YoshiFan

Nice, I will take advantage of the free ticket in June, since school is still in session the park isn't that crowded during the week. I made the mistake of going on a bring a friend free day in September 2008 and on a Saturday it was jammed. Nitro was into the switchbacks, BTR was into the garden area. The only coasters with under 15 minute waits were GASM, Runaway Mine Train and Skull Mountain.

First Park: Magic Kingdom, WDW (this past January) First Coaster: Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (this past January) First New Park: None likely First New Coaster of 2010: El Toro (hopefully!)

I was looking at the FAQ's and they have community days where anyone can go to the park. I know it's not the same as letting anyone visit the park on anyday but I guess they are doing it for crowd control?

Sounds cool but I know I wouldn't stand a chance. The people who would win are probably those who can get 100% on a song on expert. I guess it fits right in with Dorney then since they had a Guitar Hero game over the summer (not the arcade version) and to win a prize you had to get 100% on a song (which seems difficult to win at since some SF parks only made you get 85% to win).

As mentioned, Little Laser at Dorney is under 54" only but I have heard a few rare cases where someone over 54" was allowed to ride. I haven't tried asking before because it isn't worth it to me to try to get the credit. Dragon Coaster and Woodstock's Express both allow anyone over 54" to ride without a kid. Great Adventure lets anyone over 54" ride Roadrunner Railway and Blackbeard's without a kid.

That's really strange they would be inconsistent like that, I got re-rides on all of those multiple times last year from the beginning of the season all the way to my last visit at the end of October. At Batman, they were even encouraging re-rides. Hopefully this season, everyone will allow re-rides. At Dorney they make you walk around all the time, no exceptions and it is such a waste of time to exit the station, walk through the empty queue and wait for the next train.

I miss the Upstairs Imageworks a lot, especially the rainbow tunnel and those paintbrushes that projected colors onto figures up on the walls/ceiling. It was so much better than the current Imageworks especially the way it is now. I was there in January and those picture taking machines where you can edit your pictures were basically non functional. 1 was shut off completely, 4 or 5 kept freezing up.

What rides were you not allowed to stay on for rerides? The only coaster I have seen them make you walk around and not stay on is for Blackbeard's Lost Treasure train but maybe it depends on the ride op? I remember reading about opening day last year, sounded horrible but I guess that was because of the weather. I went on Sunday of opening weekend and it was much better. Little to no waits for all coasters, it was warmer out so it wasn't too cold for the log flume and all coasters except Nitro and Bizarro were open. I'm still undecided about what day to go, I am thinking Sunday might be less crowded so I might just go that day again.

Crowds would depend on when you go to Hershey. In 2006 I went on a Saturday, the day before Easter and it was horrible. Storm Runner had an overflowing queue and was supposedly a 2 hour wait, Great Bear was 45 minutes to an hour, even Sooperdooperlooper had at least a 30 minute line. The cheap admission brings a lot of people out and if you go on a Saturday on either weekend, I am sure it will be crowded. 2 or 3 years ago I didn't go but it was so cold out that the only coasters open were Sooperdooperlooper and Comet. Great Adventure will probably not be as crowded, I went on Sunday of opening weekend last year and all coasters were 0 - 10 minute waits, even Kingda Ka.

New York City schools are off that entire time and Jackson schools as well so I think the park will have some crowds. Last week I went a few times during the week over spring break week and waits were around 15 - 25 minutes for the major rides (not bad but I was hoping for crowds in 2007 where there were no lines). I agree about Friday and Saturday and would avoid the 2nd and 3rd for sure as those are likely to be the 2 most crowded days.

As great as that would be, I am not expecting it. On another side it was posted management doesn't like rides that the guest can control, and they said new bumper cars were unlikely. The park used to have regular bumper cars but I forget if it was Cedar Fair who removed them or not.

Nice, to see more coasters open. I am hoping to go on Easter Sunday this year. I tried to go last year, the high winds kept me away since it was also cold out then in 2008 or 2007, it was in the 30's that day and only Comet and SDL opened but if it was warmer I still would have gone. I really want to try to go to the park on a slow day since I never have a chance to marathon ride at Hershey and I hear Easter is always empty.

Very cool collection, I always think stuff used in the parks at Disney is neat to have. All I have is a menu board from the Liberty Inn at Epcot hanging up in my basement but am hoping to get some more items in the future.

I don't have any pictures of it but I remember it from my trip in 1989. It was so much fun to run through it and I remember it was really took a long time to go through the all the obstacles whole obstacle course compared to other similar type of attractions. I don't remember there being a ball crawl but there could have been since it was so long ago and maybe I don't remember. I do remember lots of soft plastic/vinyl type blocks that you had to climb over. I think I went through 4 or 5 times in a row.

Agreed, removing Krazy Kars is a horrible decision. Not only are they unique but Great Adventure's bumper cars are SBNO so now both parks no longer have bumper cars in operation. I was hoping it would be installed where the Screaming Swing was, even if it meant removing the Wild Mouse too. The Wild Mouse has got to be one of the worst run I have seen thanks to their rules of no more than 2 adults per car, added seatbelts, a horrible loading station and usually only 4 or 5 cars running and is braked so heavily it hurts sometimes.

I think any ride in the parks runs better than Kingda Ka, I know there was a major issue last season but even on days it was running, I still was in line a few times when the ride broke down. Also about Flashpass pricing, I'm not sure if they are going to keep the higher prices from Frightfest but looking at a picture on my phone from this past October, regular is $78 for 2 people, $140 for 4 people. Gold is $148 for 2 people, $260 for 4 people.

The ride had a lot of problems last season, on 4 different visits last year the ride was closed at some point during my trip to the park. 3 of those times the train was either empty on a block brake before the curved drop or had people in the train stuck on that block brake

Pay Per Ride is very expensive, at something around $0.70 - $0.85 a ticket and the major coasters are 8 tickets each. The Pay One Price was $45 last year but I always go on a Tuesday for their special, they have Pay One Price Wristbands for $19 or $20 each the catch is they expire at 6 pm.

Maybe she sat in a different row earlier in the day? On Possessed at Dorney, some rows have longer belts than the others (not a big boy seat like on a B&M). That doesn't excuse they way she acted though.

I agree the park is going to be crowded in July. I usually won't visit the park from the end of June (when schools let out) until September because the crowds are just so bad in July and August even during the week. Getting there at opening can avoid lines but if it is crowded for the less popular rides but a ride like Kingda Ka can go from no line to a 15 - 20 minute wait in a matter of minutes.

Magic Kingdom, 3 times Epcot, Studios, Animal Kingdom and Lake Compounce 1 time each Gillian's Wonderland Pier, 2 times Dorney Park, 8 times Great Adventure, 11 times

I'm not sure if other SF parks have ERT events but at Great Adventure, they have 2 a year, on Friday nights when the park is only open for a few hours just for premium passholders (this year I guess they are changing it to mean regular passholders and not those with a play pass). That alone is worth the extra cost to me because there are little to no lines.

I couldn't believe how cold it was in Florida. Splash Mountain in the low 40's is quite an experience. It was all worth it to ride coasters in January though.

I just got back Saturday from Disney and we had the regular dining plan. It was so much food. Usually on a trip at a counter service I would get a burger and split a soda with my dad (we get a large diet coke and ask for an extra cup), and usually 1 dessert and all 4 of us split it. With the dining plan, we all had a drink, entree and dessert. We were so full from that we basically didn't use any snack credits and the same issue was with the table service. We never get soda/juice/milkshakes at table service normally and sometimes don't order dessert at all so everyone getting a drink, entree and dessert was too much there as well. We ended up using the leftover snack credits to get boxes of cookies to take home. We did save money, because a counter service meal for 4 of us was $60 total with the dining plan, and all table service meals were over $100 with the plan but as I said, we would never have ordered like that without the plan. Our last trip, most counter service meals were around $30 total without the dining plan.

I was surprised to see it wasn't on either. I hope I remember next week to watch again to see if they show the Dorney episode (I almost forgot because of the Phillies game and if there is a game next week the same thing will probably happen).