anonymouscactus

FYI: Holiday World does not offer any queue management / skip the line passes. And yes, Memorial Day itself is always your safest bet on the holiday weekend.

We were also planning on going to the park today but due to unforseen circumstances didn't spend a second day. We left Sandusky at 9:30a and the thunder/lightning forecast that was plaguing the entire day for an entire week changed to just regular showers when I checked before we left. It was raining, but not horribly. Reports around the internet said minimal to no waits today. Just checked now and it looks like almost everything is operating. So, to sum it up, don't rely on the weather even if it's the worst possible. Even a day that said 100% thunderstorms from 6a-5p it looks like people are having an awesome time today because nobody is there and it's just a bit wet but nothing to cause everything to be closed for the entire day.

ERT at park open AND park close? Has anyone in the history of Dorney ever stayed that long without the water park or haunt attractions? I feel 4 hours is too much at that park, let alone 12+ hours!!

Mean Steak?? (that was a typo but I'm leaving it) booorrrrriiiinnngggg... you've seen enough photos of this inversion. Just came here to say Brew and BBQ is an AWESOME event! Tons of drinks (ciders!) and (delicious!) food for the money. Started raining and I didn't plan for the weather but we started eating and drinking when they first opened so we're good! In case anyone was wondering why the yellow train was stopped on the lift during early entry, they caught me with my drink on the ride. Luckily they didn't check my other pocket... More drinking! More eating! Ribs!!! Yum!! Why does the Maverick border make me look like I have a horse for an erection? Giddy-up! Anyway.... ... now I remember why I don't visit cedar point on Saturdays. Granted it wasn't THAT bad today, and it's NOTHING like a mid-summer crowd, I'm just so used to the early and late Sundays in the season where later in the day the park normally has near walk-ons in the front of the park, and manageable lines on pretty much everything. Not used to seeing Magnum, Rougarou, Raptor, Gatekeeper and others have lines past the merge points near the end of the day, and this was after tons of people left when the rain came in. Oh well, that's what they make fast lane for 8) Thanks for reading my post that I edited about 3,000 times! If you havn't experienced Brew & BBQ... go!! Go now!! But seriously, it's awesome. The website has a list of food and drinks at the bottom of this page on the Q&A: https://www.cedarpoint.com/play/events/brew-and-bbq

It's a Buffalo thing. I don't ask questions. http://www.buffalobutterlambs.com

Meet butters next to a butter lamb!

Love the reverse-reverse pov's... the only way to make things weirder would be to mirror image it, too!

Originally I thought at first that Intamin miiiiiight provide a LIM/LSM(?) lift for New Mean Streak (not necessarily a launch, but a lift like Maverick) -- but judging by the little hop at the bottom of the lift I'm definitely not seeing that as a good 'rollback' scenario/area and don't see that happening anymore.

Went to the park today with two of my cats: - No lines for the big rides! Love that Sunday passholder ERT in the morning. Surprised they had the photos open for morning ERT too - Some employees were completely clueless about the drink program. One said we had the souvenir cup on file, even though we confirmed with guest services afterwards we had the disposable cups. People were confused everywhere we went and had no clue what we were talking about. - Canada dippin' dots... red and white. Both times at two different locations they messed it up, lol. Also learned I don't like the 'ice' dots - Soaring Timbers was very meh. The loading procedure is not very good (granted it's the best they can really do given the ride design) but the ride itself was waaaayyy too short. I wasn't a fan. - Didn't feel so good / was a little sick after shockwave... I had only been on it once before a long time ago. I liked it better than Timbers. - 0 flips on Skyhawk... again - Guardian was in terrible shape. Almost all of the projectors we're not synced properly for the 3d so it was a visual mess. No photos for the scoreboard. Etc. It just seemed neglected. - Funpix: worked well for the most part. They cropped at the booths if you wanted, but you can't seem to do it directly at the kiosk as far as I can tell. Bohemoth's kiosk was showing Leviathan photos, lol. At the front gate for the roaming photographers you have to take the paper card to the funpix center to load it your pass but unfortunately they don't get in the system right away so we had to go back later in the day. Wish the guy taking the photo told us. The app worked better than I expected. I linked my email before getting to the park and surprisingly everything worked right and I could see in the app even though it was our first day. - I think that's all I got for now... had a great day overall. Leviathan was running awesome and was way more fun than I remembered. Edit: just got home and got to play around with the full funpix website. There are a lot of nifty borders and you can crop and do whatever you want to the photos to make it look exactly how you want, and then download them, so no need to bother with an employee trying their best to make the best photo when you can just do it yourself and make it perfect. I'm impressed! Everyone in pain since it started raining... lol

What I've learned from all the horror stories is always always always always book through the hotels themselves, regardless of the chain. Same for flights. You'll probably pay the same but it will save you headaches later if you need to make changes or something goes wrong or anything really. Also, AAA rates with Choice Hotels usually put you at the same or better than the pay-ahead rate, but are cancelable with 24 hours notice unlike the prepay fee.

Cool post. Choice hotels ALWAYS has 'stay twice, get $50 worth of stuff' periods. If I'm traveling somewhere I'll usually make an extra effort to move hotels (worth it for me) between the two days to get 'seperate stays'. Sometimes it's an 8000 point bonus (good for a night at the cheaper hotels), sometimes it's a gift card. Either way, the constantly have these chunks of time periods with this awesome perk. Also you can double, triple, and quadruple up (stay 4 times get 2 free nights, etc.) You just have to remember to click the button on an email or app to register for the deal before you check out. Combined with cancelable AAA rate I have found choice hotels to be awesome and the best deals. Just stay away from the low tier rodeway inns. That will be a story for another day, lol. Just read reviews before booking and you'll be fine. flights.google.com flight price tracking. The best of them all (kayak, hopper, and a few others are not nearly as good IMO). It will tell you if you are paying too much (red is bad, green is good). Or if you are about to be super lucky. They send email alerts as well. Just always make sure you check Southwest too as they are not part of any price tracking sites. I somehow managed to get BUFFALO to LA for $137 (could have gotten cheaper but I wanted an earlier flight) and then San Jose CA to Buffalo for $165 (if I would have flown back from LAX instead I would have gotten an $89 flight back at the time I booked!!! and that was an airline I could actually bring bags on ). They also give options for flexible dates, flexible airports, time of day, number of passengers (you'd be surprised how many times it was WAY cheaper for one ticket vs two so sometimes you have to wait it out), specific flights, and you can just save them all easily and let Google do the work for you and email you when to take a look yourself. They will even warn you when it's a discount airline and they have shitty baggage policies.

Quality review, and makes sense, but something I never really thought about. I'll give it a whirl on Sunday (well, maybe not if the line is insane due to such slow operations). Also I hate the feeling of being tightly packed. Thanks for going into detail.

I guess now would be a good time to post this as well https://youtu.be/Bt9zSfinwFA

This guy knows what's up.

That would be the best addition the park has gotten since Ride of Steel!! For this unfamiliar with this legendary beverage, the closest comparison I can make is that it sorta tastes like Boysenberry Punch at Knott's... sorta. Though it has to come from a fountain because the can/bottled version is ruined by the preservatives in my opinion.

^^ Exactly. In regards to the fries at Kennywood, It's like we got 3 actual -whole- fries, the rest was just soggy half or 1/4 pieces, and then just a bunch of tiny crusty ends. Just picked a really bad time and had bad luck I guess. Oh well. Burgatory made up for it 8)

I agree that the BBQ at both Busch Gardens' can be hit or miss. I worked at BGT for awhile, and after that it was one of my home parks that I visited frequently, and I would say 50/50 it was really good or dry/overcooked. I've been to BGW's smokehouse twice in my lifetime, once was really good and the next not-so-good. The hidden gem at BGW was the pork shank cart in Ireland and was like eating a gigantic piece of baby back rib, SO GOOD, unfortunately the cart wasn't there on my last visit --- is it gone for good? They also served turkey legs from the cart, but the meat shank was the best cart food I've had from any park, hands down. Maybe it's seasonal? I hope? I went there twice the same day it was so good, lol.

I was at Kennywood yesterday despite the cold and lots of rides breaking down, but had a ton of fun. All 3 water rides were running, but way too cold for me. Crowds were really low and we got on everything we wanted to in 4 hours. The weather held out and it was sunny all day. Black Widow broke down as we were seated and ready to go so unfortunately I still haven't been on this yet. Jackrabbit and Thunderbolt were both better than I remembered. Phantoms Revenge was awesome as always. Love the mansion shooter ride everything was working. I got to experience the squishy tongue for the first time LOL. Bayern Kurve still might be my favorite flat. The horn cracks me up every time. Rita's vanilla custard is good and we got the scraps at potato patch unfortunately. Ate at Burgatory after the park. Not the BEST burger I've ever had but it was damn close and damn good... 5000x better than the trash they serve at Red Robin . Love the customizations. All in all a great day minus the one wrong turn bringing us to downtown Pittsburgh during some festival and marathon (sigh)... it took FOREVER to escape since so many roads were closed and Google was not aware of the closures so it was a cluster. Luckily the rest of the day made up for the frustration.

Source: http://bigbelly.com/a-solar-trash-can/ Will be good for all the cups from the new drink plan! Curious how many they have around the park as they aren't cheap. This is more exciting than New Mean Steak!

http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2017/04/26/kennywood-sky-rocket-virtual-reality/ According to this article it looks like it will be car/racing themed. It also notes that it will be upcharge so hopefully it doesn't affect lines too bad. Starts at the end of May.

Honestly I'm cool with spending $40 on fascination and perogies instead of a wristband -- right now it looks like it will be between Kennywood and Knoebels. I would go to Great Adventure but we went 2 weeks ago and is the only park we've done this year so far. Need a little variety especially since the park was EMPTY when we went... we wouldn't want to go on a BAFF after just being there with no waits. Plus it's out of 'day trip' distance and I wouldn't want to pay for a hotel again and all that fun stuff. I'm in Buffalo and consider the 4 hour mark (Knoebels and Cedar Point) the farthest for driving somewhere and back the same day. I guess I'll just keep an eye out on the weather as it gets closer and make a decision from there. Thanks guys!

Does the park ever close for weather / rain in the forecast on a weekend? I know smaller parks (fantasy island cough) can be notorious for doing so but don't know how knoebels stacks up. Are they good about announcing it ahead of time or early in the morning, if they do? Is there a possibility they will close early? Looking to do a park on Sunday, but with snow/rain in the forecast for Wonderland, and rain & cold everywhere else all weekend, I'm not sure where to take the risk just yet. Thoughts? It's a 4 hour trek for me so I want to make sure the rides stay open and the park won't close on me if I decide to go. Rain isn't an issue for me, but maybe it is for them and/or the rides. Ultimately I'd hate to make it two weekends in a row that I don't make it to a park. Plus I got perogies to eat

I can't believe I've never seen this before. I agree that it's required watching for anyone who has ever played RCT. Needed a good laugh today so thank you.

I ate at Lou Malnati's (the original sit-down one) when we made our trek to SFGAM and I definitely approve. Thanks again to whomever suggested it last year; we just happened to be down the road from it anyways. Really good!

Quality Inn & Suites 4110 State Road 42 Mason, OH, US, 45040 I don't recall anything bad about the room in October 2015 other than Google maps took us through a neighborhood from the park and right where it hit the main road the bridge was closed so we had to backtrack quite a bit. Woops. It's really cheap (especially prepay or AAA). It's 10 min away but we booked there again for June so I guess it couldn't have been horrible as I didn't write a scathing review on Google or an email to management. Staying there again in June and paying 63.99 + tax.