Jodon

Thanks for your input. Unfortunately the weather for Saturday looks less than spectacular. Hopefully the rain holds off and we can make the most of our day.

I'm thinking about visiting Canobie a week from Thursday. If I can get to the park at open, will I be able to do most/all of what Canobie has to offer if I leave at 4 pm? Is there a way to get discounted tickets? I am planning on riding all the coasters, are there any flats or other rides that are must hit rides? What are the can't miss food items that I have to eat when I'm there? Thanks for your assistance.

I'm also curious to hear people's opinions on the best seats on all the coasters. I know there is supposed to be a specific seat on Magnum, but I can't remember what it is.

The only times I've seen Raging Bull ops run efficiently is after the park closes and they have a finite number of people to get through. It's amazing how fast they can dispatch when it has an impact on when they get to go home.

Nothing like attempting to revive a dead thread, but here goes anyway... My brother and I are going to be doing the VIP tour at Cedar point next Saturday. Does anyone on the boards have any current experiences with VIP tours at a Cedar Fair or Six Flags property? My biggest question is about gratuity for the guide. Is gratuity suggested? If so, how much should we give for gratuity? Any other comments or experiences would be much appreciated. Thanks.

Has anyone on the boards done a VIP tour at Cedar Point? If you have, was your guide able to watch your belongings while you were on the ride? Were you able to pick your seat every ride? Did you tip your guide? If so, how much? We have never done anything like this before and have no idea what common courtesy would be. Thanks.

Hey all, I'm heading to SFNE on Sunday, August 3rd for the first time and really looking forward to riding Bizarro and Goliath (I know it has been bastardized by the new train, but it will be my first GIB). I would like to get all the credits while there and get many rides on Bizarro if possible, can I do that with out a Flash Pass? Do any of the kiddie coasters require a child to ride ?(I fully accept my credit whoring ways) Any can't miss/unique flats? I know of NESkyScreamer, and I may be the only one in my group to ride that so it won't be high on the priority list. My home park is SFGAm, and the food is terrible. Is SFNE any better? Any recommendations for a decent meal while there? Thanks for your assistance...

I'm 6'3" and I have to lift my heels up and be on my top toes to be comfortable in the shin restraints. However, the only time I notice the shin bars are in the station before and after the ride.

I'm going to be heading to Lake Compounce on a weekday at the end of July or early August and was planning on hitting up Quassy on the same day. I was hoping someone on here could give me suggestions on the best way to experience both parks. -Which park should I start with/end with? Does it make any sense to start at LC and go to Quassy, then back to LC? Or, should I start at one park and end at the other? I'll be driving from Hopkinton, MA if that makes any difference. -Are either of the water parks worth the time? -Does it make sense to get an all day ride bracelet at Quassy, or should I just buy individual ride tickets for the two coasters. -On the credit whoring circuit, do either of the kiddie coasters at both parks require a little one to ride? -Any food things I should try out at either of the parks, or on the way to/from the parks? Thanks in advance for your assistance. I'm really looking forward to riding Boulder Dash and Wooden Warrior.

I second that. Outlaw Run is significantly more forceful IMO. Goliath features one ejector air and some quick pops of air, but nothing like the ejector shots on OR. The inversions on Goliath are more floaty than forceful which I actually enjoyed. I think the way Goliath was designed is significantly more re-rideable than OR. After several laps on OR my thighs were hurting from having to keep my body from flying out on all the air time hills and the second barrel roll where you are literally falling out of your seats.

I'm heading to the Point the last Saturday of July with my brother. Anyone know of a decent/cheap place to stay Friday night? Looking for something close or just to the west of Sandusky as we are driving from a quick visit to Great America during the day on Friday. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

For those wondering about the restraints, I was on the first train of media day and the person next to me was able to get the belt buckled after a significant struggle, but could not get the lap bar down far enough. The ride ops did not do much of anything to help get the lap bar down either (not that that is their job, but just wanted to give you the information). The gentleman that was unable to ride, mentioned that he was able to fit on Outlaw Run, though I actually find that hard to believe given his current size, so maybe he was bigger now than then, but maybe Outlaw Run's restraints are a bit more "forgiving" than Goliath's, but I would tend to think that they are pretty much identical. I don't think anyone from Media Day has mentioned this yet, but there was zero signage about a single rider line, so I would be shocked if Goliath opened with a single rider line. Also, the Flash Pass entrance basically spits you out right in the middle of the station, much closer to the air gates than any other Flash Pass I've seen on any other coaster in the park. Speaking of the station and queue, there is very little shade in the queue. There is a large-ish queue block behind Thrillseekers that has cover...and that is it. The temporary queue is completely unshaded, and so is everything from the queue block mentioned above through the main part of the station. The station modifications are very welcomed. It is much easier to move around inside the station and the queue places you into the station in the middle as opposed to the front like Iron Wolf. I really wish they would have torn down the roof of the old station and built it to fit Goliath, but they did not. They did a decent job extending the back part of the station to accommodate the last few rows of the train, but they did nothing to the roof on the extension of the gates. All in all, nothing terrible, but it could have been done much better if they would have torn down the old roof.

I was able to attend Media Day and had a blast. I only got 3 rides, but it was fascinating to see the behind the scenes stuff with all the news stations and interviews. The wheel issue and the weather made getting a lot of rides difficult as well as the down time between the different news shoots. Some of the enthusiasts there were a little frustrated, and I can understand why, but I was happy to ride before the GP and understand that we were there to facilitate the news, not the other way around. Now a bit about the ride. I've ridden Outlaw Run and now Goliath. Outlaw Run is the better of the two coasters, but Goliath is significantly more re-ridable in my opinion. The first drop is fantastic and seems to go on for a long time. The over-banked turn gives a couple pops of air time which is a nice surprise. The air time hill gives great ejector air, and the dive loop is nice with a little floating air. The Zero G Stall is the highlight of the circuit. It's such a foreign element that gives extended floating air...upside down. You do pull down on the lap bar a little, but its much more of a floaty feeling than a falling out feeling (like the second barrel roll on Outlaw Run). The twist and shout gives some cool air on the entrance and exit of the element and you get a good pop of air heading into the break run. I will say that the back seat gives a ride that is more out of control closer to Outlaw Run. In my opinion, Goliath is much more controlled than Outlaw Run. I kind of think of it as if RMC and B&M had a baby in a good way. It's got the pacing and smoothness of a great B&M, but the ridiculous elements of an RMC. To me, it is easily the best coaster in the park. However, I would rank it as the 3rd best wooden coaster I've been on with Outlaw Run at #1 and The Voyage at #2. I would probably put it in my personal top 10, but I haven't ridden all that many rides. It really is a great ride, though not as memorable as some rides I've ridden. I will say that after riding Outlaw Run and Goliath, Wildfire at Kolmarden, looks to be the perfect combination of the two RMC rides and should be an amazing ride. Regardless of where I rank Goliath, it is a fantastic addition to the park and Great America has a true winner on it's hands. Outside of the issues with the rain and wheels, I had a great day. I met a lot of new people in the enthusiast community and enjoyed talking to most of them. Thanks to the 3 TPR members that allowed me to tag along. I had a great time riding through Great America with some new friends. I also got to say a few words to Hank Salemi, Fred Grubb, and Alan Schilke. All of them were incredibly friendly and humble. It was a great pleasure to chat briefly with them. That is all for now. I'm exhausted and am looking forward to sleep.

Hey, I'm in the picture of the first train. It truly is a great ride. Not as out of control as Outlaw Run, but it has some great elements. I've gotten rides in the back and the middle and they are very different experiences. I actually thought that the middle was more intense than the back. You really get snapped into the zero g stall which is such a great element. Unlike anything I've ridden before.

Just got off the first ride of the day on Goliath. What a great ride. The first drop is fantastic and the zero g stall is so bizarrely unnatural. Can't wait to ride it again.

I will be attending Goliath's media day and will be live tweeting my day in the park. You can follow along with my day on Twitter with the user name: @jon_winters.

FYI: According to a banner on the SFGAm website main page, Goliath will officially open to the public on June 19th.

Robb- Will you be able to take your own POV on Media Day, or do you have to do that at a later date like with Firechaser Express?

I was at the park today and was excited to see Goliath complete a couple test runs. It looks really fast. I'm also happy that a lot of the screeching has subsided as you can hear on the videos above. I also talked to a ride supervisor on Raging Bull as he was walking the queue into the station at the end of the night, and he said that the red train was on site, but they are not testing it yet. He also mentioned that they have tested with water dummies, but took them out.

While in theory Ride Hopper with enough user support could be fantastic, this something the parks should be doing on their own and not rely on their customers giving a better experience to other customers. With the prevalence of technology, there is no excuse for a park to not have an app that can give decently accurate wait times or operational status updates. Case in point is SDC. If a park the size of SDC can have an app that gives decently accurate wait times, there is no excuse for larger park chains (CF and SF) to not have any of this implemented by now. To me it just shows a lack of interest on their part, which is frustrating and disappointing as a fan/consumer in their parks.

They already put one of those extra support beams on the ascending side. They were working on that when I was at the park on Friday.

^^I agree...It should not be that difficult to get close to accurate wait times on an app. If SDC can get an app with decently accurate wait times there is no excuse for larger parks and chains to get it working. In some ways, more surprisingly is that Six Flags does not even have an app. Plus from what I understand, their website uses so much flash that you can not really do anything useful like buy tickets and whatnot on their site from a smart phone. To me, Six Flags is missing huge opportunities by not having an app. ^Disney by far seems to have the best grasp on what an app can do for customer experience and iBeacons sound interesting and could be really cool in a theme park environment.

I don't think a topic like this is anywhere on here, but if so, I apologize. With the prevalence of smart phones, I would think that parks would do more to utilize park specific apps to better their customers experience. This year I have been to 5 parks: Disney World, Silver Dollar City, SFGAm, Holiday World, and Kings Island. Of those parks, only Disney, SDC, and Kings Island had apps available on Apple app store. As far as usability goes, Disney's app My Disney Experience is a well designed app that can really impact the way you experience Disney. You can reserve dining, Fast Passes, see current wait times, show times, use a GPS enabled park map, and many other things. The app is huge and depending on what you are doing at Disney, you may never use a lot of the app, but it is by far the most useful theme park app that I have seen/used. SDC's app was pretty solid for a smaller park. The app has a GPS enabled map, and current wait times for their more popular rides. It is a fairly bare boned app, but I found it to be quite useful during my 2.5 days in the park. To be honest, I was surprised to see wait times on SDC's app when other larger companies do not have that capability...yet. I was very disappointed with the Kings Island app. The app is basically a mobile version of their web page. They do have a GPS enabled park map, but I found it to be cumbersome and difficult to use. So much so, that I preferred to use the paper map at the park. There is a way to see show times, but it would be nice to show the days performance schedule instead of having to go to each show to see when it is being performed. The biggest omission of this app is the lack of wait times. The app was so useless to me in the park, I never used it. From what I've seen, Cedar Point's app is very similar to KI, which is a major disappointment and I would assume that all Cedar Fair park apps are similar. So this leads me to some questions for all of you: Would you use a smart phone app for a park that you were visiting? What parks have you visited with smart phone apps? Did you use it when you were at the park and what were your thoughts? What are some of the most important things for a smart phone Park app to have to make it useful for you? Feel free to post your thoughts on the use of a park app. Thanks.

So far this year I have been to Silver Dollar city (2.5 days), Six Flags Great America (2 days and my home park), Holiday World, and Kings Island by myself. I have enjoyed my time immensely. I will second what a lot of people are saying. I like it because you can do what you want and get instant gratification with out worrying about other people. It can get a little lonely, but I have found that interacting on Twitter really helps with that lonely feeling. If I am at a park I have never been to, I will live tweet my day and interact with people that way. I will also tweet the parks or their PR department and get info that way. I had a great time with Twitter at Holiday World and Kings Island. Both of their PR departments were on top of their Twitter game when I visited. I have also been fortunate that the parks were fairly empty when I went and did not have to wait too long in lines. Kings Island was busy when I went, but I sprung for a Fast Lane + and was able to bypass the waiting with that. I also enjoy going with people, but as an adult single male, I find it difficult to find friends to go on some of these trips with me. I know that I want to go, so I just go and I am happy that I have taken these trips this year.

^ I concur. First row of the last car is the best place to ride Demon. You get a nice pop of air on the drop, the loops are pretty forceful, you get some nice zero g on the corkscrews and some extra leg room over the last row.