VegasBaby

Totally agree with you, my kids were singing that stupid song for days!

I have to agree, Skyrush is just a balls to the wall, crazy roller coaster experience. It's the only coaster I've ridden where I felt like I was actually going to get flung right off the track. Skyrush is the very definition of ejector airtime! Plus, if you go during the early entry (by staying at a Hershey property), it's like getting an hour of ERT on it. We spent three days at Hershey last summer and absolutely loved it. My kids and I all agreed that it was probably our favorite overall park that we've visited (or at least tied with Busch Gardens Williamsburg). The top 5-6 coasters at the park stack up well with any park in the country. Plus the new coaster, Laff Track, is a great family spinner that was just plain fun. If you've never been to Hershey, I'd highly recommend visiting as soon as you can.

Agreed, the Mack spinners are a lot of fun and better than the Gerstlauer models IMO.

Love seeing these classic flats getting new lives here in the U.S. I do wonder why they aren't spreading them out a bit more instead of just sending them to two parks. I am especially excited for the Huss Condor as I think there are only 2 or 3 currently operating here. We rode the "Flying Falcon" at Hersheypark last summer and it was tons of fun, so I think the WOF crowd is really going to enjoy it.

I really hope this is the case. A RMC woodie along the lines of Outlaw Run or Lightning Rod would be the best case scenario IMO and give the park another top notch attraction. Plus it would be vastly difference than their other coaster offerings and maybe give hope for an eventual RMC makeover of Gwazi.

I really hope it's not just a clone of Cobra's Curse as I don't want to see the Busch parks just become clones of each other. I really like how they have different attractions and unique experiences at each park. I don't mind the Griffon/Sheikra and Montu/Alpengeist crossovers as those are world class coasters, but I would hate to see more clones and have the Busch parks become like Six Flags.

I've gotta go with Mr. Freeze and American Thunder as my favorite rides at the park. I was actually surprised by how much I liked American Thunder on my last visit. We rode AT a few times at park opening and it was fast, smooth, and full of airtime. We then rode The Boss later in the day and it was just a one timer for us. I asked my kids if they wanted to ride it again and they said they would rather ride AT a few more times, so we did!

Agreed, Pompeii is still a great ride and has long lines all summer. I just don't see it going away anytime soon.

Great photos, thanks for sharing them. I'm still bummed that I never got to ride Drachen Fire. For those that did get to ride it, was it really that rough? It looks like it had some really cool elements and it must've had some great airtime on that camel back hill.

I'd love to see Knott's finally replace Riptide with something that works. I think an Air Race or a Disk'O would be a great replacement for Riptide. And while they're at it, a Star Flyer would fit perfectly in the old Windseeker spot!

Good call on Cowabunga Bay, it's a great waterpark with some unique slides. You may want to check the local Costco (there's one right by Cowabunga) as they had discount tickets for the park last year.

Visited Knott's yesterday with some family friends to take advantage of their police/fire/military promotion. I really like how Knott's does this promotion every year and makes it a little more affordable for police/fire/military families to attend the park. I have a lot of friends in these professions and it's fun to get them out to the park. The park wasn't too crowded and the weather was great. All the coasters were only running one train, but it was only a 2-3 train wait for most of them. Riptide and Wipeout were also down in addition to the TMLR and GR. Not sure why Riptide was down as it didn't look like they were doing any work in it. Wipeout was in pieces, so it must be undergoing its annual maintenance. The longest wait was probably Iron Reef and that was about 15-20 minutes (they were running 6 ride vehicles on it). Iron Reef still seems to be popular with the GP even though some on here don't care for it. I think it's a blast myself and ride it 1-2 times every visit. Nothing was done on the former Screamin Swing site, it's still just a bunch of dirt. We did see a lot of workers on GR though and a ton of new wood. Overall it was a great visit and I can't wait to come back when the GR refurb is finished.

Great trip report, thanks for posting it. My buddy and I did a Texas road trip in college back in 1999, so I was lucky enough to visit Astroworld before it closed. I remember it being a fun park with some pretty unique rides (Ultra Twister, Texas Tornado, Greezed Lightning, Viper, etc). It was weird when I went to a Texans game last year to see a big vacant lot where the park used to be. Houston is one of the largest cities in the country and it's a shame that they don't have a proper amusement park, especially since it could be open almost year round.

If they do a commercial/promo shoot, I'd highly recommend doing it. I was able to participate in the promo shoot for TC at SFMM and it was a blast. They fed us breakfast and lunch, plus I got to ride TC about 20 times two weeks before it opened to the general public. There was a certain amount of waiting around while they changed camera setups and whatnot, but it was totally worth it to marathon a brand new RMC before anyone else. As a bonus, they gave us a voucher for a free ticket when it was finished. (Which I didn't really need since I had a season pass, but it was a nice touch.) I had never participated in anything like that before, but I was pretty impressed with SFMM and the whole process.

Totally agree, Revolution and Ghostrider were two of my favorite coasters growing up, glad to see them getting the attention they deserve.

The last day of school in the LA school district is June 10th, so I would hit up the park on the 8th or 9th. You may run into some school groups at the park but overall it shouldn't be too busy. If you choose to get a Flash Pass, I think you'll be fine with the gold. I would just hit Full Throttle and then Twisted Colossus at park opening as those aren't included with the gold.

Get out. Just go. Dueling Dragons is an amazing ride! Two really awesome inverts! The only thing I'm hoping for (if Universal does something to Dragons) is that they will find a way for them to duel again!! It is time for these dragons to challenge once again and duel! Couldn't agree more, DD are two of my favorite inverts and I'd hate to see anything happen to them (other than for them to actually duel again). I was there a few months ago and both sides were riding great. I just don't see a Hulk type major rebuild anytime soon on DD.

Agreed, that claim just doesn't make any sense. There are a lot of coasters with 90 degree lift hills (Fahrenheit, Rip Ride Rockit, Eurofighters, etc), so a 51 degree incline is hardly a record. That said, Flying Aces looks amazing and I'd love to be able to ride it someday.

Just an FYI, it looks like the TM Log Ride is closed for rehab until Feb 5th. The Calico railroad is also going to be closed from Jan 11th to Feb 20th.

The early entry gets you into the park 1 hour early (typically 9am) and there are 3 coasters open: Skyrush, SDL, and Comet. You should be able to get multiple rides on each of these before the 10am rope drop to the rest of the park. When we went last year, Laff Track had the longest lines at 45-60 min in the middle of the day (we went in mid-June). We would head to Laff Track at the rope drop and ride it 2-3 times before the line got crazy (it was my 5 yr old's favorite ride). We would then hit up Lightning Racer and Wildcat (both walk-ons) while we were in that area of the park. We then made our way to Fahrenheit and Storm Runner and hit those before lunch. After lunch we just made our way around the park hitting up the rest of the rides. The Hersheypark app is extremely helpful with wait times and directions, so I would definitely suggest downloading it. Hershey Chocolate World is right outside the park and has a food court with lots of selections, so we ate dinner there each night. The park seemed to really die out after 8pm each night (park was open until 10pm), so we would come back and get night rides on Skyrush, Fahrenheit, and Storm Runner with minimal lines. If it's a warm day, you can count on the waterpark being very busy. The big slides were typically 30-40 min waits during our stay, so you may want to hit those up early as well.

This is a good plan, be sure to take advantage of the single rider lines on Lex Luthor, Riddlers, and Green Lantern.

We went to Hershey for 3 days in mid June 2015 during the week and most rides were a walk on. We stayed at the Hershey Lodge and got the early entry, which was basically an hour of ERT each morning. We were able to get multiple rides on the 3 coasters they have open (Skyrush, SDL, and Comet), and most of the time we just stayed in our seats for re-rides. Laff Track had the longest consistent line of about 45-60 min, but we rode it 2-3 times each morning at the 10am rope drop and never waited more than 20 min. Even Fahrenheit wasn't too bad, the longest we waited for it was about 25 min. I would also recommend doing the free preview the night before using your tickets. The park was open to 10pm every night but seemed to really clear out about 8pm.

Adventuredome is totally worth a visit if you're in Vegas. El Loco is tons of fun and Canyon Blaster is a solid old school Arrow double looper. The park also has some fun flats, but the main reason to visit is the two coasters. If you go mid week during the school year, everything will be a walk on. I visited back in May and got 20 rides on El Loco, 10 on CB, and rode a few flats in about 4 hours.

SWSD is getting a new dark ride, so I could see one at BGT in the near future, especially if the SWSD ride is a big success. State of the art dark rides are becoming more prevalent at parks, just look at CF with their Triotech rides and the SF Justice League rides.

Totally agree with you on Cheetah Hunt, that is my definition of a fun coaster. It's not the biggest or the fastest, but its extremely fun, butter smooth, and very re-rideable. My second vote would be Manta at SWSD for the same reasons.