Hilltopper39

My guess for ToS being closed is the rain. They don’t run it at all in rain anymore. I believe it has something to do with the new train because this policy started when the new train was purchased. I don't think it had anything to do with the rain, a few employees told me it went down Wednesday, was closed Thursday and Friday then Saturday that whole section past Predator was chained off. Hopefully they get it open before the season ends. So I was at the park Saturday morning and despite RoS being down all day I actually had a pretty great morning. The crowds were light, like scary light, I'm talking rope drop at 10:30 with me and like 20 other people. Everything besides Tantrum was a single train wait all day, and Tantrum was maybe 4-5 trains most of the morning. Tantrum was good, kind of short but the lift and drop on those things are great. Viper was fun, smooth enough for an old Arrow with a pretty unique layout. Predator was actually running really well, great pops of air in the front, some nice laterals, a little "rough" but not really uncomfortable or painful. Kind of a surprise of the trip for me, I ended up just hanging out on the train for 3 or 4 rides and the ops looked at me like I was crazy. Speaking of being crazy,I rode both the boomerang and the SLC and thought they were fine. Boomerang was actually pretty smooth compared to most boomerangs I've been on and the SLC was mostly headache free so that's a positive. I don't really see all the complaints about the park as far as it being run down, I thought the place looked pretty great all things considered. Yeah some places here and there could use some paint or a some bushes a trim but overall I thought it was a pretty solid little park. If there were crowds I could see it being miserable with 1 train on everything, but I had a nice day and would not hesitate to go back anytime especially since I still need to ride RoS.

I’m at the park today, Ride of Steel is listed as “opening late” but a manager said it probably won’t open at all. Guess I’ll only need like 1.5 hours here today instead of 3 hahaha.

That's pretty much my plan, but Is doing all of that in about 3 hours at opening on a Friday morning conceivable? I'm gonna be at a wedding about 45 minutes south of the park and plan on sneaking away while the wife doing all her bridesmaids stuff that morning, hopefully make it back just in time for the vows and the cocktail hour .

I'm going to Darien Lake later this week for a few hours one morning and am kind of looking forward to it based on the fact that I have absolutely no idea what to expect. Seems like typical reviews range from "awful" to "not as bad as people say" so we'll see, should be interesting. As long as I can get a few rides on ROS and the new Eurofighter I'll be happy, the Arrow and the woodie will hopefully be pleasant surprises, the SLC and maybe the Boomerang depend on how my hangover from the night before feels........so chances are I'm sitting those out .

I didn't realize Wonder Woman and Rail Blazer were mirrored clones where WW drops off the lift to the right and RB drops to the left, so I guess technically not relly a "clone" maybe. Doesn't really matter but it's kinda cool.

Great update, Yomouriland has always been a relaly intriguing park because of Bandit but I never knew about the other funky attractions. I have to ask out of curiosity, but have there been more fans recognize you guys than normal this trip (maybe because of the increase in your social media reach over the years) or have you always met followers in the past and just didn't post as much about it? Either way it's really cool to see you meet fans on the other side of the world, I was just curious because I don't really recall it happening as much in the past. Love the updates, it's been fun getting you Instagram stories throughout the day at work.

Haha no worries and thanks for the response. I was thinking something in the "most in the top 100" would jump out at me and a few certainly did. Universal Studios Japan, I had kind of forgotten about the indoor spinner and their pair of B&Ms (also reminded me of how much I'd LOVE to see a flying Dinosaur coaster at either of the american parks). Lagoon- I know Cannibal was rated fairly high but that park kinda slides under the radar a bit probably based on location. Also kind of surprised about Dollywood, I generally think their coaster lineup overall as being one of the better ones out there when it comes to quality vs quantity so only 1 coaster in the top 100 is surprising. Totally expected to see La Ronde on this list haha, and I don't care what the rankigns are I'm still looking forward to my trip to Darien Lake in a few weeks .

Man, I really want to go to Volcano Bay, my daughter loves water parks and is begging me to take her, but reading that just sounds exhausting. Thanks for the open and honest take on the place, and I'm sure I'd still manage to have a good time but reading countless versions of that same review just make want to continue avoiding it.

If anyone is still pulling data from the lists it might be interesting to see which parks have the most coasters ranked in the top 50 or top 100-150 or something. Expedition Everest is 100 on the list and around 150 are some Batman the Ride clones, not sure where the "cutoff" should be but I think it's safe to say that everything under that is a coaster most people generally consider to be way above average so a list of parks with the most coasters in the Top Whatever could be interesting. I guess kind of in the same thread it looks like Cedar Point has the best 1/2 coaster combo in Maverick/Millennium Force at 6/11 but I'd be curious what other parks had the lowest combined ranking of their top 2 coasters.

The red train for this thing looks familiar....

I love how you sprinkle in random anecdotes from your work that are super intense and contrasting to the nature of theme parks, it's kind of horrifying but hilarious at the same time in a weird way. "after working the suspicious child death task force we were off to go camping and ride some roller coasters" "with the double homicide investigation behind me it was time for more Flags more Fun, Six Flags Mid America"

Should I ever try to participate in a productive conversation about anything with SteVeUrkle?

Haven't been since like 08 but looking forward to updating this later this summer. 1. Maverick 2. Raptor 3. Magnum 4. Dragster 5. Millenum Force 6. Wicked Twister 7. Gemini 8. Blue Streak 9. Iron Dragon 10. Disaster Transport 11. Mean Streak 12. Wildcat 13. Cedar Creek Mine Ride 14. Corkscrew 15. Woodstock Express It's been a while since I visited Cedar Point but looking back it's pretty amazing what they've "replaced" some rides with. Rogarou for Mantis, Valravn for Wildcat (kind of), Gatekeeper for Disaster Transport, Steel Vengeance for Mean Streak. They basically took bottom 5 rides and replaced them with top 10 rides.

I consider LaRosa's part of my "must do's" in Cincy but other than that you pretty much covered my list haha.

It's refreshing to hear that I'm not the only one who has Raptor as their favorite B&M invert, love that ride and fully plan to abusive my Fastlane privileges on it in September.

I don't hate on Soarin but I do think that it's not terribly "re-rideable", as in once you've been on it a few times the effect of it is kind of lost. It's still a fun ride but we never use a fastpass on it if other attractions in that tier are available, and seems like the only times I've been on it in recent trips is when other people in the party want to ride it. It is nice that the 3rd theater is open so the standby line is a bit more manageable though.

^The best part about the Three Caballereos ride is that there's never a line, and my kids love it so I can always talk them into going to the World Showcase for it haha.

Yeah I think 75 or 71 is basically the exact same distance give or take a few miles/minutes depending on the traffic but we always went 71 for some reason.

Wait what? 2-3 hours out of the way? The fastest route on google maps from KI to CP goes from 71 to 13 and which literally the road right by the place haha.

The prison from The Shawshank Redemption (and some other movies) is outside of Mansfield, OH and is more or less on the way from Cedar Point to Kings Island. I've driven by it a few times but never stopped, I'm sure the tours are interesting though. Ohio State Reformatory https://www.mrps.org/ But other than that... yeah what Bill said..... ... mostly cows

I love the Gerstlauer bobsled coasters, would really love to see one of those in an American park sometime.

Not so fast there Bill, let's see where this goes........

I find it interesting that Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, give or take a 500,000~ visitors, has stayed at approximately the exact same level of attendance for the past decade or so. 2017: 3,961,000 2014: 4,128,000 2010: 4,200,000 2007: 4,400,000 Lots of amazing additions to the park, new attractions, great Halloween Event, festivals, but it doesn't seem to matter the attendance just stays flat.

I mean your drive from Williamsburg to Louisville is gonna take ya right through Huntington, might as well stop into Camden Park for a few hours if the dates/park hours/driving times work out. I've never been but I'd say the wooden coasters, dark ride, and log flume are worth the $14 Twilight admission.

Yes, considerably smaller than I was expecting but if the show is successful I could see that size venue fitting into some other existing Disney parks.