ytterbiumanalyst

Six Flags Fiesta Texas did away w/ the Season Pass processing center years ago too (not sure if that's true of all Six Flags parks). what they do now, is they give you your pass when you enter the park the 1st time (you scan your index finger, the gate attendant pulls out a card, scans it to tie it to your fingerprint, and then writes your name on it with Sharpie). We did not wait in any ticket booth lines, just walked up to the entrance gates, with the printout from online showing we bought the passes. tacky? yep. . but took seconds. (and if you want to link it to an online app, you don't even need to bring the card each time). the only wait we had was to activate the season dining pass, that was a line in a separate location. but to get the pass? took seconds during initial entry. maybe Dollywood would move to something like this? but as others said, at the end of the day, you're at a theme park. So I don't get the complaining, and tend not to. Yeah, Six Flags St. Louis does the same. There is still a season pass processing place in the middle of the park and at the entrance just in case you have a problem, but for the most part, it's processed on initial entry.

Oh wow, just looked that up, and it looks amazing. Thanks for the recommendation!

Those were actually cocoons that were being watched by Kraken. See, Godzilla is going to attack the Willis tower here in Chicago any minute now and Rahm paid SeaWorld to come up with a defense solution. Hopefully, we'll have at least 8 Mothras to keep us safe here from the impending doom of Godzilla.

^ Those aren't actually made by Knott's Berry Farm. They sold the brand name to Smucker's, and those cookies are industrially produced. My office has some in the break room convenience store, and yeah they're awful. If you want real Knott's stuff, look for Berry Market brand.

Kings Island and Silver Dollar City are a great combination, just count on a day of driving between them. Oceans of Fun is better than either Whitewater Branson or Schlitterbahn, plus there are a couple coasters there too. Prowler is legit, and Mamba and Patriot are worthwhile. Timber Wolf is much better with the retrack. I'd say those three would make a good trip, as long as you're okay with a one-way rental. Day 1: Kings Island, stay until close so you can ride Beast at night Day 2: Drive to Branson Day 3&4: Silver Dollar City, leave early second day for KC Day 5: Worlds of Fun/Oceans of Fun

Oh yeah, Boysenberry Festival! One of these days I must get out there to this event. Everything looks so good. And any theme park that serves pierogis is okay by me.

That really wouldn't be a bad thing to close the right half of the park and just have the left half open. We know Batman runs in the cold, and Dark Knight obviously can too. Superman, Joker, and Mardi Gras Hangover are in that same area too, so you've got five coasters clustered together. Add the kids area right behind there, and that's really plenty. You've got lots of flats scattered among those rides.

Vegetable Imgur or Giphy?

Well that's disappointing. Second best ride there after the log flume. We rode that a bunch of times and everyone loved it.

Nah, they're good in my book. When I was there, a couple of teenage boys cut the entire line by telling everyone they had friends just up there. She came by to personally escort them off the coaster. The whole line was thanking her, to which she said "It's my pleasure, all of you deserve to have a good time here." She's got the right attitude, and it shows in the park. Never met the head of maintenance, but Shivering Timbers runs like the Voyage and Thunderhawk is not only tolerable but fun. I'd say he knows what he's doing.

Looks fun! Always consult the experts. Compulsive gamblers are the experts at roulette, orcas are the experts at jet propulsion. That all checks out.

Park

You're not going to be disappointed. I've been alternating Holiwood Nights and Coastermania the last 4 years now, since both are within driving distance for me, and whichever one you pick is going to be great. Coastermania is in really high demand this year, but Holiday World consistently puts on a fantastic event. Take some photos so I can see what I missed!

I'm loving the triple meaning of SOP! 1. Standard Operating Procedure 2. "a thing given or done as a concession of no great value to appease someone whose main concerns or demands are not being met" 3. "a piece of bread dipped in gravy" I looked up SOP and saw the same the meanings, but read them in reverse order. I thought that it was #2 until I read #1. Speaking of Holiday World, I pulled the trigger for their Holiwood Nights event and will be going to HW for the first time ever in June. Really looking forward to it! Awesome! It's a great event, and a great way to experience Holiday World. You're going to have a great time.

Seems like proper expectations to me. I'm going for the first time also in a few weeks, and this is pretty much what I'm expecting from it as well.

Is your name Curt? 'Cause that's a lot of schilling.

Sure, agreed, to an extent. But where do you draw the line? Without guest feedback, bad habits will just get worse and worse. How long can a park let the guest experience deteriorate before it’s no longer fun? If you went to a steakhouse and ordered/paid for a porterhouse, then after waiting an hour the server brought you a dried up chicken leg, would you just eat it with the attitude of, “Hey, I came to a restaurant and got to eat. I could be a starving child in Africa!” I don’t think so. Hopefully management will take all the feedback they’ve been receiving recently and make positive changes. Ever been to the grand opening of a restaurant? Servers often are unfamiliar with the menu, there are many inefficiencies, orders can be made incorrectly, etc. These often lead to waits for tables. Seasonal parks experience this sort of thing every year, since they're dealing with largely all new staff. I do think the issues with Dollywood ticketing are legit. I also experienced issues getting my tickets and misinformation and lack of communication between the DreamMore ticket desk and the park's main ticket desk. Otherwise, everything else in that rant was just complaining. I disagree with your statement that a business won't know what to do without customer feedback. I dislike greatly this culture that says everyone's opinion is equally valid. Horsesh*t. Expert opinions are very valuable; the opinions of the ill-informed are not. If someone doesn't know what they're talking about, their opinion is worthless. Now, customer engagement with a business can be quite important, depending on your business model. For this reason, a lot of Internet retailers try to solicit comments, not to base their business decisions on but rather so customers will feel more connected and ultimately buy more stuff. What they're writing doesn't matter; what matters is that they're writing. Cynical? Hell yes. Welcome to the world of e-commerce.

Yep, we did that on a Saturday in May last year, and it was awesome. Minimal waits early in the morning, so that we didn't even use the TImeSaver then, just waited 5 minutes in the regular lines and saved TimeSaver for later in the afternoon. Even if you don't have TimeSaver, you should be good with that strategy.

Ballast Point IPA. A bit lighter than most IPAs, really like it. Ballast Point makes good stuff, just usually expensive around here. This went on sale, $9 for 6.

Great song, great band. Alt-Rock 4eva!

Holy crap, new Giraffes? Giraffes! [youtu_be] [/youtu_be]

30% bigger, 30% loopier! It's loopiest loop coaster yet!

No reasonable person should put any stock in Trip Advisor reviews. How about this for improvement? 1) Amusement parks are fun. 2) You're going to an amusement park to have fun. 3) You don't have to have everything perfect to have fun. 4) You can choose to have fun. 5) Finding things to complain about takes energy that is much better spent having fun.

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