MartinU

We decided not to go, and then saw the announcement around 4:30... We would have been 2 hours into our drive. SO glad we didn't go last night.

Just discovered there is no school this Friday, and my wife also has the day off! What should I do? GO TO KINGS DOMINION! But, checking the weather (which I know it can change) there is a 40% chance of light rain. I have a 3 hours drive. My concern is they don't open the park. Or, they don't run the coasters in light rain. Regulars... should I risk it? Really wanting to do the haunts (I know the outdoor ones might be closed if it's raining), and get on the coasters. Should I risk it? Wait until Friday? Have my wife relentlessly refreshing X to see if the park announces they are not opening as we are driving down? Also... any haunt suggestions for this year?

Just got back from a little getaway, and Dorney Park was one of our stops. It was sandwiched between Knobles (first time visit) and Hershey. Unpopular opinion... Dorney was our favorite! Why? Small crowds, great line up, fun waterpark, and just a really "fun" experience. Things to note: Talon is an underrated B&M invert! Thunderhawk winter refurb was AWESOME! We rode it last year and it was rough, one and done. Gave it another chance this year for it's 100th, and very glad we did! Sure it feels like a woodie, but no longer a pot-hole-filled journey to the chiropractor. Hydra is funky and fun. For a B&M floorless, it's still quite smooth and still so fun to ride. Steel Force is so much fun. The fact that this was a walk-on our entire time there blows me away! This thing is fast, smooth and pulls some serious G's in the turnaround. Now, what about Iron Menace? We rode it twice... and I was good. It has a LOT of vibration! That was the biggest surprise to me. So much that it really took away from the "fun" factor of the ride. The first drop is great, and then after that... it does stuff I guess? I will say riding on the LEFT side is a smoother ride, especially that final transition into the break run (you've probably seen that video floating around of that transition). On a positive note: The theming, lights, music and the whole atmosphere in that section of the park is great! I wished the park as open later than 8pm so we could have seen it in all it's beauty. If Dorney repainted Possessed that whole area would feel really cohesive. The new food option at Iron Mill Grill and Bar is great! The flatbread pizzas and pirogies are fantastic. The desserts looks good too. This was our third time visiting this park in the last year. Because there are other bigger, flashier parks less than 2 hours away I feel Dorney gets overlooked. We loved it. Great rides, good ops, good variety, and just a fun park to be in. We may be back there for Halloween again, we'll see

Planning on making our first Winterfest trip. I've not seen many reviews. How crazy are the crowds for this event? Any tips for those who have gone? The pictures look great that KD has put out. I love Christmas lights, and would love to get on a few coasters. I cannot wait to see it all up close.

I'm not seeing any seatbelts... will they be added later or not at all? No way they get away without having them... right? (Oh how no seatbelts would speed up the dispatch times).

I was out walking my dog when WHAT DO I SEE? Two trucks with some new track! I snapped a pic as quick as I could. These appear to be brake run sections. Many of the fins were already in place. This was in western Maryland on I-68. So, if you're between here and Allentown, keep an eye out. Only 3.5 hours away!

Tiny pseudo trip report, I went to Dorney Park for the first time this weekend and it was GREAT! Thank you @AmyUD06 for your help. I'm terrible at taking pictures while in the park, so nothing to share that way, but our impressions were: Smooth Coasters! Talon is amazing! so smooth, great transitions and no line the whole time! Great, great, GREAT ride. (We like Raptor at CP a lot, but this one is just so much more fun. Less intense, but more fun!). Hydra is a blast, and the back is so fun floating down the first hill. Steel Force is a great classic Arrow Hyper! So smooth, good airtime, and the g-force in the turn around is perfect. Just a great ride (Again, sorry Magnum, SF is more re-ridable than you). Possessed, that launch and back row!! IYKYK. The only weak coaster was Thunderhawk, the parks woodie. And weak does not mean bad, just weak, and could use some love. Yes, it's almost 95 years old, but it feels... rough in sports. Not painful... IDK, just not great. Again, we loved the coasters. Oh, and did we mention NO LINES on Friday (6-11pm) or Sat. (we left Sat. at 2). Our longest wait the entire weekend was for the Wild Mouse which was 15 minutes. Even the haunts, longest wait was less than 10 minutes. The Haunts were all pretty good. We went to Busch Gardens Williamsburg a few years ago and the haunts all felt the same, show buildings and rooms with black curtains. HOWEVER, Dorney had houses and environments. Best house by far was their new one, Ghost in the Machine! So much detail, lots of actors and variety of rooms with a few cool surprises. Stop and Chop was probably my next favorite. It's outside, so make sure it's dark before you start this maze. Black Out was nice for those who don't like jump scares. It's mostly pitch black and only a few actors made any noise. There may have been more, but we didn't "see" them. I laughed because as I'm groping in the dark, I blindly grabbed the chest of one actor. I didn't see him, but I felt him. haha. Tourist Trap and Blood on the Bayou were both good. (Both had nice surprise endings. That's all I'll say. Trick-or-Treat was ok. Felt sort and only a few witches Necropolis- Meh. We laughed in this one the most. One actor was totally phoning it in, "I want your brains" in the most highschooler-I'm-too-cool-be-here voice ever. Again, first time in the park, it's a great one day park. Small enough to be done in one day, easy to navigate, and all the rides are close so you don't have to hike to get to the next thing. Staffing was great. Friendly people everywhere and lots of management around making sure everything was running smoothly and that guests were being good. Bags- I was warned about this, however, when we were there on Friday Night, I saw bags of all sizes coming in. So, not sure what's up with that. We are looking forward to going again this summer and hitting up the waterpark. LAST THING - Food outside the park, look up Lazeez Grill. It's real Mediterranean food made from scratch. It's only 5 minutes from the park. Show them some love and stop in for the best Shawarma I've ever had, the the Namoora (A type of coconut, almond flavored cake) was so good! The owner is so friendly and helpful, he loves what he does.

Thanks for the update, especially about the bags. I've been seeing a few people comment how the new bag policy at a few CF parks has been confusing or caused people to walk back to their cars. As for as a day and a half, Friday we really want to hit the haunts and a few night rides on coasters. Hopefully it's not too busy. We've been to CP on Halloweekends once, and got really lucky with weather and the park was dead (pun intended). Thanks again!

Making my first trip to Dorney Park this weekend. Going Friday and Saturday. How are the Haunts this year? I watched some videos from LAST year, and saw a couple that look pretty good. Any First-timer tips? We will be there rope drop to close on Friday and ropedrop on Saturday (We'll leave early afternoon Sat. to drive home). Looking forward to Hydra and Talon, and Magnum's lil' brother. Thanks as always!

I made my first trip to Kings Dominion last Friday (Labor Day weekend). I knew what rides I was looking forward to riding, but little about the park other than that. I had been to Kings Island, so I knew there would be similarities between the two. I'm also used to going to Cedar Point, so all of these played into my impression of the park. One theme I noticed that plays into the whole day, KD expects their guests to be smart. At CP there are people everywhere reminding and telling guests what they can and cannot do. Partly it's crowd control, partly just dumb guests being dumb. I'll explain more later... Starters: I arrived in the parking lot around 10:30am (Park opened at 11). The parking lot expects you to understand how to park your car. Meaning, there were no attendants in vests and whistles telling me where to go. This was surprise #1 of the day. I got a close parking spot and walked toward the entrance. There were no signs, and because of all the TREES I could not see the entrance. "Where could it be? Oh, maybe toward the giant Eiffel Tower?!" Again, expecting their guests to be smart. I got in line for the park to open. They have really nice TVs with info on them above each line. I thought these were a nice way to communicate to the guests. Once inside the beautiful park entrance with the fountains, music and TREES, I walked over to Dominator. It surprised me that no one (maybe a few I didn't see) ran. Surprise #2 My biggest surprise and at times irritation was the lack of staff running the rides. They may have had 2 checking restraints and on some only 1 staffer was checking restraints. It was not uncommon for a one train to cycle and be waiting before #2 would dispatch. One dispatch took 4 minutes as the guy on the platform leisurely checked restraints, gates and slowly walked to give the thumbs up. I only ever saw 3 rides Twisted Timbers, Flight of Fear and Intimidator with staff at the front of the queue. Mostly making sure no loose articles went through. But on multiple occasions I saw kids sit in the coaster, and then asked to stand up and get measured to make sure they were tall enough. Yes, this slowed things down, but they usually gave the child a wristband for their height preventing this from happening again. Also, no station sorters. Once you got to the station it was crowd in as much as you want, and lots of open seats. I saw one TT train go with 6 empty single rider seats. THIS, This paragraph is my only complaints about the park. (Again, guests need to be smart and know how tall they need to be, what they can/cannot bring, and what seats to use. There was also almost never a "schpiel" about 'welcome oncoming riders...") Even though it was a holiday weekend, the park never seemed busy. Most roller coasters I was able to enter the station before I had to wait (Racer, Dominator and Flight of Fear are the only exceptions). The longest wait of the day was for the log ride, about 20 minutes. I love how easy the park is to get around, and that rides are clustered together. You can enter and exit 2-4 rides all within a close distance. I was talking to one couple and they asked me about Cedar Point, I told them great rides, but you have to walk a lot. Grizzly was so fun! I sat in the back and you float the whole way down the first drop! It's smooth where it needs to be and bumpy fun in places. Such a fun woodie. (I also found it funny that the exit line is a longer walk than the entrance. Anyone know of other rides where this is the case). White Water Canyon is probably the best river raft ride I've been on (Granted, I've only ridden like 6). It was fast, long, and the smaller 6-person raft allows for more rocking and swaying. It also surprised me they dispatched 3 rafts at one! If you've not ridden it, DO! There are no waterfalls to soak you, just good splashes from the rapids. TT was excellent! I love the 3 airtime hills and the final roll. Intimidator was POWERFUL. That first turn, I know the stories and the redesign of it. I grayed out, and my last time riding it (#5) I blacked out and came back coming down the second hill. I knew that was enough for one day Dominator rocks. I rode it years ago when it was at Six Flags Ohio/Geauga Lake. Still runs great. Great layout and pretty smooth (just a little rattle here and there). My last surprise... NO DOWNTIME! Not once throughout the entire day did I experience down time on any ride. Every ride I went to or rode was open and running. Not a single breakdown. Going to Cedar Point, that's just part of the experience "Do we wait it out or leave." Great job maintenance crews! I loved going to KD and cannot wait to come back for Haunts or Christmas events later this year. It's a beautiful park, lots of trees and character throughout. I guess, Virginia is for lovers and those who can appreciate a park at a more leisurely pace.

So, something I was musing about this morning... TTD 2.0's capacity. The park announced it had a theoretical capacity of 1,500 RPH. Actual reports I could find online put it at 1,000 and others would argue less. That's a full circuit, everything running great coaster. Now if it's a swing launch, or a multi-launch of any type I cannot help but think it will have a much lower RPH. Does anyone know of a swing or multi-launch that really racks up some riders? Hagrids... - 1,700 (wiki) Toutatis - 1,260 riders per hour (wiki) Steel Taipan - 820 riders per hour (wiki) I know these are all on a different scale then what is expected/predicted from this "reimagining." Does anyone have a better idea of what it might look like? 8.1.23 is coming, and I'm excited. However they get you to the top of the top hat will be great, because the drop/270 degree spin is always amazing! I'm also excited for the ride to last longer than 18 seconds.

So, I'm excited as the next guy about TTD 2.0 or whatever #PHP means... And I love seeing pictures coming in. One question I have, HOW IN THE WORLD are there so many drone pictures/videos out there? From CP's FAQ page https://www.cedarpoint.com/frequently-asked-questions about drones During Steel Vengeance construction they seemed more strict about drones and photos, and TPR even prohibited pictures that were not from CP official channels. I know people are not reposting here, but does anyone know why CP has seemed to turn a public blind eye? (Maybe they are doing stuff behind the scenes that the GP are not privy to) With all that being said... When do you think something more than Tony Clark's Twitter will be released about the ride? They usually do their "Next-Year" announcements in August/September, right? What a great way to promote their Gold and Platinum passes, "Be the first to ride the new.... in 2024!"

I was also happy the smoke from the Canadian forrest fires never interfered with our trip. The winds pushed it southwest of us, so we were good. A little hazy, but you never smelled smoke or noticed anything.

My wife and I just got back from a 2 day trip to Cedar Point (Wednesday and Thursday). We have gold passes, and we were at the front gate around 9:15. We were "close" to the front, but by 9:50 when they started letting us in, the line stretched almost all the way back to the metal detectors. We made our way to Millennium Force. Even with the park open to resort guess and platinum passholders, the line was only at the base of the ramp. We rode it twice and then grabbed some Panda Express using the all-day meal pass. Side note- my wife and I buy one all-day meal pass and split a meal every 90 minutes (or so). It's a good way to keep going through the day and it pays for itself in 2 meals. In total we used it 9 times over the 2 days we were there. The new Grand Pavilion has some AMAZING food, like Funnel cake shrimp, and Turkey Pesto sandwiches. Backbeat BBQ is always good. Miss Keat's Cookout (CP's Chipotle knockoff) was really disappointing this year. Not bad, but just not great (I know, I know, what do I expect for CP food?"). All in all, food was really good and never had to wait more than 10 minutes at any location. Back to rides- Operations on MF was slow all day. SV was killing it, with the team sprinting to "push up push up on those lap bars." In the morning it had a 45min wait. The highest I saw it get was 90. But, both nights, the last 2 hours the line was less than 30 minutes, as the line was past the merge point! We experienced breakdowns on Maverick, and MF. We sat down on MF, got the "all clear" but then we had to exit the ride. They brought the jump packs to get us off. They cycled the lift a few times with no train, then cycled all three trains around 4 times each. We got the announcement they were reopening, opened the silver handrails, sat down, checked, "All clear" and again it broke down. This time they closed the ride and security cleared the queue and the station. I was a little upset at the way management handled this. Because of the brake down, one train was left on the final brake run full of rides. They evac-ed them. As they were doing this management was talking to a ride host right beside us, and handed the host a stack of "skip the line" pass for those being evac-ed. 60 minutes later, when we (who had sat down twice) were being escorted out by security, were given nothing. The couple in line beside us became irritated and asked the host if WE would get passes. Nope. The host went into the booth, came back and said they didn't have any, and that we could go to guest services and give them a report... All in all, not thrilled. Dollywood and BG Williamsburg were a much better experience. DW gave everyone in the station skip the line, and getting stuck at BGW we got skip the line and meal passes. I know they are different parks and companies. I would have been more pleased if the management/team lead could have talked to us and not just dismissed. Not acting entitled, but asking for respect. The rest of the park was nice. Things are still opening up, and a few food options were still not open. Something we tried on the second day... We used the right side of the parking booth, that put us in the lot near Gatekeeper. We then walked the boardwalk, which is LOVELY that early in the morning. Joggers, moms with strollers, people with Starbucks... lovely. We walked all the way down to Magnum and then made our way to the CP Shores waterpark gate. We walked up, scanned our Gold pass at 9:40 and were in! No "rope drop" no mad rush, we were in. It was so nice to head to the back of the park that way and to be in earlier than the mass run from the front gate. We will have to try this again. Last thing, I know it's early June, but some of the ride ops already seem "done" with their jobs. haha. "How was your ride" CHEERS "great..." bored and unenthused. Again, shout out to the SV, Maverick, Raptor, Gemini and Rougarou teams for just being great! They kept things moving and looked like they were having fun. We'll be back in August.

Thanks everyone! Flying Turns is one ride I'm really excited to ride. I remember watching the long long building process and mods to it. It and Phoenix, Fascination and a few other classic rides have me so excited to visit!