ytterbiumanalyst

I don't know how accurate this is, as it comes from just asking a quick question of the staff when they had a second, but as I understand it, the most common issue is when the second train is stacked, the controls are very fussy about when the trains are released from the brakes, and a safety switch is triggered very easily if one of the trains is released at the wrong time. This trigger then requires the maintenance staff to inspect the ride, then it must be re-tested, which can cause delays.

French's isn't mustard. THIS is mustard.

No they wont. Media day as planned for the 22nd with an official opening the 23 I believe. They will be lucky if they have this ride testing by then. Media day is the 22nd, season pass preview day is the 23rd, and opening day is the 24th of May. However, it's looking like Goliath will open in June. Won't be the first time SF opens their new ride in June, or the last. We played it safe and planned our trip for July.

Awesome! Trees make a good park that much better. With good tree cover, you can still have a good time even at 90 or 100 degrees. The sweltering Houston summers demand that this park have as many trees as possible.

I didn't see any construction when we were there last weekend. There's a new game stall by the Barn Swing and a new popcorn stand at the Frisco Barn. That's about it. Oh, yes, and there were WAY fewer benches in Half Dollar Holler. You know, the place where we ABSOLUTELY NEED MORE BENCHES. You didn't notice the massive clearing behind GG that everyone's been talking about? Haven't seen any new photos since the last MiG update. It'll be a month before I get out there myself, but I don't expect them to move too quickly just yet. It seems to be all clearing and land prep at this point. No, we didn't go over to that area this past weekend. We did on our first trip opening weekend, but I didn't realize there would be anything cool to look at. If they did have anything then, I didn't see it. So the rumoured Geyser Gulch expansion is actually happening. I will have to investigate next time we're there, which will probably be early May.

I didn't see any construction when we were there last weekend. There's a new game stall by the Barn Swing and a new popcorn stand at the Frisco Barn. That's about it. Oh, yes, and there were WAY fewer benches in Half Dollar Holler. You know, the place where we ABSOLUTELY NEED MORE BENCHES.

Yeah, Ninja needs to die. Preferably quickly and from behind without any warning.

Really? Wichita's not exactly close.... Frontier City is literally 100 miles closer to you.

Outlaw Run this past Saturday!

Are you sure it was Powder Keg? I've never had a rough ride on that one. Thunderation is the only coaster in the park I'd describe as rough.

^ Awesome, thank you very much for posting that! I read through the whole document, and it was great to have insider information about the exact roles of each person who contributed to the film. Helps to judge their level of credibility. Again, it seems that the filmmakers chose people who would support their story regardless of whether they were competent to present any facts.

Little Amerricka is closer to you than either of those. Go check it out if you haven't! 700 E. Main St., Marshall, WI 53559 https://www.google.com/maps/preview?q=little+amerricka&ie=UTF-8&ei=TUJBU6D-BOfjsATQxIDgDA&ved=0CAoQ_AUoAw http://www.littleamerricka.com/

My personal favourite is back row. The airtime off the first drop is better, and the hangtime on the barrel rolls is intense. You basically feel like you're floating in mid-air while the coaster spins around you. Like most coasters, front and back rows have the longest lines, and for good reason. But there's not a bad seat in the house.

Thanks for posting the pictures of the historical markers. Always fun to read about the history of a place. Although I do sincerely doubt that Dominator is in fact 4,210 feet tall.

I absolutely loved Six Flags St. Louis in the '90s. Batman and Mr. Freeze were mind-blowing to me. Those were my first inverted and launch coasters, and I didn't know coasters could look like that. I've been to more Six Flags parks than any other chain (3: St. Louis, Great America, Fiesta Texas), and some of their coasters are absolutely amazing. Others, though, are better off scrapped--Ninja, I'm looking at you. So I'll make a short list of pros and cons. Pros: - Season tickets get you into nearly all SF parks. Makes it easy for vacations. Get a season ticket to St. Louis, go to Great America for free. Awesome. - Batman. That's a huge plus in itself. - They make an effort to have all kinds of rides, mild rides the whole family can ride together, to total insanity. This is the chain that's building Tsunami Soaker and Goliath in the same year. Cons: - Lack of shade. Maybe SDC has spoiled me, but when I go to Six Flags, I miss having TREES everywhere. A hot day at SDC is still doable, because of the shade. A hot day at Six Flags can be miserably hot indeed. - They focus on quantity of coasters rather than quality. SF St. Louis has been advertising that they have 9 coasters, but only half of them are actually worth riding. By contrast, SDC only has 6, but every one of them is great, and unique in some way.

Hmm, well, I'll exclude both Silver Dollar City and Celebration City on this list, and oddly enough, I apparently haven't done this since my teenage years. Worlds of Fun: Detonator (1996) Mamba (1998) Six Flags St. Louis: Batman (1995) Mr. Freeze (1998) Boss (2000) But that will be corrected this year: Tsunami Soaker - SF St. Louis Goliath - SF Great America Wildcat - Azoosment Park Safari Coaster, Spider, and whatever else is new - Bell's Also, not a ride, but last year we went to Dinosaurs Alive! at Worlds of Fun, which was its opening year.

Just saw this. It's a four-story children's play area on the east side of the lake. Water splash pads, foam ball cannons, slides. Fun time for little ones. City Museum is one of the craziest times we've had. There's just so much to do, we found ourselves having to move on before we were really done with an area just so we could see it all in one day. We shall have to go back again. The roof is the most impressive part, but there are some fun things on the 2nd and 3rd floors as well. The 2nd floor has this skate park-like layout. We spent quite a bit of time in this section. After running after kids on the first floor for a couple of hours, it was nice to have an area that was a bit more contained. There's an aquarium on this floor too. On the third floor there is a dance studio and an art studio, where they give classes, as well as a funky old-time toy museum thing that looks like it was once a Twilight Zone set. That place is truly one of the highlights of St. Louis. When any of you come to visit, you should definitely make this part of your trip. Photos don't do it justice; you just have to experience it.

^ 5-7 hours should be fine for WoF and SFStL. Memorial Day weekend in Branson is hellishly busy; I'd do a full day there, and maybe even consider Trailblazer Pass if you want to do all the coasters and the dark rides and still have time for the cave. On very busy days, it can be an hour wait for each of the big rides. SDC closes at 7 on Sunday 5/25, so you can easily drive to Kansas City that night after staying to park closing. You'll want to head west on MO-76 to Branson West, then take MO-13 to Clinton, then MO-7 until it intersects with I-49 (former US-71) at Harrisonville, and north from there to Kansas City. Absolutely the fastest way to go, about 4 hours total from Branson to KC. Good move on seeing the Yankees in St Louis! You'll really like the new Busch Stadium. It's a throwback to the old era with modern amenities, in the vein that really began with Enron Field in 2001. Getting to see the Yankees there is quite a treat. The Cardinals have the most National League wins of any team, and the second most World Series wins, behind only the Yankees. This year is shaping up to be another good one, off the heels of a close World Series last year, so I expect the series against the Yankees to be great. You're absolutely right that St. Louis is a baseball town. I grew up watching Ozzie Smith, and I've loved the Cardinals my whole life. My parents love the Cardinals, my grandparents love the Cardinals. It's so true that whenever you're in St. Louis, even during the offseason, you'll see people in Cardinals jerseys, shirts, and hats, and they'll talk baseball with you, even being perfect strangers. We love our team, and it shows. Kauffman Stadium was just renovated in 2009, and the improvements look great. The Royals had their best season in the last 20 years in 2013, and they really are making some improvements to the team as well. Overall,though , the team really is average at best, but their stadium is great. It was part of the 1970s rush to build in the suburbs, but the architecture is unique and really stands out, and the fountains in the outfield are beautiful, and showcase the city's prevalence of fountains. Kansas City even has the nickname "City of Fountains," and they really are all over the place. So come on down to Missouri; we'd love to have you here! And if you haven't booked a flight yet, do so as soon as possible. Prices will only go up from here. Lumiere Place and Hyatt Regency at the Arch often do hotel and baseball packages, so you may look into one of those if you want to stay downtown. If you're looking more toward Eureka, where Six Flags is, then there's all manner of chain hotels and motels around there fairly cheaply.

This is great report. Thanks for the backstage photos! That's a really awesome experience. We all have photos from the public areas of a park, so it's something special to see photos from areas where most of us don't get to go. To answer your questions: 1. SDC is a truly great park, with something for everyone, and top-quality rides. 2. SDC is my home park, so the attraction is mostly that it's local, about 45 minutes from my house. But the Grand Expo is the place we spend the most time. We have three kids--6, 4, and 2--so the rides there really appeal to them most. 3. The older rides need some improvement. American Plunge desperately needs some new animatronics. I don't know if they've done anything on the offseason, as it was a bit chilly for water rides today and we didn't go over there. I hope they have. Also, Geyser Gulch really needs some help too. I did notice that they have replaced the foam balls there on the off-season; the new ones are bright and don't have the sun-bleached look the old ones did. Minor, yes, but good to see nonetheless.

Fire in the Hole. It was running great, and the ops were really working hard to get everyone through quickly. The queue was really moving well.

My first coaster actually turned out to be the Grand Expo Coaster.

My mom worked weekends, so my dad would take my brother and me to Silver Dollar City on Saturdays. When I was small, the park didn't have a true coaster at all, until Thunderation in 1993. I had never seen anything like it, but I had friends who had been to Six Flags Mid-America, and they were very excited, so I went with them. I was absolutely terrified. I came off the ride intending never to do that again, but they immediately got back in line, so I went with them. It was better the second time, and eventually I learned to love it. So when my kids were old enough to enjoy it, we took them to SDC, and it's become their favourite place. It's such a special thing to see them having fun in the same way I used to with my dad. That feeling is indescribable, but it's gotten me hooked on theme parks again.

Silver Dollar City needs some new children's rides. Last children's rides they put in was Half Dollar Holler in 2011, and that had only one new ride, a Zamperla Mini Wave Swinger. The other ride in that section is a carousel that was simply relocated from the old children's area that was removed to make room for the River Blast. So I'm really hoping for an announcement that they'll be doing the rumoured refurb/retheme/expansion of Geyser Gulch.

SDC has LONG been on my list of parks that I really want to visit, and I just recently heard about this cave... I also quite enjoy caves. Can someone explain more of what this is / how long it takes to do? There is like a 20% chance of me hitting the park this summer... It's a one-hour walking tour through a natural limestone cave below the park. This is SDC's original attraction; the Herschends were giving cave tours before there ever was a park here. Much of the cave has now been filled with concrete, so there are (mostly) level paths and steps, and there are also electric lights strung throughout the path, but a lot of the natural formations are completely intact. It will be the easiest spelunking you ever do, but it's still quite a bit of exercise. You will have to duck through parts, but you won't have to crawl at all. All tours are guided, and the path is clearly defined by concrete and handrails, so you won't get lost. It's a great time. Tours occur every 20 minutes, and the last one out is about an hour and a half before park closing. Get in line immediately after the last tour leaves, because space fills up quickly.

1. Nearly all the motels in Branson are around this price range. You'll have no shortage of options. Personally, I like the Outback Motel on 76. They have an Australian restaurant that is maybe not authentic but certainly good. 2. Yes, two days. Spring Break is a very busy time. There's not a whole lot to do in the Ozarks this time of year--most things open later in the spring--so SDC's opening is kind of a big deal to families with kids. 3. No, they experimented with that last year for Outlaw Run's opening, but after a couple of weeks abandoned the idea. Fortunately, lines are never really all that long at SDC. Hit up Powder Keg first; its line moves the slowest. 4. Oh crap. Yeah, we avoid that weekend. It's extremely popular around here. For Christian Youth weekend, they always get some Christian rock band to put on a concert, and that's included in the ticket price. This part of the world is very red and very heavily evangelical Protestant, so people go nuts for that sort of thing. 5. Nope. SDC is it. There's mini golf and go karts and that sort of thing. Fun, but nothing that you can't find elsewhere. Take a drive around and look at the scenery. The Ozarks are absolutely beautiful. If you have GPS, then get off onto some of the back roads. We blast through the mountains to build the highways, but the back roads wind around and you'll find some spots with scenery like you can't find anywhere else.