anonymouscactus

Spoiler Alert: the town protested the new ride so it won't be built anymore. So sorry. (if that were true, it would be pretty hilarious.)

Interesting review for sure. I wouldn't put Cheetah Hunt above a lot of the rides at the park (and I REALLY like cheetah hunt so that's not a knock at the ride at all) but to each their own. Glad you had a good time... even despite the rattle! -- you know my motto

I did the Zombie shooter thing at BGT I believe its introductory year and thought it was terrible / the worst maze the park has ever done... then we did the shooter at Scary Farm a few weeks ago and it was 1,000x better. I thought there would be no real good way to execute it, honestly, but Scary Farm proved me wrong. It wasn't perfect, but it was VERY well done by comparison. Why? A ton more actors (especially for the finale, that was crazy), better scoring system, everyone had sensors that I could see, and the actors did an amazing job of pacing everyone and keeping things interesting... plus they threw in some scares which we got 0 of at BGT.

(and yes I had to look up wtf you were talking about)

lmao @ your camping story and for pinching a loaf on the Ferris Wheel. Quality report, as always. *claps* We always seem to have bad luck and little time when we go to the most magical place on Earth (also long lines and personal life stuff unrelated to knoebels itself getting in the way) so I was still never able to get the full experience the two times I've been. I always forget about all those other rides you mentioned. One day I will have a proper Knoebels experience; PPP sounds like a good time maybe we will hit it up next year. I never really knew what this Fergie Ferg London bridge festival was all about but now it all makes sense How dare you not play fascination while there! There is nothing like spending $30 on a game for an hour and walking away with a few twizzlers to show for it and still wanting to go back... lol.

As soon as I read about the boardwalk that was my immediate thought as well, and I would think parking in the back would become a disaster as soon as shores opens up for the season (even before that quite frankly). Once Shores opens up I'm curious how they will manage, or, like you said, now they have a boardwalk so it doesn't really matter where they have to end up parking. It'll be interesting for sure. I could also see them limiting parking to the shores parking lot in the early morning and then opening it up later in the day to prevent early entry folk from going back there if they aren't hotel guests. Obviously always allowing hotel guests back there if they say they are hotel guests. They did this when the Shores lot was closed for the weekend of pointfest.

Back in the early 2000's I thought it was policy at Six Flags to close the lines early at the estimated time so that the line completed by closing time (ie: if park closes at 10p and the line for Superman is 1 hour, they close the line for that ride at 9) -- or was this just a Darien Lake thing because of the laser show? I could have sworn we saw that at multiple Six Flags parks back in the day... I'm curious when that changed. I remember it was always something I hated because we would run from half-way across the park not knowing if the park closed the ride line yet. I remember it always stating this on the park maps as well.

We Won't Be Alone - Feint feat. Laura brehm Considering using this for a Cedar Point compilation music video when Steel Vengeance opens... the song explodes at 0:56 oh so nicely

Ok, so 'nearby' is a stretch, but RAVENS GRIN INN (open year round) 'near' SFGAM in Mount Carroll IL... was the most unique and hilarious 'haunted attraction' I have been to. No, there are not scareactors that come out at you (well... Err... I guess), but instead you are taken though a very elaborate house full of really neat things. That's the best way to describe it. I'll let Yelp, Google reviews, and TripAdvisor do the talking. It all starts just waiting outside the house; and the way your money is taken by the owner, lol. It really set the tone for the whole experience. Here is a good quote: "If you were to mix together Ripley's Believe It or Not, an art exhibit, a haunted house, a parade of homes tour, a one man stand up comedy routine, a night spent around the campfire telling ghost stories, and a history class, you might be somewhere in the ballpark of Raven's Grin Inn. Maybe." It's worth the drive IMO.

No more parks in the works for the rest of the season but I know I'll probably be feeling the Great Adventure itch soon. With enough points for a free hotel room, a Six Flags season pass with meal plan, and the winter season upon us, I have a feeling i'll end up making the 6 hour drive sometime in November/December... Actually, who am I kidding. Probably? I can't really say no.

REALLY tough one. I think I'll say it's a tie between Goliath @ SFGAM, Viper backwards @ SFGAM (yes, really), Joker @ SFGAM (had the craziest joker ride in history), Gold Striker @ CGA, Joker @ SFDK, and Twisted Colossus @ SFMM. Damn, it's been a good month.

We went Columbus Day Saturday a few years back (supposedly a record attendance day) and learned our lesson after going on two or three rides. Our experience was pretty much the same as yours. Our new go-to is Sunday the first weekend of haunt and almost everything is a walk-on including haunts if you time it right... without Fast Lane. Yes you don't get the night time atmosphere but you get to do all the houses and the rides in a few hours, easy. We've done it four years now and it's been awesome every time.

^ We actually sat in the front. It wasn't rough or anything it was just meandering over the hills. I think maybe because there were only 4 of us in the entire train. The helix was fun though.

Just wanted to give my two cents on Viper backwards at night... it was a complete blast and totally unexpextedly awesome! We almost skipped out on it after some rather terrible reviews on it, but once again don't let reviews skew your own opinion on stuff. We sat in the front-most of the train (ie: we touched the lift hill first out of everyone). The first drop hanging over the edge so slowly was great. There was one little part about 1/4 of the way in that had a VERY uncomfortable jarring motion but other than that it was the most fun we've had on a coaster in a really long time. My fiancee was giggling the entire ride and the sudden pops of unexpexted ejector air made her scream like I've never heard a coaster do to her, and certainly not anything else at Fright Fest (zing). Other notable quick details: there was a $14 Snickers funnel cake sundae that normally is an upcharge but was free as a snack on the dining plan for the day and it was so disgustingly awesome. Something you'd never hear at a Six Flags park: THIS IS THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE!!! (a kid screaming on the brake run of X-Flight) -- though admittedly we had a really awesome day, probably because we skipped the haunts. Goliath x 3 was amazing as usual, bull in the back at night was amazing, joker gave us some amazing rides like we've never gotten at other parks. X-Flight was fantastic and the near-misses are way better than Gatekeeper. Viper I already mentioned. Eagle was just ok to meh this time around but the queue is still as ridiculous as always and always provides a chuckle. Had some hiccups on Justice League, music going in and out, etc. Amanda put on glasses without one of the lenses luckily the op caught it at the last second lol she didn't even notice when we loaded the train.... The only downside of the day was getting through security due to the crowds. We got there an hour before open and it still took until 5:15 to get through. Glad we didn't get there later the line was insane. Granted the park got busy too but we started in the back and left when it got insane since we were off to another local haunt. Little kid: I want to go ride the Dark Knight! Dad: (audible groan and face of 'i really want to go home') ugghh i want to go in the dark bedroom Glad we skipped on the haunts. I'm not sure what they were going for with the scare zones. 10/10 night. For sure. Some of the ops were absolutely KILLING IT on the platform. We didn't even stack on SUPERMAN! I liked the added zombie bodies in the sky tower. We definitely had a Six Flags day, and normally that's a bad thing (our West coast counterparts for example) but the Eastern side of the country parks always seem to impress us.

It was closed a few Saturdays ago when we were there. Luckily it was the only ride closed that we came across, as I have yet to hear a single good about that ride, lol.

Love the photos and .gifs! The photography in your posts is ever-improving. Keep up the awesome reports!

It really *is* amazing technology. I was in the room while they were programming and tweaking for months before opening. The ride is such a waste, though. The work they have to put into it is astonishing, but as you said, SeaWorld didn't want to use it to ANY of it's potential. They cut several rooms out of the building last minute, too, cutting the ride even shorter. I could go on, but I'll leave it for another time

Unless things have changed... which they very well might have... Top 3 Reasons the Antarctica Ride goes down so much: - #3: it decides to stop for no reason whatsoever. A spec of dust hits a sensor. A piece of hair flys off a balding man. A penguin takes a shit too powerfully. - #2: Employee doesn't know how to shut the ride vehicle door properly, door clicks open ever so slightly and e-stops the ride - #1 and usually the case: little kid starts crying so the parent pulls kid out of their seat and puts on lap. Operator who sees this must stop the ride. Single ride vehicle needs to be evacuated with the fun stairs. Also, once the ride stops the vehicles glide to a stop and are no longer in proper position to start again. Every individual ride vehicle on the floor needs to be reset, one by one, to a "sync point" from an exact position in which the ride can restart and match with theatrical and the ride path. This takes forever. That's the short answer. It actually rides much more reliably than opening year and it was reprogrammed a few times by oceaneering. Opening day was a fun day... guess who was supervising the outside crowd with a 6 hour wait around the sea lion area with a break down every 20 minutes... oh by the way if you wanted to see the sea lions you can't unless you want to enter the queue and wait about 2 hours to get to that portion... oh by the way the ride only soft opened 1 night before Grand opening memorial day weekend and we only got hands on training 2 days before... oh by the way the ride is terrible. Anyway, glad you had a great visit! I haven't seen the new Clyde / Seymore since the pirate themed show, or the new dolphin show, but I haven't heard terrible things (other than the fact the hilarious opening mimes disappeared -- though I read they made a brief return for the holiday shows?) Thanks for being an EVERRYYYDAAYY HEERROOO!

^ I think it's going to be much more difficult than you think it's going to be without a flash pass based on my experience last weekend. I'm not an expert on SFMM specifically but the closer to Halloween you get the worse it's going to be. I would 100% budget a flash pass for an October weekend. Unfortunately we didn't get there right at opening when I went so we lost some of the slow time, but even with a gold flash pass it was hard to get through everything when we started riding at noon. Keep in mind it was our goal to do all the coasters, not just all the GOOD coasters. Since you've been before, you know what to skip out on. I just hate waiting in 30+ min lines personally, and from what I can tell every line we looked at was at LEAST that long and many were much, much, longer. Good luck!

That "drifting coaster" pov is fantastic! That ride looks truly awesome. Is that the only one like it in the world? Sorry, I'm not up to speed on coasters around the world.

* Inspired by Coasterbill * Original sign photo by Geauga Dog (TPR)

I got the gold flash pass last weekend. 1 reservation for x2 is included with Platinum (I remember clearly it started this on the ride board). Extra charge for gold. The website also says the same. -- The free one time use flash pass card you get for buying the 2018 passes which is not good in October, x2 is the only restriction. Of course. Grr. -- Additional bonus: with our season passes we got $10 off PER PERSON for both of us for a total of $20 off. Any other Six Flags park, and the description on the coupon, says you take off $5 per person for a total of $10 off for two. So that was a nice little bonus; even though the FP restrictions are terrible for Magic Mountain. Your milage may vary but it was actually a supervisor who put in the discount. This page WAS accurate as of my visit last weekend: https://www.sixflags.com/magicmountain/store/flash-passes The page in the actual acesso online store is NOT accurate and needs to be updated. It has been wrong for months. There are a few incorrect pieces of info in there. Trust me, I was researching the flash pass for a few months and visited the site every week ahead of my trip as things were changing quite a bit.

Enhance. Enhance. Enhance. It's not just dirt... Snoopy got stuck playing under construction equipment again! You silly dog, you! (wtf?)

LOL first time I've heard the "Puff The Tragic Dragon" nickname... my new go-to! Glad you made the best of your day. Beau Beau Beau! Great report!

:: shudders:: -- I'll stick to the Wawa...