mmkaycomputer

In a week and a half, I'll be at Fuji-Q Highland, followed by DisneySea and Tokyo Dome City. They'll be my first international parks and I'm pretty damn excited.

Great feedback, thanks! I feel a little more reassured about the passes. Now, whether I survive the new Do-Dodonpa will be a whole other story!

Does anyone have experience with using the park's fast pass system? If so, is it reasonable to expect that with early hotel-guest arrival (8:30am), we might be able to nab morning or even early afternoon fast pass time slots before the general public starts to enter the park at 9am? We're not sure if the fast pass office is open during early admission or not, but we want to at least be in line for it when it does. The reason for our urgency: Unfortunately, we have to leave Fuji by 4 pm and cannot rearrange our trip to maximize time at the park -- but we're nonetheless hellbent on getting on those four coasters. (Can you blame us?) If it helps, we're going on Wednesday, August 23 (after the holiday/festival). Thanks for any advice you might have.

Notable coasters I've skipped: High Roller (Stratosphere, Las Vegas—argh, in my own city! Regret this one) Bizarro (SFGAdv—floorless rides can make me feel queasy, not sure why, so I skipped this to ensure I wouldn't be too sick to ride KK and El Toro, which I loved and would have hated to miss). Green Lantern (SFGAdv—we looked at it and said, oh, a poor man's Riddler's Revenge, we'll pass) Wicked Twister (Cedar Point—watched the POV and it looked nauseating) Kong (SFDK—after the hell that was T3, I don't ever need to ride an SLC again) Xcelerator (KBF—was on it once, kid who had sat in my row remained near the car and threw up, ride was closed and haven't had opportunity to try again since) Styles of coasters I tend to avoid: Like some of you here, I skip the kiddie coasters. Exceptions: The Woodstock Express woodies and suspended family coasters at the Cedar Fair parks, which are more adult-friendly, and the ones at Toontown (Disneyland) and Fantasyland (Magic Kingdom). Aside from those, I have countless skipped credits in this category and have no regrets. I also skip spinning coasters, because spinning also tends to make me queasy. Exception: I'll ride Sierra Sidewinder at Knott's. I love the forces on it and so far—knock on wood—it hasn't made me feel sick. Otherwise, I've passed on both in Six Flags' Texas parks, and the one at Animal Kingdom. And, I forego boomerangs. Went on Boomerang at Knott's about eight years ago, felt sick afterward, decided I didn't need to ride any of the clones in the future. This also went for both Invertigo at KI and Deja Vu when it was at Magic Mountain—especially after I witnessed another barfing at its exit.

Question for those who frequent SFOT. How busy does Holiday in the Park get on Friday nights and Saturdays a week before Christmas? Is Flash Pass a must, especially on those 5-10pm nights? I'm guessing school is finished for the year on Dec. 16, so I'm nervous. I'd like to avoid having to spring for a Platinum Pass, which I read is required for NTG and Shockwave if we wanted expedited lines. We won't be trying to ride every coaster, though we will likely ONLY be riding coasters. Thanks for your help.

Quick review of my quick visit to SFMM Saturday night. The good: Coaster waits were reasonable and shorter than I expected for a Saturday/Fright Fest night. And the Suicide Squad projection mapping presentation was impressive. The bad: Scare zones were pathetic, especially up front, near Revolution and by Bugs Bunny World — mostly just hordes of half-hearted actors standing around together, barely ever scaring anyone and looking like they were about to ask you for a spare cigarette. There was rarely the sense that someone might spring from nowhere or really make any effort whatsoever to spook anyone — certainly not like I've experienced at HHH and KSF. As we walked toward Goliath, there was a sign warning of "zombie crossing." No zombies crossed or surfaced — just dead space (no pun intended). The ugly: Eighth ride on Twisted Colossus and still have never dueled. And while I was expecting Apocalypse to ride much better now (per reports I've read here and elsewhere), it was rough as f**k last night, feeling even more square-wheeled than it did earlier this year and anytime last year. Oh, and the way the lap bar crashed down on my stomach right before I could pull it down? The ride op might as well have punched me in the gut. Maybe I'm fussy, but it's always some series of disappointments there. Glad I decided not to renew my pass for 2017.

Thanks, everyone. Considering all this -- and also considering changing trip so we hit HW/SS on Friday and KK on Saturday (since we have less we wanna do there) instead. Either way, I'm really excited to be riding these parks' coasters in less than two weeks.

It'll be pretty rough. Saturday is crazy compared to Friday. I don't know enough about KK crowds to give you a for sure answer there but I do know for a fact that Holiday World should be jam packed on a Saturday in July. Water coasters will get 1-2 hour waits, Thunderbird about 45 minutes, all the other coasters, not horrible if you ride around 2-3 PM. It depends what you want to get done at each park (how many flats, slides, etc) to make a decision on where to go and when. Thanks for this. We were initially planning to get there before opening, ride only the coasters in the first hour of operation, then go knock out as many water coasters and tube slides (minus the toilet-bowl one) as we can, and then return to coasters after SS closed. We're not really interested in body slides, flat rides, or shows.

Hi, HW frequenters. So the current plan is to hit KK on Friday, then do both HW and SS on Saturday, mostly because we have to travel from Kings Island on Friday, and we don't plan on visiting KK for too long given the small coaster count. However, I'm assuming Saturday will be crowded at both HW and SS. My question: How much more so than Friday? Should we reconsider which day we're hitting each park? We're first-time visitors to both parks, we're staying in Louisville, and this takes place at the end of July. Thanks for any help you can provide!

Hi there. How bad do the coaster waits on Saturday tend to be? We're coming in two weeks, hoping to do at least a few rides on LR and SC, plus once on the others. Thanks!

This is great. Thanks so much.

Question(s) for CP experts. Is every park entrance open at 9 am for hotel/Platinum ERT? Which one should I pick if I want to ride Valravn first, and which parking lot would be ideal for that entrance (assuming I can choose)? Also, is it rare for Fast Lane+ to sell out midweek, even at the end of July? Thanks!

Hi, CP regulars. Forgive me for the umpteenth "I'm a newbie, but you're not, can I come on DATE and ride everything???" inquiry, but for those of you not totally sick of them... We are thinking kicking off our Midwestern park hop at Cedar Point two days after the Fourth of July (Wednesday the 6th), which I have read is one of the park's busiest days of the season. Are the days immediately following the Fourth famously busy, too, or just standard for July/summer? We are likely going to buy a Fast Lane+ to ensure we get to ride all the coasters at least once, and are even considering a hotel room on site to nab that extra morning hour (depending on how high rates are for that week). If not, we may wait until the last week of July. Thanks in advance.

Believe it or not, supervisors and above have access to those guest comments, and they actually do get read. Keep commenting and maybe the park will start to notice a trend other than "the food is expensive and the lines are long". Oh, I know, and I'm happy for it. I always give detailed, constructive feedback, from the maintenance of the rides to the quality of the food, and especially if a cast member gave exceptional (or, conversely, inexcusably deplorable) customer service.

"Was there anything in particular that caused you to rate your experience less than excellent? Your comments will be read by the park president and the park's management team." *writes book*

Finally rode the New Revolution (with VR headset) on Friday. I was concerned I would be unimpressed and/or feel queasy during or after the ride. However, I was fully into it and didn't feel the slightest bit off at any time. In fact, I might've been the only one yelling on the ride. Once off, we noticed on passing trains that everyone's too busy watching their headset visuals to whoop it up! What sucked: Two out of the four people in our party had their VR headsets fail on them in some way during the ride. And I had to trade a faulty headset in for a properly working one before the ride began. Hopefully these are bugs that will be fully worked out soon. Next time I get to hit the park, I'll try it without VR to see just how much ... slower it will feel. Two other gripes: Twisted Colossus didn't open until at least 90 minutes after park opening, and I still can't get a duel to save my life. (Though, to be somewhat fair, they were cycling—and wiping down when stacked—one empty train. Someone vom'd.) And man, X2 all but tried to buck me from my outside/fourth-row seat during the last couple of elements. I've never had an X2 ride that jarring before, not even during a sixth-row ride last year. It may not remain my favorite ride for long.

Expedition Everest. I rarely see anyone badmouth the ride, but I was totally underwhelmed, save for the final drop that offered me brief reprieve from boredom (and wooziness from the backward spin). I have more fun on Big Thunder Mountain, and that's a milder ride.

I recall reading somewhere — not sure if it's true — that of any potential SFMM coaster paint job, Tatsu would be the most expensive. If that's been said here before, apologies.

Among the SF parks I have visited: 1. SF Great Adventure 2. SF Magic Mountain* 3. SF Over Texas 4. SF Fiesta Texas 5. SF Discovery Kingdom *SF Over Texas might have a more well-rounded and cleaner park, but rides are the reason I go to SF parks, and IMHO, Magic Mountain still has it beat.

Among those that I've visited: 1. Cedar Point 2. Kings Dominion 3. Knott's Berry Farm 4. Carowinds 5. California's Great America (Guessing CGA would still be in last place even if I had visited all the CF parks.)

Screamscape is saying that SFMM is rumored to be considering a B&M dive coaster for the future. I'm not sure how much that rumor is going around, or if logistics allow for one in the park, be it on the mountain (per the report) or elsewhere. Maybe it's silly to speculate on a rumor, especially with New Revolution not even done yet, but would anyone else be kind of disappointed if they went this route? My biggest reason for not wanting one at SFMM is that the park's (adult) coasters are already overrun with inversions/flips, and aside from Superman and Apocalypse (when it's not running rough), I'm generally not into the ones that don't have any. I did generally enjoy Griffon and Shiekra when I went on them, and am looking forward to riding CP's Valravn this year. And I could see that model being a hit with the SFMM crowd, especially since there's no dive coasters out west. But for me personally, there's just not much to those rides beyond the two drops and the Immelmann loops do nothing for me. I would love another SFMM coaster that has zero inversions, and just focuses on drops, speed, and airtime. (Maybe that's logistically or even financially impossible, too—I dunno.) What non-inverting, non-spinning coaster options does the park have left and might feasibly incorporate, given its existing space constraints and ride profile?

Twisted Colossus on Dec. 26—my last ride of 2015, and my fourth-ever on TC. Of course, we didn't duel. Sigh.

Pardon my tourist query (or any obviousness my research failed to unearth), but we're going to BGT either this Friday or Saturday—I say either because we originally were going to go Friday to beat crowds and get discounts, but it looks like rain (and some level of wind) is likely happening until 10 am, with "a chance of rain" predicted through 1-2 pm. I know rides can/will close during inclement weather, so we fear losing anywhere between a couple to five hours of the day—or, worse, the park announcing it won't open or closing early after we've prepaid our weekday tickets. That said, we're also not afraid to brave a little wet if it's not gonna rain for too long, and it's possible we might not even get to the park until around noon anyway. My question: Would you chance going Friday, or would you recommend just opting for Saturday? And if Saturday, would the crowds be bad enough that we'd likely need/should get Quick Queue? We don't care much about the shows or seeing the holiday decor—we are going almost exclusively for the thrills. But we don't want to wait an hour for everything, either. Thank you in advance!

Not sure if I've shared this story before here, but during a hot, semi-busy Disneyland day many years ago, we got into a huge line (60-75 min) for Splash Mountain, right behind two teenage girls ... who were joined 10 minutes later by three teenage boys they knew (grrr) ... and then again 15 minutes later by another handful teenagers (!) That was all it took for one of my friends to quietly duck out of line and seek out/notify park security (yes, she had to leave and re-enter the line just an annoying bathroom user, but the party behind us who knew what was happening had no problem with that). Anyway, my friend returned five minutes later and didn't say anything. When we passed the guard at the entrance of the barn portion of the queue, my friend nodded to her and the guard nodded back, unbeknownst to the rotten teenagers in front of us. I thought it was weird that the guard didn't do anything right then and there ... until we got all the way to the loading station and encountered the cast member directing people into seating rows. Before the teens could tell her how many in their group, another cast member walked over, asked the whole group to come with him, took them past the logs, and led the now-angry kids down the exit hallway. Not sure if that was the proper cast-member protocol then (or is now), but it was pretty damn awesome to witness at the time.

Normally, I'd say Revolution--just for the nostalgia factor, as it was the first big roller coaster I ever rode, back when it had just a lap bar--but since a trip to Cedar Point is likely happening next year, I'm most looking forward to Valravn. I've only ever been on one dive coaster (Griffon) and I loved it.