prozach626

The BBQ place if you want to have the option of eating a little less than total shit. I think we got BBQ salads with dressings full of sugar and preservatives. There's another place that sells wraps and sandwiches, for even more pretend.

Makes sense. Land clearing and footers are hard to come by right now.

I also heard one of the horses for the carousel is complete. Is the train track still off? It should be good to go by at least this time next year, if not. Let's just hope they're not refurbishing the rail cars.

I like that, though. I feel like it contributes to the line never being more than a couple train wait every time I go.

Michelin Pilot Sport 4S, so skid pads. It's a WRX, so it feels like it's on rails. (I wish)

My garage opener has also been fixed.

Stop it.

American Dad review: Went to the park last weekend. Bummer. The objective was to get our 37.5" (not that I'm keeping track...) three-year-old daughter on Wizzer and Little Dipper. Huge fail. I think I pushed her a little too hard prior to this. Log Flume at Holiday World. Howler (Roller Skater), which fucking sucked. Pilgrim's Plunge and Grand Exposition Coaster (Roller Skater). The Roller Skaters were terrible introductions. She hated Howler, because it thrashed her around. She wanted off after the first lap. She said it was too bumpy. I really hoped Grand Exposition Coaster would be different, which was really stupid on my part. Same result, only three laps. After that, she was afraid every ride would be bumpy. But, I showed her videos of Whizzer and Little Dipper well before the trip. She couldn't get enough of them, but too bad since we limit her TV/Screen time... She said she would go on them, but asked if they were bumpy. I told them they may be a little bumpy, but not like the other roller coasters, which we had previously dubbed, "trash." She talked about roller coasters so much leading up to the trip, Saturday. (She still does...) As soon as we got to the park at opening, we went straight to Whizzer. She threw a freaking fit and refused to go near the queue. Started screaming, crying, and ran away. She cried and said it was too bumpy. I was disappointed, but I didn't force her to go. I grabbed my only two coaster rides of the day on Raging Bull, in the back row. I made sure to sit on the outside to wave to my daughter and my wife as I went up the lift. Both rides were one train waits. Both of them were worth the trip itself. Not riding many coasters at this point in my life really makes me appreciate the rides I do get so much more. Raging Bull was no exception. I still hold that the first drop is one of the best in the industry, while screaming into the deafening tunnel. My wife and daughter rode Chubasco next to Raging Bull during my second ride. Then, they went to the carousel for two laps before I got there. My daughter wanted a third, so she and I hopped on the upper deck. She graduated to wanting to ride the horse herself, and wanting me to ride next to her. That's an achievement in the books, and was much more fun than standing alongside her. When we went by Little Dipper, she wanted to watch it, but she also got really scared and said it was too bumpy. Later, when I told her we were going on it, she tried to jump out of her stroller. (Probably the last year with that bulky thing, thankfully.) I blame her fear of big rides two things. First, myself. I pushed her too hard, too soon. Second, the Roller Skaters. I firmly believe these are a terrible introduction to roller coasters. At the very least, I can attest to them being unsuitable for princess'ish type little girls. Bravery isn't her strong suit, but neither was mine at that age. Just as our second day of Silver Dollar City in July, I absolutely did not make her ride or do anything she didn't want to. I'm following her own comfortability path. Sure, I'll nudge her toward rides and slightly try to convince her, but forcing it with her personality will not work. Self parenting reflection aside, we did a lot of the kids shit. I had a massive headache I couldn't kick for most of the day, so I really didn't ride anything else. Mediocre chicken strips and fries helped out later in the day. I guess I didn't realize how hungry I was. My wife and daughter did everything in the old Wiggles Land, except for the pirate ship play structure, which was closed. And by everything, I mean she even ate shit on the splash pad in an area which was slimy and needed power washed badly. I watched three other kids do the same, while sitting on the bench nursing my headache. They were tougher than our princess, so I laughed on the inside. Eventually, they put up slippery when wet signs in that spot... Classy. I had a lot of time to observe the area. Everything looked terribly run down. The tarps didn't exist anymore, but the rusty wires remained. Paint was peeling and chipping off of everything else. It was no match for our earlier trips to Holiday World and Silver Dollar City. In fact, visually, nothing was. I saw a ton of overgrown weeds. The "all new area" just looked awkward and half baked. Paint on rides was faded. Several of the airplanes on Red Baron wouldn't fly. SBNO Condor and Demon looked terrible. Other rides were closed. The Chevrolet display was over the top and blocked an entire pathway. The quick money grab went a little too far and it looked like shit among the southwest themeing. The arcade games shoved in the abandoned game booths looked like total trash. They need to trim back some of the trees/weeds/bushes around the train. You can't see shit. On top of that, some of the clientele were terrible. I usually have no issued with people, but the frequent smell of weed and fruity vape juice was ridiculous. We kept smelling weed in the kids area near the SBNO splash battle. We figured out where it was coming from when we saw some women sitting on the ground using our fucking stroller to block the view of them. I went and got the stroller. I stood over them for several seconds just looking at them, making it as awkward as I possibly could. What can you say? Part of the frustration came from something awesome that happened earlier in the day. When I walked from Raging Bull to meet up with my family, some kids were walking toward me in the opposite direction. Some chubby short teenage fuck put his hand an inch away from my face, said some slang shit I couldn't understand, and kept walking all in one motion. I stopped, turned around, said some things I shouldn't have. Neither him, nor his friend ever even looked back. Probably a good thing. WTF though. To be an invincible teen these days... Must be nice. The end result of any confrontation would just end up with me being banned from every Six Flags park, regardless of the situation. (Is that such a bad thing?) If it turned physical, even if I wasn't the aggressor, I'd probably lose my job and end up in jail. Totally messed up world. Adults are totally helpless in those situations. We also had to deal with constant swearing in front of our kid. We experienced more than usual people not moving out of the way in groups 10 wide. Again with the vaping and weed. (On a side not to that, as someone who has never smoked or vaped anything, I actually think it's fair that the park has a couple designated smoking areas. Parks and chains not making this small accommodation is ridiculous.) Six Flags employees were being Six Flags employees. The service was a far cry from Holiday World and Silver Dollar City. As one example, some dude's card wasn't working in front of me when I went to buy some water. He left for quite a while after yelling at the female he was with to "get the other card." Meanwhile, the kid at the register just waited and didn't say a word to me. Instead, he was gossiping with a manager about personal/work crap. Finally, after seeing what was probably my unconscious defeated unintentional completely blank look on my face, he addressed me and explained he'd be with me in a minute. That's all the common courtesy I wanted, bro. Seriously. Of course the dude with the maxed out card didn't apologize, like I would have done in his spot. He actually picked up a couple more items from the shop while I waited. I hadn't been to this park in years and I was looking forward to it. Unlike other parks I visit, I almost always have at least one WTF experience with service or a client. The weed thing and the hand in my face were the two most fucked up things I've experienced at a park since an employee refused to serve me a beer after insisting my Driver's License wasn't mine. Later, she shut me down after two beers over a few hours. (That story is buried in this thread somewhere.) I feel uncomfortable at this park. I avoid drama at all costs and at this park it's almost always unavoidable for me. Why should I even bother since I have SDC, KI, WoF, IB (yet to go), KK, and other parks within hours of me? (SFSTL is my home park, but it's... SFSTL) I won't be back for a while. I still haven't ridden Maxx Force, but even with a couple of my favorites like Raging Bull and Goliath, the juice isn't worth the squeeze. Anyway, I want to end this with some positives about our short Friday evening - Sunday morning Chicagoland trip. The Raging Bull crew was top notch killing it. Operators with that kind of energy at opening is rare. They dispatched before the countdown timer, for the four trains I saw. A-team for sure. Great job. Despite no big rides, the girl was great and further graduated to riding a lot of the kids rides by herself. My knees were thankful. I was bummed she didn't raise her count to five coasters, but having four parks under her belt at three-years-old is pretty good. She had a lot of fun. Malnati's didn't disappoint. The beer was cold, the pizza was delicious, and the waitress was top notch. She made sure our daughter's food came out ASAP, which parents will understand. Hyatt in Deerfield continued to be great. We've stayed there a few times. We got upgraded to a suite due to our kickass "globalist" card status. Badaya Sushi in Deerfield was excellent. The servers were the best with our daughter we've ever experienced. They interacted with her stuffed animals, talked to her a lot, and constantly entertained us. It was almost the point of awkwardness, but our daughter was very entertained, which is what counts. Apparently I'm a "Yelp Elite" member, so I left five star reviews and large tips for both places. Outside of the park, everyone was really pleasant. I know a lot of trash talk is thrown around about Chicagoland rudeness, but honestly every time we go up there we usually have great interactions with non-park people. So basically... aside from Six Flags, everything was great...

We took the kid to Great America last weekend. Paint chipping, overgrown weeds, and closed attractions were the norm throughout the kids areas. KI, and CF in general, continue to shit all over Six Flags to the point where it's worth spending an extra hour or so in the car to go to KI, instead of SFGam.

It still might take less time than SFSTL's carousel refurbishment.

Even worse, the motor on my garage is blown. No sympathy.

The roller skater at Silver Dollar City. I'm only now riding these things, because I have a child. They're absolute painful trash for my daughter and I. I had to brace her neck when we rode... Passing from now on.

They may have bit off more than they could chew.

I think I got banned from that group a while ago.

But, they don't sound as cool. Like a 4 cylinder Mustang vs. v8 Coyote..... Dead serious.

All good, bro. Story of my (internet) life.

Let's just be thankful RMC isn't in charge of the launch.

Why don't you just tell us how much better you really think you are?

Can we just skip the bullshit "Here's how it could have been better" comments and go straight into the "Is this a new credit" debate?

I was curious about the vlog, though. Then, I saw it was 54 minutes and bailed 13 seconds in. Ain't nobody got time for that. Pretty good video, aside from all that.

^It has the most underrated back seat first drop. Thanks for the info.

American Dad review: My wife, three-year-old daughter, and I went to the park two days last week. Eve is just over 37", and SDC was perfect for her. It was hot as hell, but we didn't mind. The park has a ton of shade. Emily and I had been to the park multiple times prior to this. Eve came with us last year, but was too small to ride anything outside of the rides for very small children. She's still too little to tackle those hills and we didn't want to bring our stroller from home. It takes up a shit ton of space in our Forester. We rented one for around $20.00 at the park. It was fine. Fireman's landing is great. Mostly, because Emily and I could drink Nitro Coffee from the nearby Starbucks while sitting in the shade, while Eve was entertained by the splash pad. She was tall enough for several rides in that area. All of the kids loved the Dalmatian ride and the swings. The ride operators were enthusiastic. We never had a chance to mess around in the firehouse ball play area. Be prepared, the balloon spinning ride nearby is no joke when riding backwards. I wanted to puke. I'm now being subjected to all of the spinning rides I've been avoiding over the years. It's worth it, but damn. I think I am starting to build up a tolerance again, thank God. Sometimes Emily and I take turns, which helps a lot. Flooded mine was great. The guns didn't work for shit, but Eve wanted to just look at everything, anyway. The train was good. She called one of the robbers "Trash," just like I told her to. It was appropriate given the circumstances, so I had to take advantage of it. I also made sure to ask my wife if the people who did a barrel roll had to pay extra. It was not appropriate given the circumstances, but I hope at least a few people heard me. Pilgrim's Plunge scared the hell out of Eve, but she said she liked it. I don't think she wanted to ride it, but we did it anyway. This might offend people, but it clearly worked with me. As per usual, "I liked it, but it was scary." She was proud of herself for being brave, but she didn't want to ride it again. Still a win. I told her we'd never have to ride it again if she didn't want to. It's like trying food. You don't have to eat it again, but I want you to at least try it. However, that did NOT work with the kiddie roller coaster in the Grand Exposition area. She had a bad taste in her mouth from Howler at HW, which was her first roller coaster ever. It was brutally rough, and I was hoping it was isolated to that ride. Now, I officially hate these roller skaters. It beat the shit out of us, and I'm afraid Eve will never want to ride a roller coaster again. Because of this, on day two we let her ride whatever the hell she wanted to with zero pressure to ride anything she didn't want to. After she got the shit beat out of her on day one by the roller skater, I was surprised on day two when she decided to ride the elephant flying/spinning thing ride and the spinning pirate ships, which hauled ass. Unfortunately, we had to take turns and ride those multiple times. She wouldn't say a word on the pirate ship ride, which was by far the fastest thing she's ever been on, but as soon as we were done she wanted to ride again. We rode the splash battle and got totally screwed. No one sat behind us, which left our flank completely vulnerable. This park has an almost complete lack of shitty people, so no one sprayed Eve and everyone pretty much concentrated on me. As much as it made the next hour a miserable sopping wet shit show, I really appreciated it. One dad even made sure to tell his two little boys, "Don't spray the girl!" We did a lot of re-rides on the spinning crap over our two days. We closed out our time at the park in the Grand Exposition area, while crunched for time due to dinner reservations. We knew we were screwed when she saw the hopping frog ride, or whatever it was. We thought the other rides were closed, until the butterfly/caterpillar ride started going, which CRUSHED my legs. I'm a fit guy, but I have no idea how I got in that thing. I was staring at my watch and thought we were all done and ready to run for the exit when the God damned lady bug spinning ride started making loud beeps and whistling sounds. There was no escape, and Eve really wanted to ride it. After that, we had to double-time it while I carried her on our way to the car in order to make our dinner reservation. Both days Eve was passed out before we left the parking lot, leaving me carrying her into the restaurants with her sleeping on my shoulder at first. I rode Wildfire and Outlaw Run once during our visit. The lines were non-existent, so I went for it. Both were awesome. Outlaw run remains one of my favorite wooden coasters, and my favorite RMC. I didn't care to ride more coasters, as it would have taken time away from my family. Honestly, at this point it isn't about us at all anymore, and it's way more fun just to let Eve experience new things. We still try to eat healthy(er) during the day at parks. You can't find anything that great for you, but you can at least do better than chicken strips/burgers/pizza/etc. We had wraps at Buckshots day one. (wraps love pretending to be health food) Day two we ate at the BBQ place, which was decent. (meat/vegetables) We were in the area five days, so we also did the Dixie Stampede. I was bored out of my mind, but the kid was mesmerized, which is all that matters. We got the VIP seats in the front and my lap was numb by the time we left. Try eating food with your fingers with a kid propped up on your lap. At least we were able to eat 'kind of' healthy. We also did a Top of the Rock attraction where you could ride golf carts on a path through the woods. It went through several caves and down steep kills. There were also a few points near the waterfalls, where a few inches of water flowed over the path. Of course we went full throttle through it. The carts had a large mounted tablet on the dashboard. It had integrated GPS which told you where you were on the path and what was coming next. F*** the guy who decided having bear sounds in the first tunnel would be a good idea. We were frightfully asked the remainder of the time, "Is there a bear here?" I had to repeat countless time, "Eve, there's no bear here." The best part was when a bar menu popped up on the screen. Along the path you pulled up a bar in a cave and could buy a drink for the rest of the ride. After that, I let Eve control the accelerator. 10/10 would recommend the golf cart tour. It lasted about an hour. We stayed at a Hyatt resort in the past. This time they decided summer would be a good time to renovate their splash pad and pool area, so we stayed at Stormy Point. It's about ten minutes from SDC. It consists of mostly two bedroom cottages, and everything is themed to Nantucket. Ours was two-stories with an open living room area, full kitchen, shaded porch, etc. It had a massive pool/splash pad area with a pretty big water slide. It was too big for Eve, but luckily she only made me go down it twice. As a result, I also made her ask Emily to go down it, as well. The place also had a full bar and restaurant pool-side, with wait staff. We spent two days by the pool. We took Eve to the strip to ride in the go-karts on the last night. You can tell the shitty crowd rolls in at night, so I wish we'd gone during the day. It was fun for her. Emily did some research on local places to eat, instead of tourist traps. Here's what we ended up with: Downing Street Pour House, 20 minutes away in Hollister. It had some traditional English (I think) food, and other common bar foods. I got a pastrami platter, with cabbage and potatoes. I wanted to try something different, and it paid off huge. Little Hacienda: This was kind of a gourmet Mexican restaurant. The atmosphere was nice and the food was as good as I can remember it being in the southwest. I got a margarita flight. The guacamole was fresh and outstanding. The place wasn't your typical copy/paste quick serve Mexican restaurant that every town has. We did this place twice. Don't go in sweaty park clothes. We made that mistake the first night. It's not an upscale restaurant, but it is on the nicer side compared to a typical place on the strip. Mr. Gilberti's Place: I had no idea what this place is doing in the middle of the sticks in Hollister, Missouri. It's traditional Italian food with true authentic Chicago style pizza being the main focus. The Chicago style pan pizza was incredible. It's out of the way, but a must visit. We did it last year, and it was just as good. Call ahead, because it's a small place and it gets packed. It has the old style red/white striped table cloth dive atmosphere. We ended up leaving with several stuffed animals, because Dad buys her way too much crap. Next year we're doing Dollywood, as long as she's 39" for the family coasters. A quick trip to Great America is coming up in a couple weeks. I'm hoping Whizzer and Little Dipper will build some faith in roller coasters for Eve, if she will even get on them after the f***ing trash roller skaters. Cheers.

We're going to the park next month. Are Whizzer and Little Dipper at all rough? Our little girl is 37" tall, but the two roller skaters we've been on at HW an SDC have made her afraid of roller coasters. They're total garbage and absolutely rough. She calls them "too bumpy" and after her last ride her legs were shaking she was so freaked out. She keeps asking me if those rides are "bumpy." I'm hoping to restore some of her faith, or I'm going to start puking on all of the spinning rides I've been subjected to.

You're mistaken. All I have heard over the years is "It can never be done."

Yet, Dollywood is still jealous.