thrillseeker4552

Awesome! I'm surprised a new Top Spin is being built. They have been dropping like flies the last few years!

Thanks for the advice guys. I'll take that all into account. In addition to this park, we are also visiting Carowinds, Kings Dominion, and Six Flags America (no BGW unfortunately... simply a time and budget constraint. Trying to stick to parks we can use our Six Flags passes and Platinum passes for). I definitely plan on creating a thread and writing up reports on each park!

I'm just excited to see Six Flags build unique, custom, ground-up roller coasters this year (WCR and Maxx Force) after several years of cookie-cutter Joker clones, Justice Leagues, and Giant Discoveries with a couple RMCs thrown in the mix. Sure it's short, but it boasts an intense launch and FIVE inversions in such a short amount of track. This does way more with it's track length than Full Throttle does, in my opinion.

For the locals: My family is visiting the park for the first time on Sunday and Monday, June 30th and July 1st. I have a few questions as a first time visitor. 1. Is two full days necessary without Flash Pass, or can we get away with 1.5 days? 2. Is a plan of attack necessary? I understand Dare Devil Dive is the worst line in the park, and we plan on using our Diamond Membership skip-the-line pass on that coaster both days. Any other tips for rides to hit at opening? 3. Any good food at the park that isn't your typical Six Flags / theme park food? 4. Any "magic seats" on the coasters? Thanks for any and all advice! This will be my 6th Six Flags park and it seems to be one of the best!

Twisted Colossus earlier today was my most recent coaster, although CraZanity was my final ride of the day.

I waited a solid 2 hours to ride HangTime during Knott's Scary Farm last fall. That is the longest I've waited for a ride in recent memory. I also believe I waited 2.5 to 3 hours when I first rode X2 back in 2010, but my memory is foggy on that one.

Seeing track and supports being installed makes me much more excited for this coaster! I'm hoping it opens before I leave SoCal in mid-August, but given that it is almost Memorial Day and we just started vertical construction, I'm not going to hold my breath.

Great report. I only knew this park from Alpina Blitz but it's cool to see that it's much more than that.

Looks very nice, and it is definitely a much needed improvement. After the log ride and mine ride got upgrades, the rapids getting a similar treatment seemed inevitable. I’m excited to check it out this weekend!

A few questions for the locals. We plan on visiting the park for the very first time in late June. They seem to have a good deal on a two-day ticket with food, so we plan on spending two full days there (most likely Mon-Tues the 24th-25th). We would like to avoid purchasing Quick Queue if possible, but I imagine two full days is plenty of time to do everything without it? Especially since they will be weekdays. We care about all roller coasters and probably Mach Tower, Finnegan's Flyer, and any other flats or dark rides worth doing. Is having a "plan of attack" necessary? I'm also looking for suggestions for places to eat. We are going as a family and I am 19, so no beer recommendations please. Just any good food that can be used with the dining pass! None of us are picky eaters. Thanks. I'm really looking forward to visiting!

Awesome! I love seeing people's Planet Coaster creations but never cared much for the long extended story lines. I think you've inspired me to post a similar "story" too sometime in the future. That GCI looks absolutely ridiculous, and I mean that in the best way possible. EDIT: Also, how did you get that custom Arrow loop support structure? Are there ones available for corkscrews too, somewhere?

Also, a top-down view of a coaster's layout hardly does it justice. Any coaster's layout (especially hypers/gigas) look uninteresting from that view. It is very difficult to judge the scale of the lift hill, airtime hills, etc. I remember first seeing a plan view of Fury's layout and being underwhelmed, but of course my opinion has VERY much changed! Regardless if that is the layout (and, honestly, I really do think it is), I can't believe I would see the day a giga is actually coming to Kings Island. I always thought it would never happen since this park "fills the gaps" of Cedar Point's ride collection, such as having a plethora of woodies, a B&M Hyper, previously a flying coaster, indoor coaster, family coasters, etc. Hopefully this ride separates itself from Millennium Force, Fury, and Leviathan. I think 2020 is going to outdo 2018 as one of the best years for new roller coasters in the US.

Three days is PLENTY of time for Knott's. Many of the coasters (GhostRider, Xcelerator, HangTime) have atrocious throughput, so this will give you plenty of time to experience and re-ride all of the coasters. Aside from the obvious ones like the major coasters, the two can't-miss attractions in the park are the Timber Mountain Log Ride and the Calico Mine Ride. Both are very historic rides in the park that are living their best lives after their respective refurbishments a few years ago. As for food, my personal favorite is the new BBQ place near Sky Cabin. I have tried all of the entrees and sides and like them all. The grill near Calico River Rapids (I forget its name!) also has excellent burgers and chicken sandwiches. Yeah, typical theme park food, but these burgers are different - at least in my opinion. I'm not very big on shows. The Charles M Schulz theater always has shows going on, but I rarely watch them so maybe someone else can chime in for this one. A few additional random tips: 1) Try to do GhostRider in both the front and back. I like them both equally, and they're both great. The back is better in the first half, and the front is better in the second half. There is a single rider line, but it isn't open all the time. There is a sign in the outside portion of the queue that states if it's open or not. It can save you tons of time. 2) The front seat is my favorite seat on Xcelerator, but keep in mind that the front car has its own line that splits at the bottom of the ramp, so it is often full and moves very slowly. Back seat is also fantastic, but the front seat on that launch is incredible. 3) Montezooma's Revenge in the back seat. That's all. There's nothing else like it in the country. 4) Get to the park at opening on at least one of your days and head straight to GhostRider. Then head to the back of the park for Xcelerator and HangTime (the Boardwalk is empty the first hour or two of operations), then do the rest in any order you'd like. The park isn't very big and it is very easy to navigate and walk from one end to the other. EDIT: Also, don't forget to check the scheduled ride closures on the park website. GhostRider is closed Mon-Fri every week in May, in addition to a few others scattered throughout.

^I hope so. There is a fair chance I am visiting this park (along with a few others) for the first time this summer and, of course, I would really like to ride Lightning Rod.

Twisted Colossus earlier today!

Some people will ride any roller coaster in the world but refuse to ride drop towers. To clarify, I am not one of these people, but drop towers feel completely different than rides like Kingda Ka and Dragster.

^THIS. It is a *rare* sight to see all 16 seats filled on HangTime. It would be nice to have a SRL on Silver Bullet as well, but the train already holds so many people that the line still moves quite well even with a few empty seats per dispatch.

Maybe now that the rehabbed version is pushing three years, they have to slightly increase the frequency of maintenance and track repairs. It is usually not closed on weekdays in May. Kind of a bummer, but I will support anything that keeps the coaster fast and smooth for as long as possible. It is running like a dream right now.

It's physically impossible for this coaster to reach 50 mph given its height. But I'm sure the tight hills and transitions of these Gravity Group coasters makes it feel much faster though. Probably the fastest-feeling 35 mph ever!

^Mystery Lodge is located by Bigfoot Rapids (rather, Calico River Rapids) and is a show/story-telling experience. It's pretty cool but I often forget about it too. I haven't done it in a few years.

I thought the slow inversions were the best parts of Valravn! The drops are fun and all, but I like that these newer dive machines are expanding their elements beyond immelmanns and actually feature "complete" layouts. They feel less like one-trick ponies.

Knott's on Friday the 3rd. I have my interview that day for a potential ride op position, so I may as well pop in a ride a few coasters while I'm there anyway!

This is totally awesome. I love this kind of stuff. Definitely going to download this on my Apple Watch (although I do have the first generation one from 2015, and it's pretty slow... we'll see how that works).

Actually, we implemented a new policy this year! If your row is empty, you can reride! That's pretty awesome, and its surprising from a Six Flags park! SFMM has always allowed re-rides, and SFDK allowed them when I was there last summer. In fact, on slow days, the ride ops at SFMM will announce that you're welcome to re-ride if nobody is waiting in your row. In my experience, it's typically Cedar Fair parks that make you exit and re-enter the station between rides - unless there's an ERT event going on. Your remark about SFMM is absolutely true. My little sister and I sat and rode Revolution three times in a row without getting off. We could have gone even more, but we chose to exit and do something else after three rides.

GCI and Gravity Group both make excellent wooden coasters, so I don't think Seaworld can go wrong with either. This will be a nice addition. Texas can use a nice good wooden roller coaster! I am still in shock that Seaworld is adding a major roller coaster to each of their 5 big parks next year.