azza29

^^Great move. There's constructive criticism and then there's abusive ranting, important to draw a line between the two - especially on a page that kids are likely to read.

Can I recommend you take a look at touringplans.com - great site with plenty of advice on pretty much everything you're asking about. They even have a crowd calendar which predicts how busy it's likely to be and ride wait times.

^Got mine last week (RCITR 1+2 blu-ray) - looks great, and no waiting for the video to buffer before playing! Plus bonus TPR pens are always good!

Kind of ridiculous that this even happens. "You announced new rides but not what I wanted so now I'm angry" - the sense of entitlement in this attitude borders on the absurd. New rides going in, the old ones are sticking around, nobody is being short-changed by the move. Good on Kings Dominion for giving families some more to do.

^It will either be awesome or terrible, and a lot will hinge on how well the screens are integrated into the physical parts of the ride. Either way I'm excited to see what they end up with.

Definitely going to road trip up to Sydney to check this place out once it opens. Plenty of slides that aren't in Wet'n'Wild Gold Coast or WhiteWater World. And no Twister/waterboarding simulator - hooray! The sheer volume of attractions makes me think this park ought to handle big crowds fairly well, providing the ride ops are decent.

Classic Looney Tunes still holds up though I think Peanuts is a great fit - it's been around a while for sure, but still has appeal across multiple generations. And it'll still be around in ten years' time, unlike a lot of the newer cartoon characters who might only be popular for a year or two. Definitely a ridiculous build-up for an announcement of this size though. The expansion is cool and all, but seemed like they were setting themselves up to disappoint. "Breaking records" seems to suggest something in the order of highest/fastest/longest as opposed to "more Snoopy".

I joined the MGM Players' Club for the sole purpose of getting a hotel room discount last year. They gave me a great rate on my room at NYNY with no strings attached (about 15% lower than the best rate I could book on their website). So that could be one way to save cash and stay at an MGM-owned property. But as others have noted, your positive word-of-mouth is far more valuable to them than the few dollars they'll make on your hotel room.

Current plans mean I'll have to miss the 2013 tours but very, very keen on joining the Scandinavian trip in 2014!

Is their countdown based on your PC clock? Counts down to 11am for me too, but that's Melbourne time (currently sitting at one hour to go), which is like 9pm Kings Dominion time?

I'd add a hydrocoaster to that list - I daresay it's probably in the plans already and will be part of the park's first expansion after 2-3 years of operation.

The last Vekoma SLC I rode was Lethal Weapon and that was an incredibly rough ride, so I can only imagine what the reverse-engineered knockoff is like!

Great to see another world-class waterpark down here. We might not have many notable coasters but at least we get the good waterparks! Plus waterslides can be just as thrilling as rollercoasters - such as the time my family (6 adults, including the parents) decided to ride Mammoth Falls (family slide) at Wet'n'Wild Gold Coast together. We picked up enough speed that my brother got tipped out on the last turn! He was OK but they wouldn't let us buy the ride photo of our raft almost flying over the edge

I don't know how rare this one is, but RCDB lists it as "unknown". I believe it was called the Dragon Coaster - inside the Myer Centre, Brisbane. Not a long ride but kind of cool because it was in the roof of a department store. Torn down in 2001.

Where's a good halfway point between Kennywood and Knoebels? Looks like a 5 hr drive so I'd want to stop somewhere in-between overnight. Maybe Altoona?

It has to be the cost-benefit equation. The "coaster wars" have cooled down significantly lately and the reality is that a $10m addition will draw roughly the same number of visitors as something that costs $30-40m.

Hollywoodland is definitely the Tomorrowland of DCA. Some good attractions but they're all indoors so the area can get very quiet. Entertainment areas are empty 90% of the time which kills the atmosphere - replace one of the stages with a good flat ride and the area would get a nice "buzz" during the day that it currently lacks.

^Thanks for your post, much appreciated! There's only so much I can work out from Google maps and Yelp I hadn't heard of Quassy park before and Wooden Warrior looks great. Can definitely fit that in. Plan for that day can be to pick up the car at Newark, a 2.5-3.5 hr drive to Quassy (depending on traffic), then hit up Lake Compounce. Once we're done there I was thinking we'd get our annual passes processed at SFNE in the evening (assuming the lines for this would be pretty light later in the day, as opposed to first thing the next morning?). Not actually planning to go all the way from Springfield to Sandusky in a single day, that would definitely be quite ambitious! I'm thinking we'll leave SFNE around 7pm on the 26th (so fastpass will be a must), drive to Syracuse and stay the night there. Then it's 3 hours to Niagara Falls, another 2 hours to Waldameer and 3 hours or so to Cedar Point. We're flying into San Francisco so SFDK might be the better option, however if Gold Striker is open that might tip the scales in favour of CGA.

Goofy's Sky School is OK but nothing unique. The midway games are fun albeit a little overpriced, and the prizes look like Disney knock-offs! The Zephyrs are underrated. And yes, CS capacity and load/unload efficiency puts every other park to shame. NPH launch voiceover always makes me laugh. One solid dark ride would really help this part of the park to shine - difficult to find something that fits with the 'boardwalk' theme though.

I've only been to the West Coast parks, but it's tough to pick between the two. DL has more to do, and Splash Mountain, Star Tours, Indiana Jones, Haunted Mansion and POTC are all world class. Plus there's some really neat smaller rides like Roger Rabbit and Peter Pan. And Fantasmic! and the nightly fireworks are arguably the best outdoor shows anywhere. However DCA has the edge in terms of indoor shows - Aladdin, Muppet Vision and It's Tough to be a Bug! are really cool, and Turtle Talk wows me every time. California Screamin' is the best coaster at either park, Tower of Terror is awesome and the rapids ride is also superb. Add to that Toy Story Midway Mania and Soarin', as well as World of Color and I'm pretty much even. So for now I'll say Disneyland first then DCA. However, last time I went Cars Land was still under construction, and I've got the feeling that it'll give CA the edge when I go back next year.

You're right, that would work better but as we're renting a car we need to return it to the same place to avoid a big one-way fee. And we're spending a week in NY beforehand it looks like Newark is the most convenient place to start and end (will be flying back to LA afterward). Have made some revisions to my trip plan, it now looks like: Sat 25/5 - drive NY-Springfield, pit stop at Lake Compounce Sun 26/5 - Six Flags New England Mon 27/5 - long drive, pit stops at Niagara Falls and Waldameer Tue 28/5, Wed 29/5 - Cedar Point Thu 30/5 - Kings Island Fri 31/5 - drive/rest day Sat 1/6 - Kennywood Sun 2/6 - Hersheypark Mon 3/6 - Knoebels Tue 4/6 - another long drive Wed 5/6 - Busch Gardens Thu 6/6 - Kings Dominion Fri 7/6, Sat 8/6 - touristy stuff in Washington Sun 9/6 - Six Flags America Mon 10/6 - Six Flags Great Adventure So less of a giant circle and more like an uneven figure 8. Looks like I'll have time to visit one park while in San Francisco - anyone able to recommend SFDK over CGA, or vice versa? I'm leaning towards CGA at the moment.

OK so I'm looking at trying to squeeze Knoebels in. Notice that Dorney Park is only a couple of hours away, is that unique enough to make it worth checking out? Question for anyone who's driven from Pittsburgh to Hershey before - Google maps tells me it'll take about 4 hours, is that accurate? Also I'd like to squeeze in a TPR West Coast or East Coast bash while I'm over there, and can rearrange my dates to fit it in if necessary. When are these usually announced, and do they tend to be in late May/early June or later in the year?

^ Indy is one of the best rides in the park, it's great to see it getting some love to fix all the little 'problems' that have cropped up over the years. Who knows? After this, Disney might even get around to fixing the broken Vulture on Splash Mountain.

SFA is more out of convenience as we will be spending some time to see the sights in Washington. I might be able to add a day to see Knoebels at the end, drive from Philadelphia and back to fit it in. Does it need a full day or would 5-7 hours be enough to see everything?

Hi folks - my name is Aaron, I hail from Melbourne, Australia, long-time 'guest' on these boards. My brother and I are planning to vacation in the USA next year, along with the regular touristy stuff we're going to visit some parks, including a road-trip of the northeastern states. Looking at a pretty aggressive itinerary to fit everything in, the plan is to drive between parks overnight. Gaps are 'long drive' days, and we'll be taking our time to see the sights in Washington DC. Plan for each park is to cover the coasters, dark rides and any log flume/rapids rides. Current plan is as follows: Mon 27/5 - Six Flags New England (Memorial Day, should I be worried about crowds?) Wed 29/5, Thu 30/5 - Cedar Point Fri 31/5 - Kings Island Sun 2/6 - Kennywood Mon 3/6 - Hersheypark Wed 5/6 - Six Flags America Fri 7/6 - Kings Dominion Sat 8/6 - Busch Gardens Mon 10/6 - Six Flags Great Adventure I'm keen to know what crowd levels will be like, and whether I'm likely to need Fastlane/Flashpass etc for any of the above. Don't want to spend too much but given that I'm unlikely to return to any of these parks for a while I'd prefer to pay extra rather than miss out on a coaster becuase we run out of time. We're also spending some time in California, visiting Disneyland, Knotts, Magic Mountain, Universal and California's Great America. Planning to pick up Cedar Fair and Six Flags season passes to save some $$$ on admission. I've been to Disney and Universal recently so have a good idea of those parks, but any other thoughts/advice would be much appreciated. Cheers!