Jaykethekid

I'm not gonna hold my breath for anything to take up that area in the near future. I visited Dino's alive once this season and it was in a horrible state with most animatronics not working. I feel that they're closing it just to have one less maintenance worry. It's just one less thing to spend money on. I'm sure they weren't making much from it anyways as i rarely saw anyone walking around in there especially after they moved the entrance. One can hope whatever comes out of this is positive, but i'm certainly not going to expect anything.

It would break down about every other hour for the few days i was there in 2016. Though it did open on time every morning. So i don't know whats going on for your visit

Okay, i am glad im not the only one who thought this I know its done to distribute forces as evenly as possible, but the way the cross-tie spacing is on Steel Curtain is just *weird*. It kinda looks like a poorly made knex coaster (what? this isnt the first time an S&S coaster has a similar appearance to a knex coaster)

Wow, thanks for all the info. Since so many of you replied, this post might turn into a wall of text *sorry* Adventure City is definitely on my radar. I will for sure try and squeeze it in! Thanks for the tips! I personally feel it will be just the right amount of time to really soak in the whole park since 2 out of the 3 days im there will be the weekend of the 18th. So combine the weekend crowds with the reopening of the rapids, i assume it will be quite busy. Thankfully I'll have fastlane on Saturday! Also thanks for pointing out that the website lists the ride closures. I was aware Ghostrider was closed during the week, but it doesnt look like anything else will be closed when im there thankfully! It's just a personal thing, but i like to spend more time than needed at parks for my first visit. I dont get to travel often, so i want to be sure to really soak in the park and get plenty of rides on my favorite attractions. Chances are I likely wont be back to Knott's anytime soon. The reason I am not going to Disney while im in the area is to keep the total cost of this trip extremely low. I have a platinum pass through Worlds of fun and a Six Flags Membership through Frontier City, so all that we're paying for on this trip is food, travel, and hotels. SFMM is the other park ill visit on this trip and i have planned multiple days there too (we plan on possibly squeezing in Santa Monica Pier one evening too). Both Knotts and SFMM were parks that sparked my interest in coasters when i was a kid, so thats why they are the focus of this trip (outside of touristy stuff in LA). I personally dont have any interest in (or a budget for) Disney Parks. They're not my type of parks. I am a theming guy, and i know Disney has world class theming, but the cost and crowds kinda push me away from those parks. But thanks for all the tips about knotts! They're all really helpful!

Hello! In just about a week and a half, ill be visiting KBF for my first time and I'm ecstatic for it since I've wanted to visit since i was very little. I just had a few questions to ask so i can get the best experience possible while im there. What are some not to miss, but easily missed attractions that i should make sure i check out? What are the best places to eat? Are there any shows worth seeing? I'll be there for almost 3 full days, so I should be able to check most of the park out, but i just dont wan't to miss anything cool or worth checking out.

This is an absolutely awesome idea! I cant wait to try it out.

Not necessarily I found dominator to be considerably rough for a B&M as it felt like my head was a ping pong ball between the shoulder harness. Through some of the turns, it slapped my ears silly . Though it's not unbearable or headache inducing, its more annoying than anything else. It kinda took away from the ride for me as it had a really nice layout.

I always thought Worlds of Fun was a really lively and colorful park towards evening and night, so this will make it even more awesome! It sounds like quite a nice festival for Worlds of Fun standards. Ill be looking forward to it for sure!

It wouldn't surprise me if it does get removed since they've just let things slowly break and fall apart on it the past few years (well at least more so than usual for SDC). So many of the effects, big and small, were broken the few days we were there. Lots of the audio has disappeared as well. Its absolutely riddled with "awkward silence" so to say. So many tunnels and even some larger scenes are absolutely silent, most notably the burning bridge scene. I remember it used to have that "fire in the mountain, fire in the hole" soundtrack playing through a lot of those scenes. But it slowly disappeared over time. I think the last time i heard it playing was in either 2015 or 2016. But back on the topic of its removal. Personally, FITH is one of my favorite rides in the park for nostalgia reasons. But honestly, i'd rather them remove and replace it with a new dark ride than keep it sitting in its current pitiful state. I mean, they could rebirth it as a new water coaster dark ride in a similar fashion to the new Lost River project, but i don't imagine corporate would see much of a ROI with that. But we can all hope they just put in the necessary work to liven it up and keep it operating.

I may be repeating some information mentioned by others, but I'll try to add my own perspective to some of it. I visited SDC from Wednesday through Friday and there was a lot to take in regarding changes for this season. Some changes were minor, but some, especially near the project 2020 construction area, were quite drastic. Here's some things i noticed Flooded Mine received a lot of work over the off season. The lighting was updated and made the overall appearance of many of the scenes a lot more colorful. A lot of the major props were fixed and running including the saw blade which was spinning on all 3 days and actually moved forwards and backwards on Wednesday and Friday. Most of the audio was working including the ride's soundtrack. The only audio i noticed that wasn't working was in the final scene where the prisoners try and escape. It also appeared that many of the boats received a fresh coat of paint as well. Overall, Flooded Mine is in the best condition it has been for as long as i could remember. I really love how they're finally giving it some love! As expected, the riverside section of the park is hardly recognizable. With the land clearing and the lack of leaves in the trees, it makes that area feel extremely bare and open. It's weird being able to see Outlaw Run's brake run from the Dockside Theater. They also remodeled and widened the path around that theater. Unfortunately, the stream that ran along the path as well as some of the aqua ducts were removed. Though, they did their best to make the remodeled path look like it's been there for a while as they used the same style of rock/brick fencing (don't know what to actually call it) found around the park. They also had some nice theming props in place, so it didn't look too bare. Further down towards Fireman's landing, they added a new waterfall / stream that feeds into a new Gold Panning area. They did a really good job making it fit in because i didn't know that waterfall was new until a friend of mine told me it was. It looked REALLY good. On a smaller note, the park added an additional seat belt to Firefall. So now you have the OTSR, the seat belt that connects to the OTSR, and the new seat belt that goes around the waist. It seemed to really increase the dispatch times. It also seemed that Firefall was running a significantly tamer ride cycle. But who knows, it could've just been due to the weather. Outlaw Run was down to one train as the other is still out for maintenance. Though the train that was running received new foam on both the seats and the restraints. It looked really nice! According to a ride op at Time Traveler, the trains received new restraint cylinders which release and lower the restraints faster and more reliably. It also appeared that it made the ride marginally more large rider friendly as i didn't see a single walk of shame the whole time i was there. It also seemed to make the loading process much faster, as the crew didn't stack a single train. In fact, there was one ride where we dispatched before the other train hit the second launch. Hopefully they can get 3 trains to operate smoothly as that would make the throughput much higher than it is. Though, it wouldn't matter how fast they dispatch if they can't get people through the photo spot in the queue quickly. On thursday and friday, the line was backed out the entrance behind the photo spot. Since it was taking so long to get through the photos, they were dispatching half empty trains since there wouldn't be enough people past the photo spot to fill a train. I'll be honest, i kinda hope they do away with the photo spot or move it outside the queue somehow. Fire In The Hole, while it smelled of fresh paint, i couldn't find any areas that looked like they were touched up. Many of the effects were broken and there was a lot of missing audio. It's kinda dissapointing that the ride is in such bad shape even though it's still extremely popular. I also purchased the free refill tumbler and its really handy! You just show the employee your cup, fill it up, then you're on your way. It's a lot quicker than someparks that still require you to scan the cup. My only complaint is that there aren't any handles. It would've been nice if it came with a straw, though the entire park is now straw-less. Overall, it was a nice few days at the City! Despite the weather being poor all 3 days, it was still a fun time!

1. Name 3 of your favorite roller coasters, but not your top 3. I always enjoy my rides on Powder Keg at SDC as well as Timberwolf at Worlds of Fun, and Silver Bullet at Frontier City! 2. About how many different parks did you visit in 2018? If i haven't forgot any, 6. I visited Worlds of Fun, Silver Dollar City, Frontier City, Cedar Point, Six Flags Over Texas, and Schlitterbahn KC. 3. Which 2018 park visit was your favorite? Even though I got to hit up Cedar Point, visiting Silver Dollar City in march for Time Traveler's opening was a great time since the excitement and energy was high for Time Traveler and i got to hang out with some friends i hadn't seen in a while. 4. Your favorite 2018 park addition (ride, food, show, etc)? Time Traveler was my favorite addition experience wise (I'm a theming guy, what can i say?) But if we're talking the ride itself, I'll have to say steel vengeance. 5. What ride exceeded your expectations the most in 2018? Magnum at Cedar Point. 6. Best meal/food at a park in 2018? I really enjoyed the new BBQ place at Cedar Point. I cant remember the name, but the brisket and sides were all incredibly delicious. 7. What was your favorite new coaster of 2018 NOT made by RMC or Larson? Time Traveler 8. Name one park you will definitely visit in 2019. Six Flags Magic Mountain 9. Best ride themed to a bird? Thunderbird at Holiday World! 10. Lamest ride/coaster you rode in 2018? I'll have to say Wildcat at Frontier City. It's short and filled with a bunch of airtime hills with literally no airtime (so pretty much ramps) 11. What roller coaster currently sits at the top of your bucketlist? (degree of difficulty: NOT a new-for-2019 ride) Eejanaika at Fuji-Q 12. What new-for-2019 ride or coaster are you most looking forward to? Copperhead Strike 13. Name the first totally middle-of-the-road (not bad/not great) park that comes to mind. Worlds of Fun 14. You're in Orlando and magically have a 1-hour ERT session on 1 coaster of your choice at any park in the city. You choose... Mako at SWO. Can't go wrong with a well themed B&M hyper. 15. Holiday In The Park vs. Winterfest. Who reigns supreme? The ride selection at Six Flags's Holiday In The Park is superior to Winterfest. But for overall atmosphere, lights, decorations, festivities, Winterfest takes the cake. 16. Mystic Timbers mystery shed or Wicker Man fire infusion? Wickerman's flame element looks incredible. 17. Which Six Flags have you been to most recently? Six Flags Over Texas back in December. 18. Intamin or Schwarzkopf? You may only choose one. Schwarzkopf. 19. Battle of Kings Coasters: Island or Dominion? Pick one. That's actually a hard decision. But I think ill give the edge to Island since the guest experience (operations, customer service) at KI was a bit better than what i experienced at KD. 20. What was the longest you waited for a ride/coaster in 2018? 3.5 hrs for Time Traveler. 21. What roller coaster have you ridden more than any other? Mamba at Worlds of Fun. Last i checked, I've ridden it somewhere around 1100 times (just an estimate, i haven't really kept track in a while) 22. Best drop tower under 150 feet? Any of the larson ones. 23. Maverick or Millennium Force? (If you haven't been to CP, pick what you want to ride more) Maverick 24. Log flumes or sky rides? You can only choose one. Log Flumes any day. 25. What are 3 things you enjoying doing at your home park other than riding rides? The shows at Worlds of Fun are actually pretty nice, so i try and see some every now and then. I enjoy eating there too since food has actually become pretty nice lately. I also like doing photography stuff around the park. Its actually a really pretty park when you're not in Mamba's plaza or Oceans Of Fun in general. 26. What is your second favorite Cedar Fair park and why? Carowinds. I really enjoyed their food and their coaster lineup was really nice. Can't forget about their crazy fast operations on their B&Ms. 27. What is your home park and give us two good reasons why we should pay it a visit. Worlds of Fun is my home park. If you look past the bad ops, you'll enjoy your time here because of the balanced collection of rides. It's also become a very pretty park in the last few seasons too. It will be even better this coming season since they'll be adding theming around the park too (according to their blog). 28. Launch or Lift? Launch 29. Did you buy fast pass at all in 2018? Many times. 30. What is your least favorite wooden coaster? Wildcat at Frontier City 31. Disney fanboys: cool or cult? Depends on the level of "fanboy-ism" 32. Best Batman themed ride? Probably Batman: The Ride 33. Name something that tend to take home from parks that you didn't bring with you. Ride photos! 34. Best wooden coaster over 110 feet tall? (rcdb will help you) For me, it would have to be Voyage. 35. Have you ever been hit with something (loose change/a tree/vomit/etc) while riding something? Oh, many times. I've been hit with a plastic toy case on Outlaw Run, i've hit my hand on a tree branch on Prowler, and then one time while i was riding Voyage, the person in front of me had loose change falling out of their pocket. I'd try and grab some coins out of the air whenever we hit an airtime hill 36. Skywarps: credits or no? State your case. If you count powered coasters, then yes since its pretty much a powered coaster albeit the drive system is on the track, not the train. 37. Turkey legs: nah or yaaaaassssss? Kinda indifferent on them. 38. What is the most recent B&M that you rode? Batman at SFOT 39. You can eat nothing but corn dogs, churros or funnel cake for the next 48 hours, which do you choose? Corn, Dogs. 40. Post a great on-ride shot of you from 2018. (DO IT!) Here's me enjoying one of my many laps i took on Magnum back in June of 2018. Don't ask me about what's happening behind me. I have no clue

With the trailblazer pass, you will be able to get re-rides on everything at least once with the exception being time Traveler since you can only use a trailblazer pass on it one time per day until next year as SDC has that rule for any new attraction in its first year of operation. But if you want to truly “see” SDC to the fullest, I’d recommend at least 2 days minimum.

I've yet to encounter a wait for the trailblazer passes on any ride during any time of the year. Even when Time Traveler had a 3.5 - 4 hr wait opening weekend, trailblazer passes were grouped in asap. You won't have to wait more than 5 minutes, more than likely, in a trailblazer line.

While I haven’t heard any rumors on exactly where they’re going, there were two more trailers full of that deep orange track sitting outside Chance’s facilities when I drive by last weekend. (No I didn’t snoop, I just drive by there when leaving school.) It has likely left for its destination by now.

It also shows the premier style seating with their lap bar and comfort collars. Had to stop the video to notice it though. I gotta say, it’s a very unique ride. It looks like it will be good fun! I like that they chose a unique theme for this coaster too. All in all, it looks like a very good addition!

What are you smoking? They have 25 at a time on each boat-train and can run at least 3 boat-trains. There may be more in there too, not sure how many. They also have a grouper permanently just to make sure it fills up. I mean, short of an Omnimover there aren't many dark rides with better capacity than that. As I said, we only go once a year so my perspective is probably skewed. But on my visit, it took an eternity to load and unload. We were also backed up for quite a while at last scene (the boat with cannons) trying to get back into the show building. That tends to happen when you get a bunch of groups in one train (or would it be call a line of boats?) that don't understand "Please sit on a red dot, two in the front, one in the middle, two in the back, and adults sit on the opposite sides of the boat to balance things out" Or you get the group of kids who sit backwards, stick their hands in the water, and grab onto the station railings when dispatching. That tends to cause *some* issues. Though i have noticed they are running 2 to 3 trains this year compared to the last few seasons. They used to have enough trains running where you could see the other train on the opposite side of the scene with the mine carts and the warden. Not sure how to describe that scene. Really, the main issue i have with flooded mine is more the broken audio than physical props. Other than the runaway saw blade scene, and a few water pumps and props that have stopped working, most of the physical theming is in acceptable condition. Cant say the same for the audio. The soundtrack is 100% gone, and the dialogue in a few scenes doesn't work anymore (mainly the sleeping guard scene towards the end of the ride). Its just awkwardly quiet in the ride. All you can here is trickling water and the laser sounds from the guns.

If it actually lost a road wheel, i'm sure bare steel chassis scraping along the track would be more than enough to stop the train. It looks to me that it stopped in the valley of one of the airtime hills towards the end of the ride. Maybe it did enough damage to the track that they will be forced to retrack it for once, but who knows. At least no one was hurt. Also, im really surprised the local media didn't make a story over this. This is the kind of thing that they usually freak out over. They're always looking for something that could make theme parks look bad.

I hadn't heard anything about them closing. The only thing i heard was that the green pinfari coaster was needed back by its carnival showman. Seeing that most of their rides are leased from carnival operators, im sure they'll run into issues since fair season is starting up soon.

That's unfortunate to hear even if it was just a small roof fire. Hopefully they can make whatever repairs necessary to get the ride back open (and hopefully touch up a few areas while they're at it). Just glad to hear it wasn't a total loss as it was one of my favorite dark ride style attractions anywhere.

If anything, it’s just for utility upgrades / updates for Bloodshed. I can’t imagine they’d make a new haunt structure literally right by another.

I do like the paint details they added to the oasis as it’s now called. It looks nice. Hopefully they could share some of that paint with the decorations and murals on Fury of The Nile. Sure, those 3 poles are weird. But why build a pad for a bench if it’s just going to be fenced off

Sorry to interrupt the employment / unemployment discussion, but i have a few questions regarding the hotel entrance at Hotel Breakers. I have been trying to get an idea on the best way to enter the park for early entry. I have been looking at google maps and for the love of it cant find where the hotel entrance to the park is. I have a friend who thinks its nearish to Corkscrew and the Matterhorn flat ride, but he isn't quite sure that's correct. Does that sound right? Seeing that i will likely be going more towards the back of the park for early entry (*shocking*), i see that there is an entrance by magnum which is closer to the back of the park than the hotel entrance. Would it be worthwhile to go to that entrance instead? Could you walk to that entrance from the hotel as well?

So I visited WOF yesterday and boy was it an interesting and exciting visit. It was absolutely dead. Probably the least busy day I have ever seen. Oceans of Fun had an average crowd, but that’s to be expected. But WOF’s crowd was super minimal. The main parking lot at WOF was filled up to C3. And if you’ve been there, you’d know that’s not much of the parking lot. So the waits for the rides were minimal to non existent! It was so dead that day that Spinning Dragons was a walk on. But what I wanted to talk about was how impressive operations were, especially for the crowd. Every coaster was running two trains even though they were sending them 90% empty most of the time. This is a stark contrast to last season where lines could reach well over an hour and they would still never use two trains. It’s also worth mentioning that the ops at every coaster except Timberwolf would actually try and dispatch in a reasonably quick amount of time. The quickest dispatches were at patriot and they were not stacking at all. Mamba had some quick dispatches too and wasn’t always stacking. Prowler still had slower dispatches, but nothing compared to the 5+ minutes of stacking during my last visit. But I can’t say the same for Timberwolf. They were still doing the old method of waiting for every rider to leave the station, then opening every restraint and seatbelt before opening the gates. Then they would wait until the previous train was stacked before closing the gates and starting the long process of checking restraints. But other than that, operations were surprisingly good and I *really* hope they keep this up through the summer! Speaking of Timberwolf. I really enjoyed it. The new turn was buttery smooth but kinda forceless. Not one hint of laterals except after the little airtime hop after the turn. The first half of the ride felt a decent bit faster but the double trims were still kicking in. But it’s the last half of the ride that shines now. Even though they added another trim after the new turn and are tilizing an old trim before the low flat turnaround (don’t know how to describe it ), it’s taken at a much greater speed. The hill after the new work now offers the most extreme airtime I’ve felt on a traditional wooden coaster. And the hills after that which didn’t normally have airtime offer nice floater. Going to soak that all in this season before the tame it down with the next phase of refurbishment. Also worth mentioning that I tried some of the BBQ from Battlecreek BBQ and it was really good! Even though it was nearly $20 for a pulled pork sandwich and fries, it was a hefty sized meal. The flavor was good and I like how they’re actually using proper buns on the sandwiches now instead of just flat regular grocery store bread. But overall, it was a great visit and I REALLY liked what I saw and hope it continues through the rest of the season! No crowds at Mamba! No train in sight because of the fast dispatches! New turn!

So I’ve been at SDC for the last two days and have noticed a few things. I must say, it really looks like they’ve stepped up their landscaping game. It may be that my last visits have been during the winter so all the colors look a lot more vibrant than I’m used to. Regardless, the park looks absolutely stunning and gorgeous. Now, Time Traveler has actually been running pretty reliably. It’s been running two trains and I don’t think it had any breakdowns so far. The only thing noticeable is that the one train that had the back car closed off in March still has that car closed. I don’t know what the problem is. I also don’t know why they’d run that train over the other one with no closed cars. Who knows. Lastly, it’s weird how slow Outlaw Run is running. It was running so slow that I was slightly hanging on my side in the wave turn and felt like we were never going to make it out of the last barrel roll. It was coming out of that roll so slow that the train fully decelerated just barely after the last car made it into the brake run. It’s a stark contrast to how it was running at Christmas where it would nearly blow the full brake run. Regardless, it’s a great ride when it’s running slow. Also, has the dispatch audio been gone for a while? Not one of my rides had it.

A seat on the ride is a good start In all seriousness, any seat is good. Outside of the drop, they all ride and feel the same. But if you want an intense whip down the drop, sit towards the back, if you want to hang and spin, ride in the front!