DirkFunk

Alternatively, wood coasters need maintenance. There's that too.

I don't think anyone is confused as to why it is now permanently on. They can save money and I can rank it lower. It isn't the end of the world. It's a roller coaster.

The biggest issues with the MCBR being on are the pacing is shot to hell and the return run doesn't feel as out of control (airtime w/direction changes) as previously. If this is the first time you've gone and you loved it, that's great - it is still a good ride - but for those who had been on it before and who liked what it was, yeah, it is definitely noticeable. My opinion on the ride has it diminished from my #1 of any sort anywhere to somewhere in the morass of good but flawed with Timbers and Boardwalk Bullet. I'd also say that if you *didn't* like it before, you won't now either. If you go to a restaurant and order a pizza and it comes out and you dislike everything about it, being served the same pizza with a slight change ("we're using filtered water!" "we've changed our source of pepperoni!") is highly unlikely to make you suddenly flip on something you didn't like at all before, but could easily be a turnoff for those who favored it in the past. Raven and Legend were running very well however and I spent most of my time with them. I'll echo the sentiments of everyone who thinks Thunderbird is the best wingrider in the states. I would be seriously surprised if it wasn't the best currently in operation anywhere either based on what I've seen and heard. Really outstanding ride and shows the current management can do more for theming than just hit up Pier 1 Imports website.

Universal opted to hide the structure of the water slides, which means they had to put them in a mountain. Same thing leads Disney to build 3 mine train coasters in Florida. As for expansion, using Disney's water parks as an example; Typhoon Lagoon's last new slide installation was 10 years ago. Blizzard Beach has never had any expansion at all and has the same slides it did when it opened 20 years ago. My guess is that long term massive expansion isn't considered a necessity there.

If I cared enough to look at Mitch's Wood Poll, my sense is that a lot of CCIs petered out without round the clock maintenance somewhere between 7-10 years into existence and the GCIs are lasting about the same amount of time. It is simply a limitation of the form combined with interest or lack thereof in providing the upkeep.

IMO you should look into refundable hotel rooms, booking in advance whenever reasonable. That will give you enough flexibility to make changes on the fly, often until 4-6PM day of lodging. These will not necessarily be the cheapest rates available, but they give you some flexibility. Try to stick with a single chain and join their frequent stay club (all but Motel 6 have one). The cheapest option for lodging can often be AirBnB also, so you may want to look into that as well.

All attractions anywhere revolve around the rider's willingness to go along with the ruse, otherwise they fail miserably, and almost all the ruses are really, really stupid at their core. Hell, some of the most iconic theme park attractions of all time don't even attempt to tell a story. Pirates of the Caribbean seems to consist of sight gags Marc Davis thought was cool and nothing else. But who cares? My opinion is that if you want a story, read a book.

Am I the only person entertained watching people pick apart the "story" of the ride? Why are there sea monsters? Probably for the same reasons there's a pink german castle at the end of a street in a midsized Missouri town.

The pools are open every day the hotels are. I've seen lifeguards sitting out watching completely empty pools and beach when it is 40 degrees out and raining in early November.

I know that the weather on the peninsula can differ a little from the city, but, look, this is the April weather info from Port Clinton: http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/KPCW/2015/4/10/MonthlyCalendar.html?req_city=Sandusky&req_state=OH&req_statename=&reqdb.zip=44870&reqdb.magic=1&reqdb.wmo=99999 This is not an outrageously cold and brutal April. April was actually mild. Was it probably very cold in February or March? I would definitely say so, having seen the place then. But not that much happens outside during those months. It shouldn't take them a whole month to move a portable ride intended for tear down and rebuild in a matter of hours on the road as was the case on Tiki Twirl. I think the much more likely scenario is that they cut some budgets here and there for people at some point. I know that...uhhh...a very close friend, let's say that....they processed in on April 28th to start at CP when working there a decade ago. Want to hear something even crazier? The park opened with most every ride operating that year on May 4th. The water rides were up and going within a week. They know this with certainty; they worked them. I know that Breakers isn't finished yet (which is OK, there was no promise the whole thing would be done yet and it does look a million times better), but the guys working on rides didn't have anything to do with Breakers. No one is asking ops from Skyride to install a fire pit. Everyone complains about Six Flags doing that. And usually the response is "It is Six Flags, you know they suck, you shouldn't have expectations" and threads move on from there. I really would like Cedar Fair to be a little better than this because I know they can be.

Their daytime temps hit highs in the 40s and above all of April. The lowest high for last week was 50. Sorry, I don't buy weather as being a serious reason as to why they couldn't get their rides up and running this year.

It has been like this for awhile now. Not sure what the deal is - not enough maintenance staff, not enough ops, not starting training soon enough? I understand Millennium Force hadn't even gotten certified by the state of Ohio for operation until 11AM today. Honestly, I would suggest not even bothering until June or so (which is what we did last year). The only reason I'd go is under conditions like ours - you can get a super cheap and not terrible Sandusky hotel room and you really just want to be inside the gates.

Cedar Point has been such a mess for so many years that we usually skip opening weekend. We made an exception this year with the Friday night preview; nah, it is still Cedar Point as far as opening days go. Had a good time, don't get me wrong, but we left before 1PM today knowing the weather was likely to turn and most of the rides would still be down.

Those Marvel characters that Universal "wants to get rid of" have a new film that's already made $700 million dollars, and the movie has been in release worldwide for about 10 days. The overwhelming about of rumor mongering about Universal getting rid of Marvel comes from ardent, hyper orthodox Disney nerds dreaming about getting the characters in DHS, not the guys typically breaking Universal junk. Universal has rights to the characters in *perpetuity* and it makes more sense for them to expand on it and upgrade given how outrageously popular they are vs. the price they pay for the IP than to rip it out and pay someone else for their's. Last I checked, Universal doesn't own Nickelodeon, Simpsons, Potter, Seuss, or Nintendo, do they? Now, you want to talk about tired old IPs in the park that Nintendo could replace; You guys realize Fievel is still in Universal Orlando, right? And Curious George? And Barney the Dinosaur? Who wants to take bets that those end up getting chopped down before Marvel leaves IOA? Cash only. DirkFunk doesn't play.

Different strokes for different folks. Most of it appears super fake, but some of those projections Universal does like in the Potter queues or Disaster look a helluva lot more real to me than any animatronic ever produced by anyone. Whatever works best to create the illusion, I'm fine with.

I don't get the screens vs. animatronics thing. It all looks hilariously fake to me and I can't picture a grown adult riding Pirates of the Caribbean and feeling like it is real and not like a 9 figure version of Chuck E Cheese's band. Given the limitations of what robots can do, I'm fine with SCREENZ~! instead when combined with physical sets and pieces. Apparently this ride will have both, so that's nice? I really have more interest in them getting rid of the metal detectors, which probably isn't happening.

Their earnings were so high, they were talking about large capital improvements in both parks every year in the investors call a couple days ago. Just keep that in mind.

If you fly out of Charlotte, I would post a monetary wager that the cheapest flights will be to Dallas-Fort Worth on US/American. There's a nonstop flight from Columbia, but you may find Delta to DFW or Dallas Love (DAL) through Atlanta being cheaper in order to compete with them and because they have the heaviest amount of traffic out of the airport. If you move the trip to September, you can hit the Texas State Fair as well, which is the largest fair in the United States and will run on weekdays. Something to keep in mind. The first thing that pops to mind is the cautionary tale of Flume Dog: http://www.expressnews.com/business/local/article/Flume-Dog-loses-Six-Flags-lawsuit-5383873.php Obviously no one is going to care on single person slides, but not everything you'll want to do is gonna be a single person slide.

I'll actually be in Penang later this year - any specific takeaways about Georgetown you could share other than "food is great"? And any specific restaurants you liked?

I respect that you've done significant travel and aren't a neophyte to this hobby, but that doesn't change the fact that if you go to Indianapolis to watch the Indy 500 and then try to leave IMS to go to an amusement park after the race that you'll be trapped in traffic for hours with the other quarter million people leaving the race. If your plan is to buy a ticket, watch 50 laps, then split before it gets busy, that's one thing, but then I'd wonder why you'd have bothered at all. Perhaps attendance will be down this year and you will do fine. I'm hoping you've sat down and seriously considered traffic and rush hour in many of these places you're traveling through as it will be problematic, especially on the day in which you will probably spend around 18 hours in transit between Lubbock and Chicago. Good luck; you'll need it.

I hate to pile on here, but some of those ideas are really bad. You have no hope of getting in and out of Indianapolis in such a manner as to see the 500, get to Indiana Beach the same day, then go do both Iowa parks AND drive to Kansas the next day. You need to be more realistic here and, at best, cross some parks off.

People looking at their financial statements. Just because Blackstone controls a lot of stock doesn't necessarily mean they have access to Blackstone's coffers of cash. Not any different in that sense than wondering why it is Disneyland Paris rarely gets new attractions when Disney is the largest shareholder.

Universal is totally different, Robb, and they have real concerns that the other parks lack. That's what all the hyper defensive fanboys tell me, at least. What exactly is different, I have no idea, but I assure you, those guys know for sure that it is

When did Kings Island remove the Net under Diamondback's First Drop? I remember a lot of cell phones and stuff caught by that net in 2009 and 2010. No idea. I guess they stopped worrying about the low percentage possibility of people being hit by stuff and moved on?

Millennium Force, a bunch of boomerangs, Diamondback, Tatsu, I think all of the Superman B&M flyers at Six Flags parks, Edmonton Mindbender, Bizarro at SFNE, most of the Arrow corkscrews....there's a lot. Not the majority, but a lot.