netdvn

Actually CW's maintained the "highest attended park in North America" crown LONG before CF bought out the park and made those investments. It was definitely a flagship park under Paramount despite most of its coasters being common clones.

Canada's Wonderland has the highest attendance of any regional park in all of North America. The only "regional" park to have more attendance as of last year is Knotts, and they have the luxury of being operational year round, a nice climate, and being 10 minutes from the second most popular resort in the country. As proven with Six Flags, bigger new rides doesn't necessarily equal higher attendance. Sure there will most definitely be an attendance spike opening year, but afterwards the money and attendance will level off to normal. I can't speak for Superman after that opened, but the park didn't seem to have too many major investments after that not to mention it wasn't profitable enough to stay a SF park for long.

Darien Lake is owned by CNL Lifestyle properties. They own a number of theme/water parks all over the country (as well as ski resorts, golf courses, and hotels). They bought out some of the former Six Flags properties when they were put up for sale. Herschend has a stake in the park. They own some of the best theme parks in the country (Silver Dollar City, Dollywood) as well as a few other tourist attractions (Dixie Stampede, Ride the Ducks, a few aquariums, etc) scattered all over the place. My guess is the park is making investments to improve, but attendance isn't up to par with what either company wants. Either that or the park just isn't making enough money to justify a huge capital investment. That's probably why Lake Monster's been put on indefinite hold and why they haven't really received any significant major rides.

Technically you're still seeing the animals behind glass in your car. The off road vehicles look like they're more open and they stray from the main pathways so you're allowed to get closer to the animals now than you were before. I'd like to see the park build a ride similar to KD/KI's monorail. It should provide a break from the lines for Off Road at least - and have higher capacity. Have it stop inside the Discovery camp and loop around the safari around the old driving route.

I actually found Kumba to be pretty smooth, but if you really want my opinion on Scorpion... I came on the ride with pretty high expectations. Everyone seems to praise Anton coasters to high heaven so I figured starting off with Scorpion would be a great idea. The line itself was surprisingly long and moved rather slowly for a park that was almost completely dead. Even Gwazi (known for terrible ops) had a nonexistent line. The only other coaster in the park with a line that day was Cheetah Hunt, but that was understandable since the ride was still the star at the time. The station layout was pretty interesting. I can only imagine how crazy that line would've been opening year with everyone begging for front row. The trains seemed like they were in poor shape. Duct tape everywhere and the padding on the handlebars was falling off. Not a good sign IMO. The layout is OK but not ideal for riding hands up without slamming into the fiberglass or the person next to you. I eventually gave up putting my hands up and just braced for the turns instead. It didn't really make the ride any smoother for that matter. Maybe I was too focused on keeping myself from hitting the person next to me to notice the smoothness of the ride or maybe I caught it on an off day. All in all, I found Loch Ness to be smoother and the overall better ride of the two classic Busch loopers. I wanted to give the ride a second chance, but the line was too long to warrant that. - Or maybe I just don't like it because I'm a roller coaster hipster

Even in terms of throwing me around, Cheetah Hunt's Rhino Rally turns and Verbolten's double helix still do a better job. Hell even Wild Maus threw me around a lot more. In terms of "snappier" inversions, I prefer Storm Runner's snake dive over anything Kumba has. For good measure I'll also throw in Alpengeist's inversions too since those are pretty nutty too. Tampa's only looping coaster that really impressed me was Montu (and Cheetah Hunt if you wanna count that too). Sheikra's just Griffon without the second inversion and with better theming. Scorpion had terrible ops and was really rough. Yeah Kumba's setting is great and the layout is fun, but it's nothing to write home about in terms of intensity, at least in my opinion.

On my four rides on Kumba I got one pop of airtime. No blackouts, no weird feeling in my arms/legs, not even a greyout. Unless I happened to ride on an off day (Scorpion gave me a bad ride too), I don't think it's as intense as everyone says it is. At least Cheetah has some solid airtime in the treehouse and on all those camelbacks. - This is coming from someone who blacked out on Alpengeist, regarded as one of the least intense B&Ms out there. Not to mention I got some pretty solid forces on Great Bear, another "forceless" B&M. I can name three inversions off the top of my head that are way better.

Coming from someone who rode Kumba multiple times (including once in the "magic seat"), I honestly didn't find the ride any different from sitting in the middle. While there's a nice pop of air before the cobra roll, the ride wasn't as forceful as ... say... Montu or Cheetah Hunt. I'd say sit wherever you want on the ride. It's still pretty good, just not as forceful as everyone says it is.

The only coasters in the park with seatbelts are Alpengeist and Griffon. The others shouldn't have them unless they're installed last minute. As for EITA, I'm pretty sure its the same ride as it's always been. Definitely not worth your time.

So last week I did my fifth cruise (second with Holland America) aboard the Ryndam. What a cruise it was. The ship itself is small, and relatively easy to get around. The floors sorta run together though so it's easy to head back to the cabin only to end up on the wrong floor. Despite being an older ship, it still looks classy on the inside (unlike the Carnival Fantasy). There wasn't much rocking on the boat to be felt for an older ship outside of a few choppy waters, which was a nice surprise. Nightly shows were good. We had two comedians, both of which were very funny. Movies on the other hand weren't as good as the Eurodam's showings (played a lot more obscure stuff that I didn't care as much for). Still they played Frozen and the Hobbit 2 later in the trip. Service is excellent. The employees interact with you a LOT more on this ship than any of the other ones I've sailed and it really shows. Same with the guests. It definitely felt more intimate onboard. Had some interesting conversations with a number of the guests onboard. Ports of call were nice. Did a tour of Key West and Santo Tomas. Stayed in-port for Roatan and did a quick tour outside of port in Costa Maya. Key West was nice, but I wish we did more. I wish the trolleys weren't as expensive - makes the place feel like a serious tourist trap (then again I guess it is). Skipped the Hemingway house again and hung out at one of the touristy docks near the port. It was nice. Beaches are small and crowded, but having swam in Key West before, I wouldn't recommend it. Guatemala was amazing. The port is similar to the port we stopped at in the Dominican Republic. Decided to go an hour out of our way and booked a nice tour to a Spanish fort. It's no Puerto Rico but it had some amazing views. Our tour guide was fantastic. We stopped at a roadside market and got jack fruit and coconut drinks. He also showed us around the pineapple, rubber, and banana plantations and drove us through the town. Roatan has the typical nice port. It's definitely a place I really wanna return to just to experience the other stuff they have to offer outside (ziplining ). The chairlift was neat looking (but a bit pricey) and the beach was alright but packed with tourists from other ships. It had a typical tourist trap cruise port feel to it, not bad but I wish it was closer to town and there was more to offer other than a beach and overpriced chairlift. Costa Maya was the other typical nice port. It has all the typical amenities, but with the added dolphins (which was nice but not as cool as Sea World) and the overabundance of straw markets selling the typical local crafts and knockoff goods. The spray paint artist was cool and I found myself hanging around the vendors selling superhero carvings. Guy tried pressuring me into trading my hat for a pair of fake Ray Bans. Did a quick walking tour around the area outside. You could clearly see they tried to build the area up with all the boarded up duty free shops, half-built buildings, tacky photo ops, and the abandoned Diamonds International. Just wish we did the Mayan Ruins tour like we initially planned. Maybe next time. From this experience, I'll definitely sail with HAL again before sampling another line, possibly to Europe next year The way home sucked. It was cold, full of traffic, dreary, and we almost spun out in the mountains from the snow. Now I have to wait for summer for our next trip and another year till our next cruise.

Keep in mind May is peak band trip season time for both parks since I'm pretty sure both parks host band/cheer competitions. If the weather is beautiful, expect both parks to be slammed with kids. Not only that but, KD is holding a special 40th anniversary event in May on top of the current event in the works. That might bring in some very heavy crowds. The weather acts really funky in May. It could be beautiful one day and the next, temps could be in the 30s-40s. Make sure you keep up with the weather. If you're going on a Saturday I'd vouch for a line cutting pass. I'd probably use Saturday as a culture day to check out the town and visit on Sunday instead so the crowds aren't AS bad.

The ride is a Ring of Fire-type ride. I don't think I've ever seen a park model Ring of Fire before. Usually they're carnival rides. [youtu_be] [/youtu_be] Ring of Fire'/Super Loopers aren't roller coasters.

If the water ride is at least 50% coaster track, it's a coaster. Atlantis Adventure, JTA/Supersplash are considered coasters. If the ride runs in a trough and doesn't use water, I consider it a coaster. If it's powered by gravity or has a launch, it's a coaster. - That being said, it has to run on a track to meet the criteria A powered coaster is still technically a coaster at heart. I'll classify them that way. Diskos aren't coasters. First gen Intamin towers aren't coasters Water slides and log flumes aren't coasters. Test Track, Journey to the Center of the Earth, and Radiator Springs Racers aren't coasters Half pipe coasters are coasters. Escape from Krypton is a coaster Butterflies are sorta that grey area. I'll classify them as coasters for the hell of it.

Phone - Droid X2. Not the latest model but better than my old flip. Tablet - two knockoffs running Android. One running Honeycomb and the other running ICS. Both aren't that great. Mp3 - I have two. Both branded (Philips and Sandisk). Both are 2010 and 2008. No iPods. My phone also acts as a music device. TV - not sure how big but we have two large screen plasma HD TVs. Old DVD player and a buried VCR. We had a TV from the 80s for a while before it broke and we upgraded. PC wise we have laptops. All at least 2-3 years old. No recent game consoles. Would like to pick one up though.

B&M didn't exist until 1990. Around this time, they'd still be designing coasters with Intamin.

I actually thought Frozen had a great story and Olaf was a really likable, not very annoying character (like a lot of other children's movie mascots) at all. Let It Go is one of my favorite Disney songs. TBH, the other musical numbers really weren't that special. My favorite recent Disney film is still Wreck it Ralph, but Frozen is up there. Lego Movie beats out both though. Great story, really funny, amazing animation, amazing visuals. That was the most fun movie I've seen in a long time. The live action segment was a bit on the heavy handed side and it sorta dragged everything down a little, but other than that, I loved it.

Busch has designated smoking areas and a park-wide announcement on the intercoms every 15-20 mins saying smoking is only allowed in designated areas. Even if they're E-cigs. It's not fair for smokers to see someone smoking an e-cig in line or on the pathways, so the park basically makes a blanket statement banning all smoking except in the smoking areas. It becomes difficult to enforce during Haunt when the fog machines are on full force and the park is slam packed with people. It's not uncommon to see people smoking around the fog machines. Haunt season tends to draw a pretty rowdy crowd regardless.

Parks typically don't start changing their maps until around March-ish anyway. Sea World didn't have their 2013 maps ready until after Antarctica opened last year. - I requested maps from full year parks before and they sent me maps/brochures from the previous year. Nothing new here. -- Totally nerdy for requesting maps from parks

Yeah, but it has steel track. It sits on top of some wood, but everything within the wheel assembly is steel, just like, say, a steel coaster. I don't really care if anyone thinks it is one way or another, but the attitude of "there's no argument! I'm obviously right!" is silly. Wooden casters were built one way for a century. Now a ride like this is being built in a completely different way, of course there's room for questioning it. Wood track + wood supports = wood coaster. OK fine the track is a little different from typical wooden coaster track. You can call it a hybrid or a grape flavored fruit chew, but it's still a wooden coaster at heart. And pretty much all wooden coasters run on steel rails. Topper track just uses thicker steel. - I don't remember this whole wood vs. steel argument being as heavy (or as annoying) with Outlaw Run last year. Makes me wonder if Outlaw pulled the same lift stunt, would as many people dispute that it's a wood coaster?

Are we REALLY getting into this argument again? Goliath is a wooden coaster. It doesn't matter what the supports are or what wheels it runs on. If it's got wooden track, it's a wooden coaster. If you wanna classify it as a steel coaster, be my guest, but it's still a wooden coaster regardless. I remember reading that Wodan ran on polyurethane wheels to keep noise down. Does that make Wodan a steel coaster too? And if Morey's can finally start construction on this coaster, it will have a support structure similar to Goliath's. Does that make it a steel coaster or a wood coaster?

One of the best moments on a roller coaster anywhere - the flying snake dive. It's probably the best inversion out there. Intense, disorienting, and from the ground it looks nuts. Once you're on it, it's impossible to tell which way is up until you hit the dive. The only roller coaster element that's crazier than this is the out of control ejector air hills on Skyrush. Oh and did I forget to mention how amazingly photogenic this thing is?

To be honest, I really wanna see more of that town more than the Six Flags park. You don't really see many RCT projects that don't involve parks much. The town itself has quite a bit of attention to detail. I'd flesh that out a bit more. I feel calling the SF park YOLO World makes it seem like it's more of a joke project or something you shoehorned in the project at the last minute because you realized the RCT project didn't have a park to show off. The park itself is fine, but I'd give it a more original name to differentiate it from the billions of Six Flags parks out there. Maybe incorporate it into the town storyline and give it a bit of a history. Keep the rides and names.

If you haven't done the National Mall or US Capitol tours, you should. They're pretty fun and interesting. Especially if you're into that kind of stuff. Same with Colonial Williamsburg. For Busch, go on a weekday. Friday-Sunday will have heavier crowds with band competitions in town and families on spring break vacation. Make sure to check the weather before going too. Nice weather has a habit of bringing very heavy crowds. Don't expect Mach Tower to be up and running. It's VERY temperamental. Flat-wise, the park just has the typical generic park flats. If you go on the right day, it shouldn't matter how you navigate the park. Crowds will naturally either head to Griffon as it's the biggest thing you can see in the park or Verbolten, since it's still the star attraction. Opening times are staggered with the areas at the back of the park opening later than the areas at the front. If you visit at rope drop, you should be able to clear most of the rides before any significant crowds roll in. The best place to eat is the Smokehouse in the Canada section of the park. The Festhaus is the crowd favorite though since it's AC, food, and a show. I HIGHLY recommend the pretzel shop. Not really a hidden gem, but a must-visit. Most of the animal exhibits are on the main path, so they're hard to miss. There's a bird sitting under Alpengeist's immelmann and the lorikeets are always fun to check out. I haven't gone to KD in a while so this advice might be dated. Volcano is supposedly undergoing renovations to increase capacity, but Flight of Fear will still have long lines. Head to that corner to clear those rides out at rope drop. The other rides should have reasonable capacity, so unless it's crazy packed, lines should be short. Make sure you try to visit on a weekday. Weekends should be as busy as Busch on weekends. The park will likely host band competitions and school trips on Friday-Sunday like BGW so expect lots of buses filled with middle-high school students. KD is smack dab in the middle between Williamsburg and DC. I'd stop by on the way down or up instead of making two trips.

Busch Entertainment opened a third gate in Irving Texas. Possibly to capitalize off of the success of Sea World down the road. Needless to say, it's probably the most obscure of all the Busch parks. The park opened in 1982 and closed in 1984 due to a low attendance and fierce competition from the surrounding theme parks. The park had the same stuff as the PA park, but it was mostly indoors. Overview of the park. You entered into it through Big Bird's mouth After the park closed. Poor kid just wanted to see Big Bird and co. Today the park is a Wal Mart supercenter. Busch kept the land the park sat on in hopes of developing it. And to think, if Busch Houston and Sesame Place were successful, we'd actually have three Busch properties in Texas instead of one. Click here Another article This site is actually a pretty good read about the original PA Sesame Place location.

You could always carry a cell phone around. Unless you don't use one or carry a Nokia brick or one of those old school flips like the one my mom uses, they usually have cameras built into them.