Skycoastin Steve

^Actually he works in the Pinks hot dog stand at CP and his name is Bruno.

So now maybe you guys will trust me when I say I have a very reliable source for Cedar Fair information.

^Well the front rows don't have the bench directly over the wheels like the back rows do. I mean, technically, your feet are over the wheels, but rides are noticeably smoother in the front rows on the two-row PTC trains.

Kingda Ka and Son of Beast.

I got a little more information about the Fast Pass system that will be announced tomorrow for Kings Island. Seems that they will be $50 per person.

^ I don't doubt it. It's a very "Americanized" version of European things.

^Hopefully the bottoms of the first three drops. I've never come that close to paralysis in my life as I did on those drops.

Just want everyone to know that Kings Island will be announcing their Fast Pass system on Monday. That's all I know, don't have any specifics yet. But if I don't get them before Monday, we'll all find out at the same time!

^ I'm still waiting on Intamin to build one of their woodies over 200 feet. If there's a track type that could take it, it's the prefab. And I'm sure CP would love to get their paws on a hyper woodie that actually works.

Building a bigger version of Thomas Town.

^Good thinking, but El Toro doesn't hold any records.

^This is an edit of a photo I took of the sign last year.

I was going to wait till Monday to do this report, but I'm bored. Last night I drove down to BGW to check out Illuminights and to see some fireworks, and a great time was had! Illuminights consists of shows in four different "countries" of the park, which are Germany, France, Italy, and Ireland. They have showtimes at 5, 6, 8, and 9 so you can see all of them. Unfortunately, I got there after 5, so I had to skip a show, which would end up being the French one. The fireworks finale happens at 9:30, and they shoot the fireworks off from the railroad bridge over the river. The closest place to watch the fireworks is the bridge by the old BBW river drop, but I watched from over by Griffon so I could take pictures of them with roller coasters in the foreground (more on that later). As far as the Illuminights shows were concerned, I thought they were pretty well done. The German show centered around Oktoberfest dancers, and then had the "world's largest cuckoo clock," featuring human actors playing out the parts of the cuckoo clock characters. Here is a video of that finale. The Ireland show was a silly tale of some Irish dude that couldn't play the flute (or whatever instrument it was), so he needed a magic wand to help him play, and it involved large puppets. Then some giant broad threw gold pieces at everyone at the end. That's about it. I have pictures of that one. The Italy show was basically some pretty impressive acrobatics.......performed by Asians. Thought it was odd that Asians were performing in the Italian show, but it is what it is, and it was still pretty neat! Here's a video of that show. Overall, I think Illuminights was a fantastic experience. They do a good job mixing in music, humor, and some pretty breathtaking visuals (at least at night), and spreading it throughout the park. I think this is where it has the leg up on some of the Starlight shows at CF parks, because it's a much longer experience spread out over several areas as opposed to one confined portion of the park. The fireworks were your standard theme park fireworks (can't expect too much when they have to pay for a show every night). Definitely enjoyed it, though! And as always, many pictures were taken, so here they are! Comments are loved and appreciated! The day started with some credit whoring at Go-Karts Plus. #305! The GIANT hole where the building is going to go for Verbolten. It looks like they've finished digging and have leveled off the bottom of the hole in preparation for the foundation being poured. One stake where a corner of the building will be. Judging by where these stakes were set up, the building will be HUGE. A lot more clearing has been done over here, as well. Mach Tower was doing a little bit of testing. It was lifting up rather slowly, and they dropped it a few times, but it wasn't spinning. German dancers for the Illuminights show. Dancing around a May pole. Does that make them pole dancers? Now for some roller coaster pictures. This one turned out pretty well. The clouds looked really cool yesterday. Clouds always make a picture look even better! Ole Nessie. Griffon doing its thing. Alpengeist also doing its thing. It's a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow!!! So the leprechaun was really bad at playing his instrument. And he's trying to figure out how to make himself better. So he pulls out his magic wand and tries to miracle himself some playing ability. No luck there. He was so bad, these random puppets popped up and laughed at him. Almost like the dog in Duck Hunt. So he called for a volunteer from the crowd. This gentleman was given the magic wand. And the leprechaun thought all was well until......... This giant, ugly gypsy popped her huge head out from behind the building. She wanted to know if the gentleman helping the leprechaun was her match.com date. Yes, that's what she asked. I was a bit perplexed by the writing in this show. After the crazy gypsy killed the mood, the leprechaun called up for a child volunteer. Hopefully she wasn't his match.com date....... She danced around with the wand, and he danced around playing sweet Irish music. Yay! But it's not over yet! The sweet Irish music made this crazy, LSD inspired fairy pop up from another building. I guess the point of his playing music was to bring back his love, which was the crazy, huge, LSD inspired fairy. The fairy must be his sugar momma, because the first thing he asked was if she found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Apparently she had found it, and she shot all her gold (colored paper) at the crowd with air cannons. The end! Awwwwww........ Back to roller coaster pictures, this one is awesome. As is this one. Purty. They also light up the riverboat cruises for the end of the show. You can pay for a ticket to be on the boats while the fireworks are going off, but I'm not sure how much it costs. The stage and surrounding area in Da Vinci's garden were very pretty. Da Vinci's Cradle. I love taking shots like this. Took this after the show was over, you can see in the left side of the picture that someone had one of those double light sabres as they were walking by. Another cool one. Ooooooo.......... This almost looks like the entire coaster is under water. Is it dorky to have a favorite ride sign? Because this one takes the cake for me. Time for fireworks! Alpengeist made for a nice foreground piece. Awesome..... I really wanted shots with Griffon in the foreground, but there wasn't any good place to make that happen. These were fun to take. Very cool effect, I just wish the coaster wasn't blurry. Grand finale! Bright! REALLY bright! Fizzling out and over, like this trip report. Thanks for reading!

^And they're making bank on the one at KI.

That just shows that there's a right and a wrong way to do it. I don't have very many good things to say about SFGAd, but when I was there in May, the park was VERY crowded, and my Gold Flash Pass got me several rides on everything. The Flash Pass just got me to the entrance of the station and I had to wait from there. They didn't reserve trains for anyone, they just let you bypass the switchbacks. That meant that when I got my Flash Pass scanned and I was let into the station, I could reserve another ride and it would be ready to go by the time I got off the ride. I rode El Toro three times in about 30 minutes while the wait was at least 45 minutes, and I know for a fact that I wasn't holding the line up by using the pass. In fact, there were very few people that were even using it. So unless an entire train of Flash Pass users gets in the station at the same time, the difference in wait for everyone else is going to be negligible. The way SFGAd does their Flass Pass system is flawless in my opinion. I can't give an opinion on SFA's because I've never used it there.

^^I honestly don't know the answer to that. I do know that CP is not the only park that is reportedly getting the attraction next year, so they might be at least semi-permanent.

It would be difficult to put anything where the Paddlewheel station is after next year, as I'm being told that's where the entrance to Dinosaurs Alive is going to be.

^I agree. Waldameer has been a fun stop each time I've gone there. My only complaint is the amount of stuff to do, but they've been working on that the last few years, so they're getting there.

^I'm honestly shocked you hadn't done the whore on the shore day yet. Let me know if you stop by KD on the way up here!

Do you still have the video of that kid? I could have stayed there the entire day listening to that. "How was your ride???" *crickets* "WEAK!!!!!!!"

Well I know for a fact Dinosaurs Alive will be there next year, but I sure as hell don't know about 2013.

Agree wholeheartedly, and it was probably a case of someone who either didn't care enough/wasn't assertive enough to turn him away. That's probably the biggest shame of it all, someone's life could have been saved, and all it would have taken was one employee being assertive.

^Depending on which season it was, they either stamped your hand or gave you a ticket to come back at a certain time to skip the line. Because of this, I waited somewhere around 20 minutes for my first ride on MF. It was pretty unorganized and half-assed if I remember correctly.

I don't think KI has anything, but CP still has the extra queue rails left over from their failed attempt at flash passes in the early 2000s. All the major rides still have them, so all they would have to do is open those back up.

^Not to mention that people PAID to have the right to skip the line. If others don't like it, pony up. Some of us don't like waiting in lines to the point where we'll pay extra money to avoid doing it.