PhilNotPhil

As the old song goes, if I were a duck, and you were a lady...

I guess I'd rather take that $100+ per person and spend the other half of my day eating better food and seeing better shows than I could at a theme park. I don't go to theme parks to relax. Different strokes.

Eh. Life's too short to spend waiting and not riding, or paying 2x admission to wait "less". Maybe I'll try KI or Carowinds or SFMM. Or I might just keep hitting the parks where I can ride 10 times in an hour, not 10 times in a day. Rides > credits.

What are CP crowds like at mid-week in the middle of summer? My typical park day is one of those at a midsize Six Flags like Texas, Georgia, or Fiesta. The last CF park I went to was WOF on a weekday. Those are mostly walk-on, re-ride, headache-free experiences. I don't stop to eat park food, I don't see shows, I ride, and mostly coasters at that. I can't remember the last time I waited more than maybe 10-15 minutes for anything, and I don't know if I can go back to feeling like so much of my time at a park is just wasted. Does CP ever have days like that, or is a certain amount of waiting par for the course? If I made the special trip that's been in the back of my mind for years and timed it right, could I live the walk-on dream? I'd love to see the park and get all those legendary credits, but if it's always crowded, it's kind of like getting a standard room at the Ritz Carlton when the ol' Dallas Hilton always gives me the penthouse suite and free room service. I've been spoiled out here in the provinces.

Friday 6/30 was a total win except for Cyclone being down to one train when I arrived. The guy next to me said it was at two before the storm that had hit an hour earlier. So only one ride there, but many many rerides on Goliath and Superman, and the same potential on everything else, which I didn't actually feel the need to re-ride. A great day at the hilly ol' lady.

I was there 4 years ago and got pretty much everything. I just happen to be heading out for a long weekend. I can't do Saturdays and Sundays at parks anymore, lol. Too impatient. But I was hoping maybe I could swing a weekdayish crowd on Friday. I know 7/3 will be insane.

What kind of crowds can I expect Friday 6/30 or Monday 7/3? I assume worse on 7/3. Anything I should know about ops weirdness? On Friday I can't be there until like 2-3 PM.

Yes! These days it's my debit card, season pass, and car fob ONLY (no wallet or housekeys) in my back pockets with a button or a zipper, with my phone and un-sunglasses (for dark rides) ready to be put in the ride cubbies or on-car pouches. SFOT is good like that and doesn't push ride lockers anymore.

Even Riddler was a re-ride today. I've never seen the park like this. If it wasn't for Freeze running one train the whole year(?), it would be 100% perfect. I'd hate to be looking at the bottom line, though. Too bad this is the last week of daily ops.

Definitely not. School starts in the 2nd week of August, around the 10th.

Today was the emptiest I've ever seen the park. It was kind of amazing. I didn't know they were explicitly approving re-rides on Titan now. I didn't realize Harley Quinn had a history of op failures. It was a walk-on today and it's truly bizarre.

I took a trip through the south and SFOG was a big part of it, and I'm happy to say the park was even better than I remembered from childhood. No surprise, with the multiple world-class coasters that weren't there 25 years ago, like Goliath and Superman UF, and I loved Twisted Cyclone too. Even the repeats and clones were satisfying, especially Mindbender. But I have one big question: why does Georgia Scorcher exist, and is it possible to ride it without feeling like you just squatted 400 pounds while straddling a fence pole? My quadriceps were fucked up for days.

Those are standard passes. In the past few years (perhaps even longer, I'm pretty sure they did it when I was a kid too) they've had an option that allows you to enter your ZIP code and get a much reduced price from what's listed there if you live outside of a certain distance away from the park. They were called "AARC" (not AARP, ha) passes. I was never able to figure out what it stood for.

Unless I'm just not seeing them on the website, it seems that the discounted Gold passes for people who live farther than (x) from SFOT are gone. That's a fine how do you do.

The park was basically perfect from 4-close yesterday. If you're thinking about heading out today, I'd do it. And who really gives half a good goddamn about the Six Flags shirts? They enter my consciousness for about 20 seconds of every visit. I'd never be caught dead actually WEARING one. (Okay, maybe if I just lost my home in a natural disaster, and the shirt was a Red Cross donation or what have you.)

For the record, that's one of the wildest old-school tilt a whirls I've ever been on. And been on, and been on, and been on...

If you live near here and have never been, it's a must. Charming little park. I just don't go (much) because I spent 8,000 hours of my childhood there and it's old hat.

Will you be using 35 from Dallas to OKC or vice versa? There's a little place in Davis (OK) not far off exit 51 called Smokin' Joe's and it's some of the best in the state. In OKC, Leo's (NE 36th and Kelley) is well-known and does terrific chopped/chunked brisket, and ribs with a great peppery rub. Bedlam (NE 50th and Lincoln) is pretty good too. There's a little tucked-away place called George's Happy Hog near OU Med Center, but make sure you ask them to leave both sides of the bark on the brisket. The only Earl's worth your time is the original at NW 63rd and Western; Earl's has the best (and only always-on-the-menu) pulled pork in the city. Somebody already mentioned JT's in Del City and it's legit too. Avoid Back Door BBQ on NW 23rd, it's overpriced yuppie cue. Iron Starr (NW 36th and Walker) is where to go if you want yuppie cue.

Unless you absolutely must ride together, use the single rider line on Vibora, Pandemonium, and STOP. Maybe Justice League too. I did it for the first time last week and would not have waited in the full line, which was the longest in the park by a decent margin, but then again I wasn't with a family. Batman is once again a weekday walk-on (and ride as many times as you can stand by switching seats) now that Backwards is gone.

Giant's crew was *killing* it yesterday. I rode 6 times in about 30 minutes, which I've never had the privilege of doing on Giant. (It had an effect not unlike certain stimulant drugs. But I still don't see how people do real ERT.) If I get another email survey, they will get massive raves. Justice League was amusing enough but I wouldn't have waited in the regular line for it. Also please note if you have prescription sunglasses, bring your regulars for JLBFM, as the 3D glasses on top of sunglasses will put you in sheer darkness.

I haven't been able to get on SkyScreamer a second time. That thing did the job on me. I was impressed. Not quite as impressed as I was by the people I saw on my last trip intentionally twisting the cars around almost 360 degrees. Insanity. The twisting is the scariest part to me.

I'm sure it will be great, but if I'm being honest, I'm most excited about its potential to shorten lines elsewhere in the park, and I probably won't ride it until next year. Maybe once if my buddy's kid insists on one of our trips, but I'm usually childless at the park.

Won't somebody please please pretty please think of the men????

I don't know if all the Fridays before daily operations will be like this, but the park was just about perfect today. I got there around 3 as the field trips were slowly departing; all the signs said 10-8 so maybe it was open to the public all day, but the website said 2-8. Anyway, preferred parking was open and Flash Pass was closed. Titan didn't even have a person watching for go-arounds. Everything was virtually a walk-on turning into re-rides as the day got longer. Except for NTAG, where they were taking their sweet time, unfortunately. Oh well, I can hardly complain about one thing, and I think I'm going to make the first Friday in May a yearly occasion.

I haven't been on Wild Thing, but from watching POVs it looks almost identical to Mamba, which I have always found pretty average. (Not awful, just average, and I quite like WOF as a whole.) It doesn't compare favorably to XL200 from 10 years earlier, Titan from the same year, or any number of hypers built since. I'm not sure why it would have been on a TV show.