anonymouscactus

Well since we're reporting on the crucial things such as new painted lines in the parking lot, I have spotted two different digital billboard ads for SFDL.... one featuring skyscreamer and one just the park in general... while driving on the 33. Take that, parking lot lines!

Great stuff! I skipped around and only saw about 20 seconds of video but I heard Book of Mormon and Caravan Palace in there so I already completely approve. I'll take some time to watch it soon but it really captures what an amazing time you are having. Love it! Boma is awesome! Not many people talk about it, but I've been there a few times and it never disappoints. Mmmmm. Love the entire report, thanks for sharing 8)

Today I learned that you can see Manhattan from good 'ol Darien Center, NY!

Maybe it's a hint they are going to bring five alive to the park? It's a Coke brand

Leviathan! Weeee

Rode it twice today. First in the back and it was good (the hang over the edge was underwhelming), second time in the front and it was GREAT! Best of the dives IMO, it's just one element after another and the loop is great. Definitely worth the wait for the front, and the vests didn't bother me or seem to really affect the drop sensation at all. I don't think anybody mentioned this, but there are 4 different entrances. Single Rider, Accessible (those with return times go straight to the station rather than up the exit so they "merge"with everyone else rather than taking up someone's row), FastLane, and standby. FastLane merges at the bottom of the steps where you choose between front row, or rows 2&3 giving about a 5-10 min wait for the front, or 3-5 minutes for rows 2&3. I'd imagine single Rider going really slow on this one. The setup was great and the bin system seemed to work better than I imagined it would have worked. They really thought this one through! The bins even have an estop button... maybe for when the high winds hit and everything goes flying lol. Each row had two modified seatings (I think... the ones with the red seatbelts?)... is it the same way on Valravn? I never noticed before. They aren't labeled at all and no signs about them... so I'm just assuming that's what they were (unless they are just rows for the amputee harnesses? -- I wasn't paying attention) Ever since the one flipfest I had on Skyhawk I just can't seem to get the hang of it anymore. We saw it get stuck for a good 10 minutes in the air while we were eating. Boooo to the beef burger at Muskoga coming off the dining plan, that was my go-to for every meal last year, lol Tried the exclusive peach Yukon Striker cider, it was pretty good! It didn't have a strong fake peach taste, it was quite refreshing!

3 things: 1) members no longer required to go through the members line (last year they HAD to due to different systems in place). I went through a normal lane just fine, my wife with season pass, and me with membership. No way I was waiting in the members line when 6 others were wide open. No issue whatsoever. 2: Dining plan can be used directly at the registers / no more getting dining slips. I used my snack without issue once I found somewhere to actually use it. 3) No cell phones out on the carousel. They have the cell phone warning signs all over the park, including the entrance to the carousel. Don't get kicked out of the park! Glad to hear the wheel, tantrum, and ROS opened eventually.

Here's the thing, though. Go to other threads for parks that opened up already and you actually won't see all the same whining you see here. Most rides have technical issues on opening day which is different from a park not having a (non-new) coaster ready on time. Most parks have bad staffing so lines can be long or only run one train, not that their point of sale completely stopped working across the park so nobody can buy or redeem anything. I feel like those are bigger issues than typical opening day kinks. We go to opening days every year across the Northeast and while Six Flags can be hit or miss sometimes, I feel Cedar Fair has always had great opening days overall. Yes sometimes attractions go down, but they were at least ready for the season, and sometimes food lines are long or locations are closed, but at least you can actually purchase the food. Darien Lake never seems to have their shit together... I don't know from personal experience on opening days because I've never had season passes since they were previously Six Flags, but I did visit during Fright Fest last year, and opening day this morning, and it doesn't inspire me wanting to come back anytime soon even though it's 40 min down the street and I can come anytime I want now. If I do go it will probably be to relax in the water park and ride Ride of Steel a few times... it will probably just be without my wife, lol. A lot of it can be wrong place at the wrong time, but I think my comments are still valid and good to know. Just my $0.02.

My guess is they just don't have the proper infrastructure in place yet for handling merge points / wait time reporting / etc for flash pass q-bots/watches. That takes a lot of effort plus I believe they outsource all of that stuff anyways. This way they keep the line skipping in-house. I didn't bother getting my 2 free skips today (it wasn't clear where to pick them up and the places we passed all had lines) but I'm curious how bad it's going to be managing everything once the season starts to kick in... Did anybody pick up their diamond/diamond Elite skips today? Where did you pick them up? I'm curious if it's like Great Escape in the sense that you don't have to choose a ride beforehand, and the expiration date isn't on the same date you picked them up.

Six Flags Reasons why none of the POS terminals were working: - They forgot to password protect the internal WiFi and both internal devices and customers are using the same Six Flags SSIDs and screwing up their network Whatever the reason, I'm happy I'm not the IT department anymore 8)

"Darien Lake POS is a POS" Here was my short visit: Went to my reserved parking without a hitch, this was going to be a good day! It is kind of funny how far back the reserved parking is from some of the regular parking, but whatever. Anyway, the plaza sign said Predator and Motocoaster would be down for the day amongst other rides. Was looking forward to both, but that's the rules. Noticed they are having the "go fast pass" system, not the q-bots, much like Great Escape has. Kept an eye on ride of steel the entire way in, but alas never saw it run (Ms. Cleo was right! Come back later!) Long line at Guest Services, that's normally not a good thing at 11:30am to see. Saw Boomerang, Mind Eraser, Silver Bullet, Haymaker, rolling thunder, and moose on the loose all running. Went to Viper first. Had a 4 train wait, not bad. (Station not painted for those that actually care). It did break down before we were about to get on but we did stick it out 8 or so minutes and got on. They didn't cycle the train or anything, and two mechanics were just staring off into the sunset, but whatever, lol. The ride was pretty good. I'm sure there was SOME reason they closed it. Went to Beef and Brew for a sandwich and drink but alas was told they had to wait for a supervisor because the register wasn't working. Attempt number 1 to give them money. Walked to Tantrum and it was closed. Walked by and the bridge was completely missing from the chute the chutes but what was really funny was that the phone kept ringing at the ride panel as we walked by even though the ride was deserted and in disrepair. Shipwrecked spooky ghosts! Walked by a stand that offered fresh lemonade for a snack credit. Walked up, and alas, he also could not serve us and needed a supervisor. Attempt number 2 to give them my money. Played a little fascination, always the highlight of Darien Lake. No issues here, the kid had to yell out everything to everyone since they didn't test the microphone before the season started, again, no big deal. Won 3 times, woo hoo! Wheel was closed. Member services near Viper had a huge line going out the door. Rain started to come down a little bit by this time. Went to the boardwalk eating area, waited a little bit in line and saw the register was working!!! But... they didn't have the food I wanted in stock..... attempt number 3 to give them my money... so I left with a fruit cup on a snack credit. Saw Ride of Steel run for the first time and started making our way over, but we were also still hungry. Stopped at the pizza place next to Predator (he was actually making pizza!) but alas his register was broken and could only refill souvenir cups. Attempt number 4 to give them my money. We only saw ROS run that one time the entire morning (it may have ran more but we never heard it crest the hill with it's distinct sound and never saw it...) but by this time we didn't want to sit around in the rain and were starting to get hangry so we left the park to eat. Didn't have a need to come back today as most of what we wanted to do wasn't open. Will have to be another day I have to go on the rides (and get food. ) Money spent: $5.00 (fascination) Time spent: 1 hour-ish Rides ridden: Viper Until next time, Six Flags. Just so people know, it's 2 turns / a 35 min ride to the park from my house so it's not a huge deal (now that we have Six Flags passes and it's free for us to go whenever) but had I been a guest it would have been pretty annoying. The little issues don't bother me, but my Wife was getting irritated (just like at Fright Fest!) so I don't think she will ever fully enjoy this park due to it always being lackluster compared to all the other parks we always go to, lol. Tomorrow: Canada's Wonderland!

^ MotL was definitely running!!

Delete me.

Just in time for the 10:30am EST Grand opening today

CALLMENOW!

We all do realize this ride is at other Six Flags parks, right? Oh, look... it's testing... with, uh, employees... or life-like test dummy's...

Is it really worth the $20 to deal with the ridiculous crowds, though? After the concert starts, probably a great time to stay in the park, but I imagine during the day wouldn't be so fun.

^That's pretty impressive. The whole list is great, thank you all for all the time you all put in to get this to work the way it did!

^ also confused by that statement. I think all the stunt coasters are underrated. Yeah not all of the effects work anymore, but they aren't bad rides by any stretch of the imagination. Why didn't you like it, out of curiosity?

Don't forget to stop at the PFK! I don't know why I found it so funny when we passed it, but I think seeing that sign brought me more enjoyment than LaRonde did...

I didn't remember Great Bear being that great (ha.) when I was at Hershey many years ago, but last week I found the ride to be surprisingly awesome. Also I guess I'm lucky that Fahrenheit and Storm Runner were open, I'm glad I didn't go earlier in the spring. Great report and pics!

^ congrats!!!

lmao [emoji38][emoji38][emoji38][emoji38]

Sorry, I guess I'm old and forgot that a lot of you might not know who Ms. Cleo is in the opening line of my "report"... my bad.

Ms. Cleo opening day trip report: Cold and rainy. Tried to go on RIDE OF STEEL but it was closed in the morning. Rode Viper, great ride but the paint is chipping everywhere in the station. Tantrum is closed due to staffing but try again later. I saw Ride of Steel running in the distance so I ran over and got a ride in. Fun ride but feels like it would fall apart at any moment. Used my meal plan but it took 2 supervisors and 9 minutes for them to ring me up properly at the register. By then my food was ice cold. Skyscreamer looks nice and almost complete. The entrance sign is AMAZING! Wow!!! They got a new game on the main Midway with toilets. I don't like to get harassed so I didn't check it out. You win emoji poo. Speaking of toilets, the one by the main entrance was pristine but the one by snoozerang was disgusting. Predator was fun in the front seat, but I rode in the back and now need a kidney transplant. They painted the bench next to the "cuda falls" lockers. It looks nice. Only new paint I saw, though. I wanted to use my free dinner but I can never stay in the park more than 4 hours without getting bored so I left. Anyone have anything else to add?