805Andrew

"Only passengers 19 years and under may ride in the back 2 cars. An exception is allowed for those who specifically request the back seat (these individuals MUST be warned that the ride can be rough)." I wasn't warned the ride was rough when I seated in the back. And I'm clearly not under age 19. All kidding aside (since I'm 99% sure they meant 19 and over), is the 19 year recommendation higher than what Mt. Olympus's Cyclops used to be? I thought the Screamer had wicked airtime in the front row as well, so it was pretty wild in any seat. It didn't stop me from riding in the back either nor was it enforced...bogus rule. Sad

One the checkpoints (the only one we got stopped at) was right when entering Valladolid which has about 50,000 pop and is the nearest major city to Chichen Itza and the other two were in rural areas (one right before a highway junction and the other in the middle of nowhere but before another highway junction) which we got waived through both. All of these checkpoints were in the Yucatan state and none were in the Quintana Roo state. We drove the main north-south highway that goes between Cancun and Tulum at night almost everyday since it got dark at around 6PM in January but it was like an expressway/divided highway with lots of resort entrances every few km and plenty of gas stations, 7-11s, Starbucks, etc and it was very well lit (better than most US highways). The only annoying thing were the constant speed bumps to slow you down when going through towns. The Tulum ruins were the least impressive of the three ruins I saw but have that amazing oceanfront location. The beach that you can enter in the archeological grounds of Tulum was beautiful and I'd pay the admission again (under $4 per person) just to access the beach. The Chichen Itza ruins about 2 hrs drive away are the most elaborate of the Mayan ruins I saw and have that famous "seven modern wonders of the World" pyramid but the Coba ruins less than an hour drive away from Tulum has a slightly taller pyramid and the only Mayan one in the region you can actually climb to the top which was awesome and also has bikes you can rent to get across the grounds which are quite spread out. Mexico City is in the yellow "Increased Caution" area which is the same level as most of Europe, the Caribbean, and Belize. https://travelmaps.state.gov/TSGMap/?extent=-13.895124108,35.427916279,5.157282858,43.995024245 I also went to Cozumel on my trip for a couple of nights and felt totally safe there. It's isolated from the rest of Mexico since everyone has to cross by ferry or fly in and felt more quiet and mellow than the rest of Quintana Roo especially once you got away from where the cruise ships dock. Anyways, getting back to the topic of your report Mike: Six Flags Mexico looks great and La Feria looks like it leaves a lot to be desired. I'd feel comfortable going to Six Flags Mexico on my own but would rather go to La Feria with TPR when there's a better chance of more things being open. If I was in Mexico City on my own I'd probably try to visit La Feria on a busier day and brave the longer lines just for the chance that more things were running.

^ I saw that map too and almost posted a link of it. The yellow area is level 2 and the same level as most of Europe like UK, France, Spain, and Germany. I went to the part of Mexico (Yucatan peninsula) that looks like a thumb and is as far away from the red as possible. The only time I was a bit nervous while I was there was when we were driving back to Tulum, Quintana Roo at night after visiting Chichen Itza during the day and Valadolid, Yucatan for dinner and we went by three police checkpoints along the highways that weren't there during the day.

Great Japan TR so far. I love seeing the journeys through other people's eyes, especially after being to Japan myself in 2015. Looking forward to more.

I finally caught up on all your TRs, great job. SF is my favorite city I've been to in North America outside of NYC. I'm halfway between LA and SF and you can see why I pick SF over LA for most of my sports teams. The recent results in the World Series and Super Bowl drive my points further. I would normally criticize you for leaving Disneyland early to go to Scandia, but I knew they were rumored to close or least remove their Scandia Screamer since it got listed for sale last fall (I thought you were aware about this) so I give you a pass. Don't worry and just go. I just did a trip to Quintana Roo, Mexico with family at the beginning of January and felt totally safe the whole time I was there. We rented a car and drove everywhere and had a great time at beaches, snorkeling, and seeing ruins, and even went to an eco water park (Xel Ha was awesome). The infrastructure was good and the road signage was better than most US states. Mexico D.F. is a bit different and the traffic is probably horrible at times but it is listed as one of the safer places in Mexico to visit. I really want to visit Mexico DF after having a great trip to Q Roo and check out the sights, archeological ruins, the coasters and parks, and have more great food. Most people in Mexico are warm and friendly if you respect them and it goes a long way if you make an effort to try to speak some Spanish. Parts of the country are dangerous like Alcapulco and Guerrero but other parts are very safe as long as you don't do anything too stupid or make a complete ass of yourself. Not going to Mexico because hearing about bad things in certain places would be like a foreigner deciding not to visit the USA because of hearing about bad things in Baltimore, Detroit, or St. Louis. The customs process is easy FYI when entering Mexico and a lot more hectic when reentering the US.

I'm glad I made a pit stop to this park and rode Scandia Screamer after a day at Raging Waters a couple of years back. Scandia Screamer was crazy fun in the back row at night. I suspected this park would be closing soon enough though when I heard last fall that Scandia Screamer was listed for sale. It was pretty dead when I visited on a summer weeknight.

Cool trip report so far. I did Cincinati/Kings Island in late May/early June along with Kentucky Kingdom and Holiwood Nights at Holiday World and I did Cleveland, Cedar Point, Kennywood/Pittsburgh, Niagara Falls and Toronto/Canada's Wonderland last month. Next time you go to Cincinnati try Camp Washington Chili. It's better than Skyline (I haven't tried Gold Star) and although they just have one location its easy to find on the north-south I-75 fwy just north of the downtown area with its own parking lot. They also serve craft beer in cans and are open 24/6 (closed Sundays). Its not too far from the Cincinati Zoo which is really nice. Also Jungle Jims (either location) is worth checking out, its like the theme park of grocery stores. Your Monday at Kennywood looked just as crowded, if not more crowded than my Saturday at Kennywood. The date I went was August 11 and I didn't arrive there until just before 1PM as I drove there from Cedar Point after checking out of Hotel Breakers. Two of us bought our VIP Coaster & Thrill Unlimited Tours a few days prior online and the other was lucky they still had them at the park for sale. It made our day so much better and we were able to have a pretty relaxed day at Kennywood though I noticed their operations made Six Flags look like Disney. The employees in the games booths totally reminded me of Adventureland, they looked sad and lifeless. Even with the Unlimited Pass, it only included the five open coasters and six of the flat rides so I still had to wait 30 min to ride Garfield's Nightmare (the queue was half filled compared to your picture) and ended up skipping some rides like the water ride in Lost Kennywood (it was hot and humid of course) and the Kangaroo which I almost did. I noticed most of the crowd at night was around Racer and Jack Rabbit (it was a 10:30 park close day) and Thunderbolt and Phantom's Revenge were station waits after 9 PM. Turtle had a long line during the day and it was a walk on at night so I finally tried it then. We ended off the night with five rides in a row on Phanton's Revenge without getting out of our seats (the Coaster Tour reserves two middle rows just for their riders). Our day wasn't truely great until this night ERT. Phantom's Revenge alone is worth a visit to Kennywood and I got nine rides on it throughout the day. Potato Patch was really good after being underwhelmed by it at a different location in the park two years prior. I got my Swedish Fish Rita's Italian Ice and then went to the main Potato Patch and got it with seasoning and gravy. A bit later I got a sausage sandwich from a hut so it was probably the same place you got yours. I really wanted to try Waffles & Dinges but it was closed when I was hungry again at night and the BBQ in the beer garden also looked good, but all was good because we ate at a Primanti's by the waterfront under the bridge after the park. Gas was the only thing I didn't buy at my first Sheetz stop of the trip since I filled up at the Speedway next to Kennywood the night before. I ordered a full breakfast there the day after Kennywood and bought several different sodas and chips to try. Their breakfast bagel sandwich with guacamole and salsa was really good (for a fast food breakfast) as well as their Toasted Marshmallow flavored cold brew coffee and they had cans of Surge and many different flavors of bottled Canada Dry including non-ginger ale flavors so I really liked Sheetz. For Pittsburgh, did you go up the Duquesne Incline? I had a limited time in Pittsburgh after my day at Kennywood since I was driving to Buffalo Niagara and was also stopping at Conneaut Lake Park and Waldameer along the way, so I only went up the Duquesne for the amazing views of the city. I like Yelp for restaurants and Trip Advisor for hotels, attractions, and things to do. Yelp lets you filter by distance, most reviewed, and "open now" which is helpful for finding restaurants late at night. I feel more restaurants get reviewed on Yelp but more hotels definitely get reviewed on Trip Advisor. Trip Advisor is good if your figuring out things to do in a city/area your unfimiliar with.

Over the years I've learned to take the Golden Ticket Awards with a grain of salt and not take them very seriously. I am surprised though that their top three wooden coaster list matches mine. I haven't been on all of the woodies in their top ten but of the of the ones I've been Phoenix, El Toro, and The Voyage are my favorite in that order. I'm glad to see Knoebel's get some love but Black Diamond being a top five indoor coaster and their Haunted Mansion being a top five dark ride are head scratchers to me. When I was reading the top five dark rides and read Haunted Mansion at #3 I assumed Disneyland's or Magic Kingdom's but when I read to the right it was Knoebels. Compared to the other four dark rides on the list that's like seeing a top five restaurant list with four fine dining restaurants in LA, SF, NY, and Chicago and a old time diner from rural PA. Same thing for the other four indoor coasters on the list that are all high tech and suddenly Black Diamond which is like a homemade ride. It's like entering your homemade go cart vehicle in a car show and getting fifth place after a Tesla, Ferrari, Lamborghini, and a Porsche. Wacky Taxi making the top five with other new rides like HangTime and RailBlazer opening and available to pick from is another head scratcher like the two examples above. Pretty much summed it right. That's a great idea! I would love to see this, even if you have to start out slow and just add one or two new categories each year. Once its developed it wouldn't be that hard to dethrone Amusement Today on having the most known and relevant theme park poll. I don't know what's more wrong, doing a trip with over 150 people or going by bus around Japan when they have a magnificent rail system there. They probably don't want to deal with trying to coordinating and transporting 150 people on Japan's rail system and are too lazy to do the research and effort on how to so they took the easy way out by renting buses. It will be less enjoyable for their trip participants though when those buses are stuck in traffic and they want to use the one bathroom on each bus. I can't imagine the terrible odors that will be inside those buses. I never joined ACE because their website was terrible to navigate and didn't have good trip reports or park information easy to find and TPR had all of those plus a sense of humor and an easy to navagate website. I'm kinda glad now as I never got sucked into ACE as their trips sound terribly planned and thought through and I wouldn't want to go on a trip with 150 people. All four trips I've done with TPR have been excellent and Robb and Elissa actually know what they are doing and how to make their trips stress free and enjoyable for everyone with them.

Unfortunately I can’t make the Knott’s day this year, but I’m down for a round at the beer garden in the back end of Magic Mountain on Sunday.

I can only do Sunday this year due to a work event on Saturday but I'll see you all on Sunday at Magic Mountain. Since I also have the Monday after off I'm thinking of doing DCA then since its been a few years since I've been there. Anyone else doing Disney on Monday?

If you were doing other stuff in Orange County on Monday like Disney I would stay at the Knott's hotel. You would have to wake up earlier on Sunday Morning to get to SFMM but traffic should be smooth - Sunday mornings is one of the best times to drive in LA as traffic is light.

Steel Curtain looks crazy! It definitely wasn't what I was expecting from the Kennywood announcement but I totally could see the Steelers theme fitting well at Kennywood. Not only will locals embrace it but Steelers fans from across the country are likely to eventually visit Kennywood because of it. I have a friend here in CA who is a Steelers Fan and I believe he has never been to Pittsburgh so I know Steelers fans are all over the place. I know that other sports teams and/or parks near them will be watching this to see how this tie in goes. I could see a 49ers area and ride (or re-theme of Flight Deck) fitting in at CGA since it is literally next door to Levi's Stadium and GoldStriker almost has a 49ers theme in a way. I'm actually visiting Kennywood in August so it will be a little while before I get back to Kennywood to ride this but I will eventually be back when either Hersheypark or Cedar Point has its next big addition to make a trip of it (I'm also visiting Cedar Point in August for Steel Vengeance). I love the S&S coasters I've been on by the way, so I'm totally excited for the ride itself.

As soon as I get the days off work approved I'm in. Sunday shouldn't be a problem but I have to hope there's no busy events scheduled that Saturday as Knott's is the day I really want to do.

If I lived within driving distance I would bring my tent and camp there for a few days. It was a really nice, natural looking campground in the woods that made me forget I was next to a theme park.

Sure thing! I knew Patriot would take the bottom B&M floorless spot from Hydra.

Dang, June 17 would have worked perfectly for me since I have to pick up folks at the Oakland Airport mid afternoon anyways.

Cool list. Sounds like something I would do if I was bored too. The only things I see missing are Flight Deck from the B&M invert list and CGA's Patriot from the B&M floorless list. I'm also am surprised to see Great Bear ranked so low on the B&M invert list - I quite liked it.

Yaaaay! I'm going to make a trip up there sometime this week to ride RailBlazer.

Ugh, what an entitled post. Holiwood Nights was great. Sometimes things happen that is out of the park's control and you just have to be patient and wait it out. There was no issues at all on Friday night even though I saw some flashes in the distance close to 11PM and I was able to get multiple rides on everything. The lightning on Saturday night was a lot closer then 40 miles, more like 5 to 15 miles away and the park was playing it safe. In between ride holds for lightning I did get a ride on the Voyage with lightning flashes while riding in the dark that was epic and also got a ride on Thunderbird with lightning flashes, so they were running trains as soon as the lightning was just outside their radius area. They also had Gobbler's Getaway running right next the Voyage when the lightning was going on so there was something to ride when everything else was on hold. They extended ERT well past midnight even though they didn't have to, but I was happy enough with what I rode so I left at midnight anyways. Raven may be short, but the Legend and the Voyage makes up for it with lengthy rides, especially the Voyage which is super long. Thunderbird may be short, but since when is a launched coaster over a minute long anyways? All these rides were awesome, especially in the dark, and the Voyage may be the best night ride I've had on a coaster (with the exception of GlowRT on Phoenix of course) - it's waaaay better than night rides on the totally overrated Beast. Yes, lodging is scarce and more expensive compared to other regions, but the Lake Ruldolph Campground next door was offering 20% discounts to Holiwood Nights attendees and had RV campers with five beds, a kitchen, and a bathroom which was reasonably priced when split with a friend. It was nice being out in the woods for a couple of nights and they even provided shuttles from several different points in the campground to the park entrance constantly and back to the campground after the event. Interesting that you drove straight to Carowinds afterwards and went right by Dollywood and didn't stop there, that explains a lot.

^ Another Japanese chain I've seen here is Pepper Lunch (known as Pepper Lunch USA here) which does inexpensive hot plate meals were the food is served sizzling hot on a plate to your table. Several years ago I found the first US location by chance in Milpitas in the Bay Area which had a map on the menu showing over 500 locations in Japan, many is another parts of Asia, and one in the USA (at the time). I'm not sure if they expanded further here in the US.

Awesome start to your Japan trip. Going several days early to do stuff on your own is a good idea. It was nice having three full days on my own to roam around Tokyo before meeting up with the group in 2015 although even more days would've been nice. At Tokyo Disney I want to try the garlic shrimp popcorn then the blueberry one for dessert. My favorite yakatori restaurant of all time is the one I tried in 2015 in Fukuoka that you told us about that was underground and near the main train station. I had just came back from a day trip to Nagasaki on our free day and I was starving and since there was no English menu I saw a picture of the sampler with a bunch of different types of yakitori on the menu and ordered it. I got some surprised looks and laughs from the non-English speaking staff and the patrons at the bar as I was by myself but I ate everything I ordered and it was so oishii. I tried a revolving sushi restaurant in Tokyo in 2015 that wasn't remarkable but the one you went to looks better. I noticed Kura Sushi has a location in San Jose minutes away from CGA, so I know where I'm going for dinner after I ride RailBlazer later this week.

Last Thursday I went to Knott’s to ride the new HangTime. It was awesome and I got three rides on it in the course of my day. I love having this and Xcelerator so close to each other, it’s going to be my hangout area of the park when I go visit. Anyways here are some pictures of mostly HangTime on my day there. I didn’t make it to the park until 1PM, but I went straight for HangTime. The fountain by the entrance of the revamped Boardwalk looks nice. My first in person view of the completed HangTime. They were sending some test trains and were temporarily down so I went to fill up my souvenir drink cup. By the time I came back from filling my drink cup HangTime was reopened so I got in line. The line took just under 30 minutes and I was on board. As soon as I got off, I got in line to ride again. The line got quite a bit longer and was about an hour wait to ride the second time. They had some nice touches in the queue line like these Boysenberry colored flowers by the footers. They also had some mini palm trees planted by the HangTime footers to fit into the Southern California beach theme. The first time I rode in the back row, the second time I rode in the front row. I liked the front row a bit better. HangTime was running three trains. I don’t know how much of a difference the third train makes as the first train didn’t get dispatched until the third train hit the brake run. The line was moving constantly and the ops were pretty good though. HangTime cresting its lift hill. HangTime holding right before the drop. And HangTime going down its 96° drop. With HangTime’s line getting longer I decided to move on to other things after two rides. There wasn’t too much general public on this Thursday but there was a quite a bit of school buses. I love the way HangTime takes its inversions. Since Xcelerator had an 1hr 15 min wait, I decided to ride the Sky Cabin next for the views. Here’s the view of HangTime right before getting into the Sky Cabin. Here’s the birds eye view of HangTime from the Sky Cabin. These guys are ready to drop. Great views of the rest of the park! Ghostrider was closed btw. Knott’s full scale replica of Independence Hall and Soak City which opened the next day. Silver Bullet and Timber Mountain Log Ride which I rode later in the evening. Supreme Scream and Xcelerator. North end of Knott’s. Xcelerator view from the Sky Cabin. Coast Rider and the west end overflow parking lot where I parked during Boysenberry Fest. Time to hang loose for a bit. I had ribs w/ beans and cornbread for lunch at Boardwalk BBQ. They had one of these machines promoting the new Barrilitos Aguas Frescas line at Boardwalk BBQ. Move over Boysenberry, I’m trying the new Mango Lime! (Which was really good btw). After lunch I was ready to ride Xcelerator since the line had shrunk considerably. Even though Xcelerator was only running one train, I only waited about 30 min. After Xcelerator, I rode Supreme Scream, Jaguar, Montezooma’s Revenge, Sierra Sidewinder, Silver Bullet, and Timber Mountain Log Ride all with minimal wait. Of course Sol Spin was closed being in the cursed Windseeker spot. Here’s the money shot I got right before boarding the Silver Bullet station. Love having these two rides back to back in the Boardwalk area of Knott’s. HangTime going down its beyond vertical drop. View of HangTime from the Log Ride queue. After the Log Ride since Ghostrider was closed I went back to HangTime. It was after 7PM now and I waited about 20 minutes to ride. I was going get back in line to ride again but it had technical difficulties shortly after I got off and they weren’t letting more people into line so I ended off the night with a ride on Xcelerator. I waited about 15 min for Xcelerator and these lights came on at 8PM right when the park was closing. HangTime is great addition to Knott’s and it now feels more like a complete full day park with this. Xcelerator is still my favorite but I think HangTime might be my new #2 at Knott’s - I need to ride Ghostrider again. I’ll have visit Knott’s later on in the summer when the park in open later to get some night rides on HangTime. After Knott’s I finally tried the Chicago themed Portillo’s near the park. I got a Hot Italian Beef w/ a chicken noodle soup (it was 66°F during the day at Knott’s and was down to 60°F at night which is cooler than normal for late May in SoCal) and a chocolate cake shake which was all good so I can recommend this place to others. It’s a lot more than just hot dogs. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Next week I'm flying out of SJC to go to the Midwest for a coaster trip including King's Island, Kentucky Kingdom, and Holiwood Nights at Holiday World. Hopefully when I fly back to SJC on the morning of June 5th Railblazer will be open so I can ride it shortly after getting off the plane. I have a Knott's Platinum Pass, so hopefully I won't have a problem getting the 20% discount on food and merch (I don't have FunPix) and refilling my purple 2018 Knott's cup at King's Island. I did go to CGA in March and had no issues with my Knott's Platinum Pass getting 20% off my Railblazer shirt in the main gift shop, or with parking or entry - I didn't use it for anything else though and at CGA at least they're familar with Knott's. On Patriot, I didn't like it either. I thought it was barely better than Vortex, and I rode it in the front row which is probably the best. Patriot/Vortex is the second worst B&M I've been on (the distinction for worst goes to Green Lantern at SFGAdv). Going back to Janae's TR, they now have those Barrilitos machines at Knott's at Boardwalk BBQ and the Camp Snoopy drink refill station but only have two of those flavors: Strawberry Hibiscus and Mango Lime. I tried them last time I was at Knott's and I especially liked the Mango Lime flavor which will now be a regular drink for me every time I go to Knott's. I think the Barrilitos flavors might be regional to the Southwest and the West Coast, but I'm not sure. When I went to King's Island in 2016 it was the only theme park I've seen Barq's Red Creme Soda on tap, which I think is regional to that area. Nice pictures btw, looks like you had fun besides Railblazer not being ready for you.

ERP is a silent owner in these parks. I would imagine it would be the same as Six Flags Hurricane Harbor in Concord CA. (Which is also owned by ERP) I honestly had to Google where Concord, California, is. Checked out their website--looks like Gold+ membership or higher gives you entry? Sounds right if they had to get EPR their moneys too. Everyone gots ta get paid. Concord is part of the SF Bay Area and isn't too far from Vallejo. A Discovery Kingdom Gold Pass now includes the water park in Concord just like the Magic Mountain Gold Pass (the one I have) includes the water park next door. I think Six Flags is trying to get companion water parks for its theme parks in places where they don't already have water parks. I'm not sure what they're going to do the Wet N Wilds in Phoenix and Houston though and what Six Flags passes will be included with those. If they were buying Castles N Coasters I'm sure they would give it a major overhaul, but the fact that they aren't means it must not even be worth acquiring to make it a major Phoenix area theme park. If any of the former Astroworld were still there they would have reopened it but maybe they are waiting for one of the new theme parks in Houston to get built and open up and then try to acquire it so they can pair it with the water park they acquired.

I was thinking the same thing. Acquire them, sell them, acquire them again. I'm not sure how I feel about this.