IntaminLove

I love TTD and it sucks that it's closed for the season. I would understand wanting to put off the visit, but you still got MF, Maverick, and SV. SV is worth the visit alone. I'm sure your husband will still have fun want want to go back. KI is my second favorite park behind CP. KI has a good coaster collection, good operations, and is aesthetically pleasing. It's definitely worth a visit. Mystic Timbers is great and it's one of my favorite wooden coasters. It feels much faster than it is, strong laterals, nice pops of air, and smooth. Really good during the day and even better at night. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. I love The Beast. It's one of my favorite wooden coasters and my favorite at KI. It's more about speed and feeling out of control. Not much airtime to speak of. The helix is one of my favorite moments on a coaster and is lateral bliss. The Beast is a better experience at night and it's my favorite night ride. I would say go in with moderate expectations.

You shouldn't need a Flash Pass since it's early in the season. The park should have lower attendance unless we get a random hot day. The only things I would recommend to do in Chicago are museums or an architecture tour. I love the Field Museum and can spend the whole day there.

It can be chilly in May especially if it's windy so bring a sweatshirt or light jacket. Use the Washington St entrance to get in the park faster. You can also exit that way at the end of the day. Get Maxx Force, Goliath, and Joker out of the way first. They have the longest lines due to lower capacity and frequent periods of down time. Ride the other coasters and flats in whatever order you please. Half the coasters are clones so that may help you prioritize.

Planning this is a little more involved than the typical park visits for me so all your suggestions are much appreciated. I have to make arrangements asap so it's great to be able to narrow things down. Thanks everyone.

Still no announcement, but the first event is Physics day on April 28th. That indicates opening day will be towards the end of the month if that helps.

Yeah I know I was asking a lot and I appreciate the great answers. You've been most helpful. Looks like we would go on week days earlier in the month so that simplifies things. Since 2 days is enough I'm going to try to extend the trip by adding Sea World. My sister isn't an enthusiast, but the animals should be convincing. Thanks again.

My sister and I are thinking about going to Universal for the first time in May. I could use some help planning the trip. Is there public transportation from Orlando International Airport that goes near Universal? How many days at the parks are recommended? Is it more beneficial to buy a season pass vs tickets? We don't know if we will be able to make another trip in the fall. Is it worth it to stay at a resort hotel or is an off site hotel a better option? Is May busy enough to warrant a fast pass? What are the go to places for food? What things do you suggest doing aside from the roller coasters and Harry Potter stuff? I would appreciate advice for anything else I didn't think to ask about too. Thanks.

Cedar Fair will turn it down since BGW built a new Intamin. Nothing else matters.

For sure: SFGAm, Indiana Beach, Kings Island, and Cedar Point. Likely: SFOG and Fun Spot Atlanta. Lots of hopefuls, but those depend on a few factors.

The Beast was noticeably rougher this year, but I didn't mind it. Some areas could use some work and I'm surprised by what they chose to address first. It will be interesting to see if they do some small reprofiling.

If my memory is correct Magnum, Gemini, Mean Streak, and Blue Streak didn't have air gates until the mid to late 2000s. Better safe than sorry.

Oopd didn't realize I made the typo.

I haven't been to SFOT before and the Roller Coaster Rodeo sounds like fun. Thanks for mentioning it. I have family friends out there so I might have to take a trip next year.

SFGAm is still offering the basic season pass and the membership tiers. I used the chat function on Friday to inquire about season pass tiers. I was told that season pass tiers are only being offered at select parks and as of now there are no plans to change that. Not the answer I wanted to hear and hopefully passes are expanded soon. The gold season pass is all I want and would like to stick with it.

Great report and I'm glad you had a good time. I'm going to try hard to stay Monday next year so I can go to the park.

Yay for costume pics. I didn't see most of the people you got pictures of. I'm a bit surprised considering the reduced capacity. The one slave Leia is SoloRoboto and he makes good props and costumes. His wife is KittQuinn. I love how stupid things like putting googly eyes on a standee turn into the Cult of Jon. It's adds to the magic of Dragon Con.

No worries about not getting a picture. I thought people were just going to cosplay as Loki from the movies and the versions on the show. I wasn't really a fan of anything can be a Loki, but I'm happy people had fun with it. Hopefully it's not as common next year because we don't need to add Loki to the over done list with Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy, and Deadpool. I got in line for the bunny hutch around 11:45 pm and only had to wait 30 mins to get in. There was about 20ft of people on the sidewalk and I was surprised how fast it moved. You didn't miss much though. The music was decent and the energy was low. Your DigiSuite seems like fun. I have to urge my friends to get their Hyatt suite up and running again. There's new blood in the group so hopefully the increased interest can make it happen.

It was nice meeting you too. I'll definitely go with you to Vortex next year. I wanted to go on Wednesday, but plans got screwed up after my group checked in. A few people told me the spectrum party is fun so I'll try to make it to that. If I can get a cheap flight home then I can stay Monday and crash at another friend's room for the night. It would be fun to go to SFOG with you and I have a year to figure it out. I'm looking forward to the rest of your report.

Awesome report. Kings Island is one of my favorite parks and I'm glad you had a good time.

Looks like a cool place. My group can get pretty wild so the Peachtree location is up our alley.

Good to know about the aquarium night. I've never been to SFOG and I hate that I'm always so close every year. My group arrives Wednesday morning so I'll try my best to go. My friends will probably be annoyed that I'm ditching them for coasters, but they will have to deal with it. One of my friends recently lived in Atlanta for 2 years and said Vortex is great. I only hear good things and it wouldn't hurt to eat one artery clogging burger.

I got my 100 days to the con email too and I'm excited it's going to be an in person event again. It's going to be nice seeing my friends and making new ones. Maybe I'll get around to going to the aquarium and Vortex this year.

I had to make a late decision to go to the park since most of my upcoming weekends filled up. I went Sunday and was excited even though I knew it was going to be a rough day. My reservation was for 1:00 pm and planned on riding Maxx Force first. It was down with mechanics in the station so I headed to Demon. I waited 20 minutes and the slower speed due to half filled trains was really noticeable after the loops. It crawled through the straight section and had some nice hang time in the corkscrews. I went to American Eagle next and waited an hour. It ran well and is still my second favorite coaster in the park. After that was Goliath and I expected a long wait and it was painful. Running half filled or less trains and slow dispatches made it a 2 hour wait. I had a good ride on my favorite coaster in the park. Maxx Force opened up while I was in line for Goliath so I headed there next. The line wasn't that long, but 4 or 5 breakdowns and running nearly empty trains made it over a 2 hour wait. It's fun and it looks like a crowd pleaser. I think I enjoyed the argument in line more that the cops needed to get involved in. I had a few minutes left before closing so I squeezed in a ride on Whizzer. Good classic family coaster. On the way out employees were giving ticket vouchers to everyone as a courtesy. Because of that I'm going back next Sunday with my sister. I got on all the coasters I prioritized so I call it a win. Hopefully I can get on a bit more next time since I won't be able to go back for a few months.

Ideal: May - Cedar Point, Hersheypark June - Cedar Point, Michigan's Adventure August - Indiana Beach September - Dragon Con, Holiday World, Kentucky Kingdom, Dollywood October - Cedar Point, Kings Island Realistic: August - Indiana Beach September - Dragon Con, Holiday World, Kentucky Kingdom, Dollywood October - Six Flags Great America, Cedar Point, Kings Island

I've had to warm up to a few coasters before so it's definitely possible. I want to like it more so I'll see what happens. We have to deal with virus life every day and hear about it constantly. Last thing I want to do is talk about it. Plus it didn't affect my visit negatively.