ytterbiumanalyst

Well, I for one am stoked to ride Goliath Hawk!

^ Agreed. You don't need every single ride to be the most extreme thing around. You want to have something for everyone, and this budget cut of a ride absolutely fulfills that.

Awesome! The list was pretty solid this year. All 10 of those parks deserved to be there.

Just got my season tickets! Who else is excited for the new season at Valleyfair!?

USA Today Named Silver Dollar City the Best Theme Park No. 1: Silver Dollar City - Branson, Missouri Silver Dollar City, with its 1880s mining town theme, attracts some two million visitors annually with its combination of entertainment, festivals, 100 resident craftsmen and more than 40 rides and attractions. The park is also home to Time Traveler, the world's fastest, steepest and tallest spinning coaster. https://www.10best.com/awards/travel/best-theme-park-2023/

This is something I've thought a lot about, especially with the shenanigans in Florida and Tennessee. Back when Mike Pence was governor of Indiana, he did some pretty awful stuff that caused a bit of an uproar. Holiday World was pretty quick to say "They don't speak for us" and still support basic human decency, and though some of that is obviously out of not wanting to lose your customer base, I think it was genuine. There are a lot of good people in Tennessee and Florida. Disney has been done wrong by DeSantis, and I don't really quite understand what he's going for there. Just really seems like he thinks hating vulnerable people will win him votes, and he's willing to harm his state's biggest source of income to do it. Just bonkers. But DeSantis is not Florida, and from what I understand, he's not actually very popular there. As for us, we've spent a lot of time and money and effort getting ourselves to a safer place to raise a family, and a lot of it had to do with the political climate in Missouri becoming more hostile to folks like us. I think the next few vacations will probably be around the Great Lakes area, but that's more because things up here are easier to get to than they used to be than it is out of a desire to spend money in states that are aligned with our politics. Minnesota is a good place full of good people, but it's got its wackos too. Everywhere does. We'll probably get to Florida eventually. We were going to in 2020, canceled it for obvious reasons, and really haven't seen a good opportunity to reschedule yet. It'll happen when the time is right. I guess that's my long winded way of saying do what you feel is best. Whatever you decide, if you decided with good intentions, then you did all right.

Scored some tickets this morning to go see the Cure at the X in June. So it's been a Cure sort of day.

Valleyfair is not a two-day park. Do one day at VF and one at NU, or one at VF and one exploring the Twin Cities. There's a lot of great stuff around here, depending on what you like.

Just got caught up on this thread. So sorry to hear of Nick's passing. I cannot imagine how much that sucks. Glad you're working through it with a therapist. Paris is a wonderful city, isn't it? You hit all the good stuff! European Knoebels...I had no idea this existed, and I've just added it to the ever growing list of places to go whenever I can get back to Europe. That Charles L******gh Hotel looks absolutely unbelievable. They really went all out on an incredible experience. If only they had chosen ANYONE else to name it after... Sheesh, can't we collectively agree white supremacists are bad? Absolutely every photo of Phantasialand looks like it could be framed. I don't know how they do it, but I'm glad they do! Lots of good stuff here, too much to comment on individually. Glad you had a great trip!

Reviving this 'cause I got myself a new skyline!

https://www.ky3.com/2022/12/19/osha-fines-silver-dollar-city-after-death-maintenance-employee-this-summer/ OSHA fines Silver Dollar City after the death of a maintenance employee this summer BRANSON, Mo. (KY3) - OSHA is fining Silver Dollar City over $14,000 after a maintenance employee died in July. According to the U.S. Department of Labor’s website, the penalty is $14,502 for the incident. In July, an OSHA spokesperson shared with KY3 that the maintenance man was hospitalized on July 20 with head injuries allegedly sustained during maintenance and testing of a rollercoaster and died of his blunt force head trauma injuries on July 21. The man had worked at Silver Dollar City since 2017. Silver Dollar City released a statement to KY3 News: The safety of all Silver Dollar City hosts and guests is a responsibility we take with the utmost seriousness. We have worked with OSHA over the past several months to review the employee accident that took place earlier this year, which included discussions regarding our voluntary revisions to safeguarding measures in restricted areas. OSHA has reviewed and accepted these changes, training for which has been implemented with the appropriate personnel. According to the OSHA inspection process, when OSHA issues a citation to an employer, it also offers the employer an opportunity for an informal conference with the OSHA Area Director to discuss citations, penalties, abatement dates, or any other information pertinent to the inspection. The agency and the employer may work out a settlement agreement to resolve the matter and to eliminate the hazard.

Looks really great! I enjoyed their waterpark when I was there a few years ago. Glad to see them expanding it.

We canceled our Six Flags membership when it became clear than Covid wasn't going to be over soon. We may pick up one of the new annual passes this year, as Great America is our new closest Six Flags, and we really enjoyed that one last time we were in Chicago. $74 may be higher than usual for Six Flags, but it's cheaper than Valleyfair's lowest tier pass, and both parks' middle tier pass is $100. I really don't think this pricing structure is the end of the world.

Outlaw Run in the dark over Thanksgiving weekend.

Oh wow, this was unexpected! Glad you loved Discovery Cove. Journey to Atlantis is something else, isn't it? Man Sea World is fantastic.