SbSteveZ

^ wooden coasters are typically maintained on a daily basis if need be. Odds are that’s all that is going on with that pile of wood. There was an episode of Awesome Attractions or something like that where they go to mean streak and show the process and explain why they do it.

^ Ask and you shall receive! Though there was a crane there, I can say pretty definitively that Thunder Rapids is still fully in place and the only thing missing from a few weeks ago is the big gray pieces that one can assume were shipped in to fix whatever may have been wrong with TR in the first place. If you ask me, it looks like TR is here to stay at least for another few years! Also, in case anyone wanted a Motocoaster update...

Viper 35th Anniversary Celebration As you may know, this past Thursday was the 35th Anniversary party for Viper. It occurred right as the park opened with free ice cream and cookies commemorating the coaster’s milestone. Chris Thorpe and Mary Best were both there as well as “Viper Tom”, a guy who’s been operating the Viper since 1993. Chris and Tom both made quick speeches before they cut the ribbon. After the fact I decided to try and talk to Chris and to be honest, he is an absolutely great guy and he really seems to enjoy his job. He has such a passion for the park that I for some reason wasn’t expecting, but it was a pleasant surprise. He mentioned to me how he was the one who decided to paint the Viper black again because he really loved the classic feel, and I agreed, it looks much nicer than the old green! As the poster above said, Thunder rapids was still empty, and I have a picture of the log s/he referred to in a previous post a few pages back. As for today; here’s some pictures! (I would've posted this sooner but iOS 11 Beta 1 has a new picture format .HEIF which wasn't converting properly to .JPG for some reason.) Chris Thorpe and Viper Tom preparing for their "Grand Re-Opening" Speeches Everyone in the crowd for the initial ceremony (and a bunch of people after the fact) got these nice Viper 35 cookies Viper Venom ice cream was also given out (in sample size) as well! I think this is a regular flavor that they temporarily renamed to Viper Venom but I'm not too sure. All I know is that it was great stuff After the ribbon was cut, the crowd all shuffled into the queue for their first rides on Viper after the coaster's grand re-opening Ride of Steel as seen from the Waterpark. We even made a friend! As some of you may recall, I am a big fan of American Pop, and recommend it to anyone coming out to the park! Shows are at 2:30, 4:30 and 7:00! I also highly recommend Ignite the Night! Showing every day at 10:10pm when the park closes at 10:00 (this changes for Harvest Fest)

^ Viper's 35th Anniversary celebration is set to be June 29tb, which is this upcoming Thursday. The park hasn't given any information on what they're doing aside from the fact that on that date they're gonna do something. I'm imagining some sort of speech by Chris Thorpe infront of the ride entrance - similar to Millennium Force's 10th anniversary party at CP, maybe some sales on Viper gear, and perhaps a few snake themed decorations around the viper plaza. I was hoping the last ark would begin to give some info on the event before now, since they have it on the back of the park map. But who knows except the event coordinators what to really expect out of this thing. EDIT: I also feel I should add this little snipit I found on the Season Pass Lodging discount page, because for what its worth, people haven't been too happy with Darien Lake's (rather short to be honest) list of closed rides so far this season: "Due to being a seasonal employer, limited rides and attractions may only be available before June 23rd or after August 20th. Some rides may have limited hours – or be rotated during the day." Translation: "Be patient please, we're doing what we can with what we have"

I do hope for your sake that Ride of Steel was only down because of the weather - because it is a great ride that would be a shame to be missed. Have fun on your visit! And if you can, be sure to check out American Pop in the Grande Theater and Ignite the Night #COLORBLAST at the laser stage (near boomerang). In my humble opinion, I think the laser show is one of the best things Darien Lake has to offer! It's a truly unique and world class experience you just don't get anywhere else (from what I've heard)

Here's a mini update from my afternoon out to Darien Lake: - There's no doubt that they're working on getting Thunder Rapids up and running. I have some pictures that I'll share here, but I did want to mention it appears that there's some large piping being staged right past the loading dock, plus there was a boat at the bottom of the last drop of the ride - again, images to follow. - The silver bullet was running a longer cycle today. As mentioned on here before, it used to start it's decent right back down as soon as it got to the peak position. I noticed today, it's actually spending some time up at the max angle now. And it wasn't down at all while we were there! - Tiester is still on that 4.5 flip cycle, which I'm content with! It's a good time! - There's no signs of construction- not even as much as a marker or a stake in the ground but I'm remaining optimistic. Since it is only June, and this is Darien Lake we're talking about. - the Predator crew was absolutely awesome. They were telling jokes, interacting with one another as well as the guests, giving hi-fives as the train left and entered the station, I had a fantastic time with them! - I believe I said it last year too, but I love the ride ops and their energetic funloving attitudes! Blast off, Viper, predator, and twister all had great crews today! - I give Darien Lake credit for running Ignite the Night even when right as the show was beginning it started to pour. It was a cool experience and for those who weren't afraid of the rain I think it was a great time. Now here's some pictures from the quick trip: You read that right, RoS was closed Galaxy Theatre is open again from behind! No stages in there anymore! Thunder Rapids Parts. I'm not sure why this is here, but this is here. Motocoaster was also down. But it loooked like they were working on it!

^ Thanks for explaining! I do think it's interesting that they own so much land on the other side of Route 77, but I wonder if they plan on moving some stuff over there aside from just old rides. Maybe like how Cedar Point has a maintenance shop on Cleveland Drive? Or maybe it'll just stay the old Ride cemetery. Who knows

Thoughts? Or was this some random thought from a certain person on here.... Also, a random tidbit from the at 4/17 planning board meeting. The park is going to merge all its tax parcel into one. I'm probably just totally clueless, but what is the benefit of "merging its tax parcel"? What does that even mean? I assume it has to do with their land but like I said, I have no idea what that even means because I'm clueless.

A few things from my short visit to the park today: With this threads current interest in the state of Thunder Rapids (and to my knowledge, still without a credible source on the rumor of it's demise), I figured I'd check it out, and I did see all of the logs in the backstage area to the right of the entrance ramp, for proof I did snap a picture. There wasn't any water flowing through the ride but there were cute ducks so they made it into this mini-update. I know earlier there was mention on here as well that ride ops were only operating twister on a one flip cycle due to motor issues, which I can now verify is not true. They were running a 4 and a half flip cycle app throughout the day (4 full flips followed by a flip that didn't quite make it all the way). The ride was spinning fast and flipping 4 times more than what was mentioned on here as the rides capacity for flipping, which i believe is good news! In other park news, silver bullet was up and running, which I know is another point of interest. Though it is true that the arm was only fully extended for a brief period of time, the ride was still running which I believe is what's most important there. As for closed rides the list is as follows: Brain Drain, Big Kahuna, Giant Wheel, Thunder Rapids, Motocoaster. I have a few pictures below as well that relate to some of the things I mentioned above. Enjoy! Silver Bullet in action! Logs logs everywhere! Still no water but if you look closely you can see the ducks!

Okay but here's the thing with your last statement. Shipwreck Falls is constantly sending out trains with 8 or less people on it throughout the season. I've never had to wait for more than 2 cycles for a ride on that thing. Whereas Thunder Rapids? Even on slower days, it has a line. They rarely have less than a 10 minute wait and when it's hot out? The entire queue house is full. Why would you take out a ride that was just refurbished 4 years ago, that always has a line and is great for families? To add some rollercoaster that likely wouldn't appeal to the same demographic? I'm as much of a fan of the idea that Darien Lake gets a big roller coaster as the next guy but at what cost? Certainly not the cost of a beloved log flume. Something that not many major parks have at the moment (if you look locally, MFI removed Old Mill Scream in 2012 I believe, Seabreeze has their old school Log Flume, MarineLand to my knowledge doesn't have one, Canadas Wonderland doesn't have one, Cedar Point lost theirs to Maverick etc). If it were up to me, I'd say there's other land they can work with elsewhere on the property. Leave Thunder Rapids alone and don't fix what's not broken! They could add a nice thrilling compact coaster in Cuda Falls'a old space, and lord knows those go-karts can't last much longer, they can put something over there. Besides, that section of the park needs some love as it is. Which for the record, I believe them taking the time to get Twister back up is a step in the right direction. They're making do with what the have for the season and I think that's great! In other news, I am looking forward to the Viper 35 anniversary celebration later this month. I'm curious what they have on tap for that day. One things for sure, I'll be there to find out! (And of course a TR may be included if anything interesting happens)

Just out of curiosity. Where are you getting this information about Thunder Rapids from? It seems like everyone is flipping out over a ride not being open when we haven't even reached daily operations yet. And if anything that's just adding fuel to the fire.

Darien Lake's Ignite the Night: Colorblast - 2017 Edition Though the full spectrum laser was having some struggles during the 1st half of the show, here is the full edition of this year's Ignite the Night: Colorblast! This show runs nightly when the park closes at 10:00PM or later, until Harvest Fest. Then, it only runs Saturday evenings at 8:00PM. Now, Sit back, Relax, and get ready to "Ignite the Night" - In COLORBLAST! [youtu_be] [/youtu_be]

That actually is something that stood out to me. I believe that Silver Bullet always had blue and white lights, not blue and red. Maybe the issues could be that the ride has new lights for this year. It does seem as though some rides have gotten some new lighting this year. Nothing too crazy though. For example, it looks like the pirate has some new blue LEDs on it. And then there's Rolling Thunder. I don't know what's up with that thing but they went from two segments not working last year to the entire ring not working. The ride is two years old!

^ when I was there on the 19th, they had people working on the Sulver Bullet and they ran it several times towards the evening and it seemed to be working but they didn't open it at all that night so something must've still been weird with it. I noticed that they weren't able to run the ride while the lights were on, which was peculiar. When the ride was running without its red/blue lights flashing it was able to complete a cycle. When the lights were on, the ride wouldn't move. This perhaps could've just been a way to test it without people seeing it and getting excited that it would be opening, but who knows

Ladies and Gents we have an update...

You guys should remember that ROS didn't run in the rain last year so don't complain about it being closed when you go on days with thunderstorms! @nhman93 How many people were on the train? I remember the ops saying something about needing more than half a train to run it last year. The cold really kills the ride but it'll get crazy fast by July! First, for the last 4 hours the park was open Sunday, it was clear skies and sunshine. With no sight of any movement by the ride. Which is what leads me to believe that it wasn't weather related. Second, I rode the Ride of Steel many times in the rain last year so I'm not really sure where you got that from. Sure getting pelted in the face at 70mph with rain isn't pleasant but why pass up a spin on RoS if it's running?

Though the weather was much nicer today than last weekend, when I dropped by for a visit to Darien Lake today, once again, Ride of Steel was closed all day. I'm not sure what's wrong with it, or if perhaps it's just down for staffing purposes but it's been a bit of a shame to have visited Darien Lake without being able to ride the park's superstar coaster. Here's to hoping Friday will be different...

^ I just checked the 2017 park map, turns out the pirate area is not a smoking space and if you're referring to the random stage looking thing between the batting cages and the viper's third and fourth inversions, then yes, that is marked as a smoking area.

Darien Lake Opening Day 2017 On this cold and wet Saturday Morning I decided to venture out to "New York's Roller Coaster Capital" to see what's new and receive the extra benefits of Season Pass appreciation day! Notes: - 5 of the 7 coasters were operational while I was there. Ride of Steel and Hoot-N-Holler were both closed, one due to staffing, the other one, I'm assuming for weather. - Silver Bullet, Giant Wheel, Corn Popper, Twister, Rolling Thunder, and the park's 3 water rides (Grizzly Bear Run, Thunder Rapids and Shipwreak Falls) were also closed - From the little I saw while I was there, there were a ton of in-park improvements that made the place look a little cleaner and more professional (See below) - Pepsi as I'm sure everyone here has seen is officially the new Soft Beverage provider for Darien Lake. There are new pop machines, umbrellas, and of course beverage dispensers within the restaurants all over the park. The blue Pepsi umbrellas looked a little goofy over on the boardwalk but thats just me - Boomerang seemed to be moving up the reverse lift at a normal pace this morning, which leads me to believe that they fixed it over the off season. Though I could have just been imagining things, the catch car seemed to get to the train a lot faster than last year and it felt like we reached the top a lot quicker as well (Last year I recorded the lift and it took about 1:02 for it to reach the top. I may need to repeat this procedure next time I visit to see if there really have been any improvements) - I'm not sure how common it is on opening day, but apparently (according to a Mind Eraser operator), a lot of park staff were training today to operate the rides that were closed to the public. right before the rope dropped, there was a large group of kids (probably between 15-17) heading towards splashtown. I'd imagine for a training of some sort but who knows -Twister is still SBNO - as of now. It looks like they were in fact working on it still, and it is still on the map which hopefully is a good sign! In Park Events: May 27th - Sofia Carson with Jacob Whitesides Free Concert June 10th - Color Me Rad 5K June 17th & 18th - Father's Day Weekend Carshow and Beer Festival June 24th - Forever in your Mind Free Concert June 29th - Viper's 35th Anniversary Celebration July 1st - R5 Free Concert July 26th-29th - Kingdom Bound September 16th - October 1st - Harvest Fest September 23rd - Mud Fun Rock-N-Run New in 2017: Strike-U-Up - Located Near old putt-putt entrance SlapShot - Located behind Bear Valley Bumper Buggies Pepsi - New official soft drink of Darien Lake Daredevil Season Pass Upgrade - $55 on top of Season Pass purchase - Ride one upcharge attraction at no cost once per visit Jo's Eatery - New food options (Pulled Pork and some other goodies) and probably more that I have since forgotten! Pictures: Each Season Pass holder upon entry was given a pamphlet with a physical "Bring-a-friend free" pass and instructions on how all other season pass benefits were to be distributed this season (now, most of the benefits are electronically on your season pass, so there is no more need for a coupon book!) Unsure of how the SP processing line would be, we got to the park a little early (around 10:00am) First glimpse at what's been updated this year - right as we walked in we saw that Sling Shot got new signage! New in 2017 - Darien Lake Photos! I'm assuming this will be similar to how Cedar Point has photo crews at the front of the gate to take your picture - but since it was raining and cold, we weren't able to find out. Viper is the main focus of a lot of the park's signage this year! Who would've thought a 35th anniversary could be such a big deal? (I'm a huge fan ) Ride of Steel was down for the duration of the time I was there. The water dummies were inside of the station and there were no ride-ops to be seen, however, you could tell they were doing their best to do whatever they could to get the ride up and running for the new season! one of the many spots where they have new vending machines I noticed this the second I saw it, Boomerang's sign was freshly painted for the new season! Looks nice, eh? Motocoaster as always was a fun little ride, Look at that nice jumble of steel! This was an interesting development. The gate by the Motocoaster was open. I'm not so sure this will last all season, but we shall see soon enough (sure beats walking all the way around to get to the resort gate! Talk about crazy. This is one of the only times I've ever seen the Tin Lizzy's queue empty! It was so nice to not have to wait 30 minutes or more to ride the antique cars! I believe this is also newly done for the 2017 season. This is the old queue section for Pirate. They seemed to have turned it into a resting station (or a smoking area, but I didnt look that far into it - I know for the most part Darien Lake smoking areas are shown by blue paint and signage though) one of the two new games at Darien Lake this year is Slap Shot - Something I feel people from around these parts will really enjoy! Time to celebrate Viper's 35th! New vending machine in Viper's Queue Even with Viper turning 35, there has been little to no work done to its station. Oh well. Upon exiting the Viper, I noticed the rear door was open for the Galaxy Theatre. Which looks to be pretty empty. No coaster trains or secret ride storage like what many have rumored on this very discussion thread. But it does indeed seem to be being used for storage of less exciting things I think this signage is new? I'm not entirely sure but just in case - here's the eatery in Rowdy's Ridge known as Campfire Grill Next up we went to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Mind Eraser. I thought it was kind of funny that they painted the sign because at least with the old signage it looked similar to the coaster's faded look. Now with this bright red sign, the coaster looks even more faded than it did before! (One can hope they will eventually repaint the ride to match the sign. That bright red looks awesome!) Tons of people lined up with us to get that first ride of the season on Mind Eraser! Here is the brand new Strike-U-Up! Honestly if it weren't raining I would've tried this thing. they had a buy-one get-one sale going for Today only. They also added a blue dye and what seemed to be new lights into the fountain. it does look really nice in my opinion - but be warned this also comes from a guy who likes the blue dye in the water by Maverick. as we went to leave the park, we saw very quickly that the line for the Season Pass processing got astronomically larger (for reference - we waited about 2 minutes when we got there) That's it for me! I'll be heading back on the 19th for the inagural Ignite the Night performance as well as on June 29th to partake in the Viper 35th Anniversary festivities! I can't wait for more #DLTradition fun in 2017!

Since I did bring it up not too long ago, it looks like Darien Lake updated their in-park shows tab and they have the 2017 offerings! The main shows being American POP! And Ignite the Night: COLORBLAST. As I said when I last brought it up, I was a fan of American ROCK so I do hope it's POP counterpart is just as fun. Only time will tell! As for Ignite the Night, I've been a huge fan of Laserblast/Ignite the Night/Ignite the Night Colorblast since I was little, so of course I'm glad they have kept it going for so long! http://darienlake.com/in-park-entertainment

"Up next on The Californians..."

I've never had to take the thruway either. If I'm going from UB (in Amherst) I'd take the 33, to Genesee, to Walden and then the 77 is right there. Easy as cake. Or if I'm coming from home I just take Walden all the way down to the 77. There are SO many ways to get to the park and almost all of them are relatively quick and not a pain at all. Especially for people who know the area. I've even taken broadway down to the 77 before because a friend of mine lives in the Lancaster area. Sure, you could take the 90 if you wanted to but it's not at all a requirement unless you're coming from father away than Buffalo and even Niagara I'm sure you could get away with something along the lines of taking the I-90 to the Walden exit and then following it down if construction on the thruway is really that big a deal. Which, to be fair it can be annoying but in buffalo we only have two seasons. Winter and Construction season. It's just something we all need to (and usually do) prepare for! EDIT: On the note of Buffalo and Niagara Falls, it takes me a half hour max to get into the Falls from UB, maybe 45 minutes from home and if I'm actually in the City of Buffalo I'd say it takes 20 minutes. I remember when I was little I thought Niagara Falls was forever away but even with my past few trips out to Niagara Falls, CA. It's like 25 minutes away from the peace bridge if that. So yes, the cities aren't next door neighbors that are 3 minutes away, but they cerianly aren't that far apart either. And that goes for both Niagara Falls USA and Canada in relation to Buffalo

^ personally I have to say that riding Predator with CoasterBill's Mean Streak method made it so much more of a fun ride than I ever remembered it being in all my years of going to Darien Lake. I like the back row too but you can't deny the fact that it is BRUTAL back there in comparison to the rest of the train. If you only have time to ride the coaster once - As if the wait time would ever be more than 15 minutes - then I'd say ride in the front ala the Mean Streak method. If you have more time or after your first ride want to ride again, I'd say explore the other parts of the train to see what you prefer!

So while we may not have any new rides this year, what I am curious about for sure is whether or not there will be any new shows. ,aimlessly I'm the "Grade Theatre". Last years American ROCK was actually a pretty fun show and I'd love to see it return - perhaps with new songs and choreography of course! But if by chance they do decide to try and do a show for Harvest Fest again, I'd hope it be something MUCH better than what they had last year - if anyone else saw it and expected something similar to the quality of American ROCK, like I did, then you were likely just as disappointed. In other news opening day is only 19 days away!

^ You sir, have won TPR Post of the Day! Congratulations!