anonymouscactus

Anyone there for Fright Fest know if it's possible to 'upgrade' an existing maze pass to an Express / skip the line maze pass? I bought the maze tickets during the flash sale and didn't think about it at the time / they were not offering the quick version. We are going on a Saturday and I'd like night rides on everything too (we already budgeted gold flash passes) in addition to the mazes so I'm guessing I'll need the express version.

Awesome report! It's funny how everyone gives the park so much crap but it looks really nice! The Dorney of the north! Yeah, maybe they haven't gotten a new ride in 87 years, but it's looking good for what it is. We almost made a stop this year but in weighing my options and hearing all the negativity and looking over their "thrill" offerings on the website I was 50/50 and decided we'll have to go another time. I wish I had looked into it more closely and looked at everything they have to offer... then again there isn't a whole lot of info out there... (then again I don't subscribe to the TPR thread either... for all I know the last post was 87 years ago when they got that last new ride ) Hilarious as usual.

Well, that's kind of what they're going for... ... I didn't want to laugh.... but... ugh... lol

^^ great photos and report!!

Ok, maybe more like 10-15 min. I felt bad riding it to begin with because Amanda was tagging out and she was dying from heat exhaustion and walking around all day and I was already like 'uhhhh see ya later bye!' lol so when they called over the speaker single rider for back row I just hopped on it. We go all the time so it wasn't a huge loss, but it did help me remember how big of a difference it really is. That extra time really is worth it.

I second that crocodile ride looks awesome! What is that thing called and is it any other park? Great report as always!

Question: I am getting the 2pm combo ticket for a Thursday horror nights next week. I have been to USO a million times, never USH. There are tons of repeats, so as far as the day I know the tram takes a lot of time, but I really would like to do it. So do I do the daytime tram and skip the evening one? Or do I skip the daytime one and only do the evening? Or are both worth it and I should budget time for both? We are NOT getting front of line passes since it's a Thursday and we will start in the lower lot at 5p and don't mind lines as long as we get each maze at least once. I usually do express but I can't justify an extra $200 for both of us on this trip considering we aren't even huge fans of HHN now that we've moved onto better haunts around the country -- I don't care about repeats of the haunts so much. Any suggestions?

While the haunts are starting to get stale for me, had a great day at the park despite it being hot as balls... (I know... 78 degrees...). As always during the first Sunday of Halloweekends, the lines were non-existant. I gave approximate time tables of where we were at what time to maximize the awesomeness. Got to early entry very late (10:50 on an 11 opening). They were directing everyone to the front lot which was weird (later I found out the pointfest stage was set up in the CP shores lot so they closed the entire lot, so I had to make an excuse I was eating breakfast at the hotel once I got back there (shhh) because there was no way I was driving back at that point. Maverick (10:50) - 5-10 min - best ride in the park! Still. MYSTIC mine ride - 0 min -- I thought the shed labeled "shed #2" was the joke, so I was giggling the whole ride, later to find out there was an actual shed ending. Still lol'ed. My fiancee was not amused. Meet Jason. And my $1.00 glow in the dark shirt from Walmart. Gemini (11:30) - 0 min - not racing - sat towards the front and enjoyed it more than usual. Magnum - 0 min - probably the best ride I've had on it in awhile. No pain on the bunny hops (seat belt trick, yadda yadda) Dragster - 0 min (found a single rider), otherwise 5 min. I know I know front row or gtfo. Still holds true but I didn't want to wait (a whole 10 min) and my fiancee didn't want to ride. I think it's actually the second time I haven't done the front. Front row only, people. Midnight Syndicate -- something different and I sort of enjoyed it but I also felt there wasn't enough going on during the show. I guess I just have a short attention span. Still interesting though. Finally tried MELT - 5 min - and it was really good but way too heavy for an amusement park. I still rode rides afterwards but my stomach didn't want to. Unfortunately a limited menu for HALLOWEEKENDS I had s specific sandwich I wanted to try but they were not offering it. Mansion Haunt - 5 min - the group in front of us made this hilarious I think the kid crapped his pants a few times. It was pretty good. Gatekeeper (3:30) - 0 min Hexed - 0 min -- the best house of the day, lots of scareactors and still felt fresh despite being it's (third?) year High school house - 0 min - absolutely terrible. This needs to be the next to go. I think I counted 3 actors when we went through, too, none of which actually attempted to scare us despite being the only 2 in the group Raptor - 0 min - alone in the train other than first row. Had an awesome, forceful ride. Way better than any ride I've ever had on it. Millennium Force - 5 min Slaughter house - 2 min wait due to a pep talk to a crying kid in front of us, he lasted 2 rooms lol -- this one also feels stale and not enough going on. Very meh. Freak show - 5 min -- lots of potential but needed more actors. Loved the set design, props, creative signs, etc. Deprivation - 0 min - seems like there were 2 or 3 different paths in the building for this one. Better executed than some dark houses I've been into, but they don't do much for me. In other words, early Sundays during HALLOWEEKENDS are awesome but of course you don't get the night time atmosphere and scare zones. But for rides and mazes it can't be beat for wait times. The haunts themselves I feel this was the worst year we've ever been to. Oh well, we have 17 more locations in the lineup for this year It's beautiful. The haunt is called DEPRIVATION because you are deprived of riding Steel Vengeance with the awesome views of the ride...

Actually my post was a bit misleading because I always forget about Valravn. Good luck with finding the right time for that for a short wait -- we normally skip it due to the line as I'm not a huge fan. Anyway, have fun!

My favorite day of the year! This will be the third (fourth?) year in a row we are going to the first weekend of halloweekends on a Sunday. In the past the lines for the rides were minimal all morning and we never waited more than 10 minutes for any of the mazes. Great time to go, for sure. Of course, your milage may vary. We always hit Maverick/Millennium Force for early entry, and then TTD at opening (front row only!) and we never experience any lines in the park longer than 15 minutes, with most coasters being a walk-on. Let's hope the same remains true this year!

Correct me if I'm wrong but it looks like they changed the scheduled maintenance dates for Ghostrider to later in the year as to not have yet another attraction closed during these unplanned outages. I could have sworn it was supposed to go down this month but now that is no longer the case.

Love love love Halloween events. Traveling to do 4 Halloween amusement park events on the West coast this year (why go in Summer when you get the bonus of cooler weather and extra attractions! Yes it is crowded on Saturdays but that's what flash passes are for) and then I also just planned out a road trip to do 9 additional haunts (only one at an amusement park) so I guess you could say I love this season. I don't get scared in the houses/mazes (well, rarely) but the set design and unique scares make it a fun time of year for sure. Just the atmosphere alone makes me love the park events, and usually they are a great value compared to local haunts which charge $30+ for just their haunts that take an hour to go through. This way you get to ride stuff at night and spend several hours in a park. Win win.

So on my Cedar Point trip the other day in line for Blue Streak there was this crazy math whiz kid who barely met the height requirement rattling off the craziest stuff to his Mom without a calculator. Math I surely couldn't do. (paraphrasing) "So in the last 10 minutes I've seen 5 trains go by. If each train has 36 seats in 60 minutes it means 1080 people ride every hour. But since there are roughly 3 seats empty per train, you have to subtract 90 people from that count. Now the park is open from 10a-8p, assuming the ride doesn't break, that will mean 9900 people will ride today. Except that the line will probably die down by the end of the night so my numbers are probably off." -- coaster enthusiast in training that's for sure.

I can't put my thoughts into words about this topic so here is a picture of a baby. This thread really needs more babies Seriously though, if a B&M rattle is bothering, then how do you ride or enjoy any wooden coaster out there? Not directed at any single person, but I guess i just don't get it.

A bit of a rough day at the park today; I waited about 35 minutes for Blue Steak after 1p! -- Parking lot didn't seem insanely busy like the photos I saw from yesterday, but it appears Dragster and Raptor closed sometime within the first hour of the park opening and never reopened while I was there (I only saw them testing have no idea if people actually got on both of them or not), and MF was running two trains and appeared to have all kinds of problems throughout the day. At least every time I walked by. Skyride was closed, sorry Bill. The line for gatekeeper even at 2p was pretty long by my standards; Magnum, Rougarou, all had decent enough waits for what would be an 8pm close/expected crowd level. I would have normally attributed a Labor Day Monday crowd to a beginning of the season Sunday crowd, and that may have actually been the case had all the rides been running, who knows. I don't visit this park in the middle of Summer so I can't really say what's good or bad. Power Tower had a vehicle "stuck" with riders about 1/4-1/2 of the way up the tower for quite a while I've never seen that on an s&s tower before. Had to leave early but I didn't get on a whole lot. During early entry I hit up Valravn and hit Maverick with only a 15 min wait at about 1030. Did Blue Steak and Gatekeeper and Rougarou. Got a few rides in but not the best day ever since I missed a bunch of the big rides. Unfortunately I couldn't stay past 2p. Oh well, I'll be back in two weeks for the first Sunday of Haunt and I'm sure things will be much better! EDIT: food trucks!! I almost forgot! Got the pineapple burger from the fire truck place (it was ok but not Earth shattering) and the nacho and chorizo SHREDDERZ thing which was REALLY good! Too much chorizo

Completely agree. Went labor day weekend last year for the first and only time, and it didn't feel like a Six Flags park. Though overall I feel like SF had been doing a much better job from the SF that had always stuck in my mind, as of lately. I loved it too. It's very unique. I feel like the stall is the only thing missing from rides like Steel Vengeance and other RMCs to make them the best thing ever. Goliath is my fiance's favorite coaster she has ever been on, probably because of those two elements and the lack of ejector small bunny hops that other RMCs have that can be quite uncomfortable for us.. While it's short, it's so perfect from start to finish. I'm looking forward to Twisted Colossus due to the stall on that ride. While obviously not as large, I love that element so much. Having a train below it while dueling sounds amazing 8) Viper was the sleeper hit for me personally. I loved it. Then again it wasn't running backwards at the time... not sure how I would feel about that. We loved the park so much we are going to hit it again on a Friday night in October despite it being an 8+ hour drive. We are making it a stop amongst a haunt road trip, but we are really looking forward to Goliath again. They have a really strong lineup overall that's never really talked about, I feel, despite the rides being cut short. I pretty much entirely agree with everything you've said. Glad you had a good time and looking forward to the full report, as always!

Almost made it to Great Escape this year when I was in Albany, but alas it wasn't meant to be. Had I known some awesome mini golf was up there, I probably would have made it for sure. Just means I'll have to take a trip next time I'm somewhat in the area. Thanks for the non-theme park reviews, too! We love stuff like that.

Nevermind, I can't read. Or post correctly today. Or edit my posts right. Delete me!

Great report. Cool that you got to talk with a lot of the staff. Bblbz look disgusting.

Ending up buying the gold pass and dining at SFMM... 5 minutes later I get a code from SFGAM (pass I bought last year) with the renewal price code. I didn't realize it would work on a different parks page but when I made a second fake order it worked to save even more money. Oh well. SFMM is also selling the all season flash pass for $299 good for the rest of this year as well. That's an awesome deal for locals considering they will be open 365. You can also add a single day haunt pass for the flash sale for 16.99 if adding on to your pass. So I spent a lot of money, but... looking forward to my first SFMM trip in about 13 years! Edit: can anyone who processed their pass already shed some light on the one time use skip the line pass? Restrictions on the ride? Dates it can be used?

^^^ Just as a side note we have purchased season passes two times, and a friend has purchased a season pass, all at various parks, different years, and even though we didn't process by the date posted to get gold upgrade, the gold upgrade was always on our passes. Your milage may vary! -- note that even the regular pass is good at all six flags parks, but aren't supposed to include parking. I think they just use the date as a scare tactic to get you in the door ASAP but I have seen many others say the same thing about the gold upgrade.

Looks like a great addition. Sorry for going off topic but I am considering a dining plan for my visit at the end of next month with the flash sale, just debating which park of the 3 I'll be visiting will be the best value (i already have a 2017 pass w/o dining to get me into the perks, and SFMM is the most expensive for next year, but it's also the first park I'll be visiting), taking into account the food as well for each previous park and if it will be worth it to me with the drink bottle as well. At Six Flags Magic Mountain, do all of the coasters have the souvenir bottle holders at them? Do some coasters require a löcker for the bottle / have different exits and entrances? I know at Great Adventure for example there are rides with no loose articles but they still have the bottle holders. SFMM is not my home park so I wanted to know if the drinks would be an added value to me or not. Convenience-wise I'd hate to get löcker after löcker just for a bottle. Thanks!

Sorry, going to throw a wrench into everything you have hoped and dreamed. Unfortunately without seeing the exact show schedule as it's not posted yet, though, it's hard to say how it would pan out 100% at Seaworld but hear me out...I can give you your full plan once that gets released. It's $120 for a SeaWorld/Busch ticket (plus parking which you said you don't have to worry about) + $30 dine with Shamu = 150pp minimum Alternatively, you can get into Discovery Cove (without dolphin swim) for $169 which includes admission to SeaWorld and then add on Busch Gardens + parking to all parks for only $25 more + 2-3 meals and snacks and UNLIMITED DRINKS = $195 But Alan, why would I pay a $45 premium and go to Discovery Cove? 1) Breakfast included. A hot meal. Ham. Bacon. Sausage. Eggs. French Toast. As much as you want. 2) Lunch included. As much as you want. 3) Feed birds and shit in the aviary 4) up close animal encounters. Find out how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop from Mr Owl (ps: the answer is always 3 licks) 5) swim with stingrays larger than your whole fucking body 6) unlimited alcoholic beverages. Did I mention there is a super warm pool with seating you can drink these in? 7) hammocks! 8) monkeys!! Otters! And more! 9) did I mention unlimited food snacks and alcoholic beverages? Included in the price quoted above! 10) relax in the warm lazy River Then... since it's the Christmas season, go to SeaWorld AFTER spending some time at Discovery Cove. In the evening SeaWorld has awesome Christmas lights and festivities and atmosphere... and the lines for rides DO NOT EXIST during the Christmas shows in the evening. I'd say to be safe and to fit everything in at SeaWorld leave DC by 2-3pm Skip: O wondrous night -- too Jesus'ey Clyde/Seamore Xmas -- more for the kiddos While those two shows are going on, you ride the crap out of turtle trek, kraken, Manta, Antarctica, and journey to Atlantis. I can't say how Mako lines will be since that's over near the Christmas half of the park and I haven't been since the ride opened but I'd imagine you'd be fine. Watch: Last dolphin show of the day Shamu Christmas Ice show But what about Dine with Shamu? Skip it because you're going to Discovery Fucking Cove instead. Just trust me. But don't just take MY word for it: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g34515-d110173-Reviews-Discovery_Cove-Orlando_Florida.html You're welcome If you have any questions, fire away. Save your money on the Serengeti tour, feeding the giraffes is fun, but as others said, you can do the same at Great Adventure. Boom. You just paid for Discovery Cove (lol) I know I sound like an advertisement but it really is my favorite place to visit in Orlando. Granted, I haven't lived in Orlando for 3 years now, and maybe DC and Seaworld have gone downhill since, but those were always my two go-to places. You won't be disappointed. Edit: wow I definitely was swearing in excitement a lot... lol. Toned down my post a bit.

Had my first "egg burger" thanks to these forums the other day... it was surprisingly good, but it didn't completely blow me away or change my life as I know it but definitely an interesting combination that I can appreciate!

Saw a photo on Facebook stating the two BD trains collided when they were adding the second train; no riders on either train at the time. Not sure if it was going at full speed or slowly rolled into eachother or what.