Maverickrocks

^Yeah Action Zone has really started to fall apart over the years. It's atmosphere is rotting as well, not only due to a lack of upkeep but also due to CF's inability to mantain theme. That part of the park looked really good when it was under Paramount, and it was always cool walking around there. With the posters of Paramount flicks that loomed high around the area replaced with generic in-park advertisements, the really neat Action Zone sign long missing and fading paint everywhere, the area has really become the park's main (and possibly only) visual blunder. It desperately needs some attention.

Even though DD is an old ride, I am glad to see that it's moving to Dorney. It will be a good addition to their ride collection and blend well with the atmosphere of the park (much, much more so than it would have had it gone to KBF). And although it's almost 30 years old, it's still an execellent ride, so I think it will certainly draw a fair crowd.

I hate how Maverick continues to fall. And Apollo is ranked higher!? As much as I like Diamondback, it really should be in the teens and not where it is now. It'll probably move there next year though, just like Behemoth.

My favorites: If there was just a train on top...

^^^I love it when people mistake Lake Erie for the ocean at CP. The best part is when Magnum ride ops mess with people on the trains by asking if they saw the ocean during the ride, only to remind them that it was the lake, not the sea. Maybe. But I doubt it. That rumor was 3 years ago, so why would he say that now? And I don't think it's likely that a GP kid, who was probably about 13 or even a little younger at the time based off his profile picture, would have known of that rumor.

"I hate how Cedar Point is closing down and moving to North Carolina." -Comment posted on a Facebook status update for a group about Ohio. You could tell he was totally serious too.

Well, I'm going on a huge trip to Europe over the summer, so I'll be hitting some of the parks there. So far I'm expecting to hit Efteling Walibi World Holland Toverland Maybe Phantasialand, and possibly some other places too. I just need to figure out what else will be accessible if I'm going to Holland, Belgium and France. In the US, I'll be going to my home parks, Cedar Point and Kings Island, and most likely Kings Dominion, Busch Gardens Europe and Holiday World.

- Favorite new coaster Maverick - Favorite new ride Maxair maybe? - Favorite new park Happy Valley Shanghai. For one that I've actually visited, Busch Gardens Williamsburg. - Most memorable park moment I really don't think I could single out one...there were so many! - Most memorable coaster moment First ride on Maverick - Best ERT session I really haven't experienced much ERT, but the Raptor ERT at Coastermania 2009 was pretty cool - Least favorite coaster Grizzly at KD - Least favorite ride The train ride at Kings Island. If you count attractions as whole, I would easily say Country Bear Jamboree at Magic Kingdom. - Least favorite park Kings Dominion - Most interesting ride you've seen introduced That X-Scream thing on the Stratosphere Tower - Least interesting ride you've seen intoduced Shoot the Rapids. Instead of feeling hype, I'm dreading the loss of more endangered trees on the peninsula. - Your favorite TPR moment (favorite post, trip report, video, whatever!) Some of the 2007 Midwest Trip reports were pretty memorable - The decade's biggest flop Hard Rock Park was probably the biggest failure because of its size and its expectations. Wild West World deserves an honorable mention. - The decade's biggest success Anything Intamin execpt Stratacoasters, Perilous Plunge and ten inversion coasters. - The best meal you've had at a park BBQ at both Busch Gardens parks. That stuff is amazing! - The worst meal you've had at a park Midway Market at CP. - Best park turnaround Probably Six Flags Magic Mountain - Worst park turnaround Geauga Lake takes the cake. - What was the biggest trend of this past decade? I think the decade really had two main trends....the coaster wars in the early years and the trend of smaller but more creative coasters in the later years.

Disaster Transport at Cedar Point. The ride is essentially a giant warehouse which acts as an eyesore to that part of the park. It blocks the view of the lake, which is one of the most unique features of CP. And the ride sucks too, worst theming ever. It's really the main symbol of Cedar Fair's failure at theming. Raze it and build a plug and play woodie in its place.

I can think of quite a few... Vortex at KI: Sure it's a headbanger, but it's not all that bad. And it's one of the more intense rides out there, with the second best first drop at KI. Wicked Twister at CP: Often overlooked, this ride is one of the best at the park. The launch is suprisngly intense, the view is outstanding, and overall the ride is just crazy. It's one of the few coasters that scares me everytime Superman Ultimate Flight Clones: Sure they don't have the awesome layouts of Tatsu or Manta, but they are still loads of fun, and have the intense pretzel loops. Gwazi at BGT: Yeah it's rough, but it's bearable, and it has some of the turns and airtime pops that GCI is known for. Vortex at Carowinds: Headbanging isn't that bad, and it's a fun ride with a little bit of force. I liked it better than Mantis. Shivering Timbers: Deserves much more acclaim than it gets. Awesome wooden coaster that still rides smooth, with loads of airtime. I think part of the reason it gets barely any attention is beacuse it's so out of the way. Wolverine Wildcat: Another good woodie at MiA. Certainly not as good as Shivering Timbers, but it was suprisingly smooth and had some good airtime and laterals. I would have re-riden it if I had had more time at the park.

I went last year two days before New Years Eve last year and it was very crowded. Pretty much 45 min to 2 hour waits for the coasters starting at around noon. So like Elissa said, get there early. And I recommend getting Quick Queue. It'll come in handy during the busy afternoon and evening hours.

These are some of the best amusement park photos I've ever seen. Seriously, these are true works of art! I think my favorite might be the one of KD and the fireworks.

It's a bit hard to say how this is going to affect the chain. This company doesn't have any experience with amusement parks, but they do have experience with other entertainment ventures, like AMC and Harrah's, which I think may be a good thing. Cedar Fair has gone downhill in recent years, partly due to Kinzel and the rest of the upper management calling all decisons and the individual parks having less say in how their parks are run. Since Kinzel has completely lost touch with the aspect of the modern park and the guest itself, this has proven to be negative for the parks and the the company. Apollo certainly has big potential here if they remove him from his position and clean up his mistakes.

It doesn't even have to be the Bizarro-like treatment with theming to make the ride better. If they just tore up the parking lot under the ride, planted grass, and added some simple landscaping, it would be a nice improvement. Scream could be one of the most beautiful coasters out there with its layout and structure but because of its setting, it's one of the ugliest, IMO. Considering how much SFMM has improved, I would hope that they would consider such a move, since the ride is sort of like the crown image of the old Six Flags, in the days when they were so focused on plopping down coasters everywhere and ignoring things like park atmosphere.

It's so weird seeing that space with Demon Drop gone. The boats look all right, not sure if I like the wood texture though. It just seems to resemble a viking theme or a Thanksgiving theme rather then a frontier one. Maybe it will look more in place once it's blended in with the aesthetics of the ride.

Looks very exciting, espically the behind-the-scenes tours.

Very good report, and congrats on your engagement! I was there on opening night, and while I saw a few minor flaws, I think we pretty much had a different experience. From my point of view, I saw the event as being pretty well planned and executed. All of the employees I came into contact with were nice and helpful. I didn't notice any ride downtime, and it looked like they were actually operating more rides then expected, with Battering Ram and Flying Machine being open. I only saw one show, Rejoice, but I thought it was pretty good. Griffon was walk on for most of the night. And best of all, everybody seemed into the christmas spirit. I certainly did experience some problems though. The biggest flaw that I noticed, and which you pointed out, was holding Deck the Halls and O Tannenbaum in the Festhaus, which made for a massive continuous crowd. We had planned on eating dinner there, but after seeing the line for food, left and ate elsewhere. I also had a somewhat undesirable experience with the food I purchased at Grogan's Grill in Ireland, one of the bread bowls with soup. The bread was stale and they gave me very little soup, less than half a cup. Not what I had expected from previous food experiences at Busch Gardens. One of the souvenir cups that came with the peppermint hot chocolate for an extra $2-3 looked like a decent deal. But after one of the cups leaked inside my mom's handbag (with the lid firmly closed and secure), damaging our camera and her phone, it sure seemed like they went cheap on them. And I'm not suprised they ran out of that hot chocolate-it was selling like crazy, and they looked like they were understocked. I sure am glad I didn't wait for the Ice Palace thing- it looks pretty bad and not even close to Busch standards Although I was very impressed with Christmas Town overall, I was only there for one night and didn't experience everything. So from reading your report, it looks like I came out lucky, and there are some things that need tweaking.

Great report and pictures! I think that the splashdown was filled because it essentially acts as part of the braking system of the ride. I spent the holiday in Virginia and went last night, and I thought the whole event was put together very well. Nice lighting and decorations, the show I saw (Rejoice!) was pretty good and the walk-ons on Griffon were great- I got around 20 rides in. I actually thought that the train experience was a pleasant suprise, since it was decked with lights that synced to christmas music. Although it was packed, everyone was singing to the songs and it sure brought some early holiday cheer!

Maybe it's because I'm not much into KD, but I'm going to take the other side and say that KI is a much, much better park than KD for families. KI has a much cleaner, fresher atmosphere than KD. It also has a much larger kids area, which has constantly been given the Golden Ticket Award. KD is more of a thrill-seeker park, espically with the addition of I305. I don't think that's the case at all. There's plenty of stuff to do. The Newport Aquarium, Newport on the Levee (riverfront entertainment district), the riverboats tours, Museum Center, Coney Island, two indoor waterparks and quite a bit more. IMO, Cincinnati is one of the most fun cities in the Midwest after Chicago, St.Louis and Minneapolis.

Really great photos! I espically enjoyed seeing the shots of Maverick. Agreed about Raptor running better this year. Almost every time I was there, it was flying like crazy and packed with intensity. The "crash" ending is still there, but it's much smoother and no longer painful. Interesting about WT and Skyhawk feeling shorter. Skyhawk's cycle was actually lengthed this season, back to its original program.

Goliath for me. That coaster has an outstanding combination of forces with its hills and helix. I have yet to ride any of the Intamins on the poll...

-Cedar Point -Kings Island -Stricker's Grove -Holiday World -Michigan's Adventure -Six Flags Over Georgia Pretty good year, and I now have new #1, #2 and #3 coasters.

^Shoot-the-Rapids will have chlorinated water from its own supply. Thank goodness for that too, Thunder Canyon's water can really smell, espically when you're exiting the ride.

I gotta say, this is a wise addition. They needed something new that the entire family could enjoy. However, I think the overall experience is going to be hit or miss. The rendering shows just a modified log flume with some rocks and a tunnel thrown in. But if CP actually themes this thing (as in adding small touches to make it immersive), and if they don't destroy the entire "backwoods" area by slashing more trees than they already have, than I think that this is going to be one of the best water rides around. Unfortunately, CF has traditionally taken the opposite approach to both of those wishes. But there's still a good possibility that they'll value theme and scenery....if the ride is $11 million, there must be a decent chunk in there for extras. Didn't Pilgrim's Plunge cost around $8 million?

Great report and pictures! I agree with you about SFOG's woodies....pretty rough, although I think they're at least bearable. On GASM the padding was really bad, making the ride worse. When I visited two weeks ago, a few of the crews were sometimes a little too laid back as in being slightly unprofessional, often slowing things down, so I'm not suprised that there was frustration on some rides. Can't wait for BGA!