BoulderDash

I watched a test on the way out and there was no trimming at all, it was flying due to rain too.

My dad talked with someone at guest relations recently and they told him SV will be down tomorrow. Probably making a push for CM.

Steel Vengeance is testing with two trains.

I’m in the station and a higher up went to the back and watched the brake run when the train came back. I’ll see if I can see anything going on when the ride closes. Edit: I saw an IOE employee heading to the ride once I got off, definitly something going on.

Blackjack is missing wheel assemblies that I could see in the back and didn’t have a bumper on the back of it. My guess is they are using it for parts to keep the other trains going. Chess was running earlier but it was having issues and they put digger on.

I waited about two hours for a front row ride this morning, the ride is absolutely insane. Easily the best here and will probably ride once more in an hour or so. The trim is noticeable but it doesn’t really have an impact. One of the best coasters I’ve been on. Also I saw a few Max Air tests, looks like they are training employees on the ride or something.

Good to see they are keeping people updated. We bought 3 of those combo tickets around the holidays for around $140 each that included fast lane plus and was planning to go the week after memorial day. Hopefully things are straightened out by then or will have to re-think the trip.

The park opened today and while most of it was positive, there were a couple of negatives. First off, I feel bad for anyone that had to process a season pass today, because the line was in the tunnel, and some people reported waiting over an hour. Another negative is the drink situation. The park ditched their free drink policy and drinks are now for purchase only behind food counters. Diamond and Platinum season pass holders are still able to get free drinks (16oz), BUT you now have to wait in a potentially large line. The park was not super busy today, but I saw some insane food stand lines and people were reporting 30 minute waits just for water or a free drink. So that issue needs to be addressed asap because it is only going to get worse. I found the Croc Pot to be the easiest because you pour your own drinks there and usually the line isn't to bad. So right at opening there were employees at BD's entrance saying the ride is not ready yet and I did not hear any testing going on. We headed over to Wildcat and got the second ride in the front. The ride is improved and it is not too bad but there are still some shaky spots. IMO this ride should have been completely re-tracked and painted before getting the new trains. I heard a guy behind me say "they did all this work to fix it and it is still just as bad!" I tested a couple seats and none of them gave me a headache at all, but there are some rough spots. They did do some work on the final turn around and following hill(top two layers replaced), but it honestly did not do much to help and was still shaky. I have mixed feelings on this whole thing but hopefully they keep doing a little work here and there and it gets better. So after two rides, I got a little suspicious as to why I haven't heard a BD test run yet. One ride on Down Time revealed that there was no train in the station. My first thought was it valleyed somewhere but I was also thinking it could have been taken off the track for some reason. Turns out I was right and the train valleyed before the turn around. There were mechanics using a winch and eventually it continued on its journey. So the south end of the park pretty much felt abandoned to me. Such a shame to see one of the park's signature rides abandoned and destroyed. IMO, the top three most unique things at LC were Boulder Dash, Sky Ride, and Free Soda, and only one of those remains. I am positive that guest satisfaction, enjoyment, and reviews are going to go south this season. I REALLY hope that the next major news that comes out of this park is positive. Went back to Wildcat for another ride and saw BD's train coming back and it was the slowest I have ever seen, it was crawling, not really a surprise but it was really cool to see. I figured it was going to stall again on the anti-rollback before the brake run and sure enough it did. Wipeout was closed too and it looked really bad. It looks like it was being worked on but the overall condition of it looked awful. About 30 minutes later, they got it back in the station and had a bunch of employees come ride so it didn't valley. It was going really slow, but after 3 tests, it was opened. It is running well but needs to warm up still and won't be running to it's full potential until daily operations. The second train is still in limbo although I heard it is close to completion. Two rows were also out of order and I am pretty sure one of the rows had restraints that were not locking some of the time... The park transformed the old paintball game building into a relaxation station which is nice and seemed to be very popular. Not sure what it is going to look like on very busy days though. Zoomerang was down and Twister was having some issues. I didn't look into it too much, but it seemed like Saw Mill Plunge had more logs running than usual. Ghost Hunt had a huge line with only 4 cars running and there isn't much effort put into making sure those cars are full. Phobia was also running very well and had excellent airtime and speed. Overall it was a decent opening day, but things could have went better. The park did make opening weekend a bring a buddy day which they have never done before, and they had a season pass/b1g1 ticket sale which led to some crowds. Hopefully next week will be better when they do not have bring a buddy, but I don't think the drink situation is going to get better unless they make some changes.

I am aware, but check out this picture. The last crosstie only has track attached to one side. The other picture shows what looks like cut supports. Pictures from the DP connoisseurs FB page.

Looks to me like it is being scrapped. I saw some other pics that show what looks to be burn marks on support pieces and part of the cobra roll track has the track rail missing from the crosstie.

Soda is still free if you have a diamond or platinum season pass, so regulars are not really affected. I still will miss just being able to walk up to a stand and getting a cup. Now to get a drink you have to go to a food stand and have your pass scanned. I am waiting to judge this new system but it will either be really good or really bad depending on how long you have to wait. The plus side is the machines will likely be maintained more (they were in terrible condition last year especially on hot days) and the cups are now 16oz and you get a lid/straw. I feel like a lot of the guests don't know about all of the negative things they did this season and will be surprised next time they visit. In the eyes of the GP, there are now not too many benefits that they have over Six Flags and their cheaper passes/new rides are likely more appealing. I still prefer LC over SFNE but they did way more wrong than right last season and I hope they can turn things around this year and in the future. It is also confirmed that LC has inherited some parts and logs from Log Jammer and will be used on the ride. They said that they hope to have 7 boats running (doesn't seem like enough imo) and could do 8-9 on busy days with more staff. There will also be souvenir bottles that can be purchased for $13 and include free drinks for the day and $.99 after that. It says not valid during October though for the bottle, so hopefully they are still planning to give pass holders free drinks then.

Here are a few pics from the Nor’ Easter event last Saturday. The park said they are actively planning for the next 5-7 years and have things planned that will look nice and do well for the park. Wildcat’s work is being finished up along with the awesome new entrance. I like how the new paint looks! The old paintball game has been transformed into this. A car of BD’s blue train (former green car) Wildcat is getting some track work on the final turnaround. This part and the last two hills did not do so well with the new trains. RIP free soda.

The area will have some decent theming but basically what you would expect from Six Flags. I don’t think VR is returning either so it will be interesting to see what happens to the quene line that they messed up.

It’s happening, announcement will be made on April 3rd. The rumors are true and the area is also being re-themed. Everything will be ready for opening besides Harley Quinn.

Nice find! Looks like B&M dive track to me. Looks like they tried to hide it but the wind uncovered it. Also the second track piece of Vortex looks a little weird, I hope they are planning on putting it back together.

Here are a few pics from Holiday Lights yesterday. Nothing really new was added but it's still a fun event and is popular with young kids and their families. I did notice that photos with Santa seem to be pretty expensive now ($25 was the lowest package I saw), was around $10 when it first started in 2012. The train was having issues in the cold (even though it wasn't even that cold) so I'm not sure how it is going to run later in the year. The train stalled out 8 times between the new boathouse and the end and took forever to get back. The new WildCat entrance is looking pretty cool! Get the tissues out..

Nice pics! I will be going a week from today, can't wait. 4/7/18 is likely opening day and it is rumored that Mind Eraser is going to be re-themed to the Riddler and the South end will become Gotham City.

I was right where the line splits so I wasn't really close enough to say hi, but I do like talking with fellow enthusiasts while in line. If you sit in the back, you can see a lot of green on the freshly painted cars. Thankfully they were able to get it running for October. I really hope they get a second train going for next year even if they have to buy a new one. I did also see a stack of older looking train chassis next to the station that appeared two weeks ago, I think they might be from the old red train because there were some solid grey seat dividers on top. Maybe they had old car pieces under the station and will try to make another train with the parts from those trains and the messed up cars. Glad you enjoyed the graveyard too. I went through 3 times this season and it is always a great time. I would recommend going earlier in the season because there are less people that go through so it is less of a congested mess in the haunt. I saw the line in kiddie land at one point and that usually means they will be letting through giant groups of people as fast as possible which leads to some congestion and loss of some scares.

I saw someone waiting for the front row on BD around 9pm with TPR out on their phone, I'm guessing that might have been you. Totally agree about the Swings, they are totally awesome. Same with Downtime, probably the best drop tower I've been on. I haven't heard anything official about the other BD cars, but I'm willing to bet they might be in coaster heaven instead of the maintenance shop. The last two cars of the train running now are from the green train and I think the rest of the cars are either totaled or in need of serious work. Also the enterprise they had was Huss, I do miss it but Phobia is easily better.

The trains on Superman don't appear to be in the best shape and have been really noisy lately. It still rides great but I noticed a significant amount of noises coming from the trains. I really hope that one year they invest in new restraints and replace the missing row. I just want the restraints to be identical to the way a normal T bar would fit but with a U shaped bar. Modifying the restraints would also likely allow them to ditch the headrests, I believe they are a requirement with the restraints they currently have. Seems like Goliath has had a lot of down time lately, I wonder how long it will before they pull the plug on it. It is a maintenance nightmare, and a waste of space. I see Flashback or GCG leaving before Goliath though, but hopefully it will be soon to follow. Unless they get a new Vekoma train for it and put some money into making it work, then I am totally fine with it staying.

^If they are going to do more work, it will be done in the off-season and that is not going to impact if it opens again or not. It is not open now because of the painting and they are installing a new lift motor. I heard that it will have to be running pretty much 100% for it to open again though because they do not want to have to potentially evacuate it at night, although they do want to get more runs in on it before next year. So basically imo it has a roughly 5% chance of opening again this season.

^Yeah, I thought they were going to do the painting next season. As far as I know, they are planning to do more track work and replace/modify some of the structure of the south turnaround so I think they should have waited with the paint until the work was mostly done. I guess some minor track work here and there won't be too hard to paint in house though.

Since nobody has posted in a while, I will post a few updates from the park. Wildcat is still not open (hasn't been open for more than a couple days this year). It is currently being painted by Baynum Painting and looks really nice. I was a little skeptical of the colors but I think it is looking nice. Not the biggest fan of the orange handrails, but the black track looks nice. I think there is a very small chance of it opening again this year but it is not looking likely. They are also building a new entrance for the ride that is looking awesome. This is an old pic (and haven't taken a new one during the day) but it is close to completion. They are going to have one of the old PTC cars on the track. The track is now completed and looks identical to coaster track. BD is running well even, you can feel a slight difference in the cars though if you ride the back two because they are from the green train. I still don't know what is up with the other cars but it wouldn't surprise me if they only have one train ready for next year. There is some cool theming around the park too. I also noticed some orange flags around the entrance area of BD. I counted 5 scattered between the first part of the quene and the photo booth, and 4 between the quene and Phobia. I think orange markers are usually for underground wiring or electrical work but the ones on the right side are on top of the rocks which is a little strange. Some PTC chassis appeared next to BD last weekend. I believe they may be from the old red train because they are old looking, rusty, and had a few grey seats/dividers on top which were on the red train. Here are a few other notes from around the park. -Ghost Hunts guns still work great despite constant abuse from guests. Some of them have lots of dings in the plastic and I hear them being dropped on every visit by the guests. -Pirate Ship now has color changing lights on it that look great. -Wave Swinger is running really well, easily the most forceful swing ride I have been on. -Skyride's chairs have been removed and are stacked in pieces next to the ride. Still very disappointed in this decision. -The front entrance area looks the best its ever looked in October. Lots of cool lighting, fog, and theming. -The Haunted Graveyard is amazing as usual, easily the best haunt in New England. Couple new things here and there including a new swamp with these really cool moving snakes and a few alligators. I noticed some new props in the banshee section and one really cool animatronic that comes down from the ceiling in the manor at the end. The portable looking hospital ending is back and was actually pretty good on my last time through. I wish there was a way to make it look more permanent though. Overall the actors were amazing as well. Definitely try it out if you haven't been through before, totally worth it.

No way that is going to happen. I'm pretty sure they are getting something, but it's likely going to be something in the water park. Or they could be doing another maintenance year, Wildcat needs a lot more work and obviously they are going to have to put some money into Boulder now. They definitely need an addition though because SFNE and Quassy are getting some good stuff.

They always had warning signs that warned people about potential risks and told people not to smoke or do anything stupid while riding. I still think reinforcing those rules along with a camera/speaker system on every tower should have been implemented. They added a system like that to Thunder Rapids and they have an employee watching the cameras at all times with a mic ready to correct guest behavior if needed. I don't see why they couldn't have done that with Skyride. If someone isn't following the rules, they can stop the ride and yell at them. I know this would be a ton of work, but I would have been fine with them shortening the ride too. If they made it turn around at the top of the main drop (roughly the halfway point), it probably would have helped with a lot of issues and still would have provided a great ride.