austinlee

I went to the park today. It wasn't completely dead like most school days I have visited on but crowds were very light. There was hardly any traffic this morning too. I got there in one hour and usually it takes about two hours on a weekday. I got there one hour before opening because of this. All coasters were running two trains except, Deja Vu and Superman. First a few notes: The hair gel train on Viper is gone. All of the logos have been removed. A ride op on Viper said something like “scream if you are excited be here” and nobody said anything. After that he said “you should be excited to be here, this isn't Disneyland.” A ride op on Tatsu was using the “Is everybody in, the ceremony is about to begin?” line. I know some of you have mentioned hearing this on Tatsu, but this was the first time I have heard it on that ride. Terminator still has no audio. I did talk to the ride op which I have started to talk to over my last few visits though. Revolution was smooth again. That's two consecutive visits in which I have rode Revolution with no headbanging. The “Attitudes” shop was closed and had a barrier in front of it. I wonder if they are doing a remodel. I rode X2 twice and sat on the inside both times with no problems. I would like to sit on the inside from now on. I am concerned about what will happen if I wait in a long line to ride X2 and then get sent to a line where I can't sit on the inside. Tatsu has now became my #1 coaster. Here is my day in order: 1. Viper one time. Waited 10 mins. Tried to go on X2 before this but it wasn't open yet. 2, 3. Tatsu twice. Walk on then 10 min wait. 4, 5. Deja Vu twice. Walk ons, just switched seats.. 6, 7. Terminator twice. No wait other than the pre-show. Rode twice, stayed on. 8, 9. Revolution twice. Walk ons. Skipped Tatsu on the way since it had a 1 hour line. 10. Viper once. 10 min wait. 11, 12, 13. Goliath three times. Walk on, stay ons. Skipped X2 on the way due to 1 hour line. 14, 15. Colossus twice. Walk onto front row then moved to back. 16, 17, 18. Scream three times. Walk on, stay ons. 19, 20, 21. Batman three times. Walk ons, just switched seats. 22, 23. Riddler's Revenge twice. 15 min wait then 10 min wait. 24, 25. Gold Rusher twice. Walk ons, switched seats. Running two trains. 26. Terminator once. Just waited for pre-show. 27. Tatsu once. 10 min wait. 28, 29. Superman twice. 5 min wait each time 30. Tatsu once. 10 min wait. 31, 32. X2 twice. 10 min wait both times. 33, 34. Viper twice. Walk on, stay ons. 35. Goliath once. 10 min wait. 36, 37. Colossus twice. Walk on, stay on. 38, 39, 40. Scream three times. Walk onto front row then moved to back and rode two more times. 41. Deja Vu once. Walk on. Park closed while I was on the ride. Ride totals. X2: 2 Revolution: 2 Viper: 4 Tatsu: 4 Superman: 2 Deja Vu: 3 Terminator: 3 Gold Rusher: 2 Riddler's Revenge: 2 Batman: 3 Scream: 6 Colossus: 4 Goliath: 4

They have two special events on each day this weekend.

I saw a man use a camera similar to this on Colossus at SFMM. He had it strapped to his wrist in plain view when the ride op checked his lap restraint and the ride op didn't say anything about it. Rules can vary a lot by park though. Just in my local area, KBF is much more strict than SFMM.

I hope that date doesn't change too but they usually change it toward the end of each month so I'm not convinced that it will stay the same. Also, they seem to be doing more rehab in May than they have in at least the last 5 years. In all of my visits in May since 2005 all of the coasters were open.

KBF added many new dates to their ride closure schedule today. It looks like if any of you are planning to go soon, you should go in April in order to have most of the top coasters open at the same time, except for Xcelerator of course . At least one of the better rides (in my opinion) will be closed at all times in May, except for Memorial Day weekend which should be packed. Also GhostRider is scheduled to be closed from June 1-16, which surprised me because they don't usually do rehab on it in June, if I recall. Also, when I have been there in early June a few times the park was very crowded every time. Here is the link to the calendar. The first four listings have been posted for a while. The last four were added today. I will probably go later this month.

I won't miss the old trains either. These look much more comfortable.

^ I preferred the front. I found the airtime and forces to be equal and I enjoyed seeing the track go by in front of me along with the roof of the dome.

I have not found Colossus or GhostRider to be painful. In my opinion Colossus is a tiny bit rough but not enough to be an issue. GhostRider is very rough but not to the point of being painful. ^ You're welcome. I was very happy to find this out too. I will be wearing my X2 shirt this time.

Great news. I called the park today and asked about this Friday. I was told that they are having a private party from 7:00pm-midnight that day and that is why the park is open until 7:00 instead of 6:00. There is no special event during the regular operating day. Now that I know this I have decided to go to the park this Friday too. A school day with an extra hour is too tempting to pass up.

^^^ Yes, I was bracing my head against the headrest. I have found that to be necessary no matter where I sit on X2 just like you have. This was the first time that I got whipped forward and back into the seat so hard that I was not able to keep my head back even though I was trying to.

^^ Awesome, have a great time. I'm hoping to go skydiving someday too.

I don't find Scream rough either. I have not had any problems re-riding it multiple times on many visits, in many cases without exiting the train. I never had much trouble with X2 either until my last visit. I am hoping that was a one time issue, since it had never happened to me before, and I will not have any problems on it on my next visit.

Yes, it is expensive, but they had an offer at Adventuredome where if you bought an all day pass you got a 2-for-1 offer for Manhattan Express. I wanted to ride all the coasters since I knew I would not be back for a while. Unfortunately, Speed was closed that day. I went to Adventuredome from 10:30pm to midnight and rode Canyon Blaster 7 times, Disk-O 3 times, Sand Pirates once and Slingshot once. The next afternoon I rode Manhattan Express twice and Desperado twice on my way home. This was in July, 2008.

Good idea. I'm no expert about how the audio functions but the idea of a constant seems to make sense to me.

I will.

I think Canyon Blaster is a great coaster. It is my favorite in the Vegas area. It used to be 2nd to Desperado but Desperado is so rough now, compared to when it was newer, that I now find it painful to ride. My Vegas area ranking would be: 1. Canyon Blaster. Smooth, fun and exciting. Great airtime after the second loop. 2. Roller Coaster/"Manhattan Express". Dive loop is my favorite part. I know many people say it is too rough but I have not noticed that. 3. Speed. Great launch. Short but fun. 4. Desperado. Great first drop and airtime. I used to really like it but now I find it very rough and painful.

I think Scream could be appreciated more at KBF because they don't have nearly as many high quality coasters as SFMM does. I will also insert another token comment right here about how I really like Scream even if I am in the minority on that, just for perspective. Too bad the audio on Terminator still wasn't working. I hope they fix that soon since I'm going to the park in the next week or two.

^ My parents and I had a great time using those water bombs to soak people on Grand Canyon Rapids when we went there in the mid 90's. We spent about an hour using the water bombs and didn't even ride the Rapids because we didn't want to get soaked. Over the Edge was the Log Flume right? If it was, I rode that a few times when we were there too.

^^ Yes, the line for X2 can get terribly long, 2 hours or more on very busy days, and September can be one of the more crowded months to visit the park, although I have found the first week of September to be fairly light on weekdays a few times. Since you have already decided to get the Platinum Flash Pass, I would recommend that you pay the extra $10 per persons and reserve X2 also.

That's how it was when I was in school too. The best way to know when it will be crowded is to check the parks schedule and avoid the two full weeks when they close later than 6:00 on weekdays. That's when almost everybody is off.

I agree. I have visited the park many times on weekdays in April and May and it has always been deserted. The only crowded weekday visits I have ever had in May were during the week following Memorial Day. Just avoid 4/23 which is Math and Science Day and 5/6 which is Career Day. I have found those to be crowded. Starting tomorrow they go back to normal school days hours, closing at 6:00. That is when the weekday crowds shrink down to walk ons on just about every ride, every day.

Generally I am not a huge fan of water rides but I like how the Log Jammer at SFMM uses the parks natural terrain and has two large drops rather than just one like most flumes that I know of. I only ride it when it is really hot and get just wet enough that I dry off within a few minutes which I also like since I don't like to walk around parks while I am wet.

Thanks for the suggestion but I have had very good luck at this time of year in 2008 and 2009. I went there on the first 10:30-6 Monday right after the main part of Spring Break ended both years and had walk ons on every coaster in the park including X2.

Yes, it could be that one of them needs a refurb. I really hope this doesn't happen again when I go back later this month.

I did ride it three times on my last visit. I don't know which train I was on each time but this is what happened. Ride 1. First ride I went on. A little rough, but no headbanging and no whipping back and forth in the seat. No pain and no real issues. Ride 2. Much rougher. Some headbanging and light whipping on the raven turns. Hit my head lightly but pain wasn't that bad. Ride 3. Right after ride 2. This is the one I have been describing. I wish I knew if rides 2 and 3 were on a different train than ride 1. They were running two trains that day. I find it strange that this happened suddenly after as many times as I have rode it with no major problems in the last two years.