Rai Fox

Morey's SLC was a very extensive refurb. They had entirely new track made using CAD techniques that weren't available when the ride was first built. It's almost an entirely new ride, and yes, it is fantastic. It rides closer to a B&M invert than what you think of from a stereotypical SLC. On top of the way it's entwined with the water park, it's a legitimately fantastic coaster now.

Well, if they're going with Zamperla, this would make an interesting replacement for the Spider, hm? https://www.zamperla.com/product/zarantula

Pretty amazing how they only figured out it would be down for the whole year 3 days before opening, after plenty of people had paid for their season passes. Coincidences all around, I guess.

RIP six flags legacy memberships.

How far away do you consider "nearby?" Knoebels is kiiiiind of in the middle of nowhere. Bloomsburg is the nearest "city" but it's definitely not a tourist town. If you're an outdoorsy type, you're in the middle of the mountains and there's plenty of hiking, riding, canoeing and such around, but other than that you're probably looking at an hour and a half to any other real "entertainment", places like Dorney Park or Penn's Caves.

Power Surge is gone, apparently, and the Rock-O-Plane is going in. Power Surge was one of my favorite flats, and it's not one I've seen many other places, but even after all the money and time the park's spent trying to get it working properly, it seems like it's down more than it's up, so this isn't really much of a surprise. Kinda thought the Bayern Kurve would be in before the Rock-O-Plane, but cool to see either way! Power Surge apparently is sitting in the parking lot no, so no official word on its final fate yet, but I don't expect much but the scrapheap with how rarely it's run lately...

Kinda disappointed that they're sticking to early closings again. Not going to be getting in any Phoenix or Twister night rides until Halloween like that. In potentially better news though... It's pretty clear from the images, but this is the same type of ride as the Kangaroo at Kennywood. Interesting that they would be trying to restore one now. I wonder if this decision was made before Kennywood actually brought theirs back? It would have made a little more sense to go out of their way for one then, but even with the only surviving two in the same state, it's a great fit for Knoebels.

Bonsai Pipelines is made by Splashtacular. https://splashtacular.com/hotera_project/downunder-1/ I can't find any mention of them having any kind of financial issues, they're still posting actively on social media and were apparently showing off products at an industry show last month. Doesn't seem like that's the reason. They were closed last time I was at the park though, sometime in mid august I believe.

I'm not against the extra security and police, though it's unfortunate since I'm sure it's both a significant expense for the park and another thing the local police probably didn't plan on having to deal with. But the bag policies and chaperones? Like Amy said earlier, either someone got a weapon through the scanners that already existed or (more likely if even a few of the people who were claiming to have been there on social media actually were) got it through or over the fence. I don't see how banning bags helps if someone can just bypass security entirely like that. Even single bag they see gets checked anyway, so no one is sneaking a weapon in inside one unless they're somehow sneaking the entire bag in anyway. It's just a pain for the 50% of the population whose clothing designers haven't heard of pockets. I'm usually the "group mom" when I do parks with friends and try to remember to bring along things like advil, dramamine, extra sunscreen etc etc to make sure no one's day ends up miserable. It's much nicer when I have a place to put things like that. As far as chaperones..I'm pretty fine with that just to stop the petty trouble kids get up to, but for preventing shootings, how many serious incidents are really caused by people under 17, who don't know anyone over 21 to get them in? I don't know how the park should handle it, since this is a problem going far outside of any one park now, I just don't like seeing them making a big deal about how they're going to make it safer with policies that realistically aren't.

And there it is, the bag policies and chaperones, just as predicted. Wouldn't have done anything to stop what happened, and going to be an absolute pain in the ass for half the guests. Great decisions being made.

That's pretty much where Six Flags was under their previous leadership though, offering very cheap admission, memberships, etc, and while in general it seemed to work better than anything else in the last couple decades (comparing to the current situation, or the Snyder/Shapiro era...), that was where people started complaining about the crowds, six flags daycare, etc. The new CEO had the brilliant idea of raising prices to bring in a "classier" crowd. Results as seen.

Shots fired at Kennywood earlier tonight. Not a lot of information yet. https://www.wtae.com/article/emergency-response-ascends-upon-kennywood-park/41371801 Not a whole hell of a lot to say except how damn depressing this crap is.

IIRC, didn't Colossos need major work because of a termite infestation? I'm pretty sure I've heard that several places. If that's the case, it's not really on the designer or manufacturer there.

I can't imagine those people have actually been to and seen the park in the last few years, unless they think Intamin is also responsible for all of the other broken rides, not to mention paint, pavement, etc.

Not currently sounding particularly great for El Toro. https://nj1015.com/el-toro-wooden-coaster-structurally-compromised-six-flags-great-adventure-nj/ Knowing how much inspection and maintenance wooden coasters generally get, I'm not sure how significant structural damage to "multiple columns" goes entirely unnoticed. Apart from this park being a dumpster fire, anyway.

Just got back from a weekend trip to NJ and GAdv with a friend, first time there since...2015 or so, ish. Holy crap what has happened to this place? I've heard a lot of negativity about it lately, but kinda took it for just enthusiasts bitching about things; I've heard complaints about a lot of parks, after all. And Great Adventure used to be one of the good Six Flags parks! All the others I've been to have been at least decent lately, so GAdv couldn't be THAT bad, could it? The majority of the place looks like walking around a theme park in Fallout now. Rides that look like they haven't been painted in a decade, pavement tiles all cracked and broken and out of place. Nothing looks kept up. Half of one end of the park is fenced off. The scenery in the Western area for some reason seems to be in much better shape but the rides there aren't any better off. We had SIX rides break down either while we were on them or right before we got on. After we got off the lift hill on The Dark Knight, none of the effects turn on, and they stopped us at the first brake for 10 minute, before turning the lights on and announcing someone would be coming to walk us off the ride...right before the released the car and let us back into the station. Wonder Woman, Superman, the log flume, Medusa, Kingda Ka, and Zumanjaro (oops...that's seven, not six) all broke down while we were waiting for them; some relatively short breakdowns, some where they completely closed the ride and cleared out the line. I know no one expects great food at Six Flags but every other one I've been to has at least been acceptable the last couple years. The burger I grabbed at Garden State Grill was borderline inedible, on top of the staff there having no idea what they were doing. My friend attempted to order one of the hard ciders they had advertised; the cashier gave him a deer-in-the-headlights look for a while before deciding he couldn't sell alcohol, and going looking for someone who could, which ended up with us getting out of line and into the other register line for someone who could sell it, only to get to the front of that and be told they didn't actually have any. Then then managed to lose our order; we have to go back up with the receipt later and get them to track it down. With how upset it made my stomach after I wish I hadn't. I don't like coming around here to be negative. There's already enough of that. I tend to really enjoy even parks that other people look down on; I've gotten amused reactions for posting excited reports from Dorney and Worlds of Fun. I just can not find much good to say about GAdv now though; I haven't seen a park so badly run and cared for in years. Good points, I guess, some of the rides there are still pretty great when they're running. Jersey Devil was fun, Medusa was running amazing (until it broke), Kingda Ka is still pretty awesome. I don't know if the park needs money, a complete change of management, both, something else...I know it's been a hard time for parks but I've been to a couple dozen the last couple years now anyway and I haven't seen anything this bad. Someone please save this place before Kingda Ka falls over!

It might be a little early to assume there are any major changes at the park just because the ride pages aren't loading properly; Bassoul probably just fired the web devs for spending money on software licenses or something.

I don't particularly like the sound of that. I know SFNE hasn't had a great summer but I don't think the park has done anything wrong at all, it's just been.. *gestures at the entire country/summer/year/etc* If they go and pin the blame on someone who was doing fine, what kind of changes are we going to see to "fix" things that aren't really broken in the parks? I guess it's too soon to go guessing at what comes next, but I'm not getting a great feeling about this.

Season passes are one year. Memberships are indefinite, until you cancel them.

I'm going to be back there a week from tomorrow and I'm really looking forward to seeing if it lives up to what I've been hearing. I liked it last year but sounds like it's quite a difference now. Looking forward to it almost as much as Prowler...but not quite.

Alright...just have to cross my fingers and hope the fourth time is the charm, then.

I'm going to be back in St Louis two weeks from today, so just looking over the SFStL site, and I can see that...surpiiiiise...Xcalibur is listed as down for maintenance. Has it been down all season so far? I'm guessing I really shouldn't get my hopes up that it'll be running when I'm there, it'll only be the fourth time I've been to a park and tried to ride that thing and failed.

Ouch. Going to be there in a little over a month and the Bat is still one of my favorites there...I imagine it's going to take longer than that to get track replaced, even if it doesn't turn into a major investigation like El Toro did. At least it looks like just one section of track, and no injuries, so hopefully it doesn't get the ride shut down for too long...

1 - I believe that's still the case, but if you're interested in the cave tour, consider doing the lanternlight tour they offer at night. It's an extra ticket, but not expensive; I think it was $15. It's much more fun to see the cave that way, and you get to go into places the normal tour doesn't as well. I absolutely loved it. 2- That's what I did last summer, and it worked out just fine! 3- It's near the entrance to Mystic River Falls, sort of diagonally across the main path there. Very hard to miss. (Which is good, you should never ever miss the cinnamon bread...) Other advice...I'm sure you're already planning on it but do NOT miss Outlaw Run at night. It's okay during the day. At night, though, /wow/.

I just want to make sure you know what you're planning here. If you're planning on going cross country already for any other reason, then all three of these are parks worth visiting, but if you just want to hit a few parks, you'd be spending considerably more time driving than at the parks doing that. If you just want to do three really good parks, there are a lot you could choose that are within a few hours of each other. (Cedar Point, King's Island, Six Flags Great America, maybe? Lots of options!)