22 (they were only $26 when I got them...I'm sure if I had to the park would be willing to change the date for me, but because of the Minnesota timing factor I don't think it would help to go straight across from MiA as much as it would save time and miles). On the day I drive from Minnesota to Ohio, more than likely I'll only make it to South Bend or so and stop there. I don't really care if I get to Cedar Point a little later the first day. If I'm getting into Chicago right at rush hour maybe I'll just stop into Great America for a couple hours to let the traffic die off a bit haha. Appreciate the tips though! I definitely understand your reasoning for taking the ferry and avoiding Chicago one way. And thanks for the ride recommendations. I definitely love checking out old school funhouses, they are a pretty rare sight these days. If Great America starts to look too tight time wise to get to everything then I'll definitely prioritize certain things but I think the Flash Pass should get me through everything. I'll do stuff like Superman, Joker, and Dark Knight last because I can ride them all in NJ and don't care that much about credits for the sake of credits. And as much as I enjoy impulses I could put that off till last as well because I'll be riding the one at Valleyfair and Dorney is close by to me.

Hello all, I am embarking on a 12 day roadtrip later this month to Minnesota and back. I figured I will eventually use this thread for reports, but for now any intel on the following parks would be great! Keep in mind that my daily itinerary is pretty much set in stone at this point so I won't really have a lot of time to break off to visit other local things. At most of these parks I'll be spending less than a full day so if anyone can point out some less obvious must-dos at any of the parks it would be appreciated! Day 1 (Sunday July 20): Drive 12+ hours to Michigan with a brief pit stop at Waldameer. I've never been there before but would like to get in and out in under 2 hours. Obviously mostly focused on Ravine Flyer but will also try to get the other two adult coaster credits and ride anything else unique to this park such as the flume and the fun house. Anything else unique I should be aware of? Day 2: Michigan's Adventure. I feel like other than Shivering Timbers, the rest of the day will consist of a kind of quick loop around the park getting one ride each on the rest of the coasters. Planning on giving this park about 6 hours, and 3 or 4 of them probably will be Shivering Timbers lol. Day 3: Indiana Beach. I might be more excited for this park than any other park on my trip. I will likely have almost the full day here as I will be travelling westward afterwards and gaining an hour from the time change. I should have no problem hitting everything once and then many rerides on the good stuff many times! Day 4: Six Flags Great America. Will be here the full day and also have ultra flash pass so I don't see any issues getting on everything or needing a big plan to do so. I know Rakshasa isn't on Flash Pass but hopefully that line won't be too bad. Day 5: Little Amerricka and Mt Olympus. Quick pit stop at Little Amerricka to check it out and ride the coasters. Then a slightly longer pitstop at Mt Olympus where I will hopefully live to tell all about it Anything unique at either of these parks I should be aware of? Days 6-8: Visiting friends near Minneapolis for the weekend. Will be checking out Valleyfair and MOA during this time. And doing other Minnesota things. Whatever that is. Day 9: Hopefully driving all the way to Ohio with a quick pit stop at Bay Beach which will add over an hour to the ride time but I think Zippin Pippin will be worth it. Days 10-11: Cedar Point. Expecting a shitshow but hoping for the best. I know my way around this place though. Lol Day 12: Finishing the ride home and a pit stop at Six Flags Darien Lake. Have been there once about 20 years ago so will get the couple of new to me credits and ride Superman, a classic arrow, and hopefully an improved Predator. This will be the longest road trip I've ever done but it will be nice to knock out pretty much every park east of the Mississippi that I haven't been to yet. Lots of bucket list coasters and hopefully good times to be had!

I'm planning a road trip to the Midwest and back and I think I'm starting to buy into the conspiracy theory that the new chain really hates Great Adventure. The following parks are open later than Great Adventure during midsummer on weeknights: Waldameer, Indiana Beach, Great America, Mt Olympus, Valleyfair, Nick U, Cedar Point, and yes even DARIEN LAKE is open an hour later than Great Adventure. Michigan's Adventure and Bay Beach close at the same time: 8pm. The only park on my trip that closes earlier is Little Amerricka. I was floored to see Great America is open till 10 every night. The way it's supposed to be. Why do they hate us?

Alright, so I don't know if I'm a fool for considering stopping by this place when I'm traveling to Minnesota from SFGAm next month. Hoping for some feedback because I'm intrigued by the coasters here but also mildly terrified to stop foot inside! In the many years since anyone has really posted any info in this thread, the cost of entry has increased to $35 (from...$7 a few years back) and parking is now $40 which is f*cking atrocious and even more so when you can't actually find that figure anywhere on their website. I had the morbid curiosity to check the prices for their hotel since it includes free admission and noticed that rooms are $30 per night (and naturally another $80 in taxes and fees) which I know I probably shouldn't even consider doing because without reading too much into it I figure the hotel is a giant shithole and probably loud and dirty and infested with bedbugs. I will absolutely not consider staying here unless someone changes my mind. I feel like the best course of action would be to have my wife drop me off somewhere across the street, have her go to McDonald's and read a book for a couple hours while I pay the $35 for myself since there will be nothing for her to do here, and then have her come back and pick me up. Between her ticket and parking that would save about $75. I don't see myself needing more than two hours here. I've always wanted to check out Hades, Cyclops has always sounded like a rather good ride, I've heard decent things about Zeus, and I want to have my neck readjusted by Pegasus. If I can ride each of the four coasters and maybe get a reride or two (assuming they don't beat the shit out of me so bad that I won't even want to reride) then I would consider that worthy of my $35 before I get out of dodge. Or should I just pretend it doesn't exist and keep on driving?

I mean...Kingda Ka itself didn't start site work until July of 2004 (and this new coaster really won't even need much site work) and didn't go vertical until September, and then opened in May. It's only June, and Six Flags doesn't like opening coasters until August these days anyway so is it really surprising that nothing is going on yet?

I guess I can give SFNE that...our carousel is always running In all seriousness SFNE has generally always been great about the park being as close to 100% open as possible on any given operating day. I hear horror stories from some other SF parks (and as someone who goes to Great Adventure almost as much as SFNE, I see this first hand!) so kudos are due to maintenance at SFNE who are typically on the ball with just about everything. I have also seen the issues with the other straddle coasters being closed suddenly so I wouldn't doubt that the park had it ready to go and then something else came up. Hopefully it's nothing too serious and it won't be a long delay.

Quantum Accelerator opening delayed. This whole thing is weird as hell. The opening date was supposed to be tomorrow (June 20th) but has only really been reported by a few media outlets. Enthusiast circles have been extremely quiet about it and the park never officially announced an opening date on socials. Then they wait until filming day to delay the opening. Not gonna lie, it's pretty ridiculous that a last minute and borderline-prototype coaster at Cedar Point that just finished construction last month is going to open before a pre-planned family launched coaster that finished construction in March. Oh and the 5x larger B&M dive coaster in Chicago that was announced at the same time as this coaster has been open for almost a month. What are we doing???

I did take what will likely be my last Rockit ride on Tuesday night and, in fitting fashion, it was a certified shitshow! They were only running 3 trains and for some reason the trains kept setting up on the last 3 brake runs even without a train in the station. We got stuck on the 2nd to last brake run for a minute or two and could see a train on the brakes in front of us. Also my last ride was in row 4 which is the worst row on the ride because it's rough as shit and for some reason the crotch molds seem to protrude backwards more in this row than the others and yeah...such a fitting last ride. I'll kind of miss it and wondering why there's so many songs about rainbows, but I can't wait to see how good the replacement coaster is bound to be. Rest in pieces! I also had back-to-back lemon rides on Spiderman which was interesting. The first time through we got to the gravity ray section and then the effects and sound stop and the car kept stopping and then slowly meandering to each scene. Most of them were either quiet or no sound at all and the car awkwardly listed to the left, and then the car started playing sounds from 4 scenes prior and...yeah. The ride ops told us to go through the child swap line and ride again. The second time around it made it all the way to the final drop scene but then it did it again. I've ridden this thing a ton and it's usually flawless so it's interesting to get a couple technical difficulty rides. Lastly, one of my fears everytime I ride Velocicoaster on a showery day is that it'll be sunny when I walk in and then after 20 minutes of being cut-off from the outside world things will drastically change by the time I get on the ride. This time around I got on the ride and it was fine, but I started feeling a few sprinkles going up the top hat. When we hit the brake run the skies opened up and because they were running all 4 trains we had the pleasure of sitting on the brake run for a good two minutes with no escaping the deluge. And naturally the firehouse shut off just as the brakes released and we rolled into the station.

I love Aventura, it's my go-to. It's a bit more adult orientated than most hotels. Laid back and quiet and the bar on the roof is really neat. I like how everything is in a small footprint and you don't have to walk a mile to get to your room. No long lines for the bus. And best of all the price is usually not bad, often $150-200.

If you're staying on property I would go right to Mine Cart for early entry. If not then you might be screwed (unless what they did yesterday is the new norm and now everyone can go right in for early entry). Mine Cart will immediately have a 1-2 hour line and usually doesn't get any shorter all day. Also it's not on express. You won't have any problem getting the other 3.

Wanted to post some thoughts from my 2nd trip to Epic and first since the park officially opened. For future reference, today was a Monday and the general consensus amongst regular park-goers is that today was on the busier side for Epic. Despite staying on property at Aventura I decided not to get up early for early entry and I'm glad I made that decision. Apparently the security line was a mile long before they opened and then they didn't bother checking for hotel reservations to get into the lands so everyone was able to get in. Therefore lines in Nintendo immediately went over 75 minutes and Ministry was over 3 hours within 15 minutes of opening. I would've been pretty pissed if I got up before 7 to experience that. We ended up hopping on the bus right at 10:30 and in the park around 10:50. After getting shut out on Ministry last trip, that was my #1 goal today. Stopped at the French cafe thing on the way in for a crepe for breakfast which was pretty good, nothing spectacular. Hopped into line for Ministry right at 11:50 which was posting a 150 minute wait. We were sent into the outdoor section but only for 5-10 minutes before making our way to the Floo network. The queue is jaw dropping, there's no other way to put it. Our wait ended up being about 1:45-1:50 and I don't think there were any breakdowns. If you're trying to judge times, I would say once you're through the Floo network it's going to take you 1.5-2 hours. And then add to that with any of the queue outside being used. The ride itself is absolutely one of the best dark rides I've ever ridden, a nice blend of technology and storyline. Not gonna throw out tons of spoilers here. To me it was worth the wait once for sure. If it was 3+ hours? Maybe not. But for the line it had today it definitely met expectations. Thankful to have finally ridden it and for not having to deal with any virtual queue systems to do so. Be patient with this, the line will be insane right from the get go. But it usually comes down a bit midday. Just be careful if you want to save it for later, they capped the line just before 7:00 today. I thought waiting in the a/c during the midday sun was the best choice and my plan worked very well. Stardust Racers is incredible with the dueling aspect which I didn't get to experience. Night rides are mind blowing. They kept it open an extra hour tonight which was terrific of them to do. They got each side running 3 trains later in the day and the line does not stop moving when they do that. The green side is indeed very slightly more intense than the yellow side, but you can often get on in about 3 less ride cycles on the yellow side because everyone chooses green. I think I still cast my preference to Velocicoaster simply because it has the mosasaurus roll which is my favorite element of all time, but I absolutely understand how people can put this ahead. It hits from beginning to end and is frankly one of the best ejector air machines ever built. This ride is a home run and extremely rerideable. I can't say enough good things about it. Nintendo World was a circus. I love hanging out in there but this area badly needs that rumored expansion to happen asap. Rode Yoshi but even that was 30 minutes for a short ride. Mario Kart and Mine Cart almost never dropped below 2 hours today. Monsters Unchained was a lot of fun the 2nd time around. I think the first time my expectations were a little unrealistic. I had a great time on it tonight, the line was very short and fast moving. The ride was great and if anything wasn't working than I couldn't care to notice. Definitely my 3rd favorite ride in the park. Skipped the spinner as it never really got below an hour. Hiccup was a quick 25 minute wait around 6:30 and was fun as always. The restraints blow and I wish they would've done a little better with that. But the ride it zippy and fun and the theming is adorable. Also viewed Untrainable Dragon which is a bit short but a lot of run. Go check it out! Want to point out two negative experiences from today. First of which was Pizza Moon. Went in there around 4:00. Ordered a Space Cowboy which is essentially BBQ chicken pizza. People next to us sat down 5 minutes later and they had their two pizzas and a salad before we got ours even though the app said our pizza was ready. After about 20 minutes we asked a staff member who was like "oh those take extra long to make but it will be out soon!" (then why would the app say it's ready)...so ok. The people next to us are their pizza, left, and the next seating sat down and ordered and still no pizza for us. It was 45 minutes in at this point so I asked again and this time the waiter sent over a manager who had a terrible attitude and made us feel like shit for even asking about it. But he radioed something in and a few minutes later our pizza finally came over just as the people next to us (keep in mind this was the SECOND seating at that table after we ordered) got their meal. The pizza was very good. I still have no idea why it took almost an hour. And some of the staff members here need to remove the stick from their ass when people ask about something. Something obviously happened with our pizza. Just apologize and say you're working on it instead of being a complete jackass about it, and don't gaslight me with "oh that one takes longer" when the app clearly showed that it was done and ready. 2nd negative experience was that goddamn Carousel. We got in line at 7:55 with a posted 15 minute line and a couple switchbacks full. Just after getting in it changed to 25 minutes, understandable because it was one of 3 rides actually open during a small shower that passed through. At 8:45 I saw Stardust running again and finally bailed after being 50 minutes into a 15 minute line and still being multiple cycles away from riding. They were taking at least 7/8ths of each cycle from Fastpass. And the load times on this are atrocious, usually 5+ minutes. The ops are just obscenely bad on this. How can you screw up the ops on a Carousel? All in all definitely a fun day but I'm done with this place till they add it to the annual pass. It's a gorgeous park with 3 great rides and a few other very good rides, but it needs a lot more to keep up with the crowds it is going to get when they open up to max capacity. I shudder to think of how long the lines will be when they allow 100% capacity. Even if it was dead, I'd still rather be at IOA. In a few years this park may very well eclipse IOA but I don't think it's close right now. It's gorgeous and especially stunning at night, but the lack of shade is draining during the day.

Adding express to Hagrid seems to be going swimmingly. Edit: in the past 50 minutes it has apparently gone down to 1.5 hours. That pretty cool that they went through 2.75 hours of line in 50 minutes and no one else got in! Edit edit: I'm currently at Epic Universe and it's unfortunately one of the busier days it's had so far. I'm in line for Ministry and... ...it's not the longest line in the park. I haven't seen that happen yet. Did I walk into some sort of miracle?

Yup, and currently Hagrid has a longer line than Ministry. I'm glad I'm not in love with it...will be down there this weekend and it doesn't bother me to skip when it has an insane line. If I can ride Velocicoaster 3 times in the time it takes to wait for Hagrid once, I know what I'll be doing.

I wish I could answer your question but I'd have to shoot myself before I went to Florida in July so I have no idea how the crowds stack up during the summer. Other times of year, on Tuesdays I've generally found most things to be a walk on depending on what time you get to them. Hagrid and Velocicoaster will probably be 1.5 hrs and 45 mins respectively. Water rides will probably be long. Usually almost everything else is very short. I don't see any reason why you wouldn't be able to get through the whole park without express on a Tuesday. In Epic news...it's day 2 of regular operations. Ministry currently has a 1 hour line. I seriously am starting to think that they sold more tickets during preview than they're selling now. Fingers crossed it's still like this on June 2, I will have a blast that day if it is.

So far today the lines have been far shorter than they were during preview. Even the Mario stuff is 15 mins or less. In other unsurprising news, Ministry opened to a 5 hour queue and then has been down for the last 3.5 hours or so.

They do have the hours in the app...mostly 9-9 on weekdays including the days you'll be there. For some reason they're not clearly listed on the website. 9-9 is kind of lame for a new park seeing as IOA is open till 10 those days. Since you have two consecutive days what I would do is try to get everything done on day 1 that isn't Ministry. If things go well maybe you'll still have time for Ministry at the end of the day and your day 2 would be much more leisurely. And if you don't have time then at least you will have ridden everything else you wanted so you won't have to really worry about them on day 2. But long lines, breakdowns, and real life get in the way sometimes so your approach may very well be different!