DirkFunk

My understanding is that there will be two separate closures; one to do work primarily in the queue building, the second to do it on the ride itself (including the launch system and new trains).

Lots of people always talk about "the market" being a perfect thing. Except, it seems, when it comes to service industry jobs. CF could increase wages, get some transportation set up with the local city (city of Muskegon has an unemployment rate of 8.6%; I bet someone there will work), or bring people in on work visas and set up housing for them in the area. Or they can complain that the "kids don't want to work any more" while they take service industry jobs that don't involve them being sprayed with hot oil or being screamed at by a moron in 90 degree temperatures.

Just to update, I woke up this morning with a hangover and a $8.95 admission special at Mt. Olympus. They're now cheaper than Conneaut.

Well, you named every ride in the park, and yeah, it is a half day park right now and for the near (3-4 years) future if you don't want to do the shows. I'd suggest going there first or going to a water park in the morning because of the whole "only one park per day" rule for MyMagic+.

Fun suggestion made by a friend - rewatch and look at how frayed the cables are attached to the ride capsule.

They make up for it with parking fees If I pay 30 altogether and live, still cheaper and probably more enriching than a trip to Legoland.

Yup. And the "it's going to China" part wasn't inaccurate either, I was told.

I haven't been on Hades yet and saw $15 tickets online. "Damn, this is as cheap as it gets, I'll just buy it," I thought. Next thing I know, tickets start selling for $10 instead. Instant remorse: I could have save $5 on getting myself killed and leaving my wife and the cats by themselves next month. Kinda a shame.

Counterpoint: Is Phobia opening Sunday?

Well, this follows everything I had heard rumored, so there you go. That was good info, turns out.

It's kind of funny how over the years those "classics" like the Beat and the Phoenix and Thunderbolt have all remained in a lot of "top 10's" (rightfully so) but a lot of the GCI's and CCI's have fallen out. I realize that most top 10's are heavily influenced or based on personal nostalgia and opinion and alot of the CCI/GCI's haven't aged as well, but rides like Megaphobia and Lightning Racer and Great White you hardley ever hear about anymore. Seems like Troy and Prowler were both fairly well recieved in their opening years but are also hardley mentioned any more. A lot of wood coasters have been built in the last 20 years, many of 'em in places that don't generate trip reports on a weekly basis, 'nah mean? People are always gonna report about how good the Blue Streak is and about how Beast's helix is wild. There's probably double digit numbers of people in this hobby living in Wales. No diss to Wales. It is really nice there. They just aren't amusement park central. The ones that ride Troy on the reg probably speak English as their 4th language and can be found posting on a website with a .dk or .de prefix rather than here. Again, no diss to them, that's just what it is. So I don't know if it is that those rides lack "staying power" as much as it is that they just aren't on the well trod path.

CCI built wood coasters. Like the overwhelming majority of wood coasters, they required a lot of maintenance and the parks running them either didn't want to do it or weren't given an annual budget to keep up with it. With the exceptions of Raven and maybe Megafobia and the Silverwood duo, I can't think of a single CCI coaster that has been *excellent* every single year. Those latter examples just don't get the kind of ridership most of the other ones did for comparison. But if a park keeps up maintenance or does the overhauls they should, they'll have a top notch ride. Boulder Dash, Legend, Shivering Timbers, and Great White all degraded noticeably but saw work done that brought them back or even improved them. As far as style went, they basically created the "intense start to finish" wood coaster in the 90s with Raven and that continued through to TGG's designs. GCI never had the long sustained negative G moments of the CCI rides like Raven's 5th drop and Ghostrider and Villain post-block. That doesn't necessarily make them worse, just different.

At HWN a friend of mine and I were watching those things. I'm guessing they learned the local power grid was totally inadequate even with the assist from the flywheel system and so in came the generators. They're basically the same kind of generators you'd see a carnival company use to power their rides, which tells you just how much juice is required to run this thing if they need three just for one coaster.

Historically, most theme parks operated on the "three point rule" which indicates that someone must have all/majority of 3 limbs. Simply citing "safety" may not be the case. It might be that Six Flags chose that policy because it might help with their insurance costs and figured settling cases was cheaper. (edit: just took a look at Cedar Point's website and they have a whole list of accommodations and rules regarding this. But lololol "SFOT can't do what Cedar Point does!")

I can't imagine the flume will die out entirely, but in the case of Adventureland's (which was an amalgam of various bits and pieces) it may not have been a tough decision all things considered. I wasn't necessarily thinking I'd need to go back to Iowa either, but the state fair does have a Old Mill and I haven't been to Arnolds..hmmmm....

Rye has (had?) an excellent Whip ride. Knoebels' whip actually stutters a little in the turns.

Can you tell us about said rumor? What I heard it would be (and this box seems haunt related to me btw) I'd rather not say for some legit reasons, but what I would say is that from I understand it was kinda chosen to go to that park by Palace rather than Lake Compounce having a budget for capex and saying, "oh we want one." I also don't 100 percent believe it and I'm not putting my name on a rumor I don't believe in fully.

Heard an interesting rumor about a coaster: something bigger than a spinner. We'll see.

"Almost" Yeah, the only times you're likely to have your body not feeling 1G or above is when you're in freefall or underwater. For individuals who aren't spending huge chunks of time on a space station, 99.99999% of their life will be spent in a state of being subjected to gravitational force. I want a ride that works consistently. If it is forceful and doesn't cause physical discomfort as a result of those forces, that's fine, but my core interest is riding something that works. If I want to be seriously thrilled and wow'ed, I'll go an activity involving real danger instead.

Did you know you are subjected to gravitational force almost every moment of your life? Incredible! MAD FORCEZ YO.

If you go on a weekend, I'd suggest a quick stop at this: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Eden-Springs-Park-at-House-of-David/336371469616 To make a long story short; this was an early amusement park, mostly driven by shows and baseball for attendance, operated by a religious commune. Today, we'd probably call them a doomsday cult, but these were simpler times. Work is going on the train trellises (there's a 1/4 mile loop trains run between 12-5 on Sat/Sun) and they generally let you explore the grounds of the park, much of which was abandoned in the 1970s and left to rot. Also just a couple blocks away is a great Mexican restaurant called La Perla. Total hole in the wall, serves the migrant populations that pick fruit in the area. If that's out of the way, you'll be REALLY close to the only summer luge track in the US: http://www.msports.org/summer. Not terribly long, but totally rad. That's not a bad idea. Plus Idlewild closes earlier, so it isn't as stressful getting to the hotel and Kennywood the next day.

Lots of other people chimed in, but I'll offer what I can. Are you thinking about leaving early enough to make park opening? Just wondering. I have a couple ideas in the area for stuff no one here has heard of. (No diss for the rest of you. I'm me, you're you.) I don't know if this is required. Most of the time at Dorney I see crowds in the water park and minimal lines in the dry park. Capacity there is actually solid. I'd rotate doing the small capacity stuff first, then Steel Force and the B&Ms last. There's people who've been on Skyliner and then there's people who've been on Skyliner in the front car. Don't make the mistake of riding somewhere that isn't the front seat. Leap The Dips is completely mental. I rode it in 1999 and it did nothing. I rode it last year and it was among the wildest coasters I've ever been on. I heard it sent an ACE member to the hospital a couple weeks before. There's some rare flat rides there too like a Chance Skydiver and Twister I'd suggest. If there are other people there, I would be astonished. Delgrossos is a nice park and I'd suggest the train, drop ride, and Quasar (it looks like an Enterprise but isn't) there to do. I'd get a wristband. I'm sure you can make it worth your money. Tough for me to say. Is your cost analysis including the parking, BTW? "Is it worth it?" is the tough question. I have used it on an extremely busy Saturday in peak season. Without it, I'd have been doomed, so it worked great. If it hasn't changed recently, you have choices - you can get a lanyard with a list of attractions in order based on when you want to do them (like an evening tour starting at 3PM) and you then go up the exit, have the pass punched with a hole punch, and then ride in a row chosen with the pass. But wait, there's more! You see, not only is there that, but you can buy individual ride skipping passes for individual rides. I ended up getting a lanyard for all the coasters plus extra passes for Phantom's Revenge, Thunderbolt, and Skyrocket to ensure that I would get on those twice. Was it expensive? Yes. Did I get on rides? Hell yeah I did. But I also was at the park when the gates opened and chose my queue to wait out in front of to open to be the VIP Coaster Pass booth. I was first in line. They also can run out. In their case, it isn't a virtual inventory that disappears but a real inventory of plastic cards. Someone mentioned adding in Idlewild. You could do that, but you might be giving it short shrift to do 4 parks in a day in that manner. 10. Any other recommendations/advice that I'm not thinking of right now? Only depending on whether or not you do Michigan's Adventure, I suppose.

If he spends 30 minutes waiting for a gate to open at Philadelphia airport and then finds the Avis booth has 2 people working it and 30 in line, he'll be lucky to make it to Dorney that day. I think he's making the wise move by picking the place that's free and closest to where he is. Actually, come to think of it for the original poster- instead of leaving from Cleveland, leave from Detroit and take the nonstop flight to Allentown if you can and do a one way rental. At least then when you land you have a short drive that isn't through urban freeway hell to get to the park.

If all you want from Toronto in your first two days is to get dinner, you're better off staying in the suburbs around Vaughan/Richmond Hill/Markham than trying to negotiate traffic, pay through the nose for parking, and see nothing in the city itself. You'll save an astronomical amount of money. Then go downtown the last day before heading to Buffalo. See below. Also: keep in mind that Canada is indeed a foreign nation. This comes with two caveats: 1) You will pay a lot more for rental insurance. I assume you noticed that already trying to price out a one way from Toronto to Cleveland. 2) You will go through customs and immigration when flying in from the US. This will take time. It may not take a lot of time, but it could. Note that you'll be passing through Niagara Falls on your way there. Even if you don't do the amusement parks in the area (Martin's Fantasy Island is decent, I can't in good conscience advise a stop at Marineland due to numerous ethical reasons related not merely to animal welfare), you should stop in and get your family shots in front of the falls and all that nonsense. Darien Lake for 3 hours is kinda underselling it. You'll probably encounter one train operation on almost everything and you might not get to do anything but ride the coasters before heading out. There's some fun stuff there aside from that. If Waldameer is open past 8PM that day, I'd check in first, drop things off, maybe even rest, then go to the park for a night cap. Quite honestly, unless you do the water park, there's nothing to "explore". You drive past, maybe stop for a picture, that's it. I think your time would be better spent either doing some attractions in Cleveland (especially on the west side) or doing much more Cedar Point and staying by the airport. Some of the best attractions in Cleveland aren't in downtown's immediate vicinty, such as the Zoo, Art Museum (seriously fantastic and free admission; thank the Rockerfellers), or Lakeview Cemetary (home to the enormous mausoleum of President Garfield). If it is a weekday, plan to leave earlier than that. Great Adventure tends to be dead for the first hour and then picks up rapidly after that, FWIW. I think with both this and your plans for getting the car in Philadelphia and heading to Dorney, you're greatly underselling the time frame necessary to get a rental car. Richmond you'll have a better shot of getting in and out quickly *if* you are Hertz #1 Club Gold or in National's Emerald Club (also Alamo has a check in option that may help speed things along) because the cars are in the terminal parking. Philadelphia? Regardless of who you choose, you're getting on a shuttle bus which you must wait for, then ride, then check in. You should be assuming a minimum of 30 minutes between official landing time to being in a rental car speeding away almost always. 4PM checkout is a huge luxury afforded only to elites on occasion. Maybe you or another family member is Platinum with Marriott. I don't know how you all roll. But you can't bet on that. You'll need to be at the airport by 6PM to return the vehicle and proceed through security, so to come from Kings Dominion, you're traveling at rush hour to get there. 4PM might still be a good departure time, and if you happen to make great progress, stop somewhere around the airport for dinner before returning the car. A cab to downtown is a flat $25. A cab to Carowinds from CLT is gonna be in the range of $50. I don't know how much money you'll save with taxis vs. a rental car for this leg. Hopefully some of the advice is helpful!

First off: What up. I get it - you're a big baseball fan and this is about going to see games as much as coasters. You might as well take your time getting to Cleveland then. There's a lot of stuff on the way amusement park wise, national and state park wise, museum wise, all that. I don't know what if anything else you want to get out of this, but worse case scenario, you can relax in the Hershey area that morning and leave later (10/11AM). If you don't want to do Knoebels, don't go. You're not gonna get anything out if it if you don't want to get anything out of it, and it doesn't sound like you really care. Knoebels' wood coasters are top notch, but if you don't really care about flat rides, park food, games, or dark rides, you're just gonna want to leave in an hour or two. Now, your question: Rain policies. Cedar Point will close basically every coaster down. All of 'em. Everyone else will probably run their rides in anything except a downpour. I think the advice about driving up from KD to SFA goes along with mine about traffic in that area. It is terrible. Really. Without a Cedar Fair platinum pass, you can't get into Kings Island early, so if you arrive after opening, you can just determine after arrival if a Fast Lane band will be necessary.