CNYCoasterguy11

How long is the ride time on this because I just rode Pandemonium at Great Escape last week and it had a ridiculously short ride cycle. You maybe got 2-3 full rotations while it was at it's most vertical point. Overall it felt like and looked like it maybe lasted 45 seconds from start to finish. Hopefully this is longer being indoors and having a story attached.

I don't think that is the actual requirement, according to the park map I got memorial day weekend, if your between 36" and 48" you have to be with someone over 54"

Hit up the Great Escape today with my daughter for Memorial Day Weekend. Easily the most crowded I've seen the park in recent memory, but of course it was a holiday weekend. Nothing was too bad wait time wise, maybe a few cycles on flats and longer than usual on the coasters. Comet had the longest line of rides I rode today with a full station wait, as well as the one time skip the line riders who took up one car about every other train. Bobsleds was not running all day, not sure if that was the case the rest of the weekend. Was able to ride Flashback which surprisingly wasn't too rough, Canyon Blaster on the other hand was mostly trash. They have really let this ride go, that is when they actually run it. One train ops which isn't surprising being Six Flags. One thing I noticed is the weird shin bars on it, made for a very uncomfortable ride and awkward at that. Flats all were running well other than Supernova which was closed, which is too bad since it's one of my favorites there. Pandamonium is a joke as the cycle is super short even for Six Flags. On the other hand Greezed Lightning ran a great cycle including a long stall at the top. Food service was mediocre with lots of long lines and slow service. Food was crap as usual and very over priced. At least at Disney you get a decent portion size for the money. The "new" Hurricane Harbor looks ok, nothing over the top but they added some new decor and paint jobs too the older slides including a makeover of the splash house into a tiki theme from the old Paul Bunyan theme. The old Wiggles World/Kidzopolis section is officially now Monsoon Lagoon and part of the water park. It features the old plane ride, two splash pads (one wasn't finished) and the new bucket blasters. The old tea cup ride is now in Timbertown but not up yet, the car ride appears to be gone. All in all not a bad day, and my first visit as a member so I will be back at some point hopefully when crowds are more like I'm used too. New Bucket Blasters New "Map" of Hurricane Harbor

Cuda Falls!...until they bring it back of course ; )

It sounds like it's going to take time for Darien Lake to get back to being a decent park. I remember visiting during the last few years of original Six Flags operations and also a few years into the next group after the de-branding. It was never that great even under Six Flags, it just maybe had a little more money each year put into it. With time the new Six Flags can make this park at least a step above where it has been the past 10 years or so. They are not going to just dump a ton of investment into the park year one, they want to see if this park will be worth it. Skyscreamer is a nice start and sort of like a good faith payment but let's see how they do when they hit their stride come end of June and July. If the crowds come out and they see even a slight attendance jump, then Six Flags may invest more into the more mundane things like paint and gardens etc. I'm no Darien Lake fan boy but I do try to remain optimistic, I know Six Flags is not the gold standard but it is hard to believe despite the opening weekend hiccups that they can be worse than PARC and Premier. These things take time, and most parks especially smaller regional parks struggle early in the season with staffing and operations, it's the nature of the beast when you rely on kids essentially to operate rides and shops. It can only go up from here.

I remember this last summer at Kings Dominion they had a guy on Twisted Timbers with a headset/microphone giving instructions of when to pull down and what not. It was actually really efficient. I'm sure SF won't try this but it would be beneficial to have someone on a loudspeaker giving direction that everyone could hear.

Nobody should want that ride, it has been a nightmare ever since it opened, the S&S free spins are a better successor to the Zac Spin models any day.

What kind of theming is the article referring to? The usual Warner Bros IP theming for a Six Flags park? Or more like generic theming? Edit : Also, by "paint treatments", do they mean repaints of roller coasters? There most likely talking about the two water parks becoming Hurricane Harbors, not Darien Lake as much. Screamscape reported on this today as well earlier

This is truly a sad day in the coaster world, what was once (and still somewhat was) a unique coaster experience is lost forever. There really wasn't anything else like it, and Intamin only made 3 inverted coasters to begin with. Of course like many revolutionary rides the maintenance costs finally caught up to it, not too mention it's capacity was never the greatest. One of my all time favorites though, will easily be missed. With that being said, if they decide to keep the mountain, we may just see a clone or something similar to Canada's Wonderland Guardian ride since they too had a mountain to work with. Not sure how feasible that would be but it could work and makes sense. If not, they should remove the mountain for future expansion whatever that may be. Possibly a Mack coaster like at Carowinds, who knows.

We went last year in the middle of August and lines were fine, the only one that had any real wait was Invadr due to its lower capacity and being the "family" coaster draws in more people. Even Verbolten wasn't bad, for a front row seat I only waited maybe 20-30 minutes, and they were running four trains which helped. The only other ride to have a bad wait was Le Scoot due to the heat, but Pompeii was always short. I have also been in the early part of May and lines were non-existent.

Cedar Fair doesn't need to add rides here every year because the park does so well financially. It is usually one of if not the best performing park each year. And when you think about it, there is not a ton of competition nearby to really draw people away. They have a good thing going right now. If it aint broke don't fix it. The nearest large parks are between 3 and a half to 4 and a half hours away. Many average people wont drive that far just for an amusement park. Not to mention anyone North of the Park has even further to drive. Cedar Fair knows they have a good thing going. Sure it would be nice to add a ride every couple of years just to keep things fresh, but people don't seem to mind and keep flocking here.

Went to the park today with my family and had a great time even with Phoenix running one train. The rides were great as always and we really enjoyed the Halloween decorations. My daughter who is only 4 almost 5 loved the wooden coasters and even liked Twister a little more than Phoenix (may have to disown her). To be honest Twister was running great, a little rough at times but really hauled, and Phoenix was Phoenix, just a great ride. It was my first time on flying turns and it wasn't bad but pretty short for the long wait. Certainly a unique experience though. I also ride Impulse for the first time and man was it awesome, it's a tad shirt but packs a ton into a compact layout and has a really good first drop. More parks should invest in in these rides especially smaller to medium sized parks. The park overall was fantastic as always and I love how cheap everything is compared to other parks. Not many places you can get a shirt for $10 and not be a clearance item. My daughter loved every minute of it and was an instant fan of the coasters, another reason Knoebels is so great. Not many parks have such big coasters with a 42" height limit, so she was getting her first real taste of major coasters. Yet she still loves the simple joys of the kiddie rides and making friends while waiting in line. Can't wait to go back, hopefully it won't be too long.

It looks like based on the artwork they will be bringing back their fiesta express roller coaster.

This is a nice first addition for the "new" Six Flags Darien Lake, my only knock on this choice is that Fantasy Island has their own flyer called Flight. The big difference though is the SFDL version will be about 100 feet taller. It's a small thing, and most people probably would never notice. I personally am not a huge fan only because I hate being that high up in a tiny swing chair lol. But maybe it will draw crowds from the coasters.

Of people who have been, what is usually more crowded, Covered bridge festival or Hallo-fun? We are thinking of pairing up a trip to sesame place for their Halloween stuff with Knoebels. Columbus day weekend gives us more time but if the following weekend is less busy we would go then.

Another Intamin would be great but if it is a B&M I would rather see HP add a Dive Machine as opposed too a hyper coaster. I love Dive Machines even though most are short. I just got back from Virginia and riding Griffon, and I remembered how much I love that first drop. Not really sure what else they could do that's 220' other than something record setting from B&M if it was a different model like a flyer or Wing. On a side note, I have too say that I prefer Skyrush too i305. After recently riding i305 I forgot how intense it is and maybe I'm just getting old but those restraints didn't make it any better. If it had just a lap bar system it would be much better. Twisted Timbers is easily my number one at the park.

No not really, the Albany area and North of that doesn't receive nearly as much snow as Buffalo or CNY/Tug Hill. I think DL would run the HITP as long as it wasn't buried under 3 feet of snow. But many years the worst snow is after the holidays

I honestly wouldn't put HITP at Darien Lake until seeing how it does at SFGAm. They have similar winter snow totals being on great lakes where Springfield and even Great Escape if they out one there are more in land and get cold but not as snowy. I live just east of Syracuse so I know a little about snow especially lake effect. It would be neat to try it but you also have to think that it will be dependent on locals visiting because people coming from further away may also avoid it if snow becomes an issue. The NYS Thruway is not real enjoyable in a snow storm. Let's just see how Fright Fest goes and work off of that.

That ride is pretty intense for a kids park, we just went on the flying machine at BGW and it wasn't nearly as intense and also much shorter. My daughter was not impressed with the BGW one after riding the SP one in June.

So I've been in Williamsburg this week and have been visiting Busch Gardens most days here and of the three days so far this week (Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday) Tempesto has been down. Can anyone tell me if it has been down for awhile and/or if it is a recent thing? Does this happen a lot with it? I really want to get the credit before I leave and I have all the others.

Not that it will probably happen, at least no time soon, they should expand out near RoS and rename it Superman of course. They also should make that a DC comics section with a new ride or two or just move a current ride to make it a "themed" section. I don't see them ever bringing back the stunt show since no six flags has one anymore. They honestly should remove that building to expand over that way unless they need it for storage I guess.

I have never understood this rule( I know why they have it), because really the rest of the park isn't exactly silent or quiet even nearby. This stipulation could actually hurt their chances of a new coaster unless they place it somewhere else in the park which kind of defeats the purpose of removing the bobsleds.

That is correct, and honestly it would have been better to place it somewhere at Great Escape than to give it to a park that already had a Batman Clone. It wouldn't have been the best but it would be better than Canyon Blaster or Steamin' Demon.

If they really do remove the Bobsleds then they most certainly will need a new major coaster because that would drop the park down to 4 large coasters and 1 kiddie coaster. It was bad enough when they removed Nightmare even if it was a ride capacity nightmare (no pun intended). Alpine isn't the best, but its still better than the other offerings aside from Comet. If the park could get a decent coaster to match Comet it wouldn't matter as much if the other coasters are terrible. Im glad they have been expanding their flat ride collection which was really lacking for years, but it's time for a big coaster addition, and not just a water coaster either.

Don't really know why they would close down their number one ride just to prep for next year, that doesn't make any sense at all. Most likely it's a normal issue that needs repair.