ejot

The three that immediately come to mind- > the one on Apocalypse at SFMM where you enter going a bit uphill at a pretty good speed and bank hard right > Bizarro's (NE) final tunnel by the staircase to the rest of the park > Rye Dragon mouth

Get there when the gates open and head straight over, you'll get a few rides in before it gets too busy. Within a few hours of opening though, at least last Saturday, a good portion of the queue was filled back to the sign. With the two trains running I'd say the wait leveled off around a half hour or bit more much of the time.

^ Yes, that was us haha! It was a green nylon bag from KD with not much stuff in it.

Had a great time in the park Saturday night. We queued up for the graveyard at about 6:20 and only waited maybe 20 minutes to get in. Could have been darker, but worth it to miss the line - it was insane by the time we got out. Really fun walkthru, absolutely awesome attention to detail. I would have preferred it be a bit shorter to keep a higher density of scare actors toward the end. My friend actually managed to snap the flyers here, I was astounded. We did get a few nice gusts of winds during our ride, but I still wasn't getting anywhere with them. Boulder Dash was running fast and rougher than I remembered it from my visit in July, my two rides in the back had a few painful moments especially after the turnaround. Night rides in the front seat were absolutely magical. The first drop is really underrated on this coaster, it is beautifully suspenseful seeing much of it peek through the woods as you crest the hill and approach the turnaround. Excellent air going over, and the little rightward twist perfectly sets up the crazy laterals ahead, into the station flyby section. Wildcat was running smoothly and gave legitimately good rides. After waiting 45min for one, I started to regret not just having waited for BD again, but after the ride - in the front, with some great air - no regrets! I really enjoy the Zamperla Disk'O variants and LC has Revolution, which we rode a couple of times. Their swings ride runs really fast and is great fun too. Flats had really minimal lines especially during the last couple hours. An awesome night at a really fun park!

^ LR's not a hyper. Neither, technically, is Steel Eel, but it shares more of the design spirit with the rest of the Morgan hypers than LR.

New-to-me get an * Fo Sho: SF New England SF Great Adventure Quassy Cedar Point Knoebels *Keansburg In all Likelihood: *Holiday World *Kings Island *Kentucky Kingdom *Kennywood *Del Grosso's *Clementon Somewhere between possibly and hopefully: SF Magic Mountain Knott's Berry Farm Cali Great America --- Rye Playland *Dollywood *Beech Bend *Indiana Beach *Morey's Piers

Best TR pics I've ever seen! Stunning, man. Oh heck yes, RY tries its best to throw you out! Best single ride moment in the park IMO. It did this to me!

^^ I agree Robb, and more strongly than before. The gambling references just didn't articulate the point well to me, like you did.

Where exactly is the "gamble" in asking a flash pass checker if you may skip the queue as a single rider? I don't understand why that word keeps being used. What does he lose if the answer is no? Ego? For the record ... not something I would EVER do ... and I have some real reservations about the park employee's decision, if anyone's. But calling this a policy violation on the patron's part is a stretch; he asked a question.

It was Silver Bullet @ KBF on Jan 18 if I recall correctly. Last will be BoulderDash or BizarroSFNE this or next weekend.

If these were all presented to me as confirmed designs irrespective of location, my interest would be most piqued by Cannibal. In all reality I'm most excited by Wicked Cyclone because it is a tremendous addition to the east coast coaster selection and I genuinely expect to ride it dozens and dozens of times.

After this weekend ... seats 1,11,12 on Conneaut Blue Streak have to be up there, day and night ... unforgettable.

I did a seven hour ride out to CLP by myself on Sunday morning and had an absolutely magnificent day at the park. The weather could not have been more perfect and it was nice to see a bustling park, albeit only due to a special event. Found the memory card slot empty in my camera upon arriving. Darn-it. So I only got some decidedly poor cellphone pictures. Blue Streak was a tremendous experience and it was tough to get away from it to check out anything else. Overall I did something like 22 rides and hit up every seat. Between 1-5pm there was a sufficiently consistent stream of riders to send most trains almost full, but never crowded enough to have to wait a full cycle. Those are my favorite re-riding conditions. At one point no one was queuing and I happened to catch up with another coaster enthusiast I'd met earlier for an empty ride. A longtime regular at the park, he had his friend/the operator send the train for three cycles with no station brakes. Thank you so much Mr. Awesome operator guy! There is a lot of love in this community for this ride, and a lot of heavy hearts about the uncertain future. From the vantage of the lifthill you see what was once a clearly beautiful destination, a true point of pride in a small unassuming community. Over the clack-clack-clack I heard, more than once, voices choking up, recounting childhood memories and pointing out various heartbreaking derelictions. One gentlemen told me his first ride on the coaster dated to 1958. The local young ones were surprisingly knowledgeable and appreciative of the ride. I don't really like children, especially the specimens you find at a Six Flags, but this seems like a charming community with good people raising good kids. Just a few weeks ago I did 11 consecutive rides on Gold Striker. After eight rides I was still having fun on this very new, highly rated, modern, twisty GCI creation, but... well, this sense crept over me: not exactly boredom, but not exactly as much enthusiasm as I would want. The marathoning experience on 'Streak was completely different - I felt myself falling in love - every ride just made me want the next one even more. I could feel very distinctly how much better it was running in warmest part of the day between 2-4pm. On the fastest rides of the day there was air on every seat. Earlier and Later runs were quite tame comparatively, at least in the middle two cars. One early run got stuck coming back into the station around the final bent and operator pushed us in by hand. Seat 11 does get my vote for best on the train, a good mix of comfort and crazy air. But you've shortchanged yourself if you haven't given row 12 at least one shot. Yeah, there's going to be a few painful moments. But it is off the charts wild, a serious step over seat 11 on the buttclench-o-meter. Only once did I go hands up back there, it legitimately frightened me, and I held on the next two. Seat 9 actually felt harsher than 12 to me; I'm not sure if the back car was the one recently revamped? As the rides were closing up for the day, I caught up with another enthusiast trio I'd met on 'Streak who, since I was alone, invited me into their group for the haunt event. As we waited for the ticket box to open for the haunt, we swapped park experiences. I've never been out of the US for theme parks, so they were able to capture my rapt attention with stories from parks in England, Germany, Netherlands, eastern Europe and elsewhere. The haunts were fun, surprisingly elaborate. They brought in huge crowds. The night ride on Blue Streak was surreal and brought me to a different plane of consciousness. Woohoo! Tumble Bug was tumbling! What a ride, I almost fell out. So much better than I figured. Just love the shape of this hill. Great clouds on a bright, slightly brisk day. Many folks enjoying the lake. Fries booth was open for haunt. Pumpkin fest sure brought in the crowds. It must have been somewhat of a step into the past compared to typical operating day. Vibrant! Dormant! New paint! Look - over there - an abandoned coaster! (Or this one) Strictly denying kiddie credits since 1950. How come the carousel building never makes picture sets of Conneaut? Except for a few stretches of downtime, Blue Streak's queue would fill to the bottom of the ramp every cycle after about 1pm. Of course this picture was taken before noon. Afternoon crowds as seen from the 'Streak station. My new favorite coaster trains of all time. Comfortable, historical, stylish. 1960s NAD. Original PTC trains under tarp. See #5? That's the one you want(ed). The lady running this and Paratrooper was really cool. Watched her run a 9 minute program for a skilled solo snapper. Epic. Wait, what's that coming down the drop? It's not abandoned! Let's ride! Nice to see you too! This one definitely wasn't running.

Of course Knoebels outshines everyone, but among the big chain parks, Gatekeeper operations at CP really stood out to me early in the season this year. That crew was literally running around, breaking a sweat, and eating up the line like nowhere I've seen. All the while remaining courteous and helpful. While it's kind of cheesy, somehow I love it when an operator high-fives everyone through an exit, and is actually enthusiastic/cheerful about it. I think it's mostly a Six Flags thing...?

I don't whine much but this seems a good spot to get a bit off my chest. As a gauge: I rode Tatsu 19 times this year without any significant frustration. Dispatches are slow and they're a little lazy, but I don't think it's over the top. It's a tricky coaster to run efficiently. By comparison, my experiences on Nitro this year were absolutely infuriating. The op rudeness, the over-the-top laziness, inexplicable three-car stacking, 4-5+ minute dispatch intervals, violent clamshell stapling, mass chaos on the platform EVERY rider exchange, ops unable to control crowd behaviour, it was just an absolute poopshow every ride. As if we can't already tell fluffy bunnies are a desperate grab at every last dollar of consumer surplus. What a joke. Not being able to choose preferred seating really irks me. I think this is a terrible operations policy on managements' part. Cedar Fair, I'm mostly looking at you! They must be losing more in the annoyance caused than any gains in efficiency, which I don't even think are there. The worst examples are where they literally assign you a row, a la YOLO, Wicked Twister, Goliath SFNE, Flight Deck CGA .... Slightly less annoying but potentially just as bad is when they make you fill in "all rows" each ride, so you may get unlucky and stuck in undesirable seat. Eg Thunderbolt SFNE, Dragon Coaster Rye, Gold Striker (seriously...WTF?!... they completely annoyed someone EVERY lap, when there's plenty of space for waiting) Ops bending rules for other greedy patrons, and if that has a negative impact on my experience... this also bugs me. I waited for front row of SFNE Batman: TDK for about half hour while other rows had well less than 1/2 that, some just a few trains. I like to ride B&Ms with 2 of my friends who don't put up their arms up, they're happy to give me a free seat between us so I can have some room for my arms up. Of course if a single rider is waiting behind us or in front of us, I'm MORE than happy to ride with a full row. Well, this time, some guy gets off a middle row seat on the ride BEFORE ours (mind you, a decently busy weekend day), spies the free seat between my friends and I, and asks an op if he may sit there for a reride. The op start out saying, "I"m not supposed to let you....", then turns to me, goes, "Is anyone sitting there?" I'm like, "Uh.......well, no, but...." then op just points from the guy to the seat like "be my guest". Jerks! :/

Some answers from an email from the park: ...> Normal operations are closed for the season except for Pumpkin Fest and Ghost Lake. ...> Rides operating at Pumpkin Fest 10a - 6p Sat&Sun (I did not ask about today but assume the same) ...> Ghost Lake admission provides just one single ride on the coaster Not clarified was whether additional rides on the coaster would be available during Ghost Lake on pay/ride scheme. I don't think the part knows, so I emailed address on the Ghost Lake site. Update: response: "Your ticket to Ghost Lake includes one ride on The Blue Streak Ghoster Coaster. You may buy additional rides at the ticket booth located in the middle of the midway." I may go this Sat or Sun and hope for the best during both Pumpkin & Ghost.

I only had one time I was pretty concerned. I'm a pretty thin guy. On the back (left, here) seat of the (left, here) train on Rebel Yell at Kings Dominion, there is a big pop of ejector air as you crest the lift hill and get pulled down. Well my first ride I didn't expect it and wasn't braced properly, and knew something felt funny as I went down the drop. Upon pulling out of the drop I look down at my lap to find my right leg had slid out from under the individual lap bar, between the seat divider and bar! I couldn't believe it actually could fit through, and freaked out a little bit, thinking that any strong lateral could spin me out of the car with my other leg going out the same path. I can't remember if there are seatbelts, I suspect there are so really no biggie. I must have kinda wiped the whole thing out of my memory because I'm not even sure if I slipped my leg back under during the ride. When we visited again toward the end of the summer I did a sanity check and made sure my leg really could fit in the gap. Tight fit, but sure enough! The only time I've ever gotten an "unreasonable" unsafe feeling was on Mean Streak. Going around those first two tall, sweeping, lumbering right-hand bends, the second one overlooking the lake on a blustery, drizzly day... it's just so raw... my stomach just sank into a "this... this does not feel safe" instinct. That's a small part of the reason I absolutely adore that coaster.

It's been a blast! And actually, math error... 3 to 113 inclusive is 111 lol I don't have my list in front of me but I'll try to recount the parks. I travel a lot for work so that really helped on the Cali side of things! SFGAm, SFMM, KBF, CP, KD, SFA, SFGAdv, Hershey, Compounce, SFNE, CGA, Rye Playland, Quassy, Dorney, Knoebels ... think that may be it.

Ten days will mark one calendar year since the visit to SFGAm that got me enthusiastic about coasters. That day saw credit #3 (Whizzer), and last month saw credit #113 (Gold Striker), so in the previous twelve months I've picked up... One hundred ten new credits!! (Actually there is a good chance I will get one more credit in the coming ten days.)

^ The 10-6 normal ride hours are only this weekend because of the pumpkin fest, correct? It's not still open generally open for the season, other than Ghost Lake? Or it is? .... I couldn't find hours on the main park site. And like you, interested if anyone has attended Ghost Lake and how riding Blue Streak worked ... how crowded it was, availability/cost of rerides? I would really like to take this (likely) very last chance to experience this coaster, but for a 7hr drive, if I was likely to only get one or two rides I would be more on the fence.

Just a reminder that this coming Columbus Day Monday is the last chance get your Hurricane credit at Adventureland!

From previous discussion it sounds like the pass is not worth it this time of year, lines are low. I was there on a Saturday in the middle of the summer and was happy to get the afternoon flash pass, it was well worth it, especially getting a walk-on to Skyrush, bypassing an awful line.

^ That's probably a safe bet. So if you only had time to ride one side of LR which would it be. I go with Thunder, left station, because you get to see the other train crest the lift hill right next to you, which is a cool visual. (Of course, maybe they aren't running two trains... I've only been when it's busy)

I would try to pick up all three GCI credits, but at the very least make sure you get on Lightning Run, Thunder side (left station). While overrated, it IS a good ride.

New credit for 2014 in bold, lol 1. Skyrush 2. X2 3. Phoenix 4. BoulderDash 5. Tatsu 6. El Toro 7. BizarroSFNE 8. Intimidator305 9. Whizzer 10. Mean Streak Mean Streak was just magical for me, my favorite ride on the Point. What can say?