Keetz

That picture is golden Where is the picture taken on the ride where the cell phone would still be on their face?

So for $65 I can get a Six Flags gold pass that works at all parks for 2016/2017 and includes parking as long as I process it before Oct 31? I might actually buy one of these even though I live in NC. I'm gonna be in DC in October, so I might buy one, and process it at SFA. This means I should be able to use it at GADV during HITP?

Word on the street from several of my industry connections is that the RMC trains are not so well received by maintenance departments. Almost in the category of Intamin train disdain. Can you elaborate a little bit more on the intamin train disdain? I've never heard much discussion train maintenance before and am curious to know more.

Maybe it will be water slide pieces with a singular piece or RMC track running down the bottom side to connect them all. Just to dash all of our dreams. Or hey maybe it will be RMC track showing up to get the enthusiast community hyped up for an announcement of the layout later. I'll just sit back and watch this thread get a little crazy.

Honestly if you have FL+ you will be able to ride it enough times to statistically get a front row ride. With FL+ you will wait about 5 mins per ride. So either ask, or just keep riding and let every assignment be a surprise.

Thanks for the intel. September is usually a great time to go for any park but maybe Dollywood had it's own little quirks. I'm praying that Lightning Rod will take me to church on a Sunday morning.

All of this positive Lightning Rod news has me quietly excited again for the coaster! I might need to plan a trip in mid-September. How are crowds during weekends in September past labor day? I tried searching back to last year and didn't find many reports.

A few examples: UT in Knoxville starts the fall semester Aug 17. Vandy starts Aug 24. UGA starts Aug 11. South Carolina starts Aug 18. Sevier County schools (including Sevierville, Pigeon Forge, and Gatlinburg high schools) start Aug 17. Those are small areas considering the surrounding area.. Knox county starts Aug 8th (probably the largest local school system) Blount County starts early as well. When Knox and Blount start, attendance from local family's really drop during the week.. The extend hours are for the same reason Disney is open late on busy days.. essentially it's to help make sure you have time to do everything even with lines. if Dollywood ends up being busy, even after the 7th they will extend hours.. they do it all the time on busy days but it is a day to day decision Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk Thanks for the info. I'm trying to plan a trip in a few weeks. Even though LR is being very finicky, I want to ~maybe possibly please coaster gods~ have the window open for a night ride. I haven't seen any update on thrills in the hills, has anyone heard some rumors from the dippin dots guy or cinnamon bread bakers?

I have a question regarding the Dollywood operating calendar. Why do the operating hours drop to 10am-8pm after August 7th? They operate 10-10 all july, I would think they would continue that till at least late august.

Just far enough so your back isn't touching the seat. You can use the grab bar on the front of the train to pull yourself forward too. This method turned Mean Streak from "metal trash can rolling down a hill", to extremely fun.

All we can do is speculate. Running 2 RMC trains would be horrible for capacity but if they have a variable speed lift like Banshee or Fury they don't technically need a midcourse. If the rumors are true my gut would tell me they'd keep the midcourse but I have no justification for saying that other than the fact that it's a gut feeling. I've noticed that RMC always uses 6 cars per train. This kinda makes sense since the layouts tend to be pack with tight transitions. Does anyone know why they only use 6? I wonder if we will ever see 7-9 car trains from RMC. From a capacity perspective it would be nice to see a theoretical RMC Mean Streak with 3 trains, 8 cars each.

Thanks, hopefully some news trickles through tomorrow. Debating on going Sunday or Monday. Regardless I will have flashpass. GADV used to be my home park, but I haven't visited since GASM and Rolling Thunder were at the park. I want a productive visit.

Is it just a rumor that Joker will be available for flashpass platinum only? I haven't found any good info from the six flags site, so any extra info is greatly appreciated. Also what rides give you double if you get platinum? I'm not trying to spend that much money if I can get gold. Thanks

I hope so. I cant remember Dollywood ever assigning seating on even the busiest of days and I've never seen parks that don't assign seating every have major issues because of it. Now if only a certain 2 parks both 4 hours away from Dollywood would take a lesson and STOP ASSIGNING SEATS ON B&M HYPER AND GIGA COASTERS COUGH COUGH CAROWINDS AND SFOG COUGH COUGH!!! Disney assigns seats on every coaster and never has an issue with it.....I don't see what the big deal is. But you can usually request to wait for a certain seat, I do all the time when down there. I don't have an issue with assigning seats, either--especially if you can request a certain seat and don't mind waiting a few extra minutes for it. Perhaps I should revise. I wouldn't mind assigning seats if I had a choice to wait longer if I wanted. I don't like that at these parks I don't get a choice. If you ask the people working Fury if you can wait for a specific row they look at you like you're from mars before sternly saying no and rushing you to whatever row they choose for you. My favorite preference for how parks load stations is when an attendant just monitors how many people fill the station. This usually allows for a 2-3 train wait for each row, except the back or front. I would gladly wait an extra 20 mins for the front row of Fury every time. It's the tallest giga coaster, and I came to ride in the front.

I'm heading to the park either Sunday or Monday. We're gonna spring for flash pass, I was wondering if anyone had experiences with gold vs platinum? Is platinum worth the extra cost? Thanks

Went to the park this past friday for my only visit this year. Stayed at breakers express for early entry, and also bought fastlane plus. Here are some notes. Early Entry: In the morning around 9am I didn't see Valravn or MF running, and I didn't wanna chance walking back to Maverick to see it still testing, so we headed to Gatekeeper to got 3 rides back to back. This ride is pure fun in the front rows, a solid 8/10 At this point MF started running, so we headed over there to get a quick ride, and then waited 15 mins for the front. This ride is on the same level as Fury 325 for me, can't pick a favorite. The ride is starting to sound 16 years old, but it didn't have a rattle that made it rough by any means. My current giga coaster ranking is i305>MF=Fury. By this point the park opened so we headed back to Maverick which was having some difficulties opening. We waited 10 mins and it started running around 10:20am. Thanks to fastlane we got 2 quick rides in 10 mins. Maverick is hands down the best coaster in the park. So tiny, agile, and aggressive. A near perfect coaster experience. Surprise of the Day: After Maverick, we headed to Mean Streak. Call me crazy, but we waited for the front row on Mean Streak and had an absolutely fun and enjoyable ride. So much that I enjoyed it more than Valravn! The speed was fun, and we got bounced around the right amount for a wooden coaster. We had so much fun, and rode into the station with a smile. Perhaps we had such low expectations, ,but we had such a good time that we rode again in the front seat. Sure I would love to see it get the RMC treatment, but in the front seat, this ride is a solid 7.5/10 in my book. Valravn Review: The ride has quite the presence in the park, and the light theme is good. The ride had a 1+ wait the whole day, and guests seemed to be loving it. I prefer the old style restraints on dive coasters, cause the vests felt more restrictive. The coaster itself rode very smooth, and was very fun, but it just didn't do much for me. FL+ gave us a 15 minute wait, and we got to ride 3x. Two in the back right, and 1 in the front center. Overall, it's a great addition to CP, but not my cup of tea. For me it's the weakest B&M in the park. Still a 7/10. Yea, I'm ranking Mean Streak in front of Valravn. Other notes: Wicked Twister was having issues all day that prevented us from riding. Magnum was running very well. We had two rides in the front car that blew me away. The airtime was violent and put a smile on my face. Our last ride of the night was MF in the 2nd row. It started drizzling around 9pm, and we rode at 9:20p. By this point it was raining, and it was a painful experience. I had my arms over my face most of the ride, but I still had a smile on. Tally for the day: Gatekeeper x4 MF x5 Maverick x4 Mean Streak x2 Gemini x1 Magnum x2 TTD x2 Raptor x2 Rougarou x1 Valravn x3 Maxxair Enterprise That S&S swing ride Overall we had an amazing day. The fastlane was immensely worth it as we could only be there one day. School groups were there till 8-9pm, and thus regular lines were all 1 hour+. Cedar Point delivered an amazing day.

On the plus side, they'll leave by 4-5pm. Gives you a good couple hours with an empty park! I'm curious to hear how crowds and lines changed throughout the day

^^^That could be half of the parks guests right now crammed into the line cause it's ~new~ I give it a 50% shot that in four hours its down to 30 mins or less

Me too! I want intamin to combine the concept of the first generation drop tower and merge it with the ZacSpin concept. A 200 foot tall vertical lift, that transfers to a holding brake, and then a drop. At the bottom of the drop you level out and rise into a zacspin style layout. A roller coaster with a drop tower experience.

Some possible retorts: -The new VR treatment for six flags roller coasters looks great! -I love the new audio track for Skull Mountain!

I was at the park this past Saturday and the weather was gorgeous. The park was quite packed, which is typical for a Saturday. I would estimate that all major coasters had a ~45 minute wait all day. With fast lane you go right into the station and board within 3 trains. If you want multiple re-rides it is well worth it. If you just want to hit each coaster 1-2 times, then don't and make sure you ride Nighthawk first.

That means any of the 3 dining plans are valid at those places. I highly reccomend Harmony Hall, C&P, Wings and Jukebox Diner Thanks, at cedar point it was different, so I thought I could get chick-fil-a... but I couldn't and it made me sad. I didn't want that type of disappointment again.

I'm thinking about getting the all day dining plan the next time I visit. Are the restaurants and choices listed here included in the all day dining, or is it just for the one meal deal? https://www.carowinds.com/dining/dining-plan

You nailed it. One last thing, pray to the god of random probability that every time you ride fury you get assigned the front row... OR... are allowed to get the front row when you ask for it.

I'll begin with the caveat that nobody really "knows" what the lines will be like on any specific day in the future, as we are not prescient here (at least as far as I am aware of! ) However, yes, your assumption should be pretty accurate regarding shorter lines during that week. I've been going to CP most of my life, and virtually every year for the past 20, and the first week or two that CP is open during the week, in May, is definitely the best time to go! Much shorter lines, and generally, the weather isn't too bad either. I'm actually going the Tuesday of that week (17th), and probably again Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday of the following week. 20-30 minutes for MF, TTD, and possibly even Maverick, are certainly reasonable, and perhaps even shorter times at non-peak times of the day. That being said, if you run into a 45 minute line for Maverick, even on those days, don't be completely shocked... Enjoy your trip to The Point, and if you have any other trip-related questions, feel free to ask! I've been here 3 times before, during what I would call "peak times" and we still had fun. We ran a "front of the line pass cartel" where my friend was really lucky, we put a ton of money into those plinko games and we sold our excess tickets. We used all our remaining tickets during the last hour we had at the park and we rode maverick 6 times in a row when there was an hour and thirty minute line. The first hour early opening is a godsend, we sprint to maverick and even during a VERY crowded day the lines are zero in the morning. You can also have a lot of fun riding the "off" rides like mean streak and gemini over and over again finding the best seats. Does anyone have experience with how physics days change the crowds? I'll be at the park Friday the 20th of May which is during physics week. I expect a spike in crowds from 11-5ish and then very light crowds? Any thoughts? Not too worried though because i'll be staying on property to get early entry... and it's a day at cedar point!