BitterOldHag

The "Zarantula"? I had no idea Zamperla had that in their catalog. Looks pretty cool, despite the OTSR's. Now you have me wondering as well!

Great interview with Mr. Gorman. Waldameer is in good hands with him at the helm. So, new family ride in 2025. Seeing that the park has worked well with Zamperla, my guess is one of those Nebulaz or Windstarz rides that are popping up more and more. With Spider on its way out, maybe this is the plot the new ride will sit on? Regardless of what they add, it's great to see the park expanding and continuing to do well in a time where other smaller PA parks were not able to make it (Conneaut, Lakemont).

Does anyone know if there was ever a Bayern Kurve in the US that ran at 70 mph? Seriously, that sounds illegal... but I'll be in line for it when it opens!

Just had a “premium” time at Kings Dominion today. I sincerely hope the Six Flags era isn’t starting early. Took me 9.5 hours to get to Doswell from my place near Cleveland Hopkins airport. The number of crashes on I-495 and 95 is just mind boggling. Now I have not been to KD since 2009, and I have been visiting Kings Island numerous times a year since 2020, so for me, it was like walking into Bizarro Kings Island. I will say that KD’s International Street is really quite nice. The extra trees add a nice touch, and the fountain doesn’t seem to be as long, so it is much easier to traverse. I Got my FL wristband from a friendly girl at one of the gift shops inside the front gate, which saved me from having to wait in a rather large line at the “Upgrades” counter and headed to get the 3 credits I didn’t yet have. First stop, Twisted Timber (credit #277). Posted wait time for standby was 75+ minutes. Unfortunately the same prison-style shakedown in effect at Cedar Point’s Steel Vengeance is in effect here too. Also rather unfortunate- single train operations. My FastLane wait was 30 minutes, so I can only imagine what the standby wait was. My opinion of this ride is that it is completely insane. The first drop inversion was crazy and the constant airtime and quick direction changes made me completely forget this was once a Hurler. Good ride, and I was hoping to ride it again, but the line never seemed to die down. The main reason I wanted to visit KD was for Project 305 (credit #278), the lone North American giga I hadn’t yet ridden. One train ops here and about 4-5 minute dispatches resulted in a 30 minute FL wait here also. I was excited as the train climbed the 305 foot lift, and I was preparing for the much discussed grey out turn. And yes, it did indeed cause quite the vision blur! The rest of the ride is basically just high-speed s-turns, which is cool and very Maverick-esque, but as a whole, the ride just didn’t impress me. I’ll take Fury, Millennium Force and even Orion (I know, “not a giga” lol) over this any day. Since I had to pass Flight of Fear on the way out of P-305, and the posted wait time here was 75+ minutes, so I asked if it too was one train operations. the guy at the entrance said “no, two!”. So I figured I’d give it a whirl. 25 minutes later, I was boarding my train. The family behind me said they had waited 90 minutes. Ugh! Anyhow, I think this FoF is better than Kings Island’s as the train doesn’t sit on the mid-course for 5 seconds, and it seemed overall darker inside the spaghetti bowl, creating a very disorienting ride experience. Good stuff, but someone needs to turn the volume of the music and sound effects down a bit. It was truly ear splitting! My final new credit was Tumbili (#279), my first S&S free spin. Two cars were being used (not sure if there are any more) and the FastLane line was only 10 minutes, so that was a plus. I actually kind of liked this ride. I got 2 full (and very forceful) flips and while the ride is insanely short, it’s smooth and it made me smile after the park was kind of a let down thus far. Reptilian was closed when I first arrived, but it was open after I exited Tumbili. The app said a 60 minute wait, and the FastLane line looked like there was only about 20 people in it so I got in line. 40 minutes later, I was climbing aboard. One train ops and the limited capacity made this a slow moving line. Too bad because I absolutely love this ride. Why didn’t we get more Mack bobsleds in the States? Fast, smooth, and the second half feels like you’re going to slide ride out of the trough. Great ride, but that line… the standby line stretched way back to near Tumbili’s entrance. Yikes! The singing mushrooms never sang. Boo! I wrapped up my visit with a one cycle (FastLane) wait for Flying Eagles, which run VERY fast, and a walk-on FastLane ride on the Blue Ridge Tollway antique cars. This had to be the worst antique car ride I have ever done as the steering wheel did absolutely nothing. I bounced off the rail through the whole course. Other things that sort of irked me: Racer 75 had one train and one track operating. Grizzly’s line said <15 minutes on the app. The line stretched all the way to the gift shop with, yes, one train. Don’t think that was 15 minutes! Delirium, Anaconda, Backlot Stunt Coaster, Drop Tower, Windseeker, and the Log Flume were all down. There were no “merger people” for FastLane and ant Tumbili annd Reptilian, no one was even checking. And lines for food were just ridiculous. Yes, I know it was Good Friday and the weather was quite nice. But this was a pretty bad day all around and I sincerely felt sorry for people without FastLane as they probably didn’t get on much at all. So that’s my review of Kings Dominion. Doubt I’ll be heading back again anytime soon… and that’s a shame because it is a nice park that has a lot of good things going for it. Thanks for reading…

Looks like they are adding some sort of Disk-o style ride called "Wave Twister" for 2025. This video (at 0:58) shows a very brief glimpse of what appears to be a rotating two armed ride vehicle with rotating seats that rock back and forth along the track. Edit: I saw on Twitter (which of course makes it true) that the ride is from RES

It seems each summer I keep saying I am going to finally visit Coney Island and make stops at Rye Playland and American Dream. Obviously that hasn't happened, but based on Bill's (and others) comments, it sounds like I should just go to Coney Island. Oh, and maybe Adventureland to ride that bizarre RES Fireball "coaster"...

I hope they roll these out at all CF parks this year. About time they had something like this!

I thought it already had been closed... Regardless, whatever is left will be gone soon and in its place a shiny new music venue (which I thought was already something there, but again, shrug!) Coney Island to close permanently

Been a few years, but according to the park’s facebook page and an email sent to Seabreeze passholders, the park will be installing a Zamperla Windstarz ride in 2024. Unfortunately, this new addition comes at the expense of the park’s Flying Scooters. . Nice to see the park adding something new though, and I have a feeling this ride will be well received by the family crowd that Seabreeze caters to. Seabreeze new Windstarz for 2024

Apparently Primordial is now open to season pass holders: Primordial open i didn’t know it was going to be like a bigger version of Wonder Mountain’s Guardian, but that is what it sounds like based on the article. It’s been 11 years since my first and only visit to Lagoon. I loved the park and really enjoyed the SLC area. Guess I need to start saving!

Tornado at Stricker's Grove. Who knew a wood coaster built in-house at a park that is only open to the public 4 days a year would have a jolt of airtime that will shock the heck out of any new rider? Definitely was not expecting that!

If there was ever a time for the shrug emoji, this is definitely it. Tall enough for a 65 foot tall StarFlyer, but not for a slow-moving dark ride. Quite odd indeed. Nice TR. It's been 17 years since I have been to HW. I think I need to get back there again sometime soon.

I just noticed that wooden "mine" coaster has what looks to be a spiral lift hill. Wonder if they would consider a Canadian Zambezi Zinger-type ride. Thinking about it, CW really needs a good wooden coaster. Both MineBuster and Wild Beast are horrendous, so something like this would probably be a welcome and popular addition. And to also add to what Bill said, why would they even consider turning Wonder Mountain, the park's longtime icon, into a Volcano-type ride? That looks hideous. At least with Vortex and WMG they aren't visible from International Street and don't interfere with the mountain's aesthetics. This would change the park forever, and honestly, I don't think in a good way. Just my two cents as usual.

I absolutely love the on-board audio concept for the launched wing coaster. The options for Canadian music are endless. Corey Hart, Men Without Hats, Glass Tiger, The Tragically Hip, Alanis Morissette, Trans-X, Platinum Blonde... I guess you could throw Rush in there since they seemed to have a few hits over the years Just leave Nickelback out. Never got into them even before they were cool to hate!

As a frequent visitor to southern Ontario, I usually come back home with at least 30 or so candy bars (which usually gets a question or two from the border agent!). I have been an Aero bar fan since I was a kid. I found some unique ones at the Duty Free shop on my last visit that were chocolate mousse flavoured and also ones that were black forest cake flavoured. I am also a fan of Mirage bars (basically just a thicker Aero) and Bounty. Big Turk bars are, well, weird to say the least! Something else I really enjoy up in Canada is the McChicken sandwich at McDonald's. They aren't quite the same as they are here (which is a good thing) and while I have no idea what kind of "meat" is in that patty, it sure is tasty!

You’d be surprised. . Iron Dragon had a 45 minute wait (2 train op, which I believe is all they have now) on Memorial Day. Mine Ride usually isn’t too bad. Most I’ve seen that line in the past few seasons is about 20-25 minutes. And yes, if you have early entry, go directly to Wild Mouse at opening. When running, the line does move pretty quickly thanks to the cars moving through the loading area. As for the FL lines, Blue Streak, GateKeeper, Raptor, Magnum, Pipe Scream and Gemini are all usually 15 minutes or less. Steel Vengeance, Valravn, and Millennium Force can sometimes reach an hour, but are more often than not 15-30 minutes. Maverick is the one I can never figure out. Sometimes the standby line is 2 hours and the FL+ line is 5-10 minutes. Other times, FL+ is an hour or more. So if the line is long when you get to the ride’s entrance, maybe ride something else in the area (or have a bite to eat at the Farmhouse) and then come back and see if the wait time has gone down any. Hope you guys have a great time!

Edit: Sorry- just saw Bill's message. There's mostly repeat info here. Flat Ride recommendations: Sledge Hammer (world's only Huss Jump2), Skyhawk (Gerstlauer Sky Roller), and Wild Knight Mares (rare Huss UFO). Fun Tip: Get to the park at opening and head directly to Wonder Mountain's Guardian (left side of Wonder Mountain). If it's not open, go around to the other side of the mountain and try Thunder Run. Both rides are not on FastLane and are low-capacity and get long lines, so knocking either (or both) out early is what I try to do. And while in this area, if The Fly does not have a long line, I'd grab a ride on it as well as it too is not on FL. Obvious Tip: Buy FastLane Plus. It will get you onto the 3 B&M's relatively quickly and allows multiple rides if you like them well enough. It also comes in handy on Vortex, Backlot Stunt Coaster, Boo Blasters, and some of the flats. Obvious Tip 2: Unless you absolutely need the credits, Flight Deck and Time Warp are completely skippable! I'm a big fan of Wonderland as they have a unique selection of rides and coasters. Getting there is a pain as traffic is usually a mess (and if you take the 407 ETR, it can be a $70 USD price tag for a roughly 60 mile round trip) and long gone are the days when the park was surrounded by trees and fields, but the park is clean, has a great entrance plaza, and the employees are friendly and seem to do a good job of moving people through the ride lines. Food lines on the other hand... not so much! Enjoy your trip!

^ Looks awesome, and while the theming isn't much, they did a nice job in making the ride fit in with the rest of the Frontier Canada area. I will probably get sick on this, but I'm going to definitely give it a try when I hopefully visit next week. Thanks for the pics!

Make sure to check out the Jurassic Jungle Boat Ride in PF and Earthquake The Ride in Gatlinburg. Both are some of the cheesiest, most ridiculous attractions I have ever done, but are of the "so bad it's good" variety. Earthquake is around $12 I believe and Jurassic Jungle is like $20 now, which is absolutely ridiculous for a 7 minute ride... but hey, you're on vacation, right? Have fun!

I stopped by Cedar Point this morning for a few quick rides, and yes, people do still care about early entry as Wild Mouse had a 45 minute posted wait at 9:15. I ended up getting on in 35 minutes, but still, seems like people do like the benefit of riding early. Millennium Force had a 1 hour posted wait when I walked past around 9:55. Just my observation. After my ride today, I have to say that Wild Mouse is amazing. If you are lucky to get an off-balance car as I did today (I was riding on board “Chase”, the red car), you will get some serious spinning. The ride is silky smooth and features decent transitions, which is really surprising given Zamperla’s prior works. It did break down again just as the park officially opened at 10, so it seems they haven’t worked out all the kinks yet. Steel Vengeance was open today and had a 90-minute posted wait (it took me 20 with FastLane+). Trains were being sent out consistently with several empty seats including one train that had guests in the first 2 cars and the rest of the train was empty. . Once I cleared the locker/metal detector checkpoint (which with the caged queue and militaristic employees seems like you are being led into prison), it was a walk on. While I understand the no loose items policy, it seems like the park could do a better job in filling trains, especially when the line is as long as it was. And I will apologize for not previously acknowledging Maverick’s FL+ entrance as it does dump you right into the station. The posted wait here was also 90 minutes and with FL+, it was a 2 train wait. Can’t complain about that now, can I? Best ride in the park as far as I’m concerned… Also rode Gatekeeper in the front row (walk-on, and I know it’s not a popular opinion, but I really enjoy this coaster), Lake Erie Eagles (one cycle wait), Magnum (one train wait), Cedar Downs (one cycle wait, ride was almost a full load which is something I haven’t seen in a while), and took a spin on Pipe Scream as I haven’t been on it since it debuted in 2014. It’s strange that I really enjoyed it and it did not make me nauseous, but put me on a standard Disk-o such as Waldameer’s or Seabreeze and I’ll be heading to the nearest trash can right afterwards! Aside from the Steel Vengeance dispatches, things seemed to be running better today than my visit 10 days ago, so hopefully that’s a sign of things to come for the remainder of the summer.

I guess the thing that gets me about FL+ at CP is that lines can be 45 mins and up sometimes, usually for Maverick and Steel Vengeance. I don’t mean to come across as ungrateful and I don’t expect the ride ops to personally clean my seat and call me sir with tears in their eyes, but when I compare it to Kings Island’s implementation where most rides dump you right into the station, CP’s sometimes doesn’t seem to be as good of a value, especially considering the price point (which I will argue could still be higher). Even my visit to Canada’s Wonderland last summer seemed to have better FL+ usage… I just wish Wonder Mountain’s Guardian and Thunder Run were part of the FL+ lineup! I remember when FL first was introduced at CP, Millennium Force had it set up where you entered on the opposite end of the station near the front row. I believe it changed the following year to the end of the ramp, which made the wait much longer. Again, I understand I am not waiting in the usual 1-2 hour line, so for that I am glad. But when you pay a premium to “speed past the lines”, sometimes CP doesn’t seem to do that as well as their other parks. Just my two cents and not trying to cause any trouble.

Very sad news as this man lived and breathed Waldameer, which is reflected in its daily operations. Sure, there were some issues with guest violence in recent years, but that seems to be happening everywhere these days (even WDW). You could tell Mr. Nelson loved this park. My condolences to his family and the Waldameer staff. Waldameer has great people in place to continue the park's recent rise, so I look forward to seeing what the future has in store to carry on what Mr. Nelson has built.

Made a quick trip to CP this morning, mainly to grab a ride on the new Wild Mouse. And while I did get the credit, there were a lot of things that were rather un-Cedar Point like going on today. Got to the park around 9:15, grabbed my FastLane from the Park Plaza gift shop since the main FL stand was closed, and immediately hightailed it to The Boardwalk to ride Wild Mouse. I have to give the park credit for this new area as it is absolutely beautiful and they did an outstanding job with painting the rides to look brand new along with creating some awesome signage. And the presence of the new Grand Pavilion is hard to ignore. It really looks like it has always been there and is one of CP’s best looking buildings they have done in a long time (and that includes the Farmhouse Restaurant). In any case, Wild Mouse. Waited 15 minutes while listening to a rather “Looney Tunes”-esque jingle that plays on endless loop. At first it was cute but it does become a bit grating. I’d hate to be in line for over an hour and have to hear it over and over! Got assigned to the pink car (Zaggy?) and was teamed up with a father and his two small children. They got the inside seats, the bigger folks got the outside which set us up for a pretty spin-free ride. The music continues on the lift and as you crest the top, a cat meow goes off and away you go. While it’s exceptionally smooth and actually kind of fun, I’d really like to get an off-balance ride to see what Wild Mouse is truly capable of. I’ll be back this summer and fall, so I’ll try again. Using FL+, Rode Valravn (front row, about 7 minutes in line), Gatekeeper (5 minute wait), Cadillac Cars (walk-on), Maverick (5 minute wait) and then hit Millennium Force (25 minute wait). Yes, that was a FL wait time. Not sure what was going on, but all three trains were running and I swear it was about a 3 minute wait between each dispatch. This seemed to be the theme of the morning. Valravn’ s in-station monitor showing how long the train was taking to load was consistently 100-120+ seconds. Over at Gatekeeper, I sat on the brake run for 4 minutes before advancing to the station. It just seemed like speed and urgency has been replaced with “relax, take your time”. I understand that guests have gotten, well, less intelligent over the years, but Cedar Point used to pride themselves on how quickly their lines moved. Those days are long gone… I also rode Lake Erie Eagles (which I swear are fairly easy to bounce) and ended the visit with a ride on Cedar Downs. The ride op at Eagles was rather snarky by asking how the ride was and when there was not much of a response, he came on and said in a very passive aggressive tone “yeahhhh! That’s great!!! Fantastic!” After my ride came to an end, he asked how the ride was and I applauded and yelled loudly. He just rolled his eyes. Maybe they should move him to a different ride (although to be fair, he could have been assigned to Gemini or Magnum, both of which were down). Now I was only at the park for about 3 hours, so I’m sure some of these rides came online, but during the time I was there, the following rides were down: Windseeker, Iron Dragon, Steel Vengeance, Wave Swinger, Gemini, Magnum and Mine Ride. Thunder Canyon and Snake River Falls are also down till next weekend along with Snake River Expedition. Also, Wild Mouse went down at 10:00 and came back up as I was leaving with a 45 minute posted wait. Again, by CP standards, that’s a lot of down rides. The park did look great though, the restrooms by GateKeeper have been completely redone and even have fancy new faucets, and there is a ton of cool Wild Mouse merchandise. I’m hoping my next visit is a little better in terms of operations. Otherwise I’ll be making the 4 hour drive down I-71 to Kings Island more often!

Took my dad to Waldameer for Opening Day today and had a great time as always. Park looked fantastic, the new Rocket Blast slide is truly crammed in to the space it occupies in Water World (and it surprisingly is bigger than I expected), and aside from the train and Wipeout as previously mentioned, all rides were running. Wipeout has a sign stating they are waiting for a custom part. As usual, here are my observations from my brief visit. Whacky Shack was in fine form as all stunts were functioning and the line actually seemed to move. Waited about 10 minutes, but this ride is worth any wait! Sky Ride and Giant Wheel were walk-ons and the staff at each were courteous and pleasant. Ravine Flyer II was a one train wait and I have to say that even after more track work was done, the ride seemed a bit shaky this time around. Celebrating its 15th year in 2023, RFII is still one of my favorite coasters. I guess I may have just got a fluke ride. Some of the ride prices went up this year, as rides that were previously $3 are now $3.50, rides that were $4.50 are now $5, and formerly $5 rides are now $5.50. Considering the prices of rides like the coaster at New York New York in Vegas is $25 and Freedom Flyer at Fun Spot Orlando is $12, to me, $5.50 is still an absolute steal. And finally, I believe this is new for 2023 (if not, my apologies), but if you want to play any games in the park’s arcade, you have to have points on a Wally Card first, then use them to purchase an arcade card. Most games take 4-8 credits ($1-$2 each), so credits will go fast. And after years of tickets being spit out of the redemption games, now your tickets are stored on your arcade card. So be prepared to double up on your Waldameer Cards if you want to play any arcade games. Oh and if anyone ends up at the park this season, try the Strawberry Cheesecake fudge from the Fudge Kitchen. Not sure what I was expecting, but it is delicious! Wishing Waldameer a great season, and with the addition of Rocket Blast, I have a feeling it’s going to be a big one for them!

I just looked at the Waldameer website and it says that Wipeout will be back spinning in 2024, so I guess it's just a full-blown rehab. I thought maybe they'd replace it with one of Chance's newer FreeStyle models or an SBF Reverse Time. But it sounds like the Wipeout will be sticking around for a while after this season.