ytterbiumanalyst

Yeah, that one's cool, and of course there were lots of shots with 70s stylllle. If you know your St. Louis history, though, that newspaper with then-Governor Kit Bond deciding to go for a second term and the crossover promotion with Famous-Barr were pretty neat artefacts.

^^^ Yeah, Phoenix Fire is the headliner for a reason. It's a notch above the rest for sure. If you only see one show, that's the one. ^^ The crab fries were excellent. ^ Yeah, I couldn't remember his name when I was writing this, but Ricardo Barraza filled in at SDC last year too.

If it has to be a year, I vote 2019. You will always run the risk of people having no idea when the poll was taken. You can of course tell them when it was taken, but that still doesn't mean they will know.

Opening day of the brand-new Festival of Wonder! For the last 20 years or so, the opening of World-Fest really marks the beginning of the season for Silver Dollar City. Yes, the park opens about three weeks earlier, but with no shows and only minimal craftsfolks, it's a bit empty. World-Fest always brings the park to life....only it is no more. In its place, like a Phoenix from the Fire (oooh, foreshadowing) rises Festival of Wonder. In many ways this really is still World-Fest. It has a lot of the same vibes, with the emphasis on shows and food. In recent years, though, World Fest was having difficulty coming up with enough performers to fill all the venues. The change of theme has revitalized this shoulder season festival in a major way, and it made for an incredible day. First up was the X-Pogo show on the square. It features skateboard-type stunts on both spring and pneumatic pogos in a high-energy atmosphere. If you're a child of the 90s like me, you'll recognize many of the trick names. Tony Hawk did every one of those at some point. X-Pogo Once the food venues opened up at 11, it was time to head to... What wonders await? There are so many Foods of Wonder. I'm going to have to go once a week or so through this festival just to try them all. They do have a buffet from 3-6 on Saturdays with all of the festival foods for about $24. Not a bad deal if you want to have everything. My first choice today was a twist on the specialty of my hometown of Springfield, Missouri: Cashew Chicken Waffle Cone! Still can't manage to get the orientation right on these closeups. When going to a theme park, you really should go first to the attraction you are most excited about. I wanted to make sure I saw Phoenix Fire, and they only have three shows daily, so I went there first to make sure I saw it. These dancers are incredible. They use LED and real fire effects in choreography and individual performances. I can't stress enough that every one of you needs to see one of their shows. Hopefully at SDC during Festival of Wonder, but if not, they tour a lot: https://www.phoenixfiredancers.com Though not officially part of the Festival of Wonder, it was also opening day for the new saloon show, Sagebrush Sadie's Wild West Adventure. These saloon shows don't change an awful lot from year to year, but there is some new banter and some new dad jokes to groan at. I liked the Night Court parody especially. Juggler Albert Lucas is back again with all his hits, and he is also out to set a new record for most objects ever juggled at SDC. He did it, juggling 10 rings at once! Next up was CirqUnique. I am always up for one of these theme park knockoffs of Cirque du Soliel. This one had a really cool balancing act that I hadn't seen before, as well as an acrobat duo, a juggler, a clown, and one of the same Wheel of Danger acrobats that I saw at Kings Island last year. Good show! After the show, I went back to the Frisco Barn for another Food of Wonder: crab fries! These are waffle fries with Old Bay, just like Chickie's and Pete's, but topped with actual crab meat! So good. Best crab fries ever. I Harp Extreme is maybe a bit overhyped. I mean, maybe it's extreme for harp music. Really though, it was a beautiful relaxing show that was just perfect after the adrenaline-pumping shows earlier in the day. The sextet were all wonderful musicians and played a wide variety of music. I was like half the age of the next youngest person in the audience, but whatever. Those harpists kicked ass. Last show was PaintJam with Dan Dunn. I'm so glad to see him return. Last year he had a substitute because he was undergoing chemotherapy. But he is an awesome dude and has beaten the cancer and is back at jammin' some paint like the badass artist he is. It was a great show as always. Dan Dunn is a genuinely good dude. So that brings us to the end of Day 1. Festival of Wonder is a hit with me! If you can make it down here sometime in the next three weeks, do it! It's a great time. Final count: Shows - 6 Rides - 0 Foods of Wonder - 2 Beers - 0

Happy birthday, Screamin' Eagle! Nice little writeup on the Post-Dispatch: https://www.stltoday.com/news/archives/whoosh-the-day-the-screamin-eagle-made-its-six-flags/collection_8820376c-a702-53d1-a76c-ad0693df2134.html#1

Wait, you mean Texas still doesn't have a place that is all those things in one?

Well, despite not getting to ride Flight of Passage it sounds like a great visit. I took a lot of these school trips when I was a kid (usually to Six Flags or Worlds of Fun though), and they're still some great memories. Hope you got to enjoy your time at Disney World and didn't worry too much about "credits."

Ooh, I like the sounds of this. Secret Life of Pets is huge right now, at least in my house. My kids are very excited for the sequel.

Well, the photo they showed of the spinning coaster is Time Traveler...that'd be a big building. Sure, it's possible, but I don't though that Dollywood would want to build a building that big.

Cliffhanger! Mr. Freeze is an awesome ride. Obviously Chiller closed before I got to Great Adventure, but it sounds like it's Chiller 2.0. Hope you got to ride it....I'll just be waitin' on this here seat edge if'n ya wanna scribble s'more.

Griffith Park is my #1. I've heard of it but I've never been there. I think it's been mentioned in movies or something, so it has to be great. #1 best SoCal park.

Hard seltzer... haven't seen that yet. The hipsters are taking over. It'll make its way out to the Ozarks within a decade, I'm sure.

^Thanks, Zach! This gem in the Darien Lake thread: This is definitely weird. It's almost like (stay with me on this) maybe the park was bought by Six Flags and not Disney and everyone else on the forum has been trying to explain this to no avail for the last year or so. West Coast Racers was announced like 7 months ago and the construction site is literally just dirt (and that's at one of their good parks, not Darien Lake). Six Flags is not going to come in and turn Darien Lake into DisneySea. They're going to turn it into Darien Lake with Takis ads. The sooner you realize that most of your questions could be answered with "because Six Flags doesn't give a f*ck about that", the better your life will be.

That sounds incredible. The view from up there is unreal.

Nice report! Sorry Dollywood was so crowded, but hey, good rides and good atmosphere can take the edge off that. You'll just have to go back for a fifth consecutive year!

Ah yes, the state motto of New Jersey.

No problem, enjoy!

No merging; they all go straight to the station. Outlaw Run and Time Traveler have their own Trailblazer queues, Wildfire has a side door from the observation deck, everything else goes through the exit. You can pick any row you like; they board Trailblazer people before anyone else.

Oh please do. I can't wait to see the heads explode.

Hahaha, okay dude. But you may say differently after you've taken a statistics class from your local accredited university.

I wonder if this is related to why they renamed ME to Riddler Revenge and not Riddler's Revenge like at many other SF parks Yes, this is related. Six Flags is trying to become a global brand, especially in China, and the possessive 's is unique to English. It's difficult to translate into some languages, so a lot of companies are beginning to take it off all their marketing worldwide. It's the same reason for the name change to Disney California Adventure and the new movie posters/trailers saying Disney Aladdin in the same place where the 1992 ones said Disney's Aladdin.

When you say something like "I don't have any data but I doubt anyone is only going to DCA..." what the hell are you expecting someone to come back with except for anecdotal evidence haha. What are you talking about? Disney publishes data, we know the statistical trends. They're one of a very few companies who do publish this. What we don't have are granular data; i.e. the Jones family went to DCA on Monday, but the Smith family went to DL. They have that stuff because you scan your ticket or annual pass; they just don't publish it for obvious reasons.

Any day with shandy and bullriding is a good day!

Yes. You'll create a Fastpass Group in the Disneyland app and you can manage everyone's Fastpasses at once.