SbSteveZ

Went over to Canada's Wonderland to see how their fireworks show was for Canada Day compared to Niagara Falls (where we had been going for a few years prior since its so much closer to home back in Buffalo) and I have to say it was really no comparison. We will gladly be returning to Wonderland for our Canada Day firework fix in the future! Below I have some photos and the link to the fireworks so y'all can see what I'm talking about. Great show! [youtu_be] [/youtu_be]

For anyone who is interested, below I have a link to the 2019 Edition of Ignite the Night. Something I have enjoyed with going out and seeing the show as much as I have this season compared to last season is that this show tends to get quite large crowds now that the summer season is in full swing. 2018 level crowds simply could not compare. I think the closest comparison I have to some of the larger crowds I've seen this year are Kingdom Bound (the laser lawn is PACKED during Kingdom Bound for those who aren't familiar). This specific recording was from one of the first showings back in May. Two songs were silenced for copyright, however the rest of the show seems to be alright! Enjoy! [youtu_be]https://youtu.be/BptbXlO3gg8[/youtu_be]

^ that I’ve seen, there’s no sign of construction whatsoever within the park, and if anything - I don’t assume that means much. Skyscreamer’s queue house is the same of the Twister which was removed in 2018 for this new ride. They did add a little extra as well as a Go Fast Pass queue but all in all the footprint for that is relatively small. Plus with how the queue is off to the side instead of being wrapped around the ride’s footprint as it is at other parks, observing guests can get up close and personal with the attraction if they so choose which I think is a nice touch

^ For me, the idea of purchasing new trains for the Mind Eraser comes specifically from the fact that there are newer designed trains with more comfortable restraints. It would be nice to have an inverted coaster that isn’t just downright terrible at the park.

I don't know where you guys get this notion that just because they switch to one train they sell the extras or totally strip them to an irreparable state (heck, they already get stripped to bare frames each year). Predator still has two trains, they just tend to alternate building one during the season while one is in operation. Viper technically has 3 trains on the property, but only two have run for the last 15 years or so as one actually is unusable. Moto still has both of its trains also getting rotated annually. I wouldn't be surprised if they still have the old RoS trains stashed; Predator's old style trains were kicking around for a while, too. First and foremost I never said anything about them selling the old trains. Second: - Mind Eraser in its current state. Period. - Motocoaster was a prototype. When things went bad they took the second train out of service to repair the first one. I remember it coming up a whole bunch on TPR when it happened. - Viper - when’s the last time you saw the yellow train? You’re gonna tell me that it’s ready to go when it hasn’t seen the light of day in at least 10 years? - Ride of Steel - the old trains can’t be used anymore because the new one has a whole different safety system. Plus from what I understand it’s more lightweight making it even more impossible to run a new and old train. With that logic anyway the coaster is only designed to have 2 trains maximum but “I’m sure” they have an efficient enough crew to handle three, eh? - Predator - the red and black trains have been out of commission since what? 2012? Even if they are still in the maintenance bays I’m sure it’s a lot cheaper to strip those for parts than it would be to refurb them with PTC. Plus, they acquired USED TRAINS for this ride instead of new ones. Was that just for funzies too or am I missing something here? Tantrum - no one can say here for sure why they purchased the ride with three trains but only run two however I’d personally want to give the park the benefit of the doubt and say they did some efficiency testing and like Dragster (which has 6 trains, but more efficiently operates with 5), discovered the ride operates better with 2 trains instead of 3. Boomerang - we just may never know. TL:DR Predator only has one train that is fully put together. We have proof of them taking the second train apart to maintain the first. Viper has two OPERABLE trains, none of us are sure why they’re only using one of them. Ride of Steel would need a new train with the same set up as the train they just purchased a few years ago, though something tells me it wouldn’t be as easy as “buy another train 5 years later, throw it on the track and press go” so that one may be a little more complicated. The park has a track record of using parts from an out of service train or several trains to keep their rides running. I’m sure I have more proof in pictures if I need it but at this point is it really that necessary? Mind Eraser is running a Franken-train, Viper last year had to have one of the Fiberglass bodies replaced on a car due to some damage, and they used the blue train for parts (albeit temporarily) and predator has had whole cars swapped on its trains back before they renumbered the cars (when it was much easier to notice) Thank you for coming to my ted talk. I’ll be here all week.

That to me is something interesting for sure I can’t remember in the past 11 years ever seeing the yellow train run... it’s always been the blue and red trains (which are now blue and orange respectively), and of course being the little nerd I was back then I was always hoping to see the yellow train because they’d always advertise with it on the park maps and in commercials. I remember two train operations with the old paint job, maybe they ran two trains for a year when they got the wraps? Other than that I’m pretty sure it’s been single train operations for viper consistently. One year they had the second train on the transfer track for a month and never actually put it on the main track which was quite disappointing if I remember correctly... Looks like it was September 2015 based on this photo I found in my library. See what I mean? I’m a dork. Shame too because it looks like they really could’ve put that second train to some good use. Has it really already been 4 years of single train operations? Yeesh!

We had two train ops in 2018, eh? That’s news. Viper hasn’t had three train operations since before Six Flags had them the first time around. Plus, looking at all the local arrow loopers, it’s incredibly common to run two trains maximum, especially with their popularity dwindling. Sure three train ops would be nice if the team is really that efficient, but I wouldn’t waste my time dwelling over a pipe dream when a coaster that could have three train ops (with only 8 riders per car mind you) still stacks with only two trains in service. TL:DR I appreciate your enthusiasm and assumption that it’s not that hard to get all three trains back in service, but it’s just not going to happen. Two trains is much more likely, and if things with Mind Eraser work out, perhaps we’ll see Viper get back to multiple trains someday too. I’m not counting on it, but it’s possible.

^ Ya got me there, looks like I was off by a year. I was close. It may be a *little* late but I just got around to uploading the 2018 edition of Ignite the Night to Youtube for all the geeks out there who may also enjoy seeing the show archived through the years (Im working on fixing 2017 and the Laser Spooktacular since thy both have copyright claims that won't allow public viewing - whoops), in the mean time, enjoy last year's main production of ignite the night! (2019 coming soon, hopefully)

^ there really has never been a comparison between Predator and Silver Comet. The comet has almost always been the better of the two. Fantasy Island has maintained that ride very well, plus it’s based off of the comet from Crystal Beach so it has historical ties to the area as well. Predator opened in 1991 as the “9th best coaster in the world” according to some publisher but by no means has it maintained that status. One of the biggest issues that shows just how unfortunately the ride has degraded is the Holiday World trains from the Voyage and how quickly they fell into disrepair. I don’t think it took much more than one season before the second train (the B train) was cannibalized for parts. And as of this year they’ve just relabeled the train so it appears to be one of a set, which it no longer is. I give the maintenance team credit, they’re doing what they can with what they have. Darien Lake did also buy new trains for predator as I just mentioned, a new train for RoS, did some wheel replacements on Boomerang and has done some refurbishment for the viper trains as well. It’s not to say the park is perfect in how it’s handling it’s operations, but it is worth noting that on what appears to be an extremely limited budget they’re running all of their coasters in some capacity, and they’re maintaining them as best they can, even if it means taking a train out of commission to keep the ride running.

^ didn’t they completely redo those trains a couple of years ago? At bare minimum they replaced the body with all new fiberglass pieces.

^ ah yes, I see now that you said “a second train” not “the second train”. My bad

^ First and foremost, they used the orange train last year. They're using the blue train this year. Not sure where you got the 4 years from. (EDIT: After clarification I am now sure of where you got the 4 years from.) Second and more importantly, I was pleasantly surprised when I visited SFGAdv this past Tuesday/Wednesday to see how much less crowded that place can be compared to SFDL. To put it in perspective, every single coaster at SFGAdv had less than a one train wait the entire day, whereas even on a crummy weather day at Darien Lake, RoS almost always has at least a crowded station. Not even El Toro had that and its one of the best wooden coasters I've ever ridden. Their brand new ride, Wonder Woman, had at most 3/4 of the ride full, whereas every time I've visited SFDL since SkyScreamer opened, it has had a full queue house with at least a 3-4 cycle wait, again, even on crummy days that thing has a line. Now that the full season is beginning to kick into high gear with daily operations and the park closing at 10pm nightly until September, it should be exciting to see how the attendance numbers do. I think its safe to say there will be a positive shift - especially thanks to the new memberships Six Flags offers. Also, one more note, SFGAdv was running multiple trains on all applicable coasters on Tuesday, with reduced capacity on Wednesday for what I assume would be weather related reasons. I'm not sure where the idea of Six Flags not caring about running multiple trains is coming from, because it seems like that is a distinctly Darien Lake issue. Even when I was at Knoebels last year and they were running single trains, no one seemed to care about it nearly as much as folks at DL do. It's strange.

Finally managed to get out and explore Six Flags Great Adventure after wanting to get out to the park for several years. With Darien Lake joining the SF lineup once more, 2019 seemed like the perfect year to take a couple days to visit. Some worthy things to note: - We visited on June 18th and 19th. Both days that were forecasted to have thunderstorms all day up until the day of when that changed to being mainly overnight and in the evening on Tuesday. This is what I imagine caused lines to be so incredibly short. We never waited for longer than one train (and that one train wait was because some kids took our seats on Skull Mountain right before the gates opened for us). I was pleasantly surprised that we were able to ride all 12 applicable coasters (minus the road runner attraction for obvious reasons) as well as Cyborg, Wonder Woman, Sky Screamer, the Parachutes, Houdini, Skyride, Deja Vu and others with plenty of time to spare. - This place is HUGE. Something I consistently realized from ride to ride was just how long the queues were. Perhaps it's because the place was so empty, but Kingda Ka, Zumanjaro, Superman and Green Lantern at a bare minimum are rides that come to mind as having ridiculously long queues - with the only understandable one being Zumanjaro since that one kind of has to be that way. - Something new to me is that apparently re-rides are not only allowed at this park, but strongly encouraged by the ride operators as well. We were offered re rides on El Toro, Bizarro, Green Lantern, Superman, Batman, Nitro, and Zumanjaro. I wonder if this is specifically a park policy, since Darien Lake still refuses to allow re rides even if the station is empty. This policy is something I didn't think I'd appreciate or like as much until I was able to experience it myself. Basically, if no one was in line to get into your row, you could stay on the train - or - if there were rows that didn't have people waiting for them that were empty, you could go to those rows and ride again as well. - Apparently the park closed early on June 18th (at around 6pm), we were informed of this from a Houdini operator, but we didn't really care to confirm it since it began to pour moments before she forced us to leave the ride's exit area (totally understandable of course, no hard feelings there). - Our only negative experience with the park came at the beginning of Wednesday. As explained on this thread a few pages back, we were in fact able to purchase 3 Bring a Friend Passes on Tuesday no problem. Wednesday morning however, we were greeted by an incredibly snippy and rude older woman whom decided it was best to yell at me when asking for "3 bring a friend passes" for purchase. I'm assuming she misunderstood me since she continued to reiterate that I needed 3 season passes to get them, but after enough back and fourth (which I hate arguing, I'm a really nice guy and it was no fun for me at all - I still feel bad about it), it clicked that we wanted to PURCHASE bring a friend tickets and she sold them to us. This exchange took close to 10 minutes and definitely wasn't something I was expecting after dealing with much much friendlier employees in the park the entire day beforehand. Aside from that one thing though, we really could not complain about the staff at all. Most all of them were friendly and knowledgable (minus one guy in the justice league gift shop. I asked if they had a "send to the front of the park" program - which they do - found the slip on the counter right in front of him, showed it to him and he said he'd never heard of it and refused to let us do it. Not a big deal though we just decided to make a run to the car after that anyway and did some merch runs to make the most of it) Anyway onto some overcast and slightly over-edited photos! Snapchat filter trying to make it seem like it isn't really sad outside. Doesn't look real at all but I do like how it turned out. El Toro and Kingda Ka from the sky ride. El Toro beyond exceeded my expectations, Kingda Ka however? Not so much. Wonder Woman: Lasso of Truth was surprisingly amazing (coming from someone who doesn't usually care too much for these types of rides) According to a ride operator, seat #27 was the "money seat" and I have to agree. (for those who are wondering, 27 is the seat by the support closest to Nitro - I believe this was already mentioned on here somewhere) Post shower rainbow! I never thought I'd like a wooden coaster more than an Intamin Strata, but it happened. No contest. This thing was a pleasant surprise too. A fan favorite of most others in my group - mainly because it was so unique to them. Not that it totally made sense to be where it was (from what I could tell), but I did appreciate seeing Looney Toons all over for sure At the end of the day, I'd say this was my favorite coaster in the park, with Wonder Woman being my favorite flat. Lots of great stuff here, I wouldn't be surprised if I managed to get back here again before the season is over!

^ can I make a request if you’re providing the beats? Let’s make a 45 dB minimum TPR playlist!!

I’m sure that’s intentional. Ever heard of theming? Also, based on “its too dark over there” I’m almost 100% positive you’ve never walked from Mind Eraser toward the Bumper Cars past 9pm because it’s horribly lit minus whatever “bounce” comes off of Rolling Thunder (which I will tell you right now if you’re not right up next to it, it isn’t much). I’m sorry but you can not convince me that Darien Lake has better lighting than Canada’s Wonderland. To me that’s like saying Cedar Point has better theming than the Magic Kingdom. There’s no comparison.

^ where there’s a will there’s a way. I’ve done it twice without fast lane! (Once in 2016 and 2018)

^ goodness I hope you mean RGB Flood lights not projection lights... not to get picky here but projection lights as they are never referred to are usually what parks use for gobo projections on surfaces (if they for some reason decide to not use a Source Four like a normal human being would). See Cedar Point’s main midway at night, the Disney villain’s after hours event had a bunch of those and Darien Lake specifically used a handful of them for Fright Fest last season. / end theatre tech “rant” MORE IMPORTANTLY: how in the ever living Hell does Darien Lake beat Canada’s Wonderland in the lighting department? Last I checked Darien Lake doesn’t have projection mapping on a big mountain dead center of the park with multicolored water fountain effects along its entryway, nor does it have lights on most any of its attractions. Ride of Steel’s lighting is poor at best, viper doesn’t have anything anymore, Mind Eraser is shotty, Tantrum has what, one or two white floods on it? NONE of their coasters have any show stopping lighting element. Darien Lake has SkyScreamer (which you know is brand new this year) and Rolling Thunder. Everything else has either NOTHING, White Floods (though you can’t even guarantee they all work anyway), or old dated lights that don’t work properly. Take it from a guy who knows a TON about theatrical and architectural lighting and is almost always looking too far into the capabilities of lighting infrastructure- Darien Lake in no way comes even close to topping wonderland’s lighting. Two Intelligent LED lit rides compared to a full arsenal of attractions that have their own awesome lighting packages (soaring timbers, windseeker, skyhawk, lumberjack, Yukon striker I’d assume, even Behemoth has a red chase going up its lift hill for God’s sake, and all their rides with well maintained classic packages like knight mares, shockwave, the interior lighting of Thunder Run and more that I don’t care to list out) prove DL is WAY behind. Especially with their big giant wheel that puts most park Ferris wheels to shame is dark at night. How this translates to Darien Lake winning is beyond me. In my opinion there’s only three things that Darien Lake “wins” 1. Night time show - Ignite the Night has lasers, fireworks and so many other special effects that can’t be beat by projection mapping and water effects (even if I enjoy both) 2. Crowd levels - I’ll take a 10 minute wait over an hour wait any day. 3. Proximity to my house - 30-45 minutes is much better than 1.5-2 hours

You mean other than a very similar ride with a better lighting package? Starflyers are better rides, but Windseeker wins in the lighting department Honestly I prefer the SkyScreamer lighting package where the entire tower lights up, but I do understand the appeal of the Windseeker style where the swings themselves are beautified. I also have to admit the lighting effects I've seen on Windseeker models seem to out-perform the few I saw at SFDL but that could also be the person programming these towers more than it is the capability of them. (Do the manufacturers of these things program the lights? I'm not so sure they do. Maybe they have like a default set up - but parks can reprogram a-la Cedar Point's Giant Wheel? If that's the case I wonder if they're hiring... Darien Lake if you're listening give me a call)

I would audibly laugh if I got to the park and they had music BLASTING because of the few enthusiasts complaining its "too quiet". Especially if that's why the system was off. For all we know they could have (and very likely do have) quite dated infrastructure and it probably needs quite the boost to get to a more modern and reliable point. Back when I worked at Wegmans, they had a really nice sound system installed throughout the entire building that broke completely within a couple years use. That was indoors in a controlled climate building. They then resorted to a boom-box type set up near the produce and prepared foods section of the store, whilst using two sound bars (independently controlled with iPads mind you) for sound on front end and back where I was in grocery. Sound systems aren't always easy to work with and sometimes the easier and cheaper answer that most places go with unfortunately end up being the go to more often than not. If you look at the state of most all of the physical outputs in the park, they're in terrible condition and its amazing that most of them still work at all. Though I'm still shocked people are that interested about it, as a sound guy (in the theatre world at least - I wear many hats) I'm not at all surprised they're having issues, and neither should anyone else.

^ yesterday (June 8) SkyScreamer was indeed up and running. We rode it a couple times in the early afternoon and in the evening around laser show time. As for lighting package, it has several different sequences but it’s been only doing the rainbow gradient for the past week-ish. I assume for pride. Why else would they stick to one pattern? (Guess we shall see when July rolls around )

So, an update on those Go Fast passes for Diamond Elite members. I know it was touched upon - but here’s the official language for nerds like me who care about stuff like this. Also. Some glamour shots of SkyScreamer. The more I see it and ride it, the more I think it was the perfect addition to the park. The thing is awesome! (And some laser show pictures because I can’t resist) Lastly, hot topic. The music was playing again today, at a (get this) normal volume. We could hear it *just* enough that it didn’t completely fade out between the speakers. Yay for *almost* no audio dead zones! (No Decibel readings this trip, folks. Maybe next time if we’re lucky )

Why thank you we’re certainly trying our best over here

#45DbForDL

Apparently it ranges from negative infinity to negative 90db. Good luck hearing anything at all unless you’re literally pressing your ear against the speaker. Truly such a shame since I only go to Darien lake for the ambiance of background music playing at a normal volume of 45 decibels or more.

^ You mention being able to buy discounted tickets online but upon checking most all of the ticket page, the accesso pop up and the membership portal I see no reference to that at all. Do you have a link or helpful tip to get to that area of the website?