thrillseeker4552

This looks great (and much needed). I don't hate the name but it is funny how similar it is to Pantheon. I'm mostly relieved the coaster will be the same and it's just a repaint/retheme. Part of me was worried they were going to "TT2-ify" it or something like that but it seemingly will be the same kick-ass coaster we all know and love. 2025 will be a great year for KD.

Thanks for sharing. Growing up in SoCal this was "technically" my home park along with Knott's. My best friend and I would go often in the late 2000s/early 2010s when it felt like the park was in its prime. I remember getting the courage to finally ride Dragon's Tower and Fireball and, at one point, Screamin' Demon ran INSANE and was brutal in the most fun way possible. Also good memories of the Falling Star ride before that got removed. The flume has always been great as well. Sad to see the park in this dire state. I feel like it always had some good potential being in such a heavily populated area and to be offered as a cheaper/lower stress option (kinda like the Fun Spots in Florida) for Inland Empire folks versus fighting traffic into Orange County or down to San Diego for the other parks - but I guess that ship seems to have sailed under its current ownership.

What I find exciting about this coaster is that yeah, the tilt is cool and unique and probably terrifying, but the rest of the layout actually looks REALLY good. It's not just a one trick pony. Some crazy transitions and rolls and airtime pops in there that should be excellent. And we know it will be glossy smooth too. Yay Vekoma!!!

I had the opportunity to experience the "new" Skyrush yesterday. Overall it is a BIG improvement! And that's coming from someone who wasn't really bothered too much by the original restraints. You can truly enjoy the drop and airtime now without your thighs taking a hit. For anyone who wasn't a fan before, I highly recommend riding again! This was an excellent move by the park and, to be honest, I'm still a little shocked they did it. Lots and lots of other parks would not invest in something like this without an obvious ROI. The updated airline/plane theming in the station is also a nice touch. Oh, and Wildcat is awesome too. It's right up there with my favorite RMCs like Iron Gwazi, ArieForce One, and Steel Vengeance. In my opinion Hersheypark now has the best and most diverse coaster lineup out there. There is truly a ride for every enthusiast's or general public's taste.

Boyfriend is out of town this weekend so I had a nice solo visit to the park today. Iron Gwazi had surprisingly "fast" dispatches (average around 90 seconds) which is a sweet spot interval for not stacking trains. Cheetah Hunt was also running 4 trains / 2 stations with decent operations too. Kumba's newly refurbished train 1 is running like a dream and I had some of the best rides I've had on it. It and Montu were also on two trains and dispatching quickly and overall it was a very good day at the park. Only downside is Scorpion was closed (seemingly unexpectedly) and Cheetah Hunt went down in the afternoon. I left around 3:00 and it still hadn't come back up. The weather was also absolutely perfect. Clear skies and upper 70s. Trying to enjoy this nice weather before things start becoming grossly hot next month.

This is fantastic news. The current restraints don't bother me as much as they do some people, but I am still ecstatic about this and for it to hopefully make the ride more comfortable and accessible. Velocicoaster/Pantheon/etc. restraints are really the best in the business right now. If Wildcat's Revenge already wasn't enough, I'm itching to go back even more now. And I was just there in 2022!

I would estimate mid-late May at the earliest, similar to Pipeline last year. The two rides seem to have a similar construction timeline so far. Testing will likely begin in March and commissioning/final touches to the area and theming in April and passholder previews starting in May. Of course the park hasn't announced anything officially yet so the later the better if you're planning a trip.

If your only plan on Tuesday is to ride AF1 and get to Pigeon Forge, I highly recommend taking Route 23 to 441 and up through the Great Smoky Mountains and down into Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge. I went in April last year and took this route as a last-minute decision (due to crazy Atlanta traffic in the afternoon making the travel times similar, so I may as well see nice scenery). It was the best decision I made that trip and I had a blast. It is generally a longer route, but if you're not planning on visiting Dollywood until Wednesday then I would highly recommend this. Also you will get on AF1 instantly assuming it opens with the park and you could honestly be done in less than an hour. There is absolutely nothing else at the park worth doing IMO, but AF1 is excellent and worth several re-rides.

Velocicoaster has been down since Sunday. I went on Saturday and it was down for most of the day, and pulled a 180 minute wait all evening once it reopened. I think this was because of 2 train operation because there is no other reason that wait time is ever 2x the wait for Hagrid's. Not too surprising if the ride needs some maintenance given that it has been operating 365 for almost 3 years with no significant closures other than weather. Just a little odd it was unscheduled. I know, I know, Intamin. But Universal has done an exceptional job keeping this coaster reliable and running at full capacity pretty much since it's been open it almost doesn't feel like an Intamin from the outside looking in. Hopefully it's back up soon. I suppose weekdays in February, if anything, are a relatively good time for a closure. Just a heads up for anyone heading to the park soon.

In my three most recent visits (2023, 2021, and 2017), I have found August a nice time to go. Particularly mid-late August, and weekdays if you can (basically whatever is the last full week they're open before moving to weekends only). I've also heard May is decent crowd-wise but the flip side is that the park is still getting on its feet from the off-season and staffing/ride availability can be a crap shoot. I would also say the weather in August is generally a bit more reliable than May but that's just luck-of-the-draw when it comes to Sandusky. Anything can happen with the weather and that definitely influences crowds one way or another.

My boyfriend and I rode it last summer and it was... fine. It's definitely more of a game than a ride. You stand on a moving conveyor belt and shoot at things on screens. Granted I'm not much of a gamer, but I had absolutely no idea what I was shooting at or what the objective was. It was all very in-your-face and random. The blaster also connects to your phone and there are items in the queue line for you to scan your phone against and give you points or something like that (my boyfriend handled that, I didn't know what it did lol). Overall the quality was good but I'm generally not a fan of shooting dark rides in general so I didn't really care for Minions too much and haven't done it again since. I can see how someone who's much more into the game side of it can have lots of fun.

Perhaps I am in the minority but I really think the park should focus on maintaining their current 20 coasters and, dare I say, have a portion of the year where they are all open at once - as well as fix up a bunch of the severely outdated infrastructure throughout the park before they open up coaster #21. With that being said, coaster #21 will bring them attendance and $$$ versus fixing up operations and infrastructure which doesn't have an ROI so, what do I know lol.

Thanks for the photos! Wow, it's like my childhood visits all over again! That was right around the time I started getting big enough to ride things and my family would take me quite often. The park has changed so much over the years, mostly for the better, unless you count their bad operations or them destroying Monte!

Even if it does end up with seatbelts, hopefully they click to the outside like a standard OTSR rather than a lap belt underneath. Those outside seatbelts are hardly disruptive to operations compared to the lap belts underneath the restraint. The trains look great. As long as they don't ride like a shopping cart on asphalt (like Zamperla's Thunderbolt model does...) then I am all in. And those have got to be the largest road wheel diameter for any coaster that I've seen. Even bigger than the B&M Gigas.

For what it's worth, I visited on a Friday in mid-January 2021 and everything was open (even the Chaos, which I'm very happy I got a ride on). No maintenance closures that day from what I noticed. This was also during the height of COVID. I think the park closes some weekdays during this time so make sure you check their hours - but if the park is open I think it's safe to assume the two main coasters will be open, barring any unique circumstances.

Post-COVID might be a different story (others please chime in if so). But I went in mid-December 2019 and every coaster was open. Weather sat in the 50s most of the day and dipped down to the low 40s at night and everything remained open. It was actually a wonderful time, and my first time at the park. HITP is such a great event (or at least it was great that year... Six Flags has changed a lot recently so take it with a grain of salt). Although I suppose Aquaman may be closed. For weather, or "maintenance" or both, or no reason.... so maybe don't hold out hope for that one. I went back in July this year and Aquaman was incredibly unreliable and on-off all day.

This will be a wonderful addition to the park and, like you said, very long overdue. This was by far the most surprising and unexpected 2024 announcement for me. Even with the Bobsled closing... I still wasn't expecting this. lol

What a great (and unexpected) addition! I love to see B&M expanding more into the family coaster market with this and Penguin Trek. Living between the two parks, I am very interested and excited to see how these turn out next year!

Xcelerator being closed is frustrating but at least we know there is progress and some things are out of their control. The REAL question mark right now in my opinion is Montezooma. They never really officially announced what they're doing to the ride in detail, never released any concept animation outside of new station theming and a glance at the trains. Nothing has visibly changed in a year and the park has hardly acknowledged the project aside from saying it wouldn't open this summer. I have to wonder who they hired for that project, and I'm even more baffled why it wasn't Gerstlauer given their history with refurbishing Schwarzkopfs and a presumed relationship with the park after adding HangTime. It's a good thing the park has GhostRider, HangTime, and Silver Bullet operating reliably. Two of the parks' Top 5 coasters have been down for almost 2 years with no end in sight.

Yeah ever since it started cresting the top at a lift hill's pace, the launch really doesn't seem to be as "necessary" other than the excitement of launching up the hill and the gimmick. As someone who visited Dollywood for the first time this year and found LRod closed all day and not a soul in sight, I am 100% for this change. I also love Dollywood's transparency about this. Can't wait to visit again next year!

I know this wasn't intentional but I like that the zero g roll up into the spike is a little happy-accident nod to Batman & Robin the Chiller before they had their rolls removed. I call this a win. Finally some new age Vekoma in the states. I really hope this along with the family boomerangs coming, and rides like Big Bear, really propels Vekoma's presence here outside Disney.

Similar to SeaWorld/Busch, which are also outrageous. I don't think you can get a meal and drink for under $20 there.

^I understand what you're saying. I almost feel like Zambezi Zinger would've been a better fit at this park, and Iron Menace would've been better at Worlds of Fun. Just interesting to think about and not a complaint either way. It's very refreshing to see Cedar Fair throw their small park a bone - and a B&M at that! Between this ride, Wildcat's Revenge, and whatever is coming to SFGAdv, I definitely need to hit up this area of the country again next summer!

This ride would definitely fill a few voids in the lineup (launched, spinning, water) and I'm happy to see Six Flags potentially work with Intamin again. Let's just hope they can keep this ride open and somewhat reliable. Intamin + Six Flags isn't exactly a winning combo for operational consistency.

Glad to hear. It is interesting that Cedar Fair is repairing and restoring one of their hydraulic launches, and converting/reimagining the other (obviously different situations with different histories but still). Makes me wonder if when Xcelerator inevitably has another major repair/closure in the next 2-5 years if that will be their final straw and they will Zamperla-ify it - assuming TT2 goes well - or just straight up remove the ride, or continue to repair it.