ytterbiumanalyst

Awesome! That'll be during Bluegrass & Barbecue! You'll want to visit Red Gold Heritage Hall for lunch, next to Grand Expo. Just plan on that. Memorial Day weekend will be busy, but outside of that, usually the spring's not bad. Area schools let out around Memorial Day, but it totally depends on winter weather. I couldn't tell you at this point what day my own kids will be out of school. Keep in mind that with Silver Dollar City, the park can be very crowded yet ride queues are short. This is especially true during their music festivals, as a lot of people are there for the shows. Go to Powder Keg, Lost River, and American Plunge first; those three are the only ones that ever get hour-plus lines. Outlaw Run is very reliable these days, and consistently has waits of around 15 minutes. The park has learned to control the beast, and they are excellent at operations. They may be assigning rows, but you can always request a specific row. You want the front row of the last car for amazing air over the first drop and amazing hang time on the barrel rolls, and you want the front for amazing air everywhere else. Last, and most important of all, go through the cave. Even if you've done it before. Plan an hour of your day for that. The cave is the soul of the park, and it's the thing that ties the theme together. People miss that and assume the theme is "the 1880s." Not exactly. There used to be a real town on that spot in the 1880s, and the park's theme is based on the history of that very land. Not only is the cave beautiful; it shows you the real history behind the fictionalized one on the surface. Enjoy Branson!

That is awesome! Oh, Japan--you never disappoint!

http://nickelodeonuniverse.com/ride-maintenance-schedule/ Just its scheduled maintenance time.

They got Brain Drain to fit the theme. I am fully confident in their ability to theme this too.

What a great find! He has such a wonderful story, and it's a story I know a lot of us share. Thanks!

The only time I've been to Magic Springs, it was running well. It's definitely not a fair ride; much better quality than that. I don't really know about its reliability.

Cool, that's a good move for them. The one at Magic Springs is a high quality ride; they'll have a hit if they get the same kind. Should be fairly visible in that spot, as well; most of the rides and buildings around there are short, maybe 30 ft. at most.

Thank you so much for going and taking photos! Must have been really cool to see the top of the Immelman placed in person. It amazes me how they get something so huge put together with such small tolerances. You won't forget this experience.

Good call out. We're speaking here in opinions, and it is my ardent opinion that it is much preferable to have Boss. As for Vekoma, it depends. SFStL's two Vekomas are their two worst coasters (opinion!). However, SFGAm's Vekoma, Spacely's Sprocket Rockets, is actually pretty good. I'd rather ride it than Superman. I wasn't really trying to "call you out" or anything. I just wanted to point out that calling Superman: Ultimate Flight "one of the worst coasters ever made" and phrasing it as a fact was rather ridiculous, and in terms of your comment regarding Wikipedia, it was a joke. Sorry for the "business-speak." "Call out" in this sense is a salient point made at an appropriate time. It was meant as a compliment. As for Wikipedia, I'm aware that there are people who feel it's comical to make edits with clearly false or misleading information, to see if they can "get away with it." Challenging authority is something you eventually grow out of, especially when that authority is minor, such as the authority of a webmaster to control the content of their website. The editors of Wikipedia have a right to run their site however they wish, and making stupid edits like that just makes work for them to undo what you've done. It's the Internet version of graffiti. I don't find it humourous, but maybe I'm just getting old.

If Vekoma could build rides like Expedition Everest and Rock-N-Roller Coaster that everyone loves I'm sure they could rebuild an old Arrow coaster.And the reason I would rebuild an Arrow coaster is-because I could !! They did that once, and Ninja was the result. So....

I've always said I wish there was a way when posting to choose "opinions" or "facts/news". Then I'd pray for there to be an option of turning off ALL opinions. Wouldn't work. Too few people can distinguish fact from opinion.

Good call out. We're speaking here in opinions, and it is my ardent opinion that it is much preferable to have Boss. As for Vekoma, it depends. SFStL's two Vekomas are their two worst coasters (opinion!). However, SFGAm's Vekoma, Spacely's Sprocket Rockets, is actually pretty good. I'd rather ride it than Superman.

I honestly can't see tourists wasting a day in DC on Six Flags. I've been twice for a total of 17 days, and not once did I ever want to go to Six Flags. It's an awesome city, with so much to do. I still haven't seen all of the Smithsonian, and about half of my time in DC was spent there. The Library of Congress is an amazing experience, too. It's part museum of literary history, part shrine to the written word. All this in addition to its real function of providing Congress with any resource they could ever need to make informed decisions on bills (now if they'd just use it...). In all my two and a half weeks, I still haven't seen some cool stuff like the zoo and the American Indian museum. When I go back, and I will be back, I'd have a hard time justifying Six Flags with all that DC itself offers. Six Flags is really just for the locals, and that isn't in itself a bad thing. It could really shine as a regional park with the right decisions implemented.

Boss. 1000x Boss. Superman is one if the worst coasters ever made. Glad to see Wikipedia is getting a lot better about fixing the stupid edits quickly.

An inexplicable craving for tacos. This phenomenon led to Taco Bell's new advert campaign starring...

As my avatar would suggest, Monster at Adventureland is still my most anticipated. There is a good chance now that I may get to ride Storm Chaser and Valravn this year also, but even still, Monster is a first of its kind in the US, whereas the other two are not. Monster is criminally underanticipated in my opinion.

Yeah, if there's one thing you'll see absolutely everywhere in the US, it's fast food. Especially on a road trip, since there will be signs by every Interstate exit showing you the options available there, and even small towns will have at least a couple.

Thanks for sharing! I was 16 that summer, and I really tried to get my dad to take us to Cedar Point. He hates crowds, so we went to Florida instead (panhandle, not Orlampa). This video was basically of the park that I would have seen. I do find it kind of awesome that even though it was the second newest coaster at the time, they didn't even mention Mantis. Seems I didn't miss anything there.

16/20. Great to see the quiz back! These are fun!

Your choice of photo for Charlotte is a bit...odd. If that's what you're expecting it to look like, you're in for a surprise. That trip looks like a LOT of driving, so I hope you're prepared for it. A good analogy for Europe is that you're driving from Amsterdam to Moscow, and back. Things are very far apart in the US, and although that's less true in the East, it's still true. Especially on the segment Cincinnati to Dollywood to Charlotte, you'll be driving through some very sparse areas. That segment is probably also the most beautiful scenery of the whole trip, though, and very much worth it.

I got to spend some time in the waterpark last year, and would agree that this is an amazing addition. The three existing slides are great in an old school way; I don't think I've seen a mat slide in about 20 years. These new ones are just the opposite; very modern and a big attraction on their own. This may go overlooked, but it really shouldn't. Anybody planning a Dollywood and Kentucky Kingdom trip this year, make this place a stop. It's definitely worth it.

I got it! "W. B. Gus said tan hat, nird."